The Pakistan Thread

[AzariLoveIran]

[AzariLoveIran]

[AzariLoveIran]

[skyhook77sfg]

EXCELLENT POST AZARI

Gordon's view from down under is right on...

it is indeed the AfPakIndo gordian knot and not an individual country situation.

as to his prediction status quo could last two years...

doubtful.

Major shift in US policy likely within 6 months.

[AzariLoveIran]

[Tinker]

I really don't see why the Pakistani government hiding bin Laden's whereabouts would really make that much difference.

For myself, and a lot of people over the years, we just kind of assumed that this was the case. Why does having confirmed what even internet dilettantes already suspected, make a difference?

[skyhook77sfg]

it is one thing to notice and look the other way...

it is quite another when everyone notices your self contradictory behaviour...

and begins to ask why conflict is perpetuated

and then figures it out.

[Tinker]

[skyhook77sfg]

correct....

and here is more of US strategic shift now underway...



WASHINGTON: The Pentagon has alternatives to the key land routes through Pakistan used to supply US forces in

Afghanistan and is not wholly dependent on those routes, a top US official said on Monday.

“We’re confident that we’re not dependent upon any particular single thread, and we can continue to supply the

Afghanistan effort,” Ashton Carter, Under Secretary of Defence for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, told

Reuters.


FIRST TIME PRONOUNCEMENT

see AfPakIndo thread for bigger picture

[AzariLoveIran]

[AzariLoveIran]

[skyhook77sfg]

which cop is this....?



ISLAMABAD: An initial investigation report has revealed that the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) radars installed in

Peshawar and Risalpur were functioning properly on May 2 and the movement of some half-a-dozen planes was detected

near the Jalalabad border at 11 pm before the US helicopters entered Abbottabad to kill Osama bin Laden.
�One aircraft was identified as a US AWACS and the remaining five were recognised as F-18 jets of the US. These

planes flew near the Pakistani border, but did not cross into the airspace of Pakistan,� the report added.

Meanwhile, the PAF formed a special investigation committee to probe into the violation of Pakistan�s airspace by

the US helicopters to kill Osama bin Laden. It is the first committee formed to investigate the incident. The team

will see how the Pakistani forces remained ignorant about the presence of foreign helicopters.

The committee, being headed by a group captain, has started its work by checking the record of radars thoroughly

and interviewing officials who were on duty when the US helicopters violated Pakistan�s airspace.

�More such committees will be formed to unveil the facts about the Abbottabad operation,� the sources added. The

committee will investigate how Pakistan�s radar system, which could detect the flights outside Pakistan�s limit,

could not notice the US helicopters, which entered into Pakistan and remained there for hours. The officers of PAF

will also examine the aspect whether the planes, traced by the radars, were meant to divert the attention of

Pakistani forces.


http://www.paktribune.com/news/index.shtml?239071" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[skyhook77sfg]

worth repeating

from azari in another thread


''Icing on the cake is Pakistan .. nuclear Pakistan .. 100s of nuclear capable F-16s (free of charge .. uncle Sam's gift) and lots of intercontinental nuclear rockets .. and .. 100 millions crazy people, make it poor & hungry crazy people.'

end quote


180 million poor and hungry...and many less crazy...

but enough crazies to start paying attention.

Pakistan is the current focal point of major global geopolitical forces
reshaping regional power dynamics ...

but in words from Sir Mick...

you cant always
get what you want.

[skyhook77sfg]

Extra! Extra! Mullah Omar arrested in PakistaN


ISLAMABAD: In a daring raid, Saudi Special Forces arrested renegade Afghan leader, Mullah Omar, from a famous five-star hotel located in one of Pakistan’s most popular vacation spots – Bhurban.

The news spread like wildfire and people were seen cursing the Pakistani government for allowing the Americans to undermine Pakistan’s sovereignty – again.

However, when it became clear that the raid was not conducted by the Americans but the Saudis, the frowns turned into smiles and many were heard saying, ‘Jazzakallah!’

Only minutes after the raid, Pakistan’s prime minister and Army Chief appeared on state-owned television and congratulated the nation and thanked the Saudi regime for helping Pakistan in its war against terror.

Interestingly, religious parties like Jamaat-i-Islami, (JI) Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI) and some banned sectarian organisations, along with Imran Khan’s Pakistan Thereek-i-Insaf (PTI) which had originally called a joint press conference to condemn the raid, changed their stance half-way through the conference when told that the raid was by Saudi forces and not the Americans.

Munawar Hussain, JI, chief, was first heard lambasting Pakistan’s PPP-led civilian government for letting the country’s sovereignty be violated by the Americans, but after a reporter confirmed that the raid was executed by Saudi forces, Munawar turned to Imran Khan and embraced him.

‘Mahshallah!’ he exclaimed. “Today is a glorious day for our Islamic republic!”

Imran Khan and JUI chief Fazalur Rehman had earlier questioned the real identity of the man arrested from the five-star hotel, saying that even if it was Mullah Omar, we should be ashamed because Omar was a freedom fighter, conducting a liberation war against the Americans.

However, after it became clear that the arrest was made by Saudi forces, both Imran and Fazal then claimed that Mullah Omar was no friend of Pakistan and that he was not even a Muslim.

In a joint statement, JI, JUI and PTI, congratulated the nation and said that they had been saying all along that the Taliban were Pakistan’s greatest enemies and should be exterminated.

The statement also said that the PTI and JI will continue to hold sit-ins against American drones which were parachuting evil men like Mullah Omar into Pakistan and violating the sovereignty of the country. For this, the statement suggested, that Ahmad Shah Abdali should be invited to invade Pakistan and defeat the Americans.

When told that Abdali died almost two hundred years ago, PTI and JI termed this to be nothing more than western propaganda.

Imran Khan added, that from now on he should be addressed as Imran of Ghaznavi and that one of Pakistan’s most prominent revolutionary and youngest nuclear physicists, Zohair Toru, was building anti-drone missiles.

Toru, who was also present at the conference, confirmed this while licking a lemon flavoured popsicle. He said it was a very hot day and popsicles helped him concentrate.

Meanwhile, a military spokesman also held a press conference to give the media a briefing on the details of the raid.

He said the raid was executed by Saudi Special Forces who came from Saudi military bases in Riyadh.

The helicopters then landed on Margala Hills in Islamabad. On the lush hills, Saudi soldiers disembarked from the copters, got on camels and rode all the way to Bhurban in broad daylight.

They were twice stopped at checkpoints by Pakistani Rangers but were allowed to cross when some Saudi soldiers said something to the rangers in Arabic. It is believed that the Saudis promised the Rangers jobs in Saudi Arabia.

An eyewitness claims the Rangers smiled and waved to the departing camels, cheering ‘marhaba, marhaba.’

The camel army reached the five-star hotel in Bhurban at 11:00 am and right away rode their way into the sprawling premises.

The camels were also carrying rocket launchers, sub-machineguns, pistols, grenades and popcorn, all concealed in large ‘Dubai Duty Free’ shopping bags.

The military spokesman added that although the Pakistan Army had no clue about the raid, there were a dozen or so Pakistani military personnel present at the hotel.

When asked whether these men questioned the camel riders, the spokesman said that they did see the armed camels enter the hotel but the military men were at the time more interested in interrogating a 77-year-old Caucasian male whom they had arrested for smoking in a non-smoking area.

“After the Abbottabad incident, we are keeping a firm eye on Europeans and Americans,” the spokesman said.

Even though the white man turned out to be an old Polish tourist, the spokesman praised the military men’s vigilance. “Our country’s sovereignty is sacred,” he added.

According to the Pakistan military, the Saudis then rode their camels into one of the hotel’s kitchens and fired teargas shells.

This way they smoked out the chefs and their staff out into the open. From these, a Saudi commander got hold of a one-eyed chef with an untidy beard.

The Saudi commander looked at the chef and compared his face to a photograph he was carrying. He asked: ‘Al-Mullah-ul-Omar?’ To which the chef was reported to have said: “No, al-chicken jalfrezi. Also make very tasty mutton kebabs.”

The commander then asked, ‘Al-Afghani?’ to which the chef said, “Yes make Afghani tikka too. You want?”

A reporter asked the military spokesman whether the Pakistani military men present at the hotel witnessed the operation. The spokesman answered in affirmative but said they didn’t take any action after confirming that Pakistan’s sovereignty was not being violated.

The reporter then asked how the military men determined that Pakistan’s sovereignty was not being violated. Answering this, the spokesman said that since the camel riders were speaking Arabic there was thus no reason for the military to charge them with violating Pakistan’s sovereignty.

This statement made the media men at the press conference very happy and they consequently began applauding and raising emotional slogans praising Islam, ISI and palm trees.

Soon after the announcement that Mullah Omar was arrested by Saudi forces, the country’s private TV channels became animated. One famous TV talk-show host actually decided to host his show in a Bedouin tent. Instead of a chair, he sat on a camel wearing a Pakistan Army uniform.

Though most of his guests — that included prominent ex-generals, clergymen and strategic analysts — praised the operation and heaped scorn at Mullah Omar, there was one guest, a small-time journalist, who disagreed with the panelists.

He asked how a wanted man like Mullah Omar was able to live in Pakistan undetected and that too while working as a chef in a famous five-star hotel. He also said that Mullah Omar had also been appearing on various cooking shows as a chef on various food channels.

To this, the host snubbed the journalist telling him that he was asking irrelevant questions.

‘But before this operation, everyone was supporting the Taliban and telling us they were fighting a liberation war against the Americans,’ the journalist protested.

‘No,’ said the host, ‘it was the civilian government that was in cahoots with the Taliban. It should resign.’

‘No,’ the journalist replied, ‘it was our agencies!’

This made the host angry and he slapped the journalist. He threatened the journalist by saying that he would lodge a case against him in accordance with the Islamic hudood ordinance.

The journalist responded by saying that the Saudis had violated Pakistan’s sovereignty. Hearing this, the host slapped the journalist again, saying he will get him booked for blasphemy.

At the end of the show the host and the panelists burned an American flag and sang the Pakistani national anthem in Arabic. Then, after handing over the treacherous journalist to the authorities, they proceeded to Saudi Arabia to perform hajj.

However, they were soon deported by the Saudi regime for violating Saudi sovereignty.


Nadeem F. Paracha is a cultural critic and senior columnist for Dawn Newspaper and Dawn.com.

[skyhook77sfg]

AS SUGGESTED PREVIOUSLY....

NEW DYNAMICS IN US PAKISTAN POLICY







US Special Forces go after bin Laden's A-team


In the wake of the Osama bin Laden operation, the US is sustaining the momentum of the war on terror by sending more Special Forces and drones into Pakistan after his top lieutenant, the Egyptian Ayman al Zawahiri, Taliban leader Mullah Omer and al Qaeda's chief operations officer, Seif al Adal.

DEBKAfile's counter-terror sources report that on May 2, the day bin Laden was killed, the Taliban leader and his top staff were thought to be in Karachi, southern Pakistan and the two al Qaeda leaders in the tribal region of North Waziristan. All three are presumed to have since moved on.

US intelligence suspects their whereabouts are known to Pakistan's Inter-Services-Intelligence agency (ISI).
Our Washington sources report that Saturday night, May 7, President Barack Obama gave the Pakistani government, army and intelligence an ultimatum: Cooperate in the capture of the three wanted men or else we shall pump more American soldiers into Pakistan to take up the pursuit with or without your permission.
US intelligence is convinced that Omer, Zawahiri and al-Adal have joined forces and are plotting a revenge attack on America dramatic enough to outdo the psychological impact of the bin Laden killing.
Al-Adal, whom Iran released in Sept. 2010 and allowed to cross into Pakistan, is rated the most competent and innovative planner of large-scale terrorist attacks.

The videos of bin Laden the Pentagon released Saturday from the raid on his Abbottabad compound show an ageing man with a straggling grey beard, huddled under a blanket and watching his own performance on a TV screen – a far cry from the well-known tall, commanding presence.
Still, US spokesmen are now insisting that the master-terrorist they killed was active, dangerous and preoccupied with plotting attacks on the United States.

As the sifting through the computers, files and drives captured in the raid continued, a senior US intelligence source maintained: "The materials reviewed over the past several days clearly show that bin Laden remained an active leader in al Qaeda, providing strategic, operational and tactical instructions to the group. He was far from a figurehead. He was an actively player."

This assessment radically contradicted everything Washington put out about the al Qaeda leader in the last four years. They scorned as "one man on the run" who was too busy chasing from one hideout to another under hot US pursuit to have time for setting up terrorist operations. Such operations were increasingly attributed to al Qaeda's regional "franchises."

Now, US terrorist experts have clearly decided otherwise.

Saturday, May 7




DEBKA....sometimes disinformation, sometimes not.

The Mossad back channel is certain.

[skyhook77sfg]

MORE OF THE NEW APPROACH


US to deploy troops if Pak nukes come under threat



LONDON: US troops will be deployed in Pakistan if the nation�s nuclear installations come under threat from terrorists out to avenge the killing of Osama bin Laden, the Sunday Express can reveal on Sunday.

The plan, which would be activated without President Asif Ali Zardari�s consent, provoked an angry reaction from Pakistan officials last night. Barack Obama would order troops to parachute in to protect key nuclear missile sites. These include the air force�s central Sargodha HQ, home base for nuclear-capable F-16 combat aircraft and at least 80 ballistic missiles.

A US source told the Sunday Express: �The plan is green lit and the president has already shown he is wiling to deploy troops in Pakistan if he feels it is important for national security.�

http://www.paktribune.com/news/index.shtml?239334




IN ADDITION TO GENEVA CONVENTION DECLARED A QUAINT RELIC

SOVEREIGNTY IS NOW FALLING IN TO SAME CATEGORY

[CgDs]

[Ibrahim]

[Tinker]

[Ibrahim]

[AzariLoveIran]

[skyhook77sfg]

Bin Laden raid: Neighbors say Pakistan knew

Pakistani security agents told residents in Abbottabad to stay inside and turn off their lights hours before the raid took place


ABBOTTABAD, Pakistan — It was 11:40 p.m. on May 1 when two plain-clothed security personnel knocked on the door of Niaz Ali, who lives just 100 meters from the compound where Osama bin Laden, the most-wanted man on the planet, was hiding.

The two men asked Ali to turn off the lights inside and outside his house and to stay indoors until further notice.

Ali obliged, not bothering to ask their identity. He said it was obvious that they were either Pakistani intelligence or military officers, recognizable by their short haircuts, strong build and fluent Pashtu.

About two hours later, bin Laden would be dead, killed by a team of U.S. Navy SEALs.

A half a dozen people who had been living in houses next door to the Al Qaeda leader said they had similar experiences in the hours before U.S. helicopters descended on the compound, suggesting there had been some sort of security-related activity on behalf of the Pakistanis before the U.S. helicopters entered Pakistan’s air space.

“I cannot believe that the Pakistani government and army were not aware of this operation. The whole town was awake. We were calling each other.”

These local reports support the claims made by several senior Pakistani military and intelligence officials who told GlobalPost on the condition that their names not be used that, in fact, there were elements of both the intelligence community and the army that knew of the raid beforehand and that there was more cooperation between the two countries than officials are publicly admitting.

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news ... ?page=full





Could easily have been orchestrated as above suggests

to maximize positive domestic US political effect

and minimize domestic political fallout in Pakistan.

that's the way its done in the hall of mirrors.

[skyhook77sfg]

BEIJING: Pakistan’s prime minister declared China his country’s best friend in an apparent slap at Washington as he was to begin a visit to China on Tuesday with US ties tested over Osama bin Laden’s killing.

Yousaf Raza Gilani’s trip follows the killing of the al Qaeda leader by US special forces on Pakistani soil, in a raid that has cast a pall over US Pakistan ties and was widely expected to push Islamabad closer to Beijing.

“We appreciate that in all difficult circumstances, China stood with Pakistan.

Therefore we call China a true friend and a time-tested and all-weather friend,” Gilani told China’s official Xinhua news agency.

“We are proud to have China as our best and most trusted friend, and China will always find Pakistan standing beside it at all times,” he said in an interview released Tuesday.

Pakistan last week opened a 330-megawatt nuclear power plant in central Punjab province with Chinese help and said Beijing had been contracted to construct two more reactors.

The plans have triggered US concern over the safety of nuclear materials in the unstable, violence-plagued country where Muslim militancy is strong.

http://www.dawn.com/2011/05/17/pakistan ... th-us.html




HELLO US CONGRESS WHERE ALL APPROPRIATIONS ORIGINATE

ANYBODY THERE NOT TOO BUSY PLAYING GOLF WITH LOBBYISTS IN SCOTLAND OR SCREWING ASSISTANT'S WIVES?




ECHOES OF NONALIGNED THIRD WORLD COUNTRIES PLAYING OFF US AND USSR FOR MILKING MORE AID DURING COLD WAR ECHOED AT
www.dawn.com/2011/05/17/the-truth-is-out.html

How many times does one have to say that Pakistan is exposing itself to disaster by thinking it can run with the hare and hunt with the hounds? For 10 years I have been beseeching the powers to please take honest stock of the state of the country, to please stop using its so-called strategic location as a means towards first milking and then defying the rest of the world, to honestly draw up a balance sheet to see whether the so-called Taliban are assets or liabilities?

How many times does one have to caution the players of the Great Game, our Rommels and Guderians, that Barack Obama is not Dubya, that this is an intelligent and a thoughtful man, who would bring sense to the fight against terror; that it would be impossible to fool him? How many times does one have to beg, yes beg, those that run the security policies of the country to please, please come clean, and fight the war with purpose?

Well, crunch time is here: from all reports, the US is up to here with Pakistan’s shenanigans. Senator Kerry is in Islamabad carrying the big stick and some few carrots and I think it will be foolishness of a very high order if we do not disgorge the rest of the baddies who are most likely to be hiding in the Citadel of Islam. But we do have rather high levels of plain idiocy coupled with brass, a most lethal mixture so the Lord alone knows what we will do.


LORD SAYS PLAY THE CHINA CARD WITH THAT FOOT STOMPING FLOURISH LEARNED FROM THE BRITS YOU IMITATE

[AzariLoveIran]

[AzariLoveIran]