Some interesting news out of Pakistan this week. The focus of these activities are the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) which contain the Waziristan Provinces, and the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) which contains the Swat area where the terrorists tried to take control last fall, and failed.

It seems more and more likely that the nerve center for al-Qaeda and the Taliban are operating out of the tribal areas of Pakistan:

Bin Laden, his deputy Ayman al-Zawahri and others are operating out of Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) bordering Afghanistan, the official told reporters on condition of anonymity.

“Just as Mullah Omar is giving strategic direction for the Taliban from Quetta, al Qaeda senior leadership is in the FATA doing its planning,” the official said, without giving the source of the intelligence.

And what are these beacons of the New Islam doing? They are massacring fellow Muslims:

A suicide bomber blew himself up at an opposition election rally in northwestern Pakistan on Saturday, killing at least 20 people and wounding 25, government and party officials said.

The attacker struck as hundreds of people gathered for a meeting of the Awami National Party (ANP), a nationalist ethnic Pashtun party, in the town of Charsadda in troubled North West Frontier Province, they said.

…

The attack comes three days after gunmen on a motorbike shot dead the ANP’s vice-president, Fazalur Rehman Atakhel, in the southern city of Karachi, sparking riots by supporters.

It is critical to note that this was an opposition rally preparing for elections. Al-Qaeda and the radical Taliban are doing all they can to stop elections so they can impose a fascist marshall law. Some try and blame the Pak government, but it is ludicrous since they want the elections and democratically. And the people know who is killing them (and intimidating them daily). The fact is Pakistan is being invaded by Jihadists from around the region:

The young extremists — heavily armed men in their 20s and 30s from Pakistan’s rugged western border — are the virulent core of a growing insurgency that has claimed hundreds of lives and threatens to destabilize one of the United States’ closest allies in its efforts against terrorism, several intelligence and administration officials said.

Compared with previous insurgent groups, the newcomers are well-armed, ideological and difficult to control, with fewer allegiances to local religious and tribal leaders and structures. Pakistan’s government and army are unprepared to deal with the new groups, the officials said in separate briefings on the ongoing violence.

As al-Qaeda has been ejected from Iraq they have clearly being retreated to the tribal areas of Pakistan. But don’t think this wave of foreign fighters is going to be welcomed – they are foreigners with no ties to the local tribes. And there have been rumors of division between the jihadis:

HERE ARE rifts in Taliban ranks and if sources are to be believed, the supreme leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar, has sacked Tehrik-i-Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud from the rank and file and asked him to disband the movement in Pakistan.

There are also reports that differences have cropped between senior leadership of Tehrik-i-Taliban and its chief Baitullah Mehsud over the announcement of ceasefire by the latter.

It is being stated that senior leaders of Tehrik-i-Taliban, Pakistan have expressed indignation over the ceasefire announced by its chief Baitullah Mehsud saying that the latest announcement will badly damage the reputation of the Tehrik.

A well-informed Taliban source said that the government wanted to create a rift in the Taliban ranks and the latest announcement was part of that campaign.

“Report about a meeting of Taliban leaders under the chairmanship of Baitullah Mehsud is wrong, as Taliban leaders have lost contacts with each other since long,” he said.

According to him, Taliban militants were being chased and killed in Swat and some parts of tribal areas and offer of truce by the purported Taliban spokesman was severe blow to the Taliban movement.

This could also be the beginning of the end for the Islamists. For a different view other than the defeatist SurrenderMedia I suggest reading Roy Robison and how the facts on the ground look much more positive than negative.