Joined: 25 Jul 2005 Posts: 18335 Location: St. Pauls, Bristol, England
Posted: Wed Dec 02, 2009 11:20 pm Post subject:
US shifted Hakimullah Mehsud, Taliban leaders to Afghanistan: General Beg
November 16th, 2009 - ICT by ANI
Taliban Lahore, Nov 16 (ANI): Former Pakistan Army Chief General (retired) Mirza Aslam Beg has alleged that the US has shifted the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief Hakimullah Mehsud and the other Taliban leadership to Afghanistan.
General Beg said when the Pakistan Army started the operation in South Waziristan, a helicopter flew from the Bagram Airbase in Afghanistan and shifted Hakimullah Mehsud and other militants to Afghanistan.
He said Hakimullah Mehsud and other militant commanders were present in Afghanistan, and alleged that the US was backing the militants fighting against the Pakistan Army in South Waziristan Agency.
General Beg said that the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) of India wanted to detach the tribal areas from Pakistan but it did not succeed in its designs.
Commmenting on the current wave of terrorism in the country, especially in Peshawar, he said these incidents could be a reaction to the Waziristan operation but possibilities of the US and other foreign actors’ involvement could not be ruled out.
Responding to a question about the operation Rah-e-Nijat, he said the people were talking about the difficulties in the operation and the possibility that the Army could be trapped in the area but due to an effective strategy, the military succeeded in clearing the area of the militants within a month and the remaining task would be completed soon.
The News quoted General Beg as saying that the US efforts could neither succeed in Afghanistan nor could get a safe exit from the Afghan soil until it corrected its attitude with the Pakistan Army.
Posted: Mon Dec 14, 2009 11:22 pm Post subject: Obama Declares War On Pakistan
Obama Declares War On Pakistan
By Webster G. Tarpley
12-13-9
WASHINGTON, DC -- Obama's West Point speech of December 1 represents far more than the obvious brutal escalation in Afghanistan -- it is nothing less than a declaration of all-out war by the United States against Pakistan . This is a brand-new war, a much wider war now targeting Pakistan , a country of 160 million people armed with nuclear weapons. In the process, Afghanistan is scheduled to be broken up. This is no longer the Bush Cheney Afghan war we have known in the past. This is something immensely bigger: the attempt to destroy the Pakistani central government in Islamabad and to sink that country into a chaos of civil war, Balkanization, subdivision and general mayhem. The chosen strategy is to massively export the Afghan civil war into Pakistan and beyond, fracturing Pakistan along ethnic lines. It is an oblique war using fourth-generation or guerrilla warfare techniques to assail a country which the United States and its associates in aggression are far too weak to attack directly. In this war, the Taliban are employed as US proxies. This aggression against Pakistan is Obama's attempt to wage the Great Game against the hub of Central Asia and Eurasia or more generally.
US DETERRED FROM OPEN WAR BY PAKISTAN 'S NUKES
The ongoing civil war in Afghanistan is merely a pretext, a cover story designed to provide the United States with a springboard for a geopolitical destabilization campaign in the entire region which cannot be publicly avowed. In the blunt cynical world of imperialist aggression à la Bush and Cheney, a pretext might have been manufactured to attack Pakistan directly. But Pakistan is far too large and the United States is far too weak and too bankrupt for such an undertaking. In addition, Pakistan is a nuclear power, possessing atomic bombs and medium range missiles needed to deliver them. What we are seeing is a novel case of nuclear deterrence in action. The US cannot send an invasion fleet or set up airbases nearby because Pakistani nuclear weapons might destroy them. To this extent, the efforts of Ali Bhutto and A.Q. Khan to provide Pakistan a deterrent capability have been vindicated. But the US answer is to find ways to attack Pakistan below the nuclear threshold, and even below the conventional threshold. This is where the tactic of exporting the Afghan civil war to Pakistan comes in.
The architect of the new Pakistani civil war is US Special Forces General Stanley McChrystal, who organized the infamous network of US torture chambers in Iraq . McChrystal's specific credential for the Pakistani civil war is his role in unleashing the Iraqi civil war of Sunnis versus Shiites by creating "al Qaeda in Iraq " under the infamous and now departed double agent Zarkawi. If Iraqi society as a whole had lined up against the US invaders, the occupiers would have soon been driven out. The counter-gang known as "Al Qaeda in Iraq " avoided that possibility by killing Shiites, and thus calling forth massive retaliation in the form of a civil war. These tactics are drawn from the work of British General Frank Kitson, who wrote about them in his book Low Intensity Warfare. If the United States possesses a modern analog to Heinrich Himmler of the SS, it is surely General McChrystal, Obama's hand-picked choice. McChrystal's superior, Gen Petraeus, wants to be the new Field Marshal von Hindenburg in other words, he wants to be the next US president.
The vulnerability of Pakistan which the US and its NATO associates are seeking to exploit can best be understood using a map of the prevalent ethnic groups of Afghanistan , Pakistan , Iran , and India . Most maps show only political borders which date back to the time of British imperialism, and therefore fail to reflect the principal ethnic groups of the region. For the purposes of this analysis, we must start by recognizing a number of groups. First is the Pashtun people, located mainly in Afghanistan and Pakistan . Then we have the Baluchis, located primarily in Pakistan and Iran . The Punjabis inhabit Pakistan , as do the Sindhis. The Bhutto family came from Sind .
PASHTUNISTAN
The US and NATO strategy begins with the Pashtuns, the ethnic group from which the so-called Taliban are largely drawn. The Pashtuns represent a substantial portion of the population of Afghanistan , but here they are alienated from the central government under President Karzai in Kabul , even though the US puppet Karzai passes for a Pashtun himself. The issue involves the Afghan National Army, which was created by the United States after the 2001 invasion. The Afghan officer corps are largely Tajiks drawn from the Northern Alliance that allied with the United States against the Pashtun Talibans. The Tajiks speak Dari, sometimes known as eastern Persian. Other Afghan officers come from the Hazara people. The important thing is that the Pashtuns feel shut out.
The US strategy can best be understood as a deliberate effort at persecuting, harassing, antagonizing, strafing, repressing, and murdering the Pashtuns. The additional 40,000 US and NATO forces which Obama demands for Afghanistan will concentrate in Helmand province and other areas where the Pashtuns are in the majority. The net effect will be to increase the rebellion of the fiercely independent Pashtuns against Kabul and the foreign occupation, and at the same time to push many of these newly radicalized mujaheddin fighters across the border into Pakistan , where they can wage war against the central government in Islamabad . US aid will flow directly to war lords and drug lords, increasing the centrifugal tendencies.
On the Pakistani side, the Pashtuns are also alienated from the central government. Islamabad and the army are seen by them as too much the creatures of the Punjabis, with some input from the Sindhis. On the Pakistani side of the Pashtun territory, US operations include wholesale assassinations from unmanned aerial vehicles or drones, murders by CIA and reportedly Blackwater snipers, plus blind terrorist massacres like the recent ones in Peshawar which the Pakistani Taliban are blaming on Blackwater, acting as a subcontractor of the CIA. These actions are intolerable and humiliating for a proud sovereign state. Every time the Pashtuns are clobbered, they blame the Punjabis in Islamabad for the dirty deals with the US that allow this to happen. The most immediate goal of Obama's Afghan-Pakistan escalation is therefore to promote a general secessionist uprising of the entire Pashtun people under Taliban auspices, which would already have the effect of destroying the national unity of both Kabul and Islamabad .
BALUCHISTAN
The other ethnic group which the Obama strategy seeks to goad into insurrection and secession is the Baluchis. The Baluchis have their own grievances against the Iranian central government in Tehran , which they see as being dominated by Persians. An integral part of the new Obama policy is to expand the deadly flights of the CIA Predators and other assassination drones into Baluchistan . One pretext for this is the report, peddled for example by Michael Ware of CNN, that Osama bin Laden and his MI-6 sidekick Zawahiri are both holed up in the Baluchi city of Quetta, where they operate as the kingpins of the so-called "Quetta Shura." Blackwater teams cannot be far behind. In Iranian Baluchistan, the CIA is funding the murderous Jundullah organization, which was recently denounced by Teheran for the murder of a number of top officials of the Iranian Pasdaran Revolutionary guards. The rebellion of Baluchistan would smash the national unity of both Pakistan and Iran , thus helping to destroy two of the leading targets of US policy.
OBAMA'S RUBE GOLDBERG STRATEGY
Even Chris Matthews of MSNBC, normally a devoted acolyte of Obama, pointed out that the US strategy as announced at West Point very much resembles a Rube Goldberg contraption. (In the real world, "al Qaeda" is of course the CIA's own Arab and terrorist legion.) In the world of official US myth, the enemy is supposed to be "Al Qaeda." But, even according to the US government, there are precious few "Al Qaeda" fighters left in Afghanistan . Why then, asked Matthews, concentrate US forces in Afghanistan where "Al Qaeda" is not, rather than in Pakistan where "Al Qaeda" is now alleged to be?
One elected official who has criticized this incongruous mismatch is Democratic Senator Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, who said in a television interview that 'Pakistan, in the border region near Afghanistan, is perhaps the epicenter [of global terrorism], although al Qaida is operating all over the world, in Yemen, in Somalia, in northern Africa, affiliates in Southeast Asia. Why would we build up 100,000 or more troops in parts of Afghanistan included that are not even near the border? You know, this buildup is in Helmand Province . That's not next door to Waziristan . So I'm wondering, what exactly is this strategy, given the fact that we have seen that there is a minimal presence of Al Qaida in Afghanistan, but a significant presence in Pakistan? It just defies common sense that a huge boots on the ground presence in a place where these people are not is the right strategy. It doesn't make any sense to me.' Indeed. 'The Wisconsin Democrat also warned that U.S. policy in Afghanistan could actually push terrorists and extremists into Pakistan and, as a consequence, further destabilize the region: "You know, I asked the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mullen, and Mr. Holbrooke, our envoy over there, a while ago, you know, is there a risk that if we build up troops in Afghanistan, that will push more extremists into Pakistan?" he told ABC. "They couldn't deny it, and this week, Prime Minister Gilani of Pakistan specifically said that his concern about the buildup is that it will drive more extremists into Pakistan, so I think it's just the opposite, that this boots-on-the-ground approach alienates the Afghan population and specifically encourages the Taliban to further coalesce with Al Qaida, which is the complete opposite of our national security interest."'[1] Of course, this is all intentional and motivated by US imperialist raison d'état. .
MALICK: "DID OBAMA DECLARE WAR ON PAKISTAN ?"
Obama's speech did everything possible to blur the distinction between Afghanistan and Pakistan , which are after all two sovereign states and both members of the United Nations in their own right. Ibrahim Sajid Malick, US correspondent for Samaa TV, one of the largest Pakistan television networks, called attention to this ploy: 'Speaking to a hall full of cadets at the US Military Academy of West Point, President Barack Obama almost seemed like he might be declaring war on Pakistan . Every time he mentioned Afghanistan , Pakistan preceded mention. Sitting at the back benches of the hall at one point I almost jumped out of my chair when he said: "the stakes are even higher within a nuclear-armed Pakistan , because we know that al Qaeda and other extremists seek nuclear weapons, and we have every reason to believe that they would use them." I was shocked because a succession of American officials recently confirmed that the Pakistani arsenal is secure.'[2] This article is entitled "Did Obama Declare War On Pakistan?", and we can chalk the question mark up to diplomatic discretion. During congressional hearings involving General McChrystal and US Ambassador Eikenberry, Afghanistan and Pakistan were simply fused into one sinister entity known as "Afpak" or even "Afpakia."
In the summer of 2007, Obama, coached by Zbigniew Brzezinski and other controllers, was the originator of the unilateral US policy of using Predator drones for political assassinations inside Pakistan . This assassination policy is now being massively escalated along with the troop strength: "Two weeks ago in Pakistan, Central Intelligence Agency sharpshooters killed eight people suspected of being militants of the Taliban and Al Qaeda, and wounded two others in a compound that was said to be used for terrorist training. The White House has authorized an expansion of the C.I.A.'s drone program in Pakistan's lawless tribal areas, officials said this week, to parallel the president's decisionto send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan. American officials are talking with Pakistan about the possibility of striking in Baluchistan for the first time - a controversial move since it is outside the tribal areas - because that is where Afghan Taliban leaders are believed to hide."[3] The US is now training more Predator operators than combat pilots.
BLACKWATER ACCUSED IN PESHAWAR MASSACRE OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN
The CIA, the Pentagon, and their various contractors among the private military firms are now on a murder spree across Pakistan , attacking peaceful villages and wedding parties, among other targets. Blackwater, now calling itself Xe Services and Total Intelligence Solutions, is heavily involved: 'At a covert forward operating base run by the US Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) in the Pakistani port city of Karachi, members of an elite division of Blackwater are at the center of a secret program in which they plan targeted assassinations of suspected Taliban and Al Qaeda operatives, "snatch and grabs" of high-value targets and other sensitive action inside and outside Pakistan, an investigation by The Nation has found. The Blackwater operatives also assist in gathering intelligence and help direct a secret US military drone bombing campaign that runs parallel to the well-documented CIA predator strikes, according to a well-placed source within the US military intelligence apparatus.' [4]
As shocking as Scahill's report is, it must nevertheless be viewed as a limited hangout, since there is no mention of the persistent charges that a large part of the deadly bombings in Peshawar and other Pakistani cities are being carried out by Blackwater, as this news item suggests: "ISLAMABAD Oct. 29 (Xinhua) -- Chief of Taliban movement in Pakistan Hakimullah Mehsud has blamed the controversial American private firm Blackwater for the bomb blast in Peshawar which killed 108 people, local news agency NNI reported Thursday."[5] This was blind terrorism designed for maximum slaughter, especially among women and children.
US ALSO AT WAR WITH UZBEKISTAN ?
Scahill's report also suggests that US black ops have reached into Uzbekistan, a post-Soviet country of 25 million which borders Afghanistan to the north: 'In addition to planning drone strikes and operations against suspected Al Qaeda and Taliban forces in Pakistan for both JSOC and the CIA, the Blackwater team in Karachi also helps plan missions for JSOC inside Uzbekistan against the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, according to the military intelligence source. Blackwater does not actually carry out the operations, he said, which are executed on the ground by JSOC forces. "That piqued my curiosity and really worries me because I don't know if you noticed but I was never told we are at war with Uzbekistan ," he said. "So, did I miss something, did Rumsfeld come back into power?"' [6] Such are the ways of hope and change.
The role of US intelligence in fomenting the Baluchistan rebellion for the purpose of breaking Pakistan apart is also confirmed by Professor Chossudovsky: 'Already in 2005, a report by the US National Intelligence Council and the CIA forecast a "Yugoslav-like fate" for Pakistan "in a decade with the country riven by civil war, bloodshed and inter-provincial rivalries, as seen recently in Baluchistan." (Energy Compass, 2 March 2005 ). According to the NIC-CIA, Pakistan is slated to become a "failed state" by 2015, "as it would be affected by civil war, complete Talibanization and struggle for control of its nuclear weapons". (Quoted by former Pakistan High Commissioner to UK , Wajid Shamsul Hasan, Times of India, 13 February 2005 ). Washington favors the creation of a "Greater Baluchistan" which would integrate the Baluch areas of Pakistan with those of Iran and possibly the Southern tip of Afghanistan, thereby leading to a process of political fracturing in both Iran and Pakistan.'[7] The Iranians, for their part, are adamant that the US is committing acts of war on their territory in Baluchistan : " TEHRAN , Oct. 29 (Xinhua) -- Iran 's Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani said that there are some concrete evidences showing U.S. involvement in recent deadly bomb explosions in the country's Sistan-Baluchistan province, the official IRNA news agency reported. . The deadly suicide attack by Sunni rebel group Jundallah (God's soldiers) occurred on Oct. 18 in Iran 's Sistan-Baluchistan province near the border with Pakistan when the local officials were preparing a ceremony in which the local tribal leaders were to meet the military commanders of Iran 's Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).[8]
US GOAL: CUT THE PAKISTAN ENERGY CORRIDOR BETWEEN IRAN , CHINA
Why would the United States be so obsessed with the breakup of Pakistan ? One reason is that Pakistan is traditionally a strategic ally and economic partner of China , a country which the US and British are determined to oppose and contain on the world stage. Specifically, Pakistan could function as an energy corridor linking the oil fields of Iran and possibly even Iraq with the Chinese market by means of a pipeline that would cross the Himalayas above Kashmir . This is the so-called "Pipelinestan" issue. This would give China a guaranteed land-based oil supply not subject to Anglo-American naval superiority, while also cutting out the 12,000 mile tanker route around the southern rim of Asia . As a recent news report points out: ' Beijing has been pressuring Tehran for China 's participation in the pipeline project and Islamabad , while willing to sign a bilateral agreement with Iran , has also welcomed China 's participation. According to an estimate, such a pipeline would result in Pakistan getting $200 million to $500 million annually in transit fees alone. China and Pakistan are already working on a proposal for laying a trans-Himalayan pipeline to carry Middle Eastern crude oil to western China . Pakistan provides China the shortest possible route to import oil from the Gulf countries. The pipeline, which would run from the southern Pakistan port of Gwadar and follow the Karakoram highway, would be partly financed by Beijing . The Chinese are also building a refinery at Gwadar. Imports using the pipeline would allow Beijing to reduce the portion of its oil shipped through the narrow and unsafe Strait of Malacca , which at present carries up to 80% of its oil imports. Islamabad also plans to extend a railway track to China to connect it to Gwadar. The port is also considered the likely terminus of proposed multibillion-dollar gas pipelines reaching from the South Pars fields in Iran or from Qatar , and from the Daulatabad fields in Turkmenistan for export to world markets. Syed Fazl-e-Haider, " Pakistan , Iran sign gas pipeline deal," Asia Times, 27 May 2009 .[9] This is the normal, peaceful economic progress and cooperation which the Anglo-Americans are hell-bent on stopping.
Oil and natural gas pipelines from Iran across Pakistan and into China would carry energy resources into the Middle Kingdom, and would also serve as conveyor belts for Chinese economic influence into the Middle East . This would make Anglo-American dominion increasingly tenuous in a part of the world which London and Washington have traditionally sought to control as part of their overall strategy of world domination.
US domestic propaganda is already portraying Pakistan as the new home base of terrorism. The four pathetic patsies going on trial for an alleged plot to bomb a synagogue in the Riverdale neighborhood of the Bronx in New York City had been carefully sheep-dipped to associate them with the shadowy and suspicious Jaish-e-Mohammad, allegedly a Pakistani terrorist group. The same goes for the five Moslems from Northern Virginia who have just been arrested near Lahore in Pakistan.
INDIA AND IRAN
As far as the neighboring states are concerned, India under the unfortunate Manmohan Singh seems to be accepting the role of continental dagger against Pakistan and China on behalf of the US and the British. This is a recipe for a colossal tragedy. India should rather make permanent peace with Pakistan by vacating the Vale of Kashmir, where 95% of the population is Moslem and would like to join Pakistan. Without a solution to this issue, there will be no peace on the subcontinent.
Regarding Iran, George Friedman, the head of the Stratfor outlet of the US intelligence community recently told Russia Today that the great novelty of the next decade will be an alliance of the United States with Iran directed against Russia. In that scenario, Iran would cut off oil to China altogether. That is the essence of the Brzezinski strategy. It is urgent that the antiwar movement in the United States regroup and begin a new mobilization against the cynical hypocrisy of Obama's war and escalation policy, which suprasses even the war crimes of the Bush-Cheny neocons. In this new phase of the Great Game, the stakes are incalculable.
[1] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/06/feingold-why-surge-where_n_38 1729.html
[2] Ibrahim Sajid Malick, "Did Obama Declare War On Pakistan?," Pakistan for Pakistanis Blog, 2 December 2009. http://ibrahimsajidmalick.com/did-Obama-declare-war-on-pakistan/484/
[3] Scott Shane, "C.I.A. to Expand Use of Drones in Pakistan," New York Times, December 3, 2009. See also David E. Sanger and Eric Schmitt, "Between the Lines, an Expansion in Pakistan," New York Times, 1 December 2009.
[4] Jeremy Scahill, "The Secret US War in Pakistan," The Nation, November 23, 2009
[5] "Taliban in Pakistan blame U.S. Blackwater for deadly blast," Xinhua News Agency, 29 October 2009, http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-10/29/content_12358907.htm
[6] Jeremy Scahill, "The Secret US War in Pakistan," The Nation, November 23, 2009
[7] Michel Chossudovsky, The Destabilization of Pakistan, Global Research, December 30, 2007
[8] "Iran says having evidences of U.S. involvement in suicide bomb attacks," Xinhua, 29 October 2009.
[9] http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/KE27Df03.html
Joined: 25 Jul 2005 Posts: 18335 Location: St. Pauls, Bristol, England
Posted: Sun Feb 28, 2010 9:34 pm Post subject:
my emphasis... it's a pretty simple formula - any media that tells the truth is identified then bought up
as most people here know there clearly IS a conspiracy to destroy Pakistan - to make it a 'failed state'.
It's like the assassination of Benazir Bhutto never happened.
Our increasingly war crime compliant media now includes the Fortean Times
Fortean Times wrote:
On the BBC News website on 24 November, Ahmed Rashid wrote of “dozens of satellite news channels” in Pakistan, the viewers of which “will be bombarded with talk show hosts… trying to convince viewers of global conspiracies against Pakistan led by India and the United States”. In America, dozens of radio and TV commentators are offering conspiracy theories about President Obama and plots by the Democrats to turn America into a Communist society.
In one sense, nothing new is going on here: this is the return of the witch-hunts of the post-WW2 era, when the House Un-American Activities Committee and Senator Joe McCarthy hunted for commie ‘witches’, an activity whose template was the witch-hunts which erupted across Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries......
http://www.forteantimes.com/strangedays/conspiracycorner/2884/the_retu rn_of_the_witchhunt.html
... ... ...The people of the United States have a right to media coverage of events featuring the owner of a company that generates 90% of its revenue from the United States government.
In the speech, Prince proposed that the US government deploy armed private contractors to fight “terrorists” in Nigeria, Yemen, Somalia and Saudi Arabia, specifically to target Iranian influence. He expressed disdain for the Geneva Convention and described Blackwater’s secretive operations at four Forward Operating Bases he controls in Afghanistan. He called those fighting the US in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan “barbarians” who “crawled out of the sewer.” Prince also revealed details of a July 2009 operation he claims Blackwater forces coordinated in Afghanistan to take down a narcotrafficking facility, saying that Blackwater “call[ed] in multiple air strikes,” blowing up the facility. Prince boasted that his forces had carried out the “largest hashish bust in counter-narcotics history.” He characterized the work of some NATO countries’ forces in Afghanistan as ineffectual, suggesting that some coalition nations “should just pack it in and go home.” Prince spoke of Blackwater working in Pakistan, which appears to contradict the official, public Blackwater and US government line that Blackwater is not in Pakistan. ... ... ...
Pity his gung ho 'narcotrafficking blitz' didn't encompass the far deadlier heroin production, now at a record high in Afghanistan! But that would upset his bosses...
Query: Was the military maniac in Avatar modeled on this character? _________________ "We will lead every revolution against us!" - attrib: Theodor Herzl
"Timely Demise to All Oppressors - at their Convenience!" - 'Interesting Times', Terry Pratchett
Joined: 25 Jul 2005 Posts: 18335 Location: St. Pauls, Bristol, England
Posted: Tue Jun 29, 2010 12:04 am Post subject:
US drone strike kills six 'militants' in Pakistan
By Hasbanullah Khan (AFP)
MIRANSHAH, Pakistan — A US drone attack killed six militants Sunday in Pakistan's North Waziristan district, a stronghold of Taliban and Al-Qaeda cohorts on the Afghan border, officials said.
The attack targeted a militant compound in Tabbi Torkhel village about four kilometres (2.5 miles) north of Miranshah, the main town in the lawless tribal district.
"The death toll has gone up to six," a security official said.
A local administration official confirmed the attack and the casualties.
The missiles hit a compound and also destroyed a vehicle belonging to the militants, he said, adding: "The identity of the militants was not immediately known as the bodies were mutilated."
Local officials said there was no immediate report of a "high-value" target among the dead.
The attack was the latest in the surge of drone strikes in North Waziristan, where Pakistani commanders have come under increasing US pressure to carry out a military offensive.
More than 900 people have been killed in nearly 100 drone strikes in Pakistan since August 2008, including a number of senior militants. However the attacks fuel anti-American sentiment in the conservative Muslim country.
A similar drone strike killed two militants and wounded two others on Saturday, security officials said.
The US military does not, as a rule, confirm drone attacks, but its armed forces and the Central Intelligence Agency operating in Afghanistan are the only forces that deploy pilotless drones in the region.
Militants based in the rugged terrain attack US-led forces across the border in Afghanistan, where the Afghan Taliban are waging a nearly nine-year insurgency to evict the estimated 140,000 foreign troops.
On June 1, Al-Qaeda said its number three leader and Osama bin Laden's one-time treasurer Mustafa Abu al-Yazid had been killed in what security officials said was an apparent drone strike in North Waziristan.
Washington has branded the tribal belt a global headquarters of Al-Qaeda and officials say it is home to Islamist extremists.
Waziristan came under renewed scrutiny when Faisal Shahzad, the Pakistani-American charged over an attempted bombing in New York on May 1, allegedly told US interrogators he had been there for bomb training.
Pakistani commanders have not ruled out an offensive in North Waziristan, but argue that gains elsewhere need to be consolidated to prevent their troops being stretched too thin.
Peshawar—Without caring a fig about the sanctity of Muslim’s holy month of Ramazan, the American spying planes again struck in North Waziristan agency Saturday night killing at least 12 people and wounding a couple others seriously. Some officials claimed a known Taliban Commander Amir Moawia is among the dead.
Reports reaching here from Miran Shah the headquarters of North Waziristan agency said the notorious US drone or the pilotless planes, which have been on the killing spree in Pakistani northern belt for the last couple of years, targeted a compound in Essori village of Tehsil Mir Ali some 25 kilometers east of Miran Shah with hell fire missiles razing the compound to ground.
“The American planes fired at least two missiles at a house around 9.30 PM when people were offering prayers playing hell in the vicinity as the people busy in Traveeh prayers in the area were harassed and gone panicky by the attack”. Residents said adding as many as 12 people were reported killed and at least two more received serious injuries. The locals, as the reports said, rushed to the site of the missile attack amid fear and retrieved the dead bodies from the rubble.
The intelligence officials confirming the incident said they have the reports that a dozen people were killed in the attack and the death toll may rise adding the Taliban commander Amir Moawia was also killed in the Saturday’s fresh attack.
The predator planes went for the adventurism in the holy month of Ramazan when the faithfuls are fasting though this time they struck in Waziristan after a relative pause.
In the last strike the US drones killed up to 20 people in a missile hit in South Waziristan agency on July 24 while they struck in North Waziristan agency, which has been frequently attacked by the US drone in the year 2010, last time on July 15 killing seven people and injuring many others.
Joined: 25 Jul 2005 Posts: 18335 Location: St. Pauls, Bristol, England
Posted: Mon Sep 20, 2010 1:32 pm Post subject:
Aki Nawaz “They can deliver bombs but they cannot deliver aid”.
I just recieved this from from Aki in Pakistan
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=629230447#!/profile.php?id=6292 30447
As we traveled towards Noshera again, I reflected what I had seen on the previous visit to villages around Ahmanabad a few days before, was about the worst the floods could get really, wh...at else could water destroy?
The villages had been totally flattened and as we gave money out “cash in hand” once again the same predictable anger, “NO GOVT HELP, NO MONEY. NOTHING”.
We had driven to some camps and it was really complete sadness to see people reduced to this kind of life. We talk about poverty but seeing poverty, is the real test. The POOR always pay a heavy price, they never had anything in the first place, but they pay with their souls when these disasters come.
“I REALLY HATE MONEY,” I think as I walk through the camp and see elders dressed in an “undignified manner” in an air of stench. These noble human beings born into this world with exactly the same ingredients, which brought me into this world, have lived a life of improvised opportunities, many of them wasted into a life and cycle of “begging politics”.
Shameless words and sound-bite expectations from the political elites have always somehow kept these people praying for the day that their hardened lives will take “the promised turn” as they wait for the false promises, politicians get fat and fatter.
These people are the cause of this very profitable business of charity, a successful disaster economy and here in Pakistan it is the exposed, the poor are the perfect visuals to earn money from and they THEMSELVES receive hardly anything.
I love Pakistan but I hate this aspect with such venom I would think that a suicide mission would be absolutely justified against the people and institutes that benefit, maybe I get too emotional and that is supposedly a unprofessional weakness or is it really?
I have to hold my soul steady as I see old women, frail, worn out, the lines on her thin features smile slyly, she wants that paper in my hand- I feel like a piece of * –why should she even have to attempt to ask me? - We/I have no right to even expect her to live another night in this urine stinking camp on the roadside.
“Here mother” I say to her, how dare I call her “mother” AND then leave her to the open elements of a cold night underneath a dirty 8 by 8 cloth?
The children run around barefooted, beautiful technicolour of eyes and natural kaleidoscope of coloured hair, they smile and laugh as they collect cow dung and other tasteless stuff on their feet, parasites find nice homes in their skin, lucky parasites. Yes parasites is probably the correct word for those that sit on that money donated by millions as a sign of goodwill whilst mum and the old man worry that God may just send them to the other side for been poor.
“Lets Make Poverty History”, they f****** said a few years ago, I just heard that another Hellfire Missiles had killed a bunch of people, another 80,000 dollars per missile –
“They can deliver bombs but they cannot deliver aid”.
The one exposing aspect of this natural disaster very rarely, in fact never talked about is the obscene racism against these Pathaan/Pushtaan people from many quarters- someone said to me “they are like leeches when you show them the money” they obviously forget many instances of looting etc in parts of the civilized parts of the world when disasters occur and they do not consider for a moment that they too would do the same if they were in this predicament.
We do what we are here to do, give money in hand and see some smiles and pat ourselves on the back and drive to the next town with the same stories been repeated, not been depressed but angry because I ask them do they know the GOVT has “their” money and is sitting on it- they all know – do they know its “their” money not the GOVTs –yes they know-
“We are living worse than animals because we are waiting for that money, if we begin to re-build then when they come to look at the buildings they will say that they cannot see any damage so the money is not warranted, they will pocket the money, so we live in this misery”
But the NGOs and Govt are using the “blockbuster disaster” to collect money but none of the actors are getting paid!!!
I pray that this country can pick up the courage to run down that hill with a Molotov cocktail aimed at Zardari and those Parasites.
Wasim and his mother are absolutely impeccable, they have created these avenues for me to see the disaster in its true light and alongside the small contingent of volunteers who have relentlessly helped people even to the embarrassment of the UN i.e. they helped them too –the Khidmet guys are there in the thick mud, alongside the elderly, the women, the widows, the children, the young and the middle aged – they are all human and they are not holding guns to peoples heads and chopping off hands, they are in real time helping people- BLESS THEM WHILST THEY CONTINUE THEIR WORK WITH DIGNITY.
BACK TO THE PRESENT
I arrive in a place called Pir SABAQ – a town not a village and I am just speechless, honestly this place is the worst it could get, there is nothing to see but destruction, it was as if there was barbaric conflict here- no NGOs visual, No Govt Visual- it is horrendous. This town was completely submerged in water, a small hill saved the people or there could have been a natural genocide here. I stand about 60 foot high from the river; the house behind me is completely destroyed,
“The water came around the town and back down here and took everything with it”.
Some say the houses were poorly constructed but when I point to the local school and the elegant villas, a silence falls. We sometimes want to blame the poor for their cheap houses yet the rich got this also; some of the rich are now back WITH THE POOR.
The waterline is invisible on the walls for some of the houses, they must have been saved I thought, but they were actually completely submerged, opening the gates to the entrance shows the evidence as thick mud once again is happily occupying every inch- it conquered as it sits there proud reminding us all that however powerful we think we are, nature has no match.
The usual simple questions are asked, “Who has helped, has anyone been given money etc?” the usual answers – NO NO NO !!!!!.
This PLACE reminds me of the car scrap yards in Bradford but this is humanity and how it looks, is repulsive-thankfully they still have their own pride and are keeping themselves fed and clothed but they cannot rebuild until the officials come and they can get money to begin again.
I do not hold too much hope for those officials arriving.
The local mosque has got things under control and the imam is making good progress at attempting to look after the widows and women who really have suffered. These imams are usually displayed as “macho etc” and not caring about women but once again we see that generalizing is a dangerous occupation.
Small houses are been constructed for the women firstly, cheap but it will be welcome as winter is only a few weeks away.
People really lost everything here as time goes on the breadwinners have nothing to work for, they too need help.
There is too much to see and too much pain to write about, Pakistan’s people have helped these people amazingly but Pakistan’s Govt, as they do in everything have let them down.
As I get back to Rawalpindi, heavy on thoughts, I experience an earthquake, switch the TV on and it says the disaster areas visited that day were also affected but thankfully it was not a full on attack. What is happening to Pakistan?
I go out to clear my head-its 3.30 am and I can hear some people playing cricket and then I hear someone shout “NO BALL!!!!!!!!”
PLEASE HELP THROUGH THE RIGHT CHANNELS
LOVE ALL LATER THERE MAYBE NONE!!
PLEASE FEEL FREE TO USE WHEREVER YOU WISH AND EDIT AS YOU WISH
Joined: 25 Jul 2005 Posts: 18335 Location: St. Pauls, Bristol, England
Posted: Wed Sep 22, 2010 10:05 pm Post subject:
His party is it seems the main party of law and order in Karachi.
Al Jazeera : Karachi Stand Still after receiving news of murder of Dr. Imran Farooq in London, Leader of MQM who is the closest companion of MQM Founder & Leader Altaf Hsusain, Pro Taliban Elements are involved in attacking MQM Leaders as the party is at a very strict stance against Extremism. MQM is the biggest vote earner in the city of Karachi. Dr. Farooq was in hiding since 1992 when an operation was launched against MQM and resurfaced in London in 1999.
Joined: 25 Jul 2005 Posts: 18335 Location: St. Pauls, Bristol, England
Posted: Thu Sep 30, 2010 7:29 pm Post subject:
MQM prepares legal action against UK media campaign
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
http://www.thenews.com.pk/28-09-2010/ethenews/t-926.htm
LONDON: The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) has angrily rubbished reports that its assassinated Convenor Dr Imran Farooq was planning to leave the party to join the new party of former President Musharraf — All Pakistan Muslim League (APML).
After newspapers claimed that the rows within the MQM may have led to the assassination of Dr Imran Farooq or Dr Imran Farooq may have been about to endorse or join new party set up by Gen (R) Pervez Musharraf, a senior leader of the MQM said that the party was preparing legal action media houses on the grounds of “libel and defamation”.
The London-based senior leader said the party was already in talks with its legal team over the damaging speculation while there is a live police investigation into the killing of Dr Imran Farooq.
“There is a limit to what can be tolerated. There should be a clear difference between the objective reporting and the reports based on hearsay and propaganda. We have taken advice from our legal experts over such innuendo which is skewed at damaging the party and its ideology,” said the source.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
MQM holds mammoth rally in Karachi
Altaf demands release of Aafia; unity for graft-free set-up; end to ethnic strife in Karachi |pays tribute to Imran |condemns US drone hits
http://dailymailnews.com/0910/29/FrontPage/index.php?id=9
KARACHI—The MQM on Tuesday organised a mammoth rally in Karachi, marking the end of 10-day mourning for the slain Imran Farooq and demanding the release of Dr Aafia Siddiqui by the United States.
Addressing the rally over the phone, MQM chief condemned the recent hike in drone attacks in Pakistan. Various political and religious party workers attended the rally. On MA Jinnah Road, a peaceful rally was taken out from the mausoleum of Quaid-e-Azam up to Tibet Centre, covering a distance of over four kilometres. Tens of thousands of men, women and children attended the rally against the US court’s judgment, and demanded Aafia’s release.
Altaf Hussain criticised the United States for its “anti-Muslim policies” across the world. It merits mention that only the other day the US ambassador visited the MQM head quarters in Karachi to condole the killing of Imran Farooq in London.
Altaf paid rich tributes to the assassinated leader and prayed for his departed soul. In connection with the ten-day mourning, the party organised the first of its political meetings on MA Jinnah Road. About Aafia’s sentence, the party chief said that Aafia is a brave and courageous daughter of Pakistan. He urged that all ethnic communities, followers of any faith, Muslims or non-Muslims, all should get united in the country and serve the beloved motherland.
He said Islam teaches peace and not killings. He condemned terrorist attacks in the country and said that the people should get united. “The Muslim countries too should learn a lesson from history.” Altaf said that no ethnic community should be alienated in Karachi. “Everyone living in the city should defend one another. Peace and harmony should be the lesson in the days to come for all Pakistanis and they should reconcile their differences in the best national interest,” he added.
The MQM chief said that differences in the name of faith and belief don’t serve any good to the country, rather they are detrimental. He said that the United States, which he referred to as the Super Power, has killed hundreds of innocent people in the name of its own policy.
Pakistan Blocks NATO Supplies After Deadly Air Strike
September 30, 2010, 2:16 PM EDT
Quote:
(Updates with statements by NATO, Pentagon in seventh and eighth paragraphs.)
Sept. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Pakistan blocked the passage of supplies for NATO troops fighting in Afghanistan after an air strike killed three of its soldiers, government officials in its northwestern border region said.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization acknowledged its forces entered Pakistan’s airspace as part of a raid on insurgents and responded to small arms fire, NATO’s International Security Assistance Force said in a statement. NATO and Pakistani officials are investigating the incident.
Supply trucks had been ordered to halt, said Umair Khan, a government official in Pakistan’s Khyber Agency, through which equipment for international troops fighting the Afghan Taliban flows. Half of all war supplies to Afghanistan pass through Pakistan, the U.S. military’s Transportation Command says, at a rate of 580 truckloads per day.
The incident underscores tensions between the U.S. and Pakistani armed forces after the American military escalated the number of missile strikes against Taliban and al-Qaeda militants in northwest Pakistan’s tribal region this month. Today’s incident took place in Pakistan’s Upper Kurram region.
NATO forces called in air support for a raid on insurgents in Paktia province, an eastern Afghan region bordering Pakistan. The NATO aircraft “received what the crews assessed as effective small-arms fire” from within Pakistan.
Pakistani authorities cited an incursion by two helicopters at a border outpost manned by six soldiers.
Still in Effect
“The block at the northern border crossing does appear to still be in effect,” said NATO spokesman First Lieutenant Raymond Geoffroy in an e-mail. “We are working with Pakistan authorities to address their concerns over recent border issues and we hope to resolve the matter soon.”
Pentagon spokesman Colonel David Lapan told reporters today that the closure of the northern route isn’t having an impact on supply of U.S. and NATO troops because the coalition has other land and air avenues into Afghanistan, including a land route in southern Afghanistan that remains open.
“We don’t put all our eggs in one basket,” Lapan said.
In today’s incident, soldiers “retaliated through rifle fire to indicate that the helicopters were crossing into our territory,” Pakistan’s Inter Services Public Relations said in a statement. “Instead of heeding to the warning, helicopters went to fire two missiles, destroying the post.”
Killed, Injured
In addition to the three who were killed, another three soldiers were injured in the attack. Pakistan this week vowed to retaliate if raids by U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan spilled over into its territory.
NATO said that its ISAF forces and Pakistani officials were carrying out a joint investigation. Pakistan will determine its response after the probe, foreign ministry spokesman Abdul Basit told reporters in Islamabad today.
“ISAF conveys our sincere condolences to the Pakistani military and the families of those who were killed or injured,” NATO said in a statement.
Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry on Sept. 27 protested after air strikes on its soil by NATO helicopters reportedly killed more than 50 people. It called the military action a violation of the United Nations mandate for U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan.
Under Attack
An “air weapons team” killed more than 30 insurgents after Afghan security forces came under fire from the Pakistani side of the border, ISAF said on Sept. 28. Helicopters sent to assess the fighting came under attack and retaliated, leaving several more militants dead, it said.
“Initial reports indicate no civilians were injured or killed during the operation. At no time during the engagement did ground forces cross into Pakistan territory,” ISAF said in the statement posted on its website.
Pakistan’s army began an offensive against militants based in its rugged northwestern provinces last October. From the Taliban stronghold of South Waziristan, fighting has now spread to six tribal agencies in the region.
The U.S. wants Pakistan to target groups based in the remaining region, North Waziristan, that have attacked international troops in Afghanistan.
--With assistance from Patrick Donahue in New York, Khurrum Anis in Karachi and Tony Capaccio in Washington. Editors: Mark Williams, Leon Mangasarian.
To contact the reporter on this story: James Rupert in Islamabad, at jrupert3@bloomberg.net
27 NATO fuel tankers torched at Shikarpur day after ISAF air strike on Pak soldiers
2010-10-01 11:50:00
A day after three Pakistani army men were reportedly killed in a cross-border ISAF air strike, over 27 oil tankers carrying fuel for NATO forces in Afghanistan, and another three vehicles were torched in southern Pakistan, resulting in injuries to two men, after some unidentified assailants fired rockets at the convoy.
Confirming the rocket attacks, NATO sources said that the ambush took place near Shikarpur Super Highway, where over 30 fuel tankers belonging to NATO and the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) were parked at a fuel station, The News reported.
According to witnesses, around 2am, unknown miscreants unleashed the rocket assault, which engulfed 27 tankers laden with highly inflammable fuel, and three vehicles parked nearby. Two unknown civilians were also burnt in the onslaught.
DCO Saeed Ahmed informed that about 20 men were behind the attack, adding that the "Shikarpur police have placed a stern cordon around district."
He revealed that the supply tankers, en-route to Afghanistan, were parked at a gas station for fuelling, when the ambush occurred.
"Fire tenders have arrived on the site and rescue efforts have got underway", he said. (ANI)
Quote:
"...China has long provided Pakistan with major military, technical, and
economic assistance, including the transfer of sensitive nuclear
technology and equipment. Some experts predict growing relations between
the United States and rival India will ultimately prompt Pakistan to
push for even closer ties with its longtime strategic security partner,
China..."
China-Pakistan Relations - Council of Foriegn Relations July 6, 2010
_________________ 'Come and see the violence inherent in the system.
Help, help, I'm being repressed!'
“The more you tighten your grip, the more Star Systems will slip through your fingers.”
Bangladesh: U.S. And NATO Forge New Military Partnership In South Asia [ 70331 ] -
Rick Rozoff
Stop NATO - September 29, 2010
The Foreign Ministry of Bangladesh disclosed on September 26 that the United States had requested combat troops for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s military command in Afghanistan.
The effort to recruit Bangladeshi soldiers for the nine-year-old war was made in an overture by U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke to Bangladesh’s Foreign Minister Dipu Moni in New York City, presumably on the sidelines of or following last week’s United Nations General Assembly session.
A statement issued by the government of Bangladesh said that Holbrooke "sought for any kind of help like deploying combat troops, providing economic and development assistance or giving training among the law enforcement agencies." [1]
Should the government of Bangladesh accede to the American request, it would become the 48th official Troop Contributing Nation for NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and the seventh Asia-Pacific nation to provide troops to the North Atlantic military alliance for its war in South Asia, one which has further advanced across Afghanistan’s eastern border into Pakistan with marked ferocity during the past five days. NATO will have gained another major ally in the building of its Asian complement using the Afghan-Pakistani war theater as the grounds for integrating the armed forces of countries on the other side of the world from the North Atlantic for what is expanding into a global U.S.-led military network.
Bangladesh’s combat forces would join military units from Malaysia, Mongolia, Singapore, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand among Asia-Pacific countries, with a report that a 275-troop marine contingent from Tonga is also to arrive in Afghanistan soon. Japan has personnel assigned to NATO’s Provincial Reconstruction Teams in the country and in the past has supplied the U.S. with naval assistance for the war effort.
The inclusion of Bangladesh into the ranks of NATO’s ISAF, however, would constitute a milestone in two key ways. It would be the only country in South Asia with troops in the war zone aside from the two nations in which the expanding conflict is being fought: Afghanistan and Pakistan. And Bangladesh would be the second most populous state contributing to NATO’s military campaign, only surpassed by the U.S., as it has the seventh largest population in the world at 160 million.
The war in Afghanistan has provided the Pentagon and NATO the groundwork for working with the militaries of scores of nations under real world and real time combat conditions. Every European country except Belarus, Cyprus, Malta, Moldova, Russia and Serbia has deployed troops to Afghanistan under NATO command, as have the nations of the South Caucasus: Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. The United Arab Emirates is the first Persian Gulf state to do so.
Though not yet official contributing nations, several other countries have personnel in Afghanistan or on the way, including Bahrain, Colombia, Egypt and Japan. Over a quarter of the world’s nations have supplied military contingents for the North Atlantic bloc’s war in Afghanistan.
In the past year both the U.S. and NATO have intensified activities aimed at integrating Bangladesh into the West’s military nexus, both in preparation for the deployment of its troops to Afghanistan and for solidifying what for the past decade has been referred to as Asian NATO.
This May 12 a roundtable meeting was held in the capital of Bangladesh entitled "The Role of NATO in the New Security Order" with the participation of several "experts, military personnel and former government officials from the region." [2] The title of the event suggests it was conducted in the context of last year’s discussions of the new NATO Strategic Concept held in several European and North American nations. The Indian subcontinent is far-removed from the North Atlantic Alliance’s point of origin, but the new doctrine to be adopted this November at NATO’s summit in Portugal will institutionalize the bloc’s expansion into an international military and – to use its own term – security organization.
The keynote address was delivered by former Norwegian defense minister Anders Christian Sjaastad and the roundtable as a whole "discuss[ed] the present and possible role of NATO in [the] new security order…."
A local newspaper account of the meeting reported that "Speakers at a roundtable here…said the greatest evolution taken place in NATO over the past 20 years was its transition from a static, defensive force to a force ready to take on security missions well beyond its traditional Trans-Atlantic borders."
"Since the last revision of the strategic concept, NATO forces have undertaken missions in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo, counter-piracy missions in the Gulf of Aden, counter-terrorism missions in the Mediterranean Sea, training missions in Iraq, and active military operations in Afghanistan." (NATO’s bombing campaign in and deployment of 60,000 troops to Bosnia in 1994-1995 predated the current Strategic Concept adopted in 1999.)
NATO has in fact expanded into a global military force, the first in history, and in the words of the former Norwegian defense chief, "It was the attacks of September 11 in 2001 and the Afghanistan campaign that turned what had been theoretical analysis into reality." [3]
"The event made NATO 'go global.’" [4]
Whether fully cognizant of it at the time or not, Sjaastad spoke volumes regarding NATO’s 21st century plans in stating that Asia "is where the action is nowadays. Europe, in comparison, is rather dull….All the global conflicts originated from this part of the world." Whether regarding the recent or remote past, his claim that all global conflicts originated from Asia is an absurd contention, but is indicative of NATO’s determination to pacify and subjugate "unruly" parts of the non-Euro-Atlantic world.
The opening remarks were made by retired Major General ANM Muniruzzaman, the founder and president of the Bangladesh Institute of Peace and Security Studies which sponsored the event, who "spoke of the eastward expansion of NATO, saying that the institution has undergone a sea change. The New NATO had a fresh strategic concept and was expanding beyond its original Eurocentric perimeters." That is, Europe has been united under NATO control and now it is time to move on Asia.
Someone identified as retired Major General Roomi was in the audience and commented from the floor:
"NATO instead of doing policing is protecting its own security and posing a threat to others. And why are you in Afghanistan? It is not just because of Al Qaeda and the Taliban. It is also because of the oil in the region. You want to 'tame’ Pakistan, Iran. All this has other motives. NATO only comes with its own interests at heart." [5] The former general evidently remembered which side the U.S. and its NATO allies were on during his country’s 1971 war of independence.
Since late last year the Pentagon has demonstrably increased efforts to pull the armed forces of Bangladesh into its geopolitical orbit.
In early November three U.S. military commanders visited Bangladesh. Theirs were names to conjure with: Lieutenant General Benjamin Mixon, Commanding General of United States Army Pacific and former commander of the Multi-National Division North in Iraq. Vice Admiral John Bird, commander of the U.S. Seventh Fleet, the largest forward-deployed fleet in the world. U.S. Marine Corps Major General Randolph Alles, Director for Strategic Planning and Policy at the U.S. Pacific Command, the largest overseas military command in the world.
The three made "separate trips, but the goal of each of the visits [was] to strengthen bilateral security cooperation between the two countries." They met with the chiefs of the host country’s army and navy as well as senior government officials. Beforehand the U.S. embassy in Dhaka announced that "Their discussions will focus on interoperability, readiness in the region, security-force assistance, and bilateral approaches to maintaining regional stability." [6]
Also in early November the U.S. led the first of four Tiger Shark military exercises held in the nation. The latest, Tiger Shark-4, ended on September 26.
At the close of the first, U.S. Ambassador James F. Moriarty attended a graduation ceremony for 59 navy commandos at the Bangladesh Navy Special Warfare and Diving Salvage Centre at the BNS (Bangladesh Naval Ship) Issa Khan Naval Base in Chittagong. "The commandos received specialised training during the US-Bangladesh 'Tiger Shark’ exercise" that ended on November 13.
According to the American envoy, "The United States Government will continue to assist the Government of Bangladesh in developing this professional, elite force.
"The training demonstrates the United States Government’s commitment to Bangladesh and to regional security by promoting military-to-military relationships throughout Asia and the Pacific." [7]
Tiger Shark-2 was held this May and U.S. army personnel "provided highly sophisticated training to the Bangladesh Army on counter terrorism, marksmanship and urban operations." Ambassador Moriarty "reaffirmed the US government’s support to the Bangladesh government’s efforts to establish a more capable military." [8]
Tiger Shark-3 occurred the next month and this time was multi-service on the Bangladeshi side, with army, navy, air force and coast guard units training with the U.S. to "enhance interoperability between the militaries of the two countries" in exercises that included "combat diving, infiltration and ex-filtration techniques, rappelling, helicopters operations, vessel boarding search and seizure, small boat maintenance and repair, maritime navigation, small unit tactics and small boat handling and tactics." [9]
Tiger Shark-4 was held from September 19-26 with 500 Bangladesh army, air force and navy personnel along with helicopters and ships and 350 U.S. troops and aircraft, helicopters and ships. For the first time the exercises provided comprehensive "joint military exposure between Bangladesh and the USA," and "a Commodore from the Bangladesh side and a Rear Admiral from the US side" led their respective nation’s forces. [10]
As the largest of the four Tiger Shark exercises was underway, 65 American airmen and two C-130 Hercules military transport aircraft arrived in Bangladesh for the three-day Cope South 2010 exercise to practice "aircraft generation and recovery, low-level navigation, tactical airdrop, and air-land missions; and conducting subject-matter expert exchanges in the operations, maintenance and rigging disciplines" [11] for regional disasters. In the words of U.S. 36th Airlift Squadron commander Lieutenant Colonel Tim Rapp, "The techniques our two nations share and the relationships we build will significantly ease planning and execution of any future combined efforts." [12]
Washington’s efforts to recruit Bangladesh into an Asia-Pacific military alliance that includes all but a small handful of nations in the region complements its building a new army and upgrading strategic air bases in Afghanistan. Its penetration of Pakistan’s armed forces. Its further forging of a strategic military alliance with India. [13]
After employing NATO to subjugate Europe, launching U.S. Africa Command to gain military dominance over the 54-nation continent, and occupying and pacifying most of the Middle East, the Pentagon is concentrating on Asia and increasingly on South Asia.
1) Radio Netherlands/Agence France-Presse, September 26, 2010
2) The New Nation, May 11, 2010
3) The New Nation, May 13, 2010
4) Probe News Magazine, May 2010
http://www.probenewsmagazine.com/index.php?index=2&contentId
=6024
5) Ibid
6) All Headline News, November 2, 2009
7) Financial Express, November 13, 2009
Associated Press of Pakistan, May 13, 2010
9) All Headline News, June 20, 2010
10) The New Nation, September 15, 2010
11) 13th Air Force Public Affairs, September 21, 2010
12) American Forces Press Service, September 21, 2010
13) India: U.S. Completes Global Military Structure
Stop NATO, September 10, 2010
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2010/09/10/india-u-s-complet
es-global-military-structure
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Joined: 30 Jul 2006 Posts: 6060 Location: East London
Posted: Fri Oct 01, 2010 8:35 pm Post subject: Pakistan cuts off vital 'Coalition' supply route:
Pakistan has closed off a route where 80% of 'Coalition' supplies go into Afghanistan (it's too much to hope for that this cut-off will be permanent) due to repeated 'Coalition' flights into Pakistan airspace by drones, planes and choppers, attacking innocent Pakistanis believed to be 'terrorists'; in the latest case leading to this border cut-off, 3 Pakistani border guards were killed:
Sat Oct 9, 2010 3:55PM <---- didn't notice this was old
by Kian Mokhtari
Quote:
The trucks and tankers have proved to be sitting ducks for the Taliban who have set dozens of consignments heading for Afghanistan ablaze.
Perhaps for the first time in contemporary US political history, an apology has been swift to arrive from Washington, taking many in political circles by complete surprise. Is the US-led coalition in total disarray without its main supply route or has the US got contingency plans up its sleeve? After all, the US has massive airlift capabilities and can supply entire garrisons by air. Its awesome fleet of heavy lift cargo aircraft can certainly go some way to alleviate the US-led forces logistic requirements, but they are expensive to run and are only useful where military hardware is concerned. Food, fuel and basic supplies cannot be reliably and regularly brought in by air, a bitter reality of warfare tasted by the encircled Nazi divisions bogged down in Stalingrad during WWII.
But more importantly does Islamabad's reaction imply the birth of fresh strategic thinking among the country's elite?
Pakistan's architectural society has reportedly been most alarmed by a report on 9/11 attacks. The compiled report was released a day before the ninth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks. American Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth came up with evidence that strongly suggested the destruction of the World Trade Center towers showed pre-set explosives were used in the demolition of the buildings. The seasoned architects concluded that the “official story is a lie and a fraud."
600 architects zeroed in on the freefall collapse of [World Trade Center] Building 7, the third skyscraper [that was] not hit by an airplane to fall on the afternoon of 9/11. World Trade Center 7 reportedly collapsed about eight hours after the main World Trade Center towers fell. The Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth group called on US Attorney General Eric Holder to request a federal grand jury investigation into this alleged cover-up, which they tagged the “largest crime of the century.”
Pakistan's architectural society is -like in most countries- very close to its political elite. And it may not be an exaggeration to say that a change has been in the air with regards to the perspectives of Islamabad's "great and the good" political circles. A more confrontational approach to the US-led operations has been assumed and witnessed -almost to the minute- from the release of the report by Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth.
So is Pakistan's latest game of hardball with the US an indication of its political elite's rejection of the US stated reasons for waging war dangerously close to its borders? Or is it to do with the realization that the American led war could very easily extend into Pakistan and destabilize the nation to breaking point?
Pakistan's northwest federal agencies are only very loosely controlled by the central government and Islamabad is painfully aware of the fragility of the situation on the ground. Most in Pakistan shudder at the thought of breakaway regions and its consequences for the country's stability and security. And Islamabad appears on the face of it to have reached the conclusion that Pakistan could be headed down that road.
Islamabad has squared up to the US and is demanding answers. The world of Islam's sole nuclear weapon state is flexing its muscle against Washington's excesses in the area and wants an end to the chaos brought about in its domestic affairs and all around its borders ever since the arrival of the US-led coalition under the pretext of the fight against terrorism in 2001.
fixed looks like the crossing is back open again too:
http://edition.presstv.ir/detail/145972.html
Pakistan reopens border to NATO
Sun Oct 10, 2010 10:25AM
Home>Asia-Pacific>Pakistan
Pakistan has reopened its Khyber border crossing to NATO supply convoys days after the US apologized to Islamabad for a recent non-UN-sanctioned cross-border incursion.
http://edition.presstv.ir/detail/146033.html _________________ 'Come and see the violence inherent in the system.
Help, help, I'm being repressed!'
“The more you tighten your grip, the more Star Systems will slip through your fingers.”
Joined: 30 Jul 2006 Posts: 6060 Location: East London
Posted: Thu Oct 14, 2010 9:21 pm Post subject:
Disco_Destroyer wrote:
I also understand Ahmadinijad has attended a rapturous applause in Lebanon today Could be once again getting near Ouch Time
All quiet in Islamabad
The trucks and tankers have proved to be sitting ducks for the Taliban who have set dozens of consignments heading for Afghanistan ablaze.
Quote:
Perhaps for the first time in contemporary US political history, an apology has been swift to arrive from Washington, taking many in political circles by complete surprise. Is the US-led coalition in total disarray without its main supply route or has the US got contingency plans up its sleeve? After all, the US has massive airlift capabilities and can supply entire garrisons by air. Its awesome fleet of heavy lift cargo aircraft can certainly go some way to alleviate the US-led forces logistic requirements, but they are expensive to run and are only useful where military hardware is concerned. Food, fuel and basic supplies cannot be reliably and regularly brought in by air, a bitter reality of warfare tasted by the encircled Nazi divisions bogged down in Stalingrad during WWII.
But more importantly does Islamabad's reaction imply the birth of fresh strategic thinking among the country's elite?
Pakistan's architectural society has reportedly been most alarmed by a report on 9/11 attacks. The compiled report was released a day before the ninth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks. American Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth came up with evidence that strongly suggested the destruction of the World Trade Center towers showed pre-set explosives were used in the demolition of the buildings. The seasoned architects concluded that the “official story is a lie and a fraud."
600 architects zeroed in on the freefall collapse of [World Trade Center] Building 7, the third skyscraper [that was] not hit by an airplane to fall on the afternoon of 9/11. World Trade Center 7 reportedly collapsed about eight hours after the main World Trade Center towers fell. The Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth group called on US Attorney General Eric Holder to request a federal grand jury investigation into this alleged cover-up, which they tagged the “largest crime of the century.”
Pakistan's architectural society is -like in most countries- very close to its political elite. And it may not be an exaggeration to say that a change has been in the air with regards to the perspectives of Islamabad's "great and the good" political circles. A more confrontational approach to the US-led operations has been assumed and witnessed -almost to the minute- from the release of the report by Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth.
So is Pakistan's latest game of hardball with the US an indication of its political elite's rejection of the US stated reasons for waging war dangerously close to its borders? Or is it to do with the realization that the American led war could very easily extend into Pakistan and destabilize the nation to breaking point?
Pakistan's northwest federal agencies are only very loosely controlled by the central government and Islamabad is painfully aware of the fragility of the situation on the ground. Most in Pakistan shudder at the thought of breakaway regions and its consequences for the country's stability and security. And Islamabad appears on the face of it to have reached the conclusion that Pakistan could be headed down that road.
Islamabad has squared up to the US and is demanding answers. The world of Islam's sole nuclear weapon state is flexing its muscle against Washington's excesses in the area and wants an end to the chaos brought about in its domestic affairs and all around its borders ever since the arrival of the US-led coalition under the pretext of the fight against terrorism in 2001.
Great article! But you forgot to add the link.
It would be very interesting to see the US mount a 'Berlin Blockade' supply; 'course, the Ruskies weren't shooting at them then! And I've experienced air fuel tankers (slept (!!!!) under their thunderous take-offs); they are slow, and they are a tinderbox. Blackwater (or whatever they call themselves now) won't be tendering for THAT contract!!!
If a truck convoy is a sitting duck, so is a lumbering air fuel transport.
The brave Afghan Resistance Fighters will be licking their chops in anticipation of the 'Glorious Twelfth' and 'Guy Faukes' rolled into one.
The US won't try air supply of fuel. _________________ 'And he (the devil) said to him: To thee will I give all this power, and the glory of them; for to me they are delivered, and to whom I will, I give them'. Luke IV 5-7.
for information sake Press TV search engine is weak, took ages to re-find it even with the title _________________ 'Come and see the violence inherent in the system.
Help, help, I'm being repressed!'
“The more you tighten your grip, the more Star Systems will slip through your fingers.”
Joined: 30 Jul 2006 Posts: 6060 Location: East London
Posted: Fri Oct 15, 2010 5:00 am Post subject:
Thanks, D_D
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/145949.html _________________ 'And he (the devil) said to him: To thee will I give all this power, and the glory of them; for to me they are delivered, and to whom I will, I give them'. Luke IV 5-7.
China Gives Pakistan New Fighter Jets | FrumForum
www.frumforum.com
The New York Times reports ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — China has agreed to immediately provide 50 JF-17 fighter jets to Pakistan, a major outcome of a visit by
The Pakistan Taliban launched a brazen attack on a Pakistani naval base, killing at least 11 people and destroying two spy planes provided by the United States. Not only did the melee last through the night, the terrorists appeared to call on the power of the Dark Side of the Force to press their assault.
Pakistan’s humiliations compound. About twenty gunmen and suicide bombers successfully infiltrated what’s supposed to be a secure facility in the southern port city of Karachi, right as Pakistan is trying to project an image of martial strength in the wake of Osama bin Laden’s killing and a brief gunfight with NATO forces. Then the interior minister, Rehman Malik, made the bizarre statement that the terrorists resembled… Star Wars characters.
This is the second time in under two years that the Pakistani Taliban have struck deep and destructively into the heart of Pakistan’s military. The first, in October 2009, targeted the military’s General Headquarters in Rawalpindi. Like the Rawalpindi attack, the raid on Karachi’s PNS Mehran base — very, very far from the tribal areas — most likely involved operatives with knowledge of the facility. Not only were they able to infiltrate successfully, they found the hangars housing the P-3 Orion maritime surveillance aircraft, blowing them up like the Death Star.
Let’s pause for the message here. The Orions are supplied by the United States, something of a bribe for Pakistan’s counterterrorism aid. They play absolutely no role against al-Qaida: Orions hunt submarines — Indian submarines. It’s possible that the bin Laden killing prompted the Taliban to target any U.S.-supplied spycraft. But they attacked a navy base, not the Shamsi airfield used for the drone war. The Pakistani Taliban appear to be saying: Continue your alliance with the Americans, and your struggle with the Indians — Islamabad’s major strategic concern — will be a casualty.
It took Pakistani troops 15 hours to secure PNS Mehran. The newspaper Dawn reports that 11 Navy officials and a Ranger are dead, with 16 others wounded. Interior Minister Malik said that security officials recovered the head of a suicide bomber.
That wasn’t all he said. Not only did Malik appear to list far fewer attackers than Dawn reported, he said that they resembled Star Wars characters — although an AP reporter tweets that Malik, like so many, may have spaced and meant Star Trek figures instead. (Klingons?) So much for focusing on what matters.
“What’s sad is now that I’m thinking WHICH Star Wars race would want to attack PNS Merhan and take out those military targets,” tweets writer Khaver Siddiqi. “4-6 Wookiee militants could easily take out an entire airbase,” contends @desmukh. Quo Vadis, Siddiqi wonders. (“Sullustans? Twi’leks? Wookiees? Hutts? Droids? Sand people?…”)
The judgment of al-Jazeera’s Evan Hill is more succinct: “Rehman Malik may have gone insane.”
Or Malik might have been freaked out. (Ask him about the attack yourself: he’s @SenRehmanMalik on Twitter.) PNS Mehran is just 15 miles from Pakistan’s largest air base — a likely repository of nukes. “Are Pakistani nuclear weapons safe, if the country’s military installations are vulnerable to penetration through force, stealth, or the exploitation of inside-information?” the Royal United Services Institute think tank wonders. Outside Mehran, Reuters finds passersby who wonder “how can any Pakistani feel safe” and suspect “India or the CIA could have been behind this.” Anger, fear, aggression: the Dark Side are they.
_________________ 'Come and see the violence inherent in the system.
Help, help, I'm being repressed!'
“The more you tighten your grip, the more Star Systems will slip through your fingers.”
Joined: 30 Jul 2006 Posts: 6060 Location: East London
Posted: Mon May 23, 2011 8:41 pm Post subject:
Sounds very similar to 'Operation Red Rock', where a highly-secret US force (including 'Chip' Tetum) were infiltrated into Cambodia to stage an attack on the main Cambodian air force base, to be blamed on the Viet Cong, to get Cambodia into Vietnam War on US side; the attackers (a dozen or so) each took in a Vietnamese prisoner of war, to be killed and left on the airfield as 'proof' attack was by VC.
The attack suceeded, got Sihanouk 'off the fence' and co-operating with US.
However, attack was deemed so sensitive, that US President (I think Nixon, I haven't seen the video for some time) decreed that none of the Americans involved were to come out alive (watch video for full info!!!).
Maybe the 'head' of 'suicide bomber' found was a similar false flag sacrifice.
Interestingly, Cambodian forces were 'au fait' with the plan, and allowed the Yanks to suceed; the few forces loyal to Sihanouk, the only ones guarding the airbase, were largely massacred.
So it's quite possible pro-US Pakistani forces (who I suspect are the majority of the elite High Command; ordinary troops may well be sickened by their leaders' selling out to the 'Empire') may well have allowed the attack to take place, just as they probably allowed the fake 'killing' of a long-dead OBL.
(I corrected my original post where I stated I suspected the majority of Pakistani forces were pro-US).
Also see Webster Tarpley's news (Tony G sent it round Group, but doesn't seem to have put it on Forum) that China has said it will stand by Pakistan if US attacks is certainly putting cat 'mongst pigeons:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-8jbr3-W6w _________________ 'And he (the devil) said to him: To thee will I give all this power, and the glory of them; for to me they are delivered, and to whom I will, I give them'. Luke IV 5-7.
The Pakistan Taliban launched a brazen attack on a Pakistani naval base, killing at least 11 people and destroying two spy planes provided by the United States. Not only did the melee last through the night, the terrorists appeared to call on the power of the Dark Side of the Force to press their assault.
Sir Zaid Hamid in Crossfire - Attack on PNS Mehran Karachi - 23-05-11
Pakistan is in a state of war. The attack on PNS Mehran was not terrorism. The sooner the Pakistanis accept this fact, the better it would be for them. Defense Analyst and patriotic Pakistani, Sir Zaid Hamid urges the Armed Forces to play their part.
Sir Zaid Hamid on ARY News about attack on PNS Mehran Karachi - 23-05-11
Uploaded by cherie22579 on May 22, 2011
Sir Zaid Hamid urging the Pakistan Armed Forces, Parliament and Judiciary to wake up from their slumber and realize that Pakistan is in a state of War. There are massive Psyops going on against Pakistani Security Forces and ISI and every Pakistani should be prepared for this 4th Generation war imposed on them.
Reporter: Dr Shireen Mazari on base attack analysis (May 23, 2011)
Link _________________ 'Come and see the violence inherent in the system.
Help, help, I'm being repressed!'
“The more you tighten your grip, the more Star Systems will slip through your fingers.”
Pakistan shuts down U.S. 'intelligence fusion' cells
Pakistan also tells the U.S. to cut back its troops in the country, in a move amid deepening mistrust after the U.S. raid to kill Osama bin Laden and a CIA contractor's shooting of two Pakistani men. Joints Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen heads to Pakistan for talks.
Pakistanis in Lahore protest the U.S. raid to kill Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad. The raid deeply embarrassed Pakistan's military and inflamed anti-U.S. sentiment across the country. (Arif Ali / AFP/Getty Images)
By David S. Cloud, Los Angeles Times
May 27, 2011
Reporting from Washington— In a clear sign of Pakistan's deepening mistrust of the United States, Islamabad has told the Obama administration to reduce the number of U.S. troops in the country and has moved to close three military intelligence liaison centers, setting back American efforts to eliminate insurgent sanctuaries in largely lawless areas bordering Afghanistan, U.S. officials said.
The liaison centers, also known as intelligence fusion cells, in Quetta and Peshawar are the main conduits for the United States to share satellite imagery, target data and other intelligence with Pakistani ground forces conducting operations against militants, including Taliban fighters who slip into Afghanistan to attack U.S. and allied forces.
Gates sees no evidence top Pakistani officials knew of Bin Laden's hide-out
U.S. special operations units have relied on the three facilities, two in Peshawar and one in Quetta, to help coordinate operations on both sides of the border, senior U.S. officials said. The U.S. units are now being withdrawn from all three sites, the officials said, and the centers are being shut down.
It wasn't immediately clear whether the steps are permanent. Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, flew Thursday to Pakistan for a hastily arranged meeting with Gen. Ashfaq Kayani, the head of the Pakistani army. A Pentagon official said the two will probably discuss Pakistan's demands for a smaller U.S. military presence.
The closures, which have not been publicly announced, remove U.S. advisors from the front lines of the war against militant groups in Pakistan. U.S. Army Gen. David Petraeus spearheaded the effort to increase the U.S. presence in the border areas two years ago out of frustration with Pakistan's failure to control the militants.
The collapse of the effort will probably hinder the Obama administration's efforts to gradually push Pakistan toward conducting ground operations against insurgent strongholds in North Waziristan and elsewhere, U.S. officials said.
The Pakistani decision has not affected the CIA's ability to launch missiles from drone aircraft in northwest Pakistan. Those flights, which the CIA has never publicly acknowledged, receive assistance from Pakistan through intelligence channels separate from the fusion centers, current and former officials said.
The move to close the three facilities, plus a recent written demand by Pakistan to reduce the number of U.S. military personnel in the country from approximately 200, signals mounting anger in Pakistan over a series of incidents.
In January, Raymond Davis, a CIA contractor, shot dead two men in Lahore who he said were attempting to rob him. He was arrested on charges of murder but was released and left the country in mid-March, prompting violent protests in several cities.
Soon after, Pakistan ordered several dozen U.S. special operations trainers to leave the country in what U.S. officials believe was retaliation for the Davis case, according to a senior U.S. military officer.
Then, on May 2, five U.S. helicopters secretly entered Pakistani airspace and a team of U.S. Navy SEALs killed Osama bin Laden and four others at a compound in Abbottabad, a military garrison city near the capital, Islamabad. The raid deeply embarrassed Pakistan's military and inflamed anti-U.S. sentiment across the country.
Javed Hussain, a retired Pakistani brigadier, blamed the decision to close the three intelligence centers on the mistrust that has plagued U.S.-Pakistani relations in recent months. Washington's decision to carry out the raid against Bin Laden without informing Pakistan's security establishment brought that mistrust to a new low, he said.
"There is lot of discontent within Pakistan's armed forces with regard to the fact they've done so much in the war on terror, and yet they are not trusted," Hussain said. "Particularly after the Abbottabad raid … the image of the armed forces in the eyes of the people has gone down. And they hold the U.S. responsible."
The two intelligence centers in Peshawar were set up in 2009, one with the Pakistani army's 11th Corps and the other with the paramilitary Frontier Corps, which are both headquartered in the city, capital of the troubled Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.
The third fusion cell was opened last year at the Pakistani army's 12th Corps headquarters in Quetta, a city long used by Taliban fighters to mount attacks in Afghanistan's southern provinces. U.S. troops have staffed the Quetta facility only intermittently, U.S. officials said.
The closures have effectively stopped the U.S. training of the Frontier Corps, a force that American officials had hoped could help halt infiltration of Taliban and other militants into Afghanistan, a senior U.S. military officer said.
The Frontier Corps' facility in Peshawar, staffed by a handful of U.S. special operations personnel, was located at Bala Hissar, an old fort, according to a classified U.S. Embassy cable from 2009 that was recently made public by WikiLeaks.
The cable, which was first disclosed by Pakistan's Dawn newspaper, hinted at U.S. hopes that special operations teams would be allowed to join the paramilitary units and the Special Services Group, a Pakistani army commando unit, in operations against militants.
"We have created Intelligence Fusion cells with embedded U.S. Special Forces with both the SSG and Frontier Corps" at Bala Hissar, Peshawar, the 2009 cable says. "But we have not been given Pakistani military permission to accompany the Pakistani forces on deployments as yet. Through these embeds, we are assisting the Pakistanis [to] collect and coordinate existing intelligence assets."
Another U.S. Embassy cable said that a "U.S. Special Operations Command Force" was providing the Frontier Corps with "imagery, target packages and operational planning" in a campaign against Taliban insurgents in Lower Dir, an area of northwest Pakistan considered an insurgent stronghold.
In September 2009, then U.S. ambassador, Anne W. Patterson, wrote in another classified message that the fusion cells provided "enhanced capacity to share real-time intelligence with units engaged in counter-insurgency operations" and were "a significant step forward for the Pakistan military."
The intelligence fusion cell in Quetta was not nearly as active as the facilities in Peshawar, current and former U.S. officials said. Pakistan has long resisted pressure to intensify operations against Taliban militants in Quetta. The city, capital of Baluchistan, is outside the tribal area, which explains Pakistan's reluctance to permit a permanent U.S. military presence, a U.S. official said.
Despite the ongoing tensions, Pakistani authorities have agreed to allow a CIA team to inspect the compound where Bin Laden was killed, according to a U.S. official. The Pakistanis have signaled they will allow U.S. intelligence analysts to examine documents and other material that Pakistani authorities found at the site.
A U.S. official briefed on intelligence matters said the reams of documents and electronic data that the SEALs seized at the compound have sparked "dozens" of intelligence investigations and have produced new insights into schisms among Al Qaeda leaders.
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Associated Press of Pakistan, May 13, 2010
looks like the crossing is back open again too:
even with the title