Timber Smuggling With Rockets in Chitral, Pakistan

Dubai, 26 May (AKI) - (by Hamza Boccolini) - Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden is hiding in the K2 mountains of northern Pakistan, according to sources cited by Arabic television network, Al-Arabiya.

The report also said US secret services were intending to drive him out in a major military operation encompassing the northern Pakistani tribal areas.

Reports say that the CIA has located the Saudi terrorist in so-called "rooftop of the world", the area of Pakistan that borders Afghanistan to the west, in particular the chain of mountains of Nurestan and China to the north.

Last week Petraeus testified before a US Congressional committee about security in Iraq and warned that members of al-Qaeda based in Pakistan's tribal areas were planning a new September 11 attack.

Aug 1, 2008


Immediately after questions about Pakistan’s ISI’s definition of who the enemy actually is, we get a report that says the ISI is actively aiding the Taliban in bombing activities.

The conclusion (that the ISI helped plan the July 7 bombing of the Indian embassy in Kabul) was based on intercepted communications between Pakistani intelligence officers and militants who carried out the attack, the officials said, providing the clearest evidence to date that Pakistani intelligence officers are actively undermining American efforts to combat militants in the region.

The American officials also said there was new information showing that members of the Pakistani intelligence service were increasingly providing militants with details about the American campaign against them, in some cases allowing militants to avoid American missile strikes in Pakistan’s tribal areas.

So, not only are members of the ISI, the recipient of billions of dollars in US aid since 9/11, not interested in helping hunt for Bin Laden, but they are using US taxpayer dollars to help plan attacks by our enemies against our friends.

A US strike on a Pakistani village near the Afghan border has killed at least nine people including suspected foreign militants, Pakistani sources say.

Initial reports said at least 20 people had died when an unmanned aircraft (drone) fired on the village in North Waziristan region.

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan (AP) — Two suspected U.S. missile strikes Friday on villages close to the border with Afghanistan killed at least 12 people, most of them militants, Pakistani intelligence officials said.

American forces recently ramped up cross-border operations against Taliban and al-Qaida militants in Pakistan's border zone with Afghanistan — a region considered a likely hiding place for Osama bin Laden.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) — A senior Pakistani official says the government is fighting a war that will continue until the country is free of terrorism.

Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik said in remarks broadcast Friday that previous Pakistani military campaigns against Islamic militants were halted too soon.

He said the current government will take operations to their "logical conclusion" and that "this war will continue until we make Pakistan terrorism-free."

Madrid, 3 Oct. (AKI) - A confidential report by Spain's Defence Ministry has claimed that Pakistan's intelligence agency and Al-Qaeda aided Taliban militants in assassination plots against Afghan government leaders.

The confidential report, produced in August 2005, was obtained by Spain's Cadena Ser radio and posted online (photo).

The 2005 report said that it was possible that Taliban training camps in Pakistan were being backed by the Inter-Services Intelligence or ISI.

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan (AP) — The Taliban are furious about the latest apparent U.S. missile strike in Pakistan, indicating a senior militant may be among two dozen people killed, officials and residents said Sunday.

The attack Friday on the North Waziristan tribal region was believed to have killed several Arab fighters but government officials have been notably quiet.

However, two Pakistani intelligence officials said insurgents were moving aggressively in the area while using harsh language against local residents, including calling them "salable commodities" — an accusation of spying.

The intelligence officials, who said their information came from informants and field agents, interpreted the Taliban's anger as a sign that a senior militant may have been among at least 24 people killed. But that has not been confirmed, said the officials, who sought anonymity because they were not allowed to speak to media.

A senior Taliban or al Qaeda leader may have been killed in the Oct. 2 airstrike in North Waziristan, according to unconfirmed reports from Pakistan. But without confirmation from either the Taliban or the US, reports from Pakistani officials should be viewed as suspect.

The US carried out two separate strikes in North Waziristan on Oct. 2. Both strikes hit tribal areas in North Waziristan run by the Haqqani family. The strike in Mohammed Khel is reported to have killed 23, including 16 or more "Arab" al Qaeda members.

But this year's reports of the death of senior al Qaeda and Taliban leaders from Pakistani sources have almost always been false.

Since January 2008, nine senior al Qaeda and Taliban leaders, including Ayman al Zawahiri and Baitullah Mehsud, have been reported to have been killed inside Pakistan. Of those reported killed, only three have been confirmed killed. All three al Qaeda leaders were killed in US cross-border strikes, not in Pakistani offensive operations. The other six leaders who were reported killed by Pakistani sources have appeared in the media or on al Qaeda propaganda tapes.

Pakistani intelligence officers have been caught aiding America's foes inside Afghanistan. In December 2006, Afghan security forces captured Sayed Akbar, an ISI officer. Akbar had been tasked by Pakistani intelligence with serving as a conduit to al Qaeda, which was operating along the Afghan-Pakistani border in the Kunar region.

An aide to President Karzai told reporters that "evidence and documents [had] been seized with [Akbar] proving his destructive activities in Afghanistan." Afghan officials said Akbar confessed to conducting "illegal activities" in Afghanistan. According to Akbar, he had escorted Osama bin Laden as he traveled from Afghanistan's Nuristan province into the mountainous district of Chitral in northwestern Pakistan in 2005. While there have been numerous bin Laden sightings along the Afghan-Pakistani border, he was reported to have been sheltered in Chitral at this time. In fact, FBI agents visited Chitral in early 2006 to assess the reports.

Using principles for predicting the distribution of wildlife, geographers at U.C.L.A. have identified what they say is the most logical hiding place for Osama bin Laden: Parachinar, a town in the mountains of Pakistan south of the Khyber Pass. And they’ve even identified the most likely buildings in town.

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By that reasoning, the researchers assume that Mr. bin Laden is likely to be in a relatively large town close to his last publicly reported location, the Tora Bora caves in eastern Afghanistan.

Observers fear the wealth at the disposal of Taliban will enable them to sustain their jihad activities in Pakistan and beyond.

The exploitation of northwest Pakistan’s natural resources for organizational revenues started in April 2008, when Taliban militants took over the Ziarat marble quarry, a white marble mine in the Mohmand tribal district.

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Another lucrative source of income for the Taliban is Swat’s forests. The symbiotic tie between Taliban militants and the Timber mafia in Swat and nearby Dir is no secret.

May 4 2009


One thing of significant importance (and which had not developed at the time of my reporting on diamonds and al Qaeda) is the emergence of both Dubai and Ras al Khaimah (two of the seven emirates of the United Arab Emirates, one of only three governments to recognize the Taliban when it was in power the first time) as leading diamond markets and gemstone centers.

This means that Taliban and its friends and allies have a nearby, friendly market for their products, and a way to move them virtually undetected into the world market.

This is no small thing. Prior to this (circa 9/11) the diamonds had to be moved from West Africa to Brussels and, later, Lebanon, in order to be sold. That left more of a traceable trail, and involved intermediaries that were not entirely reliable. Those vulnerabilities are now lessened.

This, to me, one of the greatest dangers of the new world. Self-financing, non-state armed groups that control “honeypots” of resources that make them largely invulnerable to outside influences and pressures

Osama bin Laden has often been rumoured to be in the province, or close by.

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According to Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik, Osama bin Laden was most likely hiding in Kunar Province in the spring and summer of 2009: "According to our information Osama is in Afghanistan, probably Kunar, as most of the activities against Pakistan are being directed from Kunar.

13 June 2010


Pakistani intelligence gives funding, training and sanctuary to the Afghan Taliban on a scale much larger than previously thought, a report says.

Taliban field commanders interviewed for the report suggested that ISI intelligence agents even attend Taliban supreme council meetings.

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Links between the Taliban and Pakistan's intelligence service have long been suspected, but the report's author - Harvard analyst Matt Waldman - says there is real evidence of extensive co-operation between the two.

"This goes far beyond just limited, or occasional support," he said. "This is very significant levels of support being provided by the ISI.

"We're also saying this is official policy of that agency, and we're saying that it is very extensive. It is both at an operational level, and at a strategic level, right at the senior leadership of the Taliban movement."