The impact of last week’s elections in Pakistan is still very much in doubt. The new government is learning that gaining power is not all it is cracked up to be, especially with an impatient and brutal force like al-Qaeda and the Taliban expecting immediate relief from being targeted. The irony is the Islamo Fascists lost big time in the election, and what the Pakistan people want is peace. The new government will not gain peace through appeasement to the Bin Laden’s jackboot thugs.

First example of this is a warning from the Taliban to the new government to basically bugger off.

Pakistan militants linked to al-Qaeda warned any incoming civilian government on Sunday they would strike even more viciously if President Pervez Musharraf’s U.S-backed war on terror continued in tribal areas.

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In northwest Pakistan on Sunday, militants attacked a security post, killing a policeman and two paramilitary servicemen and wounding six others, officials said.

Maulvi Omar, a spokesman for the Pakistan Taliban, told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location that any new military operation in tribal areas would lead to more violence.

Succumbing to militant blackmail would be a quick road to losing support from the people who were very clear in their requirements for the future. In addition, the Taliban are threatening the communications infrastructure to stay away from their discussions and attack plans:

The Taliban threatened Monday to attack mobile phone facilities in Afghanistan, alleging that the technology was being used at night to pin-point the Islamic rebels’ hideouts.

Zabihullah Mujahed, a rebel spokesman, said that several phone companies had been given three days to respond to militants’ demands that they cut night time operations or face attacks, notably on antennas erected across the country.

“The invading forces are using mobile phones for military purposes,” Mujahed told AFP, referring to about 60,000 foreign personnel deployed in Afghanistan to hunt down Taliban militants who are waging a deadly insurgency.

In tandem with the efforts by the US House of Representatives to blind our surveillance of these terrorists it is clear the Taliban and their al-Qaeda brethren want privacy so they can plan to kill more people. What the Taliban and al-Qaeda fear is the stepped up presence and activities of US intelligence and investigative resources that have been expanding in the country recently:

While Pakistan might have benefited from hardcore actionable intelligence provided by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the FBI in countering terrorism, one possible negative aspect has been the creation of a vast network of CIA and FBI agents – mostly Pakistanis.

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Top authorities in Pakistan are said to be in knowledge of this phenomenal spread in the American spy agencies’ network as the country’s intelligence agencies have already reported this matter and even identified a number of those on the payroll of the US agencies.

Besides others, a large number of retired Army officers, including ex-brigadiers, are presently working here as American spies. An official of an intelligence agency, however, explained that spy agencies of different countries had their worldwide networks and they handled spy matters according to their resources and needs because importance of spying had increased tremendously after 9/11.

Because of the alleged presence of al-Qaeda-Taliban in Pakistan, the interest of the foreign intelligence agencies here has gone up. The official added that the US had the largest intelligence network in the world and Pakistan was also benefiting from this because through this network the CIA and FBI shared intelligence with Pakistan and gave important information to nab terrorists.

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Parts of the US media have been reporting on this subject and the most significant report was in The Washington Post in 2002 when the influential newspaper claimed that the United States had organised its own espionage network in Pakistan due to lack of cooperation from the ISI in locating the al-Qaeda and Taliban fugitives.

“The FBI decided to set up a Spider Group, a band of former Pakistani Army officers and others, after it concluded that lack of cooperation from the ISI made it impossible to hunt down Taliban and al-Qaeda fugitives in the tribal areas of the country.”

Quoting a federal law-enforcement official in Washington, the newspaper reported that the US move marked an attempt by the FBI to develop “free flow of information” to US agents who previously had worked under some restriction with Pakistan’s official Inter-Services Intelligence agency.

I hate seeing this much information on our efforts in the media, but it is out there and confirms my suspicions that, as al-Qaeda abandons Iraq and gathers in their birth place in the tribal areas of Pakistan, the US has shifted its focus to take out the last bastion of al-Qaeda operations.

So is it really a surprise that the terrorists are targeting Pakistani military leaders? I don’t think the violence will stop, because I don’t think the Pakistani government – no matter who is running it – can appease blood thirsty terrorist hell bent on world domination. And as the recent arrest of a Taliban leader shows, as the government cracks down on the terrorist they will lash out and kill.

ntelligence agencies have once again arrested the Taliban Majlis-e-Shura’s former defence minister Mullah Obaidullah Akhund along with two other Afghan nationals from Lahore, along with two other Afghan nationals, intelligence sources told Daily Times on Sunday.

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He is a senior Taliban figure and is considered by American intelligence officials to have been one of the Taliban leaders closest to Osama Bin Laden, as well as part of the inner core of the Taliban leadership around Mullah Muhammad Omar. Obaidullah is a member of the Taliban Majlis-e-Shura, or executive council, and is thought to be third in command, they added.

Now that opposition parties have the reigns of government in Pakistan they may learn that is easier to criticize from the sidelines than actually make the hard decisions. I would expect them to want Musharraf to stay around to take the heat for them as Pakistan continues to work with America to cleanse the country of these thugs. The only other option is to surrender to al-Qaeda and the Taliban – and lose their power all together.