Free Republic

LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) - A Pakistani jeweler said Wednesday his picture is among those of five foreign-born men the FBI says may have entered the United States on falsified passports. He said he has never visited the United States. An Associated Press photograph of Mohammed Asghar taken at his shop in Lahore on Wednesday was a near-perfect match for the one included on the FBI list under the name Mustafa Khan Owasi, down to the prominent mole on Asghar's left cheek. FBI spokeswoman Angela Bell said the bureau was not able to confirm that Asghar is the man in the...

Pakistan's former military ruler Pervez Musharraf, who in 1999 overthrew the government of Nawaz Sharif, believes the two-time premier lacks intellect and is "totally brainless". Musharraf, who launched his All Pakistan Muslim League in the UK and announced his return to active politics said Sharif lost power twice as he lacked intellect. " Nawaz Sharif lost power twice because he lacked intellect," Musharraf, who also apologised to the people for the mistakes of his regime, told hundreds of supporters in Birmingham last evening. "I worked with him for an entire year and noticed that Nawaz Sharif is totally brainless," Musharraf...

Did they or didn't they? That may sound like a question from a paparazzi magazine, but in diplomatic circles, it could mean life or death. After a chance encounter in the lobby of a Parisian hotel, Pervez Musharraf and Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak reportedly held a second, 20-minute meeting to discuss fears of an Iranian nuclear-weapons program: Pakistan's president held a rare and secret meeting with Israel's defense minister in a Paris hotel last week, and the Iranian nuclear program figured high on the agenda, Israeli defense officials said Monday. The two states have no diplomatic ties, and their...

The Washington Post warns of "Pakistan's Awkward Balancing Act on Islamic Militant Groups." But if one looks closely at the actions of Pakistan's president, Pervez Musharraf, it is clear that he has made his choice to side with the West, there's no going back, and he is beyond the pale of reconciliation with his country's lunatic Islamists. The scale has tipped to one side. It is time for Musharraf to explicitly say so and do so, as he'll never appease Pakistan's radicals. Here's an excerpt from the Post: The basic problem for Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, is that he...

General Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's military ruler, claims that the command and control system of al-Qaeda in his country has been destroyed, excluding any possibility that the terrorist network could have carried out this month's bombings in London and Egypt. In comments that British officials will view with scepticism, Gen Musharraf said al-Qaeda's sanctuaries in the northern tribal region bordering Afghanistan had been destroyed and 700 fighters captured. However, Egyptian authorities on Monday said they were investigating possible Pakistani militant suspects in connection with the bombing early on Saturday at Egypt's Sharm el Sheikh resort. Meanwhile, in London British officials have...

13 July 2005: It is not quite the end of the road for Pakistan, but it is getting there. More than seventy US senators have already questioned president George W.Bush about the benefits of the continued alliance with Pakistan, because after nearly four years after 9/ 11, disbursed aid totaling more that $3 billion, an MNNA ally status, and promised goodies like F-16s, General Parvez Musharraf has not delivered on the Al-Qaeda and Taliban leadership. Osama Bin Laden, his number two, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, and the Taliban chief, Mullah Omar, continue to be at large in Pakistan, reportedly under the protection...

In May 1998, India stunned the world after it conducted nuclear tests in the Rajasthan desert. The tests were reciprocated by its traditional rival, Pakistan, and dramatically raised the stakes in the stand-off over Kashmir, one of the world's longest-running feuds. India's Agni missiles have a 2,000km range It was a move that was bitterly criticised internationally as well as within both countries. Many in India argued that by going nuclear it had lost its conventional military edge over Pakistan. Others felt that the tests had opened the door to international - read American - intervention in Kashmir, something which...

NEW YORK: Israel should be ready to face dire consequences if it intends to target Iran’s nuclear installations, President Pervez Musharraf said in an interview with an Arabic language daily on Saturday, according to a private TV channel. President Musharraf said that Israel was “neither the policeman of the world” nor did it have “any right to attack Iran”. “Israel is committing a breach of the world order. It should get ready to face horrendous eventualities if it attacks Iran,” he added. He went on to say that Israel’s military offensive against Iran would have negative regional and international implications....

New York, September 21: President Pervez Musharraf has said he would not allow American investigators to question Pakistan's disgraced scientist A.Q. Khan who provided nuclear technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea. Musharraf in an interview to The New York Times said he had succeeded in breaking up Khan's network but was not certain if the full extent of the scientist's activities had been discovered. "I'm 200 per cent sure that it has been shut down," the General said of Khan's network. "But if you say whether I am sure over what he's provided in the past, no sir, I'm...

US President George W. Bush (right) with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New York Time is GMT + 8 hours Posted: 22 September 2004 1307 hrs Singh-Musharraf summit could speed up South Asian peace process NEW DELHI : The first summit between India's new prime minister and Pakistan's president could give an impetus to the nations' slow-moving peace process but a solution on Kashmir remains distant, analysts say. Manmohan Singh, who became prime minister in May after his left-leaning coalition's shock election victory, is to meet President Pervez Musharraf Friday on the sidelines of the United Nations General...

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf narrowly survived a second assassination bid in less than two weeks on Thursday when suicide car bombers attacked his motorcade, killing themselves and at least 12 others. Officials said the two cars used in the attack were driven out of two petrol stations just 200 meters (yards) from a bridge on a main road in the city of Rawalpindi where Musharraf escaped a bombing on December 14. The powerful blasts scattered debris and body parts over a wide area and damaged the windshield of the president's armored Mercedes, but he was unhurt,...

Men wanted by the FBI ''in the broader context of 9/11 and the New Year'' were reportedly aboard a B.C. ferry carrying a large, heavy box and taking photographs of the docks earlier this month, the National Post has learned. A rare international alert has been issued by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for the five men of Arab descent. It says they are believed to have entered the United States illegally, reportedly from Canada, on or around Christmas Eve. The FBI is investigating a detailed account from a B.C. woman who says she saw two of the wanted men...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. postal inspectors investigating the anthrax mailings linked to five deaths have discovered a mailbox that tested positive for traces of the bacteria, a postal official said on Monday. The mailbox was found on Thursday night in Princeton, New Jersey, and has been sent to a U.S. Army facility in Aberdeen, Maryland, for forensic analysis, U.S. Postal Service spokesman Dan Mihalko told Reuters. He said the mailbox was discovered as investigators checked hundreds of boxes from which mail is funneled to a postal sorting center in Trenton, New Jersey, where four anthrax-laced letters were postmarked last year....

FAA says it had 11 other suspect planes on Sept. 11 Monday August 12, 2002 By RICHARD PYLE Associated Press Writer WESTBURY, N.Y. (AP) In the tense minutes after two hijacked jetliners smashed into New York's World Trade Center and another hit the Pentagon, air traffic controllers had as many as 11 other suspect aircraft on their screens, federal aviation officials said Monday. The concern over possible additional hijackings did not end until 12:15 p.m. on Sept. 11 3{ hours after the first attack on the twin towers when the last of 4,546 commercial aircraft were safely on the ground...