Reprocessing Weapons-Grade Plutonium
6 05 2010What happens to all that uranium?
By Tim Buchholz
Online Journal
By Tim Buchholz
Online Journal
PLUTONIUM PROLIFERATION AND MOX FUEL
| The Department of Energy’s (DOE) decision to mix 33 or more metric tons of plutonium from nuclear weapons with depleted uranium into a mixed-oxide fuel for use in commercial nuclear reactors is a direct reversal of decades-old U.S. policy aimed toward non-proliferation of nuclear weapons materials. A plutonium fuel program will increase the risks of nuclear terrorism and the international proliferation of plutonium. A decision on the part of the U.S. government to engage in a large scale civilian plutonium program would encourage the continuation of the messy and dangerous reprocessing programs in Europe and Japan. A plutonium fuel program would destroy any leverage the U.S. might have to influence non-weapons states from creating their own civilian reprocessing programs. PLUTONIUM ECONOMY The U.S. plutonium fuel program would create facilities and financial interests based exclusively upon the use and spread of plutonium. The corporation most involved in a potential U.S. plutonium fuel program is the French reprocessing company Cogema. This company has teamed up with Duke Power and Virigina Power to create a new consortium, and would be responsible for the storage, safeguarding, and some processing of weapons-grade plutonium. This industry structure builds an economy upon the false and dangerous notion that plutonium is an asset. The involvement of these corporations places the responsibility of these deadly materials in the hands of corporate entities whose single goal is the generation of profits. REPROCESSING Reprocessing is the chemical process of separating plutonium and uranium from other fission products in the irradiated fuel from a nuclear reactor. The separated materials can then be made into a mixed-oxide fuel (MOX) which is reused in a reactor. Since the 1970s, the U.S. has had a policy of not allowing reprocessing, and instead treating the nuclear fission products as the high-level atomic waste it is. This policy is based primarily on non-proliferation grounds, and is met to discourage countries from engaging in the separation of plutonium and uranium—since these substances—once separated—can also be used to build nuclear weapons. Even now, the Department of Energy says that its proposed MOX program will only be a “once-through” program, meaning that once the plutonium from nuclear weapons has been processed into MOX and used in civilian reactors, no further reprocessing would be allowed. But the industries involved in the plutonium fuel program will have a vested interest in the possibility of a U.S. commercial reprocessing industry as part of waste management policy. And the necessary infrastructure—including construction of all the need facilities—would be in place. THEFT AND DIVERSION In recent years the US has seen a surge in devastating terrorist activities on its own soil. The knowledge necessary to create a nuclear weapon is available to the public. The best policy toward the prevention of nuclear terrorism is to ensure that the materials necessary to make a nuclear bomb cannot be obtained. The US plutonium fuel program would increase the risks of theft of weapons grade plutonium. The process of fabricating plutonium fuel involves the handling of bulk amounts of plutonium. This process makes accurate accounting of plutonium extremely difficult, which leaves measuring disparities that could be an open invitation for diversion of the plutonium for weapons purposes. In some cases it may be impossible to know whether plutonium has been stolen or is simply left in residues at processing facilities without an expensive clean-out. Once the plutonium fuel has been made, it would then have to be transported to commercial reactors where safeguarding of that plutonium will be the responsibility of the utility. This also makes the plutonium vulnerable to theft or diversion. Irradiating weapons plutonium in a reactor does not make the plutonium unusable for weapons purposes. The U.S. government proved with a nuclear test in 1962 that so-called “reactor grade” plutonium can be used in nuclear bombs. Using weapons plutonium in reactors does not effectively safeguard plutonium, and it undermines disarmament efforts. PROLIFERATION WORLDWIDE A U.S. plutonium fuel program would send a clear signal to other countries: the U.S. government approves of separated plutonium fuel programs. This would undercut the government’s ability to discourage reprocessing in other countries and may encourage other countries to pursue plutonium programs. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency Director John Holum explained the situation clearly in a memorandum to former Energy Secretary Hazel O’Leary: “U.S. decisions on plutonium disposition are inextricably linked with U.S. efforts to reduce stockpiles as well as limit the use of plutonium worldwide. The multi-decade institutionalization of plutonium use in US commercial reactors would set a very damaging precedent for US non-proliferation policy.” The alternative, to encase the plutonium in ceramics or glass (immobilization), will not affect the government’s non-proliferation goals, nor encourage civilian reprocessing in the U.S. or elsewhere. Immobilizing plutonium will send the proper signal that plutonium is a dangerous waste and needs to be treated as such. For more information, contact: Nuclear Information and Resource Service 1424 16th Street NW, #404 Washington, DC 20036 202.328.0002; fax: 202.462.2183 nirsnet@nirs.org www.nirs.org |
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NY bomb suspect had links with Pak Taliban, Kashmir terror group: Pak
6 05 2010PTI, May 6, 2010, 06.36pm IST
KARACHI/BEIJING: Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik said on Thursday he thought it unlikely that a Pakistani-American arrested over a failed plot to bomb New York’s Times Square had acted alone. Investigations in Pakistan have uncovered possible links between Faisal Shahzad, 30, the Pakistani Taliban and a Kashmiri Islamist group, officials and news reports said.
“According to the available information he says it was his individual act,” Malik told Reuters in an interview during a visit to Beijing. “I would not tend to believe that.”
Pakistani security officials told Reuters that Shahzad, who is suspected of driving an explosives-laden SUV into Times Square on Saturday, was close to Jaish-e-Mohammad, a group fighting Indian forces in the disputed territory of Kashmir and which also has ties to al Qaeda and the Pakistani Taliban.
“The people who have been picked up do have links to Jaish and have also been in touch with Shahzad during his visits here,” a Pakistani security official in Karachi told Reuters.
The official was referring to Mohammad Rehan, a friend of Shahzad, who was detained on Tuesday after leaving the Bat’ha Mosque in Karachi. Other associates, including Shahzad’s father-in-law, have also been detained in Karachi, according to CNN.
The mosque is said to have links to Jaish and neighbours tell of visits by its leaders.
US investigators are also taking a “hard look” at possible ties between Shahzad and the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the Taliban Movement of Pakistan, a US official said Wednesday.
“It is a known fact that the mosque (in Karachi) has been a recruiting ground for Jaish and many people have been sent to the tribal areas (home to the TTP) for training,” a second Pakistani security official told Reuters.
The official said several men recruited through the mosque had fought against the military during recent offensives against the TTP.
“It may not be a surprise if the people associated with the mosque, or those who come here for recruitment, are linked with the TTP,” he said.
The US official agreed. “TTP is entirely plausible but we’re not ruling out other groups,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
If confirmed that the Taliban in Pakistan sponsored the attempted bombing in New York, as it claimed over the weekend, it would be the group’s first attack on US soil.
PARENTS WHEREABOUTS UNKNOWN The United States had asked Pakistan for help in investigating the failed bomb plot, the Washington Post reported on Thursday, and is preparing a detailed request for urgent and specific assistance to be presented by the end of the week.
Pakistan was ready to give them “every help, full support” to bring the culprits to justice, Malik said.
The United States has also asked to interview Shahzad’s parents, the Post reported, quoting a Pakistani official who said their whereabouts are still unknown.
Shahzad was arrested on Monday night after he was removed from an Emirates plane at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport that was about to depart for Dubai. He had been on his way back to Pakistan.
Shahzad, who was born in Pakistan and became a US citizen last year, has been charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and trying to kill and maim people within the United States as well as other counts.
US prosecutors said Shahzad, the son of a retired Pakistani vice air marshal, had admitted to receiving bomb-making training in a Taliban and al Qaeda stronghold in Pakistan. A law enforcement source said investigators believed the Pakistani Taliban financed that training.
Shahzad waived his right to an initial court appearance within 48 hours of his arrest and other US constitutional rights, a US official and sources said. He faces life in prison if convicted of the charges against him, unless he negotiates a lesser sentence in exchange for cooperation.
“According to the available information he says it was his individual act,” Malik told Reuters in an interview during a visit to Beijing. “I would not tend to believe that.”
Pakistani security officials told Reuters that Shahzad, who is suspected of driving an explosives-laden SUV into Times Square on Saturday, was close to Jaish-e-Mohammad, a group fighting Indian forces in the disputed territory of Kashmir and which also has ties to al Qaeda and the Pakistani Taliban.
“The people who have been picked up do have links to Jaish and have also been in touch with Shahzad during his visits here,” a Pakistani security official in Karachi told Reuters.
The official was referring to Mohammad Rehan, a friend of Shahzad, who was detained on Tuesday after leaving the Bat’ha Mosque in Karachi. Other associates, including Shahzad’s father-in-law, have also been detained in Karachi, according to CNN.
The mosque is said to have links to Jaish and neighbours tell of visits by its leaders.
US investigators are also taking a “hard look” at possible ties between Shahzad and the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the Taliban Movement of Pakistan, a US official said Wednesday.
“It is a known fact that the mosque (in Karachi) has been a recruiting ground for Jaish and many people have been sent to the tribal areas (home to the TTP) for training,” a second Pakistani security official told Reuters.
The official said several men recruited through the mosque had fought against the military during recent offensives against the TTP.
“It may not be a surprise if the people associated with the mosque, or those who come here for recruitment, are linked with the TTP,” he said.
The US official agreed. “TTP is entirely plausible but we’re not ruling out other groups,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
If confirmed that the Taliban in Pakistan sponsored the attempted bombing in New York, as it claimed over the weekend, it would be the group’s first attack on US soil.
PARENTS WHEREABOUTS UNKNOWN The United States had asked Pakistan for help in investigating the failed bomb plot, the Washington Post reported on Thursday, and is preparing a detailed request for urgent and specific assistance to be presented by the end of the week.
Pakistan was ready to give them “every help, full support” to bring the culprits to justice, Malik said.
The United States has also asked to interview Shahzad’s parents, the Post reported, quoting a Pakistani official who said their whereabouts are still unknown.
Shahzad was arrested on Monday night after he was removed from an Emirates plane at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport that was about to depart for Dubai. He had been on his way back to Pakistan.
Shahzad, who was born in Pakistan and became a US citizen last year, has been charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and trying to kill and maim people within the United States as well as other counts.
US prosecutors said Shahzad, the son of a retired Pakistani vice air marshal, had admitted to receiving bomb-making training in a Taliban and al Qaeda stronghold in Pakistan. A law enforcement source said investigators believed the Pakistani Taliban financed that training.
Shahzad waived his right to an initial court appearance within 48 hours of his arrest and other US constitutional rights, a US official and sources said. He faces life in prison if convicted of the charges against him, unless he negotiates a lesser sentence in exchange for cooperation.
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Kyrgyz Govt. Asks “American Partners” for US Treasury Help Investigating Bakiyev Money
6 05 2010Temir Sariev: To search for money Bakiyev U.S. is ready to draw the Central U.S. Treasury Financial Forensics
Temir Sariev
- What are the outcome of negotiations?
- At today’s meeting there was discussion on the future functioning of the American Center for transit and, in particular, on the supply of jet fuel for flights of military transport aircraft involved in Afghanistan. We know that in the U.S. Senate held hearings to discuss possible involvement in firm-supplier to corruption agreements with the former authorities of Kyrgyzstan. And so I very carefully took the proposal of Mr. McFaul whose essence consists in the next – to the Provisional Government the opportunity to decide on the company, which supplies jet fuel to TSC.
Both Kyrgyzstan and the United States in such a case would benefit in two ways: firstly, both countries would guarantee himself of suspicion in the corruption through transparent relationship between the customer in the face of U.S. Ministry of Defense and the contractor of the number of Kyrgyz companies, and secondly, if transfer contract for the provision of TSC fuel company, controlled by our government, all profits from the supply would go directly to the budget of Kyrgyzstan. In other words, the removal of the chain of intermediary companies would strengthen the financial position of the republic, and would enhance the transparency of administrative decisions of the Centre of transit.
And in continuation of the theme of corruption, I reminded the aide to President Obama’s conversation, which was first raised during my meeting with U.S. Deputy Secretary Robert Blake on May 15. Then I asked the American side to assist in the establishment of foreign bank accounts, which accumulated illegal capital family Kurmanbek Bakiyev and his inner circle. Under Hillary Clinton said that they could bring to this work of the specialists of the Central Treasury of the U.S. financial criminology.
These are people who have extensive experience in the detection channel trafficking corruption of money and secret accounts into which they can be stored. And who was present at today’s meeting the U.S. Ambassador Tatiana Gfeller confirmed that we can appeal to the U.S. embassy with a formal diplomatic note to its further transfer to the Government of the United States, then one would expect the beginning of American experts in this field.
I have already instructed to prepare a paper jointly with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Prosecutor General’s Office and the Financial Intelligence. Tomorrow diplomatic note would be ready, and we will give it to the U.S. Embassy. Mrs. Gfeller stressed that if there is specific information specialists in the financial Forensics able to find accounts of illegal drugs and freeze them. How useful would be provided by our data, will depend on the quality of the investigation, establishing now the whole picture of corrupt activities of the former regime.
I expressed the position of the American partners (?)of the Provisional Government, which is not only what you need to actively oppose corruption and the laundering of money earned by criminal means. There is some concern that the “dirty money” Bakiyev and others who helped them steal the country could go to fund the activities of the destructive forces in Kyrgyzstan, which is not excluded, will be interested in destabilizing the political situation. Of course, such situation will not benefit the people of Kyrgyzstan.
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CIA Mouthpiece Credits “al Qaida” With “Strategic Corridor” Idea
6 05 2010View Larger Map
[For those of you who know the work of Asia Times reporter, Mr. Syed Saleem Shahzad (or his Agency counterpart, Mr. Michael Scheuer SEE: CIA Sees Dead People), you already know that he is used to introduce false narratives, the "official version" of planned events. He previously outlined the "Taliban split" psyop that introduced the official story on the TTP to the world.
Now, Syed is setting us up for the next psyop, by introducing the concept of the "strategic corridor" into the media (SEE: ‘Final Solution’ Frenzy – Part Four: Final Solution for Pakistan), only he is doing his usual job of flipping the truth, making claims that it is "al Qaida" who has plans to occupy the western corner of Balochistan, setting us up by introducing the false plot line, in order to justify pursuit by the American/international coalition.
He also turns the tale of Abdolmalek Rigi of Jundullah and his meeting with al Q. "emissary" on its head, to cover the story of the secret planned meeting at Manas Air Base (SEE: Wayne Madsen Nails Real Story of Rigi’s Arrest). His claims that India will join in America's plots is a little late. Suggestions that the US will make overtures to Iran for cooperation, perhaps on using the port facility built by India at Chabahar (even though sanctions intended to cripple the Iranian economy), are in the works, are obviously ridiculous.]
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He said that al-Qaeda had already anticipated that Washington would bring Pakistan and India on board in the fight against militants, and even try to get cooperation from Iran. The aim would be to geographically isolate the militants.
But the militants, said the man, planned to occupy a strategic corridor that stretched from Nangarhar province in Afghanistan through Pakistan’s Khyber Agency and the Pakistani Balochistan area of Tutrbat all the way to Iranian Balochistan.
The militants plan to establish a new regional alliance. In this regard, Iranian Jundullah (Army of God) leader Abdul Malik Rigi is due to meet an al-Qaeda emissary in the near future near a Pakistani Balochistan coastal town to lay the foundation for joint regional operations in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran and India.
Al-Qaeda has in the past had some reservations about the Iranian Jundullah, an insurgent Sunni Islamic organization opposed to Tehran, on suspicion it had links to US and Pakistani intelligence.
In the past three years, a few Pakistani Balochi anti-Shi’ite elements who were previously part of the Sunni militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi worked with Jundullah. They carried out joint operations against Iranians and Shi’ites in the region.
These Pakistani Balochi elements played a role in bringing al-Qaeda and Jundullah closer, making it clear that Jundullah is now an independent organization with its headquarters in the southern Pakistani port city of Karachi. It has bases, though, in Pakistani Balochistan and the Iranian province of Sistan-Balochistan.
Jundullah has the narrow aim of destabilizing the Iranian Shi’ite regime. Al-Qaeda wants to sell its franchise to Jundullah, with two main aims:
To destroy or disrupt operations at Chabahar port, which could be used for North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) supplies going to Afghanistan. The current main route through Pakistan is under heavy attack by the Taliban.
Establish al-Qaeda’s presence in Iran to carry out operations to create a strategic balance against any Iranian role in Afghanistan and Iraq.
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Tags: starting world war III, state terrorism
Categories : B. S., disinformation, image of the beast
Turkey and Russia assemble an ‘axis of outsiders’
6 05 2010Turkey and Russia assemble an ‘axis of outsiders’
Adrian PabstIt was one of the most memorable parliamentary brawls of recent times. Members of Ukraine’s Supreme Council threw punches, eggs and smoke bombs, while the speaker was shielded with an umbrella.
Last week’s turmoil erupted when lawmakers were considering whether to endorse an agreement that would, over the next 10 years, decrease the price that Ukraine pays for Russian gas in exchange for a 25-year extension of Moscow’s lease on the Crimean port of Sevastopol, home to Russia’s Black Sea fleet.
On one level, these tensions are just the latest episode in a century-long struggle between Ukraine’s Russian-speaking east and south on the one hand, and the country’s centre and west on the other. The former looks to Moscow; the latter considers itself part of the West. Coming less than three months after a divisive presidential election narrowly won by the pro-Russian candidate Victor Yanukovych, the deal marks the end of Ukraine’s flirtation with Nato and seals its return into Russia’s orbit.
More importantly, it signals a wider realignment in the Middle East and Central Eurasia that heralds the return of former outsiders like Russia, Ukraine and Turkey to the forefront. Disillusioned with the EU’s bureaucratic diktat and fed up with what they view as arbitrary US interference in their Central Asian and Kurdish backyard, leaders such as the Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Erdogan are forging close ties. Traditional rivals are becoming partners.
With the EU conspicuous by its absence and the US struggling to make progress in Afghanistan or on Israel-Palestine, Russo-Turkish co-operation is filling a growing void in the Caucasus and in the strategic corridor that links the Gulf to Afghanistan and Central Asia. In the process, Moscow and Ankara are reshaping the geopolitics of the Middle East and Eurasia.
Many in the US and the EU will dismiss this rapprochement as little more than a desperate move by two deeply disgruntled, post-imperial powers in search of a role in a changing world. But there can be little doubt that Russia and Turkey are building an ‘’axis of outsiders’’ that is challenging US hegemony and the EU’s complacent indifference regarding its own periphery.
Mutual geopolitical and economic interests are at the heart of this new axis. Geopolitically, Moscow and Ankara have a stake in stabilising the wider Caucasus and other parts of their shared neighbourhood. That’s why both have mediated in the ongoing conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Moreover, Turkey – a long-standing member of Nato – created the Caucasus Security and Stability Platform after the 2008 war between Georgia and Russia. Aimed at all countries in the region (including Armenia and Iran) and granting Russia special status, this platform was initiated independently from Turkey’s traditional western allies. Crucially, it marks a neo-Ottoman concern for the wider Caucasus and underscores an imperial recognition that great power conflicts threaten the collective security of entire regions.
This recognition also applies to the wider Middle East, where Ankara and Moscow show their deep mistrust in Israel by maintaining links to Hamas and other Palestinian groups. Even though any peace deal depends on US brokerage, enhanced involvement from Turkey and Russia can help prepare the ground for new negotiations.
Turkey and Russia have identified shared interests that go beyond tourism and trade in cheap consumer goods. Both are engaged in the geopolitics of energy security.
In the past, they seemed to be on opposing sides. Turkey was part of the Nabucco pipeline project, delivering gas from Turkmenistan via the Caspian Sea to Europe, thus bypassing Russia. Meanwhile, the Kremlin championed the South Stream project, with a pipeline running under the Black Sea from Russia to Bulgaria, thus bypassing Turkey.
Despite long-standing pricing and volume disputes, both have been profoundly frustrated by a lack of investment and political support from the EU and the US. In response, Moscow and Ankara are now envisaging a second Blue Stream gas pipeline. The first such pipeline was inaugurated in 2003 and currently transports 10 billion cubic metres of gas yearly. Alternatively, Ankara could take up Moscow’s offer to join the South Stream project, using Turkey’s exclusive economic zone in the Black Sea. Either way, this would transform the Turkish Republic into Europe’s real energy hub, with possible gas deliveries to Israel and links to Iran’s vast energy reserves.
Moreover, Russia and Turkey have shared interests in Iran and Afghanistan. As the tensions over Iran’s nuclear ambitions escalate and the Afghan security situation deteriorates, expect more joint initiatives from the ‘’axis of outsiders”.
Despite the ‘’Obama effect’’, the US and Nato remain deeply discredited in the Middle East and Afghanistan, which opens the way for other actors. The EU suffers from both integration and enlargement fatigue and it lacks a substantive vision for relations with its neighbours, thereby exacerbating the frustration and disillusionment of countries on Europe’s periphery.
Instead of simply opposing US domination or looking to the EU for meaningless ‘’strategic partnerships’’, Russia and regional powers such as Turkey and Ukraine are forging close ties with each other and intervening in their shared spheres of influence. Issues such as future US troop withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan or a new wave of sanctions on Iran won’t be solved without their involvement or support.
In the wake of the global economic crisis, the centre of geopolitical and geoeconomic power is shifting from the developed countries of the West to the emerging markets in the Gulf region, eastern Asia and the southern hemisphere. As part of this shift, there are a number of realignments in the wider Middle East and Central Eurasia that presage the return of former outsiders to the centre of global affairs.
Adrian Pabst is lecturer in politics at the University of Kent, Canterbury, UK
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Political Patronizing of Extremists Is Democracy’s Central Flaw
6 05 2010[The following report highlights the inherent Achilles heel of Western democracy as it plays out in Pakistan or anywhere else it is tried--the reliance on political patronage to obtain votes. Pakistani politicians, just like their American counterparts, feel that they must court extremists, in order to gain enough votes to get elected. Because of this central flaw, American-style democracy only elects the worst kind of men and women to public office, either extremists themselves, or those most acceptable to the ruling elite. Getting around this central flaw is the greatest challenge to all real patriots who only seek to save their country from the criminals who rule over it, whether those patriots be Pakistanis, Americans, or even Palestinians.]
JHANG, Pakistan — Authorities in Pakistan’s biggest and richest province are tolerating — if not promoting — some of the country’s most violent Islamic militant groups.
Leaders in Punjab province have flouted repeated calls from the U.S. for Pakistan to crack down on militant groups such as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, which claimed responsibility for a failed car bombing in New York City last week. A group based in Punjab province, Jaish-e-Mohammed, also has been implicated as having possible links to one of the people detained in Pakistan in connection with the bombing attempt.
Yet a senior minister in Punjab has campaigned publicly with members of an extremist group that calls for Shiites Muslims to be killed. And the head of the Punjab government, Shahbaz Sharif, asked militants not to attack his province because he was not following the dictates of the United States to fight them — much to the dismay of the central Pakistani government.
“It makes the Punjab a de facto sanctuary for the militants and extremists that the Pakistan army is fighting in the frontier and in the tribal areas,” said Aida Hussain, a former ambassador to the United States and prominent Shiite leader. “In fact this is an undermining of the armed forces of Pakistan and it is an undermining of constitutional governance.”
Critics believe the policy of tolerance is a shortsighted bid by Sharif and his brother, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, for political support in the predominantly Sunni province, which accounts for nearly 60 percent of Pakistan’s 175 million people and much of the country’s wealth.
Punjabi militants have won over fellow followers of the Deobandi sect of Islam with their radical religious interpretations and outspoken assaults on minority Shiites. This translates into votes that leaders of radical groups can bring to local politicians on both the right and the left.
“It’s all about political expediency rather than outright support for these groups,” said Moeed Yusuf of the United States Institute of Peace. He said the policy was risky because it sends the wrong signal to Pakistanis who have rallied behind the military in its assault on extremists in the Afghan border areas.
Signs of a militant Islamist presence are everywhere in this region.
In the blisteringly hot central Punjab town of Jhang, the outlawed Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan, or Guardians of the Friends of the Prophet, has been emboldened by conciliatory signals from local authorities. After being courted for votes last March, the group ripped off yellow government seals and reopened its offices.
Their distinctive green, black and white striped flags fly defiantly atop homes and mosques. The maze of narrow streets in Jhang is littered with graffiti in support of the SSP, even though then-President Pervez Musharraf banned the organization in 2002.
The group’s supporters rant against Shiites, whom they revile as heretics, demand the release of some of the country’s most wanted terrorists and give sermons urging the faithful to attack their enemies.
Just a few miles (kilometers) from the Punjab provincial capital of Lahore is the headquarters of Lashkar-e-Taiba, which is banned in Pakistan, India, the United States and other countries but is now under provincial government protection. India blames Lashkar-e-Taiba for the deadly 2008 attacks in Mumbai and routinely harangues Pakistan for allowing its leader, Hafiz Saeed, to remain free. Pakistani authorities point to its courts, which have repeatedly said there is not enough evidence to hold him.
And in the southern Punjab city of Bawahalpur is the headquarters of Jaish-e-Mohammed, the group possibly linked to a suspect in the Times Square bombing case. The group’s leader, Masood Azhar, was among three militants freed by India in 1999 in exchange for the release of passengers aboard a hijacked Indian Airlines plane to Kandahar, Afghanistan.
“Until the (Pakistani) leadership understands the real nature of these groups, and embraces the fact that none of them can possibly remain biddable tools over the long term, Pakistan leaves itself open to being repeatedly stung,” said Arthur Keller, an ex-CIA case officer in Pakistan.
Minister Rana Sanaullah Khan, who is in charge of enforcing the law in Punjab province, defended his decision to campaign alongside members of the Sipah-e-Sahaba group in March. The minister said the organization represents thousands of votes and cannot be ignored.
“I think all these fears and speculation are confused in the mind of the people…mostly outsiders,” he said.
He said groups like Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Taiba were not taking part in the war against the Taliban in the northwest, but only resisting Indian control of the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir. And he said the Punjab government was hoping to moderate such groups.
“If they change their direction, become more progressive, that is good,” he said.
Critics believe the Punjabi government is pursuing a dangerous course because militant Islamist groups are increasingly entwined.
“You promote one organization and indirectly you promote all of them,” Sheikh Waqqas Akram, a parliamentarian from Jhang, told The Associated Press.
“The dynamics have changed in Pakistan. These organizations are interlinked, organized. They have the vehicles and the weapons to carry out terrorist activities in Pakistan and Afghanistan,” Akram said. “If they are not the suicide bombers, they are the ones providing the (explosives) jackets. If they are not providing the jackets, then they are providing the houses. And if they are not providing the houses, then they are providing the food.”
In an interview with the AP, the director-general of Sipah-e-Sahaba, Hamid Hussain Dehlo, denied working with other militant organizations, insisting his group’s only agenda “is to fight against Shiite Muslims who are the worst kafirs in the whole universe,” referring to Shiites by the Arab world for “nonbeliever.”
Despite Dehlo’s claim, there is evidence of links to other militant groups. A spinoff group, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, was believed to be involved in the 2002 kidnap-murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl, and in the March 17, 2002 attack on the International Protestant Church in Islamabad during which five people, including an American mother and her daughter, were killed.
U.S. and Pakistani intelligence officials believe Lashkar-e-Jhangvi has ties to the Pakistan Taliban, as well as al-Qaida.
Local Pakistan politicians shelter militants
By KATHY GANNON (AP) – 11 hours agoJHANG, Pakistan — Authorities in Pakistan’s biggest and richest province are tolerating — if not promoting — some of the country’s most violent Islamic militant groups.
Leaders in Punjab province have flouted repeated calls from the U.S. for Pakistan to crack down on militant groups such as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, which claimed responsibility for a failed car bombing in New York City last week. A group based in Punjab province, Jaish-e-Mohammed, also has been implicated as having possible links to one of the people detained in Pakistan in connection with the bombing attempt.
Yet a senior minister in Punjab has campaigned publicly with members of an extremist group that calls for Shiites Muslims to be killed. And the head of the Punjab government, Shahbaz Sharif, asked militants not to attack his province because he was not following the dictates of the United States to fight them — much to the dismay of the central Pakistani government.
“It makes the Punjab a de facto sanctuary for the militants and extremists that the Pakistan army is fighting in the frontier and in the tribal areas,” said Aida Hussain, a former ambassador to the United States and prominent Shiite leader. “In fact this is an undermining of the armed forces of Pakistan and it is an undermining of constitutional governance.”
Critics believe the policy of tolerance is a shortsighted bid by Sharif and his brother, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, for political support in the predominantly Sunni province, which accounts for nearly 60 percent of Pakistan’s 175 million people and much of the country’s wealth.
Punjabi militants have won over fellow followers of the Deobandi sect of Islam with their radical religious interpretations and outspoken assaults on minority Shiites. This translates into votes that leaders of radical groups can bring to local politicians on both the right and the left.
“It’s all about political expediency rather than outright support for these groups,” said Moeed Yusuf of the United States Institute of Peace. He said the policy was risky because it sends the wrong signal to Pakistanis who have rallied behind the military in its assault on extremists in the Afghan border areas.
Signs of a militant Islamist presence are everywhere in this region.
In the blisteringly hot central Punjab town of Jhang, the outlawed Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan, or Guardians of the Friends of the Prophet, has been emboldened by conciliatory signals from local authorities. After being courted for votes last March, the group ripped off yellow government seals and reopened its offices.
Their distinctive green, black and white striped flags fly defiantly atop homes and mosques. The maze of narrow streets in Jhang is littered with graffiti in support of the SSP, even though then-President Pervez Musharraf banned the organization in 2002.
The group’s supporters rant against Shiites, whom they revile as heretics, demand the release of some of the country’s most wanted terrorists and give sermons urging the faithful to attack their enemies.
Just a few miles (kilometers) from the Punjab provincial capital of Lahore is the headquarters of Lashkar-e-Taiba, which is banned in Pakistan, India, the United States and other countries but is now under provincial government protection. India blames Lashkar-e-Taiba for the deadly 2008 attacks in Mumbai and routinely harangues Pakistan for allowing its leader, Hafiz Saeed, to remain free. Pakistani authorities point to its courts, which have repeatedly said there is not enough evidence to hold him.
And in the southern Punjab city of Bawahalpur is the headquarters of Jaish-e-Mohammed, the group possibly linked to a suspect in the Times Square bombing case. The group’s leader, Masood Azhar, was among three militants freed by India in 1999 in exchange for the release of passengers aboard a hijacked Indian Airlines plane to Kandahar, Afghanistan.
“Until the (Pakistani) leadership understands the real nature of these groups, and embraces the fact that none of them can possibly remain biddable tools over the long term, Pakistan leaves itself open to being repeatedly stung,” said Arthur Keller, an ex-CIA case officer in Pakistan.
Minister Rana Sanaullah Khan, who is in charge of enforcing the law in Punjab province, defended his decision to campaign alongside members of the Sipah-e-Sahaba group in March. The minister said the organization represents thousands of votes and cannot be ignored.
“I think all these fears and speculation are confused in the mind of the people…mostly outsiders,” he said.
He said groups like Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Taiba were not taking part in the war against the Taliban in the northwest, but only resisting Indian control of the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir. And he said the Punjab government was hoping to moderate such groups.
“If they change their direction, become more progressive, that is good,” he said.
Critics believe the Punjabi government is pursuing a dangerous course because militant Islamist groups are increasingly entwined.
“You promote one organization and indirectly you promote all of them,” Sheikh Waqqas Akram, a parliamentarian from Jhang, told The Associated Press.
“The dynamics have changed in Pakistan. These organizations are interlinked, organized. They have the vehicles and the weapons to carry out terrorist activities in Pakistan and Afghanistan,” Akram said. “If they are not the suicide bombers, they are the ones providing the (explosives) jackets. If they are not providing the jackets, then they are providing the houses. And if they are not providing the houses, then they are providing the food.”
In an interview with the AP, the director-general of Sipah-e-Sahaba, Hamid Hussain Dehlo, denied working with other militant organizations, insisting his group’s only agenda “is to fight against Shiite Muslims who are the worst kafirs in the whole universe,” referring to Shiites by the Arab world for “nonbeliever.”
Despite Dehlo’s claim, there is evidence of links to other militant groups. A spinoff group, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, was believed to be involved in the 2002 kidnap-murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl, and in the March 17, 2002 attack on the International Protestant Church in Islamabad during which five people, including an American mother and her daughter, were killed.
U.S. and Pakistani intelligence officials believe Lashkar-e-Jhangvi has ties to the Pakistan Taliban, as well as al-Qaida.
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Categories : image of the beast
Fox News Laying Groundwork for US Retaliation Over Attack
6 05 2010[This report is the equivalent of the "Iraq Yellow-Cake" report, which was used to invade Iraq. If this bullshit is allowed to stand unchallenged then Obama will have his excuse to send American Special forces after Qari and Hakeemullah and all the rest.
If the Pakistani Taliban's master bomb-maker had really trained this dumb-ass, would he have tried to detonate a fertilizer bomb with firecrackers?
Anyone who has ever read about any of these ammonium-nitrate bombs, such as the most famous one in Oklahoma City, would know that an ammonium nitrate bomb requires a really serious military-grade explosive to set it off. Firecrackers don't fall into this category.The United States has some very serious intentions towards our Pakistani friends. If the American people allow this travesty to go forward then we deserve the dictatorship which will surely accompany an American invasion of Pakistan (an uninvited attack in either Balochistan or N. Waziristan would be an "invasion"). As expected, Indian media have already taken-up the call, hoping for retaliation against the "Pakistan connection." NY suspect met Taliban leaders, confirms Pak]
Times Square Bomb Suspect Was Upset Over Drone Attacks, Source Says
FOXNews.com
A man who was identified by neighbors in Connecticut as Faisal Shahzad, is shown. (AP/Orkut.com) The Pakistani-American man suspected in Saturday’s attempted car bombing in New York’s Times Square has told authorities he was upset over U.S. drone attacks in Pakistan, especially a drone attack while he was in the country, a U.S. official told Fox News.
The new information about a possible motive in the failed attack comes as Pakistani officials tell Fox News that the suspect, Faisal Shahzad, was introduced to Qari Hussain, the No.3 in the top tier leadership of the Pakistani Taliban on his last trip to Pakistan. U.S. officials couldn’t immediately confirm that.
Pakistani officials said they obtained their information after arresting a man in Karachi who is believed to be a friend of the 30-year-old Pakistani-American who allegedly tried to set off a car bomb in Times Square Saturday night. The friend also confessed to having played a crucial role introducing Shahzad to Hussain, a master homicide bomber trainer in North Waziristan where he learned the art of bomb making.
In addition, Shahzad’s father-in-law has been arrested and is believed to be a naturalized American Citizen.
Shahzad, however, is believed to have worked alone in the United States on the plot almost immediately after returning from a five-month visit to his native land, authorities said.
Two new surveillance videos emerged of the accused bomber, Faisal Shahzad. Police told The Associated Press that one video shows him in a white baseball cap walking away from the smoking, bomb-laden Nissan Pathfinder parked in the bustling heart of New York City.
The second video shows him buying a weak batch of fireworks in a store in Pennsylvania, according to the shop’s owner.
Shahzad comes from a wealthy and educated family, and their neighbors in a town, north west of Pakistan say his family is well respected with no connections to militants.
Pakistan’s Interior Minister Rehman Malik says there may have been a U.S. facilitator for Shahzad and the 13 trips he made to Pakistan were mostly to Islamabad and Peshawar.
Family members including his elder brother in Canada have been identified along with bank accounts, associates, and cell phone numbers, while some people are being monitored according to on going investigation.
Fox News’ Catherine Herridge, Mike Levine, Sib Kaifee and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The new information about a possible motive in the failed attack comes as Pakistani officials tell Fox News that the suspect, Faisal Shahzad, was introduced to Qari Hussain, the No.3 in the top tier leadership of the Pakistani Taliban on his last trip to Pakistan. U.S. officials couldn’t immediately confirm that.
Pakistani officials said they obtained their information after arresting a man in Karachi who is believed to be a friend of the 30-year-old Pakistani-American who allegedly tried to set off a car bomb in Times Square Saturday night. The friend also confessed to having played a crucial role introducing Shahzad to Hussain, a master homicide bomber trainer in North Waziristan where he learned the art of bomb making.
In addition, Shahzad’s father-in-law has been arrested and is believed to be a naturalized American Citizen.
Shahzad, however, is believed to have worked alone in the United States on the plot almost immediately after returning from a five-month visit to his native land, authorities said.
Two new surveillance videos emerged of the accused bomber, Faisal Shahzad. Police told The Associated Press that one video shows him in a white baseball cap walking away from the smoking, bomb-laden Nissan Pathfinder parked in the bustling heart of New York City.
The second video shows him buying a weak batch of fireworks in a store in Pennsylvania, according to the shop’s owner.
Shahzad comes from a wealthy and educated family, and their neighbors in a town, north west of Pakistan say his family is well respected with no connections to militants.
Pakistan’s Interior Minister Rehman Malik says there may have been a U.S. facilitator for Shahzad and the 13 trips he made to Pakistan were mostly to Islamabad and Peshawar.
Family members including his elder brother in Canada have been identified along with bank accounts, associates, and cell phone numbers, while some people are being monitored according to on going investigation.
Fox News’ Catherine Herridge, Mike Levine, Sib Kaifee and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Tags: state terrorism
Categories : image of the beast
Police Intercept 8 Tons of Explosives in DG Khan
6 05 20102 explosives-laden trucks seized in DG Khan
LAHORE: Police arrested four people after seizing two truckloads of explosives from their possession in Dera Ghazi Khan, a private TV channel reported on Wednesday. Police stopped the trucks at the Ghazi Ghat check post on the Indus River and seized four tonnes of explosives hidden in each of the vehicles, the TV channel reported. Four people, travelling in the trucks, were arrested and identified as Qasim, Noor Muhammad, Riaz and Sheikh Bahadur, all belonging to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The accused told the police that they had loaded the explosives from the Hattar area and were taking them to the Sandak Project in Balochistan.Edit : Edit
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