4/1/08
Pakistan: Top pro-Taliban commander’s hideout ‘bombed’ :
Warplanes bombed the suspected locations of militants in the lawless South Waziristan tribal area on Thursday after an intelligence report said that the militant Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan chief Baitullah Mehsud was hiding somewhere in the area.
www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Security/?id=1.0.1734496251
Gwynne Dyer: A society girl with US style:
Benazir Bhutto did five years of hard time in prison, much of it in solitary confinement, after her father, Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was overthrown and hanged by the worst of Pakistan’s military dictators, General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq
www.nzherald.co.nz/section/466/stor
y.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10484953
Bhutto had “proof” state, spy agency rigging poll 01 Jan 2008
Benazir Bhutto was poised to reveal proof that Pakistan’s election commission and shadowy spy agency were seeking to rig an upcoming general election the night she was assassinated, a top aide said on Tuesday. Senator Latif Khosa, who authored a 160-page dossier with Bhutto documenting rigging tactics, said they ranged from intimidation to fake ballots, and were in some cases unwittingly funded by U.S. aid. Bhutto had been due to give the report to two visiting U.S. lawmakers over dinner on Dec. 27, the day she was killed in a suicide bombing.
www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/COL20360.htm
Islamist Politicians Emerge As Pakistan’s Power Brokers
Wall Street Journal – USA
Here in the Northwest Frontier Province, just miles from Afghanistan and
Pakistan’s wild tribal areas, Mr. Waqar heard scattered cheers. …
online.wsj.com/article/SB1199401691
19066109.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
The Pakistan-Afghanistan abyss , Paul Rogers
The last days of 2007 were marked by major concerns by western military forces over the growing influence of Taliban militias in much of Afghanistan, as well as the continued activities of the al-Qaida movement on both sides of the …
www.opendemocracy.net/article/conflicts/
global_security/afghan_pakistan_abyss
Sibel Edmonds Case: Benazir and The ‘Islamic’ Bomb
lukery,Democratic Underground
According to UPI’s Richard Sale: “(Benazir Bhutto) said two things that sealed her fate. She said that if elected PM, she would allow US forces to hunt for bin Laden on Pakistani soil, and that she would allow the Vienna-based IAEA to interrogate the rogue nuclear scientist, AQ Khan about his nuclear smugglings to North Korea, Iran, Libya, etc. After those statements, she had no chance of surviving.” There’s one small problem: the CIA, the FBI, and Britain’s MI6 probably know more about the so-called ‘AQ Khan network’ than AQ Khan himself. For some reason, the criminals involved in the nuclear black market are still (mostly) walking free – in Pakistan, the US and elsewhere – while those who threatened to expose them – Richard Barlow, Sibel Edmonds, Valerie Plame, and the latest addition, Atif Amin – have been harassed, threatened and gagged….
www.uruknet.de/?p=39816
The real reason behind the rise of oil-prices after Bhutto’s assassination
Roads to Iraq
Few minutes after Bhutto’s assassination, the media told us that oil-prices rose at least $1, although Pakistan is not oil-producer country, but the media didn’t explain why this rise, the nearest “convincing” explanation was “Shockwave” [from the CNN], but a small report appeared on the front page Elaph for about 15 minutes and then removed [I was just in time to save it], explains it all. The article says that the security and economical relations between Pakistan and the Gulf-states started with the so called “war on terror”, but as far as I know, it is older than that, think about the case of BCCI bank which was used by CIA to finance Afghan’s Mujahdeen against the Soviet invasion, it was a Pakistani bank in UAE….
www.uruknet.de/?p=39811
US troops in Pakistan?
Aijaz Ahmad: Is there a military solution in Afghanistan and Pakistan? view video
Pakistan lawyers call for election boycott view video
A Grassy Knoll in Pakistan
by Peter Chamberlin
All things have come full circle in the mountains of Pakistan. The "great game" has been played-out. The cycle of death which we unleashed upon the world there, bringing the war on terrorism home to us, now draws us inexorably into the vacuum of its violent ending. The convulsions now wracking that country threaten to become a revolutionary explosion capable of bringing down the foundations of the world.
Top senator hits US sale of F-16s to Pakistan
Washington (AFP) Jan 2, 2008 – A senior US senator lashed the administration of President George W. Bush Wednesday for its decision to sell F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan, calling it a sign of a “dangerously misguided” policy toward Islamabad. The Pentagon announced late December 31 that it had approved the nearly 500 million dollar deal for 18 F-16s for Pakistan, with the deal awarded to Lockheed Martin Corp. Senator …
www.spacewar.com/reports/Top_senator_
hits_US_sale_of_F-16s_to_Pakistan_999.html
British Team Joins Pakistan Bhutto Probe
The Associated Press –
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) — British anti-terror officers came to Pakistan
Friday to join the investigation into Benazir Bhutto’s assassination, …
ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jIE0IUn4
WIiaMBpjG8SI_6H5RXzgD8TUV38O0
Pakistan making its own decisions, says US
Times of India – India
That’s a wise course that’s he’s taken in the best interest of Pakistan and
the Pakistani people,” he said. The comments came in the wake of Musharraf…
timesofindia.indiatimes.com/World/Pakistan_making
_its_own_decisions_says_US/articleshow/2673630.cms
The Candidates on US-Pakistan Policy
Newsweek – USA
Instability in Pakistan has steadily escalated in the course of the US
presidential campaign. Given the country’s geo-strategic importance to
Washington, …
www.newsweek.com/id/84305
Sadness lingers in Pakistan over Benazir Bhutto, with confidence …
Xinhua – China
Some 3000 people from the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), the party which
Bhutto had headed, and Bhutto’s supporters attended the prayer, much more
than …
news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-01/04/content_7363817.htm
Iranian FM arrives for day-long visit to Pakistan
Xinhua – China
4 (Xinhua) — Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki arrived here
Friday morning to pay an official day-long visit to Pakistan. Mottaki is
expected to …
news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-01/04/content_7363843.htm
Pakistan’s Benazir Bhutto mourned
Jewish Herald-Voice – Houston,TX,USA
According to Olmert, upon Bhutto’s return to Pakistan two months ago, she
relayed a message through a mutual acquaintance that she would “in the
future like …
www.jhvonline.com/link.asp?smenu=96&twindow=Default
&sdetail=3827&mad=No&wpage=1&skeyword=&sidate=
Pakistan at the Precipice
theOneRepublic – CA,USA
by JF Kelly, Jr. 1/4/08 The assassination of Pakistan opposition leader and
former prime minister Benazir Bhutto is a blow to US interests in the
region and …
www.theonerepublic.com/archives/
Columns/KellyJ/20080104KellyPakistan.html
Former Pakistan PM Sharif says nuclear arsenal secure
National Post – Toronto,Ontario,Canada
Pakistan parliamentary elections scheduled for January 8 will be held in… LAHORE, Pakistan — Pakistan does not need international observers to
monitor …
www.nationalpost.com/rss/story.html?id=213354
Martyr Without a Cause
TIME – USA
It gives momentum to Pakistan’s jihadis in their campaign to Talibanize the
country, and it edges Pakistan closer toward Islamic revolution. …
www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1699877,00.html
UK detectives arrive in Pakistan for Bhutto probe
A team of police from Scotland Yard has arrived in Pakistan to help investigate the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.
www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/01/04/2132068.htm
HELLISTAN: BHUTTO, PAKISTAN, AFGHANISTAN, THE TALIBAN, THE ISI …
By Pete McCormack
Many people surely felt a certain hopelessness come in with the awful, disintegration-causing assassination of the undeniably courageous former Prime Misnister of Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto. Her family has been shrouded in tragedy (and …
www.petemccormack.com/blog/?p=421
Should America Dump Musharraf In Pakistan?
By johnibii
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto killed the Bush administration’s last hope that Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf could simultaneously defeat al Qaida and the Taliban and return his …
johnibii.wordpress.com/2008/01/04/s
hould-america-dump-musharraf-in-pakistan/
“Pakistan: What About the Nukes?”: Newsweek
By Hassan Abbas(Hassan Abbas)
The assassination of former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto reminds us starkly of an unanswered question most of us would prefer to forget: how secure are Pakistan’s nuclear weapons? Could Al Qaeda or another terrorist group …
watandost.blogspot.com/2008/01/pak
istan-what-about-nukes-newsweek.html
3/1/08
Madness Compounding Madness
Calls for Intervention in Pakistan
By Gary Leupp
“Al-Qaeda is now as much a Pakistani phenomenon as it is an Arab or foreign element,” declares Najam Sethi, editor of Pakistan’s Daily Times. It is not just the Arabs, Uzbeks and other foreigners who fled from Afghanistan into Pakistan in the wake of the U.S. invasion of late 2001. It draws in Pakistani tribesmen, Punjabis, Urdu speakers. What was once a group foreigners (numbers unknown) enjoying Pashtun hospitality under the Taliban in Afghanistan has struck roots in neighboring Pakistan.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18992.htm
US: No need for UN probe into Bhutto slaying :
The United States on Wednesday brushed aside calls for a UN investigation into the slaying of Pakistan opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, saying Britain’s Scotland Yard now leads the probe and will get “the answers” Pakistan’s people deserve.
tinyurl.com/2z33dm
Taliban movement gives two-day deadline to govt:
The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) (Taliban movement), a conglomerate of all militant groups operating in Fata and settled districts of NWFP, Wednesday gave a two-day deadline to the government to stop military operations in Swat and rest of the tribal areas, else it would re-launch attacks on security forces and government installations.
www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=12066
Pakistan and Lebanon, the same struggle
Daily Star – Lebanon – Beirut,Lebanon
There are similarities between the situation in Pakistan and Lebanon. The
February 14, 2005, assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik
Hariri …
www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?editio
n_id=10&categ_id=5&article_id=87788
Pakistani families fleeing sectarian strife pour into Afghanistan
The Canadian Press –
KABUL – Hundreds of Pakistani families have poured across the border into
Afghanistan in recent days as they flee sectarian violence in northwestern…
canadianpress.google.com/article/AL
eqM5iM6rhNSMoiB149_a2dXDYdYn5VEA
Special forces on standby over nuclear threat 31 Dec 2007
US special forces snatch squads are on standby to seize or disable Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal in the event of a collapse of government authority or the outbreak of civil war following the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. The troops, augmented by volunteer scientists from America’s Nuclear Emergency Search Team organisation, are under orders to take control of an estimated 60 warheads dispersed around six to 10 high-security Pakistani military bases.
www.theherald.co.uk/news/foreign/display.var.1933388
.0.Special_forces_on_standby_over_nuclear_threat.php
Musharraf delays election by six weeks —Troops will stay on streets to maintain order, he says 03 Jan 2008
President Pervez Musharraf said yesterday that troops would stay on the streets of Pakistan’s tense cities at least until a new ‘election’ date of February 18. Parliamentary elections, after more than eight years of [US funded] military rule, had been scheduled for January 8, but a controversial six-week delay was announced by the country’s election commission.
www.guardian.co.uk/pakistan/Story/0,,2234443,00.html
Pakistan enlists Scotland Yard help 03 Jan 2008
The U.S says it is glad Islamabad decided to seek the help of Scotland Yard to help in probing the assassination of former Pakistan premier Benazir Bhutto. White House spokesperson Dana [Dumb-as-a-Doorstop] Perino suggested that a UN investigation was unnecessary after the intervention of Britain.
feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/?sid=314592
Who gained from Bhutto’s death?
Aijaz Ahmad: Musharraf and extremists had the most to gain from assassination (1 of 3) view video
Sibel Edmonds Case: Benazir and The ‘Islamic’ Bomb
lukery,Democratic Underground
According to UPI’s Richard Sale: “(Benazir Bhutto) said two things that sealed her fate. She said that if elected PM, she would allow US forces to hunt for bin Laden on Pakistani soil, and that she would allow the Vienna-based IAEA to interrogate the rogue nuclear scientist, AQ Khan about his nuclear smugglings to North Korea, Iran, Libya, etc. After those statements, she had no chance of surviving.” There’s one small problem: the CIA, the FBI, and Britain’s MI6 probably know more about the so-called ‘AQ Khan network’ than AQ Khan himself. For some reason, the criminals involved in the nuclear black market are still (mostly) walking free – in Pakistan, the US and elsewhere – while those who threatened to expose them – Richard Barlow, Sibel Edmonds, Valerie Plame, and the latest addition, Atif Amin – have been harassed, threatened and gagged….
www.uruknet.de/?p=39816
The real reason behind the rise of oil-prices after Bhutto’s assassination
Roads to Iraq
Few minutes after Bhutto’s assassination, the media told us that oil-prices rose at least $1, although Pakistan is not oil-producer country, but the media didn’t explain why this rise, the nearest “convincing” explanation was “Shockwave” [from the CNN], but a small report appeared on the front page Elaph for about 15 minutes and then removed [I was just in time to save it], explains it all. The article says that the security and economical relations between Pakistan and the Gulf-states started with the so called “war on terror”, but as far as I know, it is older than that, think about the case of BCCI bank which was used by CIA to finance Afghan’s Mujahdeen against the Soviet invasion, it was a Pakistani bank in UAE….
www.uruknet.de/?p=39811
Musharraf Postpones Election, Calls In Scotland Yard
Winter Patriot
Pakistan has requested a team of British investigators to look into the death of former Prime Minister and opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, who died in Rawalpindi last Thursday after what looked to be a coordinated shooting and bombing attack. The request for foreign assistance is timely; the Pakistani government has changed the official story of Bhutto’s slaying for the third time in less than a week. As Julian Borger and Mark Tran report for The Guardian with no trace of visible irony: “We would like to know what were the reasons that led to the martyrdom of Benazir Bhutto. I would also like to look into it,” Musharraf said in a televised address…
www.uruknet.de/?p=39773
“P”DA and Medea Benjamin on Benazir Bhutto
Support for “Benevolent” Empire
John Walsh
The assassination of Benazir Bhutto has triggered a barrage of commentaries, among them a revealing piece by Medea Benjamin, which has been endorsed and posted by “Progressive” Democrats of America (”P”DA) on whose board she sits. Benazir Bhutto’s death is sad in many ways. She was a charming, intelligent woman – and certainly a courageous one, albeit more representative of dynasty than democracy. But Medea Benjamin’s evaluation of Benazir Bhutto is interesting not for what it says about Bhutto but for what it tells us about the attitude of “P”DA and Medea to the U.S. empire. Most interestingly, Benjamin’s statement declares: “The Bush administration has been a staunch supporter of Musharraf, providing his regime with over $10 billion in financial aid since 2001. … The U.S. government should withhold assistance until Musharraf steps down …” (Emphasis mine.) “Until”? “Until” says that once a Pakistani government is in place, which meets with U.S. “democratic” standards and U.S. approval, billions of mostly military U.S. aid should be poured into Pakistan once again.
www.uruknet.de/?p=39789