“Pakistan, welcome to Hyderabad” was the sign held up by a bevy of schoolgirls, still in uniform, who had come to see the one-day international match being played in Niaz Stadium. Of course, the Pakistani national cricket team were there, but Pakistan itself was at the party too. Women and children, cheeks painted with the Pakistani flag, were a substantial part of the 7,500 capacity crowd in Niaz Stadium.

This brutal killing has shocked the world. It was heinous and unpardonable crime, but I do not call it murder for that is a legal term and the motive and pre-meditation have to be established by a court of law.

Some of us have gotten carried away, on both ends of the spectrum. This is just an attempt to see what happened, and try to place it in the context of immigrant assimilation, problems with teenage clothing, and try to lay the blame - for that is what we all want to do when confronted with such deep tragedy.

This article opens up a contradiction that is hard to fathom:

Link to IHT Article

By Carlotta Gall
Tuesday, December 18, 2007

. . . .

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's military and intelligence agencies, apparently trying to avoid acknowledging an elaborate secret detention system, have quietly set free nearly 100 men suspected of links to terrorism, human rights groups and lawyers say.
. . . . .
The issue of the missing had become one of the most contentious between Musharraf and the Supreme Court under its former chief justice, Iftikhar Chaudhry.

At QeRN, we have been following this story for some time now. As their book is about to be published, we take a look at the latest twist in their saga.

The following is a piece by the blogger 'Gary' and a reproduction of a letter by Walt and Mearsheimer themselves:

'Devastating' Moyers Probe of Press and Iraq
By Greg Mitchell

The most powerful indictment of the news media for falling down in its duties in the run-up to the war in Iraq will appear next Wednesday, a 90-minute PBS broadcast called "Buying the War," which marks the return of "Bill Moyers Journal." E&P was sent a preview DVD and a draft transcript for the program this week.

While much of the evidence of the media's role as cheerleaders for the war presented here is not new, it is skillfully assembled, with many fresh quotes from interviews (with the likes of Tim Russert and Walter Pincus) along with numerous embarrassing examples of past statements by journalists and pundits that proved grossly misleading or wrong. Several prominent media figures, prodded by Moyers, admit the media failed miserably, though few take personal responsibility.

Reported by Daily Times and Dawn

LAHORE: An additional district and sessions judge on Thursday accepted an application by SP Khalid Abdullah and Inspector Jamshed Chishty to acquit them of the charges of kidnapping and raping Sonia Naz. Earlier, notices had been issued to Sonia Naz on several occasions, but she had failed to appear in court. The court on Thursday rejected an application by her counsel Naveed Inayat Malik that trial against the accused should be delayed till she appeared in court. The court had started the process to declare Sonia Naz an absconder/a proclaimed offender on December 23, 2006, when she failed to appear in court. The court had also directed the police to attach her property and had earlier issued her arrest warrants, but she still did not attend the proceedings.

By Terry Jones - The Guardian -- March 31, 2007

I share the outrage expressed in the British press over the treatment of our naval personnel accused by Iran of illegally entering their waters. It is a disgrace. We would never dream of treating captives like this -- allowing them to smoke cigarettes, for example, even though it has been proven that smoking kills. And as for compelling poor servicewoman Faye Turney to wear a black headscarf, and then allowing the picture to be posted around the world -- have the Iranians no concept of civilized behaviour?

For God's sake, what's wrong with putting a bag over her head? That's what we do with the Muslims we capture: we put bags over their heads, so it's hard to breathe. Then it's perfectly acceptable to take photographs of them and circulate them to the press because the captives can't be recognized and humiliated in the way these unfortunate British service people are.

Gerald Ford was almost alone in understanding that there can be no healing without pardon."

-- Dick Cheney, 30 December 2006, eulogizing Gerald Ford.

* * *

One of the executioners asked "Are you afraid?"

He answered "I am not afraid of anyone. I have been a mujahid and a political activist all my life, and I expected death at any moment. "

He added, "Down with the Americans and the Persians. Long live the Arab nation and Palestine"

-- Saddam Hussein Al-Tikriti, 30 December 2006 (morning of the Muslim Festival of Sacrifice), just before his death.

One should not forget that Cardinal Ratzinger (before becoming pope) said: Turkey should find its identity in the Islamic world and not in Christian Europe.

I had the privilege to visit Istanbul recently, and I would advise anyone to please go visit Turkey, and particular Istanbul, to understand this critical issue at this point in history:

1. Istanbul sits in Europe (on the old Greek province of Thrace).  The Ottoman Sultans' seat of government was here.

2. The Ottoman sultan was also 'sultan-i-room' - King of Rome - the Byzantine Empire (the Russian Orthodox became independent due to the conquest of Byzantium by Muslims).

While travelling the other day, I observed the lady next to me reading an American evangelical magazine with page after page of anti-Islam stuff stated in the most childishly hateful manner. More than offended, I was amused and wondered what was the desired goal of this synergy between Zionists, evangelical Christians and some militant governments of the West. Governments that keep warning, almost subliminally, 'they want to change our way of life, let history judge us'.

I don't know how the media missed the angle that the current Pope, Benedict XVI, made comments that Turkey did not belong in the European Union and it should look for its identity in the Islamic world. These remarks were made just before he became Pope. It has also been widely known that the Pope wants to take on Islamic fundamentalists on an intellectual level.