Balochistan: heal the wounds

EDITORIAL:Daily Times

Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani has once again come up with yet another rhetorical statement on Balochistan. He was in Quetta for a briefing on the security situation by the interior minister, provincial finance minister, Balochistan chief secretary and interior secretary. Mr Gilani said that his government is ready for a political dialogue with the estranged leaders of Balochistan in the larger national interest. On paper, this sounds good but realistically speaking, he was only saying what he thought the people of Balochistan wanted to hear. There is no sign whatsoever that his government has even tried to make any contact with the estranged Baloch leadership. And even if the government had tried to initiate a dialogue, was there any guarantee that the Baloch would have wanted to come to the negotiating table under the current circumstances? Every single day Baloch people are being picked up, taken to unknown places, tortured and then killed. The Baloch blame the Frontier Corps (FC) and intelligence agencies for such atrocities. If the government is actually serious about bringing peace to the province, then the first step is to stop the military action in Balochistan. The prime minister said that the army has been removed from Kohlu and Sui and replaced by the FC. But it is precisely the FC that is accused of running a parallel government in Balochistan and is the most hated force there. The day the FC is removed will be the day that some sort of normalcy will start returning to the province. Chief Minister Balochistan Nawab Aslam Raisani recently said that anyone who is creating trouble in the province would be dealt with with an iron hand. Going by his logic, he should deal with the FC then.

As for the case of missing persons, Prime Minister Gilani hailed the progress being made in this regard. He was told that out of a total of 144 missing persons, 41 returned to their homes while false cases against 38 were withdrawn, while many other persons have been located. It is beyond comprehension how the authorities came up with this figure when human rights groups and the Baloch place the missing persons’ figure at around 13,000. It just shows that the government is either oblivious to the ground realities or deliberately understating the problem. Just like the Aghaz-e-Haqooq-e-Balochistan package, the government’s policies have nothing to do with reality and appear as mere pie-in-the-sky. Prime Minister Gilani announced Rs 2 billion to modernise and equip provincial law enforcement agencies with weapons and provide them transport. This money may end up being used to terrorise the Baloch instead of bringing peace. It is time to heal the wounds of the Baloch instead of relying on violent repression, which will only fan more retaliatory violence.

The sequence of the government’s policies is wrong. First and foremost should be putting an end to the FC’s parallel government and alleged extrajudicial killings. The next step should be to recover all the missing persons and ensure that no state agency is allowed to harass or kill the Baloch people again. Channels to talk to the Baloch leaders in exile and in the mountains must be explored. Bringing development to Balochistan will only work once these steps have been taken. Instead of blaming foreign elements for destabilising the province, the government needs to introspect. No evidence has so far been made public or been shared with the international community by our government to give credence to such claims. The situation in Balochistan is going from bad to worse and is reminiscent of what happened in 1971. Prime Minister Gilani should take stock of the situation on the ground and seriously address the long standing grievances of the Baloch.

Neighboring countries ponder a post-occupation Afghanistan

The Washington Post

Worried that the administration is moving toward an endgame in Afghanistan — through troop withdrawals, negotiations or both — other countries in the region have stepped up efforts to protect security and economic interests that might conflict with those of the United States.

President Obama has argued that the long-term solution to Afghanistan’s problems lies in the neighborhood. Yet while Pakistan and India — as well as Iran, Russia, China and the Central Asian republics — say they want stability and an end to the terrorist threat, each has its own idea of what a future Afghanistan should look like.The administration has regularly consulted on Afghanistan beyond its comfort zone of Western allies. But early hopes that common goals in Afghanistan could lead to a U.S.-Iranian dialogue or a U.S.-assisted resolution of the India-Pakistan dispute faded long ago.

Solving Afghanistan’s conflict poses complex policy problems far beyond the immediate neighbors. Saudi Arabia, which has served as a venue for talks between the Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s government and the Taliban, remains worried about Iranian influence. Turkey, which sees itself as a bridge between the West and the Islamic world, is anxious to play a role.

India, Obama’s first stop on an Asian tour that begins Friday, opposes a role for former insurgents in the Afghan government, the logical conclusion of nascent Afghan-Taliban talks. India worries that integrating the Taliban will come at the expense of New Delhi’s Afghan proxy, the former Northern Alliance of ethnic Uzbeks and Tajiks.

India’s concern on this issue, shared by Iran and others in the region, is largely directed toward Pakistan. For ethnic and political reasons, Pakistan favors the southern Afghan Pashtuns, who dominate the Taliban.

Iran also has found common cause with Russia in pushing for tougher military action in Afghanistan against poppy cultivation and opium production, a priority the U.S.-led coalition has downgraded. Russia, while supporting the anti-terrorism fight, fears an extended U.S.-NATO military presence in the region and the indignity of an American success where its own forces failed in the 1980s.

China, in competition with India and Russia, has tightened its ties with Pakistan and poured money into potentially profitable Afghan development projects.

Beneath the political jockeying, government and private economic interests are competing for future wedges of Afghanistan’s potential peacetime pie, including billions in undertapped mineral wealth, hydrocarbons concessions and pipeline rights of way.

“There is a reason why everyone is taking an interest, and that is because things are moving,” Mark Sedwill, NATO’s top civilian representative in Afghanistan, said at last month’s meeting in Rome of the International Contact Group on Afghanistan. U.S. and European officials expressed pleasure that Iran and the Organization of the Islamic Conference participated in the group for the first time.

But regional players have also been talking about the endgame among themselves, out of U.S. earshot. India has exchanged high-level delegations with Iran and Russia to discuss Afghanistan; Russia has consulted closely with the Central Asian republics. Iran, Russia and India have hosted Karzai this year.Karzai appears to be leaving his options open. The “bags of money” his government receives from Iran, he said last month, are no different from the cash he receives from the United States. Both Washington and Tehran, he said, want things in return.

India, Iran and Russia agree “they don’t want to do anything to make life difficult for the coalition,” said Ashley Tellis of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a frequent administration adviser on the region. “They still see [the United States] as doing the right thing in beating up on a common enemy.But if they were to perceive that the coalition has moved toward actually trying to make a deal with the Taliban to the disadvantage of the three, then the stage is set,” Tellis said. “The lines of communication have been put in place.”

India, Iran and Russia have their own proxies inside Afghanistan, according to Tellis and other analysts. Karzai’s move this year to rid his government of senior officials who opposed Taliban talks or cooperation with Pakistan — including former intelligence chief Amrullah Saleh and former interior minister Hanif Atmar — led to talk of a resurgent Northern Alliance girding for civil war.

“A variety of parties in Afghanistan have been hoarding weapons and sending family members and money overseas,” said a former U.S. intelligence official with long-standing ties to the Northern Alliance groups, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “It’s their version of contingency planning.”

European allies also have expressed concern that the administration, in its expressions of enthusiasm for negotiations, is neglecting anti-Taliban power bases in Afghanistan.

“It’s an element that is very often forgotten in the description” of a possible political solution, said a senior European official whose government is one of the leading contributors to the coalition effort. “It’s sexy in a way to talk to the Taliban,” the official said. But “it would not help us at all if we foster talks between the government and the Taliban and forget that the Taliban, as important as they and the Pashtuns are, are not the only group.”

The administration sees improved relations between India and Pakistan as “a key piece of the puzzle . . . the heart of the deal” in Afghanistan, a senior U.S. official said. But it has only gingerly approached their bilateral differences, and its attempts to woo India and Pakistan separately have served largely to increase each’s suspicion of the other and of U.S. intentions.

Their mutual sensitivity led Obama last month to rule out a Pakistan stop on his Asia trip, when all attention will be focused on India. After three days in India, he explained to top Pakistani officials at a White House meeting, he knew they would take it amiss if he spent only a half-day in their country. Instead, he told them, he would travel there separately next year.

Pakistan has said it needs to maintain a strong military presence along its eastern border with India, expending resources that could otherwise be devoted to the robust action the administration seeks against insurgent sanctuaries along the Afghanistan border to the west. Pakistan has asked the administration to intercede with India to resolve a broad range of issues, including the long-standing dispute over Kashmir, while also expressing strong concern about India’s intentions in Afghanistan and questioning growing U.S.-India civil nuclear ties.

India, much larger and far more prosperous than its neighbor, has called the Pakistanis paranoid, an assessment many in the administration share. New Delhi has raised concerns with Washington about rapidly increasing U.S. military aid to Pakistan and urged the administration to restrict its assistance to counterterrorism weaponry.

If Pakistan truly wanted to improve relations, the Indians argue, it would move against domestic terrorist groups that have launched repeated attacks inside India, including the 2008 attacks in Mumbai. Obama plans to spend at least half of his three-day Indian visit in Mumbai, where he will commemorate the dozens killed in the attacks.

But while Afghanistan is on the agenda for talks between Obama and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the Indians have made it clear that they neither want nor need American assistance in their bilateral dealings with Pakistan.

Obama meets with advisers to discuss Afghanistan

President Barack Obama convened his national security team Monday to weigh in on the war in Afghanistan, as he mulls a long-term plan that could see more US troops withdraw sooner.

Senior administration officials and military commanders met in the White House Situation Room starting at 10:00 am (1400 GMT) for their monthly meeting on Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan, according to an official schedule.

The meeting comes amid US public opposition to the war growing and patience in Congress wearing thin, a little over a month after US Navy SEALs killed Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden at his hideout deep in Pakistan.

The killing has fueled further calls for a major withdrawal when Obama fulfills his vow to begin pulling out troops in July, a promise he made in December 2009 before deploying 30,000 "surge" forces in Afghanistan to combat a Taliban insurgency.

During a visit to Afghanistan on Sunday, outgoing Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the looming decision on troop drawdowns could include a timeline for pulling out the surge troops.The New York Times reported that Obama's national security team is pondering much bigger reductions than those discussed even a few weeks ago following bin Laden's death and amid concerns over the war's cost.

Obama is expected to announce his decision on troop withdrawals in a speech to the nation this month, it added.

Roughly 100,000 US troops are still stationed in Afghanistan as part of a 130,000-strong international force.

CRUEL AND IGNORANT TERROIST : Ilyas Kashmiri: end of a terrorist

EDITORIAL:
Daily Times
Ilyas Kashmiri, one of the most notorious Pakistani terrorists, was reportedly killed in a drone strike on Friday night in South Waziristan. Kashmiri’s name was on the list of top five militants handed over to Pakistan by the US authorities recently. He was head of the banned terrorist organisation Harakat-ul-Jihad al-Islami (HuJI), which has close links with al Qaeda. A statement from HuJI’s 313 Brigade confirmed that in Friday’s drone attack at 11:15pm their commander-in-chief, Ilyas Kashmiri, was killed and vowed to avenge his death from the US. “Our only target is America,” said the statement whereas the attacks carried out under Kashmiri’s notorious command were mainly against Pakistanis, Indians and Afghans. According to slain journalist Saleem Shahzad’s last report, it was Kashmiri’s group that carried out the audacious attack on PNS Mehran last month.

Trained by our intelligence agencies for fighting in the Afghan jihad to carrying out militant struggle in Indian Kashmir, Ilyas Kashmiri was considered a ‘strategic asset’ for decades by Pakistan’s security establishment until he turned rogue. He was accused of an assassination attempt on former president General Musharraf but was released due to lack of evidence. He was also said to be involved in the attack on GHQ in 2009. Kashmiri resurfaced after a report that he had been killed in a drone strike a couple of years ago. David Coleman Headley, co-accused in the 2008 Mumbai attacks and a star witness in the Rana trial currently underway in Chicago, revealed that Kashmiri had planned to kill the CEO of Lockheed Martin “because he was making drones”. In a strange twist of fate, it was a drone attack that put an end to Kashmiri’s life. Drone attacks, whether one supports them or not, have led to the deaths of hundreds of militants who have proved to be a security hazard for not just Pakistan and the South Asian region but the whole world.

It is widely believed that drone strikes in Pakistan are carried out by the US because of a tacit agreement with our authorities. They started when General Musharraf was in power and according to diplomatic cables published by WikiLeaks, even chief of army staff General Kayani and Prime Minister Gilani supported these strikes in private while speaking against them in public. Religious parties like the Jamaat-e-Islami and politicians like Imran Khan have taken out protest rallies against drone strikes. Even the Americans are split over these strikes according to a report published in The Wall Street Journal, which said: “Fissures have opened within the Obama administration over the drone programme targeting militants in Pakistan, with the US ambassador to Pakistan and some top military leaders pushing to rein in the Central Intelligence Agency’s [CIA’s] aggressive pace of strikes.” Drone attacks have certainly led to an increase in anti-American sentiment in Pakistan but whether stopping these strikes would decrease or put an end to such sentiment is questionable given the fact that religious parties, politicians and our security establishment keep fanning it. Apart from India and Israel, now the US too has become one of our favourite punching bags. The only way to deal with this issue is to change our security paradigm. Pakistan’s military must give up its double game and dismantle all terror networks operating on our soil even if they are still considered ‘strategic assets’. Sooner rather than later all these assets will come back to bite us. Living in denial of this obvious development is what has gotten Pakistan to the brink of self-annihilation. It is time to take control of the situation. It is time to get rid of many more Ilyas Kashmiris who are roaming freely in Pakistan.

Honk if you support Saudi women drivers

Women are not allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia, but in the spirit of the Arab Spring, a protest is planned for June 17. Supporters want Hillary Clinton to speak out publicly on it. More useful would be a massive turnout, including men.
hat struck me about watching a YouTube video of Manal al-Sharif driving along in a Saudi city scene is how normal it looked: The modern Arab woman, wearing her hijab and black sunglasses, looking left before she makes a turn, checking her rear-view mirror, but mostly staring straight ahead as she chats with the woman in the passenger seat who is filming her.But this simple act is utterly un-normal in Saudi Arabia, where women are banned from driving – not because any law forbids it, but because custom and religious clerics say it's a no-no. With no public transport system, this makes getting to work, or getting the kids to school, or running errands more than a chore.

Ms. al-Sharif, who is a divorced mother and a computer-security consultant, was arrested May 22 after posting a video of herself driving. She was finally released 10 days later, but only after promising not to participate in the "Women2Drive" campaign. The campaign urges women to drive en masse in Saudi Arabia on June 17 to protest the entrenched driving ban.

The campaign is promoting itself through Facebook and Twitter, just as the organizers of the Arab Spring did. But will it galvanize support inside the conservative kingdom, which is the most restrictive Islamic government for women in the world? Women there cannot vote, have no property rights, and make up only 5 percent of the work force?

From behind her steering wheel, al-Sharif makes her case for the right to drive. Not all women can afford a hired driver, she says. And what about the morals of the drivers themselves? Hers got in an accident in the first week she hired him. "He used to harass me," she explained. "He'd adjust [the] rear-view mirror to see what I was wearing." This week, a Saudi businesswoman reported being raped at gunpoint by her chauffeur.

In the video, al-Shariff and her passenger talk about other disadvantages to a driveless life: No taxis available at rush hour; drivers shared by so many women that a 10-minute trip to the office takes two hours; having to stand on the street to wave down a driver. "When I stand by the roadside, everybody, good and bad, will look at me. The good and the bad humiliate me because they don’t like the amount of money that I offer," says al-Sharif. But driving herself, she adds, "There is nobody getting in my way and nobody harassing me, because I am in my own car with the doors locked."

Women's rights advocates in Saudi Arabia have written an open letter to US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton asking her to publicly support a woman's right to drive, a campaign they describe as the most significant women's rights movement in Saudi Arabia in two decades. "Wikileaks" reveals that US diplomats have made this appeal in private, but to no avail. The group is making a similar appeal to the European Union's top foreign affairs official, Catherine Ashton.

That would be a welcome, supportive step, but perhaps not the "game changing moment" that the letter's authors hope. The June 17 protest is sure to attract stiff opposition inside the kingdom. A counter campaign calls on men to use the cords of their headdresses to whip the women protesters. Not only is there stiff religious opposition to the protest, but many men fear that if women drive, they will take away men's jobs.

What's needed on June 17 is the same as everywhere in the Arab uprising: A massive and ongoing protest. That is what gets the attention of rulers. And in this endeavor, women must bring their male friends and family members who support them.

Saudi actress arrested for driving in Jeddah

Wajnat Rahbini, the Saudi actress who was held on Saturday for driving a car in the Red Sea resort of Jeddah, said that her late husband had been her driving instructor.
"I had to drive him to hospital whenever he needed treatment, especially when he fainted," Wajnat said. "I had to look after him because nobody else was willing to do it," she said, quoted by Saudi daily Okaz.

Wajnat said that she drove the car, registered in her name, on Saturday after her driver went home for holidays.
"I went to an office to complete some paper work related to my company," she said.
The actress was held after a man reported her to the local police and her car was impounded.
"The police were courteous. I have driven before and the traffic policemen I encountered were very respectful," she said.
Wajnat was released without paying bail, the daily said.
Saudi Arabia is in the midst of a tense debate over the merit of women driving vehicles.
The discussions were fuelled by the arrest for some days of Manal Al Shareef, a Saudi woman who drove in Al Khobar, in the eastern province of Saudi Arabia.
Campaigns for and against women driving were launched in social networks.
Wajnat achieved fame throughout the Arab world for her role in Tash Ma Tash (No big deal), a popular Saudi Arabian satirical comedy that has been running exclusively in Ramadan since 1992

Nawaz setting up turncoats factory

PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif is trying to set up another ‘turncoat factory’ at Islamabad after Punjab in a bid to grab power at centre through undemocratic means, accuses Senator Kamil Ali Agha, central secretary PML-Q.
He expressed these views on Saturday while giving party reaction on a meeting between PML-N chief and PML-Q Senator Tariq Azeem.
Alleging PML-N chief for setting up what he called another turncoat factory at the federal capital, he said that Nawaz Sharif should remember that he and his party could no longer befool the masses. He also accused that PML-N was following its past examples of ruining the national institutions in a bid to grab power at any cost.
Coming hard on party Senator, he said that Tariq Azeem was earlier convincing the people to join the Musharraf League and it seems that he took over the command of PML-N’s turncoat factory.
Kamil alleged that Azeem to cover his malpractices in Sukh Chain Housing Society got the help of Punjab government and such people are neither sincere to the masses nor to the country.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government asks Karzai to rein in Taliban

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has demanded the Afghan president stop Taliban from attacking Upper Dir district while criticising the NATO for ignoring terrorists’ cross over from Afghanistan.

“We have demand President Hamid Karzai to take steps against attacks from Afghanistan by Taliban in Upper Dir district,” said the provincial government’s spokesman Mian Iftikhar Hussain while briefing media on a cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Ameer Haider Hoti. The meeting discussed Wednesday’s cross-border attack launched from the territory of Afghanistan. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police chief Fayaz Toro briefed the cabinet on the situation in Upper Dir where security forces suffered casualties in clashes with the Afghan Taliban last week.

The provincial cabinet also questioned the NATO’s ability to stop such attacks, according to the government’s spokesman. “The NATO could have stopped these attacks, if it had liked doing so,” he maintained. and said, “We may conclude that the NATO, by not stopping these attacks, was, actually, supporting the Taliban.”

This was the first time when Hussain was seen using strong words against the NATO.

In the attacks, the Taliban torched schools and damaged other infrastructure while overrunning security checkposts and killing over two dozens security officials. The provincial government also demanded the federal government that all Frontier Constabulary officials serving outside the province should be called back to beef up security in the northern districts which are under the threat of further offensives by the Afghan Taliban.

Hussain said that the meeting was of the view that the frontiers should be guarded by the army instead of the Levy. “Police and paramilitary forces cannot guard the borders. The FC is a provincial force and it should not be used by the federal government in Islamabad and Karachi,” said the spokesman, adding that “without wasting any more time, Islamabad should send all FC personnel back to Balochsitan.”

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government also expressed anger over the delay in giving teeth to anti-terrorism laws as detained terrorists were freed on bail due to “toothless laws”. “We need strong laws to deal with terrorism.” He said the provincial government would encourage lashkars in Dir and Chitral to check attacks by the Taliban.

Saudi Women's Rights Activists Press Hillary Clinton To Endorse Their Right To Drive

A consortium of Saudi Arabian women's rights activists have written an open letter to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urging her to publicly press the Saudi government to allow women to drive.

Penned by the organization Saudi Women for Driving, the letter has been endorsed by over 10,000 people from all 50 US states on Change.org. An almost identical letter has been addressed to Catherine Ashton, Secretary Clinton's counterpart in the E.U.

Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world that bars women from getting behind the wheel of a vehicle -– bicycles included. The movement gained traction after 32-year-old computer-security consultant Manal al-Sherif, now dubbed the "Saudi Rosa Parks," was detained after she posted a video of herself driving in the conservative kingdom, urging others women to take her lead.

Al-Sherif has since been released, on the condition that she will not participate in a Saudi protest of the driving restrictions set for June 17. The campaign, which has a 26,000 member Facebook group, does not have country-wide support. YouTube videos have circulated of a young boy making fun of the movement, and a counter-Facebook page with 6,000 fans has been created inciting men to beat women found driving. (It has since been removed for encouraging violent behavior.)

The activists write:
As Saudi women our lack of freedom of movement places an extreme burden on our lives. We lack a public transportation system and the most basic errands and medical appointments are missed due to the difficulty and expenses of arranging transportation, notwithstanding educational and work opportunities. Many from our religious establishment openly state that the reason they prohibit women from driving is to keep women at home and in need of men. Our lack of this basic right to drive our own cars has been repeatedly exploited by abusive fathers, brothers, husbands and even hired drivers. Just this week a Saudi woman reported she was raped by her driver…
Secretary Clinton, you are a friend. Indeed, some of us have met you personally during your decades-long journey as a champion of women’s rights all over the world. Now, as we build the largest Saudi women's protest movement in decades, we need your help.
According to Change.org, Saudi Women for Driving promoted a similar campaign on the website calling upon al-Sherif's release from prison. Over 60,000 people in 156 countries signed the letter, making it the world's fastest growing advocacy campaign.

"As long as people are campaigning for good, we want to provide a platform," said Weldon Kennedy, Director of Organizing for Change.org. "[Saudi Women for Driving has] got a very well-designed plan of action. I wouldn't be surprised to see more from them."

Protesters celebrate departure of Yemen's leader

Protesters danced, sang and slaughtered cows in the central square of Yemen's capital Sunday to celebrate the departure of the country's authoritarian leader for medical treatment after he was wounded in a rocket attack on his compound.
There was no official announcement on who was acting as head of state. But under Yemen's constitution, the vice president takes over for up to 60 days when the head of state is absent. Vice President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi met Sunday with U.S. Ambassador Gerald Michael Feierstein, the strongest indication yet that he is in charge.
Yemen's conflict began as a peaceful uprising that the government at times used brutal force to suppress. It transformed in recent weeks to a more violent struggle for power when formal tribal allies of President Ali Abdullah Saleh turned against him and transformed the streets of the capital Sanaa into a war zone.
Other forces rose against Saleh at the same time. There were high-level defections within his military, and Islamist fighters took over at least one town in the south in the past two weeks. Saleh blamed the tribal rivals for the attack on his compound Friday that killed 11 bodyguards and wounded at least five senior government officials in addition to the president.
The protesters celebrated Sunday at Sanaa's Change Square, the epicenter of a nationwide protest movement since mid-February calling for President Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down immediately after nearly 33 years. Some uniformed soldiers joined those dancing and singing patriotic songs and were hoisted on the shoulders of the crowd. Many in the jubilant crowd waved Yemeni flags, joyfully whistling and flashing the "V" for victory signs.
Women in black veils joined demonstrators carrying banners that hailed Saleh's departure. One read: "The oppressor is gone, but the people stay."
Activist and rights lawyer Khaled al-Ansi said families and children were arriving in the square in party clothes.
"People have trickled in since dawn to the square. Some have not slept yet. It is like a holiday," he said.
In Taiz, Yemen's second largest city, dozens of gunmen attacked the presidential palace on Sunday, killing four soldiers in an attempt to storm the compound, according to military officials and witnesses. They said one of the attackers was also killed in the violence. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media. The attackers belong to a group set up recently to avenge the killing of anti-regime protesters at the hands of Saleh's security forces.
Saleh has been under intense pressure to step down from his powerful Gulf neighbors, who control a large share of the world's oil resources, and from longtime ally Washington. They all fear Yemen could be headed toward a failed state that will become a fertile ground for al-Qaida's most active franchise to operate and launch attacks abroad.
Saleh's injuries provided him with what could turn out to be a face-saving solution to exit power.
A Yemeni official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to release the information, said Saleh left with his two wives and some of his children. The official said he and others learned about Saleh's plans only after the president left. A Saudi medical official said his condition was "not good."
Saleh did not issue a decree putting his vice president in charge while he is away in Saudi Arabia. A terse statement from his office only said he had arrived in Saudi Arabia for medical tests and that he was in good health.
The president's departure was shrouded in extreme secrecy and many in the government did not know of his early Sunday departure until he had actually arrived in Saudi Arabia.
Significantly, military officials said Hadi met late Saturday night in Sanaa with several members of Saleh's family, including his son and one-time heir apparent Ahmed, who commands the powerful presidential guard. Others who attended the meeting included two of the president's nephews and two half brothers. All four head well-equipped and highly trained units that constitute the president's main power base in the military.
That such powerful members of Saleh's family have been left behind in Sanaa suggests that the president's departure will not necessarily end the crisis in Yemen.
For one thing, fighting could continue between the tribal forces and pro-regime units led by loyal members of Saleh's inner circle. In his more than three decades in power, Saleh administered an elaborate patronage system to ensure the loyalty of military officers and some of those beneficiaries would be tempted to continue the fight in the hope of keeping the perks they had enjoyed under the president.
If Saleh's departure causes the regime to collapse, tribal chieftains would want to take credit for the ouster of the regime and get a dominant role in the country's future. Given the conservative politics of tribal leaders, that could well place them on a collision course with the youth groups that have for months staged peaceful demonstrations in Sanaa and across much of the country to demand Saleh's ouster and political reforms.

No risks to be taken in troop drawdown from Afghanistan: Gates

The gradual withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Afghanistan set to begin next month will be done responsibly and will not expose other coalition and Afghan forces to undue risks, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Sunday.

General David Petraeus, commander of the 150,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan, will soon make recommendations to President Barack Obama about how many should be withdrawn, following Obama's pledge last year to start bringing U.S. combat troops home.

The commitment followed Obama's December 2009 decision to send 30,000 extra U.S. troops in a bid to arrest a growing Taliban-led insurgency. Fighting increased dramatically, particularly in the Taliban heartland in the south, since the last of those extra troops arrived last summer.

U.S. commanders say significant gains have been made in halting the Taliban's momentum in the south since then, but violence has flared elsewhere in Afghanistan, particularly in the east and with complex attacks in major cities.

Pentagon and White House officials are tight-lipped about the size of the initial withdrawal. Obama is expected to announce his decision sometime in mid-July.

Gates said great strides had been made in training enough Afghan police and soldiers adequately to allow for the gradual withdrawal that will end with all foreign combat troops leaving by the end of 2014, according to an agreement reached at a NATO summit last December.

"And so the question then becomes, what can you take out and what is the risk associated with that," Gates said at a forward operating base in southern Kandahar province, the birthplace of the Taliban.

"And I think General Petraeus will come in with a range of options. And I have every confidence that the decision that's made will be a responsible one," he told troops at the base just outside Kandahar city.

"LEAVE THE SHOOTERS TO LAST"

At the start of this year, with violence raging across Afghanistan after nearly a decade of war, an initial pullout of around 5,000 troops had been anticipated.

With U.S. commanders now trumpeting the success of their offensives in the south, some current and former officials say Obama could announce a pullout of at least 10,000.

Some U.S. lawmakers and analysts, however, have questioned the wisdom of bringing out any troops at all so soon after security gains were made and with doubts lingering about poorly equipped and minimally trained Afghan security forces.

Asked about the drawdown by a soldier at the Kandahar base, Gates said discussions would likely begin when he returned from his current trip, his 12th and final visit to Afghanistan as head of the Pentagon.

While he said there had been progress in "degrading the Taliban," the size and scope of the drawdown would be determined by conditions on the ground. Gates also hinted that he would prefer frontline troops to remain.

"If it were up to me, I'd leave the shooters to last," said Gates, who steps down at the end of June. He arrived in Afghanistan on Saturday on what is primarily a trip to bid farewell to U.S. troops.

The troop drawdown coincides with a growing recognition of the need for a political settlement, which would include negotiations with the Taliban and other insurgents prepared to renounce violence and ties with al Qaeda.

Slow-moving attempts at establishing communications with the Taliban, leading eventually to more substantive talks, have been under way for well over a year.

Plot to assassinate President Asif Ali Zardari uncovered

Intelligence officials have arrested eight men believed to have been involved in a plot to assassinate the President.
According to intelligence sources, intelligence officials had been conducting raids for the past three weeks and had managed to arrest four people from Islamabad and four people from Punjab, who had been plotting to kill President Asif Ali Zardari.
Sources said that intelligence officials had been monitoring the trail of the plotters by tapping their mobile phone lines.The suspects have been moved to an undisclosed location.

Obama Retools 2008 Machine for Tough Run

Saddled with a faltering economic recovery, President Obama is rebuilding the campaign machinery that vaulted him into office, hoping it can overcome the challenges of persistently high unemployment and a fractured coalition of supporters.

Under the cover of an intensifying Republican nominating contest, the Obama campaign’s top fund-raisers gathered for their first meeting here last week. To galvanize them, they were shown a presentation of potential rivals, including Sarah Palin, and given access to senior advisers to the president, including the White House chief of staff, William M. Daley.

They pledged to reach a fund-raising goal of $60 million before June 30 as a first installment to create a state-by-state organization. Their goals include reactivating the network of supporters, registering young and Latino voters and fighting restrictive new election laws in battleground states now led by Republicans.

While Mr. Obama will not fully engage in campaign activity until next year, aides said, he is embarking on weekly economic-focused trips throughout the summer. Doing so will allow him to use his bully pulpit to show that he is focused on addressing joblessness, the issue that more than any other could shape his electoral prospects and that Republicans are using to assert that his policies have failed.

He will also continue to be the main draw in a fund-raising campaign that has a goal of taking in at least $750 million by Election Day, which would match his 2008 figure even though he does not face the long primary battle that he did four years ago.

“I’m confident that the things that we can control, we will do a good job on,” said David Axelrod, the president’s senior political strategist, who returned to Chicago to help with the re-election effort.

The campaign is shaping up as a test of whether the much-vaunted organizing abilities of Mr. Obama and his team can offset the headwinds he faces. In battleground states, volunteers are fanning out by the thousands to reach out to neighbors who helped Mr. Obama in his first presidential campaign and persuade them to re-up.

Campaign officials said they know that in some cases, 2008 supporters will have to be coached to overcome what they see as disappointment that Mr. Obama has not achieved as much as they hoped. Several thousand times a week, still-committed volunteers knock on the doors of potential new recruits and neighbors involved four years ago to see if they will join in. The idea is to get face-to-face, neighbor-to-neighbor commitments that will have more staying power than those collected by strangers over the phone.

And in the re-election nerve center here, where a handmade calendar counts down the more than 520 days that remain before the election, campaign officials are sorting through census and polling data as they work to chart a variety of routes to the 270 electoral votes Mr. Obama will need to clinch a second term.

The early focus is on the same collection of states that Mr. Obama carried in 2008, with the exception of Indiana, which advisers believe is out of reach. But among these, strategists are digging deeper into Colorado, Florida, Nevada, North Carolina and Virginia — where new census figures show surging populations of Hispanics and blacks, two groups that supported Mr. Obama in 2008 by wide margins. The campaign sees possibilities for gains, for example, around Charlotte, N.C., which not coincidentally is where Mr. Obama chose to hold his party’s nominating convention next year, a decision that aides said signaled how serious they are about competing in North Carolina.

So far, the regrouping of the campaign is a methodical, nuts-and-bolts operation. It is oriented toward rekindling a grass-roots movement that had been the envy of Republicans in 2008 but has shown severe signs of strain over two years of partisan rancor in Washington and economic struggle across the country.

But for all of the planning, the biggest challenges of the election remain largely out of the organizers’ control, as the bleak jobs report on Friday showed.

So uncertain are the economic indicators that Mr. Obama’s aides say they have not fully settled on an overarching campaign theme for next year.

For now, the president faces a delicate task in arguing that things have improved under his watch when they remain so grim for so many — and that the programs he has put in place are working but need time to show their full benefits. With their hopes dashed at this point of substantial improvement in unemployment anytime soon, aides indicated that the theme was likely to be less “morning in America” and more “don’t change horses in midstream.”

Mr. Axelrod said: “We’re not going to be putting up a ‘Mission Accomplished’ sign. Part of the message is going to be we have to see these things through.”

In an interview at his Chicago consulting offices, Mr. Axelrod repeatedly said “stability” for the middle class would be central.

Advisers said the president was just beginning to plug into the campaign, and even then, sporadically. While the campaign manager here, Jim Messina, briefs him on the organizational effort, aides said Mr. Obama was not focused or very interested in the nitty-gritty details, for now.

“He’s doing his day job,” Mr. Messina said in an interview at his new office overlooking Millennium Park. “When he and I are talking about these things he wants to know, ‘What are we hearing on the ground?’ ”

But at the White House and in Chicago, aides are also keeping a close eye on the Republican field.

The president’s advisers are most closely watching the candidacies of Mitt Romney and Tim Pawlenty, but they are mindful that the rise of the Tea Party movement makes the course of the race hard to predict and makes it difficult to determine the strength of potential populist candidates like Ms. Palin.

“We’re doing our due diligence in terms of really understanding where this race is at and where people are at,” Mr. Axelrod said. “That’s the most important work we can do right now.”

In several interviews, aides to Mr. Obama said they were impressed with the early campaign tactics of Mr. Romney and Mr. Pawlenty. They said Mr. Romney had been wise to remain out of the fray for as long as possible — giving rivals less time to attack him — and Mr. Pawlenty wise to barnstorm important states, early, to become better known. Mr. Romney’s previous experience as a candidate, they suggested, could help him deal with the problems he faces.

They said they also viewed former Gov. Jon M. Huntsman Jr. of Utah, until a few weeks ago Mr. Obama’s ambassador to China, as a potentially formidable general election candidate if he did not have to modulate his policy stances to navigate the Republican primary.

They said they would be ready to pounce on any candidate who switches positions in the hunt for the nomination as lacking core convictions, indicating that they were particularly keen on doing so against Mr. Romney, who is still facing such accusations from his 2008 campaign.

al Qaeda ZOMBIE killed in Pakistan by drone strike

A U.S. drone strike killed a senior al Qaeda figure in Pakistan after a tipoff from local intelligence, a Pakistani intelligence official said on Saturday.
The elimination of Ilyas Kashmiri, regarded as one of the most dangerous militants in the world, appeared to be another coup for the United States after American special forces killed Osama bin Laden in a garrison town close to Islamabad on May 2.
Islamabad's cooperation in the killing could help repair ties with Washington, badly damaged when it was discovered that bin Laden had apparently been living in Pakistan for years.
"We are sure that he (Kashmiri) has been killed. Now we are trying to retrieve the bodies. We want to get photographs of the bodies," said the Pakistani intelligence official.
Kashmiri was wrongly reported to have been killed in a September 2009 strike by a U.S. drone.
A Pakistani television station quoted the group Kashmiri headed, Harkat-ul Jihad Islami (HUJI) which is allied to al Qaeda, as saying the latest report was true.
"We confirm that our Amir (leader) and commander in chief, Mohammad Ilyas Kashmiri, along with other companions, was martyred in an American drone strike on June 3, 2011, at 11:15 p.m.," Abu Hanzla Kashir, who identified himself as a HUJI spokesman, said in a statement faxed to the station.
"God willing ... America will very soon see our full revenge. Our only target is America."
The authenticity of the statement could not be verified.
Kashmiri's death is good news for Pakistan, which has failed to subdue militants seeking to topple its unpopular government despite a series of army offensives against their strongholds.
"It will be a very big blow to militants and Pakistan will be a major beneficiary because he was behind attacks on Pakistani defense and military installations," said retired Brigadier Asad Munir, a former Pakistani intelligence officer.
Kashmiri, said to be a former Pakistani military officer, and other militants were with an Afghan Taliban member involved in liaison with the Pakistani Taliban when the drone missile struck, said the intelligence official.
He said they were in a house in South Waziristan, close to the Afghan border in northwest Pakistan, that was believed to be the headquarters of Kashmiri's group, which has been described as an operational wing of al Qaeda.
"We were closing in on him and he switched off his satellite phone and cellphone and he wanted to cross the border to Afghanistan to find a hiding place," the official added. "It was a tipoff by us since we were closely monitoring his movements."
Five of his close allies were also killed in the attack by a pilotless drone aircraft, along with two other militants, intelligence officials said.
U.S. ASKED PAKISTAN TO GO AFTER KASHMIRI
A U.S. embassy spokesman said he could not confirm the killing of Kashmiri or whether Pakistan provided support for an operation.
The killing of bin Laden aroused international suspicions that Pakistani authorities had been complicit in hiding him, and led to domestic criticism of them for failing to detect or stop the U.S. team that killed him.
Kashmiri was on a list which the United States gave Pakistan of senior militants it wanted killed or captured, said a Pakistani official.
Drone strikes have increased under the Obama administration, sometimes killing civilians and fuelling anti-American sentiment in Pakistan.
While Pakistani leaders publicly criticize the attacks, analysts say killing high-value targets like Kashmiri would not be possible without Pakistani intelligence.
Washington reiterated its call on Pakistan, a major recipient of U.S. aid, to crack down harder on militancy after it was discovered that bin Laden had been living about a two-hour drive from intelligence headquarters.
The U.S. Department of State has labeled Kashmiri a "specially designated global terrorist."
Last year, the U.S. attorney's office quoted a Chicago taxi driver charged with sending money to Kashmiri as saying the Pakistani militant had told him he "wanted to train operatives to conduct attacks in the United States."
Kashmiri battled Soviet occupation troops in the 1980s in Afghanistan, where he lost an eye. His group also fought Indian rule in the disputed Kashmir region.
He has been linked to attacks including the 2008 rampage through the Indian city of Mumbai which killed 166 people.
"This will be a huge loss for al Qaeda," said Kamran Bokhari of global intelligence firm STRATFOR. "Everyone will benefit, the United States, Pakistan and India."
The Pakistani media has speculated that Kashmiri was the mastermind of an attack on the PNS Mehran naval base in Karachi last month which humiliated the Pakistani military.
In that operation, six militants held off 100 security forces, including commandos, for 16 hours.

APNS president backs HRW claims on Shahzad’s murder

Hameed Haroon, president of the All Pakistan Newspapers Society, has sharply reacted to the denial by the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) regarding its involvement in the abduction and murder of Pakistani journalist Saleem Shahzad. The ISI has denied any role in the murder and termed the allegation of Human Right’s Watch (HRW) as “baseless”.

Haroon, also the chief executive officer of Dawn, has confirmed that the slain journalist had received threatening messages from ISI on at least three occasions. The deceased had not only informed his employer, Asia Time Online, but also confided in Haroon and other friends.

Following is the full text of his statement, released to the media on June 2, 2011.

“It has come to my notice that a spokesman of Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) while speaking to the official national news agency in Islamabad yesterday has questioned the “baseless allegations” leveled by Human Rights Watch on the basis of an E mail from Saleem Shahzad, the Bureau Chief of the Hong Kong based Asia Times Online, in their possession . Mr Shahzad was murdered three days ago near Islamabad after being abducted by unknown persons.

“I wish to state on record that the e mail in the possession of Mr Ali Dayan, the monitor for Human Rights Watch (HRW) stationed in ,Lahore Pakistan, is indeed one of the three identical E mails sent by Mr Shahzad to HRW , his employers (Asia Times Online) and to his former employer, myself . I also wish to verify that allegations levied by HRW at the Inter services Intelligence (ISI) are essentially in complete consonance with the contents of the slain journalists E mail ”

“In their denial issued Wednesday an anonymous spokesman from the ISI has questioned the “baseless allegation” leveled against ISI by Mr Dayan of HRW. I wish to state on the record for the information of the officers involved in investigating journalist Saleem Shahzad’s gruesome murder that the late journalist confided to me and several others that he had received death threats from various officers of the ISI on at least three occasions in the past five years. Whatever the substance of these allegations , they form an integral part of Mr Shahzad’s last testimony. Mr Shahzad’s purpose in transmitting this information to three concerned colleagues in the media ,was not to defame the ISI but to avert a possible fulfillment of what he clearly perceived to be a death threat. The last threat which I refer to was recorded by Mr Shahzad by e mail with me, tersely phrased as “for the record”, at precisely 4.11 am on October18,2010, wherein he recounted the details of his meetings at the ISI headquarters in Islamabad between the Director General- Media Wing (ISI) Rear- Admiral Adnan Nazir, with the Deputy Director General of the Media Wing, Commodore Khalid Pervaiz, also being present on the occasion.

The ostensible agenda for this meeting was the subject of Mr Shahzads’s story of Asia Times Online with respect to the Pakistan government freeing of senior Afghan Taliban commander, Mullah Baraadar. Mr Shahzad informed the senior officials that he story was leaked by an intelligence channel in Pakistan, and confirmed thereafter by the ” most credible Taliban s source” . The senior officials present suggested to Mr Shahzad that he officially deny the story, which he refused to do, terming the official’s demand as “impractical”

The senior intelligence official was “curious” to identify the source of Mr Shahzad’s story claiming it to be a “shame” that such a leak should occur from the offices of a high profile intelligence service. Mr Shahzad additionally stated that the Rear -Admiral offered him some information, ostensibly “as a favour ” in the following words : ” We have recently arrested a terrorist and have recovered a lot of data, diaries and other materials during the interrogation. The terrorist had a hit list with him. If I find your name on the list I will certainly let you know.”

Mr Shahzad subsequently confirmed to me in a conversation that he not only interpreted this conversation as a veiled threat to his person. He also informed me that he let an official from the ISI know soon thereafter that he intended share the content of this threat with his colleagues ..

As President of the All Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS) and as head of Pakistan’s leading media group I consider the security of journalists to be of paramount importance. At present the APNS has officially committed itself to the creation of a national body for the investigations of serious threats to the lives of journalists, a body which the Committee to Protect the Journalists in New York, and other leading organizations in the Pakistani press and human rights bodies have promised to lend vigorous support to. Pakistan has one of the high rates in the world for journalists’ killings and such an environment is inimical to the functioning of democracy. The government and the intelligence agencies should take the investigation into Mr Shahzad’s murder seriously and examine his last testimony closely.

Whether the Oct 18th incident itself or his last article in the Asia Times Online, that alleged Al-Qaeda penetration of the security curtain for Pakistani Naval establishment in Karachi hastened his murder is for the official investigation to uncover. And nobody not even the ISI should be above the law”.

'Saudi Women Revolution' makes a stand for equal rights

As election centers across Saudi Arabia opened on April 23 for voters to register for forthcoming municipal elections, groups of women turned up asking to take part.
As expected, they were turned away -- women will not be able to stand or vote in September's municipal elections -- but just by showing up they had made their point.
This was one of the first public acts of the newly-formed "Saudi Women Revolution," a movement set up to campaign for the end of Saudi Arabia's discriminatory laws.
Their chief aim is ending male guardianship, which means Saudi women often need permission from their husband, father, brother or even son to work, travel, study, marry, or access health care, according to Human Rights Watch.
They also want to be allowed to drive, which is forbidden for women in the Kingdom.The Saudi Women Revolution was started as a Facebook page and a discussion topic, or hash tag, on Twitter in February, by Nuha Al Sulaiman.
Al Sulaiman, 28, said: "I started the Twitter hash tag to allow women to write whatever they are suffering from.
"It wasn't easy to do, particularly using the word 'revolution,' but I reached a point where I just had to do something about our daily suffering.
"In the past I couldn't meet people who have the same ideas as I have, but social media has made that possible."
The Facebook group now has more than 3,000 "likes" and a core of the women have met in person to discuss their campaign.
Al Sulaiman said: "We will do whatever it takes. We will go to the king himself. We will never stop fighting for our rights because it's time for change.
"Women should be able to take responsibility for everything they do themselves. It makes my blood drive high that nothing is changing."
Al Sulaiman said she and 11 other women had tried to register to vote at an election center in Riyadh, while other groups of women went to centers in Jeddah, Dammam and Khobar.
Municipal elections in Saudi Arabia will be held in September for only the second time in more than 40 years. The Saudi electoral commission was reported to have said that women cannot vote because preparations had not been made to keep them separate.Rasha Al Duwaisi, a 30-year-old mother of two who took part in the protest, said: "The elections are a sham and many men are boycotting them. However, we still want the opportunity to be involved.
"The most important thing is we want women to be recognized as adults.
She added: "The first time I was interviewed in the media I was so nervous I was shaking. I'd never done anything like this before and I didn't know if I had antagonized the government.
"People are saying I'm immodest and against religion, but that isn't true."
Those involved are mostly young university-educated women. They said it took some time before they trusted each other enough to give their real names and to arrange to meet in person.
Not all Saudi women want to end male guardianship. In 2009, a group of Saudi women launched a campaign called "My Guardian Knows What's Best for Me," which attracted thousands of supporters.
But for Saudi Women Revolution, it's a matter of ending discrimination. Another member, Khuloud al Fahad, a 33-year-old mother of two and businesswoman, said: "We are trying to do this in a safe and correct way. We don't want problems with the government, we just want to send a message that we will not keep silent about this discrimination anymore.
"Our freedom is very restricted. I can't move without permission, I can't travel without permission, I can't have surgery without permission, I can't rent a flat without permission.
"When my daughter was in hospital, I wasn't even allowed to sign the papers for her to come home. We are not half human beings, we are human beings."
Wajeha al Huwaider, 49, a veteran Saudi women's rights campaigner who has long campaigned for the end of male guardianship, said the protests at the election centers were the right way to get the campaign noticed.
And the campaign has attracted support from outside the country. Mona Kareem, a journalist and blogger in Kuwait, supported Saudi Women Revolution by collating the most common demands from the group's Twitter topic into a statement to be sent to human rights organizations. She published it on her blog translated into seven languages.
Saudi Women Revolution is planning to publish its own formal statement of demands this week and will then be asking women to sign their names to it.
Even signing their names to the statement will take courage.
Al Huwaider said: "Women in this country don't even have control over their own names. Their husbands or fathers are angry with them if they put their name to something, which is why many are not willing to stand up for their rights.
"Women are just like property, owned by the men in their family."

Afghanistan commander considers exit strategy

http://www.surgar.net

Planning is underway for the initial withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, and the details are being closely guarded by the officer overseeing the process, Army Gen. David Petraeus.

“The ground-truth is there’s one action officer on this effort,” Petraeus, commander of the International Security Assistance Force and U.S. Forces Afghanistan, told Military Times during an exclusive interview Friday at his office inside NATO’s headquarters here. “You’re looking at him.”

Petraeus expects his options will be delivered to the White House before the end of June, around the time he is likely to testify before the Senate Armed Services Committee on his nomination to become the CIA’s next director. He dismissed recent media reports suggesting the initial drawdown would include between 5,000 and 10,000 troops, saying nobody could have that information because he has not shared it with anyone.

Neither Petraeus’ commander’s initiatives group nor his executive staff has participated in the development of options for the president, the general said. The effort has taken place in his office, behind his own desk.

“There may be one or two folks on the staff who think they know something about it; they might be deceiving themselves because there are misdirection plays out there,” Petraeus said. “I want to assure everybody above me that this is not going to leak, that there will be no kinds of atmospherics as a result of leaks.”

Before they’re presented to President Obama, Petraeus’ plans will be shared only with Marine Gen. James Mattis, commander of U.S. Central Command; Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and Defense Secretary Robert Gates. Gates and Mullen, he said, will most likely be the ones who take it to the Oval Office.

Petraeus is likely hoping to avoid a repeat of late 2009, when his recommendation for a troop surge in Afghanistan — a proposal meant only for the president — was leaked to the media, fueling pre-decisional speculation for weeks. Upon announcing the surge of 30,000 U.S. troops, Obama made it clear those forces would begin to leave in July 2011.

“What a commander in my position should do is to provide the chain of command and president with options to implement the policy … at a pace determined by conditions on the ground,” said Petraeus, who then was in charge of CENTCOM.

The recommendations for the president, Petraeus said, are informed by visits to ground commanders across Afghanistan, including the volatile southern provinces where Marines and soldiers continue to battle Taliban fighters in what used to be their exclusive stronghold.

Important considerations also include the purview of Mattis, whose context is the entire theater, not just Afghanistan, and by Gates and Mullen, who must consider broader global context. At the top is Obama, who faces difficult fiscal challenges and an atmosphere in Congress where there is waning support for the war.

Bahrain police open fire at protesters in capital

Bahraini police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters marching toward the landmark Pearl Square in the country's capital Friday, two days after authorities lifted emergency rule.

The downtown square was the focus of weeks of Shiite-led protests against the Gulf nation's Sunni rulers earlier this year. Witnesses in the tiny island kingdom said there were no immediate reports of casualties among the hundreds of opposition supporters who took their grievances to the streets for the first time since martial law was imposed more than two months ago.

The country's security force moved against the protesters shortly before Formula One's governing body deemed the kingdom safe enough to host the Bahrain Grand Prix in October.

The annual F1 race has been Bahrain's most profitable international event since 2004, when the nation became the first Arab country to stage the Grand Prix. Bahrain organizers insisted they are ready to host the race this year despite the deadly crackdown. The season-opening March auto race was postponed because of the political unrest.

Also Friday, thousands of mourners gathered at a cemetery in the capital, Manama, to bury a protester who died in a hospital earlier in the day of injuries from a demonstration in March.

The death of 63-year-old Salman Abu Idris raised to at least 31 the number of people killed since the campaign for greater rights and freedoms began in the Western-allied nation in February.

Bahrain is home to the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet, and the U.S. has called on its leaders to make reforms in an effort to meet at least some of the protest movement's demands.

The government lifted emergency rule Wednesday, pulling back tanks and soldiers from the heart of the capital. But authorities warned they were not easing pressure on anti-government protesters. Opposition groups called supporters to return to the streets, the first such appeal since the military overran the protesters' encampment at Pearl Square after martial law was imposed in mid-March.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomed the lifting of emergency laws and the king's call for a national dialogue at a meeting in New York late Friday with Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, who is also Bahrain's deputy defense chief, and Foreign Minister Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa.

"The secretary-general reiterated his call on the government and security forces in Bahrain to uphold international human rights norms and standards and welcomed the commitment and assurances made by the crown prince in this regard," U.N. associate spokeswoman Vannina Maestracci said.

Ban also reiterated the U.N.'s readiness to assist in promoting a national dialogue, she said.

Bahrain's Sunni rulers invited 1,500 troops from a Saudi-led Gulf force to help suppress the unrest when emergency rule was declared. The Saudi intervention infuriated Iran, the major Shiite power in the Gulf. It underscored the fears of Iran among Sunni-dominated Arab countries, particularly among Gulf Arab leaders. They fear gains by Bahrain's Shiites could provide an opening for expanded Iranian influence on the doorstep of rival Saudi Arabia.

Despite tight security across Bahrain and police reinforcements at checkpoints around the capital, hundreds of opposition supporters from the mostly Shiite populated villages around Manama took their grievances to the streets again and set off to reclaim Pearl Square.

"Instead of rights, every family got a political prisoner. Did the government expect people to stay at home?" said Nabeel Rajab, a leading activist and president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights. "After almost three months of military rule, the crisis is deeper because every family suffered when the army was sent to solve a political problem."

The emergency rule gave the military wide powers to suppress the Shiite-led demonstrations against the minority Sunni monarchy that has ruled Bahrain for over 200 years. Hundreds of protesters, political leaders and Shiite professionals like doctors and lawyers have been arrested and tried in a special security court, set up under martial law. Two protesters were sentenced to death.

Just before the emergency rule was lifted, Bahrain's king urged "unity talks" with protest factions beginning in July — a gesture that fell short of opposition demands for a constitutional monarchy with an elected government. King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa's message was in sharp contrast to a Justice Ministry statement calling the demonstrations "criminal acts" and warning that any further challenges will have "consequences."

State of the economy

EDITORIAL:
Daily Times
Not surprisingly, the Economic Survey 2010-11 unveiled by Finance Minister Abdul Hafeez Sheikh in a news conference on Thursday lists a litany of reasons why all targets were missed and the economy’s growth slowed down. Amongst the negative factors impacting the economy, pride of place belongs to last year’s devastating floods, the energy crisis, the hike in international oil prices and the internal and regional security challenges. The economy grew only 2.4 percent against a target of 4.5 percent. The average growth for the last three years of the PPP-led government pans out at 2.6 percent, the lowest in three decades. During the same period, Asian countries grew by 8.4 percent, with India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh recording growth of 7.7, 6.6 and 6 percent respectively.

The finance minister revealed that the floods in 2010 affected 1.6 million families and caused damage of $ 10.5 billion to infrastructure, agriculture and other assets. It must be said that despite the earlier sympathetic noises by the international community, the actual help to flood affectees and the rehabilitation of infrastructure, etc, has fallen far short of expectations or commitments. Even well meaning local philanthropists seem to have run out of steam, leaving millions still living under open skies and without opportunities to rehabilitate their incomes and lives.

The energy crisis includes not only a shortfall of supply versus demand, but a chronic circular debt of some Rs 120 billion, which is exacerbating the shortage of electricity generation. The government’s strategy for meeting the energy crisis, comprising short- medium- and long-term measures, appears to have run aground at the first hurdle, the Rental Power Projects’ scandal-hit effort. Independent Power Projects, representing the medium-term component of the strategy, appear to be crawling along in implementation. The long-term component of dams, prime being the Bhasha Dam, are stuttering because of financial constraints and the difficulties of generating the finance at affordable cost from the international donors. Renewable energy is still an infant that has to grow teeth before it can make any kind of impact.

While Pakistan, dependent as it is on oil imports, can do little about the spike in international prices of POL, what is conspicuous by its absence is any semblance of a strategy or campaign to conserve energy, which logically would seem to suggest itself as a demand dampener. The energy crunch has impacted industry and commerce seriously, with factories closing down or functioning at low capacity, and trade too suffering customers turning away because of inconvenience and the inflationary spiral biting deep into their purchasing power.

The struggle against terrorism and the open declaration of war against Pakistan by the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan and al Qaeda have led to the worst security climate within memory. Let alone foreign investors, even domestic investors are shy and some have despaired of the interminable security and energy crises to shunt their capital to more salubrious climes abroad. Terrorism is the illegitimate, but inevitable child of the misplaced jihadi enterprise beloved of our military establishment for the last four decades, whose chickens have by now come home to roost with a vengeance. There are growing calls for revisiting this policy, but so far it appears, despite the setbacks in Abbottabad and Karachi, that the military’s point of view is set in stone, despite its own, and the people’s grave losses. Inevitably, Pakistan does not have a hope in hell of attracting any kind of investment, domestic or foreign, unless peace is restored by taking out the terrorists without discrimination or being waylaid by spurious notions of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ Taliban.

Last but not least, the State Bank of Pakistan’s (SBP’s) tight monetary policy and maintaining high interest rates, ostensibly to keep inflation in check, is clearly not working to keep a lid on prices. Inflation officially rose to 12 percent, although this figure is disputed by independent analysts as well as empirical evidence. Since core inflation is related to food prices, the impact of the high interest rates has been to dampen private sector borrowing, crowded out as it is further by government’s dipping into the SBP and commercial banks’ coffers.

On the eve of the budget, the government needs to prioritise the elimination of the bottlenecks listed above to the revival of the economy through visionary, creative, out-of-the-box thinking, not the clichéd and failed nostrums of the international lending agencies and the western governments that swear by them.

Pakistan,Budget more a burden than relief

Daily Times
The Pakistan People’s Party-led coalition government in the Centre unveiled its fourth budget with an outlay of Rs 2.767 trillion for the next fiscal year, 2011-12, in parliament on Friday. The budget outlay is some 14.2 percent higher than the last financial year’s budget.

The federal budget contains less relief measures against the additional burden of around Rs 600 billion on the general populace, specially consumers, say independent economists.

They say that the government has slashed the amount of subsidies from Rs 395.801 billion in 2010-11 to Rs 166.448 billion in 2011-12, a decrease of Rs 229.353 billion, which would force a hike in prices of electricity and essential items.

They are of the view that the additional tax revenue to the tune of Rs 365 billion, which would be generated in the next fiscal year, 2011-12, with a total tax collection at Rs 1.952 trillion, would result in inflation as the business community would pass on this tax burden to the consumers.

The federal government has estimated that in case the provinces helped it by saving Rs 125 billion or creating budget surplus then the budget deficit will remain at Rs 850 billion.

But, if grants from foreign donors are not received, then the budget deficit will reach Rs 974 billion in 2011-12.

The deficit would be met through local and external financing.

Federal Minister for Finance Dr Hafeez Sheikh presented the federal budget and outlined its salient features during his speech in the National Assembly.

Gross revenues of the federal government have been estimated at Rs 2.732 trillion, which include Rs 2.074 trillion from tax revenues and Rs 658 billion from non-tax revenues.

After payment of Rs 1.203 trillion to the provinces, revenue share in federal taxes under the 7th National Finance Commission Award, the federal government’s next revenue receipts would come down to Rs 1.529 trillion in 2011-12.

Net capital receipts of the federal government have been estimated at Rs 369 billion, external receipts Rs 414 billion while provinces will create a budget surplus of Rs 125 billion for keeping the budget deficit at 4 percent of the GDP. The federal government would borrow Rs 304 billion from banks to finance the deficit.

Current expenditures of Rs 2.315 trillion of the federal government during 2011-12 would include Rs 791 billion for repayment of interest on domestic and foreign loans and Rs 243 billion on repayment of foreign loans.

Some Rs 96 billion would be spent on payment of pension to retired employees of the federal government. A sum of Rs 495 billion would go to the armed forces. Rs 295 billion would be spent on grants and transfers to the provinces.

Some Rs 166 billion have been earmarked for subsidising the goods and services for the population of the country. Provision for increase in salaries and pension has been made at Rs 25 billion for 2011-12.

Development expenditures of the federal government will be Rs 452 billion which include Rs 300 billion for federal public sector development programmes and Rs 55 billion for development loans while grants to the provinces and other development expenditures have been estimated at Rs 97 billion.

The government has decided to increase its employees’ salaries by 15 percent and pension by 15 to 20 percent.

The government has increased the income tax exemption limit from Rs 300,000 to 350,000 to facilitate low-salaried class. Fifty percent tax exemption on income over and above of basic exempt income of Rs 350,000 for senior citizens have also been announced.

Pakistan: Bad news, again

As expected, Pakistan’s key economic indicators remain depressing. According to the Economic Survey of Pakistan 2010-11, the country’s real Gross Domestic Product growth is estimated at a slim 2.4 percent against the targeted 4.5 percent. Inflation remains in double digits, hovering at around 14.1 percent in the first 10 months of the current fiscal year, compared to 11.5 percent during the same period a year ago. Moreover, the fiscal deficit has been estimated at 5.9 percent for the year, while public debt has shown a sharp increase of 13.1 percent in the first nine months of the current fiscal year.

One can continue citing figures, which overwhelmingly paint a grim picture of Pakistan’s economy. But were we expecting any different? In a country shaken to its core by terrorism, continued political instability, inconsistent policies, and an unprecedented energy crisis, the economy often remains the first causality. Last year’s devastating floods only added to the country’s woes. According to government estimates, floods wiped out a staggering two percent from economic growth. The surging oil and food prices also proved mighty blows on the fragile economy, already reeling from internal challenges. All these factors contributed towards making life miserable for the common man. The unemployment rate grew by 5.6 percent, while instances of poverty increased.

However, the blame for dismal economic figures cannot be placed on these internal and external factors alone. The impact of these challenges compounded because the government proved slow to act and kept dragging its feet on crucial reforms - this includes its failure to expand the tax base to that of restructuring public sector enterprises, which alone need an injection of more than 250 billion rupees in subsidies just to remain afloat. The government’s debt management strategy, fiscal austerity, and rationalising the subsidy regime also left a lot to be desired. The only saving grace for this outgoing fiscal year remains the robust external sector thanks to a record surge in remittances by overseas Pakistanis and high exports, which are expected to cross $24 billion by the end of the year. Sadly, no credit can be given for this to the government. Let’s hope that in the 2011-12 fiscal year, the finance minister and his team manage to take those tough and difficult decisions, which are vital to pull the country out of its low growth and high inflation cycle. For this, mobilising internal resources, scrapping subsidies, and taking measures against vested interests remain vital. Whether this team will be able to do so remains a multi-million dollar question.

Pakistani troops fight militants from across Afghan border for 3rd day, at least 63 dead

Washington Post
Pakistani helicopters and artillery on Friday forced back militants who crossed over from Afghanistan this week and triggered battles that have killed at least 63 people, an official said. The incursion prompted Islamabad to demand that NATO and Afghan troops do more to control insurgents on their side of the long, porous border.

Up to 400 militants are said to have infiltrated into Pakistan’s Upper Dir region from Afghanistan’s Kunar province on Wednesday. They attacked a security checkpoint, villages and schools, according to the Pakistani government.Regional administrator Ghulam Mohammad Khan said the militants were retreating Friday, and Pakistani troops were still attacking them in Nustrat Darra district.

As of Thursday night, 25 soldiers, 35 militants and three civilians had died in the clashes, Khan said. He had no information about casualties from Friday’s fighting,

The militant attack and Pakistan’s reaction contradicted the usual U.S. narrative about the poorly defined boundary that runs through rough country for about 1,600 miles (2,600 kilometers). Typically, militant cross-border movements originate in Pakistan, leaving the United States and NATO to complain to Islamabad over its failure to stop the infiltration into Afghanistan.

This time the situation was reversed.

The new battles found Pakistan the aggrieved party, lending credence to Pakistani army commanders’ complaints that NATO was failing to crack down on militants sheltering on the Afghan side of the rugged region.

A Pakistani government statement late Thursday said the foreign secretary had “stressed the need for stern action by the Afghan army, U.S. and NATO/ISAF forces in the area against militants and their hideouts in Afghanistan and against organizational support for the militants.”

Beyond emphasizing the difficulties of fighting an enemy that pays no attention to borders, the battle hints at challenges ahead for the U.S. and Pakistan when Washington begins withdrawing troops from Afghanistan later this year. Pakistan maintains that NATO already doesn’t have enough troops along the Afghan side of the border.

In the past, NATO and Pakistani forces have staged coordinated “hammer and anvil” operations against militants on the border, but relations between Washington and Islamabad have hit a particularly rough patch, especially since the unilateral American raid in Pakistan that killed Osama bin Laden on May 2.

Even so, NATO officials say that border cooperation has not suffered as a result of the chill in ties.

U.S. aid to Pakistan muddled and lacks leadership, says report

The United States provides Pakistan with $1.5 billion in aid annually, but this ambitious program lacks transparency, has muddled goals and is hampered by conflicting instructions from Washington.
Those are some of the conclusions of a study from the Center for Global Development, a Washington-based group. The report paints a somber and at times alarming picture of the situation in Pakistan.
By 2030, Pakistan will have the fourth-largest population in the world, but the millions of young Pakistanis who enter the workforce every year are poorly prepared to compete. For every 100 students who start school in Karachi, only one graduates from secondary school. Power cuts and water shortages are common.
"The prospects for a positive outcome in Pakistan seem bleak....but there are reasons to believe Pakistan can turn the corner," the report says.
"The overall tone is gloomy about what's happened so far but there is a possibility that it could get better going forward, subject to a lot of serious thinking going on inside the government," says Nancy Birdsall, president of the Center and formerly a senior executive at the World Bank.
"There is potential in Pakistan -- it is a democratically elected government, there is an independent judiciary and a free press, there's a very large sophisticated urban middle class."
But the Center's report says U.S. aid to Pakistan "cannot yet boast a coherent set of focused development priorities," with the main development agency -- the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) -- neither empowered nor equipped to succeed.
"When Pakistan is addressed, security dominates," the report says. "Trade, investment and aid lose out." And trade could play a much greater role if import quotas and duties for Pakistani textiles and other products were reduced. The trouble is U.S. investment in Pakistan has declined sharply as instability there has grown.
But the report also acknowledges that U.S. aid faces another huge obstacle: the rising tide of anti-Americanism in Pakistan.
Despite the stated goal of the multi-year aid program to "demonstrate the true friendship of the American people," anti-American sentiment has only worsened in the past two years. In an opinion piece for CNN.com this week, former Pakistani leader Pervez Musharraf argues that "there is an acute deficit of trust and confidence between the United States and Pakistan at all levels of government, the military and intelligence."
Security issues mean that the movements of staff involved with U.S. aid programs are restricted and they are typically stationed in Pakistan for just one year. The report argues that is nowhere long enough to establish meaningful relationships with Pakistani partners.
The Center's report also says there's a disconnect between Washington's expectations and what can be done on the ground.
"Congress and the administration demand local ownership, rigorous oversight and speedy results," it says. But that's not possible in a country where corruption is rife and government institutions weak.
There's also too much emphasis on how much money is being spent, rather than its impact. "For a strategy intended to promote long-term development, this is a terrible metric of success," the report says.
"USAID needs to be liberated from the pressures from Capitol Hill, the White House, the State Department," Birdsall told CNN. "USAID is not responsible for the overall strategy; it's seen as an implementing agency. So where does the strategy come from? We don't know. The strategy seems to be changing over the last year and a half."
Too often, the report says, aid for Pakistan is also seen in terms of a regional approach that includes Afghanistan. But the needs of the two countries are entirely different.
The Center says USAID should be put in charge of planning and delivering a development strategy in Pakistan, with staff that are dedicated to the country for five-year assignments. There should be greater efforts to recruit talented local staff and give them real responsibility, and much more transparency about what's being spent and where. And the U.S. should support and engage with Pakistan's reformers.
But the report also acknowledges that ultimately U.S. aid to Pakistan can play a modest role at best, given prevailing economic and social conditions. Regional changes can make a much greater difference.
"Cross-border Indo-Pakistani trade has more potential to spur economic growth in Pakistan that practically any intervention in the U.S. arsenal," the report says.

A Pakistani journalist is killed and many questions remain unanswered

By Tim Lister

I never met Pakistani journalist Sayed Saleem Shahzad, but we exchanged e-mails about his work for Asia Times Online, and his remarkable scoops in interviewing some of the world's most wanted terrorists.

He was an investigative reporter in the truest sense, disappearing to remote areas of Waziristan for clandestine interviews, working contacts within Pakistan's byzantine security apparatus, delving into a murky world of conspiracies and shifting (often deadly) allegiances.

In the end, it was Shahzad's endless probing that probably killed him. On Sunday night, he was on his way from his home in the Pakistani capital to a TV station to do an interview on the security threats faced by Pakistan.

He never got there. His body was found Tuesday some 250 kilometers (155 miles) away, close to his car. It showed signs of torture, according to Pakistani media reports.

You could pick any number of stories that Shahzad had written as Asia Times' Pakistan bureau chief that would have embarrassed or infuriated someone.

Long-time colleague Zafar Mehmud Sheikh told CNN-IBN after his murder: "He was an extremely critical writer. His writings in Asia Times were not liked by many circles, especially power corridors, and that's why he was always getting threats, direct life threats not from one side, from all sides."

Many Pakistani journalists believe he was killed by elements within the Pakistani intelligence service, the ISI, because of his frequent reporting about co-operation and contacts between Pakistani security officials and extremist groups. He is known to have received several warnings about his reporting from the ISI. But it is equally possible that his reporting had gone too far for the likes of one of the many militant groups he was in touch with.

Shahzad had recently turned several controversial pieces about the attack by militants on the Pakistani naval base in Karachi.

One of them began in a way that would not have gone done well at ISI headquarters, describing the attack as "the violent beginning of an internal ideological struggle between Islamist elements in the Pakistani armed forces and their secular and liberal top brass."

He also cited (as he often did) unnamed sources in the ISI, Pakistan's military intelligence service, quoting one as saying: "It was shown several months ago that the Pakistan navy is vulnerable to Islamists when a marine commando unit official was arrested.....Now, they (intelligence) realize how the organization (navy) is riddled and vulnerable to the influence of militant organizations."

In a follow-up article on May 27, Shahzad wrote: "Insiders at PNS Mehran (the Karachi naval base) provided maps, pictures of different exit and entry routes taken in daylight and at night, the location of hangers and details of likely reaction from external security forces."

Coming just weeks after the killing of Osama bin Laden a mile from Pakistan's most prestigious military academy, such reporting must have touched plenty of raw nerves within Pakistan's security establishment. It would not have been the first time.

In October 2010, Shahzad was summoned to a meeting at the ISI headquarters in Islamabad.

According to an e-mail of the meeting Shahzad later sent to a friend, the ISI asked him to write a retraction of a story about the release of a Taliban commander. Shahzad refused.

He was then told by an ISI official: "We have recently arrested a terrorist and have recovered a lot of data, dairies and other material during the interrogation. The terrorist had a hit list with him. If I find your name in the list, I will certainly let you know."

In comments about the e-mail made to the Associated Press of Pakistan, an ISI official said it had "no veiled or unveiled threats in it," The ISI "makes it a point to notify institutions and individuals alike of any threat warning received about them," he added.

But it is equally possible that Shahzad had become too knowledgeable about the operations of Islamist extremists for their comfort. He certainly had amazing connections within these groups.

Last year he wrote a fascinating piece about how the Pakistani Taliban had freed an Iranian diplomat they had kidnapped in exchange for anti-aircraft guns that might help them combat U.S. drone attacks.

More recently, he spoke with Maulvi Nazir, a Taliban leader who is one of the most powerful men in Pakistan's restive tribal territory of South Waziristan and who has long been on Pakistan's most wanted list. It was the first time Nazir had ever spoken with a journalist; and Shahzad dared to ask him about his record of opposing al Qaeda:

"Nazir's expression turned serious and he seemed a little tense, but in a fraction of a second he calmed down and replied with firmness. 'This is wrong that I am anti-al Qaeda. I am part of al Qaeda.'"

Shahzad could turn a wry sentence, too. At the end of the same article, he wrote: "I was on the point of asking for elaboration when Nazir said, "Why don't you join us for lunch," indicating in the most polite but unmistakable manner that the interview was over. "

The last time we exchanged e-mails it was about his forthcoming book: "Inside al Qaeda and the Taliban." I was planning to review it for CNN.com; he was pleased it would get some international exposure and proud of what he'd written. "It gives the detailed account on the real mastermind of Mumbai attack and how the same person changed the dynamics of Afghanistan war theatre," he wrote to me.

Shahzad was referring to Ilyas Kashmiri, one of the most feared terrorists in the world. His 313 Brigade is by many accounts closely linked to al Qaeda. In October 2009, Shahzad also became the first and only journalist to interview Kashmiri -- traveling for two days into a remote border area. At one point he was confined to a room and told: "The area is full of Taliban, but also of informers whose information on the presence of strangers in a house could lead to a drone attack."

When he finally was introduced to Kashmiri, his first question was a zinger: "So, you have survived a third drone strike ... why is the CIA sniffing around you so much?"

Fellow journalist Mazheer Abbas knew Shahzad for twenty years, and was always worried about his safety. They first met when Shahzad joined the Karachi-based newspaper The Star. "He started as a junior reporter," Abbas told CNN's Kiran Khalid. "Immediately he started coming out with stories on ethnic conflicts, sectarianism."

"I noticed that he started moving around with people who had close contacts with militants and the intelligence agencies. I told him to be very careful because you could be used by somebody."

"He was courageous but not very careful while reporting," Abbas said -- saying Shahzad had a tendency to talk openly about his contacts. "The level of distrust was very much there among intelligence agencies as well as militant groups. He would move forward and come out with the courageous stories despite the dangers."

And Abbas says Shahzad knew his stuff. "There are not many journalists who have so much command on militant groups the way he did," he said.

Shahzad's kidnapping, in the Pakistani capital's most protected area, has shocked Pakistani journalists. His friend Zafar Sheikh said: "A person has to think a hundred times before saying anything, before writing anything, before making a report. Before performing our journalistic duties, we think a hundred times about who will be angered by it, who will be so incensed that he will want to kill you."

Shahzad never let such thoughts stop him reporting.

He leaves a wife and three children.