Aftermath News

Queen Elizabeth I & Francis Walsingham

Red Ice |May 5, 2008

By Michael Howard

It is not really surprising that historically occultism and espionage have often been strange bedfellows. The black art of espionage is about obtaining secret information and witches, psychics and astrologers have always claimed to be able to predict the future and know about things hidden from ordinary people.

Gathering intelligence is carried out under a cloak of secrecy and occultists are adept at keeping their activities concealed from sight. Like secret agents they also use codes, symbols and cryptograms to hide information from outsiders. Occultists and intelligence officers are similar in many ways, as both inhabit a shadowy underworld of secrets, deception and disinformation. It is therefore not unusual that often these two professions have shared the same members.

The ‘father of the British Secret Service’ was the Elizabethan lawyer, politician, diplomat and spymaster Sir Francis Walsingham. He was a Protestant and as a young man during the bloody reign of the Catholic Queen Mary was forced to flee abroad to escape persecution. While in exile, Walsingham learnt Italian and French and became acquainted with the work of the famous Venetian Secret Service that used its spying skills for trade and commerce under the cloak of diplomacy.

When Queen Elizabeth I was crowned Francis Walsingham returned to England. He was appointed as a secretary to the English ambassador to the French court in Paris and also worked as a secret agent reporting back the intelligence he gleaned to Queen Elizabeth’s Secretary of State, Sir William Cecil, later Lord Burghley. Between 1568 and 1570 Walsingham, who had become a Member of Parliament, worked in England in domestic counter-espionage exposing Catholic plots against the monarchy.

In 1570 Walsingham was appointed as the new ambassador to France. He proceeded to set up his own network of undercover agents in France, Italy, Spain and the Low Countries. The late Cecil Williamson, who worked for British Intelligence during World War II and later ran a witchcraft museum, told this writer that Walsingham often used witches as spies.

The Mysterious Dr Dee

One of the famous occultists he is known to have recruited was Queen Elizabeth’s court astrologer and the magical architect of the British Empire, the Welsh magician Dr John Dee. Walsingham was involved in the machinations for the proposed marriage of the Duc d’Anjou and Elizabeth. At the spy master’s personal recommendation, the queen dispatched Dee to France with orders to report back on the progress of the marriage negotiations. The magus travelled to the Duchy of Lorraine and drew up the birth charts of both the Duc and his brother, who was also regarded as a possible husband for the English monarch. Dr Dee, probably influenced by Walsingham, diplomatically reported back to London that the stars suggested a political alliance would be far wiser than matrimony and the queen took his advice.

In 1573 Sir Francis returned to London and became a privy councillor. This placed him at the heart of government and he proceeded to set up what amounted to the first organised foreign espionage service to operate from England. In 1566 he had put in place a pan-European network of spies extending as far to the east as Turkey and Russia, where Dr Dee reported on the goings-on at the Tsar’s court. This network mostly gathered intelligence on the military activities of the Spanish, who were England’s primary enemies at this time. Walsingham was also responsible for foiling the Catholic plot whose exposure led to the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots. Using Dr Dee’s psychic powers, he was apparently able to discover that the plotters were passing secret messages to the imprisoned Scottish queen hidden in bottles of wine.

While travelling in Europe in 1562, Dr Dee had come across a book written by Abbot Trimethus of Spanhiem (1462-1516). This was a guide to writing ciphers and secret codes for magical purposes and Dee informed Sir William Cecil about his discovery. On his return to England Dr Dee adapted the abbot’s cryptography and gave it to Sir Francis Walsingham for use by his secret agents. He also passed on the political and military intelligence he had acquired during his travels across Europe. It has been alleged that Dee used the famous Enochian magical alphabet as a code to disguise this information. If he had been arrested his captors would not have understood it and dismissed it as nonsense.

In 1587 Dee even claimed he had received a spirit message from one of his angelic contacts concerning a threat to the English Fleet. The message said that a group of disguised Frenchmen working for the Spaniards was secretly visiting the Forest of Dean. The forest was the centre for English ship-building and the French agents planned to bribe disloyal foresters to burn it down. Dr Dee sent his supernatural intelligence to Walsingham and the saboteurs, who were masquerading as squatters, were arrested.

Information supplied to Sir Francis Walsingham from his European spy network convinced him that a Spanish armada would be launched against England in 1588. He asked Dee to use his knowledge of astrology to calculate the weather prospects for an invasion. The magus told him there would an impending disaster in Europe caused by a devastating storm. When news of this prophecy was leaked and reached Spain, naval recruitment fell and there were desertions of sailors from the Spanish Fleet. In Lisbon an astrologer who repeated the prediction was charged with spreading false information. In an act of psychological warfare, Dr Dee also informed Emperor Rudolf of Bohemia (the modern Czech Republic) and King Stephen of Poland that the predicted storm would “cause the fall of a mighty empire.” Rudolf, who was an occultist and Dee’s patron when he stayed in Bohemia, passed on the warning to the Spanish ambassador.

It is a fact that in 1588 a great storm did scatter the ships of the Spanish Armada in the English Channel and aided the English victory. This metrological event was popularly credited to a magical ritual performed by the buccaneer Sir Francis Drake on the cliffs at Plymouth. Superstitious people believed Drake was a wizard and sold his soul to the Devil in exchange for success over the Spanish. It is claimed that he also organised several covens of witches to work magically to raise the storm and prevent the invasion. Meanwhile, as a result of scrying in his shewstone or crystal, Dr Dee saw a symbolic vision of a castle with its drawbridge drawn up (England) and the image of the elemental king of fire. As a result he urged the Navy to employ fire-ships against the Armada and they did so with good results.

After Sir Francis Walsingham’s death in 1590, and the ascension to the English throne of the Scottish king James, Dr John Dee fell into royal disfavour. The new king had an unhealthy obsession with witchcraft and his early reign was dominated by this preoccupation. It led him to employ the Secret Service in his own personal vendetta against suspected witches. James I ordered its agents to hunt down alleged practitioners of witchcraft and expose their alleged plots against the monarchy. One of those involved was the Earl of Bothwell, accused of high treason for organising a coven of Scottish witches to work magic against the king in an attempt to seize the throne. To assist his secret agents in their new witch-hunting activities, King James persuaded Parliament in 1604 to pass a new and stronger Witchcraft Act to deal with the problem. The Bill was rushed through and it was made law within three months.

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The agency’s National Cyber Range for cyberwar simulation would be similar to Star Trek’s holodeck or a Snow Crash-style Metaverse.

InformationWeek | May 8, 2008

By Thomas Claburn

Police officers practice their firearm skills on a shooting range, so why shouldn’t government computer security experts have the same kind of training ground?

In other words, Darpa wants to build something along the lines of The Matrix, Star Trek’s holodeck, or a Snow Crash-style Metaverse to test cyberwar strategies and drill cyberwarriors.

That’s not to say Darpa is aiming for a visually immersive world to entertain people; rather, it wants a place to pit hackers against simulated machines.

Darpa’s interest in such matters reflects a growing U.S. government and military commitment to develop more sophisticated cyberwar capabilities. A major reason for this is that other countries, such as China, are pursuing similar goals.

“The NCR will become a National resource for testing unclassified and classified cyber programs,” Darpa’s announcement explains. “Government and Government-sponsored Test Organizations (TO) authorized to conduct cyber testing will coordinate with the NCR performer for range time and resources. …The NCR will support multiple, simultaneous, segmented tests and testbeds. At the completion of the test the NCR will sanitize and de-allocate the testbed resources, thus absorbing them back into the range.”

The NCR aims to provide the ability to replicate military, government, and commercial IT systems and infrastructure; to monitor and manage events; and to analyze, collect, and present test data.

The NCR should be able to “realistically replicate human behavior and frailties,” to provide “realistic, sophisticated, nation-state quality offensive and defensive opposition forces,” and to “accelerate and decelerate relative test time.”

With any luck, human frailties won’t manifest themselves in the form of a ballooning budget as the NCR takes shape.

Old-Thinker News | May 4, 2008

By Daniel Taylor

In July of 1994 the U.S. Army War College Strategic Studies Institute (SSI) produced the paper titled Revolution In Military Affairs And Conflict Short Of War that uncannily forecasted the future in a “hypothetical future history” written in the year 2010.

Computer generated insurgents claim responsibility for attacks that U.S. forces carry out, pharmaceutical drugs are used as a part of national security strategy, “attitude shaping campaigns” are directed against the American people, traditional boundaries between military and law enforcement are abolished, subliminal conditioning is used in combination with propaganda, and bioelectric tags are implanted in citizens. By 2010 the revolutionaries’ goals were met.

All of this will likely sound eerily familiar to followers of current events, or for that matter anyone who lived to see the events of September 11th 2001, its resulting wars, and its truly “revolutionary” effects in the reorganization of government and law. The Bush administration’s signature legislation, the Patriot Act, has infringed on multiple sections of the Bill of Rights and Constitution. Posse Comitatus, which has protected Americans from the military engaging in domestic law enforcement since 1807 was reversed when the John Warner National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2007 was passed last year.

The Neoconservatives reign in the United States holds striking similarities to the scenario outlined in the 1994 SSI report. Interestingly, the document clearly stated that, “Saddam Hussein’s Iraq or the other Third World caricatures of the Soviet Union are perfect opponents for a RMA-type [Revolution in Military Affairs] military.”

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“Day by day, the liberty and privacy of the British public is being undermined by Labour’s surveillance state. People will be shocked that taxpayers’ money is being spent on intrusive surveys. Now state spies want to log and record who sleeps with whom and how often. Not even the Stasi went this far.”

- Shadow Communities Secretary Eric Pickles

“Diet, injections, and injunctions will combine, from a very early age, to produce the sort of character and the sort of beliefs that the authorities consider desirable, and any serious criticism of the powers that be will become psychologically impossible.”

- Bertrand Russell, “The Impact of Science on Society”, 1953

Prying: With government questions couples’ sex lives will no longer be a private matter

Daily Mail | Apr 19, 2008

State to snoop on your sex life with probing questions about promiscuity and contraception

By TOM HARPER

Government inspectors are to pry into the intimate details of more than 500,000 people a year, asking a series of probing questions about their sex lives and earnings.

Snooping officials will want to know about previous sexual partners, contraception, and how long couples lived together before marriage.

The 2,000-question survey from the Office for National Statistics will raise major concerns about privacy – especially as the data will be logged with the respondents’ names and addresses.

Some of the questions seem remarkably insensitive. One asks: “Have you ever had a baby – even one who only lived for a short time?”

Interviewers are told starkly: “Exclude: Any stillborn; Include: Any who only lived for a short time.”

Civil servants claim the sensitive personal information will be made anonymous once it is processed at the department’s headquarters in Newport, South Wales – but that is not enough to satisfy privacy campaigners.

Doubts have also been raised about how useful the information will be, as people have a proven tendency to lie when quizzed about their sex lives.

Investigators conducting the new Integrated Household Survey – at a cost of more than £3.5million a year – will visit 200,000 homes at random each year and question each occupant – about 500,000 individuals altogether.

They have 35 questions on contraception alone, such as whether men have had vasectomies, the brands of pill women take, and whether they have ever used a “morning after” pill.

Other intimate questions include the exact dates when previous relationships ended, the precise amount of take-home pay, and whether people earn extra money from second jobs or from bonuses.

Investigators will find out about the health of children, as well as asking probing questions about respondants’ drinking and smoking habits, such as: “How soon after waking do you usually smoke your first cigarette of the day?” and whether they drink beer in pints, halves, cans or bottles.

Some of the questions verge on the ridiculous, such as: “How many hearing aids do you have that you don’t wear?”

Documents seen by The Mail on Sunday also suggest that even though the survey is voluntary, inspectors will press people into revealing personal details, with follow-up questions designed to draw out more information.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) claims it needs the comprehensive annual poll to keep up with social trends that will help Whitehall mandarins formulate policy.

But some experts have cast doubt on how useful the survey would be.

Frank Furedi, professor of sociology at Kent University, said: “When researchers ask about sexual habits there is a very strong tendency for people to clam up, or to say what they think they want to hear.

“This is not a particularly useful exercise. If you want to find out about intimate details they should do it in a much more sensitive way.

“I would resent being asked these questions and I don’t think the Government should be doing it.”

The ONS denies it will follow other Government agencies, such as the DVLA, in selling the information to private companies – but the sensitivity of the data has prompted fears about privacy.

The Government has previously been rocked by scandals such as the loss of 25million child benefit records, and the fact the new survey will collect the names and addresses of respondents has alarmed protesters.

Shami Chakrabarti, director of human rights group Liberty, said: “If this survey is purely to inform public policy, why is the data not anonymised at the point of collection?

“The ONS will need to work incredibly hard to make sure this doesn’t go horribly wrong. The last thing anyone wants is another crisis over data security.”

Shadow Communities Secretary Eric Pickles said: “Day by day, the liberty and privacy of the British public is being undermined by Labour’s surveillance state.

“People will be shocked that taxpayers’ money is being spent on intrusive surveys. Now state spies want to log and record who sleeps with whom and how often. Not even the Stasi went this far.”

Last night, an ONS spokesman said the new survey was a “high quality, adaptable and efficient” way of “meeting the Government’s future information needs”, adding: “Names and addresses are stripped off the files as soon as they arrive in our office, and the data is then held on a secure server.

“We have never sold information to the private sector and that will continue.”

Frà Matthew Festing, 58, an Englishman, becomes the 79th Grand Master of the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta.

Until his final breath, Matthew Festing will carry the title “His Most Eminent Highness”.

Catholic News Service | Mar 11, 2008

Leading Knights said the order is often depicted as secret society of the wealthy elite.

By John Thavis

ROME (CNS) — In a secret and swift election, the Knights of Malta elected an Englishman as their 79th grand master.

Festing, 59, will head the world’s oldest chivalric order, founded in the 11th century. He is only the second Englishman to hold the post of grand master; Bertie was the first.

Known officially as the Sovereign Military Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta, the organization was established to care for pilgrims during the Crusades. It lives on today as a lay Catholic religious order and a worldwide humanitarian network.

The order is also a sovereign state, holding observer status at the United Nations and maintaining diplomatic relations with 100 countries.

Festing, an expert in art and history, joined the Knights in 1977 and in 1991 became a “professed” knight, taking religious vows. He is a descendent of Blessed Adrian Fortescue, a Knight of Malta who was martyred in the 16th century.

As head of the English priory, Festing organized humanitarian assistance missions to Lebanon and Kosovo and led a delegation on the order’s annual pilgrimage with the sick to Lourdes.

In a statement issued after his election, the new grand master said he wanted to continue the work of his predecessor, who was credited with expanding the order’s humanitarian services and its diplomatic connections.

Pope Benedict XVI was informed of Festing’s election before it was announced to the world.

The election of a grand master is a major event in Rome. Fifty electors, representing the 12,500 male and female members of the order, filed into the Knights’ villa on Rome’s Aventine Hill, wearing their distinctive red robes decorated with the Maltese cross.

The election, which began with a Mass, had similarities to a papal conclave. The grand master had to be chosen from among the order’s approximately 50 professed Knights.

The voting was done by a secret ballot, after nonvoters were asked to leave. No politicking was allowed, and the new grand master had to receive a “majority plus one” of the total votes — at least 27 out of 50.

At a press conference a few days before the election, leading Knights said the order is often wrongly depicted as an elite, wealthy secret society.

“In many ways, we are misunderstood,” said Winfried Henckel von Donnersmark, a member of the order’s sovereign council. In part, that’s because of the unusual nature of the organization, he said.

The Knights are a religious order, yet the vast majority of members are lay, he pointed out. It is a Catholic organization, but its humanitarian operations are open to people of all faiths. And while it does have some property and patrimony, it has to continually raise funds to support its annual $1 billion in charity works around the world, he said.

Membership in the order is by invitation. Knights and Dames are practicing Catholics and devote part of their time to doing works of mercy.

The professed members are all male, but women form an increasingly important part of the order, officials said.

According to Albrecht von Boeselager, one of the order’s chief officials, the Knights have about 80,000 local volunteers working in 120 countries throughout the world. The organization is welcomed by so many governments — even by the military regime in Myanmar, for example — because it adheres to strict neutrality on political issues, he said.

“We don’t consider ourselves a human rights organization. If making accusations on human rights issues would prevent us from assisting the needy, we would prefer to be silent,” von Boeselager said.

In the Middle East and Asia, however, the Knights’ neutrality has recently been called into question by extremist propaganda, he said.

“We have been accused of being part of a ‘new crusade,’ and even of having mercenaries fighting in Iraq. That is totally untrue, and it endangers our personnel in Muslim countries,” he said.

Noreen Falcone, president of the Knights’ U.S. federal association, said the order’s organizational structure gives it the ability to move quickly into disaster areas. When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005, for example, the order went to work immediately.

“We’re still there, building homes and helping to give people back their self-respect,” she said.

. . .

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British art historian elected grand master of Knights of Malta

AP | Mar 12, 2008

ROME (AP) - The Knights of Malta said Tuesday they have elected a British art historian as the new grand master of the lay Roman Catholic order.

Fra Matthew Festing replaces the late Fra Andrew Bertie as head of the 900-year-old charitable order.

The Knights of Malta chose the 59-year-old Festing as their 79th grand master during

a meeting Tuesday in Rome. Festing was sworn in shortly after the election, the order said.

Festing joined the Order of Malta in 1977. He has led humanitarian missions in Lebanon and Kosovo as the Grand Prior of England, a senior position he held for the past 15 years, the statement said.

Officially known as the Sovereign Military Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta, the order was founded with a pilgrims’ hospice in 11th century Jerusalem and has the status of an independent state.

The order has 12,500 members and operates in 120 countries, providing medical and social services, particularly in war zones and impoverished areas. It maintains diplomatic relations with 100 nations.

. . .

Frà Matthew Festing Elected Grand Master

Frà Matthew Festing, 58, an Englishman, becomes the 79th Grand Master of the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta, elected this morning by the Council Complete of State (the Order’s electoral body). In accepting the role, the new Grand Master swore his Oath before the Cardinal Patronus of the Order, Cardinal Pio Laghi, and the electoral body. He succeeds Frà Andrew Bertie, 78th Grand Master (1988-2008), who died on 7 February.

The new Grand Master affirms his resolve to continue the great work carried out by his predecessor. Frà Matthew comes with a wide range of experience in Order affairs. He has been the Grand Prior of England since the Priory’s re-establishment in 1993, restored after an abeyance of 450 years. In this capacity, he has led missions of humanitarian aid to Kosovo, Serbia and Croatia after the recent disturbances in those countries, and with a large delegation from Britain he attends the Order’s annual pilgrimage to Lourdes with handicapped pilgrims.

Educated at Ampleforth and St. John’s College Cambridge, where he read history, Frà Matthew, an art expert, has for most of his professional life worked at an international art auction house. As a child he lived in Egypt and Singapore, where his father, Field Marshal Sir Francis Festing, Chief of the Imperial General Staff, had earlier postings. His mother was a member of the recusant Riddells of Swinburne Castle who suffered for their faith in penal times. He is also descended from Sir Adrian Fortescue, a knight of Malta, who was martyred in 1539.

Frà Matthew served in the Grenadier Guards and holds the rank of colonel in the Territorial Army. He was appointed OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) by the Queen and has served as her Deputy Lieutenant in the county of Northumberland for a number of years.

In 1977 Frà Matthew became a member of the Order of Malta, taking solemn religious vows in 1991.

http://www.orderofmalta.org.uk/news.htm

. . .

Sotheby’s Auctioneer Elected Grand Master of the Knights of Malta

Until his final breath, Matthew Festing will carry the title “His Most Eminent Highness.”

ARTINFO | Mar 13, 2008

ROME—Sotheby’s auctioneer Matthew Festing has been elected as the 79th Grand Master of the Knights of Malta, a Roman Catholic chivalric order established in the 11th century during the Crusades, the Times (London) reports. The secret-ballot election took place March 11 at a papal-style conclave in the order’s headquarters on the Aventine Hill in Rome.

The Knights, who are also known as the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta, carry out charitable and medical operations in 120 countries. The organization has recently been attempting to dispel rumors that it is rich and secretive (see the Da Vinci Code), and the election of Festing, who is seen as a reformer, is a sign that they plan to be more open and to better publicize their charitable acts.

Festing, a descendant of Sir Adrian Fortescue, a Knight of Malta martyred in 1539, was admitted to the order in 1977. In 1988 he became a Knight of Justice, in 1991 he took perpetual vows, and he has recently served as Grand Prior of the British Association, Sovereign Military and Hospitaller Order of Malta (BASMOM). Festing’s father was also a member of the order, and his brother Andrew Festing is president of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters and a favorite of the British royal family.

Grand Masters, like Popes, are elected for life. Until his final breath, Matthew Festing will carry the title “His Most Eminent Highness.”

“The most important thing is for us to find Osama bin Laden. It is our Number one priority and we will not rest until we find him!”

- GW Bush, September 13, 2001

“I don’t know where bin Laden is. I have no idea and I really don’t care. It’s not that important. It’s not our priority.”

- GW Bush, March 13, 2002

MSNBC | Jan 22, 2008

PARIS - Pervez Musharraf says he still gets the question a lot: When will Osama bin Laden and his top deputy be caught? The Pakistani president insists it’s more important for his 100,000 troops on the Afghan border to root out the Taliban than search for al-Qaida leaders.

That bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahri are still at large “doesn’t mean much,” the former general said Tuesday on the second day of a swing through Europe. He suggested they are far less a threat to his regime than Taliban-linked militants entrenched in Pakistan’s west.

Bin Laden and al-Zawahri are believed to be hiding somewhere in the lawless tribal areas along Afghanistan’s frontier with Pakistan.

“The 100,000 troops that we are using … are not going around trying to locate Osama bin Laden and Zawahri, frankly,” Musharraf told a conference at the French Institute for International Relations. “They are operating against terrorists, and in the process, if we get them, we will deal with them certainly.”

A U.S. ally in its war on extremist groups, Musharraf has come under increasing pressure following the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto last month and for his brief declaration of emergency rule in early November.

‘Multi-pronged strategy’

Musharraf, who as commander of Pakistan’s military seized power in a bloodless coup in 1999, said the remnants of Afghanistan’s former Taliban regime and its Pakistani sympathizers are the “more serious issue” for both countries.

But he said there was “zero percent chance” that al-Qaida, the Taliban and their Pakistani allies could defeat his 500,000-strong army or that Islamic militants could win control of the government in Feb. 18 parliamentary elections.

As part of the “multi-pronged strategy” against terrorists, Pakistan has erected fences “selectively” and set up 1,000 checkpoints along the Afghan border in an effort to stop militants from using the areas to launch attacks inside the neighboring nation, he said.

Musharraf credited cooperation between Pakistani intelligence services and the CIA, both of whom believe that Pakistani militant leader Baitullah Mehsud was the mastermind of the Dec. 27 gun and suicide bomb attack that killed Bhutto.

But in Washington, the State Department’s counterterrorism chief, Dell Dailey, said the Bush administration was displeased with “gaps in intelligence” received from Pakistan about the activities of extremist groups in the tribal regions.

“We don’t have enough information about what’s going on there. Not on al-Qaida. Not on foreign fighters. Not on the Taliban,” he said.

Dailey, a retired Army lieutenant general with extensive background in special operations, said Pakistan needs to fix the problem. He said the U.S. wasn’t likely to conduct military strikes inside Pakistan on its own, saying that would anger many Pakistanis.

Musharraf down plays attacks

Musharraf played down the impact of recent attacks by extremists in the border region of South Waziristan, calling them “pinpricks” that his government must manage — not a sign of a resurgent Taliban.

Attacks on forts in that district over the last month — including a battle Tuesday — have fanned concerns that militants with links to al-Qaida and the Taliban may be gaining control in the region.

Pakistan’s army said fighting at the fort and another clash killed at least seven paramilitary border guards and 37 militants Tuesday.

The border region emerged as a front line in the war on extremist groups after Musharraf allied Pakistan with the U.S. following the Sept. 11 terror attacks. Washington has given Pakistan billions of dollars in aid to help government forces battle militants.

Rising violence in the border region and a series of suicide attacks across Pakistan that killed hundreds in recent months have added to uncertainty before next month’s elections, which many people predict will further weaken Musharraf’s grip on power.

Despite turmoil at home, Musharraf defended his visit to four European countries, saying he wasn’t concerned about the stability of his regime while he was away.

“I can assure you that nothing will happen in Pakistan,” he said. “We are not a banana republic.”

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who met privately with Musharraf on Tuesday, expressed support for Pakistan’s fight with extremists and promised to press for increased European Union aid when France takes over the bloc’s rotating presidency in July, Sarkozy’s office said.

. . .

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Musharraf: “We Are Not Looking” for Bin Laden    

NY Times | January 6, 2008

by Steven Lee Myers, David E. Sanger and Eric Schmitt.

WASHINGTON — President Bush’s senior national security advisers are debating whether to expand the authority of the Central Intelligence Agency and the military to conduct far more aggressive covert operations in the tribal areas of Pakistan.

The debate is a response to intelligence reports that Al Qaeda and the Taliban are intensifying efforts there to destabilize the Pakistani government, several senior administration officials said.

Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and a number of President Bush’s top national security advisers met Friday at the White House to discuss the proposal, which is part of a broad reassessment of American strategy after the assassination 10 days ago of the Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto. There was also talk of how to handle the period from now to the Feb. 18 elections, and the aftermath of those elections.

Several of the participants in the meeting argued that the threat to the government of President Pervez Musharraf was now so grave that both Mr. Musharraf and Pakistan’s new military leadership were likely to give the United States more latitude, officials said. But no decisions were made, said the officials, who declined to speak for attribution because of the highly delicate nature of the discussions.

Many of the specific options under discussion are unclear and highly classified. Officials said that the options would probably involve the C.I.A. working with the military’s Special Operations forces.

The Bush administration has not formally presented any new proposals to Mr. Musharraf, who gave up his military role last month, or to his successor as the army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, who the White House thinks will be more sympathetic to the American position than Mr. Musharraf. Early in his career, General Kayani was an aide to Ms. Bhutto while she was prime minister and later led the Pakistani intelligence service.

But at the White House and the Pentagon, officials see an opportunity in the changing power structure for the Americans to advocate for the expanded authority in Pakistan, a nuclear-armed country. “After years of focusing on Afghanistan, we think the extremists now see a chance for the big prize — creating chaos in Pakistan itself,” one senior official said.

The new options for expanded covert operations include loosening restrictions on the C.I.A. to strike selected targets in Pakistan, in some cases using intelligence provided by Pakistani sources, officials said. Most counterterrorism operations in Pakistan have been conducted by the C.I.A.; in Afghanistan, where military operations are under way, including some with NATO forces, the military can take the lead.

The legal status would not change if the administration decided to act more aggressively. However, if the C.I.A. were given broader authority, it could call for help from the military or deputize some forces of the Special Operations Command to act under the authority of the agency.

The United States now has about 50 soldiers in Pakistan. Any expanded operations using C.I.A. operatives or Special Operations forces, like the Navy Seals, would be small and tailored to specific missions, military officials said.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, who was on vacation last week and did not attend the White House meeting, said in late December that “Al Qaeda right now seems to have turned its face toward Pakistan and attacks on the Pakistani government and Pakistani people.”

In the past, the administration has largely stayed out of the tribal areas, in part for fear that exposure of any American-led operations there would so embarrass the Musharraf government that it could further empower his critics, who have declared he was too close to Washington.

Even now, officials say, some American diplomats and military officials, as well as outside experts, argue that American-led military operations on the Pakistani side of the border with Afghanistan could result in a tremendous backlash and ultimately do more harm than good. That is particularly true, they say, if Americans were captured or killed in the territory.

In part, the White House discussions may be driven by a desire for another effort to capture or kill Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri. Currently, C.I.A. operatives and Special Operations forces have limited authority to conduct counterterrorism missions in Pakistan based on specific intelligence about the whereabouts of those two men, who have eluded the Bush administration for more than six years, or of other members of their terrorist organization, Al Qaeda, hiding in or near the tribal areas.

The C.I.A. has launched missiles from Predator aircraft in the tribal areas several times, with varying degrees of success. Intelligence officials said they believed that in January 2006 an airstrike narrowly missed killing Mr. Zawahri, who had attended a dinner in Damadola, a Pakistani village. But that apparently was the last real evidence American officials had about the whereabouts of their chief targets.

Critics said more direct American military action would be ineffective, anger the Pakistani Army and increase support for the militants. “I’m not arguing that you leave Al Qaeda and the Taliban unmolested, but I’d be very, very cautious about approaches that could play into hands of enemies and be counterproductive,” said Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism expert at Georgetown University. Some American diplomats and military officials have also issued strong warnings against expanded direct American action, officials said.

Hasan Askari Rizvi, a leading Pakistani military and political analyst, said raids by American troops would prompt a powerful popular backlash against Mr. Musharraf and the United States.

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Guardian Unlimited | Jan 2, 2008

Julian Borger in Islamabad and Mark Tran

Gordon Brown today agreed to send a police team from Scotland Yard to Pakistan to help investigate the assassination of the opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.

The Pakistani president, Pervez Musharraf, requested specialist help as serious doubts continued over the government’s version of events surrounding her death.

“We would like to know what were the reasons that led to the martyrdom of Benazir Bhutto. I would also like to look into it,” Musharraf said in a televised address.

The exact circumstances of the killing have been shrouded in confusion. Opposition officials have rejected government claims into how she died and called for an international investigation.

David Miliband, the foreign secretary, said a team from Scotland Yard is due to leave Britain this week.

“As the terrible events of last week show only too clearly, Pakistan faces a very serious threat from extremism,” Miliband said.

“The UK is already closely engaged with the government of Pakistan on counter-terrorism cooperation. The prime minister and President Musharraf have agreed to further deepen this aspect of our relationship, and officials will travel to Pakistan to take this forward.”

In his first major speech since the Bhutto killing, Musharraf appealed for reconciliation.

“The nation has experienced a great tragedy. Benazir Bhutto has died in the hands of terrorists. I pray to God almighty to put the eternal soul of Benazir at peace,” he said.

Following Bhutto’s death, rioters rampaged through the streets, burning cars and shops, accusing the government of complicity. The government has strongly rejected the accusation and has blamed al-Qaida for her death.

Musharraf also said he had wanted to hold parliamentary elections as scheduled on January 8, but he deferred to the election commission which formally announced earlier in the day to postpone them for six weeks until February 18.

“The election commission has taken a timely and correct decision,” the president said. “We will hold free, fair, transparent and peaceful elections.”

The election commission blamed riots in the wake of Bhutto’s assassination for the delay, saying 11 of the commission’s district offices had been damaged or destroyed, along with ballot boxes and other election material, particularly in Sindh province, the base of Bhutto’s Pakistan Peoples party (PPP).

Another factor behind the delay was the Shia holy month of Muharram, which is due to begin next week and last a lunar month. The celebration by Pakistan’s Shia minority has in the past triggered sectarian tensions.

The decision to delay the vote was quickly condemned by opposition parties, who branded it a ploy by the government, fearful of a sympathy vote for the Bhutto family.

But the PPP’s central executive committee decided it would contest the election despite misgivings.

The other major political party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), led by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, is also meeting to decide upon its response, saying it would seek to form a common front with the PPP.

A party spokesman, Ahsan Iqbal, said: “We will try to continue to make all parties join hands to force Musharraf from office and set up a neutral caretaker government.”

Despite the threat of further street violence, western diplomats and political observers in Islamabad predicted that the opposition parties would try to restrain the reaction of their followers, aware that undecided voters would blame them for further political instability.

The riots have largely subsided, but the political atmosphere remains volatile.

Some western officials argue that the delay in the vote might ultimately prove to be beneficial, if the time is used to establish safeguards to improve the transparency and credibility of the elections.

“It is vital that the government of Pakistan makes full use of the extended period before elections are held to ensure that all necessary arrangements are put in place so that they are transparent and fair,” Miliband said.

“I hope all parties will participate in the elections, that media freedom will be extensive and that all political prisoners are released.”

An EU observer mission had said it would not be able to field a full team if the elections had gone ahead, as scheduled, on January 8.

There are widespread fears that civil war would erupt if the election were perceived as rigged.

 
“There are those saying that al-Qaida did it. Others are saying it looked like it was an inside job…”

Newsday.com | Dec 30, 2007

Hillary: Pakistan troops might have killed Bhutto

BY GLENN THRUSH

CLINTON, Iowa - Hillary Rodham Clinton waded into Pakistan’s volatile internal political situation yesterday, raising the possibility the country’s military might have assassinated Benazir Bhutto because the killing took place in the garrison city of Rawalpindi.

Clinton’s remarks came as Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf’s government seemed to reject a call for an independent international investigation of the murder that Clinton and John Edwards proposed on Friday.

During a question-and-answer session at an elementary school here, Clinton offered a detailed prescription for the troubled country, suggesting that the U.S divert aid away from its military to social welfare programs.

And for the second time in as many days, she cast doubt on Musharraf’s contention that the suicide bombing that led to the death of the country’s most popular opposition leader was masterminded by al-Qaida.

“There are those saying that al-Qaida did it. Others are saying it looked like it was an inside job - remember Rawalpindi is a garrison city,” she said.

Earlier in the day, the former first lady sat down with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos and said that, as president, it wouldn’t be “appropriate” for her to include Bill Clinton in top-secret security discussions.

“I think he would play the role that spouses have always played for presidents,” she told the host of “This Week” in an interview to air today. “He will not have a formal official role, but just as presidents rely on wives, husbands, fathers, friends of long years, he will be my close confidante and adviser as I was with him.”

Sen. Barack Obama has dismissed Hillary Clinton’s White House experience as largely irrelevant. Consequently, Clinton spent much of yesterday touting her work in the 1990s on international women’s rights and the negotiations that led to reconciliation between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland. “I actually went to Northern Ireland more than Bill,” she said.

Clinton, who earned the endorsement yesterday of the influential Concord (N.H.) Monitor, emphasized her foreign policy experience and spoke about her 12-year relationship with Bhutto, Pakistan’s former prime minister.

In August, her aides accused Obama of helping to destabilize the nuclear-armed Pakistan by suggesting he’d deploy U.S. forces in the country to hunt for Osama bin Laden.

But yesterday, Clinton delved into Pakistan’s internal affairs, suggesting its “feudal landowning leadership,” led by Musharraf, has protected al-Qaida to preserve its tenuous grip on power. In an interview on Friday, Clinton called for an international probe into Bhutto’s assassination, saying “there was no reason to trust the Pakistani government.”

An Interior Ministry spokesman rejected that suggestion yesterday, saying, “I think we are capable of handling it.”

. . .

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Role of secret agencies: The ISI
ISI has mastered the tradecraft of sabotage, subversion, direct military intervention, and proxy war to a degree of perfection, as has been achieved by its mirror brother in trade, the CIA. The organisation has enormous power, influence and resources and virtually no constraints and checks.

Scotsman | Dec 30, 2007

By Richard Elias and Jeremy Watson

FACTIONS within the Pakistan intelligence service might have been behind the assassination of the country’s opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, sources within MI5 told Scotland on Sunday last night.

Pakistan continues to teeter on the brink following Bhutto’s death on Thursday as she left a rally for an election in which she was expected to become prime minister. The government has tried to blame militant groups linked to the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, which saw Bhutto’s rise to power as a threat.

But security sources in the UK say pro-Taliban factions in Pakistan’s feared Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency may have been behind the attack on the charismatic politician, who returned to her homeland from exile only two months ago to fight the election.

Bhutto, 54, blamed rogue elements in the ISI for a suicide bombing that killed 140 people at a rally shortly after her return in October. There were reports last night that just weeks ago, she had sent UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband a private e-mail naming three senior members of government who, she said, wanted her dead.

The source said: “The ISI was responsible for setting up the Taliban during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and there remain parts of the ISI who are desperate to see the Taliban back in power there. They hope that if this happens, it will pave the way for an Islamist state in Pakistan.”

Today, Bhutto’s 19-year-old son Bilawal will read out his mother’s will in a public demonstration that the Bhutto dynasty is still alive. The first-year Oxford University undergraduate is expected by many to be thrust into the forefront of her Pakistan People’s Party in the forthcoming elections, due for January 8.

“What will cause major problems is that whoever from Whitehall is involved in those discussions, whether it be mandarins or SIS (MI6], they are dealing with precisely the very people who are, in some quarters, being blamed for being behind the killing of Benazir Bhutto.”

Bhutto supporters yesterday dismissed as “ludicrous” a government theory that the former leaded had died after hitting her head on a sunroof and accused the government of a “cover-up” over the real culprits.

Interior ministry spokesman Javed Iqba
l Cheema reiterated the government’s claim that Islamic militant leader Baitullah Mehsud was behind Bhutto’s killing. Yesterday Mehsud’s spokesman contacted a news agency to issue a denial. But Cheema insisted: “We have the evidence that he is involved.” He also declined any foreign aid to help investigate the killing.

Rioting continued yesterday but there were no signs that the violence was escalating. Doubts remain over whether the planned elections will go ahead.

• Meanwhile, in a taped video message, Osama bin Laden has pledged to expand al-Qaeda’s attacks against Israel. During a 56-minute recording broadcast yesterday, he said: “I would like to assure our people in Palestine we will expand our jihad there. We intend to liberate Palestine, the whole of Palestine from the (Jordan] river to the sea.” He threatened “blood for blood, destruction for destruction”.