U.S. visit feeds Pakistani worry over U.S. attack

[teach1st]

Source: Reuters

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - The Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, visited Pakistan on the weekend, fueling speculation that the United States was about to take action against militants in northwest Pakistan.

Pakistan has been a close U.S. ally in the global campaign against terrorism but the United States has become increasingly frustrated at what it sees as insufficient effort by Islamabad to fight militants on the Afghan border.

A U.S. embassy spokeswoman confirmed that Mullen had made a one-day trip to Pakistan on Saturday, but said she had no details about his meetings. Pakistani military and government spokesmen were not available for comment.

Pakistani newspapers said Mullen, in talks with Pakistani military commanders and leaders of a new government, had expressed deep frustration with growing cross-border militant attacks and had called for decisive action to stop it.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSISL28969020080713?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews

[ohio2007]

1. UPDATE 1-Taliban kill 15 Pakistani soldiers in ambush

KOHAT, Pakistan, July 12 (Reuters) - Taliban militants killed at least 15 paramilitary soldiers in an ambush in northwestern Pakistan on Saturday, officials said.

The militants attacked a convoy of paramilitary troops as it was heading towards the volatile town of Hangu, 40 km (25 miles) west of the garrison town of Kohat."At least 15 soldiers including an officer have been killed in the attack," a senior government official in Hangu told Reuters.


snip

http://in.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idINL1253345920080712?rpc=401&

A top ranking US military official doesn't just jump on a plane and fly to Pakistan on a whim......somebody urgently 'requested' a consultation but, those details are not part of a news story

Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff makes unannounced visit to Pakistan

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, July 12 -- At least 20 people were killed Saturday in fighting between security forces and pro-Taliban insurgents in volatile northwestern Pakistan, according to officials and witnesses.


snip

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/12/AR2008071201631.html

yet in Pakistan the news is reported differently ;)

US asks Pakistan to get tough with militants: Mullen comes unannounced

snip

Earlier this week, Mullen had told reporters in Kabul that Pakistan’s government needed to crack down on Taliban and Al Qaeda militants in Fata.


http://www.dawn.com/2008/07/13/top1.htm



sure, unannounced to the Pakistani peace committee that is. They are in deep and about to fight a two front war if that what they really want ;


India blames Pakistan for Kabul embassy attack

MUMBAI, July 13 (Reuters) - India's national security advisor blames Pakistan's ISI intelligence service for the suicide bomb attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul this week, he said on Indian news channels late on Saturday.

"We are in the favour of the peace process, but the ISI is not in any way part of it. The ISI is playing evil. The ISI needs to be destroyed," he said, according to a transcript of the interview on the NDTV website.

snip

India had a "fair amount" of evidence linking the ISI to Monday's car bomb that killed 41 people, including an Indian defence attache and a diplomat.

Afghan authorities had also hinted they suspected the ISI, a charge Pakistan denies.


snip


http://in.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idINBOM7063020080713

Pakistan is spinning out of the control of Pakistani government.
They are about to collapse as the power sharing govt continues to splinter with every marching step the Taliban take closer to Islamabad.

jmo,
Time to send in the Chinese to remove the nukes....or is the US currently being consulted on moving them out of the country ?

The ISI and Musharraf ; will they go out with a bang or a whimper ?
http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/world/20071227_BHUTTO_FEATURE/#

[Adsos Letter]

4. Read "Descent Into Chaos" by Ahmed Rashid (2008).

Interesting.

http://www.amazon.com/Descent-into-Chaos-Building-Afghanistan/dp/0670019704/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1215970247&sr=1-1

[ohio2007]

6. Ahmed Rashid cranks out a lot of books and articles

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url?%5Fencoding=UTF8&search-type=ss&index=books&field-author=Ahmed%20Rashid






He knows the story of Islamist militants in Afghanistan and Pakistan
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5702969

one book doesn't cover the entire history of the asian situation.
But reading what he writes tomorrow would make for better understanding of current events today
http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/politics/international_politics/interview+ahmed+rashid/2307377

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/21473

[Adsos Letter]

8. And his writing is in an accessable, journalist's style...

I read "Taliban" and "Jihad" prior to "Descent Into Chaos." I haven't followed any of his articles, etc.

[ohio2007]

11. Book writing is for reflecting on the past. .Journalist style is for 'shooting at the hip'

current event reporting. The current situation remains too fluid to be sitting down and writing a book that has a coherent final chapter climax this decade.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=3d5_1215897372

the world doesn't neatly revolve around the DC beltway

[Adsos Letter]

13. I wish I could say I understand what you are saying...

I think I do, but I'm not sure what the point is (not meant to be rude).

[EFerrari]

9. I saw him on CSPAN once and he gave the best analysis of that area

I've ever heard. He really knew what he was talking about. :thumbsup:

[Adsos Letter]

10. Well, he is from there, and has an educated insider's perspective...

the only thing I have found at all off-putting is his tendency to let people know (repeatedly) that if the administration had listened to him we would not face the situation we do today. It's very true, but still...perhaps he wouldn't find the need to do so if policy makers actually would listen to him; so perhaps I should blame them.

Excellent writer and deconstructor of our current situation.

[ohio2007]

12. Another perspective rarely give a look

two decades of a rock bands history in Pakistan.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhIkCH4sScM

20 minute window into an insiders perspective

[Tutonic]

2. Well the chickens are coming home to roost. Musharaf has never

been a friend to the Bush Administration. The US will NEVER, NEVER NEVER legally send ground forces into Pakistan. And Pakistan will continue to fuel and fund the insurgents. HOws that for back door diplomacy Ms. Rice?

[ohio2007]

7. Wonder how long till the MSM shows a an unruley mob surrounding and dancing around

the severed head of a captured US special forces being paraded about in a Pashtun village on tha Pakistan side of the border.

The civilian govt in Islamabad will fall if they think they can talk their way around the 800 lb gorilla wanting them out of power

[L0oniX]

3. Gee ...aren't they afraid that Pakistan will nuke us?

:sarcasm:

[ohio2007]

5. Official: 9 US troops killed in Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan - A multi-pronged militant assault on a small, remote U.S. base killed nine American soldiers Sunday in one of the deadliest attacks on U.S. troops since the 2001 invasion, a Western official said.Militants fired machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars from homes and a mosque in the village of Wanat in the northeastern province of Kunar, a mountainous region that borders Pakistan.
The attack on the relatively new outpost began at 4:30 a.m. Sunday and lasted throughout the day.


snip

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080713/ap_on_re_as/afghanistan

those drones are going to be pissing off the friends of the ISI next week.