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US: Mush trial Pak’s internal matter
Targeted deaths a big blow to
Al-Qaida
Af-Pak must secure their territory: Clinton
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Only dialogue can ensure peace: Gilani
Afghanistan a graveyard for ‘colonial’ troops: Omar
Intelligence agencies told to help police
9 Indian-origin people work in White House
Defiance can isolate Iran: Hillary
Woman editor ‘rebuked’ by security agencies
Meera’s bail extended
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US: Mush trial Pak’s internal matter
The United States ambassador to Pakistan Anne W Patterson has made it clear that former military ruler General (retd) Pervez Musharraf’s trial under Article 6 of the Constitution on charge of treason is an internal matter of Pakistan.
“We wanted a dignified exit of Musharraf from the President’s post for political stability in Pakistan. He has now become a relic of the past, and we have no position for him,” she said in an interview with a local TV channel. She was asked about common perception in Pakistan that US had exerted pressure on President Asif Zardari not to subject Musharraf to any prosecution. Zardari told TV anchors last week that several “stakeholders” had guaranteed Musharraf’s safe exit but later denied widely circulated reports that he had identified them as internal and external. On persistent protest in Pakistan over extraordinary expansion of the US embassy, Anne said: “The hype over expansion of the embassy and talks for purchase of PC Hotel is regrettable.” she said, adding that the US has rented houses in Islamabad keeping in view the needs of diplomatic staff but did not confirm or deny that 200 houses have been hired. “There are total eight Marines in Pakistan. The media reports on the arrival of 1,000 Marines is incorrect,” she said. She also rejected the statement of Minister for Finance Shaukat Tarin, in which he claimed that Pakistan had received only 970 million USD since the Pakistan People’s Party-led government came into office. “3 billion USD have so far been given to the Pakistani government, including 330 million for rehabilitation of internally displaced people,” she said. Pakistan is being projected negatively in the US media. while the US is also being projected negatively in the Pakistani media, she admitted. Meanwhile, in an interview with US paper McClatchy, Patterson said despite the growing US military losses in Afghanistan, Pakistan still refuses to target the extremist groups on its soil that are the biggest threat to the American-led mission there. Eight years after Washington and Islamabad agreed to fight the Taliban and Al-Qaida, Pakistan has “different priorities” from the US, Anne Patterson said. Pakistani officials, however, say that their country’s priority should be to tackle militants who threaten Pakistan. They charge that the US is blind to Pakistan’s concerns over traditional foe India as it presses Pakistan to redeploy forces from its eastern border with India to the western border with Afghanistan. “My own view is that the Haqqani group is the biggest threat (in Afghanistan). The Quetta Shura, yes, is sort of a command and control. They move in and out of Afghanistan. But the Haqqani group has ... shown the ability to reach all the way to Kabul with these huge attacks, which not only kill loads of people but are also politically destabilising.” Nevertheless, Patterson said that Pakistan had “taken more action against some of these groups than most people are aware of.”
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Targeted deaths a big blow to
Al-Qaida
London, September 20 Intelligence officials said on Friday the military strikes have reduced Al-Qaida's core leadership to only a handful of men and diminished its ability to train fighters. This, they said, has forced Al-Qaida to turn to its global affiliates for survival. The killings of Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan in Somalia, Noordin Muhammed Top in Indonesia and Baitullah Mehsud in Pakistan all in recent weeks have been the latest blow. A US counter terrorism official, said the deaths deal "a major near-term blow to their respective militant groups." Since the start of the year, American forces have stepped up strikes against militants in terrorist hubs, including Pakistan and Somalia. US National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair said this week that such strikes have been possible because of a greater understanding of Al-Qaida. British intelligence agents have joined the USA in stepping up counter terrorism measures and adding agents, leading to fewer fully developed terrorist plots being uncovered in Britain. Still, Al-Qaida's top leaders Osama bin Laden and his No 2, Ayman Al-Zawahiri remain free, and terrorist bombings continue to roil countries from Asia to Africa as Al-Qaida and the Taliban establish links with satellite groups. This week, suicide bombers in Somalia killed 21 persons, including 17 peacekeepers, in twin attacks at an African Union base in Mogadishu. The attacks were said to be in retaliation for the US commando raid Monday in southern Somalia that killed Nabhan the leader of the powerful Islamist group Al-Shabab, which was using foreign fighters to help Al-Qaida expand deeper into the Horn of Africa. Nabhan was one of the founders of Al-Shabab, a group that didn't exist a decade ago. Nabhan, a Kenyan with Yemeni roots who had years of strategic and weapons training was being used to build alliances. He was also key in procuring weapons and funds, and training recruits, according to Rohan Gunaratna, author of "Inside Al-Qaida: Global Network of Terror." His death, along with the killing of reputed Shabaab commander Aden Hashi Ayro in Somalia last year, highlights Al-Qaida's challenge in expanding in Africa. Mehsud's death in Pakistan last month represented a similar blow. Mehsud was the leader of the Taliban in Pakistan.
— AP
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Af-Pak must secure their territory: Clinton
“The core goal of the US in the region is to disrupt, dismantle and ultimately defeat Al-Qaida and its extremist allies and to prevent their return to either of the countries. This is a goal we share with Afghanistan, with Pakistan and with the international community,” she said in her address to the Brookings Institute on Friday. “To effectively squeeze the extremists fighting to destabilise both countries, the Afghan and Pakistani governments must be better able to secure their territory from these extremists and meet the basic needs of their populations,” Clinton said. The recent Afghan elections illustrate the promise and the challenges of Afghanistan. “Alongside our partners and the United Nations, we will continue to encourage all parties to respect the international and Afghan electoral institutions charged with determining the final outcome of the election process,” she said. “When the next president is inaugurated, we will work to step up the level of international engagement and expectation with the new government, in a strong partnership, to strengthen governance at all levels,” the Secretary of State said. On the United Nation's role, Clinton hoped that “The organisation does not have to be just a diplomatic talk shop. At its best, it can be an institution that brings the world's nations together to solve global problems through adherence to rules and principles set forth in the UN Charter.”It is the responsibility of the 192 member nations, during the General Assembly and beyond, to capitalise on the opportunity for global cooperation and progress that the United Nations affords, she added.
— PTI
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Only dialogue can ensure peace: Gilani
Stressing the need for a resolution to the Kashmir dispute, Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has urged India to engage in dialogue for the sake of lasting peace in the region.
“We want to resolve the Kashmir dispute peacefully and have invited India for negotiations, despite their repeatedly ignoring the offer,” he told a gathering of Kashmiri leaders at an Iftar dinner at Gilani’s house. “Due to New Delhi’s stubbornness and reluctance, the Kashmir valley continues to suffer oppression and tyranny,” he said. Recalling his meeting with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at Sharm-el-Sheikh, he said he had categorically told Singh there could be no peace in the region until the Kashmir dispute was resolved, according to the aspirations of its people. He said Pakistan was trying to convince the world that the Kashmiri struggle of 60 years could not be suppressed at gunpoint. “The people of Indian-held Kashmir cannot be enslaved for long,” he added. Regarding the government’s decision to grant internal autonomy to Gilgit-Baltistan, the premier said: “I want to express in clear and unequivocal terms that this decision of the government will not bring any change in Pakistan’s principled stand on Kashmir.” He said Pakistan’s policy on Kashmir was based on Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s stance: “Kashmir is the jugular vein of Pakistan.” He said the Gilgit-Baltistan initiative was intended to extend maximum facilities for underdeveloped areas.
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Afghanistan a graveyard for ‘colonial’ troops: Omar
Dubai, September 20 In a purported online message issued to mark Eid, Omar referred to "huge casualties and sagging morale" among the more than 100,000 NATO and US-led troops in Afghanistan fighting Taliban-linked insurgents. "The more the enemy resorts to increasing forces, the more they will face an unequivocal defeat in Afghanistan," he said in the message, believed the first from Omar since 2006. It came weeks before the eighth anniversary of the US-led invasion toppled the Taliban regime in Kabul. Describing Afghanistan as a graveyard for "colonial" troops, he said the Taliban's fight against American and NATO troops in the country "is forging ahead like a powerful flood." "Anyone who opts to resist it will himself be washed away. Atrocity, torture, brutality, conspiracies, coalitions, the foreign forces and mercenaries could not hurl stumbling blocks in the way of this robust Jihadic movement," he says. The fight against foreign forces "is approaching the edge of victory," according to Omar. With 48 deaths, August was the deadliest month for the US military in Afghanistan since the mission began in late 2001. The United States now has about 62,000 U.S. troops there, and NATO allies have another 35,000. The Pentagon plans to add 6,000 troops by the end of the year.
— PTI
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Intelligence agencies told to help police
The Balochistan High Court on Thursday directed, through the Ministry of Defence, the country’s two premier intelligence agencies to cooperate with the police in Turbat in investigations into the mysterious killings of three senior Baloch nationalist politicians in April this year.
The incident in which the three Baloch nationalists were abducted at gunpoint and subsequently assassinated had sent a wave of anger and disgust across the country, while Balochistan plunged into chaos and violence. The nationalists blamed the security agencies of masterminding the killings but the government rejected the charge. A court notice was described by legal and political circles as a significant move because the two spy agencies have rarely been brought to courts to answer their transgression of the law. The bodies of Baloch National Movement (BNM) Chairman Ghulam Mohammed Baloch and two fellow nationalists Lal Munir Baloch and Sher Muhammad Baloch were found several days after their abduction on the city court premises. It had pushed the province into an unprecedented wave of political violence and insurgency, with even relatively moderate Baloch groups starting to side with the extremists. A division bench of the Balochistan High Court, headed by Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa, issued a notice to the Federal Secretary of Defence, directing him to instruct the Military Intelligence (MI) and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to cooperate with the police in probing the mysterious killings.
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9 Indian-origin people work in White House
Washington, September 20 According to the figures, Sonal Shah, who's the Deputy Assistant to the US President and Director at Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation, gets an annual salary of $120,000. Both Rachana Bhowmick, who is the Director of Special Projects, and Aditya Kumar, also Director of Special Projects as well as Special Assistant to Office of Chief of Staff, earn $99,000 a year each. Those in the salary slab less than $90,000 are Anisha Dasgupta who works as a Counsel at an annual package of $86,927 and Pradeep Ramamurthy, the Director of Response Policy, whose gross salary is $86,927. The figures, released on the White House blog, also reveal that Kavita Patel who is the Director of Policy for the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs and Public Engagement gets $65,000 annually, while Shomik Dutta, the Special Assistant to White House Counsel, earns $62,000. Likewise, White House Policy Advisor Manashi Deshpande earns $54,000 a year while Taara Rangarajan gets $40,000 for her services as Deputy Associate Director.
— PTI
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Defiance can isolate Iran: Hillary
Washington, September 20 In her address yesterday to the Brookings Institute, a Washington-based think tank, Clinton said Iran had a choice to either accept the offer of US and other countries or face further sanctions if it shies away from talks. “Iran faces a choice. The international community has made abundantly clear what is possible for all Iranians if Iran lives up to its responsibility on the nuclear issue: the benefits of economic connections to the rest of the world; cooperation on peaceful nuclear energy and partnership in education and science,” she said. Noting that the Obama administration has conveyed its readiness to engage directly with Iran, Clinton said dialogue alone doesn’t guarantee any outcome, let alone success. “But we also know that our past refusal to engage yielded no progress on the nuclear issue nor did it stem Iran’s support for terrorist groups,” she said. Clinton said over the past eight months, Obama had reached out both to the Iranian government and people to resolve issues diplomatically. Nonetheless, she said, the US remained ready to engage with Iran as a means of addressing the growing concerns that America and its international partners had about Iran’s actions, especially on the nuclear issue.
— PTI
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Woman editor ‘rebuked’ by security agencies
Islamabad, September 20 The security agencies took notice of the matter after journalists of the paper claimed that they had been briefed on the issue by the country's army or intelligence. Last week, investigators from “one of the country's leading intelligence agencies” visited the newly-appointed woman editor and demanded she furnish “concrete evidence of her newspaper's claims of US security contractor Blackwater operating in Pakistan,” the Daily Times reported, without giving the name of the editor. The investigators, during a meeting found that the editor “kept changing the names of the people who had provided her with the information when asked to substantiate her claims on Blackwater's alleged presence,” the report said. A senior official, who accompanied the investigators, became “very agitated by the claims” and asked the editor to “make sure she checks her facts before she publishes or comments on any reports.”
— PTI
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Meera’s bail extended
Islamabad, September 20 Meera was booked by the police on the charge of "stealing" furniture and other valuables of a businessman, Atiqur Rehman, who claims to be Meera's spouse despite her persistent denial. Meanwhile, Meera has lodged a complaint with the police that Atiq threatened to kill her in an e-mail message. Atiq denied the charge, saying the address on the e-mail released to the press by Meera was not his.
— TNS
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Washington, September 20