Suicide Car Bomber Kills 25 In Pakistan

PESHAWAR: A suicide car bomb struck Pakistani police on Thursday, killing 25 people in the second attack in as many days in the northwest as the Taliban vow to avenge the US killing of Osama bin Laden.

“It was a car suicide attack targeting a city police station. The bomber blew up the car at a checkpoint close to the police station,” said police deputy inspector general Masood Khan Afridi.

Regional police spokesman Fazal Naeem said, “(The bomber) wanted to blow up the city police station but he blew up the car close to the barrier outside the station.” Police officials said 25 people were killed and 38 others wounded.

“Most of those killed in the attack are policemen and the death toll may rise, because there are offices and residences of senior police officials and the local administration near the attack site,” said Naeem.

The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the suicide car bombing, with a spokesman saying it was carried out to avenge the death of Osama bin Laden.

“We accept responsibility for this attack. This was a small attack to avenge Osama’s martyrdom,” spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan told AFP by telephone from an undisclosed location.

“Soon you will see bigger attacks. Revenge for Osama can’t be satisfied just with small attacks,” he said.

अमेरिका के हमले की निंदा पाकिस्तानी संसद ने की , दी प्रतिबंध की धमकी

लेखक सुदीप मुखर्जी

हिन्दी मे कहे तो उल्टा चोर कोतवाल को डांटे इस मुहावरे को चरितार्थ कर दिया पाकिस्तान की संसद ने।
संसद के संयुक्त सत्र मे एक प्रस्ताव पारित किया गया जिसमे अमेरिका की कारवाई की निंदा की गयी , अमेरिका के साथ किए गए सभी समझौतों की समीक्षा करने की मांग थी, एक स्वतंत्र जांच की मांग भी रखी गयी और पाकिस्तान के सीमांत प्रदेशों मे drone हमले तुरंत रोकने की मांग भी शामिल थी।


संसद ने शनिवार को अपने बैठक मे यह धमकी दी की अगर अमरीका ने पाकिस्तान की बात नहीं मानी तो उसको दी जाने वाली सैनिक सहायता जिसमे अफगानिस्तान मे मौजूद अमरीकी फौज के लिए रसद गोला बारूद इत्यादि शामिल है उसे तुरंत रोक दिया जाए ।


सार्वजनिक रूप से, दोनों देशों के तरफ नेता किसी भी प्रकार के दरार होने से इंकार करते है।
लेकिन सर्वसम्मति से पारित हुआ संकल्प स्पष्ट कर देता है कि पाकिस्तानी सांसदों में एक बड़ता असंतोष है।


"आतंकवाद का मुकाबला करने में पाकिस्तान के प्रयासों और विशाल बलिदान की प्रशंसा के बिना, अन्य देशों में कुछ लोगो द्वारा शुरू किये गए बदनामी के अभियान से पाकिस्तानी सरकार बहुत दुखी एवं चिंतित है " संकल्प मे कहा गया।


यह भी कहा कि 30,000 से ज्यादा पाकिस्तानी नागरिक और 5000 से अधिक सैन्य कर्मि या को आतंक के खिलाफ लड़ाई में मारे गए है या फिर अफगानिस्तान में नाटो बलों की कार्रवाई से उत्पन्न संकट मे।


सोने पे सुहागा तब और हो गया जब शुक्रवार को एक संदिग्ध अमेरिकी ड्रोन हमले मे उत्तरी वजीरिस्तान के दत्ता खेल क्षेत्र में चार संदिग्ध इस्लामी उग्रवादियों मारे गए । पाकिस्तानी खुफिया अधिकारियों के अनुसार एक मानव रहित विमान ने सीमा क्षेत्र पर एक उग्रवादीयों के वाहन पर चार मिसाइल दागे.


उधर बिन लादेन के परिसर का गहन विश्लेषण किया जा रहा है और अमेरिकी अधिकारियों ने कहा है उसका जाहिर तौर पर पाकिस्तान में एक समर्थन नेटवर्क था और उसे एक स्थान में पिछले कई वर्षों तक रहने की अनुमति पाकिस्तान ने ही दी थी . उसके पास कोई भागने की योजना नहीं थी और नाही दुश्मन के हमले की स्थिति में दस्तावेजों को नष्ट करने का कोई तरीका जिसका साफ साफ अर्थ है की उसे पाकिस्तान का संगरक्षन प्रपट था।


अमेरिका मे एक परंपरावादी कानूनी निगरानी समूह ने हमले के वीडियो और उसके बाद की तस्वीरों के सार्वजनिक रिहाई की मांग करते हुये मुकदमा दर्ज किया है।


अगर किसी को कोई भी संदेह था की पाकिस्तान ही आतंकियों का गड़ है तो उसका संदेह अब दूर हो चुका होगा क्यूंकी ओसामा के मरने पर सर्वाधिक शोक और क्रोध पाकिस्तान मे है। किसी भी और मुस्लिम राज्य ने ओसामा के मरने पर कोई खास प्रतिकृया नहीं करी तो फिर पाकिस्तान को इतना रोष क्यूँ । बात साफ है ओसामा केवल एक आतंकी नहीं बल्कि पाकिस्तान का राष्ट्रीय परिसंपत्ति था जिसका प्रयोग आई.एस.आई अफ़ग़ानिस्तान और भारत मे करता था। पाकिस्तान की योजना थी की एक बार अमरीका अफ़ग़ानिस्तान से चला जाए तो उसके बाद ओसामा की मदद से कश्मीर पर धावा बोला जाएगा।

हमे यह भी याद रखना चाहिए की अल-कायेदा के अगले सरदारों मे इलियास कश्मीरी का नाम भी शामिल है यह बंदा वही है जिसने परवेज़ मुशर्रफ को भारतीय सैनिक का कटा हुया सर भेंट मे दिया था ।
वह हरकत उल जिहाद अल इस्लामी के 313 ब्रिगेड का सेनापति है जिसका काम भारतवर्ष मे आतंकी हमले करना और ज्यादा से ज्यादा भारतीय सैनिकों को मारना है । ओसामा के मरने से हम खुश तो बहुत है किन्तु अगर इलियास कश्मीरी अल-कायेदा का नेता बंता है तो आने वाले कुछ वर्षों मे भारत के लिए परेशानियाँ और बड़ेगी कमेंगी नहीं।

Bin Laden Speaks From Beyond The Watery Grave

Rehman Malik Interview Is Like Listening To Lallu Of Pakistan

Listening to Rehman Malik is like listening to Lallu in english and nothing else. I dont think he has any idea what is coming out of his mouth.

Parliamentarians were stunned on Tuesday when a lawmaker led prayers for al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, defying calls from Deputy Speaker Faisal Karim Kundi that he needed permission to do so.

At the National Assembly session, Maulvi Asmatullah, an independent candidate from NA-264 stood up and said Bin Laden had reportedly been given funeral services by the Americans and “we should pray for him”.

The prayer service hardly lasted a minute in which two JUI-F legislators from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, former federal minister Attaur Rehman and Laiq Muhammad Khan, participated.

The deputy speaker was administering the proceedings on a private members day, but he could not convince the lawmakers to stick to the rules of business. Osama bin Laden was killed in a US operation in Abbottabad in the early hours of May 2.

Earlier, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani said in the National Assembly that “Osama bin Laden was the most wanted terrorist and enemy number one of the civilized world.

Elimination of Osama bin Laden, who launched waves after waves of terrorist attacks against innocent Pakistanis, is indeed justice done. However, we are not so naïve to declare victory; missions accomplished, and turn around.”

The first of its kind prayer service at the floor of the National Assembly reflected a divergent view from the official stance over the killing of Bin Laden.
Chaos in Balochistan Assembly

Meanwhile in Quetta, Five PPP ministers have demanded the immediate expulsion of JUI-F from the provincial cabinet for promoting terrorism by supporting the Taliban in Balochistan.

Taking up the floor during Assembly proceedings on Tuesday afternoon, PPP Minister Mir Sadiq Umrani staged a walk-out and accused the JUI of being involved in terrorism.

He was joined by four other PPP Ministers – Ali Madad Jatak, Yunus Mullahzai, Jan Ali Changezi and Jaffar George.

Addressing a news conference after the session, Umrani said that the JUI-F is imposing policies to only protect its own interests.

He alleged that JUI-F annually take away 60 per cent of the total funds of the province. “The entire budget of the Balochistan government has been monopolised by JUI Ministers,” he claimed.

Talking to the media, Chief Minister Nawab Aslam Raisani termed the allegations false and baseless, while JUI-F Parliamentary Leader Maulana Wasey said his party has supported the PPP to form a coalition government.

Osama bin Laden mission agreed in secret 10 years ago by US and Pakistan

Author Declan Walsh in Islamabad for the gaurdian

The US and Pakistan struck a secret deal almost a decade ago permitting a US operation against Osama bin Laden on Pakistani soil similar to last week's raid that killed the al-Qaida leader, the Guardian has learned.

The deal was struck between the military leader General Pervez Musharraf and President George Bush after Bin Laden escaped US forces in the mountains of Tora Bora in late 2001, according to serving and retired Pakistani and US officials.

Under its terms, Pakistan would allow US forces to conduct a unilateral raid inside Pakistan in search of Bin Laden, his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and the al-Qaida No3. Afterwards, both sides agreed, Pakistan would vociferously protest the incursion.

"There was an agreement between Bush and Musharraf that if we knew where Osama was, we were going to come and get him," said a former senior US official with knowledge of counterterrorism operations. "The Pakistanis would put up a hue and cry, but they wouldn't stop us."

The deal puts a new complexion on the political storm triggered by Bin Laden's death in Abbottabad, 35 miles north of Islamabad, where a team of US navy Seals assaulted his safe house in the early hours of 2 May.

Pakistani officials have insisted they knew nothing of the raid, with military and civilian leaders issuing a strong rebuke to the US. If the US conducts another such assault, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani warned parliament on Monday, "Pakistan reserves the right to retaliate with full force."

Days earlier, Musharraf, now running an opposition party from exile in London, emerged as one of the most vocal critics of the raid, terming it a "violation of the sovereignty of Pakistan".

But under the terms of the secret deal, while Pakistanis may not have been informed of the assault, they had agreed to it in principle.

A senior Pakistani official said it had been struck under Musharraf and renewed by the army during the "transition to democracy" – a six-month period from February 2008 when Musharraf was still president but a civilian government had been elected.

Referring to the assault on Bin Laden's Abbottabad compound, the official added: "As far as our American friends are concerned, they have just implemented the agreement."

The former US official said the Pakistani protests of the past week were the "public face" of the deal. "We knew they would deny this stuff."

The agreement is consistent with Pakistan's unspoken policy towards CIA drone strikes in the tribal belt, which was revealed by the WikiLeaks US embassy cables last November. In August 2008, Gilani reportedly told a US official: "I don't care if they do it, as long as they get the right people. We'll protest in the National Assembly and then ignore it."

As drone strikes have escalated in the tribal belt over the past year, senior civilian and military officials issued pro forma denunciations even as it became clear the Pakistani military was co-operating with the covert programme.

The former US official said that impetus for the co-operation, much like the Bin Laden deal, was driven by the US. "It didn't come from Musharraf's desire. On the Predators, we made it very clear to them that if they weren't going to prosecute these targets, we were, and there was nothing they could do to stop us taking unilateral action.

"We told them, over and again: 'We'll stop the Predators if you take these targets out yourselves.'"

Despite several attempts to contact his London office, the Guardian has been unable to obtain comment from Musharraf.

Since Bin Laden's death, Pakistan has come under intense US scrutiny, including accusations that elements within Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence helped hide the al-Qaida leader.

On Sunday, President Barack Obama said Bin Laden must have had "some sort of support network" inside Pakistan.

"We don't know whether there might have been some people inside of government, outside of government, and that's something we have to investigate," Obama said.

Gilani has stood firmly by the ISI, describing it as a "national asset", and said claims that Pakistan was "in cahoots" with al-Qaida were "disingenuous".

"Allegations of complicity or incompetence are absurd," he said. "We didn't invite Osama bin Laden to Pakistan."

Gilani said the army had launched an investigation into how Bin Laden managed to hide inside Pakistan. Senior generals will give a briefing on the furore to parliament next Friday.

Gilani paid lip-service to the alliance with America and welcomed a forthcoming visit from the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, but pointedly paid tribute to help from China, whom he described as "a source of inspiration for the people of Pakistan".

Should India Prepare For Operation Geronimo?

By ASHOK K. MEHTA

Every time there is a Pakistan-sourced terrorist attack in India, the reaction in the world's largest democracy is predictable. Demands range from "hot pursuit" of the terrorists across the border to cries for all-out war. In the last decade, analysts have proposed other alternatives: surgical air strikes, a limited armored offensive and covert operations. The latter option seems especially inviting after U.S. special forces took out Osama bin Laden last Sunday.

These demands for strong action are in stark contrast with the way the Indian government has responded to these attacks: pursuing bland diplomacy. The starker this contrast gets, the more complicated it will be for New Delhi to implement a foreign policy that is assertive, yet careful and deterrent, in the future. Instead, if the government displays the requisite will and capabilities for a targeted strike today, it can avoid the need for an actual strike later.

History offers some perspective. After the Pakistani-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed attacked New Delhi's Parliament in December 2001, the U.S. had to step in quickly to prevent armed clashes between the arch rivals. In May 2002, following yet another terrorist attack and after months of coercive diplomacy by both New Delhi and Washington, Pakistani dictator Pervez Musharraf offered a very strong assurance that his country's territory would not be used to host attacks against India. This assurance was conveyed to New Delhi by then-U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, who said that terrorism emanating from Pakistan would end "permanently, irreversibly, visibly and to the satisfaction of India."

New Delhi bought that assurance and started to reach out to Islamabad diplomatically. Yet its pattern of responses since 2002 has led to six more terrorist attacks originating in Pakistan. All Islamabad has done is give similar reassurances.

After the attack on Mumbai in November 2008, India found itself in the same trap. It issued the usual protests accompanied by vague threats of retaliation and called off the dialogue that had started a few years ago. But Islamabad denied any state complicity. At that point, India's strategic-affairs and military community noted that New Delhi had to raise Pakistan's costs of encouraging cross-border terrorism.

View Full Image

Associated Press

Indian commandos in action against terrorists in Mumbai in November 2008.

However, by 2009, the Manmohan Singh government's energies were focused on sending dossiers of evidence to Islamabad, pointing to proof of LeT's hand in the Mumbai attacks. Pakistan's civilian government stalled on them. Still, Mr. Singh staked his reputation on trying to start a dialogue. Earlier this year it began, most visibly at the sidelines of the cricket world cup.

These diplomatic back-and-forths have not yielded results. Despite playing nice, Islamabad has snubbed its neighbor's friendliness. Last week, Pakistan's government called India's demand for the Mumbai 2008 suspects "familiar and outdated."

What should New Delhi do then? Even with the world's fourth largest military, India has failed to deter Pakistan's cross-border terrorism. Now, the success of America's Operation Geronimo in killing bin Laden has whetted its appetite to do more. Last week, when asked if India could pull off a similar mission, India's armed service chiefs replied in the affirmative.

This could well be bravado on the chiefs' part, because India suffers from fundamental deficiencies. For one, India's political leadership has been risk-averse. Even before the two sides fought a limited war in Kashmir in 1999, New Delhi had already announced that it would never cross the Line of Control, the de facto border. This tied the Indian army's hands when Pakistan crossed this amorphous line and claimed Indian soil as its down. More broadly, India has a history of strategic restraint, which means its diplomatic and military strategy hasn't been focused on assertively achieving select goals.

As a result, India has invested in neither the legal architecture nor the physical capabilities to pull off an Operation Geronimo. For instance, U.S. counterterrorism policy declares that terrorists in breach of U.S. laws who are harbored by any state will be brought back for prosecution through "induced cooperation" and, when necessary, force. India needs something like this. Such laws would give its counterterror operators legal cover as well as set the ground for dealing with other gray legalities in the war on terror.

Then there's the question of what intelligence and arms India can put on the ground. Its human intelligence across the border and experience in foreign clandestine operations is weak. Unlike the U.S.—which probably maintains an estimated 3,000-4,000 intelligence operatives in Pakistan—India has been scaling back its intelligence infrastructure inside that country for the past 15 years. In the late 1990s, then-Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral consciously dismantled this infrastructure as part of a new doctrine for peace, a grave strategic error.

Equipment- and training-wise, too, India falls short. Indian commandos freed the Mumbai hostages with much clumsiness over a prolonged 72-hour operation in November 2008, making some wonder how they would operate in alien environments.

None of this is to suggest that India should prosecute an operation similar to Geronimo in coming months. But being ready for one is necessary. It sends a strong psychological deterrent to those in Pakistan's intelligence services who may sympathize with and assist the likes of LeT—just like possessing more tanks and fighter jets deters a conventional military threat. It suggests to Islamabad that New Delhi has the necessary political will.

Preparing for such small operations can prevent larger debacles in the future. Unless Pakistan's military-jihadi complex is completely dismantled, it can still pose a threat to India. And the more that threat looms large and the less India prepares to stay ahead of it, there could come a day when a big terrorist attack makes India's electorate—infuriated with its government's bland version of diplomacy—scream for blood.

Political pressure could then compel an Indian prime minister to hurriedly send in a team of commandos without any direction. Worse, it could hurl the subcontinent into full-scale war.

Mr. Mehta is a retired major general of the Indian Army and founder member of India's Defence Planning Staff.

The Dark Deceit Of ISI

Author:B Raman
Gen Kayani, Gen Taj and Gen Pasha headed Pakistans Inter-Services Intelligence for the period Osama is said to have been living in Abbottabad. Who should take responsibility?

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Gen Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, the present Chief of the Army Staff (COAS), Gen Nadeem Taj, who retired recently, and Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha, who is on an year’s extension after having reached the age of superannuation on March 18, 2011, have, in that order, headed the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) during the period between 2005 (month not known) and May 2, 2011, when Osama bin Laden was reportedly living near the Pakistan Military Academy (PMA) at Abbottabad, about 100 kms from Islamabad.

In October 2004, Gen Pervez Musharraf appointed then Lt Gen Kayani as the DG of the ISI, in place of General Ehsan ul Haq, who was promoted as the Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee. Kayani led the ISI during a bleak period, with insurgencies in North-West Pakistan and Balochistan, Abdul Qadeer Khan's nuclear proliferation scandal, and waves of suicide attacks throughout Pakistan emanating from the northwestern tribal belt. In his final days at the ISI, he also led the talks with Benazir Bhutto for a possible power sharing deal with Musharraf. In October 2007, after three years, he was replaced at the ISI by Lt Gen Nadeem Taj, who was previously the head of the PMA at Abbottabad. Kayani had the unique distinction of being the first DG of the ISI to be appointed as the COAS when he succeeded Musharraf in that capacity.

Kayani, who joined the Pakistan Army in 1970, started his career in the Baloch Regiment as an infantryman. He did not come to public notice till Mrs. Benazir Bhutto, during her first tenure as the Prime Minister (1988-90), chose him as her Deputy Military Secretary. The two maintained their personal friendship despite the ups and downs in her political career.

Kayani, who had done some training courses in the US, is believed to have a wide network of contacts in the US Armed Forces, but he really attracted the attention of the US' political and military leadership at the time of the Indo-Pakistan military confrontation in 2002 after the terrorist attack on the Indian Parliament on December 13, 2001. He was the Director-General, Military Operations (DGMO), at that time and the US was reportedly impressed by the cool manner in which he handled the crisis.

In September 2003, he was appointed Corps Commander of the X Corps at Rawalpindi. As Corps Commander, Musharraf made him responsible for co-ordinating the investigation into the two attempts to assassinate him in Rawalpindi in December,2003. Apart from identifying some of the jihadi terrorists responsible for the attempts, Kayani also managed to establish the involvement of some junior officers of the Army and the Air Force in the attempts and had them arrested and court-martialled.

After his appointment as the DG of the ISI, he again impressed the US by his success in having Abu Faraj al-Libbi, an Al Qaeda operative allegedly involved in the attempts to assassinate Musharraf, arrested in the tribal belt in 2005. He was immediately handed over to the US without properly interrogating him in connection with the attempts to kill Musharraf.

Even though Kayani was projected as a highly successful DG of the ISI, facts spoke otherwise. It was during his tenure as the DG of the ISI that the Neo Taliban staged a come-back with a bang, the Pakistan Army practically lost control over the Pashtun belt and Al Qaeda spread its sanctuaries in Pakistani territory.

Kayani was succeeded as the DG of the ISI by Lt Gen Nadeem Taj, who was very close to Musharraf and at the same time known to be a virulently anti-India and anti-US chief of the ISI. It was during his tenure as the head of the ISI that the agency started using David Coleman Headley and Munawuur Hussain Rana, of the Chicago cell of the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET), for carrying out terrorist strikes in India. Many suspect that the plans for the 26/11 terrorist strikes in Mumbai were drawn up during his tenure as the DG,ISI.

Lt Gen Nadeem Taj, who is distantly related to Musharraf, served as the DG ISI for less than a year. He took over as the DG, ISI, on October 8, 2007, after his promotion to the rank of Lt Gen Till then, he served as the Commandant, Pakistan Military Academy, with the rank of Maj. Gen

Taj, once Musharraf’s Military Secretary (MS), was associated with Musharraf through some of the regime’s most significant events. He was flying with Musharraf from Sri Lanka on October 12, 1999 when the coup was launched and was also in Musharraf’s car during the attempts to assassinate Musharraf at Rawalpindi in December 2003. From MS, he was appointed Director General of Military Intelligence (DGMI) and then moved on to become General Officer Commanding (GOC) Lahore before taking over as the head of the PMA at Abbottabad

Taj had a very short tenure of only 10 months as the DG of the ISI because of the USA’s suspicion that he was associated with Al Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban. He was reportedly as distrusted by the US as was Lt Gen Javed Nasir, who headed the ISI when Mr.Nawaz Sharif was the Prime Minister between 1990 and 1993. Nasir had to be sacked by Nawaz Sharif under pressure from the Clinton Administration because of his suspected links with the Afghan Mujahideen.

Taj was removed from the ISI by Kayani allegedly under dual pressure from the US as well as China. The removal came in the wake of reports about US concerns and unhappiness over the alleged role of the ISI in the attempt to blow up the Indian Embassy in Kabul on July 7, 2008, and over leakage of information shared by the US intelligence with the ISI to the Afghan Taliban. Then President Bush was reported to have taken up this matter with Prime Minister Yousef Raza Gilani, when he visited Washington DC in the last week of July ,2008, as well as with Zardari whom he met in the margins of the UN General Assembly session. While removing Taj from the post of DG, ISI, Kayani took care not to create a feeling of humiliation in him by posting him as the Commander of an important Corps, but as the Corps Commander at Gujranwala he did not have much to do with Afghanistan or the ongoing military operations in the tribal belt. Kayani removed him from any role in the operations against the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

The removal of Taj from the ISI also come in the wake of reports of Chinese unhappiness as expressed to Kayani during his week-long visit to China from September 21, 2008, over the lack of a sense of urgency shown by the ISI in rescuing the two Chinese engineers kidnapped by the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) on August 29, 2008. They were working for a Chinese cellular company in the Dir area of the Khyber Pakhtunkwa province. The TTP kidnapped them while they were travelling and removed them to the Swat valley. The TTP demanded the release of over 130 Taliban members in the custody of the Pakistani security agencies in return for their release.

In a report on the subject carried by the News of September 24, 2008, Rahimullah Yusufzai, the well-informed Pakistani journalist, said as follows:

" A Chinese journalist, who requested anonymity, said the Pakistan Government hasn't shown any urgency in getting the two young engineers freed. He recalled how the issue of the two Chinese engineers kidnapped by late Pakistani Taliban commander Abdullah Mahsud's men in South Waziristan in 2004 was resolved within a few days. "The recent case of kidnapping of Chinese engineers hasn't been resolved even after more than three weeks. We were hoping our citizens would have been freed by now, he said."

The General Headquarters of the Pakistan Army abruptly announced on the night of September 29, 2008, that Major-General Ahmed Shuja Pasha, the Director-General of Military Operations (DGMO), had been promoted as Lt General and posted as the DG of the ISI in place of Lt Gen Nadeem Taj.

Lt Gen Pasha, who was promoted from the rank of Brigadier to that of Maj.Gen by Musharraf in January, 2003, had commanded an infantry brigade, a mechanised infantry brigade and an infantry division and had served as the Chief Instructor of the Command and Staff College. In 2001-2002, as a Brigadier, he served as a Contingent and Sector Commander with the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone. In October, 2007, Musharraf agreed to a request from Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary-General, to relieve Pasha from the post of the DGMO so that he could be appointed as the Military Adviser, Department of Peacekeeping Operations, in the UN headquarters, in place of General Per Arne Five of Norway. An announcement on his posting in the UN headquarters was also made by the office of the UN Secretary-General.


But, this posting did not materialise. In view of the Swat Valley coming under the control of the Taliban-affiliated Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TNSM) headed by Maulana Fazlullah, Musharraf ordered a special military operation against the TNSM and asked Pasha in his capacity as the DGMO to co-ordinate it. Pasha got Sufi Mohammad, former chief of the TNSM, who was in detention since 2002, released and sought his help in the operation. In January, 2008, Pasha announced that his troops had defeated the TNSM and freed the Swat Valley from the control of the TNSM. His claim came to haunt him shortly thereafter when the TNSM, which had withdrawn into the hills, staged a come-back and re-established its control over large areas of the Swat. In August, 2008, shortly after the return of Gilani from a visit to Washington DC, Gen Kayani ordered another special operation against the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Al Qaeda in the Bajaur Agency of the Federally-Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and asked Pasha to co-ordinate it too. Despite repeated claims of the Army having inflicted heavy casualties on the TTP and Al Qaeda, the two put up a determined fight against the Army and the Frontier Corps.


The Dawn of Karachi reported on September 29, 2008, as follows:

"Military operations against militants have been a mixed bag of successes and setbacks; however no timeframe could be given with regard to the ongoing campaigns, sources in the military said. ‘It is a continual operation. It is not going to end in 2008 and it is not going to end in 2009. Don’t be optimistic, as far as the timeframe is concerned. It is a different ground and it will take some time’, military sources said in a media briefing."

Thus, as the DGMO, Pasha had a colourless record. That, despite this, he was posted as the DG, ISI, showed his closeness and loyalty to Kayani, who had taken him for his secret meeting with Admiral Michael Mullen, Chairman, US Joint Chiefs of Staff, on board a US aircraft carrier, on August 26,2008, and not Lt Gen Nadeem Taj. It was speculated at that time that Taj did not accompany Kayani to the secret meeting with Mullen because the Americans did not want him.


Thus, in any enquiry regarding collusion between the ISI and OBL since 2005 which enabled OBL to live in Abbottabad, the main suspicion has to be on Nadeem Taj followed by Pasha and Kayani. Another person, whose contacts with Al Qaeda would call for a detailed enquiry is Brig (retd) Ejaz Shah, another officer highly trusted by Musharraf, who served as the Director of the Intelligence Bureau during this period.


When he was in the ISI, Shah used to be the handling officer of Osama bin Laden and Mulla Omar, the Amir of the Taliban. After Musharraf seized power in October, 1999, he had him posted as the Home Secretary of Punjab. It was to him that Omar Sheikh, who orchestrated the kidnapping and murder of Daniel Pearl, the American journalist, surrendered because Omar Sheikh knew him before and was confident that Ejaz Shah would see that he was not tortured.

After the murder of Pearl, there were many allegations regarding Shah's role. Musharraf tried to protect him by sending him as the Ambassador to Australia or Indonesia. Both the countries reportedly refused to accept him. Musharraf then made him the DG of the IB. As the DG of the IB, he saw to it that the death sentence against Omar Sheikh for his role in the Pearl case was not executed. The courts have been repeatedly postponing hearings on the appeal filed by Omar Sheikh against the death sentence. Before her return from political exile in October 2007, Benazir Bhutto had named him as one of the officers from whom a threat to her security could arise.

---

B. Raman is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute for Topical Studies, Chennai, and Associate of the Chennai Centre For China Studies

Web Of ISI

Author:B Raman
Gen Kayani, Gen Taj and Gen Pasha headed Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence for the period Osama is said to have been living in Abbottabad. Who should take responsibility?

Gen Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, the present Chief of the Army Staff (COAS), Gen Nadeem Taj, who retired recently, and Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha, who is on an year’s extension after having reached the age of superannuation on March 18, 2011, have, in that order, headed the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) during the period between 2005 (month not known) and May 2, 2011, when Osama bin Laden was reportedly living near the Pakistan Military Academy (PMA) at Abbottabad, about 100 kms from Islamabad.

In October 2004, Gen Pervez Musharraf appointed then Lt Gen Kayani as the DG of the ISI, in place of General Ehsan ul Haq, who was promoted as the Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee. Kayani led the ISI during a bleak period, with insurgencies in North-West Pakistan and Balochistan, Abdul Qadeer Khan's nuclear proliferation scandal, and waves of suicide attacks throughout Pakistan emanating from the northwestern tribal belt. In his final days at the ISI, he also led the talks with Benazir Bhutto for a possible power sharing deal with Musharraf. In October 2007, after three years, he was replaced at the ISI by Lt Gen Nadeem Taj, who was previously the head of the PMA at Abbottabad. Kayani had the unique distinction of being the first DG of the ISI to be appointed as the COAS when he succeeded Musharraf in that capacity.

Kayani, who joined the Pakistan Army in 1970, started his career in the Baloch Regiment as an infantryman. He did not come to public notice till Mrs. Benazir Bhutto, during her first tenure as the Prime Minister (1988-90), chose him as her Deputy Military Secretary. The two maintained their personal friendship despite the ups and downs in her political career.

Kayani, who had done some training courses in the US, is believed to have a wide network of contacts in the US Armed Forces, but he really attracted the attention of the US' political and military leadership at the time of the Indo-Pakistan military confrontation in 2002 after the terrorist attack on the Indian Parliament on December 13, 2001. He was the Director-General, Military Operations (DGMO), at that time and the US was reportedly impressed by the cool manner in which he handled the crisis.

In September 2003, he was appointed Corps Commander of the X Corps at Rawalpindi. As Corps Commander, Musharraf made him responsible for co-ordinating the investigation into the two attempts to assassinate him in Rawalpindi in December,2003. Apart from identifying some of the jihadi terrorists responsible for the attempts, Kayani also managed to establish the involvement of some junior officers of the Army and the Air Force in the attempts and had them arrested and court-martialled.

After his appointment as the DG of the ISI, he again impressed the US by his success in having Abu Faraj al-Libbi, an Al Qaeda operative allegedly involved in the attempts to assassinate Musharraf, arrested in the tribal belt in 2005. He was immediately handed over to the US without properly interrogating him in connection with the attempts to kill Musharraf.

Even though Kayani was projected as a highly successful DG of the ISI, facts spoke otherwise. It was during his tenure as the DG of the ISI that the Neo Taliban staged a come-back with a bang, the Pakistan Army practically lost control over the Pashtun belt and Al Qaeda spread its sanctuaries in Pakistani territory.

Kayani was succeeded as the DG of the ISI by Lt Gen Nadeem Taj, who was very close to Musharraf and at the same time known to be a virulently anti-India and anti-US chief of the ISI. It was during his tenure as the head of the ISI that the agency started using David Coleman Headley and Munawuur Hussain Rana, of the Chicago cell of the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET), for carrying out terrorist strikes in India. Many suspect that the plans for the 26/11 terrorist strikes in Mumbai were drawn up during his tenure as the DG,ISI.

Lt Gen Nadeem Taj, who is distantly related to Musharraf, served as the DG ISI for less than a year. He took over as the DG, ISI, on October 8, 2007, after his promotion to the rank of Lt Gen Till then, he served as the Commandant, Pakistan Military Academy, with the rank of Maj. Gen

Taj, once Musharraf’s Military Secretary (MS), was associated with Musharraf through some of the regime’s most significant events. He was flying with Musharraf from Sri Lanka on October 12, 1999 when the coup was launched and was also in Musharraf’s car during the attempts to assassinate Musharraf at Rawalpindi in December 2003. From MS, he was appointed Director General of Military Intelligence (DGMI) and then moved on to become General Officer Commanding (GOC) Lahore before taking over as the head of the PMA at Abbottabad

Taj had a very short tenure of only 10 months as the DG of the ISI because of the USA’s suspicion that he was associated with Al Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban. He was reportedly as distrusted by the US as was Lt Gen Javed Nasir, who headed the ISI when Mr.Nawaz Sharif was the Prime Minister between 1990 and 1993. Nasir had to be sacked by Nawaz Sharif under pressure from the Clinton Administration because of his suspected links with the Afghan Mujahideen.

Taj was removed from the ISI by Kayani allegedly under dual pressure from the US as well as China. The removal came in the wake of reports about US concerns and unhappiness over the alleged role of the ISI in the attempt to blow up the Indian Embassy in Kabul on July 7, 2008, and over leakage of information shared by the US intelligence with the ISI to the Afghan Taliban. Then President Bush was reported to have taken up this matter with Prime Minister Yousef Raza Gilani, when he visited Washington DC in the last week of July ,2008, as well as with Zardari whom he met in the margins of the UN General Assembly session. While removing Taj from the post of DG, ISI, Kayani took care not to create a feeling of humiliation in him by posting him as the Commander of an important Corps, but as the Corps Commander at Gujranwala he did not have much to do with Afghanistan or the ongoing military operations in the tribal belt. Kayani removed him from any role in the operations against the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

The removal of Taj from the ISI also come in the wake of reports of Chinese unhappiness as expressed to Kayani during his week-long visit to China from September 21, 2008, over the lack of a sense of urgency shown by the ISI in rescuing the two Chinese engineers kidnapped by the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) on August 29, 2008. They were working for a Chinese cellular company in the Dir area of the Khyber Pakhtunkwa province. The TTP kidnapped them while they were travelling and removed them to the Swat valley. The TTP demanded the release of over 130 Taliban members in the custody of the Pakistani security agencies in return for their release.

In a report on the subject carried by the News of September 24, 2008, Rahimullah Yusufzai, the well-informed Pakistani journalist, said as follows:

" A Chinese journalist, who requested anonymity, said the Pakistan Government hasn't shown any urgency in getting the two young engineers freed. He recalled how the issue of the two Chinese engineers kidnapped by late Pakistani Taliban commander Abdullah Mahsud's men in South Waziristan in 2004 was resolved within a few days. "The recent case of kidnapping of Chinese engineers hasn't been resolved even after more than three weeks. We were hoping our citizens would have been freed by now, he said."

The General Headquarters of the Pakistan Army abruptly announced on the night of September 29, 2008, that Major-General Ahmed Shuja Pasha, the Director-General of Military Operations (DGMO), had been promoted as Lt General and posted as the DG of the ISI in place of Lt Gen Nadeem Taj.

Lt Gen Pasha, who was promoted from the rank of Brigadier to that of Maj.Gen by Musharraf in January, 2003, had commanded an infantry brigade, a mechanised infantry brigade and an infantry division and had served as the Chief Instructor of the Command and Staff College. In 2001-2002, as a Brigadier, he served as a Contingent and Sector Commander with the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone. In October, 2007, Musharraf agreed to a request from Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary-General, to relieve Pasha from the post of the DGMO so that he could be appointed as the Military Adviser, Department of Peacekeeping Operations, in the UN headquarters, in place of General Per Arne Five of Norway. An announcement on his posting in the UN headquarters was also made by the office of the UN Secretary-General.


But, this posting did not materialise. In view of the Swat Valley coming under the control of the Taliban-affiliated Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TNSM) headed by Maulana Fazlullah, Musharraf ordered a special military operation against the TNSM and asked Pasha in his capacity as the DGMO to co-ordinate it. Pasha got Sufi Mohammad, former chief of the TNSM, who was in detention since 2002, released and sought his help in the operation. In January, 2008, Pasha announced that his troops had defeated the TNSM and freed the Swat Valley from the control of the TNSM. His claim came to haunt him shortly thereafter when the TNSM, which had withdrawn into the hills, staged a come-back and re-established its control over large areas of the Swat. In August, 2008, shortly after the return of Gilani from a visit to Washington DC, Gen Kayani ordered another special operation against the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Al Qaeda in the Bajaur Agency of the Federally-Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and asked Pasha to co-ordinate it too. Despite repeated claims of the Army having inflicted heavy casualties on the TTP and Al Qaeda, the two put up a determined fight against the Army and the Frontier Corps.


The Dawn of Karachi reported on September 29, 2008, as follows:

"Military operations against militants have been a mixed bag of successes and setbacks; however no timeframe could be given with regard to the ongoing campaigns, sources in the military said. ‘It is a continual operation. It is not going to end in 2008 and it is not going to end in 2009. Don’t be optimistic, as far as the timeframe is concerned. It is a different ground and it will take some time’, military sources said in a media briefing."

Thus, as the DGMO, Pasha had a colourless record. That, despite this, he was posted as the DG, ISI, showed his closeness and loyalty to Kayani, who had taken him for his secret meeting with Admiral Michael Mullen, Chairman, US Joint Chiefs of Staff, on board a US aircraft carrier, on August 26,2008, and not Lt Gen Nadeem Taj. It was speculated at that time that Taj did not accompany Kayani to the secret meeting with Mullen because the Americans did not want him.


Thus, in any enquiry regarding collusion between the ISI and OBL since 2005 which enabled OBL to live in Abbottabad, the main suspicion has to be on Nadeem Taj followed by Pasha and Kayani. Another person, whose contacts with Al Qaeda would call for a detailed enquiry is Brig (retd) Ejaz Shah, another officer highly trusted by Musharraf, who served as the Director of the Intelligence Bureau during this period.


When he was in the ISI, Shah used to be the handling officer of Osama bin Laden and Mulla Omar, the Amir of the Taliban. After Musharraf seized power in October, 1999, he had him posted as the Home Secretary of Punjab. It was to him that Omar Sheikh, who orchestrated the kidnapping and murder of Daniel Pearl, the American journalist, surrendered because Omar Sheikh knew him before and was confident that Ejaz Shah would see that he was not tortured.

After the murder of Pearl, there were many allegations regarding Shah's role. Musharraf tried to protect him by sending him as the Ambassador to Australia or Indonesia. Both the countries reportedly refused to accept him. Musharraf then made him the DG of the IB. As the DG of the IB, he saw to it that the death sentence against Omar Sheikh for his role in the Pearl case was not executed. The courts have been repeatedly postponing hearings on the appeal filed by Omar Sheikh against the death sentence. Before her return from political exile in October 2007, Benazir Bhutto had named him as one of the officers from whom a threat to her security could arise.

---

B. Raman is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute for Topical Studies, Chennai, and Associate of the Chennai Centre For China Studies

Osama Bin Laden Video's Released By The US Government

No Sound

CIA Had Safe Houses In Abbottabad For Monitoring

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  Osama's Hide Out In Flames Just After The Raid

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  Obama In Situation Room With His Staff

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  Wrekage Of US Military Helicopter Destroyed In The Raid

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  Wrekage Of US Military Helicopter Destroyed In The Raid

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  People Gather Outside Osama's Hideout

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  Osama's Hideout Another View

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  Curious Onlookers

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  Aerial View Of Bin-Ladens Hideout

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  People trying to peek into the compund

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  Villagers watch Pakistani Chopper

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  Women and children come To Pay Respect To Osama

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  Pakistani Intelligence Official Gather Inside The Compound

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  Orthodox Seminary Students Come To Pay Respect To Their Hero

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  Schematics Of The Hideout

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  People And Mediamen On Rooftops

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  Mullen And Obama Congratulate Each Other

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  Wreckage Of The US Chopper Being Removed

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  Obama Watches The Action Live With His Staff

Author Greg Miller Of Washington Post

The CIA maintained a safe house in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad for a small team of spies who conducted extensive surveillance over a period of months on the compound where Osama bin Laden was killed by U.S. Special Operations forces this week, U.S. officials said.

 The secret CIA facility was used as a base of operations for one of the most delicate human intelligence gathering missions in recent CIA history, one that relied on Pakistani informants and other sources to help assemble a “pattern of life” portrait of the occupants and daily activities at the fortified compound where bin Laden was found, the officials said.

 The on-the-ground surveillance work was part of an intelligence-gathering push mobilized after the discovery of the suspicious complex last August that involved virtually every category of collection in the U.S. arsenal, ranging from satellite imagery to eavesdropping efforts aimed at recording voices inside the compound.

The effort was so extensive and costly that the CIA went to Congress in December to secure authority to reallocate tens of millions of dollars within assorted agency budgets to fund it, U.S. officials said.

 Most of that surveillance capability remained in place until the execution of the raid by U.S. Navy SEALs shortly after 1 a.m. in Pakistan. The agency’s safe house did not play a role in the raid and has since been shut down, in part because of concerns about the safety of CIA assets in the aftermath, but also because the agency’s work was considered finished.

“The CIA’s job was to find and fix,” said a U.S. official, using Special Operations forces terminology for the identification and location of a high-value target. “The intelligence work was as complete as it was going to be, and it was the military’s turn to finish the target.”

The official, like others quoted for this article, spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak for the record. The CIA declined to comment.

U.S. officials provided new details on bin Laden’s final moments, saying the al-Qaeda leader was first spotted by U.S. forces in the doorway of his room on the compound’s third floor. Bin Laden then turned and retreated into the room before being shot twice — in the head and in the chest. U.S. commandos later found an AK-47 and a pistol in the room.

“He was retreating,” a move that was regarded as resistance, a U.S. official briefed on the operation said. “You don’t know why he’s retreating, what he’s doing when he goes back in there. Is he getting a weapon? Does he have a [suicide] vest?”

Despite what officials described as an extraordinarily concentrated collection effort leading up to the operation, no U.S. spy agency was ever able to capture a photograph of bin Laden at the compound before the raid, or a recording of the voice of the mysterious male figure whose family occupied the structure’s top two floors.

Indeed, current and former U.S. intelligence officials said that bin Laden employed remarkable discipline in his efforts to evade detection. “You’ve got to give him credit for his tradecraft,” said a former senior CIA official who played a leading role in the manhunt. When spotted by surveillance drones a decade earlier, bin Laden “had bodyguards, multiple SUVs and things like that. He abandoned all of that.”

The officials also outlined emerging theories as to why bin Laden apparently selected the Pakistani military garrison city of Abbottabad as the place that afforded him the greatest chance to stay alive. The discovery of bin Laden in Abbottabad has raised suspicion that he was placed there and being protected by elements of the Pakistani military and intelligence service, but U.S. officials said they have seen no conclusive evidence that was the case.

The city, about two hours north of Islamabad by car, offered a number of advantages for the al-Qaeda leader, officials said. Chief among them is that Abbottabad, deep inside Pakistan’s borders, is a safe distance from the tribal regions that are patrolled by armed U.S. drones.

 U.S. officials said they are convinced that bin Laden, who had long immersed himself among the Pashtun tribes along the border with Afghanistan, was driven from that part of the country by the escalating drone campaign.

“Even five years ago things were dropping from the sky” in Pakistan’s tribal region, a U.S. official said. “He probably felt that if he could conceal his presence it would be an unlikely area for the United States to pursue him.” Strikes by conventional U.S. aircraft would have carried enormous risks, both because Pakistan has invested heavily in air detection and defense systems — to counter any threat posed by India — and because of the perils of an errant strike.

“All it has to be is about 1,000 yards off and it hits the Pakistan Military Academy,” said a CIA veteran of Afghanistan and Pakistan. The city is also home to two regimental compounds, and suburbs occupied by military families.

U.S. officials said there were also disadvantages for bin Laden in residing in Abbottabad, including the fact that the area is relatively welcoming to outsiders, including Pakistanis on vacation, military families being transferred to bases there, and even U.S. soldiers who have at times been sent to Abbottabad to train Pakistani troops.

“Abbottabad is not a place where Islamic extremists went, because it wasn’t a stronghold,” said the former U.S. intelligence official involved in the bin Laden pursuit. “They preferred places like Peshawar, Quetta or Karachi.” When analysts would consider likely locations for the al-Qaeda chief, the official said, “Abbottabad wouldn’t be on that list.”

The CIA took advantage of that atmosphere to send case officers and recruited informants into Abbottabad undetected, and set up a safe house that functioned as its base.

“That is an Achilles heel for bin Laden, because anybody can go” to Abbottabad, the former CIA official said. “It makes it easier for the CIA to operate.” U.S. officials declined to say how many case officers or informants used the facility, but they stressed that the effort required extraordinary caution because of the fear that bin Laden and those sheltering him might vanish again if spooked.

The CIA began to focus on the compound last summer after years of painstaking effort to penetrate a small network of couriers with ties to the al-Qaeda leader. Once the most important of those couriers led them to the Abbottabad compound, the conspicuous nature of the complex sent up alarms that it might have been built for bin Laden himself.

“The place was three stories high and you could watch it from a variety of angles,” the former official said. Moving into the custom-made compound, the former official said, “was his biggest mistake.”

When a team of two dozen commandos arrived at the site Monday, one of bin Laden’s couriers was the only enemy to open fire, officials said. “They had to blow through some doors and walls,” said the U.S. official briefed on the raid. “One door they opened up only to find a wall behind it.”

The SEALs encountered no other armed opposition as they ascended to the top floor, where bin Laden was found. “He was in the doorway and then retreated, and that’s where the operators moved in,” the senior U.S. official said.

Old Trick Make India The Whipping Boy

Pakistani Foreign Secretary Press Confrence
Badly battered and bruised by the Americans, the Pakistani establishment is hitting back at anything and everything within its range. So it India is the closest punching bag and the softest target to hit thus Mr Bashir and General Kayani chose to threaten and warn India about any misadventure and dire consequences without an actual threat from any part of the Indian Government.
Why is it so, the simple reason is Pakistani public is asking Gen Kayani and his band of brothers that what happened at Abbotabad has only two reasons

a) Pakistani establishment and specifically Mr Zardari knew about the attack and made a lot of money by selling Pakistani Sovereignty and dignity to US

b)The whole Pakistani army and the ISI is a group of buffoons who are growing fat on the blood money of Paksitani's

Both the assertions have disastrous consequences for the Pakistani establishment, in short either you are corrupt and weak or you are incompetent and an idiot.

Therefore we must look at the statements made by their foreign secretary and the Pakistani general in this context. They are so ashamed at what has happened that they need some thing to deflect the attention of its own people away from the debacle. So lets see which is the softest enemy you can target and make it look as if the enemy is at the door step thus using the fear of your own people to save your face.

America...you are too dependent on them for assistance if they decide to pull the plug basically the country will collapse and the big shots of Pakistan will be unable to make money or buy french villas anymore.

The Terrorist...too dangerous because they might cause harm to your life and limb. These chaps have already displayed their capability by assassinating some top politicians.

Plus if you pick a fight with them it will be counter productive because they are the bogey you will use to fleece america and get more money from them. Basically they are a wing of your government and you cannot just give up on them. the terrorist network is the corner stone of Pakistan as a nation. They are like an industry which you us to keep Pakistan afloat thus hitting them is not something which you can do.

India... now their is a soft state and soft target if there was ever , why not make it the target or the bogey man. Make your people believe that Indians are coming and if we do not support the Pakistani military establishment now the Indian might attack us. Nothing works better than fear of the traditional rival.

Therefore Mr Bashir and Gen Kayani chose to reserve special attention for India without fear of any kind of reprisal because lets face it Indians are a bunch of softies who will not dare to talk back and once you threaten them with derailing the peace talk the current government which has made it as an ego issue will capitulate and stop pressurizing you to do anything plus your people will be re-assured that all is well .

Pakistani Military Statement

138th Corps Commanders' Conference was held today at General Headquarters Rawalpindi. General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, Chief of Army Staff (COAS) chaired the meeting.


One point agenda was the Abbottabad incident in which Osama Bin Laden was killed by US forces. The Forum discussed the incident and its implications and on military to military relations with the United States.


While admitting own shortcomings in developing intelligence on the presence of Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan, it was highlighted that the achievements of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), against Al Qaeda and its terrorist affiliates in Pakistan, have no parallel. The Forum was informed that around 100 top level Al Qaeda leaders / operators were killed / arrested by ISI, with or without support of CIA. However, in the case of Osama Bin Laden, while the CIA developed intelligence based on initial information provided by ISI, it did not share further development of intelligence on the case with ISI, contrary to the existing practice between the two services. Nonetheless, an investigation has been ordered into the circumstances that led to this situation.


COAS made it very clear that any similar action, violating the sovereignty of Pakistan, will warrant a review on the level of military / intelligence cooperation with the United States.


The Corps Commanders were informed about the decision to reduce the strength of US military personnel in Pakistan to the minimum essential.


As regards the possibility of similar hostile action against our strategic assets, the Forum reaffirmed that, unlike an undefended civilian compound, our strategic assets are well protected and an elaborate defensive mechanism is in place.


The Forum, taking serious note of the assertions made by Indian military leadership about conducting similar operations, made it very clear that any misadventure of this kind will be responded to very strongly. There should be no doubt about it.


The Forum reiterated the resolve to defend the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Pakistan and to fight the menace of terrorism, with the support and help of the people of Pakistan.

CIA Assessing All Captured Osama Documents

U.S. intelligence agencies are racing to exploit a trove of documents and computer files that Navy SEALs collected from Osama bin Laden's compound in Pakistan before other al-Qaida groups or leaders can change communication methods or move to safe houses.

Many files are written in multiple languages, and some appear in code, U.S. officials said.

"At first blush, there appears to be some value," said House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Mich., who was briefed on the effort Wednesday.

The CIA has created a special task force in Afghanistan to analyze bin Laden's material for clues to terrorist plots, the location of other al-Qaida leaders, funding streams and other fresh intelligence.

The material also will probably lead to additional people being added to the government's no-fly and terrorist watch lists, Attorney General Eric Holder said Wednesday.

Holder, speaking before the Senate Judiciary Committee, said a team of federal intelligence and law-enforcement agencies "will make appropriate decisions with regard to who might be added to the terrorist watch list, the no-fly list, all those things."

About 10,000 people are on the no-fly list, U.S. officials have said. The government's master terrorist watch list is one of roughly a dozen lists or databases used by counterterrorism officials.

Eavesdroppers at the National Security Agency also have stepped up efforts to pick up unusual "chatter" from al-Qaida leaders or sympathizers around the globe after the predawn raid Monday by Navy SEALs that killed bin Laden and four others.

U.S. counterterrorism officials worry al-Qaida cells or franchises may accelerate existing plots to make sure attacks are launched before U.S. intelligence can chase down new leads.

Attack timelines also could be moved up in order to avenge bin Laden's death quickly.

Experts say major terrorist operations, especially those involving attacks on multiple targets, usually take months or years of planning.

Any attempt to change or speed up those plans could create an opening for eavesdroppers to intercept a message or gain other intelligence to help foil a plot.

Western Countries Ask Is Pakistan Doing Enough?

The news about Pakistan army protecting Osama and treating him as a state guest who lived in a palatial house right in the middle of their military town has angered many in the US. They have started asking the question that is Pakistan on our side or is it playing a double game. It must be noted most Indian's were telling US the same thing and most US generals knew abut the ISI and Pakistani armies two faced strategy.

Now th US lawmakers want to know if Pakistan is supporting the same militants that US is fighting and paying the Pakistani army to fight.

The United States has a "complicated but important relationship" with Pakistan, White House press secretary Jay Carney said Tuesday.

Carney told reporters that U.S. officials need to learn more about the "support network" that sustained bin Laden in Pakistan. But he also warned against "tarring" everyone in Pakistan's government because of the revelation that bin Laden had been living so close to Islamabad.

There has also been "a great deal of important cooperation" in the fight against Islamic extremism, he said. "The idea that these kinds of complications exist is not new."

Official Statement On Osama By Government Of Pakistan

Islamabad: P.R.No.152/2011
Office of the Spokesperson


Press Release
Death of Osama bin Laden

The Government of Pakistan recognizes that the death of Osama bin Ladin is an important milestone in fight against terrorism and that the Government of Pakistan and its state institutions have been making serious efforts to bring him to justice.

However, the Government of Pakistan categorically denies the media reports suggesting that its leadership, civil as well as military, had any prior knowledge of the US operation against Osama bin Laden carried out in the early hours of 2nd May 2011.

Abbottabad and the surrounding areas have been under sharp focus of intelligence agencies since 2003 resulting in highly technical operation by ISI which led to the arrest of high value Al Qaeda target in 2004. As far as the target compound is concerned, ISI had been sharing information with CIA and other friendly intelligence agencies since 2009. The intelligence flow indicating some foreigners in the surroundings of Abbottabad, continued till mid April 2011. It is important to highlight that taking advantage of much superior technological assets, CIA exploited the intelligence leads given by us to identify and reach Osama bin Laden, a fact also acknowledged by the US President and Secretary of State, in their statements. It is also important to mention that CIA and some other friendly intelligence agencies have benefitted a great deal from the intelligence provided by ISI. ISI's own achievements against Al Qaeda and in War on Terror are more than any other intelligence agency in the World.

Reports about US helicopters taking off from Ghazi Airbase are absolutely false and incorrect. Neither any base or facility inside Pakistan was used by the US Forces, nor Pakistan Army provided any operational or logistic assistance to these operations conducted by the US Forces. US helicopters entered Pakistani airspace making use of blind spots in the radar coverage due to hilly terrain. US helicopters' undetected flight into Pakistan was also facilitated by the mountainous terrain, efficacious use of latest technology and 'nap of the earth' flying techniques. It may not be realistic to draw an analogy between this undefended civilian area and some military / security installations which have elaborate local defence arrangements.

On receipt of information regarding the incident, PAF scrambled its jets within minutes. This has been corroborated by the White House Advisor Mr John Brennan who while replying to a question said, "We didn't contact the Pakistanis until after all of our people, all of our aircraft were out of Pakistani airspace. At the time, the Pakistanis were reacting to an incident that they knew was taking place in Abbottabad. Therefore, they were scrambling some of their assets. Clearly, we were concerned that if the Pakistanis decided to scramble jets or whatever else, they didn't know who were on those jets. They had no idea about who might have been on there, whether it be US or somebody else. So, we were watching and making sure that our people and our aircraft were able to get out of Pakistani airspace. And thankfully, there was no engagement with Pakistani forces. This operation was designed to minimize the prospects, the chances of engagement with Pakistani forces. It was done very well, and thankfully no Pakistani forces were engaged and there were no other individuals who were killed aside from those on the compound."

There has been a lot of discussion about the nature of the targeted compound, particularly its high walls and its vicinity to the areas housing Pakistan Army elements. It needs to be appreciated that many houses occupied by the affectees of operations in FATA / KPK, have high boundary walls, in line with their culture of privacy and security. Houses with such layout and structural details are not a rarity.

Questions have also been asked about the whereabouts of the family members of Osama bin Laden. They are all in safe hands and being looked after in accordance with law. Some of them needing medical care are under treatment in the best possible facilities. As per policy, they will be handed over to their countries of origin.

Notwithstanding the above, the Government of Pakistan expresses its deep concerns and reservations on the manner in which the Government of the United States carried out this operation without prior information or authorization from the Government of Pakistan.

This event of unauthorized unilateral action cannot be taken as a rule. The Government of Pakistan further affirms that such an event shall not serve as a future precedent for any state, including the US. Such actions undermine cooperation and may also sometime constitute threat to international peace and security.

Pakistan, being mindful of its international obligations, has been extending full and proper cooperation on all counter terrorism efforts including exchange of information and intelligence. Pursuant to such cooperation, Pakistan had arrested several high profile terrorists.

The Government of Pakistan and its Armed Forces consider support of the people of Pakistan to be its mainstay and actual strength. Any actions contrary to their aspirations, therefore, run against the very basis on which the edifice of national defence and security is based. Pakistan Army and intelligence agencies have played a pivotal role in breaking the back of Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations in Pakistan as well as around the World. Most of the successes achieved by the US and some other friendly countries have been the result of effective intelligence cooperation and extremely useful military support by Pakistan. The Government of Pakistan and its security forces have resolved to continue their fight against terrorism till people of Pakistan can live in peace and security.


Islamabad
3 May 2011

How much Pakistan got for betraying Osama Bin Laden?

Consider this two army choppers come into a city and land right in the middle at the dead of the night and all the PAF radars fail to pick it up or the local authorities have no idea about the gun fight, crash etc. The city is a military town with the academy there and very close to Islamabad. Nobody knows anything and these commandos kill few chaps, blow up their helicopter and disappear in the night sky, still nobody knows anything

Sorry I don't buy that argument. It is clear that Pakistan knew about it and now is feigning ignorance.

The question arises what was that it got in return for selling Osama to USA.
Obviously it will be something substantial , I have a feeling it has got to do something with Afghanistan. Maybe Pakistan gets to control Afghanistan and Taliban in return for this favor.
Thus Osama's death while is a welcome news but can create more trouble for India in Afghanistan. Most of the Taliban groups/splinters are being controlled by Pakistan. To finish of the influence of al-Qaida it was necessary to get rid of Osama once the Al-Qaida leadership is gone ISI will have much more control over Taliban and other groups.

Osama was a very-2 high value target and I don't think military hardware is enough in return for his death, it has to be strategical payment.

Plus the timing of his death does huge favor to Mr Obama in his re-election bid and if USA withdraws then it has got a victory to show for(pyrrhic victory it may be). By their own admission Osama had become quite a minor player in day-2 operations and Al-Qaida was loosing steam everywhere(except may be Pakistan and Afghanistan)

I can go on to the conspiracy theory of his death and burial but that does not interest me at all, if he is dead and Pakistan was the silent partner then how much Blood Money(metaphorically) was paid to Pakistan for selling its asset(because Osama was an asset for ISI)

Monster Laden Is Dead

Source Reuters


The U.S. is conducting DNA testing on slain al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and used facial recognition techniques to help identify him, a U.S. official said on Monday.

Bin Laden was identified by the assault force that killed him in a firefight in Pakistan in which he resisted and was shot in the head, the official said on condition of anonymity.

Results of the DNA tests should be available in the next few days, the official told Reuters.

The strike force was on the ground for less than 40 minutes and the operation was watched real-time by CIA Director Leon Panetta and other intelligence officials in a conference room at CIA headquarters in Langley, Va., the official said.

“When word came in that the operation was a success, CIA officials in the conference room had a rather large applause,” the official said.

ORDERS TO KILL

Bin Laden was killed in a U.S.-led operation involving helicopters and ground forces in Pakistan on Sunday, ending a nearly 10-year worldwide hunt for the mastermind of the September 11 attacks.