Friday, April 27, 2007

Bangladesh: Interim government scrunitizing source of income of former Prime ministers - Hasina and Khaleda Zia

Bangladesh media is reporting that Former PM Sheikh Hasina will delay her return to Bangladesh - is it because of her schedule in London or perhaps the uncertainity of what will happen if she returns to Dhaka immediately?

The caretaker government did not completely let her off the hook yet when they withdrew a ban on her return to Bangladesh and annulled an arrest warrant on charges of Murder earlier this week.
On the contrary, they are scrutinizing her personal bank accounts which apparently have a balance of $425000.
Hasina claims that this money is donated by people around the world to ‘Bangabandhu memorial fund’ - a fund that is named after her assasinated Father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman - one of the founding fathers of Bangladesh.
While that maybe true, it would have been proper to put it in a different type of account instead of a personal account.
So I believe Hasina has a lot of answering to do in regards to the source of this money. Potentially more trouble for her. On top of that, the CTG can conveniently reissue the arrest warrant against her once she is back in Bangladesh.

The other Begum - Former PM Khaleda Zia, apparently has 48 accounts.
I dont know why would anyone need that many accounts for personal finances but it seems while Khaleda may not be going for a permanent exile to Saudi Arabia, she may willingly prolong her visit there to avoid harassment at home.
This could also very well be her chance to smuggle out her younger son Arafat Rahman to safety in Saudi Arabaia.
So while politicans may be rather vocal lately after what many see as the fiasco by the Interim government of trying to exile the two ladies abroad, It has not necessarily weakened the interim government that much.
It still has much aresenal left in its disposal to go after the two ladies within the legal framework to sideline them in the Political picture of Bangladesh.

LT. COL. PAUL YINGLING accuses American generals as incapable and asks intervention of Congress

It is a remarkable assessment only in the sense that it is coming from a serving US army officer.
LT. COL. PAUL YINGLING predicts US will be defeated in Iraq (as if we didnt know this). But I must give him credit for writing very clearly the reasons why America will be defeated in Iraq.
Of the three ingredients of a successful war he mentions in this article:
Passion - is 100% absent in the minds of Americans.
Strategic Probabilities - Generals have failed to show the probablities of winning this war to the public and the government.
The last ingredient, Policy, is badly missing. If achieving better peace in Middle east was the policy - then that policy is deeply flawed. Presence of americans in Iraq has caused chaos and mayhem.
Now who will replace these incapable general corps that General Yingling so much wants? He wishes Congress to do that. Will the congress do it?

Bangladesh: former PM Khaleda Zia to go for Umrah

Khaleda is finally going for a Umrah, and not on exile to Saudi Arabia - so it seems.
Does it mean that the exile question is over? Not so soon..
In fact, Khaleda may choose exile on her own to save her younger son Coco from imprisonment.
Under the new rules to be declared by Election commission, anyone who is not a college graduate, would not be allowed to contest for a MP seat and no one will be allowed to become PM for more than two times. So Khaleda will be disqualified on that. Thats one Begum down!
But what about Hasina?
It seems the government would have to find another way to disqualify her.

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