Pakistan Military to get Rs 495 bn in fiscal year 2011-12.........WHATS ABOUT EDUCATION?????????????

DAILY TIMES

ISLAMABAD: Against the demand of Rs 586 billion for defence, the country’s armed forces will get Rs 495 billion budgetary allocation for the upcoming fiscal year 2011-12, official sources told Daily Times on Monday.

“The Ministry of Finance has set the defence budget at Rs 495 billion for the next financial year 2011-12, some 11.7 percent more than the budgetary allocation of Rs 443 billion for the outgoing fiscal year 2010-11,” the sources added. The current budgetary allocation of Rs 495 billion is for the three armed forces – Pakistan Army, Pakistan Navy and Pakistan Air Force – for the fiscal year 2011-12.

The sources informed that the three armed forces had worked out their defence budget needs at Rs 586 billion for the next fiscal year, however, the Ministry of Defence had recommended an allocation of Rs 525 billion for defence purposes for next the fiscal year.

Keeping in view the financial constraints faced by the country, especially after the floods, the Ministry of Finance has decided to keep the defence budget at Rs 495 billion for the next fiscal year.

The sources further informed that allocation for Armed Forces Development Plan (AFDP) which amounts at Rs 120 billion annually and around Rs 125 billion expenditures on the war against terror (later reimbursed from Coalition Support Fund) would be over and above the defence budget allocation of Rs 495 billion for the next fiscal year 2011-12, the sources explained.

The development budget of the Ministry of Defence for the next fiscal year 2011-12 would be allocated separate amount.

The ministry had allocated Rs 443 billion for defence budget for the ongoing fiscal year 2010-11 and some Rs 331.5 billion has been spent during the first nine months (July-March) period of the ongoing fiscal year. Some Rs 112 billion is available for defence expenditure for remaining (April-June) period of the ongoing fiscal year.

'Bahrain, Saudi regimes to be sued'

A group of international lawyers are to file a “serious complaint” against the Saudi and Bahraini regimes by the end of May over their violent clampdowns on Bahraini people, an international lawyer says.


“There is a lawsuit being prepared against the monarchy [of Bahrain] and the Saudis, naming individuals, being filed in the American court through the American legal system,” Franklin Lamb, an international lawyer, told Press TV on Monday.

“That will be a very serious complaint in the Federal district court and that will apply the standards of law,” he pointed out.

“We will get it filed before the end of this month,” and then a group of five international lawyers will go to the Lebanese capital, Beirut, to hold a press conference on the issue, he went on to say.

Lamb noted that the complaint will be filed based on “a very powerful law called the 1961 Foreign Assistance Act that requires all American aid cut off, in this case to Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, if they engage in a serial human and civil rights violation.”

So far, the law has been applied 14 times against different countries and “Bahrain is absolutely vulnerable to this lawsuit,” the activist added.

Lamb pointed to another petition already filed with the International Criminal Court against the Manama regime, arguing, “I do not think it will go anywhere, because there were several defects in that filing.”

He criticized the United States over its role in violent crackdowns on the popular revolution in Bahrain.

“Obviously, the Americans are the ones most responsible indirectly because of the support [for the Manama regime]. Their fear now really is that if there is a regime change they will lose the base for the Fifth Fleet,” the activist added.

Lamb argued that even if their legal campaign does not succeed, it will still be beneficial to the popular movement in Bahrain, because “It will give the American public and the media of the world a chance to learn the details and because of the jurisdiction we can submit voluminous filings.”

Since mid-February, thousands of anti-government protesters in Bahrain have poured into the streets, calling for an end to the Al Khalifa dynasty, which has ruled the country for almost forty years.

On March 13, Saudi-led forces were dispatched to the Persian Gulf island at Manama's request to quell the countrywide protests.

According to local sources, dozens of people have been killed and hundreds arrested so far during the government clampdown on the peaceful demonstrations.

Bahrain is home to the US Navy Fifth Fleet.

U.S. Braced for Fights With Pakistanis in Bin Laden Raid

President Obama insisted that the assault force hunting down Osama bin Laden last week be large enough to fight its way out of Pakistan if confronted by hostile local police officers and troops, senior administration and military officials said Monday.

In revealing additional details about planning for the mission, senior officials also said that two teams of specialists were on standby: One to bury Bin Laden if he was killed, and a second composed of lawyers, interrogators and translators in case he was captured alive. That team was set to meet aboard a Navy ship, most likely the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson in the North Arabian Sea.

Mr. Obama’s decision to increase the size of the force sent into Pakistan shows that he was willing to risk a military confrontation with a close ally in order to capture or kill the leader of Al Qaeda.

Such a fight would have set off an even larger breach with the Pakistanis than has taken place since officials in Islamabad learned that helicopters filled with members of a Navy Seals team had flown undetected into one of their cities, and burst into a compound where Bin Laden was hiding.

One senior Obama administration official, pressed on the rules of engagement for one of the riskiest clandestine operations attempted by the C.I.A. and the military’s Joint Special Operations Command in many years, said: “Their instructions were to avoid any confrontation if at all possible. But if they had to return fire to get out, they were authorized to do it.”

The planning also illustrates how little the administration trusted the Pakistanis as they set up their operation. They also rejected a proposal to bring the Pakistanis in on the mission.

Under the original plan, two assault helicopters were going to stay on the Afghanistan side of the border waiting for a call if they were needed. But the aircraft would have been about 90 minutes away from the Bin Laden compound.

About 10 days before the raid, Mr. Obama reviewed the plans and pressed his commanders as to whether they were taking along enough forces to fight their way out if the Pakistanis arrived on the scene and tried to interfere with the operation.

That resulted in the decision to send two more helicopters carrying additional troops. These followed the two lead Black Hawk helicopters that carried the actual assault team. While there was no confrontation with the Pakistanis, one of those backup helicopters was ultimately brought in to the scene of the raid when a Black Hawk was damaged while making a hard landing.

“Some people may have assumed we could talk our way out of a jam, but given our difficult relationship with Pakistan right now, the president did not want to leave anything to chance,” said one senior administration official, who like others would not be quoted by name describing details of the secret mission. “He wanted extra forces if they were necessary.”

With tensions between the United States and Pakistan escalating since the raid, American officials on Monday sought to tamp down the divisions and pointed to some encouraging developments.

A United States official said that American investigators would soon be allowed to interview Bin Laden’s three widows, now being held by Pakistani authorities, a demand that Mr. Obama’s national security adviser, Thomas E. Donilon, made on television talk shows on Sunday.

American officials say the widows, as well as a review of the trove of documents and other data the Seals team collected from the raid, could reveal important details, not only about Bin Laden’s life and activities since he fled into Pakistan from Afghanistan in 2001, but also information about Qaeda plots, personnel and planning.

“We believe that it is very important to maintain the cooperative relationship with Pakistan precisely because it’s in our national security interest to do so,” said the White House spokesman, Jay Carney.

In an effort to help mend the latest rupture in relations, the C.I.A. director, Leon E. Panetta, will talk soon with his counterpart, Lt. Gen. Ahmad Shuja Pasha, head of the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate, or ISI, “to discuss the way forward in the common fight against Al Qaeda,” an American official said.

On Sunday, Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called the Pakistani Army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani. “Mullen just wanted to check in with him,” said an American military official. “The conversation was civil, but sober, given the pressure that the general is under right now.”

In describing the mission, the officials said that American surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft were watching and listening to how Pakistan’s police forces and military responded to the raid. That determined how long the commandos could safely remain on the ground going through the compound collecting computer hard drives, thumb drives and documents.

American forces were under strict orders to avoid engaging with any Pakistani forces that responded to the commotion at the Bin Laden compound, senior administration officials said.

If a confrontation appeared imminent, there were contingency plans for senior American officials, including Admiral Mullen, to call their Pakistani counterparts to avert an armed clash.

But when he reviewed the plans, Mr. Obama voiced concern that this was not enough to protect the troops on the mission, administration officials said.

In planning for the possible capture of Bin Laden, officials decided they would take him aboard a Navy ship to preclude battles over jurisdiction.

The plan, officials said, was to do an initial interrogation for any information that might prevent a pending attack or identify the location of other Qaeda leaders.

“There was a heck of a lot of planning that went into this for almost any and all contingencies, including capture,” one senior administration official said.

In the end, the team organized to handle his death was called into duty. They did a quick forensics study of the body, washed it, and buried it at sea.

But the officials acknowledged that the mission always was weighted toward killing, given the possibility that Bin Laden would be armed or wearing an explosive vest.

Dreams from Kabul

Hoping to create a more positive image of their country, a Kabul-based Afghan rock band livened up the weekend for the city’s music lovers at a local cafÈ with English and Dari songs, some of which promoted peace and freedom.

The band, consisting of three Afghani youngsters, is rather aptly called Kabul Dreams’. Siddique Ahmed is the bass guitarist for the Indie-rock band; Mujtaba Habibi is on drums and Suleiman Qardash plays the guitar and provides the vocals.

The band flew in from across the western border to perform at the city’s Base Rock Cafe. It will stage performances for two days and sing 10 English songs as well as numbers written in the Dari language. The music played by this Afghan band was highly regarded by the music enthusiasts who had gathered to witness the performance.

Inspired mostly by the West, the band prefers to play independent or indie rock music. However, the group has also composed some songs in the Dari and Uzbek languages. “Most of our songs in the local language promote positive notions such as peace, freedom and friendship. We want to portray the softer, more positive side of out country,” said Qardash. The name of the band signifies the dreams and aspirations of the youth living in the war-ravaged country of Afghanistan.

Kabul Dreams dates back to 2008 when all the three band members were returning to their home soil after they had fled to avoid the Soviet War which broke out in 1988. The seed to start off a proper band was planted in Qardash’s head in late December 2008. The vocalist had been playing with a local band in Afghanistan called ‘Signal Fire’.

“We met a gathering where the three of us decided to start a music band. It was a pleasant encounter and we needed somebody like Suleiman Qardash who can compose as well as sing since Mujtaba and I only play instruments,” shared Ahmed.

The global community tends to think of Afghanistan as a country with a closed society and Kabul Dreams intends to change that perception. “The younger generation of Afghans enjoys western music and always welcomes our tunes. They are evolving as time goes on,” Ahmed highlighted, while sharing his views on the youth of his country. He added that despite the ban imposed by the Taliban for a certain period of time, Afghans always appreciated good music.

Besides Kabul Dreams, there are around seven other underground bands which are equally active in Afghanistan, which reflects the growing popularity of western music among the Afghan youth. “Apart from us, there are others that are based in Kabul, while one of the bands is from Herat.”

Ahmed had moved with his family to Islamabad in 1989, where he lived with his family for 15 years while his country was fending off an invasion from the Soviet Union. When the situation improved, Ahmed returned to Kabul in 2004 and has been living there since.

Qardash returned to his home country a few years later in 2007 after living in Uzbekistan for 10 years. On the other hand, the drummer Mujtaba Habibi had never been to his ancestral town of Kabul until his family returned in 2002 from Iran.

Although music is their passion, the three band members are also completing their Bachelors in Kabul. Ahmed and Habibi are doing their Bachelors in social science, while Qardash is studying economics.

Apart from studies and music, the band members keep themselves busy by working in the Afghan media. Qardash is a news anchor at a private channel, whereas Habibi and Ahmed are producers for a music show on one of the local radio stations.

Kabul Dreams has already performed in Istanbul, Delhi and Jaipur. Although the band has not played in other cities of Afghanistan other than Kabul, it intends to perform in places such as Herat in the future.

Part of their future plans also involves the launch of a music album that will contain 12 tracks. The band intends to record these songs abroad. “Since we do not have good recording studios in Afghanistan, we are planning to record these songs abroad. However, we are yet to decide where these tracks would be recorded.”

Some of the tracks have already been played at various performances in Afghanistan, but the album will contain some exclusive numbers, stressed Ahmed. The band has already introduced its extended play (EP) album, which consists of five English songs and was launched as a promotional exercise.

Afghanistan to play three one-dayers in Pakistan

Afghanistan will play three one-day matches against a second-tier Pakistani team later this month, becoming the first international side to tour Pakistan in more than two years.

The tour will include a game in Abbottabad, the city where US Special Forces last week found and killed Osama bin Laden.

International cricket has been suspended in Pakistan over security fears since militants attacked the Sri Lankan team bus in March 2009.

The attacks, which killed eight people and wounded seven Sri Lankan players and their assistant coach, prompted the International Cricket Council (ICC) to strip Pakistan of its share of matches for the 2011 World Cup.

Pakistan and Afghanistan officials hope the tour will encourage other international teams to visit.

"It was decided that the Afghanistan national team will tour Pakistan for a series of three one-day matches against the Pakistan ?A? team," said a Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) statement.

The Afghan team will arrive on May 24 before playing matches in Faisalabad the following day, Rawalpindi on May 27 and Abbottabad on May 29.

Pakistan has been at the forefront in helping its neighbour improve its promising cricket team. Most Afghan players learnt the game as refugees in camps in Pakistan after the Soviet invasion in 1979.

Afghanistan qualified for the World Twenty20 in the West Indies last year and the same year won the Inter-Continental Cup, meant for Associated countries of the International Cricket Council.

The Afghan team is coached by former Pakistan wicket-keeper and ex-captain Rashid Latif.

Bahrain detain Shiite schoolgirls, teachers

Empowered by a 6-week-old state of emergency, the Sunni minority government of Bahrain has arrested scores of Shiite women teachers and schoolgirls, held them for days in prison and subjected them to physical and verbal abuse, according to victims, human-rights advocates and a former member of parliament.

In the fast-expanding systematic mistreatment of Shiites here, some observers say the red line will be sexual abuse, a step that if taken could provoke violence between the Muslim sects..

At least 150 women have been arrested, and at least 17 remain in custody, according to al-Wefaq, the moderate Shiite political organization. Nabeel Rajab, president of the independent Bahrain Center for Human Rights, thinks the number is much higher.

Yasmeen, 16 — McClatchy is withholding her real name to protect her from retribution — was ordered from her school April 26 and held three days with four other teenage girls. She said that on the drive to police headquarters, police threatened to rape them and said they were not true Muslims.

She said a police interrogator accused her of being a "muta," or "temporary wife" and of walking on a picture of Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, the Sunni king of this small Gulf island state.

The king Sunday announced he would lift emergency rule two weeks early on June 1, hours after the start of a closed-door trial of activists, in what appeared to be a bid to display confidence that authorities have smothered an uprising similar to those in Tunisia and Egypt that have swept the Arab world.

The political turmoil forced Bahrain to call off the March 13 Bahrain Grand Prix auto race. Last week, Formula One's governing body gave Bahrain until June 3 to decide if a new date could be set for this year.

Pakistan's PM to address nation on bin Laden death

Political rivals took aim at Pakistan's leaders on Monday over the killing of Osama bin Laden, compounding U.S. pressure over the al Qaeda leader's hideout, as the prime minister prepared to address parliament on the crisis for the first time.

Pakistan's main opposition party is stepping up calls for the prime minister and president to resign over the breach of sovereignty by U.S. special forces who slipped in from Afghanistan to storm the compound where bin Laden was holed up.

"We want resignations, not half-baked explanations," an official of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League told the News daily.

Pakistan welcomed the death of bin Laden, who plotted the September 11, 2001, airliner attacks on the United States, as a step in the fight against militancy but also complained that the U.S. helicopter raid to kill him was a violation of its sovereignty.

Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani, who will make his statement when parliament sits at 1200 GMT, is expected to deliver a stern warning against further military missions inside Pakistan by foreign forces.

The incident has added to strains in ties between Islamabad and Washington, which are crucial to combating Islamist militants and the war in Afghanistan.

TENSE RELATIONS WITH WASHINGTON

Relations were already fragile after a string of diplomatic disputes over issues including a big attack by a U.S. drone aircraft in March and Raymond Davis, a CIA contractor who shot dead two Pakistanis in the city of Lahore in January.

Potentially stirring tension further, a Pakistani TV channel and a newspaper published what they said was the name of the undercover CIA station chief in Islamabad.

The U.S. embassy declined to comment, but said no one of that name worked at the mission in Pakistan.

Last year, after the chief of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency was named in a U.S. civil case over attacks on the Indian city of Mumbai, the then-head of the CIA's Islamabad station was named by Pakistani media and he was forced to leave the country.

Islamabad has been embarrassed by the discovery of the world's most-wanted man in a high-walled compound in Abbottabad town, just 50 km (30 miles) north of the capital and a short distance from Pakistan's main military academy. It has led to accusations of either incompetence on the part of its intelligence service, or complicity in sheltering him.

"If he was really living in that compound for five years ... then why didn't our agencies discover him?" former foreign minister Khursheed Mehmood Kasuri told reporters. "This has given anti-Pakistani elements a chance to ridicule us."

Gilani has blamed bin Laden's evasion of capture for nearly a decade since the September 11 attacks on a "global intelligence failure," and the United States has stopped short of accusing Pakistan of providing shelter to bin Laden.

OBAMA SUSPECTS SUPPORT NETWORK

U.S. President Barack Obama said on Sunday that bin Laden likely had "some sort" of a support network inside Pakistan, but added it would take investigations by Pakistan and the United States to find out just what the nature of that support was.

"We think that there had to be some sort of support network for bin Laden inside of Pakistan. But we don't know who or what that support network was," Obama said. [nN08167915]

"We don't know whether there might have been some people inside of government, people outside of government, and that's something that we have to investigate, and more importantly, the Pakistani government has to investigate," he added.

The government's opponents at home are incensed more about the humiliation of an unannounced swoop by helicopter-borne foreign forces in Pakistan than they are about the possibility that establishment insiders knew where bin Laden was hiding.

"I think it is a big blow to Pakistan's sovereignty, Pakistan's independence and Pakistan's self-respect," former prime minister Sharif told reporters in Lahore. "Pakistan is in a grave crisis and is surrounded by big danger."

Suspicion has deepened that the pervasive ISI, which has a long history of contacts with militant groups, may have had ties with the al Qaeda leader -- or that some of its agents did.

Talat Masood, a retired general and defense analyst, said that if there was official collusion to keep bin Laden secure it was most likely provided at a local level.

"I feel definitely there were influential people who were protecting him," he told Reuters. "I believe there was real ignorance at the highest level but there was collusion at the local level."

DOUBTS ABOUT BIN LADEN'S INFLUENCE

Pakistani security officials reacted with skepticism to a U.S. assertion that bin Laden was actively engaged in directing his far-flung network from his Abbottabad compound.

Washington has said that, based on a trove of information that would fill a small college library seized in the raid, the hide-out was an "active command and control center" for al Qaeda where he was involved in plotting attacks on the United States.

Pakistani officials said the fact that there was no Internet connection or even telephone line into the compound where he was hiding raised doubts about his centrality to al Qaeda.

"It sounds ridiculous," said a senior Pakistani intelligence official. "It doesn't sound like he was running a terror network."

Analysts have long maintained that, years before bin Laden's death, al Qaeda had fragmented into a decentralized group that operated tactically without him.

Barack Obama queries Pakistan's role in hiding bin Laden

President Barack Obama has suggested for the first time that “people inside of government” in Pakistan could have helped to harbour Osama bin Laden. he comments, the strongest about Pakistan made by Mr Obama so far, came as his administration ramped up pressure on Islamabad for a full investigation into who gave him sanctuary so close to Islamabad

He said: “We think that there had to be some sort of support network for bin Laden inside of Pakistan. But we don’t know who or what that support network was.”

“We don’t know whether there might have been some people inside of government, people outside of government, and that’s something that we have to investigate and, more importantly, the Pakistani government has to investigate.”

In an interview with CBS News, Mr Obama confirmed that the US would not be releasing the photographs of bin Laden’s body.

He said: “Keep in mind that we are absolutely certain this was him. We’ve done DNA sampling and testing. And so there is no doubt that we killed Osama bin Laden. It is important for us to make sure that very graphic photos of somebody who was shot in the head are not floating around as an incitement to additional violence. As a propaganda tool. You know, that’s not who we are. You know, we don’t trot out this stuff as trophies. Mr Obama said: “There’s no doubt that Bin Laden is dead. Certainly there’s no doubt among al-Qaeda members that he is dead. And so we don’t think that a photograph in and of itself is going to make any difference.”

On Friday al-Qaeda released a statement confirming bin Laden’s death and promising to release his last tape. On Sunday an Islamist website claimed to have a copy of the audio recording, which was addressed to President Barack Obama.

In it bin Laden said: “America will not be able to dream of security until we live in security in Palestine. It is unfair that you live in peace while our brothers in Gaza live in insecurity.”

“Accordingly, and with the will of God, our attacks will continue against you as long as your support for Israel continues.”

Tom Donilon, President Barack Obama’s National Security Adviser, demanded that Pakistan allow the CIA to question the three widows of bin Laden left behind in his compound after last Sunday’s raid.

He told NBC that the US hadn’t “seen evidence” of Pakistani collusion, hinting that the White House was far from convinced on the issue.

“And they need to provide us with intelligence, by the way, from the compound that they’ve gathered, including access to Osama bin Laden’s three wives who they have in custody.”

Pakistan had been holding three of Osama bin Laden’s widows and eight of his children since the American raid that killed the Saudi jihadist, an adult son, a woman and two brothers who owned the compound.

Amal Ahmed Abdul Fatah, 27, his fifth and youngest wife was shot in the leg as she attempted to protect her husband. The Yemeni woman is said to have told her Pakistani interrogators that she had lived in the Abbottabad compound for six years.

On Saturday the US released five video clips, one of which showed bin Laden in his Pakistan compound watching news coverage of himself on a small television. He was wrapped in a blanket and sporting an unkempt grey-white beard in an image very different to those on the tapes he recorded for his al-Qadea followers.

The footage was part of a large haul of intelligence discovered at the compound. Mr Donilon said yesterday: “This is the largest cache of intelligence derived from the scene of any single terrorist. It’s about the size, the CIA tells us, of a small college library.”

The Pentagon said that the evidence showed bin Laden was running a “command and control” centre from the compound and was still a central part of masterminding al-Qaeda plots.

Liam Fox, the Defence Secretary, said on Sunday that bin Laden’s death was no cause for complacency. “Clearly what it says is al-Qaeda is still alive and well and still poses a threat not only to the UK but to all free countries in the world.

“We do need to maintain our guard and we have to watch countries like the Yemen, which is slowly declining and possibly falling into a failed state, which of course would give a boost to al-Qaeda. We have to keep up our guard in a lot of places and it is not an option for us.”

He said he would be visiting the US for discussions on the al-Qaeda threat in two weeks.

Pakistan to examine bin Laden raid

Osama responsible for spreading terrorism

Senior Minister Bashir Ahmad Bilour on Sunday said Osama bin Ladin was enemy of peace and was responsible for spreading militancy and terrorism in the world.Talking to media at the residence of Provincial Minister for Agriculture Arbab Ayub Jan, after a blast out side the house of agriculture minister, Bashir Bilour condemned the blast and termed it a cowardly act on the part of militants.He said Osama was responsible for the spreading militancy in Pakistan which has deteriorated the law and order situation in the country over the years. Today we were fighting a third world war on our land. But the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were totally supporting the government which helped in defeating terrorists and bringing peace in most of the province, he added.Speaking about the attack on the house of Agriculture Minister Arbab Ayub Jan, Bashir Bilour said ANP since the day it had come into power was facing a lot of such incidents and had sacrificed more than any other party in the war against terror. He said the incident another cowardly act in which three innocent people received injuries.Meanwhile Minster for Information Mian Iftikhar Hussain said after the death of Osama one of the main chapters of terrorism was closed. Terming Osama’s death as a good news for the whole world Iftikhar said it was due to Osama that large number of innocent people died in Pakistan and Afghanistan.He said the presence of Osama in Pakistan was a grave question and the government should to give its answer. ANP was giving sacrifices in the war against terrorism not only to achieve peace in the country but also for the sovereignty of Pakistan.He demanded the federal government to called explanation from America about the Abbottabad operation.He said the government wanted to root out terrorism from Pakistan but for this purpose, the Pakistani government must to make a straight and clear cut policy.

Pakistan's `Banned` groups

Dawn.com
IN Pakistan, supposedly `proscribed` organisations not only kill in cold blood and repeatedly get away with it, they also appear to be free to hold rallies and organise meetings — even in the country`s largest city — where their leaders can express their views. Two events that occurred on Friday amply back up this claim. The first was an early morning attack in Quetta in which some members of the Shia Hazara community were killed and a large number injured. A spokesman for the shadowy sectarian terror outfit Lashkar-i-Jhangvi claimed responsibility for the attack. The other event was a rally taken out in Karachi after Friday prayers. Organised to eulogise Osama bin Laden and to “show solidarity with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia”, the rally made news when it was disrupted by gunfire. The gathering, organised by Jamaatud Dawa, considered a front for the banned Lashkar-i-Taiba, was attended by leaders and supporters of a number of sectarian and jihadi outfits, including the Ahl-i-Sunnat Wal Jamaat, the working title of Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan which is also blacklisted.

The above are among the most recent examples of the ease with which banned outfits can function in the country with their leaders operating freely. The problems religious militancy has caused in this country have been enumerated countless times. Yet the bans and the action taken by the state against these concerns have been cosmetic and ineffective. Action is taken by the authorities only when there is external or internal pressure, usually following a major act of terrorism. Despite the bans, which date back to the Musharraf regime, the organisations resurface with new names and carry on as usual; this exercise fools no one.

If the state — specifi-cally the security establishment — is interested in rooting out militancy, it must do several things. The camps where extre-mists are trained must be dismantled while the militants` sources of funding, whether foreign or local, must be identified so that their access to funds can be cut off. The government must also plug legal loopholes to bring militant leaders to justice; at present, cases are either not registered or the state shows little motivation in pursuing them. Though tracking down each and every member of a sectarian or jihadi outfit is not possible, we feel that successfully prosecuting militant leaders and ideologues may go a long way towards compromising their ability to spread havoc. The twin ogres of sectarianism and jihadi militancy have done enough harm to Pakistan. It is time the state took serious steps to put these violent concerns permanently out of business, instead of merely `banning` them on paper.

U.S. Tells Pakistan to Name Agents

Obama administration has demanded the identities of some of their top intelligence operatives as the United States tries to determine whether any of them had contact with Osama bin Laden or his agents in the years before the raid that led to his death early Monday morning in Pakistan.

The officials provided new details of a tense discussion between Pakistani officials and an American envoy who traveled to Pakistan on Monday, as well as the growing suspicion among United States intelligence and diplomatic officials that someone in Pakistan’s secret intelligence agency knew of Bin Laden’s location, and helped shield him.

Obama administration officials have stopped short of accusing the Pakistani government — either privately or publicly — of complicity in the hiding of Bin Laden in the years after the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. One senior administration official privately acknowledged that the administration sees its relationship with Pakistan as too crucial to risk a wholesale break, even if it turned out that past or present Pakistani intelligence officials did know about Bin Laden’s whereabouts.

Still, this official and others expressed deep frustration with Pakistani military and intelligence officials for their refusal over the years to identify members of the agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate, who were believed to have close ties to Bin Laden. In particular, American officials have demanded information on what is known as the ISI’s S directorate, which has worked closely with militants since the days of the fight against the Soviet army in Afghanistan.

“It’s hard to believe that Kayani and Pasha actually knew that Bin Laden was there,” a senior administration official said, referring to Pakistan’s army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, and the ISI director-general, Lt. Gen. Ahmad Shuja Pasha. But, added the official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the diplomatic sensitivity of the issue, “there are degrees of knowing, and it wouldn’t surprise me if we find out that someone close to Pasha knew.”

Already, Pakistani news outlets have been speculating that General Pasha, one of the most powerful figures in Pakistan, may step down as a consequence of the Bin Laden operation.

The increasing tensions between the United States and Pakistan — whose proximity to Afghanistan makes it almost a necessary ally in the American and allied war there — came as Al Qaeda itself acknowledged on Friday the death of its leader. The group did so while vowing revenge on the United States and its allies.

Pakistani investigators involved in piecing together Bin Laden’s life during the past nine years said this week that he had been living in Pakistan’s urban centers longer than previously believed.

Two Pakistani officials with knowledge of the continuing Pakistani investigation say that Bin Laden’s Yemeni wife, one of three wives now in Pakistani custody since the raid on Monday, told investigators that before moving in 2005 to the mansion in Abbottabad where he was eventually killed, Bin Laden had lived with his family for nearly two and a half years in a small village, Chak Shah Mohammad, a little more than a mile southeast of the town of Haripur, on the main Abbottabad highway.

In retrospect, one of the officials said, this means that Bin Laden left Pakistan’s rugged tribal region sometime in 2003 and had been living in northern urban regions since then. American and Pakistani officials had thought for years that ever since Bin Laden disappeared from Tora Bora in Afghanistan, he had been hiding in the tribal regions straddling the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.

A former Pakistani official noted that Abbottabad, the site of the Pakistani equivalent of the West Point military academy, is crawling with security guards and military officials who established a secure cordon around the town, raising questions of how the officials could not know there was a suspicious compound in their midst.

“If he was there since 2005, that is too long a time for local police and intelligence not to know,” said Hassan Abbas, a former Pakistani official now teaching at Columbia University.

Mr. Abbas said there was a tight net of security surrounding Abbottabad because Pakistani officials were concerned about terrorist attacks on sensitive military installations in the area.

Art Keller, a former officer of the Central Intelligence Agency who worked on the hunt for Bin Laden from a compound in the Waziristan region of Pakistan in 2006, said the Qaeda founder’s choice of the garrison town of Abbottabad as a refuge in 2005 raised serious questions. Bin Laden certainly knew of the concentration of military institutions, officers and retirees in the town — including some from the ISI’s S directorate, Mr. Keller said. And because the military has also been a target of militant attacks in recent years, the town has a higher level of security awareness, checkpoints and street surveillance than others.

If Bin Laden wanted to relocate in a populated area of Pakistan to avoid missiles fired from American drones, Mr. Keller said, he had many choices. So Mr. Keller questioned why Bin Laden would live in Abbottabad, unless he had some assurance of protection or patronage from military or intelligence officers. “At best, it was willful blindness on the part of the ISI,” Mr. Keller said. “Willful blindness is a survival mechanism in Pakistan.”

The trove of information taken by the commandos from the compound occupied by Bin Laden may answer some of these questions, and perhaps even solve the puzzle of where he has been in recent years.

A senior law enforcement official said Friday that the F.B.I. and C.I.A. had rapidly assembled small armies of analysts, technical experts and translators to pore over about 100 thumb drives, DVDs and computer disks, along with 10 computer hard drives, 5 computers and assorted cellphones. Analysts are also sifting through piles of paper documents in the house, many of which are in Arabic and other languages that need to be translated.

In Washington and New York alone, several hundred analysts, technical experts and other specialists are working round the clock to review the trove of information. “It’s all hands on deck,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the continuing investigation.

Technical specialists are recovering phone numbers from several cellphones recovered at the compound. The experts need to distinguish foreign telephone contacts from any numbers in the United States, which undergo a separate legal review, the official said.

“We’re also looking through notes, letters, e-mails and other communications,” the official said. “We’re looking at who owns the e-mails and what linkages there are to those people.” The official said that the initial analysis would involve searching for information about specific threats or plots, or potential terrorists sent to the United States or Europe, and that the F.B.I. was pursuing a small number of leads from the information reviewed so far.

Obama thanks, awards team in bin Laden raid

New York Times

They are the shadowy warriors of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden: two dozen members of the Navy Seals who stormed the fortified compound in Pakistan where Bin Laden was hiding. Their identities will probably never be known; their faces will most likely never appear in photographs at the White House, on magazine covers or on television talk shows.

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But on Friday, President Obama flew to this Army air base to thank them, behind closed doors, for what he called a “job well done,” describing it as one of the greatest military and intelligence operations in American history.

“This has been an historic week for the life of our nation,” Mr. Obama said later to a raucous rally of 2,300 soldiers, many of them just returned from Afghanistan. “The terrorist leader who struck our nation on 9/11 will never threaten America again.”

During the meeting with the Seal team — which Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. also attended — Mr. Obama awarded it and other units involved in the operation with a Presidential Unit Citation, the White House said. The president also received a PowerPoint presentation on the raid, with maps, photos and a scale model of the compound, from members of the assault force. Even the trained dog used in the raid attended.

The White House released few other details of the meeting, and did not mention the highly classified members of the unit by name. But Mr. Biden mentioned them several times in his speech, telling the soldiers that earlier in the day, his granddaughter exclaimed, “My Pop is going out to see the whales!”

The public rally and the private meeting amounted to a choreographed victory lap for Mr. Obama near the end of a momentous week that began with his announcement on Sunday that commandos had killed Bin Laden.

On Thursday, Mr. Obama visited ground zero in New York and met with relatives of the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, drawing a personal link between the killing of Bin Laden and the deaths his disciples inflicted on nearly 3,000 people at the World Trade Center.

Speaking under a giant American flag to the troops of the 101st Airborne Division, Mr. Obama drew another connection, between the soldiers there and the commandos he called “America’s quiet professionals.”

“Like all of us, they could have chosen a life of ease,” the president said. “But like you, they volunteered.”

Describing the Seal commandos as “battle hardened” and tirelessly trained, Mr. Obama said: “When I gave the order, they were ready. And in recent days, the world has learned just how ready they were.”

While the Seal team is not based here, Fort Campbell is home of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, known as the Night Stalkers. The unit, which pilots aircraft for Special Operations troops, flew the helicopters that carried the commandos to Bin Laden’s compound.

Mr. Obama also linked the killing of Bin Laden to the broader war, saying it showed the progress that the United States had made in disrupting and dismantling Al Qaeda. The soldiers of the 101st Airborne, he said, were pushing back insurgents and allowing Afghans to reclaim their towns.

“The bottom line is this,” he said in a statement that drew the loudest cheers of the day, “our strategy is working, and there is no greater evidence of that than justice finally being delivered to Osama bin Laden.”

Among the soldiers, there was satisfaction, if not jubilation, at the killing of Bin Laden. Several said they were relieved, though most said they did not believe it would bring the Afghan war to an end any sooner.

“It helps to know that we finally got him,” said Sgt. Marion Githens, who coordinated Army helicopters at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan before returning to the United States two days ago. But she said she was still ambivalent about the war. “Some days, you feel like it’s not going anywhere,” she said. “Other days, you think, O.K., maybe we really can help these people.”

Still, other soldiers expressed gratitude that Mr. Obama had come. “It’s tough coming home,” said Capt. Jimos Reese, a company commander. “It does mean a lot that the president cares about you.”

It was Mr. Obama’s first visit to Fort Campbell, which is accustomed to visits by the commander in chief: six have come since the Vietnam War, with former President George W. Bush making three visits, including one just after Mr. Obama was elected in 2008.

The Pentagon recommended that Mr. Obama come to Fort Campbell, a senior official said, because the soldiers of the 101st Airborne had taken significant casualties, having served in a Taliban stronghold south and west of Kandahar that is some of the most lethal terrain in Afghanistan.

Mr. Obama acknowledged that service, noting that 125 soldiers from the base had died in Afghanistan. Some of the troops in the 101st Airborne, he said, had been deployed to Afghanistan three or four times.

Among those who greeted Mr. Obama at Fort Campbell was Vice Adm. William H. McRaven, a former commando in the Seals who oversaw the raid as the commander of the Joint Special Operations Command. After Mr. Obama’s arrival, the president’s motorcade left immediately for low buildings on the far side of the airfield, where the meeting with the Seal team and other units lasted more than an hour.

For all the celebration, there was still a somber tinge to Mr. Obama’s words, as he told the troops about a letter he had received from Payton Wall, a 14-year-old girl from New Jersey who wrote to him after hearing that Bin Laden was dead, about the devastating loss of her father in the 2001 terrorist attacks.

She stood near Mr. Obama on Thursday, with her mother and sister, as he laid a wreath at the 9/11 memorial plaza.

“Every year, more and more, Payton is shining through,” he said, describing how she plays lacrosse and mentors students. “For her and for all of us, this week has been a reminder of what we’re about as a people.”

Afghan women risk death to learn

Women in Kandahar, Afghanistan meet in secret, huddling in cramped, sweltering underground classrooms at great risk to themselves from the Taliban, in order to learn to read and fulfill their ambitions.

UN urges Bahrain to free detained activists

The United Nations human rights chief has called for Bahrain to free activists it has seized since crushing anti-government protests and for an independent probe into allegations of torture.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay's remarks on Thursday were the sharpest international criticism yet of the crackdown in Bahrain where the Sunni-led government has arrested hundreds from its Shia Muslim majority since the protests began.

"All political detainees must be immediately released and all detainees must have prompt access to legal counsel," Pillay said in a statement.

"My office has also received reports of severe torture against human rights defenders who are currently in
detention... There must be independent investigations of these cases of death in detention and allegations of torture."

At least four people have died in detention, and rights groups have criticised death sentences handed out last week to four men accused of killing policemen in March during protests that began with calls for more political liberties in the kingdom.

The defendants in that case were accused of running down two policemen with a car in March.

Also on Thursday, one man was sentenced to at least five years in jail and another was acquitted. State media earlier said they were accused of trying to kill security personnel by running them over.

At least 13 protesters and four police died in the unrest. Bahrain has said about 400 of those detained will face prosecution, some in a military court that last week handed down the first death sentence to a Bahraini citizen since the mid-1990s, also a period of sectarian-tinged political turmoil.

'No legal defence'

Families of the condemned men and rights groups say the court, which also sentenced three men to life in prison, kept the defendants from meeting lawyers and mounting any defence.

"The application of the death penalty without due process and after a trial held in secrecy is illegal and absolutely unacepptable," Pillay said.

The UN statement said more than 1,000 may have been detained, and the whereabouts of 50 of them are unknown.

New York-based Human Rights Watch said in a statement on Wednesday that it had received credible reports that a detained human rights activist, Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, had been hospitalised following beatings while in custody.

Amnesty International also appealed on Wednesday to Bahrain's rulers to bring an end to a campaign of arrests against its opponents while denouncing the extension of emergency rule in response to protests.

"The Bahraini authorities must stop detaining anyone who opposes them and release protesters who have been locked up for peacefully demanding reform," said Philip Luther, Amnesty's deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa.

"Even since the protests on the streets were violently crushed in mid-March the government's persecution of dissidents has not abated, while the renewal of the so-called 'State of National Safety' will only exacerbate this human rights crisis."

Pak Govt. ‘high levels’ knew whereabouts of Bin Laden: Carl Levin

Sen. Carl Levin said 'high levels' of the Pakistani government knew where Osama bin Laden was hiding, must know where Mullah Omar is too.

The Senate Armed Services Committee, Levin said, has already started a preliminary investigation into Pakistan's involvement and, depending on the results of that investigation, will decide whether to hold public hearings to investigate further.

"We need these questions answered about whether or not the top level of the Pakistan government knew or was told by the ISI, their intelligence service, about anything, about this suspicious activity for five years in a very, very centralized place," Levin said.

Beyond his suspicions about Pakistan's role in harboring bin Laden, Levin said he has "no doubt" that the highest levels of the Pakistani government are protecting other terrorist targets -- such as Taliban leader Mullah Omar and the leaders of the Haqqani terror network -- who have been responsible for the deaths of American troops in Afghanistan.

"These people are killing us. Killing our Afghan allies. Killing our coalition partners by crossing the border," Levin said. "They're being given a safe haven in Pakistan. So the government of Pakistan is going to continue to say they didn't know bin Laden was there. It's kind of hard to believe that higher-level people didn't know, but they'll continue to say that. But what they won't say is that they don't know where the Haqqani terrorists are because they do know, and they've told us they know."

'Bahraini women sexually assaulted'

Saudi-backed forces in Bahrain have sexually assaulted women during attacks to arrest human rights activists in the country, a new report reveals.


A Bahraini woman identified as Fatima, a close relative of prominent Bahraini rights activist Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, said she was sexually assaulted by Saudi-backed forces in her house, Press TV reported.

The regime forces assaulted Fatima after storming into her house to arrest her husband, she said in an interview accompanied by rights activist Zainab al-Khawaja.

Zainab, the daughter of Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, ended a 10-day hunger strike after international activists said they needed her to speak up for those detained in the crackdown.

Her father was arrested earlier in April.

Bahraini forces have arrested hundreds of activist so far during the clampdown on peaceful protests.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay has voiced "deep concern" about the continued detention of activists in the country.

Pillay also cited the prosecution of scores of medical professionals, and the death sentence handed down to four protesters after a closed-door military trial, said UN spokesperson Farhan Haq.

Anti-government protesters have been holding peaceful demonstrations across Bahrain since mid-February, calling for an end to the over-40-year rule of the Al Khalifa dynasty.

On March 14, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates deployed police and military forces in the kingdom at Manama's request to help quell the nationwide protests.

According to local sources, scores of people have been killed and hundreds arrested so far during the clampdown on peaceful protests.

The foreign deployments are reported to have contributed to a rise in the violence against the protesting public.

Recent reports say Riyadh is sending more troops to Bahrain ahead of planned anti-government rallies there.

Syria protests: Baniyas fear amid Deraa pullout reports

Syrian activists are preparing to take to the streets on Friday for what they are calling a "day of defiance".

Tanks are reported to have withdrawn from the city of Deraa, where a human rights groups says the government has carried out a 10-day "massacre".

But security forces are reported to have gathered in other urban areas, including the coastal town of Baniyas.

More than 500 Syrians are thought to have been killed during attempts to quell seven weeks of protests.

At least 2,500 others have been detained as part of a violent crackdown that the US has described as "barbaric".

'Total disgust'

In cities across Syria protesters are calling for greater political rights and personal freedoms. Some are calling for the downfall of the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

People are expected to gather again after prayers on Friday, which have become a regular focal point for protests in the Arab world in 2011.

The unrest in Syria poses the most serious challenge to four decades of rule by the Assad family in one of the Arab world's most tightly controlled countries.

Foreign journalists are not allowed to enter the country, so it is difficult to verify the reports of deaths.

One doctor, who said he planned to join those demonstrating, said the "indiscriminate killings and inhumane arrests have generated total disgust among the average Syrian".

"Soldiers with rifles no longer deter people. The propaganda that this regime is the only guarantor of stability no longer washes," he was quoted as telling Reuters.
'Preparing to attack'

Military units were reported to be deploying elsewhere on Thursday, including around the coastal town of Baniyas, home to one of Syria's two oil refineries.

Four armoured personnel carriers, several tanks and a bus carrying soldiers were seen by one eyewitness quoted by the Associated Press.Hundreds of families were said to be fleeing the area, fearing that Banias - like the city of Deraa - could come under siege.

"It looks like they are preparing to attack the town, like they did in Deraa," one activist told the AFP news agency by telephone from the town.

A UN humanitarian team is expected to visit Deraa in the coming days, the organisation's deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said on Thursday, following an appeal to President Bashar al-Assad by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Over the past two days there has also been an increased military presence also in the coastal towns of Homs and Rastan. Troops have also gathered in the Damascus suburbs of Erbin, Saqba, Douma and in the town of Tel, north of the capital.

In Washington, state department spokesman Mark Toner said the US continues to "press Assad's regime to desist in its violent behaviour".

"We abhor the violence there," Mr Toner said. "I think I called it barbaric, the measures that were taken the other day against the citizens of Deraa, and we urge Syria to end these kinds of actions against innocent civilians who are simply expressing their aspirations for a democratic future."

The Damascus Center for Human Rights Studies says snipers and anti-aircraft machine guns were used to fire on unarmed civilians in the southern city and recent amateur video appears to show dozens of unarmed protesters being shot and bleeding to death on the streets.

It has labelled the killings in Deraa a "massacre".

The government says it is taking action against "elements of terrorist groups... to restore security, peace and stability".

CIA watched bin Laden from nearby safe house inside Pakistan

Extensive surveillance of Osama bin Laden's hideout from a nearby CIA safe house in Abbottabad led to his killing in a Navy SEAL operation, U.S. officials said, a revelation likely to further embarrass Pakistan's spy agency and strain ties.

The U.S. officials, quoted by the Washington Post, said the safe house was the base for intelligence gathering that began after bin Laden's compound was discovered last August, and which was so exhaustive the CIA asked Congress to reallocate tens of millions of dollars to fund it.

"The CIA's job was to find and fix," the Post quoted one U.S. official as saying, using special forces terminology for locating a target. "The intelligence work was as complete as it was going to be, and it was the military's turn to finish the target."

U.S. officials told the New York Times that intelligence gathered from computer files and documents seized at his compound showed bin Laden had for years orchestrated al Qaeda attacks from the Pakistani town, and may have been planning a strike on the U.S. rail sector this year, the 10th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks.

One U.S. official said there was no indication from the intelligence that further plans were drawn up for the railway plot or that steps were taken to carry it out. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said it had no information of an imminent threat.

The fact bin Laden was found in a garrison town -- his compound was not far from a major military academy -- has embarrassed Pakistan and the covert raid by U.S. commandos has angered its military.

On Thursday, the Pakistan army threatened to halt counter-terrorism cooperation with the United States if it conducted another, similar unilateral strike.

A major Islamist party in Pakistan, Jamaat-e-Islami, called for mass protests on Friday against what it called a violation of sovereignty by the U.S. raid. It also urged the government to end support for U.S. battles against militants.

A senior Pakistani security official also charged that U.S. troops had killed the unarmed al Qaeda leader in "cold blood".

The criticism from Pakistan is likely to fray a relationship that Washington deems vital to defeating al Qaeda and winning its war in neighboring Afghanistan.

A U.S. acknowledgment that bin Laden was unarmed when shot in the head -- as well as the sea burial of his body, a rare practice in Islam -- have also drawn criticism in the Arab world and Europe, where some have warned of a backlash.

Few Americans appear to have any qualms about how bin Laden was killed, and on Thursday, scores of people cheered President Barack Obama during a visit to New York's Ground Zero, site of the twin towers al Qaeda leveled on September 11, 2001, to comfort a city still scarred by attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.

Obama said the killing of bin Laden "sent a message around the world, but also sent a message here back home, that when we say we will never forget, we mean what we say.

FRAYED TIES

Friction between Washington and Pakistan has focused on the role of Pakistan's top security service, the ISI or Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate.

Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir denied Pakistani forces or the ISI aided al Qaeda. "The critique of the ISI is not only unwarranted, it cannot be validated," he said.

Lobbyists for Pakistan in Washington have launched an intense campaign on Capitol Hill to counter accusations that Islamabad deliberately gave refuge to bin Laden.

But many Americans are questioning how the al Qaeda leader could live for years in a Pakistani town teeming with military personnel, 50 km (31 miles) from the capital Islamabad. Two U.S. lawmakers have also complained about the billions in U.S. civilian and military aid to impoverished Pakistan.

Seeking to repair ties, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in Rome on Thursday that Washington was still anxious to maintain its alliance with Islamabad.

The Pakistani army and spy agency have supplied intelligence to the United States, arrested al Qaeda figures and taken on militants in areas bordering Afghanistan.

"It is not always an easy relationship," Clinton said. "But, on the other hand, it is a productive one for both our countries and we are going to continue to cooperate between our governments, our militaries, our law-enforcement agencies."

Pakistan's army, facing rare criticism at home over the U.S. operation, warned the United States it would risk this cooperation if it conducted another assault.

Chief of Staff General Ashfaq Kayani "made it clear that any similar action violating the sovereignty of Pakistan will warrant a review on the level of military/intelligence cooperation with the United States", the army said.

It was unclear if such attacks included drone strikes which the U.S. military regularly conducts against militants along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan. Pakistan has denied harboring any members of al Qaeda.

The army also said it would conduct an investigation into failures by its intelligence to detect the world's most wanted man in its own backyard.

CIA SURVEILLANCE

The CIA had spent several months monitoring bin Laden's hideout, watching and photographing residents and visitors from a rented house nearby, according to U.S. officials quoted in the New York Times and Washington Post.

Observing from behind mirrored glass, CIA officers used cameras with telephoto lenses and infrared imaging equipment to study the compound, and they used sensitive eavesdropping equipment to try to pick up voices from inside the house and to intercept cellphone calls, the New York Times said. A satellite used radar to search for possible escape tunnels.

The U.S. administration has refused to be drawn on details on the raid, but, in a further sign of fractious relations between the allies, senior Pakistani security officials told Reuters that U.S. accounts had been misleading.

In Washington, people familiar with the latest U.S. government reporting on the raid told Reuters on Thursday that only one of four principal targets shot to death by U.S. commandos was involved in any hostile fire.

As the elite Navy SEALs moved in on a guest house inside bin Laden's compound, they were met with fire and shot a man in the guest house. He proved to be Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti, an al Qaeda courier U.S. intelligence agencies had long been tracking.

The commandos then entered the main residence, where they killed another courier and a son of bin Laden, the sources said. They finally shot and killed the al Qaeda leader in a top-floor room after having earlier fired at him as he poked his head out of a door or over a balcony.

U.S. officials originally spoke of a 40-minute firefight. The White House has blamed the "fog of war" for the changing accounts.

Obama in NY: We never forget, we mean what we say

Solemnly honoring victims of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, President Barack Obama hugged survivors, thanked the heroes of one of the nation's darkest days and declared Thursday that the killing of Osama bin Laden after all these years was an American message to the world: "When we say we will never forget, we mean what we say."

On a brilliant blue-sky day, one of reflection more than celebration, Obama offered New Yorkers a moment of their own. Standing at the gritty construction site of ground zero, where the towers fell and a memorial now rises, the president laid a wreath of red, white and blue flowers for the nearly 3,000 who died as he marked a turning point for the nation and this city of steely resilience.

For Obama, the day was about the importance of being in New York in the aftermath of the successful raid to find and kill bin Laden, the al-Qaida leader. Obama addressed families who have watched and wondered for nearly a decade whether the government would track down its most infamous enemy.

On this special ground, Obama never mentioned bin Laden's name.

Still, this was where the terrorist inflicted his greatest damage on a similarly sunny day in 2001 when hijacked airliners were crashed into the World Trade Center. Nearly 200 other people died when a third airliner hit the Pentagon — Vice President Joe Biden led a ceremony there on Thursday, and Bush Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld attended — and others were killed when yet a fourth plane crashed in Pennsylvania.Enthusiastic, emotional New Yorkers waited on streets to see the president, but there were few displays like the more raucous exuberance of a few days earlier. There were happy faces, shouts of "USA! USA!" and flags waved in the crowd, but there also was heavy security and most people were cordoned off blocks from where the president could be seen.Referring to the daring U.S. raid to take down bin Laden in Pakistan, Obama said of all those who died on Sept. 11: "It says we keep them in our hearts. We haven't forgotten."

Days after the attacks, President George W. Bush stood here with firefighters and a bullhorn. There was a different feel a decade later as another president paid his respects. Obama met with firefighters, then police, before having a solemn moment at ground zero and meeting privately with families of those who died.

"This is a symbolic site of the extraordinary sacrifice that was made on that terrible day," the president said at Engine 54, Ladder 4, Battalion 9. The firehouse in New York's theater district lost 15 firefighters on 9/11. The fire crews gave him hearty applause.

Obama said the American pursuit of the terrorist leader "sent a message around the world but also sent a message here back home that when we say we will never forget, we mean what we say, that our commitment to making sure that justice is done is something that transcended politics, transcended party."

Bin Laden was shot dead in a raid on his Pakistan compound early Monday in Pakistan, the result of years of painstaking intelligence work and a covert military mission in which none of the U.S. commandos was killed.

The president closed his eyes and clasped his hands at the outdoor memorial where the twin towers of the World Trade Center once dominated the Manhattan skyline.

60 stories high. Mammoth fountains and reflecting pools mark the footprints of the fallen towers. Now the nearby skyline is filled with construction machinery. The emerging skyscraper informally known as Freedom Tower is more than

Obama spoke with children who lost parents and adults who lost spouses. As he bowed his head, a jetliner screamed by, far overhead.

The president also peppered his brief comments with reminders of the challenges ahead, and his call for a new spirit of national unity.

It wasn't a moment for celebrating the military operation that killed bin Laden; that may come Friday, when the president visits Fort Campbell, Ky., home to the Army unit involved in transporting Navy SEALS in and out of bin Laden's compound. White House officials said Obama intended to privately thank participants in the raid.

Obama said Thursday he hoped the results of the raid on bin Laden's compound showed that "we did what we said we were going to do, and that Americans, even in the midst of tragedy, will come together, across the years, across politics, across party, across administrations, to make sure that justice is done."

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who led the city in the days after the attacks, joined Obama during the day.

Obama invited Bush to join him Thursday in New York, but the former president declined.

Obama's visit came as new details emerged of the operation on bin Laden's Pakistan compound.

A senior defense official said Thursday that only one of the five people killed in the raid was armed and fired a shot — an account that differed from original administration portrayals of an intense firefight. The White House also now says bin Laden was unarmed when he was shot, after officials initially said the terrorist was holding a gun or even firing.

Obama also addressed bin Laden's burial at sea, saying in an interview with CBS' "60 Minutes" that: "Frankly, we took more care on this than, obviously, bin Laden took when he killed 3,000 people."

Such details perhaps mattered little to New Yorkers who suffered most grievously in the attacks and are now deeply gratified to see bin Laden's demise.

Ahead of Obama's arrival, Deanne McDonald stood at the northeast corner of the World Trade Center site waving an American flag in each hand and shouting "Obama got Osama! Obama got Osama!"

"God bless the Navy SEALS," said McDonald, 38, from Brooklyn. She took work off on Thursday to wait for the president, saying she was prouder than ever to be an American.

___

Bill presented in the US House to stop Pakistan aid

No US assistance can be provided to Pakistan unless the Obama administration certifies to Congress that Pakistan did not have any information about Osama bin Laden’s whereabouts, says a bill introduced in the House of Representatives.

The bill has been referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs but a growing number of both Republican and Democratic lawmakers are urging their colleagues not to take decisions that may hurt US interests.

“Congress has already appropriated $3 billion in aid to Pakistan for this year,” said Congressman Ted Poe, a Texas Republican, while introducing the bill. “Unless Pakistan can prove that they were not providing sanctuary for America ‘s number one enemy, they should not receive any American aid.”

Co-sponsors – Congressmen Vern Buchanan, John Culberson, and Allen West, all Republicans – also want to “punish” Pakistan but many see it as a hasty move.

“It is not the time to back away from Pakistan but rather a time to strengthen ties,” said House Speaker John Boehner. “It’s premature’ to talk of cutting aid, we both benefit from having a strong bilateral relationship.”

At a hearing on Pakistan in the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations on Thursday, Senator John Kerry urged lawmakers to think what impact their move to stop aid will have.

“Will the forces of violent extremism grow more dominant, eventually overpowering the moderate majority?” he asked. “Or will Pakistanis recommit to building a stable, moderate democracy?”

John McCain, the senior Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, warned: “There is a lot at stake there we need to do what we can to help that country.”

Ignoring such concerns, HR 1699 clearly states that US assistance may not be provided to Pakistan “under any provision of law” unless the Secretary of State certifies to Congress that: “(1) the government of Pakistan did not have any information regarding Osama bin Laden’s possible whereabouts on or after Sept. 11, 2001; or (2) if the government of Pakistan did have information regarding Osama bin Laden’s possible whereabouts on or after Sept. 11, 2001, it communicated such information to the United States government in an expedited manner.”

The secretary is required to submit a certification in writing and in unclassified form, but it may contain a classified annex if necessary.

This act shall take effect on the date of its enactment and shall apply to amounts allocated for assistance to Pakistan that are unexpended on or after such date.

But a Republican senator, Lindsey Graham, warned the lawmakers not to haste. “You cannot trust them and you cannot abandon them,” he said.

Co-sponsor Allen West, is not convinced. “Unless we get a clear explanation of what Pakistan knew about the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden, all foreign aid from American taxpayers to this nation needs to cease.”

Some Democrats also to suspend aid now. “Before we send another dime, we need to know whether Pakistan truly stands with us in the fight against terrorism,” said Democratic Senator Frank Lautenberg.

Congressman Dan Burton, co-chairman of the Congressional Pakistan Caucus, urged such lawmakers to “take a breath, take a look at US interests in the long term [and] take a look at the big picture,” he said.

House Armed Services Chairman Buck McKeon said, “I think people who have been married 30 years still have some problems, but they don’t get divorced.”

Congressman Ruppersberger, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, argued that “just like we needed Turkey to go into Iraq , Pakistan remains the primary supply route for US forces in Afghanistan .”

Senator Claire McCaskill, another Democrat, said: “We have to be really careful here. We have to go through Pakistan to supply our troops. They have nuclear capability. They are in a very dangerous part of the world.”

Osama no martyr, but mass killer of Muslims

al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, who was shot dead in his hideout by Special US forces in Pakistan, was a "mass killer of Muslims than anyone else and not a martyr as a few people are trying to portray," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said.
In her remarks to the National Conference of Editorial Writers, Clinton said the State Department is now working on a narrative "that will convince people he was a murderer, not a martyr."
Noting that bin Laden had tremendous sway with so many impressionable people in many parts of the world, Clinton said the US is already seeing something of an effort by the al-Qaeda remnants to decide who comes next.
"Any succession crisis provides an opportunity. A lot of people say al-Zawahiri will step into it. But that's not so clear. He doesn't have the same sense of loyalty or inspiration or track record," Clinton said.
"So I think his death, his removal from the leadership, along with two very important points that need to be remembered is that Taliban did not give up al-Qaeda when President (George) Bush asked them to after 9/11, because of Mullah Omar's personal relationship with bin Laden. That's gone, so I think it opens up possibilities for dealing with the Taliban that did not exist before," she hoped.
Clinton said the effort to stop al-Qaeda and its syndicate of terror will not end with the death of bin Laden.
"In Afghanistan, we have to continue to take the fight to al-Qaeda and its Taliban allies. Perhaps now they will take seriously the work that we are doing on trying to have some reconciliation process that resolves the insurgency," she said.
Responding to questions, Clinton said there's no doubt that al-Qaeda is somewhat decentralized, but that bin Laden remained the brains behind the operation and the inspiration.
"He was the person who people pledged loyalty to when they joined al-Qaeda. It wasn't to an organisation; it was to an individual," she said.
"So our message to the Taliban hasn't changed; it just has even greater resonance today. They can't wait us out, they can't defeat us; they need to come into the political process and denounce al-Qaeda and renounce violence and agree to abide by the laws and constitution of Afghanistan," Clinton said.
"We have a very close relationship with Pakistan, and it was crucial in finally leading us to bin Laden. So the work that was done over many years had many contributors, including our partners in Pakistan," Clinton said in her remarks on Monday, according to the transcripts provided by the State Department today."We're going to be working to bolster our partnerships even now, particularly as people are digesting this news. We're going to look for ways to put this into the context of the larger debate we're having here at home about what it takes to stay engaged in the world," she said.

Insecurity, social taboos: Schools shut as fear drives teachers away

A local school in Wana, the main settlement in South Waziristan tribal agency, has been closed for several months, and the children only come to play games in the compound.

“We have no teacher at the school,” Rida Ali, 8, said. “So we just play or do chores at home.” The teacher who taught them before insecurity shut down schools in the area lives only 1km or so away, but is unwilling to come to work. The children in Wana have not attended class since November.

“Due to security issues, teachers, especially female ones, are not going to class and this affects the education of girls,” Syed Fawad Ali Shah, emergency education officer for the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Pakistan, told IRIN.

According to media reports, fear of the Taliban has meant many teachers have not gone back to work even in areas like Swat, which are now clear of militants.

“I love teaching, but I will never teach again. My husband says I must not do so as it is too dangerous,” Aima Malik, 25, said from the Khyber Agency where she had taught at a school for girls from 2006 to 2009. “Fewer and fewer women are ready to teach any longer,” she added.

“It is better that they be safe and learn how to cook or sew at home,” said Maryum Bibi, a mother of two teenage daughters living in a rural area on the outskirts of Peshawar. Her daughter, Jamila, 13, dreams of being a teacher but now says: “It seems I will never even complete my matriculation.”

Abdul Monib, a secondary school teacher in the Bajaur Agency, told IRIN: “As a teacher, I always feel sad when pupils drop out before completing their education. Now so many can no longer continue because their families need them to work. Others fear the classroom because of bombings in the past at schools and refuse to come any longer.”

Literacy rates down

The insecurity is affecting literacy rates. “Barely 1 per cent of women are literate in these areas,” Roohi Bano, regional manager for the Peshawar-based NGO Khwendo Kor, which works for the education of girls, told IRIN.

“It has always been difficult to find teachers in these parts. Few women are educated and families prefer them not to work. The situation that has now arisen following the reign of the Taliban will make matters even worse, with fewer and fewer women wishing to take up this work,” said Azra Khan, headmistress at a private school in Peshawar.

In some cases, she said, threats had been made even against teachers in big cities. “At least two of my teachers no longer wish to work here,” she added.

The problem is compounded by the reluctance of parents to allow men to teach girls. “My husband has insisted we withdraw our daughter from her school because there are some male teachers there. He has orthodox views and says this is unacceptable,” said Zakia Bibi, 40, from the town of Mingora in Swat.

Other factors have also affected education. “There are many families who have suffered financially, using up their savings during the displacement and unable to find jobs now, even when they have returned,” said Ahsan Ullah, 40, who runs a small shoe-making factory in the South Waziristan agency. He says he receives “dozens” of requests for jobs each week, but cannot accommodate more workers.

In the town of Mardan in Khyber Pakhtunkh’wa, Zainab Bibi, from the Orakzai Agency, wonders how to educate her four children. Her husband was part of the Taliban force in the area. “I fled on my own, with the children, in 2010, when fighting became fierce,” she said. “Some relatives helped us. I have not heard from my husband since then; my two older boys, aged 14 and 15, go out to work at an automobile workshop to bring in some kind of income – but I am desperate to see them back in school.”

Bibi is also concerned that unless they are educated, the boys may be tempted to join the Taliban. “A gun is a huge attraction for a young boy,” she said.—

Barack Obama to pay tribute to 9/11 victims

President Barack Obama on Thursday will follow up his triumph in the killing of Osama bin Laden by visiting New York's Ground Zero and meeting with families of people killed in the 9/11 attacks. The trip will be steeped in symbolism, with the president laying a wreath at the site of the September 11, 2001 massacre just days after he ordered the daring operation to kill bin Laden, the mastermind of the attacks.

Yet the White House stressed that this was not a victory tour, but a form of homage to the victims of the attacks that triggered Washington's controversial, global war against Al-Qaeda nearly a decade ago.

Calling the death of bin Laden a "cathartic moment for the American people," White House spokesman Jay Carney said Mr Obama wanted to "honour the spirit of unity in America that we all felt in the wake of that terrible attack."

His wreath will be laid in remembrance of the hundreds of firemen and others killed trying to rescue people from the collapsing Twin Towers.

"He will also meet with families of the victims and first responders in private," Carney said. "He wants to meet with them and share with them this important and significant moment, a bitter-sweet moment, I think, for many families of the victims."

The killing of America's nemesis in such spectacular fashion - during a helicopter-borne commando raid deep inside Pakistan - is undoubtedly one of Mr Obama's chief political triumphs since taking office in 2008.

Polls showed an immediate surge in support and even the usually squabbling Washington political establishment has rallied around the president.

But the White House appears serious about its declared intent to avoid triumphalism or the temptation to exploit the event for electoral gains.

Mr Obama notably invited his predecessor, George W. Bush, who was president at the time of 9/11 and earned widespread international opprobrium for his so-called "war on terror," to join him at Ground Zero.

Although the offer was declined, the White House had made its point.

"This is a moment of unity for Americans and a moment to recall the unity that existed in this country in the wake of the attacks on 9/11," Mr Carney said. "The invitation was made in that spirit."

There will be no public speech during the Ground Zero visit and the meeting with families will be private, although Carney did not exclude that some off-the-cuff comments might be made.

That reticence was portrayed as part of the same attempt to retain an atmosphere of dignity in the wake of bin Laden's killing.

Mr Obama has personally ordered that photographs of the al-Qaeda chief's dead body remain secret - despite clamor from some for visual proof of his demise.

"It is important for us to make sure that very graphic photos of somebody who was shot in the head are not floating around as an incitement to additional violence," Mr Obama told CBS news's 60 Minutes programme.

"As a propaganda tool. You know, that's not who we are. We don't trot out this stuff as trophies," he said.

"The fact of the matter is this was somebody who was deserving of the justice that he received. And I think Americans and people around the world are glad that he's gone. But we don't need to spike the football."

Pakistani Army, Shaken by Raid, Faces New Scrutiny

New York Times
The reputation of the army, the most powerful and privileged force in Pakistan, has been severely undermined by the American raid that killed Osama bin Laden, raising profound questions about its credibility from people at home and from benefactors abroad, including the United States.

That American helicopters could fly into Pakistan, carrying a team to kill the world’s most wanted terrorist and then fly out undetected has produced a stunned silence from the military and its intelligence service that some interpret as embarrassment, even humiliation.

There is no doubt that the raid has provoked a crisis of confidence for what was long seen as the one institution that held together a nation dangerously beset by militancy and chronically weak civilian governments.

The aftermath has left Pakistanis to challenge their leadership, and the United States to further question an already frequently distrusted partner.

By Wednesday, members of Parliament, newspaper editorials and Pakistan’s raucous political talk shows were calling for an explanation and challenging the military and intelligence establishment, institutions previously immune to public reproach.

Some were calling for an independent inquiry, focused less on the fact that the world’s most wanted terrorist was discovered in their midst than on whether the military could defend Pakistan’s borders and its nuclear arsenal from being snatched or attacked by the United States or India.

“If these people are found to be incompetent, heads should roll,” said Zafar Hilaly, a prominent newspaper columnist.

Different questions were coming from Pakistan’s neighbors and Western allies, including the United States. In Congress, powerful lawmakers in charge of foreign military assistance delivered scathing assessments of the Pakistani Army as either incompetent or duplicitous, saying that renewed financial support was hardly guaranteed.

In Britain, Prime Minister David Cameron told Parliament it was unbelievable that the Pakistani authorities did not know that Bin Laden was hiding not far from the capital.

But the most urgent question of all is what to do about it, and whether the United States should continue to invest in a Pakistani military whose assurances that it does not work with terrorists carry less weight than ever.

Pakistani officials, who feel betrayed by the United States for not informing them in advance about the raid, are responding more defensively by the day.

The biggest question for Pakistan is whether the event prompts a reconsideration of its security strategy, which has long depended on militant proxies, including groups entwined with Al Qaeda.

American officials are certain to use the fact that Bin Laden had taken shelter in Pakistan to press the country for a clearer break from its past. Both sides have an interest in preserving some form of the status quo. Pakistan would like to keep the billions of dollars in aid that flow from the United States. The United States would like to prevent this nuclear-armed Muslim nation from turning more hostile, hosting terrorist networks and complicating efforts to end the war in Afghanistan. But the challenges ahead were revealed in how the outrage over the Bin Laden raid has cut differently in Pakistan and the United States.

For the United States, it has raised the issue of whether any assurance provided by the Pakistani military can be trusted, including the security of its nuclear arsenal. The army has insisted it is adequately protected from extremists, but has resisted security assistance from the United States that it considers too invasive. “We can press Pakistan until the cows come home on its nuclear program,” said Michael Krepon, a co-founder of the Stimson Center in Washington, which works on programs to reduce nuclear weapons. “But they are not going to do the things that we would like them to do that they don’t want to do.”

In Pakistan, commentators who consider the nuclear weapons the country’s most valued asset have raised another concern: In light of the American operation, are the weapons safe from a raid by the United States, or even India?

Meanwhile, the chief of the army, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, and the head of the Inter-Services Intelligence agency, Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha, have remained silent about what they knew or did not know about Bin Laden’s presence.

They have both met with President Asif Ali Zardari since the American raid, but no mention has been made in public of those discussions. Civilian politicians have been virtually absent.

Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani left for France on Tuesday, but said Wednesday that he would cut short his trip and return home. Senior ministers in the cabinet failed to turn up in Parliament to offer any explanations on Tuesday or Wednesday.

Instead, the Foreign Office and the information minister, apparently on orders from the military, issued statements intended to explain the shortcomings.

In Parliament on Wednesday, Information Minister Firdous Ashiq Awan said the American helicopters had evaded detection by radar “due to hilly terrain” and use of “nap of the earth” flying techniques, an account that failed to comfort almost anyone.

The Foreign Office defended the fact that Bin Laden was not detected because the high security walls at his house in Abbottabad were in line with a culture of privacy. These scant explanations fueled more speculation.

One of the military’s biggest advocates, Kamran Khan, a journalist whose nightly television show garners big audiences, led the chorus: “We had the belief that our defense was impenetrable, but look what has happened. Such a massive intrusion and it went undetected.”

Mr. Khan posed the question on many Pakistani minds: “What is the guarantee that our strategic assets and security installations are safe?”

In some Pakistani quarters, the failure of the army and intelligence agencies to detect Bin Laden, or to do anything about him if indeed his presence was known, prompted calls for an overhaul of the nation’s strategic policies.

“Instead of making more India-specific nuclear-capable missiles, the funds and the energy should be directed to eliminating the terrorists,” said an editorial in the newspaper Pakistan Today.

The editor, Arif Nizami, said the American raid made a mockery of the Pakistani military’s bravura that its fighter jets could shoot down American drones. “You talk of taking out drones, and you can’t even take out helicopters,” Mr. Nizami said.

Some Pakistanis said they were more concerned about the fact that known terrorists were living in their midst than the violation of sovereignty by the Americans.

“The terrorists’ being on our soil is the biggest violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty,” said Athar Minallah, a prominent lawyer. “If Osama bin Laden lives in Abbottabad, there could be a terrorist in my neighborhood.”