The Pakistani Spectator

A Candid Blog


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Are the WikiLeaks Actually An American Plot ?

By Isha Khan • Dec 6th, 2010 • Category: Politics

The Obama administration is busily denouncing the WikiLeaks. Spilling secrets is a bad thing, we’re told, for American national security. Relations with friendly leaders will be jeopardized. And so on.
But is it true? Or are the leaks, in fact, part of a carefully orchestrated plot by the American government?
Think about it for a moment. The [...]



The Betrayal of East Pakistan

By Isha Khan • Dec 5th, 2010 • Category: Politics

On December 16, 1971, under clear skies, and in front of a restless crowd of nearly a million Bengalis, Lieutenant General A. A. K. Niazi, Commander, Eastern Command of the Pakistan Army, surrendered “first his pistol, then his sword, and then half his country” to Lieutenant General Jagjit Singh Aurora of the Indian Army.
In West [...]



Book Nehru for sedition too: Arundhati

By Isha Khan • Dec 4th, 2010 • Category: Politics

Noted Indian author and Booker Prize winner, Arundhati Roy has reacted to the court directive asking Delhi police to file a case of sedition against her and others saying that a similar treatment should be meted out to India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, reports Kashmir Media Service.
In a press statement, Arundhati Roy listed a [...]



Nicolas Sarkozy, the Saudis and Carla Bruni

By Isha Khan • Dec 2nd, 2010 • Category: Politics

Nicolas Sarkozy offended the Saudis by planning to take Carla Bruni on a state visit before they were married, a secret US cable shows.
The French president made a high-profile trip to Saudi Arabia in January 2008 to improve his personal relationship with King Abdullah. But a memo from the US embassy in Riyadh said Saudi [...]



Saudi Arabia urges US attack on Iran to stop nuclear programme

By Isha Khan • Nov 29th, 2010 • Category: Politics

• Embassy cables show Arab allies want strike against Tehran
• Israel prepared to attack alone to avoid its own 9/11
• Iranian bomb risks ‘Middle East proliferation, war or both’
King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia has repeatedly urged the United States to attack Iran to destroy its nuclear programme, according to leaked US diplomatic cables that describe [...]



US embassy cables leak by Wikileaks

By Isha Khan • Nov 29th, 2010 • Category: Politics

• More than 250,000 dispatches reveal US foreign strategies
• Diplomats ordered to spy on allies as well as enemies
• Saudi king urged Washington to bomb Iran
The release of more than 250,000 US embassy cables reveals previously secret information on American intelligence gathering, and political and military strategy. Photograph: Rex Features
The United States was catapulted into [...]



America is not at war with Islam

By Isha Khan • Nov 27th, 2010 • Category: Politics

“We are not at war with Islam. This is a war within Islam. A small minority of violent killers seek to impose their view on the vast majority of Muslims who want the same things all of us want: economic opportunity, education, and the chance to build a better life for themselves and their families.” [...]



How China plans to split India

By Isha Khan • Nov 26th, 2010 • Category: Politics

Almost coinciding with the 13th round of Sino-Indian border talks (New Delhi, August 7-8, 2009), an article (in Chinese language) has appeared in China captioned `If China takes a little action, the so-called Great Indian Federation can be broken up` ( Zhong Guo Zhan Lue Gang, www.iiss.cn , Chinese,8 August 2009).
Interestingly, it has been reproduced [...]



North Korea’s Latest Attack on South Korea

By Isha Khan • Nov 24th, 2010 • Category: Politics

President Barrack Obama’s opulent tour of Asia this month included talks with South Korea over free-trade agreements. Those talks ultimately failed, Thursday, November 11, 2010, sending the bewildered president back home reinforcing to the world the weak hand America is now playing. This failed free-trade agreement between the US and South Korea is a continuation [...]



Microlending Backlash Spreads to Bangladesh

By Isha Khan • Nov 24th, 2010 • Category: Politics

Muhammad Yunus of Grameen Bank has repeatedly said in the past that turning the microfinance industry into a high-profit, high growth business could end up hurting the poor
Backlash against the booming microfinance industry that has thrown Andhra Pradesh into crisis may be spreading to the Mecca of Microlending: Bangladesh.
The south Asian nation’s Microcredit Regulatory Authority [...]