Navigation

Video Surfaces of Purported Extrajudicial Killings by Army Personnel

"Two retired Pakistani senior army officers said they believed that the video was credible.

“It’s authentic,” said Javed Hussain, a former Special Forces brigadier. “They are soldiers in Swat. The victims appear to be militants or their sympathizers.” The executioners were infantry soldiers, he said. “It’s shocking, not expected of a professional, disciplined force.”

A retired lieutenant general, Talat Masood, also said the video seemed credible. “It will have a serious setback in the effort for winning the hearts and minds so crucial in this type of warfare,” he said."

Read the complete story at NYT: Video Hints at Executions by Pakistanis

Spike in Drone Strikes

"In recent days, American military helicopters have launched three airstrikes into Pakistan that military officials estimate killed more than 50 people suspected of being members of the militant group known as the Haqqani network, which is responsible for a spate of deadly attacks against American troops."
Complete story at New York Times: C.I.A. Steps Up Drone Attacks on Taliban in Pakistan

"The cancer is in Pakistan"

"Safe havens would no longer be tolerated, Obama had decided. "We need to make clear to people that the cancer is in Pakistan," he declared during an Oval Office meeting on Nov. 25, 2009, near the end of the strategy review. The reason to create a secure, self-governing Afghanistan, he said, was "so the cancer doesn't spread there.""
Washington Post excerpts Bob Woodward's "Omaba Wars".

LeT Expanding Ops in Afghanistan?

"The general claims that recent months have seen a steady increase of violent clashes in the east that have yielded a higher ratio of Pakistanis and other foreigners among the insurgent casualties. That, he says, is proof of the nominally Kashmir-oriented group's growing involvement in Afghanistan. The trend is confirmed by U.S. military officials, who say that well-trained LeT fighters are bringing deadlier tools and tactics to the war's second-fiercest front."
Pakistani Insurgent Group Expands in Afghanistan - TIME

An Open Letter to Osama bin Laden -- by Noman Benotman | The AfPak Channel

"In urging you to halt your violence and re-consider your aims and strategy, I believe I am merely expressing the views of the vast majority of Muslims who wish to see their religion regain the respect it has lost and who long to carry the name of "Muslim" with pride."
An Open Letter to Osama bin Laden -- by Noman Benotman | The AfPak Channel

Balkanization of Afghanistan Ahead?

"By accepting that the Taliban would overrun Kandahar and other big population centres, the US would threaten the Taliban only if it allowed al Qa'eda to reform or if the movement started to encroach northwards." Nato urged to allow partition of Afghanistan - Telegraph

The Coup-Talk, Analysed

"Now is perhaps the worst time for any politician to be in government. If the army were to mount a takeover at this juncture it would quickly see the public's goodwill evaporate. That makes a return to military rule unlikely. But with future events in this country always hard to predict, rumours of a coup are certain to continue."

Is Pakistan heading for a coup? | Mustafa Qadri | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

9/11/10 -- Unfinished Business Take #9

Sloppy job, Ambassador. Your rhetoric ('...paraded him down Broadway and deservedly hanged him from the highest flagpole in lower Manhattan'; and 'Until its leadership is ... disemboweled') would put Ayman al- Zawahiri to shame, and your Sophistry ('After what this nation has sacrificed since 9/11, Americans deserve better') would do a third-world demagogue proud.



But you deliver unsubstantiated blanket statements ('...the Obama Administration has begun to effectively turn the tables on the organization'), and you reach no clear conclusion.



Are you not playing to too many galleries? Why must you piggy-back your 'original' ideas on a sacred day like 9/11? Americans - and the rest of us - indeed deserve better.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost