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

[Satyagraha]

Pakistan seeks US help to set up anti-militant force
By Anwar Iqbal
Wednesday, 08 Jul, 2009 | 05:13 AM PST | 
http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/pakistan/06-pakistan-seeks-us-help-to-set-up-anti-militant-force-rs-11

WASHINGTON: The visiting Parliamentary Affairs Minister Babar Awan urged the United States on Tuesday to provide weapons and other resources for a 400,000-strong force Pakistan plans to establish to deal with the militants.

Addressing a news conference in Washington, Awan said Pakistan planned to raise a force of 100,000 in each of the four provinces to combat the militants.

The proposed force, although recruited from retired military personnel, will be merged with the regular police force.

Awan, who met US officials and lawmakers in Washington during his two-day stay, said the proposed force would be particularly effective in the areas cleared from the militants, such as Swat.

'It will provide security and safety to the people and will protect the displaced people when they return home.'

Awan said Pakistan needed helicopters, drones and night-vision goggles for combating the militants.

The minister said Pakistan had also informed the US administration that the aid meant for Pakistan should be distributed through government agencies and not NGOs.

The government, he said, was not against accountability and auditing but it also did not want to be ignored.

'We do not understand this trust deficit,' said the minister while responding to a question.

'Previous assistance was given to the previous government and the new government should not be held responsible for what they did. We have a clean record.'

Awan said that those displaced during the military operations in Swat and Buner had already started returning home.

'These are no Afghan refugees. They will not linger on in the camps for years. They will be rehabilitated in months,' he said.

The minister said that each family that returned home was given Rs5,000 for returning, Rs25,000 after they reached home while they would also receive Rs300,000 each to reconstruct their homes and begin afresh.

Earlier, speaking at Washington’s Middle East Institute, Awan said that the international community paid a harsh price for abandoning Afghanistan and it should not do the same to Pakistan. 'We need sustained support,' he added.

http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/pakistan/06-pakistan-seeks-us-help-to-set-up-anti-militant-force-rs-11

Copyright © 2009 - Dawn Media Group

[bigron]

Barrage of US missiles kills 50 in S Waziristan

The Nation, Pakistan

http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m55790&hd=&size=1&l=e

July 8, 2009

PESHAWAR - Two deadly separate US missile strikes slammed into South Waziristan Agency, a stronghold of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan Chief Baitullah Mehsud, on Wednesday, killing 50 suspected militants, security officials said.
In the first attack, an alleged training compound of Baitullah Mehsud at Karwan Manza area was targeted with six missiles, while the second strike was carried out when a militants’ convoy of five vehicles was hit by three missiles in Sararogha tehsil wherein around 40 militants were killed.

The independent sources informed that six persons were killed in the first attack while officials in Wana, headquarters of South Waziristan Agency, said that from 8 to 10 militants were killed. The tribesmen loyal to Baitullah Mehsud claimed that no one was present in the compound.

The local tribesmen informed that soon after the missile attack, the site was cordoned off by the militants. The militants undertook the rescue activities on their own and shifted the dead bodies to an unknown place.

Reuters and AFP add: The Pakistan Army is preparing an offensive against Mehsud, who the military says is responsible for 90 per cent of terrorist attacks in Pakistan. The government said he plotted the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in 2007.
A drone fired several missiles at a militant convoy in the second attack of the day, Pakistani intelligence officials said. The missiles hit the convoy of vehicles carrying suspected Taliban near South Waziristan’s Janata village, about 50km northwest of the main district town of Wana.

"The Taliban appeared to be shifting to another place when they were hit," said one of the intelligence agency officials. He and another intelligence official, as well as residents, said at least 40 Taliban were killed.

Earlier on Wednesday, US drones fired six missiles into an alleged Pakistani Taliban training camp in another part of South Waziristan, killing ten suspected militants, government and intelligence agency officials said, flattening the alleged training centre.

There were no reports of any "high-value target" being killed in either of the drone attacks.

The first strike hit about 35km northeast of the main town Wana, with two officials confirming the death toll of ten.

Two other security officials confirmed the strikes and casualties, with one telling AFP that the death toll could still rise further.
Our Monitoring Desk adds: In the first attack, missiles hit the thickly-forested and mountainous Karwan Manza area, some 10km south-east of Ladha, completely destroying a Taliban hideout, reports BBC.

In the second attack, five missiles were fired at vehicles carrying suspected Taliban on the main road between Ladha and another town, Sararogha, according to local officials.
They said all the vehicles were destroyed and the dead were mostly Taliban, as well as members of banned militant organisations from Pakistan’s Punjab province.

According to BBC, the militants targeted in the double strike were loyal to Baitullah Mehsud.

On Tuesday, a US missile strike killed 16 foreign and local militants in a nearby mountain stronghold of Mehsud, who has been described by the US State Department as a key Al-Qaeda facilitator in Pakistan’s tribal belt.
Washington alleges terrorists hide out in the mountains near the Afghan border, plotting attacks on Western targets and crossing the porous frontier to attack foreign troops based in Afghanistan.
Mehsud has a five-million-dollar reward on his head offered by the United States, and a bounty of 615,000 dollars in Pakistan for allegedly masterminding multiple deadly bombings in the last two years.




 

[Satyagraha]

Dissenters say Pakistani Taliban chief implements foreign agenda
South Asia News

Jun 18, 2009, 7:26 GMT

   Islamabad - Two militant leaders who broke away from Pakistan's top Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud have accused their former comrade of following a foreign agenda by waging an insurgency inside the Islamic state, media reports said Thursday.

   The open disagreement came two days after Pakistan's armed forces announced they were preparing a decisive offensive against Mehsud and his network, which is centred around the South Waziristan tribal region on the Afghan border.

   Mehsud has been blamed for a string of terrorist attacks, including the suicide bombing that killed former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in December 2007. He admits attacks on government troops but denies targeting politicians.

   'These people [Mehsud and his men] are working against Islam,' Qari Zainuddin, a prominent militant leader, was quoted as saying by The News daily in an interview with its sister television channel.

   Zainuddin alleged that Mehsud had links with India and Israel, two countries widely considered traditional enemies of Pakistan.

   The Taliban dissenter supported the impending attack on his former comrade and warned Mehsud's loyalists against infiltrating the lawless territory under his control.

   However, Zainuddin supported giving a dominant role to Mehsud's Pashtun tribesmen in the upcoming fighting to minimize civilian casualties.

   Another defector, Turkistan Bittani, called the Taliban commander 'an American agent,' arguing that Mehsud was never targeted in the dozens of US drone attacks inside Pakistan's tribal region.

   Missile strikes by pilotless aircraft, mostly operated by the CIA, have killed hundreds of people and only a few suspected al-Qaeda operatives.

   Bittani told the Geo News television channel that Mehsud was misleading local youth into carrying out terrorist attacks on mosques and religious scholars at the alleged instigation of Israel and India.

   The News said one of Mehsud's supporters in the Orakzai tribal district, Hafiz Saeed, rejected the accusations, claiming that 'Zainuddin was playing into the hands of the government' by defaming the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), an umbrella organization headed by Mehsud.

   There has been discord between militant groups since 2007 when Mehsud formed the TTP following the death of then-Taliban commander Abdullah Mehsud during a raid.

   Many believe the wedge between the militant hierarchy will benefit Pakistani troops in hunting down the Taliban chief.

   Both Zainuddin and Bittani say they havie thousands of fighters, but intelligence estimates put the figure at around 1,500. Mehsud, on the other hand, commands a 20,000-strong force of hard-core militants, including hundreds of suicide bombers.

   Owais Ahmed Ghani, governor of North-West Frontier Province which borders the troubled district, said last week that the military had been ordered to eliminate Mehsud who he described as 'the root cause of all the evil.'

http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/southasia/news/article_1484299.php/Dissenters_say_Pakistani_Taliban_chief_implements_foreign_agenda_#ixzz0Ks0tZmFC&D

[bigron]

Pakistan says Taliban leader will talk to U.S.


Story Highlights :

Pakistan's military says it's able to broker talks between U.S. and Taliban

Pakistan wants U.S. concessions over Islamabad's dealings with India in return

Senior U.S. officials say Obama administration willing to talk to Taliban

By Michael Ware


Mullah Mohammed Omar, the Afghan Taliban leader, has been a fugitive from U.S.-led forces since 2001.



CNN Pakistan's military has declared that not only is it in contact with Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar but that it can bring him and other commanders to the negotiating table with the United States.

The acknowledgment of on-going communication with Taliban forces using sanctuary in Pakistan to launch military strikes against U.S. troops in neighboring Afghanistan is part of a new diplomatic overture to help the Obama administration find an end to the long-running conflict.

In a CNN exclusive interview, Pakistan military spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said in return for any role as a broker between the United States and the Taliban, Pakistan wants concessions from Washington over Islamabad's concerns with longtime rival India.

And senior U.S. officials have told CNN the Obama Administration is willing both to talk to top Taliban leaders and to raise some of Pakistan's concerns with India.

With NATO's Afghan force commanders conceding the military fight against the Taliban in key areas of Afghanistan is at a "stalemate" and that a recent influx of American combat troops is hoped to break the deadlock, the consensus among military and diplomatic figures in the region is that the United States cannot win the war in Afghanistan militarily.

Most believe a resolution to the conflict will ultimately be a political, and economic, one rather than a military victory that will necessitate negotiations with the Taliban. Such a resolution will have to be struck with the involvement of Pakistan, India, Iran and possibly Saudi Arabia, as well as NATO and the United States.

And with the Pakistan military, with its intelligence service, the Inter-Services Intelligence directorate (ISI), now going public with its offer to act as broker to help initiate talks, this could be the first opportunity for a breakthrough in ending the Afghan war that began with the U.S. invasion in 2001.

Abbas told CNN after its "very intense relationship" with militants during the fighters' alliance with the United States during the Soviet war in Afghanistan, the Pakistan military is now still in contact with Taliban commanders such as Mullah Omar, Jalalladin Haqqani and Mullah Nazir and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, leader of the militant Hizb-e-Islami group.

"That's right, the ISI was in the forefront of the whole struggle against the Soviets. Now, by maintaining the contacts with the organizations like [Mullah Omar's Taliban and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar] doesn't mean that that state policy is [to be] providing them physical support or the funding or training," Abbas said.

After the 9/11 attacks Pakistani policy to support the groups did a "U-turn", he said.

"And the state followed, the army followed, the ISI followed. Having said that no intelligence organization in the world shuts its last door on any other organization. So therefore the contacts are there. The communication remains. But it doesn't mean you endorse what they are doing in Afghanistan. You know you have nothing to do with it because your plate is full."

And even further, Abbas said, the Pakistani military has the ability to get the Taliban to the table with the United States to broker a cease-fire by jump-starting a dialogue between the warring parties, Abbas said.

"That's right. Dialogue," Abbas said. "Eventually, one would have to return to the dialogue table. I think that can be worked out. That is possible."

Retired Gen. Hamid Gul, a former head of the ISI, Pakistan's equivalent of the CIA, is known as the "Godfather of the Taliban." He, too, said talks can be arranged. In terms of U.S. interests in Afghanistan, he said, there is only one man who can make it happen.

"Mullah Omar, nobody else," Gul said.

He insisted the Obama administration, through the Pakistan military, can access Mullah Omar. "Why not?" he said, "Is he a terrorist by any definition? Has he indulged in any act of terrorism?"

Gul added a stated Taliban condition to any discussions, the complete withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan first, was not necessarily a fixed demand and, with concessions from Washington, could be softened and make way for negotiations to begin.
 

 
 
 
Links referenced within this article

Afghanistan
http://topics.edition.cnn.com/topics/afghanistan
Taliban
http://topics.edition.cnn.com/topics/the_taliban
Pakistan
http://topics.edition.cnn.com/topics/pakistan

 

 
Find this article at:
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/07/10/pakistan.taliban.omar/index.html 

[Geolibertarian]

Pakistan says Taliban leader will talk to U.S.

Well, duh! Why wouldn't someone talk to his employer?

-------------------------------------

http://www.prisonplanet.com/bush_and_the_media_cover_up_the_jihad_schoolbook_scandal.html

BUSH & THE MEDIA COVER UP THE JIHAD SCHOOLBOOK SCANDAL

By Jared Israel
April 9, 2002

Have you heard about the Afghan Jihad schoolbook scandal?

Or perhaps I should say, "Have you heard about the Afghan Jihad schoolbook scandal that's waiting to happen?"

Because it has been almost unreported in the Western media that the US government shipped - and continues to ship - millions of Islamist (that's short for Islamic fundamentalist) textbooks into Afghanistan.

Only one English-speaking newspaper we could find has investigated this issue: the Washington Post. The story appeared March 23rd. (A)

According to Washington Post investigators, over the past twenty years the US has spent millions of dollars producing fanatical schoolbooks, which were then distributed in Afghanistan.

"The primers, which were filled with talk of jihad and featured drawings of guns, bullets, soldiers and mines, have served since then [i.e., since the violent destruction of the Afghan secular government in the early 1990s] as the Afghan school system's core curriculum. Even the Taliban used the American-produced books..." -- Washington Post, 23 March 2002 (A)

[Continued...]

-------------------------------------

[Satyagraha]

Here's a rabbit hole... if you're interested in picking through the twisted accounts of the Taliban (CIA?) Tribal leaders that are the current targets of the US Drones....

Background Info: Baitullah Mehsud
(Excerpted from http://www.wikimir.com/baitullah-mehsud)

Baitullah Mehsud (Pashto/Urdu: بیت اللہ محسود born ca. 1974) is a leading military leader in Waziristan, Pakistan and the leader of the Taliban umbrella group, Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, formed in December 2007.

Background

Baitullah Mehsud was born in the early 1974 in Landi Dhok village in the Bannu District of the NWFP, which lies some distance from the Mehsud tribe's base in the South Waziristan Agency.

He emerged as a major tribal leader soon after the 2004 death of Nek Mohammad. In a ceremony attended by five leading Taliban commanders, including Mullah Dadullah, Baitullah was appointed Mullah Omar's governor of the Mehsud area. By 2006, Baitullah Mehsud's growing influence in South Waziristan led some to label him as "South Waziristan's Unofficial Amir".

An official in the Northwest Frontier Constabulary described (Baitullah Mehsud’s) army: "Baitullah's lashkar (army) is very organised. He has divided it into various units and assigned particular tasks to each unit. One of the units been tasked to kill people who are pro-government and pro-US or who support the US occupation of Afghanistan. The last person to be killed was Malik Arsallah Khan, chief of the Khuniakhel Wazir tribe, who was killed on 22 February in Wana (in South Waziristan)."

Ceasefire Agreements

8 Feb 2005: Baitullah Mehsud entered into a ceasefire with Pakistani authorities:

• Pakistani military agreed to withdraw its troops from areas under Baitullah Mehsud's control. The removal did not include the paramilitary Frontier Corps, who consist mostly of fellow Pashtuns.
• Baitalluh Mehsud's followers would not attack government officials, impede development projects or allow foreign militants to operate within their territory.
• Baitullah Mehsud was offered US$20 million for his cooperation in the ceasefire. He declined the money and told Pakistani authorities that they should use the pay-out to "compensate families who had suffered during the military operation".  So the money was given to him in suitcases for him to "compensate the families who had suffered during the military operation."[/b]

July 2005: Ceasefire broken when Baitullah Mehsud resumed attacks on security forces, after accusing the Pakistani military of reneging on the deal.

June 2006: Dawn News reported that the Waziri tribes allied with the Taliban were negotiating another ceasefire with Pakistani forces.

January 2007: interview with the BBC Urdu Service, Baitullah Mehsud  extolled the virtues of jihad against foreigners and advocated taking the fight to the U.S. and to Britain.

February 2008: Baitullah Mehsud announced that he had agreed to another ceasefire with the government of Pakistan. The Pakistani military has officially claimed that military operations against Baitullah Mehsud are continuing. The New York Times, however, reported that anonymous high-level officials in the Pakistani government confirmed the deal.[/b]

July 2008: Baitullah Mehsud issued a statement that threatened to take action against the government if the NWFP leaders did not step down within five days. The NWFP parliamentary leaders promptly refused.

Relationship with Abdullah Mehsud
Abdullah Mehsud, a Taliban leader turned CIA agent who was among the first captives set free from Guantanamo, is sometimes described as Baitullah's brother.

Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan
December 2007: Baitullah Mehsud declared the first leader of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan.

Benazir Bhutto Assassination

28 December 2007: the Pakistan government claimed that it had strong evidence regarding Baitullah Mehsud as the man behind the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto on 27 December 2007. The Pakistani government released a transcript it asserted was from a conversation between Baitullah Mehsud and Maulvi Sahib (literally "Mr. Cleric"). According to the transcript Maulvi Sahib claimed credit for the attack, Baitullah Mehsud asked who carried it out, and was told, "There were Saeed, the second was Badarwala Bilal and Ikramullah was also there."

The translation released from Agence France Presse differed slightly from the translation from the Associated Press. According to the transcripts Baitullah Mehsud says he is at, "Anwar Shah's house", in Makeen or Makin. The Agence France Presse transcript identifies Makeen as a town in South Waziristan. Subsequently, both Agence France Presse and NDTV released an official denial by Mehsud's spokesman in which he said that Mehsud had no involvement in the attack, that the transcript was "a drama", that it would have been "impossible" for militants to penetrate the security cordon around Bhutto, and that her death was a "tragedy" which had left Mehsud "shocked". Mehsud's spokesman was quoted as saying: "I strongly deny it. Tribal people have their own customs. We don't strike women."

2 January 2008: In an address to the nation Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said that he believed Maulana Fazlullah and Baitullah Mehsud were prime suspects in the assassination of Bhutto.

18 January 2008: The Washington Post reported that the CIA has concluded that Mehsud was behind the Bhutto assassination. "Offering the most definitive public assessment by a U.S. intelligence official, Michael  Hayden said Bhutto was killed by fighters allied with Mehsud, a tribal leader in northwestern Pakistan, with support from al-Qaeda's terrorist network." U.S. President George W. Bush then placed Mr. Mehsud on "a classified list of militant leaders whom the C.I.A. and American commandos were authorized to capture or kill."

Rumors and Death

30 September 2008: CNN and various other media sources reported the death of Baithullah Mehsud. His "death", at the age of 34, was reportedly due to kidney failure preceded by a short sickness.

1 October 2008: According to breaking news of ARY One World TV of Pakistan, Baitullah Mehsud died on 1 October 2008. He is estimated to have died at around midnight. Baitullah Mehsud has been in ill health for several months and has been suffering from high blood pressure and kidney disease.

Leadership Dispute

On March 27, 2009, Pakistan's Daily Times reported that Baitullah Mehsud's group was engaged in a dispute with a group lead by Qari Zainuddin Mehsud for control of South Waziristan. The Daily Times described Qari Zainuddin Mehsud as the "self-appointed successor of Taliban commander Abdullah Mehsud." Both groups had distributed pamphlets leveling accusations against the other groups' leader. Qari Zainuddin stated that Baitullah's group was not practicing jihad because Islam forbids suicide attacks. Baitullah's pamphlet claimed that Qari Zainuddin was a government puppet and a traitor to Islam and to the Mehsud tribe. Qari Zainuddin was reported to have the support of Maulvi Nazir, a senior Taliban leader, and to have allied with the Bhittani tribe.

Voice of America Interview

In June 2009 Voice of America's Deewa Radio broadcasted Baitullah Mehsud's interview which further cemented the belief that he is supported by CIA.

Splinter within TTP

June 2009: Turkistan Bittani, defected from Baitullah Mehsud calling him a foreign agent and working against Islam and Pakistan. He called Baitullah Mehsud 'an American agent,' arguing Baitullah Mehsud was never targeted in the dozens of US drone attacks inside Pakistan's tribal region.¹

At the same time Qari Zainuddin Mehsud of his own tribe also left him calling him a foreign agent. Qari Zainuddin was assassinated a few days later.

^1. Dissenters say Pakistani Taliban chief implements foreign agenda, 18 Jun 2009
http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/southasia/news/article_1484299.php/Dissenters_say_Pakistani_Taliban_chief_implements_foreign_agenda_

[VirtualChassis]

Nothing ever happens in the world without the NWO being behind it, huh?

[Satyagraha]

Nothing ever happens in the world without the NWO being behind it, huh?

I'd suggest that nothing of any great significance in the world (where great significance equals Power, Money, Control, Resources) ever happens without NWO being involved/attempting to manipulate it. They need to keep their power, money, control and continue amassing resources.

[VirtualChassis]

Wow.  The Great Leap Forward was NWO-induced?  Hungarian Revolution?  Mad cow disease?

[luckee1]

Geolibertarian,

 I remember a story about that a few years ago actually.  I remembered doubting that story because I couldn't believe we actually paid for that.  I have since gone through a total detox from the koolaid.

[Geolibertarian]

Wow.  The Great Leap Forward was NWO-induced?  Hungarian Revolution?  Mad cow disease?

Nothing is NWO-induced.

The NWO doesn't exist.

The "Federal" Reserve doesn't exist, either.

Feel better now?

 

[VirtualChassis]

Well, at least now we're making sense...

[Geolibertarian]

Well, at least now we're making sense...

Only if you're too dimwitted to know sarcasm when you see it.

[VirtualChassis]

It beats the alternative.  Where the whole world has ganged up to cause every negative event in the past 100 years upon people, and where it is heavily implied that if not for global conspiracy everything would be honky-dory (if everything is caused by the NWO and the Fed, it begs the question of what the world would look like were they not the puppetmasters).  That's literally insane.  And your own confirmation bias and proclivity to find false positives exacerbates it, making it very difficult to climb out from.

[Geolibertarian]

Enjoy the bliss, Mr. Coincidence Theorist.

[VirtualChassis]

If only this global cabal wasn't making bad things happen to humanity! Everything would be great if it wasn't there!

[Biggs]

VirtualChassis is banned, there is no point wasting time with such people he is merely dirtying a very valueable thread

[bigron]

Army action in Swat slow, but on track 

12/07/2009 10:42:00 PM GMT
http://aljazeera.com/news/articles/39/Army_action_in_Swat_slow_but_on_track.html
 
 Pakistan's offensive against militants in Swat is taking longer than expected.


(Reuters) The fighting in the northwest has forced nearly two million people from their homes.

By Robert Rirsel

Pakistan's offensive against militants in Swat is taking longer than expected but that is unlikely to deflect the military from its plans nor, for now, undercut public support for the action.

The army went on the attack against Pakistani Taleban fighters in the Swat region, northwest of Islamabad, at the end of April after Taleban gains raised international worry about nuclear-armed Pakistan’s stability.

The army has pushed the militants out of the former tourist valley’s towns and it controls main lines of communication but clashes are flaring daily in some areas.

The fighting in the northwest has forced nearly two million people from their homes and while public backing for the offensive remains solid, there’s a danger the suffering of the displaced could begin to sap support.

Meanwhile, the government and military have set their sights on Pakistani Taleban leader and Al-Qaeda ally Baitullah Mehsud in South Waziristan near the Afghan border. The military says Mehsud is responsible for 90 percent of militant attacks in the country.

While the military has not put a timeframe on the Swat offensive, there has been speculation the army would want to secure the valley before launching a push on Mehsud, and clashes in Swat could delay that.

“It has definitely taken a longer time but it’s explainable in terms of the terrain, the mountains,” said defense analyst Hasan Askari Rizvi.

“They have entrenched themselves more than people generally thought, that’s why the military is having problems in completing the whole process,” he said. The failure to capture or kill leaders of the Taleban in Swat spelt trouble, another analyst said.

“Unless you eliminate the leadership, however much damage you do, the command structure will manage to grow back,” said security analyst Ikram Sehgal. “As long as that leadership exists, low-intensity guerrilla warfare will keep going on.”

But analysts said while Swat fighting might drag on, that would not deflect the military from going after Mehsud.

“I don’t think there is a necessary relationship between the two in terms of getting done with one and then going to the next one,” said Kamran Bokhari, Middle East director for global intelligence company Stratfor.

“They’re not waiting to get done with Swat before focusing on South Waziristan,” he said. “They know Swat is not over yet. Are they going to wait? It could take months. Would you want to allow Baitullah Mehsud the opportunity to do what he can?” The military was setting up choke points to surround Mehsud’s mountain stronghold and was working with ethnic Pashtun tribes in the area to lock in their support. “That’s going to determine when they’re going to go in,” Bokhari said.

For now, the fear that Taleban expansion spread through the country was ensuring public support for the offensive.

The political opposition, including the party led by former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, which will be the main government challenger in the next election due by 2113, were supportive. “His party has come to the conclusion that as long as these Taleban are not really taken care of, governance will be a hell of a problem,” said Rizvi. “They’re not going to create problems for the government on this issue.” But questions will arise before too long if Taleban violence persists and the displaced languish in misery, he said.

“It might become a political problem if Swat is not returned to a normal situation, maybe, by the end of August,” Rizvi said.

“Then there will be real questions.” As well as the possible problem of the suffering of the displaced undermining wider government support, anger among the displaced can be exploited by the Taleban.

“It’s not that public support for the offensive will go down but it could create a separate unrest that you will have to deal with. These people are susceptible to Taleban propaganda,” said Bokhari.



-- Arab News

 

[bigron]

Published on Sunday, July 12, 2009 by The Times/UK

Stop Bombing Us: Osama Isn’t Here, Says Pakistan

by Christina Lamb in Karachi




Osama bin Laden and the top Al-Qaeda leadership are not in Pakistan, making US missile attacks against them futile, according to the country's interior minister.

(The Times) "If Osama was in Pakistan we would know, with all the thousands of troops we have sent into the tribal areas in recent months," Rehman Malik told The Sunday Times. "If he and all these four or five top people were in our area they would have been caught, the way we are searching."

He added: "According to our information Osama is in Afghanistan, probably Kunar, as most of the activities against Pakistan are being directed from Kunar."

Washington does not directly acknowledge its missile attacks on Pakistani territory by unmanned drone aircraft but Pakistani officials say the US has carried out more than 40 attacks inside its borders in the past 10 months, killing hundreds of people.

CIA officials claim these attacks have been highly effective in disrupting Al-Qaeda's ability to operate. However, Malik insists they are a waste of time because the Al-Qaeda leadership is on the other side of the border in eastern Afghanistan.
"They're getting mid-level people not big fish," he said. "And they are counterproductive because they are killing civilians and turning locals against our government. We try to win people's hearts, then one drone attack drives them away. One attack alone last week killed 50 people."

US officials in Islamabad say Pakistan's government is being disingenuous, claiming to oppose the drone attacks to win domestic support, while being quite happy to benefit from them.

On Friday two missiles fired from a drone destroyed a communications centre in South Waziristan that belonged to Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of the Pakistani Taliban responsible for a recent string of suicide attacks in Pakistan.

Pakistan's military admits it has been helped by intelligence from US surveillance flights over the tribal areas as well as the mountain region of Swat, where thousands of troops have been battling against another Taliban group which had taken over the area, forcing more than 2m people to flee.

Yesterday, the government told the refugees that it had cleared Taliban forces from most of Swat and they should return home.

Most refugees are reluctant, worried about continued hostilities and lack of food after fighting disrupted the harvest. Abdullah Yusufzai, a medical student who returned to the main city of Mingo-ra, said: "There is a real shortage of food and fighting is ongoing in the hills and the army is still blowing up houses of suspected militants."

The army has not yet caught the leaders of the Swat Taliban though the interior minister claims that the main leader, Maulana Fazlullah, has been hit twice and is badly wounded. "I'm quite confident we'll get them," he said.

"Not only have we killed most of them but we've also destroyed their hideouts and arms depots," he added. "We discovered long, wide tunnels they were using for weapons."

According to Malik, the families of the militant leaders had been discovered hiding in the refugee camps. Fazlullah's family was found in a camp in Haripur and taken into custody.

Troops will remain in Swat to prevent the Taliban from returning but the army's main focus is switching to the tribal areas of Waziristan, home to one of the area's fiercest tribes. South Waziristan is the headquarters of Mehsud, and the north is also a base of Jalaluddin Haqqani, an Afghan warlord with close links to Al-Qaeda believed to be responsible for the capture of an American soldier last week.

"Wherever these militants are, we'll get them out," said Malik. "The decision of the government is very firm - no mercy, no negotiation. They must surrender or die."

For all Washington's talk of an "AfPak strategy", he said, Pakistan's efforts to take on the Taliban their side of the border are being hampered by the failure of American and British troops in Afghanistan to monitor their side.

"Two years ago we were being criticised by the West for our ISI [Inter-Services Intelligence agency] helping the Taliban cross into Afghanistan," he said. "We have stopped the border crossing. Now we're finding the same situation - they're coming from the other side, bringing arms and fighters from Helmand into Baluchistan and into Waziristan. Should we say it's Afghan or western intelligence helping them?"

He argued that Nato troops in Afghanistan should have first sealed the border before stepping up the fighting. "If we can't seal it totally we should seal it as much as possible," he said. "If we can't have a wall, at least let's put up barbed wire."

"They should replicate what we've done," he added. "We have 1,000 checkpoints on our side - they have only 100, of which only 60 are working. It makes no sense to both be fighting either side of the border without stopping the militants crossing."

Karachi target

Political leaders have warned that Baitullah Mehsud, Pakistan's Taliban commander, is exploiting the political and refugee crisis to destabilise Karachi, the largest city in the country, writes Nicola Smith.

Thousands of Pashtun refugees loyal to Mehsud have fled to Karachi in the past few months to escape fighting in the northwest. More are expected to arrive from South Waziristan, on the border with Afghanistan.

This has led to fears that Pakistan's commercial capital, home to the banking industry and stock exchange, is becoming "Talibanised".

Syed Mustafa Kamal, mayor of Karachi, warned that Taliban insurgents are using their refugee status to establish strongholds.

Explaining that remittances were funding Taliban fighters, he said: "Karachi has become the revenue engine for the Taliban. If our enemies hit Karachi, then Pakistan's stability will be in question. Karachi is the fuel for Pakistan's economy."

The mayor claimed the city had 3,000 madrasahs (religious schools), which were closed to local students, and that the Taliban had begun to threaten women in short sleeves. Police said militants planned a terrorist strike.

 

Copyright 2009 Times Newspapers Ltd.


Article printed from www.CommonDreams.org

URL to article: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/07/12-2

[Satyagraha]

Mohmand lashkar kills 23 Taliban militants
Tuesday, 14 Jul, 2009 | 12:16 PM PST | 
http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/pakistan/04-mohmand-lashkar-kills-23-taliban-militants-qs-03 

The clashes occurred Monday and overnight in the region’s Anbar village, about 15 kms southwest of Bajaur’s Khar. — File

PESHAWAR: Fighting in Pakistan's tribal belt killed 23 Taliban militants and destroyed an oil tanker supplying Nato forces based across the border in Afghanistan, officials said Tuesday.

The deadliest clashes involved a village militia, officials said, reflecting the state's increasing reliance on local tribesmen to battle militants allegedly plotting attacks against targets in this region and in the west.

The worst violence occurred Monday and overnight in the village of Anbar in Mohmand district, 15 kilometres southwest of Khar, the main town of the neighbouring Bajaur district.

‘According to reports received here, a lashkar (traditional tribal militia) killed 23 militants and several others were wounded,’ local administration official Asad Ali Khan told AFP.

Administration official Mohammad Rasul Khan said three villagers were missing after the clashes between a 150-strong village force and militants.

Intelligence and security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the fighting and the death toll.

Hundreds of militants are believed to have fled Afghanistan into Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal areas to carve out safe havens after the US-led invasion toppled the Taliban regime in Kabul in late 2001.

Pakistan is encouraging locals to organise lashkars against militants in several northwestern regions, as they widen the fight against extremists blamed for bomb attacks that have killed about 2,000 people in two years.

In the Khyber tribal region, militants ambushed a tanker carrying fuel for Nato forces in Afghanistan and an ensuing gunfight killed two civilians, said local administration official Rehan Gul Khattak.

The attack took place near the town of Landi Kotal on the main highway which links Pakistan to landlocked Afghanistan.

‘Militants first fired a mortar on the oil tanker and then set it on fire. Meanwhile a gunfight broke out with paramilitary troops which left two civilians dead and three others wounded,’ Khattak said.

The ambush was staged by around 30 militants who fled after the exchange of fire, he said. The highway was temporarily closed, but Nato supply convoys were halted even after the road re-opened, Khattak said.

‘We will target all those who will continue supply,’ Umar Farooq, a spokesman for Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in Khyber, told AFP by telephone from an undisclosed location.

Violence has flared in the tribal areas despite a two-month campaign against the Taliban in and around the northwest district of Swat, once dubbed the ‘Switzerland of Pakistan’ for its resorts.

http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/pakistan/04-mohmand-lashkar-kills-23-taliban-militants-qs-03
 

[bigron]

Al Qaeda message urges Pakistanis to back militants


Story Highlights :

Ayman al-Zawahiri, al Qaeda's second in command, gives audio message

He says Pakistanis must back Islamic militants to counter U.S. influence in Pakistan

Zawahiri warned Muslims they have a religious duty to support the jihad, or struggle

U.S. and British forces recently launched offensives in Helmand province



(CNN) -- The people of Pakistan must back Islamic militants to counter the influence of the United States in their country or face punishment from God, Ayman al-Zawahiri, al Qaeda's second in command, said in an audio message released early Wednesday.

"I believe that every honest and sincere Muslim in Pakistan should seriously contemplate ... Pakistan's present state and expected future, because the blatant American crusader interference in Pakistan's affairs ... has reached such an extent that it now poses a grave danger to Pakistan's future and very existence," al-Zawahiri said in the message, which was released on radical Islamist Web sites.

Zawahiri warned Muslims that they have a religious duty to support the jihad, or struggle.

"If we stand by passively without offering due support to the mujahedeen, we shall not only contribute to the destruction of Pakistan and Afghanistan, but we shall also deserve the painful punishment of almighty God," he said.

The Pakistani military is fighting Taliban militants in the country's north, and suspected U.S. missile attacks from drones have targeted militant leaders.

Reports from the region suggest government troops have dislodged the Taliban from many areas of the North West Frontier Province, but militant attacks continue daily.

Two government troops died and six were wounded Wednesday in the Bannu district when a bomb was detonated near a patrol, police said. A militant rocket attack near Peshawar about midnight missed a police checkpoint, but injured two civilians.

Across the border in Afghanistan, NATO-led forces are battling the Taliban as well. U.S. and British forces recently launched offensives in Helmand province.

This is the seventh message from al-Zawahiri espousing the views of the al Qaeda terror network in 2009. In addition to Pakistan and Afghanistan, the others have focused on Somalia, Yemen and Israeli military operations against Hamas leaders in Gaza.

All AboutAl Qaeda • Pakistan • Afghanistan • The Taliban • NATO • Ayman al-Zawahiri • Helmand Province
 

 
 
 
Links referenced within this article

Pakistan
http://topics.edition.cnn.com/topics/Pakistan
Afghanistan
http://topics.edition.cnn.com/topics/Afghanistan
NATO
http://topics.edition.cnn.com/topics/NATO
Taliban
http://topics.edition.cnn.com/topics/The_Taliban
Helmand province
http://topics.edition.cnn.com/topics/Helmand_Province
al-Zawahiri
http://topics.edition.cnn.com/topics/Ayman_al_Zawahiri
Al Qaeda
http://topics.edition.cnn.com/topics/Al_Qaeda
Pakistan
http://topics.edition.cnn.com/topics/Pakistan
Afghanistan
http://topics.edition.cnn.com/topics/Afghanistan
The Taliban
http://topics.edition.cnn.com/topics/The_Taliban
NATO
http://topics.edition.cnn.com/topics/NATO
Ayman al-Zawahiri
http://topics.edition.cnn.com/topics/Ayman_al_Zawahiri
Helmand Province
http://topics.edition.cnn.com/topics/Helmand_Province

 

 
Find this article at:
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/07/15/pakistan.al.qaeda.message/index.html 
 

[bigron]

Will Af-Pak War Spill Into Tajikistan?

Posted By Jason Ditz On July 15, 2009 @ 5:37 pm




In the eight years since the US invasion of Afghanistan, the conflict has steadily expanded through Pakistan. It started in the tribal areas, and indeed those are still seeing some of the largest unrest, but eventually it expanded into the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), where a military offensive chased millions of Swatis from their homes. Isolated attacks have happened in the rest of the nation as well, and many doubt if the Pakistani government will survive.

So what’s next for the growing militancy, besides setting monthly records in Afghanistan? Some diplomats fear that it could be Tajikistan, which they say is likely spillover from the Pakistani military’s Swat Valley offensive, done at the behest of the US.

It’s not just the diplomats, locals also see trouble brewing in Tajikistan. The government has tried to slough off the fighting as a war on drugs, but increasingly attacks along the Afghan border seem to be for their own sake, and far from just another drug war, the nation seems to be battling a full-fledged insurgency.

Tajikistan declared its independence during the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, and was almost immediately torn apart by a bloody, five year long civil war between the autocratic government and an opposition made up of both pro-democracy liberals and Islamists.

Related Stories
June 23, 2009 -- US Commander: Swat Valley Offensive Helping in Afghanistan
July 13, 2009 -- After Months of Violence, a Trickle of Swatis Returns Home
July 6, 2009 -- At Least 14 Killed as Swat Valley Conflict Continues


Article printed from News From Antiwar.com: http://news.antiwar.com

URL to article: http://news.antiwar.com/2009/07/15/is-tajikistan-the-next-front-in-the-war-on-terror/

[bigron]

Jul 18, 2009 
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/KG18Df03.html 
 
 
 Pakistan wields a double-edged sword


By Syed Saleem Shahzad

KARACHI - The first few thousand of more than 3 million people displaced by fighting in Pakistan's Swat and Malakand regions in North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) have returned to their homes. Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the United States Joint Chiefs of Staff, on a tour to a refugee camp, said this week he was "optimistic" about the job more than 30,000 troops are doing in tackling militants in the area.

The months-long offensive in and around Swat has, however, stirred bitter resentment against the Pakistan Army and its Operation Rah-e-Raast (Operation for the Right Path), despite the positive spin the authorities try to put on the operation and their claims of killing top Taliban commanders.

The army's media relations department has claimed on at least four occasions that Mullah Fazlullah, nicknamed "Radio Mullah", the leader of the pro-Taliban Tehrik-Nifaz-i-Shariat-i-Mohammadi (TNSM) that controls the insurgency in Swat, had been seriously wounded.

In all likelihood, the latest offensive will be much like Operation Rah-e-Haq (2007-08) in the Swat Valley, where the militants weathered the storm and emerged stronger than ever. Once the refugees return home, the militants will take up arms again for more pitched battles.

Contrary to the military's claims of hundreds of militants killed, the militants say they have lost only 50 of their men, with the remainder being civilians killed in crossfire or in aerial bombings. Of the 50, two commanders - one named only as Daud and the other as Shah Doran - have died.

The military operation has seen the emergence of a new supreme commander of the Swat Valley - Bin Yameen. He is fiercely anti-army and insiders say that even if ceasefires agreements are made, he will ignore them and fight to his last man and last bullet.
Renowned as a pir (spiritual guide), Bin Yameen is a former Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM - led by Maulana Masood Azhar) leader in Swat. He spent seven years as a prisoner of the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance after being captured in Afghanistan fighting for the Taliban in the 1990s. On his release, he returned to Swat and joined the JeM. In mid-2000, he was picked up by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence for alleged involvement in an unsuccessful plot to assassinate president General Pervez Musharraf.

A top jihadi leader who was detained - also without trial - over the same incident told Asia Times Online, "He [Bin Yameen] was the victim of the worst sort of torture by army personnel, right up to the time it became crystal clear that he was not involved in any activity against the army or Musharraf. He became full of venom against the army."

After his release, Bin Yameen joined Mullah Fazlullah's TNSM, but retained command over a group of men loyal to him. Now there is a slogan that says "Bajaur [Agency] belongs to Faqir and Swat belongs to pir". (Faqir refers to another anti-army militant, Maulana Faqir Mohammad, whose brother was killed by the army in a torture cell.) At present, the entire Taliban leadership in the Malakand area is lying low, leaving Bin Yameen and his men face-to-face with the army.

Bin Yameen is just one example of a Talib who was once used by the military to further its strategic depth in Afghanistan, but who is now bitterly opposed to the army. In a similar manner, in the past month, the "war on terror" has taken a turn.

The Pakistan army had favored opening several fronts against militants in the troubled tribal areas, but the new US and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, and other US officials wanted to concentrate on closing the Taliban's supply lines to Afghanistan's Helmand province, as a NATO operation was planned for there.

The only Pakistani Taliban commander who sends his men to Helmand is Baitullah Mehsud in South Waziristan. Over the past few years, he has dispatched several thousand fighters. (A command structure comprising former Kashmiri fighters, under Abdul Jabbar, also sends men to Helmand.)

A few months ago, when the Malakand operation was in full swing, the Americans became so desperate that action should be taken against Pakistani militants who were due to go into Helmand that the Pakistani establishment believed they would take matters into their own hands and move into Pakistan.

To pre-empt this, all possible tribal rivals of Baitullah Mehsud in South Waziristan were organized (all were Taliban) under the banner of the Pakistan army. Qari Zainuddin Mehsud, whom the army claimed had 3,000 men, could hardly gather a few dozen, as with Haji Turkestan. The biggest Taliban commander on the Pakistani side, Mullah Nazir, an arch-rival of Baitullah due to tribal feuds, initially assured the army he would stay neutral if action were taken against Mehsud. Another Taliban commander, Gul Bahadur, also a rival of Baitullah, was silent.

Baitullah responded by conveying a message through influential commander Sirajuddin Haqqani to all Taliban leaders that if the Pakistan army entered South Waziristan, it would be completely under American pressure. As such, they should not make any agreements with the army.

Mullah Nazir promptly refused to allow the army passage in his area; Qari Zainuddin Mehsud was assassinated by Baitullah's men and Haji Turkestan went into hiding and refused to cooperate with the army.

With the army nevertheless poised to attack Baitullah last month, Gul Bahadur, considered "good Taliban" by the army, broke a ceasefire in North Waziristan by carrying out a devastating attack on a military convoy in which three officers and 26 soldiers were killed. Thirty military personnel were also abducted.

The incident stunned the army and it was faced with the reality that far from eliminating Baitullah, he had emerged as the leader of all of the Pakistani Taliban; tribal feuds had been put aside. This was despite the fact that the army clarified on a number of occasions that the military operation was only against Baitullah, not even against his tribe. Clearly, no one believed the army.

Credibility problem
Three weeks ago, police arrested five bandits in the southern port city of Karachi - Adil, Shah Hussain, Ahmed Baloch, Rahmat and Sher Muhammed, all from the Mehsud tribe and none of them from the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan.

They were simply bandits who happened to be Mehsuds. However, the army was so keen to settle scores with Baitullah that a military security unit ordered a police officer, Raja Umar Khattab, to shoot them. Khattab refused, as he was aware, after their 15 days in custody, that they were just bandits and that an extra-judicial killing would land him in serious trouble.

The five were then transferred to another police officer, who did the deed. The bodies were immediately sent to South Waziristan with a message to Baitullah that the "more you defy us, the more you will collect the bodies of your tribal men".

This sordid episode further cemented the support of the entire Mehsud tribe around Baitullah, including all Taliban commanders. Baitullah is once again the undisputed number one commander of the Pakistani Taliban.

The military's missteps were not limited to Waziristan and the Swat Valley, as shown in the operation in Orakzai Agency - an outpost of Baitullah's where his cousin, Hakimullah Mehsud, calls the shots.

The Taliban control the regions of Khyber Agency and Kurram Agency through Orakzai, and it is also the main hub for carrying out attacks on Peshawar, the capital of NWFP.

During the operation, aircraft destroyed the biggest seminary in the agency, in the process killing the highly respected 72-year-old religious scholar Mufti Amin, a pro-army cleric who opposed suicide attacks on the Pakistani security forces.

The next day, the director general of Inter-Services Public Relations, Major General Athar Abbas, scornfully declared Mufti Amin a "miscreant". This inflamed the ordinary people of Orakzai and they turned hostile to the army. A military helicopter was soon after shot down in the agency, killing several personnel, including a colonel. When a team was sent to collect the remains, the Taliban ambushed it and and killed 40 people.

With events spiraling out of control on several fronts, military headquarters in Rawalpindi approached all Taliban commanders about a ceasefire. They were assured that if the militants provided guarantees, a ceasefire deal was also possible in Swat Valley. This initiative came too late as anti-army militants are entrenched in their views.

Another misstep
In April, some high profile arrests (Exposed jihadis put Pakistan on the spot Asia Times Online, May 5, 2009) uncovered a jihadi network operating through Pakistan. As a result, a top jihadi commander, Abdul Jabbar, was forced to take refuge in North Waziristan.

Jabbar had always opposed attacks on the Pakistani security forces as well as jihadi operations in Pakistan. Under US pressure (more than 500 Americans have arrived in Islamabad to observe developments) an operation was organized against militants in the southern Punjab and several high-profile commanders, including one named Farooq and other members of the Jaish-e-Mohammad, were arrested.

A top jihadi leader commented to Asia Times Online, "We never imagined such a reaction. We have not fought against the Pakistan army and we do not consider it right. But if the present arrests continue, what option will we have ... without going to Waziristan and doing what other people are doing there?

Military headquarters believes that people like Maulana Sufi Mohammad - spearhead of the sharia movement in Malakand division - are an ace in their hand. He is being detained in a military safe house. But in recent weeks, the militants' command structure has changed and people like Sufi Mohammad have become irrelevant. Now it is people like Bin Yameen, once an asset, who call the shots against the militants.

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

 
 
 

[bigron]

NATO Fuel Tankers Attacked in Pakistan

Posted By Jason Ditz On July 17, 2009 @ 5:03 pm

Militants in the restive Khyber Agency carried out a pair of bombing attacks on NATO fuel tankers today, destroying two of the tankers and starting a fire that destroyed several stores and killed a fruit vendor.



The deceptively serene Khyber Pass


The tankers were headed to Afghanistan to provide fuel for NATO’s ongoing war there. Though dangerous, the Khyber Pass remains the primary source of supplies for the NATO mission in the land-locked country.

Today’s attacks are the most high profile in several months. Earlier in the year a spate of bombings, fires, and hijackings saw dozens of vehicles and enormous numbers of supplies lost. The Pakistani military has attempted to keep the pass open to NATO traffic, but has had to intermittantly close it when the attacks become too great a danger to the truck drivers.

Though the United States has gone to great lengths to get approval for alternative supply routes, including a land route across Russia, transport across Pakistan’s tribal region remains by far the most cost effective route.

Related Stories
December 30, 2008 -- Pakistan Closes Khyber Pass
December 16, 2008 -- Pakistani Opposition Party to Start Blocking NATO Supplies to Afghanistan
January 20, 2009 -- Petraeus: US Has Permission to Use Russian Land Route for Afghan Supplies


Article printed from News From Antiwar.com: http://news.antiwar.com

URL to article: http://news.antiwar.com/2009/07/17/nato-fuel-tankers-attacked-in-pakistan/

[bigron]

Dismantling Pakistan, a Quagmire of Imperial Slavery

By Talha Mujaddidi in Pakistan. Axis of Logic

http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m56118&hd=&size=1&l=e

July 18, 2009

Talha Mujaddidi analyzes the "Quagmire of Imperial Slavery" for Axis of Logic from inside Pakistan: In January, 2005, Wajid Shamsul Hasan, former Pakistan High Commissioner to the U.K. wrote the following alert and warning:

"When it was over, I realised that everything had happened 'according to the plan'. This brings out of me the apprehension: are our military rulers working on an a similar agenda or something that has been laid out for them in the various assessment reports over the years by the National Intelligence Council (NIC) in joint collaboration with CIA. It was poor Miraj Khalid who as interim prime minister in early 1997 had dared to confide to the Pakistanis that CIA had forecast Pakistan's denouement by the year 2015. ... the NIC report cast a dark shadow on Pakistan's future five years ago.

"It said that by the year 2015 Pakistan would be a failed state, ripe with civil war, bloodshed, inter-provincial rivalries and a struggle for control of its nuclear weapons and its complete Talibanization. It had predicted, 'Pakistan will not recover easily from decades of political and economic mismanagement, divisive policies, lawlessness, corruption and ethnic friction'. Nascent democratic reforms will produce little change in the face of opposition from an entrenched political elite and radical Islamic parties. Further domestic decline would benefit Islamic political activists, who may significantly increase their role in national politics and alter the makeup and cohesion of the military, once Pakistan's most capable institution. In a climate of continuing domestic turmoil, the central government's control probably will be reduced to the Punjabi heartland and the economic hub of Karachi."

Al Basrah reported in August, 2008, that Senator Nisar A. Memon of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q warned Pakistan's upper house that "the Americans harboured the designs of breaking up Pakistan." He cited an earlier CIA report that predicted a "Yugoslavia-like fate for Pakistan in a decade with civil war, bloodshed and inter-provincial rivalries as seen in Balochsitan". He also quoted a Global Research report which alleged that, British intelligence agencies were providing covert support to Balochistan's terrorist separatists and that  "chaos and anarchy would be created through economic disruption, as result of which the International Monetary Fund would take Pakistan in its grip."  

While military operations continue in tribal areas of Pakistan, the Pakistani establishment is still stuck in the maze that was created by US Imperialist juggernauts and implemented to near perfection by former President and Army Chief of Pakistan Pervaiz Musharraf. Musharraf has done grave harm to the national security of Pakistan. The tremors of his jolts are still reverberating in Pakistani political and public spheres. The U-turns that Musharraf took under US pressure inflicted grave damages to Pakistan’s National and regional interests. Musharraf destroyed Pakistan’s Kashmir policy, Afghanistan policy, he bowed down in front of India, worst of all he gave a blank check to Washington to expand their CIA and FBI setup in Pakistan.

--

LONDON, January 29, 2005: It seems that our rulers, having learnt no lesson, stand condemned to repeat the same criminal blunders that converted Pakistan's most populated province into an independent state following the surrender of the Pakistani generals to the Indian army. That was December 1971.

Now 34 years later Pakistan has drifted into a similar situation in its biggest province. We had then, as now, a power drunk general heading an equally obdurate military coterie that would not listen to voices of reason, pleadings of political and saner elements for a democratic settlement according to the electoral verdict of the majority. Rest is history.

Balochistan today is facing a similar military operation as of erstwhile East Pakistan. President General Musharraf has cast the die. Not only a full-fledged military operation with all its fire and fury has been launched though denied by his media minions, the most deplorable rape of a doctor allegedly by army personnel, seems to have plunged a proud people into an irreparable and irreversible grief and a struggle that would be bloody with horrendous consequences.

- Wajid Shamsul Hasan,
former Pakistan High
Commissioner to the U.K.


-----

Musharraf is gone, but his legacy of Imperial slavery is being continued whole-heartedly by President Zardari and his cronies. Of course the Pakistani parliament is a rubber-stamp body of most efficient crooks. The Pakistani presidency and Parliament is under complete control of CIA. The opposition parties are as corrupt as ruling PPP and are unable to stand up to Imperial hegemony. The Pakistani economy is completely under IMF and WB control with key former Citibank 'goons’ in charge of destroying the industrial base of Pakistan.

Pakistan is right now in the midst of a brutal assault led by the U.S./Zionist energy-greedy, global imperialists. Aiding them in their enterprise are CIA, RAW (Indian Intel), Mossad, and MI6. They are targeting the complete destabilization of Pakistan, the destruction and dismantling of Pakistan’s nuclear program, control of oil, gas, and mineral rich, strategically-located Baluchistan, and North West Frontier Province (NWFP) of Pakistan. The Indians are in it for their old Bharatmata (Greater India) plan of making Pakistan their satellite state.

Death Squads, Divisions and Supporting Terrorism

The complex power game that is going on right now in NWFP is based on some key methods and objectives.

Assassination: The CIA is using the same tactics that Negroponte used earlier in Honduras and Nicaragua, and then later in Iraq. These include the creation of local death squads and militias who kill one another and those listed for assassination by the CIA. (refer to Jeremy Scahill’s bestseller. 'Blackwater’).

Dividing to conquer: Different tribes and sub-tribes in Tribal areas of Pakistan are being set against one another and against the Pakistan Army. General McChrystal (former JSOC commander) has taken over command in Afghanistan, where Negroponte’s methods are being used again but they will not succeed as they did in Iraq. The Soviets have failed, using such tactics before when they were trying to suppress the mujahedeen.

Supporting Rogue Militants: The recent "surge" operation in South of Afghanistan (in Helmand) is aimed at making sure that rogue militants regroup deep inside Pakistan’s Baluchistan, to stage a large insurgency against Islamabad. Mossad, CIA, RAW and MI6 sponsored BLA and supported Jundullah, which  will also be used to create trouble inside Iran. Of course Al-Qaeda will keep "resurfacing" as long as it seems necessary to entertain the late evening news watcher.

While the Pakistan Army was busy in dealing with the Indian threat after Mumbai terrorist attacks, the TTP under the leadership of Baitullah Mehsud was regrouping and gaining control of Swat Valley and its adjoining areas. Musharraf had given a wild card to CIA which resulted in the CIA's penetration of Tribal Areas of Pakistan, their buying loyalties of rogue elements and militants better known as freelance terrorists (e.g. Chechens and Uzbeks, who have no home to which to return).

At stake for the CIA in Tribal areas and Pakistan’s North

"It's admitted by the CIA that these attacks serve to provoke more attacks by forces in Pakistan. Michael Hayden for example said: 'We use military operations to excite the enemy, prompting him to respond. In that response we learn so much'. These attacks will just continue because they hasten the larger US plan for the region: To destroy Pakistan to aid the main opposition to China in the region, India."

- David Rothscum

Of greatest importance to Langley at this time is the land link between Pakistan and China. Washington wants this link to be cut to allow greater control by NATO troops of the region near China's border. Remember 1984, when India moved into Siachen glacier, the military objective was to take control of Pakistan-China Karakorum Highway. If the land link between China and Pakistan is cut off, the US would be willing to mediate between India and Pakistan in the Kashmir dispute. The Indian government will oblige if the U.S. guarantees that Pakistan is de-nuclearized and made a proxy of India.


 
The U.S. wants NATO troops in Kashmir to provide for communication posts deep inside Kashmir right next to China, and also for control of the vital Ladakh airfield.  


In the imperial scheme, the predominantly Pushtoon population of NWFP would be either made part of Afghanistan or put under direct control of US troops. This is also part of the plan to balkanize Pakistan.

Another stake the CIA has is the huge quantities of minerals and resources lie beneath the soil of Tribal Areas and Swat. Swat contains massive quantities of emeralds and gold. Their abundance was the reason the TTP tried to control as much NWFP turf as possible. Bajaur, where a long battle was fought between Pakistan Army and TTP, has huge quantities of magnesium. Elsewhere in the tribal areas are deposits of coal, chromium, and other minerals. The TTP had taken control of three shuttered emerald mines in northwest Swat and used emeralds to fund their insurgency. But the Pakistan Army has now taken over the mines from TTP.

 
"God has given us enormous wealth in terms of emeralds from Swat, rubies, pink topaz, beautiful tourmaline," said Ilyas Ali Shah, a gemologist with the government-run Pakistan Gems and Jewellery Development Company.


"They would collect the emeralds and there would be an open tender every Sunday," said Azhar ul Islam, a 44-year-old gem trader from Swat. "The profits were divided up — two-thirds for the miner and one-third for the Taliban." (reminder: the Pakistan Taliban referred to here has nothing to do with the Afghan Taliban)

Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan are believed to hold up to 30-40 per cent of the world's emerald deposits, Shah says, with the precious stone fetching up to 2,000 dollars per carat depending on quality.

The Mess Created in the Tribal Areas by the CIA

The longer the Pakistan Army is stuck deep inside Tribal Areas and elsewhere the better it will be for hostile powers. When the military operation started in Swat and adjoining areas, there was a concern about the performance of Pakistan Army since the army did not have previous experience of fighting guerilla warfare in hilly, dense-foliage terrain. But the Pakistan Army was extremely efficient in quickly rooting out TTP from the area. Their effectiveness and precision is being appreciated by many Pakistani people. The US is creating a new trap for Pakistan Army in South and North Waziristan. Drone handlers will certainly not target Baitullah Mehsud, but they did target Maulvi Gulbahadur (located in North Waziristan). Gulbahadur was previously not supporting TTP but after the drone attack he has decided to join TTP. Qari Zainuddin, former Mehsud accomplice, had turned against him and spoken openly against Mehsud, calling him a RAW (Indian Intel) and Mossad agent, Zainuddin was killed soon afterwards. Brian Cloughley, author of 'War, coups, and terror’, a book on Pakistan Army, said in his recent article,

"One of Mehsud’s many enemies was Maulvi Nazir of the Ahmedzai Wazirs who had killed a lot of Uzbek nasties in South Waziristan and was thus deemed to be helping Pakistan’s security as well as ridding the world of 'guest militants’ who crossed the border to attack international troops in Afghanistan... He had an agreement, a non-aggression pact, to put it in plain terms, with the Pakistan Army, which was satisfied that it had at least one ally in the region, who would be badly needed when it eventually became practicable to launch a major military operation in South Waziristan (as distinct from the professionally commendable but necessarily limited action in 2007."

Cloughley continues,

"But the Americans wanted to keep on using their video game, the drone-fired missiles, to blitz FATA and kill everyone who they considered to be a 'bad guy." This included targeting Maulvi Nazir, who decided that he could do without the attentions of drones and blamed Islamabad for letting CIA have their little parties. When the missile attacks continued to be directed at him, Nazir decided he had had enough, and switched sides and joined a union with Mehsud, ostensibly against 'the Americans'."


 
FATA (tribal areas of Pakistan) and light brown provinces of Afghanistan under control of Taliban.  



Possible Terrorist Attack on Nuclear Installations

Another reason why TTP will be used to create turmoil inside Pakistan is that there are some key nuclear installations not very far from FATA or NWFP. As many writers have said and I have also mentioned in my last article, it is imperative for the Zionist agenda that the world sees Pakistan as an irresponsible nuclear state. In order to achieve this, a possible terrorist act against a nuclear site in Pakistan will do wonders to grab world attention and might even make it to the UN Security Council. There are reports circulating in Pakistan that a similar plan is underway. It was first reported by Asian Tribune, and then by a few other Pakistan newspapers including the oldest and most widely-read Urdu daily, Jang. Top private news channels have also picked up the story. The report has also grabbed attention of some think tanks in Islamabad. The report says that Indian intelligence has given money and logistics to Baitullah Mehsud to execute an attack on a key nuclear installation of Pakistan.

 
Nuclear sites in Pakistan


There are a number of reasons to give credence to this report. First and foremost is the ultra secret movement of JSOC (Joint Special Operation Command) in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Since Obama came into office Pakistan is no longer considered an ally but a hostile nation under 'AfPak’ strategy. What is JSOC up to in Pakistan? Why are BLA, Jundullah, Al-Qaeda, TTP all regrouping inside Baluchistan?

China is working on at least two civilian nuclear reactors in Pakistan. If Pakistan is declared a rogue nuclear nation and put under IAEA sanctions, China’s strategic interest in Pakistan will be further reduced. More importantly, stopping Pakistan’s nuclear program through UNSC sanctions and IAEA inspections will be used in case of an attack.

There have been news reports coming in from all sources that Israeli Air force has conducted a massive exercise for an air attack possibly against Iran. Were the air strike exercises meant for Iran? Mossad, CIA, and NIE (National Intelligence Estimate) all agree that Iran is at least three to five years away from completing a bomb, if indeed it is on their agenda. Plus Israel has conducted war games and exercises many times before which raises the question of why the sudden need to conduct a massive exercise now.          

The Death of Indian nuclear scientist, Lokanathan Mahalingam

Another important issue is that of the Indian nuclear scientist’s mysterious disappearance and then the recovery of his dead body. Imagine, if a Pakistani or Iranian nuclear scientist would have disappeared what melodrama would have been generated by Zionist controlled Fox News, CNN, and BBC. The disappearance of Indian nuclear scientist Lokanathan Mahalingam was not even reported in major newspapers and news channels. According to information available from South Asian Strategic Stability Institute (SASSI), after missing for six days, his body was found from Kali River in Kaiga township in Karwar, Karnataka, India. Details of the cause of his death, assassination or suicide are unknown. If he was killed, who was his assassin and what was the motive?

According to the information from SASSI, Mahalingam was working at Kaiga Atomic Power Plant which is not under IAEA safeguards, and is not a civilian reactor. It’s part of India’s nuclear weapons complex where their plutonium based weapons are designed. Before this another employee of the same nuclear plant, Ravi Mule was murdered and his body was found in a jungle in Kaiga area. Previously, significant quantities of uranium have been stolen from India’s nuclear installations.

It is simply impossible that Mahalingam was not under supervision of Indian security agencies since he has been working in a nuclear weapons facility for the past few years. His disappearance for six days and later, his death, is extremely mysterious. Is there a team of rogue agents trying to get their hold on a dirty bomb or are government agencies behind his death? If rogue agents are involved, who will be the target? If government agents, what is their motive?

Obama's expansion of the Bush legacy portends failure

The Bush legacy of military adventurism and secret operations against people of Middle East is being continued by Obama. With the implementation of 'Holbrooke doctrine’ and 'AfPak’, this region is set for more turmoil and chaos. Other than Iran, Pakistan is the most important country in the region geo-strategically after Afghanistan. Because Afghanistan is the "heart of Asia", turmoil in Afghanistan will mean chaos and turmoil in the entire region. Destabilisation leading to western control is the objective. But sooner or later NATO and US troops from Afghanistan will have to leave; Afghanistan is after all known as a graveyard of empires and invading armies. The Pakistan Army dragged into the "war on terror" trap by Gen. Musharraf is also looking at options to find its way out of this maze. The Pakistan government has said that Taliban of Afghanistan must be bought into the Afghan government. That necessity has also been voiced by Hamid Karzai and the commanders of US and NATO troops.

However, Mullah Omar looks to be in no mood to negotiate and he's in a strong position with his loyal Taliban commanders and allies controlling over 70% of Afghanistan. With the U.S. economy faltering beneath the plunge resulting from the Bush’s "war on terrorism", it’s likely that anti-US forces in the region will join hands and create more trouble in Afghanistan for the U.S., NATO and their puppet regime in Kabul under Karzai. Instead of learning from past mistakes, consolidating and using greater caution, the U.S. is opening more fronts against Iran and China. India has backed the wrong horse again, they backed Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, but sadly for them the Soviets were kicked out in a decade. Then came the takeover of Afghanistan by the pro-Pakistan Taliban who crushed pro-Indian elements. But power hungry nations never seem to learn from their mistakes. India has now has backed the U.S. and NATO in Afghanistan hoping that they can take care of Afghanistan and Pakistan problem once and for all but surely, history will repeat itself again.

Conclusion

Practically speaking, Pakistan is virtually without a government as the government in power is totally off tangent from the demands of the people. There is a consensus building amongst the people in Pakistan that the time has come to rid themselves of this corrupt system and bring about a peoples revolution. It will be a long and difficult process, but alignment of the mindset of the people is the first and necessary step. The corrupt politicians of Pakistan do not have nine lives of a cat anymore. We predict the change begin in the near future. The chains of imperial slavery will be broken; Pakistanis have learned that their country is neither, an Iraq nor an Afghanistan that can be subdued by putting a Karzai, or Talabani in the presidential palace. True that Zardari has damaged Pakistan as much as he can just like Musharraf did before him but solidarity is growing and the people are gearing up for a change and the battle of ideas has just begun.

READ HIS BIO AND MORE ANALYSES BY TALHA MUJADIDDI :
http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/Talha.shtml

© Copyright 2009 by AxisofLogic.com

This material is available for republication as long as reprints include verbatim copy of the article in its entirety, respecting its integrity. Reprints must cite the author and Axis of Logic as the original source including a "live link" to the article. Thank you!
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[bigron]

Weekend Edition
July 17-19, 2009

A Five Year Forecast
Whither Pakistan?

By PERVEZ HOODBHOY

http://www.counterpunch.org/hoodbhoy07172009.html

First, the bottom line: Pakistan will not break up; there will not be another military coup; the Taliban will not seize the presidency; Pakistan's nuclear weapons will not go astray; and the Islamic sharia will not become the law of the land.

That's the good news. It conflicts with opinions in the mainstream U.S. press, as well as with some in the Obama administration. For example, in March, David Kilcullen, a top adviser to Gen. David Petraeus, declared that state collapse could occur within six months. This is highly improbable.

Now, the bad news: The clouds hanging over the future of Pakistan's state and society are getting darker. Collapse isn't impending, but there is a slow-burning fuse. While timescales cannot be mathematically forecast, the speed of societal decline has surprised many who have long warned that religious extremism is devouring Pakistan.

Here is how it all went down the hill: The 2001 U.S. invasion of Afghanistan devastated the Taliban. Many fighters were products of madrassas in Pakistan, and their trauma was partly shared by their erstwhile benefactors in the Pakistan military and intelligence. Recognizing that this force would remain important for maintaining Pakistani influence in Afghanistan--and keep the low-intensity war in Kashmir going--the army secretly welcomed them on Pakistani soil. Rebuilding and rearming was quick, especially as the United States tripped up in Afghanistan after a successful initial victory. Former President Pervez Musharraf's strategy of running with the hares and hunting with hounds worked initially. But then U.S. demands to dump the Taliban became more insistent, and the Taliban also grew angry at this double game. As the army's goals and tactics lost coherence, the Taliban advanced.

In 2007, the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, the movement of Pakistani Taliban, formally announced its existence. With a blitzkrieg of merciless beheadings of soldiers and suicide bombings, the TTP drove out the army from much of the frontier province. By early this year, it held about 10 percent of Pakistan's territory.

Even then, few Pakistanis saw the Taliban as the enemy. Apologists for the Taliban abounded, particularly among opinion-forming local TV anchors that whitewashed their atrocities, and insisted that they shouldn't be resisted by force. Others supported them as fighters against U.S. imperial might. The government's massive propaganda apparatus lay rusting. Beset by ideological confusion, it had no cogent response to the claim that Pakistan was made for Islam and that the Taliban were Islamic fighters.

The price paid for the government's prevarication was immense. A weak-kneed state allowed fanatics to devastate hitherto peaceful Swat, once an idyllic tourist-friendly valley. Citizens were deprived of their fundamental rights. Women were lashed in public, hundreds of girl's schools were blown up, non-Muslims had to pay a special tax (jizya), and every form of art and music was forbidden. Policemen deserted en masse, and institutions of the state crumbled. Thrilled by their success, the Taliban violated the Nizam-e-Adl Swat deal just days after it was negotiated in April. They quickly moved to capture more territory in the adjacent area of Buner. Barely 80 miles from Islamabad (as the crow flies), their spokesman, Muslim Khan, boasted the capital would be captured soon. The army and government still dithered, and the public remained largely opposed to the use of military force.

And then a miracle of sorts happened. Sufi Mohammed, the illiterate, aging leader of the Swat sharia movement, while addressing a huge victory rally in early May, lost his good sense to excessive exuberance. He declared that democracy and Islam were incompatible, rejected Pakistan's Islamic constitution and courts, and accused Pakistan's fanatically right-wing Islamic parties of mild heresy. Even for a Pakistani public enamored by the call to sharia, Mohammed's comments were a bit too much. The army, now with public support for the first time since the birth of the insurgency, finally mustered the will to fight.

Today, that fight is on. A major displacement of population, estimated at 3 million, is in process. This tragedy could have been avoided if the army hadn't nurtured extremists earlier. For the moment, the Taliban are retreating. But it will be a long haul to eliminate them from the complex mountainous terrain of Swat and Malakand. Wresting North and South Waziristan, hundreds of miles away, will cost even more. Army actions in the tribal areas, and retaliatory suicide bombings by the Taliban in the cities, are likely to extend into the foreseeable future.

Meanwhile, the cancerous offshoots of extremist ideology continue to spread. Another TTP has recently established itself--Tehrik-e-Taliban Punjab. So one expects that major conflict will eventually shift from Pakistan's tribal peripheries to the heartland, southern Punjab. Indeed, the Punjabi Taliban are now busy ramping up their operations, with a successful suicide attack on the police and intelligence headquarters in Lahore in May.

What exactly do the Pakistani Taliban want? As with their Afghan counterparts, fighting the United States in Afghanistan is certainly one goal. But still more important is replacing secular and traditional law and customs in Pakistan's tribal areas with their version of the sharia. This goal, which they share with religious political parties such as Jamat-e-Islami, is working for a total transformation of society. It calls for elimination of music, art, entertainment, and all manifestations of modernity and Westernism. Side goals include destroying the Shias--who the Sunni Taliban regard as heretics--and chasing away the few surviving native Christians, Sikhs, and Hindus from the frontier province. While extremist leaders such as Baitullah Mehsud and Maulana Fazlullah derive support from marginalized social groups, they don't demand employment, land reform, better health care, or more social services. This isn't a liberation movement by a long shot, although some marginalized Pakistani leftists labor under this delusion.

As for the future: Tribal insurgents cannot overrun Islamabad and Pakistan's main cities, which are protected by thousands of heavily armed military and paramilitary troops. Rogue elements within the military and intelligence agencies have instigated or organized suicide attacks against their own colleagues. Now, dazed by the brutality of these attacks, the officer corps finally appears to be moving away from its earlier sympathy and support for extremism. This makes a seizure of the nuclear arsenal improbable. But Pakistan's "urban Taliban," rather than illiterate tribal fighters, pose a nuclear risk. There are indeed more than a few scientists and engineers in the nuclear establishment with extreme religious views.

While they aspire to state power, the Taliban haven't needed it to achieve considerable success. Through terror tactics and suicide bombings they have made fear ubiquitous. Women are being forced into burqas, and anxious private employers and government departments have advised their male employees in Peshawar and other cities to wear shalwar-kameez rather than trousers.

Coeducational schools across Pakistan are increasingly fearful of attacks--some are converting to girls-only or boys-only schools. Video shops are going out of business, and native musicians and dancers have fled or changed their profession. As such, a sterile Saudi-style Wahabism is beginning to impact upon Pakistan's once-vibrant culture and society.

It could be far worse. One could imagine that Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani is overthrown in a coup by radical Islamist officers who seize control of the country's nuclear weapons, making intervention by outside forces impossible. Jihad for liberating Kashmir is subsequently declared as Pakistan's highest priority and earlier policies for crossing the Line of Control are revived; Shias are expelled into Iran, and Hindus are forced into India; ethnic and religious minorities in the Northern Areas flee Pashtun invaders; anti-Taliban forces such as the ethnic Muttahida Qaumi Movement and the Baluch nationalists are decisively crushed by Islamists; and sharia is declared across the country. Fortunately, this seems improbable--as long as the army stays together.

What can the United States, which is still the world's preeminent power, do to turn the situation around? Amazingly little.

In spite of being on the U.S. dole, Pakistan is probably the most anti-American country in the world. It has a long litany of grievances. Some are pan-Islamic, but others derive from its bitter experiences of being a U.S. ally in the 1980s. Once at the cutting edge of the U.S. organized jihad against the Soviet Union, Pakistan was dumped once the war was over and left to deal with numerous toxic consequences. Although much delayed, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's recent acceptance of blame is welcome. But festering resentments produced a paranoid mindset that blames Washington for all of Pakistan's ills--old and new. A meeting of young people that I addressed in Islamabad recently had many who thought that the Taliban are U.S. agents paid to create instability so that Pakistan's nuclear weapons could be seized by Washington. Other such absurd conspiracy theories also enjoy huge currency here.

Nevertheless, the United States isn't powerless. Chances of engaging with Pakistan positively have improved under the Obama administration. Real progress toward a Palestinian state and dealing with Muslims globally would have enormous resonance in Pakistan.

Pakistan's political leadership and army must squarely face the extremist threat, enact major reforms in income and land distribution, revamp the education and legal systems, and address the real needs of citizens. Most importantly, Pakistan will have to clamp down on the fiery mullahs who spout hatred from mosques and stop suicide bomber production in madrassas. For better or for worse, it will be for Pakistanis alone to figure out how to handle this.

Pervez Hoodbhoy is chairman of the physics department at Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad.

 

 

[AntiNWO paddy]

"In spite of being on the U.S. dole, Pakistan is probably the most anti-American country in the world. It has a long litany of grievances. Some are pan-Islamic, but others derive from its bitter experiences of being a U.S. ally in the 1980s. Once at the cutting edge of the U.S. organized jihad against the Soviet Union, Pakistan was dumped once the war was over and left to deal with numerous toxic consequences. Although much delayed, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's recent acceptance of blame is welcome. But festering resentments produced a paranoid mindset that blames Washington for all of Pakistan's ills--old and new. A meeting of young people that I addressed in Islamabad recently had many who thought that the Taliban are U.S. agents paid to create instability so that Pakistan's nuclear weapons could be seized by Washington. Other such absurd conspiracy theories also enjoy huge currency here."

    it isnt absurd u stupid prick. Obviously some people know  better than others i.e Indias pro-russia stance and NWO hegemony for control of natural resources

[Satyagraha]

It could be far worse. One could imagine that Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani is overthrown in a coup by radical Islamist officers who seize control of the country's nuclear weapons, making intervention by outside forces impossible. Jihad for liberating Kashmir is subsequently declared as Pakistan's highest priority and earlier policies for crossing the Line of Control are revived; Shias are expelled into Iran, and Hindus are forced into India; ethnic and religious minorities in the Northern Areas flee Pashtun invaders; anti-Taliban forces such as the ethnic Muttahida Qaumi Movement and the Baluch nationalists are decisively crushed by Islamists; and sharia is declared across the country. Fortunately, this seems improbable--as long as the army stays together.

Hoodbhoy's NWO sentiments are showing... in his wildest dreams will Kayani be overthrown by radical Islamists. Never happen - the one solid group (far more than any political party) in Pakistan is the military, especially under Kayani. So I think he's engaging in a bit of fear-mongering-wishful-thinking-and pure stupidity when he follows with his statements about Pakistan being the most anti-American country. That's utter bullshit. Mr. Hoodbhoy needs to leave the enclaves of his academic hallways and talk to real people, not just intellectuals waiting for visas to emigrate away from Pakistan.

[bigron]

Clinton says 9/11 ringleaders are in Pakistan

Mon Jul 20, 1:22 pm ET
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090720/ap_on_re_as/as_clinton_al_qaida


U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, left, and Indian Foreign Minister SM Krishna, exchange documents after signing an agreement on endowment fund for science and technology in New Delhi, India, Monday, July 20, 2009. Clinton touted prospects for strengthening U.S.-India relations, despite sharp differences on carbon emissions, as they readied a pact giving U.S. companies more access to India's expanding markets.
(AP Photo/Mustafa Quraishi)


 
NEW DELHI – U.S. officials "firmly believe" that al-Qaida leaders who planned and carried out the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, are hiding in Pakistan near its border with Afghanistan, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Monday.

At a news conference concluding three days of meetings, Clinton said Washington has told the Pakistani government what it believes about the location of al-Qaida leaders on its soil.

"With respect to the location of those who were part of the planning and execution of the attack of 9/11 against our country, we firmly believe that a significant number of them are in the border area of Pakistan," she said when asked about the U.S. view.

"We are actively looking for additional information that would lead us to them," she added.

The Pakistani government denies that al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and his senior lieutenants are hiding on its territory.

Bin Laden is believed to have fled into Pakistan from Afghanistan weeks after the U.S. military invaded Afghanistan in October 2001 in retaliation for the 9/11 attacks.

[luckee1]

No Mrs. Clinton, they are back in the U.S. and Britain despite what you firmly believe.  We in America 'firmly believe' you and your co-conspirators are simply looking for a reason and way to announce your plans to murder thousands of Pakistani innocents, to satisfy your lust for blood and horror.  Why don't you folks take a break and watch a movie?  REalize Mrs. Clinton, that your intelligence sources have missed these al-Qaida leaders so often..... 1st they were in the U.S. then Afghanistan, then they were in Iraq, now they are in Pakistan.  You have been sending our bombers and troops from one country to another.  Your fired!  You evil hussy!

[bigron]

Jul 24, 2009 
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/KG24Df05.html 
 
 
 Pakistan-US plan falls into place


By Syed Saleem Shahzad

KARACHI - The seamless friendship between the chairman of the United States Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, and Pakistan's Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kiani, has cemented the relationship between the military establishments of the two countries to levels not seen since the 1950s, when Pakistan was a frontline state against communism.

The result is that Islamabad and Washington are in a position to implement coordinated, long-term policies in the region, which include action against militants, moves to improve ties between Pakistan and India, especially their dispute over divided Kashmir, and the evolution of a broad-based, stable civilian government in Pakistan.

However, just as the US and Pakistan have forged a united front, so too have the previously splintered militants and groups that oppose them in both Pakistan and Afghanistan, setting the stage for a struggle of unprecedented proportions.

The new relationship between the US and Pakistan, supported by a host of American advisors based in the capital Islamabad, is expected to play out on two main fronts.

First, Pakistan will launch a comprehensive battle against all Taliban groups in the country, irrespective of whether they are perceived as good or bad. Over the years, there have been numerous attempts to split the Taliban by making deals with the good ones, that is, those seen as more moderate, to bring them into a peace process.

Second, an initiative will be made by the Pakistani government, supported by the country's Western allies, for better relations with India, strongly mediated by the Pakistan army. The aim will be to reopen the dialogue process on Kashmir which was stalled following the Pakistani-linked terror attack on the Indian city of Mumbai last November in which 166 people were killed. This could also help in building a joint mechanism for cooperation between India and Pakistan with the US in fighting terror.

Militants reorganize
In recent months, different militant groups located in the North Waziristan and South Waziristan tribal areas on the border with Afghanistan have united. At the same time, an al-Qaeda group led by Abdullah Saeed is participating in the belated spring offensive in Afghanistan - it marked this by shooting down a US aircraft in Paktia province last week.

The powerful Haqqani network is also flexing its muscles - it is behind the capture of a US soldier who appears on a recently released video that has caused outrage in the US over the abuse of prisoners of war. The prisoner is believed to be at a Haqqani base in North Waziristan. The group is beefing up its military presence in and around the two Waziristans in an area said to be the headquarters of three powerful networks that have allied.

The networks are that of Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud in South Waziristan, al-Qaeda's at the crossroads of the two Waziristans and Sirajuddin Haqqani's group in North Waziristan.

Asia Times Online has learnt that Pakistan has gradually moved its forces into Bannu, the principal city of Bannu district in North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), and Dera Ismail Khan, another city in NWFP. It has also stationed troops in the Waziristans. Tension is rising there, with the Taliban having disrupted the supply lines of troops based in North Waziristan.

The deadline for the beginning of an all-out operation is not known. It will be the first time that all Taliban groups are targeted - the Sirajuddin network has traditionally been pro-establishment.

The good and now the bad
Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), US intelligence and Arab states have for many years maintained excellent relations with Jalaluddin Haqqani, the legendary Afghan commander against the Soviets in the 1980s. Haqqani, now seriously ill, supported the Taliban movement in the mid-1990s on the instructions of the ISI. But the Taliban never considered him a part of the movement, more as a warlord who had allied with them.

As a result, Haqqani was never given any significant position in the Taliban regime. When the Taliban abandoned Kabul in the face of the US-led invasion in late 2001, Islamabad tried hard to get him to abandon Taliban leader Mullah Omar and become the next head of the Afghan government. He flatly refused the proposal and went to a base in North Waziristan.

In 2006, he was elevated by the Taliban to the number one commander in Afghanistan. Pakistan was not too concerned as Haqqani had never meddled in the internal affairs of Pakistan, never allied with a Pakistani political party or group and he had never supported any mutiny in Pakistan.

But now that Haqqani is ill and bed-ridden, his power has been handed to his son Sirajuddin. Siraj's strength, like his father's, is his Punjabi comrades, but his friendship with al-Qaeda's Arab ideologues has influenced him.

Unlike his father, Siraj is close to Pakistan militants hostile to the establishment. The intelligence apparatus was prepared to overlook this, but not any more.

Some while ago, Siraj's brother, Dr Naseer Haqqani, was arrested while attending a meeting that included several wanted people. To the surprise of the security forces, Baitullah Mehsud negotiated for his release, agreeing to swap a few Pakistani soldiers for the detained man. Subsequently, Baitullah and Sirajuddin became close.

This explains the failure of the recent operation to get Baitullah. It depended on the cooperation of local anti-Baitullah tribes who happened to be Taliban, such as those of Mullah Nazir and Gul Bahadur and the now slain Qari Zainuddin Mehsud. Sirajuddin quickly sent messages for all commanders to unite in support of Baitullah, and their compliance ended any hope of him being isolated.

It also explains why the Haqqani network is now in the sights of the military as it prepares for a renewed battle against militants.

On the domestic front, the friendship of Kiani and Mullen has led to the acknowledgement that if military goals are to be achieved, the country needs a stable democratic government.

This explains President Asif Zardari's recent visit to opposition leader Nawaz Sharif, the chief of the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N), at his residence near Lahore. Zardari proposed to bring the PML-N into the ruling coalition government, possibly with Sharif as prime minister.

Sharif's reservations over extensive presidential powers are the main stumbling block. But whether or not Sharif accepts cabinet portfolios for his party or the premiership for himself, his party is completely onboard with the government's national and international policies.

"In principle, Pakistan has agreed on a stable government, cordial ties with India and support of the war on terror. But for the first time, Admiral Mike Mullen and Ashfaq Parvez Kiani have made a joint initiative to implement this principle under a set mechanism so that there can be no deviations," a senior Pakistani diplomat told Asia Times Online on condition of anonymity.

The militants, too, have their mechanisms in place, and they too don't plan to deviate. A mighty collision is inevitable.

 
 
 

[bigron]

U.S. envoy told: Pakistan drone strikes not working


Story Highlights:

Pakistani PM criticizes unmanned aircraft strikes on targets in tribal region

PM tells Obama envoy: Strikes hindering efforts to root out militancy, terrorism

Strikes unpopular among many in the region because of threat to civilians




Drone strikes are unpopular among many in the region because of the threat to civilians.


ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Controversial unmanned aircraft strikes against targets in Pakistan's restive tribal region are not working, the country's prime minister has told the Obama administration's point man for the region.

"Continued drone attacks in FATA have proved counterproductive and have seriously impeded Pakistan's efforts towards rooting out militancy and terrorism from that area," Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani told Ambassador Richard Holbrooke on Wednesday, according to a press release from Gilani's office about their meeting.

FATA is the semi-autonomous Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

Delegations for Holbrooke, the U.S. special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, and Gilani met at the prime minister's house in Islamabad on Wednesday morning.

Pakistani military forces have been conducting an offensive against the Taliban in North West Frontier Province and have targeted insurgents in the adjacent tribal region.

U.S.-led forces fighting Taliban militants in Afghanistan are thought to have conducted drone strikes against those targets over the border in Pakistan's tribal region.

The strikes have been unpopular among many in the region because of the threat to civilians. Pakistan has said such attacks have claimed hundreds of civilian lives.

The U.S. military routinely offers no comment on reported drone attacks. However, the United States is the only country operating in the region known to have the ability to launch missiles from drones, which are controlled remotely.

The news release said Gilani told Holbrooke that United States "should share real time, credible and actionable intelligence," and provide "unarmed vehicle technology," and "immediate supply of much-needed equipment and ammunition to Pakistan's armed forces" to ensure a "successful completion of its operation against militants."

The pair also discussed the dislocation and widespread damage in the war-torn North West Frontier Province.

Gilani called for the United States and other countries to help Pakistan rebuild and urged the Obama administration to speed up the passage of proposed legislation that would help the country.

Any comment from Holbrooke on the issue was not mentioned in the press release. But Holbrooke is cited as praising Pakistan's fight against the militants and is working on getting the key legislation adopted.

He said the United States would provide funds for reconstruction and help for dislocated residents. He said the United States would help other countries to contribute.

All AboutPakistan • The Taliban
 

 
 
 
Links referenced within this article

Pakistani
http://topics.edition.cnn.com/topics/Pakistan
Taliban
http://topics.edition.cnn.com/topics/The_Taliban
Pakistan
http://topics.edition.cnn.com/topics/Pakistan
The Taliban
http://topics.edition.cnn.com/topics/The_Taliban

 

 
Find this article at:
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/07/22/pakistan.taliban.unrest/index.html 
 

[bigron]

Pakistan Worried Afghan Offensive Pushing Taliban Across Border

Wednesday, July 22, 2009
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,534360,00.html


July 21: Armed police officers stand near refugees as they arrive in Mingora, capital of Swat District, Pakistan.

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan's government raised concerns Wednesday about a U.S.-led offensive in neighboring southern Afghanistan with visiting U.S. regional envoy Richard Holbrooke.

Islamabad is concerned the major U.S. offensive in Afghanistan's Helmand province ahead of elections there next month could push Taliban fighters across the border.

"We have some concern which we have been discussing with the U.S.," Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Basit said.

A senior Pakistani intelligence official said Islamabad has "reservations" about the Helmand offensive because militants crossing the border could destabilize Pakistan's province of Baluchistan, which for years has been facing a separate low-level insurgency by nationalist groups seeking more autonomy.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said Pakistani authorities had conveyed their concerns to the "appropriate quarters."

Pakistan's army has already beefed up its presence along the border in the area, and the official said authorities had not yet seen an influx into Baluchistan of militants from Afghanistan's Helmand province, where some 4,000 U.S. Marines launched an operation on July 2 against Taliban insurgents.

If a significant influx does occur, however, Pakistan may be forced to move troops over to the northwest from its border from India. But the official stressed that Islamabad cannot make that shift "beyond a certain point."

The Pakistani establishment still views India as its greatest threat. The two nations have fought three wars over the past six decades.

Pakistan shares a 1,600-mile (2,600-kilometer) rugged border with Afghanistan, inhabited on both sides by ethnic Pashtuns with strong family and clan ties who travel freely across the frontier. The section opposite Helmand is about 160 miles (260 kilometers) long and lies in Baluchistan.

Holbrooke said the U.S. was committed to coordinating with the Pakistani government in combatting militants.

"We want to be sure that we share with your government and your military, military plans so you can be prepared and coordinate because a lot of different things can happen here," Holbrooke said.

"The Taliban could move east into Baluchistan and cause additional problems, they could move west towards Herat, they could be trapped, and we have to be prepared," he said.

Pakistani forces are also wrapping up an offensive in the Swat Valley in the country's northwest, and have been carrying out strikes in nearby South Waziristan, part of Pakistan's lawless tribal belt along the Afghan border. The military is softening up the region ahead of an offensive aimed at eliminating Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, the top commander of Pakistan's Taliban. Mehsud has been blamed for scores of suicide attacks and Islamabad considers him the country's greatest domestic threat.

On Wednesday, intelligence officials said Pakistani fighter jets destroyed two suspected militant hide-outs in South Waziristan, killing six men Tuesday believed to be associates of Mehsud. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

It was not possible to independently confirm the strikes or casualty figures in the remote area, where access for journalists is restricted.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, who met with Holbrooke on Wednesday, reiterated Islamabad's objections to U.S. drone strikes in northwestern Pakistan, which target suspected top Taliban militants and al-Qaida leaders, saying they are counterproductive.

The strikes have "seriously impeded Pakistan's efforts towards rooting out militancy and terrorism from that area," Gilani's office said the prime minister told Holbrooke.

He also called on the U.S. to share intelligence with Pakistan and to provide equipment, ammunition and unmanned vehicle technology.

Pakistan already receives significant funding from the United States to arm its security forces and battle insurgents.

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Osama still in Pakistan: Mullen

 * Top US military commander says Pakistan has taken Taliban threat very seriously

Daily Times Monitor
July 24, 2009
http://dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2009\07\24\story_24-7-2009_pg1_4



LAHORE: US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Michael Mullen on Thursday said he believed the top leadership of Al Qaeda, including Osama Bin Laden, was in Pakistan.

Talking to Al Jazeera TV, Mullen said Al Qaeda was on top of the US list of priorities and threats around the world. When asked why the United States was not in FATA despite having the knowledge that Al Qaeda was present there, he said, “Because FATA is in Pakistan and Pakistan is a sovereign country and we don’t go into sovereign countries.”

He said Al Qaeda could strike the US from FATA therefore the top objective of the current US strategy was to defeat it, adding that Washington did not have any troops on ground in Pakistan chasing the Taliban.

“We have had trainers there for a significant period of time to train their trainers, which is [an] ongoing support function that is actually moving in the right direction,” he said, adding that some of the US troops were special forces and some were general purpose troops.

Threats: Mullen said there had been a positive shift across Pakistan, especially its military, in recent months against the Taliban.

“One of the things that has happened in Pakistan in recent months and weeks is the Pakistani military - really in response to the people of Pakistan - [and] the government of Pakistan [have] taken the threat against them very, very seriously,” the US joint chief of staff said.

However, Mullen said the Taliban could be politically engaged in the long run. “I think at some point [in the] long-term, they [Taliban] become part of the political process”.

Mullen said Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) had to change its strategic thrust in the long run, which, he said, had been to “foment chaotic activity you know in its border countries”.

He said Islamabad’s that “view to its own survival and its own security” had to change at some point in the future.

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Despair, devastation in war-ravaged Swat Valley

Story Highlights:

Pakistani forces in Swat Valley claim victory in fight against Taliban militants

Refugees trickling back to the region find towns, bridges destroyed

Up to 2.5 million Pakistanis estimateds to have been displaced by conflict

Local businessman: "Everything is in ruins. It will take months to return to normality"

From Stan Grant


A Pakistani soldier patrols a ruined street in Mingora.



MINGORA, Pakistan (CNN) -- Gen. Nadeem Ahmad swirls the helicopter over Pakistan's ground zero. Below is the Swat Valley of North West Frontier Province.

From the air, the valley in the foothills of the Hindu Kush looks undisturbed. Green fields amid clusters of drab houses.

A closer look at Swat reveals how well the Pakistani Army fared in its military campaign to wipe out the militants.

The cost of success: massive destruction that is sure to hamper the lives of already suffering residents just starting to trickle back to the homes they fled.

A few months ago, ferocious battles between Pakistan's Army and Taliban fighters erupted here -- in Swat, Buner and Lower Dir districts. War's remnants serve as a constant reminder. A destroyed bridge. Pockmarked houses. Hotels that look like they've been abandoned for years.

Nadeem maneuvers the chopper to circle Mingora, the largest city in the Swat Valley. From the hilltop Army sentry posts that come into view, soldiers survey the ground below, hard won from Taliban fighters.

The militants, Nadeem says, have fled to nearby mountains.

On the ground, he shows off a cache of weapons seized in the fighting. The soldiers are keen to boast their victory.

Mingora remains on high alert. A curfew has been lifted for morning hours though soldiers keep close watch on those who venture out.

The city's pain is plainly evident on its scarred, deserted streets. Many shops are shuttered or destroyed. Watch Stan Grant tour the shattered streets of Mingora »

The United Nations estimates that 375,000 Swat Valley residents fled their homes during the fighting. In all, 2.5 million Pakistanis were displaced in what was said to be one of the largest human migrations in recent history.

About 260,000 people have been living in 21 refugee camps in neighboring Mardan, Swabi, Nowshera, Peshawar and Charssada districts, but the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees say the "vast majority" of internally displaced Pakistanis have been staying with host families, rented houses or in schools.

The government plans to return people first from the camps and then focus on those living elsewhere.

But this week, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) warned that as many as 1 million people could remain displaced until December because of the widespread destruction in their home towns, such as Mingora.

Relief agencies have reported dire humanitarian conditions in Mingora: hospitals without electricity that are inundated with patients, an erratic supply of water and natural gas. One resident, who identified himself only as Abdullah, told CNN that returning people are facing shortages in food, water and basic supplies for survival.

Some displaced families also expressed concerns about schooling for their children, reported the Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN), the U.N. news agency focusing on humanitarian issues.

Louis-George Arsenault, emergency office director for UNICEF, said 1 million children were at risk of not starting school by September, mainly due to the Taliban's widespread destruction of schools and that 4,000 existing school continue to shelter displaced people.

Businessman Muhammad Khan, 40, who recently returned to Mingora, voiced the despair of returning residents. He told IRIN that "everything is in ruins."

"Everything is in ruins," IRIN quoted Khan as saying. "It will take months for life to return to normality."

But that normality will no longer include the Taliban, Pakistani soldiers say. The fight was hard, but it was victorious, they say. They point to an area in the city where they say the Taliban displayed the bodies of their victims, some beheaded. It became known as "Slaughter Square."

Slaughter Square's name may be outdated for the time being, but residents like Abdullah say it will be a long time before life in Mingora returns to what it once was.

"I don't like army. I don't like Taliban," Abdullah says, standing among the ruins of what used to be a thriving market. "I only want peace."

All AboutSwat Valley • The Taliban • Pakistan
 

 
 
 
Links referenced within this article

Pakistan's
http://topics.edition.cnn.com/topics/pakistan
Watch Stan Grant tour the shattered streets of Mingora »
#cnnSTCVideo
Swat Valley
http://topics.edition.cnn.com/topics/swat_valley
Taliban
http://topics.edition.cnn.com/topics/the_taliban
Swat Valley
http://topics.edition.cnn.com/topics/Swat_Valley
The Taliban
http://topics.edition.cnn.com/topics/The_Taliban
Pakistan
http://topics.edition.cnn.com/topics/Pakistan

 

 
Find this article at:
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/07/25/pakistan.swat.fighting/index.html 
 

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July 25, 2009
http://inthefield.blogs.cnn.com/2009/07/25/the-invisible-enemy-in-pakistan/



The invisible enemy in Pakistan

Watch Video / Read story :
http://inthefield.blogs.cnn.com/2009/07/25/the-invisible-enemy-in-pakistan/


OUTSIDE PESHAWAR, Pakistan – General Nadeem Ahmad is about to make a stunning and frightening admission. In a crowded relief camp outside Peshawar in Pakistan’s northwest, he admits he may well be handing over money to Taliban fighters posing as refugees.

General Nadeem is coordinating relief funds, with 4 billion rupees (about $500 million) being handed out so far.

People queue for hours to have their identities checked and receive their money. It is a painstaking and cautious process — but not foolproof.

It is certain that some of those receiving the money are militants, ready to return home and wreak havoc.

This is the complex problem facing General Nadeem and others fighting an enemy they often cannot see.

He is the man in charge of resettling the almost three million Pakistanis who have fled the fighting between the army and the Taliban.

It has been an extraordinary effort: tent cities appearing overnight, and providing food, water, shelter and medical treatment for the young and old, men and women.

These people are refugees in their own country, victims of a war they did not start and mostly want no part of.

But there are others lurking here. The Taliban have vanished back into the population.

They look the same, they dress the same: Men with beards in traditional Pakistani dress, the shawal kameez – making for an invisible enemy.

The people he says are now emboldened; identifying the militants in their midst and informing police.

But how many go undetected?

For the Pakistan military, fighting the Taliban is like wrestling with a column of smoke: once detected it simply changes shape and moves.

It is a matter of history now that the Taliban was spawned and promoted here in Pakistan. Back then, they were handy foot soldiers for the war with the Soviets in Afghanistan.

But Pakistan has a tiger by the tail.

The Taliban has threatened large parts of Pakistan, and actually managed to gain control of some regions close to the capital Islamabad.

This comes after years of insurgent violence. Since the 9/11 attacks in 2001 in the U.S., Pakistan has suffered around 6,000 terrorist attacks.

There have been more suicide bombings in Pakistan than either Iraq or Afghanistan. Former Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto, was assassinated in an attack.

Terrorism has drained the economy: estimates of the cost to Pakistan runs to at least $40 billion. That far outweighs the estimated $13 billion the U.S. has given Pakistan for its role in the war on terror.

Soldiers earning only $100 a month are now fighting and dying to turn back the Taliban.

In parts of the country, the army is claiming victory.

But as many Taliban are being killed, many others are simply vanishing.

General Nadeem flies me over the war-torn Swat Valley, from our helicopter he points to the mountains: “That’s where they have fled to,” he said.

Beyond that is Afghanistan, where U.S. and NATO forces are also trying to oust the militants from their strongholds.

But the Taliban can so easily cross the border into Pakistan, and there they vanish. More invisible fighters in what many Pakistanis admit is “a battle for our soul.”

Posted by: CNN Correspondent, Stan Grant
Filed under: Afghanistan • Pakistan

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Movement of US, Nato troops worries Waziristan tribes
 
http://www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=23487
 

Sunday, July 26, 2009

By our correspondents

PESHAWAR/MIRAMSHAH: The movement of Afghanistan-based US and Nato troops over the past few days close to North and South Waziristan Agencies has frightened tribesmen, who are already under stress due to the increasing number of drone attacks and a possible military operation by the Pakistan Army.

Official and tribal sources informed The News from the border villages of North Waziristan about the unusual movement of what they termed ìhuge numberî of the US and Nato forces along the Pak-Afghan border.

They said the Nato troops were armed with helicopter gunships, tanks and armoured personnel carriers (APCs) and had started establishing camps and checkpoints along the border.

The residents of border villages, including Dwatoi, Kazha Madakhel and Gorweek, said warplanes and helicopter gunships were seen flying over the border areas between the two neighbouring countries throughout the day. In some of the areas, the tribesmen claimed the planes violated Pakistanís airspace and flew over their villages.

Villagers claimed that the US and Nato forces were brought to the border area in 80 vehicles amid tight security.

A military official based in Miramshah, the headquarters of North Waziristan, said they had also received reports about the troop movement but could not confirm it. Wishing not to be named, he said Pakistanís armed forces were fully alert on their posts along the border with Afghanistan. ìThey often come to the border villages inside Afghanistan and return to their bases after some time. There is no need to be worried,î the official said.

Tribal sources close to the Taliban in Afghanistan said there had been an unprecedented rise in attacks on the US and Nato forces in Afghanistan and their movement in the border areas could be an act of desperation.

They said the foreign forces had particularly suffered losses in Helmand, Paktia, Paktika and Khost provinces, which were close to Pakistanís restive South and North Waziristan tribal regions.

Besides suffering casualties, the sources said, the Taliban militants had made some US and British soldiers hostage in Afghanistan.

The movement of foreign forces close to Pakistanís border and establishment of the checkpoints, along the porous Durand Line, could be part of their strategy to stop the Taliban militants from shifting the kidnapped US and British soldiers to the adjoining tribal areas, said the sources.

On September 3, 2008, the US-led foreign forces carried out their first-ever ground operation in the Pakistani territory, killing 15 Pakistanis, including women and children, in South Waziristanís Musa Nika village near Angoor Adda, close to Afghanistanís Paktika province. The tribesmen fear recurrence of such an attack.
 

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Pakistani Pledge to Rout Taliban In Tribal Region Is Put on Hold

Waziristan Operation Delayed by Refugee Crisis, Focus on India

By Joshua Partlow
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, July 27, 2009
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/26/AR2009072602466_pf.html


ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Soon after Pakistan launched its offensive against the Taliban this spring, President Asif Ali Zardari declared that the mission would go beyond pushing the Islamist militia out of the Swat Valley. "We're going to go into Waziristan," he said.

More than two months later, that still has not come to pass. Instead, the planned invasion of South Waziristan, a Taliban and al-Qaeda sanctuary along the Afghanistan border, has been delayed by the refugee crisis spawned by fighting in Swat, an overstretched military unwilling to let its guard down with India and the difficulty in isolating the Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud, according to Pakistani and American officials.

Pakistan's military has blockaded the tribal district and bombed it from the air, and it insists that the ground assault will proceed. But as the clock ticks, military analysts worry that fighting in the mountains will be more difficult as the weather turns cold in the fall. The delay has raised questions about Pakistan's commitment to waging war against Taliban fighters the state has nurtured in the past.

"It's an insane dream to expect anything different from the Pakistani government," said Ali Wazir, a South Waziristan native and a politician with the secular Awami National Party. "The Taliban are the brainchildren of the Pakistan army for the last 30 years. They are their own people. Could you kill your own brother?"

Mehsud is believed to be responsible for the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, as well as many of the recent suicide bombings in Pakistan. American officials, however, said they have not urged Pakistan to launch the operation because of the scope of problems in the Swat Valley, where 2 million refugees were displaced by the ongoing military operation there.

"Baitullah Mehsud is a dreadful man, and his elimination is an imperative. However, the first imperative is to secure the areas the refugees are going back into," Richard C. Holbrooke, the U.S. envoy to the region, said in an interview.

Although Holbrooke said it could be beneficial to have simultaneous offensives -- the U.S. Marines on the Afghanistan side of the border and the Pakistani army in the tribal regions to the east -- the greater concern is unfinished business elsewhere. "Why would I push them to start an offensive when they have 2 million people they have to protect first?" Holbrooke said.

The Pakistani military operation against the Taliban was planned to unfold in three phases, starting in April with the Frontier Corps paramilitary force moving into areas around the Swat Valley, the former tourist destination where the Taliban seized control. The following month, two Pakistani divisions, or about 40,000 soldiers, led a ground operation into the valley. They have since regained control, although fighting continues and the Taliban leadership there remains largely intact. The third and most difficult phase was to be a ground operation into South Waziristan.

But the offensive in Swat pushed some 2 million people from their homes, and the fighting damaged hundreds of schools, homes and businesses. The military now must orchestrate the return of thousands of refugees each day along with rebuilding and trying to prevent the Taliban from returning, as it has done in the past. The Taliban overwhelmed the police before the operation and residents are skeptical about whether the military can keep control.

American officials are concerned that the Pakistani military might not stay in Swat long enough to ensure residents' safety. "Failing to hold in Swat would be a calamity," said a U.S. official in Pakistan, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "I hope they're thinking about it in terms of a plan and not on a timetable."

One Pakistani diplomat said American officials are not happy with the level of coordination involved in providing money and services to the returning refugees. "In their heart of hearts, I think they feel that Pakistan will mess up the repatriation," the diplomat said. "They feel . . . probably they'll go overboard, they won't resettle them, and you'll have a potential quicksand where you'll breed another strand of terrorist resistance."

Pakistani officials insist that they are focused on the refugees and that they do not want to rush into opening new fronts against the Taliban. Pakistan has already launched two operations into South Waziristan in recent years that failed to dislodge the Taliban. Since 2007, more than 2,200 Pakistani soldiers, police and intelligence officers have been killed in Swat and the tribal areas, and more than 5,300 have been injured.

"We would not like to do anything haphazardly. If you open so many fronts at the same time, then the danger is you will not achieve success on any front. So we would like to move with utmost circumspection," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Basit. The tribal areas are "a different ballgame and we need to understand how difficult it is."

Part of the reason the Pakistani government is wary about launching the Waziristan operation is that there is little appetite to remove more troops from the 140,000-strong force that mans the eastern border with India. Two brigades have already left to join the Swat operation. "That leaves us very little," a Pakistani intelligence official said.

Fighting in South Waziristan also poses a much greater challenge than in Swat. More than 400,000 people live in the tribal district, which is a bit larger than Delaware. Baitullah Mehsud commands about 10,000 to 12,000 fighters, including 4,000 foreign fighters, according to Pakistani intelligence officials. He pays his foot soldiers $60 to $80 a month, higher than the average local policeman's salary. Al-Qaeda, meanwhile, has increased its focus on uniting the Taliban and other radical Islamist groups in the fight against Pakistan, betting its success on the survival of the Taliban, according to intelligence officials.

"It will be longer and bloodier," another intelligence official said of the fight against Baitullah Mehsud. "He's been made into someone 10 feet tall."

Mehsud's stature has grown in part because of recent decisions by other Taliban commanders, such as Maulvi Nasir and Hafiz Gul Bahadur, who once cooperated with Pakistan but have announced their intention to fight security forces. Their representatives said they have been outraged by missile strikes from unmanned American aircraft. Instead of being able to rely on rival Taliban commanders to assist the army, the drone attacks have unified them against the state, intelligence officials said.

To add to the tactical problems, it is unclear whether the army would be greeted in South Waziristan with the same degree of public support it enjoyed in Swat. The government there has angered Mehsud tribesmen by arresting people and shutting down businesses under regulations that allow punishment based on tribal affiliation.

The initial stages of the South Waziristan operation have begun. Pakistani aircraft, along with unmanned American planes, have attacked Mehsud's territory in recent weeks. Soldiers have deployed into neighboring North Waziristan and have imposed an economic blockade, trying to withhold food and supplies from the Taliban, said a U.S. defense official in Washington.

The official said Pakistan likely wants "to make sure they have everything working in their favor before they actually pull the trigger on a ground assault."

"It's the hardest nut to crack," the official said. "There's no doubt about that."

Staff writer Karen DeYoung in Washington and special correspondent Haq Nawaz Khan in Islamabad contributed to this report.

[bigron]

Cranks, Kleptocrats and Killers: The "Good War" on the Ground

by Chris Floyd

http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m56408&hd=&size=1&l=e

July 27, 2009



While dozens of innocent people continue to die each week in the political and sectarian violence unleashed in Iraq by America's invasion and continuing occupation, the main attention of the bipartisan Terror Warriors in Washington – and their sycophantic outriders in the corporate media – continues to be what they call, in the imperial jargonizing that lumps the vast complexities of myriad human communities into reductive, thought-killing soundbites, the "Af-Pak" front.

This, as we all know, is the "good war," the one that most "serious" progressives touted for years as the healthy alternative to the "bad war" that George W. Bush got us into in Iraq, where his "incompetence" and "failures" tarnished the exalted ideal of "humanitarian intervention." (Known in the trade by the acronym "KTC-STC" – "Kill the Children to Save the Children.") . If only we could get out the quagmire in Iraq, cried the serious progs, and do the Terror War "right" in Afghanistan! Well, their wish has come true (except of course for the 130,000 American troops and equal number of mercenaries still prowling around in Iraq; but that's OK, because Obama is in charge now, and what ser-progs once vehemently denounced as a blatant, bloody war crime can now be described, in the immortal words of the president himself, as "an extraordinary achievement"). The Obama Administration is throwing billions of new dollars and thousands of more troops into the eight-year-old conflict, while greatly expanding the cross-border attacks on the sovereign soil of America's ally, Pakistan. And while Obama has retained the core of the Terror War directorate that Bush installed – notably Pentagon warlord Robert Gates and the surgin' general, David Petraeus – he has now put his own man in charge of the "good war": longtime "dirty war" and death squad maven Stanley McChrystal. (Expertise in rubouts, snatches and "strenuous interrogation" is obviously what you need to win "hearts and minds" in humanitarian interventions.)

So here we are, with the imperial mind bent at last on the "Af-Pak" front. But where, exactly, are we? What is the real situation on the "Af-Pak" ground? Two natives of the Terror War targets give us a view from the ground.

First, Malalai Joya, from Afghanistan:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jul/25/afghanistan-occupation-taliban-warlords


In 2005, I was the youngest person elected to the new Afghan parliament. Women like me, running for office, were held up as an example of how the war in Afghanistan had liberated women. But this democracy was a facade, and the so-called liberation a big lie....

Almost eight years after the Taliban regime was toppled, our hopes for a truly democratic and independent Afghanistan have been betrayed by the continued domination of fundamentalists and by a brutal occupation that ultimately serves only American strategic interests in the region.

You must understand that the government headed by Hamid Karzai is full of warlords and extremists who are brothers in creed of the Taliban. Many of these men committed terrible crimes against the Afghan people during the civil war of the 1990s.

For expressing my views I have been expelled from my seat in parliament, and I have survived numerous assassination attempts. The fact that I was kicked out of office while brutal warlords enjoyed immunity from prosecution for their crimes should tell you all you need to know about the "democracy" backed by Nato troops....

So far, Obama has pursued the same policy as Bush in Afghanistan. Sending more troops and expanding the war into Pakistan will only add fuel to the fire. Like many other Afghans, I risked my life during the dark years of Taliban rule to teach at underground schools for girls. Today the situation of women is as bad as ever. Victims of abuse and rape find no justice because the judiciary is dominated by fundamentalists. A growing number of women, seeing no way out of the suffering in their lives, have taken to suicide by self-immolation.

This week, US vice-president Joe Biden asserted that "more loss of life [is] inevitable" in Afghanistan, and that the ongoing occupation is in the "national interests" of both the US and the UK.

I have a different message to the people of Britain. I don't believe it is in your interests to see more young people sent off to war, and to have more of your taxpayers' money going to fund an occupation that keeps a gang of corrupt warlords and drug lords in power in Kabul.

What's more, I don't believe it is inevitable that this bloodshed continues forever. Some say that if foreign troops leave Afghanistan will descend into civil war. But what about the civil war and catastrophe of today? The longer this occupation continues, the worse the civil war will be.

Next, Tariq Ali reports from Pakistan:
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v31/n14/ali_01_.html

This is a country whose fate is no longer in its own hands. I have never known things so bad. The chief problems are the United States and its requirements, the religious extremists, the military high command, and corruption, not just on the part of President Zardari and his main rivals, but spreading well beyond them.

This is now Obama’s war. He campaigned to send more troops into Afghanistan and to extend the war, if necessary, into Pakistan. These pledges are now being fulfilled. On the day he publicly expressed his sadness at the death of a young Iranian woman caught up in the repression in Tehran, US drones killed 60 people in Pakistan. The dead included women and children, whom even the BBC would find it difficult to describe as 'militants’. Their names mean nothing to the world; their images will not be seen on TV networks. Their deaths are in a 'good cause’....

In May this year, Graham Fuller, a former CIA station chief in Kabul, published an assessment of the crisis in the region in the Huffington Post. Ignored by the White House, since he was challenging most of the assumptions on which the escalation of the war was based, Fuller was speaking for many in the intelligence community in his own country as well as in Europe. It’s not often that I can agree with a recently retired CIA man, but not only did Fuller say that Obama was 'pressing down the same path of failure in Pakistan marked out by George Bush’ and that military force would not win the day, he also explained to readers of the Huffington Post that the Taliban are all ethnic Pashtuns, that the Pashtuns 'are among the most fiercely nationalist, tribalised and xenophobic peoples of the world, united only against the foreign invader’ and 'in the end probably more Pashtun than they are Islamist’. 'It is a fantasy,’ he said, 'to think of ever sealing the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.’ And I don’t imagine he is the only retired CIA man to refer back to the days when Cambodia was invaded 'to save Vietnam’....

[U.S. ambassador to Pakistan, Anne] Patterson can be disarmingly frank. Earlier this year, she offered a mid-term assessment to a visiting Euro-intelligence chief. While Musharraf had been unreliable, saying one thing in Washington and doing its opposite back home, Zardari was perfect: 'He does everything we ask.’ What is disturbing here is not Patterson’s candour, but her total lack of judgment. Zardari may be a willing creature of Washington, but the intense hatred for him in Pakistan is not confined to his political opponents. He is despised principally because of his venality. He has carried on from where he left off as minister of investment in his late wife’s second government. Within weeks of occupying President’s House, his minions were ringing the country’s top businessmen, demanding a share of their profits.

Take the case of Mr X, who owns one of the country’s largest banks. He got a call. Apparently the president wanted to know why his bank had sacked a PPP member soon after Benazir Bhutto’s fall in the late 1990s. X said he would find out and let them know. It emerged that the sacked clerk had been caught with his fingers literally in the till. President’s House was informed. The explanation was rejected. The banker was told that the clerk had been victimised for political reasons. The man had to be reinstated and his salary over the last 18 years paid in full together with the interest due. The PPP had also to be compensated and would expect a cheque (the sum was specified) soon. Where the president leads, his retainers follow. Many members of the cabinet and their progeny are busy milking businessmen and foreign companies. 'If they can do it, so can we’ is a widely expressed view in Karachi, the country’s largest city. Muggings, burglaries, murders, many of them part of protection rackets linked to politicians, have made it the Naples of the East....

These rumours came into the open at the end of June, when the head of the Bhutto clan, Mumtaz Ali Bhutto, chairman of the Sind National Front, publicly accused Zardari at a press conference, alleging that 'the killer of Murtaza Bhutto had also murdered Benazir . . . Now I am his target. A hefty amount has been paid to mercenaries to kill me.’ (Zardari is generally regarded as having ordered his brother-in-law Murtaza’s death. Shoaib Suddle, the police chief in Karachi, who organised the operation that led to Murtaza Bhutto’s death, has now been promoted and is head of the Intelligence Bureau.)

You should read both pieces in their entirety to get the bigger, grimmer picture. So here we are -- in bed with extremists, misogynists, kleptocrats and killers.

But wait a minute: isn't this where we came in?



 

[bigron]

Growing Rifts Between US, Pakistan Over Taliban Strategy

South Waziristan Offensive Stalled Pending Mehsud Talks

Posted By Jason Ditz On July 28, 2009 @ 5:54 pm




With panic in North Waziristan over a NATO troop buildup along the border, the long promised offensive in South Waziristan, which the Pakistani military had declared formally launched in June, has stalled.

Reports are that the Pakistani government has delayed the operation to engage in a series of talks with Tehreek-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) leader Baitullah Mehsud. The Pakistani government has often engaged in diplomacy in the region, much to the chagrin of the US which has pressed them to launch offensives and demand unconditional surrenders.

The US had been openly critical of Pakistan’s last major peace effort in the Swat Valley, and was palpably excited when the nation scrapped the peace deal in favor of a massive offensive which destroyed much of the valley and drove millions from their homes.

The Waziristan move is likely to enrage the US, which has repeatedly called for the “elimination” of Mehsud. At the same time, the Pakistani government is reportedly concerned that the US offensive in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, will worsen the situation in the restive Balochistan Province, which is seeing a growing separatist movement.

Related Stories
July 26, 2009 -- Panic in North Waziristan Over ‘Huge’ US Build-up Along Border
July 17, 2009 -- US Drone Strike Kills Five in North Waziristan
July 10, 2009 -- Latest US Drone Strike in South Waziristan Brings Weeklong Toll Over 100


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URL to article: http://news.antiwar.com/2009/07/28/growing-rifts-between-us-pakistan-over-taliban-strategy/