Analyst predicts US military strike in Waziristan

[Omaha Steve]

Source: Daily Times

By Khalid Hasan

WASHINGTON: A leading conservative with a known entrée in the Bush administration has said that in his view the president is “going to have to take military action there (Waziristan) over the next few weeks or months” because he has to disrupt that sanctuary”.

Bill Kristol, political analyst at the conservative journal, The Standard, said in a Fox News programme on 12 July, “I think, frankly, we won’t even tell Musharraf. We’ll do what we have to do in western Pakistan and Musharraf can say, ‘Hey! they didn’t tell me’.” He said Al Qaeda has gained sanctuaries in Waziristan “and this is not acceptable.” He claimed that Al Qaeda has a safe haven in western Pakistan, more specifically in Waziristan, adding, “Al Qaeda ... is running from Iraq, apparently to Pakistan.” Asked if this report had come out on purpose so that “we will have the right ... to go after Pakistan now,” he replied that the president is going to have to take military action “over the next few weeks or months” so as to disrupt that sanctuary.

Kristol said, according to the online site DesPardes, that he is not going to lose sleep over it, pointing out that Gen Musharraf already has problems in major cities and “may look the other way” if Waziristan is visited or struck from air by US and NATO forces. According to Kristol, “The big problem now is Waziristan, where Al Qaeda has made sanctuary for itself. You cannot let them have a safe haven … that’s one lesson we’ve learnt from 9/11.” He said in answer to a question that since Al Qaeda is on the run from Iraq, it has reconstituted itself in Waziristan after President Musharraf “cut deals with Taliban and left them alone” to operate. It was also said in the programme that Vice President Dick Cheney had reportedly called up Gen Musharraf a couple of weeks back and told him “this is not acceptable” while referring to Al Qaeda gaining a “safe haven” in Waziristan.

According to an AFP report, the Bush administration came under intense grilling in Congress last week over its “unconditional support” for President Musharraf as lawmakers doubted his ability to take strong action to reign in the problem and called for a re-evaluation of US policy towards Pakistan. According to one observer, the coalition wants to bring the “war on terror” card back on top of Gen Musharraf’s deck, since the Lal Masjid issue has been dealt with and the opposition attempt to mobilise via London meeting has apparently failed. “President Musharraf has gained new political capital and goodwill. They (US) now want him to take advantage of his new strength and deliver more,” the news agency said.

Read more: http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007%5C07%5C15%5Cstory_15-7-2007_pg7_9

[Kagemusha]

1. So Bill Kristol's musings are front page news in Pakistan.

Why does this concept scare me?

[Barrett808]

26. Why does any publication waste ink on the opinions of Kristol, AEI, and other neo-cons?

Haven't they been proven egregiously wrong in all things, many times over?

[MannyGoldstein]

2. Yet Another Thing For The Chimperor To Fuck Up

Unbelievable.

And people wonder why some of us want him impeached. Earth to 'realists' - he has nukes, dammit. We need to move this evil idiot away from the presidency.

[FogerRox]

3. Something the Chimperor is really good at.... fuckin up....

You can count on it.

[saltpoint]

4. My grandfather, a machinist, was given to coarse speech.

He could turn the air blue around ya.

Some of the most blistering words and phrases poured from his mouth. He would spare no one or no thing -- he was cuss-deaf.

As a child I remember luxuriating in his violations of taste, decency, decorum, and protocol as he would refer to a lawnmower as "that goddam sonofabitch machine" and so on.

He had a favorite phrase for odd behaviors: "Crazy as a shit-house rat."

Owing to his age and the long-ago time, he couldn't possibly have been referring to Bill Kristol.

And yet...

[0007]

17. ......the neocons and their game plan to control the world.

Sound like you had a great great grandfather. Good post. LOL!!

[saltpoint]

18. I love the image of Ann Coulter destroying civilization.

That pretty much sums up her role in life.

Thanks, and great post yourself.

[The Sushi Bandit]

5. Don't believe them..there is NO SUCH COUNTRY!!

the admin made this story all up cause americans are so incredibly gullible!!

[entanglement]

33. It's not a country, it's a tribal province on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border

[madrchsod]

6. no one has been able to do anything with these guys

so bush thinks he`s going to do something like drop bombs? shit that will just make them mad.
is there anyone in the whitehouse that has a clue about the history of that area?

[Ghost Dog]

14. Some history of that area?

See eg. Barnett R. Rubin posting yesterday here, linked from Juan Cole.

[calimary]

27. Besides which, you think for an instant they won't get wind of this

report, especially as it circulates around Pakistan, and then move?

Or maybe the White House assumes that they'll just stay put like obedient little bushbots. I doubt it. These guys are wily thinkers - a lot moreso than our "leaders" give them credit for. I'd expect they'd be moving targets for awhile. Maybe a long while. If you hunker down and stay put for long enough, eventually the probability is strong that you'll be located. And I would expect these guys do realize that.

[mcctatas]

7. Not to worry, the blivet won't be able to find Wasiristan on the map

Seriously though, what I find interesting is that this same approach (not telling Musharraf first) wasn't good enough to be able to go after Bin Laden...

[Strelnikov_]

8. With who's Army? Are we going to subcontract to China?

Sure, we can drop some JDAMS of Freedom^TM, kill a bunch of civilians along with a few Jihadis. Accomplish nothing in the end. That's about it.

Seems we should have finished the job in 2001 versus packing off to prepare to steal . . . oops . . . liberate Iraq's oil.

[Jim Sagle]

9. We've got trouble up the wazooistan.

The same trouble we've had since 12-12-2000.

[IndianaGreen]

10. Strike Pakistan with what? Our armies are in Iraq. The NATO forces in Afghanistan are...

over stretched. Our glorious Air Farce is more notable for killing innocent civilians than it is for getting the bad guys.

Even if we had a large army, which we don't, and we send it into the tribal areas, they won't be anymore successful than Pakistan's army.

[NMDemDist2]

11. ding ding ding!!

you got it in one! we don't have any troops to send.

it never ceases to amaze me how these neocons throw around armies that don't exist.

It reminds me of the film I saw last week about Hitler's final days in the bunker ordering armies that no longer existed to attack the Russians who were bearing down on Berlin

:banghead:

[IndianaGreen]

12. Here is a map of the tribal areas of Pakistan

[FarCenter]

21. You need to combine this with the Pashtun areas of Afghanistan

The border drawn by Mortimer Durand of the British Foreign Office to divide Afghanistan and Colonial India was drawn through the middle of Pashtunistan, the homeland of the Pashtun people.

The border between the Northwest Tribal Areas and the rest of Pakistan is a more realistic and meaningful border. It is really the border between the Pashtuns and the other ethnic groups making up Pakistan.

However, while granting the Pashtuns a lot of autonomy, Pakistan has been unwilling to give up the Durand Line border, primarily because doing so would narrow Pakistan to the point where it has little strategic depth in case of war with India.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pathans for a description of the Pashtun/Pathan people. An estimated population of 40 million live in the mountains on both sides of the border.

Generally, it is unwise to mess with people who just want to live by themselves, according to their own customs, high in mountain valleys. For example, see Swiss, Kurds, various Balkan ethic groups, various Caucuses mountains ethnic groups, Tibetans, etc. Even Andean tribes and New Guinea highland tribes resisted for some time with primitive weaponry.

[Drum]

13. Way to tip our hand, US....

No wonder we can never fuckin' capture a single bad guy. Too many press releases!

[ohio2007]

20. misinformation is released to the press....they eat this stuff up

Like the June 2004 invasion of Iran . Maybe Musharraf will see these articles and chuckle,
or the 'freedom fighters' of the wild frontier towns of Warizistan will see the stories and start to blow up their own neighborhoods and behead "spies".

[arewenotdemo]

15. "You cannot let them have a safe haven....

that’s one lesson we’ve learned from 9/11.”

Six years too late, you POS.

:grr:

[Amonester]

28. this is why: Kristals and his co-conspirators HAD to fill their pockets

first (that is, as long as a majority of the taxpayers were sleeping at the switch).

Basically, took them, the majority of taxpayers, about 6 years to "wake up" so...

Oooopsss... too late now.

The damage is done.


Let's strip that neo-farce of all his possessions too.

Why not? It's exactly what he and his ilk have been doin' to us for 6.5 years...

[MrPrax]

16. Which one...North or South?

Talk about ungrateful.

Pakistan has been fighting in that area for two years and has lost nearly 3000 soldiers in a wildly unpopular war. Moreover Pakistan just signed a peace agreement with the forces in September. I guess, to an American Zionist, any agreement that interferes with Muslim ethnic violence is 'cutting a deal'.

So why exactly would Musharraf or anyone at this point be taking advice from the insane to expand a losing war, I don't know? The biggest grief for Musharraf IS the massive unpopularity of it's alliance with the US and his dependency on US funding which has been approx. 10 billion in aid since 2001.
If anything, it would provide a great deal of domestic stability for Musharraf if he told the US to go take a hike. That would certainly go a long way in curbing the so-called 'safe havens' in Pakistan.

Typical of the insane -- they failed miserably in Iraq, so they blame Iran. They failed miserably in Afghanistan, so they blame Pakistan.

Yet the sociopaths still bark nonsense largely unchallenged....

[NashVegas]

19. Can't Have Al Queda Attacking Us From the East

When we're using Afghanistan as a platform for attacking Iran.

[roamer65]

22. The US attacks in Pakistan and Musharraf will be overthrown.

Pakistan is on the edge already and that attack will start the civil war.

[Javaman]

23. A civil war with nukes.

:scared:

[superconnected]

25. Why does that sound like smth the Bush junta would do

hmmm...

Let's face it, he really IS satan.

I figure he'll end up with at least 3 countries in ruin with blood spilling every day than just iraq and iran.

[CGowen]

24. The US finances Al-Qaeda(Jundullah) in Pakistan and wants to attack Pakistan for it ( good plan)

A Pakistani tribal militant group responsible for a series of deadly guerrilla raids inside Iran has been secretly encouraged and advised by American officials since 2005, U.S. and Pakistani intelligence sources tell ABC News.

The group, called Jundullah, is made up of members of the Baluchi tribe and operates out of the Baluchistan province in Pakistan, just across the border from Iran.

It has taken responsibility for the deaths and kidnappings of more than a dozen Iranian soldiers and officials.

U.S. officials say the U.S. relationship with Jundullah is arranged so that the U.S. provides no funding to the group, which would require an official presidential order or "finding" as well as congressional oversight.

Tribal sources tell ABC News that money for Jundullah is funneled to its youthful leader, Abd el Malik Regi, through Iranian exiles who have connections with European and Gulf states.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/04/abc_news_exclus.html


Another group, Jundullah, two of whose members, Attaur Rehman and Abu Musab al-Balochi (al-Baloshi), were later arrested in Karachi in connection with the recent unsuccessful attack on the Corps Commander Karachi, was formed with members from the Jaishul al-Qibla to conduct operations all over Pakistan and to "take the battle to all possible fronts".

......

Jundullah

Jundullah is a purely militant outfit whose objective is to target Pakistan's pro-US rulers and US and British interests in the country. Members receive training in Afghanistan and South Waziristan, and it is now actively recruiting.

The organization produces propaganda literature, including documentary films, and has a studio named Ummat. It does similar work for al-Qaeda's media wing, which is called the al-Sahab Foundation.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/FG20Df05.html


Hersh: U.S. Funds Being Secretly Funneled To Violent Al Qaeda-Linked Groups
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/02/25/hersh-qaeda/

[Amonester]

29. Well, Repukes financed Hussein in Iraq for years before they lied

in order to (illegally) "regime-change" him...

Nothing new...

BTW, is "financing" Al-Cackaida an impeachable offense? (In other words: a CRIME?)

[ohio2007]

30. Afghan president pardons failed suicide bomber boy ( boy from Waziristan )

KABUL (Reuters) - A 14-year-old would-be suicide bomber from Pakistan, caught while on a mission to blow up an Afghan provincial governor, was pardoned on Sunday by President Hamid Karzai....
The first whiskers of a moustache on his top lip, Rafiqullah stood to one side of the Afghan president, his father, with a full beard, stood to the other, at a ceremony in the capital on Sunday.

Rafiqullah's father, a poor tradesman from South Waziristan in Pakistan, had sent his son to a religious school, or madrassa, to learn the Koran. Later, when he asked where his son was, the teachers there brushed him off, he said.

Then last month, the 14-year-old was caught wearing a suicide vest on a motorbike in the eastern Afghan city of Khost.

snip

"Today we are facing a hard fact, that is a Muslim child was sent to madrassa to learn Islamic subjects, but the enemies of Afghanistan misled him towards suicide..."
snip

http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSISL393220070715?feedType=RSS

see,
not all juvenile delinquents are punk asss phuckerz. They can work it out without us crossing the border and invading "schools".

[kenny blankenship]

31. "frankly, we won’t even tell Musharraf."

and then the good General's life expectancy shrinks to about 10 to 14 days. His successors will make Ayman Al-Zawahiri look like a moderate.

Keep it right up, Mr. Genius.

[Thor_MN]

32. Is there any more despicable creature than Kristol?

Slime mold think he is low life scum. That POS helped create the cluster fuck that is currently called GOP strategy, sitting on the sidelines and cheering them on. Now he is trying to create something, anything to distract from the mess he helped to create. Party of personal responsibility my ass, that soft stool sample thinks that because he didn't put the policy in effect he is immune from the blame. Kristol should be sent to the Hagie along with most of *'s misadminstration, including past members. Strip them of their assets, no matter what tax haven country they are now in to make partial payment for what they have done. The only future publications of Kristol's musings should be the examination of the writing on his Hague cell walls upon his death.