Free Republic

The inadequacy of Barack Obama’s Afghanistan and Pakistan strategy stems from the exigencies of the calendar of the next presidential elections in America, writes Kanwal Sibal The striking thing about Barack Obama’s new policy initiative on Afghanistan and Pakistan announced on December 1 is how little in it is actually new. It re-states the problem in known terms and the proposed way forward treads old ground. This is surprising, as the president spent an enormous amount of time to examine his options, to the point of being accused of dithering, and knew that the implications of the new course he...

Pakistan Christians celebrate Christmas in Fear Past attack, threats leave minority group feeling especially vulnerable [Pic in URL]A Pakistani Christian child on Thursday arranges statues to celebrate Christmas in Islamabad. GOJRA, Pakistan - No Christmas decorations brighten the tent camp sheltering Christians left homeless by the worst violence against minorities in Pakistan this year. Instead, there is a pervasive sense of fear. The Christians have received cell phone text messages warning them to expect a "special Christmas present," they say, and are terrified of their tents being torched or their church services being bombed. "Last year I celebrated Christmas full...

They said that if they were handed over to the US, there was a possibility that they would be treated inhumanly and didn’t want to be insulted and humiliated by the American intelligence agencies, Online news agency reported. In these circumstance, they said they were appealing to the Pakistani government to decide their fate and that they would prefer the death sentence to deportation. Read more: http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/south-asia/hang-us-dont-deport-us-5-americans-held-on-terror-charges_100294293.html#ixzz0ac9kYEQf

A COURT has ordered that two brothers should have their noses and ears cut off after they were found guilty of doing the same to a woman who refused to marry one of them. The judge at an anti-terrorism court in the eastern Pakistan city of Lahore handed down the sentences on Monday in line with the Islamic law of Qisas. The law was introduced in Pakistan during the military rule of General Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq in 1979. It stipulates punishment equal to the crime, akin to an eye-for-an-eye, unless the culprit is pardoned by the victim or the victim's family.

Arms sale to Pak justified as India buys from US: Chinese official Saibal Dasgupta, TNN 22 December 2009 BEIJING: A senior Chinese defense official has justified Beijing's sale of warships and submarines to Pakistan on the ground that India was buying similar systems from Russia and the United States. He indicated that China was conscious India might be worried about the sales. "The initiative may invite concerns from its neighboring countries. But the doubts are unnecessary," Zhai Dequan, deputy director of China Arms Control and Disarmament Association, was quoted as saying in the official media. The statement came in the...

History speaks of a Pax Romana, a Pax Britannica, and a Pax Americana - but no other namable eras of sustained peace, for the simple reason cited by Henry Kissinger: nothing maintains peace except hegemony and the balance of power. The balancing act always fails, though, as it did in Europe in 1914, and as it will in Central and South Asia precisely a century later. The result will be suppurating instability in the region during the next two years and a slow but deadly drift toward great-power animosity. Those who wanted an end to US hegemony will get what...

Note: Photos included. NOTE: The following text is a quote: Pakistani court acquits Christian girl and her father accused of blasphemy By Dan Wooding Monday, December 21, 2009 FAISALABAD, PAKISTAN (ANS) -- A Pakistani Christian girl and her father who were accused of defiling the Qur’an (Muslim holy book), in October of last year were acquitted on December 14, 2009 after serving thirteen months and fourteen days in prison. Sanda and Gulsher Sandal, 22 and her father, Gulsher Masih, 47, were accused of committing sacrilege of the Qur’an on October 10, 2008. A criminal case was registered against the pair...

INTERNATIONAL "PAKISTANI MUSLIMS GUN DOWN CHRISTIAN FRIEND They order him to convert to Islam or die, after accusing him of murder." By Jawad Mazhar SNIPPET: "MUREEDKAY, Pakistan – A group of Muslims shot their Christian friend dead this month on the outskirts of this town after saying they would spare his life only if he recanted his faith, according to the young man’s father. The friends of Patras Masih, who died from gunshot wounds on Dec. 3 in Karol village, Punjab Province, issued the ultimatum to him after accusing him of the murder of their friend Anees Mahammad. An autopsy...

Pakistan gets its first air-to-air refueling tanker Posted by David A. Fulghum at 12/21/2009 3:17 PM CST Here’s another Christmas present for the Pentagon. The first of four Ilyushin Il-78MP tanker/cargo aircraft was delivered to Pakistan Dec. 19. Pictured here is the aircraft during aircrew and aircraft trials in Ukraine in Oct. The aircraft were modified from surplus Ukranian aircraft stocks. Credit: Jenyk, Ukrainian Spotter's Site. Click here to see all 11 photos. Also pictured is one of a small number of Pakistani Mirages modified with an in-air refueling probe. The tanker can refuel two aircraft in the air or...

12/21/2009 - SOUTHWEST ASIA (AFNS) -- More than 300 Airmen partnered with colleagues from five other countries for an exercise held in Southwest Asia that concluded in mid-December. The event began in November and simulated a "large force employment," and gave participating nations a chance to develop solutions to potential issues that might occur during contingency operations. Aircrews from France, Jordan, Pakistan, the U.K., and the U.S. took part in simulated air battles as well as the advanced tactical leadership course, which included more than 200 hours of classroom instruction. In addition, ground crews collaborated on maintenance and security challenges....

U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptors fly in formation during a training mission in southwest Asia, Dec. 6, 2009. The F-22 fighters and crews are deployed from the 27th Fighter Squadron at Langley Air Force Base, Va., and entered the Air Forces Central area of responsibility for the first time as part of a multi-national exercise where aircrews from France, Jordan, Pakistan, the U.A.E., the U.K. and the U.S. trained together in fighting a large-scale air war. U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Michael B. Keller. SOUTHWEST ASIA — U.S. Airmen here marked a milestone recently, completing the first deployment...

Vice President Joe Biden. Click image to expand.Vice President Joe BidenGive credit to the vice president: He really does enjoy politics and "can't see a room without working it," as a colleague of mine half-admiringly remarked last Wednesday morning.We were waiting to enter the studio and comment after Biden had finished his interview with the Scarborough/Brzezinski team, in which the main topic was Afghanistan. Exiting, he chose to stop and talk to each of us. Not wanting to waste a chance to be a bore on the subject, I asked him why he had mentioned India only once in the...

Singing the enemy’s song Rahman, many experts have long suspected, was allowed to enter the United States by the Central Intelligence Agency in an effort to infiltrate Al-Qaeda -- a high-stakes intelligence gamble that backfired spectacularly “We have an expression in Arabic”, the blind Egyptian cleric who ran al-Qaeda’s networks in the United States once told an interviewer, “everybody sings for those he loves”. On February 26, 1993, a fifteen hundred kilogramme improvised explosive device went off in the underground parking garage of the World Trade Centre in New York -- the very building that, eight years later, would be...

“Arrested Americans show no remorse about their terror plans” PTI Monday, December 21, 2009 14:44 IST SNIPPET: “Lahore: Five American Muslim youth arrested by Pakistani authorities on suspicion of terror links have shown no remorse about their plans to commit terrorist acts and one has even said they should be hanged so that they could become martyrs, a senior police official said today.” SNIPPET: “Zamzam, Waqar Hussain Khan, 22, Ahmed Abdullah Minni, 20, Iman Hasan Yemer, 17 and Omar Farooq, 24, were arrested in Sargodha, located 200km from Islamabad, on charges of planning terror attacks in Pakistan and abroad.” SNIPPET:...

Pakistan government has made it mandatory for all foreigners to have security clearance by the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). The Government has declared that security clearance by the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) is a prerequisite for all foreigners entering Pakistan, a private TV channel was reported by Daily Times as stating on Friday. The decision is said to have been taken in the wake of prevailing law and order situation in Pakistan. 'The decision was made due to the prevailing law and order situation in the country. The decision is also applicable to all those people who have acquired other citizenships after...

By MARTHA IRVINE and NAFEESA SYEED (AP) – 1 hour ago ALEXANDRIA, Va. — There was a book left in a Pakistani hotel room where several young men from Virginia suspected of trying to join Taliban forces stayed. Called "The Pact," that book tells the true story of three boys from a rough neighborhood and broken homes who bond and eventually help one another through medical and dental school. "This is a story about the power of friendship. Of joining forces and beating the odds," reads one snippet on the back of the book. It is also a story with...

ABOARD A U.S. MILITARY PLANE, Dec. 20, 2009 – Navy Adm. Mike Mullen said his trip to Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq has given him an opportunity to assess changes in strategy and meet the men and women who will carry out that strategy. Security specialists accompany U.S. Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as he tours the market place in Abu Ghraib, Iraq, Dec. 19, 2009. DoD photo by U.S. Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Chad J. McNeeley   (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Overall, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said...

NEW DELHI: India is looking forward to getting from FBI the voice recordings of the phone conversations between David Headley and his Pakistani handlers to ascertain the identity of those who sent out instructions to the perpetrators of 26/11. Sources said that Indian agencies want to compare them with the voice recordings of the 26/11 masterminds to find out if these men indeed were Headley's handlers too. The US agency has in its possession recordings of Headley's conversations with LeT member A, not yet identified, and individual A identified by the FBI as Abdur Rehman Hashim Syed alias Pasha. Pasha...

India is in a sorrowful and angry mood. Having just passed the first anniversary of the “26/11” terrorist bombings in Mumbai, it continues to deal with a growing list of apparently Pakistani-inspired spies and terrorists. The feeling was palpable on the streets of Mumbai, where I stayed during the week of the anniversary, as part of a Canadian International Council research trip to India. There was anger in the air as the nation paid tribute to the 166 “martyrs” of the attacks on a popular café, a Jewish community centre, two luxury hotels, the Trident Oberoi and the Taj Mahal...

BEIJING - With 30,000 more United States troops on their way to Afghanistan, it is growing clearer that they will not suffice and that larger challenges loom. Afghanistan is also increasingly developing into a political proxy war between India and Pakistan. Pakistan, which backed the mujahideen against the Soviets in the 1980s and offered a safe haven and breeding ground to the Taliban in the 1990s, is now looking askance at the government of President Hamid Karzai in Kabul, which it sees as pro-India. Conversely, India has fond memories of the time when Kabul was firmly under Moscow's hands and...

The Long War Journal: US airstrike kills 3 in North Waziristan Written by Bill Roggio on December 18, 2009 9:40 AM to The Long War Journal Available online at: http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2009/12/us_airstrike_kills_t.php The US killed three Islamist terrorists in the third airstrike in two days in Pakistan's Taliban-controlled tribal agency of North Waziristan. The strike, carried out by unmanned Predator or Reaper attack aircraft, hit a Taliban safe house in the Datta Khel region in North Waziristan. Several Hellfire missiles were reported to have been launched in the airstrike. "The US drone missiles hit a house in the mountains," a Pakistani...

Dec. 18 (UPI) -- The Obama administration's decision to begin withdrawing troops from Afghanistan in 18 months after the start of the surge has already begun to bear fruit, but perhaps not in a way that was intended. The strongest Taliban warrior in Afghanistan, Siraj Haqqani, whose fighters pose the biggest threat to U.S. forces, remains protected by Pakistan in a sanctuary in North Waziristan. Jane Perlez of The New York Times reports that requests by the United States to crack down on the Afghan Haqqani Taliban have been rebuffed because Pakistan views it as contrary to its long-term interests...

Barack Hussein Obama has achieved so much in such a short time that there is very little left for him to aim for now. Unless, of course, they decide to anoint him as god. Don’t be surprised if they do so. There are plenty of parallels in history where the reigning superpower of the world decided to declare its ruler a god. Romans used to do so with their Caesars. But this divine status was invariably conferred after the ruler had won a major war. Technically speaking Obama would have to wait till he has won in Afghanistan. Since Obama...

A recent exchange of intelligence information between India and the U.S. revealed that an American Moslem (whose father was a Pakistani diplomat) under arrest for plotting Islamic terrorism, admitted that he had witnessed Pakistani Army officers working with Islamic terrorists, while he was undergoing terrorist training in Pakistan. While there have been many such reports, Pakistan always responds by claiming that they are "rogue officers." But American intelligence and military officials, who have worked have worked with the Pakistanis, report encountering many Pakistani officers who were openly favoring Islamic terrorism. Thus the Pakistani protests carry less and less weight. For...

As an increasing number of suicide attacks rock Pakistan's major cities, concerns for the country's security are rising. In recent years, many new terrorist groups have emerged, several existing groups have reconstituted themselves, and a new crop of militants has emerged, more violent and less conducive to political solutions than their predecessors. Links between many of these new and existing groups have strengthened, say experts, giving rise to fresh concerns for stability. Pakistani authorities have long had ties to militant groups based on their soil that largely focused their efforts in Afghanistan and India. But with Pakistan joining the United...

The US military killed 18 terrorists during two airstrikes in Pakistan's Taliban-controlled tribal agency of North Waziristan. The first airstrike occurred in Datta Khel, a region near the main town of Miramshah. A Hellfire missile fired by either a Predator or a Reaper unmanned aircraft slammed into a vehicle parked outside a home. Two insurgents were reported killed in the attack. The second strike took place in the towns of Degan and Ambor Shaga, also the the Datta Khel region. Five or six unmanned strike aircraft fired upwards of 10 Hellfires at Haqqani Network hideouts. According to Reuters, the strikes...

MIR ALI, Pakistan (AP) – Two suspected U.S. missile strikes, one using multiple drones, killed 17 people in a Pakistani tribal region along the Afghan border Thursday, local intelligence officials said. The officials said the second, bloodier attack involved five drones and 10 missiles – an unusually intense bombardment. The missiles rained on North Waziristan, considered a safe haven for many militants including groups determined to push the U.S. and NATO out of Afghanistan. The strikes in North Waziristan are especially sensitive because they risk angering Afghan-focused militant groups who have agreed to be neutral as Islamabad cracks down on...

By now everyone with an opinion about the viability of President Obama's new strategy in Afghanistan and Pakistan has proffered it to anyone who would listen. But here's one important complication that has received no air time: In both countries, they despise us. ....... In Pakistan, the problem is worse. ........ The only Pakistanis who showed any generosity toward the U.S. were government officials who depend on American aid to make their auto payments and pay their children's private-school bills. (This fall, the Associated Press reported that only $500 million of $6.6 billion in U.S. aid from 2002 to 2008...

J-10: The New Cornerstone of Sino-Pakistani Defense Cooperation Publication: China Brief Volume: 9 Issue: 25December 16, 2009 03:46 PM Age: 11 hrs By: Tarique Niazi China and Pakistan have forged a formidable partnership in high-tech defense production. This partnership is born of their ever-deepening military and strategic cooperation that is also reflective of the burgeoning capacity of China's defense industries and the budding Sino-Pakistani defense relationship. The epitome of this bilateralism is the recent revelation that the Chinese have agreed to the sale of 36 J-10B fighter jets to Pakistan (Financial Times, November 10). The J-10 aircrafts are known to...

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Parts of the Pakistani military and intelligence services are mounting what American officials here describe as a campaign to harass American diplomats, fraying relations at a critical moment when the Obama administration is demanding more help to fight the Taliban and Al Qaeda. The campaign includes the refusal to extend or approve visas for more than 100 American officials and the frequent searches of American diplomatic vehicles in major cities, said an American official briefed on the cases.

Just the headline.

HELSINKI, Finland, Dec. 16 (UPI) -- In testimony before the U.S. Senate, U.S. Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal said: "To pursue our core goal of defeating al-Qaida and preventing their return to Afghanistan, we must disrupt and degrade the Taliban's capacity, deny their access to the Afghan population, and strengthen the Afghan security forces." To succeed, McChrystal and his warriors must fully understand the character, motivations, ambitions and, in particular, the methods of the enemy. Approaches that may have worked earlier in Afghanistan or even recently in Iraq may fail to turn around the present situation. Saeen Dilawar, from Pakistan's central...

Thirty-eight years ago today, on a blustery late afternoon in Dhaka, the commander of the Pakistani forces in East Pakistan, General Amir Abdullah Khan Niazi publicly surrendered to the Indian Army, represented by Lieutenant General Jagjit Singh Aurora. In that now famous picture of the surrender of December 16, 1971 at the Ramna Race Course, there is a man standing on the right, behind Niazi, with his head proudly up, gazing at something over the horizon. He was the man who had masterminded the public surrender. I first met General Jacob-Farj-Rafael Jacob (Jake to his friends) in November 2006, at...

No human endeavor is more complex than warfare, and the battlefield is the realm of the unexpected. Will our troop-surge chemistry lead to a stable Afghan compound, or just to more combustion? Since President Obama chose to send at least 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan and to intensify our engagement with Pakistan, all Americans should pray for our success. But what are our chances? Here are the Big 10 pluses and minuses facing our troops and policymakers. First, on the positive side:

Let's hope this is not true. -Cindy # http://www.investigativeproject.org/blog/2009/12/terror-trading by IPT News • Dec 15, 2009 at 5:37 pm SNIPPET: "An unconfirmed report published by Muslim news portal, IslamOnline, suggests that the five Americans currently being detained by the Pakistani government on suspicion of terrorist ties will not be released unless the United States government is willing to negotiate a prisoner swap." SNIPPET: "Among the names mentioned in the proposal are Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, Saifullah and Uzair Piracha, and Majid Khan. Each of these individuals is currently being held by the United States government for their connections to the Taliban...

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2009/December/09-nsd-1338.html FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Monday, December 14, 2009 Terrorism Defendants Sentenced in Atlanta Ehsanul Islam Sadequee Receives 17 Years in Prison; Co-defendant Syed Haris Ahmed Receives 13 Years Ehsanul Islam Sadequee, 23, of Roswell, Ga., and Syed Haris Ahmed, 25, of Atlanta, were sentenced today in federal court following their convictions earlier this year in separate but related criminal trials, the Justice Department announced. "With their words and their actions, these defendants supported the wrongheaded but very dangerous idea that armed violence aimed at American interests will force our Government and our people...

Note: Informative hyptertext links at the article link. -Cindy # "Chicago: Anti-Democracy Hizb ut-Tahrir Group Event in Lombard, IL on December 20" SNIPPET: "Once again, another village in the Chicago suburbs will be the target of a public event by the anti-democracy, Islamic supremacist organization Hizb ut-Tahrir on Sunday, December 20 – this time using a government-managed community center in Lombard, Illinois. Hizb ut-Tahrir is an extreme group that is opposed to democracy and religious freedom, has called for the killing of Jews, recently called for whipping of homosexuals and stonings to combat AIDS, has reportedly called for the murder...

Senior US officials are pushing to expand CIA drone strikes beyond Pakistan's tribal region and into a major city in an attempt to pressure the Pakistani government to pursue Taliban leaders based in the city of Quetta, The Los Angeles Times reported late Sunday. The newspaper said the prospect of Predator aircraft strikes in Quetta signals a new US resolve to decapitate the Taliban. But it also risks rupturing Washington's relationship with Islamabad. The concern has created tension among officials in the administration of President Barack Obama over whether unmanned aircraft strikes in a city of 850,000 are a realistic...

CHICAGO (Reuters) - A Pakistani-born Chicago businessman charged with helping plan an attack on a Danish newspaper knew about the assault on Mumbai in advance and discussed other potential targets in India, prosecutors said on Monday.U.S. In arguing against releasing Tahawwur Rana from jail on bond, federal prosecutors in Chicago gave more details about a conversation authorities recorded earlier this year between Rana and accused conspirator David Headley. In the September 7 conversation during a long car drive, Rana, 48, and Headley, 49, discussed Rana's meeting in Dubai days before the November 2008 attack on Mumbai with an associate referred...

High alert in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Gujarat A top Union Home Ministry official on Monday said that Taliban-trained ‘fidayeen’ (suicide squad) have entered the country to carry out attacks at "specific" installations, including Bhaba Atomic Research Centre Kolkata, Mumbai and the national capital, besides Gujarat, have been put on high alert following intelligence inputs that Taliban-trained terrorists have sneaked into these cities to target vital installations. A top Union Home Ministry official on Monday said that Taliban-trained ‘fidayeen’ (suicide squad) have entered the country to carry out attacks at “specific” installations, including Bhaba Atomic Research Centre, defence establishments among...

SNIPPET: "The US military targeted a Taliban commander in eastern Afghanistan who was behind the kidnapping of a Norwegian journalist in November. The Taliban commander, who is known as Haji Mohammad Dawran Safi or Qari Dawat, was the target of a November 26 airstrike in the eastern province of Kunar. Qari Dawat "is known for attacking innocent civilians in the Kunar region, as well as international forces and bases," the US military noted in a press release on Nov. 27, one day after the strike. Qari Dawat was not named, however. An Afghan Police commander confirmed the airstrike and said...

New Delhi: Concerned over the increasing number of Pakistani origin citizens living in the West being attracted to terrorism, the government is contemplating to tighten the visa approval norms for such persons visiting India. Home ministry sources said that the government was particularly concerned over the recent reports of five young Americans -- two of them Pakistani-origin -- arrested in Pakistan for links with Al-Qaeda. The arrests came in the wake of busting of the Lashker-e-Taiba plot, in which the Pakistan-based terror group was planning to use David Coleman Headley, whose father was a Pakistani national, to launch terror attacks...

On the first anniversary of the Mumbai attacks, many observers discussed the implications of the events that took place last Nov. 26. But few have commented on the implications of what did not take place: New Delhi did not mobilize its armed forces. It did not retaliate against terrorist safe havens, nor did it go to war with the country -- Pakistan -- where they were located. Rather, it limited its response to calling upon its neighbor to shut down the terrorist cells and extradite the masterminds and abettors of the Mumbai attackers. Islamabad responded half-heartedly. It failed to bring...

SNIPPET: "It remains unclear whether as-Sahab is really on the skids, but signs increasingly point to yes. Meanwhile, I'd like to point out that the files as-Sahab uploaded include a .pdf statement. The file is called "azzam to pakistan november 09.pdf" while the document properties identify it as "SH AIMAN TO PAKISTAN RAHE HALAKAT JULY 2009.INP". I think it is in Urdu - my version of Adobe Acrobat claims it can't render the font correctly. As for the name mismatch, I'm not sure what to make of that. Did they actually upload the wrong file?! The document is hosted by...

Five foreigners were detained and their foreign-registered aircraft impounded after it landed in the Thai capital Saturday with tons of war weaponry on board that originated in North Korea, Thai officials said. Air Force spokesman Capt. Montol Suchookorn said the chartered cargo plane originated in North Korea's capital Pyongyang and requested to land at Bangkok's Don Muang airport to refuel. Government spokesman Panithan Wattanayakorn confirmed the seizure and the arrests, saying the weapons included "missiles, explosives and tubes." He told The Associated Press that the material was being transferred to a Thai military facility but provided no further details.

December 4, 2009 (CHICAGO) (WLS) -- It must have seemed odd to FBI agents that Chicago terror suspect David Coleman Headley carried a book with him called How to Pray like a Jew. Mr. Headley isn't Jewish. He is an Islamic fundamentalist. Headley, a Pakistani native whose birth name was Daood Gilani before he changed it, was using the book of Jewish prayer tips as part of an elaborate cover, according to federal authorities. Now, the reason for the alleged cover may be surfacing. Headley is under investigation by India's counterpart to the FBI in connection with a plot to...

The senior terrorist operative killed in a drone strike Thursday in Pakistan was a top Al Qaeda planner involved in plotting attacks around the world, a senior U.S. counterterrorism official told Fox News. The official identified the operative as Saleh al-Somali, the network's external operations chief for plots outside Afghanistan and Pakistan, saying there are “strong indications” al-Somali died. "He was engaged in plotting throughout the world, which, given his role, probably included planning attacks against the United States and Europe," the official said. "He took strategic guidance from Al Qaeda’s top leadership and translated it into operational blueprints for...

WASHINGTON — The plan President Obama unveiled last week for Years 9 and 10 of the war in Afghanistan left a basic question begging for an answer: If Al Qaeda is the threat, and Al Qaeda is in Pakistan, why send another 30,000 troops to Afghanistan? In his address Tuesday night, the president mentioned Pakistan and the Pakistanis some 25 times... --snip-- That land is not on any map, but it’s where leaders of Al Qaeda and the Taliban both hide. It straddles 1,000 miles of the 1,600-mile Afghan-Pakistani border. It is inhabited by the ethnic Pashtuns, a fiercely independent...

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) - The five young Americans detained in Pakistan as part of a terrorism investigation were wholesome kids who never exhibited any signs of religious extremism, according to the youth director at a mosque where they worshipped. "I never observed any extreme behavior with them," said Mustafa Abu Maryam, who served as a volunteer youth director at the Islamic Circle of North America's small chapter mosque. It's in a converted single-family home in a residential neighborhood a few miles south of the Capital Beltway.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) – Pakistan's military on Friday killed 20 insurgents in operations against Taliban strongholds, as the prime minister warned that militants were striking back with attacks in big cities. Armed forces this year launched multiple operations across the northwest tribal belt bordering Afghanistan, the stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban and a haven for Al-Qaeda fighters and other militants. In Orakzai district in the centre of the tribal belt, nine militants were killed and two hideouts destroyed in airstrikes on the villages of Ghiljo and Mamoonzai, paramilitary force spokesman major Fazalur Rehman told AFP. The UN said Friday that...