Pakistan’s intelligence service backing al Qaeda and Taliban, says Admiral Mike Mullen

There are "indications" that elements of Pakistan’s intelligence service are supporting al Qaeda and the Taliban, the United States top military officer said on March 27, Daily Times reported. "There are certainly indications that’s the case," US Joints Chiefs of Staff Committee Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen told CNN when asked if elements of Pakistan’s intelligence agency were backing al Qaeda and its Taliban allies. "Fundamentally that’s one of the things that has to change," Mullen said.

60 to 80 Islamist militants have returned to Germany after training in Pakistan, says State Secretary

Germany is home to several hundred "potentially dangerous Islamists", including a hard core of around 100 people classed as dangerous, a senior Interior Ministry official said on March 27, according to Daily Times. Between 60 and 80 "jihadists" out of some 140 have returned to Germany, who had undergone training in camps in the Tribal Areas on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, State Secretary August Hanning said. "The danger should not be underestimated. The 60 to 80 who have returned make up the overwhelming majority of up to around 100 people whom we class as dangerous," Hanning told the Tagesspiegel. "On top of that there are about another 300 potentially dangerous Islamists. All in all we are talking about a circle of around 1,000 people," said Hanning, who used to head German foreign intelligence agency, the BND. He added he was worried about the possibility of attacks in the run up to this September’s general election in Germany. "The threats do not mention the elections directly. But in the view of jihadists in Pakistan the election is important because it will determine Germany’s foreign policy in the future," he said.

A Historical Timeline of Afghanistan

The land that is now Afghanistan has a long history of domination by foreign conquerors and strife among internally warring factions. At the gateway between Asia and Europe, this land was conquered by Darius I of Babylonia circa 500 B.C., and Alexander the Great of Macedonia in 329 B.C., among others. Mahmud of Ghazni, an 11th century conqueror who created an empire from Iran to India, is considered the greatest of Afghanistan's conquerors.
Genghis Khan took over the territory in the 13th century, but it wasn't until the 1700s that the area was united as a single country. By 1870, after the area had been invaded by various Arab conquerors, Islam had taken root. During the 19th century, Britain, looking to protect its Indian empire from Russia, attempted to annex Afghanistan, resulting in a series of British-Afghan Wars (1838-42, 1878-80, 1919-21).
1921
The British, beleaguered in the wake of World War I, are defeated in the Third British-Afghan War (1919-21), and Afghanistan becomes an independent nation. Concerned that Afghanistan has fallen behind the rest of the world, Amir Amanullah Khan begins a rigorous campaign of socioeconomic reform.
1926
Amanullah declares Afghanistan a monarchy, rather than an emirate, and proclaims himself king. He launches a series of modernization plans and attempts to limit the power of the Loya Jirga, the National Council. Critics, frustrated by Amanullah's policies, take up arms in 1928 and by 1929, the king abdicates and leaves the country.
1933
Zahir Shah becomes king. The new king brings a semblance of stability to the country and he rules for the next 40 years.
1934
The United States formally recognizes Afghanistan.
1947
Britain withdraws from India, creating the predominantly Hindu but secular state of India and the Islamic state of Pakistan. The nation of Pakistan includes a long, largely uncontrollable, border with Afghanistan.
1953
The pro-Soviet Gen. Mohammed Daoud Khan, cousin of the king, becomes prime minister and looks to the communist nation for economic and military assistance. He also introduces a number of social reforms including allowing women a more public presence.
1956
Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev agrees to help Afghanistan, and the two countries become close allies.
1957
As part of Daoud's reforms, women are allowed to attend university and enter the workforce.
1965
The Afghan Communist Party secretly forms. The group's principal leaders are Babrak Karmal and Nur Mohammad Taraki.
1973
Khan overthrows the last king, Mohammed Zahir Shah, in a military coup. Khan's regime, the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan, comes to power. Khan abolishes the monarchy and names himself president. The Republic of Afghanistan is established with firm ties to the USSR.
1975-1977
Khan proposes a new constitution that grants women rights and works to modernize the largely communist state. He also cracks down on opponents, forcing many suspected of not supporting Khan out of the government
1978
Khan is killed in a communist coup. Nur Mohammad Taraki, one of the founding members of the Afghan Communist Party, takes control of the country as president, and Babrak Karmal is named deputy prime minister. They proclaim independence from Soviet influence, and declare their policies to be based on Islamic principles, Afghan nationalism and socioeconomic justice. Taraki signs a friendship treaty with the Soviet Union. But a rivalry between Taraki and Hafizullah Amin, another influential communist leader, leads to fighting between the two sides.
At the same time, conservative Islamic and ethnic leaders who objected to social changes introduced by Khan begin an armed revolt in the countryside. In June, the guerrilla movement Mujahadeen is created to battle the Soviet-backed government.
1979
American Ambassador Adolph Dubs is killed. The United States cuts off assistance to Afghanistan. A power struggle between Taraki and Deputy Prime Minister Hafizullah Amin begins. Taraki is killed on Sept. 14 in a confrontation with Amin supporters.
The USSR invades Afghanistan on Dec. 24 to bolster the faltering communist regime. On Dec. 27, Amin and many of his followers are executed. Deputy Prime Minister Babrak Karmal becomes prime minister. Widespread opposition to Karmal and the Soviets spawns violent public demonstrations.By early 1980, the Mujahadeen rebels have united against Soviet invaders and the USSR-backed Afghan Army.
1982
Some 2.8 million Afghans have fled from the war to Pakistan, and another 1.5 million have fled to Iran. Afghan guerrillas gain control of rural areas, and Soviet troops hold urban areas.
1984
Although he claims to have traveled to Afghanistan immediately after the Soviet invasion, Saudi Islamist Osama bin Laden makes his first documented trip to Afghanistan to aid anti-Soviet fighters.he United Nations investigates reported human rights violations in Afghanistan.
1986
The Mujahadeen are receiving arms from the United States, Britain and China via Pakistan.
1988
In September, Osama bin Laden and 15 other Islamists form the group al-Qaida, or "the base", to continue their jihad, or holy war, against the Soviets and other who they say oppose their goal of a pure nation governed by Islam. With their belief that the Soviet's faltering war in Afghanistan was directly attributable to their fighting, they claim victory in their first battle, but also begin to shift their focus to America, saying the remaining superpower is the main obstacle to the establishment of a state based on Islam.
1989
The U.S., Pakistan, Afghanistan, and the Soviet Union sign peace accords in Geneva guaranteeing Afghan independence and the withdrawal of 100,000 Soviet troops. Following Soviet withdrawal, the Mujahadeen continue their resistance against the Soviet-backed regime of communist president Dr. Mohammad Najibullah, who had been elected president of the puppet Soviet state in 1986. Afghan guerrillas name Sibhatullah Mojadidi as head of their exiled government.
1992
The Mujahadeen and other rebel groups, with the aid of turncoat government troops, storm the capital, Kabul, and oust Najibullah from power. Ahmad Shah Masood, legendary guerrilla leader, leads the troops into the capital. The United Nations offers protection to Najibullah. The Mujahadeen, a group already beginning to fracture as warlords fight over the future of Afghanistan, form a largely Islamic state with professor Burhannudin Rabbani as president.
1995
Newly formed Islamic militia, the Taliban, rises to power on promises of peace. Most Afghans, exhausted by years of drought, famine and war, approve of the Taliban for upholding traditional Islamic values. The Taliban outlaw cultivation of poppies for the opium trade, crack down on crime, and curtail the education and employment of women. Women are required to be fully veiled and are not allowed outside alone. Islamic law is enforced via public executions and amputations. The United States refuses to recognize the authority of the Taliban.
1995-1999
Continuing drought devastates farmers and makes many rural areas uninhabitable. More than 1 million Afghans flee to neighboring Pakistan, where they languish in squalid refugee camps.
1997
The Taliban publicly executes Najibullah.
Ethnic groups in the north, under Masood's Northern Alliance, and the south, aided in part by Hamid Karzai, continue to battle the Taliban for control of the country.
1998
Following al-Qaida's bombings of two American embassies in Africa, President Clinton orders cruise missile attacks against bin Laden's training camps in Afghanistan. The attacks miss the Saudi and other leaders of the terrorist group.
2000
By now considered an international terrorist, bin Laden is widely believed to be hiding in Afghanistan, where he is cultivating thousands of followers in terrorist training camps. The United States demands that bin Laden be extradited to stand trial for the embassy bombings. The Taliban decline to extradite him. The United Nations punishes Afghanistan with sanctions restricting trade and economic development.
March
Ignoring international protests, the Taliban carry out their threat to destroy Buddhist statues in Bamiyan, Afghanistan, saying they are an affront to Islam.
Sept. 4
A month after arresting them, the Taliban put eight international aid workers on trial for spreading Christianity. Under Taliban rule, proselytizing is punishable by death. The group is held in various Afghan prisons for months and finally released Nov. 15.
Sept. 9
Masood, still head of the Northern Alliance and the nation's top insurgent, is killed by assassins posing as journalists.
Sept. 11
Hijackers commandeer four commercial airplanes and crash them into the World Trade Center Towers in New York, the Pentagon outside Washington, D.C., and a Pennsylvania field, killing thousands. Days later, U.S. officials say bin Laden, the Saudi exile believed to be hiding in Afghanistan, is the prime suspect in the attack.
Oct. 7
Following unanswered demands that the Taliban turn over bin Laden, U.S. and British forces launch airstrikes against targets in Afghanistan. American warplanes start to bomb Taliban targets and bases reportedly belonging to the al-Qaida network. The Taliban proclaim they are ready for jihad.
Nov. 13
After weeks of intense fighting with Taliban troops, the Northern Alliance enters Kabul. The retreating Taliban flee southward toward Kandahar.
Dec. 7
Taliban fighters abandon their final stronghold in Kandahar as the militia group's hold on Afghanistan continues to disintegrate. Two days later, Taliban leaders surrender the group's final Afghan territory, the province of Zabul. The move leads the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press to declare "the rule of the Taliban in Afghanistan has totally ended."
Dec. 22
Hamid Karzai, a royalist and ethnic Pashtun, is sworn in as the leader of the interim government in Afghanistan. Karzai entered Afghanistan after living in exile for years in neighboring Pakistan. At the U.N.-sponsored conference to determine an interim government, Karzai already has the support of the United States and by the end of the conference is elected leader of the six-month government.
2002
In June, the Loya Jirga, or grand council, elects U.S.-backed Hamid Karzai as interim leader. Karzai chooses the members of his government who will serve until 2004, when the government is required to organize elections.
2003
Amid increased violence, NATO takes over security in Kabul in August. The effort is the security organization's first-ever commitment outside of Europe.
January 2004
The Loya Jirga adopts a new constitution following input from nearly 500,000 Afghans, some of whom participate in public meetings in villages. The new constitution calls for a president and two vice presidents, but the office of prime minister is removed at the last minute. The official languages, according to the constitution, are Pashto and Dari. Also, the new constitution calls for equality for women.
October 2004
Presidential elections are held. More than 10.5 million Afghans register to vote and choose among 18 presidential candidates, including interim leader Karzai. Karzai is elected with 55 percent of the vote.
2005
The nation holds its first parliamentary elections in more than 30 years. The peaceful vote leads to the parliament's first meeting in December.
2006

Amid continuing fighting between Taliban and al-Qaida fighters and the Afghan government forces, NATO expands its peacekeeping operation to the southern portion of the country. After the forces take over from American-led troops, Taliban fighters launch a bloody wave of suicide attacks and raids against the international troops.

US offer $5m reward for Baitullah Mehsud

Pakistan's top Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, left with cap, faces the side to stop photographers from making an image of his face, talks to the media in Kotkai, a village in the Pakistani tribal area South Waziristan along Afghan border, Saturday, May 24, 2008. Mehsud said that he is sending fighters to battle U.S. troops in Afghanistan even as he seeks a peace with the Pakistani government.

The United States on March 25 .2009 offered up to $11 million in rewards to find and capture three al Qaeda terrorists, including Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan chief Baitullah Mehsud, Daily Times reported. The US announced a $5 million bounty for the location or arrest of Mehsud. The other two terrorists named in the list were Sirajuddin Haqqani and Abu Yahya Al-Libi.

20 extremists back in UK after training with militant groups in Pakistan

Pakistan has informed the British Government about more than 20 Britons believed to have spent time with radical militant groups and then returned to the UK, according to Daily Times. A Sky TV report said the tracked men may have trained with extremist outfits. A dossier is likely to be handed over to British anti-terrorist teams ‘soon’. The suspects – aged between 17 and 23 – have created “sufficient suspicion” for the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to believe they pose a ‘potential danger’ to Britain. At least four are thought to have been fighting in Afghanistan, and intelligence officials say they have heard ‘English accents’ while listening to satellite and mobile phone chatter between the UK and the Tribal Areas.

Pakistan Could Collapse in Six Months, says CENTCOM adviser

The Pakistani state could collapse within six months if immediate steps are not taken to remedy the situation, warned a top adviser to the US Central Command, The News reported. David Kilcullen, who advises CENTCOM commander General David H. Petraeus on the war on terror, urged US policymakers to focus their attention on Pakistan as a failure there could have devastating consequences for the entire international community. In an interview with The Washington Post (Sunday Edition), Kilcullen warned that if Pakistan went out of control, it would ‘dwarf’ all the crises in the world today. “Pakistan hands down. No doubt,” he said when asked to name the central front in the war against terror. Asked to explain why he thought Pakistan was so important, Kilcullen said: “Pakistan has 173 million people, 100 nuclear weapons, an army bigger than the US Army, and al-Qaeda headquarters sitting right there in the two-thirds of the country that the government doesn’t control.”
He claimed that the Pakistani military and Police and intelligence service did not follow the civilian Government they were essentially a rogue state within a state. “Were now reaching the point where within one to six months we could see the collapse of the Pakistani state, also because of the global financial crisis, which just exacerbates all these problems,” he said. “The collapse of Pakistan, al-Qaeda acquiring nuclear weapons, an extremist takeover — that would dwarf everything we’ve seen in the war on terror today.”

Girls’ School blown up in Pakistan

Unidentified men blew up a girls’ school in the Mardan District on March 22, Daily Times reported. According to Police sources, the men planted explosives near the Government Girls High School Hattian, located near the residence of the NWFP senior minister Rahim Dad Khan. However, no casualties were reported.
In another incident, unidentified men fired two rockets at a Police station near Gomal University for Women in Dera Ismail Khan, a private TV channel reported on March 22. According to the channel, no casualties were reported. The channel said there were reports of firing in several areas of the city after the attack near the university. Separately, an imambargah (a Shia place of worship) was partially damaged by an explosion near the building in Tank city. No casualties were reported.

Gordon Brown :”Core of al Qaeda is in Pakistan”

Stating that the core of al Qaeda has shifted from Afghanistan to Pakistan, the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on March 22 said that Britain was about to take the war against terror “to a new level,” The News reported. Britain will release on March 24 a new counter-terrorism strategy called Contest Two, billed as the most comprehensive approach to tackling the threat of terrorism by any government in the world. Writing in The Observer, Brown said: “We know that there is an al Qaida core in northern Pakistan trying to organise attacks in Britain. We know also that there are a number of networks here… Al-Qaida terrorists remain intent on inflicting mass casualties without warning, including suicide bombings. They are motivated by a violent extremist ideology based on a false reading of religion and exploit modern travel and communications to spread through loose and dangerous global networks.” Al Qaeda is still active in Afghanistan, but the threat has crossed the border, he said, adding: “Over two thirds of the plots threatening the UK are linked to Pakistan.”

A Prince stand in Afghanistan presidential election

Prince Ali Seraj as well as being the nephew of King Amanullah, is also the grandson of King Habibullah and a descendant of, amongst other kings of Afghanistan, Abdur Rahman – the ‘Iron Amir’ and Dost Mohammad.

His father, Sardar Abdul Ghafoor, was a younger brother of King Amanullah and 16 years old when he abdicated. His father then went on to work in the Ministry of Finance and the Diplomatic Service. Prince Ali’s mother was Lady Siddika Tarzi, a descendent of Ghulam Mahmood Tarzi, (the father of journalism of Afghanistan) and Rhamdel Khan of Kandahar who together with Dost Mohammad and Sultan Mohammad of Peshawar, formed the three main branches of the Mohammadzais line.

The Seraj part of Prince Ali’s name comes from the title given to King Habibullah - ‘Seraj -ul- Millat wa deen’ (Light of the Nation and Religion). Ali Seraj was much involved in Afghan politics before having to flee the country with his wife and two children under a Khalq-Parcham death warrant following the coup d’état and killing of President Daoud in 1978.

He has an American degree in agricultural economics, has lived 18 years in the USA, and 5 in Brazil, running a successful fibre optics business, before returning to Afghanistan in 2002. Since then he has been involved in mainly privately funded reconstruction projects such as schools and clinics. He also lectures regularly at the US Counter Insurgency School (COIN Academy), in Kabul.

As well as being the leader of the NCDTA and having been asked by them to run for President, he has also been asked to do this by a number of the more moderate Taliban leaders.
Because Prince Ali’s grandfather King Habibullah married 36 wives from different tribes, Ali Seraj has a blood link to most of the major tribes in Afghanistan. In addition because his paternal grandmother (one of the 36 wives) came from Badakhshan he has particularly strong ties to the northern reaches.

Pakistan and Taliban New Deal

The Darra Adamkhel-based Taliban militants, affiliated with the Baitullah Mehsud-led banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), on March 19 agreed to a cease-fire in Darra Adamkhel and Frontier Region Kohat till March 30, according to The News. Sources said the elders of five major tribes of Darra Adamkhel, led by Noor Zaman Afridi, held a meeting with the militants’ chief, Tariq Afridi, in the Orakzai Agency in FATA and asked him to help restore peace in the region. Talking to a private FM radio channel in Darra Adamkhel, TTP Darra Adamkhel chief Tariq Afridi pledged to co-operate with the Government in maintaining peace in the area. “We assure the government and the people that even a single shot will not be fired in Darra, Kohat and Peshawar,” he said.

What life is like for an Afghan Female Singer

Farida Tarana is an Afghan female singer; she is 27 years old, from Western province of Herat. She is one of the Afghan Star famous TV shows Participants.

Farida was the First Afghan female who attend to the Afghan Star TV show and present her songs on the stage.

Farida attend to the Afghan Start with other 2000 participates from allover Afghanistan. And success the best 12.

Farida Tarana saying the she selects to be a female singer in Afghanistan when she had only two options, become a singer with treat of losing her live or be alive but not a singer:

“ its really hard to say , my family lives in Iran my father, mother and sisters are in Iran and I am living here with one of my sister and her husband , when I attend the Afghan Star Process my family were in Iran , how ever I received many calls on my phone unknown people treated me to do not continue singing you’re an Afghan women and … but I doesn’t care on that and I never told to my family about it, till these unknown peoples called direct to my family in Iran and these treats increased day by day and due to that my mom got sick and she based to the hospital , then I seriously decide to do not continue more the Afghan Star in 12 best. my father came to Hirat and said that its enough we agreed with you to participate in this Process and become singer but now it’s the issue of your live, when my father said that it’s the issue of my life and die I said its ok if someone coming and for singing killing me then leave them to do that, and it become the main reason that I decide to continue”.

Farida Says that before attending the Show she understand about the limitations for Afghan females to sing a song on the TV shows , but she decide to participate in Afghan Start TV show that there be not any more Taboo for Afghan women’s:

“when you want to start any work then certainly you think about the negative and positive points , and I always understand that the negative point of attending to the Afghan Star Process for me as a women’s is more then the positive , but I accepted because Afghanistan is on the development process and everyone must build it from one way , its not correct to say that just we can rebuild our country only with politics or …I think singing specially for the women’s is more effective for the development of Afghan culture , because during several past decades the females in Afghan afraid for social working and my participation in Afghan Star become a Start and I believe that many other females will continue it “

Farida says that the only support that she had was from her family and encouraged her for achieving her target:

“ I would like to say very clearly that our close relatives rejects my decide to become a singer , but the only support that I had was from my own family that they always supported me and I believe without their support it was impossible for me, because my relatives like my uncle , aunt and others.. Reject”.

Russia and Iran support Karzai to Stand against US

In a situation that the donor countries are saying that con not fund to the election process in Afghanistan to be held as of the constitution in May, the Afghan president Hamid Karzai with giving an official order announced that the presentational election to be held in mentioned time in constitution on May.

Now the baggiest concern is about the Budget of the election process that who going to pay it.

President Karzai decided that if the westerns countries including united state do not fund the Budget of the election process in Afghanistan he will ask for the Regional and neighbor Countries to fund the election process in Afghanistan.
This action shows that Karzai Mostly think that if the US government stand against his decide he will ask to Russia and Iran for his support against US.