btchd

Not saying that it comes as a surprise, but another Democrat has tied conditions to military aid going to Pakistan. Jane Harman, California Democrat has placed a new bill before the House of Representatives that requires the Government of Pakistan to give unfettered access to Abdul Qadeer Khan and assurances that he will continue to be monitored in order to get any assistance for our military.

In a prepared statement from Representative Harman’s office, she stated:

In 1974, following India’s first nuclear test, Mr. Khan offered his expertise to Pakistani Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. Later that year, Mr. Khan’s company assigned him to work on Dutch translations of advanced, German-designed centrifuges – data to which he had unsupervised access for 16 days.

By 1975, the damage appears to have been done. Pakistan began to purchase components for its domestic uranium enrichment program from European suppliers, and Mr. Khan was transferred away from enrichment work due to concern about his activities.

Convicted in absentia by the Dutch government for nuclear espionage, beginning in the mid-1980s, Mr. Khan is widely believed to have provided nuclear weapons technology to Iran, North Korea, Libya and possibly Syria and Iraq. His network involved front companies and operatives in Dubai, Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Switzerland and Turkey. Though much of the network was taken down following Mr. Khan’s confession, there is no conclusive evidence that it was destroyed.

And Mr. Khan is again a loose nuke scientist with proven ability to sell the worst weapons to the worst people.

What to do? Read the rest of this entry »

Daniel Markey, senior fellow for India, Pakistan, and South Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations, wrote an interesting piece in Foreign Policy magazine called “Zardari’s War.” Markey sets forth a clear analysis of the current situation in Pakistan and where we could be heading if the political and domestic unrest continues.

This time, it wasn’t Islamist militants or al Qaeda stirring up trouble. Rather, Pakistan’s government — elected in the wake of former President Pervez Musharraf’s resignation — has gone to war with itself.

The country’s Supreme Court is once again implicated in the action, having disqualified from office the leaders of Pakistan’s main opposition party: former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his brother, the sitting chief minister of Punjab. Soon after the court’s decision, President Asif Ali Zardari imposed governor’s rule, effectively placing his own man in charge of his country’s most populous and politically dominant province.

In response, the Sharif brothers accused Zardari of manipulating the court and have vowed to take their case to the streets. This is no idle threat. According to public opinion surveys, Sharif is now Pakistan’s most popular politician. His party, the Pakistan Muslim League (N), might well succeed in mobilizing violent street rallies that would test the capacity of state security and could even deliver a deathblow to the coalition government in Islamabad.

In short, Pakistan’s major political leaders are now in a no-holds-barred contest for political power. The time for unity and compromise appears to have passed; the era of stable democratic governance (and a loyal opposition) was fleeting.

Markey’s question of where this puts the Obama administration in terms of the US led War on Terror reveals startling options being considered by the powers that be in Washington. While Pakistan’s newspapers have been full of articles about the hustle and bustle of US and UK diplomats between President’s House, Prime Minister House and Raiwind trying to keep the political battle that has broken out between the Sharif led PML-N and Zardari’s PPP, but Washington is already considering its options if things spin out of control in Pakistan.

But three other, less pleasant outcomes are now more likely. First, Zardari could succeed in quelling Sharif’s protests, effectively sidelining his primary opponent and consolidating his own national standing. Second, Sharif could leverage street protests and existing cleavages within Zardari’s party to claw his way to power. Third, destabilizing violence and prolonged political uncertainty could convince the Army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, to reassert control and sideline both civilian contenders. Read the rest of this entry »

US Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, publicly stated that “As I understand it, these are flown out of a Pakistani base.” At a time when Pakistan’s new leadership is facing problems of its own with the economy and terrorism, this revelation could shake the Pakistani nation. Quoting from the Chicago Tribune:

A senior U.S. lawmaker said Thursday that unmanned CIA Predator aircraft operating in Pakistan are flown from an airbase inside that country, a revelation likely to embarrass the Pakistani government and complicate its counterterrorism collaboration with the United States.

The disclosure by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, marked the first time a U.S. official had publicly commented on where the Predator aircraft patrolling Pakistan take off and land.

At a hearing, Feinstein expressed surprise at Pakistani opposition to the ongoing campaign of Predator-launched CIA missile strikes against Al Qaeda targets along Pakistan’s northwest border.

“As I understand it, these are flown out of a Pakistani base,” she said of the planes.

The basing of the pilotless aircraft in Pakistan suggests a much deeper relationship with the United States on counterterrorism matters than has been publicly acknowledged. Such an arrangement would be at odds with protests lodged by officials in Islamabad and could inflame anti-American sentiment in the country.

The CIA declined to comment, but former U.S. intelligence officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information, confirmed that Feinstein’s account was accurate.

——

Many in counterterrorism experts have assumed that the aircraft were operated from U.S. military installations in Afghanistan, and remotely piloted from locations in the United States. Experts said the disclosure could create political problems for the fledgling government in Islamabad.

“If accurate, what this says is that Pakistani involvement, or at least acquiescence, has been much more extensive than has previously been known,” said Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism expert at Georgetown University. “It puts the Pakistani government in a far more difficult position [in terms of] its credibility with its own people. Unfortunately it also has the potential to threaten Pakistani-American relations.” Read the rest of this entry »

I hope to God that this is not true. The LA Times has posted this interchange between Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and US VP hopefully Sarah Palin.

Sarah Palin’s meeting in New York this morning with Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari — part of her crash course in foreign affairs — began innocuously enough.

“So nice to meet you,” she told him, according to the pool report filed by CNN, and he responded in kind.

Simple, civil salutations. But Zardari soon steered the conversation in a direction that would make Campbell Brown, the CNN anchor who Tuesday called John McCain’s campaign aides sexist, cringe and cry chauvinism. Here is the exchange:

ZARDARI: “You are even more gorgeous than you are on the (inaudible).”

PALIN: “You are so nice. Thank you.”

ZARDARI: “Now I know why the whole of America is crazy about you.”

[A Zardari handler tells the two to shake hands again for the cameras.]

PALIN: “I’m supposed to pose again.”

ZARDARI: “If he’s insisting, I might hug.”

At that point, the pool reporter was escorted from the room.

Please read the comments on the LA Times website, one person named “Asad” added “wow, before bhutto’s body is even cold…”

And from CNN: Read the rest of this entry »

After several weeks of international bad press because of drone planes being piloted by 19 year olds with joy-sticks in California, blowing up families in Pakistan willy-nilly, after all that, the “terrorists” in Pakistan decide to blow up a second rate hotel there, killing civilians, and making them the bad guys once again? How’s that for the worst timing ever?   The end result of this attack is to give the U.S. Army and the American politicians all the reason in the world that they would need to continue attacking Pakistan’s population, and taking the international pressure off the Americans to stop bombing their country. The playbook that the CIA has employed over and over again in places like Central America, Italy, Cuba, South America and the Middle East for decades to destabilize and overthrow governments is a tried and tested formula.  Hotel bombing doesn’t make sense unless “Al-Qaeda” is working to advance Neo-Con political agenda.

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Why would “Al-Qaeda,” a group that is supposedly the prime target of the U.S. initiated war on terror, commit a terrorist attack against a country that has recently changed its government and all but renounced its role as a U.S. ally in the war on terror?

The mass media has already blamed the Marriott Hotel bombing, which killed at least 53 people, on “Al-Qaeda,” a routine reflex action despite the lack of any real investigation and no claim of responsibility.

On Saturday morning, newly elected Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari told his parliament, “We will not tolerate the violation of our sovereignty and territorial integrity by any power in the name of combating terrorism.”

Hours later and hey presto!   “Al-Qaeda” provides the perfect pretext for the U.S. to violate Pakistan’s territorial integrity in the name of … you guessed it … combating terrorism! Read the rest of this entry »

• 10,000 Indian troops are stationed in Afghanistan under the garb of supervising construction of road Jalalabad-Port Chahbahar project that has now been completed. Whereas India has officially declared 14 Indian consulates in Afghanistan, on ground they have 107 in which 20 intelligence units are burning their midnight oil to destabilize Pakistan
• After 9/11 CIA bought the loyalties of pro-Pakistan tribal chiefs, leaving ISI and MI behind, those who refused were killed
• Nek Mohammad was killed by Americans when he made peace with Pakistan
• ISI had once given six figure coordinates of Baitullah and yet no Hellfire missile was fired on his hideout by CIA
• Foreign intelligence agents are involved in carrying out gruesome beheadings of security personnel and torching girls’ schools to defame the real Taliban who had a peaceful agenda
• Besides CIA and RAW, even Iran and Uzbekistan had developed their tentacles in Balochistan, Swat and Kurram Agency
• The nexus in Kabul is working upon a scripted plan to make FATA lawless and beyond the control of security forces, push militancy into settled areas and then into major cities and thus create a civil warlike situation to prove their contention that Pakistan was the most dangerous country in the world and that the extremists were on the verge of taking over power and nuclear weapons

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—When Gen. Musharraf submitted to U.S. pressure after 9/11 and ditched the Taliban in Afghanistan, he provided air bases as well as logistics support and shared intelligence with CIA. He allowed CIA and FBI to recruit agents in FATA and other places and to establish their outposts. The focus of ISI and other agencies was shifted towards hunting and nabbing so-called terrorists all over the country, in monitoring dissident elements within the army and in political wheeling and dealings. The CIA acquired all the links ISI and MI had both sides of the Pak-Afghan border and gradually took most agents on ISI payroll within its fold. By virtue of having better technology and means the CIA was able to take over intelligence acquisition and dissemination system. As a consequence the troops operating in FATA became entirely dependent upon CIA inputs. Taking advantage of complete liberty of action, CIA succeeded in buying the loyalties of many tribal chiefs and notables in FATA by doling out dollars in sacks since it knew that the Pashtun could not be crushed by force but could be purchased. Those not falling in line were got killed.

In FATA, Nek Muhammad was first cultivated and provided logistic support. When he entered into a peace deal with Pak Army in July 2005, he was killed using precision guided missile. Abdullah Mehsud, an Afghan war veteran who had also fought the Northern Alliance in October-November 2001 was captured and brainwashed during his two years internment in Guantanamo Bay. He was released after agreeing to work on terms dictated by CIA and he soon was able to takeover the leadership role. His death at Zhob at the hands of Pak security forces was a loss for CIA.

Baitulah Mehsud and Fazlullah had not taken part in Afghan jihad and do not qualify to head Taliban; yet 30 year old Baitullah has managed to create Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Fazlullah calls the shots in Swat. Mulla Omar had never shown interest in establishing any links with Pakistani Taliban and had warned Nek Muhammad not to operate under the brand name of Taliban. It is being questioned as to how come Baitullah, Fazlullah and their spokesmen desperately wanted by Pakistan security forces have escaped the hawk eye of USA, particularly after they have been seen giving detailed interviews to media and using their cell phones? ISI had once given six figure coordinates of Baitullah and yet no Hellfire missile was fired on his hideout by CIA. The TTP that has spread its influence in all the seven agencies of tribal belt and in neighboring settled districts of NWFP has succeeded in making inroads into Punjab, particularly southern Punjab. Large number has been recruited from Chiniot, Bahawalpur, Dera Nawab, Bahawalnagar, Faisalabad, Sialkot and other places. Read the rest of this entry »