"FBI searches office, home of US adviser on Pakistan" by Matt Apuzzo | New York Times November 08, 2014
WASHINGTON — Federal agents searched the home and office of a veteran State Department diplomat last month as part of a counterintelligence investigation, government officials said Friday.
The diplomat, Robin L. Raphel, is a retired ambassador and a specialist on Pakistan who was working under contract as an adviser to the State Department’s special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan. After the FBI searches, Raphel was put on leave and her contract was allowed to expire.
Jen Psaki, a State Department spokeswoman, said the department “is cooperating with our law enforcement colleagues on this matter.”
“Ms. Raphel’s appointment expired,’’ she said. “She is no longer a Department employee.”
The nature of the investigation is unclear. FBI counterintelligence agents track spies and look for signs of economic espionage or mishandling of classified documents.
The US officials who confirmed the counterintelligence investigation did not say whether Raphel is the target. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity.
“She has not been told that she is the target,” said Andrew Rice, Raphel’s spokesman. “Her nearly 40 years of public service at the highest levels of US diplomacy speak for themselves. I’m confident this will be resolved.”
The Washington Post first reported the investigation on its website Thursday.
Raphel, 67, is well known in Washington foreign policy circles. She served as ambassador to Tunisia and as assistant secretary of state for South Asian affairs in the Clinton administration.
Raphel retired from the Foreign Service in 2005 and in 2009 was hired by the US Embassy in Pakistan to help administer billions of dollars of development aid to the country.
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Meanwhile, back home in Pakistan:
"Pakistani military says jets kill 18 militants" Associated Press October 27, 2014
PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Pakistan’s army says its jets have killed at least 18 militants as part of an offensive to eliminate militants’ hideouts and ammunition stockpiles in the Khyber tribal region.
An army statement Sunday says the jets destroyed five such hideouts with ‘‘precise strikes’’ during the offensive late Saturday night.
Besides the militants killed, the army said the strikes destroyed huge caches of arms and ammunition hidden in various parts of the region, near the Afghan border.
The Pakistani army is regularly targeting militants’ hideouts in Khyber, since fighters fled there from North Waziristan tribal region where it has been conducting a months-long operation.
The offensive has also driven thousands of local tribesmen to leave their areas and head for safety in the main northwestern city of Peshawar.
In June, Pakistan launched a sweeping military offensive in North Waziristan along the Afghan border, which has long been a safe haven for the Taliban and other insurgent groups. The operation has displaced over 800,000 people.
The insurgency was also cited by the World Health Organization last week as a factor in a surge in polio cases in Pakistan.
Also see: Mistrust and polio in Pakistan
I'm sensing a pattern in the coverage, aren't you?
Officials recorded 220 cases of polio in the country this year, most from January to October in the county’s northwest. The Pakistani Taliban have fought to prevent polio immunizations since 2012, killing about 60 workers and police who were escorting vaccination teams.
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Breaking the pattern:
"Suicide attack kills at least 54 in eastern Pakistan" by Zaheer Babar | Associated Press November 03, 2014
LAHORE, Pakistan — A suicide bomber detonated explosives near a Pakistani paramilitary checkpoint near the country’s eastern border with India on Sunday, killing at least 54 people in the deadliest attack to hit the country in several months, police and government officers said.
How's that war in Kashmir going anyway?
The explosion occurred near the checkpoint at the Wagah border crossing as hundreds of people were returning from a military parade on the outskirts of Lahore, provincial police chief Mushtaq Sukhera said.
Both the Pakistani and the Indian military conduct daily parades and flag-flying ceremonies on their respective sides of the border. The events draw crowds of hundreds, a number that would rise into the thousands on a weekend day.
The death toll was likely to rise because more than 100 people were wounded, with several in critical condition, Sukhera said.
Police are investigating the bombing, and had intelligence reports in advance that there could be such a blast in the city, he added.
Oh, no!
Another Lahore officer, Haider Ashraf, said some paramilitary troops were among the dead and wounded. The paramilitary forces’ provincial director, General Tahir Javed, said three soldiers died.
Dr. Khurram Shahzad, a physician at private Ghurki Trust hospital, said 10 women and seven children were among the dead, and eight members of a single family. He said several of them had multiple critical wounds.
Live TV footage on private Pakistani news channels showed people drenched in blood and crying in pain as they were evacuated to hospitals.
At the hospitals, relatives of the dead cried and beat their chests and heads. ‘‘My brothers, my two brothers,’’ private Geo News TV showed a man wailing. ‘‘They both are dead.’’
All the officers said they did not know what the target could have been. Javed, the paramilitary official, said the bomber exploded about 1,650 feet from the checkpoint manned by the paramilitary troops.
Security has been increased in all major Pakistani cities to thwart possible attacks on minority Shi’ite Muslims observing Ashura, a 10-day ritual to commemorate the death of Imam Hussain, the grandson of the prophet Mohammed.
But, Haider, the police officer, said there was no such Shi’ite procession in the area where the bombing took place.
Jamatul Ahrar, a splinter group of the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the attack. Pakistani Taliban are made up of several local militant groups.
Ahrar was set up months ago by a half-dozen militant commanders who had worked for the outfit but had evolved differences with its chief.
Its spokesman, Ahsanullah Ahsan, said the suicide attack was part of the militants’ war against the government and their attempts to enforce their version of Islamic law in the country. ‘‘We will continue such attacks,’’ he said by phone from an undisclosed location.
Sure looks like on of the CIA's anti-Taliban Taliban groups to me.
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