Free Republic

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) - One of Pakistan's top Islamic clerics called Tuesday for nationwide protests against the presence of U.S. forces in the country's deeply conservative tribal areas, where al-Qaida and Taliban fighters are believed to be hiding. Maulana Fazle ur-Rehman, chief of the fundamentalist Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam party and leader of pro-Taliban rallies last year against the U.S. attacks in Afghanistan, said he had called for anti-U.S. rallies across the country on Friday. "It's a shame for the nation that foreign forces are scouring mountains with the help of our troops in Pakistan's tribal regions," he told The Associated Press....