"Pakistanis arrest five CIA informants; Sources helped find bin Laden, US officials say" by Eric Schmitt and Mark Mazzetti, New York Times / June 15, 2011
WASHINGTON — Pakistan’s top military spy agency has arrested some of the Pakistani informants who fed information to the Central Intelligence Agency in the months leading up to the raid that led to the death of Osama bin Laden, according to US officials.
Pakistan’s detention of five CIA informants, including a Pakistani army major who officials said copied the license plates of cars visiting bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, is the latest evidence of the fractured relationship between the United States and Pakistan. It comes as the Obama administration is seeking Pakistan’s support in brokering an endgame in the war in Afghanistan....
Some in Washington see the arrests as illustrative of the disconnect between Pakistani and US priorities at a time when they are supposed to be allies in the fight against Al Qaeda — instead of hunting down the support network that allowed bin Laden to live comfortably for years, the Pakistani authorities are arresting those who assisted in the raid.
The bin Laden raid and recent attacks by militants in Pakistan have been blows to the country’s military, a revered institution. Some officials and outside specialists said the military is mired in its worst crisis of confidence in decades....
Over the past several weeks the Pakistani military has been distancing itself from US intelligence and counterterrorism operations against militant groups in Pakistan. This has angered many in Washington who believe that bin Laden’s death has shaken Al Qaeda and that there is now an opportunity to further weaken the terrorist organization.
But in recent months, dating approximately to when a CIA contractor killed two Pakistanis on a street in the eastern city of Lahore in January, US officials said that Pakistani spies from the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, known as the ISI, have been generally unwilling to carry out surveillance operations for the CIA....
Related: ISI-Bashing: A US Battle Transferred To Pakistan
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"Pakistan denies army major’s arrest for CIA links" June 15, 2011|Munir Ahmed and Kimberly Dozier, Associated Press
The Pakistani army denied Wednesday that one of its majors was among a group of Pakistanis who Western officials say were arrested for feeding the CIA information before the American raid that killed Osama bin Laden.
The New York Times, which first reported the arrests of five Pakistani informants Tuesday, said an army major was detained who copied license plates of cars visiting the al-Qaida chief’s compound in Pakistan in the weeks before the raid.
A Western official in Pakistan confirmed that five Pakistanis who fed information to the CIA before the May 2 operation were arrested by Pakistan’s top intelligence service.
But Pakistani army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas denied an army major was arrested, saying the report was “false and totally baseless.’’ Neither the army nor Pakistan’s spy agency would confirm or deny the overall report about the detentions.
The group of detained Pakistanis included the owner of a safe house rented to the CIA to observe bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, an army town not far from the Pakistani capital of Islamabad, a U.S. official said. The owner was detained along with a “handful’’ of other Pakistanis, said the official.
The Western officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence matters.
The fate of the purported CIA informants who were arrested was unclear, but American officials told the Times that CIA Director Leon Panetta raised the issue when he visited Islamabad last week to meet with Pakistani military and intelligence officers.
U.S.-Pakistani relations have been strained over the raid by Navy SEALs on Pakistani territory, which embarrassed Pakistan’s military, and other issues....
Officials said the arrests of the suspected informants was just the latest evidence of the fractured relationship between the two nations....
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Related: Pakistan military chief fights for his job (By Jane Perlez, New York Times)
"Al-Zawahri succeeds bin Laden as al-Qaida leader" June 16, 2011|Hamza Hendawi, Associated Press
Osama bin Laden’s longtime deputy Ayman al-Zawahri, a fiery ideologue who is known for his deep hatred of the West and helped plan the 9/11 attacks, has taken control of al-Qaida after the death last month of the terror network’s founder in a U.S. raid.
Who?
The number two in the toilet?
"Here is a larger image of our supposed number 2 Al Qaeda. Rather odd design motif in that background cloth, all things considered." -- Mike Rivero of What Really Happened
Yeah, that SURE is a strange cloth!
They think we wouldn't notice, or just not care?
Al-Zawahri, an Egyptian-born surgeon, has been credited with bringing tactical and organizational cunning to al-Qaida, which has found itself increasingly decentralized and prone to internal disputes following its expulsion from Afghanistan after the 2001 U.S. invasion.
The move also comes at a time the terror network is struggling for relevance as a wave of Arab uprisings has threatened to leave it marginalized.
Al-Zawahri pledged earlier this month to avenge the May 2 killing of bin Laden, the al-Qaida founder and mastermind of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, and to continue the terror network’s campaign of attacks against the U.S. and other Western interests....
I haven't put any comments up because I'm just so sick of this crap.
The Pakistani Taliban welcomed the appointment of al-Zawahri as the new al-Qaida chief and vowed to fight alongside the terror group against the U.S. and “other infidel forces’’ around the world.
“We share the same path with al-Qaida. We are allies,’’ Pakistani Taliban spokesman Ahsanullah Ahsan told The Associated Press by telephone from an undisclosed location.
Yeah, sure they did.
Ahsan said his group will continue to carry out attacks in retaliation for bin Laden’s death. “The revenge will continue,’’ he said.
Al-Zawahri has been in hiding for nearly 10 years and is widely believed to be near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. He has appeared in dozens of videos and audiotapes in recent years, increasingly becoming the face of al-Qaida as bin Laden kept a lower profile.
Easy to do when you have been DEAD for 10 years!
Related: Bin Laden Stories Show AmeriKan Media Not to be Believed
No, you can't, not the way they are flogging this stinker of a story.
Most of his pronouncements on the videos and audiotapes show him to be a man consumed by deep hatred for the West, particularly the United States, and Israel.
Al-Zawahri had been considered the most likely successor because of his longtime collaboration with bin Laden. Analysts had said that few were likely to challenge the al-Qaida deputy leader for the top spot despite some reservations. Many predicted he would step up attacks to prove himself....
So BEWARE of the COMING FALSE FLAGS, world.
Magnus Ranstorp, a terror analyst at the Royal Swedish Defense College: “He will focus on attacking the West in a big way.’’
Like NUKING an American city like Chicago?
Al-Zawahri and bin Laden first crossed paths in the late 1980s in the caves of Afghanistan, where the Egyptian reportedly provided medical treatment to bin Laden and other Islamic fighters battling Soviet forces.
That's when they were working for us (still are)!!
Their alliance would develop years later into the terror network blamed for America’s worst terror attack in its history.
In a videotaped eulogy released earlier this month, al-Zawahri warned that America still faces an international community of Muslims that seek to destroy it....
Right.
Oh, btw, Muslims didn't do 9/11; Israel (and their dual-national, double-agent allies in the AmeriKan government) did.
Web adders:
Al-Zawahri served three years in an Egyptian prison before heading to Afghanistan in 1984 to fight the Soviets, where he linked up with bin Laden.
Back when bin Laden was an agency asset!
Al-Zawahri later followed bin Laden to Sudan and then back to Afghanistan, where they found a safe haven under the radical Taliban regime....
A-hem:
"The U.S. government was well aware of the Taliban's reactionary program, yet it chose to back their rise to power in the mid-1990s. The creation of the Taliban was "actively encouraged by the ISI and the CIA," according to Selig Harrison, an expert on U.S. relations with Asia. "The United States encouraged Saudi Arabia and Pakistan to support the Taliban, certainly right up to their advance on Kabul," adds respected journalist Ahmed Rashid. When the Taliban took power, State Department spokesperson Glyn Davies said that he saw "nothing objectionable" in the Taliban's plans to impose strict Islamic law, and Senator Hank Brown, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on the Near East and South Asia, welcomed the new regime: "The good part of what has happened is that one of the factions at last seems capable of developing a new government in Afghanistan." "The Taliban will probably develop like the Saudis. There will be Aramco [the consortium of oil companies that controlled Saudi oil], pipelines, an emir, no parliament and lots of Sharia law. We can live with that," said another U.S. diplomat in 1997."
How about that, huh?
The statement announcing his succession was filled with the terror network’s usual rhetoric, vowing to continue the fight against what it called “conquering infidels, led by America and its stooge Israel, who attack the homes of Islam.’’
The CIA scriptwriter got that last part backward.
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Related: Zawahri succeeds bin Laden as Al Qaeda leader (By Scott Shane, New York Times)
US judge dismisses bin Laden case (Washington Post)
"Pakistani Army denies giving information to insurgents" by Nahal Toosi, Associated Press / June 18, 2011
ISLAMABAD — Pakistan’s army yesterday disputed reports that its security forces had tipped off insurgents at bomb-making factories after getting intelligence about the sites from the United States.
The Foreign Ministry also lodged a protest with the American embassy over a purported attack on a Pakistani military post — the latest signs of strained relations since a US Navy SEAL team killed Osama bin Laden last month without notifying officials here ahead of time.
The army called the assertions of collusion with militants “totally false and malicious.’’
**************************
It also was unclear about the sites’ exact location and does not say when the raids occurred. But it is likely to further add to tensions between the United States and Pakistan, which have been unusually high since the bin Laden raid.
Various media accounts said the factories were in the Waziristan stretch of Pakistan’s tribal belt, where Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters have long proliferated. The intelligence sharing was part of a US attempt to improve the relationship with Pakistan.
Bin Laden’s presence there has only added to US suspicions that elements within Pakistan’s powerful security establishment were playing a “double game’’ by colluding with some militants and going after others.
Like the U.S. does.
Pakistani leaders have denied knowing that bin Laden was in hiding in the city of Abbottabad — and US officials have said there is no evidence yet that the upper ranks of the Pakistani military or civilian leadership helped hide him....
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Related:
"Pakistani Army denies giving information to insurgents
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Yeah, friends, right.
Who is the Globe hiding, huh?
"Pakistan accused of tipping off more militants about raids; US officials want country to keep operations secret" June 19, 2011|By Kimberly Dozier, Associated Press
WASHINGTON — US officials say Pakistan has apparently tipped off militants at two more bomb-building factories in its tribal areas, giving the terror suspects time to flee, after US intelligence shared the locations with the Pakistani government.
Those officials believe Pakistan’s insistence on seeking local tribal elders’ permission before raiding the areas may have most directly contributed to the militants’ flight. US officials have pushed for Pakistan to keep the location of such targets secret prior to the operations, but the Pakistanis say their troops cannot enter the lawless regions without giving the locals notice.
All officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss matters of intelligence.
The latest incidents bring to a total of four bomb-making sites that the United States has shared with Pakistan only to have the terrorist suspects flee before the Pakistani military arrived much later. The report does not bode well for attempts by both sides to mend relations and rebuild trust after the May 2 raid that killed Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, a Pakistani Army town only 35 miles from the capital Islamabad.
The Pakistanis believe the Americans violated their sovereignty by keeping them in the dark about the raid. American officials believe bin Laden’s location proves some elements of the Pakistani Army or intelligence service helped hide the Al Qaeda mastermind, bolstering their argument that the raid had to be done solo.
The US officials explained yesterday how they first offered the location of the third, and then the fourth site, in order to give Pakistan another chance to prove it could be trusted to go after the militants.
It's called a set up -- in an attempt to improve the relationship, of course.
The Americans carefully monitored the area with satellite and unmanned drones to see what would happen, the officials said.
In each case, they watched the militants depart within 24 hours, taking any weapons or bomb-making materials with them, just as militants had done the first two times. Only then did they watch the Pakistani military visit each site, when the terror suspects and their wares were long gone, the officials said.
Pakistan’s army disputed on Friday reports that its security forces had tipped off insurgents at bomb-making factories after getting intelligence about the sites from the United States. The army called the assertions of collusion with militants “totally false and malicious.’’
Army officials further claimed they had successfully raided two more sites, after finding nothing at the first two, but a Pakistani official reached Friday offered no details of what they found there.
The official admitted that in each raid, however, the Pakistani security services notified the local elders who hold sway in the tribal regions....
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"Pakistan holds army officer suspected of extremist link; Arrest raises concern about infiltration; antidemocracy group is banned" June 22, 2011|By Salman Masood, New York Times
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A serving brigadier general in the Pakistani Army has been detained on suspicion of links with an extremist group, according to an army spokesman.
The detention of the officer, Brigadier General Ali Khan, raises serious concerns about the infiltration of elements sympathetic to Islamic extremists in the higher ranks of the army. While the lower ranks of the army, air force and navy have long been known to have elements sympathetic to the Taliban and extremist organizations, the arrest of Khan is the first known arrest of a senior army official.
News of his detention comes at a sensitive time for the army, when morale in its ranks is at a historical ebb after the May 2 night raid by US commandos that killed Osama bin Laden, and after an attack on Pakistan’s largest naval base by militants who appear to have had inside assistance....
Hizb-ut-Tahrir identifies itself as an Islamist party, which rejects democracy and is striving to establish a Muslim caliphate, or global Islamic empire, and is active in over 40 countries, according to its website. Hizb-ut-Tahrir claims to be nonviolent and different from Al Qaeda but operates in a gray area where global jihadi sympathies lurk.
The group has managed to maintain its presence in Pakistan despite being outlawed by the government of former president Pervez Musharraf. It follows a strategy of recruiting members from the urban, educated, and professional segments of the society and is also known to have spread its influence in the ranks of the military in recent years. Apart from organizing underground meetings and seminars, the group has used text messages on cellphones and social networking sites to spread its message....
I'm starting to smell an intelligence operation.
Despite media reports and anecdotal evidence of Hizb-ut-Tahrir’s growing penetration of the Pakistani military, there has been no apparent effort at a purge....
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"Pakistan army questions 4 officers about extremist ties; Inquiry expands after the arrest of senior official" by Munir Ahmed, Associated Press / June 23, 2011
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The Pakistani Army is questioning four more officers about suspected links with a banned extremist group....
Putting on a show for the U.S., 'eh?
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