'The military in Pakistan is capable and self critical, but intelligence is stuffed full of lifers who resist change, which is why career soldiers in Pakistan try with all their might not to be transferred into the ISI.'
Suspecting the hand of Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami commander Ilyas Kashmiri in coordinating the suicide strike on the top secret Central Intelligence Agency base in eastern Afghanistan, United States authorities have asked Pakistan to hunt down and extradite the dreaded terrorist.
Raising the issue during Zero Hour in Rajya Sabha, party member Brinda Karat claimed that Headley, earlier a drug smuggler, worked as an undercover agent of the US intelligence agency CIA since 1999 and the US government helped him make frequent trips to Pakistan.
While the Pentagon has asserted that the US is "comfortable" over the safety and security of Pakistan's nuclear weapons arsenal and Islamabad has rubbished a report that militants attacked its nuclear facilities at least three times, an erstwhile CIA analyst has argued that what should elicit more concern among the international community is terrorists in Pakistan acquiring material for a "dirty bomb".
Curtis, who was the lead panellist at a conference at The Brookings Institution titled, The US-India Nuclear Agreement: Expectations and Consequences,' said, "During the Bush Administration, US officials broke the habit of viewing India solely through the India-Pakistan lens. Washington developed a greater appreciation for the Indian democratic miracle and viewed our shared democratic principles as the bedrock for a broader strategic partnership."
The White House has authorised an expansion of the successful drone attacks of the Central Investigation Agencies in the tribal areas of Pakistan, a media report said on Friday.
In a sign of growing ties between Indian and American security agencies, Central Intelligence Agency chief Leon E Panetta is paying a three-day visit to India from November 20, with anti-terror cooperation high on the agenda.
According to The Nation, the US firm has offered some of the retired Pakistani officials a whopping salary package of $60,000 (nearly Rs 28 lakh) per month. But what is more noticeable is that it has hired former CIA officer Steven Cash to operate as commander-in-charge of its operations in Peshawar.
The United States on Wednesday expressed its serious concern over corruption in Afghanistan, but said right now it is focused entirely on the November 7 run-off to presidential elections.
'The greatest threat faced by India does not come from Pakistan, it comes from terrorism... It is easier to secure the borders of the US; it is not so easy to make India's borders secure,' Pulizer Prize-winning journalist Mark Mazzetti tells Rediff.com's Sanchari Bhattacharya.
Blair's assessment came at Tuesday's hearing of the Senate Intelligence Committee when panel chairwoman Senator Dianne Feinstein asked him to weigh up the possibility of an attempted attack in the United States.
United States Central Intelligence Agency Director Leon Panetta says that while the CIA has been scrupulously tracking the whereabouts of Pakistan's nuclear weapons arsenal, it has no intelligence about where they are dispersed.
The knowledge component and managerial competence gives Indian companies an edge to be competitive, says B S Prakash.
President Barack Obama met his National Security Council team at the White House to review potential holiday threats and discuss America's security posture in Pakistan in view of the horrific terrorist attack on a school in Peshawar that left 141 dead, mostly children.
Obama lied to Americans about the role of Pakistan special forces in the raid which killed Osama Bin Laden so he could take credit for the mission, an expose published has claimed.
Pakistani religious parties have offered blood money to the family of slain Punjab governor Salman Taseer to pardon his killer.
The arrest of Baradar, said to be second-in-command to Omar, is a major blow to the Taliban and is being described as a major success to Obama Administration's war against terrorism in the Af-Pak region.
The United States allowed Pakistan to manufacture and acquire nuclear weapons without informing the Congress, a non-profit corruption watchdog has said, quoting a whistleblower who was fired for objecting to the policy.
Pakistan so far has rebuffed all US attempts to directly assist its forces in its war against terrorism despite best efforts by the Obama administration, a media report said on Monday. "Pakistan has accepted US money, weaponry and limited training, but has rebuffed further US efforts to assist its forces," The Washington Post said in a report.
United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has all but confirmed the Central Intelligence Agency's assertions that certain elements in Pakistan are working with the Al Qaeda and undermining the United States-led war on terror. "I would say they're not our theoretical ally; they are our ally," she said, but acknowledged, "there are elements in Pakistan that one worries that there are connections to the militants in the region."
The job was assigned to Blackwater, now known as Xe Services, the company whose operations in Iraq had come under intense scrutiny. CIA earlier hired it for its secret (now abandoned) programme to eliminate top Al Qaeda leaders.
Undeterred by the threats of retaliation from militants, the US intends to step up its drone strikes in Pakistan's tribal areas and may extend them deeper inside the country, a media report said today.
The verdict was announced after the government submitted a 'new summary' to extend the service of 59-year-old Gen Bajwa.
'It will merely give him a forum to make political statements before an international audience. Even if he were to recant, the sceptics may still scoff. He is a small fry in any case.'
Should Iraq, today a fledgeling and frail democratic republic, one day become a bastion for freedom and human rights in the Middle East, leading to the domino-like collapse of military and theocratic dictatorships in the region, perhaps historians will judge Bush more kindly than the commentators, says Matthew Schneeberger
India was fooled into believing that Communist China wanted a 'negotiated' settlement with the Tibetans; it was never the case, says Claude Arpi.
The British-controlled Indian ocean island of Diego Garcia might have served as a secret prison for America's Central Intelligence Agency, a media report said on Friday.
Two legislative amendments seeking a cut in the United States aid to Pakistan have been defeated in the House of Representatives with most lawmakers arguing that it is essential to maintain ties with a nuclear armed country despite it not doing enough in the war against terrorism.
'No other Communist leader after Lenin had such an internationalist vision as Fidel,' says Prakash Karat, the CPI-M leader in this eloquent tribute to Fidel Castro who passed into the ages on Friday.
'We spent Rs 59,000 crore on acquiring 36 Rafales and we do not know if we will ever use them. The chances are that we never will,' argues Aakar Patel.
Despite being a bit contrived, Rendition, based on an original and tightly drawn screenplay by Kelley Sane, is a poignant, heartwarming and timely film connected to 9/11.
US think tank Lisa Curtis talks about the Pakistan polls and its aftermath.
Russell Crowe is back. The actor of hard-hitting films like The Insider, Gladiator and A Beautiful Mind, will be seen in the upcoming film, Body of Lies. The movie whose tagline reads: 'Trust No One, Deceive Everyone,' is releasing in India on October 17. It is an adaptation of the novel of the same name by David Ignatius and is written by William Monahan and directed by Ridley Scott.
The reliability of US information and assessments on Iran is increasingly at issue as the Bush administration confronts the emerging regional power on multiple fronts.
'The facts have become unimportant and useless.' 'What is important is the constantly shouting of patriotism even as one undermines the interests of the people.' 'And the abusing of rivals as being traitors,' says Aakar Patel.
If the ruling BJP stresses on Hindu nationalist themes ahead of the general election in May, there will be communal violence'
Pompeo defended the killing of Soleimani saying he was making efforts for an attack on Americans in the region.
Pakistan's military on Monday deployed an indigenously-made armed drone to attack a militant compound, killing at least three "high-profile" terrorists.
'Tehran,' Foreign Minister Zarif said, 'had expected the Modi government to be "more resilient" in the face of Washington's bullying,' notes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'He has a splendid opportunity to capitalise on the CPEC and turn the economy around decisively, putting Pakistan firmly on a higher growth trajectory.' 'Indeed, under the Imran-Bajwa dispensation, there has been a noticeable whittling down of support to militant groups,' points out Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
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