From Volume 36, Issue 41 of EIR Online, Published Oct. 23, 2009
Asia News Digest

Pakistani Authority Uses EIR's Solution to the Afghan Imbroglio

Oct. 16 (EIRNS)—In an interview with the Indian news agency Rediff, the chief secretary of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), Rustam Shah Mohmand, said that the United States and the Afghan Taliban must come to an agreement. A benchmark is not a prerequisite to that, he said, but "these benchmarks have to be set up by a contact group comprising countries such as Russia, China, Iran, Pakistan, and India."

The chief secretary's remarks are the exact replica of formulation that EIR had presented in its Oct. 16, 2009 issue. That article, titled "The Solution to the Afghan Imbroglio," has been widely circulated in India and Pakistan.

During his interview, Mohmand pointed out certain other facts that EIR has stressed repeatedly, but which have been ignored by both the previous and the present U.S. administrations. "We have to understand that the Taliban and the al-Qaeda have totally different targets," he said, "and also that the Afghan Taliban are different from the Pakistani Taliban—and there is evidence of this." He said the fear is that if the United States leaves Afghanistan, the country will fall into the hands of the Taliban. But that is not so, because "the Afghan people are not Taliban. But yes, there is a national liberation struggle on in Afghanistan against forces of occupation. And even ordinary Afghans have risen up against them."

He also noted that "the Afghan Taliban have been telling the Pakistani Taliban not to attack government forces and installations. But the Pakistani Taliban have not paid heed to this advice," the reason for this being—although Mohmand did not point it out—that the Pakistani Taliban is under control of the Saudi-British nexus.

Thai Succession Fight Could Explode Tense Nation

Oct. 15 (EIRNS)—King Bhumibol of Thailand, the longest-reigning and richest monarch in the world, is widely rumored to be in his last days, despite assurances from the Palace that he is recovering. Stock prices fell drastically today as reports circulated that the King's condition has worsened, after a month in the hospital.

The nation has been in a state of chaos since September 2006, when the military, with overt support from the monarchy, overthrew Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Thaksin was extremely popular, especially with the poor, but was hated by the British for his modernization and general welfare approach to politics, which threatened the monarchy's "self-subsistence" policy, much beloved by the British royals.

Sources in Bangkok have told EIR that the British are frantically attempting to convince the dying King to announce that the succession will not go to Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn, who is reported to be working with the self-exiled Thaksin and his allies in Thailand. It is reported, although blacked out in the world's English-language press, that Britain's Prince Andrew visited the King in the hospital to encourage him to switch the succession to a younger princess, who is considered close to the British, and to British-born and -educated Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, who was placed in office by the military and the monarchy after Thaksin and two subsequent prime ministers who were Thaksin supporters were removed from office through corrupt means.

The sources told EIR that if the Crown Prince is allowed to succeed his father, he may declare a general amnesty of political figures, including Thaksin, who has been convicted of petty corruption by the wildly corrupt courts. This would explain the hushed-up trip of Prince Andrew, carrying word from Mr. Genocide himself, Prince Philip, that the British royals demand a change in the succession, even if it means hounding the King on his death bed.

Taliban Criminal Funds Getting into International Financial System

Oct. 13—The Taliban is using a wide range of criminal activity to fund its attacks against U.S. and Coalition forces in Afghanistan, Assistant Treasury Secretary for Terrorist Financing David Cohen told the ABA Money Laundering Enforcement Conference in Washington yesterday. While asserting that al-Qaeda is in its weakest financial condition in several years, with waning influence, due, in part, to U.S.-led measures which have at least temporarily disrupted some of the most significant networks between al-Qaeda and its donors, the Taliban is a different story, Cohen said.

Many other terrorist organizations, most prominently, the Taliban, are in much stronger financial shape than al-Qaeda, he said. Terrorist organizations, including parts of al-Qaeda, appear to be increasingly turning to conventional criminal activity to finance their operations, as other funding sources are disrupted.

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