A guardedly optimistic op-ed, "In Pakistan, Islam Needs Democracy," appears in the Feb. 16 New York Times by one Waleed Ziad of the Truman National Security Project, a think-tank that "unites Americans who believe equally in strong liberal values, and the need for strong national security." It is a source of both interest and frustration that this exponent of pro-military, pro-globalist wonkdom favorably cites the Sufis:

A car bomber killed ten people, including a candidate in upcoming [local] elections, in northwest Pakistan when he slammed his vehicle into the candidate's convoy [Feb. 11]. Nisar Ali Khan was due to run as an independent, but was thought to have close links to the Awami National Party, a secular leftist Pashtun nationalist party. The attack was the third against the ANP and its allies in less than a week. The Frontier Post, a daily newspaper published in the Pashtun border regions, condemns the attack on an ANP election rally in Charsadda, which left 27 dead on Sunday. The paper sees the blast as part of a "deeper conspiracy to divide up the Pashtuns and set them at one another's throats."

Pakistani Taliban fighters led by commander Baitullah Mehsud Feb. 6 announced the suspension of attacks against security forces in the Waziristan tribal region and the Swat valley for an indefinite period. Maulvi Muhammad Omar, a spokesman for the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, told reporters in Peshawar from an undisclosed location that the militants had stopped attacks because the "government has softened operations" against the militants. "We have stated earlier that if anyone does not want to fight us, we will also not fight with them. But if anyone imposes war on us we will fight with them," Omar said. But in Islamabad, interim Interior Minister Hamid Nawaz Khan said the security forces had "broken the back of the militants and they are on the run." Khan said a grand jirga or council of elders will be convened soon to end hostilities in the tribal regions. (PTI, Feb. 6)

Some 200 Afghans protested at the UN office in Kabul Jan. 31 against the death sentence passed against Perwiz Kambakhsh, a reporter convicted of blasphemy. The protest was organized by the small Solidarity Party of Afghanistan. The upper house of parliament said the previous day it backed the sentence against Kambakhsh. "This statement by Afghan lawmakers is a shocking confirmation of intolerance and a lack of respect for free speech," the International Federation of Journalists said, calling on its members to urge President Hamid Karzai to overturn the sentence. (Reuters, Jan. 31)

Wanted al-Qaeda figure Abu Laith al-Libi was killed in Pakistan by a CIA air-strike, anonymous officials told CNN. Al-Libi was said to have been behind several attacks on US forces in Afghanistan, including the February 2007 bombing at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan during a visit by Vice President Dick Cheney. He was on a "most wanted" list of 12 accused terrorists issued in October by the Combined Joint Task Force-82. The officials said al-Libi was killed by a missile fired from an airplane. "May God have mercy on Sheikh Abu Laith al-Libi and accept him with his brothers, with the martyrs," said a eulogy posted on a leading Islamist site, Al-Ekhlaas.

Hundreds of Afghans chanted anti-US slogans in Ghazni Jan. 24 to protest the deaths of nine police, including a district commander, who local officials said were killed the previous day in an anti-Taliban operation by coalition troops. The coalition denied the claims, saying four insurgents were killed and nine were detained on the mission. Faced with troop shortages, US and NATO-led forces rely increasingly on air-strikes. (AP, Jan. 24)

Hundreds of Islamic militants armed with mortars and rocket-launchers overran a fort at Sararogha, in Pakistan's tribal borderlands Jan. 15, killing some 20 paramilitary troops of the South Waziristan Scouts and taking several more captive. The Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (Taliban Movement of Pakistan) issued a statement that it had carried out the attack. (NYT, Jan. 17) The following day, Canadian opposition leader Stephane Dion called for NATO "intervention" in Pakistan if President Pervez Musharraf's government failed to stop the cross-border flow of militants into Afghanistan. After a two-day visit to Afghanistan, Liberal Party leader Dion said: "We are going to have to discuss that very actively if they are not able to deal with it on their own. We could consider that option with the NATO forces in order to help Pakistan help us pacify Afghanistan." (Pakistan Daily Times, Jan. 18)

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Jan. 16 he believes NATO forces currently deployed in southern Afghanistan "don't know how to do counterinsurgency operations." Most of the NATO troops in the south are British, Canadian and Dutch, while those in the north are US. Washington has just announced the temporary deployment of 3,200 Marines to southern Afghanistan to quell the rising number of attacks. (LAT, Jan. 16) The day before Gates' remarks, Trooper Richard Renaud, 26, of Quebec was killed by a roadside bomb in Kandahar's Zhari district, leaving behind a pregnant wife and a 4-year-old stepson. His death brings the Canadian death toll in Afghanistan to 78, including one diplomat. (Toronto Star, CanWest, Jan. 16) The UK has lost 86 troops in Afghanistan; the Netherlands have lost 14. Total coalition fatalities stand at 760, with 480 from the US. 2007 was by far the bloodiest year, with 232 fatalities. (Coalition Casualty Count, Jan. 16)