Robert Greenwald: I Am Going to Pakistan Because Too Many Questions Remain About U.S. Drone Strikes

Robert Greenwald: I Am Going to Pakistan Because Too Many Questions Remain About U.S. Drone Strikes

Robert Greenwald

Filmmaker, Brave New Foundation

I Am Going to Pakistan Because Too Many Questions Remain About U.S. Drone Strikes

Posted: 11/14/2012 10:14 pm

In March 2009, I went to Kabul as part of my work on Brave New Foundation’s documentary Rethink Afghanistan. My trip was an effort to understand the realities of life in an unrelenting warzone, and to find voices that weren’t yet heard eight years after U.S. forces invaded the country. In the same spirit, I am going to Pakistan to investigate what life is like for those living under drones.
In addition to drone-strike victims, I will interview Pakistani government and military officials, public health workers, legal experts and journalists, among others, with the aim of understanding Pakistani perspective of America’s drone war. It was invaluable to go to Afghanistan and speak with the people bearing witness to the harsh truths of war; my aim is to get a similar sense of reality in Pakistan.
Critical and fundamental questions must be asked. Do these drone strikes make the United States any safer, as the government claims is the ultimate goal, or are they a prime recruitment tool that results in more militancy? Though controversy exists over whether Pakistan consents to the strikes, does that matter when the U.S. is reportedly killing civilians and Pakistan’s national sovereignty is undermined? What happens when the legal and ethical precedents set by U.S. drone strikes are followed by other countries, especially those the U.S. claims to be at odds with? Is this a short-sighted policy that will have dire, far-reaching effects in the longer term? These are questions Americans, Pakistanis and, really, people the world over deserved to hear discussed during the presidential election. Instead, we got basically a “we both agree” moment in the final debate, as Mitt Romney said he would continue to use drones as president, and President Obama wasn’t even pressed by moderator Bob Schieffer to explain his administration’s covert policy. So here we sit, a new, yet-to-be understood era of warfare steeped in secrecy.
While I am in Pakistan, I will periodically report my observations and experiences. Those updates can be found here at Huffington Post as well as at warcosts.com/drone_exposed, Facebook and Twitter. Check back soon for more!

The World After Petraeus -Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

The World After Petraeus:Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

The World After Petraeus

Sarah Chayes Los Angeles Times, November 15, 2012

inShare The scandal enveloping members of America's adulated top brass is the deepest crisis to hit the military in decades. It is a crisis President Obama did not need — shaming the country and increasing his burden during a major transition on his national security team. And yet, crisis can be a great corrective. Obama should use this one to reverse one of the most dysfunctional elements of U.S. foreign policy over the last decade: an infatuation with military solutions to problems that are fundamentally political.

The resignation of former Central Intelligence Agency Director David H. Petraeus after an extramarital affair came to light, together with expected high-level personnel changes at the State Department and other agencies, creates a singular opportunity to embark on the complex process of rebalancing U.S. foreign policy in favor of non-military approaches.
When he first came to office, Obama seemed suspicious of Petraeus, who made his reputation under President George W. Bush as the general who transformed the military's approach to the Iraq war. The suspicion was reflected in the fraught National Security Council debate over Afghanistan strategy in 2009. Yet since then, Obama, like so many others, seems to have been seduced by Petraeus. Not by the man but by what the man could offer him. Petraeus' unique political genius over the last decade has been to provide each of two contrasting presidents a military solution to his key national security problems that was tailored to his character. For Bush, obsessed with Iraq and with leaving a mark on the Middle East, Petraeus helped design a grandiose, troop-heavy approach.
With the change of administrations, Petraeus soon saw that Obama and his team were different — concerned about the costs of the inherited wars and about the risks of a runaway military. So while Petraeus continued to pay lip-service to counterinsurgency doctrine, he veered away from it in practice. His focus as commander of the troops in Afghanistan — and even more so at the CIA — was on a type of warfare better suited to this president: targeted, technologically advanced, secretive killing over which the president could exert control.
But such an approach, though cheaper in resources and American lives, is still flawed. It is still a military answer to problems that are deeply political in nature and rooted in a complex mix of history, regional and cultural particularism, and the effects of a protracted abuse of power by elites. By shifting to drones and special ops as the instruments of choice to combat militant extremism, the U.S. government remains consumed by the same old questions: How many men and women in uniform, equipped with what kind of hardware, need to employ which tactics to defeat the enemy?
What atrophied during the years that two U.S. administrations dwelt obsessively on these questions were all the other tools of U.S. foreign policy, including information-gathering and analysis, diplomacy and economic and legal leverage.
Perhaps the gravest consequence has been the knowledge deficit. Both wars were hampered by a devastating lack of situational understanding. In Afghanistan, where I lived and worked for more than eight years, I was stunned by how long it took U.S. officials to realize that tribes were key to Afghan social structure. U.S. officials resisted meeting with ordinary Afghans, dealing instead with members of a self-serving and unpopular government. So, for more than a decade, the U.S. government was operating almost blind.
The first way Obama can constructively harness Petraeus' downfall is to reorient the CIA toward its core function: intelligence-gathering. Of late, a body-count culture has prevailed at the CIA, exemplified by the secretive drone campaign. If 60 intelligence professionals are assigned to planning and monitoring each drone in the air, as has been reported, that's 60 who are not on the ground in country, interacting with locals, gaining an intuitive feel for the dynamics. Obama should resist the temptation to put another target-focused operator at the helm of the CIA.
Another main civilian component of U.S. power is its diplomacy. Obama should also use this moment of transition to think through what kind of State Department he really needs. The instruments of U.S. foreign policy are multiple, varied and subtle in their application. To avail itself of them, the government needs smart, adaptable, dynamic risk-takers, who think strategically and operate with autonomy. Such people must be attracted to government service and provided responsibilities commensurate with their talents.
But the other national security topic of the moment threatens to push Obama in the wrong direction. The death of Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens in Benghazi, Libya, has been politicized in deeply counterproductive ways. Members of Congress should bear that in mind as they continue examining the details of the attack.
Stevens was exactly the type of diplomat the U.S. government needs: someone with long experience in the region to which he was posted, an ambassador who engaged with people, gained insight into the environment and helped influence it. That kind of diplomacy is essential, but it carries risks. If it becomes politically untenable in Washington for an ambassador to die in the line of duty, then talented diplomats will be hobbled. And faced with a choked career path, the best will look elsewhere for rewarding work. Obama should appoint a secretary of State determined to counteract the tendency to retrench.
Perhaps the most important foreign policy challenge Obama faces in his second term is how to expand, restructure and reinforce the range of civilian instruments of U.S. power. That is a generational task, but one the current crisis has provided an unparalleled opportunity to tackle.
This article was originally published in the Los Angeles Times.

Who cares about elections, when life is at stake in Karachi

Roznama Dunya

Press Gallery: New Education Bill is good but who will Bell the Cat?

Roznama Dunya

Top U.S. Commander in Afghanistan Is Linked to Petraeus Scandal - NYTimes.com

Top U.S. Commander in Afghanistan Is Linked to Petraeus Scandal - NYTimes.com

Top U.S. Commander in Afghanistan Is Linked to Petraeus Scandal

By ELISABETH BUMILLER

Published: November 13, 2012 591 Comments

PERTH, Australia — Gen. John R. Allen, the top American and NATO commander in Afghanistan, has become ensnared in the scandal over an extramarital affair acknowledged by David H. Petraeus, a former general. General Allen is being investigated for what a senior defense official said early Tuesday was “inappropriate communication” with Jill Kelley, a woman in Tampa, Fla., who was seen by Mr. Petraeus’s lover as a rival for his attentions.

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Chuck Burton/Associated Press

F.B.I. agents carried boxes and a computer from the home of Paula Broadwell on Tuesday.

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F.B.I. Discovered Affair in Summer

Thierry Charlier/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images 

In a statement released to reporters on his plane en route to Australia early Tuesday, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said that the F.B.I. on Sunday had referred “a matter involving” General Allen to the Pentagon.

Mr. Panetta turned the matter over to the Pentagon’s inspector general to conduct an investigation into what a defense official said were 20,000 to 30,000 pages of documents, many of them e-mails between General Allen and Ms. Kelley, who is married and has children.

A senior law enforcement official in Washington said on Tuesday that F.B.I. investigators, looking into Ms. Kelley’s complaint about anonymous e-mails she had received,  examined all of her e-mails as a routine step.

“When you get involved in a cybercase like this, you have to look at everything,” the official said, suggesting that Ms. Kelley may not have considered that possibility when she filed the complaint. “The real question is why someone decided to open this can of worms.”

The official would not describe the content of the e-mails between General Allen and Ms. Kelley or say specifically why F.B.I. officials decided to pass them on to the Defense Department. “Generally, the nature of the e-mails warranted providing them to D.O.D.,” he said.

Under military law, adultery can be a crime.

The defense official on Mr. Panetta’s plane said that General Allen, who is also married, told Pentagon officials he had done nothing wrong. Neither he nor Ms. Kelley could be reached for comment early Tuesday. Mr. Panetta’s statement praised General Allen for his leadership in Afghanistan and said that “he is entitled to due process in this matter.”

But the Pentagon inspector general’s investigation opens up what could be a widening scandal into two of the most prominent generals of their generation: Mr. Petraeus, who was the top commander in Iraq and Afghanistan before he retired from the military and became director of the C.I.A., only to resign on Friday because of the affair, and General Allen, who also served in Iraq and now commands 68,000 American troops in Afghanistan.

Although General Allen will remain the commander in Afghanistan, Mr. Panetta said that he had asked President Obama to delay the general’s nomination to be the commander of American forces in Europe and the supreme allied commander of NATO, two positions he was to move into after what was expected to be easy confirmation by the Senate. Mr. Panetta said in his statement that Mr. Obama agreed with his request.

Gen. Joseph A. Dunford, the assistant commandant of the Marine Corps who was nominated last month by Mr. Obama to succeed General Allen in Afghanistan, will proceed as planned with his confirmation hearing. In his statement, Mr. Panetta urged the Senate to act promptly on his nomination.

The National Security Council spokesman, Tommy Vietor, said in a statement on Tuesday that Mr. Obama also believes that the Senate should swiftly confirm General Dunford.

The defense official said that the e-mails between Ms. Kelley and General Allen spanned the years 2010 to 2012. The official could not explain why there were so many pages of e-mails and did not specify their content. The official said he could not explain how the e-mails between Ms. Kelley and General Allen were related to the e-mails between Mr. Petraeus and his lover, Paula Broadwell, and e-mails between Ms. Broadwell and Ms. Kelley.

In what is known so far, Ms. Kelley went to the F.B.I. last summer after she was disturbed by harassing e-mails. The F.B.I. began an investigation and learned that the e-mails were from Ms. Broadwell. In the course of looking into Ms. Broadwell’s e-mails, the F.B.I. discovered e-mails between Ms. Broadwell and Mr. Petraeus that indicated that they were having an extramarital affair. Ms. Broadwell, officials say, saw Ms. Kelley as a rival for her affections with Mr. Petraeus.

The defense official said he did not know how General Allen and Ms. Kelley knew each other. General Allen has been in Afghanistan as the top American commander since July 2011, although before that he lived in Tampa as the deputy commander for Central Command, which oversees American military operations in the Middle East.

The defense official said that the Pentagon had received the 20,000 to 30,000 pages of documents from the F.B.I. and was currently reviewing them.

The defense official said that at 5 p.m. Washington time on Sunday, Mr. Panetta was informed by the Pentagon’s general counsel that the F.B.I. had the thousands of pages of e-mails between General Allen and Ms. Kelley. Mr. Panetta was at the time on his plane en route from San Francisco to Honolulu, his first stop on a weeklong trip to the Pacific and Asia. Mr. Panetta notified the White House and then the leaders of the Senate and House Armed Services Committees.

General Allen is now in Washington for what was to be his confirmation hearing as commander in Europe. That hearing, the official said, will now be delayed.

After arriving in Perth Mr. Panetta and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton met with Prime Minister Julia Gillard of Australia for a United States-Australian security and diplomatic conference. Asked by a reporter while pausing for photos with Mrs. Clinton and Ms. Gillard if General Allen could remain an effective commander while under investigation, Mr. Panetta said nothing.

Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was also in Perth for the defense meetings and had no comment on the investigation of General Allen. “I do know him well and I can’t say,” General Dempsey said of General Allen late on Tuesday after returning from an official dinner with the Australian officials, Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Panetta.

Scott Shane contributed reporting from Washington.

Once hailed as heroes, Pakistani lawyers now seen as ‘gangsters’ - The Washington Post

Once hailed as heroes, Pakistani lawyers now seen as ‘gangsters’ - The Washington Post

Pakistani lawyers go from heroes to ‘gangsters’

Aamir Qureshi/AFP/Getty Images - Pakistani lawyers shout slogans as they attempt to reach the U.S. embassy in the diplomatic enclave during a protest against an anti-Islam film in Islamabad on Sept. 28, 2012.

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By Richard Leiby, Monday, November 12, 5:55 AM

LAHORE, Pakistan — The young police inspector came to court to present evidence in a beating case. He left with his head and lip bloodied and his uniform torn — assaulted, he said, by a gang of black-suited assailants.
The notorious lawyers of Lahore had struck again, police and witnesses said. It was chalked up as yet another episode of violence by lawyers that has become common here in this seat of justice in eastern Pakistan, where cases from throughout Punjab province are heard.

In a nation where the rule of law is already fragile on many levels, police officials, judges, litigants and witnesses say they have become increasingly fearful of marauding lawyers in their trademark black pants, coats and ties.

“If police officers don’t submit to their pressure, they abuse and beat them,” said Sadaqat Ullah, the 28-year-old police investigator who alleged that a group of lawyers pummeled him in late September because he refused to share a confidential hospital report with an attorney in the original assault case. “They behave like gangsters.”
Lawyers at the site that day say that only harsh words were exchanged; the provincial bar council is investigating. But at least 15 episodes of “hooliganism” and “high-handedness,” as the media and victims describe them, by lawyers have been reported this year, undermining the heroic reputation they gained from their role in a constitutional standoff that began five years ago.
In a country where militants rule large swaths of territory, corruption is endemic and people are “disappeared” by security agencies, the “black coats” emerged as defenders of the rule of law after then-President Pervez Musharraf suspended the constitution, arrested political foes and fired judges. The world beheld incongruous images of men in suits braving police lines and tear gas in the capital, Islamabad, to demand the reinstatement of the chief justice of the Supreme Court, Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry.
Lahore was the epicenter of the 2007-09 “Black Revolution,” as it is known. In one raid on the High Court Bar Association, police arrested more than 800 lawyers involved in the movement for judicial independence.
In the end, Musharraf lost power and Chaudhry went on to become a controversial one-man powerhouse who regularly calls to account top elected leaders and army generals for alleged abuses of power. But since those heady days, critics say, lawyers’ arrogance and aggressiveness have wiped out any goodwill they had generated.
“Storm troopers,” Ayaz Amir, a politician and commentator, called them in a June column. “Time was when lawyers did most of their arguing with their tongues. Now they seem to do a better job with their fists.”
“It’s true. We should mend our behavior,” Zulfiqar Ali, president of the Lahore Bar Association, said sheepishly in an interview. He attributed the violence to a lack of emphasis on ethics and courtroom conduct in law schools.
He said the association, which has about 20,000 members, has initiated weekly lectures aimed at improving decorum and overall competence.
“We should train them,” said Ali, who has practiced for 24 years. “They are our younger brothers and sisters.”
Judges, in particular, say lawyers have become drunk on power, unafraid to curse judicial officers, drag them from their courtrooms and padlock the doors.

“Judges are terrified against this mob,” said Ahmed Saeed, a judge who beaned a lawyer with a paperweight last year in his Lahore courtroom, infuriated by what he called the attorney’s abusive language. Saeed has since been reassigned.

Another judge, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said he no longer wanted to live in fear of the black coats in Lahore and welcomed reassignment to a district more than 150 miles away.
Courthouse violence appears infrequent elsewhere, but in Lahore, on a single day in May, three courtroom brawls were reported in the media. They included the pummeling of police inspector Zohaib Awan, 32, who said he had come to court to testify in a property dispute involving a lawyer.
“I think even the government and the higher-ups are afraid of lawyers,” Awan said. “No politician or bureaucracy or judiciary is able to stop this hooliganism.”
Many lawyers in Pakistan scrabble and toil for cases but earn little: $150 a month is the average in Lahore, a metropolis of more than 10 million. (The average monthly income in Pakistan is variously estimated at $60 to $100.)
Lawyers here gather in “offices” next to the courthouse that consist of an open-air warren of rickety chairs, battered desks and crumbling piles of manila-
jacketed case files.
In courtrooms, lawyers crowd insistently in front of the bench as opposed to sitting quietly at their places until the judge instructs them to appear.
Throughout Pakistan, neither the police, nor the lawyers, nor the courts — particularly the lower courts — are held in high regard. Police officers are poorly paid and augment their income by demanding payoffs to investigate crimes. The justice system is an ineffectual morass in which cases often wind on interminably with delay after delay. People complain of judges having their hands out, too.
But lawyers seem to be accorded a special measure of scorn: Many banks refuse to give them loans, and landlords won’t rent them property, fearful that the pettifoggers will find loopholes to worm out of making payments. (Journalists also are on the bankers’ blacklist because media companies are notorious for not paying their salaries for months.)
Because nearly 4,000 police officers attend the court proceedings in Lahore every day, some clashes are to be expected, said Sheik Muhammad Aamer, a law librarian.
“Frictions start at the police stations and lead to shouting matches, and in court those frictions continue,” he said. “There is fault on both sides.”
Ahmed Nawaz, a deputy police superintendent in Lahore, said it was rare three or four years ago to arrest lawyers for violence against witnesses, police or judges. “Now they obstruct justice by all means,” he said. “It’s unfortunate. It was once a noble profession.”
Loutish lawyers do face disciplinary proceedings: In July, the Punjab Bar Council stripped seven of them of their licenses.
The offense: They ransacked the offices of the council, in a fracas that began over a lawyer who allegedly slapped a female colleague.
Ali, the Lahore bar president, said lawyers — whatever their faults — continue to protect Pakistan’s nascent democracy. He accused the media of overemphasizing and sensationalizing incidents of violence involving lawyers.
“We’ve had only one episode of an advocate throwing his shoes at the judge,” he noted with some pride. “His license was revoked.”

Mohammad Rizwan and Babar Dogar in Lahore contributed to this report.

2013-2014 Japan-IMF Scholarships for Asian Students in Japan

2013-2014 Japan-IMF Scholarships for Asian Students in Japan : 2012 2013 College Scholarships, PhD Scholarships, Postdoctoral, Graduate International Scholarships Fellowships

2013-2014 Japan-IMF Scholarships for Asian Students in Japa

Government of Japan funded Japan-IMF Scholarships Program for Asian Students to Pursue Master’s or PhD Programme in the field of Economics in Japan 2013-2014 

Study Subject(s):

The universities offer subjects that cover essential elements that will allow scholars to enter the macroeconomic policy dialogue at an international level. All of the universities have a strong macroeconomic
oriented focus on:
(1) macroeconomic policy formulation;
(2) central banking and monetary policy;
(3) financial markets and institutions.

Course Level:

For Partnership Track: JISPA allows scholars to study a specially designed graduate level course concentrating on macroeconomics at an IMF partnership university.
For Open Track: JISPA provides support to scholars who wish to study graduate-level macroeconomics or a related field at either the master’s or Ph D level at any leading university in Japan.

Scholarship Provider:

Government of Japan

Scholarship can be taken at:

Japan

Eligibility:

-Under current program guidelines, candidates must be a national of one of the following countries: Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Lao P D R , Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pacific Island Countries, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam.
-Candidates should also currently work for employment from one of the following or related government agencies: central bank, ministry of economy, ministry of finance, ministry of planning/development, ministry of trade/commerce, tax administration, national statistics bureau, or financial regulatory agencies.
-Candidates must have a Bachelor’s degree or an equivalent with at least 16 years of formal education
-Applicants must have an English language proficiency, which needs to be demonstrated as equivalent to or more than an official TOEFL score of 550, CBT213, or iBT79-80.  If TOEFL scores are not available, then an overall IELTS score of at least 6 0 can be substituted.

Scholarship Open for International Students:

Currently, the JISPA is open to qualified candidates from the following countries: Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Lao P.D.R., Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pacific Island Countries, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam.

Scholarship Description:

The Japan-IMF Scholarship Program for Asia (JISPA) was first introduced in 1993  It is funded by the Government of Japan, administered by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and conducted at various graduate schools in Japan  Its objective is to contribute to institutional capacity building in economic policymaking to promote the sustainable growth of emerging and developing economies in Asia and the Pacific  By training future macroeconomic managers in these countries, the JISPA aims to enable them to better formulate sound economic and financial stability policies needed for sustainable growth and development . The program comprises two tracks: the partnership track and the open track. The partnership track of the JISPA allows scholars to study a specially designed graduate level course concentrating on macroeconomics at an IMF partnership university. The open track of the JISPA provides support to scholars who wish to study graduate-level macroeconomics or a related field at either the master’s or Ph D level at any leading university in Japan  However, priority is given to Ph D  candidates  It is geared towards highly motivated officials who are able to identify a course of study in Japan suitable to their professional pursuits in the public sector and supportive of their future work as an economic policy maker.

Number of awards offered:

In 2013-14, a total of 35 new scholarships are available to candidates for the partnership track. There is no fixed limit on new scholarships for the open track, but generally only a small number of scholarships are awarded.

Duration of award(s):

For Partnership Track: The scholarship covers one year.  For the two-year master’s programs, the scholarship can be renewed for the second year based on academic performance and the university’s recommendation, together with nomination by a scholar’s sponsoring agency .
For Open Track: The scholarship covers one year.  The IMF makes a decision on a renewal for the subsequent year based on the scholar’s academic performance and progress, the university’s recommendation, and the sponsoring agency’s consent  The scholarship award period is for up to two years for a master’s program and three years for doctoral programs, depending on the requirement of the university.

What does it cover?

For Partnership Track: Scholarships provide for admission and tuition fees; a monthly stipend (including a housing and subsistence allowance); medical/accident insurance; one roundtrip economy class air-ticket; and a lump-sum allowance to cover visa application costs and testing fees (such as TOEFL); and book-shipping costs The scholarship covers expenses incurred by the scholar only.
For Open Track: The scholarship covers all reasonable expenses a scholar is expected to incur, including: one return airfare (subject to conditions); admissions and tuition fees; stipend (including a housing and subsistence allowance); medical and accident insurance fees  For scholars enrolled in doctoral programs, research related fees will be additionally covered The scholarship covers expenses incurred by the scholar only.

Selection Criteria:

Scholarship awards are made on the basis of the candidate’s academic record and work background, mathematical and statistics skills, English language proficiency, and potential for contributing to the macroeconomic and financial management and economic development of their country  The assessment also includes qualities such as the candidate’s commitment to public service, willingness to learn, and openness to new ideas.

Notification:

April 12, 2013

How to Apply:

The mode of applying is online and by post.

Scholarship Application Deadline:

For Partnership Track: The application deadline for the partnership track is December 10, 2012.
For Open Track: There is no application deadline and applications are accepted and reviewed year-round.
Further Scholarship Information and Application

Read more: 2013-2014 Japan-IMF Scholarships for Asian Students in Japan : 2012 2013 College Scholarships, PhD Scholarships, Postdoctoral, Graduate International Scholarships Fellowships
http://scholarship-positions.com

Journalism fellowship on immigration open [Worldwide] | IJNet

Journalism fellowship on immigration open [Worldwide] | IJNet

Journalism fellowship on immigration open

Deadline:11/30/12

Journalists interested in immigration and integration issues can apply for a fellowship.
With the support of the Ford Foundation, the French-American Foundation is launching the Immigration Journalism Fellowship.
This program aims to provide media professionals with the financial means to produce objective and challenging material on one of the most heated and controversial contemporary issues. Fellows will be awarded up to US$10,000 for their work, to be completed over a four-to-six month period.
The fellowship is open to journalists of any nationality with a minimum of three years of professional journalism experience and outstanding achievements in the field. The foundation will pay special attention to innovative and groundbreaking material. All types of stories will be considered--local, global, cultural and economic--as long as they comply with journalism ethics of fairness and responsibility.
The deadline is November 30.
For more information, click here

NewsU offers free online course on Web design [Worldwide] | IJNet

NewsU offers free online course on Web design [Worldwide] | IJNet

NewsU offers free online course on Web design [Worldwide]

Date: 11/6/12

Journalists worldwide interested in Web design can enroll in a self-directed course.
News University, the e-learning arm of the Poynter Institute, offers "Functional Web Design for Today’s News Audiences."
Topics include analyzing a site's strengths and weaknesses, avoiding information overload, organizing content that flows intuitively, developing design prototypes and evaluating your site to improve usability.
Course instructor Jennifer George-Palilonis teaches upper-level courses in multimedia storytelling, information graphics reporting and special topics in visual journalism at Ball State University.
This self-directed course takes about 2-3 hours to complete and is free for registered NewsU members. For non-registered users, the course costs US$29.95.
For more information, click here.

Analysis: Is Obama Serious to bridge the gaps?

Roznama Dunya

Detailed Timeline for Benghazi Response by DOD

Defense.gov News Article: DOD Releases Detailed Timeline for Benghazi Response

DOD Releases Detailed Timeline for Benghazi Response By Karen Parrish American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, Nov. 10, 2012 – The Defense Department released a detailed timeline yesterday of the Pentagon’s response to the September attack in Benghazi, Libya, that left four Americans dead, including U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens. A senior defense official, speaking on background with Pentagon reporters, emphasized the rapid consultation, planning and troop pre-deployment actions defense leaders undertook in the first hours following the attack. “With naval, Marine, special operations and air forces either employed or en route to Libya during the attacks, we responded,” the official said. “We mourn the loss of four American heroes in Benghazi.” The military’s initial response began within minutes of the first incident in Benghazi, the official said: the attack on the U.S. consulate began at 3:42 p.m. EDT [9:42 p.m. Benghazi time], and by 5:10 EDT an unarmed surveillance aircraft was on station over the Benghazi compound. By 5:30 p.m., all surviving Americans had left the consulate, the official noted, adding that defense officials didn’t have that information until later. The senior official noted that for people to understand the sequence of events in Benghazi, “it’s important to discuss the wider context of that tragic day.” In the months before the attack, the official said, hundreds of reports surfaced of possible threats to U.S. citizens and facilities across the globe. In the Middle East and North Africa on Sept. 11, the official added, U.S. facilities in more than 16 countries were operating on a heightened force-protection level, based on specific threats. “I would note … that there was no specific or credible threat that we knew of on the day that the attacks … occurred in Benghazi,” the official said. The official acknowledged that since Sept. 11, many people have speculated on whether increased military intervention, including the use of manned and unmanned aircraft, might have changed the course of events in Libya that night. “Unfortunately, no alternative or additional aircraft options were available within … [enough time] to be effective,” the official said. “Due to the incomplete intelligence picture on the ground, armed aircraft options were simply not feasible.” The DOD timeline records that in the first hours following the initial attack, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta and Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, conferred first with the president, and shortly after with senior officials including Army Gen. Carter F. Ham, who leads U.S. Africa Command. Africom’s area of responsibility includes Libya. During those meetings, the official said, Panetta verbally ordered two fleet antiterrorism security team, or FAST, platoons to prepare to deploy from their base in Rota, Spain. The secretary also issued verbal prepare-to-deploy orders for a U.S. European Command special operations force then training in Central Europe and a second special operations force based in the United States. At 6:30 p.m. EDT, according to the timeline, a six-person security team, including two DOD members, left the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli for Benghazi. The official noted the Pentagon’s National Military Command Center staff, within hours of the attack, began planning support and contingency operations with transportation and special operations experts, as well as with representatives from the four services and Africa, Europe and Central commands. By 8:39 p.m., the official said, the command center had started issuing written orders for the forces the secretary had alerted. At 11 p.m. EDT, the official said, a second unmanned, unarmed surveillance aircraft relieved the first, and at 11:15 p.m. -- around 5 a.m. Sept. 12 in Benghazi -- the second U.S. facility there, an annex near the consulate, came under mortar and rocket-propelled grenade fire. By 1:40 a.m. EDT Sept. 12, the first wave of Americans left Benghazi for Tripoli by airplane, with the second wave, including the bodies of the fallen, following at 4 a.m. A C-17 aircraft, under Africom direction, flew the evacuees from Tripoli to Germany later that day, the official said. As the timeline makes clear, the official said, the evacuation took place before the FAST platoons or special operations forces arrived, although all were converging on Libya -- noting repeatedly that DOD leaders lacked a clear picture of enemy, civilian and American positions in the area. “There are people out there who have suggested that an overhead surveillance aircraft could have perfect visibility into what was happening on the ground, and on that basis alone, you could send in a team,” the official said. “That is not necessarily how things work.” An overhead surveillance aircraft operating at night over a city can’t always help military members separate friend and foe on the ground, the official said. “You get a lot of good information from a surveillance aircraft, … but it doesn’t necessarily provide you a complete and instant picture of what is happening on the ground. … If you’re going to undertake military action, you’d better have solid information before you decide to take the kinds of steps that are required to effectively complete a military mission of this sort,” the official told reporters. Over the roughly 12 hours between the start of the attacks and the time the last Americans were evacuated from Benghazi, the official said, defense leaders postured forces to meet any contingencies that might develop, as there was no way to know in the early, “murky” stages whether the situation would be resolved within hours, days or longer. “We absolutely had our forces arrayed in a way that could potentially respond to events that might unfold,” the official said. “We are an excellent military -- the finest in the world. We’re always prepared. But we’re neither omniscient nor omnipresent.”

Related Articles: Little Describes Pentagon’s Benghazi Decision Process Secretary, Chairman Respond to Reporters on Benghazi Attack

Military opposes plea to amend Army Act

Military opposes plea to amend Army Act

Military opposes plea to amend Army Act

ISLAMABAD:
Army authorities have opposed a dormant petition seeking amendments in certain provisions of the Pakistan Army Act 1952 relating to proceedings of military courts.
The army, in its written reply submitted before a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court last week, stated that the Army Act was a special act and that any attempt to bring it in line with the general law was to defeat the very purpose of that law.
The apex court recently took up the dormant petition – filed by a retired colonel, Muhammad Akram, in 1999 – which termed some clauses of the Army Act against the Constitution and pleading that such discriminatory clauses should be amended.
Military authorities, however, have argued that the petition is not maintainable as it does not raise a question of “general public importance” to invoke the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court with regard to Article 184 (3) of the Constitution, nor does it seek to enforce any fundamental rights conferred by the Constitution.
Any law relating to the armed forces is outside the operation of the normal scheme of the Constitution, the reply stated.
“The petition is a virtual plea to bring a special law at par with the general law. The Pakistan Army Act is a special law applicable to a specific class and is a complete code by itself which inter-alia provides for appointment, enrollment, service discipline, inquiries and investigation, summary punishments and trial by courts martial,” read the statement of army authorities.
In his application, the petitioner maintained that to take a statement from an accused on oath during court martial and then use it against him as evidence is contradictory to the Qanoon-e-Shahadat Order, adding that the Constitution does not allow compelling an accused to give a statement on oath.
“Section 31 of the Army Act allows an accused to submit a petition against the findings or decision of a military court,” the petitioner maintained, adding that “the finding (s) and sentence of all military courts except the summaries are required to be confirmed.” He added that it is discriminatory and against the Constitution if the verdicts by military courts are not immediately announced to the accused.
The apex court issued a notice to military authorities in this regard, and will resume hearing of the case on Monday. Akram has sought a direction to the ministry of defence to amend or modify the Army Act to bring it in line with the Pakistan Navy and Air Force Acts.

Newly established Pakistan Pentagon and its impact on power politics: Roznama Dunya

Roznama Dunya

Former Oil Mogul Justin Welby Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury - NYTimes.com

Justin Welby Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury - NYTimes.com

Anglican Church’s New Leader Vows to Seek Reconciliation

Dylan Martinez/Reuters

Justin Welby, the new archbishop of Canterbury, spoke at a news conference in London on Friday.

By ALAN COWELL

Published: November 9, 2012

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LONDON — Bishop Justin Welby, the new archbishop of Canterbury and spiritual head of the world’s estimated 77 million Anglicans, pledged Friday to seek reconciliation in some of the most contentious issues of gender and sexuality that have split the Anglican Communion.

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Eleanor Welby, left, daughter of Bishop Justin Welby, new archbishop of Canterbury, sat next to May Easton, her aunt, listening to her father at a news conference at Lambeth Palace in London.

Soon after Prime Minister David Cameron announced his appointment, Bishop Welby, 56, a former oil company executive, made it clear that he endorsed earlier church statements criticizing government plans to legalize same-sex marriage.

“But I also need to listen very attentively to the L.G.B.T. communities and examine my own thinking carefully and prayerfully,” he added, referring to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender groups.

“I am always averse to the language of exclusion,” he said, apparently seeking a middle ground in the debates, which have split Anglicans from Africa to America. “Above all, in the church we need to create safe spaces for these issues to be discussed in honesty and in love.”

He said at a news conference, “We must have no truck with any form of homophobia in any part of the church.”

Drawing on a career that has taken him from the executive suites of French and British oil companies to hardscrabble parish churches in the British Midlands and to scenes of sectarian strife in Africa and the Middle East, Bishop Welby said he would bring a “passion for reconciliation” to his new position.

Bishop Welby will replace the Most Rev. Rowan Williams, who announced in March that he would step down at the end of the year. Within the Church of England, Bishop Welby faces dwindling congregations and the same divisions between conservatives and liberals as Anglicans elsewhere.

Bishop Welby emerged as the favorite to become the 105th archbishop of Canterbury only after tortuous negotiations within the Church of England that had led to frequent reports of deadlock and disagreement among members of the church commission that chose him.

His appointment is likely to be closely watched in the Vatican, where the Roman Catholic hierarchy has sought to lure Anglican priests who have become disaffected with what they see as a liberalizing trend in the Church of England.

Bishop Welby was educated at Eton. He went on to study law and history at Cambridge University before working for 11 years in the treasury departments of the French Elf Aquitaine oil company and later a British exploration company, Enterprise Oil.

His rise through the church ranks has been widely described as meteoric. He began his training as a priest in 1987 and was made a deacon in 1992. He was made bishop of Durham — the fourth-ranking diocese in the hierarchy — only a year ago.

His admirers say he is a conciliator who will be able to hold the communion together. “He and I in fact differ on the question of the blessing of same-sex unions,” said Bishop Shannon Johnston of the Diocese of Virginia, “but that has enriched and deepened our relationship and our engagement with one another.

“He has a special gift for both personal and ecclesial diplomacy,” said Bishop Johnston, who says he knows the archbishop because Virginia and Liverpool are “companion dioceses.”

This year, as a member of the upper House of Lords, to which Anglican bishops are routinely appointed, Bishop Welby joined a parliamentary panel scrutinizing the behavior of British banks. He is known as an opponent of corporate excess.

Speaking at a conference in Zurich, according to a financial Web site, he described banks as “exponents of anarchy” before the financial crisis in 2008 because they pursued “activity without purpose.”

Bishop Welby said Friday that as archbishop of Canterbury, he would remain on the panel examining banking ethics.

A version of this article appeared in print on November 10, 2012, on page A9 of the New York edition with the headline: Anglican Church’s New Leader Vows to Seek Reconciliation.

UK to end financial aid to India by 2015: BBC

BBC News - UK to end financial aid to India by 2015

UK to end financial aid to India by 2015

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International Development Secretary, Justine Greening: "India is very successfully developing as an economy"

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• How British aid can still help India
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The UK is to end financial aid to India by 2015, international development secretary Justine Greening has said.

Support worth about £200m ($319m) will be phased out between now and 2015 and the UK's focus will then shift to offering technical assistance.
Ms Greening said the move, which will be popular with Tory MPs, reflected India's economic progress and status.
Giving his reaction, India's foreign minister Salman Khurshid said: "Aid is the past and trade is the future."
But charities described the move as "premature" and warned it would be the poorest who suffered.
Until last year, when it was overtaken by Ethiopia, India was the biggest recipient of bilateral aid from the UK, receiving an average of £227m a year in direct financial support over the past three years.
But the UK's support for India, one of the world's fastest-growing economies, has been a cause of concern among Conservative MPs, many of whom believed that the UK should not be giving money to a country which has a multi-million pound space programme.
Ministers have defended the level of financial help in the past on the basis of the extreme poverty that remains in rural areas and historical colonial ties between the two countries.
Ms Greening has been conducting a review of all financial aid budgets since taking over the role in September and visited India earlier in the week to discuss existing arrangements.
'Changing place' She said the visit confirmed the "tremendous progress" that India was making and reinforced her view that the basis of the UK's support needed to shift from direct aid to technical assistance in future.

Continue reading the main story

Analysis

Sanjoy Majumder BBC News, Delhi

The announcement that the UK is scrapping aid to India has been long expected and will not have come as a surprise to the Indian government.
UK International Development Secretary Justine Greening was in India early this week to meet senior Indian government officials who were briefed on the move.
India has long held the position that while it welcomes financial aid from overseas from those who choose to give it, it will never actively seek it.
The move is also a recognition of India's economic transformation.
It's now the third largest investor in the UK and the largest market for British goods outside the EU.
But much of the UK aid money was used to fund projects in some of India's poorest areas and some will worry that those at the receiving end could suffer.

"After reviewing the programme and holding discussions with the government of India, we agreed that now is the time to move to a relationship focusing on skillsharing rather than aid," she said.

"India is successfully developing and our own bilateral relationship has to keep up with 21st Century India.
"It is time to recognise India's changing place in the world."
Although all existing financial grants will be honoured, the UK will not sign off any new programmes from now on.
Last year the UK gave India about £250m in bilateral aid as well as £29m in technical co-operation.
By focusing post-2015 support on trade, skills and assisting private sector anti-poverty projects which can generate a return on investment, the UK estimates its overall contribution will be one-tenth of the current figure.
In making the decision, the UK is citing the progress India has made in tackling poverty in recent years. It says 60 million people have been lifted out of poverty as a result of the doubling of spending on health and education since 2006.
India spends £70bn on its social welfare budget, compared with £2.2bn on defence and £780m on space exploration.
'Premature' From 2015, development experts will continue to work alongside the Foreign Office and UK Trade and Investment but focus on sharing advice on poverty reduction, private sector projects and global partnerships in food security, climate change and disease prevention.

Emma Seery, Oxfam: "A third of the world's poorest people live there [in India]"

Save the Children said it believed the decision to end financial aid was "premature".
"Despite India's impressive economic progress, 1.6 million children died in India last year - a quarter of all global child deaths," Kitty Arie, its director of advocacy, said.
"We agree that in the longer term, aid to India should be phased out as the country continues to develop, but we believe that the poorest children will need our ongoing help."
After 2015, the UK should also support Indian non-government organisations to tackle child mortality and improve health provision, it urged.
'Hitting the vulnerable' Labour MP Keith Vaz, a former chair of the Indian-British parliamentary group, said the government needed to reassure its Indian counterpart that their bilateral relationship was still a priority.
"Although undoubtedly India has progressed in the past 20 years, there are still an estimated 360 million people surviving on less than 35 pence per day," he said.
"In withdrawing our aid to India, which will clearly only affect the most vulnerable, we need to see the minister's plan for how she will work with other organisations to make sure the gaps we are creating will be filled."
War on Want, which campaigns to end global poverty, said aid should not just stop because India had become a middle-income country.
Financial support needed to be "smarter" and geared towards supporting "progressive movements" capable of bringing about political change and tackling growing inequality, the pressure group said.
The UK government is increasing the overall overseas development budget to meet a longstanding international commitment to spend 0.7% of national income on aid.
At the same time, it wants to re-align its expenditure to focus on the poorest countries and those scarred by recent conflict.

The world in 2060: The OECD's forecasts: The Economist

:The world in 2060: The OECD's forecasts

Nov 10th 2012 | from the print edition

IN RICH, debt-laden economies the policymaking horizon is short-term: a recovery is the priority. Very long-range forecasts from the OECD, a think-tank, may seem an exercise in irrelevance. But they are a useful reminder of the economic and demographic factors that keep grinding away in the background.
In particular, the OECD’s projections for 2060 (at constant purchasing-power parities) show the impact of fast catch-up growth in underdeveloped countries with big populations. Economic power will tilt even more decisively away from the rich world than many realise. In 2011 the current membership of the OECD made up 65% of global output, compared with a combined 24% for China and India. By 2060 the two Asian giants will have a 46% share of world GDP, the OECD members a shrunken 42%. India’s economy will be a bit bigger than America’s, China’s a lot.
Even so the Chinese and Indians will still be much less well-off than Americans (see chart). The same forecasts show GDP per person in China at 59% of that in America; in India it will be only 27%. And Americans will increase their lead over the citizens of some developed countries like France and Italy.

In this section

• Asia’s great moderation
• Desperately seeking yield
• »The OECD's forecasts
• Charged atmosphere
• Where others fear to tread
• Crisis in ratings land?
• Keep digging
• The X factor
• Old-fashioned but in favour
• Strength in numbers

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• China
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U.S. Establishes Full-time Aviation Detachment in Poland

U.S. Establishes Full-time Aviation Detachment in Poland

11/09/2012 06:45 AM CST

U.S. Establishes Full-time Aviation Detachment in Poland By Jim Garamone American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, Nov. 9, 2012 - U.S. officials praised the long-standing relationship with Poland as they celebrated the first full-time U.S. military presence in that nation yesterday. During a ceremony at Lask Air Base, located about 100 miles southwest of Warsaw, U.S. Air Force personnel flew the American flag, marking the establishment of a small unit dedicated to supporting multi-national aviation training and exercises. The ten personnel of the detachment will be joined by up to 200 visiting airmen conducting quarterly training rotations. U.S. Ambassador to Poland Stephen D. Mull and Navy Adm. James G. Stavridis, the commander of U.S. European Command and NATO's supreme allied commander, were joined at the ceremony by Poland's Defense Minister Tomasz Siemoniak, Chief of Staff Army Gen. Mieczyslaw Cieniuch and Air Force Commander Gen. Lech Majewski. The arrival of the 10-man team at the base represents "a new kind of U.S. 'boots on the ground' here in Poland," said Derek Chollet, the assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs. Chollet represented Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta at the ceremony. "The alliance between the United States and Poland is rooted in shared history, shared values and deep ties among our people, cemented through NATO and the ironclad commitment to Article 5," Chollet said. "The Polish people have been our partners for over two centuries, and since joining the NATO alliance in 1999, your troops have been shoulder-to-shoulder with ours in the Balkans, in Iraq and in Afghanistan." The personnel in Lask will provide continuity for U.S. personnel rotating in and out of Poland, defense officials said. Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon and C-130 Hercules units will form the core of the U.S. presence. The personnel at the detachment will report to the 52nd Fighter Wing, based at Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany. President Barack Obama and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk agreed to the U.S. presence in Lask during the president's visit to Poland last year. The detachment will make it easier for U.S. and Polish airmen to increase their interoperability and will enhance military-to-military ties at all levels, defense officials said. The presence will also facilitate bilateral and, officials hope, multinational joint training exercises. Poland has extensive ranges and its airspace is far more open than countries farther west. Officials also hope this will allow both militaries to deepen already strong partnerships. "I am truly proud of the way our defense cooperation has focused on looking to the future to ensure we are prepared for the threats and challenges our countries will face," Chollet said. "As we move together into the future, we expect more U.S. boots to follow as we establish a NATO ballistic missile interceptor site at Redzikowo in 2018." The U.S. aviation detachment "also sends a clear message to allies and partners that the U.S. remains committed to European defense and to the principle that we are indeed 'stronger together,'" Chollet said.

Related Sites: NATO Spangdahlem Air Base 52nd Fighter Wing