Why US has opted for direct strikes

* Report says US is convinced Pakistan is neither able nor willing to fight terrorists
* Former US presidents had also authorised attacks on terrorist havens

WASHINGTON: President George W Bush’s orders authorising military strikes inside Pakistan mean that the US military will no longer need a presidential finding for each operation, while the responsibility for carrying them out will shift from the CIA to Pentagon.

According to intelligence sources, reports the Christian Science Monitor, officials from the National Intelligence Council recently briefed the Bush administration’s national security team on the potentially dire consequences of US actions that could destabilise the government of a country with nuclear weapons. Even before Bush’s July green light, the Congress had authorised the use of force against terrorist organisations and countries that harbour or support them, while Pakistan’s leaders had been warned of the dire consequences their country would face if they did not unequivocally enlist in the fight against radical Islamist terrorism.

Fighting terrorists: The Monitor report argues that Bush’s July orders signify that after seven years of encouraging Pakistan to take on extremists harboured in remote areas along its Afghan border and subsidising the Pakistani military for it, the US has become convinced that Pakistan is neither able nor willing to fight Taliban and Al Qaeda elements. Recent events appear to have convinced at least some in the administration that parts of Pakistan’s military and intelligence service are actually aiding the extremists. Even before the July order, the US had undertaken covert operations in Pakistan’s Tribal Areas, while the CIA had stepped up Predator missile attacks.

Authorisation: “Precedence for the orders authorising the attacks on terrorist havens can be found in President Bill Clinton’s authorisation of retaliatory attacks in 1993 (against Iraqi intelligence facilities) and in 1998 (against terrorist camps in Afghanistan and Sudan), and in President Ronald Reagan’s bombing of Libya, legal scholars say,” the report notes. While commando raids into Pakistan have been debated for years, the tipping point came after the attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul and the one by the Taliban on an outpost in eastern Afghanistan that killed nine US soldiers. That was when the US decided that “enough was enough”. The new orders reflect flagging confidence in Pakistan’s civilian and military leadership to liquidate Taliban and terrorist safe havens in FATA.

According to one expert, one of the primary reasons the US has stepped up cross-border operations is because the Pakistanis are unable or unwilling to root out the terrorists. The US Defence Department’s General Counsel has interpreted international law to authorise unilateral action under these circumstances. A 1999 General Counsel assessment of legal issues in information operations states, “If a neutral nation is unable or unwilling to halt the use of its territory by one of the belligerents in a manner that gives it a military advantage, the other belligerent may have a right to attack its enemy in the neutral’s territory.”

India suggests Pakistani hand in Delhi blasts

NEW DELHI: India’s defence minister on Monday suggested that Pakistan might have aided those responsible for a series of blasts in New Delhi over the weekend that killed 21 people.

“Militants are being supported from across the border and it is a fact,” Indian Defence Minister AK Antony told reporters in New Delhi, adding, “It is a matter of serious concern.”

Pakistan has denied the accusations and issued a strong statement condemning the attacks. Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammed Sadiq declined to comment on India’s claim, adding that he had not seen the full report of Antony’s comments.

The Anti-Terror Squad in Mumbai said it was searching for a suspected Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) activist, identified as Tauqeer. He is believed to have sent e-mails claiming responsibility for Saturday’s attacks. Tauqeer, a former software company employee, went missing in 2001, apparently joining SIMI and going underground.

Swat Taliban free 25 security personnel

PESHAWAR: Swat-based Taliban freed 25 troops as a ‘gesture of goodwill’ on Monday, of the 38 they had earlier kidnapped.

The release followed a Taliban executive council meeting chaired by rebel cleric Mullah Fazlullah at an undisclosed location in Swat, sources privy to the meeting told Daily Times.

Taliban had captured 38 security personnel during a siege of a post in the Dewlay area of Kabal tehsil on July 30. They had killed one of the captives, Taj Muhammad, last week.

Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan told Daily Times by telephone the remaining 13 would be freed “in two or three days” after another meeting.

“We have freed them in respect of the holy month of Ramazan, therefore, we did not [make any demands],” said the spokesman. He said the men had assured the Taliban they would not return to their jobs as soldiers after being released.

Petrol price down by Rs 5 per litre, diesel up by Rs 3.5

* Government still paying Rs 9.5 per litre subsidy on diesel

ISLAMABAD: The government revised petroleum prices on Monday, reducing the petrol price by Rs 5 per litre and increasing the prices of high-speed diesel (HSD) and kerosene oil by Rs 3.50 a litre.

The revision follows a decline in the global crude oil price, which plunged to $91 a barrel on Monday – the lowest since February.

The Petroleum Ministry presented a summery to Prime Minster Yousuf Raza Gilani, recommending a reduction in the petrol price by Rs 5 to Rs 7 a litre and an increase in the HSD and kerosene oil prices by Rs 5.

The new per litre petroleum prices will be: petrol Rs 81.66, HSD Rs 68.14, and kerosene oil Rs 61.87. The prices for the current fortnight will be effective from Tuesday (today).

Sources in the ministry said the government was still paying a subsidy of Rs 9.50 per litre on diesel despite the current hike. Earlier, the government was paying a subsidy of Rs 13 a litre on diesel.

The sources added the Finance Ministry had opposed the reduction in the petrol price because, according to the ministry, the national exchequer was still burdened by the subsidy.

They said the ministry had informed the government that it owed Rs 60 billion in price differential claims to oil marketing companies (OMCs), which had warned the country could face oil shortage if they were not paid differential claims to place orders for oil import.

The ministry owes Rs 30 billion in differential claims to the Pakistan State Oil (PSO), Rs 10 billion to Shell and Rs 20 billion to other small OMCs.

Nothing can stop army from defending Pakistan: COAS

RAWALPINDI: Nothing can stop the army from defending Pakistan, Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Ashfaq Kayani said on Monday.

He was making an informal address to soldiers during a visit to forward posts on the Line of Control and the Line of Actual Contact with India in the Northern Areas.

“No odds [can] deter [the army] from pursuing its obligations towards national defence,” Kayani said.

He said the Pakistani nation honoured its army and “this national support is crucial in synergising a national effort”. Gen Kayani met troops on duty at Siachen, the world’s highest battlefield.

He said there was a national consensus on the Kashmir issue in Pakistan.

Zardari-Brown to discuss US attacks today

ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown will meet today (Tuesday) to discuss ways to diffuse the prevailing tensions in the Tribal Areas, exacerbated by unprovoked United States attacks. Adviser on Interior Rehman Malik left for London on Monday to assist Zardari during the talks. Today’s meeting will be the first between Brown and Zardari, who is on a private visit to the United Kingdom. During his visit, Zardari will also meet Muttahida Qaumi Movement chief Altaf Hussain. The two leaders are expected to discuss the MQM’s possible joining of the federal cabinet.

Gilani wants diplomatic solution of raids

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is trying to solve the issue of American attacks inside its Tribal Areas diplomatically, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said on Monday. He said Pakistan was a responsible country and would not act hastily in retaliation to the US attacks. “We do not jump to conclusions and will solve the issue through talks,” he said. Gilani said National Security Adviser Mehmud Ali Durrani had already written a letter to his US counterpart Stephen Hadley and had urged him to desist from taking unilateral action against Pakistan and to solve the issue through dialogue.

US helicopters abort mission in Waziristan

* Firing from ground reported after alleged incursion attempt near Angoor Adda
* ISPR, US-led coalition and Pentagon deny reports

PESHAWAR: Two United States military helicopters turned back to Afghanistan from the border early on Monday after shots were fired from the ground, but there were conflicting accounts of the incident.

Security officials and tribal elders said the threat of an incursion led Pakistani troops and tribesmen to fire, but the Pakistan Army spokesman, the US-led coalition in Afghanistan and the Pentagon denied the report.

A senior administration official in Wana told Daily Times the US forces took off from the Macha Dad Kot base in Afghanistan’s Paktika province.

“The US choppers came into Pakistan by just 100 to 150 metres at Angoor Adda. Even then our troops did not spare them, opened fire on them and they turned away,” a security official told Reuters.

A second security official told AFP that tribesmen joined in the firing after Pakistani soldiers played bugles to alert them.

ISPR: But ISPR spokesman Major General Athar Abbas denied there had been any such incident. “These reports are not correct,” he said. “We have checked, there is an FC (Frontier Corps) post in the area. No helicopter came inside our side of the border, nor did our troops fire at any,” Abbas added.

US-led coalition: The US-led coalition, based in Bagram, said they were not aware of the incident. “Our helicopters do fly close to the border conducting routine missions, but none have attempted to cross into Pakistan. We have no reports of such events,” an official in the media office said.

Pentagon: “I’ve checked into that and find it to be a spurious report,” Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman told reporters. “I’ve checked all the places that would know about something like that and it doesn’t appear to be accurate.”

Meanwhile, the Ahmedzai Wazir tribes have summoned a grand jirga to devise a strategy against possible US incursions, a tribal elder told Daily Times.



Source: Daily Times.