Memorial service: A memorial for photojournalist Tim Hetherington will be held today in New York City at 4:00pm EST. Details here.
New release: Thomas Ruttig describes the history of and prospects for the future of negotiations with the Taliban (NAF).
The fog of war
Pakistani
police have released an account of this weekend's brazen, 18-hour
Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan attack on a naval air base in the southern
port city of Karachi, stating that 10 to 12 men were involved, rather
than up to six as Pakistani officials originally said (AP, NYT, DT, Independent, Guardian, FT, Dawn, Post, WSJ).
Two of the attackers are now thought to have escaped, rather than being
killed. Pakistani interior minister Rehman Malik said yesterday that
the attackers, who he stated dressed all in black and resembled "Star
Wars characters," entered from a nearby residential district, and
suggested without citing evidence that "external elements" may have been
involved (Post).
Tribal clashes in Kurram continue into their third day, as the number killed rose to 15 (DT). The Mangal Bagh-led militant group, Lashkar-e-Islam, continues to clash with the Zakhakhel tribe in Khyber (DT).
And The News reports that eight "mysterious helicopters" were spotted
flying over Muzaffarabad last night, which military officials said were
Pakistani aircraft on a night mission (The News).
Regional
outlets are rolling out more news about American diplomatic cables
released by the anti-secrecy organization WikiLeaks, finding that the
U.S. was concerned that Pakistan opposed it at the United Nations in
2006 (Dawn);
in October 2008, U.S. officials encouraged Pakistani president Asif Ali
Zardari to turn down oil from Iran in exchange for an Iranian foothold
in Pakistan (Dawn); Pakistani officials told the U.S. "we are not as advanced as you are" with respect to freedom of religion (Hindu); and detail more about the backroom politics related to the removal/restoration of Pakistani chief justice Iftikhar Chaudry (Dawn).
Indian officials also reportedly urged the U.S. not to withdraw from
Afghanistan following the Obama administration's announcement of a
drawdown in December 2009 (Hindu). ABC points out that the release of the cables is further straining the U.S.-Pakistan relationship (ABC).
The
military garrison town of Abbottabad, where al-Qaeda leader Osama bin
Laden lived for years before he was killed on May 2, is both attempting
to cope with and take advantage of its newfound notoriety (AP).
Western counterterrorism officials say material recovered from the
compound has not yet yielded evidence of imminent threats (Reuters).
In the hot seat
David
Coleman Headley, the government's lead witness in the trial of Chicago
businessman Tahawwur Rana, who is accused of involvement in the 2008
Mumbai terrorist attacks, testified yesterday and said he believed the
militant group that carried out the attack, Lashkar-e-Taiba, was
operating "under the umbrella" of Pakistan's intelligence agency, the
ISI (NYT, Guardian, Times, Reuters, Tel, Independent, AJE, ABC, ToI, ProPublica, HT, AFP, AP, Globe and Mail).
Headley, who pleaded guilty last year to being a co-conspirator in the
Mumbai attacks, said he received guidance from at least two officers in
the ISI. U.S. homeland security secretary Janet Napolitano is currently
in India to pay respects to those killed in Mumbai and to discuss
counterterrorism cooperation with the Indian government (AP). For more on the Rana trial, sign up for our sister newsletter, the Legal War on Terror (FP).
Ever-present threats
A
roadside bombing this morning in Panjwai, Kandahar killed 12 and
wounded 28, and a deputy intelligence chief escaped a Taliban
assassination attempt in Kabul (Pajhwok, AP, Pajhwok, NYT).
More details have been released about the suicide bombing in the Kabul
hospital over the weekend: five men from Kabul have been arrested and
confessed, and the ringleader was a Kabul University medical student (NYT).
And Carlotta Gall files a dispatch from Zabul, the first area in
Afghanistan where Afghan National Army forces operate independently (NYT).
The
Taliban, former ISI official Hamid Gul, and residents of North
Waziristan continue to deny the death of Mullah Omar, the Taliban leader
who Afghan intelligence said was killed in Pakistan earlier this week (NYT).
Afghan intelligence also said they had learned the identity of Taliban
spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid: Haji Ismail, a 42 year old who lives in the
Chaman region of Pakistan.
A terror of a war
Pakistani
officials say the three widows of Osama bin Laden are turning on each
other in custody, with the two older women believing the youngest wife
was being tracked or turned in the al-Qaeda leader (Sunday Times).
The two older wives reportedly lived on the second floor of the
Abbottabad compound, and the younger wife lived on the top floor; bin
Laden is said to have alternated between them.
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