US most obvious false flag attack yet

This week’s terror attack in Boston is not the first incredible failure of intelligence and law enforcement America has suffered. By “incredible,” I mean exactly that, “not to be believed.”
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Before the smoke had cleared, the Israel Lobby and DEBKA had identified “domestic terrorists with Mid-East connections” as the guilty parties. This, alone, was taken as a confirmation that a very real conspiracy was involved, this time the most obvious false flag terror attack yet.


 Highest sources “weigh in” on Boston bombing:

During 9/11, NORAD and the entire United States Air Force “vaporized” just like the FBI, DHS, and Boston PD security did. We’re getting used to it, being lied to and, frankly, being murdered as well.

Within minutes of the Boston attack, America’s intelligence and Special Operations community put their back-channel “round-robin” into motion. This is how America’s top intelligence operatives informally share sensitive information on threats.

Those with the highest access to both human and signals intelligence, those tasked with tracking and killing terrorists came to a very startling conclusion.

 
“An American agency was involved, out first guess is that it is the FBI.”

Had I asked this question three years ago and I did, I would have been called a “conspiracy theorist,” and, in fact, I was. Now I am told, “Duff, you were right all along, we feel like such idiots.”

America’s Special Operations community has, of late, been under attack. The group, long closely allied with their Israeli counterparts and still maintaining strong friendships with Israeli counterparts, is now skeptical of the souring relationship and Netanyahu’s poor leadership.

Moreover, many of America’s elite warriors have been shocked to find groups they belonged to listed as “terrorist.” Their conservative politics and patriotism is now being characterized as a threat to national security.

The new policy that has brought suspicion upon many of America’s military and intelligence leaders originates from Tel Aviv. None saw this coming, this betrayal.


Background:

In 2005, President Bush (43) appointed Michael Chertoff, an Israeli citizen, as director of the Department of Homeland Security. It was Chertoff’s job, while Secretary of DHS, to place all law enforcement, counter-terrorism, and domestic surveillance operations under Israeli control.

This was done by directing all contracts to Israeli companies, all equipment, all training, and full access to all intelligence databases. American companies, even “disabled veteran owned,” were excluded until they took on Israeli partners.

All Americans involved in legislative and policy areas, defense, intelligence, law enforcement, and counter-terrorism efforts were taken to Israel for indoctrination. Tens of thousands made the trip.

Israel was seen as “all knowing.”

Years later, when more Americans learned that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians had been murdered, others spending decades in concentration camps while Israel conspired directly with the nations it claimed were its “blood enemies,” Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Jordan, Qatar, Bahrain, and the UAE.

Indoctrinated to “look the other way” 

Rather than improve skills and learn from very able Israeli experts, those trained by Israelis became, albeit through a form of “brainwashing,” complicit in helping undermine the United States.

Thus, when we learned from the University of Mobile cross-country coach, Ali Stevenson, a participant in the marathon, that police told him they were running a terrorism “drill,” things became clear.

Such drills are overseen by the Department of Homeland Security who subcontracts to Israeli companies. They hire actors to wear backpacks with “simulated” explosives in order to test security.

Several “actors” with backpacks containing “simulated” pressure-cooker bombs were spotted and their photographs published.

The same thing happened in London when, on July 7, 2005, actors hired by an Israeli company to “play” roles as terrorists with “simulated” bombs in backpacks were credited with killing or injuring over 700 commuters.

These are only two of many such “coincidences,” now clearly seen as the result of “infiltration” of America’s security infrastructure by terrorist elements somehow related to Israel.

The results of this are now being seen, bogus “lone gunman” shootings, each more “incredible” than the last and now the Boston Bombing.

 
Ignoring espionage:

When George W. Bush “assumed the presidency,” the FBI had been investigating AIPAC, the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee, as an espionage organization. Stephen Rosen and Keith Weissman, both Israeli citizens working at AIPAC, had been arrested for espionage along with Lawrence Franklin, an American official.
 
Secretary of Homeland Security Chertoff and Attorney General John Ashcroft ordered prosecution of Rosen and Weissman to be dropped. Franklin, their co-conspirator went to prison.

AIPAC, along with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) under Abraham Foxman and the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) under Morris Dees, were then contracted to “educate” America’s military and law enforcement about terrorist threats.

However, as these organizations are Israeli financed and controlled and, as Netanyahu has stated often, “when America suffers, Israel profits,” any help from this direction is more “disease” than “cure.”

The first Bush nominee had to be withdrawn, NYC Police Commissioner Bernie Kerik, bagman for self-ordained “9/11 hero” Rudy Giuliani, former mayor. Kerik, who, on 9/11, took personal custody of those arrested with weapons and explosives during attempts to destroy the Holland and Lincoln Tunnels, was unable to serve.

Kerik is in prison. Those arrested on 9/11, with weapons and explosives disappeared, all except five very famous videographers known as “the dancing Israelis.” That’s OK, they were released too.

The Boston “no-brainer”

Three days after the Boston bombing, the FBI has released one blurry photograph of a possible “suspect.”

The same photograph in crystal clear high definition was released on Facebook and published in Veterans Today days ago. Additionally, the photographs of other suspects, all very clear and identifiable, were published and have been seen by million. Yet the FBI is choosing to release only altered and blurry reproductions of only one suspect. 

 Why would they do this?

When Israel’s DEBKA Files said one of the suspects were “Middle Eastern,” they were correct it seems. One clearly-identifiable photograph of a suspect in a blue tracksuit does resemble someone who may be from the Middle East.

Maybe he isn’t Israeli, perhaps the FBI should publish his photograph and seek to question why he set off a bomb and who he is and where he is from.


Thus far, they have not seen this as a priority.

 Of course, the FBI is trained and advised by Israeli companies. The FBI has a long history of recruiting and training terrorists to attack the United States and then arresting them “just in time.”

How many times has the FBI hired and trained terrorists and failed to arrest them “just in time?” We may never know.

Is this, perhaps, why the military and intelligence agencies suspect the FBI may have actually been involved in the planning and execution of a terror attack against the United States?
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Islam Times 

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Boston in claws of US-friendly terrorists

Sometime before 1775, American Founding Father, Benjamin Franklin wrote: “They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
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Across much of the West, after September 11, 2001, we have indeed given up our essential liberty, and more over, our dignity in exchange for the illusion of safety. Our streets and public events are filled with militarized police and very literally soldiers wielding machine guns and riding around in armored vehicles. And yet with this militarized security, invasive Constitution-violating searches, warrantless wiretaps, humiliating pat-downs by federal security at airports, terrorist bombs still managed to rip through the streets of Boston killing 3 and injuring many more.

There is nothing more symbolic of the fall of America as a free people than scenes of impotent militarized police standing around aimlessly with their immense arsenal cradled in their idle hands in the wake of an attack their presence did nothing to prevent. What's more, is their presence after the attack was likewise useless, their weapons and armor incapable of doing anything to help the scores of injured.

We have given up our liberty and our dignity in order to obtain a little temporary safety - and predictably we have neither liberty nor safety.


The FBI and the Illusion of Terror


Disturbing is the habit of the FBI's posing as terrorists with ties to Al Qaeda, approaching patsies who they then provide explosives and other weapons to, and help engineer an attack which they then "foil" to make spectacular headlines. Many times real explosives are test-detonated with suspects, before inert devices are switched in for the final attack.

In one case in Portland Oregon in 2010, a van was actually parked next to a crowded Christmas tree lighting ceremony where the FBI-entrapped suspect attempted and failed to detonate an FBI-provided inert bomb.

More astounding was the fact that the FBI had actually brought this same entrapped suspect earlier to a location in Lincoln County, Oregon, where real explosives were in fact detonated. The FBI's official statement titled, "Oregon Resident Arrested in Plot to Bomb Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony in Portland," released by the U.S. Attorney’s Office on November 26, 2010 stated (emphasis added):

According to the affidavit, on November 4, 2010, Mohammad and the undercover FBI operatives traveled to a remote location in Lincoln County, Ore., where they detonated a bomb concealed in a backpack as a trial run for the upcoming attack. Afterwards, on the drive back to Corvallis, undercover FBI operatives questioned Mohammad as to whether he was capable of looking at the bodies of those who would be killed in the upcoming attack in Portland. According to the affidavit, Mohammad responded, “I want whoever is attending that event to leave, to leave either dead or injured.”

More frightening still was the apparent motivation behind the FBI's uncover operation.

In 2005, Portland became the first city in the United States to withdraw from the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force, (JTTF) over concerns it would threaten civil liberties. The FBI, unwelcomed in Portland, decided to then approach a dupe, entrap him, and spectacularly "foil" a high profile terror plot of their own design during Portland's annual Christmas tree lighting ceremony - without notifying the local government or local law enforcement of the ongoing operation.
The operation would humiliate local representatives and in particular, Mayor Sam Adams, making them appear negligent, incompetent, and impotent. And, in the wake of the operation, citing the FBI's charade specifically, Portland would eventually agree to rejoin the JTTF.
What, if not terrorism, would such events be classified as? The FBI's JTTF was ousted from Portland, and it subsequently used the threat of violence to coerce the city into accepting it back. It was an operation A-Z engineered by the FBI with a specific political motivation lurking just beneath the surface.
The opaque, covert nature of these operations should also profoundly disturb readers. The FBI apparently has access to vast resources to conduct these operations, including weapons, real explosives, vehicles, and just about everything else most likely used in the Boston blasts. According to the New York Times, in their article, "Portland, Ore., Votes to Rejoin Task Force After Terrorism Scare:"

The investigation had been under way for many months, but the Portland police were consulted only near the end, largely to help with logistics of a sting operation. Mayor Sam Adams was unaware until after the arrest.
Who then is overseeing these operations outside of the FBI? These are operations where real explosives are even detonated ... and in the case of the World Trade Center bombing in 1993, FBI monitored suspects actually went through with the final attack, killing 6, and wounding many more (The New York Times, "Tapes Depict Proposal to Thwart Bomb Used in Trade Center Blast").
The answer is, no one is overseeing them, and they are kept secret until the FBI either "foils" them for political points, or a witness steps forward and reveals the FBI's role in successful attacks that maim or kill innocent people.
This constitutes a very real terror threat to America, but one that lurks within Washington and in our cities' local FBI offices, carried out by men in suits and ties, not cave-dwelling extremists in Afghanistan or "homegrown terrorists." For the people of Boston, one of the first targets for investigation should in fact be, the local FBI office.


Monsters of Our Own Creation/Perpetuation

And while America's domestic threat is one contrived and perpetuated primarily by the very people charged with defending the nation against terrorism, real foreign extremists do exist. It should surprise no one however, considering what the FBI does at home, who is minding this terrorist network abroad.

It is now believed that pressure cooker improvised explosive devices were used in the blasts - devices frequently used overseas by Al Qaeda's many various incarnations. Should "Al Qaeda" turn out to be behind the Boston blasts, readers would benefit from understanding just what exactly "Al Qaeda" is.
CBS News in their report titled, "Homeland Security warned about pressure cooker bombs," stated:
U.S. authorities warned as far back as nine years ago that terrorists could use metal pressure cookers to cause deadly carnage.

The common kitchen cooking implement - found in countless American homes - has emerged as a key component in the horrific bombings that killed three people and injured more than 170 at the Boston Marathon yesterday.

In 2004 a memo titled "Potential terrorist use of pressure cookers" alerted border inspectors, agents, law enforcement officers and other first-responders that the seemingly-innocuous items could be used to create improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

The memo says the bomb-making technique is commonly taught in Afghan terrorist training camps - and had already led to bombing casualties.
The article would also mention terrorists operating in Algeria using rigged pressure cooker devices to carry out attacks - militants long associated not only with Al Qaeda directly, but neighboring Libyan terrorist organization, the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) which was recently handed the nation of Libya by NATO.
This would also be the same Al Qaeda that the US and NATO are in the process of arming and funding in Syria for the past 2 years. Likewise, it is the same Al Qaeda spawned from the sectarian crypto-terror organization, the Muslim Brotherhood, helped into power on the back of region-wide US-engineered political destabilization, and funded to the tune of billions by America's allies in Riyadh and Doha.
In fact, for the past 30 years, the US, Saudi Arabia, and other regional allies including Israel have cultivated, armed, funded, and expanded Al Qaeda, using them as both a casus belli for military intervention and a global mercenary force everywhere from Libya to Bosnia, Iraq to Iran, Afghanistan, and of course across Syria for the past two years.

And even as the Boston blasts appear to be shaping up as the work of sectarian extremists affiliated with this vast network of US-Saudi sponsored terror, US ally Qatar is defending its aid given to terrorists operating across Syria. Reuters reported in their article, "Qatar says aid for Syria rebels and Islamists won’t harm region," that:
Qatar on Tuesday rejected criticism that it risked destabilizing the Middle East by supporting rebels in Syria or the Muslim Brotherhood and said it was helping people but did not interfere in governments.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has accused Arab states who are arming and sheltering rebel fighters of actions that could “create a domino effect throughout the Middle East and beyond,” with Saudi Arabia and Qatar clearly in mind.

Qatar had armed, funded, and even provided air support and troops to Al Qaeda in Libya during their successful bid to overthrow the government and take power in Tripoli. The Guardian reported in their article, "Qatar admits sending hundreds of troops to support Libya rebels," that:
Qatar has admitted for the first time that it sent hundreds of troops to support the Libyan rebels who overthrew Muammar Gaddafi's regime.
The [Persian] Gulf state had previously acknowledged only that its air force took part in NATO-led attacks.
So clearly, Qatar is in the business of interfering with governments, and using Al Qaeda militants to do so.
Similarly, Qatar, along with Saudi Arabia, the US, Turkey, Israel and other allies, have been funneling cash and thousands of tons of weapons into Syria - all of which have ended up in the hands of Al Qaeda's Syrian franchise, Jabhat al-Nusra.

The New York Times in their article titled, "Arms Airlift to Syria Rebels Expands, With C.I.A. Aid," admits that:
With help from the C.I.A., Arab governments and Turkey have sharply increased their military aid to Syria’s opposition fighters in recent months, expanding a secret airlift of arms and equipment for the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, according to air traffic data, interviews with officials in several countries and the accounts of rebel commanders.
The airlift, which began on a small scale in early 2012 and continued intermittently through last fall, expanded into a steady and much heavier flow late last year, the data shows. It has grown to include more than 160 military cargo flights by Jordanian, Saudi and Qatari military-style cargo planes landing at Esenboga Airport near Ankara, and, to a lesser degree, at other Turkish and Jordanian airports.
While the West attempts to claim these weapons are being sent to "moderates," the US itself admits that Al Qaeda is operating in every major city in Syria and is by far the most highly organized, most prominent militant front in the conflict. If the West via Saudi Arabia and Qatar is sending thousands of tons of weapons to "moderates," who is sending more weapons to Jabhat al-Nusra?

The obvious answer is there are no moderates, and the West has been intentionally arming Al Qaeda from the beginning. In fact, this is a documented conspiracy first revealed as early as 2007 by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh in his New Yorker article titled, ""The Redirection: Is the Administration’s new policy benefiting our enemies in the war on terrorism?" which stated specifically:

To undermine Iran, which is predominantly Shiite, the Bush Administration has decided, in effect, to reconfigure its priorities in the Middle East. In Lebanon, the Administration has cooperated with Saudi Arabia’s government, which is Sunni, in clandestine operations that are intended to weaken Hezbollah, the Shiite organization that is backed by Iran. The U.S. has also taken part in clandestine operations aimed at Iran and its ally Syria. A by-product of these activities has been the bolstering of Sunni extremist groups that espouse a militant vision of Islam and are hostile to America and sympathetic to Al Qaeda.

Further evidence that the summation of US aid has fallen into the hands of Al Qaeda in Syria, comes to us from Washington Post propagandist Liz Sly who reported in her article, "U.S. feeds Syrians, but secretly," that:
In the heart of rebel-held territory in Syria’s northern province of Aleppo, a small group of intrepid Westerners is undertaking a mission of great stealth. Living anonymously in a small rural community, they travel daily in unmarked cars, braving airstrikes, shelling and the threat of kidnapping to deliver food and other aid to needy Syrians - all of it paid for by the U.S. government.
Sly then claims that most Syrians credit Al Qaeda's al-Nusra with providing the aid:

 “America has done nothing for us. Nothing at all,” said Mohammed Fouad Waisi, 50, spitting out the words for emphasis in his small Aleppo grocery store, which adjoins a bakery where he buys bread every day. The bakery is fully supplied with flour paid for by the United States. But Waisi credited Jabhat al-Nusra - a rebel group the United States has designated a terrorist organization because of its ties to al-Qaeda - with providing flour to the region, though he admitted he wasn’t sure where it comes from.

And while Sly attempts to spin the story as merely misdirected anger and ignorance on the part of Syrians receiving the aid, it is well documented that bakeries in terrorist-held territory are manned by Al Qaeda militants. In fact, while Sly maintains that "security concerns" are owed for America's opaque aid distribution, it appears more likely the US is attempting to insidiously obfuscate its use of humanitarian aid to help its militant proxies win "hearts and minds" amid a humanitarian catastrophe the West itself engineered and perpetuated intentionally.
The London Telegraph reported in their article, "Syria: how jihadist group Jabhat al-Nusra is taking over Syria's revolution," that taking over bakeries was a key strategy used by Al Qaeda's al-Nusra front to "win over" the population:
Then, in the past weeks, Jabhat al-Nusra - which is outside the FSA - pushed other rebel groups out of the stores and established a system to distribute bread throughout rebel areas.

In a small office attached to a bakery in the Miesseh district of Aleppo, Abu Yayha studied a map pinned on the wall. Numbers were scrawled in pencil against streets.

“We counted the population of every street to assess the need for the area,” explained Mr Yahya. “We provide 23,593 bags of bread every two days for this area. This is just in one district. We are calculating the population in other districts and doing the same there.
“In shops the cost is now 125 Syrian pounds (£1.12) for one pack. Here we sell it at 50 Syrian pounds (45p) for two bags. We distribute some for free for those who cannot pay.”
The bakery works constantly. Inside, barrows filled with dough were heaved onto a conveyor belt that chopped it into round and flat segments, before pushing the dough into a giant oven. Workers packed the steaming flatbread in bags.
“I am from Jabhat al Nusra. All the managers of all the bakeries are,” said Abu Fattah, the manager. “This makes sure that nobody steals.”
In essence, Al Qaeda is taking over neighborhoods upon a mountain of US-provided flour, in bakeries overrun and held at the barrels of US-provided guns.
With this in mind, it becomes clear that not only has America traded in its liberty and dignity for the illusion of safety, but they have done so in the face of fear manufactured and intentionally perpetuated by their own government - a government willfully using the very terror organizations they hold over the American people's heads as justification for an ever-expanding police state at home, as an international mercenary force with which to target their geopolitical enemies abroad.
It is an illusion of both terror and security, masterfully implemented with a myriad of propagandists and corporate-financier interests working in coordination to foist this scheme upon Western civilization and beyond. It is essential to identify these corporate-financier interests, boycott them, and permanently replace them with local solutions - lest we be bent eternally to this charade, without liberty, without dignity, and clearly, without safety.
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Sources: Islam Times


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Appraisal of war on terror

 US-NATO commanders are trying portray that security situation is gradually improving. Kandahar operation activated quietly on a low key in September 2010 is being described as progressing well. Extended stay is being asked for on the basis of this insignificant progress on the military front and on political front in the from of buying the loyalties of moderate Taliban.
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By Asif Haroon Raja



The Republicans under George W Bush had taken the credit of stabilizing Iraq and gradually handing over provinces in Iraq to Iraqi forces. Gen David Petraeus and Gen Stanley McChrystal were pronounced as heroes. Claims made and acclaims received were far from truth since Iraq is still as volatile as it was in earlier years of its occupation. Obama riding over the crest of popular votes also thought of pinning a feather in his cap by repeating the so-called success story of Iraq in Afghanistan. He spelt out his mission to disrupt, dismantle and defeat Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. For the accomplishment of his stated mission he not only shifted the heroes of Iraq from Iraqi theatre of war to Afghanistan but also shifted 20,000 troops from Iraq.

Since it was assumed that roots of terrorism in Afghanistan lay in neighboring FATA and without plucking out the roots, no worthwhile results could be achieved, Pakistan was tagged with Afghanistan. It was planned to render Durand Line redundant and to enforce strategy of anvil and hammer by co-opting Pak forces. US-NATO forces were to launch the hammer in Helmand Province contiguous to Balochistan and carryout hot pursuit operations, raids and aerial attacks inside Balochistan/FATA if the situation so demanded while Pak troops were to provide the anvil.

In other words, southern and eastern Afghanistan-FATA-Pashtun belt of Balochistan were to be converted into a single battle zone, with overall command and control resting with Gen McChrystal. Holbrooke was appointed as the coordinator of the Af-Pak policy to push the civil leadership of the two countries and also oversee work done on creating cleavage between Al-Qaeda and Taliban and dividing Taliban. But for Gen Kayani’s defiance, this Pakistan specific policy would have been enforced as in the case of drones.

Pentagon led by Robert Gates in close consultation with CJCSC Adm. Mike Mullen, Centcom Commander Gen Petraeus and ISAF commander Gen McChrystal were the architects of Af-Pak strategy. The intelligence brief provided by CIA, FBI, MI-6, Mossad, RAW and RAAM was dovetailed in the presentation made to Obama by Gates. Hawks within Obama’s administration were taken on board and policy of troop surge and extending the battle into southern Afghanistan and later to eastern Afghanistan was approved. Policy makers also decided to step up pressure on Pakistan to demolish all sanctuaries of militants in FATA and to prevent cross border terrorism. Pakistan, which had been playing a key role in the war, was kept out of it.

The same team played a leading role in December 2009 review in which post mortem of the year was carried out. 2009 had proved to be the deadliest year since ISAF suffered 521 fatalities. Helmand operation had miserably failed and another military debacle had taken place in Nuristan province. Military debacles together with high casualties had flabbergasted McChrystal and not only he had ordered speedy withdrawal of forward troops from southern and eastern Afghanistan to major towns and cities in depth but had also posted a distress signal in white heat requesting for immediate reinforcement of 40,000 troops to save the situation.

Fast deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan coupled with global recession which gravely impacted US economy propelled Obama to consider winding up the expensive war as early as possible and finding a political solution to Afghan problem. However, the military and civilian hawks prevailed upon him and forced him to sanction troop surge. Taking into account gentle protests of the doves who were anti-war as well as public pressure who also wanted the soldiers to return home, Obama slashed the demand to 30,000 and also announced pull out of troops starting July 2011.

This decision has been under severe criticism of Pentagon, US senior field commanders in Afghanistan and Republicans. One of the reasons cited by McChrystal for failing to deliver despite provision of 30,000 US troops and 8000 NATO troops in early 2010 taking the total to 152000 was the conflicting and self-defeating decision of troop surge and pullout. In his view, it encouraged the militants and discouraged coalition troops, ANA and Afghan regime.

Although McChrystal was shown the door, however, efforts to get the pullout date revised continued. Pentagon’s sustained pressure together with false reporting of progress forced Obama to reconsider his decision of pullout starting July 2011. Robert Gates was the first to break the news that July 2011 date is flexible and will be extended to 2014. Karzai regime egged on by India, Petraeus and CIA advocated extended stay of coalition troops at least till 2014, arguing that by then ANA and Afghan Police would be in a position to take over security duties independently.

Since October 2010, US-NATO commanders are trying to portray that security situation is gradually improving. Kandahar operation activated quietly on a low key in September 2010 is being described as progressing well. Extended stay is being asked for on the basis of this insignificant progress on the military front and on political front in the form of buying the loyalties of moderate Taliban. The lowly shopkeeper from Quetta city who pretended to be number two of Mullah Omar and gave US-Afghan leaders false hopes that the Taliban have in principle agreed to negotiate with Karzai was another reason of optimism among US military leadership.

High hopes were dashed when the identity of shopkeeper came to light. Taliban spokesman dispelled the widely spread impression that secret talks were taking place with Karzai and agreement was round the corner. He said there will be no talks till foreign troops are on Afghan soil. It was a huge embarrassment for CIA and MI-6. This setback together with defeat in mid-term elections in which Republicans improved their position sent Democrats into mode of depression. It has now become obligatory for Obama to show some military gains in Afghanistan to justify commencement of pullback by July 2011 so as to retain tenuous hold on White House. NATO”s summit in Lisbon in November was attended by Obama and Russian President. Despite the war turning into the longest ever military engagement and becoming too expensive to bear, the NATO leadership put up a rosy picture that things were in control and good progress had been made. Based on the ‘all-good’ assessment, it was decided to keep fighting with renewed vigor and to stay put in Afghanistan till 2014. Such optimistic expressions had become necessary to bolster the sagging morale of coalition forces and ANA and to dispel impressions that the US and NATO leaders were divided and had lost heart.

It was under changed and difficult times that Pakistan’s significance came into prominence and Pak-US strategic dialogue took place in 2010. Strategic Review took place in Washington in December to re-endorse what was decided in Lisbon Summit. It reconfirmed the date of 2014 and concluded that the US despite its reservations couldn’t afford to alienate Pakistan. However, it is least bothered about Pakistan’s security concerns and reservations and grudgingly keeps it in its loop to make it keep fighting the militants in northwestern tribal belt. US media is still churning out anti-Pakistan stories. Summoning of current and former DG ISIs by US court was in bad taste.

The new dateline has been given under wishful assumptions that by 2014, resurgent power of Taliban will be curbed and ANA will be able to relieve US-NATO and take over security duties. In the intervening period while Pakistan will be pressed to mount a major operation in North Waziristan and drone attacks would continue, efforts will be made to capture Kandahar. Simultaneously, efforts to win hearts and minds of Afghans are being doubled and expansion and training of ANA and Police expedited. Since the assumptions are self serving and unrealistic, the plans are bound to fail.

—The writer is a defence analyst.