From Washington Post:

When Osama Bin Laden wants to deliver a speech, a trusted video cameraman is summoned to a safe house somewhere in Pakistan, according to U.S. counterterrorism officials and analysts. The video file is then edited, stored on a tiny computer memory stick and given to a human courier. The memory stick usually passes through several sets of hands to disguise its route, until an operative finally sits down in an Internet cafe and saves the data to a password-protected Web site, they said.

Read the entire article here

Ahmed Rashid’s new book is aptly titled Descent into Chaos. It is a scathing indictment of the inaction, decisions and powerplays by various quarters that have led Pakistan and Afghanistan into their current state of chaos. A must-read for those who have an interest in the War on Terror, the Taliban and Pakistan. A word of warning though, some of the material in the book has been repeated from Rashid’s earlier books, but serves as a good refresher if you have a memory as bad as mine.

Dear UFO/God/Rational Thinking/Karma

We, the Pakistani people, urgently require our political leaders to gain some perspective and, if you can manage it, some amount of sanity. We want them to stop making empty promises, we need them to make a decision about the deposed judges and stick to it, we want them to do whatever they want to do with President Musharraf, but just go ahead and DO it.  We want them to solve the food and energy crises, and perhaps do something about the rising inflation.  And last, but not the least, we would like them to stop invoking Benazir’s name in every goddamn sentence.

XOXO

-A Beleagured Citizen Who Watches Too Much Pakistani TV.

From today’s Dawn:

Shahbaz wants to know his powers
LAHORE, June 16: Believe it, Mian Shahbaz Sharif has asked the relevant officials to let him know his powers as the province’s chief minister.
The officials are studying the necessary books before writing a report for the boss. It’s not immediately known why the PML-N president had to ask this question when he has already held the office between 1997 and 1999.

Apparently, Mian Shahbaz Sharif wants to set a new precedent of working strictly according to the law so that he is not accused of misusing his powers.

In the past, those who have been abusing their authority had to face references

Terry Pratchett on Frost Over The World

A Letter
-Anthony Hecht

I have been wondering
What you are thinking about, and by now suppose
It is certainly not me.
But the crocus is up, and the lark, and the blundering
Blood knows what it knows.
It talks to itself all night, like a sliding moonlit sea.

Of course, it is talking of you.
At dawn, where the ocean has netted its catch of lights,
The sun plants one lithe foot
On that spill of mirrors, but the blood goes worming through
Its warm Arabian nights,
Naming your pounding name again in the dark heart-root.

Who shall, of course, be nameless.
Anyway, I should want you to know I have done my best,
As I’m sure you have, too.
Others are bound to us, the gentle and blameless
Whose names are not confessed
In the ceaseless palaver. My dearest, the clear unquaried blue

Of those depths is all but blinding.
You may remember that once you brought my boys
Two little woolly birds.
Yesterday the older one asked for you upon finding
Your thrush among his toys.
And the tides welled about me, and I could find no words.

There is not much else to tell.
One tries one’s best to continue as before,
Doing some little good.
But I would have you know that all is not well
With a man dead set to ignore
The endless repetitions of his own murmurous blood.

Please observe a moment of silence in the memory of MNA MP Bhandara, who has passed away. Thank you Mr. Bhandara, for many a lovely op-ed, speeches in the National Assembly that made the faces of the NA members turn red, for ensuring the gift of Murree Brewery continued, and most important of all, passing a bill to get the Quaid’s 11th August speech included in the Constitution. RIP.

I’ve been meaning to write about this book earlier, considered I skipped out of the office early to buy this book and proceeded to read it at record speed, but there would have to be electricity in order for me to use my beloved desktop computer.

Nevertheless, A Case of Exploding Mangoes by Mohammad Hanif [who also penned the hilarious article 'Musharraf and the Drunk Uncle] is one of the funniest books I have read since Rushdie’s Shame. But where Rushdie lost some readers in convoluted names and plot lines, Hanif keeps it simple, effective, sarcastic, and most effective of all, never falls into the trap of cliches that authors from the Subcontinent tend to do. A must read for anyone who appreciates good fiction, and has an interest in the murky world of Pakistani politics.

The book is available at The Second Floor and Liberty Books in Karachi.

Is it only me, or is the President of Pakistan’s website redirecting surfers to the ISPR website?