Frontier Corps has taken the control of Shamsi Airbase here on Saturday. According to the sources 51 US troops have vacated the airbase and their luggage has been shifted to Afghanistan and FC took the control of base. The base was previously used by the UAE leaders as they have been allotted hunting areas by the government of Pakistan in the vicinity of the base. Pakistan government has ordered US to vacate the base after the Nato attack on country’s check-posts in Mohmand agency of tribal region which led the killing of 24 soldiers.

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DG Military Operations Maj Gen Ashfaq Nadeem Thursday said Nato airstrike was pre-planned. Briefing the Senate Standing Committee on Defence, the DG MO said that after the attack on Salala checkpost, it was wrongly informed that Volcano check post had been hit. He said that when the Company Commander rushed to the check post he saw that Nato helicopters had returned and kept the firing assault on until the two check posts were completely destroyed. The Senate Standing Committee on Defence meeting was chaired by Javed Ashraf Qazi.

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A new trend of attacks in Afghanistan aims at helping Pentagon and CIA prolong their stay in the country. New culprit to watch: Afghan warlords working with CIA.

SPECIAL REPORT |  Afghan Analysis Unit
PakNationalists.com

The coordinated attacks on Afghan Shias on Tuesday appear to be the handiwork of US-allied Afghan warlords out to create conditions to prolong the stay of US military and intelligence in the country. Under this scenario, pro-US warlords and contractors linked to CIA appear to be key suspects.

The warlords are part of the government and work closely with US military and CIA. This new terror wave serves to push a weak Obama administration to heed military’s desire for a prolonged engagement.

Pakistan can’t be implicated in the attack because Islamabad wants foreign forces to leave and Tuesday’s attacks only serve to provide US military another excuse to stay. So, it is important to understand who benefits from this new trend in attacks, especially targeting Afghan Shias. Afghan resistance groups did not indulge in sectarian attacks since the start of the conflict in 2001. Question is: if they didn’t do it for a decade, why now?

Raising sectarian tensions in the region is part of US military psy-ops to mobilize majority Sunni countries against Shia Iran. Sectarian attacks were unheard of before US military and intelligence teams landed in Iraq in 2003. Some factions of the Taliban did indulge in atrocities against Afghan Shias in late 1990s. But in the ten years since the removal of the Afghan Taliban government, there hasn’t been a single attack targeting Shias. continue

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Believe it or not, but a coup against Zardari government or giving the incumbent rulers a safe exit back to exile safe havens to plot against Pakistan might be just what Washington and others are hoping for.

SPECIAL REPORT | PakNationalists.com

So, is President Asif Ali Zardari escaping from the country? Or is he being quietly eased out of power by the military?

There is a general feeling that both the United States and the client government of President Zardari in Islamabad have reached similar conclusions: that the American idea of using his government to contain Pakistani military from the inside has failed.

If he continues in power, both he and his key aide and former envoy to Washington Mr. Husain Haqqani might face treason charges. Even if that doesn’t happen, the party stands to be discredited for good.

The Pakistani military is also on the ascent for the first time in several years. It is gradually ending US interference in Pakistan and correcting major flaws in its Afghan strategy, including limiting US influence through Pakistani proxies.

Historically, Washington used the same recipe for getting things done in Pakistan: support discredited self-exiled politicians against the military until they’re no longer useful, and then prod the military to take over and use the insecurities of whoever is in charge to extract strategic concessions. When things get rough with the military, Washington reverts back to self-exiled politicians to pressurize the military. This is what happened in 2006 with Benazir Bhutto.

Theoretically, Washington and President Zardari would like nothing more than a military intervention at this point. It would save both, allowing them a second chance, and would put the military on the back foot and possibly even allow the US to call for sanctions on Pakistani military for the first time, an idea that many in US military and CIA are promoting these days through US broadsheets. continue

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AHMED QURAISHI | The News International
PakNationalists.com

Break The Secret Pak-US Deal

It killed a former prime minister and formalized a role for US in Pakistan’s governance. Get rid of the deal but ensure that failed politicians don’t become ‘democratic heroes’ again.

The removal of Mr. Husain Haqqani from his post and the withdrawal of key facilities given earlier to US military and NATO were sorely needed moves to amend a major flaw in Pak-US ties. That flaw includes the secret US-brokered deal that destabilized Pakistan and shaped the current political setup in the country. Question is: Is it time to revoke that deal? And how should it be done?

The secret deal of 2006-07 was a dangerous escalation in foreign meddling in Pakistan. It devised arrangements to shape how a future government in Pakistan looked and behaved. It turned the US into a decisionmaker in Islamabad, interfering in issues as diverse as deciding our national interest, how ISI should be run, whether India is a threat, and how much footprint CIA should have in our country.

Needless to say, the United States invaded and occupied other nations to do some of the things it was able to do here without direct military intervention. Direct ties between our political parties and foreign governments, and secret meetings between our officials and foreigners at neutral locations, like Abu Dhabi, were a byproduct of this flaw. Even our allies, like the Turks and the Chinese, were aghast at what we were doing. Selling ourselves cheap emboldened our foreign detractors. It is no coincidence that this period coincided with the worst campaign of demonization of Pakistan in world media. Interestingly the main culprit in this was the same country that we allowed to meddle in our affairs. continue

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By H.D.S. Greenway – THE BOSTON GLOBE

ONE CAN only watch in horror as relations between the United States and Pakistan continue to deteriorate, for there will be no chaos-free exit from Afghanistan without Pakistan. We have become accustomed to the loud accusations of perfidy leveled at Islamabad — it is playing a double game, Americans say, protecting terrorists who are attacking our troops in Afghanistan. But to make an enemy out of Pakistan is to lose sight of the fact that Pakistan is far more important to US interests than Afghanistan ever was.

Republican contenders for Barack Obama’s job fall over each other suggesting ways to be tough on Pakistan. But it was Jon Huntsman who put his finger on the problem. “I would recognize exactly what the US-Pakistani relationship has become, which is merely a transactional relationship,’’ Huntsman said. American aid should be contingent on Pakistan’s keeping up the fight on terrorism and on keeping American supply lines to Afghanistan open, he said.

And that’s the trouble. For although the Obama administration still talks about a strategic relationship with Pakistan, it has long since become a transactional one. Here’s your money, the United States seems to say, so now do what we say and do it now!

Pakistan, on the other hand, would have liked a true strategic relationship in which the United States would take cognizance of Pakistan’s strategic fears, needs, and national interests. Instead, US officials keep scolding Pakistan for not subordinating its strategic interests to America’s. continue

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The Nation PK

President Asif Ali Zardari, who flew to Dubai suddenly on Tuesday, complaining of heart pains, had been feeling increased pressure over the "Memogate" scandal and he may resign, according to a dispatch posted on Foreign Policy magazine's web site. "The noose was getting tighter — it was only a matter of time," The Cable, Foreign Policy's blog, quoted a former US government official as saying. The official expressed the growing expectation inside the U.S. government that Zardari may be on the way out, the dispatch said.

The former US official told The Cable that when President Barack Obama spoke with Zardari over the weekend regarding NATO's killing of the 24 Pakistani soldiers, Zardari was "incoherent." He said that parts of the U.S. government were informed that Zardari had a "minor heart attack" on Monday night and flew to Dubai via air ambulance on Tuesday. He may have angioplasty on Wednesday and may also resign on account of "ill health." the dispatch said.

"This is the ‘in-house change option' that has been talked about," Shuja Nawaz, director of the South Asia Center at the Atlantic Council, told The Cable. Nawaz said that this plan would see Zardari step aside and be replaced by his own party, preserving the veneer of civilian rule but ultimately acceding to the military's wishes to get rid of Zardari, according to The Cable. "Unfortunately, it means that the military may have had to use its muscle to effect change yet again," Nawaz was quoted as saying. "Now if they stay at arm's length and let the party take care of its business, then things may improve. If not, then this is a silent coup with [Pakistani prime minister Yousaf Raza] Gilani as the front man." continue

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