We as spiritual beings or souls come to earth in order to experience the human condition. This includes the good and the bad scenarios of this world. Our world is a duality planet and no amount of love or grace will eliminate evil or nastiness. We will return again and again until we have pierced the illusions of this density. The purpose of human life is to awaken to universal truth. This also means that we must awaken to the lies and deceit mankind is subjected to. To pierce the third density illusion is a must in order to remove ourselves from the wheel of human existences. Love is the Answer by means of Knowledge and Awareness!

The USA - Afghan and Russia

Afghanistan Wants To Revive Full Military Ties With Russia
By Arun Mohanty Indo-Asian News Service
2-11-2

MOSCOW (IANS) - Afghanistan, in an unexpected turn of events, has 
said it wants to revive military ties with Russia, which had 
increasingly found itself sidelined in post-Taliban settlement 
process.

Afghan Defence Minister Mohammed Fahim, who is visiting Moscow, says 
his country is keen to revive full military cooperation, including 
buying of military hardware, with Russia.

"Rebuilding Afghanistan's military force with Russian cooperation is 
the most optimal option for our country from economic as well as army 
construction point of view," said Fahim.

Emphasising that the Afghan army was always built on the pattern of 
the erstwhile Soviet army, Fahim said the current manning and 
managing of army units in Afghanistan was being done according to 
Russian practices, and the entire existing Afghan Army was equipped 
with Russian-made arms and ammunition.

He said the Afghan Army faced an acute shortage of Russian military 
equipment, Fahim said the Afghan delegation would conclude some 
agreements in Moscow for procuring military equipment and spares.

The appearance of few Russians working under Russia's emergency 
ministry in military fatigue in Kabul had triggered speculation in 
the international media about the return of Russian forces to 
Afghanistan.

The Northern Alliance, led by Fahim, turned into a regular army with 
Russian assistance and marched into Kabul on Russian tanks in the 
wake of Taliban collapse in November 2001.

Fahim's statement to revive full-fledged defence cooperation with 
Russia comes amid reports of a U.S. plan to rebuild the Afghan Army.

Foreign policy experts here draw attention to the fact that Fahim's 
trip comes on the heels of Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov's 
visit to Afghanistan last week, the first one by a top Russian leader 
in 14 years.

Fahim's tour to Russia is the first high-level visit by an Afghan 
minister to this country, while important members of the interim 
Afghan government including its head Hamid Karzai have been 
extensively travelling to Western countries.

His sojourn to Moscow is also the first high-level visit by an Afghan 
leader to Russia in 14 years.

Fahim, an ethnic Tajik, was in charge of intelligence under the 
Northern Alliance led by Ahmed Shah Masood and took over the command 
after the legendary general's assassination.

The Northern Alliance, backed by Russia, India and Iran, forms the 
backbone of the interim Afghan government under Karzai, who is 
reportedly close to Pakistan and the U.S.

Copyright © 2001 IANS India Private Limited. All rights Reserved.

*****

Musharraf, Karzai Agree On New Afghan Oil Pipeline
2-11-2

PAKISTAN/AFGHANISTAN - The Pakistani President, Gen Pervez Musharraf, 
and the Afghan interim leader, Mr Hamid Karzai, agreed yesterday that 
their two countries should develop "mutual brotherly relations" and 
co-operate "in all spheres of activity" - including a proposed gas 
pipeline from Central Asia to Pakistan via Afghanistan. 
  
"We have agreed unanimously ... on working together to develop strong 
brotherly co-operation, brotherly relations between Afghanistan and 
Pakistan in all spheres of activity," Gen Musharraf said after their 
talks. 
  
Gen Musharraf said Pakistan will provide $10 million to the Afghan 
interim government to pay for government outlays. About 200,000 
employees of the Afghan government have not been paid a salary for 
over six months by the ousted Taliban, and the interim Afghan 
government has maintained that paying them was the most urgent 
government priority. 
  
Mr Karzai, who arrived in Islamabad earlier yesterday for a one-day 
visit, said he and Gen Musharraf discussed the proposed Central Asian 
gas pipeline project "and agreed that it was in the interest of both 
countries". Pakistan and several multinational companies, including 
the California-based Unocal Corp and Bridas S.A. of Argentina, have 
been toying with the idea of constructing a 1,600-km pipeline from 
Turkmenistan through Afghanistan to growing natural gas markets in 
Pakistan and, potentially, India. But the project has failed to 
materialise because of the civil war in Afghanistan and the 
reluctance of the financial institutions to finance it. 
  
Gen Musharraf said he told Mr Karzai that Pakistan and Afghanistan 
are bound together by common geography, faith, history and culture. 
  
"Pakistan is extremely interested in having a peaceful, stable, 
united, progressive Afghanistan as its brotherly neighbour because it 
does not only serve the purpose of peace in the region but it also 
serves the economic interest of this entire region," he said. 
  
Mr Karzai said he and Gen Musharraf "look forward to a tremendously 
good future. That future can be made certain by respecting each 
other's territorial integrity and freedom," he said, adding that he 
was grateful to Gen Musharraf "for wishing the Afghan people the 
unity, the independence, the progress that Afghans so badly need." 
  
The two leaders also discussed the repatriation of over two million 
Afghan refugees living in Pakistan since the Soviet invasion of 
Afghanistan in 1979. Mr Karzai thanked Pakistan for having given "a 
tremendous welcome" to Afghan refugees. "But they have a home to go 
to, and that home is Afghanistan. 
  
"We would be grateful if our brothers in Pakistan allowed us time to 
prepare for that, so that our refugees can return home in 
tranquillity and dignity," he said. 
  
Meanwhile police hunting a former English public schoolboy suspected 
of kidnapping an American reporter have recovered e-mails from 
another suspect's computer. 
  
Investigators had hoped to rescue Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel 
Pearl before Gen Musharraf left last night for talks with President 
Bush in Washington.

*****

Pentagon Probes Afghan Villager Charges US Troops Beat Them
By Andrew Schneider c. 2002 
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
2-11-2

The US military has expanded an investigation into a special forces 
raid in Afghanistan last month in response to allegations that 
villagers taken prisoner were beat and kicked by US troops, the 
Pentagon said.

The allegations were made by four villagers who were among the 27 
people taken prisoner in the January 24 raid and then released last 
week after investigators determined they were neither Taliban nor al-
Qaeda as originally suspected.

"The investigation is still ongoing and the secretary and General 
Franks have asked for more information about those allegations," 
Victoria Clarke, the Pentagon spokeswoman, told reporters, referring 
to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and to Army General Tommy 
Franks, the US commander.

The investigation was launched last month after the president of the 
Afghan interim government, Hamid Karzai, complained that US forces 
had mistaken friendly forces for al-Qaeda in the raid on the village 
of Hazar Kadam, some 100 kilometers (60 miles) north of Kandahar in 
the province of Uruzgan.

The Pentagon has said at least 15 people were killed in the raid, 
which was carried out by US special forces and initially hailed as a 
success.

The district police chief, who was among the four making the 
allegations, told The New York Times and The Washington Post that 
soldiers who stormed his district headquarters building beat and 
kicked his men even though he shouted that they were friends.

The police chief, Abdul Rauf, said he had a rib cracked and was 
knocked unconscious by the soldiers.

The men said they were bound and flown to Kandahar by helicopter 
where they were made to lie on the floor of a hangar where they were 
beat and kicked throughout the night.

One teenaged prisoner, Aktar Muhammad, said he was picked up and 
thrown to the floor three times, blacking out once from a blow to the 
head, the New York Times said.

The beatings stopped after the first day, according to the reports, 
possibly because they told interrogators that they were supporters of 
Kazai.

Six criminals who were captured in the raid were separated from the 
others. But the others were kept in what they described as a "cage" 
with wooden bars and a canvas top. One of the prisoners was kept in 
solitary confinement in a shipping container for eight days, 
according to their accounts.  

*****

Musharraf Flays Bush's 'Evil Axis' Remarks
The News - Pakistan
2-10-2

WASHINGTON - President Pervez Musharraf has criticised President 
Bush's remarks about declaring Iran and Iraq as axis of evil, 
saying: "The extensive US military presence here should end as soon 
as events in Afghanistan permit." In an interview with The Washington 
Post before leaving for Boston, Musharraf said that Bush's 
remarks "evoked a lot of negative response". He said he would advise 
the president (Bush) that "under this present state of turmoil and 
uncertainty around the world, especially the Islamic world," he 
should avoid actions that would create "further uncertainty".

On the eve of his visit to the United States, he expressed the hope 
to reinforce cooperation and friendship between the two countries. 
Musharraf said that Indian intelligence agencies might have had a 
hand in the kidnapping of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, 
suggesting that the journalist might have been a pawn in an 
intelligence "game" being played by India. "It's very much a 
possibility that it has been done by the Indians, orchestrated by the 
Indians. That's what we are looking into,"

Musharraf was quoted as saying. He said indirect indications suggest 
Saeed could have been acting in concert with India. Musharraf 
lamented the damage done to Pakistan's image by the 
kidnapping. "Unfortunately, an incident takes place and you convert 
this one incident into a sort of a rule, as if all over Pakistan 
everyone is insecure and nobody should come. It's one sad, 
unfortunate, regrettable and despicable act," Musharraf was quoted as 
saying. "I feel so sorry for this Daniel Pearl and his wife -- what a 
terrible thing. I feel sorry and I feel bad for my country even, 
because it does create such images, which is not the truth."

Musharraf referred to the two Islamic leaders' time in India when 
discussing why he believed India might have played a role in the 
Pearl kidnapping. When asked by the Post as to how it was possible 
that men so publicly identified with the fight against India over 
Kashmir could be secretly working for New Delhi, Musharraf 
replied: "It does very much make sense to me. It makes sense to me 
because... the leader of Jaish-i-Muhammad was in jail for seven long 
years in India and he wasn't even tried.... How is all this happening 
in India? And this man (Saeed) was also there." He added: "We all 
know intelligence is a very bad game, and they can come out with any 
kind of game to justify or to organise or orchestrate such kind of 
activities. These are common activities orchestrated by the 
intelligence agencies."

Musharraf also suggested that "negative fallout" from his vow last 
month to crack down on militant groups could have played a role in 
the kidnapping. And he was critical of Pearl's conduct, suggesting 
that the 38-year-old reporter had risked too much by pursuing 
contacts with Pakistan's terrorist underworld. "According to my 
information, Mr Pearl was also trying to get overly involved with 
people who are maybe dangerous," Musharraf said. "I wonder whether it 
was because of his over-involvement that he landed himself into this 
kind of a problem."

The News International, Pakistan

*****

Those Opposed To US Military In Phillipines Called 'Lovers Of 
Terrorists'
2-10-2


MANILA (Reuters) - A political storm over the role of U.S. forces in 
the Philippines' war against Muslim extremists intensified Sunday 
after President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo slammed those opposing 
American help as "lovers of terrorists." 
  
Leaders from both sides of politics expressed outrage on Sunday at 
Arroyo's remarks and said late dictator Ferdinand Marcos seemed more 
measured than the current president. 
  
Arroyo, an admirer of Britain's "Iron Lady," former Prime Minister 
Margaret Thatcher, has denounced those who oppose her decision to 
accept U.S. help in vanquishing the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas as "a 
protector of terrorists, an ally of murderers and an Abu Sayyaf 
lover." 
  
"You are not a Filipino if you are against peace...You love the 
terrorists more than your own soldiers," Arroyo told a news 
conference Friday in her strongest attack yet on her critics. 
  
More than 400 American soldiers have arrived in the Philippines for 
military exercises aimed at upgrading Filipinos' skills in fighting 
the Abu Sayyaf. 
  
A separate group of 160 U.S. special forces troops are to join local 
soldiers in patrols on the southern island of Basilan, where the Abu 
Sayyaf has been holding an American missionary couple hostage for 
over eight months. 
  
The United States has linked the Abu Sayyaf to Osama bin Laden and 
his al Qaeda network, alleged masterminds of the September 11 attacks 
on New York and Washington. 
  
Critics said the U.S. military presence violated the Philippine 
constitution, which bars foreign troops from operating in the 
country, unless under a treaty. 
  
Officially, the Americans will only train Filipinos. But they will be 
armed and can fire in self-defense if attacked, and a U.S. Air Force 
general supervising the American troops has said his men know they 
could be killed or wounded on Basilan. 
  
"No president of the Philippines had ever dared to say that any 
Filipino who happens to disagree with the president is not a 
Filipino," Senator Joker Arroyo, a member of the ruling coalition but 
no relation to the president, said in a statement. "Not even Marcos 
denied any of his opponents their birthright." 
  
Opposition Senator Edgardo Angara said Arroyo's statements 
were "reckless," while independent congresswoman Etta Rosales 
condemned them as "the height of arrogance." 
  
Analysts said Arroyo's remarks could further inflame an already 
heated political atmosphere marked by nearly daily protests by 
leftist groups against the U.S. presence. 
  
Presidential aides said a recent survey showed more than 80 percent 
of Filipinos backed Arroyo's decision. 
  
"You have to realize that the president is not going to back down 
from a fight, specially when she knows that she has public opinion on 
her side...But this could boomerang," political commentator Manuel 
Quezon III said on local television. 
  
Pro-administration Senator Loren Legarda said: "At the end of the 
day, what is important here is everybody loves a winner. If within 
six months, this problem brought by the Abu Sayyaf is solved, 
everyone will be happy," Legarda said. "Nothing succeeds like 
success." 
  
  
Copyright © 2002 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
 
*****

Thousands Rally Against US in Iran As US Kills More Innocent Afghans
By Philip Cohen
NewScientist.com
2-11-2

Tens of thousands of Iranians declared their defiance toward the 
United States, as Afghan officials said another US military bungle 
had cost more innocent lives in the "war on terror".

Marchers converged on the huge Azadi (Freedom) Square in the west of 
Tehran to hear the traditional speech by President Mohammad Khatami 
marking the 23rd anniversary of the Islamic revolution, using the 
occasion to condemn repeated US allegations against the country.

In Afghanistan, Deputy Minister of Border Affairs Mirza Ali told AFP 
that according to locals in eastern Khost province, three people 
killed in a US missile strike there last week were poor villagers, 
not al-Qaeda terrorists.

"They were collecting metal -- bits of exploded bomb -- when they 
were attacked," Ali said. "As far as we know, and according to the 
locals, they were innocent."

Rallies coupled with anti-US protests were planned in towns and 
cities across Iran, which US President George Bush last month accused 
of being on an "axis of evil" with Iraq and North Korea.

Khatami condemned the "immature leaders" of the US government, 
telling them to "wake up" and change their "mistaken policies" or 
risk further terror attacks like September 11.

"Those who have carried out coups d'etats, terrorism, wars and who 
have imposed embargoes on you," Khatami told the crowd, referring to 
the United States, "are today using ridiculous pressures, but, above 
all, this mistaken policy will be harmful to themselves.

"The decisions of immature American leaders are making their country 
more and more hated by other people, and the American people are thus 
in conflict with other peoples."

Iran and the United States severed diplomatic relations after the 
revolution in 1980, and Washington says Tehran is the biggest state 
sponsor of "terrorism" in the world today, namely for its support of 
Palestinian militant groups.

Bin Laden's al-Qaeda organisation has been blamed for the deaths of 
around 3,000 people in the September 11 attacks in New York and 
Washington.

US soldiers investigating the results of the Khost missile attack 
against alleged al-Qaeda leaders would analyse the DNA in human 
remains and other evidence at a base in northern Afghanistan, a 
spokesman said in Kandahar.

US media and Pentagon officials have speculated that a tall man seen 
among the unidentified group which was attacked by a Hellfire missile 
may have been bin Laden himself.

But the Washington Post on Monday quoted local villagers as saying 
the dead included Mir Ahmad, a man known for his height, and other 
civilian residents of the remote area.

Roper said reports those hit were innocent Afghans was "not 
consistent with our intelligence".

US senators briefed on intelligence matters said that the best 
indications are that bin Laden was alive.

"I believe he is alive," Senator Richard Shelby said.

"We're going to find him ... And we have the will, we have the way to 
find him. And we're either going to capture him or kill him. I don't 
believe he will surrender."

Other leading American newspapers reported that Afghan farmers were 
beaten during their capture and imprisonment at a US base in Kandahar 
after a raid on what was initially believed to be an al-Qaeda meeting.

Several of the 27 former prisoners, who were released Wednesday, said 
two men lost consciousness during the beatings while others suffered 
fractured ribs, loosened teeth and swollen noses, The Washington Post 
said.

Similar accounts were also published by The New York Times and the 
Los Angeles Times.

Copyright © 2002 AFP. All rights reserved.  

*****

Iran Hints At Striking Gulf Oil Infrastructure If US Attacks
The Hindustan Times
2-11-2

TEHRAN (AFP) - A senior official from Iran's elite Revolutionary 
Guards hinted on Sunday that the country could retaliate for any US 
military action by targeting the Gulf's oil infrastructure. "If total 
insecurity were to settle over Iran, preventing its oil from being 
exported, then no other oil in the region would be exported." 
  
Pasdaran second-in-command Mohammad Baghr Zolghadr was quoted as 
saying by television. "If a war breaks out, then the Persian Gulf 
will be the graveyard of US soldiers and their navy. Iran is not 
Afghanistan, and a war against us would not last two or three months. 
The Americans are bawling like drunkards, but with time, they will 
understand their mistake," he warned. 
  
The US imports large quantities of oil from the Persian Gulf, 
including from its chief ally in the region, Saudi Arabia. Iran is 
the second-biggest producer in the 11-member Organisation of 
Petroleum Exporting Countries. Relations between Tehran and 
Washington have hit a new low after US President George W. Bush named 
Iran, along with Iraq and North Korea, on January 29 as part of 
an "axis of evil," and hinted it could be targeted in a future phase 
of its "war against terrorism.  

*****

Putin Warns U.S.: Don't Attack Iraq 
Mon Feb 11, 4:52 AM ET 

MOSCOW (AP) - Russian President Vladimir Putin (news - web sites) 
warned against U.S. military action against Iraq, saying that the 
situation in the Persian Gulf nation was different from Afghanistan 
(news - web sites) and that only the U.N. Security Council could 
sanction any attack.

  
In an interview published Monday in The Wall Street Journal, Putin 
called his nation's partnership with the United States the key to 
stability in the world. The two powers have reached a "new level of 
trust," he was quoted as saying.

"This trust allows us, despite any differences or arguments on 
specific issues, to avoid confrontation," Putin said.

Putin was the first world leader to extend condolences to President 
Bush (news - web sites) after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, and he has 
been an enthusiastic supporter of the U.S.-led anti-terrorism 
campaign in Afghanistan. However, Russia is Iraq's closest ally in 
the United Nations (news - web sites) Security Council, and Moscow 
has frequently tried to end the U.N. sanctions that were imposed 
after Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990 and protested U.S. and British 
airstrikes.

In the interview, Putin objected to Bush's inclusion of Iraq, Iran 
and North Korea (news - web sites) in what the U.S. president called 
an "axis of evil" in his Jan. 29 State of the Union speech. Numerous 
U.S. officials have suggested that Iraq could be next on the list of 
countries to be attacked in the anti-terrorism campaign.

"We oppose the drawing up of black lists," Putin told The Wall Street 
Journal. He admitted that Iraq presented a "problem," but said, "Such 
problems cannot be solved by one country alone."

In the interview, Putin also said that Russia, one of the world's 
largest oil producers, favored a per-barrel price of $20-25. He also 
defended the criminal cases opened recently against prominent Russian 
business executives — which some in the business community have 
called politically motivated — though he allowed that prosecutors and 
police sometimes make mistakes.

"Naturally we have to improve the activity of our law enforcement 
authorities but the worst way of improving their work is to block all 
action," Putin said.