Pakistan: Ripe With Resentment -terrorist breeding ground.

TARBELA, PAKISTAN -- Everyone here remembers the Americans.
The Washington Post

They came with their blueprints, their engineering know-how and their money. By the time they left in the early 1970s, they had helped build a world-class dam that kept parts of Pakistan dry this month while vast stretches of the country drowned.

"This dam gives great benefit to the nation, and if not for the Americans it would never have been constructed," said Syed Naimat Shah, a local contractor.

But Shah hasn't seen any new assistance from the Americans in decades, and apparently many Pakistanis haven't, either. The U.S. government has provided about $18 billion in civilian and military aid to Pakistan since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks made this country America's most essential, and vexing, ally. Yet according to a Pew Research Center survey released last month, half of Pakistanis believe the United States gives little to no assistance here.

For Obama administration officials, that's a source of deep anxiety -- and frustration. Pakistan is at the center of U.S. hopes to turn around the flagging Afghan war, but persistent anti-American feelings limit the extent of Pakistani cooperation. On her visit to Pakistan last month, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton mused that Americans must wonder "why we're sending money to a country that doesn't want it."

Pakistanis insist they are not ungrateful. They just don't see any tangible impact from the massive sums the United States spends. Unlike assistance from decades ago, the money from the post-Sept. 11 era, Pakistanis say, tends to vanish without a trace.

"Everyone here hates the American government," said Shah, a spirited 71-year-old with a stark white beard and a sharp tongue. "I haven't seen a penny of this U.S. assistance."

Analysts say there are many reasons: poor coordination with the Pakistani government, a lack of understanding of Pakistan's needs and a reluctance to produce iconic projects, lest they become targets for terrorists.

"American assistance is always of a nature that is not seen or felt," said Tariq Fatemi, a former Pakistani ambassador to the United States. "How many dams were built? How many highways? Can you touch anything that was built with U.S. assistance?"

U.S. officials say aid money is making a positive impact, if not always a widely noticed one. Since Sept. 11, Pakistan has ranked among the top five recipients of U.S. civilian and military aid, in a group with Israel, Egypt, Afghanistan and Iraq. But they acknowledge the overall criticism and say they are fundamentally changing the way they spend taxpayer dollars here.

The $7.5 billion Kerry-Lugar civilian aid package, passed by Congress late last year, is providing the first big test. Unlike in the past, the money will be routed directly through Pakistani agencies and institutions, and officials say the results will be far more visible.

But already, there have been delays that could keep the money from making an impact anytime soon.

"We're having trouble moving this money," said Robert J. Wilson, the USAID mission director here. "It's not easy to change the approach."

The Kerry-Lugar funds, which will be spread over five years, were intended to help erase the widespread perception that the United States cares only about supporting Pakistan's military.

Indeed, most U.S. assistance over the past nine years has paid for night-vision goggles, F-16 fighter jets, unmanned surveillance planes and other tools that help the army battle the Taliban, but has done little to convince Pakistanis that the United States cares about their well-being.

Still, the United States will have spent nearly $5 billion in civilian assistance by the end of the year, and that money is supposed to buy goodwill.

By almost all accounts, it hasn't. Although the United States has received praise here for its speedy response to the summer's catastrophic floods, Pakistanis remain suspicious of American motives. In the Pew poll, nearly six in 10 Pakistanis described the United States as an enemy; only one in 10 called it a partner.

Javed Ashraf Qazi, Pakistan's former education minister and onetime top spy, thinks he knows the reason.

When Qazi was appointed education minister in 2004 after retiring from the military, he expected that U.S. assistance would help him raise standards. There was much to do: Pakistan's public schools are in deplorable condition, with more than half lacking electricity and teachers earning as little as $50 a month.

But Qazi said he soon discovered that the United States did not even coordinate its programs with the education ministry. Most of the money seemed to go to U.S. consultants "who would carry out a study for something or other that we did not need."

One program was geared toward "setting up democratic schools in Pakistan," he said. "I was very curious to know what the hell is a democratic school."

Another, he said, involved spending millions to send Pakistani teachers to Washington for months of training. Qazi wondered why the United States had not just paid for training in Pakistan, which could have had many times the impact.

Invited to Washington himself, Qazi said he finally lost his patience at a meeting in a State Department office once used by Gen. George C. Marshall, architect of Europe's reconstruction.

"I said, 'You do the opposite of what Marshall did. You don't ask us what we want to do. You tell us what you want to do,' " he said.

The complaint is a familiar one here. A program to train female health workers, for instance, was duplicating the work of a similar Pakistani government program. A recently announced plan to put solar panels on the roofs of the elite and private Beaconhouse school system, meanwhile, has been widely derided as out of touch when many public schools lack even roofs.

Pakistani analysts say a system that relies largely on Beltway contractors to devise the plans and get the work done has yielded few results. Wilson, the USAID director, said his agency is transitioning away from that system and toward the Pakistanis themselves.

But doing so poses its own set of challenges. Pakistan's government is rated among the most corrupt in the world, and the United States has a lengthy process for certifying the accountability of its partners. As a result, very little of the Kerry-Lugar money has hit the ground nearly a year after the bill's passage.

When it does, Pakistani development officials worry that it will be spent without regard for the results, or for the limitations in Pakistan's capacity to absorb the funds.

"When the money comes in, there's a lot of pressure to spend it," said Mehnaz Aziz, chief executive of the Children's Global Network, a nongovernmental organization that has had small contracts with USAID. "I would never want to be in a position to spend $100 million in Pakistan."

All that money does not necessarily mean high-profile projects. Because anything in Pakistan that's associated with America is vulnerable to attack, the United States has shied away from projects that could make for alluring targets.

Qazi, the former education minister and spymaster, said the threat is overstated. He said that if the United States set up a technical training institute, no one would dare attack it. "Call it the American School of Technology. People are running to the U.S. for good technical education. So set it up over here," he said.

U.S. officials are not convinced. But they say the incoming money will have a tangible impact. Among the projects slated to begin is one in Tarbela, where American engineers worked decades ago with a consortium of international and Pakistani partners to build the dam.

For $16 million, USAID plans to upgrade the dam's turbines, which produce hydropower. The work is expected to significantly cut Pakistan's chronic energy deficit.

Word has begun to spread in Tarbela that the Americans are coming back, and former mayor Firdous Khan said he would welcome them.

He said he admired the American engineers who helped build the dam for their ability to get things done without delay, and without demanding a bribe.

But decades later, surveying his town's potholed streets, its archaic sewer system and its vast population of unemployed young men, Khan's mind turns to regret: "I just wish they had stayed."

Breaking: Agni air crash in Nepal.

A NEPALESE passenger plane with 15 people on board crashed shortly after taking off from Kathmandu early today, a spokesman for the home ministry said.

"The Agni Air plane crashed while flying to Lukla," Jayamukunda Khanal said, referring to a popular trekking spot in the Everest region of eastern Nepal.

"There were 15 people on board."

Russian blames US "Secret Climate Weapon'" for heat wave.

By Ashley Cleek
As Muscovites suffer record high temperatures this summer, a Russian political scientist has claimed the United States may be using climate-change weapons to alter the temperatures and crop yields of Russia and other Central Asian countries.

In a recent article, Andrei Areshev, deputy director of the Strategic Culture Foundation, wrote, "At the moment, climate weapons may be reaching their target capacity and may be used to provoke droughts, erase crops, and induce various anomalous phenomena in certain countries."

The article has been carried by publications throughout Russia, including "International Affairs," a journal published by the Foreign Ministry and by the state-owned news agency RIA Novosti.

In an telephone interview with RFE/RL, Areshev appeared to back off from claims he made in the article, saying that he was merely positing a theory.

"First of all, I would like to say that what I wrote in that article, even the citations, does not in any way claim to a be final truth. It is, if you will, speculation, in other words, the definition of an hypothesis," Areshev said.

Moscow is currently sweltering under record temperatures. On July 29 Moscow suffered its hottest day ever, with temperatures hitting 39 degrees.

But Russia isn't the only country suffering form a heat wave this summer. Indeed, the United States is also experiencing record temperatures. On July 24, temperatures in Washington, D.C., hit 37.7 degrees, and local weather services issued heat warnings for the first time this summer.

Areshev agrees that it is also hot in the United States, but notes that the United States is significantly farther south than Russia, meaning that such high temperatures are not so surprising there.

The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, however, announced in July that land and ocean temperatures throughout the world were the highest ever, since they began tracking global temperatures in 1880.

Conspiracy Theories

In the article, Areshev voiced suspicions about the High-Frequency Active Aural Research Program (HAARP), funded by the U.S. Defense Department and the University of Alaska.

HAARP, which has long been the target of conspiracy theorists, analyzes the ionosphere and seeks to develop technologies to improve radio communications, surveillance, and missile detection.

Areshev writes, however, that its true aim is to create new weapons of mass destruction "in order to destabilize environmental and agricultural systems in local countries."

Areshev's article also references an unmanned spacecraft X-37B, an orbital test vehicle the Pentagon launched in April 2010. The Pentagon calls X-37B a prototype for a new "space plane" that could take people and equipment to and from space stations. Areshev, however, alleges that the X-378 carries "laser weaponry" and could be a key component in the Pentagon's climate-change arsenal.

The Pentagon was not immediately reachable for comment.

Areshev also cites the U.S. government's effort to use rain and cloud coverage to block the Vietnam Army's supply routes during the Vietnam War. He insisted, however, that he was not a conspiracy theorist.

"My comments were not made in order to accuse the U.S., or any other country, of consciously influencing Russia," Areshev said. "That would be quite ridiculous."

Asked whether or not Russia was also experimenting with climate-control methods, Areshev said since he was not a member of the government, he did not have information about such projects.

Iran unveils bomber drone!

TEHRAN, Iran - Iranian leaders on Aug. 22 unveiled a bomber drone with a range of up to 1,000 kilometers (621 miles), touting the Islamic republic's home-grown capacity to resist attack, state media reported.

THIS PHOTO RELEASED by the Iranian Defense Ministry claims to show the launch of the long-range drone, dubbed Karar, at an undisclosed location. (AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE)
Television footage showed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad applauding as a blue cloth covering the drone - called Karar ("Assailant") - was removed to reveal a short aircraft marked "bomber jet" in military-green.

"This jet, before it heralds death for enemies, is the messenger of salvation and dignity for humanity," Ahmadinejad said in a speech at the unveiling in a hall at Tehran's Malek Ashtar university.

The broadcast showed the high-speed unmanned aircraft in flight, while Fars news agency quoted Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi as saying the drone had a range of up to 1,000 kilometers.

State television said the drone was built to "carry and fire four stealth cruise missiles... and, depending on the mission, it can carry two bombs of 250 pounds each or a precision missile of 500 pounds."

Ahmadinejad said Iran's defense abilities "should reach a point where we can cut off the aggressor's arm before he acts, and if we miss, we should destroy him before he hits the target."

"The main message of the Karar bomber is to prevent any kind of aggression and conflict" against Iran, which is embroiled in a standoff with the West over its nuclear program, he added.

The drone was unveiled on Iran's annual Defense Industry Day, and two days after it test-fired a surface-to-surface missile also built domestically, called the Qiam ("Rising").

Iran is expected to follow up with series of military announcements during the nation's "government week," a period when Tehran boasts of its latest technological achievements.

The country is also expected to test-fire a third generation Fateh ("Conqueror") 110 missile, after having already paraded a version with a range of 90 to 125 miles (150 to 200 kilometers).

The production lines for two missile-carrying speedboats, Seraj and Zolfaqar, are also due to be inaugurated.

Karar's unveiling came days after Iran took delivery of four domestically built Ghadi mini-submarines, a "stealth" vessel designed to operate in shallow waters such as the Arabian Gulf.

The moves coincide with Iranian warnings against any attack. The United States and Israel have not ruled out taking military action over Tehran's controversial nuclear program.

On Aug. 21, Iran began loading nuclear fuel in its first nuclear power plant. The Russian-built reactor in the southern port of Bushehr, which is not targeted by U.N. sanctions, aims to generate 1,000 megawatts of electricity.

On the military front, Gen. Ali Fadavi, a naval commander of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards, said earlier this month that the country is to mass-produce replicas of the Bladerunner 51, often termed the world's fastest boat.

"The Bladerunner is a British ship that holds the world speed record. We got a copy [on which] we made some changes so it can launch missiles and torpedoes," he said.

Iran will make the strategic, oil-rich Gulf region unsafe if it comes under attack over it nuclear program, Yadollah Javani, deputy chief of the Guards, said at the start of August.

The Guards were established after the 1979 Islamic revolution to defend the regime from internal and external threats.

WhiteKnightTwo plane damaged in test

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., Aug 20 (Reuters) - An aircraft designed to launch Virgin Galactic's suborbital passenger spaceship was damaged in an accident on a California runway, manufacturer Scaled Composites said.

In a statement on its website, Scaled, a wholly owned subsidiary of Northrop Grumman (NOC.N), called Thursday's incident "minor" and noted that SpaceShipTwo was not attached to the carrier aircraft, known as WhiteKnightTwo, at the time.

Aviation Week & Space Technology, an industry trade publication, is reporting that WhiteKnightTwo's left main landing gear collapsed on the runway. It was not known if the plane was taking off or landing at the time.

Scaled said no one was injured in the accident at a Mojave, California, airport. The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating.

WhiteKnightTwo began flying in 2008 and was making its 37th test flight on Thursday. The aircraft is designed to carry SpaceShipTwo to an altitude of about 45,000 feet (13,650 metres).

The six-passenger, two-pilot spaceship would then be released so it can fire its rocket engine to punch through Earth's atmosphere, experience a few minutes of weightlessness in suborbital space and then land on a runway.

Virgin Galactic, which is selling tickets to ride SpaceShipTwo for $200,000 a seat, has signed up about 340 customers so far. The company is an offshoot of Richard Branson's London-based Virgin Group and hopes to begin commercial space operations in late 2011 or 2012.

SpaceShipTwo is based on a prototype known as SpaceShipOne, which made a trio of suborbital piloted spaceflights in 2004 to clinch a $10 million contest for private human spaceflight.

Scaled did not say how the damage to WhiteKnightTwo will affect the testing program for SpaceShipTwo and pilot training.