By Karin Brulliard
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, October 9, 2010

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan has reopened an important border pass to NATO convoys, 10 days after enacting a blockade that strained relations with the United States and was followed by violent attacks on supply trucks stranded inside Pakistan.

In a brief statement issued Saturday by the foreign ministry, Pakistan said it had lifted the closure of the Torkham border crossing with immediate effect, after "assessing the security situation." Authorites on both sides of the frontier with Afghanistan were coordinating to "ensure smooth resumption of the supply traffic," the statement said.

The annoucement represented the end of a standoff that had heightened tensions between Pakistan and the United States, and a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, Rick Snelsire, said American officials were "pleased by the development."

NATO trucks are unlikely to start rolling across the border again until Monday, however, because the crossing point is closed on Sundays. As of Saturday evening, border officials and drivers at Torkham said they had not received orders about the reopening. A backlog of about 200 trucks and tankers remained idled at the pass, said Shakirullah Afridi, president of the Khyber Transport Association.

Pakistan closed the pass to NATO supply trucks in protest of an airstrike by two American assault helicopters that killed or wounded six Pakistani soldiers. The incident, which came after other controversial NATO incursions into Pakistani airspace, drew stern rebuke from Pakistan, a U.S. ally, and stoked outrage among the strongly anti-American Pakistani public.

A cross-border investigation determined that the helicopter operators struck after concluding that the soldiers - who had fired warning shots from their rifles - were insurgents. That led to apologies from the U.S.-led coalition forces in Afghanistan and top NATO and American officials.

The blockade highlighted NATO's dependence on Paksitan, through which about 50 percent of non-lethal supplies for the Afghan war travel, according to a U.S. military official in Afghanistan.

After arriving at the southern port city of Karachi, about half of those goods are trucked north toward the Khyber pass, where they cross into Afghansitan at Torkham. The other 25 percent of supplies go through a second Pakistani border point, at the city of Chaman, which remained open.

But as the blockade continued, militants and gunmen sought to exploit the anger over the airstrike by burning and shooting at several convoys traveling toward Chaman and parked elsewhere in Pakistan. The latest attack occurred early Saturday, when gunmen torched nearly 30 trucks in southwestern Pakistan.

The Taliban has claimed responsibility for some of the attacks, saying they were carried out to "avenge" the NATO airstrike and CIA drone missiles in Pakistan's lawless tribal region.

Correspondent Joshua Partlow in Kabul and special correspondent Haq Nawaz Khan in Peshawar, Pakistan, contributed to this report.

By Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, October 10, 2010

Few countries in the world face as immediate a threat from climate change as the Republic of Maldives, a low-lying group of atolls in the Indian Ocean whose coastline is eroding and whose water supplies are now being infiltrated by saltwater from the sea. Unusually high ocean temperatures damaged the coral reefs off the Maldives' shores this year, signaling the start of a global bleaching event that now spans from the Pacific to the Caribbean.

Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed has made climate change central to his nation's domestic and foreign policy agenda since being elected president in October 2008. He has argued that the world needs to cut its greenhouse gas emissions drastically to protect countries such as his. As part of the Copenhagen Accord brokered in last year's U.N. climate talks, the Republic of Maldives has pledged to wean itself off fossil fuels altogether by 2020. And on Thursday Nasheed, a former carpenter, climbed the roof of his presidential residence to put the final touches on solar panels that will provide half the power it consumes on an annual basis.

Nasheed answered questions by phone last week about his views on climate change.

Q: To what extent is your decision to install a solar system on your residence a symbolic act, or a substantive act?

A: It has both dimensions. For us, climate change is a very serious challenge. It's a present challenge, it's not a challenge in the future. We need to act now. I know the Maldives going carbon neutral is not going to change the world. It will save us a whole lot of foreign currency [which we spend buying fossil fuels from other countries.] ... We believe it is possible to find a low-carbon development strategy that can be mapped in a way to other developing countries. It is not too late to mend our ways.

What are the ways the Maldives is experiencing the effects of global warming right now?

We are experiencing coastal erosion: Right now we have to relocate 16 islands. We are facing salt intrusion into the water table, and, as a result, we have to install very expensive desalination plants ... [When it comes to tuna fishing], we fish only by one pole and line. If they don't surface, we don't fish them. Ocean temperatures are warmer, and they tend to remain deeper. Our fishermen tell me that the fish are remaining below and not coming to the surface. We are under stress in three different ways.

In light of the climate bill's failure in the United States, some people are arguing that we need to move away from a cap-and-trade system that puts mandatory limits on greenhouse gas emissions and focus all of our energy and money into the research and development of clean energy. What do you think of that argument?

Right now the [U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] framework talks about the negative idea: You need to cut down on things, reduce things. That's difficult to sell. I believe in the good life. You can still have the good life with renewable energy.

Does that mean you would be fine with the idea of not putting a price on carbon or setting limits on greenhouse gases?

You have to be costing things fully according to market mechanisms. What you're paying is not the cost if you don't talk about the climate. Of course, there has to be a level field. Here in the Maldives, it's changing to solar energy.

You've been a vocal proponent of a binding international climate agreement that would significantly cut greenhouse gas emissions. Given the lack of legislation action here in the United States, what do you think negotiators will be able to achieve in the next round of talks under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Cancun this December?

Without the United States, it's quite impossible to have a meaningful agreement. We have on our side the Europeans, and on the other side, the BASIC countries [Brazil, South Africa, India and China] and the United States. I do not see much happening in Cancun. ... We don't seem able to talk about emissions. Let's talk about what's possible [such as international funding for adaptation and preservation of tropical forests].

__________________
You cannot hate a person when you know him

By Craig Whitlock
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, October 11, 2010

HANOI - In the history of diplomatic breakthroughs, it didn't look like much. There was a handshake in front of a couple of cameras, followed by 30 minutes of carefully planned dialogue in a hotel conference room here.

But the meeting Monday between Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and his Chinese counterpart, Gen. Liang Guanglie, the minister of defense, marked the first time that the two superpowers' top military leaders have engaged in talks for nearly a year.

"How are you?" Gates said, extending his hand with an open smile. Liang responded in kind in Chinese and followed later with a formal invitation for Gates to visit Beijing next year.

The niceties put a veneer on a troubled relationship that has fueled worries throughout the Pacific Rim since January, when the Chinese People's Liberation Army cut off most contact with the Pentagon to protest a $6.4 billion arms deal between the United States and Taiwan.

Since then, cooperation on security issues between China and the United States has suffered, with both sides doubting each other's motives on issues large and small, from tensions on the Korean Peninsula to naval exercises in international waters that were once seen as routine. Still, it is not expected that cooperation will suddenly improve, as distrust dominates the military relationship and China is particularly reluctant to engage in substantive talks.

The chill in relations has come at a time when other Asian countries have become increasingly concerned about China's aggressive military buildup and its assertive actions in maritime territorial disputes in the region. As a result, longtime U.S. allies such as Japan - and newer partners, such as Vietnam - have turned to Washington for support as they seek a counterweight to Chinese influence.

Gates and other U.S. officials have pressed China for months to resume military ties, arguing that a lapse in communications only exacerbates mistrust. In particular, Gates has pushed China to allow him to come to Beijing. China had previously extended such an invitation this year but withdrew it as part of its protest of the Taiwan arms deal.

"When there are disagreements, it's all the more important to talk to each other more, not less," Gates told reporters Monday after his session with Liang.

Guan Youfei, deputy director of the Foreign Affairs Office of China's Ministry of National Defense, told reporters in Hanoi that Beijing agreed to the resumption of military ties in an attempt to break their "current on-again, off-again cycle."

Guan was the PLA officer who on May 24 during a meeting with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner lambasted the United States for 20 minutes, blaming Washington for the troubles in its relations with Beijing.

Analysts have said a military rapprochement was likely, given that the White House is preparing to host Chinese President Hu Jintao for a visit next year. Although Washington and Beijing have been squabbling over political and economic issues, only the military side of the relationship had experienced a complete breakdown.

As China has gained economic and military clout, it has complained more loudly about Washington's long-standing practice of selling arms to Taiwan, which Beijing considers a rogue, breakaway province even though it boasts a vibrant democracy. Guan told reporters in Hanoi that the Taiwan arms sales remain "important impediments to a wider and deeper" relationship.

Gates said he reminded Liang that the arms sales and Washington's relations with Taiwan were political decisions made by U.S. lawmakers, and that the U.S.-China military relationship should not be held hostage over Taiwan. "If there's a discussion to be held, it's at the political level," Gates said he told Liang.

As Gates presses for closer ties with the Chinese military, he has had to walk a fine line with Asian allies who have come to see the United States as a safeguardagainst Beijing's expanding power in the region.

For example, Vietnamese officials applauded in June when Clinton visited Hanoi and declared that the United States considered freedom of navigation in the region to be a "national interest," implicitly rejecting Chinese claims to own all of the South China Sea and other disputed waters in Asia.

Gates is in Hanoi for a regional conference of Asian defense ministers, and Vietnamese officials and other delegates are listening closely for signs of whether he will similarly stand up to China or ease Washington's stance in hopes of improving ties with Beijing.

In a speech at the Vietnam National University on Monday, Gates did not mention the South China Sea directly, but did refer to the importance of ensuring "maritime security and freedom of access to the global commons."

Although those comments were greeted eagerly by Vietnamese officials, there are also lingering doubts about Washington's long-term policy. One questioner from the audience asked how Vietnam could be sure that the United States wouldn't turn its back on Hanoi if Washington's national security interests in the region were to change.

"We have never turned our backs on Asia," Gates replied. "We have long-term interests here."

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You cannot hate a person when you know him

By Karin Brulliard
Washington Post Staff Wrirter
Wednesday, October 13, 2010

ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN - Pakistan's Supreme Court on Wednesday postponed a hearing in a corruption case that has pitted the government against the judiciary and could threaten the civilian administration of President Asif Ali Zardari.

The court struck down an amnesty in December that had shielded Zardari and thousands of other officials from prosecution for graft and other crimes. It has since demanded that the government demonstrate that it is pursuing the cases, including an old money-laundering case against Zardari in Switzerland.

The government, which says the Zardari case is politically motivated, has challenged the December ruling and repeatedly sought delays in the case. On Wednesday, the court granted the government's requests for additional time and for the appointment of a new lawyer. The next hearing is set for Nov. 1.

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You cannot hate a person when you know him

By Karen DeYoung and Craig Whitlock
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, October 14, 2010

U.S.-led military forces in Afghanistan are helping to facilitate meetings between the Afghan government and members of the Taliban in the hopes of fostering political reconciliation, according to NATO officials.

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen on Thursday confirmed the military alliance's role but offered no details. A day earlier, a senior NATO official had said the alliance was granting safe passage to Taliban leaders traveling to Kabul to meet with Afghan President Hamid Karzai's government.

"It would be extremely difficult for a senior Taliban member to get to Kabul without being killed or captured if ISAF were not witting, and ISAF is witting," the official told reporters, speaking on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss the sensitive topic. ISAF is an acronym for the International Security Assistance Force, a coalition of troops from NATO members and other allies in Afghanistan. The official spoke in Brussels, where coalition members were being briefed on the war's progress.

In Kabul, the leader of a 70-member peace council appointed last week by Karzai said Thursday that he believes some members of the Taliban are ready to negotiate; he described the talks as being in their early stages. The group, which is to head negotiations, held its first formal meeting in Kabul.

"We are taking our first steps," former president Burhanuddin Rabbani told a news conference in Kabul. "I believe there are people among the Taliban that have a message that they want to talk. They are ready."

Rabbani's comments echo those of other Afghan and American officials in Kabul, who have said that members of the Taliban, including senior leaders or those purporting to represent them, have met with the Afghan government to discuss potential negotiations, even though the insurgent group's public statements have denied this is the case.

Some officials in Kabul have described these meetings, which have stretched back years but appear to have intensified recently, as remaining scattered and sporadic.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told journalists in Brussels on Thursday that it was too early to tell whether the Afghan reconciliation process would work.

"We're not yet ready to make any judgments about whether or not any of this will bear fruit on the reconciliation front," said Clinton.

Most recent discussions with the Taliban, both in Afghanistan and in third countries, have been described as informal and non-specific.

But after years of sporadic and inconclusive meetings, Afghan and Arab sources now dismiss the Taliban's public rejection of negotiations as posturing, and say that leading segments of the insurgency appear for the first time to be seriously exploring the possibility of a settlement.

The Obama administration is under increasing domestic pressure to end the costly war or show conclusive signs that its strategy is succeeding, and European allies have pressed the United States to be more open to negotiations. The administration has described itself as only an interested bystander to talks it has said must be led by Karzai's government.

U.S. and coalition demands for a settlement are the same as Karzai's: The Taliban must reject al-Qaeda, lay down its arms and declare allegiance to the Afghan constitution. Coalition officials have also said they insist on respect for "essential" human rights. The Taliban says publicly that there can be no peace until foreign military forces leave Afghanistan.

Peace council members said they still have no clear idea of their role in any negotiations. They acknowledged that contacts with the Taliban will continue outside the council, through Karzai's family or through Afghan intelligence officials, but said they hope to be more central to the process.

"Something is better than nothing," said Abdul Hakim Mujahid, a council member and the Taliban's former representative to the United Nations. In an inaugural meeting last week, Karzai stressed to the council that it would be independent and that the government would support its decisions, three members said.

Some Afghans have criticized Karzai's choice of former president Rabbani as chairman of the body. Ousted during the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in 1996, Rabbani is considered a bitter foe of the group and an unlikely mediator.

But council members said they think that Karzai worries that reconciling with the largely Pashtun Taliban could antagonize former leaders of the Northern Alliance - composed primarily of northern ethnic groups whose U.S.-aided forces drove the Taliban from power in 2001 - and lead to civil war.

"There were a lot of protests" about Rabbani, Mujahid said. "But I think it is okay, because he is also a side of the problem, of the conflict."

Karzai, Mujahid said, did not want "another armed opposition to be created as a result of the reconciliation process."

Although many have applauded the prospect of negotiations, former Northern Alliance military and political leaders, including former senior government officials ousted by Karzai after they objected to negotiations, have grown increasingly uneasy over the prospect of substantive talks that could give the Taliban a role in the government.

Some coalition partners view these rumblings as ominous and in recent weeks have discussed how to avoid the mirror image of what happened in 2001. Although Pashtuns make up more than 40 percent of the Afghan population, they were left largely outside the Western-backed, post-Taliban power structure, leading to a sense of disenfranchisement that swelled Taliban ranks.

deyoungk@washpost.com whitlockc@washpost.com

Whitlock reported from Brussels. Correspondents Joshua Partlow in Kabul and Mary Beth Sheridan in Brussels contributed to this report.

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You cannot hate a person when you know him

By Karin Brulliard
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, October 16, 2010

ISLAMABAD - On any given day, Pakistani officials cast blame for their government's failings on a rabid press, a hostile judiciary or a conniving army.

Whatever the reason for the problems, one thing seems clear: It is not for lack of manpower at the top.

Public ire is simmering these days over what one news channel referred to as Pakistan's "jumbo-sized" cabinet: It is made up of 61 ministers and advisers, several among them marginally qualified or shadowed by graft allegations.

Alarmed by the tanking economy and vast flood wreckage, Pakistan's powerful army chief and U.S. officials here have zeroed in on the cabinet's weak performance and are pushing President Asif Ali Zardari for shake-ups and slim-downs, according to Pakistani officials. Even insiders in Zardari's Pakistan People's Party privately express frustration about government girth.

Yet despite regular reports that a cabinet "reshuffle" is about to happen, few observers are holding their breath. The cabinet size, political analysts say, reflects the deep-rooted nature of both the ruling party and of governing in Pakistan, a divided nation that often seems on the verge of tearing apart.

The PPP is the only party in Pakistan with a national presence - if small in many places - but its government also depends on a fragile coalition with smaller parties. That means there are ruling party followers who want their regions represented in the cabinet and coalition partners who demand their parties have slots, analysts say.

In Pakistan, where being a federal minister brings clout at the very local level, that translates into votes for the government. Ministers hire friends and family, deliver services to their own villages and hand money to community leaders or landowners - then depend on them to round up voters at election time.

"It's good old party patronage," said one ruling party lawmaker who advocates a smaller cabinet.

The system has also been forged to foster stability, said Anatol Lieven, a Pakistan expert at King's College in London. If the government rewards its local-level followers, those people keep the masses placated. British colonialists who handed bags of gold to tribal chiefs had the same idea, Lieven said.

But it does not quite match the ideas of the United States, which is investing in improving the two-year-old civilian government's performance while also counting on its survival.

"If they make such a mess of government that the population becomes completely exasperated, then they also fail," Lieven said. "There you have in a nutshell why Pakistani politics and government have been so unstable: Because the needs of patronage, which is essential, runs head-on into the needs of government, which is essential."

Even considering the country's population of 170 million, Pakistan's cabinet is bulky. The United States, with a population of 310 million, has 16 Cabinet members. Just fewer than 40 ministers sit in on cabinet meetings in Nigeria, which has a population of about 150 million.

To top it off, Pakistani newspapers have reported recently, many cabinet members do not pay taxes, nor do they seem to make much progress. Nearly three months after the beginning of devastating floods, many victims still haven't received government compensation. Last month, the finance minister said government coffers were running so low that the government might not be able to pay civil servants after two months.

For what it's worth, government officials say they agree the cabinet is too big. They say they are planning to reduce the size in accordance with a constitutional amendment passed by parliament this year, which mandates a cabinet with no more than 49 members.

One senior government official said in an interview Friday that the trim would happen within days, but he also said Zardari and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani did "not want to offend" those on the chopping block. Raza Rabbani, a ruling party senator who oversaw the drafting of the new amendment, said it might happen by next summer.

"Such a drastic cut would automatically disbalance the coalition," Rabbani said. Less than three years after the end of a military dictatorship, he added, inculcating democracy should be more important than cutting poor performers.

But those party members said Zardari, who is known for stubbornness, is resisting changes. He has surrounded himself with a coterie of loyalists, they said, some of whom are considered to rank among the least effective government officials.

Army chief Ashfaq Parvez Kiyani, meanwhile, met with Zardari and Gillani on Saturday. Kiyani demanded three weeks ago that the government get a grip on the economy and corruption, Pakistani and U.S. officials said. In a nation that has been ruled by the military for half its life, speculation is rife that Kiyani's patience is running out, though most analysts and politicians deem a coup unlikely.

What is more likely, political analysts said, is a continuation of the status quo.

"We offer advice," a U.S. official said of recent discussions between Americans and Zardari about government efficiency. "He doesn't listen."

brulliardk@washpost.com

Special correspondent Shaiq Hussain contributed to this report.

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You cannot hate a person when you know him

By Sebastian Rotella
ProPublica
Sunday, October 17, 2010

Federal officials acknowledged Saturday that David Coleman Headley, the U.S. businessman who confessed to being a terrorist scout in the 2008 Mumbai attacks, was working as a Drug Enforcement Administration informant while training with terrorists in Pakistan.

Federal officials, who spoke only on background because of the sensitivity of the Headley case, also said they suspect a link between Headley and the al-Qaeda figures whose activities have sparked recent terror threats against Europe.

The revelations came after a report Friday by ProPublica and The Washington Post that the FBI had been warned about Headley's terrorist ties three years before the Mumbai attacks. Headley was arrested 11 months after those attacks.

After he was arrested in a 2005 domestic dispute in New York City, his wife told federal investigators about his long involvement with the terrorist group Lashkar-i-Taiba and his extensive training in its Pakistani camps. She also told them he had bragged about being a paid U.S. informant while undergoing terrorist training.

Despite a federal inquiry into the tip, Headley spent the next four years doing terrorist reconnaissance around the world. Between 2006 and 2008, he did five spying missions in Mumbai scouting targets for the attack by Lashkar that killed 166 people, including six Americans.

On Saturday, the New York Times reported that another of Headley's wives - he apparently was married to three women at the same time - also had warned U.S. officials about his terrorism involvement. In December 2007, the Moroccan woman met with officials at the U.S. Embassy in Pakistan and told them about Headley's friendship with Lashkar members, his hatred of India and her trips with him to the Taj Mahal Hotel, a prime target of the Mumbai attacks, the Times reported.

On Saturday, federal officials said the women's tips lacked specificity.

"U.S. authorities took seriously what Headley's former wives said," a senior administration official said. "Their information was of a general nature and did not suggest any particular terrorist plot."

Similarly, a federal official described the 2005 tip from Headley's U.S. wife to the Joint Terrorism Task Force in New York City as "general in nature."

"The JTTF could not link the information to a specific threat, plot or terrorist group," the official said.

A different picture emerges from a law enforcement document describing the New York tip and from interviews with anti-terrorism officials and a person close to the case. Headley's U.S. wife described her husband's frequent trips to Pakistan, his training stints at a Lashkar camp near Muzaffarabad, and his recruiting and fundraising for Lashkar.

Although the claims of an angry spouse might be suspect, the wife's in-depth knowledge of Lashkar would have reinforced her credibility, because the Pakistani extremist group is not well known to the average American.

Headley is the son of a Pakistani father and an American mother. He became an informant for the DEA in the late 1990s, after he was arrested on heroin charges. His U.S. wife told investigators that he told her he started training with Lashkar in early 2002 as part of a secret mission for the U.S. government.

On Saturday, a federal official said Headley's work as an informant appears to have lasted until sometime between 2003 and 2005.

Another federal official said Headley was a DEA informant in "the early 2000s."

"I couldn't say it continued into 2005, but he was definitely an informant post-9/11," the official said.

Although Lashkar has not been involved in major drug activity, the terrorist group could offer an informant access to the terrain where Islamic extremism intertwines with South Asian drug mafias.Because of the difficulty of spying in Pakistan, Headley could have been valuable to U.S. intelligence services. In late 2001, some drug informants moved into anti-terrorism operations. The DEA also sometimes shares informants with other law enforcement and intelligence agencies.

"After 9/11, a lot of guys who had been closed down for some time came forward offering their services," a former senior law enforcement official said. "They were passed off to the FBI or CIA unless it was mainly drug work."

Headley's relationship with the U.S. government is especially delicate because the investigation has shown that he also had contact with suspected Pakistani intelligence officials and a Pakistani militant named Ilyas Kashmiri, who has emerged as a top operational leader of al-Qaeda.

Last year, Kashmiri worked with Headley on a plot against a Danish newspaper that had angered Muslims by publishing cartoons of the prophet Muhammad. To advance the plot, Kashmiri put Headley in touch with al-Qaeda operatives in Britain, according to a senior anti-terrorism official.

British intelligence detected the meetings between the operatives, who were under surveillance, and Headley, who surfaced as a figure known as "David the American," the senior official said. That led to Headley's arrest by the FBI last October.

In March, Headley pleaded guilty to charges of terrorism in the Mumbai attacks and to a failed plot to take and behead hostages at a Danish newspaper. He is cooperating with authorities.

Kashmiri's network has played a central role in sparking the recent U.S. alert about intelligence that al-Qaeda is plotting "Mumbai-style attacks" in Europe, U.S. officials told ProPublica.

"Kashmiri is directly linked to those threats, especially involving Britain and British Pakistanis," the federal official said Saturday. "There is some linkage to Headley."

For weeks, U.S. anti-terrorism officials have been alarmed about intelligence that Kashmiri has a network in Europe of about 15 operatives with Western passports, according to two U.S. law enforcement officials. Headley had contact with Kashmiri's network, but it is unclear whether he met with the same European operatives involved in the recent plots, the officials said.

ProPublica is an independent, nonprofit newsroom that produces investigative journalism. ProPublica is supported entirely by philanthropy and provides the articles it produces, free of charge, both through its Web site and to other news organizations.

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You cannot hate a person when you know him

Pakistan's government pledges support of country's courts

By Karin Brulliard and Shaiq Hussain
Washington Post Staff Writers


ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN - Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani sought Sunday to preempt a clash between the country's executive and its judiciary, pledging in a public address that his government respected the courts and condemning media reports that suggested otherwise.

The speech followed a television report Thursday that the struggling administration of President Asif Ali Zardari was plotting to oust the Supreme Court's judges before they could rule on a case involving corruption allegations against Zardari and other top officials. The government reinstated the court's judges last year, two years after they were deposed by former military ruler Pervez Musharraf.

The report sent tremors through this capital city's political and legal circles and prompted the judges to convene a late-night meeting Thursday. That was followed by a hearing Friday at which the judges demanded a government explanation and warned that any effort to fire them would amount to treason.

The government strongly denied the report. On Sunday, Gillani said that "there is no clash between the institutions, as the government strongly believes in a policy of reconciliation . . . the policy of reconciliation will bring political powers and state institutions closer."

The weekend drama was the latest confrontation between the government and the courts, and it underscored the power of a third institution: Pakistan's aggressive media. Although the television channel provided no source for its information and there were doubts about its accuracy, the mere report put the government on the defensive and raised tensions with the bench, whose chief justice said Friday that he still believed "the news is not wrong."

In his address, Gillani denounced what he called the prioritization of rumor over government denials, saying it was "disrespectful" of his office. He said he had ordered an inquiry to determine the source of the report.

Zardari's unpopular government is beset by problems, including the fallout after devastating floods, rocky relations with coalition partners, Taliban militancy and political violence.

In the massive port city of Karachi, more than 30 people were killed over the weekend as an election was held to replace a provincial lawmaker who was assassinated in August. Police said they were investigating the killings, which were widely believed to be linked to the long and bloody rivalry between the city's two main political parties, the Muttahida Quami Movement and the Awami National Party.

The winner of the poll is to replace Raza Haider, a senior MQM politician who was killed by militants that his party alleged were linked to the ANP. Both parties were vying for the open seat until Saturday, when the ANP said it would boycott the election. The spree of violence followed that announcement.

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Be shak, Main tery liye he jeeta hoon or tery liye he marta hoon.....!(Baba Fareed)
____________Punjab Police Zindabaad____________

By Anthony Faiola
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, October 19, 2010

LONDON - Washington's closest ally unveiled its deepest military cuts since the end of the Cold War, with a cash-strapped Britain announcing Tuesday that it will withdraw thousands of troops from continental Europe, decommission warships, mothball an entire class of fighter jets and delay upgrading its nuclear arsenal.

The cutbacks would not impact the war in Afghanistan, where British troops make up the second-largest contingent after the United States. Britain said it would invest in more helicopters and armored vehicles to aid military operations there. By also committing to boost combat-ready special forces, officials here are seeking to reassure the Pentagon that Britain will still retain its global role as deputy to Washington's sheriff.

Nevertheless, Britain's most sweeping military review in more than a decade is set to further diminish this nation's military might, particularly as a maritime power. For Washington, the moves amount to a tactical downscaling of military ambition by the one European ally consistently willing to back the United States with firepower in international conflicts, and comes at a time when other NATO members including Germany are also making substantial military cuts.

As part of the plan, 20,000 British forces will withdraw from their post-World War II era bases in Germany by 2020, and overall, British troops and civilian defense personnel will be slashed by 42,000. The equipment cuts, including the early decommissioning of the Royal Navy's flagship aircraft carrier, will force Britain to forfeit its ability to launch fighter jets from sea until at least 2019. The fleets of Harrier fighter jets - a stalwart of the skies for Britain for 40 years - are being eliminated. The planned Nimrod MRA4 Reconnaissance aircraft, previously billed by the Royal Air Force as a "significant contribution" to the fight against terrorism, is also being scrapped.

Defending the decision, Prime Minister David Cameron described the cuts as overdue, given that Britain now faces greater threats from cyber warfare and terrorism than from conventional warfare. But the decision to make the cuts, he acknowledged, was as much financial as strategic.

Facing a crushing debt load and massive budget deficit, Britain on Wednesday is set to announce historic cuts in everything from welfare to child-care benefits. Though the defense budget will suffer less than other areas - with an 8 percent reduction in the $60 billion defense budget over the next four years - he called an ax of some sort unavoidable.

Cameron insisted - and experts agreed - that Britain is not surrendering its status as a global military power and would still have the world's fourth-largest military budget. He said the country would still be able, and willing, to make fast, one-time deployments of up to 30,000 combat troops.

But large and sustained operations such as Afghanistan might prove more difficult in the years ahead, with Britain after 2015 able to shoulder perhaps only about 75 percent of the nearly 10,000 troops it currently has deployed there.

"Britain has traditionally punched above its weight in the world, and we should have no less ambition in the years to come," Cameron told Parliament on Tuesday.

The review, analysts said, was in fact fashioned to avoid jeopardizing the U.S. alliance, seen here as the great equalizer of modern British power.

"My sense is that the United States is going to be relaxed and happy about what's coming out," said Paul Cornish, head of the International Security Program at Chatham House, a London-based think tank.

Yet, without question, the cuts will mean a reduction in broader British military might, which observers said might be a source of concern should the United States ever require aid, say, in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. Tanks and heavy artillery are being reduced by 40 percent. Over the next five years, the British Army will lose one out of every six deployable brigades.

But of particular concern, critics said, is a decision to move up retirement of Britain's flagship aircraft carrier, the Ark Royal, to as early as this year.

The government will move ahead with the purchase of two new carriers, a decision made partly because canceling the contracts now would be vastly expensive. But the first will be used only to host helicopters and could be sold off after only three years of service. The other will not come on line until 2019 and will be retrofitted to support U.S. or French-made jets.

In addition, the government said it is delaying a multibillion-dollar investment in its submarine-based nuclear deterrent but remains committed to eventually upgrading the system.

"The short of it is that we will have a smaller military," said Amyas Godfrey, associate fellow that the London-based Royal United Services Institute and a former British intelligence officer. "But it is still our intention to be a small island with global impact able to project our force around the world. And unlike many, like Germany and France, we actually do it."

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You cannot hate a person when you know him

By David Nakamura
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, October 20, 2010

ISLAMABAD - Streets, shopping malls and schools shut down Wednesday in Karachi, Pakistan's largest city and financial hub, after more than 60 people were killed over the past several days in violence attributed to political rivalries.

President Asif Ali Zardari summoned Interior Minister Rehman Malik and other top officials to determine how to stem the attacks, which have terrified residents of the city of 18 million over the past week. Although they ruled out military action, officials were mulling a curfew in the most dangerous neighborhoods, according to televised reports.

The outbreak of violence, which has included targeted killings apparently meant to intimidate entire communities, has been linked to a special election last Sunday to replace Raza Haider, a provincial assembly member from the Muttahida Quami Movement who was gunned down in August. Police have blamed a rivalry between that party and the Awami National Party for the assassinations.

In addition to political killings, Karachi has been plagued by ongoing violence pegged to tribal sectarian rivalries and to Islamic extremists operating in a city that is a key business hub and supply line for NATO's war in Afghanistan. Before the latest attacks, more than 300 targeted killings were reported in the city this year.

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You cannot hate a person when you know him