IUP WATCH
INDIA/US/PAKISTAN
28 May 2010
HEADLINES:
- US offered $5b against nuclear blasts: Nawaz
- 'Indo-US tie to be defining relation of 21st century'
- U.N. rights expert expected to ask US to end CIA drone strikes in Pakistan
- US seeks bids for shipping equipment via Pakistan
- Pak nukes in safe hands; US, world satisfied: Mukhtar
- Jones says Islamabad meetings were ‘among friends’; Rejects reports of US coercion
- Obama wants more effective action against extremists Dawn Correspondent
Commentary
- Building trust between India and Pakistan –Zafar Hilaly
- US suffers from Indo-Israeli magic charm
FULL TEXT
'Indo-US tie to be defining relation of 21st century'
Washington, May 28 (PTI) Ahead of the first Cabinet-level Indo-US Strategic Dialogue, a top Obama administration official has said that America's relationship with India would be the defining partnership of the 21st century.
Deepening and strengthening US's relationship with India is part of the administration's overall plan to expand its cooperation with the 21st century centres of influence, said National Security Adviser General (rtd) James Jones said.
"With regard to advancing a just and sustainable international order, just as we did after World War II, the US must take the lead in shaping an international architecture that can galvanise collective action to address our global challenges," he told reporters at the Washington Foreign Press Centre after the White House released its National Security Strategy.
U.N. rights expert expected to ask US to end CIA drone strikes in Pakistan
NEW YORK, May 28 (APP): An independent United Nations human rights expert is set to call on the United States next week to stop Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) drone strikes against suspected al-Qaeda operatives, according to a media report Friday. The New York Times said the expert, Philip Alston’s argument that the “life and death power” of drones should be entrusted to regular armed forces, not intelligence agencies, could complicate the Obama administration’s growing reliance on that weapon. Alston, who is the U.N. special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, told The Times in Washington that he would deliver a report on the use of drones on June 3 to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva.
He contrasted how the military and the CIA responded to allegations that strikes had killed civilians by mistake.” With the Defence Department you have got maybe not perfect but quite abundant accountability as demonstrated by what happens when a bombing goes wrong in Afghanistan,” the UN expert said in the Times’ interview.
“The whole process that follows is very open. Whereas if the CIA is doing it, by definition they are not going to answer questions, not provide any information, and not do any follow-up that we know about.
“Alston’s said his views are not legally binding, and his report will not assert that the operation of combat drones by non-military personnel is a war crime. But the mounting international concern over drones comes as the Obama administration legal team has been quietly struggling over how to justify such counterterrorism efforts while obeying the laws of war, axaccording to the Times’ dispatch.
In recent months, it said, top lawyers for the State Department and the Defence Department have tried to square the idea that the CIA’s drone programme is lawful with the United States efforts to prosecute Guantanamo Bay detainees accused of killing American soldiers in combat, the Times said, citing interviews and a review of military documents.
Under the laws of war, soldiers in traditional armies cannot be prosecuted and punished for killing enemy forces in battle. The United States has argued that because Qaeda fighters do not obey the requirements laid out in the Geneva Conventions “like wearing uniforms” they are not “privileged combatants” entitled to such battlefield immunity.
But CIA drone operators also wear no uniforms, the Times pointed out. Paula Weiss, a CIA spokeswoman, was quoted as saying that the agency was accountable for its actions.”While we don’t discuss or confirm specific activities, this agency’s operations take place in a framework of both law and government oversight, Ms. Weiss said.
“It would be wrong to suggest the CIA is not accountable.” Still, the Obama administration legal team confronted the issue as the Pentagon prepared to restart military commission trials at Guantanamo Bay prison.
The commissions began with pretrial hearings in the case of Omar Khadr, a Canadian detainee accused of killing an Army sergeant during a firefight in Afghanistan in 2002, when Khadr was 15.
The Pentagon delayed issuing a 281-page manual laying out commission rules until the eve of the hearing, the Times said.The reason, officials say, is that government lawyers had been scrambling to rewrite a section about murder because it has implications for the CIA drone programme.
US seeks bids for shipping equipment via Pakistan
By Our Correspondent
Thursday, 27 May, 2010 According to the contract solicitation, “there will be an average of 5,000” import shipments “transiting the Afghanistan and Pakistan ground lines of communication per month, along with 500 export shipments.”–
WASHINGTON: The US military is seeking bids from private war contractors to secure and ship massive amounts of US military equipment through sensitive areas of Pakistan into Afghanistan.
The equipment is for various US forward operating bases and other facilities.
According to the contract solicitation, “there will be an average of 5,000” import shipments “transiting the Afghanistan and Pakistan ground lines of communication per month, along with 500 export shipments.”
This number may increase or decrease due to US military transportation requirements.
The contractor must maintain a constant capability to surge to any location within Afghanistan or Pakistan within a 30-day period. Among the duties the contractor will perform is “intelligence, to include threat assessments throughout Afghanistan and Pakistan”.
While Pakistani or Afghan firms are encouraged to apply, the terms of the contract mandate that US personnel will be involved with inherently risky and potentially lethal operations.
The US media reported that among the firms listed by the US Department of Defence as “interested vendors” are an Afghan firm tied to a veteran CIA officer and run by the son of Afghan Defence Minister Gen Abdul Rahim Wardak, and a Pakistani firm with links to Blackwater.
The contractors will be responsible for shipping and guarding military hardware as the US military does not conduct operations in Pakistan.
“Due to current limitations on having US military presence in Pakistan and threat levels precluding US Military active involvement with the contractor ‘outside the wire’ in Afghanistan, the contractor must be proactive at identifying appropriate methods for obtaining the necessary in-transit visibility information,” the contract solicitation noted.
Many of the companies that have currently expressed interest in the contract are registered as Pakistani or Afghan businesses.
The US media, while reporting the bid, noted that the US military often uses Pakistani and Afghan intermediaries to pay off the Taliban and other resistance groups in Afghanistan and Pakistan to allow safe passage of US military hardware and other supplies.
Pak nukes in safe hands; US, world satisfied: Mukhtar
Thursday, 27 May, 2010
ISLAMABAD: Minister for Defense Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar Thursday said the nuclear assets of Pakistan are in safe hands and the United States as well as the international community are completely satisfied with safety and security mechanism evolved for strategic wealth.
Taking to the newsmen after launching ceremony of the book, “Cutting Edge-PAF” the defense minister said the world is not concerned about Pakistan's efforts to achieve civil nuclear technology, aimed at making up the deficiency in country's energy sector.
He informed mediamen that neither the United States has pressured Pakistan against its going into civil nuclear deal with China nor has it raised any voice against the proposed agreement.
As far as the holding of next phase of strategic dialogue in Pakistan, Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar said, Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani had recently visited Afghanistan and had discussed the related matters with top leadership there.
Commenting about Yaum-e-Takbeer, being commemorated on Friday, the defense minister said May 28, 1998 had changed the history of the country as the nuclear tests conducted on the very day had made the country stand among comity of nuclear states.
He said courtesy to those nuclear tests, Pakistan is able to talk eyeball-to-eyeball with India otherwise it could never have been possible.
Earlier, addressing the book launching ceremony, the minister eulogized the services of Pakistan Air Force during the peace or war situation and that the government is resolved to strengthen the air force enabling it to face modern challenges.
US offered $5b against nuclear blasts: Nawaz
Updated at: 1240 PST, Friday, May 28, 2010
LAHORE: The chief of PML-N Mian Nawaz Sharif said the then US President offered a package of $5 billion for not carrying out nuclear blasts and warned about imposition of ban otherwise.
Addressing a function to celebrate nuclear blasts, Nawaz said the entire nationa was united in favoure of nuclear blasts and Mushahid Hussain was the first person who advice that nuclear blasts should be carried out in reply of Indian nuclear explosions.
He said it was the democratic government that took the bold decision of carrying out nuclear explosions and if there was a dictator, he never goes for the blasts.
PML-N leader said people of Pakistan are the real heirs of the country. He criticized Musharraf for putting the country under debts.
Jones says Islamabad meetings were ‘among friends’; Rejects reports of US coercion
WASHINGTON, May 28 (APP): Brushing aside media reports about US coercive pressure on Pakistan, White House National Security Advisor James Jones Thursday described his last week’s interaction with Pakistani leaders as part of regular “meetings among friends” that marked the cooperative nature of relationship between the two allies. “My trip was simply to underscore, at the request of the president, that we take this particular relationship extremely seriously, that we’re very serious when we say we have long-term—we will make long-term commitments to Pakistan,” he told a briefing at the Foreign Press Center.
Speaking on the Obama Administration’s new national security strategy, the White House advisor also hailed Pakistan’s “very prompt” cooperation in the ongoing probe into the failed Times Square bombing attempt as well as lauded the country’s successful operations against Taliban in Swat and South Waziristan.
Jones said during his visit to Pakistan last week he reaffirmed Washington’s resolve to help Pakistan both with its economic development and defeat of any terrorists operating from its soil.
The US will work with Pakistan to “help the economy, to help the revitalization of the infrastructure, to bring investment from not only our business community but international investment, to help the instruments of governance wherever possible.”
“We wanted to also impress upon our friends that it is essential that terrorism be defeated and that wherever there are the presence of terrorists of the perception of presence of terrorists that it’s in the interest of Pakistan to not only repudiate the existence of those kinds of organizations but also at the appropriate time to rid Pakistan of those—of that presence,” he added.
Continuing, the former Marines general said, “And we offer friendship and assistance, cooperation in every way possible, in order to do that and in order to help bring a better future to Pakistan.”
“So I want to state very clearly that this was a meeting among friends, one that we have regularly,” he emphasized, when asked about suggestions in the media that he and CIA Director pressured or threatened the ally to be even more aggressive against militants.
Jones, who also served as NATO commander, said the US and Pakistan have developed their relationship to a level where they talk directly on ways to address various issues.
“We are now to the point where we can exchange very direct information and very direct messages which have the—I think the—hopefully the benefit of adding vitality to the relationship.”
“So we are pleased with the progress and we hope Pakistan is pleased with the progress. And we hope that we will continue down a successful road so that we can get on with the idea and the concept and the commitment that we’ve made to help Pakistan economically and in many other ways.”
President Obama’s top security advisor also cited the “very, very good bilateral discussions on the strategic partnership” between the United States and Pakistan earlier this year and said the two sides have a “constant dialogue with Pakistani authorities on this—the nature of this relationship.”
He also highlighted the trust and confidence between the American and Pakistani militaries.
“Fundamentally, the United States has committed itself to a long-term strategy with regard to that part of the world, including Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, to try to bring a better life to the people of the—of the region, to try to end terrorism in all shapes and forms directed against all different peoples.”
“And we have applauded the Pakistani efforts to date with regard to their renewed efforts that began last year, their success in the Swat valley, their success in South Waziristan. We have rejoiced in the trust and confidence that’s been built between our two militaries, the increased sharing of information and intelligence, the cooperation that we’ve received on law-enforcement issues, the very prompt response we got as a result of the Times Square incident.”
Obama wants more effective action against extremists Dawn Correspondent
Friday, 28 May,
WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama said on Thursday that his administration would continue to encourage Pakistan to deal more effectively with the extremists hiding within its borders.
In his first full-length news conference in 10 months, Mr Obama also said that Al Qaeda affiliates hiding in Fata were now attacking US and its allies.
“We’ve also got to work with Pakistan so that they are more effective partners in dealing with the extremists that are within their borders,” said Mr Obama.
The news conference, however, was dominated by one issue: the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico as his administration is increasingly blamed for failing to deal properly with this crisis.
On a day when the Obama administration announced his national security strategy which deals heavily with Afghanistan and Pakistan, there was only one question about that region and it was asked by veteran journalist Helen Thomas who has covered the White House for more than 60 years.
“Mr President, when are you going to get out of Afghanistan? Why are you continuing to kill and die there? What is the real excuse?” asked the veteran journalist, adding: “And don’t give us this Bushism, ‘If we don’t go there, they’ll all come here.”
“The reason we originally went to Afghanistan was because that was the base from which attacks were launched that killed 3,000 people,” said Mr Obama.
“I just want to remind people we went there because the Taliban was harbouring Al Qaeda.”
Mr Obama noted that Al Qaeda escaped capture, and set up in the border regions between Pakistan and Afghanistan and had affiliates that not only provided them safe harbour, but increasingly were willing to conduct their own terrorist operations.
These operations were initially in Afghanistan and in Pakistan, but were now “increasingly directed against western targets and targets of our allies as well,” he added.
“So it is absolutely critical that we dismantle that network of extremists that are willing to attack us,” he said.
Mr Obama insisted that Al Qaeda and its affiliates were “absolutely … a significant threat” to the United States. “I wouldn’t be deploying young men and women into harm’s way if I didn’t think that they were an absolute threat to us,” he added.
The US president said that his commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, had the right strategy for dealing with this situation, which aimed at clearing out Taliban strongholds.
The US, he said, was also going to strengthen the capacity of the Afghan military and “we are going to get them stood up in a way that allows us then to start drawing down our troops”.
The US, however, would continue to provide support to Afghanistan in its effort to create a stable government, he said.
Describing this as “a big messy process”, Mr Obama claimed that the US and its allies were already making progress both on the military and civilian sides.
Comment: Building trust between India and Pakistan –Zafar Hilaly