Gates says Taliban chief unlikely to reconcile

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates says he doubts Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Omar will ever make peace with the elected Afghan government.

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Taliban: Awaiting US response on captured troop

A militant commander who is holding a U.S. soldier abducted in Afghanistan said Sunday that Taliban leader Mullah Omar's council is waiting for a response to its demands before deciding the American's fate.

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Pakistan: National security adviser fired

Pakistan fired the national security adviser hours after Indian media quoted him as saying the surviving Mumbai attacker was Pakistani, a sign of strain on the weak civilian administration as it tries to respond to heated Indian allegations over the deadly assault.

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Taliban chief: More fighting to come

Fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Omar is promising more violence over the coming year, even as the U.S. plans to deploy thousands more troops in hopes of turning around the deteriorating war in Afghanistan.

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Purported Taliban Statement Issues Warning

A statement attributed to Taliban leader Mullah Omar said Thursday that large numbers of Afghans were signing up as suicide bombers and that an offensive in the coming months would cause many casualties among foreign and Afghan troops.

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The UN's former envoy to Afghanistan, Kai Eide, has strongly criticised Pakistan's recent arrest of high-ranking Taliban leaders. Mr Eide told the BBC the arrests had completely stopped a channel of secret communications with the UN.

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India which did not shed a drop of blood was not only materially rewarded by awarding nuclear and defence deals but also made a strategic partner and given all out help to expand its influence in Afghanistan to emerge as a key player in Afghan affairs.

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An article from last October and an in-depth look into Pakistan's policy. Quite thoughtful. October 13, 2009 memri Introduction

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The man, a Pakistan army brigadier of the Inter Services Intelligence, who helped groom Taliban chief Mullah Omar, says the one-eyed former ruler of Afghanistan is willing to talk with the the U.S.A.

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By M Ilyas Khan BBC News, Quetta In April 2009, Pakistani forces arrested a Taliban militant from Afghanistan carrying documents for his high command. He said this was based in the south-western Pakistani city of Quetta.

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Fears are growing that bloodshed and brutality could return to the Pakistani city of Karachi, which was blighted by violence throughout the 1980s and 1990s.

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Banned from American "mainstream" news, the Jerusalem Post reports: The Israeli Palsan company won a tender to supply $350 million in armored personnel carriers to soldiers stationed in Afghanistan, Israel Radio reported on Saturday.

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The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen said he "couldn't give the Pakistani Army anything but an 'A'" for how they've conducted their battle so far, after eight-months-plus of fighting to clear militants from the Swat Valley.

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US President Barack Obama's much-awaited announcement of his new Afghan strategy has evoked alarm and disappointment in equal measure. Obama has committed to sending 30,000 additional US troops, but also announced a withdrawal date starting from July 2011.

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Jane Mayer of The New Yorker magazine revealed in October edition, that the number of US predator drone strikes on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border by the CIA, has risen dramatically under President Obama.

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Finally, it seems, the penny has dropped. America's 'good war' cannot be won militarily. Signs indicate that the US president, who was so gung ho on Afghanistan before taking office, has got the message. More troops just won't cut it.

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Washington has been negotiating secret, "highly sensitive understandings" to "provide added security for the Pakistani arsenal in case of a crisis," investigative journalist Seymour Hersh reports.

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, Despite being relatively few in number, the Afghan Taliban are thriving in Afghanistan and Pakistan, as they take advantage of Islamabad's apparent ambivalence towards them, the BBC's Hugh Sykes reports from Kabul.

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There is a reason why her first visit to Pakistan turned into a big firefighting mission. In less than two years, even Pakistan's elite turned suspicious of US intentions.

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In recent weeks, reporters have seized on intelligence analyses concluding that most of the Taliban in Afghanistan are economically motivated, and only a small percentage are actually committed to the fight on principle.

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Case for escalating the war is based on premises that turn to dust on inspection

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In late 2001, Mullah Muhammad Omar's prospects seemed utterly bleak. The ill-educated, one-eyed leader of the Taliban had fled on a motorbike after his fighters were swiftly routed by the Americans invading Afghanistan.

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"In the piece below, we take a look at the insurgency in Afghanistan more closely – from al Qaeda's perspective.

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Pakistan-CIA's mouthpieces in the US media and the Web have been activated to give maximum punch to US threats of bombing Quetta and convincing the international public opinion of the veracity of US intelligence on the presence of Mullah Omar and Osama bin Laden in Balochistan.

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". . .The relationship that developed between bin Laden and Mullah Omar was deep and strong.

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Pakistan has warned the United States that it will not allow drone attacks on suspected Taliban bases in its troubled Balochistan province, military sources have said.

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The US ambassador to Pakistan, Anne W Patterson, has told the Washington Post that "the United States has now turned its focus to Quetta", claiming that the area has now become a major Taliban base from where "Mullah Omar and his commanders plan and launch cross-border stri …

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The United States is threatening to launch airstrikes on Mullah Omar and the Taliban leadership in the Pakistani city of Quetta as frustration mounts about the ease with which they find sanctuary across the border from Afghanistan.

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... Though the double-faced media has kept their public ignorant of the facts but their government are well aware of the ground realities—the huge casualties and the sagging morale of their soldiers.

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Baitullah Mehsud caught public eye after the death of Abdullah Mehsud in July 2007. Within a short period of five months little known Baitullah managed to spread his influence in all seven tribal agencies of FATA and established Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in December 2007.

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