U.S. drone kills at least 7 in Pakistan tribal area

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, March 25 (Reuters) – A missile strike believed to have been launched by a U.S. drone aircraft killed at least seven militants, including foreigners, in a tribal region of northwest Pakistan on Wednesday, intelligence officials and Taliban sources said.

The strike occurred in Makeen, an area of South Waziristan known as a stronghold of Pakistan Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud.

“Two missiles struck two vehicles carrying militants and from information we have received, some guests were among the dead,” an intelligence official in the region told Reuters using the common euphemism for foreign fighters.

The official who requested not to be identified said he did not know the nationalities of the foreigners.

The United Kingdom’s Strategy for Countering International Terrorism (CONTEST II)

The United Kingdom’s Strategy

for Countering International

Terrorism

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View this document on Scribd

Pakistan’s major threat: US ignorance

Wednesday, March 25, 2009 Shireen M Mazari US ignorance regarding the ground realities of Pakistan is a source of major threat to Pakistan, both in terms of its internal dynamics and external security concerns. Taking the internal dynamics first, there were the crude US interventions during the nation’s reassertion of its self in the context of the long march and the demand for the restoration of the constitutional chief justice – with members of the US Administration trying to bulldoze the opposition political leaders into abandoning the march to Islamabad and into making unholy compromises with their present favourite Pakistani – President Zardari. It is a testimony to the Pakistani people that the US failed in its nefarious designs and at the end of the day had to make conciliatory statements regarding the restoration of Chief Justice Chaudhry. But imperial hubris could not resist sending the CIA chief to Islamabad to coincide with the CJP’s date of restoration of office. But these were only the most recent examples of US ignorance muscling itself into Pakistan’s domestic domain. Not to be left behind, the Brits through their rather brash Miliband also hopped on the US bandwagon (and we thought that was only Tony Blair’s problem!) and gave bizarre statements about Pakistan’s imminent descent to chaos as a result of the long march. Given how millions took to the streets of London to protest the Iraq war, why should the Brits assume that the Pakistani nation’s march for justice would cause a descent into chaos? On the contrary, it showed the growing vitality of the Pakistani nation to seek its own destiny against the machinations of its rulers and their foreign sponsors. Of course, being rather tiny now, the British can be and were chastised severely by different Pakistani quarters but the US seems to send fear into the hearts of our ruling elites. Not so our masses mercifully! Coming back to how US ignorance poses a threat to our internal dynamics, there is the issue of Dr A Q Khan who seems to have sent the US Establishment into a permanent trauma. So once again we heard the mantra of linking aid to Pakistan with access to Dr Khan. Only this time, the “threat” was the withholding of military assistance. Now the US knows that there is no reason, even legally, to let them have access to Dr Khan but they still do not realise that even the most obliging of Pakistani leaders will not be able to do the needful on this count and survive in power. Dr Khan, rightfully, is a national hero and as we in Pakistan know only too well, he has never contravened any of Pakistan’s international legal obligations since we are neither members of the Non-Proliferation Treaty or the Nuclear Suppliers’ Group. But the threat should have shown the Pakistan military the futility of seeking US military assistance – which we have done well without for many decades. In fact, the army’s offensive weapon systems have no US linkage or dependency at all, so why create it now? In any case, this absurd demand of the US does expose US intent and the military would do well to do a major rethink of its present close collaboration with the US. The most recent ignorant remark relating to Pakistan has come from an Australian consultant to Centcom commander General Petraeus, David Kilcullen, that Pakistan could collapse in six months. Clearly wishful thinking by our detractors as the nation now stands revitalised after the successful challenge to dictatorial state authority on the judiciary issue. But what is of concern in Kilcullen’s remarks is his claim that the military, intelligence agencies and the police (this last category is a new addition to the diatribes coming from the US and its allies) did not follow the civilian government but were a “rogue state” within a state. Honestly, talk about a total lack of comprehension of how the police force and the civilian intelligence agencies work in Pakistan! They are certainly inefficient and corrupt but that is another issue all together! Of course, we also know that since the ISI and the CIA fell out about a year ago, there has been an insidious campaign against the ISI and the Pakistan military but now it seems the police and FIA and so on are also on the hit list. In other words, all security and law and order forces must be scrapped, if Kilcullen is to be believed – and presumably reconstituted with US loyalists or what the US would term “secularists”. Clearly, in the case of the US relationship with Pakistan, ignorance is certainly not blissful for the latter. But for their ignorance, the US would realise that while most Muslim Pakistanis see themselves as easy-going, tolerant – also referred to as “moderate” – Muslims, very few regard themselves as “secular” in the US context. Which brings one to the constant mantra from the US and its allies about how Pakistan is about to be taken over by the Taliban. If this was to be true it would certainly be the fault of the Pakistani rulers, their image as US surrogates and their inability to deliver to the people on all counts – especially justice, equity and a dignified existence. But if one looks at the electoral patterns, one can see the standing of religious parties within mainstream Pakistan. However, it is true that the inability of the Pakistani state to deliver may well allow the more extreme religious groups to make inroads – after all, there are a phenomenal amount of madressahs across the country if my date collection for southern Punjab is any guide. And we do know that the Taliban have begun a peaceful campaign to make inroads into crucial cities in Punjab like Lahore and Faisalabad. In the latter city they have passed pamphlets to the trader community asking them to close their shops at prayer times, shun television and DVDs, ask their ladies to observe purdah and take their conflicts to the ulema rather than the civil courts. Has the state taken any action against these pamphlets or sought to provide quick justice and security for the population at large? Add to this the US insistence on the killing of Pakistani citizens – whether as “collateral damage” or deliberate targeting – through drone attacks, and the perception of a corrupt and US-driven Pakistani state becomes ever more widespread. This is where the US ignorance impacts both our external security dynamics and internal processes. Our external security becomes aggravated as the military loses credibility within its own people, especially in FATA. Now the US is threatening drone attacks in Balochistan which will offer new space for the religious militants in that province. The provincial leadership has wisely already condemned this policy pre-emptively. Perhaps it can actually move to close the Bandari drone base about 87 kilometres from Kharan southeastward – since the federal government seems unable or unwilling to do so. Certainly nothing has impacted the Pakistani populace against the US as the drone attacks have, and US ignorance about the functioning of our society has made them continue with this negative policy. So a few militants may have been killed in the process – look at the number of future militants these attacks create! In terms of Pakistan’s external security, the US using Jundullah through Balochistan to destabilise Iran undermines the socio-historical, cultural and political Pakistan-Iran relationship and creates its own destabilising dynamics within Pakistani society. Perhaps the absurdity of the US ignorance is reflected most clearly now in the statements coming from Obama’s Special Envoy for this region, Richard Holbrooke. He showed it after his visit to Pakistan when he talked about people not being able to walk their dogs in Peshawar. More recently he declared, with his usual arrogance, that the 9/11 terrorists, the killers of Ms Bhutto, the Mumbai attackers and the perpetrators of the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team were all one and the same lot. What a lethal mix of arrogance and ignorance! After all the 9/11 perpetrators were rich Arabs educated in the west and living there; we do not yet know who killed Ms Bhutto; the Mumbai trail spreads across many countries; and, our foreign minister has also now referred to a “foreign hand”, probably India’s RAW, in the attack on the Sri Lankan cricketers. So while it may comfort the Americans to forget such distinctions, it will not resolve the global terrorism problem – especially when in all probability the threat of terrorism across the US and or Europe will tend to come from the marginalised Muslims of Europe rather than our madressah-bred extremists. That is, for better or worse, our problem for which we have to find our own solutions. In this context, US ignorance has a lethal cost which we cannot afford. The writer is a defence analyst. Email: callstr@hotmail.com

Constitutional petition moved in SC against Musharraf

Constitutional petition moved in SC against Musharraf

LAHORE, Mar 24: A constitutional petition has been moved in the Supreme Court of Pakistan seeking trial of former President Gen Pervez Musharraf under Article 6 of the Constitution and directions for federal government not to allow him to leave the country.

The petition has been filed by advocate Zahid Hussain Malik through his counsel Dr Farooq Hassan under Article 184 (3) at Supreme Court Registry here.

The petitioner has sought declarations against Pervez Musharraf that by his admittedly unconstitutional actions of November 3, 2007 he committed a subversion of the constitution as outlined in Article 6 when he imposed by an act of a ‘patent usurpation’ emergency in the country.

After the imposition of emergency he proceeded to the dismissal of the entire superior judiciary consisting at that time of around 94 judges and then detaining those who stood by the dictates of their conscience and declined to take another oath of allegiance to him under the Provisional Constitutional Order unlawfully imposed by him that day in the country.

The petitioner hopes that the federal government, through its secretary defence, proceeds against Gen Musharraf in accordance with the provisions of Article 6 read with the high treason act of 1973 and also for his trial by the creation of a Court Martial under the Pakistan Army Act for violating the provisions relating to officers of the army in accordance with the law.

Cancer: NATO’s time bomb in the Balkans

Russia Today

March 24, 2009

Tuesday marks the 10th anniversary of the beginning of the three-month NATO bombing campaign of the former Yugoslavia – and a decade later, the wounds of the war are still felt.

Throughout the areas which have been affected by NATO bombings, hundreds of people are dying of cancer. Experts say that this may be a result of uranium shells being used.

A little cemetery in Bratunac, Eastern Bosnia became the final resting place for a number of cancer victims. A local resident, who preferred to remain anonymous, gave RT the names of some who are buried there. He says they all died of cancer.

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Djoko Zelenovic, who worked in the local military repair factory, died from the disease at the age of 65. The 35 year-old mother of two small children also rests here.

There used to be no more than one or two funerals a year in this small Serbian village in Eastern Bosnia. Since NATO dropped bombs on Sarajevo in the summer of 1995, the number has climbed to as many as one or two deaths a month.

Nikola Zelenovic’s parents are buried here. He says they were healthy until the NATO bombings and is now spearheading an investigation.

Nikola says that “my family lived throughout the war years in the town of Hadjici. My father was working in one of the factories there when NATO bombed it. His health problems started soon afterwards. He died from lung cancer. My mother died a year and a half after him from Leukemia. My parents were never sick before.”

Starting on March 24th, 1999, for three months NATO bombed Serb targets in the Former Republic of Yugoslavia. Four years earlier its forces had bombed Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Their aim was to end the fighting between Serbs and Albanians who lived in the areas.

But they left a time bomb behind them. In the years that followed, hundreds of people living in the areas that were hit have died of cancer

In Kosovo, the number of cancer patients has grown three times over the last ten years, while in Bosnia-Herzegovina, already more than a thousand people have died from cancer.

Doctor Slavko Zdrale has treated several cancer patients over the past years and boldly advances theories on the subject:

He told RT that “a few years ago we started noticing that there was as many as five times the number of people dying of different kinds of cancer as compared to the number of people who had been sick before the war.”

“We worked out that 90% of them came from areas NATO had bombed and from areas where ammunition with uranium was used. Nobody in the international community took much notice until Italian soldiers who were stationed in those areas started dying from cancer-related illnesses.”

In Pale, Bosnia-Herzegovina, the war crimes court is recording evidence of an increased number of cancer patients. The court says that the pieces of ammunition found in the bombed areas had a much higher level of radiation than is internationally allowed. Investigators are convinced that this radiation is the underlying cause of cancer.

Simo Tusevljak, the coordinator of the Research and documentation of war crimes, stated that “we believe that this was a deliberate attempt by NATO forces to kill as many people as possible. It was also a chance for the West to test new weapons.” .

“But there is nothing we can do,” he added. “We cannot file any complaint against NATO because all those involved have diplomatic immunity. A NATO soldier can kill and never be prosecuted. But perhaps one day some senior officials from NATO who ordered the bombings will be prosecuted. I believe the order came from high up.”

NATO hasn’t commented on the claims and has dismissed Serbian and Italian investigations.

There has been no other independent research conducted on the subject.

The little cemetery in Bratunac is already full. But locals fear the number of cancer victims will continue to grow for at least the next fifty years, or for as long as it takes for the air to clean.

Ten years after the NATO bombings, the alliance still has a lot to answer for. But no matter when those answers come (or whether they will come at all) they will be too late for the cancer victims.

Obama NOT Thinking of Afghanistan Withdrawal

Barack Obama says Afghanistan terror fight has ‘years’ to run

Malcolm Farr, Washington

March 25, 2009 01:17pm

BARACK Obama told Australians yesterday they would be involved in fighting terrorist groups in Afghanistan “over the next several years”.

The US President said he understood why Australians were “always frustrated” by demands to “send more young men and women overseas” and the fact some didn’t return.

But Mr Obama called on Australians to remember the Bali bombing atrocity, warned al-Qaeda wasn’t going away, and said we should continue the commitment to Afghanistan which began seven years ago.

He did not indicate he wanted Australia to increase its military commitment to the fighting, saying a review of Afghan strategy hadn’t been completed.

The President spoke out at a press conference in the Oval Office of the White House with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

Mr Rudd later had talks with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and revealed the US would call a conference in The Hague aimed at “galvanizing support for the good people of Afghanistan” which Foreign Minister Steve Smith would attend.

President Obama said the new strategy would involve greater diplomatic efforts and more effective development projects in Afghanistan.

“And my expectation would be that over the next several years, you are going to see a more comprehensive strategy, a more focussed strategy, a more disciplined strategy to achieve our common goals,” he said.

“I think, you know, the American people, just like the Australian people, are always frustrated with the need to send our young men and women overseas for extended periods of time.

“Not only does it cost, in terms of dollars, it, you know, it puts enormous strain on families.

“And some don’t return. And that’s something that weighs on the minds of the public.”

Mr Obama gave Mr Rudd a briefing on security analysis and told him “the threat of terrorist attacks from al-Qaeda and their affiliates is not a threat that’s going away”.

“Obviously the United States has in its memory, what’s been burned into our memory is the events of 9/11,” he said.

“But I think the Australian people remember what happened in Bali. That’s not something that we will forget.”

Prime Minister Rudd said “a huge part” of the 70 minute discussions he held with Mr Obama centred on the global economic crisis and strategies to be presented to the G20 summit of leading world economies in London next week.

Mr Rudd said three objectives in London would be economic stimulus, improving operation of the International Monetary Fund, and better regulating the global markets.

Militants warn Pakistan About Cell Phone Predator Targeting

See: New Cellular Service/Predator Targeting System in Wana

Militants warn Pakistan

Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan – Militants on Tuesday warned the Pakistan government to stop expanding the cellphone network in a restive tribal area, worried it could be used to spy on their activities.

They circulated a pamphlet in Wana, the main town of South Waziristan on the Afghan border, telling authorities to stop the network expansion and ordering vendors to stop selling SIM cards, residents and officials said.

“A Jewish, Zionist-backed company is setting up the mobile phone network in Waziristan, which would be used to spy on Taliban activities and drone attacks,” said the pamphlet.

“This network is equipped with GPS (global positioning system) and can give the location of a person even if his mobile phone is switched off,” it said.

“In Iraq and Afghanistan such a system has been used to launch attacks against mujahedeen,” the leaflet said, referring to holy warriors.

“The government and those selling SIMs will be treated as criminals by us,” it warned.

A local administration official confirmed that a leaflet had been circulated in Wana.

Pakistan’s rugged tribal regions have been wracked by violence since hundreds of Taliban and al-Qaeda rebels fled across the border to escape the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001.

– AFP

Army: Clashes in Indian Kashmir kill 25 in 5 days

Photo by AP

A Kashmiri Muslim woman, with henna on her hands, grieves during the funeral procession of Indian Army soldier Shabir Ahmed Malik in Dab, 22 miles Northeast of Srinagar, India, Tuesday, March 24, 2009.

SRINAGAR, India — Six suspected rebels were killed Tuesday in gunbattles between government forces and insurgents in the forests of Indian Kashmir, bringing the death toll from five days of fighting to 25, the Indian army said.

Indian army spokesman Lt. Col. J.S. Brar said the fighting — which started Friday morning when a combined force of Indian army and police began flushing out militants in the Shamsbari area — was the longest and bloodiest in the disputed Himalayan region this year. He added that clashes appeared to have ended and troops were able to go into the area where the fighting has raged to recover weapons.

Nearly a dozen Islamic rebel groups have been fighting for Kashmir’s independence from India or its unification with neighboring Pakistan. More than 68,000 people, most of them civilians, have been killed in the uprising and subsequent Indian crackdown.

The difficult terrain prevented troops from using heavy weapons against the militants, causing the fighting to drag on, Brar said.

Brar said the latest deaths take the number of rebels killed to 17, while 8 government troops were killed.

Government troops recovered several assault rifles, grenades and grenade launchers and several rounds of ammunition from the killed rebels, he added.

There was no independent accounts of the gunbattles — which had raged in a dense forest about 75 miles (120 kilometers) north of Indian Kashmir’s main city of Srinagar — and no rebel group has claimed involvement so far.

Both India and Pakistan claim the Muslim-majority Kashmir region in its entirety and have fought two wars for control of Kashmir since they won independence from Britain in 1947.

Obama targets flow of guns, profits from U.S. to Mexico

The Associated Press

A pickup is towed after gunmen riddled it with bullets, killing a man and a woman on Tuesday in Tijuana, Mexico. More than 7,000 Mexicans have died in the last 15 months.

Obama targets flow of guns, profits from U.S.

to Mexico

By TODD J. GILLMAN / The Dallas Morning News
tgillman@dallasnews.com WASHINGTON – The Obama administration promised Tuesday to help Mexico fight its drug war by cutting off the cartels’ supply of guns and profits, while resisting the Texas governor’s call for a troop surge at the border to ward off spillover violence.

The steps announced by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano – 450 federal agents shifted to border duty, supplied with dogs trained to detect both drugs and cash, and scanners to check vehicles and railcars heading into Mexico – amount to a subtle but important shift:

The blockade of contraband will now be a two-way effort. The fence begun under the Bush administration will be completed, to deter smugglers of drugs and workers. But the new emphasis will be on disrupting the southbound flow of profits and weapons that fuel the cartels.

At his televised news conference Tuesday, President Barack Obama said that for now, it’s more important to disrupt the cartels’ access to profits and weapons than to fortify the border with soldiers.

“That’s what makes them so dangerous,” he said. “The steps that we’ve taken are designed to make sure that the border communities in the United States are protected and you’re not seeing a spillover of violence. … If the steps that we’ve taken do not get the job done, then we will do more.”

The plan is built on efforts under way for years rather than a show of force or a dramatic influx of resources. And it relies almost entirely on existing funds, even as it intensifies the focus on high-tech surveillance, inspections of trucks and railcars, and cooperation among federal, local and Mexican authorities.

“There’s already a very, very heavy federal presence. We add to it, we target, we dedicate,” Napolitano said at the White House as she laid out the plan ahead of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s visit to Mexico today.

Tuesday’s announcement was meant to mollify concerns in Mexico that it has borne the brunt of the bloody fight, even though the drug trade is fueled by the U.S. appetite for narcotics.

But it didn’t satisfy Gov. Rick Perry, who reiterated his request Tuesday for “an immediate deployment of 1,000 additional National Guard troops to support civilian law enforcement and Border Patrol agents.”

He’ll meet with Napolitano on Thursday in Texas, and she’ll ask him to make his case that violence in Mexico – especially in Ciudad Juárez, across from El Paso – warrants more drastic measures. More than 7,000 Mexicans have died in the last 15 months.

“Why 1,000?” she said. “Where did that number come from? Where in Texas? Texas has a huge border with Mexico. And what does he anticipate the Guard doing?”

For now, the U.S. plans more incremental steps: extra Treasury Department efforts to track money laundering; 100 extra customs inspectors to screen vehicles heading into Mexico – a mission never undertaken before; 16 extra Drug Enforcement Administration agents at the border.

Over the next 45 days, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives will shift 100 workers to the border to intercept guns heading south, and add four employees in Mexico City to help trace guns captured from drug gangs.

Perry welcomed the fresh attention but complained that Texas has long had to “fill in the gaps” left by an inadequate federal presence.

“While we appreciate the additional investigative resources, what we really need are more Border Patrol agents and officers at the bridges to conduct increased northbound and southbound inspections,” he said.

Napolitano spokeswoman Amy Kudwa said “that’s precisely what we announced today.”

Security analysts agree that beating the cartels requires a multipronged approach: a public health campaign to curb demand, better intelligence-gathering to disrupt smugglers, and efforts to intercept drug profits.

“Politicians have gotten into the habit of saying: Just sent more troops or Border Patrol,” said Armand Peschard-Sverdrup, a senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

On its face, the idea that 100 extra border agents can make a dent in a violent, $39 billion industry might seem farfetched.

But Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, said the time has come for the sort of comprehensive approach unveiled Tuesday.

“When have we done a concerted effort like we’re seeing right now?” Cuellar said, though he agreed with the governor that a Guard deployment would keep the violence from crossing the border in a big way.

Obama said two weeks ago that he doesn’t want to “militarize the border” but takes security concerns seriously. He will visit Mexico City April 16 and 17.

Texas Sen. John Cornyn, a Republican, commended the moves as an “important first step” but not enough. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin, noted that more people were killed in Mexico’s drug war last year than in Afghanistan and Iraq. “I think we have reached the tipping point,” he said.