India/Pakistan

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My brain is numb with information, thanks vector 7.

I had forgotten how many countries end in -stan. Must be the Arabic ending for land? Here in Missouristan we still feel that the United States would be allied more with India than Pakistan when the big one starts.

The Pakistan/Afghanistan border has been described to me as the United States when we had Indian Territory. I still think one of the two countries should send in the cavalry. It may result in Custer like outcome in the begining, but he who makes the first move will eventually win the war.

You know this article could have gone into several different threads. I actually linked it in crude oil prices as it goes into a detailed overview of the global oil supply chessboard with all the diverse super powers competing for these resources.

I'm sure the strategic competition for energy resources is a serious game in global government. If Mr. O has been deemed to invade Pakistan like we did Iraq the Axis is actively fortifying the assets there to make that operation more difficult.

If the the next event comes from that area it could continue to draw America out like Saladin did during the Crusades.



The Axis is actively partnering with the Islamic Oil States to undermine the West.

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Lashkar-e-Jhangvi involved in Marriott blast
Monday, 22 Dec, 2008 | 07:02 PM PST


The Marriott hotel in Islamabad was attack
by militants on September 20

ISLAMABAD: Adviser to Prime Minister on Interior Rehman Malik said on Monday that the banned militant outfit Lashkar-e-Jhangvi was involved in blast on Islamabad’s Marriott hotel on September 20. The interior ministry official was presenting a report on the findings of the blast in a session of the National Assembly today. ‘The entire matter has been solved... Basically it was assisted by Lashkar-e-Jhangvi,’ Malik told federal lawmakers in parliament.

Malik said two teenage boys had been arrested in Toba Tek Singh in connection with the attack, which was carried out by a suicide bomber in a dump truck packed with 600 kilograms of high explosives. ‘The car which was used, the dumper which was used – we have full information about it,’ Malik said, explaining that the truck bomb was prepared in Jhang and then driven into the capital. ‘We have got the details of telephone calls. Two boys who assisted were arrested.’

Malik said the banned militant organisation was involved in planning the attack and that the truck used by the attackers was ‘loaded with ammunition in Jhang.’ The truck entered Islamabad through Rawat, a town near Murree, he added. Malik said a complete report had been prepared based on the investigations carried out after the attack and will be presented to the parliament soon. Four men had already been remanded in custody pending trial. No one has claimed responsibility for the September 20 attack, which killed at least 60 people and wounded more than 260.

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Pakistan scrambles fighter jets over major cities

Rediff ^ | 22 Dec. 2008 | Rediff

Pakistan scrambled fighter jets over several major cities on Monday, including the federal capital, as it said it had stepped up "vigilance" in view of the "current environment".

The aircraft roared over Islamabad, the nearby garrison city of Rawalpindi and other cities this afternoon as Air Force spokesman Air Commodore Humayun Viqar Zephyr said in a statement: "in view of the current environment, PAF has enhanced its vigilance."

The brief statement from the air force did not give any more details. Residents in the capital made panic calls to media stations to ask about the low-flying aircrafts.

The air sorties by the PAF came a day after External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said India is keeping "all options open" to deal with the aftermath of the Mumbai terror attacks.

India has blamed Pakistan-based elements, including the Lashkar-e-Tayiba terror group, for the attacks and asked Pakistan to take action against them.

Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi too has said that India could give a "befitting reply" to those involved in the Mumbai attacks.

The two countries were involved in a spat last week over alleged violations of Pakistani airspace by Indian warplanes.

Pakistan lodged a formal protest that Indian jets had violated an agreement on airspace violations in the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and Lahore sectors, a charge flatly denied by India.

Indian High Commissioner Satyabrata Pal is in Delhi to attend a meeting of all Indian envoys and Pakistani High Commissioner Shahid Malik is in Islamabad for consultations.

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Rumours of war create panic in Pakistan

22 Dec, 2008, 1901 hrs IST, IANS

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Air Force has increased its vigilance flights creating panic and sparking war rumours, as Defence Minister Ahmad Mukhtar Chau dhry on Monday warned that the country had the potential and right to defend itself if forced to war.

"If India tried to thrust war, then the armed forces of Pakistan have all the potential and right to defend (the country)," Chaudhry told reporters, as he said the defence of Pakistan was in strong hands.

Chaudhry said India would never want war because "if it breaks out, then god forbid the situation might develop into a nuclear war."
He said Congress president Sonia Gandhi's statement relating to war with Pakistan was nothing but an election stunt.

Meanwhile, PAF jet flights over Lahore and Rawalpindi created panic sparking rumours that India had launched attack to target Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and offices of other jihadi organisations.

Mobile phone messages that have now become major source of information started circulating that PAF jets were flying to counter Indian attacks. However, television channels quoting officials were quick to dispel the rumours.

GEO TV quoting an official spokesman said PAF has increased vigilance and the flights over Rawalpindi and Lahore were inside Pakistan. The PAF is on high alert since reports of any possible attack by India.

"In the current environment, the PAF has enhanced its vigilance," PAF spokesman Air Commodore Humaun Viqar was quoted as saying. Other channels also quoted different officials that Pakistan forces were on alert but dispelled rumours of any attack.

However, residents in Islamabad and other cities came out of their homes and offices and started calling media organisations.

Reports said all airports of the country were also put on high alert. Flights bound for Dubai from Lahore and another from Quetta were halted while all entry passes at Lahore airport have been cancelled.

Sources said that such measures were taken for landing of the PAF aircraft in case of any emergency while they flew over Lahore and Rawalpindi.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/...ow/3875617.cms

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Military Rivalry in Central Asia

Stephen Blank | 22 Dec 2008

World Politics Review

The attacks of 9/11 and the ensuing war in Afghanistan did not start the new "Great Game" in Central Asia. Local governments had already grasped the Islamist threat, as well as Russia's neo-imperial longings to dominate the region. Central Asia's great energy stakes, meanwhile, had already determined American resistance to Moscow's policy. However those events undoubtedly imparted a pronounced military aspect to the great power rivalry for political influence and energy access there. Since 2001, the U.S., Russia, Germany, France and India have all acquired local military bases, and their uses or potential missions have grown in importance (although France's presence at Dushanbe airport and Germany's base at Termez in Uzbekistan remain small operations). China, too, has sought bases in Central Asia, expressing interest in a Kyrgyzstan base in 2005, soon after that country's "tulip Revolution," with the clear intention of forestalling any further upheavals. And when Uzbekistan evicted the U.S. from its base at Karshi Khanabad in July 2005, China sought that base as well, although the move was ultimately blocked by Russia.[1] The U.S. military presence in Central Asia could conceivably grow further, due to the Obama administration's declared emphasis upon winning the war in Afghanistan. The redoubled effort there could be used to justify moving U.S. supply lines from Pakistan, where they are exposed to great risk from terrorists and their supporters, to other locations in Central Asia.[2] Already, Kazakhstan has recently allowed the U.S. to use the aerodrome at Almaty for emergency landings of coalition air forces.[3] And Uzbekistan also granted the U.S. limited use of the base at Termez, which it had allowed Germany to use as a "friendship bridge" from which to deliver non-military supplies to Afghanistan. Now, "Individual Americans attached to the NATO International Staff can use the German air-bridge from Termez to Afghanistan on a case-by-case basis."[4] However, even an expanded U.S. military presence in Central Asia would not change the fact that the U.S. and Franco-German military presence there is confined to prosecuting the war in Afghanistan. Other cases of foreign military bases reflect different considerations. India's base at Ayni in Tajikistan, for instance, owes more to the Indo-Pakistani rivalry than to anything else. While India formally eschews offensive military projections to intervene unilaterally in other countries, it had sought an air base in Central Asia -- to defend its flights and to gain a capability to threaten Pakistan from the rear -- after Pakistan closed its air space to Indian commercial flights to Europe in 2002. While little is known about the air base (India didn't announce that it had been operational until 2006), it could conceivably be used for operations against Central Asian insurgents, Pakistan, or to support a friendly government.[5] The base may not be India's last in the region, or remain small. Indeed, it could become the spearhead of a deepening Indian involvement in Central Asian defense, as India also hopes to improve military logistics in Iran, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan.[6] India's ties with Tajikistan led to joint Tajik-Indian military exercises in 2003, involving the air, airborne, and ground forces of both sides.[7] Tajikistan has subsequently appealed to India to deepen existing military ties and provide arms sales since its forces lack modern, effective weapons and equipment.[8] Today, this base is surprisingly collocated with a Russian air base at Farkhor, Tajikistan -- surprisingly, because Russian officials have frequently and publicly opposed any foreign bases in Central Asia.[9] Specifically, in 2004, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Vyacheslav Trubnikov, now ambassador to India, stated publicly that Russia opposes any foreign bases in Central Asia, making specific mention of Chinese bases. Subsequent official statements reiterated this point.[10] Russia's Military Presence Despite these modest inroads, however, the most far-reaching and comprehensive defense presence in the region remains Russia's, whose Central Asian policy is openly and frankly neocolonialist. Indeed, Putin's tenure in office since 2000 has been accompanied by a heightened interest and attention to ensuring that Central Asia remains firmly under exclusive Russian influence.[11] Even if one argues that Russia's primary goal is to stabilize the status quo, Russia approaches that objective in ways reflecting its fundamental denial of Central Asian governments' full sovereignty. Russia's "tutelage" aims not just to forestall all significant change but also to ensure that local political change does not then trigger a crisis within Russia. In other words, its regional policies are in some respects a domestic stability operation. Indeed, Russian strategists openly assume that no other power will take responsibility for providing Central Asian security.[12] By 2003, Russia had already claimed the right to intervene in Central Asia against a threat to existing regimes there or to its vital interests as it alone defined them.[13] Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov subsequently reiterated that Russia regarded any attempt to disturb the "existing constitutional order" there as its greatest security threat.[14] Despite Russia's public support for America's bases and military presence in Central Asia, immediately after these bases were built, Moscow announced that it regarded them as temporary ones that would be removed after the end of hostilities in Afghanistan. Indeed, by 2003, Ivanov was reportedly opposing the continuation of those bases.[15] Moscow also lost no time in persuading Kyrgyzstan to grant it a different base at Kant. Since 2002, it has steadily reinforced that base and sought and obtained others, most recently the base at Giesar in Tajikistan.[16] Russia cheered the Uzbek eviction of the U.S. from Karshi Khanabad in 2005, and then promptly negotiated a new accord with Uzbekistan, obtaining access to a base at Navoi in December 2006. While that agreement indicates that both Tashkent's and Moscow's anxieties transcend terrorist attacks, it also registered Uzbekistan's wariness of Russian intentions. Compared to an earlier, November 2005 bilateral treaty between them, which contained language enabling Moscow to aid Uzbekistan's government, the new agreement limited such aid, as well as Russian access to Navoi, to the case of emergencies or what some reports called "force majeure" contingencies. It's likely that Russia wanted more access to the base than this, as Uzbekistan will probably become the regional headquarters for a unified air defense for Russia and several Central Asian governments, as it was in Soviet times. This regional system will become a component of the CIS Unified Air Defense system based upon pre-existing Soviet facilities and structures. Thus the deal represented a "reanimation" of the Soviet defense structure. Meanwhile Uzbek SU-27 and MiG-29s will be posted there as a regular peacetime deployment. Moscow's need for the base, with its air defense capability, was evidently driven by Russia's interests in Uzbek uranium production and enrichment, which now take place at the Navoi Mining and Smelting plant. The new capability will allegedly help protect those works from air attacks -- the Taliban had its own aircraft and combat pilots -- and international terrorism.[17] Nevertheless, the idea that Afghan-based terrorists could launch air strikes in Central Asia anytime soon is far-fetched, and neither Moscow nor Tashkent is sending forces to fight against the Taliban in Afghanistan. Which suggests that Moscow and Tashkent had other enemies in mind. Access to Navoi enhances Russia's capability to project air and air defense assets in and to Central Asia against potential domestic insurgencies, a reflection of both the considerable Russo-Chinese anxiety over their inability to intervene in Kyrgyzstan in 2005's Tulip Revolution, and the subsequent efforts both made to achieve that power projection capability. The Navoi base is also part of Russia's broader efforts to encompass all of Central Asia in a single defense organization whose aims are both counterrevolutionary and anti-democratic. Moscow is clearly the gendarme here, on the lookout against any domestic unrest lest another "color revolution" break out, a contingency openly discussed by Russian planners with regards to Central Asia. Some Russian military analysts consider that if Kyrgyzstan were overtaken by a complete political collapse, Russia and Kazakhstan could impose some kind of protectorate until stability could be reestablished and new elections held. In this scenario, the United States would allow Moscow to take action in Kyrgyzstan, because most of its own resources would already be mobilized in Iraq and Afghanistan -- and probably in Iran and Syria. Russian help would then be welcomed, because much preferred to that of China. Indeed, if Russia did not dare to put itself forward as a stabilizing force, China might use Uyghur separatism to do so.[18] A second objective relates to Russian fears of U.S. air strikes originating from Central Asia or the Indian Ocean, including carrier-based air strikes against Iran. The Russian military clearly regards the United States and NATO's forces as its main enemy and largely expects any first strike to come from long-range air strikes. Since 1991, much of Russia's air defenses and early warning systems were disrupted to the point where Russia was actually often "blind" to potential attacks. To remedy this situation, "reanimating" the old Soviet air defense system is crucial, as is exclusion of U.S. forces from Central Asia. Furthermore, Russia is building an integrated land, sea and air force to project power throughout the Caspian basin, while excluding all foreign rivals by expanding existing bases or building new ones. A unified air defense is critical to the protection of all those forces. [19] Russia now has bases in 12 of the former Soviet republics.[20] This process of building an integrated power projection force possesses multiple dimensions. Russia also champions its Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) as an umbrella defense pact of all Central Asian states (except Turkmenistan) to defend against terrorism and insurgency, not to say invasion. Russia supplies the members with subsidized weapons, attempting thereby to restore the "All-Union" defense industry system. Russia also leads the CSTO in conducting exercises, building headquarters and staffs, planning for forces to man them, and in securing bases for itself in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. By 2006, Russia had begun building its integrated land, sea and air force that could be stationed in the Caspian Sea and at local airbases, while also developing a rapid power projection capability. Efforts to integrate the region into a Russian-dominated defense architecture include a proposed Caspian naval force (CASFOR) to exclude non-littoral states, and attempts to tie local defense industries to its own. Moscow also intends to preclude Central Asian states' ability to defend themselves without -- or against -- Russia, to collaborate on their own in regional security organizations, or to be attached in some way to NATO and is utilizing its organizational resources particularly within the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and the CSTO, to advance its aims.[21] Next page: Regional security arrangements. . . Continue: 1 | 2 | Next Page >>

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Sabre-rattling by India as military chiefs brief PM

NEW DELHI: India stepped up the pressure on Pakistan on Saturday with a strong signal that it was keeping its military options open. The message came loud and clear from a four-hour-long meeting in the evening that began at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s residence and later shifted to the war room in the defence ministry.

At the meeting, the three service chiefs briefed the Prime Minister and his senior cabinet colleagues on the state of military preparedness.

Sources said Dr Manmohan Singh, defence minister AK Antony, external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee and home minister P Chidambaram were among those present. The meeting in the war room lasted about two hours with the chiefs briefing those present about the state of high alert being maintained by the Army, Air Force and
Navy.

The briefing in the war room is rare and signals the fact that the military option is still very much on the table. It was preceded by a meeting of the core committee of the ruling United Progressive Alliance front in the 7 Race Course Road residence of the Prime Minister.

In the wake of the Mumbai attacks, the Indian military has gone into a state of high alert, but has not yet taken an offensive posture. In the meanwhile, there has also been a steady stream of intelligence warnings, from both Indian agencies and foreign countries, about several threats. Among them are aerial threats to key installations and the possibility of yet another sea-borne attack.

Sources told DNA that home minister Chidambaram has reviewed with the intelligence chiefs and National Security Advisor details of terrorist camps in Pakistan.

Indian agencies are believed to have the exact coordinates of over a dozen of the major terrorist training camps.

As part of the ongoing state of military preparedness, the non-static Army units have been issued over the past couple of days instructions for the highest state of alert within their present locations, asking them to be ready for mobilization. The units have also been informally instructed to minimize leave during the period. These units, mostly infantry, artillery and armoured battalions, have started carrying out intensive checks of their mobilisation preparedness.

Simultaneously, India has also summoned all its 120 ambassadorshigh commissioners and other heads of missions from all foreign nations. They are to be briefed about the Mumbai attacks and its fallouts and the government’s coercive diplomacy efforts.

- http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?n...15694&pageid=2

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India steps up vigil along Rajasthan border

22 Dec 2008, 0302 hrs IST, Vimal Bhatia, TNN

JAISALMER: Even as India refused to take the military option off the table while asking Pakistan to rein in the terrorists, the Indian Army’s and
IAF’s quick reaction teams (QRTs) were deployed along the borders in the Western Sector.

QRTs are also keeping a close watch on air space with the help of additional defence equipment. Security in and around defence air strips has been tightened.

These measures were taken following reports that Pakistan has deployed its forces along its border. IAF sources said security around places of strategic importance has been stepped up. They said more radars and QRTs have been deployed along the India-Pakistan border.

IAF had initiated these measures to strengthen its air defence to face any eventuality at a short notice. Additional hangars and runways have been prepared and all the radars have been put on high alert. Sources said tight radar surveillance is being maintained to keep a watch on any suspected movements along the border.

Air commandos have been deployed to ward off any possible retaliatory attack, they said, adding the entire border and its adjoining areas have been sanitised and the security situation reviewed. The commandos have also been deployed at borders (mainly at air-strips) in Jaisalmer, Uttarlai (Barmer) and Bhuj (Gujarat).

“Runways, hangars, main roads, ammunition stores and other sensitive places have been provided with additional cover. Sophisticated radars are installed at a few air bases and we are keeping watch on each and every cross-border activity,” said an IAF personnel.

“Entry of unauthorised persons in defence areas has been prohibited and people’s movement in the surrounding areas is being watched,” he said.

Confirming extra deployment of Pakistan Rangers, DID, Rajasthan Frontier of BSF R C Sayani said, “We have inputs about Pakisan army officers frequently visiting the border areas.”

Indian forces were on regular firing exercises at locations like Lathi Firing Range in Jaisalmer, Mahsan in Bikaner, Suratgarh and Ganganagar.

- http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/I...ow/3871982.cms

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Indian Coast Guard seizes Pakistan boat off Gujarat coast,8 held

By our correspondent
Bhuj, DeshGujarat, 22 December, 2008

Extra vigilant after Pakistan based Islamic terrorists attacked Mumbai using sea rout, the India Coast Guard on Monday detained a Pakistani fishing vessel ‘Al-Janab’ off the Gujarat coast and took into custody eight Pakistani nationals.

Sources told DeshGujarat, “The men in the trawler have custom passes issued at Karachi. The boat was 5 to 6 nautical miles within Indian waters when spotted by the Coast Guard patrolling ship ‘Mirabai’ . The boat had left Karachi port before ten days. When quizzed, Pakistani Fishermen told that due to strong winds, their boat had crossed the limit. It’s engine too created problem later on which brought them in a helpless and stand still condition inside the Indian waters as the engine was no more in working condition.”

The fishing boat was detained from near creek area by Coast Guard ship ‘Mirabai’ and brought to the Coast Guard’s forward operating post at Jakhau port by Coast Guard boat C-136. Those held have told Coast Guard officials that they hail from Karachi in Pakistan’s Sindh province. They had migrated from Bangladesh to Pakistan before a decade. The security forces concerned have been intimated in this regard,” sources said, adding that the arrested men will be taken to Bhuj for further interrogation.

Kutch district collector R.R.Varsani congratulated Indian Coast Guard for consequently forth success in nabbing Pakistan boat inside the Indian waters during current fishing season.

http://deshgujarat.com/2008/12/22/in...t-coast8-held/

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Does history repeat itself?

Evidence at Mohenjo-Daro

When excavations of Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro reached the street level, they discovered skeletons scattered about the cities, many holding hands and sprawling in the streets as if some instant, horrible doom had taken place. People were just lying, unburied, in the streets of the city.



And these skeletons are thousands of years old, even by traditional archaeological standards. What could cause such a thing? Why did the bodies not decay or get eaten by wild animals? Furthermore, there is no apparent cause of a physically violent death. These skeletons are among the most radioactive ever found, on par with those at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

At one site, Soviet scholars found a skeleton which had a radioactive level 50 times greater than normal. Other cities have been found in northern India that show indications of explosions of great magnitude. One such city, found between the Ganges and the mountains of Rajmahal, seems to have been subjected to intense heat. Huge masses of walls and foundations of the ancient city are fused together, literally vitrified! And since there is no indication of a volcanic eruption at Mohenjo-Daro or at the other cities, the intense heat to melt clay vessels can only be explained by an atomic blast or some other unknown weapon. The cities were wiped out entirely.

While the skeletons have been carbon-dated to 2500 BC, we must keep in mind that carbon-dating involves measuring the amount of radiation left. When atomic explosions are involved, that makes then seem much younger.

Giant Unexplained Crater Near Bombay

by David Hatcher Childress

Nexus Magazine

Another curious sign of an ancient nuclear war in India is a giant crater near Bombay. The nearly circular 2,154-metre-diameter Lonar crater, located 400 kilometers northeast of Bombay and aged at less than 50,000 years old, could be related to nuclear warfare of antiquity. No trace of any meteoric material, etc., has been found at the site or in the vicinity, and this is the world's only known "impact" crater in basalt. Indications of great shock (from a pressure exceeding 600,000 atmospheres) and intense, abrupt heat (indicated by basalt glass spherules) can be ascertained from the site.

A Nuclear Catastrophe in Paleoindian Times?

by Richard B.Firestone and William Topping

Terrestrial Evidence of a Nuclear Catastrophe in Paleoindian Times
The Mammoth Trumpet, 16:9, March 2001. Cr. C. Davant III.

This off-mainstream journal is published by the Center for the Study of the First Americans, 355 Weniger Hall, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331-6510.

Introduction

We introduce here a remarkable theory of terrestrial catastrophism that seems to be supported by evidence that is equally remarkable. One of the authors of this theory (RBF) is identified as a nuclear scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley Nuclear Laboratory.

The second author (WT) is a consultant. The authors' credentials seem so good that we must take a close look at their extraordinary claims concerning a natural phenomenon that they believe reset radiocarbon clocks in north-central North America and - potentially - elsewhere on the planet.

The claims

In the authors' words: Our research indicates that the entire Great Lakes region (and beyond) was subjected to particle bombardment and a catastrophic nuclear irradiation that produced secondary thermal neutrons from cosmic ray interactions. The neutrons produced unusually large quantities of ^239 Pu and substantially altered the natural uranium abundances (^235 U/^238 U) in artifacts and in other exposed materials including cherts, sediments, and the entire landscape.

These neutrons necessarily transmuted residual nitrogen (^ N) in the dated charcoals to radiocarbon, thus explaining anomalous dates. Some North American dates may in consequence be as much as 10,000 years too young. So, we are not dealing with a trivial phenomenon!

Supporting evidence
Four main categories of supporting evidence are claimed and presented in varying degrees of detail.

• Anomalously young radiocarbon dates in north-central North America. Example: the Gainey site in Michigan. [Other map sites include Thedford & Zander, Ont.; Potts, NY; Shoop, Penn.; Alton, Ind.; Taylor, Il.; Butler & Leavitt, Mich.; and far to the north Grant Lake, Nunavut; and in the far southwest Baker, N.M. - TWC]
• Physical evidence of particle bombardment. Example: chert artifacts with high densities of particle-entrance wounds
• Anomalous uranium and plutonium abundance ratios in the affected area
• Tree-ring and marine sediment data

The authors claim that the burst of radiation from a nearby supernova, circa 12,500 years ago, not only reset radiocarbon clocks but also heated the planet's atmosphere, melted ice sheets, and led to biological extinctions. If verified, the claimed phenomenon would also "reset" archeological models of the settlement of North and South America. To illustrate, we may have to add as many as 10,000 years to site dates in much of North America!

Rajasthan: Evidence of Ancient Atomic Explosion

Radiation still so intense, the area is highly dangerous. A heavy layer of radioactive ash in Rajasthan, India, covers a three-square mile area, ten miles west of Jodhpur. Scientists are investigating the site, where a housing development was being built. For some time it has been established that there is a very high rate of birth defects and cancer in the area under construction. The levels of radiation there have registered so high on investigators' gauges that the Indian government has now cordoned off the region.

Scientists have unearthed an ancient city where evidence shows an atomic blast dating back thousands of years, from 8,000 to 12,000 years, destroyed most of the buildings and probably a half-million people. One researcher estimates that the nuclear bomb used was about the size of the ones dropped on Japan in 1945.

A Historian Comments
Historian Kisari Mohan Ganguli says that "Indian sacred writings" are full of such descriptions, which sound like an atomic blast as experienced in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He says references mention fighting sky chariots and final weapons.

An ancient battle is described in the Drona Parva, a section of the Mahabharata.

"The passage tells of combat where explosions of final weapons decimate entire armies, causing crowds of warriors with steeds and elephants and weapons to be carried away as if they were dry leaves of trees," says Ganguli.

"Instead of mushroom clouds, the writer describes a perpendicular explosion with its billowing smoke clouds as consecutive openings of giant parasols. There are comments about the contamination of food and people's hair falling out."

Archeological Investigation provides information
Archeologist Francis Taylor says that etchings in some nearby temples he has managed to translate suggest that they prayed to be spared from the great light that was coming to lay ruin to the city.

"It's so mid-boggling to imagine that some civilization had nuclear technology before we did. The radioactive ash adds credibility to the ancient Indian records that describe atomic warfare."

Construction has halted while the five member team conducts the investigation. The foreman of the project is Lee Hundley, who pioneered the investigation after the high level of radiation was discovered.

http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/an...ncient%20india

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Report: Saudis seek nuclear weapons

Mon, 22 Dec 2008 11:07:05 GMT

Saudi Arabia has sought Pakistan's help as part of its long-term plan to attain nuclear weapons for regional dominance, says a report.

"Reports have circulated for years that the Saudis have pursued a secret nuclear program with help from Pakistan, though the Saudis deny this," said a Wall Street Journal article titled 'A Middle East Arms Race'.

For years now, media outlets have alleged that Saudi officials are interested in nuclear proliferation, citing comments by former Saudi diplomat Mohammed Khilewi -- who defected to the US in 1994.

Khilewi reportedly handed over documents to US officials, which revealed that the Saudi government was interested in nuclear proliferation.

According to the diplomat, who now lives undercover in the New York City area, Saudi officials have had a covert nuclear weapons research effort since 1975.

Khilewi says Saudi Arabia wants bombs to counter the threat posed by Israel -- which already has Arab territory under occupation.

An article published by The Guardian in 2003, made similar claims, suggesting that Riyadh was considering nuclear proliferation. According to the article, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia were engaged in secret nuclear cooperation.

A 2006 report printed by a British global business magazine, also alleged that Saudi Arabia had financed the Pakistani nuclear drive.

"Western intelligence services are now convinced that Saudi Arabia played a large role in financing Pakistan's nuclear bomb project. Riyadh's aim was to guarantee it immediate access to a nuclear arsenal… British Intelligence (MI6) already regards Saudi Arabia as a surrogate nuclear power, able to join the club whenever it chooses," reported The Business.

The Wall Street Journal report comes as the global economic crisis continues to plague Pakistan.

According to October comments by Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, the country is in desperate need of a $100 billion bailout from the international community to survive the financial crisis and fight terrorism at the same time.

MJ/AA/DT

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id...onid=351020205

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Former DIA Analyst: Saudi Arabia Bankrolled Pak Nukes

Former US Defense Intelligence Agency analyst Thomas Woodrow writing in a publication of the Jamestown Foundation claims that Saudi Arabia may have funded Pakistan's nuclear weapons development program:

Beijing is rapidly becoming a major player in world oil markets, and increasingly sees access to energy resources as a critical component of its national security and long-term military strategy. It has assiduously cultivated ties with Riyadh since the mid-1980s, when it sold CSS-2 nuclear-capable intermediate-range ballistic missiles (IRBMs) to Saudi Arabia. Some reports indicate that Saudi Arabia has been involved in funding Pakistan's missile and nuclear program purchases from China, which has resulted in Pakistan becoming a nuclear weapons-producing and -proliferating state.

China maintains a very close relationship with Saudi Arabia as a key component of its strategy to guarantee access to oil resources in the Persian Gulf. Until 1995, China was a net exporter of oil. In 2001, it imported over 60 million tons.

Its need for imported oil to maintain its GNP growth will at least double over the next decade. It will very soon become a major influence in the global oil market, a development that will have immense ramifications on resource competition and international security ties.

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Is India alone in this fight?

Seema Guha
Tuesday, December 23, 2008 02:15 IST

NEW DELHI: For the first time since the Mumbai carnage, India publicly declared that the response of the international community to the terror attacks was inadequate.

After the attacks, world leaders offered their sympathies and asked Pakistan to crack down on terror outfits in that country. US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice flew down to India and expressed solidarity with the people of the country. The UN Security Council declared the Jamaat-ud-Dawa a proscribed outfit. But that was about it. No concrete step was taken to permanently root out the problem.

Islamabad has been playing a cat-and-mouse game, moving one step forward and two steps backwards. This has angered the government because it now realises that Islamabad is doing what it has always done — claiming that no proof of Pakistan’s hand in the Mumbai attacks has so far been given to them.

Foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee, who has kept up the pressure on President Asif Zardari, voiced India’s disappointment again on Monday. “There has been some effort so far by the international community but it’s not enough. Much more needs to be done and the actions should be pursued to their logical conclusion,” the minister said. “We need effective steps not only to bring those responsible for the Mumbai attacks to justice, but also to ensure that such acts of terrorism do not recur,” Mukherjee said while speaking to a gathering of Indian ambassadors in the capital. A three-day conference of heads of missions began here on Monday morning.

Mukherjee clearly laid down what India expects from Islamabad. Those responsible for the Mumbai attacks must be punished and the authorities must make sure there is not another Pak-sponsored terror attack in India, he said. This will be the message that Indian ambassadors will carry back to the host governments. “While we continue to persuade the international community and Pakistan, we are also clear that ultimately it is we who have to deal with this problem. We will take all measures as we deem fit to deal with the situation,’’ Mukherjee said.

A similar sentiment was echoed by senior officials in the South Block. “We are not relying on the US or any other power to do our job. We know every country has its own interests at heart. But we are trying to see how we can work with countries which have common interests with us in getting Pakistan to co operate,’’ the officials said.

After the conference, reporters asked Mukherjee if a military response to the attacks was being considered. “We will explore all options,” said the external affairs minister.

“This terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan is the greatest danger to peace and security of the entire civilised world,’’ the minister said.

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‘All options’ are really non-options

Josy Joseph
Tuesday, December 23, 2008 04:03 IST

NEW DELHI: External affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee has talked of India “exploring all options” to get Pakistan to rein in its terrorist groups, but a closer examination of some of these “options” suggests that they are either not options at all, or they serve limited political objectives at best.

Many experts that DNA spoke to said the government had to take some kind of coercive action to show that it meant business, but beyond appeasing domestic political opinion, it may not have any major impact on Pakistan’s terror shops.

The experts essentially talked of four major options: One, limited air strikes on about a dozen prominent terrorist camps located mostly in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK); two, covert action within Pakistan; three, a limited naval blockade of Karachi to pressure the Pakistan economy; and four, a limited border war at a location of India’s choice.

Ajay Sahni, director, Institute for Conflict Management, said India doesn’t have any immediate military option: “Any overt action will be counter-productive, and it will also not succeed in causing any damage to the terror infrastructure. The only realistic option is covert operations, for which we will have to develop capabilities.”

The first option - limited air strikes on terror camps in PoK - is considered the most feasible. Several intelligence and military officers said India should immediately look at limited air strikes on prominent terror camps inside PoK to let Pakistan know India can retaliate. A former senior intelligence officer said limited air strikes are the best option: “Though they may retaliate with missiles or air violations, it wouldn’t escalate into a nuclear scenario.”

Retired air marshal Vinod Patney, who headed the western air command during the Kargil conflict and oversaw the air operations then, said: “Terrorism cannot be finished overnight, but it can be controlled to an extent by exhibiting to them [Pakistan] that they will be punished.”

Patney said a “punitive air strike is very feasible and I recommend it”. Besides such an attack on terrorist infrastructure, India should develop “covert action capabilities”, he said.

But a military strike can’t just be one-off action. It has to be combined with diplomatic and political action and reforms in internal security and intelligence gathering, Patney said. “We do have military capabilities without a doubt,” he said, but such action would lead to collateral damage - like killing civilians in Pakistan, too. “It won’t be intentional, but what can we do if Pakistan is not willing to put an end to this menace?” he said.

“Pakistan’s estimate that India’s tolerance threshold has been raised infinitely because of its nuclear capability is wrong,” said Ajit Doval, a former head of the Intelligence Bureau. “India is capable of disproving this doctrine.” Doval, a prominent advocate of aggressive covert action against Pakistan who mooted several such plans while in service, did not discuss any specific action.

But there are some who differ. A senior serving intelligence officer said that by now most of the terror camps may have been vacated. “Any limited strike may not achieve much,” he said.

Sahni of the Institute of Conflict Management said covert operations need not be violent. “There are a whole range of covert instruments that can be deployed to cause long-term damage to the terror infrastructure and the support enjoyed by terror groups from within the Pakistani establishment. These instruments can be economic, social, or political.”

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Pakistan militants 'threat to the world'

Mon, 22 Dec 2008 23:21:00 GMT

India's Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee says terrorists based in Pakistan are 'the biggest threat to the world's stability and security'.

"This terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan is the greatest terrorist danger to the peace and security of the entire civilized world," Mukherjee said on Monday.

Mukherjee was addressing the gathering of Indian ambassadors and heads of 120 missions from across the world in New Delhi.

The foreign minister said the international community had not done enough to exert pressure on Pakistan, which denies any involvement in the Mumbai terror spree that killed around 170 people.

"We continue to persuade the international community and Pakistan, we are also clear that ultimately, it is we who have to deal with this problem. We will take all measures necessary as we deem fit to deal with the situation," he said.

"We expect the civilian government of Pakistan to take effective steps to deal with elements within Pakistan who still continue the use of terrorism as an instrument of state policy," he noted.

Mukherjee's statement is the latest in a series of strongly worded diplomatic warnings from India. US, Indian and British officials claim to have clear evidence suggesting that the attacks on India originated in terrorist training camps inside Pakistan.

New Delhi has blamed a Pakistan based militant group named Lashkar-e-Taiba for being behind the Nov. 26-29 attack on Mumbai that killed 173 people.

Pakistan, however, says that India has failed to provide Islamabad with concrete evidence supporting its claim.

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Geopolitical Diary: Countdown to a Crisis on the Subcontinent

December 23, 2008 | 0255 GMT
Geopolitical Diary icon

The week began with a series of signals from New Delhi that Indian restraint in taking military action against Pakistan is no longer guaranteed. In fact, such action could very well be imminent.

In a press conference Monday, Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee said that while India “has so far acted with utmost restraint” it will “explore all options” in pressuring Pakistan to give up its support for Islamist militancy. The same day, Indian media reported that Indian army troops and the Indian air force’s Quick Reaction Teams had deployed along the Indian-Pakistani border, with commandos reinforced at Indian air strips in Jaisalmer and Uttarlai in Rajasthan and Bhuj in Gujarat. The Pakistani military, meanwhile, reportedly went on a heightened state of alert, with reports of Pakistan air force jets scrambling in Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore and Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

Over the past few weeks, India has played a complex diplomatic game, issuing a series of statements that seemingly downplayed military action against Pakistan in response to the Nov. 26 Mumbai attacks, while making it a point to stress in the public sphere that New Delhi was focused on using diplomatic tools to pressure Islamabad. While New Delhi’s behavior led many to believe that the threat of war on the Indian subcontinent had subsided, Stratfor maintained that Indian military operations were in preparation, and that New Delhi’s plan was first to exhaust its diplomatic options before engaging in any kind of military action. India’s restraint, in large part, was attributed to its talks with the United States, who would much rather not see the two nuclear-armed rivals come to blows when it is already fighting an uphill battle against al Qaeda and Taliban forces in the region.

But time is running out for Pakistan.

Reliable sources — whose information on this issue cannot be verified at this time — have told Stratfor that in the wake of the Mumbai attacks, the Indians relayed a message to Pakistan via the United States that they would be given 30 days to carry out significant actions in cracking down on Islamist militant proxies operating on Pakistani soil that continue to threaten India. While India used the time to prep its military forces, the United States came down hard on Pakistan behind the scenes, making clear that Islamabad will have to deliver on India’s demands, or else Washington will not be able to stand in New Delhi’s way if and when the time comes for India to act. The Pakistanis made a few arrests and raids targeting militant leaders and Pakistani intelligence operatives, but nothing that substantially reduced the militant threat to India from New Delhi’s point of view. And even if Pakistan were prepared to swallow the bitter pill of conceding to its main rival by cutting its militant ties, it can only go so far to placate India before it creates a domestic crisis in trying to avoid an international one.

Pakistan’s deadline, as far as we know, is Dec. 26, making Indian military action against Pakistan a very real and near possibility. The Indians have had a month to prepare their military operations against Pakistan, and Indian defense sources have revealed that these plans are ready to go into effect. With no one in New Delhi really expecting that Pakistan has either the political will — or perhaps even the capability — to meet Indian and U.S. demands, we now need to examine how far India will take this military campaign, and to what extent U.S. operations in Afghanistan will be affected.

The answer to these questions is still unclear. Discussions are taking place inside Indian defense circles over an escalatory military campaign, beginning with largely symbolic strikes in Pakistan-administered Kashmir against militant training camps and offices. Depending on Pakistan’s ability to respond, pressure could then be ratcheted up with precision air strikes in Pakistan’s urban areas — to include the capital — against intelligence facilities and militant leadership hideouts. The option of a naval blockade, which would cut off the United States’ main supply line into Afghanistan, has also been tossed around. While a blockade would put the already cash-strapped Pakistan in an economic chokehold, doing so would inevitably cause friction in India’s relationship with Washington.

But the United States knows the limits to its relationship with New Delhi and is already preparing for a worst-case scenario. For the past month, the U.S. military has been feverishly stockpiling supplies for its forces in Afghanistan in anticipation of a major interruption. The trick for the United States, however, is to find an alternate supply route that avoids the problem of having to deal with a resurgent Russia, who would relish the thought of making U.S. military operations dependent on its good graces. There really are no good options, but the United States is working on solving this issue by devising an alternate, albeit much longer, supply arrangement from Turkey to Central Asia through the Caucasus that would help backfill supplies that have already been stockpiled.

Pakistan’s best defense at this point is to continue pinning blame on Islamist militants that have escaped Islamabad’s control while making the case that further destabilization in Pakistan would only exacerbate the U.S.-jihadist war. But with the United States already coming up with alternate supply routes and India under the impression that Pakistan has more control over these militants than it claims, Pakistan’s defense is growing weaker by the day. From where we stand, the window for diplomacy is closing and a crisis on the Indian subcontinent is rapidly approaching.

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Pakistani Jets Scramble as India Hardens Tone

All Options Open, Minister Says in New Delhi

By Rama Lakshmi
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, December 23, 2008; A12



NEW DELHI, Dec. 22 -- In signs of growing regional tension since the Mumbai attacks last month, Pakistan scrambled fighter jets over several of its larger cities Monday, and India's foreign minister told a gathering of Indian diplomats in New Delhi that the country is keeping all its options open to bring the perpetrators of the attacks to justice.

"We have so far acted with utmost restraint," Pranab Mukherjee told the more than 120 envoys from posts around the world, according to news reports. But he added, "We will take all measures necessary as we deem fit to deal with the situation."

A senior government official later called Mukherjee's tough talk "an expression of political will that India will not take this lying down." He added that the option of "precision airstrikes" on terrorist training camps in Pakistan would remain on the table if Islamabad did not act effectively against groups fomenting terrorism against India.

Pakistan has denied involvement in the Mumbai attacks, which killed more than 170 people and wounded more than 230.

On Monday, Pakistan put its air force on high alert, with several fighter jets conducting exercises over the capital, Islamabad, as well as Rawalpindi, Lahore and Pakistan-controlled Kashmir. Offices of newspapers and television channels were inundated with calls from people asking whether the exercises, which caused delays in some civilian flights, were a response to airstrikes by India.

A Pakistani air force spokesman, Commodore Humayun Viqar, said in a statement, "In view of the current environment, PAF has enhanced its vigilance."

The air force's action coincided with the arrival in Islamabad of the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Michael Mullen, who met with Pakistan's army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Kiyani, and the head of its Inter-Services Intelligence agency, Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha.

Mullen thanked both men for their efforts, and the efforts of the Pakistani government, to arrest members of the outlawed Islamist group Lashkar-i-Taiba and other extremist organizations suspected of involvement in the Mumbai attacks, according to his spokesman, Navy Capt. John Kirby. Mullen also reportedly urged them to support judicial efforts to prosecute the cases fully and transparently.

A Pakistani official who spoke on the condition of anonymity said Kiyani told Mullen that Pakistan was trying its best to defuse tension with India.

"We want peace with India, but any aggression will be matched by a befitting response," the official quoted Kiyani as saying.

An Indian official in New Delhi said that the three-day meeting of diplomats had been scheduled before the attacks occurred but that it provided an opportunity for India to work out a diplomatic strategy for pressuring Islamabad to act against terrorist groups.

"Unfortunately, Pakistan's response so far has demonstrated their earlier tendency to resort to a policy of denial and to seek to deflect and shift the blame and responsibility," Mukherjee told the envoys in his opening address. "We have highlighted that the infrastructure of terrorism in Pakistan has to be dismantled permanently," he added.

Pakistan's government has offered to help in the investigation into the Mumbai attacks but has said that India has not shared any hard evidence about the alleged involvement of Pakistani citizens.

On Monday, however, India's Ministry of External Affairs handed over to Pakistan's acting high commissioner in New Delhi a letter that it said was written by the only surviving Mumbai gunman, Ajmal Amir Kasab, who was captured by Indian police.

"In his letter addressed to the Pakistan High Commission, Kasab has stated that he and the other terrorists killed in the attack were from Pakistan and has sought a meeting with the Pakistan High Commission," according to a written statement from the ministry.

In a background briefing, a senior government official said India is tired of the conflicting signals from Pakistan.

"We hear different voices from different places in Pakistan. Every day, different stories are floated. First we heard that Masood Azhar is arrested, then they say they do not know where he is," he said, referring to one of the fugitives India has demanded that Pakistan hand over. "If Lashkar-i-Taiba and Jamaat-ud-Dawa have been proscribed, then why is their Web site active and operational?" the official added.

An Interpol team also reached Mumbai on Monday. The team has begun seeking information about Kasab and the unclaimed bodies of the nine other gunmen, thought to be of Pakistani origin, who died in the three-day Mumbai siege.

India and Pakistan, longtime nuclear rivals, have fought three wars since the British partitioned the Indian subcontinent in 1947, creating both independent nations. An attack on India's Parliament in 2001 that India blamed on a Pakistan-based Islamist militant group brought the two nations to the brink of war.

Staff writer Ann Scott Tyson in Washington and special correspondent Shaiq Hussain in Islamabad contributed to this report.

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India threatens to act if world doesn’t

By Jawed Naqvi

December 23, 2008 Tuesday Zilhaj 24, 1429



NEW DELHI, Dec 22: India urged the international community on Monday to press Pakistan to weed out from its soil runaway terrorists who it says were behind the recent massacre in Mumbai and posed a great threat to global security.

Briefing Indian ambassadors from different world capitals, Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee said New Delhi was also aware that eventually it might have to deal with the problem on its own and it was keeping all options open for this.

“We have so far acted with utmost restraint and are hopeful that the international community will use its influence to urge Pakistani government to take effective action,” Mr Mukherjee said. “While we continue to persuade the international community and Pakistan, we are also clear that ultimately it is we who have to deal with this problem. We will take all measures necessary, as we deem fit, to deal with the situation.”

In a rare reference to the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc), usually relegated to the backseat in moments of crisis like the current one triggered by the Mumbai attacks, Mr Mukherjee claimed credit for helping the group make its transition from rhetoric to action. But even in this Pakistan was not up to the mark, he said.

“In our neighbourhood we have continued with our efforts to deepen engagement, either bilaterally or multilaterally and even by assuming a built-in asymmetry in responsibilities. An objective assessment shows that this policy has yielded results except with Pakistan,” he said.

“The recent terrorist attack on Mumbai was unprecedented both in terms of its scale and audacity,” the minister said. “This and the series of terrorist incidents preceding it, including the attack on our embassy in Kabul where we lost our colleagues, indicate that terrorism emanating out of Pakistan is acquiring an increasingly dangerous dimension and continues to threaten peace and stability in this region and beyond.”

India had so far worked at several levels, he said. “At the international level we have sought the support of the international community to put pressure on Pakistan to deal effectively with terrorism. We have highlighted that the infrastructure of terrorism in Pakistan has to be dismantled permanently.”

India was not saying this just because it was affected but because it believed that it would be good for the entire world and also for Pakistani people and society, he said.

“This terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan is the greatest terrorist danger to peace and security of the entire civilised world,” Mr Mukherjee said. There had been some effort so far by the international community but this was not enough, he said.

“Much more needs to be done and the actions should be pursued to their logical conclusion. We need effective steps not only to bring those responsible for the Mumbai attacks to justice, but also to ensure that such acts of terrorism do not recur,” Mr Mukherjee said.

“Unfortunately, Pakistan’s response so far has demonstrated their earlier tendency to resort to a policy of denial and to seek to deflect and shift the blame and responsibility. We expect the civilian government of Pakistan to take effective steps to deal with elements within Pakistan who still continue to use terrorism as an instrument of state policy.”

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Dec 23, 2008
India to take military route?

NEW DELHI - INDIA'S refusal to rule out a military response to the Mumbai attacks is a diplomatic strategy that hides the limited options open to the government, analysts say.

Under intense domestic pressure to take decisive and forceful action over the attacks - which it blames on Pakistan-based militants - India faces numerous problems in formulating a proportionate plan of action.

Topping the list is the knowledge that a cross-border strike of any nature runs the risk of a swift and highly dangerous military escalation between the nuclear-armed neighbours.

Another key question is who would be the target of any such operation.

There is a growing international consensus that the Islamist gunmen who killed 163 people in Mumbai came from Pakistan, but there are fewer takers for the charge that the government in Islamabad played a direct role.

For the moment at least, India seems to favour a policy of 'coercive diplomacy' - aggressively mobilising world opinion against Pakistan for providing a safe haven for militant groups.

But on Monday, Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee made it clear that New Delhi's patience had limits.

Noting that India had so far acted with the 'utmost restraint', Mr Mukherjee said it could not afford to just stand back and rely on others.

'While we continue to persuade the international community and Pakistan, we are also clear that ultimately it is we who have to deal with this problem,' he said.

Asked whether a military response was being considered, he stuck to the line that India was exploring 'all options'. Despite the threat implicit in that statement, analysts including retired Indian army general Afsir Karim doubt that 'unilateral military action' is either a realistic or productive option.

It could, on the contrary, 'provide a fillip to insurgency' Mr Karim said, pointing to the example of US military action in Afghanistan and Iraq.

'Any military action has to be deliberate, its political goals and objectives clear,' Mr Karim said, arguing that India's 'best bet' was to forge a global coalition that could pressure Pakistan 'to dismantle the infrastructure of terror'. Analyst C. Uday Bhaskar agreed that India's options were restricted.

'Concerted global diplomatic action is the only way to defeat terrorism. No one country has the answer to it,' he said.

The pressure on the government to do something is compounded by looming general elections in which the national security issue is sure to figure prominently.

Former foreign secretary Lalit Mansingh said the government had 'lost a lot of credibility' for its failure to prevent a series of attacks on Indian soil this year that have claimed more than 400 lives.

A government source, meanwhile, told AFP that India's response to Mumbai 'will be a carefully calibrated one' with investigations into the Nov 26-29 siege yet to be completed.

New Delhi has been sharing communication intercepts and information gleaned from the lone surviving gunmen with the United States and Britain.

India has demanded stern action against Islamist groups based in Pakistan, as well as the arrest and extradition of individuals it accuses of planning attacks on Indian soil.

So far, however, the only concrete consequence of the attacks has been to freeze the peace dialogue that India and Pakistan launched in 2004 - a process that was making only limited progress before the carnage in Mumbai. -- AFP

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PAF secures N-sites after tip-off

Fighter jets sent to counter possible strike | Vigilance enhanced

Agencies



ISLAMABAD: After confirmation of a report that Indian and Israeli air forces have planned an attack on Pakistan's nuclear installations, Pakistan Air Force sprang into action by sending its fighter jets into the air to thwart a possible air strike on Monday, according to reliable sources.

Pakistan's Nuclear Control and Command Authority was directed to take necessary measures to deal with any emergency situation.

It has also been learnt that anti-aircraft guns and missiles are being installed at the country's nuclear installations. PAF has been directed to remain on high alert until further orders. After reports of a likely attack, passenger flights to Dubai, India and Lahore were stopped for some time.

Sources said a secret meeting of Israeli intelligence agency Mossad, CIA, FBI, RAW and MI 5 was held in which a possible attack on Pakistan's nuclear installation s was discussed. Fighter jets flew over big cities in Punjab Monday as the armed forces were placed on red alert amid mounting tensions between Pakistan and India after the Mumbai attacks.

Sources in the Defense Ministry said PAF fighter planes flew over Lahore, the twin cities of Rawalpini and Islambad and along the Line of Control with a view to thwarting any airspace violation and checking operational preparedness.

PAF Spokesman Humayun Waqar Zafar said PAF fighter planes were involved in routine flights, so there was no need for any sort of panic or fear.

"In view of the current environment, PAF has enhanced its vigilance," he said.

He said PAF was fully committed and determined to give a befitting response to the enemy.

On the other hand, a high-level meeting under Joint Chief of Staff Committee General Tariq Majeed was held here on Monday.

Sources say that during the meeting a host of issues concerning national security came under discussion.

Gen Tariq Majeed took in confidence the military leadership on various matters including his recent visit to China, sources said.

www.thepost.com

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Pak to give equal response if India strikes: Kayani

Tuesday, 23 December , 2008, 13:04
Last Updated: Tuesday, 23 December , 2008, 14:24

Islamabad: Pakistan's armed forces would give an equal response within a few minutes if India carried out any surgical strike inside the country, army chief General Parvez Kayani said here.

In a meeting here on Monday with President Asif Ali Zardari, Kayani told him of operational preparedness of the armed forces. The meeting was held in the backdrop of the growing tension between India and Pakistan following the Mumbai terror attacks.

"The armed forces are fully prepared to meet any eventuality, as the men are ready to sacrifice for their country," The News daily reported quoting Kayani.

Zardari said Pakistan wanted peaceful and cordial relations with all its neighbours, but the "threatening statements of the Indian leadership were creating an atmosphere of aggression and harming the regional environment". The meeting lasted 60 minutes.

The media report stated the crux of the meeting was that any further buckling under mounting Indian pressure would prove counter-productive in the sense that it would further encourage New Delhi to build up more pressure on Islamabad.

Zardari said: “We are keeping a close watch on all the latest developments and threatening tones of Indian leadership.”

He said all the national security agencies, the army, political leadership and public were completely united to meet any aggression against Pakistan. He said Islamabad was in touch with all friendly countries, which were being briefed about "Pakistan's peace efforts and the hostility shown by India".

“We do not want any war with India, as that would prove detrimental to both our nations,” the president was quoted as saying. Zardari, however, expressed his satisfaction over the preparedness of the army and said all necessary resources would be provided to the armed forces. He said: “We have the right to defend our borders in case of any aggression.”