Pakistani Role in Global Terrorism

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 23 Jan 2013 01:12

X-post....

Lilo wrote:Was reading up a Srilankan Army guy's blog with some interesting info..

http://sf-3.blogspot.in/2008/02/story-o ... -sams.html

...........
Since the 1980s the LTTE SAM threat rose to its height commencing Eelam war III, when within the span of two days it downed two HS748 Avro transports in April 1995. During Eelam war III the Tamil Tigers managed to down 9 SLAF aircraft, 5 of which were MI24 gunships. To bring down these aircrafts the Tigers used a mixture of SA-7, SA-14 and FIM 92A Stinger variants. In addition to these successful hits, the Tamil Tigers have also fired at least 5 more stingers and a SA-14 at Kfir (2x), AN-32 (1x) and MIG27 floggers (3x) without success between 1998-2001. To date according to available information the LTTE have used SA-7, HN-5, SA-14 and FIM92A for its operations against the SLAF.

The SA-7 MANPADs were acquired through the Pakistani Inter Service Intelligence (ISI) in 1994. The Tamil Tigers using its network of vessels aided the ISI run Pakistani terror organisation Harkat-ul-Mujahideen to ship at least two shiploads of arms to the Philipino terror group Moro Islamic Liberation Front. In return the ISI provided the LTTE the much needed SA-7 in addition to AA guns and ammunition as the shipping fee. In 1998 the LTTE acquired a second batch of SA-7 and its Chinese equivalents HN-5 from blackmarket sales in Cambodia. The source of the SA-14s was a Belgian blackmarket arms dealer operating from Bulgaria who diverted a transfer from North Korea to Vietnam and records indicate the transfer taking place in 1998. The FIM92A Stingers were obtained from a Kurdish Guerilla (Kurdistan Workers' party PKK) source in Germany in 1997. These were originally meant for Iraqi forces led by the then President Saddam Hussein courtesy of CIA.
.........

An example from the Sri lankan conflict being the shooting down of CR834 HS748 Avro on the 29th of April 1995. On board was the younger brother of current Air chief Air Marshall Roshan Goonathilaka - Air commodore Shirantha Goonathilaka. The last minute frantic calls by the crew "missile, missile" shed the first light that the Tamil Tigers had indeed laid their hands on MANPADs. This also solved the mystery on the loss of a similar HS 748 the previous day. (combined loss in two incidents was 45+52 =97 souls)

So it seems the Pakis and Chinese (backed by the ubiquitous CIA) have given LTTE the SAM capability which effectively negated the low level flying ops of SLAF over Jaffna upto the late 90s.

Now i hear the Srilankans are putting their money on 6 Thandar Bandars from the Paki+ChiCom combine ....

Hiten · Post by **Hiten** » 30 Jan 2013 01:01

some lulz - "pakistani intelligence" in the 'Homeland'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SauzcDI6EWs

arun · Post by **arun** » 06 Mar 2013 08:23

Pakistani origin Mohammadden Cleric Hafiz Khan convicted for supporting terrorism in the US:

Pakistan-origin Imam in US convicted of supporting Taliban

arun · Post by **arun** » 06 Mar 2013 08:34

Meanwhile across the Atlantic in Birmingham, a few days earlier four men, also originating in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, were on trial for indulging in Pakistan’s national activity of Mohammadden Terrorism:

Four Islamic extremists admitted plotting a terrorist attack on British soil armed with guns and home-made bombs.

The men were caught after in a massive multi-million pound surveillance operation by police and the security services.

Hidden bugs recorded them discussing methods, materials and targets for a terrorist attack, including using improvised explosive devices. ………………

The court was told the offences took place between January 2011 and April last year. All four men are of Pakistani origin. ……………….

Read it all:

Four Islamic terrorists planned attack on British soil with guns and home-made bombs

arun · Post by **arun** » 06 Mar 2013 08:36

X Posted:

Anujan wrote:Meanwhile, Jo Lahore mein G*ndu woh Oregon mein bhi....

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/ore- ... n-18661910

Apparently the paki was working in pakistan treatment plant.

arun · Post by **arun** » 06 Mar 2013 08:38

X Posted:

svenkat wrote:Seth G. Jones: Allowing a sanctuary in Pakistan

Pakistan is running one of the most successful covert-action programs today against a major power -- and against the United States, no less. The U.S. failure to stop Pakistan is particularly egregious because the United States was involved in an almost identical program 30 years ago -- with the ISI's help -- against the Soviets in Afghanistan.

Second, the United States and Pakistan failed to target the Taliban sanctuary in Pakistan. The United States has conducted drone strikes in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas. But senior Taliban leaders are located hundreds of miles south in Baluchistan province and Karachi.

Neither the United States nor Pakistan has targeted the Taliban's command-and-control network there. Instead, the Taliban's leader, Mullah Omar, is thought to reside in Baluchistan, well outside the area where drone strikes are occurring. The Taliban's inner shura, its most important decision-making body, has also been safe from U.S. strikes. The inner shura provides strategic guidance for the insurgency, exercises some command and control, and is the largest fundraiser. Baluchistan has been so safe for Taliban leaders that most have moved their families there and have sent their children to Pakistani schools, according to a range of U.S., European, and Pakistan officials I interviewed.

Afghan insurgents enjoy both outside support and sanctuary, a doubly difficult hurdle for the United States and its allies to overcome. Ten years after the United States helped overthrow the Taliban regime, it is remarkable that successive U.S. administrations have refused to target the Taliban safe haven in Baluchistan. The Soviet Union made a similar mistake in the 1980s when it failed to act against the seven major mujahideen groups headquartered in Pakistan.

In his book The Bear Trap, Mohammad Yousaf, who headed the ISI's covert war in Afghanistan against the Soviets, wrote that the insurgent sanctuary in Pakistan was essential to defeating the Soviets and winning the insurgency. Sadly, Yousaf's revelation remains just as true today.

The comments on the article are interesting.

vinod · Post by **vinod** » 06 Mar 2013 19:09

^^from the above article

After all, confronting Pakistan directly could cost Western lives. Several European countries have significant populations of naturalized citizens of Pakistani origin. These Pakistani Europeans travel to Pakistan's tribal areas -- a primary hub for al Qaeda, the Taliban, and other terrorist outfits. Members of Western intelligence circles believe that without maintaining good relations with the Pakistani military and the intelligence establishment, there is a risk that the 9/11 attacks could be repeated.{What is he implying, Pakistan was responsible for 9/11? }

Dealing with Pakistan, therefore, has become a necessary evil. Western strategists are sitting on piles of intelligence implicating Pakistan in major terrorism plots -- such as the 2008 Mumbai attacks, which claimed 166 lives -- yet the country is not treated as an enemy. Doing so would be too costly: Pakistan is, after all, a nuclear-armed state, the patron for terrorist groups across the region, and home to 180 million people. The West simply lacks the guts and resources to officially treat Pakistan as a threat

arun · Post by **arun** » 15 Apr 2013 21:08

The citizens of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan found indulging in their national pastime of IT and here I do not mean Information Technology but rather Islamic Terrorism.

Afghan Ministry of Defense spokesman Gen. Zahir Azimi says there was a Pakistani link to the April 12 assault in eastern Kunar that targeted an Afghan Special Forces outpost. Attackers were heard speaking Urdu:

Taliban received help from Pakistan in deadly raid, Afghan minister says

arun · Post by **arun** » 01 May 2013 08:21

Deutsche Welle implicates the uniformed jihadi’s of the military of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan’s, in particular its intelligence arm the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate ( ISI aka ISID) with continuing dalliance with Mohammadden Terrorists.

Matt Waldman, a researcher on the Afghanistan conflict at Harvard University:

"The evidence indicates that the ISI hasn't fundamentally changed its policy. The Afghan Taliban are in some ways stronger now. They launched twice as many attacks in 2012 than they did in 2008. They are able to sustain such a high level of attacks on Afghan and coalition forces by having quite an extensive network of bases inside Pakistan that deal with operations, logistics, training, recruitment and other matters."

Emrys Schoemaker, a communications analyst and researcher at the London School of Economics:

"All the evidence suggests that there are elements in the Pakistani military that continue to support the Taliban. And, if the West's expectation is that this support is going to stop, then the West is right to view aspects of the military and state do support the Taliban with suspicion."

Read it all:

TERRORISM : Pakistani support for extremists persists

arun · Post by **arun** » 19 May 2013 10:34

Providing input for demonstrations of the IEDology of Pakistan is not without a cost. Company from the Islamic Republic of Pakistan whose Calcium Ammonium Nitrate is extensively used to manufacture IED’s targeting US occupation forces in Afghanistan, is denied subsidies to open a manufacturing plant in the US:

Indiana withdraws support of Pakistani-owned fertilizer plant on US bomb concerns

An earlier story dating back to January 2012 for background:

Pakistani Fertilizer Kills American Troops in Afghanistan

arun · Post by **arun** » 09 Jul 2013 19:28

X Posted from the “Terrorist Islamic Republic of Pakistan - May 13, 2013” thread.

The full text of the report by a commission appointed by the Islamic Republic of Pakistan’s legislature on the US extermination of Mohammadden terrorist Osama Bin Laden has been leaked to Al Jazeera and is available in its entirety at the below link. Do note it is a hefty 115 MB file:

Leaked Abbotabad Commission Bin Laden Dossier

arun · Post by **arun** » 15 Jul 2013 07:39

Associated Press reports that Mohammadden Terrorists originating in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan are heading to Syria to participate in the Green on Green Intra-Mohammadden religion inspired sectarian bloodletting that is taking place in that country:

Islamic militants stream out of Pakistan in growing numbers to fight in Syria

SSridhar · Post by **SSridhar** » 15 Jul 2013 15:14

So, Syria joins the long list of India (Kashmir and other places), Britain, China (Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region), Russia(Chechenya), Uzbekistan (Tashkent, Ferghana valley), Dagestan, Tajikistan, Southern Philippines, Bosnia, Afghanistan, Iran, Maldives, Somalia, in Yemen fighting Saudi Arabia, and Burma (the Arakan). I have only included countries or parts of countries where the Pakistani jihadists have had pitched nbattles with national armed forces of those countries. Involving in terrorism is another long list.

arun · Post by **arun** » 28 Jul 2013 17:40

Mohammadden “Charity”, ISNA (Islamic Society of North America) Development Foundation based in Canada reportedly funding Mohammadden Terrorist group Hizbul Mujahideen operating in Jammu & Kashmir via an Islamic Republic of Pakistan based entity named “Relief Organisation for Kashmiri Muslims”:

Canadian charity funding terror in Kashmir?

More from the Toronto Star which first reported the story:

Star Investigation: Federal audit raises concern that Canadian charity funded terror

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 30 Jul 2013 09:27

there this recent drone attacks and pakis going wild.. so they stage plan this taliban attack on prision and free up about 300 prisioners.. now they will soon come out say, all of them are capable of taking bin laden type leadership... extremely armed and dangerous.. perhaps have blue print copies of xerox khan networks.

arun · Post by **arun** » 04 Aug 2013 10:37

X Posted from the TSP thread.

partha wrote:
A_Rai wrote:Default Pakistan plans to kill Indian envoy? Communication intercepts expose plot
Seems like a very accurate intelligence input. Suicide attack and gunfire reported near India consulate in Jalalabad.

Full text of press release put out by our Ministry of External Affairs on the attack of our diplomatic establishment in Jalalabad:

The suicide attacks against the Indian Consulate General in Jalalabad, which has led to the injuries and deaths of several valiant Afghan Police personnel as well as deaths of several innocent Afghan civilians including children, must be condemned in the strongest possible terms.

This attack has once again highlighted that the main threat to Afghanistan’s security and stability stems from terrorism and the terror machine that continues to operate from beyond its borders. {Where else beyond Afghanistan’s border but that Mohammadden terrorist fomenting nation, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan}

India will not be deterred from its commitment to assist Afghanistan in its reconstruction and development effort; this was clearly an attack not just against India but an attack against the efforts to help the Afghan people overcome the tragic hardships they have endured due to several decades of war.

We wish to express our deep gratitude to the valiant Afghan security personnel who laid down their lives while protecting the Indian Consulate. We wish to express our grief and condolences to the families of the innocent Afghan civilians who also lost their lives during this attack.

From here:

Attack on the Consulate General of India in Jalalabad

Meanwhile a link to the world’s foremost Mohammadden Terrorism exporting country, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, emerges with the Times of India reporting that “Speaking on condition of anonymity, officials in New Delhi said inputs from Kabul revealed late in the evening that the bombers were all Pakistani nationals who stayed in Kunar for seven days”:

India blames Pakistan for Afghanistan suicide attack

neeraj · Post by **neeraj** » 04 Aug 2013 11:05

Pakistani toys - most advanced in the world

Sales of toys have increased ahead of the Eid al-Fitr holiday in Pakistan, but it seems there are concerns as parents buy accurate replicas of guns for their children.

Replicas of Kalashnikovs, pistols and machine guns, accurate down to the mechanics of loading and firing, are increasingly popular among children, the Express Tribune newspaper reports. While it is common to buy gifts for children during the fasting month of Ramadan, there's dismay that so many replica weapons are being sold, and a campaign has been launched to ban the trend. Campaigner Muhammad Arshad Khan said: "If you are buying the gun, you are training five-year-olds to put a bullet in the chamber and fire shots. After using the toy gun, a child can easily use a real one."
Urging parents to "save their children from gun culture", the group is asking adults to consider buying books and educational items instead, echoing teenage activist Malala Yusufzai's address to the UN:

arun · Post by **arun** » 04 Aug 2013 11:25

X Posted from the TSP thread.

An article in the Express Tribune that aims to draw a relationship between education and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan’s national penchant for indulging in Terrorism, particularly terrorism of the Mohammadden variety, completely misses the elephant in the room. The elephant in the room that is being missed is off course the enabling role played by Mohammaddenism in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan’s national penchant for indulging in acts of terrorism besides a host of other unsavoury practises such as blasphemy and rape witness laws:

The education-militancy connection

SSridhar · Post by **SSridhar** » 04 Aug 2013 16:30

arun wrote:An article in the Express Tribune that aims to draw a relationship between education and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan’s national penchant for indulging in Terrorism
The education-militancy connection

arun, agreed. The author is beating about the bush. Education is not going to solve the problems that Pakistan is facing. One cannot follow a Malsi dripping with hatred for everyone else and yet hope that somehow the followers of Malsi would be all WKKs. Unless this fact is acknowledged bluntly and redressal attempted, Pakistan will continue to grow in the direction its has been growing since 1947 and at an accelerated pace since the 1970s. Unfortunately, Pakistan is now way beyond such attempts. These types of articles are therefore facades to hide the inner Pakistaniyat at worst or intellectual ejaculation by gullible academics at best.

arun · Post by **arun** » 19 Aug 2013 08:17

X Posted from the “Terrorist Islamic Republic of Pakistan - May 13, 2013” thread.

In the arrest of Mohammadden Terrorist Abdul Karim Tunda and the finding that he was provided refuge in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, our Nehru-Gandhi family led Congress Party disgracefully finds yet another excuse to reward the Islamic Republic of Pakistan with dialogue despite the killing of five Indian Army soldiers earlier this month.

Raashid Alvi of the Congress Party:

"For decades, we've said Pakistani intelligence has engaged in training and funding of militants. The statement of Abdul Karim proves our point," said Raashid Alvi, a senior member of India's ruling Congress party.

"I think it's very important, now more than ever, that peace talks be initiated," Mr. Alvi said. "With a democratic government in place [in Pakistan], we're hopeful that anti-India activities stop and that the two nations coexist peacefully."

From the Wall Street Journal:

India Detainee Says Pakistan Sheltered Him

KrishnaK · Post by **KrishnaK** » 19 Aug 2013 09:34

What's malsi ?

arun · Post by **arun** » 25 Aug 2013 16:59

arun wrote:The US, in Florida, indicts six individuals originating from the Islamic Republic of Pakistan for “providing material support” for Islamic Terrorism. Two of the Pakistani origin individuals charged are Mohammadden Clerics and one is a woman:

Department of Justice
Office of Public Affairs
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Saturday, May 14, 2011

Six Individuals Charged for Providing Material Support to the Pakistani Taliban

MIAMI – Six individuals located in South Florida and Pakistan have been indicted in the Southern District of Florida on charges of providing financing and other material support to the Pakistani Taliban, a designated foreign terrorist organization. The charges were announced today by Wifredo A. Ferrer, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida; John V. Gillies, Special Agent in Charge, FBI Miami Field Office, and the members of the South Florida Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF).

The four-count indictment charges Hafiz Muhammed Sher Ali Khan (hereafter “Khan”), 76, a U.S. citizen and resident of Miami; his son Irfan Khan, 37, a U.S. citizen and resident of Miami; and one of his other sons, Izhar Khan, 24, a U.S. citizen and resident of North Lauderdale, Fla. Three other individuals residing in Pakistan, Ali Rehman, aka “Faisal Ali Rehman;” Alam Zeb; and Amina Khan, aka “Amina Bibi,” are also charged in the indictment. Amina Khan is the daughter of Khan and her son, Alam Zeb, is Khan’s grandson.

All six defendants are charged with conspiring to provide, and providing, material support to a conspiracy to murder, maim and kidnap persons overseas, as well as conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, specifically, the Pakistani Taliban. Defendants Khan, Rehman and Zeb are also charged with providing material support to the Pakistani Taliban.

FBI agents arrested Hafiz Khan and his son Izhar Khan today in South Florida. They are scheduled to make their initial appearance in federal court in Miami at 1:30 p.m. on Monday, May 16, 2011. In addition, Irfan Khan was arrested in Los Angeles and is expected to make his initial appearance there. If convicted, each faces a potential 15 years in prison for each count of the indictment. The remaining defendants are at large in Pakistan.

The defendants are originally from Pakistan. Hafiz Khan is the Imam at the Miami Mosque, also known as the Flagler Mosque, in Miami. His son, Izhar Khan, is an Imam at the Jamaat Al-Mu’mineen Mosque in Margate, Fla. The indictment does not charge the mosques themselves with any wrongdoing, and the individual defendants are charged based on their provision of material support to terrorism, not on their religious beliefs or teachings.

U.S. Attorney Wifredo A. Ferrer stated, “Despite being an Imam, or spiritual leader, Hafiz Khan was by no means a man of peace. Instead, as today’s charges show, he acted with others to support terrorists to further acts of murder, kidnapping and maiming. But for law enforcement intervention, these defendants would have continued to transfer funds to Pakistan to finance the Pakistani Taliban, including its purchase of guns. Dismantling terrorist networks is a top priority for this office and the Department of Justice.”

“Today terrorists have lost another funding source to use against innocent people and U.S. interests. We will not allow this country to be used as a base for funding and recruiting terrorists,” said John V. Gillies, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Miami Office. “I remind everyone that the Muslim and Arab-American members of our community should never be judged by the illegal activities of a few.”

This investigation was initiated by the FBI in conjunction with the JTTF based upon a review of suspicious financial transactions and other evidence; it was not an undercover sting. According to the allegations in the indictment, from around 2008 through in or around November 2010, the defendants provided money, financial services, and other forms of support to the Pakistani Taliban. The Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan, Tehrik-I-Taliban, Tehrik-e-Taliban, and Tehreek-e-Taliban, is a Pakistan-based terrorist organization formed in December 2007 by an alliance of radical Islamist militants. On Aug. 12, 2010, the U.S. State Department formally designated the Pakistani Taliban as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, under Section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act.

According to the indictment, the Pakistani Taliban’s objectives include resistance against the lawful Pakistani government, enforcement of strict Islamic law known as Sharia, and opposition to the U.S. and coalition armed forces fighting in Afghanistan. The Pakistani Taliban has committed numerous acts of violence in Pakistan and elsewhere, including suicide bombings that resulted in the death of civilians and Pakistani police, army, and government personnel, and other acts of murder, kidnapping and maiming. The Pakistani Taliban has also been involved in, or claimed responsibility for, numerous attacks against U.S. interests, including a December 2009 suicide attack on a U.S. military base in Khost, Afghanistan, along the border with Pakistan, which killed seven U.S. citizens; an April 2010 suicide bombing against the U.S. Consulate in Peshawar, Pakistan, which killed six Pakistani citizens; and the attempt by Faisal Shahzad to detonate an explosive device in New York City’s Times Square on May 1, 2010. Most recently, on May 13, 2011, the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the suicide attacks that killed at least 80 people at a military training facility in northwestern Pakistan. The Pakistani Taliban has links to both al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan.

As set forth in the indictment, the defendants sought to aid the Pakistani Taliban’s fight against the Pakistani government and its perceived allies, including the United States, by supporting acts of murder, kidnapping and maiming in Pakistan and elsewhere, in order to displace the lawful government of Pakistan and to establish strict Islamic law known as Sharia.

To this end, the defendants, assisted by others in the United States and Pakistan, conspired to provide and provided material support to the Pakistani Taliban by soliciting, collecting and transferring money from the United States to supporters of the Pakistani Taliban, primarily using bank accounts and wire transfer services in the United States and Pakistan. According to the indictment, these funds were intended to purchase guns for the Pakistani Taliban, to sustain militants and their families, and generally to promote the Pakistani Taliban’s cause. In addition, the indictment alleges that defendant Khan supported the Pakistani Taliban through a madrassa, or Islamic school, that he founded and controlled in the Swat region of Pakistan. Khan has allegedly used the madrassa to provide shelter and other support for the Pakistani Taliban and has sent children from his madrassa to learn to kill Americans in Afghanistan.

According to the allegations in the indictment, the defendants endorsed the violence perpetrated by the Pakistani Taliban. On one occasion in July 2009, defendants Khan and Irfan Khan participated in a recorded conversation in which Khan called for an attack on the Pakistani Assembly that would resemble the September 2008 suicide bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad, Pakistan. On another occasion in September 2010, Hafiz Khan participated in a conversation in which he stated that he would provide that individual with contact information for Pakistani Taliban militants in Karachi, and upon hearing that mujahideen in Afghanistan had killed seven American soldiers, declared his wish that God kill 50,000 more.

In closing, Mr. Ferrer noted, “Let me be clear that this is not an indictment against a particular community or religion. Instead, today’s indictment charges six individuals for promoting terror and violence through their financial and other support of the Pakistani Taliban. Radical extremists know no boundaries; they come in all shapes and sizes and are not limited by religion, age or geography.”

Mr. Ferrer commended the investigative efforts of the FBI, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Department of State, Broward Sheriff’s Office, Miami-Dade Police, City of Miami Police, City of Miramar Police, City of Margate Police, and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, and the members of the South Florida Joint Terrorism Task Force. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys John Shipley and Sivashree Sundaram, from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida, and Trial Attorney Stephen Ponticiello from the Counterterrorism Section of the Justice Department’s National Security Division.

An indictment is only an accusation and a defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.

US DOJ

Pakistani origin Mohammadden Cleric sentenced to 25 years in prison:

Florida imam sentenced to 25 years in prison for financially supporting Pakistani Taliban

arun · Post by **arun** » 06 Sep 2013 07:56

Green on Green Intra-Mohammadden religion inspired sectarian violence in Afghanistan sees citizens of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan adhering to the Sunni sect of Mohammaddenism attack a place of worship used by Afghans belonging to the Shia sect of Mohammaddenism and for their effort get to enjoy 72 houri’s:

Kabul says Pakistan militants killed in mosque attack

Lilo · Post by **Lilo** » 22 Sep 2013 20:03

X-post

agastya wrote:Pakistani terror trainer behind Nairobi attack?

A Pakistani-origin man is believed to be the security and training chief of Al Qaeda linked Shahab group that carried out the horrific attack at Westgate mall in Nairobi killing at least 59 people. Abu Musa Mombasa, a Pakistani citizen, serves as Shabaab's chief of security and training, the Long War Journal had said in a 2010 report.

Kenyan troops were locked in a fierce firefight with Somali militants inside the Nairobi shopping mall today, in a final push to end a siege that has left 59 dead, including two Indians, and wounded 200 others with an unknown number of hostages still being held.

Somalia's Al Qaeda-inspired Shebab rebels said the carnage at the part Israeli-owned complex was in retaliation for Kenya's military intervention in Somalia, where African Union troops are battling the Islamists.

Meanwhile, the Twitter account of Somalia's Shabab rebels was suspended yesterday after they used the site to claim responsibility for the attack.

However, the group seems to have launched a new twitter account @HSM-PressOffice.

The Shabab's previous account, @HSMPress, was suspended in January after it posted photographs of a French commando they killed and threatened to execute Kenyan hostages.

Not to be deterred, they opened another account, @HSMPress1, but were again suspended earlier this month after threatening Somalia's president.

The group had issued a series of messages on Twitter yesterday, claiming its fighters were behind an attack.
One more jewel in the crown for suwaristan.

arun · Post by **arun** » 01 Oct 2013 22:21

US Deputy Secretary of Defense Ashton B Carter on the subject of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan fomenting Mohammadden Terrorism as state policy:

"I was clear in Pakistan that the principal threat to Pakistan is terrorism, not its neighbors. The government of Pakistan has flirted over time with using terrorism as an instrument of state policy, and it's coming to the realization that terrorism's a boomerang and it comes back on you when you try to use it for your own purposes."

Comment from here:

Remarks by Deputy Secretary Carter on the U.S.-India Defense Partnership at the Center for American Progress

Meanwhile in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan a determined effort to divert culpability on the present high degree of terrorism prevalent in the Islamic Republic from Pakistan’s policy of fomenting Mohammadden terrorism to target neighbours to foreign fomented terrorism:

Rising militancy: PM blames foreign forces for terrorism

arun · Post by **arun** » 08 Oct 2013 07:33

X Posted from the "Terrorist Islamic Republic of Pakistan - August 21, 2013" thread.

Images of dead Mohammadden Terrorists who were killed by the Indian Army when infiltrating into India from the Islamic Republic of Pakistan in the Keran sector of Jammu & Kashmir.

Pictures / Photographs:

6 Photos

Video and article:

NDTV exclusive: First images of terrorists killed at LoC in Keran

arun · Post by **arun** » 16 Oct 2013 06:46

X Posted from the “Pakistani Role In Global Terrorism” thread.

British national with origins in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is arrested in London for plotting a “Mumbai Style” act of Mohammadden Terrorism along with three other Mohammadden Terrorist accomplices with origins in Azerbaijan, Turkey and Algeria.

The involvement of individuals with origins in Pakistan, Azerbaijan, Turkey and Algeria demonstrates the widespread appeal of Mohammadden terrorism among the adherents of Mohammaddenim in the world:

Police foil 'Mumbai-style' terrorist plot in London, say security sources

arun · Post by **arun** » 16 Oct 2013 06:53

Two Mohammadden terrorists infiltrating into India from the Islamic Republic of Pakistan captured by our Army:

Army captures two infiltrating Pak militants

arun · Post by **arun** » 23 Oct 2013 12:07

Our Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Shashi Tharoor, on the topic of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan fomenting Mohammadden Terrorism to target India in an article titled “The terrorist next door”:

………………… The principal obstacle to peace has been Pakistan’s sponsorship of militancy and terrorism within India, culminating in the horrific attacks in Mumbai in November 2008, in which terrorist commandos killed almost 200 people.

In the late 1980’s, Pakistan backed an insurrection by some Kashmiri Muslims and supplied arms, training, and funds to militants who infiltrated across the LoC. ………………

……………… Pakistan’s strategy of “bleeding India to death by a thousand cuts” through insurgency and terrorism has accomplished little, while making its military an enormously powerful domestic player and spawning terror outfits (some of which have turned against their sponsors). ………………..

But it has always been India, a status quo power, that wishes to live in peace, while Pakistan, craving Kashmir, uses every means at its disposal to alter the status quo. ……………………..

It would help if Pakistan’s government—facing home-grown terrorists even as it exports terror to its neighbors—showed a little more willingness to join the quest for peace. The moment the Pakistani establishment genuinely disavows terrorism as an instrument of state policy, the prospect of peace will dawn on the subcontinent. Alas, that prospect is not yet even a glimmer on the horizon.

Web Link below:

The Terrorist next Door

Lilo · Post by **Lilo** » 12 Nov 2013 13:18

X-post

Austin wrote:Paki boy doing Saudis Dirty Work in Syria , It could have implications for us in Kashmir once Saudi baksheesh makes those Paki itchy

Saudi Arabia's Shadow War

The Kingdom is turning to Pakistan to train Syria’s rebels. It’s a partnership that once went very wrong in Afghanistan. Will history repeat itself?
BY DAVID KENNER

BEIRUT — Saudi Arabia, having largely abandoned hope that the United States will spearhead international efforts to topple the Assad regime, is embarking on a major new effort to train Syrian rebel forces. And according to three sources with knowledge of the program, Riyadh has enlisted the help of Pakistani instructors to do it.

Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, along with the CIA, also supported the Afghan rebels against the Soviet-backed government during the 1980s. That collaboration contains a cautionary note for the current day: The fractured Afghan rebels were unable to govern after the old regime fell, paving the way for chaos and the rise of the Taliban. Some of the insurgents, meanwhile, transformed into al Qaeda and eventually turned their weapons against their former patrons.

While the risk of blowback has been discussed in Riyadh, Saudis with knowledge of the training program describe it as an antidote to extremism, not a potential cause of it. They have described the kingdom's effort as having two goals -- toppling the Assad regime, and weakening al Qaeda-linked groups in the country. Prince Turki, the former Saudi intelligence chief and envoy to Washington, said in a recent interview that the mainstream opposition must be strengthened so that it could protect itself "these extremists who are coming from all over the place" to impose their own ideologies on Syria.

The ramped up Saudi effort has been spurred by the kingdom's disillusionment with the United States. A Saudi insider with knowledge of the program described how Riyadh had determined to move ahead with its plans after coming to the conclusion that President Barack Obama was simply not prepared to move aggressively to oust Assad. "We didn't know if the Americans would give [support] or not, but nothing ever came through," the source said. "Now we know the president just didn't want it."

Pakistan's role is so far relatively small, though another source with knowledge of Saudi thinking said that a plan was currently being debated to give Pakistan responsibility for training two rebel brigades, or around 5,000 to 10,000 fighters. Carnegie Middle East Center fellow Yezid Sayigh first noted the use of Pakistani instructors, writing that the Saudis were planning to build a Syrian rebel army of roughly 40,000 to 50,000 soldiers.

"The only way Assad will think about giving up power is if he's faced with the threat of a credible, armed force," said the Saudi insider.

A State Department official declined to comment on the Saudi training program.

Saudi Arabia's decision to move forward with training the Syrian rebels independent of the United States is the latest sign of a split between the two longtime allies. In Syria, Saudi officials were aggrieved by Washington's decision to cancel a strike on the Assad regime in reprisal for its chemical weapons attack on the Damascus suburbs this summer. A top Saudi official told the Washington Post that Saudi intelligence chief Prince Bandar bin Sultan was unaware of the cancelation of the strike. "We found about it from CNN," he said.

As a result, Saudi Arabia has given up on hopes that the United States would spearhead efforts to topple Assad and decided to press forward with its own plans to bolster rebel forces. That effort relies on a network of Saudi allies in addition to Pakistan, such as Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, and France.

As Sayigh laid out in his Carnegie paper, Saudi Arabia is attempting to build "a new national army" for the rebels -- a force with an "avowedly Sunni ideology" that could seize influence from mainstream Syrian opposition groups. In addition to its training program in Jordan, Saudi Arabia also helped organize the unification of roughly 50 rebel brigades into "the Army of Islam" under the leadership of Zahran Alloush, a Salafist commander whose father is a cleric based in the kingdom.

Given the increased Islamization of rebel forces on the ground, analysts say, it only makes sense that Saudi Arabia would throw its support behind Salafist groups. These militias "happen to be the most strategically powerful organizations on the ground," said Charles Lister, an analyst with IHS Jane's Terrorism and Insurgency Centre. "If Saudi Arabia does indeed follow such a strategy... it could well stand to become a major power player in the conflict."

In calling on Pakistan to assist in toppling Assad, Saudi Arabia can draw on its deep alliance with Islamabad. The two countries have long shared defense ties: Saudi Arabia has given more aid to Pakistani than to any non-Arab country, according to former CIA officer Bruce Riedel, and also allegedly helped fund Islamabad's nuclear program. In return, Pakistan based troops in Saudi Arabia multiple times over three decades to protect the royals' grip on power.

The current Pakistani government, in particular, is closely tied to Saudi Arabia. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was ousted from power in 1999 by a military coup - the Saudis allegedly brokered a deal that kept him from prison. Sharif would spend the next seven years in exile, mainly in Saudi Arabia. "For the Saudis, Sharif is a key partner in a key allied state," said Arif Rafiq, an adjunct scholar at the Middle East Institute.

But despite close collaboration in the past, Saudi Arabia may find its old allies chafing at the sheer scope of its ambitions in Syria. One Pakistani source with close ties to military circles confirmed that Saudi Arabia had requested assistance on Syria over the summer -- but argued that Pakistani capabilities and interests were not conducive to a sweeping effort to train the rebels.

Pakistan is already grappling with its own sectarian bloodshed and must mind its relationship with Iran, while its foreign policy is focused on negotiations with the Taliban over the future of Afghanistan and its longtime rivalry with India. "They have their hands full," the source said. "And even if they want to, I don't think they'll be able to give much concrete help."

Jordan is also reportedly leery about fielding a large Syrian rebel army on its soil. The ambitious Saudi plan would require a level of support from Amman "that is opposed within the security and military establishment and is unlikely to be implemented," according to Sayigh.

As the Saudis expand their effort to topple Assad, analysts say the central challenge is not to inflict tactical losses on the Syrian army, but to organize a coherent force that can coordinate its actions across the country. In other words, if Riyadh hopes to succeed where others have failed, it needs to get the politics right -- convincing the fragmented rebel groups, and their squabbling foreign patrons, to work together in pursuit of a shared goal.

It's easier said than done. "The biggest problem facing the Saudis now is the same one facing the U.S., France, and anyone else interested in helping the rebels: the fragmentation of the rebels into groups fighting each other for local and regional dominance rather than cooperating to overthrow Assad," said David Ottaway, a scholar at the Wilson Center who wrote a biography of Prince Bandar. "Could the Saudis force [the rebel groups] to cooperate? I have my doubts."

arun · Post by **arun** » 12 Nov 2013 14:27

Lilo wrote:X-post

Austin wrote:Paki boy doing Saudis Dirty Work in Syria , It could have implications for us in Kashmir once Saudi baksheesh makes those Paki itchy

Saudi Arabia's Shadow War

The Kingdom is turning to Pakistan to train Syria’s rebels. It’s a partnership that once went very wrong in Afghanistan. Will history repeat itself?

BY DAVID KENNER ............... {Snipped}.............

Along with exporting Mohammadden Terrorism, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is also exporting the Polio Virus to Syria:

Polio virus strain found in Syria confirmed as originating from Pakistan: WHO

arun · Post by **arun** » 12 Nov 2013 14:35

Member and son of the founder of the UN proscribed Mohammadden Terrorist group active in Afghanistan, the Haqqani Network, gets shot dead in the capital city of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan:

Jalaluddin Haqqani’s son killed in Islamabad

Paul · Post by **Paul** » 12 Nov 2013 16:37

Good news in a way....will force Iran to confront the pakistani conundrum it's backyard and also sharpen the shia sunni divide in Pakistan

Lilo · Post by **Lilo** » 21 Nov 2013 23:27

ramana wrote:Hats off SSridhar for the accurate conclusion of Paki role in the Iran embassy bombing in Beirut.

Time magazine:

AA brigade behind the Iran Embassy in Beirut attack

...
The attack is but the latest spectacle brought about by a loosely aligned terrorist group with branches in Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. In 2012, the organization was declared both a Foreign Terrorist Organization and a Specially Designated Global Terrorist group by the U.S. Department of State. Two of the branches were singled out: the Saudi Arabian wing for a 2010 attack on a Japanese oil tanker off the coast of Oman and the Lebanese wing for a series of rocket attacks against Israel.

Formed in 2004 as an offshoot of al-Qaeda in Iraq, the Abdullah Azzam Brigades initially set out to attack Western interests in the Middle East and the Levant. In 2005 they claimed credit in tandem with another jihadi group for a coordinated bombing at the Egyptian seaside resort of Sharm el-Sheikh that killed 88. The organization’s mandate has since expanded, calling for the overthrow of the Saudi monarchy and a Sunni uprising in multiethnic Lebanon. In 2009 the brigades took responsibility for an attack on the Pearl Continental hotel in Peshawar, Pakistan, that killed 17, though it is not entirely clear how close the relationship is between the Pakistani branch and the others.

By 2012 members of the group were thought to be in Syria, fighting alongside rebels aligned against the regime of President Bashar Assad. That same year they issued an audio message threatening any Lebanese Shi‘ites caught fighting on Assad’s behalf, a clear reference to the Lebanon-based Shi‘ite militia Hizballah. Hizballah’s main backer is Iran; yesterday’s attack on the Iranian embassy appears to be an escalation of that threat.

But the Abdullah Azzam Brigades have continued to dabble in their anti-Israel activities as well, claiming credit for a series of rocket attacks from Lebanon on Israeli targets on Aug. 22. “This operation comes within the series of our jihadi work directed at the Jews,” they said in a statement translated by SITE and posted by the Long War Journal.

The brigades are named after Abdullah Azzam, Osama bin Laden’s Palestinian mentor whose charisma and oratory drew thousands of foreign fighters to Afghanistan to fight the Soviet invasion in the mid-’80s, creating the core of al-Qaeda. He also helped found Hamas. Azzam was assassinated in a bomb attack in Peshawar in 1989. Though no one knows for certain who was behind the assassination, many blame Ayman al-Zawahiri, the current leader of al-Qaeda. The two men argued frequently over the meaning and goals of jihad. Azzam’s son-in-law and confidant, the Algerian mujahid Abdullah Anas, told TIME in 2009 that his father-in-law would be appalled by the current justifications of jihad practiced by groups similar to the Abdullah Azzam Brigades. “He called people to fight in Afghanistan because it was occupied by the Soviets. If he saw what happened in Iraq and what is happening in Palestine he would say the same thing. But what is going on in the name of jihad, killing civilians, kidnapping, hijacking airplanes, explosions in the public places — that is not what Abdullah Azzam called a jihad.” Azzam, said Anas, never believed Muslims should kill Muslims, no matter their sect. It’s likely that he wouldn’t have been too pleased to see his name attached to Tuesday’s attack in Lebanon, either.

So the Western Media task of bolstering the image of a humane jihadi is still intact!!!!

I expect blowback will do something in Islamabad.

arun · Post by **arun** » 30 Nov 2013 21:52

The Islamic Republic of Pakistan’s brand new Chief Uniformed Jihadi, General Raheel Sharif , assumes office with a resume burnishing attribute that lives up to the motto of the Pakistan Army namely “Iman, Taqwa, Jihad fi Sabilillah” or translated “Faith, Piety and Jihad in the path of Allah”, of having lived less than a kilometre away from the last residence one of the world’s most famous deceased un-uniformed Jihadi Mohammadden Terrorists, Osama Bin Laden.

Interview of our former ambassador and last Consul General to Karachi, Mr. Rajiv Dogra :

New Pakistan army chief lived less than a kilometre from Osama in Abbottabad: Rajiv Dogra

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 03 Dec 2013 04:14

He might have visited the Sheikh when he was alive! After all he is a Sharif.

arun · Post by **arun** » 20 Jan 2014 20:42

X Posted from the “ISI-History and Discussions” thread.

Wall Street Journal reports that Afghanistan’s National Security Adviser, Rangin Dadfar Spanta, has suggested a link between the Mohammadden Terrorist attack of a restaurant in Kabul on the Mohammadden Sabbath of Friday that killed 21 and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and its notorious intelligence agency the ISI / ISID:

Afghan Official Suggests Pakistani Link to Massacre

arun · Post by **arun** » 20 Jan 2014 20:42

Three citizens of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan in “brotherly” Bangladesh with the intent of carrying out “subversive activities” of the Mohammadden Terrorism variety, arrested. Seems that the trio were Rohingya’s from Myanmar’s Arrakan region who had got Pakistani citizenship and were planning to set up a Mohammadden Terrorist outfit named “Tehrik-e-Azadi Aracan” to reflect their roots :

Three trained militants of Pakistan-based Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) were held with bomb-making and training manuals from the capital on Sunday night. Police said they were in Bangladesh to carry out subversive activities before and after the 10th parliamentary elections which held on January 5.

Read it all:

3 Pakistani militants held in capital : They are in Bangladesh to carry out subversive activities, police officials say

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 23 Jan 2014 23:38

Place holder

Edward Luttwak's interview on OBL and TSP

Q&A with Edawrd Luttwak

Q&A: Edward Luttwak
Posted by michaelblackburnsr on September 6, 2011

Edward Luttwak is a rare bird whose peripatetic life and work are the envy of academics and spies alike. A well-built man who looks like he is in his mid-50s (he turns 70 next year), Luttwak—who was born in 1942 to a wealthy Jewish family in Arad, Romania, and educated in Italy and England—speaks with a resonant European accent that conveys equal measures of authority, curiosity, egomania, bluster, impatience, and good humor. He is a senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies at Georgetown University, and he published his first book, Coup d’État: A Practical Handbook, at the age of 26. Over the past 40 years, he has made provocative and often deeply original contributions to multiple academic fields, including military strategy, Roman history, Byzantine history, and economics. He owns a large eco-friendly ranch in Bolivia and can recite poetry and talk politics in eight languages, a skill that he displayed during a recent four-hour conversation at his house, located on a quiet street in Chevy Chase, Md., by taking phone calls in Italian, Spanish, Korean, and Chinese, during which I wandered off to the porch, where I sat and talked with his lovely Israeli-born wife, Dalya Luttwak, a sculptor.

The walls of Luttwak’s donnish study—which is by far the nicest room in the Luttwaks’ house, with the best view, and might otherwise have served as the dining room, if Edward and Dalya were more like their neighbors—are lined with bookshelves containing the Roman classics, biographies of Winston Churchill, works on military history and strategy, intelligence gathering, Byzantine art, old atlases, and decorations and plaques from foreign governments. Luttwak’s work as a high-level strategic and intelligence consultant for the U.S. Defense Department, the National Security Council, the State Department, the Japanese government, and the defense departments and intelligence services of other countries in Europe, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East (he appears to be spending a lot of time in South Korea and China) is also augmented by a parallel life as an “operator,” about which he is both secretive and obviously proud.

While the details of Luttwak’s life as a private intelligence operative are sketchy, he has been actively involved in military and paramilitary operations sponsored by the U.S. government, foreign governments, and various private entities. By his own admission, he has been directly involved in attacks on physical targets, interdiction efforts, and the capture and interrogation of wanted persons—although “admission” is clearly the wrong word here, since he is almost boyishly eager for visitors to understand his familiarity with the nuts and bolts of special ops and cites his own field experience to support his estimations of people like Gen. David Petraeus, whose reputation as a counter-insurgency genius he dismisses as a fraud. He is also careful to state that his activities have never violated U.S. law. The Walter Mitty-ish component of Luttwak’s enthusiasm for his other life—academic by day, special operator by night—seems less significant in his psyche than a driving appetite for physical risk that has helped him understand military strategy and related policy questions in a way that the current generation of Western policymakers often does not.

Loved and loathed, and capable of living multiple lives, any one of which would quickly tire out a less intellectually and physically robust man, Luttwak glories in the undeniable fact that he is not the usual Washington think-tank product. His instinctive tendency to reject common wisdom as idiotic, combined with his need to prove that he is the smartest person in every room, has deprived him of the chance to shape events in the way that every policy intellectual not-so-secretly craves. Yet his first allegiance is clearly to the habits of mind that have made him one of the most brilliant strategic thinkers in America, capable of understanding the psychological and practical necessities that drive human action in a highly original, insightful and counterintuitive way.

We met last month, at the height of a rainstorm. What follows are selectively edited portions of the transcript of our interview, during which I made a point of not asking him about his childhood experience as a Jewish refugee in Europe, which seemed like a subject for a different conversation.

I think that if America had been able to tolerate a second Henry Kissinger, that person would have been you.

Kissinger at 88 is writing brochures for Kissinger Associates. His last book on China is one such work written by the staff at Kissinger Associates. It is designed to curry favor with the Chinese authorities and nothing else.

I know him personally very well, but he is such a deceptive person; he’s a habitual liar and dissembler. Although I’ve spent a lot of time talking to him, I have no insight on him at all. His book ends with a paean to U.S.-Chinese friendship and how every other country has to fit in. I have to review it for the TLS, but I’ve been delaying it by weeks because I don’t know whether it is a case of senility or utter corruption.

There are two differing interpretations of the events of the Arab Spring. The dominant one is: “Here is this marvelous wave of popular revolutions where everyone uses Facebook and Twitter to spread democratic ideas.” The other is that “Rickety state structures held together by repressive police and state apparatus are now collapsing into tribal bloodshed.”

Well, any dictatorship creates an unnatural environment, analogous to that of taking peasants from the field and putting them in an army, where they get uniforms and are drilled and disciplined. Dictatorships attempt to turn entire populations into well-drilled regiments. The North Korean regime takes it to the logical extreme of actually having the entire population drilled in regiments. The Ben Ali and Mubarak dictatorships were attempting to regiment their populations by having state structures imposed on them. Both of them, for example, were able to create loyal police forces.

Once the regiment dissolves, then the people are released and they revert to their natural order. They stop wearing uniforms, they put on the clothes they want, and they manifest the proclivities that they have. A few Egyptians are Westernized, hence they have exited Islam whatever their personal beliefs may be. But otherwise, there is no room for civilization in Egypt other than Islam, and the number of extremists that you need to make life impossible for the average Westernized or slightly Westernized Egyptian who wants to have a beer, for example, is very small. The number you need to close all the bars in Egypt is maybe 15 percent of the population.

Do you think stepping away from Mubarak was a mistake or it made no difference?

I think it made no difference. The regime was senile. Literally.

How much of a role do you think the so-called “democracy promotion” efforts of the United States under President George W. Bush, including the invasion of Iraq, played in the increasing instability of the Arab regimes, and how much of their collapse was the result of their own senility?

I will pretend that this is an easy question; it’s not. The easy answer is that Bush and the Bush Administration for a brief period of less than two years were on a democracy-promotion binge. They used a pickax and attacked a wall, seemingly making an impression, and perhaps they caused some structural damage. The Iraq War, with the defeat, humbling, and execution of a dictator, was a big blow with a pickax. On the other hand, when the regime becomes sufficiently involuted as to become hereditary, which is what happened in Syria and appeared to be happening in Egypt, then you are dealing with senility of the regime embodied: “The dictator is old.” So, both answers are true.

There have been many different explanations given over the past 10 years for the strength of the American-Israeli relationship, ranging from the idea that Israel has the best and most immediately deployable army in the Middle East, to the idea that a small cabal of wealthy and influential Jews has hijacked American foreign policy.

You mean the Z.O.G.? The Zionist Occupied Government?

Yes.

Personally, from an emotional point of view, myself, as me, I prefer the Z.O.G. explanation above all others. I love the idea that the Zionists have sufficient power to actually occupy America, and through America to basically run the world. I love the idea of being a member of a secretive and powerful cabal. If you put my name Luttwak together with Perle and Wolfowitz and you search the Internet, you will get this little list of people who run the American government and the world, and I’m on it. I love that.

Anytime you need an added jolt of ego gratification, you open your laptop and confirm the fact that you rule the world.

In Pakistan, there are millions of people who go to schools where they are taught that I am the ruler of the universe. So, emotionally speaking, I would explain everything that happens by referring to the Z.O.G., the Zionist Occupied Government, which is run by a small cabal of people, and that I am one of them.

Now, if I’m forced to actually think about this question, I would say that the cleanest analytical way of understanding the American-Israeli relationship is to say that the post-1945 career of the United States as a world-meddling, imperialist power has forced Americans to be very foreign-oriented. Many American families have had their sons killed overseas, and many other Americans have become foreign-oriented for many reasons. Among them there is a group of Christians who read the Bible, who believe in the Bible to some degree as a document that registers God’s will. For them, Israel is the proof of the truth of the Bible. Hence, the notion that the United States should be supporting rather than opposing Israel has now become expected, which was absolutely not true in 1948 when the United States did every possible thing to prevent the existence of Israel by systematically intercepting arms flows to the Jews.

Therefore, if we in the Z.O.G. didn’t really run everything, and there was no Zionist influence, then this solid mass of foreign-aware Americans, who also happen to be Bible-believers—we’re talking 50 million people—to them, the only foreign policy that counts is America’s support for Israel. Period.
Many American Jews are viscerally uncomfortable with this kind of support. They say, “Oh, look at these Bible-thumping Christians who want to make us kiss Jesus. The only reason they like Israel is so they can turn it into a landing strip for their God.”
You are now invoking a second constant—

Why are so many Jews so stupid about politics?

They have not had a state for 2,000 years, they have had no power or responsibility and it will take centuries before they catch up with the instinctive political understanding that any ordinary Englishman has. They don’t understand politics, and of course they confuse their friends and their enemies, and that is the ultimate political proof of imbecility.

When you look at the current conduct of American policy in the Middle East, do you see any coherent policy or strategy?

Obama is no different than most previous administrations that come into office with ready-made solutions to the Arab-Israeli conflict. Jimmy Carter was the first one, and his plan was redacted by Zbigniew Brzezinski. It led to Sadat’s journey to Jerusalem because his brilliant idea was to subject Egyptians and Israelis to a Soviet-American condominium, which was a terrible idea, and so Sadat created his own reality. It was really one of the funnier moments in history. The national security adviser officials, and I believe Brzezinski himself, came out with a lot of negative statements when Sadat first made his announcement because he was ruining their policy scheme, which was, of course, impossible.

Obama is in that tradition. He came in with an impossible policy scheme, which is first you get Israelis to stop agreeing to settlements, and then you proceed. Of course, that doesn’t make any sense. When you draw a border that is what matters. The Israelis removed all the settlements from Sinai without any American involvement in two minutes after the agreement was made with Egypt.

[The phone rings. Luttwak breaks into impossibly perfect Italian. I wander out onto the porch to talk to Dalya and return 20 minutes later, as he is finishing up the call.]

There’s nobody involved who is anti-Israeli like there were in the past, when there was a strong Arabist position in the State Department. The people in the Obama Administration read the New York Times and they don’t know Arabic, and therefore they are operating systematically with false categories. The fundamental error with regard to settlements is a very simple one: When borders are established, borders are established, and settlements are neither here nor there. This notion that when some faction of Israelis puts a camper on a hilltop that this changes anything is a fantasy.
A fantasy both on the part of the people who put the campers on the ground and also American policymakers.

They’re both equally deluded.

Do you anticipate violence this fall between the Israelis and the Palestinians?

I don’t anticipate violence this fall. War leads to peace. Peace leads to war. So, now logically we should have war. And the Iranians, of course, would love to pay for one. But the moment there is an intifada, the Palestinian regiment collapses and gangsters take over. So, the moment the violence escalates they stop fighting and they start talking peace. The moment the talking appears to be approaching an actual peace, they start an intifada.

Do you think the cost of the violence and other social ills that come out of the stalemate you are describing is something Israeli society can easily afford, or do you think there is any alternative to it?

I’m not sure it’s a cost.

Because the strategic depth that it affords and the control over those borders is more important?

Listen, my wife is a very good cook. And we have a housekeeper, who is an even better cook. It’s a weird situation, but I think my housekeeper is a better cook than any restaurant in Washington. She is a simple woman with no education, from Chile, and she just happens to have a superhuman talent. She being such a good cook, she achieves wonderful effects with very strange ingredients, and strange combinations of ingredients. Israel’s success as a state has been made possible by Arab threats of different kinds. Arab violence or threats of violence are part of the Israeli soup. There are certain levels of violence that are so high that they’re damaging, and there are also levels that are so low they are damaging. There is an optimum level of the Arab threat. I would say for about nine days of the 1973 war, the level of violence was much too high. Even when Israelis were successful, the level of violence was destroying the tissue of the state. Most of the time, the violence is positive.

When you say that the effects of Arab violence are positive, you mean that they generate social cohesion inside Israel?

Lenin taught, “Power is mass multiplied by cohesion.” Arab violence generates Jewish cohesion. Cohesion turns mass into power. Israel has had very small mass, very high cohesion. If only the Palestinians understood that, they would have attacked the Jews with flowers.

Shimon Peres says, “Iran is a decaying corpse of a country and the idea that they are any long-term threat to anybody, based on demographics and based on the rickety state of their economy, is a joke. So yes, it would be terrible if they ended up with an atomic bomb, but otherwise, Iran is not a long-term strategic threat to anybody.”

I think to get a good view on Iran you have to put yourself in the shoes of Hezbollah. Hezbollah is wholly dependent on Iran. Without Iran, Hezbollah is just a band of hotheads with a few thousand highly trained men. So, view Iran from Hezbollah’s point of view. What do you see? It’s a regime that has been around since 1979 in one way or the other. Is it consolidated? Is it functioning better and better and getting more and more support? It’s not. Is it getting more dependent on police repression or less? The answer is more. So, from the Hezbollah point of view, you realize that your days are counted because the regime is in a downward spiral.

There is a good measure of social control in Iran, and that is the price of genuine imported Scotch whiskey in Tehran, because it’s a) forbidden, and b) has to be smuggled in for practical purposes from Dubai, and the only way it can come from Dubai is with the cooperation of the Revolutionary Guard. The price of whiskey has been declining for years, and you go to a party in north Tehran now and you get lots of whiskey. And it’s only slightly more expensive than in Northwest Washington.
But on the other hand, the regime is doing something for which they will have my undying gratitude—that is, they have been manufacturing the one and only post-Islamic society. They created a situation in which Iranians in general, worldwide, not only in Iran, are disaffiliated. They are converting Muslim Iranians into post-Muslim Iranians.

What do you make of the Obama Administration’s increasingly close diplomatic alliance with Turkey?

There seems to be this effort to build up the Turks as an alternative hegemon to Iran in the region, even as Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, is trying his best to create an Islamic one-party state.
Hillary Clinton and her staff are not fools. Therefore, they must know that the Turkish foreign minister is a fool. I know him personally. The man is an idiot. Hillary Clinton and her advisers are not idiots. No advantage would be served for the United States to recognize where Erdogon is really going. It’s much better to pretend that he’s a member of NATO and North Atlantic Alliance and all the rest of it.

One way to look at the place of Israel in this landscape is “Wow, you have a functioning neo-liberal state with a tech economy second to Silicon Valley amidst the rubble of all these failed Arab states. Imagine the Syrian army trying to attack anybody. Egypt’s army is incapable of doing anything despite $10 billion worth of American weapons, Iran is falling to pieces, Lebanon is still a mess, Jordan is a joke of a country with a Palestinian majority.” On the other hand, you could look at it and say, “Israel is a tiny country in a chaotic neighborhood where it will always get sucked into conflicts with its neighbors and will never have a moment of peace.”

Yes, everything you say is correct, but there is a third element you are omitting. The very innermost circle of Israeli security is actually within the 1967 borders. And there you have almost 1.5 million Arabs, some Christian, some Muslim. The current situation is helping consolidate their loyalty to the Israeli state. If you ask them, “Are you loyal to the Israeli state?” They will say, “Oh no, we hate them all.” Are they involved in terror plots? The answer is that out of the 1.5 million, the ones involved in terror plots or even plain criminality of any sort, they could all sleep in my house. Or if not, they could sleep in a motel.

But there is even a more fundamental issue within Israel, which is the functioning of the Israeli economy and its impact on Israeli society. What’s happened, as you know from these latest demonstrations, is that the Israeli economy has become so successful that it has generated big numbers of millionaires, which means that four-room apartments in Tel Aviv cost as much as they do in New York. Israel is becoming Aspen, Colo., where normal people have to travel 20 miles to go to sleep because they can’t live anywhere within Aspen proper.

Are strategic minds nurtured through upbringing and education, or is the ability to think strategically an inborn gift, like mathematics?

It’s a gift like mathematics. The paradoxical logic of strategy contradicts the logic of everyday life, it goes against all normal definitions of intelligence we have. It only makes sense if you understand the dialectic. If you want peace, prepare for war. If you actively want war, disarm yourself, and then you’ll get war. Virile and martial elites understand that kind of thinking instinctively.

Here’s an easily falsifiable statement, but there’s something in it that interests me and I want you to pick it apart. I would start with the moment when George W. Bush met Vladimir Putin and said, “I looked into his eyes and saw this was a man I could really trust.” So, my thesis is this: If you’re Vladimir Putin, and you rise to the top of this chaotic and brutal society after going through the KGB, you must be some kind of strategic genius with amazing survival skills, because the penalty for failure may be torture or death. This kind of Darwinian set-up exists in many countries around the world. What does it mean to be head of the security services in Egypt? It means that you had to betray your friends but only at the right time, and you had to survive many vicious predators who would have loved to kill you or torture you, or otherwise derail your career. By the time you become Vladimir Putin or Omar Suleiman, your ability to think ahead and analyze threats has been adequately tested.

By contrast, what does it take to become a U.S. Senator? You have to eat rubber chicken dinners, you have to impress some rich people who are generally pretty stupid about politics, and smile in TV commercials. The penalties for failure are hardly so dire. And so, American leadership generally sucks, and America is perennially in the position of being the sucker in the global poker game. That’s the thesis. So, tell me why it’s wrong.

Even if your analysis is totally correct, your conclusion is wrong. Think about what it means to work for a Putin, whose natural approach to any problem is deception. For example, he had an affair with this athlete, a gymnast, and he went through two phases. Phase one: He concealed it from his wife. Phase two: He launched a public campaign showing himself to be a macho man. He had photographs of him shooting a rifle, and as a Judo champion, and therefore had the news leaked that he was having an affair. Not only an affair with a young woman, but a gymnast, an athlete. Obviously such a person is much more wily and cunning and able to handle conflict than his American counterpart. But when such a person is the head of a department, the whole department is actually paralyzed and they are all reduced to serfs and valets. Therefore, what gets applied to a problem is only the wisdom of the aforementioned wily head of the department. All the other talent is wasted, all the other knowledge is wasted.

Now you have a choice: You can have a non-wily head of a department and the collective knowledge and wisdom of the whole department, or else you can have a wily head and zero functioning. And that is how the Russian government is currently working. Putin and Medvedev have very little control of the Russian bureaucracy. When you want to deal with them, and I dealt with them this morning, they act in very uncooperative, cagey, and deceptive ways because they are first of all trying to protect their security and stability and benefits from their boss. They have to deceive you because they are deceiving their boss before he even shows up to work. And they are all running little games. So, that’s the alternative. You can have a wily Putin and a stupid government. Or an intelligent government and an innocent head. There’s always is a trade-off. A Putin cannot be an inspiring leader.

One final question. When I heard the Bin Laden news and you look at the circumstances surrounding his place of residence, and the length of his stay there, it seems clear that he was sold to the U.S. by somebody inside the Pakistani security apparatus, no?

I don’t believe that at all.

You think that the CIA independently developed this information?

First of all, it was not the CIA because the CIA doesn’t run interrogations in Guantanamo.

You believe the story about the courier?

I believe it and I believe it categorically. Look, the Pakistanis had been sheltering Bin Laden. But in these matters, the only way to proceed is to develop thoughts that are based only on uncontroversial facts. Any analysis of the Bin Laden story tells you that there was active Pakistani complicity simply because people cannot go to Abbottabad and live in a compound without somebody asking questions. For one thing, Pakistan has this system where foreign citizens have to obtain the residence permits and renew them, and there are foreigners including Arabs living there, and they would be asked to show their papers. Pakistani complicity is certain. That’s point one. Point two: The guy uses couriers. Therefore, if you’re going to find him, you had to find the courier.

The courier story is not the cover story.

The proof of this is that if they got the information from some Pakistani guy, if one of the protectors of Osama decided to sell out, they would have known what was in the compound, and if they had known what was in the compound, they would not have attacked it the way they did. The attack against the compound reflected the central fact they did not know what they would find inside. The only thing that they hoped to find was Osama Bin Laden, among other objects, furniture, walls, people. Had a Pakistani provided the information, they would have provided two pieces of information, not just one. One is that Osama Bin Laden is there and two, a platoon is not there.

You understand the thing that keeps bothering me.

Now you are entering an area that is highly technical, and I’m not at liberty to speak because I’m in this line of business myself so there are limits to what I can tell you. But tell me what bothers you?

What bothers me is that you have a secret that was obviously known by more than one person. Let’s say that only three people in the ISI knew that Bin Laden was there.
The people who knew that he was in Abbottabad were a minimum number of some 12 people, and the reason is that you had to keep telling the police not to enter, you had to communicate with the other parts of the Pakistani state. But I repeat, but if American information had come from inside Pakistan, and there was knowledge of what was in the compound, they would have not attacked the compound in this way.
If 12 people know a secret, then there are also many people surrounding those 12 people who might also have access to some part of that information.

So, in other words, there are fragments of that secret.

With that many people knowing a big secret over that long a period of time, something must have leaked.

I know the courier information would tell you that Osama Bin Laden is in that space and nothing else. And the military operation that was mounted reflects that fact. Whoever designed that military operation had the kind of information that is consistent with the courier and is not consistent with any other story.
If I am in the receipt of information about Bin Laden’s whereabouts from a source in the ISI who wanted to submarine his boss, or gain the support of America, or pay off his mistress, I might design an operation that would match my cover story about the courier, who definitely existed, but might not have led anyone back to Bin Laden’s house.

No, no, no. It’s a very technical thing. It has to do with how you attack a target when you know that there are maximum of two people who will shoot at you or three people who will shoot at you, neither of the three being trained gunmen, versus how you design an attack on a target when you think there might be 25 people shooting at you. That’s all. The official word is that there was a courier, and I’m inclined to believe it. Because when somebody tells you how something happened, operationally speaking, do not disbelieve it until you have evidence that tells you that it’s wrong. Then you can pursue some other theory. All the information I have is consistent with the courier story because the courier story would tell you that there’s the bad guy in the space but nothing else.

Why kill him?

They were under orders to kill him.

Wouldn’t Osama Bin Laden be a source of useful intelligence? Alternately, one good reason to kill him is that you have a deal with the Pakistanis—“we’re gonna get rid of this problem”—then you need to kill him, because otherwise he might start talking about who protected him for the past 10 years.
There was no deal with the Pakistanis. There’s no institutional integrity. Therefore you cannot make deals with the Pakistani system. They would betray each other. There was no deal.

They killed Bin Laden simply because of the inconvenience of a trial?

They killed him because of the fact that if we captured Bin Laden, every Jihadist in the world would have been duty-bound to kidnap any American citizen anywhere and exchange him for Bin Laden.
David Samuels is a contributing editor at Harper’s Magazine and a frequent contributor to The New Yorker.

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arun · Post by **arun** » 30 Jan 2014 19:46

X Posted from the ISI History & Discussions thread.

Bangladesh newspaper, The Daily Star in its reporting on the just concluded trial in the so called “Chittagong Arms Case” implicates the Islamic Republic of Pakistan via her intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate aka ISI aka ISID in the plot to arm ULFA terrorists:

ISI in thick of things