American official Raymond Davis, arrested for double murder, had "close links" with Taliban and was "instrumental" in recruiting youths for it, the media in Pakistan claimed on Tuesday, close on the heels of reports in the United States that he was a Central Intelligence Agency agent tracking movements of terror groups like the Lashkar-e-Tayiba.
CIA Director Leon E Panetta said: "The bottom line here is that the war on terrorism is not just about Al Qaeda. It is a series of terrorist groups that are basically confronting us and it is the kinds of changes that we see in their methods of approaching the United States that I think represents the very important threat that we have to pay attention to."
Erstwhile Central Intelligence Agency veteran Bruce Riedel, who was the co-chair of the first Af-Pak (Afghanistan-Pakistan Strategic Review) of the Obama administration, had said that the US Af-Pak policy has got in only half right, because while you can't deal with Afghanistan without dealing with Pakistan, by the same token you can't deal with Pakistan without dealing with India -- meaning you've got to address Islamabad's paranoia over New Delhi.
United States President Barack Obama must focus on Pakistan, which is home to more terrorist groups than any other country, for success in the war against terrorism. "This year, President Obama must focus like a laser on Pakistan. He has already promised to travel to the country in 2011," said former CIA official Bruce Riedel. "And he will need to signal our determination to (subtly) help broker a rapprochement between India and Pakistan, with the aid of key players," he said
America's Central Intelligence Agency on Thursday strongly refuted reports that Pakistani-origin US national David Coleman Headley, charged with criminal conspiring in the 26/11 terror attacks, was its agent at any point of time.
Headley's trial thus promises to be fascinating and important. If it is established that Headley was working for Headley all along, it will establish the Mumbai terror attacks as being a joint Lashkay-Al Qaeda operation, says Riedel. This, if true, is bad news for American counter-terrorism ops given the Lashkar's global network of supporters the Pakistani diaspora
Rediff.com's Vicky Nanjappa speaks to Author Anuj Dhar about his latest book on Subhash Chandra Bose and uncovers some of the CIA's long-lost records, along the way.
The CIA has come in for criticism for giving false information to strengthen the US case for invading Iraq.
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 CIA's Counter Terrorist Centre never developed a plan to deal with the possibility that terrorists might use airplanes as weapons, despite growing evidence during the 1990s.
David Petraeus, considered to be one of the best war-time generals and who till recently was commander of US-led North Atlantic Treaty Organisation forces in Afghanistan, was on Tuesday sworn in as the chief of the Central Intelligence Agency.
Holding the Lashkar-e-Tayiba responsible for the terror attack on Mumbai last year, a British Parliamentary committee on Sunday said that several major terror attacks across the world, including in London, Madrid and Bali, had origins in the tribal areas of Pakistan. A report by the powerful Foreign Affairs Committee quoted a former Central Intelligence Agency chief as saying that the Pakistan-based LeT has reached a 'merge point' with the al-Qaeda.
The meetings were held by members of the National Security Council's Principals Committee, which at that time included Vice President Richard Cheney, former National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Colin Powell, apart from CIA director George Tenet and Attorney General John Ashcroft. The principals not only discussed the tactics, but also approved them, reports ABCNews.com
United States President Barack Obama on Monday ordered a probe into allegations that the Bush administration resisted efforts to investigate a Central Intelligence Agency-backed Afghan warlord General Abdul Rashid Dostum over the massacre of hundreds of Taliban prisoners in 2001.
Biden would also travel to Jordan for a summit meeting with the heads of States of Jordan, Egypt and the president of Palestinian Authority.
Citigroup came under growing pressure to overhaul its board on Tuesday after it revealed that two long-serving directors survived a shareholder vote largely thanks to a balloting rule that is due to be scrapped.
The Central Intelligence Agency has not allowed the death of Osama bin Laden to slow down its hunt for high-value targets of Al Qaeda and its affiliates in the Pashtun tribal belt of Pakistan.
Security has been stepped up across Kerala's coastal belt from Cherthala to Kochi this afternoon following reports of a group of suspected LTTE cadre landing in a boat at Thyckal Beach in the district today.
Uttar Pradesh was alerted about the possibility of terrorist attacks in public places, Minister of State for Home Sri Prakash Jaiswal said on Sunday.
A United States lawmaker, who was given the rare opportunity by the Central Intelligence Agency to view the death photos of Osama bin Laden, has said the pictures were "pretty gruesome" and there was no doubt that the Al Qaeda chief was dead.
Officials said PFI has been under the radar of security agencies for its alleged role in violent protests in different parts of the country.
Now that it has been revealed that Osama was hiding in Pakistan, the presence of other key Taliban and Al Qaeda operatives in that nation doesn't seem such a far-fetched possibility
Shamsi airfield, in the Baluchistan region in southern Pakistan, has become the new ground zero in the United States war against the Taliban and Al Qaeda.The Times, London, reports that the Central Intelligence Agency is covertly using the Shamsi airfield, located just 30 miles from the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, to launch Predator strikes on Taliban and Al Qaeda bases on the Pakistani side of the border with Afghanistan -- a fact repeatedly denied by US and Pak
Artificial Intelligence, innovation and next-generation technologies figured prominently during the high-stakes discussion between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump at the White House, as the two sides announced transformative measures, including the US-India TRUST initiative, roadmap on accelerating AI infrastructure and INDUS Innovation, to boost tech ties.
In what could come as a setback to American efforts to seek early release of arrested Central Intelligence Agency contractor Raymond Davis, a Pakistani court on Monday declined to rule on his diplomatic status and moved the matter to a lower court which is already conducting his trial on murder charges. 36-year-old Davis was arrested in Lahore on January 27 after he shot and killed two armed men he claimed were trying to rob him.
Security of President Pratibha Devisingh Patil, who arrived in Pune on Friday on a four-day visit, has been beefed up following an E-mail threat. The President was provided a new bullet-proof vehicle, official sources said, adding that the vehicle was requisitioned from Mumbai.
The CIA did not target him once as the UAE royal family was with him at that time, the agency's director, George Tenet, told the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks on the US.
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.
Recently the agency had to sack its top officer in Baghdad amid questions about his ability to lead the gargantuan station there.
RBI has cited "legal impediments" in sharing the reports.
"As most of these agencies carry out interrogation in their office(s), CCTVs shall be compulsorily installed in all offices where such interrogation and holding of accused takes place in the same manner as it would in a police station," the bench said in its order.
Amid intelligence reports of a pro-Khalistan group plotting an attack against him, Delhi Chief Ministerial candidate Arvind Kejriwal responded with faith, stating "God will save him." The threat comes ahead of the February 5 Delhi Assembly polls, with authorities reviewing Kejriwal's security and deploying round-the-clock surveillance.
Central Command chief General Tommy Franks told the cabinet how he plans to capture Iraq.
Over 70 companies of paramilitary forces and more than 15,000 police personnel will be deployed across the national capital for Republic Day celebrations, an official said. The city will be monitored by drones and CCTV surveillance, and cyber-specialist officers will be deployed to oversee operations. Multi-layered security arrangements, including six layers of checking and frisking, barricading, and thousands of CCTV cameras with Facial Recognition Systems (FRS), will be in place.
Afridi had ran a fake vaccination drive in Abbottabad city to help CIA agents track the former Al Qaeda chief, who was later killed by US Navy Seals in a controversial raid on May 2, 2011.
Stating that the Al Qaida was able to establish an unprecedented safe haven along the Pakistan-Afghan border in the past 18 months, the Central Intelligence Agency chief has warned that the situation there presented a clear danger to the two nations, as also to the United States. General Micheal Hayden termed the 2006 peace deal between Pakistan government and the pro-Taliban tribals in North Waziristan as absolutely disastrous.
Central intelligence agencies were aware of 'the presence of small LTTE pockets and their counterparts in the two states had been asked to closely monitor such activities,' Narayanan told media persons.
He said Muslims were trying to spread their religion by migrating to new areas, infiltration and Jehad.
The 500-page United States Select Committee on Intelligence's damning report on the Central Intelligence Agency's torture tactics lists numerous instances of rights violations. While it is difficult to point out every ghastly detail here, rediff.com lists at least 10 instances.
