http://archive.gulfnews.com/articles/09/05/12/10313072.html

By: Peter Chamberlin

We are fighting a war that is like no other.  The illusion is made as real; the real is made as dust.  Nothing is as it seems in this war, even though this is the era of instant news.  This alteration of our very understanding of reality has been necessary for us to pursue a war policy of pure evil, even though we have paraded ourselves before the world as warriors in defense of truth and light.  The human race is begging for an end to the path of destruction that trusted American leaders have steered the world onto., longing to turn onto a permanent path of Light.  It is high time the United States either showed the world the way into the Light, or got out of the way of those who can. Read more »

“Within one to six months we could see the collapse of the Pakistani state.”  

     David Kilcullen, adviser to Gen. David Petraeus, the Centcom commander

April 5, 2009

New York Times Magazine Preview

By JAMES TRAUB

TO ENTER the office where Asif Ali Zardari, the president of Pakistan, conducts his business, you head down a long corridor toward two wax statues of exceptionally tall soldiers, each in a long, white tunic with a glittering column of buttons. On closer inspection, these turn out to be actual humans who have been trained in the arts of immobility. The office they guard, though large, is not especially opulent or stupefying by the standards of such places. President Zardari met me just inside the doorway, then seated himself facing a widescreen TV displaying an image of fish swimming in a deep blue sea. His party spokesman, Farhatullah Babar, and his presidential spokesman, Farahnaz Ispahani, sat facing him, almost as rigid as the soldiers. Zardari is famous for straying off message and saying odd things or jumbling facts and figures. He is also famous for blaming his aides when things go wrong — and things have been going wrong quite a lot lately. Zardari’s aides didn’t want him to talk to me. Now they were tensely waiting for a mishap.

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The following story by the Los Angeles Times gives a new twist to the earlier story released by the US news agency  - the Associated Press (see the post before this one). The AP story said a group called Fedayeen al-Islam claimed responsibility. Now this LA Times story claims Baituallh Mahsud has. According to the LA Times, he has thretened to strike the White House. The timing of the attacks and the Mahsud’s statement is curious and provides a perfect justification for US military strikes (ground and air) anywhere inside Pakistani territories and conincides with the increasingly hostile statements made by the top U.S. military and political officials against Pakistan Army.

LA Times Story 

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March 31, 2009

By BABAR DOGAR of the Associated Press 

LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) — The militant group that claimed responsibility for the assault on a police academy said Tuesday it will carry out more attacks unless Pakistani troops withdraw from tribal areas near the Afghan border and the U.S. stops drone attacks against militants in the country. Read more »

The Bush administration’s false claim that my client was a top al-Qaida official has led to his imprisonment and torture

• 
• • Brent Mickum
  • guardian.co.uk, Monday 30 March 2009 13.00 BST

This article was submitted to the CIA prior to publication. Passages redacted by the CIA are marked […].

Zayn al-Abidin Muhammad Husayn, more commonly known as Abu Zubaydah, is my client. After being extensively tortured by the CIA and imprisoned in various black sites around the world, Zayn may finally be approaching his day in court. I and my co-counsel welcome that day. But what if we are successful and establish that Zayn is not an enemy combatant? Would any country agree to take our client? The Bush administration’s misrepresentations about Zayn make that virtually impossible unless I am allowed to tell his side of the story. This article is the first step in that reclamation process.

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By Abhay Singh

March 30 (Bloomberg) — As Narendra Modi, chief minister of the state of Gujarat, walks into a cavernous tent filled with 20,000 investors and business leaders in western India, he’s greeted like a Bollywood movie star. Conference goers surround the politician to shake hands, snap photos and touch his shoes — a show of reverence in India.

After the January conference gets under way in the city of Ahmedabad, billionaire Anil Ambani, whose empire ranges from telecommunications to financial services, steps to the lectern. He praises Modi, 58, for turning Gujarat into India’s top destination for investors before paying the Hindu nationalist the ultimate compliment: He should be prime minister. Read more »

Pakistan is at war with itself, with blackouts, corruption and terror attacks. Now there are calls for the return of the reviled Musharraf

By Fatima Bhutto

New Statesman

March 12, 2009 

Pakistan has become a very unusual place. In Lahore, the heart of Pakistani cricket, the Sri Lankan cricket team was attacked in broad daylight by masked gunmen carrying guns and rocket launchers, because you never know when a rocket launcher will come in handy during an urban attack. The government had been warned of a potential terror threat but, true to form, ignored it. After killing eight people, mostly policemen, and wounding several others including the foreign cricketers, the gunmen ambled leisurely away. They were caught on CCTV camera calmly mounting their motorcycles and surveying the scene before deciding they had other places to be.

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Tuesday, February 17, 2009 By Khalid Mustafa ISLAMABAD: The plan of the government to go for borrowing of over $12 billion just from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will expose the country to huge debt servicing that will eat up 44 per cent of tax collection leaving meagre resources for defence expenditures and for paying salaries of employees, a senior official at Ministry of Finance told The News.

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Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Chris Cork

Much has been talked but little actually done in the matter of jamming the so-called “Mullah Radio” that has done much to inflame the situation in Swat. The government appears to take the position that this is an immensely complex and expensive task, requires vast resources and the import of foreign equipment – most of which is not necessarily the case. Read more »

The Predator planes that launch missile strikes against militants are based in Pakistan, the senator says. That suggests a much deeper relationship with the U.S. than Islamabad would like to admit.

From the Los Angeles Times

By Greg Miller

February 13, 2009

Reporting from Washington — A senior U.S. lawmaker said Thursday that unmanned CIA Predator aircraft operating in Pakistan are flown from an air base in that country, a revelation likely to embarrass the Pakistani government and complicate its counter-terrorism collaboration with the United States. Read more »

By Walter Pincus and Joby Warrick
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, February 13, 2009

Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair told Congress yesterday that instability in countries around the world caused by the current global economic crisis rather than terrorism is the primary near-term security threat to the United States. Read more »

Why has the security apparatus failed to cut the militants’ supply lines; how come random journalists can talk to Fazlullah but security forces are unable to track him down; and if the state’s helplessness is genuine, how was the administration able to successfully hold general elections in Swat?

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GDP in Developing World Shrinks as Pinch of Recession Proves Acute  

The Wall Street Journal, Feb. 10, 2009 

By JOANNA SLATER and ANTONIO REGALADO   

The global downdraft is hitting the world’s emerging economies with a speed and ferocity few imagined possible just months ago.

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SWAT TALIBAN FM RADIO STATION

Dear Sirs,

             The Minster of Information assures us that the Federal government is serious in restoring the writ of the Pakistan government in Swat.This assurance is meaningless in view of the fact that her Ministry is allowing the Swat Taliban illegal FM Radio station to broadcast messages daily which assists the Taliban in controlling the territory they have captured. Read more »