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

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Taliban announces surrender in Swat Valley after leader Maulana Fazlullah 'arrested'

The Taliban has announced its surrender in Swat Valley, one of its major strongholds until a Pakistan Army offensive regained control earlier this summer.
 
By Emal Khan in Peshawar and Dean Nelson in New Delhi
Published: 11:00PM BST 12 Sep 2009

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/pakistan/6180589/Taliban-announces-surrender-in-Swat-Valley-after-leader-Maulana-Fazlullah-arrested.html


 Pakistani soldiers on patrol in the Swat valley's main town of Mingora Photo: GETTY

Its announcement, made on one of its pirate radio stations, came as its charismatic leader Maulana Fazlullah was reported to be surrounded by Pakistani troops, and there were claims that he had in fact already been arrested.

Their collapse in Swat, if confirmed, will deal a serious blow to the Taliban's Pakistan leadership which has been in disarray since its leader Baitullah Mehsud was killed in an American drone attack in north Waziristan, close to the Afghan border, last month.


 Since then, rivals to succeed Mehsud have been locked in a bloody power struggle while a number of senior militant commanders have been killed and captured, including five senior commanders in Swat last week.

Among them was Muslim Khan, Fazlullah's deputy and spokesman, who was seized during "peace talks" with the Pakistan Army.

Fazlullah's militants seized control of the Swat Valley, once one of the country's most popular tourist destinations, in December last year and held it until May this year when a government land and aerial offensive ousted them from the main towns.

The fighting forced an estimated 200,000 civilians from their homes, and left hundreds of militants dead. In recent weeks the bodies several Taliban figures have been found swinging from lampposts amid allegations that they were being targeted for extrajudicial killings by government death squads.

Rumours of Fazlullah's arrest began to circulate early on Saturday after Pakistan's security forces released his wife, four children and other relatives, who had been in their custody for the last four weeks.

Later in the day, a radio broadcast from one of Fazlullah's pirate stations in the Charbagh area, announced an imminent surrender.

Pakistani security sources later said Fazlullah, known as "Maulana Radio" for his charismatic broadcasts which helped the militants' rise to power in Swat, was already in custody, but his arrest would not be officially announced until early next week. They said he had been captured in the Gat Piochar area, but it remains an unconfirmed report.

Earlier, Owais Ghani, governor of the North West Frontier Province, confirmed that Fazlullah was now under siege and that his arrest was "imminent." News of Fazlullah's "capture" and the surrender of his men caused juibiliation in Swat where Taliban forces had closed 400 schools, bombed 170 schools, and terrorized music shop owners and barbers who shaved beards.

Earlier this year they executed one of the valley's most popular dancers as part of a moral crusade to drive out public entertainment.

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US Drone Attacks Kill Waziristan Ramadan Joy


By Aamir Latif

http://www.uruknet.info/index.php?p=m57894&hd=&size=1&l=e


September 13, 2009 - IOL

TANK/MIR ALI – Every Ramadan, Behroz Gul used to host iftar for hundreds of needy people at a local mosque in Shakai in South Waziristan.

But this year, the Pakistani tribal elder himself became dependent on food items offered by local philanthropists to feed his family.

"Let me admit that there is a huge difference between last year’s and this year’s Ramadan," Gul, 45, told IslamOnline.net on Friday, September 11.

"Last year, I was the one who used to give, but this year I am the one who takes."

Gul, who owns a gas station in Shakai, queues up with thousands of tribesmen who migrated from their region because of the incessant US drone attacks, for food offered by local philanthropists at Tank, the adjoining district of South Waziristan.

"I cannot fight back my tears when I think of those days when I used to arrange Iftar for several needy people everyday during Ramadan till last year.

"But now, I have to queue up to get food for iftar," said the father of five, who has been living in a shelter camp in Tank for the past ten months.

The US launches repeated drone attacks in North and South Waziristan, the stronghold of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), an umbrella of various Taliban groups in Pakistan.

Washington launched 53 drone attacks in North and South Waziristan last year, killing more than 1,200 Pakistani civilians, including only 16 Taliban and Qaeda leaders.

"They (drones) don’t care, who is being killed," said Gul.

"They just see any ceremony or congregation, and hurl missiles irrespective of the fact that who are the victims."

Behroz laments that the US drone attacks have killed the joy of the holy fasting month in the hearts of Waziristan people.

"It is not easy to explain the sense of fear when you see a drone hovering over your village. We could do nothing except praying for our safety.

"It’s like you die everyday, because there is no guarantee that you would be safe the other time," he said.

"It’s unmatchable to have your family and friends with you during Ramadan and on `Eid. I do have my immediate family with me right now, but I don’t know about many of my friends, and even relatives who have migrated to different locations to save their lives from consistent drone attacks.

"`Eid is approaching, but I have no money to even buy new clothes for my children. I have left everything back, my gas station, my home, my land, at the mercy of Allah, to save my and my family’s lives."

Joyless

Dilfaraz Khan says that the fear of drone attacks has overpowered the Ramadan festivities.

"Our whole time from dawn to dusk passes with fear," Khan, a resident of Mir Ali, told IOL.

"We constantly look on skies as to when and where the drone appears and pounds us."

US drone attacks have killed hundreds of people, including only six Taliban leaders, in Mir Ali last year.

The feared drone attacks have forced many Mir Ali residents to give up their tradition of hosting iftar banquets for the poor during Ramadan.

"We used to have iftar with our families and friends (male members) in mosques and other meeting places," said Dilfaraz, a local farmer.

"But nowadays, we don’t even think about that.

"You never know when a drone appears and fires a missile on you, no matter you are having iftar or hatching a terrorist plan," he said.

Dilfaraz, like many Mir Ali residents, is also scared to perform the Tarawih prayers because of the drone attacks.

"I am sorry to admit that but drones are not sparing even mosques," he said.

Dilfaraz said that despite the drone attacks have killed some Taliban leaders, but they are creating many more.

"Those who are supporting drone attacks have no idea about our woes," he said.

Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud was killed in a US drone attack on August 5 in South Waziristan.

"I agree that one Baitullah Mehsud, and a few other militants have been killed in these drone attacks, but can it justify the deaths of hundreds of civilians," asked Dilfaraz.

"They have killed one Baitullah Mehsud, and created hundreds more Baitullahs."





 

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Posted on Sun, Sep. 13, 2009

Terror group builds big base under Pakistani officials' noses


Saeed Shah | McClatchy Newspapers
last updated: September 13, 2009 06:17:17 PM
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/75340.html

BAHAWALPUR, Pakistan — A Pakistani terrorist group that's allied with al Qaida and sends jihadists to Afghanistan to fight U.S. and government troops is building a huge new base in full view of the authorities in Pakistan's most heavily populated province, locals and officials told McClatchy.

Jaish-e-Mohammad ("Army of Mohammad"), which is linked to a series of atrocities, including an attack on the Indian parliament in Delhi and the murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl, has walled off a 4.5-acre compound three miles outside the town of Bahawalpur in the far south of the Pakistan's heartland Punjab province.

Jaish, which the State Department designated a "foreign terrorist organization" in December 2001 and Pakistan banned in 2002, already has a headquarters and a seminary in the town's center. However, the new facility, surrounded by a high brick and mud wall, has a tiled swimming pool, stabling for more than a dozen horses, an ornamental fountain and even swings and a slide for children.

There are jihadist inscriptions painted on the inside walls, including a proclamation that "Jaish-e-Mohammad will return", alongside a picture of Delhi's historic Red Fort, implying further terrorist attacks against the Indian capital.

Riding is symbolically appealing for jihadists, who romanticize about riding into battle on horseback. Another inscription inside the compound says, in Urdu, "When God was about to create horses, he told the wind: 'I'm going to create a creature which will help my friends and bring disaster to my enemies.'"

These warriors also consider water training important, especially as most Pakistanis cannot swim. After the attack on Mumbai last year, it emerged that the terrorists had undertaken extensive water training.

Jaish — and Pakistani officials — said the facility, which is still under construction, is simply a small farm to keep cattle.

A man at the site, who wore an ammunition vest under his shirt and said his name was Abdul Jabbar, refused to let McClatchy through the entrance gates and suggested that it was time to leave.

"We're not hiding anything. Nothing happens here. We have just kept some cattle for our milk," said Jabbar, who wore the long hair that's typical of Pakistani and Afghan Taliban.

It's unclear whether the new facility will be a radical madrassa — Islamic school — or even a terrorist training camp. Nevertheless, its construction, unimpeded by Pakistan's military or intelligence service, raises new questions about how committed Pakistan is to the war on terror.

Pakistan's civilian-led central government is cracking down harder on domestic Taliban insurgents, in the northwest of the country, who seek to conquer territory at home and impose their extreme brand of Islam on Pakistanis. But the authorities seem tolerant — or even supportive — of militant groups such as Jaish whose targets are abroad: in the West, in Afghanistan or in Pakistan's archenemy, India.

Jaish members were behind a spectacular attempt to assassinate then-President Pervez Musharraf in 2004 and were involved in training and commanding Taliban guerrillas in Pakistan's Swat valley, which the military retook from Taliban control this year. Jaish, originally aimed against India, reputedly was formed with help from Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) military spy agency, and many experts think the two organizations remain close.

India has demanded repeatedly that Pakistan extradite Jaish founder Masood Azhar. Islamabad claims it can't locate him, but Indian and Western intelligence agencies think he's likely to be living under official protection in a safe house in Bahawalpur.

Jaish and other Punjabi extremist groups recruit and train thousands of young men to fight Western forces in Afghanistan. Jaish ran training camps in Afghanistan until the U.S.-led invasion of that country in 2001, according to the State Department, which suspects that the group has received funds from al Qaida.

Western militants of Pakistani origin have joined Jaish, including Rashid Rauf, who was supposed to be the key contact between al Qaida and the men behind a 2006 plot to blow up transatlantic airliners; Shehzad Tanweer, one of the 2005 bombers of the London transport system; and Omar Sheikh, who was convicted of the murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.

Bahawalpur also serves as a safe "R&R" stopover for jihadists battling in Afghanistan, Western intelligence officers said. In Bahawalpur, militants can rest and recuperate away from the U.S. unmanned aerial drones that patrol Pakistan's tribal area in the northwest.

Extremist groups in Pakistan are interlinked, and members often move among different groups. Bahawalpur and the surrounding area are important centers for other militant organizations in addition to Jaish-e-Mohammad, including Lashkar-e-Taiba, the group blamed for the devastating 2008 attack on Mumbai; Sipah-e-Sahaba, a sectarian group linked to the killing of seven Christians last month in the Punjabi town of Gojra; and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, which is perhaps al Qaida's closest ally in Pakistan.

Although there's a major Pakistani army base in Bahawalpur, the bases of Jaish and other jihadist groups in and around the town attract little attention. The regional administration is aware of the new compound but untroubled by it. According to the senior police official for the area, Mushtaq Sukhera, it's been "thoroughly searched" and nothing suspicious has been found.

Sukhera denied that there's any extremist threat in the town and said that while Jaish owns the new facility, "there's nothing over there except a few cows and horses."

"There is no problem of militancy (in south Punjab), there's no problem of Talibanization," said Sukhera. "It's just media hype."

Between 3,000 and 8,000 jihadists from southern Punjab are fighting in Afghanistan or Pakistan's western tribal area, according to independent estimates, said Ayesha Siddiqa, an analyst who's studied the area. They're often known as the "Punjabi Taliban," while the main Taliban forces are ethnic Pashtuns, the group that straddles northwest Pakistan and Afghanistan.

"These guys (in Bahawalpur) aren't connected with a war, they don't have any ethnic affiliation with Afghanistan," said Siddiqa. "These guys are purely ideologically motivated. That makes it much more difficult to crack them during investigation or to break their will to fight."

However, the facility deeply worries some Pakistani security personnel. One officer described it as a "second center of terrorism," to complement the existing Jaish madrassa in the middle of town.

The officer, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said Jaish never should have been allowed to buy the land. He said the group initially acquired 4.5 acres, then forced an adjacent landowner to sell it another two acres. "It's big enough for training purposes," he said.

Bahawalpur, which is about 420 miles south of the capital Islamabad, is a dusty, dirt-poor backwater that's sweltering in summer. The town's isolation allows it to function quietly as a center for ideological indoctrination and terrorist planning, a sort of jihadist oasis surrounded by parched fields.

There are at least 500 madrassas In Bahawalpur — more than 1,000 by some estimates — many of which teach a violent version of Islam to children who mostly are too poor to go to regular school. Promising students are dispatched to military training camps, which generally are located in far off northwestern Pakistan.

Unlike Pakistan's Taliban in the northwest, however, extremists in Bahawalpur keep a low profile. They leave alone the music shops and barbers that are the Taliban's favorite targets and don't force women to wear the all-enveloping burqa, so there's no obvious "Talibanization," as in parts of northwest Pakistan.

Militant activity in southern Punjab takes place behind high compound walls, only occasionally spilling out. Last year in April, Jaish held a massive three-day rally in Bahawalpur, sealed the entrances of the city center, locals said, and posted its own armed security guards on the streets, with no sign of the police.

Jaish openly runs an imposing madrassa in the center of Bahawalpur, called Usman-o-Ali, which is attended by hundreds of children every year. Two men stationed outside prevented McClatchy from entering the madrassa, which also has a mosque that should be open to all Muslims.

"No militancy, no military training is being imparted to students (at Usman-o-Ali)," said police officer Sukhera.

Shah is a McClatchy special correspondent.

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Tens of thousands displaced in new Pakistan offensive: officials

AFP

http://www.uruknet.info/index.php?p=m57928&hd=&size=1&l=e

September 14, 2009

ISLAMABAD — Between 56,000 and 100,000 people have fled their homes since Pakistani troops launched a new anti-Taliban offensive in the tribal Khyber district, UN and Pakistani officials estimated Monday.

The military, backed by artillery and helicopter gunships, launched the offensive on September 1 after a suicide bomber killed 22 policemen in Khyber, which lies on the main supply route for Western troops in Afghanistan.

"Over 100,000 people have arrived in Peshawar since the military mounted an offensive," said Mian Iftikhar Hussain, information minister in North West Frontier Province.

"We intend to set up a camp for them. We have asked the federal government to provide us assistance to cope with the situation."

Qaiser Afridi, a spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said the ongoing operation in the Bara district of Khyber had displaced between 8,000 and 12,000 families. The families average seven members.

"They are staying with their friends and relatives and we are just getting this data from our implementing partners," Afridi told AFP.

UNHCR has advised the government to prepare assistance for the displaced people, he said. "We are assessing the humanitarian situation there and let's see what the government does."

The Frontier Corps paramilitary, which operates in Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal belt, said eight militants and a soldier were killed in ground fighting in Khyber on Monday.

A "fierce encounter" took place on hilly terrain near Naraikarawal village, in which a "commander Nawaz" and seven other militants from the Taliban-linked Lashkar-e-Islam group were killed, it said in a statement.

Pakistani authorities said Monday they had sacked 715 tribal police who failed to show up for work after Lashkar-e-Islam militant leader Mangal Bagh threatened to demolish their homes and exact other harsh penalties.

The military says it has killed around 170 militants in Khyber but such tolls are impossible to confirm independently.

In April Pakistan launched a major operation to clear the Taliban from Swat and neighbouring northwestern districts.

The offensive forced 1.9 million civilians from their homes. The UN last week said 1.65 million people had returned after the government declared the area free of insurgents.

Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved




 

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Another U.S. Drone attack kills 4 in Pakistan


By RASOOL DAWAR (AP)

http://www.uruknet.info/index.php?p=m57937&hd=&size=1&l=e

September 14, 2009

MIR ALI, Pakistan — A missile fired from a suspected unmanned U.S. drone slammed into a car in a Pakistani tribal region close to the Afghan border Monday, killing four people, intelligence officials and residents said.

The apparent American missile strike was the latest of more than 50 in the northwest region since last year aimed at killing top al-Qaida and Taliban leaders. Last month, the head of the Pakistani Taliban was killed in one such strike.

Monday's attack took place about 1.5 miles (3 kilometers) from the town of Mir Ali in North Waziristan, killing four people, two officials and witnesses said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity, saying they need to remain unnamed to do their job effectively.

The identities of the victims were not known.

Witnesses Ikramullah Khan and Mohammad Salim said the missile hit a vehicle with blacked-out windows — a style associated with Taliban fighters in the region.

Pakistan protests the U.S. missile strikes as violations of its sovereignty and says they fan support for the insurgents, but Washington has shown no sign of abandoning a tactic that it says has killed several ranking militants and disrupted their operations.

Islamist militants with roots in the border region launch near-daily attacks on Pakistan's U.S.-backed government and security forces. The mountainous, lawless area is also used as a safe haven from which to stage attacks on foreign forces in Afghanistan.

Under pressure from the West, Pakistan in May launched an offensive in the northwestern Swat Valley, which had fallen largely under Taliban control. It claims to have cleared most of Swat of the militants and killed more than 1,800 of them, although sporadic militant attacks continue.

The army announced the capture last week of five top Swat Taliban commanders, and Interior Minister Rehman Malik said Sunday authorities were now closing in on Swat Taliban chief Maulana Fazlullah.

"Fazlullah is surrounded, and he cannot escape us," Malik told reporters in Islamabad.

Pakistan's army said Monday to have killed 16 suspected militants in its latest operations in Swat and neighboring Dir district. One soldier died and another was wounded, an army statement covering the previous 24-hour period added.

Military officials also said 159 alleged militants had surrendered to security forces Monday. They include six boys recruited by the Taliban to be suicide bombers, Col. Amir Khan told reporters in Piochar, a main insurgent base in Swat.

In recent weeks, the army has reported an increasing flow of insurgents voluntarily surrendering.

The information provided by the military could not be independently confirmed because of limited access to the region.

Separately, at least 18 women and girls waiting to get free flour in Pakistan's southern city of Karachi died when the crowd around them swelled and a stampede occurred, officials said.

The deaths in the Karachi stampede came during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, a traditional time for charitable acts including giving away food.

Karachi police chief Wasim Ahmad said at least 18 women and girls died in the ensuing rush. Mohammad Amin Khan of Karachi Civil Hospital said some of the women had suffocated and that there were at least 20 bodies.

"Poverty is on the rise, there is a desperation among people," local government official Javed Hanif said.

Associated Press Writer Ashraf Khan contributed to this report from Karachi.




 

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Ex-Intel officer discloses US plans for Pakistan


Mon, 14 Sep 2009 09:49:16 GMT
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=106141&sectionid=351020401

 
Pakistan’s former ISI Chief General Hamid Gul

The US seeks to establish new military bases in Pakistan to keep the country destabilized and control its nuclear weapons, says a former head of Pakistan's intelligence service.

In an exclusive interview with Press TV on Sunday, Hamid Gul said that Washington planned to expand its embassy and increase its security guards in Pakistan.

"There are already three thousand five hundred of them [US security guards] and one thousand more are coming," Gul said.

He also noted that Americans seek to set up a large intelligence network inside Pakistan under the pretext of giving financial aid to the country.

"They [Americans] are going to set up a large intelligence network inside Pakistan. They say because we are spending money directly on projects, therefore we need the security guards and we are bringing in the contractors," said Gul.

US officials "want to go for Pakistan's nuclear assets. They are inching close to those nuclear assets day by day," he added.

When asked about Washington's long-term goal in Pakistan, the former Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) said that the United States wants to keep the country destabilized.

Washington's decision to expand its embassy in Pakistan has also rung alarm bells in China with Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan, Luo Zhaohui, expressing concern over the planned measure.

"China has concerns over the expansion of the US Embassy in Islamabad and the United States should expand its Embassy by materializing rules and regulations of Pakistan," Zhaohui said at a news conference.

AGB/DT

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Pakistan antipathy perplexes the US

Salman Masood, Foreign Correspondent
http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090917/FOREIGN/709169884/1002
Last Updated: September 17. 2009 11:03AM UAE / September 17. 2009 7:03AM GMT 


Jamat-e-Islami supporters protest against the US Embassy plans in Islamabad in August. Farooq Naeem / AFP

ISLAMABAD // Late last month, four heavily armed Americans were apprehended by Islamabad police, only to be released hours later after the arresting officer was overruled by a superior. The latter was removed from his post yesterday.

No official reason was given for the dismissal of Nasir Aftab, the senior police official, but a security official with knowledge of the case said Mr Aftab has been accused by the Inter-Services Intelligence directorate, the country’s premier spy organisation, of having contacts with Americans beyond the scope of his official duties.

The arrest and firing are the latest in a series of incidents in the past few weeks related to the US presence in Pakistan, the most controversial being plans to expand the US Embassy in Islamabad.

Some Pakistani news media and opposition politicians are clamouring against the expansion, claiming that it is a grave threat to national security.

Last week, a petition was filed in the Supreme Court seeking to restrain the United States from acquiring an additional 7.25 hectares of land.

The petitioner, Zafarullah Khan, representing the Watan political party, claimed that the expansion was actually intended to turn the embassy into a military base that would endanger the country’s nuclear programme.

The vociferous opposition seems to have baffled US officials, who have had limited success defending the expansion plans.

Pakistani government officials have also tried to downplay such insinuations as unsubstantiated. Newspapers are awash with stories about the presence in Pakistan of the US private security company Blackwater, which is now operating as Xe Services. The company had earned notoriety for killings in Iraq and has since become an object of utter scorn in Pakistan.

Rumours are afloat that hundreds of US marines will swarm the Pakistani capital under the cover of the embassy expansion. Some Pakistani officials have privately voiced concerns that the embassy would be used for “signals intelligence and eavesdropping”. The growing paranoia has exposed fissures between nationalist politicians and the religious right and those who view an alliance with the United States as the change needed to rid the country of the trammels of extremism and poverty.

Concerned about the negative press, Ann Patterson, the US ambassador in Pakistan, last month invited a few journalists for an informal briefing. Ms Patterson said news about a deployment of hundreds of marines was “absolutely baseless and wrong”, according to accounts of the briefing published locally.

Ms Patterson also said the 42-year-old embassy building, presently spread over 15 hectares, was not a spy base. She defended the expansion plans as necessary because the “US is going to triple its civilian aid to Pakistan, which would require an additional presence of US officials and support staff”.

Proposed legislation in Congress would provide US$1.5 billion (Dh5.5bn) a year over five years in humanitarian and economic aid.

But most Pakistanis, with a taste for conspiracy theories and spurred by a growing anti-US sentiment, refuse to believe Washington’s assurances. Shireen Mazari, a widely read columnist with a nationalist bent whose writings have an anti-US slant, openly accused the US ambassador of trying to stop her articles from being published in The News, the country’s leading English newspaper. The charge was denied by the US Embassy. Mazari, who has since joined The Nation as the Lahore newspaper’s editor, has also alleged that private US security contractors are entering the country without proper visa documentation.

Syed Munawar Hasan, the head of Jamat-e-Islami, the country’s most well-organised right-wing Islamic political party, reiterated that the Americans are bent upon putting “tabs on the country’s nuclear programme”.

Mr Hasan said the government’s “deaf-ear response is beyond one’s understanding”.

Pakistan and the United States have had an uneasy and tumultuous relationship despite the fact that the United States has been one of the biggest suppliers of hi-tech military equipment.

“The US-Pakistan relationship is dysfunctional and full of contradictions,” said Arif Rafiq, a political analyst based in New York. “In the past eight years, there has been intense co-operation. But both countries, particularly their intelligence agencies, still view one another with deep suspicion.

“Within the Pakistani security establishment, there is a deep-seated concern that the United States has never and will never be content with a Muslim nation like Pakistan as a nuclear power.”

Hasan Askari Rizvi, a political analyst based in Lahore, said nationalist politicians and Islamic parties feel that they can build pressure on the ruling Pakistan People’s Party on an issue such as the US Embassy expansion by playing up popular sentiment.

“Most of them were against the Swat operation,” Mr Rizvi said, referring to the military’s campaign against the Taliban in the picturesque Swat valley in the country’s north. “But it didn’t work as a majority of the people supported the military operation against militants. So, the opposition parties and Islamists shifted gears and have started talking about sovereignty. It is more domestic politics than international.”

Mr Rizvi said there are elements in the intelligence agencies and even in the army that are “anti-American” and have used the embassy issue to exert “indirect pressure on the government”.

Talat Masood, a retired army general and military and political analyst in Islamabad, said: “The opposition to the embassy expansion is a good hammer to beat the government with.”

Anti-US sentiment has been whipped up on the internet also. Websites such as asahmedquraishi.com churn out sensational stories about alleged or perceived threats to Pakistan’s national security emanating essentially from India and the United States.

A video produced by ILM TV doing the rounds on the web urges Pakistanis to rise up against the US.

In the video, Sana Aijazi, a little-known defence analyst based in Dubai, vehemently condemns the presence of private US security contractors in the country.

“It is not a secret that Blackwater is present across the country,” claims Ms Aijazi, whose head is covered and who is wearing a green jacket. “More than 200 houses have been rented in Islamabad to accommodate the guards,” she claims in the video and shows a list detailing the number of the houses rented in different neighbourhoods of Islamabad.

“I want to give this message that all Pakistanis should understand that America is our biggest enemy and we will have to use all of our abilities to make America unsuccessful – whether the protest is through media or online or physically,” she says at the end of the seven minute, 43 second video as images are shown of heavily armed men disembarking from black SUVs with dark glasses and one hears the staccato of gunfire echoing in a desert.

Mr Masood, the analyst, said some news television networks have stopped inviting moderate analysts on popular political talk shows aired on the country’s television news networks. “They invite analysts who are very critical of the Americans.”

Pakistanis have been in a self-destructive mode, Mr Masood said. “Anti-Americanism is now synonymous with a warped sense of Pakistani patriotism.”



foreign.desk@thenational.ae

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Friday, September 18, 2009
13:50 Mecca time, 10:50 GMT
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2009/09/20099186531271167.html
   
News CENTRAL/S. ASIA  
 
Deadly blast in Pakistan market 
 

The explosion is said to have taken place at a busy intersection close to the town of Kohat [AFP]




At least 30 people have been killed in an explosion outside a small hotel in a market in northwest Pakistan, police officials say.

Another 15 people were injured in the attack in the town of Kohat, about 60km from Peshawar, the main city in North West Frontier Province, on Friday.

"A suicide bomber blew up a car filled with explosives in the market," Ali Hasan, a police officer, said.

Local officials said that a number of shop collapsed and vehicles were destroyed as the blast destroyed the Kacha Paka market.

"A restaurant and many shops have collapsed. It's chaos here. There's huge devastation," Ibn-e-Ali, a former judge and resident of the area, said.

"My house is 1km away but the blast was so huge it felt as if it was next door."

Rubble searched

Police said that rescue workers were searching the rubble for any survivors.

Asmat Ullah, another police official, said that the Shia Muslim-owned Hikmat Ali Hotel, which was badly damaged in Friday's blast, could have been the target of the bombing.

However, Al Jazeera's Kamal Hyder, reporting from the capital, Islamabad, cautioned that any motive for the attack was unlikely to be "sectarian".

"The area has known Sunni-Shia tensions in the past and there have been clashes and deadly consequences," he said

"[But] this was an indiscriminate attack against civilians in an open market and perhaps a warning by the militants who are trying to destabilise Pakistan."

It was the second attack in Kohat in two days after a bomb planted outside a shop injured six people on Thursday.

Northwest offensive

Pakistan's military launched a major offensive against the Taliban in North West Frontier Province in April.

The fighting displaced nearly two million people and left more than 1,800 Taliban fighters dead, according to the military.

But analysts said that many of the fighters simply melted away into other areas in the face of the military onslaught.

Sporadic attacks continue to take place, despite Yusuf Reza Gilani, Pakistan's prime minister, saying that Taliban fighters had been "eliminated" in the region.

"The Pakistani troops have made substantial gains against the Taliban, but they will also tell you that it is virtually impossible to stop a suicide bomber," Al Jazeera's Hyder said.

"The fact that there has been less bombings since the military went on the offensive indication [of their success], but the other side still have the capacity to hit back."
 
 Source: Al Jazeera and agencies 
 
 
 
 
 

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US Ambassador Slams ‘Reluctant’ Pakistan for Lack of Support

Pakistan/US Have Different Priorities

Posted By Jason Ditz On September 18, 2009 @ 6:54 pm



Raising the stakes in the growing diplomatic divide between the two nations, US Ambassador to Pakistan Anne Patterson publicly condemned the Pakistani government, saying it was too “reluctant” in acting against Afghan insurgents.

Patterson, who last week publicly clashed with Pakistan’s largest media outlet, claiming they were “endangering Americans” with their opinion articles, said Pakistan is refusing to target the “biggest threat” to the US-led war in Afghanistan.

This presumably refers to the Haqqani faction in North Waziristan. The Pakistani military has expressed concern that a broader war in North Waziristan would prove unwinnable, as historically the tribes have resisted outside interference.

For the US the war in Afghanistan is priority #1 in the region, while Pakistan has to worry about its own internal stability and tense relations with India. Though the US will likely continue to pressure Pakistan to go “all-in” against the militants along the Afghan border, it will likely only underscore how different their respective priorities are and fuel resentment of the growing US impact on Pakistan’s security situation.

Related Stories
•September 18, 2009 -- At Least 40 Killed in Pakistan Suicide Bombing
•September 17, 2009 -- Pakistan: al-Qaeda Commanders Killed in US Drone Strikes
•September 14, 2009 -- Over 100,000 Displaced in Pakistan’s Khyber Offensive

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

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

URL to article: http://news.antiwar.com/2009/09/18/us-ambassador-slams-reluctant-pakistan-for-lack-of-support/

[bigron]

U.S. May Expand Drone Attacks in Pakistan

Officials said Monday that the renewed fight against Al Qaeda could lead to more missile attacks on Pakistan terrorist havens by unmanned U.S. spy planes.

AP

Tuesday, September 22, 2009
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/09/22/expand-drone-attacks-pakistan/
 
 WASHINGTON -- The White House is considering expanding counterterror operations in Pakistan to refocus on eliminating Al Qaeda instead of mounting a major military escalation in Afghanistan.

Two senior administration officials said Monday that the renewed fight against the terrorist organization could lead to more missile attacks on Pakistan terrorist havens by unmanned U.S. spy planes. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because no decisions have been made.

Top aides to President Barack Obama said he still has questions and wants more time to decide.

The officials said the administration would push ahead with the ground mission in Afghanistan in the near future to leave the door open for sending more U.S. troops. But Obama's top advisers, including Vice President Joe Biden, have indicated they are reluctant to send many more troops, if any at all, in the immediate future.

In weekend interviews, Obama emphasized that disrupting Al Qaeda is his "core goal" and worried aloud about "mission creep" that would move away from that direction. "If it starts drifting away from that goal, then we may have a problem," he said.

The proposed shift would bolster U.S. action on Obama's long-stated goal of dismantling terrorist havens, but it also could complicate American relations with Pakistan, long wary of the growing use of aerial drones to target militants along the porous border with Afghanistan.

The prospect of a White House alternative to a deepening involvement in the stalemated war in Afghanistan comes as administration officials debate whether to send more troops, as urged in a blunt assessment of the deteriorating conflict by the top U.S. commander there, Gen. Stanley McChrystal.

The two senior administration officials said Monday that one option would be to step up the use of missile-armed unmanned spy drones over Pakistan that have killed scores of militants over the past year.

The armed drones could contain Al Qaeda in a smaller, if more remote area, and keep its leaders from retreating back into Afghanistan, one of the officials said.

Most U.S. military officials have preferred a classic counterinsurgency mission to keep Al Qaeda out of Afghanistan by defeating the Taliban and securing the local population.

However, one senior White House official said it is not clear that the Taliban would welcome Al Qaeda back into Afghanistan. The official noted that it was only after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that the United States invaded Afghanistan and deposed the Taliban in pursuit of Al Qaeda.

Pakistan will not allow the United States to deploy a large-scale military troop buildup on its soil. However, its military and intelligence services are believed to have helped the United States with airstrikes, even while the government has publicly condemned them.

The Pakistan Embassy in Washington did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

Wider use of missile strikes and less reliance on ground troops would mark Obama's second shift in strategy and tactics since taking office last January.

Such a move would amount to an admission that using a traditional military strategy to take on the Taliban with thousands more troops is doomed to failure, echoing Russia's disastrous Afghanistan invasion in the late 1980s and other ill-fated conquerors in the more distant past.

But stepping up attacks on the remnants of Al Qaeda also would dovetail with Obama's presidential campaign promise of directly going after the terrorist network that spawned the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington.

Over the past few weeks, White House and Pentagon officials have debated the best way to defeat Al Qaeda and whether to send more troops to Afghanistan to battle the extremist Taliban elements that hosted Osama bin Laden and his operatives in the 1990s and have continued to aid the terror group.

McChrystal has argued that without more troops the United States could lose the war against the Taliban and allied insurgents.

"Resources will not win this war, but under-resourcing could lose it," McChrystal wrote in a five-page Commander's Summary that was revealed late Sunday by The Washington Post. His 66-page report, which also was made public by the Post in a partly classified version after appeals from Pentagon officials, was sent to Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Aug. 30 and is now under review at the White House.

White House officials have made clear that Pakistan should be the top concern since that is where top Al Qaeda leaders, including bin Laden himself, are believed to be hiding. Very few Al Qaeda extremists are believed still to be in Afghanistan, according to military and White House officials.

More than 50 missile strikes have been mounted against targets in Pakistan since August 2008, according to an Associated Press count. Two weeks ago, a U.S. drone killed a suspected major Al Qaeda recruiter and trainer, Pakistani national Ilyas Kashmiri.

A draft study by Notre Dame Law School professor Mary Ellen O'Connell found that drone attacks by the United States in Pakistan began in 2004, jumped dramatically in 2008 and continue to climb so far this year.

The attacks target Taliban in Pakistan as well as Al Qaeda, O'Connell said in an interview Monday, pointing to an Aug. 5 CIA missile strike that killed Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud.

"The only reason people think drones are successful is because they're doing a body count," O'Connell said. "They're not looking at the bigger picture" of Pakistani animosity, she said.

One of the White House officials said that Mehsud, an Al Qaeda ally, was targeted as a threat to Pakistan at the behest of that nation's leaders.

On Capitol Hill, lawmakers divided largely on party lines over whether more U.S. troops should be sent to Afghanistan. Several said McChrystal's assessment shows that the American strategy in Afghanistan remains murky, and they renewed demands that the general personally explain his conclusions to Congress.

"We have reached a turning point in Afghanistan as to whether we are going to formally adopt nation-building as a policy," said Democratic Sen. Jim Webb, secretary of the Navy during the administration of former President Ronald Reagan.

High-level Obama aides said the Pentagon's case to send more troops was being pushed most aggressively by the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, Adm. Mike Mullen.

White House officials were caught off guard and reacted with displeasure last week when Mullen told a Senate panel that more troops were all but certainly needed in Afghanistan, and a second report asking for the additional forces would be delivered "in the very near future."

Gates has said he has not decided whether he agrees that more troops are needed, and Obama made clear in his weekend interviews that he is far from ready to decide.

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U.S. to shift from Afghanistan to Pakistan?

White House could focus war on Pakistan and use drones, not more troops

The Associated Press
updated 6:50 p.m. ET Sept. 21, 2009


WASHINGTON - The White House is considering expanding counterterror operations in Pakistan to refocus on eliminating al-Qaida instead of mounting a major military escalation in Afghanistan, two senior administration officials said Monday.

Earlier in the day, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan reported to Obama that without more troops, the U.S. risks failure in a war it's been waging since September 2001.

The senior administration officials said the renewed fight against the terrorist organization could lead to more missile attacks on Pakistan terrorist havens by unmanned U.S. spy planes. They spoke on condition of anonymity because no decisions have been made.

Top aides to President Barack Obama said he still has questions and wants more time to decide.

The officials said the administration would push ahead with the ground mission in Afghanistan for the near future, still leaving the door open for sending more U.S. troops. But Obama's top advisers, including Vice President Joe Biden, have indicated they are reluctant to send many more troops — if any at all — in the immediate future.

Dismantling al-Qaida a ‘core goal’
In weekend interviews, Obama emphasized that disrupting al-Qaida is his "core goal" and worried aloud about "mission creep" that moved away from that direction. "If it starts drifting away from that goal, then we may have a problem," he said.

The proposed shift would bolster U.S. action on Obama's long-stated goal of dismantling terrorist havens, but it could also complicate American relations with Pakistan, long wary of the growing use of aerial drones to target militants along the porous border with Afghanistan.

The prospect of a White House alternative to a deepening involvement in the stalemated war in Afghanistan comes as administration officials debate whether to send more troops — as urged in a blunt assessment of the deteriorating conflict by the top U.S. commander there, Gen. Stanley McChrystal.

The two senior administration officials said Monday that one option would be to step up the use of missile-armed unmanned spy drones over Pakistan that have killed scores of militants over the last year.

The armed drones could contain al-Qaida in a smaller, if more remote area, and keep its leaders from retreating back into Afghanistan, one of the officials said.

Most U.S. military officials have preferred a classic counterinsurgency mission to keep al-Qaida out of Afghanistan by defeating the Taliban and securing the local population.

However, one senior White House official said it's not clear that the Taliban would welcome al-Qaida back into Afghanistan. The official noted that it was only after the 9/11 attacks that the United States invaded Afghanistan and deposed the Taliban in pursuit of al-Qaida.

Another shift in strategy?
Pakistan will not allow the United States to deploy a large-scale military troop buildup on its soil. However, its military and intelligence services are believed to have assisted the U.S. with airstrikes, even while the government has publicly condemned them.

The Pakistan Embassy in Washington did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

Wider use of missile strikes and less reliance on ground troops would mark Obama's second shift in strategy and tactics since taking office last January.


Such a move would amount to an admission that using a traditional military strategy to take on the Taliban with thousands more troops is doomed to failure, echoing Russia's disastrous Afghanistan invasion in the late 1980s and other ill-fated conquerors in the more distant past.

But stepping up attacks on the remnants of al-Qaida also would dovetail with Obama's presidential campaign promise of directly going after the terrorist network that spawned the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington.

Over the past few weeks, White House and Pentagon officials have debated the best way to defeat al-Qaida — and whether to send more troops to Afghanistan to battle the extremist Taliban elements that hosted Osama bin Laden and his operatives in the 1990s and have continued to aid the terrorist group.

McChrystal has argued that without more troops the United States could lose the war against the Taliban and allied insurgents.


"Resources will not win this war, but under-resourcing could lose it," McChrystal wrote in a five-page Commander's Summary that was unveiled late Sunday by the Washington Post. His 66-page report, which was also made public by the Post in a partly classified version after appeals from Pentagon officials, was sent to Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Aug. 30 and is now under review at the White House.


Few al-Qaida extremists
White House officials have made clear that Pakistan should be the top concern since that is where top al-Qaida leaders, including bin Laden himself, are believed to be hiding. Very few al-Qaida extremists are believed to still be in Afghanistan, according to military and White House officials.

There have been more than 50 missile strikes against Pakistan targets since August 2008, according to an Associated Press count. Two weeks ago, a U.S. drone killed a key suspected al-Qaida recruiter and trainer, Pakistani national Ilyas Kashmiri.

A draft study by Notre Dame Law School professor Mary Ellen O'Connell found that drone attacks by the U.S. in Pakistan began in 2004, jumped dramatically in 2008 and continue to climb so far this year.

But the attacks target Taliban in Pakistan as well as al-Qaida, O'Connell said in an interview Monday, pointing to an Aug. 5 CIA missile strike that killed Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud.

"The only reason people think drones are successful is because they're doing a body count," O'Connell said. "They're not looking at the bigger picture" of Pakistani animosity, she added.

One of the White House officials said that Mehsud, an al-Qaida ally, was targeted as a threat to Pakistan at the behest of that nation's leaders.

‘A turning point in Afghanistan’


On Capitol Hill, lawmakers divided largely on party lines over whether more U.S. troops should be sent to Afghanistan. Several said McChrystal's assessment shows that the American strategy in Afghanistan remains murky, and renewed demands that the general personally explain his conclusions to Congress.

"We have reached a turning point in Afghanistan as to whether we are going to formally adopt nation-building as a policy," said Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., a former secretary of the Navy during the Reagan administration.


High-level Obama aides said the Pentagon's case to send more troops was being pushed most aggressively by Joint Chiefs chairman Adm. Mike Mullen.

White House officials were caught off guard and reacted with displeasure last week when Mullen told a Senate panel that more troops were all but certainly needed in Afghanistan, and that a second report asking for the additional forces would be delivered "in the very near future."

Gates has said he has not decided whether he agrees that more troops are needed, and Obama made clear in his weekend interviews that he is far from ready to decide.

More on: Afghanistan
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11881780/?q=Afghanistan&p=1&st=1&sm=user

Stanley A. McChrystal :
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11881780/?q=Stanley%20A.%20McChrystal&p=1&st=1&sm=user


NBC News, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32952295/ns/world_news-south_and_central_asia/

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South Asia
Sep 24, 2009 
 http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/KI24Df03.html
 
 
The US on a new mission in Pakistan

By Syed Saleem Shahzad

NEW YORK - Pakistan has once again rejected United States President Barack Obama's AfPak approach that designates Afghanistan and Pakistan as a single theater of operations. During an important visit to the US to attend a United Nations General Assembly meeting, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari said on Tuesday that the Taliban insurgency could not be defeated by "lumping" the two countries together.

Pakistan might protest, but the realities tell a different story. Washington cannot afford to let Pakistan slip any further into chaos. As it is, large swathes of the tribal areas on the border with Afghanistan are already under the control of the Pakistani Taliban and their al-Qaeda allies.

The US even views Pakistan as more vital than Afghanistan in winning the war against al-Qaeda, which has its headquarters along the Hindu Kush mountains that run through North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) up to southwestern Balochistan province. From here, al-Qaeda envisages wars in Pakistan, Afghanistan and India on the one side and in the Middle East and in North Africa on the other side.

Pakistan's military - spurred on by the US - has won impressive victories against militants in NWFP, but they still have a strong presence and sanctuaries in the tribal areas. The militants are down, but not out, and they are in a far better position than they were in the years after the defeat of the Taliban in Afghanistan in late 2001.

Washington is fully aware of the ground situation and realizes that it could escalate out of control at any time. This would be disastrous not only for Pakistan, but also for global security.

Simply put, whether Islamabad views itself as being "lumped" or not, Pakistan remains a critical element in the US's regional strategy to restore order in Afghanistan, and with it the region. For this, Pakistan is being rewarded.

On Tuesday, US AfPak envoy Richard Holbrooke met with Zardari and the emphasis of their talks was on the country's economic situation. Zardari had a separate meeting with Central Intelligence Agency director Leon Panetta to review "war on terror" strategies.
Washington plans to continue to pump billions of dollars into Pakistan in various forms of aid, from counter-insurgency to anti-narcotics to humanitarian relief. Zardari has also called for the release of about US$6 billion pledged to Pakistan at a Tokyo conference this year by international donors to help Pakistan tackle its economic crisis.

The harsh reality is that Pakistan will face a shortage of about 20 million tonnes of oil equivalent in five years, jumping to 100 million tonnes by 2025. Oil and gas reserves dropped by 9% and 10% respectively in 2008-09 compared to 2007-08, and with imports, such as from Qatar, in jeopardy, the country could face a serious energy shortage by as soon as next year.

However, the main problem is electricity. Power shortages have already sparked riots across the country this summer, and many more are expected next year, when the electricity shortfall could reach a record level of 7,000 megawatts. Further, the Water and Power Development Authority has warned that if steps such as the construction of dams are not taken, Pakistan will face a water shortage by the year 2012.

Much as Pakistan and the US are alarmed by these prospects, al-Qaeda sees opportunity. Recently, security agencies prevented an al-Qaeda strike on an oil installation in the southern port city of Karachi. Al-Qaeda sources have frequently told Asia Times Online that the group aims to exacerbate oil, water and electricity shortages and encourage riots.

Washington has adopted a dual approach to deal with Pakistan: financial assistance, and opening direct channels of communication with key players who are not part of the Pakistani establishment.

Show us the money
Despite its own financial crunch, Washington has kept the money flowing to Pakistan. During the current financial year 2009 (to end-September), the US has made appropriations under three different headings: the omnibus budget, the bridge supplementary budget, and more recently, a spring supplementary budget. In addition, the US Congress is considering an administration request for financial year 2010 which includes some Pakistan-specific appropriations.

During the current financial year, Pakistan will receive US$3.02 billion in non-military and military assistance. However, $700 million provided under the spring supplementary budget for Pakistan's Counter-insurgency Capability Fund (PCCF) is meant for the financial year of 2010 and will only become available at the end of this September. This year, Pakistan will get $400 million for the PCCF, which is actually provided by the US Department of Defense.

Tapping up people
It's clear that money alone won't prevent Pakistan from backsliding. Washington wants to open channels with people expected to play a major role in the country and who are not a part of the establishment.

For example, a week ago, the anti-Taliban, anti-establishment and extremely pro-Western mayor of Karachi, Mustafa Kamal, was hosted in Washington by high-ranking officials of the US State Department and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization - a rare moment for such a relatively low-ranking foreign dignitary.

This is especially so as Karachi does not share a border with Afghanistan or the trouble spots in the tribal areas. However, it is the largest port city and the financial artery of the country. It is governed by the anti-military, anti-Taliban and pro-India and pro-Western Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM). The MQM has been victimized twice by military operations and it was officially accused by the Pakistan army in 1992 of being a separatist organization.

Recently, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hosted an Iftar dinner (breaking of the fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan) in honor of Muslims. She quoted Pashtun leader Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, a political and spiritual leader known for his non-violent opposition to British Rule in India.

Born in what is now Pakistan, he was a life-time member of the Indian National Congress and became known as "Frontier Gandhi". Right up to his death in 1988, he was viewed in Pakistan as a traitor - he was refused burial in Pakistan and was instead laid to rest in the Afghan city of Jalalabad.

At a special US request, his grandson and the leader of Pakistan's Awami National Party (ANP), Asfandyar Wali Khan, was included in Zardari's delegation to the US. The idea was that his proposals on strategic and financial matters for Pakistan's Pashtun areas could be considered. The ANP is a secular Pashtun political party.

Very much like the MQM, the ANP has over the years been accused of being separatist. Asfandyar's father, Khan Abdul Wali Khan, was declared a traitor by a court in 1979 during General Zia ul-Haq's military regime.

The big news in the US is the leak of an "initial assessment" of the war in Afghanistan by General Stanley A McChrystal, the top commander in the war, with its blunt warning that "[f]ailure to provide adequate resources" is likely to result in "mission failure" in that country.

Quite clearly though, the Obama administration is just as concerned of failure in Pakistan, and is doing all it can to prevent this from happening.

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

 
 
 

[bigron]

Thursday, September 24, 2009
15:55 Mecca time, 12:55 GMT   
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2009/09/20099248230785329.html

News CENTRAL/S. ASIA  
 
Pakistan elders killed in ambush 
 

Bannu, a town 240km southwest of Islamabad, has seen many Taliban attacks in the past [EPA]

 
At least four pro-government tribal elders have been shot dead in an attack by Taliban fighters in the country's northwest, police say.

The assailants ambushed cars carrying members of the anti-Taliban committee, who were travelling to meet security officials in Bannu district on Thursday.

Bannu is located 240km southwest of Islamabad, the country's capital.

"Taliban militants attacked the tribal elders who were on their way to a nearby village to mediate a dispute between local people," Iqbal Marwat, a police chief, said.

The victims included Malik Sultan, a tribal chief, who was active in raising a government-sponsored militia against fighters in the area, Marwat said.

The attack followed another attack by fighters on Thursday, which killed two members of another anti-Taliban committee in Swat, in the North West Frontier Province.

The assailants struck as members of the committee slept in Swat's Sertelegram area, Mohammad Ibrar Khan, the mayor, said.

Security guards were reported to have battled with the fighters and killed several of them, although no bodies were recovered.

Local residents formed the group last week to protect the area from Taliban fighters who were rooted out by an army offensive last month.
 
 
 

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Several People Dead After Suspected U.S. Strike in Pakistan

Thursday, September 24, 2009 

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,555122,00.html

MIR ALI, Pakistan —  A suspected U.S. missile strike killed four people in northwestern Pakistan late Thursday, intelligence officials said -- the latest in a spate of attacks close to the Afghan border that have squeezed Al Qaeda and the Taliban.

Such strikes have killed high-ranking militant commanders, including Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud, but have also killed civilians and drawn protest from Pakistani leaders.

Two intelligence officials said the strike took place near the town of Mir Ali in North Waziristan tribal region close to the Afghan border. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to reporters.

Despite Pakistani protests, Washington has shown no sign of abandoning the attacks. Many analysts believe Pakistani security agencies quietly provide intelligence for the strikes.

The border region provides Islamist militants with a safe haven from which they can stage attacks on foreign forces in Afghanistan. The mountainous, lawless area is also a breeding ground for the insurgents who launch near-daily attacks on Pakistan's U.S.-backed government and security forces.

Earlier Thursday, militants ambushed a convoy of prominent anti-Taliban tribal elders in the northwest, spraying their cars with gunfire and killing nine people, police said.

The members of the anti-Taliban citizens' group were traveling from the Machikhel area to meet security officials in Bannu district when their three-vehicle convoy was attacked by insurgents, police officer Mohammad Ghani Khan said.

Pakistani authorities have urged tribal elders to speak out against the Taliban, and in turn the militants have killed scores of local leaders. With government backing, some elders have raised militias, known as lashkars, to battle the insurgents. The militias have been compared to Iraq's Awakening Councils, which helped U.S. forces turn the tide against Al Qaeda there.

The ambush followed a separate attack by militants who killed two members of another anti-Taliban committee Thursday in the Swat Valley to the northeast. The assailants struck as members of the "peace committee" slept in the Sertelegram area, Mayor Mohammad Ibrar Khan said.

In the Swat region, thousands of armed citizens gathered at the Saidu Sharif airport, fearing a possible Taliban comeback following an army offensive that has driven the militants back.

"This is our effort of self-help, and people turned up here with whatever weapon they have from a baton to an assault rifle and pistols. ... We will resist militants and guard our area for a lasting peace," Inamur Rehman, head of the Swat National Council, told The Associated Press.

A leader of the private militia will be chosen in the coming days, Rehman said.

"This is a welcome sign that people have risen to protect themselves and guard against the militants," army Brig. Salman Akber said, adding that security forces would assist the group.

[bigron]

US Mulls Increasing Drone Strikes in Pakistan

Will Pakistan Escalation Come With Afghan Escalation?

Posted By Jason Ditz On September 24, 2009 @ 6:04 pm

In a move reportedly being spearheaded by Vice President Joe Biden, the United States is reportedly considering a dramatic increase in the number of drone attacks on Pakistani soil.

Biden, a skeptic of the Gen. McChrystal plan to add 45,000 more troops to the war in Afghanistan, seems to be presenting “emphasize Pakistan” as an alternative to committing more troops to the unpopular war. Yet Senator Kit Bond, one of the proponents of escalation in Afghanistan, has said the move shouldn’t come at the expense of adding more troops in Afghanistan.

As is so often the case, the alternative escalations, be it Biden’s drone escalation or Sen. Levin’s escalation of funding for the Afghan military quickly morphed from “alternatives” to additions to the broad addition of troops to the war.

Pakistan has publicly responded with skepticism to the idea of lobbing more missiles into their restive tribal areas. This must be taken in context, however, as Pakistan had long denied that it is supporting the current strikes, and with the US having tripled aid to the troubled nation only today it seems unlikely the Zardari government is going to pick now to stand against whatever escalations the US chooses to make.

Related Stories
•September 23, 2009 -- Gen. McChrystal Warns of Growing Indian Influence in Afghanistan
•September 22, 2009 -- Gen. McChrystal: Pakistani Govt Aiding Taliban
•September 5, 2009 -- Pakistan Kills at Least 57 in Khyber Offensive

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

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

URL to article: http://news.antiwar.com/2009/09/24/us-mulls-increasing-drone-strikes-in-pakistan/

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Anti-U.S. Wave Imperiling Efforts in Pakistan, Officials Say

By Karen DeYoung and Pamela Constable
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, September 25, 2009

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/24/AR2009092403824_pf.html

A new wave of anti-American sentiment in Pakistan has slowed the arrival of hundreds of U.S. civilian and military officials charged with implementing assistance programs, undermined cooperation in the fight against al-Qaeda and the Taliban, and put American lives at risk, according to officials from both countries.

In recent weeks, Pakistan has rejected as "incomplete" at least 180 U.S. government visa requests. Its own ambassador in Washington has criticized what he called a "blacklist" used by the Pakistani intelligence service to deny visas or to conduct "rigorous, intrusive and obviously crude surveillance" of journalists and nongovernmental aid organizations it dislikes, including the Congress-funded International Republican Institute and National Democratic Institute.

"It would be helpful if the grounds for action against them are shared with the Embassy," Ambassador Husain Haqqani wrote in late July to Pakistan's Foreign Ministry and the head of its Inter-Services Intelligence agency.

Tension has been fueled by widespread media reports in Pakistan of increased U.S. military and intelligence activity -- including the supposed arrival of 1,000 Marines and the establishment of "spy" centers in houses rented by the U.S. Embassy in the capital, Islamabad. U.S. Ambassador Anne W. Patterson has publicly labeled the reports false, and she told local media executives in a recent letter that publishing addresses and photographs of the houses "endanger the lives of Americans in Pakistan."

At the highest levels, bilateral cooperation is said to be running smoothly. President Obama and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari met Thursday in New York with a gathering of Pakistan's international "friends." With Obama's enthusiastic support, the Senate on Thursday approved a $7.5 billion, five-year package that will triple nonmilitary aid to Pakistan. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, meets regularly with his Pakistani counterpart, Gen. Ashfaq Kiyani.

But just below the top, officials in Islamabad and Washington say, the relationship is fraught with mutual suspicion and is under pressure so extreme that it threatens cooperation against the insurgents.

"We recognize that Pakistani public opinion on the United States is still surprisingly low, given the tremendous effort by the United States to lead an international coalition in support of Pakistan," Richard C. Holbrooke, the administration's special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, said after Thursday's meetings. "We are a long way from this meeting to realities on the ground."

As Obama grapples with U.S. military proposals to greatly increase the number of American troops fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan, other options on the table include a stepped-up counterterrorism campaign against al-Qaeda strongholds in Pakistan that would require more -- rather than less -- Pakistani support.

Recent Pew Research Center surveys in Pakistan found considerable support for the "idea" of working with the United States to combat terrorism. But only 16 percent of Pakistanis polled expressed a favorable view overall of the United States, and only 13 percent expressed confidence in Obama.

Pakistanis, who are extremely sensitive about national sovereignty, oppose allowing foreign troops on their soil and have protested U.S. missile attacks launched from unmanned aircraft against suspected Taliban and al-Qaeda targets inside Pakistan.

Much of the recent upheaval has focused on U.S. plans to expand the U.S. Embassy complex in Islamabad, a heavily guarded, 38-acre compound with nearly 1,500 employees, two-thirds of them Pakistani nationals. About 400 employees are to be added, half of them Americans. Reports of the expansion have led to rumors that at least 1,000 Marines also would be arriving, along with new contingents of U.S. spies.

In addition to repeatedly denying ulterior motives, the embassy has held news briefings and invited Pakistani reporters to tour its grounds. Patterson appeared on local television Saturday to reiterate that Washington has no takeover desires and that there are only eight Marines in the country, guarding the main embassy building.

Patterson also denied local media reports that the embassy has hired Blackwater, the security agency now known as Xe Services that was discredited in Iraq, to spy on and seek to kill insurgent leaders. Those reports apparently originated with U.S. media accounts this summer that the CIA had hired Blackwater to assist in a worldwide assassination program against al-Qaeda that was never activated and no longer exists.

One of the most vocal critics is security analyst and newspaper columnist Shireen Mazari, praised by supporters as a champion of Pakistan's independence. Patterson's Aug. 27 letter to Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman, head of the media group that owns the News newspaper and Geo Television, complained that Mazari's column and talk shows had made "wildly incorrect" charges that could endanger Americans' safety. In particular, Patterson objected to Mazari's "baseless and inaccurate allegation" that Washington-based Creative Associates International, a contractor for the U.S. Agency for International Development with offices in Africa, Central Asia and the Middle East, was a "CIA front-company."

In a telephone interview Sunday, Mazari said: "I definitely have concerns about the Americans' intentions here, especially that they would like to get access to our nuclear assets. The U.S. mind-set is suspicious of strong Muslim states, and there is a certain imperial arrogance in their behavior that Pakistanis like me don't like."

Many Pakistanis see the United States as the latest in a long line of usurpers. "It's like history repeating itself, from the time the East India Company came out here," Mazhar Salim, 52, a phone-booth operator in Islamabad, said last weekend. "We are a Muslim country, and the non-Muslim world, the Americans and the Jews and the Indians, are all threatened by our civilization."

U.S. and Pakistani officials, who agreed to discuss the relationship on the condition of anonymity, said that much of the anti-Americanism reflected jousting among Pakistani politicians and retired military leaders, who often use the media to discredit one another.

Haqqani, the Pakistani ambassador, is a frequent target, accused of being too pro-American or, more recently, even pro-Indian. His letter asking for an explanation of visa denials was leaked to the Indian media, arousing suspicion that a foe of the government had sought to doubly discredit him.

But even those Pakistani officials who allege that the intelligence service has a blacklist say that the delay in issuing official visas is as much the United States' fault as it is Pakistan's.

Many more visa applications have been approved than rejected, one official said, and those sent back are "usually the ones without a clear description on the forms about what they're going to do" in Pakistan. "Sometimes the forms just say 'work for the U.S. government.' All we've done is returned those forms and said, 'Hey, what are you going to do?' "

Constable reported from Islamabad. Staff writer Glenn Kessler in New York contributed to this report.

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Senate votes to triple foreign aid to Pakistan

Senate votes to triple foreign aid to Pakistan, House expected to follow

JIM ABRAMS
AP News
http://wire.antiwar.com/2009/09/24/senate-votes-to-triple-foreign-aid-to-pakistan/
Sep 24, 2009 13:14 EST

The Senate voted Thursday to triple foreign aid to Pakistan, with lawmakers saying the legislation could change the crisis-driven nature of U.S.-Pakistan relations and create ties based more on long-term interests.

The Senate voted by voice to approve the measure that approves $1.5 billion a year over the next five years for democratic, economic and social development assistance. The measure, a result of House-Senate negotiations, could be passed in the House as early as Friday, sending it to President Barack Obama for his signature.

The bill also authorizes "such sums as are necessary" for military assistance to Pakistan.

As conditions for military aid or arms transfers, the Pakistan government must show that it is cooperating in efforts to dismantle nuclear weapons-related supplier networks, that it is committed to fighting terrorist groups and that Pakistan security forces are not subverting the political or judicial processes of the country.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass., and senior committee Republican Dick Lugar of Indiana, said in writing the bill that the aim was to help transform the bilateral relationship away from the current set of exercises in crisis management.

They said that in past years U.S. aid has fluctuated with political events, sending mixed messages and causing many Pakistanis to question U.S. intentions and staying power.

The final version was negotiated by Kerry and House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Howard Berman, D-Calif., sponsor of the House bill, with input from the State and Defense departments.

Kerry's committee, in a statement, said the final bill has the full support of State Department Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mike Mullen.

___

On the Net:

Congress: http://thomas.loc.gov

Source: AP News

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Analysis: Pakistan unlikely to cooperate with US

Analysis: Pakistan unlikely to cooperate with stepped-up US missile strikes against militants

CHRIS BRUMMITT
AP News
http://wire.antiwar.com/2009/09/24/analysis-pakistan-unlikely-to-cooperate-with-us/
Sep 24, 2009 15:16 EST

Pakistan's doubts about U.S. commitment to the Afghan war make it less likely to cooperate in targeting Taliban commanders said to be directing the insurgency across the border.

Pakistan has been ambivalent about the militants, sometimes trying to enlist them as potential allies in case they take control again in neighboring Afghanistan — a prospect many here believe is getting closer.

This country's role in the war is in sharp focus as President Barack Obama publicly questions the strategy he pushed last winter of building up U.S. forces in Afghanistan to fight a revitalized Taliban. The top U.S commander recently warned that NATO could lose the war.

Searching for alternatives to sending still more troops, the White House is now considering a strategy championed by Vice President Joe Biden that focuses on stepped-up missile attacks by unmanned U.S. drones against al-Qaida and Taliban targets on the Pakistani side of the border.

To be effective, such attacks require Pakistani intelligence.

The Pakistanis are believed to have withheld intelligence for years about key suspects in the Afghan Taliban, but the U.S. has been making progress in recent months securing their cooperation against certain targets. Although many of these militants were primarily trying to overthrow the Pakistani government, some also had close ties with fighters in Afghanistan.

More than 70 such attacks have killed scores of ranking militant commanders since last year, including Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of the Pakistani Taliban. On Thursday, a missile strike near the town of Mir Ali in North Waziristan killed four people, Pakistani officials said. The Pakistani government routinely issues statements of protest, even though these strikes are widely believed to take place with its support.

U.S. and NATO officials have long believed that much of the direction, manpower, money and weapons fueling the Afghan insurgency comes from across the border in Pakistan — particularly Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Omar, who is thought to be based close to the city of Quetta in Baluchistan province, and the network commanded by Siraj Haqqani in the Waziristan tribal areas.

American officials and many analysts allege that Pakistan's powerful spy agency is either protecting, tolerating or actively supporting those groups because they do not pose a direct threat to the Pakistani state and may be useful allies in ensuring that a pro-Pakistan, anti-India regime takes power in Afghanistan when the Americans leave.

Pakistan has fought three wars against India and still considers it the country's main threat. India has tried to forge close ties with Kabul and has established consulates in several Afghan cities. Pakistan does not want to see a pro-New Delhi regime on its western flank if the Americans withdraw.

While nominally a parliamentary democracy, Pakistan's army generals and intelligence chiefs in practice still control defense policy and to some extent foreign policy.

With talk of NATO pulling out of Afghanistan, an increasingly potent Taliban threat and rising questions in the U.S. about whether defeating the insurgency is possible, there is even less incentive for the Pakistani authorities to share intelligence on Haqqani and Omar, said Shaun Gregory, a professor at Bradford University's Pakistan Security Research Unit.

"The Pakistanis want the Americans out; above all they want India out. And the only creatures who can do that are the Afghan Taliban," he said. "If the Pakistanis hand over more info on al-Qaida and the rest, it will have a marginal effect as to what happens in Afghanistan."

The Pakistanis have not supplied the U.S. with any intelligence on the Haqqani network, Gregory said. In return, Haqqani and other Afghan Taliban have not joined their Pakistani Taliban brethren in trying to seize other regions and advance on the capital, Islamabad.

"They don't want to antagonize several groups in Pakistan. If the Haqqani group starts helping the Pakistani Taliban, then God help us," said Talat Masood, a Pakistani defense analyst. "The Americans cannot stay in Afghanistan forever, but we will have to live here forever."

The U.S. ambassador to Pakistan, Anne Patterson, said in a recent interview with McClatchy Newspapers that Pakistan had "different priorities" than America in this regard and was "reluctant to take action" against the leadership of the Afghan insurgency.

A senior Pakistani intelligence official, however, insisted the spy agencies of Pakistan were sharing intelligence with the CIA about militants operating both here and in Afghanistan, including the Haqqani network.

"The CIA knows about our role, but we don't want to highlight it through the media," said the officer, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with the requirements of his job.

In the past, Pakistani officials have pointed to the several al-Qaida commanders the country has handed over to the United States and ongoing military campaigns against insurgents that cost many Pakistani lives.

Pakistan has claimed several successes in the fight against the Pakistani Taliban in recent months, including a widely praised offensive against insurgents in the Swat Valley.

But at the very least, the army and the intelligence agencies give priority to battling groups fighting the Pakistani state rather than those who direct their energies toward U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan.

There is little government or military control in Pakistan's remote, mountainous border region. Al-Qaida's top leaders, including Osama bin Laden, may be hiding in the area, and militants move freely across the border.

U.S. missiles are believed to be fired from unmanned drones launched from Afghanistan or from a base inside the Pakistani province of Baluchistan. American officials generally do not acknowledge the attacks.

The strikes are unpopular among nationalist and Muslim politicians and activists, but they have become so routine that they attract little media attention or public protest in Pakistan these days.

Still, an increase in attacks — or strikes outside the semiautonomous areas where they have so far taken place — could turn the public against Pakistan's government at a time when its popularity is already low. Critics would surely paint Pakistani leader Asif Ali Zardari, who met with Obama in New York on Thursday, as an American lackey.

____

Chris Brummitt is the Associated Press bureau chief in Islamabad. AP writer Munir Ahmad contributed to this report.

Source: AP News

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September 25, 2009

Taliban Ambush in Pakistan Kills 9 Militiamen

By SALMAN MASOOD
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/25/world/asia/25pstan.html?_r=1&ref=world


People unloaded dead and injured victims of a militant attack at a local hospital in Bannu, Pakistan on Thursday

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — At least nine people, including an influential tribal elder, were killed Thursday morning by Taliban militants while traveling in northwestern Pakistan, government officials said.

Six others were wounded in the attacks, some of them critically, the officials said.

The victims — Malik Sultan, the tribal elder, and other men from the Jani Khel tribe — were part of one of the local self-defense militias that have sprung up over the past few months in restive areas of northwest Pakistan.

These militias, sometimes called lashkars, have been encouraged and armed by the government to resist Taliban incursions.

“The Taliban had threatened them against entering into any agreement with the government,” said Mawaz Khan Afridi, a Bannu District official, in a telephone interview.

The attacks took place in the Khawara Khel area of Bannu District, about 120 miles southwest of Peshawar, the capital of North-West Frontier Province. Bannu also is adjacent to North Waziristan, a stronghold of the Taliban.

Security forces had already begun an operation against Taliban militants in the area, and three Taliban militants were later killed.

Taliban militants have repeatedly attacked their opponents, including tribal elders, with lethal accuracy to quell any dissent.

Also Thursday, two members of another anti-Taliban militia were killed in an attack in the Swat Valley, The Associated Press reported.

The victims were asleep when the attack occurred, and a local mayor told The A.P. that several of the attackers were killed in a gun battle with security guards.

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South Asia
Sep 26, 2009 
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/KI26Df01.html 
 
Pakistan pushed to its limits


By Syed Saleem Shahzad

NEW YORK - United States President Barack Obama, co-chairing with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown the first summit meeting of the Friends of Democratic Pakistan, on Thursday announced that the US Senate had unanimously passed the Kerry-Lugar bill, authorizing US$1.5 billion in economic assistance for Pakistan annually over five years.

This amount, which is triple what Pakistan has been receiving, in addition to the several billions of dollars Pakistan receives annually in other military and non-military aid.

In response, it appears that Pakistan's political leaders have consented to military operations against militants and al-Qaeda in the North Waziristan and South Waziristan tribal areas on the border with Afghanistan.

Although the military has recently conducted successful operations in other trouble spots in the tribal areas, such as Swat, Islamabad has been reluctant to commit fully to engagement in the Waziristans, where the Pakistan Taliban and their al-Qaeda allies have a strong foothold and from where militants fuel the insurgency in Afghanistan.

Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mehmud Qureshi, flanked by Richard Holbrooke, the US special envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan, and Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, Britain's special envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan, gave a briefing after the summit meeting.

He said the gathering, which included 26 countries and international organizations, had unanimously declared military operations against the Taliban in the Malakand area a success, adding that Pakistan would follow a similar model in the tribal areas - a clear hint that the government had agreed to send armed forces into the Waziristans.

While Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari is ostensibly in New York for the United Nations General Assembly gathering, on the sidelines and in other interaction he has been well feted by the Obama administration as the person who can best further US interests in Pakistan and Afghanistan - as much as Pakistan's army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kiani does and former president General Pervez Musharraf did.

Zardari will also be pleased with the Friends of Democratic Pakistan meeting, at which members acknowledged Pakistan's economic difficulties and institutions like the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank vowed to immediately undertake water and energy related projects for the country.

"If you go through the history of US aid, you would not find a parallel of such an aid package as the Kerry-Lugar bill," Holbrooke said, saying it was "a very important step forward". The bill points to Pakistan as a critical friend and ally and notes the profound sacrifices it has made in the "war on terror". The money provided by the bill will be used to fund a wide range of development projects, from schools and infrastructure to the judicial system.

The language of the version that was approved in the senate - it is now to go before the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives where it is expected to pass easily - was less stringent than the original. Specific references to India as well as to Abdul Qadeer Khan, the disgraced "father" of Pakistan's nuclear weapons program, were eliminated.

The earlier version had wanted to make Pakistan give access to Khan and other scientists involved in nuclear proliferation. It also had urged Pakistan to coordinate its activities against terrorism with India. In the revised version, it only wants Pakistan to liaise with neighboring countries.

Earlier, General Stanley McChrystal, the top US military commander for Afghanistan, said in a report that India's political and economic influence was increasing in Afghanistan, including significant development efforts and financial investment.

The report said the Afghan government was perceived by Islamabad to be pro-Indian. "While Indian activities largely benefit the Afghan people, increasing Indian influence in Afghanistan is likely to exacerbate regional tensions and encourage Pakistani counter-measures in Afghanistan or India," said the report.

The bill also contains a waiver for every condition that is imposed on Pakistan, but now this can be granted by the secretary of state, not the president as earlier proposed. None of the conditions can set in motion automatic sanctions.

The bill underlines the importance of supporting Pakistan's national security needs in its ongoing counter-insurgency battle and in improving its border security, while requiring the government to demonstrate a sustained effort to combat extremist groups and show progress towards defeating them.

Foreign Minister Qureshi told Asia Times Online that a detailed package for the capacity enhancement of the Pakistani armed forces had been agreed on. However, he clarified that it only involved modern counter-insurgency equipment and training programs.

Pakistan has got what it wanted. The onus now rests with Zardari to deliver. This will be the most difficult and dangerous part, to take on the Taliban and al-Qaeda inside Pakistan in a struggle in which there are no guarantees of success.

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

 
 
 

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Friday, September 25, 2009
13:29 Mecca time, 10:29 GMT 
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2009/09/200992594640383864.html
 
News CENTRAL/S. ASIA  
 
Deaths in Pakistan drone attack 
 
   
 
At least 12 people have been killed in a US drone attack in Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal region on the border with Afghanistan, intelligence sources say.

The attack on what was a suspected Taliban hideout took place just before midnight on Thursday in Dandy Darpa Khel village, near the town of Mir Ali.

"According to the information we have received from our local sources, 12 people died in the strike while several were injured," the intelligence official said.

"Almost all of those killed were Taliban."

Targeted attack

Another intelligence official said the target was a building in which a group led by Jalaluddin Haqqani, an Afghan Taliban commander whose men have previously conducted cross-border attacks on US-led troops in Afghanistan.

US drone attacks have intensified along the Afghan-Pakistan border in recent months, killing dozens of al-Qaeda-linked and Taliban leaders and fighters.

A similar attack killed Baitullah Mehsud, the chief of the Pakistani Taliban, in early August.

Earlier this month, Najmiddin Jalolov, a leader of an Uzbek armed group that is closely associated with al-Qaeda, died in a missile attack, also near Mir Ali.

Pakistan has officially condemned US drone attacks, saying they violate the country's sovereignty.
 
 Source: Agencies 
 
 
 
 
 

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Saturday, September 26, 2009
14:12 Mecca time, 11:12 GMT 
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2009/09/200992625241814252.html
 
News CENTRAL/S. ASIA 
 
Blasts hit Pakistan's northwest 
 
http://english.aljazeera.net/mritems/Images//2009/9/26/200992611156596797_5.jpg
In both Bannu and Peshawar, security personnel are believed to have been the attackers' target [AFP]

 
At least 10 people have been killed and dozens more wounded in two separate car-bomb attacks in northwestern Pakistan.

The first attack on Saturday morning targeted a police station in the district of Bannu.

The toll is expected to rise as several buildings collapsed from the force of the blast, according to police on Saturday.

Muhammad Farid, the police deputy superintendent, confirmed that 40 people were injured, including 24 policemen, after the attacker drove his explosive-laden car into their building in the Mardan area on the outskirts of Bannu town.

Bannu is the gateway to North Waziristan, a tribal region on the Afghan border and an area believed to contain al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters.

Civilians were also caught in the blast.

Al Jazeera's Kamal Hyder, reporting from outside Islamabad, said that Tehreek-e-Taliban group had claimed responsibility for the bombing.

The group has threatened to unleash bigger attacks on government targets to avenge the killing of Baitullah Mehsud, their leader, in a US drone attack.

Second attack

In Saturday's second attack, a car bomb went off in a commercial district in the main northwestern city of Peshawar, the capital of NWFP, killing four people and wounding dozens more.

Confirming the death toll, Shaukat Khan, a local police officer, explained that an attacker detonated the device outside a bank affiliated with the army in Peshawar.

Our correspondent said that while the attacks were deadly, they could have been much worse.

"This attack came at the end of a long weekend holiday," he said.

http://english.aljazeera.net/mritems/Images//2009/9/26/200992611119707797_5.jpg
 
The two attacks were carried out within hours of each other and caused extensive damage 
"Shops were not open and far fewer people were killed than would otherwise have been the case."

The car bombing came a day after a US unmanned drone aircraft killed 12 suspected Afghan fighters, according to Pakistani intelligence officials.

The missile attack took place in Dandy Darpa Khel village, near the town of Mir Ali, adjoining North Waziristan.

"All those killed were Afghans; men who had come from Logar," a villager said referring to an Afghan province south of the capital, Kabul.

Pakistan has officially condemned US drone attacks, saying they violate the country's sovereignty.
 
 Source: Al Jazeera and agencies 
 
 
 
 
 

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Pakistanis look on U.S. Embassy plans with suspicion


Washington says it wants to expand its Islamabad facility so it can better distribute the increased aid it plans to give. But in a nation deeply distrustful of the U.S., conspiracy theories abound.
By Alex Rodriguez

September 25, 2009
http://freedomsyndicate.com/fair0000/latimes00021.html

Reporting from Islamabad, Pakistan

Ask Pakistanis why the United States needs to expand its embassy here in the capital and you'll hear a host of alarming answers.

It's a cover for the construction of a Guantanamo-like prison.

It's part of a U.S. attempt to colonize Pakistan.

It's the first step in a covert plan to take over Pakistan's nuclear weapons.

What you don't hear is the reason cited by American officials: the need for a bigger embassy operation to better manage the increased financial aid that Washington will be channeling to Pakistan in coming months.

The United States is planning to send Pakistan $1.5 billion in nonmilitary aid annually for the next five years, triple what it sends now. The Senate approved the aid package Thursday as President Obama was meeting with Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari in New York. The House is expected to follow suit in coming days.

Embassy officials have held briefings for Pakistani reporters to put out the word that the expansion is all about distributing funds more efficiently. And Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, says the aid illustrates long-term support for Pakistan.

The message is having trouble getting through.

The embassy expansion plans have spawned conspiracy theories that course through newspapers and blogs, reflecting the deep suspicion Pakistanis harbor about Washington.

An editorial in the Nation, a leading English-language daily, fretted that "there seems to be something fishy" in the embassy plan, theorizing that the United States' actual goal is to entrench itself in Central Asia to lay claim to its vast energy resources.

A petition filed in Pakistan's Supreme Court this month labels the expansion an attempt at colonization. Pakistani lawyer Zafarullah Khan, the petition's author, calls it the means by which the U.S. will "bring us down on our knees."

In an interview last week in a Pakistani newspaper, former intelligence chief Hamid Gul said the expansion masked Washington's real aim: to seize the country's nuclear arsenal.

"What I fear is that they really want to go for Pakistan's nuclear assets," Gul said. "They are inching closer to those nuclear assets day by day."

There has also been growing speculation in the Pakistani news media that the American security firm once known as Blackwater is secretly operating in Pakistan. Blackwater, now known as Xe, made headlines during the Iraq conflict when its employees were accused of unprovoked killings of civilians.

"It is absolutely wrong," Interior Minister Rehman Malik said this month. "Blackwater is not operating in Pakistan. We will not allow anybody to operate from here."

But the anti-American anger that smolders in Pakistan doesn't need much to catch fire.

According to a recent survey by the Pew Research Center, nearly two-thirds of Pakistanis view the U.S. as an enemy. Only 9% see it as a partner.

Many Pakistanis think the U.S. has turned their country into a battleground for the "war on terror" while ignoring the nation's economic and social ills.

They also believe that Washington's policy in the region has always placed Pakistan second to its archenemy and next-door neighbor, India.

And they still resent the U.S. for nurturing Pervez Musharraf, whose near-decade of authoritarian rule in Pakistan was bolstered by strong support from President George W. Bush.

"The anti-Americanism that exists in Pakistan is because of flawed U.S. policy toward this country," former Foreign Secretary Shamshad Ahmad said. "We had eight years of dictatorship, and the U.S. tried to keep him in power."

American assurances of benign intent face stiff resistance.

"The people we are bringing here have skills to provide the assistance that the government of Pakistan is asking for," Jacob Lew, U.S. deputy secretary of State for management and resources, said at a briefing with Western journalists. "It's not soldiers; it's not bringing in a military presence."

In previous years, the bulk of U.S. aid was military-related. The Obama administration, however, wants to devote a larger share to shoring up Pakistan's infrastructure and economy to tackle the social and economic conditions that lay the groundwork for Taliban and Al Qaeda militancy.

The increased aid will target primary and secondary schools, healthcare, job creation and the aging electricity grid. Daily power shutdowns this summer crippled the economy and triggered massive protests.

To handle this, Washington wants to revamp its embassy compound within the heavily guarded diplomatic enclave on the eastern end of Islamabad and acquire 18 additional acres, mostly for staff housing. It plans to add 400 workers to its staff of 250 posted employees and 200 temporary employees.

Pakistani resentment has its roots in how Washington treated Pakistan after the Soviet Union withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989.

While Moscow occupied Afghanistan, the U.S. and Pakistan teamed up to support anti-Soviet fighters. But when the Soviets left, the U.S. abandoned the region.

Then, in the 1990s, the U.S. enacted the Pressler Amendment, which barred most economic and military aid unless Pakistan could show it did not possess nuclear weapons.

"One of the reasons that the Pakistanis have concerns about us is that we walked away from them twice," Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said at a Washington briefing in August. "I think it's going to take us some time to rebuild confidence with the Pakistani people that we are a long-term friend and ally of Pakistan."

Bush was deeply unpopular here, and Pakistanis don't see much difference in Obama's policies. In the Pew survey, only 13% said they had confidence in Obama's handling of global affairs.

Obama's decision to increase the number of drone aircraft attacks on Al Qaeda and Taliban hide-outs in the tribal areas along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan have deepened that perception. Pakistanis view the missions as a violation of their country's sovereignty and a major source of civilian casualties.

The Pakistani government has stepped in to try to help debunk assertions being made about the new embassy, such as a claim that as many as 1,000 Marines are being deployed as part of the expansion.

"We know that no U.S. Marine is coming to Islamabad," Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi recently told reporters.

During a recent visit to Pakistan, Lew, the U.S. deputy secretary of State, appeared on a local TV channel to try to dispel rumors about the expansion and convince Pakistanis that the embassy needs to get bigger simply to ensure the country gets the additional aid Washington has promised.

"It will be a source of disappointment here and at home if we are able to get money appropriated and then there's a long delay before there's any impact," Lew told Western journalists. "But the reality is there's a bottleneck here, and we need to expand the embassy to address the bottleneck."

Many Pakistanis are unconvinced.

"That just doesn't sound plausible," said former army chief Gen. Mirza Aslam Beg, who has been critical of the embassy plans. "People can see the game that's being played."

Copyright 2009 Los Angeles Times

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At Least 16 Dead, 150 Wounded in Pakistan Bombings

Saturday , September 26, 2009
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,555920,00.html


Sept. 26: Pakistani volunteers help injured victims of homicide bombing upon their arrival at a local hospital for treatment.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan  — Two homicide car bombs killed 16 people and wounded about 150 others in separate attacks in northwestern Pakistan on Saturday, just days after the Taliban warned homicide strikes were coming if the military pressed forward with an offensive. A third bomb injured four in the restive region.

Pakistan's mountainous, lawless northwest region along the Afghan border — where the government holds little control — is a favored area for insurgents to plan attacks on U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan, as well as on Pakistani security forces and government workers.

A homicide bomb was detonated outside a bank affiliated with the army in Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province, police said. Ten people were killed and 79 wounded, said Sahibzada Mohammed Anis, a senior government official.

An Associated Press reporter at the scene saw vehicles overturned by the blast, buildings gutted and glass scattered everywhere. Most of the casualties were customers in the bank or people loitering outside.

"We saw body parts in the car and our investigation confirms it was a suicide attack," said Malik Shafqat, a police official in Peshawar. He said the attacker also threw a hand grenade before detonating the bomb but it didn't explode.

A homicide blast also hit a police station in the province's Bannu district earlier Saturday, killing at least six people and wounding nearly 70 others, police said. The Taliban claimed responsibility for that attack.

A third bomb exploded in the northern town of Gilgit, wounding four people, Pakistan's SAMA news channel quoted local police Chief Ali Sher as saying. He described it as a "low-intensity bomb" but provided no further details.

The latest strikes came two days after the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan said it was ready to stage more homicide attacks in the region after it was ousted from the Swat Valley in July by an army offensive.

Qari Hussain Mehsud — known for training Taliban homicide bombers — warned of more attacks in an AP interview at a secret location in North Waziristan on Thursday, just hours before U.S. missiles hit the area and killed 12 people.

"We have enough suicide bombers and they are asking me to let them sacrifice their lives in the name of Islam, but we will send suicide bombers only if the government acts against us," he said in the interview.

The U.S. has fired dozens of missiles from unmanned drones to take out top Taliban and Al Qaeda leaders in the northwest over the past year. Although Pakistan routinely protests the strikes, it is widely believed to secretly cooperate with them.

A CIA drone attack felled former Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud on Aug. 5.

Qari Hussain Mehsud phoned the AP to claim responsibility for the police station attack Saturday. "We have broken the silence as the government did not understand the pause in attacks, and from now there will be an increase in the number of suicide bombings," he said.

He urged civilians to stay away from police and security force installations.

Taliban attacks surged in the region last week. Militants ambushed a convoy of prominent anti-Taliban tribal elders in Bannu district on Thursday, spraying their cars with gunfire and killing nine people. Pakistani authorities have urged tribal elders to speak out against the Taliban, and in turn the militants have killed scores of local leaders.

North West Frontier Province's information minister, Mian Iftikhar Hussain, said the attacks would not deter the government from fighting militants. He said security forces had arrested 40 would-be homicide bombers in recent months in the northwest, thwarting efforts by the Taliban to create chaos.

"It is not only our duty ... to fight this menace of terrorism, it is a responsibility of the whole world," Hussain told reporters in Peshawar. "We are on the front line today, that's why our blood is being shed."

[bigron]

Monday, September 28, 2009
10:50 Mecca time, 07:50 GMT 
 http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2009/09/20099285597706764.html
 
News CENTRAL/S. ASIA 
 
Tribesmen killed in Pakistan attack  
 

Bannu district has been witness to Taliban violence in recent days  [AFP]
 
Four pro-government tribesmen have been killed by a suicide bomber in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province.

The attacker rammed a car packed with explosives into a vehicle carrying Abdul Hakeem, a Pashtun tribal leader, in Bannu district on Monday.

"It was a suicide attack. The bomber sitting in a car smashed his car into the vehicle of Abdul Hakeem," Iqbal Khan, a police official, said.

Khan said Hakeem and three other tribesmen were killed instantly while a woman passing by was also wounded.

Taliban stronghold

Bannu district borders the tribal region of North Waziristan, which along with South Waziristan is a Taliban stronghold.


In depth :

 Profile: Pakistan Taliban
 Witness: Pakistan in crisis
 Inside Story: Pakistan's military
 Riz Khan: The battle for the soul of Pakistan
++
 
Hakeem had been instrumental in allowing Pakistani security forces to pass through the area and gain access to North Waziristan.

Pakistan's military has vowed to wipe out Taliban fighters from the northwest, and has been carrying out operations against them in the region over the last few months.

The Taliban has threatened to ramp up suicide attacks in Pakistan if the military continues with the offensive.

At least 11 people were killed in an attack in the main town of Bannu district on Saturday. The Taliban took responsibility for the attack, saying they were avenging the death of their leader Baitullah Mehsud who was killed in a US drone attack in August.

Four tribal elders who had been active in raising a government-sponsored militia against fighters in Bannu were shot dead by Taliban on September 24, police said.
 
 Source: Agencies 
 
 
 
 
 

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US Threatening to Attack Major Pakistani City of Quetta

Will US Drone Strikes Move From Rural Pakistan to Baloch Capital?

Posted By Jason Ditz On September 27, 2009 @ 6:15 pm



A move that has long been debated by the Obama Administration could soon become reality, as officials say the State Department delivered an ultimatum to Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari during his visit last week cautioning that if he doesn’t move against the Taliban forces in the city of Quetta the US will.

Such attacks would be a major escalation of the unpopular US drone strikes against the nation, so far confined to the area in and around the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). Quetta, a city of three quarters of a million people, is the capital of Pakistan’s largest province, Balochistan.

The Pakistani government has been reluctant to move against the city, which has reportedly become a hiding point for much of the former Afghan government, citing both the lack of threat posed to the Pakistani government and the lack of intelligence provided by the US about exactly where to act.

In fact, the attack on Quetta may turn out to be even more than lobbing a few missiles, as reportedly officials have discussed sending ground forces into the town to “capture or kill” any Taliban they find.

Already struggling to keep the populace calm amid growing resentment of the US role in the nation, if American missiles or worse, American ground forces start pouring into a major Pakistani city to fight people who the government says aren’t posing a threat to Pakistan, all bets are likely off.

Vice President Joe Biden, among others, have been pressing for an escalation of drone strikes as a way of “stabilizing” Pakistan. It seems, however, that there are few things that would be more destabilizing than attacking Quetta.

Related Stories
•August 25, 2009 -- Top Jundallah Figure Says US Ordered Attacks
•July 29, 2009 -- US Warned Pakistan on Helmand Spillover
•July 22, 2009 -- Pakistan Fears US Afghan Offensive Will Spill Into Balochistan

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

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

URL to article: http://news.antiwar.com/2009/09/27/us-threatening-to-attack-major-pakistani-city-of-quetta/

[bigron]

Pakistan blasts shatter hopes as toll rises to 27

By Faris Ali Faris Ali
Sun Sep 27, 10:36 am ET
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090927/india_nm/india427388


Army soldiers guard the site of a bomb blast in Peshawar September 26, 2009

 
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) – The death from two suicide bomb attacks in Pakistan rose to 27 on Sunday, a day after the blasts shattered hopes that the militants were a spent force following the killing of their leader last month.

A suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden truck into a police station in the town of Bannu, the gateway to the North Waziristan militant region on the Afghan border, early on Saturday.

Hours later, another attacker blew up a car in the centre of Peshawar, the main city in the northwest.

Pakistani Taliban militants claimed responsibility for both blasts and vowed more.

Authorities initially said 16 people had been killed in all, but the toll rose to 27 on Sunday with the discovery of more bodies in the debris of the Bannu police station and the death of some wounded, police said.

Pakistani forces made significant gains against the militants in an offensive launched in the Swat valley, northwest of Islamabad, in late April.

The offensive helped allay international fears about the stability of the nuclear-armed U.S. ally after militants made advances towards the capital, Islamabad.

Pakistani officials said the Taliban were in disarray and racked by infighting after the killing of their chief, Baitullah Mehsud, in a missile strike by a pilotless U.S. aircraft in early August.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik said the back of the Pakistani Taliban had been broken but the Saturday blasts appeared to have dispelled such optimism.

"Anybody who thought that the Taliban were close to defeat or on the run had better think again," the News newspaper said in an editorial.

It is not just Pakistani Taliban factions that the government has to contend with but also Afghan Taliban factions operating out of its lawless northwest and creating havoc across the border in Afghanistan.

"NO CHOICE"

General Stanley McChrystal, the commander of U.S and NATO forces in Afghanistan, said in an assessment leaked to the media last week the Afghan insurgency was supported from Pakistan and Afghanistan needed Pakistani action.

Security analyst Mahmood Shah, a retired brigadier and former security chief in the ethnic Pashtun lands along the Afghan border, said the militants had demonstrated they can strike back.

"They were in disarray but it appears they've organised themselves and they're in a position to strike back," he said.

Shah said al Qaeda could have organised the latest attacks, hoping to keep the security forces on the back foot and buy time for their Pakistani Taliban allies.

The attacks are also likely to increase calls for the army to go into the Pakistani Taliban's South Waziristan stronghold on the Afghan border where thousands of militants are based.

The government in May ordered the military to go on the offensive in South Waziristan. Since then, regular air strikes have been launched but no ground assault has been carried out.

A senior army commander said in August it would take months to prepare for a ground offensive in South Waziristan, partly because the army lacked equipment including helicopters and night-vision equipment.

The English-language Dawn newspaper said the country faced a long battle. "We have no choice but to take the war against the rebels to its logical conclusion," it said in an editorial.

(Additional reporting by Kamran Haider and Adil Khan; Writing by Kamran Haider; Editing by Robert Birsel)

[bigron]

Hundreds Flee Terrorist Stronghold in Pakistan

Monday , September 28, 2009
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,556562,00.html


Sept. 28: Local residents stand beside the wreckage of a vehicle at the site of a homicide bombing in Baka Khel area near Bannu, Pakistan.

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan — Pakistani soldiers traded rocket and mortar fire with militants on Monday as hundreds of civilians fled the Taliban and Al Qaeda's main stronghold in the northwest. A homicide car bomber killed five people including a prominent tribal elder.

Pakistan's civilian government has vowed to root out militants in the northwest, many of whom allegedly use the mountainous tribal areas along the border as a base for attacks on American and NATO troops in Afghanistan. Pakistan jets have bombed targets in Waziristan in recent months, but the military has said it would launch full-scale ground operations at the "appropriate" time.

Residents said the military and the Taliban had urged them to flee South Waziristan in recent days.

Sumsam Bukhari, the junior information minister, told reporters the launch of a major military operation in Waziristan was not discussed at a Cabinet meeting Monday. "This is all speculative, and there is no such thing planned yet," he said.

In recent days, there's been an increase in the number of people leaving the Makeen and Ladha areas of South Waziristan, according to residents, though many have been fleeing to the relative safety of nearby towns for months.

"There is bombing everywhere," said Iqbal Mehsud, a resident of Ladha who was in a pickup truck loaded with luggage, two goats, a cow and a dog. "There is a shortage of rations. Most of our people have left. It is now like a ghost area."

Tribal elder Maulana Hassamuddin said locals had been "asked by security people and the political administration" to leave. Resident Amir Ullah said the Taliban had also urged locals to flee. He said he and his friends rented a vehicle to take them to the town of Bannu for more than double the normal price.

Western countries were cheered by a military offensive in the nearby Swat Valley earlier this year. Pakistan's army has moved into the Waziristan region before, however, only to be beaten into a stalemate.

Analysts have questioned whether the army has enough troops, or the will, to take on the militants in Waziristan, where they are well established and heavily armed.

Meanwhile, a homicide car bomber attacked a vehicle in Baka Khel, which lies close to Waziristan. Five people were killed, including Maulvi Abdul Hakim, a tribal leader who was instrumental in allowing security forces to pass through the area and gain access to the North Waziristan tribal region, a paramilitary official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to media. Police officer Iqbal Marwat put the death toll at four.

Also Monday, one Pakistani soldier was killed and seven others critically wounded in a militant rocket attack on an army camp in the northwest, two intelligence officials said on condition of anonymity, citing policy. The military responded by firing heavy artillery on the Razmak, Ladha and Makeen areas, killing 18 insurgents, they said.

In the Orakzai region, helicopter gunships pounded militant locations, killing 10 insurgents and wounding several others in three villages, said two officials also on condition of anonymity because they were allowed to release the information.

Orakzai is the base of Hakimullah Mehsud — the new chief of the Pakistani Taliban who was appointed after the killing of his predecessor, Baitullah Mehsud, in an Aug. 5 missile strike.

Media access to region is severely restricted, making it nearly impossible to independently verify official accounts.

Pakistan's efforts to fight the insurgency have met with Taliban retaliation. On Saturday, 22 people were killed in the northwest not far from the tribal belt, including 11 in Peshawar, the region's main city.

The two attacks came just days after a top Taliban militant, Qari Hussain Mehsud, warned of increasing suicide attacks if the military did not stop operations.

The Taliban took responsibility for one of Saturday's bombings.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for Monday's car bombing.

[bigron]

Exclusive. Pakistan On The Edge of The Precipice

By Shahid R. Siddiqi. Axis of Logic

http://www.uruknet.info/index.php?p=m58407&hd=&size=1&l=e

September 29, 2009



                           
 

"American interference in Pakistan’s internal affairs reaches such an ominous level that the country seems to be run by an American under secretary of state or envoy, Richard Holbrook, rather than its elected representatives."

In recent years, American strategists have propagated the need to redraw political boundaries of Islamic states along ethnic lines. Driven by paranoia with resurgent Islam and their obsession to control this very important oil rich region, they seek to legitimize their actions by labeling them as effort to dispense justice for 'oppressed Muslim minorities’.

The underlying belief is that smaller entities would be easier to micromanage through puppet regimes, enabling them to contain militancy and squeeze into extinction Jehadi outfits by choking their funding.

This 'remapping’ involves splintering the Muslim world and creating sovereign states of Balochistan, Kurdistan and Arab Shia State by carving out and unifying Pakistani and Iranian Baluchistan territories to create Free Balochistan; unifying Iranian, Iraqi and Turkish Kurdistan to create Greater Kurdistan and slicing off Eastern Saudi Arabia to unite it with Southern Iraq to create Shia Arab State. It is no coincidence that these territories hold the bulk of the world oil and host anti-imperialist movements.

"The global interests of the United States have routinely propelled it into adversarial engagement with the Muslims, losing their hearts and minds."
Brilliant thinking! This promises them a picture-perfect Muslim world, tailored to their needs. The difficulty, however, is that their undertaking is too ambitious, out of sync with reality and unachievable. And this mindset is bound to pitch Christianity and Judaism versus Islam, a horrifying scenario.

The global interests of the United States have routinely propelled it into adversarial engagement with the Muslims, losing their hearts and minds. More often than not, Israeli interests define U.S. foreign policy direction, particularly where their interests are congruent. Both the US and Israel have eyes on the oil reserves of Caspian Sea and Central Asia, they need an energy pipeline project transiting through Afghanistan and Pakistan’s Balochistan and desperately want a wider security shield for Israel, which involves denuclearizing Pakistan.

Israel’s interest to de-fang Pakistan’s nuclear ability dates back to mid-eighties when it attempted to bomb Kahuta facility in collusion with the Indians – a mission that was aborted when an alert Pakistan Air Force took to the skies. Now in Afghanistan they have a perfect opportunity to collude with the United States and India to take out Pakistan’s nuclear assets.

Pakistan’s denuclearization is important to India too. Pakistan must be trimmed to size to enable India to achieve undisputed regional leadership. This is also in the interest of the United States: as a dominant regional power - India, could counter China which grows stronger by the day and will eventually challenge American expansionism into Asia. Together with Russia, China has already forged an alliance, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, to squeeze the U.S. military bases out of Central Asia. For the United States, an independent Balochistan will also be very important. This could easily be used to pressurize Iran and serve as energy corridor to Central Asia. 

"President Obama’s insistence to stay on in Afghanistan and proceed with a massive military buildup is apparently not without a sister motive."
Pakistan is, therefore, up for reconfiguration in this chess game of geo-strategic interests. The United States is no longer interested in Pakistan as a unified entity. President Obama’s insistence to stay on in Afghanistan and proceed with a massive military buildup is apparently not without a sister motive. Afghanistan not only provides a safe haven and logistical support for espionage and subversion against Pakistan, its puppet government has also joined the bandwagon by creating its own Research & Analysis Milli Afghanistan (RAMA) with Indian help and tasked it to destabilize Pakistan. 
 
In his 2006 treatise 'Blood Borders’, Col. Ralph Peters, a Pentagon advisor, advocated the incorporation of NWFP into Afghanistan and creation of a sovereign 'Free Balochistan’, carved out of Baloch areas of Pakistan and Iran. His grounds: 'ethnic affinity'.

Pakistani Balochistan is estimated to hold 25.1 trillion cft. of gas and 6 trillion barrels of oil, in addition to gold and copper deposits. It borders Iran, Afghanistan, Central Asia and China and has a strategically located port that can provide to Central Asian countries and China an opening to Arabian Sea.

In his article, Drawn and Quartered (NY Times) Selig Harrison of the Center of International Policy, Washington, forecasts Pakistan’s break up into three sovereign entities along ethnic lines: Pashtunistan (comprising Pashtuns of NWFP and Afghanistan), Free Baluchistan (a federation comprising Sindh and Baluchistan) and Pakistan (comprising the "nuclear armed Punjabi rump state"). He attributes Pakistan’s balkanization to rising nationalist sentiment in the Pashtun belt and growing disillusionment of the Pashtuns, Balochis and Sindhis with Punjab and Pakistan. 

Both Col. Peters and Harrison essentially sing the same tune and present a doctrine that seems to broadly reflect America’s long term objectives. 

In his article The Destabilization of Pakistan, Michel Chossudovsky, Director of Montreal-based, Center for Research on Globalization (author of America’s "War on Terrorism") warns: "Washington's foreign policy course is to actively promote the political fragmentation and balkanization of Pakistan as a nation". He states:

"The U.S. course consists of fomenting social, ethnic and factional divisions and political fragmentation, including the territorial breakup of Pakistan. This course of action is also dictated by U.S. war plans in relation to both Iran and Afghanistan."

" ... a joint espionage network of CIA, Mossad, MI-6 and RAW operates in Afghanistan to destabilize Pakistan and other regional countries.

This cannot be dismissed as conspiracy theory. There are pointers that corroborate Chossudovsky’s thesis. The Indo-US Strategic Partnership Deal "is in place that aims at containing and curbing the rising military and economic power of China and the increasing threat of Islamic extremism in the region". Reports indicate that a joint espionage network of CIA, Mossad, MI-6 and RAW operates in Afghanistan to destabilize Pakistan and other regional countries. Evidence has emerged that dissidents from Pakistan are being trained at Sarobi and Kandahar for missions inside NWFP, whereas bases at Lashkargah and Nawah are being used to train dissidents from Balochistan for missions in support of Balochistan Liberation Army.

With this backdrop, view other developments: Benazir returns after a deal with the US and is eliminated. Musharraf is shown the door. Zardari, a man of most dubious credentials, is catapulted into the presidency as Benazir’s replacement and assumes all powers. Economic downturn bankrupts the country and creates social chaos. The federal and provincial governments are completely immobilized. Corruption hits the sky. And the people begin to lose faith in the federation.

Then as a sequence to Bombay fiasco the army is made to run from pole to post, insurgencies erupt in the FATA, North and South Waziristan and Malakand Division by Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan - a rogue outfit aided and supported from Afghanistan and which is a known protégé of the occupiers of Afghanistan, the NWFP gets destabilized, the Army gets bogged down in quelling insurgencies and maintaining internal security, Baloch separatists get energized and the people of Pakistan are massacred and terrorized.

American interference in Pakistan’s internal affairs reaches such an ominous level that the country seems to be run by an American under secretary of state or envoy, Richard Holbrook, rather than its elected representatives. The parliament ceases to be of any consequence. Pakistan suddenly finds itself in turmoil, the like of which it has not experienced before.

Even the man on the street fears that the US-Israeli-Indian nexus is out to deprive Pakistan of its nuclear assets and dismember it in the process, if necessary. The media is screaming that the NWFP and Balochistan are targets of subversion. The consensus is that the American show of support and financial assistance is hogwash and that the PPP government is a pawn in this game.

There is a pervasive fear that Pakistan has reached the edge of the precipice. 

"The alternative is for all political parties to immediately come together ..."
Unfortunately Pakistan’s political elite does not seem to take note of this. It has historically lacked foresight and comprehension of the bigger picture. The politicians ceaselessly pursue self-aggrandizement and their preoccupation is the game of personal power politics, which makes them oblivious to the disaster in waiting. Their camp followers keep singing their praises and preach: 'every thing will be alright once we come to power’. To expect such political pygmies to turn the tide would amount to committing suicide.

Can Pakistan be pulled back from the edge of the precipice? The answer is yes. But to deal with these extraordinary circumstances Pakistan needs leadership with extraordinary ability. Such leadership is just not there.

The alternative is for all political parties to immediately come together, shun differences and find a way of jointly and sincerely managing the country - call it a national government if you please. Its first priority should be to avert the collapse that is otherwise imminent. It must end foreign interference and pursue a national agenda instead of petty personal agendas. The issues are critical and many and must be identified and resolved with the collective wisdom of politicians, armed forces, technocrats and the intelligentsia. Fundamental constitutional, political, economic and social reforms are inevitable to give the country a fresh start. After a pre-specified time frame of say five years, a political government could return through fair elections.

This seems to be the solution of last resort. And if this opportunity is lost those at the helm and those who watch silently will be considered ex-post-facto accomplices in the dismemberment of Pakistan.



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


 

Shahid R. Siddiqi lives in Baltimore MD and in Pakistan. He served in the Pakistan Air Force and later joined the corporate sector with which he has remained associated until recently in Pakistan, the US and South Africa where he has held senior positions. Simultaneously, he has worked as a journalist and a broadcaster. He was the Bureau Chief of Pakistan & Gulf Economist, an English weekly published from Karachi (Pakistan).

Siddiqi now writes on political and geopolitical subjects and his articles are carried by the daily newspapers such as Dawn and The Nation (Pakistan) and online publications such as Axis of Logic, Foreign Policy Journal, Middle East Times and Globalia.

© 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!

http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/Article_57043.shtml

[Satyagraha]

The Decapitation of Pakistan by its own Military!
http://www.uruknet.info/index.php?p=m58405&hd=&size=1&l=e
By Zahir Ebrahim



September 29, 2009

Who really killed Benazir Bhutto? I mean the prime-movers? Well let's read it in her own lucid words, which have now been augmented, almost two years later, with the Pakistan's Army Chief of Staff's belated disclosures of September 21, 2009. Why belated? Well, please see these unpublished letters to many Pakistani newspaper editors on their repeatedly perpetuating the fiction of Who Killed Benazir Bhutto in cahoots with the 'hectoring hegemons' and their agents!

The American agenda for Pakistan is not a state-secret. Rather, it is only thinly disguised as perpetually fighting the "insurgents" in a lifetime of war, the World War IV. Whereas, in reality, both the "insurgency", and the "counter-insurgency", are entirely designed and fabricated in the USA as part of the evolving tactics of Hegelian Dialectics. They are enacted on the ground by various two-bit errand boys and expert trigger pullers. The already well-known existence of black-ops assassination squads in Pakistan/Afghanistan, known to the local peoples for years as the real prime-movers behind the heinous local terrorist acts, belatedly confirmed by NYT,WP, and NYT, in August 2009. See these two December 2008 reports on the Mumbai terrorist Act as reportedly orchestrated by Ali Baba from his perch in the Hindu Kush. The arrival of the black-ops in the region is not recent, albeit the public disclosures might be.

Starting in the immediate aftermath of 911, and perhaps even earlier, Pakistan may well have become the largest deployment region for the CIA in modern times, both covert (unknown to Pakistani government and working to destabilize Pakistan), and overt (with Pakistani military's blessings ostensibly fighting the "insurgents", Bin Laden, Al-Qaaeda). And since Jundallah got launched to destabilize Iran, Baluchistan along with the Pak-Afghan regions have been awash with black-ops, and obviously of course, also with officially recognized US soldiers manning American military bases on Pakistani soil. But these soldiers of freedom were rarely spotted in the streets of major cities before. The following video report therefore portends of ominous whirlwinds engulfing Pakistan:

The events today are so transparent that many a retired con-fession artist are getting in on the act to claim the flag of patriotism. Going for hajj after having eaten 900 mice is the favorite pastime of Pakistani praetorian guards. I am only waiting for any sitting Pakistani General to rise to that occasion, if it's not already too late! But I am afraid it probably is – see here, here, here, and here. The decapitation of Pakistan by Pakistan's finest. The shameful and criminal dislocation of up to 2.4 million civilians in May of this year was rightly described as "anexodus that is beyond biblical".



Just as from the USSR's point of view in yesteryears, the "insurgency" against them in Afghanistan was foreign inculcated, entirely fabricated in the USA (as we know today but held as a closely guarded secret then), which thusly forced the Soviets to apply counter-insurgency measures, and subsequently, an outright invasion of Afghanistan (read Brzezinski's own statements in Saving Pakistan cited below, and watch Brzezinski speak in the video clip below devilishly crafting the "insurgency" for the Russians on the Pak-Afghan border), the so called "insurgency" in Pakistan is also similarly fabricated in the USA through covert intervention and black-ops.

The Pakistan military, not too well-versed in political science or Hegelian Dialectics based Machiavellian state-craft (I presume), is similarly being compelled to take real counter-insurgency measures like the Soviets. Aided and abetted of course by high ranking traitors from within their own ranks, and by their foreign paymasters' militaries (NATO, Blackwater now renamed Xe, and other un-named foreign divisions operating within Pakistan which I call "Jundallah-plusplus" to distinguish them from "Jundallah" which is apparently targeting Iran from Pakistani soil). The simple fact that Pakistan is supplying all the drinking water (bottled by Nestle), and full logistics channel for war-making supplies to NATO in Afghanistan is telling in and of itself. Pakistan is equally responsible for destroying the Afghan society, the Afghan people, and there is no less spilled-blood of innocent Afghani Muslims upon Pakistan's hands over the past 30 years, than upon the United States'.

Pakistani military helped destroy Afghanistan, and they are now helping to destroy Pakistan. No Pakistani civilian I know, including myself, ever authorized the Pakistani military to destroy Afghanistan, or aid the United States in its own hegemonic plans on the Grand Chessboard. Do you know anyone? So from where did they get their mandate? I would rather have clean drinking water in my tap, damn it! What good are the bloody nukes when they become the raison d'être for our very destruction in this manner without ever firing a single missile at the drones that are killing our own peoples?

It gives me no pleasure to repeatedly rehearse this footnote to history. What is not already obvious to the Pakistanis? It must surely still occur to many a reasonable military man serving with genuine zeal and honor in the real pivot of power in Pakistan that the end is drawing near. What are they doing idly watching the battle of their lives from the sidelines – when they are not shooting or displacing their own peoples that is? As is quoted from a Dawn newspaper column in the very first document below, "THIS article poses two questions: on the day after US/Nato forces invade and occupy some of Balochistan and Waziristan, what will we say we should have done, and why aren’t we doing it now? Is this far-fetched? ... One hopes that a small group of patriotic officers in Pakistan are also asking themselves what can be done, and why aren’t we doing it now."

If one is genuinely confused about who is the enemy, whether it's the Taliban, Al-Qaeeda, Islamism, Militant Islam, unknown foreign fighters, foreign intelligence agencies, India, Israel, or the United States, please spend the next couple of hours studying the following documents. Write to me if you are still uncertain about who is behind "tickling" the so called "insurgents" into existence, and why that is necessary in order to fight World War IV with our blood:


The Day After – American Agenda for Pakistan: http://print-humanbeingsfirst.blogspot.com/2009/03/day-after-dawn-mar212009.html

Press Release Statement on Pakistan May 26, 2009: "What is not already obvious here?" http://pressreleases-humanbeingsfirst.blogspot.com/2009/05/pr-statement-on-pakistan-may262009.html

The Final Waging Global War By Way of Deception Report May 23 2009 http://print-humanbeingsfirst.blogspot.com/2009/05/digst-fin-and-state-terrorism-may2009.html

Letter to Hamid Mir, Geo TV, May 15, 2009: Stupid or Shill? http://humanbeingsfirst.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/letter-to-hamid-mir-geo-tv-may152009-stupid-or-shill.pdf

Between Imperial Mobilization and Islamofascism: Pakistani Negroes to the rescue http://print-humanbeingsfirst.blogspot.com/2009/04/between-imperialism-islamofascism.html

Letter to Editor, Dawn, The Prized Negroes of Pakistan Speak Out http://print-humanbeingsfirst.blogspot.com/2009/03/letter-dawn-prized-negroes-speakout.html

Letter to Editor: Three Points of Agreement with the Distinguished Physicist Pervez Hoodbhoy http://print-humanbeingsfirst.blogspot.com/2009/03/letter-3points-of-agreement-hoodbhoy.html

OPEN LETTER TO AITZAZ AHSAN http://print-humanbeingsfirst.blogspot.com/2009/03/open-letter-aitzaz-ahsan-mar162009.html

Letter to Editor: The interlude between puppetshows is the only reality! http://print-humanbeingsfirst.blogspot.com/2009/02/lett-interlude-puppetshows-only-reality.html

Press Release September 20, 2008 (Between Mercenaries and Patsies): What's to be Done? http://pressreleases-humanbeingsfirst.blogspot.com/2008/09/pr-whats-to-be-done-pakistan-sept222008.html

Happy-Happy Zardari, September 2008: A monologue on Hope and Voluntary Servitude  http://humanbeingsfirst.blogspot.com/2008/09/happy-happy-zardari-voluntary-servitude.html

Profound Clairvoyance or Blatant Obviousness? February 2008 http://print-humanbeingsfirst.blogspot.com/2008/02/profound-clairvoyance.html

Saving Pakistan from Synthetic 'Terror Central' July 2007: Orchestration of 'Lal Masjid' – a precursor to 'shock and awe'?  http://print-humanbeingsfirst.blogspot.com/2007/12/saving-pakistan-from-synthetic-terror.html

'War on Terror' is not about 'Islamofascism' – Please get with the real agenda you people! April 2003 http://print-humanbeingsfirst.blogspot.com/2009/03/war-on-terror-not-about-islamofascism.html

(Video) - After all, "God is on your side" http://sites.google.com/site/humanbeingsfirst/download-pdf/god_is_on_your_side.wmv?attredirects=0
-###-

By Zahir Ebrahim, © "The Decapitation of Pakistan by its own Military!" http://print-humanbeingsfirst.blogspot.com:80/2009/09/decapitation-of-pakistan.html | Project Humanbeingsfirst.org

The Plebeian antidote to Hectoring Hegemons Home is: http://www.humanbeingsfirst.org/

Please leave your comments for any document here.
http://comments-humanbeingsfirst.blogspot.com/

[bigron]

US war on Pakistan

The Nation, Pakistan

                             
 

September 29, 2009
http://www.uruknet.info/index.php?p=m58424&hd=&size=1&l=e

THE US design to destabilize Pakistan is becoming clearer by the day, even for the most blinkered Pakistani. As the US continues to be stalemated in Afghanistan, it has sought to move the centre of gravity of the "war on terror" to Pakistan. Initially it was assumed that this shift would be restricted to FATA, but now it is evident that the US is seeking to engulf the whole of Pakistan in an asymmetric conflict, which will eventually pit the people against the state, especially the military. Reports of a US plan to target Balochistan, including its capital city Quetta are, in all likelihood, correct - more so because the US has not issued even a half-hearted denial on this count. Pakistani officials are admitting that the US has sought to extend drone attacks to Balochistan, especially Quetta. Given the present government's proclivity to accede to all US demands, it should not come as a surprise to soon see these drone attacks taking place.

However, for Pakistan such a development will be suicidal, given the prevailing instability in Balochistan and the continuing lack of trust between the Baloch people and the federation. Worse still, Quetta is an urban centre with a concentration of population. It is also a major military station with the Command and Staff College as well as other formations present in the heart of the city. How far is our military prepared to accommodate the US desire to undermine the country's sovereignty? After all, the drones will push the separatists closer to their goal, while the US will think it can move towards its concept of Greater Balochistan through the break up of Pakistan and Iran. Unfortunately for the US, the Iranian leadership shows no signs of falling prey to such US designs, unlike their Pakistani counterparts.





 

[bigron]

Suspected U.S. drone attacks kill 12 in Pakistan

Reuters

http://www.uruknet.info/index.php?p=m58413&hd=&size=1&l=e

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Sept 29, 2009 (Reuters) - Two suspected U.S. drone aircraft killed 12 militants, including foreigners, in missile strikes on Tuesday in Pakistan's Waziristan region on the Afghan border, intelligence officials and residents said.

The latest missile strike was the third in northwest Pakistan in less than 24 hours and came as the U.S. administration was weighing options for how to deal with an intensifying Taliban insurgency in neighbouring Afghanistan.

Northwestern ethnic Pashtun tribal lands on the Afghan border, including North and South Waziristan, are sanctuaries for al Qaeda and Taliban militants.

On Tuesday evening, a pilotless drone aircraft fired a missile at the house of an Afghan militant, who Pakistani intelligence officials said was linked to Afghan Taliban commander Jalaluddin Haqqani, in the North Waziristan region.

"It was an accurate strike. Seven bodies have been recovered from the debris. Most of them were Afghan militants," said a Pakistani intelligence official in the region, who declined to be identified.

He said six militants were wounded and militants had sealed off the area and were not letting anybody approach.

Hours earlier, two missiles fired by another drone aircraft struck a Pakistani Taliban commander's house in South Waziristan, killing three Pakistanis and two Uzbeks militants, another intelligence official said.

REINFORCEMENT REQUEST

Late on Monday, a drone fired a missile at the house of a Taliban supporter in the North Waziristan but it missed and caused no casualties, Pakistani security agents in the region said.

The United States stepped up its attacks by pilotless drones on militants in northwestern Pakistani border sanctuaries last year as the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan intensified.

There have been nearly 60 such strikes since the beginning of 2008, including one in early August that killed Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud.

About 500 people, most of them militants, have been killed in the strikes since early last year, according to a tally of reports from Pakistani security officials and residents.

Pakistan officially objects to the drone strikes, saying they violate its sovereignty and the civilian casualties they sometimes inflict inflame public anger.

U.S. officials say the strikes are carried out under an agreement with Islamabad that allows Pakistani leaders to decry the attacks in public.

U.S. President Barack Obama is considering a request from the the U.S. commander of foreign forces in Afghanistan for more U.S. troops to deal with an intensifying insurgency there.

The commander, General Stanley McChrystal, said in an assessment leaked to the media last week the Afghan insurgency was supported from Pakistan and Afghanistan needed Pakistani action.





 

[Satyagraha]

US war on Pakistan

The Nation, Pakistan

                              
 

September 29, 2009
http://www.uruknet.info/index.php?p=m58424&hd=&size=1&l=e

THE US design to destabilize Pakistan is becoming clearer by the day, even for the most blinkered Pakistani. As the US continues to be stalemated in Afghanistan, it has sought to move the centre of gravity of the "war on terror" to Pakistan. Initially it was assumed that this shift would be restricted to FATA, but now it is evident that the US is seeking to engulf the whole of Pakistan in an asymmetric conflict, which will eventually pit the people against the state, especially the military. Reports of a US plan to target Balochistan, including its capital city Quetta are, in all likelihood, correct - more so because the US has not issued even a half-hearted denial on this count. Pakistani officials are admitting that the US has sought to extend drone attacks to Balochistan, especially Quetta. Given the present government's proclivity to accede to all US demands, it should not come as a surprise to soon see these drone attacks taking place.

However, for Pakistan such a development will be suicidal, given the prevailing instability in Balochistan and the continuing lack of trust between the Baloch people and the federation. Worse still, Quetta is an urban centre with a concentration of population. It is also a major military station with the Command and Staff College as well as other formations present in the heart of the city. How far is our military prepared to accommodate the US desire to undermine the country's sovereignty? After all, the drones will push the separatists closer to their goal, while the US will think it can move towards its concept of Greater Balochistan through the break up of Pakistan and Iran. Unfortunately for the US, the Iranian leadership shows no signs of falling prey to such US designs, unlike their Pakistani counterparts.

We saw this handwriting on the wall earlier this summer when the US Marines landed in Balochistan - presumably for training drills. Next time you see a group of Marines in a training drill in your country (!!!!!) you can be sure they're getting ready for an occupation. Then the good people of Islamabad 'noticed' the 12-foot fences topped with concertina wire around residential homes in their neighborhoods... "hey, what's this outside my kitchen window?"... and they didn't miss all that good press about the Luau's in the embassy in Kabul.  I think even the most comatose of Pakistanis can see what's happening. Unfortunately they have an absolutely idiotic president (you know, the guy with Benazir's photographed permanently affixed behind his shoulder to 'remind' the Pakistani's that he's sincere - give me a break), who is on his knees before anyone who can help him get money out of Pakistan and into banks in Switzerland, the Caymans.... oh dear; a new tranche of IMF funding; quick -off to Dubai.

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And now Quetta

The News International

http://www.uruknet.info/index.php?p=m58445&hd=&size=1&l=e

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

A terrible notion has been put forward by a British newspaper. It suggests officials in Washington may be planning drone strikes on Quetta – to target key militants who they believe are based there. The story suggests this idea was discussed with the Pakistani team that has been visiting the US. It has been met at home with shock. The spectre of aerial strikes over a major city is simply unthinkable. Perhaps this is a result of Islamabad's failure to oppose the Predator strikes in our tribal areas. It is a well-established fact, for all the official denials, that the flights that have brought death to some militants – but also many innocent people – where tacitly backed by successive governments. According to reports in the western media, there was an agreement to make a lot of noise but do nothing in more concrete terms to stop the unmanned aircraft. It is this that seems to have led to the new and still more audacious proposal to take out targets in a heavily populated area.

Our interior minister has denied the presence of Afghan Taliban leadership, including Mullah Omar, in Quetta. The problem is that the government has little credibility. We must also ask what it has done itself to track down key militant figures who many believe remain in Pakistan. Had our own security forces apprehended some of them, the case for drone attacks might have been considerably weakened. Pakistan's request that they be carried out as joint operations is in fact an acknowledgement that they have been successful. The strike that killed Baitullah Mehsud is a prime example of this. But the expanded use of drones presents an enormous risk to all of us. Some intelligence insiders say the Taliban have been deliberately moving leaders to cities to try and keep them safe. By doing so they put all of us at greater risk. The US must be told there can be no drone strikes over heavily populated areas. Pakistan must voice the strongest opposition to this and dissuade Washington from finalizing a strategy for which the people of the country would never forgive it and indeed their own government.




 

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Nine killed in U.S. drone strike in NW Pakistan 
 
 
www.chinaview.cn  2009-09-30 17:16:43     
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-09/30/content_12136709.htm


    ISLAMABAD, Sept. 30 (Xinhua) -- Nine people were killed and several others injured in United States drone strike Wednesday in northwest Pakistan's tribal agency, local TV channels reported.

    A U.S. drone fired two missiles in North Waziristan tribal area, leaving nine people dead, the private TV Express reported.

    A vehicle of the extremists has been targeted by U.S. drone missile in North Waziristan area of Norak, a village on main road in the region, according to GEO News.

    It was the fourth drone attack in Waziristan region in two days. In three drone strikes on Tuesday, 19 persons were killed.

    Pakistani Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani Wednesday said Pakistan has convinced the United States and the International community that the drone attacks have proved counterproductive and this policy should be reviewed, the private NNI news agency reported.

    Talking to newsmen, he said Pakistan is of the view that drone technology should be provided to it so that it could action against the terrorists on credible information.

    The U.S has carried out six drone strikes in North Waziristan this month, killing around 50 people, according to locals.

    The U.S. drones regularly hit hideouts of the militants in the Pakistani tribal region, which Washington considers as the center of Taliban and al-Qaeda remnants. Pakistan opposes the U.S. strikes inside the country's tribal regions and seeks the drone technology. But the U.S. does not accept Islamabad's request.

    It was reported that the White House is considering using more counter-terror strikes by unmanned spy planes and sending in more special operations forces in Pakistan amid its doubts about adding troops in Afghanistan.
 
 
Editor: Lin Liyu 

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Multiple US Missile Strikes Kill 26 in Waziristan

Afghans, Arabs and Uzbeks Said Killed in Flurry of Attacks

by Jason Ditz, September 29, 2009
Last updated 9/30 2:10 PM EST
http://news.antiwar.com/2009/09/29/at-least-17-killed-in-us-drone-attacks-on-waziristan/



US drones have launched a flurry of attacks over the past 24 hours, one in South Waziristan and at least three others in North Waziristan in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), killing at least 18 people and injuring an unknown number of others.

The first attack, in South Waziristan Agency, came against the home of a man believed to have ties to Hakimullah Mehsud, who depending on which Pakistani government official you believe was either killed in a clash with a rival member of the Tehreek-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) or is the current leader of the TTP, having replaced Baitullah Mehsud. At least six were killed in the attack. Some of those killed were identified as Uzbek militants.

At least 12 others were killed in the second attack, when US drones fired at least four missiles on a home north of Miram Shah. Officials say all those killed in this attack were believed to be Afghans, and assume that they were in some way related to the Haqqani network. A third attack on a vehicle near Mir Ali killed eight, while the toll from a fourth attack was not readily available.

The latest attacks were the first since Friday, when a US drone attacked a compound also believed to be linked to the Haqqani faction. The US is reported threatening to escalate attacks across northern Pakistan, including potentially into the major city of Quetta.

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Balochistan Chief Minister: US Drone Attacks Could Hamper Supplies to NATO Troops
Posted By Jason Ditz On September 30, 2009 @ 6:18 pm

Aslam Raisani, the chief minister of Pakistan’s Balochistan Province, cautioned the US against launching drone strikes against the province, saying that they could jeopardize US interests in the region and might imperil the flow of supplies to NATO forces in Afghanistan.

Minister Raisani has similarly spoken out against proposed attacks on his province in the past, insisting repeatedly that the Taliban leadership is not in Balochistan and the so-called “Quetta Shura” simply does not exist.

The US issued an ultimatum to Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari last week demanding that he move against the “shura,” though they provided no information about exactly where the shura could be found. Officials say the US might launch not only drone strikes against Quetta, but might send ground forces into the Baloch capital as well.

Though Pakistan has privately endorsed US attacks against the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, they have vowed to block any attacks on Quetta, and a US move against the nation’s largest province could have an enormously destabilizing effect.

Related Stories
•September 28, 2009 -- Pakistan Vows to Block US Attack on Quetta
•March 17, 2009 -- Obama Urged to Widen Drone Strikes
•September 27, 2009 -- US Threatening to Attack Major Pakistani City of Quetta

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

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

URL to article: http://news.antiwar.com/2009/09/30/balochistan-chief-minister-us-drone-attacks-could-hamper-supplies-to-nato-troops/

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A new kind of justice in Pakistan's Swat Valley

Military offensive gives way to a new kind of justice in Pakistan's Swat Valley

NAHAL TOOSI and ZARAR KHAN
AP News
http://wire.antiwar.com/2009/09/30/a-new-kind-of-justice-in-pakistans-swat-valley/
Sep 30, 2009 14:16 EST

Courts are back in session in Pakistan's Swat Valley after a three-month hiatus because of an army offensive against Taliban militants. How well the judiciary performs may be crucial in ensuring that the insurgents do not return.

The Taliban gained sympathizers in Swat partly by exploiting long-standing grievances with the slow and corrupt judicial system, in which judges allowed proceedings to drag on indefinitely while lawyers milked more fees.

The government hopes to do things differently this time.

Judges are now using new legal regulations that promise quicker justice and conformance to Islamic law — rules that were introduced as part of a peace deal struck with militants in February. But legal officials said that did not mean judges would be handing down floggings and executions — the kind of punishments favored by the Taliban.

"It is a newly born child," Shah Jehan Khan Akhunzada, a white-haired judge, said of the revived judiciary while sitting in his wood-paneled office Tuesday in the court complex in Mingora, the valley's main town. "Give this child a chance to grow up."

In one worrying sign, courts are already struggling to process nearly 1,000 cases against militants.

The army began its offensive in Swat and surrounding districts in April after the Taliban violated the peace deal and moved into new territory just 60 miles (100 kilometers) from the capital, Islamabad. Disputes over how to implement the law — and whether the Taliban would enforce it — also helped unravel the peace pact.

The army has claimed to have killed more than 1,800 insurgents in the one-time tourist resort and taken back much of it from militant control. The military declared Mingora and other major cities cleared in early June, when the court hiatus began. But clashes and suicide attacks still occasionally occur and there are fears many of the militants escaped and could one day fight again.

The legal system introduced in the valley through the February deal had been promised for years to Swatis, even before the Taliban began spreading their influence in the region in 2007.

Those involved in cases were optimistic about the new system.

Zuhad Malook Khan, who is accused of murder, has been in custody since April 2008. He sat on a wooden bench in chains next to a police officer. Witnesses were recording statements against him under the gaze of the judge.

Under the previous system, there was no telling how long it would take to try Khan. The new regulations stipulate a verdict must be reached within four months, said prosecutor Abdus Salam.

"I am hoping a decision will be made even before that," Salam said.

Saidur Rehman, 65, said he and his brothers have battled over land in a dispute dating to 1984. He was told to show up on Oct. 6 to lay out his case. "I have hope for these courts and that justice will be done in my favor and this long, horrifying nightmare will end," he said.

Since mid-August, lower-level judges have headed back to work in most of Swat and surrounding districts, and at least 500 new civil and criminal cases have been filed, lawyers and officials said. Higher level appeals courts have yet to start functioning.

The regulation's main points involve setting time limits on cases — parties can face fines for not showing up — while changing the titles of judges and courts to conform with Islamic norms. Judges, for instance, are now called qazis.

Decisions must conform with Islamic law. By that, legal advocates say, it is referring to the existing Pakistan penal code and Constitution, which already stipulate that no Pakistani law can run counter to the teachings of the Muslim faith.

Since the Taliban are no longer in control of Swat, they won't get to dictate how to interpret or apply the law, and thus the courts will function like the rest of the country, lawyers and judges said.

"The militants were illiterate in terms of Islam and worldly affairs," said Aftab Alam, who heads a local lawyer's association. "People were interested in getting shorter, quicker justice. Now the courts in Swat will move faster than the whole country."

But plenty of obstacles remain to achieving a viable, just legal system in Swat — not least that police are still rebuilding, the government has yet to fully establish its authority and military operations continue.

"There is nothing resembling due process in terms of law enforcement in Swat right now," said Ali Hasan Dayan, senior South Asia researcher for Human Rights Watch.

When asked if it was possible to dispense proper justice when strict timeframes and deadlines loom, district public prosecutor Said Naeem merely replied: "Why not? This is our duty."

The new regulation has given residents enough hope in the judicial system to turn to the courts for help.

Ayub Khan, 55, was among the some 2 million residents of Swat and surrounding districts who was temporarily displaced during the military operation.

The shopkeeper said authorities had yet to give him the compensation and rations he and the other refugees were promised.

He showed up hoping he could persuade a judge to issue an order in his favor.

"If this system is not in place to give justice to poor people like me, then what is the point?" he asked.

Source: AP News

[Satyagraha]

US Plans Will Lead To A Pakistani Civil War

*A pro-US fifth column inside Pakistan is now talking about southern Punjab
as the hub of Al-Qaeda just as it earlier pointed to Balochistan in the same
manner.  For those who had failed to connect the dots to the US grand design
of targeting Pakistan a year ago, it should be easier today. There are
covert US operatives now spread across the length and breadth of Pakistan;
drone attacks have increased in frequency since Obama took office; aid
packages are demanding unacceptable conditions; the military is being pushed
on all fronts, with India increasing its deployments along the western
border with Pakistan and aiding low intensity conflict through Afghanistan.*

*Tuesday, 29 September 2009. *
WWW.AHMEDQURAISHI.COM <http://www.ahmedquraishi.com/>

 ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—The US design to destabilize Pakistan is becoming
clearer by the day, even for the most blinkered Pakistani.


 As the US continues to be stalemated in Afghanistan, it has sought to move
the centre of gravity of the “war on terror” to Pakistan.  Initially it was
assumed that this shift would be restricted to FATA, but now it is evident
that the US is seeking to engulf the whole of Pakistan in an asymmetric
conflict, which will eventually pit the people against the state, especially
the military.


 Reports of a US plan to target Balochistan, including its capital city
Quetta are, in all likelihood, correct – more so because the US has not
issued even a half-hearted denial on this count.


Pakistani officials are admitting that the US has sought to extend drone
attacks to Balochistan, especially Quetta.  Given the present government’s
proclivity to accede to all US demands, it should not come as a surprise to
soon see these drone attacks taking place.


However, for Pakistan such a development will be suicidal, given the
prevailing instability in Balochistan and the continuing lack of trust
between the Pakistani Baloch people and the Pakistani federation.  Worse
still, Quetta is an urban centre with a concentration of population.  It is
also a major military station with the Command and Staff College as well as
other formations present in the heart of the city.


 How far is our military prepared to accommodate the US desire to undermine
the country’s sovereignty?


 After all, the drones will push the separatists closer to their goal, while
the US will think it can move towards its concept of Greater Balochistan
through the breakup of Pakistan and Iran.


 Unfortunately for the US, the Iranian leadership shows no signs of falling
prey to such US designs, unlike their Pakistani counterparts.


 Again, if today drones are allowed to target an expanded area of the
country, what will stop the US from expanding into southern Punjab next?
With receding red lines, the whole country could be up for targeting by the
US in its growing despair over the inevitable failure in Afghanistan.


 There are many fifth columnists in our midst now talking of southern Punjab
as the hub of Al-Qaeda just as earlier they pointed to Balochistan in the
same manner. For those who had failed to connect the dots to the US grand
design of targeting Pakistan a year ago, it should be easier today. There
are covert US operatives now spread across the length and breadth of
Pakistan; drone attacks have increased in frequency since Obama took office;
aid packages are demanding unacceptable conditionalities; the military is
being pushed on all fronts, with India increasing its deployments along the
western border with Pakistan and aiding low intensity conflict through
Afghanistan, and the US demanding we withdraw more troops from the eastern
border to FATA and begin a premature conventional operation there; and the
US-dominated IMF and World Bank pushing through threatening price hikes and
taking charge of policy making in Balochistan and NWFP.


 *This editorial appeared today under the title, *US War On Pakistan*. *


*Also See:*


A US Counteroffensive In Pakistan
http://pakalert.wordpress.com/2009/09/29/2009/09/28/a-us-counteroffen...

The U.S. Invades and Occupies Pakistan
http://www.pakalertpress.com/2009/08/30/the-u-s-invades-and-occupies-...

Picture Alert: US Hummers Enter Pakistan, Undercover American Soldiers
In Islamabad
http://pakalert.wordpress.com/2009/09/29/2009/09/08/2009/08/31/pictur...

The Sneaking US Occupation Of
Islamabad
http://www.pakalertpress.com/2009/08/29/the-sneaking-us-occupation-of...

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Friday, October 02, 2009
13:24 Mecca time, 10:24 GMT
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2009/10/200910210157315238.html
   
News CENTRAL/S. ASIA 
 
Video shows 'Pakistan army abuse' 

 
The 10-minute video has been posted on Youtube and Facebook 
 
A video apparently showing Pakistani soldiers beating men detained in operations against the Taliban has surfaced on the internet.

The 10-minute video shows an army officer casually questioning four men in a building.

The officer then steps aside and soldiers move in, punching, kicking and whipping the suspects, who scream in pain.

The video has been posted on numerous video websites.

Major General Athar Abbas, a Pakistan army spokesman, on Friday said the army was investigating the alleged abuse, but declined to comment further.

Pakistan's poorly trained and underfunded security forces have been accused of human rights abuses before.

The independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said in an August report it had received "credible reports of numerous extrajudicial killings and reprisals carried out by security forces" in the Swat Valley since the area was retaken from Taliban control in July.

It was not clear where or when the video was shot, and its authenticity was impossible to verify.

'Ordered beatings'

In the video, one officer quizzes a man over whether his brother-in-law is an anti-government fighter.

http://english.aljazeera.net/mritems/Images//2009/10/2/2009102101051988965_3.jpg
Many of the men were first questioned before being dragged and kicked to the ground
 
The man says he does not know. The officer then signals for his deputies to begin attacking the suspect. He is punched, lashed with a leather rope and kicked repeatedly while on the ground.

He screams "Have mercy on me, oh God" in Pashto, the language of the
northwestern tribal areas close to the Afghan border where the Pakistan army is engaged in anti-Taliban offensives.

Two of the men who were beaten appeared to be in their 50s.

Under US pressure, the Pakistani army is fighting in several areas of the northwest, where al-Qaada and Taliban are strong.
 
 Source: Agencies