honor killing

a vibrant beautiful woman was killed by her brothers. why? she did something VERY wrong. what? she sang on television. we MUST stop honor killing. we MUST stop these men who are so seriously effed up they don't know up from down. honor killing anywhere in the world is unacceptable. period
Singer Ayman Udas ‘shot by her brothers for TV sin’
Daud Khattak

A RISING musical star was allegedly shot dead by her own brothers in the conservative city of Peshawar in Pakistan last week after she had appeared on television.

The murder of Ayman Udas, who was in her early thirties and newly married, has shocked the city’s artistic community because it symbolises a backlash against women and cultural freedom in an area that is increasingly dominated by Islamic funda-mentalists.

As a singer and song writer in her native Pashto, the language of the tribal areas and the NorthWest Frontier province, Udas frequently performed on PTV, the state-run channel.

She won considerable acclaim for her songs but had become a musician in the face of bitter opposition from her family, who believed it was sinful for a woman to perform on television.

Ashamed of her growing popularity her two brothers are reported to have entered her flat last week while her husband was out and fired three bullets into her chest. Neither has been caught.

The final song performed by Udas on screen seems to have portended her death. It was entitled, “I died but still live among the living, because I live on in the dreams of my lover.” Udas, a divorced mother of two, had remarried 10 days before she was murdered. ..........

there's a video at the link below

Outcry in Pakistan after video of a 17-year-old girl's flogging by the Taliban is shown on TV

• Declan Walsh in Islamabad
• The Guardian, Saturday 4 April 2009
• Article history

The Pakistani government has ordered an inquiry into the flogging of a 17-year-old woman by Taliban militants in the troubled Swat valley, after public outrage triggered by shocking video footage of the punishment.

The images, played yesterday on private television channels, show a burka-clad woman being pinned to the ground by two men while a third whips her backside 34 times. The woman is seen screaming and begging for mercy as a crowd of largely silent men look on. She is accused of having had an illegal sexual relationship, according to local law. Her brother is among those restraining her.

President Asif Ali Zardari led a wave of public condemnation, and ordered the arrest of the perpetrators. Prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani termed it "shocking" and called for an immediate inquiry. At the supreme court, the newly reinstated chief justice, Iftikhar Chaudhry, summoned officials to a hearing scheduled for Monday to investigate the incident.

"Our constitution allows no space for such public brutality, and our civilisation and culture have no tolerance for it either," said Sherry Rehman, a former information minister...........

(ht: americablog)

oh shite

THIS is NOT boding well at all

well it's not like the bush administration had anything to do with this...........(hmmmmmmmm oh wait, aren't they pouring BILLIONS o' bucks into one if not both of these countries and helping the other country develop their nuclear weapons capabilities??????? hmmmmmmm)

Pakistani Jets Scramble As India Hardens Tone
All Options Open, Minister Says in New Delhi
By Rama Lakshmi
Washington Post Foreign Service
NEW DELHI, Dec. 22 -- In signs of growing regional tension since the Mumbai attacks last month, Pakistan scrambled fighter jets over several of its larger cities Monday, and India's foreign minister told a gathering of Indian diplomats in New Delhi that the country is keeping all its options open to bring the perpetrators of the attacks to justice. "We have so far acted with utmost restraint," Pranab Mukherjee told the more than 120 envoys from posts around the world. But he added, "We will take all measures necessary as we deem fit to deal with the situation." ........

proof enough for me

the lone terrorist survivor of the mumbai attacks did indeed come from pakistan. i'm NOT saying the pakistani government had anything to do with the attacks, but i'm not saying they didn't either. the government is still not readily admitting the gunman was pakistani.

Villagers: Surviving Mumbai attacker killed for Kashmir
By Saeed Shah | McClatchy Newspapers
FARIDKOT, near Depalpur, Pakistan — The lone gunman captured alive by Indian police during last week's terrorist attack on Mumbai comes from a dirt-poor village in Pakistan's southern Punjab region where a banned Islamist group has been actively recruiting young men for "jihad," according to residents of the village and official records seen by McClatchy Newspapers.

Ajmal Ameer Kasab, the dark haired 21-year-old man arrested by Indian authorities in the first hours of the assault -- in which over 170 people died -- left the village four years ago, several residents said. He would return once a year to see small family home and one villager recalled him talking about freeing the Muslim-dominated region of Kashmir from India.

His origins are a key to the investigation of the attack and could have a profound impact on relations between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan, already at the brink of confrontation. Until now, the Pakistan government has repeatedly said that there was no solid evidence to back Indian accusations that the gunmen came from Pakistan. .................

i am almost certain

government to continue to deny the terrorists were FROM the madmen who wreaked terror and rained blood upon the city of mumbai were from pakistan. i am not certain if the government had anything to do with it or not. however, for the pakistanipakistan is not only an insult it is ALSO insane.

you might as well believe turkey when it denies the armenian genocide

Terror Attacks Traced to Two From Pakistan
By JANE PERLEZ and ROBERT F. WORTH
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Fresh evidence unearthed Thursday by investigators in India indicated that the Mumbai attacks were stage-managed from at least two Pakistani cities by top leaders of the militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba. Indian and American intelligence officials have already identified a Lashkar operative, who goes by the name Yusuf Muzammil, as a mastermind of the attacks. On Thursday, Indian investigators named one of the most well-known senior figures in Lashkar, Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi.

The names of both men came from the interrogations of the one surviving attacker, Muhammad Ajmal Kasab, 21, according to police officials in Mumbai.

While Mr. Muzammil appears to have served as a control officer in Lahore, Pakistan, Mr. Lakhvi, his boss and the operational commander of Lashkar, worked from Karachi, a southern Pakistani port city, said investigators in Mumbai. .......

hey sarevil, it's E E E E E E E E E E E

raq. NOT eye raq. i don't like your disingenuous folksy ways. you're not fooling me. i want someone in the white house who actually HAS a brain. KNOWS how to pronounce a foreign country's name. you are a steamin' pile (as is the dude that's running with you. what's his name now???)

Conservatives Hate That Obama Pronounces Words Correctly
Posted by Staff, Think Progress

Conservatives are in a tizzy over the way Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) pronounced "Pakistan" during last night's debate:

- "When Obama says Pock-i-stahn I have an uncontrollable urge to read the New Yorker and find some Chardonnay. Fortunately I have an old copy of NR and a Coors Light to snap me back to reality. Seriously though -- no one in flyover country says Pock-i-stahn. It's annoying." [E-mail posted by Kathryn Jean Lopez]

- "Re Senator Obama's ostentatiously exotic pronunciation of Pakistan, one thing I like about Sarah Palin is the way she says 'Eye-raq'." [Mark Steyn].........

............Update: A. Serwer at TAPPED writes: "To pronounce something correctly is to be 'ostentatiously exotic,' while pronouncing something incorrectly is raised to the level of something like a presidential qualification. Meanwhile, there are thousands of Americans of Pakistani descent who are themselves 'ostentatiously exotic' by virtue of their names (and it would be elitist of them to expect anyone to pronounce them correctly) and ancestry.".............

i posted the original story on september 1st

now there are many more details. not that many MORE details are needed. the fact three teenaged girls were buried alive by the village men and the act later DEFENDED by the village men is detail enough to make one's skin tighten. what else did we find out?

well we found out a taxi driver who drove the girls to another town (so they could meet their boyfriends/intendeds) told the village men where the girls went and what they planned to do. we found out two adult women who were related to the girls were shot to death while they begged for mercy for the girls. we found out the reporter who broke this story was threatened by the village men. we found out the village government was part of the mob of men who murdered the three girls and two adult women

oh WHY did the village men kill the girls? because the girls decided to chose their OWN husbands instead of the ones their fathers had chosen FOR them!


HONOR KILLINGS PERSIST IN 'MAN'S WORLD'

By NBC News’ Shahid Qazi and Carol Grisanti

BABAKOT, Pakistan – In a tangle of bushes and trees outside a remote village in southwest Pakistan, six close male relatives of three teenage girls dug a 4-foot wide by 6-foot deep ditch, on a sweltering night in mid-July, and allegedly buried the girls alive.

The girls' crime: they dared to defy the will of their fathers and the customs of their tribe and choose their own husbands. The mother of one of the girls and the aunt of another were shot and killed while begging for the girls’ lives, according to local media reports........

..............

The girls were dragged into vehicles and taken to the end of a back road in Babakot accompanied by two female relatives, according to media reports. The men dug ditches and ordered the girls to be thrown in. When the female relatives saw the ditches, they tried to intervene and begged for the girls’ lives, according to local media reports.

There was "pandemonium at the site," according to the findings of the Asian Human Rights Commission, and a tribal elder gave orders to shoot the two older women. They died immediately and were thrown into the wide ditch. The three girls, who were wounded in the gunfire but still alive, were then thrown in and covered with sand and mud.

In Pakistan’s rural areas, male tribal councils decide the fate of women who bring dishonor to their family. In 2004, President Pervez Musharraf outlawed the practice, known as "honor killings" – violations of the law carry the death penalty. But the law is impossible to enforce because this centuries old custom for dealing with women is protected by powerful feudal landlords and tribal elders.

Mastoi, the local reporter, told NBC News that "powerful people" from the Umrani tribe had threatened him and warned him of consequences if he continued to report the story. He said that everyone in the village knew what happened and shortly after the murders, a couple of shepherds in the area had taken him to see the actual burial site. "Now everyone is too afraid to talk," he said.........

it's 2008

the crime: wanting to pick out their OWN husband
the punishment: BEING BURIED ALIVE

the outcome: a senator from the province/village DEFENDS the action as a 'custom'

yes, it's real. yes, it's true

via feministing
Burying of women alive defended in Senate

By Ahmed Hassan
ISLAMABAD, Aug 29: Balochistan Senator Sardar Israrullah Zehri stunned the upper house on Friday when he defended the recent incident of burying alive three teenage girls and two women in his province, saying it was part of “our tribal custom.”

Senator Bibi Yasmin Shah of the PML-Q raised the issue citing a newspaper report that the girls, three of them aged between 16 and 18 years, had been buried alive a month ago for wishing to marry of their own will.

The barbaric incident took place in a remote village of Jafarabad district and a PPP minister and some other influential people were reported to have been involved. The report accused the provincial government of trying to hush up the issue.

Ms Shah said that the hapless girls and the women were first shot in the name of honour and then buried while they were alive. She also said that no criminal had been arrested so far.
.........

our friends in pakistan

this is the country we are pouring MILLIONS (if not billions) into. these are our friends?
Thousands Cheer as Pakistani Militants Decapitate, Shoot Afghans Accused of Spying for U.S.
Associated Press

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A gang of Pakistani militants executed two alleged U.S. spies in front of thousands of cheering supporters Friday as a top U.N. official expressed fears that Pakistani government peace deals with the gunmen were sparking a wave of human rights abuses.

At least 5,000 people gathered by a stream in the Bajur region to watch the executions, which highlighted the power of local Taliban forces in the lawless tribal areas near the Afghan border.

Masked militants pulled the two blindfolded Afghans from a car and forced them to kneel on the ground........

i've done a few postings

about this already. about us saying to pakistan, 'open wide' then we dump in billions of dollars to their coffers. we don't even care where that money goes. we're not making sure our troops are properly protected. we're not making sure our people who have been subject to natural disasters are adequately housed. we're not making sure our people have adequate health coverage. we're not making sure our children learn PROPER birth control. we're not making sure everyone has equal rights here. we're doing and not doing a LOT of things here where we certainly could use BILLIONS OF DOLLARS. but nope, we're shoving it down the loo

U.S. Funding to Pakistan Plagued With Problems, GAO Report Says

By Robin Wright

Washington Post Staff Writer

The Bush administration has paid Pakistan more than $2 billion without adequate proof that the Pakistani government used the funds for their intended purpose of supporting U.S. counterterrorism efforts, congressional auditors reported yesterday. Their report concluded that more than a third of U.S. funds provided Pakistan since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks were subject to accounting problems, including duplication and possible fraud.

The Pentagon paid about $20 million for army road construction and $15 million to build bunkers in Pakistan, but there is no evidence that the roads or bunkers were ever constructed, the Government Accountability Office reported. Islamabad also billed Washington $200 million for an air defense radar system that may not have met a U.S. condition: that reimbursement cover combat or logistical costs supporting U.S. military operations against terrorism beyond what a country would spend on its own needs...........

there IS a difference

between FORCED marriage and arranged marriage. quite a big one. (i happen to work in an industry that has a LOT of people from india in it. india born as well as those born here of indian descent. as a culture, everyone, those new to this country and those born here seem to accept ARRANGED marriages. that is fine with me as long as everyone consents. to be FORCED to marry someone, well that's a whole OTHER story. and yes the story below is NOT about people of indian descent. i'm just pointing out the difference between FORCED and arranged). i'm not saying this is a pakistani happening only. warren jeffs ring a bell with anyone?

A British Diplomat's Mission Of Rescue

Forced Marriages in Pakistan Prevented

By Mary Jordan

Washington Post Foreign Service
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Helen Rawlins climbed into her Toyota Land Cruiser at 7:30 in the morning, off to rescue another woman.

The British diplomat settled into the back seat as she whizzed by the baking bustle of the Pakistani countryside: the women in colorful head scarves sitting in three-wheeled rickshaws, donkey carts piled high with mangoes, and elaborately painted buses where women sit apart from men.

Rawlins knew a tense confrontation awaited. Lately, she had been making a trip such as this once a week -- to help British women of Pakistani descent lured to this country and forced, sometimes at gunpoint, into marriage.................

how much can i complain?

how much can i shake my head? how much can i scream? how many of our men and women do i have to see killed and maimed in the middle east? how many families do i have to see lose their homes here? how much effed up shite do i have to put up with under king george?


Indicted Saudi Financier Gets $80 Million US Military Contract
The U.S. military suffered enormous embarrassment when the New York Times reported that a contract to arm the Afghan forces worth nearly $300 million had been awarded to a 22-year-old man, Efraim E. Diveroli, whose vice president was a licensed masseur. It turned out that Diveroli had been supplying the Afghans with defective weaponry and had broken numerous procurement laws. Apparently, the military has not learned their lesson. ABC News reports that they have awarded an $80 million contract to a prominent Saudi financier who has been indicted by the U.S. Justice Department:
The US military has awarded an $80 million contract to a prominent Saudi financier who has been indicted by the US Justice Department. The contract to supply jet fuel to American bases in Afghanistan was awarded to the Attock Refinery Ltd, a Pakistani-based refinery owned by Gaith Pharaon. Pharaon is wanted in connection with his alleged role at the failed Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI), and the CenTrust savings and loan scandal, which cost US tax payers $1.7 billion. ........

no doubt in my mind, i believe dr khan

the government of pakistan KNEW what was going on and more than likely sanctioned it. we pour BILLIONS of dollars into pakistan (i'm all for helping other nations. we MUST. i do NOT believe we should be funneling bucks into governments and militaries though. the money, if needed, should go to the PEOPLE that need it. the hungry, the sick, the destitute. NOT INTO THE POCKETS OF THE DESPOTS OR THE MEN AND WOMEN WHO BUILD BOMBS AND POISONS TO MAIM AND KILL OTHERS)

ABC Exclusive: Pakistani Bomb Scientist Breaks Silence

Dr. A.Q. Khan Gives His First Interview to an American Journalist Since Being Placed Under House Arrest in 2004

By BRIAN ROSS

The Pakistani scientist blamed for running a rogue network that sold nuclear secrets to North Korea, Iran and Libya has recanted his confession, telling ABC News the Pakistani government and President Perez Musharraf forced him to be a "scapegoat" for the "national interest."

"I don't stand by that," Dr. A.Q. Khan told ABC News in a 35-minute phone interview from his home in Islamabad, where he has been detained since "confessing" that he ran the nuclear network on his own, without the knowledge of the Pakistani government. The interview will be broadcast Friday on "World News With Charles Gibson."

It was his first interview with an American journalist in a series of telephone interviews he has granted this week, marking the 10th anniversary of Pakistan's first test of a nuclear bomb.

"People were asking a lot of questions, so I said, 'OK. Let me give an answer,'" Khan told ABC News early Friday, Pakistan time.

As to his widely publicized confession, Khan said he was told by Musharraf that it would get the United States "off our backs" and that he was promised he would be quickly pardoned. "Those people who were supposed to know knew it," Khan said about his activities.

If true, it would mean Pakistan lied to the U.S. and the international community about its role in providing nuclear weapons technology to Iran, North Korea and Libya.

A spokesman for the Embassy of Pakistan in Washington, D.C. said today the government there hasn't changed its views on Khan despite the claims he makes in the interview, "The government of Pakistan has adequately investigated allegations of nuclear proliferation and considers the AQK affair closed," said a statement from the embassy to ABC News.

A U.S. official said American investigators were also unconvinced of Khan's latest claims. "We have not changed our assessment that A.Q. Khan was a very major and dangerous proliferator. He sold sensitive nuclear equipment and know-how to some genuinely bad actors," the official said..............

how much can they take?

a woman jailed for being raped. her prosecuter saying she got off easy, if HIS wife went out without his permission, HE'D KILL HER.

we MUST work to stop this
Blaming the victim: Abused Afghan women often end up in jail
Raped and then jailed: despite advances for Afghan women, old habits compound their misery
ALISA TANGAP News
.....................In parts of Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan, where stern social codes prevail, a woman who runs away from home is typically suspected of having taken a lover and can be prosecuted for adultery. Simply leaving her house without her family's permission may be deemed an offense — as in Rukhma's case — although it is not classified as such under Afghanistan's penal code.
The chief prosecutor of eastern Nangarhar province who oversaw Rukhma's case suggested she got off lightly.
"If my wife goes to the bazaar without my permission, I will kill her. This is our culture," Abdul Qayum shouted scornfully during an interview in his office in the city of Jalalabad.
His colleagues laughed approvingly. "This is Afghanistan, not America," Qayum said...........

becuase we can't seem to

mind our OWN bid-nez and protect our OWN country, we've put yet another target on our attack list, sort of that is. we're buds with SOME in pakistan yet enemies of others. ??????????? hmmmmmm. i wonder why pakistan was never held accountable for THEIR role(s) in attacking america and americans. no oil? or no oil YET? we're pouring BILLIONS into that country. i'm f**king pissed. WE need the money for OUR OWN SELVES.


U.S. Commanders Seeking to Widen Pakistan Attacks
By MARK MAZZETTI and ERIC SCHMITT
WASHINGTON — American commanders in Afghanistan have in recent months urged a widening of the war that could include American attacks on indigenous Pakistani militants in the tribal areas inside Pakistan, according to United States officials.
The requests have been rebuffed for now, the officials said, after deliberations in Washington among senior Bush administration officials who fear that attacking Pakistani radicals may anger Pakistan’s new government, which is negotiating with the militants, and destabilize an already fragile security situation.
American commanders would prefer that Pakistani forces attack the militants, but Pakistani military operations in the tribal areas have slowed recently to avoid upsetting the negotiations.
Pakistan’s government has given the Central Intelligence Agency limited authority to kill Arab and other foreign operatives in the tribal areas, using remotely piloted Predator aircraft. But administration officials say the Pakistani government has put far greater restrictions on American operations against indigenous Pakistani militant groups, including one thought to have been behind the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.
American intelligence officials say that the threat emanating from Pakistan’s tribal areas is growing, and that Pakistani networks there have taken on an increasingly important role as an ally of Al Qaeda in plotting attacks against American and other allied troops in Afghanistan, and in helping foreign operatives plan attacks on targets in the West. The officials said the American military’s proposals included options for limited cross-border artillery strikes into Pakistan, missile attacks by Predator aircraft or raids by small teams of C.I.A. paramilitary forces or Special Operations forces. ..........

and this from larisa says more than i could ever hope to
"U.S. lacks counterterror plan in Pakistan," no, say it ain't so...
Before we delve into the GAO's report on Bush-Cheney's lack of interest in our national security (otherwise known as the war OF terror FOR profit), just remember these 10 most important facts about Pakistan:
1. Major training center for terrorists2. Gives safe passage to a number of terrorist groups, including al Qaeda and the Taliban3. Was directly involved in financing the attacks of September 114. Its major military intelligence organization, ISI, deeply rooted in support for terrorist activities5. Was directly involved in training the terrorists involved in attacking Britain on July 76. Is the major proliferator of WMD to terrorist groups and countries extremely hostile to the US 7. Is the major supplier of weapons to North Korea, Iran, etc.8. Its ISI assassinates its own political leaders 9. Its ISI is involved in the assassinations of Western journalists, including reporter Danny Pearl.10. Is heavily involved in the drug trade, specifically the heroin trade.........

yup let's bomb the shite out of yet ANOTHER country

first let's pour BILLIONS of dollars in bribes and goddess only knows what else, to the country, then let's kill 'em all! yeah! blood guts AND money. MY f**king money and YOUR f**king money. that's not EVEN counting the lives we're obliterating (i'm NOT advocating for the taliban or al-qaeda. i'm saying we have NO bid-nez bombing ANYONE in pakistan unless their name is osama bin laden)

U.S. Steps Up Unilateral Strikes in Pakistan
Officials Fear Support From Islamabad Will Wane

By Robin Wright and Joby Warrick Washington Post Staff Writers
The United States has escalated its unilateral strikes against al-Qaeda members and fighters operating in Pakistan's tribal areas, partly because of anxieties that the country's new leaders will insist on a scaling back of military operations in that country, according to U.S. officials. Washington is worried that pro-Western President Pervez Musharraf, who has generally supported the U.S. strikes, will almost certainly have reduced powers in the months ahead, and so it wants to inflict as much damage as it can to al-Qaeda's network now, the officials said.
Over the past two months, U.S.-controlled Predator aircraft have struck at least three sites used by al-Qaeda operatives. The attacks followed a tacit understanding with Musharraf and Army chief Gen. Ashfaq Kiyani that allows U.S. strikes on foreign fighters operating in Pakistan, but not against the Pakistani Taliban, the officials said. ........

what's wrong with THIS picture

our king doesn't HESITATE for one INSTANT in giving a FOREIGN COUNTRY 300,000,000. (a drop in the bucket when you consider the money we spend in iraq DAILY) when (and let's just take THIS ONE EXAMPLE) victims of hurricane katrina STILL suffer (as i said, ONE example. we're not even talking the housing crisis, the cost of heating oil and petrol for the cars or groceries or health care or education or on and on and on)
Bush waives law to give millions to Pakistan's anti-terror fight
President George W. Bush has cleared the way for giving millions of dollars to Pakistan to fight terrorism this year, the White House said Tuesday as a new government took power in Islamabad.
In a memo to the secretary of state dated Monday, Bush used his authority to exempt Pakistan from a law that restricts funding countries where the legitimate head of state was deposed by a military coup, as in Pakistan.
The waiver, which Bush has approved every year since 2003, opens the way for the United States to provide about 300 million dollars this year to key "war on terror" ally Pakistan to boost its counter-terrorism operations.
White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said the Bush administration still had concerns about the human rights situation in Pakistan, where President Pervez Musharraf took power by force in 1999, but stressed its major strategic role........

how the f**k about getting OUR troops the proper

armor, vehicles, weapons, TRAINING (and of course leaving them OUT of the middle east)? how about giving US the citizens of the united states of america that money? we NEED it. the elderly, the children, those hurt by natural disasters, the school system, health care and on and f**king on. i HATE this administration. may they be brought up on charges and sentenced appropriately

who is going to help pay people's heating bills?
their mortgage?
their grocery bills?

U.S. Payments To Pakistan Face New Scrutiny
Little Accounting for Costs To Support Ally's Troops

By Robin Wright
Washington Post Staff Writer
Once a month, Pakistan's Defense Ministry delivers 15 to 20 pages of spreadsheets to the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad. They list costs for feeding, clothing, billeting and maintaining 80,000 to 100,000 Pakistani troops in the volatile tribal area along the Afghan border, in support of U.S. counterterrorism efforts. No receipts are attached.
In response, the Defense Department has disbursed about $80 million monthly, or roughly $1 billion a year for the past six years, in one of the most generous U.S. military support programs worldwide. The U.S. aim has been to ensure that Pakistan remains the leading ally in combating extremism in South Asia.
But vague accounting, disputed expenses and suspicions about overbilling have recently made these payments to Pakistan highly controversial -- even within the U.S. government. ......

oh shite

now we're going to invade 'help' ANOTHER country? oh shite shite shite

U.S. ready to fight militants with Pakistani troops
By Andrew Gray
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States would be willing to send troops to Pakistan to fight alongside the South Asian country's forces against Islamist militants, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Thursday.
Gates said Pakistan had not requested such a move and Washington had not presented proposals to Pakistan's leaders. But he made clear the United States was open to providing more direct assistance.
"We remain ready, willing and able to assist the Pakistanis and to partner with them, to provide additional training, to conduct joint operations, should they desire to do so," Gates told reporters at the Pentagon.
The United States, waging wars in Iraq and Afghanistan against Islamist militants that have strained its military, is increasingly concerned about the rise of insurgents in Pakistan's tribal areas bordering Afghanistan........

so why isn't this on the front page

of EVERY american paper? it's shocking. it's NEWS. it is apparently VERY true. it proves there is corruption in the very organizations we use to protect us against harm AND terrorism

FBI denies file exposing nuclear secrets theft
The FBI has been accused of covering up a file detailing government dealings with a network stealing nuclear secrets
THE FBI has been accused of covering up a key case file detailing evidence against corrupt government officials and their dealings with a network stealing nuclear secrets.
The assertion follows allegations made in The Sunday Times two weeks ago by Sibel Edmonds, an FBI whistleblower, who worked on the agency’s investigation of the network.
Edmonds, a 37-year-old former Turkish language translator, listened into hundreds of sensitive intercepted conversations while based at the agency’s Washington field office.
She says the FBI was investigating a Turkish and Israeli-run network that paid high-ranking American officials to steal nuclear weapons secrets. These were then sold on the international black market to countries such as Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.
One of the documents relating to the case was marked 203A-WF-210023. Last week, however, the FBI responded to a freedom of information request for a file of exactly the same number by claiming that it did not exist. But The Sunday Times has obtained a document signed by an FBI official showing the existence of the file.
Edmonds believes the crucial file is being deliberately covered up by the FBI because its contents are explosive. She accuses the agency of an “outright lie”.
“I can tell you that that file and the operations it refers to did exist from 1996 to February 2002. The file refers to the counterintelligence programme that the Department of Justice has declared to be a state secret to protect sensitive diplomatic relations,” she said. .,,,,,,,,