Today is election day, and you need to get out and vote. Regardless of whether you favorite has fallen out, turned coat, changed their mind or not, you should still get out and vote for the best choice amongst those running. This is the United States of America, and it’s just the thing to do for Americans.

The News of the World has a breaking investigative journalism piece in which an undercover reporter reveals a terror funding ring. The leader, Mohammed Nawaz Raja, lives in a mansion but also collects the dole! From the story by Mazher Mahmood:

The evil godfather of terror claims to have sent them hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Incredibly Nawaz, who owns a five-bedroom £350,00 house, is himself being funded by the taxpayer.

He pockets £250-a-week in handouts — and boasts: “I’m a British national. The government pays me to live.”

And referring to his “charity” he adds chillingly: “We are supporting a lot of jihad (holy war) organisations. They need our support. They have to buy weapons!”

We nailed Nawaz, his ‘treasurer’ Mohammed Shakeel Akhtar (above right), and his shifty accountant after a perilous three-month investigation by an undercover team of reporters.

If you are wondering who Jaimsh e Muhammed is, here’s a link with several posts here referencing them.

More at Weasel Zippers

The government of Pakistan is now focused on following the leads gained through the Jundullah raid in Karachi and intelligence gained through other means. In the latest raid the terrorists held woman and children as human shields in a shoot out with authorities that killed 2 police and three terrorists. This occurred overnight in Mardan, which is 30 miles north of Peshawar, a former favorite haunt of Osama Bin Laden.

There is also this from the story:

In 2005, police arrested al-Qaida’s No. 3 leader Abu Farraj al-Libbi after a shootout in Mardan. Al-Libbi, who allegedly orchestrated two assassination attempts against Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, was later handed over to U.S. authorities.

The latest fighting came just days after a U.S. missile strike killed Abu Laith al-Libi, a top al-Qaida commander in the lawless border regions. U.S. commanders in Afghanistan say the areas are being increasingly used as a safe haven by Taliban and al-Qaida guerrillas fighting the NATO-led international coalition there.

In other news from Pakistan three more TNSM followers from Swat were captured, but the 8 previously captured were let out on bail. On the political front authorities also released several of the oppostion lawyers who had been detained after demonstrations in favor of Iftikhar Chaudry, the detained ex-Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

At the same time they’ve called a truce with the Taliban in South Waziristan, the Taliban’s strongest holdout, and they appear to be negotiating peace, as Bill Roggio reports at The Long War Journal.

There was a suicide attack in the frontiers, possibly a retaliation for Al Libi’s death, details below from Xinhua:

A suicide bomber on Friday attacked a security check post in northwestern Pakistan’s tribal region, killing three security personnel and injuring five others, an army statement said.

    A suicide bomber in car struck a joint check post manned by paramilitary “Frontier Corps” and local militia known as “Khasadar” at Khajuri in North Waziristan tribal region, said the statement.

    The injured were taken to hospital in Mir Ali, a major town in the region.

    Security forces blocked the main road between Miranshah and Bannu, a city at the edge of North Waziristan, local tribesmen said, adding that local people were asked through loudspeakers to donate blood to the injured as the hospital was running out of blood.

The big problem with Pakistan’s approach to fighting terrorism is that they never get the top leadership. They don’t have Baitullah, they don’t have Fazlullah, they don’t have Zawahiri or Bin Laden. They will continue to have terror, bombings, and assasinations in their country until they get serious. Any truce with Jihadis merely allows them to regroup, re-equip, and worst of all, recruit.

 Here’s what the latest Clustrmap looks like, click the thumbnail to see it large. With all of the problems in Pakistan you can see that readers from there have ramped up, as well as many other areas of the subcontinent. The black area in Europe where the dots are thick probably go with my Vlaams Belang articles.

Four of the leaders under Mullah Fazlullah who led forces in the Swat insurgency have surrendered to authorities. From The International:

MINGORA: In a dramatic development, four prominent militant commanders and close aides of rebel cleric Maulana Fazlullah here on Thursday surrendered to the government and promised to give up militancy in future.

The commanders, who laid down their arms, were identified as Khalil, Fazal, Kabir and Mumtaz. In the past few days, a number of militants, who once fought against the security forces in Swat, have surrendered to the government and pledged to quit militancy and live peaceful lives.

Those who surrendered on Thursday belonged to Koza Bandai area, a town near Mam Dheray that was earlier known as the stronghold of the militants. Three commanders surrendered at an unpublicised ceremony, which the former union council Nazim Sher Khan had organised in Matta where Major Abdullah of the Pakistan Army was present.

The fourth commander who surrendered to the military authorities was identified as Maulana Muhammad Siraj. Maulana Siraj, who had laid down arms along with his four fighters, belonged to Kala Kalley of Kabal Tehsil.

Perhaps they saw hellfire coming in their future, or perhaps they just got tired of being hungry, cold, and on the run. Mullah Fazlullah and some key deputies are still on the run.

In another case of you can’t win for losing, Human Rights Watch says the US is at fault for Musharraf’s emergency rule. This even though he was heavily urged to end it and pressured through all channels from Washington. Story at The International. The US election watch delegation also pulled out from monitoring elections saying that it was insecure. It’s unknown whether John Kerry will still travel to Pakistan for the elections.

South Waziristan Mehsuds are begging the government to come to a jirga, but this is more likely delaying tactic by Baitullah.  At the same time they are negotiating with the AQ/Taliban forces from North Waziristan, “the Uzbeks” as reported yesterday.

7 Al Qaeda Arab operatives were among the dead from the strike on Al Libi from Dawn. Here’s the Daily Times article on Al Libi’s death.

Jundullah Update: 6 More Suspects have been arrested in new raids, and more evidence is recovered on groups and finances as authorities roll up the chain of the Al Qaeda allied group (Jundullah doctors worked on most wounded AQ leaders the past few years.) From The International:

Acting on this information, police carried out raids in the Gulshan-e-Maymar, Allahwala Town (Korangi), Shershah and Mominabad areas and rounded up more than six suspects with a recovery of latest weapons.

They also captured strong evidence related to the banned organisation’s future terror plans, said the sources.

Meanwhile, sources, providing more details on the detained militants, said that, during the process of investigation, it was discovered that terrorist Qasim Toori was once a constable of the police department and had later been dismissed. Toori, who was appointed in Sindh police department in the mid-90s, had indulged in criminal activities a policeman.

Finally, when he was posted at Shah Faisal Colony police station, he committed sodomy on a minor boy and was arrested and sent to jail. Later, he was dismissed from the police department, after which, using his contacts with criminals, he joined Jundullah.

Sources maintained that Qasim Toori, alias Hamza, son of Mohammed Farooq Toori, a resident of Rafayaam Society, Al-Falah, Karachi, was a Matric pass and usually spoke in Urdu. Sources added that he bore an identification mark on his left wrist mentioned in the Red Book of the Crime Investigation Department. He was involved in the attack on a Corps Commander in Karachi and several other terrorist cases and was a native of Sialkot.

Also see my earlier article here where I noted that AQ would work through criminal gangs in urban areas. 

Also note this article in Asia Times, a media outlet almost as sympathetic to AQ as As- Sahab is – Jundullah gets a mention.

There was a terror blast near the District Coordination Office (DCO) in Quetta, five were injured. Daily Times.

Three more ammo trucks have been recovered from Dara Adam Khel. Daily Times It also turns out that parts of the tunnel were damaged when militants blew up one truck inside, as I predicted they might.

Near Quetta militants continue attacks on Energy infrastructure, from Dawn.

Also note that this week Mullah Omar sacked Baitullah as head of Tehreek-Taliban-Pakistan because he was fighting in Pakistan instead of Afghanistan. This comes after Baby Dadullah (Mansour) was similarly chastised. It seems to have had little effect. This continuing schism was more evident last fall, when the Afghan Taliban and South Waziristan were fighting – rockets were coming cross border into Pakistan at that time.

Finally, in neighboring Srinagar Indian troops killed four Hizbul Mujahadeen. From Dawn.

UPDATE: Al Libi Dead

A leading al Qaeda member in Afghanistan, Abu Laith al-Libi, has been killed, a website often used by the group and other Islamists said on Thursday.

A banner on the Ekhlaas.Org site said Libi had fallen as a martyr, without giving further details. It was not immediately clear if Libi’s death was linked to a suspected US missile strike that killed up to 13 foreign militants in Pakistan’s North Waziristan region this week. 

More at The Long War Journal 

Pakistan has become a bubbling cauldron of news the past week, both good and bad. I’ve not posted about it because events seem to be at critical juncture and uninformed speculation could upset good results.

Let’s summarize quickly what’s been going on:

The army retook the Kohat Tunnel, and the groups involved according to government sources were HuJI, JeM, and LeT – or the Kashmir nexus of Jihadi terror groups which appear to be in the Dara Adam Khel area. The bodies of thirteen soldiers captured at Dara Adam Khel have been found, some reports state they were dragged headless through the marketplace.

TNSM is still on the run in Swat, with the goverment making small advances daily.

7 “militants” in NWFP province took 32 children hostage in a school after a failed attempt to kidnap a government figure. The children were released, and the militants captured. It’s possible that some or all of them could have been TNSM.

Now to the new reports:

An American Diplomat, Keith Ryan in the consulate is reported to have been murdered or have committed suicide with a pistol, but there are questions remaining.

A miltant ring was captured in Karachi, but the neighbors now are worried that there might still be more in the area. Note the hedging in the article and the failure to note what type of militants. More at Dawn, where they identify the militants as belonging to Jandullah. Also note this previous article regarding Jandullah Doctors from 2006.

[Ed: Note that Jundullah is a murky group tied to Pakistan’s military, the Balochistan Liberation Army, and purportedly is at work against Iran as well. There’s a muddy trail here, and some very well could be red herring.]

Update: Wall Street Journal on the hunt for Baitullah Mehsud.

In Peshawar a “work accident” killed three Taliban suicide bombers.

Islamabad reports discovery of five hand-written letters from Osama Bin Laden to various AQ commanders, one to Mansour Daddullah. Mansour was recently rebuked and removed from command.

In Orakzai Agency 18 tribes are banding together to clear the area of Taliban:

LAHORE: After the killing of three levies personnel by local militants in Orakzai Agency on Saturday night, 18 tribes of the agency have decided to form a Lashkar (tribal army) against the Taliban to flush them out of the area, reported BBC Urdu on Tuesday.

A grand jirga of the 18 tribes was held in Ghuljoo, Orakzai Agency headquarters, on Monday morning, which was attended by around ten to fifteen thousand armed men.

Talking to BBC, head of Rabiakhel tribe Malik Zaman Shah said all tribes had unanimously decided not to give shelter to any militant in the area and any tribe breaching the pledge would be punished with Rs 10 million in fine and a hundred houses of the tribe would be burnt down.

End to fight: He said the jirga had also settled ‘Islam Zona’ to temporarily end mutual enmities between the local tribes. The local tribes will, according to the decision, not fight each other until the area is cleared of militants.

Another tribal Elder in Mohmand was assasinated, and his sons kidnapped.

A bomb or missile strike was made against an unknown High Value target near the border in North Waziristan:

Pakistani officials initially said that 12 suspected militants had been killed in a midnight strike against a home in a village in North Waziristan, Khushali Torikhel.

Both the Pakistani military and the CIA have used missile attacks in the past to target top al Qaeda leaders.

The CIA uses missiles attached to the unmanned Predator aircraft which fly over Pakistani airspace with tacit Pakistani government approval.

More at Strata-sphere.

UPDATE: An aide to Al-Libi was slain according to Jammie.

Pakistan is trying to renegotiate the Waziristan Accords in North Waziristan (hint: they didn’t work last time…)

In South Waziristan it appears negotiations are going on between the Afghanistan Taliban and or Al Qaeda, and the Mehsud tribes there to re-admit the “Uzbeks”, who were pushed out last year in a short campaign by the tribes and Baitullah Mahsoud (Mehsud alt. sp.) Note that some speculation had it that the “Uzbeks” were Al Qaeda, and possibly Osama Bin Laden’s personal troops during the Taliban campaign last year, others were stating it was the “Afghan Taliban,” meaning Mullah Omar.

Five Afghan Taliban were arrested in Zhob (story here)

Chashma was shut down on the 28th due to flooding on the lower floors during maintenance, and will be restarted today.

My analysis? I don’t have a clue. The only thing I can say about this is that I get the very real sense that the bubble’s been pushed, people are fleeing, and the old boundaries and alliances are in tatters as forces re-align. The next few days should prove interesting, I will be watching and reporting.

Note on the lead up to where we are: The Lal Masjid incident, coupled with transit of funds and troops from Iraq to Pakistan last May onward led me to believe that AQ was refocusing on Pakistan, and not just the tribal regions. Taliban and AQ were noted as being picked up at Taftan Border Crossing with Iran coming into Pakistan. AQ had given up in Iraq during the surge and was refocusing on Pakistan. Subsequent events, including AQ’s declaration of Jihad against Musharraf, multiple assasination attempts, and the successful one against Benazir Bhutto show that analysis was correct.

I believe that that Al Qaeda took advantage of several things to start their Pakistani insurrection:

• The closing of the Government funded Jihadi camps on the Kashmir border in October 2006 turned many jihadi groups lose from the government reservation, and against them.
• The registration of foreigners and the closing of Afghan Refugee camps caused dissension in the frontiers
• The Waziristan peace accords (whenever you make peace with a Jihadist, you are merely allowing him to re-arm and recruit.)
• The instability of politics in Pakistan – when Musharraf arrested the Chief Justice it decreased his support in the Sindh and the Punjab greatly, thus decreasing the latitude of actions he could take.
• TNSM and Mullah Fazlullah aka “Maulana Radio” or “Maulana Earthquake” (this from the tendency to preach over the FM airwaves that Allah would send more earthquakes if the people of Swat did not do x, y, z. This led to the Red Mosque incident.)
• Lal Masjid, or the Red Mosque

The last event was final spark to tinder, it was bigger than Waco, and an event that for the first time glued all Pakistanis to their televisions, newspapers, and radios for several days. Some forums and commenters were likening it to “Pakistan’s 9/11”.

John McCain’s ACU rating that he cites in speeches aren’t that conservative at all, as American Thinker points out this morning. Stop by for a quick read, it’s eye-opening.