The two countries' divergent views of the threat posed by Islamist extremists, and the Obama administration's efforts to press Pakistan to move against groups that menace Afghanistan have produced strains between the two countries and between Pakistan's civilian government and its powerful military and Inter Services Intelligence agency — and a growing drumbeat of Pakistani allegations about alleged nefarious CIA activities in Pakistan.

The Obama administration is stepping up pressure on Pakistan to expand and reorient its fight against the Taliban and Al Qaeda, warning that failing to do so would undercut the new strategy and troop increase for Afghanistan that President Obama is preparing to approve, American officials say.

Washington has been negotiating secret and “highly sensitive understandings” to “provide added security for the Pakistani arsenal in case of a crisis,” investigative journalist Seymour Hersh reports. “The secrecy surrounding the understandings was important because there is growing antipathy toward America in Pakistan, as well as a history of distrust,” Hersh writes in the November 16th issue of The New Yorker magazine. “Many Pakistanis believe that America’s true goal is not to keep their weapons safe but to diminish or destroy the Pakistani nuclear complex,” he writes. The arsenal is a source of great pride among Pakistanis, “who view the weapons as symbols of their nation’s status and as an essential deterrent against an attack by India.”

"Charles Cogan, who was the chief of the Near East and South Asia Division in the [CIA’s] Directorate of Operations, from 1979-1984 and was CIA chief in Paris went on record in the September 22, 2008 issue of World Policy Journal with an article titled "Partners In Time," where he described the creation of the Taliban as a wholly owned subsidiary of Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence, with the purpose of creating a Pakistani-friendly government in Afghanistan." - AND MORE

Pakistan has been a nuclear power for two decades, and has an estimated eighty to a hundred warheads, scattered in facilities around the country. The success of the latest attacks raised an obvious question: Are the bombs safe? Asked this question the day after the Rawalpindi raid, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said, “We have confidence in the Pakistani government and the military’s control over nuclear weapons.” Clinton—whose own visit to Pakistan, two weeks later, would be disrupted by more terrorist bombs—added that, despite the attacks by the Taliban, “we see no evidence that they are going to take over the state.” Clinton’s words sounded reassuring, and several current and former officials also said in interviews that the Pakistan Army was in full control of the nuclear arsenal. But the Taliban overrunning Islamabad is not the only, or even the greatest, concern. The principal fear is mutiny—that extremists inside the Pakistani military might stage a coup, take control of some nuclear assets, or even divert a warhead.

Tensions have flared between both China and India militaries along their disputed 2,175 mile-long border, with both sides alleging more frequent troop incursions in recent weeks. China is upset when the Indian prime minister recently visit the disputed region. China considers an Indian-occupied piece of it’s own Tibetan Autonomous Region, has added flames to the fire. China of course already deeply resents the fact that the top Tibetan leader, and several hundred thousand exiled Tibetans, are allowed to reside in India. India’s Maoist rebels are now present in 20 states and have evolved into a potent and lethal insurgency. In the last four years, the Maoists have killed more than 900 Indian security officers. Indian leaders are now preparing to deploy nearly 70,000 paramilitary officers to hunt down the guerrillas.The Maoists, however, do not want to secede or be absorbed. Their goal is to topple the system. India’s rapid economic growth has made it an emerging global power but also deepened stark inequalities in society. Maoists accuse the government of trying to push tribal groups off their land to gain access to raw materials and have sabotaged roads, bridges and even an energy pipeline.

After three days of encounters with America-bashing Pakistanis -- who rejected her contention that the U.S. and Pakistan face a common enemy -- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Friday that "we're not getting through." Prominent women and tribesmen from the North West Frontier Province delivered the same hostile message that she'd heard the two preceding days from students and journalists: Pakistanis aren't ready to endorse American friendship despite an eight-year-old anti-terrorism alliance between the countries and a multi-billion-dollar new U.S. aid package. One tribesman bluntly told her: "Your presence in the region is not good for peace."

A car packed with 150 kilograms (330 pounds) of explosives detonated at Peshawar's Meena Bazaar Wednesday, killing at least 90 people and injuring more than 200 others, according to a government official...The massive casualties prompted a state of emergency at Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar, which is appealing to other medical centers -- and to the public -- to donate blood, hospital officials said. The attack is the deadliest ever carried out in Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province. It coincides with a visit to Pakistan by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

"The US has been warned that its use of drones to target suspected terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan may violate international law."

If the U.S. can, why can't we?...Pakistani forces detained 11 Iranian Revolutionary Guards on Monday for crossing into the country days after an Iranian commander was reported saying his men should be allowed to confront terrorists in Pakistan, officials said.The Revolutionary Guards were arrested in the Mashkhel area on the border with Iran eight days after a suicide bomber killed 42 people, including six Revolutionary Guard commanders, in Iran's southeastern Sistan-Baluchestan province.Iran says the group operates from across the border in Pakistan. On Tuesday last week, a senior Revolutionary Guards commander said his force should be given permission to confront terrorists inside Pakistan, state media reported.

A suspected nuclear weapons site in Pakistan was hit by a suicide bomb attack, raising fears about the security of the nuclear arsenal, while two other terrorist blasts made it another bloody day in the country's struggle against extremism.Increasingly daring and sophisticated attacks by terrorists allied to al Qaida on some of Pakistan's most sensitive and best protected installations have led to warnings that extremists could damage a nuclear facility or seize some nuclear material. The country's nuclear sites are located mostly in the northwest of the country, close to the capital Islamabad, to keep them away from the border with arch-enemy India. However, that places them close to Pakistani Taliban extremists, who are massed in the northwest.

The truth is hard to pin down in South Waziristan, where a bloody war is unfolding behind an invisible veil. Since the ground operation began last Saturday, pitting 30,000 government soldiers against an estimated 10,000 Taliban and al-Qaida fighters, the area has been entirely cut off from the outside world. Phone lines are cut and it is impossible for journalists, foreign or local, to enter the battlezone. As fighting raged for a third day in South Waziristan todayrefugees flooded into Dera Ismail Khan, a dusty, danger-laced town on the southern edge of the tribal area. Aid workers there said they had registered about 160,000 people in six centres; they expect the figure to jump by at least 100,000 in the coming weeks.

"The core challenge to President Barack Obama’s Afghan War may not be the Taliban, nor even al-Qaeda, but rather Pakistan’s shadowy intelligence service, the ISI, with its dual loyalties when it comes to fighting Islamic extremists. Indeed, the success of Obama’s Af-Pak policy may depend on whether Pakistan’s ISI – officially named the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate – can be neutralized or dismantled. If the ISI remains intact, Obama may never know exactly what side of the street the Pakistani government is really working, given ISI’s historic role in organizing many of the miltant Islamic forces that are now challenging U.S. interests in the region."

The realisation that Washington is stoking a conflict approaching all-out civil war is gradually dawning in the US. New York Post columnist Ralph Peters drew a comparison with post-invasion Iraq. "Civil war never quite happened [there]. Yet no one seems to notice that we're now caught up in two authentic civil wars – one in Afghanistan, the other in Pakistan," he said. By lumping the two together in one "Afpak" policy, the Obama administration had effectively made both problems worse. Neither extra US troops, nor extra aid, nor more "hugs-not-slugs counterinsurgency nonsense" was the answer, Peters argued. "The only hope for either beleaguered territory (these really are territories, not authentic states) is a decision by its own population to fight and defeat the Taliban."

Sure why not. Hell, let's just give Egypt some too. For the first time in two decades, Pakistan's air force is about to get new F-16 fighter jets.Pakistani military and government officials were on hand Tuesday at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. in Fort Worth for ceremonies unveiling the first of 18 new F-16s to be delivered in the next year.And to highlight the continuing value of the F-16 to Lockheed and Fort Worth, the Defense Department announced that it had notified Congress of a possible sale of 24 F-16s to Egypt, along with spare engines, radars and weapons, a deal potentially worth about $3.2 billion.The Pakistan jet sale, worth roughly $2 billion, was authorized in 2006 by President George W. Bush. It was the first to Pakistan since 1990, when then-President George H.W. Bush cut off delivery of 28 previously purchased planes over the country's nuclear weapons development program. (boom boom) "Many people thought this day would never come," Pakistan's ambassador to the U.S., Husain Haqqani, said in remarks at the ceremony. "It's a historic and defining moment."

The rate of strikes by pilotless United States "drone" aircraft on insurgents in Pakistan is rising under Barack Obama and could pick up further after a White House review of regional war strategy, according to analysts. There have been 39 drone strikes in Pakistan since the US president took office not quite nine months ago, according to a tally of reports from Pakistani security officials, local government officials and residents. That compares with 33 strikes i ADVERTISEMENTn the 12 months before he was sworn in on 20 January

MARDAN: Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) leader Sirajul Haq has alleged that the United States ‘besieged’ Pakistan from four sides and created a law and order situation in the country to pave the way for NATO forces to enter the country. Addressing a press conference at the press club here, Sirajul Haq, the JI Naib Ameer, said that providing accommodation to officials of the US embassy in a five-star hotel in Peshawar was a ‘dangerous plan’ that would have a serious repercussion. He alleged that the government also sold four hours of Radio Pakistan to an American radio station, saying the underground US activities in Pakistan were confusing and deplorable. He added that due to the flawed polices of the present government, people were facing law and order situation. He said the US wanted to create chaos in the country through the Kerry-Lugar Bill and his party had rejected the bill and announced the start of peaceful agitation.

The militant threat to Pakistan has been highlighted by four major terrorist attacks over the last nine days, including a suicide attack on a U.N. office in the capital that killed five staffers and a 22-hour siege on the army's headquarters over the weekend.Pakistani jets bombed militant targets in the main insurgent stronghold along the Afghan border Tuesday ahead of an expected ground offensive there, while the army killed 26 insurgents elsewhere in the northwest, authorities said.The army says 80% of the militant attacks plaguing nuclear-armed Pakistan are planned from South Waziristan, while the United States says insurgent leaders blamed for spiraling violence in Afghanistan are also based in the lawless, remote area.

The Obusha AfPak Money Pit: Unlike the 'public option,' Congress doesn't ask if funding the Taleban to blow up contractors' bridges will add to the US deficit By Lori Price, www.legitgov.org 03 Oct 2009 Ever wonder WHY (besides protecting gas and opium pipelines) the US is *still* in Afghanistan? Ever consider WHY US taxpayers are funding infrastructure programs in *Afghanistan,* instead of in the US? Today, this tidbit: Arrest Warrant Out for USAID Contractor in Afghanistan --A federal arrest warrant was quietly issued last month for a former official employed by the major US government reconstruction contractor here in Afghanistan, in a case that underscores the lure of potential contract fraud in Afghanistan. Scott "Max" Anthony Walker was a "security coordinator" for the $1.4 billion infrastructure program commissioned by US Agency for International Development and funded by US taxpayers.

United States President Barack Obama, co-chairing with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown the first summit meeting of the Friends of Democratic Pakistan, on Thursday announced that the US Senate had unanimously passed the Kerry-Lugar bill, authorizing $1.5 billion in economic assistance for Pakistan annually over five years. This amount, which is triple what Pakistan has been receiving, in addition to the several billions of dollars Pakistan receives annually in other military and non-military aid. In response, it appears that Pakistan's political leaders have consented to military operations against militants and al-Qaeda in the North Waziristan and South Waziristan tribal areas on the border with Afghanistan.