Cameron backs Pakistan's bin Laden myopia!

Gripping viewing as Osama bin Laden is "taken out"

David Cameron is saying sweet things this morning about the Pakistani Government. He said it would be wrong to "throw up our hands in despair and walk away" and not engage with Pakistan. Well, that may be true in part but it does not absolve President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani of Pakistan of being singularly slack in detecting the whereabouts of a man they kept saying was not in Pakistan. David Cameron goes on to say we should support the "democratic forces" of Pakistan. There is virtually nothing democratic about the country. If I'm to believe that's a democracy then I say Barbara Cartland never dressed in pink!

How can we support democratic forces that constantly cause Christians and other minorities grief and misery? That kill opposition leaders? That rig elections? Imran Khan, the cricketer turned politician bemoaned the lack of democratic decency in the country. Perhaps he should have a chat with Cameron?

Last year David Cameron was accusing Pakistan of looking "both ways" on terrorism. Most people murmured in agreement on hearing that. There will be muttering today rather than murmuring. He told the BBC's Today programme, "Of course there will be lots of questions about what sort of support system did Bin Laden have in Pakistan - and we need those questions answered - but as we stand today we simply don't know the answers.

"If we turn away from them and give up on them and say 'this is all too difficult and complicated because we don't always get what we want', you are left with a nuclear power in danger of massive extremism and massive instability."

So what are we to do? Go into Pakistan and run the show for them? That is not possible. However, 60 odd years of running things their way has not achieved much for most Pakistanis. It can't be a toss-up between a nuclear bomb and a group of nutters on one side and a nuclear bomb and a group of heavy-handed autocrats on the other. I doubt if we will ever get answers to the sort of support system Bin Laden had in Pakistan. That he got his groceries delivered is blindingly obvious. He had satellite TV, so he was watching something to keep his mind occupied. I mean, right next door to the military academy! "Keep it under your hats, fellas, but bin Laden's moved in next door!"

And Cameron's still linking the Taliban with al-Qaeda. The two may have links on occasions but are no better than hyenas grappling for morsels. One has to wonder who our enemies really are. It is said that the bin Laden family is made up of almost 800 kinsfolk. Osama bin Laden's father was a prolific breeder of humanity. Osama was his 17th child out of 54. And other bin Laden men contributed to the number. The Saudi Binladen Group manages all the cash that swirls around. It is a global oil and equity management conglomerate grossing $5 billion U.S. dollars annually, and one of the largest construction firms in the Islamic world, with offices in London and Geneva. According to an American diplomat, the bin Laden family owns part of Microsoft and Boeing among other companies. So what do we really know? Was Osama the only black sheep of this extended family?

Politics can get very murky indeed. According to this and several other websites "The Bush Administration gave the Taliban $43 million in May of 2001 for their destruction of Afghan opium crops in February. Drugs and terrorism go hand in hand. Afghanistan had been the world's largest producer of opium/heroin, claiming close to 70% of the world's total production. The amount of drug cash flowing into Wall Street and U.S. banks was estimated to be around $250-$300 billion a year. The history of the drug trade in Central Asia is intimately related to the CIA's covert operations. The U.S., directly or indirectly, helped to fund the WTC attacks. George Bush, Sr. was in charge of all U.S. intelligence and narcotics operations from 1981 through 1989. It was Bush (the elder) who directly nourished and nurtured bin Laden's evolution."

But aren't the poppy crops still flourishing? Aren't the banks still flushing drug money through the system? Until the right questions are asked the wrong answers will be given to us! David Cameron needs a set of pithily pointed questions that give proper answers. We deserve no less.

Bin Laden's Abbottabad compound is prized property indeed!

Half private compound - half private prison

I'm just wondering about those Pakistani authorities. Did it ever occur to them that a fortified house with fortified walls was something a tad odd in town? Abbottabad is apparently a sought after place for learning. It has a highly regarded set of educational establishments. Several secondary schools and the Pakistan Military Academy too. But not so high that a student might ask "Please sir, who lives in that fancy house we pass on the way to college?". Silence all round we are led to believe.

Do they have planning laws in Abbottabad? I can't believe all the banging, hammering and drilling went unnoticed. Very strange. Still no word from the Pakistan government. Maybe they're in shock. The world's most wanted found right under their noses. And it happened in Abbottabad, a town founded during the high days of British India by Major James Abbott in 1853. Would the major have been caught napping?

Another thing about Abbottabad is that it has long been a favourite of tourists. They've been flocking to this beautiful part of the world since colonial times. There are quite a few guest houses in town. Well, one less now! It wouldn't be that surprising if some enterprising soul adds the infamous compound to the tourist trail. "..and this is where Osama Bin Laden lived...."

Osama Bin Laden dead. Well, it had to happen one day if only by natural causes. This way, though, we know where he was and how long he'd been there. Spain used to be the hideaway of choice for many undesirables. Seems Pakistan is that place now.

Osama Bin Laden - Wanted Dead or Alive! Well, it's dead now

Killed in a compound not a cave!

So Osama Bin Laden is finally cornered and killed. Not in the Afghan hills. Not in the sandy deserts of Saudi Arabia. Not even in a cave in the Caucasus Mountains. No, he was found in PAKISTAN!! Right under the noses of those dozy "democrats" that the Americans trusted all these years. 35 miles away from Islamabad in a fortified compound enjoying some status as a recluse and a reject.

You'd think in a country as garrulous as Pakistan that somebody would have talked. In fact, it is unbelievable that the country's bigwigs did not know. Right now the president and prime minister are huddled together concocting some get-out clauses to put in a statement. Thank goodness the US authorities saw fit not to tell the Pakistanis what was going on. Pakistan has been a loose cannon ever since it was created. Anyway, they now know the world knows they can't be trusted. Since 2005 Bin Laden has been stuck in this compound, sipping mint tea and talking turkey with passing vagrants. Obviously somebody spoke up in order for the special forces to do the ultimate deed. But it's all grapevine stuff in order to put a stop to the wild goose chase that Bin Laden started. Don't ask the Pakistani president on a duck shoot. He'd fire off at the first flutter he saw.

With Bin Laden at rest, if not at peace, the world can move on. Hopefully the al-Queda franchise can go bust. Let them fade away. Today is a good day for President Obama. He stuck to the hunt for Bin Laden without fanfare and futile gestures. And he was not afraid to do the right thing. Sticking to diplomatic niceties would have been crazy. He ordered the raid and he got a result.

Osama Bin Laden killed. The White House releases information that public enemy number one is killed.

Woman found dead on fire in Bradford

A woman has been found on a fire behind a house in Bradford, according to this BBC report. Sounds terrible. But as usual the BBC gives us scant indication but ever so nudge-nudgingly suggests that it may be an honour killing of sorts. At least, that's what my vibes tell me. Maybe it's me jumping to conclusions. But the link with Pakistan suggests otherwise it seems.

I hope that the police solve this as soon as possible. One of the outrages in this country is the way some young women from the sub-continent are treated by family cabals of tribal elders all hell-bent on continuing shameful control freakery as if they are still huddled together in a faraway village. If anything needs publicising loud and clear it is the abomination of this practice of treating young women as some sort of sacrificial cleansing vehicle for the supposed shame of the male perpetrators of this cruelty and wickedness.

If there has been a crime committed here, then those guilty of such deeds should be held up for public awareness, so no other self-appointed "community" elder gets such ideas and that it is known what everyone thinks of their vile vanity.

British boy found in Pakistan

Yesterday the BBC was leading with the story that Sahil Saeed had been found in Pakistan. This little boy was abducted by people seemingly bent on making money. He is just an innocent pawn in the machinations of adults.

Firstly, I thought the BBC overdid their political correctness by emphasising that Sahil was a "British boy", as if to ram home to any half-witted incorrect persons they must repeat the mantra. I googled British Boy and the BBC's lead in all this has come up trumps. Sahil is top of the list! I would have thought just describing him as a little boy from Oldham would have sufficed, but then I'm not as mind-bent as the BBC is currently. The Today Programme repeated "British Boy" in rather the same manner as the "Winslow Boy". We all had to know who he was and what he was.

Then there was the David Miliband contribution. The Foreign Office is, as Enoch Powell once described it, a nest of vipers. The media is in a spin about ransom money. Talk of £100,000 being paid for Sahil's release. If I was betting on this, I'd say it is more likely than not that some cash was paid. Pakistan is presently a state populated by bandits and rogues. Decent people live in fear of the crooks and crazies. Miliband pompously states that Britain doesn't pay ransom money. Yes and no is the answer here, I think.

Sahil went to visit his grandmother and got caught up in intrigue and plots. Thankfully, he has come to no harm. Interestingly the yacht couple in Somalia are having no such luck. Of course, Miliband is involved in their case. But I am letting my fevered brow think that doing deals in Pakistan may get some brownie points later on, whereas giving a gun-toting Somali pirate even a measly penny is too much. No oil, no gas, no mileage in Somalia worth contemplating. Pakistan is different.

The capture and release of Sahil Saeed tells us far more about the politics of the world. And the plot thickens by moving to Spain. When Sahil grows up, I hope he is able to be a fantastic influence on the world because we certainly need to sort out a few things adults are getting wrong.

Sub-continental circumcision row!

This is a crazy world indeed. We are fighting a war in Afghanistan, euphemistically called a campaign by the government, and we are told categorically that the enemy is a terrorist organisation hell bent on exporting its beastliness to the streets of London and other western capitals.

Unfortunately, the people we are trying to help by extending democracy and civilisation as we know it do not know who the enemy is. Much debate is currently taking place on Pakistani internet forums about who is exactly who in terrorist circles. It has been "documented" that some Taliban fighters were not Muslims but Indians or other such. Uncircumcised males have been spotted in the numbers of corpses. So that concludes the Indians are up to their tricks. But hold on a minute, some people, like the Times of India are keen to point out this is not proof at all. "Pak blame fails Waziristan circumcision test!" trumpets this article. I like the term "Pak". Try using that in the Times of London! Many Waziris are so poor they can't afford to travel to a hospital or get a barber (ouch!) to do the operation for their boys.

So we don't really know who is who unless we get these Taliban types to drop their trousers! Maybe this is what General Stanley McChrystal should be doing if he wants to succeed in turning away from a "likely result in failure"?

http://www.pakdef.info/forum/showthread.php?t=9570&page=77

http://forum.pakistanidefence.com/index.php?showtopic=83146