Snowden files reveal US has increased surveillance of Pakistan
This file image shows the tribal area of South Waziristan, bordering Afghanistan. (AFP Photo)
The documents — detailed, previously unpublished funding requests from America’s top intelligence agencies — were first disclosed in part on Thursday when the Washington Post said it had proof that America’s main spy offices looked to receive $52.6 billion in fiscal year 2013. Upon further analysis of the so-called “black budget,” the Post has since discovered that the US is increasing efforts to spy within Pakistan in order to understand more thoroughly the supposed ally’s nuclear arms arsenal.
According to the Post, researching the black budget has led journalists to determine that US officials believe there is a significant intelligence gap with regards to Pakistan, and that the US is more interested than ever in that nation’s nuclear capabilities amid what may be the comparably best relationship the two countries have experienced in over a decade.
Despite nearly 12 years of heavy US military activity following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack, American/Pakistani tensions have loosened as of late, presumably after a drawback in localized drone strikes and other covert combat that has subsided since US Navy SEALS captured and killed former al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in rural Pakistan in May 2011.
Although the Post has not released the 178-page black budget in full, it has selectively published a handful of excerpts and quoted from it extensively in a number of articles to appear in print and online since last week. According to the Post’s Greg Miller, Craig Whitlock and Barton Gellman, the latest disclosures identified through analysis of the top-secret documents “expose broad new levels of US distrust in an already unsteady security partnership with Pakistan,” and “also reveal a more expansive effort to gather intelligence on Pakistan than US officials have disclosed.”
The document, reported the Post, divulges uncertainty within the US intelligence community regarding Pakistan, particularly in reference to the country’s nuclear capabilities. One excerpt of the budget quoted by the Post warned that “knowledge of the security of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons and associated material encompassed one of the most critical set of . . . intelligence gaps.” According to the Post, US officials were concerned about those “given the political instability, terrorist threat and expanding inventory [of nuclear weapons] in that country.”
The paper also noted that while Pakistan’s name is frequently absent from the budget request, the counterterrorism and counter-proliferation operations waged by the US are centralized in that nation, nestled in the Middle East between Iraq, Afghanistan and India. Taking into account just its counterterrorism and counter-proliferation measures, the US intelligence community sought more than $27 billion in FY2013 — or around half of what was requested in all — most of which is likely spent on covert operations. Former and current US intelligence officials who spoke to the Post said the armed drone campaign that targets al-Qaeda militants on the Pakistan/Afghanistan border is among the most expensive of those covert programs.
So significant are US concerns with regards to monitoring weapons of mass destruction in Pakistan, the Post reported that the budget contains once section in which it focuses on containing the spread of illicit weapons among two geographic regions: Pakistan and elsewhere.
The Post reported that budget suggests Pakistan contains 120 nuclear weapons, although US intelligence agencies suspect that number will soon rise. In order to better understand that nation’s nuke program, the budget discusses the creation of a Pakistan WMD Analysis Cell, the paper reported, in order to keep tabs on where nuclear materials move within the country. Together, the Post claimed, the CIA and Pentagon were able “to develop and deploy a new compartmented collection capability” that delivered a “more comprehensive understanding of strategic weapons security in Pakistan.”
Despite that accomplishment, however, the budget still noted that “the number of gaps associated with Pakistani nuclear security remains the same,” and “the questions associated with this intractable target are more complex.”
“If the Americans are expanding their surveillance capabilities, it can only mean one thing,” former Pakistani ambassador to the US Husain Haqqani told the Post, “The mistrust now exceeds the trust.”
Caitlin Hayden, a spokesperson for the National Security Council, explained to the Post that the US is “committed to a long-term partnership with Pakistan, and we remain fully engaged in building a relationship that is based on mutual interests and mutual respect.”
“We have an ongoing strategic dialogue that addresses in a realistic fashion many of the key issues between us, from border management to counterterrorism, from nuclear security to promoting trade and investment,” she said.
“The United States and Pakistan share a strategic interest in combating the challenging security issues in Pakistan, and we continue to work closely with Pakistan’s professional and dedicated security forces to do so,” added Hayden.
The Post first published excerpts of this year’s black budget on Thursday and attributed the top-secret disclosure to Edward Snowden, the former intelligence contractor who fled from the US earlier this year and has since been granted asylum in Russia. In the days since the paper began working on the latest Snowden leak it has published a previously undisclosed figure for the amount of money requested by the likes of the National Security Agency and Central Intelligence Agency, and also exposed a program of offensive cyber operations waged by US officials against foreign foes.
Chacha Sam’s Bacha Jamoora & Kargil Bhagora Nawaz Sharif, Rigs & Hijacks Another Election; Five Years of Sheer Hell Guaranteed for Pakistanis : Plus More Jangla Buses, Motorways,Laptops, and Daanish Schools!
Posted by Fawad Mir in Nawaz Sharif-The Prime Minister from Hell on May 18th, 2013
Nawaz Sharif, the Bacha Jamoora of US, Hijacks another Pakistan Election, through Masive Vote Fraud, election rigging in Punjab, the Province Ruled by his Brother Shahbaz Sharif.
FIA officials who had investigated the money-laundering charges against the Sharifs faced termination from service, while the agency was told that even a decision to probe money-laundering
was a crime. This particular case is likely to now go to the Supreme Court in the next few weeks.
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Bacha Jamora Jaag Ja – 7th April 2013 Playwire Video
Bacha Jamora Jaag Ja – 7th April 2013 Tune.pk Video
Bacha Jamora Jaag Ja – 7th April 2013 YouTube Video
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NAWAZ SHARIF LISTENS TO HIS MASTER’S VOICE-LIKE HE DID IN KARGIL WAR
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Meanwhile, some candidates are crying foul, especially several from Imran Khan‘s Movement for Justice, PTI.
Hamid Zaman, a wealthy businessman who is new to politics, contested a seat in Lahore, the capital of Punjab province, and lost to the incumbent, PML-N’s Riaz Malik.
He claims to have video evidence of PML-N activists filling in ballot papers on behalf of his rival.
Zaman says his son, who was also a candidate, witnessed cases of fraud and his supporters have posted video on Facebook of one alleged case.
“In several places they caught people red-handed putting in votes, in at least two places” he says. “And the video’s showing the same on one of the stations. And then there were crowds of people inside who were telling people to vote.
Zaman told RFI on Sunday that he would file a complaint on Monday.
“Also I’m going to go to the Supreme Court against my opponent because, actually, he was not qualified to contest these elections. His degree is false, he never passed high school, so he was contesting on a fake degree.”
Zaman’s supporters on Sunday held a sit-in on a road in the constituency he fought on Sunday and pledged to do so every day until a re-run is announced.
But what will count with legal experts is the fact that in their tax returns, none of the Sharif family members had ever showed any foreign ownership of any properties, nor had their tax returns listed payments for any rented apartments abroad.
“With the sale of these Mayfair apartments, you can buy three Rockwood-size properties of Asif Zardari,” commented a source, who added that Sharif’s third party owned properties in Britain may land them in a crisis comparable only with Benazir and Zardari’s cases abroad.
In another example of hypocrisy, while Sharif geared up his government’s campaign against loan defaulters in Pakistan, a High Court in London declared his family a defaulter and ordered them to pay US$ 18.8 million to Al-Towfeek Company and its subsidiary Al-Baraka Islamic Bank as payment for interest and loan they had borrowed for Hudabiya Papers Limited.
The court papers said that the Sharifs refused to make payments on the principle amount and instead directed official action against the Arab company’s business interests in Pakistan. Informed sources said that a few days before the fall of the Nawaz Sharif government on October 12, lawyers representing the Sharif family were busy in hectic behind-the-scenes negotiations with Al-Towfeek executives in London for an out-of-court settlement. These sources said that negotiations in London broke down soon after the army action in Islamabad.
While Nawaz Sharif deployed the entire state machinery and spent millions of dollars from the IB’s secret fund to prove money-laundering charges against Benazir Bhutto and her husband abroad, his government crushed any attempt by the FIA to move the Supreme Court of Pakistan against a decision handed down by the Lahore High Court absolving the Sharif family from money-laundering charges instituted against them by the last PPP government.
THE BIGGEST DANGER TO PAKISTAN’S NUCLEAR & MISSILE PROGRAM
US AGENT NAWAZ SHARIF
READ & WEEP
Nawaz Sharif, Shady, Double Dealing, Money Laundering Crook Will Be a Disaster For Pakistan
Posted by Rana Tanveer in BUNGLER NAWAZ SHARIF, CIA AGENT NAWAZ SHARIF, Corruption on May 6th, 2013
PAKISTAN’S ANTI-GRAFT BODY OBJECTS TO SHARIFS’ CANDIDATURE
Islamabad: Pakistan’s anti-corruption watchdog has objected to the candidature of former premier Nawaz Sharif and his brother Shahbaz Sharif in the upcoming General Election, saying they had defaulted on a bank loan worth Rs 3.48 billion.
The National Accountability Bureau yesterday raised the issue in an official communication sent to the Election Commission.
Three graft cases against the Sharifs and their relatives are currently pending in an anti-corruption court in Rawalpindi, NAB officials told the media.
The Sharif brothers have been accused of defaulting on a loan that was taken for the Hudaibiya Paper Mills.
Nawaz Sharif, the head of the main opposition PML-N, and former Punjab chief minister Shahbaz Sharif were also accused of accumulating money and assets beyond their declared means of income by misusing authority.
A case in this regard was filed against them in an anti-corruption court in Attack in March 2000. Several of their relatives, including Nawaz Sharif’s son Hussain Nawaz, Hamza Shahbaz, Shamim Akhtar, Sabiha Abbas, Maryam Safdar and Ishaq Dar, are among the accused in the cases.
MALIK ALLEGES NAWAZ SHARIF INVOLVED IN MONEY LAUNDERING
Rehman Malik also alleged that Nawaz Sharif made a second NRO with dictator Pervez Musharraf and went abroad after signing an agreement and violated the Charter of Democracy (COD) he signed with Benazir Bhutto in 2006.
ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Rehman Malik on Saturday alleged that PML-N Chief and former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was involved in money laundering.
Addressing a news conference in Islamabad, he said evidence against Nawaz Sharif would be placed before the Supreme Court and National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for alleged corruption of $32 million.
Rehman Malik said a commission may be formed to investigate alleged involvement of Nawaz Sharif in money laundering.
He appealed to the Supreme Court to call him and he would present all evidence. He further alleged that Nawaz Sharif made an NRO with former President Farooq Ahmed Leghari and as a result, Benazir Bhutto’s elected government was unconstitutionally dismissed in November 1996.
Rehman Malik also alleged that Nawaz Sharif made a second NRO with dictator Pervez Musharraf and went abroad after signing an agreement and violated the Charter of Democracy (COD) he signed with Benazir Bhutto in 2006.
A spokesman for the PML-N rejected the allegations against the party’s top leadership, saying the accusations made by the NAB were “misleading”.
He alleged that NAB officials were acting at the behest of the previous Pakistan People’s Party-led government to target PML-N leaders.
The Election Commission recently made the NAB part of the set-up for scrutinising the candidates for the May 11 General Election.
Shahbaz Sharif is contesting polls to the Punjab Assembly while Nawaz Sharif is a candidate for polls to the National Assembly. The elder Sharif is widely tipped to become premier if the PML-N wins the polls.
The NAB has set up special election cells to facilitate the scrutiny of candidates.
The Election Commission has also roped in the Federal Bureau of Revenue, State Bank of Pakistan and National Database and Registration Authority in a bid to weed out candidates accused of corruption or wrong-doing.
The Election Commission has said that tax-evaders, people who default on loans and utility bills and beneficiaries of loan write-offs will be barred from contesting the polls, which will mark the first democratic transition in Pakistan’s history.
