Existential Threat To Pakistan

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Friends of Pakistan

Existential Threat To Pakistan

Post by Friends of Pakistan »



WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Wednesday called the advance of Islamic militants an "existential threat" to Pakistan and a "mortal threat" to the world and called on Pakistanis to resist their government's policy of ceding territory to extremists.


"I want to take this occasion in this public forum to state unequivocally that not only do the Pakistani government officials, but the Pakistani people . . . need to speak out forcefully against a policy that is ceding more and more territory to the insurgents, to the Taliban , to al Qaida ," Clinton told the House Committee on Foreign Affairs .


Hillary Clinton

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton testifies before the House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. Clinton said Wednesday the Obama administration is prepared for tough sanctions against Iran if dialogue fails and voiced fears over Taliban advances in Pakistan.

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Pakistan last week agreed to impose Islamic law in the scenic Swat valley, 100 miles from the capital of Islamabad . It was part of a peace deal with militants who, rather than relinquishing their weapons, are strengthening their hold, imposing a brutal form of Islamic rule, and advancing into neighboring districts.


"The Pakistani government is basically abdicating to the Taliban and to the extremists," Clinton told lawmakers. The situation in Pakistan , she said, "poses a mortal threat to the security and safety of our country and the world."


Clinton's call on Pakistanis at home and abroad to speak out against their government's policy was an unusually public intrusion into the country's internal politics that could further stoke the rising tide of anti-Americanism there.


Senior U.S. defense and intelligence officials, however, say the situation in Pakistan is deteriorating rapidly and acknowledge that they have no strategy to stem the slide. The officials said the U.S. intelligence community is producing an urgent assessment, known as a Special National Intelligence Estimate, of the political, security and economic conditions in Pakistan .


McClatchy reported last week that a growing number of U.S. intelligence, defense and diplomatic officials have concluded that there's little hope of preventing Pakistan from disintegrating into fiefdoms controlled by Islamist warlords and terrorists, posing a greater threat to the U.S. than Afghanistan's terrorist haven did before Sept. 11, 2001 .


A senior defense official said the militants' aim is to turn Pakistan into "a Taliban -style" state. He and other officials requested anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak on the record.


"The situation in Pakistan has gone from bad to worse, and no one has any idea about how to reverse it. I don't think 'panic' is too strong a word to describe the mood here," a senior U.S. intelligence official said Wednesday.


" Pakistan has not abdicated responsibility or ceded territory to the Taliban ," Husain Haqqani, the Pakistani ambassador to the U.S., told McClatchy . "The agreement in Swat was an attempt to create a local solution, but if it doesn't yield the desired results, then the Pakistan military remains able and available to restore the writ of the state.


" Pakistan faces a serious challenge from the Taliban , and we are very cognizant of it," Haqqani said. "That doesn't mean that Pakistan is in any imminent danger of collapse."


However, the senior U.S. defense official said in an interview this week that the Swat agreement has given the Pakistani Taliban and its militant allies "a taste of victory," and they're likely to resist negotiations and instead seek to extend their control.


From Swat, Taliban forces have probed into the adjacent Buner district and made other expansionist moves.


The senior defense official said he believes the militants' strategy is to slowly encircle the city of Peshawar , the provincial capital of the North West Frontier Province , and cut it off from the rest of the country.


Karachi, Pakistan's financial center, is in the grip of rising ethnic tensions, and is "a powderkeg," he said.


"Where is the trajectory?" the senior official asked. "Absent a vigorous army intervention again, which may be (inevitable) in Swat - I don't think they will have a choice - all you have is a continual erosion (in the government's authority)."


Some U.S. officials say Pakistan's only hope, and Washington's , too, at this stage may be the country's army. That, another senior official acknowledged Wednesday, "means another coup."


The official acknowledged that years of military rule in Pakistan have undermined the country's institutions and helped fuel official corruption and the Islamist movement, but he said that Adm. Mike Mullen , the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has concluded that America's best ally is his Pakistani counterpart, army chief of staff Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani .

Other U.S. and British military and intelligence officials and diplomats, however, are more skeptical of Gen. Kayani's willingness to risk the unity of his forces by launching a more aggressive campaign against fellow Muslims.


( John Walcott contributed to this article.)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/20090422/wl_mcclatchy/3218081
Dr. Syed Ehtisham

Existential Threat To Pakistan

Post by Dr. Syed Ehtisham »



The militants, who had sneaked into Gokand valley of Buner on April 4, were reported to have been on a looting spree for the past five days. They have robbed government and NGO offices of vehicles, computers, printers, generators, edible oil containers, and food and nutrition packets.


Sources said that leading political figures, businessmen, NGO officials and Khawaneen, who had played a role in setting up a Lashkar to stop the Taliban from entering Buner, had been forced to move to other areas.


The Taliban have extended their control to almost all tehsils of the district and law-enforcement personnel remained confined to police stations and camps.


The Taliban, equipped with advanced weapons, were reported to be advancing towards border areas of Swabi, Malakand and Mardan, the hometown of NWFP Chief Minister Amir Haider Khan Hoti.


According to reports reaching here, the militants have set up checkposts and camp bases in Kangar Gali village, along the Malakand border; Naway Dhand village, along the Mardan border; and Tootalai village, along the Swabi border. The sources said officials of the FC camp in Jorh had asked people to vacate their homes in view of threats of an attack.


The militants have started digging trenches and setting up bunkers on heights in strategic towns of Gadezi, Salarzai, Osherai and other tehsils.


After occupying the Buner district and setting up their headquarters in the bungalow of businessman Syed Ahmed Khan (alias Fateh Khan) in Sultanwas, the militants started patrolling the streets and roads with no signs of law-enforcement personnel.


Led by Fateh Mohammad, the militants were asking local people, particularly youngsters, to join them in their campaign to enforce Sharia.


They have established checkposts on roads and are searching all passing vehicles. They have virtually established their writ in Buner region, once a stronghold of the Awami National Party.


On Tuesday, armed groups entered the Rural Health Centre at Jure in

Salarzai area and took away a Land-Cruiser being used by the Expanded Programme of Immunisation (EPI), Buner.


On April 17, they raided a basic health unit in tehsil Chamla and looted 480 cans of edible oil. They took away from the house of a lady health visitor alarge number of food and nutrition packets supplied by USAID and sewing machines from an Action Aid-sponsored vocational centre in the Korea village of tehsil Chamla.


On April 18, they looted a huge quantity of medicine from a health facility at the Afghan refugee camp in Koga in the same tehsil and 640 cans of edible oil from a godown of the World Food Programme in Nawagai.


On April 19, armed men took away a Suzuki Potohar Jeep from a rural health centre in Nagrai.


A group of 20 militants took away a Suzuki Ravi car and 400 cans of edible oil from a basic health unit in Garga.


Another armed group snatched an ambulance, a pick-up provided by Gavi for EPI cell, a Suzuki Ravi from a health centre in Swari.


They also broke into the offices of Paiman (Save the Children) EPI, Jica offices and took away several computers, printers, two generators, fax machines, UPS and other appliances.


The armed men stopped near Ambela a double-cabin vehicle of Paiman going to Buner from Peshawar and took it along with the driver to a nearby camp. Later, they released the driver and escaped with the vehicle.


They have also occupied the main office of Rahbar in Swari.


Dr. Syed Ehtisham
Zaid Hamid, RWP

Existential Threat To Pakistan

Post by Zaid Hamid, RWP »



Siyasat Aur Pakistan with Zaid Hamid as a guest has now been uploaded. In this program he has discussed the current Swat situation and Swat Peace Deal. Link as follows:


http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=E09ACE64FFCF92B7
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