Guddu wrote:Prem wrote:http://green.blogs.nBin Laden Laments Climate Changeytimes.com/2010/10/01/bin-laden-laments-climate-change/
Bin Laden Laments Climate Change
Gen. David Petraeus, the top US commander in Pakistan, suggested last year that the US reserves the right to send troops into the country.
"I think we would never give up, if you will, the right of last resort if we assess something as a threat to us, noting that what we want to do is enable the Pakistanis, help them, assist them to deal with the problem that we now think, and their leaders certainly now think, represents the most important existential threat to their country, not just to the rest of the world," he said.This all led Pakistan's foreign minister to ask, "If you are being attacked are you fighting a war or are you in war together?"
"If the United States decides that where it wants to fight happens to be in your country, the idea of what we're doing may transcend national boundaries, but the fighting doesn't. The fighting happens in specific places," explained Maddow."If what's going on with this escalation that no one is talking about is that the war in Afghanistan is sort of officially expanding into Pakistan, then this isn't just ho-hum, another chapter in the global war that's everywhere, this is Laos and Cambodia, 1970," she continued.
"What it seems like is going on right now is that the US is testing, US officials and US military leaders are testing the idea of the war in Afghanistan being extended to Pakistan. And they're doing it quietly. But they're talking about it like it's unavoidable as if it's some natural extension of what it is we are already doing in the other war," she said."If that is what's happening, if that is what's happening, if they're test driving, floating this idea of the war expanding into Pakistan, it is not a secret, and it is not going to be a secret. I guarantee it. I don't plan on being quiet about it. In fact, I plan on screaming bloody murder about it," Maddow concluded.
When the bell of possible 26/11 Mumbai style terror attack on three European countries, France, Germany and England. The various European intelligence agencies including American agencies became active and cooperative. After Mumbai and failed car bomb terror attack on New York, this was supposed to be the third high profile Pakistan based cross ocean attack, but the updated and cooperative information foiled their plans of spreading terror once again
.Increase in US bombing of the Pakistan bordering with Afghanistan, led to sharing of bitter words between Pakistan and America. Pakistan is blamed of giving safe-haven to Taliban while posing as fighting a war against the group (Read detailed analysis and opinion: Pakistan or Taliban, Brothers or Rivals?). Pakistan warned US of a strong reaction to what they were doing. "let's see, we have to make it clear now, whether we are allies or enemies?" said a Pakistani official. The bombing though killed many suspected militants, but resulted in the blockage of NATO fuel and daily supply route, via Pakistan, to its troops in the land-locked country of Afghanistan.
This was one of the strongest steps Pakistan has taken against American continued strikes in Pakistan in the war against terrorism. No nation of course cannot tolerate such strikes on its own land. US terms the attacks as the inability of Pakistani troops in countering or destroying the terrorism camps.NATO supplies have several other routes to Afghanistan via Central Asia and Russia, but the route via Pakistan is the most comfortable. Pakistan blocked one of the major route to Afghanistan while other routes through its land remained open. NATO supplier tanks when going through alternative route to Afghanistan were attacked by a group of Pakistani gunmen who destroyed 28 tankers. Such a huge loss of supplies, though not a new thing in Pakistan, has attracted strong attention of America, that today on 2nd Oct, 2010 CIA's chief visited India, and met Indian intelligence agency RAW's (Research and Analysis Wing) chief
The lack of a strong government response to a national disaster has allowed banned Islamist groups to fill in the vacuum, who are seen flaunting their flags at different camps. This could resonate with desperate people living on the edge and draw them closer to the militants.
A militant-plagued Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is now a psychological and emotional testing ground for both the local militants and American forces, each trying to carve out niches in the hearts and minds of people. While the Americans are seen as only trying to improve their image, the militants are sharpening potential recruits for future militant attacks.
This month the world finally woke up to the devastation and Indian aid worth $5 million was accepted by Pakistan. But this still needs to be stepped up. India is strategically the only country that can really help Pakistan, as it is in its interest to have a stable Pakistan that is free from terrorism, allowing good relations and a platform to resolve long standing issues. {One does not understand how India's help will help Pakistan rid itself of terrorism. Are bad relations because of no help from India ? What an argument !}
Pakistanis can make use of low-priced and quality Indian commodities, eliminating the need to import low grade Chinese and costly European products.
It may seem like a distant dream, but if 80 per cent of the trucks in Pakistan run on smuggled Indian tyres, then a peaceful Indo-Pak synergy will be beneficial for both. Fuel starved Pakistanis wouldn't mind Indian Oil!
This disaster can either strengthen or severely weaken Pakistan's fragile civilian government, also making Pakistanis even more sceptical or hostile, as 20 million survival stories resurface. No one can predict anything, as the only thing obvious is that nothing good will happen to Pakistan and the war against terrorism — unless global aid comes to salvage the sunken state of Pakistan.{And then what ? It will sink again. It will continue to sponsor terrorism against India, Afghanistan and the rest of the world. So, why not let it sink this time ?}
Meanwhile not only fitting but also appropriate that the “Daughter” of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan” happens to be a convicted Islamic Terrorist given the Islamic Republic’s penchant for fomenting Islamic Terrorism worldwide.Aafia Siddiqui: emblem of an uncertain Pakistan
Pakistanis are furious about western double standards – but to create change we must drop our habit of outraged victim hood
Mustafa Qadri
Friday 1 October 2010 13.30 BST
The fact that a troubled al-Qaeda sympathiser has been branded the daughter of Pakistan speaks for the madness that has engulfed our region. ..........................
We have lost our moral compass. With our cricketers disgraced, our cinemas and shrines increasingly targeted and our bread baskets flooded, outrage has become our premier national pastime. There is plenty to be outraged about, but outrage won't bring us jobs or electricity or return our crops. Like any addict, we need to drop our habit of outrage and victimhood. Of course, that will not happen any time soon.
Comment is Free
It is not being enough if one is an Islamist in the Land of the Pure. He has to be an Islamist of a particular variety. Non adherents to that variety are automatically kafir and fair game for hunting down.Suppiah wrote:http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.as ... 2010_pg1_4
SWAT Islamic Uni VC swatted. Why would any terrorist kill a Uni-vc? That too a renowned Islamic scholar which in Pakistan means a terrorist trainer..There must be something behind this...
He spoke against the Taliban. He thought that music might be permissible in Islam.SSridhar wrote:It is not being enough if one is an Islamist in the Land of the Pure. He has to be an Islamist of a particular variety. Non adherents to that variety are automatically kafir and fair game for hunting down.Suppiah wrote:http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.as ... 2010_pg1_4
SWAT Islamic Uni VC swatted. Why would any terrorist kill a Uni-vc? That too a renowned Islamic scholar which in Pakistan means a terrorist trainer..There must be something behind this...
KARACHI – The outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP)’s network in Karachi is completely shattered, senior police sources claim.
DEBKAfile Exclusive Analysis October 2, 2010, 11:59 AM (GMT+02:00)
Tags: Haqqani network North Waziristan US air strikes US-Pakistan
Blocked US convoys ablaze
Has the nine-year deal for Pakistan to serve US-led NATO forces fighting in Afghanistan as their primary logistics and supply base - while pursuing competing goals - run aground? This may be so after US officials intimated in the last three days that more remote-controlled aircraft and helicopters were being relocated from other Afghan sectors to the new front opening up now against Taliban strongholds in the Pakistan tribal area of North Waziristan.
Islamabad has responded by blocking the main frontier crossing to NATO supply convoy on Oct. 2, for the second day and refusing to stop armed Taliban fighters torching the trucks after a US cross-border air strike killed three Pakistan soldiers at a frontier post Thursday.
Even after some 30 Afghanistan-bound oil tankers were set ablaze Friday, Oct. 1, US air strikes over North Waziristan were redoubled that night and early Saturday, destroying a stronghold of the highly effective Haqqani network and killing at least six of its members.
debkafile's military sources do not rule out the US drive into North Waziristan escalating into ground incursions, especially if it is proved that Islamist terrorists are being trained and directed to carry out strikes inside America from networks sheltering in northwest Pakistan.
Thursday, Sept. 30 debkafile reported:
A new crisis in relations between Islamabad and Washington was triggered by the recent US tactical escalation from drones to helicopters for destroying insurgent and terrorist concentrations in Pakistan's lawless North Waziristan province, debkafile's military sources report. Pakistan had accepted the drone attacks but, even after they were nearly doubled to 21 this month, the high-flying unmanned aircraft were not up to their mission - especially against the Haqqani network.
Early Thursday, Sept. 30, Islamabad was angry enough to block a convoy of dozens of NATO trucks at the Torkham check post on the Khyber pass into Afghanistan, accusing NATO of killing three Pakistan frontier troops in a helicopter strike against a military checkpoint close to the border. The "hot pursuit" pretext was roughly rejected.
Through their many ups and downs during the nine-year Afghanistan war, Pakistan has served as NATO's main supply base for fuel, ammunition, spare parts and other provisions. An average 580 trucks with goods imported through Karachi and other Pakistani ports roll through Torkham west of Peshawar every day.
The resort to helicopters was ordered by the new Afghanistan commander, Gen. David Petraeus. He soon saw that the 30,000-troop surge was not up to turning the tide of the war against the Taliban - mainly because the bulk of its men, supplies and training facilities are located on the Pakistani side of the border in North Waziristan. He therefore petitioned President Barack Obama for permission to shift the brunt of combat into Pakistan and begin using helicopters against these targets.
The general explained that the Predator and Reaper drones were unequal to the task of demolishing large bases or catching insurgent forces on the move into Afghanistan or on their way back to their Pakistani havens. The capabilities of these high-tech weapons are limited. Needed now were droves of conventional helicopters able to scatter and fly close enough to the ground to chase and pin down small groups of insurgents on the move.
Before assenting to Gen. Petraeus' request, the White House made a final effort to persuade the Pakistani government and its military commanders to go into decisive action against the Taliban concentrations sheltering in North Waziristan.
They had little hope of a positive reply because the foremost US war target is the Haqqani network, the largest and best organized insurgent militia fighting NATO today. This militia's 12,000 men fight under the command of Maulvi Jalaluddin Haqqani and his son Sirajuddin Haqqani. It maintains independent sources of supply, funding and recruits and is protected by its close operational and intelligence links with Pakistan's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence - ISI - service.
The Haqqani network enjoys ISI protection as Islamabad's trump card for guaranteeing Kabul is governed by a pro-Pakistan regime after US troops start pulling out of Afghanistan in August 2011.
An ally\ied Afghanistan would give Pakistan the military edge over India, its strategists calculate, whereas its loss would be an unacceptable strategic setback.
At the same time, no one in Islamabad sneezes at the great benefits gained from good relations with the United States. Washington keeps Pakistan safe from war with India and a good flow of some $2 billion per year to keep its economy from breaking down. So when American drones attacked the Haqqani network in North Waziristan, its rulers gritted their teeth and kept quiet for as long as the damage was small enough for the Haqqanis to sustain.
But American cross-border Apache raids were another matter. The first helicopter attack over Pakistan on Monday, Sept. 27, killed 50 Taliban fighters, most of them members of the Haqqani network. The second, the following day, hit a Haqqani base in the Kurram district of North Waziristan. The third hit the wrong target, killing three Pakistani soldiers at a military check point near the Afghanistan border.
That was too much for Islamabad. Without even a word to the visiting US Central Intelligence Agency chief Leon Panetta, the NATO convoy was blocked at the border and the supply route threatened until the Americans promised to give up using helicopters and targeting the Haqqani network for "hot pursuit" operations.
Washington has not reacted publicly to the Pakistan demand. But Saturday, Oct. 2, US military sources disclosed that more troops were being piled up on the frontier against North Waziristan. Islamabad does not look like taking increased US encroachments of its territory lying down for now. The US command's promise of a joint probe with Pakistan to assign guilt for the killing of three Pakistani frontier will not be enough to keep Pakistani tempers at bay.
Good thinking Philip.Philip wrote: However,what really intrigues me is that every move on the Paki chessboard by political exile takes place on British soil! There wasa a report some time ago saying that the Brits had more influence over the Pakis than India.Mushy's long stay in London at UK expense for his security indcactes that there is a western plan afoot here to replace Zardari with ex-army Mushy and his party,a convenient bolthole for future ex-chiefs of the paki army so that they can continue to control the country through the route of democratic activity.The British "hand" in this latest move on the Paki chessboard is intriguing.It also spells that the clock has satrted ticking for the Zardar and co.
Philip wrote: However,what really intrigues me is that every move on the Paki chessboard by political exile takes place on British soil! There wasa a report some time ago saying that the Brits had more influence over the Pakis than India.Mushy's long stay in London at UK expense for his security indcactes that there is a western plan afoot here to replace Zardari with ex-army Mushy and his party,a convenient bolthole for future ex-chiefs of the paki army so that they can continue to control the country through the route of democratic activity.The British "hand" in this latest move on the Paki chessboard is intriguing.It also spells that the clock has satrted ticking for the Zardar and co.
“Pakistan supported us to the hilt to get the Commonwealth Games to India. We can never forget their support.”
Pakistan supported us to the hilt to get the Commonwealth Games to India. We can never forget their support,” Kalmadi had said in June
Even when complaints about dirty and unhygienic facilities at the Games Village was drawing flak from all corners, Pakistan hockey player Rehan Butt came out in support for the organisers.
And, when a picture is worth a thousand words:I’m not surprised, after all India and Pakistan have inherited the same culture. Historically, they have always put up a united stand in international sport,” said Majumdar
Mushy should be tried for treason for letting out a state secret.Philip wrote:Nawaz...brainless
We called him Mirza because he had this habit of breaking into speeches about how he had Mughal ancestry, and how his ancestors were Persian-speaking traders from Samarkand.
He always used to maintain a scrubby stubble, calling it ‘Majnu beard.’ But when I met him again, he had a longish, flowing beard.
‘That’s nice,’ I replied. ‘So, no more drinking then?’‘Oh, yes,’ he proudly announced. ‘I haven’t touched the stuff in over fifteen years!’
‘Because after all, my ancestors used to serve the holy Prophet (PBUH).’
‘My ancestors were Arab traders who converted to Islam during the Prophet’s time. Many of them then started to trade with traders in the subcontinent, and some also accompanied Muhammad bin Qasim when he invaded Sindh.’
‘Wait a minute,’ I said, holding out my hand. ‘I thought your ancestors were Persian-speaking traders from Samarkand related to the Mughals?’
‘Tell me, Mirza, does a Pakistani have to have Arab ancestry to become a better Muslim?’
Suddenly, all Pakistani Muslims have decided to adopt imaginary Arab ancestors. What has happened to you people?’
Kuda hafiz, indeed.Shaking my hand, he bid farewell: ‘Allah Hafiz. ‘Twenty years ago it used to be Khuda Hafiz.’
So it seems have been more of a pure TECHINT oeration by the Brits. Going by this article, wonder if there is any Paki whose phone is not under the scanner in UQ?Some Pakistan-based terrorists who were plotting a Mumbai-style attack on London and other European cities have been identified by investigators, who matched their voices in intercepted calls with a secret database.
UK's top communication and intelligence agency has identified some of the terrorists in the recently-unravelled plot in which at least 20 young British Muslims were being trained at Al Qaeda terror camps in Pakistan to launch Mumbai-style attacks in Europe.
The Government Communications Headquarters, Britain's electronic eavesdropping centre popularly known as GCHQ identified some of these terrorists, The Sunday Times said but did not name any.
The centre, based in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, intercepted telephone calls made by British militants at a training camp in the tribal borders of Pakistan to identify the suspects.
According to the paper, some are said to come from the Rochdale area, others from the Midlands.
Matching their voice-prints allowed the security services to trace their connections to other individuals in their network.
An important aspect of GCHQ's work is the analysis of voice-prints, a technique that can identify a voice speaking on a telephone in Afghanistan or Pakistan by matching it against a databank of suspects held by GCHQ.
"You pick up a voice and if you find a match for it in the database, you can get a name. Then you get the call data and see who the guy has been calling," one expert said.
The method was apparently used to pick up "credible" intelligence of the plan for simultaneous attacks by British and foreign insurgents against several European cities.
An MI5 surveillance operation began tracking potential suspects in London and northwest England earlier this year.
In a strike on September 8, three pilotless predator drones fired a barrage of hellfire missiles at a suspected militant hideout on the Ghulam Khan road in North Waziristan.
According to the daily, the targets were suspected European jihadis who were allegedly being trained in combat mission against their home countries.
The missiles killed a British man, one of the two brothers said to be part of a 10-man team at the heart of an Al Qaeda plot against London and other European cities, the daily quoted a Pakistani intelligence official as saying.
The dead Briton was identified as Abdul Jabar, who originally hailed from Jhelum district and is said to be one of the team of jihadis planning Mumbai-type attacks in the UK, France and Germany.
.....
Over the next few months, GCHQ, the government's eavesdropping centre in Cheltenham, started monitoring telephone discussions between suspects in militant training camps near the Afghan-Pakistan border and people in Europe as they discussed logistics.
Sources said there may have been up to 15 or 20 Britons whose voices have been picked up by GCHQ intercepts.
Details of the plot were not specific, however. Western intelligence agencies still do not know the targets or when the attacks are due to take place. The assessment that something big might be in the pipeline grew in July after the Americans arrested a German called Ahmed Siddique in Kabul.
Why now. It has been since 2008 but no further attack. was that a shamsum wrote: 26/11-style threat to Europe: The Pak connection
So it seems have been more of a pure TECHINT oeration by the Brits. Going by this article, wonder if there is any Paki whose phone is not under the scanner in UQ?
PESHAWAR, Pakistan — A main land route used by NATO to deliver supplies to troops in Afghanistan will reopen "relatively quickly", Pakistan said Sunday, as Islamabad sent a team to probe a cross-border attack.
Pakistan blocked the crossing in its volatile northwest on Thursday after a NATO helicopter strike that Islamabad says killed three of its soldiers. The alliance said it shot back in self-defence.
After a flurry of phone calls and pressure from ally Washington, Hussain Haqqani, Pakistan's ambassador to Washington, told CNN's "State of the Union" programme that the transit route would reopen in "less than a week".
"I think the supply line will be open relatively quickly," he said.
He added: "It's not a blockade. It's just a temporary suspension of the convoys moving through.
"I do not expect this blockade to continue for too long." { so its a blockade that is not a blockade!
The Khyber pass at Torkham is on one of the key NATO supply routes through Pakistan into war-torn Afghanistan, where more than 152,000 US and NATO forces are fighting an increasingly emboldened Taliban-led insurgency.
The cross-border raid was the fourth in a week by NATO helicopters pursuing militants into Pakistan, which condemned the action as a serious breach of its sovereignty, threatening to destabilise ties with backer Washington.
A two-member Pakistan team led by Brigadier Usman Khattak, deputy inspector general of the Frontier Corps, travelled to Afghanistan on Saturday to join an investigation into the incident by the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and US officials, an official told AFP.
Brigadier Khattak has visited the site of the attack in the northwest tribal area of Kurram and held talks with troops deployed in the area, the Pakistani official said, requesting anonymity.
Queues of more than 200 trucks and oil tankers have formed at the border as they wait to deliver supplies.
"We are waiting for clearance from the customs authorities," a driver at the border told AFP.
The envoy Haqqani said that he had received a phone call from General David Petraeus, the US commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan.
"He understands Pakistan has not stopped it as a political retaliation but only to make convoys more secure," Haqqani said, adding the issue was unlikely to cause any permanent damage to future US-Pakistan cooperation. { mm yes as per the envoy they were just testing survivability of fuel tankers when set ablaze only to make them more secure only! }
"Pakistan is an American ally. America depends on Pakistan," Haqqani said.
"We can and do not do everything the Americans think we should do because sometimes we don't have the capacity, sometimes we don't have the means," he said. { but mostly always cause we did not get enough bakshis!}
Nevertheless, Haqqani continued: "We work those things out and that is exactly what we are doing right now. { we are just negotiating better payout to allow armed chopper cruise }
"Minus all of the political noise, the fact remains that we are working together."
Washington has classified Pakistan's tribal belt on the Afghan border as a global headquarters of Al-Qaeda, a hub of militants fighting in Afghanistan and the most dangerous place on Earth.
A_Gupta ji,A_Gupta wrote:Not people. Me. Oh, I understand fully. Just sometimes try to stand back and view the world through total detachment. The people the Pakistani army is killing are jihadis and their relatives who are out of control of the army. The people the drones are killing are jihadis and their relatives who are controlled by or allied with the Pakistani army - which is why the Americans have to hit them. (If Pakistanis would take care of them there would be no drone attacks.) That makes some difference, yes, but not a whole lot Either set of people who were killed would probably not hesitate to blast away SDRE kafirs if given the opportunity. As to teenagers - there have been some few deadly teenage jihadis. E.g., the January suicide bombing of a village volleyball match in Lakki Marwat, Pakistan that killed about 100 people was done by a teenager. Teenage does not correspond to innocent or to child.
USA has issued travel advisory to EU travellars. Perhaps the NATO attack affect???Acharya wrote:Why now. It has been since 2008 but no further attack. was that a shamsum wrote: 26/11-style threat to Europe: The Pak connection
So it seems have been more of a pure TECHINT oeration by the Brits. Going by this article, wonder if there is any Paki whose phone is not under the scanner in UQ?
ISLAMABAD — Suspected militants attacked and set fire to around 20 tankers carrying oil for NATO and U.S. troops in Afghanistan on Monday, the third such strike inside Pakistan in as many days, police said. The attack took place on a supply line that has been closed by Pakistani authorities in protest at a NATO helicopter attack that killed three Pakistan troops on the border last week.
It will raise the stakes in the closure, which has exacerbated tensions between Washington and Islamabad but has been welcomed by Islamist groups opposed to Pakistan's support off the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan. Police officer Umer Hayat said two people were killed in the attack close to the capital Islamabad by what he called "terrorists." The attackers opened fire on trucks that were parked at a poorly guarded terminal before setting them afire, he and other officers said.
The trucks were en route or waiting to travel to the Torkham border crossing along the fabled Khyber Pass, which is used to bring fuel, military vehicles, spare parts, clothing and other non-lethal supplies for foreign troops in Afghanistan. Pakistan's other main route into landlocked Afghanistan, in Chaman in the southwest, has remained open.
Why doesn't he do what he says? Why the threat. Go ahead and do it. We don't want you in India anyway, Dr. Shah!A Sharma wrote:
Rashid Mehmood, an official of weightlifting team, told Geo News that Dr Shah has threatened to send the squad back home.
Dozens of Muslim militants with European citizenship are believed to be hiding out in the lawless tribal area of northwestern Pakistan, Pakistani and Western intelligence officials say, training for missions that could include terror attacks in European capitals.
A senior official of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency, or ISI, told The Associated Press that there are believed to be "several dozen" people with European citizenship — many of Pakistani origin — among the Islamic extremists operating in the lawless border area.
foreigners in the area also include Chechens, Uzbeks, Arabs and Turks, one of whom was a former F-16 pilot in the Turkish air force.
Now note these two nuggets:there are as many as 20 British-born militants in the border area, especially in the North Waziristan district
During an operation last year, Pakistani soldiers discovered a passport in the name of Said Bahaji, which matches the name of a member of the Hamburg, Germany, cell that conceived the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States. Bahaji is believed to have fled Germany shortly before the attacks in New York and Washington.
So, a question for you paki-apologists and paki lurkers: If this Bahaji guy was known to be involved in 9/11 and his mug shot must have been on every post office wall, why was he allowed to enter your pure land and not tracked? His name should have and must have been on everyone's radar screen. Hmmm? Same for this Spanish babe who was married to another known 9/11 plotter and Madrid bombings. Kind of makes you wonder if the paki establishment is neck deep in all this.A Spanish passport found by the Pakistani military during the same operation bore the name of Raquel Burgos Garcia. Spanish media reported that a woman with the same name was married to Amer Azizi, an alleged al-Qaida member from Morocco suspected in both the 9/11 attacks and the Madrid train bombings in 2004.
And the photograph of a father expressing innocent affection for his daughter was apparently taken at their home. Seeing how such an innocent (and private) moment was twisted and presented as one of alleged depravity by no-doubt the most depraved of people themselves, made me almost sick to my stomach.
You have a country (Pakistan) that has not actively discouraged the following ideas:A_Gupta wrote:http://cafepyala.blogspot.com/2010/10/h ... ou-go.html
And the photograph of a father expressing innocent affection for his daughter was apparently taken at their home. Seeing how such an innocent (and private) moment was twisted and presented as one of alleged depravity by no-doubt the most depraved of people themselves, made me almost sick to my stomach.
And this is October 2010."Failure to gain the initiative and reverse insurgent momentun in the near-term (by September 2010)...risks an outcome where defeating the insurgency is no longer possible"..."We run the risk of strategic defeat"
In fact, I will go a step further and claim that so far the book has covered 3 aspects. (1) The Army-Administration relationship and its impact on the conduct of the war (2) Suicidal behavior of Pakistan and their perfidy (3) To a lesser extent, Karzai's inability to work towards some semblance of a decent administrative structure. A good chunk of the book is about Pakistan's double dealing and Unkil's planning to take into account the double dealing. For exampleMcConnell had laid out the problem dealing with Pakistan. It was a dishonest partner of the US in the Afghan war. "They are living a lie", McConnell said.
Sometimes, the absurdity is even highlightedOn the stick side, Riedel said, they had looked at the extreme option of invading Pakistan....immediately dismissed it. (On the carrot side debating whether Pakistan should be rewarded with hundreds of helicopters)....There werent enough helicopters in the world to change Pakistani behavior
In this context, and in the context of Unkil's realization that a counter insurgency is unlikely to succeed, Unkil wants to "Change the facts on the ground". Which essentially means a change in Pakistani behavior. Like blind sheep, every discussion mentioned in the book about "Changing Pakistani behavior" goes back to gaining Pakistani trust by doing something or the other. The administration and the army seems to have bought hook line and sinker, Pakistani claim that resolution of disputes with India would cause it to abandon terrorism. However, it seems to me that three assumptions have not been challengedZardari talking with Khalizad: Zardari dropped his diplomatic guard. He suggested that one of the two countries was arranging the attacks by Pakistani taliban inside his country: India or the US. Zardari didnt think India could be that clever. Zardari talking with Bob Woodward: On relations with India, he took pride in what he deemed a significant liberalizing moment. "I've allowed Indian movies for the first time"
2. The degree to which everyone is prepared to question their assumptions and even winning strategies, hire outside consultants and produce sharp strategy documents is astounding. If GWB's administration had done this 9 years ago, Afghan war would have had a different color now.The US had scored an extraordinary intelligence coup in the ungoverned regions of Pakistan as a result of blending...human sources and technical intelligence...He (McConnell) said, The real breakthrough had been with human sources. That is what President Bush wanted to protect at all costs....without spies, the video feed from the Predator might as well be a blank television screen.
and...everyone in the room said it had to be done without fanfare or public attention (India-Pak issues). Otherwise India would go beserk. India thought that the US was filled with closet Pakistani lovers.
and Obama laying out his objectivesWhen it came to India--a country outside of Holbrooke's portfolio but central to Pakistan's concerns--Holbrooke said in his theatric baritone, "I will deal with India by pretending not to deal with India".
4.... but that doesnt mean that a majority of the book is devoted to India-Pak. India is hardly mentioned at all. Maybe 1 or 2 pages. In the context of Mumbai,I see three key goals. One protecting the US homeland...two, concern about Pakistan's nuclear weapons...third goal about Pakistan-India relationships
5. For comic relief, one of the SEAL missions into Pakistan produced heavy civilian casualities becauseCIA intelligence showed no direct ISI link, Hayden told him (Bush). These are former people who are no longer employees of the Pakistani government* (Footnote: The CIA later recieved reliable intelligence that ISI was directly involved in training for Mumbai)
6. While propounding "Nook Nanga" theory, this has to be taken into account:But in that part of the world, people often ran towards automatic weapons fire and explosions..to see what was happening
I am only halfway through the book, my impressions might change. Rest of the review after I finish the book. And I havent lost sight of the fact that this is October 2010 and the national bird of Pakistan seems to be frisky these days....And most tellingly, nothing on the shelf specifically addressed towards securing Pakistan's nuclear weapons. Obama's team would have to develop a graduated plan dealing with a range of circumstances, from Pakistan losing a single nuclear weapon all the way up to the Pakistani government falling to Islamic extremists.