AfPak Insurgents Using Israeli-made Arms

ISLAMABAD – Use of Israeli-made light arms by militants against security forces in Waziristan has raised several questions amongst many recently.

TheNation has learnt on good authority that militants are using Israeli-made light arms including “Uzi gun” and “Rapid-fire pistol” against security forces in North Waziristan as the operation Rah-I-Rast reached its final stage.

In addition to Israel-made sophisticated arms, militants are making use of the latest version of US-made M-16 carbine with laser designator and binoculars, Bulgarian and Czechoslovakia made Kalakov and M-4 carbine with a grenade launcher and laser designator, which is a unique weapon with the US marines.

Availability of sophisticated Israeli weapons within the militant’s ranks and their use against security forces has raised several eyebrows in Islamabad.

But not only the militants are in possession of such type of deadly weapons but they are easily accessible by the common people of Pakistan, especially in Punjab.

As a matter of fact, the war on terrorism in Afghanistan has brought state-of-the-art foreign-made lethal weapons to Pakistan’s arms markets in the tribal areas and other parts of the country.

At a time when militants equipped with US, European, and Israeli-made deadly weapons are offering resistance to the Army, these sophisticated weapons are attracting buyers from across the country, particularly Punjab. Apart from foreign-made weapons, Wah Factory manufactured MP-5 rifle pieces are also available in Dara market.

A source in the Wazir Dand arms market, Khyber Agency claimed “a slain Afghan commander, belonging to eastern Nangarhar, sold 300 pieces of M-16 rifles in Landi Kotal” a year and half earlier. These rifles are in the possession of militants, especially the Uzbeks and Tajiks, are being used intensively against security forces. Nation.com.pk

How Israel Created The Myth of Al-Qaeda

US Army Toyed With Telepathic Ray Gun

A recently declassified US Army report on the biological effects of non-lethal weapons reveals outlandish plans for "ray gun" devices, which would cause artificial fevers or beam voices into people's heads.

The report titled "Bioeffects Of Selected Nonlethal Weapons" was released under the US Freedom of Information Act and is available on this website (pdf).

The DoD has confirmed to New Scientist that it released the documents, which detail five different "maturing non-lethal technologies" using microwaves, lasers and sound. Released by US Army Intelligence and Security Command at Fort Meade, Maryland, US, the 1998 report gives an overview of what was then the state of the art in directed energy weapons for crowd control and other applications.' Read more...

World Economy Setting Itself Up for a Bigger Bust, Says Marc Faber

by Ryan Huang November 19, 2009

Marc Faber – the man commonly referred to as Dr Doom by the investment community – said that the real financial crisis has yet to come for the global economy.

Speaking at a conference in Singapore on Wednesday, he said there will be another big bust stemming from credit expansion.

Mr Faber, author of the Gloom, Boom & Doom Report and famed for his bearish and contrarian views, is bullish about commodities and gold.

Mr Faber said: "The crisis has not solved anything. On the contrary there is less transparency today than there was before. The government's balance sheet is expanding, and the abuses that have led to the one cause of the crisis have continued.

"I think eventually there will be a big bust and then the whole credit expansion will come to an end. But before that happens, they will print money, and they will grow into very high inflation rate, and the economy will not respond.

"The average family will be hurt by that, and then in order to distract the attention of the people, the governments will go to war. People ask me against whom? Well, they will invent an enemy."

Despite the gloom, Dr Faber is upbeat about commodities in the long term because of competition for natural resources.

"At some stage, somewhere in future, we will have a war – that you have to be prepared for. And during war times, commodities go up strongly,” said Mr Faber.

"If you want to hedge against war, you don't want to own derivatives in UBS and AIG, but you have to own them physically, like farmland and agricultural commodities. That is something to consider for you as a personal safety and hedge. You have to own some commodities," he added.

Analysts generally agreed that gold is an attractive asset class for investments.

Daryl Guppy, CEO, Guppytraders.com said: "The strength of gold is in direct relation to weakness in US dollar. The weakness in US dollar is likely to continue. You see the dollar index heading down towards to 71 US cents is not a support level. It could in fact fall lower than that. Read all