Civil War is being Incited in Pakistan - a new murderous phase begins

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Stop The War – Pakistan’s Coalition Of Conscience

THE COALITION OF CONSCIENCE

July 18, 2010
http://uruknet.info/?p=m68050&hd=&size=1&l=e



THE COALITION OF CONSCIENCE


'STOP THE WAR’

CHARTER OF DEMANDS



Adopted In Islamabad

Sunday, 18 July 2010

At The National Press


Timed For Release With The Arrival Of

US Secretary of State In Pakistan




We, the people of Pakistan, progeny of the Great Nara (Sarasvati), Indus, Gandhara and Muslim Civilizations that predate all civilizations of the world; and a bastion of knowledge since antiquity; and those who have withstood all imperial adventures,


Having evolved a civilization founded on acceptance of higher values of civilized life, respect for others’ rights, culture of giving not taking, and imbibing an ideology of submission to God’s will, with the firmest of beliefs and faith in our abilities to discern the correct civilization path to a better tomorrow,


Disturbed and aghast at the policies being pursued by the oldest and nascent democracies; overtaken by the imperialist, expansionist and exploitative mindset; concerned that democracy is fast becoming the domain of the highest bidders; political-military and industrial complexes, financial cartels and believers of the doomsday scenarios,


Saddened at the gross violations of human rights defined in the Magna Carta, Bill of Rights of the American Founding Fathers and UN Resolutions, an infringement on the values of cultures, Faith in God that reflects separate standards and values; liberal for self and barbaric for others inherently leading to conflict,


Cognizant that silence is acceptance and complicity in the murder of the innocent; considering such militarized preemptions a violation by the governments on the largest suffering class of the poor in Pakistan, Afghanistan and all coalition countries fighting in Afghanistan.


Spiritually disturbed, because all faiths propagate peace, forgiveness and a quest for truth; rightfully asserting that all those who resort to violence and murder of innocent blatantly violate the universal common values of humanity,


Desiring that political and religious leaders in all our nations lead the way to peace for humanity, to stand united as equals, to save mankind and our planet from extinction.


Appealing to the international and national conscience to stand up and declare that 'enough is enough’ because, civilizations, cultures and ideologies cannot be bombed out of the minds,


We, the Coalition of Conscience demand, that this, illegal, unjust, and inhuman war be stopped through the collective power of human resilience and conscience the world over.


CHARTER OF DEMANDS

1. The foreign presence in Afghanistan and Pakistan is part of the problem rather than the solution;

The coalition Governments must immediately order a cessation of all military operations and sting operations in the region and allow peace to be negotiated.

2.         Al-Qaeda is a convenient tool to blanket all opposition to US policies in the region and impose unilateral policies;

All efforts to use this pretext to prolong the presence in the region and to pursue an international agenda other than peace must cease.

3.         Ongoing coalition operations have a fragmenting effect on both Pakistan and Afghanistan;

All coalition operations with divisive effects must be stopped.

4.         The entire spectrum of violence and instability in Pakistan is a backwash from Afghanistan created by the presence of foreign forces. Support to insurgent and terrorist groups in FATA and Balochistan originate from Afghanistan. If this is not stopped, the instability will spread to other regions as well;

We demand the Government of Pakistan to make its own independent policies to ensure peace and development in the region; the mother of all civilizations.

5. Afghan movement is led by leaders who are indigenous to Afghanistan and legitimate representatives of resistance to foreign occupation;

These leaders must be treated as party to peace and brought into a comprehensive dialogue process as reflected in Pak-Afghan Jirga of 2007.

6. Failing a clear timetable from the coalition for the cessation of war;

The Government of Pakistan will be urged to exercise this nation’s legitimate right to secure its interests against all hostile bases inside Afghanistan, supporting and funding terrorism and insurgency in Pakistan.

7.         In order to ensure long term stability and prosperity in the region;

The Government of Pakistan must carry forward the inconclusive negotiations of 1996 and assist all Afghans (Resistance and Northern Alliance) to mediate peace. We welcome support from Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkey and China with no covert agendas.

8. It is not Pakistan’s responsibility to ensure logistics for coalition forces in Afghanistan knowing well that much of it is used to destabilize and terrorize Pakistanis;

This support must stop unless approved by UN and conducted under transparent international safeguards and inspections.

9. Gross violations and exercise of human rights on selective bases are widely documented;

All Pakistani prisoners kept by coalition countries, Pakistan, and Afghanistan in illegal detention centers must be brought back immediately and subjected to Pakistani courts.

10. Rendition centers, trials under duress and extra judicial killings including drones and blanket air strikes violate basic human rights;

War reparations and criminal trials of coalition leaders who have knowingly falsified evidence in support of war before their own people; their Parliaments; and before the UN Security Council must be brought before Law. All Pakistani leaders guilty of same must be tried under Pakistan laws.

These are the ten screams of conscience. Let them travel far and wide through the resonance of people’s will and be understood and acted upon with speed, honesty, and conviction. We wish a better and secure future for all nations of the world.



The founder members of THE COALITION OF CONSCIENCE are:


Pakistan Ex Servicemen Association

Christian Study Center, Rawalpindi, Pakistan

Society for Advancement of Health and Education (SAHEE)

KBS Welfare

Good Governance Forum

Pakistan Overseas League

Defense of Human Rights

And signatory Citizens

All Civil Society Organizations and Individuals world over are invited to join and raise their voice for the future of mankind.
 

[citizenx]

Coalition of Conscience.

You know who could really use one of those?

America.

Time to grow one!

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South Asia
Jul 21, 2010 
http://atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/LG21Df02.html 
 
Tension ramped up a notch in Pakistan


By Syed Saleem Shahzad

ISLAMABAD - The discovery of a "shaped charge" - an explosive charge shaped to intensely focus the effect of the explosive's energy - at the scene of a recent attack in Pakistan has raised fears that al-Qaeda aims to switch from targeted terrorist attacks to a high-level insurgency - a form of urban guerrilla warfare.

A senior Pakistani counter-terrorism official confirmed to Asia Times Online that evidence of a "shaped charge" device was found after the twin attacks this month at the shrine of a Sufi saint in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore in which more than 40 people were killed and nearly 200 injured.

Shaped charges are more traditionally used to penetrate armor, but insurgents in Iraq used them to good effect in improvised explosive devices.

"This is simply preparation for urban guerrilla warfare in Pakistan, like al-Qaeda previously launched in Iraq," the official said.

In Iraq, the al-Qaeda-affiliated Abu Musab al-Zarqawi carried out many attacks on shrines dedicated to the Prophet Mohammad's descendants. This contributed significantly to the sectarian strife that nearly tore Iraq apart, which in turn opened up space in which al-Qaeda could operate against occupation troops.

Security officials launched a massive crackdown after the Lahore attack, arresting hundreds of militants, yet further incidents followed. Last week, two low-intensity blasts rocked Internet cafes in Lahore, forcing the closure of cafes across the city. On Sunday, a suicide bomb exploded at a Shi'ite mosque in Sargodha, a city between Islamabad and Lahore, killing the bomber and injuring at least 15 people.

Pakistan plays a crucial role in the South Asian war theater; essentially, the more stable the country is, and the more it can contain militants, the better it is for the Americans and their war in Afghanistan.

It was no coincidence, therefore, that before US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's recent visit to Pakistan the newly appointed al-Qaeda number three and chief of operations in Afghanistan, Sheikh Fateh al-Misri, sent a letter to Pakistani army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kiani. The message was stark and clear: "You have seen our strength. Now you have to decide on which side you will stand. If you don't change your policies, then be ready for a battle."

As if to follow up the words with action, Pakistani militants carried out various attacks across the tribal regions, including in Bajaur, Lower Dir, Swat and Charsadda. On Monday evening, a military convoy was ambushed in North Waziristan, where a ceasefire agreement is meant to be in place. Four soldiers were injured.

This was followed on Tuesday by an attack on a Punjabi regimental center in Mardan in Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa province (formerly North-West Frontier Province). Three suicide bombers were killed and four soldiers wounded.

Military operations in the tribal areas in 2008 and 2009 were successful in that they forced militants to pull back from urban areas, where maintaining the peace on a long-term basis was left in the hands of the police and the local administrations. These, though, are riddled with corruption.

Biting the bullet
Most police appointments in Pakistan are deeply politicized and made with political consent rather than on merit. Aware of this, the Americans and top Pakistani security agencies tried to make sure that appointments in the crucial region of Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa were made on merit.

Top to middle-ranking cadre were selected for their expertise, especially in counter-terrorism matters. The Americans and the Pakistani military provided large funds and training programs for the police in the province, which is considered to be the main battle front against militants and al-Qaeda.

However, large chunks of the funds have apparently been squandered by the local police's purchase committee, notably by paying double the amount for bullets for AK-47 rifles and in paying for thousands of bullet magazines that were in fact free. The committee also reportedly bought sub-standard explosive detection devices, bullet-proof jackets and radios. (Stickers pasted on the wireless sets said they were made by American company Motorola, when they were from China.)

The matter is under investigation by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence and American investigators, as the US is a principal donor for these frontier police.

In December 2008, the US Department of Defense (DoD) noted similar corruption in Afghanistan as the US Central Command lacked well-defined procedures to track weaponry. From 2005 to 2008, the US provided the Afghan National Army (ANA) with $3.7 billion in weapons and equipment. The DoD maintained that many of ANA's weapons were sold to insurgents after being declared lost or destroyed. This lower-level corruption contributed to the US losing control of many districts in the eastern provinces.

The last thing Pakistan wants is more arms flowing to the militants, and if the discovery of a "shaped charge" is a portent of bigger things to come from al-Qaeda, the heat can only rise in Pakistan if it sticks to its current pro-US stance.

Syed Saleem Shahzad is Asia Times Online's Pakistan Bureau Chief. He can be reached at saleem_shahzad2002@yahoo.com

 
 
 

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South Asia
Jul 21, 2010 
http://atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/LG21Df05.html 
 
Jihadis set to spill over into Kashmir

By Zahid U Kramet

LAHORE - There was hope but no great expectations for the dialogue between India's External Affairs Minister S M Krishna and Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Quereshi on July 15. And so the headline of a major English-language Pakistan daily read, "They talked but said nothing" - an outcome which proved pessimists' predictions.

Pakistan's bottom line had always been for progress on the disputed Kashmir region and the Siachen Glacier dispute, with the reduced flow of downstream water in the Indus River connected to the overall equation. The Indian side declined to take up these major issues, saying it did not have the mandate. Khrishna instead remained fixated on blaming Pakistan's Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI) for terror activities in India, bringing the talks to a virtual standstill, according to people with direct knowledge of the discussions.

The Siachen Glacier lies just east of the Line of Control between India and Pakistan, it has been the scene of an ongoing battle between the two countries since 1984. The glacier's melting waters are the source of the Nubra River in Indian-controlled Ladakh, which drains into the Shyok River and in turn joins the Indus, Pakistan's main water source. India abandoned plans to withdraw from Siachen after Pakistan's incursion into Kargil in Indian-administered Kashmir in 1999.

The larger Kashmir dispute encompasses much more than water rights. It is an emotive issue stretching back to 1947, when Pakistan was carved out of British India on the understanding that the sub-continent's Muslims constituted a separate nation. Religion alone determined the territorial demarcation of the two states. Kashmir was made an exception, which set the stage for two of the three wars between the two countries in 1947 and 1965. Whether this was contrived or accidental is moot, and both India and Pakistan suffer the consequences.

India's ruling elites were reluctant to admit that "a nation of converts" constitutes a nation, while Pakistan has always seen Kashmir as "the unfinished business of partition". The two countries stay eyeball-to-eyeball on the issue, despite numerous efforts for the neighbors engage in dialogue, and both countries have acquired nuclear capability.

In the postscript to the talks, Quereshi announced there had been some deliberation on the Kashmir dispute, despite Krishna's initial show of reluctance to address the issue. He also said he had drawn attention to the human-rights violations in the valley with the recent Indian troop deployment in the state's summer capital, Srinagar, that resulted in the killing of 15 civilians, following weeks of protests against Indian rule. Krishna drew attention to a 40% increase in infiltration across the Line of Control, insinuating that the violence was a result of this.

A complaint was then lodged by the Indian side against the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (believed a front for the militant group, the Lashkar-e-Taiba, or LeT) accusing its chief, Hafiz Saeed, of inciting the violence in Kashmir with inflammatory statements. Quereshi wondered out loud why India's home secretary had issued press statements on the eve of the foreign minister's talks reproaching Pakistan's ISI for being instrumental in the Mumbai attacks of 2008.

And so the blame game went on until Krishna closed the joint address on the hollow note of "starting this journey while being cognizant of the complexities of the challenges", a statement which likely left the talks' American sponsors baffled over what it will take for the two countries to work in tandem to address the terrorist threat emanating from the northwestern mountain ranges of South Asia, which has been playing havoc with North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces in Afghanistan.

In the South Asian smoke and mirrors game, encouraging India and Pakistan to work together will clearly take much more than the Americans bargained for. The LeT, the organization India accuses of masterminding the Mumbai carnage, has long been identified as a Pakistan proxy, bred to boost the independence struggle in Kashmir yet reportedly bending only to Pakistan's military establishment.

The LeT was given free rein to collect funds and recruit members in Pakistan before the 9/11 attacks in the US. Post-9/11, however, a large number of LeT "strays", or breakaways, were found in the company of al-Qaeda-linked jihadi groups that had adopted an anti-American position. This drew another picture and the organization was banned. But it was not disbanded: its leaders simply advised LeT members to keep a low profile in Pakistan, with the doors to India purportedly left open.

Inevitably, the LeT was seen by the Indian ruling elite as complicit in terror attacks that rained down on India. These include the December 2001 assault on the Indian parliament that killed 12; the October 2005 Delhi bombings that killed 62; the September 2008 Delhi bombings that killed 30: the November 2008 Mumbai assault which left 175 dead after a three-day rampage; and the February 2010 Pune blasts that killed nine. However, the organization denied any connections to the assaults, claiming that targeting civilians went against its religious principles.

Pakistan meantime was confronted by a vicious campaign of terror, beginning in 2001. This ran all the way up from Pakistan's southern port city of Karachi to the Khyber Pass in the north. The restiveness in Pakistan's Balochistan province was an added problem. Bomb blasts from 2007 through 2009 alone accounted for 5,500 civilian deaths, and nearly every Pakistani was convinced that India's Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) was behind the killings.

This notwithstanding, most looked towards a new beginning. A sea-change in perceptions seemed to surface when the prime minister of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, Raja Farooq Haider, asked in early July that Pakistan not link the negotiations with India to the resolution of the Kashmir dispute, and advised Pakistan to give up its "Kashmirfirst" policies "because of its internal vulnerabilities". That story, however, was short-lived.

Just two days before the scheduled talks, Haider capitulated. At a political conference in Muzzafarabad, the capital of the Pakistan-administered zone, he announced the "talks could only be meaningful" if Kashmiris were included in the negotiations. There was very little chance of that materializing this early, given India had repeatedly rejected any form of dialogue that might include the Kashmiri separatist factions Pakistan had in tow.

And these factions were there in earnest - as many as 17 groupings - including the conference's organizer, Hizbul Mujahideen , led by Syed Salahudin. Tellingly, they gathered under the United Jihad Council (UJC) banner and Haider could not help being intimidated by them. But even if not, any thoughts on reconciliation would have been quickly discarded when the Salahudin thundered "the red carpet reception to Indian ministers in Islamabad has added insult to Kashmiri injury".

The "clear and present danger" spelled out from the failure of the Indian-Pakistan talks and the conference episodes, is that the jihadis are gathering momentum and set to spill over into Kashmir. From there, or so the region's political pundits have it, al-Qaeda had planned to move on into India to secure "strategic depth" with heightened terror tactics. Then it can trek onto Central Asia to forward the jihadi movement for the liberation of Palestine.

Ahmed Rashid, author of Taliban, in the introduction of his new offering Descent into Chaos, described the support system of al-Qaeda's human resources succinctly when he wrote, "to a handful of Muslims, al-Qaeda posed a civilizational solution - albeit an extreme one - to the justice denied to Muslims in Palestine [and] Kashmir". The failure of India and Pakistan to resolve the Kashmir dispute will provide the international jihadi movement with all the space it needs.

Zahid U Kramet, a Lahore-based political analyst specializing in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran, is the founder of the research and analysis website the Asia Despatch.

 
 
 

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July 19, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/20/world/asia/20diplo.html?hpw

In a Visit to Pakistan, Clinton Encounters a Less Hostile Reception

By MARK LANDLER

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The last time Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was in Pakistan, less than a year ago, she was asked when the United States would stop killing innocent civilians in its covert drone attacks. She, in turn, suggested that officials in the Pakistani government knew where Al Qaeda’s leaders were hiding.

The mood was noticeably less toxic on Monday, perhaps in part because Mrs. Clinton showed up with more than $500 million in economic aid, part of her campaign to win over a skeptical Pakistani public.

Changing Pakistani attitudes toward America has become one of Mrs. Clinton’s personal challenges as secretary of state. She and her advisers seized on the less hostile reception given to her on this visit, compared with October, to assert that her public diplomacy was making a difference.

“I could feel a change,” Mrs. Clinton told reporters as she flew from Pakistan to Afghanistan at the end of the two-day visit. “The government officials also believe we are moving the needle.”

But she also expressed caution about overstating progress with Pakistan.

“Of course there is a legacy of suspicion that we inherited,” Mrs. Clinton said. “It is not going to be eliminated overnight.”

There was certainly some cognitive dissonance in Mrs. Clinton’s encounters with Pakistanis. At a town-hall meeting, she told a businessman that Pakistan’s record of proliferation would make it hard for the United States to sell it nuclear technology. In a later round table with television journalists, she prodded Pakistan to stiffen its fight against Islamic militants.

Islamabad, she said, could do more to help the United States capture or kill Al Qaeda’s leaders. “I believe they are here in Pakistan, and it would be really helpful if we could get them,” she said in the interview, which was lively, but not as contentious as her last one here.

When the business executive pressed Mrs. Clinton about why United States had not offered Pakistan the kind of civilian nuclear energy pact it has with India, she reminded him of the father of Pakistan’s nuclear program, Abdul Qadeer Khan, who sold nuclear secrets to Libya and North Korea.

“The problems with Mr. A. Q. Khan raise red flags with people around the world,” she said. “They cannot be overlooked or put under the carpet.” Pakistan, she said, was also resisting a treaty to curb the spread of nuclear fuel and had not explained its purchase of two reactors from China.

It is impossible to judge, based on a single meeting and an interview, whether Mrs. Clinton had changed many minds. The participants in the town-hall meeting were invited by the American Embassy in Islamabad; officials said many had worked with American diplomats. Most public opinion polls here show that Pakistanis remain deeply suspicious of the United States.

Najam Sethi, a prominent Pakistani editor and commentator, said Mrs. Clinton would have determined a better sense of her progress had she ventured to Lahore, the Punjabi city she visited last fall, where university students gave her a stony reception. The mass-market papers in Lahore and Karachi, he said, were powerful motors of anti-American sentiment in Pakistan.

In recent months, Mr. Sethi said, many Pakistanis had soured on the United States all over again because they had not seen any benefits from $7.5 billion in economic aid approved by Congress last year.

Mrs. Clinton tried to make up for that on Monday, introducing programs to renovate hospitals, rebuild hydroelectric dams, improve water distribution and help farmers export mangoes.

Certainly, her audiences this time seemed far more interested in talking about everyday problems, like Pakistan’s frequent power failures, than the threat of radical Islam. But with Mrs. Clinton headed to a major conference in Kabul on Tuesday, the topic of Afghanistan’s future came up, too.

Mrs. Clinton offered guarded support for negotiations with Pakistan-based insurgent groups, like the Haqqani network. But she cautioned both Afghans and Pakistanis to enter any such talks warily, since groups like the Haqqani network were unlikely to meet the minimum American requirements to be reconciled with Afghan society: severing ties with Al Qaeda, renouncing violence and abiding by the Afghan Constitution.

Mrs. Clinton confirmed that the United States was moving toward putting the Haqqani network on its list of terrorist groups. But she said that should not necessarily rule out Afghan efforts to reconcile with it. “There is no contradiction between trying to defeat those who are determined to fight and opening the door to those who are willing to reconcile,” she said.

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South Asia
Jul 22, 2010
http://atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/LG22Df03.html
 
Burning issues in troubled Balochistan


By Abubakar Siddique

While the world focuses on the end game in Afghanistan, multiple crises brewing in a neighboring region have the potential to spoil international efforts to stabilize the country.

Extremist groups, secessionist movements and grinding poverty and oppression are all contributing to instability in the Balochistan region, a vast desert area spanning western Pakistan, southwestern Afghanistan and southeastern Iran along the Arabian Sea shoreline. Islamabad and Tehran face active insurgencies in their parts of Balochistan. Developments in the region affect relations between Pakistan, India, Iran and Afghanistan, delaying plans for economic and energy cooperation.


It was not surprising, then, that a much-anticipated meeting on July 15 between the Indian and Pakistani foreign ministers ended without progress. The meeting - the first high-level Indian visit to Islamabad since the deadly Mumbai attacks in November 2008 - fell victim to public accusations over Balochistan, proving that Pakistan's remote and impoverished province may have superseded even Kashmir as the biggest thorn in bilateral relations.

Speaking to journalists after an exhausting day of official rounds in the damp monsoon weather, Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi called the talks valuable and said the two sides would continue meeting. But he indicated that the issue of New Delhi's support for ethnic Balochi secessionists had been discussed.

Qureshi said he had asked his Indian counterpart, S M Krishna, to cancel the Indian passport of Brahamdagh Khan Bugti, a Balochi rebel leader who is in hiding after the 2006 killing of his grandfather, Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, in southwestern Pakistan.

"I think the interaction that one had with the [foreign] minister was very encouraging," Qureshi said. "His response was, 'India is not interested in the destabilization of Pakistan, and that includes Balochistan'."

Krishna instead demanded that Islamabad go after the planners of the 2008 Mumbai attacks, in which 10 gunmen killed 166 people. He urged Pakistan to act on new leads provided by David Coleman Headley, a US citizen of Pakistani origin who is now in US Federal Bureau of Investigation custody.

Krishna categorically denied Indian support for Balochi rebels. "We have been waiting in India for some evidence to be provided by Pakistan of India's involvement in Balochistan," he said.

Influencing events In Afghanistan
India and Pakistan are not the only countries in the region experiencing difficulties in relations stemming from Balochistan.

When 27 people were killed on July 15 in two blasts near a Shi'ite mosque in Zahedan, the capital of the southeastern Iranian province of Sistan-Balochistan, Tehran turned a suspicious eye toward Pakistan. Tehran believes the group that claimed responsibility for the attacks - the extremist Sunni group Jundallah (God's Soldiers), which champions the cause of Iran's 1.5 million Balochi minority - operates out of the Pakistani part of Balochistan. Iranian leaders have criticized Islamabad for not going after Jundallah in the past.

Jundallah, in a statement posted on its website, claimed the attack was in revenge for the hanging of its leader, Abdulmalik Rigi, who was arrested by Tehran on a flight to Kyrgyzstan in February.

Discussing the situation in Pakistan's southwestern Balochistan province, Pakistani author Ahmed Rashid says that as a nationalist insurgency has simmered there over the past six years, the region has gained the potential to influence events in Afghanistan.

"It has a very long border with Afghanistan. It is, of course, part of Pakistan, but it is contested by Baloch dissidents who are very close to the secular government in Kabul [and] who receive support perhaps also from the Indians and the Iranians," Rashid says. "But Pakistan itself wants to use Balochistan as a launching pad for the Afghan Taliban. And it's there that the Afghan Taliban are based."

Hasten the nationalist struggle
Balochistan, Pakistan's largest but least-populated province, has been reeling from protests since the assassination of senior nationalist leader Habib Jalib Baloch on July 14. Thousands of civilians, soldiers and rebels have died in the ongoing Balochi nationalist insurrection against Islamabad, which they see as exploiting their hydrocarbon and mineral resources while keeping them impoverished. This is the fifth rebellion by armed Balochi dissidents in Pakistan's 63-year history. Earlier insurgencies in 1948, 1958, 1962 and 1973-77 were all suppressed militarily.

Rashid says recent events in Balochistan, such as the killings of Balochi nationalist leaders and the large-scale arrests of nationalist cadres, will hasten the nationalist struggle. He says the nationalists will step up their war against Pakistan with the help of neighboring states.

Islamabad, Rashid suggests, will once again try to crush the Balochi insurgency by force because the region is an important sanctuary for Taliban militants, which it supports as a hedge against Indian influence in Afghanistan.

"Balochistan is going to become a very contested area, just as much as Afghanistan is going to become a contested area as we enter into this whole idea of American withdrawal [from Afghanistan starting] next year," Rashid says.

Targets for insurgents
Instability in Balochistan has stalled economic cooperation. After 10 years of negotiations, Tehran and Islamabad signed a US$7 billion gas pipeline project last month that will provide gas to energy-starved Pakistan for 25 years, beginning in 2015. Another pipeline project - the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India route - even has support from the Asian Development Bank. But both might become targets for Balochi insurgents who have long targeted domestic gas pipelines.

Islamabad looks askance at a New Delhi-financed road network that links Afghanistan to the southeastern Iranian port of Chabahar. Tehran hopes the free-trade zone there will attract business from across Central Asia. China has bankrolled a rival port in Gawadar along Pakistan's southwestern Arabian Sea shores. Islamabad and Beijing want to turn it into a major industrial and transport hub with links to Central Asia and western China.

The nearly million-square-kilometer Balochi territories spark intense competition among states which see the region as prized real estate in the heart of Asia.

"Baloch lands span South Asia, Central Asia and South Asia," says veteran journalist Siddiq Baloch, who is based in Quetta, the capital of Pakistan's Balochistan province. "Thus, its presence in these regions makes it important for regional states, and whoever controls it also dominates these regions."

But the more than 8 million predominantly pastoral Balochis are an impoverished lot. They face state discrimination in Iran and Pakistan and wait for a day when their lives will be more important to regional states than the mineral resources and trade routes in their lands.

RFE/RL Radio Mashaal correspondent Abdul Hai Kakar contributed to this report.

Copyright (c) 2010, RFE/RL Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Washington DC 20036

 
 
 

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NATO chief arrives in Pakistan

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 09:58:21 GMT
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=135685&sectionid=351020401

 
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has arrived in Islamabad for a one-day visit to that country.

Rasmussen met with Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Wednesday.

In a news conference in Islamabad later in the day, Rasmussen told reporters that the partnership with Pakistan will be long-lasting.

He said that that Afghanistan may become sanctuary of terrorists if allied forces leave the war-torn country in this situation.

Rasmussen is also scheduled to hold talks with Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, and Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani during his short stay.

The talks will focus on promoting defense cooperation between NATO and Pakistan, the war against terrorist elements and the overall situation of peace and security in the region.

NATO forces have been entangled in a years-long war in Afghanistan following the US-led invasion of the country in 2001.

The prolonged Western military presence in Afghanistan, however, has neither managed to establish peace and stability nor been able to stem the unrelenting Taliban-linked militancy in there.

HSH/MRS

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Mullah Omar, Osama not in Pakistan: Gilani

http://dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010\07\21\story_21-7-2010_pg1_7

ISLAMABAD: Neither Mullah Omar nor Osama bin Laden is in Pakistan and if anyone has any credible and verifiable information, it should be shared with the government, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani said on Tuesday.

Talking to a delegation of the All-Pakistan News Agencies Council, led by Mohsin Beig at the Prime Minister’s Secretariat, Gilani said the role of news agencies was very significant in disseminating information and influencing public opinion.

He directed the Ministry of Information to develop a close liaison with the All-Pakistan News Agencies Council to strengthen professional linkages.

He asked the news agencies representatives to discuss their proposals with the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to work out details of the government’s assistance.

To a question regarding the issue of fake degrees, the prime minister said to every wrong, there was a remedy. He said when a seat in the legislature was declared vacant, the Election Commission would hold elections within the prescribed time schedule.

Clarifying confusion in the media about the Afghan transit trade deal, Gilani said a broad-based understanding was reached at to initiate discussions for a possible agreement. He said an agreement could only be signed after the cabinet had ratified it. app

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'Terrorists target Iran-Pakistan ties'

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 15:12:31 GMT
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=135721&sectionid=351020101

 
Iran wants Pakistan to tighten security in border areas after 27 people were killed in a bomb blast in the city of Zahedan on Thursday July 15.


Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani says certain elements seek to damage friendly relations between Tehran and Islamabad through carrying out terrorist attacks.

Larijani made the remark during a meeting with his Pakistani counterpart Fehmida Mirza on Wednesday, one week after two deadly bombings in Iran's southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan killed at least 27 people and injured more than 100 others.

Larijani said Pakistan needed to stop militants from crossing into Iran where they carry out terrorist attacks and added, “Iran expects Pakistan's security services to seriously cooperate” with the Islamic Republic to eradicate terrorism.

He said that Iran and Pakistan enjoyed “amicable” ties but certain elements sought to “damage” these relations through carrying out acts such as the Zahedan terrorist attack.

The Pakistan speaker for her part said that terrorists need to be decisively dealt and called on the international community to support Islamabad's fight against terrorism.

Iran has repeatedly urged Pakistan to stop terrorists from entering the country and to cooperate in tracking down terrorists.

Interior Minister Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar called on neighboring countries to step up security on their borders.

"Neighboring countries should not become the backyard of a group of thugs who act against the interests of our establishment. Since Iran's borders have always been the securest for our neighbors, we expect them to secure their borders and not allow their soil and capacities be used to equip these thugs against the interest of our nation,” he told reporters on Wednesday.

Last week, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad blamed the US for sponsoring terrorists but said that the Pakistani government should be held accountable for he Zahedan attack.

Extremist Wahhabis and Salafis trained by US intelligence agents in Pakistan are believed to have carried out the Zahedan bombings.

AR/HGH/MMN

[bigron]

South Asia
Jul 23, 2010 
http://atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/LG23Df02.html 
 
Pakistani Taliban widen jihad

By Arif Jamal

The local chapter of Pakistan's Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) Islamist political party held a rally on April 19 in the historic Kissa Khwani Bazaar of Peshawar to protest the extremely low gas pressure and rolling blackouts that affect Peshawar residents up to 10 hours per day.

As leaders announced the end of the rally and protesters started to leave, a 14-year old suicide bomber detonated his suicide vest, killing 23 persons and injuring 50 others. The bomber successfully targeted local JI leaders and police officers - among the dead were JI Peshawar vice amir Haji Dost Mohammad and deputy superintendent of police Gulfat Hussain.

Due to the fact that Hussain was a Shi'ite Muslim, it was initially thought the bomber had specifically targeted him. However, all other evidence suggested the real targets of the bomber were the JI leaders. Had it been by chance or mistake, they would not have continued to target more JI leaders later on. In order to downplay its differences with the Taliban and other jihadi groups, JI tried to blame the Americans for the bombing, with JI leader Hafiz Hashmat accusing private security firm Blackwater (Xe Services LLC) for the attack.

The suicide bombing of the JI rally was an attempt to widen the war that the Pakistani Taliban are fighting against the state of Pakistan. Although the bombing was not the only attack on JI leaders in recent months, it was the biggest, and such targeted attacks have continued. On June 16, the Taliban in Hangu assassinated JI leader Fida Saadi, a provincial executive council member. Soon afterwards they killed JI leader Haji Mohammad Khan and kidnapped his son in Darra Adamkhel on June 23.

The aim of the Pakistani Taliban is to establish an Islamic caliphate, one excluding the participation of all other Islamist groups. When the Afghan mujahideen found Kabul in sight after the fall of Dr Mohammad Najibullah's regime in the early 1990s, they threw themselves at one another's throats. The ensuing civil war gave birth to the Taliban movement.

Recently, the Pakistani Taliban intensified their war on the Barelvi movement and Sufi Islam by bringing the conflict to Punjab. New fronts were opened against the JI with the April 19 suicide bombing in Peshawar and against the Ahmadi community with a suicide bombing in Lahore on May 28.

The enmity between the JI and different parts of the Pakistani Taliban is both ideological and political. Although both JI and the Deobandi groups among the Pakistani Taliban follow the Hanafi school of jurisprudence, JI places less stress on ritual and more on political Islam. The Deobandis abhor the JI leaders (some of whom wear Western dress) and accuse them of having a lust for political power. [1]

However, the real existential threat to the JI comes from the Tehrik-i-Nifaz-i-Shariat Mohammadi (TNSM), led by Maulana Sufi Mohammad and his son-in-law Maulana Fazlullah. They lead the Pakistani Taliban in the Malakand Division and the Swat Valley.

Maulana Sufi Mohammad was a local leader of the JI until the early 1980s, when he developed differences with the party. In his desperation to grab political power, Sufi Mohammad started opposing the JI's policy of attaining power through elections.

He argued that an Islamic state could not be established through elections because the majority of people never vote in favor of Islamist parties. He started believing that the only way to establish an Islamic state was to follow the jihad philosophy of Maulana Maududi (1903-1979), the late founder of the Jamaat-i-Islami. Sufi Mohammad accused the JI leaders of deviating from Maududi's example. [2]

The real, personalized enmity between the two started after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001. Most Islamist and jihadi groups started holding public rallies across Pakistan in favor of the Afghan Taliban. JI was in the forefront of these demonstrations, threatening that they would cross into Afghanistan to fight the Americans if US forces landed there.

However, only Sufi Mohammad led thousands of his followers into Afghanistan. Unprepared as they were, most of them died in US air strikes. Sufi Mohammad retreated with his decimated militia to Pakistan, where he accused the JI of luring him and his fighters into Afghanistan to weaken or eliminate them. Sufi Mohammad never forgave the JI and started preparing his revenge. In interviews the author conducted in 2004-2005, several TNSM commanders portrayed JI as a bigger threat than the Americans. [3]

It is difficult to say which group of the Pakistani Taliban has an interest in attacking the JI at this time. It is a safe bet, however, to believe that the followers of Sufi Mohammad want to take their long-delayed revenge. In the intense sectarian atmosphere, other groups would happily follow the lead.

Pakistan seems to be entering a period similar to that which Afghanistan went through between the fall of Najibullah and the advent of the Taliban in the 1990s, when different factions of the mujahideen fought to eliminate their rivals.

As the Pakistani Taliban spread their jihad to rival Islamist groups, the possibility of other Islamist militias being drawn into a civil war between extremist groups is looking more and more probable. If this happens, it will be bloodier than the mujahideen battles in the 1990s in Afghanistan, with an unimaginable international impact.

Notes
1. Author's interview with Maulana Ajmal Qadri, June 15, 2002.
2. Author's interview with Sufi Mohammad, Maidan, July, 2001.
3. Arif Jamal, “Sharia here, in the country, in the world,” The News on Sunday, Karachi, March 6, 2005.

Arif Jamal is a visiting fellow at the New York University and author of Shadow War - The Untold Story of Jihad in Kashmir.

(This article first appeared in The Jamestown Foundation. Used with permission.)

 
 
 

[bigron]

America's Undeclared War on Pakistan

Clinton's Paradoxistan: Too Good to Be True

By James Gundun
 
Global Research, July 22, 2010
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=20218

It was a relatively flawless performance. With Washington stuck in its Afghan review and Pakistan’s cities under bombardment, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton touched down in a hostile Pakistan in October 2009 on a self-proclaimed propaganda mission. Greeted with bombs from Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and treated with hard questions on the freshly signed Kerry-Lugar bill, Clinton left a foul impression after deploying her grating “do more” mantra on al-Qaeda’s leadership.

July 2010 would be different. No major explosions signaled her arrival, which Clinton attributed to Pakistan’s military success in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). Drones have lost their controversial potency and US aid, always a third rail, grows increasingly palatable to an economically struggling Pakistan. Clinton beamed throughout her photo-ops and Pakistani leadership reflected the shine. She even managed to accuse someone within the government of knowing Osama bin Laden’s location without drawing attention, having landed in South Korea by the time her Fox News interview aired.

From Islamabad Clinton triumphantly landed in Kabul for what she hailed as a “turning point” in Afghanistan: a six hour international conference that pledged $20 billion in aid and declared Afghan security forces would assume command of all provinces by 2014. The choreography went off as planned, which of course is the point when the show is too good to be true.

Like a bridge, errors in one part of the span expose other flaws and threaten to bring the entire structure down with it.

Though Clinton undoubtedly improved upon her last visit, charm can only beautify an ugly reality so much. Promises of aid were automatically linked to a military invasion of North Waziristan rather than Pakistan’s current strategy of negotiating with its hosts, Sirajuddin and Jalaluddin Haqqani. Clinton explicitly ruled out a dialogue with them, tagging US aid as conditional.

Already fearful of military servitude, it doesn’t help that US and foreign aid lacks the track record to inspire confidence among  average Pakistanis. The Kerry-Lugar bill, President Barack Obama’s celebrated achievement in civilian aid, stalled in Congress due to fears of misappropriated funds; a trade bill designed for the FATA similarly gridlocked. Pakistan had to jump through hoops to receive long-delayed reimbursement from the Coalition Support Fund (CSF), while the Friends of Pakistan have delivered only $725 million of $5.6 billion pledged in April 2009.

So when Clinton announced “$500 million in several new development programs,” funded in part by the Kerry-Lugar bill, the many strings attached cast ominous shadows over her smiles. The attitude of Pakistan’s press was straightforward: “Given Pakistan's current plight, any assistance from the outside world has to be welcomed. The recognition by the US that policy cannot be focused only on security issues is also a step in the right direction.”

Whatever the strings and grudges, Pakistan simply isn’t in the position to turn down assistance.

But Islamabad’s endgame is roughly the opposite of Washington’s. While the White House believes its efficiency in delivering military and humanitarian aid determines success in Afghanistan, Pakistanis base success on the effectiveness of Pakistan’s leaders. These aren’t the same goals. America needs Pakistan to improve and thus assist in stabilizing Afghanistan so that it can remain in the region, but Pakistan wants to utilize US aid to regain sovereignty of the state and ultimately rid South Asia of America’s military presence.

“The hugely positive tone adopted by the Secretary of State will of course have brought smiles to the faces of Pakistani leaders,” wrote The News International. “But they must recognize that the relationship between Pakistan and the US is a complex one. Many believe it is in fact the root cause behind our militant problem and that this cannot be solved until the US withdraws from the region.”

Clinton may have missed this not-so-subtle difference, but the chances of her merely ignoring it are higher. While admitting that Pakistani’s negative perception of America “wouldn’t change overnight,” she raved about its new environment - “I could feel a change” - and Pakistani officials who, “really believe that the people are understanding that the United States wants to be a real partner to us and that it's not just killing terrorists.”

Pew Research Center listed Pakistani approval at 17% in June 2010, up 1% from last year but down from 19% in 2008.The News International warned upon her exit, “There is a very real risk that the latest aid offer will be seen as a kind of bribe intended to ensure that the fighting continues. The effort to persuade people that the war against militancy is Pakistan's has so far been a faltering one.”

The Dawn analyzed “Hillary’s iron fist in a velvet glove,” while a less generous Nation concluded, “It is time we broke off from the present US stranglehold that is suffocating Pakistan to death.”

But Clinton’s most telltale contradiction: passing the blame off to George Bush. "Of course there is a legacy of suspicion that we inherited,” she argues, when Pakistan is actually one of the Obama administration's favorite words - a “whole of government” problem. Anti-US sentiment has ran high for over 20 years and spans multiple presidencies, many staffed with the same officials that fill Obama’s cabinet and National Security Council. Pew still has Bill Clinton clocked at 22% in 1999.

Pakistan’s fate has always be decided by how the foreign chips fall, not how they stack up. America may uphold its obligations this time around, it just hasn’t before, and Afghanistan repeats the same story. The Huffington Post digs up the old bones of past “international conferences” and “turning points.”

Paradoxes in Kabul were equally numerous, for instance the massive quantity of foreign aid that may disappear. Karzai called for 50% to funnel through Afghanistan’s ministries by 2012, up from 20%, while dutifully promising to clean up corruption for Western ears. However, the conference followed a report from Integrity Watch Afghanistan that found corruption had doubled between 2006 and 2009. This story never seems to change, whether before or after Karzai's controversial election victory in 2009, and the West’s power to reform this gray area remains suspect.

Reintegration prospects are dwindling too. Reconciliation appears a non-starter in Washington despite its public support for reintegration, a stance that hinders reintegration. On top of UK reports that few Taliban are switching sides, the idea of transferring authority to Afghan forces by 2014 implies that the West still expects to be fighting the Taliban rather than reintegrating it. This tidal wave of uncertainty finally throws the 2014 deadline into upheaval.

When Karzai insisted, "Afghan national security forces will be responsible for all military and law enforcement operations throughout our country by 2014,” he’s asking for the same three years Iraq needed after its surge.

Given that most deadlines in Afghanistan evaporate, history and the present offer no reason to define 2014 as realistic as NATO did. Marjah and Kandahar’s time-lines already protracted. Obama’s 2011 transfer deadline, if not postponed outright, will amount to a symbolic transition of power, and Vice President Joe Biden recently conceded “a couple thousand troops” is the likeliest withdrawal option. Clinton desperately tried to counter the slippery slope by arguing, “the transition process may be able to begin by the end of this year."

Yet believing in 2014, let alone Clinton’s new claim, makes no sense in a country where projects rarely start or finish on time.

The last few days in Afghanistan brought no surprises. The White House in particular is facing renewed criticism from the US Congress and media to clarify the war’s objectives, and Clinton’s tour was its answer. But instead of leveling with the US, Afghan, and Pakistani peoples and shunning unrealistic expectations, Washington rolled out more smoke and mirrors to conjure the image of success.

Being illusions, the deadlines are likely to vanish one by one and ultimately fail to break the West’s cycle of mission drift in Afghanistan and Pakistan.




James Gundun is a political scientist and counterinsurgency analyst based in Washington D.C. Contact him in The Trench, a realist foreign policy blog, at www.hadalzone.blogspot.com.
 

[citizenx]

Some blowback:

Pakistan Halts NATO Supplies to Afghanistan After Attack
By ISMAIL KHAN and JANE PERLEZ
Published: September 30, 2010

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Pakistan closed a vital transit link for NATO supplies for the war in Afghanistan on Thursday in apparent retaliation for an attack by coalition helicopters on a Pakistani security post hours earlier.

Trucks and oil tankers were stopped at the border post of Torkham just north of Peshawar and it was unclear when the post would reopen, a Pakistani security official said.

A closure of the crossing through which NATO and American troops receive most of their non-lethal equipment is rare, and signaled a downturn in the military relationship between Pakistan and the United States just three months before the Obama administration takes stock of progress in Afghanistan.

for the entire article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/01/world/asia/01peshawar.html?_r=1&hp

[citizenx]

Obama's War Against Pakistanis
by Jack D. Douglas

I watched an interview with Bob Woodward about his new book, Obama's War. It was mostly inside-dopsterish Woodward at his worst. But at the end a young anchor asked him what the U.S. attacks in Pakistan were going to produce in the near future. He smiled in his all-knowing and impish way, said he could not really say [of course], but "I think you should strap yourself in!" Translation: you ain't seen nothing yet, so hang on Sloopy and fasten your seatbelt for a wild ride ahead.

This time he was right. In the last few days since then the U.S. has openly attacked Pakistan twice and today the enraged and humiliated Pakistani military shut the vital U.S. supply lines from the Pakistani ports into Afghanistan. Supplies are the carotid and aorta of U.S. and Nato forces in Afghanistan where they are already losing the nine-year-old war.

I doubt the Pakistanis will actually launch military attacks on the U.S. at this point. But they are showing they mean business. They don't plan to be another victim of American imperialism any more than they already have been. They are not a defenseless Cambodia or Afghanistan the U.S. can bomb into the stone age without serious fighting.

continued at:

http://www.lewrockwell.com/douglas/douglas35.1.html

[citizenx]

And now the Taliban and Pakistani government are working in concert to cut off our supply lines to Afghanistan (as if the former were not a creation of both the latter's ISI and the CIA).  A little too much blowback?

Is the kitchen hot enough for us to get out just yet?

Do we need to heat it up some more?

Could it be the bear and the man poking it are part of the same distraction, whether they know it or not?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Attack on NATO containers kills 3
Fri Oct 1, 2010 5:7AM

At least three people have been killed and five others injured when unknown militants blew up 40 NATO containers in southern Pakistan.

The fuel tankers, which were carrying supplies to US-led troops in Afghanistan, were attacked in Shikarpur district of Sindh province of Pakistan late Thursday, a Press TV correspondent reported.

The tankers were parked at a petrol station when they came under militants' rocket attack, a local administration official, Saeed Ahmed, told Press TV.

Firefighters were trying to control the fire as security forces have cordoned off the area.

No group or individual has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.

continued:
http://www.presstv.com/detail/144734.html

[citizenx]

Taliban being funded by USAID (CIA front):

U.S. tax money goes to Taliban
Posted By Colum Lynch  Thursday, September 30, 2010 - 5:32 PM
 
A prominent U.S. contractor in Afghanistan may have inadvertently funneled millions of dollars in U.S. taxpayer dollars to Taliban insurgents in the form of bribes and protection money, according to a review by the inspector general of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

The suspected payments were allegedly made by Afghan subcontractors of Development Alternatives, Inc. (DAI), a company based in Bethesda, Maryland that carries out USAID reconstruction projects in some of Afghanistan's most remote and risky war zones. Afghan representatives of the company in Jalalabad are also under investigation for charging kickbacks to Afghan companies in exchange for USAID contracts, according to the report.

continued:

http://turtlebay.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/09/30/us_tax_money_goes_to_taliban?hpid=moreheadlines
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yeah, "inadvertently".

[citizenx]

Another 2 NATO supply vehicles attacked in Pakistan 
 
English.news.cn   2010-10-01 23:29:02

ISLAMABAD, Oct. 1 (Xinhua) -- At least two people were killed following a rocket attack at two NATO supply vehicles Friday evening in Pakistan's southwest city of Khuzdar, reported local media.

According to the report, the incident took place at about 6:00 p.m. when some unknown militants fired rockets at two NATO trucks carrying supply goods such as oil and arms. The attackers fled the scene after the attack, said the report...


...The violation of the NATO forces of the Pakistani territory has caused a strong protest both from the Pakistani government and the Pakistani people. Local watchers believe more such attacks will be launched at NATO convoys in the country in the near future.

Currently nearly 70 percent of NATO supplies and 40 percent of its fuel are being shipped via Pakistan for some 160,000 US-led NATO troops in its neighboring country of Afghanistan.



for the entire article:
 
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2010-10/01/c_13539358.htm

or see infowars.com for additional AP video:

http://www.infowars.com/another-2-nato-supply-vehicles-attacked-in-pakistan/

[citizenx]

Musharraf warns of coup -- because he wants to lead one!

Gen Musharraf warns of Pakistan coup after crisis meeting in London
Pakistan's former military dictator has warned of a new army-led coup against the government as he prepared to launch a new political party in London on Friday.
 
by Damien McElroy, Foreign Affairs Correspondent
Published: 9:00PM BST 30 Sep 2010

 Pervez Musharraf Photo: GEOFF PUGH
Gen Pervez Musharraf said the army should be given a constitutional role in the government of the Muslim state.

"The situation in Pakistan can only be solved when the military has some role," he said. "If you want stability, checks and balances in the democratic structure of Pakistan, the military ought to have some sort of role."

 
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Musharraf launches movement to regain control of Pakistan
Honduras crisis: mediator calls for Manuel Zelaya's immediate returnRumours of an imminent coup have swept through Pakistan since an angry confrontation between the unpopular president and the army chief earlier this week. Gen Ashfaq Kayani, the hand-picked successor of Gen Musharraf, criticised President Asif Ali Zardari and Yusuf Gilani, the prime minister, for the government's response to the floods that devastated the country in July, leaving at least 2,000 dead and millions displaced.

Gen Musharraf said the circumstances that forced him to launch a coup against the civilian government in 1999 had re-emerged.

"In that one year, Pakistan was going down and a number of people, including politicians, women, men came to me, telling me 'Why are you not acting? Are you going to act for Pakistan's good?'

 link to the rest of the story:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/pakistan/8035000/Gen-Musharraf-warns-of-Pakistan-coup-after-crisis-meeting-in-London.html

[citizenx]

Maddow: US quietly testing ‘scary new war in Pakistan’

By David Edwards
Friday, October 1st, 2010 -- 11:32 am


Don't get it twisted, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow essentially told her viewers Thursday night.

"Borders matter" and "AfPak" is not the name of a single country. Contrary to popular and media opinion, America is now fighting in three countries: Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Since President Barack Obama took office, the US has increased the number of airstrikes in Pakistan by unmanned aerial vehicles. "We have shot missiles at people in Pakistan 20 times in the past 23 days," Maddow noted Wednesday.

Pakistan has largely been silent about the unmanned airstrikes but that changed after reports said the US had started using manned aircraft. Pakistan reportedly closed down US supply lines leading into Afghanistan when they learned that a US helicopter had attacked inside Pakistan.

continued:
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/10/maddow-testing-war-escalation-pakistan/

[citizenx]

CIA Escalates in Pakistan

The U.S. military is secretly diverting aerial drones and weaponry from the Afghan battlefront to significantly expand the CIA's campaign against militants in their Pakistani havens.

The shift in strategic focus reflects the U.S. view that, with Pakistan's military unable or unwilling to do the job, more U.S. force against terrorist sanctuaries in Pakistan is now needed to turn around the struggling Afghan war effort across the border.

The additional drones helped the CIA escalate the number of strikes in Pakistan in September. The agency averaged five strikes a week in September, up from an average of two to three per week. The Pentagon and CIA have ramped up their purchases of drones, but they aren't being built fast enough to meet the rapid rise in demand.

Webmaster's Commentary:
Translation: the alleged "war on terror" is morphing into a war against nuclear-armed Pakistan here to get control of its nuclear weapons and its military infrastructure.

http://whatreallyhappened.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CIA Escalates in Pakistan
Pentagon Diverts Drones From Afghanistan to Bolster U.S. Campaign Next DoorArticle Video Interactive
By ADAM ENTOUS, JULIAN E. BARNES And SIOBHAN GORMAN
 
Reuters
 

WASHINGTON—The U.S. military is secretly diverting aerial drones and weaponry from the Afghan battlefront to significantly expand the CIA's campaign against militants in their Pakistani havens.

Tensions between the US and Pakistan after a key supply route was closed following NATO air strikes. Video courtesy of Reuters.

The shift in strategic focus reflects the U.S. view that, with Pakistan's military unable or unwilling to do the job, more U.S. force against terrorist sanctuaries in Pakistan is now needed to turn around the struggling Afghan war effort across the border.

In recent months, the military has loaned Predator and Reaper drones to the Central Intelligence Agency to give the agency more firepower to target and bombard militants on the Afghan border.


continued at Wall Street Journal:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704029304575526270751096984.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

[citizenx]

Key NATO supply route hit again in Pakistan
AP  – Militants attack NATO convoys in Pakistan

By ZARAR KHAN, Associated Press Writer Zarar Khan, Associated Press Writer – Sun Oct 3, 6:29 pm ET

ISLAMABAD – Suspected militants attacked and set fire to at least 20 tankers carrying oil for NATO and U.S. troops in Afghanistan on Monday, the third such strike inside Pakistan in as many days, police said.

The attack not far from the capital Islamabad took place on a supply line that has been stalled because of a temporary border closing imposed by Pakistani authorities to protest a NATO helicopter attack that killed three Pakistan troops last week.

It will raise the stakes in the closure, which has exacerbated tensions between Washington and Islamabad but has been welcomed by Islamist groups opposed to Pakistan's support of the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan.

Police officer Umer Hayat said three people were killed and blamed Monday's attack on "terrorists."

The attackers opened fire on trucks that were parked at a poorly guarded terminal before setting them afire, he and other officers said.

continued:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101003/ap_on_re_as/as_pakistan

[citizenx]

Officials: Three killed in Pakistan over alleged spy ties

From Frederik Pleitgen, CNN
October 3, 2010 -- Updated 1432 GMT (2232 HKT)
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Bodies had notes claiming they are "spies" for the U.S. and Pakistani militaries
The three found in North Waziristan, one of seven districts in a volatile tribal region
 
(CNN) -- Three bullet-riddled bodies were found in northwest Pakistan on Sunday with letters attached to them stating they were killed for being spies, two Pakistani security officials told CNN.

The bodies were in the town of Miranshah in North Waziristan. The notes claimed they were "spies" for the U.S. and Pakistani militaries, the officials said.

They did not want to be named because they are not authorized to speak to the media.

North Waziristan is one of seven districts in Pakistan's volatile tribal region bordering Afghanistan.

continued:

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/10/03/pakistan.killings/index.html?hpt=T1

[citizenx]

Taliban claim attacks on NATO convoys in Pakistan


MIRANSHAH, Pakistan (AFP) – Pakistani Taliban on Monday claimed responsibility for two attacks on NATO supply convoys in Pakistan and threatened to carry out more.

"We accept responsibility for the attacks on the NATO supply trucks and tankers," Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesman Azam Tariq told AFP.

"I am talking about attacks both in Sindh and in Islamabad," he said in a telephone call from an undisclosed location.

"We will carry out more such attacks in future. We will not allow the use of Pakistani soil as a supply route for NATO troops based in Afghanistan.

continued:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101004/wl_sthasia_afp/pakistanunrestnatoclaim

[citizenx]

28 More US Fuel Trucks Set Ablaze in Pakistan, 6 Killed, as Convoy Boycott Continues
Posted on October 4, 2010 by Juan

The Taliban Movement of Pakistan (Tehrik-i Taliban Pakistan or TTP) claimed on Monday that it was responsible for yet another attack on NATO fuel trucks, this time near Islamabad. Some twenty trucks were set ablaze and 6 people were killed. The trucks were parked in a poorly guarded area near the capital, awaiting permission to cross into Afghanistan at Torkham, the Pakistani checkpoint at the Khyber Pass. Since Friday, Pakistan has closed the crossing to US and NATO military supply vehicles, as a way of protesting the attack last Thursday by US helicopter gunships flying from Afghanistan on a Pakistani checkpoint inside Pakistan, which killed and wounded Pakistani Frontier Corpsmen. A similar attack took place near Shikarpur in Sindh on Thursday night.

The closing of the Khyber crossing and the exposure of stalled NATO convoys to attacks by Muslim extremists has roiled Islamabad’s relations with Washington. The Pakistani government appears to have felt that it had no choice but to take some visible action against the US, given the public rage throughout the country over the US attack on the Pakistani checkpoint and US violations of Pakistani sovereignty.

Some 75 percent of supplies (food, ammunition, even military vehicles) and 50 percent of the fuel needed by US and NATO troops in Afghanistan flow from the Arabian Sea port of Karachi in Pakistan’s Sindh Province up highways to Peshawar and then across the Khyber Pass into Afghanistan. The convoys are being impeded not only by the closure to them of the crossing at Torkham but also by all the bridges and highways washed out by Pakistan’s recent massive flooding.

High US officers in Afghanistan are said to be furious about the Pakistani closure of the Khyber pass to their convoys. Some one hundred trucks are waiting at Torkham. After Monday’s attack on more fuel trucks, the officers must be even more angry.

Pakistan receives aid monies in recognition of its help with transiting supplies, and the American officers are reported by Pakistan’s “The News” daily to have threatened Islamabad with a cut-off of that aid if the boycott continues.

continued:
http://www.juancole.com/2010/10/8802.html

[citizenx]

Bomb explodes on tanker carrying fuel for NATO

From Nasir Habib, For CNN
October 5, 2010 -- Updated 0652 GMT (1452 HKT)

Oil trucks fired upon in Pakistan

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
No casualties are reported after a bomb explodes
Several convoys carrying supplies for NATO have been attacked in recent days
The Pakistani Taliban has claimed responsibility for two of the convoy attacks

Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN)

Another oil tanker carrying fuel for NATO troops in Afghanistan was attacked Tuesday near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, a Khyber Agency official told CNN.

The tanker had been parked at Torkham, said Adil Waseem, senior administration official of Khyber Agency. A bomb planted on the tanker exploded, partially damaging the vehicle. The tanker did not catch fire, and no casualties were reported.

At least four other attacks have been carried out on convoys for NATO since Friday, resulting in the deaths of at least six people.

The Pakistani Taliban has claimed responsibility for two of those attacks, a central spokesman for the militant group told CNN by telephone Monday.

continued:

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/10/05/pakistan.supply.route/index.html?hpt=T2

[Satyagraha]

from around the 3min mark it gets Reeeeallly!! interesting.....trust me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gZj9hhKTsk

[Satyagraha]

10/04/2010
 
SPIEGEL Interview with Pervez Musharraf
'Pakistan is Always Seen as the Rogue'
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,721110,00.html


Pervez Musharraf: "We poisoned Pakistani civil society for 10 years."

Pakistan trained militant underground groups to fight against India in Kashmir, former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf admitted in an interview with SPIEGEL. In addition, the 67-year-old explains why he wants to leave his exile in London and return to his country.

SPIEGEL: Pakistanis have been left bewildered by the incompetence of the government led by President Asif Ali Zardari in dealing with the consequences of the disastrous floods. Do you expect another military coup soon?

Musharraf: Whenever the country is in turmoil, everybody looks to the army. But I would suggest that the times of military coups in Pakistan are over. The latest political developments have shown that the Supreme Court has set a bar on itself not to validate a military takeover.

SPIEGEL: How would you judge the performance of your successor, Zardari, and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani?

Musharraf: I do not want to comment on the present government, but everybody can see what they are doing. Pakistan is experiencing a deep economic decline -- in other areas, as well. Law and order are in jeopardy, extremism is on the rise and there is political turmoil. The non-performance of an elected government is the issue.

SPIEGEL: How do you view the role of General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the man considered to be pulling the strings in Pakistan?

Musharraf: I made him chief of the army, because I thought that he was the best man for the job.

SPIEGEL: When Pakistan's rulers lose power, they traditionally get imprisoned or murdered by their rivals. Why are you founding a party to, once again, get involved in politics instead of enjoying retirement in London, which is at least a safe place?

Musharraf: No risk, no gain. We unfortunately have a culture of vendetta and vindictiveness in Pakistan. But there is no case of corruption or fraud or anything against me at the moment. My political opponents, especially Nawaz Sharif, would love to create a case against me -- that I am corrupt or have committed fraud or some such. They do their best to achieve that, but they haven't succeeded. Even if they did, I would reply in court. Risks need to be taken.

SPIEGEL: Why do you believe that Pakistanis are keenly awaiting your political comeback?

Musharraf: I am not living a hermit's life, I meet people here and in Dubai and receive accurate feedback. I launched my Facebook page eight months ago and today I have more than 315,000 fans. And hundreds of Pakistanis called into a TV show in which I collected money for the flood victims. They donated $3.5 million. Do you think they are doing this because they hate me?

SPIEGEL: Is there anything that you regret -- for example, your secret Kargil Operation, which led to an armed conflict with India in 1999, your arbitrary changes to Pakistan's constitution, your dismissal of the country's highest judge, the lack of concern for Benazir Bhutto's life after her return or your oft-criticized mild treatment of religious militants?

Musharraf: The West blames Pakistan for everything. Nobody asks the Indian prime minister, Why did you arm your country with a nuclear weapon? Why are you killing innocent civilians in Kashmir? Nobody was bothered that Pakistan got split in 1971 because of India's military backing for Bangladesh (which declared independence from Pakistan that year). The United States and Germany gave statements, but they didn't mean anything. Everybody is interested in strategic deals with India, but Pakistan is always seen as the rogue.

SPIEGEL: Why did you form militant underground groups to fight India in Kashmir?

Musharraf: They were indeed formed. The government turned a blind eye because they wanted India to discuss Kashmir.

SPIEGEL: It was the Pakistani security forces that trained them.

Musharraf: The West was ignoring the resolution of the Kashmir issue, which is the core issue of Pakistan. We expected the West -- especially the United States and important countries like Germany -- to resolve the Kashmir issue. Has Germany done that?

SPIEGEL: Does that give Pakistan the right to train underground fighters?

Musharraf: Yes, it is the right of any country to promote its own interests when India is not prepared to discuss Kashmir at the United Nations and is not prepared to resolve the dispute in a peaceful manner.

SPIEGEL: And how can a nuclear arsenal be safe when high-ranking officers support proliferation or even personally profit from it, as has been alleged? The nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan claims that the Pakistani army monitored and organized deals with countries like North Korea and Iran.

Musharraf: That is wrong, absolutely wrong. Mr. Khan is a characterless man.

SPIEGEL: What did the United States offer you in exchange for getting control of the nuclear weapons in Pakistan?

Musharraf: I would be a traitor if I had ever given our nuclear weapons to the United States. This capability is our pride and it will never be compromised.

SPIEGEL: A German member of the militant Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, 36-year-old Ahmad Sidiqi, who has been held by US forces in Afghanistan since July, allegedly told his American interrogators that he was trained in Pakistan and confessed there were plans to attack Europe. Why, nine years after 9/11, does Pakistan remain a breeding ground for international terrorism?

Musharraf: We poisoned Pakistani civil society for 10 years when we fought the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1980s. It was jihad and we brought in militants from all over the world, with the West and Pakistan together in the lead role. After the withdrawal of the Soviet troops, the West left Pakistan with 25,000 mujahedeen and al-Qaida fighters, without any plan for rehabilitation or resettlement. While you were mostly concerned with the reunification of Germany, we had to cope with this. Now you expect Pakistan to pull out a magic wand and make all of this suddenly disappear? That is not doable -- this will take time.

SPIEGEL: How can the problem be solved?

Musharraf: The West made three blunders so far: After the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, they abandoned the region in 1989. Then, after 9/11, they fought the Taliban instead of strengthening the Pashtuns who could have taken on the radical Taliban. Now you try to negotiate with so-called "moderate Taliban," but there is no such thing as a moderate Taliban. There are Taliban and Pashtuns. But as I have always said: All Taliban are Pashtun, but not all Pashtun people are Taliban. Again, you should reinforce the ancient Pashtun clans who are not ideologically aligned with the Taliban to govern Afghanistan and to fight the Taliban. That's my strong advice. The fourth and worst blunder would be to quit without winning. Then militancy will prevail not only in Pakistan, India and Kashmir, but perhaps also in Europe, the United Kingdom and in the United States. That's my belief.

(Musharraf will return to power precisely because he advocates the US remaining in Afghanistan, and he's got the backing of the Pakistani military. This former General and military dictator will return under 'democratically elected' cover, but he's going to be a dictator, that's what he does.)

SPIEGEL: The al-Qaida chief in Pakistan, Sheikh Fateh al Masri, was recently killed in a US drone attack in North Waziristan. Many al-Qaida leaders are sheltered by the Haqqani network (of warlord Jalaluddin Haqqani). How serious is Pakistan about fighting a former mujahedeen heroes like Haqqani and his son Siraj?

Musharraf: If you hear the new statements from the West that they plan to withdraw their troops and leave Afghanistan in 2011, then Pakistan should think of how to handle the withdrawal scenario. Pakistan needs to find a strategy for its existence, how to tackle the situation with Seraj Haqqani, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the Pakistani Taliban and Mullah Omar. When the West quits, we will be on our own with them.

SPIEGEL: Do you not fear that when you return to Pakistan, you might face the same fate as Benazir Bhutto, who was murdered in a suicide attack?

Musharraf: Yes, that is a risk, but it won't stop me. I am happy here in London. I am earning good money, but Pakistan is my country.

Interview conducted by Susanne Koelbl

[citizenx]

Good interview.  Very interesting.  Amazing how open Musharraf is/can be about things actually.  It's kind of in-your-face. I wonder if ther isn't some hubris there.  I think he probably made the right call getting out before.  Now his ego (not his country) may be driving him back on the stage -- ever the miles gloriosus.

I see bad things happening in Act V.  Apparently he is completely blind to that, however.

[Satyagraha]

The thing about Musharraf is that he's basically a good person (odd to hear that about a dictator, but it's true.) The current president, Zardari, is a complete buffoon; a money-grubbing opportunist who spends more time in luxury hotels around the world than he does in his own country. He got into office in the aftermath of his wife's murder (Benazir Bhutto), and he's been drinking from the globalists' cup ever since (and long before). But managing any crisis is completely out of his skill set (he's more of a socialite and dilettante) and he's definitely not able to deal with the current crisis in Pakistan. I think Musharraf is full of hubris; he believes he knows what is best for Pakistan. But my sense is that Musharraf actually cares about the people of Pakistan, something I don't think Zardari even approaches. And there are few others who can command any kind of leadership role in that country... there is too much inter-provincial rivalry and strife, whoever is in office must have the backing of the military or there is NO leadership. The only character in this drama that I can see having that support is Musharraf. God help the Pakistani people.

[citizenx]

If Musharraf is their only hope, God help them indeed.

[citizenx]

Pakistan’s internal vicissitudes and strengths
Posted on 05. Oct, 2010 by Raja Mujtaba in Pakistan

 
“The strength of Pakistan lies beyond Pakistan.” Raja Mujtaba

By Brig Asif Haroon Raja



After the division of Pakistan in 1971, Indian hawkish analyst Subramanyam had made several fanciful predictions based on exaggerated optimism in 1972. He said, “Pakistan is down and out. It can no longer maintain such large forces and threat from the western border will be reduced”. He predicted that, “Pakistan cannot function as a counter balancing power to India within the subcontinent”. He also felt sure that Pakistan having been truncated would no longer pose any military threat to India. Likewise, he painted a grim picture of Pakistan’s economy. Similar predictions were made by some other Indian leaders as well.

Without going into political controversies, India’s fond hopes dashed when new Pakistan under Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto emerged stronger than before in all the fields. All negative calculations went by the board when Pakistan surprised the world by its impressive economic uplift records. Its GDP, export earnings and per capita income showed upward growths. The GDP and the agriculture showed steady growths. Had Bhutto carried on with Ayub Khan’s economic program and desisted from faulty nationalization scheme, results would have been still better. Bhutto lifted the sagging morale of the nation and in response to Indian nuclear blast at Pokhran in 1974; he laid the foundation of our nuclear program at Kahuta under Dr. A. Q. Khan. At this time the nuclear program established by M Ayub Khan provided the foundation and the nucleus in terms of pool of scientists and engineers working in this field.

Apart from defending the Line of Control in Azad Kashmir (AK) resolutely and beating back all intrusions made by Indian security forces, Pakistan Army stood up to the challenge posed by Indian forces in Siachen in June 1984 and thwarted Indian menacing Exercise Brass-tacks in 1985-1986 which was slyly planned to be converted into full-fledged war. Indian jingoism against Azad Kashmir in 1990 was deflated through an equally aggressive response. Throughout the eighties while Indian economic graphs were down, Pakistan growth rate remained at 7%.

continued:
http://www.opinion-maker.org/2010/10/pakistans-internal-vicissitudes-and-strengths/

[citizenx]

U.S. pressing to reopen key supply route into Pakistan
By Charley Keyes, CNN
October 5, 2010 -- Updated 2351 GMT (0751 HKT)

The main land route for NATO supplies into Afghanistan from Pakistan has been blocked.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Even with the crossing closed, supplies to troops will be enough, the Pentagon says
Geoff Morrell: The U.S. military continues to work closely with its Pakistani counterparts
A formal report on the border incident that led to the closing is to be released Wednesday


Washington (CNN) -- U.S. military operations in Afghanistan could continue to be fully supplied even if Pakistan refuses to open a major border post blocking hundreds of fuel tankers, the Pentagon said Tuesday.

But the United States is hoping to resolve the matter and reopen the route soon.

"We have been given indications that we are making progress on that front and hope to have the gate reopened as soon as possible," said Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell.

The pending decisions comes as NATO prepares to release a report on its investigation into a recent a deadly skirmish on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. That incident, in which three Pakistan Frontier Corps soldiers were killed after firing on a NATO helicopter, is the latest pressure point in relations between the two countries.

After that border violence, the Pakistani government closed Torkham gate, the traditional Khyber Pass crossing between Pakistan and Afghanistan and a major supply route for U.S. forces.

continues:

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/10/05/pakistan.afghanistan.supply.route/index.html?hpt=T2

[citizenx]

NATO Supply Trucks Remain Idle in Pakistan
Qazi Rauf/Associated Press

By JANE PERLEZ
Published: October 5, 2010

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — As trucks carrying supplies for NATO troops in Afghanistan were stalled at the Pakistani border for the sixth day, Pakistani truck owners complained that the government failed to provide protection for the convoys, leaving them vulnerable to attacks from militants and criminals.

Pakistani law enforcement officials, meanwhile, disavowed any responsibility for the security of the trucks, saying it was up to the truck owners.

“This is a private business and they have their own security,” said Mir Waiz Niaz, senior superintendent of police in Islamabad. “The government gives advice on security, and gives advice on where they can place their terminals but the security is up to the private contractors.” Oil tankers parked at refueling terminals have been been lit ablaze twice since the border was closed by Pakistan, a dramatic show of how vulnerable the supply route has become.

continued:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/06/world/asia/06pstan.html?hpw

[citizenx]

12 NATO fuel tankers attacked in Pakistan

 Abdul Sattar, Associated Press Writer – 20 mins ago

QUETTA, Pakistan – Gunmen torched a dozen tankers carrying fuel to NATO troops and killed a driver Wednesday, the sixth attack on convoys taking supplies to Afghanistan since Pakistan closed a key border crossing almost a week ago.

Islamabad shut down the Torkham crossing along the fabled Khyber Pass last Thursday after a NATO helicopter attack in the border area killed three Pakistani troops. The closure has left hundreds of trucks stranded alongside the country's highways and bottlenecked traffic heading to the one route into Afghanistan from the south that has remained open.

In Washington, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said an investigation of the attack is expected to be concluded later Wednesday, and that he expected that the spat between allies could be resolved soon.

The U.S. has supply routes through other countries into Afghanistan, and Morrell emphasized that the Torkham closing had not caused fuel supply issues for NATO troops

continued:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101006/ap_on_re_as/as_pakistan

[citizenx]

Gunmen Attack More NATO Supply Trucks in Pakistan

By JANE PERLEZ AND WAQAR GILLANI
Published: October 6, 2010

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Dozens of tankers carrying fuel to Afghanistan for NATO troops were torched near Quetta in western Pakistan on Wednesday, the third major attack on supplies since Pakistan closed one border crossing to Afghanistan a

“According to eyewitnesses and initial reports some terrorists came on vehicles a few minutes before morning prayer and started firing and then burned some of the tankers,” the deputy inspector general of Quetta police, Hamid Shakeel said.

About 40 tankers were at the terminal, and about half were saved from the attack, Mr. Shakeel said.

continued:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/07/world/asia/07pstan.html?hp

[citizenx]

20 oil tankers hauling fuel for NATO set ablaze; 1 dead
From Nasir Habib, For CNN

October 6, 2010 -- Updated 0859 GMT (1659 HKT)

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
NEW: The Pakistani Taliban claims responsibility for the attack
The attack is at least the sixth in the past week on vehicles carrying supplies for NATO
Drivers have been stalled after Pakistan shut down a major supply route
 
(CNN) -- The Pakistani Taliban has claimed responsibility for an attack Wednesday on NATO supply vehicles in Quetta, Pakistan, a spokesman for the militant group told CNN by phone.

Quetta police said 20 oil tankers parked near Quetta were set ablaze, and one person died in the attack.

Azam Tariq, the central spokesman for Pakistani Taliban, said a special squad designated to strike NATO supply efforts made the attack.

At least five other attacks have been carried out on vehicles carrying supplies for NATO forces in the past week, killing at least six people.

The Pakistani Taliban has claimed responsibility for two of earlier attacks. Tariq said this week that those attacks were carried out as revenge for drone strikes and NATO's attacks in Pakistan.

continued:

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/10/06/pakistan.supply.route/index.html?hpt=T2

[citizenx]

U.S.-Pakistan ties increasingly frayed

09:52 AM CDT on Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Kimberly Dozier and Chris Brummitt, The Associated Press
 
 ISLAMABAD  – Hundreds of U.S. and NATO   trucks carrying fuel and other supplies for troops in Afghanistan lie idle. Dramatic images of Taliban attacks on these convoys are splashed across front pages in this anti-American country with a U.S.-allied government.

Pakistan's shutting down of a key supply line for coalition troops in Afghanistan and the apparent ease with which militants are attacking the stranded convoys are shaking an already uncomfortable relationship between Washington and Islamabad.

The tension comes as Washington steps up its shadow war on militants harbored in Pakistan's border regions. CIA missile attacks, which have killed dozens of insurgents including some high-ranking al-Qaeda operatives, are running at record levels – a sign of America's impatience with Pakistan's inaction in some parts of the frontier.

Although the two countries are allies in the war against al-Qaeda, the recent events are a reminder that the nations' long-term strategic interests are not always in sync. As next year's date for the start of the U.S. drawdown from Afghanistan approaches, that gulf is getting wider.

continued:
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/world/stories/DN-pakistan_05int.ART.State.Edition1.4b3b349.html

[bigron]

citizenx   !

Nice to see you are keeping this thread alive  !!

Thanks

bigron

[citizenx]

Destabilization and the CIA's war in Pakistan continue apace, but now we are seeing the logical blowback of these policies.

This is no time to give up.  That is for sure.  Feel free to add commentary again, Ron, even if you don't want to post partial articles -- which I respect.

You really kept this place going.  I followed this issue because of your many posts -- the posts on the CIA's war in Iran as well -- a connected theater of this underground war also very active right now (Stuxnet/Cyberstorm III).

Good to hear from you.

[bigron]

My Pleasure Friend  !!

Events on this FRONT are now developing daily and we must keep watch for sure.

[citizenx]

Exactly.