Does “CIA Post In Karachi” Mean Blackwater?

WASHINGTON: Pakistan allowed the US Central Intelligence Agency to set up a post in Karachi and the data collected by this post led to the arrest of a key Taliban commander and two ‘governors’, officials said.

Describing this as “a high-level of cooperation between the United States and Pakistan,” The Washington Post reported on Friday that it signalled a major change in Islamabad’s attitude towards the Taliban movement.

This enhanced cooperation between the CIA and the ISI led to the arrests of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Afghan Taliban’s second in command, and two Taliban shadow governors for northern Afghanistan, the report said.

“The ISI and the CIA are working together, with the Americans providing actionable intelligence and the Pakistanis acting together with them” to hunt the insurgency’s leaders, a Pakistani official told the paper.

The Post noted that Pakistan’s decision to aggressively search for Afghan Taliban leadership reflected a shift that had been in the works since autumn last year when US President Barack Obama wrote to President Asif Ali Zardari.

The letter offered additional military and economic assistance and help in easing tensions with India.

The Post noted that with US facilitation, India and Pakistan had agreed to restart their stalled talks. President Obama’s letter also contained a warning that Pakistan’s use of insurgent groups to achieve policy goals would no longer be tolerated.

The arrests of Mullah Baradar and other leaders represented “major progress,” a US intelligence official told the Post. “No one has forgotten Pakistan’s complex history with the Taliban. But they understand how important this is to the United States, the region and to their own security.”

The CIA post in Karachi intercepted communications which were later handed over to ISI officials. The two agencies then planned a joint operation to catch Mullah Baradar and ‘governors’.

Final agreement on the operation came in the last week of January.

The detentions, which have taken place since early last week, were initially kept secret to allow intelligence operatives to use information gleaned from the captured men to reach other militants.

The Post claimed that the arrests offered evidence of something that has long been suspected: Top Afghan Taliban leaders have found refuge across Pakistan, particularly in its cities, something the government long denied.

Coutesy: DAWN

Mig 27s: India grounds 100 New Flying coffins

RupeeNews | Moin Ansari

The old Flying Coffins were the Mig 21. Hundreds crashed, and hundreds have been grounded. Now the new Flying Coffins–the Mig 27s have been grounded.  The Mig 27 currently only remains in service with the Indian, Kazakh and Sri Lankan Air Forces in the ground attack role. All Russian and Ukrainian examples have now been retired. Bharat has about 100 in service and all of them have been grounded.

The IAF’s current strength is around 600 of which the MiG-21 fleet of (FL, M, MF and Bis types) comprise 293 aircraft. The IAF has MiG-23 (BN&MF), Mi-17 helicopters, Mi-25/35 attack helicopters, Mi-26 super heavy helicopters, Mirage-2000 multi-role fighters, MiG-29 and Mig-27s.  The IAF  slowly phased out the Fairchild Packet C-119, the Dakota DC-3, Caribou, Otter, Toofani, Mystere 4A, Gnat, Ajeet and the Hunter and later the Canberra light bomber aircraft as well. It has about 30 1996 vintage Sukhoi 30MKI (Flanker: 140 have been ordered and 140 will be assembled from kits). It also is bying the PAKFA (aka FGFA) whose 5th gen credentials have been challenged by international agencies. The IAF has no credible trainer aircraft, a reason given t the highest crash rate in the world. The HPT-32s have been grounded. The HTT-34 was a total failure.

The Mig 21s and Mig-27s have pretty much been grounded. The Il-76 have been grouned, so the IAF really has only about 300 aircraft of unprdictable value. Due to the unavailbility of the LCAs, has ordered 126 planes as part of the MCRC program. However the MMRCA (ten C-17, eight Boeing P8I LRMP (for the Navy), six Lockheed Martin C-130J, six second-hand Sea King helicopters (for the Navy) won’t be delivered for a decade. The IAF may also be buying 12 Mirages from Qatar

New Delhi: After a fatal crash near Siliguri last week, the Indian Air Force (IAF) has grounded its fleet of nearly 100 Russian-origin MiG- 27 fighters on suspicions of a major engine snag. All five squadrons of the ground attack fighter, deployed primarily in the western and eastern sectors, have been confined to the ground since the February 16 crash in which a Squadron Leader was killed.

Engine trouble is a known problem in the MiG-27 fleet with crashes in the past being attributed to defects in the R 29 engines of the aircraft. More worryingly, the initial probe has pointed to a major flaw in the engine that seems to have occurred during the overhauling of the aircraft by the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). The entire fleet had also completed an indigenous upgrade programme last year that was executed by HAL.

Raising a red flag on the serviceability of the fleet, Air Chief Marshal PV Naik said the initial probe hinted at a problem during the overhaul stage that went beyond the realm of day-to-day servicing.

“It (last week’s crash) appears to be a fault in the low-pressure turbine blades of the aircraft. This is at the fourth line, at the overhaul stage,” the Air Chief said, explaining the possible cause of the MiG-27 crash. He added that the second crash last week, in which a MiG-21 went down, was due to a sudden loss of engine power but investigations on the cause were still on.

With the grounding, the MiG-27 aircraft will not take part in the mega Vayushakti exercise that has been planned for this Sunday. The MiG-27s, which form the backbone of the IAF’s ground attack fleet, would otherwise had a major role in the exercise that is essentially a demonstration of air-to-ground attacks at day as well as night.

Till the crash last week, the MiG-27 had been planned as one of the main attractions of the major exercise that will witness more than 100 aircraft in the skies performing multiple operations, including precision-guided bombing and mock aerial combat. The MiG-27 will now be the only fighter in the IAF’s inventory not to take part in the exercise.

India had procured 120 of the fighter aircraft from Russia in the late 1980s and had started production in India at the Nashik HAL factory. The IAF has lost close to 35 of the aircraft to accidents in the past two decades.

Last year, two MiG-27s crashed months after the upgrade of the fleet was completed. While the engine was not upgraded, the fighters were equipped with modern avionics and a pilot-friendly cockpit with multi-function displays and a head up display (HUD).

New Delhi: In a massive exercise involving more than 100 aircraft, Indian Air Force will, for the first time,display its prowess in dusk and night-time operations during a fire power demonstration in Pokharan on February 28.

Code-named Vayu Shakti 2010, the mega exercise will demonstrate “day and night employability of air power” by IAF’s frontline fighter aircraft. President Pratibha Patil, top defence ministry officials and defence attaches from all major countries will witness the exercise.

Fighters like Su-30 MKI, Mirage-2000, Jaguar, MiG-21 and MiG-29 and transport aircraft including AN-32, Embraer and IL-76 and Mi-17 1V and Mi-35 attack helicopters will be part of the exercise

In a first, Airborne Early Warning and Control Systems (AWACS) will monitor and coordinate the exercise. IAF will also employ unmanned aerial vehicles to relay live video images of the target under fire.

The aircraft will attack mock radar sites, tanks, marshalling yards, terrorist camps, runways,infantry fighting vehicles, blast pens, convoys and other targets.The exercise will demonstrate coordination between the three armed forces through the insertion and para-drop of IAF’s Garud, Navy’s Marines and Army’s Special Forces. Manu Pubby After fatal crash, IAF grounds 100 MiG-27s. Indian Express. Tags : Indian Air Force, MiG- 27, crash, Posted: Tuesday , Feb 23, 2010 at 0346 hrs

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Khalistan: KLA – KZF Sikh separatists’ bid to gang up again

Security around top leaders and vital installations in Indian Punjab has been increased following intelligence reports of Sikh separatist groups trying to recruit youth from the US and India to revive liberation of Khalistan.

Reports of a meeting between officials and Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) chief Wadhawa Singh in December have raised concerns among security agencies in the state.

A top-secret intelligence communication from Punjab Police to security agencies last week states: “To execute this task, Wadhawa Singh is making efforts to mobilise volunteers from Punjab as also from the US, who could be made to travel to India via Malaysia or Singapore.”

Following this, security agencies have been asked to take appropriate security measures to protect VIPs and important installations across the state. The VIPs said to be in the target list of the terror outfits include Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and Congress MP Ravneet Singh Bittu.

Bittu, who is the Punjab Youth Congress president, is the grandson of former state chief minister Beant Singh, who is credited with wiping out Sikh’s in the state in the early 1990s with ’super-cop’ KPS Gill. Beant Singh was assassinated by a human bomb here Aug 31, 1995.

The intelligence report says that Bittu is particularly being targeted by the Khalistan Zindabad Force (KZF), Khalistan Liberation Army (KLA). Another intelligence report from Punjab Police has said terror groups could target shrines in Amritsar as well as the Nangal Dam and railway stations at Ropar, Ludhiana and Pathankot.

“We will not let any of these groups revive terrorism in the state,” Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal said in Chandigarh. “We are taking the intelligence inputs quite seriously. We do a day-to-day monitoring of things. Security is being stepped up as required,” Jalandhar Inspector General of Police Sanjiv Kalra said.

In the last two months, Punjab Police have found explosives, grenades and weapons outside vital installations at various places in the state. Several kilograms of explosives were found Jan 19 outside an Indian Oil LPG bottling plant near Nabha town in Patiala district. Two grenades were found five days later outside an Indian Air Force (IAF) establishment at Zirakpur near Chandigarh. A car laden with explosives was found last month outside the IAF station at Halwara in Ludhiana. Two people were arrested in Patiala on Sunday. Eight kilograms of explosives and 40 gelatin sticks were recovered from them.

Though the secessionist movement for Khalistan was comprehensively defeated in 1993, there remain a handful of terrorist outfits chiefly supported by NRI Sikh groups who continue to propagate the ideology of Khalistan. One of the most prominent among them is the BKI, among the oldest and most organised Khalistan terrorist groups. It is headed by Wadhawa Singh, who is reportedly hiding in Pakistan. Mehal Singh is the deputy chief of BKI. Both of them are among the 20 terrorists whom India wants.