• Barack Obama,  Pakistan

    Pakistanis Burn Obama Effigy as America Increases Pressure on Pakistan



    The Obama international honeymoon is definitely over.

    The United States on Tuesday demanded that Pakistan dismantle a terrorist network blamed for attacking a U.S. embassy as Pakistanis defended efforts to fight militants and demonstrated against the increasing U.S. pressure.

    White House spokesman Jay Carney said Pakistan “needs to take action to deal with the links” that U.S. officials say exist between the Pakistani intelligence agency and the Haqqani Network, based along Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan.

    He repeated claims by other U.S. officials that the Haqqani terrorists are “responsible for attacks on the U.S. Embassy” in Afghanistan and on other Western targets.

    The United States has been publicly increasing pressure on Pakistan since Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Congress last week that Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency helped plan the attacks on the embassy and NATO headquarters in the Afghan capital, Kabul, two weeks ago.

    Pakistan defended its efforts to fight terrorism Tuesday, when Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar told the U.N. General Assembly that her country has lost more than 30,000 people to terrorist attacks over the past decade.

    But, never fear, the weak-kneed Obama Administration is now walking back on Mullen’s statements.

    Adm. Mike Mullen’s assertion last week that an anti-American insurgent group in Afghanistan is a “veritable arm” of Pakistan’s spy service was overstated and contributed to overheated reactions in Pakistan and misperceptions in Washington, according to American officials involved in U.S. policy in the region.

    The internal criticism by the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they did not want to challenge Mullen openly, reflects concern over the accuracy of Mullen’s characterizations at a time when Obama administration officials have been frustrated in their efforts to persuade Pakistan to break its ties to Afghan insurgent groups.

    A ship of fools = the Obama foreign policy.

    Come on guys, get your stories and facts straight.

  • Pinboard Links

    Flap’s Links and Comments for August 14th on 12:49

    These are my links for August 14th from 12:49 to 20:46:

    • Iran vows to protect nuclear scientists after assassinations – Iranian Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi announced last week that the regime will increase security around its research staff, according to the Iranian news agency. This is said to be a first step in a series of measures to protect Iran's nuclear scientists.

      The announcement is a first indicator that the regime is concerned about the fact that four key individuals involved in the development of the Iranian military's nuclear program were assassinated over the past two years, Yedioth Ahronoth reported on Sunday.

      The latest incident occurred on July 23, when Darioush Rezaei, who was identified by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as a physicist working on the development of components used in nuclear weapon systems, was shot dead by a motorcyclist in Tehran.

      Despite international media reports on Rezaei's background, the Iranian authorities claimed that it was a physics student who was mistakenly shot.

      The Iranian media reported recently that the assassination was carried out by internal elements, further suggesting that the regime has been shaken by the incident, since admitting that a foreign body was behind the assassination would have caused a bigger embarrassment.

      ======

      Read it all

    • Pakistan lets China see US Stealth helicopter from Bin Laden Raid – Pakistan allowed Chinese military engineers to photograph and take samples from the top-secret stealth helicopter that US special forces left behind when they killed Osama bin Laden, the Financial Times has learnt.

      The action is the latest incident to underscore the increasingly complicated relationship and lack of trust between Islamabad and Washington following the raid.

      "The US now has information that Pakistan, particularly the ISI, gave access to the Chinese military to the downed helicopter in Abbottabad," said one person in intelligence circles, referring to the Pakistani spy agency. The Chinese engineers were allowed to survey the wreckage and take photographs of it, as well as take samples of the special "stealth" skin that allowed the American team to enter Pakistan undetected by radar, he said.

      President Barack Obama's national security council had been discussing this incident and trying to decide how to respond. A senior official said the situation “doesn't make us happy”, but that the administration had little recourse.

      ======

      Read it all.

      And, what will be the Obama Administration's response?

    • President 2012 Poll Watch: Obama Approval Dips Below 40 Per Cent | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – President 2012 Poll Watch: Obama Approval Dips Below 40 Per Cent #tcot #catcot
    • President 2012: Tim Pawlenty Drops Out of Republican Race for 2012 – So What? | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – President 2012: Tim Pawlenty Drops Out of Republican Race for 2012 – So What? #tcot #catcot
    • Flap’s Links and Comments for August 11th through August 14th | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Flap’s Links and Comments for August 11th through August 14th #tcot #catcot
  • Pinboard Links

    Flap’s Links and Comments for May 4th on 14:49

    These are my links for May 4th from 14:49 to 14:55:

    • The Slippery Story of the bin Laden Kill – As for the claim that bin Laden was living in a mansion, as opposed to just a big house, all that's needed to debunk that description is some pictures of the house. A Wall Street Journal reporter went to the scene and gave this eye-witness account, concluding there was nothing mansion-like about it:

      The size and fortress-like nature of the compound stood out in the area, though many of the houses in Abbottabad, built by ex-servicemen and business people, also have high walls. Homes are separated by empty plots where people grow crops like potatoes and wheat.

      The top two floors of bin Laden's three-story house are visible above the high perimeter walls. The house, built in 2005, appears run-down. Grass grows off a ledge below the roof. The outside walls are scarred with damp and mold. A hand-painted advertisement for Jamia Girls College, in Urdu and English, decorates one of the outside walls of the compound.

      One of the awnings on an outdoor window hung down at an angle, perhaps after being damaged during the attack. Otherwise, the house stood intact, with few signs a major firefight only two days earlier.

      There were no visible airconditioning units to keep residents cool through the Pakistan summer. At the back of the house was a small, private triangular garden with a towering fir tree, where bin Laden could have gotten air without being seen by outsiders.

      =====

      Read it all.

      Definitely not a mansion and there has to be a reason why Obama is not releasing bin Laden's death photos.

    • To get bin Laden, Obama relied on policies he decried – Let's cheerfully and ungrudgingly give credit to Barack Obama for approving the military operation that resulted in the death of Osama bin Laden.

      In my Washington Examiner column last Sunday I criticized Obama's foreign policy, which was characterized by one of his advisers in an interview with the New Yorker's Ryan Lizza as "lead from behind." That criticism still stands.

      But in tracking down and nailing bin Laden, Obama led from behind the right way — behind the scenes he made a right but risky decision, without any leaks to the press, to achieve an objective sought by two presidents and thousands in the American government and military since Sept. 11, 2001.

      The decision was risky because the operation could have failed, like Jimmy Carter's Desert One operation to rescue American hostages in Iran failed in April 1980.

      But this time, even though one helicopter was lost, the operation succeeded. There was evidently a lot of redundancy in the plan and a lot of flexibility on the ground. A lot of good people did a lot of good things right.

      ======

      Read it all.

      Yes, he Did

  • Pinboard Links

    Flap’s Links and Comments for May 4th on 12:26

    These are my links for May 4th from 12:26 to 12:38:

    • John Yoo: From Guantanamo to Abbottabad – WSJ.com – John Yoo: From Guantanamo to Abbottabad
    • John Yoo: From Guantanamo to Abbottabad – President George W. Bush, not his successor, constructed the interrogation and warrantless surveillance programs that produced this week's actionable intelligence. For this, congressional Democrats and media pundits pilloried him for allegedly exceeding his presidential powers and violating the Bill of Rights.

      As a candidate in 2008, then-Sen. Obama held Mr. Bush and Sen. John McCain "responsible for the most disastrous set of foreign policy decisions in the recent history of the United States." These decisions, he said, allowed bin Laden and his circle to establish "a safe-haven in northwest Pakistan, where they operate with such freedom of action that they can still put out hate-filled audiotapes to the outside world."

      Upon taking office, Mr. Obama tried to fulfill the dreams of the antiwar left. In January 2009, he signed executive orders to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay and limit the CIA to U.S. military interrogation methods. He made it clear that al Qaeda leaders would be tried in civilian courts. And in August 2009, his attorney general, Eric Holder, launched a criminal investigation into CIA officers who had interrogated al Qaeda leaders.

      Imagine what would have happened if the Obama administration had been running things immediately following 9/11. After their "arrest," we would have read KSM and al-Libi their Miranda rights, provided them legal counsel, sent them to the U.S. for detention, and granted them all the rights provided a U.S. citizen in criminal proceedings.

      =====

      Read it all

  • Pinboard Links

    Flap’s Links and Comments for May 3rd on 19:45

    These are my links for May 3rd from 19:45 to 19:49:

    • Osama Bin Laden dead: Obama took 16 hours to make up his mind – Barack Obama kept military commanders hanging by declaring he would 'sleep on it' before taking 16 hours to give the go-ahead to raid Bin Laden's compound.

      Hit squads of specialist Navy Seals – who were not even told who they were preparing to capture – had practised the mission at two reconstructions of the terror chiefs sprawling compound.

      The mission looked set to be given the all clear last Thursday when analysts confirmed beyond doubt that Bin Laden was in busy town of Abbottabad in northern Pakistan.

      =======

      16 hours?

    • US may have got Osama bin Laden’s Abbottabad clue in 2008 – WikiLeaks – The US may have obtained a clue three years ago that Osama bin Laden was hiding in Abbottabad, according to information gathered by interrogators at Guantánamo.

      Buried in a document from 2008 released by WikiLeaks last week are notes from the interrogation of a Libyan, Abu al-Libi, who had apparently been with Bin Laden in Afghanistan.

      According to the document, Libi fled to Peshawar in Pakistan and was living there in 2003 when he was asked to become one of Bin Laden's messengers. The document says: "In July 2003, detainee received a letter from [Bin Laden's] designated courier, Maulawi Abd al-Khaliq Jan, requesting detainee take on the responsibility of collecting donations, organising travel and distributing funds for families in Pakistan. [Bin Laden] stated detainee would be the official messenger between [Bin Laden] and others in Pakistan. In mid-2003, detainee moved his family to Abbottabad (Pakistan) and worked between Abbottabad and Peshawar."

      Libi was captured in Pakistan in 2005. The CIA says it tracked Bin Laden by tracing the network of couriers, in particular one especially trusted by the al-Qaida leader and who died with himin the US raid on Sunday. The US has not yet named the courier.

      Senior members of the Bush administration claim evidence gained in Guantánamo has provided important information, in this case supposedly leading to Bin Laden.

      WikiLeaks released the report last week, prompting speculation that the US, afraid that its planned raid might be pre-empted, brought forward its attack.

      =====

      If true, then why did the Obama Administration wait so long?

  • Pinboard Links

    Flap’s Links and Comments for May 3rd on 06:25

    These are my links for May 3rd from 06:25 to 06:29:

    • Clues Gradually Led to the Location of Osama bin Laden – For years, the agonizing search for Osama bin Laden kept coming up empty. Then last July, Pakistanis working for the Central Intelligence Agency drove up behind a white Suzuki navigating the bustling streets near Peshawar, Pakistan, and wrote down the car’s license plate. The man in the car was Bin Laden’s most trusted courier, and over the next month C.I.A. operatives would track him throughout central Pakistan. Ultimately, administration officials said, he led them to a sprawling compound at the end of a long dirt road and surrounded by tall security fences in a wealthy hamlet 35 miles from the Pakistani capital.

      ======

      Read it all

      A fascinating story of Osama Bin Laden's demise.

    • Bin Laden lived in Pakistan compound 5-6 years – Osama bin Laden lived for the past five to six years in the compound deep inside Pakistan where the al Qaeda leader was killed by U.S. forces, President Barack Obama's counterterrorism adviser said on Tuesday.

      Bin Laden, who was living in Afghanistan before a 2001 U.S.-led invasion helped topple its Taliban regime, was holed up in a compound in the military garrison town of Abbottabad in Pakistan before Sunday's operation to kill him.

      "Well I think the latest information is that he was in this compound for the past five or six years and he had virtually no interaction with others outside that compound. But yet he seemed to be very active inside the compound," White House counterterrorism chief John Brennan said on the CBS Early Show program.

      "And we know that he had released videos and audios. We know that he was in contact with some senior al Qaeda officials," Brennan added.

      "So what we're trying to do now is to understand what he has been involved in over the past several years, exploit whatever information we were able to get at the compound and take that information and continue our efforts to destroy al Qaeda," Brennan added.

      The fact that the al Qaeda chief had lived in the compound for such a long time has prompted some U.S. lawmakers to demand a review of the billions of dollars in aid the United States provides Pakistan, which is fighting a Taliban insurgency.

      ========

      America must re-evaluate its relationship with Pakistan and

      1. Freeze any foreign aid

      2. Limit travel and require VISAs for Pakistanis traveling to the USA

  • Pinboard Links

    Flap’s Links and Comments for May 2nd on 11:17

    These are my links for May 2nd from 11:17 to 11:41:

    • Tough US question for Pakistan: How did Osama bin Laden hide in plain sight? – But only the days and months ahead will tell if the mutual praise was simply a temporary glow in a deeply troubled relationship between the US and the country that remains, even with the terror figure’s death, the epicenter of Islamist extremism.

      One particularly gnawing question for the US, some analysts say, will be: How is it that Pakistani officials insisted for years that Mr. bin Laden was not on their territory, even as he built and inhabited a huge, walled compound in a city outside the country’s capital that is home to the Army’s military academy and many high-ranking Pakistani military officials?

      Abbottabad, Pakistan: 5 things to know about where Bin Laden died

      “Why was Osama bin Laden able to live, and apparently for some time, in a mansion so close to a military garrison in a major city?” says Lisa Curtis, senior research fellow for South Asia at the Heritage Foundation in Washington. “That’s the type of question the Pakistanis are going to have to face as the two countries assess all the implications of this operation.”

      ======

      A question that will have to be answered satisfactorily prior to any more foreign aid.

    • Musharraf: Bin Laden mission violated Pakistan – Former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf on Monday accused the U.S. of violating his country’s sovereignty by sending in special forces to kill Osama bin Laden.

      “American troops coming across the border and taking action in one of our towns, that is Abbottabad, is not acceptable to the people of Pakistan. It is a violation of our sovereignty,” Mr. Musharraf told CNN-IBN, an Indian news channel.

      He added that it would have been “far better if Pakistani Special Services Group had operated and conducted the mission. To that extent, the modality of handling it and executing the operation is not correct.”

      Bin Laden was killed Sunday in a firefight with Navy SEALs in a million-dollar, fortified compound located in an affluent neighborhood in Abbottabad, about a two-hour drive from Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad.

      Senior U.S. officials, who briefed reporters early Monday, said the Obama administration did not inform Pakistani authorities of the mission until after it was concluded.

      ========

      Screw Musharraf and Pakistan.

      We got Osama, suckers….

    • WikiLeaks: Osama bin Laden ‘protected’ by Pakistani security – American diplomats were told that one of the key reasons why they had failed to find bin Laden was that Pakistan’s security services tipped him off whenever US troops approached.

      Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISID) also allegedly smuggled al-Qaeda terrorists through airport security to help them avoid capture and sent a unit into Afghanistan to fight alongside the Taliban.

      The claims, made in leaked US government files obtained by Wikileaks, will add to questions over Pakistan’s capacity to fight al-Qaeda.

      Last year, David Cameron caused a diplomatic furore when he told Pakistan that it could not “look both ways” on terrorism. The Pakistani government issued a strongly-worded rebuttal.

      But bin Laden was eventually tracked down and killed in compound located just a few hundred yards from Pakistan’s prestigious military academy in Abbotabad.

      =======

      America's realtionship with Pakistan will be re-examined particularly by the U.S. Congress which funds Pakistan's foreign aid.

  • Pinboard Links

    Flap’s Links and Comments for March 16th on 20:49

    These are my links for March 16th from 20:49 to 20:55:

    • C.I.A. Security Officer Is Freed in Pakistan as Redress Is Paid – A C.I.A. security officer jailed for killing two Pakistanis on a crowded Lahore street was released Wednesday after weeks of secret negotiations between American and Pakistani officials, a pledge of millions of dollars in “blood money” to the victims’ families, and quiet political pressure by Pakistani officials on the courts.

      The fatal shootings by Raymond A. Davis, who was immediately flown out of the country to Kabul, Afghanistan, had ignited a furor here and brought relations between the C.I.A. and Pakistan’s spy service to perhaps their lowest ebb since the Sept. 11 attacks.

      Mr. Davis’s release appears to have temporarily cooled frictions between the two wary allies, but it left unresolved many of the irritants that strained ties in the first place. American officials insisted on Wednesday that the C.I.A. made no pledges to scale back covert operations in Pakistan or to give the Pakistani government or its intelligence agency a roster of American spies operating in the country — assertions that Pakistani officials disputed.

      ======

      Davis or whatever his name is should have been flown out of Pakistan weeks ago.

    • There’s More to Birthright Citizenship Than You Think – The debate over birthright citizenship has focused on children born here to illegal aliens. Admittedly, this is a big deal, with more than 300,000 births a year to illegal-immigrants mothers, though I’m on record as skeptical that changing our citizenship rules should be a high-priority objective for immigration hawks.

      But there’s a whole other part of the problem — children born here to legal, but temporary, visitors. Not green card holders, who as permanent residents are best seen as candidate-members of the American people and whose children should definitely be citizens at birth. The issue, rather, is about “non-immigrants,” foreigners here temporarily as tourists, students, workers, whatever. In this regard, the issue of birth tourism has gotten attention lately, as has the citizenship status of terrorists like Anwar al-Awlaki and Yaser Esam Hamdi, both born in the U.S. to visitors but raised entirely abroad, who’ve tried to use their nominal citizenship to protect themselves from justice.

      ======

      First, E-Verify and then secure the border.

      Civil rights organizations go wild over this issue of birthright citizenship and frankly is too difficult to change with a Constitutional amendment.

  • Al Qaeda,  Pakistan

    Al Qaeda Says They Would Use Pakistani Nukes Against United States

    al-qaeda

    Al Qaeda leader in Afghanistan Mustafa abu al-Yazid making statements from an unknown location

    Well, Duh…..

    If it were in a position to do so, Al Qaeda would use Pakistan’s nuclear weapons in its fight against the United States, a top leader of the group said in remarks aired on Sunday.

    Pakistan has been battling al Qaeda’s Taliban allies in the Swat Valley since April after their thrust into a district 100 km (60 miles) northwest of the capital raised fears the nuclear-armed country could slowly slip into militant hands.

    “God willing, the nuclear weapons will not fall into the hands of the Americans and the mujahideen would take them and use them against the Americans,” Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, the leader of al Qaeda’s in Afghanistan, said in an interview with Al Jazeera television.

    Abu al-Yazid was responding to a question about U.S. safeguards to seize control over Pakistan’s nuclear weapons in case Islamist fighters came close to doing so.

    “We expect that the Pakistani army would be defeated (in Swat) … and that would be its end everywhere, God willing.”

    Asked about the group’s plans, the Egyptian militant leader said: “The strategy of the (al Qaeda) organisation in the coming period is the same as in the previous period: to hit the head of the snake, the head of tyranny — the United States.

    “That can be achieved through continued work on the open fronts and also by opening new fronts in a manner that achieves the interests of Islam and Muslims and by increasing military operations that drain the enemy financially.”

    The United States damn well better have sufficient assets in the area to prevent the loss of those nukes in Palistan. Or pre-emptively, America should go ito Pakistan and take them. Or, at the very least render them inactive.

    Stay tuned…..


    Technorati Tags: ,

  • Al Qaeda,  Muhammad Caricatures,  Pakistan

    Mohammed Cartoon Watch: Car Bombing Outside Danish Embassy

    islm_cartoon_7

    One of the Mohammed cartoons that sparked riots last year throughout the Muslim world

    A car bombing of the Danish Embassy in Islamabad Pakistan is being linked to protests against the Mohammed Cartoons which rocked the world again earlier this year.

    A huge car bomb exploded outside the Danish Embassy in the Pakistani capital on Monday, killing at least five people and wounding dozens more, officials and witnesses said.

    The blast echoed through Islamabad and left a crater over a meter deep in the road in front of the main gate to the embassy. Glass, fallen masonry and dozens of wrecked vehicles littered the area. People, some bloodied, ran helter-skelter in a state of panic.

    There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but al-Qaida No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri recently called for attacks on Danish targets in response to the publication of caricatures in Danish newspapers depicting the Prophet Muhammad.

    A perimeter wall of the embassy collapsed and its metal gate was blown inward but the embassy building itself remained intact.

    Officials at two hospitals reported at least five people – including two policemen – were killed and 32 wounded in the blast, none of them foreigners. It was the second targeting of foreigners in the usually tranquil Pakistani capital in less than three months.

    The Danish response is here.

    Note the car bomb killed native Pakistanis and NO foreigners.

    The Danish foreign ministry advised against travel to Pakistan and the Swedish and Norwegian Embassies have closed.

    What a shameful act of displaced and unreasoned radicalism of Islam.

    islamcartoonsbuy-danishweb

    Previous:

    Mohammed Cartoon Watch: 25,000 Pakistanis Protest Geert Wilder’s Fitna and Mohammed Cartoons

    Live Leak Pulls Geert Wilder’s Fitna After Being Threatened

    Mohammed Cartoon Watch: Osama bin Laden Issues Warning

    Mohammed Cartoon Watch: American Professor Fired in Bahrain

    Mohammed Cartoon Watch: Morocco – Cartoons Are “A Short Step from Terrorism”

    Mohammed Cartoon Watch: The Price of Notariety

    Mohammed Cartoon Watch: Sudan Urges Boycott of Denmark

    Mohammed Cartoon Watch: Solidarity with Denmark

    The Muhammad Caricature Watch Files