W O R L D

Special to the tribune
US concerned over Pak-LeT connection
The US is concerned about Pakistan’s continuing links with the Lashkar-e-Toiba and the Haqqani Network yet must continue to maintain what two senior US officials described as a complicated relationship.

‘Lone wolf’ terror attacks biggest threat to US: Obama
Washington, August 17
President Barack Obama has said that a “lone wolf” terror attack similar to the one in Norway posed the greatest threat to the US security at the moment, even though his top aides have claimed that capabilities of Al-Qaida has been considerably degraded.

‘President of US greatest job on earth’

1,000 charged for looting, violence in London
London, August 17
Two young men who tried to incite rioters using Facebook have been sent to four years in jail, the longest sentencing so far by the courts following the four days of unrest, even as more than 1,000 persons have been charged for the recent violence and looting in London.

Special to the tribune
US concerned over Pak-LeT connection
Ashish Kumar Sen in Washington DC

The US is concerned about Pakistan’s continuing links with the Lashkar-e-Toiba and the Haqqani Network yet must continue to maintain what two senior US officials described as a complicated relationship.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Defence Secretary Leon Panetta were speaking at the National Defence University in Washington on Tuesday.

“This is a very complicated relationship with Pakistan,” Panetta said. What makes it so is that Pakistan has “relationships with the Haqqanis, and the Haqqani tribes are going across the border and attacking our forces in Afghanistan, and it’s pretty clear that there’s a relationship there. There's a relationship with the LeT and -- you know, this is a group that goes into India and threatens attacks there,” he added.

Led by the father-son duo Jalaluddin and Sirajuddin Haqqani, the Haqqani Network operates from North Waziristan agency in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. The LeT was responsible for the Mumbai attacks in 2008.

Panetta said, “The terrorists threaten Pakistan as well and it cannot pick and choose which groups to go after.” Acknowledging “bumps and grinds” in the US-Pakistan relationship, Panetta said, “There is no choice but to maintain a relationship with Pakistan. Why? Because we’re fighting a war there.” He cited concern for the safety of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal as one reason for continuing the relationship.

Despite irrefutable evidence of Pakistani support for terrorist organisations the US has been reluctant to list Pakistan as a state sponsor of terrorism. At a briefing on Tuesday, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland was asked by reporters why Pakistan did not qualify to be on the list. She explained that any relationship that the terrorist groups have with Pakistan “is a different issue than a state being a sponsor of terrorism itself.”

Clinton imposed sanctions on a commander of the Haqqani Network, Sangeen Zadran. He was also listed by the United Nations 1988 Sanctions Committee. The sanctions bar US citizens from engaging in financial transactions with the militant. Zadran is the shadow governor for Paktika Province in Afghanistan and a commander of the Haqqani Network.

Clinton described Pakistan as a partner, but said: “They don't always see the world the way we see the world, and they don’t always cooperate with us on what we think -- and I’ll be very blunt about this -- is in their interests.”

“It’s not like we are coming to Pakistan and encouraging them to do things that will be bad for Pakistan. But they often don’t follow what our logic is as we make those cases to them, so it takes a lot of dialogue,” she added.

‘Lone wolf’ terror attacks biggest threat to US: Obama

Washington, August 17
President Barack Obama has said that a “lone wolf” terror attack similar to the one in Norway posed the greatest threat to the US security at the moment, even though his top aides have claimed that capabilities of Al-Qaida has been considerably degraded.

Obama said there was a risk of terrorist attack on occasion of tenth anniversary of 9/11, and also did not ruled out the likelihood of the dreaded terror outfit Al-Qaida launching a revenge attack for the killing of Osama bin Laden.

“The risk of a terrorist attack is always there. And, obviously, on a seminal event like the tenth anniversary of 9/11, that makes us more concerned,” the President said.

“The risk that we're especially concerned over right now is the lone wolf terrorist, somebody with a single weapon being able to carry out wide-scale massacres of the sort that we saw in Norway recently," Obama said.

"You know when you have got a one person who is deranged or driven by a hateful ideology, they can do a lot of damage, and it's lot harder to trace those lone wolf operators," he said.

Obama's apparent reference was to recent number of attacks in the US linked to attacks by loners, including November 2009, shooting of 13 people in Army's Fort Hood complex in Texas, a botched car bombing in New York's Times Square in 2010 and a December 2009 attempt to bring down a US jetliner, which was also tied to a lone person.

With the US preparing to observe the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 bombings, Obama said federal officials were vigilant to such threats. — PTI

1,000 charged for looting, violence in London

London, August 17
Two young men who tried to incite rioters using Facebook have been sent to four years in jail, the longest sentencing so far by the courts following the four days of unrest, even as more than 1,000 persons have been charged for the recent violence and looting in London.

Acting commissioner for the Metropolitan Police force Tim Godwin hailed a “significant milestone” as he said a total of 1,005 suspects had been charged after 1,733 arrests.

Jordan Blackshaw (20) and Perry Sutcliffe-Keenan (22) were both sentenced to four years despite neither of the destructive events the men attempted to organise actually happening.

The pair appeared at Chester Crown Court after the police discovered Facebook pages created by the men that urged rioting in their hometowns.

Prime Minister David Cameron has defended courts for handing out tough sentences for those involved in the riots across England.

Blackshaw, of Northwich, Cheshire, set up an event entitled "Smash Down Northwich Town", and Sutcliffe-Keenan, of Warrington, created the page “Let’s Have a Riot in Latchford”. Both men pleaded guilty to intentionally encouraging another to assist the commission of an indictable offence under the the Serious Crime Act 2007. — PTI

Indian jailed over road rage attack in Australia

Melbourne, August 17
An Indian student, Gurdeep Singh Mann (25), was today given a two-and-a-half-year jail term by an Australian court, which found him guilty of recklessly causing serious injuries to a group of compatriots during a road rage attack.

The incident took place in June 2009 when Mann narrowly missed hitting three pedestrians. Mann and his passenger got out of the car to confront the men and exchanged insults, pushing and punching each other. Mann would probably be deported on his release because of his criminal record. — PTI

Syrian forces crack down on Latakia

Damascus, August 17
Hundreds of Syrian security services raided homes in the port city of Latakia today, pressing their crackdown on dissent in defiance of rising condemnation abroad, activists said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, contacted from Nicosia, said more than 700 members of the security services took part in the operation in the southern district of Ramel, arresting people on lists. “Heavy gunfire continued in most opposition neighbourhoods” overnight, the Britain-based group said. — AFP