Terrorist Islamic Republic of Pakistan (TSP): Oct. 20, 2010

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 01 Dec 2010 02:21

Wikileaks look like regurgitated Such Gup stories from TFT!

Pranay · Post by **Pranay** » 01 Dec 2010 02:34

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11882019

Another cable concerning a US intelligence briefing in 2008 said: "Despite pending economic catastrophe, Pakistan is producing nuclear weapons at a faster rate than any other country in the world."

The latest cache of messages, published by the UK Guardian newspaper, shows that Russia shared US and UK concerns over Pakistan.

Yuri Korolev of the Russian foreign ministry told US officials in February that "Islamists are not only seeking power in Pakistan but are also trying to get their hands on nuclear materials".

Wikileaks has so far posted only 291 of the 251,287 messages it says it has obtained. However, all of the messages have been made available to five publications, including the New York Times and the UK's Guardian newspaper.

KLNMurthy · Post by **KLNMurthy** » 01 Dec 2010 02:40

Lalmohan wrote:they should use a real IA picture instead of photoshopping the (staged) iwo jima picture

yeah, too bad, why use the copied pic when we have the niazi surrender pic?

Raghavendra · Post by **Raghavendra** » 01 Dec 2010 10:34

Munafiq Qureshi visits Buddhist temple in Sri Lanka

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.as ... 010_pg7_28

COLOMBO: Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi visited the Sri Dalada Maligawa temple on Monday and said Pakistan takes pride in sharing the Buddhist heritage with Sri Lanka.

At the country’s holiest temple in Kandy city, that enshrines the relics believed to be the Buddha’s actual teeth, Qureshi said his visit was a gesture to promote inter-faith harmony.

Qureshi mentioned that the Gandhara civilisation, which flourished in area that is now Pakistan, spread Buddhism across this region. He said in fact, the remains of the first Buddhist University in the world were discovered in Taxila.

Pakistan on Monday offered specialised training, closer collaboration and sharing of expertise in counter-terrorism, to help Sri Lanka better train its security forces to thwart any future terrorist threat.

“We wish to strengthen our cooperation in ridding our countries of this menace and we can do it by learning from experiences of each other,” Qureshi told reporters at a press conference.

Pratyush · Post by **Pratyush** » 01 Dec 2010 10:46

^^^

Death to the Kaffir.

shynee · Post by **shynee** » 01 Dec 2010 10:54

India to find Pak ‘tougher’ to handle - K.P Nayar

Dealing with Pakistan may become considerably more difficult for India following the leak of a quarter million secret US diplomatic cables, many of which show Islamabad, its rulers, its army and its policies in an unflattering light.

In a rare, but significant background briefing for editors at the army’s General Headquarters in Rawalpindi yesterday, a very senior Pakistani military official referred to the WikiLeaks disclosures as proof that his country had “transited from the most sanctioned ally to the most bullied ally” of Washington.

That New Delhi would find Pakistan more intransigent in bilateral dealings was evident from a key thrust in the briefing for editors where the military underlined that the army’s approach would continue to be almost wholly “India-centric”.

SSridhar · Post by **SSridhar** » 01 Dec 2010 11:16

Lanka-TSP Pact

Sri Lanka and Pakistan have agreed to promote dialogue on security and defence issues, including training of security forces personnel. . . Sri Lankan defence personnel at various levels are trained in Pakistan.

sum · Post by **sum** » 01 Dec 2010 11:24

Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi visited the Sri Dalada Maligawa temple on Monday and said Pakistan takes pride in sharing the Buddhist heritage with Sri Lanka.

Am sure they took the same pride in blasting the Bamiyan Buddhas via their lap dogs, the Talibs..

Anindya · Post by **Anindya** » 01 Dec 2010 11:32

Am sure they took the same pride in blasting the Bamiyan Buddhas via their lap dogs, the Talibs..

It was worse than that - the Pakis actually provided the engineers to help with the demolition, as far as I recall

ArmenT · Post by **ArmenT** » 01 Dec 2010 13:25

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-11872207

Pakistan suicide blast kills six

Six people died when a suicide bomber on foot targeted a police van in north-western Pakistan.

Nearly 20 others were wounded in the blast in Bannu, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, close to the Afghan border.

ArmenT · Post by **ArmenT** » 01 Dec 2010 13:34

X-posting from Pakistan Economic Stress Thread
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-11875204

Pakistan floods push food prices higher

The UN's agriculture body, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), says food prices in Pakistan have risen 10% since floods hit the country in August and wiped out much of its produce (I think real reason for 10% rise is Zardari taking his cut). Jill McGivering visited Sukkur in Sindh province, one of the areas worst affected by the floods, to see how rapidly rising prices are affecting local shopkeepers and customers.

....

The roads into Sukkur have been badly damaged by the floods. His fruit comes by lorry from other parts of Pakistan, including Punjab, Baluchistan and Rawalpindi.

But now, since the floods, those journeys take four or five days. Some of the fruit rots before it even reaches him.

The extra petrol also makes the extended journeys very expensive. They are additional costs which he has to pass on to the shopper.

He gave me some examples. Oranges which normally cost 40 rupees (46 cents; 30p) a kilo are now 50 rupees.

Pomegranates have more than doubled in price, from 60 or 70 rupees a kilo to 150 rupees ($1.75; £1.13). Basically most people can't afford to buy fruit any more, he told me - business has plummeted. There's a peach-filled truck across the river, but alas he cannot swim!

AjayKK · Post by **AjayKK** » 01 Dec 2010 13:36

From the Guardian, Zardari continues the Allaah-ke-naam-pe-dede-baba tradition

US embassy cables: Despite massive US aid, anti-Americanism rampant in Pakistan

10. (S) Zardari is less likely to make public announcements chastising the USG for its policies in, and toward Pakistan (including on USG drone activity) than other senior GOP officials. His public (and private) lament is that Pakistan has the will to combat terrorism, but the USG has been miserly in providing resources. In his own fashion, this is Zardari's version of the widely held view that Pakistan has made great sacrifices at the behest of America, for little return and less recognition.

31. (S) While we grant large amounts of aid to Pakistan and its military, even with the arrival to office of the well-perceived President Obama, America is viewed with some suspicion by the majority of Pakistan's people and its institutions.

We are viewed at best as a fickle friend, and at worst as the reason why Pakistan is attacking its own (although this view may be changing as the popular picture of the true nature of the taliban has shifted in the last several months).

While the Army remains fixated on India as Pakistan's mortal enemy, the common man (and most importantly the youth) is just as likely to point to America as the nation which has twisted Pakistan's collective arm, leaving it weak. Much of the financial support and technical advice we give to the GOP is delivered privately and in a low-key fashion: our goal is to strengthen Pakistani institutions and demonstrable ties to the USG have the opposite effect in the public mind.

GOP officials are prickly about issues of sovereignty. They too can't be seen as reliant on U.S. largess. How to support the civilian government, strengthen its institutions, economy, and military capacity to engage in COIN, without further provoking antagonism toward the U.S., remains a central challenge. PATTERSON

SSridhar · Post by **SSridhar** » 01 Dec 2010 15:53

Anindya wrote:
Am sure they took the same pride in blasting the Bamiyan Buddhas via their lap dogs, the Talibs..
It was worse than that - the Pakis actually provided the engineers to help with the demolition, as far as I recall

Absolutely true. In fact, it was the Daily Times that broke the news. See here.

“This is the terrorism of the Taliban,” says Rahim, an official at the work site in front of the empty niche of the biggest of the two statues, one of which stood 55 metres tall and the other 38 metres. Wearing a hard hat and a mask over his mouth, one of the workers, Rajab, is trying to save the remains of the destruction in which one of his family members played a part.“The Taliban took Ali Reza, one of my relatives, and they suspended him from a cable at the side of the Buddhas. Then they forced him to beat at the statues with an axe and an iron rod,” he says. “They took four or five like him, to punish them for having fought against them.” He says there were Arabs, Pakistanis and Chechens among the Taliban fanatics who oversaw the demolition of the ancient relics – until then the largest standing Buddhist statues in the world – carried out on the orders of the head of the Taliban regime. One of his colleagues, Abdul Ali, adds: “The Taliban were the executors, but the masterminds were the Arabs and the Pakistanis.” At the nearby village of Sangchaspon, where the government has sent people who once lived in caves dug into the cliff around the Buddhas, two more witnesses give a similar account. “They started with tanks but that did not do much damage so they brought in explosives,” says Mirza Hussein, another of the prisoners the Taliban brought in to destroy the Buddhas.“There were Arabs and Pakistanis,” says Hussein, who was present for all 25 days it took to demolish the statues. As he recalls it, the foreigners “came by helicopter”.It is no secret that Osama bin Laden moved around Afghanistan in a helicopter.

There is every reason to believe that the Pakistanis who were 'brought in' were indeed Pakistan Army engineers.

anupmisra · Post by **anupmisra** » 01 Dec 2010 16:25

Iranian coastguards gun down three true believers

Three true believing Pakis were shot dead by the Iranian coastguards near a coastal township in Iranian Balochistan on Tuesday.

The victims had entered the Iranian territorial water without having formal travelling documents No Vijas. The Iranian coastguards opened indiscriminate fire on them as they tried to touch the coastline

all residents of Gwadar

Dang the Eyerainians. Call themselves birathers of the ammah. Couldn't they see that the victims were only trying to touch the soil of their motherland? They would have left for Gow-adar soon after that. Now the true believers will have to find a Shia mosque somewhere to...

anupmisra · Post by **anupmisra** » 01 Dec 2010 16:28

SSridhar wrote:There is every reason to believe that the Pakistanis who were 'brought in' were indeed Pakistan Army engineers.

Quite possibility ex-army engineers, to give the PA a modicum of deniability.

James B · Post by **James B** » 01 Dec 2010 16:29

FATA: PLAYERS IN WAZIRISTAN - A PRE-OPERATION PRIMER from WikiLeaks

REF: A) PESHAWAR 144; ISLAMABAD 1464; C) ISLAMABAD 1385; D) ISLAMABAD 1358;
E) IIR 6 802 0086 08

CLASSIFIED BY: Lynne Tracy, Principal Officer, U.S. Consulate
Peshawar, Department of State.
REASON: 1.4 (d)
¶1. (C) Summary: As the government of Pakistan has worked to
prepare for its upcoming ground operation in South Waziristan
Agency (SWA) against Baitullah Mehsud (ref C) and the
Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), it has narrowed the focus of
its operation by attempting to keep neutral the two other major
militant leaders in the area and building two other more minor
leaders up against Baitullah. The government has worked through
jirgas led by Deobandi clerics associated with the Jamiat
Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F) to isolate Baitullah and his lieutenants;
as the operation has become more imminent (and to JUI-F leader
Fazlur Rehman's chagrin), these jirgas have been sidelined.
Tribal maliks, though included in those jirgas, are too cowed to
play anything other than supporting roles, and the SWA Political
Agent, while talented, is rarely able to even enter SWA due to
security concerns. Political actors will continue to work
around the edges, but they are ceding the field to the military
and militants for the foreseeable future. End summary.

Baitullah Mehsud and His Lieutenants
------------------------------------

¶2. (C) 35-year-old Baitullah Mehsud has been the most
prominent militant in Waziristan since the death of Wazir leader
Nek Mohammad in 2004 and the most notorious militant in Pakistan
since his announcement of the formation of the TTP and
assassination of Benazir Bhutto in December 2007. He has
undisputed control over the Mehsud home areas of northeastern
SWA and significant influence in areas with Mehsud diaspora
populations such as Tank and Dera Ismail Khan districts. Since
the formation of TTP, an umbrella group whose expressed aim is
to overthrow the government of Pakistan and secure its FATA
safehaven in order to support cross-border attacks into
Afghanistan, Mehsud and his allies had established significant
levels of effective control in part or all of Kurram, Orakzai,
Khyber, Mohmand, and Bajaur agencies, as well as in Swat,
Shangla, Buner, and Lower Dir districts prior to recent military
operations. In all of these areas, Consulate contacts and
Pakistani press have reported a strong presence of Mehsud
tribesmen and allied Uzbek militants supporting local elements
fighting against the government.

¶3. (C) Qari Hussain has long been Baitullah's most feared
lieutenant from Waziristan; a post contact in the NWFP
parliamentary assembly included him as one of six militants
whose death would prove that the Pakistani government was
"serious" about finally getting tough on militants. He was
notable over the period 2006-8 for claiming the most extreme and
offensive actions taken by the TTP, particularly in the wake of
the government's July 2007 operation against the Lal Masjid in
Islamabad. These actions included suicide bombings throughout
the NWFP, the kidnapping of FC personnel, and an attack on the
Tank family residence of the Political Agent for Khyber Agency
which killed many of his relatives and guests, among them
surrendering women and girls, violating one of the strongest
taboos under Pashtun tribal law. Baitullah disavowed most of
these activities, though they generally directly benefited him.
In late 2008, after the conclusion of the most recent peace deal
in SWA, Baitullah "exiled" him to North Waziristan because of
his poor image; he recalled him to SWA recently. Hussain may
have been killed in an air strike on a post-funeral meeting on
June 23 in South Waziristan.

¶4. (SBU) Hakimullah Mehsud, a first cousin to Baitullah, has
come to prominence more recently, initially commanding TTP
forces assisting Sunni militants who were fighting Shi'a
militants in Kurram agency and neighboring Hangu district. His
activities quickly spread to Orakzai, where he masterminded an
October 2008 suicide bombing of a jirga that killed over fifty
tribal maliks and broke virtually all organized resistance to
TTP control in most of the agency. By early December 2008, his
men in Khyber were launching regular raids on trucking depots
around Peshawar and burning hundreds of trucks containing
supplies for American forces in Afghanistan. A Pakistani
military operation in Khyber in January 2009 reduced TTP
effectiveness operating out of that agency, but Hakimullah
continued to plan and execute attacks out of his base in Orakzai

PESHAWAR 00000147 002 OF 005

prior to returning to SWA in late May, reportedly with large
numbers of those under his command and in preparation for the
upcoming SWA operation.

Misbahuddin Mehsud and Turkestan Bhittani - GOP Surrogates
--------------------------------------------- -------------
¶5. (C) Misbahuddin Mehsud, the 23-year-old younger brother
of the recently assassinated Qari Zainuddin (ref C), is
Zainuddin's apparent successor as leader of a group of Mehsuds
independent of Baitullah who have engaged in tit-for-tat
assassinations and street battles with the TTP in the areas of
Tank and Dera Ismail Khan over the past several months.
Zainuddin was generally considered raw and untested; his close
familial relation (first cousin) to deceased militant leader
Abdullah Mehsud and the clear Pakistani government backing given
to him, however, had made him the pole around which
anti-Baitullah militants had coalesced. Misbahuddin is even
more untried. He is reportedly more poorly educated and rougher
of manner than Zainuddin (Misbahuddin's nickname is Tofan,
meaning "storm" and referring to his temper).

¶6. (C) Turkestan Bhittani, a 40-year-old soldier who retired
from the South Waziristan Scouts (Frontier Corps) in 1998 to
fight for the Taliban in Afghanistan, was an ally of Baitullah
Mehsud until 2007. Following his break with Baitullah, he
formed a militia composed primarily of members of the Bhittani
tribe. The Bhittani, whose population lives primarily in the
area along the border between SWA and Tank and controls access
between Mehsud territory and the settled areas to the east, has
a history of feuds with the Mehsuds; relatively few Mehsuds are
settled in Jandola and the other Bhittani-dominated areas around
it. A June 2008 incident in which TTP-affiliated Mehsuds
overran the town of Jandola and carried off thirty Bhittani
tribesmen and killed over twenty of them (including many close
relatives of Turkestan) solidified Bhittani tribal opposition to
the TTP. As Qari Zainuddin's group gained mass over recent
months, Turkestan allied his own, longer-lived group to it, and
this alliance seems unlikely to change with Zainuddin's death.
A Bhittani contact told us that it was Turkestan's firm control
of F.R. Tank that allowed Qari Zainuddin space to grow his
group; Turkestan had and continues to have a strong personal
interest in assisting any group that would weaken the TTP.

Hafiz Gul Bahadur - Siding with the TTP
---------------------------------------

¶7. (C) Hafiz Gul Bahadur, a senior militant commander in
North Waziristan Agency (NWA) and erstwhile rival of Baitullah
Mehsud for the title of "leader" of the Tehrik-i-Taliban, is an
Utmanzai Wazir in his late 40s. Despite considerable effort by
the Pakistani government to keep him on the sidelines and an
initial period in which his quiescence appeared to indicate that
he would stay out of the fight, Bahadur allowed and then claimed
a series of escalating ambushes of Pakistani military convoys
June 26-28. His spokesman then announced on June 29 that the
February 2008 peace deal with the government that Bahadur had
hitherto more or less respected was now a dead letter due to
continued drone strikes in and Pakistani military operations
near NWA (ref . (Note: Consulate contacts told us that
Bahadur had faced pressure from lieutenants to confront the
Pakistani military.) The government responded with airstrikes
against his positions on June 30, but reiterated its commitment
to the peace deal. A low-level conflict has ensued since, with
occasional minor attacks by militants on Pakistani military
installations.

Maulavi Nazir - Neutral?
------------------------

¶8. (C) Maulavi Nazir, the senior militant commander in
southern and western SWA, is an Ahmadzai Wazir in his 30s. Our
contacts from and in SWA consider Nazir to have been the
Pakistani government's man ever since his 2007 campaign against
Baitullah Mehsud ally Haji Omar and associated Uzbek militants
residing in Ahmadzai areas of SWA, though Nazir signed on to the
February 2009 alliance with Baitullah. Like Bahadur, he has
remained silent about the upcoming operation; on July 2, he told

PESHAWAR 00000147 003 OF 005

a jirga that he would maintain neutrality. A well-connected
Ahmadzai Wazir who resides part-time in Wana told us that Nazir
will stay out of the fight unless a spillover from the campaign
creates significant casualties among Ahmadzai Wazir militants or
civilians. In such a circumstance, Nazir would come under
considerable pressure to retaliate proportionately. This is a
plausible eventuality. According to a Consulate contact in SWA,
since the beginning of June, an Ahmadzai lieutenant of Nazir in
the Angoor Adda area of SWA (near the Afghan border) has
repeatedly detonated roadside bombs against Pakistani military
vehicles, killing several soldiers and wounding dozens of
others. More recently, over the past two weeks rockets have
been fired from Ahmadzai Wazir areas toward Pakistani military
installations in and around Wana. The Pakistani army has
retaliated in each instance by shelling militant positions in
the areas from which attacks have been launched.

The Haqqanis - Staying Out of the Fight
---------------------------------------

¶9. (S) Jalaluddin Haqqani and his son Sirajuddin, Afghans
who are based primarily in NWA, are involved primarily in the
fight against coalition forces in Afghanistan. Jalaluddin, a
former anti-Soviet mujahid from the Zadran tribe who had been
aligned with Hizb-i-Islami (Khalis), is now in his 70s and is
considered by our contacts to have a close relationship with
Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar. Sirajuddin, in his
30s, runs day-to-day affairs for the Haqqani network. This
Taliban group operates primarily in Khowst and Paktika provinces
but is also suspected of having a hand in some of the most
audacious Taliban attacks in Kabul, including the July 2008
bombing of the Indian embassy there. The Haqqanis have
generally taken the stance that attacks against Pakistan's
government are illegitimate, and they have worked to keep
militant leaders in Waziristan focused on the war in Afghanistan
- without success in the case of Gul Bahadur. They appear to be
hunkering down as well; a Consulate contact in the inner circle
of the NWFP's ruling Awami National Party (ANP) says that they
have moved their families out of the agency and to Rawalpindi
(ref A).

Maulana Fazlur Rehman and the Deobandis - The Would-Be Mediators
--------------------------------------------- -------------------

¶10. (C) The opening moves to the government's SWA campaign
have occasioned a flurry of jirgas aimed at mediating between
the Pakistani government and the various militant leaders.
These jirgas have been very similarly composed: led by elected
officials or prominent mullahs (and usually both), they have
been composed in equal measure by maliks from the affected areas
and prominent mullahs active in the region but outside of tribal
structures. The most active jirga, which has been shuttling
between the Pakistani government and Baitullah Mehsud, has been
led by Senator Saleh Shah, a Deobandi cleric in his thirties
from SWA (but not a Mehsud or Wazir) who leads two madrassas,
one in the Tirarzia tehsil of SWA (north of Wana, in the Mehsud
area) and the other in the Mehsud-settled Murtaza area of Tank.
In his absence (when the Senate is in session), jirga leadership
has generally fallen to Maulana Esamuddin Khan, a Mehsud
Deobandi cleric who has led a madrassa in Makeen, the heart of
the area controlled by Baitullah. Maulana Mirajuddin Qureshi,
another Mehsud Deobandi cleric who is a former National Assembly
member, has also played a leading role. Over the past two
weeks, activity by this jirga has tailed off as military
operations have increased their pace.

¶11. (C) Saleh Shah, Esamuddin, and Qureshi (along with fellow
repeated jirga leaders Noor Mohammad among the Ahmadzai Wazirs
and Maulavi Nek Zaman among the Utmanzai Wazirs) are affiliated
with the Deobandi Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam party faction under the
direction of Maulana Fazlur Rehman (JUI-F). Fazlur Rehman,
whose hometown is nearby Dera Ismail Khan, has positioned
himself and his party as a primary mediator between the
government and militants; his affiliates have been mediators in
each of the five peace agreements concluded in the Waziristans
since 2004. His decreasingly oblique criticisms of Pakistani
military operations in Swat and the surrounding Malakand

PESHAWAR 00000147 004 OF 005

division and his more direct criticisms of a follow-on
Waziristan operation have kept pace with the increasing drumbeat
of official talk about Waziristan. Fazlur Rehman's upset at the
prospect of such an operation may in part be a reaction the
political support that his party continues to carry there
(significantly greater than that enjoyed by his party in
Malakand), but it also reflects the fact that the beginning of
such an operation will represent the eclipse of his affiliates'
mediating role in favor of force wielded by parties outside of
his control.

The Maliks - A Non-Factor
-------------------------

¶12. (C) The peace jirgas of the past two months, led and
partially staffed by Deobandi clerics, have generally been
filled out by Mehsud maliks (tribal elders). Our contacts from
SWA have uniformly dismissed them as entirely cowed by Baitullah
and irrelevant in mediation; the deaths of over three hundred
other Waziristan maliks over the past four years appear to have
sapped them of the willingness to confront Baitullah in any way
and rendered them essentially placeholders in the jirgas for
sake of form. Asked if there were any maliks of sufficient
stature to chart an independent course at all, one contact
responded with a Pashtun proverb in which a prince, queried on
how he kept his kingdom under control, replied by silently
chopping off the tops of all of the tallest poppies in the field
where he was walking.

Shahab Ali Khan - The Absentee Political Agent
--------------------------------------------- -

¶13. (C) Shahab Ali Khan, a Bannu native in his mid-30s, was
appointed Political Agent (PA) of SWA in September 2008. He has
been in district government service for just over ten years;
before his current posting, Khan had most recently served as
District Coordination Officer in the sectarian strife-ridden
Hangu district from 2007. Shahab Ali has been described by his
peers and locals as a good negotiator in an agency where many
consider such skills a necessity, and he most recently played a
secondary role in the release of the kidnapped students from
Razmak Cadet College. He reportedly holds conservative views
and is pious. His youth is noted by his colleagues, though it
is not his greatest handicap: effective militant control over
virtually all of "his" agency makes it difficult to travel
outside of Wana and makes life dangerous even in that city. He
reputedly spends most of his time in Tank.

The Division Commanders - A Mixed Bag
-------------------------------------

¶14. (C) The commanders of the three Pakistani military
divisions that will bear the brunt of the fight in Waziristan
come from widely varying backgrounds. The Seventh Division,
headquartered in Miram Shah, NWA, is commanded by Major General
Navid Zaman. Zaman, a Punjabi from Rawalpindi, spent several
successful years as a staff officer at Pakistan's General
Headquarters (GHQ) prior to assuming command in October 2008.
The Ninth Division, headquartered in Wana, SWA, is commanded by
Khalid Rabbani. Rabbani, who has previous experience as a
brigade commander in the FATA, was most recently assigned as
Pakistan's Defense Attache to Libya and Algeria, which face
counterinsurgency challenges of their own. He left that
position at the end of 2007 and was given command of the Ninth
Division at roughly that time, making him the longest-serving of
the three in their current capacities (ref E). The Fourteenth
Division, headquartered in Tank, is commanded by Major General
Ijaz Chaudhry, of whom less is known; he assumed command of the
division in September 2008.

Comment
-------

¶15. (C) Baitullah Mehsud and the military are the predominant
actors in South Waziristan. However, as the government plays
out a strategy of divide and rule, the alliances, feuding, and
maneuverings of other militants as well as tribal and political
figures bears watching in assessing the direction that
operations in South Waziristan will take. End comment.
TRACY

hulaku · Post by **hulaku** » 01 Dec 2010 16:36

Seven Pakistanis held over Mumbai attack links (in Spain)

MADRID — Spanish police have arrested at least seven Pakistanis suspected of links to those responsible for the 2008 attacks in Mumbai that killed 166 people, Spanish media said Wednesday.

Anti-terrorist officers detained the suspects in raids in and around the northeastern city of Barcelona late on Tuesday, the newspaper El Pais said.

It said seven Pakistani nationals were held, while the daily El Mundo said eight were arrested during the night of Tuesday to Wednesday.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/ar ... d94ea6.4d1

Vril · Post by **Vril** » 01 Dec 2010 17:14

Mushy Rat denied vijja by India as per news channels.

Pratyush · Post by **Pratyush** » 01 Dec 2010 17:30

Ok...........

I was in favour of him recieving the vija. But the External affairs ministry is staffed by people who are smarter then me.

SSridhar · Post by **SSridhar** » 01 Dec 2010 17:40

Vril wrote:Mushy Rat denied visa by India as per news channels.

From Rediff Live Updates,

The government has declined to comment on the reasons for the visa snub, since it is not bound to do so, but sources say India believes the former Pak president would use the visit to stage a comeback in regional politics.

Exactly as we discussed here.

anupmisra · Post by **anupmisra** » 01 Dec 2010 17:48

hulaku wrote:Seven Pakistanis held over Mumbai attack links (in Spain)
MADRID — Spanish police have arrested at least seven Pakistanis suspected of links to those responsible for the 2008 attacks in Mumbai that killed 166 people, Spanish media said Wednesday.

Anti-terrorist officers detained the suspects in raids in and around the northeastern city of Barcelona late on Tuesday, the newspaper El Pais said.

It said seven Pakistani nationals were held, while the daily El Mundo said eight were arrested during the night of Tuesday to Wednesday.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/ar ... d94ea6.4d1

Does India have an extradition treaty with EU?

Suppiah · Post by **Suppiah** » 01 Dec 2010 18:48

anupmisra wrote:Iranian coastguards gun down three true believers

From the above link...

The Iranian coastguards mistook them as illegal immigrants and shot them dead on the spot. Otherwise, the Iranians detain the Baloch for questioning when they cross into the Iranian Balochistan

Iranians show the way on how to deal with Pakis crossing borders...even if they are illegal immigrants, dont give them ration cards and turn them into vote banks....kill them. If they are opposed to Paki state and ready to work against it, welcome them.

shaardula · Post by **shaardula** » 01 Dec 2010 19:01

Granta magazine has a full edition dedicated to TSP.
http://www.granta.com/Magazine/112

Filled with almost 200 million people speaking nearly sixty languages, brought into nationhood under the auspices of a single religion, but wracked with deep separatist fissures and the destabilizing forces of ongoing conflicts in Iran, Afghanistan and Kashmir, Pakistan is one of the most dynamic places in the world today.

Six Snapshots of Partition
Reportage

Lorraine Adams with Ayesha Nasir The Trials of Faisal Shahzad
Fatima Bhutto Mangho Pir
Basharat Peer Kashmir’s Forever War
Jane Perlez Portrait of Jinnah
Declan Walsh Arithmetic on the Frontier

CRamS · Post by **CRamS** » 01 Dec 2010 19:29

shynee wrote:India to find Pak ‘tougher’ to handle - K.P Nayar

Anyone who still believes US is a bumbling superpower being conned by the TSPA ought to consider this

His statement about Pakistan being the “most bullied ally” of the US is pregnant with significance for India. If the US continues to bully Pakistan, it is in no position to bully Washington back: at best, it can put up pinpricks for the Americans in the war against al Qaida and the Taliban. But even here, its options are limited because Pakistan relies on huge, billion-dollar handouts from Washington and its army relies almost entirely on American weaponry.

This came through in a briefing in Karachi — also yesterday — by the US Coordinator for Economic and Development Assistance to Pakistan, Robin Raphel, who insisted that aid to Pakistan was conditional on Islamabad broadening its tax net.

Not only is US in complete control of TSP to get its job done, it also derives lots of entertainment value, provides gainful employment to its "South Asia experts", and India as a valuable test-bed to understand IT (no, not information technology, but international terrorism) modus operendi

In such a quandary, the easiest way to boost Pakistan’s battered self-esteem would be to be more tough on India, more uncompromising in negotiations with New Delhi and to step up militancy in Kashmir or terrorism elsewhere in India.

The logical next step to such bravado would be to be seen as being tough with India on Kashmir and other bilateral issues, which would give the government a diversion and greater credibility among its people.

I posit that if US wants to, in a heartbeat it can: 1) Make TSP real nuke nude, not just nuke nude against the west but against India too, 2) Make Kiyani hand over list of hardcore terrorists in TSP involved in crimes against India, 2) Hunt down LET with the same gusto as TSP is forced to hunto down some Arab dim-wits and call them Al Queda #1, 2, 0r 3, and 3) come to a reasonable compromise in all its real or imaginary so called "disputes" with India. Of course, if USA does all this, there won't be any TSP left, the so called war on terror won't even exist, but all that is another matter that doesn't suit the US empire's interests.

Rangudu · Post by **Rangudu** » 01 Dec 2010 19:35

CRS,

You are wrong. The US cannot do any of that "in a heartbeat" or anything closely resembling that. The US can definitely make TSP do certain things if it chooses to use all its power sources but it will at best be a one and done thing. Nuke nood is impossible for the US to do if China is not aligned. Even if US super duper Special Forces can steal the family jewels, TSP can get a new set FedExed from Lop Nor the next day. Similarly, if the US had the means to get Bin Laden or Zawahiri, they'd have done so already. K.P.Nayar tends to exaggerate stuff for making his stories more sensational than they are.

BTW, the real gist of Kayani's briefing (referred to by Nayar) was that TSP will NOT give into the US demands, but Nayar somehow spins it the other way.

Lalmohan · Post by **Lalmohan** » 01 Dec 2010 19:45

the only way kayani will not accede to US demands if he has another backer
choose from dragon, OBL, Al Saud

its unlikely to be Al Saud
OBL... don't think the fauj have as yet fully committed to the khilafat on OBL's terms

Joseph · Post by **Joseph** » 01 Dec 2010 20:09

Raghavendra wrote:Munafiq Qureshi visits Buddhist temple in Sri Lanka
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.as ... 010_pg7_28

Pakistan on Monday offered specialised training, closer collaboration and sharing of expertise in counter-terrorism, to help Sri Lanka better train its security forces to thwart any future terrorist threat.

“We wish to strengthen our cooperation in ridding our countries of this menace and we can do it by learning from experiences of each other,” Qureshi told reporters at a press conference.

What expertise have the Pakistanis demonstrated in counter terrorism? Things have not improved since the Sri Lankan team bus was attacked in Lahore.

In regards to the Taliban and Bamyan, I have found a mention of a tank being used to target the smaller Buddha.

Massacre of Hazaras in Bamyan (1998-1999-2000-2001)

It was on the second day of the Taliban presence in Bamyan, that two groups of non-Afghan Talibs based in Iranian Consulate building and Bamyan Laycee (High School) targeted the small Buddha by Tank and BM 40 Artillery. These shelling caused some damages in the lower part of its body. Then climbing the statue, they dug its head, filled it with explosive stuff and set it off. The explosion defaced small Buddha and created some cracks in its body.

Would that have been a Pakistani tank?

Theo_Fidel · Post by **Theo_Fidel** » 01 Dec 2010 20:20

Rangudu wrote:CRS,

You are wrong. The US cannot do any of that "in a heartbeat" or anything closely resembling that.

Actually it is possible, if the US chose to throw India under the bus. They still have the power to do that though the window is closing. Why they havn't is a function of some remaining civility within the US administration. Not any great consideration for India.

This is why this particular strain of thought is so poisonous. No different than the hissing snake 'Jalebi' across the border. Do Not get others to take care of your fight. You may not like the outcomes.

Lalmohan · Post by **Lalmohan** » 01 Dec 2010 20:29

joseph, the talibs and the NA operated a number of T55's which are probably ex-government - though they are operated as mobile single artillery on the whole

arun · Post by **arun** » 01 Dec 2010 20:44

The Islamic Republic of Pakistan comes down to earth by setting aside its much hyped claims of marital vigour and admits that its Army is inferior to India‘s:

P.R. China Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs He Yafei to US Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security Ellen Tauscher on the margins of the P5 Conference on Confidence Building Measures Towards Nuclear Disarmament, Sept 4-5 2009 :

Indeed, a Pakistani military leader said his army was no match for the Indian army.

Read it all:

US embassy cables: Pakistan 'needs nuclear weapons because of inferior army'

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 01 Dec 2010 20:48

Where is the bangra gif when you need it.

Great job MMS on the vija denial to Mushy rat. Gives thappad two entitites: Muchy and his RATS and US which is the kabuki director. By denying the visa to Mushy, India is telling the US not to back the TSPA option.
------------

Didnt Spain or Portugal extradiate Abu Salem the gangster? However GOI has to file criminal charges on those seven Pakis. At a mimiunm the MHA should send the NIA team pronto to interrogate the seven jihadis.

Were they inspired by the Samurai movies for the number? Or is it for the number of days in a week?

Nandu · Post by **Nandu** » 01 Dec 2010 20:55

How are all these wikileak admissions playing in deaf&dumb? (No direct links please).

vijayk · Post by **vijayk** » 01 Dec 2010 20:57

http://www.hindustantimes.com/Seven-Pak ... 33111.aspx
Spanish police arrest 7 linked to al-Qaida

Seven Lashkar-e-Taiba-linked suspected terrorists have been arrested by the Spanish police in a raid on a group suspected of forging passports for al-Qaida, Interior Ministry said. The ministry provided no other details, but Spain's leading Cadena SER radio says the detainees formed part of a group based in Thailand and linked to Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan-based terror group blamed for the 2008 Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people.

SER and other Spanish media say the arrested are mostly Pakistanis who robbed passports that were later doctored and sent to Thailand for distribution to groups linked to al-Qaida.

vijayk · Post by **vijayk** » 01 Dec 2010 20:58

ramana wrote:Where is the bangra gif when you need it.

Great job MMS on the vija denial to Mushy rat. Gives thappad two entitites: Muchy and his RATS and US which is the kabuki director. By denying the visa to Mushy, India is telling the US not to back the TSPA option.
------------

Didnt Spain or Portugal extradiate Abu Salem the gangster? However GOI has to file criminal charges on those seven Pakis. At a mimiunm the MHA should send the NIA team pronto to interrogate the seven jihadis.

Were they inspired by the Samurai movies for the number? Or is it for the number of days in a week?

Didn't the BurkaGate Dutta supposed to bring him for an interview on undieTV? Is she going to do this on satellite now? Now that she has been expose any repercussions?

krithivas · Post by **krithivas** » 01 Dec 2010 21:00

The self admission is possibly news - It deserves be treated with silence and contempt. IF you started three wars and lost each and every one of them including a public surrender in 1971 ...... What is news about this well known fact?

arun wrote:The Islamic Republic of Pakistan comes down to earth by setting aside its much hyped claims of marital vigour and admits that its Army is inferior to India‘s: [/url]

arun · Post by **arun** » 01 Dec 2010 21:37

By what principle of Madrassah Logic is it halal for the sole Islamic Nuclear Power to surrender its sovereignty to Kaafir nations like the US ? :

WikiLeaks shows America's imperious attitude to Pakistan

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 01 Dec 2010 22:02

The leakss show a carrot and stick policy of US towards the TSP donkey. Only its at the wrong ends ocassionaly being switched.

pgbhat · Post by **pgbhat** » 01 Dec 2010 22:08

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/us-emba ... nts/248613

During a meeting with DCM and POLOFFs on February 8, a group of moderate Muslim religious leaders expressed very strong feelings about the Siddiqui case and the guilty verdict. The religious leaders were unified in their belief that Siddiqui did not receive a fair trial and called for mercy on the grounds that she was a woman. They claimed that the verdict detracted from President Obama,s efforts to reach out to the Muslim community and that he should step in and release Siddiqui as a show of good faith towards the world,s Muslims

"Moderate" mullahs being mofos as usual.

shynee · Post by **shynee** » 01 Dec 2010 22:15

Does this not apply to Asia Bibi ?

pgbhat wrote:http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/us-emba ... nts/248613
During a meeting with DCM and POLOFFs on February 8, a group of moderate Muslim religious leaders expressed very strong feelings about the Siddiqui case and the guilty verdict. The religious leaders were unified in their belief that Siddiqui did not receive a fair trial and called for mercy on the grounds that she was a woman. They claimed that the verdict detracted from President Obama,s efforts to reach out to the Muslim community and that he should step in and release Siddiqui as a show of good faith towards the world,s Muslims
"Moderate" mullahs being mofos as usual.

mayo · Post by **mayo** » 01 Dec 2010 23:20

BBC radio interview with Brahma Chellaney and Shahzad Chaudry regarding wikileak

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00c344h#p00ch21x

Paki tries to spin it big time but the interviewer doesn't let him escape and kepes pushing him. Worth a listen.