The Pakistani Army has been given orders to retaliate against any unilateral strike by the Afghanistan-based U.S. troops inside the country.

Army Spokesman Maj Gen Athar Abbas confirmed the orders in a brief interview with Geo News on late Thursday night.

The decision was made on the first day of the two-day meeting of Pakistan’s top military commanders to discuss the U.S. coalition’s ground and air assault in Waziristan region which killed dozens of civilians.

Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani chaired the meeting which began in Rawalpindi on Thursday at the Army General Headquarters.

Pakistan’s military commanders expressed their determination to defend the country’s borders without allowing any external forces to conduct operations inside the tribal belt bordering Afghanistan, sources said.

A senior official said the military commanders also discussed the implications of the American attacks inside Pakistan and took stock of the public feeling.

More here

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McCain was really banking on an Osama-catch to boost his November hopes. Racism and idiocy can carry you a long way. But will it be enough?

Pakistan says US not hunting bin Laden on its turf

NEW YORK (AP) — Pakistan’s top diplomat said Saturday there are no U.S. or other foreign military personnel on the hunt for Osama bin Laden in his nation, and none will be allowed in to search for the al-Qaida leader. [...]

“Our government’s policy is that our troops, paramilitary forces and our regular forces are deployed in sufficient numbers. They are capable of taking action there. And any foreign intrusion would be counterproductive,” he said Saturday. “People will not accept it. Questions of sovereignty come in.”

The United States has grown increasingly frustrated as al-Qaida, the Taliban and other militants thrive in Pakistan’s remote areas and in neighboring Afghanistan, and has offered U.S. troops to strike at terror networks. Critics in Washington also have expressed frustration with the new Pakistani government’s pursuit of peace deals in the region.

Leave it to Washington to be frustrated over someone else’s pursuit of peace.

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The Bush administration is pressing the opposition leaders who defeated Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf to allow the former general to retain his position, a move that Western diplomats and U.S. officials say could trigger the very turmoil the United States seeks to avoid.

U.S. officials, from President Bush on down, said this week that they think Musharraf, a longtime U.S. ally, should continue to play a role, despite his party’s rout in parliamentary elections Monday and his unpopularity in the volatile, nuclear-armed nation.

The U.S. is urging the Pakistani political leaders who won the elections to form a new government quickly and not press to reinstate the judges whom Musharraf ousted last year, Western diplomats and U.S. officials said Wednesday. If reinstated, the jurists likely would try to remove Musharraf from office.

More at McClatchy

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This ain’t gonna be pretty……

Pakistan’s opposition parties were poised to win parliamentary elections as voters sought an end to President Pervez Musharraf’s eight years of military rule.

“It seems, according to predictions, that the opposition has won,” Tariq Azeem, a spokesman for the pro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid-i-Azam, said by telephone from the capital, Islamabad.

Early results from the 64,000 polling booths showed gains for the late Benazir Bhutto’s Pakistan Peoples Party and former prime minister Mohammad Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League. A two-thirds majority would give the opposition the power to press Musharraf to reverse constitutional changes that have kept him in power since a 1999 military coup.

More at Bloomberg

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The CIA has concluded that members of al-Qaeda and allies of Pakistani tribal leader Baitullah Mehsud were responsible for last month’s assassination of former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto, and that they also stand behind a new wave of violence threatening that country’s stability, the agency’s director, Michael V. Hayden, said in an interview.
[...]

The same alliance between local and international terrorists poses a grave risk to the government of President Pervez Musharraf, a close U.S. ally in the fight against terrorism…

So, al-Qaeda was behind it all. But why Bhutto? I mean, with Musharraf being “a close U.S. ally in the fight against terrorism“, you would think al-Qaeda would have spent more energy going after him!

Am I missing something?

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It’s a better question for George Bush, actually. But where’s bin Laden in Charlie Wilson’s War?

I read a draft of the script last year, and while most of it hasn’t changed much, there were a few notable, disappointing omissions.

Let me be clear: Charlie Wilson’s War is an excellent film, one of the best I’ve seen all year. Overall, the cast is superb. The film combines substance with wit to spare. Aaron Sorkin is a master of exposition, using it as ammunition and often off’setting it with comedy and other activities: sitting in a hot tub, a belly dance, the old West Wing walk and talk, a dance of dueling meetings reminiscent of the Marx Brothers. Director Mike Nichols knows the medium well, but he’s also an actor’s director, well beloved by them. Hanks is quite good as Wilson. I still think Julia Roberts is miscast, but I understand why she was cast (huge box office draw). I was ecstatic to see Phillip Seymour Hoffman cast as Gust; it’s a perfect fit and one of his most enjoyable performances, and that’s saying a lot. His first scene alone is worth the price of admission, and he and Hanks have great chemistry. Ned Beatty plays a small, key role. The film even has Amy Adams, splendid as always (see Junebug if you haven’t), although a friend of mine noted, she should have been sporting big hair for the era (as most American women in the cast are).
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AlJazeera reports on the life and times of Benazir Bhutto

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Wolf Blitzer reports that Bhutto emailed friend Mark Siegel telling him if she was murdered, Musharraf is responsible.

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From Huffington Post:

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Some Froomkin:

President Bush’s coddling of Pakistani leader Pervez Musharraf suddenly risks being exposed as another case of White House anti-terror policies going spectacularly bad.

The ultimate anti-terror backfire, of course, is the war in Iraq, which U.S. intelligence shows has helped al Qaeda much more than it’s hurt it.

But now, with Musharraf declaring emergency rule over the weekend, the country that Bush considers a bulwark against terror may gain infamy as a crucible for terror instead.

Michael Hirsh writes for Newsweek: “After six years of propping up and making excuses for Pervez Musharraf . . . Washington doesn’t have many friends left to call on in Pakistan — perhaps the No. 1 generator of anti-U.S. terrorism in the world today. That’s the dilemma that democracy crusader George W. Bush faces after Musharraf, one of his firmest allies, took the dictator’s path and declared martial law on Saturday. . . .

“Some U.S. officials now fear that that this nuclear-armed nation is teetering on the verge of chaos, and the result could be every American’s worst nightmare: that nuclear material or knowhow, or God forbid, a bomb, falls into the hands of terrorists. ‘If you were to look around the world for where Al Qaeda is going to find its bomb, it’s right in their backyard,’ says Bruce Riedel, the former senior director for South Asia on the National Security Council.”

Continue reading at the Washington Post

Juan Cole on the situation in Pakistan.

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By LEE KEATH
The Associated Press

CAIRO, Egypt - Osama bin Laden will release a new message soon declaring war on Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, al-Qaida announced Thursday.

The announcement of the upcoming message came as al-Qaida released a new video in which bin Laden’s deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, boasted that the United States was being defeated in Afghanistan, Iraq and other fronts.

Speakers in the video promised more fighting in Afghanistan, North Africa and Sudan’s Darfur region.

The messages are part of a stepped-up propaganda campaign by al-Qaida around the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Earlier this month, bin Laden released two messages - including his first new appearance in a video in nearly three years.

A banner posted on an Islamic militant Web site on Thursday advertised that another message would be released, though it did not say whether bin Laden would appear in video or speak in an audiotape.

“Soon, God willing: ‘Come to Jihad (holy war)’, from sheik Osama bin Laden, God protect him” the banner read.

read more HERE

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By MATTHEW PENNINGTON
The Associated Press

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto will return to Pakistan from an eight-year exile on Oct. 18, her party said Friday. The government said she was free to come back but would have to face corruption cases against her.

Makhdoom Amin Fahim, vice president of Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party, announced the date at a press conference and said that Bhutto would fly back to Karachi. Supporters, throwing flower petals over assembled party leaders, chanted: “Long Live Benazir! Prime Minister Benazir!”

“The people of Pakistan will get real democracy” after Bhutto’s return, Fahim said, speaking in front of a huge portrait of the party leader.

Bhutto, who is in talks with President Gen. Pervez Musharraf that could see them share power after elections, would not be deported in the manner of another former premier, Nawaz Sharif, a government spokesman said. Sharif was expelled hours after he flew in on Monday.

That action sidelined Musharraf’s chief political rival while underlining the general’s willingness to take authoritarian steps to extend his eight-year rule, amid a surge in attacks by Islamic militants.

read more HERE

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By PAISLEY DODDS,
Associated Press Writer

LONDON - Pakistan’s exiled former prime minister said Wednesday that President Gen. Pervez Musharraf had agreed to step down as military chief in a move she expected before the next presidential election.

Such an agreement would be a key step forward in political negotiations for a power’sharing deal with the opposition.
[tag]
Benazir Bhutto[/tag], who has been engaged in talks with Musharraf on a power’sharing deal, also said corruption charges would be dropped against her and dozens of other lawmakers as part of the negotiations to restore civilian rule.

Bhutto, a two-time prime minister who left Pakistan in 1999 to avoid a government collapse, represents Pakistan’s main opposition party.

In a telephone interview with The Associated Press from London, she confirmed reports that Musharraf had agreed to step down as military chief.

“We’re very pleased that Gen. Musharraf has taken the decision to listen to the people of Pakistan by taking the decision to take off the uniform,” Bhutto told the AP. “I expected that he will step down (as army chief) before the presidential elections, but that is for the president to say.”

There was no immediate reaction from Musharraf to Bhutto’s comments.

read more HERE

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By SCOTT LINDLAW
The Associated Press

OAKLAND, Calif. - Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama said Wednesday it’s critical for Pakistan to be a constructive ally in fighting al-Qaida, one week after threatening military action to hunt down terrorists if President Pervez Musharraf doesn’t act.

Obama and his spokesman offered measured criticism of the Bush administration’s actions and policies on Pakistan. The candidate twice declined an opportunity to explain the difference between his proposals and the White House’s, but expressed sympathy for Musharraf, who faces a growing militant backlash in his Muslim nation.

“President Musharraf has a very difficult job, and it is important that we are a constructive ally with them in dealing with al-Qaida,” the Illinois senator said.

Obama did not repeat the most incendiary line from his foreign policy speech last Wednesday, when he promised: “If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf won’t act, we will.”

That pledge set off ripples of resentment in the relationship between Washington and Islamabad, prompting Pakistani officials to warn against U.S. incursions into their country.

Tariq Azim, Pakistan’s minister of state for information, said talk from the United States about the possibility of U.S. military action against al-Qaida in Pakistan “has started alarm bells ringing and has upset the Pakistani public.”

read more HERE

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By MATTHEW PENNINGTON
The Associated Press

Gosh! Could the United States Be next, Mr. Bush? - JS

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - The government of embattled Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf said Thursday it may impose a state of emergency because of “external and internal threats” and deteriorating law and order in the volatile northwest near the Afghan border.

Tariq Azim, minister of state for information, said talk from the United States about the possibility of U.S. military action against al-Qaida in Pakistan “has started alarm bells ringing and has upset the Pakistani public.” He mentioned Democratic presidential hopeful Barak Obama by name as an example of someone who made such comments, saying his recent remarks were one reason the government was debating a state of emergency.

But it appeared the motivation for a declaration of an emergency would be the domestic political woes of Musharraf, a key U.S. ally in the war on terrorism who took power in a 1999 coup.

His popularity has dwindled and his standing has been badly shaken by a failed bid to oust the country’s chief justice - an independent-minded judge likely to rule on expected legal challenges to the Musharraf’s bid to seek a new five-year presidential term this fall.

read more HERE

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