1988–1989: The Soviet Union withdraws. More than 15,000 Soviet soldiers have died in the conflict.

1992: Led by Ahmed Shah Massoud, Mujahideen forces remove the Soviet-backed government, but in the years that follow rivalry between different groups of fighters reduce Kabul to rubble and effectively plunge Afghanistan into civil conflict.
 

1994: Mullah Mohammed Omar, a Muslim cleric, sets up Taliban movement of Islamic students who take up arms to end the chaos in Afghanistan. They capture Kandahar and advance on Kabul.
 

1996: The Taliban takes Kabul and hangs Mohammad Najibullah, the then president. The year also sees the return to Afghanistan of Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda's leader who fought with Mujahideen groups against the Soviet occupation.
 

1998: The US launches missiles at suspected bin Laden bases in the country in retaliation for the bombing of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
 

1999: The UN imposes an air embargo and freezes Taliban assets in an attempt to force them to hand over bin Laden for trial.

Following this, security agencies have been asked to take appropriate security measures to protect VIPs and important installations across the state. The VIPs said to be in the target list of the terror outfits include Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and Congress MP Ravneet Singh Bittu. Bittu, who is the Punjab Youth Congress president, is the grandson of former state chief minister Beant Singh, who is credited with wiping out Sikh’s in the state in the early 1990s with ’super-cop’ KPS Gill. Beant Singh was assassinated by a human bomb here Aug 31, 1995. 

The intelligence report says that Bittu is particularly being targeted by the Khalistan Zindabad Force (KZF), Khalistan Liberation Army (KLA). Another intelligence report from Punjab Police has said terror groups could target shrines in Amritsar as well as the Nangal Dam and railway stations at Ropar, Ludhiana and Pathankot. “We will not let any of these groups revive terrorism in the state,” Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal said in Chandigarh. “We are taking the intelligence inputs quite seriously. We do a day-to-day monitoring of things. Security is being stepped up as required,” Jalandhar Inspector General of Police Sanjiv Kalra said.

In the last two months, Punjab Police have found explosives, grenades and weapons outside vital installations at various places in the state. Several kilograms of explosives were found Jan 19 outside an Indian Oil LPG bottling plant near Nabha town in Patiala district. Two grenades were found five days later outside an Indian Air Force (IAF) establishment at Zirakpur near Chandigarh. A car laden with explosives was found last month outside the IAF station at Halwara in Ludhiana. Two people were arrested in Patiala on Sunday. Eight kilograms of explosives and 40 gelatin sticks were recovered from them.

Though the secessionist movement for Khalistan was comprehensively defeated in 1993, there remain a handful of terrorist outfits chiefly supported by NRI Sikh groups who continue to propagate the ideology of Khalistan. One of the most prominent among them is the BKI, among the oldest and most organised Khalistan terrorist groups. It is headed by Wadhawa Singh, who is reportedly hiding in Pakistan. Mehal Singh is the deputy chief of BKI. Both of them are among the 20 terrorists whom India wants. Source – PakistanFirst.com

Approximately 16 or more members of MQM elite terrorist wing have entered into Pakistan some with different IDs in the past four weeks. Some of the people arrived in Karachi had bounty on their heads and are wanted in Pakistan for heinous crimes. The master mind of the group is known as Qamar Ghalib Teddy (Johannesburg), Sohial Commando, Rizwan Haider, Nadeem Mullah.

Minister for Ports and Shipping Nabeel Gabool, claimed in an interview published on 25th January 2010 that an MQM assassination team has arrived from South Africa to eliminate him. The minister claimed that, ‘he was called in by the Intelligence Bureau and warned face to face that his life could be in danger.’ The minister confirmed the names of the elite terrorist unit mentioned above.

South African MQM assassins will be taking over the command of the local elite terrorist group known as ‘Shurfa Committee’ aka (Gentlemen’s Committee).  Some of the members of this committee are Sultan Keel, Ejaz Gorchani, Naeem – East Sector (Maleer) nephew of a cleric Shahturabul Haq, Manzoor Landhi Wala, Sohial Commando, Farooq Baig, Aslam Chor, Anawar Alam, Hishamul Zafar and ring leader Saleem Shazad. Some of the members are not known to the local sectors as they only report to MQM London Head Office and mobilised to do elite operations. They are provided every facility in the world. Their families are protected and supported. They are the real hired guns.

On the issue of confiscation of spying and recording equipments from senior MQM leader Waseem Akthar (MNA) by the Paramilitary Forces (Rangers) a senior security official told, “it is a very serious violation of the national security of the country as venues of the meetings with Presidential and Prime Minister are debugged and checked as Standard Official Procedure (SOP) but if any invitee or invitees bring some recording device with them that is a serious violation of the security of the state”. We don’t know for whom MQM leaders were recoding? Was he recording for USA, India, Mossad or any one else?

While commenting from Islamabad on the MQM spying matter a Senior Pakistan Army General and security analyst told me over the phone that, “MQM is heavily infiltrated by Indian RAW and Altaf Hussain admitted to him being close to the Americans”.  One can not comment on the closeness as Americans are known to sleep and forget their girlfriends behind with illegitimate children, like in Vietnam.

The worst thing is that current so called political regime has no idea of national pride and national security. I spoke to Fozia Wahab (MNA) political spokesperson of the current Zardari regime. She asked me, ‘who was recording MI (Military Intelligence)”?. I said, ‘no MQM leader Waseem Akthar’. FW: ‘oh he was with me in a TV program and there is problem between President Zardari and Altaf Hussain. President would have told himself to Altaf Hussain about the meetings. I explained to her that Presidential meetings are state secrets and not party political broadcasts’. It sounds she was more worried about Military Intelligence recording who is paid by the state to do this job then MQM recordings for India, USA or smuggling state secrets outside Pakistan. The whole regime is full of apologists, criminals, fraudsters, and opportunists.

It looks like as if ‘current regime is using the ‘new trick of treachery’ BY PASS THE SYSTEM, which is undermining the state institutions especially State Security, Law Enforcement, and Defence. For example:

(1) When they see Zardari regime and MQM working on the Indo-US plan of dragging Pakistan Army into civil war in Karachi because armed forces refuse to expand useless war in the FATA.

(2) When they see MQM and PPP are heavily infiltrated by RAW and following its agenda.

(3) When they see Rehman Malik not asking half Jewish US citizen David William Hedley aka (Dawod Gillani), alleged mastermind of Mumbai Bombing’s handover to the Indian authorities as Ajmal Kasab, who admitted to be remain in the Mumbai police custody long before the bombings.

(4) Why Rehman Malik is too keen to implicate small group ‘Let’ following Indian agenda?

(5) Rehman Malik is a foreign national, chief protector of the Blackater/Xe and mercenaries in the country. He is following Indian agenda to divide Karachi into ethnic zones and start a civil war with full co-operation of MQM whose many leaders including Altaf Hussain are foreign nationals. His idiotic statements sound like a curse and shame on the nuclear nation of 180 million. 

(6) Eshrat Abad Khan MQM Governor of Sind is also a foreign national and allegedly providing safe heaven to terrorist involved in targeted killings. 

(7) State security, defence, and intelligence institutions especially lower ranking officials who don’t have foreign dollar accounts or have kids studying in Europe and US are feeling helpless, unsupported, demoralised, and betrayed.

(8) surely they have genuine reason when they see Rehman Malik doing ‘pimping’ and applying foreign agenda of fanning sectarianism in Pakistan ignoring national interest of the state of Pakistan.

(9) When they see MQM and Rehman Malik working on the agenda of dividing Karachi and DI Khan into Shia –Sunni sectarian and Punjab-Pashtun – Sindhi and Mohajir ethnic zones.

(10) When they see President Zardari deliberately putting Pakistan into IMF debt trap (friends of Pakistan)

(11) When they see transfer of million of dollars outside Pakistan into foreign accounts of the corrupt and compromised. 

There are ways these challenges can be countered: (a) informed public opinion (b) support of ‘MQM feared media’ (c) support of judiciary (d) elimination of infected elements in the police and security agencies.

 How to counter terrorism in Karachi:

a) Exposing the real faces of MQM terrorists’ involved in the targeted killings of civilians, armed forces personals, and 650 police officers of the Sindh Police.

b) All political appointees in the Rangers, Police, and Law Enforcement Agencies immediately transferred into other parts of province into interior Sind outside Karachi as their loyalties are with the mafia more than the state of Pakistan. For example cold blooded killings of 4 innocent injured patients as reported on 6th February 2010 at Abbasi Shaeed Hospital proves that MQM – Altaf is a terrorist mercenary group part of Blackwater and not a political party because even in war one don’t kill injured enemy prisoners.

c) All the political prisoners including Mohajir Qumi Movement’s leadership Amir Khan and Afaq Ahmed immediately released if no cases have been proven against them on bail following the law.

d) All community police recruited on the political basis must be disbanded as they have become part of the problem and not part of the solution.

e) Data collection of all arms licence holders

f) Data collection of all the landlords of the foreigners in the city/country

g) Strict monitoring and managing of print and electronic Media propagating Indian propaganda, and become part of Indian Psychological Operations in Pakistan especially media groups emerged in last ten years and owned by dodgy jewellers, businessmen and smugglers. 

h) Stop MQM fake registration of votes into the voters list as they plan to register 5 million votes before local bodies’ election.

(i) Complete ban on nonsensical international politics telephone politics. If you want to do politics be brave come in the country and stop ‘sofa–cell politics’. Shamelessly Altaf Hussain has never voted in any Pakistani elections since 1992.

People of Karachi must stand up against the foreign mercenaries of MQM and Blackwater.

“Though brave don’t live longer but cowards don’t live at all”

Victims of TARGEETED killings (M.Q.M Haqiqi)

(Dr Shahid Qureshi is award winning journalist and writer on foreign policy & security based in London)

SPECIAL REPORT

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—The Zardari government is silent on a major development where the government of Thailand allowed foreign-backed anti-Pakistan groups, including groups funding terrorism inside Pakistan, to hold a conference in Bangkok on Feb. 22 and 23.

The conference explicitly called for international support for the breakup of Pakistan and for carving out smaller states in its place.

Dissidents claiming to represent Balochi-speaking Pakistanis and Iranians were invited to the conference, full expenses paid.

An unknown group that calls itself Baloch Voice Foundation, based in Paris, organized the event. The group is funded according to reports by the Washington-based Jamestown Foundation, a US think tank that shows a lot of interest in promoting separatism inside Pakistan and Iran.

Bangkok is known in intelligence circles as a favorite CIA destination for shady public events.

CIA, with Indian help, recruited Mr. Brahamdagh Bugti to wage a terrorist insurgency inside Pakistan in the name of freedom for Balochi-speaking Pakistanis. Mr. Abdolmalik Rigi was hired to spread terror inside Iran. Pakistani authorities have shared evidence with Washington proving that rogue CIA elements are sponsoring Mr. Bugti. Iran on the other hand has shown more boldness than Pakistani authorities, intercepting a plane and arresting Mr. Rigi after he visited a US military base in Afghanistan.

A group of Pakistani citizens gathered in front of the hotel in Bangkok carrying banners that read, ‘Stop using Thai soil against Pakistan’ and ‘Balochistan is Pakistan’ among others.

The US duplicity in its dealings with Pakistan continues unabated and I have always maintained that the scale of their enterprise in destabilizing Pakistan can only be understood by finding linkages in seemingly unconnected events and publications.Just when the Pakistan military has taken a strong position on its military operations in FATA and the pull towards dialogue with the tribals is becoming evident, the US subversive activities against Pakistan are becoming more overt, and old CIA connections are taking centre stage again including so-called “experts” on Pakistan! Let us look at some recent developments and see the linkages.

First, after incessant cries from ignorant US officials and even more ignorant but imperialist minded media, of Pakistan not doing enough against Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, when the Pakistanis captured a leading Taliban commander, suddenly the Americans – and their media and officialdom do have close connections – through their media led forth a new chant of why Pakistan had arrested this man! There were conspiracy theories that immediately began floating that somehow Pakistan arrested this Taliban commander to disrupt the dialogue that Karzai is seeking with the Taliban because Pakistan wants to remain in control of any such dialogue. Talk about bizarre assumptions! So, as some of us have always maintained, in the eyes of the US, Pakistanis will always find themselves in a position of “damned if we do and damned if we don’t.” It is time therefore to wash our hands off this whole US-led misguided “war on terror” and evolve our own strategies to deal with our own problem of violence and extremism which is multidimensional and cannot be straitjacketed into merely a Taliban framework.

Nor is this all. A new campaign has begun in the US, published first in the Wall Street Journal where two American lawyers, David Rivkin and Lee Casey – both of whom served in the Justice Department during the Reagan and George Bush administrations – have accused Pakistan’s Chief Justice Chaudhry of being “the leading culprit in an unfolding constitutional drama.” Supporting Zardari, the lawyers make all manner of unsubstantiated accusations against Pakistan’s chief justice. What seems to have upset these Americans is the CJ’s popularity being far greater than Zardari’s in the eyes of the Pakistani people – by their own admission! But then the American anger at the CJ is understandable because he has fought the cause of the Pakistani people especially through the Missing Persons issue – many sold to the US – while President Zardari and his loyalists have continued to plead the US cause. But it should be unacceptable to any self-respecting Pakistani to have their CJ referred to in such a derogatory fashion. Look how Holbrooke reacted when Pakistanis protested at the miscarriage of justice in New York in the Dr Aafia case, despite the fact that the US has a record of such miscarriages of justice against African Americans and minorities, especially Muslims post 9/11. 

A third line of attack is the revival of the Baloch separatist issue with that old Pakistan basher Selig Harrison reviving his fortunes again and taking the lead in targeting the Pakistani state. He first took up this passion when the Soviets went into Afghanistan and led the chorus of how Pakistan was not doing enough of the US bidding in Afghanistan. He was an “Afghan” expert at the time but once Afghanistan receded into the background he became a “Balochistan” expert and now he is deeply involved in aiding Baloch separatists in Iran and Pakistan. Various platforms have been used by him and the latest is the ongoing conference in Bangkok, Thailand, supposedly sponsored by an unknown group calling themselves the Baloch Voice Foundation (BVF) and supported by the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation (UNPO) based in The Hague and, of course, Selig Harrison! The BVF interestingly is funded by the Washington-based Jamestown Foundation which, according to information available on the internet, is controlled by Freedom House which in turn is linked to the CIA.

The venue of the conference also raises suspicions about CIA involvement since the US government has used Thailand for many conferences dealing with South Asian issues. Also, the fact that Iranian Baloch separatists have been included shows the US connection even more glaringly. In any case, despite our government’s usual mysterious silence on this issue, some Pakistanis have been protesting about the conference in Bangkok. After all, why should Thailand allow its territory to be used for a Baloch separatist conference? Would Thailand like Pakistan to allow a similar exercise in relation to its internal matters, in Islamabad?

More to the point, as happens when different agencies’ sponsor different groups, infighting has broken out amongst the Balochs. Munir Mengal, founder of Baloch Voice TV, is supposedly the organizer of this conference. He is also the man who claimed that a host of Pakistani Baloch women had been jailed in Balochistan but when Nawab Raisani had the jails checked during his efforts to free the abducted UN official last year, this claim proved incorrect. As a result of this conference, internal battles have come to the fore between the Washington-based American Friends of Balochistan, the Dubai, London and Moscow (no doubt remnants from the Soviet days) based activists and the so-called Government of Balochistan in Exile which claims it is based in Tel Aviv, Israel. This is not surprising, given the different sponsors of the different groups! A further blow to the conference has come from the fact that supporters of Khair Bux Marri have boycotted the event.

This is not the first conference of its type but it is interesting to see how the Blood Borders US agenda of creating a state of Balochistan from Iranian and Pakistani territories is now being given shape and separatists from both countries are being brought together. As always, Selig Harrison is playing his questionable role! 

Nor is this the only targeting of Pakistan and Iran together. In the coming days we should gear up for a new nuclear related hype building up in the US media. Unfortunately, Dr Khan’s “letters” have been purchased by a leading US newspaper and will be used to target Iran. In the process Pakistan will also be targeted – killing two birds with one stone, so to speak. Would that our government undertake some proactive measures with the Iranians to deflect this new campaign but it hardly seems likely. So we need to brace ourselves once again for an onslaught against our nuclear capability and accusations of proliferation at a time when the US continues to proliferate to Israel and, post the 123 Agreement with India, to this South Asian aspiring hegemon.

Now who says there are no linkages targeting Pakistan and Iran? Written by Dr. Shireen M. Mazari

The after-affects of the Crusades which badly affected the relations between the Muslims and the Christians still linger on. European Christians are still smarting under that defeat. They have therefore tried all sorts of means to eliminate the spirit of Jihad from amongst the Muslims as it was this spirit that reduced their designs to dust. Through malicious propaganda campaigns, distortion on the true concept of Jihad and labeling of Muslims as barbarous killers and usurpers they have depicted a horribly ugly picture of Islam in the eyes of the world. The significance of Jihad must therefore be elucidates in the light of the Holy Quran.

Jihad means striving utmost to achieve an objective. The primary objective before the Muslims is establishment of a social order based on the Quranic fundamental principles. All efforts to that end fall with in the meaning of Jihad. Armed fight against formidable
resistance by self-seeking people which is called Qatal is also Jihad and has been allowed by the Quran in extreme circumstances. Islam is a Deen (system) of peace and protection.

Three questions arise here:

(1) Is Islam really a deen of peace, justice, and tolerance?
(2) Does it allow discriminate fighting against the enemy or has it laid down certain checks and rules for it?
(3) Under what circumstances did the Muslims fight against non-Muslims?

Source: Parvez-Video

So, who are the Muslims who commit such heinous acts in the name of Islam? It is obvious from the above injunction of the Quran that they do not follow true Islam. Therefore, they must be driven not by Islam but some other desire (such as hate or revenge) to commit acts of terrorism. Muslims around the world greet (or are supposed to greet) each other, and others, using the Arabic words, "Assalamu ‘Alaikum" which means: "peace beunto you." There is no doubt that some Muslims, while using such a benevolent greeting, carry malevolent intentions in their hearts. The holy Book of Islam,the Quran, condemns such people by saying: "Why do you say that which you do not practice?" Such Muslims, therefore, do not represent Islam. Islam has nothing to do with those who commit acts of terrorism. Therefore, it is wise to differentiate Muslims and Islam. Just as acts of terrorism committed by Christians cannot be attributed to Christianity, acts of terrorism committed by Muslims must not be attributed to Islam or its teachings.  There is a popular feeling in the West, and justifiably so, that Islam is a very oppressive and retrogressive religion. But this is based on a wrong perception of Islam, unfortunately, due to the practice of Islam by some countries. Do these countries practice Islam as they profess they do? The Quran, (unequivocally and unconditionally) says: "There is no compulsion in religion." However, we see all kinds of compulsion in these countries. People in these countries are deprived of most of their basic human rights. They are afraid to express opinions in public against the government's practice of Islam for fear of persecution. How can these countries claim to be practicing Islam when they violate its basic principle of compassion and tolerance? They practice "Rajm" (stoning to death) for adultery, although there is no such thing in the Quran. Their rulers invoke God's compassion, mercy and forgiveness. But they show very little or none at all themselves. 

So,what is true Islam? 

Islam, an Arabic word whose root is "silm," means peace and protection from danger. Islam is supposed to provide an environment of peace and tranquility for all, Muslims and non-Muslims. It is supposed to protect everyone from external or internal threats and dangers. Since religious tolerance (and respect for other faiths) is among the basic teachings of Islam, it instructs Muslims to fight and to even give their lives, if need be, to protect places of worship of other faiths such as temples, churches and synagogues. If Islam teaches these noble ideals, why is there such a frightening image of Islam in the West? The answer lies in one word: "jihad" and its misrepresentation and misinterpretation in the media. But Muslims are no less responsible for this frightening picture of jihad either. Tyrant Muslim regimes and terrorist organizations routinely invoke jihad, or holy war, to terrorize or kill innocent people to achieve their political agendas. The Arabic word "jihad" means struggle or exertion. There are many levels of jihad: struggling to remove poverty; fighting against material and moral corruption; struggling against social, political, and economic injustices; struggling to restore basic human rights; fighting against tyranny and oppression; constantly exerting to advance human knowledge; fighting against environmental pollution, etc. And jihad in terms of war must be declared and must be for defensive purposes only. 

No covert operations are allowed in Islam. Above all, jihad must be done for the good of humanity which, in Islam, is referred to as fighting for the cause of God. Under no circumstances, are they allowed to exploit the weak and the vulnerable. That is why Islam teaches Muslims to honor treaties and to do justice  even to their enemies. It teaches them to establish their system based upon free consultation, justice and equality. These are the teachings of the Quran. However, it is a sad reflection that Muslims seem to have turned away from the above teachings of Islam. American people who are striving for the above ideals are nearer to Islam than many Muslims. Islam is not the custodian of Muslims only. God says in the Quran that if Muslims were to turn away from its ideals and teachings, then He will raise another people to replace them. Whatever Muslims have done (and are doing) in the name of jihad that is contrary to the above teachings of divine book, the Quran, Islam is not responsible for but they are.

Source: Parvez-Video

The founder of modern Pakistan, Mohamed Ali Jinnah, was a muslim Pakistani. He was enigmatic, eloquent, and determined. Like Turkey's Grey Wolf, Ataturk, Jinnah helped a great people find a place in the modern world. This brief documentary captures the spirit of the Pakistani Grey Wolf.

Quaid e Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah

Documents available with Dawn suggest that the government of Indian-occupied Kashmir has invited bids for a ‘topographical survey of Bursar Dam (on Chenab) for acquisition of land and property’. New Delhi plans to begin construction by the end of the year.

Bursar Dam is considered as the biggest project among a host of others being built by India on two major rivers – Jhelum and Chenab – flowing through the state of Jammu & Kashmir into Pakistan and assigned to Islamabad under the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty. The proposed dam would not only violate the treaty, international environmental conventions and cause water scarcity in Pakistan but would also contribute towards melting of Himalayan glaciers.

Pakistan’s Permanent Indus Commissioner Syed Jamaat Ali Shah had repeatedly asked his Indian counterpart to provide details of the proposed water storage and hydropower projects, including Bursar dam. However, India has taken the stand that it was aware of its legal obligations and it would let Pakistan know about the project details and relevant data six months before construction activities as required under the bilateral treaty, he said, adding the Pakistan could do nothing more when such projects were in the planning and investigation stage.

Responding to a question about Kishanganga hydropower project, he said he had already requested the government to move quickly for constitution of an International Court of Arbitration to stop construction of the controversial project. Pakistan, he said, had already nominated two members for the court of arbitration and had asked to do the same. He said the procedure laid down in the waters treaty required the two nations to nominate two adjudicators each of their choice and then jointly nominate three members to complete the composition of a seven-member court of arbitration.

He said the procedure also required that in case of a disagreement over three adjudicators, the complainant nation should ask the World Bank to nominate these three members and start formal proceedings. Pakistan, he said, had even prepared the list of three joint adjudicators since India had not yet fulfilled its obligations to nominate its two members and three joint members of the court. “We have completed the entire process, it was only a matter of formal launching and only the government could do that,” he said, adding that perhaps Islamabad intended to wait for the upcoming secretary level talks before triggering the legal process.

He, however, believed that these issues were of technical nature and should be processed accordingly as provided under the treaty.

Informed sources said that India had not only started building three other dams namely Sawalkot, Pakal-Dul and Kirthai on Chenab River, it has also completed the detail project report of Bursar Dam site. The proposed dam would have 829 feet height, storage capacity of more than two million acres feet and power generation capacity of 1200MW. The height of Baglihar, Tarbela and Mangla Dam is 474, 485 and 453 feet, respectively.

Bursar Dam would be constructed near Hanzal Village (near Kishtwar) in Doda District of Jammu & Kashmir on the 133-kilometre-long Marusudar River, the main right bank tributary of the Chenab river. Its construction would be a serious violation of the treaty as its storage was much behind the permissible limits. More than 4900 acres of thick forest would be submerged and the whole population of Hanzal village would be displaced.

Arshad H. Abbasi, visiting research fellow of the SDPI, said the project area fell in Seismic Zone V and hence most vulnerable to earthquake. Two active geological faults lines — Himalayan thrust and the Kishtwar fault — were passing through the project area, he said, adding that the worst impact of dam would be on glaciers of Marusudar river basin. He said that deforestation, coupled with high altitude military activities, had already created 48 glacial lakes in the Marusudar river basin covering an area of 225.35 sq km and massive construction activities in basin would further aggravate the melting of glaciers.

He said the project was located in Kishtwar High Altitude National Park which was an environmentally-protected area. Spreading over an area of 400 kilometres, the park contained 15 mammal species including the musk deer and Himalayan black and brown bear and some rare birds for which an environmental impact assessment study was necessary.

Source: DAWN Pakistan

A secret investigation into detained Ergenekon group members and other studies outside Turkey indicate that Mossad orchestrated the coup plot against the Turkish government, the report says. The Ergenekon group is a Turkish neo-nationalist organization with alleged links to the military, members of which have been arrested on charges of plotting to foment unrest in the country. Investigators uncovered evidence that show a Jewish rabbi named Tuncay Guney, who worked for Mossad and fled to Canada in 2004, was a key figure behind attempts to overthrow the Turkish government.

A document uncovered this week by the /Sabah/ daily shows how Guney purposefully infiltrated Ergenekon and another organization known as JITEM, an illegal intelligence unit in the gendarmerie suspected of hundreds of murders and kidnappings . The rabbi was taken out of Turkey and sent to the US for protection after his identity was exposed in an investigation by Turkish police, according to Sabah.

Guney is also reported to have links with Israeli espionage activities in Egypt. According to Egyptian security forces, at least one of three suspects currently being pursued by the Egyptian government for spying was in contact with Tuncay Guney. Meanwhile, a separate report by Turkish daily /Yeni Safak/ has claimed that Turkish security forces have discovered some bags in Guney's Istanbul house that include the Israeli flag and Mossad's slogan.

According to an earlier report by/ Aksam/another Turkish daily, Mossad has been involved in several ambiguous events in Turkey. The report claimed that Turkish security forces have discovered documents that disclose information concerning suspicious investment and economic activities by certain Jewish businessmen in Turkey. The Jewish businessmen are alleged to have had significant relations with individuals, political groups and cultural organizations, which investigations show are affiliated to the Ergenekon group. Turkish security forces have detained many members of the Ergenekon group, including retired army generals, politicians, popular lawyers and famous journalists. The individuals currently face trail on charges of plotting to overthrow Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

According to media reports, a US travel alert said “American citizens have been advised to be alert to the continued possibility of terrorist attacks in India as terrorists and their sympathizers are capable of attacking US citizens.” In its travel alert, updated after the blast, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) of the UK government said: “British nationals are reminded to remain vigilant in public places”.

“There is a high general threat from Hindu terrorism throughout India. Recent attacks have targeted public places, including those frequented by westerners and expatriates.” Australia, in its alert said: “We advise you to exercise caution in India at this time because of the high risk of terrorist activity by Hindu militant groups…We continue to receive reports of possible threats against prominent business and tourist locations, in Mumbai and New Delhi”.

Lahore, Feb.17 (ANI): The Indian Government’s charge that he masterminded the 26/11 terror attack on Mumbai is unfounded and baseless, said Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Muhammed Saeed.

Accusing New Delhi of indulging in fabricated propoganda, Saeed demanded concrete proof of his reported involvement in the said attack that claimed the lives of over 160 people and injured more than 300.

“India always indulges in propaganda and has always fabricated false reports about me and that’s how India has been able to use international pressure against us,” Saeed said in an exclusive interview to Al Jazeera here.

Security experts have for long suspected the Jamaat-ud-Dawah of having strong links with Lashkar-e-Taiba, which India accuses of carrying out the Mumbai attacks that targeted two luxury hotels, an Orthodox Jewish centre and several other public places.

Saeed, a well-known political figure in Pakistan, who is wanted by both India and the US, was placed under house arrest by the Pakistani Army on December 11, 2008, after the UN declared that Jamaat-ud-Dawah was a front for Lashkar.

“But the Punjab High Court exonerated us and they concluded that neither I nor the Jamaat-ud-Dawah had any involvement in the Mumbai attacks,” he told Al Jazeera.

Pakistan made several arrests in connection with the Mumbai attacks, but no criminal charges were brought against Saeed.

In a recent interview to Al Jazeera, P Chidambaram, India’s interior, alleged that the training for the Mumbai attacks was personally co-ordinated by Saeed.

“Hafiz Saeed selected the trainees and gave them new names. [Ajmal] Kasab was given a new name, Abu Mujahid, and that name was given by Saeed,” Chidambaram said.

Chidambaram was referring to Ajmal Kasab, the sole surviving suspect in the Mumbai attacks.

When asked to comment on the accusations, Saeed said: “I never saw him [Kasab]. In fact, it was from media in India that I discovered he was a Pakistani national.

“I have never met Kasab nor have I ever known him and I have said this on many occasions. This is baseless propaganda without an iota of truth.”

Propaganda was also his response to whether he favoured the idea of having open dialogue with India.

“I never said no to dialogue – that is propaganda. I have always talked about having open dialogue, but it needs to be productive, it needs to obtain results,” Saeed said.

“India has never had a sincere interest in opening dialogue. When they do, it is because of national interest. If India wants to restore confidence in opening dialogue with Pakistan, then India must accept Kashmir as a core dispute.”

“India saturated all of Kashmir with military personnel. They must change the situation on the ground, withdraw their forces and set a timeframe for such a withdrawal,” he concluded.

Baradar’s capture signifies a split within the Afghan Taliban, as he headed the minority faction more open to negotiations with the Afghan government and the US. His secret negotiations in Dubai may have angered hardliners including Mullah Omar, who have rejected the offers of negotiations and reconciliation with the Karzai government, and representatives of the US and NATO.

Shahid R. Siddiqi

Indian explosion of its nuclear device in 1974 drew only a customary “show of concern” from the Western powers. But Pakistan’s nuclear program, initiated in response to the Indian acquisition of nuclear weapons, evoked immediate and “serious concern” from the same quarters. Ever since, Pakistan has been under immense pressure to scrap its program while the Indians remain uncensored.

That Western discriminatory attitude can also be seen by the religious color it gave to Pakistan’s bomb by calling it an ‘Islamic bomb’. One has never heard of the Israeli bomb being called a ‘Jewish Bomb’, or the Indian bomb a ‘Hindu Bomb’, or the American and British bomb a ‘Christian Bomb’ or the Soviet bomb a ‘Communist’ (or an ‘Atheist) Bomb’. The West simply used Pakistan’s bomb to make Islam synonymous with aggression and make its nuclear program a legitimate target, knowing full well that it merely served a defensive purpose and was not even remotely associated with Islam.

With India going nuclear soon after playing a crucial role in dismembering Pakistan in 1971 and enjoying an overwhelming conventional military superiority over Pakistan in the ratio of 4:1, a resource strapped Pakistan was pushed to the wall. Left with no other choice but to develop a nuclear deterrent to ward off future Indian threats, Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto declared: “Pakistanis will eat grass but make a nuclear bomb”. And sure enough, they did it. Soon, however, both he and the nuclear program were to become non-grata. Amid intense pressure, sanctions and vilification campaign, Henry Kissinger personally delivered to a defiant Bhutto the American threat: “give up your nuclear program or else we will make a horrible example of you’.

And a horrible example was made of Bhutto for his defiance. But he had enabled Pakistan to become the 7th nuclear power in the world. This served Pakistan well. India was kept at bay despite temptations for military adventurism. Although there has never been real peace in South Asia, at least there has been no war since 1971.

Ignoring its security perspective, Pakistan’s Western ‘friends’ refused to admit it to their exclusive nuclear club, though expediency made them ignore its ‘crime’ when it suited their purpose. But driven by identical geo-strategic interests in their respective regions and seeing Pakistan as an obstacle to their designs, Israel and India missed no opportunity to malign or subvert Pakistan’s program.

Due to its defiance of Indian diktat, Pakistan is for India an obstruction in its quest for domination of South Asia and the Indian Ocean region. Israel’s apprehension of Pakistan’s military prowess is rooted in the strength Pakistan indirectly provides to Arab states with whom Israel has remained in a state of conflict. Conscious that several Arab states look up to Pakistan for military support in the event of threat to their security from Israel, it is unsettling for Israel to see a nuclear armed Pakistan.

Israel can also not overlook the fact that Pakistan’s military is a match to its own. The PAF pilots surprised Israeli Air Force, when flying mostly Russian aircraft they shot down several relatively superior Israeli aircraft in air combat in the 1973 Arab Israel war, shattering the invincibility myth of Israeli pilots who believed themselves to be too superior in skill and technology. The Pakistanis happened to be assigned to Jordanian, Syrian and Iraqi air forces on training missions when the war broke out and, unknown to the Israelis then, they incognito undertook combat missions.

After successfully destroying Iraqi nuclear reactor in 1981, Israelis planned a similar attack on Pakistan’s nuclear facilities at Kahuta in collusion with India in the 1980s. Using satellite pictures and intelligence information, Israel reportedly built a full-scale mock-up of Kahuta facility in the Negev Desert where pilots of F-16 and F-15 squadrons practiced mock attacks.

According to ‘The Asian Age’, London, journalists Adrian Levy and Catherine Scott-Clark stated in their book ‘Deception: Pakistan, the US and the Global Weapons Conspiracy’, that Israeli Air Force was to launch air attack on Kahuta in mid 1980s from Jamnagar airfield in Gujarat (India). The book claims that “in March 1984, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi signed off (on) the Israeli-led operation bringing India, Pakistan and Israel to within a hairs breadth of a nuclear conflagration”.

Another report claims that Israel also planned an air strike directly out of Israel. After midway and midair refueling, Israeli warplanes planned to shoot down a commercial airline’s flight over Indian Ocean that flew into Islamabad early morning, fly in a tight formation to appear as one large aircraft on radar screens preventing detection, use the drowned airliner’s call sign to enter Islamabad’s air space, knock out Kahuta and fly out to Jammu to refuel and exit.

According to reliable reports in mid 1980s this mission was actually launched one night. But the Israelis were in for a big surprise. They discovered that Pakistan Air Force had already sounded an alert and had taken to the skies in anticipation of this attack. The mission had to be hurriedly aborted.

Pakistan reminded the Israelis that Pakistan was no Iraq and that PAF was no Iraqi Air Force. Pakistan is reported to have conveyed that an attack on Kahuta would force Pakistan to lay waste to Dimona, Israel’s nuclear reactor in the Negev Desert. India was also warned that Islamabad would attack Trombay if Kahuta facilities were hit.

The above quoted book claims that “Prime Minister Indira Gandhi eventually aborted the operation despite protests from military planners in New Delhi and Jerusalem.”

McNair’s paper #41 published by USAF Air University (India Thwarts Israeli Destruction of Pakistan’s “Islamic Bomb”) also confirmed this plan. It said, “Israeli interest in destroying Pakistan’s Kahuta reactor to scuttle the “Islamic bomb” was blocked by India’s refusal to grant landing and refueling rights to Israeli warplanes in 1982.” Clearly India wanted to see Kahuta gone but did not want to face retaliation at the hands of the PAF. Israel, on its part wanted this to be a joint Indo-Israeli strike to avoid being solely held responsible.

The Reagan administration also hesitated to support the plan because Pakistan’s distraction at that juncture would have hurt American interests in Afghanistan, when Pakistan was steering the Afghan resistance against the Soviets.

Although plans to hit Kahuta were shelved, the diatribe against Pakistan’s nuclear program continued unabated. Israel used its control over the American political establishment and western media to create hysteria. India worked extensively to promote paranoia, branding Pakistan’s program as unsafe, insecure and a threat to peace. The fact is otherwise. It is technically sounder, safer and more secure than that of India and has ensured absence of war in the region.

The US invasion of Afghanistan provided another opening for Indo-Israeli nexus to target Pakistan’s strategic assets. This time the strategy was to present Pakistan as an unstable state, incapable of defending itself against religious extremist insurgents, creating the specter of Islamabad and its nuclear assets falling in their hands. Suggestions are being floated that Pakistan being at risk of succumbing to extremists, its nuclear assets should be disabled, seized or forcibly taken out by the US. Alternatively, an international agency should take them over for safe keeping.

Pakistan has determinedly thwarted the terrorist threat and foiled this grand conspiracy. The terrorists have either been eliminated or are on the run. Pakistan has made it clear that it would act decisively against any attempt by any quarter to harm its nuclear assets. But if the game is taken to the next level, the consequences would be disastrous for the region.

The Indo-Israeli nexus is losing initiative. But as long as the American umbrella is available Afghanistan will remain a playground for mischief mongers. It is now up to the US to walk its talk and prove its claim that it wants to see a secure and stable Pakistan. It must pull the plug on conspiracies to destabilize Pakistan.

Monthly Salary : Rs. 120,000  to 200,000

• Expense for Constitution  per month : Rs.100,000 
• Office expenditure per  month : Rs.140,000
• Traveling concession (Rs.  8 per km)  : Rs.48,000 (For a visit to ISLAMABAD & return): 6000 km 
  
  
  

1. Daily BETA during  Assembly  meets : Rs.500  
2. Charge for 1st class (A/C)  in train : Free (For any number of times all over   PAKISTAN )
3. Charge for Business Class in flights: Free for 40 trips / year (With wife or P.A.) 
4. Rent for Govt.. hostel any  where: Free
5. Electricity costs at home  : Free up to 50,000 units   
6. Local phone call charge :   Free up to 1,70,000 calls
7. TOTAL expense for a MNA  per year : Rs. 32,000,000
8. TOTAL expense for 5 years  : Rs. 1,60,000,000
9. For 534 MNA, the expense  for 5 years;

Rs. 85 , 440,000,000 (more than 800 Korores)

And they are elected by THE PEOPLE OF PAKISTAN, through a democratic process of this world, not intruded into the assembly on their own or by any qualification. This is how all our tax money is been swallowed and price hike on our regular commodities… Think of the great democracy we have?

Kindly do search for yourself in order to get the updated statistics….

CIA operations follow the same recurring script. First, American business interests abroad are threatened by a popular or democratically elected leader. The people support their leader because he intends to conduct land reform, strengthen unions, redistribute wealth, nationalize foreign-owned industry, and regulate business to protect workers, consumers and the environment. So, on behalf of American business, and often with their help, the CIA mobilizes the opposition. First it identifies right-wing groups within the country (usually the military), and offers them a deal: "We'll put you in power if you maintain a favorable business climate for us." The Agency then hires, trains and works with them to overthrow the existing government (usually a democracy).

The CIA uses all those methods to install dictators like Musharraf, whom it most certainly trained. The CIA is ruthless in its on-going efforts to eliminate with torture and murder, in necessary, all opposition to the interests of American imperialists. Saddam Hussein was among the dictators propped up by the US, the CIA specifically. Saddam ran afoul of Bush Sr by opposing efforts by the Bush regime to keep the price of oil high. The transcript of US Ambassador April Glaspie's interview with Hussein on the eve of his invasion of Kuwait proves conclusively that Hussein had been set up by the master spy –George Bush Sr. The CIAs allegiance to the US oil industry is overt and is most certainly at the very heart of well-founded suspicions about the CIA, Texas oil barons, and JFK. 

Much of the rest of the world knows the truth about the CIA; Americans are kept in the dark. The media dare not tell the truth about the CIA and the Bush administration, in particular, is complicit. Rare media outlets that dare tell the truth are demonized. As more documents are declassified and the hidden history is made painfully clear, the CIA’s predictable response is compared to the Medieval Church’s oppressive response to the Scientific Revolution. Indeed, there are many things about the CIAs relationship to the world around it that are medieval: intolerance, fear, repression, secrecy and torture. Initially, the CIA would merely harass American writers but foreign writers were tortured and/or murdered. With the death of Steve Kangas, one wonders if the CIA now operates against the domestic media. What's next? An inquisition?

The CIA, whose very is name is enough to inspire generations of "terrorists", has outlived its usefulness.

Because of the threats posed by the powerful Lahore Bar Association – an umbrella organization of city lawyers – no Christian or Muslim lawyer is ready to take on the defence in the murder of 12 year-old Shazia Bashir, it was reported yesterday by The Pakistani Christian association that deals with legal assistance.  

The girl, of Christian faith, died on Jan. 23 as a result of violence – even sexual – at the hands of her employer, a wealthy and powerful Muslim lawyer in Lahore. The alleged murderess, Chaudhry Mohammad Naeem, is a former president of the Lahore High Court Bar Association. The girl, just 12 years old, had worked as a maid in the home of Naeem in the last six months.

The Center for Legal Aid Assistance and Settlement (CLAAS) denounces that access to the courtroom where the court hearings were held against the accused was denied, because a group of Muslim lawyers (pictured) 'prevented' entry. The association is fighting – for free – for the rights of the poorest and marginalized groups has been  threatened by  thousands of lawyers – friends of the murderer – that promise to burn alive anyone who wants to represent the victim in court. "  

M. Joseph Francis, director of Claas, asked members of civil society, political and religious leaders to rise up and take steps to "condemn this new form of terrorism" by lawyers who "should ensure justice." The Pakistani newspaper The Newsreported that on Feb. 4, the police conducted the accused to the courts amid "tight security. And, as usual, officials prevented journalists and relatives of victims to come into the hall for "security reasons".  

Shazia Bashir's family could not access the court not once but three times, a strange fact, regarding the judiciary in Pakistan. Police officials explain that it would "not be possible" to prevent clashes and violence, where "Shazia's relatives and representatives of minorities to enter the courtroom."  

Meanwhile Ashgar Ali, heading the investigation, requested the accused appear before the courts and an extension of the terms of custody for six days. The magistrate added that the murder weapon has not yet been recovered and the accused could provide the names of accomplices, who participated in the torture and murder of the 12 year old Christian girl. The court, however, has only partly accepted the request, ruling only four days in jail.

From: Fareed Khan

Questions come to mind are why MQM politicians recorded and smuggled sensitive recordings to London: 

• they are forced to do for third party or parties 
  
• Altaf Hussain’s mistrust on local leaders in Karachi 
  
• Paranoia and HPD of Altaf Hussain.? 

According to a mental health expert who examined speeches, videos, dressing, body language, and have met Mr Altaf Hussain in London suggested that, “he might be suffering from Paranoia and Histrionic personality disorder. HPD is defined by the American Psychiatric Association as a personality disorder characterized by a pattern of excessive emotionality and attention-seeking, including an excessive need for approval and inappropriate seductiveness, usually beginning in early adulthood. These individuals are lively, dramatic, enthusiastic, and flirtatious. They may be inappropriately sexually provocative, express strong emotions with an impressionistic style, and be easily influenced by others. Associated features may include egocentrism, self-indulgence, continuous longing for appreciation, feelings that are easily hurt, and persistent manipulative behaviour to achieve their own needs.”

MQM asked two PPP sitting ministers Mr Zulifqar Mirza and Agha Sirja Durrani to have their mental health examination. Earlier they left a similar message on the cell phone of a senior journalist who exposed MQM’s sinister plots.

Keeping in view MQM’s profile it is highly likely that they have been sending by internet. It is possible that copies of those audio files kept in the main servers of the internet providers at various locations in the world including Singapore. One can assume that British GCHQ might have intercepted these communications as they monitor all faxes, emails, and communications in and out of the country. It is possible that Indians might have access to the files too as they might have access to the servers. MQM has put Pakistani security at risk and violated the official Pakistan’s Secret Act by spying for foreign nationals based in foreign country. 

It is reported that MQM not only recorded classified proceedings of city’s security plans with security and law enforcement agencies but also smuggled them out of the country violating official Secret Act. MQM was sending classified Pakistani Government secrets to London. Mr Zulifqar Mirza minister responsible for security of the province had the information of MQM spying network and complained to the security agencies who acted swiftly and confiscated spying devices from Mr Waseem Akthar Member National Assembly of Pakistan. Mr Mirza sadly feeling helpless and protested to the President of Pakistan who seemingly protecting MQM beyond imaginations. He demanded ban on the MQM members participating in all sensitive government meetings.

Loyalties of the MQM leadership including Altaf Hussain were/are always questionable. Few years ago Altaf Hussain called “creation of Pakistan as biggest blunder in the history of mankind while standing on the Indian soil and asked Indians to give political asylum to MQM members’. See Youtube videos:

1- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWAj7Awj2ks&feature=player_embedded

2- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxIAso2xJUo&feature=player_embedded

3- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slGVVzAJujI&feature=player_embedded

“Pakistan should give its nuclear assets (program) under the United Nations control”,reportedly said Ahmed Abdul Rafique a lawyer and Secretary Foreign Affairs  of Qadiyani minority in Frankfurt Germany chapter at a Swat charity dinner few weeks ago in the presence of an active member of Social Democratic Party and German Member of Parliament Otay Zaph who earlier also mentioned the weakness of Pakistani government and security of Pakistan’s nuclear program. Dr Jasper Abrahmoski a high level government official from the Department of Development and Cooperation also attended the event.

Senior Pakistani diplomats Mr Zahid Ahmed and Dr Feroze Alam Junejo walked out of the program in protest. They recorded their protest with reporetdly former Major Zubair Khalil an organiser for the alleged remarks. Any sane person would consider these remarks by a leading media spokesman and member of Qadiyani minority as an attack on the sovereignty of Pakistan?

There is no doubt that Zulifkar Ali Bhutto was the visionary statesman of Pakistan. He recognised Qadiaynis as political and security problem than religious. He banned Qadiyani Dr Abdul Salam from visiting Pakistan’s nuclear sites. Dr Salam was reportedly spying for some foreign agency or agencies. He was opposed to the idea Pakistan becoming a nuclear power Anthony Tucker's obituary about Professor Abdus Salam in The Guardian (22 November 1996) noted that `in spite of his powerful influence in world physics, his eminence in the West and lifelong commitment to science in developing countries, in his own country Abdus Salam is blamed for the starvation of important areas of science through encouraging theoretical and nuclear physics and by inference, weapons research'.

Anthony Tucker also said that Abdus Salam `was a vigorous supporter of Pugwash' and he `sought nuclear disarmament'. His unwillingness to contribute to the development science in Pakistan can also be attributed to his being a committed and proselytising member of the heretic Qadiyani community (founded by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad Qadiyani who claimed to be a prophet). At Trieste Dr Salam would lead, as imam, unknowing Muslim students from across the world in Friday prayers, and distributed Qadiyani tracts about the `persecution of Ahmadiya Muslims in Pakistan'.

Abdus Salams's position as scientific adviser, however, came to an abrupt end in 1974 when the ministry of interior told the PAEC not to allow him anymore into its laboratories. Later Dr Salam visited China where he was received as an eminent Pakistani scientist' and, it is probable, the Chinese, spoke to him freely about their cooperation with Pakistan's nuclear program. It may have been a hire coincidence but the Pakistan `Islamic bomb' became news soon after. The BBC1 TV current affairs program, Panorama, aired in June 1980, mentioned Abdus Salam as one of those who were present at a 1972 ' meeting where Zulfikar AIi Bhutto had ' allegedly taken a decision to make a nuclear bomb.

According to Syed Sharifuddin Pirzada, French President de Gaulle had personally told Ayub Khan in 1967 that France was ready to provide `full' nuclear assistance to Pakistan. In return he simply asked that France be allowed to mine for uranium in the northwest and share it equally with Pakistan. ‘Our "friends" may not like it,' Qadiyani M M Ahmad told Ayub Khan, and in any case, what do we need this expensive technology for.' That is how Pakistan missed the opportunity of becoming a nuclear power at least two decades earlier than it did – and minus all the blackmail and intimidation that knows no ending even now? Sharifuddin Pirzada also, told a journalist in London that as far back as October 1967, French President Charles de Gaulle (d.1970) had offered Pakistan ‘full’ nuclear assistance and know-how; the only thing he wanted in turn was to he allowed to mine for uranium in Northwest Pakistan for a 50% share.

He was a grandson of the Qadiyani `prophet', Mirza Ghulam Ahmad Qadiyani, (d.1908) and son-in-law of the second Qadiyani `khalifa', Mirza Bashiruddin Mahmud Ahmad (d. 1965). M M Ahmad’s imprint on Pakistan's fiscal and development policies was to last for ever. As Yahya Khan's 'finance minister', he devalued the rupee by 131% per cent. As one economist pointed out (Dawn, Karachi, 1st February 2002), 'that was the start of the deficit finance, inflation and trade imbalance' from which the country has not been able to free itself.In a 1995 article, `Pearls of Memory' (Al-Nahal„ Spring 1995), M M Ahmad wrote that close to independence, he was `designated by Pakistan' as additional deputy commissioner of Amritsar to take over the charge of the district if it was awarded to Pakistan. One day the British deputy commissioner of Amritsar told him `casually that Gurdaspur district is likely to go to India'. The award of Gurdaspur gave India a land corridor to Jammu and Kashmir and so enabled it to occupy the territory after three months.

A preliminary version of the award was ready on 8th August 1947. The definitive version was with the Viceroy, Lord Mountbatten on 12th August. However, Mountbatten informed India and Pakistan on 16 August after the ‘process of the Transfer of Power had been completed'. M M Ahmad gives no date when this `top secret' information was given to him. However, instead of rushing to report the matter to Quaid-e-Azam and the Government of Pakistan, he traveled to Qadiyan to inform his `khalifa'.  This contrasted with the conduct of Indian officers who immediately reported any sensitive leak or information to Nehru (d.1964) and Nehru took it up with Mountbatten. Qadiaynis have their own particular agenda on Jammu and Kashmir is an open secret. Like the Qadiyani Nobel Laureate, Dr Abdus Salam, M M Ahmad too was opposed to Pakistan becoming a nuclear power.

Surely actions of individuals cannot implicate the whole tribe or group of people? Unfortunately that happens all the times but wise thing to do under these circumstances is that minorities and communities should look into their own backyards because removing files from the archives and books from the libraries will not help? Freedom of speech and rule of law is the corner stone of the British and European societies. No one can take away this right from the people under any kind of guise or argument and to have historical or intellectual debate?  No intimidations.

Some leading members of the Qadiyani community in London fully participated in the running of a dinner to collect money for the victims of Swat Operation on 26th June 2009. Mr Asif Durani Deputy High Commissioner of Pakistan and Ms Sultana Rizvi, Mrs Shenaz Mazhrulhaq, and Mr Nafees Zakria also participated in the program with other dignitaries. The program might have been organised in a good faith but an attempt to auction the national of Pakistan and then a Sword of Mohammed Ali Jinnah (Quaid-e-Azam). A leading PPP leader in London Mr Sadat Shah bought that sword for over a thousand pound in love of the Quaid-e-Azam like Indian billionaire Vijay Maliya owner of Kingfisher beers bought Sword of Tipu Sultan for over £130,000 as matter of love.

The whole incident turned into big debate after publication of news in a local newspaper. The editor started getting threats for legal action from the very people who apparently broke the law themselves? The fundamental question is how these people had the ‘Sword of the Quaid-e-Azam in London, when it is supposed to be in the safe custody of Government of Pakistan?  

If they had got or bought it illegally then they have committed crime of handling stolen goods?If true it is an antique smuggled from Pakistan therefore, HM Customs and Excise should be informed for smuggling of antiques.A case of theft and illegally smuggling and stealing of national treasure of Pakistan must register against the criminals in Pakistan.Government of Pakistan should ask British Government for the recovery of its national treasure?British Government and local London police should be informed to recover the national treasure of Pakistan and handed over to the Pakistani authorities.

If this Sword is a fake then they should charged with fraud by deception, forgery, misrepresentation, theft?Pakistani flag was produced for auctioning? Which is an insult to the whole nation?The whole Qadiyani minority can not be blamed surely for the actions of Presenters/supporters Mr A Haq and Mr Rana Mahmud who are known Qadiaynis unless otherwise?

Instead of writing a letter to the editor with the corrections and response some members of the Qadiyani community started intimidating the editor with threatening emails for legal action. Surely law is to protect us all irrelevant of the group affiliations? All the parties have to choose their path and course of actions. Fundamental question is to differentiate who broke the law and who hurt the feelings?

No one can deny the special links of the community with the British Government as Mirza Ghulam Ahmed Qadiyani (1838-1908) the shadowy prophet declared himself that Islam consisted of two parts: one, obedience to God and two, obedience to the British government. He admitted he could 'pursue his mission neither in Makkah, nor Madinah; neither in Syria, nor Iran or Kabul save under this Government for whose good fortune we pray'. On 24 February 1898, Mirza sent a fawning petition to the British Lt-Governor of the province, he referred to his loyal services to the government of Britain and reminded him that he was their 'their own plant' (khud sakhtah pauda) and, then went on to request that his followers be given special consideration by officials.

Mirza's 'khalifah' and son, Mirza Bashiruddin Mahmud Ahmad, wrote proudly in the cult's paper Al-Fazal dated 1 November 1934 that: 'The whole world considers us to be the agents of the British. That is why a German minister who attended the opening of an Ahmadia building in Germany was asked to explain as to why he went to the function of a community, which was the agent of the British.All minority rights should be protected according to the constitution and UN Declaration of Human Rights. A country should not be hijacked or its security compromised by a minority black mail?Z A Bhutto's approach to the Qadiyani problem had probably little to do with theology. He had come to see the Qadiyanis purely as a political and security problem, which explains the sequence of policy decisions along side the strategic decision about acquiring nuclear deterrence. 

(Dr Shahid Qureshi is award wining journalist and writer on foreign policy & security based in London)

“I said this earlier and categorically say once again that there is no existence of Blackwater in the country,” said the minister. He was replying to a question when asked to comment over media reports about inclusion of Xe-trained officers in the official security escort of the prime minister.

Meanwhile, the minister said the US official security experts had been imparting training to Pakistani civil law enforcementagencies; especially police officers, under a pact signed during Pervez Musharraf era, which was aimed at increasing their professional skills and standard to combat terrorism.

Responding to another query, Malik welcomed the recent Indian announcement for consideration of Pakistani cricketers for second edition of Indian Premier League (IPL), adding that his ministry would certainly allow the players to fly to India; in case they formally receive offer and agree to participate in the IPL. “We welcome the Indian decision, which was made due to strong protest of our nation. India should show same flexibility for resolution of Kashmir as well as water disputes, and come at the dialogue table,” he maintained.

Regarding Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani’s speech in the National Assembly, Malik said the PM has clearly given the message of national unity and called for working together to achieve combined targets of national development.

Dr Ishrat-ul-Ebad has also won the honour of having become the longest serving Governor and he is described as a personality who plays the role of a bridge on every occasion of a difference in the ruling coalition.

Amazing isn't it?

Part 2 of 3

Part 3 of 3

MIRAMSHAH: A suspected US drone has been shot down in North Waziristan, sources said Sunday. The local tribesmen have claimed that they fired down the unmanned aircraft in Hamzoni area.

The unmanned aircraft came down in Humzoni area of Datta Khel in North Warisitan bordering Afghanistan, where there have been over 14 drone strikes over the past few weeks.

According to state TV, the drone was shot down while the tribesmen have also claimed that they fired down the pilotless aircraft.

Both the Pakistani and US authorities have maintained a silence on this officially, although it is suspected to be a warning to Langley from Pakistan’s Armed Forces to put an immediate halt to US airspace violations and missile attacks inside Pakistani territory. Relations between the two ‘allies’ appear to have taken a nose-dive in recent days.

“Too Little, Too Late, We Already Have Superior UAVs”

Mariana Baabar

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan military sources say they are not impressed by the offer of the United States to supply RQ-7 Shadow Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), as they already have superior quality UAVs, which they have upgraded, and which are in use.

The disappointment is understandable since unlike the drones that fly and take out targets inside Pakistan’s Fata region, the ones being offered to Pakistan are unarmed and commonly used for intelligence gathering.

Later, when DG ISPR Major General Athar Abbas was asked about the overall weapons being provided to Pakistan for counterinsurgency and other military supplies, he remarked, “Too little, too late”.

It was US Defence Secretary Robert Gates who, in a meeting with the media at the residence of the US ambassador, said the US was enhancing Pakistan’s intelligence capabilities. He said the offer comes because Islamabad had requested for them. “We have a lot of information on the Afghan side that we share … we also help Pakistan build its own capacity. We will be providing them with UAVs (Shadow) together with equipment and training,” he said.

To a question whether the US was attaching any conditions to these UAVs, he replied, “I do not know”. In the past, the US was wary of passing on the drone technology to Pakistan as Islamabad could use it in areas other than it had specifically been given for.

One American journalist accompanying him asked about the possibility of stopping arms sale to India and Pakistan altogether. “We have to judge each country’s requirement on its own. We sell Pakistan F-16s and we sell India transport aircraft. We make a decision judiciously,” Gates replied.

Gates appeared relaxed with the questions being thrown at him by the local and US media but it was the ‘D’ word that he refused to entertain. Though several questions relating to US drones were asked, he shrugged them off and would not even give an answer as to whom in the US this question could be put.

When he said that there were no US bases inside Pakistan. he refused a reply when asked from where these US drones flew. Amongst the defence secretary’s aides in uniform that greeted the media before he arrived were those who offered their greetings in chaste Urdu and one of them also spoke excellent Pashto!

As if on cue, the Pakistan military’s announcement that it could not overstretch itself in fresh areas of operation also saw Gates admitting to a query that a ‘trust deficit’ existed. “There is responsibility on both sides. From the US side, we turned away from Afghanistan in 1989. We could have remained engaged but we did not even try. Then the Pressler Amendment brought an end to military-to-military conversation for 12 years when we had no contacts. We cannot rebuild trust through rhetoric,” he said.

Turning to the present moment, Gates said that the US was deeply impressed with Pakistan’s military operations and the level of activity and clearing of areas. “Very impressive. Pakistan is a sovereign state and makes its own decisions on future operations. The past year has been extraordinary. Let me put it this way. If we are in a car together, it is Pakistan in the driving seat with its foot on the accelerator. We are prepared to help and also express our condolences to the 3,000 Pakistani soldiers killed. General Kayani gave me a detailed briefing,” explained the defence secretary.

To a query about the Coalition Support Fund that has been held up and which Pakistan needs on an emergency basis, Gates replied, “It will come and we are also reviving $500 million deferred payment.”

He explained instances in the past where Pakistan’s procedures lacked proper documentation. “We are working with Pakistan on the documentation and will give it to Congress. We are working on it now and some people we are seeking to add to the US Embassy will help,” he said.

When a question of opening up dialogue with the Taliban inside Afghanistan was put to him, he replied, “Afghanistan has its own reconciliation and reintegration plan. It is how low-level Taliban can work in their own community. These are Taliban foot soldiers who work for money. As economic development proceeds and there is greater security, more and more foot soldiers will come back,” he pointed out. But he did not agree that there were any chances of the Taliban forming the next government in Kabul. However, he did say that there were conditions if they wanted a future political role.

“If the adversaries are willing to become part of the political fabric of Afghanistan and they are prepared to play a legitimate role, abide by the Constitution and recognise the Kabul government. What do the Taliban make of Afghanistan? It was a desert (during their last government). “Are they ready to rebuild?”

To several queries regarding the role of India in the region, Gates said that the last thing he wanted to avoid was another Mumbai-like attack. “We all have common enemies and in the past year they tried to destabilise Pakistan itself. We have regional problems that need regional cooperation,” he said.

He said the US was ready to play a constructive role between India and Pakistan and was well prepared. “In 1990 then President Bush sent me to the region and we made suggestions. Both parties do not want intervention and we are comfortable with that,” he said.

When told that with Kashmir unresolved, now more issues, like India’s role in Afghanistan, were leading to confrontation, Gates replied, “Al-Qaeda does not care about Kashmir. Kashmir is an issue for both sides.”

He said he was unaware that at the forthcoming London conference, a formal role would be offered to India. But he acknowledged that India had significant development programmes. Calling al-Qaeda a cancer, Gates did not mince his words when he said: “They are all bad”. Refusing to distinguish between the Pakistani Taliban, Afghan Taliban, al-Qaeda, Haqqani network and the various Lashkars, he said it would be a mistake to look at them individually.

The tide has shifted dramatically in recent years. Resurgent Afghan Taliban, better armed, trained, and deadly effective, now have control over 80% of Afghan territory. There has been a significant increase in offensive targetting of US and NATO bases and Afghan government officials and buildings in the last couple of years, with even Kabul coming under increasing pressure.

On the other side of the border, the CIA and Indian supported TTP has been getting a hiding at the hands of Pakistan’s armed forces with even the US and NATO stunned at the efficiency and success of the army operations against TTP militants in Swat and South Waziristan. For the first time in 8 years, Pakistan now has the upper hand and has started to dictate terms to the US, starting last week with the rejection of US request to extend the operation to North Waziristan where Jalaluddin Haqqani’s faction allegedly operates from. Anticipating an imminent turnaround in Pakistan’s Afghan policy and fearing the US supply lines into Afghanistan may come under pressure, the US immediately sought to pacify the Pakistan Armed Forces with promises to deliver 12 ‘unarmed’ shadow drones – which hasn’t worked.

The White House and Pentagon are in shock, as this turnaround by the Pakistan Army couldn’t have come at a worse time for them – with the recent attacks on CIA’s Chapman outpost in Khost, a failed civilian government incharge, an incompetent Afghan army, and with 30,000 US troops on their way to what many now realise is a lost cause.

And now the New York Times reveals an interesting conversation between Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and an unnamed senior Pakistan Army official that took place last week. The biggest sign yet of the reversal of fortunes comes with a simple but symbolic ‘Are you with us or against us?’ from the Pakistan Army to the United States. The NYT article follows:

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – Nobody else in the Obama administration has been mired in Pakistan for as long as Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates. So on a trip here this past week to try to soothe the country’s growing rancor toward the United States, he served as a punching bag tested over a quarter-century.

“Are you with us or against us?” a senior military officer demanded of Mr. Gates at Pakistan’s National Defense University, according to a Pentagon official who recounted the remark made during a closed-door session after Mr. Gates gave a speech at the school on Friday. Mr. Gates, who could hardly miss that the officer was mimicking former President George W. Bush’s warning to nations harboring militants, simply replied, “Of course we’re with you.”

That was the essence of Mr. Gates’s message over two days to the Pakistanis, who are angry about the Central Intelligence Agency’s surge in missile strikes from drone aircraft on militants in Pakistan’s tribal areas, among other grievances, and showed no signs of feeling any love.

The trip, Mr. Gates’s first to Pakistan in three years, proved that dysfunctional relationships span multiple administrations and that the history of American foreign policy is full of unintended consequences.

As the No. 2 official at the C.I.A. in the 1980s, Mr. Gates helped channel Reagan-era covert aid and weapons through Pakistan’s spy agency to the American allies at the time: Islamic fundamentalists fighting the Russians in Afghanistan. Many of those fundamentalists regrouped as the Taliban, who gave sanctuary to Al Qaeda before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and now threaten Pakistan.

In meetings on Thursday, Pakistani leaders repeatedly asked Mr. Gates to give them their own armed drones to go after the militants, not just a dozen smaller, unarmed ones that Mr. Gates announced as gifts meant to placate Pakistan and induce its cooperation.

Pakistani journalists asked Mr. Gates if the United States had plans to take over Pakistan’s nuclear weapons (Mr. Gates said no) and whether the United States would expand the drone strikes farther south into Baluchistan, as is under discussion. Mr. Gates did not answer.

At the same time, the Pakistani Army’s chief spokesman told American reporters at the army headquarters in Rawalpindi on Thursday that the military had no immediate plans to launch an offensive against extremists in the tribal region of North Waziristan, as American officials have repeatedly urged.

And the spokesman, Maj. Gen Athar Abbas, rejected Mr. Gates’s assertion that Al Qaeda had links to militant groups on Pakistan’s border. Asked why the United States would have such a view, the spokesman, General Abbas, curtly replied, “Ask the United States.”

General Abbas’s comments, made only hours after Mr. Gates arrived in Islamabad, were an affront to an American ally that gave Pakistan $3 billion in military aid last year. But American officials, trying to put a positive face on the general’s remarks and laying out what they described as military reality, said that the Pakistani Army was stretched thin from offensives against militants in the Swat Valley and South Waziristan and probably did not have the troops.

“They don’t have the ability to go into North Waziristan at the moment,” an American military official in Pakistan told reporters. “Now, they may be able to generate the ability. They could certainly accept risk in certain places and relocate some of their forces, but obviously that then creates a potential hole elsewhere that could suffer from Taliban re-encroachment.”

Mr. Gates’s advisers cast him as a good cop on a mission to encourage the Pakistanis rather than berate them. And he was characteristically low-key during most his visit here, including during a session with Pakistani journalists on Friday morning at the home of the American ambassador to Pakistan, Anne W. Patterson.

But Mr. Gates perked up when he was brought some coffee, and he soon began to push back against General Abbas. American officials say that the real reason Pakistanis distinguish between the groups is that they are reluctant to go after those that they see as a future proxy against Indian interests in Afghanistan when the Americans leave. India is Pakistan’s archrival in the region.

“Dividing these individual extremist groups into individual pockets if you will is in my view a mistaken way to look at the challenge we all face,” Mr. Gates said, then ticked off the collection on the border.

“Al Qaeda, the Taliban in Afghanistan, Tariki Taliban in Pakistan, Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Haqqani network – this is a syndicate of terrorists that work together,” he said. “And when one succeeds they all benefit, and they share ideas, they share planning. They don’t operationally coordinate their activities, as best I can tell. But they are in very close contact. They take inspiration from one another, they take ideas from one another.”

Mr. Gates, who repeatedly told the Pakistanis that he regretted their country’s “trust deficit” with the United States and that Americans had made a grave mistake in abandoning Pakistan after the Russians left Afghanistan, promised the military officers that the United States would do better.

His final message delivered, he relaxed on the 14-hour trip home by watching “Seven Days in May,” the cold war-era film about an attempted military coup in the United States.

A US chopper shot down by the Afghan Taliban – who now control over 80% of Afghan territory

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is reaching out to “all levels” of the Afghan Taliban in a bid to encourage reconciliation in its war-torn neighbour, the foreign ministry said on Saturday.

US President Barack Obama has said a political solution is needed to stabilise Afghanistan and emphasised that success would not be possible without the support of Pakistan.

“We are trying to reach out to them (Taliban) at all levels and all of us would like that our efforts should bring some results, but at this point in time it is very difficult to say,” Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit said of Pakistan’s efforts.

The Afghan government is preparing a reintegration plan with the Taliban that targets lower to mid-level Taliban fighters, but has not focused on more senior leaders of the insurgency.

International donors are meeting in London on Jan 28 when Afghan President Hamid Karzai is expected to seek their support for his reintegration plan.

Mr Basit said it was important that there should be reconciliation at all levels and that Pakistan was helping in this regard. He declined to give details.

“Whether or not our efforts will yield results, we will see,” he told Reuters in an interview. “We don’t want to discuss the specifics. There are efforts being made and we are trying to win over those Taliban or forces who are ‘reconcilable’. Let’s see.”
Asked specifically whether Pakistan was targeting top-level leaders, Mr Basit said: “We are trying at all levels but where we succeed is another matter.”

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates visited Pakistan this week and urged it to root out Afghan Taliban based in its north-western border enclaves, from where they have been orchestrating an intensified insurgency in Afghanistan.

UNDER PRESSURE: Pakistan has repeatedly told Washington that it is already fighting a home-grown Taliban and does not have the resources to open up new fronts against Afghan militant groups based in its northwest. Such groups include the Haqqani network which, the US military says, is the biggest threat in Afghanistan.

The United States has intensified drone attacks in Pakistan’s northwest after a deadly attack on US intelligence agents in Afghanistan’s Khost province on Dec 30. Pakistan complains the attacks are an affront to its sovereignty and has asked the United States for drone technology as well as armed drones to do the job itself.

“We do need drones — unmanned vehicles — which are capable also of firing missiles,” the FO spokesman said. “Pakistan is capable of handling these drone attacks militarily, but we would not like to unnecessarily ratchet up problems with the US,” he added. During his visit, Mr Gates offered a dozen unarmed surveillance drones.

Mr Basit said his government was considering the offer, but reiterated that Pakistan wanted armed drones.

Mr Gates also urged Pakistani to expand military operations to North Waziristan, but was told it could take six months to a year before this happened, Mr Basit said. “If we expand our operations then that will require us to pull out from the eastern border which under the circumstances is not possible,” he said, referring to the border with India.

“That is a serious issue for us and we hope that at the end of the day our friends, the Americans, will be cognisant of our security perceptions.”

Mr Basit complained the United States was behind on delivering funds promised to pay for anti-militant efforts.

The United States says Pakistan has denied visas for auditors and other US officials needed to ensure the money is spent properly.

Mr Gates annoyed Pakistan when he said on Wednesday in New Delhi that India might lose its patience with Pakistan after any repeat of a Mumbai-style attack and militants in the region might use this to provoke the two rivals to war.

“Such a statement was very unhelpful and un-diplomatic …These can be exploited by India,” Mr Basit said.—Reuters

WASHINGTON: There’s nothing secret or subtle about it. Uncle Sam is seeking spies, informers, linguists, and analysts from immigrant communities in the US to diversify its intelligence work force and tackle national security challenges.

Undeterred by the Headley-Gilani episode, Washington is sounding out Pakistani-Americans in the first round of recruitment, ostensibly because its intelligence agencies see Pakistan as the epicenter of international terrorism and a clear and present danger to the world community.

In an extraordinarily open and transparent recruitment drive, Dennis Blair, who as director of National Intelligence is the country’s top intelligence czar, held a round-table discussion last week with the Pakistani-American community in Washington to seek their cooperation and offer jobs in US agencies.

What was remarkable about the outreach meeting was the presence there of Pakistani ambassador to the US, Hussain Haqqani, amid strong resentment in Pakistan about the activities of the US intelligence agencies there and the uneasy relationship between the CIA and the ISI in the Af-Pak theatre.

This is the latest in the long list of Anti-state activities Hussain Haqqani has been found guilty in. His role adding the controversial clauses in the Kerry-Lugar bill has already put him on the warpath with Pakistan’s armed forces and Intelligence Agencies – which have been on Hussain Haqqani’s case for some time and are working towards his removal for his role in facilitating anti-state actors, alongwith that of Interior Minister Rehman Malik.

Dawn

The US embassy on Saturday tried to paper over Defence Secretary Robert Gates’s diplomatic faux pas of confirming Blackwater presence in Pakistan by putting the blame on the media, but it found few takers. Secretary Gates’s impromptu comments in a television interview have renewed the focus on seething rage among Pakistanis about the involvement of private US security companies, particularly Blackwater, in the country.

The embassy, in a statement on Secretary Gates’s remarks, accused the television station and newspapers of inaccurate and dishonest reporting. “The television station and many newspapers chose to inaccurately portray his answer as tacit confirmation on the use of Blackwater in Pakistan instead of as a commentary on use of security contractors in general. At no time did Secretary Gates say that Blackwater is operating in Pakistan,” the statement said.

Perhaps the secretary’s reply to a query in an interview with a private channel, when read along with the question, may bring the slip out. According to the transcript posted on the website of US Department of Defence, Secretary Gates had said: “Well, they’re operating as individual companies here in Pakistan, in Afghanistan and in Iraq because there are theatres of war involving the United States.”

He had been asked: “And I want to talk, of course, about another issue that has come up again and again about the private security companies that have been operating in Iraq, in Afghanistan and now in Pakistan.

“Xe International, formerly known as Blackwater and Dyncorp. Under what rules are they operating here in Pakistan?”

Officials accompanying the secretary immediately after the show made him realise the mistake of publicly acknowledging the presence of private US security firms in Pakistan, something which had earlier been denied by both the Pakistan government and the US embassy.

Damage control exercise was planned and Secretary Gates, in an interaction with print journalists the following day, attempted clarification of his statement: “Department of Defence (DoD) does not use Blackwater in Pakistan. We have no connection with Blackwater in Pakistan.”

Observers believe there is technically little difference between the two statements. He did not deny outright Blackwater presence. He just confined himself to saying his department did not employ them in Pakistan.

Whether the remarks were unintentional or Mr Gates was trying to be too candid, diplomatic observers believe the comments are set to widen the trust deficit between the US and Pakistan, which the secretary himself conceded was making it difficult to work together in confronting extremism. The controversial remarks have also put the government in an awkward and embarrassing position. Opposition parties are now having the last laugh, seeking explanations from the government.

Several attempts were made to seek the government’s reaction from the Foreign Office and key federal ministers, but everyone was tight-lipped. The slip has taken the government not only by surprise, but has also come at a most inappropriate time when it was struggling to cope with the aftermath of the Supreme Court verdict on the National Reconciliation Ordinance.

Although reports in Pakistani media since early last year had been expressing concern about the presence of Blackwater and other US contractors, but publication of reports in British and American media about the mercenary firm’s activities in Pakistan turned the spotlight on the issue.

In November, Jeremy Scahill reported for US magazine The Nation that Blackwater was operating out of a covert base in Karachi, where it “plan(s) targeted assassinations of suspected Taliban and Al Qaeda operatives, ‘snatch and grabs’ of high-value targets and other sensitive action inside and outside Pakistan”.

Scahill had alleged that Blackwater, which had a subcontract with a private Pakistani security company, worked for US Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC).

Subsequently in December, the Guardian carried a report about Blackwater presence at an air force base in Balochistan, which was being used by US. It is interesting to note that though Mr Gates had denied that Department of Defence was not Blackwater’s employer in Pakistan, but he had stayed short of saying if State Department or any other US government agency was using them here.

An answer to this riddle can probably be found in Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s comments at a Town Hall meeting in Islamabad during her visit in October.

The secretary, in reply to a similar question, had said: “I understand the sensitivity of the issue, but I want to be clear why we have any contractors, well because we get dozens and dozens of threats every month directed towards our diplomats and public officials, who are here for diplomatic activity. Our diplomats don’t carry arms, but on the other hand if they have to get out they need security.”

Notwithstanding the US embassy’s rejoinder on the issue, people are largely convinced that Mr Gates has inadvertently spilled the beans. But for them the most important question now is whether Blackwater has been operating on its own, under the camouflage of some local security company, or in league with some elements within the country’s security apparatus or even the government.

The US would like Pakistan to expand an offensive against militants launching cross-border attacks in Afghanistan. Defence Secretary Robert Gates arrived in Pakistan on Thursday for his first visit since US President Barack Obama took office last year.

The one-day trip comes at a crucial time in the fight against al-Qaeda and the Taliban, with the US planning to commit 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan. Mr Gates was expected to tell Pakistan that it could do more against top Taliban leaders operating in its territory, some of whom are alleged to have close links to Pakistan’s ISI intelligence service.

The Pakistani army launched major ground offensives in 2009 in the north-west against Pakistani Taliban strongholds in the Swat region, last April, and in South Waziristan, last October. The militants have hit back with a wave of suicide bombings and attacks that have killed hundreds of people across Pakistan. In the capital, Islamabad, on Thursday, Maj Gen Abbas, head of public relations for the Pakistan army, told the BBC: “We are not going to conduct any major new operations against the militants over the next 12 months.

“The Pakistan army is overstretched and it is not in a position to open any new fronts. Obviously, we will continue our present operations in Waziristan and Swat.”

‘Trust deficit’

The BBC’s Syed Shoaib Hasan in Islamabad says the comments are a clear brush-off to top US officials. Our correspondent adds they are embarrassing for Pakistan’s shaky coalition government, and likely to further destabilise already-low ties with its US ally.

He says it also threatens to render ineffective an expanded coalition troop deployment in Afghanistan, as the Taliban over the border would be relieved of any pressure from the Pakistan army. Before arriving in Islamabad, Mr Gates told reporters travelling with him from India: “You can’t ignore one part of this cancer and pretend that it won’t have some impact closer to home.”

His visit comes amidst a slight cooling in relations between the two allies. In an article published in a Pakistani newspaper on Thursday, Mr Gates referred to a “trust deficit”.

As well as talking with his counterpart, Ahmed Mukhtar, the US defence secretary is expected to meet Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and President Asif Zardari. Talks were also expected to focus on US drone strikes against militants near the Afghan border. Hundreds of people have died in the attacks, which have stoked deep resentment of the US among many Pakistanis. But he adds that Mr Gates will argue that drone strikes are the only effective measure against the Taliban. Pakistan has been an important US partner in South Asia since the 11 September 2001 attacks in the US.

The brazen strike in the city was a clear sign that the Indian MI Chief’s sensational trip to Afghanistan was not just a visit to make certain assessments but it had some extraordinary motives to pave the way for an elaborated military role of India in Afghanistan by proving that constantly increasing insurgency and terror in Afghanistan was not possible for the ISAF troops alone and the Indian army was the ultimate solution, reveal the investigations of The Daily Mail 

After a series of blasts and more than three hours of ensuing gunfights outside several ministries and inside a shopping mall, President Hamid Karzai said security had been restored to the capital, though search operations continued amid reports that attackers were hiding in the city. 

Explosions and heavy machine-gun fire rattled the city for hours. Debris was strewn on the streets, which were quickly abandoned by crowds that normally fill the area. Defense ministry spokesman Gen Mohammad Zahir Azimi said a child and a policeman were killed. The ministry of public health later said five people, a civilian and four security forces, were killed and 30 others wounded.

The Daily Mail’s findings indicate that the incident occurred at a time when the US Defence Secretary Robert Gates and US Special Envoy on Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrook were set to hold talks with Indians to discuss an elaborated military role of India in Afghanistan.

These findings further indicate that New Delhi is desirous of taking a comprehensive military role in Afghanistan after the US and the NATO troops are withdrawn from the war ravaged country and thus it wants to be militarily engaged in Afghanistan right now to take the military control gradually. The Indians are planning to get a nod in this regard, during or after the high profile international conference on Afghanistan that is going to be held in London later this month. The findings reveal that at the moment, the Indians have planned to prove their importance for deployment in Afghanistan to the Americans and the NATO members and thus it has launched an aggressive campaign of terror and insurgency operations in Afghanistan through its own agents and operatives. 

The Daily Mail’s findings further indicate that to make an “assessment” in this direction and to give certain fresh direction to the Indian army personnel, present in Afghanistan, the Chief of Military Intelligence of India Lt. General Loomba carried out a stealthy trip to Afghanistan along with some top MI and RAW officials. The findings suggest that the Loomba team, apart from meeting the Afghan, US and NATO officials, also met with some of the covert Indian troops that are posted in Afghanistan in the disguise of trainers of Afghan Nationa Army and also as Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP). The Daily Mail’s findings further indicate that an officer of the Indian Army, with the rank of Major General, who is on a covert assignment in Afghanistan for the past couple of years also held a special meeting with the Loomba & Company. These findings indicate that the said officer runs a covert training network in Afghanistan with the joint efforts of RAW and the Special Operations Division of RAW provides human resource to the said Indian army general from different parts of Afghanistan. 

The Daily Mail’s findings further indicate that Indian’s Military Intelligence has a history of getting engaged in terror activities in the region. The serving officers of Indian Army’s Military Intelligence are on record to have been exposed and even arrested for indulging into high profile terror activities out of professional jealousies, in bid to prove to be at par with RAW. These findings reveal that a senior officer of Indian Military Intelligence, a Colonel named Srikant Purohit was arrested by top Indian Investigators Hemant Karkare for planning and executing a very high profile terror operation in which a Pakistan-bound train, Samjhota Express was set ablaze and over 60 Pakistanis were burnt alive in the inferno. These findings indicate that Karkare’s investigation had proved that some serving officers of the Indian MI were running a terror network with the connivance of certain serving and retired officers of Indian Army and there was a nexus between these military men and the radical Hindu extremist organizations. 

The Daily Mail’s findings indicate that Lt Col Shrikant Purohit, alias 'Mithun Chakraborty', serving in the MI was arrested in connection with the Malegaon blast and 2007 Samjhauta Express blaze (killing 69 Pakistani passengers returning from India) and was also working for General ® Hoon and Colonel ® Chitale, running the militant wings of Hindu extremists outfit Shiv Sena. Colonel ® Jayant Chitale and his associate Sanjeev Atre, were arrested in November 2002 for running a suicide training camp on the outskirts of Mumbai and but were later released at the intervention of RAW. It is no coincidence that Col ® Chitale is now the next door neighbour of Col Purohit, the main accused in Samjhauta Express blaze and Malegaon blasts.

Source: Daily Mail

When the government was absent, Karachi’s patriots and PakNationalists moved and raised Pakistan’s flag across the area, in a message that Pakistan stands firm and proud despite what our enemies, internal and external, are doing to us.

These pictures were sent by Ibne Qassem, from FIF, one of the groups active in the rehabilitation work. We at PakNationalists and PKKH are proud to support the great work of the young men and women at FIF.

There were two distribution points:

1. First camp was at Light House, where we distributed approx 100 packs, and few sewing machines, to some affected tailors.

2. Second camp was at Bolton where approx 450-500 packs were handed out.

See our appeal for material and funds here [list of what is required to assist the laborers.]

Were the seven CIA employees killed in the recent terror attack at Camp Chapman in Afghanistan really CIA? Sources now tell us that some were Blackwater operatives, not CIA at all.
Is the CIA and Blackwater one in the same? Are either one or both working for the United States or has the disease of privatization created a culture of greed and incompetence that has left the United States vulnerable and defenseless? Are we simply “out of our depth” in Afghanistan?

WHO IS PULLING THE STRINGS?

Blackwater/Xe is a multinational corporation with endless divisions who, not only work for the CIA but governments and intelligence agencies around the world. No one has ever successfully penetrated their cover organizations to find who they really are or who they really represent. The Blackwater operations run from Camp Chapman could have been for anyone, Iran, Israel, India or one of their dozens of clients.
We don’t know, the CIA certainly doesn’t know, nobody knows. Was the attack that killed Americans an attack on the CIA, an attack on Blackwater or a carryover from a local drug war? All we do know is that everything we have been told is subterfuge and not necessarily meant to serve the intelligence and security interests of the United States of America.
The secret base in eastern Khost province in Afghanistan is in an area convenient to move personnel and “other things” in and out of Pakistan. The base itself is supposed to be designated for the use of USAID, a division of the State Department meant to aid foreign governments but which has been a front for covert operations for decades, one of the worst kept secrets in the world.
The camp itself is guarded by Afghani tribesmen, not US personnel. No information about their ethnic affiliations, training or qualifications is available. However, the idea of a highly secure CIA compound being guarded under such circumstances is an absurdity beyond human comprehension.
American military and civilian operations inside Afghanistan have proven to be utterly incapable of finding any group within Afghanistan to work with that is free of penetration by Taliban elements. Many lives have been lost already from numerous incidents of Afghani military, police and security personnel turning on American allies.

THE REAL FACE OF TERRORISM

The region of Camp Chapman is a staging area for terrorist operations, not only against Americans in Afghanistan but against Pakistan as well. Some of the terrorist groups are working for India and Israel, some for the Taliban and, frankly, most are working for both.
America and the CIA are totally out of their depth, ill informed, uninformed and being played, not only by our supposed Kabul allies, but by India, Israel and our private contractors who are playing both sides against the middle.

BLACKWATER AND PAKISTAN

Camp Chapman, now identified as a Blackwater command post near the Pakistan border has an unclear mission. Continual reports coming out of Pakistan indicate that Blackwater and/or other US contracting firms have become involved in criminal activities and terrorism.
Top Pakistani military analyst, Brigadier General Asif Haroon Raja has tied Blackwater and other US contractors to the assassination of Pakistani army officers, attacks on government installations and ties to terrorist groups who have killed hundreds of civilians.
Raja has indicated that, rather than being employed as CIA contractors in search of high profile terrorists, these contractors are working with, among others Israel and India coordinating terrorist operations meant to destabilize the government of Pakistan, America’s only military ally in the region.
If US contractors are working inside Pakistan, under cover of the CIA but actually serving the intelligence services of India or Israel, primary enemies of Pakistan, but also countries who are doing nothing to aid the US in Afghanistan, this would represent a serious threat to US security.
It has been reported that US personnel have been arrested carrying explosives and weapons near Pakistani nuclear facilities. Are they working for Israel or are they working for Iran? How would we know?

WHAT DRUGS?

Is there a danger in having unsupervised privateer mercenary operators working in the midst of the world’s largest narcotics production area? What if such a company also owned private airlines that can fly from country to country without any supervision by customs or drug enforcement organizations?
With the press filled with reports of organized crime activities tied to mercenary contractors working for the US in Iraq and Afghanistan, reports of murder, drug running, money laundering and arms smuggling, is there some possibility that tying groups involved in these acts to CIA intelligence gathering capabilities a poor strategy for success?
Why are the papers filled with accusations of every imaginable crime from mowing down civilians with automatic weapons to blowing up mosques and yet no mention of the remote possibility of participation in the regions $50 billion plus per year drug industry?
In fact, is participation in drug production, smuggling and related money laundering the only real secret we seem to be keeping?

THE BUSINESS OF FAILURE

America mourns 7 dead citizens, victims of an attack, maybe terrorism, maybe “business,” now uncertain as to who were loyal Americans and who were private contractors working for the highest bidder. CIA secrecy keeps us from knowing our heroic dead. Criminal absurdity keeps us from knowing the truth.
Decades ago, the CIA got involved with the Mafia in an attempt to assassinate Fidel Castro, someone who has outlived everyone sent to kill him.
We are told that we never hear of the successes, only the failures. However, the failures are of such a devastating and catastrophic nature, the communist takeover of Cuba, the fall of Iran and the Iran/Contra scandal, the Chile coup, bungled buddies: Noriega and bin Laden, the Russian coup against Gorbachev, Vietnam, 9/11, the Ames spy case, the Iraq War, Afghanistan and so many others, that the “secret successes” are unlikely to measure up.
What could possibly be done to take a failed organization and make it worse? We only need to sit and watch, you can be assured that everything possible, humanly and otherwise, will be done as it always has.
Is it possible that decades of claimed incompetence and bungling is simply a cover for serving masters other than the United States of America? Can 70 years of consorting with dictators, swindlers, gangsters, war criminals, drug lords and politicians have blurred the CIA’s vision?

ISLAMABAD: Former Naval chief Admiral Abdul Aziz Mirza gives credence to the recent French investigative report that talked of almost $49 million kickbacks in the Agosta-submarine deal allegedly received by President Asif Ali Zardari and others, including Naval officers, disclosing that the then Benazir government had urged the Pakistan Navy to go for the French subs.

Mirza, while quoting the then Naval chief Admiral Saeed Khan, also revealed that Benazir Bhutto’s defence minister Aftab Shaban Mirani had clearly indicated to the Pakistan Navy’s high command the government’s preference for the induction of the French submarines.

Despite these clear indications by the defence minister, the top naval command again met and deliberated on the subject and decided to recommend two options to the government — the British Upholder and the French Agosta. The government later approved the induction of the Agosta.

Mirza, who led the Pakistan Navy from Oct 1999 to Oct 2002, said the Navy first formally came to know about the kickbacks in the Agosta deal in 1998 following which it proceeded against three officials of the rank of captain and commodore for getting bribe. They were eventually removed from service. “My hunch is that besides the politicians, some top ranking naval officers, even above the rank of commodore, might also have received kickbacks as reflected in the recent French media reports. They, however, (the top Naval officials) remained undetected for want of proof or witnesses,” Mirza said.

He claimed that even the condemned formal Naval chief, Masoorul Haq, was not convicted of the Agosta kickbacks but for the bribes that he had pocketed in other defence deals. According to a recent report in a leading French newspaper, investigations have revealed that Zardari received $4.3 million in kickbacks from the sale of three Agosta 90 submarines for Eu825 million. These reports also suggest that Naval officials might have received kickbacks out of this $49 million.

This deal was struck during Benazir Bhutto’s second tenure in 1994. According to former DG Naval Intelligence Commodore Shahid Ashraf, he had informed in early 1995 the then Naval chief Mansoorul Haq and his vice chief vice admiral AU Khan of the cash pay off to Capt ZU Alvi and Col (retd) Ejaz as bribe for further distribution amongst Naval officers.

Ashraf, who was dismissed from service, claimed in his statement in 1998 that he had informed the Naval chief and the vice chief in early 1995 of the Agosta kickbacks issue but was asked by them to keep quiet. Ashraf insisted that he was innocent and victimised by the Pakistan Navy in 1998 to save the skin of several other allegedly corrupt Naval officers, who had received kickbacks in the Agosta deal.

Admiral Mirza admitted the facts that Ashraf did make the same claim in his statement in 1998 and that retired vice admiral AU Khan too had confirmed the same fact when questioned in 1998 by the fact-finding inquiry.

But Admiral Mirza still insisted the ex-DG Naval Intelligence did receive kickbacks in the Agosta deal as was confirmed by the other two officers, Capt ZU Alvi and Capt Liaqat Ali Malik, who were blamed to have received bribes directly from the French. For the same reason, he said, the ex-DGNI was penalised.

He said that Capt ZU Alvi and Col (retd) Ejaz were the two main witnesses with the former having agreed to become approver on the condition of revealing all the details of kickbacks and corruption. Mirza though conceded that Ashraf was Admiral Mansurul Haq’s right-hand man, he did never carry the reputation of being corrupt before he was convicted to have received Rs 1.5 million from Alvi, who was the direct recipient of the kickbacks.

Mirza, who has also served as the country’s ambassador to Riyadh, said that one Zafar Iqbal, a middle man of the French company, was also interrogated and had admitted to have received $160,000 to be paid to four commodores. He, however, said that both Iqbal and Ejaz never paid this amount to anyone of them. The former Naval chief said that the four commodores were never charge sheeted or confronted by a board of inquiry as a fact-finding inquiry had already found them innocent, which led to their promotion as rear admiral.

Zafar Iqbal claimed during interrogation to have been assigned by the French company to bribe the Naval officials up to the rank of commodore. For top ranking Naval officers and for political bosses, Mirza quoted Zafar Iqbal to have claimed that some other middle men, including Aamir Lodhi, were responsible for the kickbacks and commissions of persons with higher status both in Navy and in the government.

Since these middle men were never caught and probed so it still remains a secret as to who amongst the senior most Naval officers of that time received how much money, he said. But he believed that there were some top men, who must have received the kickbacks but remained free.

Referring to the latest French media reports about the Agosta kickbacks, he said he gives such reports due credence also for the reason that the French, Germans, Italians and other manufacturers of defence equipment do have a recognised provision of allocating about 10 pc of the contract value as kickbacks, entertainment, gifts etc as a matter of policy.

When asked whether the kickbacks and commissions in defence deals in Pakistan could be curbed, he stated that with a little bit of sincere effort the kickbacks in defence procurements could be considerably reduced if not altogether eliminated.

Pasha’s statement came in the backdrop of increased US pressure to launch a parallel operation in North Waziristan.

Briefing the parliamentary committee on national security, the DG said that the drug mafia in Afghanistan is supporting terrorists who are creating unrest within Pakistan. According to reports, the committee members believe that the Pak-Afghan border should be fenced and movement across the border should be strictly monitored. The members also called for the need to enhance security along the Pak-Afghan border.

After the meeting, Senator Raza Rabbani the chairman of the Parliamentary committee on national security briefed the media during which he informed that the committee members condemned the screening of Pakistani citizens at US airports, terming it a ‘violation of international Human Rights Declarations.

Aqil Naeem told Judge Wamiq Javaid that the passports had been issued by the Houston consulate as alleged by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in its reference against former consul general Ghulam Rasool Baloch and others. He said that cases of misappropriation had been mentioned in the report of the audit of the consulate’s financial record. He said the record of all people who had submitted additional fees to obtain passports from the consulate was available. The court put off the hearing till Jan 19.

Pakistan’s consul general in Houston appeared in an accountability court and confirmed that fake passports were issued.—File photo

The foreign affairs ministry had referred to NAB on March 28, 2008, a report received from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation that about 300 passports had been issued by the consulate on fake or incomplete documents. A reference was filed against Ghulam Rasool, Assistant Consul General Mohammad Naeem and travel agent Imran Lalpuri for issuing passports to Indian citizens Aziz Moosa, Salim Ali and Abdul Sadiqas Sultan Abdullah. 

An American passport bearing the name Syed Nazar Ali was found after the 1993 terrorist attacks in Mumbai and investigations revealed that he was actually an Indian national, Aziz Moosa. During investigation it was found that several fake passports had been issued from the consulate. The former consul general’s lawyer S.A. Mehmood Sadozai argued that the prosecution had merely relied on information provided by the FBI and had not investigated the case. Replying to a question by the court, NAB prosecutors said they had examined FBI officials but did not record their statements.  Source: Dawn News

I raise that question because that deadline will be long come and gone and US forces there still won't have any idea what they're doing.Last October,"Mc Chrystal Admits: We Don't Understand the Afghans," I quoted fairly extensively from General Stanley McChrystal's leaked, 66-page report on the war, in which he acknowledged that the United States and its allies, under the umbrella of ISAF (International Security Assistance Force), are blind to Afghanistan's complexities.

In the report, McChrystal wrote:"ISAF has not sufficiently studied Afghanistan's peoples, whose needs, identities, and grievances vary from province to province and from valley to valley." and Afghan social, political, economic, and cultural affairs are complex and poorly understood. ISAF does not sufficiently appreciate the dynamics in local communities, nor how the insurgency, corruption, incompetent officials, power-brokers, and criminality all combine to affect the Afghan population.

Now comes Major General Michael T. Flynn, the deputy chief of staff for intelligence in Afghanistan, who released a paper through the Center for a New American Security that sharply criticizes America's floundering intelligence effort in Afghanistan. (You can read the entire 28-page document here.) In the executive summary, General Flynn writes: "The paper argues that because the United States has focused the overwhelming majority of collection efforts and analytical brainpower on insurgent groups, our intelligence apparatus still finds itself unable to answer fundamental questions about the environment in which we operate and the people we are trying to protect and persuade."

Flynn brags about the recent creation of the "Information Dominance Center, whose Orwellian title suggests a comprehensive effort to figure out the country that we stumbled into nine years ago. The key quote from Flynn's report says otherwise: Ignorant of local economics and landowners, hazy about who the powerbrokers are and how they might be influenced, incurious about the correlations between various development projects and the levels of cooperation among villagers, and disengaged from people in the best position to find answers – whether aid workers or Afghan soldiers – U.S. intelligence officers and analysts can do little but shrug in response to high level decision-makers seeking the knowledge, analysis, and information they need to wage a successful counterinsurgency.

Meanwhile, a scathing piece in the New York Times notes that the US military is pathetically deprived of the kind of people it needs before it has any idea about what to do in Afghanistan. The Times reports that Admiral Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is very concerned about the lack of Afghan experts inside the armed forces:In a memo sent last month to the chiefs of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps, Admiral Mullen expressed concern that the services were not consistently providing the 'best and the brightest leaders' for the program's corps, whose members will work in the field and at headquarters.

In many cases, the volunteers have been the right people for this very critical program' Admiral Mullen said in the one-page memo, dated Dec. 14. However, I am concerned that this is not the case across the board. To fix the problem, the military is stepping up training, recruiting, and language instruction, but on a timetable that suggests a years-long COIN effort, since the graduates of this effort won't even arrive in Afghanistan until mid-2011, exactly when the withdrawal of US forces is supposed to start:"The program was conceived as a way to develop a pool of uniformed experts who would spend several years rotating between assignments in Afghanistan or Pakistan, and desk jobs in Washington or other headquarters working on the same regional issues. At the outset, volunteers receive cultural training and 16 weeks of language instruction in Dari, Pashto or Urdu. In time, they are expected to provide a deep bench for assignments that could significantly alter the course of the war.

"The military expects to fill all of the positions by the summer of 2011. The first 304 positions — including trainers, military planners and advisers to Afghan ministries — will be assigned in Afghanistan and Pakistan by November 2010. Chas Freeman, the former US ambassador to Saudi Arabia has said years ago, after the US blundered into Iraq, "We haven't invaded Iraq, we've invaded the Iraq of our dreams." What President Bush and his fellow bunglers did was to invade a country it knew virtually nothing about. The same can be said of Afghanistan. In both cases, the nations that America dreamed about have turned into nightmares.

Part 2

These entities train the military, sell weapons, run the airports, and wield power over DICON (Defense Industries Corporation). Furthermore, Mutallab’s father is a Mossad partner and Israel’s No. 1 contact in Nigeria. As the former CEO of his country’s most influential bank and the man who ran their national arms industry, Mr. Mutallab also harbors extremely close relationships with the U.S. ambassador and CIA chief in Nigeria.

On Nov. 19, 2009, Mutallab supposedly felt so alarmed about his errant son’s behavior that he met with the CIA’s station chief in Nigeria. Duff describes the father in a Dec. 31 article for Veterans Today as “one of the richest people in the world, head of a major bank, head of the national armaments industry, and close associate of the U.S. ambassador,” as well as being a Mossad asset. Yet we’re to believe that nobody prevented his Yemeni-influenced “terrorist” son from boarding a plane ultimately bound for Detroit?

Another significant detail is being neglected by mainstream media sources. The firm in charge of security at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport is the Israeli-owned International Consultants on Targeted Security (ICTS).They’re also the same outfit responsible for all three airports used by “Muslim hijackers” on 9-11. ICTS also handled security for London’s bus system during their 7-7 “Muslim bombing,” while doing the same at Charles de Gaulle Airport when “shoe bomber” Richard Reid boarded a plane in Paris on Dec. 22, 2001.

When a Michigan passenger, attorney Kurt Haskell, reported that a “well-dressed” Indian man arranged for Umar Mutallab to perform a “walkaround” without a passport in Amsterdam, ICTS was one of only a few entities that could have permitted this security breach to take place. Despite tighter screening processes since 9-11, Northwest Airlines Flight 253 experienced no delays in takeoff. According to the Mathaba News Agency on Jan. 2, “It is evident that clearing the terrorist with higher-ups took a matter of a minute or so—the ‘Indian’ obviously had a high-level pass (CIA, Mossad or high-level security clout).”

Then, during the flight, onlookers noted that another passenger spent a great deal of time filming 23-year-old Mutallab with his camcorder. Even stranger, once the suspect tried to ignite his “crotch bomb,” Mathaba reported, “Throughout the incident, the man continued recording the terrorist, calmly and without interruption.” Next, after the plane landed, another Indian man was led away in handcuffs after bomb-sniffing dogs smelled explosives in his luggage. Now, more than a week later, officials have refused to release Schiphol CCTV airport footage from Amsterdam, the air-bound “video passenger” film, or identify the man arrested in Detroit. This Indian link doesn’t surprise Duff. “Israel and India are very close business partners, especially via their military contracts. Also, the Indian intelligence agency (Research and Analysis Wing) works hand-in-hand with Israel. Essentially, the two governments are one.”

But the Mossad’s reach extends even further, directly into the country where Mutallab purportedly trained. On Oct. 7, 2008, BBC News reported, “Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has said that security forces have arrested a group of alleged Islamist militants linked to Israeli intelligence.” The ties go even deeper, straight to Mutallab’s home country. In a Sept. 5, 2008 article by Tashikalmah Hallah and Francis Okeke entitled “Nigeria: Lawmakers Divided Over Mossad,” Sen. Nuhu Aliyu voiced his support for their pact with Israel. “They (Mossad) are professionals, and they are here to help train our own intelligence agents. I don’t see any way by which their presence in the country poses a threat to our national security.”

One final element of the equation needs to be addressed; specifically, the “terrorist cell” that ostensibly trained Mutallab prior to his Christmas Day terror attempt. 

However, Duff paints an entirely different picture. “There is no al-Qaeda in Yemen. George Bush released a couple of phony operatives from Guantanamo, and after traveling to the Middle East, they hooked up with the Mossad. The only reason Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez released them is because they’re assets.” Of course, the American public is being misled again into believing that this “lone nut” terrorist sneaked through the system (no-fly lists, airport scrutiny etc) due to mere incompetence, similar to what occurred on 9-11.

Yet Israeli intelligence provided security at the Amsterdam Airport, where Mutallab boarded a plane with no passport; the NSA is equipped to electronically eavesdrop anywhere around the world; the Mossad is tied to Yemen, Nigeria and India; while the suspect’s father opened up banking and arms contacts in the Middle East while harboring an extremely close relationship with American and Israeli intelligence. What we’re being fed is another propagandized cover story that is intended to keep ratcheting up Orwellian-style trauma and fear, all the while further spreading our global “terror war” to Yemen and the African continent.

Victor Thorn is a hard-hitting researcher, journalist and the author of many books on 9-11 and the New World Order. These include 9-11 Evil: The Israeli Role in 9-11 and Phantom Flight 93.

Various reports in the American press (including the below excerpt from ‘Politico‘ blog) have come out blaming Pakistan’s premier intelligence agency, the ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence) of ‘unnecessarily harassing’ US Embassy officials in Pakistan – after a number of US diplomatic staff and Embassy employees have recently been caught engaging in illegal and anti-state activities.

Politico reports: As the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad publicly complained yesterday of the systematic harassment of U.S. officials in Pakistan, a longtime American Af-Pak hand says the Pakistani intelligence service the ISI appears to be deeply involved in the campaign.

“Seems the ISI has been putting pictures (with addresses) of houses containing [Embassy] Americans in the Urdu newspapers as a provocation,” the AfPak hand writes. “Several times recently the RSO (Regional Security officer) at the Embassy has had to contact folks in their offices during the day, and tell them that they can’t go home to their house tonight because of the unwanted attention caused by the ISI/Journalist provocations. Station and Emb have complained to ISI – but no acknowledgement (not surprising) and no abatement of the activity (worrisome).”

“The United States Embassy in Pakistan complained publicly Thursday that its staff members were being harassed and detained as they traveled around the country, a rare public protest reflecting the tensions as America expanded its presence here,” the Associated Press reports.

“American officials say they need to expand the embassy staff to help disburse $7.5 billion in aid to Pakistan. But many Pakistanis believe that the United States is bringing in spies to destabilize the country and to take over its nuclear program. American diplomats have faced delays in approvals for visas and visa extensions. Some have been stopped at checkpoints.” 

Pakistan's army chief, General Ashfaq Kiani, made no bones about his reservations on the subject when he responded to US exhortations "to do more" by saying that he had his hands full countering the al-Qaeda-inspired Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and that the Pakistan army was in no position to open another front. But there seemed to be a level of understanding on the common threat posed by the Afghan Taliban when The Washington Post quoted a Pakistani intelligence official as having said, "The Pakistani Taliban are the clear and present danger. They are what matters most. Once we are done with them, we will go after the Haqqani network" – signaling that no hard and fast lines had been drawn on the issue.

Nevertheless, Pakistan could have reason to be ambivalent on fueling animosity with Haqqani's network, as it remains gravely concerned about the expansion of Indian influence in Afghanistanand fears encirclement by India after the US withdrawal begins in 2011. Admiral Michael Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, attempted recently to allay these fears when he agreed to the need of addressing the Kashmir dispute (the main bone of contention between the two neighbors) for stability in the region. But with there being no signs of a breakthrough on this, Pakistan feels it would be an error to close the door on such former "strategic assets" as Haqqani, irrespective of the complications this presents at the moment.

Pakistan may be living in a time warp. From all the evidence available, Haqqani is as committed to expelling US forces fromAfghanistan as any other branch of the Taliban. On this, an expert on al-Qaeda, Syed Saleem Shahzad, Pakistan bureau chief for Asia Times Online, has no doubts. He contends that sooner rather than later, Pakistan will have to re-evaluate Haqqani as a strategic asset in the broader context of the "war on terror". He believes Pakistan could come off second-best as the voice to be heard by the Taliban insurgents, with al-Qaeda looking beyond Pakistan's borders, toward India to its east, the Central Asian republics to Afghanistan's north and, more recently, towards Yemen, to merchandise its message of a global caliphate. 

The US is only too aware of this and has geared itself to act against further al-Qaeda encroachment in the volatile Af-Pak region, with President Barack Obama therefore opting for a 30,000-troop surge in Afghanistan. At the same time, there has been repeated admittance that without Pakistan's unqualified support in the "war on terror", the US and its allies could end up at the losing end of the stick. 

United States Vice President Joseph Biden reaffirmed this when he said in an MSNBC interview recently that "defeating al-Qaeda and stabilizing Pakistan" are America's main strategic interests. At the same time, he identified Pakistan as the flashpoint, as he felt that al-Qaeda was more entrenched there than in Afghanistan, but he said the US would provide more assistance to Pakistan to counter al-Qaeda's growing influence in this country. 

But Pakistan has more than one devil to deal with. The ruling Pakistan People's Party is under pressure, with the Supreme Court ruling against former president Pervez Musharraf's National Reconciliation Ordinance, which sought to provide amnesty to a number of PPP stalwarts for past alleged misdemeanors. Foremost among them is the PPP's co-chairman and incumbent president, Asif Ali Zardari, who appears to have America's confidence. Zardari is not as popular with Pakistan's military establishment, and the burning question now is whether or not the judiciary will go along with the constitutional stipulations that immunize a president holding office against past cases registered against him. 

Zardari suspects it will not. In a public address on December 27, the second anniversary of his wife Benazir Bhutto's assassination, and repeatedly since, the president lamented that there was a conspiracy afoot to derail democracy through the country's courts. The US Central Command chief, General David Petraeus, however, certifies that Pakistan's military would play no role in this. Testifying before the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Petraeus said he had been assured by senior military officials that the Pakistan army under Kiani was not interested in disrupting civilian rule. But a US State Department official, also testifying before said committee, admitted to tension between Pakistan's elected representatives and its military establishment. 

Tension does exist. Pakistan's military commands the activities of the Inter-Services Intelligence, the country's premier intelligence service, and thus feels it is infinitely better equipped to tackle Pakistan's security issues (both internal and external) than the country's elected contingent.

However, the US seems to be more inclined toward blanket democratic management of Pakistan's national affairs. And it has leverage. The US funneled close to US$10 billion in military aid to Pakistan between fiscal 2001 and 2009 and has sanctioned $1.6 billion for fiscal year 2010 under the Coalition Support Fund, along with $700 million under the Counter-insurgency Capability Fund. But even that may not be enough to tackle Pakistan's security issues. 

Zardari is alert to this reality and sounded fully supportive of the Pakistani military's views on the subject. In a letter to Obama revealed to The Washington Post by anonymous sources in December, Zardari spelled out that the bill for military operations in the Swat Valley alone had come to $2.5 billion, to suggest that the allocated sums for the "war on terror" in Pakistan were grossly inadequate. 

The December 28 strike in the heart of Pakistan's densely populated financial capital and, significantly, principal port city, Karachi, substantiated this. The suicide-cum-arson attack left 45 dead and scores injured, with 2,500 shops gutted and a reported 10,000 people jobless. Hardly had Pakistan time to catch its breath when this was followed by the as yet unspoken-for car-bomb attack in faraway Lakki Marwat, close by the restive Waziristan territories, that reportedly killed 96, mostly young people, either playing or watching a volleyball game. 

The South Waziristan-based TTP commander, Asmatullah Shaheen, is reported to have claimed responsibility for the Karachi attack, but doubt remains about the authenticity of this claim, as seldom has Shaheen acted as a spokesman for the Taliban. Moreover, as the Shaheen testimonial was delivered over the telephone to news agencies from an undisclosed location, it remains suspect. 

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, in his media address from Gwadur, Balochistan province, to inaugurate a section of the Makran Costal Highway, referred to the attack as a "foreign agenda" to destabilize Pakistan. Interior Minister Rehman Malik took up the refrain from Karachi with his statement reading the hand of "foreign elements cannot be ruled out". 

Zardari made his apprehensions on the "foreign agenda" known in the three-page letter to Obama when he "repeatedly referred to Pakistan's core interests, unresolved historical conflicts and conventional imbalances", according to The Times of India. He urged Obama to propel Pakistan's "neighbors" (read India) toward diplomatic engagement. He has since repeated the message in Pakistan's press. 

But Shahzad is convinced it is al-Qaeda's game to expand the war into India with more proxy operations along the lines of the Mumbai attacks of 2008, as bringing India and Pakistan eyeball to eyeball again would leave the field wide open for the terrorist organization to spread chaos throughout South Asia. 

With this in view, the challenging question now is why the Indian army chief, General Deepak Kapoor, would want to raise a host of devils by issuing a statement to the effect that India had the capacity to fight a two-front war against both Pakistan and China – and bring it to a satisfactory conclusion in 96 hours.

Zahid U Kramet, a Lahore-based political analyst specializing in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran

How many of you have lived in Karachi in 1990s? All shops and businesses used to get a 'parchi' for donation to MQM. No negotiation. Even couple of months ago there was news item in which Rabita Committee had said the citizens should report those elements which are collecting bhatta in the name of MQM. Assuming for the moment (a ludicrous hypothecal scenario) that these forces were not from MQM but rather Talibans, why didn't they say so? It is because nothing strikes more fear in a Karachiite than to be on the wrong side of MQM.

The bodies that used to be found in gunny bags in Karachi in Korangi, Landhi, New Karachi, etc. Taliban just perfected and humanized the art of killing informants (by doing away with gunny bags and shooting the guy). MQM victims used to have torture marks on their body, nails pulled out, cigarrete burns, drill machine holes. The newspapers of 1990s were replete with the descriptions. 

The strike calls of MQM. Nobody dared to step outside for the fear of being shot. Buses were burnt the night before so that no buses ply on the road. How many businesses were ruined and how many shifted to Punjab?

When MQM boycotted the elections? The wall chalking on the walls used to be "Vote do, maut lo"…this is a democratic party who is threatening death to anyone who is going out to vote. The wall chalking is still evident in certain old areas of Karachi.

In 2005, I saw Edhi trucks taking away sacrificial skin in Karachi surrounded by Police convoy in Karachi. I asked an Edhi worker why do you need police protection within the city. He said, because MQM goonda loot our trucks. 

In late nineties, in Sagheer Centre, Federal B area and Hyderabad, it was reported in all the newspapers that MQM workers hoisted Indian flag on Independence Day. Again this was reported in the news.

Altaf bhai stating in India that Pakistan was mistake of Quaid-e-Azam. Well, thats why the so called Mard Ka Bachcha lives in London.

The Altaf Hussain ka salam to punjab k bhaiyon, video available on youtube, is such a joke on sensibilities of Karachiites. If that is not enough, watch the part where he says that "mein teen tak ginti ginoon ga, aap log khamosh ho jayega" makes for good slapstick comedy.

People have left PML and made their own factions but still alive and free. Similarly with PPP, JUI, JI etc. But once you join MQM, you only leave it by getting killed. MQM(Haqeeqi) members are afraid to venture out in open in Karachi because they will be killed on sight. (does not mean that Haqeeqi are angels nevertheless they are offshoot of MQM)

No other party has killed its own members as ruthlessly as MQM…Azeem Ahmed Tariq and more recently Khalid Bin Waleed.

The list can go on…

This belief is based not on facts but on books and text they are taught at universities in a system which is based on making men and women better manager but not better leaders. I believe that Pakistan needs to spend on education, social sector and etc, but not at the cost of defence as she faces imminent threat from the East and now a looming threat from the West. With the threats that we are surrounded with, we have no choice but to keep our military defence up to date and running. There are great lessons to be learnt from history when many great empires have fallen because they did not pay enough attention to developing military capabilities.

The peaceful Dravidians of the Indus Valley Civilization were forced to leave their land and migrate by the much more powerful the Aryans. The Dravidians were smart people and were one of the first people who made the drainage system, they had trading with the Egyptians, but sheer force prevailed over their capabilities in other areas of development and technology.

The Arabs were able to take down the Mighty Persian Empire and the Roman Empires which were the two super powers of their time and had remained so for centuries. The Persians and the Romans (after the Greeks) fought many wars but were never able to defeat one another. However, the Arabs were able to take on both the Persians and Romans simultaneously. Both Empires despite their immense wealth could not use their riches to defeat the Arabs’ military might.

The Mighty Mongols were able to take over almost all the known world. They didn’t have any wealth but their military might prevailed. Likewise, the great Mughal emperor Babur was able to capture Delhi because he had a better army.

In Present times, countries with strong economies but a weak army are not able to dictate their terms to the world. The GCC countries have enormous wealth but are not able to dictate their terms while Israel relies heavily on her military capabilities to maintain an iron grip over the Palestinian occupied lands and to terrorize the neighbouring Arab states.

Germany and Japan have one of the top 5 economies in world but they lack militarily. For this reason these two countries have been incapable of developing an independent foreign policy and hence are forced to look towards the US as their protector. An example of this is that although both these countries did not support the war in Iraq, they were nonetheless forced to become allies of the U.S in this war. In contrast, the Russians though economically weak, were still able to dictate their terms in world affairs.

Pakistan since its inception has faced difficulty and has had to spend on her defence to counter external threats. If Pakistan didn’t buy F-16s, produce Al-Khalid and other state of the art equipment, it would perhaps be fair to say that we would have been run over by India by now or by the Soviets back in the 80’s. Our Nuclear program helped us win two wars with India, one in 2002 and the other more recently in early 2009. It is the fear of our nukes that all our adversaries (mainly India, Israel and the U.S) are wary of us.

Instead of taunting our armed forces and criticising the amount of money that is spent on making the finest equipment and training available to them, we should feel proud that despite the many difficulties that Pakistan faces today, we are still fully capable of putting fear in the hearts of our enemies and growing stronger everyday. By the grace of Allah, we are the first line of defence for the whole Muslim Ummah and shall remain so in the future as well. Insha’Allah.

1. “Selected” Pakistani participants invited to discuss autonomy for ‘Balochistan and Kashmir.’ 
2. Unfortunately, the Pakistani media is clueless and is portraying this Jan. 10, 2010 seminar in New Delhi as a success for peaceniks in Pakistan and India.
3. No less than a former Pakistani federal minister has come out to endorse this seminar where an Indian-occupied territory has been equalized with Indian-fed terrorism inside a Pakistani province.
4. Interestingly, the only Pakistani so far to accept the invitation is a Pakistani journalist from Quetta who is supports Indian-backed terrorism in the province. And this Pakistani participant happens to be a graduate of an Indian training school.
5. List of Pakistani participants includes most of those names who are regular visitors of the Indian embassy in Islamabad
   

While a leading media group of Pakistan has signed an agreement with an Indian media group to promote peace between Pakistan and India with the title Aman Ki Aasha [the hope for peace-Aman is Urdu/Arabic for peace and Aasha is Hindi for hope], the Indian intelligence agency Research & Analysis Wing (RAW) is staging a seminar at New Delhi’s India International Centre from January 10 to January 12, 2010, reveal the findings of The Daily Mail.

These findings indicate that the seminar, titled ‘India-Pakistan Conference-A Road map towards peace” is being hosted by a RAW-run organization Focus on Global South. Only a handful of organizers and participants know about this conference. There has been no publicity about the event made by the organizers and even a very few people from amongst the Delhi-based local and foreign journalists have been informed and invited to the said seminar. The Investigations indicate further that even the official website of the India International Centre (IIC) does not indicate that the said seminar is amongst the event, listed to place on the said dates at IIC.

The Daily Mail’s investigations reveal that though a reasonable number of participants have been invited from Pakistan to take part in the seminar but one particular segment of the seminar that targets Balochistan province of Pakistan, titled “ Issue of Autonomy: Kashmir and Balochistan” has been introduced on special request from RAW’s analysis wing. 

[Unfortunately, former federal minister and rights activist Mr. Iqbal Haider has written an op-ed today “greatly appreciating this initiative” of India. This is the height of ill judgment. In 2007, another federal minister and rights activist Ansar Burney lobbied to release an Indian terrorist from Pakistani jail. The terrorist returned to India to admit he was sent by the Indian intelligence to kill Pakistanis by planting bombs in public places, which he did in early 1990s and killed more than a dozen Pakistanis. These so-called Pakistani liberals often act as apologists for the Indians-PakNationalists]

The aim is to draw a comparison between the freedom movement in Indian Occupied Kashmir and the RAW-sponsored separatist movements in Balochistan province of Pakistan where RAW is super-actively engaged for years.

For this part of the seminar, The Daily Mail’s findings indicate that no senior journalist or intellectual from Pakistan has been selected to speak but merely one nationalist journalist from Balochistan who runs a separatism nationalists Online newspaper from Balochistan and got his Journalism degrees from Asian College of Journalism, Chennai India and is known for toeing the RAW lines regarding Balochistan has been invited from the Media side. The Pakistani Baloch journalist, Siraj Malik Akbar, has graduated from Asian College of Journalism at Chennai India while Chennai is known as the hub of RAW-run think tanks.

The Daily Mail findings indicate that the overall Pakistanis, invited for the said RAW arranged seminar include:

ü  former Information Minister (PPP) Ms. Sherry Rehman,

ü  former Law Minister (PPP) Iqbal Haider,

ü  Human Rights activists Aasma Jehangir,

ü  Pakistani journalist Malik Siraj Akbar,

ü  Senator Hasil Khan Bazinjo,

ü  some Farooque Tarique of some Pakistan Labour Party,

ü  some economist Akbar Zaidi [This gentleman was among the few Pakistanis who attended a music and cocktails party organized by the Indian envoy in Islamabad when the country was mourning close to 100 dead in terrorist acts on Dec. 8, 2009.]

ü  defence analyst Ayesha Siddiqua, 

ü  and women rights’ activists and theatre artist, Madeeha Gauhar,

All of them are known for having a very soft corner for India and having a very pro-India mindset. However the speakers for the main target and rather the nucleus of the seminar that would be focusing on Balochistan, the “selected” speakers from Pakistan include, Asma Jenagir, Malik Siraj Akbar and Senator Hasil Khan Bizenjo. While all the participants of the overall seminar from the Indian side are very well known for their staunch anti-Pakistan mindsets.

The Daily Mail’s finding indicate that through the particular segment of the seminar that relates to Balochistan, RAW plans to draw parallels between the freedom movement in Indian Occupied Kashmir and the RAW funded separatists’ drives in Balochistan. However, surprisingly the organizers have neither invited anyone from among the officials of Pakistan government or Delhi-based Pak diplomats nor have they opted to invite anyone from amongst the Pakistani Baloch tribes that confront the militant Indian-backed elements.

The Daily Mail’s findings also reveal that the said scheduled seminar is not the first of its kind to promote separatism inside Pakisstan. In the past, many foreign intelligence organizations have been indulging in such exercises. These finding indicate that RAW, in connivance with the British, American and Israeli intelligence agencies, has been organizing many such forums to benefit the separatist movements in Balochistan. According to these findings, different foreign agencies including India’s RAW have remained actively involved in the formation of different militant and separatist outfits like

-         Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA)

-         Balochistan Rights Movement (BRM)

-         Balochistan Republican Army (BRA)

-         American Friends of Balochistan

-         And of course the Balochistan Liberation Army

These foreign agencies have been continuously using such outfits in Balochistan and have been patronizing them. The Daily Mail’s findings indicate that apart from the funding and provision of arms and ammunition to the militants in Balochistan, these foreign intelligence agencies have been organizing media and intellectual support programmers for these organizations.

These findings reveal that in one of such endeavors, on June 27, 2006, when Pakistani security forces were gaining immense success in restoring peace and disarming the militants in Balochistan and hundreds of mercenaries started surrendering to the government authorities, a UK based so-called think tank Foreign Policy Centre (FPC) organized a highly disturbing seminar on Balochistan, titled ‘Balochistan at the crossroads’. Surprisingly, the FPC organized the said seminar with open collaboration of Balochistan Rights Movement (BRM), which is merely an extension of BLA, an outfit that has been banned and declared a terrorist organization, not only by Pakistan government but also by the government of England while the FPC organized the seminar at the committee room number 16 of the House of Commons, which shows support from within the British establishment.

To add to it, and make the credentials of the said seminar even more dubious, the organizers neither invited anyone from among the officials of Pakistan government or UK-based Pak diplomats nor did they bother to invite anyone from amongst the Pakistani Baloch tribes that confront the terrorists and separatists.

However there was a comprehensive representation from the three Militant tribes and leaders and workers of BLA and BRM. It is learnt that that a Board member of FPC, a British politician and a fomer member of British Parliament, Stephen Twigg was the main spirit behind the holding of this seminar.

 

UK & India Seminars

The Daily Mail’s investigations indicate that in the said seminar, chaired by Hugh Barnes of FPC and someone who goes by the name Mehran Baloch, an active member of BLA and a senior activist of Balochistan Rights Movement, Mr. Sanaullah Baloch, whose close association with warlords of Balochistan and militant outfits like BLA are known to everyone, Dr. Naseer Dashti another associate of Bugti and Marri and BLA, Fredric Grare of Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

All of them expressed their views and analysis about situation in Balochistan. All the participants of the said seminar blamed Pakistan government for ‘usurping’ the human rights in Balochistan. They also declared Balochistan to be a separate state and accused Pakistan of illegally occupying it. They one-sidedly accused Pakistan government and people of one Pakistani province, Punjab, of trampling the rights of people of Balochistan and portrayed the terrorists as heroes of the Pakistani Baloch people. Fredric Grare blamed Pakistani media of being in control of the Pakistani military while member of European Parliament from Poland Ryszrd Czarnecki went on to claim that Balochistan was not a part of Pakistan and a “Punjabi Army” was ruling them he also went on to say that Pakistan came into existence through a restrictive voting.

So in other words, the seminar was merely an attempt to malign Pakistan, Pakistan government and Pakistan Army and media as well. All attempts were made to lay the fundaments for the separation of Balochistan from Pakistan and to encourage the separatists and militant activists in Balochistan while the seminar concluded with pledge from the chair to hold more sessions on similar debate in near future. 

A similar conclusion is expected when the Delhi seminar’s episode regarding Balochistan would end as the Chairman of the said segment former Indian Judge Rajendra Sacchar is expected to come up with similar conclusions, as desired by RAW and the government at New Delhi.