Troubled waters for obama: Pakistan is NOT our friend or ally

Pakistan has not really cooperated with us in the fight against global islamic terrorism. There have been a few shining moments when Pakistan waged a campaign against terrorist forces that gave me hope, that was quickly dashed as business in Pakistan returned to the usual morass of corruption, duplicity and outright lies. In the last two weeks the situation has gotten much worse with the closing of a strategic pass which is vital for NATO supplies and the war effort in Afghanistan. obama has already stated when "Delivering his latest “Af-Pak” report to the U.S. Congress last week, the president said the policy was on track and that he did “not believe further adjustments are required at this time.” So we stumble on in stupidity and the world continues to laugh and mock the obama administration. Failure comes naturally to obama, with cowardice running a close second. From CNSNEWS.com

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Pakistan’s ‘New Rage Against America’ Casts Doubt on Obama’s Afghanistan-Pakistan Strategy

By Patrick Goodenough

(CNSNews.com) - Three months ahead of the Obama administration’s planned evaluation of the Afghanistan-Pakistan strategy it launched last December, an increasingly strained and complex Washington-Islamabad relationship is threatening to throw the policy into disarray.


The December 2010 review is expected to assess whether President Obama can abide by his timetable of starting to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan next July.


Delivering his latest “Af-Pak” report to the U.S. Congress last week, the president said the policy was on track and that he did “not believe further adjustments are required at this time.”


In Pakistan, however, an unpopular government is grappling with public and establishment anger over a rash of deadly terrorist attacks in its cities, a drastically stepped-up U.S. drone campaign along the border with Afghanistan, and a fatal Sept. 30 cross-border helicopter strike.


Despite several U.S. and NATO apologies for the strike, which killed two Pakistani soldiers, the government has yet to open a border crossing vital for NATO supply trucks. On Thursday, foreign ministry spokesman Abdul Basit would only say a decision on the matter would come “in due course.”


Adding to the tensions are the recent prison sentence handed down by a U.S. court to a Pakistani scientist found guilty of trying to kill U.S. military personnel in Afghanistan – and viewed in Pakistan as a heroic figure and victim of U.S. injustice – as well as persistent reports about ongoing collusion between elements in Pakistan’s ISI military intelligence agency and terror groups including the Afghan Taliban.


The head of one of the country’s main Islamist political parties called Thursday for a “drastic change” in Pakistan’s foreign policy.


The government must inform the U.S. that America’s enemies are not Pakistan’s enemies, Jamaat-e-Islami chief Syed Munawar Hasan told a press conference in Karachi.


He also called for NATO supply lines into Afghanistan to be blocked permanently.


A leading Pakistani analyst says the anger goes beyond the militant element.


“The new rage against America is not restricted to the militants and their backers within the establishment,” Imtiaz Gul, head of Pakistan’s independent Centre for Research and Security Studies (CRSS), wrote Thursday. “From right to left, almost every Pakistani is up in arms against the mounting pressure from Washington.”


According to figures kept by the Long War Journal Web site, as of Thursday there had been 81 missile strikes launched from unmanned drones in Pakistan’s north-west since the beginning of 2010.


By comparison, 53 strikes were recorded in 2009, 35 in 2008, and only 10 in total over the four years prior to that.


One strike earlier this week has been linked to the recently uncovered plot to attack tourist targets in Europe, which prompted the U.S. government to issue a travel alert to citizens.


Foreign Ministry spokesman Basit urged the U.S. government to “revisit” the policy, describing the drone attacks as “counter-productive” and a violation of Pakistani sovereignty.


The vast majority of drone strikes this year have taken place in the tribal belt’s North Waziristan agency, a haven for terrorists belonging to al-Qaeda, other jihadist groups, and the Afghan Taliban’s notorious Haqqani faction, which is actively fighting coalition forces in Afghanistan.


The Pakistani army has long resisted U.S. urging to take its anti-militant offensive into North Waziristan, a state of affairs that was noted in the White House report to Congress.


“In this quarter’s reporting period [up to June 30], the Pakistan military continued to avoid military engagements that would put it in direct conflict with Afghan Taliban or al-Qaeda forces in North Waziristan,” it said. “This is as much a political choice as it is a reflection of an under-resourced military prioritizing its targets.”


Gul of the CRSS attributed this reluctance to concerns that complying with the U.S. would “create more enemies for Pakistan’s weak and unpopular government in the border regions.”


“Any direct escalation by Pakistan in North Waziristan would not only antagonize dozens of wily tribes in the border region but could also trigger a retaliation among Pakistan’s militant networks, who have shown a growing willingness to turn their wrath on civilians,” he said. “It is not unlikely that they will activate their cells to stage a new string of suicide attacks in major cities.”


Indeed, such attacks already are regular occurrences. A double suicide bombing at a Sufi shrine in Karachi on Thursday evening killed up to 14 people in a city where terror violence has cost more than 430 lives since the beginning of 2010.


According to data collected by the New Delhi-based South Asia Terrorism Portal, more than 1,400 civilians have been killed in terrorist violence across Pakistan this year, 216 in September alone.


Heritage Foundation scholar Lisa Curtis said this week that U.S. dependence on NATO supply routes through Pakistan “provides Islamabad leverage to resist U.S. pressure to shut down Taliban sanctuaries and to crack down more forcefully on terrorist networks, like the Haqqani network, that attack coalition forces across the border and threaten the overall mission in Afghanistan.”


But in an editorial Friday, the Lahore-based Daily Times urged the government not to overestimate its clout.


“It would be foolish to presume that we have pushed the U.S. into a corner. There are alternate routes NATO can use for its supplies if push comes to shove,” it said.


“The U.S. needs a cooperative ally, one that will work in coordination with NATO forces. It does not need an ally that provides safe havens to the very forces it is battling in Afghanistan.”


Original article is here.

Religious persecution in Pakistan: Hector Aleem

Not much to comment on except this: Please share as this must get out to as many people as possible. This is what islam does, not matter where it spreads to. Pakistan, our ally. To Whom we have dumped billions of dollars in aid into, not to mention all the military aid we have given Pakistan.

Pakistan and Legalized Religious Persecution
By Ali Sina

Imagine one evening you hear a knock on the door. When you open it, a group of armed men with police uniforms enter your house, beat you and handcuff you. Your wife and children are terrorized, but they are told to shut up or they too will be beaten.

Thoughts rush to your mind. You try to figure out what did you do to deserve this treatment. You have been an upright citizen all your life. In fact you have been a human rights activist and have received an award for your services. You have been a respected speaker. Could all this be a mistake?

You ask the officers about the charges. Their response sends chill down your spine. You are being accused of blasphemy. You are a non-Muslim living in a Muslim majority country and all it takes for you to lose your freedom, job, friends, social standing and even life is for someone to report to authorities that you have spoken opprobriously of Muhammad and hence have injured the religious sensitivity of Muslims.

This is the nightmare that minorities in Islamic countries face. The charge does not have to be true. It could be that someone owes you money and he wants to get rid of you. It could be that someone offered to buy your land, which you refused to sell at the price he was offering. Or maybe someone does not like you because you are a human rights activist fighting for the rights of the oppressed minorities.

Abuses such as this happen on daily basis in Pakistan. More than two years ago, it was the turn of Hector Aleem. Aleem was taken to custody. He was brutally beaten by the police and thrown in a prison cell.

In Pakistan, if you are accused of blasphemy you are guilty until proven otherwise. But to prove your innocence it takes years and thousands of dollars. The lawyers' fee is exorbitant, whereas the wages in Pakistan are extremely low.

Aleem's family has spent all its wealth in legal fees to prove the innocence of their father. Hector's wife earns the meager salary of a nurse. The two elder daughters work but there are five mouths to feed and the legal fee is eating up everything they earn.

More than a year ago, when the case went to the court for the first time, the prosecutor, himself a mullah, did not find enough evidence against Aleem to support his charges. However, he warned the judge that should he release Aleem, the angry mob huddled inside and outside the court may kill him and the judge also may not fare better. This is exactly what happened on July 19 of this year to two Christian brothers, who were gunned down by Muslim militants when they left the court under police custody after a trial hearing in Faisalabad city, Punjab province.

So, Aleem was sent back to jail to face more beating in the hands of his jail keepers. They even told him that they would kill him before setting him free. Aleem's family appealed the court's ruling and a second hearing was arranged. This is where we are at now. The new lawyer is confident, but of course he has to be paid first and his fees are beyond what this impoverished family can afford.

A kind man from Australia has offered to sponsor Hector Aleem and provide him with a working visa. But first Aleem must be released. More than $7000 dollars are needed just for the legal fees. This is a large sum for a nurse with four children. Mehwish, Aleem's older daughter, has set up a paypal account for those who want to help. Here is the account: http://tinyurl.com/hectoraleem. Please click on it and pay generously. This is Mehwish's email address: Mehwishaleem@gmail.com.

The blasphemy law is an affront to human rights. It is devised to legally persecute the minorities. Even if you are not guilty you'll be annihilated before you prove your innocence. The objective of the blasphemy law is to get rid of the minorities by incriminating them one by one.

Isn't it time for the governments of the free world to demand Pakistan to put an end to legalized religious persecution? Pakistan is recipient of large sums of aids from the western countries and particularly from USA. But its only contributions are to persecute the minorities and to produce terrorists.

Please contact your member of parliament, your congressman and the senators in your country and ask them to demand the release of Hector Aleem and to raise the issue of human rights abuses in Pakistan. It is time for the European Parliament, the US congress and the Parliaments in Canada and Australia to condemn the blasphemy law and demand its immediate repeal.

It is a shame that the same governments that swiftly pass laws to protect Muslims against criticism of Islam, find no courage to stand up for the human rights of minorities in Islamic countries. Aren't human rights more important than beliefs? Where is the outcry of the parliamentarians, presidents and prime ministers of the free world vis-à-vis these human rights abuses?

Please spread the world about the plight of Hector Aleem. Here is his support page on Facebook.

Also, please contact the Pakistani embassy in your country as well as the following Pakistani authorities, by phone or by email and express your concern about the dismal human rights in that country. Demand the immediate release of Hector Aleem and the repeal of the blasphemy law. God does not need humans to defend him. The blasphemy law is legalization of persecution. It has no place in any civilized society and no civilized country should tolerate it anywhere. Your government has no right to send your tax money to a pariah country like Pakistan that has a law to persecute minorities.

Below is the list of the authorities to contact.

1.ppp@comsats.net.pk

2.Supreme Court of Pakistan
Constitution Avenue, Islamabad
Telephone: 051-9220581-9220600
Fax: 051-9213452

3. secretarygeneral@president.gov.pk

4.chairman@ppp.org.pk

5. Mr. Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani
Prime minister of Pakistan
Prime Minister House, Islamabad
PAKISTAN
Fax: + 92 51 9221596
E-mail: webmaster@infopak.gov.pk

6. Federal Minister of Law
Justice and Human Rights
S Block, Pakistan Secretariat, Islamabad
PAKISTAN
Fax: +92 51 920 2628
E-mail: minister@molaw.gov.pk

7. Mr. Rehman Malik
Advisor for Ministry of Interior
Room No. 404, 4th Floor, R Block,
Pak Secretariat
Islamabad
PAKISTAN
Fax: +92 51 920 2624
Tel: +92 51 921 2026
E-mail: minister@interior.gov.pk

8. Mr. Mian Shahbaz Sharif
Chief Minister of Punjab
H-180 Model Town, Lahore
PAKISTAN
Fax: +92 42 5881383

9. Minister of Law
Government of Punjab
Punjab Secretariat
Ravi Road
Lahore
PAKISTAN
E-mail: law@punjab.gov.pk

10. Chief Secretary of Government of Punjab
Punjab Secretariat
Lahore
PAKISTAN
Fax: +92 42 7324489
E-mail: chiefsecy@punjab.gov.pk

11. Dr. Faqir Hussain
Registrar
Supreme Court of Pakistan
Constitution Avenue, Islamabad
PAKISTAN
Fax: + 92 51 9213452
E-mail: mail@supremecourt.gov.pk

12. Mr. Syed Hamid Saeed Kazmi
Minister for Religious Affairs
Islamabad
PAKISTAN
Tel: +92 51 9214856 / 9206982
Fax: +92 51 9213593
E-mail: mra.hajj@gmail.com

Ali Sina is the author of Understanding Muhammad: A Psychobiography of Allah's Prophet and the founder of Faithfreedom.org, a site created to help Muslims leave Islam.

Hat tip: Jihad Watch

More pressure in Pakistan to exploit the Hindus: Forced conversions to Islam

57 Pakistani Hindus convert to Islam 'under pressure'

Amir Mir / DNA

DNA: ISLAMABAD: Over 50 Pakistani Hindus have converted to Islam in the Sialkot district of Punjab within a week (between May 14 and May 19) under pressure from their Muslim employers in a bid to retain their jobs and survive in the Muslim-dominated society.


As many as 35 Hindus converted to Islam on May 14, another 14 on May 17 and eight on May 19, 2010.

All the 57 Hindus who have converted belong to the Pasroor town of Sialkot.

According to some Pakistani electronic media reports, Mangut Ram, a close relative of some of the new converts, who lives in Sialkot, said that these Hindus had to embrace Islam because they were under pressure from their Muslim employers.

He said four Hindu brothers along with their families lived in the village of Nikki Pindi. Mangut Ram said that Hans Raj, Kans Raj, Meena/Kartar and Sardari Lal along with his nephews and sons worked at an eatery in Karachi.

According to Mangut Ram, his co workers often used to speak against Hindus in Karachi where his family worked. “The owner of the shop where I worked said that after a few months of his employing me the sales dropped drastically because people avoided purchasing and eating edibles prepared by Hindus. Many people opposed the large presence of Hindu employees at his shop and my boss felt pressured to change the situation,” he added.

Ram said Sardari Lal and his brother Meena/Kartar had worked at the sweets shops for several years and made a decent living that allowed them to support their families.

He said other Muslims employees of the nearby shops discriminated against them and persecuted them. The shop owner was forced to think about their future at his establishment. “That was when the two brothers and their families decided to embrace Islam in order to keep their jobs and be secure,” he added.

Ram confirmed that 13 family members of Sardari Lal, 12 members of Meena/ Kartar, their nephew Kans Raj’s son Boota Ram along with three adults and several children of these families embraced Islam on May 14, 2010.

He said that Sardari Lal’s older brothers Hans Raj and Kans Raj remained Hindus. Hans Raj too has said that he might consider converting to save his job. He said that life was ‘just easier if one was Muslim’ and he wouldn’t be discriminated against.

Ram said that 14 Hindus of the Tapiala village had embraced Islam on May 17 because they were extremely poor and could not get jobs because no one would employ the large Hindu family.

He said that another relative of his, Parkash, who lived in the village of Seowal, along with his eight family members had embraced Islam in order to save their lands.

“After embracing Islam, Parkash Ram told me that Muslim neighbours had been mistreating him and had forced him to convert,” Mangut Ram said.

Link to the original article

Bombers dressed in burqas kill over 40 at at food distribution area

Think about the ROE our military is crippled by and how you would combat something like this? Dressing up in burqas and going into a area where food is being distributed is a disgusting act of cowardice. How many women and children were killed by this and similar acts? This is the Islam that Obama has reached out to, groveled and fallen on his knees to before the pig king of Saudia Arabia. Islam is Islam and Jihad is Jihad.

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Burqa clad bombers kill over 40 in Pakistan

PESHAWAR, Pakistan - Two suicide bombers dressed in burqas blew themselves up Saturday in a camp for refugees fleeing military offensives in northwestern Pakistan, killing 41 people and wounding 62, officials said.

The blasts occurred at a food distribution point, but there were conflicting reports whether the victims were lining up for food or being registered. The camp is sometimes used by foreign humanitarian groups, including the World Food Program, to deliver aid.

Meanwhile, the Pakistani army admitted that civilians were killed in an airstrike last Saturday in the northwest that supposedly targeted militants. It did not say how many had died, but apologized in a rare acknowledgment of an error that could help reduce anger among local tribes, whose support it needs to defeat the Taliban and al-Qaida.

The two suicide bombers struck six minutes apart at a camp in the Kacha Pukka area of Kohat, a tribally administered region close to the Afghan border. They were dressed in burqas, the all-encompassing veil worn by conservative Muslim women in parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan, local police official Abdullah Khan said.

Government official Dilawar Khan Bangash said 41 people were killed and 62 were wounded in the attack.

Pakistan has been hit by near-daily explosions over the last 18 months blamed on al-Qaida and Taliban militants. Most have been directed at security or government installations, but civilians have also been targeted, sometimes to punish those seen as cooperating with the government.

The camp was for people who fled from the Orakzai district, where the army has been fighting militants since the end of last year. The tempo of the operations has picked since March, with frequent aerial bombardment. The camp housed between 1,000 and 2,000 people.

There was no claim of responsibility, but that is not unusual when bomb attacks kill ordinary Pakistani citizens.

210,000 flee
About 210,000 civilians have fled from Orakzai since the end of last year, including nearly 50,000 people who have left in the last month when ground forces moved into the area to flush out insurgents.

There have been fewer bombings in major cities outside of the northwest during the first three months of this year compared to late last year. The slowdown follows a major offensive in the South Waziristan tribal region, where many militants had been based.

The army's apology was for airstrikes in the Khyber region last Saturday that villagers said killed about 70 people.

The army spokesman had insisted the dead were militants, even when members of the local administration said they were compensating the families of dead civilians.

In a brief statement Saturday, army chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani said he had ordered measures be taken to avoid such "unfortunate incidents" in the future. It mentioned the name of the tribe which lost members in the air strike.

The Pakistan army relies on the support — or at least the neutrality of — of tribes in the northwest to carry out its operations there.

Khanan Gul Khan, who lost four relatives in the attack, said he accepted the apology.

"The dead cannot come back, but we are happy that it has been acknowledged on the highest level that we are not terrorists," he said.

The Pakistani military regularly claims to have killed many militants in airstrikes, shellings and ground operations in the northwest, but rarely mentions civilian deaths. It is unclear whether few such deaths occur, or if the army simply does not report them.

Independent accounts of army operations in the tribal regions are extremely rare. Much of the area is still controlled by militants and is out of bounds for reporters.

The Pakistan army relies on the support — or at least the neutrality of — of tribes in the northwest to carry out its operations there.

Khanan Gul Khan, who lost four relatives in the attack, said he accepted the apology.

"The dead cannot come back, but we are happy that it has been acknowledged on the highest level that we are not terrorists," he said.

The Pakistani military regularly claims to have killed many militants in airstrikes, shellings and ground operations in the northwest, but rarely mentions civilian deaths. It is unclear whether few such deaths occur, or if the army simply does not report them.

Independent accounts of army operations in the tribal regions are extremely rare. Much of the area is still controlled by militants and is out of bounds for reporters.

India-Israel relations growing closer as Obama gives Israel the cold shoulder

India and Israel have had a good relationship over the years. This relationship is now growing and becoming one that both countries will benefit immensely from. Over the years India has had more than its share of Islamic terrorist attacks and the Mumbai attacks brought both countries much closer. India has been a second home for many Jews and both countries have waged a war against Islamic terrorism. The Hindus, Buddhists and Sikhs have all suffered from the onslaught of Islam. The war between the Jews and Islam really needs no details highlighted here. The Indian armed forces will get some of the best drones available and Israel will benefit from a very large order at a time when global military purchases from Israel may have taken a hit from the U.S-Israel rift, thank to Obama and his administration.

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India orders Israeli armed UAVs

Debkafile, Sources close to the Indian defense ministry in New Delhi disclosed Wednesday, March 31, that a military purchasing mission was in Israel recently to expedite the purchase of a large number of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs or drones) armed with missiles, for deployment on its front lines against Pakistan.
Indian sources did not disclose the size of the order placed with Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) - running to hundreds of millions of dollars - but they made no secret of their intention to build up their fleet of reconnaissance and killer drones for a possible duel against US-armed Predators in the hands of Pakistani forces.
Islamabad is pushing Washington hard for strategic Predator drones, like those the US employs against al Qaeda and Taliban strongholds in Pakistan's tribal districts on the Afghan border.
From Israel, New Delhi has commissioned a few more drones of the Heron MALE (medium-altitude, long-endurance) type, as well as Searcher-II and Harpy `killer' drones designed to detect and destroy enemy radars by functioning like cruise missiles.

Our military sources report that their reconnaissance and targeting features are sought by India for its response should the Americans decide to let Pakistan have drones capable of firing AGM-114 Hellfire missiles. New Delhi made its order urgent after learning that Washington may deliver drones to Islamabad much sooner than Indian intelligence had foreseen.

Together with the drones, India also ordered from Israel advanced ground control systems and data terminals for their operation.

The visiting Indian delegation also discussed the possible introduction of Israeli Harop `killer' UAVs to the Indian Air Force from 2011. These drones can loiter six hours over targets on ground, sea or dense urban areas and strike them from different angles. The visitors checked on the progress of the DRDO unmanned gunship helicopter, a joint Indian-Israeli project on commission for both their air forces, which is under construction at an Israeli aerospace industry plant. India is going half-and-half with Israel in the costs of developing and production of the innovative helicopter.

Pakistan Air Force Bombs a Mosque, a Madrassa and a Seminary in Orakzai Agency - Kill 60+ Taliban

Cross posted from Holger Awakens

Whoa! When the Pakistanis decide to hit Orakzai agency in NW Pakistan, they mean it! Today, Pakistani air strikes hit a mosque, a madrassa and a seminary among other targets and totalled up over 60 dead Taliban in the process. This is stellar, man, stellar.

From the article at The Long War Journal (Bill Roggio is identifying it as Arakzai agency, I use Orakzai, same thing...just preference):

More than 60 Taliban fighters have been killed during a series of airstrikes targeting the Taliban in the lawless tribal agency of Arakzai.
Pakistani fighter-bombers struck a series of targets in the Mamuzai region in Arakzai today. Sixty-one Taliban fighters were killed, Pakistani intelligence officials told The Associated Press. The military claimed that no civilians were killed in the attacks.
The targets included a madrassa, a mosque, and a seminary run by the Tablighi Jamaat. Pakistani officials said that Taliban leaders were meeting at the Tablighi seminary.
Tablighi Jamaat is "a socially conservative grassroots religious movement," said Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, the director of the Center for Terrorism Research and a contributor to The Long War Journal.
"Tablighi Jamaat's name has emerged in connection with several terrorist plots in the West, and a number of Tablighi recruits have gone on to participate in jihadi activity," Gartenstein-Ross noted. "Thus, there is a debate among security professionals about the organization: whether it should be regarded as extremist in nature, or if these correlations are more innocuous."
Leaders of the Tablighi Jamaat have maintained that the group only assists charitable efforts, but counterterrorism officials in the US and elsewhere have found that the group is used as a cover for al Qaeda members traveling around the world. The unclassified Guantánamo files produced by the Department of Defense include dozens of references to the Tablighi, which secures paperwork for fugitive terrorists and new recruits traveling to South Asia to train and fight.

Okay, two things about this operation. First, this is exactly the kind of aggression that we have been waiting for the Pakistani government to unleash on the Taliban so it is very welcome news, indeed. At the same time, this is going to further disperse the Taliban throughout all areas and what we have set up here is truly a nightmare for the Taliban - if they gather for meetings or trainings, they are potential targets for the Pakistan fighter/bombers. If they disperse and try to meet in small groups, they are the target of U.S. predator drones. Sounds like a "lose-lose" to me....hahahaha.

Secondly, this is the kind of bombardment we need in Afghanistan. I cannot imagine how many targets there are in Afghanistan now where upwards of 25, 50 ...perhaps 100 or more Taliban are gathered and U.S. and NATO fixed wing aircraft cannot go after them due to the pansy-ass ROE in place in the War in Afghanistan.

It has literally been over a year and a half since we have seen what used to be weekly Taliban casualties in Afghanistan that average at least 150 dead.

One can only hope that the Pakistanis treat today's strikes as the tee off to this becoming a daily routine.

(file photo above)

Pakistan strikes Taliban camps in Arakzai


More than 60 Taliban fighters have been killed during a series of airstrikes targeting the Taliban in the lawless tribal agency of Arakzai.

Pakistani fighter-bombers struck a series of targets in the Mamuzai region in Arakzai today. Sixty-one Taliban fighters were killed, Pakistani intelligence officials told The Associated Press. The military claimed that no civilians were killed in the attacks.

The targets included a madrassa, a mosque, and a seminary run by the Tablighi Jamaat. Pakistani officials said that Taliban leaders were meeting at the Tablighi seminary.

Tablighi Jamaat is "a socially conservative grassroots religious movement," said Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, the director of the Center for Terrorism Research and a contributor to The Long War Journal.

"Tablighi Jamaat's name has emerged in connection with several terrorist plots in the West, and a number of Tablighi recruits have gone on to participate in jihadi activity," Gartenstein-Ross noted. "Thus, there is a debate among security professionals about the organization: whether it should be regarded as extremist in nature, or if these correlations are more innocuous."

Leaders of the Tablighi Jamaat have maintained that the group only assists charitable efforts, but counterterrorism officials in the US and elsewhere have found that the group is used as a cover for al Qaeda members traveling around the world. The unclassified Guantánamo files produced by the Department of Defense include dozens of references to the Tablighi, which secures paperwork for fugitive terrorists and new recruits traveling to South Asia to train and fight.

Since March 21, more than 87 Taliban fighters have been reported killed in Pakistani air and artillery attacks. Five Taliban fighters were reported killed in artillery strikes in Ajini on March 21. And yesterday, the military claimed that 21 more "terrorists" were killed in fighting in the Ajini region.

Arakzai has become an important base for the Taliban over the past year. Large elements of the Taliban in the Mehsud regions of South Waziristan have relocated to the tribal agencies of Arakzai, Kurram, Khyber, and North Waziristan, after the Pakistani Army launched an operation in October 2009 [see LWJ report, "Pakistani military hits Taliban in Arakzai"].

The Pakistani military has claimed to have restored order in regions in Arakzai, but the Taliban have retaken control after security forces have withdrawn.


Major Taliban groups based in Arakzai:

The Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan: Akhunzada Aslam Farooqui is the new leader of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan in the Arakzai tribal agency as well as in neighboring Kurram. He took control of the Taliban after Hakeemullah Mehsud was promoted to lead the entire Taliban movement in Pakistan’s tribal areas and in the northwest. He is a close friend of Mullah Omar and has claimed in the past to lead more than 7,000 Taliban fighters.

Fedayeen-e-Islam: Led by Hakeemullah Mehsud, the Fedayeen-e-Islam has taken credit for multiple terror assaults and suicide attacks throughout Pakistan. The group is made up of members of the Pakistani Taliban, the Lashkar-i-Jhangvi, Jaish-e-Mohammed, and other Islamist terrorists from Pakistan. It is based in Arakzai and South Waziristan. Senior leaders of the Fedayeen-e-Islam include Qari Hussain Mehsud, a former senior deputy to Baitullah who trains child suicide bombers; Qari Mohammed Zafar, the operational commander of the September 2008 attack on the Islamabad Marriott; Asmatullah Moaviya, another senior aide to Baitullah who was reportedly arrested in Mianwali in Punjab province; and Rana Afzal.

Lashkar-i-Jhangvi: An anti-Shia terror group that has integrated with al Qaeda and the Taliban in Pakistan's tribal areas. The Lashkar-i-Jhangvi has an extensive network in Pakistan and serves as the muscle for terror attacks.

Commander Tariq Group: This group is considered the most powerful outfit in Arakzai. Led by Commander Tariq Afridi and based in Darra Adam Khel, the group conducts attacks on Pakistani security forces in Arakzai, Kohat, Peshawar, and Hangu. The Commander Tariq Group took credit for murdering Polish geologist Piotr Stanczak earlier this year.

Omar Group: Another major Taliban group based in Darra Adam Khel. It has conducted attacks in the regions around Peshawar.

Ghazi Force: This group is named after Ghazi Abdul Rasheed, the brother of former Red Mosque leader Maulana Abdullah Aziz. Ghazi was killed when Pakistani troops assaulted the Red Mosque in July 2007. The Ghazi force runs a terror training camp in Guljo in Hangu and has conducted suicide attacks in Islamabad. The group is led by Maulana Niaz Raheem, a former student of the Red Mosque.

Abdullah Azzam Brigade: This shadowy group appears to be made up of Taliban members from the Commander Tariq Group who merged with some Arakzai-based elements of Ayman al Zawahiri's Egyptian Islamic Jihad. A spokesman named Amir Muawiya, who is also a leader in the Commander Tariq Group, said the Abdullah Azzam Brigade was behind a terror assault in Peshawar.

Taliban's number two goon is nailed in Pakistan. Any guesses how?

This story has been plastered all over the MSM, blogosphere, you name it. Great snag too, do not get me wrong or take this the wrong way. The main reason I did not post any news on this capture was as stated above plus I like to wait a bit to see what information starts filtering down. Gateway Pundit has some good questions and possible answers on how this was pulled off. I think the mullah in the White House was forced to put the squeeze on Pakistan as they had not caught anyone worthwhile in a couple of years. The India angle is one that I had thought about. Plus India and Israel are getting pretty close as allies especially since Obama and his pals slammed the door on any major military aid to Israel over a year ago. That has not stopped Obama from arming up his so called Mulsim friends. That is another story but imagine if India suddenly got a big boost in aid being closely aligned with Israel, and India was 'given' the go ahead to operate more freely in the troubled regions that India and Pakistan have gone to war over. One more before closing my say; is this a move that will show Pakistan actually doing more or was this a one time shot? Stay tuned.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Abdul Ghani Baradar

How could Pakistani intel be pressured into rolling over on a guy this big? What could we have offered them — or threatened them with? One possibility is that we followed the Hitchens plan and threatened to bring Pakistan’s archenemy, India, into Afghanistan if they didn’t start playing ball. Another possibility, per CBS, is that we promised draconian cuts in military aid if they didn’t at least help us catch a few big fish.
Any other possibilities? A clue , maybe, from Time:

The commander’s arrest would mark a significant departure from Pakistan’s policy toward the Taliban. Usually, Islamabad officials deny to the Americans that they know where the top commanders are hiding while letting them move freely among the Pakistani cities of Quetta, Peshawar and Karachi as well as the country’s tribal areas, where the jihadi fighters launch their attacks and suicide bombings against U.S.-led forces inside neighboring Afghanistan. Pakistani officials privately say they regard the Taliban in Afghanistan as a strategic asset in their regional rivalry with India, which supports President Hamid Karzai in Kabul…
Some Taliban contacts suggest that Pakistan may have had no option but to cooperate this time, since the CIA may have tracked down Baradar in Karachi on its own and pressured Pakistani spy agency the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to help pick him up. A senior Pakistani official told TIME that the CIA “pinpointed the general area” and that Pakistani intelligence on the ground made the arrest in the night between Feb. 10 and 11. Baradar was arrested in the slum town of Baldia, just outside Karachi, which is teeming with migrant Afghans and Pashtuns. The Pakistani official insisted that “this shows that Washington and Islamabad’s priorities are starting to match up.” U.S. officials have complained that past efforts to tip off the ISI to the locations of Taliban commanders yielded no action. Until Baradar was seized, no significant Taliban fighter had been arrested in two years in Pakistan. “All of the major Taliban commanders are in Pakistan,” a source close to the Taliban told TIME – an allegation that Islamabad loudly and persistently denies. Continue reading


Gateway Pundit

http://hotair.com/archives/2010/02/16/how-exactly-did-the-u-s-catch-the-talibans-number-two/

Defense Secretary Gates raked over the coals in recent visit to Pakistan

$3 billion dollars in military aid in the last year, plus all the other aid
we have given Ragastan,  Pakistsan one would think they would be
a a bit more hospitable to Defense Secretary Gates. This was certainly
not the case on his most recent trip to our ally(?) who shares a nasty,
unruled border with Afghanistan. Pakistan consistently denies the
presence or links to Al-Qaeda with Muslim Islamic terrorist groups.
This is an outright lie. No other words for it, or at least ones that I can
write here as not to offend anyone. With all the aid we have given
'this ally' of ours, the treatment and comments made to Gates, maybe
it is time to see how they do without so much aid from us. India would
most likley find that an appealing turnabout for the region. We should
have secured Ragistan's, Pakistan's nuclear weapons long ago. The
government is so unstable and there have already been too many
close calls. The struggle between India and Ragistan Pakistan for
control of the region will continue to be a major distraction, allow
Muslim Islamic terrorist groups to rain havoc and death upon both
countries. When you get right down to it we have no trustworthy
allies in any Islamic country. I would hesitate to call any Islamic
country our ally, period. We should tell them all to go to Hell.


New York Times
Elisabeth Bumiller


As the No. 2 official at the C.I.A. in the 1980s, Mr. Gates helped channel Reagan-era covert aid and weapons through Pakistan’s spy agency to the American allies at the time: Islamic fundamentalists fighting the Russians in Afghanistan. Many of those fundamentalists regrouped as the Taliban, who gave sanctuary to Al Qaeda before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and now threaten Pakistan.


In meetings on Thursday, Pakistani leaders repeatedly asked Mr. Gates to give them their own armed drones to go after the militants, not just a dozen smaller, unarmed ones that Mr. Gates announced as gifts meant to placate Pakistan and induce its cooperation.

Pakistani journalists asked Mr. Gates if the United States had plans to take over Pakistan’s nuclear weapons (Mr. Gates said no) and whether the United States would expand the drone strikes farther south into Baluchistan, as is under discussion. Mr. Gates did not answer.

At the same time, the Pakistani Army’s chief spokesman told American reporters at the army headquarters in Rawalpindi on Thursday that the military had no immediate plans to launch an offensive against extremists in the tribal region of North Waziristan, as American officials have repeatedly urged.

And the spokesman, Maj. Gen Athar Abbas, rejected Mr. Gates’s assertion that Al Qaeda had links to militant groups on Pakistan’s border. Asked why the United States would have such a view, the spokesman, General Abbas, curtly replied, “Ask the United States.”

General Abbas’s comments, made only hours after Mr. Gates arrived in Islamabad, were an affront to an American ally that gave Pakistan $3 billion in military aid last year. But American officials, trying to put a positive face on the general’s remarks and laying out what they described as military reality, said that the Pakistani Army was stretched thin from offensives against militants in the Swat Valley and South Waziristan and probably did not have the troops.

Continue reading

Gentle Taliban tactics spread Islamic love from the "religion of peace."

What better way is there to spread the
love of Islam than beheading your
enemies and dumping the body by the
roadside? Blowing up airplanes?
Strapping bombs to your body and walking
into an Israeli cafe or pizza parlor?

AFP: Anti-Taliban Pakistan leader beheaded: officials

KHAR, Pakistan — Militants assassinated an anti-Taliban tribal elder and dumped his beheaded body by the roadside in Pakistan's northwest tribal belt, officials said Saturday.


Gul Mohammad, 42, an elder of the Salarzai tribe, had been active in raising a village militia to battle Taliban militants in the Bajaur tribal district bordering Afghanistan, an official said.

"The body of Gul Mohammad was found this morning in Mamund village," Faramosh Khan, a local administration official in Khar, the main town in Bajaur, told AFP.

"A note found on the beheaded body said that anyone joining the militia against the Taliban would be killed in the same manner," Khan said.

A local security official confirmed the incident, saying Taliban militants want to scare the local population away from supporting army operations.

Pakistani security forces launched a huge operation against Islamist militants in Bajaur in August. In February, they claimed the area had been cleared but unrest has rumbled on.

Hundreds of extremists are believed to have fled Afghanistan into Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal areas to carve out safe havens after the US-led invasion toppled the hardline Taliban regime in Kabul in late 2001.

 
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5j9UZtLdT_6GpmdRCK7sEtDR2pBww

Pakistan: Taliban expand terror campaign in Punjab - Adnkronos Politics

Pakistan: Taliban expand terror campaign in Punjab - Adnkronos Politics


Pakistan is under relentless attack.
What else can be said. This is just
a snapshot of what is to come, not
only here but in many places where
attacks have not been felt before.


Pakistan: Taliban expand terror campaign in Punjab

Islamabad, 8 Dec. (AKI) - By Syed Saleem Shahzad - Taliban militants have used a ceasefire agreement between the Pakistani security forces and North Waziristan Taliban leader Hafiz Gul Bahadur to remobilise and expand their operations. As the military began its offensive against militants in South Waziristan in mid-October, those aligned with Pakistan's Tehrik-e-Taliban began launching terror attacks in Peshawar, capital of North West Frontier Province.

But this week's suicide attacks in the heart of eastern Punjab province are the latest wave in a daring campaign driven by Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud to destabilise the government and outmanoeuver the military.

Working with the Islamist militant group Laskhar-i-Jhangvi, the Taliban has launched several recent attacks.

On Tuesday militants targeted Pakistan's ISI military intelligence services in a car bomb attack in Multan area that killed 12 people, including security personnel. Several houses collapsed because of the high intensity of the blast.

Late on Monday militants targeted a busy market in Lahore, the Moon Market, and at least 49 civilians were killed, while last Friday, armed militants bombed a high profile target, a military mosque situated in the garrison town of Rawalpindi where top military officials gathered for Friday prayers.

A major general, brigadier and many other officers, as well as their family members including 17 children died.

The Taliban was quick to accept responsibility for the Rawalpindi massacre.

Mufti Waliur Rahman Mehsud, chief of the Taliban in South Waziristan, told the media that military officers in the mosque were the “primary targets” of the bombing.

Waliur Rahman warned that the Taliban would continue to target the army and his grim prediction has been realised in the past 24 hours.

According to militant sources, they claimed to have outmaneuvered the armed forces when they struck the peace deal with two Taliban groups including commander Gul Bahadur and commander Mullah Nazir from the Shakai region of South Waziristan.

Before he was killed in a drone attack in August , Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud had urged Gul Bahadur to retain the long running agreement with the military as he believed it would help militants escape through the region in the case of a military operation.

Baitullah Mehsud was killed but his strategy worked when the Pakistan army came with full force to destroy the sanctuaries of the Taliban.

Most of the militants had already left the area and settled in North Waziristan.

From there they regrouped and made their base in the Orakzai tribal region from where they carried out attacks in Peshawar.

Once they had consolidated their positions around Peshawar, the TTP gave the green light to its Punjab cells who carried out the attacks in Rawalpindi, Lahore and now in Multan.

The Taliban's increasingly violent strategy has been executed as president Asif Zardari is facing fresh scrutiny over the amnesty granted to him by former president Pervez Musharraf in relation to alleged corruption and embezzlement.

In such a turbulent period the amnesty, known as the National Reconciliation Ordinance, could jeopardise the rule of Zardari's Pakistan Peoples Party and the coalition government.

Frequent high profile attacks by the militants have placed Pakistan in a quagmire without any sign of a solution.

adnkronos
http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Politics/?id=3.0.4083348333

Muslims killing each other. What else is new? Mosque bombing in Pakistan.

FT.com / Asia-Pacific / Pakistan - Pakistan militants attack Rawalpindi mosque

I heard on NPR that of the dead, 16
were children. Muslim on Muslim
violence. They cannot even get along
with each other, let alone the rest of
the world.



Pakistan militants attack Rawalpindi mosque


By Farhan Bokhari in Islamabad



Published: December 4 2009 11:22
Last updated: December 4 2009 17:45

Suspected pro-Taliban militants launched an armed attack and a suicide bombing on a mosque in Rawalpindi on Friday, killing at least 39 people and wounding more than 80 others.

The attack began just after Friday prayers, targeting a mosque frequented by military officials in the Qasim market district.

At least six dead in Damascus bus blast - Dec-03.Gilani says Bin Laden not in Pakistan - Dec-03.Suicide bomber claims 19 lives - Dec-03..Rawalpindi is Pakistan’s main garrison town and the mosque is located about 10 minutes’ drive from the Pakistan army’s general headquarters.

Officials said a lone suicide bomber had detonated a blast in the mosque and minutes later as many as five militants, who were apparently present in the compound of the mosque, began firing indiscriminately.



The attack has revived concerns over the safety of army personnel who are waging a campaign against Taliban militants in the south Waziristan region near the Afghan border. Officials said at least one army major general and a brigadier were among those killed. A former vice chief of the army, Mohammad Yusuf, was among those injured.



“This is a security lapse and it shows that there was a gap somewhere which allowed these people to go through” said Mehmood Shah, a former army commander, in comments on a Pakistani TV channel.



In October, pro-Taliban militants launched a daring attack on the army’s GHQ and took as many as 42 military personnel hostage. That episode ended after two days when army commandos stormed the building where the hostages were being held. At least 23 people were killed in that attack, including 14 military personnel and nine pro-Taliban militants.



Intelligence officials said the latest attack once again underlined the difficulty of securing congested urban areas in a country where the militants are largely from the local population.



“You can put together as many layers of security as you want. But you will always face the difficult choice of creating a fool-proof cordon, especially in exceptionally busy urban areas” said an intelligence source. “Do we delay or stop people from going for their Friday prayers?”.



In recent months, senior intelligence officials have claimed that for each successful attack, there have been at least nine others that have failed because of timely intelligence warnings.



“The problem is that such attacks will keep on coming for some time to come. What is important is that they must be stopped or else the militants will just feel they are winning,” said one western defence official.




http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/3f3ec962-e0c7-11de-9f58-00144feab49a.html
Financial Times

Suicide bomber kills four in Peshawar; 16 militants killed - dnaindia.com

Suicide bomber kills four in Peshawar; 16 militants killed - dnaindia.com

The wave of homicide bombings continues
unabatted in Pakistan.


Islamabad/ Peshawar: Violence continued to grip Pakistan's lawless northwest as heavy clashes between Taliban fighters and Army took a toll of 16 militants, as a suicide bomber blew up his explosive laden truck at a police station in Peshawar killing another four people.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Carrying out the seventh suicide attack in ten days, a militant bomber targeted a police station at Badabher on the outskirts of Peshawar in the restive NWFP just after dawn killing four persons and wounding 31 others, police said.

Hospital sources said two women, nine children and two paramilitary personnel were among the injured which took the toll of those killed in the provincial capital to 302 civilians and security personnel in the last 30 days.

Stepping up their hunt for Taliban and foreign militants, intelligence agencies claimed to have nabbed a top Tehrik-i-Taliban militant from the Punjab province and also seized a explosive laden truck on its way to Peshawar from Lahore, media reports said.

Pakistani troops killed four militants in fresh clashes in the northwestern Swat valley even as they consolidated their positions around key Taliban strongholds in South Waziristan tribal region, the military said. Twelve militants were killed in the valley located 160 km from Islamabad over the past two days.

A top foreign Taliban leader was captured from a city in Punjab was while he was preparing to carry out terror attacks in the province. The arrested Taliban leader, identified only by his initials "NAZ", was nabbed after being tailed byintelligence agencies for a week.

Even as these reports commented that the Pakistani forces in their almost six-month long military campaign had failed to nab any top ranking Taliban or al-Qaeda commander.

Security forces killed four militants during a gun battle that erupted while they were conducting a search operation near Gulibagh, a former militant stronghold.

Four suspects were captured during search operations at two other areas in Swat. The city has witnessed an upsurge in clashes between soldiers and militants after a relative lull during the past few weeks.

A leader of the Awami National Party and his bodyguard were shot dead by unidentified gunmen in northwest Pakistan today, police said.

In South Waziristan, troops strengthened their positions in areas around the former Taliban strongholds of Sararogha, Kaniguram and Makeen.

Soldiers occupied important heights around Sararogha and sanitised several villages. Militants targeted troops with rockets and small arms at two places near Kaniguram.

The soldiers "effectively responded" to the attack, said a statement issued by the military. There were no reports of casualties. Security forces cleared a vital road near Ladha, a former Taliban stronghold, and found and destroyed amilitant training centre, a hideout and a tunnel in areas around Kaniguram.

Troops also conducted search operations and occupied strategic heights near Makeen. The Pakistani military says over 545 militants and more than 60 soldiers have died so far in fighting in South Waziristan though these figures cannot be independently verified as reporters have no access to the conflict zone.

The army has mobilised over 30,000 troops for Operation Rah-e-Nijat (Path to Salvation), which was launched nearly a month ago to flush out an estimated 10,000 Taliban and foreign fighters from South Waziristan.




http://www.dnaindia.com/world/report_four-killed-31-injured-in-peshawar-suicide-bombing_1312228

Christian in Pakistan saves Muslim students. He is 'rewarded' by being dumped in grave filled with trash and garbage.

Hat Tip: Weasel Zippers.

One would believe that the
Muslims would have been grateful
towards this Christian man who saved
alot of Muslim students. He gave his
own life and what does he get? His
body is dumped into a filthy grave.
No remorse, sorrow or realization
that this Christian did as Jesus asks us
to. Sacrifice ourselves to highest order
from LOVE for our fellow man.This is
what Jesus would have done. I cannot
recall any reports of Muslims or Islamists
sacrificing themselves to save any Jews,
Christians, Buddhists or Hindus? That is
Islam's way. This vidoe shows the
stark difference between People of the
book; Christians and Jews and Muslims
The concept of love and sacrifice. It does
not exist within Islam except to kill us
infidels, as instructed in the Koran.
Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is well
aware of what this brave man did. He is
home with the Lord, not rotting in some
Islamic hell called 'paradise."





http://www.weaselzippers.net/blog/2009/11/pakistani-christan-man-sacrifices-his-life-to-stop-suicide-bomber-from-attacking-muslim-students-rew.html

Did not take long for Israel to be blamed, did it?

'Israel behind Iran attack' - Israel News, Ynetnews

As many of us thought and predicted, Israel has been
blamed for the terrorist attack inside Iran. The U.S.,
along with England, Pakistan and now Israel were
responsible for the attacks. Iranian response: it will
happen. Just a matter of when and by WHOM?