CrossTalk: Pakistan Next Target for US?
Sep 1, 2010 Pakistan, war on terror
Tags: afghanistan, India, Karzai, Pakistan, US
Obama announces end of combat mission in Iraq
Sep 1, 2010 World News, war on terror
President Barack Obama declared an end to the seven-year US combat mission in Iraq and told war-weary Americans that our central mission as a people is to restore the sagging US economy and US must focus on its fight against al Qaeda and the war in Afghanistan.
Obama, who inherited the war from President George W. Bush and is fighting another in Afghanistan, said he had fulfilled a 2008 campaign promise to end US combat operations in Iraq. After seven years of bloodshed that has brought sacrifice from Americans and Iraqis and consumed vast resources from tight budgets, Obama said that Operation Iraqi Freedom is over, and the Iraqi people now have lead responsibility for the security of their country. Obama hailed the removal of all but 50,000 U.S. troops, who will have a training and advisory role, saying that this was my pledge to the American people as a candidate for this office. Obama has promised to pull all US troops out of Iraq by the end of 2011. The effective change on the ground will not be huge because the U.S. military has already been switching the focus toward training and support over the past year. Iraqi forces have been taking the lead since a bilateral security pact came into force in 2009.
Tags: Iraq, iraq war, NATO, obama, President Barack Obama, US
Gaza Game Exposes Siege Restrictions
Sep 1, 2010 Videos, war, war on terror
Tags: gaza, Gaza Game, israel, Siege Restrictions
Zaid Hamid on US/Pakistan Afghan Policy Press TV
Jul 10, 2010 Pakistan, war on terror
Zaid Hamid on Press TV program “Infocus” discussing the US and Pakistan policy towards Afghanistan and Iran role in the region.
Tags: Afghan Policy, Press Tv, US/Pakistan, Zaid Hamid
On Being Pakistani
May 17, 2010 Pakistan, war on terror
SLAMABAD (May 16) — Pakistanis are becoming the world’s pariahs. Since being implicated in a steady stream of violent attacks — from the London Tube bombings in 2005 to this month’s failed attempt to bomb Times Square — it seems almost inevitable now that when the next act of terrorism happens, a Pakistani will be involved.
As a Canadian of Pakistani descent, I’ve watched this pattern emerge with a rising sense of trepidation. Thirty-five years ago, when my parents decided to move to Canada, things were much different. Pakistanis were different. They were much in demand — an intelligent, hard-working people who integrated and contributed positively to society, wherever they went.
What a terrible journey we’ve made since then.
Today, Pakistanis are objects of fear and suspicion. Wherever we go we must contend with the “terrorist” label and endure the scrutiny that accompanies it. Like many of my compatriots, I’ve been “interviewed” by the Joint Terrorism Task Force at the U.S. border, questioned at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport and scrutinized with extra efficiency by a German border control officer. Every time it happens, a piece of advice a Sufi in Saudi Arabia once gave me cycles through my mind: “When an obstacle is placed in front of you,” he said, “be like water — flow around it.”
Pakistanis are being asked to flow a lot these days, and it will not get better any time soon. Many people in the world must be asking why it is that so many acts of terrorism in the West seem to lead back to Pakistan. Is there something in the Pakistani psyche that makes them susceptible to violence?
What those people might be surprised to hear is that Pakistanis are asking the same questions.
At the forefront is something quite basic: How did this happen? How, in 30 years — a mere generation — have Pakistanis gone from being desirable to becoming undesirables?
The standard narrative goes something like this: During the 1980s, the U.S. promoted violent jihad in Pakistan to create a proxy army to fight against the godless Soviets in Afghanistan. The Americans funded the growth of jihad ideology, encouraged the construction of madrasas — religious seminaries that have now become militant birthing grounds — and are now fighting the jihadists they helped to create, including Osama bin Laden.
But there is another side to the story. After Soviet troops withdrew from Afghanistan, Pakistan’s military establishment decided to continue using the jihadists as proxies, both in Afghanistan and in Kashmir. That cold-hearted act of realpolitik was inspired by a neo-Cold War mentality in which India was — and still is — viewed as an existential threat to Pakistan.
Most Pakistanis feel that America has brought war on them, a war no one here wanted and which is ultimately killing Pakistanis. But for me, and for a silent minority of Pakistanis as well, there is an alarming lack of recognition of the role played by Pakistan’s own armed forces and intelligence agencies in sending Pakistan down the road to jihad.
There are two reasons for this. First, for decades, Pakistan’s generals have diligently maintained the illusion that the army is the only reason Pakistan has not collapsed. Pakistanis are spoon-fed this false perception from childhood, indoctrinated into believing that the army is the Great Savior, the Protector, the Guardian.
Second, opposing the army can have dire consequences. The execution of former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in 1979 is one salient example. The mounting evidence of an army role in the December 2008 assassination of his daughter, Benazir Bhutto, is another.
Just a few days ago my uncle expressed his concern in connection with the work I was doing tracing Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad’s militant connections back to groups linked to Pakistan’s dreaded spy service, the ISI. “You don’t understand these people,” he warned me. “They can make you disappear and you will never be found again. No one can stand up to them.”
But somebody must stand up to them. Pakistan’s image in the world, not to mention its future, depends on it. Is it an accident that Faisal Shahzad was the son of a senior Pakistani military officer? I don’t think so. Military culture in this country is virulently anti-American. Couple it with the rampant spread of jihad ideology — also the product of the army’s failed policies — and you end up with a deadly mix.
The failed attack on Times Square is only the tip of the iceberg. The fear among many Pakistanis is that some similar attempt is likely to succeed. With each attack, fear and suspicion of any Pakistani is bound to rise. And the irony is that as Pakistan spirals into chaos, young people here are increasingly looking to get out.
Two of my cousins are waiting for their immigration papers to be approved in Canada. They are educated, moderate Pakistani Muslims, much like Shahzad appeared to be until recently. They worry now that the environment of fear will hamper their efforts for a better life abroad. My brother, a professor of biochemistry at Trinity College in Dublin, is planning a sabbatical to Harvard, but worries about the treatment he’ll receive there.
Bearded Pakistanis have been under the microscope for years. Now, clean-shaven, Ray-Ban-wearing Pakistanis may be in for the same treatment. My advice to them is to listen to the Sufis. Self-respect lies within the self; no one can take it away from you. Be like water.
Adnan S. Khan covers Pakistan for AOL News.
Tags: ISI, Pakistan, Pakistanis, taliban, terrorists, war on terror
Kidnappers free Colonel Imam, Asad Qureshi
May 7, 2010 Pakistan, war on terror
ISLAMABAD: Former ISI official Colonel Imam and a British journalist of Pakistani origin Asad Qureshi were released on Thursday in North Waziristan by a militant group calling itself the Asian Tigers.
The group belongs is believed to be operating in North Waziristan and kidnapped the two on March 26, 2010. Among the people abducted was former ISI official Khalid Khwaja, who was recently killed by the group.
Khwaja’s body was found near a stream in Karam Kot, about seven kilometres south of North Waziristan’s main town of Mirali.
Locals said they had seen Khwaja’s body, but did not pick it up for fear of attacks from the militants.
A senior official said a jirga of residents and clerics deputed by the local administration finally retrieved Khwaja’s body.
Officials said Khwaja’s body was taken to Islamabad and handed over to his family. A note was found with his body which said that Khwaja was working for the Americans and anybody working for them would meet the same fate. — DawnNews
Tags: Asad Qureshi, asian tigers, colonel imam, ISI, North Waziristan
Is this the man behind the Times Square car bomb attack? Pakistani-American ‘admits to all charges’ after he’s arrested at JFK airport
May 5, 2010 World News, war on terror
By Daniel Bates
A U.S citzen of Pakistani origins has allegedly admitted to being behind a failed car bomb attack on New York’s Times Square.
Faisal Shahzad, 30, is being held in New York after he was arrested while apparently trying to flee the country to Dubai from John F Kennedy International Airport.
A law enforcement official familiar with the investigation told Reuters that Shahzad had effectively admitted to all the charges.
‘He’s admitted to buying the truck, putting the devices together, putting them in the truck, leaving the truck there and leaving the scene,’ the source told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.
‘He’s claimed to have acted alone. He did admit to all the charges, so to speak,’ the source said, adding that investigators were still looking into his activities during a recent trip to Pakistan.
Shahzad told investigators he acted alone and denied any ties to radical groups in his native Pakistan, the official said.
However investigators are not buying his story.
‘Based on our collective experience it’s hard to really believe that this is something someone would do on their own. It seems hard to pull off alone. There’s a lot we don’t know yet,’ the source said.
Shahzad, who received U.S. citizenship last year, was nabbed while on a flight apparently trying to flee the country.
The Emirates flight taking him out of the U.S. to Dubai was already heading to the runway when FBI agents caught up with it.
In scenes that could come straight from a Hollywood film, as agents raced to Shahzad’s home in Connecticut he was already on his way to New York’s JFK airport.
By the time investigators realised he was on the flight, the Dubai-bound jet was already on the way to the runway ready for take off.
But agents called it back to the gate and 30-year-old Shahzad, a naturalized U.S. citizen, was taken into custody.
‘They just caught him at the last second,’ a federal law enforcement source said.
The airline today revealed that three men were removed from a New York to Dubai flight due to depart yesterday.
It is currently unclear whether the men were on the same flight that Shahzad was trying to board.
‘Emirates can confirm that its flight EK 202 was called back by the local authorities prior to departure. Three passengers were removed from the flight,’ the airline said in a statement.
‘Full security procedures were activated, including the deplaning of all passengers and a thorough screening of the aircraft, passengers, and baggage. Emirates is co-operating with the local authorities.’
Shahzad had recently returned from a five-month trip to Pakistan, where he had a wife. He is an American citizen with an address in Shelton, Connecticut.
The suspect bought a sports utility vehicle, a 1993 Nissan Pathfinder, from a Connecticut man about three weeks ago and paid cash, detectives said.
The U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District in Manhattan will handle the case and said Shahzad would appear in court Tuesday on formal charges, but those charges were not made public.
FBI agents searched the home at a known address for Shahzad in Bridgeport, Connecticut, in the early hours of this morning Tuesday, said agent Kimberly Mertz.
Authorities removed filled plastic bags from the house, which is in a mixed-race, working-class neighbourhood of multi-family homes in Connecticut’s largest city.
A bomb squad came and went without entering as local police and FBI agents gathered in the cordoned-off street.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said America ‘will not rest until we have brought everyone responsible to justice’, suggesting additional suspects are being sought.
The bomb in the vehicle could have produced ‘a significant fireball’ and sprayed shrapnel with enough force to kill pedestrians and knock out windows, police said.
The SUV was parked on a street lined with restaurants and Broadway theatres, and full of people out on a Saturday night.
In Washington, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Saturday’s attempted bombing was a terrorist act.
The motive remains unclear. The Pakistani Taliban appeared to claim responsibility for the bomb in three videos that surfaced after the weekend scare, monitoring groups said.
New York officials said police have no evidence to support the claims. It is unclear if the suspect in custody has any relationship to the group.
The SUV was parked near offices of Viacom, which owns Comedy Central. The network recently aired an episode of the animated show South Park that the militant group Revolution Muslim had complained insulted the Prophet Mohammed by depicting him in a bear costume.
Times Square, clogged with tourists on a warm evening, was shut down for 10 hours. A bomb squad dismantled the explosive device, and no one was hurt.
Tags: bomb attack, EK 202, Shahzad, Times Square car bomb
