US warns Pakistani leaders their children could be terrorists

Hi Everyone,
This is from Yahoo Main Page.
Even the Pak Prime Minister's half brother, is a terrorist (notorious Headley)!! The Malice is too deep and must be arrested. Otherwise generations after generations of Pakistanis will become terrorists/ sympathisers of terrorists. The ramifications for US, India and rest of the world are quite clear. It is soo dicy to be friends with Pakistanis living abroad/ in Pakistan, even though we have ties of language, music, culture etc.
Harbhajan Singh
Lt Gen (Retd)

US warns Pakistani leaders their children could be terrorists The United States has warned leaders in Pakistan that the children and relations of the elite are potential terrorists who warrant closer monitoring.
Alex Spillius in Washington
Published: 7:19PM BST 21 May 2010

A "clear, if carefully worded warning" has been delivered by US officials after it was discovered that Faisal Shahzad, the man behind the recent failed attack on Times Square was the son of a retired Pakistani air marshal.

The father is one of Pakistan's most accomplished pilots and flight instructors and was stationed overseas in Britain and Saudi Arabia.

We've got elements of the Pakistani gentry - people who can get in and out of the United States with ease, if they're not already citizens here- who are getting roped into terrorism," a US official said.

It is understood the message was delivered last week when James Jones, the National Security Adviser, and Leon Panetta, the CIA director, met their counterparts in Pakistan.

The US has for years suspected that elements of the Pakistani military and intelligence service are connected to terror groups. It has publicly warned Pakistan of severe consequences if Pakistani terrorists attempt to strike America again.

The home-made car bomb which failed to detonate on May 1 at busiest time of day in New York's theatre district could have wreaked heavy damage.

Another confessed bomb plotter, David Headley, is the son of a retired senior Pakistani diplomat who may have served at the Pakistani embassy in Washington. His late mother was American but he changed his name to Daood Gilani to make crossing international borders easier. His half brother is spokesman for the prime minister of Pakistan.

Headley is facing a life sentence after admitting his involvement both in the 2008 terrorist attacks in downtown Mumbai and in a foiled plot to attack the Danish newspaper that stoked a global controversy by publishing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in 2005.

Teresita Schaffer, a retired American diplomat who worked in Pakistan, said the sons of the privileged had been involved in terror since the inception of al-Qaeda, whose leaders are from wealthy backgrounds.

"The thread running through this is that the leaders who build bombs and direct operations are not poor and down trodden. I don't think being child of privilege a military officer predisposes anyone to terrorism, but it certainly doesn't immunise.

US officials are investigating reports that a Pakistani army major was arrested this week in Pakistan on the suspicion of involvement in the Times Square plot.

Shahzad, who lost his job and then his house in the run up to the New York attack, is still talking to investigators and made his first court appearance this week. He has yet to enter a plea.
US warns Pakistani leaders their children could be terrorists

Mumbai Mayhem: Taliban Marching East

Taliban Child Soldiers
The Obama administration faces dilemmas familiar to several of its predecessors. America cannot withdraw from Afghanistan now, but neither can it sustain the strategy that brought us to this point.

The stakes are high. Victory for the Taliban in Afghanistan would give a tremendous shot in the arm to jihadism globally -- threatening Pakistan with jihadist takeover and possibly intensifying terrorism in India, which has the world's third-largest Muslim population. Russia, China and Indonesia, which have all been targets of jihadist Islam, could also be at risk.
A Strategy for Afghanistan by Henry A Kissinger: Thursday, February 26, 2009: The Washington Post

Was it worth the more than 4,000 American lives lost, tens of thousands of casualties and many more Iraqis killed?

"Well, you know, I don't want to look backwards,'' Obama says in an interview with Jim Lehrer of the Newshour, which PBS will air this evening. "As you know, I opposed this war, I did not think it was the right decision, but I don't want to in any way diminish the enormous sacrifices that have been made by our men and women in uniform....

"I will tell you that the most sobering things that I do as president relate to the deployment of these young men and women,'' Obama tells Lehrer. "Signing letters of those who have fallen in battle, it is a constant reminder of how critical these decisions are and the importance of the Commander in Chief, Congress, all of us who are in positions of power to make sure that we have thought through these decisions free of politics and we are doing what's necessary for the safety and security of the American people."
Obama: 'Exit strategy' for Afghanistan too

Mumbai Mayhem: Pakistan's Nuclear Option

Photo: http://www.mda.mil/

Ghauri
Two nuclear-armed foes adhering to a no-first-use policy are unlikely to have a nuclear exchange. Pakistan is simply incapable of quantitatively matching Indian demographics and conventional military forces (challenges only compounded by Islamabad's qualitative and technological disadvantages in relation to India). Nuclear weapons are Pakistan's ace in the hole. Consequently, Islamabad maintains an overt first-use policy.

India and Pakistan assessment of the escalation

Distance: Islamabad and New Delhi are less than 800 Kms apart. Dense populations, saddle both sides of the border, and the Pakistani demographic, agricultural and industrial heartland lies directly across a border from India - with no real geographic barriers to invasion. This increases the likelihood of conventional warfare and, therefore, the potential for escalation toward the nuclear realm.

Global scale: Pakistan and India, the historical alternatives to a massive confrontation along the Punjab border have been fighting in the mountains and on the glaciers of Kashmir, blockades of Pakistani ports, and the use of militant proxies. With military competition so close to home, the use of ballistic missiles and strike aircraft in conventional roles inevitably raises the spectre of their use in the nuclear role - and when the stakes are that high, one does not have the luxury of sitting back and waiting for clarification of intent once a missile makes impact. With any launch, one must assume the worst.

Mutually assured destruction: Though Pakistan's small, crude and low-yield arsenal could indeed be devastating, it does not threaten India with total destruction. With its own delivery systems capable of reaching every corner of Pakistan, New Delhi enjoys immense strategic depth that Islamabad cannot match with any current systems. India's arsenal is more mature and more robust than Pakistan's. Thus, Islamabad's first-use policy is actually defensive in nature; it is a deterrent against Indian aggression that, in the end, Pakistan knows it could not defeat.

The question, now that Pakistan appears to have drawn a very clear line in the sand, is how India will respond. How will the world community move to de-escalate a crisis that no one-not India, not Pakistan, nor anyone else-is interested in seeing deteriorate into a nuclear exchange (however unlikely this remains in practice)?
Pakistan's Nuclear Option
stratfor
Related Topics
India: Military
Pakistan: Military
The exact number of nuclear weapons in each country's possession is a closely held national secret. Despite this limitation, publicly available information and occasional leaks make it possible to make best estimates about the size and composition of the national nuclear weapon stockpiles.
Status of World Nuclear Forces 2008

Kabul Suicide attack on 07 July 2008

Sunita wife of Indian Army officer RD Mehta, who died on Monday, 07 July bombing of the Indian Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, holds an Indian national flag, along with her husband's military cap and belt, as she and other relatives attend his cremation service in New Delhi, Tuesday, July 8, 2008. (AP Photo/Mustafa Quraishi)

Chief of Army Staff, Gen Deepak Kapoor led senior officials from all three forces in paying tribute to Brig Mehta. He offered his condolences to the family by personally going to Brig Mehta’s wife, father and children.

His son, Flt Lt Udit Mehta, himself an Air Force pilot said: "I was, am and will always be proud of my father. He was my hero and I would like to remember as he lived, not as now."

One of his relatives, who is a serving air-force officer said that "he was what every officer should be like." A retired officer, Maj Gen Popli said that it was a failure on part of the intelligence that this attack could not be anticipated and hence, averted.

Kabul attack: Brig RD Mehta cremated in Delhi
Kabul Sucide Attack

Suicide attacks are not always motivated by a jihad, but they are also not always nationalistic. Suicide attacks in India cannot be lumped together with those in Algeria, Afganistan,Palestine and those in London. These attacks are part politico-military tactic, part complex internationalised religious ideology, and part local grievance. All of these factors converge with varying levels of importance every time a suicide attack occurs. Only the Intelligence agencies can crack the international and homegrown menace.

Need for Explosives Detection:
Identify, prioritize, and execute research and development projects that satisfy inter- agency requirements for existing and emerging technology in explosives detection and diagnostics. Emphasis should be placed on a long term, sustained approach leading to new and enhanced technology for detection and identification of improvised explosive devices, including vehicle- borne devices.