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Pak Tea House » Entries tagged with "North Waziristan"

Damned if we do, damned if we don’t…

September 29th, 2011 | 9 Comments

By Ghazala Akbar Somewhere deep in Last Para lies the HQs of the premier spook outfit, I – espy – eye. The Chief, (codename, Passion) is reading his favourite John Le Carre novel, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. In walks his super boss, Control. Passion: What’s up Doc? You look worried. Control: Just saw our pal Mike Mellon on TV giving evidence to the US Senate Armed Forces He’s talking about us again. Passion: But I only saw him in DC last week and you saw him in Spain. No complaints. Control:  Yup! That’s just it. He was obviously lulling us into a false sense of security over the margaritas and the paella. Passion: What’s he saying now? Control: Same thing. We’re running with the hares, but hunting with the hounds. Passion: So what’s new! They always say that … Read entire article »

Filed under: Humor

Pakistan is in pieces

April 8th, 2010 | 16 Comments

[There is plenty here to stimulate a robust debate; Not that surprising, considering who the author is. PTH does not necessarily agree with the views expressed in this article.] Belfast Telegraph, Tuesday, 6 April 2010             By Robert Fisk I tried, in Pakistan, to define the sorrow which so constantly afflicts this country. The massive loss of life, the poverty, the corruption, the internal and external threats to its survival, the existentialism of Islam and the power of the army; perhaps Pakistan’s story can only be told in a novel. It requires, I suspect, a Tolstoy or a Dostoyevsky. Pakistan ambushes you. The midday heat is also beginning to ambush all who live in Peshawar, the capital of the North West Frontier Province. Canyons of fumes grey out the vast ramparts of the Bala Hisar fort. “Headquarters Frontier … Read entire article »

Filed under: Army, Colonialism, Democracy, History, Identity, India, Judiciary, Pakistan, Partition

Pakistan’s War of Choice

March 29th, 2010 | 4 Comments

NYT, March 24, 2010   By MICHAEL E. O’HANLON   Peshawar, Pakistan: WHAT are Americans to make of all the good news coming out of Pakistan in recent weeks?   First, the Afghan Taliban’s military chief, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, was arrested in a raid in February. Around the same time, several of the Taliban’s “shadow governors” who operate out of Pakistan were captured by Pakistani forces. Last week, the C.I.A. director, Leon Panetta, announced that thanks in large part to increased cooperation from Pakistan, drone strikes along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border are “seriously disrupting Al Qaeda,” and one killed the terrorist suspected of planning an attack on an American base in December that caused the deaths of seven Americans. Meanwhile, Pakistan has mounted major operations against its own extremists in places ranging from the Swat Valley … Read entire article »

Filed under: Afghanistan, Al Qaeda, Pakistan, Taliban