CIA-ISI Intensifkan Operasi Gabungan Di Pakistan – Arrahmah.com

ISLAMABAD (Arrahmah.com) – Tekanan pemerintah Obama terhadap kepemimpinan militer Pakistan membuahkan hasil, kata salah satu sumber terpercaya di Washington DC. Simber tersebut mengatakan bahwa badan intelejen kedua negara, ISI (Pakistan) dan CIA (Amerika Serikat), saat ini sedang bersiap-siap untuk mengintensifkan operasi di Baluchistan.

Seorang pejabat senior pejabat Pakistan mengatakan pada hari Selasa (22/12) bahwa ISI dan CIA, telah melaksanakan lima puluh operasi bersama baru-baru ini. “Ini adalah keterlibatan yang sangat kompleks. CIA dan ISI saling bergantung satu sama lain, tidak hanya untuk keberhasilan operasi ini, tetapi untuk saling mengawasi,” kata pejabat, seolah-olah ingin menekankan bahwa ada kerjasama yang solid antara dua badan intelijen tersebut.

via CIA-ISI Intensifkan Operasi Gabungan Di Pakistan – Arrahmah.com.

Too Fast, Too Furious – Muslim Youth Musings

Youth | Muslim Youth Musings.

US Dumbest. Anti-Terror Tech. Ever? | Danger Room | Wired.com

When historians look back at the first few years of the post-9/11 era, they’ll likely recognize it as a Silver Age of military technology hucksterism. From Rube Goldberg lightning guns to algorithms that allegedly found jihadists by their pizza orders, Washington gorged itself in an all-you-can-eat buffet of half-baked terror-fighters.

But even in this smorgasbord of silliness, one project stands out as a signature dish, Aram Roston reports for Playboy: a con man’s claim that he could find hidden in Al Jazeera broadcasts “secret bar codes” from Osama Bin Laden’s minions, telling “terrorists the terms of their next mission, laying out the latitudes and longitudes of targets, sometimes even flight numbers and dates.”

via Dumbest. Anti-Terror Tech. Ever? | Danger Room | Wired.com.

GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS FAILS TO DAMPEN MALAYSIAN ALTRUISM – Yahoo! Malaysia News

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 22 (Bernama) — Though Malaysia was not spared from the global economic crisis, in 2009 the Malaysian spirit of altruism remained intact with the nation and its people being ever ready to help those in need.

When neighbouring Sumatra was struck by an earthquake of 7.6 magnitude on Sept 30, Malaysia immediately dispatched humanitarian aid to the victims.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak outlined the list of assistance with the deployment of the 39 member SMART team to Padang, Sumatra being the first step.

This was followed by the deployment of the Armed Forces medical team, medical staff from the Ministry of Health and Mercy Malaysia.

Other than these, daily necessities and monetary aid were channeled in stages.

UNWELCOMED

Though at that time some of the Indonesians were apprehensive on Malaysians over a series of misunderstanding, Malaysia went on with the assistance without prejudice.

Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin made it clear that the problem should not stand in the way of the humanitarian aid undertaken by Malaysia.

via GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS FAILS TO DAMPEN MALAYSIAN ALTRUISM – Yahoo! Malaysia News.

nrc.nl – Islam-inspired green initiatives deserve Western support

Despite the disappointing agreement reached at the climate conference in Copenhagen, the US seems to have joined the EU in its commitment to binding carbon dioxide reduction schemes. This guarantees climate change will remain at the top of the agenda in the Western world in the coming years.

In the Islamic world, however, this is not the case. Hardly any country has put climate change on the agenda at all. This is made all the more tragic because Islamic countries will face the brunt of a changing climate. Desertification is a major threat in North Africa and the Middle East, and rising sea levels are expected to have dire consequences for the worlds’ poor in countries like Bangladesh and Indonesia.

via nrc.nl – International – Opinion – Islam-inspired green initiatives deserve Western support.

Algerie – Représentativité dans la sphère politique : Où sont les femmes ?

Il n’y avait que 30 femmes en 2007, au niveau des deux chambres du Parlement, alors que la première Assemblée populaire nationale élue en 1962 en comptait 35.

La femme est quasi inexistante sur la scène politique algérienne. La question de la représentativité des assemblées élues, ou plutôt de sa « non-représentativité », soulevée de manière récurrente, se pose de façon beaucoup plus accrue pour ce qui est de la gent féminine. Au Parlement par exemple, il n’y avait que 30 femmes en 2007, alors que la première Assemblée populaire nationale élue en 1962 en comptait 35. Cette faible représentativité — 7% des sièges des deux chambres sur un total de 533 députés et sénateurs — est aussi valable pour les postes de responsabilité : seulement trois femmes sont ministres d’Etat sur 27 portefeuilles. Et ce qui prévaut à l’échelle nationale est d’autant plus vrai au niveau local. En 2007, elles n’étaient que 129 dans les APW et seulement 103 dans les APC.

via Représentativité dans la sphère politique : Où sont les femmes ?.

Beyond Ecological Imperialism By Jayati Ghosh

So the Copenhagen summit did not deliver any hope of substantive change, or even any indication that the world’s leaders are sufficiently aware of the vastness and urgency of the problem. But is that such a surprise? Nothing in the much-hyped runup to the summit suggested that the organisers and participants had genuine ambitions to change course and stop or reverse a process of clearly unsustainable growth.

Part of the problem is that the issue of climate change is increasingly portrayed as that of competing interests between countries. Thus, the summit has been interpreted variously as a fight between the “two largest culprits” – the US and China – or between a small group of developed countries and a small group of newly emerging countries (the group of four – China, India, Brazil and South Africa), or at best between rich and poor countries.

via Beyond Ecological Imperialism By Jayati Ghosh.

Egypt’s Internet presence increasing | Bikya Masr

CAIRO: Less than ten years ago, the Egyptian government established the ministry of technology and has been showing its teeth in new and innovative projects that are pushing the country into the Internet age. Although it has been somewhat of a teetering ride, as of August 2007, six million Egyptians were regular Internet users. The number seems small, that is only 8.3 percent of the population, but optimistically speaking, that is a major increase from the 450,000 users only 7 years ago.

Government ministries are currently in the process of conducting major makeovers to their websites in an effort to reel in more clients and make access easier, despite the pessimism across the web.

via Egypt’s Internet presence increasing | Bikya Masr.

Egypt – Islam’s progressive knight for the modern era | Bikya Masr

CAIRO: The name Al Banna conjures images of the Muslim Brotherhood and conservatism up in one’s mind that it is often difficult for the brother of the Islamist group to move from the edifice that has ensnared the Al Banna name for nearly 8 decades. But Gamal, the 89-year-old younger brother of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood’s founder and iconic figure Hasan Al Banna, has found a niche as a progressive thinker in the ever-growing radicalism of Egyptian society.

“The way I was raised was totally different from my brothers, especially my late brother, Hasan Al Banna,” the leader in the revisionist Islamic movement begins, “but we all had religious roots in common due to my family’s strong faith.”

When the younger Gamal was only four-years-old, his family moved from the small town of Al Mahmoudiya – some 30 minutes from Alexandria – to Cairo, where he would enter public schools and the secular education system of the 1920s. This was in stark contrast to his elder brother, Hasan, who had been educated in a religious school back in their town

via Islam’s progressive knight for the modern era | Bikya Masr.

Then Ben Bella was in Cairo and Egypt was alive | Bikya Masr

et it never be said that Pan-Arab nationalism died with a whimper. In the streets of Cairo, Algiers and Khartoum – Algerians and Egyptians celebrated the final death knell with gusto. But before we bury the ancient ideological beast, it might be worth our while to take a nostalgic walk to a time before Egyptians and Algerians staked their national destinies on the outcome of a soccer match.

I experienced my very first political moment at the ripe old age of six. It was an Algerian-Egyptian festival and what a time it was. The crowds lined the streets, the people were hanging out of balconies and the euphoria was unlike anything I’d ever experienced before. Ben Bella was in Cairo and Egypt was alive.

via Ben Bella was in Cairo and Egypt was alive | Bikya Masr.