Taliban leader urged to join Afghan gov't October 3, 2008 presstv.ir

Afghan President Hamid Karzai Afghan President Hamid Karzai has invited Mullah Omar, the leader of Taliban, to return to Afghanistan and join the government. "I propose Mullah Omar to get back to Afghanistan as I will be wholly solely responsible for his security and I shall be answerable to the whole of the world on his behalf," Karzai said Friday in an exclusive program on Pakistan's Geo TV. The Afghan President also invited Mullah Omar to join him in the political process of Afghanistan. He said he considered Mullah Omar's return to the country in the best interest, prosperity and stability of Afghanistan. Mullah Omar Mullah Mohammad Omar, known as simply 'Mullah Omar', is the reclusive leader of Taliban of Afghanistan and was the country's de facto head of sate from 1996 to 2001. Mullah Omar went into hiding, following the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. He is wanted by the US for harboring Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda network. The US and NATO forces believe the Taliban leader is hiding in Pakistan. MP/MMN

US citizenship for 16 key MKO figures October 3, 2008 presstv.ir

Saddam Hussein (l) with MKO leader Massoud Rajavi The US has granted citizenship to 16 leading members of the blacklisted Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO), Iraqi security officials say. An Iraqi deputy told Fars news agency that the MKO members who were given US citizenship were directly engaged in acts of terror against Iranians and the Iraqi people. According to the lawmaker, the terrorists, who had earlier exited Camp Ashraf, were reportedly transferred to a former Iraqi air force base near the capital, Baghdad. The US had earlier relocated selected members of the Mujahedin Khalq Organization after Iraqi authorities took control of their camp in Diyala province in August. The act was aimed at preventing MKO members from falling into the hands of the Iraqi government. The deputy said, however, that the US had denied support for a certain number of MKO members in the Camp after accessing their records. He added that documents, including tapes of MKO espionage acts against the Iranian government, have been delivered from the camp to US military forces in Iraq. His remarks come as Ali al-Baghdadi, an Iraqi security official, told Fars that there were documents available on the group's cooperation with al-Qaeda and Baath regime in their acts of violence. He added the US was studying the records of certain MKO members willing to join American troops to select those useful to American forces in their anti-Iran goals. The MKO, blacklisted by many international bodies, is responsible for many acts of terrorism against Iranian civilians and government officials. The MKO terrorist group moved to Iraq in 1986, where it enjoyed the support of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. He provided the group with arms and military equipment to launch attacks against the Islamic Republic during the Iraq- war with Iran (1980-88). The group launched operations against Iran during the Iran-Iraq war from Camp Ashraf, their headquarters and training site, and later assisted Saddam in violently suppressing the Iraqi Kurds during the 1991 uprising. After the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the fall of Saddam Hussein, the group is now directly supported by the United States. AR/JG/DT

Leaked report links Pakistan to Taleban

October 03, 2008
nzherald.co.nz

MADRID - A report marked confidential and bearing the official seal of Spain's Defence Ministry charges that Pakistan's spy service was helping arm Taleban insurgents in 2005 for assassination plots against the Afghan Government.

The report, which was obtained by Cadena Ser radio and posted on its website yesterday, also says Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency - or ISI - helped the Taleban procure roadside bombs.

It alleges Pakistan may have provided training and intelligence to the Taleban in camps set up on Pakistani soil. The report says the ISI planned to have the Taleban use the explosives "to assassinate high-ranking officials".

The August 2005 document does not describe its sources.

Western intelligence agencies have long suspected elements of Pakistan's spy service have aided the Taleban in neighbouring Afghanistan. But this report appears to be the first leaked to the media that spells out such a connection in writing.

Chief Pakistani Army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said the Spanish report was "baseless, unfounded and part of a malicious, well-orchestrated propaganda campaign to malign the ISI."

In Spain, the Defence Ministry and the Prime Minister's office had no comment.

Fernando Reinares, a terrorism analyst at the Elcano Royal Institute in Madrid and former chief counterterrorism adviser at Spain's Interior Ministry, said the document appeared to be an internal report intended for high-level officials.

He said the report on the alleged ISI-Taleban link is in keeping with information from other Western spy agencies.

The ISI has helped kill or capture several al Qaeda leaders since 2001, but there are lingering doubts about its loyalty - not least because its agents helped build up the Taleban in the 1990s.

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