West turns blind eye to friend it dare not offend

Shortly before noon on September 12, 2001, a visitor stopped by the palace, looking for Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdel Aziz al-Saud, the Crown Prince. The man who now sits on the throne of Saudi Arabia was kneeling in shock and prayer.

He had prayed there all night and had received news from Washington, but could still not believe that the hijackers who crashed their planes into New York and Washington were his countrymen.

That experience is credited widely as part of the impetus behind King Abdullah’s attempts to reform his reactionary kingdom. But Saudi Arabia remains as he did that night – in deep denial. However, it is also a rich and powerful country on which the West depends heavily for oil, and those who do business with it have learnt better than to risk puncturing its self-deluding bubble.

Terrorism remains its most sensitive point. Since September 11 Saudi Arabia has declared itself at the forefront of the fight against terrorism, cracking down on home-grown militants, inviting Western journalists to film its antiterrorist forces in training and launching a much vaunted project to rehabilitate violent Islamists. It also sought to remake its international image as a factory of extremism with the sponsorship of an interfaith conference in New York.

But Saudi billions fund the promotion of extreme forms of Islam around the world. Saudi is the home of Wahhabism, the austere interpretation of Islam that it has pioneered and the faith espoused by Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda followers.

An estimated $90 billion (£62 billion) of Saudi money has gone to build mosques and madrassas, distribute religious literature and fund Islam across the world, with a portion of it, according to terrorism experts, directly or indirectly funding the violent expression of those beliefs.

Jonathan Evans, the director-general of M15, told the Government last year that the Saudi Government’s multimillion-dollar donations to British universities had led to a “dangerous increase in the spread of extremism in leading university campuses”.

Official slights like these are rare. Saudi Arabia, in the words of a former diplomat there, “gets away with things other countries could not” because of the West’s dependence on it – for oil, for arms contracts, for intelligence, for military bases and for being a firm friend in an often unfriendly neighbourhood.

Madonna expected in Malawi soon for second adoption

Madonna has filed papers in advance of adopting a second child from the impoverished African republic of Malawi, officials confirmed today.Reports suggest that the 50-year-old singer will travel to the region over the weekend, with a possible court hearing as soon as Monday.Madonna's spokeswoman, Liz Rosenberg, declined to comment, but officials in both the US and Malawi have said that an adoption attempt was under way. An official at the Malawian welfare department told AP that adoption documents had been filed by the singer.The southern African nation is one of the world's most impoverished. Ravaged by Aids, its population have a life expectancy of just 44 years. It has an infant mortality rate of close to 90 per 1,000 live births, according to 2009 estimates. Madonna has established ties with the country over the past few years, setting up the Raising Malawi charity.But Madonna could be courting controversy by returning to the country to adopt, as her earlier adoption of a boy from Malawi raised questions over whether rules had been broken due to the country's then policy of not allowing foreign adoptions. Madonna and then-husband Guy Ritchie took David Banda to their London home in 2006 while the child was 13 months old.
At the time the singer said it was her wish to "open up our home and help one child escape an extreme life of hardship, poverty and in many cases death."
She added that it was not a decision that she had taken lightly.
But some children's charities and human rights groups aired concern over the "quickie" adoption. It was suggested that the singer had used her celebrity to bypass normal procedures.The controversy deepened after the child's father, Yohane Banda, said that he would not have agreed to the adoption if he had known it meant that he would be giving up his son "for good". The adoption was finalised in 2008.In an interview publicised last week with the Malawian newspaper the Nation, Madonna said she was considering adopting from the country again.But she added that she would do so only with "the support of the Malawian people and government."

Pakistan hopes for U.S. re-think on missiles

PESHAWAR, - Pakistan wants the United States to reconsider its use of pilotless drones to attack militants on its territory, a government spokesman said on Thursday, hours after 11 people were killed in two strikes.President Barack Obama is expected to announce the result of a review of Afghan and Pakistani policy on Friday. Obama has said the United States is not winning in Afghanistan, more than seven years after U.S.-led forces toppled the Taliban.According to a New York Times report last week, the United States was considering expanding its covert war in Pakistan. A Pakistani spokesman said the government hoped Washington would re-think the missile strikes.
"As we have been saying, these attacks are counterproductive and we hope that as a result of the policy review in Washington, we would have some positive outcome," Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit told a briefing.Early on Thursday missiles believed to have been fired by a U.S. drone killed four people in the North Waziristan region, according to Pakistani intelligence officials in the area. Hours later, a strike killed seven in neighboring South Waziristan.The United States, frustrated by an intensifying insurgency in Afghanistan getting support from the Pakistani side of the border, began launching more drone attacks last year.U.S. officials say success in Afghanistan is impossible without tackling militant enclaves in northwest Pakistan.Al Qaeda's leader in Afghanistan accused Pakistan's government of helping the U.S. launch the strikes."The government ... opens up its airfield in the tribal areas to American spy planes and provide information to bomb, destroy and kill," Mustapha Abu al-Yazid said in a video posted on Islamist websites on Thursday.
Since last year, more than 30 U.S. strikes have killed about 300 people, including mid-level al Qaeda members, according to reports from Pakistani officials, residents and militants.Pakistan's government and the army complain that civilian casualties the strikes often cause fuel support for militants.Intelligence officials said four villagers were killed in the missile attack in North Waziristan. A military official said explosives being carried in a truck caused the blast.Intelligence officials said four Arab militants were among the dead in a Wednesday strike in South Waziristan, a stronghold of Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud.In another development, a suicide bomber killed nine people at a restaurant frequented by militants opposed to Mehsud in South Waziristan's Jandola town, officials said.
"ROBUST COOPERATION"
The missile attacks coincided with the U.S. State Department posting $5-million rewards for information leading to the arrest or location of Mehsud and Sirajuddin Haqqani, a leader of the Haqqani militant faction, whose network is based in North Waziristan and the neighboring Afghan province of Khost.Sirajuddin's father, Jalaluddin Haqqani, is a veteran Afghan mujahideen leader who forged a friendship with Osama bin Laden in the 1980s when they fought Soviet forces in Afghanistan.
Pakistani officials and the CIA accuse Mehsud of being behind the 2007 assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.Haqqani had claimed an assassination attempt on Afghan President Hamid Karzai in April last year, according to the State Department.The Haqqani group was also believed to have been behind a suicide bomb that killed scores of people outside the Indian embassy in Kabul in July. The New York Times reported at the time that U.S. intelligence had evidence the attackers were in contact with Pakistani agents.On Thursday, the New York Times and Wall Street Journal reported that U.S. officials believed Pakistani agents were supporting the Taliban and other militants in Afghanistan.Basit dismissed the reports as "nothing but sensational journalism.""This ... misses the essential fact that there is robust cooperation and engagement between Pakistan, Afghanistan, the U.S. and other countries ... in counter-terrorism," he said.The Journal said U.S. and Pakistani intelligence officials were drawing up a list of targets for drone strikes and Pakistani officials wanted militants behind attacks inside Pakistan added to the list.

Afghanistan aid program flawed

WASHINGTON — The multibillion-dollar U.S. aid program in Afghanistan is disjointed, bureaucratic and overly dependent on private Western contractors, according to a report to be released today with implications for President Obama's Central Asia strategy.
The report by Oxfam, the international humanitarian organization, follows two separate studies last week by the Center for American Progress, a think tank with scholars close to the Obama administration, which called for a sweeping overhaul in the way civilian aid is delivered in Afghanistan.

Obama will announce a plan for Afghanistan and Pakistan on Friday, according to the Associated Press. The plan places increased emphasis on civilian missions such as training police and helping farmers find alternatives to heroin-producing poppy plants, U.S. special envoy Richard Holbrooke said in Brussels last week.

The reports suggest that to succeed, Obama must secure fundamental changes in the weakened U.S. civilian aid bureaucracy, particularly the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). That agency is responsible for $6.9 billion of the total $31 billion in U.S. spending on military and civilian aid to Afghanistan since 2002, according to the Congressional Research Service.

U.S. aid workers are "bound by structures and strategies that often constrain their ability to work effectively on the ground," says the Oxfam report, which was based on 40 interviews by Matt Waldman, a Kabul-based policy analyst.

Other problems, the report says, include "a flawed contracting system, the pressures to measure results of the wrong kind ... an unclear strategy, and excessive restrictions that distance U.S. practitioners from the Afghans they're hoping to support."

At issue is whether Obama can get the changes he needs quickly enough. Scholars and activists have been calling for years for congressional action to overhaul U.S. foreign assistance, to no avail.

One Center for American Progress report argues for the creation of a Cabinet-level development agency to coordinate all non-military assistance, and it says American civilian aid experts need more flexibility in how they spend money. Both changes would require congressional approval.

Oxfam's criticism of USAID's reliance on private contractors echoes that by the agency's own inspector general, who said in a series of audits that contractors have often failed to show results.

Staff cuts over the past two decades have hurt USAID's ability to manage contracts, according to a recent report by the American Academy of Diplomacy. Although recent budget increases call for new hires, training foreign service development experts can take years. That makes it hard for USAID to scale back on contractors any time soon.

Even so, the United States can quickly improve civilian aid in Afghanistan, said Reuben Brigety, co-author of one of the Center for American Progress reports, called "Swords and Ploughshares."

For example, he said, most of the money goes to less secure areas along the border with Pakistan, where insurgent attacks have crippled the aid efforts. The U.S. should steer additional funds to the more secure northern and western parts of Afghanistan, where the programs have the best chance to succeed, he said.

The U.S. also needs to put an Afghan face on its efforts, said Lawrence Wilkerson, who was chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell.

"More has to be done by the Afghans," he said.

Afghan intel chief: Pakistan spies support Taliban

KABUL – Afghanistan's intelligence chief accused Pakistan's spy agency of helping Taliban militants carry out attacks in his country, highlighting one of the biggest challenges facing the Obama administration as it prepared Thursday to launch a new strategy for the Afghan conflict.
Many Taliban militants fled to Pakistan's border area from Afghanistan following the 2001 U.S.-led invasion, finding a sanctuary that allowed them to mount cross-border attacks that have destabilized Afghanistan and jeopardized international efforts to rebuild the country.
U.S. defense officials say President Barack Obama is set to approve sending 4,000 additional U.S. military trainers to assist the Afghan armed forces. The U.S. was also expected to add hundreds of civilian advisers. The latest additions would follow Obama's decision to add 17,000 troops to the flagging war this year.
Obama called the leaders of both Afghanistan and Pakistan on Thursday to brief them on the revamped strategy, their offices said. But many believe that even with a stepped-up U.S. effort, chances for success are slim unless Pakistan effectively cracks down on Taliban and al-Qaida militants operating from its territory.
The U.S. and Afghanistan have repeatedly called on Pakistan to sever all links with the Taliban, which came to power in Afghanistan in the 1990s with significant support from Pakistan's military intelligence agency — known as the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI. Pakistan's government insists it no longer supports the militant group, but the country's civilian leaders have limited control over the agency.
Afghanistan's intelligence chief, Amrullah Saleh, told parliament Wednesday that the spy agency provides support to the Taliban leadership council in the Pakistani city of Quetta headed by the group's supreme leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar. He said the council sends militants into Afghanistan to attack Afghan and international forces.
The New York Times reported that Pakistani spy operatives provide money, military supplies and strategic planning guidance to Taliban commanders, with evidence of the ties coming from electronic surveillance and trusted informants. The report cited American, Pakistani and other security officials who spoke anonymously because they were discussing confidential intelligence information.
A senior officer in the Pakistani spy agency denied the allegations Thursday, saying "How is it possible we are cooperating with them and sustaining casualties at the same time?"
He said 52 officers from the agency and more than 1,000 soldiers were killed in the war against terrorism that began after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.
"There is a difference between the perception and the reality," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with the agency's policy.
A senior Western diplomat in Islamabad said Pakistani assistance to the Taliban has declined since 2001, "but there continue to be old compulsions and there continue to be old acquaintances" that harm the country's relationship with the West. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to talk to the media.
Saleh, the Afghan spy chief, criticized Pakistani officials for denying that Taliban leaders are based in the country. He said the Pakistanis view militants on their border as "a kind of weapon" that can be used in both Afghanistan and India.
"The Pakistani government is making excuses by saying these areas are out of their control," said Saleh.
Afghanistan has accused Pakistan's spy service or militants based in Pakistan's lawless tribal areas of being behind several major attacks in Kabul, including the bombing of the Indian Embassy last July, an assassination attempt against President Hamid Karzai in April and an assault on the luxury Serena Hotel in January 2008.
By focusing the blame on militants in Pakistan, Saleh reinforced recent remarks by Obama, who has warned that militants using Pakistani territory to launch attacks should not be allowed free reign.
Many of the additional troops that Obama has pledged to send to Afghanistan will be deployed in the south near the border with Pakistan — the heartland of the Taliban insurgency, where militants attacked a police checkpoint Thursday, killing nine policemen, the Interior Ministry said.
Another officer was killed and two were wounded in a search operation the police launched after the attack, said the deputy provincial police chief Kamal Uddin.
Taliban militants also attacked a police convoy in central Ghazni province Thursday, wounding six policemen, regional police spokesman Iqbal Gul Sapan said. Four militants were killed in the clash in Nani village near the provincial capital, he said.
The Interior Ministry said the police were transporting a militant prisoner at the time, adding that two civilians were wounded in the attack.

Afghan Strikes by Taliban Get Pakistan Help, U.S. Aides Say

By MARK MAZZETTI and ERIC SCHMITT, NEW YORK TIME
WASHINGTON — The Taliban’s widening campaign in southern Afghanistan is made possible in part by direct support from operatives in Pakistan’s military intelligence agency, despite Pakistani government promises to sever ties to militant groups fighting in Afghanistan, according to American government officials.

The support consists of money, military supplies and strategic planning guidance to Taliban commanders who are gearing up to confront the international force in Afghanistan that will soon include some 17,000 American reinforcements.

Support for the Taliban, as well as other militant groups, is coordinated by operatives inside the shadowy S Wing of Pakistan’s spy service, the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, the officials said. There is even evidence that ISI operatives meet regularly with Taliban commanders to discuss whether to intensify or scale back violence before the Afghan elections.

Details of the ISI’s continuing ties to militant groups were described by a half-dozen American, Pakistani and other security officials during recent interviews in Washington and the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. All requested anonymity because they were discussing classified and sensitive intelligence information.

The American officials said proof of the ties between the Taliban and Pakistani spies came from electronic surveillance and trusted informants. The Pakistani officials interviewed said that they had firsthand knowledge of the connections, though they denied that the ties were strengthening the insurgency.

American officials have complained for more than a year about the ISI’s support to groups like the Taliban. But the new details reveal that the spy agency is aiding a broader array of militant networks with more diverse types of support than was previously known — even months after Pakistani officials said that the days of the ISI’s playing a “double game” had ended.

Pakistan’s military and civilian leaders publicly deny any government ties to militant groups, and American officials say it is unlikely that top officials in Islamabad are directly coordinating the clandestine efforts. American officials have also said that midlevel ISI operatives occasionally cultivate relationships that are not approved by their bosses.

In a sign of just how resigned Western officials are to the ties, the British government has sent several dispatches to Islamabad in recent months asking that the ISI use its strategy meetings with the Taliban to persuade its commanders to scale back violence in Afghanistan before the August presidential election there, according to one official.

But the inability, or unwillingness, of the embattled civilian government, led by President Asif Ali Zardari, to break the ties that bind the ISI to the militants illustrates the complexities of a region of shifting alliances. Obama administration officials admit that they are struggling to understand these allegiances as they try to forge a strategy to quell violence in Afghanistan, which has intensified because of a resurgent Taliban. Fighting this insurgency is difficult enough, officials said, without having to worry about an allied spy service’s supporting the enemy.

But the Pakistanis offered a more nuanced portrait. They said the contacts were less threatening than the American officials depicted and were part of a strategy to maintain influence in Afghanistan for the day when American forces would withdraw and leave what they fear could be a power vacuum to be filled by India, Pakistan’s archenemy. A senior Pakistani military officer said, “In intelligence, you have to be in contact with your enemy or you are running blind.”

The ISI helped create and nurture the Taliban movement in the 1990s to bring stability to a nation that had been devastated by years of civil war between rival warlords, and one Pakistani official explained that Islamabad needed to use groups like the Taliban as “proxy forces to preserve our interests.”

A spokesman at the Pakistani Embassy in Washington declined to comment for this article.

Over the past year, a parade of senior American diplomats, military officers and intelligence officials has flown to Islamabad to urge Pakistan’s civilian and military leaders to cut off support for militant groups, and Washington has threatened to put conditions on more than $1 billion in annual military aid to Pakistan. On Saturday, the director of the C.I.A., Leon E. Panetta, met with top Pakistani officials in Islamabad.

Little is publicly known about the ISI’s S Wing, which officials say directs intelligence operations outside of Pakistan. American officials said that the S Wing provided direct support to three major groups carrying out attacks in Afghanistan: the Taliban based in Quetta, Pakistan, commanded by Mullah Muhammad Omar; the militant network run by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar; and a different group run by the guerrilla leader Jalaluddin Haqqani.

Dennis C. Blair, the director of national intelligence, recently told senators that the Pakistanis “draw distinctions” among different militant groups.

“There are some they believe have to be hit and that we should cooperate on hitting, and there are others they think don’t constitute as much of a threat to them and that they think are best left alone,” Mr. Blair said.

The Haqqani network, which focuses its attacks on Afghanistan, is considered a strategic asset to Pakistan, according to American and Pakistani officials, in contrast to the militant network run by Baitullah Mehsud, which has the goal of overthrowing Pakistan’s government.

Top American officials speak bluntly about how the situation has changed little since last summer, when evidence showed that ISI operatives helped plan the bombing of the Indian Embassy in Kabul, an attack that killed 54 people.

“They have been very attached to many of these extremist organizations, and it’s my belief that in the long run, they have got to completely cut ties with those in order to really move in the right direction,” Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said recently on “The Charlie Rose Show” on PBS.

The Taliban has been able to finance a military campaign inside Afghanistan largely through proceeds from the illegal drug trade and wealthy individuals from the Persian Gulf. But American officials said that when fighters needed fuel or ammunition to sustain their attacks against American troops, they would often turn to the ISI.

When the groups needed to replenish their ranks, it would be operatives from the S Wing who often slipped into radical madrasas across Pakistan to drum up recruits, the officials said.

The ISI support for militants extends beyond those operating in the tribal areas of northwest Pakistan. American officials said the spy agency had also shared intelligence with Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Pakistan-based militant group suspected in the deadly attacks in Mumbai, India, and provided protection for it.

Mr. Zardari took steps last summer to purge the ISI’s top ranks after the United States confronted Pakistan with evidence about the Indian Embassy bombing. Mr. Zardari pledged that the ISI would be “handled,” and that anyone working with militants would be dismissed.

Yet with the future of Mr. Zardari’s government uncertain in the current political turmoil and with Obama officials seeing few immediate alternatives, American officials and outside experts said that Pakistan’s military establishment appears to see little advantage in responding to the demands of civilian officials in Islamabad or Washington.

As a result, when the Haqqani fighters need to stay a step ahead of American forces stalking them on the ground and in the air, they rely on moles within the spy agency to tip them off to allied missions planned against them, American military officials said.

Nawaz Sharif, a reliable partner?

M WAQAR
It will be disastrous for Obama administration if ,Washington thinks that Pakistani opposition leader, Nawaz Shrif can be a reliable partner of Washington in fighting Taliban. Nawaz Sharif is not only a corrupt politician he has sympathies with Osama bin laden, Alquida and Taliban. According to a former ISI official , Nawaz Sharif met OSAMA BIN LADEN and received funds from him, he met OSAMA three times and desperately asked for financial assistance. Bin Laden, who had offered him money to topple the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) government of BENAZIR BHUTTO in 1990. Al Qaeda head wanted the “secular” PPP government overthrown to ensure that Pakistan continued supporting the Afghan “jihad” and LADEN was against a woman ruling Pakistan. . Nawaz met Osama thrice in Saudi Arabia ,this meeting was arranged by former ISI official Khalid Khawaja . Nawaz sharif was hoping for a grant of Rs 500 million. Although Bin Laden gave a smaller amount, Khawaja said that he arranged for Sharif to meet the Saudi royal family, which pledged political support for him and kept its word until he was dislodged by President Pervez Musharraf in 1999 . Nawaz has been an ardent supporter of Taliban. I am afraid that his coming to power at this critical juncture will be bad news for Pakistan, because Pak is already facing Taliban mutiny. Sharif is on record stating he would prefer Pakistan to be run like the Taleban ran Afghanistan, and we all know how well that turned out. Sharif's reckless embrace of religious extremism led him to try and impose Sharia (Islamic law) on Pakistan in 1998 and declare himself "Amirul Momineen" (Leader of the Faithful/Believers). Sharif has a long history of aligning with extremist religious groups, jihadists, and the Taliban. Sharif's desire for power is even greater than his respect for innocent life. Convicted for hijacking, he put the lives of 198 people on a plane in jeopardy by refusing to allow it to land. Also, Sharif funneled terrorist gunmen into disputed areas of Kashmir in 1997, risking not only the lives of innocent civilians there, but open war with its larger neighbor, India.  Beyond the blood on Sharif's hands, his corruption and that of his brother are on a vast scale. At the time of his removal from office, Nawaz Sharif and his brother Shabaz had looted approximately $60 million from people of Pakistan, via their personally owned companies. Pakistan, a developing nation, struggling to bring economic growth, education, and basic services to tens of millions of poverty stricken citizens, cannot afford the greed and avarice of Nawaz Sharif. The March 25, 2009 piece in the NY Times, Nawaz Sharif is portrayed as someone the U.S. and Pakistan can possible reconsider as a leader that can guide Pakistan through a challenging period. In reality, nothing could be farther from the truth. In the 03-25-09 NY Times article, two important questions are asked: Can Mr. Sharif, 59, a populist politician close to Islamic parties, be a reliable partner? Or will he use his popular support to blunt the military's already fitful campaign against the insurgency of the Taliban and Al Qaeda? The answer to both of these questions is a resounding NO. History has shown where Nawaz Sharif stands on these issues, he stands for religious extremism, alliances with terrorists, and the undermining of secular rule in Pakistan, to the detriment of its citizenry and the country's neighbors near and far. With the Taliban and Al-Queda taking active refuge in Pakistan, engaging in recruitment there, and basing attacks in Pakistan and across the border into Afghanistan, Nawaz Sharif is the last person that can be relied upon to control or eliminate these destabilizing and dangerous groups. Sharif's support for these extremists goes beyond admiration and rhetoric, he as personally assisted them in their quest for power, At the end of the 1990's, under the leadership of Sharif, the economy of Pakistan suffered immensely. In regards to Afghanistan, Sharif's support of the Taliban within Afghanistan, and allowing them to draw operate and draw support from area's within Pakistan itself, thus adding their destabilizing influence to an already fragile political environment. Sharif's lust of power, and his willingness to damage Pakistan's future, area toxic mix for the people of Pakistan, and for it's neighbors. There is a  long tale of Nawaz’ corruption ranging from Yellow Cab scheme, to Motorway project and from Raiwind palace to LDA plots. As a protege of Zia ul Haq, the dictator who controlled Pakistan in the 1980's, Sharif's anti-democratic tendencies were already in bloom. Sharif's own power base in Punjab was built by bribery and favoritism along with pandering to religious extremists .  The greatest outrage, in retrospect, is Sharif's alliance with Osama Bin Laden. In Sharif's battle against Benazair Bhutto, Bin Laden's funds helped orchestrate the removal of Bhutto from power. Bin Laden knew he needed to secure at least neutrality if not outright support from Pakistan in his goal to turn Afghanistan into his own personal terrorist training camp. Sharif was Bin Laden's man for this mission, at once corrupt enough to take the money, and oblivious enough to not grasp the horror he helped unleash on the world. By the time Sharif was forced from power, it was too late. Bin Laden's network had struck. He used Lawyers movement for his political gain, Nawaz Sharif’s reason for supporting Iftikhar Chaudhry was to get back at Musharraf, a glorified version of kindergarten revenge. Nothing more. Mr. Sharif’s purpose is to grab the federal government. He believes his right to rule Pakistan was snatched away from him in 1999 and he wants it back.  Lawyers’ movement was hijacked for dirty political tricks by Nawaz and other opportunist politicians in Pakistan. The lawyers’ movement managed to get quite a bit of the attention of the educated class and the media, because of its high claims of standing by principles and reinstating an independent judiciary and people from all walks of life supported that while politicians like NAWAZ,IMRAN,QAZI were just creating chaos. Whether it is Zardari or Sharif, both are incompetent . Both are products of dynasty politics, and neither of them deserves any share in the running of anything…be it the party, or the country. The only thing they can do for the country is to leave it alone, but that is too much to ask. So those who think that Mr. Sharif is a ray of hope … think again. He offers nothing different. He is a part of the same dirty system that brought us here in the first place. President Obama will make an even greater mistake (than George Bush’s Iraq adventure) if he sides with NAWAZ SHARIF.

Obama defends right to Nato expansion

WASHINGTON :US President Barack Obama said on Wednesday that he wanted to 'reset' US relations with Russia but argued Nato should still be open to countries which aspire to join the alliance.

"My administration is seeking a reset of the relationship with Russia," Obama said after an Oval Office meeting with Nato Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer.

But Obama said reinvigorated ties with Moscow must be "consistent with Nato membership and consistent with the need to send a clear signal throughout Europe that we are going to continue to abide by the central belief ... that countries who seek and aspire to join Nato are able to join Nato."

Russia's anger over Nato's eastward expansion near its border has been a frequent irritant in relations between the White House and the Kremlin.

Obama's comments came a week before he is set to hold his first meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on the sidelines of the Group of 20 economic summit in London.

The US president will also next week make his debut visit to the Nato summit, on the border of France and Germany.

Scheffer attempted to downplay the alliance's differences with Russia.

"We have many things on which we disagree, but Nato needs Russia and Russia needs Nato, so that's one of the things we agree on."

"Let's not hide our disagreements, and let us realize that also this relationship can and might be, should be strengthened."

"As President Obama said a moment ago, Nato's door will stay open for new members if they perform, if they fulfill the criteria."

Under the previous administration of former president George W. Bush, the United States was a strong backer of Georgia's efforts to join Nato, as well as the candidature of Ukraine.

Tensions over the issue flared particularly following Russia's war with Georgia last year.

Obama said the 60th anniversary of the western alliance was "testimony to the effectiveness of Nato in creating stability and peace and prosperity, laying the groundwork for so much that has taken place over the last several years."

US says will continue to work closely with Zardari govt

WASHINGTON: The United States said on Wednesday it is working closely with the democratically elected Pakistani government led by President Asif Ali Zardari in wide-ranging areas of common interest and that American officials maintain contacts with the opposition parties in Pakistan just as they do in other countries.

The State Department also made it clear that Washington would continue to work with the current democratic government until Pakistan has a new government in due course of political process and as a result of elections in the mandated timeframe.

“There is a government in place. We are working with the government. There are opposition parties, we have regular contacts with opposition parties not only in Pakistan but also in all nations.

“We are in a good diplomatic relationship with Pakistan, we will continue to work with the government on the problems that it faces not only those of terrorism but also on institution building and on economics,” State Department spokesman Gordon Duguid said when asked if Washington is looking more toward PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif to work with.

The US officials, he added at the daily briefing, will have discussions with opposition parties and their members in order to review with the entire political leadership how they see that Pakistan moves forward.

In answer to another question, the spokesman said he would not analyse recent political developments but emphasised that the US would continue to work closely with the current democratically elected government. “We are right now working with a Pakistani government. And that, you know, as the political process moves forward till such time that Pakistan has new elections, there will be another government, that we would continue to try and maintain our good relationship with.”

Pakistani Taliban take over lapis lazuli mines in Swat

Islamabad: The Pakistani Taliban have taken control of mines producing precious lapis lazuli stones in the insurgency-hit Swat valley and started operating them on their own.The Taliban have confirmed that they took control of the mines two months ago when they arrived in the hilly area of Fiza Ghat, a resort on the outskirts of Mingora, the main city in Swat valley.The militants have appointed hundreds of local labourers to work round the clock to excavate lapis lazuli stones as authorities in the area had left the mines.One-third of the income from the mines is taken by theTaliban while the rest is offered to the labourers, a Taliban militant told BBC.
The Taliban have deployed senior commanders at several mines to monitor the excavation of stones. A Taliban commander said the mines were in a "working condition" when Swat was ruled by a prince in the 1960s but the government had always argued they were being operated at a loss and the business had not been producing any profits.Lapis lazuli stones of international standard have been mined in Swat since they were first discovered in 1962, when the valley was an independent state ruled by a prince called a 'Wali'. Swat joined Pakistan in 1969. The mines are believed to be spread over an area of about six kilometres.A Taliban commander claimed all income from the mines was being transferred into the pockets of corrupt officers and influential people in Swat.After the Taliban took control of the mines, the situation had changed and local residents are now benefiting from the mines, he claimed.
The Taliban did not allow reporters to take photographs of the mines and labourers.
The workers are given cards on which rules for working in the mines are written in the local Pashto language. They are not allowed to work during the time of prayers. The workers have also been warned they would be severely punished if they steal any stones.The workers are searched while entering and leaving the mines. Three to four miners make up a group and income from any precious stone found by them is divided among them equally after the Taliban retain one-third of the proceeds.
A miner said he can earn up to Rs 2,000 to Rs 3,000 a week in the mines. Another worker said that he and three colleagues started work a few weeks ago and had found one stone within a week. This was enough for meeting their daily requirements, he said.

ANP ministers, MPAs reach Dubai

PESHAWAR: Ministers and members of NWFP assembly belonging to the Awami National Party (ANP) reached Dubai on Wednesday to attend the party’s parliamentary meeting which was called by the president of ANP, Asfandyar Wali. The ANP’s meeting is taking place in Dubai at a time when NWFP is in the grip of several crises ranging from deteriorated law and order situation to financial challenges. In a notification issued by the NWFP government, Governor Owais Ahmed Ghani has sanctioned leave to 15 ministers of the provincial cabinet from March 24 to 31. According to sources, Senior Minister Bashir Ahmed Bilour will not attend the meeting and would be present in city. The opposition parties have termed it a joke with the people who were badly hit by present economic situation.

Load-shedding to affect exam results: Parents

Load-shedding to affect exam results: Parents F.P. Report
PESHAWAR: The spate of eight to ten hours power load-shedding continues in the Provincial metropolis causing great problems to the people besides paralyzing the routine life activities. The long hours and unannounced power outages were also adversely affecting the students in Peshawar district and other parts of NWFP as examinations of Matric and other classes are underway. Both the students and their parents have expressed fear that load-shedding could affect the results as their studies were affected due to power outages.Students of Matric exams were also being affected as electricity in the exam centres disappears for hours during their papers’ timings. Prolonged power cuts have become a routine matter in city and other districts of Province. Meanwhile, residents of Peshawar and its adjoining areas are experiencing power outages after every two hour, causing severe difficulties to people to carry on with their routine matters. Besides, there were also complaints of low voltage in some parts which caused damages to electrical appliances. The affected areas include Gulbahar, Rashidabad, Jehangirabad, University Town, Hayatabad, Nishtarabad, Sadder, Cantt., Gulberg, Nothia and others. The frequent hours-long electricity breakdowns have made the life miserable for residents of Peshawar and adjoining areas. Citizens have demanded of the government to take measures to end the load-shedding.

Syria's Economy Stumbling in the Right Direction

DAMASCUS -- With Syria now being viewed as a path through to Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran, foreign diplomats from states once typically hostile to Damascus have become a common sight here in recent weeks.
Coming back into the limelight has given Syria political clout, and Damascus is now looking to take advantage of positive remarks in the international media to quench its bad image. Taking advantage of these foreign visitors, the Syrian government has stressed the message that it is serious to liberalize its economic system.

Since Bashar Assad became president in 2000, the government has gradually been working to resurrect Syria's economy following 40 years of haphazard socialist practices by announcing dozens of multi-million dollar projects.

In one of several ambitious projects, a 52-story twin tower development of offices and public space for Damascus city center is timetabled to begin in 2014 at a proposed cost of $320 million reported the Syria Report, an independent business newsletter.

Last week the Damascus Securities Exchange opened, albeit belatedly, marking "an important turning point in the Syrian economy," according to one Syrian politician. Five of Syria's largest companies including the Bank of Syria and Overseas, Arab Bank Syria and United Group, a media corporation, have gone public. The market will be open for trading two days a week.

Javier Solana's recent visit to Damascus was preceded by European Commission officials who were in Syria last December to sign off on an updated version of an Association Agreement with the European Union.

One step taken to generate revenue for the government was to eliminate a subsidy on diesel which brought the state $20 million extra for 2008, and also saw it meet a key stipulation set out in World Trade Organization membership rules, an organization Syria is hoping over join in the next 12 to 18 months.

Abdullah Dardari, the deputy prime minister for economic affairs believes reform of Syria's financial sector has been the government's greatest achievement thus far.

"We have put great efforts into banking and insurance operations and it's worked out well so far," he said in an interview.

Banking institutions from Lebanon, Jordan and the Gulf, many with international banking facilities, have sprung up in urban centers across the country and with internet coverage expanding (mobile internet 3G technology has recently been made available in major cities), online banking facilities are being set in motion. Tax exemptions to encourage businesses have been passed into law and 'Shabaab', an initiative to promote entrepreneurship, has been introduced into second-level schools, noted Dardari.

In addition, a range of natural landscapes including deserts dotted with ancient ruins, an untouched Mediterranean coastline and centuries-old castles mean Syria's potential as an inimitable, cheap and off-the-trail tourist destination is evident.

Yet, problems aplenty remain.

Many of Syria's major tourist attractions lack modern infrastructure. By International Labor Organization figures, unemployment stands at 10 percent but even Dardari acknowledges the actual figure is at least double that. The country's dated and crumbling public education system produces too few graduates to match demand in the workplace.

"Most businesses are thirsty for labor. It is not that the economy is not generating enough jobs, it is. But such businesses require a different set of skills and this, providing a competent workforce, is what we must pursue," said Dardari.

Foreign Direct Investment has increased exponentially but still lags behind international standards and in one of many such cases across the country, a project by the Kuwaiti AREF Investment group announced in 2005 has yet to begin.

For Syrians themselves, substantial 'wasta' (influence) is something that elevates a few elite while disheartening many. Last month Hassan Makhlouf, chief of Syria's customs and a distant relation of the ruling family was dismissed from his post, charged with graft and has since had 137 properties belonging to him and his family seized according to Al-Thawra, a state-run newspaper. The detention has been viewed as a symbolic move by the government to prove that in this new drive to reform the Syrian economy, no one is beyond reach.

Tangled bureaucracy is something that may scare off foreign investors. An employee at a business consultancy in Damascus said it ordinarily takes two years for a business to pass all licensing hurdles while for foreign companies, taking cash out of the country is carefully regulated.

Dozens of business-related decrees are issued by the president every year, but actual implementation is a different story and the Association Agreement with the European Union will not allow for Syrian agricultural products to enter the lucrative European market.

Dardari is clear that transforming Syria into a modern and business-friendly country is not something that will happen overnight and Syrians themselves will have little choice but to adapt.

"People will have difficulty in accepting the changing role of the government," Dardari said, "but the time of viewing the state as a mother is over."

Russia to increase submarines in Black Sea Fleet

Russian Navy plans to commission new Lada-class vessels to the Black Sea Fleet, which is required to equipped with eight to ten submarines in active service, a senior Navy official said Tuesday. "We are planning to deploy additional submarines with the Black Sea Fleet, including new Lada-class vessels, but our plans are being hampered by Ukraine, which sees this as the deployment of new weaponry rather than an upgrade of the existing fleet," the RIA Novosti news agency quoted Oleg Burtsev, vice admiral and deputy head of the navy general staff, as saying. Based in Crimea, Ukraine, the Black Sea Fleet currently deploys one Project 877 Kilo class diesel-electric submarine, with another Project 641 Foxtrot class sub undergoing a long-term overhaul. The fleet uses some naval facilities in Crimea as part of a 1997 agreement, under which Ukraine agreed to lease the bases to Russia until 2017. Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko announced last year that his country would not extend the lease. The port of Novorossiisk would serve as an alternative to deploy additional submarines when the build-up of necessary infrastructure is completed, Burtsev said. the first Lada-lass diesel-electric submarine will be deployed in 2010.

Afghan war rages, the talking starts

From Dubai to the remote villages of the Pashtun people, an uneasy alliance of clerics, generals and terrorist paymasters is edging towards a diplomatic solution to end the insurgency. Jason Burke travels across Afghanistan to trace the complex web of negotiations that some say could end the war.
The red plastic sofas in the living room of Maulvi Mohammed Rahmani in Kabul's Deh Bori quarter are rarely empty these days. The pitted dirt road in front of the home of the tribal elder and former Taliban minister is as busy as the lumber yard behind it.

"For a long time, no one came to see me, then our Arab brothers started coming, then our European friends and now, most recently, the Americans," he said last week.

The cleric owes his sudden popularity to his leadership of a group of former Taliban who are now acting as a channel of communication to the insurgents waging a bitter war against coalition and Afghan forces across the south and east of Afghanistan.

Since Rahmani and several others travelled to Saudi Arabia last year for a first meeting aimed at preparing a dialogue, revealed by the Observer, initiatives to find a negotiated solution to the conflict in Afghanistan have gathered pace - now with the blessing of the new American administration.

Last week, US ambassador Bill Wood said that, although his government opposed anyone "shooting their way to power" and was against any agreement involving "power-sharing or an enclave for the Taliban", there was "room for discussion on the formation of political parties or running candidates for elections".

"Insurgencies are like all wars: they end when there is an agreement," Wood said in an interview in the vast, heavily guarded US embassy in Kabul. "[The Taliban] have said 'no start of negotiations without prior departure of foreign forces'. That's not serious. Let's get serious."

Such talk would have been inconceivable even six months ago. Now, in an astonishing U-turn, Kabul diplomats are privately discussing what concessions could conceivably be made to insurgents.

There is talk of the Afghan government releasing certain prisoners from detention centres in return for a halt to attacks on government buildings and infrastructure such as schools or roads; the removal of key insurgents from United Nations blacklists, which render them diplomatic outlaws; and even changes to the Afghan constitution to allow a "political wing" of the Taliban to integrate disaffected, ultra-conservative, rural Pashtun tribes - the insurgents' key constituency - into the political process.

The process has gathered pace since the meeting in Mecca last year. Dozens of such encounters between possible mediators are taking place.

Nothing involves direct talks - simply exploratory discussions involving trusted intermediaries such as Rahmani. Many meetings are held in Dubai, a two-hour flight from Kabul. Others involve tribal elders representing communities that have sided with the insurgents travelling to Kabul to talk to senior former Taliban figures or President Hamid Karzai's brother, Qayum.

Such trips are not without risk. Recently, a senior elder from the southern province of Helmand was arrested and imprisoned by American forces on his way to Kabul to negotiate, angering the Afghan intermediaries who had arranged the journey.

However, attempts to establish dialogue continue at a frenzied pace. In addition to contacts with the Taliban, overtures to mediate between other key insurgent leaders are being made.

Two weeks ago, the Observer has learnt, a meeting was held in Dubai with representatives of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a former prime minister and an Islamist warlord who has been fighting in alliance with Mullah Mohammed Omar's Taliban.

Though inconclusive, more such encounters are planned. "We have kept all channels of communication open," said Humayun Hamidzada, Karzai's spokesman, confirming the talks.

Rahmani, the former Taliban minister, said that Jalaluddin Haqqani, a powerful cleric and tribal leader in eastern Afghanistan, has also been approached. And visitors to Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, the former Taliban ambassador to Pakistan, who spent two years in Guantánamo Bay and who is now based in Kabul, have included scores of ambassadors as well as European Union and Nato officials. Abdullah Anas, a London-based former militant, is another channel of communication.

Despite the sudden enthusiasm for contacts with representatives of the Taliban, seasoned observers are wary about predicting their outcome for a number of reasons.

First, Afghan politicians, including the president, are in election mode. Polls are set for August and only a newly re-elected leader with a strong mandate could make the dramatic gesture necessary to establish a serious dialogue. Until then, no candidate will risk the votes of Afghanistan's ethnic minorities and women by reaching out to the Taliban. Analysts dismiss Karzai's previous loud offers to talk to Mullah Omar in Kabul as grandstanding.

Equally, the gap between insurgent demands and the government's position is vast. The mantra repeated by the Afghan government and British and Nato officials is that any reconciliation has to be in accordance with the Afghan constitution, ie that the Taliban have to stop fighting. "We are not going to say, 'OK, we will give you half the government," said Hamidzada, the government spokesman. Few expect the insurgents to drop their weapons any time soon.

Second, this is all very new. "The American position on war and peace is still developing," said Zaeef, the former Taliban ambassador. "We have to wait and see." A major review of US policy is expected in coming weeks.

Third, the Taliban are an extremely complicated and diverse phenomenon, with fighters with a range of motivations and from different backgrounds in their ranks. Though the former Taliban insist otherwise, it is not certain that they will all necessarily obey Mullah Omar, their nominal leader, if he did decide to accept a deal.

"We do not have a proper party on the other side to deal with," said Hamidzada. "They are a variety of groups with different hierarchies."

The Taliban recognise this. Last week, the Taliban leadership council, after some debate, accepted a request from the family of former president Daoud Khan for a 24-hour ceasefire to mark the reburial of their relatives' remains that were found recently in a communist-era mass grave. Though Taliban guns fell silent for the day in some areas, in others attacks continued.

While, as dozens of interviews with local officials and MPs reveal, the Taliban have made efforts to strengthen discipline over the winter, reshuffling their shadow administration in areas where they are strong and executing commanders who have not obeyed orders, it remains a problem.

The Taliban "governors" of Wardak and Logar provinces, neighbouring Kabul, were recently ordered to exchange posts, but both are resisting the order. Though intelligence sources say that complaints among frontline commanders about the senior leadership, common last year, have died away, the Taliban remain fragmented.

The final reason why the peace bids will probably fail is that the Taliban, whatever their internal problems, give little sign of believing they need to negotiate. "If they win, it is victory; if they are killed, it is victory," said Zaeef. From total defeat in 2001 through the grand offensive of 2006 to today's bloody stalemate, the insurgents have suffered tactical defeats and heavy casualties, but have made significant strategic progress.

Even General David McKiernan, the American who commands the 59,000 Nato troops in Afghanistan and the 14,000 US troops of Operation Enduring Freedom deployed along Afghanistan's frontier with Pakistan, admitted in an interview in his Kabul headquarters that "in some parts of the south and the east... we are not winning", although he points to the relative stability of much of the north and of cities such as Jalalabad, Mazar-e-Sharif and Herat as examples of progress.

Nato commanders hope the 17,000 new US troops being "surged" in coming months will make the crucial difference. Equally, the current weakness of the Afghan government - which, despite some islands of honesty and efficiency, remains riddled with corruption and incompetence - encourages the insurgents.

"This government does not have the moral authority needed to negotiate," said opposition MP Daoud Sultanzoy. One Nato officer defined "winning" as simply creating a "viable governance capacity at provincial and district levels". "Then we can think about leaving," he said.

Forty miles east of Kabul and its fevered speculations, 278 French infantrymen, 24 soldiers from the Afghan National Army and seven interpreters cluster in a new base perched high on a cliff above the town of Sorobi. Reached by steep tracks, ringed with barbed wire, the French base, like many Nato positions, is built over trenches and bunkers once occupied by Soviet troops.

The French arrived last summer - a new contribution to the 41-nation coalition decided by France's president, Nicolas Sarkozy, in the teeth of fierce domestic opposition. Sent to secure the rough mountain valleys and gorges around Sorobi, the troops ran into immediate trouble, losing 10 men in an ambush in the Uzbeen valley to the north.

One consequence, officers at the base said, was that early plans of leaving armoured vehicles in the base and patrolling "à la française" - rather than putting their own security first, "à l'américaine" - were ditched. The political fall-out of further casualties at home would be too damaging.

But the French, like troops elsewhere, have found it difficult to connect with locals. "Security will not be improved if development is not improved at the same time and political dialogue is not promoted," said Colonel Jean-Michel Baillat. 'But... we need deeper tribal knowledge and our reconstruction and development work is probably not on a scale that is meeting the needs."

In fact, the French budget for their zone, in which 140,000 people live, is €400,000 (£375,000). According to Baillat, "the security situation is so bad for three years that there has been no NGO or United Nations presence". However, a school has been restored within the seven-mile perimeter currently considered "secure" by the French, and a thriving cottage industry of honey production created.

The population of the two more prosperous of the three valleys around the French position pose little threat, said Colonel Franck Chatelus, who commands the troops. But Uzbeen is hostile. After a "clearing operation", the French called a shura, or council, to tell the locals that they were there to help and that they did not seek revenge for the previous year's deaths. "There was a muted response," Chatelus said.

Uzbeen is a good measure of the complexity of the situation in Afghanistan and the consequent difficulties of any negotiations or reconciliation process. Since the war against the Soviets, the valley has been a stronghold of commanders loyal to Hekmatyar, the very man to whom the Afghan government is now reaching out.

Hekmatyar's son-in-law, released from US detention in Afghanistan, recently travelled to London and attended at least one of the recent meetings with government intermediaries in Dubai.

But, on the ground, it is a local family, partly protected by a member of parliament who is a relative, who are behind much of the violence. "We see them driving around, but because they are unarmed we cannot touch them. One was locked up, but got out because of his connections," said one officer.

Much of the current thinking is focused on how to win over such lower-ranking commanders. In Helmand, the British are pioneering a new district council system that, even though it is aimed more at "community outreach" than reconciling local Taliban, is one way of establishing a dialogue at a grassroots level.

The Afghan government has sponsored a separate programme, designed at identifying mid-level commanders who could be brought over from the insurgents. In the eastern province of Nangahar, governor Gul Agha Sherzai, a potential election candidate, called a huge meeting of tribal elders last week and told all his district governors to find, contact and talk to the Taliban commanders.

One programme that most agree functions poorly is the official reconciliation process. Though 7,000 names are on its lists, most are foot-soldiers, of whom the insurgents have an apparently exhaustible supply. The new and controversial Afghan Public Protection Force, in which the young jobless men who constitute most of the recruits for the Taliban will be enrolled as auxiliary policemen, may help. But an increasingly brutal and technically competent Taliban have a power in the villages that is difficult to counter.

With talks unlikely to be fruitful, the current enthusiasm for dialogue may simply be a morale-booster for an international alliance badly in need of a sign that an endpoint - any endpoint - in Afghanistan is visible. Western objectives have been "relooked", General McKiernan said. The west is hoping that the coming election will "re-energise" the project, but Nato officers talk of achieving a "tipping point" in three to five years.

One critical question is how long domestic opinion in the west will back continued - indeed, increasing - expenditure of blood and treasure. Wood, the US ambassador, said that he "couldn't guarantee [US commitment] for the whole life of the sun", but that the US was in Afghanistan "for the long term". Few doubt, however, that international will is fickle at the best of times.

Just round the corner from the house of Maulvi Rahmani, the former Taliban mediator, lives Sediqa Mobariz, a member of parliament from the central region of Bamiyan, which is still peaceful. From the Hazaran minority, who suffered terrible ethnic violence under the Taliban, she has strong views about any dialogue. "As an Afghan woman, I don't think you can negotiate with the Taliban. They cannot forget the past and nor can we."

Rights group: Israel made illegal use of phosphorus shells in Gaza

The Israeli army unlawfully fired white phosphorus shells over densely populated areas of the Gaza Strip during its recent military offensive, needlessly killing and injuring civilians, U.S.-based rights group Human Rights Watch said Wednesday in a report.

Citing Israel's use of white phosphorus as evidence of war crimes, the group said the army knew the munitions threatened the civilian population but "deliberately or recklessly" continued to use them until the final days of the Dec. 27 - Jan. 18 operation "in violation of the laws of war."

It called on senior Israeli military commanders to be held to account, and urged the United States, which supplied the shells, to conduct its own investigation.


The Israel Defense Forces have announced an internal probe, the results of which have yet to be made public.

White phosphorus ignites on contact with oxygen and continues burning at up to 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit (816 degrees Celsius) until none is left or the oxygen supply is cut. It is often used to produce smoke screens, but can also be used as a weapon, producing extreme burns if it makes contact with skin.

When used in open areas, white phosphorus munitions are permissible under international law.

But Human Rights Watch said Israel "unlawfully" fired them over populated neighborhoods, killing and wounding civilians and damaging civilian structures, including a school, a market, a humanitarian aid warehouse and a hospital.

In Gaza, the Israeli military didn't just use white phosphorus in open areas as a screen for its troops," said senior Human Rights Watch researcher Fred Abrahams. "It fired white phosphorus repeatedly over densely populated areas, even when its troops weren't in the area and safer smoke shells were available. As a result, civilians needlessly suffered and died."

The group gave no precise casualty figures, citing the difficulty of determining in every case which burn injuries were caused by white phosphorous.


Human Rights Watch researchers found spent shells, canister liners, and dozens of burnt felt wedges containing white phosphorus on city streets, apartment roofs, residential courtyards and at a United Nations school.

The report documented several attacks involving white phosphorus, including one on January 4 that killed five members of Ahmad Abu Halima's family in northern Gaza, saying it found remnants of the substance at their home.

"I was talking with my father when the shell landed. It hit directly on my father and cut his head off," the 22-year-old said.

The rights' group said the army knew that white phosphorus threatened civilians, citing an internal medical report about the risk of "serious injury and death when it comes into contact with the skin, is inhaled or is swallowed."

If the Israeli army intended to use white phosphorus as a smokescreen, Human Rights Watch said it could have used non-lethal smoke shells produced by an Israeli company.

Israel launched the offensive with the declared aim of halting cross-border rocket fire by militants in the Hamas-ruled territory, home to 1.5 million Palestinians.

Over the 22 days of fighting, 1,417 Palestinians were killed, including 926 civilians, according to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights. Israel disputes those figures.

Israel has accused Hamas of putting civilians at risk by using them as "human shields" and by drawing Israeli forces into densely-populated areas.

Human Rights Watch said it found no evidence of Hamas using "human shields" in the cases it documented in the report.

In some areas, Palestinian fighters appeared to have been present, the group said, but added: "This does not justify the indiscriminate use of white phosphorus in a populated area."

Israel said during the war that it only used weapons in accordance with international law.

It is unclear how long the internal army investigation will take. Human Rights Watch said it doubted the probe would be thorough or impartial.

The IDF issued a response to the Human Rights Watch report, saying that at the conclusion of operation Cast Lead, the Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, ordered a number of investigations at the General Staff level, each lead by an officer of the rank of colonel.

The investigations aim to evaluate different aspects of the fighting during the operation, in addition to the operational investigations being conducted at the different command levels.

The IDF spokesperson announced during the operation that an investigative committee headed by a colonel would investigate allegations with regard to the use of ammunition containing elements of phosphorous.

This particular investigation is dealing with the use of ammunition containing elements of phosphorous, including, amongst others, the 155mm smoke shells which were referred to in the Human Rights Watch report. This type of ammunition disperses in the atmosphere and creates an effective smoke screen. It is used by many western armies, the IDF statement said.

The investigation is nearing its conclusion, and based on the findings at this stage, it is already possible to conclude that the IDF's use of smoke shells was in accordance with international law. These shells were used for specific operational needs only and in accord with international humanitarian law. The claim that smoke shells were used indiscriminately, or to threaten the civilian population, is baseless.

It should be noted that contrary to the claims in the report, the IDF statement continued, smoke shells are not an incendiary weapon. The third protocol of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) ? which defines particular limitations on incendiary weapons ? makes it clear that weapons intended for screening are not classified as incendiary weapons.

Palestinian children sing for Holocaust survivors

The Palestinian youths from a tough West Bank refugee camp stood facing the elderly Holocaust survivors on Wednesday, appearing somewhat defiant in a teenage sort of way. Then they began to sing.

The choir burst into songs for peace, bringing surprised smiles from the audience. But the event had another twist: Most of the Holocaust survivors did not know the youths were Palestinians from the West Bank, a rare sight in Israel these days. And the youths had no idea they were performing for people who lived through Nazi genocide - or even what the Holocaust was.

"I feel sympathy for them," said Ali Zeid, an 18-year-old keyboard player, who added that he was shocked by what he learned about the Holocaust, in which the Nazis killed 6 million Jews in their campaign to wipe out European Jewry.

"Only people who have been through suffering understand each other," said Zeid, who said his grandparents were Palestinian refugees forced to flee the northern city of Haifa during the war that followed Israel's creation in 1948.

The 13 musicians, aged 11 to 18, belong to Strings of Freedom, a modest orchestra from the Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank, the scene of a deadly 2002 battle between Palestinian militants and Israeli soldiers.

The event, held at the Holocaust Survivors Center in this tree-lined central Israeli town, was part of Good Deeds Day, an annual event run by an organization connected to billionaire Shari Arison, Israel's richest woman.

The two-hour meeting starkly highlighted how distant Palestinians and Israelis have become after more than eight years of bloody Palestinian militant attacks and deadly Israeli military reprisals.

Most of the Palestinian youths had not seen an Israeli civilian before - only gun-toting soldiers in military uniforms manning checkpoints, conducting arrest raids of wanted Palestinians or during army operations.

"They don't look like us," said Ahed Salameh, 12, who wore a black head scarf woven with silver.

Most of the elderly Israelis wore pants and T-shirts, with women sporting a smear of lipstick.

"Old people look different where we come from," Salameh said.

She said she was shocked to hear about the Nazi genocide against Jews. Ignorance and even denial of the Holocaust is widespread in Palestinian society.

Amnon Beeri of the Abraham Fund, which supports coexistence between Jews and Arabs, said most of the region's residents have no real idea about the other.

The youths said their feisty conductor, Wafa Younis, 50, tried to explain to them who the elderly people were, but chaos on the bus prevented them from listening.

The elderly audience said they assumed Arab children were from a nearby village - not from the refugee camp where 23 Israeli soldiers were killed, alongside 53 Palestinian militants and civilians, in several days of battle in April 2002.

Some 30 elderly survivors gathered in the center's hall as teenage boys and girls filed in 30 minutes late - delayed at an Israeli military checkpoint outside their town, they later explained.

Some of the young women wore Muslim head scarves - but also sunglasses and school ties.

As a host announced in Hebrew that the youths were from the Jenin refugee camp, there were gasps and muttering from the crowd. "Jenin?" one woman asked in jaw-dropped surprise.

Younis, from the Arab village of Ara in Israel, then explained in fluent Hebrew that the youths would sing for peace, prompting the audience to burst into applause.

"Inshallah," said Sarah Glickman, 68, using the Arabic term for God willing.

The encounter began with an Arabic song, "We sing for peace," and was followed by two musical pieces with violins and Arabic drums, as well as an impromptu song in Hebrew by two in the audience.

Glickman, whose family moved to the newly created Jewish state in 1949 after fleeing to Siberia to escape the Nazis, said she had no illusions the encounter would make the children understand the Holocaust. But she said it might make a small difference.

"They think we are strangers, because we came from abroad," Glickman said. "I agree: It's their land, also. But there was no other option for us after the Holocaust."

Later, she tapped her feet in tune as the teenagers played a catchy Mideast drum beat. After the event, some of the elderly Israelis chatted with students and took pictures together.

The encounter was not absent of politics. Younis dedicated a song to an Israeli soldier held captive by Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip - and also criticized Israel's occupation of the West Bank.

But she said the main mission of the orchestra, formed seven years ago to help Palestinian children overcome war trauma, was to bring people together.

"I'm here to raise spirits," Younis said. "These are poor, old people."

Hillary Clinton admits US blame for Mexico drug violence

America's "insatiable demand" for illegal drugs is to blame for much of the violence engulfing Mexico, Hillary Clinton has said.The US secretary of state also acknowledged America's "inability" to stop weapons being smuggled across the border from the US and being used by the drug cartels in a bloody turf war.Mrs Clinton made her candid remarks as she flew to Mexico City for a two-day visit where she will discuss US plans to ramp up border security with President Felipe Calderon. "Our insatiable demand for illegal drugs fuels the drug trade. Our inability to prevent weapons from being illegally smuggled across the border to arm these criminals causes the death of police officers, soldiers and civilians," she said during her flight to Mexico City."I feel very strongly we have a co-responsibility."She said US efforts to ban drugs such as cocaine and heroine had clearly not worked and it was unfair to blame Mexico for its drug cartel problem.Although Barack Obama has pledged to devote an additional 360 federal agents to border security, the US Congress this month trimmed the amount of drug aid money it will set aside this fiscal year to $300 million from $400 million last year.By contrast, President Felipe Calderon has spent more than $6.4 billion, assigning 45,000 troops and federal police, on fighting the cartels he tookd office in December 2006.Mexico has repeatedly said it cannot contain the increasingly brutal cartels, now armed with grenades and rocket launchers, if America does not do more to stop the drugs gangs buying guns in the US, where they are much easier to obtain."It's not only guns. It's night vision goggles. It's body armour," said Mrs Clinton. "These criminals are outgunning the law enforcement officials." More than 8,000 people have been killed in drug-related fighting since January 2008.

US offers cash rewards for Baitullah Mehsud

WASHINGTON: The United States on Wednesday offered $ 5 million each for information leading to Baitullah Mehsud and for Sirajuddin Haqqani and $1 million for Abu Yahya al-Libi.The offer, announced two days before the unveiling of the new US strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, indicates hardening of Washington’s stance against the militants hiding along the Pak-Afghan border.But reports attributed to senior US officials also indicate a willingness to include ‘reconcilable’ militants in the new peace process to be announced by President Barak Obama on Friday.While the United States has previously offered large cash rewards for terrorism suspects in the past as well, until recently they regarded Mehsud mainly as a threat to Pakistan.
Previous US drone attacks had avoided targeting Mehsud’s hideouts but this changed earlier this month when US drones also began to target Mehsud and his men.
The change reflects a US desire to work closely with Pakistan for eradicating all extremists, whether they target Pakistan or the United States.
On Wednesday afternoon, the US Department of State issued three brief statements, saying that it’s offering lucrative cash awards for information about the three suspects under its Rewards for Justice Programme. The programme offers cash rewards for information leading to the arrest, and/or conviction of dangerous criminals.
The State Department identified Baitullah Mehsud as the senior leader of the Taliban Movement of Pakistan. The statement noted that Mehsud is regarded as a key al Qaeda facilitator in South Waziristan. ‘Pakistani authorities believe that the January 2007 suicide attack against the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad was staged by militants loyal to Mehsud,’ the statement said.

‘Press reports also have linked Mehsud to the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and the deaths of other innocent civilians,’ the State Department noted.

The US government pointed out that Mehsud has also stated his intention to attack the United States. He has conducted cross-border attacks against US forces in Afghanistan, and poses a clear threat to American persons and interests in the region.

‘The United States is determined to bring Baitullah Mehsud to justice. We encourage anyone with information on Mehsud’s location to contact the nearest US embassy or consulate, any US military commander, or the Rewards for Justice staff,’ the department said.

Another statement, announced a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to the location, arrest, and/or conviction of Sirajuddin Haqqani. Sirajuddin Haqqani is a senior leader of ‘the Haqqani terrorist network’ founded by his father Jalaladin Haqqani. He maintains close ties to al Qaeda.

During an interview with an American news organisation, Haqqani admitted planning the Jan. 14, 2008 attack against the Serena Hotel in Kabul that killed six people, including American citizen Thor David Hesla.

Haqqani also admitted planning the April 2008 assassination attempt on Afghan President Hamid Karzai. He has coordinated and participated in cross-border attacks against US and Coalition forces in Afghanistan.

‘Sirajuddin Haqqani is believed to be located in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan,’ the State Department said.

The US government also authorised a reward of up to $1 million for information leading to Abu Yahya al-Libi, a prominent member of al Qaeda.

The State Department identified al-Libi as an Islamic scholar and a Libyan citizen who was captured by authorities in 2002 and imprisoned at Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan.

Al-Libi escaped in July 2005, and has since appeared in a number of propaganda videos, using his religious training to influence people and legitimise the actions of al Qaeda.

The State Department noted that al-Libi was a key motivator in the global jihadi movement and his messages ‘convey a clear threat to US persons or property worldwide.’ Al-Libi is believed to be in hiding in Afghanistan or Pakistan.

Since its inception in 1984, the Rewards for Justice Programme has paid more than $80 million to more than 50 persons who provided credible information that has resulted in the capture or death of terrorists or prevented acts of international terrorism.

Our Children Are Dying, Displaced Pakistanis Say

Their food, they say, is inedible. Their medicine has run out. And their children are dying.And so the thousands of Pakistanis living in tents in the Jelozai refugee camp just outside of Peshawar did the only thing they felt they could today, six months after they first started begging the government for help.
One protester was killed and another was injured in clashes that followed, the Northwest Frontier Province police chief, Malik Naveed Khan, told ABC News. His men used tear gas and live ammunition to suppress the crowds."Even animals won't eat what we are being given to eat here," Wali Gul, 35, told an ABC News reporter who visited the camp this evening. His anger was visible. "There is no medicine and we have lost our children because of lack of medical facilities.""They think they are doing us a favor by giving us food like beggars," Saeed Muhammad, 50, said, referring to the government. "They have received [hundreds of thousands] and [millions] of rupees from other countries to look after us. If they fail to deliver, it won't be good for them. May Allah's wrath fall on those who are subjecting us to this treatment."It was about 10 a.m. when thousands of internally displaced people in the Jalozai poured onto the main road leading to Peshawar, northwest Pakistan's largest city. They are a fraction of the half-million residents of Pakistan's tribal areas who have fled their homes in the last year as the Pakistani military launched military campaigns along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.These internally displaced people were from Bajaur, the northernmost tribal area, where Pakistani army and paramilitary forces have fought their single largest battle against the Taliban since Sept. 11. The battle began last August and was supposed to last four weeks. Hundreds of thousands of residents are still unable to return, even though last month the military announced the Taliban had "lost."Bajaur has been a touchstone for a Pakistani military trying to prove to the U.S. it is willing and able to defeat the Taliban -- just a few miles and across a porous border from thousands of American troops. The U.S. has lavished praise on the commander of the operation, Frontier Corps Inspector General Tariq Khan.But if the fight has been a touchstone for the army, the peace will be a touchstone for the government. The Pakistani military's counterinsurgency tactics are in their infancy, and during three separate trips to Bajaur, we clearly saw the only way they could fight an entrenched Taliban was with scorched-earth tactics. Where they fought, at least 80 percent of the mud homes that once stood have disappeared back into the ground, destroyed by American Cobra helicopters or even F-16s.As the "clear, hold, build" counterinsurgency doctrine suggests, army destruction must be followed by government construction. If it doesn't happen soon enough, the army warns the area could become a Taliban haven once again, militants praying on a population disappointed by a lack of government response.There were a few thousand people today who wanted to tell the government its response has been inadequate. One of them died doing so.

US missile strike kills six in Waziristan: officials

ISLAMABAD--A suspected US missile strike killed six in South Waziristan on Wednesday, security officials said.The missile struck a compound in the Makeen area, the officials said. There were also intelligence reports of an al Qaeda presence in the area."A predator strike was carried out in Makeen area, 12 kilometres (eight miles) northwest of Ladha. As a result, six have been killed," said a security official.

Pakistan govt in crisis after a year in office

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan's government marks one year in office Wednesday still battling to contain the political and security meltdown threatening to engulf the frontline state in the US-led "war on terror."
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani was sworn in on March 25, 2008 amid hopes democracy would rise from the ashes of military rule and the aftermath of the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.
A year on and insurgents are still fighting government forces, the economy has needed an international bailout and the nation's political leaders are at loggerheads.
"Upon coming into power, the government was faced with enormous political, economical and security challenges," Gilani acknowledged Wednesday.
"The high expectations held by the nation, having been through nearly a decade of military rule coupled with difficult times, meant the government was always going to be in for a fair amount of criticism."
Gilani's government, sworn in on March 31, 2008, hopes to secure a record aid package from the United States, which is desperate to stabilise a country whose border with Afghanistan is a safe haven for Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
Money and military hardware are the only way the weak administration can counter Pakistan's deepening troubles, officials say, in a country where bomb blasts and suicide attacks have killed 645 people over the past 12 months.
"Democratic institutions are functioning in the country but... the leadership gives no indication that they can handle economic, political and law and order issues effectively," said political analyst Hasan Askari.
Dreams of a national unity government vanished when Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-N walked out in August over the government's refusal to restore chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, sacked under emergency rule in 2007.
Gilani's flagship achievement -- reinstating Chaudhry -- amounted to little more than a dramatic U-turn designed to pull the nation back from the brink of chaos.
Although Gilani announced the decision, army chief of staff Ashfaq Kayani and US pressure were widely credited as the decisive factors.
"There would have been major confrontation on the deposed judge issue had Kayani and leaders of friendly countries not intervened -- which shows the leadership has poor capacity for crisis management," said Askari.
Despite repeated protests, US drone attacks on Taliban and Al-Qaeda safe havens have also continued in the northwest, killing more than 340 people and fanning hostility against the government and the United States.
Military offensives have beaten back extremists in some parts of the rugged tribal areas, but Afghan and US officials say that is not enough.
Only 160 kilometres (100 miles) from Islamabad, the Swat valley has gone from ski resort to a Taliban stronghold where the government in Islamabad has controversially agreed to Islamic law as the only justice system.
In the east, ties with rival India deteriorated in the wake of the November attacks on Mumbai that killed 165 people and which Pakistan admitted were at least partly plotted on its territory.
Hammering the nail in the coffin, a commando-style assault on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore earlier this month sentenced Pakistan to international sporting isolation.
"As far as law and order and the growing insurgency is concerned, the government does not have full freedom to handle it," said A.H. Nayyar from the Sustainable Development Policy Institute, alluding to the army.
In the southwest, a regional Baluch insurgency has gone unchecked and efforts to find American UN official John Solecki, the highest-profile foreign kidnapping in seven years, have come to nothing.
On the economic front, the International Monetary Fund was forced to bail out Pakistan, to stop the country defaulting on its debts, and last November approved a stand-by loan of 7.6 billion dollars.
Inflation stands at 20 percent and gross domestic product is estimated at 2.5 percent this fiscal year, down from 5.8 percent last year, according to official statistics.
"We should be prepared for the impact of global recession on our economy, just round the corner... The government's main achievement was its success in getting the IMF loan," said economist Kaiser Bengali.