Pakistan & Kashmir

NOVANEWS by crescentandcross   ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – The United States will not abandon its drone program in Pakistan but how it goes forward is a matter for U.S. and Pakistani intelligence and military officials to determine, a U.S. official said on Wednesday. “The program is something that we have said we go ahead on. The question is how. And that process is going to be something that’s going to be one of the main tasks that our intel and our military guys have,” the official said, speaking to reporters on condition of anonymity. The comments came as Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, visited Pakistan in the highest level trip by a U.S. official since ties were badly strained over the case of CIA contractor Raymond Davis, who shot...

NOVANEWS   By Khalil Nouri It is typical to scoff at David Miliband’s position for his post-political career. But in a recent New York Times article the former U.K Foreign Secretary showed that his intellect and judgment on a number of key issues, including how to bring the Afghan War to an end, was and remains almost finely honed; but it lacks an indigenous solution to be airborne: David Miliband (Former U.K. Foreign Secretary) He profoundly recognizes the exact symptoms by saying, “The time is now for the West to push for a comprehensive settlement that would give all Afghan groups, including the Taliban, a voice in the country’s future while at the same time taking the interests of regional power into account. “ He goes on, “Afghanistan’s battles are not just between the Afghan an...

NOVANEWS by crescentandcross   Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the US military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the US military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, has said that the coming year will be a difficult one for US troops in Afghanistan. “I think our losses, which were significant last year, will be this year as well,” Reuters quoted Mullen as saying in Afghanistan on Tuesday. He also said he expected heavy fighting in the months ahead. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said the fight against militants in Afghanistan “has made progress” over the past 15 months. However, Democratic members of the US Congress have rejected the upbeat government assessment of progress, pointing out that 2010 has been the deadliest year for both th...

NOVANEWS   Posted By: Sammi Ibrahem Chair of West Midland PSC   By Hanan Habibzai (Editor’s note:  In 2001 Americans and their Tajik allies slaughtered 2,000 POWS in Northern Afghanistan, a barbaric war crime.  Veterans Today calls for an investigation of this act, those who ordered it and those who covered it up.  The first group of names, Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Ashcroft, we all know.  There are more…) The war in Afghanistan has entered its 10th year, a year of both stalemate and suffering.Everyone is thirsty to see peace and stability in his or her environment across Afghanistan but they are not sure.  Even the idea of peace carries great danger. “If the war criminals who tried to destroy innocent families who worked with the Taliban gain power, returning to peace will be...

NOVANEWS   Posted By: Sammi Ibrahem Chair of West Midland PSC   by Asif Haroon Raja   Pak-US relations have seen many ups and downs starting early 1950s when Pakistan decided to join western pacts and became a US ally. Despite that the US embraced Pakistan on need basis only and dumped it when its regional objectives were served, Pakistan has remained attached to USA. Anomalous relationship has survived on account of choice of the ruling coterie and not that of the people. The latest romance between the two countries grew up in the aftermath of 9/11 after a decade old estrangement. Gen Musharraf suffering from legitimacy bug forgot about America’s repeated betrayals and willingly pushed Pakistan into the deceptive lap of USA. He gullibly accepted false assurances of US le...

NOVANEWS   by Asif Haroon Raja     Unmanned drones were first used by the US military in Kosovo and Bosnia Herzegovina for surveillance purpose. Currently drones are being employed against combatant civilians in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia. Unmanned drones are supplementing aerial attacks by jets and gunship helicopters and cruise missiles. Prof Marc W. Harold writes in his article that future US wars in third world will involve massive drones to police territory. It will employ local satrap forces, like Karzai forces, and once the territory is pacified sufficiently, it will deploy government-ready-to-rule kits. It is typical of American style war where only opponents and civilians die, but this kind of technological warfare can only be carried out upon weak ...

NOVANEWS   Insists Strikes Part of His ‘Fundamental Responsibility’ by Jason Ditz antiwar.com According to officials familiar with the conversation, CIA Director Leon Panetta rejected demands from Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence head Lt. Gen. Ahmad Shuja Pasha to end drone strikes against his nation and scale back operations beyond those coordinated with the ISI itself. The officials said the multi-hour talks ended with Panetta insisting the drone strikes were part of his “fundamental responsibility” and that they would continue. He also apparently rejected the other calls, insisting the US government would do whatever it thinks is in its interest in the region. Despite rejecting every single demand of Pasha, CIA spokesmen insisted that the talk was “productive” and prove...

NOVANEWS by crescentandcross Pakistani Officials Slam Latest Attack Against South Waziristan by Jason Ditz Though Pakistani officials were quite clear on Monday in their demand that the US put its entire drone strike program “on hold” for the foreseeable future, drones were active again today in South Waziristan, attacking a village and killing at least six people. The Zardari government had long been a tacit supporter of such strikes. The ugly number of recent incidents, as well as anger over the Raymond Davis affair and its subsequent revelation that a number of US spies were operating in Pakistan beyond the ones cooperating officially with the government, however, have sparked a backlash. Now it is not just cabinet ministers but Pakistan’s powerful military establishment maki...

NOVANEWS By Sajjad Shaukat   In the past, conventional forces used to besiege an enemy country in order to defeat it or to fulfill their strategic aims. But in the modern era of globalization and technology, a rival country can be besieged through some different tactics which include various subversive acts conducted in that country by a single country or a number of countries which want to obtain their joint selfish goals. In these terms, although our country has been facing multiple crises of grave nature, yet the same have been intensified by the foreign enemies recently as part of the siege of Pakistan. At present, Pakistan and its security forces are facing suicide attacks, bomb blasts, sectarian violence, drone attacks and targeted-killings coupled with intermittent b...

NOVANEWS   Posted by: Sammi Ibrahem Chair of West Midland PSC   Pakistani Christians protesting against the burning of the Holy Qur’an by a US pastor, in Lahore, Pakistan on September 9, 2010 The Christian community across Pakistan has staged a protest to denounce the burning of Islam’s holy book, the Qur’an, by a US extremist pastor. Christians throughout the country gathered in the Pakistani city of Lahore to show solidarity with the world’s Muslims, a Press TV correspondent reported Monday. The Christian demonstrators said that US Pastor Wayne Sapp’s burning of the Holy Qur’an was an attempt to flame clashes between Muslims and Christians. The protesters urged the Pakistani government to take action over the incident and called on the United States to prevent i...