(Hat Tip: Henry Bowman)
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Friday, January 4, 2013
Nigerian Army Retaliates, Kills 13 Boko Haram Islamists For Massacre of Christians
Good.
Now, if the Nigerian military can keep that up with 13 dead Boko Harma EACH DAY for the next six months, Boko Haram shouldn't be a bother to anyone.
The story comes from The Christian Post.
Nigeria Kills 13 Boko Haram Militants as Massacre of Christians Continues
The Nigerian armed forces have fought back against the Islamic militant group Boko Haram, killing 13 suspected combatants in an attack on their stronghold in the town of Maiduguri on Tuesday.
The news was confirmed by the Joint Task Force Operation Restore Order, who said that they lost one soldier in the gunfight, CNN reported. Military spokesman Sagir Musa said that that Boko Haram have been carrying out "incessant callous, brutal, barbaric and impious killings," and Human Rights Watch estimate that the Islamic group, whose name means "Western education is sacrilege," have killed more than 2,800 people in the last several years, including at least 34 since Christmas.
On Christmas Eve, raids on two separate churches resulted in the deaths of 12 worshippers, including a pastor. Another 15 Christians were massacred six days later on Sunday at another church in Northern Nigeria.
"We had warned that Boko Haram would continue its tradition of killing Nigerian Christians on Christmas day. Last week marked the third straight year that the terror group has murdered Nigerian Christians in the church on a Christmas day," a statement by the Christian Association of Nigerian-Americans noted, calling for more action on behalf of authorities.
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has said that despite these setbacks, Nigeria has been battling the terrorists, and a number of those who carried out the attacks have been apprehended "as a result of the diligence and steadfastness of law enforcement agents and security operatives across the country." Jonathan made the remarks at a New Year's service at Saint Anglican Church in Abuja, but did not reveal how many in total were in custody, AllAfrica reported.
Boko Haram have been bombing and burning churches and attacking Christians across the Muslim-dominated northern Nigeria for years, specifically targeting Christians in their mission to eradicate them from the country.
"The Nigerian state and Christians are our enemies and we will be launching attacks on the Nigerian state and its security apparatus as well as churches until we achieve our goal of establishing an Islamic state in place of the secular state," the militants stated in no uncertain terms back in June.
Despite the slaughter of Christians and innocent people in Nigeria, the U.S. government has been reluctant to designate Boko Haram a terrorist organization, even though it has said some of its leaders are terrorists.
Nigerians have created a petition to the U.S. government asking for this to change.
"Our government in Washington DC, especially the White House and the State Department are fully aware of what is going on. But both President Barack Obama and outgoing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have simply tolerated this impunity by their inaction," the Christian Association of Nigerian-Americans said about the petition.
"Already, American citizens have been affected, and the United Nations building in Abuja has been attacked by these terrorists. The U.S. Congress has affirmed that Boko Haram is a threat to the U.S., especially with the group's suspected links to al-Qaeda."
As Promised, U.S. Predator Drones Got a Big Fish In South Waziristan
From The Long War Journal:
The US killed a senior Taliban leader in one of three drone strikes that took place in the Pakistani tribal areas over the past 24 hours; he had identified himself as an al Qaeda leader and also was favored by the Pakistani state. A separate strike killed a commander in the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan along with two Uzbeks.
Mullah Nazir, the leader of the Taliban in the Wazir area of South Waziristan, was killed by the CIA-operated Predators or Reapers in a strike in the Birmal area of South Waziristan, tribal leaders and Pakistani intelligence officials told Dawn. The remotely piloted drones fired a pair of missiles at a vehicle, killing Nazir; two of his deputies, Atta Ullah and Rafey Khan; a commander known as Rata Khan; and two other fighters.
Pakistani officials in South Waziristan said that the Taliban buried Nazir at a graveyard in the Azam Warzak area of South Waziristan.
If you read this article, you understand better the issues of Pakistan - here is a Taliban leader that we killed but who literally had been off limits by the Pakistani government ...but he had professed allegiance to al Qaeda. How in the world can the U.S. carry on any kind of security relationship with Pakistan when they protect what they deem a "good" Taliban leader but one who harbors and supports al Qaeda? That has always been the issue with Pakistan. Well, at least this guy can come off of Pakistan's "good" list and move over to the "dead" list.
'Good Taliban' leader Mullah Nazir killed in US drone strike
The US killed a senior Taliban leader in one of three drone strikes that took place in the Pakistani tribal areas over the past 24 hours; he had identified himself as an al Qaeda leader and also was favored by the Pakistani state. A separate strike killed a commander in the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan along with two Uzbeks.
Mullah Nazir, the leader of the Taliban in the Wazir area of South Waziristan, was killed by the CIA-operated Predators or Reapers in a strike in the Birmal area of South Waziristan, tribal leaders and Pakistani intelligence officials told Dawn. The remotely piloted drones fired a pair of missiles at a vehicle, killing Nazir; two of his deputies, Atta Ullah and Rafey Khan; a commander known as Rata Khan; and two other fighters.
Pakistani officials in South Waziristan said that the Taliban buried Nazir at a graveyard in the Azam Warzak area of South Waziristan.
Nazir and his followers have been the targets of numerous US drone strikes in the past several years. Of the 328 strikes since 2004, 81 have hit targets in South Waziristan. Several of Nazir's deputies and commanders have been killed in those strikes.
In a separate strike, US drones killed Faisal Khan, a Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan commander, and two Uzbeks as they traveled in a vehicle in the village of Mubarak Shahi in the Mir Ali area of North Waziristan, Dawn reported. The drones circled back and fired a second salvo of missiles as rescue workers attempted to recover the bodies, but it is unclear if anyone else was killed in the follow-on strike.
Additionally, the US killed five "militants" in a strike that targeted a compound in the Angoor Agga area of South Waziristan late last night. The identities of those killed have not been disclosed.
The US has now launched three drone strikes in Pakistan this year. Last year, the US launched 46 strikes in Pakistan, according to data compiled by The Long War Journal. In 2011, the US launched 64 strikes; in 2010, when the program was at its peak, there were 117 strikes.
The program was ramped up by President George W. Bush in the summer of 2008 (35 strikes were launched that year) and continued under President Barack Obama after he took office in 2009 (53 strikes that year). From 2004-2007, only 10 strikes were recorded. Although some of al Qaeda's top leaders have been killed in drone strikes since the program began in 2004, al Qaeda has been able to replace those lost in the attacks. [For data on the strikes, see LWJ reports, Charting the data for US airstrikes in Pakistan, 2004 - 2013; and Senior al Qaeda and Taliban leaders killed in US airstrikes in Pakistan, 2004 - 2013.]
Background on Mullah Nazir
Nazir has been an influential Taliban commander and had ties to numerous terrorist groups operating in the region, including al Qaeda, the Pakistani and Afghan Taliban, and the plethora of Pakistani and Central Asia jihadist groups operating in the region. He has openly supported Taliban emir Mullah Omar and al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, and wages jihad in Afghanistan. In an interview with the Asia Times, Nazir rejected claims that he opposed al Qaeda, and affirmed that he considered himself to be a member of the global terror organization.
Pakistan's military and intelligence services consider Nazir and his followers "good Taliban" as they do not openly seek the overthrow of the Pakistani state and only wage jihad in Afghanistan. The government has negotiated several peace deals with Nazir. Yet Nazir continued to provide safe have to top al Qaeda leaders and the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, despite agreeing not to do so.
Several top al Qaeda leaders, including Ilyas Kashmiri, Abu Khabab al Masri, Osama al Kini, Sheikh Ahmed Salim Swedan, and Abu Zaid al Iraqi, have been killed while being sheltered by Nazir. [For more information on Nazir and al Qaeda leaders killed while under his protection, see LWJ reports, 'Good' Pakistani Taliban leader Nazir affirms membership in al Qaeda, and US drones kill 'good' Taliban commander in South Wazirstan.]
Mullah Nazir's Taliban faction is one of four major Taliban groups that joined the Shura-e-Murakeba, an alliance brokered by al Qaeda in late 2011. The Shura-e-Murakeba also includes Hafiz Gul Bahadar's group; the Haqqani Network; and the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, which is led by Hakeemullah Mehsud and his deputy, Waliur Rehman Mehsud. The members of the Shura-e-Murakeba agreed to cease attacks against Pakistani security forces, refocus efforts against the US in Afghanistan, and end kidnappings and other criminal activities in the tribal areas.
In June 2012, Nazir banned polio vaccinations in his areas, and claimed that the program is being used by the US to gather intelligence and conduct drone strikes in the tribal areas. His action followed that of Hafiz Gul Bahadar, who shut down the program in North Waziristan earlier that month.
Nazir's death in a drone strike took place just five weeks after he was the target of a suicide attack in Wana in South Waziristan. Nazir survived the suicide bombing, but six other people were killed.
Thursday, January 3, 2013
Is Netanyahu's Re-election In Jeopardy?
The story comes from The Telegraph.
Benjamin Netanyahu losing support ahead of election
He is said to have demanded an end to bickering within his Likud party and a bigger role for grassroots workers after successive surveys and a series of embarrassing publicity flops following his decision to merge with Avigdor Lieberman's Yisrael Beiteinu party.
His intervention comes after the latest poll – published by Haaretz newspaper – showed the Likud Beitenu bloc poised to win just 34 seats in the Knesset in the January 22 poll, down from a current total of 42.
Mr Netanyahu and Mr Lieberman, who recently resigned as foreign minister to fight corruption charges, forged a formal electoral pact in October in the belief that it would enable them to win as many as 45 seats, as forecast by the prime minister's US election adviser, Arthur Finkelstein, a noted Republican strategist.
But current projections could leave Mr Netanyahu dependent on smaller parties on the hard-Right to form a new coalition.
Coalitions are inevitable under Israel's proportional representation system.
Opinion surveys show a surge in support for the pro-settler Jewish Home party, led by Mr Netanyahu's former chief-of-staff, Naftali Bennett, the son of American immigrants who made his fortune by selling a computer-software company he founded.
The latest figures would see Jewish Home jump from three to 14 seats, which would give it a potentially decisive role in the 120-seat Knesset. Polls show right-wing parties likely to win 67 seats, compared with 53 for centrist and centre-left groupings.
The Jewish Home's rising poll numbers has harried Likud strategists into a series of missteps that have inadvertently bolstered Mr Bennett's popularity. An unofficial pro-Likud website prompted a flood of complaints this week after posting a photo of him pictured behind barbed wire with an accompanying caption reading, "The Jewish Ghetto."
That followed an unsuccessful attempt by Mr Netanyahu to lambast Mr Bennett, who has served in an elite army unit, for implying that he would refuse to carry out commands to evict West Bank settlers from their homes.
Mr Netanyahu, who has campaigned on a theme that he is the strong Prime Minister Israel needs, was confronted with evidence of his own waning popularity last Sunday when staff had to close partition doors at a hustings speech in Nazareth to disguise the low attendance.
Staff promptly cancelled a keynote event in the town of Holon for fear of another low turnout and were ordered to focus instead on a youth rally scheduled for this Sunday, Maariv newspaper reported.
One campaign worker described the prime minister as shouting at staff in scenes that created "panic".
"The entire election staff is working to bring participants to the youth conference," the worker told Maariv. "Ever since Netanyahu shouted at us, there has been complete panic among the staff."
Mr Netanyahu's electoral troubles have been compounded by a rising mood of revolt among Israeli diplomats, dismayed at having to explain a recent rush of settlement announcements in east Jerusalem and the West Bank.
Why Has Hillary Clinton's State Department Continued To Pander To Radical Islamists?
The story comes from Family Security Matters.State Department's Continued Outreach to Radicals
The Obama administration's efforts to conquer hearts and minds in the Muslim world as part of its broader strategy to battle Islamist terrorism may be a laudable goal. But the administration's continued pandering to radical Islamists both at home and abroad continues to baffle and frustrate opponents of political Islam and Islamist organizations.
The administration has been swift to embrace newly-elected Islamist regimes in the Middle-East despite their violent and pro-jihadi rhetoric. Last month for example, it heaped praise on Egypt's new Islamist leader Mohammed Morsi for helping broker a truce between Israel and Hamas after eight days of fighting. In lauding Morsi, the U.S. government overlooked statements supporting Hamas issued by Morsi's colleagues in the Muslim Brotherhood and their celebration of rocket attacks on Israel. Morsi was a senior Brotherhood official for years before seeking office.
This international outreach to authoritarian Islamist regimes bestows undue legitimacy on Islamists and renders democratic and secular opposition and dissident groups voiceless. The same flawed outreach is being pursued domestically.
The latest example comes from a State Department-sponsored delegation last year of five Bulgarian Muslims who came to discuss the role of religion in the United States. Details of the trip, funded by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs under its International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP), were obtained by the Investigative Project on Terrorism via a Freedom of Information Act request.
The delegation hoped to "learn about the environment of religious tolerance in the U.S. and how religious groups function in a democratic society with a separation of church and state," records in the 379-page FOIA release show. It described meetings the delegation had with leading Islamist groups like the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and individuals in Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Salt Lake City and Chicago from Sept. 26-Oct. 14, 2011.
This is a problem that has been detailed before. Rather than seeking views from the broader, more diverse Muslim American community, government officials grab at "the lowest hanging fruit," said Zuhdi Jasser, a Phoenix-based doctor who heads the American Islamic Forum for Democracy. "But they ignore ideological diversity and instead take the shortcut of generally allowing those Muslims who are part of a national and global political Islamist movement to represent our faith community."
"When confronted the White House and State Department will say that the ideological positions of Muslim groups is not their concern," added Jasser, whose appointment this year to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom sparked ire among Islamists.
Jasser also blamed political correctness for the government's flawed outreach policy:
"In part this also happens out of an absurd degree of political correctness and in part because these organizations have been very successful at branding themselves as the 'voice of the Muslims.' Even our National Strategy on Counterterrorism has been hijacked by this behavior, where it references the word ideology over 20 times but never names the ideology. The truth is that there is not and will never be one Muslim voice. We are a very diverse community...."
Jasser's views were echoed by Qanta Ahmed, a New York-based physician and ardent critic of radical Islam.
The government's failure to distinguish "Islam" from "political Islam" and its "willful engagement with non-violent Islamists" has resulted in the Islamists "owning the narrative," she said. In congressional testimony given in June, she also highlighted the threat Islamist ideology poses to the American democracy:
"While we have been pursuing conventional international warfare and in fact have assassinated the leader of Al Qaida for instance, we have remained dangerously vulnerable because of our delayed realization of the political science aspects of Islamist ideology and the very serious threat this poses to our democracy," Ahmed said. She described threats to free speech in the debate over radical Islam due to threats of litigation and false claims of bigotry that are used to stifle other points of view. Already, due to Islamist influence, the U.S. government has stopped using words like "Islamist" and "radical Islam."
"This sanitization of our lexicon reveals a shocking and perhaps specious reluctance to engage with the problem or worse, a foolhardy embrace, unintentional or otherwise, with the Islamist stance," Ahmed said.
"These are vulnerabilities which cannot be safeguarded by drones, or gunships but instead must be secured by counter ideological warfare which begins here, by widening the debate, discussion and scholarship in the area."
Such considerations were absent in planning the Bulgarian delegation's itinerary, as the FOIA documents show a parade of meetings with prominent U.S.-based Islamist organizations and individuals.
The delegation, for instance, visited the headquarters of the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) in Washington, D.C. and met with Haris Tarin, director of the organization's Washington office. Founded in the U.S. in 1986, MPAC has a history of defending designated terrorist organizations and their supporters, opposing U.S. counterterrorism efforts, and spewing anti-Semitic rhetoric. The group has questioned America's designation of Hamas and Hizballah as terrorist groups and called the Hizballah bombing of a U.S. Marines barracks in Beirut as "exactly the kind of attack that Americans might have lauded had it been directed against Washington's enemies."
Tarin has been critical of U.S. foreign and counterterrorism policies, has attempted to whitewash the jihadist threat, and embraced senior Muslim Brotherhood leaders. On Nov. 29, 2011 MPAC hosted a Capitol Hill forum on "Islamic Political Movements and the Arab Spring: Committed to Democracy and Pluralism?" The forum was followed by special dinner with Rachid Ghannouchi, leader of Tunisia's Ennahda Party. Tarin was a featured speaker at the event. He wrote a post on his Facebook page praising Ghannouchi: "Ghannouchi is an [sic] modern intellectual giant on Islam and governance. BIG TIME! If you are in DC and want to come, hit me up!"
In an interview with the Al Arab Qatari website six months earlier, Ghannouchi called for the destruction of Israel. "I give you the good news that the Arab region will get rid of the bacillus of Israel. Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the leader of Hamas, said that Israel will disappear by the year 2027. I say that this date may be too far away, and Israel may disappear before this," Ghannouchi said
The delegation also visited the ADAMS Center, a radical Northern Virginia-based mosque that was found to be home to Saudi-produced radical and jihadist literature. According to a 2005 Freedom House report on radical Saudi literature found in American mosques, the materials collected by investigators included a fatwa that forbids Muslims to become United States citizens since the country is governed by infidels:
"It is forbidden for a Muslim to become citizen of a country [such as the United States] governed by infidels."
The Bulgarian delegation met with the staff of the CAIR office in Chicago. CAIR was founded by leaders of the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP), formerly a central player in Hamas' support network in the U.S. Evidence in the Hamas-financing trial of the Holy Land Foundation placed CAIR within the "Palestine Committee," a network of Muslim Brotherhood-tied organizations in the United States working to support Hamas.
Internal records entered into evidence in the case showed that the Palestine Committee was created to support Hamas "with what it needs of media, money, men and all of that." HLF and five of its employees were found guilty in 2008 on 108 counts for funneling money to Hamas through zakat (charity) committees in the Palestinian territories.
The delegation also visited the Mosque Foundation of Bridgeview, Ill., where they met with Kifah Mustapha. Mustapha also was implicated in the HLF investigation, listed by prosecutors as a Palestine Committee member. Mustapha was a paid HLF fundraiser and sang in the al-Sakhra band, which frequently performed at HLF events.
Mustafa is shown in a video exhibit introduced in the HLF trial performing with the al-Sakhra musical troupe. Mustafa can be seen singing in the chorus supporting Hamas' call for jihad:
"O mother, Hamas for Jihad. Over mosques'
loudspeakers, with freedom. Every day it resists
with stones and the dagger. Tomorrow, with God's
help, it will be with a machine gun and a rifle."
The government's outreach to radical Islamist groups and individuals is not new and has been ongoing for at least the past two decades under the Clinton and Bush administrations. Some of these Islamists include groups and individuals who have been convicted, indicted or designated unindicted co-conspirators in terrorism prosecutions in the U.S.
The State Department spent $40,000 from 1992-2000 to sponsor Abdurahman Alamoudi to represent American Muslims in speaking engagements overseas. Alamoudi, a former head of the now-defunct American Muslim Council, was sentenced to 23 years in prison for illegal financial dealings with Libya. Alamoudi also confessed to being part of a Libyan plot to assassinate the then-crown prince of Saudi Arabia.
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) provided financial aid to the Hamas-tied Holy Land Foundation. In 2000, on discovering the agency was providing aid to a terror-linked charity, Thomas R. Pickering, then-Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs, ordered termination of HLF's registration with USAID since it was found the partnership was "contrary to the national interests and foreign policy of the United States."
Islamist apologist John Esposito has been sponsored by the State Department to travel overseas and talk about life for Muslims in America to international audiences. FOIA records obtained earlier by the IPT show Esposito traveled overseas several times between 1997 and 2007 on the State Department's dime, including to Pakistan, Bosnia, and Croatia. Esposito has a track record of downplaying the threat from Islamist terrorism and has close ties to CAIR and the United Association for Studies and Research (UASR)-two Muslim Brotherhood front groups that were identified by federal prosecutors in the HLF trial as part of the Hamas-support network in the U.S. Esposito also served as a defense expert in the HLF trial and considers U.S.-based Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) operative Sami Al-Arian a close friend.
A March 2009 State Department booklet, titled "Being Muslim in America," ostensibly seeks to debunk the myth that American Muslims are marginalized and do not form part of mainstream America. But at closer glance the booklet reads more like a pro-Islamist propaganda mouthpiece giving voice to standard Islamist grievances such as growing Islamophobia and racial profiling in post-9/11 America.
More recently, the State Department sent MPAC's founder and president, Salam al-Marayati, as its emissary to a human rights forum in Poland in October. Al-Marayati earlier alleged Israel as a suspect behind the 9/11 attacks and called Hizballah attacks "legitimate resistance." This is not the first time the State Department handpicked al-Marayati as its representative, sending him on a 2010 trip to Europe where al-Marayati spoke about free speech and religious freedom.
Jasser criticized the State Department and the Obama administration for their work with "patently Islamist ideologues" such as ISNA (Islamic Society of North America), MPAC and CAIR that helps promote and provide legitimacy to such groups.
"Even though those groups have reportedly anywhere from 4-12% support of American Muslims, the USG endorsements in all its forms props up these groups more as the de facto tribal leaders of our American faith community," Jasser said in an email exchange with the Investigative Project on Terrorism.
"If the Obama administration would actually reach out to more ideologically diverse Muslims, i.e. our AILC [American Islamic Leadership Coalition], they would find that many of the lenses through which they view our communities would need to be changed. They would be forced to address the ideology of Islamism and how to understand the impact that has upon the actions of those groups."
Currently, Jasser emphasized, Islamists provide "unfettered advice [that] leads to pro-Islamist positions domestically and abroad, leading to stronger positions of influence for Islamists and less access for anti-Islamist Muslims. They falsely convince the White House that anti-Islamists are anti-Muslim when the reality could not be more pro-Muslim."
U.S. Predator Drones Swarm Targeted House In South Waziristan, 4 Hellfires Later...5 Jihadis Are Dead
Let's hope that later today or tomorrow we find out that we got a helluva prize.
US drone strike kills 5 'militants' in South Waziristan
The US conducted its first strike in Pakistan's Taliban-controlled tribal areas this year, killing five "militants," according to reports.
The remotely piloted Predators or the more deadly Reapers, which are operated by the CIA, attacked "a house suspected of being a militant hideout," according to Xinhua. Four of the unmanned strike aircraft are thought to have been circling the compound before firing four missiles just after midnight.
Five "militants" are thought to have been killed, but their identities have not been disclosed. No senior al Qaeda or Taliban leaders are known to have been killed.
Today's strike is the first in Pakistan this year. Last year, the US launched 46 strikes in Pakistan, according to data compiled by The Long War Journal. In 2011, the US launched 64 strikes; in 2010, when the program was at its peak, there were 117 strikes.
The program was ramped up by President George W. Bush in the summer of 2008 (35 strikes were launched that year) and continued under President Barack Obama after he took office in 2009 (53 strikes that year). From 2004-2007, only 10 strikes were recorded. Although some of al Qaeda's top leaders have been killed in drone strikes since the program began in 2004, al Qaeda has been able to replace those lost in the attacks. [For data on the strikes, see LWJ reports, Charting the data for US airstrikes in Pakistan, 2004 - 2013; and Senior al Qaeda and Taliban leaders killed in US airstrikes in Pakistan, 2004 - 2013.]
Strike takes place in territory controlled by "good Taliban" leader
Today's strike took place in an area under the control of Mullah Nazir, the leader of the Taliban in the Wazir areas of South Waziristan. Nazir has openly supported Taliban emir Mullah Omar and al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, and wages jihad in Afghanistan. In an interview with the Asia Times, Nazir rejected claims that he opposed al Qaeda, and affirmed that he considered himself to be a member of the global terror organization. Pakistan's military and intelligence services consider Nazir and his followers "good Taliban" as they do not openly seek the overthrow of the Pakistani state.
Several top al Qaeda leaders, including Ilyas Kashmiri, Abu Khabab al Masri, Osama al Kini, Sheikh Ahmed Salim Swedan, and Abu Zaid al Iraqi, have been killed while being sheltered by Nazir. [For more information on Nazir and al Qaeda leaders killed while under his protection, see LWJ reports, 'Good' Pakistani Taliban leader Nazir affirms membership in al Qaeda, and US drones kill 'good' Taliban commander in South Wazirstan.]
Mullah Nazir's Taliban faction is one of four major Taliban groups that joined the Shura-e-Murakeba, an alliance brokered by al Qaeda in late 2011. The Shura-e-Murakeba also includes Hafiz Gul Bahadar's group; the Haqqani Network; and the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, which is led by Hakeemullah Mehsud and his deputy, Waliur Rehman Mehsud. The members of the Shura-e-Murakeba agreed to cease attacks against Pakistani security forces, refocus efforts against the US in Afghanistan, and end kidnappings and other criminal activities in the tribal areas.
In June 2012, Nazir banned polio vaccinations in his areas, and claimed that the program is being used by the US to gather intelligence and conduct drone strikes in the tribal areas. His action followed that of Hafiz Gul Bahadar, who shut down the program in North Waziristan earlier that month.
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