On Thursday, President Barack Obama signed a law that will provide $7.5 billion in aid to Pakistan over the next five years. The funds are part of a comprehensive plan that recognizes the importance of confronting the root causes of extremism as well as extremists themselves, according to Obama. The new law will provide...
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Terrorists attacked three security agency buildings in Pakistan today, including the Federal Investigation Agency headquarters and two police training centers in Lahore. In addition, a suicide car bomber struck in the northwestern city of Kohat, and a bombing in Quetta in the southwest of the country left more dead. There were five terrorist attacks...
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The United States Army considers the current transformation its most extensive restructuring since World War II. The Army has estimated that restructuring units from a division-based force to a more agile and responsive modular brigade-based force will require a significant investment through fiscal year 2011, according to a Congressional report obtained by the National...
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As Indian forces for a third day continued to root out terrorists responsible for a wave of deadly attacks across Mumbai, the American Jewish Committee (AJC), which maintains an office in Mumbai and is in close contact with Indian government and Jewish community officials, issued the following statement: The outlines of the terrorist attacks...
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With US, Afghan and Pakistani forces applying pressure on both sides of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, the enemy “is running out of options for places to go,” a senior US officer in the region said today. Army Col. John M. Spiszer, commander of Task Force Duke, which is centered on the 1st Infantry Division’s 3rd...
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Iranian diplomat Heshmatollah Atharzadeh has been kidnapped by armed men in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar on Thursday morning, police have said. The diplomat’s car was ambushed in the tribal region bordering Afghanistan. Atharzadeh was heading from home to office with his guard when the car was ambushed in Hayatabad, a neighborhood near...
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On Monday, the Pakistan branch of the Taliban captured an entire supply convoy of thirteen trucks, two armored Humvees and other supplies bound for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, without incurring a single fatality. Approximately 60 masked militants belonging to Tehrik-i-Taliban blocked off part of a roadway in the Khyber Pass....
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The Marriot Hotel in Islamabad, Pakistan has been bombed. At least 40 people are dead and twenty-five injured. The explosion, believed to be a car or truck bomb, occured at 8 p.m. (10 a.m. ET), just hours after newly elected President Asif Ali Zardari addressed Parliament and promised to destroy terrorism in the country....
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The poppy trade that fuels terrorists and insurgents in Afghanistan is a problem that must be addressed but doesn’t have a military solution, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said during a teleconference for Internet journalists and bloggers. Speaking at a dinner hosted by the Pacific Council on International Policy, Navy Adm....
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The governing coalition of Pakistan split on Monday after Nawaz Sharif, former Pakistani Prime Minister, pulled his party, the Pakistan Muslim League (N) (PML-N), out of the government. The coalition formed in March 2008 after the Pakistani general election failed to produce a party that had held a majority in Pakistan’s parliament. The group...
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Approximately 12 million pounds of cargo is transported daily on passenger aircraft. To accommodate this considerable stream of commerce, the Transportation Security Administration currently has in place a multilayered, risk-based system for securing cargo traveling on passenger aircraft. As required by applicable security programs and regulations, aircraft operators and foreign air carriers are now...
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Influencing, countering and ultimately defeating regional threat networks in the greater Middle East will require a “whole-of-many-nations’-governments approach,†a US commander said during a conference call yesterday with bloggers and online journalists. Faced with threats from Al-Qaeda and similar groups, as well as a nonspecific “malign Iranian influence,†US and allied strategic planners are...
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The President of Pakistan Pervez Musharraf will resign within days according to reports by both The New York Times (NYT)and The Wall Street Journal (WSJ). The NYT reports that Musharraf will step down rather than face impeachment charges that have been brought by a broad coalition in parliament. The paper goes on to say...
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The United States Department of Energy maintains emergency response capabilities and assets to quickly respond to potential nuclear and radiological threats within the United States. These capabilities are primarily found at DOE’s two key emergency response facilities — the Remote Sensing Laboratories at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, and Andrews Air Force Base in...
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Immediately following President George W. Bush’s Iraq strategy speech, Beltway insiders knew exactly where to go for analysis of the proposed “surge” of troops in Iraq. People who wish to know the facts about defense issues would be hardpressed to find an organization more trustworthy and informative than the Foundation for Defense of Democracies....
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by Jim Kouri, CPP Nevermind about Senator Barack Obama’s photo-op excursion to Afghanistan and Iraq, the people to whom Americans should listen are the military officers actually on the field of battle. In fact, Obama sounds as if he’s parroting the commanders when he made his comments regarding Pakistan standing up to the plate...
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A bomb in Pakistan has caused 20 deaths. The attack took place on the outskirts of Dera Adamkhel, a town which is close to the border with Afghanistan. It has been reported that the bombing may have been a suicide attack, although that has not yet been confirmed. A Pakistani official at the scene...
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Pakistan has lifted a ban on the video-sharing website YouTube, which was said to be brought in after a video offensive to Islam was uploaded to the site. According to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), the offending material was in relation to a trailer for a film by Geert Wilders, a Dutch politician. The...
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Pakistan’s two major opposition parties, the Pakistan Peoples Party and the Pakistan Muslim League (N), have announced they will work together to form a new government after defeating allies of President Pervez Musharraf in Monday’s parliamentary elections. The leaders of the two parties, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif of the Pakistan Muslim League, and...
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Early results have showed that anti-Musharraf parties Pakistan Peoples Party and Pakistan Muslim League (N) are emerging as victorious. The early results also show that Pakistan Muslim League (Q), the party supporting Pervez Musharraf has been defeated. Furthermore the results for Pakistan’s national assembly indicate that the Pakistan Peoples Party currently have a small...
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