Palash Speaks

One shoe away from war with Iran
Palash Biswas
Contact: Palash C Biswas, C/O Mrs Arati Roy, Gosto Kanan, Sodepur, Kolkata- 700110, India. Phone: 91-033-25659551
Email: alashchandrabiswas@gmail.com">palashchandrabiswas@gmail.com
Sanctions doomed to fail: Iran
Hindu - 14 hours ago
DUBAI: Iran has dismissed the American decision to impose fresh sanctions as an expression of hostility towards Tehran and as a move that was doomed to failure.
Iranians Dismiss New US Sanctions New York Times
Rice defends US sanctions on Iran as Russia objects Independent
Turkey hunts PKK rebels after Iraqi talks fail
SIRNAK, Turkey (Reuters) - Turkish military planes scoured the Iraqi border for Kurdish rebel camps on Saturday, army sources said, after diplomatic talks in Ankara to avert a major cross-border operation into northern Iraq failed.

Turkish-Iraqi talks collapsed late on Friday after Ankara rejected proposals by Iraqi Defence Minister General Abdel Qader Jassim for tackling Kurdish guerrillas based in northern Iraq as insufficient. The delegation left on Saturday.
Turkey has massed up to 100,000 troops, backed by fighter jets, helicopter gunships, tanks, and mortars, on the frontier before a possible offensive against about 3,000 rebels using Iraq as a base from which to carry out deadly attacks in Turkey.
The United States, which was also represented at the talks, opposes a major incursion, fearing it could destabilise the relatively peaceful north of Iraq and the wider region.
The outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) took up arms against Turkey in 1984, aiming to create an ethnic homeland in the southeast. More than 30,000 people have been killed in the conflict. In recent years the PKK has pushed for greater cultural and political rights.
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan took a swipe at western countries on Saturday for not helping Turkey fight the PKK, criticising what he called an approach of "your terrorist is good, my terrorist is bad".
"We want to see our western friends by our side in our fight against terror," he told a conference in Istanbul. "Those who overlook terrorism are in cooperation with terrorism."
ERDOGAN-BUSH MEETING
Erdogan played down comments by Turkey's top general that the army was waiting for him to meet U.S. President George W. Bush in Washington on November 5 before launching a major incursion.
U.S.-Turkish ties have deteriorated sharply in recent weeks.
General Yasar Buyukanit was quoted by Turkish media on Friday as saying the meeting was very important and NATO's second largest army would hold off until Erdogan returned.
Senior Turkish diplomats say Erdogan has given Washington and Baghdad a limited time to show concrete results or steps to be taken against the PKK. The meeting in Washington will be the last chance, they told Reuters.
Any major offensive, expected to involve ground and air forces, would first have to be approved by the government.
"I don't know what will happen before the American trip," Erdogan said late on Friday. "We are in a sensitive state all the time."
On Saturday Buyukanit, in a speech to mark Monday's Republic Day, said the army would fight until it had destroyed the PKK.
"We feel the pain of our martyred heroes deeply. But that pain increases our determination to fight," the text of his speech read. "Those who make us suffer cannot even imagine the suffering we will inflict on them; on this we are determined."
Erdogan, under growing public pressure, has repeatedly said Turkey will not tolerate any more attacks by the PKK, which has killed about 40 people in the last month.
Army sources told Reuters on Saturday that military planes were making reconnaissance flights along the mountainous border to photograph PKK camps in northern Iraq. Helicopters were patrolling villages and soldiers sweeping for mines.
In the southeastern city of Sirnak on Saturday about 1,000 people demonstrated against the PKK, which in its latest major attack killed 12 soldiers and said it took eight prisoner. Security was tight, with sharpshooters on rooftops and village guard militiamen present.
"For every 12 martyrs, 12,000 more Turkish martyrs are born," chanted protesters, who came from all over the province.
The military has recently carried out as many as 24 limited operations into northern Iraq against the PKK but no major land incursion, Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Cicek said on Friday. Turkish helicopter gunships and F-16 jets have attacked PKK positions inside Iraq in recent days.
Analysts question whether a major military assault into northern Iraq would be successful, as past ones have failed to dislodge the PKK, whose members are also in Turkey.
Ankara had asked Iraq to hand over PKK members, but the central government has little control over semi-autonomous northern Iraq, run by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).
The KRG, run by Masoud Barzani, says it has no control over the PKK, considered a terrorist organisation in the United States, Turkey and the European Union.
Barzani has vowed to fight any Turkish incursion.
October 27 Regional Rallies
VIEW THE UFPJ VIDEO FOR OCTOBER 27th!
Friends and Members of Veterans For Peace,
In just four days, thousands of us will take to the streets once again to put an end to this war and occupation. It's been over four years since the invasion of Iraq. Over 3834 military personel have been killed in Iraq and thousands of Iraqi civilians have been killed.
Instead of making friends and bringing democracy to the middle east, the war and occupation is creating chaos in Iraq and enemies around the world. It's time the American public really hear the truth about the devastation of this war - the service people who will suffer with traumatic brain injuries, unjust VA services, and multiple tours of duty ripping families apart. The Iraqis of course are suffering, and dying, on our account. They cannot travel without fear, have a high unemployment rate, spotty electricty, and many have left the country and are now refugees.
IT'S TIME WE PUT AN END TO THIS DESTRUCTION!
THINGS YOU CAN DO:
- Attend one of the 11 rallies (see locations here)
- View Robert Greenwald's Brave New Foundation video. Go to www.oct27.org/ brave_new_ video to sign up and become a part of the movement to bring our troops home and end the war. Video thanks to Brave New Foundation.
- Check with your chapter members to organize transportation
- Contact your local media and let them know that you are attending the rally. If you are a member of Veterans For Peace - tell them so!
WE'LL SEE YOU IN THE STREETS!

VETERANS WORKING TOGETHER FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE THROUGH NON-VIOLENCE.
Veterans For Peace, 216 S. Meramec, St. Louis, MO 63105, 314-725-6005
www.veteransforpeac e.org
Click to no longer receive updates from Veterans For Peace
Any sane person hopes that writer Chris Floyd is wrong about all of this, so I will suggest a "rosier" - but still disastrous - scenario. By that I mean it's short of WWIII.
Awhile back, I heard a commentator suggest that the war in Iraq is not so much about taking that country's oil as it is about CONTROLLING THE PRICE of oil. Considering that Bush-Cheney and their buddies are all from the oil industry, they clearly want HIGH oil prices, of course, no matter how grave the harm to everyone else.
"When President Bush took office on January 20, 2001, the national average gas price was $1.46 per gallon. Six and a half years later, on August 27, 2007, the national average gas price had jumped to $2.76, roughly 89% HIGHER. Compounded annually, this represents about a 10% jump each year Bush has been in office." (http://www.dailyfue leconomytip. com/ )
Oil was $22.81 a barrel in 2002.
"Oil prices moved above $90 A BARREL for the first time yesterday, setting a record high on the back of renewed political tensions between the US and Iran and fresh concern over supply shortages in the US ahead of the winter months.
Analysts say the recent surge means oil prices COULD REACH $100, while further strain is placed on motorists. (http://www.guardian .co.uk/oil/ story/0,, 2200334,00. html)
Also see Bush Oil Buddies Divvy Up Iraq (Money Doesn't Talk, It Swears) at http://www.huffingt onpost.com/ jackson-williams /bush-oil- buddies-divvy- up_b_65361. html
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People get ready -- one shoe away from war with Iran
by Chris Floyd for Glenn Greenwald
Salon.com
Thursday October 25, 2007
This is the sound of one shoe dropping:
"Ratcheting up the pressure on Tehran, the United States on Thursday designated Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps a proliferater of weapons of mass destruction and its elite Qods force a supporter of terrorism. In total, Washington slapped sanctions on more than 20 Iranian companies, major banks and individuals, as well as the Defense Ministry, in a bid to pressure Tehran to halt its nuclear program and curb its 'terrorist' activities."
The other shoe, when it falls, will sound something like this:
"At least 26 U.S. troops are reported dead after an assault on their small base near the Iranian border this morning, said Gen. David Petraeus, commander of American forces in Iraq. While details are still sketchy at the moment, Gen. Petraeus said it was "almost certain" that the attackers were units of Iran's elite Qods force, an arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.
"President Bush is now consulting his national security team, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said. "When we have all the facts, then the president will decide upon the appropriate response. For now, our thoughts and prayers are with the families and loved ones of those killed in this horrible sneak attack."
Administration officials have been warning of possible "revenge attacks" for months after President Bush formally designated the Qods force and the IRGC as terrorist organizations in October. Just last Thursday, Bush cited a "flood" of intelligence reports indicating "an aggressive build-up of Iranian firepower" along key points of the Iran-Iraq border. The president said the intelligence was copious, credible and disturbing: "Our guys tell me their hair is on fire, reading this stuff."
In a speech at the American Enterprise Institute the next day, Vice President Dick Cheney delivered a stern warning to Tehran: "Armed retaliation would be an act of madness on the part of Iran's tyrannical leaders. But we are dealing with an irrational enemy, so we must be prepared for anything. And let me assure you, and the mullahs: we are prepared."
Denouncing what he called "a new Pearl Harbor," Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., introduced a measure this morning that would grant formal Senate approval to "whatever action the Commander-in- Chief deems necessary to protect our troops, and our nation, from Iranian aggression."
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., signaled his support for "something along those lines," but said he would hold off bringing it to the Senate floor "until we see what the president has to tell us." House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said that she too would act as soon as the president had made his decision, adding, "Today there are no Democrats or Republicans; there are only Americans united in our grief and our resolve."
Look for it, get yourself ready -- it's coming.
***
Read this at http://www.salon. com/opinion/ greenwald/ 2007/10/25/ iran/index. html
The Muslim brotherhood/ fraternity again proved to be cowards as the lightning attack by Israel in 1967 reaching outskirts of Cairo in 1967 and no Muslim Country coming to support Egypt.
You yourself explain why Syria has not retaliated or its strong ally Iran? All Muslim Countries are scared of "getting bombed to stone age" as Bush threatened Musharraf when he dilly dallied whether to be with US or not after 9/11.

Abdul Wahid Osman Belal wrote:

Date: Thu, 25 Oct 2007 23:24:58 +0100 (BST)

Subject: [Muslim News] Latest issue ofThe Muslim News newspaper includes
discrimination in anti terror laws
25 October 2007
Latest issue of The Muslim News newspaper – includes – discriminatory anti terror laws; attacks on Somali community and other Islamophobic attacks; how Israel can get away with bombing yet another sovereign sate; persecution of Uighur Muslims in China; and a lot more…..
http://www.muslimne ws.co.uk/ paper/index. php?article= 3180
Editorial
Israel’s uncontested impunity
Israel bombed Syria on September 6, but not even one country criticised the attack as being unlawful against a sovereign country. There was no provocation from Syria, nor had Syria threatened to attack Israel. The UN Security Council, which is supposed to maintain the peace and international security, turned an obnoxious blind eye to the bombing by remaining silent and so did the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon.
http://www.muslimne ws.co.uk/ paper/index. php?article= 3178
Attacks on Somali community Islamophobic, says resident
By Merat Tafreshi and Elham Asaad Buaras
A Somali resident forced out of a Bristol council estate has branded her experience in the area as Islamophobic.
A total of 14 households, twelve of them Somali, are being moved out of Bristol council estate due to targeted attacks by local residents. A further two Asian households have also asked to move elsewhere
http://www.muslimne ws.co.uk/ paper/index. php?article= 3179
Discriminatory anti terror laws?
By Elham Asaad Buaras
In the wake of the conviction of the ‘Cambridge letter bomber’ last month, The Muslim News set out to find why, unlike numerous cases involving Muslims, Miles Cooper who had - searched the internet, amassed explosives and successfully activated bombs to make a political point - was not arrested nor charged under the new terror legislation.
http://www.muslimne ws.co.uk/ paper/index. php?article= 3187
Muslim boy gouged in Leicester
By Elham Asaad Buaras
The father of a Leicester boy, who was repeatedly gouged in the chest and stomach with an unknown object, has made a second appeal for witnesses to come forward.
http://www.muslimne ws.co.uk/ paper/index. php?article= 3191
War on terror ‘counterproductive’
By Ala Abbas
One of Britain’s leading global security think tanks has condemned the current policies of the ‘war on terror’ as a ‘disaster’ in its 2007 International Security Report
The Oxford Research Group (ORG), an independent non-governmental organisation seeking to bring about positive change on issues of national and international security, released its report entitled Sustainable Security
http://www.muslimne ws.co.uk/ paper/index. php?article= 3188
Conservatives advised to rethink ideas on Muslims
By Merat Tafreshi
The Conservative Muslim Forum has advised the main opposition party to rethink some of its strategies concerning Muslims. The Forum stated that they “broadly welcomed” the report in July on “An Unquiet World” by the Party’s National and International Security Policy Group and recognised that all citizens of the UK regardless of race and religion share the same interests in British national security. But they stressed their background as Muslims in Britain gave them a unique perspective on some of the issues.
http://www.muslimne ws.co.uk/ paper/index. php?article= 3197
Highlighting persecution of Uighur Muslims
By Ahmed J Versi
Rebiya Kadeer, China’s most well-known dissident, made a brief visit to the UK earlier this month to highlight the plight of Uighur Muslims. “My visit is to raise awareness of the suffering of Uighur people amongst the British people and British politicians,” Kadeer, who is the President of World Uighur Congress, told The Muslim News
http://www.muslimne ws.co.uk/ paper/index. php?article= 3195
Man avoids jail over hijab assault
By Elham Asaad Buaras
A man who pulled a hijab from the head of a Muslim woman narrowly avoided jail on September 20. Damien French, 21, from Rhyl, North Wales, shouted Islamophobic obscenities as he assaulted the 23-year-old victim.
http://www.muslimne ws.co.uk/ paper/index. php?article= 3198
Stop & searches result in 1.5% arrests
By Ala Abbas
Police officers carried out a total of no less than 111,867 stops and searches across Britain under Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 since its implementation in February 2001 until March 2005. The stops, however, have resulted in only 1,515 arrests, including arrests for non-terrorism related offences.
http://www.muslimne ws.co.uk/ paper/index. php?article= 3196
Brown asked to review support for Jewish charity
By Elham Asaad Buaras
Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, has been asked to reverse his agreement to become a patron of the Jewish National Fund (JNF) UK, also known as the Perpetual Fund for Israel. Brown will now follow his predecessor, Tony Blair, who was also a patron.
http://www.muslimne ws.co.uk/ paper/index. php?article= 3192
Suspected terrorist buried at undisclosed location
By Ahmed J Versi
27-year-old Bangalore engineer who sustained 90 per cent burns during a botched attack on Glagow airport on June 30, was buried nine weeks after his painful and lingering death, it was disclosed on October 9.
http://www.muslimne ws.co.uk/ paper/index. php?article= 3201
Councillor blasts media coverage of burial debate
By Elham Asaad Buaras
A Tower Hamlets councillor has criticised the mainstream media for provoking division among the Muslim and non-Muslim London community over burial space.
http://www.muslimne ws.co.uk/ paper/index. php?article= 3189
Is Britain now a “Big Brother” nation?
By Merat Tafreshi
More than half of Britain’s 60 million population believe that the UK has become a “surveillance society” since the advent of the so-called war on terrorism, according to a new poll this month.
http://www.muslimne ws.co.uk/ paper/index. php?article= 3194
Muslims in state of anxiety
By Ahmed J Versi
“Muslim ummah in the West is passing though a very critical period, many of whom are in as state of anxiety,” said Secretary General of the Union of Muslim Organisations (UMO), Dr Syed Aziz Pasha.
http://www.muslimne ws.co.uk/ paper/index. php?article= 3199
Muslim worker settles out of court
By Shahidul Choudhury
A Muslim chef who claimed he was unfairly sacked from Gordon Ramsay’s flagship restaurant in Chelsea has reached an out of court settlement.
http://www.muslimne ws.co.uk/ paper/index. php?article= 3200
Muslims with mental health problems face more discrimination
By Elham Asaad Buaras
Almost half of Britons (47%) say they would not want to live next door to a Muslim person with mental health problems.
http://www.muslimne ws.co.uk/ paper/index. php?article= 3193
Lack of joined up thinking in changes to ESOL
By Sarah Sheriff
A wave of protests against Government plans to cut free English classes have resulted in some concessions being given.
Oct 27, 2007
Explosive charge blows up in US's face
By Gareth Porter
http://www.atimes. com/atimes/ Middle_East/ IJ27Ak05. html
WASHINGTON - When the United States military command accused the
Iranian Quds Force in January of providing the armor-piercing EFPs
(explosively formed penetrators) that were killing US troops, it
knew that Iraqi machine shops had been producing their own EFPs for
years, a review of the historical record of evidence on EFPs in Iraq
shows.
The record also shows that the US command had considerable evidence
that the Mahdi Army of Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr had received
the technology and the training on how to use it from Hezbollah,
rather than Iran.
The command, operating under close White House supervision, chose to
deny these facts in making the dramatic accusation that became the
main rationale for the present aggressive US stance toward Iran.
Although the George W Bush administration initially limited the
accusation to the Quds Force, it has recently begun to assert that
top officials of the Iranian regime are responsible for arms that
are killing US troops.
British and US officials observed from the beginning that the EFPs
being used in Iraq closely resembled the ones used by Hezbollah
against Israeli forces in southern Lebanon, both in their design and
the techniques for using them.
Hezbollah was known as the world's most knowledgeable specialists in
EFP manufacture and use, having perfected this during the 1990s in
the military struggle with Israeli forces in Lebanon. It was widely
recognized that it was Hezbollah that had passed on the expertise to
Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups after the second
Intifada began in 2000.
US intelligence also knew that Hezbollah was conducting the training
of Mahdi Army militants on EFPs. In August 2005, Newsday published a
report from correspondent Mohammed Bazzi that Shi'ite fighters had
begun in early 2005 to copy Hezbollah techniques for building the
bombs, as well as for carrying out roadside ambushes, citing both
Iraqi and Lebanese officials.
In late November 2006, a senior intelligence official told both CNN
and the New York Times that Hezbollah troops had trained as many as
2,000 Mahdi Army fighters in Lebanon.
The fact that the Mahdi Army's major military connection has always
been with Hezbollah rather than Iran would also explain the presence
in Iraq of the PRG-29, a shoulder-fired anti-armor weapon. Although
US military briefers identified it last February as being Iranian-
made, the RPG-29 is not manufactured by Iran but by the Russian
Federation.
According to the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz, RPG-29s were imported
from Russia by Syria, then passed on to Hezbollah, which used them
with devastating effectiveness against Israeli forces in the 2006
war. According to a June 2004 report on the well-informed military
website Strategypage. com, RPG-29s were already turning up in
Iraq, "apparently smuggled across the Syrian border".
The earliest EFPs appearing in Iraq in 2004 were so professionally
made that they were probably constructed by Hezbollah specialists,
according to a detailed account by British expert Michael Knights in
Jane's Intelligence Review last year.
By late 2005, however, the British command had already found clear
evidence that the Iraqi Shi'ites themselves were manufacturing their
own EFPs. British Army Major General J B Dutton told reporters in
November 2005 that the bombs were of varying degrees of
sophistication.
Some of the EFPs required a "reasonably sophisticated factory", he
said, while others required only a simple workshop, which he
observed, could only mean that some of them were being made inside
Iraq.
After British convoys in Maysan province were attacked by a series
of EFP bombings in late May 2006, Knights recounts, British forces
discovered a factory making them in Majar al-Kabir north of Basra in
June.
In addition, the US military also had its own forensic evidence by
the autumn of 2006 that EFPs used against its vehicles had been
manufactured in Iraq, according to Knights. He cites photographic
evidence of EFP strikes on US armored vehicles that "typically shows
a mixture of clean penetrations from fully-formed EFP and
spattering ..." That pattern reflected the fact that the locally
made EFPs were imperfect, some of them forming the required shape to
penetrate but some of them failing to do so.
Then US troops began finding EFP factories. Journalist Andrew
Cockburn reported in the Los Angeles Times in mid-February that US
troops had raided a Baghdad machine shop in November 2006 and
discovered "a pile of copper discs, five inches in diameter, stamped
out as part of what was clearly an ongoing order".
In a report on February 23, NBC Baghdad correspondent Jane Arraf
quoted "senior military officials" as saying that US forces
had "been finding an increasing number of the advanced roadside
bombs being not just assembled but manufactured in machine shops
here".
Nevertheless, the Bush administration decided to put the blame for
the EFPs squarely on the Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary
Guard Corps, after Bush agreed in autumn 2006 to target the Quds
Force within Iran to make Iranian leaders feel vulnerable to US
power. The allegedly exclusive Iranian manufacture of EFPs was the
administration' s only argument for holding the Quds Force
responsible for their use against US forces.
At the February 11 military briefing presenting the case for this
claim, one of the US military officials declared, "The explosive
charges used by Iranian agents in Iraq need a special manufacturing
process, which is available only in Iran." The briefer insisted that
there was no evidence that they were being made in Iraq.
That lynchpin of the administration' s EFP narrative began to break
down almost immediately, however. On February 23, NBC's Arraf
confronted Lieutenant General Ray Odierno, who had been out in front
in January promoting the new Iranian EFP line, with the information
she had obtained from other senior military officials that an
increasing number of machine shops manufacturing EFPs had been
discovered by US troops.
Odierno began to walk the Iranian EFP story back. He said the EFPs
had "started to come from Iran", but he admitted "some of the
technologies" were "probably being constructed here".
The following day, US troops found yet another EFP factory near
Baqubah, with copper discs that appeared to be made with a high
degree of precision, but which could not be said with any certainty
to have originated in Iran.
The explosive expert who claimed at the February briefing that EFPs
could only be made in Iran was then made available to the New York
Times to explain away the new find. Major Marty Weber now backed
down from his earlier statement and admitted that there were "copy
cat" EFPs being machined in Iraq that looked identical to those
allegedly made in Iran to the untrained eye.
Weber insisted that such Iraqi-made EFPs had slight imperfections
which made them "much less likely to pierce armor". But NBC's Arraf
had reported the previous week that a senor military official had
confirmed to her that the EFPs made in Iraqi shops were indeed quite
able to penetrate US armor. The impact of those weapons "isn't as
clean", the official said, but they are "almost as effective" as the
best-made EFPs.
The idea that only Iranian EFPs penetrate armor would be a surprise
to Israeli intelligence, which has reported that EFPs manufactured
by Hamas guerrillas in their own machine shops during 2006 had
penetrated eight inches of Israeli steel armor in four separate
incidents in September and November, according to the Intelligence
and Terrorism Center in Tel Aviv.
The Arraf story was ignored by the news media, and the Bush
administration has continued to assert the Iranian EFP charge as
though it had never been questioned.
It soon became such an accepted part of the media narrative on Iran
and Iraq that the only issue about which reporters bother to ask
questions is whether the top leaders of the Iranian government have
approved the alleged Quds Force operation.
Gareth Porter is an historian and national security policy analyst.
His latest book, Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and the
Road to War in Vietnam, was published in June 2005.
(Inter Press Service)
Oct 27, 2007
THE ROVING EYE
'War on terror' is now war on Iran
By Pepe Escobar
http://www.atimes. com/atimes/ Middle_East/ IJ27Ak03. html
Scores of middle-aged, mild-mannered, bearded gentlemen - the
technocrats of the Iranian military bourgeoisie - are now officially
enjoying the status of "terrorists" , at least from a Washington
point of view.
The demonization of Iran drags on relentlessly as the Iranian
Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) has been officially branded a
proliferator of weapons of mass destruction and its elite Quds
Force a supporter of terrorism. The latter has for months been
accused of supplying Shi'ite militias in Iraq with weapons that are
killing US soldiers.
The new round of US sanctions also targets Iran's Defense Ministry,
as well as three major Iranian banks accused of financing "the usual
suspects"; Shi'ite militias in Iraq, Hamas in Palestine, Hezbollah
in Lebanon and - absurd as it may sound - the Taliban in
Afghanistan. The banks are the state-owned Bank Melli, Bank Mellat
and Bank Saderat.
The US State and Treasury departments jointly announced the new
sanctions, citing the Islamic Republic's defiance over its continued
nuclear program and its alleged involvement with terrorist
organizations. The new restrictions are unilateral and aim to
prevent businesses and other groups both within and outside the US -
but that do work within the US - from dealing with individuals who
are part of any of the banks, military forces and other
organizations in Iran that were named, including the IRGC.
The move follows President George W Bush's comments last week that
implied that Iran obtaining nuclear weapons could lead to "World War
III", and Vice President Dick Cheney's speech on Sunday in which he
said that "the international community is prepared to impose serious
consequences" if Iran does not comply with demands.
Sanctions do bite - as some Iranian conservatives have started to
publicly admit. But Tehran won't be in a hurry to mount a hug-and-
kiss expedition to Washington. Cuba has been fighting a US blockade
and sanctions for almost five decades - and has managed to survive
with dignity.
The more than 20 companies and individuals affiliated with the IRGC
that are now excluded from the American financial system - and nodes
of the international banking system - will still have plenty of
opportunities of doing business with Russia, China or Arab
monarchies. They may barter. They may exchange goods with services.
And they may resort to the black market.
As far as Moscow and Beijing are concerned, they are hardly
shivering with fear in the face of renewed State
Department "warnings" to China not to invest and Russia not to sell
weapons to Iran.
This new round of sanctions is just one side of the demonization of
Iran campaign - as US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was once
again spinning the other side of the same old scratched vinyl, that
of preventing "one of the world's worst regimes from acquiring the
world's most dangerous weapons". The International Atomic Energy
Agency still has not found any evidence Iran is developing a nuclear
program for military use, and has called for the further engagement
of Iran, rather than its isolation.
Meet the terrorists
The IRGC was founded by a decree of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the
leader of the Islamic Revolution, in May 1979. In the beginning, in
pure revolutionary fashion, it was the "eyes and ears" of the
revolution, its trusted popular army fighting the enemy within -
which could be, according to revolutionary whim, the deposed Shah's
supporters, communist militants, ethnic minorities like the Kurds in
the northwest or Arabs in oil-rich Khuzestan province, or Western-
educated, influential intellectuals.
The early revolutionaries in 1979 had two fears: a military coup
orchestrated by remaining Shah supporters, or an attack by the US.
What happened was the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988), started by Saddam
Hussein with the hardly silent support of the US and the West. So
the popular army immediately had to be converted into a parallel -
and soon very powerful - fighting army.
Almost 1 million IRGC people - pasdaran (soldiers) and bassijis
(young militiamen under their control) - died in that horrendous
war, and are today revered as martyrs.
The IRGC today numbers, according to their bureau in Tehran, about
130,000. Ground forces have 105,000 soldiers - four divisions, six
mechanized divisions and one marine brigade. The air force has 5,000
men and the navy 20,000, with an undisclosed number of vessels
equipped with anti-ship missiles. Three separate units man the
Shahab-3 missiles, with a 1,500-kilometer range; the new Shahab-4
has a range of 2,000 kilometers.
The Quds Force of the IRGC - the key target of US ire - may have as
many as 15,000 men. They are specialists in surveillance and
special operations. It is the Quds Force that trained Iraq's Badr
Brigades, the paramilitary arm of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council,
the party of Abdul Aziz al-Hakim allied with the US. The Badr are
firmly ensconced at the Iraqi Ministry of Interior - and it is they
who have spawned death squads and accelerated ethnic cleansing in
Baghdad.

Jharkhand Bleeds
Palash Biswas
Contact: Palash C Biswas, C/O Mrs Arati Roy, Gosto Kanan, Sodepur, Kolkata- 700110, India. Phone: 91-033-25659551
Email: alashbiswaskl@gmail.com">palashbiswaskl@gmail.com
Maoist rebels fired on a crowd of spectators watching a football match and cultural show in a remote village in eastern India, killing 17 people including a former chief minister's son, police and witnesses said on Saturday.Around 40 rebels, including some women, disguised themselves as soldiers and police and surrounded a football field in Jharkhand state a few hours before dawn and fired at spectators, said Arun Kumar Singh, a senior police officer.
Anup Marandi, son of a former chief minister of the state, Babulal Marandi, was among those killed in the remote village, Singh said.
The Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Democratic), headed by former chief minister and Lok Sabha member Babulal Marandi, called a statewide bandh on Sunday, party sources said. The dawn-to-dusk bandh was called to protest against the Maoist attack on villagers of Chilkhadih killing 17 persons, including Marandi's son Anup, in the wee hours on Saturday.
Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda on Saturday announced an ex-gratia of Rs one lakh each to the families of the 17 people killed by naxals at Chilkhadih village. Koda, who reached the spot in the afternoon, said the cowardly act by naxals is a reflection of their frustration and mounting pressure following the crackdown by the state police. Recently the police arrested more than 20 top naxal leaders in the state, he said.
"A cultural programme after the match extended beyond midnight, giving the Maoists time to carry out the attack," Singh said from Giridih, 160 km (100 miles) northeast of the state capital, Ranchi.
Police have combing nearby jungles in search of the rebels, even as supporters of Marandi took to the streets in Ranchi and blocked traffic in protest, witnesses said.
Maoist rebels operate in a large swathe of India stretching from the east to some southern states, mostly in the countryside, and attack government officials and property.
They say they are fighting for the rights of millions of poor peasants and landless labourers. Thousands of people have been killed in the insurgency which began in the late 1960s.
The Union Home Ministry on Saturday sought a detailed report from Jharkhand government on the Maoist attack in Giridih district in which 18 people were killed.
Immediately after getting report about the incident, in which the son of former Chief Minister Babulal Marandi was also killed, Special Secretary (Internal Security) in the Home Ministry M Kumawat spoke a number of times to the state police chief to get 'full information'.
"The Home Ministry is closely monitoring the situation and is in constant touch with the state government," an MHA spokesman said.
Sources in the ministry said that Jharkhand government has sought help from Bihar so that the culprits do not escape from Giridih district and sneak into that state.
They said CRPF personnel have already cordoned off the area for carrying out a thorough combing operation to apprehend the naxals. Bomb disposal and dog squads have also been pressed into service, they said.
An intensive search for the culprits has been launched in the area by both the Jharkhand and Bihar police, they added.
Chief Minister on Saturday termed the naxal attack at Chilkhadih, in which 17 people were killed including former Jharkhand Chief Minister's son, as a "conspiracy" and said he had spoken to his Bihar counterpart Nitish Kumar seeking assistance for joint raids as the spot is near the inter-state borders.
"The sequence of happenings emit the smell of a conspiracy. But it can be known only after a thorough probe. I have sent our Director General of Police (V D Ram) for a on-the-spot inspection," Koda said at his residence here without elaborating about conspiracy by whom.
Among those killed by the naxals was Anup, the son of former chief minister Babulal Marandi.
Koda iterated his resolution to root out extremism in Jharkhand and sought the help from the people.
Condemning the killing of innocent villagers, he said the naxals were frustrated following the recent arrests of its top leaders.
"The naxals are also frustrated as their two training camps - one at Latehar and another at Dalma were destroyed recently," he said.
Those people, including politicians, who face naxal threat should inform the nearest police station before going to any public function so that adequate number of policemen were deployed, Koda said.
Asked whether he saw any new strategy by naxals in attacking after football matches, which are popular among the people, Koda repeated his take on conspiracy.
Koda said he had spoken to Marandi whose son and brother, who escaped the attack, had gone to the cultural programme organised after a football match held yesterday afternoon.
The chief minister would visit the spot during the day.
JMM chief and former chief minister Shibu Soren condemned the incident.
Jharkhand Vikas Dal president Suraj Mandal, a former Lok Sabha MP, accused the government of failing to curb extremism.
Meanwhile, five companies of para-military forces from Jharkhand and Bihar are embarking on a massive combing operation in the contiguous areas of the two states to trace the attackers, Jharkhand DGP V D Ram said.
Ram visited the carnage site and told newsmen that he had spoken to his counterpart in Bihar after the attack.
Eighteen of the 24 Jharkhand districts are naxal

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Saturday blamed the central and the Jharkhand governments for the bloody Maoist attack in the state in which 17 people, including BJP MP Babulal Marandi's son, were killed.
"There is no government in Jharkhand to protect its citizens. The chief minister (Madhu Koda) is too busy securing his own position and the ruling coalition is busy with rallies. It is so unfortunate that the people are left out in the lurch," senior BJP leader Syed Shahnawaz Hussain told IANS here.
Former Jharkhand chief minister Babulal Marandi's son Anup was among 17 people gunned down by the Maoists around 1 a.m. Saturday at Chilkhadia village in Giridih district of Jharkhand. Around 50 rebels, including women, reportedly attacked the village during a cultural programme.
"Both the centre and the state are responsible for the death of these innocents. They are not doing anything to control the Maoist rebellion," Hussain, MP from Bihar's Bhagalpur, said.
He described Koda as "useless" and union Home Minister Shivraj Patil as "good for nothing".
Marandi, speaking to reporters in Ranchi after the attack, alleged that neither the Jharkhand government nor the central government had any policy to tackle the rising Maoist attacks. "My family has been a target of the Naxals... They should be more careful," he said.
However, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), an ally of the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in Jharkhand, said the deceased had not paid any heed to repeated warnings of the state government.
"There were clear warnings that people should not gather in remote areas without proper police protection. Marandi's family had been given special instructions by the police as there were threats against them," Dhirendra Aggarwal, RJD MP from Jharkhand, said.
Expressing shock over the incident, Aggarwal said that no government could end the Maoist menace overnight. "The central government has been taking various steps to economically empower the state. The real issue that pushes people into this kind of rebellion is poverty.

Maoists meet their match in cops
- Paramilitary forces set up forward bases deep into Naxalite territory
NISHIT DHOLABHAI
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1071027/asp/frontpage/story_8478502.asp

RED THREAT
New Delhi, Oct. 26: In a way, Maoists have succeeded in their design: the “enemy” is drawing into Naxalite territory.
But the CRPF officials are turning out to be more intelligent than the Maoists probably bargained for.
The largest central paramilitary force has set up at least three forward bases deep into the Naxalite territory in Chhattisgarh.
On the other hand, CRPF officials have begun the Sanjeevani programme this month to tackle stress in its ranks and has introduced special welfare measures for jawans.
The director-general of the CRPF, S.I.S. Ahmed, said after Naxalites killed 15 jawans last year in an ambush in Dantewada district and another young assistant commandant, the force has changed tactics.
“We have made forward bases and there would be helipads to enable air support,” he said, on the sidelines of an anniversary programme of the force today.
To enhance effectiveness in the remote areas, CRPF has proposed that the Indian Air Force be requisitioned to extend support to the 12 CRPF battalions in the rough terrain in Chhattisgarh.
Ahmed conceded that helicopters of the Border Security Force (BSF) and the state government have delayed reactions during emergencies.
When distances are more than 15km, they said, the terrain obstructs quick evacuation.
With forward bases in the region, medical attention, not to mention tactical advantage, will be achieved by security forces. The bases are in Bastar region, said sources.
Until recently, security forces had bases largely on the periphery of the core area of the Naxalites or in towns.
Having forward bases also indicates that Naxalites have been pushed backwards while the administration takes control of, what was earlier, part of the Naxalite “liberated zone”.
In the Abuj Mar forests spanning across Dantewada, Bastar, Jagdalpur and Bijapur districts, Naxalites rule the roost.
There is difficulty in logistics and several lives are lost as the injured do not receive proper medical attention in time. This year alone, 55 jawans lost lives while 200 were injured.
Among Naxalites, there were 213 casualties.

UPSC question on Bhagat Singh's 'terrorism' sparks protests
Chandigarh: Protests were held in Chandigarh Friday after a question in the civil services main Examination, conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), asked the students to evaluate the "revolutionary terrorism" of one of the best known martyrs of Indian freedom struggle - Bhagat Singh. The attempt to equate Bhagat Singh's freedom struggle with terrorist acts did not go down well with students and student organisations here. Protests were held at the Panjab University campus and elsewhere against the UPSC for allowing the question that showed martyrs like Bhagat Singh in poor light. Protesting students also burnt an effigy of the UPSC chairman.
The question was part of the general studies part I paper which was held Friday.
"The word terrorism has negative connotations in the minds of the masses and the UPSC was trying to equate Osama bin Laden and other terrorists with Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh, and we will not allow it to happen," Indian National Students Organization (INSO) office-bearer Vikas Rathee said.
The INSO threatened to launch a countrywide agitation on this issue with support from other student organisations if the UPSC did not withdraw the question and tender an apology for hurting peoples' sentiments.
Incidentally, the birth centenary of Bhagat Singh was celebrated in Punjab and elsewhere in the country last month.
Blast under jeep claims bus woman
Midnapore, Oct. 26: Suspected Maoists triggered a blast under a paramilitary jeep in Belpahari today.
Most jawans escaped unhurt as the explosive went off under its bonnet, but Pramila Hansda, 27, who was in a bus some 50 metres behind, was killed.
A bullet hit her in the mouth during the gun battle that followed the explosion. She died on the way to Calcutta for treatment tonight.
Splinters hit a man on the roof of the bus. Two others, who were inside, were hurt.
The West Midnapore police chief said the jeep was going to a camp near Banspahari, 220km from Calcutta.
“The jawans had a providential escape,” he added. The only jawan injured had a bullet grazing his right arm.
The police found blank SLR cartridges, which suggested the rebels used sophisti-cated weapons. “We have spotted three more improvised explosive devices on the road. The area has been cordoned off,” an officer said.

Central team reviews situation in Chhattisgarh
Raipur: A high-level Central team, headed by Union Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrasekhar, on Saturday reviewed the situation in Chhattisgarh, including problems related to naxalites, Salwa Judum and development, officials said.
"The Cabinet Secretary has been reviewing the works of as many as 13 state departments, besides the protracted problem of naxalites, which is also the biggest obstacle to development in many parts of Chhattisgarh, and the most debated issue of Salwa Judum," a senior state government official told PTI here.
Chandrasekhar reached here last night along with Director Intelligence Bureau, secretaries and top officials from ministries of Home Affairs, Rural Development, Drinking Water Supply, Urban Development, Tribal Affairs, Panchayat Raj, Health, Road Transport, Highways, Power, National Commission for ST and Planning Commission, officials said.
The team is on a two-day state visit, they added.
Sending across a message that the delegation was here for business, the Cabinet Secretary, immediately after his arrival, had a discussion with Chief Minister Raman Singh on the issue of development and naxalites, sources said.
The Central team also called on Governor E S L Narasimhan, who had served as the Director Intelligence Bureau before taking up his assignment of the naxal-infested state. (
A K Antony to review security situation in J-K
Srinagar, Oct 27 : Defence Minister A K Antony will review the security situation in Jammu and Kashmir today.
Antony on Friday said the situation in Jammu and Kashmir was improving compared to the past, and expressed the hope that it would improve further in the coming days.
"The situation is improving. Look at the past, compared to the past, the situation is much better. I am sure that things will improve further. As the situation improves we will take all possible measures to improve the atmosphere there and we will try to find a solution to many of their genuine difficulties," he said
During a day's visit to the valley, he will also hold meetings with senior Army and the State Government Officials.
The Minister will also inaugurate the silver jubilee celebrations of Jawahar Institute of Mountaineering and Winter Sports (JIMWS) in Pahalgam. He is also scheduled to attend the executive council and general body meeting of the institute.
Set up in October 1983, the JIMWS imparts theoretical and practical training in mountaineering and rock climbing techniques. It also encourages and imparts training in winter sports.
How the Kashmir crisis began
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7057694.stm

It's 60 years exactly since one of the world's most enduring conflict zones, the Kashmir valley, first erupted in violence. The BBC's former Delhi correspondent, Andrew Whitehead, looks back on how the Kashmir crisis started.
Before dawn on Monday, 27 October 1947, soldiers from the Indian army's Sikh Regiment gathered at short notice at Palam airport outside Delhi.
Their mission - to spearhead an urgent military airlift intended to secure the Kashmir valley for India.
"I arrived at Palam airport at 0300, an hour before the Sikhs were expected," Staff Officer SK Sinha recorded many years later. "The aerodrome was floodlit to facilitate loading and we had tea ready for the troops...
"We were racing against time but fortunately things somehow worked all right."
The Dakota planes could take at most 17 soldiers along with personal bedrolls and ammunition. The airfield at the capital, Srinagar was basic - no fuelling or servicing facilities, no tarmac landing strip, no lighting for night-time flights.
Unresolved conflict
The first Indian troops reached there about 9 am on that morning. By the end of the day, 28 military flights had been completed and 300 Indian servicemen had landed.

They were the first ever Indian troops in Kashmir, and the following morning - as they sought to check the advance of invading Pakistani tribesmen - Indian soldiers fired their first shots in a conflict which still remains unresolved.
When India and Pakistan gained independence from Britain in mid-August 1947, the status of Kashmir remained uncertain.

A pamphlet for a women's militia formed to fight the tribesmen

Its autocratic princely ruler, Maharaja Hari Singh, was a Hindu; three-quarters of his subjects were Muslims. He didn't know which way to turn, and he personally favoured the unrealistic option of independence.
To force the issue, sections in Pakistan's army and political leadership encouraged an invasion of the Kashmir valley by thousands of Pathan tribesmen.
They crossed the border in the early hours of 22nd October and - aided by desertions from the maharaja's army - quickly took control of the town of Muzaffarabad.
Khan Shah Afridi, a veteran of the invading force, said he was instructed to go to Kashmir by a Muslim holy man.
"The pir told us we will fight and we should not be afraid. It's a war between Muslims and infidels, and we will get Kashmir freed."
Many Kashmiri Muslims initially viewed the tribesmen as liberators, but the raiders' appetite for loot cost them much local support.
As the tribal army advanced towards Srinagar, the maharaja and his entourage fled by road, south to the city of Jammu.
"Everybody was furious," recalls Leela Pasricha, then in Srinagar; people said the maharaja was "running away, that he was abandoning everybody, that he was a coward. Saving his own skin, that's what we all thought."
Quest for booty
To save his capital city, the maharaja signed the document which made his princely state legally part of India.

The conflict has left some 40,000 dead
At next-to-no notice, the Indian armed forces began the airlift of troops to Kashmir. It was the first big military test of independent India. By then the invading tribesmen, accompanied by a handful of Pakistani army officers, had captured Baramullah, the second city of the Kashmir valley.

"Dirty, blood-stained, ill-kempt with ragged beards and hair; some carrying a blanket, most completely unequipped," wrote Father George Shanks, a missionary priest in Baramullah, describing the ill-disciplined tribal army as it entered the town.
They were armed "with rifles of Frontier make, double-barrelled shotguns, revolvers, daggers, swords, axes and her and there a Sten gun. Jostling one another, shouting, cursing and brawling, they came on in a never-ending stream".

The tribesmen ransacked the mission, looted Muslim homes and businesses, and abducted Sikh girls and women.
The quest for booty delayed their advance towards the Kashmiri capital. The Indian airlift, and strafing and bombing by India's air force, started to tip the military balance against the invaders.
But the tribesmen were effective fighters, and they reached the outskirts of Srinagar.

KASHMIR 1947
14/15 August: India and Pakistan gain independence - Kashmir's status remains unresolved
21/22 October: Pakistani tribesmen invade Kashmir at night - by dawn they have overrun Muzaffarabad (now the capital of Pakistan Kashmir)
24 October: Tribal army captures Kashmir's main power station at Mahura, plunging much of the valley into darkness
25 October: Kashmir's maharaja and his entourage flees Srinagar late at night by road for Jammu
26 October: Thousands of armed tribesmen enter Baramullah, the second town of the Kashmir
27 October: In response to the maharaja's plea for help, the Indian army begins a huge air lift - the first troops land at Srinagar about 9 am. The Indian government accepts the maharaja's formal request for Kashmir to become part of India. Tribal fighters ransack and desecrate a convent and mission hospital in Baramullah, in the most notorious episode of the invasion
31 October: The Kashmiri nationalist Sheikh Abdullah sworn in as head of a new administration - his National Conference militia prepares to defend Srinagar from the advancing tribesmen
7 November: Indian troops rout tribal fighters at Shalateng outside Srinagar - the invaders retreat hastily
8 November: Indian soldiers take control of Baramullah
11/12 November: Nehru, India's Prime Minister, visits the Kashmir valley, almost all now under Indian army control

In the capital, the Kashmiri nationalist leader Sheikh Abdullah - an opponent of both the maharaja and of the tribal army - stepped into the power vacuum. He organised a militia of his supporters, men and women, to help keep the tribesmen at bay.
Within two weeks of the start of the invasion, the tribal fighters were in disarray. Almost overnight, they turned tail and headed out of the Kashmir valley, with Indian troops in pursuit.
But while the Indian army won control of the valley, some other areas which had been ruled by the maharaja remained with pro-Pakistan forces.
Kashmir has, in effect, been partitioned ever since.
By the spring of 1948, Pakistani troops were openly deployed in Kashmir, and the two countries were at war.
Kashmiri Muslims, many of whom initially acquiesced in Indian rule, have in recent years been more hostile.
The past 18 years of separatist insurgency has seen huge loss of life - about 40,000 people killed by the most conservative of estimates.
The rise of Islamic radicalism and the nuclear arsenals of the two claimants of the Kashmir valley, India and Pakistan, have compounded the conflict.
In recent months, there has been more talking and less killing. But 60 years on, there's still no sign of a lasting solution to Kashmir's suffering.
Andrew Whitehead's A Mission in Kashmir is due to be published later this month.
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THE BLESSED NOBLE AWAKENED ONE - THE TATHAGATA
King Pasenadi Goes on a Diet
Once when the Buddha was living at Savatthi, King Pasenadi of Kosala ate a whole bucketful of food, and then approached the Buddha, engorged and panting, and sat down to one side. The Buddha, discerning that King Pasenadi was engorged and panting, took the occasion to utter this verse:
When a person is constantly mindful,
And knows when enough food has been taken,
All their afflictions become more slender
— They age more gradually, protecting their lives.
Now at that time the brahman youth Sudassana was standing nearby, and King Pasenadi of Kosala addressed him: “Come now, my dear Sudassana, and having thoroughly mastered this verse in the presence of the Buddha, recite it whenever food is brought to me. And I will set up for you a permanent offering of a hundred kahaapanas every day.” “So be it, your majesty,” the brahman youth Sudassana replied to the king.
Then King Pasenadi of Kosala gradually settled down to [eating] no more than a cup-full of rice. At a later time, when his body had become quite slim, King Pasenadi stroked his limbs with his hand and took the occasion to utter this utterance:
Indeed the Buddha has shown me
Compassion in two different ways:
For my welfare right here and now,
and also for in the future.
Translator’s note
Who would have thought weight-loss could be so easy! In this brief exchange the Buddha is suggesting that over-eating is the root of obesity, which hastens the aging process and threatens one’s life, and that this only occurs when mindfulness is weak or absent. If we eat slowly and with a great deal of attention, it can more easily become apparent (if we are truthful with ourselves) when an adequate amount of food has been consumed. Interestingly, he seems to be saying that wisdom will provide what is needed to refrain from further eating, rather than the modern conventional view that it requires will-power or self restraint.
Always one to play on words, the Buddha says that all our afflictions (literally, all our unpleasant feelings), and not just our bodies, will “become more slender.” Perhaps this is what Pasenadi is referring to when he says the Buddha’s teaching has not only helped him slim down his body (the immediate benefit), but the general increase of mindfulness and diminishing of greed will help with all aspects of the spiritual life (and thus with his rebirth in the future).
The commentary to this text informs us that the king did not engage Sudassana to utter the verse throughout the entire meal, but only once he had started eating. The idea is not to cultivate an aversion to food, for food itself is not an evil. As with so much else in the Buddha’s teaching, it is a matter of understanding cause and effect, and of using food skillfully as a tool for awakening rather than allowing oneself to be caught by the latent tendencies of attachment, aversion and confusion that might be evoked by our relationship to food.
Notice the language of the last line of the Buddha’s verse. The word for life (aayu) is the same one as in the Indian medical tradition of Ayurveda (=knowledge of life), and is regarded as something that can be squandered or carefully guarded. When approached with care, the preservation of life also slows down the aging process. The image is not one of conquering illness or death (for this comes only from full awakening), but of treating the precious resource of one’s own vitality with wisdom.
The Shorter Instructions to Malunkya
I have heard that on one occasion the Blessed One was staying near Savatthi at Jeta’s Grove, Anathapindika’s monastery. Then, as Ven. Malunkyaputta was alone in seclusion, this train of thought arose in his awareness: “These positions that are undeclared, set aside, discarded by the Blessed One — ‘The cosmos is eternal,’ ‘The cosmos is not eternal,’ ‘The cosmos is finite,’ ‘The cosmos is infinite,’ ‘The soul & the body are the same,’ ‘The soul is one thing and the body another,’ ‘After death a Tathagata exists,’ ‘After death a Tathagata does not exist,’ ‘After death a Tathagata both exists & does not exist,’ ‘After death a Tathagata neither exists nor does not exist’ — I don’t approve, I don’t accept that the Blessed One has not declared them to me. I’ll go ask the Blessed One about this matter. If he declares to me that ‘The cosmos is eternal,’ that ‘The cosmos is not eternal,’ that ‘The cosmos is finite,’ that ‘The cosmos is infinite,’ that ‘The soul & the body are the same,’ that ‘The soul is one thing and the body another,’ that ‘After death a Tathagata exists,’ that ‘After death a Tathagata does not exist,’ that ‘After death a Tathagata both exists & does not exist,’ or that ‘After death a Tathagata neither exists nor does not exist,’ then I will live the holy life under him. If he does not declare to me that ‘The cosmos is eternal,’… or that ‘After death a Tathagata neither exists nor does not exist,’ then I will renounce the training and return to the lower life.”
Then, when it was evening, Ven. Malunkyaputta arose from seclusion and went to the Blessed One. On arrival, having bowed down, he sat to one side. As he was sitting there he said to the Blessed One, “Lord, just now, as I was alone in seclusion, this train of thought arose in my awareness: ‘These positions that are undeclared, set aside, discarded by the Blessed One… I don’t approve, I don’t accept that the Blessed One has not declared them to me. I’ll go ask the Blessed One about this matter. If he declares to me that “The cosmos is eternal,”… or that “After death a Tathagata neither exists nor does not exist,” then I will live the holy life under him. If he does not declare to me that “The cosmos is eternal,”… or that “After death a Tathagata neither exists nor does not exist,” then I will renounce the training and return to the lower life.’
“Lord, if the Blessed One knows that ‘The cosmos is eternal,’ then may he declare to me that ‘The cosmos is eternal.’ If he knows that ‘The cosmos is not eternal,’ then may he declare to me that ‘The cosmos is not eternal.’ But if he doesn’t know or see whether the cosmos is eternal or not eternal, then, in one who is unknowing & unseeing, the straightforward thing is to admit, ‘I don’t know. I don’t see.’… If he doesn’t know or see whether after death a Tathagata exists… does not exist… both exists & does not exist… neither exists nor does not exist,’ then, in one who is unknowing & unseeing, the straightforward thing is to admit, ‘I don’t know. I don’t see.’”
“Malunkyaputta, did I ever say to you, ‘Come, Malunkyaputta, live the holy life under me, and I will declare to you that ‘The cosmos is eternal,’ or ‘The cosmos is not eternal,’ or ‘The cosmos is finite,’ or ‘The cosmos is infinite,’ or ‘The soul & the body are the same,’ or ‘The soul is one thing and the body another,’ or ‘After death a Tathagata exists,’ or ‘After death a Tathagata does not exist,’ or ‘After death a Tathagata both exists & does not exist,’ or ‘After death a Tathagata neither exists nor does not exist’?”
“No, lord.”
“And did you ever say to me, ‘Lord, I will live the holy life under the Blessed One and [in return] he will declare to me that ‘The cosmos is eternal,’ or ‘The cosmos is not eternal,’ or ‘The cosmos is finite,’ or ‘The cosmos is infinite,’ or ‘The soul & the body are the same,’ or ‘The soul is one thing and the body another,’ or ‘After death a Tathagata exists,’ or ‘After death a Tathagata does not exist,’ or ‘After death a Tathagata both exists & does not exist,’ or ‘After death a Tathagata neither exists nor does not exist’?”
“No, lord.”
“Then that being the case, foolish man, who are you to be claiming grievances/making demands of anyone?
“Malunkyaputta, if anyone were to say, ‘I won’t live the holy life under the Blessed One as long as he does not declare to me that “The cosmos is eternal,”… or that “After death a Tathagata neither exists nor does not exist,”‘ the man would die and those things would still remain undeclared by the Tathagata.
“It’s just as if a man were wounded with an arrow thickly smeared with poison. His friends & companions, kinsmen & relatives would provide him with a surgeon, and the man would say, ‘I won’t have this arrow removed until I know whether the man who wounded me was a noble warrior, a priest, a merchant, or a worker.’ He would say, ‘I won’t have this arrow removed until I know the given name & clan name of the man who wounded me… until I know whether he was tall, medium, or short… until I know whether he was dark, ruddy-brown, or golden-colored… until I know his home village, town, or city… until I know whether the bow with which I was wounded was a long bow or a crossbow… until I know whether the bowstring with which I was wounded was fiber, bamboo threads, sinew, hemp, or bark… until I know whether the shaft with which I was wounded was wild or cultivated… until I know whether the feathers of the shaft with which I was wounded were those of a vulture, a stork, a hawk, a peacock, or another bird… until I know whether the shaft with which I was wounded was bound with the sinew of an ox, a water buffalo, a langur, or a monkey.’ He would say, ‘I won’t have this arrow removed until I know whether the shaft with which I was wounded was that of a common arrow, a curved arrow, a barbed, a calf-toothed, or an oleander arrow.’ The man would die and those things would still remain unknown to him.
“In the same way, if anyone were to say, ‘I won’t live the holy life under the Blessed One as long as he does not declare to me that ‘The cosmos is eternal,’… or that ‘After death a Tathagata neither exists nor does not exist,’ the man would die and those things would still remain undeclared by the Tathagata.
“Malunkyaputta, it’s not the case that when there is the view, ‘The cosmos is eternal,’ there is the living of the holy life. And it’s not the case that when there is the view, ‘The cosmos is not eternal,’ there is the living of the holy life. When there is the view, ‘The cosmos is eternal,’ and when there is the view, ‘The cosmos is not eternal,’ there is still the birth, there is the aging, there is the death, there is the sorrow, lamentation, pain, despair, & distress whose destruction I make known right in the here & now.
“It’s not the case that when there is the view, ‘The cosmos is finite,’ there is the living of the holy life. And it’s not the case that when there is the view, ‘The cosmos is infinite,’ there is the living of the holy life.
S

Future of humanity
Palash Biswas
Contact: Palash C Biswas, C/O Mrs Arati Roy, Gosto Kanan, Sodepur, Kolkata- 700110, India. Phone: 91-033-25659551
Email: alashbiswaskl@gmail.com">palashbiswaskl@gmail.com
What is the future of the human species? Shall we cause our own extinction, or shall some other event cause it for us?
The decline in sperm count, children and global disease
On present trends over hundreds of years, it is possible that the male human will become infertile (no sperm). Such is the rapid rate of decline in the fertility of men in developed and developing countries. If this is allowed to happen then the human species is doomed.
At the same time, the global connectivity of mass populations of human beings also means the rapid potential for global pandemics the likes of which have never been seen. A killer seasonal influenza virus (cold) could kill hundreds of millions of human beings.
Future disasters
There is no question that without some kind of technology response, the Earth will be hit by large asteroids/comets in the future, potentially causing the total extinction of the human race. In the meantime, the lack of geometric strength in human building design (domes instead of squares) means much of human settlement is vulnerable to major climactic disruptions.
Does the future have to be so?
Yet for everything terrible that is happening, does the future have to be so? Does the future have to be inevitably bad?
New thinking, new models are required
To break our collective negative mindset is to have new ways of thinking, new models of planning, of technology, of sustainable community living.
The UCADIAN model
The UCADIAN model is just such a set of new ideas and new models, fashioned to help support new ways of thinking and the adoption of new models for a positive future. In particular, the UCADIAN model addresses Earth issues through TEKNOS and CITUCA models.
Climate woes threaten human survival: UN
UN report says some progress, but not enough in cliamte change, extinction or destruction of oceans
Oct 25, 2007 08:47 AM
Peter Gorrie
Environment Reporter
Earth’s environment has tumbled downhill to the point where “humanity’s very survival” is at stake, a branch of the United Nations said today.
In the 20 years since the first major report urging sustainable development, progress has been achieved on a few “straightforward” problems such as air and water pollution, according to the latest “Global Outlook” from the United Nations Environment Program.
Despite many conferences and negotiations, “there are no major issues raised (in the 1987 document) for which the foreseeable trends are favourable,” the report warns, citing failures in areas such as climate change, extinction of species and destruction of ocean fish stocks.
Today’s 540-page report is the fourth issued by the UNEP since a commission headed by former Norwegian prime minister Gro Harlem Brundtland published the groundbreaking call to action, “Our Common Future,” two decades ago.
Brundtland’s commission recommended that, since they are so closely linked, the environment, economic and social issues must be integrated into any decisions about development, so it occurs in a way that protects the environment.
That hasn’t happened. The result, states the new Outlook, is not only that “in too many countries, environmental policy remains secondary to economic growth,” but also that environmental degradation is undermining economic development and “threatens all aspects of human well-being.”
The report’s authors state that their aim “is not to present a dark and gloomy scenario, but an urgent call for action.” But because the main environmental concerns are complex and there’s little appetite for anything that upsets the status quo, solutions will be hard to come by they say: “The scale of the challenge is huge.”
Among changes since 1987 that have impacted the environment:
Earth’s human population has grown by 34 per cent, from 5 billion to 6.7 billion. That has led to destruction or depletion of water, soil, forests, species and almost every one of the planet’s resources.
International trade has tripled. Its benefits are offset by its contribution to the spread of invasive species in the Great Lakes and almost every other water body.
The world’s average per capita income has risen by 40 per cent, but the gap between rich and poor continues to grow.
Air quality has improved in some places, most noticeably in the rich developed countries, but often because polluting industries have moved to poor nations. Although measures to control ozone-depleting substances are considered a success, the ozone hole continues to grow. And bad indoor or outdoor air is estimated to kill 2 million people each year.
Greenhouse gas emissions have risen by a third, leading to much higher concentrations in the atmosphere and the threat of catastrophic climate change.
The yield from an average hectare of cropland has increased to 2.5 tonnes, from 1.8 tonnes in 1987, but “unsustainable land use is causing degradation, a threat as serious as climate change.”
Intensive ocean fishing is devastating some species very quickly and, increasingly further down the food chain. Worse, the demand for fish is expected to increase by about 1.5 per cent a year.
By 2025, nearly 2 billion people will live in countries faced with absolute shortages of water.
A major obstacle to progress is the resistance to change by governments and large polluting industries, the report states.
Negotiations on environmental agreements frequently fail because of disputes over who is responsible for problems and who should pay for solutions.
That, the report states, is part of one of the major environmental issues: justice.
“The question of justice is perhaps the greatest moral question emerging in relation to environmental change and sustainable development,” the report states.
“Growing evidence indicates that the burden of environmental change is falling far from the greatest consumers of environmental resources, who experience the benefits of development.”
Meanwhile, “people living in poverty in the developing world, suffer the negative effects of environmental degradation.” And, “costs of environmental degradation will be experienced by.....future generations.
“Profound ethical questions are raised when benefits are extracted from the environment by those who do not bear the burden.”
The report is not as certain about solutions as it is about problems.
“We appear to be living in an era in which the severity of environmental problems is increasing faster than our policy responses,” it states. “To avoid the threat of catastrophic consequences in the future, we need new policy approaches.”
The basic aim must be to move environmental concerns from the edge to the centre of decision-making. As well, instead of trying to cope with the impacts of environmental damage, the focus should be on reducing the causes, including economic and population growth, resource consumption and social values.
That can be done through measures such as “green” taxes and economic measures that take into account the value of Earth’s resources and the cost of pollution and other damage.
“Determined action now is cheaper than waiting for better solutions to emerge,” the report states.

Human species 'may split in two'

Humanity may split into an elite and an underclass, says Dr Curry as reported by BBC.com
Humanity may split into two sub-species in 100,000 years' time as predicted by HG Wells, an expert has said.
Evolutionary theorist Oliver Curry of the London School of Economics expects a genetic upper class and a dim-witted underclass to emerge.
The human race would peak in the year 3000, he said - before a decline due to dependence on technology.
People would become choosier about their sexual partners, causing humanity to divide into sub-species, he added.
The descendants of the genetic upper class would be tall, slim, healthy, attractive, intelligent, and creative and a far cry from the "underclass" humans who would have evolved into dim-witted, ugly, squat goblin-like creatures.
Race 'ironed out'
But in the nearer future, humans will evolve in 1,000 years into giants between 6ft and 7ft tall, he predicts, while life-spans will have extended to 120 years, Dr Curry claims.
Physical appearance, driven by indicators of health, youth and fertility, will improve, he says, while men will exhibit symmetrical facial features, look athletic, and have squarer jaws, deeper voices and bigger penises.
Women, on the other hand, will develop lighter, smooth, hairless skin, large clear eyes, pert breasts, glossy hair, and even features, he adds. Racial differences will be ironed out by interbreeding, producing a uniform race of coffee-coloured people.
However, Dr Curry warns, in 10,000 years time humans may have paid a genetic price for relying on technology.
Spoiled by gadgets designed to meet their every need, they could come to resemble domesticated animals.
Receding chins
Social skills, such as communicating and interacting with others, could be lost, along with emotions such as love, sympathy, trust and respect. People would become less able to care for others, or perform in teams.
Physically, they would start to appear more juvenile. Chins would recede, as a result of having to chew less on processed food.
There could also be health problems caused by reliance on medicine, resulting in weak immune systems. Preventing deaths would also help to preserve the genetic defects that cause cancer.
Further into the future, sexual selection - being choosy about one's partner - was likely to create more and more genetic inequality, said Dr Curry.
The logical outcome would be two sub-species, "gracile" and "robust" humans similar to the Eloi and Morlocks foretold by HG Wells in his 1895 novel The Time Machine.
"While science and technology have the potential to create an ideal habitat for humanity over the next millennium, there is a possibility of a monumental genetic hangover over the subsequent millennia due to an over-reliance on technology reducing our natural capacity to resist disease, or our evolved ability to get along with each other, said Dr Curry.
He carried out the report for men's satellite TV channel Bravo.

Humans put humanity in grave danger
G.S. MUDUR

New Delhi, Oct. 26: Humans are devouring the Earth’s natural resources in a manner that threatens humanity’s very survival, a UN report said today, predicting land and water shortages, deaths from pollution and disease, and extinction of species.
Major threats to the planet including climate change, the loss of species, and the challenge of feeding a growing population remain unresolved and have put humanity at risk, the United Nations Environment Programme said in its Global Environment Outlook-4.
“The systematic destruction of the Earth’s natural resources has reached a point... where the bill we hand on to our children may prove impossible to pay,” said Achim Steiner, executive director of UNEP.
The 540-page GEO-4 report said progress to clean up the atmosphere over the past 20 years has been “patchy” and more than two million people die prematurely every year from air pollution — two-thirds of these deaths in Asia.
“We’re at a point at which damage and danger is not far in the future, but it is happening now,” said Rajendra Pachauri, executive director of the energy and resources institute (TERI), one of the collaborating centres in the UNEP exercise.
The report said the world’s resources of freshwater are declining and has predicted that up to 1.8 billion people will live in countries with absolute water scarcity within the next 18 years. The ecosystem is losing its capacity to provide fresh water, food and other services to humans, and marine fish catches are being maintained only by fishing further offshore and deeper in the oceans, it said.
Fossils have revealed five mass extinction of species — all attributed to natural causes. “A sixth major extinction is under way, this time caused ... by human population growth and consumption patterns,” the report said.
“What we need now is action... a will, a resolve to bring about the necessary shift towards sustainability,” Pachauri said, after releasing the report in New Delhi, one of 40 sites worldwide picked for simultaneous launch of the report.
The report indicated that to avert irreversible damage from climate change, emissions of the heat-trapping greenhouse gases need to be cut by 60 to 80 per cent from their 1990 levels by 2050 in the developed countries, and significant cuts for developing countries.
But one climate change expert told The Telegraph that an 80 per cent cut in emissions in the developed countries appears “unrealistic”.

Human evolution at the crossroads
Genetics, cybernetics complicate forecast for species
Duane Hoffmann / MSNBC illustrations
By Alan Boyle
Science editor
MSNBC
Scientists are fond of running the evolutionary clock backward, using DNA analysis and the fossil record to figure out when our ancestors stood erect and split off from the rest of the primate evolutionary tree.But the clock is running forward as well. So where are humans headed?
Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins says it's the question he's most often asked, and "a question that any prudent evolutionist will evade." But the question is being raised even more frequently as researchers study our past and contemplate our future.
Paleontologists say that anatomically modern humans may have at one time shared the Earth with as many as three other closely related types — Neanderthals, Homo erectus and the dwarf hominids whose remains were discovered last year in Indonesia.
Does evolutionary theory allow for circumstances in which "spin-off" human species could develop again?
Some think the rapid rise of genetic modification could be just such a circumstance. Others believe we could blend ourselves with machines in unprecedented ways — turning natural-born humans into an endangered species.
Present-day fact, not science fiction
Such ideas may sound like little more than science-fiction plot lines. But trend-watchers point out that we're already wrestling with real-world aspects of future human development, ranging from stem-cell research to the implantation of biocompatible computer chips. The debates are likely to become increasingly divisive once all the scientific implications sink in.
"These issues touch upon religion, upon politics, upon values," said Gregory Stock, director of the Program on Medicine, Technology and Society at the University of California at Los Angeles. "This is about our vision of the future, essentially, and we'll never completely agree about those things."
The problem is, scientists can't predict with precision how our species will adapt to changes over the next millennium, let alone the next million years. That's why Dawkins believes it's imprudent to make a prediction in the first place.
Others see it differently: In the book "Future Evolution," University of Washington paleontologist Peter Ward argues that we are making ourselves virtually extinction-proof by bending Earth's flora and fauna to our will. And assuming that the human species will be hanging around for at least another 500 million years, Ward and others believe there are a few most likely scenarios for the future, based on a reading of past evolutionary episodes and current trends.
Where are humans headed? Here's an imprudent assessment of five possible paths, ranging from homogenized humans to alien-looking hybrids bred for interstellar travel.
Unihumans: Will we all be assimilated?
Biologists say that different populations of a species have to be isolated from each other in order for those populations to diverge into separate species. That's the process that gave rise to 13 different species of "Darwin's Finches" in the Galapagos Islands. But what if the human species is so widespread there's no longer any opening for divergence?
Evolution is still at work. But instead of diverging, our gene pool has been converging for tens of thousands of years — and Stuart Pimm, an expert on biodiversity at Duke University, says that trend may well be accelerating.
"The big thing that people overlook when speculating about human evolution is that the raw matter for evolution is variation," he said. "We are going to lose that variability very quickly, and the reason is not quite a genetic argument, but it's close. At the moment we humans speak something on the order of 6,500 languages. If we look at the number of languages we will likely pass on to our children, that number is 600."
Cultural diversity, as measured by linguistic diversity, is fading as human society becomes more interconnected globally, Pimm argued. "I do think that we are going to become much more homogeneous," he said.
Ken Miller, an evolutionary biologist at Brown University, agreed: "We have become a kind of animal monoculture."
Is that such a bad thing? A global culture of Unihumans could seem heavenly if we figure out how to achieve long-term political and economic stability and curb population growth. That may require the development of a more "domesticated" society — one in which our rough genetic edges are smoothed out.

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But like other monocultures, our species could be more susceptible to quick-spreading diseases, as last year's bird flu epidemic illustrated.
"The genetic variability that we have protects us against suffering from massive harm when some bug comes along," Pimm said. "This idea of breeding the super-race, like breeding the super-race of corn or rice or whatever — the long-term consequences of that could be quite scary."
Environmental pressures wouldn't stop
Even a Unihuman culture would have to cope with evolutionary pressures from the environment, the University of Washington's Peter Ward said.
Some environmentalists say toxins that work like estrogens are already having an effect: Such agents, found in pesticides and industrial PCBs, have been linked to earlier puberty for women, increased incidence of breast cancer and lower sperm counts for men.
"One of the great frontiers is going to be trying to keep humans alive in a much more toxic world," he observed from his Seattle office. "The whales of Puget Sound are the most toxic whales on Earth. Puget Sound is just a huge cesspool. Well, imagine if that goes global."
Global epidemics or dramatic environmental changes represent just two of the scenarios that could cause a Unihuman society to crack, putting natural selection — or perhaps not-so-natural selection — back into the evolutionary game. Then what?
Survivalistians: Coping with doomsday
Surviving doomsday is a story as old as Noah’s Ark, and as new as the post-bioapocalypse movie “28 Days Later.”
Catastrophes ranging from super-floods to plagues to nuclear war to asteroid strikes erase civilization as we know it, leaving remnants of humanity who go their own evolutionary ways.
The classic Darwinian version of the story may well be H.G. Wells’ “The Time Machine,” in which humanity splits off into two species: the ruthless, underground Morlock and the effete, surface-dwelling Eloi.
At least for modern-day humans, the forces that lead to species spin-offs have been largely held in abeyance: Populations are increasingly in contact with each other, leading to greater gene-mixing. Humans are no longer threatened by predators their own size, and medicine cancels out inherited infirmities ranging from hemophilia to nearsightedness.
“We are helping genes that would have dropped out of the gene pool,” paleontologist Peter Ward observed.
But in Wells’ tale and other science-fiction stories, a civilization-shattering catastrophe serves to divide humanity into separate populations, vulnerable once again to selection pressures. For example, people who had more genetic resistance to viral disease would be more likely to pass on that advantage to their descendants.
If different populations develop in isolation over many thousands of generations, it’s conceivable that separate species would emerge. For example, that virus-resistant strain of post-humans might eventually thrive in the wake of a global bioterror crisis, while less hardy humans would find themselves quarantined in the world’s safe havens.
Patterns in the spread of the virus that causes AIDS may hint at earlier, less catastrophic episodes of natural selection, said Stuart Pimm, a conservation biologist at Duke University: “There are pockets of people who don’t seem to become HIV-positive, even though they have a lot of exposure to the virus — and that may be because their ancestors survived the plague 500 years ago.”
Evolution, or devolution?
If the catastrophe ever came, could humanity recover? In science fiction, that’s an intriguingly open question. For example, Stephen Baxter’s novel “Evolution” foresees an environmental-military meltdown so severe that, over the course of 30 million years, humans devolve into separate species of eyeless mole-men, neo-apes and elephant-people herded by their super-rodent masters.

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Even Ward gives himself a little speculative leeway in his book “Future Evolution,” where a time-traveling human meets his doom 10 million years from now at the hands — or in this case, the talons — of a flock of intelligent killer crows. But Ward finds it hard to believe that even a global catastrophe would keep human populations isolated long enough for our species to split apart.
“Unless we totally forget how to build a boat, we can quickly come back,” Ward said.
Even in the event of a post-human split-off, evolutionary theory dictates that one species would eventually subjugate, assimilate or eliminate their competitors for the top job in the global ecosystem. Just ask the Neanderthals.
“If you have two species competing over the same ecological niche, it ends badly for one of them, historically,” said Joel Garreau, the author of the forthcoming book “Radical Evolution.”
The only reason chimpanzees still exist today is that they “had the brains to stay up in the trees and not come down into the open grasslands,” he noted.
“You have this optimistic view that you’re not going to see speciation (among humans), and I desperately hope that’s right,” Garreau said. “But that’s not the only scenario.”

Numans: Rise of the superhumans
We’ve already seen the future of enhanced humans, and his name is Barry Bonds.
The controversy surrounding the San Francisco Giants slugger, and whether steroids played a role in the bulked-up look that he and other baseball players have taken on, is only a foretaste of what’s coming as scientists find new genetic and pharmacological ways to improve performance.
Developments in the field are coming so quickly that social commentator Joel Garreau argues that they represent a new form of evolution. This radical kind of evolution moves much more quickly than biological evolution, which can take millions of years, or even cultural evolution, which works on a scale of hundreds or thousands of years.
How long before this new wave of evolution spawns a new kind of human? “Try 20 years,” Garreau told MSNBC.com.
In his latest book, “Radical Evolution,” Garreau reels off a litany of high-tech enhancements, ranging from steroid Supermen, to camera-equipped flying drones, to pills that keep soldiers going without sleep or food for days.
“If you look at the superheroes of the ’30s and the ’40s, just about all of the technologies they had exist today,” he said.
Three kinds of humans
Such enhancements are appearing first on the athletic field and the battlefield, Garreau said, but eventually they’ll make their way to the collegiate scene, the office scene and even the dating scene.
“You’re talking about three different kinds of humans: the enhanced, the naturals and the rest,” Garreau said. “The enhanced are defined as those who have the money and enthusiasm to make themselves live longer, be smarter, look sexier. That’s what you’re competing against.”

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In Garreau’s view of the world, the naturals will be those who eschew enhancements for higher reasons, just as vegetarians forgo meat and fundamentalists forgo what they see as illicit pleasures. Then there’s all the rest of us, who don’t get enhanced only because they can’t. “They loathe and despise the people who do, and they also envy them,” Garreau said.
Scientists acknowledge that some of the medical enhancements on the horizon could engender a “have vs. have not” attitude.
“But I could be a smart ass and ask how that’s different from what we have now,” said Brown University’s Ken Miller.
Medical advances as equalizers
Miller went on to point out that in the past, “advances in medical science have actually been great levelers of social equality.” For example, age-old scourges such as smallpox and polio have been eradicated, thanks to public health efforts in poorer as well as richer countries. That trend is likely to continue as scientists learn more about the genetic roots of disease, he said.
“In terms of making genetic modifications to ourselves, it’s much more likely we’ll start to tinker with genes for disease susceptibility. … Maybe there would be a long-term health project to breed HIV-resistant people,” he said.
When it comes to discussing ways to enhance humans, rather than simply make up for disabilities, the traits targeted most often are longevity and memory. Scientists have already found ways to enhance those traits in mice.
Imagine improvements that could keep you in peak working condition past the age of 100. Those are the sorts of enhancements you might want to pass on to your descendants — and that could set the stage for reproductive isolation and an eventual species split-off.
“In that scenario, why would you want your kid to marry somebody who would not pass on the genes that allowed your grandchildren to have longevity, too?” the University of Washington’s Peter Ward asked.
But that would require crossing yet another technological and ethical frontier.
Instant superhumans — or monsters?
To date, genetic medicine has focused on therapies that work on only one person at a time. The effects of those therapies aren’t carried on to future generations. For example, if you take muscle-enhancing drugs, or even undergo gene therapy for bigger muscles, that doesn’t mean your children will have similarly big muscles.
In order to make an enhancement inheritable, you’d have to have new code spliced into your germline stem cells — creating an ethical controversy of transcendent proportions.
Tinkering with the germline could conceivably produce a superhuman species in a single generation — but could also conceivably create a race of monsters. “It is totally unpredictable,” Ward said. “It’s a lot easier to understand evolutionary happenstance.”
Even then, there are genetic traits that are far more difficult to produce than big muscles or even super-longevity — for instance, the very trait that defines us as humans.
“It’s very, very clear that intelligence is a pretty subtle thing, and it’s clear that we don’t have a single gene that turns it on or off,” Miller said.
When it comes to intelligence, some scientists say, the most likely route to our future enhancement — and perhaps our future competition as well — just might come from our own machines.
Cyborgs: Merging with the machines
Will intelligent machines be assimilated, or will humans be eliminated?
Until a few years ago, that question was addressed only in science-fiction plot lines, but today the rapid pace of cybernetic change has led some experts to worry that artificial intelligence may outpace Homo sapiens’ natural smarts.
The pace of change is often stated in terms of Moore’s Law, which says that the number of transistors packed into a square inch should double every 18 months. “Moore’s Law is now on its 30th doubling. We have never seen that sort of exponential increase before in human history,” said Joel Garreau, author of the book “Radical Evolution.”
In some fields, artificial intelligence has already bested humans — with Deep Blue’s 1997 victory over world chess champion Garry Kasparov providing a vivid example.
Three years later, computer scientist Bill Joy argued in an influential Wired magazine essay that we would soon face challenges from intelligent machines as well as from other technologies ranging from weapons of mass destruction to self-replicating nanoscale “gray goo.”
Joy speculated that a truly intelligent robot may arise by the year 2030. “And once an intelligent robot exists, it is only a small step to a robot species — to an intelligent robot that can make evolved copies of itself,” he wrote.
Assimilating the robots
To others, it seems more likely that we could become part-robot ourselves: We’re already making machines that can be assimilated — including prosthetic limbs, mechanical hearts, cochlear implants and artificial retinas. Why couldn’t brain augmentation be added to the list?
“The usual suggestions are that we’ll design improvements to ourselves,” said Seth Shostak, senior astronomer at the SETI Institute. “We’ll put additional chips in our head, and we won’t get lost, and we’ll be able to do all those math problems that used to befuddle us.”

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Shostak, who writes about the possibilities for cybernetic intelligence in his book “Sharing the Universe,” thinks that’s likely to be a transitional step at best.
“My usual response is that, well, you can improve horses by putting four-cylinder engines in them. But eventually you can do without the horse part,” he said. “These hybrids just don’t strike me as having a tremendous advantage. It just means the machines aren’t good enough.”
Back to biology
University of Washington paleontologist Peter Ward also believes human-machine hybrids aren’t a long-term option, but for different reasons.
“When you talk to people in the know, they think cybernetics will become biology,” he said. “So you’re right back to biology, and the easiest way to make changes is by manipulating genomes.”
It’s hard to imagine that robots would ever be given enough free rein to challenge human dominance, but even if they did break free, Shostak has no fear of a “Terminator”-style battle for the planet.
“I’ve got a couple of goldfish, and I don’t wake up in the morning and say, ‘I’m gonna kill these guys.’ … I just leave ’em alone,” Shostak said. “I suspect the machines would very quickly get to a level where we were kind of irrelevant, so I don’t fear them. But it does mean that we’re no longer No. 1 on the planet, and we’ve never had that happen before.”
Astrans: Turning into an alien race
If humans survive long enough, there’s one sure way to grow new branches on our evolutionary family tree: by spreading out to other planets.
Habitable worlds beyond Earth could be a 23rd century analog to the Galapagos Islands, Charles Darwin’s evolutionary laboratory: just barely close enough for travelers to get to, but far enough away that there'd be little gene-mixing with the parent species.
“If we get off to the stars, then yes, we will have speciation,” said University of Washington paleontologist Peter Ward. “But can we ever get off the Earth?”
Currently, the closest star system thought to have a planet is Epsilon Eridani, 10.5 light-years away. Even if spaceships could travel at 1 percent the speed of light — an incredible 6.7 million mph — it would take more than a millennium to get there.
Even Mars might be far enough: If humans established a permanent settlement there, the radically different living conditions would change the evolutionary equation. For example, those who are born and raised in one-third of Earth’s gravity could never feel at home on the old “home planet.” It wouldn’t take long for the new Martians to become a breed apart.
As for distant stars, the SETI Institute’s Seth Shostak has already been thinking through the possibilities:
Build a big ark: Build a spaceship big enough to carry an entire

Basu Satisfied with CBI Inquiry as CBI grapples with the murder versus suicide theory
Palash Biswas
Contact: Palash C Biswas, C/O Mrs Arati Roy, Gosto Kanan, Sodepur, Kolkata- 700110, India. Phone: 91-033-25659551
Email: alashchandrabiswas@gmail.com">palashchandrabiswas@gmail.com
Veteran Marxist leader Jyoti Basu on Saturday expressed his satisfaction with the ongoing CBI inquiry into the Rizwanur Rehman death case and said that the West Bengal government's decision to withdraw the judicial inquiry was "good, although a little late."
"The CBI has started the inquiry under directions of the Calcutta High Court. This has to be supported all out. I have said how can a judicial inquiry go on simultaneously," Basu told reporters on the sidelines of a book release function here.
Asked whether he was satisfied with the CBI inquiry, he said, "I have heard that the CBI is doing a good job. We shall have to wait for the report. The media in writing all kinds of things."
Asked to comment on the government's decision to compensate the victims of March 14 police firing at Nandigram, he said that the state government was considering demands of Trinamool Congress on condition that it would discuss with the administration to work out a peace process.
"I have heard that 1,000 of our supporters are still in relief camps. Trinamool Congress and some other parties are indulging in looting. We have raised Rs one crore as donations for those lodged in the relief camps. But how long can this go on," he said.
As the CBI grapples with the murder versus suicide theory in the Rizwanur Rehman case, what is getting overlooked perhaps is the Rizwanur-Priyanka love story.
In some documents that Rizwanur himself handed over to some human rights activists before his death, the 30-year-old Muslim youth stated that he was willing to convert to Hinduism - if that is what the Todi family wanted.
He even designed a new logo for Lux Cozi, which is the brand name of the products of Ashok Todi's company.
In a statement, he prepared few days before his death, Rizwanur wrote:
''I came to know Priyanka in March 2006 as she was one of my students. We developed a strong affection for each other and decided to marry over a courtship of one year.''
''We knew it would be very difficult to convince her parents because she came from an orthodox Marwari background. So we decided to do court marriage as we are both matured and then inform our families.''
But Rizwanur was clearly willing to go to any length to win over Ashok and Bimla Todi. He even agreed to Ashok Todi's proposal that he convert to Hinduism.
On August 31, Rizwanur wrote: ''My father-in-law spoke to me. He told me that I would have to convert to Hinduism to which I agreed.''
On September 11, he spoke to Priyanka for the last time.
Rizwanur writes that she categorically mentioned that they would meet on Sunday September 16.
After this, Rizwanur wrote: ''I decided I would just wait till Sunday. Being a graphic designer and advertising man, I engaged myself in making new creatives for my father-in-law's company, hoping that I would show it to him and things would take a positive shape.''
Things did not take a positive shape.
Ten days later Rizwanur was dead. There was premonition of it in his statement.
On September 8, when Priyanka went away, Rizwanur wrote: ''We knew perhaps we will never meet again. My wife and me spoke to each other and vowed that if we don't meet again, we will take our lives. We parted.''
The palpable plight of a young man ready to explore all options in order to save his marriage comes alive through the letters of the forlorn couple.
The selective leak of the text messages to and from Rizwanur Rehman's cellphone by some senior cops in Kolkata hinting that he committed suicide has thrown CBI officers into a tizzy.
The investigating team on Friday kept itself busy tracking down the source to find out the motive behind the leak.
The CBI officers so far have been exploring the different angles of the mystery death, including suicide and murder, especially after they received two incriminating documents on Sunday that pointed at the distinct possibility of the computer graphics designer's murder.
The sleuths have interrogated two prime witnesses - Priyanka Todi, who along with Rizwanur Rehman had written a letter to ex-DCP (detective dept) Ajoy Kumar apprehending foul play by her father Ashok Todi 18 days before Rizwanur's death - and rights activist Sujato Bhadra whom Rizwanur approached on September 19, just two days before his death.
The CBI will question the accused police officers and Ashok Todi before they arrive at a conclusion. The distorted leak on Thursday has prompted the agency to investigate whether it was a deliberate move by a section of the police to divert its attention.
Senior CBI officers left for New Delhi to examine the complaint and compare it with the statements they recorded during interrogation and decide what next. All this while, Priyanka will be with her father Ashok Todi, the prime accused, at a time when there is ample evidence with the CBI that the Todi family didn't keep the promise they made to Rizwan in front of the police while taking Priyanka back home.
Priyanka's uncle Anil Saraogi had given a written undertaking to Rizwanur that he would return her to Tiljala within seven days on September 15. And the police officers, namely Ajoy Kumar and Sukanti Chakra-borty, assured the family that they would come to Rizwanur's help if he wasn't allowed to meet his wife.
This apart, the CBI also got a copy of the letter from erstwhile DC (headquarters) Gyanwant Singh to Rizwanur on September 10, assuring "necessary action". But the letter was issued two days after Priyanka was taken back to her father's Salt Lake home, though the police received Rizwanur's complaint on August 31.
On September 11, Rizwanur got a call from Priyanka asking him about his relations with Pompi Roy, his collegemate. According to Rizwanur's written complaint, that was the last time he heard from Priyanka. In that complaint, Rizwanur wrote that Priyanka told him that she would meet him on September 16. But the meeting never happened.
The CBI officers have so far interrogated Rizwan's family members, Pompi Roy and Priyanka, but not the accused police officers who were reluctant to take up Rizwanur's complaint.
Train driver changes track…
- …but CBI cautious
IMRAN AHMED SIDDIQUI AND SANJAY MANDAL
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1071027/asp/frontpage/story_8479983.asp
Calcutta, Oct. 26: A train driver today confirmed to The Telegraph that he had seen a person standing beside the tracks and jump in front of the engine on the morning of September 21 — the day Rizwanur Rahman died.
S.P. Sinha, the driver of the Sealdah-Burdwan local, has passed on the information to CBI officers who said the statement had yet to be “corroborated by facts”. No conclusion should be drawn as several loose ends are yet to be tied in the Rizwanur case, an officer cautioned.
The same driver did not tell the CID of the incident when he was questioned on September 30. The Telegraph had reported on October 3 that the driver told the CID his train did not hit anyone but he saw a body lying by the side of the tracks.
Neither did the driver inform the railway control room of an untoward incident, which guidelines require him to do if the train hits a person.
“The person was standing beside the tracks and I could see the figure from a distance. But it did not seem the person would jump,” Sinha said. “However, as the train got very close, the person suddenly jumped.”
Arun Kumar, the CBI joint director heading the probe, said the train driver told the agency as much. “Yes. He has recorded his statement with us that states precisely this. However, all statements should be corroborated by facts which