The United States and Pakistan reached tacit agreement in September on a don’t-ask-don’t-tell policy that allows unmanned Predator aircraft to attack suspected terrorist targets in rugged western Pakistan, according to senior officials in both countries. In recent months, the U.S. drones have fired missiles at Pakistani soil at an average rate of once every four or five days.

The officials described the deal as one in which the U.S. government refuses to publicly acknowledge the attacks while Pakistan’s government continues to complain noisily about the politically sensitive strikes.

The arrangement coincided with a suspension of ground assaults into Pakistan by helicopter-borne U.S. commandos. Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari said in an interview last week that he was aware of no ground attacks since one on Sept. 3 that his government vigorously protested.

Officials described the attacks, using new technology and improved intelligence, as a significant improvement in the fight against Pakistan-based al-Qaeda and Taliban forces. Officials confirmed the deaths of at least three senior al-Qaeda figures in strikes last month.

Zardari said that he receives “no prior notice” of the airstrikes and that he disapproves of them. But he said he gives the Americans “the benefit of the doubt” that their intention is to target the Afghan side of the ill-defined, mountainous border of Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), even if that is not where the missiles land.

Civilian deaths remain a problem, Zardari said. “If the damage is women and children, then the sensitivity of its effect increases,” he said. The U.S. “point of view,” he said, is that the attacks are “good for everybody. Our point of view is that it is not good for our position of winning the hearts and minds of people.”

A senior Pakistani official said that although the attacks contribute to widespread public anger in Pakistan, anti-Americanism there is closely associated with President Bush. Citing a potentially more favorable popular view of President-elect Barack Obama, he said that “maybe with a new administration, public opinion will be more pro-American and we can start acknowledging” more cooperation.

The official, one of several who discussed the sensitive military and intelligence relationship only on the condition of anonymity, said the U.S-Pakistani understanding over the airstrikes is “the smart middle way for the moment.” Contrasting Zardari with his predecessor, retired Gen. Pervez Musharraf, the official said Musharraf “gave lip service but not effective support” to the Americans. “This government is delivering but not taking the credit.” Read more »

Picked this up from Teeth Maestro’s blog:

In a very shocking turn of events Mr. Asif Ali Zardari yesterday expanded his cabinet with 40 members and inducted a very controversial Senator Mir Israrullah Zehri. Mr Israrullah Zehri a few months back in August stood up in the Senate and justified the crime of burying women alive by arguing in the upper house that ‘It is a Baluch tribal tradition (to bury accused women alive) and we have to respect it’

Five women were buried alive in Baluchistan a few months before as it was reported that the girls were at the house of Mr. Chandio at Baba Kot village when Mr. Abdul Sattar Umrani, brother of the provincial minister, came with more than six persons and abducted them with gun points. They were taken in a Land Cruiser jeep, bearing a registration number plate of the Baluchistan government, to another remote area, Nau Abadi, in the vicinity of Baba Kot. After reaching the deserted area, Abdul Sattar Umrani and his six accomplices took the three girls out of the jeep and beat them before opening fire with their guns. The girls were seriously injured but were still alive. Sattar Umrani and his accomplices hurled them into a wide ditch and covered them with earth and stones. The two older women protested and tried to stop the burial of the girls who were plainly alive, but the attackers pushed them too into the ditch and buried all alive.

Names of victims

1. Ms. Fatima wife of, Umeed Ali Umrani, 45 years old
2. Ms.Jannat Bibi wife of Qaiser Khan, 38 years old
3. Ms.Fauzia daughter of Ata Mohammad Umrani 18 years 
4. and two other girls, in between 16 to 18 years of age

Read more »

In the 9/11 terrorist attacks on twin towers in New York in which about 3000 persons died, no Afghan or Pakistani was involved. All the 19 perpetrators of the crime were Arabs, mostly hailing from Saudi Arabia. Yet the wrath of USA fell on Afghanistan for a bizarre reason that the so-called master mind behind the attacks was Osama bin Laden based in Afghanistan. Mullah Omar kept requesting that proof of his complicity should be furnished to enable him to hand over his guest but none was provided.

Terrorism became a buzzword and the fuming sole super power pounced upon militarily extremely weak and economically impoverished Afghanistan with utmost ferocity and decimated it. The whole world including UNSC supported the ghoulish invasion and its occupation under the hope that it would help in eliminating global terrorism.

Iraq too was pulverised on a cooked up story of WMDs and linkage with Al-Qaeda. Both charges turned out to be totally fabricated. Saddam as well as UN inspectors kept saying till the last that there were no WMDs, but Bush and Blair ignored them as well as world protests and went ahead with the second invasion without UNSC blessing. After destroying the two countries, USA is now bent upon destroying one of its close allies Pakistan which had played a key role in ousting Taliban and in getting Karzai elected. Without Pakistan?s all out military support, it may not have been possible for US-NATO forces to stay in Afghanistan for that long.

In case of Afghanistan and Iraq, both Mullah Omar and Saddam Hussein refused to buckle under US repeated threats followed by troop mobilisation. Instead of submitting to US diktat they opted to fight the aggressor well knowing that they were non-nuclear states and their conventional means were no match to the military prowess of sole super power duly aided by all the advanced nations of the world. In our case, we had nuclear weapons and adequate conventional means to defend our homeland. However, our commando General who never tired of bragging about his boldness, turned into a kitten when he received a phone call from Washington. He hastily threw in his towel and provided US spy agencies and its military forces large-scale facilities to make easy USA task of achieving its long term objectives. He justified his cowardly act of ditching the friendly Taliban and befriending USA on the premise that had he not done so Pakistan for sure would have been destroyed. Read more »

Anjum Niaz is a freelance journalist with over twenty years of experience in national and international reporting. This post was picked up from Pak Markaz and puts it straight for our “leaders” to understand. We whole-heartedly support this plan instead of an IMF bailout.

After China’s reluctance to bail us out, what next? The Saudis were shy to say they will give us oil on deferred payment; they have since gone silent. The Americans did promise us some millions but are today scurrying like scared rabbits stopping their own economy from collapse. The UAE royal family will cough up cash for old time’s sake but only if we hand over our family silver to them on a platter. We have no cash to keep the IMF wolf away from the door. Pakistan has begged from all, but none has come forth with money, only hollow promises.

Knock, knock. Enter the big bad wolf. With our economy in the emergency ward, the IMF will shove its painful economic drip down our throats to revive us. Do we deserve it? Yes, because our leaders, military and civilian, present and past, have been too busy living like emperors, building their own palaces in Pakistan and abroad, junketing abroad with toadies unlimited, lining their own pockets, hoarding dollars in their own foreign banks and looking the other way while their honchos have done the same. The rape by our leaders continues. The fear of God doesn’t work on our leaders; the fear of IMF does.

If the world’s second richest man Warren Buffet is willing to invest in his country’s future by buying American stocks why can’t Pakistan’s suggested second richest man President Asif Ali Zardari and the fourth richest man Mian Nawaz Sharif invest in energy projects that can save Pakistan from going bankrupt? Just think about it. This is no idle talk but a practical solution to our biggest problem today: lack of energy.

‘Put your mouth where your money is,’ writes Warren Buffet in a column recently. ‘Today my money and my mouth both say equities.’ A simple rule dictates his buying: ‘Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful. And most certainly, fear is now widespread, gripping even seasoned investors. But fears regarding the long-term prosperity of the nation’s many sound companies make no sense. These businesses will indeed suffer earnings hiccups, as they always have. But most major companies will be setting new profit records 5, 10 and 20 years from now.’

Pakistan cannot come close to America and its wealth. Cynics may point out that my citing Warren Buffet is therefore way off the mark. They may point out that Zardari and Sharif are no Warren Buffet. Granted. Darn, it’s time we talked shop. Sharp-suited-smiler has done the international rounds but returned home empty handed. Zardari’s last resort was China. He hoped that the Chinese would deposit $1.5 billion to $3 billion in the State Bank of Pakistan before his plane touched down in Karachi. That did not happen.

Why?

The much-celebrated democracy dividend engineered by the US and UK envoys and seconded by the Saudis and the UAE earlier this year saw the emasculation of Pervez Musharraf. The dictator was forced to issue the NRO which washed away the years of corruption our politicians were accused of and indicted for in courts here and abroad. The death of Benazir Bhutto left in its wake a power vacuum that Zardari and company were not prepared for. The PPP co-chairman overnight became the accidental candidate and in turn got crushed under the welter of his own power. Consequently he bungled not once but many times. He allowed Farooq Naek and Latif Khosa to block the return of the chief justice. He allowed his ego to guide him in his choice of a subservient prime minister. He okayed Rehman Malik’s underhand move to take control of the ISI. He let loose the dogs of war in Punjab all the while schmoozing with the Sharifs; trooping with the Americans (Ambassador Anne Patterson in Islamabad and Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad in New York); cajoling the Saudis for free oil; humouring General Kayani and pampering Altaf Hussain of the MQM giving him what he wants. Read more »