Foreign Correspondence

[Amaunet]

Supposedly Iran's aim to create another Hezbolah movement in Iraq depends on its ability to make Al Sistani accept Al Sadr as his military arm, thus re-creating the unique relationship that exists between the Grand Ayatollah of Lebanon and his charismatic young leader Nasrallh, who functions as his military leader. Easier said than done.

Here’s the kicker we are not only arming the Sunni in Iraq but also working with certain Shiites in Afghanistan. Yeah, it gets confusing.

Is the word futile???

-Am


Repost:


To head off this threat of a Shi'ite clergy-driven religious movement, the US has, according to Asia Times Online investigations, resolved to arm small militias backed by US troops and entrenched in the population to "nip the evil in the bud".

Asia Times Online has learned that in a highly clandestine operation, the US has procured Pakistan-manufactured weapons, including rifles, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, ammunition, rockets and other light weaponry. Consignments have been loaded in bulk onto US military cargo aircraft at Chaklala airbase in the past few weeks. The aircraft arrived from and departed for Iraq.

The US-armed and supported militias in the south will comprise former members of the Ba'ath Party, which has already split into three factions, only one of which is pro-Saddam Hussein. They would be expected to receive assistance from pro-US interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's Iraqi National Accord.

local Shia groups to gather intelligence. They attribute Shia leader Aga Ziauddin Rizvi’s killing to his siding with the US forces.
#msg- 5461656


US forces hunting Osama in NAs, says Indian intelligence

NEW DELHI: Indian intelligence agencies have found the presence of American forces in Pakistan’s Northern Areas, trailing Osama Bin Laden, the Al Qaeda and Taliban remnants. Much to the discomfiture of China, the US has set up a “secret shop” in the region as part of its covert special operations against militant outfits, claim intelligence agencies here.

Intelligence sources here said that besides the US Special Force units, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has also set up “listening posts” in Northern Areas to monitor communication.

Quoting sources in India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), The Tehelka weekly paper reported that the Pentagon’s Defence Intelligence Agency’s satellite intercepts had given rise to “credible evidence” that some parts of Northern Areas had been infiltrated by Al Qaeda militants.

Last October, Christina Rocca, the US assistant secretary of state for South Asia, and Nancy Powell, the US Ambassador to Pakistan, had visited the Northern Areas. Since then many Americans are visiting Gilgit and Baltistan to oversee development projects funded by USAID. The US Army had also conducted military exercises in Deosai, 30 kilometres from Skardu. Earlier, the Indian and US Special Forces had conducted high-altitude wafare exercise in Ladkah, just on this side of Skardu.

Indian intelligence agencies also believe that US intelligence operatives might have “developed” Shia border traders in Balochistan as “intelligence assets”. In their most covert operations in Northern Areas, the US Special Forces have also focused on local Shia groups to gather intelligence. They attribute Shia leader Aga Ziauddin Rizvi’s killing to his siding with the US forces.

B Raman, the former RAW additional secretary, also maintained that the Americans had set up a chain of monitoring stations in Gilgit and Baltistan to keep track of telephones and wireless communications. These centres, he claimed, are ostensibly run by the Inter-Services Intelligence and a number of US intelligence officers are attached to them—some of them US nationals of Afghan origin.

He claimed that US’s National Security Agency (NSA) had already its presence in the Northern Areas. For past many years, the NSA has been collecting signals from the space establishments of Kazakhstan and the nuclear establishments of China’s Xinjiang province. The NSA uses gadgets and technologies for penetrating foreign devices and telecommunication and computer networks. “Mostly, the NSA depends on the CIA, organisations, the Voice of America and academic institutions such as Carnegie Mellon for such assistance,” he said. iftikhar gilani

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_30-1-2005_pg7_42