Ex-envoy: Pakistan must account for bin Laden

The Pakistani government must explain how Osama bin Laden was able to hide in Abbottabad for years and reveal who in Pakistan helped him, Pakistan's former Ambassador to Washington Husain Haqqani said Wednesday.
"It's Pakistan's responsibility to the world to say who did it," Haqqani told an audience at the Center for the National Interest, formerly known as the Nixon Center.  "It doesn't have to be the government, it doesn't have to be the military, but whoever it is, we have to come clean on that, because that is the only way we will assure the rest of the world that Pakistan's government and Pakistan's state has its hands clean on this whole thing."

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The Long View: The Taliban Express

The Long War Journal is pleased to introduce The Long View, a monthly cartoon that tackles the issues of the war. The Long View is illustrated by Chris Muir.
This month's cartoon looks at the contentious issue of NATO supplies flowing through Pakistan to Afghanistan. The supply lines were shut down for seven months after US and Pakistani troops clashed on the border; then they reopened last month after a US apology, were shut down again due to security reasons, and then again reopened. Weeks later, supplies have just begun to trickle through to NATO troops in Afghanistan, after further delays blamed on Pakistani bureaucracy and lack of security. Meanwhile the Taliban and allied terror groups move across the border to fight NATO forces with ease.

Read more: http://www.longwarjournal.org/threat-matrix/archives/2012/08/the_long_view_the_taliban_expr.php#ixzz22yQkrrZH

50 US troops must be 'blown to smithereens' for America to take Haqqani Network, Pakistan seriously

This July 31 article in The New York Times displays the horse-has-left-the-barn mentality that is prevalent in higher echelons of the US government when it comes to terrorist threats and Pakistan. According to the report, the US government won't take the threat of the Haqqani Network and Pakistan's support of the terror group seriously unless another mass-casualty attack occurs against US forces in Afghanistan.

But a new boldness from the Haqqanis that aims at mass American casualties, combined with simmering political tension, has reduced the room for ambiguity between the two countries. Inside the administration, it is a commonly held view that the United States is "one major attack" away from unilateral action against Pakistan -- diplomatically or perhaps even militarily, one senior official said. "If 50 U.S. troops were blown to smithereens by the Haqqanis, or they penetrated the U.S. Embassy in Kabul and killed several diplomats -- that would be the game changer," he said.
American officials recently considered what that could mean. Days after the Salerno attack, the White House held a series of interagency meetings to weigh its options in the event of a major success by the Haqqanis against American troops.

Read more: http://www.longwarjournal.org/threat-matrix/archives/2012/08/50_us_troops_must_be_blown_to.php#ixzz22fWNjzRU

How Drones Changed the Game in Pakistan

Regardless of what the news agencies in Pakistan claim about the negative effects of drone strikes, the weapon is proving to be a game changer for the U.S. war on terrorism. And surprisingly, the Pakistani Army quietly admits to this fact. Just the way Stinger missiles shifted the balance of power in favor of the United States in the 1980s, drones are producing the same results.
The critics of unmanned strikes, who claim that drones are contributing to growing radicalization in Pakistan, haven’t looked around enough—or they would realize that much of the radicalization already was established by the Taliban in the 1990s. The real tragedy is that it is acceptable for the Taliban to radicalize and kill, but it is considered a breach of sovereignty for the United States, in pursuit of those radicalizing Pakistan’s people, to do the same.


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UPDATE 1-US, Pakistan appear to make little headway in spy meet

Aug 3 (Reuters) - U.S. and Pakistani spy chiefs exchanged grievances in their first official meeting this week, sources familiar with the discussions said on Friday, but it was unclear if the two uneasy allies made any progress to end deep divisions on militants living in Pakistani tribal areas or on U.S. drone strikes.
Lieutenant-General Zaheer ul-Islam, who was named in March to head the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), on his first official visit to Washington met on Thursday with CIA Director David Petraeus at CIA headquarters.
Ahead of his visit, Pakistani officials said the country's spy chief would call for an end to U.S. military drone strikes in volatile areas bordering Afghanistan and push for a sharing of technology and intelligence.
The public preview of Pakistani demands on Petraeus appeared to have displeased U.S. officials, who pushed back at the notion they might cede to Pakistani requests.

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U.S.-Pakistan spy talks called productive

The first meeting between the head of the Central Intelligence Agency and his new Pakistani counterpart was labeled "substantive, professional and productive" by a senior U.S. official.
CIA Director David Petraeus and Inter-Services Intelligence chief Lt. Gen. Zahir ul-Islam met Thursday at CIA headquarters in suburban Washington in an effort to bring the contentious relationship back on track.
The U.S. knows little about Islam, who rose through the ranks of the Pakistani military before being appointed to head the ISI in March by Army Chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani.
The Pakistani government has been reassessing its relationship with Washington after a number of high-profile incidents last year, particularly the U.S. raid on Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, of which the Pakistanis had no prior knowledge, and the accidental killing of Paksitani soldiers operating along the Afghanistan border by U.S. airstrikes in November.


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India to draw Pak attention to J&K tunnel

NEW DELHI: India will soon take up the uncovering of a cross-border tunnel in Samba sector of Jammu and Kashmir with higher authorities in Pakistan. Though the BSF lodged a strong protest with its Pakistani counterpart at a flag meeting on Tuesday, the matter would be escalated via diplomatic channel with details of the findings.

"It is a matter of concern. It is being discussed at the highest levels between ministry of home affairs, ministry of defence and ministry of external affairs. An appropriate response, an appropriate way will be found to take it up with Pakistan," home minister P Chidambaram said. 

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Pakistan’s New Spy Chief Visits Washington at a Time of Frayed Relations

 ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — As befits any newly installed spymaster, a vague air of mystery surrounds Lt. Gen. Zahir ul-Islam, the head of Pakistan’s powerful Inter-Services Intelligence directorate, who is visiting Washington in his official capacity for the first time on Wednesday.

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U.S., Pakistan sign deal to allow supply routes through 2015

STRINGER/PAKISTAN/REUTERS - Paramilitary soldiers escort a convoy of trucks carrying supplies for NATO troops before crossing into Afghanistan from the Pakistan border town of Chaman on July 16, 2012. Pakistan and the U.S. reached a deal to reopen land routes that NATO uses to supply troops in Afghanistan.

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ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistan will allow NATO supply convoys to cross its territory into Afghanistan until the end of 2015, one year beyond the deadline for withdrawal of U.S. combat forces there, under an agreement signed Tuesday by U.S. and Pakistani officials.
The pact seems to close, for now, one of the most contentious chapters in the long-turbulent relationship between Washington and Islamabad, cementing cooperation by Pakistan in winding down the war in Afghanistan, at least in terms of logistical assistance. Washington has also urged Islamabad to step up its participation in the peace process by bringing to the negotiating table militant groups that shelter in Pakistani’s tribal belt and regularly cross the border to attack NATO troops.


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Pakistan sends US taxpayers a bill for War on Terror

One of the immediate consequences of Hillary Clinton’s apology to Pakistan earlier this month for a Afghanistan/Pakistan border incident (in which Pakistani troops fired on coalition forces, prompting a deadly retalitory response) is that it has re-opened the U.S. taxpayer spigot for Pakistan.
The Pakistani Express Tribune reported late last week:
Now that ties between Pakistan and US are fast thawing, Islamabad has sent the first Coalition Support Fund (CSF) bills to Washington since the US Navy SEALs raid to hunt down Osama bin Laden in May  last year.
The Joint Staff headquarters has sent fresh CSF claims to Pentagon, a senior official from the finance ministry told The Express Tribune. Neither the ministry nor the US Embassy in Pakistan disclosed the exact amount of the claims, but it is said to be between $500 and $600 million.


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Pakistan Unrelenting in Demanding Drone Strike End

Pakistan's ambassador to the United States says her country will not relent from demanding that the CIA end its drone strikes.
In a debate with White House war adviser Douglas Lute at the Aspen Security Forum, Sherry Rehman said drone attacks have damaged al-Qaida but are now only serving to recruit new militants.
"I am not saying drones have not assisted in the war against terror, but they have diminishing rate of returns," Rehman said by video teleconference from Washington.
With Pakistan's spy chief, Lt. Gen. Zaheerul Islam, expected to hold his first meeting with CIA Director David Petraeus at CIA headquarters in Virginia next week, the ambassador said, "We will seek an end to drone strikes and there will be no compromise on that."


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Pakistan suspends NATO supply route to Afghanistan

July 26, 2012 - 15:48 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - Pakistan has temporarily stopped NATO supply trucks crossing its northwestern border into Afghanistan over security concerns due to fears of Islamist attacks, officials said Thursday, July 26, according to AFP.
Gunmen on Tuesday attacked a convoy of NATO supply trucks, killing a driver, in the town of Jamrud near the main northwestern city of Peshawar, in the first such attack since Pakistan lifted a seven-month blockade of the border.
"Movement of NATO vehicles has been temporarily suspended since Wednesday evening to beef up security," a paramilitary official said. "We have launched a search operation in the hills surrounding Jamrud."


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U.S. drone kills 12 suspected militants in Pakistan

MIRANSHAH, Pakistan (Reuters) - U.S. drone aircraft struck a militant hideout in northwest Pakistan near the border with Afghanistan on Monday, killing at least 12 suspected militants, Pakistani intelligence officials said.

The drones fired several missiles at a compound in the Shawal area of the North Waziristan tribal region. Two suspected militants were wounded in the strike, officials added.

Shawal is a remote area of forested ridges and valleys that spreads out on both sides of the border and has long been known as a haven for militants from Pakistan, Afghanistan and beyond.

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After 30 years, Pakistan rolls up welcome mat for Afghan refugees

Rangeen (who goes by only one name), 28, an Afghan refugee, with his son, Noor Agha, 7, in front, and another boy, stand by the main road near Sorang Abadi village, just outside Islamabad, Pakistan. | Saeed Shah/MCT

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/07/23/157316/after-30-years-pakistan-rolls.html#storylink=cpy

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan plans to cancel refugee status at the end of this year for the 3 million Afghans who are living in the country, officials have told McClatchy, leaving the refugees facing possible forced resettlement in their homeland, a war-torn country that many of them barely know.
Pushing the refugees into Afghanistan probably would create a new crisis for that country, which already is struggling with an insurgency, an economy almost entirely dependent on the U.S-led foreign presence and the illicit drug trade, and the impending withdrawal of foreign combat troops by 2014.
Officials in Pakistan, which has hosted Afghan refugees for more than 30 years – one of the longest-running refugee problems in the world – say that “enough is enough” and are resisting entreaties by the United Nations and others to reconsider the decision. It comes as Islamabad’s relations with Western countries, particularly the United States, have soured over its policies in neighboring Afghanistan and the unannounced U.S. raid on Pakistani soil that killed Osama bin Laden last year.

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/07/23/157316/after-30-years-

 

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Gunmen carry out first attack on NATO convoy in Pakistan since supply route reopened, 1 killed

K.M. Chaudary/Associated Press - Pakistani truck drivers, chant prayer before breaking their fast, on the third day of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan, in Lahore, Pakistan, Monday, July 23, 2012. Muslims from Morocco to Afghanistan are steeling themselves for the toughest Ramadan in more than three decades with no food or drink, not even a sip of water during the hottest time of the year.

 PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Gunmen opened fire on a convoy carrying NATO troop supplies to Afghanistan on Tuesday, killing a driver in the first attack in Pakistan since Islamabad ended its seven-month blockade of the route, a government official said.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but the Pakistani Taliban had warned they would target the trucks after the government reopened the supply line earlier this month.
Pakistan closed the route last November in retaliation for American airstrikes that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, an incident the U.S. said was a mistake but the Pakistani military claimed was deliberate. Islamabad finally reopened the supply line after the U.S. apologized for the deaths.

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A day after Kabul’s warning to Pakistan, more cross-border shelling reported

KABUL – Scores of fresh artillery rounds fired from Pakistan hit parts of eastern Afghanistan on Sunday night and Monday, a local official said, a day after Kabul warned Islamabad that any further cross-border shelling could significantly damage ties between the two historically uneasy neighbors.
There were no casualties from the overnight barrage that mostly hit the Dangam district of eastern Kunar province. Earlier in the weekend, four civilians were killed in shelling there, said Wasifullah Wasifi, a spokesman for Kunar’s governor.
In western Afghanistan, a gunman in an Afghan security forces uniform on Sunday shot and killed three civilian contractors working with the U.S.-led NATO coalition, the Associated Press reported. Five coalition troops were killed by roadside bombs during the weekend in other parts of the country.
Kunar Police Chief Ewaz Mohammad Naziri said 1,960 shells, mostly artillery rounds, have hit various districts of the province in recent months. Pakistan denies that accusation. It comes days after Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Kabul to discuss joint efforts for persuading Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan to join peace talks and end the cross-border shelling.

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Commentary: Pakistani nuclear hero villain

Abdul Qadeer Khan, Pakistan's national nuclear hero, was also a nuclear black market pariah. He sold and smuggled bomb-making secrets to North Korea, Iran and Libya, and was put under house arrest by former President Pervez Musharraf for five years (2004-09).
This week, A.Q. Khan was back in business -- to pull his country out from under what he called "the slavery of the United States." He had a receptive audience of tens of millions as the latest Pew Foundation survey indicates three out of four Pakistanis agreeing the United States is their "main enemy."
In 2004, U.S. President George W. Bush conferred on Pakistan the title of "major non-NATO ally."
A metallurgist by training, Khan stole nuclear bomb making secrets from the Netherlands where he was working and fathered Pakistan's nuclear arsenal, the first Islamic nation to acquire one.
Pakistan's first nuclear bomb test in 1998 came only two weeks after India detonated its first five nuclear explosions.
Following his release from house arrest three years ago, Khan, 75, quietly went to work off stage to form a coalition of former military leaders and prominent anti-U.S. politicians.

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Pakistan Boosting Capacity at Crossings for NATO Cargo

TORKHAM, Pakistan — Pakistan is doubling the capacity for NATO trucks at a key border crossing, officials said July 9, to speed up processing for an expected influx of supplies for troops in Afghanistan.
Customs officials at Torkham border crossing in the country’s troubled northwest saud that work had begun to expand dedicated parking space for NATO containers.
Islamabad agreed to reopen overland routes to NATO convoys on July 3 after a seven-month blockade sparked by a botched U.S. air raid on a border post that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.
“After expansion the parking capacity for NATO trucks will be doubled,” said Obaidullah Khan, a customs official at Torkham, the closest border crossing to Kabul. “Prior to the closure the terminal had a parking capacity of 250 vehicles and now we are expanding it to 500.”

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Is Lashkar-e-Taiba Turning Against Pakistan?

Pakistan watchers in India are following the Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba closely.
No wonder.
Long seen as India’s biggest bugbear, the LeT, suspected to have ties to Pakistan's defense establishment, may now be turning against its master, diplomatic and security sources told The Diplomat.
The latest Indian assessment of the LeT is apparently based on defiant posturing of its founder and alleged chief Hafiz Mohammed Saeed on several key issues. This has raised serious questions about the terrorist group’s growing ambitions and brazenness. Saeed is reportedly unhappy with the Pakistan Army’s attitude. He believes that LeT has done more than any other terrorist group to promote the army’s strategic interest but has got back precious little. His group has not only trained recruits for jihad in Kashmir but also carried out some spectacular attacks against India, in addition to training cadres for the Taliban and other terrorist groups. Any sign of the terror group turning away from Pakistan has the potential to threaten Pakistan’s own security and broad interests. But it would also have important implications for India.

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U.S. Apology Leads Pakistan to Reopen Important NATO Supply Route

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Trucks carrying supplies for NATO forces in Afghanistan are parked at Pakistan's Torkham border crossing in November 2011, after Pakistani authorities shut NATO's supply route in retaliation for a fatal airstrike that killed more than 20 Pakistani troops. The supply route is reopening more than seven months later, U.S. officials said July 3. (File photo / Agence France-Presse)

WASHINGTON — Pakistan has agreed to reopen its border to NATO supply convoys into Afghanistan after a seven-month blockade, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said July 3, adding Washington was sorry for the loss of life in a botched U.S. air raid last year.
The supply routes have been shut since November, when an American aircraft mistakenly killed 24 Pakistan soldiers, aggravating already difficult relations between Washington and Islamabad.
The announcement, following months of negotiations, will come as a relief to the United States and its NATO allies, who need the routes for a planned withdrawal of combat forces from Afghanistan through 2014.
During a July 3 telephone conversation, Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar “informed me that the ground supply lines into Afghanistan are opening,” Clinton said.
Islamabad has long demanded that Washington apologize for the deadly air raid before it would reopen the NATO routes, closed in anger after the U.S. attack.
“Foreign Minister Khar and I acknowledged the mistakes that resulted in the loss of Pakistani military lives,” Clinton said in a statement. “We are sorry for the losses suffered by the Pakistani military. We are committed to working closely with Pakistan and Afghanistan to prevent this from ever happening again.”
Earlier, Pakistan’s new prime minister acknowledged that keeping up the seven-month blockade would damage relations with the United States and other NATO member states.
“The continued closure of supply lines not only impinge our relationship with the U.S., but also on our relations with the 49 other member states of NATO,” Raja Pervez Ashraf told a meeting of top civilian and military leaders.
A senior Pakistani official said the defense committee of the cabinet had met to discuss whether to end the blockade, but his office stopped short of announcing any decision after the talks ended.
The defense committee groups together the most senior cabinet ministers and military commanders. Pakistan’s powerful army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Kayani, and the head of the ISI intelligence agency, Zaheer ul Islam, were among those present.
The border blockade has forced the United States and its allies to rely on much longer, more expensive northern routes through Central Asia, Russia and the Caucasus. The cost of ferrying supplies by air and over northern railways and roads has cost the U.S. military about $100 million a month, according to the Pentagon.
Initial hopes of a deal on reopening the routes had fallen apart at a NATO summit in Chicago in May, amid reports that Pakistan was demanding huge fees for each of the thousands of trucks that rumble across the border every year.
But on July 3 Clinton said: “Pakistan will continue not to charge any transit fee in the larger interest of peace and security in Afghanistan and the region. This is a tangible demonstration of Pakistan’s support for a secure, peaceful, and prosperous Afghanistan and our shared objectives in the region.”
Reopening the routes will help the United States and NATO to complete its planned withdrawal of troops and equipment from Afghanistan “at a much lower cost,” Clinton said. “This is critically important to the men and women who are fighting terrorism and extremism in Afghanistan.”
Almost all foreign combat troops are due to leave Afghanistan at the end of 2014, some 13 years after the U.S. invasion of 2001 toppled the Islamic hardline Taliban regime.
The deal on the supply routes will help ease tensions for troubled Pakistani-U.S. relations, which are at their worst since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and still reeling from the unilateral American raid that killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan in May 2011.
Pentagon chief Leon Panetta welcomed the move, saying the United States remained “committed to improving our partnership with Pakistan and to working closely together as our two nations confront common security challenges in the region.”
The commander of NATO-led forces in Afghanistan, U.S. Marine Gen. John Allen, who held talks in Islamabad twice in the last six days, praised the decision as “a demonstration of Pakistan’s desire to help secure a brighter future for both Afghanistan and the region at large.”
While Islamabad has demanded a formal apology for the deaths of its border troops, a U.S. and NATO investigation said the killings were the result of mistakes made on both sides.
The United States also has indicated it will free up funds for Pakistan that are supposed to reimburse Islamabad for counter-insurgency operations, officials said.

Source :

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE