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Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Afghan government talks with Taliban everyday


Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai said his government talks to the Taliban every day through intermediaries, according to an interview by Australia s SBS television for broadcast on Tuesday. Afghan and U.S. officials are seeking negotiations with the Taliban as a way of ensuring peace after foreign combat troops leave in 2014, though the talks lay in a very fragile state and the Islamist group recently rejected they existed at all. "We talk to the Taliban every day. We were talking to them just a few days ago somewhere around this region," Karzai said in an interview taped a week ago in Kabul with SBS, adding his contact with the group s one-eyed leader Mullah Omar was through indirect means. "(But) not personally," Karzai said when asked if he had spoken with Omar. "I mean not directly, person to person. But through intermediaries, yes." Karzai and many Western analysts say the reclusive leader is based in the Pakistani city of Quetta. Karzai also stressed that peace talks with the Taliban, who were originally backed by Islamabad, are key to regional stability and bringing peace as well to Pakistan, a player seen as crucial to efforts to end the war in Afghanistan. "It s no longer Afghanistan that s the subject of conversation, or the issue. It s Pakistan as well. It s peace in Pakistan as well. It s stability in Pakistan as well," he said. The interview was recorded before Karzai s visit to Islamabad last week, where he upset Pakistan by asking for access to Afghan Taliban leaders belonging to the so-called Quetta Shura, or leadership council, named after the Pakistani city where it is said to be based. Afghans have always been suspicious of Pakistani intentions because of historical ties between Pakistani intelligence and insurgent groups like the Afghan Taliban. Pakistan has consistently denied the existence of the Quetta Shura. During the bitter civil war that engulfed Afghanistan following the end of the Soviet war, the Taliban ruled the country from 1996-2001 under strict Islamic laws and provided shelter to al Qaeda until their ousting by U.S.-backed Afghan troops just over a decade ago. Karzai said despite the history, he is also keen to work together with Islamabad to help advance peace talks with the Taliban. "We as the Afghan people and government are willing to help Pakistan work for peace in Afghanistan and work for peace in Pakistan, together," Karzai said in fluent English. Karzai added that Afghanistan was making progress on security in the eleventh year of a costly war, local and foreign support for which is souring. The United States and NATO are racing against the clock to train a 350,000-strong force of Afghan army and police who will take over all security responsibilities before end-2014, when foreign combat troops leave, though scepticism looms that the target can be met in an increasingly violent war. The Afghan leader also said the Taliban would not return to power in a total capacity. "I don t think the Taliban will ever come back to take Afghanistan, no," he said. "Two years ago I would have been uncertain and unwilling to give you an answer as firm as I do today. The Afghan people will not go back to the nothing of 10 years ago. 

Iranian warships reported to Leave Syria


Two Iranian naval ships returned from Syria through the Suez Canal on Tuesday, a Suez Canal source said. The ships entered the canal from the Mediterranean Sea early in the morning, heading south towards the Red Sea, and were expected to leave the canal on Tuesday afternoon, the source said. The ships had docked at the Syrian port of Tartous, in a show of support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a regional ally of Iran.

US appeals court won't hear Guantanamo suicide suit


The families of the detainees who hanged themselves in their cells claimed former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and other U.S. officials were responsible for the deaths in 2006 and sued for unspecified money damages. They say the detainees died after being subject to arbitrary detention, torture, inhuman treatment, violations of the Geneva Conventions and cruel and unusual punishment at the U.S. detention center. Three conservative judges on the federal appeals court in Washington ruled that U.S. courts do not have authority to consider lawsuits related to treatment of Guantanamo detainees under the Military Commissions Act passed by Congress in 2006. They said the Supreme Court has given federal judges the authority only to determine whether detainees are being properly held or should be released. The judges wrote that although the families argued the Military Commissions Act s failure to allow treatment suits is unconstitutional because it does not provide a way to challenge violations of constitutional rights, "the only remedy they seek is money damages, and, as the government rightly argues, such remedies are not constitutionally required." The judges who issued the opinion were President Ronald Reagan nominees David Sentelle and Stephen Williams and President George H.W. Bush nominee Raymond Randolph. Yasser Al-Zahrani and Salah Ali Abdullah Ahmed Al-Salami were among three men who the military said were found hanging in their cells by their bed sheets in June 2006. Human rights groups said the suicides reflected the men s despair over their indefinite detention without charges, while military investigators said suicide notes found in their pockets expressed their desire for martyrdom. The three were the first of six prisoners who have died in apparent suicides since the detention center opened on the U.S. base in Cuba in January 2002. Two other prisoners have died from what officials said were natural causes. Al-Zahrani, 22 years old when he died, was from Saudi Arabia and was captured in Afghanistan in late 2001, according to the suit by the men s families. Al-Salami, 37, was from Yemen and arrested by local forces in Pakistan in March 2002. The suit was filed on their families  behalf by the New-York based Center for Constitutional Rights, which represents dozens of detainees. The group said it did not file on behalf of the third detainee, 30-year-old Saudi Mani Shaman Al-Utaybi, because his family could not be located.

Pakistan: Malik unravels kill-BB plot: Interpol to get Musharraf


This he said while briefing the Sindh Assembly about the BB murder plot. Malik said the government will seeking Musharraf s arrest because he allegedly failed to provide adequate security for Benazir Bhutto. Interior Minister briefed the Sindh Assembly on Tuesday about the investigations into the assassination of former prime minister Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto, but the startling aspect was that the culprits are yet to be apprehended. Rehman Malik informed the house that Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto preferred reconciliation for the cause of democracy and held talks with the then President General Pervez Musharraf. He said when Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto asked the former President to provide security he told her not to come to Pakistan before the general elections and if she did come she would be responsible for any consequences. He told the Sindh Assembly about the details of the accused who was traced by using old SIM after one and a half year. Malik added that the accused disclosed all the details of the incident including their stay in a seminary, collection of weapons and even the room of the seminary where they stayed. The interior minister said had he mention the name of the seminary earlier, people would have been blaming him of leaking the evidence. He said platform of Madrassa Haqani was used during the planning of the murder. He said Benazir Bhutto murder case has been mostly resolved but some information is sensitive which cannot be made public. He said the planners of the attack on BB have still to be arrested.

England beat Pakistan to avenge whitewash


With it England also avenged Test series whitewash. It was Pietersen’s superb ton that led England to victory chasing Pakistan’s 237. Pakistani spinners early on gave their team a chance, but Pietersen stood firm to guide their team to the victory stand. England has whitewashed the ODI series in reply to Pakistan’s Test series clean sweep. Kevin Pietersen hit his second successive century to help a resurgent England beat Pakistan by four wickets. The 31-year-old right-hander held the innings together during his 153-ball career-best 130 -- his ninth one-day hundred -- to help England chase down a 238-run target in 49.2 overs at Dubai Stadium. Pietersen helped England recover from 68-4 with a 109-run stand for the fifth wicket with Craig Kieswetter (43) to maintain his team s domination in the series in which they won the first match by 130 runs, second by 20 and the third by nine wickets. By virtue of this win England overtook Pakistan at number five and pushed their rivals to sixth in the ICC (International Cricket Council) one-day rankings and partially made up for their 3-0 loss in the preceding three-Test series. Pietersen hit Junaid Khan for a six and took a single in the next over to reach his hundred off 136 balls and finished with 12 fours and two sixes. His previous best of 116 came against South Africa at Centurion in 2005. Pietersen had lost his opening partner Alastair Cook -- who hit back-to-back hundreds and 80 in the first three matches -- off the second ball of the innings to paceman Khan for four. Jonathan Trott (15), Eoin Morgan (15) and debutant Jos Butler fell in the space of 18 runs before the Pietersen-Kieswetter stand lifted them from 68-4 to 177-5. When Kieswetter was run out, England still needed 61 but Samit Patel (17 not out) in the company of Pietersen brought England within two runs of the win when Pietersen fell to Saeed Ajmal. Tim Bresnan hit the winning boundary. Pakistan promised more than what they made after half-centuries by Asad Shafiq and Azhar Ali but were pegged back in the final overs with paceman Jade Dernbach taking a career-best 4-45. Shafiq made a 78-ball 65 for his sixth one-day fifty while Ali notched a 89-ball 58 for his first to help lift Pakistan from the early loss of opener Mohammad Hafeez (one) after they elected to bat. Skipper Misbah-ul Haq chipped in with a 52-ball 46 which included one four and a six. Shafiq, who hit six boundaries, repaired the early loss during his second wicket stand of 111 with Ali but England pegged back Pakistan when Bresnan dismissed Shafiq off an inside edge and debutant left-arm spinner Danny Briggs accounted for Umar Akmal, who made 12. Dernbach had Ali caught off a miscued drive by Morgan to leave Pakistan at 144-4 in the 34th over. Misbah and Shoaib Malik (23) added 58 for the fifth wicket. Pakistan made three changes as experienced batsman Younis Khan was missing for the second match in a row after he failed to recover from a fever, while opener Imran Farhat was left out due to a groin injury. England also gave debuts to Briggs and Butler in four changes from the last game. Both teams now play three Twenty20 internationals in Dubai (February 23 and 25) and Abu Dhabi (February 27).