Modern Sinbad: 02/21/11

Monday, 21 February 2011

Pakistani intelligence claims US gunman was undercover CIA agent

An American citizen arrested last month for fatally shooting two Pakistani men “was working for the CIA”, Pakistani intelligence officials said Monday. US claims the man should be given diplomatic immunity have caused outrage in Pakistan.

By News Wires (text)

AFP - Pakistani intelligence considers that an American in custody nearly a month for killing two Pakistani men on motorcycles, was working undercover for the CIA, an official said Monday.

Washington insists Raymond Davis has diplomatic immunity and acted in self-defence when he shot two men in a busy street in the eastern city of Lahore on January 27, fearing that he was about to be robbed.

His detention has sparked a diplomatic crisis between the United States and Pakistan, where an anti-American population of 167 million is ruled by a weak and unpopular government closely allied in the US war in Afghanistan.

"It is beyond any shadow of a doubt that he was working for CIA," an official from Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency told AFP on condition of anonymity.

The official said the shooting in broad daylight at a busy junction on January 27 in the eastern city of Lahore and Pakistan's subsequent arrest of Raymond Davis had damaged relations with the Central Intelligence Agency.

"He's on contract. He's not a regular CIA guy, but he's working for CIA. That's confirmed," the Pakistani official said.

The government in Islamabad is under enormous domestic pressure not to be seen as kowtowing to US demands for Davis' release and has come under fire over how American officials are seemingly free to drive around with loaded weapons.

The United States has postponed a round of high-level talks with Afghanistan and Pakistan following failed attempts to get Davis out, and some US lawmakers have threatened to cut payments to Pakistan unless he is freed.

The Pakistani intelligence official said relations between ISI and the CIA had also taken a knocking.

"Our relations with the CIA are now sort of pretty dicey. It has affected our relationship," the official told AFP.

"He was sort of working behind our backs. Normal CIA guys -- we know who they are. We interact with them regularly. We know they're CIA, but in this particular case we had no knowledge of him," the official added.

A court last week deferred any judgement on whether Davis has diplomatic immunity and gave the foreign ministry until March 14 to determine his status.

Leading US Senator John Kerry visited Pakistan last week to express regret and promise that Davis would face a criminal investigation at home.

But in Pakistan, few are convinced that Davis was a normal diplomat. Police shortly after the arrest told AFP they recovered a Glock pistol, four loaded magazines, a GPS navigation system and a small telescope from his car.

A third Pakistani died when struck by a US diplomatic vehicle that came to Davis's assistance. Pakistani police say the Americans have refused them access to that vehicle or to the occupants inside.

Further suspicion was aroused when the US embassy on January 28 identified him as a "staff member of the US consulate general in Lahore" but the next day as a diplomat assigned to the embassy in Islamabad.

Under international laws, embassy diplomats have full diplomatic immunity whereas consulate officials are liable to detention in case of grave crimes.

The US embassy has since said that was a simple mistake

Court upholds death penalty for Mumbai attacker

India’s High Court has upheld the death sentence for the sole surviving gunman of the 2008 Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people and brought relations between India and Pakistan to a new low.

By News Wires (text)

REUTERS - India's High Court on Monday upheld the death sentence for the only surviving gunman in the 2008 Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people and strained ties between New Delhi and Islamabad.

Mohammad Ajmal Kasab, a Pakistani national, was one of ten gunmen who carried out the coordinated attacks on key landmarks in India's financial capital, including two luxury hotels, the main train station and a Jewish centre.

In May, Kasab was found guilty of more than 80 charges, including murder and waging war on India, and was sentenced to death by hanging by an Indian court but that sentence needed approval from the High Court.

"The High Court confirmed the lower court's decision to sentence Kasab to death by hanging," public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam said on live television on Monday.

Earlier this month, India and Pakistan agreed to resume formal peace talks after New Delhi broke off negotiations between the two nuclear-armed nations following the Mumbai attacks.

India had paused the talks, saying Islamabad must first act against groups operating from its soil, including Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, or LeT, said to be behind the attacks and of which Kasab was convicted of being a member.

Pakistan has acknowledged the attacks were plotted and partly launched from its soil, and has put on trial seven suspects linked to LeT, which has been fighting Indian forces in disputed Kashmir since the early 1990s.

Kasab was filmed walking through Mumbai's main train station carrying an AK-47 rifle and a knapsack on his back. Nearly 60 people were gunned down in the crowded station.

Twenty Pakistani co-conspirators, including LeT founder Hafiz Mohammad Saeed and commander Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, were also found guilty. A spokesman for LeT has denied the leader or the organisation was involved.

Islamist groups like LeT see India and the United States as foes against whom they must wage holy war. They also support independence for Kashmir, the Himalayan region claimed in full but controlled in part by both India and Pakistan.

The two countries have fought three wars since independence from Britain in 1947, two over Kashmir.

Officials to 'nip social conflict in the bud' after police prevent protests

China's top security official has urged the government to devise new ways to defuse social strife, a day after police stamped out attempts to organise streets protests mirrored on events in the Middle East.

By News Wires (text)

REUTERS - China's domestic security chief said the government must find new ways to defuse unrest, underscoring Beijing's anxiety about control even after police squashed weekend calls for gatherings inspired by Middle East uprisings.

Zhou Yongkang, the ruling Communist Party's top law-and-order official, told cadres they had to "adapt to new trends and imperatives in economic and social development", official newspapers reported on Monday.

"Strive to defuse conflicts and disputes while they are still embryonic," he told an official meeting on Sunday, the China Police Daily and other papers reported.

Over the weekend, Chinese police and censors showed the Communist Party has little to fear from protesters hoping to emulate the unrest that has swept the Middle East, unseating Egypt's long-time president, Hosni Mubarak, and now threatening Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi.

Police dispersed dozens of people who gathered in central Beijing and Shanghai on Sunday after calls spread on overseas Chinese websites urging "Jasmine Revolution" gatherings. The police and foreign reporters outnumbered aspiring participants and curious passers-by caught up in the crowd.

There were no signs of further protests in Beijing on Monday.

"I don't think this was ever a serious plan. It was more like a performance or a stunt," said Cui Weiping, a Beijing-based scholar who said she was not allowed outside by authorities on Sunday. "In fact I'd never even had any involvement. They seem to have just confined anyone they could think of," she added.

"Jasmine" still unsearchable

The words "jasmine" and "jasmine revolution" remained blocked Monday on the search functions of China's Twitter-like website Sina.com, and on Tianya.cn, a popular chatroom.

Chinese state media has been largely silent on the planned protests, although state news agency Xinhua published two short articles that described how police dispersed the crowds that had gathered in Beijing and Shanghai.

"There is no collective will for revolution in China," said an English-language opinion piece from The Global Times, a popular tabloid published by China's Communist Party.

China's fast economic growth has undercut discontent that could challenge the government. That growth has also enabled sharply higher funding for domestic security forces, which bristle with surveillance equipment and intimidating hardware.

But a flurry of speeches and official statements since last week has underscored that China's leaders are worried about longer-term challenges to their rule.

Despite harsh restrictions on independent political activity, China has many local riots, protests and strikes, often sparked by anger over corruption, land disputes and job losses.

The central government fears those tensions could accumulate. Provincial and ministerial level officials have been meeting in Beijing to discuss how to cope with these worries through stronger "social management", and President Hu Jintao himself told them that they should be worried.

"The problems remain of development that is unbalanced, ill-coordinated and unsustainable," Hu said in a speech on Saturday. He urged the officials to "strengthen governance to nip social conflicts in the bud".

The Communist Party's zeal in smothering dissent to maintain stability at all costs has created a domestic security system so expensive that it is sapping funds needed elsewhere to maintain the country's economic health. .

Critics say the Communist Party's reluctance to embrace political reforms will ultimately doom its efforts to create a more "harmonious society", particularly if it can't control officials who are the target of discontent.

"The Chinese government is extremely powerful vis-a-vis society," said Pei Minxin, a political scientist at Claremont McKenna College in California. "But this is a government that is very weak at disciplining or policing its own agents."

Japan to set up new spy agency

Japan is setting up a brand new espionage unit designed to keep an eye on China and North Korea, according to a classified US cable disclosed by the whistleblower website WikiLeaks.

By News Wires (text)

AFP - Japan is setting up its first fully-fledged post-war foreign spy service, modelled on the CIA and Britain’s MI6, according to a classified US cable obtained by WikiLeaks, a report said Monday.

The new intelligence service aims to spy on China and North Korea and to gather information to prevent terrorist attacks, said Australia’s Sydney Morning Herald, citing a US cable WikiLeaks exclusively provided to the daily.

The espionage unit is being created under the wing of Japan’s top intelligence agency, the Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office (Naicho), which reports to the prime minister, the Herald said.

Then-Naicho director Hideshi Mitani revealed in 2008 that a “human intelligence collection capability” was a priority, in talks with then head of the US State Department’s bureau of intelligence and research, Randall Fort.

Two former Japanese prime ministers of the conservative Liberal Democratic Party, Yasuo Fukuda and Taro Aso, had kicked off the project, according to a secret cable to Washington from the US embassy in Tokyo.

“The decision has been made to go very slowly with this process as the Japanese realise that they lack knowledge, experience, and assets/officers,” the US embassy cable said, according to the Herald.

“A training process for new personnel will be started soon.”

Japanese officials had told Fort that Japan’s most pressing intelligence priorities were “China and North Korea, as well as on collecting intelligence information to prevent terrorist attacks”.

Fort had urged Japanese officials to tap “underutilised assets” in the worldwide network of Japanese businesses and trading companies.

An expert on intelligence issues in Japan, who asked not to be named, told AFP that Japan does not yet have an operational “human intelligence branch”.

Japan does not seek to recruit foreign nationals as agents or informants, the expert said, instead relying on Japanese businessmen and journalists abroad to gather intelligence, paying them out of “secret funds” controlled by the foreign ministry and cabinet office.

Sudanese president 'will not seek re-election'

Sudan's long-time President Omar al-Bashir (pictured) will not seek a new term when elections are due in four years, his party has announced in a move opposition members say belies the fear of contagion from unrest sweeping the Arab world.

By News Wires (text)

REUTERS - Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir will not stand at the next election as part of a package of reforms aimed at democratising the country, a senior official of the ruling party said on Monday.

Bashir took power in a bloodless coup in 1989. In April 2010 he won presidential elections which many opposition parties boycotted, citing fraud.

"(Bashir) announced that he will not enter the coming elections to compete for the presidency," Rabie Abdelati, a senior National Congress Party official, told Reuters.

The next presidential elections are due in four years.

Bashir is the only sitting head of state to be indicted by the International Criminal Court, for war crimes and genocide in the war-torn Darfur region. He denies the charges.

Last week Bashir hinted to youth members of his party that he would retire if the NCP adopted a retirement age of 60 for political posts.

The opposition belittled the move, saying the NCP was trying to head off mass protests and feared contagion from popular uprisings which have ousted the Tunisian and Egyptian presidents.

Abdelati said Bashir had also offered to step down as head of the NCP, a move he said was part of a wider strategy to democratise the country.

"This is an NCP strategy to let different generations fill different positions within the party and government," he said, adding that the NCP was also planning to allow freedom of expression for other political parties.

"This will create a democratic environment for the whole of society."

Sudanese security forces have used force to break up dozens of small protests throughout the north since January as an economic crisis began to bite and the oil-producing south voted to secede and become independent in July.

Protests throughout the Arab world have led to offers of political reform by long-term, often autocratic rulers. Sudan's opposition has so far refused to enter talks with the NCP on such reforms.

Suicide bomber targets police in Samarra

A suicide bomber blew up a car laden with explosives outside a police station in the volatile city of Samarra in northern Iraq Monday, killing at least 10 police officers and wounding several more.

By News Wires (text)

AP - A suicide attacker detonated a car bomb Monday morning at a police station north of Baghdad, killing at least 10 police officers, police and health officials said.

Monday’s attack in Samarra, 60 miles (95 kilometers) north of Baghdad, comes less than 10 days after a suicide bomber targeted Shiite pilgrims returning from a religious ceremony at the city’s al-Askari mosque. Thirty-six were killed in that attack.

Two police officers said the Monday morning suicide bombing also wounded at least 22 people. A hospital official confirmed the casualty figures.

Samarra has been a flashpoint spot ever since a 2006 attack by al-Qaida destroyed part of the golden-domed mosque in the city revered by Shiites. The event sparked a vicious bloodbath between the country’s Shiite majority and Sunni minority that swept through the country.

Shiite pilgrims flocked to the site earlier this month to celebrate an important religious holiday, the death of the imam for whom the mosque is named, and extra forces were brought in to beef up security in the city.

Also Monday, police and hospital officials in the northern city of Sulaimaniyah said a teenager died and 47 were wounded during overnight protests.

A Sulaimaniyah police official said that around 2,000 people took part in scattered demonstrations around the city, 160 miles (260 kilometers) northeast of Baghdad, late Sunday. Many Kurds are frustrated by the tight grip with which the two ruling parties control the Kurdish autonomous region.

The official said Kurdish security forces opened fire in the air to disperse the crowd.

Hospital officials said around 20 people were shot, including a 17-year-old who later died of his wounds. The others were hit by flying stones.

All the officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the media.

The Kurdish region has been spared much of the violence that has consumed the rest of Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion, and the area attracts many foreign businesses looking to make a foothold in the country. But Kurds have become fed up by the lack of jobs and economic opportunity for people not affiliated with the two main political parties.

Last Thursday, two people were killed and nearly 50 injured in a protest at the Sulaimaniyah headquarters of the Kurdistan Democratic Party. Since then, demonstrators have thronged the city’s streets.

Royals seek dialogue as protesters press demands

Protesters gathered in Manama's Pearl Square again on Sunday as Bahrain's ruling royal family sought to open talks with the opposition. Opposition leaders, however, are demanding a "real constitutional monarchy" and the resignation of the government.

AFP - Bahraini protesters camped out in Manama's Pearl Square on Sunday as police held back amid growing pressure on the Sunni Muslim ruling family to open meaningful talks with the Shiite-led opposition.

"The night passed off without any problems," said Tahar, a student who had stayed up all night with dozens of other youngsters to guard the central square, which has been the focal point of the demonstrations that have rocked the small but strategic Gulf kingdom since February 14.

BAHRAIN

Big powers warily eye revolt in the world's smallest Arab nation

"We are frightened that the security forces will launch another surprise attack like they did on Thursday," he said, referring to a nocturnal police raid to clear the square which left four people dead.

Protesters flocked back to the square on Saturday after the army, which had deployed on the streets of the capital following Thursday's raid, was ordered to return to base.

Riot police fired tear gas in an unsuccessful attempt to disperse the demonstrators but then withdrew as Crown Prince Salman, the deputy commander of armed forces, ordered police and troops alike to hold back.

Bahrain's main trade union said it was calling off its general strike from Monday, saying its demand for the right to demonstrate peacefully had been heeded.

"In the light of the army's withdrawal and respect of the right to demonstrate peacefully, the general union for labour syndicates has decided to suspend the general strike and return to work on Monday," the union said.

The heir to the throne has been tasked by his father King Hamad with launching a sweeping dialogue with the opposition.

But emboldened by a wave of uprisings in the Arab world that has swept the strongmen of both Tunisia and Egypt from power, the opposition has raised its stakes, demanding a "real constitutional monarchy" and the resignation of the government.

Prime Sheikh Khalifa bin Salman, an uncle of the king, has held office ever since independence from Britain in 1971 and is widely despised by the opposition.

"The government that was unable to protect its people must quit and those responsible for the massacres must be judged," said Abdel Jalil Khalil Ibrahim, head of the parliamentary bloc of the main Shiite opposition group, the Islamic National Accord Association.

"The opposition does not refuse dialgue but they ask for a platform that is favorable to dialogue."

Bahrain is the base of the US Fifth Fleet and National Security Adviser Tom Donilon spoke with the crown prince on Saturday urging him to respect human rights and launch "meaningful" reform, the White House said.

"As a long-standing partner of Bahrain, the United States believes that the stability of Bahrain depends upon respect for the universal rights of the people of Bahrain, and a process of meaningful reform that is responsive to the aspirations of all Bahrainis," a statement said.

Regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, voiced its "absolute rejection" of any foreign meddling in Bahraini affairs, pledging to stand by its tiny neighbour.

Riyadh called on the opposition to heed government calls for dialogue, an appeal that was echoed by the United Arab Emirates.

UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahayan urged the Bahraini people to "respond favourably to the appeal for dialogue by the crown prince."

Prince Salman acknowledged the need for reform but called for calm before the launch of dialogue.

"There are clear messages from the Bahraini people... about the need for reforms," he said in a television interview on Saturday.

A large banner erected by the protesters in Pearl Square insisted: "We do not accept dialogue with any of the murderers."

Another read "Khalifa, Go!" in reference to the veteran prime minister.

EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton said it was vital that the promised dialogue "should begin without delay."

In a telephone call to the crown prince on Saturday, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said he had expressed "the UK's deep concern about the situation and strong disapproval of the use of live ammunition against protesters."

Bahrain's unrest has cast doubt on next month's season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix, with Formula One chief Bernie Ecclestone saying it may be moved to a later date in the calendar.

31 dead as suicide blast hits government office in Kunduz

At least 31 people were killed Monday in a suicide attack on an administrative building in Afghanistan's northern Kunduz province, which has witnessed a sharp increase in violence in recent months.

By News Wires (text)

AFP - A Taliban suicide bomber struck an Afghan government office on Monday, killing 31 people and raising to more than 100 the death toll from a surge in high-profile bomb attacks.

A string of insurgent attacks has targeted civilians and government forces over the last three weeks, just a few months before limited withdrawals of US-led NATO forces are due to start in July.

Monday's attack took place as people queued outside a district office in Imam Sahib in the northern province of Kunduz to collect new identity cards and other paperwork.

Insurgents have made increasing inroads into the north, expanding from their traditional power bases in the south and east, along the Pakistan border, as they pursue a nine-year insurgency against the government and US-led troops.

District governor Mohammad Ayob Haqyar said a suicide attacker detonated his explosives in the waiting area.

"The number of people killed in the suicide blast rose to 31," he said. "Some of the critically wounded also died in hospital. Thirty-nine people are wounded."

Officials locally and in Kabul said that all of the dead were thought to be civilians.

A local man, Mohammad Ismail, described the scene in the hospital where the wounded were being treated as chaotic.

"There are wounded and dead all over the floor in the hospital," he told AFP. "There are bodies with their chopped-off hands or legs next to them in the hospital. It's a disaster... you can hear screams everywhere."

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed one of its "hero" members had carried out the attack, which he said targeted an army recruitment centre and killed 30 members of the security forces.

The insurgent militia, which has been fighting the Western-backed government since being toppled from power in the 2001 US-led invasion, routinely deny killing civilians in their attacks.

The attack was condemned as "very evil and anti-Islamic" by President Hamid Karzai, while the United States said it showed "the terrorists' cowardice and complete disregard for human life," a statement from the embassy in Kabul said.

Kunduz has been volatile in recent months. Earlier this month, a suicide bomber killed a district governor and two others after walking into an office ostensibly to hand over a letter.

In the deadliest attack in Afghanistan since last June, four suicide bombers killed 38 people in the east of the country Saturday, apparently targeting police collecting their salaries at a bank in Jalalabad.

On Friday, another nine people died in a car bombing near a district police headquarters in the eastern city of Khost.

The previous week, 19 people including 15 police and an Afghan intelligence agent, died when suicide bombers armed with guns, grenades and car bombs targeted police in Afghanistan's de facto southern capital, Kandahar.

There have also been two attacks in Kabul in recent weeks -- on January 28, when eight people were killed at a supermarket popular with Westerners, and on February 14, when two died at a shopping mall.

The Afghan police and army are due to take responsibility for security from 2014, allowing the bulk of international troops to withdraw.

There are currently around 140,000 international military personnel in Afghanistan fighting the Taliban.

Afghan officials have also accused NATO troops in recent days of causing mass civilian casualties in operations -- a highly sensitive subject in the fight to win hearts and minds while defeating the Taliban.

On Monday, local officials accused NATO forces of killing a family of six in an air strike, a day after Karzai said 50 innocent people had died in aerial attacks nearby over the course of five days.

Yemeni president refuses to quit amid mounting protests

Yemen's long-serving president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, has ruled out stepping down even as opposition lawmakers join thousands of protesters calling for an end to his 32-year rule.

By News Wires (text)

AFP - Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, in power since 1978, said on Monday that only defeat at the ballot box will make him quit, as he faced growing calls to step down.

"If they want me to quit, I will only leave through the ballot box," Saleh told a news conference as thousands of protesters, including opposition MPs, gathered outside Sanaa University to demand his departure.

"The opposition are raising the level of their demands, some of which are illicit," the Yemeni leader said.

Saleh, whose long reign makes him one of the Middle East's great survivors, said the protests were "not new," accusing his opponents of having been behind the demonstrations for a while.

The president's comments came as Yemeni police shot dead a protester and wounded four others in the main southern city of Aden on Monday, according to witnesses and medics.

The death of Ali al-Khalaqi took to 12 the toll of those killed in Aden during anti-regime protests since February 16.

At least 76 people, including seven soldiers, have been wounded in Aden since the protests began, according to an AFP tally based on figures supplied by medics and officials.

Pro- and anti-Saleh demonstrators have also clashed violently over the past week in the capital Sanaa.

Meanwhile, Yemeni clerics issued a statement on Monday prohibiting the use of force against protesters, which they described as a "crime," and calling for a ban on arbitary arrest and torture.

Saleh has outlived the Cold War division, civil war and an Al-Qaeda insurgency but is now scrambling to see his term through to the end as sustained popular uprisings in Sanaa and Aden test his grip on power.

Live coverage: Unrest in Libya

Follow FRANCE 24's live coverage of the worst unrest in Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's four decades in power.

By FRANCE 24 (text)

Libyan Unrest

18:46

FRANCE 24:

Al Jazeera reports that the two Lybian Air Force colonels who landed in Malta had been ordered to bombard protesters in Benghazi but decided to desert.

Monday February 21, 2011 18:46 FRANCE 24