Al-Qaeda’s relationship with the government of Iran was openly hostile as revealed by recently declassified documents, contrary to hysterical and baseless American claims of an Iran-Qaeda connection.

In an attempt to incriminate the Iranian regime and rally support for war, several of America’s most hawkish leaders and commentators haverepeatedly recycled the unsubstantiated claim thatTehran has had a cooperative relationship with al-Qaeda. The claims were always dubious  - and embarrassingly reminiscent of similar lies in the case of Iraq – but now they’ve been even more firmly disproven.

The Governor of Pakistan's lawless Balochistan province says the Army may be summoned in the provincial capital city, Quetta, after adramatic escalation in ethnic and sectarian violence. Zulfiqar Ali Magsi, the Governor, has strongly criticized the provincial government and suggested it to resign from the office due to its stark failure to curb the deadly wave of violence targeting the Shia, Hazara minority community. If not immediately contained, the governor fears, this spate of violence may push the gas-rich region bordering Iran-Afghanistan into a state of civil war.

In Pakistan, the Governor of a province is the representative of the State appointed by the President. His is a symbolic title with almost no administrative powers. The daily affairs of the government are run by the Chief Minister who is elected by the regional legislature for a five-year term.

Governor Magsi, who himself served Balochistan twice in 1990s as a successful chief minister in terms of ensuring peace and stability in the province, says he is running out of patience with the poor performance of the current regional coalition government headed by the Pakistan People's Party. 
"People are tired of carrying the dead bodies of their loved ones," he says and further turns skeptical of the government when he reads newspaper statements from the serving ministers who grumble over the breakdown of the law and order. Yet these ministers, on their part, do nothing to improve the conditions despite having the mandate and the authority to do so.

"There is no point [for the ministers] to remain a part of the government, on the one hand, and then still criticize it, on the other hand," said the Governor, "the best option for them is to quit the cabinet and join the Opposition."

The Sunni militant group, the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, with close contacts with al Qaeda and the Taliban has been steadily stepping up brutal assaults on Shia, Hazaras.

On Saturday, April 14, at least eight members of the minority Hazara community were shot dead in two separate attacks in Quetta. These attacks come immediately after a number of similar attacks in the recent weeks in which the feeble Hazara minority community has been singled out and victimized.

Efforts to pass a bill that would allow the IRS to deny travel rights to U.S. citizens who the feds merely claim owe $50,000 or more in delinquent taxes represents a de facto move to revoke the citizenship of Americans without due process and in complete violation of the Constitution.

A recently passed Senate bill, the suitably Orwellian entitled ‘Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act’, includes a provision that allows the federal government to revoke passports of Americans accused of owing back taxes.