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لہو میں بھیگے تمام موسم

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لہو میں بھیگے تمام موسم
گواہی دیں گے کہ تم کھڑے تھے
وفا کے رستے کا ہر مسافر
گواہی دے گا کہ تم کھڑے تھے
...  

سحر کا سورج گواہی دے گا
کہ جب اندھیرے کی کوکھ میں سے نکلنے والے یہ سوچتے تھے
کہ کوئی جگنو نہیں بچا ہے تو تم کھڑے تھے

تمہاری آنکھوں کے طاقچوں مین جلے چراغوں کی روشنی نے
نئی منازل ہمیں دکھائیں
تمہارے چہرے کی بڑھتی جھریوں نے ولولوں کو نمود بخشی
تمہارے بھائی،تمہارے بیٹے،تمہاری بہنیں تمہاری مائیں، تمہاری مٹی کا ذرہ ذرہ گواہی دے گا
کہ تم کھڑے تھے

ہماری دھرتی کے جسم سے جب ہوس کے مارے سیاہ جونکوں کی طرح چمٹے
تو تم کھڑے تھے
تمہاری ہمت،تمہاری عظمت اور استقامت تو وہ ہمالہ ہے جس کی چوٹی تلک پہنچنا
نہ پہلے بس میں رہا کسی کے نہ آنے والے دنوں مں ہوگا
سو آنے والی تمام نسلیں گواہی دیں گی کہ تم کھڑے تھے
(پروفیسر عنایت علی خان)
۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔
   

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)

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Seal of the C.I.A. - Central Intelligence Agen...
Seal of the C.I.A. - Central Intelligence Agency of the United States Government (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is one of the principal intelligence-gathering agencies of the United States federal government. The CIA's headquarters is in Langley, Virginia, a few miles west of Washington, D.C.[7] Its employees operate from U.S. embassies and many other locations around the world.[8][9] The only independent U.S. intelligence agency, it reports to the Director of National Intelligence.[10]
 
The CIA has three traditional principal activities, which are gathering information about foreign governments, corporations, and individuals; analyzing that information, along with intelligence gathered by other U.S. intelligence agencies, in order to provide national securityintelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers; and, upon the request of the President of the United States, carrying out or overseeing covert activities and some tactical operations by its own employees, by members of the U.S. military, or by other partners.[11][12][13][14][15] It can, for example, exert foreign political influence through its tactical divisions, such as the Special Activities Division.[16]
The CIA has increasingly taken on offensive roles, including covert paramilitary operations

Purpose

The CIA succeeded the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), formed during World War II to coordinate secret espionage activities against the Axis Powers for the branches of the United States Armed Forces. The National Security Act of 1947 established the CIA, affording it "no police or law enforcement functions, either at home or abroad".[18][19]
 
There has been considerable criticism of the CIA relating to security and counterintelligence failures, failures in intelligence analysis, human rights concerns, external investigations and document releases, influencing public opinion and law enforcement, drug trafficking, and lying to Congress.[20] Others, such as Eastern bloc defector Ion Mihai Pacepa, have defended the CIA as "by far the world’s best intelligence organization," and argued that CIA activities are subjected to scrutiny unprecedented among the world's intelligence agencies.[21]
According to its fiscal 2013 budget, the CIA has five priorities:[4]

Organizational structure  

  • The Directorate of Intelligence, responsible for all-source intelligence research and analysis
  • The National Clandestine Service, formerly the Directorate of Operations, which does clandestine intelligence collection and covert action
  • The Directorate of Support
  • The Directorate of Science and Technology

Executive Office

The Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (D/CIA) reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence (DNI); in practice, he deals with the DNI, Congress (usually via the Office of Congressional Affairs), and the White House, while the Deputy Director is the internal executive. The CIA has varying amounts of Congressional oversight, although that is principally a guidance role.
The Executive Office also facilitates the CIA's support of the U.S. military by providing it with information it gathers, receiving information from military intelligence organizations, and cooperating on field activities. Two senior executives have responsibility, one CIA-wide and one for the National Clandestine Service. The Associate Director for Military Support, a senior military officer, manages the relationship between the CIA and the Unified Combatant Commands, who produce regional/operational intelligence and consume national intelligence; he is assisted by the Office of Military Affairs in providing support to all branches of the military.[22]
 
In the National Clandestine Services, an Associate Deputy Director for Operations for Military Affairs[23] deals with specific clandestine human-source intelligence and covert action in support of military operations.
The CIA makes national-level intelligence available to tactical organizations, usually to their all-source intelligence group.[24]

Executive staff

Staff offices with several general responsibilities report to the Executive Office. The staff also gather information and then report such information to the Executive Office.

General publications

The CIA's Center for the Study of Intelligence maintains the Agency's historical materials and promotes the study of intelligence as a legitimate discipline.[25]
In 2002, the CIA's School for Intelligence Analysis began publishing the unclassified Kent Center Occasional Papers, aiming to offer "an opportunity for intelligence professionals and interested colleagues—in an unofficial and unfettered vehicle—to debate and advance the theory and practice of intelligence analysis."[26]

General Counsel and Inspector General

Two offices advise the Director on legality and proper operations. The Office of General Counsel advises the Director of the CIA on all legal matters relating to his role as CIA director and is the principal source of legal counsel for the CIA.
The Office of Inspector General promotes efficiency, effectiveness, and accountability in the administration of Agency activities, and seeks to prevent and detect fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement. The Inspector General, whose activities are independent of those of any other component in the Agency, reports directly to the Director of the CIA.[27][28]

Influencing public opinion

The Office of Public Affairs is often in charge of creating state funded propaganda for the masses. Such as the 9/11 counter terror administration advises the Director of the CIA on all media, public policy, and employee communications issues relating to this person's role. This office, among other functions, works with the entertainment industry.[29]

Directorate of Intelligence

The Directorate of Intelligence produces all-source intelligence investigation on key foreign and intercontinental issues relating to powerful and sometimes anti-government sensitive topics.[30] It has four regional analytic groups, six groups for transnational issues, and two support units.[31]

Regional groups

There is an Office dedicated to Iraq, and regional analytical Offices covering:

Transnational groups

The Office of Terrorism Analysis[32] supports the National Counterterrorism Center in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. See CIA transnational anti-terrorism activities.[33]
The Office of Transnational Issues[34] assesses perceived existing and emerging threats to US national security and provides the most senior policymakers, military planners, and law enforcement with analysis, warning, and crisis support.
 
The CIA Crime and Narcotics Center[35] researches information on international crime for policymakers and the law enforcement community. As the CIA has no legal domestic police authority, it usually sends its analyses to the FBI and other law enforcement organizations, such as the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms.
The Weapons Intelligence, Nonproliferation, and Arms Control Center[36] provides intelligence support related to national and non-national threats, as well as supporting threat reduction and arms control. It receives the output of national technical means of verification.
The Counterintelligence Center Analysis Group[37] identifies, monitors, and analyzes the efforts of foreign intelligence entities, both national and non-national, against US government interests. It works with FBI personnel in the National Counterintelligence Executive of the Director of National Intelligence.
 
The Information Operations Center Analysis Group.[38] deals with threats to US computer systems. This unit supports DNI activities.

Support and general units

The Office of Collection Strategies and Analysis provides comprehensive intelligence collection expertise to the Directorate of Intelligence, to senior Agency and Intelligence Community officials, and to key national policymakers.
The Office of Policy Support customizes Directorate of Intelligence analysis and presents it to a wide variety of policy, law enforcement, military, and foreign liaison recipients.

National Clandestine Service

The National Clandestine Service (NCS; formerly the Directorate of Operations) is responsible for collecting foreign intelligence, mainly from clandestine HUMINT sources, and covert action. The new name reflects its role as the coordinator of human intelligence activities among other elements of the wider U.S. intelligence community with their own HUMINT operations. The NCS was created in an attempt to end years of rivalry over influence, philosophy and budget between the United States Department of Defense and the CIA. In spite of this, the Department of Defense recently organized its own global clandestine intelligence service, the Defense Clandestine Service,[39] under the Defense Intelligence Agency.
The precise present organization of the NCS is classified.[40]

Directorate of Science and Technology 

The Directorate of Science & Technology was established to research, create, and manage technical collection disciplines and equipment. Many of its innovations were transferred to other intelligence organizations, or, as they became more overt, to the military services.
For example, the development of the U-2 high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft was done in cooperation with the United States Air Force. The U-2's original mission was clandestine imagery intelligence over denied areas such as the Soviet Union.[41] It was subsequently provided with signals intelligence and measurement and signature intelligence capabilities, and is now operated by the Air Force.
 
Imagery intelligence collected by the U-2 and reconnaissance satellites was analyzed by a DS&T organization called the National Photointerpretation Center (NPIC), which had analysts from both the CIA and the military services. Subsequently, NPIC was transferred to the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA).
The CIA has always shown a strong interest in how to use advances in technology to enhance its effectiveness. This interest has historically had two primary goals:
  • harnessing techniques for its own use
  • countering any new intelligence technologies the Soviets might develop.[42]
In 1999, the CIA created the venture capital firm In-Q-Tel to help fund and develop technologies of interest to the agency.[43] It has long been the IC practice to contract for major development, such as reconnaissance aircraft and satellites.

Directorate of Support

The Directorate of Support has organizational and administrative functions to significant units including:
  • The Office of Security
  • The Office of Communications
  • The Office of Information Technology

Training

The CIA established its first training facility, the Office of Training and Education, in 1950. Following the end of the Cold War, the CIA's training budget was slashed, which had a negative effect on employee retention.[44][45] In response, Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet established CIA University in 2002.[44][46] CIA University holds between 200 and 300 courses each year, training both new hires and experienced intelligence officers, as well as CIA support staff.[44][45] The facility works in partnership with the National Intelligence University, and includes the Sherman Kent School for Intelligence Analysis, the Directorate of Intelligence's component of the university.[46][47][48]
 
For later stage of training of student operations officers, there is at least one classified training area at Camp Peary, near Williamsburg, Virginia. Students are selected, and their progress evaluated, in ways derived from the OSS, published as the book Assessment of Men, Selection of Personnel for the Office of Strategic Services.[49] Additional mission training is conducted at Harvey Point, North Carolina.[50]
The primary training facility for the Office of Communications is Warrenton Training Center, located near Warrenton, Virginia. The facility was established in 1951 and has been used by the CIA since at least 1955.[51][52]

Budget

Details of the overall United States intelligence budget are classified.[4] Under the Central Intelligence Agency Act of 1949, the Director of Central Intelligence is the only federal government employee who can spend "un-vouchered" government money.[53] The government has disclosed a total figure for all non-military intelligence spending since 2007; the fiscal 2013 figure is $52.6 billion. According to the 2013 mass surveillance disclosures, the CIA's fiscal 2013 budget is $14.7 billion, 28% of the total and almost 50% more than the budget of the National Security Agency. CIA's HUMINT budget is $2.3 billion, the SIGINT budget is $1.7 billion, and spending for security and logistics of CIA missions is $2.5 billion. "Covert action programs", including a variety of activities such as the CIA's drone fleet and anti-Iranian nuclear program activities, accounts for $2.6 billion.[4]
 
There were numerous previous attempts to obtain general information about the budget.[54] As a result, it was revealed that CIA's annual budget in Fiscal Year 1963 was US $550 million (inflation-adjusted US$ 4.1 billion in 2013),[55] and the overall intelligence budget in FY 1997 was US $26.6 billion (inflation-adjusted US$ 38 billion in 2013).[56] There have been accidental disclosures; for instance, Mary Margaret Graham, a former CIA official and deputy director of national intelligence for collection in 2005, said that the annual intelligence budget was $44 billion,[57] and in 1994 Congress accidentally published a budget of $43.4 billion (in 2012 dollars) in 1994 for the non-military National Intelligence Program, including $4.8 billion for the CIA.[4]
 
In Legacy of Ashes-The History of the CIA, Tim Weiner claims that early funding was solicited by James Forrestal and Allen Dulles from private Wall Street and Washington, D.C. sources. Next Forrestal convinced "an old chum," John W. Snyder, the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and one of Truman's closest allies, to allow the use of the $200 million Exchange Stabilization Fund by CIA fronts to influence European elections, beginning with Italy.[58]
After the Marshall Plan was approved, appropriating $13.7 billion over five years, 5% of those funds or $685 million were made available to the CIA.[59]

Employees

Polygraphing

Robert Baer, a CNN analyst and former CIA operative, stated that normally a CIA employee undergoes a polygraph examination every three to four years.[60]

Relationship with other intelligence agencies

The CIA acts as the primary US HUMINT, human intelligence, and general analytic agency, under the Director of National Intelligence, who directs or coordinates the 16 member organizations of the United States Intelligence Community. In addition, it obtains information from other U.S. government intelligence agencies, commercial information sources, and foreign intelligence services.[citation needed]

U.S. agencies

CIA employees form part of the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) workforce, originally created as a joint office of the CIA and US Air Force to operate the spy satellites of the US military.
The Special Collections Service is a joint CIA and National Security Agency (NSA) office that conducts clandestine electronic surveillance in embassies and hostile territory throughout the world.

Foreign intelligence services

The role and functions of the CIA are roughly equivalent to those of the United Kingdom's Secret Intelligence Service (the SIS or MI6,)the Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS), the Egyptian General Intelligence Service, the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (Sluzhba Vneshney Razvedki) (SVR), the Indian Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the French foreign intelligence service Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure (DGSE) and Israel's Mossad. While the preceding agencies both collect and analyze information, some like the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research are purely analytical agencies.[citation needed]
The closest links of the U.S. IC to other foreign intelligence agencies are to Anglophone countries: Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. There is a special communications marking that signals that intelligence-related messages can be shared with these four countries.[61] An indication of the United States' close operational cooperation is the creation of a new message distribution label within the main U.S. military communications network. Previously, the marking of NOFORN (i.e., No Foreign Nationals) required the originator to specify which, if any, non-U.S. countries could receive the information. A new handling caveat, USA/AUS/CAN/GBR/NZL Five Eyes, used primarily on intelligence messages, gives an easier way to indicate that the material can be shared with Australia, Canada, United Kingdom, and New Zealand.
The task of the division called "Verbindungsstelle 61" of the German Bundesnachrichtendienst is keeping contact to the CIA office in Wiesbaden.[62].[4] 
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Inter-Services Intelligence ISI

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The Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence (more commonly known as Inter-Services Intelligence or simply by its initials ISI), is the premier Intelligence service of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, operationally responsible for providing critical national security and intelligence assessment to the Government of Pakistan. The ISI is the largest of the three intelligence services of Pakistan, the others being the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and Military Intelligence (MI).
 
Previously in the 20th century, the ISI's work and activities have included the support of the Afghan mujahideen in then-communist Afghanistan against the Soviet Union in their war against the mujahideen (in conjunction with the Central Intelligence Agency) and later provided strategic and intelligence support to the Taliban against the Indo-Iranian backing the Northern Alliance in the civil war in Afghanistan in 1990s.[1]
The ISI is the successor of the IB and MI formed after the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947 to co-ordinate and operate espionage activities for the three branches of the Pakistan Armed Forces. The ISI was established as an independent intelligence service in 1948 in order to strengthen the sharing of military intelligence between the three branches of Pakistan's armed forces in the aftermath of the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947, which had exposed weaknesses in intelligence gathering, sharing and coordination between the Army, Air Force and Navy.
 
From its inception, the agency has been headed by an appointed three-stargeneral officer in the Pakistan Army, despite officers from all three branches of the Pakistan Armed Forces being served and hired by the ISI. However, after the intelligence gathering and coordination failure during the Indo-Pakistani war of 1971, the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee was created with a mandate to co-ordinate and supervise all military exercises and operations of the Pakistan Armed Forces.
The Chief of Army Staff recommends the names of the Director General, but official confirmation and appointment is needed from the Prime minister.[2] The ISI is headquartered in Islamabad, Islamabad Capital Venue, and is currently headed by Lieutenant-GeneralZaheerul Islam who replaced Ahmed Shuja Pasha in March 2012
 
After independence in 1947, two new intelligence agencies were created in Pakistan: the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and the Military Intelligence (MI). However, the weak performance of the MI in sharing intelligence between the Army, Naval and Air Force during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947 led to the creation of the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in 1948.[4] The ISI was structured to be manned by officers from the three main military services, and to specialize in the collection, analysis and assessment of external intelligence, either military or non-military.[4]
 
 The ISI was the brainchild of Australian-born British Army officer, Major General Robert Cawthome, then Deputy Chief of Staff in the Pakistan Army.[4][5][6] Initially, the ISI had no role in the collection of internal intelligence, with the exception of the Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa and Azad Jammu and Kashmir.[4] The recruitment and expansion of the ISI was managed and undertaken by then-Navy's CommanderSyed Mohammad Ahsan who was tenuring as Deputy Director of the Naval Intelligence. The Navy's Commander Syed Mohammad Ahsan played an integral and major role in formulating the policies of the ISI. At the end of December 1952, Major-General Robert Cawthome, Director-General of the Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI), sent a priority report to the Commander Ahsan, and asked for a detailed reactions of Pakistan Armed Forces personnel for the Basic principles for the ISI.
In the late 1950s, when Ayub Khan became the President of Pakistan, he expanded the rôle of ISI and MI in monitoring opposition politicians, and sustaining military rule in Pakistan.[5]
 
The ISI was reorganised in 1966 after intelligence failures in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965,[7] and expanded in 1969. Khan entrusted the ISI with the responsibility for the collection of internal political intelligence in East Pakistan. Later on, during the Baloch nationalist revolt in Balochistan in the mid-1970s, the ISI was tasked with performing a similar intelligence gathering operation.[7]
The ISI lost its importance during the regime of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, who was very critical of its rôle during the 1970 general elections, which triggered off the events leading to the partition of Pakistan and emergence of Bangladesh.[7]
 
After Chief of Army StaffGeneral Zia-ul-Haqseized power on 5 July 1977 and became the Chief Martial Law Administrator of the country, the ISI was expanded by making it responsible for the collection of intelligence about the Pakistan Communist Party and various political parties such as the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).[7]
 
The Soviet war in Afghanistan of the 1980s saw the enhancement of the covert action capabilities of the ISI by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). A special Afghan Section, the SS Directorate, was created under the command of Brigadier Mohammed Yousaf to oversee the coordination of the war. A number of officers from the ISI's Covert Action Division (Special Activities Division) received training in the United States and many covert action experts of the CIA were attached to the ISI to guide it in its operations against the Soviet troops by using the Afghan Mujahideen.[citation needed]
On September 2001, Parvaiz Musharraf appointed a new Director General for ISI, Lieutenant General Ehsanul Haq who was later on replaced by the Let. Gen. Shuja Pasha.[citation needed]

Organisation

ISI's headquarters are located in Islamabad, and currently the head of the ISI is called the Director General- who has to be a serving Lieutenant General in the Pakistan Army.[citation needed] Under the Director General, three Deputy Directors General report directly to him and are in charge in three separate fields of the ISI which are Internal wing – dealing with counter-intelligence and political issues inside Pakistan, External wing – handling external issues, and Analysis and Foreign Relations wing.[8]
The general staff of the ISI mainly come from paramilitary forces and some specialised units from the Pakistan Army such as the some chosen people from SS Group (SSG), SSG(N), and the SS Wing.[citation needed] According to some experts the ISI is the largest intelligence agency in the world in terms of number of staff. While the total number has never been made public, experts estimate about 10,000 officers and staff members, which does not include informants and assets.[5]
Accountability aspects
Recently, a bill introduced by a private member in the Senate to make the agency more accountable to the Parliament and Government, was withdrawn as it reportedly did not have the concurrence of the special committee of the ruling PPP.[9]

Departments

  • Covert Action Division
Responsible for paramilitary and covert operations as well as special activities.[10] Its roles are akin to Special Activities Division of CIA and a handful numbers of officers are trained by the CIA's SAD and active since 1960s.[11]
  • Joint Intelligence X
coordinates all the other departments in the ISI.[5] Intelligence and information gathered from the other departments are sent to JIX which prepares and processes the information and from which prepares reports which are presented.
  • Joint Intelligence Bureau
responsible for gathering political intelligence.[5] It has three subsections, one devoted entirely to operations against India.[5]
  • Joint Counterintelligence Bureau
responsible for surveillance of Pakistan's diplomats and diplomatic agents abroad, along with intelligence operations in the Middle East, South Asia, China, Afghanistan and the Muslim republics of the former Soviet Union.[5]
  • Joint Intelligence North
exclusively responsible for the Jammu and Kashmir region and Northern Areas.[5]
  • Joint Intelligence Miscellaneous
responsible for espionage, including offensive intelligence operations, in other countries.[5]
  • Joint Signal Intelligence Bureau
operates intelligence collections along the India-Pakistan border.[5] The JSIB is the ELINT, COMINT, and SIGINT directorate that is charged to divert the attacks from the foreign non-communications electromagnetic radiations emanating from other than nuclear detonations or radioactive sources.[5]
  • Joint Intelligence Technical
deals with development of science and technology to advance the Pakistan intelligence gathering. The directorate is charged to take steps against the electronic warfare attacks in Pakistan.[5] Without any exception, officers from this divisions are reported to be engineer officers and military scientists who deal with the military promotion of science and technology.[5] In addition, there are also separate explosives and a chemical and biological warfare sections.[5]
  • SS Directorate
which monitors the terrorist group activities that operates in Pakistan against the state of Pakistan. The SS Directorate is comparable to that of Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) National Clandestine Service (NCS), and responsible for the covert political action and paramilitary special operations.
  • Political Internal Division[12]
Monitored the financial funding of the right-wing political science sphere against the left-wing political science circles. This department was involved in providing funds to the anti-left wing forces during the general elections of 1965, 1977, 1985, 1988, and 1990.[13] The department is now "inactive" since March 2012 with the new director taking the operational charge of the ISI.[14]

Director Generals of the ISI

  1. 1950–1959: MGenRobert Cawthome
  2. 1959–1966: BGen Riaz Hussain[15]
  3. 1966–1971: MGen (then BGen) Mohammad Akbar Khan[16]
  4. 1971–1978: LGen (then Maj Gen) Ghulam Jilani Khan
  5. 1978–1980: LGen Muhammad Riaz
  6. 1980 – March 1987: LGen Akhtar Abdur Rahman
  7. March 1987 – May 1989: LGen Hameed Gul
  8. May 1989 – August 1990: LGen (retd) Shamsur Rahman Kallu
  9. August 1990 – March 1992: LGen Asad Durrani
  10. March 1992 – May 1993: LGen Javed Nasir
  11. May 1993 – 1995: LGen Javed Ashraf Qazi
  12. 1995 – October 1998: LGen (then Maj Gen) Naseem Rana
  13. October 1998 – October 1999: LGen Ziauddin Butt
  14. October 1999 – October 2001: LGen Mahmud Ahmed
  15. October 2001 – October 2004: LGen Ehsan ul Haq
  16. October 2004 – October 2007: LGen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani
  17. October 2007 – October 2008: LGen Nadeem Taj
  18. October 2008 – 19 March 2012: LGen Ahmad Shuja Pasha
  19. 19 March 2012 – present: LGen Zaheerul Islam[17]

Headquarters

The ISI headquarters are in Islamabad. The complex consists of various adobe building separated by lawns and fountains. The entrance to the complex is next to a private hospital. Declan Walsh of The Guardian said that the entrance is "suitably discreet: no sign, just a plainclothes officer packing a pistol who direct visitors through a chicane of barriers, soldiers and sniffer dogs".[18] Walsh said that the complex "resembles a well-funded private university" and that the buildings are "neatly tended," the lawns are "smooth," and the fountains are "tinkling." He described the central building, which houses the director general's office on the top floor, as "a modern structure with a round, echoing lobby."[18]

Recruitment and training

Both civilians and members of the armed forces can join the ISI. For civilians, recruitment is advertised and is jointly handled by the Federal Public Services Commission (FPSC) and civilian ISI agents are considered employees of the Ministry of Defence. The FPSC conducts various examinations testing the candidate's knowledge of current affairs, English and various analytical abilities. Based on the results, the FPSC shortlists the candidates and sends the list to the ISI who conduct the initial background checks. The selected candidates are then invited for an interview which is conducted by a joint committee comprising both ISI and FPSC officials.[4]

Major Operations

Functions

  • Collection of information and extraction of intelligence from information
ISI obtains information critical to Pakistan's strategic interests. Both overt and covert means are adopted.[4]
  • Classification of intelligence
Data is sifted through, classified as appropriate, and filed with the assistance of the computer network in ISI's headquarters in Islamabad.[4]
  • Aggressive intelligence
The primary mission of ISI includes aggressive intelligence which comprises espionage, psychological warfare, subversion, sabotage.[4]
  • Counterintelligence
ISI has a dedicated section which spies against enemy's intelligence collection.[4]

Methods

Diplomatic missions provide an ideal cover and ISI centres in a target country are generally located on the embassy premises.[4]
ISI operatives find good covers in multinational organisations. Non-governmental organizations and cultural programmes are also popular screens to shield ISI activities.[4]
  • Media
International media centres can easily absorb ISI operatives and provide freedom of movement.[4]
  • Collaboration with other agencies
ISI maintains active collaboration with other secret services in various countries. Its contacts with Saudi Arabian Intelligence Services, Chinese Intelligence, the American CIA and British MI6 have been well known.
  • Third Country Technique
ISI has been active in obtaining information and operating through third countries like Afghanistan, Nepal, the United Kingdom, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Iran, Turkey and China..[2][3]
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Sufferings of Syrian Refugees

How to control Fukushima nuclear plant desaster?

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Japan is to invest hundreds of millions of dollars into building a frozen wall around the Fukushima nuclear plant to stop leaks of radioactive water.

The leaks were getting worse and the government "felt it was essential to become involved to the greatest extent possible", Mr Suga said....

  Fukushima nuclear plant desaster

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Skin Cancer Warnng Signs

Worldwide mobile phone sales


KGB

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KGB (USSR), insignia of honorary officer (1957)
KGB (USSR), insignia of honorary officer (1957) 
Emblem of the KGB Deutsch: Emblem des KGB Ital...
Emblem of the KGB Deutsch: Emblem des KGB Italiano: Stemma del KGB Nederlands: Embleem van de KGB 
KGB, an initialism for (Russian: Комитет государственной безопасности (КГБ), Komitet gosudarstvennoy bezopasnosti (usually translated as Committee for State Security), was the main security agency for the Soviet Union from 1954 until its collapse in 1991. The KGB was formed in 1954 and attached to the Council of Ministers, the committee was a direct successor of such preceding agencies as Cheka, NKGB, and MGB.
 
It was the chief government agency of "union-republican jurisdiction", acting as internal security, intelligence, and secret police. Similar agencies were instated in each of the republics of the Soviet Union aside from the Russian SFSR and consisted of many ministries, state committees and state commissions.
The KGB also has been considered a military service and was governed by army laws and regulations, similar to the Soviet Army or MVDInternal Troops. While most of the KGB archives remain classified, two on-line documentary sources are available.[1][2] Its main functions were foreign intelligence, counterintelligence, operative-investigatory activities, guarding the State Border of the USSR, guarding the leadership of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Soviet Government, organization and ensuring of government communications as well as fight against nationalism, dissent, and anti-Soviet activities.
After breaking away from the Republic of Georgia in the early 1990s with Russian help, the self-proclaimedRepublic of South Ossetia established its own KGB (keeping this unreformed name)

Mode of operation

A 1983 Time magazine article reported that the KGB was the world's most effective information-gathering organization.[4] It operated legal and illegal espionage residencies in target countries where a legal resident gathered intelligence while based at the Soviet Embassy or Consulate, and, if caught, was protected from prosecution by diplomatic immunity. At best, the compromised spy either returned to the Soviet Union or was declared persona non grata and expelled by the government of the target country.
 
The illegal resident spied, unprotected by diplomatic immunity, and worked independently of Soviet diplomatic and trade missions, (cf. the non-official cover CIA officer). In its early history, the KGB valued illegal spies more than legal spies, because illegal spies infiltrated their targets with greater ease. The KGB residency executed four types of espionage: (i) political, (ii) economic, (iii) military-strategic, and (iv) disinformation, effected with "active measures" (PR Line), counter-intelligence and security (KR Line), and scientific–technological intelligence (X Line); quotidian duties included SIGINT (RP Line) and illegal support (N Line).[5]
 
The KGB classified its spies as agents (intelligence providers) and controllers (intelligence relayers). The false-identity or legend assumed by a USSR-born illegal spy was elaborate, using the life of either a "live double" (participant to the fabrication) or a "dead double" (whose identity is tailored to the spy). The agent then substantiated his or her legend by living it in a foreign country, before emigrating to the target country, thus the sending of US-bound illegal residents via the Soviet embassy in Ottawa, Canada. Tradecraft included stealing and photographing documents, code-names, contacts, targets, and dead letter boxes, and working as a "friend of the cause" or agents provocateur, who would infiltrate the target group to sow dissension, influence policy, and arrange kidnappings and assassinations.[citation needed]

History

Mindful of ambitious spy chiefs—and after deposing Premier Nikita Khrushchev—Secretary Leonid Brezhnev and the CPSU knew to manage the next over-ambitious KGB Chairman, Aleksandr Shelepin (1958–61), who facilitated Brezhnev's palace coup d'état against Khrushchev in 1964 (despite Shelepin not then being in KGB). With political reassignments, Shelepin protégé Vladimir Semichastny (1961–67) was sacked as KGB Chairman, and Shelepin, himself, was demoted from chairman of the Committee of Party and State Control to Trade Union Council chairman.
In the 1980s, the glasnost liberalisation of Soviet society provoked KGB Chairman Vladimir Kryuchkov (1988–91) to lead the August 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt to depose President Mikhail Gorbachev. The thwarted coup d'état ended the KGB on 6 November 1991. The KGB's successors are the secret police agency FSB (Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation) and the espionage agency SVR (Foreign Intelligence Service).

KGB in the US

The World War Interregnum

The GRU (military intelligence) recruited the ideological agents Julian Wadleigh and Alger Hiss, who became State Department diplomats in 1936. The NKVD's first US operation was establishing the legal residency of Boris Bazarov and the illegal residency of Iskhak Akhmerov in 1934.[6] Throughout, the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) and its General Secretary Earl Browder, helped NKVD recruit Americans, working in government, business, and industry.
 
Other important, low-level and high-level ideological agents were the diplomats Laurence Duggan and Michael Whitney Straight in the State Department, the statistician Harry Dexter White in the Treasury Department, the economist Lauchlin Currie (an FDR advisor), and the "Silvermaster Group", headed by statistician Greg Silvermaster, in the Farm Security Administration and the Board of Economic Warfare.[7] Moreover, when Whittaker Chambers, formerly Alger Hiss's courier, approached the Roosevelt Government—to identify the Soviet spies Duggan, White, and others—he was ignored. Hence, during the Second World War (1939–45)—at the Teheran (1943), Yalta (1945), and Potsdam (1945) conferences—Big Three Ally Joseph Stalin of the USSR, was better informed about the war affairs of his US and UK allies than they were about his.[8]
 
Soviet espionage succeeded most in collecting scientific and technologic intelligence about advances in jet propulsion, radar, and encryption, which impressed Moscow, but stealing atomic secrets was the capstone of NKVD espionage against Anglo–American science and technology. To wit, British Manhattan Project team physicist Klaus Fuchs (GRU 1941) was the main agent of the Rosenberg spy ring.[citation needed] In 1944, the New York City residency infiltrated the top secret Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, by recruiting Theodore Hall, a nineteen-year-old Harvard physicist.

During the Cold War

The KGB failed to rebuild most of its US illegal resident networks. The aftermath of the Second Red Scare (1947–57), McCarthyism, and the destruction of the CPUSA hampered recruitment. The last major illegal resident, Rudolf Abel ("Willie" Vilyam Fisher), was betrayed by his assistant, Reino Häyhänen, in 1957.
Recruitment then emphasised mercenary agents, an approach especially successful[citation needed][quantify] in scientific and technical espionage—because private industry practiced lax internal security, unlike the US Government. In late 1967, the notable KGB success was the walk-in recruitment of US NavyChief Warrant OfficerJohn Anthony Walker who individually and via the Walker Spy Ring for eighteen years enabled Soviet Intelligence to decipher some one million US Navy messages, and track the US Navy.[9]
In the late Cold War, the KGB was successful with intelligence coups in the cases of the mercenary walk-in recruits FBI counterspyRobert Hanssen (1979–2001) and CIA Soviet Division officer Aldrich Ames (1985-1994).[10]

KGB in the Soviet Bloc

 
It was Cold War policy for the KGB of the Soviet Union and the secret services of the satellite states to extensively monitor public and private opinion, internal subversion and possible revolutionary plots in the Soviet Bloc. In supporting those Communist governments, the KGB was instrumental in crushing the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, and the Prague Spring of "Socialism with a Human Face", in 1968 Czechoslovakia.
 
During the Hungarian revolt, KGB chairman Ivan Serov personally supervised the post-invasion "normalization" of the country. In consequence, KGB monitored the satellite-state populations for occurrences of "harmful attitudes" and "hostile acts;" yet, stopping the Prague Spring, deposing a nationalist Communist government, was its greatest achievement.
The KGB prepared the Red Army's route by infiltrating to Czechoslovakia many illegal residents disguised as Western tourists. They were to gain the trust of and spy upon the most outspoken proponents of Alexander Dubček's new government. They were to plant subversive evidence, justifying the USSR's invasion, that right-wing groups—aided by Western intelligence agencies—were going to depose the Communist government of Czechoslovakia. Finally, the KGB prepared hardline, pro-USSR members of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (CPC), such as Alois Indra and Vasil Biľak, to assume power after the Red Army's invasion.[citation needed]
 
The KGB's Czech success in the 1960s was matched with the failed suppression of the Solidarity labour movement in 1980s Poland. The KGB had forecast political instability consequent to the election of Archbishop of Kraków Karol Wojtyla as the first Polish Pope, John Paul II, whom they had categorised as "subversive" because of his anti-Communist sermons against the one-party PUWP régime. Despite its accurate forecast of crisis, the Polish United Workers' Party (PUWP) hindered the KGB's destroying the nascent Solidarity-backed political movement, fearing explosive civil violence if they imposed the KGB-recommended martial law. Aided by their Polish counterpart, the Służba Bezpieczeństwa (SB), the KGB successfully infiltrated spies to Solidarity and the Catholic Church[citation needed], and in Operation X co-ordinated the declaration of martial law with Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski and the Polish Communist Party;[citation needed][dubious] however, the vacillating, conciliatory Polish approach blunted KGB effectiveness—and Solidarity then fatally weakened the Communist Polish government in 1989..[3]
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04 Sep International Hijab Day

Syrian Revolution Statistics

G 20 Major Economies

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The Group of Twenty Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors (also known as the G-20, G20, and Group of Twenty) is a group of finance ministers and central bank governors from 20 major economies: 19 countries plus the European Union, which is represented by the President of the European Council and by the European Central Bank.[2] The G-20 heads of government or heads of state have also periodically conferred at summits since their initial meeting in 2008. Collectively, the G-20 economies account for approximately 80 percent of the gross world product (GWP),[3] 80 percent of world trade (including EU intra-trade), and two-thirds of the world population.[2] They furthermore account for 84.1 percent and 82.2 percent of the world's economic growth by nominal GDP and GDP (PPP) respectively from the years 2010 to 2016, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
 
The G-20 was proposed by former Canadian Prime MinisterPaul Martin[4] as a forum for cooperation and consultation on matters pertaining to the international financial system. The group was formally inaugurated in September 1999, and held its first meeting in December 1999. It studies, reviews, and promotes high-level discussion of policy issues pertaining to the promotion of international financial stability, and seeks to address issues that go beyond the responsibilities of any one organization. With the G-20 growing in stature after the 2008 Washington summit, its leaders announced on 25 September 2009, that the group would replace the G8 as the main economic council of wealthy nations.[5] Since its inception, the G-20's membership policies have been criticized by numerous intellectuals,[6][7] and its summits have been a focus for major protests.[8]
 
The heads of the G-20 nations met biannually at G-20 summits between 2008 and 2011. Since the November 2011 Cannes summit, all G-20 summits have been held annually.[2] Russia currently holds the chair of the G-20, and will host the eighth G-20 summit in September 2013
In addition to these 20 members, several other international forums and institutions, as represented by their respective chief executive officers, participate in meetings of the G-20.[2] These include the managing director and Chairman of the International Monetary Fund, the President of the World Bank, the International Monetary and Financial Committee and the Chairman of the Development Assistance Committee.
The G-20's membership does not reflect exactly the 19 largest national economies of the world in any given year. The organization states:[1]
In a forum such as the G-20, it is particularly important for the number of countries involved to be restricted and fixed to ensure the effectiveness and continuity of its activity. There are no formal criteria for G-20 membership and the composition of the group has remained unchanged since it was established. In view of the objectives of the G-20, it was considered important that countries and regions of systemic significance for the international financial system be included. Aspects such as geographical balance and population representation also played a major part.
All 19 member nations are among the top 29 economies as measured in GDP at nominal prices in a list published by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for 2013.[28] Not represented by membership in the G-20 are Switzerland (ranked 20th by the IMF), Iran (21), Norway (23) and Taiwan (27), even though they rank higher than some members. Spain (13), the Netherlands (18), Sweden (22), Poland (24), Belgium (25) and Austria (28) are included only as part of the EU, and not independently.
When the countries' GDP is measured at purchasing power parity (PPP) rates,[29] all 19 members are among the top 25 in the world on April 2013, according to the IMF. Iran (17), Taiwan (20) and Thailand (24) are not G-20 members, while Spain (14), Poland (21) and the Netherlands (23) are only included in the EU slot. However, in a list of average GDP, calculated for the years since the group's creation (1999–2008) at both nominal and PPP rates, only Spain, the Netherlands, Taiwan, and Poland appear above any G-20 member in both lists simultaneously.
 
Spain, being the 13th largest economy in the world and 5th in the European Union in terms of nominal GDP, is a "permanent guest" of the organization, although the Spanish government's policy is to not request official membership.[34][35] As such, a Spanish delegation has been invited to, and has attended, every G-20 heads of state summit since the G-20's inception.

Role of Asian countries

A 2011 report released by the Asian Development Bank predicted that large Asian economies such as China and India would play a more important role in global economic governance in the future. The report stated that the rise of emerging market economies heralded a new world order, in which the G-20 would become the global economic steering committee.[36]
The report furthermore noted that Asian countries had led the global recovery following the late-2000s recession. It predicted that the region would have a greater presence on the global stage, shaping the G-20 agenda for balanced and sustainable growth through strengthening intraregional trade and stimulating domestic demand.[36]

Invitees

Typically, several countries that are not permanent members of the G-20 are extended invitations to participate in the summits. The invitees are chosen by the host country. For the 2010 summits, for example, both Canada and South Korea invited Ethiopia (chair of NEPAD), Malawi (chair of the African Union), Vietnam (chair of ASEAN), and Spain. Canada also invited the Netherlands, while South Korea invited Singapore. Both Canada and South Korea invited seven international organizations: the United Nations, the International Labour Organization, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, and the Financial Stability Board.[37][38]

Criticisms

Exclusivity of membership

Although the G-20 has stated that the group's "economic weight and broad membership gives it a high degree of legitimacy and influence over the management of the global economy and financial system,"[39] its legitimacy has been challenged. With respect to the membership issue, U.S. President Barack Obama has noted the difficulty of pleasing everyone: "everybody wants the smallest possible group that includes them. So, if they're the 21st largest nation in the world, they want the G-21, and think it's highly unfair if they have been cut out."[40]
 
A 2011 report for the Danish Institute for International Studies, entitled "The G-20 and Beyond: Towards Effective Global Economic Governance", criticised the G-20's exclusivity, highlighting in particular its under-representation of the African continent. Moreover, the report stated that the G-20's practice of inviting observers from non-member states is a mere "concession at the margins", and does not grant the organisation representational legitimacy.[41] However, Global Policy stated in 2011 that the G-20's exclusivity is not an insurmountable problem, and proposed mechanisms by which it could become more inclusive.[42]

Norwegian perspective

In a 2010 interview with Der Spiegel,[6] Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre called the G-20 "one of the greatest setbacks since World War II." Although Norway is the seventh-largest contributor to international development programs in the United Nations,[43] it is not a member of the EU, and thus is not represented in the G-20 even indirectly.[6] Norway, like the other 170 nations not among the G-20, has little or no voice within the group. Støre characterized the G-20 as a "self-appointed group", arguing that it undermines the legitimacy of organizations set up in the aftermath of World War II, such as the IMF, World Bank and United Nations:
The G-20 is a self-appointed group. Its composition is determined by the major countries and powers. It may be more representative than the G-7 or the G-8, in which only the richest countries are represented, but it is still arbitrary. We no longer live in the 19th century, a time when the major powers met and redrew the map of the world. No one needs a new Congress of Vienna.
—Jonas Gahr Støre, 2010[6]

Global Governance Group (3G) response

According to Singapore's representative to the United Nations, UN members who are not G-20 members have responded to the G-20's exclusivity by either reacting with indifference, refusing to acknowledge the G-20's legitimacy, or accepting the G-20's status while hoping to "engage the G-20 as the latter continues to evolve so that [their] interests are taken on board."[44] Out of this latter group, Singapore has taken a leading role in organizing an informal "Global Governance Group" of 28 non-G-20 countries, seeking to collectively channel their views into the G-20 process more effectively.[45][46] Singapore's chairing of the Global Governance Group was cited as a rationale for inviting Singapore to the November 2010 G-20 summit in South Korea.[47]

Foreign Policy critiques

The American magazine Foreign Policy has published articles condemning the G-20, in terms of its principal function as an alternative to the supposedly exclusive G8. It questions the actions of some of the G-20 members, and advances the notion that some nations should not have membership in the first place. For example, it has suggested that Argentina should be formally replaced in the group by Spain, because Spain's economy is larger.[7] Furthermore, with the effects of the Great Recession still ongoing, the magazine has criticized the G-20's efforts to implement reforms of the world's financial institutions, branding such efforts as failed.[48]
 
On 14 June 2012, an essay published by the National Taxpayers Union was forwarded to Foreign Policy, espousing a critical view of the application of G-20 membership. The essay's authors, Alex Brill and James K. Glassman, used a numerical table with seven criteria to conclude that Indonesia, Argentina, Russia and Mexico do not qualify for G-20 membership, and that Switzerland, Singapore, Norway and Malaysia had overtaken some of the current members. However, the gap between current members Mexico and Russia and the lower-ranked entries in the authors' list (Malaysia and Saudi Arabia) was only slight. Thus, it was concluded that there is no obvious group of twenty nations that should be included in the G20, and that fair and transparent metrics are essential, as they justify the difficult decisions that will be required in order to differentiate among similarly situated countries.[49]

Wider concerns

The G-20's transparency and accountability have been questioned by critics, who call attention to the absence of a formal charter and the fact that the most important G-20 meetings are closed-door.[50] In 2001, the economist Frances Stewart proposed an Economic Security Council within the United Nations as an alternative to the G-20. In such a council, members would be elected by the General Assembly based on their importance in the world economy, and the contribution they are willing to provide to world economic development.[51]
 
The cost and extent of summit-related security is often a contentious issue in the hosting country, and G-20 summits have attracted protesters from a variety of backgrounds, including information activists, nationalists, and opponents of Fractional Reserve Banking and crony capitalism. In 2010, the Toronto G-20 summit sparked mass protests and rioting, leading to the largest mass arrest in Canadian history.[8].[9]
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Poverty in Afghanistan

Recipients of "Nishan-e-Haider"

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 Recipients of "Nishan-e-Haider"





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Natural Beauty of Karakorum Highway

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 Natural Beauty of Karakorum Highway








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Tokyo

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English: Metropolitan Government Building in S...
English: Metropolitan Government Building in Shinjuku, Tôkyô, Japan 
Tokyo  officially Tokyo Metropolis(東京都Tōkyō-to?),[4] is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan.[5] Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area in the world.[6] It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family. Tokyo is in the Kantō region on the southeastern side of the main island Honshu and includes the Izu Islands and Ogasawara Islands.[7] Tokyo Metropolis was formed in 1943 from the merger of the former Tokyo Prefecture (東京府Tōkyō-fu?) and the city of Tokyo(東京市Tōkyō-shi?).
 
Tokyo is often thought of as a city but is commonly referred to as a "metropolitan prefecture". The Tokyo metropolitan government administers the 23 Special Wards of Tokyo (each governed as an individual city), which cover the area that was formerly the City of Tokyo before it merged and became the subsequent metropolitan prefecture. The metropolitan government also administers 39 municipalities in the western part of the prefecture and the two outlying island chains. The population of the special wards is over 9 million people, with the total population of the prefecture exceeding 13 million. The prefecture is part of the world's most populous metropolitan area with upwards of 35 million people and the world's largest urban agglomeration economy with a GDP of US$1.479 trillion at purchasing power parity, ahead of the New York metropolitan area in 2008. The city hosts 51 of the Fortune Global 500 companies, the highest number of any city.[8]
 
Tokyo has been described as one of the three "command centres" for the world economy, along with New York City and London.[9] The city is considered an alpha+ world city, listed by the GaWC's 2008 inventory[10] and ranked fourth among global cities by A.T. Kearney's 2012 Global Cities Index.[11] In 2012, Tokyo was named the most expensive city for expatriates, according to the Mercer and Economist Intelligence Unit cost-of-living surveys,[12] and in 2009 named the third Most Liveable City and the World’s Most Livable Megalopolis by the magazine Monocle.[13] The Michelin Guide has awarded Tokyo by far the most Michelin stars of any city in the world.[14][15] Tokyo hosted the 1964 Summer Olympics and will host the 2020 Summer Olympics
 
Tokyo was originally a small fishing village named Edo,[7] in what was formerly part of the old Musashi Province.[21] Edo was first fortified by the Edo clan, in the late twelfth century. In 1457, Ōta Dōkan built Edo Castle. In 1590, Tokugawa Ieyasu made Edo his base and when he became shogun in 1603, the town became the centre of his nationwide military government. During the subsequent Edo period, Edo grew into one of the largest cities in the world with a population topping one million by the 18th century.[22] Tokyo became the de factocapital of Japan[23] even while the emperor lived in Kyoto, the imperial capital. After about 263 years, the shogunate was overthrown under the banner of restoring imperial rule.

1869–1943  

In 1869, the 17-year-old Emperor Meiji moved to Edo. Tokyo was already the nation's political and cultural centre,[24] and the emperor's residence made it a de facto imperial capital as well, with the former Edo Castle becoming the Imperial Palace. The city of Tokyo was established. Central Tokyo, like Osaka, has been designed since about 1900 to be centered on major railway stations in a high-density fashion, so suburban railways were built relatively cheaply at street level and with their own right-of-way. This differs from many cities in the United States that are low-density and automobile-centric. Though expressways have been built in Tokyo, the basic design has not changed. Tokyo went on to suffer two major catastrophes in the 20th century, but it recovered from both. One was the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake, which left 140,000 dead or missing,[25] and the other was World War II.

1943–present

In 1943, the city of Tokyo merged with the "Metropolitan Prefecture" of Tokyo. The Bombing of Tokyo in 1944 and 1945, with 75,000 to 200,000 killed and half of the city destroyed, was almost as devastating as the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined.[26]After the war, Tokyo was completely rebuilt, and was showcased to the world during the 1964 Summer Olympics. The 1970s brought new high-rise developments such as Sunshine 60, a new and controversial[27]airport at Narita in 1978 (some distance outside city limits), and a population increase to about 11 million (in the metropolitan area). Tokyo's subway and commuter rail network became one of the busiest in the world[28] as more and more people moved to the area. In the 1980s, real estate prices skyrocketed during a real estate and debt bubble.
 
The bubble burst in the early 1990s, and many companies, banks, and individuals were caught with mortgage backed debts while real estate was shrinking in value. A major recession followed, making the 1990s Japan's "Lost Decade"[29] from which it is now slowly recovering. Tokyo still sees new urban developments on large lots of less profitable land. Recent projects include Ebisu Garden Place, Tennozu Isle, Shiodome, Roppongi Hills, Shinagawa (now also a Shinkansen station), and the Marunouchi side of Tokyo Station. Buildings of significance are demolished for more up-to-date shopping facilities such as Omotesando Hills.

Climate

The former city of Tokyo and the majority of mainland Tokyo lie in the humid subtropical climate zone (Köppen climate classificationCfa),[45] with hot humid summers and generally mild winters with cool spells. The region, like much of Japan, experiences a one-month seasonal lag, with the warmest month being August, which averages 27.5 °C(81.5 °F), and the coolest month being January, averaging 6.0 °C(42.8 °F). The record low temperature is −9.2 °C(15.4 °F), and the record high is 39.5 °C(103.1 °F), though there was once an unofficial reading of 42.7 °C(108.9 °F) at the Primary School Station.[46] Annual rainfall averages nearly 1,530 millimetres (60.2 in), with a wetter summer and a drier winter. Snowfall is sporadic, but does occur almost annually.[47] Tokyo also often sees typhoons each year, though few are strong. The last one to hit was Fitow in 2007,[48] while the wettest month since records began in 1876 has been October 2004 with 780 millimetres (30 in)[49] including 270.5 millimetres (10.6 in) on the ninth of that month.[50]. [16]
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Tokyo Tower

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English: Tokyo Tower.
 Tokyo Tower.
Tokyo Tower  is a communications and observation tower located in Shiba Park, Minato, Tokyo, Japan. At 333 metres (1,093 ft), it is the second-tallest artificial structure in Japan. The structure is an Eiffel Tower-inspired lattice tower that is painted white and international orange to comply with air safety regulations.
 
Built in 1958, the tower's main sources of revenue are tourism and antenna leasing. Over 150 million people have visited the tower since its opening. FootTown, a four-storey building located directly under the tower, houses museums, restaurants and shops. Departing from there, guests can visit two observation decks. The two-storey Main Observatory is located at 150 metres (490 ft), while the smaller Special Observatory reaches a height of 250 metres (820 ft).
 
The tower acts as a support structure for an antenna. Originally intended for television broadcasting, radio antennas were installed in 1961, but the tower is now used to broadcast signals for Japanese media outlets such as NHK, TBS and Fuji TV. Japan's planned digital television transition by July 2011 was problematic, however; Tokyo Tower's height (333 meters) was not high enough to adequately support complete terrestrial digital broadcasting to the area. A taller digital broadcasting tower, known as Tokyo Skytree, was completed on February 29, 2012.
 
Hisakichi Maeda, founder and president of Nippon Denpatō, the tower's owner and operator, originally planned for the tower to be taller than the Empire State Building, which at 381 meters was the highest structure in the world. However, the plan fell through because of the lack of both funds and materials. The tower's height was eventually determined by the distance the TV stations needed to transmit throughout the Kantō region, a distance of about 150 kilometres (93 mi). Tachū Naitō, renowned designer of tall buildings in Japan, was chosen to design the newly proposed tower.[4] Looking to the Western world for inspiration, Naitō based his design on the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France.[7] With the help of engineering company Nikken Sekkei Ltd., Naitō claimed his design could withstand earthquakes with twice the intensity of the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake or typhoons with wind speeds of up to 220 kilometres per hour (140 mph).[4]
 
The new construction project attracted hundreds of tobi, traditional Japanese construction workers who specialized in the construction of high-rise structures. The Takenaka Corporation broke ground in June 1957 and each day at least 400 laborers worked on the tower.[4] It was constructed of steel, a third of which was scrap metal taken from US tanks damaged in the Korean War.[8][9] When the 90-metre antenna was bolted into place on October 14, 1958, Tokyo Tower was the tallest freestanding tower in the world, taking the title from the Eiffel Tower by 13 metres.[4] Despite being taller than the Eiffel Tower, Tokyo Tower only weighs about 4,000 tons, 3,300 tons less than the Eiffel Tower.[10] While other towers have since surpassed Tokyo Tower's height, the structure is still the tallest self-supporting steel structure in the world and was the tallest artificial structure in Japan until April 2010, when the new Tokyo Skytree became the tallest building of Japan.[7] It was opened to the public on December 23, 1958 at a final cost of ¥2.8 billion ($8.4 million in 1958).[9][11] Tokyo Tower was mortgaged for ¥10 billion in 2000.[12]
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Fukoshima Nuclear Disaster in Pictures

Michael Jackson

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Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson 
Michael Joseph Jackson[1][2] (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer-songwriter, dancer, businessman and philanthropist. Often referred to by the honorific nickname "King of Pop", or by his initials MJ,[3] Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records. His contributions to music, dance, and fashion, along with his publicized personal life, made him a global figure in popular culture for over four decades.
 
The eighth child of the Jackson family, he debuted on the professional music scene along with his brothers as a member of The Jackson 5 in 1964, and began his solo career in 1971. In the early 1980s, Jackson became the dominant figure in popular music. The music videos for his songs, including those of "Beat It," "Billie Jean," and "Thriller," were credited with breaking down racial barriers and transforming the medium into an art form and promotional tool. The popularity of these videos helped to bring the then relatively new television channel MTV to fame. With videos such as "Black or White" and "Scream" he continued to innovate the medium throughout the 1990s, as well as forging a reputation as a touring solo artist. Through stage and video performances, Jackson popularized a number of complicated dance techniques, such as the robot, and the moonwalk, to which he gave the name. His distinctive sound and style has influenced numerous hip hop, post-disco, contemporary R&B, pop, and rock artists.
 
Jackson's 1982 album Thriller is the best-selling album of all time. His other records, including Off the Wall (1979), Bad (1987), Dangerous (1991), and HIStory (1995), also rank among the world's best-selling. Jackson is one of the few artists to have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice. He was also inducted into the Dance Hall of Fame as the first and only dancer from pop and rock music. Some of his other achievements include multiple Guinness World Records; 13 Grammy Awards as well as the Grammy Legend Award and the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award; 26 American Music Awards, more than any other artist, including the "Artist of the Century" and "Artist of the 1980s"; 13 number-one singles in the United States in his solo career, more than any other male artist in the Hot 100 era; and the estimated sale of over 400 million records worldwide.[4][5][6][Note 1] Jackson has won hundreds of awards, making him the most-awarded recording artist in the history of popular music.[7] In what would have been Jackson's 52nd birthday on August 29, 2010, he became the most downloaded artist of all time.[8][9] Jackson constantly traveled the world attending events honoring his humanitarianism and the 2000 Guinness Book of Records recognized him for supporting 39 charities.[10]
 
Aspects of Jackson's personal life, including his changing appearance, personal relationships, and behavior, generated controversy. In the mid-1990s, he was accused of child sexual abuse, but the case was settled out of court for about $25 million and no formal charges were brought.[11] In 2005, he was tried and acquitted of further child sexual abuse allegations and several other charges after the jury found him not guilty on all counts. While preparing for his comeback concert series titled This Is It, Jackson died of acute propofol and benzodiazepine intoxication on June 25, 2009, after suffering from cardiac arrest. The Los Angeles County Coroner ruled his death a homicide, and his personal physician was convicted of involuntary manslaughter. Jackson's death triggered a global outpouring of grief and a live broadcast of his public memorial service was viewed around the world

Influences

Jackson's music took root in R&B, pop and soul. He had been influenced by the work of musicians such as Little Richard, James Brown, Jackie Wilson, Diana Ross, Fred Astaire,[295]Sammy Davis, Jr.,[295]Gene Kelly,[296]David Ruffin,[297]The Isley Brothers, the Bee Gees and the West Side Story dancers, to whom he made a tribute in "Beat It" and in the "Bad" video.[298] According to David Winters, who met and befriended Jackson while choreographing the 1971 Diana Ross TV Special "Diana!", (which was also Jackson's first solo debut outside of The Jackson 5), Jackson watched West Side Story almost every week and it was his favorite film. 
 
While Little Richard had a substantial influence on Jackson,[302][303] James Brown was Jackson's greatest inspiration. In reference to Brown, Jackson declared: "Ever since I was a small child, no more than like six years old, my mother would wake me no matter what time it was, if I was sleeping, no matter what I was doing, to watch the television to see the master at work. And when I saw him move, I was mesmerized. I had never seen a performer perform like James Brown, and right then and there I knew that was exactly what I wanted to do for the rest of my life because of James Brown."[304]
 
The young Michael Jackson owed his vocal technique in large part to Diana Ross. Not only a mother figure to him, she was often observed in rehearsal as an accomplished performer. He later expressed: "I got to know her well. She taught me so much. I used to just sit in the corner and watch the way she moved. She was art in motion. I studied the way she moved, the way she sang – just the way she was." He told her: "I want to be just like you, Diana." She said: "You just be yourself."[305] But Jackson owed part of his enduring style—especially his use of the oooh interjection—to Ross. From a young age, Jackson often punctuated his verses with a sudden exclamation of oooh. Diana Ross had used this effect on many of the songs recorded with The Supremes.[306]

Musical themes and genres

Unlike many artists, Jackson did not write his songs on paper. Instead he would dictate into a sound recorder, and when recording he would sing the lyrics from memory.[307] In most of his songs, such as "Billie Jean", "Who Is It", and "Tabloid Junkie", he would beatbox and imitate the instruments using his voice instead of playing the actual instruments, along with other sounds. Jackson noted that it is easier to sing a drum line, or sing a bass, instead of playing a drum line or a bass with an instrument. Several critics have said that Jackson's distinct voice was able to replace any instrument convincingly. Steve Huey of Allmusic said that, throughout his solo career, Jackson's versatility allowed him to experiment with various themes and genres.[2] As a musician, he ranged from Motown's dance fare and ballads to techno and house-edged new jack swing to work that incorporates both funk rhythms and hard rock guitar.[108][308][309]
 
According to Huey, Thriller refined the strengths of Off the Wall; the dance and rock tracks were more aggressive, while the pop tunes and ballads were softer and more soulful.[2] Notable tracks included the ballads "The Lady in My Life", "Human Nature" and "The Girl Is Mine"; the funk pieces "Billie Jean" and "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'"; and the post-disco set "Baby Be Mine" and "P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)".[2][308][309][310][311] With Thriller, Christopher Connelly of Rolling Stone commented that Jackson developed his long association with the subliminal theme of paranoia and darker imagery.[311] Allmusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine noted this is evident on the songs "Billie Jean" and "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'".[309] In "Billie Jean", Jackson sings about an obsessive fan who alleges he has fathered a child of hers.[2]
 
 In "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" he argues against gossip and the media.[311] "Beat It" decried gang violence in an homage to West Side Story, and was Jackson's first successful rock cross-over piece, according to Huey.[2][108] He also observed that the title track "Thriller" began Jackson's interest with the theme of the supernatural, a topic he revisited in subsequent years.[2] In 1985, Jackson co-wrote the charity anthem "We Are the World"; humanitarian themes later became a recurring theme in his lyrics and public persona.[2]In Bad, Jackson's concept of the predatory lover can be seen on the rock song "Dirty Diana".[316] The lead single "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" is a traditional love ballad, while "Man in the Mirror" is an anthemic ballad of confession and resolution.[86]
 
 "Smooth Criminal" was an evocation of bloody assault, rape and likely murder.[86] Allmusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine states that Dangerous presents Jackson as a very paradoxical individual.[317] He comments the album is more diverse than his previous Bad, as it appeals to an urban audience while also attracting the middle class with anthems like "Heal the World".[317] The first half of the record is dedicated to new jack swing, including songs like "Jam" and "Remember the Time".[318] The album is Jackson's first where social ills become a primary theme; "Why You Wanna Trip on Me", for example, protests against world hunger, AIDS, homelessness and drugs.[318]Dangerous contains sexually charged efforts such as the multifaceted love song, "In the Closet".[318]
 
 The title track continues the theme of the predatory lover and compulsive desire.[318] The second half includes introspective, pop-gospel anthems such as "Will You Be There", "Heal the World" and "Keep the Faith"; these songs show Jackson opening up about various personal struggles and worries.[318] In the ballad "Gone Too Soon", Jackson gives tribute to his friend Ryan White and the plight of those with AIDS.[319]HIStory creates an atmosphere of paranoia.[320] Its content focuses on the hardships and public struggles Jackson went through just prior to its production. In the new jack swing-funk-rock efforts "Scream" and "Tabloid Junkie", along with the R&B ballad "You Are Not Alone", Jackson retaliates against the injustice and isolation he feels, and directs much of his anger at the media.[321]
 
In the introspective ballad "Stranger in Moscow", Jackson laments over his "fall from grace", while songs like "Earth Song", "Childhood", "Little Susie" and "Smile" are all operatic pop pieces.[320][321] In the track "D.S.", Jackson launched a verbal attack against Tom Sneddon. He describes Sneddon as an antisocial, white supremacist who wanted to "get my ass, dead or alive". Of the song, Sneddon said, "I have not—shall we say—done him the honor of listening to it, but I've been told that it ends with the sound of a gunshot".[322]Invincible found Jackson working heavily with producer Rodney Jerkins.[2] It is a record made up of urban soul like "Cry" and "The Lost Children", ballads such as "Speechless", "Break of Dawn" and "Butterflies" and mixes hip-hop, pop and R&B in "2000 Watts", "Heartbreaker" and "Invincible".[323][324]

Vocal style

Jackson sang from childhood, and over time his voice and vocal style changed noticeably. Between 1971 and 1975, Jackson's voice descended from boy soprano to high tenor.[325] His vocal range as an adult was F2-E♭6. Jackson first used a technique called the "vocal hiccup" in 1973, starting with the song "It's Too Late to Change the Time" from The Jackson 5's G.I.T.: Get It Together album.[326] Jackson did not use the hiccup technique— somewhat like a gulping for air or gasping— fully until the recording of Off the Wall: it can be seen in full force in the "Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)" promotional video.[26] With the arrival of Off the Wall in the late 1970s, Jackson's abilities as a vocalist were well regarded.
 
At the time, Rolling Stone compared his vocals to the "breathless, dreamy stutter" of Stevie Wonder. Their analysis was also that "Jackson's feathery-timbred tenor is extraordinarily beautiful. It slides smoothly into a startling falsetto that's used very daringly".[327][328] 1982 saw the release of Thriller, and Rolling Stone was of the opinion that Jackson was then singing in a "fully adult voice" that was "tinged by sadness".[311]A distinctive deliberate mispronunciation of "come on", used frequently by Jackson, occasionally spelled "c'mon", "cha'mone" or "shamone", is also a staple in impressions and caricatures of him.[329]
 
The turn of the 1990s saw the release of the introspective album Dangerous. The New York Times noted that on some tracks, "he gulps for breath, his voice quivers with anxiety or drops to a desperate whisper, hissing through clenched teeth" and he had a "wretched tone".[318] When singing of brotherhood or self-esteem the musician would return to "smooth" vocals.[318] When commenting on Invincible, Rolling Stone were of the opinion that—at the age of 43—Jackson still performed "exquisitely voiced rhythm tracks and vibrating vocal harmonies".[330] Nelson George summed up Jackson's vocals by stating "The grace, the aggression, the growling, the natural boyishness, the falsetto, the smoothness—that combination of elements mark him as a major vocalist".[312]

Music videos and choreography

 
Jackson has also been referred to as the King of Music Videos,[331] Steve Huey of Allmusic observed how Jackson transformed the music video into an art form and a promotional tool through complex story lines, dance routines, special effects and famous cameo appearances; simultaneously breaking down racial barriers.[2] Before Thriller, Jackson struggled to receive coverage on MTV, allegedly because he was African American.[332] Pressure from CBS Records persuaded MTV to start showing "Billie Jean" and later "Beat It", leading to a lengthy partnership with Jackson, also helping other black music artists gain recognition.[333] MTV employees deny any racism in their coverage, or pressure to change their stance. MTV maintains that they played rock music, regardless of race.[334] The popularity of his videos on MTV helped to put the relatively young channel "on the map"; MTV's focus shifted in favor of pop and R&B.[335][333]
 
His performance on Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever changed the scope of live stage show; "That Jackson lip-synced 'Billie Jean' is, in itself, not extraordinary, but the fact that it did not change the impact of the performance is extraordinary; whether the performance was live or lip-synced made no difference to the audience" thus creating an era in which artists re-create the spectacle of music video imagery on stage.[336] Short films like Thriller largely remained unique to Jackson, while the group dance sequence in "Beat It" has frequently been imitated.[337] The choreography in Thriller has become a part of global pop culture, replicated everywhere from Indian films to prisons in the Philippines.[338] The Thriller short film marked an increase in scale for music videos, and has been named the most successful music video ever by the Guinness World Records.[110]
 
In the 19-minute music video for "Bad"—directed by Martin Scorsese—Jackson began using sexual imagery and choreography not previously seen in his work. He occasionally grabbed or touched his chest, torso and crotch. When asked by Oprah in the 1993 interview about why he grabbed his crotch, he replied, "I think it happens subliminally" and he described it as something that was not planned, but rather, as something that was compelled by the music. "Bad" garnered a mixed reception from both fans and critics; Time magazine described it as "infamous". The video also featured Wesley Snipes; in the future Jackson's videos would often feature famous cameo roles.[79][339] For the "Smooth Criminal" video, Jackson experimented with an anti-gravity lean where the performer leans forward at a 45 degree angle, beyond the performer's center of gravity. To accomplish this move live, Jackson and designers developed a special shoe that locks the performer's feet to the stage, allowing them to lean forward. They were granted U.S. Patent 5,255,452 for the device.[340] Although the music video for "Leave Me Alone" was not officially released in the US, in 1989, it was nominated for three Billboard Music Video Awards;[341] the same year it won a Golden Lion Award for the quality of the special effects used in its production. In 1990, "Leave Me Alone" won a Grammy for Best Music Video, Short Form.[107]
 
He received the MTV Video Vanguard Award in 1988 and the MTV Video Vanguard Artist of the Decade Award in 1990 to celebrate his accomplishments in the art form in the 1980s; in 1991 the first award was renamed in his honor.[125] "Black or White" was accompanied by a controversial music video, which, on November 14, 1991, simultaneously premiered in 27 countries with an estimated audience of 500 million people, the largest viewing ever for a music video at that time.[124] It featured scenes construed as having a sexual nature as well as depictions of violence. The offending scenes in the final half of the 14-minute version were edited out to prevent the video from being banned, and Jackson apologized.[342] Along with Jackson, it featured Macaulay Culkin, Peggy Lipton and George Wendt. It helped usher in morphing as an important technology in music videos.[343]
 
"Remember the Time" was an elaborate production, and became one of his longest videos at over nine minutes. Set in ancient Egypt, it featured groundbreaking visual effects and appearances by Eddie Murphy, Iman and Magic Johnson, along with a distinct complex dance routine.[344] The video for "In the Closet" was Jackson's most sexually provocative piece. It featured supermodel Naomi Campbell in a courtship dance with Jackson. The video was banned in South Africa because of its imagery.[125]
The music video for "Scream", directed by Mark Romanek and production designer Tom Foden, is one of Jackson's most critically acclaimed. In 1995, it gained 11 MTV Video Music Award Nominations—more than any other music video—and won "Best Dance Video", "Best Choreography", and "Best Art Direction".[345] The song and its accompanying video are a response to the backlash Jackson received from the media after being accused of child molestation in 1993.[346] A year later, it won a Grammy for Best Music Video, Short Form; shortly afterwards Guinness World Records listed it as the most expensive music video ever made at a cost of $7 million.[164][347]
 
"Earth Song" was accompanied by an expensive and well-received music video that gained a Grammy nomination for Best Music Video, Short Form in 1997. The video had an environmental theme, showing images of animal cruelty, deforestation, pollution and war. Using special effects, time is reversed so that life returns, wars end, and the forests re-grow.[164][348] Released in 1997 and premiering at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival, Michael Jackson's Ghosts was a short film written by Jackson and Stephen King and directed by Stan Winston. The video for Ghosts is over 38 minutes long and holds the Guinness World Record as the world's longest music video.[164][173][349][350].[12
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Tokyo Disneyland

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The old color scheme at Tokyo Disneyland
The old color scheme at Tokyo Disneyland 
Tokyo Disneyland  is a 115-acre (465,000 m) theme park at the Tokyo Disney Resort in Urayasu, Chiba, Japan, near Tokyo.[1] Its main gate is directly adjacent to both Maihama Station and Tokyo Disneyland Station. It was the first Disney park to be built outside the United States, and it opened on April 15, 1983. The park was constructed by Walt Disney Imagineering in the same style as Disneyland in California and Magic Kingdom in Florida.[2] It is owned by The Oriental Land Company, which licenses the theme from The Walt Disney Company. Tokyo Disneyland and its companion park, Tokyo DisneySea, are the only Disney parks not wholly or partially owned by the Walt Disney Company.
There are seven themed areas in the park: the World Bazaar; the four classic Disney lands: Adventureland, Westernland, Fantasyland and Tomorrowland; and two mini-lands: Critter Country and Mickey's Toontown. The park is noted for its extensive open spaces, to accommodate the large crowds that visit the park.[3] In 2009, Tokyo Disneyland hosted approximately 13.65 million guests, ranking it as the third-most visited theme park in the world, behind its American sister parks, Magic Kingdom in Orlando and Disneyland Park in Anaheim.[4] In 2011, the park hosted 14 million visitors, again ranking it as the world's third most visited theme park

Dedication

To all of you who come to this happy place, welcome. Here you will discover enchanted lands of Fantasy and Adventure, Yesterday and Tomorrow. May Tokyo Disneyland be an eternal source of joy, laughter, inspiration, and imagination to the peoples of the world. And may this magical kingdom be an enduring symbol of the spirit of cooperation and friendship between the great nations of Japan and the United States of America.
E. Cardon Walker, April 15, 1983

Themed areas

With only a few exceptions, Tokyo Disneyland features the same attractions found in Disneyland and Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom.[3]
 

World Bazaar

World Bazaar is the main entry corridor and primary shopping area of Tokyo Disneyland. Despite the use of the word "World" in its name, the general look and theme of World Bazaar is that of early 20th-century America, matching the "Main Street, U.S.A." areas of other Magic Kingdom-style parks. World Bazaar consists of two "streets": Main Street (the primary corridor running from the main entrance toward Cinderella Castle), and Center Street, which forms a perpendicular line with Main Street and leads to Adventureland in one direction and Tomorrowland in the other. A unique feature of World Bazaar is a permanent canopy covering the Main Street and Center Street areas, designed to protect guests from the elements.

Adventureland 

Adventureland consists of two distinct yet complementary areas: A New Orleans-themed area and a "jungle"-themed area. It is roughly a combination of the New Orleans Square and Adventureland areas found in Disneyland Park in fk united States. Major attractions include Pirates of the Caribbean, Jungle Cruise, and The Enchanted Tiki Room.
 

Westernland

Westernland is an "old west" themed area, the counterpart of Frontierland in other Magic Kingdom-style parks. Like its counterparts, the landscape of Westernland is dominated by the Rivers of America, a man-made waterway that is home to the Mark Twain Riverboat, Tom Sawyer Island, and numerous live and Audio-Animatronic animals. Major attractions also include Big Thunder Mountain and the Country Bear Theater.

Critter Country

Critter Country is a small area of the park and is dominated by a single major attraction, Splash Mountain. The landscape and theming of the area, including its shops and restaurants, are a direct extension of that attraction.There is also another attraction which is a hands-on canoe ride. The passengers are asked to paddle along the long river around Tom Sawyer's island. There are only two attractions but a handful of small shops and restaurants.
 

Fantasylan

Like other Magic Kingdom theme parks, Fantasyland's central entryway is a castle, in this case Cinderella Castle, a near exact copy of the one in Florida's Magic Kingdom. Lacking any "thrill rides," Fantasyland's attractions are generally dark rides that take visitors through scenes from classic Disney movies such as Snow White, Peter Pan, and Pinocchio. Fantasyland is also home to two iconic Disney theme park attractions, The Haunted Mansion and It's a Small World. Another major attraction of significant note is Pooh's Honey Hunt; presented in a "trackless" format unique to Tokyo Disneyland, Pooh's Hunny Hunt is one of the park's most popular attractions.

Toontown

Like its counterparts in other Disney theme parks, Toontown (called "Mickey's Toontown" at other Disney parks) is heavily inspired by the movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Appropriately, the major attraction here is Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin. There are several smaller attractions, including the immensely popular Mickey's House and Meet Mickey, which often boasts some of the longest wait times in the park.

Tomorrowland

Tomorrowland has a more urban look and appears more like a community than a showcase of future technology. Rides include Space Mountain and Star Tours: The Adventures Continue. The entrance of Tomorrowland resembles the one originally designed for Walt Disney World in every way except the lack of the PeopleMover track, before its remodeling in the early 1990s. The area around Space Mountain more resembles Disneyland's Tomorrowland..[5]
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