BRFite lakshmic in this very insightful piece shows why Pakistanis are under suspicion in the westPhilip wrote:Veteran Dawn journalist Irfan Hussein in this very insightful piece shows why Pakistanis/Muslims are under suspicion in the west.
Because they keep blowing stuff up !
lakshmic wrote:BRFite lakshmic in this very insightful piece shows why Pakistanis are under suspicion in the westPhilip wrote:Veteran Dawn journalist Irfan Hussein in this very insightful piece shows why Pakistanis/Muslims are under suspicion in the west.Because they keep blowing stuff up !
But didn't Jinnah say that Muslims were a distinct nation, with their own laws, customs, history etc?Clearly, many Muslims who have chosen to live in the West are not doing themselves any favours by their stand-offish behaviour and their bizarre views.
GerardGerard wrote:
But didn't Jinnah say that Muslims were a distinct nation, with their own laws, customs, history etc?
In Red --> meaning time is running out for you we can and will easily come in your country and start whupping your military and take control of FATA, SWAT etc. Durand line will have no meaning all those area will become part of Afghanistan.Pakistani officials have repeatedly denied the allegation of ISI support for the Taliban, though Defense Minister Ahmed Mukhtar, who accompanied Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani in a visit to Washington this week, acknowledged that his U.S. counterparts had aired serious concerns. Following their meetings this week, Gillani and President Bush sought to ease bilateral tensions over the conduct of the campaign against terrorism. Their talks focused on efforts to clamp down on al-Qaeda and Taliban extremists in Pakistan's northwest tribal areas.
Frankly there is no need to waste such huge amount of money on surveillance. And did these cameras in britain prevent any attacks? No. All we got to see were surveillance camera pics of the jehadis at the london tube stations.Philip wrote: We must imporve our surveillance in our cities and metros as Britain is doing and totally revamp our internal intelligence.
UK's `surveillance society' costing taxpayers 20 billion pounds: Report
London | July 07, 2008
A TaxPayers' Alliance report has claimed that Britain's "surveillance society" is costing the national exchequer 20 billion pounds, or 800 pounds per household.
The amount includes 19 billion pounds for the planned ID card system and 500 million pounds for CCTV cameras.
The British used these pics to grab those who built the bombs. They solved the case.And did these cameras in britain prevent any attacks? No. All we got to see were surveillance camera pics of the jehadis at the london tube stations.
The only british case i remember were bomb builders were caught is when the fertilizers bags used for making the bomb stored in a warehouse were changed with fake bags, and when the jehadis came to get the bags they caught on camera. are you refering to this case?Gerard wrote:The British used these pics to grab those who built the bombs. They solved the case.And did these cameras in britain prevent any attacks? No. All we got to see were surveillance camera pics of the jehadis at the london tube stations.
the deendar anjuman group was successfully disbanded completely, simi cell in kims was caught before the attack could take place, an attack on UP cm mayawati was foiled yesterdayGerard wrote:In India, how many of the bomb makers have been caught?
Rishi wrote:lakshmic wrote: BRFite lakshmic in this very insightful piece shows why Pakistanis are under suspicion in the west
Rishi-saar,An average paki (conjecture) reads this gets indignant and throws a towel "but why us ? immigrants are suffering ! whats wrong in preserving our culture and initiating the release of energy of chemical origin once in a while ?"Immigrants, like most temporal and spatial contexts, have a sociological tendency to preserve their way of life and suffer from cognitive dissonance when they travel to the west.
Furthermore, the recent incident involving Paki-British youths, who initiated the release of energy of chemical origin from their book satchels, which affected the structural integrity of the co-travelers in various transportation facilities, riveted the nation's attention on Pakis.
Maybe then, it will change their attitudes and pakis would think "Oh ! so this is the problem ! we should stop being our wives up and blowing things up is haraam !"They hate us because we beat our wives (plural) and keep blowing things up, while making statements about how its our birthright to beat our wives and keep blowing things up. Quit beating your wife and quit blowing sh*t up !
Man behind Kabul blasts identified?
8/3/2008
22-yr-old Hamza Shakoor has been identified as the bomber who carried out the suicide attack outside the Indian Embassy in Kabul, according to sources. The blast killed more than 40 people including a Brigadier of the Indian army.
According to sources, Hamza Shakoor hails from the Gujranwala district of Punjab in Pakistan.He was an activist of the Lashkar-e-Toiba.
Shakoor is said to have been recruited by the Gujranwala chapter of the Jamaatul Daawa as a jehadi operative in 2006. He was chosen for suicide-hit training earlier this year.
Sources say that the chief of the JuD Hafiz Saeed has quoted Hamza Shakoor as an example to other young militants while speaking about the importance of suicide attacks.
A suicide bomb that struck Kabul last month (June, 2008) blew off the gates of the Indian Embassy. The car bomb, which exploded just as two diplomatic vehicles entered the compound, rattled much of Afghanistan's capital. Dozens were killed and a large number of injuries were reported.
Afghan secret service RAM, India's RAW and the US CIA had given early warnings and some very accurate warning too and yet, it could not be prevented, according to the above.Afghan investigators believe that the suicide bomber who crashed an explosives-laden car into the Indian Embassy in Kabul last month was a Pakistani national.
Intelligence sources said Lashkar-e-Taiba operative Hamza Shakoor, tentatively identified as a 22-year-old resident of Pakistan’s Gujranwala district, is believed to have driven the white sports utility vehicle used to bomb the Indian mission.
Shakoor, intelligence sources say, is thought to have been recruited by the Lashkar in 2006. He trained at Lashkar camps before being despatched on his mission.
According to the sources, Shakoor was first tasked with participating in a fidayeen-style commando attack on the mission, but then he volunteered to carry out the suicide attack himself after its defences were upgraded just days before the attack.
FBI linked her to Al Qaeda in Hub
WASHINGTON - Five years after her disappearance, an MIT-trained Pakistani neuroscientist accused of belonging to an Al Qaeda cell based in Boston, is alive and in custody in Afghanistan, her family's attorney said yesterday.
"It has been confirmed by the FBI that Aafia Siddiqui is alive," said Elaine Whitfield Sharp, a lawyer for Siddiqui's family, who said she spoke to an FBI official on Thursday. "She is injured but alive, and she is in Afghanistan."
....
Marvin Weinbaum, a Pakistan specialist at the Middle East Institute, said that Pakistan has a history of reacting to pressure from the United States by publicly revealing that it has captured and turned over high-value terrorism suspects. Usually, such cooperation is kept quiet because of anti-American sentiments.
"But when it suits their purpose to advertise that they are cooperative with US intelligence, all too often, someone high profile is revealed to have been captured and turned over," he said.
....
According to the reports, Jaffrey alleged that Siddiqui was jailed in Kabul after being held in Bagram; a British journalist reached a similar conclusion based on interviews with prisoners released from Bagram.
Sharp said she believes those reports increased pressure on US and Pakistani authorities to divulge more information. "I don't believe that they just found Aafia," Sharp said. "I believe that she was there all along."
The ISI will continue to do anything necessarily to safeguard Pakistan from this perceived terminal threat.Afghanistan accusing Pakistan of aiding insurgents
The Associated Press
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
KABUL, Afghanistan: Afghanistan's spy agency alleged on Wednesday that a member of Pakistan's consulate in the country's south helped a Taliban commander in his attempts to weaken the government.
The allegation will likely further strain the acrimonious relations between the two key U.S. allies in the region.
Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security said in a statement that a diplomat at the consulate in the southern Kandahar province gave "orders and money" to Mullah Rahmatullah, a Taliban militant in the region.
Rahmatullah was captured by Afghan intelligence agents on Tuesday in Kandahar city, and the information linking the official with the militants was gleaned during the questioning, the NDS said in a statement, which did not name the diplomat.
Pakistan's Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammed Sadiq declined to comment, saying he had not seen the report.
Rahmatullah was responsible for kidnappings of influential elders in the province, extortion, "guerrilla attacks and some other terroristic activities," the statement said.
"Mullah Rahmatullah tried to show that the (Afghan) Government is weak in Kandahar," the statement said.
"After the arrest, Mullah Rahmatullah confessed to his crimes and said he received orders and money for all terroristic activities and for the kidnappings from one of the members of Pakistan's consulate in Kandahar," the statement said.
Afghanistan has long accused the Pakistan spy agency of backing the Taliban-led insurgency. It also has complained repeatedly that Pakistan-based militants are crossing the border to launch terrorist attacks in Afghanistan.
Afghanistan - and, reportedly, the United States - believe Pakistan's powerful spy service, the Inter-Services Intelligence, orchestrated the July 7 bombing outside India's Embassy in Kabul that killed over 60 people, in an effort to undermine growing ties between the two countries.
Pakistan, which is suspicious of India's growing role in Afghanistan, denied the accusations.
AP via IHT
Dadajabula on the Kenya-Somalia border.
The group arrested at Dadajabula is believed to have been enroute to Mogadishu from Peshawar Valley in Pakistan where they had trained in roadside bomb making and detonation by Kashmir militants.
Kashmiri terrorists in Peshawar valley training international terrorists . . .Gerard wrote:Face to face with dangerous terrorists
The realiy is there are no Cashmeri terrorists who can train others in Peshawar but ISI types. So the article is trying to put TSP at the focus but not openly.SSridhar wrote:Kashmiri terrorists in Peshawar valley training international terrorists . . .Gerard wrote:Face to face with dangerous terrorists
If you are drawing your conclusion from the author names of David Ochami and Mwangi Muiruri, the names are not Japanese origin.ramana wrote:Sounds like Japanese in origin.SSridhar wrote: Kashmiri terrorists in Peshawar valley training international terrorists . . .
Government must address Pakistan-Taliban connection – Rae
August 5, 2008
OTTAWA – The Conservative government must clarify how it is responding to reports that Pakistan’s intelligence agency is actively working with the Taliban, Liberal Foreign Affairs Critic Bob Rae said today.
“Has the government called in Pakistan’s ambassador about this? Are Canadian military intelligence officers working with other friendly intelligence services, or are Canadians only reading about this in the newspapers?” Mr. Rae asked. “This is very serious, and Canadian lives are at stake.”
Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) has long had a relationship with the Taliban, but last week reports said the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had conclusive evidence from intercepted communications that the ISI helped the Taliban plan the July 7 bombing of the Indian embassy in Kabul, which killed 54 people.
American officials also said the ISI is increasingly providing militants with details of the American military campaign against them.
A key recommendation of the January report by John Manley on Canada’s role in Afghanistan was that Canada should make forceful representation to neighbours such as Pakistan to reduce security risks. Mr. Rae said the Harper government has been silent on this recommendation.
“Serious questions have been raised about the degree of control that Pakistan’s civilian government has over the ISI,” said Mr. Rae. “The evidence is now convincing that the ISI is undermining international efforts to bring stability to Afghanistan. The role of Pakistan’s ISI must be addressed, particularly as it affects the men and women in the Canadian Forces.”
Liberal
Pakistani intelligence complicit in Afghan violence: US general
5 hours ago
WASHINGTON (AFP) — The top US commander in Afghanistan Thursday publicly accused Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate of "some complicity" over time with militant groups fomenting violence in Afghanistan.
Lieutenant General David McKiernan's comment in an interview with CNN was the most unambiguous statement yet on the matter by a senior US military officer, reflecting growing US frustration over the insurgent violence in Afghanistan.
"Do I believe that the Pakistani government must do more? I absolutely do. Do I believe there has been some complicity on the part of organizations such as the ISI over time in Pakistan, I believe there has been," McKiernan said.
His comments coincided with a political crisis in Islamabad where the ruling coalition said it will seek the impeachment of President Pervez Musharraf, the country's former military leader and long-time US ally.
And it follows reports that the CIA's number two, Steve Kappes, recently confronted the Pakistanis with evidence of ISI involvement with an insurgent network led by Jalaluddin Haqqani.
The New York Times reported last week that intercepted communications provided the Americans with clear evidence that the ISI was involved in a July 7 suicide bombing at the Indian embassy that killed about 60 people.
It has long been assumed by US officials that elements of the ISI has maintained ties with the Taliban and other militant groups it helped create to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan and the Indians in Kashmir.
But the relationship has come under greater scrutiny over the past two years as the militant threat has grown in the tribal areas, and fighters have poured out of those safe havens into Afghanistan.
"I don't believe we can get to the right outcome in Afghanistan as long as these militant sanctuaries exist across the border," McKiernan said.
"We've seen the increased numbers of foreign fighters in eastern and southern Afghanistan this year, and there is an expectation that the leadership in Pakistan will do something about these militant sanctuaries in their country," he said.
McKiernan said Al-Qaeda is heavily involved in the insurgency.
"Al-Qaeda provides financing, they help recruit fighters, they help with logistics, command and control, intelligence for the Taliban," he said.
AFP
Sunday, Aug. 10, 2008
A China Threat From Pakistan?
By Simon Elegant/Beijing
A second deadly attack by suspected Muslim separatists in China's far west has sparked fears that what had until very recently been a largely dormant militant insurgency, has undergone a significant revival. The August 10 bombings at multiple locations throughout the city of Kuqa in the Muslim majority Xinjiang region also heightened concern among security analysts that the recent slew of attacks has been carried out by fighters trained and equipped by jihadist groups in neighboring Pakistan.
According to official media reports, a series of 12 bombings took place at around 3 a.m. on August 10. At one blast site, attackers drove an explosives-packed tricycle into the courtyard of a police station. Government buildings, a bank and a shopping center were also targeted, killing a total of 10 assailants, a security guard, and injuring several others in an attack of unprecedented scale for China.
Clearly aimed to take advantage of the publicity surrounding the Beijing Olympics, the attack was the second to strike the region in less than a week. On August 3, Chinese media reported that two men had driven a stolen truck into a group of border police recruits, killing 16 and wounding a similar number before being apprehended. The ferocious attack, which included the attackers setting off home made grenades and hacking the recruits with knives, was the first against a government target since the early 1990s. In 1997, nine died when bombs attributed to separatists exploded on two public buses in the regional capital, Urumqi. But although there have been sporadic protests against Chinese rule by the ethnic Uighurs who make up the majority of Xinjiang's population since then, analysts say that Beijing's increasingly tight control of all aspects of daily life in the region, including the appointment of clerics at mosques and vetting of educational curriculums, was assumed to have effectively wiped out the separatist threat.
The new attacks signal a major change in the nature of Uighur resistance to Chinese rule, says Rohan Gunaratna of the Singapore-based International Center for Political Violence and Terrorism Research. "Although the Chinese have been capable of disrupting groups operating inside the country, these new attackers are trained and equipped outside, and come into China to carry out operations. This is a new capability that Chinese security forces have to deal with and they are finding it difficult." Gunaratna and others estimate that around 40 fighters from Xinjiang have been training in camps in the virtually lawless tribal areas of Pakistan, working with and under the sponsorship of groups that have direct links to both al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
Two videos have been released in recent weeks by a group calling itself the Turkestan Islamic Party, which threatened attacks on the Olympics and took credit for explosions on buses in Shanghai and the southern province of Yunnan in recent months that left five dead. Chinese officials have denied the bus explosions are connected to the Xinjiang separatist movement, and some analysts are also skeptical of the claims. Though exact relationships are murky at best, the TIP is believed to be the military arm of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, which Beijing has identified as posing the single greatest threat of terrorism to the Games.
Gunaratna predicts the August 10 Kuqa attacks are just the beginning. "For the moment the heightened security because of the Olympics is stopping them from attacking in Beijing so they will strike elsewhere in Xinjiang and China," he says. "This new threat is enduring and will continue long after the Olympics are over."
Time Magazine
Ramana, it appears that the two are the same. ETIM was banned after 2001 by the US as a FTO and like all Pakistani tanzims that morphed into another name, ETIM also probably did so.ramana wrote:SSridhar, is the ETIM same as the Turkestan Islamic Party refered to above? I mean may be its the Anglicised name? We need to start collecting all these numerous names.
Actually islamist ideology does not allow for any taller than mountians friends. They will bite the hand that feeds them once thye gain confidence. despinte all the high ranking US generals and even the President making remarks the TSP and in particular the TSPA know there wont be any action that hurts them. Talk never did hurt them. So it will be business as usual. When the threatening increase they let another #3 loose to satiate the GOAT.
Uzbekistan and Tajikistan have been targeted by “Islamist” groups turned violent with outside help coming mostly from Afghanistan and Pakistan
While editorially discussing terrorism in Asia, Najam Sethi dismisses the effects of terror in India with just one sentence. He knows that it will be too unpalatable for him to elaborate on the Pakistani sponsorship. Pakistan, as a whole nation, stands accused of terrorism, just not ISI or a few officials here and there.In Pakistan and Bangladesh, a growing trend in favour of “Islamism” reflects sympathy for the terrorists groups. In both cases, the military has been dominating the political system and the terrorists lean to the convenient strategy of becoming a part of the struggle for democratisation. Thus two trends conjoin to form a prodigious political force in favour of the consolidation of the terrorist groups. It is an irony that in Pakistan the man who fought the terrorists, President Pervez Musharraf, is being impeached while an ascendant Al Qaeda, which should have been on the run, puts forward its own charge sheet to supplement the one being brought up in parliament against him.
08/12/2008 02:19 PM
INTERVIEW WITH THE HEAD OF AFGHANISTAN'S SECRET SERVICE
'Piles and Piles of Evidence' that Pakistan Is Responsible for Insurgency
In a SPIEGEL interview, Amrullah Saleh -- the head of the National Directorate of Security (NDS), Afghanistan's domestic intelligence agency -- discusses Pakistan's role in the Taliban insurgency and recent terror attacks against German soldiers.
SPIEGEL: Mr. Saleh, is it possible the Taliban could win with its insurgency in Afghanistan?
Saleh: We have a lot of security problems, there is a lot of violence. But this is a violence unleashed with the help of Pakistan. They want to pull the brakes on us in order to hinder the coming elections. Afghanistan itself is not the source of the problem.
SPIEGEL: Who are these fighters who are not only killing Afghan and Western security forces, but also predominantly innocent civilians? And who is deploying them?
Saleh: The tribal agencies of Pakistan, like Bajaur and North and South Waziristan, are kept by the government as a strategic pool of fighters. From there, fundamentalist warriors are sent to fight in Afghanistan or elsewhere.
SPIEGEL: So you're saying the government in Islamabad has absolutely no intention of putting a stop to this militant movement?
Saleh: The international community has often asked them to stop allowing fighters to infiltrate into (Afghanistan) from the tribal areas. The answer from Pakistan is that they do not control the situation. When the Americans offered to fight the fighters themselves, the Pakistanis rejected them, saying you can’t go in, we are a sovereign state. The true reason behind this is that Islamabad is providing the militant groups wiith ammunition and training.
SPIEGEL: What is Pakistan seeking to achieve?
Saleh: It has always tried to make sure that Afghanistan remain on the level of a backward country, as well as to isolate us and hinder any kind of contact with the West. In the 1980s, when the mujahedeen were fighting against the Soviet occupiers, Pakistan had considerable influence over large parts of Afghan politics and Islamic Pakistan sought to establish its hegemony in the region. But now we are back, we are building up our country, we are unified and we are working to strengthen our sense of national pride. That makes our neighbors nervous.
SPIEGEL: Pakistan has feared its ability to hold itself together as a nation since its very founding. And even today, Afghanistan refuses to recognize the disputed border, the Durand Line. Wouldn’t that step move Afghanistan closer to peace with Pakistan?
Saleh: We have never crossed that line.
SPIEGEL: What proof do you have that the government in Pakistan is behind the attacks in Afghanistan?
Saleh: In 2008 alone, according to our very conservative estimate, the Taliban have probably fired 30 million rounds from their Kalashnikovs. Where did they get their weapons and munitions? Can you go to Russia or China today and say, "Hey, I'm a member of the Taliban, please send hundreds of AK-47s and weapons to my village." Is that possible? No. It's the Pakistani army that is providing them.
SPIEGEL: Those are serious accusations.
Saleh: It is a fact. The Pakistani army is a very disciplined force, and I respect that. And there are no rogue elements in the army as is often claimed.
SPIEGEL: Who are the masterminds behind the scenes?
Saleh: How much patience do you have? The army leadership and the Pakistani establishment. We have piles and piles of evidence to support this.
SPIEGEL: Do you have details?
Saleh: For years we discretely passed intelligence information about training camps, addresses, telephone numbers and names of terrorists groups on to Pakistan. But they didn’t act. There was no meaningful response. We have arrested many suicide bombers shortly before they could kill themselves and others. They frankly told us how they have been trained in Pakistsan and by whom.
SPIEGEL: Can you cite some examples?
Saleh: In Khost we arrested a man just a few minutes before he was able complete his mission. He was trained by a commander named Nazir in Wana in the tribal areas. Just before, the Pakistani government had signed peace deal with the same commander and only short time later he sent a truckload of suicide bombers to kill international forces. The Pakistanis have always claimed they couldn't find Commander Nazir. But how did he sign the peace deal then? Did they e-mail him?
SPIEGEL: But that’s not proof that Islamabad is commanding the insurgency. Is it possible that Pakistan perhaps long ago lost control over the border areas?
Saleh: Nobody lost control. Pakistan is staging controlled chaos in order to undermine Afghanistan's development. The Pakistani army is very strong and when the government has achieved its aim, it will immediately take control again of the tribal areas.
SPIEGEL: In northern Afghanistan German soldiers are getting attacked increasingly often. Last week a suicide bomber blew himself up in an attack that took place between Kunduz and Pul-i-Khumri. How are these attacks that are taking place far from the border to Pakistan organized?
Saleh: Terrorist elements are ordering Afghans to attack our army units and ISAF convoys or to burn schools. The perpetrators make videos to prove what they have done and once they provide this proof, they are rewarded with money from Pakistan. In the Kunduz area, the plotters of these acts are the Taliban commanders Mullah Rustam and Mullah Salam. Both are Afghans, but they live with their families in Pakistan. If the two would be permanently in Afghanistan, we would have caught or killed them or brought them to justice. Here’s another example: Why is the Taliban commander of Ghormach ...
SPIEGEL: ... a hard-fought district on the edge of the area under German command in the north ...
Saleh: ... whose name is Abdul Rahman Haqqani, currently being given medical treatment at a hospital in Peshawar after he was heavily wounded in recent fighting? Why? It's because Pakistan is his base.
SPIEGEL: Despite the many battles taking place in the country, the election campaign is starting to heat up in Afghanistan. In 2009, the next president will be elected. Which candidate has the greatest prospects, and will he be able to deliver greater security?
Saleh: It's too early to say. I only know that this government with Hamid Karzai has succeeded in achieving the country's reunification. But now we are intermixing modern institutions with traditional structures and we face a number of problems moving forward. But a consolidation is possible, even if the West sometimes doubts that.
SPIEGEL: And you, as the head of the intelligence service are still optimistic despite all these worries?
Saleh: Despite all the counter-attacks, we are experiencing the ressurrection of Afghanistan, and that is something magnificent.
Interview conducted by Susanne Koelbl.
Spiegel Online
Saleh: It is a fact. The Pakistani army is a very disciplined force, and I respect that. And there are no rogue elements in the army as is often claimed. {That's what many are triving to emphasize. All the attacks, terror attacks, wars, skirmishes etc are planned by all those in power. It goes back to 1947 when Jinnah is reputed to have said "I don't want to hear what you do in Kashmir. Just go ahead with whatever you are doing". Even in Kargil, contrary to popular misperception, the operation did have the overall approval of Nawaz. Shuja Nawaz in his latest book confirms that}
Saleh: In Khost we arrested a man just a few minutes before he was able complete his mission. He was trained by a commander named Nazir in Wana in the tribal areas. Just before, the Pakistani government had signed peace deal with the same commander and only short time later he sent a truckload of suicide bombers to kill international forces. The Pakistanis have always claimed they couldn't find Commander Nazir. But how did he sign the peace deal then? Did they e-mail him?
Saleh: Nobody lost control. Pakistan is staging controlled chaos in order to undermine Afghanistan's development. The Pakistani army is very strong and when the government has achieved its aim, it will immediately take control again of the tribal areas. {This is something we need to take seriously and examine if this is indeed true. This could mean that the Emirate is being setup and expanded with complete Pakistani acquiescence in it}
That's the distinction that Amanuallah Saleh is making. It is not TSPA alone. Everyone is on board. It is like that neat drama that Nawaz played about Kargil. It is about that drama BB used to play whenever she wanted her Western benefactors to hear moderate and modern thoughts from a Pakistani leader. The Pakis are adept at this and it goes a long way back to Jinnah, Suhrawardy et al.ramana wrote: But I thought it was understood among the cognoscenti on the Forum that FARTASTAN is a TSPA jihadi operation.
:Also recommended for reading is the survey result of “experts” which naturally is peppered with references to Pakistan.The Breeding Ground
Pakistan seems to be moving from bad to worse. With the assassination of former
Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, the ousting of President Pervez Musharraf’s ruling party in the February elections, and a string of deadly terrorist attacks, the country has been beset with instability during the past year.
For a majority of the experts, that instability is making Pakistan a country fraught with risk. A large majority, 69 percent, of the experts considers Pakistan the country most likely to transfer nuclear technology to terrorists. A year ago, 35 percent of the experts said that Pakistan was the country most likely to serve as al Qaeda’s next home base. Now more than half share this fear.
The index’s experts are not impressed with how the United States is attempting to address this challenge. They give U.S. policy toward Pakistan a score of just 3.7 on a 10-point scale. Sixty-six percent believe that U.S. policy toward Pakistan is having a negative impact on America’s national security, an increase of 13 points from a year ago. The highest percentage of experts says that, over the long term, correcting course will require the United States to support efforts to integrate the tribal areas into the rest of Pakistan, to increase U.S. development assistance, and to condition U.S. aid on Islamabad’s willingness to confront militants.
But if the experts agree on what is needed in the long term, there is almost no consensus about what to do if the United States must act quickly. Asked if the United States should take military action in Pakistan if there is a chance to capture or kill high-ranking members of al Qaeda, assuming Islamabad has not given the ok, 65 percent of the experts say they are unsure which course of action is correct. In a country so volatile, there appear to be more dangers than
See Page 4 for Pakistan
.