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Pakistan recently demanded, again, that the United States halt the use of CIA UAVs to attack Islamic terrorists in the Pakistani tribal territories along the Afghan border. Pakistan, however, offered a compromise this time. If the Americans would tell Pakistan where U.S. intelligence had located terrorists, Pakistan would send one of its F-16s and use a smart bomb to do the deed. The U.S. turned this down for several reasons, the main one being that the Pakistanis would "miss" (or simply not be able to find) terrorists who were working for the Pakistani Army. The Pakistanis could also sell protection...

The Pakistan army's Af-Ind strategy Sandeep Unnithan | New Delhi, May 11, 2011 | Updated 19:12 IST There are two worldviews of Pakistan: as victim and as villain. The first view sees Pakistan as Chaos-istan. A bankrupt failed state torn by sectarian strife, teetering on the precipice and no control over terrorists. Its implosion would mean Islamic fundamentalists would spill across its borders or worse, get control of its nuclear weapons. The other more studied view is of the state as villain. From General Headquarters (GHQ) in Rawalpindi, the Pakistan army holds the country in its grip like a parasite...

The ISI and Terrorism: Behind the Accusations Authors: Jayshree Bajoria, Senior Staff Writer Eben Kaplan Updated: May 4, 2011 Introduction Pakistan's military intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), has long faced accusations of meddling in the affairs of its neighbors. A range of officials inside and outside Pakistan have stepped up suggestions of links between the ISI and terrorist groups in recent years. In fall 2006, a leaked report by a British Defense Ministry think tank charged, "Indirectly Pakistan (through the ISI) has been supporting terrorism and extremism--whether in London on 7/7 [the July 2005 attacks on London's transit system],...

Pakistan - a rogue state with a rogue army 2010-12-04 05:30:00 Perhaps the most disturbing piece of information available from the latest Wikileaks disclosures is the United States' realisation about the durability of the links between the Pakistan Army and terrorists. As Anne Paterson, the US ambassador in Islamabad, has noted, no amount of aid from Washington will make the army cut its ties with religious extremists. Post 26/11, Pak would have responded to an Indian attack: Wikileaks Equally upsetting for India is its belief that closer Indo-US ties will increase Pakistan's paranoia and make it move closer to the...

Q+A-U.S. cables show Pakistan military's political strength Thu Dec 2, 2010 By Augustine Anthony ISLAMABAD Dec 2 (Reuters) - U.S. diplomatic cables released by whistle-blower WikiLeaks underscore the clout Pakistan's army has in shaping politics in one of Washington's most strategic allies. Here are some of questions and answers on the issues raised by dispatches posted on the website of Britain's Guardian newspaper. HOW TIGHT IS THE PAKISTANI MILITARY'S GRIP ON POWER? Generals have led Pakistan for more than half of its 63-year history. The military has maintained wide sway foreign and security polices even during civilian rule. Although the...

SNIPPET: "Search at Grundy County plant called part of ongoing probe" SNIPPET: "But a source said the owner of the plant, which processes lamb and goat, was taken into custody at his home in Chicago. Documents and records were taken from the plant and from a Chicago travel agency on West Devon Avenue, also owned by the same person, the source said."

Government expressed serious concern over the US equipping Pakistan army with modern weapons and asked Washington to ensure that they were not used against India. "United States decision to provide sophisticated weapons (to Pakistan) is a matter of serious concern to India. The US should ensure that these weapons are not targeted against India", Defence Minister A K Antony told reporters here Saturday. Noting that the issue had already been taken up with the US defence weapons, Pakistan , US, army Secretary during his visit to India recently, he said the American explanation that Pakistan army has to be strengthened...

India is hardly a year removed from the horrendous Pakistan-based and Pakistan Army-facilitated commando style attacks of Mumbai 26/11 which were similar to the Pakistani attacks on the Parliament House in December 2001. India on both occasions under different political dispensations failed to hold Pakistan to account. India's political leadership, policy establishment and its liberalist glitterati of different hues, in a total disconnect with Indian public’s pronounced opinions went ahead earlier and now advocating once again the resumption of India-Pakistan Composite Peace Dialogue. There are some who have advocated Sub-Composite Peace Dialogue – whatever it means. Once again, in January...

The Pakistani army says it can't launch any new offensives against militants for six months to a year to give it time to stabilize existing gains. Army spokesman Gen. Athar Abbas revealed the news to reporters traveling with visiting U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Thursday. The U.S. has pressed Pakistan to target militants using its territory to launch cross-border attacks against coalition troops in Afghanistan. But Abbas' comments make clear that Pakistan will remain focused in the short-term on operations targeting militants waging war against the state. The Pakistani army launched a major ground offensive against the Pakistani Taliban's...

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...

Suspicions by Pakistan's powerful army that the country's civilian leadership is growing too close to the United States are fueling a political crisis that analysts here believe threatens the survival of the government and could divert attention from the battle against Islamic extremists. Military officials believe that secretly taped conversations between Pakistani President Asif Zardari and his ambassador in Washington, prove that it was at Zardari's insistence that a $1.5 billion U.S. aid package passed by Congress in September contained several provisions that angered the Pakistani military. The military publicly protested the aid package last month. "The reaction (from the...

Pakistan's parliament resumed debate on a massive US aid package Thursday, after rifts opened up between the military and the government over strings attached to the funding. In an unusual public statement late Wednesday, top military commanders including the army chief said they had "serious concerns" about the bill, which hinges some aid on hard-up Pakistan's efforts to battle Islamist extremism. US Congress last week voted to triple aid to Pakistan to 7.5 billion dollars over the next five years, part of US President Barack Obama's plan to battle militancy through development and fostering democratic institutions. Opposition MP Faisal Saleh...

Sri Lanka is to train Pakistan army officers to fight the Taliban insurgency with lessons from its devastating defeat of the Tamil Tigers. By Dean Nelson in Islamabad Published: 6:56PM BST 21 Aug 2009 Colombo has been inundated with training requests since it finally put down the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elaam's (LTTE) 26-year rebellion in a final onslaught which claimed the lives of more than 10,000 civilians and left 300,000 displaced by the fighting. The apparent accolade for the Sri Lankan forces will cause alarm among human rights groups which have accused the government in Colombo of war crimes...

Benazir shot by three sniper teams Amir Mir Thursday, January 03, 2008 03:32 IST The Special Service Group of the Pakistani Army is the only organisation capable of mounting such an operation in Pakistan LAHORE: Benazir Bhutto, the slain chairperson of the Pakistan Peoples Party, was fired upon by no less than three separate sniper teams of the Special Services Group of the Pakistan Army. They fired more than six times, which was followed by two simultaneous rocket-propelled grenades designed to destroy the scene of the assassination. The central media office of the Pakistan Peoples Party, led by Farhatullah Babar,...

Benazir's Assassination: Q & A - International Terrorism Monitor--Paper No. 343 By B. Raman (I have received a number of questions from the readers of my articles on the assassination of Mrs. Benazir Bhutto at Rawalpindi on December 27, 2007. I have attempted to answer them in this article) Q. Could President Pervez Musharraf and the Pakistan Army have had a hand in the assassination of Mrs. Benazir Bhutto? A. Unlikely. Musharraf and other senior Army officers were unhappy with her confrontational style after the first attack on her at Karachi on October 18, 2007. They were also unhappy about...

Paper no. 2530 01-Jan.-2008 Benazir's Death: Army, ISI Keep Low Profile - International Terrorism Monitor: Paper No. 341 by B. Raman The Pakistan Army and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) have been maintaining a discreet silence on the assassination of Mrs. Benazir Bhutto by as yet unidentified elements at Rawalpindi on December 27,2007. Gen. Ashfaq Pervez Kiyani, the Chief of the Army Staff (COAS), was on a visit to Army establishments in Karachi at the time of her assassination. He immediately cancelled his engagements and returned to Rawalpindi. He and his officers in the General Headquarters (GHQ) as well as in the...

Snaring the N-Jihadi Pramit Pal Chaudhuri, Hindustan Times Washington, December 30, 2007 Nothing worries the world more than the combination of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal, its political instability and its past record of proliferation. More than the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, however, it has been recent evidence of jihadi infiltration of the Pakistani military that have resurrected fears of an "atomic Taliban" scenario. There is a clear divide over how to handle Pakistan's nuclear problem. Non-proliferation and counter-terrorism experts argue nothing is more important than securing Pakistan's arsenal. This means putting one's eggs in the military basket and backing dictators like...

Pak Govt makes U-turn on cause of Bhutto's death Rezaul H Laskar, Press Trust Of India January 01, In a dramatic U-turn, Pakistan government has "apologised" for claiming that former premier Benazir Bhutto died of a skull fracture after hitting the sunroof of her car during a suicide attack. Caretaker Interior Minister Hamid Nawaz Khan has asked the media and people to "forgive and ignore" comments made by his ministry's spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema which were slammed by her Pakistan People's Party as "lies" and led to an uproar at home and abroad. The Interior Minister made the apology during...

Ajai Shukla: Will Pakistan look into the mirror? BROADSWORD Ajai Shukla / New Delhi January 1, 2008 Pakistani editor Najam Sethi told NDTV, after Benazir Bhutto’s assassination, that the former prime minister’s legacy could be to “force Pakistan to stare into its soul”. Sethi, it would seem, is being extraordinarily optimistic. Psychologists describe a stage of obesity when one shuns mirrors because of the hopelessness of what one sees. It’s easier to just look away and reach for another Mars bar. For Pakistan, the image in the mirror may already be too chilling to confront. The sheer complexity of Pakistan’s...

Intel Community: 'Military killed Bhutto' By CLAUDE SALHANI (Editor, Middle East Times) Published: December 31, 2007 Lower and middle level officers of the Pakistani army and the Pakistani air force were involved in the killing of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, according to various intelligence sources, including members of India's counter-intelligence service. Well-informed sources have told the Middle East Times that these rogue elements of the Pakistani military support the jihadis and share their extremist views of an ultra-conservative form of Islam. One former CIA official told a Middle East Times source that, "It's worrying when half of your lower...