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Latest News - UPI.com

2010-02-09 16:14:55 GMT

QUETTA, Pakistan, Feb. 9 (UPI) -- Pakistani cities in southern Baluchistan province were left without natural gas when militants attacked a major pipeline, Iranian state media said.

The Oil Drum - Discussions about Energy and Our Future

Gail the Actuary — 2010-02-08 14:33:19 GMT

UK gas traders not worried by cold weather forecasts

Freezing temperatures in the UK this week are expected to tighten the gas supply-demand balance but gas prices will be capped by partially replenished mid-range storage and demand ceilings of around 420 million cubic meters/day, UK gas trading sources said Monday.

The Rough storage facility is down to 40% of capacity, and short-term storage capacity is also below 50%. The comparative levels held in storage now are far below levels seen even four weeks ago following prolonged heavy draws as the country dealt with the last spell of severe winter weather.

So far the gas market has absorbed the impact of the relatively cold winter without any significant impact on the curve, with summer 10 gas trading roughly stable at 33 pence/therm and winter 10 gas at 45.5 p/therm.

UK prompt power edges up on cold-induced hike in gas prices

UK power for delivery on the next working day inched higher Monday on a cold-weather induced increase in the price for natural gas, the fuel for over two-fifths of the country's power generation, although gains were limited on expectations that healthy margins could soak up any demand increase, traders said.

Working day-ahead baseload power rose 15 pence to GBP36.40/MWh ($56.67/MWh, Eur41.52/MWh) by 12:00 GMT, while day-ahead peak was flat around GBP40.25/MWh. . .

"There's so much plant out there right now that you could double demand and power would still trade off fuels," one trader said.

"We really need to see a chunk of cheap plant to come offline to see some action," the trader added.

Roundtable discussion of the top oil stories of the week (Podcast)

Peter Zipf, Beth Evans and Jeff Mower discuss the three top oil news stories of the week, including earnings results and how this relates to market developments, the new renewable fuels standard and biofuels approach, and the fiscal 2011 US budget, which may include a repeal of tax breaks for the oil and gas industry.

At least 5 dead in Connecticut power plant blast

Fire officials said a natural gas leak caused the blast during testing at the Kleen Energy Systems LLC facility, which was 95 percent complete and due to come online this summer as the largest electricity generating plant in New England.

As many as 200 workers were at the site on any given day and the exact number of dead and injured would not be known until each contractor provided a list of employees, Middletown Mayor Sebastian Giuliano told a press conference.

Credit Suisse survey finds bearish sentiment on US gas prices

Energy investors surveyed by Credit Suisse are bearish on US natural gas prices in 2010, but bullish on natural gas stocks, Credit Suisse analyst Jonathan Wolf said Friday.

Financial and energy professionals believe gas prices will average between $5 and $5.50/MMBtu this year, slightly below pricing suggested by the NYMEX futures curve. Credit Suisse surveyed attendees at the bank's Energy Summit in Vail, Colorado earlier this week.

The reason for the gloominess? Liquified natural gas, respondents indicated.

Cape Wind fight goes on

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar journeyed out into Nantucket Sound on a Coast Guard vessel last week to signal the Obama administration's readiness to put some muscle behind wind energy. To do that, Salazar has to resolve a battle over building a wind farm on 25 square miles of open water that has driven a rift between environmentalists, infuriated local Native Americans and threatened one of the administration's cherished priorities.

Iran’s President Moves Ahead on Uranium Processing

Iran’s president ordered his atomic scientists on Sunday to begin enriching their stockpile of uranium in order to power a medical reactor, a move that accelerated Iran’s brinkmanship over its nuclear program by moving the country closer to producing weapons-grade fuel.

Earth, wind and wire: Going beyond solar panels

Not long ago, people who wanted to generate their own green energy at home had to content themselves with rooftop solar panels. But new technologies -- and hefty government subsidies -- are now allowing homeowners to tap the wind, the Earth and other renewable sources in their own backyards. Call it the green evolution.

The cost of heating and cooling with fossil fuels has nowhere to go but up, thanks to rising global demand and increased regulation of carbon emissions. Turning one's home into a clean mini-power plant is getting cheaper and easier all the time.

CTA's Doomsday service faces its first rush hour

Predictable as it was that the threat of previous CTA service cuts would not be carried out, it was even more obvious there was no stopping them this time.  The questions now are:  What will it take to forge successful negotiations between CTA management and the transit agency's labor unions (since neither the city of Chicago nor the state of Illinois is willing to put skin in the game)?  How long will it take? Is Henry Kissinger or Al Sharpton available to help move things along?  How soon could full service be restored?

Canal expansion may spur switch to shipping

Chinese toys and sneakers headed to Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Target Corp. on the U.S. East Coast may bypass Warren Buffett's $33.8 billion railway as the expansion of the Panama Canal slashes the cost of shipping them by sea. The deeper, wider canal will allow A.P. Moeller-Maersk A/S, China Ocean Shipping Group Co. and other lines to ship more cargo directly to New York and Boston instead of unloading it on the West Coast for trains and trucks to finish the journey east. That could save exporters 30 percent, the canal operator said.

Wind industry picks up, but jobs decline

America's wind energy industry enjoyed a banner year in 2009, thanks largely to tax credits and other incentives packed into the $787 billion economic stimulus bill. But even though a record 10,000 megawatts of new generating capacity was created, few jobs were created overall and wind power manufacturing employment fell — a setback for President Obama's pledge to create millions of new "green jobs." Obama has long pitched green jobs, especially in the energy, transportation and manufacturing fields, as a prescription for long-term, stable employment and a prosperous middle class.
But those jobs have been slow to materialize, especially skilled, good-paying blue-collar jobs such as assembling wind turbines, retrofitting homes to use less energy and working on solar panels in the desert.

Gas price slump stings BG

UK-based integrated gas giant BG Group saw profits from continuing operations slip 15% year on year to £592 million in the fourth quarter of 2009 amid a sharp decline in natural gas prices.

Blizzard bumps oil prices

Oil prices reversed some of last week's losses today and rose from a seven-week low to near $72 a barrel, spurred by bargain hunting and hopes that a blizzard in the US mid-Atlantic region would boost fuel demand.

Santos unveils reserves bonanza

Australian independent Santos said it had boosted total proved and probable reserve at the end of last year by 42%, or 427 million barrels of oil equivalent, year-on-year to a total 1.44 million boe.

The company said reserves were plumped by a 60% year-on-year increase in proved and probable coalbed methane reserves to 3748 petajoules (about 100 billion cubic metres), which included its first booked reserves after entering the Gunnedah basin in 2007.

EPA lowers cellulosic ethanol standard for 2010

The US Environmental Protection Agency published guidance for the second phase of the renewable fuels standard (RFS2) Feb. 3, directing refiners to ensure that the gasoline pool contains 8.25% ethanol.   The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA) required sales of 12.95 billion gal of renewable fuel in 2010. EISA created a second, expanded version of the RFS, known as RFS2.   The RFS2 rules from EPA originally were scheduled for release Jan. 1, 2009, but EPA delayed the release until this year.   For the first time, EPA announced volume standards for specific categories of renewable fuels. The 2010 cellulosic ethanol standard is 6.5 million gal, down from the 100 million gal that Congress established in 2007.

Cellulosic shortfalls of two companies led to RFS target cut: EPA

Two companies expected to produce the bulk of the earlier estimate, Cello Energy and Range Fuels, "have delayed or reduced their production plans for 2010," according to the EPA documents.

Cello and Range could not be reached for comment on Friday. . .

Uncertainties about Cello surfaced during a trial last summer where evidence was submitted that showed production from Cello's biodiesel plant did not contain any bio-based carbon. The company claimed it could turn cellulosic material, used tires and plastics into fuel, according to court documents.

US renewable, efficiency standard could save $113 billion: UCS

A federal renewable energy standard of 25% by 2025 combined with an energy efficiency standard of 10% by 2020 could save US electricity consumers $113 billion by 2030, the Union of Concerned Scientists said Friday in a new analysis.

The two standards also would boost renewable energy generation by 23%, the group said.

While job numbers proliferate, is 196,000 a good one?

The consulting firm Navigant said Thursday that by its estimates there are 196,000 people in the US currently employed in the renewable electricity industry.

Job numbers are often carelessly tossed around. Nonetheless, Navigant said in its study that if there is a 12% national RES established for 2014, there could be 67,000 more jobs in the sector by then. A 20% RES target in 2020 would add 191,000 jobs, and a 25% RES target for 2025 would add 274,000 jobs.

For 2025, with a 25% national RES, Navigant broke down the new jobs this way: 116,000 in the wind industry, 60,000 in biomass-related jobs, 50,000 in the solar sector, 34,000 in the hydro sector and 15,000 in the waste-to-energy area.

IADC/SPE: Project is devising autopilot drilling standards

A Research Council of Norway joint industrial project, AutoConRig, aims to develop standard communications for the drilling process, build a framework for autonomous machine control, and create and maintain explicit specifications of shared concepts among drilling centers, reservoir and production centers, operations and maintenance centers, environment centers, and field operations.   AutoConRig, started in 2008, is part of a larger project, Integrated Operations in the High North, that plans to develop an advanced infrastructural framework of integrated operations off Norway.

Intervention boosts Beatrice field oil flow

he Ensco 80 jack up has moved off the field, which is in the Inner Moray Firth area, after refurbishing and restarting three wells tied into the Beatrice Bravo platform. Ithaca, operator of Beatrice field under a lease from Talisman Energy Inc., had expected the production boost to be about 500 b/d.   The company attributed about 1,000 b/d of the incremental production to the B11 well, in which intervention included perforation across a previously untapped section of the Middle Jurassic Beatrice reservoir to access an undrained part of the field.

French refining industry situation 'critical'

The French refining industry faces a “critical” situation as part of a European system in which “between 10 to 15% of the 114 refineries should be shut down to restore a demand-supply balance,” says the leader of a trade group.   Jean-Louis Schilansky, president of Union Francaise des Industries Petrolieres (UFIP), gave that assessment at a press conference Feb. 4 in Paris.   In an industry outlook, Schilansky noted that demand for oil products in France last year dropped by 2.8% in a change he called “structural.”   Refinery runs for all of last year fell to 72 million tonnes from 84 million tonnes in 2008 as margins diminished.

Valero buys Wisconsin ethanol plant

Valero Renewable Fuels Co. LLC has completed the purchase of a 110 million gal/year ethanol plant near Jefferson, Wis., from privately held Renew Energy.   The purchase price is $72 million. Renew Energy filed for bankruptcy early last year after 6 years of operation.

Gas pipeline blown up in Quetta

Unknown miscreants have blown up a gas pipeline with explosives located on western bypass here in Quetta on Sunday, Geo news reported. According to police sources, the gas pipeline was under construction when unidentified men blew it up with explosives, but however, the explosion did not result in suspension of gas supply to area.

Nigerian militants say disabled Shell oil pipeline

A Nigerian militant group said on Sunday it had attacked a Royal Dutch Shell oil pipeline in the Niger Delta but the Anglo-Dutch company said it had no reports of any such sabotage.
The Joint Revolutionary Council (JRC), a coalition of ex-militants and community leaders, said in a statement it had disabled a trunk line in the Obunoma area of Rivers state connecting several flow stations to the Bonny export terminal.

Production in Dubai’s new oil field to begin in a year

The Media Office of the Dubai Government said today that the commercial production of oil from the newly discovered ‘Al-Jalilah’ oilfield will start in an year.

Research and initial exploration in the new deposit off the coast of Dubai located east of the existing Rashid oil field predicted the possibility of full scale commercial production within an year, said a statement from the Media office. Once operational the Jalilah Oilfield will be the fifth producing fields in the emirate since the oil was discovered in the sixties of the last century.

Fuel Subsidy: Governors Threaten Legal Action

Some state governments are preparing a legal action against the Federal Government for fuel subsidy deductions from the Federation Account which they claim are illegal and unconstitutional.

The past administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo had initiated the Petroleum Support Fund bill in 2006 to legitimise the deductions to fund the huge subsidy bill, but it is yet to be passed by the National Assembly.  Also, because of the deregulation programme of the government, the bill is not likely to be pursued any longer as government will no longer be involved in the pricing of petroleum products.

The 36 states of the federation, 774 local councils and the Federal Capital Territory contributed over N1.3 trillion to the subsidy fund between 2006 and last year, although only Lagos, Rivers and Abuja enjoyed the benefit of paying N65 per litre of petrol before the current fuel crisis crept in.

Addressing the food versus fuel debate in Ghana

The lines between energy and agriculture are becoming more blurred. As science advances, the use of biofuels in most parts of the world has continued to increase. One thing that has gradually come to stay and is in recently times attracting significant foreign investment in Ghana is energy crops. The last four years has seen Norwegian, Brazilian, Dutch, Swedish, German and British firms all competing for farmland to grow energy crops in different parts of the country.

The Iraqi oil conundrum

Speculation that Iraq's production could - in the not too distant future - exceed that of Saudi Arabia may still represent Washington's main strategy for postponing future severe global energy shortages.

Shareholder group calls on BP to rethink oil sands project

OIL giant BP is facing calls by a shareholder group to review its plans to invest in major oil sands projects in Canada. FairPensions, which lobbies for companies to adopt "responsible investment practices", has filed a resolution it hopes will be voted on at BP's general meeting in April.

The resolution calls for the risk and audit committees at Europe's second largest oil explorer to review factors such as future carbon prices, potential regulation of greenhouse gas emissions and possible risks to its reputation it might face from investing in oil sands projects.

China's economy set to grow 10%

AN OFFICIAL Chinese economic think tank has predicted the country's economy will grow by around 10 per cent this year. The Centre for Forecasting Science predicted that first quarter growth equivalent to 11 per cent in the first three months of the year would slow slightly during the rest of 2010.

Falklands oil prospects stir Anglo-Argentinian tensions

It does not look like much: a jumble of pipes, containers and drilling equipment sitting on a windswept jetty at Port Stanley. The hardware, however, signals an imminent search for oil and gas that could turn the Falkland Islanders into south Atlantic oil barons, a prospect that has already triggered a dispute between Britain and Argentina.

Branson warns that oil crunch is coming within five years

Sir Richard Branson and fellow leading businessmen will warn ministers this week that the world is running out of oil and faces an oil crunch within five years.

The founder of the Virgin group, whose rail, airline and travel companies are sensitive to energy prices, will say that the coming crisis could be even more serious than the credit crunch.

Is diesel dead?

Diesel. Nasty oily stuff or thrifty saviour? Until fairly recently, you might have said that UK buyers were coming around to the second view.

In Europe, diesel's share of the new passenger car market has grown from 25 per cent to more than 50 per cent during the past decade, but in Britain, from a lower base, growth has been even faster during the same period (from 15 per cent to 43 and a bit). In recent months, though, Britain's love affair with diesel has lost its ardour.

China approves Gansu coal mining plan

Ningzheng mining region is located in eastern Gansu, covering an area of 1,100 square kilometers. The mining region was designed to produce 20 million tons of coal annually after construction, which will become one of the largest energy bases in Northwest China.

$60b Aussie coal deal inked

Australian coal and iron ore company Resourcehouse said over the weekend it had signed a record $60 billion coal supply deal with Chinese power stations, a move analysts said underscored Chinese companies' growing demand for energy to fuel the country's economic development.

Resourcehouse will supply 30 million tons of coal annually over 20 years to China Power International Development Ltd, a unit of major power producer China Power Investment Corp (CPI), Clive Palmer, chairman of the Australian company, said on Saturday.

China's railways send 5m passengers by Feb 6

China's railway network has transported 5.03 million passengers as of February 6, the eighth day of the country's annual Spring Festival transport peak lasting from January 30 to March 10 this year, said the Ministry of Railways (MOR) Sunday. The figure was 105,000 more than that in the same time last year, up 2.1 percent year on year, according to the MOR.

Coal exporters face low prices costly transport

Coal exporters face a tough year without the cushion of forward selling at higher prices that helped get them through 2009, and with their familiar problem of high rail transport costs persisting. Exporters may have to cut production as they did in 2008-09 if prices slump and they cannot shift coal to Asia.

Russia, one of the world's top five coal exporters to Europe and Asia, will ship about 8 percent more thermal coal in 2010 than last year but will battle for more than a slim profit margin, analysts and exporters said.

The Role of Oil in the Iraq War

In truth, the oil production level in Iraq has deteriorated during that period compared to its levels under the former regime. Also, Iraq’s recent openness to the international oil companies in 2009 was not matched by a noticeable openness to American companies. It was the Asian state-owned companies (especially from Malaysia and China) that had the lion’s share, and only two American companies, ExxonMobil and Occidental Petroleum, were awarded contracts. More importantly, the American companies did not broadly participate in two other Iraqi tenders. Their refrainment from competing with other companies was thus notable and remarkable, especially Chevron which withdrew in the last minute.

Government's switched on energy move

ALL Australian homes will soon have to undergo a mandatory energy-efficiency assessment costing up to $1500 per property. The assessment has to be done before any property can be sold or rented under new laws to tackle carbon emissions.

Gaea Times (by Simple Thoughts) Breaking News and incisive views 24/7

Nahal Toosi — 2010-02-07 17:05:20 GMT

more images more images Pakistanis doubt Taliban chiefs in Baluchistan QUETTA, Pakistan ? If Afghan Taliban fighters and their top leaders are roaming around this remote part of Pakistan as the U.S. alleges, the police chief here says he hasn’t seen them. “Point them out to me,” Abid Hussain Notkani says. “I will arrest them.” Interviews with residents and officials .... Source article : Pakistanis skeptical of US claims that Afghan Taliban leaders are hiding in Baluchistan.

BrightSpyre Jobs

2010-02-07 17:00:00 GMT

Poverty Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist (NIM- SC) Quetta (Strengthening PRS Monitoring Project (SPRSM) ) - Quetta

Background: The Provincial Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) Cell (Balochistan) in the planning and Development Department underpins the government's institutional mechanism for poverty monitoring. The PRSP Cell has been ....[more]

BrightSpyre Jobs

2010-02-07 17:00:00 GMT

Poverty and Gender Specialist / Provincial Project Manager(Quetta) (Strengthening PRSP Monitoring project (SPRSPM) ) - Quetta

Background: The PRSP Secretariat underpins the government's institutional mechanism for poverty monitoring. The PRSP Secretariat has been mandated with the overall lead in coordinating, monitoring, evaluating, and tracking the implementation ....[more]

BrightSpyre Jobs

2010-02-07 17:00:00 GMT

Driver (NIM SC)- Quetta (Strengthening PRSP Monitoring project (SPRSPM) ) - Quetta

Background The PRSP Secretariat underpins the government's institutional mechanism for poverty monitoring. The PRSP Secretariat has been mandated with the overall lead in coordinating, monitoring, evaluating, and tracking the implementation ....[more]

BrightSpyre Jobs

2010-02-07 17:00:00 GMT

Admin and Finance Assistant (NIM- SC)- Quetta (Strengthening PRS Monitoring Project (SPRSM) ) - Quettta

Background The Provincial Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) Cell (Balochistan) in the planning and Development Department underpins the government's institutional mechanism for poverty monitoring. The PRSP Cell has been ....[more]

MOTORCYCLE NEWS - Google News

2010-02-06 18:18:43 GMT

DAWN.com

Motorcycle bomb injures 7 in Quetta, Pakistan
TODAYonline
KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) - Police say a bomb attached to a motorcycle went off as a security convoy passed through a busy area in the southwestern Pakistani ...
9 including a FC personnel injured in Quetta BlastOnline - International News Network
2 FC men among dozen injured in Quetta blastGeo TV

all 15 news articles »

A Pakistan News

Gulraiz — 2010-02-06 15:35:49 GMT

Blast Rocks Quetta, 13 Injured, At least 13 persons sustained injuries when a bomb planted on a motorcycle blasted near Imdad Chowk, Quetta. The blast was as loud as its voice was heard in nearby areas. One car was damaged and window panes of nearby buildings were broken. Traffic was jammed after the blast and panic [...]

Pakistan News Watch

Dawn - Pakistan News — 2010-02-05 19:00:00 GMT

According to reports, gunfire could be heard in the city following the explosion.

The Sky News Blogs

Tim Marshall — 2010-02-05 09:48:00 GMT

UK, US, Afghan and Taliban forces are now engaged in what may be the biggest battle in Afghanistan since 2001.

Whatever the outcome of 'Operation Moshtarak' in Helmand province, it could mark the end of the middle phase
of NATO's involvement in the country.

Moshtarak means 'Together' in Dari. The name is designed to signal that the Afghan Army is now playing an equal role in fighting the Taliban. The current assault on the town of Marjah is the biggest test so far for the Afghan forces, but however they perform, the move is underway for them to 'step up' and NATO to 'draw down'.

Marjah is going to be difficult. If, as expected the area around the town has been surrounded, that means the Taliban have to fight, which in turn means they will probably fight to the death. The Talibs prefer not to engage in this manner, but may be forced to.

The town holds about 80,000 people, of whom up to 2,000 are thought to be Taliban, it is their last urban stronghold
and said to contain the Quetta Shura Council and bomb making factories..

The terrain favours the defending forces but they are outnumbered and outgunned. The town will almost certainly be taken. The British forces include the Grenadier Guards, the Royal Welsh Battle Group, the SAS and the SBS. In total the offensvive involves 15,000 troops.

To get into the centre the attacking forces will have to traverse open ground, then cross irrigation channels and canals, and then go into the urban areas. The US Marines have brought in their Assault Breaching Vehicles to get through the defences, there is likely to be some sort of air drop. The attacking forces will have full control of the skies using helicopter gunships, fighter jets and unmanned drones. The Taliban will have laid IED's, booby trapped houses and have assault rifles, RPG's and machine guns.

The importance of this battle is underlined by the fact that the British, who still command the southern sector, are moving their HQ from Khandahar to Lashkar Gar for the operation.

Success will provide a platform to keep the Taliban on the run. General McChrystal has already said 'the situation is no longer deteriorating' and his counter insurgency strategy is having an effect. This is turn will allow the Americans to say the surge and change in tactics is working, meaning President Obama can begin drawing down troops in time for his re-election campaign.

Conversely, if Moshtarak and its aftermath is unsuccessful, the draw down will probably still take place but under a cloud. President Obama will say he's given his Generals the chance. Both he and Gordon Brown have signalled clearly in the past few months that they expect the burden of fighting to be placed upon the Afghans. The middle phase of Nato involvement has been the hard grind of the last 5 years. This may now have only another year to go before the end phase begins - the Afghan Army fighting, the Americans and British switching to counter terrorism and reaction roles, and NATO beginning to pull out.

It's not all about Marjah, but Marjah is all about how to get to the end game.

Search for "neuroscience"

2010-02-05 10:51:51 GMT

Pakistani protesters rally in Quetta, Pakistan, on Thursday to condemn the guilty verdicts against accused al-Qaida associate Aafia Siddiqui in New York.

Pakistan News Watch

Dawn - Pakistan News — 2010-02-04 19:00:00 GMT

Three, including two policemen, were injured when a blast occurred in Quetta’s Sariab police limits on Friday, DIG Operations Quetta Asif Ejaz Sheikh told DawnNews.

World news: Nato | guardian.co.uk

Michael Williams — 2010-02-04 14:00:00 GMT

US operations – from drone strikes to troops on the ground – in Pakistan are necessary to ensure America's security

Yes, there is a secret war going on in Pakistan, and it is one George W Bush should have started nine years ago. After the US abandoned Afghanistan following Soviet withdrawal in 1989, Pakistan supported Islamist groups in a bid to secure a pro-Islamabad government in Kabul. When Bush went into Afghanistan in 2001 with no plan other than to kick out the Taliban, he also threw billions of dollars at Pakistan to help in the "war on terror".

Islamabad, however, did nothing to root out Islamist radicals near the border with Afghanistan, nor did it spend the $12bn on developing governance. Instead, the Pakistani government bought equipment such as F-16s to use in a war against India. Why the Bush administration allowed this to happen by selling them the equipment is beyond imagination.

It became pretty apparent a few years ago that it did not matter what Nato forces did in Afghanistan if the Taliban were allowed to operate freely in Pakistan. If the Quetta Shura – the Taliban command based in the Pakistani city of Quetta – and other Taliban bases in remote parts of Baluchistan, for example, were not eradicated, then sending more troops to Afghanistan was pointless. Withdrawing international forces from Afghanistan also won't solve the problem, because the Taliban forces would then just return to dig into Afghanistan to oust the current government. Given what the Taliban allowed to occur when they were last in power this is an unacceptable option for Washington, London and the rest of Nato. Furthermore, despite all the problems in Afghanistan, the current government is far more popular today with the average Afghan than were the Taliban.

The problems are multiple. The civilian government is too weak to take on the Taliban on its own. Some segments of the Pakistani military actually support the Taliban. They see the Taliban as a way to ensure a friendly government in Kabul, necessary for strategic depth in a war against India. If the US was to reduce the power of the Taliban, the situation in Pakistan needed to be addressed. Assassination of Taliban leaders using drones began under Bush and the programme quite rightly accelerated under Obama. So far in 2010 there have been a dozen drone strikes – a large increase on the average for 2009, which was about one per week.

The presence of US forces on the ground is rightly more contentious. But US forces, as well as British SAS forces, have been operating in Pakistan at various points for years. Initially this was without authorisation from the Pakistani government and often because of mistrust between US and Pakistan forces. But after this most recent attack both Washington and Islamabad have to grudgingly admit that they are working closely with each other. Islamabad has been loth to admit the extent to which US forces are helping the Pakistani military with counter-insurgency training, never mind the fact that US forces are at times engaging in operations within Pakistani territory. Given that 80% of Pakistanis reject American assistance in fighting the Taliban, it was perhaps a wise move to keep the issue quiet.

Ultimately the "secret war" in Pakistan represents an alternative model to Bush's very public "war on terror". Bush used the war on terror as a rhetorical tool to terrorise Americans into supporting a massive, ineffective global war abroad while taking away their civil rights at home. Obama and his administration have articulated a much more nuanced policy that does not reduce every actor to a "terrorist". It does not utilise grand rhetoric that elevates "terrorists" to the principal threat facing the US. It pushes them into dark corners, where they should be. It attempts to distinguish between al-Qaida and Taliban. It seems to classify Taliban into different groups.

It is a strategy for using American power effectively, rather than blundering into countries with no clear or definable objectives. Most importantly, it is a strategy that goes after the real problems rather than creating new ones, as was the case in Iraq. It is also one that is backed up with significant amounts of economic and development assistance – $1.5bn a year for Pakistan alone.

I have no doubt that this "secret war" being waged by the US with the approval of Islamabad will not be popular with many. At the end of the day, however, the US president is elected to keep the American people safe and to expect an administration not to act in the hope that the situation will just fix itself is fantasy.

Michael Williams

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Boston Globe -- Editorials

2010-02-04 02:05:06 GMT

There must eventually be a negotiated settlement between warring factions in Afghanistan, but the quickest way to that outcome should be to knock out Mullah Omar and the Taliban leadership operating out of Quetta, Pakistan. That should be the goal of the military offensive planned for this summer, and of negotiations with Pakistan's leaders to force Omar and his crew out of the country.

openDemocracy

openDemocracy — 2010-02-04 10:56:23 GMT

Author:

Aziz Hakimi

Summary:

Pakistan's military and political class have obsessed over gaining 'strategic depth' in Afghanistan for years, but the at times absurd concept is incompatible with Pakistan's zero-sum approach to regional politics.

Pakistan’s chief of staff, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, said on Monday that Pakistan has no interest in establishing control over Afghanistan, while adding that a peaceful Afghanistan would provide Pakistan with 'strategic depth' in the region.

“We want a strategic depth in Afghanistan but do not want to control it,” the general said while speaking to a group of journalists at the Army General Headquarters in Rawalpendi, Pakistan. “A peaceful and friendly Afghanistan can provide Pakistan a strategic depth,” he said, while warning that it was essential to address Pakistan’s long-term strategic concerns for stability in the region.

Besides the infamous Durand Line, the concept of Pakistan’s “Strategic Depth” in Afghanistan has always been a source of controversy in the relations between the two countries and the irony is that neither Afghans nor Pakistani politicians have given a clear definition of this term.

General Kayani admitted that Pakistan’s objective of supporting the former Taliban regime in Afghanistan was to gain a ‘strategic depth’ in Afghanistan, which he hoped that now ‘a peaceful and friend Afghanistan’ would provide it. His comments indicate that Pakistan’s policy makers are still interested in the old policy of gaining strategic depth in Afghanistan, which may influence their approach to Afghanistan and related issues such as fighting the Taliban and participating in regional cooperation.

Many analysts believe that the Pakistan army fights only the Pakistani Taliban groups that it considers to be opposed to Islamabad while Afghan Taliban groups, including the Haqqani network, are largely provided the opportunity to operate in the North Wazirestan area of Pakistan lawless Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

Pakistan has resisted repeated American requests to fight Haqqani network, which in the eyes of the US military is a major threat to security in Afghanistan. The latest such request was made by US Defence Minister Robert Gates on his recent visit to Pakistan, but the Pakistani army resisted on the basis of the army being “over-stretched.”

Meanwhile, Serajuddin Haqqani, the leader of the network, in an interview with Aljazeera TV claimed the responsibility for the attacks on the heart of Kabul on 18 January. Afghan Police investigations and arrests following the attack also confirm that the Haqqani network was behind the raid which left 5 killed and 17 injured.

It is also important to note that General Parvez Musharraf as well as General Ashfaq Kayani had described Haqqani network leaders as Pakistan’s “strategic assests”.

The Military “Strategic Depth”

What though, do Pakistani official mean by gaining strategic depth in Afghanistan?

Militarily speaking, strategic depth describes the insulation of a fighting unit’s core capacity (cities, industry etc) and its distance from the front line. But varied and at times contradicting concepts of “Pakistan’s Strategic Depth in Afghanistan” have emerged from Pakistani and Afghan soldiers and analysts.

Some Pakistani military strategists retain a military understanding of the term and appear to believe that Afghan’s territory could provide a strategic rallying point in the case of an Indian attack. They are concerned about the fact that Pakistan geographically is a narrow country and an indian attack can cut through the country and divide it into two halves. In such a case, they believe, Afghan territory could provide a suitable “Strategic Depth” to which the Pakistan army can retreat and regroup in order to launch a counter attack.

This same idea helps explain Pakistan’s interest in a “friendly” government in Afghanistan, one that would be willing to violate its impartiality in a possible Indo-Pak conflict, and allow the Pakistani army to retreat to Afghan territory to gain strategic depth.

Kamran Shafi a Pakistani Journalist recently satirised this concept in the Pakistani newspaper, DAWN. He writes in case of an Indian attack “will our army pack its bags and escape into Afghanistan? How will it disengage itself from the fighting? What route will it use, through which mountain passes? Will the Peshawar Corps gun its tanks and troop carriers and trucks and towed artillery and head into the Khyber Pass, and on to Jalalabad? Will the Karachi and Quetta Corps do likewise through the Bolan and Khojak passes?

And what happens to the Lahore and Sialkot and Multan and Gujranwala and Bahawalpur and other garrisons? What about the air force? Far more than anything else, what about the by now 180 million people of the country? What ‘strategic depth’ do our Rommels and Guderians talk about, please? What poppycock is this?”

Bearing in mind Afghan-Pakistani antagonism and the intensifying tensions within Pakistani politics, as well as domestic problems such as Baloch separatism and growing militancy inside Pakistan, focusing on gaining “Strategic Depth” in Afghanistan could at best be described a misplaced priority.

A non-military Strategic Depth

There is another concept of gaining strategic depth in Afghanistan, which is fundamentally different to the military concept; a rather polarised vision, according to which Pakistan seeks to improve relations with Islamic countries such as Iran, Turkey, and the middle eastern and Persian Gulf states via Afghanistan and thus effecting the creation of an “Islamic pole” in opposition to “Hindu” India.

Since its separation from India in 1947, Pakistan has been trying to help establish such an axis. Its westward turn, based on developing closer economic, trade and cultural relations with Muslim countries, can be interpreted in this context.

Nevertheless, Pakistan has failed in its efforts to create such an “Islamic union” and its main reason has been the fact that despite common religion, each of these countries have always been separated by even stronger culture, political and sociological boundaries, hindering Pakistan’s efforts to promote the idea of Islamic Unification. Supranational Islamic unification in the region and beyond confounded General Zia Ul Haq and many more in decades gone-by.

Before the invasion of the Soviet Union, which turned Pakistan into a western bridgehead in Afghanistan, Pakistani politicians were worried that Pakistan did not have a visible role in regional relations and were outraged that the West often saw Pakistan as a derivative of the challenges posed by India’s non-alignment, regarding it as a “rebellious state of India.”

After the withdrawal of the Soviet Union, however, it was not only Afghanistan that was largely abandoned by the West but Pakistan too. Robert Gates, the US defense minister, touched on this point during his recent visit to Pakistan, acknowledging that cutting off defense ties with Pakistan in the early 1990s, was “a grave strategic mistake driven by some well-intentioned but short-sighted US legislative and policy decisions”.

The Taliban regime, nurtured and supported by Pakistan, once again provided the space for the non-military “strategic depth” that Pakistani politicians relied on, hoping that it would eventually provide a means to secure better trade and economic relations with central Asia and middle east. It was in this context that the Taliban-era Benazir Bhutto government tried to persuade Turkmenistan to agree to exporting its gas to Pakistan through a pipeline crossing Afghanistan; a plan that would facilitate Pakistan’s access to central Asia’s rich energy sources.

9/11 and the consequent invasion of the US-led coalition, despite ousting Pakistan’s favored regime, provided Pakistan with an unprecedented opportunity to expand its role in regional politics as the west’s favoured nation and benefit from US military and development aid. In June 2008, the U.S. government reported that nearly $11 billion in military and economic grants had been delivered to Pakistan since 2002, nearly three times more than Pakistan’s total arms purchases from the United States during the fifty years prior to 2001.

Yet, this often controversial Pak-Am union, however, appears to have failed to resolve Pakistan’s strategic disputes with its old rival, India. Pakistan accuses India of using its growing influence in Afghanistan to stir up tensions in Pakistan, particularly through its support of Baloch separatists. Pakistan has been made nervous by India-US arms deals and nuclear cooperation, while India has complained that military equipment and technology supplied to Pakistan is being redirected to its eastern border.

Some analysts believe that India, the fifth largest foreign donor to Afghanistan, is using its growing influence to hinder Pakistan gaining a strategic depth in Afghanistan, while attempting to halt China’s economic influence from mounting in Afghanistan. Such a situation reinforces Pakistan’s reluctance to end support for the Afghan Taliban, whom Pakistan views as a tool to exert pressure on its regional rivals and ensure its strategic demands are taken into consideration.

Bearing in mind this new and complex regional politics, it seems the time has come for Pakistan to re-define the old concept of gaining “strategic depth” in Afghanistan. Pakistan cannot gain any form of strategic depth without the consent and cooperation of Afghanistan and its neighbours.

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Pak Tea House

bciv — 2010-02-04 10:05:50 GMT

Daily Times 04 Feb 2010 Case registered in line with orders of Supreme Court over disappearance of Quetta resident Ali Asghar Bangalzai By Malik Siraj Akbar QUETTA: Police in the provincial capital registered a case on Wednesday against former corps commander Gen (r) Abdul Qadir Baloch and two senior ISI officials, in line with orders of a Supreme [...]

Boston Globe -- Today's paper A to Z

2010-02-04 02:05:06 GMT

Una Moore — 2010-02-03 22:01:13 GMT

According to the Washington Post, the Taliban leadership council in Quetta is denying that United Nations’ special representative Kai Eide met with any of its members in Dubai last month.

According to the Washington Post, the Taliban leadership council in Quetta is denying that United Nations’ special representative Kai Eide met with any of its members in Dubai last month.

TREND HUNTER - The Latest Trends

2010-02-03 14:10:03 GMT

(TrendHunter.com) Longtime model Jacquetta Wheeler in Harper’s Bazaar does double duty for the publication’s Russian edition as both cover girl and editorial muse. Styled by fashion editor Natalia Alaverdian, a blond Wheeler…

Pakistan News Watch

Dawn - Pakistan News — 2010-02-01 19:00:00 GMT

A blast occurred in a garbage dump on the Art School Road in Quetta, police said.

Fashionising.com's Fashion Blog: Fashion Trends & Celebrity Fashion

rogue@fashionising.com (Daniel P Dykes) — 2010-01-30 22:50:01 GMT

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rogue@fashionising.com (Tania Braukamper) — 2010-01-30 03:50:01 GMT

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With striking and dead-on-trend peroxide blonde hair - and legs as long as ever - we can't help but be pleased with Jacquetta Wheeler's return. Featuring in Harpers Bazaar Russia's February 2010 issue, Wheeler, who is also the issue's cover girl, poses in beautiful sheer gowns, party frocks, and tap pants.

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THE PEOPLE OF PAKISTAN — 2010-01-30 02:52:22 GMT

ISLAMABAD – A series of meetings among key Taliban leaders, top United Nations officials, and Indian

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rogue@fashionising.com (Daniel P Dykes) — 2010-01-29 22:50:01 GMT

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Afghanistan Conflict Monitor

Human Security Report Project — 2010-01-29 18:11:34 GMT

Taliban's Leadership Council Runs Afghan War from Pakistan, The Guardian, 29 January 2010 EXCERPT: "The Quetta shura has long been the aching achilles heel of western efforts to defeat the Taliban. While the war is fought in Afghanistan, the thinking...

Truthdig: Drilling Beneath the Headlines

2010-01-29 17:31:48 GMT

News coming from United Nations officials involved in Afghanistan claims that the U.N. has held secret talks in Dubai with the Taliban leaders to discuss peace terms, the first such meeting between the U.N. and regional Taliban commanders. —JCL

The Guardian:

Taliban commanders held secret exploratory talks with a United Nations special envoy this month to discuss peace terms, it emerged tonight.

Regional commanders on the Taliban’s leadership council, the Quetta Shura, sought a meeting with the UN special representative in Afghanistan, Kai Eide, and it took place in Dubai on 8 January. “They requested a meeting to talk about talks. They want protection, to be able to come out in public. They don’t want to vanish into places like Bagram,” the Reuters news agency quoted a UN official as saying, referring to the Bagram detention centre at a US military base outside Kabul.

The Dubai meeting was confirmed to the Guardian by officials with knowledge of the encounter, but they said they could provide no further details.

It was the first such meeting between the UN and senior members of the Taliban. The fact that it took place suggests that peace talks have revived since exploratory contacts between emissaries of the Kabul government and the Taliban in Saudi Arabia last year broke down.

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The AfPak Channel

Katherine Tiedemann — 2010-01-29 13:47:58 GMT

Secret diplomacy

The outgoing chief of the U.N. mission in Afghanistan, diplomat Kai Eide, reportedly met with members of the Afghan Taliban's Quetta shura leadership council on January 8 in Dubai, at the request of the militant leaders (Reuters, FT, Guardian, WSJ, AFP, McClatchy, BBC). Though reconciliation is a key part of the U.S. and Afghan governments' strategies for the country, it is unknown what was accomplished at the Dubai meeting or which Taliban envoys attended.
[[BREAK]]
At yesterday's international summit in London, Afghan President Hamid Karzai's announcement of a traditional tribal meeting with Taliban leaders reportedly went further than the approach preferred by many U.S. officials, which is reaching out to lower- and mid-level Taliban fighters (NYT, Tel, Reuters, Wash Post, Reuters, AP, CNN). A Taliban spokesman said that the movement's leadership "will soon decide" whether to participate in the peace talks, which would not involve the international community but focus on the Afghan government -- which says it will within weeks convene the jirga.

The conference also moved forward with plans for the Afghan government to assume responsibility for security "in a number of provinces" by late this year or early next year, and medium-term goals of taking the lead in in some insecure areas of Afghanistan within three years and overall responsibility within five (Guardian, Times, Tel, Guardian, AJE, AFP, AP).

Gunfire in Afghanistan

Taliban militants launched an attack earlier today in the capital of the restive southern Afghan province Helmand, sparking a gun battle between NATO-backed Afghan troops and the extremist group (AP, Pajhwok, Reuters, ISAF). A Taliban spokesman said the militant organization had dispatched seven suicide bombers armed with machine guns to attack the local United Nations mission in Lashkar Gah and a guesthouse there frequently used by government officials.

U.S. soldiers shot and killed an Afghan imam in Kabul as he and his son drove on the outskirts of the Afghan capital yesterday morning, prompting immediate outrage from local citizens and an apology from NATO, which said the convoy of troops had "fired on what appeared to be a threatening vehicle" (Wash Post, CNN, NYT, AP, ISAF). The shooting occurred about a mile from a U.S. base that has been frequently targeted by suicide bombers.

Bin Laden on global warming

Al Jazeera has received another purported audio tape from al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, in which he calls for the international community to boycott the U.S. dollar to "free humankind from slavery" and commented, "Speaking about climate change is not a matter of intellectual luxury -- the phenomenon is an actual fact" (AJE, BBC, AFP, AP). The tape comes after one earlier this week in which bin Laden praised the failed Christmas Day bombing attempt.

An audit, a bombing, an election

A $46 million program run by the U.S.-based private contractor Development Alternatives, Inc. aimed at improving the local government in the tribal regions of northwest Pakistan and decreasing the influence of militancy "has achieved little" since beginning two years ago, according a newly released audit (FP, AP). In spite of a few successes, the audit criticized the DAI program for its planning and implementation, highlighting the difficulties of providing aid to Pakistan.

Earlier today, suspected militants carried out a bombing on a NATO supply truck in the Khyber Pass between Pakistan and Afghanistan, and gunmen killed three Shiite Muslim pilgrims headed for Iran on the outskirts of Quetta in what is believed to be a sectarian attack (AP, Dawn, AFP). Pakistani authorities claim that security forces have killed 44 militants in the past three days in pitched fighting in the northwest tribal agency of Bajaur, and Dawn profiles a split within the Taliban in Bajaur (AP, Dawn).

In the nearby Swat Valley, the first election since the Pakistani military's offensive there last year has brought the Awami National Party's Rehmat Ali Khan to the provincial assembly (Dawn, Daily Times, BBC). The seat had been empty since early December after a suicide bomber killed Khan's brother, who had held it; of the 80 polling stations open during the contest, 33 were designated exclusively for women, though the turnout was low.

The jihadist next door

Andrea Elliott has a fascinating, lengthy profile of Omar Hammammi, who now goes by the nom de guerre Abu Mansoor al-Amriki and has become an important figure in the al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab movement in Somalia, and who was raised in Alabama and used to attend Bible camp as a child (NYT Magazine).

Sports for the deaf

Afghanistan has formed the country's first official Sports Committee for the Deaf after a year of planning, according to the head of the National Olympic Committee (Pajhwok). There are 80 deaf athletes who can compete in 18 different disciplines.

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World news: Pakistan | guardian.co.uk

Declan Walsh — 2010-01-29 11:48:17 GMT

Quetta shura, sheltering over the border and led by Mullah Omar, is strategic arm of Taliban

The Quetta shura has long been the aching achilles heel of western efforts to defeat the Taliban.

While the war is fought in Afghanistan, the thinking part of the Taliban ‑ the one-eyed leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar, and a council of about 14 other men ‑ is sheltering on the far side of the border, in the western Pakistani province of Balochistan.

The shura, or leadership council, has multiple functions. It directs the military campaign against western troops and it co-ordinates the political and propaganda campaign that has so successfully undermined the rule of President Hamid Karzai in Afghanistan.

The Afghan war is organised and run out of Balochistan, according to Seth Jones, a senior civilian adviser to the US special forces commander in Afghanistan.

"Virtually all significant meetings of the Taliban take place in that province, and many of the group's senior leaders and military commanders are based there," he wrote in a newspaper article last month.

Quetta shura is a label of convenience for meetings that take place in the Baloch capital ‑ a dusty, suspicious city that hums with intrigue ‑ and also in surrounding villages and Afghan refugee camps.

The shura has no fixed location. A senior western official says that when the heat is turned up during intermittent Pakistani security raids, or threats of American drone strikes, the shura members scatter as far as Karachi, 380 miles to the south.

Mullah Omar's deputy, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, is said to be the chief shura organiser, while battlefield operations are in the hands of his military commander, Abdullah Zakir. Other nodes of militant leadership are hidden along the porous 1,600-mile border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Analysts speak of another shura in Peshawar, as well as groups controlled by the Taliban-allied warlords Sirajuddin Haqqani and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. But the Quetta shura is by far the most important. As Barack Obama announced his Afghan surge plan recently, US officials put pressure on Pakistan to attack the Quetta shura by suggesting they could extend drone strikes to the area.

Pakistanis bristled at the demand, partly because the army is already stretched with other operations, but mostly for strategic reasons. Pakistan's army sees the Afghan Taliban as a future check against Indian influence in Afghanistan once western troops leave.

Balochistan also borders with Helmand, where almost 10,000 British troops are fighting. British officials say they have been quietly applying pressure on Pakistan to tackle the Quetta shura for several years, but with no results.

Declan Walsh

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

RealClearSports

2010-01-29 08:45:17 GMT

Jaquetta White, New Orleans TP
Count the National Football League among the growing members of Who Dat Nation. After all, they own the phrase -- or so they say in cease and desist letters sent out to at least two local T-shirt retailers earlier this month.

Democratic Underground Latest Breaking News

2010-01-29 03:14:59 GMT

Source: [b]The Guardian[/b]

Taliban commanders held secret exploratory talks with a United Nations special envoy this month to discuss peace terms, it emerged tonight.

Regional commanders on the Taliban's leadership council, the Quetta Shura, sought a meeting with the UN special representative i...

San Francisco Sentinel

The San Francisco Sentinel — 2010-01-29 00:32:38 GMT

Taliban fighters in a Madrassa compound near the northern city of Kundoz in Afghanistan. BY JULIAN BORGER The London Guardian Taliban commanders held secret exploratory talks with a United Nations special envoy this month to discuss peace terms, it emerged tonight. Regional commanders on the Taliban’s leadership council, the Quetta Shura, sought a meeting with the UN special representative [...]

Mundo. Noticias, vídeos y fotos de Mundo en lainformacion.com

2010-01-28 20:00:17 GMT

LONDRES, 28 (Reuters/EP)

Líderes talibán habrían mantenido un encuentro secreto con el enviado especial de Naciones Unidas para Afganistán, Kai Eide, para debatir la posibilidad de entregar las armas, informó a Reuters un funcionario de la ONU este jueves.

Los comandantes de la 'shura' (consejo) talibán de Quetta, en Pakistán, solicitaron una reunión con Eide, y ésta tuvo lugar el 8 de enero en Dubai, dijo el funcionario, hablando bajo condición de anonimato.

El funcionario aseguró a Reuters que ésta habría sido la primera vez que se habrían producido este tipo de conversaciones con los miembros del principal consejo talibán, que según las autoridades estadounidenses está establecido en la ciudad paqusitaní de Quetta.

"Pidieron una reunión para hablar sobre las conversaciones. Quieren protección para poder mostrarse en público. No quieren desaparecer en lugares como Bagram", declaró el funcionario, en referencia a un centro de detención ubicado en la principal base militar de Estados Unidos en Afganistán.

El encuentro en Dubai habría tenido un nivel más alto que las mantenidas con anterioridad en Arabia Saudí entre ex líderes talibán y representantes del Gobierno afgano en 2008.

El funcionario dijo que las conversaciones no han tenido continuidad de momento, pero añadió: "Hemos tenido el primer acercamiento y esperamos que el Gobierno afgano continúe ahora y saque provecho de ello".

El Gobierno afgano invitó este jueves a los talibán a un consejo de paz como parte de los esfuerzos para encontrar una salida a un conflicto que está acabando con la paciencia y los recursos de los aliados occidentales de Afganistán.

TREND HUNTER - The Latest Trends

2010-01-28 20:30:01 GMT

(TrendHunter.com) Blond model Jacquetta Wheeler covers the Harper’s Bazaar Russia February 2010 issue looking fashion forward with a sleek hairdo and mini trench coat by Christian Dior. Photographed by Marcin Tyszka and…

The Guardian World News

Julian Borger — 2010-01-28 21:20:14 GMT

Kabul envoy met top commanders in Dubai this month to discuss terms

Taliban commanders held secret exploratory talks with a United Nations special envoy this month to discuss peace terms, it emerged tonight.

Regional commanders on the Taliban's leadership council, the Quetta Shura, sought a meeting with the UN special representative in Afghanistan, Kai Eide, and it took place in Dubai on 8 January. "They requested a meeting to talk about talks. They want protection, to be able to come out in public. They don't want to vanish into places like Bagram," the Reuters news agency quoted a UN official as saying, referring to the Bagram detention centre at a US military base outside Kabul.

The Dubai meeting was confirmed to the Guardian by officials with knowledge of the encounter, but they said they could provide no further details.

It was the first such meeting between the UN and senior members of the Taliban. The fact that it took place suggests that peace talks have revived since exploratory contacts between emissaries of the Kabul government and the Taliban in Saudi Arabia last year broke down.

It also suggests that some Taliban members might be prepared for the first time to put faith in an international organisation to broker a deal to end the nine-year war.

News of the Dubai meeting surfaced at the end of a day-long conference in London intended to map out a transition over five years from a Nato-led military campaign to Afghan-led effort involving more political, social and economic measures to end the fighting.

As part of the transition, Afghan forces are due to take lead responsibility for security in a handful of provinces by the end of this year, assume the lead in the most violent regions within three years, and take overall responsibility for security across the country in five years. If successful, the transition would pave the way for the withdrawal of foreign forces.

An official statement from the Taliban leadership in response to today's conference warned that "attempts by the enemy to bribe the mujahideen, offering them money and employment to abandon jihad, are futile". However, it added what appeared to be a conciliatory note, saying that it was waging a jihad only to "liberate" Afghan territory and posed "no threat to neighbouring countries or anyone else".

Although an important development, it was unclear how significant a faction Eide had met in Dubai or how serious they were. A western official confirmed that there were indications of splits in the Taliban over the prospect of a settlement.

"We believe there are mid-level commanders tired of fighting and who have realised neither side is going to win," the official said. "There is a younger generation of Taliban commanders who believe it was a colossal mistake to side with the Arabs [in al-Qaida]. In fact the vote at the shura [meeting] in Kandahar in 2001 was only narrowly in favour of sticking with the Arabs."

The western official said: "This 'new Taliban' is not that much more extreme than some of the people in government. They could be willing to compromise on some issues, like women's rights, girls education, even watching telly perhaps."

At today's London conference, President Hamid Karzai declared: "We must reach out to all of our countrymen, especially our disenchanted brothers, who are not part of al-Qaida, or other terrorist networks, who accept the Afghan constitution."

The Afghan government pledged to hold a peace council, loya jirga, in the next few weeks, to which village elders from across the country, including some known to have Taliban ties, would be invited.

Speaking at the end of the conference, the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, signalled that the US was ready to accept talks. "The starting premise is you don't make peace with your friends. You have to be able to engage with your enemies," Clinton said.

Julian Borger

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Latest News - UPI.com

2010-01-28 12:55:48 GMT

QUETTA, Pakistan, Jan. 28 (UPI) -- An explosive device went off in a restaurant Thursday in Pakistan's Balochistan province, killing three people, police said.

Pakistan News Watch

Reuters — 2010-01-27 19:00:00 GMT

QUETTA: Eight people were injured as an explosive device went off in a restaurant in Sohbatpur town of Jaffarabad district on Thursday, police said. Tags: Jaffarabad,Balochistan,Balochistan issue

Mundo. Noticias, vídeos y fotos de Mundo en lainformacion.com

2010-01-28 09:19:00 GMT

Islamabad.- Al menos tres personas sufrieron heridas hoy en el sur de Pakistán por el ataque de un grupo de insurgentes armados contra vehículos que transportaban suministros para las fuerzas de la OTAN desplegadas en Afganistán, informó a Efe una fuente policial.

El suceso tuvo lugar en las afueras de la ciudad portuaria de Karachi en torno a las 1.45 horas locales (20.45 GMT del miércoles), cuando varios hombres lanzaron granadas y dispararon contra los vehículos.

Los agresores causaron desperfectos en tres contenedores y heridas a tres personas, según la fuente.

De acuerdo con esta versión, los camiones se dirigían a la ciudad paquistaní de Quetta, parada previa en el trayecto hacia la afgana de Kandahar a través del paso fronterizo de Chamán.

El de Chamán es el segundo paso terrestre más importante desde Pakistán hacia Afganistán, mientras que la portuaria metrópolis de Karachi es el punto de llegada de aproximadamente el 80 por ciento de los suministros -como combustible, alimentos o armamento- para las fuerzas de la OTAN y EEUU desplegadas en el país vecino.

Los ataques insurgentes en Pakistán contra los vehículos de la OTAN son frecuentes, pero generalmente tienen lugar en zonas del país más conflictivas y cercanas a la frontera con Afganistán.

Fashion News RSS- Refinery29.com - View Models and Glamour Shots

2010-01-27 14:58:53 GMT

Jacquetta Miller appears to have fallen (gracefully, of course) from a mountain of chairs in Harper's Bazaar Russia. (Fashion Gone Rouge)

American Fashion going bust? Well, kinda, maybe. (Fashionista)

True Life: I get waaay overdressed for work. (Viceland)

Closeted thumb suckers beware: American Apparel may be selling hazardous nail polish. (Racked)

Disaster Alert: QVC to broadcast a live show at Bryant Park with lines from Rachel Zoe and Isaac Mizrahi, without a front row. Or commercial breaks. (The Cut)

Nominees for the Costume Designer Guild Awards are up! Bruno's crotch hugging lederhosen goes head to head with Mo'nique's do-rag. (Hint Mag)

Front row at the Chanel Couture show, Alexa Chung talks TV comeback. Swe-et! (WWD)

Peaches Geldof can't stop stripping. (Daily Mail UK)

Engaged Lara Stone goes wedding dress shopping, Karl Lagerfeld approves. (Fashionologie)

Pakistan News Watch

Dawn - Pakistan News — 2010-01-26 19:00:00 GMT

Paramilitary FC troops were deployed in the city and 11 policemen were arrested on Tuesday as provincial government acted to restore order, following violent protests on Monday by police personnel against…

Truthdig: Drilling Beneath the Headlines

2010-01-25 21:48:20 GMT

America’s top brass in Afghanistan, Gen, Stanley McChrystal, sat down for a talk with the Financial Times last week about his future strategy for the country, how long he thinks American troops will remain over there, and the possibility of the Taliban’s participation in the Afghan government. The FT published an edited transcript of the interview on Monday.

Financial Times:

FT: You say clearly in you’re assessment that a foreign army can’t win an insurgency, that there has to be improvements in governance to win over the support of the population. At the same time it’s clear that there’s a lot of doubts about the ability of the present government to do that. What do you need to see President Karzai doing to actually ensure your strategy can work?

Gen McChrystal: It’s not so much what I have to see; it’s what the Afghan people have to see. They will judge the credibility and legitimacy of the Karzai government – and that applies down to the local level, the provincial level, district level – they will apply their own metric, or assessment, on whether that’s legitimate for their needs. And it will be a little different in different parts of the country. So I think what we need to see is that progress continue. Much of what fuels most insurgencies is their ability to leverage a, or create a seam between the people and the government. So what we’re looking to do is to continue to see that close.

FT: How is it going to be possible to close that gap, though, when there’s such a deficit of legitimacy in the existing government, in the eyes of so many Afghans, particularly in the south of the country where the insurgency is greatest? How do you persuade people that they should have faith in what you’re offering – the carrots, if you will – compared to the sticks that the Taliban can bring to bear, so easily, in so many parts of the country?

Gen McChrystal: That is a key point. The first is to characterise the insurgency here. The insurgency here is most notable with the Quetta Shura based Taliban, that part of the Taliban. They were the government back in the ’90s. They are deeply unpopular, and so they don’t offer much. They don’t have the ability to offer development. Their vision in the past that they demonstrated was very hard on a tremendous amount of the population. So as shown in their polls, they are very, very deeply resented by most of the people. But they do, as you’ve said correctly, they do have the ability to coerce. And they have the ability to help create a seam between the people and the government through the coercion, but also the ability to support narco-activities, from which people can make money, and provide local rule of law.

What the government has to do is really two things. First they need to protect the people. They need to give the people enough security so that they have the opportunity to choose. If a person can’t choose, there’s no point discussing choices with them. We’ve got to create for them the opportunity to choose. And then the government has got to make a case for its own ability to meet the needs and desires of the people. They have to then win the argument with the insurgency for the support of the people.

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Women Talk Sports | Latest News and Blog Posts

2010-01-25 03:50:00 GMT

Delaware, and Delle Donne, were definitely worth the price of admission. But more importantly, so was Hofstra. They've got some promising youngsters. Getting lost on the Hofstra campus is not recommended. It stretches across both sides of Hempstead Turnpike, which is a difficult road to cross, to put it mildly. Nothing says adrenaline rush like some guy turning across two lanes and honking at you as you run across the street while you have the light. That wasn't even the worst traffic disaster at that corner, but we'll get to that in its proper place.Hofstra has the only mid-major arena I've ever seen with luxury boxes. They haven't used them in either of the games I've been at, but that doesn't mean that at some point they won't come into use. I also like how Hofstra uses the complementary colors for their banners- they're not separated by gender, but by NCAA tournament versus conference tournament. But then, the Pride are very big on, well, pride, across both men's and women's sports. The structure of the arena is a bit confusing, though; it's not easy to get to a seat on the far side of the arena, the souvenir stands are on one level while the concession stands are on another, and all gods help you if you want to buy a program.I assume that Lauren Curra normally starts, because she was subbed into the game fairly quickly- within the first minute or two, I'd say- of both halves. She's got a bit of an attitude that I'm not terribly impressed with. Good knack of getting to the line, though, which is something I have to reluctantly admire. Jasmine Gibson is a big woman. No, really big. She's a tank. Jaquetta May got the balance of the reserve guard minutes for the Fightin' Blue Hens.I admit to a fondness for Kayla Miller, but that's mostly because of her screaming out the title line of Bon Jovi's "Have a Nice Day" while practicing her threes. I know she and Delle Donne were teammates in high school, so it makes sense that they know each other better than they know their teammates, and that they communicate really well, but I still think it's good that they DO, if that makes any sense. She got to the line a lot, which makes sense, since there were some intentional fouls near the end of the game and her season percentage was pretty bad. Jocelyn Bailey was the player who Curra replaced in the lineup, and I recall her getting into a couple of tangles with Hofstra players. Danielle Parker had a pretty quiet game. So did Eva Riddick. Delaware's starters have pretty good hands- they tip a lot of balls to each other, especially when they have a nice big target to find.Oh, yeah, her. That tall girl with the really obvious brown roots. I guess she's all right. Okay, I'm going to be serious now. Delle Donne obviously has long range, looking comfortable beyond even the men's three-point line. She's got some beautiful moves, including a stepthrough that made my heart skip a beat from its grace. What's less obvious from the stats is that she's in the middle of a lot of defensive plays, and always has her hands up to make a play or receive a tipped ball on a steal. (She's credited with five in the boxscore, but I think she forced two or three herself and was just the recipient of a couple of tips on the others.) What I really like about her is that, for a freshman (even one with a year of volleyball under her belt), is that she's very communicative and very involved in huddles. She'll be the one to call the team over during a prolonged stoppage of play. Very few underclassmen do that, and I wasn't expecting it from her. She's a great player, but I'd love to see her work more on her post moves to become a more complete player- sort of a Lauren Jackson type. She needs a little meat on her legs if she's going to stand up to the kind of minutes she has to play. And she looks so very lost in a zone defense. With a little development, I think she'll be awesome; right now, she's great but flawed.First off the bench for the Pride was Marie Malone, a lithe post who transferred from West Virginia. I like her- she's very smooth. I'd like to see her work the boards more; I suspect that's why she's a lioness and not a Mountaineer, because if you're not interested in hitting someone, Mike Carey has no use for you. Nicole Capurso found her offense in the second half and seemed to be single-handedly trying to keep Hofstra in the game, because the shots she hit were all big ones that could have turned the momentum in Hofstra's favor. (Of course, then there were the shots she missed...) Seemed like Candace Bond and Asia Jenkins were mostly in to chew up minutes and pick up fouls, especially late in the game. Bond was also an offense/defense sub with Candice Bellocchio. (As an aside, what is it with a) people in Piscataway naming their daughters some variant of Asia, and b) said daughters choosing to go to Big East schools other than Rutgers? Jenkins transferred from Cincinnati.) Isoken Uzamere came in as the fourth post because of foul trouble, but I wasn't impressed.I still love Jess Fuller. I'm inordinately fond of posts who get inside and block shots, and she did that to perfection. I especially liked the block that she tipped up and caught to get the change of possession. She really got her offense going in the second half. Shante Evans reminds me of what Le'Coe Willingham was with the Sun, or DeTrina White with the Liberty, or maybe a not criminally inclined Latasha Byears: she's broad, but short, but gets things done on the inside with ups, smarts, and toughness. Candice Bellocchio has a lot of guts. If she's 5'6", then I'm jumping center for the Liberty next summer. That didn't keep her from being everywhere at once, up to and including in Delle Donne's face. Her tendency to attempt passes over the top against taller defenders was a bit mind-boggling, but it's hard to argue with ten assists. Sam Brigham had a couple of great moments, but they were usually followed up by moments of head-scratching stupidity. The most notable pair of these came at the end of the first half. She hit a three to bring Hofstra within seven... then fouled Bailey on a lay-up to allow a three-point play and complete giving back the points she had just scored. I'm also not enthusiastic about a player who's smart enough to track the progress of a shot, see that it's going to go off the rim, and not crash the boards. Aamira Terry seems to have lost some of the role I remember having last season- I dimly recall her having a lot of play-calling duties, and in this game she wasn't much of a factor.Hofstra looked very lost whenever they faced a zone. Since they play it themselves, that surprised me.The refereeing was quite inconsistent, but I'd like to call out Mark Behrens in particular for two egregiously messed up plays. In the first, Elena Delle Donne was shooting the second of two free throws. Before she released the second, Jocelyn Bailey committed a fairly blatant lane violation, while a Hofstra player committed a somewhat less obvious one. The whistle was duly blown, and the referees had a long talk. They granted Delle Donne a free throw that she never shot and gave Hofstra the ball as if she had hit it. Then there was a play later in the game where Delaware hit a shot and the ball somehow ended up on the floor. The referee started counting the five seconds to inbound before a Hofstra player ever touched the ball. Here I may be wrong, and I'll cop to it if I am, but I was under the impression that the five seconds only started when a player touched the ball to start the inbounding process. In any case, I wasn't thrilled with his professionalism during the game.Lots of Girl Scouts at Mack. A special shoutout must go to the troop whose leader had the girls learning how to keep score, to the young ladies in the front row of our section who brought the "GO HOFSTRA" letter signs, and the young lady with the Jets-themed eyeblack in the next section over. Eyeblack is fierce.As luck would have it, this was an autograph session game for the Pride, so we attached ourselves to the tail of the line and got our poster signed by most of the team. (Two players, Lindsay Watson and Joelle Connolly, weren't with the team.) I'm hoping to run into Nicole Capurso at a Liberty game this summer, since she mentioned being a fan of Janel's. I love those sorts of connections between levels of the game. It emphasizes the importance of building from the grass roots.As for the second Hempstead Turnpike event that left my heart in my throat: we were waiting in the shelter for the bus to take us to the next bus to take us to the last bus, and we saw the Delaware charter bus heading the other way on the turnpike. It was easy to tell that it was Delaware's bus, given that it was from Delaware Express and had many people in blue and yellow in it. As it came up to the light, it swung around in a huge, sweeping U-turn to get onto the westbound side. While the bus made it just fine, the mental image of it flipping over or being T-boned by the careless, onrushing traffic flashed before my eyes. If this had been a movie, that would be how the saga of Delle Donne would end, wouldn't it?Sometimes I forget how much I like the CAA, and that it's sort of in my backyard. It's such a tight conference that it seems like very few people know about. More people should. Delaware Fightin' Blue Hens 71, Hofstra Pride 65

Afghanistan

News Team — 2010-01-25 11:02:39 GMT

In April 2009, Pakistani forces arrested a Taliban militant from Afghanistan carrying documents for his high command. He said this was based in the south-western Pakistani city of Quetta. M Ilyas Khan reports for BBC News from Quetta, northern Pakistan....

A Pakistan News

Gulraiz — 2010-01-25 09:18:24 GMT

QUETTA, Pakistan News: At least two people were injured in a powerful explosion that rocked the central market of Panjgoor area of Quetta. Blast in Quetta, 2 Hurt was first posted on January 25, 2010 at 2:18 pm.

Search for "electricity"

2010-01-25 02:06:20 GMT

Monday, January 25, 2010 Balochistan plunges into darkness QUETTA: Cities and towns of Balochistan including provincial capital Quetta plunged into darkness on Saturday night when the Guddo transmission line developed a fault.

Search for "lifestyle"

2010-01-25 01:46:07 GMT

In April 2009, Pakistani forces arrested a Taliban militant from Afghanistan carrying documents for his high command.

BBC News | South Asia | World Edition

2010-01-25 01:46:07 GMT

Claims that Afghan leadership is in Pakistani city

BBC News and Sport Search: housing

2010-01-25 01:46:07 GMT

The BBC's M Ilyas Khan examines claims that the Afghan Taliban leadership is operating out of the Pakistani city of Quetta.

Recent Questions on Yedda

MarineReconDad — 2010-01-22 23:35:17 GMT

I think it very unhealthy for Islamic organizations (ie, the UN) to be dictating the terms of surrender to Islam. By g-d, whatever the West is smoking is some crazy wild shiz.

Could the Taliban be any more devoutly Islamic, violent, oppressive, misogynistic, barbaric, savage, and bloodthirsty? And yet, their names were taken off a UN sanctions list which has frozen their assets and blocked foreign travel . Any deal would also need their removal from United States "kill or capture" lists. Read that again.

And hundreds of millions of dollars in jizya.

OT (but not) US terror threat raised to severe.

Taliban leaders 'offered asylum' under London peace plan
Telegraph hat tip
Founding bloggers

Taliban leaders could be offered exile abroad and have their names deleted from a UN sanctions blacklist as part of a peace plan for Afghanistan to be unveiled in London next week.

A briefing paper on the Afghan government's proposals seen by The Daily Telegraph says any peace deal may include "potential exile in a third country" for insurgent leaders.

The document does not name any country, but Saudi Arabia, which recognised the former Taliban regime, is believed to be a possible candidate to give leaders a new life.

The plan was endorsed by Afghan ministers and the international community in Kabul on Tuesday. It envisages a twin-track strategy aiming separately at foot soldiers and the leadership.

After eight years of intensifying fighting Nato commanders have acknowledged political negotiation is the only solution to the worsening fighting.

They are now backing a "carrot and stick" strategy of more troops to reverse the Taliban's military momentum coupled with incentives for fighters to rejoin society.

International donors are preparing to pay hundreds of millions of pounds towards the scheme, with Japan and the US already allocating substantial budgets .

In the first phase, junior fighters, who commanders believe are mainly motivated by money, will be offered jobs, training and education if they lay down their weapons and renounce violence.

Further incentives could include pensions for older fighters and allotments of land.

Villages which persuade their men to give up their struggle will get a "peace dividend" of aid and development.

Fighters would be offered security and protection from reprisal, which has so far led to the deaths of many who have tried to defect.

A peace jirga , or tribal council, will be held by President Hamid Karzai after the London conference to kick start the plan.

A separate push will later target the Taliban high command. It could include giving them asylum or political positions if they lay down their weapons, break links with al-Qaeda and agree to abide by the Afghan constitution the paper said.

They would also see their names taken off a UN sanctions list of Taliban and al-Qaeda which has frozen their assets and blocked foreign travel. Any deal would also need their removal from United States "kill or capture" lists.

The report says: "The government reaches its hand out to the Taliban and other insurgent groups to offer them a dignified and respectful way to renounce violence and peacefully reintegrate into their communities and separate themselves from their past."

The plan will be unveiled to the London conference on Jan 28 by Mr Karzai and his adviser Mohammad Masoom Stanakzai.

Mullah Arsala Rahmani, a former Taliban deputy higher education minister who appears on the UN list despite now being a senator, said peace relied on talks with members of the insurgents' ruling Quetta Shura.

He said: "I am sure dealing with the Taliban soldiers is not the solution. They are strongly linked to their commanders and trust them. First you have to talk to the most senior people."

He said while Mullah Mohammad Omar remained the nominal head of the movement, negotiations now relied on his lieutenants in Quetta, Pakistan.

Robert Gates, US defence secretary, said earlier this week he doubted the Taliban high command would consider a settlement until the momentum of the insurgency had been reversed. He also questioned whether reconciliation with Mullah Omar was realistic.

You mean you are considering this sick fantasy, Secretary of Defense Coward?

Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, another blacklisted former Taliban ambassador who spent several years at Guantanamo, said the reintegration plan was corrupt and would hinder peace efforts.

Bwahahahahahahahaha.

"While America is talking about peace talks, on the one hand it wants to divide the Taliban and buy some of them with money, and on the other hand it sends more troops for the war," he said.

Topics: terrorism, politics & government, terr

BrightSpyre Jobs

2010-01-21 17:00:00 GMT

Driver-NIM SC (RAHA) - NWFP (Haripur & Peshawar), Balochistan (Chaghi, Loralai, Quetta)

1. Context Refugee Affected and Hosting Area programme has been initiated under one UN programme to improve livelihoods, rehabilitate the environment and enhance social cohesion within communities ....[more]