Recently in I'm so glad Pakistan is on our side Category

You attack and destroy a convoy of NATO supplies and material - What are you?

By epaminondas on December 7, 2008 7:46 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

You depend on those RPG's, AK's, and who knows, maybe even some licensed produced $35k Heckler & Koch MP5's. You have some mortars and katyusha like weapons, but heck, not today. And there you are on a typical suburban highway around a major city.

You shout 'allhu akbar' as you understandably slaughter the whites and others you find objectionable as you go about the business of god.
What are you?

A militant

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - Hordes of Pakistani militants set on fire 96 trucks carrying Humvees and military vehicles for Western forces in Afghanistan in a raid in the northwestern city of Peshawar on Sunday, police said.

Security guards said they were overpowered by more than 200 militants who attacked two terminals on Peshawar's ring road, where trucks carrying Humvees and other military vehicles were parked.

"It happened at around 2.30 a.m.. They fired rockets, hurled hand grenades and then set ablaze 96 trucks," senior police officer, Azeem Khan, told Reuters.

Most supplies, including fuel, for U.S. and NATO forces in landlocked Afghanistan are trucked through Pakistan, much of it the fabled Khyber Pass that runs through the mountains between Peshawar, capital of North-West Frontier Province and the border town of Torkham.

Khan said one private security guard was killed in an exchange of fire between police and militants.

"They were shouting Allah-o-Akbar (God is Great) and Down With America. They broke into the terminals after snatching guns from us," said Mohammad Rafiullah, security guard of a terminal.
Peshawar city police chief, Safwat Ghayyur, said the government planned to launch an operation against "miscreants" in near future.

On a more serious note, there is no mention of casualties, and certainly it would be welcome if there were none, but 200 militant with rockets, grenades and machine guns? They don't harm anyone? Maybe some people failed to fulfill their security responsiblilities? Maybe some security and intelligence questions need to be asked, IN PAKISTAN?

NAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

US Demands 4 ISI officials be named officially as terrorists ..INCLUDING the ex HEAD of ISI Hamid Gul. HOORAY !

By epaminondas on December 4, 2008 7:11 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Hamid Gul, you say?

On August 8, 2006, Al-Jazeera TV aired footage of a press conference with Gen. Hamid Gul. At the conference, Gul, who headed Pakistan's Inter-service Intelligence Directorate from 1987-89 and whom, according to the Washington Times, was termed Pakistan's "most dangerous man" by an internal CIA assessment, told reporters that "every Israeli leader has said that Pakistan is their number one enemy," and quoted Mel Gibson, stating that "the Jews caused all the wars."

TO VIEW THIS CLIP, VISIT: http://www.memritv.org/search.asp?ACT=S9&P1=1233 .

According to an August 7, 2006 UPI article, General Gul, who is "known for pro-Taliban and pro-Al-Qaeda views, told the media that the United States would attack Syria and Iran next October, and that Pakistan, with its nuclear arsenal, was the only Islamic country that could use its nuclear capability to defeat Israel's designs."

In a post-9/11 interview, Gul told Egypt's Al-Ahram Weekly that he "support[s] the implementation of Shari'a, and we must be governed by the rules of Allah." He also said, "The people who committed this crime [9/11] are inside America, and let me tell you that they are Israelis, not Muslims. Only Israelis can pull off a job like that..." Asked about whether he thought the U.S. authorities were aware of this, he said, "They are aware, but they are afraid of Israel's influence, which is why they are diverting attention to the outside."

Just search on this complete racist gavone's name for real good time.

ISLAMABAD: The US has given four names of former ISI officials, including Lt-Gen (retd) Hameed Gul, to the UN Security Council to put them on the list of international terrorists.

Government of Pakistan is aware of this move, which is considered here by some as part of an international conspiracy to target the ISI, whose reformation has already been sought by Washington.

The US embassy in Islamabad claims to be completely unaware of this move while the foreign office spokesman also did not come up with any explanation on the matter despite being approached on Tuesday.

However, Lt-Gen (retd) Hameed Gul confirmed to this correspondent that he was included in the list of those four or five former ISI officials whose names had been provided to the UN secretary-general by the US government to be included in the list of international terrorists.

Gul admitted that he had already met the foreign affairs secretary to discuss the issue. A Foreign Office source also told this correspondent that the issue had already been referred to the prime minister's office but despite the lapse of a few weeks, no decision had been taken by the government so far. It is not clear whether or not Islamabad wants to pursue intense lobbying to stop this thing to happen.

A diplomatic source in Washington, however, told this correspondent that it would not be easy for the United States to get all these names enlisted in the list of terrorists because it would require the consent of the all the five permanent members of the Security Council.

I don't care HOW hard this is. OK Suzanne Rice, you wanted that job, baby, YOU GOT IT
You want to demonstrate soft power? GOTO IT

Gul whines on...

Lt-Gen (retd) Hameed Gul, however, admitted that he was aware of the move but was not sure if the prime minister had taken a decision on the issue. Believing that this is a move to target the ISI, he warned if the government of Pakistan did not protect him and others on the recommended list of terrorists, he would directly write to the UN secretary-general.

He said the government should immediately move to protect the ISI from this indirect attack from Washington. He said the United States and some other Western nations were against him for the simple reason that he did not support their war on terror which, he said, was based on Washington's greed for energy.

He said the US and its allies in the war on terror had turned the world upside down and had made it far more dangerous than what it was before. He volunteered to present himself before any neutral enquiry commission. He said he also had the option to go to the country's court of law but hastily added that he did not have trust in Pakistan's judiciary.

When asked how he had come to know about this, he said, he was informed of this by a highly responsible person, who had personally seen the written US request.

Gee, you think this might mean that cooperating with the govt of Pakistan means that ISI knows all they know when they know it, and that the organizations we regard as terrorist know all they know when they know it?

He hoped the government would not show callousness towards its own individuals and institutions like the ISI which, he admitted, was the first line of the country's defence. Therefore, he must be protected from any external onslaught.

What an utter farce!
Time for India the USA and Israel, at the very least to form some kind of cooperative group against terrorism.

Crusaders, Jews, and polytheists !

Is that a wave I see in the distance?

By epaminondas on November 27, 2008 8:53 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Rockets hit NATO truck depot in Peshawar, Pakistan
PESHAWAR: Unidentified men on Wednesday fired three rockets that hit a terminal for trucks carrying supplies to NATO and United States troops in Afghanistan.

Neither of the rockets caused serious damage or any injuries, police officer Abdul Qadirwhich said.

Qadir said officers were not sure whether the truck terminal was the target of the attack. The rockets are normally fired into the city from hills on its outskirts some 10 kilometres away, AP reported.

Up to 75 percent of the supplies for Western forces in landlocked Afghanistan pass through Pakistan. Peshawar is a key stop for convoys en route to the Khyber Pass and on to Western Afghanistan.

Tales of Vietnam, circa 1961

Earlier this month, suspected Taliban hijacked several trucks near the Khyber Pass whose load included Humvees heading to the US-led coalition. Pakistan halted traffic along the road for several days while it arranged for armed troops to guard the slow-moving convoys. In a sign of its frustration, Washington has carried out a surge of missile attacks in the lawless area since August, killing dozens of militants but angering Pakistan's young government and many of its 170 million people.

Anyone who dreams this mess is not going to engulf Pakistan and cause chaos in a nuclear power is dreaming. Pakistan is Al Qaeda, the Taliban and the salafi/deobandi freaks shortcut to caliphate, and by result, world war.

Pakistan goes south? Was it ever North?

By epaminondas on October 7, 2008 8:14 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Subscrip Reqd ...Jamestown

Recent events in Pakistan have raised critical issues concerning the continuation of Pakistan's support for the U.S.-led war on terrorism in Afghanistan. Commencing with :

The enormous backlash in Pakistan in the aftermath of the raid by U.S. Special Forces on Angoori Ada in the tribal area of South Waziristan on September 3;
The disclosure by the New York Times that President Bush issued secret orders allowing U.S. Special Forces to undertake operations inside Pakistan without prior notice (New York Times, September 11);
The aggressive statements of several Pakistani leaders, the entire country has been gripped by a wave of anti-American sentiment which the country's top civilian and military leadership has also been quick to echo.
Add Mr. Obama's earlier stated policy desire

Even the terrorists seem to have recognized the weakness of the regime in Islamabad and have conveyed a powerful message to it with the recent attack on the Marriott Hotel located in the heart of Islamabad

Before all this, among those in this nation of ~170 million we in the USA were not too popular.

Jamestown reports:

The recent furor over aggressive U.S. unilateralism surfaced immediately after U.S. Special Forces undertook their first-ever operation on Pakistani soil inside South Waziristan. The September 3 "snatch-and-grab" raid by an elite US Navy SEAL team resulted in the death of nine to twenty individuals (Dawn, September 13).

Now what? While the Pakistan Government lodged an immediate and forceful protest with the United States over this violation of Pakistan's sovereignty, Pakistan's chief-of-staff, General Ashfaq Kayani, alluded to the implications of the cross-border raid by saying "such reckless actions only help the militants and further fuel the militancy in the area" (AP, September 11).

What was disturbing about the Special Forces incursion was the failure to provide any advance information by the U.S. military or government to their Pakistani counterparts.

Of course that would be because the USA has come to believe the army and ISI are, if not outright in sympathy or alliance with Islamists, totally penetrated with same, and therefore the advance warning would have the effect of forewarning

This was despite the fact that there were numerous military-to-military meetings in the preceding weeks, including visits by Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Michael Mullen to Pakistan and the secret August 27 "military summit" between Admiral Mullen and General Kayani aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln. In addition to these meetings, the regular established channels of communication between NATO / ISAF authorities and the Pakistan military were available to inform each other of any new developments or operations, but these were not brought into use.

General Kayani's discomfiture over having been kept in the dark even by those U.S. military commanders with whom he has been in regular contact was evident from his statements after the incident. While Admiral Mike Mullen was telling Congress that Pakistan had to be convinced to help "eliminate [the enemy's] safe havens," General Kayani was strongly criticizing the U.S. for leading NATO forces on a series of cross-border raids on militants within Pakistani territory, insisting there was no deal allowing foreign troops to conduct operations there. More explicitly, he reiterated that the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country would be defended at all costs and that no external force is allowed to conduct operations inside Pakistan (Daily Times [Islamabad], September 13; The News [Islamabad], September 13).

Absorb the following carefully:

The national clamor inside Pakistan for the government to respond to this act of overt and unwarranted aggression led to a short-lived decision to stop the movement of U.S. military supplies through Pakistan en route to Afghanistan. The raids were the major issue discussed at the 111th meeting of the Corps Commanders at General Headquarters in Rawalpindi on September 12-13.

The Pakistan Air Force (PAF) began mounting Combat Air Patrols (CAPs) over Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) for the first time since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. At the Government level, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani's National Security Advisor, Major General (retd) Mehmud Durrani, formally wrote to his U.S. counterpart Stephen Hadley on September 5, warning that Pakistan would not allow any foreign forces to operate on its territory. This candid warning was issued to the Bush administration a day before Asif Ali Zardari was elected as the President of Pakistan (The News, September 13).

On the same day the United States was remembering the events of 9/11, the Pakistan Army was ordered to retaliate against any action by foreign troops inside the country. The Pakistan ambassador to the United States received assurances that the U.S.-led Coalition forces in Afghanistan would not operate inside Pakistan or launch any strike. However, the same night, Coalition forces launched another missile attack on Miranshah, killing more than 12 people. The escalating attacks by Coalition forces inside Pakistan have forced policymakers in Islamabad to seriously revisit Pakistan's policy on the war on terror (The News, September 12).

An American government official quoted in a U.S. military newspaper described the Pakistani backlash to the September 3 Special Forces raid:

"[The raid was] an opportunity to see how the new Pakistani government reacted. If they didn't do anything, they were just kind of fairly passive, like Musharraf was ... then we felt like, okay, we can slowly up the ante, we can do maybe some more of these ops. But the backlash that happened, and especially the backlash in the diplomatic channels, was pretty severe... Once the Pakistanis started talking about closing down our supply routes, and actually demonstrated they could do it, once they started talking about shooting American helicopters, we obviously had to take seriously that maybe this [approach] was not going to be good enough. We can't sustain ourselves in Afghanistan without the Pakistani supply routes. At the end of the day, we had to not let our tactics get in the way of our strategy. ... As much as it may be good to get some of these bad guys, we can't do it at the expense of being able to sustain ourselves in Afghanistan, obviously" (Air Force Times, September 29).

Now what?

An editorial in Islamabad's The News best encapsulated the frustration of Pakistanis:

"There is an escalating sense of furious impotence among the ordinary people of Pakistan. Many - perhaps most - of them are strongly opposed to the spread of Talibanization and extremist influence across the country: people who might be described as 'moderates'. Many of them have no sympathy for the mullahs and their burning of girls' schools and their medieval mindset. But if you bomb a moderate sensibility often enough, it has a tendency to lose its sense of objectivity and to feel driven in the direction of extremism. If America bombs moderate sensibilities often enough, you may find that its actions are the best recruiting sergeant that the extremists ever had" (The News, September12).

In another development, tribal elders met in Miranshah and announced their whole-hearted support for the Pakistan Government in any action it takes to face up to attacks by U.S./ Coalition forces on Pakistani soil. While welcoming the presence of PAF combat aircraft, which reportedly led to an unmanned U.S. drone withdrawing into Afghanistan territory, these tribal leaders vowed to fight alongside the Pakistani forces against all foreigners. The tribal leaders threatened to go further: "If missile attacks and bombing of our houses and markets do not stop, a tribal lashkar will launch a counter-attack inside Afghanistan" (Dawn, September 13).

Other than the combat patrols being undertaken by the PAF to thwart any ingress by American Predator UAVs, Pakistani security forces fired in the air to discourage a group of U.S. soldiers from crossing the Pakistan - Afghanistan border on the night of September 14-15. Seven U.S. helicopter gunships and two troop-carrying Chinook helicopters landed in the Afghan province of Paktika near the Zohba mountain range. U.S. troops from the Chinooks then tried to cross the border. As they did so, Pakistani paramilitary troops fired into the air and the U.S. troops halted their approach. The firing lasted for several hours, local people evacuated their homes and tribesmen took up defensive positions in the mountains (BBC, September 15). The reaction of the tribesmen indicates the adoption of an aggressive U.S. policy could well widen the insurgency by uniting the tribesmen with the Taliban - something that General Kayani has also alluded to. The Pakistan Government downplayed the event, saying the firing from the Pakistani side was carried out by the local tribesmen and not by Pakistani security forces.

Therefore again we come back to what this blog has insisted on from the beginning ..namely, that the Pushtu/Pathan peoples represent enough of Pakistan that it is in fact the PEOPLES of the USA and the PEOPLES of Pakistan where the enmity really lies.

Plop that one right in the with the First Law of Russian Foreign Policy.

This is the Jamestown author's wishful conclusions:

Conclusion

The War on Terrorism consists of two separate battles: the first being waged by the United States and Coalition forces against the Taliban inside Afghanistan and the second being waged by the Pakistan military against the extremist militants who have made FATA their base of operations. In order to bring this war to a successful end, the efforts being expended on these two battles need to be coordinated and integrated, taking into consideration the apprehensions of both Pakistan and the United States while satisfying their respective policy objectives. Only then can this troubled, albeit necessary, alliance survive the test of time.

The United States must also take into account the fragility of Pakistan's democratic government in dealing with this situation and endeavor to strengthen rather than weaken it, since the failure of the nascent democratic dispensation in Islamabad could create an opening for the country's military to step in once again. This is completely undesirable since democracy in Pakistan would be put on the shelves for at least another decade if not more, leading to further instability and a possible failure of the country as a viable nation-state.

There may have been a time when the Pakistani army was western in outlook down to the bse levels, but we can be sure that ever since Zia ul Haq, it is an organization utterly penetrated by Islamists at heart, and that it intelligence sidekick, the ISI has goals in the end very little different from the Salafi and Deobandi freaks of Al Qaeda, and Maududi

Here we go, BBC:Shots fired in US-Pakistan clash

By epaminondas on September 26, 2008 11:45 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

The United States military says US and Afghan forces have exchanged gunfire with Pakistani troops across the border with Afghanistan.
A senior US military official says a five-minute skirmish broke out after Pakistani soldiers fired warning shots near two US helicopters.
No one was hurt in the incidents and the US maintains its troops did not cross the border from Afghanistan.
Cross-border action by US-led forces has angered Pakistan in recent weeks.

And it's clear that we (and NATO) are just NOT going to stop. Wonder if Obama will keep on keeping on? So am I. I wonder if Mr. Lehrer has that question prepared for tonight in case this debate goes off.

The latest incident took place along the Pakistani border with the eastern Afghan region of Khost, an area which is a hotbed of militant groups.
Forces from the US-led coalition and the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) patrol the frontier, but Pakistan has been angered by reported US operations across the border in pursuit of insurgents.
A BBC correspondent says the border between the two countries is very unclear and in effect is marked by a 3km-4km (2-2.5 mile) stretch of no-man's land.
Escorting troops
Nato said the helicopters - which belong to its Isaf mission - came under fire from a Pakistani checkpoint.
A US Central Command spokesman, Rear Admiral Greg Smith, said Pakistani soldiers at the checkpoint were observed firing on two US OH-58 Kiowa helicopters that had been covering a patrol of Afghan and US troops about a mile (1.6km) inside Afghanistan.
"The ground forces then fired into the hillside nearby that checkpoint, gained their attention, which worked," he said.
"Unfortunately, though, the [Pakistani] unit decided to shoot down a hillside at our ground forces. Our ground forces returned fire."

However, the Pakistani military gave a different account.
In a statement, commanders said troops fired warning shots at the helicopters when they strayed over the Pakistan border.
"When the helicopters passed over our border post and were well within Pakistani territory, our own security forces fired anticipatory warning shots," a statement said.
"On this, the helicopters returned fire and flew back."
In New York, Pakistan's new president gave another version of events when he said that Pakistan forces had fired "flares" to warn the helicopters they were near the border.

With no clear statements of policy from either side, this is not in the control of anyone except local commanders.

Later, in an address to the UN General Assembly, President Asif Ali Zardari referred to the cross-border tension when he said that his country could not allow its territory to "be violated by our friends".
An Isaf spokesman said he believed the incident was a misunderstanding, but he was certain the helicopters had been operating on the Afghan side of the border.
The BBC's Syed Shoaib Hasan, in Islamabad, says that the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan is very unclear.

Solution on the Pakistan Border ?

By epaminondas on September 24, 2008 10:33 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

StrategyPage:

AFGHANISTAN: Welcome To The Future

September 24, 2008: The government is negotiating with the Pakistani government to form joint Afghan/NATO/Pakistani teams to guard the border, and able to freely operate on both sides of the border.

What the Afghans want to do is eliminate the Pakistani border guards that side with the Taliban. Over the last few years, there have been dozens of incidents where the Pakistani border guards actively assisted the Taliban. This consisted of things like firing machine-guns at Afghan troops and border guards, to distract the Afghans while Taliban gunmen crossed into Afghanistan. A few times, the Pakistani troops even crossed into Afghanistan to help the Taliban.

In one case, Pakistani helicopters were seen landing in a Taliban base within Afghanistan, and delivered ammo and other supplies.

Now there's govt leadership in the war on terror !

What complicates this is the way Pakistani border guards are recruited (mainly from border tribes), the many opportunities to augment their income (aiding smugglers, bandits and drug gangs) and the dangers they have to deal with (threats against their families if they do not cooperate.)

The frontier has always been more of a business than a border. By getting more Pakistani soldiers on the border, working closely with NATO and Afghan troops, the Pakistani border guards can be induced to behave. Maybe.

If we can bail out corrupt unethical morons in Manhattan, I think we can help buy and enforce a solution here.

The U.S. military is working to gain great access to the Pakistan-Afghan border region

By epaminondas on September 9, 2008 8:44 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

GERTZ:

The U.S. military is working to gain great access to the Pakistan-Afghan border region where Al Qaida terrorists have been regrouping and setting up training and operations bases.
Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, held talks with Pakistani military and security leaders on an aircraft carrier in the Indian Ocean last week but declined to detail the substance of his talks. Mullen said the talks were about the "common security challenges that we face, particularly in the border regions."

Pakistan has denied access to the region by U.S. special operations commandos, except for a short time in the early 2000s and U.S. military leaders would like to conduct joint ground operations there in the terrorist stronghold.
Some U.S. air strikes have been carried out in the border regions, but U.S. officials say there is a need to get commandos on the ground to thwart the growth of the Al Qaida forces.

Subsequent to the meeting with Kiyani on the carrier, of course, US Special Forces raided Waziristan inside the Pkaistani borders, and prior to the swearing in of the new president of Pakistan (whose ruling coalition has already disintegrated), Palistan responded by cutting off all supplies to Afghanistan which as you can see from the map is cut off from the sea.

Mullen told reporters Aug. 28 the two sides "certainly talked about the complexity, the challenges that we have in the border area, the pressure that we believe needs to be brought there for lots of reasons, not the least of which is the effects it's having on the fight in Afghanistan."
Also attending the meeting on the carrier was Adm. Eric Olson, commander of the U.S. Special Operations Command, which is in charge of counterterrorism special forces.
Mullen said "there were no ultimatums" to the Paks about the border region, noting that "in my view, that doesn't work."

There are no good answers. Any Pakistani govt which allows access, will fall to more (popular as well) islamist forces. PERIOD. Any incursions like last week will also incur retaliation until we are seen as invaders. Perhaps the best outcome would be for an outgoing president to take the responsibility on himself and whack out anyone we can reach NOW.

Any takers?

Meanwhile, back in Mordor

By epaminondas on August 6, 2008 2:11 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

PAKISTAN'S FRONTIER CORPS ABANDON COLONIAL-ERA FORT TO TALIBAN

Pakistan's paramilitary Frontier Corps is pulling out of fortified positions in the Taliban hotbed of South Waziristan, including a 1930s-era colonial fort at Ladha that was the center of heavy fighting last January, when it came under attack by 250 to 300 insurgents in the largest of a series of recent assaults by tribesmen on the stronghold (Pakistan Times, January 12). 20 to 30 militants carrying rockets and small arms were killed in that attack, which was repulsed only through the use of artillery and mortars (PakTribune, January 19). Tribesmen have also made a habit of abducting soldiers stationed at the fort.

I am trying to envision a set of circumstances under which SOMEONE makes a habit of kidnapping american army personnel from a fort.

Rumors are now circulating in the region that the pullback is only a preliminary step in a large-scale offensive by NATO or Pakistan government forces (The News [Islamabad], August 1).

As if.....

The Ladha garrison of several hundred soldiers appears to be relocating to the town of Razmak in Northern Waziristan (The News, August 1). Smaller posts in the Saam region of South Waziristan were also being abandoned. Many of these posts were located in areas belonging to the Mahsud tribe, from which local Taliban leader Baitullah Mahsud hails.

Frontier Corps spokesmen cited difficulties in supplying Ladha Fort and a decision to transform the building into a hospital as reasons for pulling out the garrison. The latter reason has left some locals perplexed - a hospital was recently built only ten kilometers away but has never been fitted out with medical equipment or supplies. One elder told journalists that elders from several sections of the Mahsud tribe had been urged by government officials to demand a hospital in Ladha (The News, August 1). The Frontier Corps Inspector General, Major General Muhammad Alam Khattak, noted that the fort had lost its strategic importance after local people erected housing outside its walls, pointing out that "a tribal jirga (assembly)" had requested the fort be turned into a hospital (Daily Times, August 1). Addressing speculation that the fort was being turned over to the Taliban as part of a negotiated peace settlement with the new government in Islamabad, General Khattak would only say; "The fighting phase is over in this area, and now negotiations are being held with the people" (Gulf News, July 31).

In an optimistic vein, General Khattak suggested it would not matter if the Taliban seized the fort after it was turned into a medical facility, as local tribesmen would then rise up to expel the Taliban (HI Pakistan, July 28). A spokesman for the Tehrik-i-Taliban of Pakistan declared; "We will definitely capture all those posts vacated by the FC in Ladha and Saam" (The News, August 1).

The ISI and the people of the USA

By epaminondas on August 4, 2008 12:11 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

In the last week we have seen a spate of stories about our 'ally' Pakistan and their 'efforts' on our behalf in the war on terror, or more closely defined, our war on those who war on us for religious reasons.

Today there are questions about the reliability of the govt itself

Lets go to page one based mostly on Steve Coll's wonderful Ghost Wars, and George Crile's, Charlie Wilson's War.

In opposing the USSR in Afghanistan the USA directly aided Shah Massood, and at the insistence of Pakistan's ISI (Inter Service Intelligence agency) sent 50% of our cash aid thru their hands to aid others. They claim that the bulk went to Gulbuddin Hekmatyar

We don't know for sure.

What we do know is that after the USSR withdrew and the govt there collapsed, the ISI threw their weight behind a group being educated in refugee camp madrassahs, the Taliban who with their aid triumphed over Massood. He was murdered by them and their Al Qaeda allies on 9/9/2001. It has been alleged that the ISI created the Taliban. It cannot be proven.

Since then, this head of the ISI at the time, since 1987, one Hamid Gul has made it clear that 9/11 was the jews, and the USA is conspiring against Islam. His long term involvement and enmity towards the USA and all too typical bigotry make it clear what his proclivities are, and make it very CREDITABLE that the ISI at the least acts on its own, and may well show us the true policies of Pakistan.

So we come to the creation of the Islamic Emirate of Waziristan, the safe enclave of terrorists, and the permanent war in Afghanistan as result of this sanctuary.

Yet we cannot just take steps compulsory to eliminate the Taliban in Pakistan being blind to the fact that our forces in Afghanistan are landlocked and we ship their supplies across Pakistan, leaving them potentially and likely cut off by American and NATO action.

I don' t think given their history that the ISI is doing anything but acting against the USA.
From Strategy Page:

The U.S. recently accused the Pakistani ISI (Inter Service Intelligence agency) of being directly involved in a recent terror bombing of the Indian embassy in Afghanistan. The accusation not only involved CIA representatives going to Pakistan to present intelligence information directly to Pakistani leaders, but also leaking the event to the media. This was the most recent of many instances where ISI has supported Islamic terrorists, and this time Pakistan reacted by saying they would root out "Taliban spies" in the ISI. The problem is that these Islamic radicals have been operating openly in the ISI for three decades, and were put there by the government in the late 1970s, when it was decided that Islamic conservatism was the solution for Pakistan's problems (corruption and religious/ethnic conflicts.) These guys are not just "Taliban spies," but Pakistani intelligence professionals that believe in Islamic radicalism.

More History From Strategy Page:

Typically, the Pakistani generals seized control of the government every decade or so, when the corruption and incompetence of elected officials became too much for the military men to tolerate. The generals never did much better, and eventually there were elections, and the cycle continued. The latest iteration began in 1999, when the army took over, and was only voted out of power last year. Civilian governments tend to be hostile to the ISI, and apparently they are going to make a real effort to clear out many of the Islamic radicals in the ISI. But as recent attempt by the government to take control of the ISI backfired when the generals said they would not allow it. Nothing is simple in Pakistan.

The ISI grew particularly strong during the 1980s, when billions of dollars, most of it in the form of military and economic aid, arrived from the oil-rich Arab governments of the Persian Gulf. All this was to support the Afghans who were resisting a Russian invasion (in support of Afghan communists who had taken control of the government, and triggered a revolt of the tribes). The Afghan communists were atheists, and this greatly offended Saudi Arabia, and other Arab countries, who feared that Russia would encourage Arab communists to rebel elsewhere. So the resistance to the Russians in Afghanistan was declared a holy war which, after a fashion, it was. After about nine years of fighting the tribes, the Russians got tired of their slow progress (and more pressing problems back home, like the collapse of their economy from decades of communist mismanagement).

The Russians were gone by 1989 (and the Soviet Union collapsed three years later), but the Afghans promptly fell upon each other and the civil war seemed never-ending. This upset Pakistan, which wanted to send millions of Afghan refugees back home. Few of the refugees were interested as long as Afghans were still fighting each other. So the ISI created its own faction, the Taliban, by recruiting teachers and students from a network of religious schools that had been established (with the help of Saudi Arabian religious charities) in the 1980s. The most eager recruits were young Afghans from the refugee camps. The Taliban were fanatical, and most Afghans were willing to support them because they brought peace and justice. But the Taliban never conquered all of Afghanistan, especially in the north, where there were few Pushtun tribes (most Taliban were Pushtuns, from tribes in southern Afghanistan). The Pushtuns were about 40 percent of the population, and had always been the most prominent faction in Afghanistan (the king of Afghanistan was traditionally a Pushtun.)

Although a military junta was again running Pakistan when September 11, 2001 came along, the president of the country, an army general (Pervez Musharraf), sided with the United States, and turned against the Taliban. But many in the ISI continued to support the Taliban, and the army was too dependent on the ISI (for domestic intelligence, and to control Islamic militants that were attacking India, especially in Kashmir) to crack down on the ISI.

Al Qaeda took this betrayal badly, and declared war on the Pakistani government. The ISI was used to seek out and kill or capture most of the hostile al Qaeda operatives in Pakistan. But the ISI insured that Islamic terrorists who remained neutral were generally left alone. The ISI thwarted government efforts to have the army clear the al Qaeda out of the border areas (populated largely by Pushtun tribes, there being more Pushtuns in Pakistan than in Afghanistan). But now, in one sense, it's September 11, 2001 all over again. The U.S. has told Pakistan that it is fed up with getting screwed around by the ISI, and if Pakistan doesn't clean out the ISI, and shut down Islamic terrorists along the Afghan border, NATO, U.S. and Afghan troops will cross the border and do it.

As I see it the only possible, less than all out chaos and war solution, is to empower the many people in Pakistan who remain for secular democracy, and insist that they are strengthened. If not we are going to be at war in a nation of 170 million or more, many of whom are deobandi fanatics.

If these Pakistanis who want freedoms cannot stand up to the freaks from the madrassahs, then it is going to be war.

Real democracy is the only possible remedy to HUNTINGTON, and even that is a hope, and might very well fail like the house of cards to the first breeze of a distant typhoon.

Only one weapon, given our current armed forces can ensure victory in that circumstance.

Taliban SPLIT in Waziristan - Pak Daily Times

By epaminondas on July 29, 2008 8:55 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Taliban split into two factions in Bajaur Agency
By Hasbanullah Khan

KHAR: Taliban in the Bajaur tribal district split into two factions after infighting between two militant organisations in Mohmand Agency led to the killing of eight members of one group on July 18.

Pro-Baitullah Mehsud Taliban leader Umer Khalid killed eight members from the Shah Sahib militant group, including its chief and deputy chief, on July 18.

"We, four commanders, are resigning from the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) over the killing of mujahideen in Mohmand Agency," Salar Masood, a spokesman for the four commanders, told Daily Times on Monday. "We will form our own group - Tehreek-e-Taliban Al Jihad - to continue jihad against the United States," Masood said on the phone from an undisclosed location in the Bajaur region. Maulvi Munir, Dr Abdul Wahab and Maulvi Abdul Hameed are the three other commanders who left the TTP.

"Innocent mujahideen (what on earth is an innocent murderer of innocents for religous reasons?) were killed in Mohmand. This is against shariah. Mujahideen do not kill innocent people," Masood said. He charged the Baitullah Mehsud-led TTP with "deviating" from the real cause of fighting the Americans inside Afghanistan. "We took up the matter with Baitullah Mehsud but he did not take our concern seriously," he said.

The rift between the Taliban, according to observers, would weaken Baitullah Mehsud. They believe the infighting among militant organisations would help the government exploit the situation.

"Taliban leader in Bajaur Maulvi Faqir must be upset at this development because the four commanders are quite influential," the observers said on condition of anonymity.

Have fun boyz!

I have good news and bad news

By epaminondas on July 7, 2008 8:06 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

The good news is:

(JAMESTOWN.ORG SUB-REQ)- Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a veteran Afghan rebel and leader of the Hezb-i-Islami Party, has issued a statement asking members of the Pakistani Taliban to refrain from crossing the border to join the jihad in Afghanistan. The statement was issued by fax on June 24 (Afghan Islamic Press, June 25).

The bad news?

According to Hekmatyar, the Pakistani Taliban could be far more useful to the Afghans by pursuing jihad within Pakistan and attacking Coalition supply-lines that carry military and logistical equipment through Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province to the Khyber Pass. "The entire nation of Afghanistan is ready to take part in the holy war against the U.S. occupiers, just the way they fought the Russians. If we have problems, it is only logistical problems."

Yadda, yadda, yadda, you head sawing, bomb planting, moron.

It should be OBVIOUS after the way things have gone in Iraq, with Al Qaeda crushed that they cannot survive as anything but individual spittle foaming lunatics with semtex unless they have the shelter of a organized nation state.
As Hekmatyar recognizes, Pakistan is that nation state.

Pakistan must face the result on the battlefield, and accept its responsibility and destroy their nascent terror state in the NW Territories, along with civil support for it.
If Pakistan does not do this, Al Qaeda will survive to eventually strike again in organized, long throw fashion.

Pakistan has to face the music.
Failure to act as a civilized nation (i.e. not allowing mass murderers to have a private army based on religious lunacy to carry out mass murders in another nation because YOU fear them), despite any other reasoning MUST result in the HARSHEST of sanctions, no matter what results.
There is no way out for anyone except through to the other side.

Afghanistan is landlocked except (for us) through Pakistan. If they will not do what is right, then sooner or later that route for NATO's men, women and supplies will be closed except by air, as the ISI corrupted deobandi loons drive the nation to become GAZA II with nukes.

In case you are wondering about Pakistan - "if the US targets our territory it must surely fall into the category of "enemy" and be given a military response "

By epaminondas on June 17, 2008 9:11 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Hey man....AND THE FREAKIN' HORSE YOU RODE IN ON.
The absolutely blind attitude of this pakistani military analyst and what lies behind it, is THE reason the US is now a hated nation, and the people of the USA, held in both contempt and in ridicule.
pushtun map.jpg

They expect us, like the jews, to DIE rather than kill those who are sworn to kill us. When we are too civilized to live in this world they are more satisfied.

What many of us had feared and written about at the time seems to have come true -- be it the growing US intrusions into our territory or the periodic diatribes from the US against Dr A.Q. Khan whenever they feel Pakistan needs to be put under pressure. However, nothing reflects our state's sovereign bankruptcy as much as the audacious threats issued by Afghanistan's Karzai of sending in his Afghan Army into Pakistan to take out "militants" and "terrorists." Here is a man who barely has power in his own capital, Kabul, and has hundreds of occupation forces from the US and NATO -- not to mention some Arab contingents from the Gulf states -- and he is actually threatening Pakistan, a country with a massive conventional military, and nuclear capability to boot.

Herein lies the irony of Pakistan's predicament post-9/11. Our military seems to have no stomach for fighting the violations of our sovereignty by the US and its allies. That has emboldened the US and they now feel they can target the Pakistani security forces directly -- as they did in March 2008 in Bajaur, and more recently last week in the Mohmand Agency which left 11 FC men dead, apart from the civilians that are a constant target of US and NATO forces -- especially as their frustration has grown over their lack of success in Afghanistan.

Well perhaps if the ISI was not directly responsible for the funding and support of Bin Laden and Hekmatyar, and Pakistan was not one of only TWO NATIONS to recognize the Taliban, who they supported INSIDE Pakistan from day one - 9/11 would not have happened.

But since 3000 americans are DEAD as a direct consequence of the deliberate actions, and deliberate INACTIONS of successive Pakistani governments, then their people, who riot at our deaths, and make Bin Laden a popular king, who believe the jews did 9/11, find themselves in jeopardy because to them the American people ARE the enemy. Perhaps that jeopardy is justified. Perhaps we are as the man indicates, enemies in a peoples war.

Perhaps then, we ought to act in such a manner as well, Mr. Mazari.
And I assure you, 1 Hellfire from a Reaper is NOT how we behave as an enemy.

Increasingly, the hostile intent of the US towards Pakistan is becoming more overt as the Americans become more emboldened in the face of the vacillating and whimpering Pakistani ruling elite.

These are the words of the Hamid Gul faction.
Get this:

As for the US, there are many dangerous developments that need to be put together to understand the long-term threat from this power. Many of us have been writing for many years now that the US is seeking to destroy the organisation of the military in Pakistan, as well as breaking up the country, given that our nuclear capability and our ideological moorings in terms of historically supporting Muslim causes have never sat well with the US.

The american people understand full well the balancing act both they and the govt of Pakistan are doing in this insane ballet. Perhaps it's time to call an end to the whole idea. Perhaps the deobandi fanatics who begat the Taliban have created a situation beyond recall and the entire region is going to spontaneously consume itself.

It is time we re-examined whether the US is really an "ally" or a dangerous enemy.

The writer is a defence analyst. Email: callstr@hotmail.com

Right back at ya, pal.

Taliban gets leader released in 'bail' in Pakistan for 'crimes' in Waziristan

By epaminondas on April 17, 2008 6:34 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Waziristan jirga gets Taliban commanders released on bail

* Taliban return 50,000 gallons of petrol, two abducted drivers

By Akhtar Amin

PESHAWAR: A jirga of Zakhakhel and Qambarkhel elders and Taliban leaders from Waziristan succeeded in arranging the release of four detained Taliban commanders on bail, participants said.

The Taliban commanders from the South Waziristan Agency had been held for destroying tankers carrying oil for coalition troops in Afghanistan, and abducting their drivers.

In exchange, the Taliban commanders handed back 50,000 gallons of petrol and two oil tankers to complainants in Landi Kotal (Khyber Agency) and released two abducted drivers.

Of course we all have a high degree of confidence that these guys will show at trial.

Sixty people were injured and 40 oil tankers burnt after two explosions near the Torkham border four weeks ago.

Just a typical Waziri day, eh?

Javed Ibrahim Paracha, chairman of thSe World Prisoner's Relief Commission of Pakistan, headed the jirga at his residence. He told Daily Times he had been directed by Interior Affairs Adviser Rehman Malik and Interior Secretary Kamal Shah to organise the jirga to resolve the issue peacefully.

He said the jirga consisted of Waziristan's Taliban commanders Mir Qasim Janikhel and Ishaq Wazir, and Zakhakhel and Qambarkhel elders including Nasir Khan and Khyber Khan.

I hear a lot about negotiations these days, with people who hold inimical ideas to our existence. I hear that NOT talking fails and that by engaging with the enemy we can alter their behavior. But it is the more DETERMINED, more RUTHLESS, and those untrammeled for whatever reason by their consciences, who will alter the behavior of the other.

AS WE SEE.

Paracha said the Zakhakhel and Qambarkhel tribes had charged the four Taliban commanders from the Janikhel tribe, including Khalid Rehman, for destroying the oil tankers and abducting the drivers.

He said Karak police had arrested the Taliban commanders a few weeks ago and charged them with terrorism.

Paracha said the jirga had ruled that the Qambarkhel and Zakhakhel tribes would take back their testimony against the Taliban commanders in the anti-terrorism court of Kohat, to allow their release on bail.
{sarc} Sounds like a nation laws, not men, to me.{/sarc}

And in line with the new govt of Pakistan 'talking' with 'militants'

By epaminondas on February 20, 2008 8:03 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

MEMRI:

Statement by 30 Prominent Pakistani Islamic Scholars: "The Taliban Are Not Terrorists; Do Not Look Through American Eyes at [Those You Call] 'Terrorists'"

In late January 2008, 30 prominent Islamic scholars and principals of madrassas in Pakistan issued a joint statement, published in Pakistan's newspapers, discussing the state of affairs in the country and suggesting ways to deal with it. The signatories, who belonged to different schools of Islamic thought and who control a vast network of madrassas, affirmed: "We do not belong to any political group; neither do we have any political agenda."
The following are excerpts from the statement as it appeared in the London edition of the Urdu-language Pakistani newspaper Roznama Jang: [1]

"Cowardice Was Shown Vis-à-Vis the U.S. and India After 9/11;" "Our Troops were Used... Against Our Fellow Citizens;" Pakistan was Set "On an Irreligious Path"
In their statement, the Islamic scholars and clerics discussed the role played by the Pakistani government in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, and whether the government of Gen. Pervez Musharraf had acted against Pakistan's "national interests." They wrote:
"Most of our [previous] governments have been under the influence of the United States... But the way our government sacrificed itself on the altar of American interests after September 11, 2001, and ruthlessly murdered our national interests by bringing an American-interest war into our country, is an example on its own.
"Our forces were used in military operations against our fellow citizens. Cowardice was shown vis-à-vis the United States and India..."

UGH!

"On the other hand, efforts were launched with full preparedness to take the nation [Pakistan] on an irreligious path in the name of 'moderation' and 'progressive thinking.' Changes were made in the curricula of the educational system, to make them look good to 'others/foreigners' instead of... [making them appropriate for] our national interests. Completely unjustified amendments were made in hudood law [regarding women,] in the name of women's rights - [amendments] which were not only unrelated to women's rights but also included further injustices against them.

These guys know right where to go. Any attempt to make women equal to men is to denigrate god. Of course, if women were equal to men, Islam as it has come to be known today would be a far different entity, and all these morons would be the troglodytically ignored truly bigoted brutes they deserve to be.

"In our opinion, the most important and fundamental point is that the government try to see those who are called 'militants' or 'extremists' through Pakistani eyes, rather than looking at them through American eyes. These people, whether they are in tribal areas or in Swat, or in the Malakand Division or in Baluchistan, are indeed our own brothers, our fellow nationals, and from our own religion. They are not enemies of Pakistan; rather, they have always guarded Pakistan's frontiers in the Tribal Areas. But the circumstances created by the government have made them enemies of the government and enemies of every person who is not aligned with them in the enmity of the government."

How does that fit with my previous post? Think the madrassahs have some influence in Pakistan?

Say, remember that lady running for PM in Pakistan..oh yeah

By epaminondas on February 20, 2008 7:18 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

You have to love the NYT.
They really don't care about accuracy if it's something which will not only make Bush look bad, but also fall in line with their political purpose, as opposed to REPORTING OBJECTIVE REALITY.

Did you know that that the man who ha signed multiple treaties with the talibanate emirs in the Northwest Territoires, the man who CREATED the Islamic Emirate of Waziristan, the man who turned a blind eye to groups which planned and carried out assassination INSIDE India's legislature, the man who has refused to allow us to question AQ Khan, the man who refused to allow hot pursuit from Afghanistan, is well.....

"Bush administration officials said the United States would still like to see Pakistan's opposition leaders find a way to work with Mr. Musharraf, a staunch ally for more than six years, but conceded that the notion appeared increasingly unlikely."

a STAUNCH ALLY ???

Nevermind...the PPP, Bhutto's party has a plurality. A small one. But rather than group with Musharraf however weak, and stupid he is, they have decided to invite Nawaz Sharif's party into a coalition.

Though Mr. Zardari said he wanted a government of national consensus, he ruled out working with anyone from the previous government under Mr. Musharraf.
Instead he said he was talking to the leader of the other main opposition party, Nawaz Sharif, whose party finished second, about forming a coalition.

From an interview in 2006 in Pakistan's Daily Times:

Talking to the Sunday magazine of a national Urdu daily, Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) and Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) leader Qazi Hussain Ahmad revealed that he had repeatedly met Osama bin Laden and that the Al Qaeda leader had visited him at Mansoora, the Jamaat headquarters in Lahore. According to him, Osama was willing in 1990 to buy parliamentarians' loyalties to ensure Nawaz Sharif's election as prime minister. Bin Laden had said that if there was a way to buy votes, he was willing to pay for them. Qazi said, "He was a big supporter of IJI (Islami Jamhoori Ittehad) and Nawaz Sharif." He said Bin Laden was also interested in a deal with the JI, which he (Qazi) had declined because he did not agree with Osama's "methods". He also said Bin Laden could not have carried out the 9/11 attacks because he lacked the "ability"; he said the Jews had done it, first giving the day off to all Jews working in the World Trade Centre.

Is Sharif Al Qaeda's perceived asset?

Benazir Bhutto too has accused Nawaz Sharif of taking money from Osama bin Laden to oust her from power. Then we had the most extraordinary event of Ramzi Yusuf trying -- after his attempt at blowing up the World Trade Centre -- to kill her. He failed while the chemicals burnt his hands and he had to be hospitalised. According to reliable sources the attempt (in Karachi) on Ms Bhutto's life was funded by Khalid Shaikh Muhammad -- the man who also funded Al Qaeda's assault on the World Trade Centre in 2001. When Khalid Sheikh Muhammad was finally caught it was at the house of a JI member.

OKAY, maybe the Paki Times was under Musharraf's control? Who knows.
And now La Vie En Rose:

The two opposition parties share similar views of how to tackle the terrorism problem. The new approach is more likely to be responsive to the consensus of the Pakistani public than was Mr. Musharraf's and is more likely to shun a heavy hand by the military and rely on dialogue with the militants.
Mr. Zardari said his party would seek talks with the militants in the tribal areas along the Afghan border, where the Taliban and Al Qaeda have carved out a stronghold, as well as with the nationalist militants who have battled the Pakistani Army in Baluchistan Province.
Many in Pakistan, including several parties that boycotted the elections, have been strongly opposed to Mr. Musharraf's use of the army to battle tribesmen in the name of the campaign against terrorism, which is seen as an American agenda.
"We will have a dialogue with those who are up in the mountains and those who are not in Parliament," Mr. Zardari said. "We want to take all those along who are against Pakistan and working against Pakistan."

Plus c'est les memes choses.

OK fine. This is the will of Pakistan's peoples. And when, as it always has been the case the talks fail? When the guys with the Quranically untrammeled consciences, and racist religious stupidities find their souls stained by 'collaboration' with 'agents' of america?

The people of the United States NEED to be introduced to the idea that the PEOPLES of other nations, NOT SIMPLY THEIR ADMINISTRATIONS, may have inimical desires to what WE need. We don't need xenophobic rage. We don't need demagogic spittle flecked hysteria. We need someone to say...this is a problem we need to think about and think our way through, no matter how uncomfortable it is to consider no KUMBAYA.

And in this week's remedial national leaders conflict course, we have Pervez

By epaminondas on February 17, 2008 9:55 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Pakistan now sees porous border area with Afghanistan as direct threat

No really?

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gate said last week that the number of Taliban and Al Qaida terrorists crossing over from eastern Afghanistan into Pakistan's tribal border region has declined.
"I would say we have seen in RC East a significant reduction in the number of people coming across the border from Pakistan," Gates said during a visit to Lithuania Feb. 7, referring to Regional Command-East.
Gates said the cross border transit is a problem and Pakistan has begun to realize only in the past several months that that the lack of borders controls is "a serious threat to the state of Pakistan itself."
"Al Qaida and some of the other insurgent groups there have threatened to kill the leadership of Pakistan," he said. "They've threatened to destabilize the country and the government. They're almost certainly responsible for the assassination of Benazir Bhutto."
Pakistan's government has become to shift its attention, recognizing that the problem is "more consequential than a nuisance."

Breathtaking, no? Our "allies'" intelligence is breathtaking? Or are they that stupid? Or do they think WE are that stupid?

"My view is, my hope is, that we will begin to see the Pakistanis taking a more aggressive stand out there," he said.

It's nice to see that our foreign policy is "hope" well in advance of Barack's election.

CIA Director Michael Hayden told a House Intelligence Committee hearing that a neo-Taliban movement is emerging in the region that poses a serious threat.
The movement is headed by Baitullah Mehsud who has been identified by British intelligence as a major state terrorist threat to both Afghanistan and Pakistan.
"You've had Al Qaida in the [Federally Administered Tribal Areas] since they left Afghanistan 2001- 2002," Hayden said.
Pakistan in the past viewed it as mainly a U.S. threat, not an internal threat to Pakistan, he said.

Oh, I see. So if they threaten your supposed ally and you do squat then that's ok with us if we're the ally in question? Do these people actually listen to themselves?

"They no longer see that. What we have here is a nexus of Al Qaida and Pashtu separatism and extremism and probably always there in latency, but now there actively," Hayden said. "And the Pakistani government now recognizes this is a threat to the identity and the stability of the Pakistani state, and that's new."
Mehsud is "the center" of that nexus and has formed a "bridge" between Al Qaida, the Taliban, or Pashtu extremism and separatism," he said.

The Taliban and their militant sympathizers now hold strategic pockets on the city’s outskirts

By epaminondas on January 18, 2008 10:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

No, not in Afghanistan.

Frontier Insurgency Spills Into a Pakistani City

By JANE PERLEZ NYT

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — For centuries, fighting and lawlessness have been part of the fabric of this frontier city. But in the past year, Pakistan’s war with Islamic militants has spilled right into its alleys and bazaars, its forts and armories, killing policemen and soldiers and scaring its famously tough citizens.
There is a sense of siege here, as the Islamic insurgency pours out of the adjacent tribal region into this city, one of Pakistan’s largest, and its surrounding districts.
The Taliban and their militant sympathizers now hold strategic pockets on the city’s outskirts, the police say, from where they strike at the military and the police, order schoolgirls to wear the burqa and blow up stores selling DVDs, among other acts of violence.
Suicide bombings, bomb explosions and missile attacks occurred an average of once a week here in 2007, according to a tally by the city’s police department. In 2006, while there were occasional grenade attacks and explosions, the authorities did not record a single suicide bombing or rocket attack inside the city.

Just imagine this in Philadelphia, a city with HALF Peshawar's population, oh and BTW

The proximity of Peshawar to the tribal areas where the Taliban and Al Qaeda have regrouped in the past two years makes the city a feasible prize for the militants in Pakistan’s quickly escalating internal strife that pits the Islamic extremists against the American-backed government of President Pervez Musharraf.
Though few here believe that the Taliban will rule anytime soon, the police and residents say that by the standards of counterinsurgency warfare the extremists are doing well. They have undermined public faith in the government, sown distrust and made the police fearful for their lives. “People feel the insecurity is so high, no one can fix it,” said Humair Bilour, the sister-in-law of Malik Saad, a popular Peshawar police chief who was killed in a suicide bomb attack last year. “How can the government do anything when the government itself is involved in it?”

Continue reading The Taliban and their militant sympathizers now hold strategic pockets on the city’s outskirts.

Baitullah Mehsud, and his 20,000 man army? Within Pakistan?

By epaminondas on January 17, 2008 7:15 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

GERTZ:Baitullah Mehsud is regarded as one of the biggest Al Qaida threats to Pakistan President Musharraf. Mehsud, a senior commander in Al Qaida, has used his strong connections with Pakistan's military and intelligence services to conduct a series of suicide bombings, including the Dec. 27 assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.

Gee, you mean radical Islam has a hold in the ISI and Pakistani army? Why, this is such a surprise !

Mehsud, whose model has been Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, helped establish the safe haven for Al Qaida along the Afghan-Pakistani border in cooperation with Musharraf.

As in the Islamic Emirate of Waziristan?

The Al Qaida commander was also said to be behind most if not all of the 19 suicide bombings in Pakistan, including the two aimed at Bhutto, over the past three months.
"Fantastic job," Mehsud was quoted as saying in a telephone call intercepted and released by Pakistani intelligence. "Very brave boys, the ones who killed her."
Mehsud, who heads a 20,000-member army, was responsible for Al Qaida's return to the Afghan-Pakistani border in 2005. He cooperated with Taliban and Pakistani tribes to draft a peace deal to Musharraf along the border area. Musharraf, who had no stomach for a grueling fight against major tribes, agreed to the deal.

People with no stomach for a fight like this don't need any of our F-16's. Just a swiss account, maybe from a book deal.

The president even threw in nearly $500,000 to keep the tribal chiefs and their Al Qaida allies quiet. The Mahsud are one of the four sub-tribes of the Waziri.
The deal was so sweet that Mehsud bragged of his role in the return of Al Qaida and Taliban. But when the United States began looking for Mehsud, he lowered his profile and shuttles among a series of safe houses and prevented any release of his picture.
"He can manipulate you and then kill you," a Western intelligence source said. "He is dangerous and ruthless."
Musharraf has found Mehsud convenient. The president and his aides have blamed the Al Qaida commander for just about every terrorist outrage in Pakistan, including the assassination of Bhutto. The sources said attributing attacks to Mehsud diverts attention from his cooperation with Pakistani intelligence and military.

Continue reading Baitullah Mehsud, and his 20,000 man army? Within Pakistan?.

Are we witnessing a deal to allow islamist takeover in Pakistan via election?

By epaminondas on December 29, 2007 10:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Nawaz Sharif's crew represent the forces of Zia ul Haq, Bin Laden the MMA, and is Islamism personified.

Musharaff's crew is now utterly discredited and regarded by ALL SIDES as useless, and he has given up the army at the moment he (personally speaking) needs it most (anyone believe in coincidence out there?)
Whether Al Qaeda committed the act or not, in the present atmosphere there is little doubt that anyone getting thru security had the knowing acquiescence of SOMEONE(S) officially or not in order to get that close to Bhutto.
Her backers are now in disarray and the govt is insistent on going ahead on Jan 8th with the election.

The ISI (think Hamid Gul) IS the force of the Taliban and all they have represented and done. The ISI IS the other side. The ISI hid Daniel Pearl's killer. The ISI funded, supported, and aided in every conceivable way, the Afghan murderers of 9/11. The ISI WAS the force behind the FORMAL alliance of Pakistan and the Taliban.

Sharif's backers will WIN, with the PPP of Bhutto fractured and demoralized. And in an election.

HAMAS redux.

What, the thinking must go in Waziristan and Tora Bora, can the USA do?
The USA can't do a damned thing.
Pakistan will have chosen islamism in a free election, marred to be sure, but FREE.

MMA like cretins will be the civilian authority at the red button of 60+ nuclear weapons, and an UNTOLD AMOUNT of nuclear cycle byproduct.
Waziristan's Islamic emirate, the Swat crazies and taliban will have a cooperative ally in Pakistan.
I mean, it's not as if deobandi pakistani expats have been active in jihadi actions, IS IT?

Our army, tightened in Iraq, faced with Iran faces a new AND FAR LARGER ISLAMIST nuclear armed opposition when we contemplate hot pursuit into Pakistan, or Predator and Reaper missions.

Our society has neither been prepared, nor is ready for this situation, and I bet NEITHER is the admin. Our armed forces are not structured to face this, EXCEPT with nuclear weapons.

We are two weeks and a free election away from the beginning of this process.
Is there a contigency plan?

How to have an instant TRUFER convention

By epaminondas on December 28, 2007 10:04 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

"no post-mortem was performed on Bhutto’s body"

What's actually going down in Pakistan?

By epaminondas on December 28, 2007 5:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Al Qaeda and the Islamist, MMA, Waziri, Pushtun view....“We terminated the most precious American asset..." blah blah, yadda yadda, god will slay you like a goat.

I took a look back at this and the theme is pretty clear.

Pakistan a weakly lead nation, with a history of corrupt democratic leadership, weak military leadership and since the 70's (duh...what was it that happened again in 1973?) a VERY strong Islamist bent, and might well end up like gaza in a truly free election. They are more properly viewed as being on the OTHER side in this war, but a strong minority want no part of that either, even though they dislike us anyway. Those who don't dislike us thoroughly are more likely right here, which given the events since 7/7 thru yesterday is a cause for a large mental note.

So why would Al Qaeda kill Bhutto? Their allies have a clear shot at winning

Then Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif (deposed by Musharraf) Meets SecDef William Cohen

From an interview in 2006 in Pakistan's Daily Times:

Talking to the Sunday magazine of a national Urdu daily, Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) and Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) leader Qazi Hussain Ahmad revealed that he had repeatedly met Osama bin Laden and that the Al Qaeda leader had visited him at Mansoora, the Jamaat headquarters in Lahore. According to him, Osama was willing in 1990 to buy parliamentarians’ loyalties to ensure Nawaz Sharif’s election as prime minister. Bin Laden had said that if there was a way to buy votes, he was willing to pay for them. Qazi said, “He was a big supporter of IJI (Islami Jamhoori Ittehad) and Nawaz Sharif.” He said Bin Laden was also interested in a deal with the JI, which he (Qazi) had declined because he did not agree with Osama’s “methods”. He also said Bin Laden could not have carried out the 9/11 attacks because he lacked the “ability”; he said the Jews had done it, first giving the day off to all Jews working in the World Trade Centre.

Is Sharif Al Qaeda's perceived asset?

Benazir Bhutto too has accused Nawaz Sharif of taking money from Osama bin Laden to oust her from power. Then we had the most extraordinary event of Ramzi Yusuf trying — after his attempt at blowing up the World Trade Centre — to kill her. He failed while the chemicals burnt his hands and he had to be hospitalised. According to reliable sources the attempt (in Karachi) on Ms Bhutto’s life was funded by Khalid Shaikh Muhammad — the man who also funded Al Qaeda’s assault on the World Trade Centre in 2001. When Khalid Sheikh Muhammad was finally caught it was at the house of a JI member.

Sweet story?

I will remind readers also that it was the supreme court's decision FORCING the legality of Sharif's return that began this series of crises leading to this moment.

Snake pit. Any idea that we can help the development of what WE passingly, and fleetingly acknowledge to be a democracy with individual rights guaranteed and the rule of law and not men in this instance, given this set of realities RIGHT NOW had better take second place to making CERTAIN bad people cannot get their hands on the nukes.

Pakistan looks like a state more amenable to sine wave of chaos democracy and military leadership vying with greed and deobandi extremism as a governing system.

It looks like a failed state. A failed nuclear state, with neither realistic plans, or intentions of breaking the cycle of events which has brought us to this point.

The idea of muscular, interventionist nuclear non proliferative actions as a firm part of American national policy has never looked better.

BTW, Obama was right, we might as well have gone right after every bastard in Waziristan we needed to. And that singular part of his ideas is a lot firmer than than the water soaked instant oatmeal we are getting from this administration these days. Go and rectify that.

Continue reading What's actually going down in Pakistan?.

Shortcut to Nuclear Caliphate - Pakistan

By epaminondas on December 27, 2007 8:49 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

MMA, Taliban, Al Qaeda, or a Musharraf Reichstag fire assassination attempt?

As aides say at 8:30 AM EST she is dead, the attack, the REPEATED attacks on Ms Bhutto make it clear what is at stake in the nation with nuclear weapons and the living result of oil revenue by the Al Saud, funding the Al Sheikh (Ibn Wahab family) thruough 2 generations of young people's learning of hate.

Pakistan's madrassahs have created their own HAMAS.

Musharraf is now (provided HE didn't do it) faced with a situation in which an election is a complete joke. The MMA sitting silently, among a panoply of Talibaneque murderers await.

Musharraf, frankly needs to take the army and wipe out the ISI, and the entire fundamentalist ideal in Pakistan without hesitation.

WITHOUT HESITATION.

Short of this, the utter ruthlessness and sheer audactiy evident in the REPEATED attempts on Bhutto, on Musharraf and the continued lawless wild west of the Islamic Emirate of Waziristan and it's incredible neighbor states will push this situatuion beyond repair.

The time has come for the usual roundup of suspects, the usual set of actions, the usual set of reactions to end, and for Musharraf to act.

Otherwise concerns of Israel attacking Iran, will be DWARFED by the prospect of what pakistan retains in stockpile to be raided, acquired or otherwise purloined in an immediate fashion, and for AQ Khan to restart.

The world awaits.

Pakistan...BIG BOMB = Raid Madrassah. Probably right.

By epaminondas on December 22, 2007 7:45 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Suicide Bombing Kills 50 in Pakistani City
Associated Press

SHERPAO, Pakistan, 22 December 2007 — Pakistani police raided an Islamic school and arrested seven students yesterday, hours after a suicide bomber killed at least 50 people inside a mosque packed with holiday worshippers at the home of the former interior minister, police said.
The bombing, which left bloody clothes, shoes and pieces of flesh scattered across the house of worship, was the second suicide attack in eight months apparently targeting Aftab Khan Sherpao, who escaped injury.

Interesting connection HERE

Suspicion for the blast was expected to focus on the pro-Taleban or Al-Qaeda militants active in northwest Pakistan — near the Afghan border — where the attack occurred. As interior minister, Sherpao was deeply involved in Pakistan’s efforts to combat the Taleban and drive out Al-Qaeda.
President Pervez Musharraf condemned the blast and directed security and intelligence agencies to track down the masterminds, the state Associated Press of Pakistan reported.
After the bombing, dozens of police and intelligence agents raided an Islamic school in the nearby village of Turangzai and arrested seven students, some of them Afghans, two police officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
The blast deepened the sense of uncertainty in Pakistan ahead of Jan. 8 parliamentary elections, which Sherpao, as head of the Pakistan People’s Party-Sherpao, is contesting.
The bombing turned a prayer service crowded with hundreds of people celebrating the Eid Al-Adha into a scene of carnage at the mosque inside Sherpao’s residential compound in Sherpao, a village 40 kilometers northeast of the city of Peshawar.
The bomber was in a row of worshippers when he detonated the explosive, provincial police chief Sharif Virk said. “There was blood and body parts everywhere. There was panic everywhere. People were running. Some people were injured in the chaos,” said Iqbal Hussain, a police officer in charge of security at the mosque.
District Mayor Farman Ali Khan said between 50 and 55 people were killed, and authorities were collecting information on their identities. Local police chief Feroz Shah said over 100 were wounded. Witnesses said the dead included police officers guarding Sherpao, who was praying in the mosque’s front row at the time of the attack. He was not harmed, but one of his sons was wounded.
The district police officer of Charsadda, Feroz Shah, told Arab News “it was a security lapse but could not be prevented.”

So we have ~~"militants"~~ murdering swine, taking action little different from the mass murderers who slaughtered the Jewish people in Netanya on Passover in 2002, acting from a madrassah taken over when the Red Mosque incident went down. Are things any better? Did marshal law help? Did the emergency decree accomplish anything? You tell me

Pakistan, Pakistan, Pakistan.....

By epaminondas on November 5, 2007 6:13 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Center of Taliban recruitment from day one, Al Qaeda training and anti-Soviet moneys via the ISI, land where an early loonie Islamist dictator Zia ul Haq asked Barbara Walters why on earth she believed OUR democracy would survive, the place where Maududi's Deobandi Islam madrassahs on Saudi money teach a degree of hatred and prejudice seen elsewhere only in Iran, an amazingly sometimes democracy, plagued by a typical third world corruption, with a large portion of the people out of control, literally, and another larger portion wanting to democratically vote out democracy, Pakistan took a step, which way, forward, sideways, but more likely backwards ... I can't tell, but one which was designed to personally benefit the famous author, Pervez Musharraf, who may yet turn out to be more ruthless than hanging on by his finger nails, and who has shown a big EFF YOU streak to everyone.

It's clear that Pakistan is poised, as usual, on a knife edge of supporting anti american terrorism, democratic change, electing a women, and electing people who think women are walking orifices of any sort the men need, who unless covered make legal any use of same the men feel like.

The is no doubt that the MMA, Northwest Territories, and the Pushtuns are the enemies of the american people, and the american way of life, not just as they have been lied to about it (fornicating, alcoholic, drug pushing, MTV watching...) but as WE KNOW IT HERE. There is no doubt they have a lot of support.

StrategyPage puts this mess very aptly:

Some Pakistanis blame Islam, while many more blame foreign conspiracies. An increasing number see internal flaws that must be fixed. There is no general agreement on how to proceed. The majority want democracy, but Pakistani democracy has been crippled by corruption. Military dictators wear out their welcome in a few years. A large minority want an Islamic dictatorship, but after seeing how that worked in Afghanistan, most Pakistanis are very hostile to letting clerics run the country.

But Benazir Bhutto has a lot of freaking guts, and amazingly, a lot of support.

So what do we make of Musharraf, who suspends the freaking constitution over a coming supreme court ruling which mandates, per their own constitution, that a man IN THE MILITARY cannot be president. I guess he likes his uniform.

Pervez says if he steps away, per the requirement of his own constitution from either head of the military or the presidency, the result will be chaos, and i.e. dear america ... the MMA in charge(??) He may be right.

But it will always be a close run thing for democracy. That's just the way it is.

Sorry Pervez, but you just have to make up your mind to chance it and be ready, or forget the charade and just be the Somoza you might be in that portrait of yourself you have in the attic.

Either there IS a constitution, or there is not. Either you are a nation of laws or of men.
While the stakes are high is exactly when politicians or military leaders can become statesmen.

Jeopardy Question is ...How do you spell ISI?

By epaminondas on October 18, 2007 4:31 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Jeopardy Answer ... who might be the only people to have foreknowledge of the route that Benazir Bhutto would take?

Bhutto's Return Rocked By Explosions

Updated: 21:11, Thursday October 18, 2007

Dozens of people have been killed in two explosions near to where former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was being welcomed home.

Scene of one blast

Ms Bhutto's truck had just passed when the blasts happened in Karachi, only hours after she ended her eight-year exile.

She was unhurt and has been taken to her house in the city.

But at least 34 people have been killed and around 100 others wounded, police say.

An initial small explosion was followed by a huge blast just feet from the vehicle.

Ms Bhutto's procession was heading to a rally near the tomb of Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, when the attacks happened.

Hundreds of thousands of people had lined the route to see her and it is not known if she will attend the rally.

Militants linked to al Qaeda, angered by her support for the US war on terrorism, had threatened to assassinate her.

Earlier, she pledged to fight for democracy as she ended her exile amid chaotic scenes at Karachi airport.

With tears in her eyes as she walked off the plane that had brought her from Dubai, Ms Bhutto waved at supporters and said: "I feel good."

Shortcut to the Nuclear Armed Caliphate - Pakistan

By bigadmin on September 14, 2007 7:37 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Bin Laden more popular than Musharraf in Pakistan: poll
Pakistan's newest threat: Army officer turns suicide bomber

FIRST STORY---

ISLAMABAD (AFP) — Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden is more popular in Pakistan than President Pervez Musharraf, according to a poll released Wednesday.

Nearly three-quarters of Pakistanis also oppose unilateral US military action against Islamic insurgents in Pakistan's tribal areas, said the poll for Terror Free Tomorrow, a US-based organisation.
The survey "may help explain why Osama bin Laden remains at large in Pakistan and why both Al-Qaeda and the Taliban have regrouped there," the group said in a statement.
It said it polled 1,044 people across Pakistan between August 18 and August 29.
Military ruler Musharraf, facing the biggest political crisis of his eight years in power and increasing pressure from Washington to tackle extremism, is the biggest in from the poll.
It said his approval rating was 38 percent behind 46 percent for bin Laden, the architect of the September 11, 2001 attacks who is believed to be hiding on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
Bin Laden's ratings jumped to 70 percent in the Islamist-ruled North West Frontier Province.

SECOND STORY ---

According to reliable sources in the local police, a Pashtun army officer belonging to the elite Special Services Group, whose younger sister was reportedly among the 300 girls killed during the Pakistan Army's commando raid on the Lal Masjid in Islamabad between July 10 and 13, blew himself up during dinner at the SSG's headquarters mess at Tarbela Ghazi, 100 km south of Islamabad, on the night of September 13, killing 19 other officers.
The incident coincided with United States Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte's visit to Kabul and Islamabad for talks with leaders and officials of the two governments.
According to the same sources, the Pashtun army officer belonged to South Waziristan, but Tarbela Ghazi is not located in the tribal belt.

Any questions?

Thousands of young Waziris and Mehsud tribal youths happily accepted the command of al-Qaeda leaders

By bigadmin on September 6, 2007 4:14 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

The United States and its allies cannot allow to exist a haven behind national borders as if this war was between the nation states of the 18th century, unless, of course we have decided losing is without danger.

ASIA TIMES:KARACHI - Once again, fingers are being pointed at Pakistan over terror suspects being trained in the country. Men linked to the July 7, 2005, attacks on the London transport system, and others in separate incidents, have been said to have ties to Pakistan, and on Wednesday German prosecutors stated that three men they had arrested on suspicion of planning "massive" attacks in the country had trained at camps in Pakistan.

Two of the men are German nationals who have convertedwhile the third is Turkish. German officials said they belonged to a cell of the Sunni Islamic Jihad Union, an al-Qaeda-linked group that is believed to be an offshoot of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, which was active in Afghanistan. Its leader, Tahir Yuldashev, is based in Pakistan.

It is entirely possible that the men trained in Pakistan, in which case their teacher would have been al-Qaeda commander Abu Hanifah, who has a base in the town of Mir Ali in the North Waziristan tribal area.

For the record, the Pushtu and their allied tribes are the enemies of the people of the United States and ALL WE HAVE EVER STOOD FOR.

Continue reading Thousands of young Waziris and Mehsud tribal youths happily accepted the command of al-Qaeda leaders.

Missed on the 26th ...US Ground forces strike inside Pakistan

By bigadmin on August 27, 2007 7:58 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

What was it TR said, again?

19 Taliban killed as US-led coalition strikes in Pakistan

US says Pak permission sought before attack; ISPR rejects claim
KABUL: US-led forces and Afghan troops struck Taliban positions inside Pakistan in fresh clashes with the Islamic militia that left at least 19 local Taliban dead, security forces said on Sunday.

The US-led coalition said it received permission from Pakistan to attack across the border on Saturday, but this was denied by the chief military spokesman in Islamabad. Afghan and coalition forces used mortars and artillery fire to destroy insurgent attacking positions on both sides of the border after a military post in Afghanistan came under attack, the coalition said in a statement.

“The Pakistani military gave permission for the Afghan National Security Forces to fire on the targets located within Pakistan,” it said. Six insurgent positions were destroyed, three on each side of the border, and more than a dozen insurgents were killed.

A Pakistani military spokesman denied any permission was given. “There was no attack, no firing from our side of the border. And there was no permission asked by them or given by us,” ISPR spokesman Maj-Gen Waheed Arshad said.

US military spokeswoman Captain Vanessa Bowman insisted to AFP however that “this was fully coordinated with Pakistan and agreed on.” “There is a very close working relationship (with Pakistan) to eliminate this kind of threat,” she said.

Pakistani officials have said repeatedly they would not allow any foreign troops to hunt militants on its soil, and insist they are doing what they can to hunt down the extremists. US President George W Bush this month refused to rule out unilateral US strikes on Pakistani soil if specific intelligence pinpointed top al-Qaeda leaders. But he also expressed confidence in the efforts of Pakistan, a key ally in the US-led war on terror.

Talking to Online, the ISPR spokesperson termed the claim of the coalition forces baseless and said Pakistan did not allow anyone to conduct any operation in its territory, adding that the Pakistan Army had the ability to protect its borders. He said that it had been made clear a number of times that no foreign army would be allowed to conduct action in Pakistani territories.

AFP report follows. Notice how QUIET this all is?

Continue reading Missed on the 26th ...US Ground forces strike inside Pakistan.

Our foreign policy must be based on Quran and Sunnah

By bigadmin on August 8, 2007 6:47 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

In case you were wondering about Pakistan, it's army (and why they fail in Waziristan over and over), it's freely elected Parliament, the MMA, the ISI, yadda.....

ISLAMABAD: Parliamentary Secretary for Defence Major (retd) Syed Tanveer Hussain has advised the government to recognise the Taliban and open all corridors for militants to wage Jihad for the liberation of Kashmir.He alleged that the American CIA was killing the Chinese in Pakistan to harm the cordial relations between the two countries.
He also asked the government to counter the recent US ‘Pressler-type bill’ by allowing Jihad. “The aid that forces us to mistreat our own people should be spewed out,” he added. In his hard-hitting and emotional speech, Syed Tanveer Hussain said that Pakistan should also recognise the Taliban, who were the enemies of the United States. “Taliban did not have any enmity with Pakistan but only with the United States,” he added.
He alleged that the American CIA was killing the Chinese in Pakistan to harm the cordial relations between the two countries.
He said the government should renounce its ‘love affair’ with America and reject all kinds of aid. “We should improve our relations with Iran, China and Russia as the United States will not give us anything except threats,” he added.
The parliamentary secretary said Muslims were being killed throughout the world under a conspiracy but “we have turned a blind eye to the same”.
“Our foreign policy must be based on Quran and Sunnah,” he stressed. Tanveer Hussain said that Syed Hasan Nasrullah had inflicted a defeat on Israel and Pakistan should take a lesson from him.

WHO IS THIS GUY?

Continue reading Our foreign policy must be based on Quran and Sunnah.

When you really have to wonder if it's incompetence

By bigadmin on July 18, 2007 8:24 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

President Bush’s top counterterrorism advisers acknowledged today that the strategy for fighting Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda leadership in Pakistan had failed

You mean the strategy of creating the Islamic Emirate of Waziristan, and then having Pakistan forbid american arms and men from entering, while releasing all the terrorists held in Pakistan from those and FATA areas, in order to think we were making them happy so they wouldn't be so mean? You mean that strategy? You mean the one where we give them a mini-Afghanistan?

How could thinking, learned, experienced people be convinced that such outright appeasement in the face of Quranic compulsion, prejudice, and outright anti americanism EVER succeed?

Well?

1) They are not learned, and like Lyndon Johnson and Ho Chi Minh, mistake their adversaries as people who can be sent 'messages. I don't think so sport

2) They have swallowed UNQUESTIONING the idea of Religion of Peace. Now there may be a great deal of argument over that, but our govt seems to have ruled out a religiously based war, with imams teaching that god wants certain outcomes inimical to sunday barbecues and football.

3) They can't deal with the policies which would be compulsory if this turns out to be a religiously based world war of varying intensities in different places and times, and sometimes requiring us to use real weapons, and real armies for the outright express purpose of slaughtering the enemy ( as opposed to liberation and nation building), in what would have to be a war of the peoples.

In other words, the leaders are incompetent, and the principles the other side would use (the democrats) are WORSE (hey it's a bumper sticker, and a police matter---BTDT).

NYT - President Bush’s top counterterrorism advisers acknowledged today that the strategy for fighting Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda leadership in Pakistan had failed, as the White House released a grim new intelligence assessment that has forced the administration to consider more aggressive measures inside Pakistan.
The intelligence report, the most formal assessment since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks about the terrorist threat facing the United States, concludes that the United States is losing ground on a number of fronts in the fight against Al Qaeda, and describes the terrorist organization as having significantly strengthened over the past two years.
In identifying the main reasons for Al Qaeda’s resurgence, intelligence officials and White House aides pointed the finger squarely at a hands-off approach toward the tribal areas by Pakistan’s president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, who last year brokered a cease-fire with tribal leaders in an attempt to drain support for Islamic extremism in the region.
“It hasn’t worked for Pakistan,” said Frances Fragos Townsend, who heads the Homeland Security Council at the White House. “It hasn’t worked for the United States.”

Continue reading When you really have to wonder if it's incompetence.

Or, I know him well and was looking for a way to brag about it

By bigadmin on April 21, 2007 6:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

The Pushtun are the enemy of the people of the USA.

Pro-Pakistan tribal leader 'would shelter Bin Laden'

WANA, Pakistan (AFP) - A pro-government tribal leader hailed by Pakistan for expelling foreign militants from a troubled frontier region said Friday he would protect Osama bin Laden if he sought shelter with him.
Mullah Mohammad Nazir told a rare press conference in Wana, the main town in South Waziristan tribal district, that he had never met the Al-Qaeda chief but would help him in line with local traditions.
"Bin Laden has never come to this area but if he comes here and seeks our protection then according to tribal laws and customs we will protect him," the 32-year-old former Taliban commander said.
"Our traditions and customs demand that we support the oppressed," added Nazir, who was flanked by heavily-armed gunmen.

Also that all jews should die and Crusaders along with them, probably even if you pay the tax. So sorry.

We are all just so surprised to hear this !

Continue reading Or, I know him well and was looking for a way to brag about it.

Another shock...gee, the Islamic Emirate of MORDOR is a new base for Al Qaeda, which is rebuilding

By bigadmin on February 19, 2007 5:55 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Al Qaeda Chiefs Are Seen to Regain Power

waziri

WASHINGTON, Feb. 18 — Senior leaders of Al Qaeda operating from Pakistan have re-established significant control over their once-battered worldwide terror network and over the past year have set up a band of training camps in the tribal regions near the Afghan border, according to American intelligence and counterterrorism officials.
American officials said there was mounting evidence that Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, had been steadily building an operations hub in the mountainous Pakistani tribal area of North Waziristan. Until recently, the Bush administration had described Mr. bin Laden and Mr. Zawahri as detached from their followers and cut off from operational control of Al Qaeda.
The United States has also identified several new Qaeda compounds in North Waziristan, including one that officials said might be training operatives for strikes against targets beyond Afghanistan.
American analysts said recent intelligence showed that the compounds functioned under a loose command structure and were operated by groups of Arab, Pakistani and Afghan militants allied with Al Qaeda. They receive guidance from their commanders and Mr. Zawahri, the analysts said. Mr. bin Laden, who has long played less of an operational role, appears to have little direct involvement.

Now, I have expressed my indignation and feelings about the Islamic Emirate of Waziristan, and Mushy's treaty and recgonition,and about the eventual, preditable, and ineluctable result. And here is it's unmistakeable marker, ...

5 months later...what happens in a year?

Continue reading Another shock...gee, the Islamic Emirate of MORDOR is a new base for Al Qaeda, which is rebuilding.

But we are the vanguard of Islam, and our only weapons are our flesh and blood to be sacrificed for our nation and for the religion

By bigadmin on January 9, 2007 5:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

These Pushtun are the enemies of the people of the United States. They are not the enemies of the administration. They are not the enemies of Bush. They are not the enemies of Cheney, or the neo cons...these people attacked us here already, and supported the men who became heroes to their ideology who slaughtered and burned our people, at work, on a quiet tuesday morning.

They are the enemies of you and me, and our families.

How the Taliban keep their coffers full

By Syed Saleem Shahzad

KARACHI - Just as the Taliban move across the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan with impunity, so does the money needed to sustain the Taliban-led insurgency flow unrestricted between the countries.
In the wake of September 11, 2001, the financial squeeze instigated by the United States and its allies in the "war on terror" severely disrupted the flow of funds for al-Qaeda and the Taliban, mainly through closer international scrutiny of bank accounts.

However, as the insurgencies in Afghanistan and Iraq testify, the money has certainly not been stopped. The major reason for this is that Washington and its allies made the mistake of looking for and applying high-tech solutions.

Had the focus been more on the "unschooled wisdom" prevalent in the mountains of Afghanistan and in the deserts of Iraq, the US might not be in such a poor position as it is now.

Sorry, Syed, here is my view... the reason these people are collecting this money is not that we have and use satellites, lasers, jdams and optics. The reason these people collect the money is twofold.

They are alive.
They are collecting funds from supporters who are alive.

At the least, THEY should be dead. That they are not is a mistake in the carrying out of warfare.

Continue reading But we are the vanguard of Islam, and our only weapons are our flesh and blood to be sacrificed for our nation and for the religion.

Michael Scheuer may have been a sleeplesy vigilant anti Bin Laden analyst, but he is a moron, and maybe that's the tale

By bigadmin on January 1, 2007 7:51 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

No better ally for US than Musharraf: ex-CIA official

In the 'we're doomed' chapter of world politics....we have an analyst who blames israel first AND is a protocols of zion light believer....

Islamabad, Jan. 1 (PTI): A former Central Intelligence Agency official has alleged the United States seldom had an ally like Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, who has been more than willing to further its interests.
The former head of the CIA unit for tracking Osama bin Laden, Michael Scheuer, said the steps taken by Musharraf to help the US in Afghanistan were not in "Pakistan's interests".

"The truth is that virtually none of the many things Musharraf has done to assist the US in Afghanistan has been in Pakistan's national interest. By sending the Pakistani Army into the Pashtun regions he brought his country to the brink of civil war," he told the Daily Times.

He said it was wrong for the US to assume that Musharraf's Pakistan was an "American proxy" with national-security interests mirroring those it had.

Musharraf=Shah of Iran=pointless waste of time. Isolated leaders, EVEN if they are PERCEIVED by the gulled as allied with us, have made their plans to escape, switch sides or otherwise get out from under. They cannot be other than cynical responders to pressure. They are not allies.

Continue reading Michael Scheuer may have been a sleeplesy vigilant anti Bin Laden analyst, but he is a moron, and maybe that's the tale.

Pakistan IS on the other side, George, why don't you get this?

By bigadmin on December 26, 2006 4:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

Is he as dumb as the libs have been claiming?

I just DON'T believe that. I just can't encompass that. But then there's ole pootey-poot

but.........

New York Times Reporter: I Was Assaulted by Pakistani Agents

New York Times correspondent Carlotta Gall tells ABC News she was assaulted by plain-clothed government security agents while reporting in Quetta, a Pakistani city near the Afghan frontier where NATO suspects the Taliban hides its shadow government.

Akhtar Soomro, a freelance Pakistani photographer working with Gall, was detained for five-and-a-half hours. According to Gall, the agents broke down the door to her hotel room, after she refused to let them enter, and began to seize her notebooks and laptop. When she tried to stop them, she says one of the men punched her twice in the face and head.

"I fell backwards onto a coffee table smashing the crockery," she recalled in a written account of the incident. "I have heavy bruising on my arms, on my temple and my cheekbone, and swelling on my left eye and a sprained knee."

Hamid Gul's ("The Mossad did 9/11" ...from an INTELLIGENCE AGENCY??) ISI were the paymasters of the the Taliban, and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and other america hating deobandi descended sons of bitches. There is just no doubt in my mind that these bastards not only know who the Pakistani, Waziri based Taliban are, and where they are, but GUARD them zealously from spying american reporters, even those of the Bush hating NYT.

But the problem is that the ISI more closely represents the lunatics of the MMA, the Pakistani people in general and their education, such as it is. These people have been laid low by the teachings of racist, xenophobic, imperialist theofascist salafists.

Yet we persist...

Continue reading Pakistan IS on the other side, George, why don't you get this?.

OOPSI, those pesky pakis pick at prez, plot pell mell

By bigadmin on November 6, 2006 6:00 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Air force officers held for attempt to murder Musharraf with rockets

A cabal of Pakistani military officials with access to President Pervez Musharraf's innermost security circle has been arrested after trying to assassinate him in a rocket attack.
The strike, aimed at the president's high-security personal residence-office in Rawalpindi, took place shortly after he returned from Britain and the US in late September.Although the president was not hurt, the attempt demonstrates the political instability engulfing his nation, which was heightened last week by his government's bombing of a madrassa in north-west Pakistan killing 80 suspected militants.

With hardline religious parties orchestrating strikes and demonstrations, fears are growing that Gen Musharraf's opponents may make further attempts to remove him by force, creating a power vacuum in the Islamic world's only nuclear-armed state.

Gee....I imagine the ISI might have known something, right?
Naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah !

Continue reading OOPSI, those pesky pakis pick at prez, plot pell mell.

The Predator attack aside...Pakistan rules as the tolerant source of intolerance

By bigadmin on November 1, 2006 7:16 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Afghanistan’s intelligence agency said on Tuesday it had arrested three men planning suicide attacks in Kabul, including two from a Pakistan-based cell run by the capital’s Taleban-era deputy police chief.

The two were seized this week while trying to enter the city from neighbouring Logar province, spokesman Sayed Ansari told reporters.
They were part of a Pakistan-based cell organised by Mullah Mohammad Ibrahim Hanifi, who was the deputy police chief of Kabul during the 1996-2001 Taleban regime, he said.

“Mullah Ibrahim Hanifi, who is living in Pakistan, has been organising suicide attacks in southern Afghanistan. The two men we captured were also sent by him,” he said.

The agency was holding another man suspected of being an accomplice to a suicide bomber who killed around a dozen people outside the interior ministry on September 30, Ansari said.

The blast was one of a series of seven that rattled the capital between early September and early October, killing scores of people, including three foreign soldiers.

The suspect had been identified as a Pakistani national sent to Afghanistan by the outlawed Pakistani militant group of Harkat-ul-Mujahideen to carry out a suicide attack, Ansari said.

Harkat-ul-Mujahideen has reported links to the Al Qaeda terror network and is said to be involved in crossborder attacks.

Suicide attacks have soared in Afghanistan this year, with the tactic generally agreed to have been picked up from international militant groups.

The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force said this month there had been 91 such attacks in 2006.

The latest was on Tuesday and killed an Afghan policeman in the southern province of Ghazni, according to authorities.

These attacks have killed 155 civilians, 40 members of the Afghan security forces, six government officials and 14 foreign troops, ISAF said.

The Taleban, ousted from government in a US-led military offensive in 2001, uses suicide and road-side bombings in an insurgency that has peaked this year and seen the rebels take on security forces in sophisticated attacks.

Are we having fun yet with Pakistan?

By bigadmin on October 30, 2006 7:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

laughing%2520chimps.gif

Al Qaida rallies with new funding, recruits and safe havens in Pakistan and Somalia

The bad news is that Al Qaida is staging a comeback.

The worse news is that the comeback is taking place in the most sensitive of U.S. allies — nuclear Pakistan.

Western intelligence sources report that Al Qaida has reorganized and grown far stronger over the past six months. Al Qaida has received fresh funding from a range of prominent Sunnis who see the movement by Osama Bin Laden as the last line of defense against Shi'ite Iran.

Bin Laden has been grateful for the Gulf Arab support. He has eased plots in such countries as Kuwait and Saudi Arabia and has been working on consolidating power in Pakistan and Somalia.

Al Qaida already has all of Somalia for a haven. In Pakistan, the entire frontier with Afghanistan belongs to Al Qaida as the movement has recruited thousands of young Muslims throughout major cities.

Continue reading Are we having fun yet with Pakistan?.

Excuse me while I puke...

By bigadmin on October 25, 2006 6:55 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

File under: I'm so glad Pakistan is on our side

DISGRACED Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan smuggled several nuclear centrifuges to Dubai that may have been transferred to Iran, a Pakistani military official has admitted.

The P2 nuclear centrifuges were also sent to North Korea, said the official, who did not want to be identified.
Reports in Pakistan yesterday quoted the official, who was speaking in Washington, as saying: "If you ask for an educated and intelligent guess, I would say, yes, they might have been sent to Iran too, but we have no evidence to prove it." Pakistani newspapers said the briefing was intended to reassure the world that Islamabad was not officially involved in the proliferation of nuclear technology

I'm so relieved now, aren't you? Let's have a beer and relax

Continue reading Excuse me while I puke....

« Huntington is unassailable | Main Index | Archives | Illegal Immigration »

Recently in I'm so glad Pakistan is on our side Category

Frontier Insurgency Spills Into a Pakistani City