War on Terror Archive
Report on reviewing the decade long counter-terrorism struggle: 2001-2010: Throughout the decade the greatest apprehension for the citizens, government and other concerned authorities remained security. During the year 2009, when 11704 people lost their lives among which 2324 were civilians, 991 were security personnel and 8389 were terrorists.
Religious persecution threat high in Punjab: Analysts and officials said Punjab’s extreme poverty, as well as lack of education, makes people in the region more vulnerable to the lure of militancy. The militants in Punjab had a good infrastructure on the ground, with many organizations
Salman Taseer’s assassination: can Pakistan survive as a viable state?: After Salman Taseer murder Pakistani Society seems very much divided. A cold and calculated assassination, not only highlights political turmoil in country but it also raises very fundamental questions related to the viability of state. And it appears the
Sangat Interview: Pakistan needs democracy for peace: Shaheed Benazir Bhutto: Here’s an exclusive interview of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto, I did for quarterly Sangat in 2002. If you deem it fit, may publish it on LUBP. It may have some value even today.(Aziz Narejo) Demands commission to probe rigging junta’s
A post on how to bring to end the conflict in Afghanistan – by TLW: Specially contributed to the LUBP, this post was first published at These Long Wars blog Pakistan, Iran and Russia. The middle one completely hated by the US, the former and latter, sort of trusted. Russia must bring pressure to bear
Obama and the Pakistan Dilemma -by Matthew Kaminski: America can’t win in Afghanistan as long as assorted Taliban insurgents find safe haven in Pakistan. That’s the no-brainer dressed up as revelation in leaks this week about the latest U.S. National Intelligence Estimate regarding both countries. The proposed
Pakistani media coverage of Daniel Pearl’s abduction and assassination in Karachi – by Kazim Aizaz Alam: American Journalist Daniel Pearl, beheaded in Karachi, Pakistan. American journalist Daniel Pearl was killed in early 2002 in Karachi. This essay will review the coverage of the abduction and assassination of the Wall Street Journal’s South Asia bureau chief
Pakistan “not willing ” to obliterate terrorist havens on its soil: US intelligence report: Related article: Online factories of suicide bombers: An ISI production Amrullah Saleh, who led Afghanistan’s spy agency from 2004 until earlier this year, told a Washington conference Thursday that the key to defeating the Taliban is cutting off its
Leaks disclose secrets of in-camera sessions; is Pakistan really playing double game?: “It’s a bombshell,” says the historian Timothy Garton-Ash in a Guardian video on the released of the cables. “It’s the most extraordinary window into how American diplomacy works.” Founded by secretive Australian Julian Assange, Wikileaks was originally based in
WikiLeaks unmasks who are our real puppet-masters?: Related articles: US embassy cables: Pakistani army chief hints at unseating Zardari Wikileaks on General Kayani and his ‘democratic’ puppets General Kayani allowed US special forces to secretly operate in Pakistan U.S. diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks make perfectly
Leaks show US government always knew that Pakistan was misusing US taxpayers’ money -by Dr. Azeem Ibrahim: The deal President Bush struck with Pakistan’s General Musharraf seemed straightforward enough: Pakistan would fight terrorists, and the US would pay for it. Islamabad promised to train, equip, and deploy its army and intelligence service in counter-terrorism operations. Washington
Letting go of illusions —by Gulmina Bilal Ahmad: There is a need to differentiate between the Taliban and its allies as an organisation and the Taliban mindset. The Taliban mindset one can and should negotiate, question, argue and counter-argue with. It is as important to counter this
Pentagon report raises new questions about Pakistan’s willingness to take on the safe militant havens: “Pakistan’s domestic extremist threat and the 2010 floods recue the potential for a more aggressive or effective Pakistani effort in the near term,” says the report covering the period from April to the end of September. The report, titled
Pakistan seeks $50bn foreign debt waiver -by Khaleeq Kiani: ISLAMABAD: As federal and provincial economic teams assured the international community on Sunday of their resolve to introduce wide-ranging taxation measures, including Reformed General Sales Tax (RGST) and taxes on agriculture and real estate, Interior Minister Rahman Malik made
New Light on the Accuracy of the CIA’s Predator Drone Campaign in Pakistan – By Matthew Fricker, Avery Plaw and Brian Glyn Williams: Widely-cited reports of the inaccuracy and disproportionality of civilian to militant deaths in the CIA’s ongoing Predator drone campaign against the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Pakistan are grossly misleading. The most detailed database compiled to date, assembled by the
YouTube has started removing Al-Qaeda’s videos: YouTube has reportedly started removing hundreds of videos of Anwar al Awlaki, the radical American-born cleric based in Yemen who has been linked to several terrorist plots against the US and the UK, under the instructions of American and
Pakistan Resists Military Action in ‘Epicenter of Terrorism’: Foreign media published numbers of reports indicating that Pakistan’s military is resisting pressure to begin a promised offensive against Taliban sanctuaries in its border region. In Washington, however, there is increasing anger at Pakistan’s reluctance to take on groups
Obama reiterates support for democracy in Pakistan: US President Barack Obama and Pakistani counterpart Asif Ali Zardari agreed in a phone call Tuesday that more needs to be done to combat terror groups in Pakistan, the White House said. “Both President Obama and President Zardari acknowledged
A plain and clear message: to fight the ‘war on terror’: According to foreign media reports, privately, the US warned Pakistan that it risks losing this and other American aid if it does not adopt a more aggressive stance toward militants. In plain words U.S. Warns Pakistan: Fight Taliban or Lose Funding. U.S.
U.S. Warns Pakistan: Fight Taliban or Lose Funding: By ADAM ENTOUS and JULIAN E. BARNES in Washington and TOM WRIGHT in New Delhi Obama administration officials have privately warned Pakistani leaders that continued inaction against Taliban and al Qaeda havens bordering Afghanistan could jeopardize some of the large U.S. cash
Laden living ‘comfortably’ in Pakistan: NATO official: KABUL: Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden is living comfortably in a house in northwest Pakistan close to his deputy Ayman Al-Zawahiri, CNN yesterday quoted a NATO official as saying. The Saudi-born militant wanted for the Sept 11 attacks on
Pakistan: Civilians in war: My friends at CIVIC just released a new report with findings on the conflicts in northwest Pakistan, particularly the civilian harm occurring on a daily basis that we seldom here about back here in Washington. The group conducted over 160
Mullen Stands By Pakistan -by Julian E.Barnes: WASHINGTON—Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, offered a dose of U.S. support for Pakistan’s counterterrorism efforts Thursday, amid a flurry of U.S. criticism of its ally. Adm. Mullen, who is close to Pakistan’s military chief,
Pakistan: Floodwaters receding, but challenges remain -by Karin Brulliard: ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN – After this country’s then-military dictator deposed the Supreme Court chief justice in 2007, a boisterous movement of protesting lawyers took to the streets and ushered in the return of democracy. Now that same court may be
Pakistan is not America’s enemy -by Ryan Crocker: A sustained U.S.-Pakistani partnership after the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan could have produced a very different history than the one we wrestle with today. The news from Pakistan is grim. NATO helicopters engage suspected militants inside Pakistan, killing three,
An unethical survey on FATA — by Farhat Taj: The people of FATA perceive state collusion with the Taliban. They want the termination of this collusion before the military operations. Until then, they are comfortable with the drone strikes on militant positions Recently, a survey was conducted by
Killing of Doctor Part of Taliban War on Educated -by Jane Perlez: MARDAN, Pakistan — Farooq Khan, doctor to the poor, scholar of Islam and friend of America, represented everything the Islamist extremists hated. A week ago, two Taliban hit men, disguised in casual clothes and with stubble on their chins instead
White House report critical of Pakistan’s efforts against terror; Daniel Markey says “Frustration has really mounted, so the drumbeat is getting louder,”: Despite repeated Obama administration claims in public that Pakistan is working hard to crack down on militants, a private White House review uses unusually tough and harsh language to suggest the ally is not doing nearly enough to confront
Excerpts from President Zardari’s interview with Herald: In the Dawn of October 7, 2010, excerpts from President Zardari’s interview to the Herald have been published. The October edition of Herald hit newsstands yesterday. What the President has said is something we as critical supporters of the
White House Reiterates Support for Pakistan, Afghanistan: White House Reiterates Support for Pakistan, Afghanistan despite Pak, US tensions spike after border closure and attacks on NATO supply trucks. The tension comes just as Washington is stepping up its shadow war on militants harbored in Pakistan’s border regions. The
Are times a-changin’ in Pakistan? – By Daud Khattak: Two and a half years of fragile democracy, war against terror, devastating floods, economic slow-downs, millions of displaced people, and now calls from the self-exiled leader of Urdu-speaking community in Karachi, Altaf Hussain, for a French-style “revolution.” Meanwhile, some
Signaling Tensions, Pakistan Shuts NATO Route -by Jane Perlez and Helene Cooper: ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — American officials pressed their Pakistani counterparts on Thursday to reopen a vital supply route for American and NATO forces in Afghanistan, as relations deteriorated after the fourth strike by coalition helicopters in a week killed three members
Illegitimate daughters —by Gulmina Bilal Ahmad: Why is there not an uproar for the woes of the daughters of Pakistan who were stoned in Swat and, presently, in Orakzai Agency? Daughters like Mukhtaran Mai, of course, are not comparable with American daughters of Pakistani origin
‘We need to make clear . . . the cancer is in Pakistan’ -By Bob Woodward: President Obama dispatched his national security adviser, retired Marine Gen. James L. Jones, and CIA Director Leon Panetta to Pakistan for a series of urgent, secret meetings on May 19, 2010. Less than three weeks earlier, a 30-year-old U.S.
Objectives of Pakistani Conspiracy Theorists – by Anas Abbas: Objective 1. To denigrate Baluchistan’s resistance movements and to present a picture where the blame of all Baluch sufferings go to foreign elements even though the real culprits are the Punjabi elite and the Pakistan army for their military
Why the unfolding disaster in Pakistan should concern you -by Robert Reich: The human tragedy unfolding in Pakistan right now demands our full attention. Flooding there has already stranded 20 million people, more than 10 percent of the population. A fifth of the nation is underwater. More than 3.5 million children
Pakistani Floods Affect Millions, But Level Of International Aid Pitiful- By Vilani Peiris: With monsoonal rains continuing, the worst flooding in Pakistan in 80 years is still spreading. Pakistani relief organisations and government agencies are stretched to the limit. Yet despite urgent appeals from the UN and other aid organisations, the level
A hero who died with his boots on: A tribute to Safwat Ghayur – by Ismail Khan: Dawn, August 9, 2010 THE bugle was blown. A gun-salute rang in the air as the casket was lowered into the grave. At that moment the tears could no longer be held back as memories flashed through my
David Cameron: The Saddam of the Afghan War – By Ahmed Ali Abbasi: On his recent visit to India, British Prime Minister David Cameron callously displayed his inexperience as a leader and his inability to represent Britain at the international stage. In the great game where leaders from around the world