President Obama was struggling to balance the United States' relationship with two crucial but difficult allies on Sunday, after a deal to reopen supply lines through Pakistan to Afghanistan fell apart just as Mr Obama began talks on ending the NATO alliance's combat role in the Afghan war.

Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri urged people in Saudi Arabia to follow the example set by popular revolutions in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia and rise up.

Amid fragile global economic recovery and its impact on India, Congress member and former Planning Commission member Bhalchandra Mungekar on Tuesday warned that if government does not take "urgent" steps, the country could face a bigger crisis.

Facing a collapse in investor confidence and a decline in the rupee to a record low against the dollar, India’s finance minister said Wednesday it was time for “some austerity” — but not time to panic.

The US ambassador to Pakistan, Cameron Munter, is to step down this summer after serving less than two years in the job, a US official said Tuesday.

Munter has been Washington’s man on the diplomatic frontline at a time when relations between the two countries have dramatically worsened, especially over the covert raid that killed Osama bin Laden last May and US air strikes that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers in November.

US ambassadors usually serve three-year terms, but in posts considered as tough as Pakistan, are allowed to serve two years with the option to extend for a third.

The official said it was the ambassador’s decision to go and denied a press report speculating the move was related to poor relationships with Islamabad and Washington.

“He is not being sacked, he has decided to move on,” the official told AFP.

Clinton presses India to cut oil imports from Iran.

The president is waging a private war against private persons – even Americans – whose deaths he obviously believes will keep America safe. But he is doing so without congressional authorization, in violation of the Constitution, and in a manner that jeopardizes our freedom.

Who will keep us safe from a president who wants to use drones here? How long will it be before local American governments – 313 of which already possess drones – use them to kill here because they are surgical and a substitute for due process? Can you imagine the outcry if Cuba or China launched drones at their dissidents in Florida or California and used Obama’s behavior in Pakistan as a justification?

How long will it be before even the semblance of our Constitution is gone?

And get this, and get it good — all these missile strikes that kill people are against "militant suspects."

Got it? — "I suspect you are a militant, therefore I am going to kill you."

There is no requirement to legally identify a suspected enemy of the United States before firing a missile at him. Whether people in the sights of drone cameras live or die is determined by a nimble-fingered mafia of robo-cowboys playing assassination video games. To use a cliche, they embody police, judge, jury and executioner in a court of no appeal.

The latest high-level talks on ending a diplomatic deadlock between the United States and Pakistan ended in failure on Friday over Pakistani demands for an unconditional apology from the Obama administration for an airstrike. The White House, angered by the recent spectacular Taliban attacks in Afghanistan, refuses to apologize.

The administration had been seriously debating whether to say “I’m sorry” to the Pakistanis’ satisfaction — until April 15, when multiple, simultaneous attacks struck Kabul and other Afghan cities.

Why then did the Obama administration commit itself to releasing more than $1 billion to a government that has challenged its attempt to bring to justice an alleged mastermind of cross-border terrorism?

The answer lies in what happened at two Pakistani border posts 1.5 miles from the Afghan frontier in the early hours of November 26, 2011. NATO fighter aircraft and helicopters based in Afghanistan carried out a two-hour-long raid on these posts, killing 24 soldiers. Enraged, Pakistan’s government shut the two border crossings through which the U.S. and NATO had until then sent a significant portion of their war supplies into Afghanistan.

The White House has no intention to end CIA drone strikes against terrorists targets on Pakistani soil, US officials say, possibly setting the two countries up for diplomatic tensions after Pakistan’s parliament unanimously approved new guidelines for the country’s troubled relationship with the United States.

Yesterday’s statement from the Pakistani parliament has not changed anything, according to Obama Administration officials, who insist that drone strikes against Pakistan’s tribal area will continue over any objections. They also addressed reports that the reduction in attacks in recent weeks was an effort to placate Pakistan, insisting that the strikes proved how successful the assassination campaign has been, and that it has sent everyone into hiding.

Gilani reiterated Pakistan's call for the United States, the source of billions of dollars in military and economic aid, to respect the South Asian nation's sovereignty.

A halt in drone strikes and an unconditional apology for the NATO attack were the national security committee's main recommendations.

In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said the United States would look forward to discussing the parliamentary recommendations with Pakistan's government.

"We respect the seriousness with which parliament's review of U.S.-Pakistan relations has been conducted," Nuland said. "We seek a relationship with Pakistan that is enduring, strategic, and more clearly defined.

Pakistani lawyer Shahzad Akbar has been invited to speak at an International Drone Summit in Washington DC on April 28, but the U.S. government is failing to grant him a visa.

"Denying a visa to people like me is denying Americans their right to know what the U.S. government and its intelligence community are doing to children, women and other civilians in this part of the world," Akbar said. "The CIA, which operates the drones in Pakistan, does not want anyone challenging their killing spree. But the American people should have the right to know."

The CIA's secret drone program has killed hundreds of people in Pakistan with no due process and no accountability. Akbar represents families whose innocent loved ones have been killed and maimed in these drone attacks.

But now a rising new element of discord threatens to precipitate a new armed clash between southern Asia’s two nuclear powers – water.

Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has announced that Islamabad plans to purchase 1,100 megawatts (MW) more electricity from its western neighbor, Iran.

The electricity supplied from Iran to the Pakistani Balochistan Province would prove especially helpful in overcoming the country’s energy shortage, Gilani said during a meeting with the Iranian Vice President Mohammad-Javad Mohammadizadeh in Boao, China.

The highly anticipated meeting between President Obama and Pakistani Prime Minister Yousef Raza Gilani, potentially the last one before Gilani is jailed for contempt of court, was longer than initially scheduled, according to officials familiar with it, and centered on drone strikes.

The discussion saw Gilani reiterating parliament’s demand that the US halt all its drone strikes against Pakistan, and Obama insisting that the US is “not ready” to do that, and that the strikes will eventually “be helpful in eliminating terror.”

Pakistan's main religious parties, Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and Difa-e-Pakistani Council (DPC), have warned the country against reopening NATO supply routes into Afghanistan, Press TV reports.

A Pakistani minister says trade levels with Iran have increased over the past few years despite US sanctions imposed against the Islamic Republic over its nuclear energy program.

India has become one of Iran’s most important trading partners, and has been increasing its ties to Iran since sanctions have been imposed by the West. Indeed, India has agreed to use creative payment methods for Iranian oil. See this, this, this and this.

Why would Iran carry out a terror attack on one of its most important trading partners … one which has agreed to help help Iran escape from sanctions?

We learned today that there are US ground troops in Yemen, but what about India? Depends on who you ask.

US Pacific Command head Admiral Robert Willard announced today that US special forces have been deployed to India, along with Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Maldives, as an effort to fight the Lashkar-e Taiba (LeT), a militant faction mostly active in Kashmir.

Though Willard was very clear about there being teams deployed to India, the US Embassy and the Indian Defense Ministry later denied the claims, saying that there are no US troops of any type inside India.

The US military's top transport commander says overland cargo routes through Pakistan must be reopened to North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) for the United States to complete its pullout from Afghanistan by the end of 2014.

Speaking in a news conference today, Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Khar rejected US demands to end all energy ties with neighboring Iran, saying that the ties are in Pakistan’s national interest and will be expanded, particularly as it relates to the controversial gas pipeline.

The US has been pressuring Pakistan for years to abandon the deal, as US sanctions are aimed at limiting if not entirely cutting off Iranian energy production from the rest of the world. Khar insisted that the deal was too compelling for Pakistan to turn down. As for US threats of sanctions against Pakistan for participating in the pipeline, Khar insisted they would “cross that bridge when we come to it.”

US special forces teams are currently stationed in five South Asian countries including India as part of the counter-terrorism cooperation with these nations, a top Pentagon commander has disclosed.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has threatened Pakistan with sanctions if the country continues with plans to build a natural gas pipeline to Iran.

The U.S. is moving to squeeze Iran financially in a bid to force it to drop its nuclear program. But Pakistan has been unwilling to line up behind the U.S., saying it needs Iran, a neighbor, to help it meet a massive energy shortage.

Mrs. Clinton told a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee Wednesday that sanctions could be triggered if Islamabad presses ahead. As Pakistan’s economy already is in dire straits, the sanctions could be “particularly damaging” and “further undermine their economic status,” Mrs. Clinton said.

Pakistan has pledged to support Iran if the US launches a military attack against the Islamic Republic. The Pakistani president assured the Iranian leader that his country’s territory will not be used as a launch pad for such an assault.

The horrors of Syria, which Washington so loudly denounces, should not blind us to the fact that American policy in the Middle East is itself a reason for the turmoil throughout the region.

I did not like to hear our race called sheep, and said I did not think they were.

"Still, it is true, lamb," said Satan. "Look at you in war -- what mutton you are, and how ridiculous!"

"In war? How?"

Why Would Iran Bomb One of Its Most Important Trade Partners … Who Is Helping Iran to Escape from Sanctions By the West?

Mossad chief Tamir Pardo visited New Delhi just days before an attack on Israeli officials in the Indian capital this week, Indian media reported on Thursday, highlighting the extent to which Israeli intelligence was in the dark regarding possibility of a terror attack taking place in the country.

Recall in the previous post I mentioned the fact that Iran and India have made a very sensible trade agreement between themselves.

Which surely had to have annoyed all concerned?

The US. Israel. Bankers....

So we would have to ask ourselves. Why would Iran undertake an action that would detrimentally affect their relationship with India? I can't see one good reason why they would!
Therefore, it would seem much more sensible that Israel and the US had more to gain from this attack.

Police say the suspect was carrying 13 bullets in his luggage and was due to fly to the capital Islamabad

Detention of American could add to already strained relationship between U.S and Pakistan

Unfazed by US sanctions and Israel linking Tehran to the attack on an Israeli embassy car here, India is set to ramp up its energy and business ties with Iran, with a commerce ministry team heading to Tehran to explore fresh business opportunities.

As investigators try hard to find clues, Union Home Secretary RK Singh on Tuesday said there was no evidence till now to suggest involvement of any country in the bomb attack on an Israeli diplomat in Delhi.

"We have no evidence to name any country. It's premature to take any country's name," he told reporters when asked whether there was Iranian hand in yesterday's terror attack which left four persons including an Israeli diplomat injured.

They’ve got to sell it to you like it’s good, that’s why they call themselves ‘pro-democracy’ groups, but as this clip lays bare, so-called pro-democracy groups don’t always promote democracy.
*
In fact, stirring the pot in favor of the U.S. government is, more often than not, far from promoting democracy and more akin to stirring up trouble…

CIA drone strikes tend to be reported on a case-by-case basis. Yet it became clear to the Bureau that a number of specific tactics were being deployed. These included multiple attacks by drones on rescuers attempting to aid victims of previous strikes. There were also a number of credible reports of funerals and mourners being attacked by CIA drones.

With the aid of Pakistani journalist Rahimullah Yusufzai in Peshawar, the Bureau has spent four months working with independent researchers in Waziristan seeking to validate the reports. Villagers, militants and local officials have been questioned, and attempts made to identify those killed in the strikes.

Findings

India will send a business delegation to Iran at the end of February to explore how it can increase exports in order to meet payments for Iranian oil hit by international sanctions, a senior government official said on Thursday.

India, Iran's second-biggest oil client after China, buys 12 percent of its oil needs from the Islamic nation, worth about $12 billion annually.

Last month, Reuters reported that India would pay for some of its oil imports in rupees via an Indian bank, resorting to the partially convertible currency after more than a year of payment problems in the face of fresh, tougher U.S. sanctions.

The CIA’s drone campaign in Pakistan has killed dozens of civilians who had gone to help rescue victims or were attending funerals, an investigation by the Bureau for the Sunday Times has revealed.

The findings are published just days after President Obama claimed that the drone campaign in Pakistan was a ‘targeted, focused effort’ that ‘has not caused a huge number of civilian casualties.’

Words by Mark Twain

Illustrations by the United States Government

Do you see how it works now? Do you see why we are always at war? Do you understand that as long as private central bankers control the economies of nations that wars murdering millions of innocents are inevitable?

President Barack Obama confirmed that US drone aircraft have struck Taliban and Al-Qaeda targets within Pakistan — operations that until now had not been officially acknowledged.

When asked about the use of drones by his administration in a chat with web users on Google+ and YouTube, Obama said “a lot of these strikes have been in the FATA” — Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

“For the most part, they’ve been very precise precision strikes against Al-Qaeda and their affiliates, and we’re very careful in terms of how it’s been applied,” Obama said

Four of the top militant factions inside Pakistan have released a statement saying that they are all pledging an end to attacks on the Pakistani government’s forces and are instead going to unite in fighting against NATO’s troops in Afghanistan.

Less than a week after insisting that the attack on a Pakistani military base was “appropriate” and “justified,” the US has released the full version of their report on the November 26 incident blaming NATO for the massive death toll.

The report insists that it took NATO “about 45 minutes” from the time they got the call from Pakistan that the US warplanes were bombing their bases to get around to ordering them to stop the attack.

Tens of thousands gathered in one of the biggest-ever protests in the Pakistani city of Lahore Sunday to condemn NATO and United States over the killing of 24 soldiers along the Afghan border.

The protestors, mainly from Islamist groups and political parties, vowed they would march to the capital Islamabad if the government did not cancel agreements between the US designed to fight terrorism.

“We will hold a march towards the capital if the government does not revoke agreements of cooperation in the war against terror with the US,” said Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, a senior leader of the Pakistan Defence Council (PDC).

Pakistan is drawing up plans to tax Nato for using its territory to supply troops in Afghanistan, in retaliation for the recent death of its soldiers in a "friendly fire" incident on the border.

Under the proposal, a transit tax or fee will be imposed on every shipping container sent through Pakistan, senior military and civilian officials have told the Guardian. The move follows the death of 24 soldiers shelled by a US helicopter at a checkpoint last month.

The tax is likely to add tens of millions of dollars a year to the cost of the decade-long war.

Pakistan will renegotiate a set of agreements with the United States that go back to 2002, as part of a wider shift in policy resulting from the unprovoked U.S. attack in November that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.

This latest decision to reconfigure those arrangements was the result of a two-day conference attended by Pakistani officials and envoys from around the world with the explicit purpose of evaluating Pakistani cooperation with the U.S. in light of Novermber’s attack and a generally poor relationship.

The recommendations coming from the conference include amended arrangements for supply routes and logistics support, minimizing the presence of the CIA in Pakistan, and pursuing efforts to stabilize Afghanistan irrespective of Washington’s approach.

Saturday, November 26 will go down in our history as a black day. On that day, America’s “war on terror” reached Pakistan’s Salala Post, in Mohmand Agency, manned by jawans of the Pakistan army. While our soldiers were sleeping, US and Nato gunships targeted the post without any provocation. Innocent blood was spilled in pursuit of Obama’s ambitions and nightmares. Missiles rained down killing 24 soldiers, including two officers, and injuring many others.

One resident of North Waziristan wants to expose the conflict. Noor Behram has spent years photographing the aftermath of drone strikes, often at personal risk. Working with Islamabad lawyer Shahzad Akbar and London-based human rights activist Clive Stafford Smith, who are helping get his photos to the outside world, Behram provided Danger Room with dozens of his images, none of which have ever been published in the United States.

What follows is a sample of some of the most arresting photos. Be advised: Many of these pictures are disturbing. Some of them show dead children.

Speaking today in an interview on Pakistan’s Geo News channel, US Ambassador to Pakistan Cameron Munter chided Pakistanis for continuing to express anger about the US attack on a pair of military bases just over two weeks ago.

“We have pledged a full inquiry,” reasoned Munter, expressing surprise that the killings were still a subject of discussion inside Pakistan, and advising viewers to “not forget that Pakistan and US are on the same side” and “get beyond” criticism.

A senior Pakistani official told NBC News the United States' decision to cut aid to Pakistan would only contribute to the growing sense of anti-Americanism within the population.

He said the cut would deepen the perception within Pakistan that U.S. interests extend so far as its own foreign policy goals and would "strengthen our resolve to formalize and renegotiate our terms of engagement with USA."

Speaking today in an interview with the BBC, Pakistani Prime Minister Yousef Raza Gilani denied rumors of a coup d’etat, but warned that relations between the US and Pakistan remain tense, which he blamed on a “credibility gap” that exists between the two nations.

Since the closure, NATO has had to rely on the much more expensive northern route through Russia for supplies, but even this route is in question now with Russia warning it may be closed over a dispute on missile defense systems in Europe.

VT contributor and good friend, Imran Khan sets an agenda for peace in Afghanistan and Pakistan, confronts corruption and outlines a new more equal relationship with the United States.

Pakistan will shoot down any U.S. drone that intrudes its air space per new directives, a senior Pakistani official told NBC News on Saturday.

According to the new Pakistani defense policy, "Any object entering into our air space, including U.S. drones, will be treated as hostile and be shot down," a senior Pakistani military official told NBC News.

The policy change comes just weeks after a deadly NATO attack on Pakistani military checkpoints accidentally killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, prompting Pakistani officials to order all U.S. personnel out of a remote airfield in Pakistan.

The deputy commander of the Pakistan Taliban, who have been waging a four-year war against the government in Islamabad, confirmed the two sides were in peace talks, a move that could further fray the U.S.-Pakistan relationship.

"Our talks are going in the right direction," Maulvi Faqir Mohammad, the commander of the Pakistani Taliban in the Bajaur tribal agency and the No. 2 commander overall, told Reuters.

"If negotiations succeed and we are able to sign a peace agreement in Bajaur, then the government and the Taliban of other areas such as Swat, Mohmand, Orakzai and South Waziristan tribal region will sign an agreement. Bajaur will be a role model for other areas."

According to a top Pakistani security official quoted in Agence-France Presse, the Pakistani military has deployed a fully equipped, fully function air defense system along the border with Afghanistan, giving it the ability to trace warplanes and attack helicopters that cross the border.

US magazine claimed that President Asif Ali Zardari had been feeling increased pressure over the Memogate scandal.

On Tuesday, President Asif Ali Zardari was hospitalised in Dubai for medical checkups, complaining of heartache.

Citing former US official, American magazine Foreign Policy reported US government was informed that Zardari had a 'minor heart attack' on Monday night and flew to Dubai via air ambulance on Tuesday.

According to the US magazine, Zardari may have angioplasty on Wednesday and may also resign on account of 'ill health'

A senior Pakistani military officer said a NATO air strike that killed 24 Pakistani troops on the border with Afghanistan last month was pre-planned, newspapers reported on Friday, comments likely to fuel tension with the United States.

Major General Ashfaq Nadeem, director general of military operations, also said Pakistan, a strategic U.S. ally, would deploy an air defence system along the border to prevent such attacks, the newspapers said.

The newspapers said he made the remarks to a Senate committee on defence on Thursday. Military officials were not immediately available to comment.

The Daily Times said Nadeem described the attack as a plot while another newspaper quoted him as saying it was a “pre-planned conspiracy” against Pakistan.

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari has traveled to Dubai after falling ill, fuelling rumors Wednesday of his possible resignation.

Close associates of the president told the Associated Press he is currently "unwell," but did not provide specifics. His condition did not appear to be life-threatening, they said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani's office released a statement saying Zardari "went to Dubai following symptoms related to his pre-existing heart condition."

The president's spokesman denied a media report that the trip meant Zardari, who has been under pressure from a memo scandal that forced the Pakistani ambassador to the U.S. to resign, would cite failing health as a pretext to step down.

The relations between the United States and Pakistan hit its lowest point this weekend, with reports that U.S. military and civilian staff are packing to leave the Shamsi Air Base to meet a Pakistani ordered evacuation deadline.

BBC's two-part "Secret Pakistan" documentary attempts to frame the 10 year foreign occupation of Afghanistan and the lack of progress as the result of "Pakistani duplicity." In reality, even upon watching BBC's "documentary," one can clearly see that the US, UK, and NATO have simply traded places with invading Soviets and now face the same fierce indigenous force fighting against occupation. Indeed, just as Pakistan's intelligence agency ISI supported Afghans during the Soviet invasion, they are very likely to be supporting Afghans now in their current bid for freedom.

Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani received a phone call from US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Saturday evening.

The secretary conveyed her personal condolences on the deaths of Pakistani soldiers. She added that the attack was not intentional and that we must wait for the outcome of the investigation.

She said that the US has the highest regard for Pakistan’s sovereignty. This incident should not be allowed to jeopardize the bilateral relationship as Pakistan and US have common interest, she added.

The course Obama has chosen is likely to further aggravate the anti-U.S. sentiment in Pakistan that has boiled over in response to the violation of Pakistani sovereignty and unprecedented number of deaths of Pakistani troops. U.S. diplomats in Pakistan and State Department officials are seriously concerned that the rejection of any acknowledgement of U.S. responsibility for nearly three weeks will push Pakistan further toward a potentially irreversible break in relations with the United States.

Pakistan vowed no more “business as usual” with the United States after NATO strikes killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, but stopped short on Monday of threatening to break the troubled alliance altogether.

In response Pakistan has dug in its heels, reacting furiously to what it called an “unprovoked” strike.

According to the latest news feeds pouring in from Rawalpindi, the Pakistani Army Chief has suspended the regular chain-of-command system and all forward operating units have been ordered to retaliate in case of aggression from the eastern border with Afghanistan. The implementation of this order allows Pakistan Army units based at checkpoints along the Afghan border to retaliate in case of any NATO/US incursions without seeking permission from the military high command.

In case you weren't paying attention...

Members of the Moroccan terror group Salafi Jihadi fought for the CIA in Afghanistan, Chechnya, Dagestan, Bosnia and Kosovo

USS Cole Bomber Jamal al-Badawi fought for the CIA in Bosnia

Zacarias Moussaoui fought for the CIA in Chechnya

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed fought for the CIA in Afghanistan

Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman fought for the CIA in Afghanistan

Head of Egyptian Islamic Jihad Ayman al Zawahiri, fought for the CIA in Bosnia

His brother Zaiman al-Zawahiri fought for the CIA in Kosovo

Abdullah Azzam, "one of the ideological founders of Hamas" fought for the CIA in Afghanistan

Head of Egyptian Islamic Jihad Ayman al Zawahiri, fought for the CIA in Bosnia.

The White House has ruled out US President Barack Obama offering "formal condolences" to Pakistan over the killing of its 24 soldiers in a NATO strike, as suggested by his top diplomat in Islamabad in a desperate bid to salvage deteriorating ties, a media report said on Thursday.

"The White House has decided that President Obama will not offer formal condolences - at least for now - to Pakistan for the deaths of two dozen soldiers in NATO airstrikes last week, overruling State Department officials who argued for such a show of remorse to help salvage America's relationship with Pakistan," 'The New York Times' said, reflecting the mood prevailing in the administration on Pakistan right now.

The Pakistani government has already imposed some significant measures on the United States in response to Friday’s attack on a Mohmand Agency military base. Experts warn that more may be in the offing, particularly if there is not some sort of rapprochement from the American side.

“If there is another incident, or even a nasty drone attack, the air corridor could also go,” warned Simbal Khan, the director of a top Pakistani government-funded think tank.

The Pakistani military on Monday rejected the regret expressed by the NATO chief for a cross-border air strike that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers and warned that the action could have "grave consequences".

The Nato attack comes on the heels of another crisis. One of Zardari and his late wife’s trusted bagmen in Washington, Husain Haqqani, whose links to the US intelligence agencies since the 1970s made him a useful intermediary and whom Zardari appointed as Pakistan’s ambassador to Washington, has been forced to resign. Haqqani, often referred to as the US ambassador to Pakistan, appears to have been caught red-handed: he allegedly asked Mansoor Ijaz, a multi-millionaire close to the US defense establishment, to carry a message to Admiral Mike Mullen pleading for help against the Pakistani military and offering in return to disband the Haqqani network and the ISI and carry out all US instructions.

Pakistan said Tuesday it will boycott an upcoming meeting in Germany on the future of Afghanistan to protest the deadly attack by U.S.-led forces on its troops, widening the fallout from an incident that has sent ties between Washington and Islamabad into a tailspin.

Meanwhile, a top Pakistani army general called the incident Saturday that killed 24 troops on the Afghan-Pakistan border a "deliberate act of aggression" by NATO forces and said the military had not decided whether to take part in an American investigation into it.

The intelligence agencies have raised fears of terrorism across the country as a CIA-backed squad has been tasked to carry out terrorists activities to stoke sectarian strife during Muharram
The agencies have urged all the provincial and AJK authorities to ensure foolproof security as a CIA-sponsored squad, ‘Black Night’, has been assigned the task of carrying out targeted killings, and suicide bombings to instigate sectarian violence during the holy month.
According to sources, the hostile spy agencies had recruited militants to disrupt peace in the country as the rift between Washington and Islamabad is widening since the Raymond Davis episode.

The Seven Step Mainstream Media Country Destruction Guide

1. First, they start by targeting a country ripe for “Regime Change”, and brand it a “rogue state”; then...

2. They arm, train, finance local terrorist groups through CIA, MI6, Mossad, Al-Qaeda (a CIA operation), drug cartels (often CIA operations) and call them “freedom fighters”; then...

3. As mock UN Security Council Resolutions are staged that rain death and destruction upon millions of civilians, they call it “UN sanctions to protect civilians”; then...

4. They spread flagrant lies through their “newsrooms” and paid journalists, and call it "the international community’s concerns expressed by prestigious spokespeople and analysts…” then…

Interior Minister Rehman Malik on Sunday said that the supply of NATO has not been suspended; rather, it has been stopped permanently.

Moreover, long queues of NATO supply tankers have been formed on the Torkham and Quetta-Chaman highways as Pakistan closed the crossing points for NATO supplies after helicopter attacks in Mohmand Agency on Saturday.

According to reports, NATO supply containers entering from Punjab were stopped at Nowshera and all clearance points were sealed. After the decision of the Cabinet Committee on Defence, all the routes for NATO supply have been closed for the supply vehicles.

Pakistan’s army chief on Sunday honoured 24 soldiers killed by Nato fighter jets and helicopters near the border with Afghanistan, as the incident sent relations with the US in to a new crisis.

Television footage showed General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani raising his hands in prayer in front of the coffins of the soldiers at a military base in the northwestern city of Peshawar. Gen Kayani over the weekend condemned the killings as “blatant and unacceptable”.

Pakistan’s military will take serious action if any Nato attack took place in its territory, said a statement issued here on Saturday.

The statement noted that Army Chief General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani has strongly condemned the Nato attack in Mohmand Agency and ordered the military to make arrangements to retaliate against such irresponsible action befittingly.

(PTI) Chief Imran Khan on Saturday strongly condemned the unprovoked Nato attack on Salala Check Post in the Momand Agency and called upon civilian leadership to immediately withdraw from its alliance from US-led war against terrorism.

While terming the attack as an insane and immoral brutality, Khan said such attacks reflected the hollowness and counter-productivity of Pakistan’s involvement in the aimless ‘war on terror’ that had been unleashed to subdue the proud people of the region.

He said Pakistan had already sacrificed 40,000 people and an equal number of people had been maimed and become handicapped. Pakistan had also incurred a loss of over $75 billion in the bargain, yet it was being incessantly targeted by the forces of its so-called ‘ally’, he added.

The Pakistani government has ordered the US to vacate an airbase within 15 days following a deadly airstrike near the Afghan-Pakistan border, Press TV reported.

The latest and unpredicted downturn in the Pakistan-US relations has given the nation’s support to the Pakistani army that claims to be ready for American aggression on Pakistani soil. General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani is turning into a national hero to lead the nation in what could be a possible war against the US. Under pressure due to the economic recession and suffering humiliation in Afghanistan, the Obama administration has started blaming Pakistan for its failures in Afghanistan.

An attack by Nato aircraft on Pakistani troops that allegedly killed as many as 28 soldiers and looks set to further poison relations between the US and Pakistan was an act of self-defence, a senior western official has claimed.

According to the Kabul-based official, a joint US-Afghan force operating in the mountainous Afghan frontier province of Kunar was the first to come under attack in the early hours of Saturday morning, forcing them to return fire.

The high death toll from an incident between two supposed allies suggests Nato helicopters and jets strafed Pakistani positions with heavy weapons.

NATO aircraft attacked a military checkpoint in northwest Pakistan on Saturday, killing up to 28 troops and prompting Pakistan to shut the vital supply route for NATO troops fighting in Afghanistan, Pakistani officials said.

In a statement sent to reporters, the Pakistan military blamed NATO for Friday's attack in the Mohmand tribal area, saying helicopters "carried out unprovoked and indiscriminate firing."

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani arrived here on Sunday in a bid to seek full membership of the important regional security grouping of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).

Since the 1979 Iranian revolution and the downfall of the US Puppet Ruler the Shah, Iran has been an Islamic state. In that interval of time, 1979 to the present, Iran has not invaded anyone. Not once.

Pakistan is taking nuclear paranoia to a horrifying new low. And it’s making the world a vastly more dangerous place in the process.

Freaked out about the insecurity of its nuclear arsenal, the Pakistani military’s Strategic Plans Division has begun carting the nukes around in clandestine ways. That might make some sense on the surface: no military wants to let others know exactly where its most powerful weapons are at any given moment. But Pakistan is going to an extreme.

The expansion of the CIA’s undeclared drone war in the tribal areas of Pakistan required a big expansion of who can be marked for death. Once the standard for targeted killing was top-level leadership in al-Qaeda or one of its allies. That’s long gone, especially as the number of people targeted at once has grown.

This is the new standard, according to a blockbuster piece in the Wall Street Journal: “men believed to be militants associated with terrorist groups, but whose identities aren’t always known.” The CIA is now killing people without knowing who they are, on suspicion of association with terrorist groups. The article does not define the standards are for “suspicion” and “association.”