War in North-West Pakistan

Pakistani Taliban Spokesman Claims Swat Valley Leader is Alive, Unharmed
By VOA News
23 July 2009


A spokesman for the Taliban in Pakistan says the group's Swat Valley leader, Maulana Fazlullah, is alive and denies reports that he was wounded.

Earlier this month, the Pakistani military said Fazlullah was wounded during an air strike in the northwest.

Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan told news agencies Thursday that Fazlullah is alive and unharmed. He also said all of the Taliban leadership in Swat is well but in hiding.

Fazlullah is blamed for suicide bombings and attacks against government and civilian targets. His followers have fought for nearly two years to establish strict Islamic law (Sharia) in Swat Valley.

Pakistan has offered a reward of $600,000 for information leading to his capture.

Pakistani officials say more than 350,000 of the nearly two million people displaced by the military operation in the northwest have returned home.

Pakistan's government started returning displaced people early last week after saying it had cleared parts of the northwest of Taliban militants.

Authorities said they suspended return efforts for a day Thursday to give workers a break.

Many of those displaced are living in host communities in makeshift or crowded conditions, while others are in congested camps. U.N. agencies say they are focusing on minimizing the effects of flooding and the spread of disease in these areas during the country's monsoon (rainy) season.

Pakistani armed forces launched what has become a three-month-long offensive after militants violated a peace deal to impose strict Islamic law in parts of Malakand district, including Swat Valley.

The army also is pounding militant targets in South Waziristan ahead of a campaign to hunt down Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud.


Some information for this report was provided by AFP and AP.


http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/library/news/pakistan/2009/pakistan-090723-voa01.htm

Thing is the problem with Pakistan. They have no journalistic freedom to really report what is going on in the war. It is just what the military tells them. The one thing I have learned watching this conflict is that the Taliban reports are most likely the correct ones, although sometimes exaggerated.

22 Killed in Raid on Taliban Bases, Says Pakistan
By VOA News
13 August 2009


Pakistani officials say military strikes on Taliban bases in northwest tribal areas Thursday killed at least 22 insurgents.

Military helicopter gunships attacked the Taliban hide-outs in the Kurram and Orakzai tribal regions, near the border with Afghanistan.

Authorities say the bases were run by Taliban commander Hakimullah Mehsud, who they see as a potential successor to Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud.

Pakistani and U.S. officials say they are almost certain Baitullah Mehsud was killed in a suspected U.S. missile strike in the South Waziristan tribal region on August 5. But, Taliban commanders insist he is alive.

In other violence, Pakistani officials say suspected militants killed three prominent anti-Taliban tribal leaders in separate attacks.

In one incident, a suicide bomber on a motorcycle killed pro-government tribal chief Malik Khadeen Thursday in South Waziristan. Three other people were killed, including one of Khadeen's relatives.

Authorities also found the bodies of two pro-government militia leaders abducted by militants in the Bajaur tribal area.

Also Thursday, fighting continued between insurgents loyal to Baitullah Mehsud and followers of pro-government tribal leader Turkistani Bitani. The clashes took place between South Waziristan and the neighboring district of Tank.

Pakistani troops also detained 14 suspected militants Thursday in the North West Frontier Province's Swat region.



Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/library/news/pakistan/2009/pakistan-090813-voa01.htm

Pakistan Says it Arrested Taliban Spokesman


By Ayaz Gul
Islamabad
11 September 2009


Pakistani military says it has arrested the spokesman for the Taliban in the restive Swat valley along with four other wanted "terrorists." This is the first major arrest in the region since the government ordered a military offensive to regain control of the northwestern valley and eliminate militants there.

Pakistani authorities say security forces detained Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan and four other key militant commanders in what they are describing "a successful" military raid just outside the main town of Mingora in the Swat Valley.

A notorious commander Mehmood Khan is among those the military has arrested. An official military statement says that the militants are being interrogated and troops are conducting raids on the information obtained from them.

The security operations, says the spokesman, are making "remarkable successes". He refused to give further details about the detainees saying it may undermine the anti-insurgency offensive in Swat.

Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik told reporters that militants have no option but surrender because the government is determined to "either kill them or arrest them." He reiterated that Pakistan does not plan to hold peace talks with Taliban militants.

"I repeat no negotiations with the terrorists. We are not going to spare anybody who challenges the writ of the government," he said.

The arrests in Swat are the latest blow for the Taliban insurgents in Pakistan whose chief commander Baitullah Mehsud was killed in a suspected U.S missile attack on his hide out in the South Waziristan region near the Afghan border.

Pakistan launched a major offensive in and around Swat in late April to check the Taliban advances in the northwestern mountainous valley, once a popular tourist resort. The offensive came after the United States and other western allies criticized the Pakistani military for failing to rein in the extremists.

The military says the anti-insurgency operation in the area has so far killed nearly 2,000 Taliban militants and left more than 300 soldiers dead. Pakistani soldiers have cleared much of the Swat valley and surrounding areas but they say there are still pockets of resistance.

However, despite their successes, the Pakistani security forces had failed to kill or capture top Taliban leaders in the region until the announcement of spokesman Muslim Khan's arrest along with four other commanders on Friday. The top leader of the militants in Swat, Maulana Fazlullah, is still at large.

Washington has praised the anti-insurgency operation in Swat and has given significant financial assistance to help Pakistan repatriate hundreds of thousands of families the offensive had displaced. Most of the internal refugees have now returned to their homes with foreign-funded assistance.


http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/library/news/pakistan/2009/pakistan-090911-voa02.htm

Pakistan Kills 22 Militants in Khyber Region

By VOA News
12 September 2009


A paramilitary group in Pakistan's Khyber region says Pakistani forces have killed 22 insurgents near the Afghan border.

The Frontier Corps, a paramilitary force, also said Saturday that helicopters destroyed three militant hideouts.

The attacks came a day after Pakistan's military arrested the chief Taliban spokesman, Muslim Khan, in the Swat Valley along with four other Taliban leaders. The army says the five militants were taken into custody during a security operation near Mingora, the main town in the Swat Valley.

The detentions are the first major arrests since the government launched a military offensive in April to regain control of the region.

An official military statement said the militants were being questioned and troops were conducting raids based on information obtained from the men.

The arrests are a blow to Taliban insurgents in Pakistan.

Last month, chief commander Baitullah Mehsud was killed in a suspected U.S. missile attack on his hideout near the Afghan border.


Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/library/news/pakistan/2009/pakistan-090912-voa01.htm

Key Taliban Commander Arrested in Swat Valley

By VOA News
16 September 2009

Pakistani military authorities say they have arrested a key Taliban commander who is accused of slaughtering military personnel.

Security forces said Wednesday they captured Taliban commander Sher Mohammad Qasab in the Swat Valley.

Qasab is known for his brutality among locals in the valley.

A military spokesman said Qasab was wounded and three of his sons died during an exchange of fire before his arrest.

Pakistani forces have arrested key Taliban commanders recently in the valley, including Muslim Khan, the central spokesman for the militants.

Authorities say the arrests have weakened the Taliban and are helping security forces conduct successful raids against other militants in the area.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/library/news/pakistan/2009/pakistan-090916-voa01.htm

Pakistan Continues Waziristan Offensive, Closes Schools
RIA Novosti

By VOA News
21 October 2009

Pakistani helicopter gunships attacked Taliban strongholds near the Afghan border Wednesday on the fifth day of an offensive in the tribal region of South Waziristan.

Officials say troops are facing fierce resistance as they fight to gain control of Kotkai, the hometown of the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, Hakimullah Mehsud.

Pakistan's army says about 115 militants and 16 soldiers have been killed since the offensive began

There is no independent confirmation of the tolls, as the region is closed to outsiders and no journalists are traveling with Pakistani troops.

In the rest of the country, authorities closed many schools a day after two suicide bombers attacked the International Islamic University in Islamabad, killing four people at a faculty building and a women's cafeteria.

The Taliban has carried out a wave of assaults in recent weeks, viewed as retaliation for the army's Waziristan offensive. The attacks have killed more than 175 people.

Pakistani army commanders say some 30,000 troops are battling about 10,000 militants in South Waziristan. They say they expect the offensive to last six to eight weeks, before winter weather makes fighting difficult.

Pakistani officials say Tuesday's blasts at the International Islamic University killed six people, including the two bombers. At least 20 other people were wounded, most of them female students, who make up nearly half of the university's student population. The university is also popular with foreigners.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.


http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/library/news/pakistan/2009/pakistan-091021-rianovosti01.htm

Gunmen Kill Pakistani Army Officer in Islamabad Ambush

By Ayaz Gul
Islamabad
22 October 2009

Police in Pakistan say that unknown gunmen shot and killed a senior army officer and his driver in Islamabad. The attack is the second this week in the city and the violence is seen as retaliation for the ongoing military offensive against Taliban extremists in their stronghold of the South Waziristan region, near the Afghan border.

Police say the early-morning attack took place in a residential part of the city, where assailants ambushed a military vehicle carrying a senior officer of the Pakistani military.

An eyewitness says two men took part in the assault that instantly killed the driver and the army officer.

The eyewitness says the attackers were armed with automatic weapons and riding a motor bike. He says they sprayed the vehicle with bullets and fled the scene. The slain army officer's security guard was wounded in the attack.

Chief of the Islamabad police, Kaleem Immam, told reporters the army officer was based in Sudan and had arrived in the country only four days ago, to mourn the death of his father-in-law. He blamed Taliban extremists for what he calls "a terrorist act." The police chief says the assassination is a reaction to the ongoing military offensive against militant bases in the Waziristan region.

"The war against terror is on and this is what the dissidents are up to and this is what they will be doing," Immam said. "But the law-enforcing agencies -- the army and the police -- are trying to do whatever is in the best in their capacity. We have nabbed a number criminals and, Inshallah [God willing], we will nab the assailants of today episode also."

The police officer says authorities are hunting the killers. Religious seminaries, known as madrassas, and mosques in the capital city are are also being searched.

Tuesday, two suicide bombers struck at Islamabad's International Islamic University, killing six people, mostly female students. Many others were wounded.

Since Saturday's launching a major ground offensive against Taliban bases in the South Waziristan tribal region Pakistani authorities have tightened security in the capital city and elsewhere in the country. The government has also closed educational institutions, fearing retaliatory militant attacks.

Prominent Pakistani analyst Hassan Askari says the attacks in Islamabad show the insurgents are able to strike wherever they want, to spread terror.

"The message of the terrorists is very clear," Askari said. "They want, first, demonstrate their capacity to take on the authorities, the state and the society, at a place of their choosing. And, the other objective is to divert the attention of the security agencies from South Waziristan, where the actual fight is going on, to the main cities, so that the pressure on South Waziristan is eased."

Army officials say the offensive in the Waziristan region has made significant advances, killing at least 115 militants. Sixteen soldiers also have lost their lives in the intense fighting. Some 30,000 Pakistan troops are fighting an estimated 10,000 al-Qaida-linked militants, including foreigners. The militants are also believed to be involved in cross-border attacks in Afghanistan.

The government launched the anti-Taliban operation after a string of deadly attacks, across Pakistan, left scores of people dead. This included an assault on the military's headquarters in Rawalpindi that killed more than a dozen soldiers and nine attackers.


http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/library/news/pakistan/2009/pakistan-091022-voa01.htm

"Pakistani military officials say they have captured the hometown of Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud and one of his top deputies, Qari Hussain. The announcement comes at the start of the second week of the army's offensive in Mehsud's stronghold of South Waziristan.

Pakistani officials say the military gained control of the town of Kotkai Saturday, following days of heavy fighting.

Former security chief of the tribal areas Mahmood Shah talked to VOA about the development.

"The town is not of any significance, but the mountainous area around is important," he said.

He says the army's capture of the Kotkai area will help facilitate its advance toward Makeen and Ladha, two major Taliban strongholds.

The Pakistani army entered the South Waziristan tribal region last Saturday from three different areas in an attempt to completely surround the Taliban fighters.

The military says it has killed at least 163 militants, while 23 soldiers have died.

There is no independent confirmation of the tolls, as the region is closed to outsiders and is dangerous even for local reporters to visit.

In recent weeks, suspected militants have launched a series of attacks, hitting police centers, the army's headquarters and a United Nations office.

There also have been at least five instances of violence since the Pakistani military began its offensive. In one attack on Tuesday, two suicide bombers hit separate areas at an Islamic university in the capital, Islamabad.

Shah says that despite the fact officials had anticipated acts of retaliation, the latest violence was surprising.

"We saw these attacks carry out with more ferocity than what probably the government had expected," he said.

Authorities have tightened security across the country, as well as closed educational institutions until Monday."

http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-10-24-voa6.cfm

By CHRIS BRUMMITT
Associated Press Writer


Pakistan Elections
ISLAMABAD (AP) -- An onslaught of militant violence has transformed Pakistan's capital from a sleepy oasis to something of a city under siege, with its tree-lined streets barricaded, schools shuttered and jittery residents wondering when the next attack will come.

The fear shows how Taliban and al-Qaida-led insurgents based along the Afghan border have brought the war into Pakistan's political and diplomatic heart, something they hope will force the government to halt a new army offensive into their stronghold.

The unease has been heightened by the range of targets attacked despite a nationwide security clampdown. Suicide bombers hit the International Islamic University and a U.N. office in Islamabad; militants took officers hostage for 22 hours at army headquarters in the neighboring city of Rawalpindi; commando-style raids paralyzed the eastern city of Lahore; and bombs have ripped through markets in the northwest.

More than 300 people have been killed, most of them Pakistani civilians. And no one expects the attacks to end soon.

"The feeling is that things have degenerated terribly," said Javeed Akhtar, a corporate lawyer. "The university bombing (on Oct. 20) sent a chill through everyone. There is now a realization that targets are unrestricted. It is no holds barred."

Islamabad once was sheltered from the militant, separatist and gang violence that was a feature of life in other cities in Pakistan. Visitors were typically amazed at how quiet, well-ordered and wealthy it was compared with other South Asian cities.

That began changing in mid-2007, when the army besieged and then stormed the city's Red Mosque after militants inside refused to surrender. Gunshots and explosions rang out for days across the most exclusive suburbs, and around 100 people were killed.

The siege is now widely considered to be the starting point of the insurgency. Vowing vengeance, militants based in the lawless, tribally controlled region along the Afghan border began a vicious campaign against targets associated with the government, security forces and Western interests.

While Islamabad was occasionally hit, its 900,000 people and several thousand foreign residents still considered themselves largely untouched by the war. But just over a year ago, a truck bombing devastated the J.W. Marriott Hotel and showed the city was well and truly in the militant cross hairs.

"Every morning as we leave our houses we pray, and we ask our family members to pray that we get back safe and sound," said Mohammad Rahim, who runs an electronics business in the city center. "That is what every Pakistani does."

With many people choosing to stay at home, owners of restaurants and shops popular with foreigners and wealthy Pakistanis say their earnings have dropped by 50 percent in the two weeks since the start of the latest government offensive.

Many schools remain closed following the university attack, while principals try to secure them against possible future attacks. Workers are busy building thick concrete barriers to stop suicide car bombers.

Many parents have chosen to keep children at home even when their schools reopened.

"As soon as there is an explosion, things come to a standstill for a day or two, but life must go on," said Najmi Rizvi, the head of a preschool where attendance was down 50 percent. "We have to live in this situation," she said, as toddlers in Halloween costumes ran around the yard.

The city's foreigners are especially at risk, given popular anger at the U.S.-led war in neighboring Afghanistan and the government's close ties with Washington. Fears have risen further amid hostile media reporting of the major expansion of the U.S. embassy, and reports - denied by American officials - that members of the tarnished security company once called Blackwater are present in the city.

Islamabad's main diplomatic enclave, which is fenced off from the rest of the city, has become a neighborhood of fortresses, with compounds sealed off behind concentric rings of barbed wire, blast walls and heavy metal gates. Armed men - whether from government security forces or the small armies of private guards at each compound - are everywhere.

In the face of the attacks, the resolve of the country's politicians, army generals and people to take the fight to the militants in their border sanctuary of South Waziristan appears to be holding. But unqualified support for the offensive is complicated by the unpopularity of the government and a belief that the violence would stop if America pulled out of Afghanistan.

In more than a dozen interviews Thursday and Friday, conspiracy theories alleging the involvement of neighboring India or the United States in the attacks were frequently aired.

"We want to see a normal life, so for God's sake, listen to what the (militants) are saying. They are against American forces in Afghanistan," said Imran Ali, a 32-year-old carpet dealer. "What America is doing is illegal, and that is the root cause of all evils."

2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved

That country is falling apart. The people hate the government saying it is pawn of US which caused the war, then it is fighting the military which is planning a coup. When they stop fighting, US will withdraw aid, Pakistan goes broke and the country falls apart. Nukes end up somewhere else. Whose idea was it to give nukes to a Muslim country? Oh yes, China.

Since Pakistan and China are disputing Kashmir, why did China supported the fact that Pakistan develop nuclear technology back then?

milky_candy_sugar wrote:Since Pakistan and China are disputing Kashmir, why did China supported the fact that Pakistan develop nuclear technology back then?

China and Pakistan aren't disputing Kashmir. What Pakistan did was give a piece of it, Aksai Chin, to China so India couldn't attack it.

I think i missed something concerning the kashmir conflict

milky_candy_sugar wrote:I think i missed something concerning the kashmir conflict

Pakistan and China were always in on it. China gave Pakistan their nuklear programme. Without China, Pakistan would have nothing in nukes.

No doubt this situation in Pakistan is getting out of control.

I am living in Karachi right now working for an Oil pipeline company. There is no 'Taliban' here, but lots of Pukhtoon people who are day laborers. Lots of them from Afghanistan also. They all say that there are no Taliban.

The so called Taliban are every day people whose homes and schools and mosques are being blown up by Predator drones, and stage managed assassinations carried out by the Pakistani intelligence agencies under the guidance of the NSA/ CIA.

These guys attacked the city of Lahore 2 weeks ago causing havoc over there and killing around 40 Pakistani military soldiers.

Every one said that it was a suicide attack.......however many eyewitnesses claimed they say a parked motorcycle and a car go off next the truck the soldiers were dismounting from.

LAHORE: Three suicide bombers in Pakistan's eastern city of Lahore on Wednesday killed 18 people and wounded more than 100 during a Shiite mourning procession, police and rescue officials said.

Pakistan has been hit by a wave of Islamist militant attacks over the past three years which many attribute to Islamabad’s alliance with Washington and the US-led war against the Taliban in neighbouring Afghanistan.

The blasts hit exactly at the time of breaking of fast in the ongoing holy month of Ramadan.

“Eighteen people were killed and 143 others wounded in the three suicide attacks,” a senior local administration official, Sajjad Bhutta, told AFP.

“We have collected bodies of all the three bombers,” he said, adding that we are collecting more evidence from the site.

Top local administration official Khusro Pervez told reporters in Lahore that more than 100 people were wounded.

“The first blast took place immediately after the mourning procession ended followed by other two,” Pervez said.

He said that the police was trying to secure other areas, as the mourners are currently scattered everywhere in the area known as Karbala Gamey Shah, the traditional route where the mourning procession ends.

It is not the first time Lahore has seen violence directed towards religious groups.

In July, twin suicide attacks on an Islamic shrine in Lahore, capital of Punjab province and a major military, political and cultural hub, killed 43 people.

The two suicide bombers blew themselves up among crowds of worshippers at the shrine to Sufi saint Data Ganj Bakhsh.

In May, gunmen wearing suicide vests storm two places of worship belonging to the minority Ahmadis in Lahore, killing at least 82 people.

The United States last year approved a five-year 7.5 billion-dollar package aimed at reducing the appeal of extremists in the Islamic world's only declared nuclear power by building infrastructure, schools and democratic institutions.

But the United States remains wildly unpopular with the Pakistani public, enflamed by a covert US drone war against Islamist targets in lawless tribal on the Afghan border that Washington considers the global bastion of Al-Qaeda.

There were no immediate claims for the latest attack, which came as the United States added the Pakistani Taliban to a blacklist of foreign terrorist organizations, which means members face asset freezes and travel bans.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton designated the Tehreek-e-Taliban as a foreign terrorist organisation on August 12, and it was formally added to the list when it was published Wednesday in the Federal Register.

“I conclude that there is a sufficient factual basis to find that the relevant circumstances described in section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act... exist with respect” to the group, she wrote.

“Therefore, I hereby designate the aforementioned organization and its aliases as a foreign terrorist organization pursuant to section 219 of the INA,” she wrote according to an email distributed by the State Department.

Pakistan is currently battling devastating flooding that has left confirmed 1,760 people dead and more than 2,000 injured, but officials warn that millions are at risk from food shortages and disease. – AFPhttp://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/pakistan/21-explosion-during-religious-procession-in-lahore-sk-05

This looks like another U.S. funded or directed attack.......yet another False Flag probably carried out by mercenaries on Saudi/ CIA payroll.

Pakistan under Attack: Now NATO gunships

Global Research, September 28, 2010
The Nation (Pakistan)

As so many had been predicting, if the Pakistani state does not delink itself from the misguided US ‘war on terror’, the US would eventually shift the centre of gravity of the war from Afghanistan to Pakistan and move militarily into Pakistani territory.

This is exactly what is now happening. Already the US has been carrying out drone attacks against Pakistanis, killing thousands of innocent citizens in their wake and perhaps in the process a few militants also.

Meanwhile, US covert operatives and Special Forces have spread themselves all over Pakistan and these revelations and warnings in the Pakistani media have been there for some time.

Now the US has begun the next phase of its agenda targeting Pakistan and that is the aerial gunship attacks from across the Afghan border into Pakistan.

On Friday NATO admitted that two gunship helicopters had entered Pakistan and killed 30 people – euphemistically termed “suspected militants” – just as Dr Aafia has been penalised for being a “suspected terrorist”!

Since the government of Pakistan has to its eternal shame kept silent on this new military targeting of Pakistani citizens, NATO has undoubtedly become emboldened and on Monday two gunship helicopters again came into Pakistani territory and killed a few more citizens – so far the tally is five killed in Kurram Agency.

Accompanying this new upping of the military ante inside Pakistan, the US drone attacks continue – with their frequency rising rapidly especially after Obama’s coming to power in the US.

Almost daily there are reports of 10 people or more killed by these unmanned drones – as if Pakistani lives were worth nothing. Perhaps the US is right about this as far as Pakistani rulers are concerned since President Zardari is said to have told the CIA chief that collateral damage from the drones was not an issue that bothered him!

I can't say I am surprised, the US military has a history of ignoring borders, but then the enemies they fight also ignore lines on maps, or abuse them to their advantage.

The best solution will be to actually put in place some real border security... ask the US to help fund it, and if they refuse then put in the air defence security first and then start on the ground security. After a few drones are shot down and the Helos see some warning shots coming up at them they might change their minds about what they are doing.

Look this ain't a problem for us to shoot down incoming drones/helis; we surely are that capable!!
Problem lie in the corrupted/covert treaties signed b/w USA & Musharaaff as well as the huge amounts of money poured by US in our politicians pockets

Perhaps you need to get a vote and put these aholes out on their ears and tell anyone who wants to govern Pakistan that things need to change.

It is like the US with oil. Oil companies make far too much money to want any type of alternative to oil available on the market so they spend money bribing politicians, and buying up new technologies that might threaten their income and keeping the west totally dependant on fossil fuels.
The irony is that with the level of technology of Germany in WWII when they were making oil out of coal that the enormous reserves of coal around the world would make the world dependence on the middle east zero but oil companies would lose their little cash cow in that set up. By now with new technologies the process should be much cleaner and more efficient but no money is being spent because oil is cheaper.
Other more renewable energies like methane from the rubbish we create and of course from natural bodily functions could be harnessed to power much of what we use oil for but we don't use it because oil is cheap and available.

The solution in both cases will probably require violence and unity against what is to make it what should be. Sadly in both cases it is probably not going to happen.
If it was that easy it would already have happened. People get paid off and those that can't be bought mysteriously disappear.

Nato changes stance after protest by Pakistan

http://www.defencetalk.com/nato-changes-stance-after-protest-by-pakistan-28977/

I think this has more to do with the attacks on NATOs supply line through Pakistan than anything Pakistan might have said.
NATO is like the US in that it only cares about its own interests.
If you want it to listen then threaten their interests and then make them an offer.

I think Russia should do something similar regarding the open growing of poppys in Afghanistan. Suddenly blocking flights over Russia for the forces in Afghanistan is the best way to make NATO listen to Russia.

Threats by NATO that it will withdraw and that the Taleban will rise up and start destabilising north towards Russia is just rubbish. They didn't do that before the US went in there and they crushed the poppy industry in Afghanistan while they were in charge. Not a great result for the Afghan people but that is not Russias problem.

Gary, if this continues Pakistan will get invaded sooner rather than later. Massive false flags, target killings and psyops are the tune of the day. The country is destroyed. I was just there and its all fukked now. There is no government.......

The US Edges Closer to Invading Pakistan

by Eric Margolis

This writer has been warning for years that US and NATO efforts to defeat resistance to Western occupation by Afghanistan’s fierce Pashtun tribes would eventually lead to spreading the conflict into neighboring Pakistan, a nation of 175 million.

We’ve seen it all before in Vietnam. It was then called, "mission creep."

The focus of the Afghan War is clearly shifting south into Pakistan, drawing that nation and the United States forces ever closer to a direct confrontation. This grim development was as predictable as it was inevitable.

This week’s fevered warnings from Washington of supposedly imminent terrorist attacks in Europe may be aimed at justifying intensifying US military operations against Pakistan. If attacks do come in Europe, they will most likely be linked to anti-French militant groups in North Africa and the Sahara – nothing at all to do with Afghanistan or Pakistan.

Last week, Pakistan temporarily closed the main US/NATO supply route from Karachi to the Afghan border at Torkham after the killing of three Pakistani soldiers by US helicopter gunships. Three US/NATO fuel supply convoys were burned by anti-American militants.

Eighty percent of the supplies of the US-led forces in Afghanistan come up this long, difficult route. Along the way, the US pays large bribes to Pakistani officials, local warlords, and to Taliban. The cost of a gallon of gas delivered to US units in Afghanistan has risen to $800.

US helicopter gunships have staged at least four attacks on Pakistan this past week alone, in addition to the mounting number of strikes by CIA drones that are inflicting heavy casualties on civilians and tribal militants alike. US Special Forces and CIA-run Afghan mercenaries are also increasingly active along Pakistan’s northwest frontier.

Pakistan’s feeble, discredited government has long closed its eyes to CIA’s drone attacks. Washington does not even seek permission for the raids or give advance warning to Islamabad. Pakistan’s media claims over 90% of the casualties in US air raids are civilians.

The failing government in Islamabad is caught between two fires. Pakistanis are furious and humiliated by the American attacks. Each new assault further undermines the inept, US-installed Zardari government. Even Interior Minister Rehman Malik, the government’s strongman, protested last week’s US attacks.

But Pakistan is on the edge of economic collapse after its devastating floods. Islamabad is now totally reliant on $2 billion annual US aid, plus tens of millions more "black" payments from CIA. Washington has given Islamabad $10 billion since 2001, most of which goes to renting 140,000 Pakistani troops to support the US-led Afghan war. CIA also has 3,000 mercenaries operating inside Pakistan.

As Osama bin Laden just pointed out in a new audio tape, the Muslim nations have been derelict in coming to Pakistan’s aid. He blamed the massive flooding in Pakistan on global warming.

An influential former Pakistani chief of staff, Gen. Mirza Aslam Beg, just demanded Pakistan’s air force shoot down US drones and helicopters violating his nation’s sovereignty. His sentiments are widely shared in Pakistan’s increasingly angry military.

Pakistan’s senior generals are being blasted as "American stooges" by some of the media and are losing respect among Pakistanis. A video this week of the execution of six civilians by army troops has further damaged the army’s good name.

However, Washington’s view is very different. Pakistan is increasingly branded insubordinate, ungrateful for billions in aid, and a potential enemy of US regional interests. Many Americans consider Pakistan more of a foe than ally. The limited US financial response to Pakistan’s flood was a sign of that nation’s poor repute in North America.

Fears are growing in Washington and in Europe that the nine-year Afghan War may be lost. American popular opinion has turned against the war. The Pentagon fears a failure in Afghanistan will humiliate the US military and undermine America’s international power. In short, just what happened to the Soviet Union in Afghanistan.

America’s foreign policy establishment is venting its anger and frustration over the failing Afghan War by lashing out at Pakistan and, as well, the US-installed Karzai regime in Kabul.

Pakistan’s President, Asif Ali Zardari, is seen in Washington as hopeless and incompetent. Full US attention is now on Pakistan’s military, the de facto government, and its respected but embattled commander, Gen. Ashfaq Kayani, whose tenure was just extended under US pressure. Kayani is still regarded as an "asset" by Washington. But like Zardari, he is caught between American demands and outraged Pakistanis – plus concerns about the threat from India and Delhi’s machinations in Afghanistan. The recent upsurge of violence in Indian-ruled Kashmir has intensified these dangerous tensions between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan.

The neoconservatives in Washington and their media allies again claim Pakistan is a grave threat to US interests and to Israel. Pakistan must be declawed and dismembered, insist the neocons. Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal is reportedly being targeted for seizure or elimination by US Special Forces.

There is also talk in Washington of dividing Afghanistan into Pashtun, Tajik and Uzbek mini-states, as the US has done in Iraq. Could Pakistan be next for this divide and conquer treatment? Little states are easier to rule or intimidate than big ones. Many Pakistanis believe the United States is bent on dismembering their nation. Some polls show Pakistanis now regard the United States as a greater enemy than India.

Now that America is in full mid-term election frenzy, expect more calls for tougher US military action in "AfPak." Already unpopular politicians are terrified of being branded "soft on terrorism" and failing to maximally support US military campaigns. Flag waving replaces sober thought.

If polls are right and Republicans achieve a major win, it’s likely there will be more and deeper US air and land attacks into Pakistan. The Pentagon is convinced it can still defeat resistance by Taliban and its allies "if only we can go after their sanctuaries in Pakistan," as one general told me.

Where have we heard this before? Why in Cambodia and Laos, that’s where, during the Vietnam War. Frustrated US commanders expanded the war into Cambodia and Laos to go after Communist base camps. The war spread; these two small nations were largely destroyed, but the war was ultimately lost.

Victory in war is achieved by concentration of forces, not spreading them ever thinner and wider.

But our imperial generals seem determined to blunder into a nation of 175 million hostile people without any clear strategy. Unable to subdue the Pashtun tribes of Afghanistan, they are now attacking the Pashtun tribes of Pakistan. America does not need more enemies.

October 5, 2010

http://www.lewrockwell.com/margolis/margolis208.html