The Londoner

Ever since US Sergeant  Robert Bales  surrendered after calmly massacring Afghan women and children, he has been depicted as a man under unusual personal circumstances. A high-ranking US official told the  New York Times : “ When it all comes out, it will be a combination of stress, alcohol and domestic issues – he just snapped ”. Unlike those sentenced to death by drones flying high over Waziristan, Bales will enjoy a thorough investigation. Whisked out of Afghanistan, he may or may not ever be convicted. If convicted, the penalty is unlikely to exceed a few prison years; “good behaviour” may qualify him for an early parole. Although President Obama and Secretary Clinton habitually apologise to the Afghan people after every such atrocity — of which there is a long list — the fact that they happen is inevitable. Indian troops in Kashmir, and Pakistani soldiers in Balochistan, have not behaved any differently. At the core, the problem is the forcible occupation by an army of anoth

KABUL — Two NATO soldiers killed by a man in Afghan army uniform in southern Afghanistan on Monday were British, an Afghan official and a Western security source said. The Western security source, who requested anonymity, told AFP that an Afghan soldier was also shot dead, as well as the killer, in the incident at a provincial reconstruction team base in Lashkar Gah in Helmand province. The incident raised to 13 the number of foreign troops to die in a series of such killings this year. Almost one in seven of the 90 foreign soldiers to have died in Afghanistan since January has been killed in so-called "green-on-blue" attacks, significantly raising tensions between NATO forces and their local colleagues. NATO's US-led mission in Afghanistan is training Afghan forces to take over national security by the end of 2014, allowing foreign combat troops to withdraw after a costly and lengthy war against the Taliban insurgency. Read the full story here.  

With formal charges looming against his client within days, the lawyer for an Army sergeant suspected in the horrific nighttime slaughter of 16 Afghan villagers was flying Sunday to Kansas and getting ready to meet for the first time with the 10-year veteran. John Henry Browne of Seattle said he planned to meet Monday with Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, who is being held in an isolated cell at Fort Leavenworth's military prison. Charges against Bales, 38, are expected to be filed within a week and if the case goes to court the trial will be held in the United States, said a legal expert with the U.S. military familiar with the investigation. That expert said charges were still being decided and that the location for any trial had not yet been determined. If the suspect is brought to trial, it is possible that Afghan witnesses and victims would be flown to the United States to participate, he said. Military lawyers say once attorneys involved in the initial investigation

BY SIKANDER HAYAT Balochistan is not getting resolved and there are no signs that it will get anywhere near resolution in near to medium term. Looking from the Baloch militant 's point of view,  it is very clear that they are not getting their goals nor there is any hope of achieving them. They are disrupting the march of advancement in Baloch dominated areas of the province and killing both frontier corps and ethnically non Baloch residents of the province. In all this killing, there is an exception and that exception is of Baloch militants not touching the Pashtuns of the province. According to Wikipedia, Balochistan is only 50% Baloch and the rest is mostly Pashtun with other smaller ethnicities making up the rest of the population.  If they start fighting Pashtuns, they know they will be routed and without taking on the Pashtun they cannot achieve there goal, which is primarily to make the province a Baloch dominated land. This is a catch twenty two situation and a c

By Sikander Hayat PTI chariman Imran Khan is declaring his assets in Pakistan. He says that he has nothing to hide. He asked Nawaz Sharif and Asif Zardari and all other major leaders to declare their assets. He calls on the media wing of both parties to stop lying and declare their own assets before defaming   Shaukat Khanum Hospital . Imran Khan said that he was never in government so he has no way of squandering public money whereas other parties currently in power in Pakistan have corruption running in their veins and people like Hanif Abbasi who have made billions of rupees by selling counterfeit drugs will be sued in court of law to make sure that truth comes out. Meanwhile Shah Mehmood Qureshi has been made vice chairman of Pakistan Tekreek -e- Insaaf.

According to media reports coming in from Karachi, a large attack has started huge fires on the PNS Mehran.

By Sikander Hayat It is very important that now when Osama is dead , USA leaves Afghanistan as soon as possible. After all, America attacked Kabul to capture Bin Laden and now when that task is done, is there an excuse to carry on? Pakistan would definitely like them to leave sooner rather than later to show the Pakhtun people of Pakistan and Afghanistan that invaders are gone and that there is no need to carry on fighting any longer. Let's assume that America leaves Afghanistan today, there are number of things that will happen: 1. Karzai government will start to weaken immediately 2. Taliban will take control of the Pakhtun areas of Afghanistan 3. India will have to leave Afghanistan in a hurry which will stop it from funding and training terrorists operating inside Pakistan, especially in the Baluchistan province 4. Pakistanis will have to finish the Pakistani Taliban in a hurry 5. Iran, Russia and India will start supporting Tajiks, Uzbeks &am

By Sikander Hayat It is paramount in the wake of US attack on Pakistan in the dead of the night that Pakistan make a stand. Pakistan is on a slippery slope where they were not even trusted with a joint operation and now the time has come that even third class countries like India are threatening Pakistan. How Pakistan came to this place. This place where its leadership is now totally humiliated in the eyes of their own public. Pakistani public is asking questions about the capabilities of Pakistan military and it's intelligence services. They are rightly asking about the public money that is being used by Pakistan Army and which can be used by the government to build school,hospitals,roads e.t.c. Today's attack on Hazara town in Quetta (where terrorists operating from within Afghanistan at the behest of Indian RAW killed at least 8 innocent people and wounded many more) clearly shows the need for Pakistan to finally stand up to America. It is time to say enough is enough and

By Sikander Hayat Osama is dead. He died in very mysterious circumstances near Pakistan military academy and an American marine base was nearby as well. Hard to believe that nobody knew that Osama was living few miles from the military academy in Kakool. Now that Osama is dead and apparently buried at sea. ( By the way there is no sea anywhere near Abbottabad for thousands of miles), there are other issue to be looked at. It is very important now that Osama Bin Laden is dead that America leaves Pakistan for good. No more interference in internal affairs of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Pakistan has suffered enough already and will be well served by Americans going back home. More than half the budget in Pakistan is being spent on the war against militants who have risen due to American presence in Afghanistan. Pakistan & Afghanistan have suffered beyond what they could handle due to Osama's attack on twin towers in America. Both countries were invaded by United States in t

By Sikander Hayat It is now becoming clear that NATO will leave Afghanistan in 2014. The exit strategy was devised in Lisbon over the last week and the main pillar of this strategy is to train a large Afghan army and put it on the streets of Afghanistan while a large American force will stay in the country but won't leave the bases after 2015. To me it looks as if America will stay in Afghanistan for a long time to come albeit in a South Korea/Japan mould . There are many voices in the region who believe that prolonged presence of the foreign troops will only prolong the conflict in Afghanistan by making making recruitment of fighters for Taliban easier. I tend to agree with this view as I see only the immediate neighbours of Afghanistan can stabilise Afghanistan with the help of United States. Among these neighbours, Iran & Pakistan will have to play a major role and America has to recognise this role. Also Iran & Pakistan will have to put aside their differences to

Taliban Fighters There are at least 12 channels of contacts with insurgent leaders in Afghanistan , involving states, organisations and freelancers. They have one thing in common: none have got far. A diplomat in Afghanistan refers to them, somewhat dismissively, as the "peace industry" – toiling away mostly out of sight, producing little of substance. The hope is that when all sides consider the time ripe, the fragile strands will coalesce into something more durable. The painstaking work of forging contacts with a fierce insurgency has been going on for almost as long as the war. What has changed recently is these talks have been gaining press coverage. That does not mean they are making more progress. It is more likely that it is now in the interest of some of the parties to advertise them. In Washington, the December strategy review is coming up, and it suits the US military and the Kabul government to demonstrate a political dividend for the military and civil inves

Louis Berger, a major construction company headquartered in New Jersey, has  agreed to pay out a record $69.3m in fines (pdf) , the largest ever such penalty imposed on a contractor working in the war zones of Afghanistan and Iraq. The company has been awarded  billions of dollars in contracts for the construction of roads, schools and electrical plants in Afghanistan . Harold Salomon, a former senior financial analyst at the company, discovered that company officials were sending bills  for items like the cost of the music system in its Washington, DC office to the US Agency for International Development (USAID). Salomon blew the whistle on estimated overcharging of up to $20m and took the company to court with the help of Phillips & Cohen, a trial law firm in Washington, DC. "Today I can affirm to those who told me the Louis Berger Group can get away with anything that they were wrong," Salomon said in a press statement, when the settlement was announced on 5 November.

KABUL: An overwhelming majority of Afghans support the government’s efforts to negotiate peace with Taliban insurgents, according to a poll released Tuesday that ranks insecurity as the top concern among citizens, followed by unemployment and corruption. Some 83 per cent of Afghan adults back efforts to secure the country through negotiations with armed, anti-government groups, the survey conducted by the Asia Foundation said. That’s up from 71 per cent last year. The report also said that 55 per cent of Afghan adults had no sympathy at all for the armed opposition groups — up from 36 per cent last year — and another 26 per cent had only a little sympathy. Moreover, 81 per cent — 10 per cent more than last year — support programs to lure Taliban foot soldiers off the battlefield by providing assistance, jobs and housing to those who lay down their arms and reintegrate into society. President Hamid Karzai has made reconciliation a top priority and recently formed a 70-member High Peace

From Daily Telegraph Mr Gorbachev, who pulled Russian troops out of Afghanistan in 1989 after a 10-year war, said the US had no alternative but to withdraw troops. "Victory is impossible in Afghanistan. [Barack] Obama is right to pull the troops out. No matter how difficult it will be," he told the BBC. Mr Gorbachev added that as the Soviets prepared to withdraw from Afghanistan, the US was training militants, "the same ones who today are terrorising Afghanistan and more and more of Pakistan". He said that because of this, withdrawal would be more difficult. "But what's the alternative - another Vietnam? Sending in half-a-million troops? That wouldn't work." His comments came amid news that Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian president, will attend a Nato summit next month, to discuss plans for Russian forces to return to Afghanistan. Nato officials said Russia had agreed to sell helicopters to Afghanistan and provide training. Moscow will allow

By Sikander Hayat 1. United States forgot the important war of Afghanistan and invaded Iraq to fight an enemy (Al Qaida) which was not there. George Bush Junior had a personal vendetta against Saddam Hussian who fought in the first Gulf war against George Bush Senior & survived. Bush Junior wanted to finish Saddam off & made use of some dodgy intelligence about weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) to invade Iraq. America took her eyes off the ball which was Afghanistan for many years and is now paying the price in life & money. 2. Important resources were diverted from Afghanistan to Iraq leaving Afghan war not properly funded for many years. Both in terms of man power & hardware, Afghanistan was under resourced to point that many in America almost forgot that they were engaged in an active conflict in another country with the name of Afghanistan. 3. When America neglected Afghanistan, space was created for the Taliban to return and convince the local population

By Sikander Hayat Apparently ISI & Pakistan are so strong & powerful that mighty United States, NATO & India are all feeling a bit defeated & helpless in the mountains of Afghanistan. “Leaks” never happen without a reason and this “leak” is no different. But no one wants to know the real causes of defeat in Afghanistan and I would like to mention a few of these reasons here as follows: 1. United States forgot the important war of Afghanistan and invaded Iraq to fight an enemy which was not there. 2. Important resources were diverted from Afghanistan to Iraq leaving Afghan war not properly funded for a while. 3. When America neglected Afghanistan, space was created for the Taliban to return and convince the local population that foreign forces were not in for the long haul. 4. Indian involvement in Afghanistan to the extent that Indians have consulates all along the Pakistan Afghanistan border which threatened Pakistan’s security and made Pakistan chose former mujahidin

By Sikander Hayat It looks as if Pakistan is back in frame as far as Afghanistan is concerned and the Americans now very clearly know and demonstrates that without Pakistan there is no solution to Afghan quagmire. They have relied on India for 8 years but Indian influence went so far and when push came to shove, Indians were told to gradually pull back their operations from Afghanistan and we shall see in near future that as soon as United States leave Afghanistan, India will leave with it. In recent months all major afghan leaders have seen these winds of change and most of them are now bending over backwards to convince Pakistan of their support. Pakistan for the time being is keeping its cards close to the chest but it has told the world including United Stets that an anti-Pakistan Afghanistan will not be tolerated. Meeting in Turkey and then in London were used to hammer home this message to India to back off. I don’t know if this has anything to do with India’s new found w