Reigi is in Afghanistan, location given to Iran

Enough is enough, Malik tells India

* Interior minister warns New Delhi to stop issuing threats to Islamabad
* Community police system to be introduced soon

By Tahir Niaz

ISLAMABAD: India has continuously failed to share information on the Mumbai attacks with Pakistan and Islamabad will not listen to any further allegations of its involvement in the incident, Interior Minister Rehman Malik said on Wednesday, adding that Iran had been informed that Jundullah leader Abdul Malik Reigi was in Afghanistan.

"We have been continuously accused [of involvement in the Mumbai attacks by India] ... enough is enough," he told journalists. He warned India against issuing threats to Pakistan, adding nobody should cast doubt over Pakistan's commitment to fight terrorism. He asked India to share the intelligence that had prompted the neighbouring country's authorities to claim that an incident similar to the Mumbai attacks could be repeated in future. He said if India refused to share information with Pakistan, Islamabad would refuse to listen to any more allegations implicating it in the attacks. He said Pakistan had not yet received India's seventh dossier on the Mumbai attacks.

"India should not perceive our offer for negotiations as a sign of weakness ... we can engage in threatening rhetoric just as well, or even better, than India. Pakistan is not a weak country and is capable of responding (to India)," he told journalists. Replying to a question on Indian Interior Minister P Chidambaram's claims that Pakistan was incapable of tackling issues related to terrorism, he said India should bring order "to its own house" before blaming Pakistan. He said India had yet to conclude investigations into the assassination of Rajiv Ghandi and the Samjhota Express tragedy.

Proof: To questions, the interior minister claimed Pakistan was aware of Indian involvement in Balochistan. "We have proof ... I ask my Indian counterpart to come to Pakistan so that I can share it with him," he said. He said Islamabad would not take dictation from anyone over Jamaatud Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed's case. However, he added, if Saeed were found guilty during investigations into the Mumbai attacks, the government would take action against him.

Referring to the suicide attack in the Sistan-Baluchestan province of Iran, Malik categorically denied that Jundullah chief Abdul Malik Reigi was in Pakistan, adding the militant chief was in Afghanistan. He said Islamabad had forwarded knowledge of his whereabouts to Iran. Condemning the incident in Iran, he said Pakistan had already repatriated Reigi's brother to Iran and would not hesitate to repatriate Reigi if he were on its soil. He said the regional powers should realise that there would be no security in the area if Pakistan were facing any instability. Referring to US and NATO forces vacating checkposts on the Afghan border, he said the military leadership was in touch with its US counterpart on the issue. He also reiterated the Interior Ministry's plans to introduce a community police system, a private TV channel reported.

Arrested Nasa spy worked on Chandrayaan project

Prashanth G N & Srinivas Laxman

BANGALORE/MUMBAI: A senior American space scientist arrested by the FBI in the US for allegedly spying for Israel was one of the main investigators of a Nasa scientific instrument Mini-Sar that flew aboard India's lunar craft Chandrayaan-1. The scientist had visited Bangalore twice and met up with Isro scientists. ( Watch Video )

The Federal Bureau of Investigation on Monday filed a criminal complaint against Nasa scientist Steward David Nozette, 52, for attempted espionage. He is believed to be working for Israeli intelligence.

Isro has said Nozette visited Bangalore and interacted with scientists but had no access to critical Isro establishments during the visits and there was no concern about loss of data.

Isro chief spokesperson S Satish told TOI: "Isro has strict security protocols for foreign scientists. Accordingly, Nozette had not been allowed access to critical establishments. We ensured complete compliance to the protocol. Like any other foreign national, Nozette had no access to critical facilities."

Nozette, a PhD in planetary sciences, was contacted by an FBI undercover employee last month posing as a Mossad officer and invited for lunch at a hotel in Connecticut Avenue in Washington DC to part with details about sensitive US satellite data for a sum. Nozette quoted a price which went into several thousand dollars.

On Monday, during a sting operation which was video-taped by the undercover FBI officer, Nozette was trapped and arrested.

Nozette's bio on Nasa's Mini-RF (Miniature Radio Frequency) project page describes him as the instrument's principal investigator on the American Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and co-investigator on Mini-Sar on Chandrayaan-1.

Satish confirmed Nozette had visited Isro Bangalore at least twice. "He did have some interactions. Isro officials were constantly accompanying him and ensured security compliance."

Said a scientist who didn't want to be identified: "We have interacted with him and we never got an impression of him being a spy. We were not aware of his complete background because the system is such at the moment that we only rely on the passport details of the visiting foreign scientists. What has happened is very very bad and embarrassing and most of us are shocked."

It may be recalled that when the agreement relating to two Nasa payloads, the Moon Minerology Mapper and the Mini-Sar, were in the process of being firmed between Washington and New Delhi for being flown on Chandrayaan-1, the US administration raised numerous questions and doubts. This considerably delayed the shipment of the two payloads to Bangalore for testing and integration with the main spacecraft.

The Mini-RF project flew two radar instruments -- the first one on Isro's Chandrayaan-1 called Mini-Sar (synthetic aperture radar), which mapped lunar poles, and the second one on Nasa's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.

Nasa's Moon Mineralogy Mapper proved the presence of water molecules on Moon.

How to Help Pakistan Win This Fight

The Pakistani Army is determined to defeat al Qaeda-linked militants in South Waziristan. So why is the United States still withholding the military equipment Pakistan urgently needs?

BY SHUJA NAWAZ

The battle for Pakistan has finally started in earnest along the northwest frontier. After months of warning of an impending attack, the Pakistani military moved into South Waziristan this weekend to stamp out the Pakistani Taliban (TTP), which is allied with al Qaeda and allows the terrorist group to operate from the region. The Army bulked up the division entrusted with the task, supplementing it with troops and helicopters from North Waziristan, and local regiments from the Frontier Corps. The aim was to encircle and destroy the TTP in the southeastern third of Waziristan, where some 10,000 well-armed and battle-hardened militants are hiding.

But despite the reinforcements, the force trying to root out the entrenched militants is still not fully equipped or ready for mobile warfare. After more than eight years of involvement in the U.S.-led war against militants in Afghanistan, Pakistan still does not have all the weapons or assistance that it needs to do the job right.

The Pakistani forces are facing a more desperate and dangerous TTP. Since the powerful TTP chieftain Baitullah Mehsud was killed by a U.S. drone strike in August, the movement's new leaders have endeavored to establish their own credentials. Their attacks -- such as those on the general headquarters of the Army in Rawalpindi and on police offices in different cities in the Pakistani heartland -- have become more audacious and open.

The TTP-al Qaeda militancy has also become more dangerous due to the active participation of Punjabi terrorist groups. In years past, these Islamist extremists operated under the auspices of Inter-Services Intelligence, Pakistan's powerful military spy agency, fighting against Indians in Kashmir. Now, following Pakistan's attempt at reconciliation with India over Kashmir, they have gone rogue. The Army lacks the capacity and willingness to open a new front in Punjab, where the militants are based in small towns and some cities. But it can do much damage to the Taliban-al Qaeda nexus in South Waziristan.

The Army has attempted to stop the anti-TTP operation from becoming an all-out tribal feud, though. Following the pattern of the offensives into Swat and Malakand earlier this summer, it encouraged neutral Mehsud tribesmen to leave the battle area. Thousands of internal refugees moved south last week, as the Pakistan Air Force pounded targets with F-16s and other aircraft to prepare the ground for the Army assault. Given the complex terrain, it is not clear how successful those bomb runs have been. If the ground offensive slows down over the next few days, it will signal that the militants have dug deep into the mountains and will exact a heavy toll on advancing forces. Some of them, including al Qaeda elements, might even head into Afghanistan to regroup, buying off the area's Wazir and Bhittani tribesmen along the way. If the going is easier, then it is likely that the al Qadea and the TTP leadership has slipped away to seek refuge in northeastern Afghanistan, leaving behind booby traps and mines and a rearguard to fight against the invading Army.

Co-opting some of the Mehsud was a smart move, but it meant the Army lost the element of surprise. It will have to decide this war by sheer force of will and firepower, enduring heavy losses. And even if it wins the ground battle and occupies TTP territory, it might end up being a short-lived win. The Army is not trained or equipped to "hold" the area. There is no civilian force to police the territory, nor is there a judiciary to provide good governance; indeed, over the past eight years, Pakistan's government has failed to provide itself with anything other than military solutions to such problems. Both ousted autocrat Gen. Pervez Musharraf and the current government (which has retained the general's centralized powers) have entirely failed to strengthen their civilian capacity.

The United States too, has failed, most spectacularly in its inability to engage broadly with the Pakistani people, choosing instead to deal with one person or a small group of powerful players at the center. It thus lost its ability to gain public support in Pakistan for the fight against terrorism and militancy. The huge contretemps in Pakistan over the Kerry-Lugar bill has further undermined Washington's efforts to generate good will, and the Amy's public rebuke of the bill has only added to the mistrust between these two wary allies.

The Pakistani Army's wariness should not surprise us. Though American taxpayers have given Pakistan nearly $11 billion to cover the costs of its military operations since 2002, Washington has withheld the latest U.S. equipment from Pakistan. U.S. officials wring their hands when asked about more helicopters and gunships, for instance, explaining that sending the latest and unfamiliar U.S. equipment to Pakistan would entail introducing new maintenance and logistical problems. Thus, the only major sources of helicopters to match Pakistan's inventory of Chinese aircraft are the Eastern European states and Russia. (Fears that Pakistan might divert these weapons system to the Indian border could be met by providing helicopters under renewable leases.)

This severely constrains Pakistan's ability to traverse the mountains in Waziristan, where the average height is 8,500 feet and roads are few and far between. Pakistan's land forces, meanwhile, go into battle with half-flak jackets and the Frontier Corps' Scouts still traipse around in "chappals," open-toed sandals, in the rough and cold terrain of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas. The Army also lacks the capability of tracking or jamming satellite phones used by the militants.

As the Pakistani military faces such logistical obstacles, militants and their supporters in Punjab will continue to terrorize the public. They will also attempt to unbalance the military and police forces in the hinterland with sporadic attacks. But they face a resolute military that is now finally determined to take the fight to the militants and fight its own fight.

The United States ought to help Pakistan with this endeavor, finding and delivering urgently the equipment that Pakistan needs to fight its own battle for survival, beginning in the mountains of South Waziristan. Time is short. Soon, winter will descend on the border region, and even though South Waziristan doesn't usually get heavy snows except on the peaks, the winter is very cold and will make an extended battle harder to sustain. We should know in the next week how this war for Pakistan in the wilds of South Waziristan will turn out.

US civilian program for Afghanistan failing: report

WASHINGTON - The United States is falling far short of its goals to fight Afghanistan?s endemic corruption, create a functioning government and legal system and train a police force riddled with incompetence, The New York Times reported late Sunday.
 
US soldiers in Afghanistan

Citing unnamed senior administration and military officials, the newspaper said that nearly seven months after President Barack Obama announced a civilian effort to bolster his deployment of 17,000 additional US troops to Afghanistan, many civil institutions are deteriorating as much as the country?s security.

Administration officials said Afghanistan is now so dangerous that many aid workers cannot travel outside the capital to advise farmers on crops, the report said.

Agricultural assistance was a key part of Obama?s announcement in March that he was deploying hundreds of additional civilians to work in the country, the paper noted.

The judiciary is so weak that Afghans increasingly turn to a shadow Taliban court system because, a senior military official said, "a lot of the rural people see the Taliban justice as at least something," said The Times.

Administration officials describe Obama as impatient with the civilian progress so far, the report noted.

"The president is not satisfied on any of this," The Times quotes a senior administration official as saying.

Administration officials also said that the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai had frozen steps toward reform, the paper noted.

Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved.

-

Another Terror Attack in Pakistan

Khaleej Times Online

An audacious attack on Pakistan Army's bastion outside capital Islamabad is worrisome. Apparently, it is a revenge act on the part of Taleban who have been on the receiving end from the military. But one cannot ignore a host of internal and external factors as well, as Pakistan faces a serious crisis of governance.

Moreover, misadventures on the part of coalition forces in Afghanistan, coupled with the flawed strategy with which the war against terrorism is being fought, have made life miserable in the region. Pakistan army, which has been at the vanguard of fighting a war that had been thrust upon it by virtue of geopolitical upheavals, has however done a commendable job, and it is evident from the successes it has attained in the restive Swat Valley and its adjoining tribal areas. Thus, the attack seems to be an attempt to break its resolve, and a conspiracy to plunge the country in deeper crisis.

The daredevil manner in which the attack was planned and executed, involving exchange of fire for around 45 minutes, has raised many eyebrows. Terrorists disguised in military uniform at the gates of army headquarters jumps straight out of an action movie. But the fact that the plot was foiled comes as a relief. Yet, it goes on to establish the extreme that has been reached on the part of militants, exacerbating the situation perhaps to a point of no return. Saturday's attack is the third consecutive one following the one outside Indian embassy in Kabul and the other outside the provincial assembly in Peshawar. The apparently synchronised moves point to the strength and freedom with which the terrorists are operating on both sides of the Durand Line, posing a challenge for the respective governments that cannot be overlooked, come what may.

Pakistani military authorities, engaged in an intensive debate these days over the impact of the proposed Kerry-Lugar Bill and the evolving geopolitical situation, will certainly look at the rising trend of terrorism in a holistic way. As the army is on the verge of moving into South Waziristan, the fiefdom of Taleban these days, it is compelling the government to ensure that the house is in order, and issues of political exigency do not come to reflect its weaknesses in fighting an enemy that is faceless and stateless.

It would not be out of context to say that the perceptional divide between the army and the government of President Asif Ali Zardari, owing to the impugned piece of US legislation, can prove to be detrimental to the stability and sovereignty of the country. This is the time to stand united, and defeat the enemy that is knocking at the door with impunity.

The other face of Israel

Yesterday, our table celebrated with Ada Yonath. This "table" started by accident in "California", the Café established at the time by Abie Nathan, who later became famous as the peace pilot. The table is not political. But all its habitués tend, as it so happens, to lean toward the left.

For years, Ada Yonath has been our candidate for the Nobel Prize. Nine years ago, she invited us to look at her historic discovery: The structure and function of the ribosome, one of the building blocks of life. Not by accident was this discovery made in Israel - Ada had a stroke of genius when she chose for her experiments a microbe found in the Dead Sea, the lowest place on earth, unique in the world.

I recount all this not only in order to boast about the fact that Ada "belongs to us", and not only in order to take part in Ada's joy, but in order to point to a fact that is often forgotten in the debates about our wars and the occupation: That there is another Israel.

A stranger who follows the daily news about Israel could not even guess at the existence of this Israel, the Israel Ada belongs to. This week, too, the news was dominated by the occupation, the brutality, the coarseness of the official Israel.

The news about Ada's prize was like an oasis in the desert. Almost all the other news on TV and radio and in the newspapers dealt with blood and riots. The battle for the Temple Mount (Haram Al-Sharif), the clashes between the police and protesters in the Arab quarters of Jerusalem, side by side with ordinary criminal news about murders, drunken youngsters stabbing each other to death, an old man killing his sleeping wife with a hammer, a group of boys robbing and raping a middle-aged woman in broad daylight. And over everything there still hovers the Goldstone Report about crimes committed during the Gaza War, which the Israeli government almost succeeded in squashing, with the generous assistance of Mahmoud Abbas.

The subject dominating this week's news was Jerusalem.

Everything happened "suddenly". Suddenly the flames broke out on the Temple Mount, after the month of Ramadan had passed relatively quietly. Suddenly the Islamic Movement in Israel called upon the Arab citizens to rush and save the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Suddenly, senior Islamic preachers all over the Muslim world urged the one and a half billion Muslims to rise to the defense of the holy shrines. (Nothing happened.)

The police chief in Jerusalem has a ready explanation: The Muslims are "ungrateful". To wit: We have "allowed them" to pray safely all through Ramadan, and that is how they repay us. This colonial arrogance infuriated the Arabs even more.

According to the Israeli authorities, nothing has happened that could justify this "sudden" upheaval. Meaning: It is an Arab provocation, a vile effort to create a conflict out of nothing. But in Arab - and not only Arab - eyes it looks very different. For years now, the Arab community in Jerusalem has been under siege. Since Benjamin Netanyahu became prime minister, and since Nir Barkat became mayor of Jerusalem, the sense of siege increased manyfold. Both men belong to the radical right, and both are leading toward ethnic cleansing.

This finds its foremost expression in the systematic building of Jewish neighborhoods in the heart of the Arab quarters in the annexed eastern part of the city, which is supposed to become the capital of the Palestinian state and whose final status is still to be decided by negotiation. The execution is entrusted to a group of extreme rightists called Ateret Cohanim ("the crown of priests"), financed by the American Bingo king Irwin Moskowitz. After winning a resounding victory in shaving Jebel Abu-Ghneim ("Har Homa") and building a fortress-like settlement there, they are now establishing Jewish neighborhoods in the heart of Sheikh Jarrah, Silwan, Ras Al-Amud and Abu Dis, not to mention the Muslim Quarter of the Old City itself. At the same time, they are trying to fill up the E1 area between Jerusalem and the giant settlement Ma'aleh Adumim.

Seemingly, these are all sporadic actions, initiated by respect-hungry billionaires and power-drunk settlers. But that is an illusion: Behind all this feverish activity there lurks a government plan with a well defined strategic goal: To make the life of the Arab inhabitants of Jerusalem impossible, until they "voluntarily" leave the "United City, Israel's Capital in all Eternity". In this strategy, a central role is played by the thing called "archaeology".

FOR a hundred years, Jewish archaeology has sought, in vain, to prove the existence of David's kingdom, in order to establish once and for all our historic right to the city. Many Arabs believe that the aim is even more sinister: To dig under the Al-Aqsa Mosque in order to bring about its collapse. These fears were reinforced by the disclosure in Haaretz this week, that the digging is undermining Arab houses and threatens to bring them down.

Israeli spokesmen are upset. What vile slanders! Who can even imagine such things? But it is no secret that in the eyes of many nationalist-religious fanatics, the very existence of the two mosques there - Al-Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock - is an abomination. Years ago, members of a Jewish underground organization planned to blow up the Dome of the Rock, but were caught in time and sent to prison. Already, sheep are being raised for sacrificial purposes in the Temple. One can ridicule these outpourings and assert, as always, that they come from the lunatic fringe. That is what they said about the murder of Yitzhak Rabin. But for Arabs, who see with their own eyes the daily effort to "Judaize" the eastern city and to push them out, this is no joke. Their fear is genuine.

Since the millions of inhabitants of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip have no access to the Temple Mount - contrary to all the talk about "religious freedom" - the Islamic Movement in Israel proper has assumed the role of guardian of the two shrines. This week, the call went up to outlaw the movement and to put its leader, Sheikh Ra'ed Salah, in prison.

Sheikh Ra'ed is a charismatic leader. I met him 16 years ago, when we both lived for 45 days and nights in a protest tent opposite the prime minister's office, after Rabin had deported 415 Islamic activists to the Lebanese border.

There is something symbolic about the proximity in time of the awarding of the Nobel Prize and the Temple Mount happenings. The two events represent the two options facing Israel. We have to decide what we are: The Israel of Ada Yonath or the Israel of Ateret Cohanim. An Israel that cherishes its culture, science, high-tech, literature, medicine and agriculture, which marches in the first row of progressive human society toward a better future, or an Israel of wars, occupation and settlements, a fundamentalist state that looks to the past. Contrary to the prophets of doom, I believe that this battle is not yet decided. Israel is far from being the monolithic body that appears in the caricatures. It is a varied, multifaceted society with many possibilities, one of which leads to war and the other toward peace and reconciliation. The winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, Barack Obama, can have a lot of influence on the choice. After all, wasn't the prize awarded to him as a down payment for deeds to come?

Aindrita