Terrorist Islamic Republic of Pakistan (TSP): Mar. 29, 2011

Baikul · Post by **Baikul** » 04 May 2011 00:56

^^ And right now Unkil has just only begun to apply a few tentative pulls, pokes and prods.

A flick of the wrist here and there and the Pakjabi high command will soon start singing The Qaumī Tarāna in soprano.

jrjrao · Post by **jrjrao** » 04 May 2011 01:15

Prof. Walter Russell Mead, on Osama and Pakistan:

...the death of this failed, misguided man — with the blood of his thousands of victims staining his hands, choking his soul, and rising up to testify against him on the dreadful day of judgment – changes the world, and it changes the world for the better.

In the first place, it greatly simplifies America’s task in Afghanistan. The death of this man was a strategic objective in that war; it has now been achieved. It is easier now for the United States to take a more flexible and political approach toward ending the conflict. There are a lot of things we would like to see in a peace deal in Afghanistan; there are only two things we must have. One is that Afghanistan never again becomes a friendly sanctuary for terrorists planning attacks against us and our allies; the other is that the end of the Afghan War cannot be perceived as an American defeat.

The death of Bin Laden makes it much more difficult to paint a compromise political settlement in Afghanistan as an American defeat. This should hasten the day when NATO forces come home.

It also begins to untie the unhealthy knot that has bound the US and Pakistan together since 9/11. Pakistani nationalists by and large hate and fear the United States, especially since the US-India rapprochement puts us firmly in favor of India’s emergence as a global power. Americans are frustrated by what we can only see as Pakistan’s slow but inexorable national suicide. As these long term forces drove us apart, we were tightly bound together by the war in Afghanistan and the US drive against Al-Qaeda. That unnaturally tight bond between two countries fundamentally uneasy with each other has intensified the friction in our relations and increased the hostility between us.

We have now moved significantly closer to the end of the unnatural relationship that is doing so much damage. Ultimately American interests in Central Asia are secondary ones; we will not be abandoning this region as completely as we did after the collapse of the Soviet Union, but we will not indefinitely hover over Pakistan the way we have since 9/11. This will allow some underlying parallels between US and Pakistani interests to emerge and should lead to a smoother working relationship.

Pakistanis often blame Washington’s war in Afghanistan for their own country’s grim slide into chronic instability and for their frustrations in Afghanistan. They are likely soon to discover that the only thing worse than a Washington breathing down their necks is a Washington relegating the region to a lower priority level. The Russians, the Chinese, the Indians and the Iranians all agree that the conversion of Afghanistan into a sanctuary for radical, Sunni-linked religious terror movements is a very bad thing. Pakistan’s isolation on this issue is not America’s fault; as the US steps back, Pakistanis will have to grow up. For too long Pakistan has had a security culture that nurtures fantasies and illusions; when those illusions don’t pan out, Pakistani nationalists blame the United States. They will soon have the opportunity to find out that we have nothing to do with the steady deterioration of Pakistan’s position.

http://blogs.the-american-interest.com/wrm/

lakshmikanth · Post by **lakshmikanth** » 04 May 2011 01:45

I think RAW/GOI should seriously consider raising Indian assets to pre-Gujral standards. The way Porkis are going now, it would seem that there is a serious chance of some or the other "==" being carried out sooner or later by the ISI. In the moment of desperation, they could plan to focus whatever energy is left into anti-SDRE cause now that they have been dealt a firm Jhappad by unkil and the west.

Intelligence assets would also help in conducting precision search and execute mission on the ground like the one which got Osama. I cannot imagine how lax the security was if Unkil did all what he did and got away without even being detected, also considering the LOC is so close by, it should be much easier to do so.

Mahendra · Post by **Mahendra** » 04 May 2011 01:52

Wasn't leaving Osama's youngest goat behind a mistake? Granted the goat was injured in the leg but surely the goat could have been given some emergency medical attention and then she would have gone baa baa black sheep have you any wool during interrogation, the least she would have revealed was how long they were staying in that compound, how Osama's medical condition was managed and did Dr Zawahiri visit often for barb-e-que along with Dr Saeed, Omar Sheikh and Kiyanahi

shyamd · Post by **shyamd** » 04 May 2011 02:03

Must read from the ISI mouthpiece/propaganda. But besides the obfuscation he has left what the ISI are thinking.
Pakistan has a price to pay

By Syed Saleem Shahzad

ISLAMABAD - United States officials modified their narrative on Osama bin Laden's killing on Monday in the Pakistani town of Abbottabad to protect Pakistan's broader interests against threats from militants, saying that the Pakistanis had little involvement.

However, well-placed security sources maintain that the operation in Abbottabad - just a two-hour drive north of the capital Islamabad - was without a doubt a joint Pakistan-US effort and that all logistics were arranged inside Pakistan.

All the same, while Pakistan's military command was aware that the operation targeted a high-value suspect, it was completely unaware that it was in fact Bin Laden until this was announced by the Americans after the al-Qaeda leader had been shot dead by US Special Forces.

The operation to get Bin Laden was similar to the one that netted Indonesian al-Qaeda operative Umar Patek - the mastermind of the Bali bombings in Indonesia in 2002 that killed more than 200 people - from Abbottabad in late January.

So when Pakistani intelligence gave the approval for American gunship helicopters to fly from Tarbella Ghazi, 20 kilometers from Islamabad and the brigade headquarters of the Pakistan army's elite commando unit, to capture a high-value target in Abbottabad, the Pakistanis assumed it was for the seizure of Umar Patek's companions.

Once permission had been granted to the helicopters, Pakistani security forces were put on high alert in Abbottabad to provide necessary assistance to the American operation, which was led by American Navy Seals.

Limited bases were granted to the Americans in Tarbella Ghazi in 2008 under an agreement for high-profile operations. Asia Times Online broke that story of that development. (See A long, hot winter for Pakistan October 11, 2008 and The gloves are off in Pakistan September 23, 2008.)

After a 40-minute operation, the Americans had the body of Bin Laden - later buried in the Arabian Sea - and Pakistani authorities were informed. Their forces then entered the compound where Bin Laden had been found and took control.

News of Bin Laden's death broke like a bombshell among military bigwigs as well as on the political leadership. On the international diplomatic front, Pakistan has already lost its argument against allegations that it perpetuates terror. Now, militant groups are expected to turn their guns on the Pakistan state for its complicity in Bin Laden's death.

Before Bin Laden's killing, hardly 10% of pro-Taliban militants were fighting against Pakistan. That is, 90% disagreed with Pakistan's policy of aligning with the US in the "war on terror", but they chose to keep their focus on fighting foreign forces in Afghanistan. Bin Laden's death has invited the wrath of all groups.
For example, the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP - Pakistan Taliban), immediately announced it would avenge his death and declared Pakistan the number one enemy and the US as number two. On Monday evening, a suicide attack was carried out against police in Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa province, in which Abbottabad is located. The TTP claimed responsibility.

While all information was coming out of Washington, Pakistan - where the entire operation was conducted - behaved like an extremely terrified child and did not utter a single word. Only by noon did the Pakistani Foreign Office issue a statement that declared that the operation was exclusively conducted by American forces.

American forces claimed to have buried Bin Laden at sea so that people could not eulogize his grave and that he would not continue to be an icon of anti-Americanism. However, al-Qaeda is a completely different beast.

The world without Osama
Bin Laden, a rich Saudi prince-like figure, was in many ways the brainchild of Dr Ayman al-Zawahiri and his Egyptian camp (See Al-Qaeda's unfinished work Asia Times Online, May 2005) to bolster a movement that in the 1990s had mostly failed and was rapidly losing popularity in the Muslim world.

When Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, the September 11 mastermind, who was not an al-Qaeda member, approached Zawahiri with a plan to strike the US mainland with hijacked aircraft, Zawahiri saw a huge chance to orchestrate broader friction between the Muslim and non-Muslim world, and in the process organize anti-American sentiment in the Muslim world under a single banner. He approved the plan despite intense opposition from several top al-Qaeda commanders who thought the American reaction would not be sustainable for the Taliban in Afghanistan or for al-Qaeda.

However, Zawahiri was planning a different world after 9/11. Therefore, following the 9/11 attack and the subsequent US invasion and defeat of the Taliban, al-Qaeda migrated to Pakistan's South Waziristan tribal area where it succeeded in regrouping by 2003.

That was a turning point at which time it was decided to preserve the iconic figure of Bin Laden as a jewel while Zawahiri worked on a different strategy - to engineer a new leadership of al-Qaeda.

A careful use of material and human resources and the maximum exploitation of circumstances by 2004 brought forward leaders like commander Nek Mohammad and Haji Umar and as each one of these was killed off, another would be ready to step into the position. These included Abdullah Mehsud, Baitullah Mehsud and Hakeemullah Mehsud, and now the highly effective Sirajuddin Haqqani and commander Ilyas Kashmiri.

Al-Qaeda's regrouping helped the Taliban make a comeback by 2006, at which time Bin Laden went very quiet - like a precious stone that was buried deep inside the Earth with safety and care. He didn't have much of a role in decision-making, but his name and stature often brought in money for al-Qaeda.

By 2010, the Americans came up with a formula for their withdrawal from Afghanistan and al-Qaeda began to place more emphasis on people like Haqqani and Kashmiri to replace the older generation of al-Qaeda in the action in the mountains of the tribal areas. These older men would return to the Middle East to take over the command of Arab revolts.

Under the same arrangement, Central Asian fighters in the tribal areas were asked to make preparations to set up fronts in Central Asia (see Soft Sufi, hard-rock militant Asia Times Online, January 22, 2011.)

In essence, by 2011 al-Qaeda had turned into a kind of hornet's nest capable of opening war fronts in different places at the same time, or focusing its energies on a single front. Bin Laden's killing has frozen all previous plans and according to sources in North Waziristan, schemes have morphed into two parts: immediate reaction against Pakistan and a long-term scheme against the West and India.

All jihadists are now discussing and getting together to launch anti TSPA operations!! Like I said, either way TSP is now screwed.

partha · Post by **partha** » 04 May 2011 02:34

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-13266944

Every now and then what looked like bullet-proof vehicles would go in and out of the compound, but security gates would slide shut immediately afterwards, locals told the BBC.

Charlie · Post by **Charlie** » 04 May 2011 03:01

FOX NEWS: The former CIA Bin Laden search team head says this

1) Atleast Musharaff helped a bit
2) Zardari is the most corrupt man on the earth and he is driving Paa'stan to ground with misrule.
3) USA should look at Pak Army back incharge of Paa'stan

vijayk · Post by **vijayk** » 04 May 2011 03:58

shyamd wrote: LOL! Either way TSP is gonna get an arse wooping from TTP and friends. Perhaps unkil will join in too in their own ways. TSP is now cornered and will lean on people to help them out.

I am sure the guy who can't sleep at nights when some citizen is arrested of helping terrorists but sleeps soundly when terrorist friends from puke land are cutting people as if it is a video game will make every effort to help them.

I am sure every antinational scum in the mafia media will come out of woodwork to preach how puke land is victim of terrorism.

I am betting 100 bucks that arundoti is busy writing a 6 page essay berating amrika and eulogizing the dead scum.

Prem · Post by **Prem** » 04 May 2011 04:21

We need a cartoon showing Uncle Dusha_Sam doing cheer haran of his old Poakhail in full public view.
BTW Kiyani share 25Million award with Gillani to finish OBL ki kahani.
The swan song of OBL as heard by SEAL memeber was
"Kasme vadde ,pyar, waffa subb, batte hai batton ka kya,
Kabhi kissi ka nahi yeh hotte,Poaks hain , gaddar yeh yaar!!

Anantha · Post by **Anantha** » 04 May 2011 06:17

Great cartoon on the OBL safe house
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/toles

Airavat · Post by **Airavat** » 04 May 2011 06:35

Grim faces as the Obama administration’s special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan landed in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, and delivered what American officials described as a stern message to senior Pakistani military and intelligence leaders. The envoy, Marc Grossman, told them that patience in Congress was wearing thin, officials familiar with the discussions said.

In public, Mr. Grossman was more diplomatic, telling reporters in Islamabad on Tuesday that the United States was committed to its alliance with Pakistan and that Pakistan was “determined to curb terrorism.”

NYT

arun · Post by **arun** » 04 May 2011 07:17

Anujan wrote:I cant find the clip, but the transcript is here: http://cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com/2011/ ... f-blitzer/

The complete transcript of CNN May 2nd interview of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan’s Ambassador to the US, Husain Naquin (Situation Room, Wolf Blitzer):

Mission to Kill Osama bin Laden
Aired May 2, 2011 - 18:00 ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: And to our viewers, you're in THE SITUATION ROOM. …………………

BLITZER: Thank you, Jack. See you tomorrow.

When we come back, the Pakistani ambassador to the United States, Husain Haqqani. He's got lots to talk about.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it's just a wonderful thing to have had happen. We've all been waiting on some justice to be done.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it's a victory for us, a victory for peace and a victory for justice.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is finally retribution for all the victims' families from 9/11, both here in Virginia, in Pennsylvania, across the United States and in New York.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it's a great day for America. I think it's a time to celebrate and rejoice that he's gone.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Folks outside of the 9/11 memorial outside the pentagon reacting to the death of Osama bin Laden.

I want to show you that picture that the White House released, a still photo. This is from the White House situation room yesterday, when this mission was underway. Forty minutes on the ground, Delta force Navy SEALs, I should say, forces were there. They were watching. You see the vice president next to the president. Over there, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton with her hand over her mouth next to Dennis McDunn (ph) in the back, Bill Daley, Tom Donovan.

All of these officials there, they're looking at a video screen, and they're watching this operation, video coming in of the operation. You can see the anxiety, the nervousness there. There were moments when that helicopter was disabled that they feared the worst.

We'll take a quick break. When we come back, the Pakistani ambassador of the United States.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Some more now on the breaking news, the death of Osama bin Laden, killed by U.S. forces in a raid on a mansion just a few dozen miles north of the Pakistani capital. It's raising lots of questions about the terror leader's presence in Pakistan, what officials there knew. Let's talk about it with Husain Haqqani, he's the Pakistani ambassador to the United States.

Mr. Ambassador, thanks for coming in. John Brennan, the president's counter terrorism advisor, says it's inconceivable that bin Laden didn't have some sort of support system in Pakistan. What happened?

HUSAIN HAQQANI, PAKISTAN AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED STATES: Obviously, bin Laden did have a support system. The issue is was that support system within the government and the state of Pakistan or within the society of Pakistan.

We all know that there are people in Pakistan who share the same belief system as bin Laden and other extremists. People like myself have been fighting them. Binzi Gupta (ph) was a victim to them.

So that is a fact, that there are people who probably protected him. We will do a full inquiry into finding out why our intelligence services were not able to track him earlier.

BLITZER: This compound was a huge compound, bigger than all the other houses in the area, with a big wall around it. Didn't anyone from the ISI, the Pakistani intelligence service, or the military, the police go in there and see what was going on?

HAQQANI: Wolf, you can't do that in Pakistan, where there are many houses which are larger than others and unless and until you have due cause. The reason you can't enter them, if there had been intelligence, that would have happened. If you remember, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was found in a similar house in the city of Rawalpindi a few years ago, and the Pakistani government was responsible for arresting him at that time.

What I find incredulous is the notion that somehow, just because there is a private support network in Pakistan, the state, the government and the military of Pakistan should be blamed.

BLITZER: Because we have high respect for the military, the intelligence service. You can disagree with them, but they're very good. Listen to this interview I did on April 12, 2010, about a year ago or so, with your prime minister, Prime Minister Gillani. Here's some excerpts.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Are you any closer right now, do you believe, to finding, to capturing or killing Osama bin Laden or his No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahiri?

PRIME MINISTER YOUSAF RAZA GILLANI, PAKISTAN: In fact, Osama bin Laden is not in Pakistan.

BLITZER: How do you know for sure he's not in Pakistan?

GILLANI: Because our military actions are very successful, and we have a very successful operation in Malakar (ph) and Swat and now in South Waziristan and elsewhere. If there would have been any chance, he would have been arrested or maybe even don't know whether he's alive or not.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: It sounds to me like Prime Minister Gillani was in total denial of what was going on.

HAQQANI: Look, we have to as a nation in Pakistan re-evaluate our view of this whole problem. After 911, there were people in Pakistan who said we shouldn't side with the United States because the United States is about to crumble like the Soviet Union did and we should actually support the Taliban. You remember that. That changed. Pakistan has to come to terms with the fact and we will.

BLITZER: But Mr. Ambassador, he was within a two-hours drive of Islamabad.

HAQQANI: Wolf, that is not the point. The point is that he has been eliminated in a successful operation by the United States, and Pakistan has expressed satisfaction at the conclusion of this operation.

BLITZER: Let me ask...

HAQQANI: And any question about intelligence failures will definitely be addressed by us jointly. As I said only two or three days ago in your program, we are allies. We want...

BLITZER: Why didn't the U.S. trust Pakistan to share anything about this operation until all those U.S. troops were out of your air space?

HAQQANI: Because the United States didn't share information on this operation with the Australians, with the British, with the Canadians. It did not because...

BLITZER: He was in Pakistan, not in Australia or Britain.

HAQQANI: But my point is that the United States made a critical decision. President Obama decided that the success of the operation was far more important than the niceties. And that said -- that said...

BLITZER: But even when those helicopters were flying back to Afghanistan or to the Indian -- they still didn't tell you until you were -- they were completely out of your air space.

HAQQANI: Pakistan and the United States have a lot of things to work out as we move forward, but move forward we will. Pakistan has no interest, the people of Pakistan have no interest in protecting our keeping terrorists on our soil. We need to build our nation. Half our children don't go to school. Two-thirds of our people live below the poverty line. Those are the issues we want to address.

BLITZER: Bottom line, you're happy bin Laden is dead?

HAQQANI: You bet. I have -- I have wanted bin Laden not to be on the scene for a long time. The terrorists have brought Islam a bad name. They have brought Pakistan a bad name. They have brought all our neighboring countries a bad name, and we want to defeat them as much as you and any American.

BLITZER: Mr. Ambassador, thanks for coming in. We'll continue this conversation.

That does it for me this hour. I'm Wolf Blitzer in THE SITUATION ROOM. "JOHN KING USA" starts right now.

CNN

Anujan · Post by **Anujan** » 04 May 2011 07:24

And you thought we were all crazy to keep making "Herps" jokes in the BENIS dhaaga!!

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/2 ... near_.html

Reporters at Bin Laden's million-dollar hideout discovered small plots of marijuana growing in the deserted lots on the compound's perimeter.

partha · Post by **partha** » 04 May 2011 08:02

PAK PERFIDY WILL HAVE NO ENDURING IMPACT ON ITS TIES WITH US

Please read the full article. By Shri Raman.

shiv · Post by **shiv** » 04 May 2011 08:12

partha wrote:PAK PERFIDY WILL HAVE NO ENDURING IMPACT ON ITS TIES WITH US

Please read the full article. By Shri Raman.

Good Article

11.History is going to repeat itself now after the death of OBL at Abbotabad. One or two senior officers of the Army and the ISI will be identified by the US as responsible for the collusion. The US will ask for their heads. Pakistan will happily offer their heads.

12. The State-to-State relations will be back to their sickening normalcy. The pamperiong of Pakistan will resume. The exercise to feed and fatten the Pakistani Army and intelligence will resume.

13. India and Indians, who are now gloating over the discomfiture of Pakistan, will find that they have become a sucker once again. As we became in 1993 when Nasir's collusion with the Mujahideen was discovered. As we became in 2001 when Ahmed's collusion with the Afghan Taliban was discovered.

And the following needs separate highlighting

14 Let us guard ourselves against unwarranted euphoria over Pakistan's discomfiture. Let us think hard what we should do and how to do it.Let us not indulge in pathetic talk of what the US should do for us.

15.The dramatic US success was made possible by a dramatic improvement in the US HUMINT capability and by its spectacular covert action capability.

16. We have neither. Our HUMINT capability is average, but not extraordinary. Our covert action capability has been non-existent since 1997.

anishns · Post by **anishns** » 04 May 2011 08:29

^^^^

Our covert action capability has been non-existent since 1997.

Can someone please refresh my memory?

Sushupti · Post by **Sushupti** » 04 May 2011 08:34

Can someone please refresh my memory?

It was the that puppy-jhappy session between Gujraal and Badmash when Gujraal decided (it is believed) to wrap up the RAW's assets in Pakistan.

Anujan · Post by **Anujan** » 04 May 2011 08:38

What is this propensity of Pakis to distort spellings? Kasab is written Qasab there and now Pakistan foreign office releases statement about "Osama Bin Ladin" when all along, their other statements on their site talks about one Osama Bin Laden.

sum · Post by **sum** » 04 May 2011 08:38

US told Manmohan to defer Afghan visit

India was told obliquely that something big was being planned when US Special Representative to Af-Pak Marc Grossman asked New Delhi on 29 April to defer a planned trip of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Kabul.

“We had a sort of a premonition about a US-led operation when we got this request,” a highly placed official told Tehelka.com. US President Barack Obama signed the order to get Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden on the day Washington sent the request to New Delhi.

No specifics were given but the union government took the hint. Singh was to visit Kabul later this month in a visit that is expected to reaffirm India's commitment towards the development and security of Afghanistan.

The US request was delivered by Grossman on his maiden trip to New Delhi after taking over in February as the US Special Representative to Af-Pak. Grossman reportedly told top Indian interlocutors that delaying a high-level visit to Kabul ‘would be appreciated’ in Washington.

Sources said the Americans offered no tangible reason for this request.

US had tipped off Desh then!!

shiv · Post by **shiv** » 04 May 2011 08:38

anishns wrote:^^^^

Our covert action capability has been non-existent since 1997.
Can someone please refresh my memory?

http://canarytrap.in/2008/12/05/action- ... on-unit-2/

The first thing our government has to do is to immediately revive the covert action unit of the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), which was closed down by then Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral in 1997.

shiv · Post by **shiv** » 04 May 2011 08:40

India had twice told US about Osama's likely presence close to Islamabad

The first time Indian security agencies gave this information to the US authorities was in mid-2007, soon after a Taliban meeting in Peshawar which was attended by Osamas No.2 Ayman al-Zawahiri. According to the information gathered by Indian intelligence operatives, this meeting was also attended by top leaders of Haqqani network and at least two ISI officials.

In the next six months, Indian operatives every now and then came up with information about movement of Osamas confidants in the region. The next definite input passed on to the US agencies by Indian officials was in early 2008 when there was specific mention made of his illness and his likely presence in a cantonment area. "This time we specifically mentioned about his presence in a cantonment area. It was because we had definite information that his movement was restricted owing to his illness and that it would have been impossible for him to go to an ordinary hospital. We told the Americans that only in a cantonment area could he be looked after by his ISI or other Pakistani benefactors," said the official.

sum · Post by **sum** » 04 May 2011 08:42

Osama's killing will not affect India-Pakistan talks

The fact that Osama bin Laden found refuge in a Pakistani cantonment town may add more rhetorical punch to India's charge that Pakistan has become a safe haven for violent extremism but the first-order effect of his killing on bilateral relationship is likely to be negligible.

After all, India's recent decision to rekindle the dialogue process was taken in full knowledge of the fact that Islamabad remains unwilling or unable to act decisively against the different jihadi groups that form part of the “syndicate of terror.” These include, of course, the Lashkar-e-Taiba and its leadership, who were responsible for the November 2008 terrorist attacks on Mumbai.

For two years, the Manmohan Singh government kept the dialogue process suspended in the hope that this would help force Pakistan to act. The strategy worked at first but turned out to be a weak instrument the longer India persisted with it. Worse, the blanket refusal to talk meant India was unable to push for gains in other areas such as trade and commerce and confidence-building measures.

Even though the Prime Minister and some of his advisers understood that a change of tack was needed, they remained wary of how the Opposition and the wider body of public opinion would react. The contrived outcry which followed the abortive Sharm el-Sheikh initiative of July 2009 delayed the much-needed reset for another year. Ironically, when Dr. Singh's government finally indicated — after the Thimphu meetings this February — that it was ready to move forward on the full spectrum of issues, there was hardly any political criticism. Perhaps the Opposition had better issues to target the Prime Minister on, like the 2G scam, or realised, in the wake of Governor Salman Taseer's assassination, that the dysfunctionality of the Pakistani state was not necessarily India-specific. Either way, the dialogue is back and there is hardly any public controversy about this despite Pakistan not fulfilling all of India's oft-repeated pre-conditions on 26/11 and terrorism.

This new strategy of engaging Pakistan has opened up the possibility of quick progress on ‘side' issues like trade, even as progress on the core issues of terrorism and Kashmir is fated to remain slow, contingent as it is on the level of trust the two sides have in each other. Thus, at the recent meeting of Commerce Secretaries in Islamabad, for example, both sides announced their intention of taking steps that will ramp up two-way trade.

India is unlikely to make the mistake of allowing Osama bin Laden to sabotage this win-win process from his watery grave in the Indian Ocean . Apart from economic gains, greater trade will gradually enlarge the constituency of those in Pakistan who have a stake in the normalisation of relations with India. Even on the Kashmir front, the resumption of backchannel talks and the revival, obviously under a new name, of the ‘Manmohan-Musharraf' formula, are something New Delhi can look forward to.

When the whole world, post-Abbottabad, is drawing its own unflattering conclusions about the Pakistani military establishment, there is no need for India to strike a triumphalist note about Pakistan being a sanctuary for terrorists. What the U.S. did on Monday may have been effective but it remains a second-best solution to tackling terror on Pakistani soil. The fight against the entire syndicate of terror has to be waged by the Pakistani police and security forces, acting under the complete control of the civilian government there. This is a message India needs to emphasise to the U.S. and other allies and friends of Pakistan and it will be most effective if delivered with tact and restraint.

Have to read this piece with tears in my eyes to know the kind of WKKs ruling us and the media houses ( now that SV is editor of Chindu)

If only MMS spends all this energy trying to make love in trying to dis-member Pak by raising covert ops etc, we might hit the 10T $$ GDP ( or whatever MMS has in mind) faster...

Anujan · Post by **Anujan** » 04 May 2011 08:46

Fellows, let us not get carried away. Pakis will promise to hand over all Keedas and Unkil will declare that Pakis had no idea OBL was hiding near PMA's kitchen.

This is not the first time, I wish to jog your memories of this one incident when one Mr AQ (Xerox) Khan armed everyone and his grandmother with nukes and Unkil certified that it was a one man operation and he personally flew Paki transport aircraft to NoKo at night and returned it by the morning so that the army had no idea.

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 04 May 2011 08:56

Sushupti wrote:
Can someone please refresh my memory?
It was the that puppy-jhappy session between Gujraal and Badmash when Gujraal decided (it is believed) to wrap up the RAW's assets in Pakistan.

I thought a lot about why it was wrapped up. True Gujral had a reputation of a peacenik yet his Gujral doctrine was the most powerful for India for it expanded defacto Indian sovereignty. I think the ops were not effective and more headache than was gained. Besides the sectarian groups were already making their presence in TSP and were doing the work.

sanjaykumar · Post by **sanjaykumar** » 04 May 2011 08:57

On a lighter note, notice the Pakis at work avoiding direct eye contact with everyone today?

svinayak · Post by **svinayak** » 04 May 2011 10:04

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-0 ... istan.html

U.S. Role in Pakistan and Afghanistan Is Under Fire in Congress
By Nicole Gaouette - May 3, 2011 9:00 PM PT

Lawmakers from both parties questioned the need to sacrifice American lives and provide U.S. aid for Afghanistan and Pakistan following the death of Osama bin Laden.

As President Barack Obama prepares to unveil by July his plan for drawing down forces in Afghanistan, Republicans challenged the need to continue the mission at all, while Democrats sought a clearer sense of the administration’s goals.

“With al-Qaeda largely displaced from the country, but franchised in other locations, Afghanistan does not carry a strategic value that justifies 100,000 American troops and a $100 billion per year cost, especially given current fiscal restraints,” said Indiana Senator Richard Lugar, the senior Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

In the House, California Representative Jackie Speier, the leading Democrat on the Homeland Security Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence, described doubts about Pakistan as “the elephant in the room.” The Republican chairman of that panel, Pennsylvania Representative Patrick Meehan, expressed frustration with Pakistan’s unknown role, given bin Laden’s presence just outside Islamabad. Was Pakistan driven by “divided loyalty, complicity, incompetence?” Meehan wondered out loud.

Those questions were among many raised in Congress as the world absorbed the news of bin Laden’s death at the hands of U.S. special operations forces. The event has created what Senator John Kerry, the Massachusetts Democrat who is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called “a seminal moment” for U.S. foreign policy and security interests.

Was Pakistan Complicit?

Pakistan intends to address any allegations or shortfalls on its part, said Husain Haqqani, the country’s ambassador to Washington. The most common questions that have been raised are whether Pakistan was complicit in protecting bin Laden, was over-confident in its own abilities, or overlooked evidence of his presence, he said.

“We totally reject the notion of complicity,” Haqqani said in an interview yesterday. “As far as over-confidence or lack of competence, these are matters for us to examine ourselves.”

Kerry said lawmakers and officials “have to ask at every turn if our strategy in Afghanistan is sustainable.” The U.S. has to discuss “with our partners about how this war ends, what an acceptable end-state looks like, and what steps we need to take to get there.” A key question, Kerry said, is to what degree the Taliban should be part of that end-state.

U.S. Aid

The U.S. will spend $120 billion in Afghanistan this fiscal year, Kerry said. Along with Lugar, Kerry helped to write legislation, signed by Obama in October 2009, that directs $1.5 billion in non-military aid annually to Pakistan. In fiscal year 2010, total U.S. aid and military reimbursements to Pakistan amounted to $4.3 billion, according to the Congressional Research Service, the nonpartisan research group that serves lawmakers.

The administration continues to defend that investment and its close cooperation with Pakistan, even as officials say the presence of the world’s most wanted man in a military hub just 35 miles from the capital, Islamabad, raises serious questions.

Continued cooperation with Pakistan is “in Pakistan’s long-term interest and our long term security interests,” Mark Toner, a spokesman for the State Department, said yesterday. “This has paid dividends and continues to pay dividends.”

White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan said U.S. officials are looking at what kind of support system bin Laden had at his Abbottabad compound.

Meeting in Pakistan

Marc Grossman, the State Department’s Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, met yesterday with Pakistan’s foreign secretary, Salman Bashir. After the visit, which had been scheduled before the commando raid, Grossman described bin Laden’s killing as a “shared achievement” and stressed that “one thing that is so clear” is that Afghanistan, Pakistan and the U.S. share a commitment to fighting extremism.

Across Capitol Hill, lawmakers expressed their doubts about the value of that cooperation, particularly with Pakistan.

“It really comes down to trust,” California’s Speier said at a hearing that examined the threat Pakistan poses to the U.S. She estimated that in the last decade, the U.S. has funneled close to $20 billion to Pakistan “and we had to go in ourselves to take out bin Laden.”

Pakistan’s intelligence services, suspected by many in the U.S. of harboring or protecting militants who cross the border to attack U.S. forces in Afghanistan, are “rogue, at the very least,” she said.

Admit to Mistakes

Seth Jones, a senior political scientist in the Arlington, Virginia, office of the RAND Corporation, a global research and policy organization, told Speier and other lawmakers that the U.S.-Pakistan relationship will never build trust until both sides admit to mistakes.

“Pakistan has to admit, at least privately, that it has supported some militant groups,” said Jones, who has spent time in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Democrat Dianne Feinstein of California, chairwoman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said that if the U.S. finds out Pakistan had knowledge of bin Laden’s hideout and was doing “nothing about it,” it would have to re-examine its options.

Kerry defended aid to Pakistan, which has nuclear weapons, comparing the relationship to “trying to make lemonade out of lemons.”

‘Greater Risk’

“We just got Osama bin Laden. One of the reasons we got him is because we had intelligence people there and able to do their work,” he told reporters. “If we lose that, we put America at greater risk.”

The alternative could be “a radical Islamic government having possession of nuclear weapons and running Pakistan,” said Kerry.

Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican on the Armed Services Committee, summed up the U.S. dilemma with Pakistan. “You can’t trust ‘em and you can’t abandon ‘em,” he told reporters. “That’s just where we’re at.”

“It is not in our national security interests to let this one event destroy what is a difficult partnership, but a partnership nonetheless,” Graham said. Pakistan is a state “hanging by a thread,” he added, “and I don’t want to cut the last thread.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Nicole Gaouette in Washington at [email protected].

svinayak · Post by **svinayak** » 04 May 2011 10:07

911 was a decisive moment in the US foreign policy and now this is the second event to change Pakistan once and for all

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 04 May 2011 10:09

How so?

chetak · Post by **chetak** » 04 May 2011 10:19

ramana wrote:Actully they might be in bigger trouble from the hardline Islamists.

CNN reports WH confirms OBL and his wife were unarmed when shot.

Expect Kiyani to get tandoored.

More like osama was in the benign custody of the pakis when he was shot!!

There is a report saying that no dialysis equipment was found at the site meaning that osama's dialysis was being carried out elsewhere in abbotabad.

Where else but the military hospital?

svinayak · Post by **svinayak** » 04 May 2011 10:24

ramana wrote:How so?

It is up to them. What is the future policy for the region.
Is it to bring normalcy or to keep the fire burning

Charlie · Post by **Charlie** » 04 May 2011 10:39

Guys that Hussain Haqqani and Wolf Blitzer interview VIDEO is here..

http://www.newslinemagazine.com/2011/05 ... ni-on-cnn/

Charlie · Post by **Charlie** » 04 May 2011 10:52

Running Out of Everything: How Scarcity Drives Crisis in Pakistan

Guys a great article on crumbling down of Paki'satan with lots of refernces and data

Going Hungry?

To understand scarcity in Pakistan, one needs to start with the country's demographics. While Pakistan's population growth rate peaked at 3.5 percent in the early 1980s, it is still well more than 2 percent today. There will be 60 million more Pakistanis by 2025, at which time the population will still be growing by 4 million every year. The country is very young, with almost half the population below the age of 20. The scale of its projected population alone presents Pakistan with daunting demographic challenges (.pdf). It must find ways to educate its youngest children (.pdf), who currently make up more than 10 percent of the global population of children not attending primary school. It also needs to build a city the size of Lahore every three years, as population growth begins to peak in rural areas but continues to soar in urban ones.

Most of all, Pakistan needs jobs. A "baby boom" generation is entering the workforce in growing numbers, its members bringing with them a toxic combination of high expectations and extremely meager skills. If improved economic prospects allow them to find work, the country could enjoy a demographic dividend. If they remain unemployed, a demographic disaster beckons.

Unfortunately, Pakistan has few natural resources, and land is also in short supply. The country now has only 0.32 acres of arable land per capita, and this will decline by almost a third by 2025 if new land is not brought into production. Water is similarly scarce. Per capita freshwater availability is less than a third of that of India and will fall to less than 35,000 cubic feet by 2025 (.pdf). Already, groundwater is becoming increasingly expensive to extract and surface water steadily more polluted. These are worrying trends, since competition for water and land, when combined with the demographic stress of a young population, have been shown to increase the risk of conflict (.pdf) within, and perhaps between, countries. That prospect, it should go without saying, is something Pakistan can do without.

A shortage of land and water has an inevitable impact on agriculture. Pakistan has long been a net importer of food, but its agricultural trade deficit (.pdf) has grown considerably over the past decade. Imports have declined somewhat in recent years, but this actually reflects worsening, rather than improving, food security. World food prices saw rapid increases after 2007, with prices spiking a year later, when the FAO Food Price Index reached 200. Prices subsequently eased, but they have recently shot up again and are now well above the previous 2008 peak. Pakistan is importing less food, not because it doesn't need it, but because it is being priced out of the world markets. Domestic agricultural production, meanwhile, remains soft, registering only 2 percent growth in 2010 in spite of booming prices (.pdf). That this can be ascribed in part to the floods is a sobering reflection of how vulnerable the sector is to regular droughts and irregular, but devastating, natural disasters. A good crop is expected this year, as is usually the case after a flood, but this cannot be taken as a sure sign that Pakistan's agricultural sector is on an upward path.

Unsurprisingly, Pakistani consumers have seen rapid increases in the prices they pay for food. The Asian Development Bank Food Price Index for Pakistan, which is set at 100 for 2001, reached 216 in 2009, with prices up by 45 percent on the previous two years (.pdf). More recently, food inflation has been more than 20 percent for the past six months. Prices have also been increasingly volatile, with commodities hit by a series of mini-shocks: including the sugar crisis of 2009, the flour crisis of 2010 and the onion war of 2011, among others. Food inflation in Pakistan is greater than in any of the Middle Eastern countries that experienced civil unrest this year (although Iran has seen its prices rise even faster). At the same time, Pakistan also has lower per capita income and higher rates of poverty than any of these countries.

Go to the link for more interesting info

Charlie · Post by **Charlie** » 04 May 2011 11:08

Guardian: Comment from Paki living in Abbotabad.

I couldnt agree more with Enigmie.As a resident of Abbottabad and having played cricket in a ground so near to the compound ,I can tell you average people like me in the city have no idea how OBL managed to live here for 6 years.And I personally strongly believe it is impossible that ISI didnt know he was there.It is just impossible.So near to the military academy..And as far as your threat about aid is concerned , yes we dont give a damn.All of your 600 million pounds would go straight into the pockets of Zardari and co + military establishment and would end up in swiss banks.So your aid makes no difference to our way of living.(common people)..It is foolishness on your behalf that you keep on wasting your money by giving it to government rather than distributing it through NGO's.Only thing I am worried about is a student visa to US for my Masters in Mechanical engineering right now.

FB page of this Rape Kid: http://www.facebook.com/people/Abid-Rehman/745605171

abhishek_sharma · Post by **abhishek_sharma** » 04 May 2011 11:14

Members of Jamaat-ud-Dawa pray for OBL

kumarn · Post by **kumarn** » 04 May 2011 11:15

arun wrote:
Anujan wrote:I cant find the clip, but the transcript is here: http://cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com/2011/ ... f-blitzer/
The complete transcript of CNN May 2nd interview of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan’s Ambassador to the US, Husain Naquin (Situation Room, Wolf Blitzer):
BLITZER: But even when those helicopters were flying back to Afghanistan or to the Indian -- they still didn't tell you until you were -- they were completely out of your air space.
CNN

Any thing of significance here?

CRamS · Post by **CRamS** » 04 May 2011 11:18

Acharya wrote:911 was a decisive moment in the US foreign policy and now this is the second event to change Pakistan once and for all

I will wait for some more time boss before I can come to such a definitive conclusion. What is clear to me though is that after 9/11, TSP was in the dock, but it was not blamed directly for 9/11. Amritraj did his thingy before Mush forcing him to gubo, but TSP was not considered the villian. In fact, the fawning adulation that TSP got from US elites including media and the rewards it received made my jaw drop.

This time however, TSP is directly in the dock. I mean the arse whipping TSP is getting must be humiliating to any TSP RAPE. And so far at least there is no equal equal, and no mention of India at all. Vast majority of law makers and media honchos want some tough action against TSP. And after this raid, some pro-TSP spin miesters putting out this theory that if US violates TSP soverignty, TSP govt will be destabilized and Al Queda will take over and nukes will fall in their hands yada yada nonsense will not hold sway anymore, but would have been the dominat rebuttal just a week ago if anybody had suggested a commando raid so deep into TSP. What this incident has shown is that if US wants to, it can piss in Kiayni's mouth and take a crap in Paasha's and there is didly squat TSP can do about it, nukes or no nukes.

Of course, except for Rachel Maddow on MSNBC, nobody is still talking about TSP machinations against India, so in this sense TSP is still safe, because at the end of the day, TSP exists to be a pain in India's arse, and as long as that ability is not taken away, TSP RAPE will live happily ever after.

Lets wait and see.

Charlie · Post by **Charlie** » 04 May 2011 11:18

India's demand for action against terrorists in Pakistan 'outdated'

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Tuesday described as "outdated" India's demand for action against the perpetrators of the 2008 Mumbai attacks in the wake of the killing of Osama bin Laden, with Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir saying that such statements were not "helpful" for the peace process.

Some one give a tight slap to this Paki

abhishek_sharma · Post by **abhishek_sharma** » 04 May 2011 11:19

India Sees New Reason to Distrust Pakistan

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/04/world ... india.html

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s often lonely efforts to improve relations with Pakistan are certain to become more complicated, and more difficult, after the disclosure that Osama bin Laden had been hiding in a military town in the heart of

Many Indian officials, who have long accused Pakistan of providing shelter to terrorist groups, felt vindicated by the discovery of Bin Laden in the town of Abbottabad, an hour’s drive north of the capital and home to a large military base.

Now these officials are repeating their demands that the Pakistani government arrest and prosecute all the perpetrators of the November 2008 terrorist attack in Mumbai, an assault carried out by militants trained in Pakistan who killed more than 160 people.

“We believe that the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attack, including the controllers and handlers of the terrorists who actually carried out the attack, continue to be sheltered in Pakistan,” Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said in a statement on Monday.

In recent months, India and Pakistan have made modest progress in reviving a relationship that has been largely frozen since the Mumbai attacks. In February, the foreign secretaries of both nations met on the sidelines of a regional conference in Bhutan.

Last month, Mr. Singh sat with Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani of Pakistan during a cricket match between the countries. Mr. Singh had also been considering a possible visit to Pakistan later this year.

“Whether he will go now remains to be seen,” said Salman Haidar, a former Indian foreign secretary. “Certainly, this doesn’t help him.”

India and Pakistan are nuclear-armed neighbors that have fought three wars and continue to have a litany of disputes, including deep disagreement over the fate of Kashmir. India’s political establishment is deeply distrustful of Pakistan, especially the Pakistani military, and Mr. Singh has been criticized at home for his persistent efforts to engage Pakistan.

Gopalapuram Parthasarathy, a former Indian high commissioner to Pakistan, said Bin Laden’s location inside Pakistan vindicated the Indian belief that Pakistani military and intelligence officials are knowingly sheltering terrorists.

“It is now obvious that at least from 2005, he has been living comfortably in the middle of a Pakistani garrison town, surrounded by the Pakistani military,” said Mr. Parthasarathy, who has been critical of Mr. Singh. “Nobody would believe that the Pakistan military would not have known he was there.”

Similar sentiments were common in India’s news media on Tuesday, and some analysts speculated that domestic pressure would mount on the prime minister to take a harder line on Pakistan.

In his own short statement, Mr. Singh refrained from taking the same tough stance against Pakistan as that of his home minister. He welcomed Bin Laden’s death as “a significant step forward” and called on Pakistan to take steps against groups that harmed innocent civilians.

Mr. Haidar, who has supported the efforts at dialogue, said of Mr. Singh, “He hasn’t really rubbed this in their faces, the fact that they have been caught with their pants down.”

Further, Mr. Haidar said: “My own personal view is we are going too slow and we needed a jolt. Unfortunately, the jolt has come in the opposite direction. It makes life more difficult for Dr. Manmohan Singh.”

He added, “But I don’t think we’re at a full stop.”

Charlie · Post by **Charlie** » 04 May 2011 11:32

Former Deputy Defense Undersecretary Jed Babbin weighs in on Paki Perfidy. He wants to shut Pakis off and support India.

WSJ Video

Charlie · Post by **Charlie** » 04 May 2011 12:05

Some more Paki bashing (Video): All agree that Pakis are corrupt, duplicitous SOB but with nukes so need to take care of them