JULY 20, 2010
WASHINGTON—U.S. Special Operations Forces have begun venturing out with Pakistani forces on aid projects, deepening the American role in the effort to defeat Islamist militants in Pakistani territory that has been off limits to U.S. ground troops.
By David S. Cloud, Los Angeles Times
June 3, 2010
Reporting from Geneva
The campaign of CIA drone strikes against suspected militants in Pakistan has made the United States “the most prolific user of targeted killings” in the world, said a United Nations official, who urged that responsibility for the program be taken from the spy agency.
Philip Alston, a New York University law professor who serves as the U.N.’s special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings, made the comments Wednesday as he released a report on targeted killings. The report criticizes the U.S. for asserting “an ever-expanding entitlement for itself to target individuals across the globe” in its fight against Al Qaeda and other militant groups. Read more »
By Greg Miller
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, May 29, 2010; A01
The U.S. military is reviewing options for a unilateral strike in Pakistan in the event that a successful attack on American soil is traced to the country’s tribal areas, according to senior military officials. Read more »
This is so stupid. The alleged actions of a US citizen who probably could not even kill a mouse and has not been provided with a lawyer so far, are being used for what is obviously a weak and stretched case to make Pakistani Talibans look like al Qaeda. Talibans are a primitive, violent, and abominable lot but let’s keep things in perspective. The fact is there is little of al Qaeda left. Osama bin Laden died in January 2002. Responsible and knowledgeable people like Jimmy Carter’s National Security Adviser Brzezinski, ex-deputy secretary of state for South Asia Teresita Scaffer, and a former CIA officer for the Middle East Robert Baer are on record having disputed CIA’s claims that Al Qaeda exists in Afghanistan.
The case of Faisal Shahzad, a US citizen of Pakistani origin, has been prejudiced so much against him through leaks in the media that he would never get a fair trial. Even if everything that has been reported is true, the official US reactions, from the US Secretary of State Clinton’s remarks, that warned Pakistan of very serious consequences, to the latest from the White House, confirm what many already suspect in Pakistan. This incident, true or false-flag, is being used to mount a new psychological, political, and diplomatic offensive against Pakistan to force an already stretched Pakistan Army to attack the Taliban bases in the North Waziristan. Those who dismiss all such analyses as conspiracy theories are sadly ignorant bunch of people with little knowledge of contemporary history and neo-colonialism. The condemnation of extremism, terrorism, and religious bigotry does not and must not translate into acceptance of the CIA’s political view of the world with its own agendas. Because if we believe that, we should also believe that Saddam Hussein sat on stockpiles of the weapons of mass destruction.
The Associated Press Story follows:
Thursday, May 06, 2010
Kamila Hyat
The writer is a freelance columnist and former newspaper editor
The sordid murder of Khalid Khawaja, the former ISI official, squadron leader and a man thought at various times to have negotiated between the US, the Pak Army and militants, exposes the many inter-linkages relating to terrorism. Read more »
VIEW: Get the militant leadership — By Daud Khattak
From the Daily Times, May 04, 2010
In wars, the death of a leader means half the war is won. But, interestingly enough, in the anti-terror war in this region, the leadership is intact despite the use of all air, ground and intelligence resources against them Read more »
| From The News What was the last mission of Khalid Khwaja? |
Apr 19, 2010
(U.S. Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt jets, also known as the Warthog. File photo)
Pakistani army chief of staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani offered a rare apology at the weekend for a deadly air strike in the Khyber region in the northwest in which residents and local officials say at least 63 civilians were killed. Read more »
March 21, 2010
Army must destroy Taliban, jirga declares
* National peace jirga urges govt to reach out to terrorists, but also to crush those unwilling to negotiate
* Dismisses earlier offensives as ‘military dramas’
* Tribal leader says ‘it should be a genuine military operation like the Sri Lankans did against the Tamil Tigers’
By Peter Chamberlin
Online Journal Contributing Writer
| Mar 12, 2010 |
The multitude of theories on the reasons for the arrests of Taliban are divided between cooperation and confrontation theories, it is explained either by mutual interests or by rivalries. In my opinion, it is both.
Researchers and analysts are banging their heads against many walls, searching for meaning in reports of multiple arrests of Taliban by the Pakistani government. Speculation is running rampant, that Pakistan has finally “seen the light,” that it represents a “split” within the Taliban, or that Pakistan has arrested Taliban who have been negotiating with Brits or Americans. In my opinion, the arrests began as a clean-up operation to remove links to the intelligence being revealed in British courts, but it turned into a tit-for-tat series of paybacks between the ISI and the CIA.
March 3, 2010
Once a promising protégé for the United States, Brig. Sultan Amir, who is known as Col. Imam, has taught insurgent tactics.
RAWALPINDI, Pakistan — With his white turban, untrimmed beard and worn army jacket, the man known uniformly here by his nom de guerre, Col. Imam, is a particular Pakistani enigma.
A United States-trained former colonel in Pakistan’s spy agency, he spent 20 years running insurgents in and out of Afghanistan, first to fight the Soviet Army, and later to support the Taliban, as Pakistani allies, in their push to conquer Afghanistan in the 1990s. Read more »
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 »
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