'US to deploy troops if Pak nukes come under threat'

LONDON:  May 16: US laid occupational troops will be deployed in Pakistan if the nation's nuclear installations come under threat from terrorists out to avenge the killing of Osama bin Laden, the Sunday Express can reveal on Sunday.

The plan, which would be activated without President Asif Ali Zardari's consent, provoked an angry reaction from Pakistan officials last night. Barack Obama would order troops to parachute in to protect key nuclear missile sites. These include the air force's central Sargodha HQ, home base for nuclear-capable F-16 combat aircraft and at least 80 ballistic missiles.

A US source told the Sunday Express: "The plan is green lit and the president has already shown he is wiling to deploy troops in Pakistan if he feels it is important for national security." However, news of the plan has further increased tension between the US and Pakistan with relations already at an all-time low after the Operation Geronimo raid by the US Navy Seal special forces team that killed bin Laden at the house where he had been hiding in Abbottabad, near to a Pakistan military academy.

An angry Pakistani official said: "Pakistan has an elaborate command and control structure and is fully capable of defending its strategic assets under any circumstances and does not need any assistance from any country, including the US, to safeguard its nuclear installations."

The plan reflects growing concern over reprisals for the al-Qaeda terror leader's death. More than 80 people were killed and 140 injured when two Taliban suicide bombers struck at a military academy in the north-western town of Charsadda on Friday.

Alex Neill, of the Royal United Services Institute, said: "The United States places its own national security issues above all other sovereignty issues and trust in Pakistan's abilities are extremely low."

"If Obama can persuade congress that placing US troops at the installations is necessary to protect US citizens from possible nuclear attack, then that's what he will do." The Pentagon on Saturday refused to deny the existence of the plan, with a spokesman saying only: "We are confident that Pakistan has taken appropriate steps towards securing its nuclear arsenal."

Bin Laden was a US prisoner before being killed: Iran

Tehran, May 16:  Sheikh Bin Laden was a US prisoner before being killed: Iran TEHRAN: Al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden was a prisoner in US custody for "sometime" before he was killed by the American military, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Sunday,reports AFP.

"I have exact information that bin Laden was held by the American military for sometime... until the day they killed him he was a prisoner held by them," the president said in a live interview on Iranian state television.

"Please pay attention. This is important. He was held by them for sometime. They made him sick and while he was sick they killed him," Ahmadinejad added.

He accused US President Barack Obama for announcing the Al-Qaeda leader's death for "political gain."

"What the US president has done is for domestic political gain. In other words, they killed him for Mr Obama's election and now they are seeking to replace him with someone else," Ahmadinejad said without elaborating.

Bin Laden was shot dead on May 2 in a US commando raid on a heavily fortified compound near Islamabad, Pakistan.

On May 4, Iranian Defence Minister Ahmad Vahidi too had cast doubt on bin Laden's death, saying there were "ambiguities" over the way he was killed.

The Americans "said they threw his body in the sea. Why did they not allowed an independent expert to examine the body to say if it was bin Laden or not?" Vahidi said.

   

Secret deal with US not acceptable: Nisar Ali Khan

ISLAMABAD: May 17: The government will have to finish inking secret deals with US. No behind-the-curtain agreements will be acceptable from now and onwards, these were the warning statements made by Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, the leader of opposition in National Assembly (NA) and the leader of Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N), Geo News reported.

“No Pak-US joint operation against a high-value target in Pakistan will be allowed in future and a judicial commission to probe into US raid on a compound in Abbottabad on May 2 be immediately formed, ” Nisar demanded.

Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan was addressing a press conference here at the Punjab House. He said that he came to know though media reports that the federal government and US administration have agreed upon a new code of conduct.(Writer-South Asis)

Osama bin Laden's Jerusalem home for sale

Srinagar, 16 May:  While real-estate agents say that location is everything in considering buying a home, sometimes an infamous former owner can also be a big selling point, reports Xinhua news agency.

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Especially when it's al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden's handsome digs in northern Jerusalem's Palestinian Shuafat neighborhood.

"This is a historic house, and to this day I have not talked about it with anybody," current owner Mu'in Khoury told the Yediot Ahronot Hebrew daily on Sunday.

"Bin-Laden's father came from Saudi Arabia in the 1940s, bought the house, and lived in it from time to time," Khoury said, adding that "Osama also spent time there on several occasions in the 1960s."

Since then, however, the property has changed hands many times, and came to be Israeli state property as a result of the 1967 War, and served as the Spanish consul's office.

Khoury is the latest in the line of owners of the site, which has become a well-known neighborhood landmark since the 9/11 attacks on the United States.

"The house is not for sale to anyone. But if Osama makes me an offer, I will be willing to consider it," Khoury said, according to the report.