Unmanned Plane Crashes In Pakistan

Pakistan's Dawn reports:

Drone crashes in Waziristan

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan, Sept 28 (AP) - An unmanned spy plane crashed in Waziristan region bordering Afghanistan.

The drone crashed 25 kilometers west of Miran Shah, the region's main town, said a security official on condition of anonymity.

He said the plane crashed in a remote area and caused no damage.

The official said authorities were trying to establish whether it was a U.S. aircraft that had flown in from Afghanistan, where NATO and government forces are battling resurgent Taliban and al-Qaida militants.

Americans Call For Military Action As Suicide Bombers Strike Again In Pakistan

Suicide bombers struck twice in Pakistan on Tuesday, dealing two frightening blows to those hoping to re-establish peace between President General Pervez Musharraf's embattled government and the religious extremists who support the Taliban, and making Musharraf's balancing act even more precarious than it already was.

A ten-month truce was shattered last week after Pakistani special forces attacked the Lal Masjid (Red Mosque) complex, an armed and dangerous enclave deep in the heart of Islamabad, the national capital. Government troops gained control of the mosque only after a two-day battle in which at least a hundred people were killed.

After the raid, a Taliban spokesman announced that the truce was finished, and over the weekend, a series of suicide bombings which appeared to be acts of reprisal took more than 60 lives.

The government expressed a desire to reinstate the truce if possible, but the sudden series of vicious attacks left no doubt that the militants in the mountains of Waziristan had seen enough, and by Sunday, people were evacuating the area by the thousands.

And then, a day of calm. Seriously. The good news of the day on Monday in Pakistan was "no suicide bombers"!

But the calm before the storm, if that's what it was, was shattered early Tuesday.

Suicide bomber kills four in N. Waziristan

MIRANSHAH, Pakistan, July 17 (AFP) - A suicide bomber Tuesday attacked and killed four people at a joint army and paramilitary checkpost near Mir Ali, one of the biggest towns in North Waziristan, security officials said.

"A man got down from the vehicle, walked up to the post and blew himself up,” chief military spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad told AFP.

Three soldiers and a civilian were killed, while two others were injured, Arshad said.

Suspected militants also blew up two security checkpoints in Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan, but caused no casualties, security officials said.

Meanwhile, attackers slit the throat of an Afghan national and dumped his body near the main town in Bajaur, another tribal district, along with a note accusing him of spying for US-led forces in Afghanistan.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for any of the attacks.

But militants handed out pamphlets from a car overnight in North Waziristan warning security forces and tribal elders of violence after the collapse on Sunday of a 10-month-old peace accord with the government.

“We agreed on the peace deal with the government for the protection of the people. Now we are breaking the peace agreement again in favour of the people,” said the leaflet, a copy of which was obtained by AFP.

The statement, signed by the Taliban Shura (council), warned tribal paramilitary forces and traders supplying the army not to cooperate with government forces or “otherwise they are also our targets.”

It also asked tribal elders and others “not to have jirgas (meetings) with the government; if not, then they will be held responsible.”

Pakistani authorities have made intense efforts to shore up the peace accord.

“We are hopeful the peace deal will stay intact and efforts are under way,” said a senior official at the FATA secretariat.

The government will have trouble negotiating at all if tribal elders are afraid to meet with them.

And even if they're willing to meet, the "peace accord" will be mighty difficult to "shore up", if it can be shored up at all.

Tuesday evening, hopes for "peace" seemed even more distant, after another suicide bombing -- this one in Islamabad. Salman Masood described it this way in the New York Times:

Suicide Bomber Kills 14 at Rally

A suicide bomber detonated a powerful bomb near an outdoor stage where the country’s suspended chief justice was to address members of Pakistan’s opposition parties on Tuesday evening, killing at least 14 people and wounding at least 40, according to the police.

The attack occurred around 8:30 p.m. 100 yards from where the chief justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, was to speak to a crowd about half an hour later. Mr. Chaudhry’s convoy was several miles away when the bomber struck.

Most of the dead and wounded belonged to the Pakistan Peoples Party of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Ten were in critical condition, according to hospital sources. Four policemen were among those wounded. The blast thrust the capital into a new round of disorder less than a week after a violent siege at a hard-line mosque and seminary that has enraged radical Islamists.

There was no claim of responsibility, though speculation was rampant. It was possible that the bombing was part of the backlash from the siege, aimed this time at Ms. Bhutto’s supporters because she had endorsed it.

But many pointed a finger at the Pakistani intelligence agencies. “It was a direct attack on the chief justice by the agencies,” said Munir A. Malik, president of the Supreme Court Bar Association and a member of Mr. Chaudhry’s legal team. “They wanted to get rid of him.”

It's easy to speculate. I could do it all day.

Could the Taliban have been behind this bombing? Sure. But most of their attacks have been against armed government forces in the wildlands; this was against unarmed anti-government demonstrators in the capital city.

It is true that the religious militants have a very different vision of Pakistan's future than the pro-democracy activists who rally in support of Mr. Chaudhry, and it is conceivable that the Taliban would seek to intimidate them.

But you couldn't sell any of this to the people in this photo, "angry workers of the Pakistan People's Party" who were chanting "anti-government slogans" after the attack, according to the caption provided by CTV, whose report (from the AP) was scant on details of the attack except to say that

Three security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record, said it was a suicide attack and that the head of the attacker had been found.

The death toll from the terrorist attacks in Pakistan over the past two weeks now stands at 137, according to Pakistan's Daily Times. This total includes other terrorist attacks which have gone largely unnoticed in the West:

About 137 people, including personnel of the armed forces and police, have died and 327 have sustained injuries in 21 terrorist attacks across Pakistan since the military operation against Lal Masjid in Islamabad on July 3.

According to data collected by Daily Times the terrorist attacks included suicide bombings, remote controlled and timed [device] explosions and rocket attacks on law enforcement personnel.

Here's the Daily Times list of the most significant terrorist attacks of the past two weeks:

July 3: Unidentified militants explode a remote controlled device in Swat, killing four people and injuring the district police officer.

July 4: A suicide bomber attacks an army convoy in North Waziristan, killing eleven people, including six army personnel.

July 5: Unidentified militants attack a police patrol vehicle in Peshawar, killing four policemen and injuring another four. In another incident, terrorists fired a rocket on an army post in Landi Kotal. Only few hours later that day, a suicide attack in Swat killed four people, including a major and a lieutenant of the Pakistan Army.

July 6: Unidentified militants try to hit President General Pervez Musharraf’s aeroplane when it took off from the Chaklala Airbase in Rawalpindi. No causalities were reported. On the same day, militants kidnap six pro-government tribal elders in North Waziristan and later kill them.

July 8: Unidentified militants attack a police party in Peshawar, killing an assistant sub-inspector and injuring three junior officers.

July 10: Terrorists explode a bomb in Peshawar, killing a deputy superintendent of police and ten others.

July 12: A rocket attack at the Mingora bypass on Kohala Road in the NWFP killed eight people including three policemen. Another rocket attack on a Frontier Constabulary check post in Khar, Bajaur Agency, caused no casualties.

July 13: Terrorists kidnap and later kill three pro-government tribal leaders in North Waziristan.

July 14: A remote controlled explosion at the Bannu Airport near a security check post kills three law enforcement officials. Militants carried out another attack in Malakand Agency, but no one was hurt. A suicide bomber rammed his explosive-laden car in a FC convoy near Miranshah, killing 26 and injuring 29 security officials. In another incident, militants attack army personnel busy in flood-relief operation in Balochistan, killing an army officer.

July 15: A suicide bomber attacks security forces in Swat, killing 19 people and injuring another 26. In another incident the same day, a suicide bomber kills 26 police officials at the Dera Ismail Khan Police Lines.

July 17: A suicide bomber detonates the explosives strapped to his waist near a stage prepared for the address of the chief justice of Pakistan. Fifteen people were reportedly killed in the attack.

Notice that's fifteen dead now from the rally, according to the Daily Times. And their list doesn't include Tuesday morning's attack in North Waziristan, so the total must now be more than 140.

What has triggered all these attacks? Government spokesmen have toed the Orwellian party line:

Information Minister Muhammad Ali Durrani Durrani said the incidents were not in reaction to the Lal Masjid operation.

and

Inter Services Public Relations spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad backed the information minister’s statement ...

but they weren't entirely slavish about it.

Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao said the attacks were ‘backlash’ of the Lal Masjid operation.

And later,

Interior Ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema said there was a "possibility" that the northwest attacks were a response to the Red Mosque raid.

Having admitted this tiny slice of obvious reality, the Interior Ministry spokesman got back to the song he was meant to be singing:

"We would like to reiterate once again our unwavering resolve to eliminate the evils of terrorism and extremism in the supreme national interest," he told reporters.

Ah, yes. The supreme national interest!

At the moment it would seem that the supreme national interest aligns quite well with taking instructions from the Americans.

President Bush has backed President General Musharraf publicly, especially when Musharraf made the decision to attack the mosque.

Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte has publicly suggested that Musharraf should resolve "on his own" the legal obstacles that stand in the way of his plans for getting himself re-elected.

And Richard Boucher, also of the State Department, has said

the storming of the mosque "shows that the government of Pakistan is prepared to move, to act, against a dangerous militancy that has come to infect various areas and parts of Pakistani society."

It's all part of a (publicly) unspoken quid pro quo in which all the support comes with various hints and suggestions that the President-General will certainly take very seriously. Thus

President Bush's homeland security advisor, Fran Townsend, said Musharraf's agreement with tribal leaders had been a failure.

His strategy "hasn't worked for Pakistan. It hasn't worked for the United States," she said, stressing, though, that the administration continues to back Musharraf.

Subtle, aren't they? That's why they call it diplomacy!

Diplomacy remains the order of the day, apparently. And once again Richard Boucher is in the middle of it. According to a report from Agence France Presse via Raw Story:

US asks Pakistan to launch military offensive against extremists

The United States on Tuesday prodded Pakistan to launch a military offensive against fighters hiding in tribal areas after Washington hinted at a lack of commitment from its ally to hunt down violent extremists.

US officials said Pakistan military ruler Pervez Musharraf should send his troops into the tribal border region with Afghanistan to flush out Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants, following the collapse of a 10-month peace accord between Islamabad and tribal elders.

"I think first and foremost we have to remember that some military action is necessary, and will probably have to be taken," Assistant Secretary of State for South and central Asian affairs Richard Boucher said.

It is extremely useful to have this comment on the record, of course, just in case the President who also happens to be a General was wondering whether further military action might be necessary.

Pakistani authorities have made intense efforts to shore up the peace accord since the Taliban pulled out on Saturday, knowing that without it, they risk fresh violence in a region thought to contain many militants.

Boucher said Washington was less concerned about whether the agreement worked or not, pointing out that "it's the facts of what happens."

"There are elements in these areas that are extremely violent and are out to kill government people, out to kill government leaders, and will not settle for a peaceful way forward," he said.

"Whether it is through an agreement or through the imposition of government will or whatever, they remain the key: no Talibanization, no cross-border activity, no Al-Qaeda plotting and planning from the tribal areas," he said.

"And we're going to help the government of Pakistan achieve that through whatever -- all these different means that might be necessary," he said citing joint US-Pakistan plans to develop the isolated areas in tandem with possible military action.

Did that sound like a carte blanche to you? It sure sounded like one to me: what else could Richard Boucher mean when he says "all these different means that might be necessary"?

And that's in public. What must Musharraf be hearing in private?

"We think the time is now," one official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"We think with the movement on the Red Mosque, Musharraf feels a sense of momentum and he's got the tools in place -- [...] he's got the military starting to creep forward into forward positions," the official said.

"Whether the peace deal is on or off, it doesn't matter."

With all this loose talk floating around, I wouldn't exactly be amazed if the suicide bomber who struck the rally in Islamabad was connected somehow to one of Mr. Boucher's associates. But then speculation is easy.

Pervez Musharraf has been walking a very shaky tightrope ever since September 11, 2001, when he became America's #1 ally in the Global War On Terror. Ever since, he's been taking cautious little steps, trying to establish a balance between the pro-democracy forces who want to see an end to his military dictatorship and the religious fundamentalists who want something else entirely.

And he's taken these little steps and inched his way along and after all these years he looks around and sees himself over the middle of the canyon, with no easy way forward or back, and now here come the Americans, pushing him from behind. "Let's get a move on, Pervez, y'heah?"

Already the news carries stories of Wednesday's (first?) deadly attack:

Dozen killed in northwest Pakistan ambush

MIRANSHAH, Pakistan, July 18 (AFP) Militants ambushed a Pakistani military convoy in the Lwara Mundi area of the North Waziristan tribal area Wednesday, sparking a gunbattle that left at least a dozen people dead, security officials said.

“Initial reports say that the fighting was heavy and at least 12 people were killed,” a senior security official told AFP requesting anonymity. The military confirmed “several” deaths.

It won't get any easier.

Suicide Warfare In Pakistan: 'The Peace Agreement Has Ended'

Suicide warfare rages again in Pakistan.

Riaz Khan of the Associated Press is in Peshawar and comes to us via The Guardian:

Suicide bombers struck yesterday in two areas of north-western Pakistan, killing up to 38 people, while Taliban militants broke a 10-month-old peace deal with the government along the Afghan frontier.
...

"The peace agreement has ended," Abdullah Farad, a militant spokesman, told journalists in Peshawar. He said the Taliban chief in North Waziristan, Maulvi Gul Badahar, made the decision at a council meeting after the government had failed to abide by its demand to withdraw troops from checkpoints by 4pm yesterday.

The government has deployed thousands of troops to the region to thwart calls by extremists for a holy war to avenge the bloody storming of Islamabad's Red Mosque last week.

In case you missed it, the Pakistani government's attack on the Lal Masjid (Red Mosque) complex, in which more than 100 people died, occasioned a series of detailed and disturbing articles on this very page.

The announcement came as three blasts struck a military convoy in Swat, a mountainous area of North West Frontier province, killing 18 people and wounding 47, a government official said. He said two explosive-laden vans had rammed the convoy and that the dead included seven civilians.

In Pakistan's Daily Times, Zakir Hassnain and Manzoor Ali Shah reported:

Sunday’s first attack occurred between 7:00am and 7:40am, when two cars packed with explosives rammed into a convoy of several vehicles passing through Matta bazaar in Mingora, Swat. In addition, a landmine also hit the convoy, Swat District Coordination Officer (DCO) Syed Muhammad Javed told Daily Times.

“Among the dead, 11 are army jawans, six civilians, including a child, and two suicide bombers,” said the DCO, adding that among the injured, 41 were from the army, two from the Frontier Corps (FC), two from the police, and two were civilians. The blast destroyed some nearby houses and damaged a market.
...

No one claimed responsibility for the attack. “Some people have been taken into custody and the police are investigating,” Javed said. He said the injured were shifted to hospitals in Peshawar, Mardan and Rawalpindi in helicopters. Asked if the government would now conduct an operation against militants in Swat, Major General Waheed Arshad, director general of ISPR, said: “We’ll see what we can do. There is no such move at the moment.”

Riaz Khan again:

In the day's second attack, a suicide bomber targeted people taking exams for recruitment to the police force in Dera Ismail Khan. The blast killed 20 people and wounded 35, said police officer Mohammed Aslam.

The Daily Times provides additional details:

At about 4:15pm, a suicide bomber blew himself up at DI Khan Police Lines as candidates took police entrance exams. Police official Safiullah told Daily Times that a total of 26 people were killed, including 12 policemen and the suicide bomber, and 61 others were wounded.

Dera Ismail Khan District Nazim Haji Abdul Rauf said it was not clear how the bomber entered the police lines, whose entrance was guarded by policemen. Police officer Mohammed Aslam told AP that more than 150 people were on the premises when the bomber struck. He said the suicide bomber’s head and suicide vest had been found.

There you go. 26 dead, 61 wounded, another 65 or more lucky not to be bleeding, and they found the head and the vest.

So the much-criticized truce is over.

Under the 2006 truce, soldiers manning security posts throughout the region returned to their barracks and militants agreed to no longer take part in attacks in Pakistan or Afghanistan. While the agreement ended much of the violence, critics said the truce gave the militants a haven from which to plan and launch attacks on forces in Afghanistan.

But never fear. Here come the Americans to the rescue, in their usual subtle yet effective way:

US to pour 750 million into Pakistan's tribal areas: NY Times

WASHINGTON, July 16 (AFP) The administration of President George W. Bush plans to pour 750 million dollars worth of aid into Pakistan's tribal areas in a bid to wrest it away from Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants, The New York Times reported on its website late Sunday.

But citing unnamed officials involved in the planning, the newspaper said some people were warning of the dangers of distributing so much money in an area where oversight is impossible.

Who will be given the aid has quickly become one of the most contentious questions between local officials and American planners concerned that millions might fall into the wrong hands, the report said.

Many of the local people have already decided not to hang around and find out.

Thousands flee from Pakistani tribal areas after militants scrap peace deal

ISLAMABAD, July 16 (AFP) Thousands fled a tribal area Monday after pro-Taliban militants scrapped a peace deal with the government there, following three weekend suicide bombings that left more than 70 dead.

In the tribal area of North Waziristan, thousands of people fled the main city of Miranshah after local militants tore up a peace agreement they had struck last year with President Musharraf's government.

Bazaars were deserted as hundreds of families fled the town for safer areas, and Radio Pakistan went off the air when broadcasters joined other government officials in leaving the tense area, local residents said.

It may not be politically correct to speak of murderous tension as chickens coming home to roost, but Sir Cyril Townsend's just-published opinion piece in the Brunei Times summarizes the history fairly well:

The recent history of the Red Mosque, the second largest mosque in the capital -- it can accommodate 4,000 for prayers -- highlights the problems of Pakistan. A previous military ruler of the country, General Zia ul-Haq, agreed to the expansion of the Red Mosque in return for the enlistment of young recruits for the jihad against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.

This led on to the mosque and its religious schools becoming a centre for jihadi elements, especially al-Qaeda. In the 1990s the state's main intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), gave the mosque its full backing and used it for meetings.

Following the attacks on America in September 2001, President Musharraf aligned his country with Western and certain Arab governments in their campaign against terrorism. This brought the militants into direct conflict with the president. The government's launching of military operations in the North West Frontier Province against the Taliban led to calls for the assassination of President Musharraf.

The president is caught between the two forces of extremism, with calls for [shariah] law throughout the country, and moderate Pakistanis and Western governments, with their calls for vigorous action against the militants.

So the President-General has been playing a complicated game, trying to stay upright -- and intact -- with the Americans pushing him forward while his countrymen pull him in two different directions.

Given this context, some commentators may see (or portray) the Taliban's denunciation of the 10-month-old truce as a stride forward in the War on Terror. But most if not all of them will likely ignore the many serious questions and very grave dangers that remain.

In my opinion, the BBC's Barbara Plett raised one of the key questions on Saturday, in her discussion of the media tour of the battleground mosque:

As I wandered through the blackened, battle-scarred remains of the madrassa, it was evident to me there could be no military solution to Pakistan's problems.

Yet more and more Pakistanis are asking whether there can be anything else while a general sits in the president's chair.

~~~

twelfth in a series

Death Toll Stands At 21 In Islamabad Mosque Standoff, Amid Vows Of Martyrdom And Talk Of Revolution

The Lal Masjid (Red Mosque) standoff continues in Islamabad, the capital city of Pakistan, where hundreds (perhaps thousands) of Pakistani policemen have had an estimated 60 to 80 radical Islamists surrounded since Tuesday.

More than a thousand students have escaped from the besieged mosque complex since the violence began six days ago, but more -- possibly several hundred more, including women and children -- are still inside. [In the photo, friends and relatives of those still inside the mosque wait for their loved ones at a makeshift camp nearby.]

Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf has been praised by his American friends for his restraint in handling the crisis, but he has also been criticized for not taking serious steps sooner.

By Saturday he appeared to be extremely serious.

As Carlotta Gall reported in the New York Times,

Pakistani President Tells Militants: Surrender or Die:

Pakistan’s president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, in his first comments on the five-day siege of militants in a mosque complex in the capital, said Saturday that the mosque leader and his armed followers should surrender or prepare to die.

“They should not prolong, they should surrender and hand over their weapons, otherwise they risk being killed,” he told news agencies during a visit to the flood-hit southwestern province of Baluchistan. “They have defamed Islam. They have defamed Pakistan. They have embarrassed Pakistan internationally.”

“The government has enough power and no one can stand before its might,” he said. “Our concern is for children and women and we are showing lot of patience and restraint.”

So the ultimatum has been presented; it appears to have been accepted, as well.

President Pervez Musharraf [...] warned the militants on Saturday that they would be killed if they did not surrender.

Ghazi -- polite, articulate and soft-spoken -- said his followers would sooner die.

This according to Zeeshan Haider, in a hot-off-the net report from Reuters India.

Rebel cleric wants death to spark Pakistani revolution:

A cleric leading militants besieged in an Islamabad mosque hopes their "martyrdom" would spark an Islamic revolution in Pakistan, he said in a statement published by newspapers on Sunday.

Surrounded by government forces, Abdul Rashid Ghazi took over leadership of a Taliban-style movement at Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, after his brother was caught trying to escape a day after the siege began last Tuesday.

"We have firm belief in God that our blood will lead to a revolution in the country," the grey-bearded Ghazi said in a statement characterised as a "will" by Jang, Pakistan's biggest selling Urdu language newspaper.

"God willing, Islamic revolution will be the destiny of this nation," wrote the rebel cleric, whose movement is symptomatic of militancy and extremism seeping into Pakistani cities from tribal areas near the Afghan border.

Elsewhere it has been asserted that the extremism seeping into Pakistan from tribal areas has al-Q'aeda connections. More on that in a moment, perhaps...

Zeeshan Haider continues:

Many of the 5,000 students enrolled at the two madrasas (Islamic schools) affiliated to Lal Masjid before the violence began came from Taliban hotbeds like the Waziristan tribal region.

So far, at least 21 people have been killed, most of them in clashes between armed students and paramilitary troops on Tuesday that led to the siege of the compound housing Lal Masjid and a girls' madrasa called Jamia Hafsa.

Musharraf said security forces had acted with restraint so far in order to minimise casualties among women and children belonging to the cleric brothers' Taliban-style movement, some of whom the government believes are being used as human shields.

Ghazi, of course, denies this. Who wouldn't? Would anyone say "Yeah, you got us, mate! We're using innocent women and children as human shields. Go ahead and bomb us. We're ready to die. But think of the women and children!"

Ghazi denied children were coerced into staying in the compound, and said they remained out of support for his cause.

"We want justice for poor people. They should get bread. We want an end to adultery, bribery, oppression, obscenity and nepotism. Implementation of the Islamic system is panacea to all these problems," wrote Ghazi.

The system Ghazi advocates appears to embody a few problems of its own, however.

The rebel holds a masters degree in international relations from Islamabad's Quaid-e-Azam University and was fired as a civil servant over involvement in militant activities.

There's a detail you don't often see in mainstream US/UK accounts of the standoff. You also don't see much about the motives of the radical militants who say they are ready to die for their cause.

To spark a revolution? A revolution over what? Because they hate our freedoms?

Ghazi said his movement sprang out of bitterness over the Musharraf government's amendment of Islamic laws on rape last year, the demolition of mosques illegally built on public land, and official condemnation of support for jihadi causes.

He also berated the government for "handing over Muslims to infidels like cattle", referring to the transfer of captured al Qaeda suspects to U.S. custody.

As much as it pains everybody to admit it, the soft-spoken madman in the mosque may have a point. In particular, the Pakistani government appears to have no defense against the latter charge.

Michelle Faul wrote about the wholesale sale of terror suspects to the Americans shortly after 9/11.

Excerpts from Gitmo Detainees Say They Were Sold:

A wide variety of detainees at the U.S. lockup at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, alleged they were sold into capture. Their names and other identifying information were blacked out in the transcripts from the tribunals, which were held to determine whether prisoners were correctly classified as enemy combatants.

One detainee who said he was an Afghan refugee in Pakistan accused the country's intelligence service of trumping up evidence against him to get bounty money from the U.S.

"When I was in jail, they said I needed to pay them money and if I didn't pay them, they'd make up wrong accusations about me and sell me to the Americans and I'd definitely go to Cuba," he told the tribunal. "After that I was held for two months and 20 days in their detention, so they could make wrong accusations about me and my (censored), so they could sell us to you."

Another prisoner said he was on his way to Germany in 2001 when he was captured and sold for "a briefcase full of money" then flown to Afghanistan before being sent to Guantanamo.

"It's obvious. They knew Americans were looking for Arabs, so they captured Arabs and sold them -- just like someone catches a fish and sells it," he said. The detainee said he was seized by "mafia" operatives somewhere in Europe and sold to Americans because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time -- an Arab in a foreign country.

A detainee who said he was a Saudi businessman claimed, "The Pakistani police sold me for money to the Americans."

"This was part of a roundup of all foreigners and Arabs in that area," of Pakistan near the Afghan border, he said, telling the tribunal he went to Pakistan in November 2001 to help Afghan refugees.

The military-appointed representative for one detainee -- who said he was a Taliban fighter -- said the prisoner told him he and his fellow fighters "were tricked into surrendering to Rashid Dostum's forces. Their agreement was that they would give up their arms and return home. But Dostum's forces sold them for money to the U.S."

Several detainees who appeared to be ethnic Chinese Muslims -- known as Uighurs -- described being betrayed by Pakistani tribesmen along with about 100 Arabs.

They said they went to Afghanistan for military training to fight for independence from China. When U.S. warplanes started bombing near their camp, they fled into the mountains near Tora Bora and hid for weeks, starving.

One detainee said they finally followed a group of Arabs, apparently fighters, being guided by an Afghan to the Pakistani border.

"We crossed into Pakistan and there were tribal people there, and they took us to their houses and they killed a sheep and cooked the meat and we ate," he said.

That night, they were taken to a mosque, where about 100 Arabs also sheltered. After being fed bread and tea, they were told to leave in groups of 10, taken to a truck, and driven to a Pakistani prison. From there, they were handed to Americans and flown to Guantanamo.

"When we went to Pakistan the local people treated us like brothers and gave us good food and meat," said another detainee. But soon, he said, they were in prison in Pakistan where "we heard they sold us to the Pakistani authorities for $5,000 per person."

More excerpts from Michelle Faul's article:

In March 2002, the AP reported that Afghan intelligence offered rewards for the capture of al-Qaida fighters — the day after a five-hour meeting with U.S. Special Forces. Intelligence officers refused to say if the two events were linked and if the United States was paying the offered reward of 150 million Afghanis, then equivalent to $4,000 a head.

That day, leaflets and loudspeaker announcements promised "the big prize" to those who turned in al-Qaida fighters.

Said one leaflet: "You can receive millions of dollars. ... This is enough to take care of your family, your village, your tribe for the rest of your life — pay for livestock and doctors and school books and housing for all your people."

Helicopters broadcast similar announcements over the Afghan mountains, enticing people to "Hand over the Arabs and feed your families for a lifetime," said Najeeb al-Nauimi, a former Qatar justice minister and leader of a group of Arab lawyers representing nearly 100 detainees.

Al-Nauimi said a consortium of wealthy Arabs, including Saudis, told him they also bought back fellow citizens who had been captured by Pakistanis.

Khalid al-Odha, who started a group fighting to free 12 Kuwaiti detainees, said his imprisoned son, Fawzi, wrote him a letter from Guantanamo Bay about Kuwaitis being sold to the Americans in Afghanistan.

One Kuwaiti who was released, 26-year-old Nasser al-Mutairi, told al-Odha that interrogators said Dostum's forces sold them to the Pakistanis for $5,000 each, and the Pakistanis in turn sold them to the Americans.

"I also heard that Saudis were sold to the Saudi government by the Pakistanis," al-Odha said. "If I had known that, I would have gone and bought my son back."

So ... What is this? Conspiracy theory? Liberal wacko nonsense? If that's the case, then the General President of Pakistan must have the same disease, because he admitted in his autobiography that Pakistan had taken millions of dollars in payment for the terror suspects handed over to the Americans.

And now the trappings of charter membership in the GWOT are being thrown back in Musharraf's face! Such are the perils of publishing an autobiography while still in office -- and facing re-election!

What a long, strange trip it's been for Pervez Musharraf. But that's another story -- or is it??

Here's Carlotta Gall [again] in the New York Times:

Behind a Siege in Pakistan, Rumblings of Wider Dissent:

The immediate problem for the general remains how to end the siege with minimum loss of life, and how to contain any backlash, particularly in the event of a bloody denouement.

The government has done its best to avoid such an ending and appears to be winning the high ground. The militants, it now seems clear, precipitated the fighting by firing first and killing an Army Ranger. The mullahs and their students have earned little public sympathy in their own neighborhood or around the country with their campaign to impose Shariah law, raiding shops and smashing CDs and music tapes.

The arrest of the leader of the mosque, Maulana Abdul Aziz, who tried to escape in a burqa while leaving behind hundreds of his students, many of them female, has brought ridicule in the news media, which have largely supported the government. Neither the public nor the religious parties have protested the actions of the government, which has won praise for its relative restraint.

But the standoff is far from over, and several bombings in the North-West Frontier Province this week, including a suicide bombing, and gunfire as the president’s plane took off Friday, are a reminder that the Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, is only the most visible bulwark of Islamist militancy that is lodged in cities and districts across Pakistan and appears to be growing.
...

Government officials are privately saying they hope that the government will next go after another radical cleric, Fazlullah, the acting leader of the extremist group Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi, or the Movement for the Enforcement of Islamic Law, who has been vocal in his support for the Taliban and suicide bombing as well as the clerics in the mosque.

But going after individuals may not be enough.

An investigation published Friday by The News, a national daily, found that 88 seminaries belonging to various sects were giving religious education to more than 16,000 students in the capital. Moreover, the number of students here attending religious schools belonging to the Deobandi sect, an anti-Western, pro-jihadi fundamentalist school of thought that inspired the Taliban, among other movements, has doubled in the last year alone.
...

The spread of madrasas in the capital has been steady since the 1980s when Gen. Zia ul-Haq, then in power, promoted the madrasas as a source of mujahedeen to fight the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, the report said.

Seven madrasas were founded in the capital during his 11-year rule, 15 more during the 11 years of civilian governments under Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif from 1988 to 1999, and 14 during General Musharraf’s eight-year rule.

Certain lessons must be drawn from the Lal Masjid episode, the national daily Dawn wrote Friday in an editorial. “Characters like the two Lal Masjid brothers are to be found all over the country,” it wrote. “They have money and arms and brainwashed followers willing to do their bidding.”

While their followers may be innocent and sincere in their belief, their leaders often operate with impunity, it said. “It is, thus, the brains behind them that the government should go after.”

Hmmm ... Going after the brains behind the militants may not be exactly what the GWOT has in mind.

But in the meantime, the siege of Lal Masjid continues. Here are the most recent reports from Dawn:

Senior officer killed as Lal Masjid siege enters 6th day

ISLAMABAD, July 8 (AFP) – Militants entrenched in Islamabad’s Lal Masjid shot dead a senior Pakistani army officer during fierce clashes with troops on the sixth day of the siege on Sunday.

Colonel Haroon Islam was leading an operation to help free some of the women and children being used as human shields by the militants inside the fortified mosque complex when he was shot, the army said.

Major General Waheed Arshad told AFP another army officer was injured in the fighting.

“Rashid Ghazi and his militants were responsible for the killing of a senior army officer,” Information Minister Mohammad Ali Durrani said. “The operation will continue and Ghazi has to surrender.”

Security forces have held back from raiding the now bullet-pocked mosque but there have been intense clashes around the perimeter. Security forces blew up sections of the compound wall during the night and there were further intense exchanges of fire, a security official said early Sunday.

“Security forces dynamited the wall to allow people inside to come out.” They risked being shot by militants if they attempted to climb the wall, which is seven to eight feet high, he said.

Cleric Abdul Rasheed Ghazi claimed security forces had killed 30 female and 40 male students in the siege. The women were buried at the site, he said.

The government says the total death toll is 20. The cleric said he and his followers had enough rations, arms and ammunition inside the compound to “fight for another 25 to 30 days and we will do that, God willing.”

Fortunately the all-purpose solution stands ready -- the story has even been set up, if indeed it is a setup. But, like every other aspect of the GWOT, regardless of its truth or fiction, the story packs a punch.

Al-Qaeda-linked militants in Pakistan mosque: security officials

ISLAMABAD, July 8, 2007 (AFP) - Islamic militants from a group linked to Al-Qaeda and to the murder of the journalist Daniel Pearl are believed to be leading hold-outs at a Islamabad’s Lal Masjid, security officials said Sunday.

At least two commanders from the banned group Harkatul-Jihad-e-Islami, whose name means Movement of Islamic Holy War, are inside the besieged Mosque, the officials said on condition of anonymity.

“We believe there are militants from Harkatul-Jihad-e-Islami, which was involved in the Pearl murder. Based on intelligence we suspect that two commanders from the group are in there,” one senior official told AFP. “They have taken control and they are putting up fierce resistance.”

The information was based on “intercepts” and other intelligence, the officials said, without naming the men. But the militants are thought to be giving orders to the hundreds of radical students in the mosque, they said.

The government says women and children are being held as human shields, which the mosque's clerics deny. “Our forces are holding back as long as it is possible to avoid the deaths of women and children,” the security official said.

So there you have it. Last week some of the militants inside the besieged complex were described as "suicide bombers from an al Qaeda-linked militant group". But that wasn't quite good enough, and now that the crisis appears to be intensifying, we're told that "two commanders" have "taken control".

Pretty soon they will all be al-Q'aeda: the militants leading the resistance, the mosque leadership and staff, any male students remaining in the complex, and of course all the women and children too.

Musharraf is saying "surrender or die," and Ghazi is saying "our deaths will spark the revolution."

So converting everybody inside the mosque to al-Q'aeda militants appears to be the only way out. Because if they're all al-Q'aeda, the Pakistani police don't have to worry about killing them, right?

In fact, if everybody in the mosque were al-Q'aeda leadership, the Americans would knock them out at the drop of a hat ... or would they?

~~~

third in a series

Pakistani Police Round Up 50 Suspects After Courtroom Bomb Kills 16

[UPDATED below]

Here's Carlotta Gall reporting for the New York Times with an assist from Salman Masood:

Suicide Bomber Kills Judge and 14 Others in Pakistani Courtroom

KARACHI, Pakistan, Feb. 17 — In the sixth suicide bombing in a month, a man blew himself up in a small district courtroom in the border town of Quetta on Saturday, killing 15 people, including a senior judge, and wounding 35, officials said.

One of the 35 people who were wounded died later, thus the discrepancy in numbers.

No group claimed responsibility, but the chief elected official of the province connected it to the string of suicide attacks that have now killed some 40 people and put security forces on alert across the country.

The Quetta blast could be linked to earlier suicide attacks in Islamabad and Peshawar, said Jam Mohammad Yousaf, the chief minister of Baluchistan Province.

Baluchistan has often been the scene of bombings, linked to Sunni and Shiite sectarian groups and, to a lesser extent, Baluch nationalists who are fighting an insurgency against the government. But Mr. Yousaf said local groups lacked the expertise for suicide bombing.

The recent string of bombings began after the military carried out an airstrike against suspected militants in the tribal area of South Waziristan on Jan. 16.

A militant leader, Baitullah Mehsud, vowed to use suicide bombers to take revenge. Pakistani officials have not directly implicated Mr. Mehsud in the bombings while the investigations are under way, and he has denied any involvement, saying that his threat was an emotional outburst.

Mr. Mehsud is believed to have trained suicide bombers and sent them into Afghanistan, where there were 127 suicide attacks last year.

Militants based in the tribal areas, who are sympathetic to the Afghan Taliban and Al Qaeda, are widely believed to be behind suicide bombings in Afghanistan, and have in the past been implicated in the more rare attacks in Pakistan.

Pakistan’s president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and an Army Corps commander have all come under attack in the last few years, as have foreign targets like the United States Consulate in Karachi and a busload of French engineers.

Officials say the attacks are prompted by Pakistan’s pro-American policy since Sept. 11, 2001. Recent attacks have focused on softer targets, with bombers often on foot and often killing civilians.

The trend is a shock for Pakistan and a stark warning for the government, which has largely ignored Afghan pleas to go after militants in the tribal areas.

The target the bomber chose in Quetta was a small district court in the center of the city, where there was little security. The bomber pushed his way in at the court’s busiest time, about 11 a.m., saying that he was due at a hearing. He blew himself up at the door of the first room he came to.

Judge Abdul Waheed Durrani, who was hearing a case involving a property dispute, was killed, along with six lawyers and relatives of the defendants. Bodies and debris littered the room afterward, and shrapnel scarred the walls.

Prime Minister Aziz condemned the attack. “That is why we are against terrorism, because it kills innocent lives,” he told journalists during a visit to Peshawar. “It is against our religion and against humanity.”

A suicide attack in Peshawar, the capital of the North-West Frontier Province, which also shares a border with Afghanistan, killed 15 people on Jan. 27. A day earlier, a bomber at a hotel in Islamabad killed a guard.

Another bomber killed a policeman in the town of Dera Ismail Khan on Jan. 29. And a car bomber killed two soldiers in the town of Tank, near the tribal areas this month.

I have it from very reliable sources that if you get your news from Carlotta Gall, you can be sure it's trustworthy. Thus my rather lengthy quote.

Here's a follow-up, from News24 in South Africa:

50 held after court blast

Quetta - Pakistani police have rounded up 50 suspects as investigations continue into a courtroom suicide bombing that killed 16 people including a judge and several lawyers, officials said on Sunday.

The detainees included members of sectarian outfits and some Afghan refugees, said police spokesperson Qazi Abdul Waheed.

The raids were conducted after the bomber blew himself up in a packed room during court proceedings on Saturday, killing 15.

About 35 people were taken to hospital, where one more died overnight, doctors said.

Lawyers here announced a three-day mourning period, during which they would boycott the courts.

The court compound is located near police and provincial government offices in Quetta - the capital of Baluchistan province - which borders Iran and insurgency-plagued southern Afghanistan.

Saturday's incident was the latest in a wave of recent suicide attacks in Pakistan blamed on pro-Taliban militants angry at President Pervez Musharraf's support for the US-led "war on terror".

~~~

Some of my regular readers may have been wondering why I keep covering stories from Pakistan; partially it's because I want you to realize how different Pakistan is from what you probably imagine. Do you have any idea what it's like to live in a country where the average number of terrorist attacks is about two and a half per day? Sometimes we lose sight of things beyond our own borders, and I think it's good to be reminded of what's happening in other countries.

I also want you to think about the sort of reaction would we see in our own countries if a bomb ever exploded in a courtroom. Pakistan, the only government in the world that officially recognized the Taliban, is now our closest ally in the so-called war against so-called terror, and losing people to suicide bombings every week.

How very sad!

And we think we're under attack because of something that happened more than five years ago

~~~

[UPDATE @ 10PM ET]: This just in! A report from Australia says Pakistani police claim to have arrested two teams of would-be suicide bombers. Here's that report, with a bit of cold emphasis added:

Pakistan catches suicide bombers

TWO more teams of would-be suicide bombers from an organisation linked to al-Qa'ida were arrested in Pakistan yesterday, capping 48 hours of violence.

Foreign diplomats in Islamabad were warned to limit travel around the capital after a suicide bomber struck a courthouse in Quetta, capital of Baluchistan province, killing 16 people, including a top judge, and wounding 30 on Saturday.

Abdul Ghani, a government surgeon in the Bajaur region who was trying to eradicate polio, was killed on Friday by a bomb under his car, which was planted by militants who believe the vaccination program is a conspiracy to stunt the population growth of Muslims.

Senior government officials said yesterday that security had been reinforced and the violence was under control.

But Benazir Bhutto, exiled leader of the main opposition Pakistan People's Party, said the country was in crisis because of the military operations in Baluchistan and the rise of the Taliban in tribal areas.

One team of three suicide bombers belonging to the al-Qa'ida-linked and Taliban-supporting Sunni militant Lashkar-e-Jhangvi organisation was seized yesterday after a gunbattle in Karachi.

Another team of three was arrested on a train at Sukkur, in the interior of Sindh province, of which Karachi is the capital.

"We found explosives, splinters, circuits and jackets used in suicide bombings, as well as jihadi literature on them," a senior police officer was quoted as saying.

Both teams were allegedly part of the suicide-bomb campaign across Pakistan to avenge actions by the country's armed forces in the region neighbouring Afghanistan.

The wave of suicide attacks, including an attempt to blow up the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad, was launched after the Pakistan army and air force struck a suspected al-Qa'ida base in the South Waziristan region bordering Afghanistan last month.

The Quetta court bombing was the worst attack. The bomber reportedly raced into the court building, telling bystanders he was giving evidence in a trial.

He detonated the bomb in the building's licence branch. Judge Abdul Wahid Durrani died in the blast, with senior lawyers and other officials.

"Initially, we suspect nationalist extremists as well as Afghan Taliban (supporters) could be behind the attack," said a spokesman for the Baluchistan Government, Razak Bugti.

Investigators said the two teams of suicide bombers seized in Karachi and Sukkur were planning to feed sectarian strife with attacks on Pakistan's Shia minority at the end of the holy month of Muharram.

Extremists are using suspicions about the drive against polio in Pakistan -- one of the few countries still afflicted with the disease -- to stir rebellion in tribal regions.

Retired Pakistani general Ali Jan Mohammad Aurakzai -- regarded by Western diplomats as one of the best-informed about sentiment among tribal militants on the Durand Line frontier with Afghanistan -- said the conflict in Afghanistan was becoming a "war of liberation" against foreign invaders.

The Taliban were winning popular support, he said.

Referring to Taliban claims that 10,000 jihadi fighters are poised to launch a (northern) spring offensive, General Aurakzai warned they would take years to defeat.

The Kabul Government and the coalition forces had no alternative but to negotiate with the Taliban, he said.

"Eventually, all issues will have to be resolved through dialogue on the negotiating table," General Aurakzai said.

Surge? -- Countersurge! Next Stop: Afghanistan

You could see this coming a mile away:

The Guardian, January 16:
U.S. Officials Say Taliban Attacks Surge

Taliban fighters seeking to regain power in Afghanistan are taking advantage of a recent peace deal with the Pakistan government to dramatically increase attacks on U.S. and allied forces in eastern and southeastern Afghanistan, several American military officials said Tuesday.

Hmm... Several American military officials? All saying the same thing at the same time?

[BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!]

Did you hear that? That was the detector going off. I apologize for the disruption. Unfortunately, the people who need it most just can't seem to hear it.

New York Times, January 17:
Commanders in Afghanistan Request More Troops

American and NATO military commanders in Afghanistan are worried about the resurgent Taliban insurgency and have asked for additional troops, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said today, adding that he was “sympathetic” to the request.

Mr. Gates said that the commanders had “indicated what they could do with different force levels,” but he would not say how many additional troops the commanders had asked for.

Of course not. How can they fudge the figures later if they divulge them now?

New York Times, January 17:
As Raids on Afghan Border Increase, U.S. Military Seeks More Troops

American commanders say the surge in cross-border attacks has coincided with an agreement reached last September in which the Pakistani government pulled back its soldiers in the North Waziristan region in return for a pledge from tribal elders not to shelter militants or allow them to engage in illegal behavior.

In the two months before the agreement, the senior American intelligence official said, there were 40 cross-border attacks in Khost and Paktika Provinces. But in the two months after the agreement there were 140 attacks.
...
Asked about increasing American troop levels in Afghanistan, Mr. Gates said that if military commanders sought more, “I would be strongly inclined to recommend that to the president.”

He also urged other NATO counties to fulfill their pledges to send more troops and equipment to Afghanistan.

It's a good thing Pakistan is our "ally". It's tough to imagine what would be happening if Pakistan were our enemy.

Reuters, January 17:
Gates to consider more troops for Afghanistan

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Wednesday he would consider sending more troops to Afghanistan where U.S. commanders say they expect the Taliban to step up attacks from Pakistani sanctuaries.

Gates, in Afghanistan to ensure commanders have the resources to counter an expected Taliban offensive in the spring, said it was very important the United States and its allies did not let the success achieved in Afghanistan slip away.

Success? What Success?

Oh, right -- I almost forgot. Opium production is way up.

And what's good for the global heroin trade is good for the United States.

U.S. military commanders said attacks from Pakistan into Afghanistan had surged, several-fold in some areas, and the violence was expected to increase in the spring and summer.

Do you hear that?

Surge, surge, surge.

I can't help but wonder if all this talk of attacks surging is designed to whip up support for the so-called president's plan to send more than 20,000 more troops to Iraq. After all, if "the enemy" are surging, shouldn't we surge, too?

It looks as if our so-called leaders are preparing us for multiple surges -- one in Afghanistan, one in Iraq, and options still open with respect to Iran and Syria.

Am I stretching? I don't think so. The preparations haven't been hard to spot. They're not exactly being subtle about it. Even TIME Magazine has noticed.

TIME, January 17:
A Surge in Afghanistan Too?

The U.S. commander in Afghanistan has asked for "significant increases" in resources for what some critics call America's "invisible" war. Army Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry, the head of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, has recommended to Gates that the U.S. send more troops and more money to Afghanistan. He has proposed almost tripling the spending on assistance to the Afghan Security Forces and reconstruction projects to some $8 billion.

While the request needs the approval of the Joint Chiefs of Staff before it can be presented to President Bush, Secretary of State Robert Gates — on his first trip to Afghanistan — appears receptive to the idea.

The full-bore lying campaign, clearly designed to obfuscate the possible implications, has already begun.

When asked by a reporter today if the U.S. military was too strained by Iraq and other commitments to send more troops to Afghanistan, Gen Peter Pace acknowledged that "any kind of deployment is going to add a short term strain." But he said that a short-term increase in troops could actually mean less strain on the force over the longer run.

And how will that work? The more troops we have getting slaughtered in Afghanistan in the near future, the stronger our Army will be in the distant future? I guess that must be it. Peter Pace thinks we're all as dumb as a stick. And maybe some of us are.

As if this weren't impossibly sad already, even some so-called leaders of the putative opposition are receptive to the idea.

The Guardian, January 17:
Hillary Clinton opposes Iraq troops 'surge'

Ms Clinton said she opposed George Bush's plans to send a 'surge' of more than 20,000 extra troops to Iraq.

More should instead go to Afghanistan, she told NBC's Today Show.

She said the US president was "taking troops away from Afghanistan, where I think we need to be putting more troops, and sending them to Iraq on a mission that I think has a very limited, if any, chance for success".

Never mind whether the mission in Afghanistan stands any chance of success. Never mind whether the notion of "success" in Afghanistan has ever been defined. Just get us out of Iraq, without getting us out of the Middle East. Is that the idea?

It all seems like a cynical ploy to me; Ms. Clinton can appear to be critical of the so-called president on Iraq, but in the meantime she can appear to be "strong" on "National Security" in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan was "one of the great missed opportunities", Ms Clinton argued, urging an increase in US troops there before a likely "spring offensive" by the Taliban. "Let's focus on Afghanistan and get it right," she said.

I have an even better idea. Let's focus on 9/11. Let's have an honest investigation for a change. Let's find out -- once and for all -- whether Afghanistan had anything to do with it.

Maybe the Taliban were behind the attacks. Or maybe the Taliban were sheltering al-Q'aeda who were behind the attacks. Or maybe al-Q'aeda and the Taliban were merely blamed for the attacks. If we really knew, maybe we could decide what to do about it. But considering that we don't know, how can we decide anything? And for that matter, why are we in Afghanistan at all?

Are we still looking for Osama bin Laden? Sorry, he's dead. And according to the FBI, he was never wanted in connection with 9/11 anyway -- because they have no evidence against him.

So why are we still there?

This wouldn't have anything to do with a pipeline, would it?