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Pakistan Prime Minister to warn US over Osama bin Laden raid

May 9, 2011 Comments off

telegraph

Pakistan’s prime minister will on Monday warn the United States it will defend its air space if American forces mount another raid on terrorists suspected of hiding inside the country.

Pakistan's Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani addresses a press conference in Paris

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani addressing the press conference in Paris Photo: AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Yusuf Raza Gilani will seek to restore some dignity in an address to the nation after the humiliation caused when American forces killed Osama bin Laden at a compound close to Pakistan’s main military academy in Abbottabad last week without alerting Pakistan.

A senior government source close to the prime minister said while Mr Gilani will take an aggressive stand to shore up the government’s position.

The source said: “The Prime Minister will say that the United States should not have bypassed Pakistan. We have made a huge contribution in fighting terrorism. We’ve arrested close to 100 al-Qaeda people, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

“We’ll take appropriate action if any further violation takes place. We will defend our air space by any means we have.”

He will say that Washington’s decision to launch the raid without consulting Islamabad had plunged military and political relations Read more…

Pakistan urges end to US strikes

April 19, 2011 Comments off

presstv

Pakistan has called on the US to stop non-UN-sanctioned drone strikes in the country’s northern tribal belt as differences between Islamabad and Washington escalate.

The row between the US and its Asian ally over the scale of the unauthorized CIA drone operations in Pakistan’s North Waziristan were exposed last week.

Pakistan has repeatedly criticized the attacks which it condemns for violating the country’s sovereignty.

Washington, on the other hand, defends the strikes as necessary to fight the militants it claims to have holed up.

But Pakistan’s Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said on Sunday that Washington should share better intelligence so Islamabad can take action against militants itself.

For several months, Pakistani diplomats and military officials have complained that they were being kept in the dark by the US administration’s non-UN-sanctioned military campaigns.

Politicians on both sides are disappointed with the results of investment of billions of dollars in the US military and civilian assistance since 2001 with Washington admitting in a recent report to Congress that the results of the spending fell short of expectations.

More than 1,180 people were killed by over 120 CIA drone strikes in 2010 alone, reports say.

The strikes have further fueled the anti-US sentiment already on the rise in the region.

Giant Fissure Opens In Pakistan

March 9, 2011 Comments off
Categories: Earth changes, Pakistan Tags: ,

Robert Kaplan on the New New Great Game

February 26, 2011 Comments off

The U.S. can maintain its global primacy if it (among other things) plays Russia off China, India, Iran and Turkey off Russia and Turkey off Iran. That’s the analysis of globe-spinner extraordinaire Robert Kaplan, along with his brother Stephen (apparently recently retired as a top CIA official).

The essay, America Primed, is in the new edition of The National Interest and doesn’t deal too explicitly with the Caucasus or Central Asia. But it’s all about how the U.S. (assisted by the “Anglosphere,” other English-speaking countries like Canada, the U.K. and Australia) can maintain dominance on the Eurasian continent. And that requires American leadership to make sure that no other country — in particular China, Russia or Iran — gets too powerful. What does that entail, specifically?

For one, playing India off Russia (and “punishing” Pakistan):

Out of national pride, and because of its own tense relationships with China and Pakistan, India needs to remain officially nonaligned. But that will not stop New Delhi from accepting more help from Read more…

Zardari to seek nuclear technology cooperation with Japan

February 23, 2011 Comments off

www.dawn.com

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari arrives at the Tokyo International Airport on February 21, 2011. Zardari is here on a three-day visit to Tokyo. – Photo by AFP

TOKYO: President Asif Ali Zardari said Monday that since Japan was negotiating a deal with India to cooperate on peaceful uses of nuclear energy, the similar cooperation should be extended to his country.

“If Japan is willing to cooperate with India in nuclear technology and (is) giving nuclear technology for peaceful purposes, I do not see any reason why we should not deserve the same,” Zardari said in an interview with the Japanese media in Islamabad ahead of his departure for a three-day visit to Japan, published in leading Read more…

CIA Spy Captured Giving Nuclear Bomb To Terrorists

February 11, 2011 Comments off

While all eyes in the West are currently trained on the ongoing revolution taking place in Egypt, Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) is warning that the situation on the sub-continent has turned “grave” as it appears open warfare is about to break out between Pakistan and the United States.

Fueling this crisis, that the SVR warns in their report has the potential to ignite a total Global War, was the apprehension by Pakistan of a 36-year-old American named Raymond Allen Davis (photo), whom the US claims is one of their diplomats, but Pakistani Intelligence Services (ISI) claim is a spy for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

Davis was captured by Pakistani police after he shot and killed two men in the eastern city of Lahore on January 27th that the US claims were trying to rob him.

Pakistan, however, says that the two men Davis killed were ISI agents sent to follow him after it was discovered he had been making contact with al Qaeda after his cell phone was tracked to the Waziristan tribal area bordering Afghanistan where the Pakistani Taliban and a dozen other militant groups have forged a Read more…

Pakistan successfully test fires Hatf-VII missile

February 11, 2011 Comments off

Pakistan successfully test fires Hatf-VII missile

Yesterday
The missile can carry conventional and other warheads, the ISPR said. — Photo by AFP (File) 

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s military says it has successfully test-fired a cruise missile capable of carrying ”strategic and conventional” war heads.

An army statement says the Hatf-VII or Babur missile, which has a range of 360 miles (600 kilometers), was test-fired from an undisclosed location Thursday. The statement did not specifically say if the missile could carry nuclear warheads.

Senior army officials and scientists attended the testing.

Pakistan and its nuclear-armed rival neighboring India routinely test different versions of their missiles. The two countries have fought three wars since they gained independence from Britain in 1947. – AP

APP adds:

Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, officers and scientists witnessed the test.

President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani congratulated the scientists and engineers for successfully conducting the test.

Saudis already have 2 Pakistani Nukes

February 3, 2011 Comments off

It’s a story that pops up again and again. Saudi Arabia has acquired at least 2 functional Nuclear Weapons from cash strapped Pakistan. Certainly Saudi Arabia has the money to buy nukes from sources like France, China, Russia, North Korea and Pakistan or even India.

The worrisome thing is that Pakistani nukes may be on the move and the west has very little knowledge or control over it. Pakistan is the most dangerous country on earth. It has a population of 185 million and the majority of people there hate the west and hate Americans. Intelligence experts privately concede that the battle for Pakistan is over. They are now a de facto enemy of the U.S. Al Qaida, the Taliban and the Muslim Brotherhood have won. The ties between Read more…

Analysis: Why Pakistan wants to expand its nuclear arsenal

February 1, 2011 1 comment

Rob Crilly, The Daily Telegraph

Pakistan is desperate to increase the size of its nuclear arsenal as it eyes India’s rapidly growing economy and population.

Although the numbers of weapons held by either country are small in comparison, the result of the nuclear competition between the two countries is reminiscent of the Cold War arms race between the U.S. and USSR.

In India’s case, the perceived threat is China. For Pakistan, the presumed enemy is India. Paranoia is driving the acceleration of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal. Read more…