Pakistan Swat valley roads reopen

BBC: The Pakistani military is preparing to reopen roads into the conflict-hit Swat valley and neighbouring regions.

The move is intended to encourage people displaced by earlier fighting against the Taliban to return home.

About two million have already returned to the area, but damage to the region's infrastructure means returnees will rely on aid for months to come.

The UN has stressed that the return, which will begin with people living in temporary camps, must be voluntary.

Once people have been moved from the camps, the army will begin returning people who have been living in schools and other places since they fled the fighting between Taliban militants and government forces.

The return is being overseen by the substantial military presence established in the Swat, Malakand and Buner regions after Taliban militants were dislodged.

Damaged infrastructure

General Nadeem Ahmad, who is coordinating the operation, said every family leaving the camps would receive cash support from the government.

Gen Ahmad had a similar role following the 2005 earthquake in Kashmir.

A computerised identity card system, which was developed then through the banks, is being used again to help registered users access state aid.

However, much of the infrastructure in the Swat region was severely damaged in the months of fighting.

Power and water supplies have been shattered and the reconstruction is expected to take many months.

A resident of the town of Sultanwas, in Buner province, told the Associated Press that if the government failed to provide for people's needs, "no one will stand against militant extremism in the future".

"In this war we lost and gave everything, saw our village destroyed," said Muhamed Shereen.

"So now the people of Sultanwas look to the government and the whole country and world to come forward and help us."

The BBC's Syed Shoaib Hasan, who recently visited Swat's main town, Mingora, said the town was largely intact, with markets and residential areas still standing.

But the security situation remains uncertain and supplies are critically low, he says.

Signals from a failing state

Daily times.com
BOOK REVIEW: Signals from a failing state —by Khaled Ahmed

Pakistan Aik Nakaam Riyasat? By Mujahid Husain;



Politicians signing brilliantly democratic but unfamiliar charters confuse Pakistan by swearing that they will be friends and not destabilise each other in the old pavlovian reflex of toppling that the country is used to. In fact if you don’t topple, there is something seriously wrong with you

Mujahid Husain as a journalist is a man of the field but lately his columns in daily Aajkal have caught the attention of the reader who wants something new in Urdu journalism. He knows the facts that back his perceptions and is easy with the language so that the message gets across, and he keeps himself out of his message, which is quite unusual in Pakistan where the column has been reduced to anecdotal egotism that readers must accept as analysis.

He is alerted by yaksaniyat (uniformity) of thinking in a state where discord is the most threatening aspect of its failing health, a kind of brainwash absorbed from the centres of power within the state that patronise you only if you mouth their shibboleths. Hatred of America, hatred of India, and a kind of blind faith in the muslimhood of the Taliban is what this uniformity relies on for growth. The scene that these elements of identical thinking present becomes murkier when they start wrestling each other for power.

He thinks the fall of Peshawar to the domination of the terrorists is clearly indicated by the free run the Taliban have on the NATO trucks that pass through Peshawar to Torkham border in the Khyber Agency. The frequency with which these trucks are blown up and looted by the Taliban tells us how Peshawar has been ‘taken’; and if Peshawar is taken then one can imagine that a takeover of Islamabad would be the next easy step. Those who think that in case there is another Indo-Pak war the Taliban will stand with the Pakistan Army may be favouring a Taliban takeover of Islamabad as well.

One could actually link the looting of the NATO trucks to the way Islamabad has been reacting to the build-up of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan. In fact Islamabad is partly convinced that NATO presence in Afghanistan is against the interests of Pakistan and therefore the trucks for which Islamabad receives a hefty fee from the US are being targeted and looted freely by the Taliban. And when Islamabad realised that one billion dollars on account of the trucks were still outstanding from the US it must have realised that the stuck ‘truck money’ could be the American message for the free run on trucks that was allowed in Peshawar. The Americans lost nothing; we lost Peshawar.

Fifteen leaders of PMLQ have money in banks in France, Belgium Germany and Holland and they fear no disclosures because the accounts are held jointly with the local Pakistanis. Because the author lives in Belgium he has inside information about others too. But these ‘partners’ talk all the time; and information is therefore available. A former minister has a grand house in Brussels in the name of a Polish lady who makes him welcome and comfortable whenever he goes visiting to be home away from home. Big men in Pakistan imperiously survey Spain, Portugal, Italy and Holland for parking their excess money in the shape of properties. The local expat Pakistanis offer services of caretaking, and all is well after that.

A former federal minister of Musharraf lived in Germany for six months because he had bought four houses in Bonn and had to get them decorated properly in his presence. NAB, who got after the Bhuttos in a big way, was unaware of this ‘lota’ minister who had suddenly become rich after deserting his original party. The PMLN too is no sacred cow. Two of its office holders have vast properties worth 80 million euros in Belzano in Italy (p.236). Close relatives of a former ISI officer have a large property in Luxembourg and have ‘joint accounts in a well known local bank’. He visits now and then to look after the accounts of a relative of his who was also a minister for some time.

Politicians signing brilliantly democratic but unfamiliar charters confuse Pakistan by swearing that they will be friends and not destabilise each other in the old pavlovian reflex of toppling that the country is used to. In fact if you don’t topple, there is something seriously wrong with you. The book informs on page 254 that a meeting took place in which a plan to topple the Zardari-Gilani government was actually set on foot. The campaign of defamation to instrumentalise this was to be based on the amount of money Musharraf ‘returned’ to the Bhuttos after the NRO was put through by him.

It is said that the total assets returned to Zardari after the NRO were worth Rs 98 billion which was confiscated — courtesy Sardar Farooq Leghari as president — together with other assets it was thought had been acquired through corruption and fraud. The idea was to spread lethal rumours about the PPP leadership and bring them to a point where the 2008 government would have to leave. The obstacle was General Ashfaq Kayani who insisted on having a normal working relationship with the president and prime minister and was in no mood to go into the toppling mode.

Mujahid Husain keeps asking questions like why are Pakistanis so intent on taking revenge in all spheres of life, from foreign policy to family life; why are they determined to annihilate the opponent in political contest; why are the powerful intent on not using the law but punishing their perceived opponents with their own hands; why are Pakistanis using religion to vent their aggression till religion itself starts looking an evil inspiration to the world outside?

Netanyahu calls for meeting with Abbas to resume peace talks

JERUSALEM-- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Sunday called for a meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as soon as possible in order to resume Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

"Let's make peace -- both diplomatic peace and economic peace," Netanyahu was quoted by local daily The Jerusalem Post as saying at the start of a cabinet meeting in Beersheba in southern Israel, which was held there to show solidarity with the Negev capital.

"There is no reason for which we can't meet, Abbas and me, anywhere in Israel, and since we are in Beersheba, I say, let's meet here," said the Israeli prime minister.

Netanyahu said "The Palestinian people living next to us have abasic right to live with peace, security and prosperity," adding "In recent weeks, we have made great efforts to ease their lives. We've removed many roadblocks, we've decided to increase the operating hours of the Allenby Bridge for more goods, and I decided to advance a series of projects with the Palestinians to promote peace."

"But all these efforts can only bring us to a certain point, and the results will be multiplied by the dozen if there is cooperation from the other side," asserted the Israeli prime minister.

In addition to Palestinian leaders, Netanyahu also reached out to Arab countries, saying that "Let's meet, let's cooperate... We have the ability to bring many players on board."

In June, Netanyahu delivered his foreign policy speech, during which he called on the Palestinians to resume peace talks without preconditions.

However, the Palestinian side has repeatedly said peace talks with Israel can not resume until Netanyahu halts settlement activities and accepts the two-state solution.

PRESIDENT OBAMA IN GHANA

President Obama Exclusive interview on sky TV.

The US president sat down with Sky's political editor Adam Boulton during his whistle-stop tour of Ghana. See the whole exchange.

Syria FM: Pullout from Golan for peace

THE JERUSALEM POST
Syria is sticking to its demand that Israel withdrawal from all of the Golan Heights in return for peace.Speaking Sunday during a a news conference with his visiting French counterpart Berbard Kouchner, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem that Damascus would not restart peace talks unless Israel showed willingness to discuss a full withdrawal.Moallem's demand came a week after he responded to President Shimon Peres saying Syria could not expect to receive the Golan Heights from Israel on a silver platter, by remarking that his country actually wanted the territory back on a "gold platter.""Let's face it - it's our land and our right to have it back is the most normal thing in the world, he said, after meeting with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Syrian President Bashar Assad, according to AFP.Assad said at the meeting that there is no "real partner" in Israel to make peace, stressing that a halt to settlements is essential for restarting peace talks.A day earlier, Peres had asked Steinmeier to made it clear that Assad must understand he could not expect to receive the Golan on a silver platter while he continued to strengthen Hizbullah and maintain contact with Iran.

Dick Cheney kept Congress in dark over CIA counterterrorism action

guardian.co.uk
The former US vice president Dick Cheney directed the CIA not to inform Congress about a counterterrorism programme that the CIA director, Leon Panetta, ended last month, according to revelations by US intelligence officials.

The programme, the nature of which is not known, was set up eight years ago after the 9/11 attacks, reported the New York Times, citing a former intelligence official and another government official familiar with Panetta's briefing to the House and Senate intelligence committees on 24 June.

Upon learning of the programme a day earlier from within the CIA, Panetta terminated it and called an emergency meeting with the committees the following day. He told them the programme had existed but had now been cancelled.

Cheney played a central role in overseeing the Bush administration's surveillance programme. Last week, an inspectors' general report noted that Cheney's chief of staff, David Addington, personally decided who in Bush's inner circle could know about the secret initiative.

Revelations about Cheney's role in making decisions for the CIA on whether or not to notify Congress came as a surprise to some on the committees, said another government official who, like the other sources, spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to discuss the issue in public.

The nature of the counterterrorism plan remains a mystery. The former intelligence official said it was not related to the CIA's rendition, interrogation and detention programme. Nor was it part of a wider classified electronic surveillance programme.

The official characterised it as an embryonic intelligence-gathering effort, that was only sporadically active. He said it was set up to yield information that would be used to conduct a secret mission or missions in another country, but it never matured to that point.

The two sources said Congress had not been briefed about other CIA activities.

The revelation about Cheney comes as the House of Representatives prepares to debate a bill that would require the White House to expand the number of members who are told about covert operations. The White House has threatened a veto over concerns that wider congressional notifications could compromise the secrecy of the operations.

PESHAWAR PARALYZE BY SUICIDE BOMBINGS

Peshawar, Pakistan -- The markets of this chaotic city are usually cacophonous places, alive with the din of motorcycle rickshaws and legions of Pakistanis sizing up the pyramids of mangoes in one stall, office furniture in the next.





But on a recent dusky evening at Sadar market, shopkeepers sipped tea and looked out into an empty street. No one, they fretted, wants to risk being there the next time a suicide bomber strikes.

"Almost every shop here is empty," said Nisar Ahmed, 35, manager of a small clothing store in the bazaar. "No customers come. There are days when we just close early and go to sleep. We can't sustain this."

Pakistan's bid to subdue the Taliban has unleashed a wave of retaliatory suicide bombings in several major cities, from Islamabad, the capital, to the country's cultural center, Lahore.

No city, however, has been hit as hard as Peshawar, a metropolis of nearly 3 million just outside the Taliban-infested northwestern tribal areas. In recent weeks, suicide bombings have targeted crowded bazaars, police checkpoints, a movie theater and a heavily guarded luxury hotel frequented by Western diplomats and other foreigners.

Zahid Ullah Shinwari, the owner of a plastic sheeting factory and a PVC pipe plant not far from Peshawar, said he had been trying in vain for weeks to sell his businesses and move his family to safer ground.

"Who will invest in an area where everyone is fleeing?" said Shinwari, seated in a posh Peshawar office decorated with white laminate furniture and a large painting of a moose behind his desk. "But when you fear for your life, you can't think about business. There's only one thing on my mind right now, and that's how to save myself, how to sell my assets and find a safer place to live."

An early-evening drive shows just how rattled this city is. Restaurants once teeming with Peshawar's middle class are largely empty. There's not a soul in sight at Funland, a large family park with a Ferris wheel, bumper cars and other amusement rides that's a favorite with families.

"Cultural life has come to a standstill," said Behroz Khan, Peshawar bureau chief for the Geo TV network. "People don't go to restaurants anymore. They don't go to neighborhood festivals. People just stay indoors now."

The bombing last month of the Pearl Continental Hotel, which killed 11 people, appeared to be a last straw for many here. The hotel was seen as an oasis of security. Diplomats and dignitaries stayed there, and businesspeople often dined in its restaurant or used its health club.

The bombing, businesspeople said, appeared to confirm their worst suspicion -- that no place in Peshawar is safe.

"That was a nail in the coffin," said Mohammed Ishaq, vice president of Peshawar's chamber of commerce and owner of an adhesive tape plant in the city. "That made people really scared. We used to go there and feel so secure."

Since the government's offensive in the Swat Valley began in April, 25 companies have moved out of Peshawar, Ishaq said. Some went to Lahore, others to Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Those that chose to stay have run into another problem: Workers aren't showing up for night shifts out of fear something could happen to them on their way to work.

"Factories in Peshawar don't have evening shifts anymore," Ishaq said.

At Sadar market, business owners say they can't hold on much longer. Ahmed's clothing store, Melody Garments, used to take in an average of $560 in sales daily. Now, he said, his store pulls in about $10 a day.

Next door, the sales at Tariq Javed's See and Select carpet shop have dropped by 75%.

"From morning to evening, there are no customers," Javed said angrily, as one of his workers sleepily leaned against a stack of rugs. "All the shop owners here sit idle all day. If this continues, we'll lose our business in a month."

Three soldiers, 14 Taliban killed in NW Pakistan

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Three Pakistan soldiers and 14 Taliban fighters were killed as Islamabad pushed its massive assault against the insurgents in the northwest, officials said Sunday.
Eight Taliban were killed when Pakistani jet fighters pounded the militants' hideouts in South Waziristan tribal district, bordering Afghanistan, two security officials said.
The attacks came as Pakistan prepared to draw a line under the northwest operation.
The destroyed hideouts belonged to the members of Taliban warlord Baitullah Mehsud against whom the military has vowed to open a second front, the officials said.
Separately Pakistani artillery pounded two Taliban hideouts in Lower Dir district's Kashmor village Sunday, killing five rebels and injuring five others, district coordination officer Ghulam Mohammad told AFP.
The two hideouts were targeted and destroyed on intelligence received by Pakistan, the official said.
A daily military statement rounding up developments over the past 24 hours said a militant was killed and another arrested during a search operation in Swat valley where troops destroyed five caves where militants were hiding.
At least 15 other militants were arrested in different parts of Swat and seven soldiers were wounded, it said.
One soldier died in an exchange of fire with militants in South Waziristan, while two others were killed in a bomb blast in a mosque in the northwestern town of Dera Ismail Khan, it said.
The death tolls provided could not be verified independently as the areas are under military operation.
The Pakistani army launched a massive offensive in late April in the three northwestern districts of Buner, Lower Dir and Swat to flush out Taliban militants.
The military said last week the operation was almost over and on Thursday Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani announced that preparations were being made to send home from Monday nearly two million people who fled their homes in the Swat valley.
Paramilitary troops raided militant hideouts in Khyber tribal district's Shinkoh village and after a gunfight that left two soldiers injured, arrested 11 of the rebels, paramilitary Colonel Mujahid told AFP.
"Among those who had been arrested, five are from South and North Waziristan tribal districts, four (are) Afghan nationals and two locals," said Mujahid, who goes by one name.
The troops also seized hundreds of bullet rounds, rocket launchers, wireless equipment and documents, he said.
Two explosive-filled vehicles meant to be used in suicide attacks were also destroyed.
The Khyber tribal district lies between Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province, and landlocked Afghanistan and is a key strategic route for vital civil and military supplies to the war-torn country.

Obama Returns Home From European, African Trip

US President Barack Obama addresses members of Ghanaian Parliament at the International Conference Center in Accra, 11 Jul 2009
U.S. President Barack Obama has returned home from a weeklong trip to Moscow, a G-8 summit, and a stop in Ghana.

Mr. Obama and his family arrived back in the United States shortly after midnight.

On Saturday, the president challenged Africans to take more responsibility for wiping out poverty, war and corruption on the continent.

In a speech to Ghana's parliament, he said good governance is missing from too many places in Africa. He said Africa does not need strongmen, it needs strong institutions.

The emotional high point of the president's visit was a tour of a former slave center from which thousands of Africans once were shipped off to America.

Before leaving Ghana late Saturday, Mr. Obama said he would never forget the image of his daughters, the descendants of Africans and African-Americans, walking through the center's doors of no return, but then walking back out.

Mr. Obama's visit to Ghana was his first trip to sub-Saharan Africa since becoming the first African-American president.

He said it was particularly important for his daughters to see the slave center at Cape Coast Castle and witness how history can take cruel turns.

Mr. Obama said the tour reminded him of a visit to a German World War Two concentration camp. He said both experiences remind him of man's capacity for evil.

The president said several times on his trip to Ghana that Africa is not a world apart, but is a fundamental part of an interconnected world.

He said he chose to visit Ghana because of its "functioning democracy" and its president, John Atta Mills, who Mr. Obama said is "serious about reducing corruption."

More Russian military forces arrive in China for joint anti-terror exercise

TAONAN, Jilin,Xinhua-- A 92-member advance unit of Russia's air force and two Il-76 air lifters arrived Sunday noon at a base in Qiqihar in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province to prepare for a joint exercise with the People's Liberation Army (PLA).

The advance unit includes personnel responsible for commanding aviation, communications, weather service and mechanics.

Prior to their arrival, 161 soldiers, 41 commanding and armored vehicles arrived Saturday afternoon by train at the PLA's Taonan tactic training base in northeast China's Jilin Province.

All Russian troops to participate in the drill will arrive at the drill venue by July 14, according to the Defense Ministry.

China and Russia, both members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), will jointly conduct the five-day anti-terrorism military drill code-named "Peace Mission-2009" beginning July 22.

About 1,300 personnel from both armies and air forces will participate in the exercise. Russia will also send an airborne assault unit, according to the Defense Ministry.

Most of the PLA's 1,300 troops in the exercise have been deployed, the ministry said.

More Russian military forces arrive in China for joint anti-terror exercise

TAONAN, Jilin,Xinhua-- A 92-member advance unit of Russia's air force and two Il-76 air lifters arrived Sunday noon at a base in Qiqihar in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province to prepare for a joint exercise with the People's Liberation Army (PLA).

The advance unit includes personnel responsible for commanding aviation, communications, weather service and mechanics.

Prior to their arrival, 161 soldiers, 41 commanding and armored vehicles arrived Saturday afternoon by train at the PLA's Taonan tactic training base in northeast China's Jilin Province.

All Russian troops to participate in the drill will arrive at the drill venue by July 14, according to the Defense Ministry.

China and Russia, both members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), will jointly conduct the five-day anti-terrorism military drill code-named "Peace Mission-2009" beginning July 22.

About 1,300 personnel from both armies and air forces will participate in the exercise. Russia will also send an airborne assault unit, according to the Defense Ministry.

Most of the PLA's 1,300 troops in the exercise have been deployed, the ministry said.