US working to strengthen Pakistan, confident of nuclear security: Obama

Sunday, May 17, 2009 -WASHINGTON: Pledging to strengthen Pakistan as United States' partner, President Barack Obama has voiced confidence in the safety of the key regional country's nuclear assets as Pakistani army is equipped to prevent extremists from taking over the nuclear weapons.

"Pakistan's nuclear arsenal is safe," he said in an interview with Newsweek magazine, released Saturday evening. "I don't want to engage in hypothetical around Pakistan, other than to say we have confidence that Pakistan's nuclear arsenal is safe; that the Pakistani military is equipped to prevent extremists from taking over those arsenals. As commander in chief, I have to consider all options, but I think that Pakistan's sovereignty has to be respected," he stated.

Obama was asked whether Washington would have the option alive to secure Pakistan's nuclear weapons in the event of instability in the country, striving to overcome challenges of militancy along its Afghan border. "We are trying to strengthen them as a partner, and one of the encouraging things is, over the last several weeks we've seen a decided shift in the Pakistan Army's recognition that the threat from extremism is a much more immediate and serious one than the threat from India that they've traditionally focused on," he added.

Questioned how he decided on sending additional 17000 troops to Afghanistan, Obama said his administration felt that the existing approach was not working and that instability in the insurgency-hit Afghan border areas was destabilizing Pakistan as well. "I think the starting point was a recognition that the existing trajectory was not working, that the Taliban had made advances, that our presence in Afghanistan was declining in popularity, that the instability along the border region was destabilizing Pakistan as well. So that was the starting point of the decision."

The US president said it would be premature to talk about more troops for Afghanistan at the moment. "I think it's premature to talk about additional troops. My strong view is that we are not going to succeed simply by piling on more and more troops.

"The Soviets tried that; it didn't work out too well for them. The British tried it; it didn't work. We have to see our military action in the context of a broader effort to stabilize security in the country, allow national elections to take place in Afghanistan and then provide the space for the vital development work that's needed so that a tolerant and open, democratically elected government is considered far more legitimate than a Taliban alternative," he responded when asked if he is open to sending more troops to Afghanistan if the latest addition of troops cannot make the progress the U.S. need to make.

At the same time, Obama stressed that "the military component is critical to accomplishing that goal, but it is not a sufficient element by itself."   /www.thenews.com.pk/updates.asp?id=77894

'Obama backtracking on campaign promises'

 May 17, 2009  WASHINGTON - Human Rights Watch, a prominent international watchdog, has called President Barack Obama’s plan to use military commissions to try some US detainees a step back from his campaign promises.

“The military commissions system is flawed beyond repair,” said Kenneth Roth, the group’s executive director. “By resurrecting this failed Bush administration idea, President Obama is backtracking dangerously on his reform agenda.”

Obama has said that only a few of the detainees now in Guantanamo would go before military commissions instead of courts.

He has also said that evidence rules would be changed in favour of the defence and detainees would have more freedom to choose their lawyers.

Human Rights Watch said that even if Obama places new limits on hearsay evidence it is still dangerous to allow it.

Meanwhile, The New York Times said the president’s recent decisions on detainee abuse photos and tribunals have put him more in line with his predecessor, despite pledges of a new direction.

Obama’s opening gambits as president, the newspaper said, were bold declarations of new directions, from announcing the closing of the detention centre at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to sweeping restrictions on interrogation techniques. He advertised both as a return to traditional American values, after the diversions taken by George W. Bush to the detriment of America’s image abroad and of itself. The nation