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KARACHI: The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) on Thursday denied any involvement in the Karachi Ashura procession attack which killed 44 people and left dozens others injured.

Azam Tariq, the TTP spokesman, denied having any involvement in the attack and said militant commander Azmatullah Shaheen’s claim was baseless and that he ‘acted on his own will’.

The TTP, said Tariq, does not target public places in Pakistan.

Earlier, on Wednesday, Asmatullah Shaheen, a top militant commander based in South Waziristan told news agencies by telephone that the TTP was behind the attack, warning that they would carry out more such attacks and also target government installations.

—DawnNews

Thursday, 31 Dec, 2009

Philip M. Giraldi, PhD, is a former CIA counter-terrorism specialist and military intelligence officer. He was also foreign policy advisor to Ron Paul during his last presidential run.

US intelligence sources have confirmed Iran’s assertions that a document published by a British daily about Tehran’s nuclear program is a fabrication.

According to a former CIA official, US intelligence agents have found that the document, which was published by the Times of London on December 14, was fabricated by Israel or Britain, the Inter Press Service (IPS) reported on Monday.

The IPS report was penned by renowned investigative journalist Gareth Porter.

Philip Giraldi, who was a CIA counterterrorism official from 1976 to 1992, told IPS that intelligence sources say the US had nothing to do with forging the document.

He added, however, that US intelligence sources mainly suspect Israel of carrying out the forgery, although, they do not rule out the possibility of the British having played a part in it.

The Times article said that Iran had been secretly experimenting on a key component of a nuclear bomb called the “neutron initiator.”

Right after the article was published, Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehman-Parast dismissed the report as completely “baseless.”

The Times article did not identify the source of the document, but rather quoted comments by “an Asian intelligence source,” who claimed that his government believes that Tehran has been working on a neutron initiator since 2007.

“An Asian intelligence source” is a term some news media use to refer to Israeli intelligence officials. Read more…

WASHINGTON: The United States further distanced itself from the beleaguered Zardari government on Wednesday when the State Department stated clearly that if there was a legal judgment that changes the status of the government, “it is really an internal matter for Pakistan.”

State Department spokesman Philip Crowley was asked, at a press briefing about the US opinion or concerns if the government of President Zardari were to be deemed unconstitutional and, therefore, illegitimate.

His response was: “That ultimately is a judgment for the Pakistani people to make. You have an ongoing process between two branches of the Pakistani Government. It’s not for us to try to get in the middle of that. What is important is that the Pakistani Government and its leadership be seen as legitimate in the eyes of the Pakistani people. There was an election in Pakistan. President Zardari came to office through a legitimate parliamentary process. Prime Minister Gilani was elected by the Pakistani people. If there’s a legal judgment that changes the status of the government, that is really an internal matter for Pakistan.”

In reply to another question, Crowley said: “This is really an internal matter for the Pakistani Government. We continue to work closely with the government of President Zardari. Our concern is to, and we continue to work, to try to help build up the capacity of the Government of Pakistan to meet the needs of its own people. We just last week sent up the first report on our civilian assistance programmes under Kerry-Lugar-Berman. But as to what is happening with the president and other ministers, this is an internal matter.”

Story Via : THE NEWS

UNITED NATIONS: A United Nations agency UNFPA has said in its report that India lags behind Pakistan in literacy rate as the literacy rate here in Pakistan is much more higher than that of its rival neighbor.

According to report, total 32.3 percent male while 60.4 percent female aged above 15 years are literate in Pakistan,

But however, on the contrary to aforementioned calculation, there are only 23.1 percent male and 45.5 percent female aged over 15 years enjoy education in India.

via Pakistan ahead of India in literacy rate: UN.

American special forces have conducted multiple clandestine raids into Pakistan’s tribal areas as part of a secret war in the border region where Washington is pressing to expand its drone assassination programme.

A former Nato officer said the incursions, only one of which has been previously reported, occurred between 2003 and 2008, involved helicopter-borne elite soldiers stealing across the border at night, and were never declared to the Pakistani government.

“The Pakistanis were kept entirely in the dark about it. It was one of those things we wouldn’t confirm officially with them,” said the source, who had detailed knowledge of the operations.

Such operations are a matter of sensitivity in Pakistan. While public opinion has grudgingly tolerated CIA-led drone strikes in the tribal areas, any hint of American “boots on the ground” is greeted with virulent condemnation.

After the only publicly acknowledged special forces raid in September 2008, Pakistan’s foreign office condemned it as “a grave provocation” while the military threatened retaliatory action.

via US forces mounted secret Pakistan raids in hunt for al-Qaida | World news | The Guardian.

ISLAMABAD: Acting Attorney General Shah Khaver presented National Accountability Bureau (NAB) report regarding Swiss banks accounts to the Supreme Court (SC), Geo News reported Tuesday.

According to the NAB reports, there are at least six foreign bank accounts maintained by President Asif Ali Zardari and Benazir Bhutto. There are at least 13,113,000 dollars in these foreign bank accounts.

There are at least 46,343,353 dollars in the accounts of 5 companies owned by President Zardari and a company of Benazir Bhutto.

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) also presented to the apex court all the record from Geneva court in connection with the Swiss cases.

Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif’s counsel Ashtar Ausaf supported the arguments put forward by Abdul Hafeez in the court.

Acting AG said this is not an opportune time for allowing any upheaval to take place. On this, Justice Khalilur Rehman Ramday said stemming the crimes do not pave the way for any upheaval. Read more…