Blackwater involved in Bhutto and Hariri hits: Ex Pak Army Chief

Pakistan’s former chief of army staff, General Mirza Aslam Beg (ret.), has said the U.S. private security company Blackwater was directly involved in the assassinations of former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto and former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri.

Blackwater later changed its name and is now known as Xe.

General Beg recently told the Saudi Arabian daily Al Watan that former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf had given Blackwater the green light to carry out terrorist operations in the cities of Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Peshawar, and Quetta.

General Beg, who was chief of army staff during Benazir Bhutto’s first administration, said U.S. officials always kept the presence of Blackwater in Pakistan secret because they were afraid of possible attacks on the U.S. Embassy and its consulates in Pakistan.

During an interview with a Pakistani TV network last Sunday, Beg claimed that the United States killed Benazir Bhutto.


Beg stated that the former Pakistani prime minister was killed in an international conspiracy because she had decided to back out of the deal through which she had returned to the country after nine years in exile.

Beg also said he believes that the former director general of Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence was not an accomplice in the conspiracy against Benazir Bhutto, although she did not trust him.

The retired Pakistani general also stated that Benazir Bhutto was a sharp politician but was not as prudent as her father.

On September 2, the U.S. ambassador to Islamabad, Anne W. Patterson, intervened with one of the largest newspaper groups in Pakistan, The News International, to force it to block a decade-old weekly column by Dr. Shireen Mazari scheduled for publication on September 3 in which Mazari, the former director of the Islamabad Institute of Strategic Studies, broke the story of Blackwater/Xe’s presence in Pakistan.

The management of The News International dismissed one of the country’s most prominent academics and journalists due to U.S. pressure. She joined the more independent daily The Nation last week as an editor.
On September 9, in her first column in The Nation, Dr. Mazari wrote:

“Now, even if one were to ignore the massive purchases of land by the U.S., the questionable manner in which the expansion of the U.S. Embassy is taking place and the threatening covert activities of the U.S. and its ‘partner in crime’ Blackwater; the unregistered comings and goings of U.S. personnel on chartered flights; we would still find it difficult to see the whole aid disbursement issue as anything other than a sign of U.S. gradual occupation. It is no wonder we have the term Af-Pak: Afghanistan they control through direct occupation loosely premised on a UN resolution; Pakistan they are occupying as a result of willingly ceded sovereignty by the past and present leadership.”

According to Al Watan, Washington even used Blackwater forces to protect its consulate in the city of Peshawar.

In addition, U.S. journalist Seymour Hersh has accused former U.S vice president Dick Cheney of being involved in the Hariri assassination.

He said Cheney was in charge of a secret team that was tasked with assassinating prominent political figures.

After the assassination of Rafik Hariri in 2005, the U.S. and a number of other countries pointed the finger at Syria, although conclusive evidence has never been presented proving Syrian involvement in the murder.

Pakistan Police Raid U.S.-Employed Security Firm

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

ISLAMABAD (AP) -- Pakistani police raided a local security firm contracted by the U.S. Embassy on Saturday, officials said, seizing dozens of allegedly unlicensed weapons at a time when American use of private contractors is under unusual scrutiny here.

Two employees of the Inter-Risk company were arrested, Islamabad police official Rana Akram told a news conference. Reporters were shown the disputed weapons -- 61 assault rifles and nine pistols.

He said police were searching for the owner of the firm, which has been mentioned recently in local media reports that have been trying to establish the types of private security firms that American diplomats use in Pakistan.

In particular, Pakistani reporters, bloggers and others have suggested that the U.S. may be using the
American firm formerly known as Blackwater, which was refused an operating license by Iraq's government early this year amid continued outrage over a lethal 2007 firefight involving some of its employees in Baghdad.

The U.S. Embassy denies it uses Blackwater -- now known as Xe Services -- in Pakistan, but the accusations have been part of a deepening sense of anti-Americanism in a country where that feeling is already pervasive.

Much of it hinges on U.S. plans to expand its embassy, adding hundreds more staff and more land in what it says is a move to allow it to disburse billions of dollars more in humanitarian aid to Pakistan.
Akram said police are investigating whether any other private security firms are using illegal weapons.

U.S. Embassy spokesman Rick Snelsire confirmed that the embassy signed a contract with Inter-Risk last year and that it took effect at the start of 2009. It is believed to be the first contract the local firm has signed with the U.S., said Snelsire, who did not have a figure for the contract's worth.

''Our understanding is they obtained licenses with whatever they brought into the country to meet the contractual needs,'' Snelsire said. ''We told the government that we had a contract with Inter-Risk, that Inter-Risk would be providing security at the embassy and our consulates.''

Pakistan Licenses banned weapons to U.S. security firm

Daily Times Monitor

LAHORE: The government has issued 86 licences for banned weapons to a security company, contracted by the US embassy in Islamabad, a private TV channel reported on Thursday.

A source in the Interior Ministry told the channel that the licences had been issued to Inter Risk following Prime Minister Gilani’s approval. US ambassador to Pakistan Anne Patterson had held meetings with PM Gilani and the Interior Minister Rehman Malik in this regard, it said.

The channel said the weapons had been imported from the US and each weapon was worth Rs 800,000.

The security company had signed a contract with the embassy in April. A US embassy spokesman told the channel that it was no secret that the embassy had hired Inter Risk for security.

US Commandos in Covert Ops Worldwide, Including Pakistan

Long War Journal|by Bill Roggio

The daring raid in southern Somalia that targeted and killed a senior al Qaeda leader wanted for several deadly attacks is the latest in a series of covert operations carried out by U.S. and allied special operations. At least four other high-profile raids by ground forces took place in Pakistan, Madagascar, and Syria over the past several years, while others have gone unreported, according to U.S. officials.

The successful Somali raid targeted Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, a senior al Qaeda leader in East Africa as well as a senior leader in Shabaab, al Qaeda's surrogate in Somalia. Nabhan is thought to train terrorists in Somalia and has been at the forefront in cementing ties between Shabaab and al Qaeda. He has been wanted for his involvement in the 1998 suicide attacks against U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, as well as leading the cell behind the 2002 terror attacks in Mombasa, Kenya, against a hotel and an airliner.

Reports of the operation are still unclear as the U.S. military has refused to comment. But various press accounts from eyewitnesses and unnamed intelligence sources provide a glimpse of the operation.
The operation, dubbed Celestial Balance, was approved 11 days ago after U.S. intelligence determined that Nabhan was shuttling back and forth between the Shabaab-controlled port cities of Merka and Kismayo. A car transporting Nabhan and five other foreign fighters was escorted by another car carrying three Shabaab escorts; the vehicles were hit as they stopped for breakfast as they traveled to Kismayo.

According to one witness, upwards of six helicopters were involved in the raid. At least two AH-6 Little Bird special operations attack helicopters strafed the two-car convoy. Other helicopters dismounted Navy SEALs, who seized the body of Nabhan and another, and purportedly took two other wounded fighters captive. An unconfirmed report indicated that Sheikh Hussein Ali Fidow, a senior Shabaab leader, was among those killed. All nine al Qaeda and Shabaab leaders and fighters were killed during the operation.
Somali raid similar to covert raids in Pakistan, Madagascar, and Syria

While yesterday's raid in Somalia is being hailed as a shift in the U.S. war to target al Qaeda's leadership, as opposed to the unmanned airstrikes against the Taliban and al Qaeda in Pakistan's tribal areas as well as attacks in Somalia and Yemen, in fact the U.S. has previously pulled the trigger on other direct action missions - operations involving troops entering enemy territory.

Four such direct action missions against wanted al Qaeda leaders have been carried out in the Middle East and in Africa over the past several years.

The largest such raid took place in March 2006 against a training camp in Danda Saidgai in the Taliban-controlled tribal agency of North Waziristan, Pakistan. U.S. special operation teams raided an al Qaeda camp run by the Black Guard, the elite Praetorian Guard for Osama bin Laden, Ayman al Zawahiri, and other senior al Qaeda leaders.

The air assault resulted in the death of Imam Asad and several dozen members of the Black Guard. In addition to being the camp commander, Asad was a senior Chechen al Qaeda commander and an associate of Shamil Basayev, the Chechen al Qaeda leader killed by Russian security forces in July 2006. U.S. intelligence believed either Zawahiri or bin Laden were at the camp at the time of the raid.

The next high-profile raid took place in the least likely of places, on the island nation of Madagascar. In January 2007, U.S. commandos struck at Mohammed Jamal Khalifa, one of Osama bin Laden's brother-in-laws with deep roots in al Qaeda as a financier and facilitator, as he visited his home there.
U.S. intelligence had waited for Khalifa to leave the safety of Saudi Arabia and targeted him when he was most vulnerable, U.S. intelligence officials have told The Long War Journal. The raid was made to look like a robbery; Khalifa's computer and other documents were stolen.

The next U.S. commando raid again took place in Pakistan, when U.S. special operations forces assaulted the village of Musa Nikow in Pakistan's Taliban-controlled tribal agency of South Waziristan. The raid was controversial; Pakistani authorities claimed that civilians were killed during the raid. The target of the raid is unclear, and no senior al Qaeda or Taliban leader was reported killed or captured.

The last known direct action mission targeted and killed a senior al Qaeda leader based in eastern Syria. U.S. commandos assaulted a compound in the town of Sukkariya near Abu Kamal, across the border from Al Qaeda in Iraq, and killed Abu Ghadiya and several members of his staff.

Ghadiya was the leader of al Qaeda's extensive network that funnels suicide bombers, foreign fighters, weapons, and cash from Syria into Iraq along the entire length of the Syrian border.

Other such direct action missions have taken place but have avoided the scrutiny of the media, U.S. intelligence officials told The Long War Journal.

Blackwater Expanding Presence in Pakistan

The Nation Report

Islamabad - US private security outfit Blackwater has begun to expand its presence in Karachi port city in the backdrop of the Peshawar debacle last month when Craig Davis a suspected operative of the US company was caught red handed involved in objectionable activities.

Well-placed sources told The Nation on Monday that Blackwater, which has been operating in the region including in Afghanistan and Pakistan under different names, is believed to have hired on rent at least seven private houses in posh Defence area of Karachi port city.

Sources were not sure whether the move to hire houses was part of any long-term strategy or as a stopgap arrangement because plans were afoot to hire services of retired personnel of Pakistani law enforcement agencies to oversea various operations including logistical support to handle consignments of the US private security company.

It was further learnt from knowledgeable sources that Blackwater had acquired hundreds of acres of land near Pataro in Sindh in order to launch a supposedly Agriculture Research Institute.

Craig Davis along with some other US citizens came into spotlight in Peshawar after their Pakistani neighbours wrote a letter to the Interior Ministry demanding a thorough probe into their dubious activities.

Later Craig Davis was identified as operative of Creative Associates International Inc; a Washington- based US firm believed to be one the wings of Blackwater, now renamed Xe Worldwide. Davis, who had to leave Pakistan, is learnt to have returned again and resumed his “official” activities.

However, despite frequent attempts, it was not immediately possible to contact the US Embassy to confirm the status of Craig Davis.

Also Read: Black Water Recruiting Agents Fluent In Urdu and Punjabi for Pakistan

Musharraf was guaranteed 'safe exit': Zardari

Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari says foreign powers with "interest" in the region guaranteed a "safe exit" to his predecessor Pervez Musharraf.

Zardari did not name any country, but Pakistan's main opposition party PML-N says Musharraf was "guaranteed immunity by Saudi Arabia and the UK".

The party wants Mr Musharraf tried for treason and has accused the government of dragging its feet on the issue.

Zardari made the comments at an informal dinner meeting with reporters.

President Zardari said he had been party to negotiations that led to the guarantee of a safe exit for Mr Musharraf when he resigned as president last year.

"During those talks it was decided that after quitting power, Mr Musharraf will play golf, but now he is doing other things," Zardari said.

Police in Pakistan have filed at least two cases of murder and illegal conduct against Mr Musharraf, but court hearings have not yet begun in either case.

Musharraf has been living in London for more than four months and early this month he was invited by the Saudi king for an audience.

Last week, the Saudi king also met PML-N supreme leader, Nawaz Sharif, who was in Saudi Arabia on a pilgrimage.

These meetings are widely seen as part of Saudi efforts to prevent any developments that would upset Pakistan's fragile military-civilian balance and destabilise its political system.

In a television interview on Sunday, Musharraf said he had been assured by the Saudi king that Nawaz Sharif would not press for his trial.

Nawaz Sharif wants Musharraf tried in court "for violating the constitution and imposing emergency rule in the country in November 2007".

Relations between Mr Zardari's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and the PML-N hit a low last month when the latter accused him of stalling legal action against Mr Musharraf.

PML-N leader, Ahsan Iqbal told journalists that in closed door negotiations Mr Zardari had "categorically told us that Saudi Arabia and the UK were guarantors" in a deal that provided Mr Musharraf with "safe exit" from power.

Musharraf has been commenting on Pakistani politics and economy lately, and many observers say he may have political ambitions.

U.S. Busy Making More Enemies in Pakistan

Saeed Shah | McClatchy Newspapers

For weeks now, the Pakistani media have portrayed America, its military and defense contractors in the darkest of lights, all part of an apparent campaign of anti-American vilification that is sweeping the country and, according to some, is putting American lives at risk.

Pakistanis are reacting to what many here see as an "imperial" American presence, echoing Iraq and Afghanistan, with Washington dictating to the Pakistani military and the government. Polls show that Pakistanis regard the U.S., formally a close ally and the country's biggest donor, as a hostile power.
U.S. officials have either denied the allegations or moved to blunt the criticism, but suspicions remain and relations between the two countries are getting more strained.

The lively Pakistani media has been filled with stories of under-cover American agents operating in the country, tales of a huge contingent of U.S. Marines planned to be stationed at the embassy, and reports of Blackwater private security personnel running amuck. Armed Americans have supposedly harassed and terrified residents and police officers in Islamabad and Peshawar, according to local press reports.
Much of the hysteria was based on a near $1 billion plan, revealed by McClatchy in May and confirmed by U.S. officials, to massively increase the size of the American embassy in Islamabad, which brought home to Pakistanis that the United States plans an extensive and long-term presence in the country.

The American mission in Islamabad was forced to put on three briefings for Pakistani journalists in August trying to dampen the highly charged stories, which could undermine US-Pakistani relations just as Washington is preparing to finalize a tripling of civilian aid to Islamabad, to $1.5 billion a year. Over this last weekend, an embassy spokesman had to deny suddenly renewed stories that the U.S. was behind the mysterious death of former military dictator General Zia ul Haq back in 1988.

Pakistan is a key priority for the United States because of its nuclear weapons and its potential usefulness in taking on al Qaida within its borders and ending the safe haven for the Afghan Taliban.
"I think this recent brouhaha over the embassy expansion has been difficult to beat back," said Anne Patterson, the U.S. ambassador, in an interview Thursday. "I can't really understand what's behind this because what we're doing is actually quite straightforward. We've tried to explain it carefully to the press, but it just seems to be taken over by conspiracy theories."

Briefing Pakistani journalists last month, Patterson told them that there were only nine Marines stationed to guard the embassy in Islamabad and that, even after the expansion, their number would be no more than 15 to 20. Press reports had put the figure at 350 to 1,000 Marines. She also stated categorically "Blackwater is not operating in Pakistan". But the stories refused to go away.

Patterson said she wrote last week to the owner of Pakistan's biggest media group, Jang, to protest about the content of two talk shows on its Geo TV channel, hosted by star anchors Hamid Mir and Kamran Khan, and a newspaper column of influential analyst Shireen Mazari in The News, a daily, complaining that they were "wildly incorrect" and had compromised the security of Americans.

There are 250 American citizens posted at the Islamabad mission on longer-term contracts, plus another 200 on shorter assignments, the embassy said. The present embassy compound can accommodate only a fraction of them. According to independent estimates, there are some 200 private houses for U.S. officials, on regular streets located throughout upscale districts of Islamabad.

Pakistani press and bloggers also targeted Craig Davis, an American aid worker, insisting that he's an undercover secret agent. Davis, a contractor to the USAID development arm of the government, is based in the volatile northwestern city of Peshawar, and now appears to be at risk. Last year, another American USAID contractor in Peshawar, Stephen Vance, was gunned down just outside his home.

"In one or two cases these commentators have identified very specific embassy employees as CIA or Blackwater, and that very much puts the employee at danger. In at least one case we're going to have to evacuate the employee," said Patterson, without identifying the individual involved. "What particularly scared us about him is that Stephen Vance, who was the other AID Chief of Party in Peshawar, was of course assassinated a few months ago. So there is a track record here that's sort of alarming."

In recent days, shows on two popular private television channels, Geo and Dunya, which broadcast in the local Urdu language, put up pictures of homes in Islamabad which they claimed were occupied by CIA, FBI, or employees of the controversial Blackwater company of private security contractors, now called Xe Services. Some of the houses were identified with their full address. It is believed that several of the homes weren't occupied by Americans but others were. According to the U.S embassy, bloggers are now calling on people to "kill" the occupants of these houses.

A survey last month for international broadcaster al Jazeera by Gallup Pakistan found that 59 percent of Pakistanis felt the greatest threat to the country was the United States. A separate survey in August by the Pew Research Center, an independent pollster based in Washington, recorded that 64 percent of the Pakistani public regards the U.S. "as an enemy" and only 9 percent believe it to be a partner.

"The Ugly American of the sixties is back in Pakistan and this time with a vengeance," said Mazari, the defense analyst whose newspaper column was the subject of the American complaint. "It's an alliance (U.S.-Pakistan) that's been forced on the country by its corrupt leadership. It's delivering chaos. We should distance ourselves. You can't just hand over the country."

While the anti-US sentiment appears genuine, it is uncertain whether the current storm, and the particular stories that it thrived on, was orchestrated by a pressure group or even an arm of the state. In the past, Pakistan's notorious Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency, part of the military, has very effectively used the press to push its agenda.

The U.S. provided over $11billion in aid to Pakistan since 2001. Yet in recent days, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani has complained that too much of the promised new enhanced U.S. aid package would be eaten up in American administrative costs, while President Asif Zardari demanded that multi-billion dollar civilian and military aid money, currently stuck in Congress, be speeded up.

The Pakistani government has repeatedly stated that joining the U.S. "war on terror" has cost the nation an estimated $34 billion and ministers frequently lambast the U.S. for trespassing on Pakistani territory with use of spy planes to target suspected militants — an emotive tacit for the Pakistani population.

Ambassador Patterson said that "the (Pakistani) government could be more helpful" in combating the anti-American controversies, which took on a new fever pitch since the beginning of August.

The weak Islamabad government appears unable to come to the defense of its ally and even tried to score some popularity points by joining the U.S.-baiting.

A widely believed conspiracy contends that America is deliberately destabilizing Pakistan, to bring down a "strong Muslim country", and ultimately seize its nuclear weapons. Pakistanis, especially its military establishment, also are distrustful of U.S. motives in Afghanistan, seeing it as part of a strategy for regional domination. Further Pakistanis are appalled that the regime of Hamid Karzai in Kabul is close to archenemy India.

"Part of the reason why we can't fight terrorism is because the terrorists have adopted what I'd call anti-U.S. imperialist discourse, which makes them more popular," said Ayesha Siddiqa, an analyst and author of Military Inc.

Many also blame the U.S. for "imposing" a president on the country, Zardari, who is deeply disliked and who last year succeeded an unpopular U.S.-backed military dictator. So democrats resent American interference in Pakistani politics, while conservatives distrust American aims in Afghanistan.

"You used to find this anti-Americanism among supporters of religious groups and Right-wing groups," said Ahmed Quraishi, a newspaper columnist and the leading anti-American blogger. "But over the past two to three years, young, educated Pakistanis, people you'd normally expect to be pro-American modernists, and middle class people, are increasingly inclined to anti-Americanism. That's the new phenomenon."

The unholy alliance of Nawaz, Osama Bin Laden, Gen.(R)Gul and Khawaja

After claims of close ties between Osama bin Laden and PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif by the British author and journalist Simon Reeves, a former Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) officer named Khalid Khawaja has revealed similar facts during his interview to different media outlets including a Pakistani TV channel.

According to the information given by Simon Reeves in his book “The New Jackals: Ramzi Yousaf, Osama bin Laden and the future of terrorism”, backed by that of Khalid Khawaja, Bin Laden not only sponsored the election campaign of former prime minister and PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif in 1988 but paid him large sums of money to ensure protection of Al Qaeda operatives in Pakistan and to “Islamise” the state and society.

Khawaja, who also runs a non-government organisation with the name of Defence for Human Rights, has claimed in an interview to a local TV channel that Bin Laden had held five meetings with PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif.

He further stated that he had arranged these meetings between the Al Qaeda leader and Nawaz on the former prime minister’s request. He also said that he could produce evidence of these meetings to counter the denial by PML-N spokesman Siddique ul Farooq who said that no such meetings ever took place.

However, Khawaja denied that he ever stated that Osama gave more than Rs 500 million to Nawaz Sharif. He said hopefully Nawaz Sharif would not “tell a lie” in this regard, and added that the statement of PML-N spokesman Siddique ul Farooq was untrue that no such meetings had taken place.

Khawaja said that he used to be a close associate of Bin Laden in the past and might have met him more than a hundred times but he never met him after the 9/11 terror attacks.

A blogger at ABCNews.com had previously quoted the former ISI official as stating that Nawaz took a million dollar payoff from Bin Laden for turning a blind eye to Al Qaeda operatives in Pakistan.

ABC News also confirmed the same incident of payoff by quoting former FBI agent Jack Cloonan who used to interrogate one of the key Al Qaeda operatives in US custody, Ali Muhammad.

Cloonan, who is currently working as an ABC News consultant, claimed that Ali had once told him that Bin Laden paid Nawaz’s representatives $1 million for not cracking down on the militants in the Northwest Frontier Province.

Simon Reeves states in his book that after re-establishing Al Qaeda, one of Bin Laden’s first actions was to try and guarantee the security of his men living in Pakistani refugee camps by throwing money at the election campaign of Nawaz Sharif, “an energetic Pakistani politician” standing for the election of Prime Minister.

He also states in his book that Nawaz had received the money from Bin Laden with a promise to convert Pakistan into a strict Islamic state.

An American website named History Commons Website has not only confirmed Cloonan’s claim but has also mentioned another book by Scott-Clark and Levy, claiming that General Hameed Gul had contacted Osama Bin Laden who was then known to provide financial support to the Afghan mujahideen, to pay for a coup and assassination of the late Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

Should dictator Musharraf enjoy exile in the UK?

by Michael White (Guardian.co.uk)

Did you spot Declan Walsh's article in today's Guardian about Pervez Musharraf, the general who used to run Pakistan until 13 months ago? I hadn't realised he's living in a nice-but-modest flat off London's Edgware Road.

His presence here raises the familiar awkward question: should those described as dictators (Walsh, who knows Pakistan well, uses the word) be allowed to live in exile in Britain when some people at home want him back to face a treason trial?

There's no hard and fast answer here; every case is different, which is why it's interesting. A flick through an admittedly generous version of Musharraf's CV makes it clear that he was never a Saddam Hussein or an Idi Amin.

Indeed, he is probably a good deal cleaner by most tests than Nawaz Sharif, the former prime minister whom Musharraf ousted in the 1999 coup – just a year or so after Sharif promoted him to army chief of staff. As Walsh dryly notes, Sharif has a much fancier pad just down the road from Edgware Road – on Park Lane.
So the individual's record in office is relevant. So are the quality of the accusations and the accusers. Musharraf is accused of treason – among other things – for suspending the constitution and sacking chief justice Chaudhry in November 2007. Reinstated, Chaudhry might eventually be the man to decide on his fate: treason means the death penalty.

It's complicated, and the Foreign Office is apparently keen to say that Musharraf is in Britain on a visitor's visa (no points system to tests his skills set for him then!) and probably won't stay long. His son lives in the US, but maybe Musharraf could settle somewhere in the Middle East closer to home. The 66-year-old retired soldier thinks he is not yet finished in politics – though he probably is.

There's a wider question: is it better to allow dictators, military or otherwise, to leave a country quietly for exile or does justice demand that they be brought to account?

I think it depends on the scale of the crimes of which they stand accused, who they committed them against and in whose name they are being sought? In former Yugoslavia, Slobodan Milosevic and his grisly Greater Serbia henchmen had a lot of blood on their hands (so did others, but they were the prime movers), yet the extradition to the Hague is still regarded as the justice of biased victors by many Serbs.

Some Germans and Japanese quietly think the same of their war trials in 1945-46, especially since the Russians were among their judges. Even Winston Churchill had qualms. But that was war; the treatment of expelled dictators is a more nuanced issue.

It seems to me that the crucial fact is not well-meaning but remote foreign notions of justice, but what is best for the country concerned, recovering as it usually is from an unpleasant experience. That's why I felt it was wrong for a Spanish judge (Spain having suppressed its own bloody recent history) to get Chile's General Pinochet arrested in London. It was a matter for the Chileans.

Ferdinand Marcos was smuggled out of Manila when he lost the plot and the Philippines election in 1986 and died in his bed in Hawaii. Imelda Marcos was later allowed home to make a nuisance of herself. I see she is now promoting the dynastic interests of her children. In Europe or the US, we cannot shake our heads and say: "It would never happen here."

But Indira Gandhi was punished by voters for her 1975-77 state of emergency, though she later regained power, both remarkable political facts – but India is unique and it doesn't help us much.
Amin was allowed to die in exile. Until hours before the first bombs fell on Baghdad, Saddam and his grim offspring were being offered plane tickets out to assured safety. Think how much grief could have been avoided if they accepted them.

I'm not competent to judge how good a ruler Musharraf was, nor his motives or achievements. In economic terms, on corruption and social modernisation (he is credited with easing restrictions on Pakistani women and freeing up the media to come after him) he is said to have done modest good.

In geo-political terms, Musharraf was clearly caught between a rock and a very hard place – Islamist fundamentalism, which his predecessors had exploited, and pressure from the US after 9/11 just as Washington was belatedly noticing India's emergence as a future superpower.

So with Sharif on his case, I'm inclined to say we should leave Musharraf alone to enjoy his musical evenings on the Edgware Road (he is apparently an accomplished singer), even if it divides the British-Pakistani community.

I should add that Labour peer, Rotherham's Nazir Ahmed, is on Musharraf's case, too, complaining about the cost of Scotland Yard protection (can't he pay for it all?) and claiming that he "stokes unrest" in Britain, according to today's Times. Slough Labour party invited the general to help celebrate Pakistan's independence day, which upset some people.

I don't know Ahmed but am told he has done good things for moderation in the British Muslim community. Tony Blair gave him the peerage in 1998 when he needed such people – Ahmed, a chip shop owner and greengrocer was just 40 at the time – and did so without consulting his party in Rotherham. "Naz is a bit of a Jekyll and Hyde," I'm told. He's certainly said some silly things, but haven't we all?

But in foreign affairs and the Lords, Ahmed is a one-issue man, born in Kashmir shortly before his family emigrated and obsessed with it. He's also a chum of Sharif and helped get him home from exile.
Did Ahmed complain when Sharif had British police protection – or Benazir Bhutto? Probably not. It's usually best to steer clear of other people's internal politics as we discover whenever we forget. Stick to Yorkshire, M'lord.

AQ Khan Confesses To Help Iran Develop Nuclear Weapons

By R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post Staff Writer


The creator of Pakistan's nuclear weapons program boasted in a recent television interview that he and other senior Pakistani officials, eager to see Iran develop nuclear weapons, years ago guided that country to a proven network of suppliers and helped advance its covert efforts.

A.Q. Khan, whom Washington considers the world's most ambitious proliferator of nuclear weapons technology, told a television interviewer in Karachi, Pakistan, that if Iran succeeds in "acquiring nuclear technology, we will be a strong bloc in the region to counter international pressure. Iran's nuclear capability will neutralize Israel's power."


Although Khan has previously claimed nationalist and religious justifications for helping to spread sensitive technology, several experts said his latest statement was an unusually direct claim of broad, official Pakistani support for an Iranian nuclear weapon.

The interview with Khan was broadcast Aug. 31 by Aaj News Television. A translation of his remarks -- describing covert purchases by Iran of equipment through Pakistan's "reliable" suppliers in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates -- was prepared by the Director of National Intelligence's Open Source Center and posted Tuesday on Secrecy News, a blog of the Federation of American Scientists.

The Pakistani government has repeatedly asserted that Khan acted alone in illicitly spreading nuclear weapons technology, and it has denied that there was official support for helping either Iran's nuclear program or North Korea's. But Khan, who has spent the past several years under a form of house arrest, has long insisted privately that his contacts with both countries were approved by top military officials.

In the interview, Khan was less direct about his contacts with North Korea. He confirmed that Pakistan obtained critical missile technology from the country, but he refused to comment "at the moment" on aiding its nuclear program. U.S. and allied proliferation experts, and some former senior Pakistani officials, have said that Khan assisted North Korea in developing a capability to enrich uranium for a bomb.

Several years ago, North Korea said it was pursuing uranium enrichment, then denied it. Last week, it said it was in the "final stage" of enriching uranium. Khan, in the interview, said North Korean engineers have visited "our director generals in their departments to observe different operations." But he added that "nuclear technology cannot be learned by visiting a nuclear site and observing a few machines."

Stephen P. Cohen, a proliferation expert at the Brookings Institution, said Khan has "always threatened to tell more -- perhaps who authorized the transfer of designs and samples of technology, if not more, to several states." But he said Khan appeared to hold back a lot in the interview.

A spokesman at the Pakistani Embassy in Washington, Nadeem Kiani, emphasized that Khan has no "official status" and that Pakistan "does not want proliferation of nuclear weapons in the region."
"These are the views of a person who has been rendered ineffective, and his network has been completely shut up," Kiani said.

Obama’s Undeclared War Against Pakistan Continues

by Jeremy Scahill

Three days after his inauguration, on January 23, 2009, President Barack Obama ordered US predator drones to attack sites inside of Pakistan, reportedly killing 15 people. It was the first documented attack ordered by the new US Commander in Chief inside of Pakistan. Since that first Obama-authorized attack, the US has regularly bombed Pakistan, killing scores of civilians. The New York Times reported that the attacks were clear evidence Obama "is continuing, and in some cases extending, Bush administration policy." In the first 99 days of 2009, more than 150 people were reportedly killed in these drone attacks. The most recent documented attack was Tuesday in Waziristan. Since 2006, the US drone strikes have killed 687 people (as of April). That amounts to about 38 deaths a month just from drone attacks.

The use of these attack drones by Obama should not come as a surprise to anyone who followed his presidential campaign closely. As a candidate, Obama made clear that Pakistan’s sovereignty was subservient to US interests, saying he would attack with or without the approval of the Pakistani government. Obama said if the US had "actionable intelligence" that "high value" targets were in Pakistan, the US would attack. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton echoed those sentiments on the campaign trail and "did not rule out U.S. attacks inside Pakistan, citing the missile attacks her husband, then-President Bill Clinton, ordered against Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan in 1998. ‘If we had actionable intelligence that Osama bin Laden or other high-value targets were in Pakistan I would ensure that they were targeted and killed or captured,’ she said."

Last weekend, Obama granted his first extended interview with a Pakistani media outlet, the newspaper Dawn:

Responding to a question about drone attacks inside Pakistan’s tribal zone, Mr. Obama said he did not comment on specific operations.

‘But I will tell you that we have no intention of sending US troops into Pakistan. Pakistan and its military are dealing with their security issues.’

There are a number of issues raised by this brief response offered by Obama. First, the only difference between using these attack drones and using actual US soldiers on the ground is that the soldiers are living beings. These drones sanitize war and reduce the US death toll while still unleashing military hell disproportionately on civilians. The bottom line is that the use of drones inside the borders of Pakistan amounts to the same violation of sovereignty that would result from sending US soldiers inside the country. Obama defended the attacks in the Dawn interview, saying:

Our primary goal is to be a partner and a friend to Pakistan and to allow Pakistan to thrive on its own terms, respecting its own traditions, respecting its own culture. We simply want to make sure that our common enemies, which are extremists who would kill innocent civilians, that that kind of activity is stopped, and we believe that it has to be stopped whether it’s in the United States or in Pakistan or anywhere in the world.

Despite Obama’s comments about respecting Pakistan "on its own terms," this is how Reuters recently described the arrangement between Pakistan and the US regarding drone attacks:

U.S. ally Pakistan objects to the U.S. missile strikes, saying they violate its sovereignty and undermine efforts to deal with militancy because they inflame public anger and bolster support for the militants.

Washington says the missile strikes are carried out under an agreement with Islamabad that allows Pakistani leaders to publicly criticize the attacks. Pakistan denies any such agreement.

Pakistan is now one of the biggest recipients of US aid with the House of Representatives recently approving a tripling of money to Pakistan to about $1.5 billion a year for five years. Moreover, US special forces are already operating inside of Pakistan, along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in Baluchistan. According to the Wall Street Journal, US Special Forces are:

Training Pakistan’s Frontier Corps, a paramilitary force responsible for battling the Taliban and al Qaeda fighters, who cross freely between Afghanistan and Pakistan, the officials said. The U.S. trainers aren’t meant to fight alongside the Pakistanis or accompany them into battle, in part because there will be so few Special Forces personnel in the two training camps.

A senior American military officer said he hoped Islamabad would gradually allow the U.S. to expand its training footprint inside Pakistan’s borders.

In February, The New York Times reported that US forces are also engaged in other activities inside of Pakistan:

American Special Operations troops based in Afghanistan have also carried out a number of operations into Pakistan’s tribal areas since early September, when a commando raid that killed a number of militants was publicly condemned by Pakistani officials. According to a senior American military official, the commando missions since September have been primarily to gather intelligence.

It is clear — and has been for a long time — that the Obama administration is radically expanding the US war in Afghanistan deeply into Pakistan. Whether it is through US military trainers (that’s what they were called in Vietnam too), drone attacks or commando raids inside the country, the US is militarily entrenched in Pakistan. It makes Obama’s comment that "We have no intention of sending US troops into Pakistan" simply unbelievable.

For a sense of how significant US operations are and will continue to be for years and years to come, just look at the US plan to build an almost $1 billion massive US "embassy" in Islamabad, which is reportedly modeled after the imperial city they call a US embassy in Baghdad. As we know very clearly from Iraq, such a complex will result in an immediate surge in the deployment of US soldiers, mercenaries and other contractors.

Blackwater(Xe) In Pakistan

The mercenary private security contractor once known as Blackwater and now called Xe Services LLC is being reported in the Pakistani press as being seen with “other suspicious foreigners” in Peshawar and other parts of Pakistan.

A report last Thursday in Pakistan’s International News, states that foreigners have been seen in the area around University Town in Peshawar and have been renting residences in the area. One local resident stated,

“What we have been hearing about the presence of Blackwater or other suspicious foreigners in Peshawar and Pakistan is alarming.”

The report of Blackwater in Pakistan follows reports by Spiegel and WMR about the firm’s presence in the Philippines at the former U.S. naval base at Subic Bay. A report in last Thursday’s Philippines Inquirer states that the issue of Blackwater/Xe has now become a major political headache for the Philippine government. The report states: “Party list lawmakers want an investigation into reports US military contractor Blackwater (now Xe Services LLC) is training mercenaries at the Subic Bay free port in Olongapo City.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has extended Xe’s (Blackwater’s) aviation services contract, through its Presidential Airways subsidiary, in Iraq.

Source: PrisonPlanet

Pakistan to start trade in oil futures

Pakistan's National Commodity Exchange Ltd (NCEL) said in a statement on Monday that the country's markets regulator had formally approved the listing of crude oil futures contracts at NCEL.
"The listing is expected within the next couple of weeks," Samir Ahmed, managing director of NCEL, told Reuters.

He said NCEL has six futures products which include rice, palm oil and several gold contracts, and the introduction of a crude oil contract would fill an important gap for a commodity known for its price volatility.

"This contract will now make it possible for various stakeholders to trade and hedge an important international benchmark within Pakistan," said NCEL in a statement.
The government in June said it was also planning to hedge a portion of its oil purchases but no decision has been made.

Pakistan imports about 80 percent of its oil and spent $9.5 billion on imports of crude oil and petroleum products in fiscal year of 2008/09 (July/June), compared with $11.5 billion in the previous fiscal year.

Source: Reuters

US Ambassador Accuses Pakistan’s Jang Media Group of Endangering Americans

Adding fuel to an already serious diplomatic fire, US Ambassador to Pakistan Anne Patterson discussed the contents of an angry letter she wrote to the Jang Group, Pakistan’s largest media conglomerate. Ambassador Patterson accused Jang of spreading “wildly incorrect” information and said the group had “compromised the security of Americans.”

Patterson’s very public clash with Jang was brought to the attention of much of Pakistan late last week, when she managed to get Jang’s “The News International” newspaper to pull the weekly column of top analyst Dr. Shireen Mazari over the article’s reference to Blackwater contractors operating in Pakistan on the behalf of the US government. The article was made available on the paper’s website, but was not published.

The pulling of the article caused a major stir in Pakistan’s blogosphere, with many seeing the US embassy’s ability to block coverage of a story as an ominous sign of America’s growing influence in the impoverished, war-ridden nation. Ambassador Patterson made it clear, however, that her problems with Jang did not begin and end with the article, and said she objected to the content of two popular talk shows on the group’s Geo TV station, which she accused to spreading “conspiracy theories.”

Last month, a poll conducted by Gallup showed that a majority of Pakistanis had identified the United States as the biggest threat to the nation, and there is a growing sense among Pakistanis that the nation’s recent military offensives are more for America’s benefit than for their own.
And while Ambassador Patterson has denied that any Blackwater employees are in Pakistan, former CIA officials had conceded only a few weeks ago that Blackwater was responsible for all the security on Pakistan’s Shamsi Air Base, from which US drones are launched.

As the US continues to expand its embassy in Islamabad and its war in Afghanistan, the conspicuous US presence is only going to fuel more unrest. Whether this will mean a growing clash with Pakistan’s private media over reporting on its activities, however, remains to be seen.

Source: AntiWar