The British government today stepped up pressure for talks with more moderate elements of the Taliban as Afghanistan announced its first provincial ceasefire agreement with the militants.
The foreign secretary, David Miliband, said the insurgency was “divided”, with many of those fighting against international forces doing so for “pragmatic” rather than ideological reasons.
‘Colonel Imam’, the ex-Pakistani agent who trained Mullah Omar and the warlords to fight the Soviets, says the US must negotiate with its enemies.
It is unlikely that anybody alive today knows the Afghans as well as Imam. All the key figures were trained in his camps, from the late Ahmad Shah Massoud, the Lion of Panj-shir, to warlords such as Gul-buddin Hekmatyar, his “naughtiest” student. “It was a matter of pride for me that my students later became big commanders,” he said.
Wilmer Leon
President Obama is also ratcheting up the rhetoric and activity in Pakistan. There’s a significant increase in ground forces, Predator drones and air attacks. In his announcement on March 27th, President Obama referred to the border region of Afghanistan/Pakistan as, “the most dangerous place in the world….This is not simply an American problem – far from it. It is, instead, an international security challenge of the highest order. Terrorist attacks in London and Bali were tied to al-Qaida and its allies in Pakistan, as were attacks in North Africa and the Middle East, in Islamabad and Kabul. If there is a major attack on an Asian, European, or African city, it, too, is likely to have ties to al-Qaida’s leadership in Pakistan. The safety of people around the world is at stake.
President Obama and his advisors should learn from history, some ancient some modern, and not repeat it. This is a region of the world that has never been defeated militarily. It is where empires go to die. The Greeks, Indians, Persians, Mongolians, British, and Russians have tried to hold Afghanistan but never succeeded.
At a time when the world media is firing at Pakistan after the arrest of 11 terror suspects of Pakistani origin in a suspected al-Qaeda plot, the good news from the UK went unheard by the media.
While the world media is spewing poison at Pakistan for being a terror-cultivating country, the same media has not highlighted the performance of a UK-based Pakistani student who achieved the ‘Best Young Researcher of the Year’ award at the biggest Geographical Information Science (GIS) conference, known as GISRUK, that was held in Durham, UK, early this month.
Muhammad Adnan is working as computer research officer in the Spatial Literacy in Teaching & Learning (SPLINT) at the Department of Geography, University College London (UCL). Adnan, in an email conversation, said that he is also doing his PhD from the same university.
…Not very big – or terrifying – or a plot, admit British Police.
As nine brown men were deported for having beards, the police blamed the Home Office, the Home Office blamed MI5 and MI5 warned everyone it could kill them with its thumb.
An inquiry will now be launched into why the prime minister was allowed to scare the sh*t out of everyone, though experts insist it may just have had something to do with the news agenda.
A police spokesman said: “We were hoping to charge them with conspiracy to go to the shops to buy crisps and Tizer, but according to our lawyers that that’s not an actual offence, as yet.
“We have therefore taken the precautionary step of sending these men and their potentially explosive beards back from whence they came.”
He added: “Come to think of it, Bob Quick must be absolutely f**king livid. Whadya reckon?”
A spokesman for home secretary Jacqui Smith said: “Embarrassed? No, we’re way, way beyond embarrassment at this stage.
“That’s a bit like asking a streaker if he’s embarrassed because he hasn’t shaved.”
Related:
Pakistan High Commission to contest decision to deport students | demands UK apology.
No Hard Evidence Against Pakistani Students Arrested In Britain
Jason Burke, The Guardian UK
As you weigh up the wisdom of a potential trip to the nearest high street in the light of the “Easter shopping suicide bombings plot”, you might want to recall the “ricin plot” raids, which found no ricin; or the “airline plot” raids, which a jury decided last year did not feature any airlines; or the “cyanide on the tube” plots, which involved neither cyanide nor the tube. Given that Old Trafford is one of the reported potential targets of this latest alleged plot, you might also think back to the last time the stadium was named in relation to Islamist extremism – in 2004 – another alleged plot that turned out to be bunkum.
Clearly, however – and this is the difficulty behind every plot that has turned out to be hype – there are others that have not. There has been 7/7 and 21/7; the “doctors’ plot” of 2007, which targeted nightclubs in London; and the Operation Crevice or “ammonium nitrate plot”, which saw young Britons planning to bomb, among other targets, a giant shopping centre.
Overseas security sources with knowledge of the latest alleged plot describe it as aspirational, not operational. The prime minister says a big imminent attack has been averted, but no hard evidence of intent has as yet turned up. What we do know is that 12 people have been arrested, of whom 11 are Pakistani nationals.
