Habib Siddiqui

Thomas Friedman is an op/ed columnist who regularly writes for the New York Times. He has been an unabashed supporter and promoter of the Israeli cause, and thus, his past writings had often been so biased in favor of Israel that they never helped us to find solutions beyond the current impasse. In one of his latest op/ed columns, Tom proposes that Palestinians hold non-violent processions to force the Netanyahu government to come to the negotiation table. He imagines that such non-violent protests would make the big difference in the heart and minds of the Israelis. This proposal belies the truth. Before the years of Intifadah, the Palestinian people have tried such options in the past, but to no avail. He ought to know that the Gandhian marches simply don’t work with regimes that are racists and bigots, who put no value to the lives of the ‘other’ people. This is why the Gandhian non-violent protests have failed not only inside the Indian Occupied Kashmir but also in the Occupied Ter...

Since publication of Friedman's book 'The World is Flat' I have developed a habit of browsing his articles in the NYT. Tom is an unabashed supporter and promoter of the Israeli cause, which does not help find a resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian problem. Thanks to the protesters in the Tahrir Square, it is good to see that he is having some second thoughts these days about the zero-sum diplomatic activities to resolve the issue. In his latest op/ed column in the New York Times, Tom proposes that Palestinians hold non-violent processions to force Netanyahu to come to the negotiation table. This statement belies truth. The Palestinian people have tried such options in the past, but to no avail. Gandhian marches simply don't work with regimes that are racists and bigots, who put no value to the lives of the 'other' people. When such actions are supported by scripture, it becomes kosher to kill and maim the 'other' people without any moral bites. Peacefu...

Remember Blackwater USA, the private military group, which worked as contractors for the U.S. State Department? Since June 2004, it has been paid more than $320 million out of State Department budget for the Worldwide Personal Protective Service, which protects U.S. officials and some foreign officials in conflict zones. Inside Iraq alone, at one time, it employed no less than 20,000 armed security forces. In the post-Saddam Iraq, they drew much notoriety for their trigger-happy, gung ho attitude. Between 2005 and September 2007, Blackwater security staffs were involved in 195 shooting incidents; in 163 of those cases, Blackwater personnel fired first. On March 31, 2004, Iraqi insurgents in Fallujah attacked a convoy containing four Blackwater contractors. According to Iraqi accounts, the men broke into homes and raped some women. The four contractors were attacked and killed with grenades and small arms. Later their bodies were hung from a bridge crossing the Euphrates. In April 2005 ...

The New York Times published an op/ed column from Mr. Frank Lindh, father of John Lindh, the so-called American Taliban, pleading for his son's release from the prison. Mr. Frank Lindh wrote, "John was a scapegoat, wrongly accused of terrorism at a moment when our grieving country needed someone to blame because the real terrorist had gotten away. Now that Bin Laden is dead, I hope President Obama, and the American people, can find it in their hearts to release John, and let him come home. Ten years is enough." I endorse the plea and would like our president to release John. He is no traitor to the USA. He was never threat to America and in all likelihood will never be a threat to his country. He has remained behind the prison walls for the last ten years. It is time to say enough is enough, and let John live a free life.

In the March 3 issue of the Time magazine Fareed Zakaria analyzed America’s status in the world. To his own rhetorical question – ‘is America #1?’ he answered: “Yes, the U.S. remains the world's largest economy, and we have the largest military by far, the most dynamic technology companies and a highly entrepreneurial climate.” As to some other metrics, America ranks 12th among developed countries in college graduation, 79th in elementary-school enrollment, 23rd in infrastructure, 27th in life expectancy, 18th in diabetes and first in obesity. Zakaria writes, “There are some areas in which we are still clearly No. 1, but they're not ones we usually brag about. We have the most guns. We have the most crime among rich countries. And, of course, we have by far the largest amount of debt in the world.” As to the reason behind this low ranking, Zakaria rightly concludes that other countries are catching up to America through efforts that were once the defining strategy for America’s...

The New York Times has an excellent editorial on Newt Gingrich. As you may know Newt has entered the race for presidential election. As I have analyzed a few times, he is a highly polarizing figure in the USA. Except for conservative racists and bigots, very few will vote for him. He is a highly flawed individual with no morality and no sense of what is right and wrong. He has been a debauch, fornicator, adulterer, cheat, immoral, bigot and racist all his life, who will use everything possible to prove his worth to our nation, and in so doing reveal his clownish politician self. He calls him a historian. What a joke! If he is a historian, self-claimed at best, history has failed to teach this moronic student its lessons. Worse still, Newt Gingrich is a hypocrite. He could do all the evil known to mankind and yet, has no shame, no bite of conscience to criticize others for doing a small fraction of his own evil acts. Does Newt have a chance? Nope! You can read the NYT piece by clicking...

Osama bin Laden (OBL) is dead. America celebrated the killing of her most wanted man last Sunday (May 2). The U.S. government has been on his trail for almost 13 years since his alleged involvement in the 1998 embassy bombings in Tanzania and Kenya. After 9/11 with a $25million bounty put on his head – dead or alive -- he simply became the target of the largest manhunt ever taken in the history of mankind. The last time the U.S. came that close to killing OBL was in the summer of 2007 when Bush administration learned that he would be meeting the Taliban leaders and foot soldiers in the Tora Bora region of Afghanistan. The military set into motion one of the largest strike missions of its kind, with long-range bombers, attack helicopters, artillery and commandos all ready to pummel the rugged mountain valley. In one of its latest reports, the New York Times says that just as the half dozen B-2 Stealth bombers were halfway on the 3,000-mile flight to their target, commanders ordered them...

The trustees of the City University of New York supported the political agenda of an intolerant board member and shunned one of America’s most important playwrights, Tony Kushner. CUNY decided to deny his honorary degree for political reasons. Mr. Kushner, who is Jewish, described the ousting of Palestinians from their homes in the 1940s as a form of “ethnic cleansing.” He has also said Israel is engaged in the deliberate destruction of Palestinian culture. Obviously such politically incorrect remarks does not endear him to many Jews who have been on their immoral trajectory to support the case of Israel no matter how terrible the crimes of the pariah state are against the indigenous Palestinian people. The trustee responsible for blackballing Mr. Kushner is Jeffrey Wiesenfeld. Interestingly, one may recall that Wiesenfeld told The Times’s Jim Dwyer that some Palestinians are not human. So what kind of standard is CUNY upholding? Should not the school call for the resignation of Wie...

Here is a link to an old article on M.K. Gandhi which is worth reading. It touches upon many open secretes, which are unfortunately not known to many of our western readers who nowadays make a saint out of the Indian national leader. It is written by the author S. Rushdie.

After some fourteen years of massive manhunt dating back to 1997, according to the USA government sources, OBL is dead. He was killed yesterday (May 1) in Abbotabad, nearly 60 miles away from Islamabad in a secured compound. It was a Navy Seal operation that took some 45 minutes to complete the operation. According to reports, he was killed with bullet shots to his eyes, and then his body was dragged through the stairs before being lifted in the helicopter and flown out. It is reported that after completing an Islamic funeral, the dead body was dropped in the ocean. These government reports leave many questions unanswered. For example, why was OBL not given a regular burial, which is the preferred mode in Islam, esp. since he was killed in action on land and not on sea? What happened to the bodies of other individuals killed? Are they dropped to the sea the same way? Why? How does this mode of burial help anyone believe the American story? Those suspicious can tell that the entire matt...