Eideard

We sit down to talk, the smile goes away!
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Islamabad — An unusually powerful American delegation arrived here on Thursday to deliver the starkest warning yet to Pakistan, according to a senior American official: that the United States would act unilaterally if necessary to attack extremist groups that use the country as a haven to kill Americans…

“This is a time for clarity,” Mrs. Clinton declared in Kabul, Afghanistan, where she met President Hamid Karzai before leaving for Islamabad, the Pakistani capital. “No one should be in any way mistaken about allowing this to continue without paying a very big price.”

“There’s no place to go any longer,” Mrs. Clinton added, referring to Pakistan’s leaders, whom the administration has accused of equivocating by supporting the Afghan insurgency…

Before the meeting, which took place at the residence of Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, a senior administration official said that the delegation would make it clear that if the Pakistanis did not act against insurgents like the Haqqani network, then the United States would have to.

The Haqqani network uses Pakistan’s tribal areas as a base and has become the most potent part of the insurgency in Afghanistan. Before stepping down last month, Adm. Mike Mullen, General Dempsey’s predecessor, called the Haqqanis “a veritable arm” of Pakistan’s intelligence service…

Pakistan’s response remains to be seen…

RTFA. I understand they are between a rock and a hard place. It is – to a certain extent – a problem of their own making. The habit of funneling virtually all foreign aid through Pakistan’s military who dole it out to their bandit buddies as freely as they do to political hacks – ain’t any way to build and maintain democratic and progressive leadership of a nation still climbing out of the Stone Age they agreed to with the departure of the Brits at the end of colonial days.

If they don’t try, if they fail to take a stand for the advancement of the whole of Pakistan’s population while rejecting the sectarian bandits from fear of confrontation – US largesse and tribute must be cut off. Simple enough. Easy enough. Lose the Cold War mentality.

A founding patron of the Taliban in Afghanistan died in the hands of a younger generation of militants in the tribal badlands of Pakistan in the last few days, a victim of the vicious forces he helped create, Pakistani officials said Monday.

Brig. Sultan Amir, known by his nom de guerre, Colonel Imam, was captured by the Pakistani Taliban in northern Waziristan last March. Whether he was killed by his captors, or died of a heart attack as reported by the Taliban, remained unclear.

The demise of Colonel Imam comes 10 days after another veteran figure in the emergence of the Afghan Taliban, Gen. Naseerullah Babar, 82, died after a long illness at his home in Peshawar, in northwest Pakistan.

The death of the two men signified the end of an era of the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan that began in the 1970s, stretched into the American-backed mujahedeen resistance against the Soviet occupation and was followed by the coercive Taliban rule of Afghanistan in the 1990s…

Colonel Imam formed a close bond with Mullah Muhammad Omar, the Taliban leader who welcomed Osama bin Laden to Afghanistan…

A weathered figure with a long white beard and white turban who looked to be in his 70s, Colonel Imam was initially trained by the Special Forces at Fort Bragg, N.C., in 1974, and completed a master parachutist course with the 82nd Airborne Division…

A senior Pakistani government official in the tribal areas, Tariq Hayat, said Monday that he had been informed by a Pakistani official in North Waziristan that Colonel Imam was dead. The militants were demanding a ransom for the return of the body, he said. Only after the body has been reclaimed would the cause of death be known, Mr. Hayat said.

Chickens coming home to roost land in the Pentagon about as frequently as any other center for the training of imperial flunkies.

RTFA for the details. If you have watched American policy in South Asia for a spell you ain’t about to be surprised.

Qamar Zaman Kaira and Athar Abbas

Federal Minister…Qamar Zaman Kaira said that security forces have successfully completed military operations in Swat and Buner, clearing out militants and making the area safe for return of the displaced local population.

Speaking at a press conference with military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas, he said the possibility of isolated incidents of terrorism in the areas cannot be ruled out, as such individual acts can take place even in the settled areas despite all security arrangements…

Kaira said the returnees will be provided transport facility and one month ration and will be entitled to food support till December…

The meeting was told that the area had been cleared of the terrorists and some limited pockets of resistance were in the process of being eliminated. Major population centers and main roads leading to Swat valley and most other areas of the division stand cleared, while top leadership of Malakand based terrorists is being pursued relentlessly, terrorists command and control, logistics and training infrastructure has been destroyed and substantial middle and low level leadership has been killed or apprehended.

Confidence isn’t always an admirable military attribute. I hope their intelligence is accurate enough to impede the resurgence that the Taliban surely intend.

General Athar Abbas said the provincial government, with active support of Army’s special support group has ensured restoration of maximum essential services like electricity, gas, water, roads, fuel stations and banking system. Civil administrative set up and local police services are now adequately functional.

He said the Army will stay in Swat adding that the size and location will depend upon operational requirements for conducting search and destroy operations where required. He said the hideouts of the terrorists will remain target of the security forces. These will be intelligence led operations, which will fully involve the local community in identifying hiding terrorists in their respective areas…

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