Pakistan: A hard-pressed president, Islam and Politics, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam and Politics

Pakistan: A hard-pressed president

By Rahimullah Yusufzai

With his amnesty against corruption charges set aside and powerful forces impatient with his deeds and misdeeds, Asif Ali Zardari stands on shaky grounds today.

TOUGH TALK: President Zardari's emotional and, in part, reckless speech while observing his wife Benazir Bhutto's second death anniversary in Naudhero December 27 may well upset the presidential apple cart

Pakistan is again facing political instability triggered by a legal battle in the apex court. This could compound the country's problems at a time when it is suffering from economic depression, combating an insurgency in Balochistan and fighting a costly and protracted battle against militants linked to the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

The federal coalition government, headed by late Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP), appears to be going on the back foot after initially showing some defiance over the Supreme Court judgement that declared the controversial amnesty law, the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO), null and void.

Led by Bhutto's widower and now President of Pakistan, Asif Ali Zardari, the Governor of Punjab, Salman Taseer, and Interior Minister Rehman Malik, the government was earlier showing unhappiness over the court verdict and labelling it as selective. But after getting some saner advice, President Zardari is now saying that the government respected the court's judgement and supported independence of the judiciary.

http://newageislam.com/pakistan--a-hard-pressed-president/islam-and-politics/d/2435

Jihadist cells urged to target Canadians: Al-Qa'ida; Website calls for attacks on oil, economic sites, Islam,Terrorism and Jihad, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam,Terrorism and Jihad

Jihadist cells urged to target Canadians: Al-Qa'ida; Website calls for attacks on oil, economic sites

By IAN MACLEOD, Canwest News Service

29 July 2008

A virulent Al-Qa'ida website has issued a new call for followers to kill Canadians and other westerners and attack oil and economic targets.

The message on the password-protected al-Ekhlaas.net forum was posted July 7, the third anniversary of the London transit massacre. The website is a favoured site of hardcore jihadists.

Experts are debating the significance of the latest al-Ekhlaas threat calling for the targeting of Christians, especially those from Canada the U.S., Britain, Spain, Australia and Italy.

Most unsettling, perhaps, is the instructional nature of the posting. Details of the Arabic-language posting, titled "Clandestine work inside the city," were recently translated and reported by the Jamestown Foundation, a conservative Washington think-tank.

Under the nom de guerre Abu Hajar Abdul Aziz al-Moqrin (the former leader of Al-Qa'ida's Saudi wing killed in 2004), the posting explains how a four-unit jihadist cell should be properly trained in urban terror warfare before activation.

Further, the intelligence cell that collects information on a target must not know the purpose of the information. Al-Moqrin warns jihadists not to attack religious figures because it harms the cause. Instead, urban cells should seek economic targets, such as Jewish investments in Muslim countries, international companies, international economic experts, exports from "Crusader countries" and raw materials being "stolen from Muslim countries by the enemies," with al-Moqrin calling for attacks on oil wells, pipelines and oil tankers.

http://newageislam.com/jihadist-cells-urged-to-target-canadians--al-qa-ida;-website-calls-for-attacks-on-oil,-economic-sites/islam,terrorism-and-jihad/d/345