Terroristan - 4th Jan 2018

[anupmisra]

This Monkey is old but wants to not stop jumping - After much drama, PTI confirms Imran’s marriage proposal to Bushra Maneka.

Immy duh Dimmy describes why he proposed to Maneka:

[chetak]

This Monkey is old but wants to not stop jumping - After much drama, PTI confirms Imran’s marriage proposal to Bushra Maneka.

Look at the reactions:

‘Eyeing up your spiritual guru not good’

isn't it good when the guru gets a rise out of her aged pupil??

It only proves that im the dim was paying attention in class, no??

Imran has been visiting her for spiritual guidance for quite some time, so what kind of tipple did she serve??

im looks like the single malt type.

maybe a mellow lahori laphroaig aged in goat skin??

chetak Ji :

You have insulted my Wee Dram of the Drop from the Ol' Crater situated at Loch Laphroaig in the Isle of Islay.

Repent or you will face the wrath of Laphroag

Cheers

Sorry, Peregrine ji. my mistake.

forgot that you were a serious fan of the original.

[hnair]

America is acting strange. It is like they decided that Pakistan is fully in China's orbit and is beyond redemption with normal hashih-laced carrots. Stick is something that khan dont use, if the other side has nukes. So it is being pointed out that no-strings attached money (annual hafta for not torching petrol trucks) is being withdrawn, if Pakis favor the costly OBOR/CPEC (cheeni bait-n-switch aid) kind of crap. This has its positive and negatives.

1) a paki underclass that starts talking han, who happens to be our next door enemy
2) a paki elite that sips whiskey under a burqa, maalishes to bollywood's formidable navel fleet and loves to send kids to a khanland, who happens to have no borders with India

I suspect a majority of khanland anal-ysts have made a decision that 1) has already happened and pakis have sold out 400%. It will be difficult to dislodge the han than the khan, due to borders.

We should not see this as "Shree Trump is alone and tweeting", as many Indians and media seems to assume. It is counterproductive for India to see it that way.

[abhik]

So pakies haven't started burning down the ISAF supply convoys yet? Wonder if the US took some preventive measures.

[chetak]

So pakies haven't started burning down the ISAF supply convoys yet? Wonder if the US took some preventive measures.

It is also lucrative for them to let the trucks ply.

The pakis often loot many of these trucks claiming that the tribesmen did the robbery.

PA is involved in many of these acts as they have inputs of the manifests of these CSF trucks

[Lisa]

This is one of Trump's nuclear weapons in this conflict,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial ... Laundering

He has previously threatened to exclude pukistan from the international financial settlement system, in ealy 2017 from memory. The threat said that if sanctions were placed, pukistan would only be able to make international payments on a 'case by case' basis. I would love to see this sanction being imposed and see how taller than mountain friend reacts.

[Amber G.]

Sorry if posted before.. C. Fair's article in the Atlantic
>>Pakis have banked on being treated as too dangerous to fail. But this time could be different.

Pakistan Will Try to Make Trump Pay

Before the news cycle—and the president himself—got consumed with the new White House tell-all last week, Donald Trump made a good foreign policy decision, albeit seemingly in haste. The administration announced it was suspending security assistance to Pakistan, on the grounds that the country is continuing to arm, assist, fund, and provide sanctuary to a wide array of Islamist militant groups that are murdering U.S. troops and their allies in Afghanistan. Well-placed sources involved with calculating the relevant funds have told me that this was not a planned policy and took the other agencies, not to mention the Pakistanis, by complete surprise. Rather it was an ex post facto response to Trump’s January 1, 2018 tweet vituperatively repining that:

The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools. They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!

With this move, though, the president may well stumble into a foreign policy success. Alternatively, he may break the U.S.-Pakistan relationship beyond repair while reaping few actual benefits. Which way it goes depends on the ability of his team to counter or even pre-empt likely Pakistani reprisals. So what might those be?



We’ve been here before.

In February 2011, Pakistan closed off ground routes America was using to resupply troops in Afghanistan, first because of the episode of Raymond Davis, a CIA contractor, who shot and killed two men linked to Pakistan’s intelligence agency after they menaced him at gun point. When the CIA rescue vehicle came, it killed a bystander who was uninvolved in the event. Just as the relationship was recovering, in May the Obama administration staged a unilateral raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound, which was in Pakistan less than a mile from the premier military academy. Then in November, NATO troops in Afghanistan killed 24 Pakistani troops, when they attacked a position near the Pakistani border from which they claimed to have been receiving fire. Pakistan disputed the characterization. In my view, the evidence suggests that the most acute mistakes were made by U.S.-NATO forces rather than Pakistan. The ground routes thus remained closed for much of the year; Pakistan did not fully reopen them until July 2012.

The United States was well into the surge at this point; between NATO forces and Afghan forces, there were hundreds of thousands of troops to resupply, all of whom had relied on the routes through Pakistan. The need to find alternative routes by land and air—including through Central Asia—ended up costing the Americans about $100 million per month more than the previous arrangement. Many feared that while this worked to get supplies into Afghanistan, it would not be sufficient to get massive amounts of war materiel out of Afghanistan when the United States and NATO withdrew. Consequently, the U.S. government hoped that Pakistan would reopen the ground routes. But it turns out that weaning itself off them was not such a bad option after all.


I argued at the time that Americans should not fall for the cheap ground transport solution Pakistan seemed to offer, in part because what America later spent on air supply was cheaper than the so-called Coalition Support Fund payments they paid Pakistan to help guarantee the use of those routes. Moreover, having kicked the cheap ground supply habit, the United States could be in a better position to do what it needed to do if it wanted to win: Put real and costly pressure on Pakistan for continuing to support the Taliban, which was one of the principle reasons for the U.S. inability to prevail in Afghanistan.

Arguably, America is in an even better position now than in 2011, because it only has about 14,000 troops in Afghanistan compared to 90,000 or so in 2011 (of a total of 132,000 NATO troops). America can certainly sustain this through air shipments, especially if it’s pocketing savings by not paying Pakistan the nearly $1 billion a year in Coalition Support Funds, among other funding streams.

But Pakistan has aces in sleeve.

Pakistan now says the alliance is over—and good riddance. Foreign Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif complained that “This is not how allies behave.” He is absolutely correct: U.S. allies do not take its lower and middle-class taxpayers’ hard-earned money and hand it over to enemies such as the Taliban, the Haqqani Network, and Lashkar-e-Taiba.

Asif went on to offer the usual protestations that Pakistan’s military operations have cleared Pakistan of sanctuaries for these groups to hide in. But if there were such scoundrels on Pakistan’s territory, he said that if Pakistan went after them, “then the war will again be fought on our soil, which will suit the Americans.”

What is not clear in Asif’s statement is what Pakistan will cease doing. (We know for certain that it will not cease supporting the Taliban, the Haqqani Network, or Lashkar-e-Taiba.) Will Pakistan do as it has done in the past: Close the ground resupply routes? Will it escalate and close down its air space to American resupply flights? If that happens, what will the Trump administration do? Will it consider this action to be an act of war?

There is still space for further escalation short of conflict. Washington has been silent about U.S. economic assistance to Islamabad, which has totaled more than $11 billion since 9/11 and is thus about one third of the total $34 billion given to Pakistan thus far. And there are several kinds of sanctions that could be applied against persons as well as the country. It is not likely that the administration has pondered the next steps that both capitals can or will take.

In the meantime, Pakistan has repeatedly said that its relationship with the United States is redundant because it now has China. In fact, after Trump’s contumelious tweet, China’s Foreign Ministry declared that it is “ready to promote and deepen” its cooperation with Pakistan. But as with all things that sounds too good to be true, so is the Chinese embrace.

Unlike Washington, which has given Pakistan mostly grant aid, the Chinese only disburse loan aid, largely designed to enable Chinese businesses to build infrastructure in Pakistan on terms favorable to the Chinese. Sri Lanka provides a case study of the risks: Unable to pay back a Chinese loan to finance a port, Sri Lanka was forced to relinquish sovereignty over it and now the Chinese hold the lease to the port for 99 years. China is not truly a substitute for the United States, and it will take time for China to assemble a suite of programs to replace U.S. aid.

Still, Pakistan likely suspects it has the upper hand, and for good reason: It has cultivated a global fear that it is too dangerous to fail. This is why many Americans have been afraid to break ties with Pakistan and have never encouraged the International Monetary Fund and other multilateral organizations to cut off the country and let Pakistan wallow in its own mess. Pakistan believes it has effectively bribed the international community with the specter that any instability could result in terrorists getting their hands on Pakistani nuclear technology, fissile materials, or a weapon. In fact, Pakistan has stoked these fears by having the world’s fastest-growing nuclear program, including of battlefield nuclear weapons. It is conceivable that Pakistan could use funds from a future IMF bailout to service its burgeoning Chinese debt.

Still, one positive side effect of having an erratic head of state is that the United States now has a genuine and credible threat to act against Pakistan. America has not been in such a position since 9/11, when it used its position of leverage to coerce Pakistan to facilitate the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. Whereas Pakistan had long comforted itself that neither Presidents Bush nor Obama would seriously alter course, due to the petting zoo of Islamist militants that Pakistan cultivated as crucial tools of foreign policy, and to its nuclear weapons, Pakistan will have to seriously consider that Trump means what he says. Since the early months of the war on terror that began in October 2001, the United States has ultimately swerved when confronted with Pakistani brinkmanship. Pakistan can’t count on that this time.

[ramana]

Mattis says US will continue to use TSP supply routes.

So again its a saw tooth type emotion.

[venug]

Poisonous and running out: Pakistan's water crisis

[venug]

Pakistan Will Try to Make Trump Pay

.....
.....

Still, Pakistan likely suspects it has the upper hand, and for good reason: It has cultivated a global fear that it is too dangerous to fail. This is why many Americans have been afraid to break ties with Pakistan and have never encouraged the International Monetary Fund and other multilateral organizations to cut off the country and let Pakistan wallow in its own mess. Pakistan believes it has effectively bribed the international community with the specter that any instability could result in terrorists getting their hands on Pakistani nuclear technology, fissile materials, or a weapon. In fact, Pakistan has stoked these fears by having the world’s fastest-growing nuclear program, including of battlefield nuclear weapons. It is conceivable that Pakistan could use funds from a future IMF bailout to service its burgeoning Chinese debt.

Still, one positive side effect of having an erratic head of state is that the United States now has a genuine and credible threat to act against Pakistan. America has not been in such a position since 9/11, when it used its position of leverage to coerce Pakistan to facilitate the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. Whereas Pakistan had long comforted itself that neither Presidents Bush nor Obama would seriously alter course, due to the petting zoo of Islamist militants that Pakistan cultivated as crucial tools of foreign policy, and to its nuclear weapons, Pakistan will have to seriously consider that Trump means what he says. Since the early months of the war on terror that began in October 2001, the United States has ultimately swerved when confronted with Pakistani brinkmanship. Pakistan can’t count on that this time.

[vimal]

We must always remember that Terroristan has two powerful backers Saudis and Chin. As long as these are around there is little impact on the shitistan.

[Peregrine]

Trump’s vendetta against Pakistan

Remember Trump’s promise to punish countries which voted against the US for accepting Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The 71-year-old American president may be “crazy” or “mentally unbalanced” as say 27 leading psychiatrists, but his capacity for hate and vendetta is razor sharp. Since Pakistan was one of the co-sponsors of the UN resolution against the US on Israel, Trump has lost no time in cutting off aid to us. “The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than $33 billion in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit,” Trump tweeted. “They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!” He has also suspended security assistance to the Pakistan’s military and has placed Pakistan on a ‘special watch list’.

One year ago, this same man as president-elect spoke on the phone with then prime minister Nawaz Sharif and used superlatives to praise him and Pakistan. He called Nawaz Sharif “terrific”. Pakistanis, “fantastic” and “one of the most intelligent people.” So impressed was Trump with the country and its prime minister, that he was “ready and willing to play any role that you [Nawaz Sharif] want me to play to address and find solutions to the outstanding problems.”

But wait… at home Trump is facing fallout that is reverberating all across America. The media is agog with Michael Wolff’s tell all on Donald Trump and his family. The book is called Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House. His cabinet members laugh behind his back and are quoted as privately calling the president, names. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson calls him a “moron”. His national security adviser, General McMaster, says Trump is a “hopeless idiot,” and his chief economic adviser, Gary Cohn, doesn’t refer to him any differently, either.

His own daughter Ivanka Trump makes fun of her father’s weird hairstyle telling friends how he covers an “absolutely clean pate — a contained island after scalp-reduction surgery — surrounded by a furry circle of hair around the sides and front, from which all ends are drawn up to meet in the centre and then swept back and secured by a stiffening spray.”

Worst of all are the bombshell statements attributed to the former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon. He thinks Trump has lost his mind and will either get impeached or resign due to his lack of mental fitness. Trump, writes Wolff, increasingly repeats stories and could not recognise old friends. “Everybody was painfully aware of the increasing pace of his repetitions. It used to be inside of 30 minutes he’d repeat, word-for-word and expression-for-expression, the same three stories — now it was within 10 minutes.”

How did Michael Wolff get the juice from people working in the White House? He says after the election of Donald Trump, Wolff approached Trump saying he wanted to write a book about his first year in the White House. He conducted conversations and interviews over a period of 18 months with the president and most members of his senior staff. He says he was able to take up “something like a semi-permanent seat on a couch in the West Wing” — an idea encouraged by the president himself. In more than 200 interviews, he found how the administration’s “lack of experience and disdain for political norms” made for a hodgepodge of governance. But the most salacious bits are about the idiosyncrasies of Donald Trump. He is said to go to bed at 6.30pm, eating cheeseburgers in bed and binging on three TV sets placed in his bedroom. He got the secret service all riled up when he insisted on locking his bedroom. Afraid of being poisoned, he forbids the staff to touch his toothbrush.

With such a man as the president of America, God help Pakistan! His wrath is lethal.

Cheers

[nam]

We must always remember that Terroristan has two powerful backers Saudis and Chin. As long as these are around there is little impact on the shitistan.

No, these countries are not the backer. It is the US. Has any of these countries given aid even close to 32 billion dollars? + IMF loans?

Forget close, even 1/5 of 32 billion?

So all this is drama. If US really wants to make Pak pay, neither the Chinis, nor the Saudis will come in the way.

[vimal]

^ Backers does not necessarily mean that they will give $$. Saudis have deep relationship with SD and other branches of US gov. They can provide support indirectly through other channels to affect the outcome. Chin is tallel friend and can provide loans to turn Pak into Hanistan.

[Vips]

It is on US support that the future King of Saudi Arabia is bringing in changes and also consolidating Power.US has leverage on Saudi to influence any likely financial support ($$ or Oil sale on deferred payment aka free basis to Pakistan). Pakistan no more has 3.5 friends. It is left with 1.5 friends (China and Saudi Arabia)

[Bart S]

^In fact the rumours on some of the Paki channels are that NS family influenced Saudis who interceded on their behalf and caused the POTUS to pressure Pakis (who are now run solely by the Army and no longer PML) as a favour to NS. Of course that could just be some conspiracy theory put out by rabid retd (retarded) Pakjabi Army folk.

[ArjunPandit]

^In fact the rumours on some of the Paki channels are that NS family influenced Saudis who interceded on their behalf and caused the POTUS to pressure Pakis (who are now run solely by the Army and no longer PML) as a favour to NS. Of course that could just be some conspiracy theory put out by rabid retd (retarded) Pakjabi Army folk.

Nitpick retd is retired, retarded is implicit when you said Pakjabi

[ramana]

It is on US support that the future King of Saudi Arabia is bringing in changes and also consolidating Power.US has leverage on Saudi to influence any likely financial support ($$ or Oil sale on deferred payment aka free basis to Pakistan). Pakistan no more has 3.5 friends. It is left with 1.5 friends (China and Saudi Arabia)

+72*786!!!

[anupmisra]

US conveys 'concrete' steps Pakistan must take to resume security aid flow

“Our expectations are straightforward,” Pentagon spokesman Colonel Rob Manning told reporters.

“Taliban and Haqqani leadership and attack planners should no longer be able to find safe haven or conduct operations from Pakistani soil.”

No mention of terrorists like hafiz suar and others.

https://www.dawn.com/news/1381633/us-co ... y-aid-flow

[anupmisra]

Pakistan's water crisis: a contaminated supply hits two thirds of households

More than two-thirds of households drink bacterially contaminated water and, every year, 53,000 Pakistani children die of diarrhoea after drinking it, says Unicef.

In Lahore, Pakistan's second largest city, the situation is even worse than in Islamabad.

But Pakistan's water is not only contaminated, it is becoming scarce.

Official projections show the country, whose population has increased fivefold since 1960 to some 207m, will run dry by 2025, when they will be facing an “absolute scarcity” of water with less than 500 cubic metres available per person in Pakistan.

That's just one third the water available in already parched Somalia now, according to the UN.

https://www.dawn.com/news/1381595/pakis ... households

[ArjunPandit]

US conveys 'concrete' steps Pakistan must take to resume security aid flow

“Our expectations are straightforward,” Pentagon spokesman Colonel Rob Manning told reporters.

“Taliban and Haqqani leadership and attack planners should no longer be able to find safe haven or conduct operations from Pakistani soil.”

No mention of terrorists like hafiz suar and others.

https://www.dawn.com/news/1381633/us-co ... y-aid-flow

Why are we expecting them to take up our fight?

[shaun]

The porkis Excel in almost all parameters...
http://www.pewforum.org/2013/04/30/the-worlds-muslims-religion-politics-society-beliefs-about-sharia/

[arun]

US conveys 'concrete' steps Pakistan must take to resume security aid flow



No mention of terrorists like hafiz suar and others.

https://www.dawn.com/news/1381633/us-co ... y-aid-flow

Why are we expecting them to take up our fight?

Wrong premise, even from a hard-bitten realistic policy basis, that the US has no obligation or duty in going after Mohammadden Terrorist Hafiz Mohammad Saeed.

Given that a number of US Citizens were slaughtered during the 26/11 Mumbai Mohammadden Terrorist attack, it is very much a US fight to act against the master mind of that attack Hafiz Mohammad Saeed and against the Mohammadden Terrorist groups he heads namely Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), Jama'at-ud-Da'wah (JuD) and Falah-i-Insaniat Foundation (FIF).


And the above is without getting into fluffy arguments based on obligations of Nation States born out of UN designation of being a Terrorist Organisation, cuddly US rhetoric of the of need to act against global terrorism indiscriminately and without distinction and can you other countries please send some troops to fight in Afghanistan for GOAT aka Global Alliance Against Terrorism etc ……….etc………….etc

But then again given that the US has hitherto been avoiding taking up its own fight against the duplicitous actions of the Mohammadden Terrorism Fomenting Islamic Republic of Pakistan resulting in the death of US Military personnel in Afghanistan, maybe expecting the US to take up their own fight on behalf of mere US civilian victims of in 26/11 is a misplaced expectation by me .

[arun]

X Posted from the Pakistani Role In Global Terrorism thread.

Excerpt from “Transcript: CIA Director Mike Pompeo on "Face the Nation," Jan. 7, 2018” dealing with the US suspension of Jaziya to US’ Major Non-NATO Ally, the Mohammadden Terrorism Fomenting Islamic Republic of Pakistan:

JOHN DICKERSON: Let me ask you about Pakistan. The U.S. is cutting off aid to Pakistan. That's a- Pakistan is a nuclear power. Is it a good idea pressuring Pakistan, given all that's on the rest of the plate in the United States with a nuclear power?

MIKE POMPEO: John, again, I'm going to avoid the policy that you asked about, but I'll talk to you from the intelligence perspective what we see. We see that Pakistan is continuing to provide safe harbor havens inside of Pakistan for terrorists who present risks to the United States of America. We are doing our best to inform the Pakistanis that that is no longer going to be acceptable. So this- this conditioned aid, we've given them a chance. If they fix this problem, we're happy to continue to engage with them and be their partner. But if they don't, we're going to protect America.

JOHN DICKERSON: Haven't we always though- We get a lot of the U.S. intelligence benefits from things that the Pakistanis let the United States do as well. And so isn't there kind of a relationship that may not be perfect, but for the bad things they do they allow U.S. counterterrorism forces to benefit from staging or other benefits out of Pakistan? So isn't that at risk as a national security problem for the United States?

MIKE POMPEO: The president has made very clear that he needs Pakistan to cease being a safe haven for terrorists that threaten the United States of America. End. Period. Full stop.

From CBS here:

Transcript: CIA Director Mike Pompeo on "Face the Nation," Jan. 7, 2018

[Manish_P]

The president has made very clear that he needs Pakistan to cease being a safe haven for terrorists that threaten the United States of America. End. Period. Full stop.

Clear. Crystal.

[manjgu]

no mention that it should not be haven and heaven for terrorist that threaten Republic of India?? !!

[shaun]

After 9/11 did Youass put any sanction on saudia, although the maximum number of attackers were saudis . No .
YouAss have multiple powers with multiple interests, running it. We have to extract the maximum from them like (I hate to say ) the porkis.

[Peregrine]

'Simplistic' to say China is supporting Pakistan: Chinese diplomat

NEW DELHI: A Chinese diplomat on Tuesday said that it would be "simplistic to say that China is supporting Pakistan," ANI has reported.

Instead, Ma Zhanwu, China's Consul General in Kolkata, chose to call their bilateral relationship "good."

"I would say that China has a good relationship with Pakistan, as we do with many other countries, including India. Right now we have a good relationship with India," ANI quoted him as saying.

Ma called the contentious Doklam issue between India and China an "old page," and hoped instead that the two countries would "turn a new page of further growth and development."

Cheers

[Peregrine]

Four security personnel among six martyred in Quetta suicide blast

QUETTA: At least six people including four personnel of Balochistan Constabulary were martyred and 17 others sustained injuries in a suicide blast that ripped through Quetta’s Zarghoon road here Tuesday evening.

The suicide bomber riding on the motorcycle hit the security officials truck parked near GPO Chowk in the vicinity of the Balochistan Assembly.

According to initial investigation, the bomber was heading towards provincial assembly, however, when he failed to find the way due to strict security measures, rammed his bike into the police truck.

Police and rescue sources have confirmed the explosion was a suicide attack.

The injured and dead have been shifted to the Civil Hospital Quetta.

Police and FC personnel have cordoned off the area following the explosion.

Emergency has been declared in the hospitals of Quetta.

Farugh Ateeq, Deputy Commission Quetta said police was the prime target in the blast.

He refused to confirm the death toll and number of injured in the explosion.

Only Four? Yeh Dil Maangay More! Cheers

[Peregrine]

Pentagon says US ready to work with Pakistan to combat terrorism - Only in respect of the USA - Rest of the World is Open Game!

WASHINGTON: The United States says it stands ready to work with Pakistan for the resolution of security aid suspension issue and to combat terrorist groups without distinction, Radio Pakistan reported.

According to Radio Pakistan, Pentagon spokesperson Col. Rob Manning told reporters in Washington that United States hopes that Islamabad will take decisive action against the terrorist and militant groups.

He said the suspension was not a permanent cut off.

He said security funding and pending deliveries will be frozen, but not cancelled or reprogrammed at this time.

The spokesman said the United States would continue conversations in private with the Pakistani government.

Pakistan maintains that it is fighting the biggest war on terror in the world sacrificing the lives of tens of thousands of civilians and armed personnel with huge losses to the economy to the tune of 120 billion dollars, the report said.

Pakistan has already conveyed to the US that it has done more than any other country to combat terrorism destroying terror sanctuaries along Pakistan-Afghanistan border through a series of military operations.

Cheers

[Peregrine]

X Posted on the PESW Thread

Rupee to depreciate further against dollar: Moody’s

SINGAPORE: Moody’s Investors Service has on Tuesday expressed fears for the Pakistani rupee to depreciate further against the US dollar but hopes that the depreciation will bring long-term benefits for the Pakistani currency.

“Over the longer term, allowing the PKR to reflect currency fundamentals would reduce the drain on Pakistan’s (B3 stable) foreign exchange reserves and enhance the sovereign’s capacity to absorb shocks to trade and/or capital flows. Moreover, if inflation expectations are anchored and the government’s liquidity risks do not rise sharply, currency flexibility would also enhance Pakistan’s price competitiveness, given the current overvaluation of the PKR”, Moody’s said in an announcement”, Moody’s said in its announcement.

The credit rating firm observed that ‘PKR depreciated around 5% against the USD, with most of the weakening occurring over three trading days between 8 and 12 December 2017’.

Citing the real problem behind the currency depreciation, Moody’s said that 33% of Pakistan’s debt was in foreign currency and that the debt burden was 68% of the GDP at the end of the previous fiscal year while it should be 55% for the B-rated sovereigns.

It said that at the current levels, Pakistan’s credit rating was not likely to be hit but further depreciation was certainly possible; and likely as well. It hoped that ‘Pakistan’s current account deficit to remain around current levels, at 3%-4% of GDP, due to the high import intensity of domestically-driven growth’.

Cheers

[arun]

Xinhua reports that civilian underling in chief to the Uniformed Jihadi’s of the Punjabi Military Dominated Deep State of the Mohammadden Terrorism Fomenting Islamic Republic of Pakistan fronting fictional façade of civilian control over the Uniformed Jihadi’s , namely Defense Minister Khurram Dastgir Khan, has disclosed that the Islamic Republic has suspended defense and intelligence cooperation with the United States amid growing tensions over U.S. suspension of military aid to Pakistan:

Defense, intelligence cooperation with U.S. suspended: Pakistani defense minister

The Voice of America (VOA) on the other hand reports that the US insists its Major Non-NATO Ally has done no such thing .

Appears the US may be pretending that her Major Non-NATO Ally, the Mohammadden Terrorism Fomenting Islamic Republic of Pakistan has not stuck a finger up the US backside and wiggled it vigorously by claiming that that no such thing happened so as to not have to act on the tough guy threats they (the US) have made to the Islamic Republic :

US Denies Pakistani Claims of Suspension of Military or Intel Cooperation

[disha]

^Bakis going into the arms of cheenis is at best a very lazy anal-isis by the analcysts and at worst a very evil agenda to protect the MUNNA by some quarters. Truth is always in between.

I would say that Bakis must go and must be made to go into the arms of the Cheenis. It is like putting baki in liquid oxygen, Bakis have perfected the lie that we will find another customer for its prostitution (in this case Cheenis). That lie needs to be called out. Cheenis neither have the werewithal to go on a huge deficit run to protect moth-eaten bakistan economically and neither has the technical capability or diplomatic acumen to support the bakistanis strategically. For example, the cheenis themselves could not get into MTCR or WA and can only hold the "Bakis are required in NSG" stick so long.

Bakistan has only cheenis left to whore themselves out. And the cheenis are anything but dumb. They are both strategically and tactically smart and will allow Bakistan to completely whore themselves out.

Sample this:

Instead, Ma Zhanwu, China's Consul General in Kolkata, chose to call their bilateral relationship "good."

"I would say that China has a good relationship with Pakistan, as we do with many other countries, including India. Right now we have a good relationship with India," ANI quoted him as saying.

Ma called the contentious Doklam issue between India and China an "old page," and hoped instead that the two countries would "turn a new page of further growth and development."

Bakistanis are caught between the taller mountain and the deep sea.

[Peregrine]

X Posted on the J&K News and Discussion Thread

Pak anthem row: Independent MLA marshalled out of J&K Assembly

JAMMU: An independent MLA from Langate in Jammu & Kashmir kicked up a row during the assembly proceedings by saying there is nothing wrong in playing the Pakistani national anthem in the valley.

The uproar began when Bandipora legislator Usman Majeed urged the J&K government to "pardon" the young cricketers, who were arrested two days ago for playing the neighbouring country's national anthem before the start of a cricket match in Bandipora.

But, his appeal was cut short by independent MLA Engineer Rasheed, who said, "What sin have the youth committed if they played Pakistani anthem during their match... Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti had been seeking votes for last eight years by displaying green clothes. Mufti Mohammad Sayeed thanked Pakistan and militants for his victory in the elections. An FIR
should be registered against Mehbooba if you have registered FIR against the cricketers."

Rasheed, who got into a verbal spat with some BJP members, blamed "misgovernance" for such incidents. He also attempted to enter the well of the House, following which he was marshalled out on orders of speaker Kavinder Gupta.

Cheers

[Peregrine]

Has Pakistan made winning choices?

Let us examine Pakistan’s response to international pressure on three UNSC sanctioned groups – the Haqqani Network, the Lashkar-e-Taiba and the Jaish-e-Muhammad.

The Haqqani Network (HQN) is now essentially the Afghan Taliban – whatever distinction we may once have been able to make between the two groups stands largely erased after the multiple changes at the top of the Afghan Taliban’s leadership, and the more prominent role for members of the Haqqani clan in that leadership structure. When anyone asks for the HQN to be shut down, they are essentially asking for Afghanistan to be rid of the most potent challenger to the US-backed Afghan state. So the question on the HQN really is this: What does Pakistan gain from clinging to the HQN and, in the bargain, destroying its friendship with the US?

The Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) is now essentially the Milli Muslim League (MML); whatever distinctions we may be compelled to draw between them are non-essential. Pakistani strategists have taken a long-standing international liability and transformed it into a domestic tumour. How fast it spreads and how deeply it penetrates will be determined by the people of this country – but, left unmolested, there are those who feel that ‘Prime Minister Hafiz Saeed’ would be the best antidote to Pakistan’s problems. That such people are not in jail, and not getting mental health support, is an indictment of the accountability mechanisms for public servants. When anyone asks about the LeT or JuD now, they are not asking for only about internationally sanctioned group accused of terror anymore, they are also asking about a political party that is perceived to be close to the views of some in the establishment.

So the question on the LeT, and more importantly on Hafiz Saeed is this: what does Pakistan gain from taking Hafiz Saeed out of house arrest, onto television screens with male bimbos interviewing him breathlessly, and into the political mainstream via the Milli Muslim League? Especially if all this is done whilst thumbing Pakistan’s nose at the international community – including, as it turns out, the Palestinian Authority, for whom Hafiz Saeed is what he is to the rest of the world : a terrorist.

The Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) receives the least attention, but represents the most complicated of the three. Unlike the Haqqanis, the JeM is not the guarantor of a Pakistani seat at the table. Unlike the LeT, the JeM has not been launched as a legitimate mainstream political party. When indications after the Pathankot incident pointed toward the JeM, and Indian officials suggested that there was no evidence that the JeM had the support of the Pakistani state, many optimists on the Pakistan-India relationship felt buoyed. But India’s suspicions are certainly piqued when China blocks the naming of Masood Azhar as a terrorist by the UN, not once but twice. So the question on the JeM is this: what does Pakistan gain from China going to bat for Masood Azhar at the UN?

These questions are deeply interlinked with the Trump administration’s dangerous and escalatory behaviour with Pakistan. The low-IQ reaction to American accusations of a double-game is to trot out the same hackneyed lines about Pakistan’s great sacrifices in the “war on terror”. This is low IQ for many reasons, but let us actually list some of them out to clarify what they are.

First, when Pakistan suggests that it should be respected because it has sacrificed 70,000 of its citizens in the fight against terror, it is shifting the agency for this fight away from Pakistan, and to those whose respect it craves. Did the Pakistan Army and the politicians who go along with it really fight the war on terror for America? Are the soldiers, spies and officers (not to mention police personnel) that have died in this fight a sacrificial offering to the US? No. They are not, were not, never will be. Pakistanis died for Pakistan. Not for the US.

Second, when Pakistan suggests that it should be respected because 70,000 lives have been lost in its fight against terror, it is attributing great competence and success to terrorists. Have you ever heard anyone try to win an argument by emphasising how much was lost? Pakistan is the only country in modern history to beat back a terror-fuelled, internationally financed campaign to destroy the country – what it has achieved against the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi are case studies in beating terrorism. No other country can boast of this kind of track record. Yet Pakistani talking points begin and end with how much Pakistan has lost: how many lives were lost, how much money was lost, how much of our syncretic culture was lost, how much tolerance was lost.

Meanwhile, Pakistan produced its best art, its best music, its best film, its best heroines, its best political resistance, its best urban infrastructure, and its best education, health and public services reforms during the same period when it was fighting the terrorists. So yes, many thousands of Pakistanis have died – but their deaths should not be currency in our negotiations with international partners or adversaries. We should have kept them alive. What we can legitimately be proud of is our ability to power through despite odds that would have flattened and destroyed many other countries.

Third, and this is most important, when Pakistan claims that it should be respected because of its sacrifices in the struggle against violent extremism and terrorism, it must remember that the country is then compelled to respect other countries with similar experiences. Most importantly, this would include Afghanistan, a country that has lived through conflict constantly since the late 1970s. Four generations of Afghans know only war and conflict. Four generations of Afghans know only displacement and disability. Four generations. There is no Afghan alive today that has not lived through a war that has destroyed major Afghan cities entirely. So if Pakistan deserves respect because it has suffered conflict and casualties and economic damage, then Afghanistan does too.

The problem with this moral equivalence is that Pakistan’s arguments for respect around the world are burdened with the HQN, LeT, and JeM. Pakistan’s case, otherwise very strong, is saddled with questions about what the country gains from continuing to cling to these three groups, that are deemed to be terrorist entities by the United Nations Security Council sanctions regime.

When Indians claim victimhood to terror, despite belonging to a country that elected a religious extremist with a reputation as a butcher, and despite the continued brutality of India’s occupation of Kashmir, the world listens. When Afghans claim victimhood to terror, they do it in sync with similar claims by the world’s most powerful country. The president of that country has now explicitly claimed this victimhood, and announced an intention to end it.

Most of Pakistan’s next moves will be determined by the military, because civilian leaders keep passing up opportunities to take ownership of the national security agenda. This is unfortunate because Trump’s tweet is like the US raid on Bin Laden or the terrorist attack on APS Peshawar, an exogenous shock that allows for difficult questions to be asked. While the world asks why Pakistan clings to the HQNs, LeTs and JeMs of the world, Pakistanis should know better. There is one reason and one reason alone: India.

So the real question is not why the HQN, LeT (now MML), or JeM are still in business. The real question is whether these tools have served in any way to prevent the emergence of a regional hegemon status for India. The real question is whether these tools have helped or harmed Pakistan’s own narrative about itself, for its people, forgetting for a moment what other countries think of Pakistan. The real question is: what do we think of ourselves? If these tools were meant to have prevented India from winning, and Pakistan from losing, then the real question is: is this what winning feels like?

Cheers

[Peregrine]

SAEED INCITED UK MUSLIMS TO MILITANCY TERRORISM, SAYS BBC REPORT

HAFIZ Muhammad Saeed, the head of the banned Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), toured Britain during the 1990s, stirring up Muslim youths to become jihadis years before 9/11, a BBC investigation has found.

Hafiz Saeed, who has a $10 million bounty on his head for allegedly masterminding the Nov 2008 attacks in Mumbai, thrilled audiences in packed mosques in cities around this country by calling for a return to the days when Muslims waged jihad and infidels paid them protection money.

Hafiz Saeed, the founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), has always denied involvement in the Mumbai carnage.

The revelation came amidst concerns for the British government and intelligence agencies about the large number of Muslims going abroad to fight “holy wars”. For most people this controversial religious calling came to the fore after 9/11, 7/7 (the attacks in Britain in July 2005) and the Arab Spring — young, disenfranchised and radical recruits heading from Britain to Iraq, Somalia, Libya and Syria.

The investigation, which was the basis of a 40-minute BBC Radio 4 documentary, The Dawn of British Jihad, was broadcast on Tuesday night. It revealed that the roots of violent religious struggle by British Muslims were laid in the mid-1990s, much earlier than previously thought.

The tour of Britain was chronicled in Mujalla Al Dawah, a monthly magazine published by his organization, Markaz Dawa Wal Irshad.

According to the articles uncovered during the BBC investigation, Hafiz Saeed arrived in Britain on Aug 9, 1995, and set about lecturing the youth about jihad.

There was silence in Birmingham as he urged his audience to “rise up for jihad” and vilified Hindus.

That address “in real terms laid the foundation of ... jihad in the UK,” according to the articles.

In Huddersfield, Saeed said: “In order to defeat infidels, it is our duty to develop all forms of arms and ammunition, including nuclear bomb. That is God’s command. We (LeT) have declared jihad and killing as first condition of our belief.”

In Leicester on Aug 26, Saeed spoke at a conference attended by 4,000 people. His address “infused a new spirit in the youth. Hundreds of young men expressed intention to get jihad training”.

Summing up the British tour, the author wrote: “A large number of young people want to get jihad training. A group of around 50 college and varsity students has so far finalised its programme. The valleys of Britain are resounding with chants of jihad. The time is not far off when Muslims will wake up” and the era of the early Muslim invaders of Europe “will come back in the vales of Europe. There will be chants of Allahu Akbar over Alhamra if the spirit of jihad is back among Muslims of Europe.”

Manwar Ali, a computer science graduate from London who became a jihadist but has now renounced violence, told the BBC he had persuaded Hafiz Saeed to visit Britain to rally support for jihad and raise funds.

“Whenever Hafiz Saeed would come to Green Lane [Birmingham] or Rochdale, Skipton, Rotherham, Birmingham, Leicester thousands of people would turn up,” Mr Ali told BBC.

Each trip raised £150,000 or more. Women removed their gold bangles and earrings in response to his call. Hundreds of Britons went to battlefields in the Philippines, Kashmir and Bosnia, with some losing their lives.

Britain banned LeT in early 2001.

The militant group was banned by Pakistan in 2002, but shortly before that Hafiz Saeed resigned and formed JuD, which is currently on a watch list but officially not banned. Saeed was confined to his home in Pakistan for several months last year, but has been freed since.

According to Raffaello Pantucci’s book, We Love Death As You Love Life, LeT has retained a complex network in Britain.

Omar Khyem from Crawley, ringleader of a five-strong gang jailed in 2004 for plotting to use fertiliser bombs to blow up the Bluewater shopping centre in Kent and the Ministry of Sound nightclub in London, claimed to have established a camp in Kashmir with LeT.

Aabid Khan, from Bradford, who was jailed for 12 years for heading a cyber-grooming radicalisation gang, claimed to have links to LeT.

The United Kingdom is not the only western country visited by Hafiz Saeed during the 1990s. He visited the US in 1994. The Jan 1995 issue of Mujalla Al Dawah published an interview with Hafiz Saeed about his visit to the US. “I was invited by an Islamic organisation called New York Cultural Centre (Al Markaz Al Saqafati New York). It is an organisation of our Salafist brothers and counts a number of Pakistanis and Bangladeshis among its members,” he said in the interview.

“I was invited on the letterhead of the cultural centre as a professor and there was no mention of any jihadist organisation,” he added.

Cheers

[Amol.d]

This Monkey is old but wants to not stop jumping - After much drama, PTI confirms Imran’s marriage proposal to Bushra Maneka.

this is hilarious - "The report suggested that Khan met there with Bushra Maneka, known as Pinky in the area, for spiritual advice."

[Bart S]

Xinhua reports that civilian underling in chief to the Uniformed Jihadi’s of the Punjabi Military Dominated Deep State of the Mohammadden Terrorism Fomenting Islamic Republic of Pakistan fronting fictional façade of civilian control over the Uniformed Jihadi’s , namely Defense Minister Khurram Dastgir Khan, has disclosed that the Islamic Republic has suspended defense and intelligence cooperation with the United States amid growing tensions over U.S. suspension of military aid to Pakistan:

Defense, intelligence cooperation with U.S. suspended: Pakistani defense minister

The Voice of America (VOA) on the other hand reports that the US insists its Major Non-NATO Ally has done no such thing .

Appears the US may be pretending that her Major Non-NATO Ally, the Mohammadden Terrorism Fomenting Islamic Republic of Pakistan has not stuck a finger up the US backside and wiggled it vigorously by claiming that that no such thing happened so as to not have to act on the tough guy threats they (the US) have made to the Islamic Republic :

US Denies Pakistani Claims of Suspension of Military or Intel Cooperation

This defence minister has been accused by paki (retarded) generals on talk shows as being anti-army. So it could be just a ploy to needle the army by committing them to a course of action that they want to avoid. This bluster costs the minister nothing as he has no power anyway, but it puts the army in a tight spot as they cannot walk back from that for fear that their own bluster would be exposed and cowardice seen, yet taking that stance would cause them major troubles from the US.

[Bart S]

this is hilarious - "The report suggested that Khan met there with Bushra Maneka, known as Pinky in the area, for spiritual advice."

The fact that his spiritual guru is someone called Pinky is even funnier than the fact that the tharki buddha who wants to have his n'th marriage in his 60s is the main prime ministerial candidate of the country.

[shiv]

Xinhua reports that civilian underling in chief to the Uniformed Jihadi’s of the Punjabi Military Dominated Deep State of the Mohammadden Terrorism Fomenting Islamic Republic of Pakistan fronting fictional façade of civilian control over the Uniformed Jihadi’s , namely Defense Minister Khurram Dastgir Khan, has disclosed that the Islamic Republic has suspended defense and intelligence cooperation with the United States amid growing tensions over U.S. suspension of military aid to Pakistan:

Defense, intelligence cooperation with U.S. suspended: Pakistani defense minister

The Voice of America (VOA) on the other hand reports that the US insists its Major Non-NATO Ally has done no such thing .

Appears the US may be pretending that her Major Non-NATO Ally, the Mohammadden Terrorism Fomenting Islamic Republic of Pakistan has not stuck a finger up the US backside and wiggled it vigorously by claiming that that no such thing happened so as to not have to act on the tough guy threats they (the US) have made to the Islamic Republic :

US Denies Pakistani Claims of Suspension of Military or Intel Cooperation

Where are all the rahrah USA smokegetsinyoureyes people who used to come on this thread to say that the US twirls Pakistan around its little finger and that India should learn from the US. Cat got their tongue? Maun vrat?