Eid Mubarak!

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Villagers taking on the ‘Fake Taleban’

Haji Karim Salarzai is a leading elder from the Salarzai tribe.

“These so-called Taleban do not know even 10 verses of the Koran, and they call themselves religious scholars!” he declaims from a towering podium on a stage at the front of the hall.

“They have killed elders of the tribes and innocent people, they are miscreants and they are receiving aid from the foreign countries. They are creating an atmosphere of disturbance which has affected the life of the general public in the area.”

More from BBC News

The new world war – the silence is a lie

In the meantime, an American invasion of Pakistan is under way, secretly authorised by President Bush. The “change” candidate for president, Barack Obama, had already called for an invasion and more aircraft and bombs. The ironies are searing. A Pakistani religious school attacked by American drone missiles, killing 23 people, was set up in the 1980s with CIA backing. It was part of Operation Cyclone, in which the US armed and funded mujahedin groups that became al-Qaeda and the Taliban. The aim was to bring down the Soviet Union. This was achieved; it also brought down the Twin Towers.

On 20 September the inevitable response to the latest invasion came with the bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad. For me, it is reminiscent of President Nixon’s invasion of Cambodia in 1970, which was planned as a diversion from the coming defeat in Vietnam. The result was the rise to power of Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge. Today, with Taliban guerrillas closing on Kabul and Nato refusing to conduct serious negotiations, defeat in Afghanistan is also coming.

Read Full Article | John Pilger

Negotiating with the Taleban

It appears that the US and NATO are finally waking up to the realization that the Taleban, like it or not, are here to stay. President Musharraf had always pushed for the Afghan Taleban to be represented in the Afghan government – one of the many reasons of his downfall. Ex Foreign Ministry Kasuri had told NATO in November 2006 to start negotiating with the Taleban and President Musharraf had gone as far as sounding out a clear warning to the West. However, after a string of stunning victories against the US and NATO forces in the summer, the Taleban are now knocking at the gates of Kabul

They may not be model rulers or bastions of freedom and tolerance these Taleban, but there is a strong and growing support for them in the hearts and minds of the ordinary Afghans. Recently we posted how even Hamid Karzai admitted that things were better under Taleban rule.

Why the West thinks it is time to talk to the Taliban | Jason Burke
Negotiations have begun in secret with the enemy in Afghanistan. Jason Burke reveals the back channels of diplomacy that led to the controversial talks

Revealed: secret Taliban peace bid | Jason Burke
Saudis are sponsoring a peace dialogue involving a former senior member of the hardline group

Friends of Zardari

A supposedly ‘grieving’ President Zardari went on to openly flirt with Sarah Palin, who came to condole him on his late wife’ death. At U.N. Mr. Zardari wasted two-thirds of the speech on his late wife. His pain [not Palin!] is understandable but he was standing there as President of Pakistan and not as Husband of BB. This was a visit focused on redeeming him in the eyes of the foreign powers that brokered the ‘deal’ that brought Mr. Zardari to power in exchange for pushing the American agenda and doing things that the military was resisting, like allowing U.S. military boots inside Pakistan. This is how ‘Friends of Pakistan,’ the business event organized in New York to seek economic aid, turned into ‘Friends of Zardari’, with all of the original backers of the ‘deal’ – U.S.’s Condoleezza Rice, U.K.’s David Miliband, and U.A.E.’s Abdullah al-Nahyan – surrounding their man in Islamabad.

Friends of Zardari | Ahmed Quraishi
Watch Video | Zardari Flirting with Palin

Why Would “Terrorists” Want To Decapitate Anti-US Leadership In Pakistan?

After several weeks of international bad press because of drone planes being piloted by 19 year olds with joy-sticks in California, blowing up families in Pakistan willy-nilly, after all that, the “terrorists” in Pakistan decide to blow up a second rate hotel there, killing civilians, and making them the bad guys once again? How’s that for the worst timing ever?

The end result of this attack is to give the U.S. Army and the American politicians all the reason in the world that they would need to continue attacking Pakistan’s population, and taking the international pressure off the Americans to stop bombing their country. The playbook that the CIA has employed over and over again in places like Central America, Italy, Cuba, South America and the Middle East for decades to destabilize and overthrow governments is a tried and tested formula. Hotel bombing doesn’t make sense unless “Al-Qaeda” is working to advance Neo-Con political agenda.

Read Full Article | Paul Joseph Watson

Destabilization of Pakistan – Who benefits most?

For New Delhi this opens a window of opportunity to ensure that the Gwadar port does not fall into the hands of the Chinese. In this, there is synergy between the political objectives of the Americans and the Indians. Our existing goodwill in Baluchistan requires intelligent leveraging.

Sindh and most of the non-Punjabi areas of Pakistan will be our new friends.

Pakistan’s breakup will be a major setback to the Jihad Factory, which functions with the help of its army and the ISI. This in turn will ease pressures on India and the international community.

Read full article | Stable Pakistan not in India’s interest

Web Watch: War on Terror

Amrullah Saleh, the thirty-six-year-old director of Karzai’s spy agency, known as NDS, became the world’s youngest intelligence chief in 2004, at age 32. Since 2005, NDS has emerged as a major source of strategic instability in the region.

The Kid In Kabul | Ahmed Quraishi

 

U.S apologists and poodles inside Pakistan are trying to convince Pakistanis to unnecessarily ‘own’ America’s blunders in the region as Pakistan’s own. Not Owais Ghani, the governor of NWFP. Terrorism inside Pakistan is partially linked to foul play on the Afghan side of the border, and partially to misguided local Pakistani extremists who, again, are influenced from across the border. The real issue is Washington’s failure to bring peace to Afghanistan despite seven years of occupation. Mr. Ghani comes out to tell the truth: The U.S. must broker a power-sharing agreement with the head of the Afghan Taliban, Mullah Omar, in order to establish peace in the region. Mr. Ghani’s also said that Hamid Karzai represents no one but himself and is dependent on a foreign power and that he is an obstacle to bringing peace to Afghanistan. When asked about allegations that Pakistan has used the Taliban to retain its influence in Afghanistan, Mr. Ghani replied: “We could counter that by saying India uses the Northern Alliance.” Mr. Ghani’s landmark proposal came in an interview published by London’s Daily Telegraph. Here are excerpts.

Pakistani Official To U.S.: Talk To Taliban’s Mullah Omar | Isambard Wilkinson

 

Pakistan is being punished for refusing to allow U.S. military boots on Pakistani soil, for the bombings in India, for the July 7 attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul, and for the failures of the American military in Afghanistan. The attack is a clear message to the Pakistani ruling elite: We will bring the war to your home. The Americans are now accusing army chief Gen. Ashfaq Kayani of complicity in bombing the Indian embassy in Kabul, an accusation that even the Indians dared not make. The General is a suspicious man now in the eyes of the Americans and the Zardari government. After its bungled attempt on the ISI, there is a possibility that the pro-U.S. Zardari government might try to remove Gen. Kayani and replace him with a more pliant army chief who can subordinate the Pakistani military to Washington’s agenda in the region. To end this mess, Pakistan needs to say goodbye to the coalition that Washington assembled in 2001 to occupy Afghanistan, a coalition that has shrunk in seven years to only U.S., U.K. and Pakistan.

Islamabad Attack: Time To End Pakistani Role In America’s War | Ahmed Quraishi

Modi ‘cleared’ over Gujarat riots

A commission set up by the government in the western Indian state of Gujarat has exonerated Chief Minister Narendra Modi over religious riots in 2002.

It said there was no evidence that he, his ministers or police were at fault. Gujarat’s authorities were criticised for not doing enough to stop the riots. BBC

You have to applaud how the Biggest Democracy in the World™ functions. Hours are the 2006 Mumbai Bombings, hundreds of muslims are arrested for interrogation by the Mumbai Police. On the other hand, mass murderers and bigots like Mr Modi, are not only allowed to roam free and preach their intolerance and hatred, but also elected to the government offices not once but twice. Well done to ‘Secular’ India.

Related | Gujarat Train Fire ‘An Accident’

Islamabad Attack: Enough is Enough!

Pakistan is being punished for refusing to allow U.S. military boots on Pakistani soil, for the bombings in India, for the July 7 attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul, and for the failures of the American military in Afghanistan. The attack is a clear message to the Pakistani ruling elite: We will bring the war to your home. The Americans are now accusing army chief Gen. Ashfaq Kayani of complicity in bombing the Indian embassy in Kabul, an accusation that even the Indians dared not make. The General is a suspicious man now in the eyes of the Americans and the Zardari government. After its bungled attempt on the ISI, there is a possibility that the pro-U.S. Zardari government might try to remove Gen. Kayani and replace him with a more pliant army chief who can subordinate the Pakistani military to Washington’s agenda in the region. To end this mess, Pakistan needs to say goodbye to the coalition that Washington assembled in 2001 to occupy Afghanistan, a coalition that has shrunk in seven years to only U.S., U.K. and Pakistan.

Read ‘Time To End Pakistani Role In America’s War’ by Ahmed Quraishi, Sept 21, 2008.

You Can’t Be On The Wrong Side Of Pakistan, Mr. Zardari

Asif has stumbled badly on Afghanistan. The macho men who wanted to defy the American juggernaut on the warpath the day after 9/11 are still amongst us, still advising defiance. The day after 9/11 this was sheer foolishness. But it is no longer the day after 9/11. Seven years of the Americans in Afghanistan and reality has changed. Pick up any report on the West’s adventure in Afghanistan and you will find two things: one, U.S. policy in Afghanistan has been a failure; two, U.S. policy in Afghanistan will not succeed without Pakistan being on board.

In the world of realpolitik, this is known as an opportunity. So why must Asif so cravenly accept the Americans letting loose their Special Ops troops and raining down missiles in Waziristan when he can happily unleash? He had every chance at his debut press conference. Instead, he bizarrely chose to speak alongside Karzai. The Afghan president is about as popular in the Pakistani Army as George W. Bush in an Al Qaeda training camp.

Full Article – Cyril Almeida, Sept 19, 2008.

Mehmood Qureshi – What a wimp..!

The Pakistani Foreign Minister Mr. Mahmood Qureshi, in his most apologetic statement yet, told a press conference on Thursday in Islamabad after the departure of U.S. military chief that American attacks are wrong but that Pakistan too must respect others’ sovereignty.

This must be the first instance of a Foreign Minister making a statement against his own country. The Pakistani foreign minister, in essence, condemned the U.S. violations but then indirectly accused Pakistan of violating the sovereignty of Afghanistan, endorsing in a roundabout way the accusations by Karzai and Washington that Pakistani military is involved in creating the resistance that the occupation forces and Karzai’s puppet regime face in Afghanistan.

This in in direct contrast to how the people of Pakistan feel. Here’s a comment left on Ahmed Quraishi’s site in response to the above:

The Pakistani politicians are behaving like wimps. Wimps are fodder for NATO bullies, especially the Americans among them. Genral Kiyani has done exactly the right thing – made it clear that messing with Pakistan will ensure a strong military slap in the face and extensive kickbutt. More of the same is needed. I support your suggestion for taking the war into Afghanistan by Pakistani Taliban and add that the Pakistani armed forces claim and demonstrate the right to hot pursuit. That is to say that those who enter Pakistani territory will be pursued to their bases in Afghanistan. The Americans have a lot of sophisticated war toys – but can these toys subjugate an entire nation? I say not. The American economy is already shaking at its roots and appears unable to sustain the costs of foreign wars. If they try to bluster Pakistan into submission, I say we call their shots. I predict they will back off. (Parvez Amin)

Battle to be won or lost in Bajaur

Predictably, the militants are using everything they have to hold their ground. Government and security officials say that they are baffled by the resilience and stiff resistance offered by the battle-hardened fighters, by their tactics and the sophistication of their weapons and communications systems.

“They have good weaponry and a better communication system (than ours),” said a senior official. “Even the sniper rifles they use are better than some of ours. Their tactics are mind-boggling and they have defences that would take us days to build. It does not look as though we are fighting a rag-tag militia; they are fighting like an organised force.”

Read Full Article | Ismail Khan | Dawn | Sept 21 2008

Target: Pakistan (Watch Video)

“The United States of America uses its B-2 bombers in the year 2012 to launch conventional air-strikes to destroy Pakistani nuclear facilities in a bid to prevent the nukes from falling into the wrong hands. The extraordinary US action follows an unsuccessful Indian conventional attack on Pakistani nukes, and a Retaliatory Pakistani nuclear strike against Indian border forces. This sparks the disintegration and disappearance of Pakistan, and creation of an expanded Indian Confederation or Superstate.”

This is not some Nostradamus indulging in apocalyptic visions. It’s just one of the many futuristic scenarios culled out from the “Asia 2025″ study – a 147-page Opus – conducted by the US under secretary of defence (policy). Written last year and distributed in limited circles, these documents show that US defence planners are now shifting their focus from Europe to Asia where they would wish to contain the threat of an Islamist Pakistan and an economically-resurgent China. This may in future lead the US to seek closer alliance with India. More.

Watch Gen Rtd Talat Masood, Tariq Fatmi & Gen.Rtd Hamid Gul Discuss the threats to Pakistan posed by the US and India

Timidity abroad, feudal ferocity at home

One can trace the whole history of Pakistan-US relations and one will not find a similar supportive statement by the Americans for Pakistan’s strategic interests. In contrast, of course, we can find a plethora of statements by our people, justifying what the US is doing to Pakistan. The present government’s US-sponsored henchmen are doing a wonderful job in this regard, led from the front by supposedly our man in Washington, Haqqani, whose utterances are more as an apologist for the US. Take for example, his statement, at the time of the revelations that Bush had agreed to US forces going into Pakistan and in the immediate aftermath of the Angoor Adda attack – “No US orders of incursions” is what he declared in an interview with CNN! Makes one wonder whom he represents.

Full Article – Shireen M Mazari, September 17, 2008

Pakistan First!

FINALLY the right type of noises coming out of the Pakistani establishment (moreso the military than the civilian leadership)

Pakistan’s military said today its forces had received orders to fire on US troops if they entered Pakistani territory, after a cross-border raid inflamed public opinion.

The country’s civilian leaders, who have taken a tough line against militants, have insisted Pakistan must resolve the dispute with the US through diplomatic channels. But the military has taken a more robust line.

General Athar Abbas, an army spokesman, told the Associated Press that after a cross-border assault in the south Waziristan region earlier this month, the military told its field commanders to take action to prevent any similar raids.

“The orders are clear,” Abbas said in an interview. “In case it happens again in this form, that there is a very significant detection, which is very definite, no ambiguity, across the border, on ground or in the air: open fire.”

Pakistan orders troops to open fire if US raids
Pakistan orders troops to repel U.S. raids
Pakistan to halt oil supply to NATO in case of attack

Israel to train Indian Forces

Israeli media reported that Israeli Army Chief, Major General Avi Mizrahi during his three days stay in India held meetings with Indian military brass and the plan of training the Indian forces. His visit ended with a proposed agreement under which Israel will send teams of commandoes to train Indian troops in counter- militancy operations and urban warfare in the occupied territory.

Avi Mizrahi had earlier visited India, as a Brig-General of the chief of staff of the Israeli ground forces command, in February last year for sharing of military intelligence, equipment, conducting joint training and exercises and “interoperability”. Israeli deputy chief of general staff, Major General Moshe Kaplinsky, visited Jammu & Kashmir, including the 16 Corps headquarters in Nagrota for presumably helping India with “counter- insurgency” operations. He and his delegation also held talks with senior military representatives and Defence Ministry officials on each other’s “security perspectives”.

Source | Source

BREAKING NEWS: ITS ON!!!

Reports coming in from South Waziristan indicate Pakistan Army has succesfully thwarted TWO attempts by the American Forces to enter Pakistan’s territory.

US troops boarded on two helicopters were trying to enter onto Pakistan’s areas near Angoor Adda along Pak-Afghan border when local tribes and troops of Pakistan army resisted the move and opened fire, forcing US helicopters to return.

In the second incident, Pakistani troops fired shots in the air to stop US soldiers from crossing into Pakistan Territory. Reports say seven US helicopters landed on the Afghan side of the border and US troops then tried to cross the border. The standoff lasted a good few hours.

This is a significant development and can shape the future of Pakistan’s policy towards both Afghanistan and the US in days to come. After the US deliberately ignored numerous warnings from the Pakistan Army, it seems the will to fight and defend the soil of Pakistan within the Army will prevail over the greed and incompetence of its politicians.

Pakistan sends fighter jets to tribal region

Source

About F**KING TIME!!

Lets hope we shoot down a couple of those drones to make sure the yanks get the message. Pakistani territory, despite our nuetered politicians, is not to be f**ked around with.

Pakistan Reverses 9/11 Appeasement

After Gen. Kayani’s tough-worded counter statement, an embarrassed Prime Minister Gilani said the statement reflected his government’s policy. But the biggest question mark is the silence of President Zardari. He did not endorse Gen. Kayani’s statement. Even more shocking for Pakistanis was that Mr. Zardari reneged on his promise that China will be his first foreign visit as President. Instead he left for London after a call from British Prime Minister Gordon Brown ‘inviting’ him to London to discuss the new U.S. strategy.

It is clear that President Zardari supports the new U.S. policy and does not agree with the Pakistani military’s warning that it will protect Pakistan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity at all costs.

Mr. Zardari is in power thanks to the arrangement – known as the ‘deal’ – that Washington and London forced Pakistan to accept. His assets are mostly in United States and Britain. There is no way he can risk alienating his backers.

Ahmed Quraishi – 13th, September 2008 – Read Full Article

Also read: Gen. Kayani Must Not Blink, ‘Pakistan Taliban’ Are CIA

Newsweek: Pakistan’s Dangerous Double Game

One jihadist, a 25-year-old named Shah Muhammad who fights for Haqqani, says he recently got caught in a roundup of militants by the Pakistani Army in North Waziristan. After checking the identity papers and the loyalties of the fighters, the soldiers released the Afghans who could prove they were linked to Haqqani and arrested those tribal militants linked to Baitullah Mehsud.

Today, Haqqani has become the ISI’s “darling,” says a former Taliban cabinet minister who is still an active supporter of the insurgency and who would speak only on condition of anonymity for security reasons. According to Jan, the Haqqani defector, the clan frequently received visitors he believed to be ISI operatives in the family’s North Waziristan camps back in 2004. Jan says a young Pakistani Army officer named Salim, who he believed worked out of the ISI office inside the 11th Army Corps’s main base at Miran Shah, located near the Haqqani madrassa complex, used to meet regularly with Siraj. Jan also claims he believes the Pakistanis used to tip off Siraj whenever a U.S. missile strike was imminent. Soon after suddenly huddling with a visitor, whom Jan associated with the ISI, Siraj would immediately change his position and order his men to move from the Miran Shah area to the mountains.

Full Article

US bombing video surfaces – 80 civilians died

US forces in Afghanistan are to reopen an inquiry into an air raid last month after new video evidence emerged indicating scores of civilian deaths. The US had earlier said no more than seven civilians died in the attack n the western province of Herat.

Disturbing footage
The shaky footage – possibly shot with a mobile phone – shows some 40 dead bodies lined up under sheets and blankets inside a mosque. The majority of the dead are children – babies and toddlers, some burned so badly they are barely recognisable. The covers are removed for the camera one by one: a little girl of perhaps four with brown curly hair; a boy with his eyes still eerily open; another girl with huge injuries on the side of her head.

Watch on BBC NEWS

THINK PAKISTAN

“If the citizens neglect their Duty and place unprincipled men in office, the government will soon be corrupted; laws will be made, not for the public good so much as for selfish or local purposes; corrupt or incompetent men will be appointed to execute the Laws; the public revenues will be squandered on unworthy men; and the rights of the citizen will be violated or disregarded.”: Noah Webster – (1758-1843) American patriot and scholar, author of the 1806 edition of the dictionary that bears his name, the first dictionary of American English usage.

Prove us wrong!

One reckoned that since Asif Ali Zardari would not risk declaring his assets, he would drop out of the race for the presidency in favour of his sister, Faryal Talpur. He proved us all wrong. The rather shocking surprise – an anomaly in our laws that allows the Head of State, the only holder of public office, not to declare his (or her) assets. For the record, Musharraf declared his assets every year, so did others before him. Given the stories about Zardari’s many medical reports rendered on oath in foreign courts, it may not be a matter of mental health or credibility any more; perjury is taken very seriously abroad. The president of Pakistan may be immune from prosecution within Pakistan, his person can be prosecuted by courts abroad. Putting himself “in the line of fire” (pun intended), running for the presidency is already an act of courage.

Thursday, September 04, 2008
Ikram Sehgal – Read Full Aricle

India, not Pakistan responsible for the Afghan problems.

Always brushed aside in Washington discussions is the reality that Pakistan still cares for 3.5-million Afghani refugees remaining from the earlier proxy war which the U.S. waged from 1980 to 1988 against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. And, with the U.S.-led conflict against the Taliban in Afghanistan since September 11, 2001, the problems continue to pour from Afghanistan into Pakistan. Moreover, as the U.S. intelligence community is well aware, this is a problem which is exacerbated not only by the Taliban alliance with the so-called al-Qaida movement, moving into Pakistan from Afghanistan, but also because of covert support by the Indian Government and its intelligence services — principally RAW, the Research & Analysis Wing — for the jihadist movement.

India’s involvement follows an historical geopolitical pattern, but much of it is institutionalized as ‘payback’ for Pakistani Government support for the Muslim separatist movement in Indian-occupied Jammu & Kashmir over the past decades. At the same time, close U.S.-Indian intelligence ties at a formal level and within the Afghan battlespace mean that India is feeding a range of ‘tailored intelligence’ into the U.S. system which shapes U.S. political and intelligence perceptions of the situation, encouraging the belief that ‘Pakistan is the problem’ in resolving the counter-Taliban conflict in Afghanistan.

Gregory R. Copley –