Archive for the ‘Pakistan’ Category
Saturday, February 13th, 2010
Paul McGeough; 13/2/10
The kohl-eyed Hakimullah Mehsud probably is dead. He was the target for a missile fired last month from an unmanned aircraft hovering over the Afghan-Pakistani border – but launched by an operator in the US. Mehsud was the ruthless mastermind of multiple suicide bomb attacks in Pakistan. He was part of a suicide mission on December 30 at Khost, just across the border in Afghanistan, which killed seven CIA agents who were working on the covert operation that now appears to have ended Mehsud’s brief and brutal leadership of the Taliban in Pakistan. In the artistry of war, the insertion of a Jordanian double-agent who detonated his explosive vest inside this super-sensitive CIA bunker was flawless. But, in their payback, the enraged Americans confirmed the breadth of a new horizon in modern warfare – launching 15 clinical drone attacks in which more than 100 people died along the border, as Washington’s electronic eyes and guns sought out Mehsud and his Taliban and al-Qaeda allies. War does not get more radical than this – technically, politically and, perhaps, ethically.
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Tags: Afghanistan, Human Rights, Pakistan, Terrorism, USA
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Friday, January 15th, 2010
Marwan Bishara; 15/1/09; (2 Items)
What does it say about Washington’s ”war on terror” that dozen and a half people with paper cutters forced hundreds of thousands of Western troops into the battlefields of the “greater Middle East” region; “That 100,000 foreign soldiers are bogged down in occupied Afghanistan wondering how many dozens of al-Qaeda operatives have remained, if any; That the most liberal democracy enacted new controversial illiberal laws and unpatriotic practices under its “Patriot Act”; That one shoe-bomber has forced millions of people to take off their shoes every time they take a flight.”
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Tags: Human Rights, Pakistan, Terrorism, USA
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Monday, January 4th, 2010
Henry and Bert Thornton; 4/1/10; http://www.henrythornton.com/article.asp?article_id=5906; (2 Items)
The United Nations has withdrawn one-third of its staff from Pakistan because of worsening security and increased terrorist attacks. The Wall Street Journal writes Pakistan’s failure to defeat terrorist groups operating within the country and Afghanistan forced the UN to leave.
Suicide bomber strikes at heart of CIA’s Afghan program
The Wall Street Journal; The suicide attack this week on a CIA compound in Afghanistan devastated what has been a hub of counter-terrorism and intelligence operations for the spy agency. The CIA base was at the heart of a covert program overseeing strikes by the agency’s remote-controlled aircraft along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, officials familiar with the installation said. The CIA continued drone strikes yesterday. A security official in Pakistan confirmed that two militants were killed in what was described as a missile attack by a Predator drone in Pakistan’s autonomous North Waziristan region, across the border from Khost.
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Tags: Afghanistan, CIA, Clandestine, Pakistan, Secrecy, Terrorism, USA, Yemen
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Monday, December 28th, 2009
28/12/09
At least four people have been killed and several more injured in a suspected US drone attack on a house in Pakistan’s northwest. Pakistani intelligence officials said the missile strike targeted a hideout of anti-government fighters in the Babar Raghazi area of North Waziristan on Saturday. But local security officials told Al Jazeera that those killed in the attack were all civilians. Unmanned drones are often the weapon of choice for the United States as it targets the Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters in remote, rugged areas along Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan. But the US military has rarely confirmed the attacks.
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Tags: Pakistan, Terrorism, USA
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Monday, November 23rd, 2009
Jeremy Scahill; 23/11/09
At a covert forward operating base run by the US Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) in the Pakistani port city of Karachi, members of an elite division of Blackwater are at the center of a secret program in which they plan targeted assassinations of suspected Taliban and Al Qaeda operatives, “snatch and grabs” of high-value targets and other sensitive action inside and outside Pakistan, an investigation by The Nation has found. The Blackwater operatives also assist in gathering intelligence and help direct a secret US military drone bombing campaign that runs parallel to the well-documented CIA predator strikes, according to a well-placed source within the US military intelligence apparatus. The source, who has worked on covert US military programs for years, including in Afghanistan and Pakistan, has direct knowledge of Blackwater’s involvement. He spoke to The Nation on condition of anonymity because the program is classified. The source said that the program is so “compartmentalized” that senior figures within the Obama administration and the US military chain of command may not be aware of its existence.
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Tags: Afghanistan, Mercenaries, Pakistan, Terrorism, USA
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Monday, November 16th, 2009
Gerg Miller: 16/11/09
The CIA has funnelled hundreds of millions of dollars to Pakistan’s intelligence service since the September 11, 2001, attacks, accounting for one-third of the foreign spy agency’s annual budget, according to current and former US officials. Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency had also collected tens of millions of dollars through a classified CIA program that paid for the capture or killing of wanted militants, a clandestine counterpart to the rewards publicly offered by the State Department, officials said. US officials often tout US-Pakistani intelligence co-operation. But the extent of the financial underpinnings of that relationship has never been publicly disclosed. The CIA payments are a hidden stream in a much broader financial flow; the US has given Pakistan more than $US15 billion ($A16 billion) over the past eight years in military and civilian aid.
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Tags: Human Rights, Iraq, Pakistan, Terrorism, UK, USA
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Wednesday, November 4th, 2009
Ida Lichter; 4/11/09
Now that the Taliban and their allies are being cornered in the tribal areas, the toxic fallout is terrorising a populace fed up with suicide bombings and the burning of schools. Among the international community, there is concern about Pakistan’s double-dealing with Islamist paramilitaries and the threat of extremists operating from within. And while the focus remains on military operations in the battle zone, the plight of ordinary Pakistani women is easily overlooked. Curtailing of women’s rights through strict sharia law became evident during the two-year jihad in the Swat region of the North West Frontier Province. A smuggled mobile phone video of punishment by lashing showed a woman being whipped while surrounding onlookers applauded. Islamists also proclaimed that female education was contrary to Islamic teachings and promoted indecency. But these hardships must be seen in perspective. Prior to the current threats of Taliban oppression, women in Pakistan faced life-long cultural and legislated discrimination. Considered a saleable commodity valued far less than males, they have been bartered for land and animals. The infant mortality rate is higher for females than males, and women’s life expectancy is lower than men’s, the result of less nourishment, healthcare and education, according to a UN study. In some rural areas female literacy rates are as low as 2 per cent, because parents see no financial benefits in educating girls.
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Tags: Pakistan, Terrorism, USA, Womens Rights
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Saturday, October 10th, 2009
David Ignatius; 10/10/09
It’s a classic example of the law of unintended consequences: Congress triples its assistance to Pakistan as part of a deepening strategic relationship. But members of Congress, always eager to tell other countries what to do, insert conditions that Pakistanis find insulting. As a result, rather than welcoming American aid and friendship, Pakistanis are indignant at US meddling. When I was in Islamabad a week ago, the Pakistani press was dripping with anti-American outrage. And this week, the Pakistani military and parliament were both protesting US interference. All this in response to legislation that was meant to symbolise US support for Islamabad’s growing firmness in fighting al-Qa’ida and the Taliban. Strangely, this uproar seems to have taken the Obama administration by surprise, with senior officials initially denouncing as inaccurate a story in The New York Times this week that reported Pakistani anger and opposition to the bill. Richard Holbrooke, the administration’s special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, should have seen this one coming.
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Tags: Human Rights, Pakistan, Terrorism, USA
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Saturday, September 19th, 2009
19/9/09; Bruce Loudon, senior editor at The Australian, was formerly the newspaper’s South Asia correspondent
Lumped against Naheed Khan on the seat of the white, armour-plated Toyota Landcruiser, blood gushing from a massive wound to her temple, is one of the world’s most celebrated political leaders. Seconds before, Benazir Bhutto had been standing with her head and shoulders through the vehicle’s sunroof, shouting slogans in her campaign to become Pakistan’s prime minister for a third time: “Jiaye Bhutto, Jiaye Bhutto” (“Long live Bhutto, Long live Bhutto”), the rallying cry of her Pakistan People Party (PPP) and the last words she would ever utter. The devoted Naheed, Bhutto’s political secretary and her inseparable shadow for 23 years, is mopping the wound, frantically using her dupatta headscarf in a futile attempt to staunch the flow of blood and brain matter.
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Tags: Assasination, Pakistan
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Wednesday, September 9th, 2009
9/9/09
At least 10 people have been killed after a suspected US drone fired missiles into Pakistan’s North Waziristan region, Pakistani intelligence has said.The attack late on Tuesday targeted a Taliban residential compound in Dargamandi village in a tribal area bordering Afghanistan. It was not immediately clear whether any Taliban fighters were present in the area at the time. The United States has fired scores of missiles from unmanned drones into the tribal regions since last year in a campaign targeting al-Qaeda and Taliban commanders… “People are angered by the way the Americans are conducting their affairs in this particular conflict . This is an infringement of sovereignty.”
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Tags: Pakistan, Terrorism, USA
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Monday, August 24th, 2009
24/8/09
Of course, as you report, the Pentagon would like to take more control over where our troops in Afghanistan are to be posted and how they are to fight, and of course there is plentiful evidence from the higher levels of the US civil and military governmental bodies that Australia should be extremely sceptical of any requests and attached promises (“US to urge bigger role for Diggers”, 22-23/8). US generals have recently told the American news media that the Taliban are today stronger than before — well-funded and equipped and high in morale. This, after nearly eight years of coalition military action in the area, does not suggest that playing war games as the American generals want would be in the interests of the Afghan people, or our troops. Do we really want to be part of that? Paul Kunino Lynch; Katoomba, NSW
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Tags: Afghanistan, Australia, Pakistan, USA
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Sunday, August 23rd, 2009
Greg Miller; 24/8/09 (3 Items)
The Pentagon, in an abrupt reversal of policy, will for the first time notify the International Committee of the Red Cross of the identities of militants held in secret at camps in Iraq and Afghanistan. The change begins to lift the veil from the US Government’s most secretive remaining overseas prisons by allowing the Red Cross to track the custody of dozens of the most dangerous suspected terrorists and foreign fighters plucked off the battlefields in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is a significant advance for the Red Cross in its long fight to gain more information about the detainees. The military had previously insisted that disclosing details about them could tip off other militants and jeopardise counter-terrorism missions. The camps are run by US Special Operations forces.
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Tags: Human Rights, Pakistan, Terrorism, USA
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Monday, August 10th, 2009
Owen Fay; 10/8/09; (2 Items)
A survey commissioned by Al Jazeera in Pakistan has revealed a widespread disenchantment with the United States for interfering with what most people consider internal Pakistani affairs. The polling was conducted by Gallup Pakistan, an affiliate of the Gallup International polling group, and more than 2,600 people took part. Interviews were conducted across the political spectrum in all four of the country’s provinces, and represented men and women of every economic and ethnic background.
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Tags: Afghanistan, Pakistan, Terrorism, USA
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Friday, July 31st, 2009
David Savage; 31/7/09; (4 Items)
The Obama Administration has agreed to release from Guantanamo Bay an Afghan prisoner who was captured as a teenager and held for nearly seven years for allegedly throwing a grenade at US soldiers. The US Government said it would ‘‘promptly release’’ Mohammed Jawad, now 23, and send him to Afghanistan — but only after it sent a required notification to Congress explaining whether his release would pose a risk to national security. That would take 22 days, the Administration said. Of the more than 200 detainees who remain at Guantanamo Bay, some are being released and sent home while others are being held for trial. A third group has proved the most troublesome. They are believed to be too dangerous to release but cannot be tried because the evidence against them is tainted.
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Tags: Afghnaistan, Guantanamo Bay, Pakistan, Terrorism, UK, USA
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Tuesday, July 14th, 2009
Brad Norington; 14/7/09; (4 Items)
Barack Obama has ordered his national security team to investigate allegations the US helped cover up the murder of about 2000 Taliban prisoners in the early stages of the Afghanistan war. The US President’s directive re-opens official US government interest in the circumstances behind a mass grave in northern Afghanistan that dates back to late 2001. The murders were allegedly carried out at the behest of a local warlord backed by the US-led Northern Alliance. According to the original reports of the incident just months after it happened, captured Taliban fighters were allegedly killed while being transported in cramped container trucks. Last week the allegations re-emerged when it was reported that the Bush administration had “repeatedly discouraged” efforts to inquire into killings.
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Tags: Afghanistan, Human Rights, Pakistan, Terrorism, UK, USA
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Tuesday, July 14th, 2009
14/7/09
The US commander in Afghanistan has flagged a demand for more troops, telling top Pentagon officials that Afghan security forces must expand faster to secure the country, defence sources say. General Stanley McChrystal – set to make a formal report with his recommendations next month – believes more Afghan security forces are needed, defence officials said. A dramatically stepped-up training program is likely to require additional US troops. Military leaders in Afghanistan have repeatedly called for more Afghan army soldiers and police officers to help secure cities and villages. “It isn’t any secret that commanders want more Afghan troops,” a defence official said.
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Tags: Afghanistan, Human Rights, Pakistan, Terrorism, USA
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