But recently, their tactics have shown some maturity with the aim of frustrating their enemies. To start with, they hope to draw the Americans to fight in difficult terrain inside Pakistan while intensifying their attacks on the US military supply convoys. They also hope to tie down the American forces in Iraq and to delay their planned deployment to Afghanistan using their close ties with Al-Qaeda in that country.
The recent spate of attacks in Baghdad, Baquba, Ramadi, Babylon and Mosul must be taken in that context. Furthermore, the Taleban may start attacking targets in NATO countries having forces in Afghanistan. This means that the Taleban have followed Al-Qaeda example and started to spread their wings. It may worth mentioning here that Bin Laden and his Al-Qaeda were isolated in Tora Bora caves, but were driven out by US bombardment in 2001 to spread attacks from Morocco to Indonesia. One may easily conclude here that the harder the Americans push with their failed anti-Islam policy, the more ground they lose to Al-Qaeda and to the Taleban.
It was good for the world that America has attacked mighty Iraq. Iraq can easily claim that it had bankrupted America, drove the neocon-Zionists out of the Whitehouse, Israel is about to go belly up and opened the way for small nations to defeat the criminal giants.
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US anti-Islam crusade helps the Taleban!
The Americans and their NATO allies are preparing to send an additional 25000 soldiers to Afghanistan. Without doubt, this increase confirms that the US-led NATO forces have failed to control Afghanistan as their client Hameed Kharzai continues to be isolated inside few square miles of Kabul; while the Taleban are in control of most of the country, besides a swathe of territories inside Pakistan. Furthermore, Mullah Omar has given orders for massive military operations starting this Thursday 30.04.09. Obama must be blamed for not changing Bush-era US foreign policies which are being perceived as anti-Islamic. The Taleban, Al-Qaeda and the Iraqi resistance are cashing on the strong anti-American sentiment within the Arab and Muslim populations. It is true that during the first 100 days Obama had too much on his plate. Obama can easily reverse the situation by the following:
1.A call to dismantle Israel Nuclear warheads before asking Iran to stop its Uranium enrichment program.
2.Asking the Israelis to abide by 39 UN Security Council Resolutions they ignore.
3.Ordering the Israelis to accept the Two-state solution.
4.Dealing with Hamas as a legitimate government elected by the people.
5.Punishing all those who committed war crimes in Iraq. The war on Iraq was illegal, all the killing and destruction are war crimes.
6.Apologising and compensating the Iraqis.
7.Announcing a withdraw date for the forces from Afghanistan.
Such measures will work like magic and will pull the rug from under the feet of the current armed groups using the anti-American feeling to rally support. It is not in the interest of America to antagonize 1.2 billion Muslims and to subsidize Israel Nazi-style atrocites against Arabs.
I was labelled as a Wahabi (Muslim for Israel), a CIA agent (Cafe Arabica), MI-6 agent by Shiat Chat and now a MOSSAD agent by David_IL. It is like putting a Whisky label on a milk bottle.
Adnan Darwash, Abu Ghraib Times
Adnan Darwash, Iraq Occupation Times
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Pakistan eases fears by sharing nuclear secrets
* Briefings to Western diplomats meant to ‘reassure’ them of safety measures
* Diplomats say nukes reside in a safe, ‘ring-fenced’ part of military
Daily Times Monitor
LAHORE: Senior civil and military officials are sharing tightly-held information about the country’s nuclear arms programme with Western countries in an effort to allay fears about the security of weapons in the face of a Taliban advance, a Financial Times (FT) report said on Thursday.
The decision highlights global concerns about the safety of up to 100 atom bombs in Pakistan’s possession, as the Taliban advanced last week to within 100km of Islamabad.
A senior Western envoy in Islamabad said diplomats had been assured about the security in place for the weapons systems and also their distance from Taliban-held territory.
The FT report said the Pakistani officials presented this as an action to satisfy the West that its weapons would not fall into Taliban hands. “We have renewed our pledge to keep our nuclear weapons safe,” said an official. The briefings were meant to be reassuring to the international community in regard to safety measures.
The Pakistan Army said this week it had halted the latest Taliban incursion in Buner district of Malakand division, 100km north-west of Islamabad, after two days of fighting.
“We have successfully blocked Taliban advances and confined them just to a pocket,” said Interior Minister Rehman Malik.
The Pakistan army has been accused in the West of failing to challenge the Taliban.
According to the FT report, Western diplomats have said a Taliban advance on Islamabad threatened to bring them close to the country’s nuclear installations. They doubted the Taliban were capable of overwhelming heavily protected facilities, it added.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton described, over the weekend, the toppling of the government and capture of nuclear weapons as “unthinkable”.
Nukes ‘ring-fenced’: The report quoted Western diplomats as saying the nuclear programme resides in a “ring-fenced” part of the military under the command of a well-respected general and protected from rogue elements within the army that might seek to capture a weapon. But although security improvements have been made, Pakistan has still to comply with the high levels recommended to it, it added.
Security worries date back to 2004, when the proliferation network of Abdul Qadeer Khan, founder of the country’s nuclear programme, came to light.
One danger identified by the international community was that one of his scientists might help extremists gain a ‘dirty bomb’. Since then, the Pakistani military has tightened monitoring of individual scientists and has introduced new inventory systems in order to track the bomb components.
President Asif Ali Zardari had earlier ruled out the possibility of the country’s nuclear weapons falling into the hands of the Taliban.
“I want to assure the world that the nuclear capability of Pakistan is under safe hands,” he had said.
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Worried Obama confident over Pak nuclear weapons’ security
* US president shows concern over ‘very fragile’ govt
* Doubts govt’s capacity to deliver basic services
* Says Pakistan ending India ‘obsession’
LAHORE: US President Barack Obama said on Wednesday that he is ‘gravely concerned’ about the stability of the Pakistani government, but is confident that Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal will not fall into the hands of the Taliban.
Addressing a prime-time news conference on his 100th day in office, Obama called the government in Pakistan ‘very fragile’. But he said, “I’m confident that we can make sure that Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal is secure.”
“I am more concerned that the civilian government right now is very fragile and don’t seem to have the capacity to deliver basic services, said Obama. “As a consequence, it’s very difficult for them to gain the support and loyalty of their people,” he added.
“So we need to help Pakistan help Pakistanis. And I think that there’s a recognition increasingly on the part of both the civilian government there and the army that that is their biggest weakness,” said Obama.
He also said that the Pakistan Army had begun to realise that ‘homegrown militants, and not India’, posed the biggest threat to Pakistan’s stability. “On the military side, you’re starting to see some recognition … that the obsession with India as the mortal threat to Pakistan has been misguided, and that their biggest threat right now comes internally,” he said.
“We want to continue to encourage Pakistan to move in that direction (focusing on terrorists). And we will provide them all of the cooperation that we can. We want to respect their sovereignty, but we also recognise that we have huge strategic interests, huge national security interests in making sure that Pakistan is stable,” he added. daily times monitor/agencies
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Why did Pakistan launch operations against militants?
www.chinaview.cn 2009-05-01 18:19:34
By Li Jingchen
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Q+A-What's fallout from Pakistan taking fight to Taliban
04 May 2009 12:20:38 GMT
Source: Reuters
(For the main story, click on [ID:.nISL481152])
By Zeeshan Haider
ISLAMABAD, May 4 (Reuters) - Pakistani forces battled Taliban fighters on Monday as the militants denounced the army and government as U.S. stooges and said a peace pact would end unless the government halted its offensive.
President Asif Ali Zardari is due to meet U.S. President Barack Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Washington on May 6-7. The pact in the Swat valley is expected to figure in their security talks.
The February pact and spreading Taliban influence have raised alarm in the United States about the ability of nuclear-armed Pakistan -- which has a vital role in efforts to stabilise Afghanistan -- to stand up to the militants.
Here are some questions and answers about the offensive launched on April 26, and background to the Swat pact.
WHAT IS AT STAKE?
Failure to stem the Taliban's creeping advance from enclaves in ethnic Pashtun tribal areas on the Afghan border sparked worry among both Pakistanis and Western allies that militants were close to the gateways to Islamabad.
A military spokesman said a few hundred militants in the mountains never posed a real threat to the capital. But some security analysts say the guerrillas could have used Buner as a jumping-off point to strike at Tarbela, a dam that provides water and electricity to much of the country. The militants have also moved closer to a road running north to China.
Before the military offensive in Buner, Western allies, who need Pakistani help to defeat al Qaeda and stabilise Afghanistan, worried the government seemed too willing to appease militants.
While Swat, about 130 km (80 miles) northwest of Islamabad, is not on the Afghan border, Western countries with troops in Afghanistan fear the area could become a bastion for militants fighting in both Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Obama said last week he was confident about the security of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal but the New York Times reported growing U.S. concern militants might try to snatch a weapon in transit or insert sympathisers into laboratories or fuel-production facilities.
IS THE OFFENSIVE A RESPONSE TO U.S. PRESSURE?
The fighting came on the heels of a visit to Islamabad by Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, who may have played a role in persuading the weak civilian-led government to act, and shortly before the talks in Washington where Zardari is likely to press for more U.S. military and economic aid.
Washington is considering rushing hundreds of millions of dollars in emergency aid, the U.S. Senate's second-ranking Republican, Jon Kyl of Arizona, told reporters.
U.S. officials have applauded the military action in Buner and urged the Pakistan military to keep the Taliban on the run.
WHAT DOES THE ARMY THINK OF SWAT DEAL?
The deal was struck after consultations with the army. Army chief General Ashfaq Kayani said the military halted its operations in Swat early last year in order to give politicians space to negotiate, but added the army would not allow militants to impose their will on the country.
Kayani has to counter a general perception the army, whose main focus has been a perceived threat from old rival India, is demoralised and reluctant to fight Pakistani Muslims in Swat, although security forces defeated the Taliban in the Bajaur tribal area on the Afghan border in March.
HOW DID THE SITUATION REACH THIS STAGE?
Many people from Swat were caught up in the siege of Islamabad's Red Mosque in July 2007, which commandos stormed to put down a militant movement, resulting in at least 100 deaths.
Violence flared in Swat later that year, and while military operations pushed the Taliban back, they regrouped as soon as the army relented to allow politicians space to negotiate a peace.
The North West Frontier Province government led by the Awami National Party (ANP), an ethnic Pashtun party allied to Zardari, struck a deal with a radical cleric in February to impose sharia law in the hope of ending violence.
Zardari sanctioned the imposition of Islamic law in Malakand after parliament passed a resolution last month. Days later, Taliban fighters entered Buner and nearby Shangla district, raising alarm at home and in the West.
Aides say Zardari was reluctant to sign the deal and referred the issue to the parliament after the ANP threatened to leave the federal coalition government. (For other stories on Pakistan and Afghanistan click on [ID:nSP102615) (Editing by Robert Birsel and Jerry Norton)
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