Archives for 2014

Rajdeep Sardesai heckled in New York

September 29, 2014 by Nasheman

New York: Senior journalist Rajdeep Sardesai of Headlines Today news channel was heckled and roughed up, allegedly by a band of supporters of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, outside the Madison Square Garden venue after he got a group of anti-Modi people to air their views just ahead of the prime minister’s much-awaited speech to thousands of the Indian diaspora.

After the live interaction with the anti-Modi group who were outnumbered by supporters of Modi, Sardesai was heckled by Modi supporters and roughed up and pushed.

A video of the heckling was posted online as were tweets of the event.

(IANS)

100 days under the new regime: The state of minorities

September 29, 2014 by Nasheman

‘Minorities Under Attack’,a Public Meeting on the 27 Sep 2014, Delhi. Photo: Mukul Dube

New Delhi: Civil society activists and representatives of religious minorities have called upon the Central and State Governments to take urgent action to end the orchestrated and motivated campaign of hate and violence which targets and coerces minorities, and impacts on communal harmony in towns and villages in many parts of the country.

The hundreds of incidents of “Shuddhikaran” and “Ghar Wapsi” against Muslims and Christians specially in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, and the mobilisation against the so-called “love jihad” has terrorised youth in these regions. The blatant support from central and local political leaders to these anti social groups has triggered violence in many places. The media has recorded over 600 incidents of violence against minorities since the results of the General elections were declared on 16th May 2014. State governments had been tardy in taking action against the guilty. This impunity had further encouraged the unlawful elements.

A public protest against Attacks on Minorities, was held at Jantar Mantar today to focus attention on the rapidly deteriorating situations. Speakers impressed upon the Prime Minister and Union and State Governments and the Union Government to take action under the law of the land against those creating disharmony and polarising the people.

A Report on Attacks on Minorities was released at the public meeting endorsed by over 30 civil right and constitutional right groups and minority right to raise the issue of defence of minority rights, the right to live with dignity as equal citizens of India. The country, several speakers said, needed a Zero Tolerate against Communal and Targetted Violence, and not just a moratorium for some years.

Speakers noted that the situation had become so critical that even a person of the eminence of jurist Mr. Fali Nariman went on record to voice his concern,

“We have been hearing on television and reading in newspapers almost on a daily basis a tirade by one or more individuals or groups against one or another section of citizens who belong to a religious minority and the criticism has been that the majority government at the Centre has done nothing to stop this tirade,” …

“And how does one protect the interest of minorities who (or a section of which) are on a daily basis lampooned and ridiculed or spoken against in derogatory language?” Mr. Fali Nariman said at function organised by the National Commission for Minorities at which the Union Minister for Minority Welfare, Dr. Najma Heptullah, was present.

We had hoped that the acrid rhetoric of the election campaign would end with the declaration of the results, and the formation of a new government at the centre. The first 100 days of the new regime have, however, seen the rising pitch of a crescendo of hate speech against Muslims and Christians. Their identity derided, their patriotism scoffed at, their citizenship questioned, their faith mocked. The environment has degenerated into one of coercion, divisiveness, and suspicion. This has percolated to the small towns and villages of rural India, severing bonds forged in a dialogue of life over the centuries, shattering the harmony build around the messages of peace and brotherhood given us by the Sufis and the men and women who led the Freedom Struggle under Mahatma Gandhi. The attacks have assumed alarming proportions. Over 600 incidents of targeting religious minorities have taken place from May to September 2014 in several parts of the country, but especially which have seen, or will soon see, by-elections or elections to the Legislative Assemblies.

The hate campaign, the violence, the open threats have stunned not just the religious minorities, but civil society, jurists and academics. Many of them articulated their concern not just at the violence but at the silence of the Government.

Many of the incidents of violence were directed against individuals and places of worship of the Muslim community, especially in Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra. These incidents of violence include at least 36 recorded incidents against the tiny Christian community in various parts of the country. The Christian community, its pastors, congregations and churches, were targets of mob violence and State impunity in dozens of cases in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. Target dates, one of them coinciding with Christmas 2014, have been set to “cleanse” various areas of Muslim and Christian presence. The state apparatus and specially the police often became a party arresting not the aggressors but the victims to satisfy the demands of the mob. There have attempts at religious profiling of Christian academic institutions, and their students in the national capital.

There has been a well planned shift the locus of violence and mobilisations from the urban centres to small towns and rural areas; another course is to keep the “dead-count” low and use variants of everyday, “routine” violence to spread tensions and create panic. Yet another scheme is to convert India-Pakistan relations into a subset of the Hindu-Muslim relations within India. The most prominent method deployed in recent weeks has been the issue of “Love Jihad”.

While the Southern University System of Louisiana in the United States has decided to offer Prime Minister Narendra Modi an honorary doctorate for his work in inclusive growth and in recognition of Mr. Narendra Modi’s contribution towards social transformation, especially for empowering women and minorities in Gujarat, the facts on the ground are very different.

The people and organisations gathered at the Public meeting demand:

Zero Tolerance against Communal and Targeted Violence, including Hate crimes, profiling and attacks on Freedom of Faith as enshrined in the Constitution of India.

Govt of India and State governments should swiftly take action against those who create tension among minorities through their utterances, by immediately arresting them and filing cases against them.

The Union Home Ministry and State Home Ministries should issue a directive to all Police Posts across the country to treat all citizens equally and not come under pressure from certain groups and harass minorities.

Govt should set up a mechanism to provide conducive environment to all citizens of our country and to ensure defence of minority rights, the right to live with dignity as equal citizens of India.

Those Who Spoke Included: Ali Anwar-JDU, Amarjeet Kaur-CPI, Apoorvanand, Archbishop Anil Jt Couto, Archbishop Kuriakose Bharnikulanghara , Bishop Simon John, Colin Gonsalves, Dr Zafarul- Islam Khan, Harsh Mander, Harvinder Singh Sarna, John Dayal, Kiran Shaheen, Kunwar Danish-Jds, Manish Tiwari-Congress, Manisha Sethi, Maulana Niaz Farooqui, Mohd Naseem, Navaid Hamid, Noor Mohd, Paul Divakar, Sehba Farooqui, Shabnam Hashmi, Syeda Hameed, Zakia Soman.

The Meeting Was Jointly Organized By: All India Christian Minority Front, All India Dalit Mahila Adhikar Manch (Aidmam), All India Democratic Women’s Association (Aidwa), All India Catholic Union, All India Milli Council, All India Muslim Majlis-E-Mushawarat, Alliance Defending Freedom, Aman Biradari, Anhad, Bhartiya Muslim Mahila Andolan (Bmma), Cbci Office For Sc/Bc , Christian Legal Association, Federation Of Catholic Associations Of Delhi, Human Rights Law Network, Indian Social Institute, Jamia Teacher’s Solidarity Association, Jamiat Ulema-E-Hind , Jesuits In Social Action (Jesa), Jpd Commission, Cbci Centre, Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, Moemin, Muslim Women’s Forum, National Campaign On Dalit Human Rights (Ncdhr), National Forum For Housing Rights (Nfhr), Office For Justice, Peace And Development – Cbci, People’s Alliance For Democracy & Secularism (Pads), Religious Liberty Commission , South Asian Minorities Lawyers Association (Samla), Shahri Adhikar Manch: Begharon Ke Saath (Sam:Bks), Standing Together To Enable Peace Trust, Wing India (Women In Governance), Wss (Women-Against-Sexual-Violence & State Repression), YWCA India.

Click here to read the full Report on Attacks on Minorities, edited by John Dayal, published by ANHAD.

New York protesters to PM Modi: End suppression of minorities and desist from clamping down on civil society institutions

September 29, 2014 by Nasheman

New York: Alliance for Justice and Accountability, a broad coalition of organizations and individuals, announced that the rally this morning in New York City during Prime Minister Modi’s event at Madison Square Garden, was a huge success. Hundreds of people, including human rights activists, professionals, students and people from all walks of life attended the rally. Protesters were a large and spirited group of Indian Americans comprising of people of all faiths and ideological persuasions, with one thing in common: they were demanding justice and accountability in the case of Mr. Modi, and an end to repression of minorities and crony capitalism in India.

“The protests have demonstrated the rejection of a leader who represents a hateful and divisive agenda, ” said Robindra Deb, a key AJA organizer of protest on September 28. “We represent the 70% of Indians that did not vote for Mr. Modi,” added Mr. Deb.

AJA protesters were required by law to share protest space with all other groups protesting at MSG. “While we share human rights concerns, AJA does not endorse separatist calls by other groups protesting outside of MSG. These groups were not part of the Alliance” said Shaik Ubaid, a spokesperson for the Alliance.

The first 100 days of Mr. Modi’s tenure as PM have shown to the world the grave dangers posed by the Hindu nationalist ideology to pluralism and the rule of law. Since the national elections that brought Modi’s party to power, the northern state of Uttar Pradesh alone has witnessed over 600 incidents against the Muslim minority. Mr. Modi has imposed severe restrictions on civil society institutions including world-renowned organizations like Amnesty International and Greenpeace, and is using India’s Intelligence Bureau to tarnish reputed NGOs in India and the diaspora as “anti-national groups.”

Placards could be seen in the large crowd, demanding that Mr. Modi himself be brought to justice and demanding an end to the sectarian agenda of the Hindutva ideology he espouses. Protesters also expressed determination that they would not let the victims of the Gujarat pogroms of 2002, or the subsequent extra-judicial killings and illegal detentions in Gujarat be forgotten. The anti-conversion agenda espoused by Modi’s party has now spiraled into major polarization campaigns led by Hindu nationalist militias to restrict the religious freedoms of minority communities.

Mr. Modi was banned from entering the US by the State Department, under the International Religious Freedom Act for his “egregious violations of religious freedom.” With his election to the post of Prime Minister, the US decided to lift the travel ban, an exemption often given to heads of state.

Protesters also referred to the report released by The Ghadar Alliance (a constituent of AJA) that evaluated Mr. Modi’s first 100 days in office. The meticulously researched report details the ways in which the new government has increased repression of minorities through brazen violations of human rights and religious freedom, dismantled democratic protections, while increasing corporate giveaways. The full report can be found at: http://www.modifacts.org/

“The protests have sent a clear message. The so-called ’welcome’ given to Mr. Modi by the Indian diaspora is far from being uniform,” said Sonia Joseph, an organizer with SASI in NYC. “On the contrary, a large section of the diaspora has decided its time to stand up and be counted among those who will defend secularism and pluralism in India against the onslaught of Hindutva.” she further added.

“Economic development on the graveyard of human rights and rule of law can never go right” said Parchi Patankar, another spokesperson for the Alliance.

Protesters came from all over the US, with the majority having arrived through chartered buses from New Jersey, Baltimore, Washington DC, Boston and Philadelphia.

The Alliance for Justice and Accountability is a US-based coalition of a diverse range of Indian/South Asian organizations and individuals.

85,000 persons forcibly disappeared in Syrian prisons

September 28, 2014 by Nasheman

– by MEM

The Syrian Network for Human Rights, SNHR has issued a report marking the international day of the victims of enforced disappearances saying the Syrian regime’s forces are holding at least 85,000 people since the outbreak of the Syrian revolution on March 15, 2011.

The network said “the Syrian regime have been carrying out arrest campaigns since the beginning of the Syrian revolution. They targeted the leaders of the popular uprising at first before expanding to include anyone connected or related, even remotely to the Syrian revolution or any other political, intellectual, media or humanitarian activities aiming to benefit the Syrian revolution”.

The report stated that “the great disaster is the fact that there is not any information about the whereabouts of those detainees according to tens of testimonies of victims’ families”.

The report pointed out that enforced disappearance is a violation of customary humanitarian law and a crime against humanity according to Article 7 of the Rome Statute, amounting to a war crime.

The network also pointed out that it has lists of more than 110, 000 people still being detained by the Syrian regime and that the real number of detainees could be double, amounting to nearly 215, 000 prisoners.

The network said the Islamic State (IS) has arrested hundreds of people and committed the crime of enforced disappearance, mostly against media activists, military activists or even relief workers. One of the most notable individuals that have been disappeared was Father Paolo Dall’Oglio.

The network held the armed opposition factions responsible for committing enforced disappearance, most notably against civilian activists such as Razan Zeitouna, Wael Hamada and Samra Al Khalil.

SNHR head, Fadel Abdulghani said “the Syrian regime has not only arbitrary arrested tens of thousands of civilians, it also keeps them in undisclosed locations perpetrating several crimes at the same time. The detainee should be kept in places that have humanitarian standards, publically known and supervised by the government who should be responsible for his life and security. They should also ensure that he is not tortured to die. If the Syrian authorities refuse to give information about the detainees and their places of detention, then they are a partner in the crime of enforced disappearance.”

The network recommended that the United Nations and the Security Council pass a binding resolution forcing the Syrian authorities to release all those detained.

How to boycott Israel: updated guidelines for academics

September 28, 2014 by Nasheman

A Palestinian man inspects a classroom damaged by an Israeli air strike at a school in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, 24 August. (Abed Rahim Khatib / APA images)

– by Ali Abunimah, Electronic Intifada

The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) recently updated its guidelines on how to apply the international academic and cultural boycott of Israel.

This comes at a crucial moment – in the wake of Israel’s latest spasm of horrifying destruction and mass killing in Gaza, and after a period of unprecedented growth in support for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS).

Calls for academic boycott will resonate more than ever particularly in light of Israel’s recent bomb attacks on university facilities in Gaza, its violent raids on universities in the West Bank and the financial and political support Israeli universities have themselves given to the carnage.

Right now, hundreds of thousands of Palestinian children in Gaza are not going back to school on time as a direct consequence of the Israeli devastation, while in the West Bank young children face such violence as tear gas fired at them on their way to class.

The school year in Gaza was scheduled to begin on 23 August but has been postponed; Israeli attacks since 7 July killed more than 500 children and injured thousands. In total220 schools were damaged, 22 of which were completely destroyed.

Children will not be able to go back to class until “war-damaged schools” are repaired and “unexploded ordnance” removed, the UN says.

When children do go back to class, learning will certainly be an even bigger challenge due to the fact that virtually the entire child population in Gaza is in need of psychosocial support due to the trauma of Israel’s 51-day bombardment.

Practical guidance

The updated PACBI guidelines are important for two reasons: they provide a practical reference that can be used to decide if a specific activity is boycottable and they can be used to debunk false claims made by opponents of the boycott, for example that the boycott stifles “academic freedom.”

A common false claim is that PACBI has called for a blanket boycott of Israeli individuals or even of Jewish individuals.

But, PACBI states: “Anchored in precepts of international law and universal human rights, the BDS movement, including PACBI, rejects on principle boycotts of individuals based on their identity (such as citizenship, race, gender, or religion) or opinion.”

A person’s activities are boycottable, however, when “an individual is representing the state of Israel or a complicit Israeli institution (such as a dean, rector, or president), or is commissioned/recruited to participate in Israel’s efforts to ‘rebrand’ itself.”

There are other circumstances as well, as the guidelines detail.

The PACBI guidelines “are mainly intended to assist conscientious academics and academic bodies around the world to be in harmony with the Palestinian call for boycott, as a contribution towards upholding international law and furthering the struggle for freedom, justice and equality.”

PACBI urges:

academics, academic associations/unions, and academic – as well as other – institutions around the world, where possible and as relevant, to boycott and/or work towards the cancellation or annulment of events, activities, agreements, or projects involving Israeli academic institutions or that otherwise promote the normalization of Israel in the global academy, whitewash Israel’s violations of international law and Palestinian rights, or violate the BDS guidelines.

Normalization and “fig-leafing”

Many Palestinians reject initiatives that they say constitute “normalization.” But what does this mean? Here is the definition provided by PACBI:

Academic activities and projects involving Palestinians and/or other Arabs on one side and Israelis on the other (whether bi- or multilateral) that are based on the false premise of symmetry/parity between the oppressors and the oppressed or that claim that both colonizers and colonized are equally responsible for the “conflict” are intellectually dishonest and morally reprehensible forms of normalization that ought to be boycotted.

Far from challenging the unjust status quo, such projects contribute to its endurance. Examples include events, projects, or publications that are designed explicitly to bring together Palestinians/Arabs and Israelis so they can present their respective narratives or perspectives, or to work toward reconciliation without addressing the root causes of injustice and the requirements of justice.

The guidelines gives examples of forms of joint activity that are and are not normalization and also warn against “fig-leafing”:

International academics who insist on crossing the BDS “picket line” by pursuing activities with boycottable Israeli institutions and then visiting Palestinian institutions or groups for “balance,” violate the boycott guidelines and contribute to the false perception of symmetry between the colonial oppressor and the colonized. The BNC (including PACBI) rejects this attempt at “fig-leafing” and does not welcome such visits to Palestinian institutions.

PACBI’s updated guidelines for cultural boycott are here.

The full academic boycott guidelines are here.

Newly declassified documents reveal how U.S. agreed to Israel's nuclear program

September 27, 2014 by Nasheman

Documents reveal contacts between Washington and Jerusalem in late 1960s, when some Americans believed the nuclear option would not deter Arab leaders but would trigger an atom bomb race.

– by Amir Oren, Haaretz

The Obama administration this week declassified papers, after 45 years of top-secret status, documenting contacts between Jerusalem and Washington over American agreement to the existence of an Israeli nuclear option. The Interagency Security Classification Appeals Panel (ISCAP), which is in charge of approving declassification, had for decades consistently refused to declassify these secrets of the Israeli nuclear program.

The documents outline how the American administration worked ahead of the meeting between President Richard Nixon and Prime Minister Golda Meir at the White House in September 1969, as officials came to terms with a three-part Israeli refusal – to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty; to agree to American inspection of the Dimona nuclear facility; and to condition delivery of fighter jets on Israel’s agreement to give up nuclear weaponry in exchange for strategic ground-to-ground Jericho missiles “capable of reaching the Arab capitals” although “not all the Arab capitals.”

The officials – cabinet secretaries and senior advisers who wrote the documents – withdrew step after step from an ambitious plan to block Israeli nuclearization, until they finally acceded, in internal correspondence – the content of the conversation between Nixon and Meir is still classified – to recognition of Israel as a threshold nuclear state.

In fact, according to the American documents, the Nixon administration defined a double threshold for Israel’s move from a “technical option” to a “possessor” of nuclear weapons.

The first threshold was the possession of “the components of nuclear weapons that will explode,” and making them a part of the Israel Defense Forces operational inventory.

The second threshold was public confirmation of suspicions internationally, and in Arab countries in particular, of the existence of nuclear weapons in Israel, by means of testing and “making public the fact of the possession of nuclear weapons.”

Officials under Nixon proposed to him, on the eve of his conversation with Meir, to show restraint with regard to the Israeli nuclear program, and to abandon efforts to get Israel to cease acquiring 500-kilometer-range missiles with one-ton warheads developed in the Marcel Dassault factory in France, if it could reach an agreement with Israel on these points.

Origins of nuclear ambiguity

Israel’s policy of nuclear ambiguity – which for the sake of deterrence does not categorically deny some nuclear ability but insists on using the term “option” – appears, according to the newly released documents, as an outcome of the Nixon-Meir understandings, no less than as an original Israeli maneuver.

The decision to release the documents was made in March, but was mentioned alongside the declassification of other materials less than a week ago in ISCAP, which is headed by a representative of the president and whose members are officials in the Department of State, Department of Defense and Department of Justice, as well as the intelligence administration and the National Archive, where the documents are stored.

The declassified material deals only with events in 1968 and 1969, the end of the terms of President Lyndon Johnson and Prime Minister Levi Eshkol, and the beginning of the Nixon-Meir era. However, it contains many contemporary lessons. Among these are the decisive nature of personal relations between a president like Obama and a prime minister like Benjamin Netanyahu; the relationship between the diplomatic process of “land for peace,” American guarantees of Israeli security in peace time, supplies of weapons to Israel and Israel’s nuclear status; and the ability of a country like Iran to move ahead gradually toward nuclear weapons and remain on the threshold of military nuclear weapons.

In the material declassified this week, one document was written by senior officials in the Nixon administration in a working group led by National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger, exploring the nature of the Israeli nuclear weapons program known as “NSSM 40.” The existence of the document and its heading were known, but the content had so far been kept secret.

The document was circulated to a select group, including Secretary of State William P. Rogers, Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird and CIA director Richard Helms, and with the knowledge of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Earle Wheeler. In it, Nixon directed Kissinger to put together a panel of experts, headed by Assistant Secretary of State Joseph Sisco.

The experts were asked to submit their intelligence evaluations as to the extent of Israel’s progress toward nuclear weapons and to present policy alternatives toward Israel under these circumstances, considering that the administration was bound to the pledge of the Johnson administration to provide Israel with 50 Phantom jets, the diplomatic process underway through Rogers, and the aspiration to achieve, within the year, global nonproliferation – all while, simultaneously, Israel was facing off against Egypt on the Suez Canal during the War of Attrition.

The most fascinating parts of the 107 pages discuss internal disagreements in the American administration over how to approach Israel – pressure or persuasion, as Sisco’s assistant, Rodger Davies, put it in the draft of the Department of State document. Davies also formulated a scenario of dialogue and confrontation with Israel’s ambassador to Washington, Yitzhak Rabin, the IDF chief of staff during the Six-Day War, who continued to sign his name using his military rank of Lieutenant General.

The documents are an intriguing illustration of organizational politics. Unexpectedly, the Department of State’s approach was softer. It opposed threats and sanctions because of the fear of obstructing Rogers’ diplomatic moves if Israel hardened its line. “If we choose to use the maximum option on the nuclear issue, we may not have the necessary leverage left for helping along the peace negotiations,” Davies wrote.

The two branches of the Pentagon – the civilian branch headed by Laird, his deputy David Packard (a partner in the computer manufacturer Hewlett-Packard, who objected to a previous sale of a super-computer manufactured by Control Data to Israel, lest it be used for the nuclear program) and their policy advisers; and the military branch headed by Gen. Wheeler – were more belligerent. Laird fully accepted the recommendation of the deputy secretary of defense in the outgoing Johnson administration, Paul Warnke, to use supplying the Phantoms to leverage far-reaching concessions from Israel on the nuclear issue.

Packard’s opposite number in the Department of State – Rogers’ deputy, Elliot Richardson – was Packard’s ideological ally in reservations regarding Israel. However, Sisco’s appointment, rather than an official from the strategic section of the Department of State, which agreed with the Pentagon, steered the recommendations of the officials toward a softer stance on Israel.

There was also an internal debate in the American administration over the extent of Israel’s progress toward a nuclear weapon. The Department of State, relying on the CIA, strongly doubted the evidence and described it as circumstantial in light of the inability to collect intelligence, including during the annual visits to the Dimona facility. As to conclusive evidence that Israel had manufactured a nuclear weapon, Davies wrote, “This final step is one we believe the Labor Alignment in Israel would like to avoid. The fierce determination to safeguard the Jewish people, however, makes it probable that Israel would desire to maintain the ultimate weapon at hand should its security again be seriously threatened.”

The Department of Defense, based on its intelligence agency, was more decisive in its evaluation that Israel had already attained nuclear weapons, or would do so in a matter of months.

Rabin, with his military aura and experience in previous talks on arms supplies (Skyhawks and later Phantoms) with the Johnson administration, was the key man on the Israeli side in these discussions, according to the Americans. This, even though the decisions were made in Jerusalem by Meir, Defense Minister Moshe Dayan, Foreign Minister Abba Eban and their colleagues, who were not always happy with Rabin’s tendency to express his “private” stances first and only then obtain approval from Jerusalem.

The Johnson and Nixon administrations concluded that, in talks with Rabin, it had been stated in a manner both “explicit and implicit” that “Israel wants nuclear weapons, for two reasons: First, to deter the Arabs from striking Israel; and second, if deterrence fails and Israel were about to be overrun, to destroy the Arabs in a nuclear Armageddon.”

The contradiction in this stance, according to the Americans, was that Israel “would need a nuclear force that is publicly known and, by and large, invulnerable, i.e., having a second-strike capability. Israel is now building such a force – the hardened silos of the Jericho missiles.”

However, “it is not really possible to deter Arab leaders – and certainly not the fedayeen – when they themselves represent basically irrational forces. The theory of nuclear deterrence that applies between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. – a theory that requires a reasoned response to provocation, which in turn is made possible by essentially stable societies and governments – is far less applicable in the Near East.”

Four years before the Yom Kippur War in October 1973 and the general scorn for Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, the Nixon administration wrote that Israel “would never be able to rule out the possibility that some irrational Arab leader would be willing to sustain great losses if he believed he could inflict decisive damage on Israel.”

Sisco and his advisers worried that a threat to cut off arms supplies “could build military and psychological pressures within Israel to move rapidly to the very sophisticated weaponry we are trying to avoid.”

According to the documents, the Nixon administration believed that Israel’s acquisition of nuclear weapons would spur the Arab countries to acquire their own such weapons within 10 years, through private contracts with scientists and engineers in Europe. Moreover, “deeply rooted in the Arab psyche is the concept that a settlement will be possible only when there is some parity in strength with Israel. A ‘kamikaze’ strike at the Dimona facilities cannot be ruled out,” the document states.

The Nixon advisers concluded that, all things considered, “we cannot force the Israelis to destroy design data and components, much less the technical knowledge in people’s minds, nor the existing talent for rapid improvisation.” Thus, Davies wrote in July, two months before the Nixon-Meir meeting, the lesser evil would be to agree for Israel to “retain its ‘technical option’” to produce nuclear weapons.

“If the Israelis show a disposition to meet us on the nuclear issue but are adamant on the Jericho missiles, we can drop back to a position of insisting on non-deployment of missiles and an undertaking by the Israelis to keep any further production secret,” Davies added.

The strategic consideration, mixed with political considerations, was persuasive. The draft of Meir’s unconditional surrender – formulated in the Pentagon without her knowledge in her first month in office – was shelved, and the ambiguity option was born and lived in secret documents until the Obama administration made them public, for reasons (or unintentionally) of their own.

How imminent is an 'imminent' attack threat?

September 27, 2014 by Nasheman

Army Lt. Gen. William Mayville, Jr., Director of Operations J3, speaks about the operations in Syria, Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2014, during a news conference at the Pentagon. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)

– by Nancy Benac, AP

Washigton: Smart people in the administration have spent the last two days telling the American people that U.S. strikes against the Khorasan Group were necessary to disrupt “imminent attack plotting” against U.S. and Western interests.

They warned that members of the shadowy Khorasan Group, an al-Qaida offshoot, were “nearing the execution phase” of an attack in the U.S. or Europe.

They spoke of “active plotting that posed an imminent threat.”

People may have come away with the impression that the terror group was on the brink of pulling off something awful.

Perhaps not.

In government-speak, “imminent attack plotting” doesn’t necessarily mean an attack is imminent.

Careful parsing of the language reveals a distinction between imminent plotting and an imminent attack.

Likewise, an imminent threat doesn’t necessarily mean an imminent attack.

And, in the view of the government, there’s more than one meaning for imminent, it turns out.

Dictionary.com defines imminent as “likely to occur at any moment.”

But a Justice Department white paper released in February 2013 gives a more nuanced view.

“An ‘imminent’ threat of violent attack against the United States does not require the United States to have clear evidence that a specific attack on U.S. persons and interests will take place in the immediate future,” the memo reads.

That’s because U.S. officials say they can’t wait until preparations for a terrorist act are completed before they take action to defend U.S. interests.

So their idea of taking action against an “imminent threat” involves a more elastic time frame.

In the case of the Khorasan Group, two U.S. officials told the AP that U.S. officials aren’t aware of the terrorists identifying any particular location or target for an attack in the near future. But intelligence officials have known for months that Khorasan group extremists were scheming with bomb-makers from al-Qaida’s Yemen affiliate to find new ways to get explosives onto planes, the officials said.

The plans were far enough along that the Transportation Security Administration over the summer banned uncharged mobile phones and laptops from flights to the U.S. that originate in Europe and the Middle East.

Despite persistent questioning after the airstrikes, U.S. officials have not explained whether something changed in recent weeks to compel them to launch cruise missiles.

Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday on CNN that, although the U.S. had been tracking the group’s plots for some time, “the moment actually was ripe,” for military strikes.

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, described the imminent threat of the al Qaida-linked Khorasan group this way Wednesday at a defense writer’s breakfast:

“The briefings we had indicated that there was a growing ability, near ability to put together an explosive device which could get through the security at airports and that’s all I can tell you. And they were at a point, at a critical point in being able to develop that capability.”

Two American officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss internal decision-making, told the AP that the government was concerned that the group could go underground after the AP reported that it was a top U.S. concern.

A bulletin from the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security issued Tuesday said U.S. officials had “no indicators of advanced al-Qaida or ISIL plotting in the homeland.” But that memo, which used ISIL as an acronym for the militant Islamic State group, doesn’t rule out terror plotting afoot elsewhere that could be focused on U.S. targets.

AP Intelligence Writer Ken Dilanian and AP writer Donna Cassata contributed to this report.

They are at it again: Syria, the latest Crusade

September 27, 2014 by Nasheman

– by Andre Vltchek, Counterpunch

The West is striking again; it is stabbing the very center, the heart of the Arab World.

This time it is targeting the group – ISIS – which it created itself, and which it had been arming, feeding and pampering until just very recently.

Airplanes and missiles are flying, and bombs are falling. The war has begun.

But is it really a war, or just a brutal game, a gigantic PlayStation operated by thousands of hooked-up maniacs in the Pentagon and all over Washington, Brussels and some servile capitals in the Middle East?

A war is, after all, when two sides are facing each other, when two sides fight, when two sides are risking their lives.

In this surreal and post-modern ‘war’, the only victims will be the people of the Middle East, most likely civilians. Their lives will be risked by those who are sitting, in safety, on their destroyers and in control rooms, hundreds and thousands of miles away, drinking coffee and cracking jokes.

The Übermenschen of the West will not descend from the sky, in order to fight, – man to man – in order to minimize the casualties of a peaceful population. The killing will be done by Tomahawks and F22’s (at least those have real pilots), and by drones.

This is actually not a war but a massacre, a mass murder.

Another massacre. This one may last very long and take millions of human lives in the most brutal circumstances.

Western leaders are ready… to sacrifice the lives of the “others”; the regime is ready. You can read it on Obama’s face, and on the face of Cameron.

The Empire began attacks against its own creation – the Islamic State or ISIS as it is known here in the Middle East. Countless ISIS cadres were armed and trained in the NATO-run refugee camps in Turkey and Jordan, right on the Syrian border. And the main purpose of ISIS was to destabilize and destroy Bashar al-Assad’s Government in Damascus.

ISIS did not fall from the sky. Nor is it some sort of spontaneous movement. Like the Mujahedeen forces in Afghanistan, which fought both, the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan (DRA) and later the Soviet Union, ISIS were paid, armed and trained by the United States and its allies.

It is a common tactic used by the West, to identify and groom the most radical forms of Islam, including Wahhabism, which is now choking Saudi Arabia and other countries in the region.

I was told in Istanbul by a leading Turkish documentary filmmaker from Ulusal TV, Serkan Koc, who has produced several ground-breaking works on the subject of the ‘Syrian opposition’:

“Of course you do realize that those people are not really ‘Syrian opposition’. They are modern-day legionnaires collected from various Arab countries, including Qatar and Saudi Arabia, paid by western imperialist powers. Some are members of Al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations. Most are militant Sunni Muslims. One could describe them as rogue elements hired to fight the Assad government.”

I have covered those border camps for more than two years, often risking my life, occasionally being harassed and detained by Turkish intelligence.

In 2012 and 2013, I visited the areas around the Turkish city of Hatay, and camps like Apaydin, where various ISIS fighters were being trained by Western and Turkish intelligence. I investigated the situation at the border and also around Incirlik air-force base near Adana, which both the RAF and USAF use. And I worked in Jordan, at the camps that are openly utilized for the training of the ‘Syrian opposition’, a fact that is not concealed, even by the regional press.

I thought that my reports, and the reports by Serkan Koc, Huseyin Guler and others, dispersed the myth of a ‘spontaneous uprising against the President al-Assad’.

But obviously our efforts could not match the tremendous propaganda and brainwashing campaign unleashed by Western corporate media.

In a totally irrational, logically bizarre pirouette, the US accused Syria of not destroying Islamic State, that unsavory offspring of Western imperialist policy.

As reported by Reuters:

“In a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power wrote, “The Syrian regime has shown that it cannot and will not confront these safe-havens effectively itself.”

The strikes were needed to eliminate a threat to Iraq, the United States and its allies, she wrote, citing Article 51 of the U.N. Charter, which covers an individual or collective right to self-defense against armed attack.”

To interpret what was written above: ‘Bashar al-Assad, we helped to create ISIS in order to overthrow you… Now we hold you responsible for not managing to destroy our offspring… Therefore, we are going to bomb your country, kill thousands of your people, and possibly overthrow you in the process.’

The Western public is fully ignorant; it is indoctrinated and brainwashed, otherwise hundreds of millions of European and North American citizens would be now rolling around all over the streets, many dying of laughter.

The statements made by Obama and Power are so absurd and philosophically foul, that they would make even Orwell and Huxley blush in embarrassment. Even the most brilliant of novelists could not invent such twists of logic!

The Middle East is well informed, it is aware of the game, but people in so many countries here are too scared to protest, or even to speak up. The West overthrew progressive and truly patriotic governments, and upheld the most oppressive tyrannies.

There is some commonsense left, of course. In Lebanon, Hezbollah snapped back, most likely expressing the feelings of a great number of the people living in the Middle East. In its televised address, the leader of Hezbollah, Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah, clearly stated his position:

“The U.S. isn’t qualified morally to lead an anti-terrorist coalition. In our view, America is the mother of terrorism and the cause of terrorism in the world… Everyone knows that Hezbollah is against ISIS and Takfiri groups and is fighting them… However, that doesn’t mean we support U.S military intervention in the region. Hezbollah is against any US-led coalition that uses terrorism as an excuse for a military intervention in Syria and Iraq.”

And one could add: and most likely, one day, in Iran…

It is clear that in this region; almost nobody is fooled by empty clichés and the twisting of language. ISIS is a multi-purpose, flexible stick in the hands of the West. It is also ‘helpful’ when it operates on its own, when it ‘gets out of control’. It served as a weapon against Mr. al-Assad and now it is turning into a perfect scarecrow, a justification for the direct invasion of Syria, for redeployment, or more precisely for an increase of the Western military might in the region, for the creation of a pro-Western puppet Kurdish state, and quite likely, for deposing the government in Damascus.

The trigger-happy Turkish government is already making noises, promising to get involved, militarily, but only if the goal is defined concretely and openly: to overthrow Mr. al-Assad.

To overthrow the government in Damascus is, of course, the main goal of Washington, as well, but Mr. Obama is not as honest and open as his counterpart and ally in Ankara.

All this can be, of course, only the beginning of something truly horrendous. One should never forget that the Empire and its Saudi, Qatari and Israeli allies are always ‘thinking big’.

There is always more to destabilize, to ruin, and to conquer – there is Iran on the horizon, and much more.

To them – to the Empire – places like Syria or Iran do not constitute some of the oldest and greatest cultures on Earth, inhabited by gentle and peaceful people. To the Empire, these places are only booty, consisting of natural resources and strategic locations.

People mean nothing. If one million die, if two or three millions vanish, it makes absolutely no difference. Cultures mean nothing, as they are not Western, as they are not Christian ones, as they are not ‘white’.

Obama and Cameron are building on that grand old tradition of the deranged British colonial empire. It was, after all, only 80 years ago when then British Prime Minister Lloyd George commented on Britain’s success in undermining a disarmament conference— which would have barred the use of air-power against civilians, particularly those in the Middle East. He pointed out that it was a success. His secretary and second wife Frances wrote:

“At Geneva, other countries would have agreed not to use aeroplanes for bombing purposes, but we insisted on reserving the right, as D[avid] puts it, to bomb niggers! Whereupon the whole thing fell through, & we add 5 million to our air armaments expenditure…”

Decades later, the Empire retains this and many other similar ‘rights’.

What is left, how much is left, of the Arab world?

And I don’t mean those few flashy airports, complemented by ‘6-star hotels’, shopping malls for the elites, and European limousines. I don’t only mean those oil wells and artificial islands with palm-tree-shaped villas.

This part of the world used to be a beacon, one of the lighthouses of humanity. This is where the first universities were erected, the first public hospitals, and this is where the very ideas of ‘social’, of ‘egalitarian’ and of ‘compassionate’ values, came to life.

The Arab world and Persia were where the greatest doctors, architects, astronomers, scientists and poets used to reside and create.

This is where many great men like the first Sultan of Egypt and Syria – Ṣalāḥ ad-Dīn –defended the world against those brutal European hordes, invading in the name of the cross, while being obsessed with looting and rape.

After centuries of colonial wars, Western cruelty and militarism finally won. They conquered Arabia, as well as the rest of the planet.

The Arab world was reduced to subservient kingdoms and states, ruled by a few outrageously rich and ruthless families.

In Egypt and Iran, the heroic attempts to create egalitarian and socialist societies in the post-WWII era, were brutally crushed by the Western powers. Nihilism, cynicism, corruption and militarism were introduced and upheld.

In modern days, even those relatively socially-oriented states like Iraq and Libya, were annihilated, at the cost of hundreds of thousands, even millions of human lives. Oil had to belong to the international corporations, not to the state, not to the people.

Now what is here, are a few countries in total ruins, including Iraq, Libya and Syria. There are several staunch allies of the West, states like Qatar and Saudi Arabia, governed by secretive and oppressive monarchies that are spreading the most tyrannical form of Islam all over the region, and as far away as Southeast Asia, while enjoying the full support of the West, as well as impunity.

What else can be seen in this devastated part of the world? Egypt where pro-Western elites and the military managed to choke all hopes of what used to be called the ‘Arab Spring’, that strife for social justice and true freedom from foreign diktats.

There is Bahrain, where a Shia majority is immobilized by fear, Yemen once socialist but now repressive, ‘extremist’ and miserable. In places like UAE there are pockets of luxury for the rich and hell on earth plus humiliation for the migrant workers who built the place but are left with almost no rights.

Palestine is bleeding from its wounds, as it has been, for countless decades. Israel and its backers are blocking all solutions for full Palestinian independence. Almost the entire world votes in support of Palestinian state, almost the entire world condemns Israel. But it clearly shows, who are in charge of the planet and the region: the Empire determinedly vetoes all resolutions and blocks anything that could lead to justice for the Palestinian people.

Jordan has become something of a huge refugee camp for Palestinians, Syrians and Iraqis, as well as the service station for Western interests, from the military ones to those of the ‘development agencies’.

Lebanon, once the jewel of the region, is suffering from spillovers of various conflicts, as well as from Israeli incursions. It has basically no functioning government, and the socially-oriented and anti-Western Hezbollah has been placed on the “terrorist list” by the US and that of several European countries. This is of course consistent with the twisted logic of the Western regime: caring for the welfare of one’s people is seen as the worst imaginable crime, punishable by death.

This is all consistent with the legacy of colonialism, neo-colonialism and imperialism.

The Empire has entered its final gaga stage. In the youngest and the mightiest part of it – a nation that came to life through people like Jefferson and Lincoln (not saints, but at least giants), has now ended up by being controlled by the souk, by the market vendors. And it shows.

If one were detached, it all seems so comical, so grotesque.

It is also tremendously vulgar.

One feels like laughing, like cracking sarcastic jokes.

But then, laughter freezes in our thoughts. It does, when we suddenly realize that all this is actually for real! Missiles are flying towards Syria, and so are the bombers.

And children are howling in horror. And bodies are torn to pieces. Millions of refugees are on the move. Millions of men, women and children have lost their homes. Women are being raped. Entire communities have ceased to exist.

There used to be countries like Iraq, like Libya, like Syria. True, Iraq was shaped by British colonialism, and so was Kuwait, but it was there for decades. It is no more. Now Western imperialism is reshaping the region again, at a horrendous cost to the local population.

The Empire is ‘experimenting’. It uses ‘trial and error’ tactics. ‘We created the Syrian opposition and now let us see what will happen. The ‘opposition’ mutates into a militant regional force, which dares to cross our interests? Let’s bomb it and let’s also arm the Kurds so they can form their own, pro-Western state, in the middle of the region. Let’s see how it goes… Once we are on the move, we can also, perhaps, overthrow al-Assad… And who knows, maybe we can also find a reason to invade Iran.’

The Empire is using people as if they were guinea pigs. There is no consideration for the well being of the Arab population, there is no respect for human lives. All basic human rights chapters are being violated; most of the Geneva Convention clauses are spat on.

The world is so conditioned, so shackled, that this latest attack is being accepted without any major protests or debates.

If questions are being asked, publicly, then there are no essential questions. Entire debate is twisted. It is presumed that the West is doing right thing, that it is defending the world against terrorism.

It is also accepted by a great majority of people and countries, that the Empire enjoys absolute impunity, that it is above the law, that there is no international body that can challenge it, or to make it reverse its devastating and destructive course.

The West has finally reached the highest level of ‘freedom’. It is a freedom for itself – a terrible freedom to play with the world as if it were a ball, a cheap and insignificant thing.

As al-Qaeda is derived from the US-backed Mujahedin fighters in Afghanistan, so ISIS was a part of the anti-Assad ‘opposition’ supported by the West and its regional allies. The West played masterfully on local intolerances: Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is generally secular, but belongs to the Alawite sect, which is considered to be heretical in some Sunni Muslim circles, especially in the most radical ones. That helped to mobilize and recruit extreme religious cadres. And religious cadres historically, are very determined fighters.

The Empire groomed both al-Qaeda (or more precisely, its predecessors) and ISIS as true ‘multi-purpose’ groups. One helped to destroy the Soviet Union and the other mortally wounded Syria and then, they became the justification for the ‘Global War on Terror’ and in the latest case, for an attack against Syria.

Both could be described as the 5th columns of the West in the Arab world. Just like the West, they care nothing about the welfare of the people in this region. The true socially-oriented groups here, like Hezbollah, are actually fighting against ISIS, but are designated by the West as ‘terrorist organizations’.

And so the Kafkaesque destruction of the region by Western lunatics continues.

Of course all this is nothing new. This is how, for centuries, the European and later North American colonial terror functioned: divide and rule, destroy all that stands on your way. Sacrifice millions of people for your economic and geopolitical goals, even if you are not yet fully certain exactly what your goals are.

Without the Western gaga/racist/PlayStation/genocidal realm, there would be no al-Qaedas and no ISISs. There would be, however, several authoritarian but rich and socially-balanced countries like Iraq and Libya, as well as well-educated and secular Syria. If the West had not battered the region with its invasions and coup d’états after WWII, there would have been at least two powerful and socialist countries here: Egypt and Iran. In fact, most likely, entire region would be by now socialist.

ISIS is an implant, which is now serving as the justification for an invasion.

It is so obvious. Not to see it requires great discipline. But the world, or at least both Europe and the United States, appears to be increasingly disciplined, obedient, even submissive.

And so the Western crusaders are again, as they had for centuries, riding their horses, spreading devastation and fear wherever they pass.

But now, there is no brave, enlightened and compassionate Sultan – no modern-day Ṣalāḥ ad-Dīn – to stop them: in the name of life itself, in the name of justice and of our entire humanity.

Andre Vltchek is a novelist, filmmaker and investigative journalist. He covered wars and conflicts in dozens of countries. The result is his latest book: “Fighting Against Western Imperialism”. ‘Pluto’ published his discussion with Noam Chomsky: On Western Terrorism. His critically acclaimed political novel Point of No Return is re-edited and available. Oceania is his book on Western imperialism in the South Pacific. His provocative book about post-Suharto Indonesia and the market-fundamentalist model is called “Indonesia – The Archipelago of Fear”. His feature documentary, “Rwanda Gambit” is about Rwandan history and the plunder of DR Congo. After living for many years in Latin America and Oceania, Vltchek presently resides and works in East Asia and Africa. He can be reached through his website or his Twitter.

Hundreds of Mahadalits flee Bihar village after threats

September 27, 2014 by Nasheman

Patna: Their caste kinsman may be the Bihar chief minister but that brings no solace to hundreds of Mahadalits who fled their village in Gaya district and taken shelter in a government office after threats from upper caste men for protesting the killing of one of them.

Tekari police station officer incharge Pradip Kumar told IANS over telephone that more than 250 Mahadalits, mostly of the Manjhi caste that Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi belongs to, fled Pura village after they were allegedly threatened by upper cast residents and were camping in the block office in Tekari.

The provocation was their protests over killing of a Mahadalit who filed his nomination for the election for president of the primary agriculture cooperative society, police said.

Pradip Kumar said that security forces have been deployed in the village after police was informed about the incident.

“But Mahadalits are reluctant to return to their village as they fear that powerful upper caste people would attack and kill them,” he said.

According to district police officials, Arjun Manjhi of the village was killed after he filed nomination papers for the election and refused to withdraw despite pressure.

Manjhi’s killing angered his castemen, who demanded action against the accused.

“After they protested, some powerful people threatened them to eliminate them like Manjhi. Fearing attacks on them, they were forced to flee the village,” said another police official.

Kumar said Mahadalits have made it clear that they would return to the village only after police arrest seven named as accused in the complaint filed by Arjun Manjhi’s family. They have also threatened to stage protests in Gaya town if the accused were not arrested soon.

(IANS)

People’s struggle against proposed Nuclear Power Plant at Mithi Virdi planned with an American company

September 27, 2014 by Nasheman

Women protesting against a proposed nuclear plant at Mithi Virdi in the Indian state Gujarat. Credit: Krishnakant/IPS.

Women protesting against a proposed nuclear plant at Mithi Virdi, Gujarat. Credit: Krishnakant/IPS.

– by Krishnakant, Rohit Prajapati, Trupti Shah, SACW

The affected villagers of proposed 6000 MW Nuclear Power Plant at Mithi Virdi – Jaspara are planning to organise a protest in their villages on 28 September 2014 during the USA visit of Mr. Modi, the Prime Minister of India.

The Central and State Governments, now both led by Modi Government, are seeking to build a 6000 MW Nuclear Power Plant at Mithi Virdi – Jaspara, Bhavnagar district of Gujarat State. The Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) signed an Early Works Agreement (EWA) with the American company, Westinghouse Electric Corporation for installation of a six 1000 mw (AP 1000) nuclear reactors. There are total 152 villages with a population of more than 200,000 within 30 Kms radius of the proposed nuclear power plant. The main occupation of the villagers is agriculture. The rich alluvial soil here supports, crops like Ground Nut, Wheat, Bajra, Cotton, etc and fruits like Mangoes (Mangoes from Sosiya are very famous across the India and they are also exported), Chickoos, Coconut, etc. This area also grows and supplies vegetables like Onion, Brinjal, Gourd, Tomatoes, Drumsticks, etc. The agriculture department has found the climate and soil also suitable for cashew nuts.

Thousands of villagers have been consistently opposing the Nuclear Power Plant with the slogan ‘Not Here’ since 2007. Subsequently they have resolved ‘Not Here, Not Anywhere; Not in Any Country in the World’. Yet the previous UPA Government and now Mr. Modi’s upcoming USA visit (25-30 September 2014) is all set to mortgage the environment & labour laws and also to dilute the Nuclear Liability Act even further, so that private profits are safeguarded even as Fukushima exemplified all over again how risky Nuclear Power Plants are.

Here we outline unconstitutional and illegal actions and means adopted by the Government of India and Government of Gujarat to push the nuclear power plant through since its inception.

Environment Impact Assessment prepared by an agency lacking necessary accreditation:

The ‘Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited’ (NPCIL) claiming to be taking utmost care for safety measures had nominated Engineers India Limited (EIL), Delhi, as consultant for preparing Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) report for the proposed 6000 MW Nuclear Power Plant at Mithi Virdi. The said agency, EIL however does not have necessary accreditation to conduct EIA for Nuclear Power Plants. This has been clearly acknowledged by EIL itself in their EIA report on page no 387-389 volume – I. The EIA report clearly states, “12.0 DISCLOSURE OF CONSULTANTS: … For “Nuclear Power projects and processing of nuclear fuel” sector EIL’s application along with other consultants are still pending at NABET. However, till date NABET has not cleared any application related to nuclear sector.”

This clearly reflects the carelessness of the Government of India and NPCIL about the Nuclear Power Plant. Given this basic challenge to the legitimacy of the EIA report, it should not be the basis of an Environmental Public Hearing. How could concerned authorities the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) and Gujarat Pollution Control Board allow the Environmental Public Hearing for Nuclear Power Plant to take place when there are grave concerns involving security of the lakhs of people and life on earth is at risk?

Inspite of this the Environmental Public Hearing was conducted on 5 March 2013 in which following crucial issues were raised.

Detailed risk assessments are lacking in the report. The terms of reference granted by the MoEF for the EIA (TOR item number 34 on page 15 of volume I) clearly states that “Detailed risk assessment and disaster management plan should be given,” and the report states that “Detailed risk assessment and disaster management plan is mentioned in Chapter – 7.” However, in chapter 7, there is only a vague discussion on what needs to be included in the disaster management plan, but no real plan is given. In addition, volume I of EIA states “The manual on Off-site Emergency Response Plans would be issued by State Level Emergency Response Committee [p 314]”. However, no such plans are available.

The EIA report mentions (on page 319 of volume I) that “7.4.9 VOLUME-II: PROCEDURE FOR OFF-SITE EMERGENCY: This volume will provide guidelines for handling off-site emergency at Mithi Virdi NPP and deals with emergency management organization, emergency equipment and facilities for handling the situation up to 16 km radius.” One look at the index of Volume II shows that there is no discussion of Off-site emergency in that volume. This is a clear violation of the TOR.

The Terms of Reference for the MoEF at point no. 7 clearly mention that “The study area should cover an area of 10 km radius around the proposed site for conventional pollutants and 30 km radius for radiological parameters.” Instead the EIA report categorically mentions that 30 Kms for radiological areas of the study will be undertaken in future, the radiological survey is yet to be carried out for 30 Kms area and have not been carried out as stipulated by MoEF in the Terms of Reference (TOR).

No villager/village Panchayats in the 10-30 kms radius has been informed or served notice for the public hearing as the rules stipulate by the concerned authorities.

The proposed plant site is falling under irrigation command area identified by Gujarat State Irrigation Department. An application for seeking no objection certificate for development of the proposed project is submitted to irrigation department, Government of Gujarat. Yet again copy of a no-objection certificate to develop the project in an irrigation command area application are not to be found in the EIA report as required by TOR of MoEF.

Even the basic information like the copy of the “Site Selection Committee” was not attached with the EIA and relevant information about the committee was not provided and discussed in the EIA. We were only able to obtain the incomplete copy of the “Site Selection Committee” through an application under Right to Information Act.

The Site Selection Committee – 2005 of Department of Atomic Energy, Government of India clearly states that “Lignite mining is being carried at a distance of 5 kms. towards South. The famous ship-braking yard ALANG is at distance of 20 kms. on the Southern side of the site. The site is about 30 kms. from the Bhavnagar. On the southern side a small check Dam has been constructed to arrest rain water before flowing in to sea. There is hillock after the check dam. The Kalpsar Project, a multi utility concrete dam across Gulf of Khambat is being planned just 18 kms. upstream of the site which may have bearing on the design of intake and outfall structure for the plant.” The report further states that “Lignite mining is carried out nearby but as informed by state government the lignite is of poor grade and mining will be stopped if Nuclear power plant is located in the region. […] Government of Gujarat had informed that there is proposal to develop Mithi Virdi as a port. Gujarat Maritime Board has agreed to shift the proposed port at least five km from the central line of reactor. […] Kalpsar Project Authorities proposes a Dam of 65 Kms. in length and top width of 35 m across Gulf of Khambat of 18 kms north the Chhaya (Mithi Virdi) site. This will have following effects on the Nuclear Power Plant. Sedimentation and effect on intake and out fall of plant, Flooding due to dam break, Aspects of reservoir induced seismicity. […] This Ship Breaking Yard is touching the exclusion zone boundary of the plant. As per AERB Code, within sterilized zone upto 5 Km natural growth is permitted but planned expansion of activities, which will lead to an enhanced population growth are not allowed by administrative measures. These aspects have been brought to the notice, Government of Gujarat who submitted a Technical report in this regard to state the process of ship breaking and enforcement of necessary Regulatory mechanism in each stages of ship breaking.” This crucial information is not mentioned neither dealt in detail in the EIA report.

This report further states that “A detailed Seismotectonic Study 300 kms radius around site is to be carried out for the assessment of seismic hazards leading to determination of design basis ground motion parameters during design state. Seismotectonic status of off shore region will be included in this study in order to ascertain and offshore existence and extensions of lineaments and faults. Micro- seismic survey of the surrounding area will generate useful data for this purpose. In addition effect if any due to Kalpsar on seismicity (RIS) should be taken into account at site evaluation stage.” The present EIA is hiding such crucial information and there is no mention how they are going to dealt with these crucial issues.

We do not agree with many points of the report. Yet to reinforce what this very report states in the end:

“4.14. RECOMMENDATIONS: […] 3) It is recommended that a detailed study be conducted to examine the effect of Kalpsar dam in the upstream of NPP site on the flooding of the proposed site due to breaking of dam in the event of an earthquake of very high magnitude as the Kalpsar dam is located over deep sited fault. 4) As regards the Ship Breaking Yard Sosiya presently located at outskirt of the plant boundary 2 Km away from the centre of the 6th reactor building, the restriction of the growth of population in this sterilized zone (5 Kms) is required to be maintained by administrative action. 5) As regards Lignite Mining, surface mining as done in Kudankulam project can be permissible up to the start of plan construction in case of deep surface mining being taken up by the mining authorities any time permission will not be given without ascertaining its impact on the plant safety.” These crucial recommendations made in the report of the Site Selection Committee are not adequately discussed or addressed in the EIA report.

We strongly feel that the report of the site selection committee provides crucial information, it should have been annexed with the EIA report, and its major points should have been addressed by the EIA. This again shows the inadequacy of the EIA report. We strongly feel that the EIA report is superficial, unscientific, technically not sound and misleading.

‘Unconstitutional and Illegal’ Environment Public Hearing conducted in the ‘Atmosphere of Terror’ for the Nuclear Power Plant:

The “Environment Public Hearing Committee” of the Bhavnagar District had not followed the bare minimum basic procedural norms while conducting the EPH on March 5, 2013 at Navagam (Nana) for the proposed 6000 MW Mithi Virdi Nuclear Power Plant.

Just prior to the EPH proceedings, Mr A. V. Shah, the member secretary of “Environment Public Hearing Committee” of Bhavnagar District had reassured activists that the Sarpanchs of ten villages [Jaspara, Mithi Virdi, Paniyali, Khadarpar, Mandva, Sosiya, Navagam (Nana), Goriyali, Rampar (Garibpura), Bharapara] would be allowed to raise procedural issues after the opening remarks by the collector and the GPCB’s.

The Sarpanchs had already prepared a written submission documenting procedural lapses in the EPH hearing as directed by the authorities. But when the EPH proceedings started, the first violation of the procedures happened, when authorities reneged on their assurances to the Sarpanchs of the affected villages.

Jaspara village Sarpanch Mr. Shaktisinh Gohil started making the point on procedural lapses soon after the opening remarks, but was prevented by the collector Mr. V. P. Patel himself saying that Mr. Shaktisinh Gohil could hold the floor only after the NPCIL presentation.

The main points of the written submission of the Sarpanchs were “The EIA Report for NPCIL has been prepared by Engineers India Limited. According to EIL’s own admission it does not have the requisite Ministry of Environment and Forest accreditation to undertake the Environmental Impact Assessment. The EIA Report is therefore illegal.

The EIA Report has not been prepared as per the Terms of Reference (TORs) determined by MoEF. The EIA Report is therefore incomplete. Any public hearing based on such incomplete report would be illegal.

Only 24 villages in a radius of 10 km. from the project have been considered “affected” by the project. A total of 128 villages falling in the 10 to 30 km. radius have not been considered “affected”. The public hearing therefore cannot be construed to be legal.

The High Court judgement dated 28th May 2010 in the matter WP (C) No. 9317 of 2009 and Supreme Court Order of 2011 stipulate that all citizens, including those not directly affected by a project should be allowed to participate in environmental public hearings. Therefore your opinion that such citizens cannot be allowed to speak at public hearings would be a violation of the Honourable Supreme Court and High Court orders.”

This was the second violation because the collector should have first read the written submission on the procedural lapse and opined on it before proceeding with the hearing. About 6000 villagers present in the EPH, left with no choice but to leave the venue and keep them away from such illegal and unconstitutional Environment Public Hearing.

The entire exercise of the illegal EPH was further rendered futile as the collector did not even go through the basics of the procedural norms and did not give ear to democratic representations. The NPCIL presentation should have been held only after the collector had read the Sarpanch’s representation, opined on it, and not otherwise.

The third violation happened with the collector’s complete disregard for the Delhi High Court Judgement, about which he was informed through Mr A. V. Shah in oral discussions. This is in clear violation of the Delhi High Court order in the case of Samarth Trust and Other v Union of India & Others W.P. (C) 9317 of 2009, where it has opined that “….Prima facie, that so far as a public hearing is concerned, its scope is limited and confined to those locally affected persons residing in the close proximity of the project site. However, in our opinion, the Notification does not preclude or prohibit persons not living in the close proximity of the project site from participating in the public hearing – they too are permitted to participate and express their views for or against the project.”

The fourth violation happened when the collector did not again read the Sarpanches’ written submission on procedural lapses, which included the Delhi High Court judgement during the entire EPH, even after the villagers’ walkout, and neither did he express any opinion on it. The collector thus ignored the Delhi High Court judgement, which was a vital point in Sarpanchs’ representation during the entire EPH.

The EPH environment was coercive and terror-filled. Villagers were prevented from making free and fair representation. Not only was there a heavy posse of police force but also private security guards were hired at the EPH site, frisking and checking every entrant, and at places questioning villagers and participants about their antecedents.

There were unnecessary barricades and iron wire fencing between the collector’s dais and the participants area, a first-ever arrangement during the EPH in recent times in Gujarat. The authorities had created an atmosphere of coercive tactics that invoked state control and fear over the proceedings of grave public concern.

Also, the collector allowed songs and recordings in favour of the NPCIL and benefits of nuclear power plant to be broadcast from the public address system arranged by the collectorate. These recordings continued to be played till the EPH proceedings began formally. This is a clear violation of the neutral approach that the collector should have taken on the issue and instead made clear his predisposition on behalf of the NPCIL. On the contrary, the villagers were not only prevented from making free and fair representation; their representations on procedural issues were also ignored during the EPH.

Also, the NPCIL made an audio-visual pre-recorded presentation during the EPH, with no NPCIL official making any opening remarks officially except for switching on computer and other accessories.

Also, there were at least thirty odd people sitting on dais on both the sides of district collector during the EPH, whose presence and background went unaccounted with no one introduced or briefed about who they were and in what capacity they sat there. Their presences are not even marked in the minutes of the EPH. It is also a crucial issue that there be transparency regarding which capacities they were sitting on dais. The villagers and their elected representatives on the other hand got no such chance and instead were frequently frisked and subjected to irritating queries. The villagers were sitting behind the iron barricade at a long distance of the dais.

The additional district collector was sitting on dais next to the Bhavnagar district collector who had convened the EPH, which is strictly against the rules. Additional district collector can sit on dais and chair the EPH if the collector deputes him/her in his absence. The fact that the additional district collector was sitting sharing the dais with the district collector is also not mentioned in the minutes of the EPH.

The EPH was illegal to begin with as it was held based on incomplete, illegal EIA report, prepared by non-accredited company, the procedural lapses point out that the manner in which it was conducted is also illegal and unconstitutional.

The collector, the chairperson of EPH, GPCB regional officers, the member secretary of EPH, the additional collector as well as those on dais who were overseeing the proceedings and representations is responsible for these illegalities by violating environment laws and the Constitution of India.

As this was not enough On 11 June 2013, while giving the so-called CRZ clearance / recommendation for CRZ clearance to the NPP, the Gujarat Coastal Zone Management Authority (GCZMA) stated that “The Authority deliberated the proposal of Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited and after detailed discussion, the Authority decided to recommend to the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India to grant CRZ clearance for construction of intake, outfall facilities, jetty and Desalination plant at Village: Mithi Virdi, Dist: Bhavnagar by M/S Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited, only after submission of the following details to this Department :

Detailed note regarding the safety aspects and site selection criteria along with its advantage for this site and submit to this Department.
A site visit should be carried out by GCZMA Member.”

This clearly means that the Gujarat Coastal Zone Management Authorities is not serious about the CRZ clearance because they have casually given this clearance / recommendation for CRZ clearance without asking for and reading the note on safety aspects, site clearance report and without undertaking the site visit. GCZMA has not taken in account the basics, for instance eventualities like population increase in the immediate vicinity of the proposed plant.

It is unclear if the GCZMA is a victim of the non-transparent and secretive approach of NPCIL, which has not attached the report dated 28 June 2007 of Site Selection Committee even in the EIA document.

People’s Movement demanded that the Ministry of Environment and Forest should reject and review the non-serious so-called CRZ clearance / recommendation for CRZ clearance given to the proposed NPP of Mithi Virdi by the Gujarat Coastal Zone Management Authority (GCZMA).

Indeed, the then Chief Minister Mr. Modi was also not merely silent on the unconstitutional and illegal act on the part of concerned authorities; the agencies of the Gujarat government, in this matter, were working hand in glove with the centre. As The Hindu reported in August 2013, CRZ clearance has been given in a remarkably slipshod way. During and before the Environmental Public Hearing (EPH) for the proposed Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), villagers, local Panchayats and organisations like Paryavaran Suraksha Samiti have brought to the notice of the authorities that Engineer India Limited (EIL), the consultant of Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) does not have necessary accreditations to prepare an Environmental Impact Assessment Report (EIA) for a NPP. However, in an instance of utter disregard and disrespect to the Environmental Law and the Constitution of India, NPCIL and EIL went ahead with the EIA study and the collector tried to go ahead with the illegal Public Hearing in March 2013.

The NPCIL and EIL has since then continued to resort to the illegal practices by keeping silent on the issues raised by the villagers. This is evident from its application and presentations for Costal Regulation Zone (CRZ) clearance to the authorities in Gujarat without submitting adequate documents and information.

NPCIL needs 81 hectares of forest land in addition to the other land for the nuclear power plant. To facilitate this the Taluka Development Officer (TDO) of Gujarat State sent a letter dated July 15, 2013 to Sarpanch of Jaspara directing him to pass a resolution on the lines of the copy that he had sent, so as to have the village body’s stamp of approval for the state government transfer of forest land to the NPCIL. In this letter the TDO instead of seeking the opinion of Gramsabha as per the law for the land transfer, illegally and unconstitutionally orders the Sarpanch to pass the readymade resolution. This is the new way of getting the consent from the villagers by the then Chief Minister Mr. Modi.

The Gramsabha of Jaspara unanimously condemned and rejected such an unconstitutional letter of TDO. The Gramsabha unanimously resolved not to hand over the forest land for non-forest use to the NPCIL.

Struggle against Proposed Nuclear Power Plant: Some of Recent Protest by the villagers

Since 2007 villagers have been protesting against the proposed Mithi Virdi Nuclear Power Plant. Many rallies, protests, debates and press conferences were organised by the villagers with facts and figures against the Nuclear Power Plant.

On 23 September 2013 despite heavy rains, people from the villages affected by the proposed Mithi Virdi nuclear power plant took out a rally from village Jaspara. The rally consisted of 69 tractors, tempos and cars and 50 motorcycles and comprising of nearly 2,500 men, women, youths and children. People shouted slogans like “let it go, let it go, let the nuclear power plant go”, “allow us to eat our hard earned rotlo”, “we will give up our lives, not our land”, “let bajra and cotton grow, allow the greenery to flourish”, and “not here, not anywhere; not in any country in the world”.

The rally traversed the 40 km stretch to Bhavnagar, meeting the people in the villages falling on the route. The rally was welcomed at Talaja Jakat Naka by the people of Bhavnagar, and terminated at AV School cricket ground, where it turned into a public meeting. A representative group comprising the leaders of the affected villages presented the memorandum to the then PM Mr. Manmohan Singh through the district Collector.

On 23 September 2013 in an open letter to the then Prime Minister Mr. Manmohan Singh, Sarpanches of several villages in Bhavnagar district had taken strong exception to the Government of India’s proposal for the 6000 MW Mithi Virdi Nuclear Power Plant. Asking the Prime Minister to refrain from signing any agreement with the US government or other corporations and agencies on the proposed N-plant during his visit to the US, the letter stated, “The Government of India has reportedly initiated moves to further dilute the Nuclear Liability Act to seal the nuclear deal with the US government. Intervention of the Cabinet Committee on security is being sought to override nuclear liability for Westinghouse.”

Saying that this kind of move to give concession to Westinghouse, the company which proposes to give nuclear reactors to the plant, and seal “a nuclear agreement with US corporations during your visit to Washington will undermine all democratic and sovereign institutions of India”, the letter says, this is extremely “worrying”. Strangely, “the dilution of the Nuclear Liability Act is being touted as a ’gift’ to the US government and international nuclear corporations.”

Registering strong protest, the letter says, “We strongly condemn this brazen contempt for an Act enacted by the sovereign parliament of India. To assure the US government and nuclear industry that the Government of India will make sure that the operator (Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd.) will not use its ‘right of recourse’ against suppliers of defective equipment is a shameless sell out of Indian peoples’ lives”.

The letter adds, “To offer a liability-less playing field to the international nuclear corporations, whose constant decline has been greatly exacerbated by the setback after the Fukushima catastrophe, actually amounts to selling off Indian people’s lives and safety for nuclear profits. We have not forgotten the criminal record of Union Carbide, now Dow Chemicals, in the Bhopal gas tragedy and the shameless episode of Indian politicians letting the culprits go scot-free: both physically and in terms of adequate liability for the horrendous disaster.”

Pointing out that the Indian government is “risking citizens’ lives even as the crisis in Fukushima has further deepened over last few weeks”, the letter says, “While Japan has been forced to switch off all its reactors and countries like Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Italy, etc. have decided to go nuclear free, it is unfortunate that Indian government is choosing to miss the historic opportunity to go for sustainable, renewable, decentralised and equitable forms of energy and shun nuclear power which contributes less than three per cent of its electricity production”.

Declaring “strong protest” against any further dilution of the Nuclear Liability Act and endangering the lives of common people of India, the letter says. Villagers from Mithi Virdi, Jaspara, Khadarpar, Mandva, Paniyali, Sosiya, Kantala, Chayya, Navagam (nana), Bhankal, Goriyali, Bhavinapara, Kukkad, Lakhanka, Morchand, Odarka, Garibpura, Thalsar, Khadsaliya, Alang, Manar (CT), Bhadbhadiya, Hathab, Gundi, Badi, Alapar, Sanodar, Padva, Vavdi, Sankhadasar, Rajpara, Trapaj, Kathava, Bapada, Sathara, Bharapara, Koliyak, Mathavda, Juna Ratanpar, Kuda, Bhumbhali, Thordi etc. signed the memorandum and sent it to the PM via the Bhavnagar district collector.

The letter was handed over by Shaktisinh Gohil -Sarpanch Jaspara village, Samjuben Dabhi – Sarpanch Mithivirdi village, Vilasba Gohil – Sarpanch Mandva village, Pruthvirajsinh Gohil – Sarpanch Khadarpar village, Bhagwatsinh Gohil, – Sarpanch Sonsiya village, Dayalbhai Jambucha – Sarpanch Paniyali village, and Jikuben Dihora – Sarpanch Chayya village.

281 farmers and farm workers who would be directly affected by losing land and livelihood have expressed their dissent on oath by submitting affidavits.

The affidavit says “In this area, following a nuclear deal Indian government, the US government and US-based Westinghouse Company, the NPCIL proposes to set up a nuclear power plant. I strongly protest the land acquisition of my farm land mentioned above”, it says, adding, “I solemnly affirm that I refuse to sell my above mentioned land at any price to the Government of Gujarat, Government of India or NPCIL”. A similar affidavit has been signed by those working labourers in the farms associated with the villages, saying these farmlands are their only source of livelihood.

Village Panchayat’ meeting turns Mithi Virdi-Jaspara area into Nuclear Free Zone:

On 9 March 2014 the gram panchayats of five villages have passed a resolution declaring the entire “Mithi Virdi-Jaspara region as Nuclear Free Zone.” The resolution to declare the region Nuclear Free Zone was passed “unanimously”, and a copy of the resolution was sent to President of India Mr. Pranab Mukherjee, the then Prime Minister Mr. Manmohan Singh, the then Gujarat Chief Minister Mr. Narendra Modi, and secretary-general, United Nations, Mr. Ban Ki-moon.

The resolution clearly states “Orchards of mangoes, chikoos, coconut trees, lush greenery, sea and ships passing by, describe aptly the Mithivirdi-Jaspara area in the Talaja block of Bhavnagar district. This lush green area is the irrigated region of Shetrunji dam. At a time when Special Investment Region has become the most lobbied term in the state of Gujarat, this region too should be announced as SAR (special agricultural region) for agricultural purpose.”

The resolution added, “Situated on the Saurashtra sea coast, one would assume that the land is barren and un-inhabited, but a visit here belies all these assumptions. It is perhaps from this mistaken presumption that the proposal for a 6000 MW nuclear power plant spread over 777 hectares on this green lush land must have taken place.”
The statement further said, “Presently on this 777 hectare of land spread in Jaspara, Mithivirdi, Khadarpar, and Mandva stand 50,000 fruit trees. Also, bajra, cotton, groundnut, onions and other crops are sown year round due to irrigation facilities. This area is therefore aptly called Bhavnagar’s vegetable basket — a reason, why local villagers who stand to lose not only their land and livelihood but also a potential environmental risk if the nuclear power plant were to come up here.”

The resolution suggests “people’s desire to keep the neighbourhood nuclear power free.” The resolution is significant, in view of the fact that the environmental public hearing of the proposed nuclear plant ran into controversy, as it was held on the basis of an illegal, incomplete environmental impact assessment study by an unaccredited agency, inviting strong protests from the local community.

Important salient points of the resolution are:

The production of nuclear weapons or of nuclear power shall not be allowed in the city/ village/ municipality. No facility, equipment, components, supplies or substance used for the production of nuclear weapons or nuclear power shall be allowed in the city/ village/ municipality.
No person, corporation, university, laboratory, institution or other entity in the city/village/municipality knowingly and intentionally engaged in the production of nuclear weapons or with respect to nuclear electricity generation shall commence any such work within the city/ village/ municipality after adoption of this chapter.
Nothing in this chapter shall be construed to prohibit or regulate the research and application of nuclear medicine or the use of fissionable materials for smoke detectors, light-emitting watches and clocks and other applications where the purpose is unrelated to the production of nuclear weapons or nuclear power.
Nothing in this chapter shall be interpreted to infringe upon the rights guaranteed by the Indian Constitution.

The statement concludes, “We are opposed to all aspects and parts of the so-called nuclear fuel cycle and expressly forbids the production of nuclear energy, the presence of any equipment and materials related to the carrying out of any part of the fuel cycle and opposes any storage of nuclear waste.”

One more resolution: We will do all that is possible to save and protect the land, agriculture, agricultural products and seeds.

The protesters feared that recent efforts of Modi Government to water down the new Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 might only aggravate the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd’s move to acquire land near Mithi Virdi.

In a meeting on 14 August 2014, the villagers gathered to take a pledge that they wished to “ensure clean air, potable water, fertile lands, nutritious, uncontaminated food and secure life for the future generations”, adding, they will do “all that is possible to save and protect the land, agriculture, agricultural products and seeds.”

The pledge said, “We today on August 14, 2014 take the pledge,

To ensure clean air, potable water, fertile lands, nutritious, uncontaminated food and secure life for the future generations.

We will do all that is possible to save and protect the land, agriculture, agricultural products and seeds.

We will stop all industries and nuclear power plants that pose risk to our food, health and environment.

We will protest against the genetically modified crops and the resulting contamination of the natural seeds through them.

We will continue our consistent struggle against the so-called development policy that contaminate agriculture, land and water while seeking GDP growth.

We will strive to save the society from all companies – national and multinationals that seeks profits at any cost.

We will strive to ensure the deserving amendments to The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013. We register our opposition and resolve to fight against the present government’s move to dilute this act to make it anti-farmer to ensure pro industrial growth.”

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