By GottaLaff
Via a New York Times e-mail alert:
American officials said Wednesday that it was very likely that a radical group once thought unable to attack the United States had played a role in Saturday's bombing attempt in Times Square, elevating concerns about whether other militant groups could deliver at least a glancing blow on American soil.
What, you mean working with your allies as opposed to trying to run roughshod on them actually works? Who knew?
KARACHI, Pakistan – Pakistani intelligence agents have arrested Adam Gadahn, the American-born spokesman for al-Qaida, in an operation in the southern city of Karachi, two officers and a government official said Sunday.When do you think the kudos for the Obama administration terrorism strategies will start?
The arrest of Gadahn is a major victory in the U.S.-led battle against al-Qaida and will be taken as a sign that Pakistan is cooperating more fully with Washington. It follows the recent detentions of several Afghan Taliban commanders in Karachi.
Gadahn was arrested in the sprawling southern metropolis in recent days, two officers who took part in the operation said. A senior government official also confirmed the arrest.
By GottaLaff
A Pakistani helicopter gunship attacked, and most likely killed, a pretty big fish, Maulvi Faqir Mohammed, an al-Qaeda-linked commander of the Pakistani Taliban:
Pakistani officials said Saturday that a top Taliban leader was probably killed in an airstrike in the northwest, dealing another blow to a militant group that fighters say has been leaderless since January. [...]Analysts said that Mohammed's death, coming amid stepped-up military operations and U.S. drone strikes, would help reduce the Pakistani Taliban to something more like the patchwork of local insurgencies that it was before it grew into a lethal umbrella group. Mohammed had been considered a candidate to lead the national organization.
"They're shellshocked," Aftab Sherpao, a former Pakistani interior minister, said of the Taliban. "Pakistan is on the front foot right now."
By GottaLaff
Another one bites the dust:
Pakistani intelligence officials say a Taliban commander wanted in connection with the 2006 bombing of the U.S. consulate in Karachi has been killed in a suspected CIA missile strike.Two intelligence officials said Mohammed Qari Zafar was among 13 people killed in the missile attack Wednesday in the Dargah Mandi area of North Waziristan region near the border with Afghanistan.
By GottaLaff
Once again, President Obama proves what a hindrance he is to national security:
Mulvi Kabir, the former Taliban governor in Afghanistan's Nangahar Province, and a key figure in the Taliban regime was recently captured in Pakistan, two senior US officials tell Fox News. Kabir, considered to be among the top ten most wanted Taliban leaders, was apprehended in the Naw Shera district of Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province by Pakistani police forces.
By GottaLaff
KABUL — Pakistani authorities, aided by U.S. intelligence, said Thursday they have apprehended more militant chiefs following the capture of the Afghan Taliban's No. 2 figure — arrests that together represent the biggest blow to the militant organization since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001.
By GottaLaff
This interview was just excellent. Imagine two people having an intelligent, calm conversation on the Tee Vee Machine! How novel:
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
By GottaLaff
Robert Gibbs is on MSNBC's Hardball right now, with Chuck Todd subbing for Chris Matthews, who is recovering from tests he had related to his diabetes.
Chucky is pressing Gibbs to fill in some blanks.
Gibbs is referring Chucky to the web site and a radio address for health care answers. He's saying we'll save money via malpractice reform. He's reiterating the illegal immigrant policy. "We've had a very good week."
Chuck: You'll need Republicans. At least one.
Gibbs: Obama has talked to Repubs in the past few days... [he won't reveal names because their "phone would ring off the hook"]. He's reiterating talking points about health care reform, you've heard them all.
Chuck: War in Afghanistan... to get Al Qaeda, Bin Laden. Why is he still out there? Is getting him your goal? What is?
Gibbs: Disrupt, dismantle, destroy Al Qaeda and its extremist allies. That's where 9/11 attack started. We want to prevent future attacks. We want to capture or kill Bin Laden, but that's not all. There are terrorists who want to kill Americans.
Chuck: Two enemies: Al Qaeda, the Taliban. If you feel you've destroyed Al Qaeda, then at what point can you say you've destroyed the Taliban?
Gibbs: Taliban wants to destabilize Afghan., Pakistan, sow seeds of terror. We have to disrupt, dismantle both.
Chuck: More R's agree with Afghan. policy than Dems. Pelosi, Levin nervous. How much will Obama work on the politics of that?
Gibbs: Long view: Obama asked to reassess and reevaluate. He authorized more troops to bring security to region, for election. He's asked for a review, assessment since then. No imminent timetable for troop decisions. It'll be many, many weeks. We're working through McChrystal's assessments.
Chuck: Detailed exit strategy for Congress?
Gibbs: We're working with Congress to establish benchmarks.
Chuck: A negative strategy.
Gibbs: It's a measure of strategic progress. We won't be there forever. No resources for that, or manpower, or budget. We have to focus our goals.
Chuck: Reports about training exercise about Coast Guard.
Gibbs: The Coast Guard is trying to come up with explanation. The TV reporting was false, it alarmed too many people, especially today. I wish the reporters had taken time to check for accuracy. It's more important to be first to report accurately, not just first, instead of scaring people.
Sounds about right to me.
A recent poll asks Americans to name the biggest threat to U.S. security. The top 5 answers:
- North Korea, said 51 percent of Americans
- Iran, said 46 percent of Americans
- Iraq, said 35 percent of Americans
- Afghanistan, said 35 percent of Americans
- Pakistan, said 27 percent of Americans
Read more Five Things.
Source: Gallup
You can find the complete interview here.
WASHINGTON (CNN) — President Barack Obama told a Pakistani television interview that isolating extremists is crucial for improving ties between Muslim nations and the United States.
The interview taped Friday at the White House was scheduled for broadcast on Sunday by DawnNews, which is Pakistan's first 24-hour English-language news channel. According to DawnNews, it was the first time a U.S. president granted a one-on-one interview to a Pakistani media outlet.
A report on the interview posted on the DawnNews Web site said Obama called the huge street demonstrations in Iran an indication that the announced election results there "obviously raised a lot of doubts."
"We respect Iran's sovereignty, but we also are witnessing peaceful demonstrations, people expressing themselves, and I stand for that universal principle that people should have a voice in their own lives and their own destiny," Obama said, according to Web site report. "And I hope that the international community recognizes that we need to stand behind peaceful protests and be opposed to violence or repression."
By GottaLaff
Pakistan is the new Afghanistan. I wonder... Is it a summer or an autumn? Oh, but I kid the General... about extremely serious matters:
Commander Gen. David Petraeus said Sunday that al Qaeda, the terrorist group that organized and carried out the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, is not based in Afghanistan.What a complicated, scary mess."This is a syndicate of extremist organizations – some of which are truly transnational extremists," the general told CNN Chief National Correspondent John King on CNN's State of the Union.
"They do come in and out of Afghanistan. But al Qaeda – precise al Qaeda, if you will – is not based per se in Afghanistan. Although its elements and certainly its affiliates . . . certainly do have enclaves and sanctuaries in certain parts of Eastern Afghanistan," Petraeus said.
The military commander added that the local, Afghani version of al Qaeda is still present in several districts of the country.
"The federally administered tribal areas of Pakistan – that very, very mountainous, rugged terrain – just east of the Afghan border and in the western part of Pakistan is the locus of the leadership of these organizations although they do, again, go into Afghanistan and conduct operations against our troops."
Thanks to Taylor Marsh for the vids. Part one above, part two below.
By GottaLaff
Via Breaking News on Twitter:
Reuters: Main aim of new U.S. Afghan strategy: to destroy Al Qaeda's Afghan and Pakistan safe havens.
Reuters: Cost of U.S. Military operations in Afghanistan projected to go up 60 percent, from $2 billion a month now.
AP sources: No timeline for withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan in new Obama war strategy.
Reuters: Osama Bin Laden, other Al Qaeda leaders in Pakistan plotting new attacks on United States -- U.S. Officials
Reuters: NATO allies to send more troops for Afghan elections, according to U.S. Officials.
By GottaLaff
Pakistan's been busy:
Unable to crush massive street protests today that spilled out of this city and threatened to reach the capital, the Pakistani government was expected to announce early Monday morning that it would restore the former chief justice of the Supreme Court and a group of other deposed judges in a major capitulation to opponents.The move reflected the weakening position of President Asif Ali Zardari, a key American ally. Zardari had resisted bringing back former Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry for months, but faced mounting pressure from a broad coalition of opponents who demanded the reinstatement of Pakistan's independent judiciary and threatened to march on the capital, Islamabad, until Chaudhry was brought back.
The decision marked an extraordinary victory for Pakistan's legal community, which had been agitating peacefully for the judges' reinstatement for the past two years, and for Zardari's major political rival, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. He defied house arrest today to lead supporters in a boisterous protest caravan along the 150-mile route toward Islamabad.
By GottaLaff
Here's the latest on President Obama's Afghanistan strategy (excerpts):
The Obama administration is close to announcing a redrawn strategy for a war in Afghanistan that the president says the United States is not winning, focusing on enlisting Pakistan in the fight against extremism and trimming U.S. expectations for military victory, administration, defense and intelligence officials said.
The White House expects to announce new objectives for the flagging war as soon as next week that place an onus on next-door Pakistan to contain extremism, defense and administration officials said Thursday. [...]
The in-house review coordinated by the White House National Security Council lays out objectives over three years to five years, although that doesn't necessarily mean the U.S. military could leave in that time, defense officials said.
The White House objectives were expected to roughly parallel 15 goals contained in a 20-page classified report to the White House from the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Among them were getting rid of terrorist safe havens in Pakistan and adopting a regional approach to reducing the threat of terrorism and extremism in both countries.
The U.S. goal in Afghanistan must be to protect Kabul's fragile government from collapsing under pressure from the Taliban — a goal that can only be achieved by securing Pakistan's cooperation, increasing substantially the size of Afghanistan's national security forces and boosting economic aid in the region, according to senior military and intelligence officials. [...]
An administration official said that although the review was not complete, one thrust was that Pakistan needed to recognize that combating extremism was in its own interest as well as that of U.S. and NATO fighting forces across the border in Afghanistan. The official, like others interviewed for this story, spoke on condition of anonymity because the review was not complete. [...]
It is not clear whether Obama will approve additional forces for Afghanistan this year beyond 17,000 he has already dispatched. His ground commander in Afghanistan, Gen. David McKiernan, has requested up to 30,000 troops. [...]
Broadly speaking, the Obama administration was expected to endorse a doctrine of counterinsurgency that has military and civilian components and that scales back U.S. expectations for Afghan democracy and self-sufficiency. A main theme is the premise that the military alone cannot win the war, officials said.
By GottaLaff
The new (ab)normal.A shocking new report alleges widespread complicity between British security agents and their Pakistani counterparts who have routinely engaged in the torture of suspects.
In the study, which will be published next month by the civil liberties group Human Rights Watch, at least 10 Britons are identified who have been allegedly tortured in Pakistan and subsequently questioned by UK intelligence officials. It warns that more British cases may surface and that the issue of Pakistani terrorism suspects interrogated by British agents is likely to "run much deeper".
The report will further embarrass the foreign secretary, David Miliband, who has repeatedly said the UK does not condone torture. He has been under fire for refusing to disclose US documents relating to the treatment of Guantánamo detainee and former British resident Binyam Mohamed. The documents are believed to contain evidence about the torture of Mohamed and British complicity in his maltreatment. Mohamed will return to Britain this week. Doctors who examined him in Guantánamo found evidence of prolonged physical and mental mistreatment. [...]
Among the 10 identified cases of British citizens and residents mentioned in the report is Rangzieb Ahmed, 33, from Rochdale, who claims he was tortured by Pakistani intelligence agents before being questioned by two MI5 officers. Ahmed was convicted of being a member of al-Qaida at Manchester crown court, yet the jury was not told that three of the fingernails of his left hand had been removed. The response from MI5 to the allegations that it had colluded in Ahmed's torture were heard in camera, however, after the press and the public were excluded from the proceedings.
By GottaLaff
Striking Pakistan:
With two missile strikes over the past week, the Obama administration has expanded the covert war run by the Central Intelligence Agency inside Pakistan, attacking a militant network seeking to topple the Pakistani government. [...]Well, except for this.Under President Bush, the United States frequently attacked militants from Al Qaeda and the Taliban involved in cross-border attacks into Afghanistan, but had stopped short of raids aimed at Mr. Mehsud and his followers, who have played less of a direct role in attacks on American troops.
The strikes are another sign that President Obama is continuing, and in some cases extending, Bush administration policy in using American spy agencies against suspected terrorists in Pakistan, as he had promised to do during his presidential campaign. At the same time, Mr. Obama has begun to scale back some of the Bush policies on the detention and interrogation of terrorism suspects, which he has criticized as counterproductive.
The Pentagon says the Guantanamo Bay prison meets the standard for humane treatment laid out in the Geneva Conventions, according to a report for President Barack Obama, who has ordered the terrorist detention center closed within a year.Am I the only one who doesn't trust this report?
The report recommended some changes, including an increase in group recreation for some of the camp's more dangerous or less compliant prisoners, according to a government official familiar with the study. The report also suggested allowing those prisoners to gather in groups of three or more, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the report has not officially been released. [...]
The report found the camp to be in compliance with the Geneva Conventions Common Article 3, the international rules that require the humane treatment of prisoners taken in unconventional armed conflicts, like the war on terrorism. The camp's controversial force-feeding of prisoners on hunger strikes was also found to be compliant with the Geneva guidelines, a second government official confirmed.
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