Warren Weinstein, American Held Hostage in Pakistan, Asks President Obama to Negotiate with al-Qaeda

Man, he's all worn down and weary.

At the Washington Post, "Kidnapped American asks U.S. to negotiate with al-Qaeda for his release":

A U.S. government contractor kidnapped by al-Qaeda militants in Pakistan in 2011 has recorded a video message calling on the Obama administration to negotiate with his captors and saying he feels “totally abandoned and forgotten.”

Warren Weinstein looked ashen and sounded lethargic as he pleaded for renewed interest in his case and asked the U.S. government to consider releasing al-Qaeda militants in its custody. The 72-year-old development expert from Rockville began his address by urging President Obama to step up efforts to get him released.

“You are now in your second term as president of the United States and that means that you can take hard decisions without worrying about reelection,” said Weinstein, who was recorded sitting against a white wall and wearing a gray tracksuit top and a black woolen hat. No one else appeared in the video.

The video, which included the yellow logo of As-Sahab, al-Qaeda’s media production outlet, was sent in an anonymous e-mail to several journalists who have reported from Afghanistan. Included were links to a handwritten note that purports to be from Weinstein, saying “Letter to Media” at the top. The note is dated Oct. 3. It is not clear when the video was made.

Continue reading.

And say a prayer for the guy. I'm sure Obama couldn't care less. Won't be much political upside at this point. Osama bin-Laden's long been dead. Don't expect any Democrat rescue raid football-spiking anytime soon.

Behind the Investigation of Benazir Bhutto's Assassination

From Heraldo Muñoz, at Foreign Affairs, "Getting Away With Murder":

On the evening of December 28, the day after former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated, Javed Iqbal Cheema, a retired brigadier general and spokesperson for Pakistan’s Ministry of the Interior, gave a televised press conference to set out the cause of her death as well as to name those responsible for the shooting and suicide bomb attack. He announced that Bhutto had died from an injury sustained when she hit her head on a lever of the specially designed escape hatch of the vehicle in which she had been touring. He also announced that Baitullah Mehsud, who was leader of the Pakistani Taliban at the time, and al Qaeda were responsible for the attack. As evidence, he presented an intercepted telephone conversation in Pashto, purportedly between Mehsud and a man named Maulvi Sahib, in which Mehsud was heard congratulating Maulvi on “a spectacular job.”

Cheema had been given his talking points by the Director General of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence, who had attended a briefing at military general headquarters with Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan’s president at the time, and the directors of Pakistan’s other intelligence services. The remarks were met with widespread public outrage and media skepticism. Bhutto’s party, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), and others accused the government of a cover-up. Especially doubtful, many believed, was the sudden and timely appearance of the telephone intercept, as well as the speed with which its contents were analyzed and interpreted. One senior policeman we interviewed during UN investigation said, “In 24 years of service, I have never seen such spontaneous appearance of evidence.” Many also challenged the idea that Bhutto had not been shot, and questioned how quickly that purported analysis had been done. Numerous senior PPP officials believed that, in an effort to demean Bhutto, the government wanted to imply that she had caused her own death by emerging from her vehicle to salute the crowd.

What followed in the days and months ahead tore Pakistan apart and destabilized the region...

Continue reading. For example, here:

The pervasive presence of the ISI and other intelligence agencies in all spheres of Pakistani life in Pakistan, their ongoing ties with Islamist groups that engage in violence, their involvement in past elections, and their systemic practice of unauthorized wiretapping of not only suspected terrorists and other criminals but also politicians, journalists, and social activists have lent support to the suspicion in Pakistani society, and in the international community, that the ISI, in some shape or form, was involved in the assassination of Bhutto.

And the dude's book is here, Getting Away with Murder: Benazir Bhutto's Assassination and the Politics of Pakistan.

Malala Yousafzai Addresses the United Nations

At the Telegraph UK, "Malala tells UN she will not be silenced by Taliban attack":

Malala Yousafzai has she will not be silenced by terrorist threats, in an address to the United Nations on her 16th birthday that was her first public speech since being shot by the Taliban.

“Let us pick up our books and pens,” said the Pakistani teenager, who was shot in the head by a Taliban gunman as she left school last October.

“They are our most powerful weapons. One child, one teacher, one pen and one book can change the world. Education is the only solution.”

Malala, who has been recovering in Britain, delivered her address in New York in front of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to an auditorium packed with 1,000 students from around the world.

Her parents watched proudly as she assured her audience that she was “the same Malala”.

Wearing a loose-fitting pink shawl that had belonged to assassinated former Pakistani leader Benazir Bhutto, she continued: “I am not against anyone. Nor am I here to speak against the Taliban or any other terrorist group. I am here to speak up for the right to education of every child.”

It was a typically impressive performance by a teen who earned the enmity of the Taliban in her home country for campaigning for girls’ rights to go to school. She said she was speaking for human rights activists across the world fighting for education, justice and equality.

“Here I stand not as one voice but speaking for those who have fought for the right to be treated with dignity, their right for equality of opportunity, and their right to be educated,” she said.

She called on governments to fight for the rights of women and children deprived of an education by child labour and forced marriages at early ages.

“The extremists were afraid of education,” she said. “That is why they’re blasting schools every day. Because they’re afraid of progress, afraid of change.

“If we want to achieve our goals, let us empower ourselves with a weapon of knowledge and shield ourselves with unity and togetherness.”

During a series of standing ovations, she said that the attempt on her life had only made her more resolute. “Weakness, fear and hopelessness died. Strength, courage and fervour was born,” she said.”I speak not for myself but for those without a voice.”

Unable to safely return to Pakistan, she started at a school in Birmingham in March after medical treatment there during which doctors mended parts of her skull with a titanium plate.

I think she should be condemning the Taliban. Let's hear it.

Don't be all "Imagine" on us, okay. You've got to stand up to evil, and you've experienced it like few others.

Also at the New York Times, "Malala Yousafzai, Girl Shot by Taliban, Makes Appeal at U.N."

Taliban Kill 10 Tourists in Pakistan

They were mountaineers.

At USA Today, "Taliban kill 10 foreign climbers, Pakistani guide."

There's going to be a lot more of these killings as the U.S. heads for the exits in Afghanistan.

Pakistan Says U.S. Drone Killed Taliban Leader

Well, so much for that war on terror reset.

At the New York Times:

WASHINGTON — Less than a week after President Obama outlined a new direction for the secret drone wars, Pakistani officials said that a C.I.A. missile strike on Wednesday killed a top member of the Pakistani Taliban, an attack that illustrated the continued murkiness of the rules that govern the United States’ targeted killing operations.

The drone strike in Pakistan’s tribal belt, along the Afghan border, was the first since Mr. Obama announced what his administration billed as sweeping changes to the drone program, with new limits on who would be targeted and more transparency in reporting such strikes.

But in the days since the president’s speech, American officials have asserted behind the scenes that the new standards would not apply to the C.I.A. drone program in Pakistan as long as American troops remained next door in Afghanistan — a reference to Mr. Obama’s exception for an “Afghan war theater.” For months to come, any drone strikes in Pakistan — the country that has been hit by the vast majority of them, with more than 350 such attacks by some estimates — will be exempt from the new rules.

American officials refused to publicly confirm the drone strike or the death of the Pakistani Taliban’s deputy leader, Wali ur-Rehman, even as Pakistani government and militant figures reported that he had been killed. Thus, the promise of new transparency, too, seemed to be put off.

Still, by one measure, Mr. Rehman would seem to fit the new road map for drone strikes: the threshold laid out by Mr. Obama that the target of the strike pose a “continuing and imminent threat” to United States citizens...

Yeah, that's a pretty convenient exception.

More from Max Boot, at Commentary, "Taliban Strike Exposes Flaw in Proposed Drone Guidelines."

Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif Claims Victory in Pakistan Election

At the Wall Street Journal, "Former PM Declares Victory in Pakistan: Voters Stream to Polls, but Twin Bombings Underscore the Dangers":

LAHORE, Pakistan—A conservative former Pakistani prime minister ousted in a 1999 military coup, Nawaz Sharif, appeared headed to victory Saturday in a closely fought election that also turned populist cricket legend Imran Khan into a major political force, according to early results.

Mr. Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-N was leading in 125 constituencies out of 272, according to partial and initial results. Mr. Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, which boycotted the previous election in 2008, was leading in 35 races, while the Pakistan Peoples Party that controlled the previous government was projected to win 32 seats. With independents and small parties leading in many remaining races, these results, if they hold, could allow Mr. Sharif to form the next government of the world's fifth largest democracy.

The election would mark the first time in Pakistan's coup-ridden history that a civilian government served a full five-year term and transferred power to another elected administration. Turnout was close to 60 percent, according the country's election commission, much higher than the 44% in the previous vote, despite Taliban threats and scattered violence that killed at least 19 people.

"Pakistan needs a strong government that can take strong decisions," Mr. Sharif said as he watched the results stream in on TV in his Lahore headquarters, with cheers by supporters outside growing louder with every new projection. As his lead solidified, he came out to make a victory speech, urging supporters to pray for an outright PML-N majority by the end of the count, so that a future government could be established "without crutches."

Mr. Sharif, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal after the vote, said he foresaw no new problems with the country's powerful military establishment, saying that the 1999 coup against him was the personal initiative of then-army chief Gen. Pervez Musharraf, and not the military as a whole.

He also said he would work for improved relations with the U.S., India and Afghanistan....

The Pakistani Taliban have focused their campaign of violence and intimidation that killed more than 100 people in the run-up to Saturday's vote on the PPP and its two secular allies, the Awami National Party and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement.

In the biggest attack on election day, 11 people were killed Saturday morning in twin bombings targeting an ANP office in the southern city of Karachi, a police official said. ANP, according to initial results, would have no seats in the new federal parliament, in part because Taliban violence made it nearly impossible for its candidates to campaign.

Continue reading.

Origins of CIA's Not-So-Secret Drone War in Pakistan

At the video, a Democracy Now! interview with Mark Mazzetti of the New York Times.

And here's his report from last Sunday's New York Times, "RISE OF THE PREDATORS: A Secret Deal on Drones, Sealed in Blood."

Part II is here.

And see Jonathan S. Landay, at McClatchy News, "Obama’s drone war kills ‘others,’ not just al Qaida leaders."

You'd think the left would be calling for war crimes tribunals for Obama/Biden, but not.

Blast in Crowded Market Kills Dozens in Pakistan

At the New York Times, "Explosion in Crowded Market Kills Dozens in Pakistan":

KARACHI, Pakistan — A devastating explosion ripped through a crowded market in the western city of Quetta on Saturday, killing at least 63 people and wounding at least 180, the police said.

The attack occurred in a neighborhood dominated by Hazaras, a Shiite ethnic minority that has suffered numerous attacks at the hands of Sunni militant death squads in recent years.

A previous attack on Jan. 10, when a Sunni group bombed a snooker hall in Quetta, killed almost 100 Hazaras, prompting domestic and international outrage.

The police said that Saturday’s bomb was apparently set off by a remote-controlled device, possibly hidden in a rickshaw. The explosion caused a building to collapse and the death toll to rise sharply.

RTWT.

Bombings in Pakistan Kill More Than 100 People

At the Wall Street Journal, "Pakistan Bombings Kill More Than 100 People."

And at Atlas Shrugs, "#Savage #MyJihad: Twin Suicide Bombings kill 115 people in Pakistan."

Lara Logan Speaks Truth to War on Terror

An amazing speech, via Daniel Greenfield at FrontPage Magazine, "Lara Logan: “Our Way of Life is Under Attack” (VIDEO)":

The quotes and excerpts of Lara Logan’s speech don’t really properly capture it the way that watching the video does. This is an emotional speech and it’s unusual because it’s been a while since we’ve heard anyone talk like this. It’s a speech that takes us back ten years to the early days of the War on Terror. And those ideas are apparently a core part of what she believes.

Lara Logan’s theme is that abandoning Afghanistan will turn it back over into a base for Islamic terrorists. And in between advocating serious engagement with Afghanistan and blasting the refusal to talk about Pakistan’s role in Al Qaeda, she slips in the occasional dangerous unexplored idea about the nature of the enemy.

Malala Yousufzai Airlifted to Britain

It's a good thing. She was as good as dead if she stayed in Pakistan.

At the New York Times, "Schoolgirl Wounded by Taliban Is Airlifted to Britain":

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – The Pakistani schoolgirl who was shot by the Taliban last week for advocating girls’ education has been flown to Britain for emergency specialist care, the Pakistani military said on Monday.

Malala Yousafzai, 14, left an air base in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, where she was being treated for head wounds in a military hospital, on an air ambulance sent from the United Arab Emirates.

In a statement, the military said she would receive immediate treatment for her skull, which was fractured after a bullet passed through her head, as well as “long-term rehabilitation including intensive neuro rehabilitation.”

Malala will be treated at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham in central England, a center which has specialized in the treatment of troops wounded in Afghanistan, Prime Minister David Cameron’s office said in a statement quoted by The Associated Press.

Pakistan said it would pay for her treatment.

A Pakistani military intensive care specialist accompanied her on the flight, which by midmorning Monday had stopped in the United Arab Emirates for refueling en route to Britain.

The mercy flight produced a sigh of relief of sorts among Pakistanis who have kept an anxious national vigil for Ms. Yousafzai since she was shot by a militant gunman last Tuesday as she returned from school in Mingora, the main town in the Swat Valley, in northwestern Pakistan.

The daughter of a schoolmaster, Ms. Yousafzai had become known for her eloquent and impassioned advocacy of education and children’s rights in the face of Taliban threats, which made her a potent symbol of resistance to the militants’ extremist ideology.

Actually, families better keep their kids close. I expect this is the beginning of a new reign of terror. See Der Spiegel, "Schoolgirl Shooting: Pakistanis Fear Resurgent Taliban in Swat Valley."

The Surge in Afghanistan Ends With Whimper

The New York Times has the MSM angle, "Troop ‘Surge’ in Afghanistan Ends With Mixed Results."

But see the utter truth at AoSHQ, "September 17, 2012: The Day We Gave Up In Afghanistan."

Folks like Diana West, and later Pamela Geller, argued long ago that we should get out of Afghanistan. Americans weren't fighting to win but attempting to build a nation not ready for democracy. And that was during the Bush years. Under Obama there was hope that we'd finally make some progress, but it's been a half-hearted policy there from the beginning of this administration.

Here's West's analysis from the other day:

Sniping over withdrawal dates is no substitute for grown-up discussion of the utterly and completely failed COIN strategy of nation-building on the backs of the US military, of strapping leftist, Kum-bay-a theories of "world peace" to the body armor of Americans and Australians and Brits and the rest, and sending them out into the IED-mined field of jihad. Really get to the know the people, said their commanders. Take off those ballistic glasses, and protect them from everything that can hurt them, said the generals. And dump hundreds of millions of dollars down the drain while you're at it.

The defective linchpin of this "strategy" is that there exists an imaginary Islam to which Americans and other Westerners must show fealty in order to win hearts and minds of "good" Islam, thus isolating the "bad" Islam of the fighting enemy. This is a defilement of reality that requires the widespread and permanent corruption of the thought process itself. The main result of this brainwashing has been to bring, as chronicled in this space for years now, the US military under the rules of Islam in our increasingly desperate efforts to win Afghan "hearts and minds."

I'm a bit of a wild-eyed optimist on democracy promotion, frankly. But even the best intentions will be for naught if you're just going through the motions, looking toward the next presidential election. And that's what happened during the Obama years. It's been an enormous case of moral bankruptcy, but then again, that's the story of the entire record of this administration.

Death Toll Climbs in Pakistan Muhammad Protests

The New York Times reports, "19 Reported Dead as Pakistanis Protest Muhammad Video."

One of the Muslims interviewed at this clip says "The filmmaker should be killed." Freakin' savages.

More at Blazing Cat Fur, "Celebrate Pakistan's Day of Love ... Riot Like a Koran Crazed Mohammedan," and "The Prophet Loves Pakistanis So Much He's Killed 17 So Far."

Old Glory's Revenge: Muslim Protester Dies After Ingesting Smoke From Torched U.S. Flags in Pakistan

Blazing Cat Fur reports, "The Unfathomable Will of Allah: Muslim Dies After Being Made Unwell From Smoke of Burning US Flags at Mo Movie Demo."

And following the links takes us to the International Herald Tribune's Express Tribune, in Pakistan, "Ultimatum to U.S.: ‘Criminalise blasphemy or lose consulate’":

Around 10,000 people participated in the main rally organised on The Mall by the Tehreek Hurmat-i-Rasool (THR). The participants marched from Nila Gumbad to Masjid-i-Shuhada on The Mall. Despite a ban on rallies on The Mall, the road remained blocked for vehicular traffic from noon to 6pm.

The rally was addressed by Jamatud Dawa chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, THR head Ameer Hamza, JD leader Hafiz Abdul Rehman Makki, Pakistan Muslim League (Zia) head Ijazul Haq, Jamaat Ulema Islam-Sami (JUI-S) leader Asim Makhdoom and Jamaat Ahle Hadith ameer Hafiz Abdul Ghaffar Ropari.

One of the participants of the rally, Abdullah Ismail, passed away after he was taken to Mayo Hospital. Witnesses said he had complained of feeling unwell from the smoke from US flags burnt at the rally.

He felt "unwell." No doubt. Karma's a bitch.

Also at the New York Times, "Pakistanis Try to Storm U.S. Outpost; One Is Killed." (The "one" killed died of gunfire.)

Video Shows Taliban Militants With 'Severed Heads' in Pakistan

These are Pakistani Taliban.

At London's Daily Mail, "Horrific picture shows armed Taliban militants lording it over 12 decapitated heads of Pakistani 'soldiers'."

Watch it here: "Pakistani Taliban release video of severed heads" (via Bare Naked Islam).

More at Weasel Zippers, "Taliban Release Video Showing Severed Heads of 12 Pakistani Soldiers…"

And there's background at Long War Journal, "Pakistani Taliban 'chopped off the heads' of 7 Pakistani soldiers in South Waziristan."

PREVIOUSLY: "Taliban Release Video of 17 Beheaded Pakistani Soldiers."

Taliban Release Video of 17 Beheaded Pakistani Soldiers

I looked around for the clip the other night, when AP first reported the story.

Didn't see it then, but Rusty Shackleford has it now, at Jawa Report: "Video: Taliban Behead 17 POWs."

The War Can Be Won in Afghanistan

It's the weekend interview, at the Wall Street Journal, "H.R. McMaster: The Warrior's-Eye View of Afghanistan":

One of the general's historical models is Colombia, where a few years ago many people believed the government couldn't stand up to the narco-terrorist FARC insurgency. "What was the problem of Colombia in the late '90s? It was political will to take [the FARC] on," he says, adding that U.S. counternarcotics and other efforts helped lay the groundwork that Álvaro Uribe built on after winning Colombia's presidency in 2002.

We could see such an outcome again, says Gen. McMaster, especially given "the innate weakness of Afghanistan's enemies."

"What do the Taliban have to offer the Afghan people?" he asks. They are "a criminal organization, criminal because they engage in mass murder of innocent people, and criminal because they're also the largest narcotics-trafficking organization in the world. Are these virtuous religious people? No, these are murderous, nihilistic, irreligious people who we're fighting—we along with Afghans who are determined to not allow them to return."

Taliban groups, he adds, are increasingly seen by Afghans "as a tool of hostile foreign intelligence agencies. These are people who live in comfort in Pakistan and send their children to private schools while they destroy schools in Afghanistan." He notes, too, that indigenous Afghan fighters are wondering where their leadership is: "One of the maxims of military leadership is that you share the hardships of your troops, you lead from the front. Well they're leading from comfortable villas in Pakistan. So there's growing resentment, and this could be an opportunity to convince key communities inside of Afghanistan into joining the political process."

More at that top link (via Ahmad Majidyar on Twitter).

Arsala Rahmani, Top Afghan Peace Negotiator, Shot Dead in Kabul

At the Los Angeles Times, "Afghan assassination casts more gloom over peace efforts."

KABUL, Afghanistan — A brazen daytime assassination on Sunday offered a grim reminder of stymied progress in a key part of NATO's effort to wind down the Afghan war: peace talks with the Taliban.

Arsala Rahmani, a senior member of the Afghan government body set up to conduct negotiations with the militant group, was shot and killed while traveling by car through the Afghan capital, police said. Coming less than nine months after the assassination of the head of the High Peace Council, the killing cast yet more gloom over Western-backed efforts to bring the insurgents to the bargaining table.

The Obama administration had hoped to have substantive progress on the negotiating front to cite when a NATO summit convenes next week in Chicago. Instead, preliminary contacts appear to have broken down.

Continue reading.

India Launches Long-Range Missile Capable of Reaching China

Well, so much for nuclear non-proliferation during the Obama administration.

At the Wall Street Journal, "India Tests Nuclear-Capable Missile":

India tested its most advanced long-range nuclear-capable missile to date on Thursday, a launch experts say will serve as a deterrent against Pakistan and China.

Agni V, an intercontinental ballistic missile, or ICBM, was launched from Wheeler Island, off the coast of the eastern state of Orissa, said Sitanshu Kar, a spokesman for India's defense ministry.

"It was a perfect launch which took place at 0807 hours," said Mr. Kar. "It has achieved all the parameters and goals set for it." He didn't elaborate, but Indian media is saying it reached its intended target 5,000 kilometers (3,100 miles) out in the Indian Ocean, and was visually tracked along its whole path.

Avinash Chander, chief controller (Missiles and Strategic Systems) of the Ministry of Defence's Defence Research and Development Organisation, described the launch as a "marvelous achievement" in an interview on news channel NDTV. "We achieved exactly what we wanted to achieve." He said the team has "full confidence in the missile capability" and the missile landed "exactly where it was supposed to land. "

The launch of the locally built Agni V is part of India's broader missile-development program, a key aspect of the country's nuclear strategy. Its range of over 5,000 kilometers means it could reach as far as Beijing, Tehran or Pyongyang.

Experts say this makes it the most advanced missile in India's missile inventory. But though a successful test fire is a positive sign, it could take a few more years of tests to make the ballistic missile operationally ready.

Poornima Subramaniam, an Asia-Pacific armed-forces analyst with IHS Jane's, a global think tank specializing in security issues, said by email that Agni V would boost India's strategic position against China while improving its deterrence system against its other regional rival, Pakistan.

"The Agni V can strike targets across the depth of China, potentially freeing up other short- and intermediate-range missiles for use against Pakistan and much of west and south-central China," she added. "While India maintains a no-first-use policy, it views this road-mobile ICBM capability as technologically narrowing the missile gap between India and China."

Oops! Britain's First Muslim 'Life Peer' Suspended After Placing £10 Million Bounty on Presidents Obama and G.W. Bush

Well, multiculturalism is hard.

At Pamela's, "UKs first Muslim "Life Peer," Lord Ahmed, offers 15-million-dollar bounty for President Obama and Former President Bush's Head, too UPDATE: Lord Nazi Suspended..."

And at Telegraph UK, "British Peer Lord Nazir Ahmed suspended after 'offering £10m bounty on Barack Obama and George Bush'":

A controversial British peer has been suspended from the Labour Party amid reports that he offered a £10 million bounty for the capture of President Barack Obama and his predecessor President George W Bush.

Lord Nazir Ahmed, 53, who in 1998 became the first Muslim life peer, was reported to have made the comments at a conference in Haripur in Pakistan.

A Labour Party spokesman said: "We have suspended Lord Ahmed pending investigation. If these comments are accurate we utterly condemn these remarks which are totally unacceptable."

According to Pakistan's Express Tribune newspaper Lord Ahmed offered the bounty in response to a US action a week ago.
The US issued a $10 million reward for the capture of Pakistani militant leader Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, founder of the Lashkar-e-Taiba group, who it suspects of orchestrating the 2008 Mumbai attacks in which 166 people died as terrorists stormed hotels and a train station.

The British peer reportedly said: "'If the US can announce a reward of $10 million for the (capture) of Hafiz Saeed, I can announce a bounty of £10 million (for the capture of) President Obama and his predecessor, George Bush."

Lord Ahmed reportedly said he would arrange the bounty at any cost, even if he had to sell his own personal assets including his house.
He was said to have made the comments at a reception arranged in his honour by the business community of Haripur on Friday.
A former Pakistani foreign minister and a provincial education minister were said to have been present at the reception.

Lord Ahmed, who was born in Pakistan, became Baron Ahmed of Rotherham at the age of 40. In 2007 he was highly critical of the awarding of a knighthood to Salman Rushdie, claiming the author had "blood on his hands."

In 2009 he was jailed for dangerous driving after sending and receiving text messages minutes before being involved in a fatal motorway crash. The Court of Appeal later suspended his 12-week jail sentence.

A week ago the US offered the bounty on Saeed in response to what it called his increasingly "brazen" conduct in Pakistan where he moves freely and appears on television.

Documents found by US special forces at Osama bin Laden's final hideaway in Abbottabad, 22 miles north of Haripur, last year apparently linked Saeed with the al-Qaeda leader. The evidence was said to have shown that bin Laden played a key role in planning the 2008 Mumbai attacks.

In its statement suspending Lord Ahmed the Labour Party said: "The international community is rightly doing all in its power to seek justice for the victims of the Mumbai bombings and halt terrorism."