Pakistan Questions Terror Suspects, (PAK and India) Air Forces on High Alert (Flying With Live Ammo)

[tekisui]

http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/southasia/news/article_1447556.php/Pakistan_questions_terror_suspects_air_forces_on_alert_">Pakistan questions terror suspects, air forces on alert

Islamabad - Pakistan's prime minister Wednesday said the two top leaders of an Islamic militant group that India believes was behind the November 26 terrorist attacks in Mumbai were being questioned by police.

(snip)

The recent arrests were announced by Pakistani authorities as the tensions between the two South Asian nuclear-armed countries have been rising dangerously.

Pakistani jet fighters, including F-16s, on Wednesday were flying over Islamabad with live ammunition as a media report said India's air defences had been put on 'highest alert.'

A report from CNN-IBN said the Indian Air Force raised its level of readiness to 'Passive Air Defence.' The high alert is in response to heightened perceptions of air attacks on Indian positions.

All Indian military aircraft have been armed with bombs and missiles and are ready to take off within minutes. Even the warships of the Western Naval Fleet were aggressively patrolling the Arabian Sea, the report said.

Pakistani fighter planes circled over the capital Islamabad on Wednesday morning.

'We see and hear combat aircraft flying over Islamabad but once a while. So many flights in so short time as it happened this morning is something unusual,' said local resident Muhammad Iqbal.

A spokesman for Pakistan Air Force (PAF) told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa they had no means to confirm the reports about alert status of the Indian Air Force, but said: 'PAF is ready to defend the country.'

He confirmed that planes were making 'armed sorties' over Islamabad, but he insisted it was a regular exercise. Asked if in every regular exercise, the jet fighters carry live ammunition, he declined to reply.

According to the DawnNews channel, Pakistan Navy also said it was alert to the movements of Indian vessels.

more...

[tekisui]

1. Here is a picture from a Mumbai train station.

[tekisui]

2. This tinder box is nearing and explosion.

Both Pakistani and Indian Air Forces and Navies are patrolling stocked with live ammo, just waiting for the go command. Rhetoric is still escalating, and consensus is being harder to reach. Negroponte, of all people is going to India this week.

Reports say that 20 or more terrorists were trained with the team that attacked Mumbai. They, presumably, went to other cities or targets. WHo knows if they are planning an upcoming attack or not.

But, one more attack like what happen in Mumbai could easily be the trigger for a tit-for-tat retaliatory conflict. India and Pakistan are on a dangerous tipping point. Neither the Indian nor the Pakistani Presidents want war, yet one act can set the region ablaze.

[tekisui]

3. No proof of Lakhwi's arrest, says US officials

NEW YORK: Expressing scepticism over Pakistan's claim that it has arrested Lashkar-e-Taiba operation leader Zaki ur-Rehaman Lakhwi, US
counterterrorism officials have said that they were yet to have proof of capturing the Lashkar commander, a media report said.

"In the past when they've promised to move against these guys, they'd pick up one or two of them and then several months later, they'd release them," a senior American official who has dealt with Pakistani authorities for several years was quoted as saying by the New York Times.

"Based on past patterns, we shouldn't expect much of this," an unnamed official told the paper.

Pakistan had said yesterday that during a raid at a camp outside Muzaffarabad on Sunday, it had arrested Lakhwi, who is suspected to be the mastermind of the Mumbai terror attacks.

But a senior American official told the Times that there was no independent proof of his capture and it was not clear whether the Lashkar members the Pakistanis claimed they had rounded up Monday were fighters or senior commanders.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/World/USA/_No_proof_of_Lakhwis_arrest_says_US_officials/articleshow/3818079.cms

[HCE SuiGeneris]

4. And we have a

Sack o Shit Sec o State Rice to diffuse the situation. Just f'n great.

[tekisui]

5. I think it is time of Hillary and Obama to get involved.

Condi is as lame a duck as they come.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

6. There is great need for a concerted effort to mediate.

We currently have nothing but useless obstructionists sucking on the Treasury teat as they while away their days in a burning Rome.

I hate these malicious f'rs.