ISLAMABAD: Two former officials of the premier intelligence agency, Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), and a free lance journalist have gone missing in suspicious circumstances from Kohat.
Family sources of the missing ISI officials Col (retired) Imam and Sq Leader (retired) Khalid Khawaja revealed that these officers were assisting the free lance journalist Asad Qureshi who was making a documentary on Taliban and Al-Qaeda.
They were on way back to their homes after having a meeting with the Taliban leadership in tribal areas when they were allegedly picked up by unknown people. It is yet not clear who kidnapped them.
However, it is pertinent to mention that both the former ISI officers were having close relations with Taliban and Al-Qaeda leadership.—DawnNews
“Too Little, Too Late, We Already Have Superior UAVs”
Mariana Baabar
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan military sources say they are not impressed by the offer of the United States to supply RQ-7 Shadow Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), as they already have superior quality UAVs, which they have upgraded, and which are in use.
The disappointment is understandable since unlike the drones that fly and take out targets inside Pakistan’s Fata region, the ones being offered to Pakistan are unarmed and commonly used for intelligence gathering.
Later, when DG ISPR Major General Athar Abbas was asked about the overall weapons being provided to Pakistan for counterinsurgency and other military supplies, he remarked, “Too little, too late”.
It was US Defence Secretary Robert Gates who, in a meeting with the media at the residence of the US ambassador, said the US was enhancing Pakistan’s intelligence capabilities. He said the offer comes because Islamabad had requested for them. “We have a lot of information on the Afghan side that we share … we also help Pakistan build its own capacity. We will be providing them with UAVs (Shadow) together with equipment and training,” he said.
Pakistan’s army has said it will launch no new offensives on militants in 2010, as the US defence secretary arrived for talks on combating Taliban fighters. Army spokesman Athar Abbas told the BBC the “overstretched” military had no plans for any fresh anti-militant operations over the next 12 months. Our correspondent says the comments are a clear snub to Washington.
The US would like Pakistan to expand an offensive against militants launching cross-border attacks in Afghanistan. Defence Secretary Robert Gates arrived in Pakistan on Thursday for his first visit since US President Barack Obama took office last year.
The one-day trip comes at a crucial time in the fight against al-Qaeda and the Taliban, with the US planning to commit 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan.
Once it was the British, then the French, then the Nazis, followed by the Soviets and now it’s the turn of Al Qaeda. The latest incarnation of bogeyman to haunt the nightmares of America comes in the form of takfiri terrorists – a tiny faction of an extremist sect apparently living in desolate caves and numbering just a few hundred. But the difference with this latest enemy is that while the Americans did not create Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union, they certainly did create Al Qaeda. In the Afghan struggle against Soviet occupation, the CIA was heavily involved in nurturing, funding and organising fighters for their cause. Osama Bin Laden was one among many.
He and his patsies then became accomplices and scapegoats in 9/11 – that massive hoax that justified the unprecedented aggression and wanton destruction that followed. But just as Americans are used to over-egging their cakes, the secret American perpetrators who ‘Made It Happen On Purpose’, found it necessary to invent further hoaxes in order to keep the first one alive.
Musharraf proved excessively compliant from the beginning and this came as a shock even to the Bush Administration, but they realised his limitations in terms of compromises at the tactical level because of the military – which often put a spanner in the US agenda for Pakistan. Hence the constant critique of the Pakistan military and its intelligence outfits – especially once the CIA fell out with the ISI two years ago over whom to target in FATA.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—There is a dangerous pattern connecting the events happening in and around Pakistan today. Unless we can see this larger picture, we will be overwhelmed by the fallout and our detractors like the US will have fulfilled their agenda for this nuclear capable country.
The roots of this US agenda go back to Musharraf’s hasty embrace of the US “war on terror”. What was not realised at the time was the psychological trauma the US had undergone as a result of 9/11, which had led to the bolstering of the already suspicion-tinted view the US had of the Muslim world. Of course, some pliant Muslim leaders were reluctantly embraced as “allies”, but always on a tight leash, but by and large nationalist Muslim leaders and their nations were something the Americans never felt comfortable with. If these nations were also militarily or economically strong, the US felt even more uncomfortable. In this context, Mahathir’s Malaysia, Revolutionary Iran and nuclear Pakistan certainly stood out as irritants in one way or another. So when 9/11 happened, even though it was Saudi citizens who were responsible for the actions, Pakistan was brought centre-stage and the US saw this as the opportunity to cut the country down to size and finally gain control of its nuclear assets.
One of the most remarkable aspects of the Obama Presidential agenda is how little anyone has questioned in the media or elsewhere why at all the United States Pentagon is committed to a military occupation of Afghanistan. There are two basic reasons, neither one of which can be admitted openly to the public at large.
Behind all the deceptive official debate over how many troops are needed to “win” the war in Afghanistan, whether another 30,000 is sufficient, or whether at least 200000 are needed, the real purpose of US military presence in that pivotal Central Asian country is obscured. Even during the 2008 Presidential campaign candidate Obama argued that Afghanistan not Iraq was where the US must wage war. His reason? Because he claimed, that was where the Al Qaeda organization was holed up and that was the “real” threat to US national security. The reasons behind US involvement in Afghanistan is quite another one.
A pro-US fifth column inside Pakistan is now talking about southern Punjab as the hub of Al-Qaeda just as it earlier pointed to Balochistan in the same manner. For those who had failed to connect the dots to the US grand design of targeting Pakistan a year ago, it should be easier today. There are covert US operatives now spread across the length and breadth of Pakistan; drone attacks have increased in frequency since Obama took office; aid packages are demanding unacceptable conditions; the military is being pushed on all fronts, with India increasing its deployments along the western border with Pakistan and aiding low intensity conflict through Afghanistan.
One of the three Swedish nationals arrested nearly two weeks ago in Pakistan is Mehdi Ghezali, a former terror suspect who was released from the United States’ Guantánamo Bay prison in 2004.
According to Sveriges Television (SVT), it was Ghezali, along with two other Swedes and several other foreigners, who was arrested by police in Pakistan on suspicions the group had ties with the Al-Qaeda terrorist network.
“We confiscated a laptop and $10,000 they had with them,” said a spokesperson for the Pakistani military, according to the Expressen newspaper. Continue Reading
Zaid Hamid on the events before and after 9/11, the US Objectives and the global security situation since. This program was recorded in 2008 before the violence erupted in Pakistan’s NWFP and Balochistan regions.
Zaid Hamid will be doing an uncensored program on events since 9/11 and the current situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan – exclusively on Waqt News, on Sunday 13th September, at 4:00 pm. Don’t forget to tune in.
Army Operation Not Intended To Disrupt Afghan Jihad
Islamabad has not targeted Washington’s main enemies — Afghan Taliban and Al-Qaeda leaders on the Pakistani border — and instead has directed its assault on Pakistani Taliban, US officials and analysts say.
Pakistan’s interests ‘don’t necessarily align 100 per cent with the US as well as allies’ interests,’ said a US defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
So far the principle result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan following the events of 9-11 has been the destabilization of Pakistan. That breakdown is peaking with the events in what AP calls the “Swat town” of Mingora—actually a city of 375,000 from which all but 20,000 have fled as government forces moved in, strafing it with gunships. We’re talking urban guerrilla warfare, house-to-house fighting, not on the Afghan border but 50 miles away in the Swat Valley. We’re talking about Pakistani troops fighting to reclaim the nearby Malam Jabba ski resort from the Tehreek-e-Taliban, who since last year have been using it as a training center and logistics base. We’re talking about two million people fleeing the fighting in the valley and 160,000 in government refugee camps.
I was told that the five female members from the Pakistani Parliament visiting Washington this week were interested in women and politics in America, and so I was unprepared for their real agenda, which was to tell the media how disappointed they are that President Obama has adopted his predecessor’s policies when it comes to Pakistan. They shouldn’t have been surprised. Obama said during the campaign that he would fight the Afghanistan war harder. The escalation impacts the Pakistani side of the border, which serves as a sanctuary for Al Qaeda, and is likely where Osama bin may someday be found.
ISLAMABAD: Pakistani authorities are interrogating a British national, James Alexander Mclintock, detained in Peshawar for alleged involvement in terrorist activities.
Mclintock had been illegally staying in Pakistan since Feb 2004 and was arrested a few weeks ago. This is the second time Mclintock had been arrested in Pakistan. He was previously detained in Dec 2001 on allegations of links with terrorism, but was repatriated to the UK in 2002 and was arrested in Manchester in 2003, only to be released soon after without charge. He then managed to sneak into Pakistan after his release and got involved in terrorist activities.
Is this just the tip of an iceberg? Why was Mclintock released by the British Authorities after being handed over to them by Pakistan following his arrest on links with terrorism in Pakistan? Why was he allowed to move to Afghanistan and then sneak into Pakistan? Is Mclintock an undercover operative? Are British agencies involved in carrying our terrorist activities in Pakistan?
It may be worth looking back at Basra, February 19th 2005 when British tanks and helicopter gunships stormed a police station to ‘liberate’ two SAS soldiers.
The soldiers, apparently working undercover, had been arrested after they failed to stop at an Iraqi police roadblock and opened fire instead, killing one and wounding another Iraqi policeman.
The two men were dressed in traditional Arabic dress and the car was loaded with weapons including assault rifles, a light machine gun, an anti-tank weapon, radio gear, an SAS-issue medical kit. The car itself was apparently full of exposives and booby trapped.
What the Administration must absolutely resist is the temptation of more ambitious goals in Afghanistan, like rooting out the entire Taliban or fostering Western-style democracy. We must never forget that it was al-Qaeda who attacked us and not the Taliban, which is not an international terrorist group. If we make the all-too-common mistake of reducing the Taliban to al-Qaeda, it becomes an open-ended and endless war.
Like her husband, Mrs. Zalmay Khalilzad [real name Cheryl Benard] barely conceals her contempt for Pakistan’s right to decide its own national interest. Ahmed Quraishi engaged her in this dialogue on Aljazeera the day after US President Obama announced his new Afghan policy. MUST WATCH
Obama’s policy is clear: drone-launched missile attacks will continue inside the territory of any nation because he considers that international custom and law do not apply to America. He is endorsing a dreadful precedent, and may well come to regret his decision to permit these illegal forays.
India operates Israeli drones and is receiving more. It is possible it could obtain missile-firing Hermes 450s, like the ones that blitzed Sudan and Gaza. And if India believes that there is an installation in Pakistan whose occupants it considers to be terrorists, will it then follow the American example and launch drone-borne missiles to kill people on Pakistan’s soil? What would Mr Obama say about that? Would he condemn the action?
Read this remarkable expose by a renowned American journalist as he paints a picture of our ally, the United States, waging two wars: one against the enemies of its occupation of Afghanistan, and another covert war against Pakistan that involves a lot of psyops backed by sponsored terrorism. Chamberlin writes, ‘“Al Qaida” is an invention of the Bush/Cheney cabal. It never existed before 1999-2000. The bin Laden group, which has been dubbed “al Qaida” is a CIA fabrication, used as a conflict generator/force multiplier. The incident that began Bush’s terror war was also a manufactured event.’
This picture saddened me no end. The proud tribesmen of Pakistan, those who beat the English and the Russians and fought their way to liberate half of the Indian occupied Kashmir are now facing an American conspiracy and a Pakistani complacency.
Another US Expert Guess or calculated tactical move?
Recently, US experts and CIA have concluded that Osama Bin Laden is in Chitral Valley, a scenic area in NWFP province in Pakistan.
On what basis these claims are made is still unknown, but one thing is sure – like the drone attacks in FATA and NWFP, this new “secretly known hide out” of Osama Bin Ladan and possible action against it by CIA has rung bells in intellectual and security circles.
Here is why Chitral is critical in current geo political scenario for Pakistan and for US and NATO.
The “strategic reviewers” of United States President Barack Obama’s “good war” in Afghanistan are almost finished. Even before the new policy is set in stone – in Badakshan’s famed lapis lazuli, maybe? – by Obama himself within the next few days (with sensitive covert aspects of course withheld from public opinion), its contours are raising many an eyebrow.
The new mix will likely feature an ongoing wild goose chase for “good Taliban”; an expanded Central Intelligence Agency-operated drone war (a George W Bush policy decision); assorted CIA and special forces cross-border attacks (also a Bush policy decision); more carrots for the Pentagon-friendly Pakistani army (and Inter-Services Intelligence); more US troops in Afghanistan (starting with the announced 17,000 who will hit Helmand province before summer); and more training for the Afghan army.
General Petraeus’ Afghan ‘surge’ is an attempt to whack the Taleban round the head because they will not negotiate unless they are hurting. This is, broadly speaking, what Henry Kissinger believed of the Vietcong in 1968. The US increased troop numbers to drive them to the table to make concessions.
Rory Stewart has witnessed both our major conflicts. Here, in an extract from a speech at Chatham House, he suggests a new way forward.
For those who savor historical irony, the Soviet Empire collapsed in the years 1989-1991 because of an implosion of its economy brought on by a ruinous arms race with the United States and the heavy costs of occupying Afghanistan.
Seventeen years later came the turn of the world’s other great imperial power, the United States. Lethally bloated by runaway debt, and burdened by 50% of the world’s military spending, the house of cards known as the US economy finally collapsed.
Russian advice: More troops won’t help in Afghanistan
MOSCOW — The old diplomat sighed as he recalled his years in Afghanistan, and then leaned forward and said in a booming voice that no escalation of troops would bring lasting peace.
As the Soviet ambassador to Afghanistan from 1979 to 1986, Fikryat Tabeyev saw the numbers rise to more than 100,000 troops without any possibility of victory against a growing insurgency.
Even with President Barack Obama’s plan initially to send 17,000 more U.S. soldiers and Marines to that mountainous nation this year, the combined NATO-American force will be smaller than the Soviet contingent was. Moscow’s failure to pacify Afghanistan, which broke the back of the Soviet Union, doesn’t mean that the same fate awaits Obama’s efforts, but ignoring a decade of experience there would be a mistake, former envoys and generals warn.
Two public officials – the Navy chief and a deputy attorney general – together have destroyed Rehman Malik’s case of ‘admission of guilt’ in Mumbai attacks. The government has fired the deputy attorney general for taking a stand, but no one in the Pakistani media noticed since it is busy in the latest Pakistani political circus. But it is this story that could unravel this staunchly pro-U.S. setup.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—Two developments in Pakistan have thwarted the deliberate effort of Pakistan’s pro-U.S. government to take the Mumbai investigations on a path that leads to placing the blame on the Pakistani military and intelligence.
The two developments, one by a public prosecutor and the other by the Pakistani military, confirms that the Zardari government, and especially his confidant and interior adviser Rehman Malik, deliberately led Pakistan into acquiescence to American and Indian demands by accepting partial responsibility for Mumbai attacks without verifiable evidence. It also raises questions about the motives of this government.
The first development took place on Feb. 18, when Zardari government’s special public prosecutor in the Mumbai attacks Sardar Mohammad Ghazi issued a statement saying Islamabad is formally requesting India to extradite Ajmal Kassab, the alleged lone survivor of the Mumbai attacks. This was a surprising statement considering how the Zardari government unilaterally accepted – on behalf of Pakistan – every single piece of questionable Indian and American ‘evidence’ linking the attacks to elements with past links to Pakistani intelligence.
Sardar’s statement shook the Indians and the Americans, who lobbied hard to ensure Pakistan accepted some responsibility for the attacks as a prelude to implicating Pakistan’s ISI.
Pakistani investigators have yet to independently confirm that Kassab is indeed a Pakistani citizen, or that the person in Indian custody is indeed Ajmal Kassab.
Since the new US administration is in the process of reviewing the US policy on the so-called war of terrorism, it may be a good time to put forward a few points as a fuel for new thoughts aimed at having a constructive discussion and analyzing the tough situation starkly facing the world community. The proposed changes in our policy will hopefully not only help securing the US interests but also promote global stability in general and that of South and Central Asia in particular. Since America has been acting, and quite deservingly so, as a leader of the free and civilized world, American policies must reflect the values of civilized human life and truly respect the globally recognized human rights. Obama administration must shun the disgraced and disastrous policies of neocons that were aimed at enslaving other nations economically, occupying others lands, and grabbing others natural resources – all in the name of US national interest and security. That change ought to be a corner stone of the US foreign policy and its goals.
Brian Cloughley
Another US Expert Guess or calculated tactical move?
