Evolution of a War

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article from the WaPo..for people like tahmed..you know..people who back the taliban supporting paki army/isi against american forces..

U.S. Says Taliban Has A New Haven in Pakistan

By Pamela Constable
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, September 29, 2009

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- As American troops move deeper into southern Afghanistan to fight Taliban insurgents, U.S. officials are expressing new concerns about the role of fugitive Taliban leader Mohammad Omar and his council of lieutenants, who reportedly plan and launch cross-border strikes from safe havens around the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta.

But U.S. officials acknowledge they know relatively little about the remote and arid Pakistani border region, have no capacity to strike there, and have few windows into the turbulent mix of Pashtun tribal and religious politics that has turned the area into a sanctuary for the Taliban leaders, who are known collectively as the Quetta Shura.

Pakistani officials, in turn, have been accused of allowing the Taliban movement to regroup in the Quetta area, viewing it as a strategic asset rather than a domestic threat, while the army has been heavily focused on curbing violent Islamist extremists in the northwest border region hundreds of miles away.

As a result, Pakistani and foreign analysts here said, Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province, has suddenly emerged as an urgent but elusive new target as Washington grapples with the Taliban's rapidly spreading arc of influence and terror across Afghanistan.

"In the past, we focused on al-Qaeda because they were a threat to us. The Quetta Shura mattered less to us because we had no troops in the region," said Anne W. Patterson, the U.S. ambassador to Pakistan. "Now our troops are there on the other side of the border, and the Quetta Shura is high on Washington's list."

Patterson also acknowledged that the United States is far less familiar with the vast desert region than with the northwestern tribal areas, where it has been cooperating closely with Pakistan for several years in the hunt for al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders and where it periodically kills insurgents with missiles fired from remotely piloted aircraft. The United States does not carry out such drone strikes in the Quetta region.

As Patterson put it, bluntly: "Our intelligence on Quetta is vastly less. We have no people there, no cross-border operations, no Predators."

Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, has raised new alarms about the Quetta Shura, describing it in his recent report to President Obama as a major command center for the widening wave of Taliban bombings and attacks.

Virtually all of the Afghan Taliban's strategic decisions are made by the Quetta Shura, according to U.S. officials. Decisions flow from the group "to Taliban field commanders, who in turn make tactical decisions that support the shura's strategic direction," a counterterrorism official said.

For a change, it is good to hear that terrorists do not get a free run just by terrorising the population- hindu and muslim alike.

JAMMU: As the country bid farewell to goddess Durga, the demon-slayer, on Dashami and witnessed the evil king Ravana being vanquished on
Dussehra, a humble Muslim woman in a remote Jammu village slew a dreaded Lashkar terrorist single-handedly. ( Watch Video )

Exhibiting astonishing, raw courage, Rashida Begum took on the two terrorists who had barged into her home late Sunday night in Thana Mandi village in Rajouri district. The woman, in her early forties, grabbed an axe and swung it wildly, killing one of the armed terrorists and injuring the other. Seeing his partner meet a bloody end, the other terrorist fled in sheer dread.

A Rajouri-based police officer said the two terrorists of Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Pakistan-based group that carried out the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, had entered Noor Ahmad's home around 9pm with the intention of holding the family hostage.

Police said the two also wanted information on some local targets that Noor and his family members refused to provide. Angered by the resistance, the two began beating them up, threatening to eliminate the family, when Noor's wife, Rashida, took them by surprise, pouncing on one of them from behind. She brought down an axe in powerful blows, killing the terrorist on the spot.

She then charged at his partner who, nonplussed, was trying to gather his wits. Rashida and the rest of the family members soon overpowered him and snatched his weapon. However, the terrorist escaped under the cover of darkness, but not before receiving sharp cuts in the face-off with the furious housewife.

Rajouri's additional superintendent of police Shabir Ahmed said investigations were on establish to identity of the duo but the slain terrorist was believed to be Osama, a Pakistan-based LeT commander, wanted in many cases of extortion and terror related activities. ``We are awaiting more details from the spot where a police team is carrying out further investigation,'' Ahmed said. Security forces are combing the area for the escaped terrorist.

#245 no i am not, riaz sahib. i am talking, as should be quite clear, about these "freedom fighters" (the paindoo half-brains).

Re: # 244 Ahmed Sahib, "the fact is that when you give a paindoo half-brain a gun and pump him up with fancy talk (ghazi, commando, whatever) and send him over to kill and be killed - you are not achieving anything."

Aren't you describing just about any soldier in any military, brainwashed, armed and trained as a killing machine? You yourself are on record as saying that the military guys are not too bright in general.
Riaz Haq, PakAlumni Worldwide

#242 Riaz sahib: i read the rest of your post, and it doesnt get any better. you are merely playing with a term.

it doesnt matter what term you use - the fact is that when you give a paindoo half-brain a gun and pump him up with fancy talk (ghazi, commando, whatever) and send him over to kill and be killed - you are not achieving anything.

And this is not 1980 when i need to convince anyone of that. it has already happened - kashmir is as securely with india as it was in 1980, and pakistan has been wrecked by these paindoo arab-worshipping bastards and their stupid military handlers - and tens of thousands of lives lost in India and in Pakistan.

So - like i say in my post below, one has to be ultra-stupid to still talk in 2009 about "freedom fighters" the way the extra stupid were doing in 1980 when they repeated the same mistake that the merely stupid made in 1965 when they thought they could send infiltrators into indian-held kashmir and start a popular uprising. it is criminal to ignore all this history - and more damage will be done to Pakistan, more innocent people (as opposed to the fat expatriate rats sitting comfortably in the west howling about jihad) will die.

#240 i stopped at ultra-stupid. you are beyond that - a traitor to every community you live in. and chaprasi to the arab ghoondas.

Re: # 238 Ahmad Sahib, Please do not incorrectly attribute others' quotes to me. I encourage you to read and understand my entire comment talking about the history and many definitions and uses of the term "terrorism".
Riaz Haq, PakAlumni Worldwide

people in pakistan, pls understand that the "mujahideen" policy, has not helped people of kashmir in any way. infact the kashmiri cause has been hit real bad by this policy. Indians donot support the kashmiri claim anymore, because they have lost a large amount of troops to mujahideen. And until you can convince us, there would be no freedom for kashmir.

Only time has proven that Pakistan's proxy war policy in Kashmir was absolutely correct. It had cut hindu to its actual size. They literally had to put 3 soldiers at every Kashmiri household to keep it under its occupation.

Since, our fouj and corrupt politcians have sold this country, hindu has started hoping and craoking like frogs.

Shame on all of the baigharat chaprasis of west who sold this revolution so cheap. Laanat on napak fouj and double laanat on its civilian chaprasis.

So who will prophetboy support now?

‘US wants to expand drone attacks into Quetta’
Dawn Report
Monday, 28 Sep, 2009

KARACHI: Senior Pakistani officials in New York have revealed that the United States has sought to extend drone attacks into Quetta and other areas of Balochistan.

'It wasn’t so much a threat as an understanding that if you don’t do anything, we’ll take matters into our own hands,' a report in British newspaper Sunday Times quoted an official as saying.

It said the US was threatening to launch air strikes on Taliban leadership allegedly present in Quetta.

'Western intelligence officers say Pakistan has been moving Taliban leaders to the volatile city of Karachi, where it would be impossible to strike.

'US officials have even discussed sending commandos to Quetta to capture or kill the Taliban chiefs before they are moved,' the paper said.

It said suspicions remained among US officials that parts of Inter-Services Intelligence agency were supporting the Taliban and protecting Mullah Omar and other leaders in Quetta.

The threat came amid growing divisions in Washington about whether to deal with the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan by sending more troops or by reducing them and targeting the terrorists.

This weekend the US military was expected to send a request to Defence Secretary Robert Gates for more troops, as urged by Gen Stanley McChrystal, the US commander in Afghanistan, the report said.

Riaz sahib: So, you claim that "terror" means "swift justice"? That would be funny - if it wasnt so sad.

As we talk about "terrorism", let's see how the term was first used in history, as described in Wikipedia:

The term "terrorism" was originally used to describe the actions of the Jacobin Club during the "Reign of Terror" in the French Revolution. "Terror is nothing other than justice, prompt, severe, inflexible," said Jacobin leader Maximilien Robespierre. In 1795, Edmund Burke denounced the Jacobins for letting "thousands of those hell hounds called terrorists" loose upon the people of France.

Prior to the current "war on terror", a 1988 study by the United States Army found that over 100 definitions of the word “terrorism” have been used. The concept of terrorism is itself controversial because it is often used by states to delegitimize political or foreign opponents, and potentially legitimize the state's own use of terror against them. A less politically and emotionally charged, and better defined, term (used not only for terrorists, and not including all those who have been described as terrorists) is violent non-state actor.

Terrorism has been practiced by a broad array of political organizations for furthering their objectives. It has been practiced by both right-wing and left-wing political parties, nationalistic groups, religious groups, revolutionaries, and ruling governments. One form is the use of violence against noncombatants for the purpose of gaining publicity for a group, cause, or individual.

So, essentially, "terrorist" and "terrorism" are convenient terms defined and used to suit agenda of the definer and user at the time of its definition.
Riaz Haq, PakAlumni Worldwide

Re: # 235: Pew: "It is unlikely that India will make it to the semis".

But it is still possible. Let's wait and see what happens Wednesday. If India go to the semis, it will make a very interesting semi final or final with India and Pakistan facing each other once again in the tournament.
Riaz Haq, PakAlumni Worldwide

Re: # 228 Riaz

It is unlikely that India will make it to the semis.

Re: # 233 stuka: "Indians now have to root for a Pakistani victory over Australia for India to have a chance. "

Isn't that a strange twist? I am glad to hear that Indians don't like to cut off their noses to spite their faces. :-)
Riaz Haq, PakAlumni Worldwide