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India-Pakistan
Shiv Sena assaults Kasuri's host in Mumbai
2015-10-14
[DAWN] Former foreign minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri survived dire threats from the rightwing Shiv Sena
A Hindoo nationalist political movement that presents a resistance using the same nasty tactics to aggressive Islamists and that's a pain in the underwear to other Indian political parties...
 ahead of his book launch in Mumbai on Monday while his host Sudheendra Kulkarni was plastered with black paint by Pakistain-baiting protesters.

"I welcome Mr Kasuri to this great city. I thank him for coming even though we already had indications about some forces threatening him," Mr Kulkarni told a news conference, hours after his face was smeared with paint. Mr Kasuri sat by his side at the press meet, the painted face glistening in camera lights.

Mr Kulkarni blamed the Shiv Sena for the attack on him and said the group had threatened to disrupt the launch of Kasuri's book in "typical Shiv Sena style". He added: "Even then the scheduled launch will be held as planned."

Former Deputy Prime Minister of India, L.K. Advani condemned the attack on Sudheendra Kulkarni, his erstwhile aide.

"I strongly condemn whosoever has done this," said Mr Advani, adding that "of late we have seen an increase in cases of intolerance, this is against democracy."
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India-Pakistan
Kasuri claims India had planned air strikes in Pakistan after Mumbai attacks
2015-10-07
[DAWN] Former foreign minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri has revealed that India planned to launch air strikes on Pak soil following the 2008 Mumbai attacks in order to target the banned bad boy group Lashkar-e-Taiba
...the Army of the Pure, an Ahl-e-Hadith terror organization founded by Hafiz Saeed. LeT masquerades behind the Jamaat-ud-Dawa facade within Pakistain and periodically blows things up and kills people in India. Despite the fact that it is banned, always an interesting concept in Pakistain, the organization remains an blatant tool and perhaps an arm of the ISI...
 (LeT) and Jamaat-ud-Dawa
...the front organization of Lashkar-e-Taiba...
 (JuD), India Today reported.

Talking to host Karan Thapar on India Today television, Kasuri said that a United States (US) delegation led by Senator John Maverick McCain
... the Senator-for-Life from Arizona, former presidential candidate and even more former foot soldier in the Reagan Revolution...
had met him after the terror attacks expressing concern that India may carry out surgical air strikes to target LeT and JuD in Punjab's Muridke town.

Speaking to Thapar on 'To The Point' programme before the launch of his book 'Neither A Hawk, Nor A Dove' in India, Kasuri quoted McCain as saying: "We have come from India where there is a lot of anger. Supposing there is limited strike on Muridke, the headquarters of JuD."

Kasuri said the delegation which visited him in Lahore, comprised Republican Senator Lindsey Graham
... the endangered South Carolina RINO...
 and US special envoy on Afghanistan and Pakistain Richard Holbrooke.

The former foreign minister states that he told McCain that Pakistain Army would give a "measured" response in case of a strike inside its territory.

He asked the delegation to ask Pentagon to communicate with the Pakistain Army directly.

Kasuri, whose book titled 'Neither a Hawk nor a Dove' was launched in Pakistain last month and arrangements are underway for its launch in India on Oct 7, also said that Pakistain Army and Inter-Services Intelligence
...the Pak military intelligence agency that controls the military -- heads of ISI typically get promoted into the Chief of Army Staff position. It serves as a general command center for favored turban groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad, tries to influence the politix of neighboring countries, and carries out a (usually) low-level war against India in Kashmir...
 (ISI) were supportive of a treaty of peace, friendship and security between India and Pakistain.

"We didn't want borders to divide territories. We looked at the interest of Kashmiris, Kashmiris wanted demilitarisation," Kasuri said during the interview.
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India-Pakistan
Pakistan capable of fighting restive militants: Kasuri
2007-07-23
Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri said in a CNN interview on Sunday that Pakistan is on the frontline in the war on terrorism and is capable of doing an effective job in the restive tribal areas where some US officials, backed by the US media, have been recommending direct and unilateral US military action.

He told Wolf Blitzer from Lahore that Pakistan has one of the world’s largest and most experienced armies, which is best equipped to deal with the situation. He expressed Pakistan’s resentment at being constantly targeted in the American media for not doing enough. He recounted the heavy casualties that Pakistan’s security forces have suffered, and complained that these sacrifices have been downplayed or have gone unacknowledged in the American media. He said Pakistan “resents” the “tone” of criticism that is levelled at it from the US, despite all that it has done, and is doing, in fighting terrorism and extremism.

Kasuri said he would like to see the US media accord just one-tenth of the coverage to Pakistan’s sacrifices that it does to the performance of US troops in Iraq. Asked for his reaction to a senior US official’s recent statement that Washington might strike areas in Pakistan in the hunt for Al Qaeda, Kasuri said if the US has hard, “actionable intelligence” on Al Qaeda in areas under Pakistan’s control, it should provide such intelligence to Pakistan, which will do what’s necessary. He did not, however, reject the idea of US operations in Pakistan with or without Pakistan’s consent.

Agencies add: Appearing on CNN’s ‘Late Edition’, Kasuri criticised talk of US forces attacking Al Qaeda on Pakistani territory, warning that any incursion would alienate opinion in the predominantly Muslim US ally against terrorism. “We are committed to controlling terrorism, and people in Pakistan get very upset when despite all the sacrifices that Pakistan has been making you get all these criticisms” in the press, he said.

Part of the National Intelligence Estimate made public last week found a “persistent and evolving” threat to the United States from Islamic militant groups, especially Al Qaeda, which is said has become entrenched in Pakistan’s tribal region near Afghanistan. US President George W Bush, in his taped weekly radio address on Saturday, said the report’s assessment that Al Qaeda was gaining strength in the tribal region of Pakistan was “one of the most troubling”.

Senate Majority leader Harry Reid, a staunch critic of Bush’s war in Iraq, told CBS’ ‘Face the Nation’ that, “I don’t think we should take anything off the table. Wherever we find these evil people, we should go get them.”

Kasuri, however, maintained that a US raid into Pakistan would be a mistake. “When you talk of going after targets, you will lose the battle for hearts and minds,” he said. “The Pakistan Army can do the job much better,” he added. The Pakistan Army said on Sunday that security forces killed six pro-Taliban militants in fighting in North Waziristan, after overnight battles left 13 rebels dead.
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India-Pakistan
Kasuri links peace treaty with India to Kashmir
2007-01-13
A peace and friendship treaty suggested by the Indian prime minister is possible only after a dispute over Kashmir is resolved, Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri said on Friday. “I hope that what the (Indian) prime minister (Manmohan Singh) says in terms of a peace and friendship treaty does materialise,” Kasuri told the English news channel Times Now in an interview telecast on Friday. “But then he would know more than anybody else that we need to resolve all our conflicts before that. I am sure that he must have been mindful of that fact,” Kasuri said.

On Monday, Singh said that he “earnestly” hoped ties between the two estranged neighbours would improve enough to generate trust and both can agree to “a treaty of peace, security and friendship”. Kasuri’s remarks also come just a day before his Indian counterpart Pranab Mukherjee is to arrive in Islamabad to review progress made in three rounds of peace talks launched in 2004 and extend an invite for a regional summit in New Delhi this April.

Kasuri said Singh might have made his comments against the backdrop of progress made in the “back-channel” talks. “If that is the case ... it is a very welcome statement. But I would like to repeat, we must resolve all issues particularly Kashmir,” he added.
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India-Pakistan
Bush Arrives in Pakistan
2006-03-04
A nationwide strike called by the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal hit Pakistan yesterday as US President George W. Bush flew from New Delhi to Islamabad in the evening on the last leg of his South Asian tour. Extraordinary security measures were in place for the US president ’s visit.
Kind of appropriate, given that literally millions of turbans want to kill him...
Bush flew in to the Chaklala military air base from New Delhi on board Air Force One and was received by Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri, television footage showed. He was accompanied by his wife Laura Bush at the start of his two-day visit. The couple waved as they descended the steps of the giant blue and white plane, before Bush was handed a bouquet of flowers. They were then flown to the US Embassy in Islamabad by a US helicopter.
Definitely not on a Pak helicopter!
Security levels have been raised to “high alert” and several areas and roads declared as “red zones” in the capital with paramilitary troops equipped with electronic and manual surveillance tools patrolling the city. He is expected to discuss progress in the war on terrorism in his talks with President Pervez Musharraf today. “I will meet with President Musharraf to discuss Pakistan’s vital cooperation in the war on terror and our efforts to foster economic and political development,” Bush said in India before departing.

Bush also gave reason for Pakistani opposition groups to hope that Washington will push Musharraf to move faster to strengthen democratic institutions ahead of a general election next year. “I believe that a democratic, prosperous Pakistan will be a steadfast partner for America, a peaceful neighbor for India and a force for freedom and moderation in the Arab world.” A White House official later said Bush meant to say “Muslim world”.

Police in the city of Karachi fired tear gas to disperse hundreds of protesters trying to march on the US Consulate where on Thursday a suicide car bomber killed himself and three other people including a US diplomat, a witness said. Dozens of protesters were detained after they threw stones at police vehicles a kilometer from the US mission. The largest protest was in Multan in the central Punjab province where the opposition leader in the National Assembly, Maulana Fazlur Rahman, addressed a 10,000-strong crowd.
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Israel-Palestine
Pakistan, Israel Hold Historic Talks
2005-09-02
Pakistan and Israel yesterday held historic talks in Istanbul. Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri said after a meeting with his Israeli counterpart, Silvan Shalom, that his country had decided to “engage with Israel” after years as one of its harshest critics over the Jewish state’s occupation of Palestinian land. But President Gen. Pervez Musharraf said the move did not mean Pakistan recognized Israel. He reiterated Pakistan’s long-held stance that diplomatic ties could only be considered once a Palestinian state is established. The two ministers emerged upbeat from the meeting which was arranged after Turkey, which has close ties with both countries, played a mediating role to bring them together.
A Paleostinian state will eventually be established. My guess is that by comparison it will make Pakland look stable and prosperous.
In a joint press conference with Shalom, Kasuri welcomed the withdrawal of Israeli troops and settlers from the Gaza Strip, which he said constituted a turning point for the establishment of a Palestinian state.
I guess so. They'll now have their own bit of land to rule, rather than govern, according to whatever principles they feel like applying. Of course, they were supposed to have something like that under the provisions of the Oslo Accords, but Yasser thought he was better at running revolutions than proto-states. As it turned out, he was good at neither.
“Pakistan has therefore decided to engage with Israel,” he told reporters, but did not elaborate on what sort of an engagement his country was planning.
Likely because his domestic opposition will be hanging on every word...
Shalom said the meeting heralded a new era in bilateral ties.
Pretty much a statement of the obvious, since they were nonexistent before...
“This is a historic meeting,” the Israeli minister said. “We see this meeting as the beginning of a new period, the beginning of open and useful mutual relations.” Israel was hoping to establish diplomatic relations with Pakistan, Shalom told a separate news conference later in the day, but acknowledged that they were not in the making soon. “I believe positive and full diplomatic ties will be established, but this will take time,” he said.
"For one thing, we have to wait for Qazi to die off. We're expecting apoplexy when he hears about this..."
Israel has diplomatic relations with only four Muslim countries — Turkey, Jordan, Egypt and Mauritania, Shalom said. He said Israel had “secret” contacts with all Muslim countries, but Tel Aviv hoped others would follow the lead of Pakistan and bring these contacts into the open.
Who knows? Maybe someday, far in the future, Arabians will be giving drink to the thisty in Zionist-produced paper cups.
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Afghanistan/South Asia
Pakistan, India using secret channels over Kashmir issue
2005-02-20
LAHORE — Pakistan and India are using secret channels for the solution of the Kashmir dispute, Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri disclosed here yesterday. Addressing a news conference at the State Guest House, he said the presidents, the prime ministers and the foreign ministers of the two countries were also involved in the secret channels. According to him the credit for starting Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus service from April 7 also went to the secret channels.

He said while the launch of the bus service was a victory for both the countries, the credit for keeping the matter secret for about nine months went to the people involved in secret talks.

The foreign minister, who is scheduled to proceed on a visit to Japan today, made it clear that Islamabad would never accept the Line of Control as border between the two countries. He said Islamabad and New Delhi had fought three wars on the Kashmir issue and thus it was not possible for Pakistan to agree to the LoC as international border.
So much for any new secret channels.
In response to a question, the minister said nuclear CBMs, trade links and people-to-people contacts would be given top priority during the next few months. He welcomed the support extended to Islamabad-New Delhi agreements by opposition parties, including the PPP of Benazir Bhutto and the PML-N of Mian Nawaz Sharif. "I welcome a bipartisan approach on the foreign affairs issues".
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Afghanistan/South Asia
Pakistan sets limits to cooperation with IAEA probe
2004-08-09
Pakistan's foreign minister insisted Monday his country was cooperating with a United Nations probe into Iran's suspect nuclear program, but ruled out allowing inspectors into Pakistan as part of the crucial investigation. "Pakistan is a responsible member of the international community. We have been cooperating with the IAEA and sharing information," said Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri, who is on a two day visit to Tehran. "Of course we will cooperate and are cooperating," he told a press conference.
Then his lips fell off...
"But as far as inspections of Pakistan are concerned, that is out of the question. We are not a signatory of the NPT (nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty)."
"And we won't be..."
Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have found traces of highly-enriched uranium inside Iran, leading to suspicions Iran has been trying to produce nuclear bombs and not just atomic energy as it insists. But Tehran maintains the traces found their way into the country on equipment bought on an international black market operated by Pakistan's disgraced former nuclear chief, Abdul Qadeer Khan. Pakistan's cooperation with the probe is crucial in resolving one of the main outstanding questions related to Iran's bid to generate nuclear energy, seen by the United States as a cover for weapons development. The IAEA wants to take so-called "environmental samples" from Pakistan to compare them with those found in Iran - crucial in verifying Tehran's claims. Kasuri refused to elaborate on how Pakistan would help the IAEA in this regard, preferring only to offer a fresh run-down on how important the nuclear deterrent was to his country's national security.
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India-Pakistan
Islamabad Not Aiding Terrorists, Kasuri Tells India
2003-11-13
Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri urged India to stop accusing Islamabad of aiding terrorist attacks in the disputed Kashmir region so that confidence-building measures between the South Asian nations can take hold. Kasuri said Tuesday that New Delhi’s repeated allegations that Pakistan funds cross-border terrorism in Indian-administered Kashmir prevent the two from moving ahead with substantive peace talks. “We want to have friendly relationships with India,” the foreign minister said at a news conference. He criticized India for proposing confidence-building measures, then allowing the dispute over Kashmir to prevent implementation. “This isn’t how world leaders reach peace. To do that we must rise above these things,” Kasuri said.
How about you rise above funnelling terrorists into Kashmir? And pick up your lips.
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Home Front
Dennis the Menace: Good Guys™ out, Patsies™ in!
2003-10-14
You have to scroll down a ways. Hat tip LGF
And now, Dennis Kucinich:
I’m the only candidate who has a plan to get out of Iraq. We need to get the U.N. in and the U.S. out.
"We need to EXPERIENCE Sharia to know what it’s like."
We have to bring our troops home. And I think that issue alone will cause many Americans to flock to my campaign when they see there’s a real alternative to this endless spending of the resource of this country and waste of lives which the Iraq debacle has become.
"Not to mention the waste of funds that could be better allocated towards cowardice and appeasement."
I’m not only in favor of ending the occupation, but stopping the waste of our tax dollars and bringing our troops home, the American people will be aware that they do have a choice.
The choice to get you a job flipping burgers.
Here Dennis stops the pundit resumes.
Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri was wrong. People are that unrealistic, and one of them wants to be President!
Does anyone know what the term for an allergic reaction to brain tissue is?
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India-Pakistan
Paks pooh-pooh Talib strength...
2003-09-01
A Pakistani official claimed that the Taliban was a spent force and that rumours of a reorganisation in his country were baseless.
"Nope. Nope. Never happened..."
Foreign office spokesman Masud Khan told a press briefing on Monday the governments assessment was that only Taliban "splinter groups" remained, and that Islamabad was making sure they were not allowed to regroup.
Then his lips fell off and he turned into a pillar of salt...
Afghan officials had recently claimed Taliban loyalists were regrouping on the Pakistani side of the porous 2400km border and organising attacks inside Afghanistan. Khan said the issue came under discussion when Foreign Minister, Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri, visited Kabul last month and held detailed talks with Afghan Foreign Minister, Abdullah Abdullah. "The general sense was that the right thing to do was to share intellignece and information," Khan added.
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Afghanistan
Pakistan denies role in Taleban revival
2003-08-23
Pakistan defended itself Friday against Afghan claims of complicity in the apparent revival of the Taleban, and called on Kabul to share intelligence to help thwart the fighters’ stepped-up insurgency.
"Yes. Help us figure where the intel leaks are coming from...
“There have been incidents in other parts of Afghanistan — very far away from our border with Afghanistan,” Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri said at the conclusion of a two-day visit to Kabul. “Surely they are not being done because the ISI or the government of Pakistan is turning a blind eye,” he said, referring to Afghan accusations against Pakistan’s military Inter Services Intelligence agency. “They happen despite the efforts of governments to contain them and they happen in Europe, America, Asia.”
"And the roads connecting these remote parts with Pakland are very bad, so it's obvious they're not coming from there. The bus service is terrible..."
Afghan officials have blamed a surge in violence, concentrated in ­ but not confined to ­ former Taleban strongholds in the south and southeast, on remnants of the ousted militia allegedly regrouping in Pakistan’s remote tribal borderlands. Some Afghan officials have accused elements of the ISI of helping them regroup and organize attacks inside Afghanistan, but have produced no evidence for their claims. Pakistan has conceded that Taleban fighters are in their territory, but denies supporting them and insists there are far more inside Afghanistan.
"You just don't see them that much..."
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