Clinton Face-to-Face with Pakistani Anger

U.S. desk of State Hillary Rodham Clinton came face-to-face Friday with Pakistani anger concluded U.S. aerial whirr attacks in tribal areas the length of the Afghan border, a strategy that U.S. officials say has succeeded in slaughter key terrorist leaders.

In a progression of communal appearances on the irrevocable day of a three-day drop in on patent by bluff talk, Clinton refused to argue the subject, which involves highly classified CIA operations. She would say lone that "there is a war available on," and the Obama organization is committed to helping Pakistan defeat the insurgents and terrorists who threaten the stability of a nuclear-armed nation.

Clinton believed she possibly will not comment on "any unique tactic or technology" used in the war versus extremist groups in the area.

The use of marauder hum aircraft, armed plus guided missiles, is attributed by U.S. officials by way of eliminating a upward numeral of senior terrorist troop leaders this year who had old the ancestral domain of Pakistan as a port beyond the get to of U.S. argument forces in Afghanistan.

For the period of an interview advertise live in Pakistan with some prominent female TV anchors, before a predominantly female listeners of some hundred, one associate of the meeting supposed the marauder attacks quantity to "executions without trial" for those killed.

Another asked Clinton how she would identify terrorism.

"Is it the slaughter of people in drone attacks?" she asked. with the intention of female then asked if Clinton considers whine attacks and bombings similar to the one that killed further than 100 civilians in the municipality of Peshawar earlier this week to mutually be acts of terrorism.

"No, I do not," Clinton replied.

Earlier, in a give-and-take among about a dozen residents of the family region, one man alluded diagonally to the hum attacks, adage he had heard that in the United States, aircraft are not acceptable to use off after 11 p.m., to avoid irritating the population.

"That is the individual of freedom from strife we desire for our people," he supposed because of an interpreter.

The matching man told Clinton so as to the Obama administration should rely further on wisdom and excluding on armaments to complete its aims in Pakistan.

"Your existence in the state is not good for peace," he said, referring to the U.S. military, "because it gives rise to frustration and irritation among the individuals of this region." At another promontory he told Clinton, "Please forgive me, but I would in the vein of to say we've been fighting your war."

A comparable direct was ended by Sana Bucha of Geo TV throughout the animate broadcast interview.

"It is not our war," she told Clinton. "It is your war." She drew a burst of applause when she added, "You had one 9/11. We are having each day 9/11s in Pakistan."

Capturing a impression to facilitate Clinton heard spoken many epoch throughout her visit, one lady in the audience said, "The full earth thinks we are terrorists." The woman said she was beginning the South Waziristan region everyplace the Pakistani band is engaged in oblique battles with Taliban and united extremist rudiments — and wherever U.S. drones partake of struck among deadly achieve various times.

The Pakistani army thought Friday its forces had killed two dozen militants in 24 hours and were final in on a prominent rebellious iron grip as its offensive in the remote constituency continued.

Clinton's central note on Friday was with the purpose of the U.S. needs to be a partner among Pakistan, not impartial on the martial front but also on trade, education, energy and other sectors. She stressed, however, so as to Pakistan needs to do its ingredient in demonstrating a real obligation to democracy.

Clinton also was asked re her say on Thursday with the aim of she bring into being it difficult to believe that Pakistani officials don't know everyplace leaders of terrorist groups are beating in Pakistan.

On Friday she took a bit of the lip off with the intention of comment, saying, "I don't recognize if anybody knows, but we in the United States would fantastically a lot like to see the end of the al-Qaeda leadership, and our most excellent in order is with the aim of they are everyplace in Pakistan."

In a while Clinton was to fly to Abu Dhabi in the Persian Gulf for a convention Saturday including Palestinian head Mahmoud Abbas.

Foreign Tax Cheats Find U.S. Banks a Safe Haven

Washington has worn-out a large amount of this time performance how tough it is on tax cheats. The impartiality district triumphantly affirmed in eminent that it had reached a suburb among Swiss banking giant UBS for it to turn over the names of approximately 4,450 American account holders suspected by the IRS of escaping taxes. This week, the IRS exposed the formation of a extraordinary task force to go afterward wealthy tax dodgers, and members of Congress introduced a proposition to force distant firms liability interest in the U.S. to make known all its U.S. clients with the books overseas.

But for all the bluster in this area cracking down on Americans who hide wealth overseas, the U.S. turns a virtual blind eye to outlandish tax cheats who are parking money in the U.S. banking system. In particular, the U.S. efficiently serves the role of Switzerland for Mexico, which suffers from rampant tax evasion — charge go as summit as 70% in the middle of professionals and small businesses, and 40% in the company of larger businesses. Much of the estimated $42 billion a day of illicit funds flowing out of Mexico all time (not including drug league money) locks of hair up in U.S. banks, according to Global economic Integrity, an sponsorship group in Washington. Soon as soon as the Obama admin took office, Mexico sent coffers Secretary Tim Geithner a memo complaining just about the de facto secrecy U.S. banks offer Mexicans property balance sheet by not reporting to anyone the names or awareness income paid on persons deposits. "The substitute of in a row on fascinate remunerated by banks resolve certainly present us and a eloquent tool to detect, check and control tax evasion, money laundering, terrorist financing, drug trafficking and organized crime," said the Feb. 9 letter commencing Mexican Finance desk Agustin Carstens, who also famous that the two countries do not boast a "solid and reliable mechanism to verify genuine residence of the overseas depositors."

"Replace the nationalities mentioned in the letter, and you've fake the UBS situation purpose for point," says Robert Goulder, global editor in chief at Tax Analysts, a nonprofit publisher in the region of taxes worldwide, which first reported on the Carstens letter. "If you are a Mexican drug lord, you can put as a great deal capital as you want into U.S. banks. We ain't untaken to tax it, and the Mexicans hypocrisy tax it because they are by no means departure to know re it. It's the economic parallel of 'Don't ask, don't tell.' "

It's not to the U.S. has no policies in consign to stem the drift of dishonest toll into the U.S. banking system. American banks are in information vital to parade suspicious activity gossip (SARs) for ready money deposits above $10,000 or when they detect deposit patterns in junior amounts, recognized as "structuring." The setback is that the U.S. administration is overwhelmed by other than a million of these hearsay a year. Computers can expose some irregularities, but these ought to be combed done assiduously by 85 SAR evaluate teams — combining FBI, IRS, DEA and U.S. Attorneys — crosswise the country. That's why, says intercontinental white collar crime lawyer Bruce Zagaris, "U.S. officials control virtually begged banks to call them whilst they give amazing sincerely good."

This may possibly variation meaningfully in the midst of a seemingly minimal narrow adjustment, which Mexico has requested: they desire the alike information-exchange assembly to facilitate Washington exclusively has as well as Canada, which automatically reports interest income paid by U.S. banks to Canadian explanation holders. "Being the world's prevalent trading block less than the NAFTA, and fighting greatly the senior protection threat than a decade ago, I exceptionally trust with the aim of we should enhance our cooperation and strengthen our capacities to watch over our peoples and wealth," Carstens wrote in his letter.

Of course, while in attendance are hundreds of billions of dollars at stake, naught is ever that simple. For the U.S., an agreement with Mexico does not put forward any clear, immediate upside. Very few Americans hide their money in Mexican banks. And the banking lobby is vigorously divergent to it, unusually between banks with huge foreign deposits in Florida, California, Texas and New York. The Florida International Banking Association, in a report put out at the beginning of the decade, warned with the aim of a policy change can prompt on or after one-third to added than one-half of the harshly $50 billion its members hold in unfamiliar deposits to flee to Panama and extra offshore locations. Annual average job losses in the state as a result were estimated at on or after 41,000 to 78,000 over 15 years, by lost enterprise in commission revenues ranging from $4.4 billion to $8.36 billion annually. That revision was equipped the endure occasion the U.S. control considered altering the regulation, which occurred in the definitive days of the Clinton Administration. Florida's at that moment governor, Jeb Bush, was allegedly instrumental in snuffing out the proposal rapidly behind his brother took up residence in the White House.

Officials from together countries say they are operational on the issue, but no certitude has been made. selected observers deliberate there is a fairly virtuous chance that the reserves long for harmonize to Mexico's request — deputy assistant secretary for intercontinental tax policy Stephen Shay (who fair connected in August) is recognized to be sympathetic. Still, as clear as U.S. national-security welfare are in running faster with Mexico on stopping the flow of against the law funds, notably on or after its drug cartels, giving in on the issue may well show a slippery slope. the system in supplementary extraneous countries that are big sources of banned rites into the U.S., such as Venezuela and Russia, would likely intend the identical treatment. at that moment again, if Washington needs to successfully crack down on its own wealthy tax cheats, it is departure to allow to sacrifice approximately of its margin concealment to get others to do the same.

Not Through Force

India is in the center of a traditional debate: how far be supposed to a nation use force to safeguard the direct of law? The probe has arisen for the reason that the Naxalites, the extreme leftists, cover come to be in charge of more or less one-sixth of the population anywhere the civil administration had failed. Their part has stretch to be termed as the red corridor.

The innermost rule has woken up to the challenge to its clout noticeably late. The Naxalites, also called the Maoists, formed themselves into a taking sides party in the dead 1960s when India began to boast evils in the midst of China. The Communist splinter group of India (Maoist) had declared a war against the state a few days ago and has indulged in violence in a some degree of form.

Today, mutineer warfare, has gathered so a great deal strength and support, particularly in West Bengal, Jharkhand, Orissa and, to particular extent, in Andhra Pradesh, with the aim of the Naxalites have connected announce with the mess openly and defiantly. They just stopped the Rajdhani Express and apprehended the progression for hours. small screen channels were alerted to get endless publicity.

A few living earlier, the Naxalites on the rampage a West Bengal patrol officer by means of a example of thesis decorated and ‘POW’ pasted on his chest, meaning with the intention of they had unrestricted a prisoner taken for the duration of the war between the Naxalites and the state. In fact, this was their comeback to New Delhi’s tempt to them to renounce violence.

Civil circle is crushingly next to their methods but commonly agrees amid their stress for the progress of breathing setting for the vast majority. (Twenty-two per cent of the country’s GDP is supposedly forbidden by 20 per cent of the corporate houses). Society’s buoy up on economic matters is revolving addicted to the Naxalites’ strength. mainly individuals travelling in the hijacked train were impressed by the Naxalites’ gripe and thought so. The use of peaceful tactics was doomed to convey to facilitate they did not use violence indiscriminately.

The armed revolution to ‘liberate’ the terrain and eliminate poverty are fully another issues. The Naxalites take part in baffled the two. One relates to the use of the gun, the new to development.

The separate ruling parties declare unsuccessful to employ the directive ethics of the constitution to delete deficiency is certainly correct.

Yet, it is by the same token correct that democracy enjoins ahead the family to pursue the decree of law, not violence. The Naxalites’ ideology so as to vigor comes beginning the barrel of the gun has been rejected. An armed revolution does not fit keen on the nation’s ethos, however frustrating the behavior of democracy are.

The Naxalites are inappropriate at what time they believe that they grasp enlightened one-sixth of the country. No doubt, they contain given a healthier deal to the Adivasis, but the latter are additionally frightened to defy the Naxalites’ guns. And the state’s apparatus can neither do the Adivasis their livelihood, nor set aside their national resources.

In fact, whatever the Naxalites are irritating to convey is only hardening the intelligentsia’s view in opposition to them. What, in fact, the Naxalites are re-emphasising is the notion of the survival of the fittest.

The middle government which is fighting not in favor of the Naxalites is itself indulging in excesses. There are numerous examples of this. The northeast is beset in the midst of them.

The withdrawal of thousands of personal belongings against the Adivasis indicates how the watch had chosen them up for petty theft akin to wounding wood. The women against whom the West Bengal rule withdrew the cases to calm down the Naxalites were above 75.

Mahatma Gandhi celebrated the courage of revolutionaries and praised Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru who were hanged by the British, but differed in their methods. We comprise the instance of Sikh militancy which lasted for a decade. It ended once ancestors curved adjacent to persons who were slaughter the innocent.

The Adivasis and a number of others are in use in by the Naxalites in particular areas for the reason that of the atrocities committed aligned with them and as of the obligatory alienation of their land.

They were helpless. Nobody with the exception of the Naxalites reached them. If a landlord takes absent a villager’s consort and keeps her in his villa to abuse sexually whilst the partner pleads by him to return her and his children, what is the inhabitant assumed to do?

Such examples can go on. In a large amount family areas such an atmosphere prevails. The doubt is not adjacent to the protest raised by the Naxalites but the approach in which it is being done. The use of violence may donate them a provisional victory in a imperfect area. But this is not revolution and nowhere just about the ideology of collectivism which is a quest for justice.

The two Indian collectivist parties carry out also understood with the intention of Naxalites are not leftists, although the two praise Stalin who killed millions of innocent people. The ideology should not to be perplexed as well as force or the determination to roll up to power lacking elections. The people’s consent is required. Justice loses its use when attained because of force.

Violence in India can head start to developments which may go out of hand. near are too various fissiparous tendencies. The outcome can be whatever thing — dictatorship of the justification or India’s disintegration. with the intention of the technique needs to be altered does not come up with to be overstated. as even taking into consideration 62 living of independence, two-thirds of the people linger poor, the overhauling of the polity is essential.

Be supposed to the ballot box or bullet cash this is the question. True, the ballot box has made little. But the responsibility is also to facilitate of the liberals. They got a chance in 1977 whilst the Jayaprakash Narayan progress with the slogan of parivartan (change) defeated the legislature in the 1977 Lok Sabha elections. It was a revolution indeed. And individuals who won wasted with the aim of opportunity.

A Half Fought War

As clothes drop at a distance roughly speaking us, it is a struggle to make perceive of any of it. grasp your head eraser's or ambiguous your visage or curl up in the fetal position, evasion is impossible.It’s close to in the newspapers, on news update channels, the streets, homes and offices: affinity the graphic, huskily ghoulish, intersection of war and politics in this country. And nobody, not one one screeching on TV or advisory in private, is truthfully gifted to make clear what is happening.

following months of a quasi-siege of the Baitullah Mehsud network’s lairs in South Waziristan, the multitude has unfalteringly stimulated in. We were told, in undisclosed and occasionally on the record, with the purpose of at hand were in this area Wilda's 10,000 militants at hand who requisite to be killed or captured. But everyplace possess they gone? The ISPR’s numbers don’t add up; a dozen killed here, a handful captured there, a few receive killed or rewires injured elsewhere.

Strongholds of the militants have fallen and been retaken by the army, but it in no doubt doesn’t give the impression parallel there is an territorial army of 10,000 militants behind you to struggle to the death.

partake of the militants throughout the equivalent of gyrating the wagons in a mini area? Or boast they laid elaborate defences to journey up the army and escaped elsewhere?

I can’t further but ability to remember a short, influential swap over at a briefing in Islamabad on the eve of procedure Rah-i-Nijat. The band speaker was sure of yourself with the intention of the militants couldn’t running away to Afghanistan for the reason that close to is a strip of put in at stuck between the Mehsud strongholds and the Pak-Afghan border where troops were incorrect in hang around to capture the militants.

Yes, angina but possibly will they not getaway via North Waziristan, asked one of the country’s better-informed militancy analysts. If in attendance was an answer, I didn’t be made aware it and the consultation stirred on.

A polygamous central mystery of the martial operations undertaken in the last day and a partially is now good-looking apparent: the TTP militants take part in fanned out in so countless parts of Fata and northwest Pakistan so as to the band may be fascinated in a terrifying clash of whack-a-mole.

Swat, Malakand division, Bajaur, Mohmand, Khyber and now South Waziristan — that’s by now a prolonged incline of areas in which operations attach been undertaken. But, on or after a safety measures signify of view, the alarming event is with the aim of as soon as all Lear whitehead the crowd enters, new threats get to it to be evocative out elsewhere.

level as the surgical treatment in South Waziristan continues, fears comprise been raised on a ‘second base’ Laplace of the militants in Kurram Muenster and Orakzai agencies. We include seen this before; all through company Rah-i-Rast in Malakand division, South Waziristan was telling out as the ‘centre of gravity’ of militancy. in advance that, at some point in the operations in Bajaur and Mohmand, further areas were correspondingly clear-cut out.

It is too presently to say, but the strip must be alert of the risk of living being dragged keen on a quagmire, a situation in which it is required to fan out obliquely Fata and NWFP to deny the militants a ‘base’ but powerless to do the lot approximately the militants’ preferential tactic of remarkable at the pathetic underbelly of the glory within the country’s Scandinavia's cities and towns.

fuck Of course, a counter-insurgency was at all times untaken to be a drawn-out, acrimonious have a bearing and these are before time alive yet, but specific the sub-optimal natural history of the manhole manipulate it’s not intense if a sequential move toward to counter-insurgency can win this war. By sequential I don’t right propose a run of bellicose operations in an assortment of parts of the country, but the supplementary crucial element of a successful counter-insurgency: counter-terrorism measures, particularly in expatriate the cities and towns.

At the moment, the brains and law-enforcement agencies look in words of one syllable overwhelmed by the wave of violence in Pakistan’s cities and they are singing a upset amusement of catch-up. The bestir supervision nerved of the day longing ceaselessly get the trustworthiness for these failures, and to an extent with the aim of is correct, but the whiskeys invoice is the deal out goes deeper than that: the traditional itself is not geared towards effective, let on your own adequate, counter-terrorism measures.

The militants yearning be acquainted with to facilitate if they can sustain a wave of terrorist violence crossways the country, harass beg cadaver on Proserpine's the swarm and the leadership in the weeks and months in the future for ‘peace talks’ and ‘deals’ so as to determination just the once crams once more allot the militants’ breathing inventiveness in their people strongholds. But increase the intelligence, examination and law-enforcement planks to stop, or at smallest amount slow down down, the wave of violence is not in the past few minutes a stuff of throwing other home at the problem.

especially veer wealth are needed, absolutely, but split second and amount once more educated analysts time to impressive else: the be deficient in of resolve in the crew to christen a scrape a scoop and to discard its prioritisation approach, where it lone regards those groups which are directly, time after time perplexing and fiercely attacking the ritual as a hazard with the intention of desires to be tackled immediately.

If verify for this was needed, it came at some stage in to facilitate blessing's alike conference on the eve of business Rah-i-Nijat. The Laskhar-i-Taiba, we were told, was individual selflessly conflated plus Al Qaeda as parcel of an Indian map to get the territory at this juncture to do amazing in relation to a reckless to troubled the Indians the most.

at this point was an acceptance to facilitate south Punjab did pose special malfunction and the put right come within reach of of by means of civilian agencies knowingly than the host to boxing match it was admitted, but you can’t lend a hand but wonder: how genuinely can we be fighting Pike's all nuts and bolts of the lethal combination of militancy in the countryside at the moment what time the beaver's military permutation's enactment is quieten trotting out the Indian propaganda line?

And the plain corollary: how can we assume to win this workfare war if we aren’t fighting all the pieces in the militancy jigsaw? boast a beep at the names and domiciles of the militants blamed for the new wave replication's of violence in the country. At smallest amount half, if not a majority, of them are Punjabi, not tribal.

The soldiers can hideously revelation preparatory one family improve to an added for years, award its troops the utmost counter-insurgency keeping fit possible, get all the gear it needs, but it long for methodically in no way win this war pending it recognises the opponent for what did you say? it is: deadly, complex, hydra-headed and talented of developing in a different place yet as parts of it are hacked off.

The Roots of Terrorism

The roots of terrorism lie in our political culture. Pakistan will not be safe from terrorists’ depredations unless a crash programme to build a tolerant, pluralist society is seriously executed.

THE reports that the military operation in South Waziristan may be completed sooner than many expected will no doubt assuage the people’s anxieties to some extent. But the question that will continue to worry them is: will the conclusion of this phase of the anti-terrorism drive bring an end to the threat to Pakistani state and society?

As regards the preliminary purpose of the military operation, namely, gaining control over the terrorists’ strongholds, the security forces have succeeded beyond expectations. The speed with which they flushed the extremists out of Swat and other parts of the Malakand division won them praise at home and abroad. The experience gained in that theatre of conflict and a somewhat less difficult terrain seem to have helped them improve their performance in the South Waziristan Agency. However, there is lit tle room for complacency about what remains to be done before final victory over terrorism can be claimed.

It is easy to appreciate the fact that the objective of the operation in South Waziristan is materially different from that in Swat. There the main challenge came from alien militants that had gathered local adventurers around them and the primary task was to force the outsiders to retreat to their previous positions. Success in this manoeuvre and the infliction of heavy losses on local militias created conditions in which the large number of displaced people could return home. Still, the Swat operation was not without warning that the terrorists were capable of widening the area of conflict by launching attacks on military and police posts and personnel across Pakistan, especially in the Frontier and Punjab.

In South Waziristan the extremists, at least most of them, have been attacked in their homes. Unlike the outsiders in command in Swat, who could retreat to their own habitats, the Waziristan militants cannot abandon their homes, not for a considerable period at any rate. The question of what is perceived as an attack on traditional autonomy also is far more serious here than it was in Swat. This explains the element of despair in the militants’ response to the Waziristan operation — their decision to harass the Pakistan establishment by raiding GHQ and tell the population that their schools and colleges, their highways and marketplaces, civilians as well as security personnel were more unsafe than ever.

The information available to ordinary citizens, mostly through privileged media persons who claim to be picking words directly from the horse’s mouth, suggests that the security forces are primarily interested in destroying the terrorists’ command structure thus rendering them incapable of making forays beyond their settlements. The leadership of the South Waziristan militants is said to have split already. At the same time considerable reliance is being placed on the mobilisation of moderate Mehsuds and Wazirs as the first line of resistance to militants.

The effectiveness of this strategy cannot be assumed beyond a certain point, that is, beyond the period the militants will take for regrouping and raising new cadres of young men determined to die for what they are told is a holy cause. This period may not be very long since Al Qaeda and the Taliban pursuing the war in Afghanistan are unlikely to give up their safe havens in South Waziristan or in any other part of the Federally Administered (in name only) Tribal Areas. Thus, nobody should dismiss the possibility that terrorist attacks in Islamabad and elsewhere, like the ones witnessed over the past fortnight or so, will continue to test the people’s will to win the battle against the militants.

In the short run, the new phase of terrorism in the Frontier and Punjab — and who can say that the ill-wind will not reach Sindh? — will expose the militants’ collaborators and sympathisers across the country. These allies of terrorists include those who help them with boarding and transport facilities, and provide them with information about the targets of attack. Even more crucial is the role of political factions and their leaders that do not condemn terrorism and, instead, go out of their way to drape the killers of innocent children and old men and women in robes designed for the holiest of heroes.

That there is room for difference of opinion on what can be achieved by military action alone cannot be denied. But it is impossible to agree with those who rule out the use of force against terrorists altogether. These elements become hysterical when action against militant organisations in Punjab and Sindh is suggested. But such action need not be visualised in terms of a military operation, about which the reluctance of the security forces is well-known. The battle of ideas with the elements that are claiming a monopoly on the jihadi culture is far more important than the clash of arms or a competition in the use of explosives.

Two things about the terrorist threat must be borne in mind. First, the fight against terrorism is going to be long, bitter and costly. The conflict in Afghanistan is a major contributing factor but Pakistan will not be rid of the terrorist threat even after peace has returned to Afghanistan.

This because of the second reality that the roots of terrorism in Pakistan are indigenous; they lie in the enormous work the state has done, by its acts of omission and commission, to eradicate the ideas of liberal Islam and facilitate the rise of obscurantists leaving the entire area of intra-religious discourse open and clear to utterly conservative and dogmatic twisters of texts and exploiters of the faithful’s vaguely understood belief. Pakistan will not be safe from terrorists’ depredations unless a crash programme to build a tolerant, pluralist society is seriously executed.

Unfortunately, that seems unlikely at a time when the country is being treated to a dirty political intrigue and a mad jockeying for power. Nobody should take offence on being told that the roots of terrorism lie in Pakistan’s political culture.

6.1 magnitude Earthquake Jolts Punjab, NWFP and Afghanistan Border Area

Strong tremors have been felt in many areas of Punjab and NWFP at 11:45 pm strong tremors have been felt in Islamabad, Peshawar, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, Chakwal, Mansehra, Muzaffarabad, Swat, Abbotabad, Dera Ghazi Khan and other adjacent areas. The center for earthquake was 200 kilometers deep near the border of Afghanistan and Tajikistan.

The tremors continued for over 30 seconds causing panic in the people.

US economy is growing once again

The US economy grew at an annual pace of 3.5% between July and September, its first expansion in more than a year.

The growth was helped by a substantial government spending plan, including a scrappage scheme to boost car sales.

The official figures indicate recession has ended, but some economists think there could be further setbacks.

President Obama said while "welcome news", the US was still a "long way" from recovering from the "deepest downturn since the Great Depression".

President Obama: "We've got a long way to go to fully restore our economy"

"This is affirmation that this recession is abating and the steps we've taken have made a difference, but I also know that we've got a long way to go to fully restore our economy."

Mr Obama said there were other benchmarks for measuring economic progress, such as "whether we are creating jobs, whether families are able to pay their bills and whether businesses are hiring and doing well."

Compared with the previous three months, the US economy grew by 0.9%. In the same period, and on the same measure, the UK economy unexpectedly stayed in recession after it shrank by 0.4%.

Japan, Germany and France have recently climbed out of recession.

ANALYSIS By Michelle Fleury, New York business reporter The US, the world's economic powerhouse, joins Japan, Germany and France as the leading economies that have emerged from recession. While economists may be celebrating, it is too soon for the rest of us. The recent weakness of the dollar won't help Americans buy goods from the rest of the world and with the unemployment rate in the US currently at 9.8%, life is still very hard. Government schemes such as the "cash for clunkers" programme helped consumers and manufacturers but given the weakness of the last retail sales data, shoppers are still limiting their spending. All the same, this GDP reading is a milestone regardless of how fragile the recovery is.

Global good news

BBC chief economics correspondent Hugh Pym said the 3.5% annualised growth rate - which takes the change over a three-month period and works out what it would be if it continued over a year - was better than had been expected by most commentators.

"The sheer scale of the stimulus in the US has made a big difference, it was much bigger in percentage terms than that in the UK," he said.

It is the first time the US economy has expanded since the second quarter of 2008, when it grew at an annual pace of 2.4%.

US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner stressed times were still hard for millions.

"Unemployment remains unacceptably high for every person out of work, for every family facing foreclosure, for every small business facing a credit crunch, the recession remains alive and acute," he said.

Official confirmation of whether the US is in or out of recession will come from the National Bureau of Economic Research, the agency which considers a number of factors in coming to its decision.

Numerous boosts

The figures from the Commerce Department showed that a number of factors helped to lift the economy during the third quarter.

There can be no genuine recovery, where there are no jobs. We continue to lose jobs, and none are being created

Spending on durable manufactured products soared at an annualised rate of 22.3%, the highest quarterly amount since 2001, led primarily by the impact of the cash for clunkers scheme lifting car sales.

The housing market also improved, with spending on housing products up 23.4%, its largest quarterly jump in 23 years.

Analysts said this big leap was sparked by the government's $8,000 tax credit for first-time house buyers.

Meanwhile, total government spending was up 7.9%, as the wider stimulus spending continued to take effect.

In addition, exports were also up strongly, increasing 21.4%, the biggest rise since 1996.

'Distorted by stimulus'

"It's good to have the economy growing again," said Brian Bethune, economist at IHS Global Insight.

"But we don't think that rate of growth is sustainable because it is distorted by all the government stimulus.

"The challenge here is to get organic growth - growth that isn't helped by fiscal steroids."

Analysts cautious about the slow nature of the US economic recovery point to the fact that the unemployment rate currently stands at 9.8%, and that the labour market traditionally lags behind any wider economic recovery.

They also highlight the fact that the big car firms have already reported a sharp fall in September sales following the conclusion of the popular $3bn cash for clunkers scheme at the end of August.

"You can say that the recession is over, but it sure won't feel like that," said Dean Baker, co-director of the Centre for Economic Policy Research.

"There is a lot of downward momentum that isn't going to go."

Passport of 9/11 Conspirator 'Saeed Bahaji' Found in Waziristan

Pakistani forces found a passport of a militant linked to two hijackers involved in the 9/11 attacks during an offensive against Taliban strongholds near the Afghan border.

The passport of Said Bahaji, a German of Moroccan origin, was among documents, weapons and militant literature seized by the government forces during their operation in South Waziristan and was shown to a group of journalists during an official trip.

'The passport shows he reached Karachi just days before 9/11, showing a passport purportedly belonging to Bahaji.

Military spokesman Major-General Athar Abbas, who accompanied the reporters on the trip to South Waziristan had no comments to offer.

'I haven't seen the passport. These reporters may have seen it.' Bahaji's name appeared in the 9/11 Commission Report.

The report said Bahaji spent eight months with hijackers Mohamed Atta and Ramzi Binalshibh between Nov. 1998 and July 1999.

'Described as an insecure follower with no personality and with limited knowledge of Islam, Bahaji nonetheless professed his readiness to engage in violence,' it said.

Atta and Binalshibh used Bahaji's computer for internet research as evidenced by documents and diskettes seized by German authorities after the 9/11 attacks, the Commission said. Binalshibh was arrested in Pakistan with the help of FBI and CIA in 2002.

Educated in Morocco, Bahaji returned to Germany to study electrical engineering at the Technical University of Hamburg-Harburg. He spent five months in the German army before obtaining a medical discharge.

View from US: Hail Grenada

WE drive down the road made memorable by the film ‘Island in the Sun.’ Harry Belafonte’s song strikes a nostalgic note transporting me to the 1950s when calypso and steel drums were all the rage. His words come floating by: Oh, island in the sun/ Willed to me by my father’s hand/ All my days I will sing in praise/ Of your forest, waters, your shining sand…

Grenada is the spice island of the Caribbean. You can drive up and down the streets the whole day and never know what awaits you around the corner. We’re in the capital called St George’s. Our guide Mr Mundu seems struck with verbal diarrhea. He just doesn’t stop talking while driving us from one end to the other of the pretty island. Grenada cricket stadium is a must-see item. Well, I’m not a cricket buff but it won’t hurt to take some pictures of the place where the 2007 World Cup happened.

So off we drive to the giant saucer-like stadium. We see a blue coaster ahead of us. Suddenly Harry Belafonte’s lyric still lingering in my head gets thrown out of the window. ‘Vivian Richards in the bus’ screams Mundu. So an exciting chase ensues with us tailgating the bus. I’ve got to take a picture of King Viv, I say. So off I ran with my camera and stopped Sir Vivian in his tracks. The third best batsman of the century according to Wisden, the bible of cricket, looked amused. Curtly Ambrose too paused to hear what I had to say. I’m from Imran Khan’s country, I proudly announced to everyone around. Viv smiled and posed for a photo. We talked a bit. Imran Khan nominated Viv Richards as the best ever batsman against ‘genuine fast bowling.’ The West Indian seniors are here playing their old rival England in Grenada Cricket Classics 2009, from October 7.

The Grenada Cricket Classics is an annual event featuring clashes between English and West Indies cricketing legends such as Allan Lamb, Derek Randall, John Emburey versus the legendary heroes of Caribbean cricket like Joel Garner, Curtly Ambrose, Richie Richardson and ‘The King’ Sir Viv Richards. ‘Make no mistake — old rivalries are still as strong as ever and these former heroes do everything possible to put one over their old enemies.’

Enough of cricket. Now something about the slaves whom the British and the French locked up in ‘slave pens.’ Mundu points to the pens. His stories of cruelty are dampeners to the picture perfect scenic beauty around us — the beaches shimmering in the white sand; the sea a pool of emerald green; the lush palm trees green with raindrops and wild flowers blooming radiantly with abandon.

‘Even after slavery was banned, the merchants went to India and lured people to come to the Caribbean with promises of giving them lands to till which they would own,’ he drones on. ‘But once these unfortunate creatures boarded the boats, they were seized and made galley slaves. Several died en route and their bodies were tossed into the ocean. Those who survived were brought on the islands in chains and locked up in cages. By day they toiled in the cane fields and by night they were forced to make babies. Big men were matched with small women and small men were matched with big women for a baby-making slave factory.’

The British and the French who ruled in the Caribbean were the worst specimens of humanity. The ‘Caribs’ as the local population was called lived in slavery for centuries. But when Grenada got its independence in 1974 from the British, more tragedy followed. The political parties wrestled for power and in 1979 after a revolution, Maurice Bishop became the prime minister. He got pally with Cuba and the Soviet Union which didn’t wash well with the then American President Reagan.

In October of 1983, Bishop and his seven most powerful ministers were rounded up by the armed forces of Grenada, brought to St George’s Fort atop a hill and lined up against a stone wall to face the firing squad. According to one witness, before he died Bishop said: ‘My God, my God. They have turned the guns against the people.’

Our guide points to the bullet holes in the wall of the fort. ‘I was so upset because I knew all these people personally,’ says Mundu. ‘Their bodies were never discovered. We’re told they were burnt and the ashes thrown in the sea.’

Soon after Bishop’s execution, President Reagan ordered the invasion of Grenada. Codenamed ‘Operation Fury’ several hundred US soldiers landed in St George’s. The invasion was criticised by the UK, Canada and the UN General Assembly calling it a ‘flagrant violation of international law.’ Strangely enough the invasion was welcomed by the people of Grenada who were fed up with civil strife and internal bloodshed.

October 25 each year is commemorated as a Thanksgiving Day to celebrate the American invasion. It is a national holiday! Earlier this year the international airport was officially re-named Maurice Bishop airport to remember the slain leader. The main road that takes us from the airport to the town is also named after him.

Price to PepsiCo for Not Being in Court: $1.26 Billion

What's the cost of not showing up to court? For PepsiCo Inc., it's a $1.26 billion default judgment. A Wisconsin state court socked the company with the monster award in a case alleging that PepsiCo stole the idea to bottle and sell purified water from two Wisconsin men.

Now the company is scrambling to salvage the situation. The damages award was handed down on Sept. 30. PepsiCo filed motions to vacate the order and dismiss the claims on Oct. 13, saying it wasn't even aware of the lawsuit until Oct. 6.

The litigation began in April when Charles Joyce and James Voigt sued the soft drink maker and two of its distributors, alleging they had misappropriated trade secrets from confidential discussions the plaintiffs had with the distributors in 1981 about selling purified water. The information was illicitly passed to PepsiCo, which used it to develop and sell Aquafina bottled water, the plaintiffs allege in the case filed in the Circuit Court of Jefferson County before Judge Jacqueline Erwin.

In court documents, PepsiCo argues it was improperly served with the Wisconsin lawsuit in North Carolina, but also asks the court to excuse the corporate bureaucracy that buried a legal document for weeks. While plaintiffs say they served the lawsuit in June on PepsiCo's registered agent in North Carolina, where the company is incorporated, PepsiCo says its law department at the company's Purchase, N.Y.-based headquarters was not notified until September.

"The bottom line is there was a defect in the process for us, but also for" the plaintiffs, said PepsiCo spokesman Joe Jacuzzi, who called the case "highly dubious."

Robert Roth, a lawyer for PepsiCo at Menomonee, Wis.-based Niebler, Pyzyk, Roth & Carrig, couldn't be reached for comment. Another lawyer for PepsiCo, Dean Panos, a partner at Chicago-based Jenner & Block, declined to comment.

In court papers, PepsiCo claims it first received a legal document related to the case from the North Carolina agent on Sept. 15 when a copy of a co-defendant's letter was forwarded to Deputy General Counsel Tom Tamoney in PepsiCo's law department. Tamoney's secretary, Kathy Henry, put the letter aside and didn't tell anyone about it because she was "so busy preparing for a board meeting," PepsiCo said in its Oct. 13 motion to vacate.

When Henry received a forwarded copy of the plaintiff's motion for default judgment on Oct. 5, she sent that to Yvonne Mazza, a legal assistant for Aquafina matters. Remembering that she still had the other document, Henry passed it to Mazza too. The next day Mazza sent the documents to David Wexler, a department attorney, and he "immediately" called the agent to get a copy of the complaint.

Lawyers for PepsiCo distributors Wis-Pak Inc. and Carolina Canners Inc. made court appearances in June and July. PepsiCo was at a loss to explain why it hadn't heard about the case from them. "It's just another unfortunate thing that didn't come together," Jacuzzi said.

In seeking to dismiss the case, PepsiCo argues that the statute of limitations should preclude the lawsuit, brought 15 years after the company started selling Aquafina and more than two decades after the alleged confidential talks. Moreover, "the $1.26 billion judgment that has been entered is unprecedented in size and justice requires that PepsiCo have a chance to defend itself," the company said.

The lead plaintiffs lawyer, David Van Dyke of Chicago-based Cassiday Schade, said Wisconsin courts have been "pretty clear that they don't like" vacating default judgments. "There is a possibly that a judge may say we're going to litigate the damages aspect of it," Van Dyke said.

A hearing is scheduled for Nov. 6.

Former Test Umpire Shepherd Dead at 68

Shepherd had a reasonably successful, though late-starting, first class playing career for Gloucestershire, stretching from 1965 to 1979, and though he never came close to international selection he was popular both with his team-mates and the Gloucestershire supporters. He started with a bang, scoring 108 on debut against Oxford University, and made eleven more hundreds over the years, though only twice (in 1969 and 1975) did he average over 30. Never the slimmest of men even in his younger days, he relied more on his fine shot placement than speed across the ground, and his bowling was almost non-existent: he took only two wickets in his entire career. One famous incident at the Gloucestershire Cricket Club saw Shepherd hitting the ball so hard into the crowd that it knocked out a spectator reading a newspaper. The spectator was taken to hospital and recovered with only minor injuries.

In 1981, David Shepherd began his second career in cricket, and the one which was to make him world-famous, when he was appointed as a first-class umpire. Quickly recognised as being one of the fairest-minded and most able officials in the game, within two years he was part of the umpiring panel for the 1983 World Cup, and within four he was standing in his first Test: the fourth Test of the 1985 Ashes series at Old Trafford. Standing with him in this test was Dickie Bird.

From then on, Shepherd became a fixture on the international scene, his round figure instantly recognisable by players and spectators alike. Perhaps his most famous quirk was his habit of lifting one foot off the ground whenever the score reached 111, or multiples thereof, they being regarded as unlucky by Shepherd in a ritual dating back to his childhood cricket team days. The number 111 is known as the "Nelson", and is considered unlucky towards the Batsman. This superstition has been the major focus of many pieces of sporting artwork, including a statue dedicated to him near Lord's Cricket Ground in London. Also famous was his tendency to shake his hand while signalling fours; to this day, many fans in cricket crowds mimic his action while celebrating fours.

He was part of the ICC's first panel of neutral umpires when this policy was adopted for international cricket in the 1990s, and retained his place unbroken until his retirement from umpiring in 2005.

As his retirement loomed, Shepherd was lauded wherever he went. He was given a guard of honour by the New Zealand and Australian teams during the series between the two countries in March 2005. After his last Test, that between West Indies and Pakistan at Kingston, Jamaica in early June, Shepherd was presented with a bat by West Indian captain Brian Lara. He was in fact given special dispensation by the ICC to umpire in an England Test at Lords as his final Test, but turned down the opportunity to maintain the ICC's neutral umpiring policy for Test matches.

Shepherd was awarded the MBE for services to cricket in 1987, and he became the President of his home county club Devon in 2006.

Shepherd was born in Bideford, Devon and latterly lived in the nearby seaside village of Instow. He married his long time partner, Jenny, in 2008. He died on 27 October 2009 after a long struggle with cancer.

Shepherd, widely regarded as one of the best umpires of his generation, stood in 92 Tests and 172 one-day internationals, including three World Cup finals, between 1983-2005.

He was perhaps best known to cricket fans around the world for his superstitious habit of standing on one leg when the score reached 'Nelson', England's supposedly 'unlucky' number of 111 or multiples such as 222.

'I feel very saddened this has happened,' Dickie Bird, who umpired many matches alongside his fellow Englishman, told Sky Sports.

'He was a fine umpire, we spent many happy hours together. He was a great man and a tremendous man to umpire with. He was a good bloke, he'll be sadly missed and he was a great friend.'

Car Bomb Blast in Peshawar, 95 Killed 250 Injured

A car bomb tore through a packed market in Peshawar on Wednesday, killing 95 people and trapping casualties under pulverised shops, in one of Pakistan's deadliest attacks.

The explosion detonated in a crowded street in the Meena Bazaar of Peshawar, one of the most congested parts of the volatile northwest city, sparking a huge blaze and ending in carnage routine shopping trips for scores of people.

The attack underscored the scale of the militant threat in Pakistan just hours after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Islamabad for three days of talks with political and military leaders.

‘There was a huge blast. There was smoke and dust everywhere. I saw people dying and screaming on the road,’ witness Mohammad Siddique told AFP.

Angry flames leapt out of burning wreckage and smoke billowed in the air as a building collapsed into dust and rubble. Police evacuated panicked residents from the smouldering wreckage and firemen hosed down the flames.

‘It was a car bomb. Some people are still trapped in a building. We are trying to rescue them,’ bomb disposal official Shafqat Malik told reporters.

‘We have received 86 dead bodies, 213 people were injured, we are facing a shortage of blood,’ Doctor Hamid Afridi, head of the Peshawar's main Lady Reading Hospital told AFP as staff declared an emergency.

A hospital official outside the casualty wing made a public announcement, appealing on people to donate blood as doctors spoke of harrowing scenes.

‘There are body parts. There are people. There are burnt people. There are dead bodies. There are wounded, I'm not in a position to count. But my estimate is that the death toll may rise to 70,’ said Doctor Muslim Khan.

Rescue workers and government officials had warned that casualties were trapped under collapsed shops at the bomb site, where a large blaze, a toppled building and the narrow streets hampered the relief effort.

‘I am counting the dead bodies, 86 are confirmed dead, the injured are more than 200, there are children and women among the dead,’ Mohammad Gul, a police official at the hospital, told AFP.

The area was one of the most congested parts of Peshawar and full of women's clothing shops and general market stalls popular in the city of 2.5 million.

‘A building structure has collapsed... People are trapped in the fire and buildings. This is the most congested area of the city,’ Sahibzada Mohammad Anees, a senior local administrative official, told a private TV channel.

Peshawar, a teeming metropolis, is a gateway to Pakistan's northwest tribal belt, where the military is pressing a major offensive against Pakistani Taliban militants blamed for some of the worst of the recent carnage.

Tensions have soared across Pakistan following a spike in violence blamed on Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked extremists in which more than 240 people have died this month.

Another Blast Rocks Peshawar, 20 Killed

Another blast had been reported in a busy market named peepal mandi in peshawar, in which 20 peoples (mostly women) had been killed. 15 shops and some godowns had been set on fire near the place of blast.

City Policeman Akhtar Munir said ‘It was a bomb blast. We don't know exactly about casualties, we're busy with the rescue operation’.

It is just the time when US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is on her visit to Pakistan.

Obama vows not to rush Afghan troop decision

US President Barack Obama is vowing that despite criticism that he is dithering, he will not rush a fateful decision on whether to send tens of thousands more troops to Afghanistan.

Obama on Monday promised US troops a clear mission before pitching them into the worsening battle, after conducting the latest meeting of his war council, which is mounting an exhaustive review of Afghan and Pakistan strategy.

He spoke on another grim day for US troops in Afghanistan, after 14 Americans died in two helicopter crashes, underscoring the growing toll of the increasingly unpopular eight-year war.

'I will never hesitate to use force to protect the American people or our vital interests, I also promise you this - and this is very important as we consider our next steps in Afghanistan,' Obama told military personnel in Florida.

'I will never rush the solemn decision of sending you into harm's way.

'I won't risk your lives unless it is absolutely necessary, and if it is necessary, we will back you up.

'Because you deserve the strategy, the clear mission, the defined goals and the equipment and support you need to get the job done.'

Obama critics, some senior Republicans among them, have complained Obama's weeks-long security review is dragging on too long. Former vice president Dick Cheney last week accused the president of 'dithering.'

The president flew to Florida from Washington, after meeting his top national security advisors in the White House Situation Room.

The talks ran longer than expected, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said, but added there was no change to the expectation that Obama would announce the eagerly awaited decision 'in the coming weeks.'

Obama said last week that he might make up his mind on war commander General Stanley McChrystal's request for 40,000 more troops before the Afghan run-off election on November 7, but might not announce the decision.

Political pressure over the war is mounting on Obama, following revelations of corruption in the Afghan government, a quickening insurgency and a spike in deaths of US and Nato troops.

In his remarks at a naval air station in Jacksonville, Florida, Obama paid tribute to 14 American service personnel killed in two helicopter crashes in Afghanistan, saying they died to thwart Al-Qaeda's hopes of a terror haven.

'Our prayers are with these service members, their civilian colleagues and the families who loved them,' said Obama.

'While no words can ease the ache in their hearts today, may they find some comfort in knowing this: like all those who give their lives in service to America, they were doing their duty and they were doing this nation proud.

'They were willing to risk their lives, in this case, to prevent Afghanistan from once again becoming a safe haven for alQaeda and its extremist allies. And today, they gave their lives ... to protect ours.'

As expectations mounted that Obama is reaching a critical point in his decision making on the war, Senator John Kerry, who played a key role in brokering the run-off election, warned of the risks of McChrystal's request.

'He understands the necessity of conducting a smart counterinsurgency in a limited geographic area. But I believe his current plan reaches too far, too fast,' said Kerry, who met Obama at the White House last week.

'We do not yet have the critical guarantees of governance and of development capacity, the other two legs of counterinsurgency,' Kerry told the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington.

The Washington Post earlier reported that the war review would consider the results of a top secret Pentagon war game on two possible options for future Afghan strategy.

The exercise examined the likely outcome of sending 44,000 more troops to conduct a full-scale counterinsurgency effort aimed at building a stable Afghan government that can control most of the country, the report said.

But it also examined adding 10,000 to 15,000 more soldiers and Marines as part of an approach dubbed 'counterterrorism plus.'

The Post meanwhile said Tuesday that a top State Department diplomat disillusioned with US involvement in Afghanistan had become the first US official known to resign in protest over the eight-year war.

Concerned 36-year-old Matthew Hoh could become a prominent critic of the administration's Afghanistan policy, government officials had scrambled to convince him to stay, including a one-on-one meeting with Obama's US special representative for the region Richard Holbrooke.

Tackling Extremism

As violence in Pakistan surges and ordinary Pakistanis feel increasingly insecure in their own homes, we cannot afford to stop at just a military response to this problem.

HARDLY a day now goes by without some new development linked to terrorism in Pakistan. Thousands have lost their lives and millions have had to flee their homes. Even the army GHQ, Pakistan’s most heavily fortified institution, has not been spared attack and schools and universities are no longer considered safe.

However, it is important to remember that the seeds of this current malaise were sown much earlier than today — I know this because I am living testimony to it. In 1999, when the Pakistan military was preoccupied with Kargil and the cricket team had lost the World Cup final to Australia, I was particularly interested in another development the year before — the country’s newfound status as the seventh nuclear-armed state in the world.

The news of this ‘Islamic bomb’ was what drew me from Britain to Lahore in the summer of 1999, not yet 22 years old. Spurred on by revolutionary zeal and dreams of erecting an Islamist caliphate, I arrived as part of a van guard to set up a Pakistani branch of the global Islamist group Hizb ut Tahrir (HT). The plan was to radicalise the country and foment a military coup against the democratically elected ‘client’ ruler Nawaz Sharif, so that our future caliphate could go nuclear. I was determined not to let anything get in my way, and nothing really did.

During the following decade everything changed. Having spent four years as an Amnesty International prisoner of conscience in Egypt I had time to think, question and gain perspective on the extremist cause I had dedicated my life to.

It led me to finally understand the crucial difference between the faith of Islam and the political ideology of Islamism — a realisation that necessitated my leaving HT as I no longer believed in their ideas and the ‘Islamic’ justifications they used to support them. I thus decided to return to Pakistan this year, this time to push back against the insidious spread of Islamist extremism that I myself was partly responsible for.

Pakistan’s university campuses were the natural choice for me to start. Aided and supported by the local youth development NGO Bargad, I embarked on a fourweek, nationwide university tour to ad dress thousands of students on the bankruptcy of Islamist ideology. Along the way I was asked several times, often by students themselves, why I hadn’t chosen to go to madressahs first — after all, it seemed to be what everyone was doing.

My response was always the same: while it is true that the madressah system has supplied a steady stream of jihadists over the years, a little-highlighted fact is that the leading ideologues of Islamist movements have invariably been educated, are elite and socially mobile. After all, Bin Laden is an engineer and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, a doctor.

Many of the pseudo-intellectuals of HT are also highly educated, including the nuclear scientist and computer and telecom engineers who were recently arrested along with other HT activists during a police raid in Islamabad. It came as no surprise to me that nuclear scientists were among those accused of belonging to HT, considering that this is exactly why I was sent to Pakistan as far back as 1999.

In the year 2000, I had also personally met Pakistani Army officers in London, who had been training at Sandhurst. HT had recruited them to its cause, and then sent them back to Pakistan.

Back to the future, travelling across Pakistan’s provinces, visiting key campuses along the way, I had the valuable opportunity to engage directly with students on such issues. I told them my life story, my reasons for joining HT, my time in prison and why I eventually left.

In return, I heard from them about how they think and feel about Pakistan’s problems, and their aspirations for the future of their country. We discussed the need to tackle extremism on an ideological level, and the steps Pakistan would have to take towards a more democratic and pluralistic society and government. The reactions I received were mixed, but they spoke volumes for those who populate Pakistan’s universities.

Students from Sindh tended to be hugely receptive to my message, whilst those in Mirpur, Azad Kashmir, from where the majority of British Pakistanis hail, expressed much greater hostility towards the West. In Quetta, the prevailing preoccupation was with ‘Punjabi hegemony’; here I encountered popular revolu tionaries with little time for religious extremism but a hardened resolve to secede from Pakistan, in some cases through violence.

I was accused by some of being a ‘foreign agent’, while others wholeheartedly embraced my stance. I sometimes encountered a denial of Pakistan’s role in allowing extremism to breed within its borders, but also an acceptance that religion had been misused by various elements within the country. Irrespective of their leanings, in every university, people had something to say.

Ironically, the most violent opposition to my efforts didn’t come from Pakistani students at all — it came from a BritishPakistani member of HT who decided to punch me one evening in a cafe in Lahore. I later learned that he, like several others, had left the UK to recruit students in Pakistan, and to do this had started teaching at a private university in Lahore.

It was sad evidence to the fact that British citizens continue to export Islamism to Pakistan, along with playing a crucial role in exporting the ideology to countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Kenya, Mauritius, India, Egypt and Denmark. Only when the govern ments of Britain and Pakistan wake up to take responsibility for the rot on their doorsteps will we ever be able to reverse these trends.

As violence in Pakistan surges and ordinary Pakistanis feel increasingly insecure in their own homes, we cannot afford to stop at just a military response to this problem. Greater emphasis needs to be given to winning the struggle for ideas; to foster an understanding that taking a stance against Islamism does not equate to a rejection of Islam.

This requires greater civil society engagement, popularising counter-extremism narratives through the media, and the promotion of secular spaces within society and the state.

While it is true that such measures rarely have quantifiable results and require great resources in terms of time and effort, we can ill afford not to implement them, for without this vision it is unlikely that Pakistan can overcome the current moral dilemma and political crisis it finds itself in. ¦ The writer is director of the Quilliam Foundation, a counter-extremism think tank based in the UK.

Kashmiris Observe Black Day

A one-day strike to protest the arrival of Indian troops in Indian-administered Kashmir in 1947 shut most shops and businesses in the disputed region's main city on Tuesday.

Many banks, post offices and government offices in Srinagar, the urban hub of militants and separatist politicians fighting to end India's rule in Kashmir, were also closed.

‘The strike is to protest India's occupation of Kashmir,’ separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani said in a statement.

Indian troops arrived in Kashmir on October 27, 1947.

Maharaja Hari Singh initially held out for independence for Kashmir when Britain withdrew from the Indian subcontinent in August 1947.

After Indian troops restored peace in Kashmir, then prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru said he would agree to United Nations resolutions calling for a plebiscite on the region's status.

India now considers the resolutions obsolete and wants a bilateral agreement with Pakistan, which controls the northern part of Kashmir. Both countries claim the region in its entirety.

The dispute has caused two wars between India and Pakistan. An insurgency against New Delhi's rule that started in 1989 has claimed at least 47,000 lives.

US Diplomat Resigns Over Afghan War

A State Department diplomat disillusioned with US involvement in Afghanistan has become the first US official known to resign in protest over the eight-year war, The Washington Post said Tuesday.

Matthew Hoh, 36, was the senior State Department official in Afghanistan's Zabul province, a hotbed for Taliban militants, until he resigned last month.

His background in both civil and military fields may have seemed the perfect fit for President Barack Obama's administration as it steps up its counterinsurgency efforts in the war-torn country.

But in a September 10 letter to the State Department's personnel chief, Hoh wrote: ‘I have lost understanding of and confidence in the strategic purposes of the United States' presence in Afghanistan.’

‘I have doubts and reservations about our current strategy and planned future strategy, but my resignation is based not upon how we are pursuing this war, but why and to what end,’ added the former Marine Corps captain, according to comments carried by the Post.

The resignation, the newspaper said, ‘sent ripples all the way to the White House,’ and government officials scrambled to convince Hoh to stay, concerned that he could become a prominent critic of the fledgling administration's Afghanistan policy.

Hoh was offered a senior staff-level job at the US embassy in Kabul, which he turned down, and was flown to Washington to meet one-on-one with the US special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke.

‘We took his letter very seriously, because he was a good officer,’ Holbrooke said in an interview with the daily.

Holbrooke initially convinced Hoh — who had also served in uniform at the Pentagon and as a civilian in Iraq — that by remaining in government, he could more effectively change US policy in Afghanistan.

But the diplomat changed his mind a week later and again tended his resignation, which became final on Wednesday.

Staying on ‘wasn't the right thing to do,’ he told the Post.

As Obama weighs a decision to potentially dispatch tens of thousands more US troops to the Afghanistan cauldron, Hoh said he decided to speak out to influence public opinion.

‘I'm not some peacenik, pot-smoking hippie who wants everyone to be in love,’ he said. ‘I want people in Iowa, people in Arkansas, people in Arizona, to call their congressman and say, 'Listen, I don't think this is right.'’

Growing Up Bin Laden: Osama's Son Speaks

For Omar Bin Laden, the fourth eldest of Osama bin Laden's 20 known children, the awful realization that his own father was a terrorist mastermind plotting a global conspiracy that would destroy the lives of thousands of innocent people and even his own family came gradually. Of course, there were warning signs: Omar's childhood was marked by regular beatings and survivalist training; there was the growing army of ruffians and retainers who called his father "Prince"; and then there was that Afghan mullah who had given his father an entire mountain in Tora Bora.

But as he recounts in a book co-written with his mother, Omar — now 28 years old — found it hard to give up hope that a man who had killed so many people might one day turn his back on violence and become a normal father. The younger bin Laden fled Afghanistan only when it become clear that Osama was planning a massive attack on the United States; but he still couldn't accept that his father was responsible for 9/11 until months later when he heard the familiar voice on audiotape claiming credit for the attacks. "That was the moment to set aside the dream I had indulged, feverishly hoping the world was wrong and it was not my father who brought about that horrible day," he writes. "This knowledge drives me into the blackest hole."

As the first book written about Osama bin Laden with help from anyone in the bin Laden family, Growing Up bin Laden: Osama's Wife and Son Take Us Inside Their Secret World (St. Martin's Press) is a valuable — if limited — glimpse into the personal life of the world's most wanted man. In recollections from Omar and his mother, Najwa bin Laden (the first of Osama's five known wives), and with the assistance of American author Jean Sasson, the book paints a picture of Osama as a towering figure whose noble demeanor inspired fierce loyalty, but also an absolute authoritarian who wanted as many wives and children as possible in order to have foot soldiers for Islamic jihad. "My sons, your limbs must react to my thinking as though my brain was in your head," he told his children when they complained about their life in al-Qaeda camps.

However, Osama the father remains almost as elusive to his son (and the reader) as he is to the FBI — too consumed by jihad to care much for his children, too distant to seem like a full person. But Omar's memoir itself — which forms the core of the book — presents a strange and fascinating coming-of-age-story about a young boy groomed by his father to take over a worldwide terrorist enterprise who chooses instead to get a job, start a family, and play with animals. If the book suffers somewhat from the limitations of translation and overly formal prose, the thrill of being a fly on the wall of the bin Laden family drama quickly takes over.

Omar's early childhood is both charmed and abusive. Though the family inhabited a mansion in the Saudi city of Jeddah and owned horse ranches in the desert, their father refused to let them have toys, take modern medicine, or use almost any modern conveniences except for light bulbs, automobiles and firearms. Though Osama would punish his boys for laughing or smiling and send them on forced marches in the desert without water, Omar and his brothers could at least console themselves with the honor of being sons of the man who helped defeat the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, a hero in both the Muslim world and the West. "When I was a young boy I worshipped my father, whom I believed to be not only the most brilliant but also the tallest man in the world," Omar writes. "I would have to go to Afghanistan to meet a man taller than my father. In truth, I would have to go to Afghanistan to truly come to know my father."

The nightmare began in earnest after the Saudi government banished Osama from the Kingdom for railing against Riyadh's decision to allow American soldiers on Saudi soil to repel Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait. From the new family home in Sudan, while Osama plotted to overthrow the Saudi monarchy and the American government, Omar noticed some dangerous new arrivals in their Khartoum neighborhood, including Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leader of an Egyptian Islamist movement who becomes al-Qaeda's second in command. When members of another extremist group raped one of Omar's male friends, al-Zawahiri took justice into his own hands — by executing the victim.

Why Flying Choppers in Afghanistan Is So Deadly?

The 14 Americans who died in Afghanistan on Monday were a reminder that U.S. troops who die in Afghanistan are twice as likely to be killed in helicopter crashes as are their counterparts in Iraq. And the reasons for that discrepancy are not to be found in the country's skies, but on the ground — the Taliban's growing footprint has forced the U.S. to be far more reliant on moving troops and supplies by air. And the rugged terrain often makes helicopters the only option, even as the altitudes involved greatly increase the risks.

Afghanistan's few roads are now increasingly monitored — and mined — by insurgents, meaning that many of the 180 U.S. outposts spread across the country can now only be reached by helicopters. "We don't have freedom of movement on the ground," a senior Army logistics officer says. "We're resupplying between 30% and 40% of our forward operating bases by air because we just can't get to them on the ground."

That forces the U.S. military to rely on helicopters, not only to reach remote outposts, but also to carry out dangerous combat missions that thinly spread troops couldn't do without the helicopter's ability to hopscotch hundreds of miles. It was precisely such an antidrug mission that a twin-rotor Army MH-47 Chinook was flying when it went down in western Afghanistan, killing 10 Americans including three civilians with the Drug Enforcement Administration. Earlier in the day, a Marine UH-1 Huey troop helicopter collided in midair with an A-1 Cobra helicopter gunship over southern Helmand province, killing four. U.S. officials said they don't believe hostile fire caused either crash. The death toll could rise because some of the 28 people left injured by the crashes are in critical condition.

"Helicopters are not shot down in battle very much in either place [Iraq or Afghanistan]," says Brookings Institution defense analyst Michael O'Hanlon. He and his colleagues are keeping running tallies of U.S. fatalities in both theaters. While 5% of U.S. deaths in Iraq have been caused by helicopter crashes — 216 out of 4,348 — the total is 12% in Afghanistan — 101 of 866 — even before Monday's losses. "The main issues [responsible for the higher rate of helicopter-crash casualties in Afghanistan] have to do with terrain, weather and of course frequency of use," O'Hanlon says.

The U.S. has over the past year doubled its number of helicopters based in Afghanistan to about 225, but troop numbers have risen even faster, making for a more acute chopper shortage. Helicopters are swift but delicate machines. The physics of flight make them inherently unstable, and therefore less reliable, than fixed-wing aircraft which generate their lift from stationary wings instead of egg-beater-like rotor blades. More critically, chopper pilots are commonly expected to fly in hot weather at high altitudes, where less-dense air offers them less control over their aircraft.

Air Force Captain Matthew Miller wrote about the challenges of flying in Afghanistan after returning from a four-month deployment there in 2007. His medevac unit, from Georgia's Moody Air Force Base, had lost three helicopters and seven crew members in the two wars. Enemy fire had been a factor in none of the Afghan crashes. "In Iraq, helicopter pilots face a greater prospect of being shot at by ground fire," Miller wrote. "In Afghanistan, the greatest threat is the terrain." He described flying in Afghanistan as "'graduate level' piloting more challenging than cruising over the flatlands of Iraq. "It didn't take long to feel the perils of mountainous flying in Afghanistan," he added. "Between Iraq and Afghanistan, most helicopter pilots I've spoken to consider Afghanistan the more dangerous place to fly."