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News archives for the week ending 24th April 2009

Pakistan's President and PM refuse to meet British envoy

Pakistan and United Kingdom now find themselves in a deadlock over an issue of diplomacy. Pakistan president Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani refused to meet the British envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The two leaders were reluctant to meet Sir Sherard Cowper Coles who is visiting Pakistan on Wednesday. Their refusal for the meeting is seen as a mark of protest over Pakistani students being arrested in Britain. Pakistan is upset that a media trial had ensued even in the absence of evidence.

IN, India, 23/4/09

Top US officials shaped torture policy...

Top US officials, not a "few bad apples" of low rank, were behind harsh military interrogation tactics that spread from Guantanamo Bay to Afghanistan to Iraq, a new Senate report said.

The Senate Armed Services Committee's 261-page report, the fruit of its investigation into US treatment of "war on terror" detainees, is likely to stoke the ongoing debate over US techniques widely seen as torture. The panel, led by Democratic Senator Carl Levin, released its chief conclusions in December 2008, but its detailed findings had been kept under wraps during US Defense Department declassification proceedings.

Levin said in a statement that the report showed that claims by top aides to then-president George W. Bush "that detainee abuses could be chalked up to the unauthorized acts of a 'few bad apples,' were simply false."

The report is "a condemnation of both the Bush administration's interrogation policies and of senior administration officials who attempted to shift the blame for abuse -- such as that seen at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay, and Afghanistan -- to low ranking soldiers," said Levin.

AFP, 22/4/09

...and High Court challenges British torture cover up

The chief justice of the British High Court on Wednesday gave the British government one week to obtain the U.S. release of classified information about the alleged torture of a British resident who had been detained at the U.S. military prison in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The court indicated that it would issue its own order if the government doesn't respond or justify why continued secrecy is warranted.

Noting that President Barack Obama had released highly sensitive documents tracing the decisions on torture during the Bush administration's war on terror, the high court judges voiced exasperation that the British government hasn't acted in what they said was the British public interest in being similarly open.

Miami Herald, 22/4/09

Britain prepares to deport students to Pakistan

Two weeks after hundreds of police officers staged raids in northern England and arrested 12 men in what Prime Minister Gordon Brown described as “a very big terrorist plot,” the police released nine of them on Tuesday and handed them over to Britain’s border control agency for deportation to Pakistan.

The Manchester police spokeswoman who announced the transfer of the nine men to the border agency said the arrests had been carried out after security agencies “gathered information that indicated a potential risk to public safety.”

That was a far more guarded formulation than Mr. Brown used in the immediate aftermath of the arrests, in a statement in which he demanded that Pakistan do more to root out terrorism. He also said that Britain would tighten up on student visas for Pakistanis.

New York Times, 21/4/09

Official: Afghanistan will get worse before it gets better

Gen. David Petraeus warned Tuesday of "tough months ahead" as the U.S. steps up its presence in Afghanistan to help stabilize the country.

Petraeus, who heads U.S. Central Command, said the U.S. faces a reinvigorated Taliban insurgency and a rise in the trafficking of illegal narcotics, which he said helps fuel the insurgency.

"We are going to make progress but it's going to get worse before it gets better," Petraeus said. "When you go into an enemy's territory ... they are going to fight you for it."

Boston Globe, 21/4/09

US wants closer military links with Pakistan

The Obama administration wants to pursue broader military ties with Pakistan to help Islamabad combat a growing threat from militant groups including the Taliban, a Pentagon official said Tuesday.

Michele Flournoy, U.S. under secretary of defense for policy, said Washington wants to provide the Pakistani army with training and advice on counterinsurgency tactics developed in Iraq and Afghanistan and support ongoing operations with intelligence and other assistance.

U.S. officials have long been eager to provide counterinsurgency training for the Pakistani army but have been largely rebuffed by army leaders reluctant to shift away from a conventional military posture aimed at countering any threat from arch rival India.

Pakistani leaders are also wary of close, high-profile cooperation with the U.S. military, fearing it could fuel anti-American sentiment in the country. The Pentagon instead has begun a training program for Pakistan's Frontier Corps, a smaller paramilitary force operating in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

Reuters, 21/4/09

U.S. takes new look at Somalia strategy

Piracy off its shores has made Somalia an early challenge for the Obama administration, which is grappling to devise a new strategy that will not replicate past failed U.S. policies in the Horn of Africa.

The immediate goal, say U.S. officials, is to bolster Somalia's new government and its moderate Islamist president, seen by many as the best hope of bringing stability to the lawless country after 18 years of turmoil. As a starting point, the United States plans to help fund the country's nascent security force.

An overall review of U.S. strategy is looking at what else Washington could do to stabilize the capital Mogadishu and surrounding areas while at the same time tackling the piracy scourge.

But if the United States is too public in its support of President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, it could backfire and embolden hardliners, with the new leader being branded as Washington's puppet.

The United States is looking for cooperation from the new government in tracking down al Qaeda operatives in Somalia, including those suspected of the 1998 attacks on the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

Somalia's new government is trying to reconcile warring factions, possibly bringing in militants like Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, a former chairman of the Islamic Courts Union that ruled Mogadishu in 2006.

Somali expert Ken Menkhaus said the United States needed to provide "political space" for individuals like Aweys, who is on Washington's list of foreign terrorists, to make public commitments to renounce terrorism.

Reuters, 21/4/09

Somalia votes to implement sharia

Somalia's parliament has unanimously approved to implement sharia, or Islamic law, across the country, the parliamentary deputy speaker has said. Bogore, who presided over the debate, said "The bill ... is approved by the parliament... We have an Islamic government."

The opposition had called on the interim government, led by Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, to implement the sharia as a precondition to start a national dialogue in the war-torn country. Ahmed had pledged to form an inclusive government after being elected president in January.

Analysts say that the move to implement sharia is an attempt by political leaders to re-assert government control over southern and central parts of the country.

Al-Shabab, an anti-government armed group, had already implemented sharia in areas under its control.

Somalia has been without an effective central government since 1991, when Mohamed Siad Barre was forced from the presidency.

Al Jazeera, 19/4/09

US signs Afghanistan transit deal with Tajikistan

The United States and Tajikistan have agreed a deal on the transit of non-military cargoes for Western operations in Afghanistan, US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher said on Tuesday.

Washington has been seeking new routes for supplies to Afghanistan after Kyrgyzstan announced earlier this year that it was closing a key US airbase, and amid increasing instability along the main transit route through Pakistan.

Kyrgyzstan voted to oust coalition forces from the US airbase at Manas after receiving more than two billion dollars in loan and aid guarantees from Moscow, which had been irked by the US military presence in Central Asia.

Boucher said Washington was not actively looking for any long-term military bases in Central Asia, a region that Moscow regards as its backyard.

The United States has now inked deals for the transit of non-lethal cargo with Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Russia.

AFP, 21/4/09

US tech giants target Iraq

Executives from top US IT giants including Google, Twitter and YouTube are visiting Iraq to help the nation find tech-savvy ways to rebuild, the US State Department said Monday.

The companies will meet with the Iraqi government and private groups to see how technology can help in fighting corruption and improving education and governance, State Department spokesman Robert Wood said. He said the State Department is assisting the executives, who are on a first-of-a-kind trip to Iraq as security gradually improves in the war-torn nation.

"As Iraqis think about how to integrate new technology as a tool for smart power, we view this as an opportunity to invite the American technology industry to be part of this creative genesis," Wood said.

AFP, 21/4/09

UK walks out of UN anti-racism conference

Diplomats have walked out of a UN anti-racism conference during a speech by the Iranian president in which he described Israel as "totally racist". Diplomats who remained applauded as Mr Ahmadinejad continued his address.

Mr Ahmadinejad, the only major leader to attend the conference, said Jewish migrants from Europe and the United States had been sent to the Middle East after World War II "in order to establish a racist government in the occupied Palestine".

He continued, through an interpreter: "And in fact, in compensation for the dire consequences of racism in Europe, they helped bring to power the most cruel and repressive racist regime in Palestine."

British Ambassador Peter Gooderham said "such inflammatory rhetoric has no place whatsoever in a United Nations conference addressing the whole issue of racism and how to address it."

Speaking to the BBC Radio 4's PM programme, he said of the Iranian leader's accusation of Israeli racism: "That is a charge we unreservedly condemn and so we had no hesitation at that point in leaving the conference hall."

BBC News, 20/4/09

Afghanistan seeks to double police force

Afghanistan hopes to double the size of its 82,000-strong police force and in the meantime will recruit and train 15,000 new police by the Aug. 20 presidential election, the Interior Minister said on Sunday.

Hanif Atmar told a news conference that Afghan authorities had asked international donors to approve a "strategic increase" in the size of the force, and that the full scope of the increase would be announced in June.

Ruters, 19/4/09

Deadly attack on Pakistan convoy

A suicide bomber has attacked a military convoy killing at least 20 people in a tribal region of northwest Pakistan, police have said. Thirteen more people were injured in the attack, which was carried out near a checkpoint in the town of Kohat, on Saturday.

The checkpoint is near the Orakzai tribal region in Pakistan, which has emerged in recent months as stronghold for pro-Taliban fighters who have stepped up their battle against the government. Western nations are pressing Pakistan to take greater action against pro-Taliban forces and al-Qaeda elements in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.

Al Jazeera, 18/4/09

International aid aims to stabilise Pakistan

An international donors' conference in Japan has raised $5 billion to help Pakistan rebuild its economy and confront militant groups.

The United States and Japan each pledged $1 billion, but Washington's special envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan, Richard Holbrooke, says large donations from the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Iran send a clear message that stabilizing Pakistan is a global concern.

Voice of America, 18/4/09

US blocks Taliban use of radio and web

The United States has started a broad effort in Pakistan and Afghanistan to prevent the Taliban from using radio stations and websites to intimidate civilians and plan attacks, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday.

U.S. military and intelligence personnel are attempting to jam unlicensed radio stations in parts of Pakistan near the Afghan border used by Taliban fighters, the report said. They are also trying to block Pakistani chat rooms and websites that frequently contain videos of attacks and inflammatory religious material that attempt to justify violent acts, it said.

The push takes the administration deeper into "psychological operations," which try to influence how the United States, its allies and enemies are seen.

Reuters, 18/4/09

Taliban organise peasants against feudal landlords

The Taliban have advanced deeper into Pakistan by engineering a class revolt that exploits profound fissures between a small group of wealthy landlords and their landless tenants, according to government officials and analysts here.

In Swat, accounts from those who have fled now make clear that the Taliban seized control by pushing out about four dozen landlords who held the most power. To do so, the militants organized peasants into armed gangs that became their shock troops, the residents, government officials and analysts said.

The approach allowed the Taliban to offer economic spoils to people frustrated with lax and corrupt government even as the militants imposed a strict form of Islam through terror and intimidation.

“This was a bloody revolution in Swat,” said a senior Pakistani official who oversees Swat, speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation by the Taliban. “I wouldn’t be surprised if it sweeps the established order of Pakistan.”

The Taliban’s ability to exploit class divisions adds a new dimension to the insurgency and is raising alarm about the risks to Pakistan, which remains largely feudal.

New York Times, 16/4/09

Miliband denies Afghan war is cause of Pakistan's instability

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said on Friday Pakistan’s domestic problems, not the presence of United States and British forces in Afghanistan, were the cause of terrorism in the country, a private TV channel reported.

The British foreign secretary said Pakistan’s democracy was very weak and “Britain is extending all possible assistance to strengthen it”.

Daily Times, Pakistan, 18/4/09

Iraqi parliament pushes Shell out

Expectations that foreign companies will cash in on Iraqi oil riches were called into question last night after a key parliamentary body in Baghdad pledged to "push Shell out" and halt a forthcoming licensing round.

The warning from Jabir Khalifa Jabir, secretary of the Iraqi parliament's oil and gas committee, was seen by financial analysts as a serious threat to western investment opportunities in a country that holds the second-largest oil reserves in the world.

Shell has been considered a frontrunner in the race to seize control of the Iraqi energy sector after signing a $4bn deal to process and market gas from the south of the country and ship it, possibly to Britain as liquefied natural gas.

But the preliminary agreement - and a subsequent one with China National Petroleum Corporation - were unconstitutional and detrimental to Iraq's economic interests, said Jabir, who worked for more than 15 years at Iraq's state-run Southern Gas Company. The oil ministry has said it does not need parliament's approval to sign new deals, but Jabir argues Iraqi law 97 clearly states all arrangements of this nature must be passed by parliament.

Guardian, 18/4/09