ISI colonel provided vital help in locating Osama

An American journalist Richard Miniter in his latest book has claimed that a colonel from Pakistan’s spy agency had helped the US in providing vital information in locating former Al Qaeda chief, Osama Bin Laden, and that Pakistan’s army chief may have been briefed on the Abbottabad raid five months in advance. The book, “Leading from Behind: The Reluctant President and the Advisors Who Decide for Him” claimed that Pakistan had a greater role in the Abbottabad raid than what the American CIA had earlier stated. The book alleged that the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) officer had walked into the CIA’s Islamabad station in August 2010 and provided vital help in tracing Osama. “In a never-before-reported account, Pakistan was more involved in the bin Laden operation than Obama’s team admitted. When the CIA revealed that an ISI colonel had contacted the CIA in Islamabad and offered information about bin Laden, a debate followed,” said the book. “Was this a secret sign that the head of the ISI himself was pointing out bin Laden’s hiding place or was the colonel actually the patriot who hated extremism that he claimed to be? Whatever the motivation, the CIA found bin Laden’s hiding place within a month of the colonel’s visit,” the book claims. According to the book, as the CIA found the Abbottabad compound where Osama bin Laden lived along with his family members and started researching on the property, they found out that the land was “carved out” from the Pakistan military academy compound. “The records held another surprise. The land for the bin Laden lair seemed to have been carved out of property owned by the Kakul Military Academy, Pakistan’s answer to Sandhurst and West Point,” Miniter claimed. “The bin Laden compound was akin to an isosceles triangle, carved out of the property of the Kakul Military Academy, Pakistan’s West Point. The campus’s main building sat some eight hundred yards from bin Laden’s castle.” “The triangular compound was bordered with concrete walls ranging in height from ten to eighteen feet. The main building, a three-story tower, housed the arch terrorist, his wives, and their children,” he wrote. Bin Laden was killed by US Navy Seals inside his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan in May 2011. The former reporter with “The Wall Street Journal” and “The Washington Post” wrote in his book that Pakistan army chief General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani may have been briefed by the US on its operation to kill Osama bin Laden in December 2010, some five months in advance and that along with getting a tacit consent, a cover story had been developed with the Pakistani military. “There was talk about devising a cover story that would allow Pakistan to be helpful while keeping its leaders from political harm.” “The story, according to an official with secondhand knowledge of the White House discussion, was that bin Laden was killed in a drone strike and that the US later sent in a team to recover the body. That was believed to be less politically harmful than a commando team treading on Pakistan’s soil,” Miniter says. “According to this official, Pakistan’s Army chief of staff was alerted in December 2010, five months before the operation. No concrete facts about the operation were passed on, but an informal approval was sought,” he writes. The book also claimed that on March 14, 2011 during a situation room meeting that the US President, Barack Obama, decided that Pakistan “should be kept in dark” while America made its plans. “‘When the Seal helicopter crashed into bin Laden’s compound, the cover story was abandoned,’ the official said. The story could not be independently confirmed, but it has the virtue of explaining why the Obama administration did not press to end military aid to Pakistan when bin Laden was found eight hundred yards from its officer training facility,” Miniter wrote.

How Safe Is Pakistan's Nuclear Arsenal?

http://www.rferl.org

Militants' storming of a Pakistani Air Force base where some nuclear warheads are reportedly stored has once again sounded the alarms about the security of the country's atomic weapons.

Minhas air base, located just 40 kilometers west of Islamabad in the eastern Punjab Province, is considered a key military facility. It houses warplanes and some of Pakistan's most advanced weapons systems -- possibly including nuclear warheads. So the August 16 attack that left nine suspected Islamic radicals and one Pakistani soldier dead once again raised eyebrows over Islamabad's claims that its nuclear installations are under foolproof security. Much of the concern is predictable, but misdirected, according to experts. The location of Pakistan's nuclear weapons are a highly guarded secret, but despite news reports to the contrary, most observers doubt that warheads are stored at Minhas. Retired General Talat Masood says the real concern is the increasing frequency of high-profile attacks on military facilities. "When defense installations are being targeted so easily -- and we have seen a series of events taking place, starting from the [military's General Headquarters] GHQ to the Mehran [Naval] base, and now this Air Force base -- it shows that these places are vulnerable and Pakistan will have to do a lot more," Masood said. Embarrassing Breaches The country's military, which controls the nuclear arsenal, has suffered numerous embarrassing attacks on key bases in recent years. In May 2011, at least two naval surveillance aircraft were destroyed and 10 people were killed when militants stored the Mehran naval bases in the southern seaport city of Karachi. In October 2009, militants stormed the headquarters of the Pakistani military in Rawalipini close to Islamabad. They took scores of hostages, who were freed after nine attackers were killed in a nearly 20-hour gun battle. Retired Pakistani Brigadier-General Asad Munir, who formerly served in the senior ranks of the military's Inter-Services Intelligence Agency, says that all nuclear installations -- whether civilian or military -- are guarded with elaborate security arrangements. He says that Western countries' concerns that nuclear weapons could fall into the wrong hands have been put to rest. "They know it. They have been here, they have seen the system. They know that it is not easy. It is almost impossible [to breach the nuclear security]. Otherwise they would have taken action. The people who matter know that nobody is in a position to take these installations and take away nukes," Munir said. The UN's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, considers Pakistan's nuclear program safe and secure. Islamabad has established an elaborate nuclear security apparatus called the Strategic Plans Division. It reportedly keeps the fissile core of Pakistan's nuclear warheads separate from their delivery systems. Islamabad has received some $100 million in U.S. assistance since 9/11 to improve its nuclear safety. Pakistan has reportedly developed its own technologies to prevent accidents and to implement an elaborate system of checks and balances. And as Munir notes, those measures are backed by a strong human deterrent. "As long as the Pakistani army is there, there is no threat to the nuclear weapons. Not even 1 percent," Munir said.

Pakistan: ELECTIONS AMID ANARCHY

Naïve leaders from Punjab are making the persistent demand for immediate elections without considering the anarchy prevailing in all spheres of life of Pakistan. The writ of the Government had not been restored in some parts of Pakistan and life is not normal in other parts which will prevent the rulers from holding the elections. If demand for holding immediate elections is a political slogan and a pressure tactic on the coalition Government, then it is ok. If the Punjabi leaders are serious in forcing the Government to hold ahead of schedule elections is dangerous then we will be collecting huge crowd of unarmed and innocent people for the terrorists to kill people in thousands in a single explosion. In case of Balochistan, election campaigning is impossible as there is a strong and powerful section, though small, is opposed to parliamentary politics or representative democracy for which they had made some leaders target. The performance of the present Government in power in Balochistan is not ideal and people, in general, are not satisfied as they failed to deliver goods during the present political tenure. Presumably, they will not dare to face their electorates if the elections are called and if they did not enjoy the support of the establishment as usual. In such a case, their future is doomed and they are dumped in the history by the establishment. There is a growing awareness among the people in general not to tolerate any engineered elections. There will be zero tolerance to electoral fraud. Only genuine people enjoying the confidence of their electorates will be tolerated to contest the elections and people will listen to those parties and leaders who served the masses or comparatively more honest in political dealing. Those forces are not coming forward at the moment merely because of complete uncertainty and an adverse political environment created in Balochistan against representative democracy for the genuine people. Holding elections in parts of Balochistan and KP will not be very easy for the Election Commission or the new caretaker Government because of the law and order situation and also because of bitterness among the people on certain political issues. The security environment around Pakistan is not conducive for holding immediate elections, it is generally believed. Military leadership had issued public statements and published in the newspapers and carried by all the news channels in recent past that 20 foreign intelligence agencies are operating in place like Balochistan. If it is a possibility, then many more must be operating in the Federal Capital and the Punjab undermining the security of Pakistan. If the foreign powers are bent upon to settle their score with Pakistan, then there will be a definite interference in holding of transparent elections. It is claimed that during the last elections foreign money was available for certain parties. It was not confirmed by the officials to this date that foreign powers interfered in the last elections or not. Elections mean complete uncertainty. Who will win? No one knows. What will be the policies of the new Government? The entire system will observe a complete halt once the elections are announced. If elections are engineered by the establishment, then there will be no question of uncertainty on the political and economic front. The results will be manipulated in favour of the favourite party. If the stakeholders are confident that there will be no upheaval, no revolution, no least known, unpredictable man will rule this country, the situation will return to normal giving credence to electoral fraud in favour of the new ruling party. Presumably, the international community, led by the US and its allies, will try to defend their interests in the region by playing some role in the scheduled elections—seen or unseen. In the final analysis, elections are a distant dream of the Punjabi politicians and Punjab based political parties who are unaware of the ground realities in the whole country. Pakistan is not confined within the limits of Lahore and its surrounding. By holding one meeting in Quetta, it does not mean that all is well in rest of Balochistan. They will have to depend on their local allies to run the affairs of Balochistan, KPK and Sindh, if not the Seraiki area of Punjab.

Conspiracy against government to fail: Gilani

Former Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani said on Tuesday that forces which were plotting against the government would not succeed. Talking to APP before leaving for Lahore, he said there would be no clash among institutions if they work within their constitutional limits. Gilani categorically ruled out the notion that the differences between PML-N and PTI would benefit the PPP in next election. “Everyone should not forget the fact that all opposite forces were united against Abdul Qadir Gilani in recent by-polls in NA-151 constituency, but nobody could dent the PPP’s vote bank,” he said. He reiterated that President Zardari enjoyed constitutional immunity from prosecution under article-248 and anyone who would write letter to Swiss authorities will commit treason. “I refused to write the letter because I had sworn to protect the Constitution,” he remarked. Meanwhile, Federal Minister for Religious Affairs Syed Khurshid Shah said on Tuesday that local body’s’ elections could not be held before the general elections as it would not be financially viable option, DawnNews reported. Khursheed Shah said “although every political party has different policies and strategies for the elections but the PPP wishes to contest the elections in collaboration with its allies.” He said that a wrong propaganda was being carried out by the opposition parties that the PPP was delaying the general elections. “The general elections would take place in time,” he added. The religious minister said that local-body’s elections would take place after the general elections.

Risks of Syrian Intervention Limit Options for U.S.

Despite President Obama’s warning to Syria not to use its arsenal of chemical weapons or allow them to fall into the hands of extremists, the administration’s options for intervening remain limited by what its officials have described as a simple calculus: It would make the conflict even worse. American military operations against Syria, officials reiterated on Tuesday, would risk drawing in Syria’s patrons, principally Iran and Russia, at a much greater level than they already are involved. It would allow Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, to rally popular sentiment against the West and embolden Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups now fighting the Assad government to turn their attention to what they would see as another American crusade in the Arab world. Syria’s deputy prime minister, Qadri Jamil, made the point in Moscow on Tuesday, dismissing Mr. Obama’s warning, and declaring that any foreign military intervention would lead to “a confrontation wider than Syria’s borders.” At the same time, Mr. Obama’s remarks underscored the fact that there could be limits to the American reluctance to intervene. But it would require a threat to American interests and values that a civil war inside Syria by itself does not: a nightmarish attack using chemical weapons or the transfer of those weapons to hardened enemies of the United States and its allies, including Israel, which the president mentioned on Monday. “We say it for deterrence effect, of course, but it’s also a reality,” one official said Tuesday, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the administration’s internal strategy deliberations. “The United States is not going to be able to sit it out if Syria starts using chemical weapons on its people.” The Syrian Foreign Ministry pledged in late July that its stockpile of chemical weapons would be used only against foreign intervention, and that it would “never, never be used against the Syrian people or civilians during this crisis, under any circumstances.” Some experts and lawmakers have urged the administration to do more, including prominent members of Congress like Senator John McCain of Arizona, who called last month for increasing intelligence and helping to create “safe zones” in rebel-held areas. The White House faces little real public or political pressure to intervene forcefully, though, even as the bloodshed worsens. Mr. McCain was a frequent critic of what he regarded as the Obama administration’s overly cautious policy toward Libya, which did lead to military intervention by NATO. But, the officials said, the conflict in Syria has become far more complicated than was the case in Libya. That country’s universally unpopular leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, had neither an effective military nor international backing, and it posed far less risk of ethnic and sectarian strife that could easily spill into Syria’s neighbors, including Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Turkey and Israel. For now, the legal and diplomatic hurdles to intervention remain insurmountable. In large part because of the intervention in Libya, Russia and China have vowed to block United Nations authorization that could lead to international military involvement, something that European allies from Britain to Turkey insist is a prerequisite for international intervention. At the Pentagon, commanders continue to draft plans for potential operations — from establishing a “no fly” zone, as in Libya, or sending in special forces to neutralize Syria’s unconventional weapons, should they be used or moved out of the Syrian government’s control. Pentagon officials have indicated that a worst-case scenario would require tens of thousands of soldiers, something that the officials said would inflame an already roiling region. Mr. Obama did not explicitly threaten a military response in the event of a chemical weapons attack, though he called it a “red line” that would “change my calculus” about the American response so far. Such an attack, the officials said, would also change the thinking of other nations, including Russia, and raise the chances of an international reaction. The administration’s current policy involves intensifying diplomatic and economic pressure on Mr. Assad’s government through sanctions, offering humanitarian assistance to Syrians inside and outside the country, and providing $25 million in “nonlethal” help to Mr. Assad’s opponents, including more recently to members of the Free Syrian Army. That aid has paid for communication equipment to enable the armed and unarmed opposition to better coordinate their attacks and plans for taking power. The administration has also ruled out providing arms to the rebels for broadly the same reason: more weapons, the officials say, would probably make the war only worse. Some rebels, for example, have asked for portable rocket launchers known as Manpads, which experts say could make a huge difference in the fighting by countering government jet and helicopter attacks. But the officials point to the experience of Afghanistan in the 1980s, when the Central Intelligence Agency provided Stinger missiles to the mujahedeen fighting the Soviet Union, only to spend millions trying to track them down after the Soviets left and the opposition groups gave rise to the Taliban. “The complexity of Syria today makes Afghanistan in 1985 look very simple,” said Milton A. Bearden, who helped oversee the C.I.A.’s clandestine support of Afghan fighters in the 1980s, including the Stingers. “Who is the Syrian opposition? Who would these weapons go to?” The risk of not doing more is that the United States could lose the support of those hoping to overthrow Mr. Assad — in contrast to Libya’s new leaders, who now view the Americans favorably. There is also a moral argument that the United States and NATO intervened in Libya because it was easy, but not in Syria because it was hard. While some administration officials privately express frustration that the conflict is spiraling ever deeper out of control, they say it only underscores the danger of being drawn into a larger regional or even international conflict. “The opposition desperately needs weapons if you don’t want this conflict to be a grinder, which is the trajectory now,” Andrew J. Tabler, a Syria expert at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said in a telephone interview from Beirut. “If you’re not going to make the choice to intervene, you need to give them the ability to end this conflict themselves.” The administration maintains it is doing what is feasible to hasten the end of Mr. Assad’s rule, while the Pentagon and State Department plan for the political transition that would follow, addressing such questions as the security of Syria’s chemical arsenal. Other covert operations are also under way, though their extent remains unknown. “I reject the zero-sum argument,” one official said on Tuesday, “where either you intervene militarily or you’re doing nothing.”

Syria set to be next target of Western interventionism

Exactly one year ago, Mahmoud Jibril, chairman of Libyan Transitional National Council's executive board, announced in Benghazi that "Gaddafi is gone," following the death of the country's former leader. Earlier this month, Jibril handed over power to the General National Congress and stated that it was "the sole legitimate representative of the Libyan people." A year on, is Syria set to follow the path of Libya? Has Libya been a success? Most Western media have spoken highly about Libya's peaceful transition of power, saying it was the first in the country's modern history. But the opposition seized power from Muammar Gaddafi with the help of NATO through civil war. Transitional Libyan leader Mahmoud Jibril stated that near the end of the eight-month war, 25,000 people had been killed. It would be far-fetched to say this was a "peaceful transition." I understand that what the Western media mean is the "peaceful transition" from the Transitional National Council to the General National Congress. But the sacrifices that millions of Libyan people have made shouldn't be secluded from the process. Judging from the current situation of Libya's national security, it still remains in doubt whether the "peaceful transition" will bring stability to the country. Since the fall of Gaddafi, Libya has been separated into three parts: the east, the west and the north. The weapons lost during the civil war have fallen into the hands of armed forces which represent different tribes and interest groups. These armed forces have taken control of most of Libya. An article published on the London-based Guardian on August 9 said, "The transitional government failed to unite powerful militias under a national army. Instead, the militias and rival tribes often clash from their power bases in different parts of the country." Meanwhile, the handover ceremony was held in the middle of the night, which to some extent reflected the authorities' anxiety about the security issue. However, some Westerners still dwell on the "Libyan model" with relish. We could see the current situation in Syria is like that in Libya when NATO was about to intervene. But what's different is that the Western countries don't have a clear political will nor are they prepared for military interference in Syrian affairs. They need to focus more on their own domestic political and economic problems, and they need time to make clear which force, among the various opposition groups including extremists, could really represent the Syrian people. From a geopolitical point of view, the situation in Syria is much more complicated than that of Libya, especially as many Al-Qaeda militants who used to be active in Yemen and Iraq have been entering Syria to join opposition groups. Western countries have warned that once the situation in Syria gets out of control, the whole Middle East is likely to be affected. Therefore, the West has been holding a cautious attitude on using force. Nonetheless, the West won't wait until the situation takes a favorable turn toward the Bashar al-Assad regime. The West will enhance their support of the Syrian opposition, which means more bloodshed will take place in Syria in the following months. The West probably reckon that this is the price Syria needs to pay for democracy. US former assistant secretary of state Richard Murphy has blamed the US strategy of promoting democracy for confusing the situation in the Middle East. And the ultimate outcome of the strategy, for both Washington and the Middle East, remains in doubt.

The author is director of the Institute for Foreign Policy Studies of the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn

UK and US Intelligence Covertly Aiding Terrorist Groups in Syria

The Sunday Times:

The British intelligence is covertly aiding the armed terrorist groups to launch terrorist attacks in Syria, the British newspaper Sunday Times reported on Sunday. In an article published on Sunday, the newspaper cited a Syrian opposition official as saying that the British authorities "know about and approve 100%" of intelligence from their Cyprus military bases being passed through Turkey to the militia of the so-called Free Army. "British intelligence is observing things closely from Cyprus," said the official, adding that "The British are giving the information to the Turks and the Americans and we are getting it from the Turks." The Sunday Times said that, according to the official, the most valuable intelligence has been about the movements of the army forces in the city of Aleppo. The UK owns two military bases in Cyprus, one at Dhekelia and another at Akrotiri. The bases monitor regional airwaves and report to the GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters), Britain's national electronic surveillance center in Cheltenham, the article pointed out. The unnamed opposition official told the British newspaper that the US and its intelligence services (the CIA) gave his armed group satellite photos through Turkey. The newspaper also highlighted that the British foreign intelligence (MI6) and the US intelligence (CIA) have overlooked supplies of heavy machine guns coming from the Gulf states.

Russia warns West over Syria after Obama threats

Russia warned the West on Tuesday against unilateral action on Syria, a day after U.S. President Barack Obama threatened "enormous consequences" if his Syrian counterpart used chemical or biological arms or even moved them in a menacing way. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, speaking after meeting China's top diplomat, said Moscow and Beijing were committed to "the need to strictly adhere to the norms of international law ... and not to allow their violation". The remarks were a reminder of the divisions hampering efforts to end the 17-month old conflict that increasingly sets a mainly Sunni Muslim opposition against President Bashar al-Assad's Alawite minority. The United Nations says more than 18,000 people have been killed in a war which is affecting neighbouring states. In Lebanon, at least five people were killed in sectarian violence linked to the Syria conflict, and Turkey, an opponent of Assad, investigated possible Syrian involvement in a car bomb that killed nine people on Monday. Russia and China have opposed military intervention in Syria throughout the revolt. They have vetoed three U.N. Security Council resolutions backed by Western and Arab states that would have put more pressure on Damascus to end the violence. After meeting Lavrov in Moscow, Syrian Deputy Prime Minister Qadri Jamil said Obama's talk of action against Syria was media fodder. He said the West was seeking an excuse to intervene, likening the focus on Syria's chemical weapons with the run-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq by U.S.-led forces and the focus on what proved to be groundless suspicions that Saddam Hussein was concealing weapons of mass destruction. "Direct military intervention in Syria is impossible because whoever thinks about it ... is heading towards a confrontation wider than Syria's borders," he told a news conference. In one of the latest battle zones, troops and tanks overran the Damascus suburb of Mouadamiya on Tuesday, the second day of an offensive to regain control of the area. Activists said Assad's forces had killed at least 70 people in Mouadamiya since Monday. They included some two dozen men who had been executed and 16 people killed in a helicopter gunship attack on a funeral for victims of Monday's violence. "The mourners set off with 19 bodies and came back with 35," Hayat, one of the activists said from the suburb. Another resident, speaking to Reuters by telephone, said he had counted the bodies of some two dozen men who had been executed. "They were not killed by bombardment, their hands were tied and they were burnt and killed by knives," he said. Bodies were found in basements and looted premises, activists said. State-imposed curbs on media made it impossible to verify the reports of the violence, which followed another bloody day on Monday, when about 200 people were killed across the country, according to the opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. "RED LINE" An opposition group said Syria's air force had redeployed 30 Sukhoi fighter-bomber jets closer to cities where the army is battling to crush rebels in the north and east of the country. The Soviet-era Sukhoi Su-22 planes, which can drop 400 kg (881 pound) bombs, flew from the Dumair and Sim air bases north and east of Damascus on Monday to bases in the city of Hama Tabaqa and Deir al-Zor, a senior official in the Higher Leadership Council for the Syrian Revolution said. "This type of Sukhoi is more geared to bombing missions than aerial combat. They are now within a more manageable range to hit the cities of Aleppo, Homs and Deir al-Zor and areas in Idlib province," Mohammad Mroueh told Reuters from Amman. The United States and its allies have shown little appetite for intervention to halt the bloodshed along the lines of last year's NATO campaign that helped topple Libya's Muammar Gaddafi. But Obama used some of his strongest language yet on Monday to warn Assad not to use unconventional weapons. "We have been very clear to the Assad regime, but also to other players on the ground, that a red line for us is (if) we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized," he said. "That would change my calculus." Syria last month acknowledged for the first time that it had chemical or biological weapons and said it could use them if foreign countries attacked it. "We cannot have a situation where chemical or biological weapons are falling into the hands of the wrong people," Obama said, perhaps referring to Lebanon's Shi'ite Hezbollah group, an Iranian-backed ally of Assad, or to Islamist militants. The U.S.-based Global Security website says there are four suspected chemical weapons sites in Syria producing the nerve agents VX, sarin and tabun. It does not cite its sources. Israel, still formally at war with Syria, has also debated whether to attack the unconventional arms sites which it views as the gravest peril from the conflict next door. Obama has been reluctant to embroil the United States in another war in the Middle East and refuses to arm Syrian rebels, partly for fear that some of those fighting the Iranian-backed president are Islamist radicals equally hostile to the West. Rebels have seized swathes of territory in northern Syria near Turkey, which now hosts 70,000 Syrian refugees and which has suggested that the United Nations might need to create a "safe zone" in Syria if that total topped 10,000. But setting up a safe haven would require imposing a no-fly zone, an idea which U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said last week was not a "front-burner" issue for Washington. The Alawite-Sunni sectarian fault line flared in neighbouring Lebanon, where five people were killed and more than 60 wounded in the northern port city of Tripoli, a mainly Sunni city with a staunchly pro-Assad Alawite minority. Gunmen in the Sunni district of Bab al-Tabbaneh and their Alawite rivals in Jebel Mohsen exchanged gun and grenade fire in sporadic fighting overnight and into the day, despite action by Lebanese army troops deployed in the port city, residents said. The wounded included 10 soldiers, the army said.

Bahrain regime forces attack people mourning killed teenage

Saudi-backed regime forces in Bahrain have attacked people mourning the death of a teenage boy killed in Manama’s violent crackdown on protesters. Sixteen-year-old Hussam al-Haddad was killed on August 17, when regime forces carried out a brutal attack on a peaceful demonstration in the city of Muharraq, northwest of Manama. On Tuesday, the regime forces set several checkpoints on the roads leading to Muharraq and tried to prevent mourners from visiting his grave. They used teargas to disperse protesters and arrested a number of them. Scores of people have been killed by Bahraini regime forces since a popular uprising erupted against the ruling Al Khalifa family in February 2011. The protesters hold King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa responsible for the deaths of demonstrators during the uprising. Anti-regime protests continue in Bahrain despite a heavy-handed crackdown backed by Saudi Arabia.

Obama: Requesting tax returns not personal

During the White House press briefing, Obama commented on his re-election campaign. He said it is not "out of bounds" for his campaign to push Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney to release more tax returns. Obama says, "When it comes to releasing taxes, that is a precedent that was set decades ago including by Governor Romney’s father. And for us to say that it makes sense to release your tax returns, as I did, as John McCain did, as Bill Clinton did, as the two President Bush’s did, I don’t think is in any way out of bounds. I think that is what the American people would rightly expect."

Afghan rocket attacks damage top U.S. military officer's plane

Two rocket attacks targeting a U.S. military airbase in Afghanistan on early Tuesday damaged the plane of the top U.S. military officer, leaving two people wounded, an officer confirmed. "Two rockets struck Bagram Airbase last night after mid-night, causing some damage to an aircraft in the airbase. The aircraft was used by General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff," An officer of the press department of the airbase, who declined to be identified, told Xinhua, adding that General Dempsey left the base later on Tuesday using another plane. Two maintenance crew members were wounded in the attack, the officer further said. General Martin Dempsey pays an unannounced visit to Afghanistan on Monday, only one day after a man wearing an Afghan National Police uniform opened fire against U.S. forces, killing one U.S. soldier with the coalition in southern Kandahar province, the latest in the series of insider attacks when Afghan army, police or gunmen in their uniform turned their weapons against coalition forces.

Obama deeply concerned over Afghan "insider attacks"

President Barack Obama

on Monday said the United States needed to do more to safeguard U.S. troops after a spate of Afghan "insider" attacks that have left 10 American troops killed in the past two weeks. His comments came during a visit by the top U.S. military officer, General Martin Dempsey, to Afghanistan, where the killings of American forces by Afghans have topped the agenda. Obama, who spoke to Dempsey earlier in the day, said he would reach out to Afghan President Hamid Karzai about the killings. "We've been watching with deep concern these so-called green-on-blue attacks, where you have Afghan individuals, some of whom are actually enrolled in the Afghan military, ... attacking coalition forces," Obama said. There have been 32 insider attacks so far this year involving 36 shooters that have led to 40 coalition deaths, just over half of them Americans. Some 69 coalition troops have been wounded. That's a sharp increase from 2011, when 35 coalition troops killed, 24 of whom were U.S. troops during the year. The growing insider threat has eroded trust between NATO and its Afghan allies, causing a headache for Western powers who are planning to pull out most of their troops by the end of 2014. After noting some of the steps to bolster protection of U.S. forces, Obama said: "Obviously, we're gonna have to do more, because there has been an uptick" in the number of attacks. "I'll be reaching out to President Karzai as well because we've got to make sure that we're on top of this," Obama said. Over the weekend, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Afghan President Hamid Karzai spoke by phone and agreed to boost vetting of Afghan recruits to try to put an end to the spiraling attacks, now averaging one a week. In Kabul, Dempsey met with his Afghan counterpart, General Sher Mohammad Karimi, who raised the issue of insider threat at the start of their meeting -- something Dempsey saw as a sign of Afghan resolve. "In the past, it's been us pushing on them to make sure they do more," he said. "This time, without prompting, when I met General Karimi, he started with a conversation about insider attacks - and, importantly, insider attacks not just against us, but insider attacks against the Afghans, too," in comments provided by his spokesman from Kabul. Reclusive Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar has said insurgent fighters have successfully infiltrated the Afghan security forces. In a statement released last week, he urged police, soldiers and government workers to "abandon support of the invaders" and back the Taliban ahead of the departure of most Western combat troops in 2014. Still, last week, the Pentagon said only about 11 percent of so-called "insider attacks" by Afghans against NATO troops this year were due to Taliban infiltration, with the vast majority due to other motives, including personal grudges. Why there would be a sudden increase in personal grudges and other vendettas remains unclear.

US drone attack kills 3 in North Waziristan

Two US drones fired four missiles on a vehicle in Shnakhura village. A US drone strike on Tuesday killed at least three militants in a restive Pakistani tribal region near the Afghan border, security officials said. Two US drones fired four missiles on a vehicle in Shnakhura village, 10 kilometers from Miranshah, the main town in Pakistan s North Waziristan region. "We have received confirmed reports that three militants have been killed in the drone strike on a vehicle. However, the identities of the militants are not yet clear," a senior security official told AFP in Peshawar. Another official in Miranshah said a compound near the vehicle was damaged in the strike. "A missile also hit a nearby compound which was badly damaged and engulfed in flames," he said. Separate but unconfirmed reports suggested the number of killed militants may be more than three. "We suspect that the dead militants could be up to six. There are also reports that two were injured," a security official in Miranshah told AFP on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media. Attacks by unmanned American aircraft are deeply unpopular in Pakistan, which says they violate its sovereignty, and fan anti-US sentiment, but US officials are said to believe the attacks are too important to give up.

Development, decay in Indian PM's Pakistan village

For years, Ghulam Muhammad Khan thought his brilliant classmate had been killed in the bloodbath that gave birth to India and Pakistan in 1947, the deadliest end to British colonial rule in history. But when the world's biggest democracy elected the softly-spoken Manmohan Singh as prime minister in 2004 and he told an interviewer he had been born in a remote Pakistani village, Khan was over the moon. "He was our class monitor and we played together. He was a gentle and brilliant child. Our teacher always advised us to get his help if we couldn't understand something," Khan recalled, striding through village maize fields. Even more incredibly, Singh wanted to help the 2,500 villagers in Gah, on a plateau of muddy rock and bushy forest 100 kilometres (62 miles) southeast of Islamabad near the ultra-modern motorway that runs almost to the Indian border. "I never imagined Manmohan would one day bring so many blessings to our village. He did what our own government still refuses to do," recalled Khan, who is Singh's last surviving classmate left in the village. But the last eight years is a tale of generosity, squandered opportunity and political short-termism that leaves Pakistan with an embarrassing predicament now that President Asif Ali Zardari has invited Singh to visit later this year. The model village that Singh dreamt of lies in tatters. Buildings that cost tens of thousands of dollars stand empty and unfinished. The only question is what, if anything, will Pakistan do to fix it? Not long after taking office, Singh wrote to Pakistan's then ruler, General Pervez Musharraf, asking that Gah be earmarked for development. Musharraf, at the time working on peace talks that he hoped would resolve India and Pakistan's conflict over Kashmir, was happy to oblige. The provincial government in Punjab built a decent road from the motorway to the village, high schools for boys and girls, a hospital, veterinary clinic and hooked the village up to the water supply. Singh sent an Indian firm to install solar-powered street lights, solar-powered lights to 51 households that did not have electricity and a water heating system at the mosque close to the site of his destroyed home. But the project stalled after elections in 2008 swept former prime minister Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-N party to power in Punjab, booting out of office Pakistan Muslim League-Q and Musharraf stepped down. The high schools and hospital stand empty. No teacher or doctor has been appointed, because the villagers say, credit for the development would have gone to the previous regime and not the new government. "We contacted the district administration and members of the ruling party time and again. They say there are no funds for the facilities and that they are trying to get it from the government," said Ashiq Hussein, the mayor of Gah. But a Punjab government spokesman said it was "absolutely baseless" to suggest it had abandoned the Gah development project for political reasons. "No scheme has been stopped anywhere in the province on such a basis," Pervez Rasheed told AFP. "The hospital in the village is still under completion and the boundary wall plus equipment is being provided this year. Staff will be recruited when it's completed," he said, referring to plans to open the high schools in September. Villagers young and old are united in their hope that the return of their lost boy sometime later this year will be the spur. "Everybody wants to see him and say thank you. We also want him to come soon because we think the abandoned development will be completed for his visit and we will get staff in our schools and hospitals," Khan said. The mayor hopes that if Punjab chief minister Shahbaz Sharif, brother of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, attends village celebrations for Singh's 80th birthday in September, development work will resume. Hussein, whose late uncle Raja Mohammad Ali met Singh in New Delhi, is pushing full steam ahead with preparations to welcome home the "great son" of Gah. "We are going to bring all the musicians, drum beaters and flute players here to perform at his arrival. We will dance and celebrate. "We want him to establish an unbreakable friendship between India and Pakistan." No matter Pakistan and India's bitter rivalry, most people in Gah are proud of Singh for going on to govern 1.2 billion people in the world's largest democracy. "He is the son of our soil and we want him to become the hero of India-Pakistan friendship. We would like him to solve the Kashmir issue and I will talk to him about this when he comes here," Khan said. In Singh's old primary school, which unlike his home is still standing, his mark sheet has been put up on the wall, exhorting the next generation of children to take his lead, and go ahead and rule the world.

France decries blasphemy charge against Pakistani girl

The Express Tribune News

France on Tuesday added its voice to mounting international concern over the arrest on blasphemy charges of a young Christian girl in Pakistan. The girl, Rimsha, is reported to have Down’s syndrome. She faces the death penalty for allegedly burning pages with verses from the Holy Quran. French foreign ministry spokesman Vincent Floreani said Paris welcomed an announcement by Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari that he would look into the case. “France calls on the Pakistani authorities to free this young girl,” he added. “We would also recall that the very existence of a crime of blasphemy is in breach of fundamental liberties, the freedom of religion or of conviction as well as the freedom of speech. “We call on Pakistan to respect its international commitments in this respect.” Zardari has asked the interior ministry to submit a report on the case, the details of which remain unclear. Reports in Pakistan have suggested the allegations against her were triggered after she burnt papers collected from a garbage pile for cooking.

Pakistan Christian Congress condemn arrest of Christian disable girl under blasphemy

Dr. Nazir S Bhatti, President of Pakistan Christian Congress PCC have urged government of Pakistan to issue arm licenses to every Christian in Pakistan for self-defense if cannot protect their life and property. PCC Chief, commenting on burning of homes of Christians in Islamabad by Muslim mob after allegations of blasphemy on 11 years Rimsha Bibi, a Christian disable girl and fleeing of thousands of Christian residents of village Meherabad said “To flee from their homes for safety of life of thousands of Christians under the nose of highly protected capital city of Pakistan is total failure of administration” Nazir Bhatti said “Government is not serious to stop miss-use of blasphemy laws in Pakistan and attack on Christian’s life and property” There have been attacks on Christians and setting their homes on fire in Punjab province of Pakistan where Christian children, women and elder were burnt alive on allegation of blasphemy but recent attack on homes and a Church in Islamabad have sparked anger and fear among Pakistani Christian that if they are not safe in highly protected city of Islamabad then what is their future in Pakistan. On August 18, Muslims attacked Rimsha, 11 years old mentally ill Christian girl and her mother on allegations of burning of pages of Quran in Meherabad, a slum area in Sector G-8, of Islamabad. Police rescued Rimsha and her mother but Muslim mob started setting on fire homes of Christians and Church. There are 300 hundred homes of Christians in this slum area of Islamabad. Nazir Bhatti said “In 18th amendment in constitution of Pakistan, all Muslim parties in government, opposition and outside parliament agreed to repeal all laws endorsed by Zia-ul-Haq and even agreed to remove photo of former military ruler Zia-ul-haq from parliament building but never bothered to amend or repeal law of blasphemy imposed by dictator which gives impression that no one is ready to stop miss-use of blasphemy law which targets Christians and other religious minorities in Pakistan” Nazir Bhatti urged President of Pakistan Asif Ali zardari and Prime Minister of Pakistan Raja Pervez Ashraf to order release of Rimsha Bibi immediately. “I urge Christians to sell their TV and other household to buy licensed arms for their self-defense and protection instead of fleeing from their homes” said PCC Chief Nazir Bhatti said “Pakistani Christians are sons of soil and have the right to protect their life and property in Pakistan”

Blasphemy-accused girl: US finds case 'deeply disturbing'

US State Department says the case of an 11-year-old girl arrested in Pakistan on charges of blasphemy is “deeply disturbing.” According to a transcript of the press briefing, State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland said that they are calling on the Pakistani government to have the investigation into the matter in a transparent way. In response to a question, Nuland said that they welcomed President Zardari’s statement on the matter as well as the directive to the Interior Ministry to look into the case. “We urge the government of Pakistan to protect not just its religious minority citizens, but also women and girls.” When asked about the blasphemy law, Nuland did not respond on how the law compared to other such laws. “But as a general matter, concerns that in this case, what is being touted as an abuse or an intentional act for religious purposes may, in fact, have been something else.”

Arrest of Pakistani girl on blasphemy charges deeply disturbing: US

The US on Monday called the arrest of a young Pakistani girl on blasphemy charges "deeply disturbing" and praised President Asif Ali Zardari for coming out against it. "This case is obviously deeply disturbing, the arrest of a young Pakistani girl on blasphemy charges," state department spokesperson Victoria Nuland told reporters at her daily news conference. "President Zardari, to his credit, went out very quickly. So conceivably, we've been welcoming of that move in Islamabad, as well," Nuland said appreciative of the move of the Pak President. "Zardari has now asked the interior ministry to look into the arrest and has underscored that vulnerable populations have to be protected from misuse of the blasphemy law," she said. "We would call on the Pakistanis to have that investigation in a transparent way. And we think that the president's statement is very welcome, and we urge the government of Pakistan to protect not just its religious minority citizens but also women and girls," Nuland said.

Shahbaz Taseer to reunite with family soon

http://www.thenewstribe.com/

Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik on Tuesday said the government’s efforts to recover Shahbaz Taseer, son of slain Punjab governor Salman Taseer, would soon prove fruitful. “Multiple efforts” on the part of the government were underway which would result in a “positive” outcome, Malik tweeted. Earlier in July, Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah had said in a Geo News TV programme that the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) had been negotiating with militants over Shahbaz’s release. Sanaullah said that the kidnappers were demanding a large ransom and the release of some of their colleagues. Shahbaz Taseer was kidnapped from Lahore on Aug 26, 2011 in the morning near his company’s head office. Slain Governor of Punjab Salman Taseer was killed by his bodyguard last year after he criticised Pakistan’s blasphemy laws.

Generals Meet to Study Afghan Violence

Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, arrived in Afghanistan on Monday for discussions on the progress of the war, including an intensified wave of insider attacks by Afghan forces on NATO service members, even as New Zealand became the latest coalition partner to announce an accelerated troop withdrawal. The visit by General Dempsey was characterized by NATO as one of his regular visits to Kabul. But it comes after a trust-eroding two-week stretch in which 10 American service members have been killed by Afghan security forces, in violence designated as insider or green-on-blue attacks. General Dempsey met in Kabul with Gen. John R. Allen, the top commander in Afghanistan, as well as other senior coalition and Afghan officials, said Jamie Graybeal, a NATO spokesman. General Dempsey received an update on the campaign, and the insider attacks were “certainly among the topics of discussion,” one NATO official said. The discussions took place in private, and officials gave no more details. “Our session today was an excellent dialogue about how to maintain momentum against the insurgents and ISAF’s continuing support to building Afghan capacity,” General Allen said in a statement, referring to the International Security Assistance Force, the formal name of the NATO-led force. “The campaign remains on track,” he added. But the visit comes as the military has moved insider killings to the top of the agenda. These have heightened worries about how coalition troops can protect themselves while training members of the Afghan Army and the police — a central part of America’s withdrawal strategy. The Taliban has claimed that the infiltration of Afghan forces is one of its most successful tactics, but a NATO analysis has shown that only 1 in 10 such attacks can be directly tied to the insurgents, while the remainder of such killings stem from personal disputes or cultural clashes. On Saturday, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta spoke with President Hamid Karzai by phone to urge him to find new ways to stop the attacks — “including augmented counterintelligence measures, even more rigorous vetting of Afghan recruits, and stepped up engagement with village elders, who often play a key role by vouching for Afghan security personnel,” George Little, a Defense Department spokesman, said in a statement. On Monday, President Obama expressed concern about the killings and said in a White House news conference that he, too, would be conferring with Mr. Karzai about them. New Zealand announced Monday that it would probably withdraw its small troop contingent from Afghanistan months ahead of schedule, aiming for early 2013 rather than October of that year. The country has about 140 soldiers in Afghanistan, mainly in a reconstruction role in Bamian Province — a limited role that helped ease public wariness in New Zealand about taking part in the war. Bamian is a rugged and poor province in central Afghanistan, and until recently it had been one of the most peaceful in the country. But Taliban violence has sharply increased there this year, and this month five New Zealand soldiers were killed, including three in a roadside bombing on Sunday. In his announcement on speeding up troop withdrawal, Prime Minister John Key of New Zealand insisted that the deaths had not played into the decision. But the violence in Bamian has been a shocking measure of how insurgent activity has begun to penetrate even areas that until recently were considered relatively stable. Among those caught in the bombing Sunday was a 26-year-old medic who was the country’s first female soldier to be killed in the Afghan war. She and two colleagues were taking a member of their patrol to a doctor at a forward operating base when their convoy was attacked early Sunday, New Zealand officials said; the deaths brought the number of New Zealand soldiers killed in Afghanistan since 2003 to 10. Earlier this month, two soldiers were killed and six others were wounded in a gunfight, also in Bamian. A Western official said New Zealand’s decision to withdraw earlier than initially planned was taken before the attacks this month, and was related to the transfer of full authority in Bamian from NATO to the Afghan government, a move most likely to take place this year. In Bamian, the New Zealand base is a local landmark, with a model kiwi atop its roof. While the New Zealand soldiers have concentrated on providing security for reconstruction, as well as police training, the country’s special operations forces have also been active in Afghanistan, including mentoring crisis response units in Kabul. Two members of its special operations forces were killed last year during attacks on the British Council in Kabul and in Wardak Province. The recent violence in Bamian has mainly been in the northeast corner of the province, close to the border with neighboring Baghlan Province, where the insurgency is stronger. The security forces have been trying to prevent incursions from Baghlan, while insurgents have also spilled over the border as they come under pressure from Afghan security forces conducting operations in Baghlan, Afghan officials said. “If the New Zealand troops leave Bamian Province, then we would require more police forces and more equipment to fight the insurgency,” said Juma Geldi Yardam, the province police chief. New Zealand now follows France, a much bigger coalition partner, which in January announced it was accelerating its troop withdrawal. France’s redeployment has already begun, with 2,000 troops scheduled to move out by December, and a final 800 troops by mid-2013, according to NATO. Richard A. Oppel Jr. and an employee of The New York Times contributed reporting.

Abolish blasphemy Law:- Experts slam victimisation of mentally challenged girl

As the news of the Christian girl Rifta and her ordeal continues to make headlines, what comes to the fore is a sick picture of double victimisation of an individual, first as a religious minority and secondly as a mentally handicapped human being in a society where there is little understanding of mental illnesses. Currently, the Down syndrome sufferer is being held in the Adiyala Jail for a judicial remand under charges of blasphemy and any progress in the case will be made only after Eid. While voices are being raised as to how a fair trial must be conducted under the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance, 2000, what is being overlooked is the need for sanity to prevail. The Bahawalpur case where a malang was killed by over 2000 ‘sane’ people after being accused of blasphemy and the case of this girl show the apathy of our society. So far, there has been no medico-legal examination of the girl to determine her mental health. Earlier, under 1912 Act, a person could be held for 10-30 days before an inquiry began but after the Mental Health Ordinance 2001, a mentally unstable person could not be detained for more than 72 hours and it was mandatory to carry out psychiatric evaluation within that period, an MLO working in a public hospital in Lahore said. Till 2001, Pakistan followed the Lunacy Act 1912, the mental health law that was introduced in India, which referred to a person with mental illness as ‘idiot of unsound mind’ or ‘lunatic’. However, in 2001, things improved significantly when the Lunacy Act 1912 was repealed and replaced with the Mental Health Ordinance 2001 (MHO 2001) by Pervez Musharraf. The ordinance offered a more humane outlook towards individuals with psychological disorders and mental handicaps and allowed them to be given a fair chance. However, after the 18th Amendment, the Federal Mental Health Authority was dissolved and MHO 2001 lapsed. So far, none of the provinces, with the exception of Sindh, has made any effort to take up this issue. Human rights lawyer Zia Awan agreed that the 2001 ordinance would have offered a more sensible way out in this case. “If you go by the law, then Section 82 (of) Pakistan Penal Code says that ‘nothing is an offence which is done by a child under seven’ while in Section 83, a judge can decide to ignore the age stated in Section 82, raising it to 12 years, in the case of a child who has not attained sufficient maturity of understanding,” Mr Awan explained. “At the moment, it is important that a psychiatric evaluation is carried out to determine the extent of her mental illness. This girl might have a mental age of a 3-year-old and we have to keep this in mind when doling out a judgment,” he said. He added that if the MHO 2001 was there, the girl would not have been sent to the jail and would rather have been sent to a ‘facility equipped to take care of her needs’. Commenting on the situation, Dr Haroon Ahmed, president of the Pakistan Association of Mental Health, said: “There are so many loopholes in our legal system and usually it’s the innocent that gets caught. “So far, we do not have clear-cut definitions of mental illness and when it comes to legislation, mental health service providers are excluded. Currently, no laws address civil or criminal liability of a person suffering from mental illness.” He said the Pakistani society was already stifling with the ‘mob justice mentality providing a clear reflection of this decay’. “The charges of blasphemy are very serious but how do you determine who is sane and who is not? How do you deal with a schizophrenic person who claims to be a divine entity? Do you treat him for his illness or do you ‘punish’ him?”

I am a common man in public: Gilani

Former prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani said on Monday that when he was in jail he was a prisoner, in Prime Minister House was prime minister and now a common man in public. In an interview with a private TV on Monday, the former prime minister said his zodiac sign was Gemini due to which he managed to change himself with situation easily. Gilani said he offered prayers for judiciary, the institution which restored the joy of Eid for him. He said he was happy to celebrate Eid with his people.

North Waziristan operation imperative

Masood Kousar has said preparations for operation in North Waziristan were complete. He said Pakistan will launch operation at its own and not under any foreign pressure. Governor Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa said this talking to media persons after his visit to Lady Redding Hospital. Operation in North Waziristan was essential, he said, adding the operation was Pakistan’s internal matter. Responding to a question about three Eids in the country he said it was not such a big issue. “Moulvees will continue to dominate the affairs and exploit the uneducated people,” he said. He visited various wards of the hospital and distributed gifts among the children.

General Kayani's dilemma

BY:Ajai Shukla

A reluctant Pakistani army is poised to crack down in the North Waziristan agency, the most jihad-poisoned corner of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) on Pakistan’s northwestern frontier. The army’s chief, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, will be thanking the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the so-called Pakistani Taliban, which – with its ill-judged fidayeen attack last week on the Pakistani air force’s vital Kamra base – has given General Kayani a pretext to move into North Waziristan in “the national interest” rather than in submission to Washington’s arm-twisting, which has now become irresistible. But there remain serious concerns about further two-timing by Rawalpindi. The US wants the crackdown to focus on the Haqqani faction, which fights US forces in Afghanistan from its bases around the town of Miranshah. But will General Kayani confront the Haqqanis, his most valuable proxies in Afghanistan? Or will the Pakistani army merely feint against Miranshah, while reserving its firepower for Mir Ali, the nearby town that is headquarters for the TTP?General Kayani’s likely foray into North Waziristan will impact directly on the security situation in Afghanistan, and thence on Indian interests. We must understand, therefore, the game that the Pakistani army will play. Decoding the intentions of that opaque institution is seldom easy, but General Headquarters (GHQ) in Rawalpindi has done us a favour by briefing a columnist, the well-respected Cyril Almeida, whose recent column in Karachi’s Dawn newspaper bears all the telltale signs of a recent briefing from army decision makers. The column makes three points. Firstly, it argues, using boilerplate Pakistan army logic, that America is losing in Afghanistan because of the “dysfunctionality” with which it is prosecuting the war, not because of the safe refuges in North Waziristan from which the Haqqani faction operates. This is pretty much standard Pakistani logic — it’s not our fault, it’s yours! But the next point is an interesting one. The Pakistan army, says Mr Almeida, insists that the Haqqanis are not really dangerous; they only seem that way because of their high-profile attacks. In fact, the Haqqanis have no national ambitions in Afghanistan; they seek only to control the three border provinces of Khost, Paktia and Paktika. The US can easily wall them off inside these provinces, keeping the rest of Afghanistan a No Haqqani Zone. With the Haqqanis ensconced in Khost, Paktia and Paktika, the Pakistan army argues disingenuously that the US could deter attacks by the group on Kabul by threatening retaliation. Rawalpindi’s apparent objective is a tacit trade-off, in which the Haqqanis are handed over three Afghan provinces in exchange for a promise to leave Kabul alone. For GHQ, this is a win-win: it would be spared the embarrassment of having a soon-to-be-designated terrorist organisation operating from North Waziristan. More importantly, Haqqani control of those crucial border provinces would shift Pakistani leverage well into Afghanistan. That is exactly what strategic depth implies. Mr Almeida’s third point is that the Pakistani army has never doubted that it would have to take on the jehadis in North Waziristan, especially pan-Islamic groups like the TTP that view Islamabad and the army as hurdles on the road to an ummah. GHQ knows that it must seal off the neighbouring tribal agencies and bring in more troops to ensure that FATA is brought into the Pakistani mainstream (such as it is). But what continues to hold General Kayani back is the fear of “blowback” caused by an army offensive in North Waziristan. Successful retaliation by jehadis against “Pakistan proper” (the proper Pakistani way to refer to Punjab!) might make the generals look bumbling and inept. The Aam Pakistani might even begin to question the military’s special status. Unsurprisingly, considering the mortality rate of Pakistani journalists who peer too deeply into the radicalisation within that country’s army, Mr Almeida cloaks that crucial question in silence. Blowback in “Pakistan proper” is far less troubling to the army brass than blowback within the army itself. The issue that must give General Kayani persistent sleepless nights is: will his increasingly conservative, and in many cases radicalised, soldiers fight the Waziri militants, who have long been lauded as a sword arm of Pakistan? After all, the jihad-intoxicated gunslingers who fight for the TTP are from the same stock as the tribal lashkars that were sent into Kashmir in 1947, a celebrated chapter in Pakistan’s history. And the pan-Islamic ummah that the TTP seeks to impose on the world, including on Pakistan, would seem to many of Pakistan’s simple soldiers as only a logical extension of Pakistan’s founding belief that religion was the most important marker of identity. With Pakistan’s soldiery today drawn from exactly the same stock as Punjabi jehadis, it is inevitable that the Pakistan army’s rank and file would share an ideological affinity with the militants they will now be asked to fight. The growing associations between the Pakistan military and the jehadis are increasingly apparent. Pakistani air force commanders have complained to US diplomats that airmen would sabotage F-16s before missions against militant targets. And the jehadi attacks on the Mehran naval base in 2011, and against Kamra last week, could never have been pulled off without insider help. The question, therefore, is: will the Pakistani army begin to crack? If massive firepower and US drone strikes quickly win the day and bring the TTP to the table, Pakistani face might yet be saved. But if, as I apprehend, North Waziristan turns into a bloody grind, the generals will face increasingly strident questions from the ranks to which they have no answers.

Do not reopen "Pandora's box" in the Middle East

The United States invaded Iraq nine years ago, which induced sectarian and ethnic conflicts in the state. Jacques René Chirac, president of France at the time, had accused the invasion of the U.S. army as opening "Pandora's Box" in Iraq. Now, another evil box is about to be opened in Syria. The Syrian crisis was quickly put to the geopolitical interests of the United States. The unshakeable goal of the United States is to change the Syrian regime, break up Syria- Iran alliance and maintain its leading role in the Middle East. Changing the regime of a sovereign country by external force has been the consistent foreign practice of the United States since the Cold War. The process will be cruel to Syrian people and the consequence will be calamitous to the state and even the world peace. In the past weeks, Bashar al-Assad lost control of some important regions in Syria and Syrian reactionaries sympathized and supported by external forces gained the upper hand by murdering senior officials backing Bashar al-Assad. The change of balance of power will trigger a time consuming war between Syrian reactionaries and pro-Bashar al-Assad group. Syrian opposition has captured certain cities, but they are leaderless and divided into around 100 factions. Even if Bashar steps down voluntarily, Syria will still be split into pieces because of various forces fighting for their own interests. Syria will suffer from ethnic cleansing, refugee flows, and humanitarian catastrophe. Al Qaeda will also take advantage of the chaotic situation. In addition, Syria’s surrounding areas are also full of powder kegs. In addition to Israel, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, and Turkey are also facing hidden complicated contradictions between Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds. The Syrian conflict will inevitably overflow, which will lead to a large-scale regional clash. Once this “Pandora's Box” is opened, the United States will be stuck in a new quagmire in another way, which is not in line with its interests. Syria is neither Egypt nor Libya. Now is the time for the United States to make a choice, though it will be a hard one.

Pak mangoes are hot cake at Wallmart China

statesman.com

Pakistani mangoes have become centre of action in the largest retail chain of China "Wall Mart" where the king of fruit is being offered for sale in a festivity. The mangoes have been shipped by a leading Pakistani exporter Durrani Associates through sea in July this year. Director of Durrani Associates Babar Khan Durrani said here that Pakistan has taken a lead by exporting 40 tons of mango to China. India had registered for mango export to China in 2003 and Pakistan in 2006. He said China is a big market and a three-member Chinese delegation will visit Pakistan to conclude an agreement for the purchase of 100 tons of mango. The delegation will witness the working of latest mango treatment and quality control processes during the visit. Durrani said Pakistani mangoes are in great demand in China due to their quality and taste and Pakistan can earn millions of dollars by exporting the king of fruit. He pointed out that Pakistan can enhance mango export to China three fold in next three years. He said Pakistan exports mangoes to 11 countries and is ranked fifth in global mango production. We produce about 1.6 to 2 million tons of mangoes every year, he added. It is pertinent to mention here that as many as 11 countries including Pakistan export mangos. To meet the global standards, mangoes are treated before export. There are four knows ways of treatment, out of which three are recognised across the world: hot water treatment (HWT), vapour heat treatment (VHT) and radiation. He said that owing the research work of 27 years, Durrani Associates managed to bring Pakistan with a double edge in regard with treatment and shelving of mangoes. The country has a capacity to treat 15 tons of mangoes per hour. Besides this, Pakistani private sector has ability of shelve mangoes for 35 days after treatment, however the rest of exporter countries could shelve mangoes for maximum seven days. Durrani said, “China can be the biggest market of Pakistan Mangoes and within 3 years Pakistani export can be doubled,” he added. He further said that Pakistan produces 1.6 to 2 million mangoes annually and ranked 5th to 6th in mangoes’ production.

Attack on the Minhas airbase in Pakistan

editorial:Stop talking, start acting

What is worrying about the August 16 militant attack on the Minhas airbase in Pakistan is that far from being an one-off event, it was the third such attack on this military facility. The truth is that Islamicist militant attacks on Pakistani military facilities are frequent and have been able to penetrate even the most sensitive installations. The Minhas attack can be deemed a failure by the Tehreek-e-Taliban. It got through only the first security perimeter and does not seem to have done more than minor damage to one Pakistani military aircraft. But this has not always been the case. The so-called Pakistan Taliban had stormed two of the country's most-sensitive military facilities: the Army General Headquarters in 2009 and the Mehran naval base in 2011. There are two reasons why the ability of groups like the Tehreek-e-Taliban to attack Pakistani military facilities is alarming. The first is that similar facilities are home to Pakistan's nuclear arsenal. Though there is no evidence that militants have specifically sought to obtain a nuclear weapon, at least two nuclear-related facilities — the Wah military complex where weapons are manufactured and the Sargodha nuclear storage facility — have been attacked in the past. The second concern is the increasing evidence of Islamicist penetration of the Pakistani military's rank and file. The attack on the general headquarters was done by militants who had access to uniforms, military ID cards, security licence plates, maps of the premises and layouts of the security systems. Some of the attacks have been plotted in safe houses only blocks away from the bases. Much of this points to the presence of sympathisers in the ranks of the military. The extent to which this has gone can be seen in the attempted assassinations of then Pakistani president, Pervez Musharraf, in a plot that included military officers. We can take only mild satisfaction in knowing that the Taliban fighters who are attacking the Pakistan military today are a product of the same army's patronage of militants whose original target was India. The same elite Special Services Group, which for years trained Kashmiri insurgents, is now finding that the same training is being imparted to the Tehreek-e-Taliban. Cross-border militancy will pale in comparison to the threat India will face if Pakistan's nuclear facilities are compromised. Rawalpindi follows every attack with strong statements about the security of its nuclear deterrent. But given the present record of base attacks, the fact that Pakistan is rapidly expanding its nuclear arsenal for no obvious reason and that an estimated 70,000 people work for its nuclear programme, it is time Pakistan recognises that these statements reassure nobody.

Pakistani police investigating girl for blasphemy

Pakistani authorities arrested a Christian girl and are investigating whether she violated the country's strict blasphemy laws after furious neighbors surrounded her house and demanded police take action, a police officer said Monday. The arrest of the girl and outrage among the local community demonstrates the deep emotion that suspected blasphemy cases can evoke in this conservative Muslim country, where rising extremism often means religious minorities live in fear of persecution. In Pakistan, anyone found guilty of insulting Islam's Prophet Muhammad, or holy book, the Quran, can be sentenced to death, although they're rarely if ever executed. A Pakistani police officer, Zabi Ullah, said Monday that the girl was arrested Thursday after hundreds of neighbors, angry over reports she had allegedly burned religious papers, gathered outside her house in a poor outlying district of the capital, Islamabad. He said the police took the girl to the police station, and that she's been held for 14 days while authorities investigate. "About 500-600 people had gathered outside her house in Islamabad, and they were very emotional, angry and they might have harmed her if we had not quickly reacted," he said. "Some Muslims from the area claim the girl had burned pages of the Quran, and we are investigating, and we have not reached any conclusion," he said. Another police official, Qasim Niazi, said when the girl was brought to the police station she had a shopping bag that contained various religious and Arabic-language papers that had been partly burned but no Quran. Another police officer said the matter would likely be dropped once the investigation is completed and the atmosphere is defused, saying there was "nothing much to the case." He did not want to be identified due to the sensitivity of the case. There were varying reports on the girl's age and whether she was mentally handicapped. Ullah said she was 16 while other officials have said she was either 12 or 11. Niazi said that when the girl was brought to the police station she was scared and unable to speak normally, but he did not know whether she was mentally handicapped. Christians often live in fear that they will be accused of blasphemy, and many critics say the legislation is sometimes used to settle scores. Angry mobs have been known to sometimes take the law into their own hands and beat or kill people who are accused of violating the blasphemy laws. In July, thousands of people dragged a Pakistani man accused of desecrating the Quran from a police station in the central Pakistani city of Bahawalpur, beat him to death and then set his body on fire. Attempts to revoke or alter the blasphemy laws have been met with violent opposition, however. Last year, two prominent Pakistani political figures who spoke out against the laws were killed, in attacks that raised concerns about the rise of religious extremism in Pakistan. Liberal politician Salman Taseer was shot and killed by one of his own guards in January 2011, and in March 2011, militants gunned down Shahbaz Bhatti, the only Christian minister in Pakistan's Cabinet. A spokesperson for Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, Farhatullah Babar, said the president has taken "serious note" of reports of the girl's arrest and has asked the Interior Ministry to look into the case.

HRCP condemns blasphemy charge against 11-year-old

The Express Tribune

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has condemned the blasphemy charge against an 11-year-old Christian girl who was accused of blasphemy and arrested for allegedly burning pages of a Noorani Qaida, a booklet used to learn the basics of the Holy Quran. The girl, named Rifta Masih, had burned a Noorani Qaida on August 16 and had thrown it in garbage after putting it in a plastic bag. Masih belonged to the rural area of Mehrabadi, which is next to the G-11 sector in Islamabad. In a statement, the commission said that “the fact that the girl is a juvenile and suffers from Down’s Syndrome only makes the charge more preposterous and barbaric.” The statement further stated that “it is also extremely disturbing to note that the police allowed a mob to surround the police station and demand that she be handed over.” The spread of extremism and the authorities’ preference for appeasing charged mobs, rather than taking the correct and lawful course, should make those in power as well as other political forces take serious note. It is deplorable that the country’s political leadership refrains from speaking out against extremism and the injustices towards non-Muslims. The HRCP called upon the authorities to “immediately release” the girl and provide foolproof protection to her family and the “frightened Christian community” in the area.

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Lahore traders concerned over Hindu families' migration

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The business community of Lahore has condemned the increasing incidents of kidnapping for ransom, extortion incidents and murders of the businessmen particularly of traders of the Hindu community. Expressing grave concern over the migration of Hindu businessmen from Jacobabad Sindh, the All Pakistan Anjuman-e-Tajiran, said that the growing trend of migration of traders particularly from minority groups will convey a wrong message globally, and obstructing foreign investment into the country. The APAT central Chairman Khawaja Shafiq and general secretary Naeem Mir termed the immigration of a number of Hindu families to India as a desperate step because of the unbridled crimes against their community. The APAT central leadership said that there was a growing sense of insecurity in the Hindu community in Jacobabad. It called for urgent steps to protecting their life and property in order to restore their confidence. They demanded of President Asif Zardari, Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik, Governor Sindh Dr Ishrat-ul-Ebad and Chief Minister Sindh Syed Qaim Ali Shah to take serious notice of the migration of the Hindu traders to India as a last resort because of kidnappings and murders of their fellows. They demanded that the elements behind such heinous crimes against a particular community should be arrested and justice should be done. They said that the Anjuman-e-Tajiran believes in religious tolerance and harmony, asking the Hindu community to pray for the peace, progress and prosperity of the country.

Pakistani society careless about kids' safety

The primary responsibility for protection of children falls on the family -- but families in Pakistan seem to be the "nodal point" for child abuse, two leading Pakistani dailies said Monday. The News International said the Pakistani society was "remarkably careless" about children's welfare and safety. It said a report published by the Madadgar National Helpline "makes truly shocking reading" and was a "shameful indictment" of the authorities and families for failing to protect children. In the first six months of 2012, there were 2,331 cases of reported violence against minors. Forced marriage, rape, sodomy, honour killing and torture all feature among the cases. Many minors committed suicide, or were trafficked. Many were kidnapped for ransom or revenge, and a total of 367 were murdered. Punjab led with 1,059 cases, Sindh had 687 cases, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had 382 and Balochistan had 203. "Although these figures are in themselves shocking, they represent the tip of a much larger iceberg of abuse," the News International said. "Children everywhere are being abused sexually and their civil rights as individuals trampled upon. Pernicious cultural practices allow the abuse to continue unchecked, and encourage rather than discourage appalling acts against children." There was little or no child protection legislation, and children continue to be abused in schools, madrassas, workplaces and, primarily, in their homes "by the very people on whom the primary duty to protect devolves - their parents". The Dawn said it was the duty of the provinces to pass laws concerning children's welfare. But there has been a "lack of intent and capacity" to pass such laws. "Legislation is only a first step. What is needed most is compassion at the societal level for vulnerable children, and the realisation that children have inviolable rights -- rights that society denies them in a brutal fashion," the daily said. It said children in the country face many challenges -- malnutrition, exposure to violence and diseases like polio. For children living on the streets, the risks are even greater -- substance abuse and routine sexual violence. The threat of HIV among street children was an emerging concern, it said. Unless the Pakistani society reforms itself and "the state moves beyond rhetoric" and takes practical steps for the welfare of children, "we will only be bequeathing misery to the next generation", the Dawn lamented.

Afghanistan 'insider' attacks pose threat to West's exit strategy

As the 10th American this month is slain by a supposed Afghan ally, the wider repercussions of the shootings come into focus.

They've been cut down while working out in makeshift gyms, as they bedded down for the night in remote combat outposts, after shrugging off heavy packs and sweat-soaked body armor when they returned from patrol. At the height of this dusty summer, American troops are dying at unprecedented rates at the hands of their Afghan allies. And both sides are struggling to explain why, even as they search for ways to stem what are known in military parlance as "insider" attacks. This month, at least 10 U.S. troops — including a U.S. service member shot Sunday and five members of America's elite special-operations forces slain earlier — have been killed by Afghan police, soldiers or civilian workers at military installations. As of Sunday, that accounted for a stunning 32% of the 31 American military fatalities in Afghanistan reported thus far in August by the monitoring website icasualties.org. Aside from the devastating emotional blow dealt to families of the slain service members and the effect on morale in field units, insider shootings have wider-ranging repercussions. They have provided a propaganda bonanza to the Taliban, and could threaten a linchpin of the Western exit strategy: training Afghan security forces in preparation for handing over most fighting duties to them by 2014. The military says only a very small share of insider attacks is carried out by Taliban "sleepers" in the police or army. But that opens the way to perhaps an even more alarming conclusion: that the majority of the assailants are undertaking what are in effect spontaneous, self-assigned suicide missions, because many insider shooters are killed on the spot in return fire. The military says it is working to address the threat. Changes in recent months have included the posting of armed Western troops — so-called guardian angels — to watch over others in mess halls, sleeping tents and gyms. Last week, the American commander of the NATO force, Gen. John Allen, ordered that NATO troops across Afghanistan keep a loaded magazine in their weapons, even when on base. This year, an Army captain described an informal buddy system at his base of troops signaling each other to keep a close watch on armed Afghans nearby, especially if one of their comrades was diverted by some task. "'Shona-ba-shona,' OK," the captain said, invoking the "shoulder-to-shoulder" slogan of the NATO force and its Afghan partners. "But also: 'Eyes on, all times.'" In public, Western military officials in Afghanistan have consistently sought to play down the overarching significance of such attacks, describing them as an occasional violent anomaly in an otherwise effective and mutually respectful working relationship between Afghan security forces and the NATO troops training them. "Every day, you have 500,000 soldiers and police working and fighting side by side — you talk to these guys, and they tell you they are building trust and friendship," said Brig. Gen. Gunter Katz, a spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force, referring to the approximate combined numbers of Afghan and Western forces. But disquiet is being expressed in high echelons. Defense Secretary Leon E. Panettatold reporters in Washington last week that he was "very concerned" about the recent spate of insider attacks, and he called President Hamid Karzai over the weekend to talk about the need for tougher selection standards for the Afghan armed forces. How to guard against such attacks is the subject of considerable debate in military leadership circles, because overtly heavy-handed measures can send a signal to the Afghans that they are not trusted, which can be taken as an insult. And in traditional Afghan culture, perceived insult can swiftly lead to exactly the sort of violence the attacks represent. Efforts on the Afghan side include assigning undercover intelligence officers to some battalions, and stricter scrutiny of recruits, including the collection of biometric data to compare against a database of known insurgents. Some observers, though, believe the safeguards built into the recruitment process, including the requirement that village elders vouch for those who want to join the army, are routinely bypassed in many provinces. "It all goes to the vetting process, to the hurry the international community is in to produce soldiers," said Daoud Sultanzoy, a former member of parliament and broadcaster. Many explanations have been floated for Afghans turning their guns on members of the U.S.-led North Atlantic Treaty Organization force: stress, battle fatigue, personal antagonism, cultural misunderstandings, copycat psychology, heat-of-the moment disputes in a society where arguments are often settled with a Kalashnikov. The phenomenon is so pervasive that the killings have their own evolving nomenclature. Previously, the military called them green-on-blue attacks, a color-coded reference to Afghan and Western forces. Now the preferred, more encompassing term is "insider threat," stemming from the fact that assailants have included not only uniformed police and soldiers, but also civilian members of the Afghan security apparatus, or simply someone with access to a coalition base, even in a low-level capacity. The Taliban movement has noted the rising number of insider shootings with ill-concealed delight, boasting of having infiltrated all branches of the Afghan security forces. In the past, the Taliban leadership claimed responsibility for virtually every such attack, but lately the group's publicity machine often cites individual initiative by those without links to the insurgency. "Our fighters are in the ranks of the police, army and intelligence service, but there are also some who carry out attacks on foreign troops only because they are Afghans and Muslims and act on their religious obligation to protect their country from invading forces," said Zabiullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the group. "It is an indication of utter hatred against the foreigners." Motivation for the attacks remains opaque in many instances, either because the shooter is killed or manages to escape, in some cases with the suspected collusion of local authorities. Family members generally shed little light on what might have caused a relative to turn his gun on Western mentors. "He had very good relations with the foreigners, and he was trusted and liked by them," said Shamsullah Sahrahi, a tribal elder whose policeman son, Assadullah, stands accused in an insider attack this month in Helmand province. Local officials said Assadullah had invited a group of U.S. Marines to one of the nighttime meals that observant Muslims eat during the dawn-to-dusk fasting month of Ramadan, where three were shot dead and a fourth wounded. Among Afghans, particularly those serving in the security forces, the reaction to news of yet another insider attack can vary. Some express genuine-seeming shock and sadness; others voice fears that the assaults will accelerate the Western pullout and leave them unprepared to take on the Taliban alone; others suggest that foreign troops bring it on themselves. "It's not good when these things happen," said a 21-year-old Afghan army recruit waiting in line at a Kabul military induction center. "But well, maybe it's because of the Koran-burning," a reference to the accidental incineration of Muslim holy books by U.S. troops in February, which set off days of deadly rioting. Higher-ranking Afghan officials are much more likely to offer an unequivocal condemnation of the attacks, sometimes in florid terms. "I wish I could open up my chest and show the pain I feel in my heart," Col. Mohammad Akbar Stanikzai, an intelligence officer at the Afghan army's recruitment headquarters in Kabul, said when asked about the phenomenon. Some analysts believe part of the problem is the sheer longevity of the war, now in its 11th year. In the conflict's early stages, such attacks were an extreme rarity. "I wouldn't say it's normal, but I think it's understandable in a war situation which is lasting for more than a decade," said Fabrizio Foshini of the Afghan Analysts Network. "The conflict has been becoming worse, nastier — and the presence of foreign troops doesn't seem in the eyes of many Afghans to have brought positive changes."