Editor's note: Beginning tomorrow, the AfPak Daily Brief will have a slightly different layout. Please look for "Foreign Policy Magazine" as the sender. "AfPak Daily Brief" will now appear in the subject line. Thanks for reading!

Liquidated leader

A U.S. drone strike early Thursday morning -- the second in two days -- reportedly killed four suspected militants in North Waziristan's Miran Shah, including Badr Mansoor, who was described by one Pakistani official as the "de facto leader of al-Qaeda in Pakistan" (AP, AFP, CNN, Tel). Western officials said Wednesday that fewer foreign fighters are being drawn to the Afghanistan/Pakistan region to fight alongside militants there, in part because of the threat from drone strikes, as well as the attraction of fighting instead in conflicts that have erupted from the Arab Spring (AFP). In Balochistan on Wednesday, four people were injured when unidentified men on motorcycles through a grenade at their car (ET).

Aitzaz Ahsan, the lawyer representing Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, appeared on Thursday before Pakistan's Supreme Court, where Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry told him that his appeal of the contempt of court charges against Gilani was itself in contempt of court (ET, Dawn, The Nation). Chaudhry reiterated that all charges against Gilani would be dropped if he would write a letter to Swiss authorities requesting that a corruption case against President Asif Ali Zardari be reopened.

Pakistani traders are hesitant to continue doing business with Iran as tough international sanctions are making payment for Pakistani exports difficult for Iranian businesses (Reuters). Meanwhile, Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar on Wednesday visited her counterpart in Russia, Sergey Lavrov, and the two pledged to support an "Afghan-led and Afghan-owned" reconciliation process (ET, Dawn). Next week, Pakistan will host Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad for a summit on counterterrorism (AFP).

Dismal figure

The deputy commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan Lt. Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti told reporters at the Pentagon on Wednesday that an estimated 1% of Afghan security forces are currently capable of operating on their own, and that the United States will begin sending military advisory teams to Afghanistan this year in an effort to put Afghan forces in the lead role (Reuters, CNN, NYT, AP). However, Lt. Gen. Scaparrotti also defended ISAF's claim of progress in Afghanistan against an article published Monday in the Armed Forces Journal arguing that U.S. military officials are misleading the public about the successes being achieved on the ground there.

The production of Afghanistan's best-known export, elegant hand-woven rugs, has fallen 70 percent over the past few years, facing daunting challenges including low prices, a lack of infrastructure upon which to market and sell the rugs, competition from machine-made rugs, and rampant corruption amongst officials (Reuters).

Go Fish

It took workers more than four hours and multiple broken pulley wires to haul a 7,000 kilogram (15,400 pound), 36-foot-long whale shark onto the main port in Karachi (ET). The enormous shark was purchased for Rs200,000 (U.S. $2,200) by local resident Qasim Niazi, as men traded stories about the rare catch, including one by an elderly fisherman who bragged that whale sharks had tried and failed to swallow him twice.

Sign up here to receive the Daily Brief in your inbox. Follow the AfPak Channel on Twitter and Facebook.

The Rack: Lt. Col. Daniel L. Davis, "Truth, Lies and Afghanistan: How military leaders have let us down" (AFJ).

Bringing in the big guns

Senior U.S. military commander General James Mattis will reportedly travel to Pakistan sometime this month for talks with Pakistani Army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani to discuss the results of investigations into a NATO airstrike that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers in November (NYT, ET, Dawn). Pakistan's Defense Minister on Tuesday urged the government to reopen its border to supplies destined for NATO troops in Afghanistan once the coalition has met Pakistani demands, which could include imposing higher fees on trucks using Pakistani roads (Dawn, The News, ET, AP).

Pakistan's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI) faces two legal cases this month, one will begin with a hearing tomorrow, and concerns seven suspected militants who have been held by the ISI since 2010, as well as four other detainees who have died over the past six months in ISI custody (NYT). The second case will begin with a hearing on February 29 accusing the ISI of vote-rigging by illegally donating $6.5 million in order to influence the general election in 1990. Meanwhile, a Pakistani-American cab driver pleaded guilty in Chicago on Monday to sending money to Ilyas Kashmiri - a Pakistan-based al-Qaeda operative now thought to be dead - with the intention of helping Kashmiri purchase explosives (AP).

The International Monetary Fund on Monday warned Pakistan that it must protect a "highly vulnerable" economy by reducing inflation, decreasing its budget deficit, and widening its tax base (Bloomberg, AFP). Pakistani and Iranian officials agreed during meetings on Monday to "intensify" work on a multi-billion dollar Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline despite strong U.S. opposition (ET, Dawn). Pakistani authorities hope this deal will help alleviate the country's severe energy shortages. Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani also signed an agreement on the import of liquefied natural gas from Qatar on Monday at the start of a three-day visit with officials there (ET, Dawn).

Reuters reports on Pakistan's millions of child laborers, forced into work by poverty and rising fuel and food costs (Reuters). Finally, casualties from Monday's factory collapse in Lahore have risen as high as 18, with 13 survivors rescued from the rubble, as police filed a criminal complaint against the owners of the illegally-constructed building, who have fled (Dawn, BBC, AFP, Reuters, CNN, AP).

An Afghan security officer on Tuesday opened fire at a checkpoint during an argument, killing two police officers and three private security guards (AP). And a NATO helicopter crashed in eastern Afghanistan on Monday, but no one on board was killed (AP). 

A new reality television show pitting eight Pakistani chefs against eight Indian chefs first aired in India just last week, but the captain of the Pakistan team, Mohammad Naeem, has already quit, alleging the judges' bias toward India (AP). As co-host Ira Dubey said in one of the show's first episodes, " Now the world's greatest rivalry is going to get spicier."

Sign up here to receive the Daily Brief in your inbox. Follow the AfPak Channel on Twitter and Facebook.

Event Notice: Please join the New America Foundation's National Security Studies Program TODAY for an in-depth discussion with the National Defense University's Dr. Thomas Lynch, the author of the forthcoming New America research paper, "The 80 Percent Solution: The Strategic Defeat of bin Laden's al-Qaeda and Implications for South Asian Security" (NAF).

Backpedalling

U.S. and NATO officials on Thursday evening scrambled to clarify that U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta's statement on Wednesday did not mean that U.S. troops would give up a combat role in Afghanistan completely in 2013, but would give Afghan security forces the lead role in operations (NYT, Reuters, AP, Reuters, WSJ, AFP, Guardian, LAT). The Post's Greg Jaffe and Kevin Sieffe examine the myriad problems with applying the same gradual withdrawal strategy in Afghanistan as the one used by the United States to pull out of Iraq (Post). And NATO defense ministers in Brussels on Friday discussed how the member nations will pay the estimated $6 billion annual bill for Afghanistan's growing security forces after the 2014 troop withdrawal deadline (AP). Bonus read: Roger D. Carstens, "Putting the Afghans in charge" (FP).

Pakistani and Afghan officials on Thursday moved forward with plans to develop a massive gas pipeline that will run from Turkmenistan, through Afghanistan and Pakistan, and finally to India (ET, The News). Meanwhile, Tajik security officials announced Thursday that its border guards had clashed with a group of smugglers attempting to bring drugs across the border from Afghanistan on Sunday, but the group managed to escape back into Afghan territory (AP).

Pakistani officials said Friday that at least seven Pakistani Frontier Corps soldiers were killed in a midnight ambush on a checkpoint in Kurram Agency by around 40 Taliban militants, 18 of whom were killed in defensive fire (AP, BBC, Dawn, AFP, ET). And in a predominantly Shi'a area of Dera Ismail Khan District, militants blew up a girls school late Thursday night (ET).

Pakistan's National Assembly on Thursday voted unanimously to pass a bill establishing the National Commission on the Status of Women, which will be responsible for reviewing laws concerning women and ensuring that those protecting women's rights are enforced (Dawn, ET). Also on Thursday, Pakistan failed to send a judicial committee to India to investigate the 2008 Mumbai attacks as planned, giving no reason for the delay when informing Indian officials (BBC).

Pakistani authorities on Thursday announced that tests had found large amounts of anti-malarial medicine in the faulty heart medicine IsoTab that caused over 100 deaths in Pakistan, and that drug factory responsible for producing the pills has been closed (AP,AFP, Dawn). And the brother of Osama bin Laden's youngest widow, Yemeni Amal al-Sadah, is in Pakistan attempting to secure the release of his sister, and gave a television interview that aired on Thursday quoting his sister's account of bin Laden's death (Dawn).

The Punjab Assembly on Friday had to be adjourned briefly for the second time this week when assembly members from opposing parties began flinging insults at each other (The News). As soon as today's session began, PML-Q member Samina Khawar Hayat called PPP member Shahbaz Sharif qatil-e-aala (biggest murderer), prompting assembly member Sheikh Allauddin to interrupt her, and sparking a battle of abusive language between the two representatives.

Sign up here to receive the Daily Brief in your inbox. Follow the AfPak Channel on Twitter and Facebook.

The Rack: New America Fellow Anatol Lieven, "Afghanistan: The Best Way to Peace" (NYRB).

Event Notice: Please join the New America Foundation's National Security Studies Program on Friday for an in-depth discussion with the National Defense University's Dr. Thomas Lynch, the author of the forthcoming New America research paper, "The 80 Percent Solution: The Strategic Defeat of bin Laden's al-Qaeda and Implications for South Asian Security" (NAF).

Confident captives

A classified report on NATO interrogations of thousands of insurgent detainees in Afghanistan reveals that the fighters believe the Taliban will be able to return to power in Afghanistan following NATO toops' withdrawal in 2014, and that the movement is receiving support from Pakistan and enjoying success on the battlefield (AP, AFP, CNN,Guardian, BBC). Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar dismissed the allegations of Pakistani support for the militants, calling them "old wine in new bottles" (BBC, AJE,Reuters). And a spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said Wednesday that any conclusions drawn from the leaked report would be "questionable at best," as it is just a summary of interrogations, not an analytical report (NYT, CNN).

U.S. Defense Department officials will outline for the first time during testimony before the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday an analysis of attacks by Afghan security forces on NATO troops, identifying personal grudges, not insurgent ties, as the primary motivation behind the attacks (AP). The 45 such attacks since 2007 have killed 70 and wounded 110, and the rate of the attacks has increased in recent months.  On Wednesday, an Afghan soldier shot and killed a U.S. Marine in the southern Afghan province of Helmand, though the detained soldier told investigators it was an accident (NYT, AP, Bloomberg, AFP, CNN).

U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper confirmed during testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday that the United States is weighing the risks of transferring five Taliban detainees to a third country as part of a peace deal with the militant group (Reuters, AP). The Associated Press has a closer look at the five Guantánamo detainees being considered for release (AP). U.S. officials plan to remind France during a meeting of NATO members in Chicago on Thursday that the alliance agreed to a 2014 deadline for troop withdrawal, following French President Nicolas Sarkozy's announcement last week that he wants NATO to end its mission in Afghanistan by the end of 2013 (AP, AFP).

Retaliation strike

Pakistani security forces killed over 20 suspected militants, including senior Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) commander Moinud Din in a midnight airstrike on TTP hideouts in Orakzai Agency near the border with Afghanistan (CNN, BBC, Tel, AFP, Reuters, AP). The strikes came a day after TTP militants attacked a checkpoint in Kurram Agency, killing eight Pakistani soldiers and wounding 15. And on Wednesday, militants attacked a checkpoint in the southwestern province of Balochistan, killing another 11 soldiers and wounding 12 (AP, AFP).

Police in Islamabad said Wednesday they are investigating a package containing anthrax that was sent to the official residence of Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani last month (AFP). Meanwhile Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Kabul, though the visit was somewhat overshadowed by the leaked NATO interrogation summaries alleging Pakistani support for the Afghan Taliban (AFP).

Questioning Khan

Controversial author Salman Rushdie questioned cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan's beliefs in a tweet on Wednesday, noting Khan's support for Rushdie's views in the early 1980s, and his more recent condemnation of Rushdie's 1988 book, The Satanic Verses(ET). A Pakistani Twitter user explained to Rushdie, "You were sane then," to which the author responded, "On the contrary, my ideas were exactly as crazy then as they are now."

Pieces of peace

Former Taliban officials said Saturday that preliminary discussions between Taliban and U.S. officials about trust-building measures such as the transfer of prisoners from Guantánamo Bay have begun in Qatar (NYT). The Afghan government, which has previously expressed its displeasure at being left out of the peace talk developments, plans to meet with Taliban leaders for talks in Saudi Arabia sometime before the Taliban officially sets up an office in Qatar, according to Afghan and Western officials (BBC, AFP,Tel, WSJ, AFP). And Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar will reportedly travel to Kabul on February 1 for talks with Afghan officials on the reconciliation process there (Reuters, AFP). Afghanistan will reportedly request access to the Taliban's senior leadership -- supposedly based in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta -- during Khar's visit (Reuters).

A senior Afghan official reports that both Afghanistan and Pakistan are seeking their own negotiations with the Taliban out of fear of being "sidelined" in the U.S-led reconciliation talks, as Pakistani officials say that Khar's plan to visit Afghanistan was spurred by a shared feeling of betrayal by the United States during the process of opening up a dialogue with the Taliban in Qatar (AFP, ET). On Friday, the Taliban kidnapped a member of Afghanistan's peace council while he was visiting the restive eastern Afghan province of Kunar to encourage the insurgents to join the peace process (ET).

The Wall Street Journal's Yaroslav Trofimov has a must-read about the Taliban's efforts to remake itself into a more moderate organization, by supporting the establishment of girls' schools and even pledging to teach English in their schools if they were to return to power in Afghanistan, though some analysts worry that this less hardline image is simply a ploy to gain more support from the local population (WSJ). Bonus read: Karl F. Inderfurth, "A Taliban 'Rope-a-Dope' Strategy?" (FP).

British Prime Minister David Cameron signed a strategic partnership agreement with Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Saturday outlining the planned cooperation between the two nations following the withdrawal of British forces at the end of 2014 (BBC, CNN) Following their talks, Cameron said that the rate of troop withdrawal from Afghanistan should be the same for all NATO member countries and should depend on the security situation on the ground, a clear criticism of France's announcement on Friday that it would be speeding up troop withdrawal to leave Afghanistan by the end of 2013 (AP,Reuters, Tel). The decision by French President Nicolas Sarkozy came after four French troops were shot dead by an Afghan service member, and has sparked worry amongst the other members of the NATO mission in Afghanistan that the killing of Western mentors by their Afghan Army partners could now be perceived by insurgents as a good strategy for forcing Western forces out of Afghanistan (LAT, AP).

U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan Marc Grossman had planned to use his recent trip to South Asia to build support for the U.S. peace effort in Afghanistan, but was forced to spend much of it placating Afghan officials who were livid that four U.S. congress members met with Afghan opposition leaders in Germany earlier this month (McClatchy). Meanwhile, the U.S. representative to NATO Ivo Daalder told reporters in London that U.S. aid to Afghanistan will be lowered along with troop levels over the next couple of years (Tel).

And a jury in Canada on Sunday convicted three members of an Afghan family for murdering three teenaged sisters and one other woman because they "dishonored" the family by breaking their rules on clothing, dating, and using the internet (AP).

Pakistan's Supreme Court on Monday ruled to allow former ambassador to the United States Husain Haqqani to travel abroad, signaling that perhaps the investigation into the so-called "Memogate" scandal is losing momentum (Post, AFP, AP, Dawn). However, the court has also extended by two months the judicial commission's deadline for investigating the alleged memo, following Pakistani-American businessman Mansoor Ijaz's repeated refusal to travel to Pakistan to record a statement (ET, Dawn). Ijaz, the central witness in the Memogate case, petitioned the Supreme Court on Saturday for permission to record his statement abroad, a request that has previously been denied (Dawn, ET).  

Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani dismissed the possibility of a coup in Pakistan while speaking to a group of reporters at the Davos economic forum, saying that the country's military leadership is committed to democracy (ET, Dawn, Reuters). Upon his return to Islamabad, Gilani denied that Pakistan's spy chief Ahmed Shuja Pasha, who is retiring in March, would be granted an extension, and said "things are settling down" between the military and civilian leaders (ET).

A policeman was shot and killed by unidentified militants on motorcycles in Peshawar on Saturday, while at least three people were killed on Sunday in a suicide attack targeting the home of a tribal elder on the outskirts of Peshawar (ET, Dawn, AFP). Also on Sunday, six militants and one pro-government militia fighter were killed during a clash in Kohat (ET). 

In an interview with 60 Minutes aired on Sunday, U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said that he believes someone in the Pakistani government had to have known where Osama bin Laden was hiding, though the Defense Department was quick to caveat that the interview was old and had been recorded at a time when U.S. officials were still unsure about the details of bin Laden's presence in Pakistan (ET, Dawn). Panetta also expressed concern about the safety of Shakil Afridi, a doctor who provided the CIA with "very helpful" intelligence and who may face treason charges in Pakistan (Dawn,Guardian, Tel, AFP, AP). A Pakistani official on Monday clarified that the government has not yet decided on the charges against Dr. Afridi (CNN).

A Pakistani commission of investigators and lawyers plans to visit India next month to obtain more evidence for the prosecution of seven suspects allegedly involved in the 2008 Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people (AFP). Iran's official news agency said on Saturday that the six Pakistanis shot and killed by Iranian border police on Thursday were drug smugglers who had crossed the border carrying 2,200 pounds of opium and hashish, and had opened fire on the Iranian security forces (AFP). And in Saudi Arabia, a Pakistani drug smuggler was beheaded after being detained as he tried to bring a large amount of heroin into the conservative kingdom (AFP).

Twitter users all over the world made a virtual list of #AwesomePakistaniThings this weekend, causing the hashtag to trend worldwide for over an hour on Sunday (ET). Some of the top tweets ranged from "our leaders say we are not united but we showed the world unity through trending" to "We don't need to spend money on fake tans."

Sign up here to receive the Daily Brief in your inbox. Follow the AfPak Channel on Twitter and Facebook.

A suicide attack on Thursday targeting a NATO provincial reconstruction team (PRT) in the capital city of Helmand Province, Lashkar Gah, killed at least four civilians and wounded dozens (AFP, AP). Meanwhile, an Afghan identified only as Mahmood has been sentenced to 16 years in prison for spying on NATO forces on behalf of Iran, after being found with photographs of NATO bases and the telephone numbers of Iranian intelligence agents (AFP). 

Reuters reports on the improvement in both the capabilities and equipment of Afghanistan's newly formed special forces division, to the extent that they now feel ready to take over the night raids usually performed by foreign forces, which President Hamid Karzai has vehemently insisted be halted (Reuters).

Pakistani soldiers killed at least 20 militants on Thursday in Kurram Agency after coming under attack close to the Afghan border (AP). In the Sui area of Balochistan Province, five soldiers were killed when militants attacked a check post on Thursday, while in the Baloch capital city of Quetta, three people were shot and killed by unidentified gunmen on Wednesday (ET, Dawn, ET).

The Associated Press reports that the recent kidnappings of several foreign aid workers in Pakistan has sparked fears not only for the safety of humanitarian volunteers, but also for the Pakistanis in need of their help (AP). Elderly American aid worker Warren Weinstein is still believed to be in the custody of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), a sectarian Pakistani militant organization, which is providing Weinstein with "all available medical treatment" according to one LeJ member (McClatchy).

Thousands of trucks destined for Afghanistan but denied permission to cross through Pakistan are clogging up the port in Karachi, where some exasperated drivers have simply deserted their trucks (AP). Others have remained after hearing rumors of a reopening of the border, which was closed after 24 Pakistani soldiers were killed in a NATO airstrike on November 26. Elsewhere in Pakistan, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif announced on Thursday that the death toll from tainted cardiac medication has risen to 100, as the government began doling out compensation packages to the family members of the deceased (Dawn, AFP, ET).

Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf (PTI) leader Javed Hashmi joined a crowd of aspiring doctors and dentists on Tuesday at the inaugural ceremony of a private medical and dental school in Multan (ET). Speaking to the media later, Hashmi added that he thinks dentists in Pakistan should look into developing an injection that attacks the teeth of the corrupt politicians and bureaucrats that are stealing the nation's wealth.

Event Notice: Please join the New America Foundation's National Security Studies Program TODAY from 12:15 - 1:45 pm as we commemorate the life of Richard Holbrooke, one of the most important American statesmen of the last half-century (NAF). 

Reports and acrimony

Pakistan on Monday released its report into the killing of 24 Pakistani soldiers in November by American aircraft in Mohmand agency, roundly rejecting American claims that both sides shared responsibility for the incident and blaming the deaths on U.S. failures to coordinate with Pakistani forces (NYT, Post, AP, CNN, ABC, AFP, LAT, ET). The report also concluded that the incident was, "deliberate, at some level," and said that that bombardment did not end until army chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani intervened with the U.S. military (Post, Dawn). A Pentagon spokesman stood by Washington's portrayal of events Monday (AFP).  

Former Pakistani ambassador to Washington Husain Haqqani filed a request Monday with the judicial commission investigating the "Memogate" affair asking that Mansoor Ijaz's right to testify in the case be stripped, after Ijaz refused to travel to Pakistan, citing security concerns (Dawn, ET, DT, McClatchy, CNN, ET, Dawn). Meanwhile, Interior Minister Rehman Malik appeared before the judicial commission to explain statements he made about the case, while intelligence head Lt. Gen. Ahmad Shuja Pasha testified before the parliamentary commission conducting its own investigation into the incident (Dawn, ET). And Karin Brulliard writes about the coup in Pakistan that everyone expected, but has (so far) not happened (Post). 

Dawn reported Monday that Pasha met with former military dictator Gen. Pervez Musharraf in Dubai, and warned him not to come back to Pakistan (Dawn, ET). The report emerged the same day Pakistan's Senate unanimously passed a nonbinding resolution demanding that Musharraf be arrested and tried upon his return to the country (CNN, ET, Dawn, AFP). 

Human Rights Watch issued a sharply critical report on the security situation in Pakistan Monday, as a major gas pipeline in Sindh was blown up by unknown assailants, and Dawn looked at the continued fear of militants among those displaced from Khyber agency by fighting (ET, Dawn, Dawn). And police believe a Kenyan aid worker who went missing Monday in Sindh has been kidnapped, while elsewhere police arrested four people allegedly connected with the kidnapping of two European aid workers in Punjab last week (AP, AFP, ET).

Signs of betrayal

NATO said Monday that there was no evidence of "systemic infiltration" of Afghanistan's security forces by the Taliban, after the Taliban claimed to have recruited the Afghan soldier who killed four French soldiers last week (Reuters, AFP). And Reuters reports on the looming difficulties in American and NATO efforts to secure Afghanistan's east (Reuters).

Finally, the AFP reports on the tremendous mental strain placed on Afghans by years of bloodshed in their country (AFP). According to the Afghan government, fully 50 percent of Afghans experience symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). 

The wandering scrolls

Scholars are picking apart a cache of medieval Jewish scrolls believed to be from northern Afghanistan that have slowly come into the public eye in the last two years (Reuters). The documents, which were likely smuggled out of Afghanistan secretly and are currently in London, are believe to have belonged to Jewish merchants who worked along the Silk Road, the ancient trading route that traverses Central Asia. 

Sign up here to receive the Daily Brief in your inbox. Follow the AfPak Channel on Twitter and Facebook.

Wonk Watch: Steve Coll, "Looking for Mullah Omar" (New Yorker).

Dangerous bloodshed

French President Nicolas Sarkozy threatened to pull French forces out of Afghanistan early on Friday after four French soldiers were killed in the eastern province of Kapisa by an Afghan soldier (WSJ, Guardian, AP, BBC, Tel, Reuters). He also said that he was sending Defense Minister Gérard Longuet and France's army chief to Afghanistan to begin an inquiry into the safety of French troops there, and that all training and combat support operations would be suspended until the review is finished. The Times' Matthew Rosenberg reports on a classified assessment that found an increased number of killings of international troops by members of the Afghan security forces (NYT). And six U.S. soldiers were killed Thursday when their helicopter crashed in the southern province of Helmand (BBC, Tel, Guardian, Reuters, AP).  

Afghan President Hamid Karzai's chief of staff Abdul Karim Khurram expressed concern to the Times Friday that Afghanistan's government was not being kept fully informed about talks with the Taliban, echoing concern among Afghan and American officials at the pace of such negotiations (NYT, Post, AP). Reuters reveals growing anger among Taliban fighters about the perceived muted response of their leaders to a video that surfaced last week showing U.S. Marines apparently urinating on Taliban corpses (Reuters). And the Afghan government will investigate reports that six civilians, including four children, were killed in by NATO aircraft in Kunar (CNN).  

Finally, at least 29 people have been killed since Monday as a result of devastating avalanches in the northern province of Badakhshan (AP).  

In the flesh

Pakistani-American businessman Mansoor Ijaz was granted a visa to travel to Pakistan Thursday after a personal visit to Pakistan's High Commission in London, allowing Ijaz to travel to Pakistan to tell his side of the story in the "Memogate" affair (Dawn, ET, DT). Ijaz will testify January 24 in front of a judicial commission investigating the incident, but said Friday that the parliamentary committee looking into the same topic cannot summon him to testify, since he is not a Pakistani citizen (ET). Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik said Friday that the government was ready to offer Ijaz protection in Pakistan, while Pakistan's Attorney General Maulvi Anwarul Haq denied Friday before the country's Supreme Court that the government wanted to remove army chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and intelligence head Lt. Gen. Ahmad Shuja Pasha (Dawn, ET, Dawn).   

An anonymous U.S. official told press sources Thursday that a January 10 drone attack in Pakistan killed al-Qaeda's "external operations planner," a Pakistani who may have spent several years in Britain named Aslam Awan (Reuters, NYT, AP, CNN). Meanwhile, the review board of the Lahore High Court has ordered the release of the former leader of the anti-Shi'a militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Malik Ishaq (ET). And armed men on Thursday kidnapped two European aid workers, a German and an Italian, from the Punjabi city of Multan (NYT, Dawn, BBC, ET).  

Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani said Friday that the country's parliament would be the one to make an eventual decision about re-opening border crossings to NATO supplies destined for Afghanistan, a day after anonymous officials said the crossings would be re-opened (Dawn, Reuters, Reuters). And the AP reports that it costs the United States six times as much to send supplies into Afghanistan using routes that do not pass through Pakistan (AP).  

And Norway's head of intelligence, Janne Kristiansen, has resigned after inadvertently disclosing during a parliamentary hearing that Norway has agents working in Pakistan (BBC).  

Cricket king 

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has named Pakistani bowler Saeed Ajmal the world's top-ranked "spinner," after he led Pakistan to a test match victory against England (AP). The match was part of a three-test series, which Pakistan now leads 1-0.

Sign up here to receive the Daily Brief in your inbox. Follow the AfPak Channel on Twitter and Facebook.

Our door is [not] always open

The U.S. State Department on Tuesday confirmed reports that Pakistan had asked U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Amb. Marc Grossman not to visit Islamabad until Pakistan's parliamentary review of bilateral relations between the two countries is complete (BBC, Reuters, Tel, Dawn). Amb. Grossman is traveling to Afghanistan, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates this week to garner support for U.S. peace talks with the Taliban. Meanwhile, Pakistan agreed to release commercial cargo destined for Afghanistan that has been building up since Pakistan blocked NATO supplies on November 26 when 24 Pakistani troops were killed in a NATO attack on two border posts (ET, Dawn). Afghanistan had expressed worries that blocking containers of food could cause a food shortage in the country. Pakistan also said it would resume the sale of jet fuel to Afghanistan to meet the country's commercial demands, though a ban on the sale of fuel to NATO will remain in place (ET).

The lawyer representing Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, Aitzaz Ahsan, denied Wednesday that Gilani is in contempt of court, but said that "there is no harm" in asking Switzerland to reopen corruption cases against President Asif Ali Zardari, since Zardari "has complete immunity as president" (AFP, AP, ET, Dawn). Interior Minister Rehman Malik told the Indian news channel New Delhi Television on Wednesday that Gilani will not be resigning, and that "nobody has the right politically, morally to ask us to resign" (ET). The Associated Press takes a look at what the current political situation signifies about the declining power of the Pakistani Army (AP).

In Pakistan's other bubbling political crisis, Pakistani-American businessman Mansoor Ijaz has reportedly received a visa to travel to Pakistan to appear before the commission investigating the "Memogate" scandal on January 24 (ET, Dawn). And sacked Defense Secretary Khalid Naeem Lodhi filed a petition Tuesday challenging his dismissal by Prime Minister Gilani on the grounds that no inquiry had been carried out to prove his alleged "gross misconduct" (ET).

At least ten militants were killed in the Behlol area of Balochistan on Tuesday during a clash with Frontier Corps troops (ET). And gas supply to the Balochistan capital city of Quetta was disrupted Tuesday after militants blew up a pipeline (ET). A senior tribal journalist, Mukarram Khan Atif, was shot and killed by unidentified gunmen as he prayed at a mosque in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's Charsadda District (ET). In North Waziristan, local tribesmen reportedly attempted to shoot down a U.S. drone using Kalashnikovs and machine guns (Dawn). 

Not-so-friendly fire

A U.S. military investigation into the Afghan army officer who opened fire on his American trainers in April 2011, killing eight airmen and one civilian, discovered that the gunman, Col. Ahmed Gul, had previously said he wanted to "kill Americans," but was considered a "reformed Taliban" by Afghan officials (AP, CNN, WSJ, Post, LAT). And U.S. troops in Afghanistan say that training engineers and maintenance personnel to fix military aircraft is of critical importance to the country's security in anticipation of NATO's 2014 withdrawal (AP).

Afghan Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid told CNN on Tuesday that the Taliban will allow a polio vaccination campaign to operate in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region, after polio cases in the country tripled in 2011, prompting the government to ask the militant group to grant immunity to health workers (CNN, NYT). Finally, the Afghan government said Wednesday morning that security forces had killed nine militants and captured 23 suspected militants across the country over the previous 24 hours, as fighting seemed to diminish after Taliban strongholds received heavy snowfall (AP).  

"Foodistan"

Top Chef comes to South Asia when a new reality show entitled Foodistan premiers on New Delhi Television on January 26 (ET). The show will feature sixteen professional chefs -- eight from Pakistan and eight from India -- who will compete to impress the judges with their finest dishes.

Sign up here to receive the Daily Brief in your inbox. Follow the AfPak Channel on Twitter and Facebook.

Changing tides

Pakistan's National Assembly will vote Monday on a resolution expressing confidence in the country's political leadership and democracy, as fears of a military coup continue to dominate coverage (NYT, BBC, Reuters, Dawn, ET, Post, Reuters). President Asif Ali Zardari is said to have returned from a short trip to Dubai Friday, as the AP reports that Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani placed a "panicky" call to Britain's High Commissioner in Pakistan this week, asking for Britain's support and expressing concern about a military takeover (AFP, AP). Gilani will host a meeting with military leaders Saturday, as Pakistan's army publicly backed the country's judiciary -- which is currently investigating the civilian government on several issues (Reuters, ET, Dawn, ET, Dawn). And the commission investigating the death of journalist Saleem Shahzad released its report Friday, blaming unnamed "belligerents" for Shahzad's death but recommending that Pakistan's intelligence services be more accountable (ET, Dawn).

Pakistani-American businessman Mansoor Ijaz said Friday in an interview that he would return to Pakistan to tell the "unaltered truth" about the "Memogate" affair, including what he says is the role former ambassador to Washington Husain Haqqani played in supposedly dictating a memo asking for American support against a military coup in May (Guardian, Dawn, DT). However, Ijaz's appearance before a commission investigating the incident may not take place on January 16, as planned, because Pakistan's foreign office had still not received a visa request for Ijaz as of Thursday night (ET, Dawn). And FP's Josh Rogin reveals a May 9 email from Ijaz to former National Security Advisor James L. Jones, who passed the memo in question to Adm. Mike Mullen, in which Ijaz says three people, rather than one, collaborated in writing the unsigned note to Mullen (FP).

The second suspected U.S. drone strike in 2012 destroyed a vehicle near Datta Khel, North Waziristan Thursday, killing at least six reported militants (ET, Reuters, AFP, BBC, CNN). More than 100 militants attacked a police checkpoint outside of Peshawar late Thursday, killing two policemen (ET, Dawn). And Pakistan's Supreme Court is looking into a claim that a displaced Swat Valley resident trying to reclaim land seized by the military is a terrorist (Dawn). 

Difficult negotiations

The Taliban released a statement Thursday saying that they would not recognize the "stooge" government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai or the country's constitution, even as negotiations may soon start up again with the United States (WSJ). The statement was released as Karzai and American officials roundly condemned a video that appeared this week purporting to show U.S. Marines urinating on dead Taliban fighters (Guardian, Tel, NYT, Post, Tel). Two of the men in the video have been identified, and will be questioned about the incident (WSJ, CNN, BBC). And prominent Afghan opposition leaders, including representatives of ethnic minorities and former members of the Northern Alliance, voiced tentative support for negotiations with the Taliban Friday, on the condition that the minority representatives participate in the talks (AP).

Also on Thursday, a suicide bomber killed the governor of Kandahar's Panjway district, Haji Fazeludin Agha, as well as his two sons and two police officers, as they were returning from Kandahar City (CNN, BBC, Reuters, Tel, AP, AFP). And the United Nations reported Thursday that the price of Afghan opium had gone up 133 percent in 2011, and that opium farmers likely earned more than $1.4 billion last year, 9 percent of Afghanistan's GDP (BBC, AP).   

Beautiful music

Reuters goes inside Afghanistan's only music academy, the Afghanistan National Institute of Music, where 140 students study full-time (Reuters). The school hopes to heal some of Afghanistan's wounds through art, and relieve a measure of the country's hardship -- half of its students are orphans or street children.

Sign up here to receive the Daily Brief in your inbox. Follow the AfPak Channel on Twitter and Facebook.

Crime and punishment

Pakistani Prime Minister Yusaf Raza Gilani relieved Lt. Gen. Naeem Khalid Lodhi of his duties as Defense Secretary on Wednesday, following Lodhi's statement to the Supreme Court last month in its investigation of the "Memogate" scandal that the Ministry of Defense has no control over the Army or the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI) (ET, AP, Dawn, Reuters). The Pakistani military's Directorate of Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement on its website that Prime Minister Gilani's recent statements to a Chinese newspaper that the country's military leaders had violated the constitution are false and could have "very serious ramifications" (ET, Dawn). And on Tuesday, the lawyer for the former Pakistani ambassador to the United States Husain Haqqani challenged the Supreme Court's legal authority to form a commission to investigate "Memogate" (AFP, Dawn).

Four suspected militants were killed Wednesday on the outskirts of Miran Shah in the first U.S. drone strike in Pakistan since the November 26 NATO airstrikes that hit a border check point, killing 24 Pakistani troops (AP, AFP, Reuters, Tel, NYT). Pakistani security forces killed a further 11 suspected militants in the tribal agency of Orakzai on Wednesday (Dawn). The Associated Press reported Wednesday that the United States gave a $36,607 grant in 2009 to Pakistan's Sunni Ittehad Council, which recently organized a rally in celebration of Mumtaz Qadri, who assassinated the opinionated liberal politician Salman Taseer last year (AP). A U.S. diplomat insisted that it was a one-time grant intended to support the group's organization of anti-Taliban rallies, and that no further funds will be given.

Pakistan's civilian leadership scrambled Tuesday to formulate a response to the Supreme Court's threat to dismiss Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani if he refuses to reopen a corruption case against President Asif Ali Zardari, and eventually decided to call an early session of parliament on January 12 (ET, Dawn). The leaders hope to find a solution to the political turmoil through inclusive negotiations, as Prime Minister Gilani has so far refused to fulfill the court's demands. A spokesman for the ISPR on Wednesday denied reports in a British tabloid, The Sun, that Pakistani authorities plan to demolish the compound in which Osama bin Laden was found and killed by the United States (ET).

Friend or foe?

U.S. troops in Afghanistan say that Afghan police forces may do more to undermine stability in the country than they do to support it, telling reporters that some Afghan police officers have given insurgents money, food, and rides in police cars (WSJ). More concerning are American suspicions that Afghan police officers have received weapons from the United States, then sold them to the Taliban. A suicide bomber believed to be just 14 or 15 years old managed to enter the Kandahar police headquarters on Wednesday, injuring one officer when he detonated his explosives (AP, AFP). And Canadian officials said Tuesday that 10 containers of "non-critical" military equipment returning from Afghanistan had apparently been broken into and looted, then filled with rocks and sand so that the theft would not be discovered (CBC).

Afghan and Pakistani officials exchanged barbs at a recent two-day conference on Afghanistan in Singapore, trading blame for Afghanistan's struggle against a Taliban insurgency (WSJ). The eighth conference of the Pak-Afghan Joint Economic Commission (JEC) is scheduled to begin next week in Islamabad (ET). 

Got milk?

Camel milk is reportedly taking Peshawar by storm because of an increased awareness among residents about its medicinal qualities (ET). Many city-dwellers can now get fresh camel milk at Rs100 per kilogram from the Bedouin who walk through Peshawar with their female camels.

Sign up here to receive the Daily Brief in your inbox. Follow the AfPak Channel on Twitter and Facebook.

When Pervez comes marching home again

Speakingto a crowd of supporters in Karachi via video uplink, former Pakistani President and military dictator Pervez Musharraf announced Sunday that he would return to Pakistan between January 27 and 30 to lead his All Pakistan Muslim League (APML) in election campaigning (ET, BBC, Dawn, Tel, DT, AJE, AP, CNN, LAT, AFP, Reuters).Musharraf, who faces potential arrest if he travels to Pakistan, will reportedly stop in Saudi Arabia to garner support for his return (ET, Reuters). He also told the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz on Saturday that Pakistan should contemplate relations with Israel (Reuters). And The News looks at Musharraf's overseas bank accounts (The News).

FormerPakistani ambassador to Washington Husain Haqqani appeared before the commission investigating the "Memogate" affair Monday, where he denied any role in drafting a letter that offered to help remove Pakistan's military leadership in return for U.S. support to avoid a coup (Dawn, ET, NYT, Reuters, Dawn).Pakistani-American businessman Mansoor Ijaz, who says Haqqani drafted the memo which Ijaz then passed to former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen, has been granted a visa to travel to Pakistanto appear before the commission (Dawn, ET, Dawn).Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari again denied this weekend that he would resign from his post, as negotiations between the Pakistan PeoplesParty (PPP) and the rival Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) are saidto be progressing (Reuters, ET).Finally, Sherry Rehman has taken up her official duties as Pakistan's new ambassador to the United States, while TIME's Ishaan Tharoor looks toward the future of Pakistan's liberals (Dawn, ET, TIME).   TheTehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has claimed responsibility for the killings of 10 Frontier Corps personnel kidnapped last month and found Monday in Orakzai, saying the bodies were handed over as part of an exchange for 10 TTP fighters killed by Pakistani security forces (Dawn, AP, BBC, ET, Tel, AFP).The Times' Eric Schmitt reports that according to U.S. and Pakistani officials, the nearly two-month pause in U.S. drone strikes has allowed militants more freedom of movement in Pakistan's tribal areas, as the Tribune reported that America and Pakistan may be close to an agreement to resume the strikes (NYT, ET).In Karachi, four people were killed this weekend, including a security guard at the U.S. consulate in the city, while Dawn reports that authorities were aware of al-Qaeda plans to attack military targets and especially naval installations in Pakistan going back to 2009, but failed to properly protect Karachi's Mehran naval base, assaulted by militants in May of last year (ET, Dawn).Also in Karachi, police said this weekend that they had killed a Taliban commander named Yaseen Shah and arrested an "associate" (AP).

Fivestories round out the Pakistan news: Police in Quetta say they've made some arrests in the kidnapping of British nurse and Muslim convert Khalil Dale, seized in Quetta last week (Tel).A Pakistani national living in Maryland, Nadeem Akhtar, was sentenced to three years in prison Friday for conspiring to export materials to Pakistan that could be used in nuclear reactors (AP, Reuters).Kuwait and Saudi Arabia have reportedly turned down Pakistani requests to extend the term length of its credit for oil payments (ET).A Pakistani Christian falsely identified as Jewish and subsequently arrested for blasphemy before being released in 2003, says that he and his family still face death threats (ET).And Pakistani officials announced Saturday that the country had freed 179 Indian fishermen imprisoned for crossing into Pakistani waters (CNN).

Accusations

Afghaninvestigators said Saturday that they had found evidence of American abuse of detainees at the country's detention center at Parwan, though the Times' Matthew Rosenberg reports that according to American and British officials, the Afghans focused on the part of the prison run by Afghan authorities, not by NATO (BBC, NYT).  
Accordingto the Tribune, American officials have given Pakistan the "green light' to bring the militant Haqqani Network into reconciliation negotiations in Afghanistan (ET). Anda man in an Afghan military uniform, believed to be a member of the Afghan National Army, shot and killed a U.S. soldier in Zabul province this weekend, before being killed by NATO troops -- though the Telegraphsuggests that the shooting occurred after a dispute between several U.S. and Afghan troops (BBC, AP, Tel).

Reuters reports that only one in three Afghans has access to electricity, though as many as 70 percent have access in Kabul (Reuters). Laura King has a must-read on the increasing difficulties Afghans face this winter (LAT).And Afghanistan's Foreign Ministry has announced that it will open an embassy in Greece in the next few months, to help deal with the tens of thousands of illegal Afghan migrants living in the country (AP).

Hazardous driving

Dawnreports that three-wheeled rickshaws are being blamed for a host of problems in Peshawar, including pollution and noise problems leading to increased hearing loss in the city (Dawn). Independent estimates indicate that of the purportedly 50,000 rickshaws in the city, only 13,000 are licensed.

Sign up here to receive the Daily Brief in your inbox. Follow the AfPak Channel on Twitter and Facebook.

Revenge

The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has claimed credit for killing 15 paramilitary Frontier Corps personnel kidnapped last month in North Waziristan (BBC, NYT, ET, Reuters). TTP spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan announced that the men, whose bodies were found Thursday morning, were killed in retaliation for the deaths of 12 TTP members in Khyber province last month as well as the Pakistani government's subsequent arrest of female members of the dead militants' families. And Dawn reports that police in Karachi on Thursday arrested a TTP commander, Abdul Qayuum, along with three "companions" (Dawn).

The Red Cross announced Thursday that a British doctor working with the group -- a recent convert to Islam, according to the Tribune -- had been kidnapped by unknown gunmen in the city of Quetta (Tel, ET, AP, Reuters). Pakistanis on Wednesday observed the one-year anniversary of the killing of outspoken Punjab governor Salman Taseer by his security guard Mumtaz Qadri, while the Sunni Ittehad Council publicly offered Rs100 million ($1.1 million) to purchase the "holy gun" Qadri used to slay Taseer (ET, Dawn, ET, DT, ET, DT, ET). Also Wednesday, the husband of Asia Bibi, a Christian woman imprisoned on charges of blasphemy, said that his wife is doing "well" and faces "no threat" in prison (AFP).

The judicial commission investigating the "Memogate" scandal sent notices Wednesday to President Asif Ali Zardari and opposition politician Nawaz Sharif to submit testimony or appear before the commission by January 9, while former ambassador the Washington Husain Haqqani will challenge the legal basis for establishing the commission (Dawn, ET, ET). U.S. ambassador to Pakistan Cameron Munter, meanwhile, said Wednesday that former National Security Adviser James L. Jones had "no intention" of traveling to Pakistan to provide testimony for the commission (ET). A court issued contempt notices Wednesday for five ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) officials after they participated in a press conference criticizing the behavior of Pakistan's Supreme Court in the "Memogate" case (ET, ET).

In other news, members of the Awami National Party (ANP) stormed out of Pakistan's National Assembly Thursday in opposition to a debate about the creation of new provinces in South Punjab and elsewhere (Dawn, ET). Pakistan's cabinet moved Wednesday to require all people drawing a salary from the state, including members of the armed forces and civil servants, to declare their assets publicly (Dawn). Supreme Court chief justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry said Wednesday that the door for military courts in Pakistan was "permanently closed" (Dawn). And the political party of former President and military dictator Pervez Musharraf, the All Pakistan Muslim League, has filed a request with the Sindh high court to host a rally on January 8 (ET).

Deal progress?

Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Wednesday welcomed direct U.S.-Taliban talks and the creation of a Taliban office in Qatar, adding that talks would "eliminate the foreigner's excuses for and actions to continue war and bloodshed in Afghanistan" (Post, NYT). However, other possible conditions of talks with the Taliban, including the release of several prominent Taliban prisoners held at Guantánamo Bay, are reportedly on hold (AFP).

The Post's Ernesto Londoño has a must-read on Iran's stepped-up efforts to influence events in Afghanistan as it grows increasingly concerned about a post-2014 U.S. presence in the country (Post). This effort, according to Afghan officials and others, includes strengthening cultural and political links with Afghanistan while also purportedly cultivating ties with the Taliban.

Afghan authorities confirmed Thursday the assassination of a local official in Helmand, Haji Fazel Mohammad, one of a growing number of killings of government officials in Afghanistan's south (AP). And finally, the AP looks at what the case of Sahar Gul, an Afghan child bride brutally tortured by her in-laws for her refusal to become a prostitute, says about the condition of women in Afghanistan 10 years after the U.S. invasion (AP).

Special treatment

In a move to increase exports of mangoes to the United States and elsewhere, Pakistan will soon receive an American "irradiation unit" to preserve the mangoes for sales abroad (The News). Currently the fruit must be shipped to the United States before being treated with radiation, a technique used to kill bacteria and microorganisms.

Sign up here to receive the Daily Brief in your inbox. Follow the AfPak Channel on Twitter and Facebook.

The Rack: Madiha R. Tahir, "I'll Be Your Mirror: What Pakistan Sees in Imran Khan" (Caravan).

Let's make a deal 

Talibanspokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said Tuesday that the group had reached a "preliminary agreement" to set up an office in the Persian Gulf state of Qatar, and had asked for the return of Taliban prisoners held at Guantánamo Bay (Reuters, AP).The agreement follows a renewed push for negotiations with the group and the perceived necessity of a Taliban "address" for negotiations after nearly a year of talks between the United States and its Afghan adversary (Daily Beast, ABC, AP, Post, Reuters, Tolo).

AfghanPresident Hamid Karzai announced December 27 that he was no longer opposed to the establishment of the office, after the country's High Peace Council issued a set of 11 requirements for negotiations with the militant group to adhere to before talks could take place (Reuters, NYT, BBC, Tel, AP).The Post had reported the week before that talks between the United States and the Taliban over a possible transfer of the detainees to Qatar broke down due to opposition from Karzai (Post). And Al Jazeera looks at the role former Taliban figures are playing in the country's peace process (AJE).

Latelast month, Karzai pushed for NATO to disband a controversial but little-known irregular police force set up in Afghanistan's north, knownas the Critical Infrastructure Protection Program (WSJ, NYT, Reuters, AFP).The move came after Karzai issued a sharp critique of NATO night raids, which he said were obstructing negotiations for a long-term partnership between the United States and Afghanistan, a critique that may have prompted the withdrawal of American advisers from an Afghan government public relations center (Bloomberg, AFP, NYT).The Afghan government also moved to seize millions of dollars worth ofweapons and armored vehicles owned by private military contractors late last month, as Karzai appointed three new officials to Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission (IEC) (Post, Reuters)

Inan interview with the Times on December 20, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, Gen. John R. Allen, suggested that American military forces could remain in Afghanistan following a 2014 deadline for the withdrawal of international troops (NYT). The AP reports on how American forces, anticipating drawdowns, are increasing training of Afghan Special Forces units (AP).Military sources indicated last month that the United States met its self-imposed deadline to withdraw 10,000 troops from Afghanistan before the end of 2011 (AP, AFP).NATO is trying to figure out how to move nearly $30 billion worth of military equipment out of Afghanistan as troops withdraw (AP).And a forthcoming book on former Afghanistan commander Gen. David Petraeus by Paula Broadwell reportedly writes that Petraeus was urged tostep down after President Barack Obama announced the drawdown in Afghanistan, but that Petraeus declined, saying such a decision would be a "selfish, grandstanding move with huge political ramifications" (AP).

Deadly attacks

Asuicide bomb attack on the funeral of an Afghan government official inthe northern city of Taloqan killed at least 22 people on December 25,including parliamentarian and former Northern Alliance commander Mutalib Beg (BBC, NYT, CNN, AJE, Reuters, LAT, AFP, WSJ, AP). Ten members of the Afghan Local Police (ALP) were killed on December 29 by a roadside bomb in Helmand province (AP, Post, BBC, WSJ, AFP).Also on December 29, a man wearing an Afghan Army uniform shot and killed two members of the French Foreign Legion before being shot dead (NYT, LAT, AP, CNN).

A suicide bomber on a motorbike killed five people in Kandahar Tuesday, including four children (AJE, AP, AFP).A roadside bomb in the Uruzgan province city of Tarin Kot killed four civilians on December 31, while Afghan security forces shot dead a suicide bomber in the same city (AFP).And Dion Nissenbaum reports on the growing number of Afghans downloading pro-Taliban songs as cell phone ringtones in order to avoid running into trouble with militants while traveling outside of Kabul (WSJ).

Twowomen have been arrested in Afghanistan for the imprisonment and brutal torture of a 15-year-old girl, the women's daughter- and sister-in-law, who the women allegedly wanted to force into prostitution (AP).The girl, who had tried to go to Afghan authorities but was returned to her tormenters, was freed last month by Afghan police (Guardian, AP, Tel). She will be sent to India for treatment, as authorities continue to search for her husband (BBC).

Fivestories round out the Afghanistan news: The Times' Alissa J. Rubin reports on the persistence of poppy growth in southern Afghanistan (NYT).The Afghan government announced last month that it had signed a deal with the Chinese national oil company to exploit a series of oil fields in the Amu Darya river basin (Reuters, AFP). Afghanistan's electric company is threatening to shut down power to Kabul's central prison if it doesn't pay its bills (BBC). Reuters interviewed Afghan Central Bank Governor Noorullah Delawari, as police in California said that they'd found the body of the man who killed former Afghan Central Bank head Najibullah Sadat Sahou in September (Reuters, Reuters).The Times' Rod Nordland tells the story of Sayyid Abdullah Hashemi andhis difficulties as an advocate for Afghanistan's orphans (NYT). And Afghanistan's first major railroad line ran for the first time last month (AP).

Conflict in the courts

Athree-member Pakistani Supreme Court panel began its investigation intothe "Memogate" scandal on Monday, after formally deciding to open the investigation last month despite protests from Pakistan's civilian government (NYT, ET, Dawn, ET, AFP, NYT, AP, BBC, CNN, Tel, LAT, AJE, AP,). The decision to begin the investigation prompted the lawyer for embattled former ambassador to Washington Husain Haqqani,Asma Jehangir, to cease representing Haqqani on Sunday, saying she had "no confidence" in the proceedings after claiming the court was biased towards the Pakistani military (Dawn, AJE, DT, DT).

Thecountry's civilian government and military continued their war of wordslast month over the scandal, as Pakistan's defense ministry admitted ina filing that it had "no operational control" over the army and the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI) (ET, The News, Dawn, ET, Dawn, DT, Dawn, DT, ET, The News, Dawn, DT, ET, Dawn, ToI).Haqqani continued last month to deny allegations made by Pakistani-American businessman Mansoor Ijaz that the former was behind the memo in question, as his replacement Sherry Rehman gets ready to take up her post next week (Post, WSJ, ET, Dawn, DT, Dawn).

PrimeMinister Yousaf Raza Gilani lashed out at the military December 22, warning that it was plotting against the government, a statement that forced the army to quickly deny and work to quash rumors of a coup (NYT, WSJ, CNN, BBC, WSJ, NYT, CNN, ET, Reuters, Dawn, Reuters, CSM).The jostling provoked further concern about Pakistan's stability, as the government of President Asif Ali Zardari seeks to be the first civilian government to finish its term of office in Pakistani history (NYT, McClatchy, BBC, McClatchy, The Economist, WSJ).Zardari told a crowd of approximately 70,000 that he would not resign on December 27, the fourth anniversary of the assassination of his wife,former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, in Rawalpindi (Guardian, Tel, Reuters, ET, DT, ET, Dawn).And the Telegraph reports on the increasingly prominent political role played by Zardari and Bhutto's son Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, despite beingtoo young, at 23, to serve in the country's parliament (Tel).

Zardari'sspeech followed a massive December 25 rally in Karachi by Imran Khan and his Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf party (PTI) in Lahore, which reportedly drew upwards of 100,000 people (BBC, LAT, Reuters, ET, CNN, Tel, Dawn, AFP).Jason Burke has a must-read profile of Khan following his rapid political surge, as the PTI continues to pick up new members, including former Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) head Javed Hashmi (Guardian, Globe and Mail, Reuters, ET, The News, ET, ET).And the Tribune looks at criticisms that the PTI is too close to Pakistan's military establishment, as PTI member and former Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi left open the possibility Sunday of an alliance with former military dictator Pervez Musharraf (ET, ET).

Inother Pakistan news, a sharp increase in gas and natural gas prices hassparked major protests in Pakistan, and prompted a walkout of PML-N andMuttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) parliamentarians from Pakistan's National Assembly Monday (AP, Dawn, ET, Dawn, ET).

Unholy alliances?

Apamphlet is said to be circulating in North Waziristan announcing the creation of a "leadership council" of Pakistani and Afghan militants ledby Taliban leader Mullah Omar, after the AP and others reported on two meetings in November and December in which al-Qaeda figure Abu Yahya al-Libi purportedly urged those gathered, including insurgent leader Sirajuddin Haqqani and Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) head Hakimullah Mehsud, to put aside their differences and focus on fighting U.S. troopsin Afghanistan (AP, Reuters, CNN, Tel, Dawn, The News).The pamphlet also discouraged kidnappings and suicide attacks targetingcivilians in Pakistan, though TTP spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan has vowed the group's fight against Pakistan's government would continue (The News, Bloomberg).

TheTribune, meanwhile, reports that secret talks between Pakistan's government and TTP elements have reached a "decisive phase" (ET).The Guardian's Jason Burke reported last month that al-Qaeda's leadership has been nearly eliminated in Pakistan, as he and CNN's Nic Robertson and Paul Cruickshank reported the possible movement of at least one key al-Qaeda figure from the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region to Libya (Guardian, CNN). And Sami Yousafzai and Ron Moreau interview a young al-Qaeda member who described the toll that drone strikes and other efforts have taken on the group (Daily Beast).

InQuetta, the Baloch Liberation Army claimed responsibility for a bombingDecember 30 that killed at least 16 people outside the home of former provincial minister Shafiq Mengal (CNN, Dawn, DT, NYT, AP, ET).The day before, unknown gunmen shot and killed Dr. Syed Baqir Shah, a police doctor who in May said that Pakistani security forces killed fiveunarmed foreigners outside of Quetta, in contradiction to police reports (BBC, DT, Dawn). And a dozen people were injured by a grenade attack on a shop in Quetta this weekend (ET).

Asuicide bomber killed at least six paramilitary Tochi Scouts in Bannu December 24, the day after militants attacked a Frontier Corps fort in Tank district, killing one person and kidnapping 15 others (NYT, AP, ET, AP).At least four people were killed in a bomb blast in Khyber Tuesday, while a bomb in a market in Bajaur on January 1 killed an anti-Taliban militiaman (Dawn, AFP, AP, AFP).A bomb killed two Pakistani soldiers in North Waziristan this weekend, while another explosion in Peshawar killed one person on Tuesday (AFP, ET).And a leader of the Islamist Jamiat-Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) party, Azeem Khan, was killed Monday by unknown gunmen in Lakki Marwat (Dawn).Meanwhile, Shaheryar Mirza notes the rise in kidnappings in Karachi by jihadist groups, as police in that city still struggle to control so-called "targeted killings" (ET, ET).

Finally, the AP reports on a grassroots U.S. effort to counter violent extremism in Pakistan (AP). And the AFP looks at how violence is impacting Pakistan's song writers (AFP).

Mea minima culpa

TheU.S. Central Command on December 23 released its report into a friendly-fire incident in Mohmand that killed nearly 30 Pakistani soldiers in November, blaming major communications delays by American officers for the continued attacks on the Pakistani positions but still asserting that American forces were responding to Pakistani fire (NYT, NYT, AP).Pakistan's army almost immediately rejected the report's findings, asserting that their forces did not fire first and rejecting offers of compensation (CNN, LAT, AP, Dawn, ET).The strike worsened already tense U.S.-Pakistan relations, though reports indicate that Pakistani intelligence chief Lt. Gen. Ahmad Shuja Pasha may have met with American officials late last month in a bid to patch up relations (NYT, AP, CNN, Bloomberg).

The CIA has reportedly put drone strikes on hold in Pakistan so as not to further aggravate tensions between the two countries; the last strike was in mid-November (CNN, LAT, AP). Greg Miller has a key piece on the construction of a global "drone apparatus" under U.S. President Barack Obama (Post).ABC News' Nick Schifrin investigates the death of Pakistani teenager Tariq Khan in a drone strike, amid a dispute over whether Khan was a militant or an innocent civilian (ABC).And the L.A. Times notes the actions of the Khorasan Mujahedin, a militant group reportedly targeting suspected informants for the strikes, but also killing innocents in Pakistan's tribal regions (LAT).

The regional equation

Pakistanand India on Saturday exchanged lists of nuclear sites in their respective countries, as part of a 1988 agreement to avoid armed conflicts (CNN, AFP, DT, Tel, McClatchy).The annual exchange comes days after India rejected a Pakistani proposal to remove heavy artillery and mortars from the Line of Control (LoC) separating the two countries' forces (ET, WSJ).And India will reportedly share its "charge sheet" against David Coleman Headley, who has confessed to helping scout and plan the 2008 Mumbai attacks, with Pakistan (ToI, The Hindu).

Andon the other side of Pakistan, Iran has shut its border with the country after an incident in which Pakistan seized and continues to holdthree Iranian border personnel who Pakistan says crossed into its territory and killed a Pakistani man this weekend (The News, AP, AFP, CNN). 

Everything but the oink

The Post's Nicholas Brulliard last month dug into Islamabad's winter menace, when wild pigs swarm the capital city (Post).He writes that authorities in the city have "all but given up trying tocontain the intruders" after efforts to stem the pig population failed.

Sign up here to receive the Daily Brief in your inbox. Follow the AfPak Channel on Twitter and Facebook.