another confirmation of the supply cutoff

Fuel supply to NATO forces ‘suspended’
Ibrahim Shinwari, Dawn, Landi Kotal, Sept 5

The government is reported to have decided to stop fuel supplies to NATO forces in Afghanistan via the Torkham highway with effect from Saturday. A senior government official said,

An order to this effect has come from Islamabad and the Frontier Corps has been asked to stop oil supplies to NATO forces forthwith.

Sources said the federal government did not cite any reason for the move, but the decision was apparently taken in the wake of the US ground and missile attacks in North and South Waziristan tribal regions. The US-led forces have intensified assaults in the tribal region over the past few days and five attacks, including the ground assault in Angoor Adda, have been launched, killing over 50 people, including foreign and local militants and civilians. The Torkham highway, linking Peshawar with Kabul and northern parts of Afghanistan and Central Asian states, is a major supply route for the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in the war-ravaged country. Over 20 heavily-loaded vehicles, including oil tankers, were stranded at the border town of Torkham following the government’s decision. However, an official told Dawn in Peshawar that the supplies had been suspended only temporarily because of the law and order situation in the Khyber tribal region. the official said:

Why would Pakistan suspend oil supplies due to increased US attacks in the region? It goes against conventional wisdom. Torkham highway has become extremely dangerous due to militancy in Jamrud and Landi Kotal. The administration needs to beef up security of the highway. When we have enough troops on the ground to ensure safety of oil tankers, the supplies would be allowed to go through.

He denied that the decision to suspend oil supplies had come from Islamabad and said it was taken at the local level in view of the security situation. The sources said that militants had increased their activities in the Khyber region after the military operation in Bajaur.

russia today not too impressed with the rnc

cheney such a loser (kommersant)

Dick Cheney Mistakenly Staked on Caspian
Ilham Aliyev is in no hurry to support the Nabucco project
Kommersant, Sep 5 2008

US Vice President Dick Cheney finished his tour of the South Caucasus, which was intended to strengthen Washington’s positions in its struggle for Caspian energy resources. The visit he paid to Tbilisi yesterday went smoothly as expected. However, the talks he held in Baku Wednesday failed. According to the information of Kommersant, Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev gave his American guest a cold welcome and sent a clear message that Baku won’t support the idea to redirect the energy resources pipelines so that they would omit Russia. He came to that conclusion watching the developments in the neighboring Georgia. Yesterday at 11 a.m. Dick Cheney arrived from Baku in Tbilisi, where Georgia’s Prime Minister Lado Gurgenidze. Before the meeting of the US Vice President with Georgia’s President Mikheil Saakashvili Georgian Security Council Secretary Alexander Lomaya revealed the talks’ agenda to Kommersant. “First, Dick Cheney wants to demonstrate the US support to Azerbaijan, Georgia and Ukraine,” he said. “Second, during the negotiations the parties will discuss the security of communication lines that allow shipping the Caspian energy resources to the West omitting Russia.”

After the talks in the new residence of Georgia’s head-of-state, Mikheil Saakashvili stated at the joint press-conference, “Georgia feels the US support, which is strong as never before.” The journalists had a chance to assess the strength of that support following Dick Cheney’s address. The US Vice President said that Washington allocates $1 billion to restore the Georgian economy. “We stand in solidarity with the people of Georgia. After your nation won its freedom in the Rose Revolution, America came to the aid of this courageous young democracy. We are doing so again, as you work to overcome an invasion of your sovereign territory – and an illegitimate, unilateral attempt to change your country’s borders by force that has been universally condemned by the free world,” the Vice President stated. “Russia’s actions have cast grave doubt on Russia’s intentions and on its reliability as an international partner – not just in Georgia but across this region and indeed throughout the international system.” Besides, Dick Cheney reiterated that Washington fully supports Georgia’s NATO ambitions. “Georgia will be in our alliance,” he claimed.

Nevertheless, according to the sources of Kommersant in the Georgian Chancellery, the talks of Mikheil Saakashvili and Dick Cheney didn’t go as smoothly as their press-conference did. The discussion mainly focused on the security of the existing pipelines, which were laid in Georgia omitting Russia, and the project of the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline Nabucco. Dick Cheney made no secret of the fact that the US is ready to provide the security of these pipelines using political methods only. So, Georgia won’t get military assistance from the US now. By the way, Wednesday, US State Secretary Condoleezza Rice made this position public. “It is not yet time to look at the questions of assistance on the military side,” she stated in Washington. However, Mikheil Saakashvili declared ready to further support American energy projects in the region. According to the sources of Kommersant, he promised to Dick Cheney that Tbilisi will support the Nabucco project “whatever” in case the US gets the approval of Georgia’s neighbors, Baku, first of all.

The Baku emissary

Meanwhile, according to the information of Kommersant, Dick Cheney’s visit to Azerbaijan he made on Wednesday turned out complete failure. The guest of honor, who came in Baku for the first time, was met neither by President Ilham Aliyev nor Prime Minister Artur Rasizade. Instead, First Deputy Prime Minister Yagub Eyubov and Foreign Office Chief Elmar Mammadyarov met Dick Cheney in the airport. As to Ilham Aliyev, he was in no hurry to receive Mr Cheney. That’s why the US Vice President first went to a meeting with BP President in Azerbaijan Bill Schrader and Chevron Azerbaijan top managers. Then he visited the US Embassy in Baku and held a meeting with Ambassador Anne E. Derse. It was not earlier than in the evening that Dick Cheney went to the residence of Azerbaijan’s President. According to the sources of Kommersant with the Office of Azerbaijan’s President, the talks turned out pretty tough, in spite of the fact that Dick Cheney and Ilham Aliyev have had close ties since Mr cheney worked with Halliburton and Mr Aliyev was SOCAR (Azerbaijan’s state-run oil company) Vice President. They discussed the war in Georgia and the prospects of constructing the Nabucco gas pipeline. According to the information of Kommersant, Dick Cheney informed Ilham Aliyev that the US will support its allies in the region and intends to promote the project of the gas pipeline omitting Russia. Nonetheless, Ilham Aliyev sent a clear message that although he appreciates the relations with Washington, he is not going to have a row with Moscow. In fact it meant that under the present circumstances Baku decided to bide its time without fostering the Nabucco project. Kommersant interlocutors with the Presidential Office said that Dick Cheney was irritated by the outcome of the discussion – he even refused to attend a banquet in his honor.

Ilham Aliyev’s reluctance to support Washington quarreling with Russia is easy to explain. Baku regarded Tbilisi’s definitively losing of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as well as Russia’s tanks entering Georgia as a signal to everyone in the region who is willing to join NATO. Azerbaijan’s budget incurs great losses: because of the explosion at the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline on August 12 – Turkey put the blame on the Kurdistan Workers Party – and the pauses of the work of the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum gas pipeline and Baku-Supsa oil pipeline, energy carriers export from Azerbaijan in the western direction was suspended. At the same time Baku has no claims to Russia. Moreover, according to the information of Kommersant, Azerbaijan’s authorities expressed their gratitude to the Russian Federation because during the military operation and bombardments of the Georgian territory no BTC-related facilities were destroyed. Nevertheless, Baku can’t overhaul its stance towards the pipelines on the territory of Georgia. Azerbaijan is said to have increased the workload of the Baku-Novorossiysk oil pipeline. It concluded that in the present situation it’s more secure to transport gas to Europe via Russia, rather than Georgia and Turkey. Even more so in June Gazprom offered to buy Azerbaijan’s gas at any volumes according to the European pricing formula. During his visit to Baku in July Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Ilham Aliyev agreed to launch negotiations concerning the matter. It seems the talks will be accelerated, just like the pace of Baku and Moscow’s developing closer relations. The Russian leaders have already started work in this direction.

In the evening after the talks of Dick Cheney and Ilham Aliyev finished, Dmitry Medvedev called Azerbaijan’s President. Sources in the Kremlin explained to Kommersant the necessity of the telephone conversation with Dmitry Medvedev’s desire to bring home to Ilham Aliyev, one of the region’s most influential players, Russia’s position regarding Georgia. Even more so Azerbaijan has a territorial dispute with Armenia, which remains unresolved. “Armenian leader Serzh Sargsyanhas recently visited Moscow and discussed the situation over South Ossetia and Abkhazia during his talks with Dmitry Medvedev. The Russian President thought it important to discuss those matters with the Azerbaijani party as well because Baku belongs neither to SCO nor CSTO – the organizations Russia has intensified contacts with,” a source in the Kremlin told Kommersant. In her turn, Press-Secretary of the Russian President Natalya Timakova told Kommersant that during their conversation the leader of Russia and Azerbaijan discussed a possibility of a meeting in the near future.

pakistan cuts supply lines – it’s true

Pakistan cuts supply lines to Nato forces
Nasrullah Afridi, News International (Pakistan), Sept 6 2008

BARA: In a major development, the federal government on Friday announced disconnection of supply lines to the allied forces stationed in Afghanistan through Pakistan in an apparent reaction to a ground attack on a border village in South Waziristan agency by the NATO forces. Political authorities of the Khyber Agency claimed to have received verbal directives to immediately halt transportation of all kinds of goods meant for the US-led NATO forces in Afghanistan for an indefinite period. Authorities claimed the decision was taken in the wake of the growing unrest in the Khyber Agency that provides for the only ground link of the country to the war-torn Afghanistan. The authorities told the News:

Until now, drivers of the vehicles carrying goods meant for the foreign forces in Afghanistan were directed to reach the tribal agency between 7am to 10am, which were then escorted to the border town of Torkhum by the Khassadar force.

The authorities claimed that due to repeated attacks on the personnel of the Khassadar forces during the last one week and abduction of a few personnel, it had become difficult for the security forces to provide foolproof security to the supply lines. Independent sources, however, claimed that the government feared retaliation by the tribesmen against a recent ground attack conducted by the NATO forces in Angoor Adda of the South Waziristan Agency that triggered condemnation from various quarters, including the government of Pakistan itself. NWFP Governor Owais Ahmad Ghani had likened the attack to an aggression against a sovereign state, saying the people of the country expected the Pakistan Army to give a befitting reply to the attack. He said that some twenty innocent people lost their lives — most of them were women and children. The US government had accepted responsibility for the attack but did not offer any apology for the same and instead announced to launch more such attacks against the militants across the border, if so required in future.

why cheney is such a loser

Kommersant: Cheney’s trip to Baku “failed”
http://www.regnum.ru/english/1050782.html

Vice President of the USA Dick Cheney completed his trip to the South Caucasus targeted at strengthening Washington’s positions in the struggle for Caspian energy resources. Kommersant daily qualifies the outcome of Baku talks as “failure.” The daily accounts that President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev did not offer to the US guest a warm reception, hinting that Baku was not intending to support the idea of retracting energy carriers’ flows to bypass Russia. The daily details:

Dick Cheney’s visit to Azerbaijan proved utterly unsuccessful for Washington. The high-ranking guest, who was visiting Baku for the first time, was not met by either President Ilham Aliyev or even Prime Minister Artur Rasizade. Instead, the Vice President was welcomed by First Deputy Prime Minister Yagub Eyyubov and Foreign Minister Elmar Mamedyarov. What about Ilham Aliyev, he was not in a hurry to receive Mr. Cheney. So the latter first headed to a meeting with President of BP Azerbaijan Company and top management of Chevron’s Azerbaijan subsidiary, proceeding then to the US embassy to Baku to converse with Ambassador Ann E. Derse. To the Azerbaijan President’s residence Dick Cheney made it toward evening.

As sources in the President’s administration commented to Kommersant, the talks were rather difficult, although Dick Cheney and Ilham Aliyev have had confidential relations from the times when Mr. Cheney used to be employed by Halliburton and Mr. Aliyev as Vice President of the state-run oil company SOCAR. The sides conferred on the war in Georgia and prospects of Nabucco gas pipeline construction. According to Kommersant‘s information,

Dick Cheney informed Ilham Aliyev that the USA were going to firmly support their allies in the region and intended to further extend the trans-Caspian gas pipeline circumventing Russia. Ilham Aliyev, however, hinted that, despite his high esteem of relations with Washington, he was not going to quarrel with Moscow. It essentially meant that, in the current situation, Baku decided to wait and see rather than accelerate realizaiton of Nabucco.

Kommersant sources in President’s administration accounted that Dick Cheney was highly irritated with the talks’ outcome — he even refused to attend a ceremonial supper given in his honor. Kommersant cites sources in the State Chancellery of Georgia who said that closed negotiations between Mikhail Saakashvili and Dick Cheney in Tbilisi also had not gone smoothly. The sides mainly discussed security of existing pipelines laid through the Georgian territory round Russia, and the Nabucco pipeline project. Dick Cheney made it clear that the USA were ready to maintain security of these pipelines, however, by merely political means, so Georgia would not receive US military aid at the moment.

talk about the mouse that roared

Pakistan cuts supply lines to NATO troops in Afghanistan
Jason Ditz, AntiWar.com News, Sept 5 2008

In a move seen as the latest fallout from Wednesday morning’s US attack on South Waziristan, the Pakistani government has ordered that supply lines to NATO troops in Afghanistan be immediately severed for an indefinite period of time. The move comes as thousands of protesters marched through South Waziristan’s capital of Wana chanting “death to America”. Officials cited repeated attacks which had made it difficult to provide security for transportation across the only border crossing, but Pakistani media cited other sources who said the move came as the government feared retaliation from South Waziristan tribesmen if they didn’t respond to the US attack. The strike, which was the first confirmed use of US ground forces in Pakistan since the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, killed 20 civilians and received widespread condemnation in Pakistan’s government. American officials have suggested that the attack is just the first of many cross-border missions to be expected in the coming months, as the US has expressed growing discontent with Pakistan’s inability to control its long and mountainous border with Afghanistan. The Defense Minister of key NATO ally Germany was also critical of the US attack during his visit to Pakistan, and warned that “Pakistan’s territorial integrity has to be respected”. With Pakistan’s sole ground link to Afghanistan now closed to them, NATO may be more reliant than ever on Russia for the transportation of non-military supplies to the war-torn country at a time when US-Russian relations are at a post-Cold War low. And while Russia has promised not to block NATO’s overland transport, President Bush’s threat to “punish” Moscow over the recent war with Georgia may put the route in further jeopardy.