Pakistan vs. Taliban thread

[hj786]

The Pakistani soldier


Saturday, June 20, 2009
Richard J Douglas

It is gratifying to see the new White House team giving more attention to relations with Pakistan. During my recent tenure as deputy assistant secretary of defence for counter-narcotics, and earlier as a US Senate staffer, I had the privilege of making numerous journeys to Pakistan and sponsoring several counter-narcotics initiatives with Pakistan's security forces.

Based upon this experience and my personal observations in Pakistan's rugged border areas, I would like to offer a few comments about a field where loser Pakistan-US cooperation would have an important and immediate impact.

In Pakistan's effort to combat extremism, there is one critically important protagonist too often overlooked when western political leaders press Pakistan to "do more." I refer to the Pakistani soldier. In talking with young Pakistani personnel, whether Army aviators or Frontier Corps leaders, I was struck by the familiarity of their priorities, and their similarity to young Americans serving their own country in the armed forces.

The Pakistani soldiers and aviators I encountered opposed terrorism, and like many Americans, have suffered its effects directly or indirectly. They were proud of their responsibility and resourcefulness, and were open and welcoming to US cooperation.

These soldiers did not speak about grand strategy, existential threats from neighbours, or other issues that occupy the international foreign-policy establishment. Rather, a conversation with these confident, English-speaking professionals is one that any American soldier or armed forces family member would recognise.

They ask: Who will look after my family if I am wounded or lost in combat? How will my children be fed, clothed, educated and housed? What can be done to give us the confidence that our loved ones will be well cared-for in return for the sacrifice we willingly make for our nation?

This discussion is more than rhetorical. This is because another compelling feature of Pakistan's reality as I knew it was that with amazing but unheralded frequency, many Pakistani soldiers and Frontier Corps personnel experienced deadly combat engagements with "miscreants" in Pakistan's border areas. Often these soldiers went into combat in unarmoured – and even unarmed – helicopters and with inadequate or incomplete combat gear. But they went anyway, and willingly.

As a broader conversation on Pakistan unfolds in our country, I urge our leaders and policymakers to remember these soldiers and their families. Let us find ways to make a concerted effort not only to help Pakistan equip and employ its forces properly, but to work with Pakistani leaders to help answer the concerns of those who go into battle uncertain about the fate of their families if the worst should happen.

These concerns are well-known to the American soldiers who will form the core of our cooperative training effort with Pakistan. As a naval reserve officer, I learned during my own deployment to Iraq how well our Army understands the paramount importance of taking care of soldiers and their families. For this reason, I believe that our Army and National Guard are the right institutions, at the right time, to engage more closely with Pakistani counterparts.

I have been fortunate to visit Pakistan frequently enough to formsome fairly well-founded views about this beautiful and capable nation. I have also come to appreciate the first-rate group of Americans, led by Ambassador Ann Patterson, who compose the US country team in Islamabad. But my understanding of Pakistan really began here in America.

The Pakistani diaspora has found a home in our nation and it is thriving here. Pakistan and its children have influenced my own children, and welcomed them – and me – into their American homes. Confident, educated, freedom-loving, and hospitable, Pakistanis do their share to strengthen our nation in ways that earlier generations of newcomers would recognise and applaud.

I am glad that the administration and Congress are committed to deepening our nation's relations and cooperation with Pakistan. Above all, I hope the American people will come to appreciate Pakistan as I did: as a willing and compatible partner.



The writer was deputy assistant secretary of defence from January 2006 to January 2009. He served in Iraq in 2006. Email: richdouglas@hotmail.com

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=183913

[tankie]

Good post , thanks .

[Tronic]

This article below suggests that this is a deliberate strategy.

Mind you, This "deliberate" strategy was not due to Pakistan declaring war on the Taliban, it was due to Mehsud declaring war on Islamabad and moving East. For the past 8 years, the Taliban have been enjoying a safe haven in Pakistan and will continue to do so as long as they play according to the ISI gamebook.

[Merlin]

These sum of money are peanuts compared with what the US spends in its military campaigns in Afghan and aid to Pakistan.

"In Pakistan alone, Owais Ghani, governor of northwest Pakistan, puts the Taliban's annual earnings at roughly four billion rupees ($50 million)." "Estimates of al-Qaida's annual budget needs vary wildly from $300 million to as low as $10 million."

Excerpts are below. Full details in the link below.

Taliban gains money, al-Qaida finances recovering

5 hrs ago [AP] PESHAWAR, Pakistan ... As the Taliban gains power in Afghanistan and Pakistan, its money is coming mostly from extortion, crime and drugs, the AP found in an investigation into the financial network of militants in the region.

However, funding for the broader-based al-Qaida appears to be more diverse, including money from new recruits, increasingly large donations from sympathizers and Islamic charities, and a cut of profits from honey dealers in Yemen and Pakistan who belong to the same Wahabi sect of Islam.

"With respect to the Taliban, the narco dollars are a major if not majority of their funding sources, and I think add in there as well extortion and kidnapping," said Juan Carlos, a former U.S. National Security Council adviser on terrorism who now works at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "With al-Qaida I think it is a mixed bag. They draw benefits from the Taliban but they are not relying wholesale on narcotics. They still rely on sympathetic donors and to a certain extent charities."

Afghanistan produces more opium than any other country in the world. The Taliban charges drug kingpins to move the opium through its territory, for what the United Nations estimates could run upward of $300 million annually.

The Taliban euphemistically refers to extortion money as tolls, taxes or even zakat, the 2.5 percent of donation to charity that Islam requires. ...

Money from drugs and criminal gangs make up roughly 85 to 90 percent of Taliban revenue, estimates John Solomon, a terrorism expert with U.S Military Academy's Counter Terrorism Center. In Pakistan alone, Owais Ghani, governor of northwest Pakistan, puts the Taliban's annual earnings at roughly four billion rupees ($50 million).

Taliban foot soldiers are paid $100 a month, almost $20 more than the average Pakistani policeman. A Taliban commander makes upward of $350 a month, or nearly a third of the average annual salary of most Pakistanis.

The money also goes a long way because explosives are available locally and cheaply, said a senior Pakistani security official. The explosive devices that kill U.S., NATO and Pakistani troops cost less than $100 each to make, said the official, who asked not to be named to avoid compromising his job. The training to make, place and detonate the devices likely comes from al-Qaida, he said.

The informal money transfer system known as hawala or hundi is also still flourishing in Pakistan, Afghanistan, the Middle East, Europe and the United States. .... Mostly it's corrupt politicians, bureaucrats and businessmen getting their ill-gotten windfalls out of the country, but terrorists also piggyback onto the system, say financial investigators.

In three of the last five years, the No. 1 source of money into Pakistan through this hawala system has been the United States, according to the Pakistani security official. ...

After the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the financial crackdown closed some of al-Qaida's most lucrative sources of funding. But with the help of the hawala system, al-Qaida has since re-established its money line, latching onto Taliban crime while making a modest comeback on illicit business and donations after the American-led invasion of Iraq, according to interviews with jihadis, traders, security officials and terrorism experts.

In the last two years, al-Qaida has turned up the call for donations, told new recruits to bring money with them, and shown signs of being more frugal. For analysts, that adds up to one of two things: Either al-Qaida is saving up for another 9/11-style attack, or the crackdown of the last nine years has curbed its fundraising abilities. It could mean both. ....

Estimates of al-Qaida's annual budget needs vary wildly from $300 million to as low as $10 million.

Carlos, who estimates al-Qaida's needs as "modest," said its big expenses are payments to families; food and shelter to maintain operations; travel and logistics; money for cells engaged in plots; bribes, and expenses for longer-range plans such as an anthrax program.

Some Islamic charities with known al-Qaida connections have quietly renamed themselves and continued to operate. In Pakistan, charities with links to terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba and al-Qaida, but operating under new names, have cashed in on natural disasters such as the devastating 2005 earthquake and the current refugee crisis from the Swat Valley to replenish their finances. In Kuwait, the Revival Islamic Heritage Society, believed by the U.S. to heavily finance al-Qaida, still operates.

Because of demands from the International Monetary Fund, Pakistan has removed restrictions on the amount of money that can be brought into the country, said Pakistani financial intelligence director, Azhar Quereshi. But Pakistan has limited to $10,000 the money that can leave the country, cracking down on some of the biggest hawala dealers. ...

Militants also said a cartel of Pakistani honey dealers is back in business, laundering money and moving drugs to support al-Qaida. The scale is smaller than in 2001, but revenues to the terrorists are steady.

A former fighter with Afghanistan's wanted guerrilla leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar said honey is sent from Pakistan with an inflated price tag to markets in the Middle East — mostly Saudi Arabia, Dubai and Kuwait. The profits are returned and sent by courier to al-Qaida. ....

[axeman]

If that happens Pakistan will most likely become a safe-haven for terrorists and NATO forces will be there that much longer.

Seriously ?

[Merlin]

This is a good analysis from Reuters. The full article linked below has much more details.

Can Pakistan take on the Lashkar-e-Taiban?

21 June LONDON (Reuters) - If Pakistan's battle against the Taliban seems difficult, a much tougher challenge lies ahead: deciding what to do about the Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group it once nurtured to fight India in Kashmir.

Security experts from the United States and India believe the Pakistan Army and its Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency could shut down the group blamed for last year's attacks on Mumbai -- if they choose to do so. ....

But Samina Yasmeen, a professor at the University of Western Australia who is researching a book on the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), said the reality on the ground may be more complicated.

Over the years, she said, the LeT had given birth to splinter groups which had broken free both of the Pakistan Army and ISI, and even from the LeT leadership. ....

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh pushed the LeT to the top of the agenda last week by effectively telling President Asif Ali Zardari that India would not re-open peace talks until Pakistan acted against the organization and its leaders.

He seems to have won support in the West, where the LeT is seen as potentially as big a danger as al Qaeda. ....

Like many militant groups, the LeT was born out of the CIA-backed jihad against the Soviets in Afghanistan and then began operations in Kashmir in 1993, Indian analysts say.

According to Raman, the LeT is the biggest militant group in Pakistan, with a larger presence even than the Taliban, and a charitable wing, the Jamaat ud-Dawa, which rather like Hamas in Gaza also carries out humanitarian work.

With land, property and madrasas all over Pakistan, it collaborated with al Qaeda while also offering its training infrastructure to Pakistanis from the diaspora, he said. ...

[xinhui]

I know, I hate to fight a war under the sun too. All those sweat really mess up my hair, ding, now I have to do my nails again

Pakistan's type59 Mod.

[Merlin]

It'll be a tough fight in this FATA area ruled only by tribal elders, not by the Pakistan government. Drone attacks by the US kill also civilians.

Q+A - What outcome for Pakistan's South Waziristan battle?

24 June ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - U.S. drones prowled the sky over South Waziristan on Wednesday as Pakistan's army prepares an all-out assault on Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud.

On Tuesday, one of the pilotless U.S. aircraft attacked a Mehsud stronghold, killing about 70 militants. ...

Following are some questions and answers on the Pakistani campaign against Mehsud in South Waziristan on the Afghan border.

WHAT ROLE WILL U.S. FORCES PLAY IN THE PAKISTANI BATTLE?
The U.S. drone strike on Tuesday, on a funeral for one of six militants killed in a similar strike earlier in the day, would appear to indicate increasing coordination between the United States and Pakistan. But Pakistan is unlikely to admit that openly in a country where many people are suspicious of a close alliance with the United States in its campaign against militancy.

Pakistan officially objects to U.S. drone strikes, saying they violate its sovereignty and complicate efforts to win over a patchwork of ethnic Pashtun tribes in its northwest. The United States says the drone strikes are carried out under an agreement which allows Pakistani leaders to decry the attacks in public. Pakistan denies that.

The chance of U.S. ground troops getting involved in fighting militants on Pakistani territory is minimal. Pakistan has ruled that out, although U.S. forces have indicated they would intrude if they were after a "high-value target", such as al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

U.S. and Afghan troops are likely to be on guard on the other side of the border in case Mehsud and his men try to flee into Afghanistan. But U.S. and Afghan forces have never attempted to seal the porous, mountainous border and it is unclear how many of the thousands of U.S. reinforcements arriving in Afghanistan will be posted there.

WILL IT BE A TOUGH BATTLE?
Yes. Mehsud and his thousands of well-armed followers will put up a very tough fight in the rugged region where they have had years to prepare defences. The army has Mehsud bottled up and it is likely to rely on its air power, which the United Sates can be expected to augment with its drones. Mehsud has a network of supporters in towns and cities and is likely to order suicide bombers to attack. Ultimately, provided the political will of the government and the support of the public remain strong, the well-trained army should prevail.

WILL THE OFFENSIVE BRING A NEW WAVE OF DISPLACED PEOPLE?
Yes. Already about 45,000 civilians have fled from South Waziristan as clashes have intensified. A spokesman for the government unit overseeing relief efforts said this week he expected at least 60,000 would flee. ....

CAN THE STATE ESTABLISH ITS WRIT?
South Waziristan is one of seven ethnic Pashtun tribal agencies that make up the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) along the Afghan border. FATA has never been under the full control of any Pakistani government, or of former British colonial rulers. Under a system inherited from the British, a government "political agent" administers through tribal elders who are meant to maintain the peace. Few of Pakistan's federal laws apply and outside interference is resented. The Taliban have killed numerous pro-government elders, creating a leadership vacuum which they have filled. Even if the Taliban are uprooted from South Waziristan, government authorities are likely to struggle to impose their rule in an area long used to autonomy. ...

[Merlin]

Pakistan has scored this success in Karachi in its fight against the TeT.

Baitullah Mehsud's close aides killed in Karachi

27 June Karachi (PTI): Five close aides of Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud have been killed in a shootout with police, who raided a militant hideout in this southern port city.

The five were killed after they refused to surrender and engaged the police team in a gunfight at the hideout near Gadap town, located close to the national highway, city police chief Waseem Ahmed said on Friday night.

"Five other persons managed to escape and we are in their pursuit," he said.

The police official said the five killed were close accomplices of Tehreek-e-Taliban leader Mehsud, who is on the most wanted list of the Pakistan and U.S. governments.

"We have recovered heavy ammunition and explosive material from the site where these people were hiding," Mr. Ahmed said. ...

[Parihaka]

A very strange Taliban burial

By Syed Shoaib Hasan
BBC News, Dera Ismail Khan

Mourner at Qari Zain's funeral
Qari Zain was shot dead by one of his own bodyguards after morning prayers

Tribal leader and Taliban breakaway commander Qari Zainuddin Mehsud was killed earlier this week. His funeral took place in Dera Ismail Khan in north-west Pakistan.

It was as unlikely a situation as one is likely to find - even in Pakistan.

The burial of a Taliban commander in a Shia graveyard while Pakistan's armed forces provide security for his militants.

A small number of people - his men and journalists - stood for nearly an hour in the debilitating heat of Dera Ismail Khan as the last rites were performed.

Security personnel in official vehicles and armoured carriers stood in silent vigil as usually stoic Taliban militants broke down in tears.

The setting was the inglorious and sombre funeral of Qari Zainuddin Mehsud.

He had recently been catapulted into the position of pretender for the throne of Baitullah Mehsud, the most powerful Taliban commander in Pakistan.

Qari Zain, as he was known, was gunned down by one of his own bodyguards after morning prayers on Tuesday.

A day earlier, the BBC had arranged to have a chat with him about his decision to take on Baitullah.

But fate apparently had other designs for the young Taliban commander.

Rivalry

He had recently come out publicly denouncing Baitullah as being an enemy of Islam and Pakistan.

Turkestan Bhittani
Turkestan Bhittani was allied to the slain Mehsud tribal leader.

Qari Zain had also declared a jihad against Baitullah Mehsud and formed a pro-government Taliban group called the Abdullah Mehsud group.

Abdullah Mehsud, a cousin of Qari Zain, was one of Pakistan's earliest Taliban commanders who advocated taking the fight to Nato forces from Pakistani territory.

He was killed by Pakistani security forces in Baluchistan, allegedly on information provided by Baitullah Mehsud.

Since Abdullah's death, Qari Zain had been building up a resistance to Baitullah's control within the Mehsud tribe.

He was also closely allied to Turkestan Bhittani, leader of the Bhittani tribe and Baitullah's main rival.

In recent times, both men have been aided by Pakistan's security establishment - to which Baitullah Mehsud now represents a clear and present danger.

But that plan has suffered a setback with Qari Zain's death.

No locals

His funeral was delayed as several concerns had to be addressed.

While his family was keen on his burial in his native village in South Waziristan, Pakistan's intelligence was understandably reluctant.

There was a very real possibility of his body being found hanging from a tree in South Waziristan
Local journalist

After having invested in Qari Zain's appeal as an alternative, they stood to be made a laughing stock with the Taliban's penchant for digging up the bodies of their rivals.

"Qari Zain had been denounced in the strongest of terms by Baitullah's men," remarked a local journalist in Dera Ismail Khan.

"There was a very real possibility of his body being found hanging from a tree in South Waziristan."

For this reason, the BBC had a tough job on Tuesday working out where and when the funeral would take place.

Reports that his body was being flown to South Waziristan were discovered to be false.

Instead it was learnt that his family was being flown in from that region to attend the funeral on Wednesday.

The timing and venue were kept a secret till a few hours before the event.
Banner proclaiming Qari Zain's war on Baitullah Mehsud
The details of Qari Zain's funeral were a closely guarded secret

Finally, as the searing heat continued in Dera Ismail Khan, we made our way to the locality of Madina city.

A Shia-dominated neighbourhood was a strange setting for a Taliban funeral. The Taliban consider the Shia sect to be the same as non-Muslims or even worse.

But these "government Taliban" had apparently set up shop in the heart of this area.

As we drove through the narrow streets, two things stood out starkly.

The eerie lack of locals and the overwhelming presence of armed men on every corner.

It was the first time I have seen security personnel and Taliban militants manning checkpoints together.

As we parked our car outside the house where Qari Zain was killed, a Taliban militant told us that we should first go to the graveyard.

We immediately took off - through side streets.

These led to fields of maize located behind the houses. Crossing them we came to the graveyard, a resting place for mostly Shia and some Christian remains.

That perhaps contributed to the choice.

'Jihad continues'

It also said a lot about claims by the security forces of having taken the fight to Baitullah Mehsud. The airtight security managed to keep away any potential suicide bombers as well as locals and tribesmen.

"It would have been a poor crowd anyway with one side considering him a heretic and the other a traitor," said another journalist acidly.

For that is indeed how Qari Zain's siding with the government is seen by many of his fellow tribesmen.

The heavy irony of the situation was also not lost on those present.

That the only option for security forces to protect the body of their champion was to bury it in such a manner speaks volumes about which way the battle is going.

Having failed utterly to prevent his assassination, the only way they could protect his remains was to keep them as far away from South Waziristan as possible.

Soon after the funeral, militants loyal to the dead Taliban commander gathered at the house where he was killed.

A short ceremony ensued to appoint his brother Misabhuddin as the new chief.

Speaking to the BBC, he said he would continue his brother's mission and not rest till Baitullah was dead.

"The operation in South Waziristan is the government's right and those caught up in the fighting are all terrorists," Misabhuddin said.

But he was quite clear on another point as well:

"Jihad against America and its allies in Afghanistan would continue as well."

But was not the point of the operation in South Waziristan to stop such activities? Apparently not, as far as Misabhuddin is concerned.

"Pakistan's government only has problems with the foreign militants in the area. They have always supported us in the jihad in Afghanistan.

[Ratus Ratus]

But he was quite clear on another point as well:

"Jihad against America and its allies in Afghanistan would continue as well."
....

"Pakistan's government only has problems with the foreign militants in the area. They have always supported us in the jihad in Afghanistan.

I always seem to have a problem with this sort of “good” and “bad” approach to the Taliban.

So how does Pakistan actually validate housing a group of nothing less than militants who will attack another country?
I was under some impression that equates them to terrorists.

Or is this all New Age terminology I just don’t follow anymore.

[S2]

Cpt. Rat,

"...Or is this all New Age terminology I just don’t follow anymore."

The obfuscation remains. Until the Quetta shura is meaningfully attacked, we should expect more accomodation with "good" taliban and a continued P.A. focus on the "bad" taliban.

Evidently targeted bombings, acid-spraying, and beheadings of afghan muslims fits the islamic values of their Pakistani brothers but the same shoe is not worn so comfortably within Pakistan. Why should any of us be surprised? Mullah Omar has been assiduous in tempering his forces from ANY actions against the P.A. So too the Pakistani government forces WRT the afghan taliban networks within Pakistan.

This current operation, even should it extend for any meaningful size/duration within the Waziristans, will ultimately prove abortive and temporal. Too much of the same ol', same ol' for which we continue to foot the bill.

Pakistan resists the fundamental responsibilities of sovereignty while claiming without merit all the associated rights. Heaven help us should we ever hand them PREDATOR thus aborgating our final oblique means of self-defense.

[Ratus Ratus]

Good S-2, you well know your words could have been presented simpler as:
“Quetta, Mullah Omar, PA, GOP” followed by lots of rolling about in cynical laughter.

Further the Waziristans operation will do what the Waziristans operation was designed to do.
Now I roll about in cynical laughter.

As for footing the bill, though not in line with your intended comment, as you say I am sure you do appreciate this one.


IDPs Funds being misappropriated


Updated at: 2200 PST, Saturday, June 27, 2009

PESHAWAR: President PML-Q NWFP Chapter Amir Muqam Saturday accused that the funds for the affected people of Swat and Malakand Operation are being largely manipulated by Baitul Maal.

He was giving away the relief checque to fund established for the lawyers of Malakand here.

Talking to Geo News, he said the Malakand affectees are not being fully helped, adding stopping the registration of affectees is quite regrettable.

Amir Muqam demanded that all the relief funds should be all spent on the affectees.

He said that Baitul Mall are embezzling the Rs5000 checques on a large scale, which is extremely condemnable.


Life goes on in its normal way still, 'will they never learn' ..
(forgot the rest of the words for that one)

[sumob]

Another peace deal between the GOP and the Militants goes down the drain

MIRAMSHAH: Clashes between security forces and militants intensified in North Waziristan on Monday and the Taliban scrapped a peace deal they had signed with the government 16 months ago.

Security officials said that 27 soldiers had lost their lives on Sunday in an attack on a military convoy in Wacha Bibi near Datakhel, about 35 kilometres west of Miramshah.
Local people said the place where the convoy had been attacked was littered with wrecked army vehicles. Army personnel retrieved the wounded and the bodies of their fighters and shifted them to Islamabad.
On Monday, helicopters pounded suspected militant positions in Wacha Bibi, a narrow pass in the mountainous region. According to officials, five civilians were killed in the shelling.
The announcement about the scrapping of the nine-point peace agreement signed by the government with elders of the Utmanzai tribe on Feb 17 last year was made by the local Taliban Shura.

DAWN.COM | Pakistan | Taliban scrap North Waziristan peace deal

[n21]

The civil war has finally begun!

I have to say drone attacks were really effective.The done were the primary reason for the deal break,not PA's offensive in Swat.

PA is absolutely brilliant to playing double games.
They supported the Taliban mount attacks on US forces and at the same time helped US launch drone attacks on Taliban!

Now that everyone has seen that it's hand is quite deep in the pickle jar, things are going to be interesting in future.

However I expect PA to come out of this successfully.

They always do.