12 Killed in Fort Hood shooting!

12 Dead, 31 Wounded in Base Shootings

At least one gunman killed 11 soldiers and wounded 31 others on Thursday afternoon at Fort Hood in Texas. Authorities then killed the gunman, who was identified as Malik Nadal Hasan, an Army major who was about to be deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan.

Lt. Gen. Robert W. Cone, the commanding officer at Fort Hood, the largest active military installation in the country, said the base was placed in lockdown as military authorities, with the help of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, investigate the rampage.

“This was a terrible tragedy,” said General Cone, speaking at a news conference Thursday afternoon. “Stunning.”‘



Mr. Hasan was a medical officer, military officials said, and The Associated Press reported that his specialty was psychiatry.

The Austin-American Statesman quoted Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison’s spokesman, Jeff Sadoski, as saying Major Hasan was upset about his deployment.

President Obama, speaking from the White House, called it “a horrific outburst of violence.”

“My immediate thoughts and prayers are with the wounded and with the families of the fallen,” the president said.

“We don’t yet know all the details at this moment,” he said. “We will share them as we get them. What we do know is that a number of American soldiers have been killed and even more have been wounded in a horrific outburst of violence.”

“It is horrifying that they should come under fire at an Army base on American soil,” the president said.

General Cone said the shooting began at about 1:30 p.m. Central time, when a soldier entered the soldier readiness unit, where soldiers receive last-minute medical attention and other instruction before being being deployed overseas, including to Iraq and Afghanistan.

“A soldier opened fire, and due to the quick response of the police forces, he was killed,” General Cone said.

“There were several eyewitness accounts that there was more than one shooter,” he said. Two other soldiers were also taken into custody, he said, but the authorities are continuing to sort out what exactly happened.

General Cone said that the sprawling base has facilities that house children, but that there were no children among the dead or wounded.

“The soldiers and family members are absolutely devastated,” he said.

He said that the local police had responded quickly and that the wounded were taken to an area hospital.

Earlier, Senator Hutchison she had been apprised of the shootings.

“Our hearts go out,” she told Fox 4 News. “These are soldiers who are getting ready to go out to Iraq or Afghanistan and their families were under stress already. This was just a terrible tragedy and we don’t even know the extent of it yet.”

The based was the site today of the annual college graduation ceremonies for soldiers and family members who have not had the opportunity to participate in college commencement exercises during the past year because of deployment, according to the Fort Hood Sentinel.

In 1991 in Killeen, Tex., not far from the fort, one of the worst mass killings in United States history took place, when a crazed gunman drove his pickup truck through a cafeteria window, shot 22 people to death with a handgun, then killed himself.

Massive pullout by UN in Afghanistan

KABUL -- The United Nations said Thursday it is sending more than half of its foreign staff out of Afghanistan in response to the murder of five of its workers at a guesthouse in Kabul last week.

The U.N. called the move temporary, but its top official in Afghanistan issued an unusually stern warning to the government of President Hamid Karzai, saying the U.N. could curtail work permanently if it doesn't see marked reforms.

"There is a belief among some that the international community will continue, whatever happens, because of the strategic importance of Afghanistan," said Kai Eide, head of the United Nations Mission in Afghanistan, at a news conference. "I would like to emphasize that that's not true."



The U.N. is evaluating how to move its staff to bigger and more tightly guarded compounds before it allows its 600 evacuated staff to return, officials said. Until recently, about 1,100 foreign workers have been dispersed through 90 residences around Kabul. The U.N. would like to reduce that number to about 30, one official said.



Some fear the U.N.'s move could further blunt the effectiveness of aid programs as workers withdraw to fewer fortress-like residences. Kabul, unlike Baghdad, has no green zone, a tightly defended portion of the city where diplomats and foreigners are concentrated.

If the U.N. moves its workers into a central location, such a zone could begin to coalesce on its own. "There's definitely a tendency towards one day having a large, secured area," said a Western diplomat who monitors the security situation. "Its always easier to protect a large area since you can concentrate your forces there."

Some in the aid community said that the U.N. was too quick in deciding to leave. "They should take more time to assess," said Sardar Mohd, deputy country director of Mercy Corps, an American nongovernmental organization. "These days after the elections are very complicated, and it's not the time to leave the country. It's a time to figure out how to move forward."

"The U.N. decreasing their involvement will have a negative impact," he added. "Everyone in the humanitarian community is connected to the U.N. somehow."

The U.N. is hoping to bring back its foreign staff to Kabul "within weeks," said Adrian Edwards, spokesman for the U.N. in Kabul. He said the U.N. is trying to send only its nonessential staff abroad, and will do its utmost to prevent their relocation to affect operations.

"We have tried in our half a century to live and work in the community and not be sealed off here," he said. "But before we were not a target and we have to adapt to being a target now."

"We don't see this as a pullout or evacuation," he said. But he said the U.N. is trying to determine whether some of its foreign workers can perform the same work from abroad.

One U.N. official said that the U.N. is planning to establish an office in Dubai to oversee activities, and that some of the staff evacuating this week will remain there.

The U.N. has already suspended most of its operations in northwest Pakistan because of crumbling security there. U.N. workers in Pakistan have been targeted a number of times in recent months, including a bombing of the U.N. World Food Program office in Islamabad last month that killed five employees.

Courtesy: Wall Street Journal and ITN

YANKEES WIN! DAAAAAAAAA YANKEEES WIN!

Baseball’s penthouse is again decorated with hand-painted silk pinstripe wallpaper. Nine years after their previous World Series title, the Yankees copped No. 27 last night when they spanked the defending champion Phillies, 7-3, in Game 6 at Yankee Stadium as a record gathering of 50,315 that didn’t include George Steinbrenner watched.

Friday morning the Yankees will celebrate with a ticker-tape parade up lower Broadway.

“Right where we belong," Derek Jeter bellowed from a stage in the middle of the $1.5 billion Stadium.

And they looked very comfortable. Alex Rodriguez, who doesn’t have to answer any more questions about choking in the postseason, let loose with a river of victory tears and promised the parade will be a huge party.

Mariano Rivera held a copy of The Post’s front page with the No. 27 on the cover.



Hideki Matsui, who went 3-for-4 with a homer and six RBIs that tied the single-game record, was named MVP and took the occasion to lobby for a return.

“I hope so,’’ when asked if he would be back. Matsui can become a free agent in 15 days. “I hope it works out. I love New York and I love the fans.’’

From 1996 to 2000 the Yankees won four Series titles and three straight (1998-2000). They came within two outs of winning in 2001, were bounced from the Series in six 2003 games, and didn’t make it back until this year when they spent almost a half-billion dollars of Steinbrenner’s fortune to import CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Mark Teixeira to successfully plug gaping holes in the rotation and lineup.

When the subject of money surfaced, GM Brian Cashman was ready with an answer.

"You can call us anything you want. You're also going to have to call us world champions,’’ said Cashman, who didn’t join the Steinbrenner family on the stage to accept the World Series trophy.

Sabathia, Burnett and Teixeira played big roles in the Yankees success but it was Matsui who turned Game 6 into a knockout audition for 2009 employment.

“Tonight he was as locked in as I have ever seen him,’’ Jeter said.

Matsui, the 2000 MVP of the Japan Series, hit a two-run homer in the second, a two-run single in the third, and a two-run double in the fifth that broke the Phillies’ will.

Andy Pettitte, another free-agent candidate who has a better chance of the Yankees wanting him back than Matsui, provided 5 2/3 gutsy innings on three days' rest.

Pettitte struggled with command problems from the first pitch, and his fifth walk to Chase Utley with one out in the sixth inning was followed by Ryan Howard’s opposite-field, two-run homer to left that cut the Yankees’ lead to 7-3.

Following a chat with Joe Girardi, Pettitte caught Jayson Werth looking for the second out. But when Raul Ibanez rifled a double into the right-field corner, Joba Chamberlain trotted in from the bullpen.

Pettitte, who is 18-9 in the postseason and 4-0 this year, left to a loud standing ovation. He allowed three runs, four hits and five walks.

With copies of yesterday’s Post poster of Pedro Martinez in a diaper being flashed around the Stadium that was filled with “Who's Your Daddy?!’’ chants, Martinez lasted four innings. He gave up four runs and three hits, including Matsui’s two-run homer.

The victory vindicated Girardi’s decision to use Sabathia, Burnett and Pettitte on three days' rest instead of trusting a World Series start to Chad Gaudin. And the manager erased all that criticism for using so many relievers in the ALCS against the Angels.

Jeter, Rivera, Pettitte and Posada will be fitted for their fifth World Series rings, all as Yankees.

Damaso Marte topped off a wonderful Series (five Ks in 2 2/3 innings) by fanning Chase Utley with two out to end the seventh and Ryan Howard starting the eighth.

Girardi then called for Rivera to get the final five outs.

Courtesy: NYPOST.COM

Talking to the "Axis Of Evil": DC And Tehran to hold talks

September 12, 2009
U.S. to Accept Iran’s Proposal to Hold Talks

NYTIMES.COM
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration said Friday that the United States would accept Iran’s offer to meet, fulfilling President Obama’s pledge to hold unconditional talks despite the Iranian government’s insistence that it would not negotiate over the future of its nuclear program.

The decision to engage directly with Iran would put a senior representative of the Obama administration at the bargaining table, along with emissaries from five other nations, for the first time since Mr. Obama took office.



The decision is bound to raise protests from conservatives who contend that unconditional talks are naïve, and from human rights groups that say the United States should not legitimize an Iranian government that appears to have manipulated its presidential election in June and crushed protests after the vote.

In advance of Friday’s announcement, senior administration officials said that their offer to negotiate directly with the Iranians, for what could turn into the first substantive talks since the Iranian Revolution in 1979, was, as a senior official had earlier put it, a “bona fide offer.”

But at the same time, officials said their expectations were extremely low. They also said their willingness to proceed was based in part on a recognition that some form of talks had to take place before the United States could make a case for imposing far stronger sanctions on Iran.

“We’ll be looking to see if they are willing to engage seriously on these issues,” said a State Department spokesman, Philip J. Crowley. “If we have talks, we will plan to bring up the nuclear issue.”

The talks would also include Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany, which in the past have negotiated with Iran without the presence of an American representative, except for one meeting at the end of the administration of President George W. Bush.

During his first term, talks with unfriendly countries like North Korea and Iran were usually rejected out of hand in the hope of speeding their collapse. That loosened in Mr. Bush’s second term, but even then agreements to talk were usually under highly restricted conditions.

The result was a stalemate — one that Mr. Obama argued during last year’s presidential campaign was a huge mistake, in part because Iran was producing nuclear material while the standoff dragged on.

The United Nations Security Council has issued several rounds of sanctions against Iran for failing to comply with resolutions demanding it stop enriching uranium. It has called on Tehran to answer questions from international arms inspectors about documents that suggest that the country worked in the past on a nuclear weapons design.

Iran’s government insists that its efforts are aimed at the peaceful generation of electricity, and has charged that the documents were Western forgeries.

Iran made its offer to meet in a five-page letter delivered to several nations on Wednesday. Titled “Cooperation, Peace and Justice,” it touched on political, social and economic themes, called for reform of the United Nations and a Middle East peace settlement, and for universal nuclear disarmament.

But the letter said nothing about Iran’s nuclear program, and as recently as this week President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed never to halt the fuel production, saying Iran would not relinquish its fundamental rights.

Administration officials were dismissive of the letter, saying that it rehashed past statements and offers. But they said they would consider the offer to meet, and they spent less than 48 hours studying its contents before deciding to tell Iran that the United States would join its negotiating partners in talks.

It is unclear where the discussions will take place, but the most likely American representative is William J. Burns, the under secretary of state for political affairs, who is leading the diplomatic effort.

The first announcement of the decision was made Friday in Brussels by Javier Solana, the foreign policy chief of the European Union, who acts as an intermediary for the six countries.

Hours earlier, the United States ambassador to the United Nations, Susan E. Rice, appeared to take a softer line on Iran, saying the administration would not impose “artificial deadlines” on Iran.

It was difficult to judge Mr. Obama’s outreach to Iran because, she said, “the elections and their aftermath have added a layer of complexity to assessing the overtures and offers of diplomatic engagement.”

Some administration officials argued that Mr. Obama’s overtures, which included a videotaped New Year’s greeting and at least one letter to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamanei, had thrown the Iranian leadership off balance. They thought that for the first time in recent history, the United States had Iran on the defensive, rather than the other way around.

Russia and China have expressed deep reservations about imposing additional sanctions on Iran. On Thursday, the Russian foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, expressed opposition to additional sanctions.

On Friday, Mr. Crowley also said the United States would be willing to hold direct talks with North Korea over its nuclear program, within the context of existing six-party negotiations.

“We are prepared to meet with North Korea,” he said. “When it’ll happen, where it’ll happen, we’ll have to wait and see.”

So what now in Afghanistan

The events in Afghanistan are a perfect reflection of the state of mind that the American's and coalition forces are in: Chaos and Confusion. From the missile attack by NATO which killed scores of civilians to Gen.McCrystal and Secretary Gates' opinion on what route to adopt for success after 8 years in Afghanistan. Just check out the following articles from opinion makers here in the US:


US general sees strike aftermath
The head of US and Nato forces in Afghanistan has visited the area where a Nato air strike destroyed two fuel tankers hijacked by Taliban militants.

Gen Stanley McChrystal's visit came amid reports that civilians were among scores of people killed in the attack.

Gen McChrystal has made avoiding civilian deaths a priority in the alliance's Afghan campaign.

A Nato investigative team also visited the site of the attack, on the Kunduz River in northern Afghanistan.

The 10-member team led by US Rear Admiral Gregory J Smith had earlier visited a hospital in Kunduz city where some of the injured are being treated.

Rear Adm Smith said there were few confirmed details so far.

"Two fuel trucks were stuck in the sandbar. There were two bombs dropped on that area," he said.

"The sense was that there were insurgents there, but we need to discover what really happened.

"We are really trying to learn and understand, and we are listening."

In a statement broadcast on Afghan television, Gen McChrystal promised a full investigation into the air strike.

"As commander of the International Security Assistance Force (Isaf), nothing is more important than the safety and protection of the Afghan people," he said.

"I take this possible loss of life or injury to innocent Afghans very seriously."

Meanwhile, the German defence minister has defended his country's troops for ordering the air strike.

Franz Josef Jung said the two fuel tankers had posed a considerable danger to the German soldiers stationed close by.

The Nato attack occurred about 7km (four miles) south-west of Kunduz city before dawn on Friday.

German forces had reported the two tankers hijacked by the Taliban while they were being driven from Tajikistan to supply Nato forces in Kabul.

Witnesses said one of the tankers had become stuck in a river and militants asked villagers to extract fuel to make it lighter.

At that point, the air strike occurred.

The death toll is still not confirmed, with reports varying from 56 to 90.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said the attack had been a "big mistake".

The West should "work with the Afghan people, not bomb them", Mr Kouchner said in Stockholm, where European Union foreign ministers have concluded two days of talks focusing on their strategy in Afghanistan.

The ministers agreed there was "a need to reinforce our political, civilian and economic efforts in Afghanistan", Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said.

They also said there should be a greater focus fighting corruption and the production of opium.



Gates Says time not right to leave Afghanistan

WASHINGTON — Faced with waning public support for the military escalation in Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday that the war is worth fighting and signaled for the first time he may be willing to send more troops after months of publicly resisting a significant increase.
Gates urged patience amid polls showing rising disenchantment among the public with the war effort, saying the American military presence in Afghanistan was necessary to derail terrorists.
At a Pentagon news conference, Gates said efforts by President Barack Obama — including ordering an additional 21,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan this spring — are "only now beginning" and should be given a chance to succeed.
"I don't believe that the war is slipping through the administration's fingers," Gates said. Later, he added: "I absolutely do not think it is time to get out of Afghanistan."
At the same time, there is a "limited time for us to show that ... this approach is working," Gates said.
Sitting beside Gates, Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen described "a sense of urgency" in securing Afghanistan to make sure extremists can no longer hatch terrorist plots against the United States and it allies from within its borders.
"Time is not on our side," Mullen said, adding that the military mission in Afghanistan until recently has been underfunded and undermanned. "Part of why it has gotten more serious and has deteriorated has been directly tied to that."
Both Gates and Mullen declined to talk about any of the recommendations contained in a new review of Afghanistan strategy sent this week to them and the president. Gates said only he could consider a major increase in combat troops under certain conditions.
Gates said he would be comfortable with a larger U.S. military presence in Afghanistan as long as the increase reassured the country's citizens that the Americans were there for the benefit of Afghans.
"If they interact with the Afghans in a way that gives confidence to the Afghans that we're their partners and their allies, then the risks that I have been concerned about the footprint becoming too big and the Afghans seeing us in some role other than partners I think is mitigated," Gates said.
A separate recommendation on troop increases is expected in the coming weeks from the top commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who wrote the new review, but how many troops McChrystal wants is unclear. There could be as many as 20,000, but in recent days military officials have predicted it will be far less, closer to or fewer than 10,000.
Mullen said the question of a new jump in troop deployments is just one element of a larger plan that the Pentagon will soon ask Congress to authorize. "It's a piece — critical, but it's not total," Mullen said.
Despite recent calls from leftist activists and also from conservative columnist George Will to wind down U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan, Gates forcefully argued for continued American efforts there.
Fifty-one U.S. troops died in Afghanistan in August, making it the bloodiest month for American forces there since the U.S.-led invasion in late 2001.
Gates cited the continuing threat from al-Qaida and its Taliban allies as the top reason why the U.S. should stay in Afghanistan. Leaving would allow terrorists to re-establish staging bases in a nation where the political leadership is unable to curb insurgent threats, Gates said in a blunt reference to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
"We're in Afghanistan less for nation building than we are in giving the Afghan state the capacity to oppose al-Qaida, to oppose the use of their territory by other violent extremists, and for them to have that capacity that can be sustained over a period of time," the secretary said.
Recent public opinion polls have shown Americans' dwindling support for the idea of sending more troops to the conflict and falling confidence in how the Obama administration's strategy in Afghanistan is working. Part of the issue for Americans, the polls show, is confusion over what is the U.S. mission in Afghanistan — a concern echoed by senators from Obama's own party.
Last week, Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin questioned the U.S. strategy in Afghanistan, saying it has lost focus and needs a flexible timeline for withdrawing troops from the country. Additionally, Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, said he is "concerned that this war not last a whole lot longer."
"We've got to begin seeing changes," Brown said after returning from a trip to Afghanistan. "We don't stay forever if they don't meet the goals they need to meet."
Any additional funding approved by Congress likely will be spent to train Afghan army, police and other security forces to take over the fight against the Taliban, and on equipment to protect U.S. troops from attacks and homemade bombs known as IEDs.
By the end of the year, an estimated 68,000 troops will be in Afghanistan, 21,000 of which were ordered there by Obama last spring. Military commanders and State Department officials on the ground, however, say many more are needed to get the job done.
Despite waving off questions about the contents of McChrystal's review, both Gates and Mullen repeatedly referred to some of his recommendations, with Mullen calling it a "frank and candid" look at how military forces can accomplish the Afghanistan mission.
Obama is reading the report during the long Labor Day weekend at Camp David, his aides said.

Pakistan's Defence day today: The nation remembers its Heros

Here is a list of the Recipients of the Nishan-e-Haider, the highest military award in Pakistan

Captain Muhammad Anwar Shaheed
Major Tufail Muhammad Shaheed
Major Raja Aziz Bhatti Shaheed
Major Muhammad Akram Shaheed
Pilot Officer Rashid Minhas Shaheed
Major Shabbir Shabir Shaheed
Jawan Sarwar Muhammad Hussain Shaheed
Lance Naik Muhammad Mahfuz Shaheed
Captain Muhammad Karnal Sher Khan Shaheed
Havaldar Lalak Jaan Shaheed

Political Stability in Pakistain: Too much to Ask?

The last couple of weeks in Pakistan's politics have seen the ugly apolitical forces raise their head. Former head of the Intelligence Bureau Brig. Imtiaz revealed how the intelligence agencies paid politicians who were part of the Islami Jamoori Ittehad or the Islamic Democratic Alliance.