Enver Masud, "Bin Laden Not Wanted
for 9/11," The Wisdom Fund, June 8, 2006
Michel Chossudovsky, "The
Destabilization of Pakistan," Centre for Research on Globalisation,
December 30, 2007
[A race for the world's resources is underway that resembles the Great Game
that was played in the decades leading up to the First World War. Now, as
then, the most coveted prize is oil and the risk is that as the contest
heats up it will not always be peaceful. But this is no simple rerun of the
late 19th and early 20th centuries. Today, there are powerful new players
and it is not only oil that is at stake.--John Gray, "Control Oil and Water, Control the
World," Observer, March 30, 2008]
Andrew Buncombe, Anne Penketh and Omar Waraich, "Pakistan Stares Into the Abyss,"
Independent, October 23, 2008
Syed Saleem Shahzad, "Faceless Taliban Rule
Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province," Asia Times, January 29,
2009
Tariq Saeedi et al, "Unveiling the Mystery of Balochistan
Insurgency," pakalert, February 6, 2009
"Afghanistan, Pakistan: Obama's War,"
The Wisdom Fund, March 28, 2009
[The purpose of such assistance is to "ensure that Afghanistan, Kashmir and
Central Asia emerge as allies of a rejuvenated Pakistan" and to see that
"the Indian economic dream becomes a nightmare," the army sources said.
This second objective is of value to China, which is visibly uneasy at the
accelerating pace of development in India--M D Nalapat, "China's support to Pakistan's
jihadists," United Press International, April 1, 2009]
"Noam
Chomsky on US Expansion of Afghan Occupation, the Uses of NATO,"
democracynow.org, April 3, 2009
["Since 2006, we've killed 14 senior Al Qaeda leaders using drone strikes;
in the same time period, we've killed 700 Pakistani civilians in the same
area."--Doyle McManus, "U.S. drone attacks in Pakistan 'backfiring,'
Congress told," Los Angeles Times, May 3, 2009]
S. Amjad Hussain, "Pakistani people want religious law, but not the Taliban's
strict version," Toledo Blade, May 4, 2009
Ahmed Rashid, "Pakistan is facing galloping
Talibanisation," Dawn, May 5, 2009
[Pakistan is bracing for its biggest ever displacement of people, as many as
800,000, as a military offensive against Taliban militants in their
stronghold in the Swat valley appears imminent.
"This will be the biggest displacement of Pakistanis since independence," he
said, adding about 1.6 million people live in Swat.--Zeeshan Haider, "Pakistan
braces for flood of displaced from Swat," Reuters, May 6, 2009]
Anwar Iqbal, "US Bombing a
Sovereign Country: US Lawmaker," Dawn, May 6, 2009
"FACTBOX
- Conflict in Pakistan's Swat," Reuters, May 7, 2009
VIDEO: "Manan
Ahmed on the Politics of US 'Hysteria' over Pakistan ,"
democracynow.org, May 7, 2009
[Pakistan is prepared to move more troops to the Afghan border as Washington
has agreed to guarantee the de-escalation of Indian troop activities along
the Pakistan border. . . .
According to reports, the US has told Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari,
currently in Washington, that if this plan goes ahead, US Predator drone
strikes inside Pakistan against militants will immediately be stopped.--Syed
Saleem Shahzad, "Al-Qaeda
seizes on Taliban's problem," Asia Times, May 8, 2009]
[Once the Taliban regime refused to comply with Bush's unconditional order
to turn over bin Laden, the U.S. Empire did what it had done and tried to do
in so many other countries - Iran, Guatemala, Chile, Cuba, Indonesia, Iraq,
and others - bring about regime change by ousting a recalcitrant regime that
refused to comply with the unconditional orders of the U.S. Empire - a
regime that the U.S. Empire itself had helped to create - and replacing it
with a submissive pro-empire regime. In the process, the empire succeeded in
embroiling the United State into one more foreign conflict, one that has now
spread to nuclear-armed Pakistan.--Jacob G. Hornberger, "U.S. Foreign Policy Caused
the Taliban Problem," fff.org, May 8, 2009]
Dan De Luce, "A giant US military base emerges in
Afghanistan," AFP, May 8, 2009
Pepe Escobar, "Balochistan
is the ultimate prize," Asia Times, May 9, 2009
Pamela Constable, "Taliban-Style Justice Stirs Growing Anger: Sharia
Being Perverted, Pakistanis Say," Washington Post, May 9, 2009
Robert
D. Crane, "Baluchistan: Pivot of Asia,
Revisited," theamericanmuslim.org, May 9, 2009
VIDEO: "Conservative
Historian Andrew Bacevich Warns Against Obama's Escalation of War in
Afghanistan and Intensifying Use of Air Power in Region,"
democracynow.org, May 11, 2009
Pepe Escobar, "Pipelineistan
goes Af-Pak," Asia Times, May 14, 2009
[The United States has a detailed plan for infiltrating Pakistan and
securing its mobile arsenal of nuclear warheads if it appears the country is
about to fall under the control of the Taliban, Al Qaeda or other Islamic
extremists.
American intelligence sources say the operation would be conducted by Joint
Special Operations Command, the super-secret commando unit headquartered at
Fort Bragg, N.C.--Rowan Scarborough, "U.S. Has Plan to Secure Pakistan Nukes if Country
Falls to Taliban," foxnews.com, May 14, 2009]
Declan Walsh, "Swat valley could be worst refugee crisis since Rwanda,
UN warns," Guardian, May 18, 2009
[Pakistani leader Asif Ali Zardari is expected to discuss regional security
with Iranian officials. He will also address economic relations, a gas
pipeline and border security with Ahmadinejad--"Presidents of Iran, Afghanistan and
Pakistan meet," CNN, May 24, 2009]
[As Pakistan is facing severe electricity crises, President Zardari is
expected to seek Iranian cooperation with particular reference to the
proposed 1000 MW power supply from Iran to Pakistan via Balochistan.--"Iran,
Pakistan, Afghanistan leaders discuss joint strategy to tackle
terrorism," APP, May 24, 2009]
[The exodus of people forced from their homes in Pakistan's Swat Valley and
elsewhere in the country's north-west may be as high as 2.4 million, aid
officials say. Around the world, only a handful of war-spoiled countries -
Sudan, Iraq, Colombia - have larger numbers of internal refugees. The speed
of the displacement at its height - up to 85,000 people a day - was matched
only during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.--Andrew Buncombe, "In Pakistan, an exodus that is
beyond biblical," Independent, May 31, 2009]
[ . . . the real threat isn't the Taliban occupying urban territory. It's
their ability to attract followers and sow chaos. One reason given for the
conversions: US meddling. "The mujahideen are not the products of the
madrasas," says Syed Yousef Shah, who heads one of the largest religious
schools. "They are the product of American actions."--Ben Arnoldy, "Why the
Taliban won't take over Pakistan: For reasons of geography, ethnicity,
military inferiority, and ancient rivalries, they represent neither the
immediate threat that is often portrayed nor the inevitable victors that the
West fears," csmonitor.com, June 7, 2009]
Sam Jones and Saeed Shah, "US missile strike kills 60 at funeral in Pakistan," Guardian,
June 24, 2009
"Energy Wars: The Destabilization of
Baluchistan," The Wisdom Fund, July 12, 2009
Shahan Mufti, "Funding
the Pakistani Taliban," globalpost.com, August 7, 2009