CHASHMA, Pakistan — Hundreds of political activists, led by the opposition politician Imran Khan and accompanied by 32 American peace activists, departed Pakistan’s capital Saturday in a convoy headed toward the country’s tribal regions to protest US drone strikes.
Khan’s political party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf, called the motorcade a ‘‘peace march’’ to demand an end to US drone strikes, which he said kill innocent civilians and breed militancy.
I'm all for that. I've been saying end those mass-murdering assaults from on high for years. All based on lies, by the way.
The convoy’s destination is Kotkai, a town in the South Waziristan tribal region, which is the hometown of Hakimullah Mehsud, the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, and is currently under the control of the Pakistani military. Mehsud is believed to be hiding in North Waziristan, which has become a militant redoubt.
Khan had said that he planned to reach Kotkai by noon Sunday, but by Saturday evening it appeared more likely that the convoy, which consisted of at least 200 vehicles, would not be allowed to enter South Waziristan by the Pakistani civil and military authorities, who cited security concerns.
Foreigners are also restricted from entering the tribal areas, and it remained unclear whether the 32 US members of the antiwar group Codepink would be allowed to go beyond Dera Ismail Khan, a city near the tribal region, where rally participants planned to spend the night.
Look, I don't want to knock the ladies, but at times they have made me see red. I know they have taken on taken on Israel, but the fact that they appear in the propaganda psy-op we call a newspaper is a tell regarding their deep cover as controlled opposition.
Again, that is not to question or denigrate their professed concerns or the actions they are taking that I happen to agree with and applaud here. What I believe their true purpose is (as evidenced by occasionally disrupting congressional hearings) is to show AmeriKa is not a fascist tyranny and that it allows dissent, etc, as it carries out its imperial agenda.
The Taliban have threatened the convoy’s participants and Khan, denouncing him as a secular politician and questioning his intentions. On Saturday, pamphlets were distributed in Tank, a town along the route, warning of possible suicide attacks and raids to kidnap the foreigners.
Okay, that perplexes me. Why would the locals threaten people bringing their cause and plight to light? If anything they would welcome them. What the above paragraph reads like is an intelligence agency asset release with the Codepink visitors providing the provocation.
Khan, his supporters, and the US activists appeared to be undeterred by the threats.
“The group is determined to go ahead,’’ said Alli McCracken, a Codepink spokeswoman.
‘‘We have curtains drawn,’’ she said. ‘‘We are low key.’’
Khan, a vocal critic of military operations in the tribal areas and the use of drones, said he wanted to work for peace in Pakistan, especially in the tribal areas, which have been ravaged by years of war and militancy.
‘‘The collateral damage is the killing of innocent women and children,’’ he said before leaving Islamabad, the capital. ‘‘The war on terror has become a war of terror.’’
Once you realize the false flag nature and inside job aspects of the 9/11 attacks that all this is based upon you realize that each and every soul killed high up in those mountains is innocent.
He blamed the government for trying to discourage and undermine the rally.
Along the route, supporters dotted the roadside, holding the red-and-green flags of Khan’s political party, as the convoy moved through the rugged countryside of Punjab Province and into northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province.
‘‘We are hearing reports that the government is making it difficult for us to go to South Waziristan,’’ said Shafqat Mehmood, a party official. ‘‘We will only know when we reach Dera Ismail Khan.’’
If the convoy is not allowed to enter South Waziristan, Mehmood said, ‘‘We will hold a meeting wherever.’’
--more--"
Also see: Activists blocked in bid to protest US drone strikes
