Bush in India: No Howdy Out Here
Bush in India: No Howdy Out Here
Date: Tuesday, February 28, 2006 3:45 PM
JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER
February 28, 2006 No. 1430
When President George W. Bush introduced his wife Laura to Indian Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh at the White House last July, he added -- with his
typical brainless enthusiasm -- "Not one Indian Muslim has joined
al-Qaida." What a dolt! How could the President of the United States be so
clueless?
Irate crowds of Lucknawi Muslims, numbering over a lakh,
started out as a protest against the Danish cartoons of
the Prophet Mohammed, but ended up fulminating against
the US president. Placard after placard dubbed him as
Shaitan Bush or The Real Terrorist; his effigy was
beaten and burnt; the Stars and Stripes was dragged
through the streets. On that Sunday, America was
trampled upon and rubbished.
If Bush or any in his cabinet knew how to use the internet, they could go
to the Muslim News where they would find stuff like this:
Be prepared to see Muslims across India fomenting widespread
anger against US President George Bush when he comes calling
in the next few weeks in a landmark yet conflict-ridden
visit to the subcontinent that Washington believes is world's
most dangerous territory.
When I was researching for the previous newsletter on Bush's visit to India
I searched all over the web for his itinerary. I couldn't find one because
there isn't one! That's because the only ones that are giving Bush a warm
welcome are the riot control police and military. They don't want to
publicize Bush's exact schedule because he might be greeted by shoulder
fired missles instead of flowers.
About 5,000 personnel including snipers, commandos and
U.S. marines using helicopters, bomb detectors and
electronic jammers will protect President George W. Bush
during his visit to India this week, officials said on
Monday.
I know what some of you are thinking, but don't entertain the idea. If
something happens to Bush, we will be stuck with Cheney for president. The
dangers he faces in India are far more scary than going with Cheney on a
quail hunt:
The potential threat against Bush is high in the South
Asian country for many reasons, not the least of which
is that a good portion of India's Muslim population
resents the United States for invading Iraq and
Afghanistan, and for the Bush administration's methods
in carrying out its general war on terrorism.
It appears that Bush's globalist agenda isn't very popular in India. This
may be the first evidence I have seen that Indians really are better
educated than Americans.
On his triumphalist tour of India and Pakistan, where
he hopes to wave imperiously at people he considers
potential subjects,
The CPI(M) has a blog with opinions on Bush's visit:
http://gobackglobalterrorist.blogspot.com/
"This blog is the space to provide the links of the blogs that are being
put up opposing the GlobalTerrorist's visit to India."
In India the radical Muslims may be only one of his problems. This is a
sampling of the groups who are protesting Bush's visit to India. It's very
interesting to see the wide diversity of political groups in India that are
protesting Bush. Only a dimwit like Bush would say that India doesn't have
radical Muslims. Since Bush will be insulated by a 5,000 man security force
he will probably leave India without a clue about the hatred that is
directed towards him.
--- COMMUNIST PARTYS ---
Communist Party of India (CPI)
Communist Party of India (Marxist) CPI(M)
Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) CPI (ML)
All India Progressive Janata Dal (AIPJD)
United Progressive Alliance
Maoist Peoples' War Group (PWG)
--- SOCIALIST PARTYS ---
Samajwadi Party
Forward Bloc
Rashtriya Swabhiman Party (RSP)
--- LABOR UNIONS ---
Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha
Dalit Sangharsh Samiti
Indian Federation of Trade Unions (IFTU)
Indian Council of Trade Unions
National Platform of Mass Organisations
--- MUSLIM ORGANIZATIONS ---
Jamaat-e-Islami unit of Andhra Pradesh -
Tameer-e-Millat
All India Muslim Personal Law Board
Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM)
Students Islamic Organisation (SIO)
Jamait Ulama-i-Hind
Jamait-ul-Ulema
Tehrik-e-Niswan
--- HINDU ORGANIZATIONS ---
Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha (KRRS)
Dalit Sangharsh Samiti
Sarvodaya Party
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
Article Used for this Newsletter
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060227/ts_nm/india_bush_security_dc
Thousands to protect Bush in India
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/02/28/opinion/main1354173.shtmlor
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060313/roy
Bush in India: Just Not Welcome
http://news.webindia123.com/news/showdetails.asp?id=262740&n_date=20060227&cat=India
No red carpet for Bush from red brigade
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1060226/asp/frontpage/story_5897864.asp
Turf tussle over Bush fort spectacle
http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IEP20060228070130&Page=P&Title=Nation&Topic=-449
Whose guest is Bush, ask protesters
http://www.ibnlive.com/article.php?id=5825§ion_id=11
Left takes Bush-whacking to Blogs
http://www.muslimnews.co.uk/news/news.php?article=10530
Muslim organisations plan protests against Bush visit
http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20060306&fname=Cover+Story&sid=7
BUSH VISIT
No Howdy Out Here
http://www.stratfor.com/products/premium/read_article.php?id=262835
The U.S. President's Risky Trip to India
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060227/ts_nm/india_bush_security_dc
Thousands to protect Bush in India Mon Feb 27, 7:59 AM ET
About 5,000 personnel including snipers, commandos and U.S. marines using
helicopters, bomb detectors and electronic jammers will protect President
George W. Bush during his visit to India this week, officials said on
Monday.
The personnel would be part of a three-ring security cordon around the U.S.
president and First Lady Laura Bush who are due to arrive in New Delhi for
their maiden visit to the subcontinent on Wednesday, they said.
"He is a much-threatened VVIP. We are fully geared," Manish Agarwal, a top
Delhi police officer involved in security operations, told Reuters.
His comments came as Delhi police arrested two suspected militants
belonging to Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan-based militant group fighting
Indian rule in disputed Kashmir, the Press Trust of India news agency said.
Two pistols and 3 kg (6.6 lb) of the explosive material RDX were seized
from them, it said.
Islamist militants are frequently arrested or killed in gun battles with
police in the Indian capital and it was not immediately known if the men
arrested on Monday had anything to do with Bush's visit.
Besides the inner-ring of security forces, an outer cordon would be
deployed "as deep as possible" to thwart any attack by a rocket launcher,
Agarwal said.
"A rocket launcher normally has a 1,000-meter (3,300 ft) range so we would
be deployed in forests around venues," he said. "We will have 360-degree
rooftop surveillance around all the venues."
Agarwal said precautions were also being taken to quell "snap protests" by
Muslim groups and communist parties who have announced plans to demonstrate
against Bush.
Bush is also due to briefly visit India's southern IT hub of Hyderabad,
where some Muslim groups have launched a signature campaign against his
policies.
Hyderabad, which has a sizeable Muslim population, has witnessed big
protests against the publication of cartoons lampooning Prophet Mohammad.
Bush would hop around the city in helicopters to take part in events
scheduled for him, police said.
(Additional reporting by S. Radha Kumar in HYDERABAD)
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http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/02/28/opinion/main1354173.shtmlor
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060313/roy
Bush in India: Just Not Welcome
by ARUNDHATI ROY
[posted online on February 27, 2006]
On his triumphalist tour of India and Pakistan, where he hopes to wave
imperiously at people he considers potential subjects, President Bush has
an itinerary that's getting curiouser and curiouser.
For Bush's March 2 pit stop in New Delhi, the Indian government tried very
hard to have him address our parliament. A not inconsequential number of
MPs threatened to heckle him, so Plan One was hastily shelved. Plan Two was
to have Bush address the masses from the ramparts of the magnificent Red
Fort, where the Indian prime minister traditionally delivers his
Independence Day address. But the Red Fort, surrounded as it is by the
predominantly Muslim population of Old Delhi, was considered a security
nightmare. So now we're into Plan Three: President George Bush speaks from
Purana Qila, the Old Fort.
Ironic, isn't it, that the only safe public space for a man who has
recently been so enthusiastic about India's modernity should be a crumbling
medieval fort?
Since the Purana Qila also houses the Delhi zoo, George Bush's audience
will be a few hundred caged animals and an approved list of caged human
beings, who in India go under the category of "eminent persons." They're
mostly rich folk who live in our poor country like captive animals,
incarcerated by their own wealth, locked and barred in their gilded cages,
protecting themselves from the threat of the vulgar and unruly multitudes
whom they have systematically dispossessed over the centuries.
So what's going to happen to George W. Bush? Will the gorillas cheer him
on? Will the gibbons curl their lips? Will the brow-antlered deer sneer?
Will the chimps make rude noises? Will the owls hoot? Will the lions yawn
and the giraffes bat their beautiful eyelashes? Will the crocs recognize a
kindred soul? Will the quails give thanks that Bush isn't traveling with
Dick Cheney, his hunting partner with the notoriously bad aim? Will the
CEOs agree?
Oh, and on March 2, Bush will be taken to visit Gandhi's memorial in
Rajghat. He's by no means the only war criminal who has been invited by the
Indian government to lay flowers at Rajghat. (Only recently we had the
Burmese dictator General Than Shwe, no shrinking violet himself.) But when
Bush places flowers on that famous slab of highly polished stone, millions
of Indians will wince. It will be as though he has poured a pint of blood
on the memory of Gandhi.
We really would prefer that he didn't.
It is not in our power to stop Bush's visit. It is in our power to protest
it, and we will. The government, the police and the corporate press will do
everything they can to minimize the extent of our outrage. Nothing the
happy newspapers say can change the fact that all over India, from the
biggest cities to the smallest villages, in public places and private
homes, George W. Bush, the President of the United States of America, world
nightmare incarnate, is just not welcome.
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http://news.webindia123.com/news/showdetails.asp?id=262740&n_date=20060227&cat=India
No red carpet for Bush from red brigade
New Delhi | February 27, 2006 8:44:29 PM IST
The Left parties, the Janata Dal (Secular) and the Samajwadi Party (SP)
will stage a 'People's March' against the visit of US President George W
Bush here on March 2.
Top Left leaders, including Communist Party of India (Marxist) general
secretary Prakash Karat and CPI general secretary A B Bardhan, will lead
the march from Ramlila Maidan to the Parliament Street.
Hyderabad, the second city in Mr Bush's itinerary, will witness protests by
the Left parties on March 3.
''Similar protests will be organised all over the country, from
Thiruvananthapuram to Kolkata and Guwahati to Chennai,'' Mr Bardhan told a
news conference today.
Mr Karat, SP leader Amar Singh, Danesh Ali of JD (S), Abani Roy (RSP) and D
Biswas (Forward Bloc) were present at the news conference.
''Iraq is the number one issue. Anywhere in the world where Mr Bush goes he
is faced with the same question on Iraq,'' said Mr Karat.
The CPI (ML) Liberation is also part of the joint front against the Bush
visit.
The Delhi march will start from around noon and the protestors want to
reach the Parliament Street but the police have not given their nod for the
route it would take.
A joint statement issued by the leaders of the Left, JD (S) and the SP said
the parties ''emphatically oppose the forthcoming visit to India of US
President George Bush''.
''President Bush is the topmost official of US imperialism, leading enemy
of the sovereignty of nations and the peoples of the world today,'' the
statement said. ''He is certainly not welcome in India.'' It also
criticised the Manmohan Singh government for ''shamefully succumbing'' to
US imperialist pressures. India's foreign policy, it said, is ''seriously
threatened'' as can be seen in the lining up of India behind the ''US-
inspired'' vote against Iran.
The statement also mentions the ''threats'' held out by the US Ambassador
to India on the Iran vote issue, US opposition to the Iran-Pakistan-India
gas pipeline and the joint Indo-Chinese venture in Syrian oilfields.
Mr Bush is arriving in India for a three-day visit on March 1.
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http://www.telegraphindia.com/1060226/asp/frontpage/story_5897864.asp
Issue Date: Sunday, February 26, 2006
Turf tussle over Bush fort spectacle
K.P. NAYAR
Purana Qila
Washington, Feb. 25: A controversial nuclear deal is not the only issue
which is vexing Indian and American officials negotiating the nitty-gritty
of US President George W. Bushs visit to India.
US ambassador David Mulfords dogged insistence on hosting Bushs grand
public address at Purana Qila has prevented both sides from announcing the
US Presidents full itinerary in India.
Americas national security adviser Steve Hadley yesterday briefed the
media here on Bushs trip to India and Pakistan, but conveniently left
out details of his public address from the capitals Purana Qila,
although it is to be the grand finale of his 60-hour stay in India.
Hadley also omitted any mention of his Presidents day trip of Hyderabad:
the Deccan city is categorised by security officials here as a Muslim
stronghold and is, therefore, the subject of heightened threat assessments.
Mulford, who is now persona non grata in practice to much of the Indian
political leadership and the civil service, is viewed here as having
exhausted his utility as Americas ambassador in Delhi.
He realises that his future in Chanakyapuri depends entirely on pleasing
Bush during his stay in India.
The ambassador has calculated that if the spectacular show that is planned
for Bush next Friday evening on the majestic ramparts of Purana Qila is
presented to the White House as his show in its entirety, he has a chance
of avoiding a recall to Washington that is very much on the cards,
according to sources here.
But the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has come in the way.
The ASI is in charge of Purana Qila and will not hand over the heritage
site to a foreign government under an arrangement sought by Mulford in
which the US Marines and American Secret Service will virtually take over
the site.
During the weekend, negotiations were still going on over the protocol for
the Friday evening function although Indian and US officials are agreed
that it should, indeed, take place at Purana Qila.
Mulford insists that invitations for that function should be issued in his
name and solely in his name.
Negotiators in New Delhi said they were exploring the possibility of
bringing in Indias apex business organisations like the Federation of
Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry into the list of hosts as a way
out of the dispute.
Barring the Purana Qila function and the trip to Hyderabad, Hadley gave
full details of what Bush would do in India: the formal welcome at
Rashtrapati Bhavan, wreath-laying at Rajghat, a meeting with members of the
Indo-US CEO Forum set up in July last year, meetings with the Congress
president and the leader of the Opposition in Parliament, an interaction
with young entrepreneurs and so on.
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http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IEP20060228070130&Page=P&Title=Nation&Topic=-449
Whose guest is Bush, ask protesters
Wednesday March 1 2006 00:00 IST
IANS
NEW DELHI: Cartoons, poems, T-shirts, paintings, even Bollywood one-liners
- everything will turn into anti-Bush arsenal when thousands take to the
streets here on Thursday to oppose a US president they say is a "war
criminal".
And the Indian communists, spearheading what they claim could be the
biggest anti-American demonstration the city has seen, have warned of a
"free for all" if the authorities try to clamp down on the planned show of
strength against George W. Bush.
"We are not going to create law and order problems," said Joginder Sharma,
who heads the Delhi unit of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M),
which backs India's coalition government but is cut up with Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh for his perceived closeness to Washington.
"Ours is going to be a peaceful protest march from the Ramlila ground (in
the heart of the city) to Parliament Street (five kilometres away). But if
we are forcibly stopped, it will become a free for all."
The police are in a fix. They do not want the demonstrators, who could
number tens of thousands, to march up to Parliament Street. They want the
procession to take a detour, but the organisers are not listening.
Protest leaders are promising a colourful and noisy show. And given the
fact that neighbouring Uttar Pradesh's ruling Samajwadi Party has also
thrown its lot with the Left, the numbers will not be a problem.
"One thing is definite. It is going to be quite a colourful protest," said
a prominent Left-leaning cultural activist known only as Rajan. "This is
because a lot of creative people have got involved."
Rajan is a member of the SAHMAT, a cultural body that counts many in the
fields of arts and theatre as its members.
"Bush, go back!" says one of the many posters prepared for the occasion.
Another screams: "Bomb Texas! They have oil too!" Yet another, in a mixture
of Hindi and Urdu, asks: "Bush Ahwan, Kiska Mehman?" (Whose guest is Bush?)
There will also be an exhibition of cartoons and paintings. Poets are doing
their bit. There would also be T-shirts with Bush caricatures, worn by
those who will be taking an active role in the demonstration.
The T-shirts show three guns pointing to Bush and use a Hindi film dialogue
from "Sholay" to say: "Tera kya hoga Dubya?" (And what of you, Dubya?)
Rajan says it will be a mistake to assume that only the communists and
Muslims are opposed to Bush.
"The anger against this man is widespread, I can tell you that," Rajan told
IANS. "Only yesterday I was in my car and two young men on a motorcycle
asked where I had the anti-Bush sticker from. They also wanted one."
According to Joginder Singh, besides eight political parties, more than 110
trade unions and other groups under the National Platform of Mass
Organisations umbrella will take part in the anti-Bush rally.
What is common to all of them is their anti-Bush sentiment, arising
primarily on account of the US invasion of Iraq that has claimed thousands
of lives.
Joginder Singh was reluctant to reveal how many would be on the streets on
Thursday but said: "What I can tell is that this would be the biggest anti
imperialist rally in Delhi."
He refuses to accept police pleas not to go up to Parliament Street.
"The police are telling us to halt at ITO (Income Tax Office). We cannot
accept that. This is a democracy. If others can go to Parliament Street, we
too have a right. Bush is not welcome to India.
"If the police come in our way, there will be chaos everywhere in the city,
everywhere there will be traffic jams. Whatever is in our command we will
resort to in such a case."
And he added: "Bush is a war
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http://www.ibnlive.com/article.php?id=5825§ion_id=11
Left takes Bush-whacking to Blogs
Surabhi Khosla
ibnlive.com
Updated 1717 hrs IST (+GMT 5:30), 23.02.06 Email Print
New Delhi: After all the whining-yelling at public rallies and acerbic
sound bites on the national media, the Indian Left has gone global with its
protest against US President George Bush's India visit.
The CPI(M) has put its best foot forward for Bush bashing by hitting the
blogosphere.
The age-old party has started a blog site for its 'Boycott Bush's Visit to
India' campaign, in its efforts to rally global opinion against what they
call "the visit of a global terrorist to India."
And bloggers already seem to have lapped it up.
"This is such a great protest, reminiscent of Gandhi's protest against
British India - 'Minto Go Home'," says one blogger. "I wish you and the
Communist Party of India (Marxist) the best in winning this war against the
greatest threat to humanity, Bush's United States."
The administrators of the site gobackglobalterrorist.blogspot.com calls
this an endeavour to encourage people to create more blogs opposing Bush's
visit to India. This campaign, if carried out effectively, should see
thousands of links opposing Bush, they say.
"We appeal to all the patriots, peace-loving people on the globe to
campaign for having more blogs coming up on the occassion of his visit,"
goes the appeal.
"We want the blogger community to rise to the occassion and have as many
individual blogs as possible with a variety of content like poetry,
photographs, cartoons, writeups, humour etc," it adds.
The blog page is actually a space providing links to the blogs that are
being put up opposing President Bush's visit to India, commencing March 2,
2006.
The Left parties - including the CPI, the CPI(M) - and the Samajwadi Party
have decided to organise a massive public march and rally to protest Bush's
visit.
"Under President Bush, the US continues to occupy Iraq and oppress its
people. It threatens Syria and has targeted Iran on the issue of its
nuclear programme. It backs the naked oppression of the Palestinian people
by Israel.
"He is certainly not welcome in India," a joint statement of CPI, CPI(M),
RSP, AIFB, CPI(ML) Liberation, JD(S) and SP said after a decision in this
regard was taken at a meeting.
"We have constituted a broad-based committee against Bush's visit and
decided to organise under its banner a massive public march and rally to
protest his visit," the statement said, calling the American leader an
'enemy of sovereign nations'.
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http://www.muslimnews.co.uk/news/news.php?article=10530
Muslim organisations plan protests against Bush visit
22-01-2006
From Ravi S. Jha
NEW DELHI, Khaleej Times - Be prepared to see Muslims across India
fomenting widespread anger against US President George Bush when he comes
calling in the next few weeks in a landmark yet conflict-ridden visit to
the subcontinent that Washington believes is world's most dangerous
territory.
While Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind's general secretary Maulana Mahmood A Madani has
come up with a 'Bush Go Back' campaign, various student associations of
Aligarh Muslim University are planning protests against his visit.
While Pakistan continues to be the best ally in Washington's war against
terror, Bangladesh has also emerged as a hotspot for subversive jehadi
operations which could well use Bush's visit as a chance to rake up anti-US
campaign on their soil.
Even though security measures during the visit would be unprecedented, the
intelligence inputs are not something to be happy about. The campaign has
already surfaced from several quarters and intelligence organisations are
acutely concerned over the protest calls.
The Left parties, that support the ruling coalition, is also expected to
join the anti-Bush campaign.
"Bush has carried out atrocities not only in Iraq but in general against
Muslims across the world. What he is doing in Iran is very alarming. Isn't
he targeting Muslims, post 9/11, as if all of them were terrorists?" asks
Madani. "We helplessly watched the bombings of Afghanistan. Bush destroyed
Iraqi people, properties and civilisation on a reasoning that proved false.
The use of organised armed forces to plunder the resources and produce of
helpless citizens is certainly condemnable and reprehensible," he said.
The All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat is to issue a call for holding
street protests. The organisation would also not spare Congress-led federal
government for its tilt towards pro-US oriented foreign policy.
Majlis-e-Mushawarat President and veteran community leader Syed Shahabuddin
has made it clear that Bush is not someone who would be acceptable to
India. "His visit has potential to create rift on communal lines. He is
anti-Muslim," he said.
The Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid Maulana Syed Ahmed Bukhari too is of the same
mind. He said there is no question of Muslims in India welcoming Bush. "It
is the duty of Muslims in India to oppose his visit. We express our
disapproval to his methods of dealing with the world today," he said.
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http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20060306&fname=Cover+Story&sid=7
BUSH VISIT
No Howdy Out Here
Iraq, Iran or the Danish cartoons...for Muslims in India, Bush is The
Enemy.
ALKA PANDE
How do Indias Muslims perceive the visit of George W. Bush? If a rally
in Lucknow on February 19 was any indication, the US president is not very
welcome in India. Irate crowds of Lucknawi Muslims, numbering over a lakh,
started out as a protest against the Danish cartoons of the Prophet
Mohammed, but ended up fulminating against the US president. Placard after
placard dubbed him as Shaitan Bush or The Real Terrorist; his
effigy was beaten and burnt; the Stars and Stripes was dragged through the
streets. On that Sunday, America was trampled upon and rubbished.
The Muslims see his visit as an attempt "to grasp India in his hand, just
as he had Pakistan and Saudi Arabia".
Fiery speakers, in succession, demanded that the Manmohan Singh
government should cancel the visit of Bush.
The rally in Lucknow may well be a dress rehearsal for the protests
scheduled on March 1, the day the US president is to arrive in India. On
that day, the Jamait-ul-Ulema has planned protests in Delhi, at a public
meeting on the Ramlila grounds. A second demonstration is slated for March
3, before the UP assembly. "The agitations wont stop till the time our
voices are heard," says Maulana Mahmood Madni, general secretary of the
Jamait-ul-Ulema. And hell take nothing short of the maximum: a reversal
of the upa governments policy of proximity to the US.
Muslims here see America as synonymous with the West, and Bush with the
enemy of Islam. They have seen Bush bomb Afghanistan, pulverise Iraq, and
now turn bellicose against Iran. Its why they suspect him to be the
mastermind of the global conspiracy against Islam, a catch-all phrase
which explains every controversy dogging the community, be it Danish
cartoons or the association of Islam with terror.
Says Maulana Amis Sewani, member, Idara-e-Shariya, "The Jewish lobby (in
the US) is working strategically against Muslims, trying to divide, break
and eventually eliminate Muslims from the globe." This is seen as part of
Americas policy to subjugate other nations in its quest for domination.
As Sewani, a Sunni, says, "First the US broke Russia in pieces, destroyed
Afghanistan, then Iraq and now Iran. The whole world knows how it tormented
these countries to emerge as the most powerful force."
The maulana accuses the US of fixing deals with other nations only to
further its own interests, echoing in crude terms precisely the fears many,
including the Left, articulate. "The US policy is, take from me whatever
you want, but do what I ask you to," says Sewani, explaining why India
should be wary of Bush. "Hes coming to India to grasp it in his hand,
just as he had done with Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, etc." Asks Maulana Abul
Irfan, founder president of the Idara-e-Shariya and who perceives the US as
the enemy of all, "Hindustan aur America kabhi dost nahin rahe, ab kaise ho
sakte hain (India and America were never friends, how can they be now)?"
And its not just the Sunnis who are opposed to Bush. Shia cleric Maulana
Kalbe Jawwad feels that to be close to the US is to also endorse its
decidedly anti-Islamic ideology. "Instead of empathy for the 20 crore
Muslims, the Manmohan Singh government is supporting the US which is an
anti-Islam nation."
The Shias in Lucknow had also been deeply agitated over Indias decision
to vote against Iran at the IAEA. The protests, though, had been sporadic.
The cartoon controversy, far easier to comprehend than complex foreign
policy issues, fanned the discontent into a raging passion, and brought the
Shias and Sunnis on a common platform. And the glue that holds them
together: anti-America, anti-West, anti-imperialist sentiment.
Tahira Hasan, general secretary of the Tehrik-e-Niswan, an organisation
which works with women, warns, "America will not stop after Iran. It will
be India next." Tahira is certain that the real motive behind Bushs
campaign against Iran is to control oil wells.Similarly, Dr Shabbir Ahmed,
a professor in Lucknow University, feels the Iran issue portrays the
hypocrisy of the developed world. "These nations claim to have intentions
to help poor nations. But when they are on the road to success, the
powerful (read the West) cause impediments." Bush is the most recognisable,
potent symbol of this hypocrisy, and so against him the Muslims will
protest.
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http://www.stratfor.com/products/premium/read_article.php?id=262835
The U.S. President's Risky Trip to India
February 28, 2006 19 27 GMT
U.S. President George W. Bush's first state visit to India on March 1-3
likely will represent the Secret Service's toughest security challenge
since the president's surprise visit to Iraq in November 2003.
The potential threat against Bush is high in the South Asian country for
many reasons, not the least of which is that a good portion of India's
Muslim population resents the United States for invading Iraq and
Afghanistan, and for the Bush administration's methods in carrying out its
general war on terrorism.
Several insurgent groups also are active within India, including al Qaeda,
Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the Maoist Peoples' War Group (PWG), also known as
the Naxalites, and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. Indian police in
New Delhi arrested two suspected LeT militants in possession of explosives
and firearms Feb. 27, perhaps as part of a precautionary intelligence
sweep. Because of the attention focused on India while Bush is visiting,
one of these groups could attempt an attack. However, the tight security
surrounding the president could force the perpetrators to target a location
other than New Delhi or Hyderabad, Bush's two destinations, in an effort to
exploit the international media coverage generated by the visit.
Another potential threat comes from official Indian bodyguards, who have
been known to turn on their charges. In 1984, most notably, Prime Minister
Indira Ghandi was assassinated by her own Sikh bodyguards. During Bush's
meetings with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and other officials and
business leaders, therefore, the Presidential Protection Division (PPD)
security detail will be watching everyone, including the other officials'
bodyguards.
In Hyderabad, capital of Andhra Pradesh state and center of India's
high-tech industry, protests already have occurred in anticipation of
Bush's visit, and more are expected. Furthermore, Andhra Pradesh is a hub
of PWG activity. In October 2003, a series of PWG-planted roadside bombs
narrowly missed killing the state's chief minister, ChandraBabu Naidu. One
of the PWG's grievances with Naidu was his favorable policies toward
U.S.-owned businesses in India.
To minimize the risk to the president during a demonstration or from a
vehicle-borne improvised explosive device, Bush will travel by helicopter
between events for much of his trip. This also presents risks, however, as
helicopters are vulnerable to attack from ground fire, especially during
take-offs and landings. To mitigate this threat, presidential helicopters
are fitted with countermeasures, while a large perimeter around landing
sites is secured.
The PPD advance team has been in India for weeks preparing for Bush's short
visit to the capital and to the center of India's high-tech sector. U.S.
Air Force transport aircraft have unloaded helicopters, fully armored
limousines, communications equipment and other gear at Palam Air Force
Base, while advance teams have secured and swept motorcade routes, event
locations and lodging for improvised explosive devices. In all, some 5,000
U.S. personnel and a dozen U.S. aircraft will be involved in protecting the
president.
Every presidential visit abroad calls into service all facets of the U.S.
security apparatus. The CIA contacts every foreign liaison service in the
world for intelligence on possible threats, and re-investigates every
mentally disturbed person in the area who ever contacted the White House.
It is not uncommon for those who pose a potential threat to be physically
surveilled during the visit. Also, every FBI field office, Joint Terrorism
Task Force and legal attachi abroad is tasked with looking for potential
threats.
Conditions in India are close to chaotic under normal circumstances, let
alone during a visit from the U.S. president. The security challenge will
be a mammoth one.
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