Liya Jaye Ga Tujh say Kaam Dunya Ki Imamat Ka

Afia too Abroo-e-Ummat -e- Marhoom Hai

2010-02-05T00:39:00.000-08:00

Looking at her house from outside the feeling has always been much of shame and agony ..a banner placed at the watchman 's tent outside the quite and big house says ..

Qaum ki beti Afia ko riha karo ..[Release the Daughter of the nation]

where people outside the very house are busy in their own lives , some singing the songs of democracy [ or DEMOCRAZY as i would like to call it ] while others are staunchly busy in alligning themselves as moderates who continue to distance themselves from any Afia owing to the reason that it will either get them in danger or will expose their faiths in real.

we are living in a mad world today ...the killer is the innocent and the innocent is the alleged killer here.

Asmat Siddiqui would have never in her wildest dreams thought of her daughter being kidnappedand sent to Bagram air base for no reason.. she wouldnt have known that in order to be eligible for being the AL QAEDA lady ..her daughter only has to openly talk about her faith, live a normal life and practice her faith giving no harm to any one around her. Afia is not a woman who is held for no crime , the fanatic jury members admit that the forensice evidence is missing from the Gun that she is alleged to have used against the american soldiers , also her reported location at that time is of enough doubt considering the reporting of her kidnapping by US intelligence agencies from Karachi..this verdict only reflects the audacity to lie and establish that as a fact ..she is an image that will be useful for the zionist and the real extremists for the years to come to haunt the other AFIAs all over the world. we may be modern in our attire just like Dr. Mahwish whose residence in Naval Complex and a brother in the armed forces doesnt deter them from their task. The aim is simple and straight , instill fear ..and fear of the kind that not only you will be taken out but your family will suffer too , your childern will be homeless and your lives will change forever

whats even more surprising is the rather blunt strategy in use..considering the profile of Afia who was friendly with all be it any race , color or religion , a highly educated woman and a graduate from one of the top universities of the world , and humble in all her relationships. she was not a target by any means and that made her the perfect target for a crusade mission of its own kind.

its ironic how ever that in a country where O J simpson gets away with his murder crimes and and where in some states lawlessness takes the guise of CULTURAL and society norms , jury giving a verdict of the most horrific kind is no wonder indeed.After all it was never about justice in the first place.This war is not only psychological but also driven by faith ..

Afia or no Afia ...Islam will rule the world anyway insha'ALLAH , however Afia Siddiqui's name will be written in the books of history as the lady who symbolized faith in ONENESS of ALLAH ,istiqamaah and strength of character..and this will give rise to more and more Afias to come..A momin or a mominah for that matter can never be defied thru fear or injustice only.

Today as homage to this brave and courageous woman we solute Afia Siddiqui for giving us hope of a new dawn ..insha'ALLAH ..we are with you sister every single sec that u suffer at the hands of these evil butchers and monsters who continue to make you go thru hell..but ALLAH has best plans and the tides will turn indeed insha'ALLAH..ameen

Afghan Mujahideen : NOT FOR SALE

2010-02-05T00:08:00.000-08:00

Kabul’s Western allies want to pay Taliban fighters to quit the insurgency. Lots of luck.
Ron Moreau
Representatives from nearly 70 countries showed up in London on Jan. 28 for a one-day conference on how to save Afghanistan. President Hamid Karzai was there, gamely offering “peace and reconciliation” to all Afghans, “especially” those “who are not a part of Al Qaeda or other terrorist networks.” He didn’t mention why the Taliban would accept such an offer while they believe they’re winning the war. Others at the conference had what they evidently considered more realistic solutions—such as paying Taliban fighters to quit the insurgency. Participants reportedly pledged some $500 million to support that aim. “You don’t make peace with your friends,” said U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. True enough. But what if your enemies don’t want peace?
My NEWSWEEK colleague Sami Yousafzai laughs at the notion that the Taliban can be bought or bribed. Few journalists, officials, or analysts know the Taliban the way he does. If the leadership, commanders, and subcommanders wanted comfortable lives, he says, they would have made their deals long ago. Instead they stayed committed to their cause even when they were on the run, with barely a hope of survival. Now they’re back in action across much of the south, east, and west, the provinces surrounding Kabul, and chunks of the north. They used to hope they might reach this point in 15 or 20 years. They’ve done it in eight. Many of them see this as proof that God is indeed on their side. The mujahedin warlords who regained power in the 2001 U.S. invasion have grown fabulously wealthy since then. The senior Taliban leader Jalaluddin Haqqani could have done the same. Now he and his fellow Taliban are gunning for those opportunists.
Only a few relatively low-level Taliban commanders and fighters have defected, and they rue the day they did. Most of them now live hand-to-mouth in Kabul, exiled from their home villages. Sami has introduced me to some of them. They only wish they could return to the embrace of Haqqani or Mullah Baradar, the Taliban’s No. 2 leader after Mullah Mohammed Omar, but they know they’d be killed if they were foolish enough to try. The Taliban don’t give second chances. Even if Karzai and his U.S.-NATO allies offer great gobs of money to defecting Taliban, where could they go with it? They couldn’t go home for fear of being put to death by their former comrades in arms. They wouldn’t want to live in expensive Kabul, where people on the streets would make fun of their country ways, huge black turbans, and kohl eyeliner. They hate everything that Kabul represents: a sinful place of coed schools, dancing, drinking, music, movies, prostitution, and the accumulation of wealth. “Falcons fly with falcons, not with other birds,” the Taliban say. In other words, you can’t negotiate and live with secular people.
Karzai and his regime have practically no credibility anyway. No one trusts his promises, and they regard his government as an evil thing, a heretical, apostate regime. More than that, however, Taliban tend to take offense at the very idea of a buyout. As one fighter told Sami indignantly, “You can’t buy my ideology, my religion. It’s an insult.” In terms of defection, the closest thing to a “success” story is the former Taliban commander Mullah Salam. He quit the insurgency two years ago, was allowed to keep most of his men and weapons, and was given the governorship of his home district of Musa Qala, in Helmand province. Nevertheless he lives under constant threat of assassination, and Musa Qala remains a very insecure place.
Most Taliban feel comfortable only in the backcountry villages, where their world view is essentially shared by locals. There’s a huge and growing disconnect—social, economic, and perhaps even spiritual—between the cities and the countryside. In villages where the Taliban have a strong presence, there is little or no conflict between Taliban virtues and local customs, from the wearing of long beards to heeding the call for prayer, keeping the sexes separate in public, adhering to Islamic law, and not tolerating crime. Especially in the countryside, most ordinary Pashtuns regard themselves as the big losers in the past eight years of Karzai’s rule and foreign military presence. As they see it, accurately or not, their ethnic rivals—the Tajiks, Uzbeks, and Hazara—have received the spoils of the Taliban’s defeat, while Pashtun villages have suffered from official abuse, corruption, neglect, and war.

That’s one reason the Taliban aren’t as unpopular in the villages as Western-funded polls appear to indicate. Unlike the Karzai government, they have proved their ability to deliver swift Islamic justice and keep their villages free from crime. The respected Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid often says there has been no pro-Taliban uprising because most Afghans dislike the movement. On the other hand, though, few Pashtun villagers have mobilized against the insurgents. Perhaps most important, the Taliban’s leadership is confident of the movement’s cohesiveness. Although the insurgency lacks a single, unified command, its leaders all fight in the name of Mullah Omar and his defunct Islamic Emirate. “No one,” they say, “can fly just on his own wings.” The Quetta Shura, its Peshawar offshoot, the Haqqani network in the east, and individual commanders in the north—all different command structures led by different personalities—all derive their spiritual authority and political clout from the “commander of the faithful.” If their ranks remained unbroken through years of being hunted, jailed, killed, outgunned, outmanned, and outspent, they feel confident now that their leaders and lieutenants can’t be bought, as senior Taliban commander Mullah Nasir recently observed to Sami.
Most Taliban seem genuinely convinced that they are carrying out the will of God. One sign of that faith is the apparently endless supply of suicide bombers. The Americans still seem not to have grasped the full import of this. The Taliban are not fighting for a share of power; they want to restore Islamic law throughout the country, with no talk of compromise. They despise their nominal ally Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who has said that suicide bombings are not justified under Islam and who talks of possible power-sharing deals with Karzai. A “son of dollars,” they call him: someone who cannot be trusted, someone who does not share their goal of reimposing Sharia over all of Afghanistan.
Karzai is hopeless. He reads from a script he knows will please his Western patrons: new drives for good governance, transparency, narcotics suppression, the building of the Afghan security forces, economic development, etc. Nevertheless, for the past eight years he and his appointees have been incapable of delivering a fraction of what he has promised, and there’s no reason to think the next year or two will be any different. He’s a nice guy, is not corrupt, and doubtless means well. But he is not a leader or a judge of men, and he has no vision. He promises everything to everyone, as he did in the last election, but nothing comes of it. No one in his administration gets fired or jailed for egregious behavior. The harshest punishment for malfeasance is transfer to a perhaps less lucrative position.
The London conference was a futile exercise. Once again Washington and its allies are looking for solutions that don’t exist: a new Karzai, bribing the Taliban, negotiating with the Taliban. No Taliban leader of any stature seems to have entered into negotiations thus far. U.N. special envoy Kai Eide reportedly met in Dubai on Jan. 6 with Afghans who claimed to represent the Taliban and said they could pass messages to the Quetta Shura, but it’s unlikely that their mission was actually sanctioned by anyone in the senior leadership. (The U.N. says no such meeting took place.) The United Nations has made a big deal of removing the names of five supposed Taliban from its blacklist, but the Taliban couldn’t care less. They’re not itching to travel to Geneva or New York or open bank accounts. They’ve got a war to fight at home.

Source : www.pakistankakhudahafiz.wordpress.com

CIA Spy Assassin – An Inside Job?

2010-01-16T09:48:00.000-08:00

Source : PKKH

Seven CIA agents were killed by another CIA agent who had conveniently met with and recorded a video with yet another CIA agent. To untangle this web, we need to ask the age-old question – ‘who benefits?
The recent assassination of seven CIA spies in Afghanistan at the hands of another CIA spy has raised a host of questions about the operations of the infamous agency. Since its creation, the CIA’s history is replete with murder, drug running, false flag attacks and God only knows what else evil for the sake of the ever-expanding American empire. Could it be that the incident at the Afghan spy base is yet another black feather in the agencies cap?

A Jordanian double agent was able to pass through multiple security checks and blow up the spies in Khost with relative ease in what is the most successful attack on the agency in years. Yet questions were immediately raised when the world was told that the Jordanian was due to meet seven high-ranking CIA officers allegedly in order to exchange critical intelligence on the whereabouts of Ayman al Zawahiri – al Qaeda’s number two.

The CIA’s bread and butter business is murder, theft and extortion, and runs counter to all law, natural or man-made. Yet the agency has for the sake of its operational expediency, a few rules which are inviolable. The meeting itself was a violation of CIA protocol, which dictates that agents meet only with their handlers and no one else. The idea that an astonishing SEVEN agents rushed especially to meet the Jordanian goes totally against the agency rule-book. That this meeting could even take place only makes sense if we surmise that it was authorized from the highest echelons of the agency

In addition, the video that conveniently surfaced afterwards of the Jordanian bomber holding hands with TTP arch-terrorist Hakimullah Mehsud only further muddies the waters. What did the TTP have to do with targeting the CIA, or anything American, when their primary (only) target has always been Pakistani Muslims? Why would the TTP waste time on making MTV videos when they are desperately on the run from the Pakistan Army? After all, the TTP is itself a CIA sponsored and funded outfit. Why are they physically biting the hand that feeds them?
The fact is, the TTP is on the ropes having been eliminated first from Swat, and then South Waziristan. Its rampage of terror against innocent Pakistani civilians has shocked and appalled the population at large who are now convinced that the group must be destroyed at any cost. Having totally much of its public support, operational capability and ability to destabilize the Pakistani state, the TTP has dramatically faded in value as an asset for the CIA. Meanwhile, with the American war in Afghanistan getting worse and worse in terms of tangible results, the CIA is being targeted by a cross-section of the American media for its continual intelligence failures.

Put simply, seven CIA agents were killed by another CIA agent who had conveniently met with and recorded a video with yet another CIA agent. By having the Jordanian kill its own, the CIA bigwigs may have sought to kill the proverbial two birds with one assassin. First, with its agents dead, the CIA was able to mobilize American public support for the American Afghan surge and respect for its ‘sacrifices’. Second, with the bombers TTP connection, the CIA may have hoped that the terrorist group might regain some of its lost credibility amongst the Pakistani people by being affiliated with a successful attack on the ‘hated’ CIA.

The CIA would kill its own agents without any hesitation at all. It has done so often in its sordid history. The sheer ruthlessness with which this terrorist agency conducts its operations is well documented. But this time its scheme flopped. Pakistani opinion was unmoved regarding the TTP and the American media only asked yet more cutting questions of the agency. Yet when the attempt to resurrect the TTP in Pakistan failed, the CIA desperately diverted the issue by planting stories in the US and Indian media of the possibility of the ISI’s involvement in the attack on its spies. Many stories falsely alleged that traces from ISI origin military grade explosives had been found at the scene. Lies upon lies!

Whereas in some places the CIA inspires fear and awe, in Pakistan, it only inspires anger and contempt. The Pakistani people are wise to the chicanery of this devious organization. Through its sponsorship of the TTP and its buy-out of the corrupt political classes, the CIA has openly declared its malicious intent to balkanize, denuclearize and destroy the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

They plot and they plan, but Allah is the best of Planners!

Are Hindu Extremists Going To Sabotage This Year’s Commonwealth Games In India?

2010-01-16T09:40:00.000-08:00

Source : PKKH
Written by : Pakistan Ka Khuda HafiZ
Sumayya Chawla | ,PKKH Editorial Team
After reports of threats made by the Hindu Extremist party, Shiv Sena, against the Australian cricket team, the Australian government and media are now very concerned about the safety of their players in India. So they should be. This threat was issued in reaction to incidents of random violent attacks against Indian nationals in some Australian cities. While the concern of the Indian government about the safety of its citizens is justified, it should be noted that Shiv Sena or the Army of Lord Shiva, is the same right wing Hindu extremist political party that has over the past years orchestrated violence against minorities in India, intimidated political opponents and carried out a reign of terror and intimidation against anyone who dares to speak against their hate-mongering leader Mr. Bal Thackeray. Hence if Bal Thackeray has issued a threat against the visitors, it is indeed a worrisome development for the international community in terms of the security of their players during the Commonwealth games which are to be held in India this year.

There is a long list of heinous acts of violence that have been perpetrated by Hindu extremist parties like Shiv Sena for decades in India.

Apart from a history of genocide against Muslims, more than 2500 Muslims were massacred in 2002 in the Indian state of Gujarat where horrible scenes of arson, mutation and rape were perpetrated by the Hindu extremists against the unarmed Muslims. However, the hatred of the Hindu extremists is not limited towards Muslims; As recently as 2009 there have been violent attacks and alleged “reconversion” of over 1,700 Christians in the week leading up to Christmas by Hindu extremists. Something similar happened in August 2008 when around 600 Christians became victims of violent attacks by Hindu Extremists in Eastern India. It is noteworthy that Shiv Sena, the party that has issued threats against the Australian cricketers, is also one of the main military wings of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a Hindu extremist organization that influences the policies of every single political party in India, be it BJP, Congress or any other. In a recent talk show, RSS spokesman Tarun Vijay dubbed Australians as the “most atrocious and horrendous racists on this planet”.

It is indeed ‘atrocious’ that this statement came from an organization that leads all the Hindu extremists groups, which are many and are mushrooming into newer and deadlier groups, and adhere to the violent ideology that Hinduism is the only religion and culture acceptable for humanity and that it is perfectly legitimate to use violence as means to achieve their goals. Perhaps, this is the reason why some officials in Australia are already sounding the alarm and casting doubts on Australia’s participation in the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi. Sunshine Coast swimmer Nick D’Arcy alleged that he has been told by Swimming Australia insiders that the 2010 Commonwealth Games may have to be abandoned due to security concerns. Apparently, it’s not just the Aussies who are feeling the heat. England too, is seriously considering pulling out of this year’s Commonwealth Games in India over fears its athletes will be victims of a terrorist attack, only this time the threat is from India’s home-grown Hindu fanatics.

This threat also puts the thousands of Australian and other foreign professionals currently working or residing in India in a very risky position, for it is likely that in such a situation they might be targeted by this politically and ideologically motivated bunch of Hindutva activists. A recent cartoon, likening the Victorian police with the Ku Klux Klan shows the extremes to which the Indian media has gone to portray the incidents in Australia in a racial light. Therefore, a little urging from the likes of Bal Thackeray will be enough to set off mobs of inflamed and angry right wing militants seeking ‘revenge’ on the visitors. The extent of this concern can be determined by the reports that the Australian athletes participating in the Commonwealth games, if (and that is a big If) they are held in India at all, will be accompanied by members of the Australian Federal Police. If this happens, it will be a complete embarrassment for the Indian government as it would be a clear indication that it is entirely incapacitated and helpless before the right wing Hindu extremists.

The international community should perhaps seriously weigh in on the options that they have in terms of holding the Commonwealth games in another country as the simmering tensions between India and Australia, especially in view of the threats issued by Shiv Sena set a dangerous precedent for all those attending the games. Adding to this threat is the havoc that Maoist rebels are creating inside India along with several other separatist movements by rebel groups in the North East. The country is fast turning into a dangerous cocktail of Right Wing Hindu extremism and unrest among the minorities that have been long-oppressed by the Brahmin ruling elite. It would only be rational and responsible on behalf of all the relevant governments to think twice before sending their athletes to what is fast turning into one of the most dangerous places in the Sub-Continent for non-Hindus.

Aman Ki Asha ..Chaankiya tactic Bollywood style

2010-01-10T03:00:00.000-08:00

At first it seems like a heavenly idea , two brothers from 'same tribe' who once separated due to UNKNOWN reasons coming together and hoping to rekindle the love that was either lost or forgotten.

This is bollywood style spoken in urdu to a pakistani audience and what a beauitful treat ..did you even think of it ..BIG B ..the same Big B who is such a phenomenal celebrity and seems like a man from mars interms of acheivements ..achievements indeed ..no man with a heart for humanity can become friends with Baal Thackrey ..and close to the extent that Thakrey comes to his defence when ever BIG B needed it ..now thats what one calls success ..in one of his interview Thackrey commented

"Bachchan is not only my friend , we have family relations. When ever he has time he
comes over and visits us.Our friendship has lasted fourty years and there has been
no strain in our relationship"..
Source : The Hindu / 28/02/07

on the same side of the shining indian spectrum there are bollywood singers , actors and writer ..Gulzar ..the great Gulzar so to speak ..the man who not once in his life regretted missing the very train that was enroute to Pakistan during the time of partition ..despite being refused the right to own property in cities like mumbai owing to the fact that he is muslim after all ..none of these hindu apologists dare to go against the hinduvita ...

Another famous name in the indian politics Narinder Modi who is seen or rather eyed as the next Prime Minister of the biggest democracy is a man that requires no introduction , soon he may be seen stirring the jhankaar of peace from that side of the border , but history will remember him as pharoah of Gujrat ..

Varun Gandhi sheds more light on the Hindu mentality ..rather more blatantly ...

on the pakistan side however u see ...all those LIBERALS who have dedicated their lives to the shame that is cause to them because they are pakistanis .. what a pity indeed ..if we are so low as a nation why the Police man of South Asia wants to be friends with us in the first place, shouldnt the criteria for friendship with a country having the remarkable stature as india be challenging consequently...the answer lies in history and psychology of the chaankiya ideology ...

Quran says ..Indeed there are signs for Men of Understanding -[ sura Al Baqarah]

but these men and women are 'liberals' they cant understand the simple fact that India happens to be the state that is sponsoring terroism in the Land of Pure using different fronts including Afghanistan , Nepal and other neighboring countries. For them to have friendship with India is the next best thing that may open doors for dance schools , prospering of Arts and Music , and most of all a softening of the image from this side of the border. All this according to these people who are in stunning minority is no big cost that is paid against National Indentity , Pride and National Security. what these apologists fail to see is the hardended and staunch caste system , the social injustice that is way beyond our imaginations , the poverty that indians despite their so called economic successes have failed to curtail , the rising aggressions of the Hindu Extremism etc. All this is overlooked when compared with the glitz and glam of media and bollywood and the songs that are written on the premise of hypnosis .

Here is a final video dedicated to the sponsors of Aman Ki Asha :)

cow urine as drink in india

Peace is not a state of mind , its not fiction , peace is only made real when the two sides having conflict either make amends for the losses they caused to eachother or respect eachother's identities and existence. If only peace can be initiated by songs and flashy movies ..the world would have been no less than heaven.

The Real Quaid E Azam - a MUST Watch

2009-12-27T03:18:00.000-08:00

BrassTacks : Youm-e-Iqbal Special Part 1

2009-12-27T03:10:00.000-08:00

Blackwater is involved in bombings in Pakistan: Gen. Durrani

2009-12-17T02:53:00.000-08:00

Courtesy : PKKH www.Pakistankakhudahafiz.wordpress.com

“My assessment is that they — either themselves or most probably through others, through the locals — do carry out some of the explosions”.

Former chief of the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) General Mohammad Asad Durrani sits down with Press TV and talks about the presence of Blackwater in Pakistan. The following is the transcript of the interview:

Press TV: General Durrani, US intelligence officials say that the CIA has cancelled the Blackwater contract but other reports indicate that there are at least three thousand Blackwater agents in Pakistan. What do make of these conflicting reports?

General Durrani: This may be true that the Blackwater’s contract has been cancelled but then this is also understood that such people are under a different name, whether it is Xe or Dyncorp or in any other form of private contractor-ship that they can be employed. In our case, such people have been around for a number of years now. Lately their number has increased. Some rationalization had been made that these people were required to provide security to more Americans coming because of the package they have worked out for Pakistan. But then on ground, there [are] a number of them, some of them in training facilities trying to suggest that they are there to train the police or the army or the air force.

Of course, I can also add that none of these organizations are very happy that they have been offered. Some of them have even refused training because they believe that they can be trained by them. But, in that form they are there. Others are certainly providing security and there is also a third group, which goes around, especially in the frontier area, with the NGOs and bring(s) the intelligence collection. So, the number I am not aware of but there is a contingent which is present in Pakistan.

Press TV: Analysts say that Blackwater agents are involved in bombings and that they are fomenting insecurity in Pakistan. What is your opinion?

General Durrani: My assessment is that they — either themselves or most probably through others, through the locals — do carry out some of the explosions. You see the idea is that there are other groups that are not acting on their behalf, which are acting locally because of so many reasons. They are not happy with our policy. They are not happy with whatever is happening in Afghanistan. The idea is to carry out such actions, like carrying attacks in the civilian areas to make the others look bad in the eyes of the public. Even those groups who are not targeting the civilians or were not going essentially for Pakistani targets … people should turn against them. And the second idea, which I think more or less they have succeeded, is to force the Pakistani [government] to even under take such operations where I was not initially willing to go.

Press TV: CIA officials say Blackwater has been in Pakistan to help with drone attacks. Is this the only reason why the CIA has hired Blackwater agents?

General Durrani: You see I am not aware of this statement as [of] yet. The headquarters, some of them come here to direct or carry out what we call target identification. I doubt it very much that this would be the job of people whom I consider to have been understandably involved with Blackwater operations. These operations of target identification have to be done un-reclusively. They should not look like Americans; they are people who are trained to match with the background. Intelligence work; and I cannot say that the Blackwater’s people are trained in such manner, learning the language, learning the local customs, so that they can go into those trouble areas.

Press TV: Blackwater is known for killing civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan. Why has the Pakistani government allowed such a notorious US security firm to operate in the country?

General Durrani: You’re absolutely right. I think this is about the best question that one can pose. People either were naive that they did not believe that these were Blackwaters or these people would not get involved in it. The second theory goes around that they may have come with the consent and with the knowledge of some of the people that we have in the government — among which I do not know, I cannot say very much. If it is not the ambassador of the United States who has cleared them, who has sent them, or people here, these agencies, who have accepted them. But that is one of the perceptions. But essentially it is correct that anyone who comes and we allow those people [to] come without proper security clearance, without proper vetting and investigation, then it is indeed our fault.

Pakistan holding up some US visas

2009-12-17T02:50:00.000-08:00

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan has held up visas for U.S. diplomats, military service members and others, apparently because of hostility within the country toward the expansion of U.S. operations in Pakistan, a senior U.S. diplomat said Wednesday.
American diplomats have also been stopped repeatedly at Pakistani checkpoints as part of what U.S. officials say is a wider focus on foreigners working in Pakistan. The U.S. cars are searched, although diplomats are told to open the trunk but to refuse access to the passenger compartment.
The U.S. diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe sensitive interaction between the two countries, said that the visa clampdown seems to be a reaction to widespread anti-American sentiment, even though many of the affected workers would be doing jobs that bring aid and other help to Pakistan.
The official said the reaction is probably temporary and that the U.S. does not plan to do more than press Pakistani authorities to relent.
The U.S. embassy is already large and expanding, with plans to go from about 500 employees to more than 800 over the next 18 months. Most of the growth is related to the expansion of U.S. aid to Pakistan, some of which comes with requirements for accounting and oversight that have rankled Pakistanis.
The official said that at the embassy, several employees have gone home for Christmas leave and will be unable to return because the Pakistani authorities have not expended their visas. In all, 135 visa extensions have been denied, the official said. Other visa applications have been rejected outright, but U.S. authorities have not collected data on how many.
The official said Pakistani authorities have not provided a comprehensive response to American complaints, and that several ministries are involved. That allows Pakistani authorities to spread the blame, the official said.
The official said that among those whose visas were held up are mechanics who tend to a fleet of U.S. helicopters that supports Pakistani military operations in the frontier areas.
The helicopters stopped flying when there were insufficient mechanics to maintain them, the official said. Some visas were approved after Pakistani authorities inquired about the grounded helicopters.
In October, President Barack Obama signed into law a $7.5 billion aid package for Pakistan. Pakistan’s military criticized the aid as American meddling in the country’s internal affairs.
The measure provides $1.5 billion annually over five years for economic and social programs and comes as Pakistan faces a string of violent militant attacks and bombings as its military orchestrates an offensive into the Taliban heartland.
The law is the Obama administration’s attempt to strengthen the weak civilian government in Islamabad and encourage its fight against Taliban and al-Qaida militants operating along the border with Afghanistan, where the United States is fighting an eight-year war.
The stability of a nuclear-armed Pakistan is deemed crucial to U.S.-led efforts to battle extremists in South Asia.
The White House said the law, which was passed unanimously by Congress, is “the tangible manifestation of broad support for Pakistan in the U.S.”
The legislation requires the secretary of state to report to Congress every six months on whether Pakistan’s civilian government maintains effective control over the military’s budgets, chain of command and top promotions.
The White House said the requirements are “accountability measures” placed on the United States to ensure that the aid directly benefits the Pakistani people. It said that the law does not seek to micromanage Pakistani military or civilian affairs, “including the promotion of Pakistani military officers or the internal operations of the Pakistani military.”

Courtesy : PKKH ..
www.pakistankakhudahafiz.wordpress.com

TSS with Zaid Hamid and Shireen Mazari

2009-12-08T13:29:00.000-08:00

Crisis of Actions ...a nation with national pride amiss

2009-12-05T10:31:00.000-08:00

As i write these lines here ..i hear in background somewhere in neighborhood , indian music being played in full volume and chants and whistles much to the similar chaos we experience often at mehndis and dance routines these days ...

Just yesterday 40 lives were taken in a serious barbaric and inhuman fashion...why say inhuman when its about taking lives anyway..because the victims and the shaheeds were doing nothing but praying their most important Salaat of the week..the Juma prayers...

on the contrary ,life is very much the same ..and business is all usual everywhere in the country except only where these men are fighting for this land of pure and doing all they can to avert the hostile actions of ENEMIES ..

For USSR , cold war was easy , it was just the US mainly allied with some countries in europe and military might was very much going hand in hand with the other's deceptive hostile strategies ...for Hitler it was easy too , he knew who is raising alarm and where ..all these wars were text book wars and thus history is easy to gather for fact finding..

Pakistan whereas faces a serious MODERN face of warfare where all these hostile agencies and countries are up against one common enemy and that too with out a declared conditions for peace if any ...mainly due to the lack of reasoning behind their so called motives.

For years we have been hearing tales of how army robbed this nation of democracy , and some Generals manipulated and toyed with the HOLY constitution ..where as the NRO and SRO looters shrug their shoulders labelling the khakis invasion of political grounds as invalid...ironically its only the men in these very khakis are the sole target of criticism from abroad aswell ..that allies the enemy and the black sheep JUST HERE..and in result situations like NRO and SRO result countering all that is good and all that can be done good to this land of Pure.

Thus when a political SO called leader ..dies he is termed 'shaheed' with so much care and respect and public holidays are resulted to honor the dead ..so he / she gets away cleanly not only with all the corruption behind him/her but they also get the very status of SAINT ..where people flock to their mazaars ..and pay homage for God knows what reasons..

WHERE as when a man in khakhi gives his life ...no flashy funeral ..no mourning or REVIEW in foreign policy is even thought of ...instead it is taken seriously FOR GRANTED ...

yesterday not only these honorable men were targetted but their kids as well , question is asked WHY ...BECAUSE they care because it is these very people that are seen as the sole keepers of the pride and honor that this amazing country possesses with in ...only if we recognize that ...

TTP claims that they targetted the masjid...because it belonged to Pakistan Army and so who was there and who wasnt it doesnt matter , according to Wali ur Rehman ...sadly still some of the politicians insist upon negotiating with TTP..

solution lies in staying NO- PARTY based country and uniting the whole nation ...rise Pakistan and do what you are destined to do ..INSHA'ALLAH

“I Just Cant Stop Failing”: Agni Missile of India‏

2009-11-25T03:03:00.000-08:00

Source : PKKH

Indian Agni Missile test Failed again? Yes, again. This should not be a surprise for anyone, most of India’s Missiles don’t work and are just dead weights shooting out hot air and nothing else.

Al Hamdullillah Pakistan has always done successful Missile Tests, and Inshallah in future we will do successful tests as well. Defense scientists and military commanders today downed shutters, with each of the authorities denying responsibility after the failure of an Agni II missile that was being tested last night.

This is the second failure of the 2000km-range nuclear-capable missile this year after claims by the defence establishment that it was inducted by the armed forces five years back. The missile was said to have been proven by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) before the army took possession for deployment in 2004.

It was developed by the DRDO’s Advanced Systems Laboratory, Hyderabad, and integrated by the defence public sector unit Bharat Dynamics Ltd in association with private companies. DRDO sources said they could not comment because the Agni II now belonged to the Strategic Forces Command (SFC), which was conducting the trial.

Military sources said, however, that DRDO scientists were monitoring the test and that they would be able to explain what had happened after an investigation that could take up to two weeks. The SFC is a unified command of the three armed forces that reports to the Nuclear Command Authority headed by the Prime Minister.

The SFC is the custodian of nuclear weapons and their delivery systems. DRDO sources said they could not comment because the Agni II now belonged to the SFC. Military sources said DRDO scientists were monitoring the test and they will be able to explain what happened after an investigation that could take up to two weeks.

A scientist said the missile was launched successfully but went off its pre-set trajectory about a minute after lift-off when it was at a height of about 20km. The missile has a two-stage thrust, the first lasting about 60 seconds and the second about 50 seconds. The possibility is that the second-stage booster did not fire in the way it was expected to. Strangely, the last failure, in May, was also said to be at the second stage.

On that occasion, when the missile was fired at 10.06 in the morning, it did not travel the full distance. “The Indian Scientists and engineers could not figure out the problem of second stage failure in six months yet they went ahead with another failed test.”Visual evidence from last night, said the scientist, suggests the missile fell into the Bay of Bengal off Wheeler’s Island, near Orissa’s Balasore.

The Agni series of missiles is part of the DRDO’s Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme (IGMDP) first headed by A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. The Agni III with a range of 3,500km failed a test in 2007.

Blackwater’s Secret War in Pakistan‏

2009-11-25T02:43:00.000-08:00

JEREMY SCAHILL
November 23, 2009

At a covert forward operating base run by the US Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) in the Pakistani port city of Karachi, members of an elite division of Blackwater are at the center of a secret program in which they plan targeted assassinations of suspected Taliban and Al Qaeda operatives, “snatch and grabs” of high-value targets and other sensitive action inside and outside Pakistan, an investigation by The Nation has found. The Blackwater operatives also assist in gathering intelligence and help run a secret US military drone bombing campaign that runs parallel to the well-documented CIA predator strikes, according to a well-placed source within the US military intelligence apparatus.

The source, who has worked on covert US military programs for years, including in Afghanistan and Pakistan, has direct knowledge of Blackwater’s involvement. He spoke to The Nationon condition of anonymity because the program is classified. The source said that the program is so “compartmentalized” that senior figures within the Obama administration and the US military chain of command may not be aware of its existence.

The White House did not return calls or email messages seeking comment for this story. Capt. John Kirby, the spokesperson for Adm. Michael Mullen, Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told The Nation, “We do not discuss current operations one way or the other, regardless of their nature.” A defense official, on background, specifically denied that Blackwater performs work on drone strikes or intelligence for JSOC in Pakistan. “We don’t have any contracts to do that work for us. We don’t contract that kind of work out, period,” the official said. “There has not been, and is not now, contracts between JSOC and that organization for these types of services.” The previously unreported program, the military intelligence source said, is distinct from the CIA assassination program that the agency’s director, Leon Panetta, announced he had canceled in June 2009. “This is a parallel operation to the CIA,” said the source. “They are two separate beasts.” The program puts Blackwater at the epicenter of a US military operation within the borders of a nation against which the United States has not declared war–knowledge that could further strain the already tense relations between the United States and Pakistan. In 2006, the United States and Pakistan struck a deal that authorized JSOC to enter Pakistan to hunt Osama bin Laden with the understanding that Pakistan would deny it had given permission.

Officially, the United States is not supposed to have any active military operations in the country. Blackwater, which recently changed its name to Xe Services and US Training Center, denies the company is operating in Pakistan. “Xe Services has only one employee in Pakistan performing construction oversight for the U.S. Government,” Blackwater spokesperson Mark Corallo said in a statement to The Nation, adding that the company has “no other operations of any kind in Pakistan.”

A former senior executive at Blackwater confirmed the military intelligence source’s claim that the company is working in Pakistan for the CIA and JSOC, the premier counterterrorism and covert operations force within the military. He said that Blackwater is also working for the Pakistani government on a subcontract with an Islamabad-based security firm that puts US Blackwater operatives on the ground with Pakistani forces in counter-terrorism operations, including house raids and border interdictions, in the North-West Frontier Province and elsewhere in Pakistan. This arrangement, the former executive said, allows the Pakistani government to utilize former US Special Operations forces who now work for Blackwater while denying an official US military presence in the country. He also confirmed that Blackwater has a facility in Karachi and has personnel deployed elsewhere in Pakistan. The former executive spoke on condition of anonymity.

His account and that of the military intelligence source were borne out by a US military source who has knowledge of Special Forces actions in Pakistan and Afghanistan. When asked about Blackwater’s covert work for JSOC in Pakistan, this source, who also asked for anonymity, told The Nation, “From my information that I have, that is absolutely correct,” adding, “There’s no question that’s occurring.”

“It wouldn’t surprise me because we’ve outsourced nearly everything,” said Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, who served as Secretary of State Colin Powell’s chief of staff from 2002 to 2005, when told of Blackwater’s role in Pakistan. Wilkerson said that during his time in the Bush administration, he saw the beginnings of Blackwater’s involvement with the sensitive operations of the military and CIA. “Part of this, of course, is an attempt to get around the constraints the Congress has placed on DoD. If you don’t have sufficient soldiers to do it, you hire civilians to do it. I mean, it’s that simple. It would not surprise me.”

The Counterterrorism Tag Team in Karachi

The covert JSOC program with Blackwater in Pakistan dates back to at least 2007, according to the military intelligence source. The current head of JSOC is Vice Adm. William McRaven, who took over the post from Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who headed JSOC from 2003 to 2008 before being named the top US commander in Afghanistan. Blackwater’s presence in Pakistan is “not really visible, and that’s why nobody has cracked down on it,” said the source. Blackwater’s operations in Pakistan, he said, are not done through State Department contracts or publicly identified Defense contracts. “It’s Blackwater via JSOC, and it’s a classified no-bid [contract] approved on a rolling basis.” The main JSOC/Blackwater facility in Karachi, according to the source, is nondescript: three trailers with various generators, satellite phones and computer systems are used as a makeshift operations center. “It’s a very rudimentary operation,” says the source. “I would compare it to [CIA] outposts in Kurdistan or any of the Special Forces outposts. It’s very bare bones, and that’s the point.”

Blackwater’s work for JSOC in Karachi is coordinated out of a Task Force based at Bagram Air Base in neighboring Afghanistan, according to the military intelligence source. While JSOC technically runs the operations in Karachi, he said, it is largely staffed by former US special operations soldiers working for a division of Blackwater, once known as Blackwater SELECT, and intelligence analysts working for a Blackwater affiliate, Total Intelligence Solutions (TIS), which is owned by Blackwater’s founder, Erik Prince. The military source said that the name Blackwater SELECT may have been changed recently. Total Intelligence, which is run out of an office on the ninth floor of a building in the Ballston area of Arlington, Virginia, is staffed by former analysts and operatives from the CIA, DIA, FBI and other agencies. It is modeled after the CIA’s counterterrorism center. In Karachi, TIS runs a “media-scouring/open-source network,” according to the source. Until recently, Total Intelligence was run by two former top CIA officials, Cofer Black and Robert Richer, both of whom have left the company. In Pakistan, Blackwater is not using either its original name or its new moniker, Xe Services, according to the former Blackwater executive.

“They are running most of their work through TIS because the other two [names] have such a stain on them,” he said. Corallo, the Blackwater spokesperson, denied that TIS or any other division or affiliate of Blackwater has any personnel in Pakistan.

The US military intelligence source said that Blackwater’s classified contracts keep getting renewed at the request of JSOC. Blackwater, he said, is already so deeply entrenched that it has become a staple of the US military operations in Pakistan. According to the former Blackwater executive, “The politics that go with the brand of BW is somewhat set aside because what you’re doing is really one military guy to another.” Blackwater’s first known contract with the CIA for operations in Afghanistan was awarded in 2002 and was for work along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.

One of the concerns raised by the military intelligence source is that some Blackwater personnel are being given rolling security clearances above their approved clearances. Using Alternative Compartmentalized Control Measures (ACCMs), he said, the Blackwater personnel are granted clearance to a Special Access Program, the bureaucratic term used to describe highly classified “black” operations. “With an ACCM, the security manager can grant access to you to be exposed to and operate within compartmentalized programs far above ’secret’–even though you have no business doing so,” said the source. It allows Blackwater personnel that “do not have the requisite security clearance or do not hold a security clearance whatsoever to participate in classified operations by virtue of trust,” he added. “Think of it as an ultra-exclusive level above top secret. That’s exactly what it is: a circle of love.” Blackwater, therefore, has access to “all source” reports that are culled in part from JSOC units in the field. “That’s how a lot of things over the years have been conducted with contractors,” said the source. “We have contractors that regularly see things that top policy-makers don’t unless they ask.”

According to the source, Blackwater has effectively marketed itself as a company whose operatives have “conducted lethal direct action missions and now, for a price, you can have your own planning cell. JSOC just ate that up,” he said, adding, “They have a sizable force in Pakistan–not for any nefarious purpose if you really want to look at it that way–but to support a legitimate contract that’s classified for JSOC.” Blackwater’s Pakistan JSOC contracts are secret and are therefore shielded from public oversight, he said. The source is not sure when the arrangement with JSOC began, but he says that a spin-off of Blackwater SELECT “was issued a no-bid contract for support to shooters for a JSOC Task Force and they kept extending it.” Some of the Blackwater personnel, he said, work undercover as aid workers. “Nobody even gives them a second thought.”

The military intelligence source said that the Blackwater/JSOC Karachi operation is referred to as “Qatar cubed,” in reference to the US forward operating base in Qatar that served as the hub for the planning and implementation of the US invasion of Iraq. “This is supposed to be the brave new world,” he says. “This is the Jamestown of the new millennium and it’s meant to be a lily pad. You can jump off to Uzbekistan, you can jump back over the border, you can jump sideways, you can jump northwest. It’s strategically located so that they can get their people wherever they have to without having to wrangle with the military chain of command in Afghanistan, which is convoluted. They don’t have to deal with that because they’re operating under a classified mandate.”

In addition to planning drone strikes and operations against suspected Al Qaeda and Taliban forces in Pakistan for both JSOC and the CIA, the Blackwater team in Karachi also helps plan missions for JSOC inside Uzbekistan against the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, according to the military intelligence source. Blackwater does not actually carry out the operations, he said, which are executed on the ground by JSOC forces. “That piqued my curiosity and really worries me because I don’t know if you noticed but I was never told we are at war with Uzbekistan,” he said. “So, did I miss something, did Rumsfeld come back into power?”

Pakistan’s Military Contracting Maze
Blackwater, according to the military intelligence source, is not doing the actual killing as part of its work in Pakistan. “The SELECT personnel are not going into places with private aircraft and going after targets,” he said. “It’s not like Blackwater SELECT people are running around assassinating people.” Instead, US Special Forces teams carry out the plans developed in part by Blackwater. The military intelligence source drew a distinction between the Blackwater operatives who work for the State Department, which he calls “Blackwater Vanilla,” and the seasoned Special Forces veterans who work on the JSOC program. “Good or bad, there’s a small number of people who know how to pull off an operation like that. That’s probably a good thing,” said the source. “It’s the Blackwater SELECT people that have and continue to plan these types of operations because they’re the only people that know how and they went where the money was. It’s not trigger-happy fucks, like some of the PSD [Personal Security Detail] guys. These are not people that believe that Barack Obama is a socialist, these are not people that kill innocent civilians. They’re very good at what they do.”

The former Blackwater executive, when asked for confirmation that Blackwater forces were not actively killing people in Pakistan, said, “that’s not entirely accurate.” While he concurred with the military intelligence source’s description of the JSOC and CIA programs, he pointed to another role Blackwater is allegedly playing in Pakistan, not for the US government but for Islamabad. According to the executive, Blackwater works on a subcontract for Kestral Logistics, a powerful Pakistani firm, which specializes in military logistical support, private security and intelligence consulting. It is staffed with former high-ranking Pakistani army and government officials. While Kestral’s main offices are in Pakistan, it also has branches in several other countries.

A spokesperson for the US State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC), which is responsible for issuing licenses to US corporations to provide defense-related services to foreign governments or entities, would neither confirm nor deny for The Nation that Blackwater has a license to work in Pakistan or to work with Kestral. “We cannot help you,” said department spokesperson David McKeeby after checking with the relevant DDTC officials. “You’ll have to contact the companies directly.” Blackwater’s Corallo said the company has “no operations of any kind” in Pakistan other than the one employee working for the DoD. Kestral did not respond to inquiries from The Nation.

According to federal lobbying records, Kestral recently hired former Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Roger Noriega, who served in that post from 2003 to 2005, to lobby the US government, including the State Department, USAID and Congress, on foreign affairs issues “regarding [Kestral's] capabilities to carry out activities of interest to the United States.” Noriega was hired through his firm, Vision Americas, which he runs with Christina Rocca, a former CIA operations official who served as assistant secretary of state for South Asian affairs from 2001 to 2006 and was deeply involved in shaping US policy toward Pakistan. In October 2009, Kestral paid Vision Americas $15,000 and paid a Vision Americas-affiliated firm, Firecreek Ltd., an equal amount to lobby on defense and foreign policy issues.

For years, Kestral has done a robust business in defense logistics with the Pakistani government and other nations, as well as top US defense companies. Blackwater owner Erik Prince is close with Kestral CEO Liaquat Ali Baig, according to the former Blackwater executive. “Ali and Erik have a pretty close relationship,” he said. “They’ve met many times and struck a deal, and they [offer] mutual support for one another.” Working with Kestral, he said, Blackwater has provided convoy security for Defense Department shipments destined for Afghanistan that would arrive in the port at Karachi. Blackwater, according to the former executive, would guard the supplies as they were transported overland from Karachi to Peshawar and then west through the Torkham border crossing, the most important supply route for the US military in Afghanistan.

According to the former executive, Blackwater operatives also integrate with Kestral’s forces in sensitive counterterrorism operations in the North-West Frontier Province, where they work in conjunction with the Pakistani Interior Ministry’s paramilitary force, known as the Frontier Corps (alternately referred to as “frontier scouts”). The Blackwater personnel are technically advisers, but the former executive said that the line often gets blurred in the field. Blackwater “is providing the actual guidance on how to do [counterterrorism operations] and Kestral’s folks are carrying a lot of them out, but they’re having the guidance and the overwatch from some BW guys that will actually go out with the teams when they’re executing the job,” he said. “You can see how that can lead to other things in the border areas.” He said that when Blackwater personnel are out with the Pakistani teams, sometimes its men engage in operations against suspected terrorists. “You’ve got BW guys that are assisting… and they’re all going to want to go on the jobs–so they’re going to go with them,” he said. “So, the things that you’re seeing in the news about how this Pakistani military group came in and raided this house or did this or did that–in some of those cases, you’re going to have Western folks that are right there at the house, if not in the house.” Blackwater, he said, is paid by the Pakistani government through Kestral for consulting services. “That gives the Pakistani government the cover to say, ‘Hey, no, we don’t have any Westerners doing this. It’s all local and our people are doing it.’ But it gets them the expertise that Westerners provide for [counterterrorism]-related work.”

The military intelligence source confirmed Blackwater works with the Frontier Corps, saying, “There’s no real oversight. It’s not really on people’s radar screen.”

In October, in response to Pakistani news reports that a Kestral warehouse in Islamabad was being used to store heavy weapons for Blackwater, the US Embassy in Pakistan released a statement denying the weapons were being used by “a private American security contractor.” The statement said, “Kestral Logistics is a private logistics company that handles the importation of equipment and supplies provided by the United States to the Government of Pakistan. All of the equipment and supplies were imported at the request of the Government of Pakistan, which also certified the shipments.”

Who is Behind the Drone Attacks?
Since President Barack Obama was inaugurated, the United States has expanded drone bombing raids in Pakistan. Obama first ordered a drone strike against targets in North and South Waziristan on January 23, and the strikes have been conducted consistently ever since. The Obama administration has now surpassed the number of Bush-era strikes in Pakistan and has faced fierce criticism from Pakistan and some US lawmakers over civilian deaths. A drone attack in June killed as many as sixty people attending a Taliban funeral.

In August, the New York Times reported that Blackwater works for the CIA at “hidden bases in Pakistan and Afghanistan, where the company’s contractors assemble and load Hellfire missiles and 500-pound laser-guided bombs on remotely piloted Predator aircraft.” In February, The Times of London obtained a satellite image of a secret CIA airbase in Shamsi, in Pakistan’s southwestern province of Baluchistan, showing three drone aircraft. The New York Times also reported that the agency uses a secret base in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, to strike in Pakistan.

The military intelligence source says that the drone strike that reportedly killed Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, his wife and his bodyguards in Waziristan in August was a CIA strike, but that many others attributed in media reports to the CIA are actually JSOC strikes. “Some of these strikes are attributed to OGA [Other Government Agency,
intelligence parlance for the CIA], but in reality it’s JSOC and their parallel program of UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles] because they also have access to UAVs. So when you see some of these hits, especially the ones with high civilian casualties, those are almost always JSOC strikes.” The Pentagon has stated bluntly, “There are no US military strike operations being conducted in Pakistan.”

The military intelligence source also confirmed that Blackwater continues to work for the CIA on its drone bombing program in Pakistan, as previously reported in the New York Times, but added that Blackwater is working on JSOC’s drone bombings as well. “It’s Blackwater running the program for both CIA and JSOC,” said the source. When civilians are killed, “people go, ‘Oh, it’s the CIA doing crazy shit again unchecked.’ Well, at least 50 percent of the time, that’s JSOC [hitting] somebody they’ve identified through HUMINT [human intelligence] or they’ve culled the intelligence themselves or it’s been shared with them and they take that person out and that’s how it works.”

The military intelligence source says that the CIA operations are subject to Congressional oversight, unlike the parallel JSOC bombings. “Targeted killings are not the most popular thing in town right now and the CIA knows that,” he says. “Contractors and especially JSOC personnel working under a classified mandate are not [overseen by Congress], so they just don’t care. If there’s one person they’re going after and there’s thirty-four people in the building, thirty-five people are going to die. That’s the mentality.” He added, “They’re not accountable to anybody and they know that. It’s an open secret, but what are you going to do, shut down JSOC?”

In addition to working on covert action planning and drone strikes, Blackwater SELECT also provides private guards to perform the sensitive task of security for secret US drone bases, JSOC camps and Defense Intelligence Agency camps inside Pakistan, according to the military intelligence source.

Mosharraf Zaidi, a well-known Pakistani journalist who has served as a consultant for the UN and European Union in Pakistan and Afghanistan, says that the Blackwater/JSOC program raises serious questions about the norms of international relations. “The immediate question is, How do you define the active pursuit of military objectives in a country with which not only have you not declared war but that is supposedly a front-line non-NATO ally in the US struggle to contain extremist violence coming out of Afghanistan and the border regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan?” asks Zaidi, who is currently a columnist for The News, the biggest English-language daily in Pakistan. “Let’s forget Blackwater for a second. What this is confirming is that there are US military operations in Pakistan that aren’t about logistics or getting food to Bagram; that are actually about the exercise of physical violence, physical force inside of Pakistani territory.”

JSOC: Rumsfeld and Cheney’s Extra Special Force
Colonel Wilkerson said that he is concerned that with General McChrystal’s elevation as the military commander of the Afghan war–which is increasingly seeping into Pakistan–there is a concomitant rise in JSOC’s power and influence within the military structure. “I don’t see how you can escape that; it’s just a matter of the way the authority flows and the power flows, and it’s inevitable, I think,” Wilkerson toldThe Nation. He added, “I’m alarmed when I see execute orders and combat orders that go out saying that the supporting force is Central Command and the supported force is Special Operations Command,” under which JSOC operates. “That’s backward. But that’s essentially what we have today.”

From 2003 to 2008 McChrystal headed JSOC, which is headquartered at Pope Air Force Base and Fort Bragg in North Carolina, where Blackwater’s 7,000-acre operating base is also situated. JSOC controls the Army’s Delta Force, the Navy’s SEAL Team 6, as well as the Army’s 75th Ranger Regiment and 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, and the Air Force’s 24th Special Tactics Squadron. JSOC performs strike operations, reconnaissance in denied areas and special intelligence missions. Blackwater, which was founded by former Navy SEALs, employs scores of veteran Special Forces operators–which several former military officials pointed to as the basis for Blackwater’s alleged contracts with JSOC.

Since 9/11, many top-level Special Forces veterans have taken up employment with private firms, where they can make more money doing the highly specialized work they did in uniform. “The Blackwater individuals have the experience. A lot of these individuals are retired military, and they’ve been around twenty to thirty years and have experience that the younger Green Beret guys don’t,” said retired Army Lieut. Col. Jeffrey Addicott, a well-connected military lawyer who served as senior legal counsel for US Army Special Forces. “They’re known entities. Everybody knows who they are, what their capabilities are, and they’ve got the experience. They’re very valuable.”

“They make much more money being the smarts of these operations, planning hits in various countries and basing it off their experience in Chechnya, Bosnia, Somalia, Ethiopia,” said the military intelligence source. “They were there for all of these things, they know what the hell they’re talking about. And JSOC has unfortunately lost the institutional capability to plan within, so they hire back people that used to work for them and had already planned and executed these [types of] operations. They hired back people that jumped over to Blackwater SELECT and then pay them exorbitant amounts of money to plan future operations. It’s a ridiculous revolving door.”

While JSOC has long played a central role in US counterterrorism and covert operations, military and civilian officials who worked at the Defense and State Departments during the Bush administration described in interviews with The Nation an extremely cozy relationship that developed between the executive branch (primarily through Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld) and JSOC. During the Bush era, Special Forces turned into a virtual stand-alone operation that acted outside the military chain of command and in direct coordination with the White House. Throughout the Bush years, it was largely General McChrystal who ran JSOC. “What I was seeing was the development of what I would later see in Iraq and Afghanistan, where Special Operations forces would operate in both theaters without the conventional commander even knowing what they were doing,” said Colonel Wilkerson. “That’s dangerous, that’s very dangerous. You have all kinds of mess when you don’t tell the theater commander what you’re doing.”

Wilkerson said that almost immediately after assuming his role at the State Department under Colin Powell, he saw JSOC being politicized and developing a close relationship with the executive branch. He saw this begin, he said, after his first Delta Force briefing at Fort Bragg. “I think Cheney and Rumsfeld went directly into JSOC. I think they went into JSOC at times, perhaps most frequently, without the SOCOM [Special Operations] commander at the time even knowing it. The receptivity in JSOC was quite good,” says Wilkerson. “I think Cheney was actually giving McChrystal instructions, and McChrystal was asking him for instructions.” He said the relationship between JSOC and Cheney and Rumsfeld “built up initially because Rumsfeld didn’t get the responsiveness. He didn’t get the can-do kind of attitude out of the SOCOM commander, and so as Rumsfeld was wont to do, he cut him out and went straight to the horse’s mouth. At that point you had JSOC operating as an extension of the [administration] doing things the executive branch–read: Cheney and Rumsfeld–wanted it to do. This would be more or less carte blanche. You need to do it, do it. It was very alarming for me as a conventional soldier.”

Wilkerson said the JSOC teams caused diplomatic problems for the United States across the globe. “When these teams started hitting capital cities and other places all around the world, [Rumsfeld] didn’t tell the State Department either. The only way we found out about it is our ambassadors started to call us and say, ‘Who the hell are these six-foot-four white males with eighteen-inch biceps walking around our capital cities?’ So we discovered this, we discovered one in South America, for example, because he actually murdered a taxi driver, and we had to get him out of there real quick. We rendered him–we rendered him home.”

As part of their strategy, Rumsfeld and Cheney also created the Strategic Support Branch (SSB), which pulled intelligence resources from the Defense Intelligence Agency and the CIA for use in sensitive JSOC operations. The SSB was created using “reprogrammed” funds “without explicit congressional authority or appropriation,” according to the Washington Post. The SSB operated outside the military chain of command and circumvented the CIA’s authority on clandestine operations. Rumsfeld created it as part of his war to end “near total dependence on CIA.” Under US law, the Defense Department is required to report all deployment orders to Congress. But guidelines issued in January 2005 by former Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Stephen Cambone stated that Special Operations forces may “conduct clandestine HUMINT operations…before publication” of a deployment order. This effectively gave Rumsfeld unilateral control over clandestine operations.

The military intelligence source said that when Rumsfeld was defense secretary, JSOC was deployed to commit some of the “darkest acts” in part to keep them concealed from Congress. “Everything can be justified as a military operation versus a clandestine intelligence performed by the CIA, which has to be informed to Congress,” said the source. “They were aware of that and they knew that, and they would exploit it at every turn and they took full advantage of it. They knew they could act extra-legally and nothing would happen because A, it was sanctioned by DoD at the highest levels, and B, who was going to stop them? They were preparing the battlefield, which was on all of the PowerPoints: ‘Preparing the Battlefield.’”

The significance of the flexibility of JSOC’s operations inside Pakistan versus the CIA’s is best summed up by Senator Dianne Feinstein, chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. “Every single intelligence operation and covert action must be briefed to the Congress,” she said. “If they are not, that is a violation of the law.”

Blackwater: Company Non Grata in Pakistan
For months, the Pakistani media has been flooded with stories about Blackwater’s alleged growing presence in the country. For the most part, these stories have been ignored by the US press and denounced as lies or propaganda by US officials in Pakistan. But the reality is that, although many of the stories appear to be wildly exaggerated, Pakistanis have good reason to be concerned about Blackwater’s operations in their country. It is no secret in Washington or Islamabad that Blackwater has been a central part of the wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan and that the company has been involved–almost from the beginning of the “war on terror”–with clandestine US operations. Indeed, Blackwater is accepting applications for contractors fluent in Urdu and Punjabi. The US Ambassador to Pakistan, Anne Patterson, has denied Blackwater’s presence in the country, stating bluntly in September, “Blackwater is not operating in Pakistan.” In her trip to Pakistan in October, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton dodged questions from the Pakistani press about Blackwater’s rumored Pakistani operations. Pakistan’s interior minister, Rehman Malik, said on November 21 he will resign if Blackwater is found operating anywhere in Pakistan.

The Christian Science Monitor recently reported that Blackwater “provides security for a US-backed aid project” in Peshawar, suggesting the company may be based out of the Pearl Continental, a luxury hotel the United States reportedly is considering purchasing to use as a consulate in the city. “We have no contracts in Pakistan,” Blackwater spokesperson Stacey DeLuke said recently. “We’ve been blamed for all that has gone wrong in Peshawar, none of which is true, since we have absolutely no presence there.”
Reports of Blackwater’s alleged presence in Karachi and elsewhere in the country have been floating around the Pakistani press for months. Hamid Mir, a prominent Pakistani journalist who rose to fame after his 1997 interview with Osama bin Laden, claimed in a recent interview that Blackwater is in Karachi. “The US [intelligence] agencies think that a number of Al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders are hiding in Karachi and Peshawar,” he said.

“That is why [Blackwater] agents are operating in these two cities.” Ambassador Patterson has said that the claims of Mir and other Pakistani journalists are “wildly incorrect,” saying they had compromised the security of US personnel in Pakistan. On November 20 theWashington Times, citing three current and former US intelligence officials, reported that Mullah Mohammed Omar, the leader of the Afghan Taliban, has “found refuge from potential U.S. attacks” in Karachi “with the assistance of Pakistan’s intelligence service.”
In September, the Pakistani press covered a report on Blackwater allegedly submitted by Pakistan’s intelligence agencies to the federal interior ministry. In the report, the intelligence agencies reportedly allege that Blackwater was provided houses by a federal minister who is also helping them clear shipments of weapons and vehicles through Karachi’s Port Qasim on the coast of the Arabian Sea. The military intelligence source did not confirm this but did say, “The port jives because they have a lot of [former] SEALs and they would revert to what they know: the ocean, instead of flying stuff in.”

The Nation cannot independently confirm these allegations and has not seen the Pakistani intelligence report. But according to Pakistani press coverage, the intelligence report also said Blackwater has acquired “bungalows” in the Defense Housing Authority in the city. According to the DHA website, it is a large gated community established “for the welfare of the serving and retired officers of the Armed Forces of Pakistan.” Its motto is: “Home for Defenders.” The report alleges Blackwater is receiving help from local government officials in Karachi and is using vehicles with license plates traditionally assigned to members of the national and provincial assemblies, meaning local law enforcement will not stop them.

The use of private companies like Blackwater for sensitive operations such as drone strikes or other covert work undoubtedly comes with the benefit of plausible deniability that places an additional barrier in an already deeply flawed system of accountability. When things go wrong, it’s the contractors’ fault, not the government’s. But the widespread use of contractors also raises serious legal questions, particularly when they are a part of lethal, covert actions. “We are using contractors for things that in the past might have been considered to be a violation of the Geneva Convention,” said Lt. Col. Addicott, who now runs the Center for Terrorism Law at St. Mary’s University School of Law in San Antonio, Texas. “In my opinion, we have pressed the envelope to the breaking limit, and it’s almost a fiction that these guys are not in offensive military operations.” Addicott added, “If we were subjected to the International Criminal Court, some of these guys could easily be picked up, charged with war crimes and put on trial. That’s one of the reasons we’re not members of the International Criminal Court.”

If there is one quality that has defined Blackwater over the past decade, it is the ability to survive against the odds while simultaneously reinventing and rebranding itself. That is most evident in Afghanistan, where the company continues to work for the US military, the CIA and the State Department despite intense criticism and almost weekly scandals. Blackwater’s alleged Pakistan operations, said the military intelligence source, are indicative of its new frontier. “Having learned its lessons after the private security contracting fiasco in Iraq, Blackwater has shifted its operational focus to two venues: protecting things that are in danger and anticipating other places we’re going to go as a nation that are dangerous,” he said. “It’s as simple as that.”

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

Zaid Hamid Interview on Azaan TV

2009-11-18T06:26:00.000-08:00

India Destablilizing Pakistan ..More Evidence

2009-11-18T06:23:00.000-08:00

LAHORE – Explosive material used in the deadly bomb blast which took place at Khyber Bazaar Peshawar last month, was identical to what had been used in exploding Samjhota Express in India, sources confined to The Nation Monday.

The explosive material – Vehicle Born Improvised Explosive Device (VBIED) – was used in Khyber Bazaar bomb blast.

Sources say the Pakistani security agencies have found concrete evidences to prove Indian involvement in Khyber Bazaar blast in which VBIED was used.

Sources close the development revealed that the Indian intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) was behind the terrible blast which left more than 42 innocent people dead and 100 others wounded, including women and children.

“Lt Col Prohit of the Indian Army who is the prime accused in the Samjhota Express explosion case, was the expert and qualified to handle VBIED and its manufacturing process,” sources said.
Sources further disclosed that the security agencies had nabbed several suspects in connection with the Peshawar blast during the recent crackdown from different parts of the country.

“Investigations are underway as the arrested suspects are being grilled. The investigators have found some important leads during the interrogation,” a source privy to the investigators said, but did not mention any further details due to the sensitivity of the matter.

The recent revelations have strengthened the contention that Col Prohit and his team was also responsible for the Samjhauta blast.

Last year, the prosecutor had told an Indian court that Prohit had procured RDX from Jammu and Kashmir while used part of it in Samjhauta blasts. However, the prosecutor retracted the claim the next day under duress.

The Indian government had promised after the Samjhota Express tragedy that it would share its findings with Pakistan. However, little has been shared with Pakistan, sources maintained adding, in the Joint Anti Terror Mechanism (JATM) meetings, India had also admitted that it had “run against a wall” in the investigation.

Ghazwa-E-Hind , Vultures of the world and the Zardari Brigade

2009-10-15T04:23:00.000-07:00

Ghazwa-e-Hind and Taliban …these two paradigm shifting chapters and second being its facilitator [ the good and also the bad ]

Ghazwa-eHind has kicked off finally and has reached its battle in the ground phase .. before I elaborate more on this subject one should clear his head about what is actually the label Taliban that’s causing so much on the news front ..the fact the pashtuns can never be governed by anyother entity other than a REAL pashtun who takes good care of their customs and values …these very people have organized themselves in the most organized and disciplined army that is not hostile to ANY country but only has risen up to save their own country from the occupiers ..now that’s none other than AFGHAN TALIBAN..period..

TPP or tehreek e Taliban Pakistan ..hilarious ..there is no such organization as TTP , there was never any ..a bunch of criminals , murderers , thugs , thieves , failures in life turned to the leftist of the country who had their arms stretched in india and the west and were set to sponsor , supply and FEED these monsters who turned themselves in to living MUTANTS who aim to take over the world specially Pakistan unfortunately chanting the Kalma as well whilst being on their deadly missions.

I may seem to digress from the issue when I speak of Kerry Lugar bill , but the fact is that the bill itself is related all these things discussed above . the need and the never ending hunger from the west , india and Israel to actually control the workings of this nation be it nuclear program , its defence infrastructure , its people with begging bowels and its media . all of that God Forbidden is in their hands once than their will be no need to OCCUPY the land of pure LITERALLY . this very bill has been rejected comprehensively [ not just few clauses as reported in the media ] by the only patriotic entity of this country besides the people of paksitan . but the VIRUS instilled from the west in the form of a local parasite called as DEMOCRACY has played its role here as an antigen to hamper the interest of the country. The zardari brigade has PROSTATED and bowed down to their worldly Gods and that too by buying some time from the army. Ironically people of this country still remain in the fantasy land thinking judiciary is free , politicians will one day save them and life will move on. Life never moves on it leads to the longevity of the pain caused.

And there are some who continue to sing their songs of DEMOCRACY , JUDICIARY , POLICY MAKING BY POLITICIANS AND ANTI JIHAD RHETORIC ..the answer to all of these sleeping idiots is that nothing will save you the day u will run for your lives because nothing in the world can change the rule of nature. Good can only lose to evil for longer term but the win always and has been on the RIGHT side versus the LEFT .

Pakistan army is made to go under serious stretching and pressure , but the nation owes them a big thanks for saving us time and time again from the vultures who have been eyeing us for long time with the help of their assets in Pakistan as well. Zardari brigade even went on to say that india should join the friends of pakistan club, one can only doubt either the sanity or the obvious LACK OF LOVE for the country. The other billionaire who calls him self the leader of the masses is so lip tied that it seems the snipers from Washington will take his shot the moment he utters a word for the country or the army or against the ZIONISTs’ installed Zardari Brigade.

Lahore will survive , Pakistan will survive , India can go as far as it can to test our limit we are the sons of Tipu Sultan, Salah uddin Ayubi and Khalid Bin Waleed.. our patience and stamina to warfare can only gather momentum and gain strength with time.. Insha’Allah

May Allah Bless Pakistan , its people its Army and its ideology of Islam ..Ameen

How Pakistan Interior Minister Helped US Embassy Import Illegal Weapons Without Telling ISI

2009-10-09T03:46:00.000-07:00

By : Ansar Abbasi

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—The role of the Pakistani federal Interior Ministry in the issuance of prohibited bore licenses to US defense contractor DynCorp's local partner Inter-Risk appears to be dubious. The US embassy admitted to have imported the prohibited bore weapons but other evidence shows something different.Evidence†available with The News contradicts the US embassy’s viewpoint and shows that a resident of Daryoba Agency FR Bannu had gifted 50 weapons that were reportedly given to Inter-Risk.Documents also show that after US Ambassador Anne Patterson’s letter to Interior Minister Rehman Malik for the issuance of prohibited bore licenses to Inter-Risk, the US embassy continued to influence the Interior Ministry that issued the required licenses to the US-blessed Pakistani security agency without consulting intelligence agencies and the Foreign Office. [continued below]

Following Patterson’s letter, US embassy officials met State Minister for Interior Tasneem Ahmed Qureshi and later formally wrote to him, setting clear deadlines for the issuance of licenses in three phases. The documentary evidence shows that the state minister acted accordingly as per the wishes of the US embassy.

Gerald M Feierstein, Charge dí Affaires ad interim US embassy in Islamabad, wrote to Tasneem Ahmed Qureshi on May 7: “I would like to thank you for meeting with my representative Michael Eicher on May 7 to discuss certain security matters that affect the US Embassy. As Mr Eicher conveyed, the United States and Pakistan share a deep commitment to improving the lives and future of the Pakistani people. However, security concerns have greatly diminished out ability to administer and expand the programmes we would like to support in partnership with the government of Pakistan.

“I order for the Embassy to mitigate the risk associated with some of these security concerns, the US Embassy has engaged with Inter-Risk (Pvt) Ltd to provide armed guards to protect our US diplomatic personnel assigned to Islamabad and Peshawar. Therefore, I would like to request the issuance of 134 prohibited bore (pb) licenses on behalf to Inter-Risk (Pvt) Ltd to accomplish this security goal.

“50 pb licenses are needed as quickly as possible and an additional 50 pb licenses will be needed in June 2009. The remaining 34 licenses will be needed in July 2009.

“I would like to thank you for your personal attention to this matter offer the renewed assurances of my highest considerations.”

Within a week time following this letter, the personal secretary (PS) to the state minister for interior writes a ìTop Priorityî directive on ministerís behalf, ordering the section officer (PB) Ministry of Interior: “The minister of state for interior has been pleased to approve fifty (50) PB arms license in favour of M/S Inter-Risk (Private) Limited.

“2. Arm Section may issue the licenses under intimation to this office by 20-5-2009.”

While the state minister issued strict direction for the issuance of 50 pb licenses to Inter-Risk by May 20, 2009, the deputy commissioner Islamabad received an official communication from office of the district coordination officer/political agent FR Bannu the same day.

The letter’s subject was “Confirmation/Verification of Weapon Gift” and it read as: “The enclosed certificates (consisting 50 no) for gift of weapon, gifted by Malik Khanzada Khan Wazir Daryoba Agency FR Banny dully verified by the undersigned for further necessary action.”

Official sources said that these apparently gifted weapons were provided to Inter-Risk, however, actually the said weapons belonged to the Americans. Why the DCO Bannu did this and on whose order could not be ascertained as despite repeated efforts and telephone calls, the officer did not talk to this correspondent. His staff said that the DCO was sitting in the office but the officer did not even bother to return the call.

Deputy Commissioner Islamabad Amir Ahmad Ali, when contacted, said that he took over as DC Islamabad in June so he did not know as to what was the secret behind the DCO Bannu’s letter. The then DC Islamabad Asadullah Faiz, when contacted, said that he did not remember the case and its details.

US embassy spokesman Richard Snelisry, when approached by this correspondent, admitted for the first time that it had imported prohibited bore weapons for Inter-Risk against the licenses given by the Interior Ministry. He said that it was part of the contract signed between the embassy and Inter-risk. When his attention was drawn to the DCO Bannu letter, he said that he did not know anything about it but insisted that everything on behalf of the US embassy was transparent and within the limits of Pakistan’s laws. He said that it was possible that the Inter-Risk had obtained the gifted weapons for something that had nothing to do with the US embassy. He said that the US embassy was not responsible for everything that the Inter-Risk has done or is doing.

The embassy spokesman Richard Snelsire, commonly known as Rick, said that he had no knowledge of any letter written by any embassy official to the Interior Ministry's state minister and giving deadlines for the issuance of licenses to Inter-Risk following the letter of Anne Patterson.

State Minister Qureshi, when approached, confirmed that he did receive a letter from Gerald M Feierstein but denied that it was part of US embassy’s influence on him to proceed accordingly. Qureshi said that he issued the licenses without referring the matter to the Foreign Office or the security agencies, as it was a routine affair. He said Inter-Risk was a registered security agency and the US embassy wanted prohibited bore licenses to beef up security of its personnel and interests.

The state minister, however, said that he was never informed about the fact that Inter-Risk was a local partner of the American security company DynCorp. He said that he also did not know about the “fishy” affairs connected with Inter-Risk. However, the fact remains that the relationship between DynCorp and Inter-Risk was clearly mentioned by the US ambassador in her letter addressed to Interior Minister Rehman Malik and dated March 30, 2009.

In her two-page letter, Patterson shared her security concerns with Rehman Malik, particularly about the US Consulate in Peshawar. She had referred to the common objectives and shared visions between the two countries for the Frontier province and the tribal areas of Pakistan. She wrote:
“Recognizing that the responsibility of your Ministry and provincial law enforcement is not limited to the Consulate but remains confronting the miscreant elements directly and everywhere, the US government has entered into a commercial contract with DynCorp International and their Pakistani subcontractors Inter-Risk (Pvt) Ltd, and Speed Flo Filter Industries to provide specialized security support for our consulate in Peshawar.

“I feel this contractual arrangement will allow your security forces to focus on their priorities and at the same time allow us the ability to continue consulate operations with an appropriate level of security support. Our security plan will incorporate both the commercial security personnel and the NWFP police contingent already dedicated to supporting the consulate.“To accomplish the goals of our commercial contract, I am requesting your approval for a No Objection Certificate (NOC) for Dyncorp International, Inter-Risk (Pvt) Ltd, and Speed Flo Filter Industries to provide security services for the US government. More urgently, we request your intervention to facilitate granting Inter-Risk (Pvt) the requisite prohibited bore arms licenses to operate in the territorial limits of Pakistan and as soon as possible.”

This report was published by The News International on Sunday, Oct. 4, 2009. Mr. Abbasi broke the story on DynCorp and Inter-Risk. His work, and that of The Nation led to the arrest of the owners of Inter-Risk and the clampdown on the suspicious activities of DynCorp in Pakistan.

Rest of the documents cant be found here : Doc 1 Doc 2

The Jinnah-Iqbal Bill: A Response to the Kerry-Lugar Bill

2009-10-08T03:33:00.000-07:00

A PakistanKaKhudaHafiz.com Exclusive

To implement the ideology of Pakistan purported by Qaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Allama Iqbal, to promote an enhanced relationship of this nation with its ideology and for no ‘other’ purposes.

Be it enacted by General Ashfaq Pervaiz Kayani and the Armed Forces of Pakistan as a Representation of the Will of the People of Pakistan.

SECTION 1:

TITLE

This Act may be cited as the ‘The Sovereignty and Dignity of the People of Pakistan Act of 2009’.

SECTION 2: FINDINGS

We, the people of Pakistan, make the following findings:

(A)

(1) The people of Pakistan have a long history of being used by the Unites States as a pawn in its plans for world domination. It is clear to us now that the Pakistani interest is not well –served by the meddling of the United States in the affairs of our state.

(2) The people of Pakistan will never give up their sovereignty, their dignity and will not let their government sell the country for so called financial ‘aid’.

(3) Despite the fact that Pakistan has been a major ally of the U.S in the so called ‘war on terror’ , the U.S continues to kill hundreds of Pakistani citizens in drone attacks which are seen as a major onslaught on the sovereignty of the Pakistani nation and a violation of our international borders.

(4) The U.S support for terrorist activities inside Pakistan, compounded by the hostile Indian presence on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border has led to the deaths of several thousand Pakistani civilians and members of the security forces of Pakistan over the past 8 years and any more of this outrage is unacceptable to the people of Pakistan.

(5) Despite the sacrifices and cooperation of the security forces of Pakistan, the United States continues to support and fund separatist movements in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), parts of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and Balochistan.

(6) The continued hostility of the United States towards the Armed Forces and Intelligence Agencies of Pakistan, as well as the spread of disinformation regarding the Nuclear Assets of Pakistan.

(7) The ultimate U.S goals of destroying Pakistan’s Nuclear Weapons and to exert complete control over the military institutions of Pakistan have now become very clear from the Kerry-Lugar Bill.

(B)

(1) In the long political history of Pakistan, Pakistanis have often been deceived by corrupt politicians in the existing ‘democratic’ structure. Section 62 and 63 of the Constitution of Pakistan clearly define that each candidate applying as a potential candidate for the Parliament needs to be someone who is honest, sagacious, righteous and ameen. It is quite evident that this section of the Constitution has not been implemented in the past as well in the current government.

(2) The current regime has failed to run the country and look after its people and has not been able to make timely decisions in order to protect the sovereignty of the Pakistani nation. Also, this present regime has been found to be in cohorts with elements that are hostile to the Pakistani State.

SECTION 3: OUR MESSAGE TO GENERAL KAYANI AND THE ARMED FORCES OF PAKISTAN: NEW RULES OF ENGAGEMENT WITH U.S AND NATO FORCES

(A)

(1) We support the patriotic elements in both the civilian and military establishments who have demonstrated the wisdom and courage to oppose the Kerry-Luger bill.

(2) We assure Gen. Kayani that he has the unequivocal support of every concerned citizen of Pakistan in taking a firm stand to protect the ideological and physical borders of Pakistan.

(3) The Pakistani nation is not for sale and we once again reiterate the resolve that this nation has had since its inception: that we will eat grass but we will stand on our own two feet and not bow to imperial masters.

(4) Based on the findings in Section 2, it is imperative that the current regime is forced to reconsider Pakistan’s Foreign Policy in terms of engaging with the Americans and other actors in the so called ‘theatre of war’ created by U.S presence in this region.

(5) We demand that the current U.S diplomats in Islamabad including the ambassador be expelled on grounds of interference with internal matters of Pakistan.

(6) We also demand the deportation of U.S contractors and mercenaries currently operating on Pakistani soil.

(7) We demand that the U.S embassy in Pakistan is reduced to 10% of its current size, both in terms of area and personnel.

(8) No Visas be issued to any American citizen without clearance from Pakistan’s security agencies.

(9) Pakistan does not need aid from the U.S or any other country. It is time that we used this opportunity to take a stand against corruption and injustice in Pakistan. The Kerry-Luger bill is a challenge to the Pakistani nation and it shall be met with dignity and honour.
It is time for the Pakistani nation to remember who we really are and our real potential. This bill is an attempt to subdue us into slaves of imperialist forces and is a bait to harness the ‘shaheens’ of this dignified nation.

Aye Taair-e-Lahooti us rizq say Maut achheeJis rizq say aati ho parwaaz mein kotahi
Let us join hands and implement the ‘Jinnah-Iqbal Bill’. This is what the people of Pakistan want and this is what the father of this nation strove for.

Pakistan Payendabad!

Zardari Camp Trying To Undermine Army, ISI

2009-10-08T03:32:00.000-07:00

By Kamran Khan

“This is actually an attempt to cripple the Pakistan Army and the ISI and it is not the first or last attempt. There are some elements with clandestine job in all this,” said an informed official, who disclosed that Pakistani security officials were constantly getting information from their sources in Washington that illustrated vast difference between the public and private positions adopted by individuals and organizations representing Pakistan’s national interest in Washington”.

KARACHI: When the top military commanders declared their serious concern regarding clauses of the Kerry-Lugar Bill impacting on the national security, the top brass had knowledge and evidence that a few elements within the government deployed resources to lobby several key United States congressmen for inclusion of anti-military and anti-nuclear programme segments in the controversial US aid bill, informed officials said.

“This is actually an attempt to cripple the Pakistan Army and the ISI and it is not the first or last attempt. There are some elements with clandestine job in all this,” said an informed official, who disclosed that Pakistani security officials were constantly getting information from their sources in Washington that illustrated vast difference between the public and private positions adopted by individuals and organizations representing Pakistan’s national interest in Washington.

In Islamabad, security officials have gathered information, supported by telephone intercepts and other secret recordings that showed tremendous eagerness in the holder of an important office that Pakistan military related clauses should remain included in the bill.

Individuals and friends of the same person were found bragging on “coming jolt to the Army from America” numerous times in private chitchat since early July this year. Informed Pakistani officials insist that the present attempt to undermine the Pakistan Army and the ISI’s area of influence in framing Pakistan’s strategic and national security priorities was the Act 2 of a similar attempt made in July last year.

On July 27 of last year, the prime minister was asked to sign a stunning notification ordering to place the entire financial, administrative and operational control of the ISI with the Interior Ministry. The order was reversed within a few hours when the prime minister detected foul play.

Surprisingly, the Kerry-Lugar Bill revisited the same issue by expanding the scope from just the ISI to the entire military services of Pakistan. The bill dictated an American oversight for the process and made it a condition for an uninterrupted flow of US aid to Pakistan. The bill said: “An assessment of the extent to which the government of Pakistan exercises effective civilian control of the military will be carried out regularly.”

The bill proceeded to demand an effective “civilian control” of the promotion of senior military leaders, military budgets, the chain of command and strategic guidance and planning.

While the military leadership discussed the serious implications of the Kerry-Lugar Bill on national security, military strategists and commanders have also discussed in great length the options, alternatives and opportunities that may need to be addressed, if parliament decides not to accept the bill with its present content.

A growing sense in the Pakistani national security community speaks of a thorough review of Pakistan’s security relationship with the United States, which ran into severe strains weeks before the controversial Kerry-Lugar Bill became public.

With the evidence that has been produced before Pakistan’s top military brass on involvement of some important personalities in bolstering humiliating anti-military clauses on Tuesday, material was also produced to prove unregulated entry into Pakistan of scores of American officials, unauthorised acquisition of weapons and in one grave instance an attempted diversion of a substantial quantity of weapons imported for a Pakistani para-military outfit to the American embassy has secret support of some influential individuals in the echelons of power, officials disclosed.

U.S. Push to Expand in Pakistan Meets Resistance

2009-10-07T02:52:00.000-07:00

Source : www.pakistankakhudahafiz.com

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan

Steps by the United States to vastly expand its aid to Pakistan, as well as the footprint of its embassy and private security contractors here, are aggravating an already volatile anti-American mood as Washington pushes for greater action by the government against the Taliban. An aid package of $1.5 billion a year for the next five years passed by Congress last week asks Pakistan to cease supporting terrorist groups on its soil and to ensure that the military does not interfere with civilian politics. President Asif Ali Zardari, whose association with the United States has added to his unpopularity, agreed to the stipulations in the aid package.

But many here, especially in the powerful army, object to the conditions as interference in Pakistan’s internal affairs, and they are interpreting the larger American footprint in more sinister ways. American officials say the embassy and its security presence must expand in order to monitor how the new money is spent. They also have real security concerns, which were underscored Monday when a suicide bomber, dressed in the uniform of a Pakistani security force, killed five people at a United Nations office in the heart of Islamabad, the capital. The United States Embassy has publicized plans for a vast new building in Islamabad for about 1,000 people, with security for some diplomats provided through a Washington-based private contracting company, DynCorp.

The embassy setup, with American demands for importing more armored vehicles, is a significant expansion over the last 15 years. It comes at a time of intense discussion in Washington over whether to widen American operations and aid to Pakistan — a base for Al Qaeda — as an alternative to deeper American involvement in Afghanistan with the addition of more forces.

The fierce opposition here is revealing deep strains in the alliance. Even at its current levels, the American presence was fueling a sense of occupation among Pakistani politicians and security officials, said several Pakistani officials, who did not want to be named for fear of antagonizing the United States. The United States was now seen as behaving in Pakistan much as it did in Iraq and Afghanistan, they said.

In particular, the Pakistani military and the intelligence agencies are concerned that DynCorp is being used by Washington to develop a parallel network of security and intelligence personnel within Pakistan, officials and politicians close to the army said. The concerns are serious enough that last month a local company hired by DynCorp to provide Pakistani men to be trained as security guards for American diplomats was raided by the Islamabad police. The owner of the company, the Inter-Risk Security Company, Capt. Syed Ali Ja Zaidi, was later arrested.

The action against Inter-Risk, apparently intended to cripple the DynCorp program, was taken on orders from the senior levels of the Pakistani government, said an official familiar with the raid, who was not authorized to speak on the record. The entire workings of DynCorp within Pakistan are now under review by the Pakistani government, said a senior government official directly involved with the Americans, who spoke candidly on condition of anonymity.

The tensions are erupting as the United States is pressing Pakistan to take on not only those Taliban groups that have threatened the government, but also the Taliban leadership that uses Pakistan as a base to organize and conduct their insurgency against American forces in Afghanistan.

In a public statement, the American ambassador, Anne W. Patterson, suggested last week that Pakistan should eliminate the Afghan Taliban leader, Mullah Omar, a onetime ally of the Pakistanis who Washington says is now based in Baluchistan, a province on the Afghanistan border. If Pakistan did not get rid of Mullah Omar, the United States would, she suggested.
Reinforcing the ambassador, the national security adviser, Gen. James L. Jones, said Sunday that the United States regarded tackling Qaeda sanctuaries in Pakistan as “the next step” in the conflict in Afghanistan.The Pakistani army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, in an unusually stern reaction last week, said that missile attacks by American drones in Baluchistan, as implied by the Americans, “would not be allowed.”

The Pakistanis also complain that they are not being sufficiently consulted over the pending White House decision on whether to send more troops to Afghanistan.
The head of Pakistan’s chief spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence directorate, or ISI, Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha, met with senior officials at the Central Intelligence Agency last week in Washington, where he argued against sending more troops to Afghanistan, a Pakistani official familiar with the visit said.

The Pakistani Army, riding high after its campaign to wrench back control of the Swat Valley from the Taliban, remains nervous about Washington’s intentions and the push against the new aid is reflective of that anxiety, Pakistani officials said.

Though the Zardari government is trumpeting the new aid as a triumph, officials say the language in the legislation ignores long-held prerogatives about Pakistani sovereignty, making the $1.5 billion a tough sell.

“Now everyone has a handle they can use to rip into the Zardari government,” said a senior Pakistani official involved in the American-Pakistani dialogue but who declined to be named because he did not want to inflame the discussion.

The expanding American security presence has become another club. DynCorp has attracted particular scrutiny after the Pakistani news media reported that Blackwater, the contractor that has generated controversy because of its aggressive tactics in Iraq, was also in Pakistan.
Recently, there have been a series of complaints by Islamabad residents who said they had been “roughed up” by hefty, plainclothes American men bearing weapons, presumably from DynCorp, one of the senior Pakistani officials involved with the Americans said.

Pakistan’s Foreign Office had sent two formal diplomatic complaints in the past few weeks to the American Embassy about such episodes, the official said.

The embassy had received complaints, and confirmed two instances, an embassy official said, but the embassy denied receiving any formal protests from the Foreign Office. It also declined to comment about the presence of Blackwater, now known as Xe Services, in Pakistan.
American officials have said that Blackwater employees worked at a remote base in Shamsi, in Baluchistan, where they loaded missiles and bombs onto drones used to strike Taliban and Qaeda militants.

The operation of the drones at Shamsi had been shifted by the Americans to Afghanistan this year, a senior Pakistani military official said.

Several Blackwater employees also worked in the North-West Frontier Province supervising the construction of a training center for Pakistan’s Frontier Corps, a Pakistani official from the region said.

There was considerable unease about the American diplomatic presence in Peshawar, the capital of the North-West Frontier Province, one of the senior government officials said. Politicians were asking why the United States needed a consulate in Peshawar, which borders the tribal areas, when that office did not issue visas, he said.

Another question, he said, was why did the consulate plan to buy the biggest, and most modern building in the city, the Pearl Continental hotel — which was bombed in a terrorist attack this year — as its new headquarters.

As Parliament prepared to discuss the American aid package Wednesday, the tone of the debate was expected to be scathing. On a television talk show, Senator Tariq Aziz, a member of the opposition party, called the legislation “the charter for new colonization.”

“People think this government has sold us to the Americans again for their own selfish interests,” said Jahangir Tareen, a former cabinet minister and a member of Parliament, in an interview. “Some people think the United States is out to get Pakistan, to defang Pakistan, to destroy the army as it exists so it can’t fight India and to break down the ISI’s ability to influence events in India and Afghanistan. Everyone is saying about the Americans, ‘Told you so.’ ”

New York Times

Kayani Slams US; Rejects Kerry-Lugar Bill

2009-10-07T02:51:00.000-07:00

KARACHI: As anger mounts over the degrading language and observations in the Kerry-Lugar Bill on Pakistan’s military services and intelligence agencies, the Army conveyed its part of protest to the United States when Commander of International Forces in Afghanistan General Stanley McChrystal met Army chief General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani at the GHQ on Tuesday, informed officials said.

These officials said that General Kayani told General McChrystal that like the Pakistani people, the military and intelligence services were furious at the observations made on Pakistan’s security establishment in the Kerry-Lugar Bill. Kayani also protested over the controversial statements made by some US officials in recent days.

“General McChrystal returned from the GHQ with an unambiguous message that the terms set in the Kerry-Lugar Bill on the national security interests of Pakistan are insulting and are unacceptable in their present formulation,” according to an official familiar with the content of the meeting.

Informed official sources said that the Army’s strong reaction to the Kerry-Lugar Bill was shared in detail with the government when General Kayani met Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Sunday.

In a related development, also on Tuesday, Gilani asked Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi to convey Pakistan’s reservations in his meetings with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Obama’s Special Envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke and key members of the US Congress.

While Tuesday’s meeting with General McChrystal provided General Kayani with an opportunity to convey the Army’s serious objection to the controversial sections of the bill in detail, he had lodged an initial protest during his meeting with General McChrystal in Kabul, where he had gone last week toattend the tripartite military conference.

The Kerry-Lugar Bill and its impact on national security interests of Pakistan will be a key subject of discussion when the corps commanders and principal staff officers of the Army meet under General Kayani on Wednesday.

While the nation’s response is currently focused at the controversial content of the Kerry-Lugar Bill, the government is also concerned about a growing unregulated arrival and stay of American citizens in Pakistan.

Concerns grew when Pakistanís security agencies recorded various cases of illegal acquisition of weapons by security firms connected with the US Embassy in Pakistan. Prime Minister Gilani, sources said, has already ordered a complete record with specific details and pre-clearance of US citizens entering Pakistan on US government business.

US Ambassador Patterson MUST be EXPELLED

2009-10-05T04:37:00.000-07:00

Source : www.ammar360.com
Written by : Ammar Faheem

You cannot tolerate vipers in your bosom without getting bitten,’ Ambassador Patterson said. ‘Our concern is whether Pakistan really controls its territory. There are people who do not threaten Pakistan but who are extremely important to us.’’

After controlled media leaks about US concerns of a Taliban ’safe-haven’ in Quetta, the US Ambassador in Pakistan has come out and spoken to the media about it. Instead of a denial of reports that the US might attack the provincial capital of Baluchistan with drones, she says the US will have to do what it has to do to take out terrorists.

Enough is enough, Ms. Patterson. The outrage the Pakistani nation will come up with if anything as such happens will really be very painful for US interests in the region.

Ms. Patterson says several Pakistani officials have made it ‘crystal clear’ to her that the Taliban are a strategic asset to Pakistan in case the US has to withdraw from Afghanistan and the Taliban come into power; now implying that Pakistan is supporting insurgency in Pakistan or anywhere.

The United States really will never stop whining. After a major counter-insurgency operation in Swat, they still express their lack of trust over Pakistan’s ability to contain and crush terrorism.
It leads one to believe that it really is not about terrorism. It really is not about insurgencies. It is actually about the dirty US goal to destabilize and colonize Pakistan. It is about having put the Frontier province on fire and now to support anti-state elements in Baluchistan. The US wants to provide opportunities to them amongst all the mayhem that drone attacks here shall bring with them.

We also have to understand the significance of Quetta as a strategic military base of the Pakistan army. The command and staff college is situated there. And now of all times, the so called ‘Quetta Shura’ of the Taliban tops the US agenda and not Waziristan/FATA.

Will it not give confidence to anti-state elements to take-on the Pakistan army openly in the very heart of the province with US support? Will it not send a signal to them that not even the Pakistan army is secure in its own country?

I believe it is time to crush US war-hysteria in the region once and for all in Pakistan; diplomatically or militarily. Ms. Patterson has so wrongly been led to believe that she enjoys absolute authority over Pakistan and she can come and say whatever she wants to the Pakistani media. She must be told she is an Ambassador and nothing more and nothing less. She must also be told that she is an Ambassador of what every Pakistani believes is a ‘Hostile’ country.

We, I believe, should now go on the offensive and we should deliver selective strikes inside Afghanistan destroying drones and whatever equipment is to be used against Pakistan.
Ms. Patterson – Who are you to tell us we have no control over our territory? Who are you to tell us what we have to do with the insurgents inside?

I urge the Pakistan army to take strict notice of any suspicious military movement across the Pakistani border near Quetta. I urge the government of Pakistan to expel Ambassador Patterson for crossing the line one time too many.

The Tale of Haqqanis and Kerry Lugars

2009-10-02T04:11:00.000-07:00

Six months ago , the strategy of the Zardari govt was very much clear in its actions ..they tabled one havoc and engaged the nation in other .. some times it was power crisis whilst offering trade concessions in the form of transit trade to India AND THAT TOO signed in the US. People therefore had no time to lodge protest at best what they could achieve is a couple of talk shows on television channels discussing what is going wrong in the Land of Pure.

Suddenly the gear has changed , the goons have found a pace accelerator and a stream of unending skirmishes have channelised and a full fledge ACTION plan is being witnessed endorsed fully and gladly by the President and Prime Minister of Pakistan.

Be it Quetta Shura story , or the Harpoons Missile exaggeration, Black water or Xe , Kerry Lugar Bill or Rental Power projects, Transit Trade to India or hilariously ..a newly RELEASED .i must say COPYRIGHTED film by BBC showing Baitullah Mehsud dead in a video or Pakistan Army questioning [ abusing :) ] the TTP Suspects in swat... the game plan is very clear ...CRIPPLE pakistan completely ..

As for Kerry Lugar Bill the clauses are all objectionable if not alarming ..but the KING has endorsed it fully calling it a win for democracy , i wonder if democracy should be another name for slavery ...or is it always been slavery labelled in the glossy envelope of aid called as democracy ..

The loss to Pakistan’s economy for fighting US war on terror is to the tune of $35 billion.where as the amount we are YET to recieve AFTER CONDITIONS ARE MET ..are 120 million rupees in effect ..and that stuns even a middle class pakistani who can easily calculate how these peanuts can be declined and instead a lot can be saved from the VIP lifestyle of a whole batallion of ministers and their never ending brown nosers.

but what are we talking here ..Mr. Hussain Haqqani , HRH as he may love to call himself in the coming days as he has successfully acquired himself a job for the FRIENDS OF PAKISTAN..suggests to those who criticize the Kerry Lugar bill to go and learn English :)

Pakistan Daily reports that Pakistan’s intelligence agencies have submitted their report regarding Xe (Blackwater) to the federal interior ministry. The report includes proofs of XE Services (also Blackwater) presence in Karachi besides shocking story of their nexus with the political party dominating the city.

-Office bearers of the two major political parties are providing [not known whether in their individual capacity or with party lines] to Blackwater besides helping them in getting houses.
Nearly half dozen of the houses are provided by a federal minister who is also helping them in clearing the shipments [weapons and hummer] at Port Qasim.

-Blackwater has also acquired the seventh floor of five stars Hotel in the Karachi which is believed to be the new operational Headquarter. Previously a Bungalow in the Khyaban-e-Shamshir area of DHA was used as operational centre.

-The American School in KDA scheme one has 8 housing units. One house is used by a senior American diplomat while the remaining seven houses are given to Xe Services (Blackwater) for their lodging.

-Blackwater has got seven houses near the houses of Gen (R) Pervez Musharraf and Gen Moinuddin Hayder in the General colony, near Zamzama DHA. Some Japanese and Koreans are hired and accommodated there to doge Pakistani agencies.

-Another house is acquired in Karsaz Area which is situated near the Muslim League House. The street has been blocked.

-Two Vehicles of BB and BD numbers are used by Blackwater in Karachi, the numbers which are assigned to the MNAs and MPAs only. No one will be able to stop them.

-According to Ummat, the plot reserved for children park in China ground [Kashmir Road] is also given to Xe Services (Blackwater)

May Allah Bless Pakistan ..Ameen

US threatens to attack Quetta

2009-09-28T07:18:00.000-07:00

Its high time we stopped compromising on our sovereignty and declared US a hostile state. Shut down the US Embassy and consulates, order all US diplomatic staff to leave the country with immediate effect, shut down NATO and US supply routes and respond in kind with a threat to launch a full-scale military offensive on US bases in Afghanistan if Pakistani Airspace is breached.

The United States is threatening to launch airstrikes on Mullah Omar and the Taliban leadership in Quetta as frustration mounts about the ease with which they find sanctuary across the border from Afghanistan, according to a The Sunday Times report. The threat comes amid growing divisions in Washington about whether to deal with the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan by sending more troops or by reducing them and targeting the terrorists. This weekend the US military was expected to send a request to Defence Secretary Robert Gates for more troops, as urged by Gen Stanley McChrystal, the US commander in Afghanistan. In a leaked strategic assessment of the war, Gen McChrystal warned that he needed extra reinforcements within a year to avert the risk of failure. Although no figure was given, he is believed to be seeking up to 40,000 troops to add to the 68,000 who will be in Afghanistan by the end of this year. US Vice-President Joe Biden has suggested reducing the number of troops in Afghanistan and focusing on the Taliban and Al-Qaeda in Pakistan. Last week Gen McChrystal denied any rift with the administration, saying, “a policy debate is warranted.”

So sensitive is the subject that when US President Barack Obama addressed the UN summit in New York, he barely mentioned Afghanistan.
The Times reports the unspoken problem is that if the priority is to destroy Al-Qaeda and reduce the global terrorist threat, western troops might be fighting on the wrong side of the border.
The Biden camp argues that attacks by unmanned drones on Pakistan’s tribal areas, where Al-Qaeda’s leaders are hiding, have been successful. Sending more troops to Afghanistan has only inflamed tensions.
“Pakistan is the nuclear elephant in the room,” said a western diplomat.
It is a view echoed by Richard Barrett, head of the UN Commission on Monitoring Taliban and Al-Qaeda, who believes the presence of foreign troops has increased militant activity and made it easier for the Taliban to recruit.
“If Obama sends more troops, it would better be clear what they are to do,” he said.
“A few thousand more boots on the ground may not make much difference except push the fight into areas which are currently quiet because no one is there to challenge the Taliban. I cannot see any number of troops eliminating the Taliban. Obama has a really difficult decision to make.”

http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/Politics/28-Sep-2009/US-to-attack-Quetta

Waqt TV report on Blackwater/Xe- Program 'Uncensored'

2009-09-28T07:15:00.000-07:00

Jinnah: Secular Or Islamist?

2009-09-18T03:21:00.000-07:00

By TALHA MUJADDIDI

Interview with Saleena Karim, author of a most important book on Quaid-e-Azam, “Secular Jinnah: Munir’s Big Hoax Exposed”. Saleena Karim is also the founder and director of Jinnah Archive, world’s first comprehensive digital library on Quaid-e-Azam. This is a must read interview.

Book Review at Amazon.com

Product Description
One of the most famous books in Pakistan, the late Chief Justice Muhammad Munir's From Jinnah to Zia (1979) has finally received the ultimate rebuttal from a British-born Asian - using only one piece of evidence. Saleena Karim tells the story of how a point of curiosity - based on little more than an issue of grammar - led her to the startling discovery that a quote used by Munir and attributed to Jinnah is in fact a fake. Furthermore this quote has also been used by a number of Pakistani professional writers and scholars, none of whom have thought to check the original transcript of the interview Munir supposedly quoted from.
Over twenty-five years after the release of From Jinnah to Zia, the author shows us how much damage the 'Munir quote' has done - not only in terms of twisting the facts of history, but now in exposing the intellectual dishonesty of Pakistani scholarship. Saleena Karim names those who have quoted Munir, as well as discussing the other myths about the founder of Pakistan, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, and sets the record straight.

“The new state would be a modern democratic state with sovereignty resting in the people and the members of the new nation having equal rights of citizenship regardless of religion, caste or creed.” Mr. Munir claims that these are the words of the Quaid from an interview to Reuters’ Doon Campbell. In reality these words appear nowhere in that particular interview, and in fact they appear nowhere at all (I spent years checking)”

Q) Please tell us briefly about yourself, your education and background.

A) I am a writer born and brought up in the UK. Almost as soon I learned to read, I wanted to write. When I went to Loughborough University I wanted to take a degree in publishing, but for reasons that are not worth mentioning here, I ended up studying Human Biology and obtained a BSc. I had no interest in pursuing a career in my subject area, so I followed my instinct and began writing part-time. At first I was mostly translating short articles mostly on Islam (Urdu-English), and also started a work of fiction, but I became a full-time writer after I wrote Secular Jinnah: Munir’s Big Hoax Exposed in 2005. As a child I was brought up with religious values and always considered myself a spiritual individual. As I grew older I began to question some of our traditional religious teachings and began to study Quranic principles in depth. I became very interested in Islamic philosophy and in particular, ethics, and this study helped me in ways I cannot even begin to describe.

Q) How did you get interested in the life of Quaid-e-Azam, and what inspired you?

A) Until a few years ago I knew relatively little about the Quaid-i-Azam but accepted he was a hero of Islamic history by default. My father got me interested in his life originally, but I only learned about him in detail after I began work on Secular Jinnah. I was inspired in the first instance by Mr. Jinnah’s speeches, which I later referred to as a first-hand resource on his thinking.

Q) The readers want to know what is it that Justice Munir has said in his book that is either wrong or controversial about Quaid-e-Azam?

A) In short, there is a statement that the late Chief Justice Munir quoted in his book From Jinnah to Zia. It reads:

“The new state would be a modern democratic state with sovereignty resting in the people and the members of the new nation having equal rights of citizenship regardless of religion, caste or creed.” Mr. Munir claims that these are the words of the Quaid from an interview to Reuters’ Doon Campbell. In reality these words appear nowhere in that particular interview, and in fact they appear nowhere at all (I spent years checking). In the first edition of my book I explained that since 1979 (when Mr. Munir’s book was released) right up until the present no one had spotted that the quote was a fake. Since then I have learned that the quote has its origins not in 1979, but in the famous Munir Report of 1953. That’s the short story, but in my book I went into much more detail about how this quote has became the favourite amongst even the best-known commentators on Mr. Jinnah to try and undermine his stated cause.

Q) What inspired you to write a rebuttal to Munir’s book?

A) It may sound trivial to go after just one fake quote, but I was inspired to write my rebuttal because of it. When I first encountered the Munir quote in From Jinnah to Zia, I did for a short time wonder whether the Quaid was a true secularist after all. I pursued the original source of the Munir quote purely to find out the truth. But this was before I obtained the original transcript of the interview. If the Munir quote had turned out to be real, I would definitely have accepted and argued that Mr. Jinnah was a secularist – but that would still have had no bearing on my personal thoughts regarding the Pakistan idea. In the beginning I intended to write just a short article detailing the finding, but my research soon showed that Mr. Munir’s quote (which I now call the ‘Munir quote’) has had an astonishing impact on scholarship. Admittedly, I myself found it difficult to believe at first, but I knew I had to write a book.

Q) Tell us about your book. How come it got such high praise from various sections of the readers’ community?

A) Other than exposing the damage done by the Munir quote, my book argued in favour of a ‘Muslim’ rather than a ‘secular’ Jinnah. I have put quotes around these words because I’m aware that they tend to mean different things to different people. The biggest problem in fact, is the meaning and use of words like ‘secularism’, ‘Islam’, ‘sovereignty’, ‘ideology’, etc. But insofar as there are two broad camps arguing over Mr. Jinnah, my research convinced me to side with the much-misunderstood ‘Muslim Jinnah’ camp. To my mind Quaid-i-Azam does not fit into the ‘secular’ category, and I explained why in the first book. I also discussed some of the myths surrounding Mr. Jinnah. The number of people actively backing the ‘Muslim Jinnah’ argument is currently dwindling. This I suspect is part of the reason that my book was well-received by the readership, who probably felt that a new entry from this side was long overdue.

Q) Did Quaid-e-Azam want to create a secular Pakistan or a Pakistan based on Islamic principles?

A) This is the big question. Mr. Jinnah certainly did not tire of talking about Islamic democracy and Islamic socialism. In my book I showed that there are literally hundreds of references to Islamic terminology and principles in Mr. Jinnah’s speeches. Additionally, whilst he stressed the absolute equality of non-Muslim citizens in Pakistan, he never once used the word ‘secular’ to describe the country. There is also some evidence lying around which shows that there were non-Muslims who properly understood Mr. Jinnah’s view of Islam, if you know where to look. These facts should really speak for themselves. People arguing for ‘secular Jinnah’ tend to get upset by this argument because they assume that I, or whoever else, is trying to imply that the Quaid was pro-theocracy. They think for instance that we support a class distinction between religious minorities and majorities, or that we advocate the idea of legislation either being written or authorised by ulema. Yet, as every sensible Muslim and especially Pakistani Muslim knows, a state truly guided by Islamic principles is as far removed from theocracy as is an ideal secular state (I might add that there is not one example of either of these states in existence today). The Quaid himself made this point about theocracy versus Islam, which again I showed in my book. The few people who do support such ideas – taken, unfortunately, from fundamentalist literature, rather than the Quran – usually belong to parties that historically were opposed to Partition and Pakistan. So why give their views special attention, and why assume that every ‘non-secularist’ agrees with them?

Q) How would you describe Quaid-e-Azam’s Pakistan? How far are we today as a nation from Quaid’s Pakistan?

A) ‘Quaid-i-Azam’s Pakistan’ as such never had a chance to establish itself. At any rate, it is not right to speak of ‘Quaid’s Pakistan’ when Mr. Jinnah said that it was up to the people and the Constituent Assembly to decide the form of their constitution. But we can safely say that the main difference between Mr. Jinnah’s time and now is that back then, a majority of people truly believed that they would rise out of poverty, be given the chance to educate themselves and then make a positive contribution to the international community, in the name of Islam. Pakistan appeared on the map at a time when the Muslim world was facing a political identity crisis, following the abolition of the Caliphate in Turkey. The end of the Caliphate was necessary, but this left the Muslim world in a void. Many people saw the creation of this new Muslim country as a laboratory where Islam would be established afresh, so to speak, taking account of contemporary political and sociological conditions. For this reason Islam in Pakistan was described as the ‘third way’, representing neither capitalism nor communism, but a form of socialist democracy conforming to Islamic (and thus universal) principles of liberty and justice. There was no question therefore, of recreating an early form of Islamic state which may have had merits in its time but could not be made to work in the twentieth century. Again, exactly how this would work was left up to the people and the Constituent Assembly. The Quaid’s sheer integrity and strength of personality was enough to keep the early leaders of Pakistan together – just. Within a few years of his death however, personal rivalries and a lack of intellectual unity between these same politicians came out into the open, marking the end of ‘Quaid’s Pakistan’ practically before it had begun. Today we see nepotism, despotism, jobbery, and discrimination running rampant in Pakistan – all qualities of the worst type of secular state (not to mention the worst of a theocracy). To even begin to undo all of this, will require first and foremost that the people look within themselves and make a concerted demand that they want things to change. Unity must come first.

Q) What do you think about the new book on Jinnah that Jaswant Singh has just written? Have you read that?

A) I have not read the book, but I have seen the interview in which Mr. Singh described its contents. From what he said there seems to be nothing remarkable or new that hasn’t been said by someone else already. There was an interesting article on this subject by Dr. Waheed Ahmad in Pakistan’s News International recently. He suggests on the one hand that Mr. Singh had courage for challenging the wisdom of certain Congress leaders before Partition. On the other, he mentions that some cynics might question the motives of the author, who is after all a veteran member of a far-right political party. Whom does it suit to be told that Mr. Jinnah never really wanted Partition? Is it not suggestive of a wish to see the two countries reunited as one India? I admit to being one of the cynics.

Q) What is the Jinnah Archive? Is it just a website or some project?

A) The idea behind the Jinnah Archive is to make the speeches of the Quaid-i-Azam easily available online. Most collections of speeches have short print runs and they end up in a few university libraries in random places across the globe. My own difficulty in obtaining collections of speeches when researching Secular Jinnah gave me the idea to try and create a searchable database on the Net. Thereafter I began tracking down and purchasing all the printed collections that I could find, and then I built the website. Some distinguished academics kindly helped by giving permission to make full use of their collections. The whole project is privately funded, is non-profit, and is entirely free to the public. Unfortunately it has been neglected of late because I was working almost completely on my own from the beginning, and other unrelated projects have taken up my time in between. This is however, something I will rectify in the very near future.

Q) How do you want to contribute to Jinnah’s Pakistan?

A) That’s an interesting question. We all should utilise our individual talents to the best of our ability. Mine is writing. I hope that my use of the pen will at least get people to think about the Pakistan idea, and not to give up on it.

Q) How would you describe Jinnah?

A) How does anyone describe an awesome personality such as Mr. Jinnah? He was evidently a man of unswerving integrity, high intelligence, pride, conviction, strength, and with more than a smidgen of dry humour. A true example of a Muslim leader, certainly one of the finest of the twentieth century, if not the finest.

Q) When is the second edition of your book coming out?

A) Soon, though I can’t promise a particular date. It’s close to completion and has already been picked up by a publisher. Unlike the first edition, this one should be made available in Pakistan as well as internationally, in both Urdu and in English languages. It contains much more on the story of Mr. Munir’s literary legacy, and in it I reveal one or two other surprises as well. But I can say no more for now.

This interview is originally posted at PakistanKaKhudaHafiz.com

Hussain Haqqani Paving Way for Black Water ( XE)

2009-09-13T10:00:00.001-07:00

Pakistan’s Ambassador to the US Husain Haqqani has written to the foreign secretary and ISI Cheif, warning them that harassing Americans or denying them visas hurts the country’s image and can have severe consequences, CNN-IBN reported on Saturday.

According to the channel, Haqqani’s letter, dated July 28, 2009, reveals that Pakistan has a blacklist of US journalists and non-government organisations (NGO) that are critical of Islamabad. The ambassador has warned that Pakistan risked hearings in the US Congress and potential restrictions on aid and military sales if US citizens were harassed or intimidated. The letter mentioned instances where US institutions or journalists were denied visas, harassed or put under surveillance. Haqqani has demanded explanations for these actions and a copy of the blacklist.

Mr. Haqqani’s plea to the Pakistani Intelligence agencies comes at a time when there is effectively a quiet occupation of Pakistan taking place by Americans arriving in one form or the other. There have been confirmed reports of over 200 houses being rented and barricaded all over Islamabad, 300 plus ‘military trainers’ setting up shop in Tarbela, new facilities being granted to the notorious ‘Blackwater’ – now with a new name, Xe Worldwide – in parts of Sindh, and the rather obvious CIA front, Create Associates International Inc (CAII) operating not only in Peshawar but also in Islamabad.

This is what renowned Scholar and Defence Analyst Dr. Shireen Mazari revealed a few days back:

“Ordinary officials at Pakistani airports have also been muttering their concerns over chartered flights flying in Americans whose entry is not recorded – even the flight crews are not checked for visas and so there is now no record-keeping of exactly how many Americans are coming into or going out of Pakistan. Incidentally the CAII’s (CIA/Blackwater) Craig Davis who was deported has now returned to Peshawar! And let us not be fooled by the cry that numbers reflect friendship since we know what numbers meant to Soviet satellites.”

Since these reports first surfaced last month, the chartered flights have stopped and a number of suspected CIA and Xe employees – posing as ‘journalists’, aid workers and employees of certain NGOs – have been denied visas and entry into Pakistan. Existing US consulate personnel and employees of CAII as well as a number of other US citizens have been put under surveillance for suspected involvement in anti-state activity.

It is the duty of Inter-Services Intelligence to defend Pakistan’s borders and block any covert attempts to trample Pakistan’s sovereignty. Mr. Haqqani’s assertion that ejecting Americans found involved in suspicious activity and denying them entry is hurting Pakistan’s image, is idiotic at best and treason at worst.

PKKH requests the Pakistan Army and the Inter-Services Intelligence to take note of Mr. Haqqani’s attempt to undermine Pakistan’s national security – and at the very least, immediately put him under surveillance if not on a lamp-post in Islamabad.

Mazari vs. Patterson: Clarifications By Jang Group, Shireen Mazari & PakNationalists

2009-09-08T11:05:00.000-07:00

A AHMEDQURAISHI.COM Report
Edited by Khalid Ashraf
Monday, 7 September 2009.
WWW.AHMEDQURAISHI.COM

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—The Editorial Board of the Jang Group issued a clarification published today, Sept. 7, reacting to a written complaint by US Ambassador to Pakistan Anne W. Patterson that resulted in knocking Dr. Mazari's regular column off the pages of the newspaper for one day last Wednesday, Sept. 3.

The newspaper published the regular column a day later, on Thursday Sept. 4, after back and forth with Dr. Mazari.

The clarification in The News also indirectly referred to a report published at PakNationalists/AhmedQuraishi.com and carried by several websites where the US ambassador's letter to the newspaper was described as 'private'. The paper says it was not 'private'.
It is unfortunate that a letter by the US ambassador, which was not printed or made public and as such can be legitimately misconstrued as an attempt at undue pressure by an envoy of a foreign government, has resulted in a misunderstanding between the esteemed columnist and the respected newspaper, ending a long relationship that goes back almost a decade.
The two- The News International and Dr. Mazari – are especially remembered for the bold decision taken last year by The News, one of Pakistan's largest English-language newspapers, to publish an exclusive report, written by Dr. Mazari, which prevented the Bush administration from quietly appointing an anti-Pakistan US army general as a defense attaché in Islamabad.
The ending of this relationship [Dr. Mazari joins The Nation as editor, columnist and television host as of tonight] must have engendered many smiles at the US embassy in Islamabad. There is a history between Dr. Mazari, a renowned defense expert, and the US mission here. In 2006, the US ambassador at the time reportedly approached Pakistan's Foreign Secretary to request that Dr. Mazari, who was heading a think tank financed by the Pakistan Foreign Office, be asked to stop writing columns critical of US policy in Afghanistan. Mr. Khokhar, according to Dr. Mazari, resisted the pressure. But last year, Dr. Mazari was unceremoniously removed from her post in one of the first few decisions taken by the new elected government. Mr. Husain Haqqani, Pakistan's envoy to Washington and one of America's most vocal Pakistani apologists, personally supervised the move.
The following is the clarification as published in The News International today, followed by the reply sent by Dr. Mazari to the newspaper [also received by us], and then a reply from PakNationalists, written by Ahmed Quraishi.

Clarification by The News
A press conference of Dr. Shireen Mazari was reported in the newspapers of Thursday (September 3) in which it was indicated that The News International had been pressurised by the US Embassy into dropping her article, although it appeared in the same day’s issue. Some websites have also alleged that the US ambassador has written a ‘private’ letter to the Jang Group pressuring that Dr. Mazari’s article be dropped. We are surprised that someone as familiar with the Jang Group’s editorial policy as Dr. Mazari — an official turned politician and Information Secretary/ Spokesperson of the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf — should level such unfounded allegations. The facts of the matter are as follows: * The US ambassador had sent a letter to the Jang Group complaining that in her article published in The News the week before, Dr. Shireen Mazari had levelled certain incorrect allegations that had endangered the life of a US citizen. * In accordance with our policy, and accepted international norms, we referred the complaint to Dr. Shireen Mazari — for her feedback and comments. * While this complaint was being investigated, Dr. Mazari sent another article on Tuesday (September 1), which was to be published the next day — that is on Wednesday. In this article she had again levelled certain allegations, which were also without attribution. Since certain contentions in the previous article had been refuted and were under investigation and she had not produced any evidence or reliable reference to prove the same (nor has she been able to do so till date), we reverted to Dr. Mazari and asked if she could substantiate these allegations. The concerned editor also informed her that her article had been referred to the concerned department to make sure that it was not libellous. As it happens, on receiving supporting comments from her, as well as advice from the concerned editor, the article was published the very next day — that is on Thursday. * It is normal for embassies, political parties and other affected people and institutions to complain against perceived bias and the letter from the US ambassador was in the same vein. She neither asked us in the above letter nor any time in the past to drop articles by Dr. Mazari or by any other contributor holding similar views and writing for many years in The News. The ambassador also did not desire that the letter be kept confidential. While we take all complaints seriously, we allow them to exert no pressure on us or influence editorial policy or decisions. Therefore, at no point did anyone from the management or editorial staff of The News suggest to Dr. Mazari that this, or future, articles by her would not be published. * We not only publish articles by some of the most respected columnists in the country, but as a matter of policy, give space to people holding strong and diverse opinions. Since years some of the fiercest criticism of US policies has been voiced on the pages of The News. We are sorry that she chose to go public with accusations that have no basis in fact. — Editorial Board.

Dr. Mazari's Response
This is the response sent by Dr. Mazari to The News in response to the clarification [as received by us]:
With reference to my press conference on Wednesday, 2 September, I was clearly premature in assuming the newspaper would succumb to US pressure given its past stance on such occasions. So on that count I stand corrected by the paper’s clarification published on 7th September and appreciate the fact that I have not been victimised for my critical stance on US policies.
However, the thrust of my press conference was on multiple efforts by the US embassy to intervene in the media and I had cited my own earlier cases. Now The News has substantiated my position on this issue.
I am glad that The News has referred to US ambassador’s letter in which certain objections were made to one of my columns. My point is that she levelled a serious allegation against me – that of endangering the life of an American citizen. What proof does she have of that from my columns? Did I incite anyone to kill an American? Did I print pictures of the citizen in question? On what grounds did she come to this conclusion? Did The News editorial team ask her for substantiation of what is a serious charge? After all I was asked for so many “proofs”! Here was a foreign emissary levelling a serious allegation against a Pakistani citizen and where was the proof? My columns discuss issues and do not include any form of incitement.
The normal practice that one has seen in newspapers is for embassies to have their objections published which then allows the writer to respond to the allegations. It is strange that the US ambassador chose not to have her objections to my column published so that I could have directly responded to these.
Finally, I simply want to correct one error in The News’s clarification – I was never an “official” – otherwise I would not have been able to write a regular column. I was an academic for 16 years before I headed a research think tank as a researcher/technocrat.
I am presuming again that The News will, in its policy of fair play and equal access to all, publish this response and my appreciation once again of the paper’s ability to withstand all manner of pressures.

Shireen M. Mazari

PakNationalists Comment

Ahmed Quraishi comments:

1. The issue in question is not The News. The issue in question is a letter sent by US ambassador Anne Patterson to a Pakistani newspaper accusing a Pakistani columnist of endangering the life of a US citizen. Since Ms. Patterson provides no proof and does not seek to publish her letter, as is the custom when you dispute a published report, there is a possibility she is intimidating a known critic of US policy into submission.

2. The accepted practice is for politicians or ambassadors to send a letter that is published and then the concerned writer gets a chance to respond or apologize if he or she is wrong. This never happened. Dr. Mazari never saw a copy of the ambassador's letter or was provided proof from her writings that she was endangering the life of a US citizen.

3. US ambassador's serious accusation to Dr. Mazari of threatening a US citizen's life was taken at face value, without supporting evidence, and Dr. Mazari was asked to provide evidence for her opinions that she shapes based on circumstantial and/or factual evidence, which is what all established analysts do.

4. Nowhere in her articles did Dr. Mazari call for violence against any US citizen.

5. The US citizen in question was mentioned in several news mediums before Dr. Mazari referred to him. The US embassy never reacted in public or private to those stories, which were both in print and on television. This is why it is inexplicable why Dr. Mazari was singled out by the US ambassador, beyond the fact that Dr. Mazari is a fierce critic of US policy.

6. Several newspapers published the statements of a retired Pakistani intelligence officer accusing United States of engineering the assassination of Gen. Zia ul Haq. Did any newspaper ask him for evidence before publishing the story, which, according to the US ambassador's logic, endangers the lives of all US diplomats here since it implicates them in the murder of a former Pakistani president and almost the entire leadership of the Pakistan armed forces? It is strange, then, for the US ambassador to demand that Dr. Mazari provide evidence for her opinions and analysis.

7. The US media outlets have spread false alarm worldwide over the past two years by saying Pakistan's nuclear weapons risked falling in wrong hands. Did any one of these US news organizations provide evidence?

8. Dr. Mazari went public on the undue pressure by the US ambassador. She did not accuse the newspaper of anything, nor would it have been appropriate to do so in the first place. If anyone should be issuing clarifications, it is the US embassy because the US ambassador has failed to justify how Dr. Mazari endangered the life of a US citizen.

9. The core question here is this: Why should the US ambassador in Pakistan get away with accusing a Pakistani columnist of endangering the lives of Americans and the columnist gets a rough treatment where she is asked to produce evidence for her analysis? How do we know that Dr. Mazari is not being attacked by the US ambassador for her opinions critical of US policy?

There is no question that The News did not succumb to any pressure. The biggest evidence on this is Mr. Holbrooke's undiplomatic statement against the Geo television in June [See here].

But it is also true that the US ambassador did inadvertently get a special treatment when she got to accuse Dr. Mazari without evidence and without having her letter published for Pakistanis to see and question the veracity of her position and the position of the accused journalist, as is the custom when someone disputes a newspaper article.

In a country reeling under excessive US meddling in domestic affairs, we certainly did not need this reminder of where things stand.

The Harpoons And Pakistan's American Mess

2009-09-08T10:52:00.001-07:00

By Ahmed Quraishi
Wednesday, 2 September 2009.
WWW.AHMEDQURAISHI.COM

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—The Americans are back to their favorite arm-twisting practice: Diplomacy through calculated media leaks. The New York Times story on alleged Pakistani modifications to old-tech US missiles is a reminder that American interests do not overlap with those of Pakistan's despite the best efforts of the pro-American lobby within the Pakistani government. This lobby has been quite active recently – through a PR campaign – in defending US position and counseling fellow citizens to stop opposing Washington because Pakistan needs American aid.

What will America's Pakistani apologists say after this indirect salvo, threatening Pakistan of scuttling the five-year, $ 7.5 billion Kerry-Lugar aid bill because Pakistan continues to develop strategic missiles and refuses to turn its army into a police force at the beck and call of Uncle Sam's bungled freedom mission in Afghanistan?

Maybe this is the reason why our usually boisterous ambassador in Washington was circumspect yesterday, saying little except that there appears to be a misunderstanding. But it is not a misunderstanding. The report – where no US official appears by name – is tailored to create panic in Islamabad and exert pressure without the need for Mr. Holbrooke's personal skills. Pakistani policymakers would do well to read between the lines.

Two things stand out: unwarranted US spying on Pakistan's strategic weaponization programs and – more importantly – the preposterous US accusation that Pakistan's defensive capability risks attracting an arms race with India.

There is only one explanation for the mounting American frustration: Despite seven years of intense pressures on Pakistan, Washington is nowhere close to putting a leash on the Pakistani military and its intelligence agencies. It does not know yet the exact location of Pakistan's nuclear bombs and warheads. It is no closer to neutralizing Pakistan's nuclear button despite the wild campaign to convince the world that Pakistan was incapable of protecting its weapons. Pakistan managed to deflect pressures and refused to turn itself into a walkway for American and Indian boots.

The credit for this goes solely to the Pakistani military and people. Our politicians, in government and opposition, remain hugely impressed with American influence and ready to work with it to counterbalance a powerful Pakistani military. The latest episode in our political soap opera, where retired intelligence officers have been used to divulge old secrets, is designed to discredit the military.

While they distract the nation with their nonissues, there is no one to question the rulers why they approved the construction of the world's largest US embassy in Islamabad when the American aid bill has not even passed US Congress? There are signs that the politicians are quietly allowing unprecedented US military and covert presence in and around the Pakistani capital in order to change the balance of power inside Pakistan in a permanent way. There are reports now that US military presence is being formalized in both Sindh and Balochistan. The frequency and detail of these reports means they cannot be discounted as hearsay.

Two Pakistani political parties, Mr. Zardari's PPP and Mr. Sharif's PMLN, both ironically created during the reigns of two different military rulers, are taking the nation for a ride in the name of democracy. Thanks to their nonperformance in the past nineteen months, Pakistan is staring at a huge national failure, from foreign policy to Gwadar. Terrorism and target killings in Balochistan are being ignored by all politicians in the name of sympathizing with a politician-turned-terrorist who secretly received weapons from abroad and who permitted his grandson to join enemies of the homeland.

Lost in this circus is any talk about health care, education, highways or infrastructure. It is a national decline.

The worst part about our politicians is not their glaring ineptitude. It is the fact that their parties are so stifled there is no hope the ruling elite will expand its limited pool of talent to include a nation brimming with initiative and yearning for change.

India’s 1998 Nuclear Test Was A Failure‏

2009-08-27T08:46:00.000-07:00

Also watch this http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/videoshow/4939256.cms

As if the embarassment over India’s missiles capability wasn’t enough, a senior Indian scientist has admitted for the first time that India’s 1998 Pokhran II nuclear tests were actually far from the success they have been claimed to be. The yield of the thermonuclear explosions was much below expectations and the tests more a ‘fizzle’ rather than a big bang. It is important to note that India does not have a functional long range missile.

The 250 km ‘Prithvi’ is the only fully tested, functional, and ready deployed nuclear-capable missile that India has in its arsenal. With doubtful nuclear capability, India’s missiles might not be more than a set of expensive fireworks. Full Story from Times of India: The controversy over the yield of the tests, previously questioned by foreign agencies, has been given a fresh lease of life with K Santhanam, senior scientist and DRDO representative at Pokhran II, admitting for the first time that the only thermonuclear device tested was a “fizzle”.

In nuclear parlance, a test is described as a fizzle when it fails to meet the desired yield Santhanam, who was director for 1998 test site preparations, told TOI on Monday that the yield for the thermonuclear test, or hydrogen bomb in popular usage, was much lower than what was claimed. Santhanam, who was DRDO’s chief advisor, could well have opened up the debate on whether or not India should sign CTBT as claims that India has all the data required and can manage with simulations is bound to be called into question.

“Based upon the seismic measurements and expert opinion from world over, it is clear that the yield in the thermonuclear device test was much lower than what was claimed. I think it is well documented and that is why I assert that India should not rush into signing the CTBT,”

Santhanam told TOI on Wednesday. He emphasised the need for India to conduct more tests to improve its nuclear weapon programme. The test was said to have yielded 45 kilotons (KT) but was challenged by western experts who said it was not more than 20 KT. The exact yield of the thermonuclear explosion is important as during the heated debate on the India-US nuclear deal, it was strenuously argued by the government’s top scientists that no more tests were required for the weapons programme.

It was said the disincentives the nuclear deal imposed on testing would not really matter as further tests were not required.According to security expert Bharat Karnad, Santhanam’s admission is remarkable because this is the first time a nuclear scientist and one closely associated with the 1998 tests has disavowed the government line.

“He is not just saying that India should not sign the CTBT, which I believe is completely against India’s interests, but also that the 1998 thermonuclear device test was inadequate. His saying this means that the government has to do something. Either you don’t have a thermonuclear deterrent or prove that you have it, if you claim to have it,” said Karnad.Sources said that Santhanam had admitted that the test was a fizzle during a discussion on CTBT organised by IDSA. Karnad also participated in the seminar.

He told TOI that no country has succeeded in achieving targets with only its first test of a thermonuclear device.“Two things are clear; that India should not sign CTBT and that it needs more thermonuclear device tests,” said Santhanam. The yield of the thermonuclear device test in 1998 has led to much debate and while western experts have stated that it was not as claimed, BARC has maintained that it stands by its assessment.

Indian scientists had claimed after the test that the thermonuclear device gave a total yield of 45 KT, 15 KT from the fission trigger and 30 KT from the fusion process and that the theoretical yield of the device (200 KT) was reduced to 45 KT in order to minimise seismic damage to villages near the test range.British experts, however, later challenged the claims saying that the actual combined yield for the fission device and thermonuclear bomb was not more than 20 KT.

BBC Admits Al Qaeda Never Existed

2009-08-19T03:07:00.000-07:00

Specially for the attention of Our NAIVE Journalists and Analysts who continue to exaggerate their claims about Al Qaeda..

The Future of Pakistan...

2009-08-19T03:01:00.000-07:00

Choosing French Submarine over German? Rational decision or risking Pakistani defence ?

2009-08-05T03:22:00.000-07:00

by Farzana Shah
A German team is due in few days probably on August 5th according to sources to look into possibility of signing the accord for provision of U-214 submarines to Pakistan Navy.

U – 214 multi target capability
However reports appearing in the media suggest that the deal may hit snags due to change of mind in the current Pakistani government over purchase of German submarines.

In 2008 Pakistan Navy under chief of naval staff Admiral Muhammad Afzal Tahir made efforts for including German 214 Class submarines in its fleet and owing to Navy’s persistent efforts, the government had approved plans for acquisition of these submarines to be built at Karachi Shipyard under transfer of technology programme.

The details were later worked out between the two countries when a Pakistan Navy delegation visited Germany in April.

However recently quoting Pakistani government sources, the Financial Times Deutschland says President Asif Zardari may overrule his military’s preference for the German subs to take up a “better offer” from France.

But what better submarines France can offer to Pakistan? That is a question to ponder because France has no better submarines to offer Pakistan at the moment, whereas French are indeed not ready to offer us nuclear submarine.

What France has in store?
There are three options 1. Scorpion, 2. Marlin and 3. Barracuda submarines.

But again the scorpions are not superior to U 214, neither these will be having any benefit for Pakistan because French company DCN is already going to provide Scorpion to Indian Navy ahead of Pakistan.

U-214 is way better than French design given to India. Marlin is just on drawing board and will take forever to go to prototype stage and then test and evaluation and finally induction into Pakistan Navy meanwhile India will have all its Scorpion in sea. DCN (Direction des Constructions Navales), France will not be able to fulfill Pakistani order ahead of Indians.
Now the only option for Pakistan will be to ask for Barracuda submarine, but it is unlikely that France will sell us nuclear submarine. Barracuda is a nuclear powered submarine and France does not currently allow the sale of nuclear-propelled submarines.

Despite having French Agosta B submarines, the Pakistani Navy opted for purchasing German Torpedoes for fitting to Agosta B due to the superior German technology.

Pakistan Navy needs German submarines because the German U-214 subs are far better than the French Scorpion.

Following is the comparison between French subs and German U 214.

Specifications of U-214

Crew
27 (including five officers)

Weapon Systems:
Torpedoes
Six 533mm tubes, 24 STN Atlas Elektronik DM2A4 torpedoes

Combat Data System
Basic Command and Weapons Control System (BCWCS)

Countermeasures:
ESM
EADS
FL1800U
Decoys

TAU 2000 torpedo countermeasures system
Radar
Kelvin hughes type 1007 I-band navigation radar
Sonar
STN Atlas Elektronik DBQS-40 sonar suite and STN Atlas Elektronik MOA 3070 mine detection sonar
Periscopes
Zeiss Optronic SERO 14 search and SERO 15 attack
Propulsion
Diesel-electric, MTU 16V-396 diesel engine, 3.12MW, HDW / Siemens AIP (Air-Independent Propulsion) system, 300kW

U214 Dimensions:
Length
64m
Height
13m
Surface Displacement
1,700m³
Presure Hull Diameter
6.3m
Buoyancy Reserve 10%

U214 Performance:
Submerged Patrol Speed of Advance
6kt
Range
12,000nm
Mission Endurance
12 weeks
Constantly Submerged
Three weeks without snorkelling
Mission Sprint Speed
15kt to 20kt
Maximum Dive Depth
400m+

(Scorpène) Subs (French One) Specifications
Key Data:
Crew
32

Dimensions:
Overall Length
63.5m
Draught
5.4m
Submerged Displacement
1,590t
Surface Displacement
1,450t
Pressure Hull Weldable and High-Tensile Steel
80HLES, more than 700Mpa

Performance:
Maximum Operating Depth
350m
Submerged Speed
Over 20 kt
Range (at 8kt)
6,400nm
Endurance
50 days

Weapon Systems:
Torpedoes / Missiles
Six 21in torpedo tubes for 18 torpedoes / missiles

Comparison
The comparison clearly indicates the superiority of German U-214 submarine.
If the current government goes for inferior quality French submarines then it will indeed give weight to suspicion of many Pakistanis who see bribes as main factor behind any irrational decisions viz viz defence deals.

Already the Pakistani senators have demanded in an incamera briefing from Pakistani Naval chief in the Senate.

Whereas some eyebrows have also been raised over the fact that foreign secretary Salman Bashir in the current government of Zardari is the brother of Naval Chief, Noman Bashir and there are also some reports that PIA chairman is going to be named Pakistani envoy to France. Some political pundits see such an appointment an attempt to muster a deal for French submarines.

On the other hand submarine acquisition project (SMAP) a group composed of Naval officers who have recommended U-214 submarines over other options after extensive study has been disbanded and the officers have been posted out at different stations.

Though earlier the Germans have delayed the deal due to political situation of Pakistan but can kickoff cutting of hull for first submarine immediately after signing the deal.

In such a situation going for something which does not fulfill the requirement of Pakistan Navy would be tantamount to putting the national defence at risk.

There is no reason not to go for German submarines specially when Berlin even granted federal export credit guarantees worth nearly $1.4 billion for the purchase of the same.
- Asian Tribune -

Terrorists Preparing To Declare Independent Balochistan, Pakistani Politicians Mum

2009-08-05T03:13:00.000-07:00

Published : August 5, 2009 Author : Ahmed Quraishi

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—A college chemistry professor is murdered in cold blood at his house’s doorstep in Quetta, the latest in a long list of educationists cowardly assassinated by terrorists claiming to stand for the great Pakistani Baloch. These terrorists, backed by Brahamdagh Bugti and his paid mercenaries sponsored by India and the Karzai regime with US military turning a blind eye, have kidnapped 22 police officers. A terrorist group that calls itself Balochistan Republican Army (BRA) has slaughtered four of them and dumped their bodies in public places.

Despite all these acts of terrorism by the grandson of politician-turned-terrorist Akbar Bugti, no one in the pro-US federal and provincial governments is willing to condemn the terrorists. Last month these terrorists planted a bomb on a train leaving Karachi and detonated it just half an hour away from Quetta, killing an innocent Pakistani Baloch. No condemnation then too.

The sheepish and apologetic attitude of the Pakistani government is inexplicable. Last month this government gave the Indians and the Americans damning proof on how Indian spy outfits were using the Afghan provinces of Helmand and Kandahar to target Balochistan. As much as eight foreign spy agencies are cramming this Pakistani territory. Yet the Pakistani state is reluctant to call a spade a spade. The pro-US government's chief minister in Balochistan Nawab Asalm Raisani is on record having said to reporters a few months ago, "I don't know if there is foreign involvement in the province. Go ask those who say there is." Obviously, in his many meetings with President Zardari, Prime Minister Gilani and Interior Minister Rehman Malik, no one cared to share with him the photographs of Brahamdagh Bugti cavorting with the Indians and Karzai's men not just in Kabul but in New Delhi. A better explanation is that the feudal-politicians of Balochistan, like their kin in the rest of the Pakistani politics, are ready to accept a separated Balochistan in the hope that this somehow will help weaken the grip of the Pakistani military and forever stain it in the eyes of its own people.

Here is what is happening on this front:

1. Reports are emerging that Harbyar Mari, a terrorist given sanctuary and protection by the British government, is preparing to declare the 'independence' of Balochistan. The date for this declaration has been set as 11 August, according to an alert issued by BRASSTACKS, a Pakistani security and defense analysis think tank run by eminent expert Zaid Hamid.

2. This comes with reports that the Zardari government is preparing to grant 'full autonomy' to Balochistan within the Pakistani federation. In essence, this means Pakistan will soon have its own version of Iraq's Kurdistan. Considering the volatile security situation in the region and the active interest of both the Americans and Indians in wresting Balochistan from Pakistani hands, this would prove to be a kiss of death for Pakistan's national integrity. The US media is quiet these days on the so-called Greater Pashtunistan, but in the last two years, the US media leaked story after story on the feasibility of this option. These leaked reports reflected an organized campaign by people within Pentagon and CIA. This campaign ceased only after protests by Pakistani officials. Another reason why this campaign stopped is to give some space to unknown 'terrorists' who have infiltrated from Afghanistan to Pakistan under the guise of the so-called Pakistani Taliban. The Kabul regime and its Indian and American allies were hoping that the death and mayhem created among Pakistani Pashtuns would be enough to rally the Pashtun of both Pakistan and Afghanistan to demand an independent country. Luckily, the Pakistani Pashtun, who are an important and active part of the Pakistani society and the power structure, understood the game and refused to play along despite enticements coming from inside the Afghan territory.

3. According to BRASSTACKS, the US government has requested the Zardari government to give part of the Balochistan coastal are to the US Navy to construct a port that would serve the US occupation forces in Afghanistan. Surprisingly, the Zardari government is actually considering the option. Mr. Zardari is also eager to get back at China, which refused to financially bail out his corrupt pro-American government. China financed part of the Gwadar project.

4. Meanwhile the potential of the Gwadar port has almost been destroyed and it is a matter of time before Pakistan's inept politicians turn it into another irretrievable mess. First Akbar Bugti and his foreign-supported terrorists attacked the project. Now the political parties in power are playing their usual games over the project in the hope of milking maximum kickbacks. So far the Zardari government is yet to commit funds for the remaining parts of the Gwadar port expansion. This happens while the Indians have completed and operationalized the competing Iranian port of Chah Bahar. The US surprisingly permitted Iranian and Indian companies to build roads in eastern Afghanistan connecting the Indian port despite the American aversion to anything that benefits Iran.

5. Balochistan is an American target. Pakistani politicians and some people within the Pakistani security establishment should make no mistake about it. CIA is supporting Sunni Balochis in Iran while backing an ethnic insurgency in Pakistan. It is not a coincidence that Jundullah in Iran and BLA in Pakistan emerged after the arrival of US military and CIA in Afghanistan, in the past five years to be more specific. Before 2004, there was no BLA or Jundullah anywhere.

6. Washington continues to refuse to declare the so-called Balochistan Liberation Army a terrorist group despite the fact that this group has claimed responsibility for killing countless college professors and other civilians in random acts of terror in Pakistan over the past five years. Some Pakistani analysts cite strong circumstantial evidence that the CIA is running operations in the area that may not be in the full knowledge of the new US administration and may in fact contradict the stated US policy of not supporting terrorism and covert operations against allies.

The 'Bugti Hero Brigade' of Zardari-Gilani-Nawaz-Altaf

Instead of putting a politician-turned-terrorist on a pedestal, it is time to ask the question: Was Mr. Akbar Bugti acting on foreign guarantees when he launched without notice a blitzkrieg of rocket fire on vital installations one fine morning in January 2005?

There is enough evidence now that confirms the thesis that Mr. Bugti was dealing directly with the Indians and Karzai’s people. His grandson Brahamdagh moves around in Kabul under the protection of Karzai's security. There is also evidence that some tribal chieftains in Balochistan were promised they would live like Gulf Arab sheikhs in a new entity carved out of southwest Pakistan if they supported the Bugti terrorist movement.

Why does the provincial government of Nawab Aslam Raisani avoid condemning these terrorists? More stunning is the reply of Interior Minister Rehman Malik in the Senate when questioned about how a Pakistani television station was allowed to air an interview with a London-based member of the Brahamdagh terror group. Mr. Malik said the interview was taped in London and “you know there is freedom of speech there.”

What a joke. Britain is providing a sanctuary to people who finance and support terrorism inside Pakistan and all our powerful security czar can say about this is to cite Britain’s speech laws. Is there a conflict of interest here between Mr. Malik’s personal life and interests in the UK and his official duty to level with the Brits on their duplicitous policy?

The terrorist acts and the new evidence is a great opportunity to delegitimize the terrorists who claim to own Balochistan. But our usually bland and uncreative political elite is incapable of encashing this opportunity.

Major grievances aside, there is no direct discrimination against Pakistani Baloch on ethno-language grounds from anyone in the rest of the country. The level of education of Pakistani Baloch denies them opportunities to climb the social ladder. And the blame for this rests squarely with both the federal government and Balochistan’s tribal chieftains. The landlord-feudal politicians of Pakistan are responsible for compounding the problems of Pakistanis everywhere. And there is no hope in sight that those running the federal government – PPP now or PML in the future – can change anything on the ground.

The Solution

Pakistan needs a practical, nationalistic and visionary federal administration that can take monumental steps to reorganize the State and provinces.

These are the major long-term steps that Islamabad needs to take to arrest the push toward Balkanization:

1. Instead of autonomy, the four ethnic-based provinces of Pakistan need to be turned into smaller administrative provinces with their own small parliaments and directly elected governors. This will break national politics into smaller pieces and refocus the people's attention on local politics and development issues instead of the destructive national politics we see today.

2. Ban ethnic-, language- and sectarian-based political parties.

3. Introduce capital punishment for corruption and treason.

4. Ban the conduct of 'private foreign policy' by politicians and political parties with foreign governments.

5. Seize the vast land holdings of the landlord-political elite and empower the more creative and capable lower and middle class Pakistanis to step forward.

6. Forcibly democratize the family-owned political parties of Pakistan.

The big question is: Who will do this? Interestingly, a group of eminent Pakistanis with no political affiliations has come together to answer this question. Members of the group have assigned themselves to developing an out-of-the-box answer to one question: How to enact these difficult reforms outside the realm of the chaotic Pakistani democratic process? This group is expected to soon make its findings public.

Pakistan needs creative minds at the top to unlock the initiative of its people. We need change. But let’s begin with condemning the terrorists who have taken ownership of Balochistan without any contest from the pro-US government in Islamabad.

The original version of this column appeared in The News International. This is an updated version that reflects the latest developments in southwest Pakistan.

WE are PAKISTANIS ...

2009-08-01T04:54:00.000-07:00

The author is Editor of PakistanFirst.com and hosts The Editor's Show. He is also the Director of ‘Parliament Watch’ a project of the ‘Future leaders of Pakistan’. Ali believes in the youth of Pakistan and works with different think-tanks and groups to motivate the Pakistani youth.

By Ali Khan
Patriotism, is mostly treated as a word from the English dictionary, it should be, but only when used in a sentence.But when it is put to practice I ask you not to look upon it as ‘just a word’. Think instead, of the act that makes an ‘action’ patriotic.

Look at the intention that makes a decision patriotic, look at the sacrifice that makes a human patriotic.Dinning out on the 23rd of March or the 14th of August is a costly patriotic act, thus, limited to very few people in our country. But what about those for whom every day and every night is full of patriotism? There are many who sleep hungry every night but live their lives minus any iota of corruption.

I remember a picture that I once saw when the hurricane Katrina had hit the United States. It depicted people looting shops and homes. But I also remember those visuals from TV from the October ’05 earthquake in Pakistan, when people opened up their shops to give free food, shared their water and clothes with others.

What if someone unknown, with a big beard, knocks on your door and tells you that he has just fled his home - will you keep him in your house? Share your food and your clothes with him? And then, what if someone else knocks on your door with 5 family members, would you tell your children to share their clothes and toys with these unknown people?

What if you have so many unknown people walking into your home that you share everything with them and are left with nothing but a small blanket to sleep with?

People in Mardan and Dir have done this.

This is ‘patriotism’.

When the West says; “A friend in need is a friend in deed” we believe them, but when we Pakistanis are together, as one, in time of crises, are we not a nation? Helping each other in the time of need is a bad thing, now?

Whatever that Lawyer’s Movement was about, whatever that Chief Justice wanted, I could hardly care less. But don’t overlook that lawyer who saw his children sleep at night on empty stomachs, as he couldn’t make money that day since he was fighting for justice in his country - not selling it.
How can you and I ignore that patriotic act?

For God’s sake, even the maximum torture a ‘Talib’ could do to a non-Muslim in Pakistan is to put ‘Jazia’ on them for against which they provide them security and justice according to their religion. Also, I have never heard that non-Muslim Pakistanis are flogged in trains like chickens and burned. In Pakistan I have never heard of a church burnt to the ground either – with the bishop, his wife and his five-year-old child still inside. And you still say Pakistan never exhibits true unity and bonding?
Patriotism is not an economic scale from which you measure constant progression of development on every level. Even if it was, tell me the name of one other country in the world, which fought three wars, lost a part of it, helped destroy the world’s super power and has an archrival on one side, 7 times bigger in size, but still survived. And in its history the economy never went - with all the turmoil going on - below 2.5% GDP.

Tell me about a country which started with Rs. 200 million in cash, no industry, no resources, no government infrastructure, no offices and became what it is today. Let it be no surprise that in 2004 and 2005 we were the second fastest growing country in the world according to international organizations.

I think, we ought to thank the Almighty as from Rs. 200 million cash today, we stand more than $1 trillion in just 62 years. Although we could do much better.

Let it be known; Pakistan is a great nation. It has the power to not only survive in the gravest of times, but it has also taken the responsibility to save the world from the menace of terrorism and militancy.
The time for hopeless banter should be gone, now is the time for a rising again - with hope, belief and hard work. The time for only criticizing and criticizing alone should be done with, now is time for only developing minds, hearts and the will for a rising Pakistan.

After learning from our past, this time we shall be better and more resilient.

Our country is not as bad as we think it is. We have just stopped looking for the better things it gave us. Remember we don’t have to follow another nation, which does not share the same ideals and beliefs as us.

Let it be known; the people of Pakistan are patriotic, they are the followers of Allama Iqbal and they will one day make their homeland, as their Quaid said: “The greatest nation-state on earth”, a homeland they call Pakistan, ‘The Land of the Pure’!

*This article was written in response to Zareen Zubair’s ‘Who are we?’ article published in one of TGK’s previous issues.

The tale of the two friends ...

2009-07-31T04:33:00.000-07:00

The nation awaits a HISTORIC verdict soon..for over 5 hours all of the so called free media in Pakistan is chanting sologans of FREEDOM and FREE JUDICIARY..the judiciary that fails to put the most corrupt man in country on trial..he is still the President of the Land of pure and his so called opposition is still busy in protecting credit card thieves and police bashers in public with the consent of the SHARIFs..whats in the name some one said ...nothing indeed..one can be a sharif and yet be a scounderal ..and yet be really really wealthy .. the world is indeed coming to an end it seems ..

lets closely analyse the potential outcome from the very case in point ..that according to our media is going to be a trendsetter and a feather in the cap of the free judiciary thats ironically associated with only one man ..the veyr person who had to make amends to his thought process and make deals with the gatekeepers of the power corridors ..
The decision may :

1) Nullify the 3rd Nov decision ..
[ who cares ..will that resolve the power crisis , free us from corruption, my provide riddance from poverty ...oh guess what ..none of these ]

2) Null and void the reinstatment of 3rd Nov Judiciary
who cares again ..what are these powerful judges doing for the nation, have they taken any substantial notice to the nation's woes in any way possible?

3) Take notice of NRO
Lets be fair guys ..Iftikhar Chaudhry would never do that ..for once he has to pay back to his bosses in real ..he cant afford another outster..that would tame his shiny sun glasses and his power politics for good.

what ever may be the final decision of the court ..According to CJ himself .."we will not make any decision that may disrupt the system in place" ....come again Mr. CJ system or LACK OF SYSTEM ?.. i think you have got in wrong once again..you will keep your self busy in taking notices of rape cases , illegal constructions , power scandal of Chak Shehzad and basant for instance :)

so for those who day dream about this case leading to the rescue of the land of Pure ..should ponder once again ...are we fooling ourselves ..these goons are no good ..and will do nothing to make our lives better ...only we can make our lives better ..that is if we realize this ..or else ..all will be the same in this vicious cycle ...

May Allah Bless Pakistan

India’s Arihant — upping the psychological ante

2009-07-30T06:36:00.001-07:00

By : Dr.Shireen Mazari [ Defence Analyst , PTI Spokesperson]

Coming back to the Indian nuclear powered submarine – it should be pointed out that we do not yet know how it will perform once its reactor goes critical. Will it actually have the speed and capability – given that it has been built with Soviet/Russian technology and the fate of many Soviet/Russian subs lies at the bottom of the seas – taking a heavy toll of human life and reflecting the limitations of Soviet weapon systems?

While Pakistan’s decision makers squabble over whether to go ahead and implement the 2008 decision of buying German submarines or alter course and seek more French subs instead, India has put its prototype nuclear powered submarine, INS Arihant, into the waters. Incidentally, those in Pakistan who have been ranting for years over the use of Islamic warrior names for our missiles seem absurdly mute in commenting on India’s aggressive usage of Hindu mythology warrior names not only for its missiles but now also for its nuclear-powered submarine. Of course, the reality is that the nuclear reactor of this submarine will not go critical till 2012, so at the moment Arihant is more of a symbolic reflection of where India is headed in terms of its nuclear arsenal. Nevertheless, the development has signalled the nuclearisation of the Indian Ocean by a littoral state – since nuclear weapons have been present in this Ocean through the military presence of the external nuclear powers, especially the US.

That is one major reason why the US, France and UK always opposed the UN General Assembly’s efforts to make the Indian Ocean a weapon-free “zone of peace” – as reflected in the first UN GA Resolution of 16 December 1971(2832:XXVI). Ironically, along with the Soviet Union, India was a major force behind this Non-Aligned Movement-supported UN resolution. But then this has been the hallmark of Indian security policy: seeking time through multilateral diplomatic moves while it builds its military capability. In contrast to the Indian position on the Indian Ocean as a Zone of Peace resolution, the US, France and the UK always voted against this idea and in 1989 they chose to withdraw from the 44 member UN committee on this issue that had been set up in 1972. The US in fact demanded that the committee be eliminated so as to reduce UN spending and we know how this whole issue simply died for lack of visible progress. Now that India has also moved towards nuclear militarisation of the Indian Ocean, it will be difficult to see any revival of the zone of peace proposal for this region in the future. With the launching of the Arihant, India has moved still further away from being a proponent of nuclear disarmament to being a projector of nuclear force. Strategic rationality makes it incumbent on Pakistan to seek to restore the nuclear balance for the future.

However, this should not be a major issue for us even in financial terms, as long as the lure of commissions does not distort or destroy our strategic interests. We already have conventional submarines including the Agosta-type which are not only capable of carrying nuclear warheads, but can be upgraded to being fitted with air-independent propulsion technology (AIP) specifically designed to allow conventional subs to remain submerged for longer periods. That is the main advantage of nuclear-powered submarines, along with the speed element – they do not need to surface like conventional subs that need to surface after short periods of being submerged and therefore become vulnerable. AIP technology is specifically designed for conventional subs and the Germans have been in the forefront of this technological development, although the Agostas can also be upgraded.

It is unfortunate that Pakistan’s purchase of subs has been delayed apparently over the commissions lure, because now the international community will make it harder for this country to acquire these subs. Have we learnt no lessons from what happened to Pakistan in 1974 after the Indian nuclear test? India tested and Pakistan was penalised! The Canadians withdrew from KANUPP despite IAEA safeguards and a legal agreement. There is nothing to suggest that things will be different this time round – given how Hillary Clinton practically blessed Indian militarisation with a new defence pact. Besides Pakistan’s pathetic record of asserting legal agreements with its allies makes us easy victims of foreign pressure and diktat – remember the replacement of F-16s with wheat and soya beans? Not only did we lose our money, but before the US finally retracted on the deal, we were made to pay parking charges for these F-16s also! But we always forget US abuse and present ourselves for more of the same whenever the occasion arises!

Coming back to the Indian nuclear powered submarine – it should be pointed out that we do not yet know how it will perform once its reactor goes critical. Will it actually have the speed and capability – given that it has been built with Soviet/Russian technology and the fate of many Soviet/Russian subs lies at the bottom of the seas – taking a heavy toll of human life and reflecting the limitations of Soviet weapon systems? A major disadvantage of nuclear-powered subs is that they are noisier because they have to keep the reactor powered on all the time so if conventional subs can acquire longer submergeable capability through AIP technology – although it will still not be the same as a nuclear-driven sub – the imbalance can be offset to some extent.

Sea-launched nuclear missiles are central to second strike capability which acts as a stabiliser in the context of nuclear strategy since it reduces the imperatives for first strike. In this context, although Pakistan has not officially made any declarations regarding the development of this capability, it is now fairly well-established that we are already on the way to ensuring this second strike capability. It is also now recognised that we have had more success with missile development than India – probably because we have kept our missile ranges and types limited and focused more on developing solid fuelled delivery systems (which, again, are more stable) and reducing circular error probabilities. India, on the other hand, chose to have a wide-ranging missile programme including seeking the development of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). While we have stabilised our cruise missile as well as moved towards the beginnings of sea-launched ballistic missiles, from all accounts, India has not been too successful in both these fields – especially with the Sagarika (which is to be its sea-launched missile) in surface tests. So if India is to gain any advantage from its nuclear-powered submarine, assuming it will perform as expected once its reactor goes critical, it will have to work more on its delivery systems.

For Pakistan while there is no need to go into panic mode, we will have to stop sacrificing good deals simply because of the greed over commissions. The fact that a French inquiry has hinted at commissions lying at the root of the death of the French engineers in Karachi should be a sobering moment for any leadership. But the brazenness with which our successive decision-makers have been proceeding, with scant regard for propriety and wastage of limited national resources, shows that no lessons have been learnt – nor is there any desire to learn from even recent history.

Worse still, our rulers are full of bombast but are unwilling to take proactive concrete actions. Take the case of Balochistan. Political leaders of all shades have been repeating ad nauseum the need for political healing and economic investment in that province but why have the first steps in that direction not been taken beyond publication of reports and statements? Why is the leadership so hesitant to declare a general amnesty for all Baloch political figures and the release of all political prisoners? When we can talk to militants (and we should if they are our own people prepared to accept the writ of the state) and be allied to the Americans who continue to kill our people through drone attacks, why are we so unwilling to begin the healing process with the Baloch people and their leaders? Why are we allowing our detractors to provide support for the dissidents instead of taking the punch out of their dissidence by granting them a one-time amnesty if they accept the writ of the state? How can we rise to external military challenges posed by countries like India and the US when we are unable to deal with our own people? Our weakness lies within ourselves reflecting a psychological confidence deficit which makes the rulers aggressive and non-accommodative with the nation and timorous before external players.

The Indians and Americans are exploiting this well which is why the Indian’s are making grandiose statements about a submarine that has yet to show how it performs!

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

Note : Also watch this Times of India video clip on India's JUNK weapons system

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/videoshow/4835093.cms

Indian Army Major-General Runs Terrorist Camps Inside Afghanistan

2009-07-27T11:31:00.000-07:00

By Ahmed Quraishi Sunday, 26 July 2009.
KABUL, Afghanistan—As the United States military occupation of Afghanistan falters, regional powers move in for the kill. Afghanistan has many neighbors. India is not one of them. It does not share any borders with Afghanistan. But after CIA, India’s two intelligence services – the Research & Analysis Wing (RAW) and Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) – are among the most active in the occupied country.

The Indians have excellent contacts within Karzai’s security setup. Most of them are former communist leaders who escaped to India in the 1970s and ‘80s and returned to power along with the Northern Alliance in 2001, backed by both US and India.

The Indians have also sold the Americans, or at least some key people within the American intelligence and strategic communities, on the dubious Indian ‘expertise’ on Afghanistan. This is how India was assigned an expanded role inside Afghanistan. The role takes the form of development work on the surface. But in reality, the Indians are neck deep in Afghanistan, and now it turns out they are neck deep inside western Pakistan as well.

The Indians have a separate, extensive intelligence and espionage setup focused on Pakistan’s tribal Pashtun belt. This is where the Indians and Karzai’s people are running a joint venture of pumping saboteurs into Pakistan disguised as the so-called ‘Pakistani Taliban’, who are also known as the Fake Taliban to differentiate them from the Afghan Taliban who are fighting the foreign armies in Afghanistan and are not fighting Pakistan.

This report focuses on India’s espionage work in southern Afghanistan targeting Pakistan’s Balochistan province.

Apart from the Indian Embassy in Kabul, there are nine consulates strategically located in the US-occupied country.

India has two consulates in the south near Pakistan’s three key areas: the provinces of Balochistan and NWFP and the tribal belt. One Indian consulate is located in Kandahar. The other one is located close to the airport in Lashkar Gah, capital of the Helmand province. This Indian ‘consulate’ has a training facility where training is imparted to would-be terrorists. Here they are equipped and sent to Pakistan. Most of these terrorists are young men recruited from both Pakistan and Afghanistan. Indian ‘diplomats’ from the two southern consulates have been sighted collecting large quantities of Pakistani rupees from the open market on several occasions.
Interestingly, Helmand is the same province where the United States and the United Kingdom have mobilized their military and intelligence resources to fight al Qaeda and the Taliban and push them toward Pakistan.

From Pakistan’s point of view, this US-NATO operation is bogus. After all, the Afghan Taliban are registering success in Afghan provinces that are nowhere near the Pakistani border, including northern Afghanistan. There is no evidence that the Afghan Taliban managed to do this because of help from Pakistani soil. And yet US-NATO forces forget Taliban everywhere else and decide to focus on Helmand which borders Pakistani Balochistan, a province that is being destabilized from the Afghan soil.

Knowing that this operation could be used by intelligence operatives [Indian, Afghan and possibly even American] to push undercover agents and saboteurs inside Pakistan, Pakistani authorities formally objected to Washington over the military action noting very clearly that pushing terrorists inside Pakistan is not a solution.

On top of the nine Indian consulates, six more ‘diplomatic’ outposts have been established by both RAW and a Karzai spy outfit called NDS.

The six new ‘consulates’ are part of a network headed by a retired major-general from the Indian army. His CV shows that he used to head RAW’s counterintelligence wing based in New Delhi.

His job description is simple.

In intelligence parlance, he is responsible for identifying strategic opportunities in Afghanistan and Pakistan and use them to India’s advantage. He is expected to cultivate, recruit, train, arm and finance espionage and sabotage inside Pakistan in a calculated manner resulting in supporting India’s wider political and strategic objectives in the region.

In simple everyday language, the Indian officer is supposed to open enough fronts for Pakistan from the west in order to distract Pakistan’s grip and attention over Kashmir, the Indian occupied region to the east.

The Indian major-general has led an operation where young men from Pakistan and Afghanistan have been recruited in the name of waging jihad against America. Once in, the young men are brainwashed. They are shown violent speeches by supposed religious clerics. They are introduced to ‘mujahedeen leaders’ who enjoy vast knowledge in Islamic and Quranic teachings. Most of these ‘mujahedeen leaders’ are either Indian or Karzai’s intelligence people.

The brainwashing sessions include virulent sermons against Pakistan and its role in betraying Islam. The indoctrination ends with the mission that Pakistan needs to be the first target in the jihad against America. Whoever sides with Pakistan in this battle is a supporter of America’s occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan.

These young men with ‘messed up minds’ are then sent to Pakistan to carry out bombings, suicide attacks, targeted killings, and slaughter innocent people.

Most of them are introduced as Islamic militants or Taliban. But a large number of them are also sent in to pretend they are Pakistanis fighting for the separation of Balochistan from the motherland.

As soon as these terrorists finish blowing up pipelines or killing university professors in Balochistan’s provincial capital Quetta, Indian consulates in Afghanistan arrange for their Urdu writers to pen down neatly written statements in Urdu which are then dispatched to Pakistani news organizations. Some analysts who have had a chance to look at these statements are impressed by the high quality of the Urdu language used in these written press statements. [Non-Pakistani readers may not understand the significance of this point. A small minority in northeast India, a region that has been the seat of Muslim nobility and empire for most of the past ten centuries, continue to be well acquainted with Urdu, the language of the old Muslim nobility in the region. The terrorists spreading havoc in Pakistani Balochistan do not enjoy even a moderately acceptable command over this classical language. The only other people outside Pakistan who can show off a few experts in this language are Indians from the northwestern part of their country.]

Exploiting a barren, rough terrain, the Indians and Karzai’s security people have identified routes along three regions in southwest Pakistan – Dalbandin, Noshki and Chaman – as transportation routes for weapons and bombs smuggled into the province.

Pakistani security forces have consistently been confiscating US and Israeli manufactured weapons from terrorists in various parts of southwest Pakistan bordering Afghanistan.
Intelligence agencies from eight different countries are suspected to be active in the wave of terror inside Pakistan. These spy outfits belong to the United States, India, Afghanistan, Iran, UAE, Israel, Britain and Russia.

Pakistani authorities have been slow in discovering the role of a 9th country in this mix: Oman.
Oman is situated right across the Arabian Sea, facing the coastal line of Balochistan. Thanks to cross migrations between Oman and Pakistan over the past two centuries, a substantial portion of the Omani population is of Pakistani Baloch descent. They have traditionally worked for the security service and the army of successive Omani kings, including the incumbent, Sultan Qaboos bin Saeed.

At least two countries, the US and Britain, have intelligence ‘listening and monitoring outposts’ in Oman. There have been reports that Sultan Qaboos bin Saeed had also granted Israel the right to use his territory for discreet information gathering operations targeting neighboring countries, especially Iran and the region surrounding the Strait of Hormuz. This area includes Pakistani Balochistan.

Apart from the Indians, Washington is known to be very interested in Balochistan. The Pakistani province offers the shortest land route to Afghanistan should Islamabad decide to cease support to NATO and US supply lines through the rest of Pakistan. The Americans are also suspicious that a hard-to-defeat Afghan Taliban are based in Balochistan.

The suspicion is that at some level Oman is helping US access Pakistani Balochistan without the knowledge of the Pakistani government.

The nine foreign intelligence agencies are in Afghanistan for various purposes. The American and the Omani roles have been explained. Karzai’s intelligence is simply ready to join any effort that harms Pakistan. The Indians want to punish Pakistan for supporting the struggle of the Kashmiri people against Indian occupation. India also wants to destabilize Balochistan enough so that China abandons the huge development projects inside the Pakistani province, an objective that the Americans would welcome without hesitation.

Iran is more concerned about the CIA-backed Jundullah terrorist group that is working on setting the Sunni Balochi population inside Iran against the Shiite majority. The Dubai emirate of the UAE has been told by the Indians that Pakistan’s Gwadar port in Balochistan is being developed as competition. There is also suspicion that some lobbies within the UAE are aligned with the American agenda on Iran, especially considering that Iran occupies three UAE islands. Pakistani Balochistan figures prominently in this agenda. I am referring to ‘lobbies inside the UAE’ because while Dubai is suspicious about Gwadar it is not interested in joining any anti-Iran effort. But Abu Dhabi, the other influential emirate in the UAE, is more susceptible to go along the Americans on Iran, including the idea of using Balochistan for this purpose.

The Brits are also closely aligned with the Americans. The case of the Israelis, however, is more interesting. Israel is the only country with the longest experience in dealing with Islamic groups. Israel has gone as far as establishing Islamic religious schools inside Israel that serve intelligence purposes, such as understanding how fighters are indoctrinated and also how to develop undercover agents who can go and join Islamic groups disguised as Muslim extremists.

Washington sought Israeli assistance in this regard after 9/11. The Indians were smarter. They approached Israel in the 1990s to counter Islamic groups backed by Pakistan. These groups were at the forefront of the Kashmiri people’s fight against the Indian occupation of Kashmir. Israeli has demonstrated it can help India in Kashmir in May-June 1999 when a defeated Indian army unit there was provided Israeli military assistance on the ground to repel advancing Pakistani and Kashmiri fighters. [The timely and effective Israeli assistance helped turn a tactical Pakistani military victory into defeat, providing India enough time to mobilize a diplomatic offensive to invite international intervention in Kashmir. This is according to a rare disclosure by Mark Sofer, Israel’s ambassador to India, in a Feb. 2008 interview with an Indian news magazine.]

There is a strong probability that Israel’s help is once again at play in India’s anti-Pakistan activities on the Afghan soil. The Israelis are also focused on Iran. This leaves out the Russians who are most probably fishing in troubled waters and are there to reclaim the influence they lost in the area with the end of the Soviet Union 18 years ago.

But it is the Indians who walk away with the prize. They have played their cards well and convinced likeminded lobbies in Washington to let them use the Afghan soil against Pakistan for a good seven years now. But as the situation deteriorates for the Americans inside Afghanistan, a desperate Obama administration is listening to Pakistani complaints for the first time and possibly taking some action to reign in their wayward Indian friends.

© 2007-2009. All rights reserved. AhmedQuraishi.com & PakNationalists

URGENT: India Pays Baitullah Mehsud To Attack Pakistan’s Nuclear Sites, Plan Deployed

2009-07-08T06:33:00.000-07:00

Author : Ahmed Quraishi

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—India has paid terrorist leader Baitullah Mehsud and his well armed and trained terrorist army around U.S. $ 25 million to mount a spectacular attack on a major Pakistani nuclear site. A special force of around 500 recruits has been assembled and trained to mount the operation that is supposed to shock the world. The purpose is to create an event that will create a global media scare and convince the world of the need for military intervention in Pakistan. Another objective is to neutralize voices of reason within the U.S. government that believe Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal is secure.

The bulk of the terrorists in the special 500-strong force put together by Mehsud have been trained inside Afghanistan by trainers suspected of having links to the Indian intelligence. Although most of the recruits are expected to be Pakistanis from Mehsud’s tribe, an unknown number of Afghan and Indian elements with special operations training have been inserted in the Mehsud group in order to ensure the success of this high profile operation.

It is not clear when this plan was conceived and whether the 500-strong force divided into crack teams to carry out the attack(s) is ready. But Pakistani officials are taking no chances. The nation’s security setup is on high alert. As for the nuclear installations, the managers of Pakistan’s strategic arsenal maintain unrestricted universal operability to fulfill the arsenal’s role as a deterrent. For them, no day is a normal day.

But this latest disclosure of a plan to attack the nuclear sites has raised alarm bells, to say the least.

A rough sketch of the plan and how the attack(s) are expected to unfold goes as follows:

1. A team or several teams of terrorists attack one or more Pakistani nuclear sites and attempt to enter the facilities.
2. Within each crack team only a small core is supposed to be equipped with modern communications equipment, special operations gear, and modern weapons; highly trained to exact maximum damage.
3. Where possible, the terrorists plan to break in and hold the fort, a la Mumbai attacks, in order to generate maximum media coverage and embarrassment for the Pakistanis.
4. The international media, and especially the main American and British news outlets, turn this into a global crisis, comparable to the Bay of Pigs in 1962.
5. The event generates enough pressure to justify an ‘international demand’ to neutralize Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal and force Pakistanis to accept ‘international’ supervision.
6. Depending on the aftermath, and after a few days or weeks, a small nuclear weapon is used somewhere, maybe against the US military or NATO bases in Afghanistan since it would be difficult to do it anywhere else, in order to confirm that the Afghan Taliban or generally the ‘Islamic extremists’ managed to steal a weapon from the earlier attack(s) on Pakistani sites.

This last point is critical. According to the available information, the mysterious disappearance of a senior Indian nuclear scientist and his subsequent death in May is linked to at least some parts of this plan. The scientist, Mr. Lokanathan Mahalingam, 47, had access to Indian’s sensitive nuclear information and worked at the prestigious Kaiga Atomic Power Station in the southern Indian state Karnataka, close to Project Seabird, a major Indian military base. His disappearance received limited coverage in the Indian media and there was almost a blackout on the circumstances surrounding how his dead body was found in a lake. The media in the U.S. and Britain also ignored the story. It is believed that Mr. Mahalingam was either involved in or had some knowledge about the planning for securing a small nuclear weapon that would leave no fingerprints, to put it this way, in order to execute the idea in paragraph 6 above.

The Indians have been working on this scenario for some time now.

On 16 May, the Israeli security website Debka under a story titled, ‘Singh warns Obama: Pakistan is lost,’ reported the following:

“India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has told President Obama that nuclear sites in Pakistan's restive frontier province are "already partly” in the hands of Islamic extremists.”

The Times of India, reporting the story, complained about “Washington's misplaced confidence in, and [careless] approach towards, Pakistan's nuclear assets,” and grumbled that “Pakistan is ramping up its nuclear arsenal even as the rest of the world is scaling it down.”

The Indian interest is obvious. But so is the Israeli interest. It is quite revealing that the story was broken by a news outlet known in international circles for its links to the Israeli government.

Official circles in Washington, including the White House, the State Department, Pentagon and CIA are cognizant of a history of cooperation between India and Israel in security issues. India’s security establishment is largely focused on Pakistan and on controlling Kashmir where the population is fighting the Indian military. At least in one incident, during the limited Pakistan-India war in 1999, the Israelis directly intervened to help the battered Indian army overturn a tactical victory by Pakistani and Kashmiri fighters.

As recently as two days ago, Bruce Riedel, a former CIA analyst and an Obama adviser known for his strong anti-Pakistan views, wrote an article published at the Brookings Institute website that demonstrates how far the anti-Pakistan lobby is willing to go to prove that Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal is not safe.

In Mr. Riedel’s case, he went as far as lying.

He used a recent terrorist attack on a bus carrying employees of KRL, a Pakistani nuclear facility, to say that Pakistani nuclear sites are already under attack. What he conveniently ignored is that the said bus was in fact traveling through a densely populated part of the city and not anywhere near any nuclear site. The bus most probably became a target of opportunity because it carried a plate indicating it was a government vehicle.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s statement quoted by an Israeli source which was widely reported and never denied by the Indians, the Israelis or the Americans, was not the first to promote the alarmist and the unreal scenario of Pakistani nuclear weapons getting into the wrong hands. Mr. Singh came on record during an interview with CNN in 2005 to say this:

“I am worried about the security of Pakistan’s nuclear assets should President Pervez Musharraf be replaced, since there is always the danger of Islamic militants seizing power and taking control of the country’s nuclear assets.”

There is little question that influential parts of the Indian government are involved in exporting terrorism into Pakistan from bases inside Afghanistan. Attempts to incite ethnic unrest in Pakistan’s southwest were traced by investigators to Indians in Afghanistan. Pakistani investigators reached the same conclusion with some of the evidence found in northwest Pakistan where terrorists are killing Pakistanis. And now there are reports of an impending attack on Pakistan’s nuclear facilities using Baitullah Mehsud.

The Indians and those who are supporting them should be under no illusions. Any attack on Pakistani nuclear facilities in the coming days will be construed as a declaration of war by India against Pakistan. Knowing of Mehsud’s previous contacts with Indians and with Karzai’s people, any miscalculated attempt by his terrorists will not be seen as anything less than a direct Indian attack. In this case, Pakistan will consider itself in a state of war, and retaliate accordingly. There should not be any confusion on this.

When Spies Don’t Play Well With Their Allies

2009-07-07T05:00:00.000-07:00

By MARK MAZZETTI
Published: July 20, 2008.
The New York Times.

WASHINGTON — As they complete their training at “The Farm,” the Central Intelligence Agency’s base in the Virginia tidewater, young agency recruits are taught a lesson they are expected never to forget during assignments overseas: there is no such thing as a friendly intelligence service.

Anjum Naveed/Associated Press

MASTER SPY Pakistan’s new army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Kayani, (with Pervez Musharraf, left) used to run the I.S.I.

Foreign spy services, even those of America’s closest allies, will try to manipulate you. So you had better learn how to manipulate them back.

But most C.I.A. veterans agree that no relationship between the spy agency and a foreign intelligence service is quite as byzantine, or as maddening, as that between the C.I.A. and Pakistan’s Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, or I.S.I.

It is like a bad marriage in which both spouses have long stopped trusting each other, but would never think of breaking up because they have become so mutually dependent.

Without the I.S.I.’s help, American spies in Pakistan would be incapable of carrying out their primary mission in the country: hunting Islamic militants, including top members of Al Qaeda. Without the millions of covert American dollars sent annually to Pakistan, the I.S.I. would have trouble competing with the spy service of its archrival, India.

But the relationship is complicated by a web of competing interests. First off, the top American goal in the region is to shore up Afghanistan’s government and security services to better fight the I.S.I.’s traditional proxies, the Taliban, there.

Inside Pakistan, America’s primary interest is to dismantle a Taliban and Qaeda safe haven in the mountainous tribal lands. Throughout the 1990s, Pakistan, and especially the I.S.I., used the Taliban and militants from those areas to exert power in Afghanistan and block India from gaining influence there. The I.S.I. has also supported other militant groups that launched operations against Indian troops in Kashmir, something that complicates Washington’s efforts to stabilize the region.

Of course, there are few examples in history of spy services really trusting one another. After all, people who earn their salaries by lying and assuming false identities probably don’t make the most reliable business partners. Moreover, spies know that the best way to steal secrets is to penetrate the ranks of another spy service.

But circumstances have for years forced successful, if ephemeral, partnerships among spies. The Office of Strategic Services, the C.I.A.’s predecessor, worked with the K.G.B.’s predecessors to hunt Nazis during World War II, even as the United States and the Soviet Union were quickly becoming adversaries.

These days, the relationship between Moscow and Washington is turning frosty again, over a number of issues. But, quietly, American and Russian spies continue to collaborate to combat drug trafficking and organized crime, and to secure nuclear arsenals.

The relationship between the C.I.A. and the I.S.I. was far less complicated when the United States and Pakistan were intently focused on one common goal: kicking the Soviet Union out of Afghanistan. For years in the 1980s, the C.I.A. used the I.S.I. as the conduit to funnel arms and money to Afghan rebels fighting Soviet forces in Afghanistan.

But even in those good old days, the two spy services were far from trusting of each other — in particular over Pakistan’s quest for nuclear weapons. In his book “Ghost Wars,” the journalist Steve Coll recounts how the I.S.I. chief in the early 1980s, Gen. Akhtar Abdur Rahman, banned all social contact between his I.S.I. officers and C.I.A. operatives in Pakistan. He was also convinced that the C.I.A. had set up an elaborate bugging network, so he had his officers speak in code on the telephone.

When the general and his aides were invited by the C.I.A. to visit agency training sites in the United States, the Pakistanis were forced to wear blindfolds on the flights into the facilities.

Since the Sept. 11 attacks, C.I.A. officers have arrived in Islamabad knowing they will probably depend on the I.S.I. at least as much as they have depended on any liaison spy service in the past. Unlike spying in the capitals of Europe, where agency operatives can blend in to develop a network of informants, only a tiny fraction of C.I.A. officers can walk the streets of Peshawar unnoticed.

And an even smaller fraction could move freely through the tribal areas to scoop up useful information about militant networks there.

Even the powerful I.S.I., which is dominated by Punjabis, Pakistan’s largest ethnic group, has difficulties collecting information in the tribal lands, the home of fiercely independent Pashtun tribes. For this reason, the I.S.I. has long been forced to rely on Pashtun tribal leaders — and in some cases Pashtun militants — as key informants.

Given the natural disadvantages, C.I.A. officers try to get any edge they can through technology, the one advantage they have over the local spies. [Editor’s note: The writer makes the classical error in judgment, acquired from Indian analysts, that ISI is ‘dominated’ by officers from Punjab. That is not necessarily true or accurate. At various times, officers from different provinces serve the agency. Officers from the NWFP make a substantial portion of both the ISI and the Pakistani military. American writers on Pakistan should stop taking their cue from Indians.]

For example, the Pakistani government has long restricted where the C.I.A. can fly Predator surveillance drones inside Pakistan, limiting flight paths to approved “boxes” on a grid map.

The C.I.A.’s answer to that restriction? It deliberately flies Predators beyond the approved areas, just to test Pakistani radars. According to one former agency officer, the Pakistanis usually notice.

As American and allied casualty rates in Afghanistan have grown in the last two years, the I.S.I. has become a subject of fierce debate within the C.I.A. Many in the spy agency — particularly those stationed in Afghanistan — accuse their agency colleagues at the Islamabad station of actually being too cozy with their I.S.I. counterparts.

There have been bitter fights between the C.I.A. station chiefs in Kabul and Islamabad, particularly about the significance of the militant threat in the tribal areas. At times, the view from Kabul has been not only that the I.S.I. is actively aiding the militants, but that C.I.A. officers in Pakistan refuse to confront the I.S.I. over the issue.

Veterans of the C.I.A. station in Islamabad point to the capture of a number of senior Qaeda leaders in Pakistan in recent years as proof that the Pakistani intelligence service has often shown a serious commitment to roll up terror networks. It was the I.S.I., they say, that did much of the legwork leading to the capture of operatives like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Abu Zubaydah and Ramzi bin al-Shibh.

And, they point out, the I.S.I. has just as much reason to distrust the Americans as the C.I.A. has to distrust the I.S.I. The C.I.A. largely pulled up stakes in the region after the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan in 1989, rather than staying to resist the chaos and bloody civil war that led ultimately to the Taliban ascendance in the 1990s.

After the withdrawal, the American tools to understand the complexity of relationships in Central and South Asia became rusty. The I.S.I. operates in a neighborhood of constantly shifting alliances, where double dealing is an accepted rule of the game, and the phenomenon is one that many in Washington still have problems accepting.

Until late last year, when he was elevated to the command of the entire army, the Pakistani spymaster who had been running the I.S.I. was Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani. American officials describe this smart and urbane general as at once engaging and inscrutable, an avid golfer with occasionally odd affectations. During meetings, he will often spend several minutes carefully hand-rolling a cigarette. Then, after taking one puff, he stubs it out.

The grumbling at the C.I.A. about dealing with Pakistan’s I.S.I. comes with a certain grudging reverence for the spy service’s Machiavellian qualities. Some former spies even talk about the Pakistani agency with a mix of awe and professional jealousy.

One senior C.I.A. official, recently retired, said that of all the foreign spymasters the C.I.A. had dealt with, General Kayani was the most formidable and may have earned the most respect at C.I.A. headquarters in Langley, Va. The soft-spoken general, he said, is a master manipulator.

“We admire those traits,” he said.

Mark Mazzetti is a correspondent for The New York Times, where he has covered national security from the newspaper's Washington bureau since April 2006. Mr. Mazzetti was the recipient of the 2006 Gerald R Ford Prize for Distinguished Reporting on National Defense. In 2008, Mr. Mazzetti won the Livingston Award in the category of national reporting for his series "C.I.A. Destroyed 2 Tapes Showing Interrogations," confirming videotape evidence of severe interrogation techniques against al Qaeda operatives had been destroyed within the C.I.A.

Waziristan , Baitullah and Afghanistan... where is it going ?

2009-07-07T04:42:00.000-07:00

Time Has Come For Pakistan To Decide

2009-07-04T09:11:00.000-07:00

By Peter Chamberlin

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The trusted watch-keepers of the world have turned their hearts to midnight plunder, while they carried-out their duty standing guard over mankind, who blissfully, unaware, continued to sleep. Morning rapidly approaches and the householders are sure to demand an accounting.

The exploding world economy and the expanding war are but symptoms of the great mental sickness that afflicts society, waves of warning of the tsunamis that lie directly ahead. The dominant
ideas and ideology that drive our world are all collapsing around us, falling from the weight of their own corruption and immoral baggage.

In the ongoing warfare of ideas, the selfish immorality of the old order is proving to be its downfall, as it meets the impenetrable resistance of the higher ideals of selflessness and human compassion. When the heart of the people is exposed to the emotionally crippling images of the children of war, then and thereafter, their only concern becomes the ending of the scourge of war.

Human nature is naturally compassionate, no matter how much the person has changed from the innocence of their youth. Even evil men must feel the heart’s emotional tugging at their consciences, no matter how deeply they have buried it, at the sight of such a suffering little one. Knowing that you and your government did this to these children and thousands more just like them, just like your own children that you so dearly love. We are the authors of what you see.

For God so loved the world that he sent us all sons and daughters, to melt our cold hearts and to expose our buried consciences. Human suffering is probably the most powerful motivation for good on this earth. It moves men to take-up arms to avenge it. It motivates others to offer their own lives that others might suffer less.

Humankind has the means to save itself from itself, just as surely as it has the means to cause its own extinction, all that separates the two is the gulf of choice and human freewill. Those of us who believe in a higher power, The One who created all things both great and small, know for certain that mankind will one day rise to the challenge before him. We know that the promise of eventual world peace is a solid truth, just waiting for enough people to understand and choose to reach out with us. Peace is truly just a handshake away, all that is lacking is the will to effect change and the desire to leave this world a better place.

The only question is how long before we as a people begin to care about our fellow man? This is the one factor that determines how much the suffering will intensify before we arrive at our predetermined solution. Efforts spent shoring-up the old collapsing political/economic structure only add to the suffering by adding to the length of the suffering and wasting limited resources in futile attempts to repair the rotten, immoral order that compelled mankind’s sprint to self-destruction.

Military adventures, intended to deflect the coming collapse merely increase our national guilt for having failed in our voluntary task of standing watch at the ramparts of freedom, guarding the rights of God’s creation with one arm, while we killed and indiscriminately erased both people and human rights with the other strong arm. Our military became our means of plundering our brothers’ resources and rights, because we were trusted it to defend our friends against foreign aggressors.

We reach-out our hand to both friend and foe, expecting commerce, while preparing to wage covert war upon them. We buy our friends in the world, the rest we simply intimidate or secretly undermine. From behind the shield of nearly omnipotent military power we have bribed and browbeat the world into submission to our ideas, our ideology, our economic schemes. Our cutthroat system of buying, selling and extorting our friends based solely on profit instead of need, therefore it is designed to weed-out everyone (regardless of their needs) who don’t have the cash to meet they need. The “haves and have-nots” exclusionary economic system is about to be crushed under the impending weight of the hungry misery it spreads far and wide.

The immorality of the current system will bring forth a new moral economic system from the violence of the old one dying. Each war or epidemic of violence that wracks the nations is a cry for help, as a segment of society explodes as a result of the local contradictions.

The war on Pakistan is a case in point. Here we have compelled our most faithful ally to engage in full-scale civil war as the means to salvage our failing economic order, by way of seizing the Caspian oil and gas reserves. We have forced Pakistan onto a path towards its own destruction as a feeble-minded calculated gamble to avert our own deserved dissolution. It seems only logical that a nation which feeds its own insatiable appetite for more of everything by depriving the poorest of the poor nations of the little that they have to call their own, would seek to avert its own profit loss by spreading death and suffering amongst the very people who have time and again proven to be among its best friends.

History has proven that some of America’s most trusted friends and allies have been the recipients of her most insidious and deadly intrigues. Pakistani leaders are delusional if they think that their friendship with the United States is stronger than that of Italy, or Germany.

The CIA turned Pakistan into the “epicenter of terrorism” for a reason. That reason went way beyond the mission against the Soviets, or else the training camps would have been shut-down and some attempt would have been made to clean-up the mess they had made when the Russians left Afghanistan. The CIA kept the camps and the madrassas running, turning-out thousands of good jihadis. By relying on the factor of “deniability,” they put the training camps in Pakistani hands. This should have been understood by Pakistan’s leaders for what it was, a euphemistic way to express the reality that the Army and the ISI were always intended to be America’s scapegoat. That time has come.

America has turned the tables on Pakistan. Just as Pakistan has used their proxy army, the local Taliban to stage running battles (some were for real), in order to fool the United States about Pakistani intentions in the war on terror, the new administration is using their own creation, the “Pakistani Taliban” (TTP), to call the Army’s bluff about its latest war in its tribal region. The generals can no longer get away with merely chasing the local Taliban from one agency into another, or anything less than waging total war in all of FATA and the NWFP. Pakistan’s “double-game” is over, while America’s double-games have barely begun.

Gen. Kayani has been trying to follow in Musharraf’s footsteps, running a limited pretend all-out war production, even following the same order of the previous war on Waziristan, tribal jirgas, lashkars, economic siege, etc. The General’s neatly dressed, never dirty, determined-looking soldiers faithfully posed for countless publicity shots, putting on a great show for the international circus media. Army spokesmen claim to have killed 1,500 terrorists in Malakand and elsewhere, always taking place beyond the range of the camera’s lens. There are no “embedded reporters” in Pakistan. The only news coming out of the region is approved after passing through several layers of filtering by the controlling governments there, especially by the one all-controlling super government. If Pakistan is really out to get Mehsud, as Kayani boasted, then it is because that is what Obama wants Pakistan to do.

The Predator strikes are the Pakistani strategy, intended to ease their citizenry into a renewed fight in S. Waziristan. (SEE: Paramilitary Pretense, Who Controls the Predators?) The last two attempts to carry the operation into the militant home base were met by fierce resistance on the ground, as well as in Pakistan’s streets. The people became so enraged that this path of slowly boiling Pakistan’s “frogs” became the only feasible alternative. This theory means that Mehsud is either an asset of the ISI or their CIA bosses. And the regular terror attacks upon Shiites and their shrines, even attacks on outposts of the Frontier Corp are likely the work of the ISI, just as the militants have been claiming in various interviews. As unlikely as this all seems, no other theory explains the curious behavior of Pakistan’s government and military and mountains of circumstantial evidence linking the ISI to the militants.

“So while Pakistan’s dysfunction is entirely Pakistan’s fault, American naivete cannot get a pass because Pakistan is a basket case. In the Age of Obama, America has to do better. Anyone that was really interested in debilitating the Punjabi-dominated, Hindu-hating, right-leaning, military-dominated Pakistani establishment would have to be recklessly foolish if it went and helped rebrand the Pakistan army in the wake of eight years of Musharraf and a devastating and humiliating defeat at the hands of the country’s lawyers. Yet that’s exactly what President Zardari has done since the May 8 offensive was launched into Swat. The Swat offensive has helped rehabilitate the image of the military.”

If Pakistan was really pursuing a policy of “divide and rule” in its negotiations with Mullah Nazir, seeking to separate the powerful warlord from Baitullah Mehsud before launching a new war in S. Waziristan against him, then the Army would not have allowed the continuing Predator attacks on Nazir to take place, or go unanswered. None of this happened. If they were serious about overtures made to the Wana warlord then they most certainly would not have shelled his offices.

Obama is driving the former enemies together. This is Langley’s intention. Mullah Nazir has not been the sole target of drone attacks for the past year to thwart Pakistan’s peace initiatives with the militants (since Washington controls everything Islamabad does), the reason is much more sinister than that.

If the United States government was truly at odds with the Army over American attacks upon Pakistani citizens, carried-out in order to sabotage Pakistan’s war plans, then there would be swift reprisals, because such an affront to Pakistan’s sovereignty would be far worse than merely “counter-productive.” Everything is going according to the Imperial game plan–American drones attack all pro-Pakistani militant leaders, ignoring everyone who is killing Pakistanis. The targeted leaders coalesce into a powerful, motivated union.

The generous benefactors of Maulana Fazlullah and his TNSM forces were sponsors of state terrorism, directed mostly at girls’ schools and CD shops in the North West Region. Their murderous rampage and deceptive Shariah pacts forced Army intervention. Predator attacks upon Mullah Nazir intensify, until he begins to fight back, forcing the Army to scrap plans to divide the Taliban as a means to avoid a massive tribal war, focusing only on Mehsud. Meanwhile, some unknown outfit bombs Shia mosques and shopping areas (Nazir blames the attacks upon the Army), stoking the war in Kurram. Bahadur honors his pact with Nazir and Mehsud; he fights back, forcing the Army to broaden their planned offensive to include N. Waziristan against their better judgment.

Never once, do the generals complain, or offer resistance to American violations of sovereignty. Instead, they follow the orders of their American masters, while the President of Pakistan continues to represent the President of the United States, instead of his own people, who are being killed by the dozens and the hundreds by the good old USA!

Hard as they may try to set their own course, Pakistan’s generals have surrendered their souls to the devil when they plotted with American generals to deceive their countrymen into passively, even enthusiastically accepting the new war. The war in Waziristan (both North and South) will be fought on Obama’s terms.
According to Army spokesman, Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas:

“It was thus obvious that the confrontation between the militants and the military in North Waziristan would escalate because the US is unlikely to give up its policy of using drones to target militants positions.”

In other words, for the first time, one of the silent generals dared to explain the Army’s position. ISI concerns about “shaping the battlefield” and confining the war in Wana to Mehsud didn’t amount to a hill of beans to Petraeus and Mullen, Obama insists that Pakistan go against the generals’ better judgment and incite a “tribal uprising.”

The attacks in N. Waziristan by Gul Bahadur and the artillery strikes upon Nazir’s headquarters, both a bi-product of the Predator prevarications, as well as the recent assassination of Pakistan’s other “ace in the hole, Qari Zainuddin, have destroyed Pakistan’s last chance to restore the writ of the state without resorting to all-out civil war. Either Gen. Kayani submits entirely to Obama’s will, including the planned submission to Indian domination afterwards, or he stands-up to the United States, meaning he stops the drone attacks and reveals the entire ugly scenario that the CIA cannot allow anyone to reveal. “Al Qaida” is fake. The war on terror is a fraud. The fraud is a plan for world war. And we all know that neither Gen. Kayani, nor any other Pakistani official will ever reveal the “great game” or the plot to destroy the Islamic Republic.

The United States corporacracy is a monstrous devouring beast and “Islamist terror” is her illegitimate offspring.

Mr. Chamberlin is an American journalist who runs ThereAreNoSunglasses Weblog, Building An American Resistance Movement. This column is reproduced by permission. He can be reached at peterchamberlin@naharnet.com

The Great Game ..Iran and Pakistan

2009-06-17T05:32:00.001-07:00

The Great Game has started in Iran ..the enemy has played its most effective ploy this time using the Ayatullahs against the Ayatullahs ..those who are following the iran story should also know that it isn’t about Ahmedinijad and Mossuavi ..instead its about Khamanei and the moderate Ayatullahs following the footsteps of Rafsanjani ..foreign media showing the crowd and covering the story and drawing comparisions with that of the Myanamar Issue last year is no surprise therefore , interestingly CNN and BBC were made prepared for the story weeks ago all this goes to show that more is to follow and something big will happen soon.

Pakistan with its own never ending problems is BLESSED with a regime that has no interest in the people of the very nation, shaking hands with Manmohan Singh Zaradari appeared to be having a serious want to be publically apologizing to singh for all future events as well that may or may not blame pakistan.

Where as TTP under Mehsud’s leadership are frustrated and anxious about the future ahead , Mufti Sarfaraz Naeemi ‘s brutal Killing was therefore a stark notice to all those Real Ulemas who don’t play the politics of any kind such as that of Fazlur Rehman in particular. Mufti Naeemi- A man whose monthly stipend was mere 6000 Rupee in the inflationary age is all but a slap on the face of those who travel in Land Cruisers and claim to be the only leadership that can save the cause of nation.

Operation Rah E Nijaat seems to have kicked off now , and for a start Tahir Yeldshev is reported killed ..this should give serious blow to the Al Qaeda Friends of Mehsud whose aim is only to destabilize muslims it appears.

What remains to be seen now is the resolve that the nation has to show to be united against the enemy and not to be misguided by the media chants of ‘negotiations would have been a better option’ , history has shown that negotiations with these monsters is not a solution specially with Baitullah Mehsud who has no regards for his words, a CIA man who is time and time used by the Americans when ever they need him to counter the efforts of Pakistan Army.

May Allah Bless Pakistan ..Ameen

US Planned to Buy Bombed Peshawar Hotel

2009-06-12T10:30:00.000-07:00

Courtesty: www.pakistankakhudahafiz.wordpress.com

As a colleague here at The Times points out, the Pearl Continental hotel in Peshawar, Pakistan, which was partly destroyed on Tuesday by a massive car bomb, is well known locally as a meeting point for not just wealthy Pakistanis, foreign aid workers and journalists but also intelligence agents. In other words, it is the sort of place a modern-day Graham Greene novel might be set, with security so tight that even the lifeguards at the hotel pool are armed with AK-47s.

Given that reputation, the hotel was an obvious target for militants — even before a report surfaced two weeks ago that the United States was planning to buy the hotel as part of a plan to greatly expand its diplomatic presence in the city. As the Press Trust of India reported on Tuesday, the Pearl Continental is currently owned by Sadruddin Hashwani, who also owns the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad, which was bombed last September, resulting in more than 50 deaths.

According to a report by Saeed Shah and Warren P. Strobel of McClatchy Newspapers, the hotel was apparently at the center of an American plan to establish a long-term presence in Peshawar, the capital of Pakistan’s North-West Frontier Province:

A senior State Department official confirmed that the U.S. plan for the consulate in Peshawar involves the purchase of the luxury Pearl Continental hotel. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak publicly. [...]

Peshawar is an important station for gathering intelligence on the tribal area that surrounds the city on three sides and is a base for al Qaida and the Taliban. The area also will be a focus for expanded U.S. aid programs, and the American mission in Peshawar has already expanded from three U.S. diplomats to several dozen.

In October 2001, a report in Time magazine described how the Pearl Continental fit into the cloak-and-dagger atmosphere of Peshawar, the city “where the terrorists meet, form cells and deploy — and where access to the closed world of the Taliban begins. Bin Laden’s foot soldiers regularly slip through the walled enclaves and jostling bazaars to recruit jihadis or send out instructions. Taliban fighters float through to spy and resupply. Every Afghan faction has its representative in some dim house. Intelligence agents linger in the lobby of the Pearl Continental Hotel, where the phones are tapped and drivers let fall scraps of information.”
As with the attack on the headquarters of the Pakistani intelligence service in Lahore on May 27, the bombing on Tuesday seems to have taken place at a site that militants knew to be central to the operations of the intelligence agencies fighting to defeat them.

Operation : Saving Mehsud

2009-06-02T11:14:00.000-07:00

As Pakistani Forces zero in on Baitullah Mehsud in South Waziristan, the United States has announced it has given its forces in Afghanistan standing orders to enter Pakistani territory if it has ‘intelligence’ on the presence of Osama Bin Laden, Ayman al-Zwahiri and Mullah Omar at any given location.
The Washington Post reported that the US Special Operation Forces had already established ground teams near the Pakistani border in Afghanistan who would move into Pakistan when required.

This announcement by the US has raised eyebrows in the Pakistani security establishment as it comes at a time when Pakistan forces, having recaptured most of Swat and defeated the US-equipped terrorists there, is moving into Baitullah Mehsud’s stronghold in South Waziristan.
The US has in the past shown no interest in striking Baitullah Mehsud’s Tehreek-e-Taliban, and has infact carefully avoided targeting TTP with its Predator and Reaper drones.
Statements from captured TTP commanders and weapons recovered from them have confirmed Pakistan Army’s belief that the Americans and Indians are training, funding and supplying weapons to the TTP terrorists.

“This is what the Indians tried to do before the Sri Lankan (army) got to Prabhakaran. His capture would have uncovered Indian intelligence links with the LTTE. They tried and failed to rescue him, so they had him executed before the army got to him. He was shot in the head from close range by his own men”, says a senior intelligence official on condition of anonymity.

“The Americans don’t want Baitullah Mehsud to be captured alive either, and they cannot eliminate him with an air-strike anymore since Pakistan Army is advancing towards him already. They will either try and take him out before he is captured, or he will mysteriously disappear only to re-emerge later at a different location. This announcement has nothing to do with Osama or Mullah Omar. They have been saying Osama is in Pakistan for years. why haven’t they acted before?”

The Pakistan Army must capture Baitullah Mehsud alive. But before that, they have to ensure they block Baitullah Mehsud’s supply lines from Afghanistan – with aggression if necessary – and ensure he does not disappear towards the Afghan border where there is a getaway crew waiting for him.

The Voice from within...

2009-06-01T06:18:00.000-07:00

Whats the use of this massive army operation when the leadership of the Taliban swat chapter has already fled ? why so many civilian casualties ..? who is going to go back to the ghost valley now ?

All these questions are now the main crux and theme of tv talk shows and the opening lines of many notorious journalists’ writings.. the fact is the nations suffer and nations rebuild ..Many had written off Pakistan in the 2005 earthquake as well ..People however still live there, life is still alive and kicking and it will do so insha’Allah .

A particular tinge of sadness tried to make its home in my heart when I read / hear people such as the likes of the Editor News of the Leading private news channels in Pakistan, in his column today he was smart enough to change his old ploy of blaming swat insurgency to that with the revenge stemming from Lal Masjid operation. Today he makes a mix..a one of a kind ..Drawing similarities between Musharraf and Fazullah ..Being a fan of none..I still think it’s a ridiculous comparison..no man is more of a sinner than the one who brainwashes and EXPLOITES people on the basis of his new definition of Islam or any religion. Interestingly people like him get to go live on CNN and BBC as well when ever a news comes from Pakistan..a disturbing one that is ..Why so..Because people like him happen to be the men who run the show for these channels.

Who doesn’t feel the plight and the suffering of the IDPs both in camps and in schools etc. no one with a human heart can deny that these people are doing the most service to Pakistan and are as honorable as the armed forces who are doing all they can to protect the country. But there has been a certain strategy used here as well .in the name of these very people..in 1947 those who migrated to Pakistan didn’t come here so they have better food and shelter , they came here for their ideological reasons as well as to strengthen Pakistan. To compare the life of these people day and night with the luxurious life styles of the elites or the middle class even is no wrong but it should be done in a delicate responsible manner so that it doesn’t instigate and install anti societal emotions amongst them. Inequality , injustice , and segregation of wealth is not a new phenomenon in this country and this actually calls for campaigns like long marches and calls for it to done on a country wide scale. As Jinnah said “ Musalmaan museebat main Ghabraya nahi kartey” ..our brother IDPs should be helped in all possible ways ,both monetarily as well as socially ..but one shouldn’t make them feel thru our flashy media live reporting and reviews that it they are the only ones being discriminated. These people are the most patriotic and most honorable men of the country and their emotional and psychological strength should be as vital to the country as that of strategic assets.

Reports also suggest that Waziristan is going to be the new battle ground, sooner or later..the speculations of Fazullah and his 20 special men living there in the arms of their so called Ameer Baitullah Mehsud are no surprise therefore. The fact of the matter is that one can’t eliminate enemy unless it attacks its BASE or home. This operation is going to be high casualty operation for Pakistan army because of the hardened training of Baituallah‘s men and the size of his force..13000 according to some estimates. The country needs to be united ..Unless that doesn’t happen..no army operations can bring cure to the disease that has engulfed us in.

We are living in an age that witnesses the Fitna of the Highest order..in the Advent of Gog and Magog and the world gearing itself for a possible final show down in the coming decade or so ..Getting hold of truth and only truth ...and seeking it ..is a real challenge.

Amidst all this..the feeling is still good ..And the enemy is still frustrated..thus the chaos ..A nation that comprises of endless unsung heroes in all domains not just for the country but for the society in general. Pakistan will survive..and it will bring the best out of us soon insha’Allah

May Allah bless Pakistan ..Ameen

Lahore Attack ..a Fall out ?

2009-05-27T11:09:00.001-07:00

Its a fall out ..and a bad one indeed..the enemy meant to strike as expected and it did with sheer frustration. Sometimes the final shots are hardest and most destructive..today it was the case.

Baituallah, Fazullah or RAW ..who is behind this ..doesnt matter , we have an enemy that is focused on one target only ..Pakistan's Security installations and its treasured human resource.

Too many injured and dozens dead..martyred so to speak ..why .its no time for political calling or blaming Americans or Pakistan Army..the corrupt and incompetent rathe IMPOTENT govt of ours had the prior knowledge as revealed today , why blame Taseer than when srilankan team was attacked , it is in the very blood of these blood thirsty , taliban like elites of ours who are no different from anyother menace to our safety.

whether Hafiz Saeed was the target or the ISI building where Liberty attackers were being questioned and put to table ..or was it Rescue 15 team that was working day and night to make our days and nights safer[ please dont blame the ones who lost their lives by labelling them corrupt, not every police man in this country is corrupt]..these questions can only be answered in one go ..may be all of them ..the modus operandi was much like that of Manawan and Liberty ..but it seemed some minor changes were made at the very last minute..

Respect this country please ..dont allign your self with the forces who are only out there to destabilize the land of pure..dont blame our Jawans and intelligencia for everything ..intelligence agencies dont get their trainings for protecting you physically ..its the job of civil infrastructure and governance ..the very two factors that are always lacking in this country.

On a positive note in this grim picture is the common sense that leads one to ponder ..THEY ARE SUFFERING thus ACTING in the manner ...

May Allah Bless Pakistan ..Ameen

Asrar e Khudi...IQBAL's Masterpiece

2009-05-26T12:10:00.000-07:00

Zaid Hamid on Operation Rah e Raast ..IDPs and problems faced by pakistan

2009-05-23T07:56:00.000-07:00

Signs for Men of Understanding

2009-05-21T03:29:00.000-07:00

As our heroes continue to fight in the battle field some elements in our very ranks continue doing what they do best ..Destabilize and demoralize the nation. The statement from ISPR suggesting the role of help that TTP is getting from Afghan Taliban shows either a tactic to appease or double play the real enemy otherwise it demands a clear explanation .Jamaat E Islaami Pakistan once played a great role in the Afghan war now distances itself from any righteous actions it seems , the students from their political wing are much busy in beating the hell out of their political rivals , where as the senior leadership is busy criticizing the army ..Someone should ask them what is the solution they have in mind ..this is where it gets wrong..No one has the courage to DENOUNCE publically those political factions who have become more of a pressure group. Alienating themselves from the national interests these people have developed a NATURE of the left wing with no basis to its so called principles. in times when our majors and SSG commandoes are leaving their families behind , toddlers as orphans and parents and wvies saying we will sacrifice everything for the country.these pressure groups JI, JUI and sadly PTI for the moment has become none other than foes instead of friends.it was the MMA govt that called for army on the pressure of federal govt and intelligence agencies but never allowed them to engage in an operation of any kind allowing a coherent organized army of the monsters who have become a menace to the people. That on their part was criminal negligence.

Those who criticize the army by putting it this way that the soldiers are patriotic but the generals and the colonels are mere American puppets, merely out of a habit I believe … must know that during this very operation very HIGH RANKING officials are themselves in the battlefield leading their men in the most difficult war of all time. No country in the world has been doing it like Pakistan, if we were Americans or Israelis human life and collateral damage wasn’t and mustn’t be an issue for us .carpet bombing as these two nations are apt at ..we would have opted the very move every time the enemy was marked. It’s easier said than done and those who do it can only feel what its like in a gorilla war specially when our enemy is not even wearing uniforms like LTTE or Hamas for that matter.

On the other hand the inactions and criminal negligence of the political government is making the IDPs suffer the most, these are people who hardly had the scorching sun in those beautiful valleys , their kids were more habitual of playing in gardens and fruit farms and mountains are left in the open in heat as maddening as hell it seems. Where is the money going and why isn’t it filtering down to the bottom where it needs to be spent. On a sad note the motivation level of the nation is so low that it comes nowhere close to the days when earthquake hit the northern areas. In this scenario a nationwide campaign should have been launched to motivate the people from every part of the country to either volunteer or to aid their other country men. Provincial govt seems too busy in giving names to the president and calling it urgent for the medals of bravery for their own party men. Afzal Khan Lala is a courageous man indeed but shouldn’t it be a better action if the medal for his bravery be instead set up in the face of a trust made in his name for people from the region, and he himself visiting them sometimes so people actually could relate to them and feel part of the whole process.

June is being said to be the most critical month this year that’s when the butcher mentality US chief for Afghanistan takes his charge, more bloodshed and more drone attacks will therefore be seen. America is pushing Pakistan to start the final offensive in Waziristan even before they finish the swat episode. This is where army will be pushed to its maximum and uncomfortable stretch. How the events will unfold if indeed they will is yet to be seen..

Finally …stop playing politics Pakistan..Nations suffer and nations rise too ..Every storm has a price..no one can relate to the plight of the father who was shot only because he refused marrying his daughters to the faceless , monstrous Taliban ..these people fled because they were suffering , can you even dare to relate to the trauma that a 9 year old suffered from ..why..Because he saw a body with out a head on the road..this war is for Pakistan ..And sacrifices are a calling of the cause therefore.

Support IDPs ..Hear them , help them , comfort them , and aid them ..serve them ,serve us …serve Pakistan

May Allah Bless Pakistan

Note ..one can view a Report of DawnNews Correspondent Arshad Sharif reports from Matta. WATCH VIDEO

Advice From A Pakhtun Pakistani Patriot

2009-05-18T03:07:00.000-07:00

Author : Masood Sharif Khan Khattak

Saturday, 16 May 2009The News International.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—The fresh military operation in Swat, launched with a lot of fanfare, is underway. The army will, undoubtedly, roll over the disturbed areas and it shall look as if the militants have been completely wiped out. But then this is where reality takes over from the apparent.

It is a known fact that unconventional forces/insurgents never put up a pitched battle against an advancing and angry regular army. They wait for the army to tire itself through days of operations incited by sporadic acts of violence, ambushes, raids, etc., in the entire disturbed area so that the army extends itself, dissipates its resources and extends its lines of communications thus opening itself to more attacks in terms of raids, ambushes and other violent acts.

For the insurgents this can take days, weeks, months or even years. They have all the time in the world to fight when they want to and wherever it suits their purpose. This is what the Pakistan Army needs to guard against. It should locate itself in the disturbed areas in order to help the civil structure take root again rather than tire itself running after shadows over inhospitable terrain. We must understand that the Pakistan Army, Navy and the Air Force are Pakistan's first as well as last line of defence. Now that we are in the grip of internal disorders the armed forces, essentially the army, have become our last line of defence. What will happen if this institution somehow suffers back-breaking defeats and the insurgents are able to control large tracts of the country? Must Pakistan let that happen? The answer is an obvious no. But when the army is deployed to fight a seemingly endless insurgency of the intensity that we are today witnessing, all on its own, the results have to be detrimental.

We need to now understand that military actions that cause disruption to normal civic life in the country will always be something that favours the militants. Today, the entire country is in a state of siege. The question that begs an answer is regarding who actually is winning this war, the state or the militants? Most people would say that the militants seem to have the upper hand because the state is getting more and more stuck in quicksand and is steadily losing its ability to maintain its writ. Under the garb of security the sycophants have bottled up the leadership at the local level, the provincial and the federal level so that then they themselves can rule on behalf of the actual rulers at all levels.

Time is, indeed, running out for Pakistan. It is never going to be enough to throw the Pakistan Army into an endless cycle of counterinsurgency operations and then hope for a turn around. What will be of help are political actions at all levels aimed at providing a normal civic life to the citizens of Pakistan whether they live in small remotely located villages or in the bigger cities. The army should then form the punch under which the launching of those initiatives is possible – a punch that builds confidence in the population of the disturbed areas to carry on living in their homes because of just the simple presence of the army in the area. Under the cover of that punch the revival of the civil machinery in all disturbed areas must take place immediately and when the population of an area realizes that the state of Pakistan is there to make life better for them in terms of civic amenities, schools and colleges for their coming generations, hospitals to provide them health care when they need it most the state would have attained a decisive victory.

While dealing with the present crisis the Pakistan Army's deterrent potential and its military balance needs to be kept intact in order to save Pakistan's integrity from suffering a grievous blow. Most Pakistanis would agree that today, when Pakistan is in the grip of intense militancy, the Pakistan Army is the last hope to keep Pakistan intact. The Pakistani nation must understand clearly that the target of any internal or external force that is interested in weakening and disintegrating Pakistan is none other than the Pakistan Army itself. When, and if ever, those forces achieve the aim of neutralizing the Pakistan Army the disintegration of Pakistan would be a natural corollary. Therefore, people who matter have to join heads and hands immediately in order to make Pakistan cohesive all over again.

It has to be unambiguously said that, at present, it is the admirable level of patriotism of the Pakhtuns that is saving Pakistan from a very ugly situation. However, aspects like these are never permanent and should not be taken as granted. We must remember that the Bengalis were perfectly patriotic Pakistanis too but are now very patriotic Bangladeshis after events pushed them away from Pakistan. We must learn from our own history and rectify the overall national situation through good statecraft backed by a strong military before time actually runs out on Pakistan. It is clear that blazing guns, tanks and gunship helicopters alone will not retrieve the situation for Pakistan unless unprecedented and bold political and developmental initiatives are taken.

The writer is a former director-general of the Intelligence Bureau and former vice-president of the PPP Parliamentarians. Email: masoodsharifkhattakATgmail.com

Travelling with the Pak Army in Buner

2009-05-17T11:32:00.000-07:00

Kashif Abbasi of Ary One world travelled to Buner on May 14th 2009

Well Done Jamaat Al-Daawa

2009-05-17T11:19:00.000-07:00

There are reports that medical and rehabilitation teams from Jamaat Al-Daawa, the Kashmiri organization that used to be active in support of their kin in Indian-occupied Kashmir, have surfaced to help the hundreds of thousands of Pakistani refugees fleeing the terror of insurgents pouring in from Afghanistan, backed by anti-Pakistan forces there.

The pro-U.S. Zardari government conspired with the Americans after the Mumbai attacks to have Jamaat al-Daawa banned by the UN without any evidence that could stand in a court of law. The Zardari government was also ready to include the names of respected Pakistani personalities in the UN list had it not been for some members within the government who feated widespread popular backlash. [See: To Zardari-Gilani-Qureshi-Durrani: Why Humiliate Pakistan? ]

Daawa’s military wing was disbanded in 2004 under the orders of the military government of Pervez Musharraf. To sustain its cadre and the families of the martyrs who died fighting Indian occupation soldiers in Kashmir, Daawa transformed its entire operations into social work. And they excelled at it, first in the massive Kashmir earthquake in 2005, then in 2008, and now in the refugee camps of Pakistanis in Mardan and Swabi in NWFP.

Daawa’s largesse has included Pakistanis Hindus whose villages in Pakistan’s Sindh province faced drought. When the UN banned Daawa, sindhi Hindus came out to protest the decision because it resulted in the closure of schools that were being run by Daawa for the community [see picture at top, also check Pakistani Hindus Rally To Support Jamaat al-Daawa ].

If not for the capitulation of the Zardari government, Daawa could not have been banned by the UN based on the half-cooked evidence that the Indians came up with.

Someone might ask: Why do I want Pakistan to have groups like Jamaat Daawa?
For one, most of them are either Pakistanis, or Kashmiris, or both. And that makes them our own.

Second, they did very well in Kashmir in support of the people suffering the largest concentration of brutal occupation forces anywhere, where Indian soldiers are virtual rapists on the loose to punish the Kashmiris for wanting to be free of Indian occupation.

Third, we need people like Jamaat Daawa to end their social work and transform back into resistance groups and go back into Indian occupied Kashmir, with Pakistan’s support, to make life miserable once again for Indian soldiers. This would be the right thing to do now since India is blocking Pakistan’s water from Kashmir and is sending terrorists and saboteurs to spread mayhem inside Pakistan, disguised as ‘Pakistani Taliban’ and God knows who else.

In this regard, the Mr. Zardari’s government will do well to heed the advice of Mr. Majeed Nizami, the president of the Nawai Waqt Media Group. He advised the government to start sending Kashmiri and Pakistani resistance fighters back into Indian occupied Kashmir. His reasoning is valid. The Indians are growing arrogant by the day since we’ve given them a pass on so many issues under the prodding of our fake allies, the Americans.

Time to roll back Pakistani concessions.

Pakistan Army Rejects US Guarantees on India

2009-05-16T02:49:00.000-07:00

‘NO CHANCE of moving troops from Indian border. US guarantees cannot be trusted’ – General Kayani

ISLAMABAD: The military leadership on Friday told the national political leadership that there was no chance of moving the armed forces from Pakistan’s border with India for their deployment at the western borders.

In a five-hour-long in-camera briefing to the national leadership here at the PM House, the military leadership clearly said that no guarantee from the international community could be accepted.

According to sources, on the query of PML-N Quaid Mian Nawaz Sharif about the situation at the eastern borders, the military leadership told the political leadership that the United States had asked for the deployment of forces at the Afghanistan border by moving them from the Indian border and was even ready to give guarantees that India would not make any misadventure against Pakistan. But Pakistan rejected the proposal and made it clear that on the issue of national security, it did not trust any kind of international guarantees.

Sources said Maulana Fazlur Rehman complained that parliament was not taken into confidence before launching the Army operation and on this the military leadership replied that on the directives of the president and the prime minister and on the requisition of the NWFP government, the operation was launched, and if it had not been kept secret, the armed forces would have borne more losses.

Sources said Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi questioned about the timeframe of the operation and was informed that though it might continue for four to six weeks yet no final timeframe was fixed for it.

The sources said the national leadership was also told that the militants were sending pictures of shaved off faces of killed miscreants to gain public support. The sources said one of the military officials asked the national leadership to support the operation and on this Maulana Fazl quickly replied how it could be supported in front of people.

The sources said when Ch Pervez Elahi inquired how the militants were getting funds and weapons, no reply was given. The sources said Head of Special Support Group Lt General Nadeem Ahmed briefed the national leadership on the relief operation for the IDPs and they expressed satisfaction over it.

The leadership was told that the IDPs would cross the figure of 1.2 million. The sources said the leadership was also told that Buner had been cleared off the militants and the IDPs had started returning to their homes.

The sources said parliamentary leader of the MQM Dr Farooq Sattar asked as to what will happen if the militants from Malakand also came to the camps in the guise of the IDPs. On his query, it was said that if they lay down their arms and reveal themselves, then they could be accepted.

The sources said the military leadership also showed a video film to the national leadership about how caves and mountains of Swat were bombarded.Parliamentary leader of Fata Muneer Khan Orakzai assured complete support to the military operation.

Lt Gen Nadeem Ahmed also unveiled his Marshal Plan for the rehabilitation of the IDPs before the national leadership and said that there was a proposal to provide Rs 25,000 to the IDPs on their return to their homes.

The sources said Lt Gen Nadeem also told the national leadership that those people, whose homes were destroyed, would be provided compensation after a survey.According to a handout, the national political leadership on Friday reiterated its resolve to preserve and protect the sovereignty of the state of Pakistan, ensure the rule of law and carry forward the political process.

Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, in a detailed briefing here at the PM House with Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani in the chair, apprised the national political leadership of the operational aspects of the ongoing operations in the militancy-hit areas, and the steps being taken to minimise the collateral damage during the action.

The COAS also dilated upon the efforts being made to ensure the security and well being of the internally displaced persons (IDPs).The national leadership further recognised the role of the armed forces in the present situation and expressed its grief over the martyrdom of personnel of the armed and security forces.

In the in-camera briefing that lasted for five hours, the leadership also took note and emphasised that strategic questions regarding where, when and how many troops were deployed in each operation or sector was a Pakistani decision, based on objective analysis and full understanding of threat spectrum.

These decisions are undertaken in accordance with our national interest by our leadership, keeping in view the aspirations of the people of Pakistan, the leaders stressed.In his opening remarks, Prime Minister Gilani called for incorporating political dimensions, following the military operation in Swat and some other parts of Malakand to eliminate the militants and terrorists, in order to bring lasting peace to the area.

The prime minister said the armed forces were carrying on the operation with full commitment and high degree of operational professionalism. “I am well aware of the fact that the Army operation is not a permanent solution to our problem and political dimensions need to be incorporated to reach out a consensus for guaranteeing lasting peace in these disturbed areas,” he added.

He said the in-camera meeting had been organised to take the political leadership of the country into confidence on the real situation and answer their questions on the necessity of the Army action in Swat and the issue of the IDPs. He said after having exhausted all political and peaceful means, the government was left with no other option but to call in the armed forces to take stern action against the miscreants.

Gilani said as the government firmly believes that parliament is a sovereign body, therefore, taking the parliamentary leadership on board was essential. “I assure you that the input of the today’s (Friday’s) meeting, along with the suggestions/observations from the forthcoming APC, will be incorporated in our national security policy to deal with the situation,” he said.

The meeting was attended by PML-N Quaid Mian Nawaz Sharif, JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Punjab Chief Minister and PML-N President Mian Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif, PML-Q Parliamentary Leader Ch Pervaiz Elahi, MQM Parliamentary Leader Dr Farooq Sattar, Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Ch Nisar Ali Khan, PPP-S Parliamentary Leader Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao, Fata Parliamentary Leader Haji Munir Khan Orakzai, BNP-Awami Parliamentary Leader in the Senate Mir Israrullah Zehri, NWFP Governor Owais Ahmad Ghani, Chief Minister Mir Amir Haider Khan Hoti, Chief Whip National Assembly Syed Khursheed Ahmad Shah, ANP leader Muhammad Zahid Khan, Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Dr Babar Awan, Minister for Water and Power Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, Chairman Parliamentary Committee on National Security Senator Mian Raza Rabbani, Minister for Information & Broadcasting Qamar Zaman Kaira, Minister of State for Economic Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar, PML-F leader Pir Sadruddin Shah, Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, Coordinator Special Support Group Lt-Gen Nadeem Ahmad, Maj-Gen Muhammad Zaheer ul Islam, DG-C ISI and DG Military Operations Maj-Gen Javed Iqbal.

Long Live Pakistan

2009-05-15T04:59:00.000-07:00

Dedicated to all Paksitanis ...May Allah Bless Pakistan ..Ameen

India Funds Swat Terrorists: $ 650 Million To Destabilize Pakistan

2009-05-11T03:35:00.000-07:00

By MOIN ANSARI

WASHINGTON, D.C.—There have been reports about Indian involvement in BLA and other nefarious crooks of the garden variety. Now there is solid proof and Indian RAW agents have been caught red handed.

India intelligence: “‘the aim of RAW is to keep internal disturbances flaring up and the ISI preoccupied so that Pakistan can lend no worthwhile resistance to Indian designs in the region.”

We HAVE discussed the Indian involvement in terror activities in Pakistan.

India a secret player in Afghanistan: Bases—Lashkargarh, Qushila Jadid,Khahak,Hassan Killies

We have reported on Indian intelligence services through our correspondents in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, India, Pakistan and USA. Now there are reports that Afghans have been captured and who have admitted to the RAW activities.

Technorati Tags: Indian terror tactics

 Anatomy of Indian Intelligence Services and Alliances
 RAW facts on South Asia- India fails to occupy countries.
 LTTE was created by India
 Indian sponsored Tamil terror in Sri Lanka continues unabated
 Lanka: Indian LTTE terrorists use youth as cannon fodder
 Lanka Letter: RAW THE RASCAL by Prem Raj in Columbo
 Pakistan Sri Lanka growing military alliance
 Growing Pakistan Sri Lanka ties

Arrested militants name RAW for funding $ 650 million through Afghan secret agency: The three arrested members of a militants’ gang especially deputed by Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan have disclosed that RAW has been funding suicide bomb attacks in Pakistan and that the Indian agency has funneled Rs 680 million through its links with the Afghan secret agency. The gang of three persons have brazenly admitted that they belong to the group of persons who had been deputed to ‘destabilise democratic Pakistan’ with the sole purpose of ‘enforcement of Shariah’ in the country. Operators of an intelligence agency, working beyond the call of their duty, came into contact with a source ready for a tip-off against a reward and led to the arrest of Khurram Ishtiaq, Ghulam Mustafa and Shamim. The persons had been working under Qari Hussain, second-in-command to Baitullah Mehsud. All the three had been arrested on Aug 13 this year while they were on the prowl for a target. The militants had been arrested ‘red-handed’ as they possessed complete suicide kits, including two jackets and 70kg of explosives and detonators. The accused were hardened militants and took a lot of time to break in and make confessions. They revealed that Qari Hussain had been working to help three adjutants: Farukh Usman alias Shahjee, Tayyab alias Baba; Ustad, the trainer to destabilise democratic government. The Nation october 22nd, 2008

BLA – A threat to international peace by Ahmad Shah Baloch: “The BLA is the creation of Indian intelligence agencies, which are trying to create instability in the areas bordering Iran and Afghanistan.”. Expose on RAW by Isha Khan of Dhaka Bangladesh
Dhaka Diary: RAW 2008: An Instrument of Indian Imperialism by Isha Khan Dhaka Bangladesh.

In typical “baghal main churi, moun men ram ram” fashion [a famous sating about the Hindus, roughly translated as, ‘talking sweet while hiding a knife in the armpit’], the Indian delegation first hides the fact that the RAW agents are funding and arming the BLA and supporting suicide bombings by anti-Pakistan elements in the USA

Wednesday, October 22, 2008 By MAK Lodhi

LAHORE: The three arrested members of a militants’ gang especially deputed by Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan have disclosed that RAW has been funding suicide bomb attacks in Pakistan and that the Indian agency has funnelled $ 650 million through its links with the Afghan secret agency.

The gang of three persons have brazenly admitted that they belong to the group of persons who had been deputed to ‘destabilise democratic Pakistan’ with the sole purpose of ‘enforcement of Shariah’ in the country.

Operators of an intelligence agency, working beyond the call of their duty, came into contact with a source ready for a tip-off against a reward and led to the arrest of Khurram Ishtiaq, Ghulam Mustafa and Shamim. The persons had been working under Qari Hussain, second-in-command to Baitullah Mehsud. All the three had been arrested on Aug 13 this year while they were on the prowl for a target. The militants had been arrested ‘red-handed’ as they possessed complete suicide kits, including two jackets and 70kg of explosives and detonators.
The accused were hardened militants and took a lot of time to break in and make confessions. They revealed that Qari Hussain had been working to help three adjutants—Farukh Usman alias Shahjee, Tayyab alias Baba; Ustad, the trainer to destabilise democratic government.

Qari Hussain, the leader, prepares suicide bombers and dispatches them throughout Pakistan. He also manages funds for the splinter groups from RAW which works in collusion with the Afghan intelligence agency RAM.

Farukh Usman works as Qari’s deputy and runs the sub-setup to carry out attacks in Lahore in particular and Punjab in general. He was the mastermind of suicide attacks on FIA building, Naval War College, Model Town, Lahore High Court and PAF bus in Sargodha, the investigation has revealed.

Tayyab alias Baba mainly deals with Rawalpindi/Islamabad. He was the man behind blasts at Aabpara Market and Marriott Hotel. The third person known only as Ustad is an expert of making bombs. He is said to be of Indian origin and he ‘works with a vengeance’. He is the man who leads suicide bombers to the marked site of the blast.

The investigation revealed that there are two sub-teams: three persons of one team work under Ustad. Two of the arrested persons—Shahmim Alam alias Sohail alias Kashif alias Uncle and Khurram Ishtiaq alias Ibrahim—have been active members of the TTP and worked under direct guidance of Ustad.
Shamim was the facilitator. His task was to distribute funds to suicide bombers at the behest of Qari Hussain and Tayyab@Baba. Being educated and a well-dressed civilian-look-alike, he was assigned another important job of providing ‘reconnaissance of the target area’.

He possesses the canny ability of mixing up with urbanites. Khurram Ishtiaq alias Ibrahim is a well-trained militant. His job is to harbour suicide bombers at a secret venue till they are led to the area of operation to carry out the job. The third person of this setup, Sajid, is a resident of Ali Khel, Waziristan. It is not certain whether his services were ‘utilized’ or made his escape good.

Another team which works under Farrukh Usman alias Shahjee includes Bablu, Rehan, Ghulam Mustafa alias Asif (the third arrested person) and Abdul Rahim. Bablu’s assignment is to provide explosives at the nick of time when the suicide bombers have been finally prepared to perform the ‘sacred feat’.

Ghulam Mustafa and Abdul Rahim, a diehard Jehadi serve as guards and take care that none of perpetrators shows his back and become a deserter. In that case, there is only one choice left and that too leads one to heavens.

Former boss of the intelligence agency, Tariq Lodhi, had recommended a reward and commendation for the team who apprehended the culprits but they say their new boss Shoaib Suddle turned it down on the grounds that agency operators just did their job and no reward should be given for performing duty.

The team members disclosed that they had arrested two prime targets during Pervaiz Musharraf regime and they both had a head money of $5 million each but the reward money was shared by the two premier agencies instead passing it on to the individuals who had arrested them on their own initiative.

The team has long been working on the intelligence of militants but they got the culprits apprehended through a middleman who is ready to divulge more but “only if he is rewarded for the catch.”

The team claims that it could reach out to Qari Hussain and his gang and thus eliminate the danger of suicide blasts in Pakistan by 90 percent. Talking to The News on the condition of not divulging their names, they said, “We neither have free hand nor enough resources to break the hornet’s nest.” (Exceprt from The News–Submitted by Irtiza Ali)

This report was first published on 22 Oct. 2008 by RupeeNews.com . Moin Ansari can be reached at moinansariATaol.com

Zardari selling Pakistan

2009-05-11T03:32:00.000-07:00

By Sajid M. Ansari

KARACHI, Pakistan—Congratulations to India on achieving what she could not during the last 43 years, the transit route via Wagah and Torkham, to Afghanistan for her exports, all because Mr. Zarrdari wanted ‘peace’ with India at all costs.

This transit facility is a priced facility, which no civilian or dictatorial government of Pakistan had given to India in the past. Mr. Zarrdari gave it away with a stroke of a pen.

Of course Mr. Zarrdari enjoys dictatorial powers of feudal proportions as President of Pakistan, powers that no other president, in any democratic country, enjoys anywhere in the world.

The poor Indian president could not even dream of such powers despite being the president of the largest democracy in the world. Our president is above parliament and does not need parliament’s approval for such trivial issues, therefore, the Indians, must learn from our democratic system and learn democracy from President Zardari, especially lessons on how to use ‘powers’ as and when required instead of ‘depending’ on the parliament.

However, in view of Mr. Zardari’s love for peace, the Indian government should make hay while the sun shines and ask Mr. Zardari to handover Pakistani controlled Kashmir along with Gilgit, Hunza and Kohistan, as well, for the sake of ‘eternal peace’ and Mr. Zarrdari will definitely agree to it as he wants ‘peace’ with India. Then India should also ask for handing-over of Sir Creek for the sake of ‘peace’ and since Mr. Zarrdari, being a big ‘peace-lover’, will also be happy to do it, not directly of course but through the good offices of Mr. Holbrooke, the vice-royal of USA for Pakistan.

Then, for the sake of ‘peace’, India may ask Pakistan to hand-over all nuclear assets as after the ‘peace’, with India, Mr. Zardari may think that since India is going for peace, why Pakistan is keeping nukes in its arsenal. Moreover, Mr. Zardari has already assured India that Pakistan will not use nukes first no matter what. In this case, India could attack first and destroy our nukes, in which case we won’t have nukes for a counter attack, so it’s better maybe to end the Pakistani nuclear arsenal anyway. So Mr. Zardari’s thinking goes apparently.

Then India may ask us that since both countries have achieved ‘peace’, therefore Pakistan should reduce the strength and numbers of its military and standing army. In which case Mr. Zarrdari will think that since almost all the matters have been resolved ‘peacefully’, so India and Mr. Holbrook might be right in demanding that we don’t need a big army standing on India’s borders, and that the military budget spent on developing and securing our nuclear and strategic programs, and the funds spent on developing Hunza, Gilgit and Chitral, could instead be loaned to the poor members of the parliament, comprised of feudals and industrialists. And if these poor chaps could not repay, President Zardari then may write-off all loans since he has the powers, which even the U.S. President does not, May Allah bless the Pakistani democracy! Amen!

So congratulations to the Pakistani people and the parliamentarians as now we shall have ‘peace’ with India, shukar alhamdolilah.

So what if India continues to organize and sponsor saboteurs in Balochistan and training and supplying arms to militants in NWFP, which is it has been doing for the last seven years, along with USA.

A final note: Mr. Zardari’s party founder, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, vowed to fight India for a thousand years to secure Pakistani rights. Just for the President’s information. Maybe Husain Haqqani and Farahnaz Ispahani should have reminded him.

Mr. Ansari can be reached at sajid2012AThotmail.com

Operation Rah E Haq

2009-05-11T03:27:00.000-07:00

It is time for the nation to unite against the Takfir Ideology of TTP , Fazullah and Baitullah Mehsud...Support Operation Rah E Haq..

Suppport the IDPs of Malakand , and Dir ...

there will be losses , there will be sacrifices, people living in tents in scorching suns , support them ..and most importantly Support Pakistan Army..

May Allah Bless Pakistan ..Ameen

The Battle for Swat

2009-05-08T03:47:00.000-07:00

As Foreign media may put it’s battle of survival’ .where in reality it is a much more complex scenario. Pakistan Army is on the offensive and Taliban are on the defensive. Those who support Sufi Muhammad were put in to question with the news coming out from the area that Moulvi Kifayat Ullah [son of Sufi Muhammad ] was killed when army responded after an attack on them ,this indeed sheds a good light on the situation , TSNM may now have completely surrendered to the authority dictated by Fazullah’s men and is therefore more irrelevant now.

In times when Pakistan army needs support more than ever and fortunately public support is with them earnestly . The actions that were taken in the President’s disgraceful trip to US must make every Pakistani regret of their choices in the face of these politicians . However more interestingly, those who were very much taking charge of this visit are all those who had nothing to do with the people of Pakistan and were instead installed by their bosses in UK and US. Rehman Malik, Hussain Haqqani , Zardari and now Bilawal Zardari comes in the picture. sounds more like a monarchy.

Sadly as things unfold the nation will be made to suffer more , as news coming from the trip are not so rosy, After the shameful Press conference appearance of our President where he and his BROTHER Karzai were dealt in a manner must like school boys sitting with their counselor ; Hillary Clinton , all Mr.Zardari had on his paper [ handed to him by none other than “Washington’s Ambassador to Pakistan”, Mr. Hussain Haqqani] was about DEMOCRACY, and his much cherished FRIENDS IN US. There was no word on drones, civilian lives lost or US’s support to india. It seems trade is more important in these times and that too not for us but for INDIANS .so that Pakistan suffers and Zardari prospers.

Also when foreign and LOCAL media who has this strange JUDGEMENT issue in their scrutiny , criticize the Pak Army when they oblige due to Nizam E Adal Regulation in place for having secret ties with Taliban , is now again on the offensive blaming them of not taking care of civilian lives and the displaced people.

It is however a serious situation that is emerging and the corrupt and slave govt of ours is not at all ready and concerned about those who are continuously fleeing the area in the wake of operation. It is not the job of Pakistan Army but the job of Federal Govt to provide them with food, and shelter. No tangible work has been done so far. Fortunately and unfortunately [coz it makes the elite more complacent] Pakistan happens to be a nation that comes in top 5 list of Generous Nations , it’s the charities and welfare trusts that are helping these people who never before had to sleep in the open.

Finally for those who criticize Pakistan Army, here is a documentary made by Raageh Omaar of Aljazeera [ and is not a Army funded film in anyway] so that we get a flavor of what our soldiers do to protect us .Its easier said than done.

Note: this documentary was Filmed in Dec ..thats when Loee Sam was not captured and Bajaur was the most active zone of the Tehreek E Taliban Paksitan. As of today..Bajaur is in COMPLETE control of Pakistan Army ..and Mohamand and Orakzai are the trouble zones.