AfPak Notes – Week 7 – 2009

http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2009/02/pakistan_concedes_mu.php
Pakistan concedes Mumbai attack executed from its soil
By Bill RoggioFebruary 12, 2009 8:34 PM

After weeks of signaling the investigation of the Mumbai terror assault would not be traced back to Pakistan, the Pakistani government admitted for the first time that the operation was plotted in and executed from inside Pakistan. The government released its findings today and three Lashkar-e-Taiba leaders have been implicated.

“Some part of the conspiracy took place in Pakistan,” Rehman Malik, the adviser to Prime Minister Gilani said. “We have lodged an FIR [first information request or criminal case] against eight perpetrators, including mastermind Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi.” Pakistan has charged eight men with “abetting, directing, conspiring and facilitating a terrorist act.”

“We have gone an extra mile in conducting an investigation on the basis of information provided by India and we have proved that we are with the Indian people on the matter,” Malik said in an attempt to ease the tensions with India. Relations with India deteriorated after Pakistan’s ambassador to Britain claimed the investigation proved Pakistani territory was not used for the strike and said India’s evidence “could be fabricated.”

AfPak Notes – Week 6 – 2009

http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2009/02/suicide_bomber_kills_6.php
Suicide bomber kills more than 30 at Shia mosque in central Pakistan
By Bill RoggioFebruary 5, 2009 2:49 PM
More than 30 Shia Pakistani worshipers were killed and more than 50 wounded in a devastating suicide attack today outside a mosque in the town of Dera Ghazi Khan in the central Pakistan province of Punjab.

The bomber detonated in the midst of a procession of Shia mourning the death of Imam Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Mohammed and a central figure of Shia Islam. The bomber detonated just outside of the Johar Ali Imam Bargah mosque as the procession returned. Police are certain the bombing was a suicide attack as no crater was left at the scene of the attack. Casualties may rise as officials are still assessing the attack scene and many of those wounded are in critical condition.

The attack took place in Punjab province, well outside of the Northwest Frontier Province where the Taliban is fighting government forces in Swat, Bajaur, and Mohmand. Last year, Baitullah Mehsud, the commander of the Pakistani Taliban, had threatened to wage “jihad” and turn the provinces of Sindh and Punjab “into a furnace” if the operations in northwestern Pakistan did not cease.

Hezbollah Gutted – Eric Follath’s Remarkable Revelations

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,626412,00.html#ref=rss
05/23/2009 01:31 PMBREAKTHROUGH IN TRIBUNAL INVESTIGATION
New Evidence Points to Hezbollah in Hariri Murder
By Erich Follath

The United Nations special tribunal investigating the murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri has reached surprising new conclusions — and it is keeping them secret. According to information obtained by SPIEGEL, investigators now believe Hezbollah was behind the Hariri murder.

Ya Libnan 10 day Round up – 5/22/09

http://yalibnan.com/site/archives/2009/05/tuesday_news_br_41.php
Tuesday News Briefs
Published: Tuesday, 12 May, 2009 @ 1:35 PM in Beirut
Beirut -The focus today in Lebanon is on the visit of Syrian army chief of staff General Ali Habib who arrived this morning in Beirut, accompanied by a senior military delegation for talks with Lebanese president Michel Suleiman and other key Lebanese officials. The president has been meeting with the Syrian delegation since 1 PM .

According to media reports the talks will focus on:

- Controlling Lebanese-Syrian borders
- Cooperation on prevention of smuggling through land and sea
- Exchanging intelligence on Israel
- Giving logistical support to the Lebanese Armed Forces
- Resumption of military training sessions of Lebanese officials in Syria

The discussions could also include the case of Hussein Jaafar, the main suspect in the deadly ambush that targeted an army patrol last April in the Bekaa Valley and left four soldiers dead. Jaafar who traveled to Turkey from Syrian with forged Syrian documents was arrested in Turkey but later handed over to Damascus. Syria initially offered to extradite him to Lebanon but later reneged on its offer

AfPak Notes – Week 5 – 2009

http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2009/01/pakistani_pm_most_of.php

Pakistani PM: Most of tribal areas ‘cleared of the terrorists’
By Bill RoggioJanuary 30, 2009 12:21 AM
Pakistan’s prime minister and his closest adviser have claimed success against the Taliban and al Qaeda in Pakistan’s tribal areas. Both men also vowed to wrest control of the district of Swat from extremist control. But reports from the region paint a less optimistic picture.

Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani said the Taliban and al Qaeda have largely been driven from much of the tribal areas. “We are genuinely attacking the targets and the most areas have already been cleared of the terrorists,” Gilani told the international media at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. He also claimed al Qaeda operatives are no longer present inside Pakistan.

Rehman Malik, Gilani’s adviser on internal Pakistani security issues, also provided an upbeat assessment of the situation in the tribal areas. He claimed the Pakistani military has been successful in driving the Taliban from much of the tribal areas, including the Taliban and al Qaeda stronghold of Bajaur.

AfPak Notes – Week 4 – 2009

http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2009/01/taliban_rule_pakista.php

Taliban rule Pakistan’s ‘valley of death’
By Bill RoggioJanuary 23, 2009 1:50 AM
The Pakistani government has promised to restore its writ in the Taliban-controlled settled district of Swat in the insurgency-infested Northwest Frontier Province.

Swat, once renowned as Pakistan’s vacation paradise and described as the Switzerland of South Asia, is now referred to as the “valley of death” by the fearful Pakistanis still living there. The district has become the model Taliban police state. The Taliban have full control of the district and have implemented their austere version of sharia, or Islamic law.

The Taliban consolidated control in Swat over the past several months after nearly two years of fighting. Led by Mullah Fazlullah, the Taliban have defeated the Army, destroyed the police force, established a shadow government, and imposed sharia.

AfPak Notes – Week 3 – 2009

http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2009/01/banned_pakistani_ter.php
Banned Pakistani terror group re-emerges under new name
By Bill Roggio & Kaushik KapisthalamJanuary 15, 2009 4:38 PM
A Pakistan terror group behind last year’s terror assault in the Indian city of Mumbai has rebranded itself and held a protest in Lahore.

The Jamaat-ud Dawa, the front group for the al Qaeda-linked Lashkar-e-Taiba, has renamed itself Tehreek-e-Tahafuz Qibla Awal, or the Movement for the Safeguarding of the First Center of Prayer, according to Times Now, an Indian television channel.

The Tehreek-e-Tahafuz Qibla Awal held an anti-Israel protest in the Pakistani city of Lahore, close to Jamaat-ud Dawa’s headquarters in Muridke. “Addressing that rally were some of the top Jamaat and Lashkar leaders,” The Times of India reported. “The Jamaat-ud Dawa is clearly going about with business as usual, just under a different name.”

AfPak Notes – Week 2 – 2009

http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2009/01/al_qaedas_operations.php
Al Qaeda’s operations chief in Pakistan killed in New Year’s strike
By Bill RoggioJanuary 8, 2009 7:27 PM
The US killed al Qaeda’s chief of operations in the New Year’s Day missile strike in Pakistan’s Taliban-controlled tribal agency of South Waziristan, according to a report.

The Jan. 1 attack in the town of Karikot in South Waziristan killed Osama al Kini and his senior aide Sheikh Ahmed Salim Swedan, intelligence officials told The Washington Post. Two other unnamed operatives were also killed in the airstrike.

Osama al Kini is an alias for Fahid Mohammed Ally Msalam, a Kenyan national and a senior al Qaeda commander who was wanted for his role as a planner of the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya. The twin bombings killed 224 civilians and wounded more than 5,000 others. The Rewards for Justice Web site posted a $5 million reward for information leading to his capture.

AfPak Notes – Week 1 – 2009

http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2009/01/us_kills_four_al_qae.php

US kills 4 al Qaeda operatives in South Waziristan strike
By Bill RoggioJanuary 1, 2009 7:33 AM
The US military started the New Year with an airstrike in Pakistan’s Taliban-control tribal agency of South Waziristan.

An unmanned Predator strike aircraft launched Hellfire missiles at a vehicle and a hideout in the town of Karikot. Four people were killed and several were injured in missile strikes, Geo News reported. Several of those wounded are in critical condition. No senior Taliban or al Qaeda leaders have been reported killed in the attack.

Ya Libnan Two Week Roundup – 5/11/09

http://yalibnan.com/site/archives/2009/04/wednesday_news_45.php
Wednesday News Briefs
Published: Wednesday, 29 April, 2009 @ 4:18 PM in Beirut
Beirut : The big surprise of the day was the decision by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon to release the four detained Generals, held for nearly four years without charge over the assassination of Lebanon’s former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. The STL prosecutor Daniel Bellemare ordered the release of four Lebanese generals.

judge Daniel Fransen who made the announcement live on Lebanese television and via an Internet webcast said: “The pre-trial judge orders, unless they are held in another case, the release with immediate effect of the four generals”.
“The prosecutor considers that the evidence available to him currently is not sufficiently credible to request the detention of those persons,” Fransen said. But added : “Bellemare said that the generals could be arrested again if more evidence against them is uncovered.”

“Based on that and the fact that these persons are presumed innocent, the prosecutor does not believe there is a need to keep them in detention at this point in the proceedings.”

There was no reason to believe that the prosecutor’s conclusion was wrong, said Fransen, adding that the generals “cannot at this stage of the investigation be considered as either suspects or accused persons.

“As a result … they do not meet the conditions to be placed in provisional detention.”

The four have been detained in Lebanon since 2005, but are legally in the custody of the tribunal since Beirut relinquished its jurisdiction in the Hariri case this month following the official opening of the STL in March.

They are the former head of the presidential guard, Mustafa Hamdan, 53, security services director Jamil Sayyed, 58, domestic security chief Ali Hajj, 52, and military intelligence chief Raymond Azar, 56.

Fransen said a key witness had retracted a statement that initially incriminated the generals, undermining the case against them.