"US restarts supply runs via Pakistan; Trucks enter Afghanistan after Clinton apology" by Salman Masood | New York Times, July 06, 2012
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — After a hiatus of seven months, the first trucks carrying supplies for NATO troops in Afghanistan crossed the southwestern border post at Chaman, local officials said.
Pakistan agreed to reopen NATO supply routes Tuesday after Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton made a telephone call to Pakistan’s foreign minister, Hina Rabbani Khar, and said she was sorry for the deaths of 24 Pakistani soldiers who were killed in a US airstrike along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border in November.
Now, WAS THAT SO HARD?!?!
By noon Thursday, border officials had allowed three trucks to cross into Afghanistan, according to news reports that quoted Pakistani customs officials.
Thousands of containers have piled up at the southern port city of Karachi since NATO supply routes through Pakistan were shut down in the aftermath of the airstrike.
The closure became a major sore point between Pakistan and the United States, which have a history of mutual mistrust and acrimony despite being partners for more than a decade in the effort to curb terrorism and militancy.
Pakistanis have been particularly incensed since a shooting in Lahore in January 2011 that involved a CIA employee.
Related:
"the truth lies buried in the murky world of spies."
See: They Don't Want Your Blood Money
Why Am I No Longer Reading the Newspaper?
Seeing through the murk yet?
See: They Don't Want Your Blood Money
Why Am I No Longer Reading the Newspaper?
Seeing through the murk yet?
Additionally, the US operation that led to the killing of Osama bin Laden in May 2011 was taken as an affront to Pakistan’s sovereignty.
No problem because they are believed no longer.
Pakistan had initially sought an unconditional apology from the United States over the US airstrikes, and its Parliament put forward a raft of demands for the reopening of supply lines, including higher transit fees for supply trucks and an end to drone strikes.
But on Tuesday Pakistan said it had not made any financial demands and the political leadership said it was satisfied with the regrets expressed by US officials.
Opposition political parties and religious leaders have, however, strongly criticized the move to reopen the border routes. Anti-American sentiment runs high in the country. A survey released in June by the Pew Research Center showed that 74 percent of respondents consider the United States an enemy, up from 69 percent last year and 64 percent three years ago.
The Defense Council of Pakistan, an alliance of religious and militant groups, has announced plans to hold nationwide protests on Friday, the Muslim holy day, according to Maulana Samiul Haq, an anti-American religious leader.
Opposition political parties are also planning to hold a meeting Saturday in the eastern city of Lahore to develop a protest campaign.
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"Islamists protest NATO supply line in Pakistan" by K.M. Chaudary | Associated Press, July 09, 2012
LAHORE, Pakistan — Thousands of hard-line Islamists streamed toward Pakistan’s capital in a massive convoy of vehicles Sunday to protest the government’s decision to allow the United States and other NATO countries to resume shipping troop supplies through the country to Afghanistan.
The demonstration, which started in the eastern city of Lahore, was organized by the Difah-e-Pakistan Council — Defense of Pakistan Council — a group of politicians and religious leaders who have been the most vocal opponents of the supply line.
Pakistan closed the route in November in retaliation for American airstrikes that killed 24 Pakistani troops. After months of negotiations, Islamabad finally agreed to reopen the route last week when Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton apologized for the deaths.
Clinton met Sunday with Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar on the sidelines of an Afghan aid conference in Tokyo and expressed hope that resolution of the supply line conflict would lead to better relations between the troubled allies.
One of the reasons Pakistan waited so long to resolve the conflict is that the government feared domestic backlash in a nation where anti-American sentiment is rampant despite billions of dollars in US aid during the last decade.
That's what happens when you flatten villages and murder people with missiles and infiltrate their country with intelligence agency instigators.
The protest started Sunday in the center of Lahore, where several thousand people assembled with scores of buses, cars, and motorbikes. They linked with thousands more supporters on the city’s edge and drove to Islamabad in a so-called ‘‘long march’’ against the supply line. The convoy included about 200 vehicles with some 8,000 people when it left Lahore, said police official Babar Bakht.
After completing the 185-mile journey to Islamabad, they planned to hold a demonstration outside the Parliament building Monday.
‘‘By coming out on the streets, the Pakistani nation has shown its hatred for America,’’ one of the Difah-e-Pakistan leaders, Maulana Samiul Haq, known as the father of the Taliban, said in a speech on the outskirts of Lahore.
Related: Pakistan's Taliban Talks Out of Both Sides of Its Mouth
Peace Talk Post
I think that was the last time I saw peace mentioned.
Supporters showered Haq with rose petals as he rode through Lahore in the back of a truck with other Difah-e-Pakistan leaders, including Hafiz Saeed, founder of the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group; Hamid Gul, a retired Pakistani intelligence chief with a long history of militant support; and Syed Munawar Hasan, leader of Pakistan’s most powerful Islamist party, Jamaat-e-Islami.
I'll bet Gul knows a thing or two about 9/11.
Many demonstrators rode on the tops of buses, waving party flags and shouting slogans against the United States and NATO.
The crowd was dominated by members of Jamaat-ud-Dawa, widely thought to be a front group for Lashkar-e-Taiba, which is blamed for the attacks in Mumbai, India, in 2008 that killed more than 160 people. Jamaat-ud-Dawa is led by the group’s founder, Saeed.
Related: No Mercy For Mumbai Patsy
The United States announced a $10 million bounty earlier this year for information leading to the arrest or conviction of Saeed, but he operates freely in the country. Pakistan says it does not have enough evidence to arrest Saeed.
I don't want my tax dollars going for that.
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Then it was closed again.
You guys can't just push the trucks through?
August Update:
Now the thing is going to be open through 2015 even thought we are leaving (pfft) in 2014?
