Clinton "hard to believe" Pakistan Cannot Find al-Qaeda

For the second time this week, Hillary Clinton has hit the nail on the head. On Tuesday she spoke out against the Obama backed U.N. resolution on “defamation of religions". Today she has applied some common sense and is questioning Pakistan and the two-faced game that they are playing with us. I believe that Hillary is going to sit back and watch Obama crash and burn, then quickly turn on him.

Clinton puzzled at Pakistan failure to find al Qaeda
By Andrew Quinn

LAHORE, Pakistan (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's said on Thursday it was "hard to believe" that no one in Pakistan's government knew where al Qaeda leaders were hiding, striking a new tone on a trip where Washington's credibility has come under attack.

Scores of al Qaeda leaders and their operatives, including Osama bin Laden, are believed to be in hiding in the rugged border territory that divides Pakistan and Afghanistan, but both countries routinely accuse the other of being the main sanctuary.

"I find it hard to believe that nobody in your government knows where they are and couldn't get them if they really wanted to," she told a group of newspaper editors during a meeting in Lahore.

"Maybe they are not 'get-at-able'. I don't know," she said.

Clinton's pointed remark was the first public gripe on a trip aimed at turning around a U.S.-Pakistan relationship under serious strain, but bound in the struggle against religious extremism.

"I am more than willing to hear every complaint about the United States," Clinton said, ""but this is a two way street.

"If we are going to have a mature partnership where we work together" then "there are issues that not just the United States but others have with your government and with your military security establishment."

Clinton, who has sought to use her own personal outreach to overcome rising anti-American sentiment in Pakistan, earlier repeated her conviction that the two countries' common interests far outweighed their differences.

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Taliban Beats Down Pakistani Army

Sharia is spreading in Iraq, after almost eight years in Afghanistan it is a stand-off at best, and the Taliban is running wild in Pakistan.
Either the gloves are going to come off against our enemies, or we will continue to lose this war.

Pakistan suffers reverses in offensive against militants

DERA ISMAIL KHAN , Pakistan --
Taliban guerrillas recaptured the birthplace of the Pakistani Taliban leader from the Pakistani army Tuesday, inflicting the heaviest military losses so far in Pakistan's high-stakes offensive in South Waziristan , a refuge for Pakistani extremists, Afghan insurgents and al Qaida .

A government attempt to foment a tribal uprising against the Pakistani Taliban also failed Tuesday. In a meeting with the top Pakistani official for the tribal areas, elders of the area's Mehsud clan refused a request to form a traditional militia, known as a lashkar, to battle the Taliban who've taken over their territory.


Separately, two suicide bomb blasts at an Islamic university in Islamabad, Pakistan's capital, killed six people and wounded at least 20. In response, many educational institutions, including all schools and colleges in the Punjab, the country's most heavily populated province, announced that they'd close.

The Pakistani offensive appears to be first serious operation against extremists in South Waziristan since 2004, when the military entered the area for the first time.
Pakistan has thrown some 30,000 soldiers into the fight against an estimated 10,000 Taliban , plus some 1,500 foreign jihadists closely liked to al Qaida .

However, Kotkai, a town surrounded by high mountains in the Sararogha area of South Waziristan , remained in Taliban hands late Tuesday after Pakistani forces were beaten back on the fourth day of the ground operation in South Waziristan .

The town is the birthplace of Hakimullah Mehsud, the head of the Pakistani Taliban. The group's top trainer of suicide bombers, Qari Hussain , also comes from Kotkai, and he has a madrassa, or Islamic school, just outside the town in which hundreds of children and young men have been indoctrinated into suicide attacks.

Security officials, who spoke only on the condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak to journalists, said that Pakistani troops had thrust into Kotkai only to be hit by a determined counteroffensive that killed seven soldiers, including an army major, and wounded seven more.

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Pakistan Taliban: Convert, pay Jizya or Christian Women are Sex Slaves!

The Taliban which just will not go away, has threatened Pakistani Christians once again. Their threats are in accordance to the Islamic scriptures.

Would anyone from the Islam is a religion of peace crowd like to address this?

Hat tip to the The Religion of Peace.

BREAKING NEWS: Taliban Threatens To Kill More Christians
Saturday, October 17, 2009
By Worthy News Chief International Correspondent Stefan J. Bos

SARGODHA, PAKISTAN (Worthy News)-- Fighters linked to the militant Taliban group have threatened to kill Christians and burn their homes in Pakistan's Punjab province if they don't meet their demands.

In a letter sent to the Christian community in the northeastern city of Sargodha, Taliban militants said Christians should convert to Islam, pay an Islamic tax imposed on religious minorities, known as 'Jizya tax', or leave the country.

Koran verse 009.029

YUSUFALI: Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.

If Christians refuse to accept these choices, Christians “will be killed, their property and homes will be burnt to ashes and their women treated as sex slaves,” said the letter, which was distributed to Worthy News and its partner agency BosNewsLife by rights group International Christian Concern (ICC). The Christians “themselves would be responsible for this,” the letter added.

I cannot imagine where they got that idea from.

Volume 5, Book 59, Number 513:
Narrated 'Abdul 'Aziz bin Suhaib:

Anas bin Malik said,
"The Prophet took Safiya as a captive. He manumitted her and married her." Thabit asked Anas, "What did he give her as Mahr (i.e. marriage gift)?" Anas replied. "Her Mahr was herself, for he manumitted her."

Now what woman would willing want to marry a man whose army just killed her father and husband? Mohammad himself was a rapist.

More on this story.


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Pakistan: Christian Held for Blasphemy ‘commits suicide’

"Tolerant" Muslims in Pakistan have once again gone on a rampage against Christians there. But hey, lets increase our financial aid to them, because what Muslims do to Christians just does not matter.

Hat tip to The European Alliance.

Christian held for blasphemy ‘commits suicide’

* Provincial minority affairs minister says body bore torture marks
* Asma Jahangir blames police for Fanish Masih’s death

LAHORE: A 25-year-old Christian accused of blasphemy died in a prison early on Tuesday, officials said, with rights activists saying they suspected he was tortured, AFP reported.

About 100 people, mostly youths, attacked a Catholic church in the Sambrial district near the Indian border on Friday after accusing the man, Fanish Masih, of desecrating the holy Quran, police said. Masih was arrested and a case of blasphemy registered against him. “Masih, being accused of blasphemy, was put in a separate cell where he committed suicide by using a string,” Sialkot District Jail Superintendent Farooq Lodhi said.

Torture marks: Punjab Minister for Minority Affairs Kamran Michael said the police had not handled the case properly. “I have seen the body and there were torture marks on it,” the minister said.

Responsibility: “This is death in custody and the police authorities are responsible,” said Human Rights Commission of Pakistan Chairwoman Asma Jahangir.

Meanwhile, a private TV channel reported that Masih’s family had claimed that he was tortured to death by the jail staff. Local Christians snatched the body from the police and shifted it to a private hospital for an autopsy, the channel reported. It said the police inspector general had constituted an inquiry committee to probe the death.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, the commission demanded registration of a murder case against police officials concerned.

NCJP Chairman Archbishop Lawrence John Saldanha and Executive Secretary Peter Jacob also urged all sections of the society to realise the danger of the blasphemy laws and said they (laws) had proven to be a very expensive for religious minorities, as the laws were being misused. Minority rights activist Nadeem Anthony said the frequent attacks on minorities, especially Christians, had developed a sense of insecurity among the non-Muslims in the country. afp/staff report/ daily times monitor.

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Pakistan:3 Killed Over Koran "Desecration"

Earlier this week seven Christians in Pakistan were murdered and dozens of Christian homes burned down, over an alleged desecration of the Koran. New violence has now erupted as three more people have been killed over another alleged Koran desecration. Islam, the gift that keeps on giving.

Hat tip to The Religion of Peace.

‘Blasphemy’ claims three more victims

* Factory owner killed by workers for ‘desecrating holy Quran’ in Sheikhupura

Daily Times Monitor


LAHORE: A factory owner and two others were killed along Muridke-Sheikhupura Road when factory workers attacked them for allegedly desecrating the holy Quran, reported a private TV channel on Tuesday.

One private TV channel said the owner and the other two were killed over the factory administration’s failure to pay workers, but another private channel reported the attack was prompted by an allegation that the factory owner – identified only as Najeebullah – had desecrated the holy Quran.

A worker entered Najeebullah’s factory at around 2pm and saw that the owner had taken down an outdated calendar – which had verses from the holy Quran written on it – and put it on a table. The worker then misbehaved with the owner over – what he thought – was “desecration” of the holy Quran. When a guard tried to stop him, he ran out into the working area and started gathering his colleagues, claiming the owner had committed ‘blasphemy’.

When an enraged mob subsequently surrounded Najeebullah, his guard tried to protect him by firing in the air, but the crowd started firing shots at the owner and his guard.

The channel said a large number of workers also attacked the factory administration and beat up several employees. They also blocked the road leading to the factory for three hours and later set the unit on fire.

Heavy police contingents rushed to the factory to bring the situation under control, but the angry mob seized their weapons.

The killings on Tuesday come amid heightened tensions in another part of Punjab. Rioters in Gojra burnt alive at least seven Christians on Saturday over blasphemy allegations.

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Pakistani Christians: Police did not Stop Carnage

In this update to the "Pakistan:Christian Village Torched, 6 Dead" story we learn that the local police did not lift a finger to help the Christians. So where is the outrage by the US government that pumps endless money into our so called "ally' Pakistan? What a waste of money, let them fend for themselves.

Pakistani Christians: Police did not stop carnage
By BABAR DOGAR and ASIF SHAHZAD

GOJRA, Pakistan – Almas Hameed grabbed his 7-year-old daughter and stumbled out of their smoke-filled home as she pleaded in vain to bring her pet parrots. His wife, father and two other children did not survive.

Outside, hundreds of enraged Muslims called the victims "dogs" as they fired guns and burned house after house in the Christian neighborhood of this eastern Pakistani city. The weekend rampage left eight Christians dead. All but one were relatives of Hameed.

"We always live in fear," said Hameed, 50. "I wonder if I will see a time in this country when I can live like an equal citizen."

The attack, which Pakistani officials said was incited by a radical Islamist group, followed rumors that some Christians had desecrated a Quran — an act regarded as sacrilege by Muslims. The violence drew condemnation Monday from the prime minister and the pope, a chilling reminder of how religious extremism has left minority religious groups in this country increasingly vulnerable.

On Monday, paramilitary troops patrolled near the dozens of targeted houses, with their blackened walls, charred furniture, and twisted ceiling fans. Six people died in the fires, two by gunshots.

Authorities urged calm and promised that local police would be investigated for their inability to stop the violence, which spiraled even after an initial probe debunked the rumor that a Quran had been defiled.

"It was like hell. Nobody was coming to help us," said Atique Masih, a 23-year-old Christian who was shot in his right leg.

Christian schools across the country closed for three days starting Monday.

"We are closing the schools to show our anger and concern," Bishop Sadiq Daniel told The Associated Press, emphasizing the move was a peaceful tactic. "We want the government to bring all perpetrators of the crime to justice."

In a telegram, Pope Benedict XVI said he was "deeply grieved" to hear of the "senseless attack."

Benedict sent his condolences to families of the victims and called on the Christians "not to be deterred in their efforts to help build a society which, with a profound sense of trust in religious and human values, is marked by mutual respect among all its members."

Christians — Protestants and Catholics among them — make up less than 5 percent of Muslim-majority Pakistan's 175 million people, according to the CIA World Factbook. They generally live in peace with their Muslim neighbors.

Extremists, however, have made Christians and other minority religious groups a target. Earlier this summer in the Kasur area, for instance, Muslims set fire to dozens of Christian homes, according to local news accounts.

The anti-minority phenomenon seems to be getting worse as Taliban militancy has gained strength.

In March, the Taliban issued an ultimatum to the leaders of more than 25 Sikh families in a tribal region near the Afghan border: Convert to Islam and join the jihad or pay 5 billion rupees — roughly $62 million — for protection.

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Pakistan:Christian Village Torched, 6 Dead

The violence in Pakistan is endless. Problems there recently include the eruption after the Sharia for "peace" deal in the Swat Valley, and the attack on a 5 star hotel . This country is just bottomless pit for US aid and we should cut them off immediately. The money can be used for better things.

6 Pakistani Christians die in riots with Muslims
By MUNIR AHMED and ASIF SHAHZAD

ISLAMABAD — Days of rioting between Christians and Muslims in eastern Pakistan following allegations that a Quran was defiled escalated Saturday, leaving six Christians dead, including a child, authorities said.

Members of a banned Muslim organization began torching Christian homes in the Punjabi city of Gorja on Thursday after accusing them of desecrating pages from Islam's holy book, Federal Minister for Minorities Shahbaz Bhatti said.

"There is no truth in the allegation," he told The Associated Press, adding that he had himself visited Gojra on Friday and asked police to provide protection to Christians who were facing threats.

He accused the police of ignoring his instructions and said hundreds of radical Muslims on Saturday burned more Christians homes and killed six, including four women and a child.

Television footage from the scene showed houses burning and streets strewn with debris and blackened furniture as mobs ran at each other. Local media also reported gunfights had broken out between Christian and Muslim communities and that rioters had blocked the local railway line.

Pakistan is predominantly a Sunni Muslim state where Christians are a tiny minority. Although the two sides generally live peacefully, since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the U.S., pro-Taliban militants have periodically targeted churches and Christians, suspecting them of sympathizing with Washington.

Bhatti said the attackers belonged to the banned Sipah-e-Sahaba group, which is accused of launching attacks against the security forces and carrying out bombs attacks at public places in the country in recent years.

Punjab law minister Rana Sanaullah said authorities had investigated the allegation of a Quran being defaced "and our initial reports say that there has not been any incident of desecration."

Sanaullah said that although the situation had calmed down by Friday, "some miscreants and extremists entered the city today and pushed people toward armed clashes."

Another minister, Dost Mohammad Khosa, said the issue of the alleged desecration had been settled.

"Today, somebody opened fire at a peaceful rally that was passing by a Christian neighborhood. That made things worse. We are sure some miscreant elements have tried to exploit the situation," he said.

Faislabad Commissioner Tahir Hussain told local television that representatives of the two communities were to meet later Saturday in an effort to calm the situation.

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Pakistan:Major Attack on 5 Star Hotel

Ever since the so called Sharia law for peace deal in Swat, violence has been raging in Pakistan. Now a 5 star hotel there has been hit by an Islamic terrorist attack.

Bomb at luxury hotel in Pakistan kills at least 5
By RIAZ KHAN

PESHAWAR, Pakistan – Gunmen stormed a luxury hotel in Peshawar, then set of a huge blast that killed at least five people and wounded dozens more Tuesday in the latest of a string of suicide attacks in Pakistani cities, officials said.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack in the largest city in Pakistan's restive northwest, but it fit with Taliban threats to stage a campaign of assaults in retaliation for a military campaign against militants in the Swat Valley region.

Local television networks showed a scene of pandemonium outside the hotel, with armed police rushing around and Pakistani men standing by looking stunned. One man held a bloodied rag to his head.

An Associated Press reporter at the scene said he saw several foreigners being walked out of the hotel with injuries.

Police official Liaqat Ali said an unknown number of gunmen ran into the Pearl Continental Hotel in downtown Peshawar on Tuesday night just before "a big bomb went off." He said it was a suicide attack.

Sahibzada Anis, a top government official in Peshawar, said at least five people were killed and 25 wounded.

The Pearl Continental, affectionately called the "PC" by Pakistanis, is relatively well-guarded and set far back from the main road and overlooking a golf course and a historic fort. It is located just over a mile (1.5 kilometers) from the city's airport.

Parking in front of the structure is heavily restricted, and to get to the front doors of the building, a car has to undergo security checks and travel around concrete and metal barriers.

The hotel is a favorite place for foreigners and elite Pakistanis to stay and socialize, making it a high-profile target for militants.

Last year, a massive bombing at Islamabad's Marriott Hotel killed more than 50 people and wounded dozens, rattling the nation.

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Pakistani News:US Ready to Take out our Nukes

As the violence has escalated in Pakistan since the inception of Sharia law in the Swat Valley, many of us have wondered about the nuclear arsenal within Pakistan. Here is what one Pakistani news organization had to say.

Hat tip to The Religion of Peace.

‘Plans ready to take out Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal’
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Monitoring Desk

WASHINGTON: The US has a detailed plan for infiltrating Pakistan and securing its mobile arsenal of nuclear warheads if it appears the country is about to fall under the control of the Taliban, al-Qaeda or other Islamic extremists, a leading TV network reported.

“American intelligence sources say the operation would be conducted by the Joint Special Operations Command, the super-secret commando unit headquartered at Fort Bragg, NC,” a report by Rowan Scarborough of the FoxNews said on Friday. The report has also been posted on foxnews.com, the website of the TV channel.

It said: “The JSOC is the military’s chief terrorists hunting squad and has units now operating in Afghanistan on Pakistan’s western border. But a secondary mission is to secure foreign nuclear arsenals — a role for which the JSOC operatives have trained in Nevada.

“The mission has taken on added importance in the recent months, as Islamic extremists have taken territory close to the capital of Islamabad and could destabilise Pakistan’s shaky democracy. “We have plans to secure them ourselves if things get out of hand,” said a US intelligence source, who has deployed to Afghanistan. “That is a big secondary mission for the JSOC in Afghanistan.”

The source said the JSOC had been updating its mission plan for the day President Obama gave the order to infiltrate Pakistan. “Small units could seize them, disable them and then centralise them in a secure location,” the source said. A secret Defence Intelligence Agency document, first disclosed in 2004, said Pakistan had a nuclear arsenal of 35 weapons. The document said it planned to more than double the arsenal by 2020.

The FoxNews quoted a Pakistani official as saying the US and his country had an understanding that if either Osama bin Laden, or his deputy, Ayman Zawahiri, was located, the US troops and air strikes might be used inside the borders to capture or kill them.

“What makes the Pakistan mission especially difficult is that the military has its missiles on the Soviet-style mobile launchers and rail lines. The US intelligence agencies, using satellite photos and communication intercepts, is constantly monitoring their whereabouts. Other warheads are kept in storage. The US technical experts have visited Pakistan to advise the government on how to maintain and protect its arsenal.

“Also, there are rogue elements inside Pakistan’s military and intelligence service, who could quickly side with the extremists and make the JSOC’s mission all the more difficult.“It’s relatively easy to track the rail-mounted ones with satellites,” said the intelligence source. “Truck-mounted are more difficult. However, they are all relatively close to the capital in areas that the government firmly controls, so we don’t have to look too far.

“The JSOC is made up of three main elements: Army Delta Force, Navy SEALs and a high-tech special intelligence unit known as the Task Force Orange. The JSOC was instrumental in Iraq in finding and killing Abu Musab Zarqawi, the deadly and most prominent al-Qaeda leader in the Middle East.

“There is speculation in the intelligence community that a secondary reason for Army Lt-Gen Stanley McChrystal being named the next commander in Afghanistan is that he headed the JSOC in 2006-08 and is read-in on its contingency missions in Pakistan.

“Adm Michael Mullen, Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, this month said that based on the information he had seen, Pakistan’s nuclear warheads were safe. “I remain comfortable that the nuclear weapons in Pakistan are secure, that the Pakistani leadership and, in particular, the military is very focused on this,” it said. “We, the United States, have invested fairly significantly over the last three years, to work with them, to improve that security. And we’re satisfied, very satisfied with that progress. We will continue to do that. And we all recognise obviously the worst downside of — with respect to Pakistan is that those nuclear weapons come under the control of terrorists.”

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Pakistan:Taliban Closing in on the Capital

Back in February when the Taliban was allowed to govern Swat Pakistan by Sharia law they were approximately 100 miles away from Islamabad the capital of Pakistan. Since then they have been emboldened by this act of appeasement and they have been heading straight to the heart of Pakistan. In the meantime the US government has still not figured out that some form of "moderate" Islam is not coming to the rescue.

Taliban extend hold, advance near Pakistan capital
By ZARAR KHAN
ISLAMABAD – Taliban militants have extended their grip in northwestern Pakistan, pushing out from a valley where the government has agreed to impose Islamic law and patrolling villages as close as 60 miles from the capital. Police and officials appear to have fled as armed militants also broadcast radio sermons and spread fear in Buner district, just 60 miles from Islamabad, officials and witnesses said Wednesday.

Pakistan's president signed off on the peace pact last week in hopes of calming Swat, where some two years of clashes between the Taliban and security forces have killed hundreds and displaced up to a third of the one-time tourist haven's 1.5 million residents.

Critics, including in Washington, have warned that the valley could become an officially sanctioned base for allies of al-Qaida — and that it may be just the first domino in nuclear-armed Pakistan to fall to the Taliban.

"The activities in the Swat do concern us. We're keeping an eye on it, and are working daily with the Pakistan military," Maj. Gen. Michael S. Tucker told Pentagon reporters in a 35-minute videoconference call from Afghanistan.

Supporters of the deal say it will allow the government to gradually reassert control by taking away the militants' rallying cry for Islamic law. Many residents are grateful that a semblance of peace has returned. A handful of officials are back in Swat.

The agreement covers Swat and other districts in the Malakand Division, an area of about 10,000 square miles near the Afghan border and the tribal areas where al-Qaida and the Taliban have strongholds.

The provincial government agreed to impose Islamic law in Malakand, and the Taliban agreed to a cease-fire that has largely held.

In recent days, the Swat militants have set their sights on Buner, a district just south of the valley, sparking at least one major clash with residents. The moves indicate the militants want to expand their presence beyond Swat to other parts of Malakand at the very least, under the guise of enforcing Islamic law.

Many in Buner are now too frightened to speak to reporters. However, a lawmaker from the area told The Associated Press that the militants had entered the district in "large numbers" and started setting up checkpoints at main roads and strategic positions.

"Local elders and clerics are negotiating with them to resolve this issue through talks," Istiqbal Khan said.

The militants in Buner also are using radio airwaves to broadcast sermons about Islam, and have occupied the homes of some prominent landowners, said a police official who insisted on anonymity because he was afraid of retaliation. He said the militants have also warned barbers to stop shaving men's beards and stores to stop selling music and movies.

The militants have established a major base in the village of Sultanwas and have set up positions in the nearby hills, the police official said. Militants also have taken over the shrine of a famed Sufi saint known as Pir Baba, he said.
The Taliban move into Buner left the Swat deal hanging from a thread, said Rasul Bakhsh Rais, professor of political science at Lahore University of Management Sciences.

"If the Taliban continue to expand in different directions and establish fiefdoms as they did in Swat, then probably the deal is not going to work and the government will be forced to scuttle that deal and go back to operations" by security forces, Rais said.

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Taliban Push to Control More of Pakistan

Just a day ago the President of Pakistan signed off on the sharia law deal with the Taliban. The deal was supposed to be sharia in exchange for peace. But The Taliban has moved forward and has brought their sharia push to Buner. It is just a matter of time until all of Pakistan is governed by Sharia law.

Taliban consolidating grip in Buner

ISLAMABAD/BUNER: The Taliban are imposing their rule in the mountain valley of Buner that they took over last week, spreading fear in the area only 100 kilometres from the capital, said police and residents on Monday.

Police said authorities were negotiating with the Taliban to persuade them to withdraw, but the group had stayed put and appeared determined to take over the valley. “They are everywhere,” Arsala Khan, a deputy superintendent of police, told Reuters overt the telephone from Buner. “They are visiting mosques, they are visiting bazaars asking people to help them enforce sharia,” he said. “Buner is fast turning into Swat.”

Using loudspeakers installed at mosques, Taliban commanders on Monday called on young men in Buner to get jihadi training. Residents of Buner said they feared more bloodshed.

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Pakistani Taliban Threatens Attack on White House

Just about a month ago the Taliban in Pakistan was allowed to rule the Swat Valley by Sharia law. The deal with supposed to be sharia in exchange for "peace". I guess that Obama and Hillary got this one wrong as they had backed the deal.

Pakistani Taliban threatens attack on White House

By ISHTIAQ MAHSUD
DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan – The commander of the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility Tuesday for a deadly assault on a Pakistani police academy and said the group was planning a terrorist attack on the White House that would "amaze" the world.

Baitullah Mehsud, who has a $5 million bounty on his head from the U.S., said Monday's attack on the outskirts of the eastern city of Lahore was retaliation for U.S. missile strikes against militants along the Afghan border.

"Soon we will launch an attack in Washington that will amaze everyone in the world," Mehsud told The Associated Press by phone. He provided no details.

Mehsud has never been directly linked to any attacks outside Pakistan, but attacks blamed on his network of fighters have widened in scope and ambition in recent years. The threat comes days after President Barack Obama warned that al-Qaida is actively planning attacks on the United States from secret havens in Pakistan.

Pakistan's former government and the CIA named Mehsud as the prime suspect behind the December 2007 killing of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Pakistani officials accuse him of harboring foreign fighters, including Central Asians linked to al-Qaida, and of training suicide bombers.

In his latest comments, Mehsud identified the White House as one of the targets in an interview with local Dewa Radio, a copy of which was obtained by the AP.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Gordon Duguid said he had not seen any reports of Mehsud's comments but that he would "take the threat under consideration."

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The Taliban Finally Keeps Their Word

The world continually sees how Islamic groups have no problem breaking their word. A perfect example of this are all the "truces" that Hamas breaks. Back in late December the Taliban threatened to blow up girls' schools in Swat Pakistan, if they were not closed down by January 15Th. Unfortunately this time they kept their word for once and have blown up 4 schools. The schools for children were obviously a big threat to Islam.

Pakistani Taliban blow up schools in Swat

By Junaid Khan – Mon Jan 19, 2009
MINGORA, Pakistan (Reuters) – Pakistani Taliban insurgents blew up four schools in the northwestern Swat region Monday hours after a cabinet minister vowed that the government would reopen schools in the violence-plagued valley.

The scenic Swat Valley was until recently one of Pakistan's prime tourist destinations but Islamist militants aiming to impose a harsh form of Islamic law began battling security forces in 2007.

Residents say the militants are now virtually in complete control of the valley, which is 130 km (80 miles) northwest of Islamabad and not on the Afghan border, including its main town of Mingora, where the schools were destroyed early Monday.
"Militants blew up two girls schools and two boys schools," a top government official in the valley, Shaukat Yousafzai, told Reuters. "Attacks on troops are understandable but why are they destroying schools?"

Schools are closed for a winter break and no one was hurt in the attacks.
As with Afghanistan's Taliban, their Pakistani counterparts oppose education for girls and they recently banned female education in Swat altogether.

The militants also see schools as symbols of government authority and they say the army posts soldiers in them.

Yousafzai said the militants had destroyed 170 schools in the valley where about 55,000 girls and boys were enrolled in government-run institutions.

Pakistan is struggling to stem growing Islamist influence and violence in the northwest as it keeps a wary eye on its eastern border with India after militant attacks in the Indian city of Mumbai led to a spike in tension between the neighbors.

"THEY'RE SCARED"
Information Minister Sherry Rehman told reporters on Sunday
the government aimed to ensure that schools in Swat would reopen on March 1, when they are due to go back after the winter break.

But that would seem like wishful thinking.

The militants have shot, blown up or beheaded their opponents while broadcasting edicts and threats over their FM radio.

Many families have fled to the nearby cities of Peshawar and Mardan, while many police officers have either deserted or simply refused to serve, residents say.
Yousafzai said teachers were also refusing to work.

"I try to convince them but they're scared. They doubt the government's ability to protect them," he said.

Provincial Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain vowed action against the militants.

"They're out of control," Hussain told reporters in Peshawar.
"In the past, when we took action against them, we were criticized ... Now people realize that they're cruel and they want us to go after them and we'll do it."

The president of a Swat teachers' association said his members would only go back to work if the government restored peace and shut down the militants' radio, or if the militants issued an order over their radio for a return to work.

"The ground reality is there's no safety," said association president Ziauddin Yousafzai. "If they're destroying schools during a curfew, they can do anything. Even if the authorities announce schools are open, nobody will go and parents won't send their kids."

Many of the militants in Swat infiltrated from al Qaeda and Taliban enclaves in ethnic Pashtun lands on the Afghan border.

The military launched a big offensive in late 2007 to clear them out. The militants withdrew up remote side valleys to avoid government artillery and air attacks but slipped back into the main valley when the offensive ended.

(Writing by Kamran Haider; Editing by Robert Birsel and Sugita Katyal)

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Taliban Threatens to Blow up Girls' Schools

In the past few years the Afghanistan Taliban have closed down hundreds of schools, burned down over 140 more and have killed over 40 teachers and students. The reason being that the schools had the the nerve to educate girls. This atrocious behavior is not enough though. Now the Taliban in Swat Pakistan has threatened to blow up all girls' schools and attack the students if they are not closed by January 15Th. The Taliban says that the schools go against Islam.

Hat tip to The Munz

Taliban says if girls' schools don't close, it will bomb them, attack students
By Zahid Hussain in Islamabad
The AustralianDecember 27, 2008


THE Taliban has ordered the closure of all girls' schools in the war-ravaged Swat district of Pakistan and warned parents and teachers of dire consequences if the ban is flouted.

In an announcement made in mosques and broadcast on radio, the militant group set a deadline of January 15 for its order to be obeyed or it would blow up school buildings and attack schoolgirls. It also told women not to set foot outside their homes without being fully covered.

"Female education is against Islamic teachings and spreads vulgarity in society," Shah Dauran, leader of a group that has established control over a large part of Swat district in the North West Frontier Province, declared this week.

Teachers said that they had little choice but to comply. The Taliban have destroyed more than 125 girls' schools in the area in the past year, The Weekend Australian reports.

Swat, once a relatively liberal area and a popular tourist destination, has in the past few years become a heartland for Pakistan's Islamic militancy, which fashions itself on the conservative Taliban movement in Afghanistan.

Islamic militants led by the radical cleric Maulana Fazlullah have been fighting government forces since Pakistan launched a massive operation in the district late last year.

More than 200 government soldiers have been killed but the militants are still well entrenched in the area.

Mullah Fazlullah - also known as Mullah Radio for his sermons broadcast through his illegal FM radio stations - has long been exhorting people to stop sending their daughters to schools, which "inculcate Western values". Hundreds of girls and women teachers have quit schools as a result.

The militants have also prohibited immunisation for children against polio - claiming that the UN-sponsored vaccination drive is aimed at causing sexual impotence - causing a sharp rise in cases of the disease.

Since the start of the government offensive, girls' schools have been targeted increasingly by Islamic fundamentalists. The district has 842 boys' and 490 girls' state schools for 300,000 children aged three to nine; only 163,645 boys and 67,606 girls are actually enrolled at state and private establishments, according to official figures.

According to the local authorities, 50 per cent of girls have stopped attending school because of the militants' threats. Hazir Gul, a teacher, said the inability of the authorities to provide protection against attacks had emboldened the Islamists, who burned schools "whenever they want".

Attacks on girls' schools are not confined to the Swat district. In the past two years a further 100 schools have been burnt down in Waziristan and other tribal areas, leaving tens of thousands of children between the ages of five and 15 without education.

In many areas, hardliners have established sharia, or Islamic law, and introduced public executions for those who break it.

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Islamic Threats in Church: Bible Burned, Appeal to Conversion

Muslims constantly tell us that Islam is a tolerant religion. But actions like
these, these, and these show us the truth about Islam.

PAKISTAN
Islamic threats in church: bible burned, appeal to conversion
by Qaiser Felix
The sacrilege took place two days ago, in a small village of the diocese of Faisalabad. Many families of Muslims, who are in the majority, are supporting the Christians. The priest asks the faithful to remain "calm and peaceful," in imitation of Jesus.

Faisalabad (AsiaNews) - Desecration at the church of St. Paul in the village ‘Chak 77-RB’, ‘Lohekay’, about 30 kilometers from Faisalabad: on December 17, suspects burned a bible and other sacred texts, leaving a letter threatening Christians that they will "burn in the fire of hell" if they do not convert to Islam.

Pervez Masih tells AsiaNews that on that day, he and others were whitewashing and decorating the little church for Christmas. They stopped at noon for lunch, leaving the church open. When they returned, they found the bible and other sacred texts reduced to ashes, and a handwritten letter telling them to convert to Islam if they wanted to "live in peace" and avoid hell. In Pakistan, there is significant controversy over the law on blasphemy, condemning even to death those who offend the sacred book of Islam, the Qur'an. But nothing is done against blasphemous acts toward the books of other religions.

Fr. Yagoob Yousaf arrived in the village that same evening, having been told about the sacrilege. He celebrated Mass in the church (in the photo), and in the homily, he condemned the sacrilege and the threats, and told the faithful to remain calm and peaceful and not to be afraid, because the police have promised the highest vigilance. He said that Christ preached love and peace, and the government would see to guaranteeing security for the Christians for the Holy Nativity. In recent years, at Christmas, there have been attacks against Catholic and Protestant churches. Often the Christmas celebrations have taken place under police protection.

He observes that "this is a high holy season for all Christians and they are preparing themselves for Christmas but such type of incidents are creating fear and is a move to disturb Christians in the season of Advent."

Most of the people in the village are Muslim, and there are between 50 and 70 Christian families. The church is used by Catholics and Protestants, without conflict. When they became aware of the sacrilege, many Muslims went to the church together with the Christians. Now the police are investigating the "suspects" for the crime of blasphemy.

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