UPI Intelligence Watch

From NationalLedger.com

UPI
UPI Intelligence Watch
By John C.K. Daly
Apr 11, 2006

WASHINGTON, (UPI) -- Pakistani military operations against militants in the restive Balochistan province have continued to intensify since last December's failed assassination attempt against President Gen. Pervez Musharraf in the provincial capital Quetta. An estimated 40,000 troops are now deployed in counter-insurgency operations there.

Dawn newspaper reported on April 8 that the Balochistan Solidarity Front is demanding an immediate cessation of military operations in the province.

The BSF is a loose alliance of Baloch leftist political organizations, intellectuals and workers.

During a press conference at the Rawalpindi Press Club camp office on Friday BSF leaders told journalists, "The increasingly militant mood of the nationalist movement in the province is a direct outcome of the state's repression in the troubled province."

BSF People's Rights Movement representative Asim Sajjad said that the military's "enforcing the writ of the state" was increasingly alienating the Baloch people.

Sajjad said the Pakistani government had tried to suppress news of dissent and resistance in Balochistan by depicting the current unrest as being the work of a small number of tribal chiefs but, "in fact, the sentiment against the center is widespread and is increasing by the day, which suggests that a situation very similar to that of 1971 in east Pakistan is developing."

The National Workers Party representative Masudul Hasan added that the working people of the Punjab and the country's other two provinces were in complete solidarity with the Baloch, as centrist exclusive nationalist politics had long divided the country's various oppressed classes.

Communist Mazdoor Kissan Party member Zahoor Khan told journalists that the province's natural resources, including natural gas, should be used first for the benefit of the Baloch people instead of enriching a handful of the nation's elite.

Jammu Kashmir People's National Party representative Imran Shan added that the story of Pakistan was one of national oppression, commenting that the authorities in Islamabad, while paying lip service to the Muslim Kashmiri cause, had in fact always done so for its own interests in order to maintain a huge army and dominate state affairs.

Shan added that Islamabad in reality had never done anything for the Kashmiri people, citing as evidence the authorities' catastrophic response to last year's Oct. 8 earthquake, which killed an estimated 74,000 and left millions more homeless.

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The Filipino government continues to grapple with Muslim separatists in the country's Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, or ARMM.

ARMM is the country's most turbulent region, with the Muslim separatist Abu Sayyaf Group, Jemaah Islamiyah, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front all active there.

The Philippine Star reported on April 9 that Malaysian Deputy Defense Minister Dato Hadji Abidin Zainal stated in Cotabato City in Mindanao that while it was costly to maintain a peacekeeping contingent in Mindanao, his government would continue to support the mission to enable a lasting peace to be established there.

Zainal was visiting Cotabato City to inspect the Malaysian military contingent assisting in monitoring the government's ceasefire with the MILF in central Mindanao and surrounding regions.

The ceasefire monitoring team consists of troops and police from Malaysia, Brunei and Libya, all Organization of Islamic Conference members.

Zainal urged both government and MILF negotiators to continue tackling remaining issues in a "spirit of mutual cooperation," adding "all must work together to achieve peace in Mindanao."

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In an effort to improve intelligence data management the South Wales Police are implanting Niche intelligence software to cleanse data going into its new consolidated information management system.

The Niche software is designed to integrate with Britain's police national intelligence sharing Impact program. Niche is provided by SAS Institute Inc. software and operated by Atos Origin.

South Wales Police Superintendent Richard Lewis said that the software intelligence package will convert data entered it into a form that can be understood by the Impact information management package.

Computing.co.uk quoted Lewis as saying that, "We have a number of legacy systems which we use to manage various operational functions, such as crime recording, custody, case preparation, etc. As with any move of this kind we are coming across all kinds of legacy data and need data cleansing and de-duplication, which is what we are using this system for. It will be a quantum leap in efficiency and effectiveness, and will provide better quality of service for the public when they ring in to us."

The Niche information management system will become operational incrementally later this month when custody system records are transferred. The software is scheduled to become fully operational by December.

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The U.S. administration has reportedly used Ireland's Shannon airport as a transit point to transnport U.S.-built Apache attack helicopters to Israel.

The Department of Foreign Affairs has begun investigating the reports.

The Irish Independent reported on April 7 that two months ago a cargo plane carrying three Boeing IDS-AH64D Longbow Apache attack helicopters landed at Shannon, where it stayed overnight before taking off for Israel.

Both the United States and Israel use the Boeing IDS-AH64D Longbow Apache attack helicopters.

The Boeing IDS AH-64D Apache Longbow is equipped with advanced sensors and weapon systems and has been used by the Israeli Air Force against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, as well as in "targeted killings" of senior Hamas leaders in the Gaza Strip, including Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmad Yassin on March 22, 2004, and Adnan al-Ghoul, leader of Hamas' military Ezzedeen al-Qassin brigades, on Oct. 21, 2004, killed by Hellfire missiles launched from a Apache Longbow.

In March Ireland's Department of Transport, which is responsible for foreign civilian flights, and the Department of Foreign Affairs, which is responsible for foreign military flights, denied any knowledge of the flight, but when the Irish Independent provided them with the serial numbers of the cargo transport planes and their helicopter cargo they conceded the flights had taken place and claimed to have subsequently launched an inquiry.

While Shannon airport is routinely used by U.S. Department of Defense transport aircraft in support coalition forces in Iraq, the Longbow shipment is apparently the first time that the U.S. government has used Irish facilitates to transport U.S. heavy arms to U.S. allies.

Following the report in the Irish Independent, a spokesman for Transport Minister Martin Cullen issued a statement commenting, "The original information provided to the department by the aircraft operator shows that the flight in question intended to travel from the U.S.A. to Israel via Iceland and to return via Shannon. We were informed that the flight landing at Shannon on the return leg would be empty.

"Following inquiries today, it has been discovered that the aircraft landed in Shannon on the outbound leg. This is new information to the department. In light of this development, the department will now be making further inquiries."