Jamat-e-Islami members protest in Pakistan on 9/11 anniversary

ISLAMABAD: Supporters of a political party in Pakistan used the anniversary Sunday of the Sept. 11 attacks to stage anti-American protests.
Supporters of a Pakistani religious party Jamaat-e-Islami hold an anti US rally on the 10th anniversary of the Sept 11 attacks in US, Sunday, Sept. 11, 2011 in Islamabad, Pakistan.In Islamabad, about 100 people chanted and held up banners that repeated conspiracy theories alleging American or Israeli involvement in the attacks.
Such theories have been commonly aired among Islamist and militant sympathizers since the attacks in 2001.
A smaller demonstration also took place in the central Punjabi city of Multan.
In the sprawling city of Karachi, around 100 people protested against the war in Afghanistan that was launched in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks.
The demonstrations were organised by Jamat-e-Islami, the country’s largest Islamist political party, which frequently rallies its base by protesting against America and what it say is a US war on Islam.
Pakistan has been hit by hundreds of bombings since Sept. 11, 2001, by al Qaeda and Taliban militants.

‘Political fortune-tellers’ should stop predicting govt’s fall: PM

LOWER TOPA: Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani on Tuesday said his government was enjoying the complete support of the masses and warned that “political fortune-tellers” predicting the end of its tenure would face disappointment.
Addressing a large public gathering after the inauguration of Islamabad-Murree Expressway here, the prime minister said the government could not be weakened by the unlawful tactics of such elements who wanted to derail democracy.
Gilani said that many forces were striving to end the tenure of the government before March. However, he said such efforts would go in vain as the government enjoyed the support of poor people.
He urged the people with such wishful approach to have patience and wait for another year for the completion of present government’s tenure.
He stressed that the government had not come into power through the backdoor and added that it was up to the people to decide for the government’s next term on the basis of performance.
Gilani announced provision of gas to Murree in near future. The decision was heavily cheered for by the gathering with people raising slogans in favour of the government and Pakistan Peoples Party.
He announced the grand project of constructing a road between Lower Topa and Kohala, which will link Punjab, Azad Kashmir and Hazara.
The prime minister said that his party had great affinity with Murree. He recalled the address of Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto 35 years ago in the same city and also his own childhood memories of visiting Murree.
He said that the Pakistan Peoples Party is a symbol of a vision, ideology and belongs to martyrs. He said this is the only party whose leaders have rendered sacrifices side by side by its workers.
He mentioned several reforms introduced by the government in terms of constitutional amendments which he said would strengthen the people’s roots.
The prime minister said PPP has always struggled for democracy by fighting against dictators.
Leader of the House in Senate Nayyar Hussain Bukhari, Chairman Baitul Mal Zamurrad Khan, and MNAs Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, Mehreen Anwar Raja and Fauzia Habib were also present.

CIA chief meets COAS, DG ISI

ISLAMABAD: CIA Director Leon Panetta met over dinner Friday with Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Pervaiz Kayani and Director-General Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Ahmed Shuja Pasha for talks on how to repair ties between the two countries that were fractured by the American raid that killed Osama bin Laden, a Pakistani and a US official said.
Sources told DawnNews that the talks focused on intelligence cooperation between the US and Pakistan.
The military leadership also apprised Panetta that Pakistan would not accept unilateral American operations inside Pakistan, sources said.
The subject of reconciliation with the Afghan Taliban was also discussed during the meeting.
Panetta’s visit was his first to Pakistan since the unilateral American operation on May 2 killed the al Qaeda leader in a Pakistani garrison town. It is likely to be his last before he becomes the next US defence secretary.
American officials have said they want to rebuild a relationship vital to their fight against al Qaeda and their efforts to wind down the war in Afghanistan, but progress has been slow amid suspicions by some in Washington that elements within the security establishment here were sheltering bin Laden.
Pakistan, facing public anger over what was seen as an unacceptable violation of sovereignty, sent home most US Army trainers in the country and said Thursday that it no longer wanted American financial assistance.
Panetta dined with General Kayani and Shuja Pasha, after arriving Friday, said the officials, who did not give their names to discuss the high-level meeting.
Panetta’s relationship with both men will be key in his new role, presuming he is speedily confirmed as the next US defence chief.
One of the key items of contention between Pakistan and the US: As an act of faith to restore relations with the Pakistanis, US intelligence shared the suspected location of explosive material held by the al Qaeda-linked Haqqani network at two compounds in the Pakistani tribal areas, according to a Pakistani and a US official.
The US official said that after the intelligence was shared, the explosive material was moved. The Pakistani official told The Associated Press that they checked out the locations, but nothing was there, and that they intend to investigate to dispel US suspicions that the Pakistani intelligence service had tipped off the militants.
Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence operations.Pakistan must do more to go after militants within its borders, Panetta said in remarks to the Senate Armed Services Committee for his confirmation hearing. The CIA director said that after the bin Laden raid, the US asked Islamabad to ”take a number of concrete steps to demonstrate cooperation and counterterrorism.”
One of those steps is the formation of a joint intelligence team to track down militant targets inside Pakistan, drawing in part from the trove of bin Laden records taken from his personal office during the raid.
Pakistani officials say the Americans have shared some intelligence from the trove, and the Americans say the Pakistanis are working on providing visas for a small number of US intelligence officers to come to Pakistan to join the team, but both sides complain the effort is moving very slowly.
The US wants that team to pursue a list of five high-value targets it handed to the Pakistani leadership during another high-level visit to Pakistan by US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and chairman of the joint chiefs Adm. Mike Mullen, along with CIA Deputy Director Mike Morell, who met Pasha separately.The target list included al Qaeda commander Ilyas Kashmiri, who was reportedly hit by a drone strike in the Pakistani tribal areas last Friday. But both sides say that hit was not the direct result of the intelligence partnership nor data from the material seized from the bin Laden compound.
US officials have described Kashmiri as al Qaeda’s military operations chief in Pakistan. He was rumoured to be a contender to replace bin Laden as the terror network’s chief.
Pakistan’s interior minister said Monday he was ”100 per cent” certain that the wanted al Qaeda commander was dead after the drone strike in Pakistan’s tribal areas.
US officials will not confirm his death out of caution because he was reported dead in strikes twice before.
A Pakistani official said Panetta would stay for a second day of talks with officials, in which they hope to discuss what US intelligence officers will be allowed to do, and how many will be allowed into the country, as part of the joint intelligence team.
Panetta’s visit to Islamabad coincides with a trip by Afghan President Hamid Karzai in which he is likely to discuss the role Islamabad can play in negotiations with the Taliban to end the war in Afghanistan.

Nawaz asks ‘army’ to change mindset

LAHORE: PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif has vowed never to allow any institution to become a sacred cow and be above the law.
“There is no sacred cow in the country and none should try to become a sacred cow as (we) won’t allow such an attempt,” he told a reference meeting held here on Friday for journalist Salim Shehzad who has been murdered in mysterious
circumstances.
Without naming the army but leaving no doubt which institution he was talking about, he said (they) would have to change their mindset.
If the army wants not to be criticised it will have to remove the causes of criticism.
“End your domination of foreign policy (making) if you wish the criticism to end. Our relations should be with the Afghan people and not with a single party. There should be no parallel government (of agencies) in the country.”
He said the Kashmir cause had been damaged most by ‘our own institutions’, adding that keeping the national interest in mind he could not go into details.
The former prime minister said he was not against any institution, but the army was under the domination of a handful of people with a specific mindset.
He said there was nothing wrong in calling for a discussion on defence budget in parliament.“What is wrong with this demand?
What is there that they (the armed forces) want to conceal from their own countrymen.”
He said the army should make a pledge not to transgress its domain and if it did then it was my and other people’s duty to check it.
He vowed to organise a long march if he had to do it for the purpose.
Pledging never to compromise on principles, he said the game of holding the Constitution in abeyance, murdering journalists and dissolving judiciary would have to be ended.
Admitting that he had committed mistakes in the past, he said he had learned from those mistakes and others should follow suit.
“When all hands rise to grab someone by the collar that is time for introspection. Had those at the helm of affairs done introspection there would have been no incidents like Abbottabad and PNS Mehran.”Urging the Supreme Court to take notice of the killing of Mr Shehzad, Mr Sharif said he and his party would be with the journalist community till the killers were brought to book.
He said he wondered why the prime minister was shying away from forming a commission to investigate the murder of Mr Shahzad, adding that the country would survive only if there was rule of law.
Human Rights activist Hina Jilani said the army was itself the biggest threat to the security of the country, adding that there should be no room in the army for soldiers who had an agenda over and above the security of the country and its citizens.
The Managing Director of Friday Times, Jugnoo Mohsin, said if Shehzad was not killed by ISI then being one of the largest
secret agencies in the world it should expose the killers.
Seeking reforms in the institution of armed forces, Editor of local Urdu daily Pakistan Mujeebur Rehman Shami regretted that in the name of discipline one person (army chief) held the entire institution hostage.
Dr Akmal Hussain said people would have to unite on a single platform to get the right of telling the truth.
The meeting adopted a resolution which condemned the murder of Shehzad and formed a 22-member Media Commission “to monitor increasing attacks on media persons and defend press freedom in Pakistan”.
The commission will defend journalists under attack and pursue their cases but also audit the content of media, besides proposing a code of ethics.

PM for FTA between Pakistan, US to promote economic activity

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Tuesday called for an early conclusion of the Free Trade Agreement between Pakistan and United States to promote economic activity.
Talking to a US Congressional delegation led by Doug Lamborn at the PM House, Prime Minister Gilani said economic activity would address the issues of poverty and unemployment particularly in the under-developed and militancy-affected areas.
About the misperceptions in both countries against each other, Prime Minister Gilani said US presence in Pakistan should be seen as a source of peace and prosperity by the people of Pakistan, a PM House statement said issue here.
However, he said the US administration and particularly the US Congress needed to be sensitive about the opinion and views of the people of Pakistan in order to pave the way for a long term strategic partnership based on mutual trust, respect and interest.
He pointed out that the people of Pakistan were expecting a thorough investigation of the Raymond Davis case in the US under its laws.

The provision of civil nuclear technology, reimbursement of large amounts of with-held Coalition Support Fund to Pakistan and utilisation of the Kerry-Lugar Bill funds for signature projects have a direct bearing on the life of ordinary Pakistanis, Prime Minister Gilani said, adding that these would help build a positive image of the US in the country.
Underlining Pakistan’s strong commitment to cooperate with the US in defeating militancy, Prime Minister Gilani stressed the need for concerted efforts by both sides to bridge the trust deficit through reinforced cooperation in intelligence sharing, joint action against al Qaeda and its affiliates as well as progress on various segments of strategic dialogue in multi-faceted fields.
Prime Minister Gilani referred to President Karzai’s forthcoming visit to Pakistan during which the inaugural session of the commission on reconciliation between the two countries is scheduled along with the launching of the Afghanistan-Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement.
He further stated that Pakistan, Afghanistan and the US being part of the core group have to have strategic coherence among them for ensuring peace, stability and prosperity in Afghanistan.

He termed Pakistan-US relationship as significant in the context of how they can shape the future of this region and called for joint endeavours to ensure maximum utilisation of the potential for economic development in Afghanistan as well as the region at large.
The members of US Congressional delegation termed Pakistan as an extremely important country in the world in the war against terrorism and for defeating violent extremism. They acknowledged the sacrifices of Pakistan’s armed and security forces as well as of the people of Pakistan for world peace in the ongoing struggle against terror.
They assured Prime Minister Gilani that despite strong sentiments in the US Congress for reducing the budget deficit and cutting down on foreign aid, the economic assistance to Pakistan would continue. They also agreed with Prime Minister Gilani that his democratic government needed the political space and undertook to contribute in that regard in the US Congress.
The US Congressmen were highly appreciative of Prime Minister Gilani’s remarks that US presence should be a source of peace and prosperity in Pakistan for addressing the negative perception about it here.
They welcomed Prime Minister Gilani’s proposal for Free Trade Agreement between Pakistan and US and recognised the need that the US should help Pakistan address the root causes of extremism in the larger interest of continuing the strategic partnership.

The US Congressional delegation included Rob Woodall, Austin Scott, Richard B. Nugent and W. Keating.
Minister for Finance Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar, Senator Syeda Sughra Hussain Imam, Secretaries Foreign affairs, Defence and Interior, US Ambassador Cameron Munter and other senior officials were also present in the meeting.

Five killed as militants attack Pakistani checkpoint

PESHAWAR: Some 200 militants streamed over the border from Afghanistan and attacked a nearby Pakistani checkpoint on Wednesday, killing at least five security troops, police said.
The incident in Upper Dir district underscores the dangers posed by the porous nature of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, which both countries have struggled to control as a means of stopping al Qaeda and Taliban-led insurgent movements who have ties on both sides of the boundary.
The attack is the latest bloodshed as the Pakistani Taliban and affiliated groups carry out threats to avenge the May 2 US raid that killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan’s northwest. But it is more likely a reaction to ongoing Pakistani military offensives against insurgents along the border.

Upper Dir lies just outside of Pakistan’s tribal areas, but it, too, has witnessed al Qaeda and Taliban militant activity, and the Pakistani military has carried out operations there in the past. The area is remote and dangerous, making it difficult to independently verify information.
Local police official Bahadur Khan said Wednesday’s attack began around noon. A shootout was still ongoing an hour later at the scene in Shaltalo town, which borders Afghanistan’s Kunar province.
The US has lauded Pakistan’s operations against insurgents, which have been carried out primarily in the semi-autonomous tribal areas and targeted militants attacking the Pakistani state.

Pakistani journalist was tortured to death: police

KARACHI: Grief-stricken relatives demanded Wednesday that Pakistan investigate the torture and murder of an investigative journalist whose disappearance was blamed on the country’s shadowy intelligence services.
Saleem Shahzad, a 40-year-old father of three, vanished after leaving home in Islamabad to appear on a television talk show, two days after writing an article about links between rogue elements of the navy and al Qaeda.
Shahzad carved out a career writing about the plethora of militant networks operating in Pakistan, and warned human rights campaigners before his disappearance that he had been threatened by the Inter-Services Intelligence.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton condemned his murder and said his “reporting on terrorism and intelligence issues in Pakistan brought to light the troubles extremism poses to Pakistan’s stability”.
Shahzad’s body was found Tuesday, about 150 kilometres southeast of Islamabad. Police said it bore marks of torture.
“The cause of death is torture and there are several signs of torture on his body and face,” said Ashok Kumar, one of the doctors who carried out a post-mortem at Islamabad’s Pakistan Institute of Medical Science.

Another doctor told AFP that Shahzad’s lungs and liver had been damaged, that the body was swollen and bore more than 15 signs of having been beaten.
Wasim Fawad, a brother of Shahzad, told AFP that the family was in shock. His funeral was to take place in his home town of Karachi later Wednesday, after the body was flown from Islamabad.
“The post-mortem was being conducted on our request and we will also lodge a case with police. We want an investigation in this killing,” he said.
“My brother was killed for writing the truth. He paid a huge price, he sacrificed his life but always spoke the truth.”
Interior Minister Rehman Malik confirmed that a police investigation had been ordered and promised a reward of 2.5 million rupees.
“Anyone giving us information, evidence or clue about the murder will be given a reward of 2.5 million rupees,” he told reporters.

But police officials in Islamabad and where the body was found each told AFP that the investigation was the responsibility of the other.
“Previous enquiries into the murders of journalists have not been made public and it is not clear if the fate of this enquiry would be any different,” the Pakistan Press Foundation said in a statement.
Reporters Without Borders says 16 journalists have now been killed since the start of 2010 in Pakistan, which it ranks 151st out of 178 countries in its press freedom index.
Shahzad worked for Italian news agency Adnkronos (AKI) and Asia Times Online, a news site registered in Hong Kong. After he vanished on Sunday, AKI said they feared he had been kidnapped.
In 2006, he was kidnapped by the Taliban in southern Afghanistan, accused of being a spy. He was set free after seven days.
Ali Dayan Hasan, senior South Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch, said Shahzad had complained about being threatened by the ISI and said his killing bore the hallmarks of the security services.
Last Friday, Shahzad published an investigative report in Asia Times Online that last week’s attack on a naval air base was carried out to avenge the arrest of naval officials arrested on suspicion of al Qaeda links.
The naval base attack began on May 22 and took 17 hours to repel. Officials said six militants destroyed two US-made surveillance aircraft and killed 10 security personnel in the standoff.

Prominent Pakistani investigative journalist Umar Cheema, who was abducted and tortured last year, said he believed that whoever picked up Shahzad had not meant to kill but to torture him to send a strong message to other journalists.
“It is really a very unfortunate incident. It breaks the myth that journalists in Pakistan, both local as well as foreign, are tolerated and work in a safe environment,” Cheema told AFP.

Punjab Rangers helicopter crashes near Kot Sultan Bhakri

MULTAN: A helicopter carrying a top security officer crashed in Pakistan’s Punjab province on Wednesday.


Rescue teams have been dispatched to the crash site.




Rescuers were searching for survivors from the crash but there are fears that all aboard have died in the fiery wreckage.

Senior government official Mushtaq Anjum said those on the chopper included Major General Mohammed Nawaz, the commander of the paramilitary border guards known as the Punjab Rangers. Nawaz’s responsibilities include overseeing Pakistan’s border with India.

A military official has also confirmed that Nawaz was onboard. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to media.

The helicopter crashed in the Indus River near the town of Kot Sultan Bhakri. It’s unclear how many were on board. The crash is under investigation.

Chechens killed in Quetta were unarmed: witnesses

QUETTA: While police and other law enforcement agencies’ investigators are silent about the killing on Tuesday of five Chechen suspects, witnesses say they were unarmed, had not put up any resistance and appeared ready to surrender.
A wounded woman attacker raises her hand next to a security checkpost during exchange of fire with Pakistani troops in Quetta on May 17, 2011.


Hospital sources said on Wednesday that the three women and two men had died on the spot of multiple bullet wounds.
All the bodies were found at a picket of the Frontier Corps surrounded by barbed wires.
According to officials who tried to reconstruct the scene, the suspects had gone to the checkpoint for shelter or to surrender
when they saw a heavy contingent of law enforcement personnel who had rushed to Killi Khezi after receiving a wireless message from a police post on the Airport Road about the entry into the area of a vehicle carrying suspected foreigners.
According to sources, they had hired the vehicle in Kuchlak, for coming to Quetta with the help of two local people.
They had crossed two police posts, but policemen deployed at the third one told them to accompany them to the police station near the airport.

While on way to the police station, the local men and the driver forcibly offloaded a policeman accompanying them and sped away. After some time, the driver, Ataullah, stopped the vehicle and refused to take them to Quetta.
The Chechens stepped off the vehicle, offered prayers in a mosque in Killi Khezi and asked local people to guide them to an address.
But all of a sudden they found themselves surrounded by police and Frontier Corps personnel.
The frightened Chechens moved to the nearby FC post, apparently to surrender or take refuge.
“They raised their hands as a gesture of surrender but law enforcement personnel opened indiscriminate fire at them,” witness Irfan Khan alleged.
A private TV channel telecast the shooting by security personnel and an injured woman waving her hand and pleading with them to stop firing.
“An investigation is under way on the basis of information being collected from some mobile phones and a diary,” Quetta police chief Daud Junejo told Dawn on Wednesday night.
He insisted that the Chechens were armed and had hurled a grenade at the checkpost.
However, no other official of the security agencies involved in the firing was ready to comment on the incident.
People who witnessed the action of law enforcement personnel expressed doubts about the official claims, saying that no
suicide vests, grenades or weapons were found from the bodies.
“I did not see any suicide jacket or bomb strapped to the bodies,” a senior journalist who was at the place when the incident took place told Dawn.
A senior police officer who had searched the bodies also said not even a knife had been found.
“Only five passports were found in their pockets,” he added.
The statements of police and FC officials were contradictory, too.
Police said the Chechens were carrying suicide jackets, while FC officials claimed that they had grenades in their hands.
Another question being raised here is why the suspects were not arrested when they were injured.
“They could have been arrested alive because they were unarmed,” an officer of a law enforcement agency said.
He said the suspects could have provided useful information.
The officer said he believed that security personnel opened fire out of a fear that the suspects might have been wearing suicide vests.
The bodies were lying in the morgue of the Bolan Medical Complex after postmortem.
Sources said the Chechens had not crossed into Pakistan from Afghanistan in the recent past and it appeared that they had come to Kuchlak from North Waziristan.
Their passports had expired two years ago, an official said.
Amanullah Kasi adds: The Balochistan National Party-M, Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party, both factions of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam and Jamaat-i-Islami have called for an impartial investigation into the incident.Leaders of the parties said there were contradictions in the statements of security forces. They claimed that they had information about the arrival of terrorists intending to carry out suicide attacks, but failed to explain how the suspects had managed to reach Kuchlak, near the provincial capital.
The leaders said all vehicles were searched at the Baleli checkpoint by FC, police and Levies personnel, but the Chechens appeared to have dodged them.
They said that if the security forces’ version of the incident had been correct, the suicide vests would have blown up when police and FC personnel opened fire on the ‘terrorists’.

Asma criticises court verdict on PCO judges

HYDERABAD: Asma Jehangir, president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, has criticised the Supreme Court`s verdict in the PCO judges case.

Addressing members of the Sindh High Court Bar Association and Hyderabad District Bar Association here on Wednesday, she said: “Police use third degree treatment but some people are doing it in the judiciary with their pen. This pen embodies the trust of the nation and it should not be used for settling personal scores and rivalries.”
Ms Jehangir was commenting on the verdict which the Supreme Court had announced earlier in the day, rejecting intra-court appeals of judges who had taken oath under the Provisional Constitution Order and asking the government to issue a notification of their dismissal.
“I don`t want to see justice stifled. Although he was a PCO judge, yet we supported the chief justice when he was sacked. We believed that if a dictator was allowed to ride roughshod over the judiciary this time, he would just bury the institution the next time,” she said.
Ms Jehangir said that decisions based on a feudal and `panchayati` mindset would not work any more.
She said she wanted to reform bar councils and associations. There was no legal aid system which was primarily the bar`s responsibility, adding that amendments to the registration act and defender`s law were needed.

Referring to a demand for appointment of judges from Sindh, she said sarcastically: “You are not being inducted as judges because you have talent.”
She said a strategy of `jalao` and `gherao` appeared to be working for induction of judges. “We have to reform this institution,” she added.
The SCBA chief acknowledged the leadership qualities of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry and admitted that he was receptive to her criticism.
However, she said, she had reservations on some matters pertaining to case management that had badly affected lawyers in the apex court. “They don`t get the cause list until Friday.”
Lawyers of Karachi pass on cases to their colleagues in Islamabad because they cannot shunt between the two cities. “Lawyers are told at 4pm that the board is discharged,” she said.
She said senior lawyers complained that the situation was affecting their health and people had to wait for so long for interim relief that it became ineffective.
Ms Jehangir alleged that judges were interested in `big cases` that led to a `mela` in courtroom. “We are not interested in fanfare. Lawyers have to take care of their clients, practice and offices.”

She said she had refused to recommend lawyers for appointment as judges, adding that it was the judges` responsibility to find candidates and evaluate their ability because lawyers appeared in cases before them.
She regretted that those who were deemed to be having integrity and ability during the lawyers` movement were now being treated as incompetent and dishonest.
She said courts in Malakand were not being made functional for want of judges. “The judiciary will have to find judges among ourselves. There is no other way out.”
The SCBA chief said she had received messages from under-trial prisoners entreating her to do something to get judges posted in courts so that their appeals could be heard.
She said she wanted to know the formula for elevation of judges. “In the SHC (Sindh High Court), a woman and a minority community judge were shown the door on flimsy grounds,” she alleged. “The woman was relieved on a complaint by her stenographer.”
She called for making the judiciary representative of different ideologies.
Ms Jehangir was also critical of disposal of complicated constitutional petitions through short orders.

She said that she had not spoken in defence of those who had been recommended by the judicial commission because they had not been selected on merit. But the court allowed a constitutional petition relating to the appointments with a short order, for reasons to be recorded later, she said. “How can you assume the authority of parliament and dispose of the matter with a one-liner?” Judgments should have detailed reasons, she stressed.
Ms Jehangir expressed disapproval of the recent in-camera briefing to parliament on the killing of Osama bin Laden and said she could bet that the resolution adopted by the parliament would never be implemented.

Ms Jehangir also participated in a procession organised by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, visited the Mirpurkhas and Nawabshah district bars and offered condolences to the family of slain lawyer leader Ali Mohammad Dahiri in Nawabshah.

Al Qaeda releases posthumous bin Laden audio recording

CAIRO: Al Qaeda released a posthumous audio recording by Osama bin Laden in which the group’s ex-leader praised revolutions sweeping the Arab world, and called for more “tyrants” to be toppled.
Bin Laden backed the uprisings which began in Tunisia and have spread across much of North Africa and the Middle East. 


Extremists have often been conspicuous by their absence in the uprisings largely led by ordinary citizens angered by autocratic rule, corruption and economic mismanagement.
But bin Laden, who was killed in a US raid on May 2 in Pakistan, backed the uprisings which began in Tunisia and have spread across much of North Africa and the Middle East.
Al Qaeda had said bin Laden, who masterminded the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, recorded a message a week before his death. The audio was included in an Internet video lasting more than 12 minutes and posted on extremist websites.
In the audio, a voice which appears to be bin Laden’s referred to the uprisings which began in the Maghreb region of North Africa.
“The sun of the revolution has risen from the Maghreb. The light of the revolution came from Tunisia. It has given the nation tranquility and made the faces of the people happy.”
Tunisia’s president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali was overthrown in January, followed by Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak after mass protests centred on Cairo’s Tahrir Square.
Bin Laden backed efforts to topple more leaders in the Muslim world, calling on al Qaeda supporters to “set up an operations room that follows up events and works in parallel to save the people that are struggling to bring down their tyrants”.
“Tunisia was the first but swiftly the knights of Egypt have taken a spark from the free people of Tunisia to Tahrir Square,” said bin Laden, adding: “It has made the rulers worried.”

Dominique Strauss-Kahn resigns as IMF chief

NEW YORK: The International Monetary Fund said Dominique Strauss-Kahn has resigned as its head following charges against him of sexual assault and attempted rape.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn, head of the International Monetary Fund, is arraigned at Manhattan Criminal Court in New York, on charges he sexually assaulted a hotel maid
“I deny with the greatest possible firmness all of the allegations that have been made against me,” Strauss-Kahn said in his letter of resignation, which was released by the IMF and dated May 18.
“I want to devote all my strength, all my time, and all my energy to proving my innocence.”
He will on Thursday for a second time request release on $1 million cash bail and placement under 24-hour house arrest while he awaits trial on charges of attempting to rape a hotel maid, his lawyers said. He is being held in New York’s notorious Rikers Island jail. “Yes there will definitely be a bail hearing tomorrow,” Manhattan District Attorney’s Office spokeswoman Erin Duggan told Reuters on Wednesday.
A mug shot of Strauss-Kahn, 62, taken more than 24 hours after he was pulled from a plane and detained on Saturday, showed him exhausted, his eyes downcast and half-closed and wearing a rumpled, open-neck shirt.
The photograph may fuel outrage in France over how a man who had been viewed as a strong contender for the French presidency has been paraded before the cameras before he has had a chance to defend himself in court.
Polls released in France on Wednesday showed 57 per cent of respondents thought the Socialist politician was definitely or probably the victim of a plot.
The woman Strauss-Kahn allegedly tried to rape, a 32-year-old widow from West Africa, testified on Wednesday before a grand jury. It will decide in secret whether there is enough evidence to formally press charges with an indictment.
“The proceedings are ongoing,” her lawyer, Jeffrey Shapiro, said.
Strauss-Kahn’s arrest has dashed his prospects to run for the French presidency in 2012 and raised broader issues over the future of the International Monetary Fund.
Developing countries are questioning Europe’s hold on the top IMF position, and jockeying to replace him has already begun.
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said Europe would naturally put forward a candidate to replace Strauss-Kahn if he were to step down.
Germany, which wants a European to keep the job, said the IMF should deal with its immediate leadership internally and that it is too early to discuss a successor to Strauss-Kahn.
French officials said John Lipsky, the IMF’s American number two official whose term ends in August, would represent the Fund at next week’s Group of Eight summit in France.
In Strauss-Kahn’s absence, Lipsky is temporarily in charge of the IMF, which manages the world economy and is in the midst of helping euro zone states like Greece, Ireland and Portugal.

US assured of action against ‘sanctuaries’

ISLAMABAD: A flurry of activity of Monday provided hope that the Pak-US marriage of convenience was not over despite the recent bellowing and booming of the Pakistani leadership.
In this photo released by Pakistan Press Information department, Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari, third from left meets with US Senator John Kerry, second from left and US ambassador in Pakistan Cameron Munter, left, at President House in Islamabad, Pakistan on Monday, May 16, 2011. Kerry says he and Pakistani leaders have agreed to a "series of steps" to improve their nations' fraying ties. Kerry was in Pakistan on Monday amid high tensions over the US raid that killed Osama bin Laden in the South Asian country's northwest.


By the end of Senator John Kerry’s day-long stay in Islamabad it appeared that the US had convinced Pakistan to undertake several steps for proving its commitment to the fight against terrorism. These included returning the wreckage of the helicopter which had malfunctioned during the May 2 raid in Abbotabad and eliminating terrorist sanctuaries in tribal areas.
In exchange Washington has committed itself to a process, which if successful, will lead to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s visit to Islamabad for reviving the strategic dialogue which has been stalled since the arrest of CIA operative Raymond Davis and subsequent events such as drone attacks and the unilateral US operation killing Al Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden.
John Kerry, who heads the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, extracted these promises from the Pakistani leadership; he warned them that “if the relationship is to fall apart …. US will always reserve the right to protect its national security”.
Senator Kerry’s tough love message was reinforced, Dawn has learnt, by the telephone calls Secretary Clinton made to President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani.
Ms Clinton rang up Mr Gilani when he, the president and Chief of the Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani were meeting Senator Kerry. The call is reported to have lasted about 20 minutes.
The secretary of state had called Mr Zardari on Sunday.
“I think we made serious progress. Pakistan has agreed to do a number of things immediately to demonstrate its further seriousness of purpose and we agreed to have several officials from the US to come here in the middle of the week or sometime soon to carry on this discussion and prepare the ground for Secretary Clinton,” a visibly fatigued Kerry told a selected group of journalists after his meetings with Pakistani civil and military leaders.

Having met the army chief on Sunday night, Mr Kerry spent most of Monday in meetings. As he noted: “We worked harder today to talk about ways in which we can be better partners, work cooperatively and open doors to joint cooperation to fight terrorism.”
Senator Kerry met President Zardari, Prime Minister Gilani and Army Chief Gen Kayani, individually and collectively, before a joint declaration was issued by the two sides expressing the willingness to carry on with their relationship.
“In furtherance of its existing commitment to fight terrorism, Pakistan has agreed to take several immediate steps to underscore its seriousness in renewing the full cooperative effort with the United States,” the joint communiqué said.
Senator Kerry avoided divulging details of the steps agreed upon, but vaguely described it as including cooperation on counter-terrorism, intelligence sharing and targeting terrorist sanctuaries. The latter is hardly surprising; having been high on the American wish list for a long time, action against the havens in tribal areas was one of the major demands Mr Kerry brought to Islamabad.
He said: “We need Pakistan’s cooperation, we need Pakistan’s help against sanctuaries in this country from where people are destabilising Afghanistan and frankly killing … all of (those who) are trying to provide for a stable Afghanistan.”

However, he stopped of claiming that Pakistani leaders had agreed to go after the Haqqani network, one of the core contentious issues in the rocky bilateral ties. He was only willing to say cryptically that both countries had agreed to target “some entity, which is engaged in terrorism … the entity that needs to be taken on one way or the other”.
He also said that other measures to be taken by Pakistan included returning the tail of the helicopter which was left behind by the Navy Seals during the Abbotabad raid.
After it malfunctioned, the Americans exploded the helicopter before they left; this was done, it was reported, to prevent the stealth technology from falling into Pakistani, and possibly other, hands.
However, distrust is still not a thing of the past. Despite Pakistan’s new commitments, which Mr Kerry himself described as “more detailed, more precise and clarified”, he made it clear that Washington was no longer going to be satisfied by mere promises.
“This road ahead will not be defined by words. It will be defined by actions,” he told journalists.
This is why Washington is going to follow a step-by-step approach before confirming that Secretary Clinton will be taking a flight to Islamabad.
Two US officials — Special Envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan Marc Grossman and CIA Deputy Director Mark Morrel — will visit Islamabad to follow up on Mr Kerry’s talks and discuss the agreed measures in details and possibly gauge progress on the commitments made to the senator.
Secretary Clinton’s visit remains contingent on the outcome of Grossman’s discussions. “First a meeting will take place to try to lay the groundwork for that (Clinton’s meeting) and coming out of that meeting the secretary would set the date,” Senator Kerry said. However, in the midst of all the tough talk and the conditions he set, Mr Kerry also made an effort to soothe ruffled feathers, “we are committed to working together with Pakistan — not unilaterally, but together in joint efforts” — contingent once again on Pakistani cooperation.
“But, if we are cooperating and working together there is no reason (for acting unilaterally),” he said.

Israel-Palestinian violence erupts on three borders

JERUSALEM: Israeli troops shot Palestinian protesters who surged towards its frontiers with Syria, Lebanon and Gaza on Sunday, killing at least 13 people on the day Palestinians mourn the establishment of Israel in 1948.
Policemen detain a Palestinian refugee during a demonstration in Karama, west of the Jordanian capital Amman and near the Jordanian-Israeli border.


In the deadliest such confrontation in years of anniversary clashes usually confined to the West Bank and Gaza, Israeli forces opened fire in three separate border locations to prevent crowds of demonstrators from crossing frontier lines.
The new challenge to Israel came from the borders of Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Gaza — all home to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who fled or were driven out in 1948.
Combined with a public relations disaster last year over the killing of pro-Palestinian activists in a Gaza aid flotilla and a determined Palestinian diplomatic drive to win UN recognition of statehood in September this year, the bloody border protests raised the stakes further for Israel.
Israel’s leaders condemned the incidents as provocations inspired by Iran, to exploit Palestinian nationalist feeling fuelled by the popular revolts of the “Arab Spring”, and to draw attention from major internal unrest in Syria, Iran’s ally.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he hoped the confrontations would not escalate.
“We hope the calm and quiet will quickly return. But let nobody be misled: we are determined to defend our borders and sovereignty,” Netanyahu said.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whose Fatah movement holds sway in the Israeli occupied West Bank and is ready to negotiate peace with Israel, said in a televised address that those killed were martyrs to the Palestinian cause.
“Their precious blood will not be wasted. It was spilt for the sake of our nation’s freedom,” Abbas said.
Hamas Praises Clashes
But extremist Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip and which last month sealed a surprise reconciliation pact with its bitter rival Fatah, issued a warning that Palestinians would accept nothing less than return to all lands lost in 1948.
Spokesman Taher Al-Nono praised the “crowds we have seen in Palestine, Egypt, Syria, and Lebanon” as evidence of “imminent victory and return to the original homes as promised by God”.
In an apparent contradiction of suggestions that Hamas might ditch its rejection of Israel’s right to exist, he said there was no alternative to recovering all land lost in 1948.
Israeli security forces had been on alert for violence on Sunday, the day Palestinians mourn the “Nakba”, or catastrophe, of Israel’s founding in a 1948 war, when hundreds of thousands of their brethren fled or were forced to leave their homes.
A call had gone out on Facebook urging Palestinians to demonstrate on Israel’s borders.
Lebanon’s army said 10 Palestinians died as Israeli forces shot at rock-throwing protesters to prevent them from entering the Jewish State from Lebanese territory.
They said 112 people had been wounded in the shooting incident in the Lebanese border village of Maroun al-Ras.
“The protesters overcame the Lebanese army and marched towards the security fence and started throwing stones,” Reuters cameraman Ezzat Baltaji said, from Maroun al-Ras village.
Syrian media reports said Israeli gunfire killed two people after dozens of Palestinians infiltrated the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights from Syria, along a front line that has been largely tranquil for decades.
Syria condemned Israel’s “criminal activities”.
“This appears to be a cynical and transparent act by the Syrian leadership to deliberately create a crisis on the border so as to distract attention from the very real problems that regime is facing at home,” said a senior Israeli government official, who declined to be named.
“Syria is a police state. People don’t randomly approach the border without the approval of the regime.”
On Sunday, hundreds of protesters flooded the lush green valley that marks the border area, waving Palestinian flags.
Israeli troops attempted to mend the breached fence, firing at what the army described as infiltrators.
“We are seeing here an Iranian provocation, on both the Syrian and the Lebanese frontiers, to try to exploit the Nakba day commemorations,” said the army’s chief spokesman, Brigadier-General Yoav Mordechai.
Syria is home to 470,000 Palestinian refugees and its leadership, now facing fierce internal unrest, had in previous years prevented protesters from reaching the frontier area.
To the southeast, on Jordan’s desert border with Israel, Jordanian police fired teargas to disperse hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists gathered at a border village.
Israeli forces did not fire over the Jordanian border.
On Israel’s tense border with Gaza, Israeli gunfire wounded 82 demonstrators nearing the fence, medics said. Israeli forces said they shot a man trying to plant a bomb near the border.
In Tel Aviv, Israel’s commercial hub, a truck driven by an Arab Israeli slammed into vehicles and pedestrians, killing one man and injuring 17 people.

IMF chief vows to fight charges

NEW YORK: IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn vowed Sunday to fight charges of assaulting a hotel chambermaid, amid an explosive sex scandalwhich could bury his dreams of becoming the next French president.
A handcuffed IMF chief, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, facing charges he sexually assaulted a hotel maid, is escorted from a New York Police Department unit.


The veteran French politician, who was arrested over the weekend after a New York chambermaid accused him of sexual assault, would defend himself against the allegations, lawyer Benjamin Brafman told reporters.
“He intends to vigorously defend these charges and denies any wrongdoing,” Brafman said outside the courthouse where the IMF chief will appear on Monday.
Strauss-Kahn left a police station in Harlem late Sunday in handcuffs.
The bombshell news of his arrest has left the International Monetary Fund reeling, coming ahead of critical talks on repairing the painful fallout of the debt crisis sweeping the euro zone.
Strauss-Kahn, 62, has hired a barrage of top lawyers, as questions also swirled over whether he had the right to diplomatic immunity.
Another lawyer William Taylor told journalists outside the Manhattan court house that “we’ve agreed to postpone the arraignment until tomorrow (Monday) morning.”
Taylor said the delay was linked to Strauss-Kahn undergoing further testing by police searching for evidence.
“Our client willingly consented to a scientific and forensic examination,” Taylor said, adding the IMF chief was “tired but he’s fine.” Strauss-Kahn was yanked off an Air France flight on Saturday just minutes before take-off in a humiliating turn of events for one of the world’s most powerful men.
A former French finance minister, he had been expected to throw his hat into the ring for the 2012 French election, challenging President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Strauss-Kahn has been charged with a “criminal sexual act, unlawful imprisonment, and attempted rape” of a 32-year-old woman.
The woman, employed for the past three years at the luxury Sofitel hotel near Times Square, picked Strauss-Kahn out of a line-up Sunday, as police said they had won a warrant to seek DNA evidence on his clothes.
The woman alleged he had assaulted her in his suite when he got out of his shower naked.
“She was in the room. She thought it was empty. That’s when he approached her from behind and touched her inappropriately. He forced her to perform a sexual act on him,” a police spokesman told AFP.
He described the victim as “female, black, 32 years old,” but could not confirm details given in the New York Times that the IMF chief pulled her into the bedroom and onto the bed and then locked the door.
She managed to fight him off, but he dragged her down the hallway to the bathroom, where he sexually assaulted her a second time, the daily said.
MSNBC television said that in the bathroom, Strauss-Kahn forced the maid to perform oral sex on him and tried to remove her underwear.
Strauss-Kahn’s wife, high-profile French television journalist Anne Sinclair, said however she did not believe the allegations against her husband, telling AFP: “I have no doubt his innocence will be established.”
Strauss-Kahn, who has been widely praised for his stewardship of the IMF, is so well known in France he is often referred to simply by his initials DSK.
Even though he has not yet officially declared his candidacy in next year’s French president elections, he had been topping the opinion polls.
News of his arrest threw the Socialist party into disarray, and could prove a boost for Sarkozy and his rightwing UMP which is also facing a challenge from the far-right National Front and its leader Marine Le Pen.
Conspiracy theories immediately began circulating in France speculating that the events were just an elaborate set-up to discredit Strauss-Kahn.
Police confirmed the IMF boss had been tracked down to the Air France flight when he contacted the Sofitel to ask staff to return his mobile phone which he had left behind in his room.
The arrest comes as the 187-member IMF is seeking to aid debt-ridden countries in the euro zone, and the executive board was now due to meet to discuss the crisis on Monday.
Strauss-Kahn, whose stint at the IMF does not officially end until September 2012, had been due to meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin on Sunday to discuss an aid package for debt-laden Greece.
He was then to attend a meeting of EU finance ministers on Monday and Tuesday in Brussels. The IMF said his number two John Lipsky would stand in as acting IMF chief for now.
It is not the first time that Strauss-Kahn has been tainted by scandal.
In 2008, he was discovered to be having an affair with a Hungarian IMF economist, but the IMF concluded he had not exerted pressure on the woman, although it noted his inappropriate behavior.

Saudi diplomat shot dead in Karachi

KARACHI: A Saudi diplomat was shot dead in a drive-by shooting near the consulate in Karachi on Monday, the second attack on Saudi interests in Pakistan’s biggest city in less than a week, officials said.
The attack came days after unidentified attackers threw two hand grenades at the Saudi consulate in the city.
An official from the media section of the Saudi embassy identified the man as a Saudi diplomat. Another official from the embassy earlier identified him as a security official working for the consulate in Karachi.
Pakistani police in Karachi told AFP that the Saudi had been driving in a vehicle with diplomatic plates when two motorcycle riders opened fire at a crossroads in the city’s upmarket Defence neighbourhood.
“The consulate employee died of multiple bullet wounds on the spot,” said Fayaaz Leghari, the police chief of southern province Sindh, of which Karachi is the capital.
“The attackers fled on the motorbike,” he added.
Provincial home ministry official Sharfuddin Memon identified the dead man as a junior officer at the consulate.
“We are investigating if it was linked to the Abbottabad operation or was an isolated incident,” he said in reference to the killing by US Navy SEALs of the Saudi-born al-Qaeda mastermind in the garrison city of Abbottabad on May 2.
Last Wednesday, drive-by assailants threw two grenades at the consulate in Karachi in what officials said could have been reaction to bin Laden’s death.

Bin Laden raid ‘not an assassination’: US attorney general

LONDON: The US commando raid that killed Osama bin Laden was “not an assassination”, US Attorney General Eric Holder said Thursday after the al Qaeda leader’s sons denounced the operation.
Holder told the BBC the raid on bin Laden’s hideout in Pakistan on May 2 was a “kill or capture mission” and that his surrender would have been accepted if offered, but that the safety of US Navy commandos was paramount.
“What happened to bin Laden was not an assassination,” Holder said.
“I think the action that we took against him can be seen as an act of national self-defence. You have to remember it is lawful to target an enemy commander,” he said.
The top US legal official said there was no indication that bin Laden was going to surrender and it was believed he could be wearing a suicide vest.
“It was a kill or capture mission. If there was a possibility of a feasible surrender that would have occurred, but their protection, that is the protection of the force that went into the compound, was uppermost in their minds,” said Holder.
“This is a man who swore he would never be taken alive. There were some indications that perhaps he wore a suicide vest, there’s indications that perhaps there were weapons in the room.” Bin Laden’s body was buried at sea hours after the operation in which US special forces in helicopters flew under Pakistani radar cover and raided a house in the northwestern garrison town of Abbottabad.
Bin Laden’s sons on Tuesday denounced his “arbitrary killing” and burial at sea.
In a statement given to the New York Times, the sons asked why their father “was not arrested and tried in a court of law so that the truth is revealed to the people of the world.”

US Senator Kerry to visit Pakistan next week

WASHINGTON: Senior US Senator John Kerry said Tuesday he would travel to Pakistan early next week to help get bilateral ties back “on the right track” amid angry tensions over the US raid that killed Osama bin Laden.
“A number of people suggested it would be good to get a dialogue going about the aftermath, and how we get on the right track,” said Kerry, who announced earlier this week that he would visit Afghanistan at the weekend.
Kerry, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has been a steadfast champion of greater US engagement in Pakistan and argued that Washington and Islamabad need to work through current tensions fueled by the May 2 raid.
Asked whether he would press Pakistani leaders on whether officials there knew the Al-Qaeda chief was living a stone’s throw from an elite military academy for years, Kerry told reporters he would be discussing “all the relevant issues that are on the table, and there are a lot of them.” “We have a huge agenda, we have huge interests that are very important to try to be on track, right, and there’s a lot to discuss,” said the senator, whose visit would be the highest profile US stop in Pakistan since bin Laden’s death.
“There are some serious questions, obviously, there are some serious issues that we’ve just got to find a way to resolve together. And our interests and their interests I think are well served by working through those difficulties,” he said.
Kerry’s travel to Afghanistan and Pakistan could be a prelude to a visit by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Obama committed in late 2010 to travel to Pakistan this year, but the tensions in the wake of the bin Laden raid have cast further doubt on such a visit, and no trip has yet been put on his schedule.
Kerry said he had discussed the situation with the US special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Marc Grossman, and President Barack Obama’s coordinator for Afghanistan and Pakistan policy, Douglas Lute, and planned to stop at the White House before his trip.
The senator said at a hearing Tuesday that bin Laden’s death was “a potentially game-changing opportunity to build momentum for a political solution in Afghanistan that could bring greater stability to the region and bring our troops home.” Senior US lawmakers have called for Pakistan to explain whether it was “incompetent or complicit” in bin Laden being able to live in relative luxury in the leafy city of Abbottabad 10 years after the September 11 terrorist strikes.
“I just don’t believe it was done without some form of complicity,” Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat, said Monday in a stark and scathing warning to the US ally.
“I think either we’re going to be allies in fighting terror, or the relationship makes less and less sense to me,” said Feinstein, who indicated she foresaw cuts in billions in US aid absent a course correction in Islamabad.
“I think it’s important that we have a good relationship with Pakistan, but not at any price,” said Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, a Democrat.
“I do trust them, but I think it’s a moment when we need to look each other in the eye and decide, are we real allies? Are we going to work together?” the Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives, John Boehner, said Tuesday.
“And if we are, you’re either all in or you’re not in,” Boehner told NBC television.
“Clearly there are questions that remain about what they knew or didn’t know about bin Laden being in their country. There are certainly some questions about their willingness to pursue some terrorists, but maybe not others,” he added.

Petraeus on bin Laden-Taliban link

KABUL: The killing of Osama bin Laden may weaken al Qaeda’s influence on the Afghan Taliban, the US military commander in Afghanistan said.
'The deal between the Afghan Taliban and al Qaeda was between Mullah Omar and Osama bin Laden, not the organizations,'' Petraeus said as he visited US troops in eastern Afghanistan. 


Even so, Gen. David Petraeus warned Sunday that Afghanistan is still a potential refuge for international terror groups, and al Qaeda is just one of those. He also warned that the April 29 US raid that killed the al Qaeda leader in his Pakistani compound did not spell the end of the NATO battle in Afghanistan, which began just one month after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington with the aim of wiping out al Qaeda and bin Laden.
Nato officials have said that they do not intend to speed up their withdrawal just because al Qaeda’s leader is gone, but the military feels it may bring the Taliban closer to negotiations with the Afghan government.
Interviewed aboard his helicopter by The Associated Press, Petraeus said the strong link between al Qaeda and the Taliban was personal, not organizational.
”The deal between the Afghan Taliban and al Qaeda was between Mullah Omar and Osama bin Laden, not the organizations,” Petraeus said as he visited US troops in eastern Afghanistan.
Petraeus said bin Laden’s death may make it easier for the Taliban to renounce al Qaeda, a condition for reconciliation talks set by Nato and the Afghan government.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai and the Obama administration have said they will negotiate with any Taliban member who embraces the Afghan constitution, renounces violence and severs ties with al Qaeda. Informal contacts have been made in recent months with high-ranking Taliban figures, but no formal peace talks are under way.
The two groups do not seem to be inextricably aligned. While al Qaeda has backed worldwide terrorist attacks in the name of Muslim jihad, the Taliban has been mainly a nationalist movement aiming to regain control of Afghanistan.
The Taliban has claimed that rather than weaken their ties with al Qaeda, bin Laden’s death would boost their fighters’ morale. On Saturday the group tried to mount a coordinated assault on government buildings in southern city of Kandahar.
Bin Laden’s demise might weaken al Qaeda from within, Petraeus said, because bin Laden’s personality and aura were a key for raising money for the world jihad group, and without him, the group’s worldwide network might fall apart under his successor, Ayman al-Zawahiri.
”Ayman al-Zawahiri is no Osama bin Laden,” Petraeus said.
Petraeus warned that al Qaeda is only one of a number of international terrorist organizations that would be eager to flood into an unstable Afghanistan if Nato forces left.
”The key is making sure there are no safe havens for those transnational terrorist groups in Afghanistan,” Petraeus said. He estimated that between 50 and 100 al Qaeda fighters move back and forth in eastern Afghanistan. He did not give estimates for other groups.
He said one key aspect for the future is tightening security along the border with Pakistan, through a strategy of ”defense in depth” that involves layers of checkpoints aimed at catching militants sneaking across the mountainous divide.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai drew an opposite conclusion from the bin Laden raid. He said it showed that the main fight is in Pakistan, not his country. He called for an end to night raids in Afghanistan, when Nato targets militants.
Petraeus said that Nato is working with Karzai to conduct operations within his guidelines.
”He has legitimate, understandable concerns,” Petraeus said, ”and we have worked hard to show not only that we are listening to his concerns, but that we are taking actions in response.”
Much of the debate about strategy in Afghanistan has focused on whether it is necessary to dedicate troops and money to building up communities, or if high-level terrorist targets could be eliminated with direct strikes. The bin Laden attack showed how key these strikes can be, but Petraeus argued that much of the progress in Afghanistan has come from clearing communities of insurgents and then establishing governance.
”Targeted military strikes don’t produce security on their own,” Petraeus said, noting that Nato forces only started to establish stability in southern Kandahar province when they combined such strikes with programs to build up government and local security forces.

US expects Pakistan to redefine security preferences

WASHINGTON: The United States believes that Osama bin Laden`s killing has created a new opportunity for Pakistan to redefine its relations with India and review its security preferences.

President Barack Obama and other US officials and lawmakers emphasised the need for a new political discourse with Pakistan in a series of interviews to various television networks over the weekend.
In these interviews, they defined last week`s raid on Bin Laden`s compound in Abbottabad, which led to the Al Qaeda`s leader`s death, also as an opportunity for Pakistan to recommit itself to the international community.
In doing so, President Obama also stressed that “the United States will not have to rely exclusively on Pakistan to investigate Osama bin Laden`s support network inside the country” and has retrieved enough materials from Bin Laden`s compound to make its own conclusions.
“The US has had Bin Laden`s compound under surveillance for months, checking the comings and goings. And there is all that material that was confiscated from his lair during the raid,” he said.
Mr Obama also acknowledged that the differences between the United States and Pakistan were real and underlined the need to work together more effectively to overcome those differences.
“There have been times where we`ve had disagreements. There have been times where we wanted to push harder, and for various concerns, they might have hesitated,” he said.
“Those differences are real. And they`ll continue,” he said but also stressed that Osama bin Laden`s discovery in a military town deep inside Pakistan provided an opportunity to remove those differences as well.
“I think that this will be an important moment in which Pakistan and the United States get together and say, `All right, we`ve gotten Bin Laden, but we`ve got more work to do`.”
The US president noted that there were “ways for us to work more effectively together than we have in the past” and such cooperation will be “important for our national security”.
Mr Obama did not explain the issues that divide the two countries, nor did he tell how he intended to deal with those issues.
But Senator John Kerry, who chairs the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and often conveys the Obama administration`s messages to Pakistan, not only underlined those issues but also spelled out plans for dealing with them.
But before doing so, like President Obama, Senator Kerry also conceded that “for a period of time our interests in Pakistan have not converged”.
The Pakistanis, he said, had had “a different set of interests about India, a different set of interests about what kind of Afghanistan they want to see”.
The Pakistanis, he added, have also been apprehensive about a 350,000-strong army being built up in Afghanistan.
“They have a different interest on nuclear weapons, for instance, and on nuclear policy,” he noted.
“All of that has to change. And all of that, I believe, can change,” he emphasised. “I`ve had some early conversations with high level officials of Pakistan. And there`s an indication to me there is an enormous amount of introspection going on and some very deep evaluating within Pakistan.” Senator Kerry said Pakistani officials had told him that they were thinking of “a government inquiry outside of the military” to determine who was responsible for keeping Bin Laden in Abbottabad.
“For the first time there is major criticism in Pakistani papers of the intelligence network and military in Pakistan,” the senator said.
“So I see this as a time for us to be careful, to be thoughtful, to proceed deliberately but determinedly in order to lay on the table the things that we know have to change,” the senator said.
“The relationship with the ISI, the double-dealing, the attitude, and frankly wastefulness of resources towards India, the question of cooperation with respect to Afghanistan” were the issues over which Pakistan needed to change its attitude, the senator said.
“I see opportunity in all of this to sort of punch a reset button and frankly serve our interests and theirs much more effectively.”

CIA won’t withdraw spy chief in Pakistan: officials

WASHINGTON: The Central Intelligence Agency has no intention of bringing home its chief operative in Pakistan despite an apparent attempt by the Pakistani media to unmask his identity, US officials said on Monday.
While the Pakistani media reports apparently were inaccurate, US officials said they believe the leak was a calculated attempt to divert attention from American demands for explanations of how Osama bin Laden could have hidden for years near Pakistan’s principal military academy.
US special forces killed bin Laden a week ago.
American officials suspect the attempted outing of the CIA station chief in Islamabad — the second incident of its kind in six months — was the work of someone in the Pakistani government, possibly Pakistan’s principal spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence directorate (ISI).
The tense relationship between the CIA and the ISI has deteriorated further with the revelation that bin Laden lived for five years in Abbottabad, close to Pakistan’s capital.
The Obama administration has demanded access to ISI operatives and to bin Laden’s wives, who are in Pakistani custody, to try to map out the al Qaeda leader’s support network.
A private Pakistani TV network and a newspaper published what they said was the real name of the top CIA representative in Islamabad.
Two US officials familiar with dealings between Washington and Islamabad indicated that the name the TV channel aired was wrong, and that the real station chief would remain at his post.
“The current CIA station chief is a true pro, someone who knows how to work well with foreign partners and is looking to strengthen cooperation with Pakistani intelligence,” one of the US officials said.
This week’s incident follows a similar, more damaging leak to the Pakistani media in December.
In that incident, the man then serving as the CIA’s station chief in Islamabad left the country after his name appeared in local media accusing him of complicity in missile attacks in which civilians were killed.
US officials said they believed the exposure of the station chief was deliberate retaliation by elements of ISI who were upset that their agency and some of its officers had been named as defendants in a lawsuit filed in the US courts.
It was filed by the families of Americans killed by Pakistani militants in attacks on a Jewish center and other civilian targets in Mumbai, India in November 2008.
Allegations about ISI’s alleged relationship with the Lashkar e Taiba, a Pakistan-based group accused of carrying out the Mumbai attack, are expected to be aired at the trial in Chicago this month of a businessman accused by US authorities of involvement with the militant group.
The new attempt to disclose the CIA officer’s identity is a fresh blow to Pakistani-US relations, which were strained close to breaking point even before the raid last Monday in which US Navy SEAL commandos secretly flew across Pakistani territory, attacked his Abbotabad hide-out, killed the al Qaeda leader, and spirited away his body for burial at sea.

Bin Laden had Pakistan ‘complicity’: Key US senator

WASHINGTON: US Senate Intelligence Committee chairwoman Dianne Feinstein charged Monday that slain al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden could not have lived as he did in Pakistan without some official complicity. “I just don’t believe it was done without some form of complicity,” Feinstein told reporters as she delivered a stark and scathing warning to the troubled US ally to do more to battle extremists or risk souring ties.
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney answers a question during a press briefing at the White House in Washington on May 9, 2011. the US said that it would not “apologize” for launching a raid to kill al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden on Pakistani soil, after the Islamabad government complained about US “unilateralism.” Carney said Washington took Pakistani complaints seriously but added: “we also do not apologize for the action that this president took.” Pakistan's Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani earlier complained about the US raid on Abbottabad last week which killed bin Laden, after the Pakistani government was not informed in advance. 


“I think either we’re going to be allies in fighting terror, or the relationship makes less and less sense to me,” said the senator, who indicated she foresaw cuts in billions in US aid absent a course correction in Islamabad.
While some US lawmakers have called for stepping up help to Pakistan, “I feel a little differently,” said Feinstein who complained that “we provide funds, we try to help the government wherever we can” and get little in return.
“It’s becoming increasingly problematic,” she said. “I thoroughly agree with the administration’s request that Pakistan take a good look at what the support services were for bin Laden.” Feinstein said it was “incomprehensible” that bin Laden could live unperturbed for six years in “a military community” in Pakistan before the May 2 raid in which elite US commandos shot dead the elusive al Qaeda leader.
While Pakistan has denied knowingly allowing the world’s most hunted man to live in relative luxury, “I just don’t believe it,” said Feinstein, who stressed “that level of complicity is really a problem.” Feinstein charged that Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) have been “essentially favoring the Haqqani network, which attacks our troops in Afghanistan,” while denying US forces access to their bases in remote North Waziristan.
“You have them not turning over both the inspirational head and the operational head of LeT, following the Mumbai bombing, to India,” she said, referring Lashkar-e-Taiba.
“Now you have this,” she said, referring to bin Laden.

Pakistan may grant US access to bin Laden’s wives

WASHINGTON: Pakistan now seems ready to allow the United States to interview the wives of Osama bin Laden who were with the al Qaeda leader when he was killed last week, a US official familiar with the matter said on Monday.
The three wives and several children were among 15 or 16 people taken into custody by Pakistani forces after US Navy SEAL commandos secretly flew into the country, killed bin Laden at a compound in Abbottabad and spirited away his body for burial at sea, said the security official.
“The Pakistanis now appear willing to grant access. Hopefully they’ll carry through on the signals they’ resending,” the official said.
There was no immediate comment from the White House.
Pakistan is a vital ally to Washington in the war against militants in neighboring Afghanistan but relations already were rocky over US drone strikes against insurgents in border regions, differences about priorities and US espionage in the nuclear-armed Muslim country.
Prickly ties between the Central Intelligence Agency and Pakistan’s main spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence directorate (ISI), have worsened with the revelation that bin Laden lived for five years in Abbottabad, home to Pakistan’s main military academy and not far from the capital Islamabad.
The CIA has no intention of bringing home its chief operative in Pakistan despite an apparent attempt by Pakistani media to unmask his identity, US officials said on Monday.
While the media reports apparently were inaccurate, US officials said they believe the leak was a calculated attempt to divert attention from demands for explanations of how bin Laden could have hidden for years in such a prominent place.
US officials suspect the attempted outing of the CIA station chief in Islamabad – the second incident of its kind in six months – was the work of someone in the Pakistani government or the ISI.
The Obama administration has demanded access to ISI operatives and bin Laden’s wives to try to map out al Qaeda’s network.
A True Pro
A private Pakistani TV network and a newspaper published what they said was the real name of the top CIA operative.
Two US officials familiar with dealings between Washington and Islamabad said the name the TV channel aired was wrong and that the real station chief would remain.
“The current CIA station chief is a true pro, someone who knows how to work well with foreign partners and is looking to strengthen cooperation with Pakistani intelligence,” one of the US officials said.
In December, the man then serving as the CIA’s station chief left Pakistan after his name appeared in local media accusing him of complicity in US missile attacks in which civilians were killed.
US officials said they believe the exposure of that station chief was deliberate retaliation by elements of ISI who were upset their agency and some of its officers had been named as defendants in a lawsuit filed in a US court.
It was filed by the families of Americans killed by Pakistani militants in attacks on a Jewish center and other civilian targets in Mumbai, India, in November 2008.
Allegations about ISI’s alleged relationship with the Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan-based group accused of carrying out the Mumbai attack, are expected to be aired at the trial in Chicago this month of a businessman accused by US authorities of involvement with the militant group.