There are increasing signs that the USraelian Empire is trying to negotiate some kind of deal with the Taliban including their chief, Mullah Omar. Some are rejoicing at this development seeing it as a way to finally get the US out of Afghanistan. I would agree with such optimistic hopes if the issue was only getting the US out of Afghanistan, but there is far more at stake here than
Press TV reports: Speculation is rife that the US is behind a massive shake up at Pakistan’s powerful Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency. The Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency has been called a ‘state within a state’ due to its immense power. Time magazine has described it as one of the world’s most powerful spy agencies. Now, 10 months after being appointed head of the Pakistani Army, General Ashfaq Kayani, easily one
Press TV reports: Pakistani military reiterates it will not allow any incursions by the US-led NATO troops into its volatile tribal region near Afghan border. There has been no change in the rules of engagement with the US forces and the Pakistani military will not permit any aerial or ground incursions by foreign troops, the security officials said at a briefing on anti-militancy operations in the North West Frontier Province
Press TV reports: The US says the Pakistani army and the American troops have exchanged fire near the Afghan border after tensions over incursions flared. The latest incident took place along the Pakistani border with the eastern Afghan region of Khost on late Thursday. A senior US military official said skirmishes broke out after Pakistani soldiers fired warning shots near two US helicopters. US Central Command spokesman Rear Admiral Gregory
Dr.Tariq Amin-Khan talks with Paul Jay about the consequences of increased US military activity in Pakistan on Real News Network Tariq Amin-Khan is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Politics and Public Administration at Ryerson University. In addition to a PhD in Social and Political Thought from York University in Toronto, he holds a Master’s degree in South Asian Studies from the University of Toronto, and a Bachelor of
Check out this BBC report: Nato forces in eastern Afghanistan say their helicopters have been fired upon by a Pakistani military checkpoint. The Western alliance said its aircraft had not crossed into Pakistani airspace when they came under fire over Khost province, news agency AP reports. The incident comes amid growing tension over a number of recent incidents at the Pakistan-Afghan border. Earlier this week, Pakistani troops fired warning shots
Press TV reports: Pakistan, Iran agree on Jundullah’s fate Tehran says members of the Jundullah terrorist group taken into custody in Pakistan may be extradited to Iran as early as next week. “We are currently discussing the matter with the Pakistani government and there is a possibility that the terrorists will be turned over to Iran in the coming week,” caretaker Interior Minister, Mehdi Hashemi told reporters on Saturday. Hashemi
Press TV reports: Pakistan’s United Council of Action has criticized President Pervez Musharraf for meeting Israeli war minister Ehud Barak in France. In a statement issued on Tuesday, Senator Khurshid Ahmed, the council’s parliamentary leader, termed the meeting a violation of Pakistan’s principled position and said it tarnished the country’s image in the Arab and Islamic world. It is deplorable that President Musharraf invited Israeli minister to his hotel room
There is the facade: organization like NATO, or the British Commonwealth, or the Arab League. And then there are the real alliances, the ones that matter when things get tough, when important decisions need to be made. Some of them are centered around a common project, such as the ECHELON countries, while others have almost no visible existence. As usual, these are less conspiracies than collusions. These alliances are informal,
By Jeffrey Imm Once again, another national leader of an American “ally” in the “war on terror” has offered to help the Taliban regain political power. AP has reported that Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai offered “to meet personally with Taliban leader Mullah Omar for peace talks and give the militants a high position in a government ministry as a way to end the rising insurgency in Afghanistan.” AP reports that
By Michael Scheuer More than six years after the September 11, 2001, attacks, Osama bin Laden remains free, healthy and safe enough to produce audio and videotapes that dominate the international media at the times of his choosing. Popular attitudes, and some official ones, in the United States and its North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies tend to denigrate the efforts made by their military and intelligence services to capture
By SADAQAT JAN Hundreds of Islamists chanting slogans against Pakistan’s military leader rallied outside the Supreme Court on Friday as judges heard petitions challenging President Gen. Pervez Musharraf’s right to run for re-election. Musharraf, meanwhile, appointed a new intelligence chief and promoted five other army generals in a shake-up just days after signaling he would resign from the military if he wins a new five-year term as president. Opposition parties,
“All praise is due to Allah. We praise Him and seek His aid and forgiveness, and we seek refuge in Allah from the evil in ourselves and from our bad deeds. He whom Allah guides cannot be led astray, and he who is led astray cannot be guided. I bear witness that there is no God other than Allah alone, without partners, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His
ISLAMABAD: Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Mushahid Hussain Sayed on Wednesday condemned the French government’s threat of a new war with Iran over its nuclear programme. French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner had said that the world should brace for a possible war over Iran’s nuclear programme. “We’ve to prepare for the worst, and the worst is war,” he had said in a television interview. Mushahid, in a statement, said it
Pakistani security forces have secured the release of 21 Iranians taken hostage by gunmen, and arrested 18 terrorists in armed clashes. Armed bandits opened fire at vehicles in Iran’s southeastern Sistan-Baluchestan province on Sunday and took civilians hostage, according to a report by Pakistan’s private TV One from Quetta, the capital of Pakistan Baluchistan province. Pakistani security forces managed to secure the release of the Iranian hostages early Monday in
Source: AFP, Press TV Suspected Islamic militants in a chaotic Pakistani tribal town have decapitated a man accused of spying for US forces on Wednesday. The militants dumped the body of the unidentified victim in his 20’s in an isolated area near the northwestern town of Khar in the Bajaur tribal district, said the local official who was informed by the villagers. The official also added that they found a
MIRANSHAH, Pakistan, July 18–Pro-Taliban insurgents ambushed a Pakistani military convoy near the Afghan border on Wednesday, sparking a gun-battle that left at least 17 soldiers and some rebels dead, the army said. The fighting in the North Waziristan tribal region moved the government one step closer to an all-out war with insurgents in the area, who abandoned a 10-month-old peace treaty with the government on Sunday. In Wednesday’s attack, insurgents
Ahmed Rashid was interviewed by phone from Lahore, Pakistan, by Amy Goodman for DemocracyNow!. Ahmed Rashid is a Pakistani journalist based in Lahore. He is author of three books including “Taliban” and most recently “Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam in Central Asia.” He has covered Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia for the past 25 years and writes for the Far Eastern Economic Review, the Daily Telegraph, and The Wall
Al-Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahiri has urged Pakistanis to revolt against President Musharraf following the storming of the Lal Mosque. “I call upon the ulama (Muslim clergy) in Pakistan… Musharraf and his hunting dogs have tarnished your honor in service of the crusaders and the Jews,” Zawahiri said in an audiotape posted Thursday on the Internet. Zawahiri said that he was speaking on the “occasion of the criminal aggression” on
(Reuters) – Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf’s plane was fired on as it took off on Friday from a military airfield in Rawalpindi, an intelligence officer said. Musharraf’s plane arrived safely in the southwestern town of Turbat, where the president visited flood victims. The military initially denied there had been any attack. General Musharraf came to power in a military coup in 1999 and enraged Pakistani militant groups by abandoning support
