Pakistan: Neither unwilling nor unable in Tirah Valley

By Zoon Ahmad Khan
SPEARHEAD RESEARCH

Tirah is a belt of valleys providing a convenient passage into Afghanistan, with a population of 1.5 million. Fertile for what Afghanis do best: opium, poppy fields have flourished in the region and the government has been for years trying to curb the epidemic. But the Tirah Valley people are slippery under the quivering thumb of the establishment since colonial times. It was in 2003 that the Pakistan Army entered the valley, that too after 9/11 and escalating Talibanization of the northern region when it was believed that Osama bin Laden could be hiding in one of these self governing regions.

For a month now, since March 2013, Tirah Valley has been making headlines. As over 300 militants have been eliminated and more than 30 army personnel have achieved martyrdom in less than thirty days. Due to fierce resistance, the military operation has gained momentum. Like the Swat operation, where Taliban had allied themselves with the local government promising better law enforcement and good riddance from the sloppy civil courts, in Tirah the emergence of TTP has also been gradual. Owing to poor infrastructure and isolation of the region (a tribal area that avoids foreign interference), news of the hundreds killed while resisting TTPs advancement in to the region, never reached mainstream media sources.

Three militant outfits are operating in the region presently: Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, Lashkar-e-Islam (LI), and Ansar ul Islam (AI) . The AI and LI have been battling with each other in the region for more than seven years over sectarian differences. When the LI joined hands with the TTP, AI reached out to the Pakistan army to protect its position against its adversary. It is noteworthy that the AI, a militant organization, has previously been banned for protecting the area from foreign influence (i.e. the government). How this support for the AI is any different from that of the Taliban back in the 1980s is not clear. For Pakistan, at the moment, fighting the Taliban is more crucial. What demons this war gives birth to can be dealt with later perhaps.

The TTP has not taken over the valley overnight, nor without assistance. Since last June, one step at a time the Tirah tribes have been coming under their fold. Even today, as the army marches against the Taliban with bursting force, launching aerial assaults to drive the Taliban out, few know the gravity of the situation. Few realize the dire consequences of this belt coming under full control of anti-state outfits. Thousands of the valley’s inhabitants have migrated out of their homes towards Peshawar. What will become of them and their families knowing the situation of IDPs amidst a fragile economy is another burden we are temporarily ignoring for a false peace of mind.

With three vital entry points: into Peshawar, Orakzai and the Khyber Pass (the main passageway for NATO supplies) the valley is an important stronghold for the TTP. With no road access, the army was initially only relying on aerial assaults. So far with scanty news, all we get a few days later is a death count of militants versus soldiers. Nothing about civilian casualties. Turns out we have an alternative for the drone strikes that have caused much discord between us and the United States. But the problems with an operation where only Pakistani blood is being spilt are manifold.

These quandaries can take the shape of a thought process. Firstly, Tirah was not above the regular drone drill. Rather the area has been a frequent target. Yet the LI joined hands with the Taliban, killed hundreds of civilians while fighting the local AI, took over the entire region over the course of a year. All of this while drone strikes were happening with unhampered discretion. Should this not make us question the effectiveness of drone strikes? The AI , temporary partner of the Government of Pakistan in this operation, is not our friend either. It is these temporary alliances with local militant outfits, and keeping our enemies ‘closer’ that has strengthened them to begin with. Before the Taliban took over completely, Ansar-ul-Islam were adamant that they could handle the situation. But with stiff resistance from TTP backed LI. Eventually the Pakistan army was forced to step in and save the region. The main question that arises from such situations is: why should we trust the security of such volatile and strategically important regions with militias who are not completely supportive of the government?

Initially when the wave of conflict erupted last month, media and ISPR reported that two militant groups were at war with each other and the death toll from both sides was being reported as “militant death toll”. TTP extended full support to LI, and AI was almost driven out of the region and increased TTP influence in the region was becoming evident. It was at this point when civilian casualties escalated and mass migration from the Tirah Valley started that the army stepped in. With General Elections only days away, it would have been catastrophic if hundreds of thousands of inhabitants of the valley had become IDPs. Additionally with Peshawar well within the range of rocket launchers the threat of TTP advancement in to the developed regions of the country had become too real. The AI-Army alliance is strategic and passing. Whether the army death toll includes the AI, or they aren’t dying at all is not certain. It is possible that the militant death include the AI, TTP, and LI, which would quite literally be true.

The new tagline for justifying drone strikes is ‘Unwilling and Unable’. The US claims that Pakistan is both, unwilling and unable to get rid of terrorists, and hence drones, are a final resort to secure their own national interest is justified. How they come up with new justifications for overstepping the boundaries and disrespecting sovereignty is fascinating. But after delegating the responsibility of keeping the terrorists out to anti-state elements, who haven’t pledged any loyalties to the region, what can we say about Pakistan’s sovereignty? Some argue that more than delegating authority the military and political establishments’ apparent absence was more about respecting the existing status quo that has been for centuries.

The expanding terrorism in the Northern areas can be solved not by drone attacks or killing the terrorists alone, rather by better law enforcement and presence of state sponsored security. The operation that Pakistan army troops are sacrificing their lives for concerns the US’ national security as well. After the drone method has proven ineffective and immoral both countries should look into alternatives. The US needs to decide: in or out? If out then they should completely rely on what the Pakistan army executes. But if they believe we are unwilling and unable then they must join in any battle against the Taliban, even if some blood will be spilt. But this would mean allowing US troops into our territory, and that is another breach of our sovereignty. And hence the dearth of solutions. As the army continues to sacrifice lives, while we acknowledge the courage it takes to execute such an operation, we must realize these lives and those of the civilians can be saved if preventive measures are taken. The upcoming government must get all local and foreign stakeholders on board and strategize better governance in the northern areas of Pakistan. The gun is only a temporary solution.

Tacstrat: What makes Drones illegal

Tacstrat Analysis

The United States has been conducting drone attacks in the Northern ‘terrorist infested’ areas of Pakistan since 2004. Drones are unmanned aerial vehicles controlled by the CIA’s Special Activities Division. Although drone attacks started during George W Bush’s second term, with the consent of Pakistani government and military, they have substantially increased since President Obama joined office. The number of militant versus civilian casualties in these attacks varies. While the Pakistani government insists that more than 90% of the casualties are not targeted terrorists, Western media continues to push all the victims under ‘suspected militants’ category. The New American Foundation has released statistics since 2004. The uncertainty of the number of casualties is appalling.

Year	Number of Attacks	Number of Casualties
		Minimum	Maximum
2004-2007	10	155	200
2008	36	219	344
2009	54	350	721
2010	122	608	1028
2011	72	366	599
2012	43	210	333
Total	337	1908	3225

While countless reports have been published proving the counter-productivity of the “let’s go get ‘em” counterterrorism strategies, the ethical dimension of this debate has taken another turn altogether. And hence the issues encircling the drone debate need to be addressed layer by layer.

Recently drone talk has become quite common in Pakistan. Opposition parties have taken up the issue and popular cricketer turned politician Imran Khan, a well respected philanthropist, has used his political party to raise tremendous amount of awareness of the injustice of drone warfare. With the help of his ex-wife Jemima Khan, Khan’s party has decided to take the matter to the International Criminal Court with the release of a documentary Jemima is working on. This mass level awareness about the issue has gone global. The issue has been taken up by Western media and one of the biggest milestones for the anti-drone movement was Noam Chomsky’s decision to join the club. Noam Chomsky, perhaps the greatest philosophers of the 20^th century, is also one of the biggest critics of Liberalism and American foreign policy.

But what is the problem with the US government resorting to a method of killing terrorists that minimizes American casualties?

First of all Pakistan government claims that drone attacks are taking place against Pakistan’s consent. When exactly Pervez Musharraf sanctioned the US to use Pakistani airspace to conduct these attacks in the Northern belt, and who signed what contract if any remains of the many mysteries in Pakistan’s political history. The fact is nobody knows. When this issue was taken up and Pakistan’s PPP government under media and civilian pressure claimed their sovereignty was being compromised, the American government mentioned some fax that we have yet to see. But then again, confidentiality of evidence is vital because otherwise lives would be at stake. However drone attacks were a regular phenomenon even when the PPP took office. So why was it only after opposition parties and the media took up the issue that the government realized something had hit them?

Secondly, drone attacks are illegal because the suspected criminals/militants/terrorists are not given a chance in court. So this is a more theoretical dimension of the debate. Say, even if only 10% of the victims were militants, according to international norms of criminal justice, just killing them off without a trial is a crime. What exactly are those militants guilty of?

Thirdly, what is that final line between a militant who poses a threat to national security and a civilian? Have the terrorism busters across the globe defined exactly who is a trouble maker and why?

For a comparison with other counter-terrorism used recently, we can take a look at the successful military operation in Swat in 2007. The Pakistan Army sent in troops to the district of Swat to confront the locally elected Taliban forces who were forcefully imposing their version of Sharia on the people. The main incentive for the locals to vote the Taliban in was an efficient justice system, but the Taliban’s promises of justice came with ugly laws to suffocate the Swati society completely. The Pakistan army after tough battle with the Taliban and military and civilian casualties was successfully able to drive the Taliban out. Even though two years later Taliban presence became a reality the government realized was impossible to ignore, and a mutual compromise was reached, the operation from the Pakistani perspective was a success because its targets were placed with more precision.

The militants killed in the military operations were obviously not given the luxury of a trial. They however were given the benefit of confrontation. The Pakistan Army announced the operation, allowed those who claimed to side with the establishment a chance to leave with their belongings and loved ones. The rest chose to fight. They were not mere civilians, or suspected militants at best. Their crime at that point was not mere suspicion of conspiracy or involvement in ambiguous violence or terrorism. Rather they saw themselves as adversaries of the Pakistani government on an equal footing and put up a fight.

On the other hand, drone attacks are premised on the assumption that these areas are safe havens of terrorists. Ground spies leak information that is used to conveniently finish off the suspects. Unsuspecting, busy with their regular errands and out of nowhere they are turned to dust within seconds. All it takes is a remote control. Like a video game, exactly like a video game. What is more disturbing is the lack of accurate statistics. The Pakistan government and the US are not on the same page. Not on the total number of casualties, not on the number of militants, not on the number of affected, nor to what degree. Children have lost lives. Women have often been targeted. Interviews have shown that the CIA’s method to decide location of strikes is pretty much random.

Not only are more civilians being affected, this brutal method of killing has only increased hatred towards the United States, hence increasing militant recruitment. Are drone attacks, escalating militants ranks, killing off more innocent people than suspected, worth pursuing? CIA’s brutal double tap technique has earned the US immense criticism. While since 2010 the number of attacks has decreased, the number of casualties has increased because a strike is followed by missile fires which kill the people who have collected to help survivors. This method ensures that the United States has crossed all limits to violate human rights and bow the seeds of hatred to people who might even be against the militants before their loved ones become victims of such brutality. Is this the Peace our allies are fighting for?

It is bizarre how the Pakistani government left the issue as soon as a certain fax was mentioned. While opposition parties and human rights groups worldwide are chanting in harmony against these killing devices, it seems bizarre that the International Court of Justice needs to wait for a documentary to take notice of the matter.

THE ‘RAYMONDS’ AND THE ‘DAVISES’

What is common between the following apparently unrelated events?

• Raymond Davis
• Terrorist Attacks in Pakistan
• Operations in South and North Waziristan
• Drone Attacks

First identify the main players-the CIA, the ISI, the FBI, the Pakistan Army, US/NATO forces, Afghan Intelligence and government and the Government of Pakistan. Opposing these main players are the Taliban, the religious parties and organizations in Pakistan and the people of Pakistan and the Pashtuns of Afghanistan.

Read Complete Article Here: http://www.area148.com/cms/?p=2299

Can it get Worse?

Tariq Ali

Mumtaz Hussain Qadri smiled as he surrendered to his colleagues after shooting Salman Taseer, the governor of the Punjab, dead. Many in Pakistan seemed to support his actions; others wondered how he’d managed to get a job as a state bodyguard in the carefully screened Elite Force. Geo TV, the country’s most popular channel, reported, and the report has since been confirmed, that ‘Qadri had been kicked out of Special Branch after being declared a security risk,’ that he ‘had requested that he not be fired on but arrested alive if he managed to kill Taseer’ and that ‘many in Elite Force knew of his plans to kill Salman Taseer.’

Qadri is on his way to becoming a national hero. On his first appearance in court, he was showered with flowers by admiring Islamabad lawyers who have offered to defend him free of charge. On his way back to prison, the police allowed him to address his supporters and wave to the TV cameras. The funeral of his victim was sparsely attended: a couple of thousand mourners at most. A frightened President Zardari and numerous other politicians didn’t show up. A group of mullahs had declared that anyone attending the funeral would be regarded as guilty of blasphemy. No mullah (that includes those on the state payroll) was prepared to lead the funeral prayers. The federal minister for the interior, Rehman Malik, a creature of Zardari’s, has declared that anyone trying to tamper with or amend the blasphemy laws will be dealt with severely. In the New York Times version he said he would shoot any blasphemer himself.

Taseer’s spirited defence of Asiya Bibi, a 45-year-old Punjabi Christian peasant, falsely charged with blasphemy after an argument with two women who accused her of polluting their water by drinking out of the same receptacle, provoked an angry response from religious groups. Many in his own party felt that Taseer’s initiative was mistimed, but in Pakistan the time is never right for such campaigns. Bibi had already spent 18 months in jail. Her plight had been highlighted by the media, women had taken to the streets to defend her and Taseer and another senior politician from the Pakistan Peoples Party, Sherry Rehman, had demanded amendments to the blasphemy laws. Thirty-eight other women have been imprisoned under the same law in recent years and soon after a friendly meeting between Yousaf Gillani, the prime minister, and the leader of the supposedly moderate Jamaat-e-Islami, a member of the latter offered a reward of ten thousand dollars to whoever manages to kill Bibi.

Taseer’s decision to take up Bibi’s case was not made on a whim. He had cleared the campaign with Zardari, much to the annoyance of the law minister, Babar Awan, a televangelist and former militant of the Jamaat-e-Islami. He told journalists he didn’t want the socio-cultural agenda to be hijacked by ‘lunatic mullahs’, raged against governments that had refused to take on fanaticism, and brushed aside threats to his life with disdain. He visited the prison where Bibi was detained – the first time in the history of the Punjab that a governor has gone inside a district jail – and at a press conference declared his solidarity with her. ‘She is a woman who has been incarcerated for a year and a half on a charge trumped up against her five days after an incident where people who gave evidence against her were not even present,’ he told an interviewer. He wanted, he said, ‘to take a mercy petition to the president, and he agreed, saying he would pardon Asiya Bibi if there had indeed been a miscarriage of justice’.

Two weeks after this visit Taseer was dead. I never much cared for his business practices or his political affiliations and had not spoken to him for 20 years, but he was one of my closest friends at school and university and the two of us and the late Shahid Rehman – a gifted and witty lawyer who drank himself to death many moons ago – were inseparable. Some joyful memories came back when I saw his face on TV.

It’s 1960. The country is under a pro-US military dictatorship. All opposition is banned. My parents are away. The three of us – we are 17 years old – are at my place and we decide that something has to be done. We buy some red paint and at about 2 a.m. drive to the Cantonment bridge and carefully paint ‘Yankee Go Home’ on the beautiful whitewashed wall. The next morning we scrub the car clean of all traces of paint. For the next few weeks the city is agog. The story doesn’t appear in the press but everyone is talking about it. In Karachi and Dhaka, where they regard Lahore as politically dead, our city’s stock rises. At college our fellow students discuss nothing else. The police are busy searching for the culprits. We smile and enjoy the fun. Finally they track us down, but as Taseer notes with an edge of bitterness, Shahid’s father is a Supreme Court judge and one of my aunts is married to a general who’s also the minister of the interior, so naturally we all get off with a warning. At the time I almost felt that physical torture might be preferable to being greeted regularly by the general with ‘Hello, Mr Yankee Go Home.’

Two years previously (before the dictatorship) the three of us had organised a demonstration at the US Consulate after reading that an African-American called Jimmy Wilson had been sentenced to death for stealing a dollar. On that occasion Salman, seeing that not many people had turned up, found some street urchins to swell our ranks. We had to stop and explain to them why their chant of ‘Death to Jimmy Wilson’ was wrong. Money changed hands before they were brought into line. Years later, on a London to Lahore flight, I met Taseer by chance and we discussed both these events. He reminded me that the stern US consul had told us he would have us expelled, but his ultra-Lutheranism offended the Catholic Brothers who ran our school and again we escaped punishment. On that flight, more than 20 years ago, I asked him why he had decided to go into politics. Wasn’t being a businessman bad enough? ‘You’ll never understand,’ he said. ‘If I’m a politician as well I can save money because I don’t have to pay myself bribes.’ He was cynical in the extreme, but he could laugh at himself. He died tragically, but for a good cause. His party and colleagues, instead of indulging in manufactured grief, would be better off taking the opportunity to amend the blasphemy laws while there is still some anger at what has taken place. But of course they are doing the exact opposite.

Even before this killing, Pakistan had been on the verge of yet another military takeover. It would make things so much easier if only they could give it another name: military democracy perhaps? General Kayani, whose term as chief of staff was extended last year with strong Pentagon approval, is said to be receiving petitions every day asking him to intervene and ‘save the country’. The petitioners are obviously aware that removing Zardari and replacing him with a nominee of the Sharif brothers’ Muslim League, the PPP’s long-term rivals, is unlikely to improve matters. Petitioning, combined with a complete breakdown of law and order in one or several spheres (suicide terrorism in Peshawar, violent ethnic clashes in Karachi, state violence in Quetta and now Taseer’s assassination), is usually followed by the news that a reluctant general has no longer been able to resist ‘popular’ pressure and with the reluctant agreement of the US Embassy a uniformed president has taken power. We’ve been here before, on four separate occasions. The military has never succeeded in taking the country forward. All that happens is that, instead of politicians, the officers take the cut. The government obviously thinks the threat is serious: some of Zardari’s cronies now speak openly at dinner parties of ‘evidence’ that proves military involvement in his wife Benazir Bhutto’s assassination. If the evidence exists, let’s have a look. Another straw in the wind: the political parties close to the ISI, Pakistan’s main intelligence agency, have withdrawn from the central government, accusing it of callousness and financial malfeasance. True, but hardly novel.

Another necessary prerequisite for a coup is popular disgust with a corrupt, inept and failing civilian government. This has now reached fever pitch. As well as the natural catastrophes that have afflicted the country there are local wars, disappearances, torture, crime, huge price rises in essential goods, unemployment, a breakdown of basic services – all the major cities go without electricity for hours at a stretch and oil lamps are much in demand in smaller towns, which are often without gas and electricity for up to 12 hours. Thanks to the loan conditions recently imposed by the IMF – part of a gear change in the ‘war on terror’ – there have been riots against the rise in fuel prices in several cities. Add to this Zardari’s uncontrollable greed and the irrepressible desire of his minions to mimic their master. Pakistan today is a kleptocracy. There is much talk in Islamabad of the despised prime minister’s neglected wife going on a shopping spree in London last month and finding solace in diamonds, picking up, on her way back home, a VAT rebate in the region of £100,000.

Can it get worse? Yes. And on every front. Take the Af-Pak war. Few now would dispute that its escalation has further destabilised Pakistan, increasing the flow of recruits to suicide bomber command. The CIA’s New Year message to Pakistan consisted of three drone attacks in North Waziristan, killing 19 people. There were 116 drone strikes in 2010, double the number ordered in the first year of the Obama presidency. Serious Pakistani newspapers, Dawn and the News, claim that 98 per cent of those killed in the strikes over the last five years – the number of deaths is estimated to be between two and three thousand – were civilians, a percentage endorsed by David Kilcullen, a former senior adviser to General Petraeus. The Brookings Institution gives a grim ratio of one militant killed for every ten civilians. The drones are operated by the CIA, which isn’t subject to military rules of engagement, with the result that drones are often used for revenge attacks, notably after the sensational Khost bombing of a CIA post in December 2009.

What stops the military from taking power immediately is that it would then be responsible for stopping the drone attacks and containing the insurgency that has resulted from the extension of the war into Pakistan. This is simply beyond it, which is why the generals would rather just blame the civilian government for everything. But if the situation worsens and growing public anger and economic desperation lead to wider street protests and an urban insurgency the military will be forced to intervene. It will also be forced to act if the Obama administration does as it threatens and sends troops across the Pakistan border on protect-and-destroy missions. Were this to happen a military takeover of the country might be the only way for the army to counter dissent within its ranks by redirecting the flow of black money and bribes (currently a monopoly of politicians) into military coffers. Pakistani officers who complain to Western intelligence operatives and journalists that a new violation of sovereignty might split the army do so largely as a way to exert pressure. There has been no serious breach in the military high command since the dismal failure of the 1951 Rawalpindi Conspiracy, the first and last radical nationalist attempt (backed by Communist intellectuals) to seize power within the army and take the country in an anti-imperialist direction. Since then, malcontents in the armed forces have always been rapidly identified and removed. Military perks and privileges – bonuses, land allocations, a presence in finance and industry – play an increasingly important part in keeping the army under control.

Meanwhile, on a visit to Kabul earlier this month, the US homeland security secretary, Janet Napolitano, announced that 52 ‘security agents’ were being dispatched to the Af-Pak border to give on the spot training to Afghan police and security units. The insurgents will be delighted, especially since some of them serve in these units, just as they do in Pakistan.

Intelligence Wars

By Ahsan Waheed
ZoneAsia-Pk

All of a sudden, Pakistan’s much maligned but powerful and professional intelligence agency, the ISI, is the flavor of the month. The reason is a law suit in the US against the agency for its ‘involvement’ in the Mumbai terrorist attack in which US citizens of the Jewish faith lost their lives. The government, the media and public opinion have come together like never before against this ‘outrage’; the ISI is being defended, protected and declared off limits for US courts. The US court – probably as a routine procedure – has issued a summons for the head of ISI to appear in the US court, though it would have been better if the law suit had been examined for viability – that is, unless a more sinister game is afoot.

Read Complete Article Here: http://www.zoneasia-pk.com/ZoneAsia-Pk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2966:intelligence-wars&catid=70:free-talk&Itemid=84

Three US drone attacks in 12 hours

NORTH WAZIRISTAN: Three US missile strikes killed at least 18 suspected militants in North Waziristan on Wednesday, in the third such strike in 12 hours and seventh in six days.

US military as a rule does not confirm drone attacks.

Two attacks took place in Danda Darpa Khel village, five kilometres northwest of Miramshah, the main town in North Waziristan tribal district.

“At least 10 alleged militants were killed in the US drone attack which targeted the compound of a local militant, Abdul Aziz,” a senior security official in the area told AFP news agency, adding that the death toll may rise.

Later on Wednesday night, another drone fired three missiles in the area. “The target was a militant compound. Four militants have been killed but the death toll may rise,” said a security official based in Peshawar.

Officials said the nationalities of the dead militants were not yet known. Intelligence officials in the region have confirmed the strike and casualties.

The Long War Journal reports that the village of Danda Darpa Khel is in the sphere of influence of the Haqqani network, the al Qaeda-linked Taliban group led by mujahedeen commander Jalaluddin Haqqani and his son Siraj.

The Haqqani family runs the Manba Ulom madrassa in the village of Danda Darpa Khel, a hub of activity for the group. The US has struck at targets in Danda Darpa Khel nine times since September 2008.

In the third attack, a US drone fired two missiles which struck a vehicle, killing four alleged militants in Amboor Shaga village of Datta Khel town in North Waziristan tribal area, 40 kilometres west of Miranshah.

Datta Khel is the stronghold of Hafiz Gul Bahadar, a Taliban commander who is viewed as a “good Taliban” by the military as he does not advocate attacks on the state. Bahadar supports attacks in Afghanistan and shelters al Qaeda fighters in tribal areas under his control.

The US military as a rule does not confirm drone attacks, but its armed forces and the Central Intelligence Agency operating in Afghanistan are the only forces that deploy pilotless drones in the region.

More than 1,040 people have been killed in 122 drone strikes since August 2008, according to AFP statistics. Officials in Washington say the drone strikes are a vital tool needed to protect the 150,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan, and have killed a number of high-value targets including Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud.

(WITH ADDITIONAL input FROM IFTHIKAR FIRDOUS and Zehra Abid)

Hatred Rising: Drones and Democracy

By KATHY KELLY and JOSH BROLLIER

On May 12th, the day after a U.S. drone strike killed 24 people in Pakistan’s North Waziristan, two men from the area agreed to tell us their perspective as eyewitnesses of previous drone strikes.

One is a journalist, Safdar Dawar, General Secretary of the Tribal Union of Journalists. Journalists are operating under very difficult circumstances in the area, pressured by both militant groups and the Pakistani government. Six of his colleagues have been killed while reporting in North and South Waziristan. The other man, who asked us not to disclose his name, is from Miranshah city, the epicenter of North Waziristan. He works with the locally based Waziristan Relief Agency, a group of people committed to helping the victims of drone attacks and military actions. “If people need blood or medicine or have to go to Peshawar or some other hospital,” said the social worker, “I’m known for helping them. I also try to arrange funds and contributions.”

Both men emphasized that Pakistan’s government has only a trivial presence in the area. Survivors of drone attacks receive no compensation, and neither the military nor the government investigate consequences of the drone attacks.

Mr. Dawar, the journalist, added that when he phoned the local political representative regarding the May 12th drone attack, the man couldn’t tell him anything. “If you get any new information,” said the political representative, “please let me know.”

In U.S. newspapers, reports on drone attacks often amount to about a dozen words, naming the place and an estimated number of militants killed. The journalist and social worker from North Waziristan asked us why people in the U.S. don’t ask to know more.

It’s hard to slow down and look at horrifying realities. Jane Mayer, writing for The New Yorker, (“The Predator War,” October 26, 2009), quoted a former C.I.A. official’s description of a drone attack:

“People who have seen an air strike live on a monitor described it as both awe-inspiring and horrifying. ‘You could see these little figures scurrying, and the explosion going off, and when the smoke cleared there was just rubble and charred stuff,’ a former C.I.A. officer who was based in Afghanistan after September 11th says of one attack.”

“Human beings running for cover are such a common sight,” Jane Mayer continues, “that they have inspired a slang term: ‘squirters.’”

Just rubble and charred stuff…

The social worker recalled arriving at a home that was hit, in Miranshah, at about 9:00 p.m., close to one year ago. The house was beside a matchbox factory, near the degree college. The drone strike had killed three people. Their bodies, carbonized, were fully burned. They could only be identified by their legs and hands. One body was still on fire when he reached there. Then he learned that the charred and mutilated corpses were relatives of his who lived in his village, two men and a boy aged seven or eight. They couldn’t pick up the charred parts in one piece. Finding scraps of plastic they transported the body parts away from the site. Three to four others joined in to help cover the bodies in plastic and carry them to the morgue.

But these volunteers and nearby onlookers were attacked by another drone strike, 15 minutes after the initial one. 6 more people died.One of them was the brother of the man killed in the initial strike.

The social worker says that people are now afraid to help when a drone strike occurs because they fear a similar fate from a second attack. People will wait several hours after an attack just to be sure. Meanwhile, some lives will be lost that possibly could have been saved.

The social worker also told us that pressure from the explosion, when a drone-fired missile or bomb hits, can send bystanders flying through the air. Some are injured when their bodies hit walls or stone, causing fractures and brain injuries.

The social worker described four more cases in which he had been involved with immediate relief work, following a drone attack. He didn’t supply us with exact dates, and we weren’t able to find news articles on the internet which exactly matched his accounts. Riaz Khan, an AP reporter covering a drone strike on May 15th, noted differences in details reported by witnesses and official sources. “Such discrepancies are common and are rarely reconciled,” according to Khan (May 15th , “Officials: US missiles kill 5 in NW Pakistan”)

Exasperated by the neglect and indifference people in Waziristan face, especially those who say they have nowhere to hide, the journalist and social worker began firing questions at us.

“If the US had good intelligence and they hit their targets with the first strike,” Safdar asks, “why would the second one be necessary? If you already hit the supposed militant target, then why fire again?”

“Who has given the license to kill and in what court? Who has declared that they can hit anyone they like?”

“How many ‘high level targets’ could there possibly be?”

“What kind of democracy is America,” Safdar asks, “where people do not ask these questions?”

Reliance on robotic warfare has escalated, from the Bush to the Obama administrations, with very little significant public debate. More than ever before, it is true that the U.S. doesn’t want our bodies to be part of warfare; there’s also not much interest in our consent. All that is required is our money.

But, you get what you pay for in the U.S.A. The social worker and the journalist assured us that all of the survivors feel hatred toward the United States. “It is a real problem,” said Safdar, “this rising hatred.”

Kathy Kelly (kathy@vcnv.org) and Josh Brollier (Joshua@vcnv.org) are co-coordinators of Voices for Creative Nonviolence

US assures Pakistan to help overcome energy crisis: FO

APP

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Thursday said the United States had assured to help in all possible ways to overcome its serious energy crisis. Foreign Office Spokesman Abdul Basit addressing weekly news briefing here said the recent Summit in Washington was not about sharing of nuclear technology for energy purposes but it was about nuclear security.

He, however, said in the bilateral meetings on the sidelines of summit, the United States assured Pakistan to help overcome its energy deficit.

He said in the days and months ahead, the two countries would work closely on the issue of energy crisis and to find ways and means for resolving it.

The spokesman said Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani very actively participated in the deliberations of the Nuclear Security Conference.

Replying to a question about Pakistan’s offer of nuclear refueling, Abdul Basit said Nuclear Security Summit helped reinforced Pakistan’s credentials as nuclear weapons state which was fully aware of its responsibilities.

Al Qaeda: Breaking the backbone

By Raven Gale

Many people in Pakistan and across the world question the very existence of Al Qaeda. They claim that it is a complete fabrication. Muslims think that it is West’s plot to capture Muslim territories to disarm them and takeover their resources. There might be some truth in it but 99% is pure hysteria and propaganda. There should be no doubt that a terror organization exists and it is targeting innocent people across the world. This organization has nothing to do with religion or ethnicity. Al Qaeda may have started as a fake entity but today it is very much a reality. It may have been created by secret services but today many terror outfits are using its name to achieve their objectives. It is today a “generic” name being used by different groups with varying agendas to recruit young, depressed, unemployed, poverty stricken and easily influenced people to carry out terrorist activities.

Read Complete Article : http://my.nowpublic.com/world/al-qaeda-breaking-backbone

Zardari asks US to give Pakistan drone technology

Expresses reservations over new US screening procedures; urges early repayment of arrears of CSF

ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari on Thursday once again raised the issue of the continued drone attacks with the United States while urging that it undermined the national consensus on the war against militancy and reiterated Pakistan’s call for transfer of drone technology to it for use by its own security forces against the militants for wider public acceptability.

The president was talking to US National Security Advisor General James Jones, who called on him at the Presidency. The meeting was also attended by Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin, Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and Ambassador to the US Husain Haqqani.

Spokesperson to President Farhatullah Babar said security situation in the region, drone attacks, the fight against militancy, rehabilitation of the internally displaced persons, strengthening of the law enforcing agencies, the Coalition Support Fund’s arrears, the new US screening procedures and Pakistan’s energy needs were discussed in the meeting.

Referring to the new Afghan strategy, Zardari said Pakistan had legitimate interests in promoting peace and stability in Afghanistan. The president also expressed reservations over the new screening regime for the Pakistani nationals and called for its review as it had created resentment in the country and led to doubts and misgivings among the people of Pakistan.

He said that Pakistan welcomed US declarations of support to Pakistan’s security and stability and economic development and emphasised that the continued support must be based on mutual respect and trust.

Tracing the history of militancy in the region, the president said that decades ago, the international community chose to fight the rival ideology using the region as the battleground. “After defeating the rival ideology, the international community abandoned the region and the militants it had nurtured, resulting in a new wave of militancy in the region,” the president remarked.

“The international community now owes it to Pakistan and to itself to help rebuild the country economically and socially,” he said. The president reiterated the call for allowing greater market access to Pakistani goods in the US and European markets and the need for adoption of legislation in the US on the Reconstruction Opportunity Zones (RoZs).

The president said that Pakistan had suffered a huge loss of over $35 billion during the last eight years as a result of the fight against militancy in addition to the colossal and unquantifiable cost in terms of social and human losses, which had almost crippled the nation’s economy.

The president also pointed out the delays in payments of arrears of the Coalition Support Fund (CSF) of over $1.5 billion and called for early repayments of outstanding dues. The US national security advisor appreciated Pakistan’s role in the war against extremism and militancy and assured continued strategic political and economic support to Pakistan to win this war. General Jones was accompanied by the US Ambassador Anne W Patterson and other US officials.

Islam and non-violence

“The Christian God is a being of terrific character – cruel, vindictive, capricious and unjust,” Thomas Jefferson, US President (1801-1809).

“Now go and attack Amalek and utterly destroy all they have and do not spare them. Kill both men and women, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey,” 1 Sam 15:3. Similar violent commands can be found in Hebrew Bible in Deut, 2:30-35, 7: 1-2, 7:16 and Jer. 13:14, etc.

“Thus were both the daughters of Lot (a Biblical prophet) with child by their father,” Genesis 19:36

The born-again Jew, the former US secretary of state, Madelein Albright, was asked by Lesley Stahl that (USrael) sanctions (against Iraq) has killed half a million children – more than children killed in Heroshima as result of US nuclear attack. “Do you believe it’s worth the price?” Albright’s respose was: “I think it’s a very hard choice, but the price – we think the price is worth it”. Interestingly, Albright could hold her tears on TV while mentioning the death of seven Jewish girls along Jordanian border at the hands of a Jordanian soldier in March 1997.

The stereotype image of Muslim fanatics crashing planes into high-rise buildings and blowing up innocent people by their suicidal actions – are created by the Islamophobe writers working for the Zionist-controlled mainstream media and the pro-Israel government officials and the intelligence agencies – all working for the benefit of the Zionist entity in the Middle East. The great majority of the terrorist activites for which Muslims are blamed – were in fact Israeli false-flag operations meant to demonize the Muslims and Islam in general.

Israel was never mentioned by name in the Bible until the Zionist created Scofield Study Bible which created the ‘divine’ support for the creation of the Zionist state as the fulfilment of the Biblical prophecy. Scofield Bible is the ‘religious inspiration’ for the majority of 70 million pro-Israel Zionist Christians.

Holy Qur’an commands non-violence when Allah says: “There is no compulsion in religion”. However, Holy Qyr’an also says that Allah will not have Mercy on the unrepentant Evildoers in order to defend His Attribute of being the enforcer of ‘Absolute Justice’. The Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) also carried out a non-violent Jihad (struggle) for first thirteen years of his prophethood to bring reformation to the Makkan pagan society. He and his followers suffered so much humiliation and torture in Makkah that some of them had to take refuge in the nearby Christian Kingdom of Habsha. The Prophet (pbuh) himself took self-exile in Medinah on the request of his followers in Mdinah. The Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) tried for two years to seek cooperation from the followers of other Abrahamic religion (Israelite) who dominated the city as traders and money-lenders. They took the message of Islam (usury, slavery, greed and treason) as a great threat to their power. Therefore, they collaborated with the enemies of Islam by funding them. As a result, City’s Chief Rabbi, based on Torah’s command – gave the Muslims the right for the expulsion of the three Jewish tribes – though two of the Prophet’s (pbuh) wives belonged to Jewish tribes.

The misunderstood word ‘Jihad’ – is NOT equivalent to western Crusades or America’s war on everyone who refuses to accept its dictation. Islamic Jihad mean “struggle to understand one’s purpose of creation”. In Islamic Shari’ah there are six kinds of Jihad. Five involves in purification of one’s religious, social and political actions – as commanded by Allah in Holy Qur’an and practiced by the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) during his life. The sixth Jihad is to use force to stop evilness being constantly committed after all non-violent resistance has failed. All religions and the international law allow people to fight the resist the military occupation by every possible mean including the armed resistance. That’s what some Muslim groups are doing in occupied Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Chechnya and Philippines.

The modern history the greatest non-violent movement was 1979 Isranian Revolution lead by Imam Khomeini, which toppled the pro-USrael dynasty of Reza Shah Pahlavi (d.1980 in Cairo and is buried next to King Farouk in the Al-Rifai mosque) without a shot or the acts of hooliganism are being carried out by the US-funded protest marches against Ahmadinejad’s re-election in June 2009. In June 2008 – it was revealed that a 2007 Bush administration directive provided for an additional US$400 million to expand US operations in Islamic Iran – one priority of which was described as “supporting the opposition groups in a bid to undermine the current regime”.

Randall Amster PhD, in his article “What the Muslim World Can Teach Us about Nonviolence”, wrote:

“It might be a bad dream, but it feels real enough. The mantle of warfare slips seamlessly from one president to another, from one party to another, from one decade to another, from one generation to another. The impetus of national aggression transcends race, creed, socio-economic status, age and geography. Our collective sin is the bald lie that we all live and perpetuate from moment to moment, year upon year, from our past to the days ahead: the misbegotten belief that we are a peaceful people.

Yes, we are good and peaceful, and they (whatever “they” we’re focused on today) are ruthless and evil. Institutionally, these values are operationalized every day. Drone attacks, propped-up murderers and dictators, weapons manufacturing and distribution, clandestine death squads, full-on warfare, neglect of starvation and disease, collateral damage, structural adjustments, black holes of torture, targeting civilians – this is the essence of our foreign policy…… Please don’t get stuck on the standard lines that “all these people understand is violence” and “their religion is based on violence.” If we are to judge Muslims as a whole based on the actions of a small sample of fanatics, then we have to apply the same gaze to ourselves, and it isn’t a pretty reflection looking back….”

School bombing exposes Obama’s secret war inside Pakistan

The Sunday Times claims US president has ‘dramatically’ stepped up covert war against extremists inside Pakistan

LAHORE: The death of three American soldiers in a suicide bombing at the opening of a girls’ school in Lower Dir last week has re-ignited the fears of many Pakistanis that Washington is set on invading their country.

While Barack Obama has banned the Bush-era term “war on terror” and dithered about sending extra troops to Afghanistan, a British newspaper claims that the US president has “dramatically stepped up” the covert war against extremists in Pakistan. US drone strikes are now averaging three a week, triple the number last year. Over the last month, drones have pounded North Waziristan in apparent retaliation for the death of seven CIA officers in Afghanistan in a suicide bombing carried out by a Jordanian bomber working with the TTP. Last week, the US launched its first multiple drone attack, according to Pakistani security officials. Eighteen missiles were fired from eight unmanned aircraft in Dattakhel village, killing 16 people. “The discovery of the dead US soldiers revealed that America’s shadowy war in Pakistan not only involves drones but also small cadres of special operations soldiers,” says the British newspaper.

Sources said there were about 200 US soldiers inside Pakistan. “I’m not sure you could just call it training,” said an official. “They are hardly behind the wire if they are on trips to schools in Dir.” The three US soldiers – who, according to the Sunday Times, have been described variously as special operations forces and civil affairs troops – were killed when their convoy was bombed as it travelled to the re-opening of the school. It had been rebuilt with US aid after being bombed by the Taliban last year. daily times monitor

Most Afghans optimistic about the future, poll finds

By Katherine Tiedemann

Event notice: New America Foundation counterterrorism fellow Brian Fishman will be speaking today at 2:30pm in Washington, DC on “Making the Next Bin Laden.” Details here .

At the polls

Newly released annual polling in Afghanistan conducted in the country’s 34 provinces in December 2009 from BBC/ABC/ARD suggests that Afghans are more optimistic about the future; 70 percent believe the country is headed in the right direction, up from 40 percent a year ago (BBC). 83 percent of those surveyed have a favorable opinion of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, while the U.S. military forces in Afghanistan are supported by 68 percent of Afghans and the Taliban by 10 percent; 72 percent of Afghans support the more than 30,000 additional U.S. and NATO troops being sent to the country. The full polling results are available here (BBC-pdf).

Karzai submitted a second round of picks for his cabinet on Saturday, after the Afghan Parliament roundly rejected 17 of his 24 original choices, though lawmakers indicated that Karzai faces another uphill battle in getting his choices confirmed as the new nominees have been criticized for lacking necessary credentials, being too close to warlords, or were selected for supporting Karzai (AP, BBC, Globe and Mail, LAT, NYT). Three women were included, after the only woman nominated in the first round was rejected; a full list is available here (AP).

Casualties

A defense correspondent for the Sunday Mirror tabloid newspaper has become the first British reporter to die covering the war in Afghanistan after his vehicle drove over a roadside bomb on Saturday in Helmand province during a patrol with U.S. Marines (AFP, Reuters, NYT, AP, Guardian, Telegraph, Mirror, AJE, BBC, WSJ). Rupert Hamer is the second Western journalist to be killed in Afghanistan in ten days; Canadian reporter Michelle Lang of the Calgary Herald died in neighboring Kandahar province from a roadside bomb on December 30.

Three U.S. soldiers were killed earlier today while fighting insurgent forces in volatile southern Afghanistan, bringing the total number of U.S. troops killed in the country in 2010 to 10 (AP, AFP, Pajhwok). NATO forces seized more than 5,300 pounds of processed opium in a search of a “suspicious vehicle” in Kandahar on Friday, and the commander of all Marines in southern Afghanistan Brigadier General Larry Nicholson told the AP that Marjah, just west of the provincial capital of Helmand province, is “where we’re going next” to fight the Taliban (AFP, AP).

Top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan General Stanley McChrystal said in an interview with ABC that the additional U.S. troops being sent to the country has “changed the way we operate” and cautioned that although “we’ve made progress, it’s not a completed mission” (ABC, AP).

Media appearances

The Jordanian doctor and al Qaeda double agent believed to be behind the Dec. 30 suicide attack at a CIA base in Khost, Afghanistan, which killed seven CIA operatives and a Jordanian spy, appeared in a video aired over the weekend alongside Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud, underlining the connections between the Taliban and al Qaeda (CNN, Aaj, NYT, McClatchy, BBC, Wash Post). Humam Khalil Abu Mulal al-Balawi was shown vowing revenge for Hakimullah’s predecessor, Baitullah Mehsud, who was killed by a U.S.-operated drone in August 2009.

The Washington Post has today’s must-read describing how al-Balawi detonated his explosives “just before” he was going to be searched at Forward Operating Base Chapman (Wash Post). And on Sunday, CIA director Leon Panetta protested public commentary about the attack “suggesting that those who gave their lives somehow brought it upon themselves because of “poor tradecraft.” That’s like saying Marines who die in a firefight brought it upon themselves because they have poor war-fighting skills” (Wash Post).

The Afghan government agreed on Saturday to assume responsibility for the management of the U.S.-run military prison at Bagram air base, which houses more than 700 detainees captured by U.S. forces (NYT, AJE, AP). Initially, the Afghan Ministry of Defense will run Bagram, and eventually transition control to the Ministry of Justice, possibly by the end of year.

Drone watching

Christopher Drew has another fascinating read today describing the deluge of data generated by U.S.-operated drones in Afghanistan and Iraq, writing that Air Force drones gathered 24 years’ worth of video over the two countries last year, three times as much as in 2007 (NYT). And a handful of suspected militants were killed by the sixth reported drone strike in Pakistan this year in the Ismail Khel village in the Datta Khel region of North Waziristan on Saturday (AP, AFP, CNN, Geo, Times of India). Another reported drone strike targeted the town of Tappi in North Waziristan on Friday (AFP, AP, CNN, Geo).

Dozens of people have been killed in a wave of targeted attacks since the beginning of the year in Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city, among rival political groups that “some say is aimed at destabilizing the country’s ruling coalition” (AP, Dawn, Daily Times). There were 86 targeted killings in Karachi in 2008, and 152 in 2009.

Pakistani police have detained five female would-be suicide bombers in Islamabad and the Swat Valley in Pakistan, and one of the girls told members of the media that she had been trained by Maulana Fazlullah, the leader of the Pakistani Taliban in Swat (Pajhwok). And Sarah Kershaw reviews a “range of patterns” that has emerged from the study of the psychology of terrorism (NYT).

Barnes and Noble Kabul

The government of Denmark is funding the construction of three bookstores in Kabul that will have the capacity to store up to 15 million books (Pajhwok). The facilities are scheduled to be completed within a year.

US absurdities

THE US can be counted on to do almost anything to keep Pakistan under pressure. Once again, while the country was rejoicing in the Supreme Court decision on the NRO, the US showing its disdain rained a barrage of missiles from attacking drones over North Waziristan where the immediate death toll was seventeen people with no figure available for the injured – many of whom may be in a precarious condition. But the real toll is on the Pakistani state and its citizens with the US sending a clear message to them that it will do exactly as it wishes given that the government of Pakistan is not prepared to assert its rights or defend its people against these killer drones. But then the US claims that it has the sanction of the Pakistani state in carrying our these attacks and unless the Pakistan military brings down a drone, most people in Pakistan suspect that on this count at least the US may be telling the truth.

Shamelessly, as it kills Pakistanis on their own territory, the US also declares that Pakistan’s delay in issuing visas to Americans will hamper the aid giving. Additionally, it has now claimed that all law-breaking Americans in Pakistan are US diplomats – despite facts to the contrary on the ground – and Pakistanis, by enforcing their laws are “harassing” them! One has not heard such ludicrous defence of law breakers before but then the US is subtly hinting at blackmail here – allow our citizens unfettered access and total immunity from the law of the land or else aid will get slowed or curtailed. This is surely one of the many costs of being a US ally and “front line” state in a US-led erroneous war. But at the end of the day it is the Pakistani leadership, both political and military, that is to blame. It has failed to protect Pakistan and its people against the machinations of the US and its representatives in Pakistan; it has in fact shown an unwillingness or inability to prevent the Americans from running amok in Pakistan – breaking the laws of the land as they will. After all, what message goes out to them when the authorities force the law enforcement personnel to release the law breakers regardless of their offence? The younger officers, like the ASP in Islamabad, who chased one such lot of US law flouters and made them apologise for their behaviour, instead of being commended has received a stern warning by his superiors and is under surveillance. This is how we teach our law enforcers to deal with VIPs, especially of the foreign variety. And then we wonder why there is corruption and contempt for the law and its enforcers endemic in our wayward society. The Americans are merely exploiting our weaknesses and, like bullies everywhere, taking advantage of a pusillanimous Pakistani leadership.

SURVIVAL

GHALIB SULTAN

The last government in Pakistan was seen as military backed because the President was the Chief of Army Staff! The present elected government is seen as US backed because that is where they seem to be looking for their survival. This creates the perception that the government is giving in to every US demand even if it is against Pakistan’s own interests. First it was the ambiguous stand on drone attacks, then it was the silence over Indian machinations against Pakistan from Afghanistan, then came the mysterious silence over US contracted ‘civilian agencies’ like Blackwater, Xe etc and the expanded presence in the US embassy plus the row over visas and now there are the revelations about the danger to Pakistan from the transit trade to Afghanistan through Pakistan. The US is reported to have ‘asked’ Pakistan to expand military operations into North Waziristan, Baluchistan and against ‘jihadi’ organizations operating from Pakistan. The US is also reported to have ‘said’ that if Pakistan does not do this then they will do it themselves—they have not explained how but presumably it will be through expanded drone strikes and other technological means. To some in Pakistan from the mysterious activities of US ‘diplomats’ it seems that the US already has ‘ boots on the ground’ in Pakistan—they may not look like boots but they are considered boots!.

It is in this context that the recent Jamaat e Islami (JI) rally should be seen. The demand made was for an end to the relationship with the US and the withdrawal of NATO forces from Afghanistan. The public rally on the streets was well timed in terms of the ‘surge’ in negative public opinion against the US and the ongoing political turmoil with the government backed against the ropes and seemingly looking to the US for survival. In the 2002 elections a military ruler had sidelined the main political parties and the US attack in Afghanistan had created negative opinion against the US. The religious parties came in riding this wave. Is a similar situation on the cards?

Read Complete Article : http://why-who-where-when.newsvine.com/_news/2009/12/21/3657200-survival