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Monday, January 3, 2011

[ALOCHONA] Freedom House, CIA, BBC, EIU, WorldBank, IFC on Bangladesh



Freedom House, CIA, BBC, EIU, WorldBank, IFC on Bangladesh
 
 


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[ALOCHONA] AL MP Monirul Islam Moni



AL MP Monirul Islam Moni
 
 
 
 


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[ALOCHONA] Koko's Singapore partner fined



Koko's Singapore partner fined
 
 


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[ALOCHONA] Moriarty for justice against extrajudicial killings




US Ambassador James F Moriarty yesterday said every case of extrajudicial killing should be tried.

People have every right to get information about the killings in the hands of Rapid Action Battalion and other law-enforcement agencies, he said. The extrajudicial killings that are taking place every year should be investigated in a transparent manner by the government, the US envoy said.

Moriarty was speaking at the 17th biennial international symposium on "Good Governance: Building Knowledge for Social Development Worldwide" at Sonargaon Hotel in the capital. Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB); Monmouth University of USA; and International Consortium for Social Development organised the five-day event, where experts from about 40 countries are taking part.

Asked to comment on US embassy's cables on banned militant outfit Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (Huji), which were released on WikiLeaks, the envoy said the US embassy sends its observations about situations here to higher officials in Washington as routine work. But it does not reflect the US policy or stance as a country, he added.

Speaking on Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, Moriarty said nongovernmental organisations such as Grameen Bank and Brac play important roles in Bangladesh's social development. Moriarty pledged to continue to support Grameen Bank and Yunus in Bangladesh's development.

He said the opposition should return to parliament and express its opinions there.
 


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[ALOCHONA] Wikileaks on Boeing sale to Bangladesh

Diplomats Help Push Sales of Jetliners on the Global Market

*Bangladesh's prime minister, Sheik Hasina Wazed, was equally direct
in making a connection for the landing rights at Kennedy Airport, as a
condition of the airplane deal, which was then at risk of collapsing.

"If there is no New York route, what is the point of buying Boeing?" a
November 2009 cable quotes Ms. Hasina as saying as she pressed
American officials. The deal with Boeing went through. So far, flights
by the country's national carrier, Biman Bangladesh Airlines, to New
York have not been restored.*

WASHINGTON —The king of Saudi Arabia wanted the United States to
outfit his personal jet with the same high-tech devices as Air Force
One. The president of Turkey wanted the Obama administration to let a
Turkish astronaut sit in on a NASA space flight. And in Bangladesh,
the prime minister pressed the State Department to re-establish
landing rights at Kennedy International Airport in New York.

Each of these government leaders had one thing in common: they were
trying to decide whether to buy billions of dollars' worth of
commercial jets from Boeing or its European competitor, Airbus. And
United States diplomats were acting like marketing agents, offering
deals to heads of state and airline executives whose decisions could
be influenced by price, performance and, as with all finicky customers
with plenty to spend, perks.

This is the high-stakes, international bazaar for large commercial
jets, where tens of billions of dollars are on the line, along with
hundreds of thousands of high-paying jobs. At its heart, it is a
wrestling match fought daily by executives at two giant companies,
Boeing and Airbus, in which each controls about half of the global
market for such planes.

To a greater degree than previously known, diplomats are a big part of
the sales force, according to hundreds of cables released by
WikiLeaks, which describe politicking and cajoling at the highest
levels.

It is not surprising that the United States helps American companies
doing business abroad, given that each sale is worth thousands of jobs
and that their foreign competitors do the same. But like the other
WikiLeaks cables, these offer a remarkably detailed look at what had
previously been only glimpsed — in this case, the sales war between
American diplomats and their European counterparts.

The cables describe letters from presidents, state visits as
bargaining chips and a number of leaders making big purchases based,
at least in part, on how much the companies will dress up private
planes.

The documents also suggest that demands for bribes, or at least
payment to suspicious intermediaries who offer to serve as "agents,"
still take place. Boeing says it is committed to avoiding any such
corrupt practices.

State Department and Boeing officials, in interviews last month,
acknowledged the important role the United States government plays in
helping them sell commercial airplanes, despite a trade agreement
signed by the United States and European leaders three decades ago
intended to remove international politics from the process.

The United States economy, said Robert D. Hormats, under secretary for
economic affairs at the State Department, increasingly relies upon
exports to the fast-growing developing world — nations like China and
India, as well as those in Latin America and the Middle East.

So pushing sales of big-ticket items like commercial jets,
earth-moving equipment or power plants (or stepping in to object if an
American company is not being given a fair chance to bid) is central
to the Obama administration's strategy to help the nation recover from
the recession.

Boeing earns about 70 percent of its commercial plane sales from
foreign buyers, and is the single biggest exporter of manufactured
goods in the United States. Every $1 billion in sales — and some of
these deals carry a price tag of as high as $10 billion — translates
into an estimated 11,000 American jobs, according to the State
Department.

The Equalizers

"That is the reality of the 21st century; governments are playing a
greater role in supporting their companies, and we need to do the same
thing," Mr. Hormats, a former top executive at Goldman Sachs, said in
an interview.

Said Tim Neale, a Boeing spokesman, "The way I look at it, it levels
the playing field."

But Charles A. Hamilton, a former Defense Department official who is a
consultant to Airbus, said the government's advocacy undermined
arguments by Boeing and the United States that Airbus had an unfair
advantage because of its subsidies from European governments.

"The bottom line is anything goes to get the business," said Mr.
Hamilton, adding that he was speaking for himself, and not for Airbus.
"If they feel like they are losing, they will do just about anything
to save a deal."

Airbus executives would not discuss details of their own sales
campaigns — and the WikiLeaks documents are mostly focused on American
efforts. But one Airbus official, who was not authorized to speak on
the record, conceded that, international agreements aside, "commercial
jet sales are not totally decoupled from political relationship
building."

One example of the horse-trading involved Saudi Arabia, which in
November announced a deal with Boeing to buy 12 777-300ER airliners,
with options for 10 more, a transaction worth more than $3.3 billion
at list prices.

That announcement was preceded by years of intense lobbying by
American officials.

One pitch came from the highest levels, the cables show. In late 2006,
Israel Hernandez, a senior Commerce Department official,
hand-delivered a personal letter from President George W. Bush to the
Jeddah office of King Abdullah, urging the king to buy as many as 43
Boeing jets to modernize Saudi Arabian Airlines and 13 jets for the
Saudi royal fleet, which serves the extended royal family.

The king read the letter from Mr. Bush, the State Department cable
says, and announced that Boeing jets were his favorites. He said he
had just turned down two new Airbus jets, opting instead for a
slightly used Boeing 747.

But before he would commit to a mostly Boeing fleet, the king had a request.

"I am instructing you," he told Mr. Hernandez politely, according to
the State Department cable, "to speak to the president and all
concerned authorities," as the king "wanted to have all the technology
that his friend, President Bush, had on Air Force One." Once he had
his own high-tech plane, with the world's most advanced
telecommunications and defense equipment — the king told Mr. Hernandez
that " 'God willing,' he will make a decision that will 'please you
very much.' "

A State Department spokesman confirmed last week that the United
States had authorized an "upgrade" to King Abdullah's plane, adding
"for security reasons, we won't discuss specifics."

Bangladesh's prime minister, Sheik Hasina Wazed, was equally direct in
making a connection for the landing rights at Kennedy Airport, as a
condition of the airplane deal, which was then at risk of collapsing.

"If there is no New York route, what is the point of buying Boeing?" a
November 2009 cable quotes Ms. Hasina as saying as she pressed
American officials. The deal with Boeing went through. So far, flights
by the country's national carrier, Biman Bangladesh Airlines, to New
York have not been restored.

The request from Turkey for a slot on a future NASA flight came early
last year, as Turkish Airlines was considering buying as many as 20
Boeing jets.

The government there owns slightly less than half of the airline, but
Turkey's minister of transportation, Binali Yildirim, in a January
2010 meeting with the United States ambassador to Turkey, made clear
that the country's president wanted help with its fledgling space
program and perhaps assistance from the Federal Aviation
Administration to improve its aviation safety.

Requests for Favors

"Cooperation in this area will create the right environment for
commercial deals," Mr. Yildirim told the United States ambassador, the
cable says.

In a cable back to Washington, James F. Jeffrey, then the United
States ambassador to Turkey, called the effort by Turkish authorities
to link the Boeing deal to political requests an "unwelcome, but
unsurprising degree of political influence in this transaction." But
he went on to say that authorizing the F.A.A. to help Turkey improve
its aviation safety and space exploration programs could benefit both
nations.

"We probably cannot put a Turkish astronaut in orbit, but there are
programs we could undertake to strengthen Turkey's capacity in this
area that would meet our own goals for improved aviation safety," he
wrote. "In any case, we must show some response to the minister's
vague request if we want to maximize chances for the sale."

The deal was announced a month later, as Turkish Airlines ordered 20
Boeing planes.

Some sales come to Boeing in part because foreign political leaders
want to show friendship to the United States.

King Abdullah II of Jordan, a longtime ally and recipient of billions
of dollars in United States aid, told the ambassador in 2004 that
"even though the latest Airbus offer was better than Boeing's he
intended to make a 'political' decision to have Royal Jordanian buy
Boeing aircraft," a State Department cable said, although the United
States still had to help Boeing secure the deal.

The cables show that the United States is willing to pull out all the
political stops if Boeing is in danger of losing a big deal to Airbus.
In late 2007, the board of Gulf Air, the national airline of the
oil-rich kingdom of Bahrain, picked Airbus for a huge sale.

Boeing told the American government, which responded that there was
still a way to turn the deal around, even though Airbus had offered
the planes for about $400 million less than Boeing.

'Far From Over'

"The contest remained far from over," said the cable. "Gulf Air's
selection still needed to be endorsed by the government."

The American ambassador at the time, Adam Ereli, and his chief
economic officer, went into action, "lobbying Gulf Air management,
board members, government officials and representatives of
parliament," and appealing directly to the crown prince of Bahrain, in
an effort to line up a deal for Boeing that could be final in time for
a coming visit by President Bush, the first visit by a sitting United
States president.

Within two weeks, the embassy alerted Boeing officials that the crown
prince and king of Bahrain had rejected Airbus's offer and directed
Gulf Air's chairman to make a deal with Boeing that could be signed
while Mr. Bush was in the country.

Seeing that Airbus had been outmaneuvered, France's president, Nicolas
Sarkozy, made a last-minute bid to save the deal, the State Department
cable says. He offered to visit Bahrain after Mr. Bush had left, but
that stop-over was canceled when the Boeing agreement was signed in
January 2008. None of the last-minute diplomacy was disclosed.

The cables make clear that both Boeing and the government set limits
on their efforts, turning away requests in Turkey and Tanzania to hire
"agents" who charge steep commissions — or as some called them, bribes
— to gain access to top officials.

Mr. Neale, the company spokesman, says that for Boeing, "it is not
just a matter of abiding by U.S. law and laws internationally but a
general sense of business ethics." When such requests surfaced, Boeing
often reported them to the State Department.

" 'Agents' and steep 'commissions' have been at the heart of several
corruption scandals here," says a 2007 State Department cable
recounting a demand that Boeing hire a mysterious hotel executive in
Tanzania to serve as a "go-between" with government officials.
Payments like that, the cable said, typically were bribes that "ended
up in Swiss bank accounts."


Eric Lipton reported from Washington, Nicola Clark from Paris and
Andrew W. Lehren from New York.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/03/business/03wikileaks-boeing.html


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[ALOCHONA] So these are our “respected” Editors?



So these are our "respected" Editors?
 
Posted by Rumi

Total voter were 659, of which 623 members of Dhaka Press Club cast their votes to elect a new executive committee. This committee's job is to manage Dhaka Press Club activities for the year. Candidates in the election were nations high voltage editors, journalist leaders. It is difficult to turn Bangladesh news television on without seeing their faces and their opinion – advise on every single issue in Bangladesh.

Like everything else in Bangladesh, this election was also contested on the basis of Awami League and BNP supporting panel. Although these TV personalities and editors regularly serve the politicians sermons with advices to improve their cultures, they themselves exposed their real face after the election. The panel that lost the election rejected the election, alleged vote counting irregularities and resorted to vandalism and violence.

For Gods sake, there was only 623 votes. How counting irregularity possible in such an election? The candidates know each single voter, it is not impossible to know 300 people who can vote or against.

It was shocking but not surprising to see iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury, Golam Sarwar's  real faces. Their thinking was, 'we are ruling party supporting panel and how dare BNP wallahs win this election defeating us. We did not have enough vote, so what we will grab the verdict by force.'. This sort of attitude clearly exposes the standard and integrity of journalism these folks resort to.

And this election exposes the standard of another 'once respected' profession which is Journalism.  Few days ago we talked about the standard of Dhaka University teachers and this election reminds us that University Teachers are not alone in this race towards infinite decline. God save this country.

 http://rumiahmed.wordpress.com/2011/01/02/so-these-are-our-respected-editors/

 


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[ALOCHONA] OSAMA BIN LADEN:AN ENEMY OF ISLAM



OSAMA BIN LADEN:AN ENEMY OF ISLAM
 
Muqtedar Khan
 
Do no mischief on Earth [Quran 7:56, 7:74)
 
Those with good sense must prohibit mischief on earth (Quran 11:116)
 
Bin Laden has become a significant moral challenge to Muslims. His alleged association with the perpetrators of 9/11 attacks raises a major question about the relationship between Islam and terrorism. If he is guilty then he incriminates the faith of Islam by using it as a motivation and justification for his actions. If he is innocent, then why is he such a big hero? 
 
If Bin Laden is not guilty of the embassy bombings, of the attack on USS Cole and the attack on America then why do some Muslims admire him?  Bin Laden has become a symbol of resistance and empowerment to a community deprived of freedom and opportunities for self-determination. He is a hero to a community that has long got used to living with an overwhelming sense of helplessness. He is a promise that even the weak and the hopeless can strike back.
 
 If my understanding of why Bin Laden is a hero is correct then it means that his charisma is dependent on Muslim acceptance that he is indeed responsible for the various attacks against the US, regardless of the availability of evidence. He is a hero because some Muslims believe that he indeed pulled of all those spectacular attacks against the world's sole superpower. His heroism and his popularity in the Muslim world is an indictment of him as a terrorist and his supporters as supporters of terrorism.
 
But Muslims, without any reservations, have condemned the attacks of Sept. 11th as morally reprehensible and unjustifiable. Prominent member of the Ulema (like Sheikh Qaradawi) have also established the unIslamic character of the 9/11 attacks.  All Muslims agree that terrorism is unIslamic and deplorable and the perpetrators must be punished to the fullest extent of the law.
 
Bin Laden has denied any connections to the attacks and many Muslims believe that he is really innocent and are critical of the American establishment for not providing conclusive evidence against Bin Laden before launching a war against Afghanistan.
 
How are non-Muslims, unsympathetic to the "conditions that engender violence" supposed to interpret Muslim condemnation of the attacks and Muslim hero worship of Binladen? How can Muslims condemn terrorism without also condemning terrorists?
 
How US media and authorities resolve this dilemma of, Muslim condemnation of the attacks and simultaneous support for Bin Laden, will determine the future relations not only between the US and Muslim nations, but also between mainstream America and American Muslims.
 
As long as Muslims hesitate to condemn Bin Laden they will be seen as supporters of terrorism. This issue has also become a test of Muslim loyalties to America. When and if the FBI and company do produce conclusive evidence against Bin Laden, Muslim condemnation of the man will be meaningless. As of now many Muslims, including some leaders who have no conclusive evidence of Bin Laden's innocence have chosen to err on the side of Bin Laden and not America. This may make them popular in some pockets of the Muslim community, but it also makes them suspect in American mainstream.  
 
It baffles the mind to watch American Muslim leaders waffle over condemning Bin Laden as a terrorist who is misappropriating Islamic ideals and incriminating Islam in his campaign of terror. This man has undermined decades of hard work by these very same leaders to make Islam more acceptable in America. The shadow of Bin Laden now looms large on the decades of efforts by these same leaders at building bridges with other faith-based communities.  The issue of condemnation stands clearly between American Muslims and the American government. Rather than perceiving American Muslims as a national asset and source for diplomatic expertise that can be deployed in defense of American interests, the establishment sees American Muslims as potential suspects, because they are not confident about where Muslim sympathies lie.
 
The only reason why there is no explicit condemnation of Bin Laden by major Muslim organizations, who have recently condemned American bombing of Afghanistan, is perhaps their fear of losing support with the constituency that they seek to serve. They fear that if they condemn him, even as a matter of self/public interest (maslaha in Islamic law) they will be perceived as taking sides with America in this war between America and Islam.
 
We Muslims have to realize two important things; Bin Laden and his tactics, no matter how just his causes, are detrimental to Muslims as well as to the image of Islam. The present suffering of the Afghan people is a direct consequence of their association and support for Bin Laden. Secondly, we cannot hide behind the issue of evidence and hedge about condemning those who murder innocent people, in direct violation of Islamic teachings.
 
When we say that there is no evidence against Bin Laden, what we really mean is that there isn't enough to meet the legal standards of American and western jurisprudence.  Since when have Bin Laden and Taliban become subscribers of the Bill of rights and amendment 14 (due process) of the US constitution? Just take a look at the way in which Taliban's courts have meted out justice in the last five years. The video tapes in which Bin Laden says that he supports those who attack the US, the fatwa's declaring war on the US, his promise of more such attacks, alone should be sufficient to hang him according to the legal practices of the Taliban, and for that matter other Middle Eastern regimes which are notorious for their kangaroo courts. 
 
Why does Bin Laden and not ordinary citizens of Afghanistan deserve the full protection of civil liberties guaranteed by the US constitution? Bin Laden supports the Taliban and he deserves only what they can offer. Hang him to the soccer goal post, where the Taliban have hanged many in the recent past using their medieval techniques of law enforcement.
 
Let's assume for the sake of argument that Bin Laden has nothing to do with 9/11.  This man is still guilty of the following acts: He has blasphemed Islam. He has used its sacred principles to incite murder and mayhem. He has declared war on the US and called on all Muslims to murder Americans making Muslims targets for retaliatory attacks.  He has exposed millions of Afghans to war, starvation and misery to save his own skin. If he were a hero, he would have surrendered.  Not because he was guilty, but to save poor innocent Muslims from the ravages of war.
 
He has attacked the moral fabric of Muslim life by glorifying terrorism. He is trying to embroil the Muslim Ummah in a global war of death and destruction by calling the American war on Bin Laden as a war on Islam. His use of Islamic values have made Muslims look like terrorists and in most parts of the world people are associating Islam with violence and Muslims with terror. This man does not have the interest of Islam or Muslims at heart. He is an enemy of Islam and Muslims and should be treated as such.
 
It is time Muslim scholars and leaders fulfilled their Islamic duty (Quran 11:116) and condemned Bin Laden for what he is, and rescued not only Islam but also our misguided youth from the  clutches of this mischief monger.
 


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[ALOCHONA] 19 sex girls held from Sahara’s hotel



19 sex girls held from Sahara's hotel
 
Rapid Action Battalion on Wednesday arrested 19 sex workers and 20 boarders at a residential hotel, owned by Home Minister Sahara Khatun, in the city.
 
Sources said a team of Rab raided Imperial Guest House in the city's Farmgate area around 1:00pm and arrested 39 people from different rooms of the hotel.Israil, brother of Sahara and manager of the hotel, was also held but he was later released following a phone call of the inspector general of police, reports online news portal Sheershanews.com.
 
The arrestees were handed over to Tejgaon Police Station.Rab sources said the arrested people are involved in prostitution.Rab officials, however, denied that they had arrested anybody named Israil. A case has been filed with Tejgaon Police Station in this connection
 
 
 


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