Mullah Omar is in Pakistan and everyone knows it: France

[Abu Zolfiqar]

Don't be sorry! Getting things right is important. Enjoy your time in D.C. - not only do we have good weather in September, people are fresh back from vacation and ready to deal with new material.

good city with friendly and approachable people......condition of the roads in nation’s capital has left me a bit disappointed though, I must say.

compounded by the fact that people here can't drive even if their lives depended on it

"I doubt personally that the central leadership of Al Qaeda is in North Wazirstan...key figures all captured in Pakistani cities, you have to hide in plain sight...Karachi...Lahore...whatever"

and when were all those key figures arrested? Most of them were captured right after, or a few years after 9/11 (e.g. Bin AlShibh, KSM etc.)

the idea of his statement was that FATA is no longer becoming a 'safe-haven’ (as western media puts it) to Al Qaeda or other militant groups. We never had a scourge of terrorism or terrorists until the US-led invasion in 2001, mind you.

Please also familiarize yourself with the political realities. Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) is in charge of Karachi. It’s an ultra-secular and staunch opponent of extremism and extremist groups. Terrorists have no ’haven’ in Karachi –they would be targeted; especially nowdays when Pakistan has faced the increase in terrorist attacks against our country.

Peshawar, I believe, was mentioned separately earlier in the talk. But maybe I mistook "whatever" for "Peshawar"?

Peshawar still has troubled areas –very specific areas and outskirts, where some sympathetics may be residing. Once again, on the aggregate level –AQ has no base or support in Pakistan. I'll be very frank with you, since I myself am a no-bullsh*t no games-playing guy.

Peshawar has taken the brunt of terrorist attacks….I know people personally who have suffered losses. One would have a lot of nerve to think that the citizens of Peshawar sympathize with or condone terrorism or terrorists.


Afghan taleban, sure maybe –but that is due more in part to a rugged & porous border; there are civilians who feel that U.S/NATO presence in Afghanistan is counter-productive and that they must vacate the country at once.

I don't know what your political affiliations are; I'm not very interested to know either. But you should know that the U.S. and the President of 65% of Kabul (Mr. Karzai) will have to work out a political solution with taleban and pro-taleban militiamen who are willing to work towards unification of Afghan masses, even if it means sitting in opposition (or something to that extent).

If all these mighty armies were not able to subdue the taleban in 9 years of being there (despite all the resources) then I wouldnt subscribe to the notion that any ''surge'' or other purely military maneuver would yield any results.

We want a long-term, viable and sustainable solution to the Afghan conflict. As a neighbour of the land-locked country with strong links to Afghanistan (economic, partly ethnic, etc.) we are more than just a stake-holder here. You know as well as I do that as long as Afghanistan soil (which is under yours and NATO control at this particular moment) can not/should not/WILL not be used for anti-Pakistan activity.

Our leaders may be overly passive, but our military is not.

It’s easy for outsiders to analyze our affairs without looking at day to day ground realities….this is something that the Westerners and other outsiders need to learn to do












p.s. if the Americans really want to find Mullah Omar, I'm sure it wouldnt be difficult. He himself once stated that he would never leave Afghanistan; last time he was in Pakistan I believe he was in Peshawar seeking treatment for his eye condition. That was well over a decade ago.

If you have any intel or know something I don't, please do share with me. I like having up to date information.

 

[Chanakyaa]

I dont know if this news is true or not.

But i sincerely believe,its time Pakistani Policy makers n citizens search for a word called 'introspection' before its too late.

US is using u..
WOT gave nothing..
UK blames..
France Blames..
Karzai Blames...


While india is reviving its relations with Pak's allys... KSA, Yemen, UAE...

wake up before its too late.

 

[Abu Zolfiqar]

I dont know if this news is true or not.

But i sincerely believe,its time Pakistani Policy makers n citizens search for a word called 'introspection' before its too late.

US is using u..
WOT gave nothing..
UK blames..
France Blames..
Karzai Blames...


While india is reviving its relations with Pak's allys... KSA, Yemen, UAE...

wake up before its too late.

thanks for your novel-minded, impressive, elaborate and most helpful post

learned a lot!

 

[Spring Onion]

"Everyone knows it"

That's the evidence?

everyone knows NO one proves: End of french saga

 

[Abu Zolfiqar]

everyone knows NO one proves: End of french saga

2 crispy oven baked 'croque monsieurs' to madam Jana!

 

[muse]

Diplomatic flurry over peace talks
By Syed Saleem Shahzad

ISLAMABAD - Afghan President Hamid Karzai has a love-and-hate relationship with Pakistan's military establishment. In the late 1990s, he stood up against the Pakistan army-supported Taliban regime in Afghanistan and as a consequence he lost his father and was forced to take refuge in an upscale neighborhood of the southern Pakistani port city of Karachi.

Everything changed with the United States-led invasion of Afghanistan that toppled the Taliban in late 2001, thrusting Karzai back into the spotlight. Under American pressure, Pakistan did not have any choice but to support him. In 2004, Islamabad rallied support for Karzai's election campaign in Pakistan's Afghan refugee camps. Similar support came in 2009.

With the Afghan war at a critical stage and US President Barack
Obama due to give an official review of Afghan strategy in December, Washington and the allied Pakistan military cannot afford to change horses in mid-stream. Washington will therefore be hoping for a sizeable pro-Karzai constituency in the parliament that is due to be elected on Saturday.

As in the past, the Pakistan army will use its connections with the Taliban to press for as little election violence as possible - if not a ceasefire - in the Pashtun-dominated south to smooth the way for pro-Karzai candidates.

Diplomats keeping busy

The Afghanistan Study Group, a gathering of 46 foreign-policy experts including critics of the war and some who until recently supported US policy, is due to meet in the US on Friday. It has invited some mediators from the Afghan resistance. Karzai, along with the US's top man in Afghanistan, General David Petraeus, recently met Pakistani army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kiani to work out measures to prevent poll violence.

Immediately after the elections, all key international players will meet in Pakistan to help the US make a decision ahead of December on whether it will begin a withdrawal from Afghanistan as planned for next year or continue fighting.

Earlier, as a part of the diplomatic flurry, United States special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke visited Pakistan, followed by Karzai and Petraeus. One of the main topics was to reinforce Karzai's position in Kabul so that he will be in a position to deal with whatever emerges, be it peace with the Taliban or war with them. Kiani and the director general of the Inter-Services Intelligence, Lieutenant General Ahmad Shuja Pasha, were also involved.

The next key person to visit Pakistan will be Prince Muqrin bin Abdul Aziz, Saudi Arabia's intelligence chief who is also a special envoy of King Saud assigned to deal with the Taliban. Aziz is expected within the next few days.

Contacts familiar with the process have told Asia Times Online that "high-profile" meetings have been lined up for Aziz in safe houses during which he will try his level best to make a breakthrough in the nascent peace process between the Taliban and the US. Asia Times Online has exclusively reported that preliminary talks between the Taliban and the US have begun, with the Pakistan military and Saudi Arabia acting as go-betweens. (See Taliban and US get down to talks September 10, 2010.)

On September 25, former United Arab Emirates ambassador to Pakistan Ali Mohammad al-Shamsi, who enjoyed personal relations with the Taliban leadership and who is now the UAE's envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan, will arrive in Pakistan. He will spend two days in the country to deliver his feedback on the most recent talks with the Taliban. He will also have some "high-profile" meetings with his erstwhile Taliban friends.

Shamsi will then travel to Afghanistan to give his input to Petraeus and Karzai. This interaction will be reflected in a new report by the Afghanistan Study Group, which in turn will play a part in the US's December strategy review.

With time running out, Washington is gradually agreeing to major concessions with the Taliban. A previous distinction between "reconcilable Taliban" (non-ideological or less ideologically motivated) and "irreconcilable Taliban" (the ideologically motivated hardcore led by Mullah Omar) has been simplified into "Taliban" and "al-Qaeda-linked Taliban".

Despite these peace moves, Taliban attacks in Afghanistan continue unabated. A visibly nervous Washington is aware that the next steps will become increasingly tougher, and that in Mullah Omar they have a stubborn and possibly capricious adversary who could easily take the whole process back to square one.

Syed Saleem Shahzad is Asia Times Online's Pakistan Bureau Chief. He can be reached at saleem_shahzad2002@yahoo.com

 

[Spring Onion]

2 crispy oven baked 'croque monsieurs' to madam Jana!

 

[Areesh]

I dont know if this news is true or not.

But i sincerely believe,its time Pakistani Policy makers n citizens search for a word called 'introspection' before its too late.

US is using u..
WOT gave nothing..
UK blames..
France Blames..
Karzai Blames...


While india is reviving its relations with Pak's allys... KSA, Yemen, UAE...

wake up before its too late.

Well It isn't going to be late. Because the ones who are blaming Pakistan are already on a crash and are making attempts for face saving in Afghanistan. As far as Pakistan's allies are concerned, they are there and they will support Pakistan whether directly or indirectly in any situation specially in case of India. Floods are one such example. India on the other hand can try to revive it's relation with anyone, we have no problem with it.

 

[muse]

The next key person to visit Pakistan will be Prince Muqrin bin Abdul Aziz, Saudi Arabia's intelligence chief who is also a special envoy of King Saud assigned to deal with the Taliban. Aziz is expected within the next few days....

On September 25, former United Arab Emirates ambassador to Pakistan Ali Mohammad al-Shamsi, who enjoyed personal relations with the Taliban leadership and who is now the UAE's envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan, will arrive in Pakistan. He will spend two days in the country to deliver his feedback on the most recent talks with the Taliban. He will also have some "high-profile" meetings with his erstwhile Taliban friends.

Shamsi will then travel to Afghanistan to give his input to Petraeus and Karzai. This interaction will be reflected in a new report by the Afghanistan Study Group, which in turn will play a part in the US's December strategy review.

The role of the arbis in promoting the Talib should now be clearer to the Pakistanis wondering where the money is coming from and exactly who is keeping the Talib aflot and why.

 

[Developereo]

Here's a wacky thought...

What if all these public claims of XYZ in Pakistan are intended for XYZ alone? In other words, they want XYZ to believe that the intel community is off-track and looking in Pakistan, while in reality they are still looking wherever they are looking.

The wrong info only has to be disseminated by the intel community and idiot journalists and politicians will just parrot it ad nauseum because they believe what the intel guys told them.

 

[ice_man]

DAWN.COM | World | Mullah Omar is in Pakistan and everyone knows it: France

PARIS: Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Omar is based in Pakistan and everyone knows it, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said Tuesday, calling on Islamabad to do more to help end the conflict.

“It's not a secret for anyone, everyone knows that Mullah Omar is in Quetta, if he's not now in Karachi,” Kouchner told French lawmakers, referring to two major Pakistani cities known to harbour militant cells.

Mullah Omar was the leader of the Taliban regime that was overthrown in Afghanistan by US-led forces in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks and is now thought to be based in Quetta.

“Taliban leaders have been given shelter in Pakistan. I'm not revealing anything,” Kouchner said, telling parliament's foreign relations committee why Afghanistan has called on Pakistan to help negotiate a peace deal. -AFP



First UK and now France.. hmmm....

iraq apparently had "WMD" and everyone knew it! & guess what 7 years on iraq is a more unstable place then it was back in saddam's time! & no WMD were found!


but ya french men don't take a shower and everyone knows it! hence they use so much perfume...cologne pour homme!