Communications in and around the region appeared jammed, making it difficult to reach local residents or other witnesses.
Something seems to be missing, if the communication is jammed why do they require equipment to monitor cellIn addition to night-vision devices, the Pakistan military has said it is seeking additional Cobra helicopter gunships, heliborne lift capability, laser-guided munitions and intelligence equipment to monitor cell and satellite telephones.
I saw the wedding pics of a (now ex-) TFTA colleague from Pakistan. He's from a very connected family (as in Mush attending his wedding kind). All the pics of his bride have her wearing a red saricsharma wrote:BB is wearing a sari. Probably not common in Pakistan these days.
. He said that this isn't unusual for Pakjabi weddings (might be high-end TFTA weddings that he's attended only -- this guy didn't grow up in Pakistan much)Errr...since the beggar is Pak, don't expect logic. Just wonder as to why the Pakis forgot to add the death ray and satellite launch technology to help fight the miscreants.In addition to night-vision devices, the Pakistan military has said it is seeking additional Cobra helicopter gunships, heliborne lift capability, laser-guided munitions and intelligence equipment to monitor cell and satellite telephones.
Something seems to be missing, if the communication is jammed why do they require equipment to monitor cell
India pliz tu not start ungli in border or baloch. Pliz!!The Waziristan ops. finally commence...
Pranay wrote:http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/18/world ... ml?_r=1&hp
The Waziristan ops. finally commence...
Admins: Please start a separate thread for the PA ops. in South Waziristan. It will be a long and painful operation for the PA.
What makes you think it will be long and painful?Singha wrote:looks like our goals are ok
- durand line has ceased to exist
- pakistan is our buffer state, shock absorber and strategic depth against the talibs and other
assorted militant tribes of the frontier
once half the people are dead or driven to madness by ceaseless war, we shall move in with
Indic religions philosophies and restore the glories of the old Kushan (Yuezhi) and Gandhara
cultures
AnantD wrote:India pliz tu not start ungli in border or baloch. Pliz!!
AmitR wrote:Wait till tomorrow morning you will start getting numbers of Talibs killed in nice round figures between 6 and 20.
The book highlights the failure of Pakistan to reconcile itself to the changing strategic vectors of the world in the region. Because of a stasis in its ideological thinking, it is gradually losing its viability, as pointed out by Selig Harrison; and some pre-collapse symptoms are quite apparent in its growing lack of governability.
like what happened during Vietnam, drugs used to be brought to USA from places like cambodia and north vietnam using american cargo planes.Raju wrote:urlReturning to the drug trade, General Gul named the brother of President Karzai, Abdul Wali Karzai. “Abdul Wali Karzai is the biggest drug baron of Afghanistan,” he stated bluntly. He added that the drug lords are also involved in arms trafficking, which is “a flourishing trade” in Afghanistan. “But what is most disturbing from my point of view is that the military aircraft, American military aircraft are also being used. You said very rightly that the drug routes are northward through the Central Asia republics and through some of the Russian territory, and then into Europe and beyond. But some of it is going directly. That is by the military aircraft. I have so many times in my interviews said, ‘Please listen to this information, because I am an aware person.’ We have Afghans still in Pakistan, and they sometimes contact and pass on the stories to me. And some of them are very authentic. I can judge that. So they are saying that the American military aircraft are being used for this purpose. So, if that is true, it is very, very disturbing indeed.”
The security agencies have also been asked to monitor Afghans whose names are in the list of Afghan Trained Boys, trained to carry out suicide attacks
He said Pakistan was the first county with which the current US administration had made a multi-year financial commitment that could be extended to another five years after successful completion of the first five years. He said it was unprecedented that both the House of Representatives and the Senate voted unanimously in favour of the aid bill, which showed US commitment to the people of Pakistan.
SK: I would like to begin the interview with the regional context, Central Asia and South Asia fall in a different political configuration all together where we see an economic integration. We have been hearing this for the pat 62 years that Pakistan’s location is very strategic, Central Asia and South Asia are connected to each other through Pakistan, but today we see that Central Asia and South Asia are silently moving closer to each other. Do you think Pakistan will have any role in this whatsoever or is Pakistan on one side?
SMQ: I believe that Pakistan has a very important role to play in all of this and Pakistan’s role is now being recognised by everyone as well. You must have seen that the new policy implemented by the Obama administration, they have spoken about the regional approach in that particular policy. Today Russia is trying to re-engage itself with the Central Asian Republics, which were previously part of the Soviet Union. The world right now is going through a serious energy crisis and the Central Asian Republics are rich in energy resources, secondly they are growing markets. They have a population there and the population is steadily increasing, and that’s why people can now see various opportunities, beyond Afghanistan into Central Asia. And if that needs to be done, you know that Pakistan is the hub, which has to be used because you are aware of the fact that many Central Asian Republics are land-locked. They are not accessible through the sea, and therefore Pakistan behaves as a very natural trade corridor to them. We have man power, we have skilled labor, we have a lot of opportunities here, the Government policy here is such that it is giving incentives to the private sector for investments, so what I am trying to say is that people can come and install their capacities here for markets into Afghanistan and beyond.
SK: But what have we done practically? We did not open these routes and trade corridors for the last 62 years, we did not recognise our strategic position and today we see that India has constructed a highway from Iran with an investment of a Billion dollars?
SMQ: If you go back 60 years, you will see that this region was different back then, the former Soviet Union did not have their own independent policy and they used to follow the policies of Russia and the former Soviet Union. Today they are trying to establish relations with other countries; they have made it very clear that they are willing to have their own independent foreign policy. When I was visiting Tajikistan with the President recently, they made it clear to us that they were willing to build and establish economic relations with Pakistan. Location-wise, we are both on either sides of Afghanistan and that is why they are willing to have regional connectivity with us, by means of roads and railways in order to make trading easier. China is one of the biggest growing countries of this region when it comes to economy, we have been seeing an outstanding amount of growth taking place there, even today they are touching 9-10%, and that is why they see a lot of potential. Then the Western part of China, that part which is connected to these republics, is comparatively less developed; now you know that China’s policy is towards the West as they have made significant development everywhere else, now all their future investments and infrastructure developments are gradually coming here. Naturally, the needs and requirements will increase here as a result of that, their energy requirements can also be fulfilled from here and in this way again, Pakistan is going to provide them with a corridor to make all this possible. So I think there are a lot of opportunities present here in Pakistan.
SK: Now tell me, if we have to move forward in this and become a regional power, and utilise our strategic location, I think it is very important to change the mind set of our people. An MOU was signed between Pakistan and Afghanistan in the United Stated of America, it was signed in America and the leadership should have sold that agreement to the people, if India is part of the transit trade then everyone should have been told about it, but instead some hype was created in the media followed by some criticism and then it all died down eventually.
SMQ: The transit Trade Agreement does seem to be the topic of discussions these days, and what we are trying to negotiate, that is between Afghanistan and Pakistan. It was a bilateral arrangement that had been going on between us, and the last agreement was signed in 1964 and you know that there is a huge time period between 1964 and 2009 and a lot of changes has also taken place over the years, there are a lot of new ideas and new needs and requirements today, apart from that trading has also changed a great deal over this time. So it was being thought to renew that agreement and therefore discussions were being held between Afghanistan and Pakistan, we even exchanged a draft with each other and now we have signed the MOU. We decided that we have to sign this new agreement before the 31st of December 2009, we think this will be very beneficial to Afghanistan and obviously it will be greatly beneficial to Pakistan as well because the balance of trade between Pakistan and Afghanistan, is in Pakistan’s favor and the total consumptive requirement of Afghanistan is being fulfilled by Pakistan.
SK: India does not have any role in this?
SMQ: No, India is not playing any role in this agreement.
SK: is it a regional agreement?
SMQ: It is a regional agreement, that is true but it goes with Afghanistan and beyond. This Transit Trade that we are doing is between Pakistan and Afghanistan as well as with the countries beyond Afghanistan, which are the Central Asian countries. This is what the agreement is about and we are planning to reach till Afghanistan and the countries beyond it, through this agreement. If we have to make any agreements with India, we will do it bilaterally and that will not be done through this particular agreement.
SK: And when can we expect that to happen?
SMQ: That depends upon the overall situation of the country, you are well aware of the fact that Pakistan was showing positive behavior when this Government took over{what is the 'positive behaviour' of any country ?}, we tried our utmost to make the relations better and friendlier, but then the Mumbai incident became a huge barrier and even today Indian has not managed to come out of and recover from the Mumbai incident hangover. I am going to New York and I plan to meet their Foreign Minister there soon so lets see what outcome we get from that meeting.
SK: Are you expecting something positive from the meeting? Because Mr. Krishna has stated that terrorism and dialogue cannot coexist.
SMQ: I think I will try to show him the other side of the canvas, I am going to try and tell him that we should think big, and there should be no limits. If we want peace in this region, if we want stability, if we want democracy, if we want economic development, and if we want to boost our bilateral trade, if we want to renew the true purpose of SAARC, then in my opinion, we will have to change the way we think and behave. The Mumbai incident was undoubtedly very unfortunate, I condemned it then and I still condemn it but this does not mean that we forget to move forward from Mumbai and become hostages, and hand over our agendas to the terrorists so that they can create bad feelings between the two countries by such acts of terrorism. We do not want to do that, we wish to co-operate and we wish to tell them that similar incidents are taking place in our country as well, we have new stories of terrorism every other day, every other day you hear of bomb blasts and innocent people dying in our country and this is all affecting our economy badly, we are victims as well, just the way that they are.{Very smart, eh ?} We want them to join us in trying to find solutions to this problem.
SK: What do you think aboutMr Man Mohan Singh, and his statements?
SMQ: I think that Mr. Man Mohan Singh, Prime Minister of India is a thinking person. His behavior has been very appropriate in the past and it has been positive as well. Unfortunately, he has become a victim of the internal politics there, and these internal politics are pressurising him to such an extent that he is not able to say what he really wants to say. I think that all the interaction that we have ever had with India, privately, their behavior has been different the whole time and publicly they tend to take a belligerent stand in order to pacify their domestic audience.
SK: Despite the fact that Congress has always supported and backed him up? Even Miss Sonia Gandhi supported him.
SMQ: See, whatever was decided at the Sharmosheikh, I believe that was very positive. The engagement that took place there was a very constructive engagement and the whole world appreciated it, everyone said that this is the only sensible course available to the two neighbors. What other way do we have apart from having dialogues? Any other way apart from dialogues is not effective enough, and undoubtedly the way that India want to progress economically, of course they have their dreams too, they too {in addition to Pakistan, that is
LinkWorkers with the Pakistan Telecommunication Company install a fibre-optic cable in Islamabad. Charles Kao, Willard Boyle and George Smith { If we don't say, may be no one will know that they are not from Pak }have won the 2009 Nobel Physics Prize for pioneering "masters of light"
Par for the course. Former US Secretary of State George P Schultz quoting Pakistan’s former President, Gen. Zia Ul Haq:Rangudu wrote:Today is October 13th.
People in the US do not miss tonight's Frontline episode on your local PBS TV station
Review
...................... John Nagl, retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel who wrote the foreword to the military's latest counter-insurgency manual, is unrestrained when asked about the Pakistanis and their truthfulness or lack of it
Then there's Rohde's second point:
"I had written about the ties between Pakistan’s intelligence services and the Taliban while covering the region for The New York Times. I knew Pakistan turned a blind eye to many of their activities. But I was astonished by what I encountered firsthand: a Taliban mini-state
that flourished openly and with impunity."
Or, in other words (and as Indian analysts keep trying to explain to the West), large elements of the Pakistani regime, military, and intelligence are the Taliban's best allies, as well as the sponsors of a variety of Islamist terrorist groups targeting India.
Yet it is that very country, Pakistan, that U.S. policy wants to depend on to fight the Taliban and al-Qaida. Washington ignores Pakistan's sponsorship of terrorism, deep involvement in the dreadful Mumbai attack and other operations into India, and laziness in battling the Taliban and al-Qaida.
I had written about the ties between Pakistan’s intelligence services and the Taliban while covering the region for The New York Times. I knew Pakistan turned a blind eye to many of their activities. But I was astonished by what I encountered firsthand: a Taliban mini-state that flourished openly and with impunity.
The Taliban government that had supposedly been eliminated by the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan was alive and thriving.
All along the main roads in North and South Waziristan, Pakistani government outposts had been abandoned, replaced by Taliban checkpoints where young militants detained anyone lacking a Kalashnikov rifle and the right Taliban password. We heard explosions echo across North Waziristan as my guards and other Taliban fighters learned how to make roadside bombs that killed American and NATO troops.
……………… Then a surfeit of education is also a root cause of terrorism as suggested by this news item datelined the same day as the above one:Sunday, October 18, 2009
Illiteracy root cause of terrorism, says PM Gilani
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Saturday said education is his government's top priority as illiteracy is the root cause of terrorism.
Daily Times
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani is speaking out of his musharraf. There is clearly another factor driving the penchant of individuals who originate from the Islamic Republic of Pakistan’s for indulging in terrorism.35 held activists of banned outfit booked under ATA
Updated at: 0530 PST, Sunday, October 18, 2009
ISLAMABAD: The Capital police have arrested 35 people belonging to banned organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir, including their key leaders, and booked them under the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA), police said.
Highly-educated people, including computer engineers, educational institutions’ head, businessmen, telecom engineers, students of different institutions, environment scientists, civil engineers and an officer of a US-Aid project were among the arrested activists of the Hizb ut-Tahrir. ……………………
The News
And that factor will remain as long as their is no widespread reform in Pakistani version of Islam.arun wrote: Pakistan’s Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani is speaking out of his musharraf. There is clearly another factor driving the penchant of individuals who originate from the Islamic Republic of Pakistan’s for indulging in terrorism.
Pakistani version of Islam has decisively moved towards salafism, deobandism and ahl-e-hadeesm.Dipanker wrote:And that factor will remain as long as their is no widespread reform in Pakistani version of Islam.
The outcome of the operation in South Waziristan stands to shape the future of nuclear-armed Pakistan and the militant groups seeking to topple its U.S.-backed government.
DoubleThe Taliban claimed to have inflicted "heavy casualties" on the army and to have pushed invading soldiers back into their bases.
TripleAccounts from residents and those fleeing Sunday suggested that the 30,000 Pakistani troops were in for a bloodier time than in the Swat Valley
30,000 TFTA: 11,500 Uber TFTAThe army is up against about 10,000 local militants and about 1,500 foreign fighters
That creates an interesting responsibility for India. Now, it becomes vital for India to make sure that Pakistan survives or else we will loose the buffer.Singha wrote:looks like our goals are ok
- pakistan is our buffer state, shock absorber and strategic depth against the talibs and other
assorted militant tribes of the frontier
India only has to make sure some parts of TSP which will serve as a buffer survives. There is no need to support TSP in its current form. In fact India should be managing the formation of the buffer zone to its liking. Fissures should be created at critical points much like the controlled demolition of a moth eaten building.Karan Dixit wrote: That creates an interesting responsibility for India. Now, it becomes vital for India to make sure that Pakistan survives or else we will loose the buffer between India and Taliban.
Does this mean that somewhere in USA there is serious discussion going on about Pakistan and Terror? Are we going to see a U-turn of strategy on Afghanistan and Pakistan.“This is where al-Qaeda is based… not just in Afghanistan, it’s clear that they’re based in Pakistan,” Rahm Emanuel, the White House Chief of Staff, told the CNN in an interview.
“What is the relationship between the Taliban? Are there different grades of a Taliban? That is what the analysis is going on in the situation room, and I think the comfort for the American people is the President will not be rushed to making a decision without asking firm questions and challenging the assumptions behind those questions,” Mr. Emanuel said.
60 terrorists killed, 5 soldiers embrace shahdat in Rah-e-Nijat:ISPR there you go, the martial army is out with statistics.Dilbu wrote:I hope this time there is a real fight between TSPA and Talibunnies. I will wait until it is clear that its a real fight and not a dog and pony show before I grab my beer and popcorn.