Terrorist Islamic Republic of Pakistan (TSP): Dec. 28, 2010

[wig]

Pro-Taliban militants blasts girls' college in Pak

The lone girls' college in the restive Orakzai tribal region of northwest Pakistan has been blown up by pro-Taliban militants.

Six rooms and a computer lab were destroyed when an explosive device went off at the Government Degree College for Women at Alamkhan Kali in Orakzai Agency yesterday, media reports said.

No one was in the building when the blast occurred.

Over 150 girls are enrolled in the institution, which was the only state-run college for girls in Orakzai Agency.

Taliban militants have blown up or torched over hundreds of educational institutions in the tribal areas and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa over the past three years, affecting the education of thousands of students.

http://www.ptinews.com/news/1343195_Pro ... ge-in-Pak-

[SSridhar]

Obama Advisor Delivered Presidential Threat To Pakistan Over Detained American, Say Officials

No threats given to Haqqani: US Embassy
To this day, the US has refused to accept that Armitage similarly delivered a threat after 9/11.

[anupmisra]

US tells Pakistan to release Davis or its envoy would be kicked out
Holy $$$hit!!

The US has threatened Pakistan that its envoy will be "kicked out" if it fails to release the American official arrested for gunning down two men in Lahore by Friday

So this "get outta town by sundown" threat has a new meaning in this "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" serial. Watch out for the falling H&D.

[Vikas]

Friday is almost over.
Tomorrow we will hear that US never threatened Pakistan (What? me ? Threaten Pakistan, No way Hommie!) and on Monday a new deadline will be given and this show of I-got-your-balls and I-got-the-purse-strings will go on.

[shravan]

Mardan suicide attack

Meanwhile, two different chapters of the Hakimullah Mahsud-led TTP claimed responsibility for the deadly attack on the Army training centre. It was Ihsanullah Ihsan who first called the media organisations to own the attack. He rather exaggerated and claimed a serving soldier of the Pakistan Army had carried out the attack.

Ihsanullah claimed that the soldier had approached them to carry out a suicide attack and the TTP leadership advised him to accomplish it within the same military camp where he lived. He claimed that the TTP gave him training and arranged explosives and other material for the attack. Later, another caller called this scribe from somewhere in Afghanistan and claimed to be a spokesman for the Malakand-based Taliban.

[A_Gupta]

http://criticalppp.com/archives/39622

The Washington Times newspaper has reported a trade in children as young as seven being bought and sold for use as suicide bombers. Quoting US and Pakistani officials, the newspaper said the Taliban were paying up to $14,000 (£8,700) for a child. Some stayed in Pakistan, while others were sold on to the Taliban in neighbouring Afghanistan.

[SSridhar]

Flash news. Shah Mehmood Qureshi dropped from Cabinet. Confirmation awaited.

[RajeshA]

Flash news. Shah Mehmood Qureshi dropped from Cabinet. Confirmation awaited.

Now who would laugh together with Hilarious Clinton.

[Aditya_V]

Flash news. Shah Mehmood Qureshi dropped from Cabinet. Confirmation awaited.

Now hang him from the nearest lampost, good ridance to bad rubbish, can't stand the way this D** was thinking he could dictate to 1.2 billion Indians. " we will make India beg etc" this fellow should be given the Bhutto or Taseer treatment.

[SSridhar]

Flash news. Shah Mehmood Qureshi dropped from Cabinet. Confirmation awaited.

Now who would laugh together with Hilarious Clinton.

It is a lesson to the Pakistanis that all that mirth, body proximity and sparkling champagne will last only so long as the going is good. After all, Makhdoom was close to PA and got carried away a little too far.

[jrjrao]

From a NYTimes report:

Although senior Pakistani officials agree in private that Mr. Davis, who carries a diplomatic passport, is protected by the Vienna Conventions, they appear unable or unwilling to enforce the protocol, according to senior American officials.

The Pakistani military and security apparatus appears to be willing to allow the Davis case to the dominate relationship with Washington for the moment, American and Pakistani officials said.

That way, Pakistan can wring concessions on the breadth of the presence of American security officials and contractors in Pakistan, according to the officials.

As the American government argued for Mr. Davis’s release, photos and video from the official’s camera and his cellphone were shown on two Pakistani television channels in what appeared to be deliberate leaks by the Pakistani security forces.

While in detention, the American will be segregated from the rest of the prisoners but would not be allowed access to the Internet or a cellphone, a senior government official said.

Link

[Sanju]

Why social media revolutions cannot last by Rajeev Srinivasan

There is also a great tactic that propaganda-savvy governments use: disinformation. Especially in nations where the mainstream media are so compromised that people look to the net for real news, this can be very effective. A recent example that shows the power of misinformation was a tweet by the Pakistani humourist @majorlyprofound, who claimed that intellectuals at the Karachi Literary Festival were about to release a statement praising Salman Taseer [ Images ], condemning his killer, and criticising blasphemy laws. This led to a plaintive response from the festival organisers, asking that he stop the disinformation, because they already had enough security problems!

[Muppalla]

condemning his killer, and criticising blasphemy laws. This led to a plaintive response from the festival organisers, asking that he stop the disinformation, because they already had enough security problems!

this majorly-whatever is a Paki nutcase and he is there to destroy Pakistan. I am really worried now what kind of influx will come from Pakistan into India. As someone else said forevery thing we have to do cost benefit analsis.

[Dilbu]

^^

[RajeshA]

Obama Advisor Delivered Presidential Threat To Pakistan Over Detained American, Say Officials

Pakistan seems to be shooting in its own foot. Pakistan has a dedicated constituency in the USA lobbying for it. But the important thing is not to create friction with your friends. This Raymond Davis friction may be sufficient to piss off the pro-Pakistan constituency for just long enough, that they refuse to go back to being Pakistani friends.

I see Raymond Davis as a case of being the first domino. In a country, where terrorists walk in and walk out of jail at their leisure and pleasure, Pakistan can hardly make the case of "let justice run its course".

I think, Pakistanis are miscalculating big time.

[Raghavendra]

condemning his killer, and criticising blasphemy laws. This led to a plaintive response from the festival organisers, asking that he stop the disinformation, because they already had enough security problems!

this majorly-whatever is a Paki nutcase and he is there to destroy Pakistan. I am really worried now what kind of influx will come from Pakistan into India. As someone else said forevery thing we have to do cost benefit analsis.

Bliss to meet majorlyprofound
http://twitter.com/majorlyprofound

[Gagan]

Dunno what to make of this news snippet:
Was Raymond Davis Spying on Pakistan’s Babur Missile?

it is interesting to note that their are varying reports of what Davis had in his possession (photos here) at the time he was arrested after shooting dead two Pakistanis on the streets of Lahore on January 27. Varying reports mention a GPS tracker, a GPS navigation system or a phone tracker, along with a telescope and digital cameras said to have photos of “sensitive” locations. In a very interesting development, we learn from multiple sources that on Thursday Pakistan successfully test-fired its Hatf VII cruise missile, which it also calls “Babur”. When the Express Tribune first reported that Davis’ victims were from the intelligence community (which ISI has since denied and threatened the paper with legal action), the Washington Post followed up by mentioning that Davis was trailed and confronted because he had “crossed a red line“. Was gathering information on the impending test firing of the Babur missile that red line?

Of importance is the fact that the missiles were said to be at an air base west of Lahore. Now for the description of the sensitive photos Davis took:

“During the course of investigation, police retrieved photographs of some sensitive areas and defence installations from Davis’ camera,” a source told The Express Tribune requesting anonymity. “Photos of the strategic Balahisar Fort, the headquarters of the paramilitary Frontier Corps in Peshawar and of Pakistan Army’s bunkers on the Eastern border with India were found in the camera,” the source added.

[Gagan]

So I was looking at PAFB Risalwala, Faisalabad, west of Lahore to see if I could see the garage next to which the Babur was launched.

I found yet another Bunker like the one in Kamra and Sargodha.

[rohitvats]

WRT the Babur missile and TERCOM and digital scene correlation - can anyone tell me, how a country without any sort of satellite infra will be able to get the detailed terrain map for TERCOM to function and high resolution imagery of the target and surrounding infra for the digital area scene correlation to provide the guidance?

[RajeshA]

“During the course of investigation, police retrieved photographs of some sensitive areas and defence installations from Davis’ camera,” a source told The Express Tribune requesting anonymity. “Photos of the strategic Balahisar Fort, the headquarters of the paramilitary Frontier Corps in Peshawar and of Pakistan Army’s bunkers on the Eastern border with India were found in the camera,” the source added.

Don't they have a satellite uplink from their cameras or an extra device, so that they can get rid of all sensitive material before anybody gets to see the photos on the cameras?

Bveree, bveree pakward, I must say!

[saip]

President swears in first batch of new cabinet

http://www.dawn.com/2011/02/11/presiden ... binet.html

The ministers, who took oath, included Mian Changez Jamali, Dr. Firdous Aishaq Awan (Information Ministry), Syed Khurshid Shah (Religious Affiars), Sardar Alhaj Mohammad Umar Goreja, Hina Rabbani Khar, Mir Israr Ullah Zehri, Arbab Alamgir Khan, Mian Raza Rabbani, Syed Naveed Qamar (Petroleum), Rehman Malik (Interior), Amin Fahim (Trade), Shahbaz Bhatti, Engineer Shaukat Ullah, Samina Khalid Gurki, Abdul Hafeez Sheikh(Finance), Haji Khuda Baksh Rajar, Mian Manzoor Ahmad Wattoo, Makhdoom Shahabuddin (Foreign), Babar Awan (Law), Haji Gulam Ahmed Balour, Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar (Defence) and Mir Hazar Khan Bajrani.

So Shahabuddin the new foreign minister?

[Gagan]

There are a few youtube videos that shwo Raymond Davis's interrogation and some of the pics on his camera
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfU9o13E22s

Other parts can be accessed from that link.

[Gagan]

OK another piece of news.
Pakistani TV channels have broadcast mobile camera footage of Police interrogating Raymond Davis.
400% unprofessional attitude of the Lahore Police is viewable.
They are making jokes in Punjabi, while a few guys try to ask some questions in bad english.

At one point Raymond Davis asks for a bottle of water.
The pakistani policemen reply,
"Paani Paani Oh!, No money No Paani"

Blithering Idiots in Lawhore Police and their idiocy in full display.

[Gagan]

Here is the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJN9fpylrkA

[Raghavendra]

^ raymond davis claims to be a consultant with RAL in that video

[A_Gupta]

US funding a road in S. Waziristan as an anti-Taliban measure.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/48aea8c6-3541 ... z1DfPOOpzM

After spending billions of dollars supporting the country’s army offensives, the Obama administration has adopted a disarmingly simple plan to defuse the violence: building a road.

Washington hopes that twin 100km highways running through South Waziristan to the edge of North Waziristan, a haven for al-Qaeda loyalists, will unlock economic development and sap support for militancy.

The choice of contractor says much about the Taliban threat. Soldiers of the Frontier Works Organisation, part of an opaque commercial empire run by Pakistan’s army, are the only engineers who dare set foot there.
....

The mainly ethnic Pashtun population in the region – which straddles the Durand Line dividing Pakistan and Afghanistan – has been cut off not only by a lack of roads, but by a bankrupt political system dating back to British colonial rule.

The sense of alienation is fed by a belief that Pakistan’s military elite has fostered militancy in the region since the 1980s to guarantee a flow of US military aid.

[saip]

I see several Khakis at the swearing in ceremony and there are two motor hams too. The standing Khakis are OK probably aides de camp but who are the sitting Khakis - must be at least generals and what are they doing at the ceremony?

http://thenews.com.pk/

[surinder]

Pakistan seems to be shooting in its own foot. Pakistan has a dedicated constituency in the USA lobbying for it. But the important thing is not to create friction with your friends. This Raymond Davis friction may be sufficient to piss off the pro-Pakistan constituency for just long enough, that they refuse to go back to being Pakistani friends.

...

I think, Pakistanis are miscalculating big time.

TSP (more than India, I am afraid to say) has learned the art of intenational relationship management. They have done things far more intricate and dangerous.

They understand the art of calibrating their actions fairly accurately. E.g. Post nau gyarah they calibrted their response to khan presence very masterfully.

We all know Davis will be freed. They will push it as far and as much as they can. This is not really a self-respecting nation/quom that is fighting for a cause, any cause. This all about getting their base needs fulfilled---there is no honor in this. The Khan is also bereft of honor and they both deserve each other.

This all going to work out quite OK.

[Kati]

l'affaire davis: so what i would conclude is that unkil's people are making people to people contacts with various jehadlooni outfits... possibly because the ISI translation layer is no longer proving to be reliable? in the process sometimes unkil's people feel the need to 9mm baretta their way out of a situation... fair enough i say

Precisely. For the last four years 'Shia' has been trying to build bridges, in some cases infiltrate, with huge amount of cash to all sun dry islamic orgs. And many a times, to
avoid complexities, this work is being given to def contractors. It appears that eye-ass-eye is terribly upset because Davis was bypassing the master and cutting deals and/or snooping
on the servants. Having the Pearl memory fresh in mind, Davis didn't take any chance......

[ramana]

WRT the Babur missile and TERCOM and digital scene correlation - can anyone tell me, how a country without any sort of satellite infra will be able to get the detailed terrain map for TERCOM to function and high resolution imagery of the target and surrounding infra for the digital area scene correlation to provide the guidance?

Same as how they have nuke bums made of Pu when they dont have a Pu facility.

All PRC clowns (clones).

Its like Snoopy the dog claiming that Woodstock was stealing his Van Gogh from his dog house.

[hnair]

I am really worried now what kind of influx will come from Pakistan into India. As someone else said forevery thing we have to do cost benefit analsis.

Muppalla-saar, that ship has already sailed. The death-row guy who halaaled Mighty Heart, he aped Pranab Mukherjee and the pakis believed it to the extent of almost starting a war. Same dude tried that with India, but was laughed at and duly reported to a chagrined paki govt with a memo having a few ROTFL and LMAO.

[ramana]

I see several Khakis at the swearing in ceremony and there are two motor hams too. The standing Khakis are OK probably aides de camp but who are the sitting Khakis - must be at least generals and what are they doing at the ceremony?

http://thenews.com.pk/

They are the Shura gracing the swearing in ceremony!

[CRamS]

I think, Pakistanis are miscalculating big time.

I am not so sure. TSP will be in big trouble should state dept, Pentagon, CIA etc use their mouth pieces on the Nazi radio and TV channels like Faux news to make a big deal of this. Up to now, I haven't seen any extensive coverage of this in the aforementioned popular media. Could be that since relationship with TSP is so important lest SDREs gain a tad over the equal equal should TSP be hurt, the big-wigs are managing this affair optimally: to get Davis released while also letting TSP release some steam. (And as an aside, US has managed, through their man MMS, to get India to forget 26/11 and surrender to Kiyani & Co). Somewhat like what US is doing in Egypt. They have managed the situation so brilliantly, they didn't piss either Muarak (lest he spill the beans on the torture camps for "Al Queda" suspects he ran on behalf of US) or the opposition (US supports democracy onlee) beyond a certain point, and have made sure their (US) interests are central to whatever happens. Great management skills.

[Muppalla]

CRamS ji- TSP will lose a ZERO even if US wants to do something to it. What is that US will do or what is that TSP will lose? That time has gone. TSP know that very well and hence playing this game.

[shiv]

Why India should be really worried about the rapidly expanding Pakistani nukes.

We should encourage the Chinese to supply Pakistan with ICBMs.

Sorry but is the author stupid or what?

He says:

At a time when the US has pushed Pakistani military to shift its focus to the threat from extremist group from within its own borders, the recent reports once again underscore the India-centric threat matrix of Pakistan's military establishment.

Really? If that is really reeeally what the US is saying why the fug is the US supplying Pakistan with f-16s and AMRAAMs? I mean we Indians must be stupid to swallow this guano.

[A_Gupta]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-12427518

Mr Tareen also said that forensic evidence did not support Mr Davis's claim that one of the motorbike riders had approached his car window, cocked his gun and pointed it at him.

No fingerprints had been uncovered on the triggers of the pistols found on the bodies of the two men, he said.

And tests had shown that the bullets remained in the magazine of the men's gun, not the chamber.

"It was cold-blooded murder," said Mr Tareen. "Eyewitnesses have told police that he directly shot at them and he kept shooting even when one was running away. It was an intentional murder."

Tests?
Fingerprints on the triggers?
http://www.forensicsguy.com/benchnotes/ ... rprinting/

I know from expe­ri­ence latent prints on firearm trig­gers is a long­shot. It’s bet­ter with smoother trig­gers, but then many trig­gers now days are poly­mer and have fric­tion grooves cut into them. Making latent prints more difficult.

[tejas]

^^^ Bat feces (guano) is harmful if swallowed. It is useful , however, as it is used to make mascara and thus beautifies the wimmins.

[jrjrao]

It pains immensely to read this accurate reporting on this yet another shameful surrender by MMS et al.

India-Pakistan talks: read between the lines
Analysis: It's official. New Delhi lost the stalemate.
By Jason Overdorf - GlobalPost
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/indi ... stan-talks

But in reality, New Delhi bent over backwards to give in to Islamabad before the proposed negotiations even begin — by granting the Kashmir dispute equal status on the agenda with the 2008 terrorist attacks on Mumbai.

So how did India go from refusing to talk to begging for talks?

New Delhi believes that it has no choice but to talk eventually (WHY???) and surmises that the anger over the Mumbai attacks has faded enough over the past two years to make a resumption possible. Meanwhile, with the expected drawdown and eventual withdrawal of U.S. forces in Afghanistan on the horizon, India may believe that a magnanimous stance today could help it to negotiate a stronger post-conflict role for itself in Kabul.

"I think it was necessary for us to discuss Afghanistan ... ," Indian foreign minister S.M. Krishna told reporters in New York Thursday, according to the Times of India newspaper. "India has been playing a very positive role in trying to build Afghanistan in terms of our volunteers who have gone there for capacity building and so I think Afghanistan had to be included," the paper quoted Rao as saying.

Unfortunately, what's more likely is that resuming the dialogue will just give Islamabad — which is wary even of India's limited present role in Afghanistan — another chance to run circles around India's negotiators.

Already, India has agreed to discuss a whole range of issues, including Pakistan's claims to territory in Indian-administered Kashmir, which will inevitably remove the focus from Pakistan's alleged support of terrorist groups that attack India.

"The reality is that India and Pakistan cannot afford to turn their backs to each other, that they must engage in dialogue which is, as I said, serious and sustainable and comprehensive," Rao said in a televised interview on Thursday, when the substance of the Sunday meeting was disclosed.

It's taken two years, but that's a pretty big flip-flop.

Once, India claimed it would not resume normal diplomatic relations until Islamabad cracked down on terrorist groups operating with impunity in Pakistan and began a vigorous prosecution of the alleged perpetrators of the November 2008 terrorist attacks on Mumbai. That vigorous prosecution never happened, of course. But as the United States proved unable to exert any pressure on Pakistan and instead began pressuring India to return to the negotiating table, New Delhi swiftly went from refusing to talk to begging to talk.

The presumption that Qureshi will visit India in July to review the progress made by the two countries' foreign secretaries over the intervening months underscores the impression that India must woo Pakistan, even to merit a visit from its foreign minister.

At the last meeting between Indian and Pakistani foreign ministers last July, for instance, when Srinagar was rocked by bloody riots over the killing of civilian by Indian security forces, Qureshi sandbagged during meetings with Krishna in Islamabad. Then Qureshi undermined any possible gains at the post mortem press conference by equating a top Indian official with Hafiz Saeed — the Pakistani radical whom India believes masterminded the 2008 Mumbai attacks, and whose continued freedom and influence in Pakistan is a major impediment to better relations.

By caving into Pakistan's demands up front and allowing Kashmir and "all outstanding issues" back on the table, India has essentially admitted that it has nothing to negotiate with. The threat of war is an empty one (thankfully), and generous aid from an opportunistic China and a fearful United States renders India's economic clout meaningless.

"The stick we have we can't use, and the carrot that the Pakistanis want [Kashmir] we can't give them," said Sibal.

[A_Gupta]

^^^

"Any rational observer would say this is not the time to nourish much hope on moving forward on substantive issues," said former Indian foreign secretary Kanwal Sibal. "But on our side they feel that vacuum is not in our favor and by not talking we would be giving up whatever little hope there is ... of stemming the rise of these radical forces and giving some backing to those who wish to normalize relations with India — especially Pakistani civil society."

[svinayak]

Excuses and excuses