By ZAID HAMID
Monday, 1 June 2009.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—While Pakistan is busy in battling a foreign-funded local proxy Taliban in Swat, Malakand and other areas, the Americans and the Indians are exploiting a distracted Pakistani state to recruit influential Pakistanis as spies.

The American embassy in Islamabad is acting as facilitator in hiring influential Pakistani government officials. U.S. diplomats in Islamabad are facilitating meetings between Pakistani officials and Indian intelligence officials representing RAW.

A few days back one such recruitment attempt came to the fore when the American envoy, Ambassador Anne W. Patterson, arranged a function at the residence of a senior American diplomat – 152 Margala Road, Islamabad – wherein top Pakistani officials were invited from Capital Development Authority, DA, Prime Minister Secretariat, Police department, federal cultural agencies and a professor from the Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad.

Among those honored with an invitation by the U.S. envoy is the Chairman of CDA Tariq Mehmood, Joint Secretary Prime Minister Secretariat Amna Imran, Superintendent Police Mir Waiz Niaz, Director of the Pakistan National Council of Arts Naeem Tahir, Director Lok VersaKhalid Javed, and Professor Amir Bhatti of Quaid-e-Azam University Islamabad.



The more shocking aspect of this entire episode is the fact that the only non-U.S. foreign diplomat invited to this party was non-other than Mr. Rajinder Kumar Sherma who is an undercover RAW operatives acting as visa councilor at the Indian High Commission Islamabad.

The Pakistani nation has the right to ask the above mentioned Pakistani officials under what capacity did they attended that function and under which authority they were introduced to a RAW operative? What is the purpose of their introduction to the Indian intelligence agency and why U.S. is so eager to play a role of facilitator in this campaign for consolidating Indian intelligence assets in Pakistan?

The U.S. and Indians have already started spending huge amounts of money to buy Pakistani opinion makers. The main concern of the Americans and the Indians at this stage is to carry out propaganda against Pakistan and especially against its armed forces. This is a new tactic that has been introduced to get influential Pakistani civilian officials onboard to supplement CIA and RAW psy-ops and disinformation campaign. This is very disturbing.

Due to the prevailing security situation in Pakistan, foreign diplomats and especially the Americans and the British ones, have virtually confined themselves to the security of the Diplomatic Enclave and have limited their social activity to well guarded cocktail parties. In such a situation they resort to arrange such receptions to get inside information and influence those at top positions in civil departments.

Though such functions are not seen as anything strange provided the function is open for officials from different countries but when the attempt is purely made for facilitating the introduction of top Pakistani civilian officials suspected local representatives of Indian intelligence then indeed the Pakistani security institutions should take notice of such activities.

We are already facing grave security problems due to militants’ activities. In such a scenario, we cannot afford to ignor such attempts by the U.S. and India because of their potential to the harm security of the country.

Apart from being vigilant to such anti-Pakistan activities by these countries, Pakistan needs to introduce rules and regulations that banning officials from attending such diplomatic meetings.

Car giant General Motors (GM) has filed for bankruptcy protection, marking the biggest failure of an industrial company in US history.
The widely expected move comes after GM had seen its losses widen following a steep fall in sales in recent years.
The move into bankruptcy protection has been backed by the US government, which is now expected to take a 60% stake in the company.
The White House is also going to put another $30bn (£18.5bn) into GM.
President Barack Obama described the move as "tough" but said it was "also fair" and added it would "give this iconic American company a chance to rise again".
He said that the US government, which will own 60% of the carmaker, would be a "reluctant shareholder" and that he had no interest in running it.
As part of the plan, President Obama said that the share of GM cars sold in the US that had been made in the US would rise for the first time in 30 years.

GM, which had already received $20bn of emergency loans since the end of last year, said in its bankruptcy filing that its current debts total $173bn.
US Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection gives an American company time to restructure its finances while being protected from its creditors.
'Sacrifice'
The restructuring will drastically change GM, with some 20,000 US workers thought likely to lose their jobs as the firm streamlines its operations. It currently has 173,000 employees across the US, Canada and Mexico.
GM announced on Monday that another nine plants will be closed while three more will go on standby, which means production will stop but the factories will be mothballed in case the company needs to expand its output again.

See map of GM plants

President Obama made a direct appeal to the people who are to lose their jobs. "I know you've already seen more than your fair share of hard times," he said.
"I want you to know that what you're doing is making a sacrifice for the next generation - a sacrifice you may not have chose (sic) to make, but a sacrifice that you are nevertheless called to make so that your children and all of our children can grow up in an America that still makes things."
It is expected that GM may be able to exit bankruptcy protection in between 60 and 90 days.
GM's chief executive Fritz Henderson appealed to customers to give them another chance, saying "the GM that let too many of you down is now history".
He also offered "sincere thanks" to US and Canadian taxpayers who are funding the rescue of GM.
'An icon'
Its main European business, Opel, and its UK brand Vauxhall, will not be affected by the bankruptcy protection move. This is because their ownership has been transferred to a trust fund ahead of their sale, GM Europe confirmed in a statement.

Canadian car parts maker Magna International last week agreed to buy Opel and Vauxhall.
While the US government is set to take a 60% stake in GM, the Canadian government is due to own 12.5%, with GM's unions having 17.5%, and bondholders 10%.
Car industry analyst Gary Chaison, a professor of labour relations at Clark University, said the GM announcement marked the end of an era.
"It'll have a huge impact in the US because it's more than just a corporation - it's an icon," he added.
"It represented manufacturing supremacy and good jobs for American workers - that's gone."
GM is now the second of the "Big Three" US carmakers to enter bankruptcy protection, following Chrysler's lead.
Alastair Beveridge, a partner at restructuring specialists Zolfo Cooper, said it would now be interesting to see what happened at Ford, the other member of the big three.

"Ford has so far avoided going into bankruptcy protection, or even needing state support," he said.
"However, if its two main competitors have now taken this radical approach, it will be difficult for them to resist."
Falling sales
GM, once the largest company in the world, has been losing market share since the early 1980s.
It has been driven to bankruptcy by high production costs and the collapse in credit markets and consumer spending. It made losses of $30bn last year.
GM was also slow to move away from producing gas-guzzling SUVs when consumers were looking for more fuel-efficient vehicles.
Toyota sold more vehicles than GM in 2008, putting an end to the US company's 77-year reign as the world's biggest carmaker

In a move to set the stage for another offensive on the Gaza Strip, Israel has warned that the current ceasefire between Tel Aviv and Hamas could be easily broken.
"The ceasefire is not complete and is very fragile," a senior official quoted Israel's hawkish Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as telling a cabinet meeting on Sunday.
The premier also ruled out the possibility of lifting the crippling blockade on the Gaza Strip, saying there are other issues that should be dealt with in the costal sliver.
"We are being asked to ease the living conditions of the population and allow goods and equipment in, but we have other priorities in the Gaza Strip," he added.
"We do not want to strengthen Hamas, not by allowing them to rebuild their defenses," Netanyahu said.
He made the remarks on the same day that the Israeli military launched a large-scale maneuver which hints that another war in the region is imminent.
The Israeli premier added that "we need to find a balance between easing the conditions of the (Gaza) population and easing on Hamas' ability to acquire more weapons."
Israel has long been accusing Hamas -- the democratically-elected ruler of the Gaza Strip -- of arms smuggling, but Hamas repeatedly rejected the allegations and said it would continue to arm its fighters as it is the movements "legitimate right".
Tel Aviv unleashed its three-week-long offensive in the territory in December to stop the movement from fighting its occupation. The all-out war claimed over 1,350 Palestinian lives including women and children but failed to achieve its objectives.
Tel Aviv eventually announced a unilateral ceasefire in January 18, but declined to lift the two-year-old blockade, which was kept even during the war on the coastal region.

A masked Jewish settler from the Yitzhar settlement hurls a stone
towards Palestinian stonethrowers on the outskirts of Hawara village

HAVAT GILAD: Israel’s prime minister on Monday rejected the US demand for a settlement freeze as unreasonable, moving closer to a collision with the Obama administration, while mobs of Jewish settlers attacked Palestinian laborers and burned West Bank fields.

Six Palestinians were injured in the stone-throwing attacks, meant to protest the removal of several tiny settler squatter camps by the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Monday’s events highlighted Netanyahu’s increasingly difficult balancing act. The hard-line leader is trying to keep his pro-settler ruling coalition together by rejecting President Barack Obama’s call for a halt to all settlement activity, at the risk of hurting Israel’s all-important relationship with the US

In an apparent gesture to Obama, Netanyahu has begun dismantling small settler outposts built without formal government authorization. But even that limited step risks triggering settler violence against Palestinians and further international criticism of Israel.

Settlers have vowed to respond with attacks on Palestinians and their property to any attempt to remove even the tiniest enclave — a tactic known as ‘price tag.’

‘We will do everything we can to oppose this,’ said Yehuda Shimon, a resident of the Havat Gilad outpost in the northern West Bank.

In Jerusalem, Netanyahu briefed the Israeli parliament’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee about his recent meeting with Obama at the White House. The American president and his secretary of state, Hillary Rodham Clinton, have demanded that Israel halt all settlement construction, including expansion to accommodate what Israel calls ‘natural growth’ of settler communities.

Netanyahu said Israel cannot ‘freeze life’ in settlements, according to a participant who spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting was closed. Netanyahu was quoted as saying that ‘there are reasonable requests and unreasonable requests.’

Monday’s settler violence started near the radical settlement of Yizhar, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said. About 100 settlers blocked a road to protest Israel’s recent removal of a handful of tiny, uninhabited outposts. Six settlers were later arrested.

Before dawn, near the Kedumim settlement, stone-throwing settlers ambushed a minivan carrying Palestinian laborers to Israel, the workers said. Six of the 15 Palestinians on board were hurt, including Yahye Sadah, 44, who was hit in the head and said he got six stitches.

Police said settlers threw rocks and burned tires in the area. The attackers fled and no arrests were made, they said.

A few hours later, settlers torched a wooded hilltop near Nablus and set trees and Palestinian agricultural land on fire near the village of Hawara, residents said. Romel Sweiti, a Hawara resident, said about 50 teenage settler girls gathered on a main road and blocked traffic as Israeli paramilitary police stood in the background.

Nearly 300,000 Israelis live in the settlements among 2.4 million Palestinians in the West Bank. Another 180,000 live in Jewish neighborhoods of east Jerusalem. The Palestinians claim both areas — captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war — as parts of a future independent state.

In recent years, settlers have set up dozens of squatter camps, or so-called outposts, that lack formal government approval, but often received funding and support from government agencies. Israel has failed to keep a promise to the US, first made in 2003, to dismantle about two dozen outposts.

The US considers the settlements an obstacle to peace, but traditionally has done little on the issue, a policy that appears to be changing under Obama.

Netanyahu has dispatched his defense minister, Ehud Barak, to Washington this week in hopes of winning approval to allow at least limited construction to continue in the settlements, apparently in exchange for removing outposts. But the Obama administration has so far signaled it is not willing to budge.

In another possible diplomatic entanglement, UN investigators on Monday began looking into possible war crimes during Israel’s three-week offensive against Gaza’s Hamas rulers, even though they failed to secure a promise of cooperation from Israel.

Israeli officials have insisted the investigation, led by veteran war crimes prosecutor Richard Goldstone, would not be objective, citing alleged anti-Israel bias by the UN agency sponsoring the probe.

Goldstone, who is Jewish and has close ties to Israel, has said he wants to investigate both Israel and Hamas. He said Monday, after arriving in Gaza City with a 15-member team, he would deliver his report by August.

By Amir Mir

LAHORE: The rising terrorist activities of the Pakistan-based militant organisation, Jundullah (Soldiers of God) threatens not only the Pak-Iran diplomatic ties but also the future of the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project, which was signed on May 22 by President Asif Zardari and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Tehran.According to well-placed diplomatic sources in Islamabad, Tehran has lodged a strong protest with Islamabad over the failure of its law enforcement agencies to dismantle the Jundullah network in Pakistan, which has claimed responsibility for the May 28 deadly suicide attack inside the Ameer al-Momenin mosque in Zahedan that killed 25 people and wounded 125 others.The sources said Iranian officials had expressed their deep concern over the failure of the Pakistani authorities to proceed against the Jundullah network in Pakistan despite having been given specific intelligence.The Pakistani ambassador was told that the Zahedan suicide attack could have been averted had Islamabad acted in time on the Iranian intelligence information.The Iranian authorities had reportedly told the Pakistani ambassador that the three terrorists (Haji Noti Zehi, Gholam Rasoul Shahi Zehi and Zabihollah Naroui), hanged publicly on May 30 in Zahedan for their alleged participation in the mosque bombing, had confessed to illegally bringing explosives from Pakistan into Iran and giving them to the main person behind the suicide attack.Diplomatic circles in Islamabad say Tehranís concern over the growing terrorist activities of Jundullah, across the border in Iran, could be gauged from the fact that its Ambassador to Pakistan Mashallah Shakeri had addressed an unusual press conference in Islamabad on March 20, accusing Pakistan of allowing its soil to be used against Iran and demanding concrete steps to contain its activities. While claiming that the Jundullah network was located inside the Balochistan province, Shakeri had asked Islamabad to curb its anti-Iran activities by taking a decisive action against its leadership. The Iranian ambassador had given broad hints at that time that an Iranian diplomat, who had disappeared in Peshawar in 2008, could also have been kidnapped by Jundullah. In his reaction the same day, a Pakistani Foreign Office spokesman had stated that Islamabad was determined that the Pakistani soil would not be allowed to be used by Jundullah in any manner to destabilise the Iranian government.However, the diplomatic circles in Islamabad say the Iranian authorities had warned the Pakistani ambassador to Tehran on May 30 that Islamabadís failure to act against the Jundullah network in Balochistan could also jeopardise the future of the recently-signed Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project. They pointed out that the Pakistani and the Iranian presidents had only signed the initial agreement after 14 years of delayed negotiations and the most crucial gas sales and purchase agreement had not yet been finalised.On the other hand, the Pakistani authorities in Islamabad do not rule out the possibility of a third player aiding and abetting the anti-Iran activities of Jundullah with a view to damage the Pak-Iran ties and sabotage the ëpeace pipeline projectí.Asked about the origin of Jundullah, the sources said the organisation ostensibly represents the Baloch inside Iran who are disaffected with the Tehran government. While being interrogated at a Quetta jail, the sources said, Abdul Hamid Rigi, the brother of the Jundullah chief, had maintained that the group was formed to protect the rights of the Baloch in the Iranian Balochistan-Sistan region. While asserting that the Pakistani authorities are making all possible efforts to dismantle the Jundullah network from Balochistanís soil, authoritative sources in the Ministry of Interior pointed out that the militant organisation in question had actually stepped up its anti-Iran activities following the June 15, 2008 extradition of Abdul Hamid Rigi from Pakistan to Iran.Highlighting Pakistanís efforts to recover the Iranian diplomat kidnapped from Peshawar, the Interior Ministry sources said the Karachi Police had raided a Karachi locality in February 2008 to retrieve the Iranian diplomat alive. In the ensuing battle, two policemen died while 35 men belonging to at least two banned outfits, the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and the Tehreek-e Taliban Pakistan, were arrested. Yet the Iranian diplomat could not be recovered.

Army recovers 79 kidnapped students from militants



Correction: This story is the accurate version of the previously published 'Taliban kidnap over 500 Cadet College students'. We apologise for the wrong number of students published earlier.
ISLAMABAD: All except one of the kidnapped students and staff members of Cadet College Razmak were recovered in a military operation, the Inter Services Public Relations said on Tuesday.

A statement released by the ISPR said that 79 kidnap victims, including cadets and staff members were recovered after a military operation.
‘All the cadets except one have been recovered in an army operation this morning at 5 a.m.,’ said military spokesman Major-General Athar Abbas.
The operation was carried out in Guryum area, nearly 20 kilometres east of Razmak, where the college is located.
According to Maj. Gen. Abbas, Razmak lies on the route to South Waziristan, where militant still have a stronghold, where the militants were planning to take the kidnapped students. Abbas added that the military anticipated this plan of action and launched an operation on the route leading to South Waziristan.
The resulting firefight helped army overcome the militants and recover the students, he told DawnNews.
Abbas said that the military is not carrying out an offensive operation in South Waziristan and is only preparing for any attacks from the militants in the area, where military convoys have come under attacks.
Earlier on Monday, conflicting reports came in about the number of kidnap victims with most news agencies reporting the figure to be 500.
Militants kidnapped the students of Razmak Cadet College from the Bakkakhel Frontier Region, Bannu, adjacent to the North Waziristan tribal region.
Details were sketchy but the official said that 33 vehicles had started off from Razmak, with 540 cadets, teaching staff and their families after the principal of the college ordered its closure amid apprehensions about an impending military operation against militants.
‘The vehicles were waylaid by armed militants in the Bakkakhel area and commandeered towards Marwat Canal,’ the official said.
Police said that some women and children were later freed. But, the militants carrying rockets, grenades and automatic machine guns boarded the vehicles and commandeered them to some unspecified place.
Another coach, carrying 17 people, including 10 students, a librarian and a doctor, managed to reach the Miryan police station in Bannu. They were later escorted to the Cantonment police station for their onward journey to their destinations, the police official said.
‘The Taliban are behind the kidnapping,’ Mir Sardar, Assistant Sub-Inspector of the Miryan police station, told The New York Times by phone from Bannu.
Marwat Canal leads to South Waziristan’s Spinkay, through Frontier Region Tank, linked up by a nullah frequently used by militants to bypass security checkposts.
Gul Bahadur, leader of the Ittehad-i-Shura Mujahideen, North Waziristan, has wide influence in Bakkakhel and some officials believe that the kidnapping could not have taken place without his blessing.
‘He thinks that he can hoodwink us by escorting these students and teachers to fulfil his commitment not to harm them in his area of influence and then have them kidnapped from Bakkakhel. But we all know whose people operate in Bakkakhel,’ the official said.
The number of those kidnapped varied, but one official put the figure at close to 518, including cadets and members of the teaching staff.
District Police Officer of Bannu Iqbal Marwat, however, said that 67 cadets had managed to reach the police, while over 400 were missing.

Israel has begun its largest-ever defence drill, testing the response of its emergency services to a "doomsday scenario" of missile attacks, bombings and natural disasters.
The five-day national exercise got under way on Sunday, with defence officials playing down any connection to recent and growing tensions with Iran.
The drill simulates simultaneous rocket strikes from the Gaza Strip and Lebanon and missile attacks from Iran and Syria.
It will test the way rescue services deal with attacks, including conventional, chemical and biological strikes against large population centres.
The exercise will also simulate a wave of Palestinian suicide bombings.
"We will be exercising the doomsday scenario of simultaneous strikes against Israel on all fronts and by different means," Shlomo Dror, a defence ministry spokesman, said last week.
On Tuesday, air-raid sirens will sound across the country and Israelis must scramble to shelters, in some areas within seconds and others within no more than three minutes.

Simulated attack

The exercise, code-named Turning Point 3, will also simulate the conduct of rescue and medical services during earthquakes and epidemics.
There will be simulated cabinet meetings in which ministers will weigh their response to the drill's scenarios.
This is the third consecutive year Israel has conducted defence drills.
The manoeuvres began in the aftermath of the July-August 2006 war with Hezbollah in Lebanon, which revealed major weaknesses in how Israel dealt with the rocket attacks on its territory.
"The Second Lebanon War revealed that the homefront was not well prepared for war and citizens found it hard to adapt to the special situation," Dror said.
Al Jazeera's James Bays, on the Lebanese border with Israel, said: "Israel said that this is something that was planned a long time ago. But on this side of the border, people are very suspicious.
"And that is because of the timing. In just seven days' time, the Lebanese go to the polls. Opinion polls show that the race is very tight.
"But at the moment, slightly in the lead are the Hezbollah-led opposition. Israel has already said that if the opposition becomes the new government, they will consider that government the enemy."
'Sabre-rattling'
Turning Point 3 comes just two weeks after the Israeli air force wrapped up a four-day exercise testing its ability to defend against strikes from Syria and Iran.
Israel believes Iran is developing nuclear weapons and has not ruled out a military strike on the country in response.
Iran says its nuclear programme is only for energy production.
Jacky Rowland, Al Jazeera's Jerusalem correspondent, said that while Israel claims that the drill has "no special significance", it is likely to be seen in the context of "Israel's sabre-rattling towards Iran and also towards other neighbouring Arab countries".
"It was only a couple of weeks ago that Prime Minister [Binyamin] Netanyahu was in Washington and he was really pushing the question of Iran and its perceived nuclear threat really to the top of the agenda of his talks with President [Barack] Obama," she said.
"So, although Israel is saying that this is a defensive drill and it is really practising its ability to defend its civilians against attack from outside, inevitably it has to be interpreted by Israel's Arab neighbours - and indeed the Palestinians of Gaza and the West Bank - as a warning, a not so subtle warning of Israel's offensive capacities to strike should these circumstances arise."

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani troops on Sunday tightened their grip on the just-recaptured
main town of troubled Swat Valley, where the military said the operation could end within days, as at least 50 Taliban militants and nine soldiers were killed in fighting in the northwest and the tribal areas.

A day after the Pakistan army claimed it had secured complete control of Mingora, the headquarters of Swat district, security forces began patrolling all important areas of the city. Security forces on Sunday entered nearby Kalam town after fierce skirmishes with Taliban fighters.
Troops were conducting cordon and search operations in Kalam, the military said in a statement.
Security forces also secured a key village 14 km north-east of Bahrain, another Taliban stronghold in Swat, and began consolidating their positions in the area.
Curfew was on Sunday relaxed in different parts of Swat for the first time in several days.
TV channels reported that close to 50 militants were killed in fighting in Swat and the restive South Waziristan tribal region while the military statement put the militant casualties at 27. The statement said nine soldiers, including a lieutenant, were also killed in the fighting.
"The operation in Swat had been completed almost 90%," defence secretary Syed Athar Ali said on Sunday and hoped that the remaining militants would be wiped out within "two-three days".

Army takes ‘complete control’ over Mingora

ISLAMABAD: Operation Rahe Rast made a significant progress with the security forces completely securing control of Mingora city, destroying various training centres of terrorists and killing important militant commanders, the military said.

Briefing reporters about the progress of the operation, military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said the security forces were expecting stiff resistance in Mingora, but the militants started fleeing the area as they came close of being besieged.
Security Forces have successfully secured Nawagai and Najigram. He said securing Mingora was a big success as the large city having two istrategic heights including Saidu and Kamber has transportation links with Malakand, Buner and Shangla.
At Nawagai a large quantity of arms and ammunition were recovered. The people of Mingora have started exposing militants who were trying to pose as citizens.
He said 25 miltants including local commanders (Abu Saeed Misbah ud Din and Sultan Khan) were killed and three were apprehended in various areas of operation, while one soldier laid down his life and four were injured including one civilian driver during an exchange of fire.
In Peochar, the training centres of known militant commanders including commander Lal Din, Said Jalil, Mian Said Liaq were searched and destroyed, including the training base of Maulana Fazlullah.
He said the security forces have commenced operations towards Kalam, Gulibagh and secured the area upto Kedam (3 km north of Bahrain).
A soldier and a civilian driver were killed and two soldiers were injured from an improvised explosive device (IED) near Chamtalai.
During search and clearance operations, miltants attacked troops at Drushkhela and Asharai, in which local commander Sultan Khan was killed after retaliatory firing.
About Dir, he said during a search operation at Kambar Bazar, six miscreants were killed.
He said that upon recieving information about the presence of militants at Kulal Dheri, a raid was conducted and 10 militants killed. Referring to the relief activities by Army at Mingora, he said a team of 21 doctors with sufficient medicines have reached Mingora for re-establishing civil hospital Mingora.
Gas has been restored upto Mingora City. A sufficient number of mobile generators have been provided to run the water pumping stations. Repair work on the restoration of electricity in Mingora has started. He said that it will take at least two weeks to fully restore it. The military spokesman said the weapons recovered from militant strongholds included weaponry of American, Russian and Indian origin.
General Athar Abbas said so far 1217 militants have been killed while 79 including foreign nationals have been apprehended. He said 81 security personnel have so far laid down their lives while 250 sustained injuries.