Pakistan: Nuclear Security and the U.S. Strategy for Southwest Asia

Analysis

As the Pakistani Taliban spread their insurgency beyond the northwestern Pashtun areas and into the country’s core — the government is trying to contain them in an area some 100 miles from Islamabad — concerns are being raised about the safety of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal. These concerns are not unfounded. Although security forces are beginning to wage a more concerted campaign against the insurgents, the Pakistani state continues to be weakened by mounting political, economic and security issues. Indeed, it is unclear to what extent the government can effectively counter the Taliban’s advance. Read more

Pak could collapse within six months: Report

New York: Pakistan could collapse within six months in the face of snowballing insurgency, according to a top expert on guerrilla warfare.

Such dire prediction was given by David Kilcullen, a former adviser to top US military commander General David H. Petraeus.

Petraeus also echoed the same thought when he told a Congressional testimony last week that insurgency was one which could “take down” Pakistan, which is home to nuclear arms and al Qaeda.

Kilcullen’s comments come as Pakistan is witnessing an unprecedented upswing in terrorists strikes and now some analysts in Pakistan and Washington are putting forward apocalyptic timetables for the country.

In an analysis piece, the New York Times cast doubts about the success of President Barack Obama’s strategy offering Pakistan a partnership to defeat insurgency, but the Pakistanis still consider India enemy number one.

Officially, Pakistan’s Government welcomed Obama’s strategy, with its hefty infusions of American money, hailing it as a “positive change”, the paper said.
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US needs Pak-Afghan help to identify moderate Taliban

WASHINGTON: Pakistan and Afghanistan can help the United States in approaching those Taliban activists who may have moderate views and are willing to lay down their arms, says US National Security Adviser Gen. James Jones.

In a rare, exclusive interview to Dawn, Gen. Jones also stressed the need for a greater cooperation between Pakistan and Afghanistan in the fight against terrorists and said that President Barack Obama’s new strategy offers new hopes for peace and security in the South Asian region.

‘Surely the Pakistani people and Afghan people know more than we do,’ said Gen. Jones when asked how the US would approach the moderates among the Taliban that President Obama says could be included in the peace process.

‘And they can certainly help us in identifying those who are moderate in their views and wish to be participating in the political process,’ said the US national security adviser when asked whether Washington would directly approach the moderate Taliban or would include Pakistan and Afghanistan in this effort.

Explaining who he believed were the moderates, Gen. Jones said those who were willing to participate in the political process ‘without violence and without terror and without causing breaches in the security of either country.

‘And so I think that as we work towards identifying those people who wish to enter into a peaceful dialogue, political dialogue, there’s certainly room on the table for them.’

Asked what’s new in President Obama’s new strategy for the people of Pakistan, especially when drone attacks have continued unabated, Gen. Jones said: ‘What’s new is a regional focus. There has been a tendency in the past to deal with Pakistan and Afghanistan as separate issues. By appointing Ambassador Richard Holbrooke as a regional representative, the US is signaling a more comprehensive strategy.’

The US official pointed out that trouble in the border areas were of concern to both countries and should be dealt with accordingly.

In the new strategy, he said, President Obama also has indicated that the US would like to be helpful to its Pakistani friends and wanted to do whatever it could to be supportive of the government’s efforts.

The new strategy, he said, focuses on the real threat, al-Qaeda. ‘Al-Qaeda, whether it is in the border regions, in Pakistan or in Afghanistan, is the real enemy here. It is an enemy to the Pakistani people, it is an enemy to the Afghan people and to people here in the US and people all over the world.’

Gen. Jones said that when President Obama announced a direct aid package of $1.5 billion a year for five years, this was meant to reassure the Pakistani people that the US was committed to bringing peace and security to their country.

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Pakistan: Taliban plans on carrying out two suicide attacks per week

ISLAMABAD – A senior Pakistani Taliban commander says the group carried out a suicide attack against a paramilitary camp in Islamabad that killed eight members of the security force.
 
Hakimullah Mehsud, a deputy to Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, says his group will carry out two suicide attacks per week in Pakistan like the one in Islamabad on Saturday.

Hakimullah warned last week that his group would attack Islamabad in retaliation for U.S. drone missile strikes against militants in Pakistan near the Afghan border.

The Pakistani Taliban deputy spoke to The Associated Press by phone Sunday.
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Pakistan minister terms Swat flogging a Jewish plot

KARACHI: Federal Minister Senator Azam Khan Swati of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) said on Saturday that the flogging of the 17-year-old girl in Swat was a Jewish conspiracy aimed at destroying peace in Swat and distort the image of those Islamists who sport beards and wear turbans. Speaking at a reception hosted by the JUI-F Karachi Chapter in his honour, Swati said that the JUI-F may part ways with the PPP-led coalition government if drone attacks continue to violate the sovereignty of Pakistan. “We shall not tolerate the violation of our country’s sovereignty through drone attacks,” he said, adding that under a deep-rooted conspiracy, the Pakistan Army was being defamed. He said that the ISI might be modernised on the lines that they bring a bad name to its reputation among Pakistanis.He said that the US administration has declared Baitullah Mehsud as its enemy and approved financial aid for the Pakistan government for actions against people such as Mehsud. “There are apprehensions that the US administration may turn Pakistan into the next Afghanistan on the pretext of an operation against terrorists as they did with Afghanistan in the name of Osama Bin Laden,” said Swati. The JUI-F minister expressed concern over the fact that the US might target Pakistan’s nuclear installations, adding that we must be careful. “It is unfortunate that we long for water and electricity in this age of advancement,” he lamented, while also condemning the killings of Pukhtoons in interior Sindh. Qari Usman, Qari Sher Afzal and Maulana Abdul Karim Abid of the JUI-F also spoke on the occasion. staff report

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Pak Taliban claims responsibility for NY shootout

Binghamton (NY): Pakistani Taliban militant leader Baituallah Mehsud claimed on Saturday responsibility for an attack on a US immigration centre in New York state in which 13 people were killed.

“I accept resonsibility. They were my men. I gave them orders in reaction to US drone attacks,” Mehsud told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location.

A man armed with two handguns killed 13 people at an immigration services centre before apparently turning the gun on himself, authorities in Binghamton, New York, said.

Representative Maurice Hinchey, whose district includes Binghamton, told the New York Times that indications are the gunman was an immigrant from Vietnam.

Earlier, a man armed with two handguns killed 13 people at an immigration services centre before apparently turning the gun on himself, authorities in Binghamton, New York, said on Friday.

Police Chief Joseph Zikuski told a news conference the gunman blocked the back entrance of the building with a car, walked in the front door and shot two receptionists, one of whom died, before entering a classroom and killing 12 more people and then apparently committing suicide.

The only victors can be the jihadists themselves: Western authorities, already mired in politically correct myopia, will grow even more afraid to speak openly about what they’re trying to do and what we can do to stop it. The losers can only be those who value freedom of speech and understand why it is so important in a genuinely pluralistic society. The UN measure moves the West one step closer to submitting to the hegemony of Islamic norms.

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US offers reconciliation for non-violent Taliban

THE HAGUE: The United States offered Taliban fighters who renounce violence in Afghanistan an ‘honourable form of reconciliation’ on Tuesday as part of a revamped strategy to tackle a deepening insurgency.

Traditional US foe Iran, attending an international conference on Afghanistan, pledged help in tackling the huge opium trade in its neighbour but stressed it remained opposed to US and other foreign troops there, Reuters reports.

The conference in the Netherlands is a chance for NATO and other US allies to consult on the Afghan strategy unveiled by President Barack Obama last week stressing the need to cooperate with regional players such as Iran, Pakistan, Russia and India.

‘We must … support efforts by the government of Afghanistan to separate the extremists of al Qaeda and the Taliban from those who have joined their ranks not out of conviction, but out of desperation,’ US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told the conference in The Hague.

‘They should be offered an honourable form of reconciliation and reintegration into a peaceful society, if they are willing to abandon violence, break with al Qaeda, and support the constitution,’ Clinton said.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai welcomed Obama’s ‘fresh, strong and judicious leadership’, but said his government should take the lead in approaches to the Taliban.

‘The policy of reconciliation … can succeed only if carried out under the aegis of the national institutions of Afghanistan,’ he warned.

Iran, which sent Deputy Foreign Minister Mohammad Mehdi Akhoundzadeh to the talks, promised it would help fight drugs trafficking and in reconstruction projects.

‘The presence of foreign forces has not improved things in the country and it seems that an increase in the number of foreign forces will prove ineffective too,’ Akhoundzadeh said.

But he added: ‘Iran is fully prepared to participate
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Pakistan military allying with Taliban

By: Tufail Ahmad

n

In the recent months, an old-new alliance has been re-emerging between the Taliban and Pakistan, aimed at countering the efforts of the U.S. and NATtroops against the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The Pakistani authorities recently signed twagreements with the Taliban – known as the “Shari’a for Peace deals” – which give the movement full authority tenforce the Shari’a law in the Swat Valley and broader Malakand region of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP). The Taliban’s part of the deal amounts tnmore than an unwritten – and largely unfulfilled – promise tstop fighting the government forces in the area.

The deals come in the wake of three operations carried out by the Pakistani military against the Taliban in the last three years – operations in which the military conspicuously refrained from causing the movement significant harm or from killing its leaders.

The apparent capitulation of the Pakistani authorities tthe demands of the Taliban is actually a part of a long-standing alliance between them. The Pakistani military – which actually formed the Taliban in the 1990s – has long been using this movement tcontrol Afghanistan and as a tool in its confrontation with the West. The Taliban, for its part, uses the support and protection of Pakistan tconsolidate its strength and gain control over increasingly large areas in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The first Shari’a for Peace deal was signed February 16, 2009 between the Pakistani authorities and the Taliban “moderates” led by Maulana Fazlullah’s father-in-law, Sufi Muhammad. [6] The latter had been incarcerated in a Pakistani prison, but was released in April 2008 precisely for the purpose of facilitating a deal between the authorities and the Taliban. [7]

On March 5, 2009, the Pakistani authorities signed a second agreement with the Taliban, giving it even more power tregulate day-to-day life in the Swat Valley district. The second deal included the following clauses: [10]

Steps will be taken tend “obscenity” and “vulgarity.”
Music centers and shops selling “obscene CDs” will be closed.
Shops and markets will be closed during prayer times.
A campaign will be launched traise public awareness t”social evils.”
Arrangements will be made for teaching Koran in prisons and for prison reforms.

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Obama Afgh-Pak Policy Already Unraveling

Delhi, India. United States President Barack Hussein Obama unveiled his much awaited South Asian strategy in a globally televised speech last night (Indian time). Today many Indians told me, as one put it, that Obama “lived up to his middle name by showing the face of a pro-Pakistan US policy,” a critical component of which that policy is to find “moderate Taliban” with whom the United States and its allies can negotiate a peace. Imagine if in 1942, Franklin Roosevelt said the US was going to look for moderate Nazis who could negotiate peace. Americans would have been outraged then, and history would show the policy to have been a calamitous mistake. Fortunately, we do not have to wait for the passage of history since those moderate Taliban have already provided evidence that the policy is terribly flawed. Read more

Bangladesh Militant’s Taliban Connection

Bangladesh government, for the first time, officially endorsed a fact that, a hidden link between the local militants and Taliban terrorists were established since past several years. Government also said that a large number of militants were recruited in country’s law enforcing agencies and armed forces during the past BNP-Islamist Coalition government. Earlier, Commerce Minister, retired Lieutenant Colonel Faruk Khan told reporters that militants penetrated into country’s border security forces, who were liable for February Massacre that took place at the headquarters of the Bangladesh Riffles [BDR] killing large number of army officers, rape and physical abuse of several people. The minister claimed, Islamist militancy group JMB had hands behind the entire conspiracy centering February Massacre. But, Law Minister, Barrister Shafiq Ahmed rejected the comments of the Commerce Minister saying, “It will not be proper to accuse anybody until a full investigation report is available. On conclusion of the investigation, the names of persons involved will be made public.” Read more

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