US newspapers ignore drone missile critics

October 27, 2010 By Sanjeev Bery in Uncategorized Tags: Adam Entous, Afghanistan, Afpak, drone missile strikes, drone missiles, drones, Eric Schmitt, FATA, Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan, Freedom Forward, Greg Miller, Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard newspaper, HKS, HKS Citizen, Julian E. Barnes, Mark Mazzetti, New America Foundation, New York Times, Pakistan, Sanjeev Bery, Siobhan Gorman, Taliban, US media bias, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post 1 Comment

The HKS Citizen (Harvard Kennedy School)
October 26, 2010
By Sanjeev Bery

Over the last two months, the US government has dramatically increased drone missile strikes in Pakistan. Unfortunately, mainstream US newspapers have not shown the inclination to ask tough questions regarding the change in policy.

In a replay of the softball coverage that preceded the second US invasion of Iraq, some of the biggest US newspapers are once again showing how easy it is to embed a pro-government bias in their reporting. The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and The New York Times have all covered the news by mostly quoting US officials while ignoring critics.
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Pakistan Foreign Minister Mixes Criticism and Praise of US Foreign Policy

October 26, 2010 By Sanjeev Bery in Afghanistan, Bery's pen, Pakistan Tags: Afghanistan, Asif Zardari, Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, Pakistan, Pakistan Foreign Minister, Sanjeev Bery, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Yousuf Gilani Leave a comment

The HKS Citizen (Harvard Kennedy School)
October 26, 2010
By Sanjeev Bery

Photo by Martha Stewart

Alternating between criticism and praise, Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi spoke about US-Pakistan relations at the Harvard Kennedy School on Monday, October 18th. Qureshi was at HKS on the eve of a US-Pakistan strategic dialogue with senior US officials in Washington DC.

In his comments, Qureshi offered blunt criticism of the history of US foreign policy towards Pakistan. “We see half a century of indisputable, empirical evidence of the US dancing with dictators who subverted human rights, using our people and soldiers as surrogates in proxy wars,” he stated.

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“Pretend Secrecy” Shields the White House from a Drone Missile Debate

November 5, 2009 By Sanjeev Bery in Afghanistan, Bery's pen, Pakistan Tags: Afpak, drone missile attacks, Freedom Forward, Hillary Clinton, missile attack casualties, Pakistan, stop drone missile attacks, U.S. drone missile attacks, U.S. State Department, U.S.-Pakistan relations, war casualties, White House secrecy Leave a comment

The Huffington Post
Posted: November 5, 2009
By Sanjeev Bery

It is time to set aside the notion that U.S. drone missile attacks in Pakistan are some kind of secret. The pretense of secrecy has saved Obama Administration officials from having to publicly defend the military tactic.

But when Pakistani college students, think tank scholars, and New York Times reporters are all talking about this issue, U.S. officials should stop pretending that there is anything classified about it. Continue reading →

An interview worth reading: “The Real Problem in Afghanistan”

October 19, 2009 By Sanjeev Bery in Afghanistan Tags: Afghanistan, Afghanistan corruption, aid in Afghanistan, Andrew Wilder, civilian surge, development, Feinstein International Center, Fletcher, humanitarian aid, insurgency, Pakistan, Taliban, Tufts Journal Leave a comment

From Tufts Journal, September 23, 2009:

It’s a situation Andrew Wilder, F89, F96, knows all too well. A research director for the Feinstein International Center since early 2007, he managed humanitarian aid and development programs in Afghanistan and Pakistan for 10 years … Born and raised in Pakistan, Wilder came to the United States to attend college.

According to Wilder:

The more money we try to spend in this environment, which has very limited human resources and institutional capacity, inevitably money overflows into the pockets of corrupt officials. Our aid programs are actually fueling the corruption, which is de-legitimizing the government, which is fueling instability.

The State Department is keeping track…

October 17, 2009 By Sanjeev Bery in Bery's pen, Pakistan Tags: Afpak, drone missile attacks, Freedom Forward, Hillary Clinton, missile attack casualties, Pakistan, stop drone missile attacks, U.S. Department of State, U.S. drone missile attacks, U.S. State Department, U.S.-Pakistan relations, war casualties Leave a comment

pakistan-map_0 The U.S. State Department is now tracking the number of emails received opposing U.S. drone missile attacks in Pakistan. What will the final number be?

50? 500? 5000?

After emailing the State Department to oppose drone missile attacks, I received the message below. You may have as well. This means that senior State Department officials will eventually get a report on the total emails received.

What will the report say?

If you haven’t already done so, please click here so that senior U.S. officials know that a significant number of people want the U.S. government to stop killing Pakistani civilians: http://freedomforward.org
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US AID guards its turf in Pakistan

October 13, 2009 By Sanjeev Bery in Media clippings, Pakistan Tags: FATA tribal areas, Hillary Clinton, Informed Consent, Juan Cole, Kerry-Lugar, Pakistan, Pakistan aid, Pakistan NGOs, Richard Holbrooke, Stuart Callison, U.S. Agency for International Development, U.S. aid contractors, U.S. aid to Pakistan, U.S. State Department, U.S.-Pakistan relations, US AID Leave a comment

Over at Informed Consent, Juan Cole writes:

The [Kerry-Lugar Pakistan] aid bill is also controversial in Washington, where a US AID official has complained about the plan to funnel it through Pakistani contractors rather than through American ones. The Agency for International Development official maintained that Pakistani organizations cannot be monitored effectively by the US, raising the possibility that the money will be embezzled…

I understand the difficulty of auditing NGOs in dangerous places like the FATA tribal areas. But it seems to me that it must be possible to audit the Pakistani pass-through organizations elsewhere regularly, and that the shell game of Congress giving foreign aid to a country in a way that actually just benefits US corporations and contractors is counter-productive.

The original complaint came in the form of a “sensitive but unclassified” internal memo from US AID Development Economist C. Stuart Callison, Ph.D., criticizing the U.S. State Department’s shifts in the routing of Pakistan aid:

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Misreading “Anti-Americanism” in Pakistan

October 11, 2009 By Sanjeev Bery in Bery's pen, Pakistan Tags: Afghanistan, Afpak, Asif Zardari, Ayub Khan, “one-leader” policy in Pakistan, Freedom Forward, Hillary Clinton, Hillary clinton on Pakistan, Islamabad, Long March, Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, mujahideen, Musharraf, Obama administration, Pakistan, Pakistan's Path, Pakistan’s tribal areas, Pakistani blackouts, Pakistani civil society, Pakistani commerce, Pakistani democracy, Pakistani dictators, Pakistani leaders, Pervez Musharraf, President Asif Zardari, President Obama, quetta, Sabahat Ashraf, Sahar Shafqat, Samad Khurram, Sanjeev Bery, Soviet occupation in Afghanistan, Taliban, The Call for a New U.S. Policy Towards Pakistan, U.S. foreign policy, U.S.-Pakistan, U.S.-Pakistan relations, Wajiha Ahmed, Zardari, Zia-ul-Haq Leave a comment

militaryinc The latest news on US-Pakistan relations shouldn’t surprise anyone. According to the Associated Press, former Pakistani dictator Pervez Musharraf used billions of dollars in US military aid for everything but the paymasters’ intended purpose: fighting Taliban militias.

None of this news, however, is likely to generate much Pakistani sympathy for American taxpayers. What American officials refer to as “anti-American sentiment” is actually a deep resentment of U.S. government involvement in internal Pakistani politics. It is worth noting that U.S. funding for Musharraf marked the third time we have supported Pakistani dictatorship in the country’s 60 years of history.

It is precisely this past that has come to haunt both Pakistanis and Americans today. The intersection of dictatorship and dollars has resulted in a Pakistani military that does not answer to the country’s civilian leadership. Every time American taxpayers financed an alliance with a Pakistani military dictator, we also forced Pakistani reformers to take a backseat.

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Lack of Coverage on Transgendered Pakistanis Shows Bias in U.S. Media

August 19, 2009 By Sanjeev Bery in India, Media clippings, Media Musings, Pakistan, South Asia Tags: Chief Justice Chaudhry, Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, Dawn Newspaper, Hijra, Hijras, India, Lawrence v. Texas, media, Pakistan, Pakistan Supreme Court, Pakistani Gays, Pakistani Hijras, Pakistani Lgbt, Section 377, Sodomy Laws, Sop, Spotlight on Pakistan, Transgender Issues, Transgender Pakistanis, U.S. media, World News Leave a comment

The Huffington Post
Posted: August 19, 2009 03:44 PM
By Sanjeev Bery

It probably wasn’t the first time that someone had organized an Independence Day cricket match in Pakistan. But it almost certainly was the first time that such a match occurred between a team of professional cricket players and a team of transgendered Pakistanis.

As the Pakistani newspaper Dawn reported, the transgendered team won.

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“We Apologize”

May 25, 2009 By Sanjeev Bery in Bangladesh, Pakistan, South Asia Tags: 1971, Action for a Progressive Pakistan, Bangladesh, Bengali, Daily Star, Dhaka Daily Star, East Pakistan, Hamoodur Rahman Commission Report, Pakistan, Pakistan apology to Bangladesh, Pakistan war crimes, Pakistani Army, Pakistani dictators, Pakistani military, progressive Pakistanis, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, West Pakistan, Yahya Khan, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto 3 Comments

A group of progressive Pakistani activists has published an important piece in Bangladesh’s Daily Star acknowledging and apologizing for Pakistan’s 1971 atrocities against the Bangladeshi people. The piece, We Apologize, was written by the members of Action for a Progressive Pakistan.

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“Pakistanis Debate Their Future On Facebook”

May 18, 2009 By Sanjeev Bery in Media clippings, Pakistan Tags: Action for a Progressive Pakistan, All Things Pakistan, Asif Zardari, Buner, IDP, Kayani, NWFP, Pakhtoon, Pakistan, Pakistani blogosphere, Pakistani blogs, Pakistani diaspora, Pakistani facebook users, Pakistani government, Pakistani internet users, Pakistani military, Pakistani refugees, Pashtun, Pashtuns, Sanjeev Bery, Spotlight on Pakistan, Swat, Taliban, Tehrik Taliban-e Pakistan, The Huffington Post, Zardari 1 Comment

Sanjeev Bery, The Huffington Post, 05/18/09

As the Pakistani military rains fire down upon villagers and Taliban alike, Pakistanis and members of the diaspora are engaged in numerous online debates about the future of their country. In some cases, they are offering perspectives that the rest of us should listen to.

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Torchlight

Human Rights, Geopolitics, The Middle East, North Africa.

Tag Archives: Pakistan

US newspapers ignore drone missile critics

Pakistan Foreign Minister Mixes Criticism and Praise of US Foreign Policy

“Pretend Secrecy” Shields the White House from a Drone Missile Debate

An interview worth reading: “The Real Problem in Afghanistan”

The State Department is keeping track…

Misreading “Anti-Americanism” in Pakistan

Lack of Coverage on Transgendered Pakistanis Shows Bias in U.S. Media

“We Apologize”

“Pakistanis Debate Their Future On Facebook”

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