[Tolo News] Top Afghan security officials have launched new accusations against the Pak intelligence service (ISI), alleging their direct involvement in a number of Taliban attacks in strategic areas around the country.
The Ministry of Defense (MoD) and the Ministry of Interior (MoI) cited recent Death Eater activity in Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... and Nangarhar The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country.. provinces as examples of ISI interference. Although Afghan government officials have spoken openly for years about their neighbor's supposed support for terrorist and bad boy groups inside Afghanistan, with greater urgency brought on by the recent spate of deadly attacks around the country, security leaders in Kabul did shy away from ramping-up pressure on Pakistain this week.
MoD front man Zahir Azimi on Sunday said that the Afghan forces' lack of air support and the current political situation in the country have emboldened the Taliban and ISI to conduct more attacks.
"In the recent festivities that occurred in Helmand and Hesarak district, imported muscle were involved in the fighting and most of the planning was done outside Afghanistan by foreign intelligence," Azimi said. "They want to show their strength as we prepare to shoulder complete security responsibility and keep control over specific geography," he added, referring to the security transition taking place ahead of NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A single organization with differing goals, equipment, language, doctrine, and organization.... 's withdraw from Afghanistan at the end of this year.
MoI officials have suggested the Taliban's attacks are motivated by their desire to capture strategic territory in particular parts of the country. "If we analyze the situations in our border districts bordering Pakistain and then evaluate Badakhshan district and move onward toward various districts in Helmand and Hesarak and Barg-e-Matal, these are all part of a plan plotted by regional intelligence, specifically by the Pak military," said Najeeb Roshan, deputy MoI front man.
According to military analysts, Pakistain's supposed counterinsurgency operations in North Wazoo have actually been conducted in order to help get more Pak Taliban fighters into Afghanistan. "Pakistain deliberately started the operation in North Waziristan and those said to be Pak Taliban were pushed into Afghanistan to escalate the war," military analyst Atiqullah Amarkhail told TOLOnews.
But some were more inclined to look inward to explain the recent uptick in bad boy violence around the country, and suggested Afghan government policy is somewhat to blame. "The stopping of nighttime military operations and the releasing of Taliban inmates has helped the group reintegrate and conduct group attacks on various parts of the country," military expert Emal Kaswal said.
Over the past few weeks security concerns have begun to eclipse anxieties about the still ongoing presidential election process. Although there has been no shortage of accusations, whether against Pakistain or Afghan government policy, security officials have not indicated any new strategic plan for curbing the increased violence in eastern and southern Afghanistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
Pak army/ISI inspired by the likes of Hamid Gul and General Beg is our TRUE enemy in the region.
Posted by: Paul D ||
08/04/2014 3:08 Comments ||
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#2
"The stopping of nighttime military operations and the releasing of Taliban inmates has helped the group reintegrate and conduct group attacks on various parts of the country," military expert Emal Kaswal said.
[Tolo News] Herat ...a venerable old Persian-speaking city in western Afghanistan, populated mostly by Tadjiks, which is why it's not as blood-soaked as areas controlled by Pashtuns... Police Chief, General Samiullah Qatrah, on Sunday made claims that Iran was partly behind the recent wave of attacks that have gripped the province, and maintained that there are documents proving Iran's support for local bully boys.
General Qatrah said plots for killing security officials, police and soldiers have been hatched in Iran, adding that several Taliban capos who played roles in recent attacks in Herat are able to freely enter Iran and return to Afghanistan unimpeded. He said the Lions of Islam are provided significant levels of financial support by Iran.
The accusations come at a time that insecurity has increased around the country, and caused a stir in Kabul, where this week brass hats from the Ministry of Defense and Ministry of Interior made allegations that the Pak intelligence service was behind bully boy activities in Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... and Nangarhar The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country.. provinces.
General Qatrah on Sunday said that, over the past ten days, at least six people believed to have been involved in coordinated attacks were locked away Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try! and have confessed to the killings of 11 people, including two Finish nationals.
"In their confessions, they have said that the network is funded by Iran," General Qatrah asserted. "Our demand of countries friendly with Afghanistan is not to train elements of terror and fear on their soil, concentrate on the Afghan nation, particularly Herat, and do not mount injustice and oppression on them," he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2014 00:00 ||
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[Tolo News] Kunar has been the target of missile attacks from Pakistain for the past few years, resulting in the deaths and injuries of many residents and forcing them to leave their homes.
Governor of Kunar has said that the increase in Pakistain's missile attacks are concerning and adds that since yesterday, Dangam and Sarkano districts are continuously being targeted.
"Rocket firing has increased in the past few days and in just the past 24 hours, 118 missiles have landed in Dangam and Sarkano districts, killing two children and two women," says Shuja-ul-Mulk Jalala, Governor of Kunar.
Police and local officials have blamed Pakistain many times for the attacks on parts of the province, but the government has been silent in regards to the attacks.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) said that political means are being sought to solve the issue.
"Efforts are being made through diplomatic means to end the violations from the other side of the border. Other options are being considered to implement when needed," says Ahmad Shekib Mustghn, MoFA spokesperson.
Military analysts believe that the government of Afghanistan must seriously take a decision for solving this matter that has been persisted for many years.
"During all these years, Afghanistan's soil has been interfered through different ways. From direct border interference to rocket attacks, to bombing and sending terrorists, but unfortunately, a transparent and firm stance that could protect our national interests is not taken by the government," says Jawed Kohistan ...a backwoods district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa distinguished by being even more rustic than is the norm among the local Pashtuns.... i, a military analyst.
Pakistain missile attacks have been ongoing for the past four years, with the excuse of Taliban presence on Afghan soil. The government of Afghanistan has always rejected Pakistain's claims, but has not been able to end the attacks.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2014 00:00 ||
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[ARABNEWS] Afghan presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah ... the former foreign minister of the Northern Alliance government, advisor to Masood, and candidate for president against Karzai. Dr. Abdullah was born in Kabul and is half Tadjik and half Pashtun... on Sunday withdrew his support from an anti-fraud audit of votes, as US-led efforts to keep the election on track descended into further uncertainty.
The country's first democratic transfer of power has been engulfed in a dispute over alleged fraud, wrecking hopes that the election would be seen as a key achievement of the international military and civilian aid effort since 2001.
Instead, the contest between Abdullah, a former anti-Taliban resistance fighter, and Ashraf Ghani, an ex-World Bank economist, threatens to spark a spiral of instability as NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... troops pull out and violence increases nationwide.
After Abdullah rejected preliminary results that named Ghani as the winner of the June 14 election, US Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a lucky hat, conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State... flew to Kabul and persuaded the two candidates to agree to the audit to sift out fraudulent votes.
But the UN-supervised process triggered another outbreak of disagreements, and Abdullah's campaign on Sunday refused to rejoin the process after repeated stoppages.
"The UN had promised us that they would only begin again after our concerns are met, but, despite that, the process has resumed," Baryalai Arsalai, Abdullah's campaign manager, told news hounds. "This is a continuation of illegal action by the IEC (Independent Election Commission) and we condemn it."
Abdullah's team also alleged on Sunday that second Vice President Karim Khalili had been caught on tape saying that President Hamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... was working illegally in favor of Ghani.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2014 00:00 ||
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[TRIBUNE.NG] EUROPEAN funding is a major factor for the continued proliferation of Al-qaeda, Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... and other terrorist networks, an investigation by the New York Times ...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... has found out.
By paying ransom for kidnapped Europeans, Europe funds al-Qaeda's global business across the globe.
Europe has, thus, become al-Qaeda's cash cow. It purchases arms, trains and finances its members through these ransoms.
Ironically, even though they deny paying ransoms, it was found that European countries paid al-Qaeda and its direct affiliates at least $125 million in revenue from kidnappings since 2008, of which $66 million was paid in 2013.
This is despite numerous agreements calling for an end to ransom paying, including the 2013 G8 summit, where some of the biggest ransom payers in Europe signed a declaration agreeing to stamp out the practice.
Quite naturally, the foreign ministries of Austria, La Belle France, Germany, Italia and Switzerland ...home of the Helvetians, famous for cheese, watches, yodeling, and William Tell... and other countries denied paying terrorists. But the United States Treasury Department was reported to have put ransom payments at around $165 million over the same period. These payments were through a network of proxies, and in the guise of development aid, the report said.
"Kidnapping for ransom has become today's most significant source of terrorist financing," said the Treasury Department's Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, David S. Cohen, in a 2012 speech.
"Each transaction encourages another transaction," he added.
While in 2003 the kidnappers received around $200,000 per hostage, now they are netting up to $10 million, money that the second in command of al-Qaeda's central leadership recently described as accounting for as much as half of his operating revenue.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2014 00:00 ||
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[ARABNEWS] Preachers and muezzins (those who call the faithful to prayer) will not be allowed to work until they undergo security screening, according to directives issued by the Interior Ministry.
Many government bodies will also participate in the new screening amid efforts to boost standards and quality among preachers on the lam mosques, where Friday prayers are held.
The Interior Ministry has notified the Ministry of Islamic Affairs, Endowment, Guidance and Call of the new decision, urging branch managers to abide by the new regulation.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2014 00:00 ||
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Russia is the world's third-largest oil producer and second-largest natural gas producer. Europe relies heavily on Russian energy exports, complicating the West's response to the Ukraine crisis.
Obama downplayed Moscow's role in the world, dismissing President Vladimir Putin as a leader causing short-term trouble for political gain that will hurt Russia in the long term. Projection much?
Obama described U.S. tensions with China as "manageable." Obamaspeak for "We'll just pass it along to the next President."
#7
Taken collectively, IMO all the changes occurring in East Asia may cause China to prioritize expansion to the "Second Island Chain", as opposed to only the "First".
#8
They also make the Soyuez manned vehicles, the only way for our folks to come home. Russians do not re-invent the wheel they make it bigger and stronger, but it is still a wheel and works just fine.
#10
The total russian debt is 228 billion dollars; about 1/4 of obama's yearly deficit. Putin knows Obama and America are morally, politically, and financially bankrupt. Putin does not have to build anything he only has to wait until USA walks away and he will buy whatever the USA built for pennies on the dollar.
#11
Obama thinks Russia is weak and not particularly valuable as a US trading partner so he slaps sanctions on them when they get out of line. The Europeans might have a little more at stake but Obama doesn't care about them because he wants to look macho and Putin makes him look like the sissy he is.
But he gives China a pass for all kinds of human rights violations and atrocities including North Korea's nuclear program. The Chinese persecute Christians, imprison political dissenters, bully and threaten their neighbors and Obama says nothing. That's because China sells us all kinds of plastic crap and buys our T bills. I call that hypocrisy.
#13
Trust me when I say, those of us who make stuff (or more lately, just try to) in the United States have caught seven different kinds of hell from Obama. As I keep pointing out, it's why Russia has been able to do stuff like dismember Ukraine in recent years.
The underlying assumption in a lot of media reports is that we should be so afraid of terrorism that we need to give away our rights to privacy so that not a single American will be harmed. The trade isn't worth it, economically or culturally. If these clowns are at war with us, we need to feel it so we will be motivated to solve the problem and not just have it whitewashed for us.
The evidence is mounting that Edward Snowden and his journalist allies have helped al Qaeda improve their security against NSA surveillance. In May, Recorded Future, a predictive analytics web intelligence firm, published a persuasive timeline showing that Snowden's revelations about NSA's capabilities were followed quickly by a burst of new, robust encryption tools from al-Qaeda and its affiliates:
This is hardly a surprise for those who live in the real world. But it was an affront to Snowden's defenders, who've long insisted that journalists handled the NSA leaks so responsibly that no one can identify any damage that they have caused.
In damage control mode, Snowden's defenders first responded to the Recorded Future analysis by pooh-poohing the terrorists' push for new encryption tools. Bruce Schneier declared that the change might actually hurt al Qaeda: "I think this will help US intelligence efforts. Cryptography is hard, and the odds that a home-brew encryption product is better than a well-studied open-source tool is slight."
Schneier is usually smarter than this. In fact, the product al Qaeda had been recommending until the leaks, Mujahidin Secrets, probably did qualify as "home-brew encryption." Indeed, Bruce Schneier dissed Mujahidin Secrets in 2008 on precisely that ground, saying "No one has explained why a terrorist would use this instead of PGP."
But as a second Recorded Future post showed, the products that replaced Mujahidin Secrets relied heavily on open-source and proven encryption software. Indeed, one of them uses Schneier's own, well-tested encryption algorithm, Twofish.
Faced with facts that contradicted his original defense of Snowden, Schneier was quick to offer a new reason why Snowden's leaks and al Qaeda's response to them still wouldn't make any difference:
Whatever the reason, Schneier says, al-Qaida's new encryption program won't necessarily keep communications secret, and the only way to ensure that nothing gets picked up is to not send anything electronically. Osama bin Laden understood that. That's why he ended up resorting to couriers. Upgrading encryption software might mask communications for al-Qaida temporarily, but probably not for long, Schneier said...."It is relatively easy to find vulnerabilities in software," he added. "This is why cybercriminals do so well stealing our credit cards. And it is also going to be why intelligence agencies are going to be able to break whatever software these al-Qaida operatives are using."
So, if you were starting to think that Snowden and his band of journalist allies might actually be helping the terrorists, there's no need to worry, according to Schneier, because all encryption software is so bad that NSA will still be able to break the terrorists' communications and protect us. Oddly, though, that's not what he says when he isn't on the front lines with the Snowden Defense Corps. In a 2013 Guardian article entitled "NSA surveillance: A guide to staying secure," for example, he offers very different advice, quoting Snowden:
"Encryption works. Properly implemented strong crypto systems are one of the few things that you can rely on."
Scheier acknowledges that hacking of communication endpoints can defeat even good encryption, but he's got an answer for that, too:
Try to use public-domain encryption that has to be compatible with other implementations. ...Since I started working with Snowden's documents, I have been using GPG, Silent Circle, Tails, OTR, TrueCrypt, BleachBit, and a few other things I'm not going to write about.... The NSA has turned the fabric of the internet into a vast surveillance platform, but they are not magical. They're limited by the same economic realities as the rest of us, and our best defense is to make surveillance of us as expensive as possible. Trust the math. Encryption is your friend. Use it well, and do your best to ensure that nothing can compromise it. That's how you can remain secure even in the face of the NSA.
It sounds as though al Qaeda took Bruce Schneier's advice to heart, thanks to leaks from Edward Snowden -- even if Schneier is still doing everything he can to avoid admitting it.
UPDATE: The description of Recorded Future was changed at the request of the company, which said, "While this may seem like splitting hairs, in the world of data analysis software "predictive analytics" has specific technical meaning which implies something different. We use the term web intelligence to reduce this confusion."
#2
But it was an affront to Snowden's defenders, who've long insisted that journalists handled the NSA leaks so responsibly that no one can identify any damage that they have caused.
Insanely ridiculous logic. The intelligence community has absolutely no business divulging the results of security compromises [or lack of compromise] to anyone except those authorized to review them.
#3
This is a quick summary of my understanding of the facts in the Snowden case, and my conclusions from those facts.
First: Nothing published and attributed to him describes an illegal act by anyone other than him.
Second: Much of the unseemly stuff that has come out does show how bad our laws are. And for that we have Congress to blame. And Congress to remedy.
Third: It is clear from his actions and training that he intended to collect and disseminate this information.
From these facts, I conclude that his actions were a premeditated political campaign designed to have the effect of embarrassing the U.S. in general and Congress in particular, as well as degrading the capability of the executive agencies collecting information in accordance with U.S. Law.
These effects are consistent with Russian interests, who now shield him from U.S. prosecution.
Finally, the important issue going forward is not Snowden and his fate, but how to reverse the degradation of the U.S. collection capability and how the political challenge to the Congress' current set of Laws is resolved.
#4
Insanely ridiculous logic. The intelligence community has absolutely no business divulging the results of security compromises [or lack of compromise] to anyone except those authorized to review them.
So basically Snowden screws us over but it's a security violation if we talk about how he screwed us over?
I hate to tell y'all this, but this is gonna be another thing like Benghazi where all the hostile foreign actors know what happened and the only people who don't are the American people.
[DAWN] KARACHI: In a raid conducted during the early hours of Monday morning, Rangers personnel briefly laid siege to the residence of Muttahida Qaumi Movement ...English: United National Movement, generally known as MQM, is the 3rd largest political party and the largest secular political party in Pakistain with particular strength in Sindh. From 1992 to 1999, the MQM was the target of the Pak Army's Operation Cleanup leaving thousands of urdu speaking civilians dead... (MQM) deputy convener and MNA Dr Farooq Sattar, DawnNews reported.
In a presser held outside his residence shortly after the incident, Sattar confirmed that a raid had taken place at his home but that he had "no prior knowledge". He said that after the removal of a security camp outside his house, he was left "unprotected".
The MQM leader said that a licensed 9mm pistol was also ceased from his security guard.
Later speaking to Dawn, he said that his security camp had been "ransacked" and his guards removed without any indication of what security forces were looking for.
"They came on nearly 20 cycle of violences at around 2am and stayed for about 30 minutes," he said. He added that while he did not come into contact with the Rangers himself, he was informed of the incident by an attendant, after which he looked out a window and saw Rangers on both ends of the street.
"The worst part is that I am left without any security. My police mobile leaves at night and this security camp outside my house is my only protection at night. My party ministers just visited and left a few guards at my house temporarily."
"They [Rangers] even went to the houses of my neighbours and kicked the doors. One or two of the doors broke and they forcibly entered the homes of regular citizens that have no connection with my party."
He said that residents Kashif and Asif were taken away, while an MQM worker Rao Shamshad was also taken into custody.
"What have these ordinary citizens done to anyone?" he said, in a telephone conversation with Dawn. "They don't have anything to do with this."
He said that there was no indication from the Rangers of what they were searching for, and said that if they had communicated it to him he would have appealed to residents to let them freely search the neighbourhood.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
"Halp! I may suffer consequences for my earlier actions!"
Posted by: Frank G on the road ||
08/04/2014 11:29 Comments ||
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[DAWN] Bin Yameen will turn 19 this year, but he often wonders what his father, Baligh Jan, looks like now. His father would have been 48 this year; Jan was a labourer, who left home for jihad in Afghanistan on the directions of Tehrik-e-Nifazi-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TNSM ...Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (Movement for the Enforcement of Islamic Law) is a Pak militant group whose objective is to enforce their definition of Sharia law in Pakistain whether anybody wants it or not. It was founded by Sufi Muhammad in 1992, and was banned by President Musharraf in January, 2002 after Sufi dispatched several thousand yokels to Afghanistan to fight the infidel and ended up with most of them killed or captured and held for ransom. In 2007 TNSM took over Swat, which shows how well the banning worked. TNSM is the Pony League of Islamic militancy.. ) chief Maulana Sufi Mohammad.
"I often try to remember my father's face but it is difficult for me to visualise him, because I was just four years old at that time," says Bin Yameen.
A resident of Barawal Bandi village in the Upper Dir district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... , Bin Yameen laments that his family was unable to stop his father from leaving for Afghanistan along with the other villagers. He was adamant about supporting the Afghan Taliban in their fight against American forces.
"We are five sisters and three brothers. Four of my sisters are elder to me," says Bin Yameen. "It was difficult for my mother to meet the family's monthly expenses after my father left for the war in Afghanistan."
According to locals of various districts in Malakand division, over 10,000 people aged between 30 and 55 left for Afghanistan in 2001 to fight the US forces, on the directions of Maulana Sufi Mohammad. His organization, TNSM, was banned in 2002 by former President General (retired) Pervez Perv Musharraf ... former dictator of Pakistain, who was less dictatorial and corrupt than any Pak civilian government to date ... . Not many of Sufi's jihadis returned home, not many have any traceable whereabouts either.
Over time, Bin Yameen's devastated family came to terms with their loss. The young mother focused all her energies on raising her children, while Bin Yameen's uncle took on the financial responsibility of providing for the family.
And yet, a great burden was also placed on Bin Yameen's young shoulders.
"In the mornings, I study; I am enrolled in class IX at the Government High School Chukyatan, which is some 4km away from my village. After school, I work in the vegetable market," explains Bin Yameen. When asked how he manages balancing studies and work, he says that it is difficult but he has no option. "My mother successfully arranged the marriages of four of my sisters, but I am still responsible for providing for my mother, two younger brothers and one more sister."
Bin Yameen takes his younger brother, 16-year-old Ameenullah, to work as well — the family supplements its income in any way they can. But unlike Bin Yameen, Ameenullah neither has a fleeting memory of his father nor has he ever seen a picture of him over the last 14 years. "I was two years old when he left," says Ameenullah.
Their family attempted to search for Baligh Jan in Kabul, but all efforts came to naught. "When my uncle visited Kabul to search for my father, all he returned with was an assurance by Red Thingy officials that they will try to locate him in Afghan prisons," says Bin Yameen. "Our mother has become mentally ill because of the continuous tension."
Meanwhile, ...back at the chili cook-off, Chuck and Manuel's rivalry was entering a new and more dangerous phase... Ameenullah always feels his father's absence on occasions such as Eid or "when the fair comes to our village."
In Qader Kalay village of Upper Dir, 64-year-old Safia Bibi saw her son leave for Afghanistan in 2001 and her husband die soon after. She now works as domestic help in the homes of the rich.
"My 30-year-old son, Badshah Zada, worked as a labourer before leaving for Afghanistan. I advised him to cancel his plans but he refused; he was enamoured by jihad," says Safia Bibi.
Badshah Zada left his wife and two children in the care of his aging parents. After his father's demise, his mother assumed the role of sole breadwinner of the household. "I wish my son had refused to follow the rhetoric and directions of Sufi Mohammad," she says wistfully.
Unlike blue-collar Badshah Zada, 30-year-old Mohammad Mursaleen Khan was teaching at a local seminary in his native Qader Kalay. Like Badshah Zada, he also left for jihad. His 62-year-old father, Mohammedan Khan, is forced to work as a security guard of a school in Upper Dir city to meet the family's monthly expenses.
"Why would I be forced to work in this age if my son had not followed the directions of the TNSM chief?" he asks.
Twenty-eight-year-old Abdullah Jan works in Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... as a labourer; he was forced to abandon higher education after his 50-year-old father, Barkat Jan, left their Kater village home in October 2001 — also for jihad in Afghanistan.
"My father was a farmer," says Abdullah Jan. "Of course, we depended on him to meet our monthly expenses. I failed to complete my higher studies due to the monetary problems of my family after he left us."
In Dogdara village of Upper Dir, 38-year-old Muftahuddin's cousin, 38-year-old Javed Khan, returned home after two-and-a-half-years since leaving in September 2001. His family paid Rs400,000 to Afghan officials for his safe return from jail in Jalalabad, or so they claim. They were one of the lucky ones.
But it is not just jihadis inspired and prepared by TNSM that are languishing in Afghan jails. Former Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao ...Pak dynastic politician, head of his own branch of the Pakistan Peoples Party and former interior minister under Pervez Musharraf. Sharpao began the usual military career, rising to the rank of major, but when his elder brother was bumped off in 1975 he took up the political mantle. Aftab's family (known as the Khans of Sherpao) is a prominent and influential family in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. The family belongs to the Mohammadzai tribe which has for long been a dominant tribe amongst the Pukhtuns... says it is difficult for him to give an exact number of Pak prisoners in Afghanistan, but the figure could be in the hundreds.
"I discussed the issue of Pak prisoners with my Afghan counterparts on behalf of the Pak government but I did not get a positive response from Afghan authorities," he says. But even Sherpao is aware of the reports that the families of many Pak prisoners paid money to Afghan landlords and jail officials to secure the release of their loved ones after 2001.
Sahibzada Tariqullah, Member of the National Assembly from Upper Dir, agrees. He explains that thousands of Paks were either killed, imprisoned or went missing in Afghanistan during the war in 2001. Hundreds returned home with the support of the Red Thingy but there are reports of many more still languishing in Afghan prisons.
According to an official of the ministry of Foreign Affairs, it is difficult for the Pak missions to have an update on detained Pak nationals languishing in Afghan prisons due to the law and order situation there, as well as the existence of 'private' prisons run by the National Directorate of Security (NDS) in Afghanistan.
The officials claimed that over 185 Pak prisoners are currently being incarcerated in Afghan jails — 106 in Pul-e-Charkhi Jail in Kabul; 46 in Sarpoza Jail in Kandahar; 26 in Jalalabad; and the remaining in Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... , Herat ...a venerable old Persian-speaking city in western Afghanistan, populated mostly by Tadjiks, which is why it's not as blood-soaked as areas controlled by Pashtuns... and Mazar Sharif.
"Back in 2001, the government did not prepare any lists of such Paks because it was trying to stop them from crossing the border in the first place," says Brigadier (retired.) Mahmood Shah, who served as the secretary of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) between 2003 and 2005. He pins the blame on Sufi Mohammad for the killings and missing of thousands of Paks while their families are compelled to survive in difficult circumstances.
"Although Sufi Mohammad is responsible for the crises, but under the Geneva Convention it was the responsibility of the Afghan government to provide complete details about the POWs," argues I.A. Rehman, director of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistain (HRCP).
"If Pak prisoners are still being held in Afghanistan, it is contrary to all norms of humanity as well as in direct contravention of the Geneva Convention," adds Rehman.
Foreign Office Spokeswoman Tasneem Aslam meanwhile told Dawn that the Pakistain Embassy in Afghanistan is in process of securing the release of Pak prisoners. She claims that Pakistain and Afghanistan had already agreed to form a joint commission on prisoners in 2011, with Pakistain pushing for early activation of this mechanism.
As long drawn and extended as governmental procedures are, equally short and swift was Sufi Mohammad's message and the speed at which it was consumed. Latifullah, a 55-year-old local school teacher of Government High School Jan Bati, Lower Dir, recalls that people from different towns and villages of Malakand division left their homes to support the Taliban regime back in 2001.
Latifullah describes that most jihad volunteers belonged to the Matta area of district Swat, the Maidan area of Lower Dir, the Dir Kohistan ...a backwoods district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa distinguished by being even more rustic than is the norm among the local Pashtuns.... area of district Upper Dir, Butkhela area of Malakand district, Aman Dara area of district Shangla and Alpori area of district Buner. Then there were others from Punjab, Mohmand Agency ... Named for the Mohmand clan of the Sarban Pahstuns, a truculent, quarrelsome lot. In Pakistain, the Mohmands infest their eponymous Agency, metastasizing as far as the plains of Peshawar, Charsadda, and Mardan. Mohmands are also scattered throughout Pakistan in urban areas including Karachi, Lahore, and Quetta. In Afghanistan they are mainly found in Nangarhar and Kunar... and Bajaur Agency, aka Turban Central ...Smallest of the agencies in FATA. The Agency administration is located in Khar. Bajaur is inhabited almost exclusively by Tarkani Pashtuns, which are divided into multiple bickering subtribes. Its 52 km border border with Afghanistan's Kunar Province makes it of strategic importance to Pakistain's strategic depth... .
A former member of TNSM, speaking to Dawn on condition of anonymity, narrates that Maulana Sufi Mohammad gathered all volunteers in the areas of Timergara and Bajaur for registration. "We just prepared the lists of the people by including their names and their areas; most people were farmers, labourers and unemployed. They left for the Afghan province of Kunar through the Ghakhi Pass, near the Laghari area in Bajaur Agency," he claims.
Caught between the two is Bin Yameen, who has an agonising 'last wish': "I wish I can see my father in my lifetime; I am hopeful he will return one day."
Will these families ever get closure?
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
War, now, has become more important than securing the safety of one's family and the future of one's children.
#3
These Paks are complaining that Afghanistan is violating the Geneva Convention by not providing information about "POW"s.
As I understand the Geneva Convention, the Paks who were caught fighting in Afghanistan would be considered illegal combatants. They were probably not in uniform, and thus not entitled to the protections of the Convention.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
08/04/2014 21:28 Comments ||
Top||
#7
I do have a question for Israel. They KNEW Hamas hid rockets and war making equipment in schools. So why not send paratroopers at night into those schools on day 1 and clean them out of anyone and anything?
Are they to far from the border or too well guarded?
[Iran Press TV] The Israeli regime has prevented Paleostinian worshipers from entering the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in East al-Quds (Jerusalem), Press TV reports.
The report said that the Israeli regime forces blocked all entries to the city as well as to the holy site from early in the morning on Sunday.
Israeli police banned Paleostinian men under the age of 35 and all Paleostinian women from entering the holy site
According to the report, a group of Israeli settlers are planned to tour the compound on Monday.
The al-Aqsa compound, which lies in the Israeli-occupied Old City of al-Quds, is a flashpoint. The compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, is the holiest site in Judaism. It is also Islam's third-holiest site after Mecca and Medina in Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... The al-Aqsa Mosque has been the scene of festivities in recent months following frequent visits by Israeli settlers and officials to the Mohammedan holy site. Israeli forces also prevent Mohammedan worshipers from freely entering the mosque.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2014 00:00 ||
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[Al Ahram] In a press statement issued on Sunday, Ezzat Al-Rasheq — member of Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,' political bureau — said that Israel falsely declared the abduction of a soldier in order to resume its offensive on the Gazoo Strip following a 72-hour ceasefire reached last Friday.
"Israel deceived UN chief the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon ... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan... when it claimed the abduction of its soldier in Rafah, then later claimed he was killed in festivities, taking advantage of the whole situation to violate the ceasefire and commit horrifying massacres in southern Rafah against civilians, including women and kiddies," Al-Rasheq said.
Al-Rasheq called on the United Nations ...an organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships... to change its "biased position" towards the Israeli occupation and apologise to the Paleostinian people for rushing to hold Hamas responsible for breaking the 72-hour ceasefire.
A planned 72-hour truce in the Gazoo Strip fell apart just hours after it was implemented on Friday morning as both sides accused the other of instigating the violence.
"We suspect that a group of Hamas terrorists, including a suicide kaboomer, kidnapped 2nd.Lt. Goldin at 9:30am and dragged him into a tunnel," the Israeli army said on its official Twitter account on Friday.
Hadar Goldin, 23, from Kfar Saba, was captured by Paleostinian fighters during festivities in the southern part of the territory, an Israeli military front man said.
However, a woman is only as old as she admits... in a statement by the Israeli army, a special committee led by the army's chief rabbi announced on Sunday that Goldin had died during a battle in Gazoo. There was no government word on the whereabouts of the soldier's remains.
According to British broadcaster Channel 4 news, the soldier is from a British Jewish family, and is also a third cousin of Israel's defence minister, Moshe Ya'alon.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2014 00:00 ||
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[Al Ahram] Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,' military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, warned Tel Aviv on Sunday that the continuation of the Israeli occupation will put all its cities "within the targets" of the Islamist group.
Because cities are military sites.
In a press statement, the brigades described Israel's occupation of the Paleostinian territories as "dirty", and asserted that "no lives are more worthy than those of our people."
"They make simply marvelous human shields, my dear."
"The occupation forces bravely ran away with their soldiers from the real battlefield with Al-Qassam and the resistance factions, choosing to launch aerial and artillery offensives against civilians," the Paleostinian Press Agency (SAFA) quoted the group's statement as saying.
That's certainly one way to look at things...
"We tried as much as possible to focus on targeting Israeli military personnel, sites, airports and camps, but the enemy chose to cover its failures by attacking innocent civilian in their gathering centres and homes."
Almost 1,800 Paleostinians have been killed in Gazoo and another 9,320 maimed since the start of the Israeli offensive on 8 July. Figures released by the UN humanitarian agency OCHA on 2 August gave a total of 1,525 dead.
So much for pushing the Jews off the land by out breeding them...
Of the 1,196 killed whose identities could be verified, 1,033 were civilians,
... for a very specific definition of civilian that means nothing of the sort...
nearly 84 percent, OCHA said. The number includes 329 children and 187 women.
Of the Paleostinians killed, 191 were members of gangs. On the other side, 66 Israelis have been killed, including 64 soldiers, all of whom have died since the ground offensive began.
According to Israel's army figures, Paleostinian factions since 8 July have fired 3,160 rockets, of which 2,483 hit Israel while 559 were intercepted by its Iron Dome anti-missile defence system.
The remainder never having got out of Gaza, some of which hit various UN buildings and such, causing great upset among the international types and the American president.
Israel says it has struck 4,626 targets across the Gazoo Strip in the 27-day operation.
I wonder if we'll see more anti-war protesters murdered by Hamas in the streets...
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
I'd say Israel should nuke 'em, but the prevailing winds are in the wrong direction...
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/04/2014 17:25 Comments ||
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[Al Ahram] Israel on Sunday opted to unilaterally redeploy its troops in Gazoo without the need for dialogue with Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,, which Tel Aviv has been battling since July 17.
Justice Minister Tzipi Livni also appeared to rule out talks on long-term arrangements or even on a ceasefire in the Gazoo Strip, saying: "Hamas can carry on waiting."
Israel could not "trust Hamas, which has broken all the proposed ceasefires, including two which Hamas itself announced," said the minister, seen as a relative moderate in Israel's security cabinet.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said late Saturday that he would act solely according to Israel's security needs.
"I don't plan on saying when we'll finish (the operation), we have no obligations apart from our security interests," he said. "We will deploy in the places convenient to us."
The security cabinet opted to leave Israel's chair empty at talks planned for Sunday in Cairo, where a Paleostinian delegation arrived on Saturday night.
Delegates include the Paleostinian Authority's intelligence chief Majid Faraj and six members of Hamas.
The Israel HaYom freesheet, seen as Netanyahu's mouthpiece, said: "The window of opportunity for a ceasefire with Hamas is now shut."
Army front man Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner confirmed on Sunday the unilateral but partial withdrawal of some Israeli units from Gazoo.
"We are redeploying within Gazoo, taking out other positions, and relieving other forces from within, so it won't be the same type of ground operation," he said.
"It's changing gear but it's still ongoing."
Public radio said army units had deployed in a one-kilometer-wide (0.6-mile) band in eastern Gazoo, setting up a buffer along the border, while other units had crossed back to Israeli territory.
"The Israeli army should complete the neutralisation of Hamas's tunnels on Sunday and then redeploy to Israel," Israel HaYom said.
"The air force, on the other hand, will continue its raids if rocket firing goes on."
Netanyahu says that in the longer term, Israel will only allow destroyed neighbourhoods of Gazoo to be rebuilt if there is an international commitment to a "demilitarisation" of the enclave, meaning the disarmament of Hamas.
Military radio's political commentator said Israel will block all cement and steel imports unless it receives assurance they will not be used to build tunnels for snuffies to launch cross-border raids.
Senior figures quoted by media suggest Israel is hoping to reach agreement with Egypt and the international community on a possible easing of its eight-year blockade on Gazoo without having to talk to Hamas.
Netanyahu has made his position clear, stating on Saturday: "I of course prefer a diplomatic solution, but if there's no choice, we'll of course use all the means at our disposal."
The fighting on Sunday pushed the Gazoocorpse count given by Paleostinian officials to 1,772, most of them civilians. Israel has confirmed that 64 soldiers have died in combat, while Paleostinian rockets have also killed three civilians in Israel.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2014 00:00 ||
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[FOXNEWS] Israeli's secret service intercepted Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a lucky hat, conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State... 's phone calls during 2013 Middle East peace negotiations, according to the German publication Spiegel.
A year ago and they're just reporting it now? Why did their sources choose to share such second hand information at this time?
Intelligence agents from another country also could have overheard Kerry's conversations as he tried to help reach a peace agreement between Israel and the Paleostinians, several sources reportedly told the publication.
Really? Who are these nefarious beings?
The reported allegations are being made during a difficult time between the United States and Israel, with Kerry being accused of favoring Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, in recent negotiations to end a 27-day conflict between Israel and the Paleostinian-backed Islamic terror group.
In addition, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly was upset with the White House recently for trying to force a temporary cease-fire between the sides.
And on Sunday, the State Department issued a statement critical of an Israel missile attack in the Hamas-occupied Gazoo strip that apparently struck a humanitarian facility sheltering 3,000 people displaced from the conflict.
Agency spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the United States was "appalled" by the attack Sunday, which purportedly killing 10 Paleostinian civilians.
"We once again stress that Israel must do more to meet its own standards and avoid civilian casualties," she said.
The agency did not respond to a request to verify the alleged eavesdropping on Kerry.
Kerry reportedly used encrypted and non-secured phone lines during the talks. And the signals were intercepted when being transmitted unencrypted via satellite, the publication reports.
My darling mother-in-law used to amuse herself by listening to portable and cell phone calls on a police scanner she picked up at a garage sale. What she heard confirmed her rather dark view of human nature. If she can do such things, it seems the infamous Israeli high tech was not necessary for the Israelis and unknown others to do the same with regard to our oh-so-clever Secretary of State. But then Der Spiegel is fond of neither the Zionist entity nor the American one.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
He can discuss his experiences with Angela Merkel.
[Al Ahram] The United States criticized the "disgraceful shelling" at a U.N. school in Gazoo on Sunday and urged Israel to do more to prevent civilian casualties in its war against Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, fighters.
State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki also called for an investigation into recent attacks on U.N. schools.
"The United States is appalled by today's disgraceful shelling outside an UNRWA school in Rafah sheltering some 3,000 displaced persons, in which at least ten more Paleostinians were tragically killed," Psaki said in a statement.
The corpse count from Israel's three-week military campaign on Gazoo has reached 1,766 Paleostinians according to medics. The United Nations ...a formerly good idea gone bad... says more than 80 percent of that number was civilians, including 329 children.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
Oh, blow it out your a**, Jen (and the "US").
Just for fun - having long ago given up on the US and most of the world to be competent, or morally clear-headed - couldn't some native English-speaking Israeli official just do a brutal, fact-based beat-down on this kind of idiotic moral inversion?
#5
Israel needs to bomb Gaza back to the Stone age (and NOT concrete - rock only), and screw what the rest of the world thinks.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/04/2014 18:28 Comments ||
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#6
....shelling OUTSIDE a UN school...
If this is the story I think it is, the Israelis attacked a group of jihadis on motorbikes *outside* the school. (not clear whether the "shelling" was actually arty fire or a missile from the air) People inside a gate, but clustered around it, were hit. It was not an attack on the school itself.
For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that,
an' "Chuck him out, the brute!"
But it's "Saviour of 'is country"
when the guns begin to shoot;
An' it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that,
an' anything you please;
An' Tommy ain't a bloomin' fool --
you bet that Tommy sees!
About 550 Army majors, including some serving in Afghanistan, will soon be told they have to leave the service by next spring as part of a budget-driven downsizing of the service.
Gen. John Campbell, the vice chief of the Army, acknowledged Friday that telling troops in a war zone that they're out of a job is a difficult task. But he said some of the soldiers could join the National Guard or the Army Reserve.
The decision to cut Army majors comes on the heels of a move to slash nearly 1,200 captains from the ranks. Army leaders were criticized at the time for giving 48 of them the bad news while they were deployed to Afghanistan.
The Army declined to say how many majors will be notified while they are at the battlefront.
"The ones that are deployed are certainly the hardest," Campbell told news hounds. "What we try to do there is, working through the chain of command, minimize the impact to that unit and then maximize the time to provide to that officer to come back and do the proper transition, to take care of himself or herself, and the family."
Campbell said it's difficult to avoid cutting deployed soldiers because of the timing schedules.
All the soldiers being forced to leave have probably already been given a heads-up that they were at risk of the job cut and will meet with a senior officer, according to the Army.
Those who are cut have nine months to leave the Army. And the soldiers who are deployed, including those in Afghanistan, will generally have about a month to move out of that job and go home to begin to transition out of the service.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/04/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
Anyone bothering to tabulate the very substantial dollar cost of a forced separation (SEP PAY)? I didn't think so. Oh by the way, I believe reserve and national guard retirement [should the officer elect to go that route] is offset by SEP PAY, meaning at some point you'll have to pay back the SEP PAY to qualify for your retirement pension.
My info is very dated. If the law has changed and the above is incorrect, please someone, speak out.
#2
An open invitation to any U.S. Army Major reading this, who is being separated:
Please send me your resume. I have an immediate need for someone who has completed CGSC and has an intel/signals background. But I need field grade talent from every branch (even MP and Chemical).
I cannot publish my contact information here, but you will easily find my job listings on the internet. I am watching my inbox. Please be in it. And thank you for your service.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
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Wazoo
After Abdullah rejected preliminary results that named Ghani as the winner of the June 14 election, US Secretary of State 
[ARABNEWS] Preachers and muezzins (those who call the faithful to prayer) will not be allowed to work until they undergo security screening, according to directives issued by the Interior Ministry.
[DAWN] Bin Yameen will turn 19 this year, but he often wonders what his father, Baligh Jan, looks like now. His father would have been 48 this year; Jan was a labourer, who left home for jihad in Afghanistan on the directions of Tehrik-e-Nifazi-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (
Pervez 
...Pak dynastic politician, head of his own branch of the Pakistan Peoples Party and former interior minister under Pervez Musharraf. Sharpao began the usual military career, rising to the rank of major, but when his elder brother was bumped off in 1975 he took up the political mantle. Aftab's family (known as the Khans of Sherpao) is a prominent and influential family in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. The family belongs to the Mohammadzai tribe which has for long been a dominant tribe amongst the Pukhtuns...
Mohmand Agency
the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
[FOXNEWS] Israeli's secret service intercepted Secretary of State 
