maybe the women of Swat will get rescued after all

[ensho]

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2009%5C04%5C27%5Cstory_27-4-2009_pg1_9


‘US threatened to attack Swat Taliban if Pakistan failed to act’


LAHORE: The United States made it clear last week that it would attack the Taliban in Swat valley unless the Pakistani government stopped their advance.

A senior Pakistani official told The Times newspaper, the American government intervened after Taliban moved in Buner.

In Washington, officials feared that the country pivotal to the US war in Afghanistan and against Al Qaeda was succumbing to extremists.

“The implicit threat – if you don’t do it, we may have to – was always there,” said the official. He said that under American pressure, the ISI agency told the Taliban on Friday to withdraw from Buner.

However, the Taliban withdrawal was less than total.

The official said the ‘mortal threat’ remarks by Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, were “calculated to ramp up the pressure on Pakistan” to take action. She was one of several American political and military leaders to use unusually strong language about Pakistan’s failure to curb the Taliban. Others included Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, and General David Petraeus.
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and


http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/KD28Df02.html


When is a peace deal not a peace deal? The one signed between the Pakistani government and militants in the Swat area in North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) in February which imposed sharia law in return for a ceasefire could be such a deal.

The government said on Monday that at least 26 militants had been killed in Lower Dir, close to the Swat Valley, after two days of fighting in one of the districts covered by the sharia deal.

However, a Taliban spokesman in the area said the assault by paramilitary Frontier Corps forces was a "violation" of the deal. The Taliban at the weekend withdrew from neighboring Buner district just 96 kilometers from the capital Islamabad. They had briefly taken over the area.

"We don't have any intentions to spread out to Islamabad. We will contain ourselves up to the Swat Valley and want to present a model of true Islamic justice in Malakand Agency. We have pulled out all external Taliban elements from Buner and there is no reason for any military operation to be conducted now," Muslim Khan said in a statement.

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Pakistanies better be smart about this

[EFerrari]

1. Pakistani government is not in control of its military.

David Kilcullen was pointing that out over the weekend. He said that instead of giving Pakistan money for the military, we should be funding their police forces because they do good counter terrorism work and are vastly underfunded.

[Tim01]

2. New war in Pakistan? Peace keeping force?