Mr Obama's War: Ceasefire in NW Pakistan; More on US Drone Strikes

Today's Observer featured an excellent report by Jason Burke which contains some fairly significant developments in the Pakistan-Taliban-US relationship. According to Burke:

Taliban fighters and Pakistani government officials have agreed a controversial deal which will lead to a "permanent ceasefire" in the troubled northwestern Swat valley, threatening to create an outpost of militant rule and a terrorist haven only 100 miles from the capital, Islamabad.

Many are alarmed that the deal seemingly involves the reinstatement of sharia law in the region in exchange for peace, as well as at the possibility of the creation of a haven for pro-Taliban and/ or al-Qaeda militants.

Further in, there's an insight into the thinking behind the US drone strikes which, we learned this week, are being launched from bases inside Pakistan and which are likely to be "broadened in scope":

A list of 20 individuals was drawn up by the CIA and cleared with the Pakistani government in consultations last summer, despite public denials by Islamabad. Intensive strikes over recent months have pleased global intelligence services because they put al-Qaida "on the back foot", provoking damaging internal witch-hunts and forcing senior leaders to take time-consuming and demoralising security precautions.

Read the full article here.

UPDATE: The US Airbases Inside Pakistan

It took the media only five days, after Senator Dianne Feinstein referred in a hearing to US airbases inside Pakistan, to find the supposedly super-secret location for American missile strikes and bombing raids.

The Times of London reports:

The CIA has been using the Shamsi airfield — originally built by Arab sheikhs for falconry expeditions in the southwestern province of Baluchistan — for at least a year. The strip, which is about 30 miles from the Afghan border, allows US forces to launch a Drone within minutes of receiving actionable intelligence as well as allowing them to attack targets further afield.

Shamsi was used for the 2001 American operations to overthrow the Taliban but the Pakistan Government claimed the US left in 2006.

The Times supports its discovery with evidence of a contract to deliver 730,000 gallons of aviation fuel, worth $3.2 million, to Shamsi.

You have to hand it to the US embassy in Pakistan, however. They are not giving up the public ruse, even if their statement seems to be uncomfortably close to protesting too much:

No. No. No. No. No. We unequivocally and emphatically can tell you that there is no basing of US troops in Pakistan. There is no basing of US Air Force, Navy, Marines, Army, none, on the record and emphatically. I want that to be very clear. And that is the answer any way you want to put it. There is no base here, no troops billeted. We do not operate here.

But, in a demonstration of how super-secret this entire operation is, a local journalist explains, "We can see the planes flying from the base. The area around the base is a high-security zone and no one is allowed there.”