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'Silent coup' rumors swirl as Zardari leaves Pakistan
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari has traveled to Dubai after falling ill, fuelling rumors Wednesday of his possible resignation.
Close associates of the president told the Associated Press he is currently "unwell," but did not provide specifics. His condition did not appear to be life-threatening, they said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani's office released a statement saying Zardari "went to Dubai following symptoms related to his pre-existing heart condition."
The president's spokesman denied a media report that the trip meant Zardari, who has been under pressure from a memo scandal that forced the Pakistani ambassador to the U.S. to resign, would cite failing health as a pretext to step down.
December 8th 2011
The Coming War With Pakistan
by Tony Cartalucci,
BBC are propagandists whose lies have killed people. Their documentaries are made upon request by special interest groups whose narratives are sewn verbatim into what would otherwise look like a "documentary." With BBC's name attached, it is hoped, these tissues of lies are then able to gain traction and begin rewriting reality. Their recent hit on Pakistan is not the first time they have been caught peddling wholesale lies dressed up as "documentaries." Earlier this year, they also cobbled together "This World: Thailand - Justice Under Fire," where evidence drawn from paid lobbyists of Western-backed opposition leaders and US State Department cables and used to promote Wall Street and London's corporate-financier interests in Thailand.
December 4th 2011
US doesn't have permission for drone strikes: Yuosuf Raza Gilani
PERTH: Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has categorically said no permission has been given to the US to launch drone strikes inside Pakistan's territory.
"There is no such permission," the Associated Press of Pakistan quoted Gilani as telling a group of Pakistani expatriates Saturday.
According to reports, at least 55-60 drone strikes have taken place in Pakistan in 2011. Over 460 people, most of them believed to be militants, have been killed in the strikes.
The prime minister is in Australia for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) that is being attended by over 50 world leaders.
Gilani said the drone strikes were counter-productive because of the collateral damage caused. They were undermining the Pakistani government's efforts to get unanimous support of the masses against terrorists.
He said the drone strikes were one of the reasons of tense relations between Pakistan and the US.
Pakistan has also conveyed to America that unilateral military operations, such as the one in May that led to the killing of al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden, would not be acceptable, he said.
"Unlike the policies of the past when things started rolling with a single telephone call from the US, now we seek mandate of the parliament and take decisions with consensus," he said.
October 31th 2011
WEBSTER TARPLEY - U.S WANT PAKISTAN'S NUKES FOR INVASION
Listen to Webster Tarpley on World Crisis Radio talking about current events including the U.S. desire to de-nuke Pakistan so the U.S. can invade without fear of nuclear attack.
 With more drone strikes carried out in Pakistan during the first year of President Barack Obama's term in office than were carried out in the whole second term of his predecessor George W. Bush, the number of attacks in 2010 more than double those in2009 and continued growth in their use in 2011, extra-judicial killing seems to have become the modus operandi of the Obama administration. That he feels at such ease with this policy that he is able to joke about it, is testament to just how ill-advisedwas the decision to award him the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize for "his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy". Foreign policy journal
July 19h 2011
 Recently, suspicious packages found on US-bound planes in Britain and Dubai, which sparked a world-wide debate into what President Barack Obama referred to as “a credible terrorist threat.” Packages posed security threats in Chicago, Newark, and Philadelphia.
According to latest news, some parcel-bombs were also detected in some other European countires, while three of them were exploded in Greek.
However, Obama also remarked that the parcels were bound for “two places of Jewish worship in Chicago…authorities on three continents thwarted multiple terrorist attacks aimed at the United States from Yemen, seizing two explosive packages…packed aboard cargo jets.” Other American officials revealed that the plot triggered worldwide fears that al-Qaida was launching a major new terror campaign.
Ncvember3th 2010
 Is Pakistan disintegrating? Are the state and society coming apart under the impact of successive political and natural disasters? The country swirls with rumours about the fall of the civilian government or even a military coup. The great Indus flood has disappeared from the headlines at home and abroad, though millions of farmers are squatting in the ruins of their villages. The US is launching its heaviest-ever drone attacks on targets in the west of the country, and Pakistan closed the main US and Nato supply route through the Khyber Pass after US helicopters crossed the border and killed Pakistani soldiers.
October 9th 2010
 Don't get it twisted, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow essentially told her viewers Thursday night.
"Borders matter" and "AfPak" is not the name of a single country. Contrary to popular and media opinion, America is now fighting in three countries: Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Since President Barack Obama took office, the US has increased the number of airstrikes in Pakistan by unmanned aerial vehicles. "We have shot missiles at people in Pakistan 20 times in the past 23 days," Maddow noted Wednesday.
Pakistan has largely been silent about the unmanned airstrikes but that changed after reports said the US had started using manned aircraft. Pakistan reportedly closed down US supply lines leading into Afghanistan when they learned that a US helicopter had attacked inside Pakistan
October 2th 2010
 The “credible but non-specific” information about a Mumbai-style terror plot being planned somewhere and involving someone may have only emerged publicly last night, but officials are saying it is the reason behind the dozens of US drone strikes against Pakistani territory launched this month.Officials are saying that the drone strikes as well as NSA wiretaps and a flurry of other measures by European nations all came as they try to flesh out exactly what the plot actually was/is and attempted to foil it.
October 1th 2010
USA funded Osama Bin Laden in 1989 to destabalise Pakistan
August 2th, 2010
Pakistani Army ran Muslim extremist training camps, says anti-terrorist expert
The Pakistani Army ran training camps for a Muslim extremist group, at least until recently, with the acceptance of the US Central Intelligence Agency, according to France’s foremost anti-terrorist expert.
Jean-Louis Bruguičre, who retired in 2007 after 15 years as chief investigating judge for counter-terrorism, reached this conclusion after interrogating a French militant who had been trained by Lashkar-e-Taiba and arrested in Australia in 2003.
In a book in his counter-terrorism years, Mr Bruguičre says that Lashkar-e-Taiba, which was set up to fight India over disputed Kashmir territory, had become part of the international Islamic network of al-Qaeda.
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Anti-Americanism rises in Pakistan over U.S. motives
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — For weeks now, the Pakistani media have portrayed America, its military and defense contractors in the darkest of lights, all part of an apparent campaign of anti-American vilification that is sweeping the country and, according to some, is putting American lives at risk.
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Bin Laden Son Reported Killed In Pakistan
NPR.org,July 22, 2009 · U.S. officials believe Saad bin Laden — a son of Osama bin Laden — has been killed by an American missile in Pakistan.
Saad bin Laden reportedly spent years under house arrest in Iran before traveling last year to Pakistan, according to former National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell.
It's believed he was killed by Hellfire missiles fired from a U.S. Predator drone sometime this year. A senior U.S. counterterrorism official tells NPR that without a body to conduct DNA tests on, it's hard to be completely sure. But he characterized U.S. spy agencies as being "80 to 85 percent" certain that Saad bin Laden is dead.
The U.S. counterterrorism official says Saad bin Laden wasn't important enough to target personally — that he was "in the wrong place at the wrong time."
He was active in al-Qaida, but was not a major player, the official said. He was believed to be in his late 20s."We make a big deal out of him because of his last name," the official added.
It's not known whether Saad bin Laden was anywhere near his father when he died.
American officials predict dangerous insurgency, collapse of Pakistani government
The forecast for the Pakistani state is troubled at best, according to multiple senior intelligence sources and analysts. Many are predicting an imminent collapse, contingent on continued American assassinations in the region.
An anonymous intelligence official with long experience in Pakistan told McClatchy News that "it's a disaster in the making on the scale of the Iranian revolution," and that "the implications of this are disastrous for the U.S. The supply lines [from Karachi to U.S. military bases] in Kandahar and Kabul from the south and east will be cut, or at least they'll be less secure, and probably sooner rather than later. That will jeopardize the mission in Afghanistan, especially now that it's getting bigger."
Another Pentagon adviser speaking on condition of anonymity told McClatchy, "The place is beyond redemption. I think Pakistan is moving toward a situation where the extremists control virtually all of the countryside and the government controls only the urban centers," he continued. "If you look out 10 years, I think the government will be overrun by Islamic militants." The experts interviewed for the article insisted that their views weren't worst case scenarios but were "realistic expectations" for the coming months.
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Stop bombing us: Osama isn’t here, says Pakistan
Osama bin Laden and the top Al-Qaeda leadership are not in Pakistan, making US missile attacks against them futile, according to the country’s interior minister.
“If Osama was in Pakistan we would know, with all the thousands of troops we have sent into the tribal areas in recent months,” Rehman Malik told The Sunday Times. “If he and all these four or five top people were in our area they would have been caught, the way we are searching.”
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Secret U.S. Unit Trains Commandos in Pakistan
More than 70 United States military advisers and technical specialists are secretly working in Pakistan to help its armed forces battle Al Qaeda and the Taliban in the country's lawless tribal areas, American military officials said.
The Americans are mostly Army Special Forces soldiers who are training Pakistani Army and paramilitary troops, providing them with intelligence and advising on combat tactics, the officials said. They do not conduct combat operations, the officials added.
They make up a secret task force, overseen by the United States Central Command and Special Operations Command. It started last summer, with the support of Pakistan's government and military, in an effort to root out Qaeda and Taliban operations that threaten American troops in Afghanistan and are increasingly destabilizing Pakistan. It is a much larger and more ambitious effort than either country has acknowledged.
Pakistani officials have vigorously protested American missile strikes in the tribal areas as a violation of sovereignty and have resisted efforts by Washington to put more troops on Pakistani soil. President Asif Ali Zardari, who leads a weak civilian government, is trying to cope with soaring anti-Americanism among Pakistanis and a belief that he is too close to Washington.
Police In UK Are Preparing For Summer Of Rage
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Pakistan to U.S.: Stop the Drone Strikes (And More Weapons, Please)
As a new U.S. administration tries to craft a new strategy for the region, Pakistan's government seems to be embarking on a public-relations push. Step one: ask Washington to call off the drones.
Speaking to CNN's Christiane Amanpour at the World Economic Forum, Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani called on the United States to stop drone attacks against al Qaeda and Taliban fighters on Pakistani territory. "I want to put on record that we do not have any agreement between the government of the United States and the government of Pakistan," Gilani said.
Gilani's statement was in response to testimony yesterday by U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. Asked by senators if the missile strikes by drones would continue, Gates said both President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama had made clear they would continue to pursue al Qaeda across the border into Pakistan. "Has that decision been transmitted to the Pakistan government?" asked Sen. Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Secrecy and denial as Pakistan lets CIA use airbase to strike militants
The CIA is secretly using an airbase in southern Pakistan to launch the Predator drones that observe and attack al-Qaeda and Taleban militants on the Pakistani side of the border with Afghanistan, a Times investigation has found.
The Pakistani and US governments have repeatedly denied that Washington is running military operations, covert or otherwise, on Pakistani territory a hugely sensitive issue in the predominantly Muslim country.
The Pakistani Government has also repeatedly demanded that the US halt drone attacks on northern tribal areas that it says have caused hundreds of civilian casualties and fuelled anti-American sentiment.
But The Times has discovered that the CIA has been using the Shamsi airfield originally built by Arab sheikhs for falconry expeditions in the southwestern province of Baluchistan for at least a year. The strip, which is about 30 miles from the Afghan border, allows US forces to launch a Drone within minutes of receiving actionable intelligence as well as allowing them to attack targets further afield.
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Google Earth reveals secret history of US base in Pakistan
The US was secretly flying unmanned drones from the Shamsi airbase in Pakistan's southwestern province of Baluchistan as early as 2006, according to an image of the base from Google Earth. The image — that is no longer on the site but which was obtained by The News, Pakistan's English language daily newspaper — shows what appear to be three Predator drones outside a hangar at the end of the runway. The Times also obtained a copy of the image, whose co-ordinates confirm that it is the Shamsi airfield, also known as Bandari, about 200 miles southwest of the Pakistani city of Quetta. An investigation by The Times yesterday revealed that the CIA was secretly using Shamsi to launch the Predator drones that observe and attack al-Qaeda and Taleban militants around Pakistan's border with Afghanistan
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