Word: islamabad
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...special representative Richard Holbrooke, in Islamabad on Thursday for talks with Pakistani generals and President Asif Ali Zardari, lauded the arrest of the Taliban commander as a "tremendous achievement for Pakistani intelligence and American collaboration." As the Taliban's second in command - after spiritual leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, also in hiding - and its top war strategist, Baradar has firsthand knowledge of the links between the Taliban and al-Qaeda's operations in Pakistan and Afghanistan. And Washington says he is willing to share his secrets with Pakistani and CIA interrogators. Unidentified U.S. officials quoted by the New York Times, which...
Meanwhile, U.S. diplomats in Islamabad, instead of ignoring the outlandish whoppers on local TV news channels, are moving more swiftly to deny them before they spread and gain credence. Military analyst Masood suggests that the U.S. State and Defense officials who are constantly shuttling to Islamabad should offer the military assurance that Washington has no intention of meddling with their nuclear arsenal or with their defenses against rival neighbor India. "The Americans have to take measures that lower the paranoia. They have to persuade the army that the U.S. is not after Pakistan's nukes," he says. Given the fever...
...conditions for a perfect storm of anti-U.S. feeling have risen, according to Samina Ahmed, director for the International Crisis Group in Islamabad. "What we're seeing is a nexus between an irresponsible media, the mullahs and the military, which is using anti-Americanism to beat a weak civilian government on the head," she says. Ahmed suggests that while the Obama Administration may need the generals' support in the fight against the Taliban and al-Qaeda - who have sanctuaries inside Pakistan's tribal territories - it should not falter in trying to prop up the country's civil institutions. Otherwise...
...strings attached. The generals opposed one of the conditions of the bill: that the U.S. must be satisfied that the Pakistani military was fighting terrorism and not, as the legislation said, "subverting the political and judicial processes of Pakistan." Says Talat Masood, a retired general and military analyst in Islamabad: "Some in the army think this is intrusive and a loss to our sovereignty...
...Islamabad politicians and diplomats say that the military opposes any measure that might boost the current President, who was swept into power in 2008 on a sympathy vote for his late wife, Benazir Bhutto, assassinated the previous year. Zardari has been dogged by old corruption charges and his current administration has proved highly unpopular, allowing the army to take a commanding role in security and foreign affairs, and that includes dealing with Washington.(See the difficulties Pakistani journalists had covering the Siddiqui trial...