Whatever other factors may have been at play, we also know that America, Britain and the Pakistan Army were active behind the scenes.
But did anyone note that in the days that the media attention was riveted on the long march there was a pause in the terrorism that has become a way of life in Pakistan? The Taliban and their cohorts were, so to say, on their best behaviour. Warnings by Mr Rehman Malik, the security adviser, of terrorist strikes were not taken seriously by the protesters nor by the militants who held fire in the critical period. True, after making peace in Swat, the army had helped by facilitating deals with militants in Bajaur and Darra Adam Khel. Twelve Taliban were also released.But as Pakistan teetered on the brink for four days, it was difficult to believe that the two events — the political crisis and religious militancy — were not linked. The militants do have a method in their madness. To prove this, they struck on Monday evening in Rawalpindi where a suicide bomber blew himself up in a busy marketplace along with several hapless victims.
While we focused on the lawyers fighting for the rule of law, we forgot to read the fine print of the agreement concluded with Mullah Fazlullah in Swat via Sufi Mohammad of the Tehrik Nifaz-i-Shariat Mohammadi. True, the draft of the Nizam-i-Adl Regulation 2009 signed by the NWFP chief minister on March 9 ostensibly provides for a new system of dispensing justice that is speedy and is therefore presumed to be fair. But can we be certain? The TNSM chief has now asked the law officers to stop attending the courts in Malakand because his qazis will decide cases under his supervision. And what are the laws that will be applied? The draft gives in Schedule 1 a list of 91 laws that are already in force.
But there is a caveat. Section 3 (2) makes it clear that all laws that are not in conformity with the injunctions of the Quran and Sunnah will “cease to have effect in the said area”. What are these laws and who will decide that they do not conform with Islamic injunctions? Which fiqh will be applied? There are no answers to these questions in the draft.
But if the ‘understanding’ concluded by the representative of Sufi Mohammad and the commissioner of Malakand on March 4 is something to go by, the above queries will be answered. Read points two, four and six carefully. Under these the two sides are to “start a campaign against obscenity and vulgarity”, “close music and CD centres” and “expel prostitutes and pimps from the region”. This understanding gives a fair idea of what is in store. Recall the events in Afghanistan in the 1990s when the Taliban ruled in Kabul and you would know what to expect. The ANP government in Peshawar has now said that this system will be extended to the entire province.
One ponders the implications of the Swat agreement and other peace accords that are being concluded with the militants on the plea that too many people are being killed. You are still trying to figure out what is happening.
And then on March 13 comes the bombshell. It is the International Crisis Group’s report number 164 titled Pakistan: The Militant Jihadi Challenge. Its findings are not something new — at least not all of them — but the analysis is significant. It notes, “The radical Sunni [Deobandi] groups are simultaneously fighting internal sectarian jihads, regional jihads in Afghanistan and India, and a global jihad against the West.”
The report puts into perspective what we have known since the 1980s when Ziaul Haq with American support decided to use Islam for his geo-strategic goals. The Taliban are the products of the madressahs along the Afghan frontier but, as the ICG reminds us, the Sunni extremists, mainly the Sipah-i-Sahaba and its offshoot Lashkar-i-Jhangvi, that served as ‘jihadi proxies’ for the army in Kashmir, come from the Punjab-based network of madressahs.
They now provide weapons, recruits, finances and other resources to the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan. Aligned to them are the Jaish-i-Muhammad and Lashkar-i-Taiba. The latter two enjoyed military patronage and, according to the ICG, still do.
The ICG commends the recent action of the PPP-led federal government and the PML-N government in Lahore against the Punjab-based jihadi groups for their role in the Mumbai attacks. The Pakistan government promptly offered to send an ISI representative to India to cooperate in the investigations. Then it backtracked. As dossiers were passed to and fro between New Delhi and Islamabad and investigations picked up, Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif’s government was dismissed.
A coincidence? The ICG report observes, “The aftermath of the Mumbai attack presents an opening to reshape Pakistan’s response to terrorism, which should not rely on the application of indiscriminate force, including military action and arbitrary detentions, but on police investigations, arrests, fair trial and convictions. This must be civilian-led to be effective.”
Fair enough. But we are also told that the civilian investigat
ing agencies such as the FIA, the CID, and the IB lack the resources and the authority to perform this function. They cannot even gain access to mobile phone records and other data without the ISI’s approval. The report concludes, “The army and the powerful ISI still dominate — and hamper — counter-terrorism efforts…. Proactive enforcement will be vital to containing religious militancy.”
At the moment it is clear that Chief Justice Chaudhry will have his hands full. The relatives of the involuntarily ‘disappeared’ expect him to pursue their cases as zealously as before. Such people need to be traced, their whereabouts disclosed to their families while their innocence or guilt is established by the legal process. True, this may be a bit irksome to authorities used to acting arbitrarily but if the rule of law is to prevail this must be done. And how will the chief justice see the legal paradox created in Malakand?
Wasn’t the lawyers’ movement aimed at resolving dichotomies such as these? And by a judiciary that is independent?
zubeidam@gmail.com
18 Mar, 2009 (Dawn)
Also read:
2 comments:
Picture of Secret Detentions Emerges in Pakistan
By CARLOTTA GALL Published: December 19, 2007
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http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/19/world/asia/19disappeared.html?_r=1&ref=world&oref=slogin
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http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/19/world/asia/19disappeared.html?_r=2&pagewanted=2&ref=world&oref=slogin
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistan’s military and intelligence agencies, apparently trying to avoid acknowledging an elaborate secret detention system, have quietly set free nearly 100 men suspected of
links to terrorism, few of whom were charged, human rights groups and lawyers here say.
Skip to next paragraph
Akhtar Soomro for The New York Times
A Pakistani mother held a portrait of her missing son during a protest this month in Islamabad, Pakistan. Pressure has mounted to bring the cases of people detained in secret to the courts.
Those released, they say, are some of the nearly 500 Pakistanis presumed to have disappeared into the hands of the Pakistani intelligence agencies cooperating with Washington’s fight against terrorism since 2001. No official reason has been given for the releases, but as pressure has mounted to bring the cases into the courts, the government has decided to jettison some suspects and spare itself the embarrassment of having to reveal that people have been held on flimsy evidence in the secret system, its opponents say. Interviews with lawyers and human rights officials here, a review of cases by The New York Times and court records made available by the lawyers show how scraps of information have accumulated over recent months into a body of evidence of the detention system.
President Bush, who has made spreading democracy a major foreign policy theme, has said nothing in public about General Musharraf’s action. His silence contrasts sharply to his reaction to the crackdown on dissidents in Myanmar last month. In that case, Mr. Bush announced specific steps against Myanmar rulers. But Pakistan, officials argued, is a different case: it is a nuclear-armed nation that Mr. Bush had designated a “major non-NATO ally,” even though its enthusiasm for counterterrorism has been episodic.
In Islamabad, American officials said Mr. Bush’s limited choices could worsen if protests erupt on Pakistan’s streets, and they complained that in the past few months, General Musharraf has focused more on weakening the moderates among his rivals rather than fighting Islamic extremists.
U.S. Is Likely to Continue Aid to Pakistan
By DAVID E. SANGER and DAVID ROHDE Published: November 5, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/05/washington/05diplo.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/05/washington/05diplo.html?_r=1&pagewanted=2&oref=slogin
U.S. Payments To Pakistan Face New Scrutiny Little Accounting for Costs To Support Ally's Troops
By Robin Wright Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, February 21, 2008; Page A01
Once a month, Pakistan's Defense Ministry delivers 15 to 20 pages of spreadsheets to the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad. They list costs for feeding, clothing, billeting and maintaining 80,000 to 100,000 Pakistani troops in the volatile tribal area along the Afghan border, in support of U.S. counterterrorism efforts.
No receipts are attached.
In response, the Defense Department has disbursed about $80 million monthly, or roughly $1 billion a year for the past six years, in one of the most generous U.S. military support programs worldwide. The U.S. aim has been to ensure that Pakistan remains the leading ally in combating extremism in South Asia.
But vague accounting, disputed expenses and suspicions about overbilling have recently made these payments to Pakistan highly controversial -- even within the U.S. government.
The poor showing in Monday's parliamentary election by the party of President Pervez Musharraf, whose government has overseen local disbursement of the money, may make Congress look closer at all U.S. financial assistance to the country. Questions have already been raised about where the money went and what the Bush administration got in return, given that pro-American sentiment in Pakistan is extremely low and al-Qaeda's presence is growing steadily stronger.
In perhaps the most disputed series of payments, Pakistan received about $80 million a month in 2006 and 2007 for military operations during cease-fires with pro-Taliban tribal elders along the border, including a 10-month truce in which troops returned to their barracks.
The Bush administration has acknowledged some problems, but still says that the program -- part of a costly military effort known as the Coalition Support Fund -- is worth every penny. "Yes, we may have overpaid, but it's still a good deal," said a senior administration official involved in Pakistan policy, noting that more than 1,000 Pakistani troops have been killed while assisting Operation Enduring Freedom.
"Padding? Sure. Let's be honest, we're talking about Pakistan, which has a legacy of corruption," added another U.S. official familiar with past U.S. payments. "But if they're billing us $5 billion and it's worth only $4 billion, the question is whether it's worth nickel-and-diming it if it's such a top national security objective. If it's in the ballpark, does the bigger picture call for continuing on with a process that does generate significant progress on the war on terror? They do get their hands on people we can't."
U.S. officials say the payments to Pakistan -- which over the past six years have totaled $5.7 billion -- were cheap compared with expenditures on Iraq, where the United States now spends at least $1 billion a week on military operations alone.
"My sense is that the Pakistani military would not be out on the border if not for the Coalition Support Funds. That's the baseline cost of getting them out on a mission that is really our mission," said Craig Cohen, a fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the author of a recent study on U.S.-Pakistan relations.
Yet the Bush administration has recently begun to scrutinize Pakistan's bills more closely. Washington delayed payment of about $78 million of $360 million for the March-June 2007 quarter now working its way through the reimbursement process. Pakistan will receive only $282 million later this month, U.S. officials said, with additional payment once it provides more detailed accounting.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/02/20/ST2008022002819.html?hpid=topnews
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/20/AR2008022002741_2.html?hpid=topnews&sid=ST2008022002819
On June 13, 2007 visiting US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher met a cross-section of the Pakistani politicians and Mr Boucher said he had met the chief election commissioner earlier in the day and would examine the fresh voters’ list prepared by the Election Commission of Pakistan on Thursday. [1]
Assistant Secretary Boucher is on his third visit to Pakistan this year for the periodic consultations that both sides hold. During the 45-minute meeting Mr Kasuri underscored the importance of a broad-based, long-term, strategic relationship between Pakistan and the US and the deepening of cooperation in the agreed areas of economy, energy, education, and science and technology. Various aspects of bilateral relations were reviewed, including the FATA Development Plan and capacity-building for the Frontier Corps. [2]
Is this all not the Direct American Interference in Pakistan Affairs?
Not very long ago the same Mr. Richard Boucher on the Murder of Sardar Akbar Khan Bugti had said:
As per Daily Dawn Karachi dated September 16, 2006, while endorsing the govt’s deal with the so-called Taliban in Waziristan Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher further said:
“He refused to get involved in a debate over the situation in Balochistan, saying that it was Pakistan’s ‘local problem’.” Asked to comment on Baloch nationalist leader Nawab Akbar Bugti’s death, Mr Boucher said: “It has been a local matter in Pakistan. There has been a big debate there. I don’t think the US has taken too big a position on this and I don’t think I want to do that right now.” He said he was also not yet in a position to say what the fallout of Nawab Bugti’s death would be. He said the uprising and violence in Balochistan had been troubling to the government and people of Pakistan and the US would like to see it calm down and end. “We would like to see the people of that area get the respect and rights they deserve.” [3]
If Mr. Boucher was not enough for Pakistan comes the Butcher of Latin America John Dimitri Negroponte US Deputy Secretary of State, who arrived on Friday 15 June 2007 and said the United States viewed Pakistan-US ties as a vital relationship and was committed to its further strengthening and expansion. John Negroponte, who is on a two visit to Pakistan, met with Foreign Minister Khurshid M. Kasuri here at the Foreign Office this afternoon. During the meeting Pakistan-US relations, counter- terrorism cooperation, and Afghanistan were discussed.[4]
Notes and References:
US pressuring Musharraf to hold fair polls: Boucher
By Amir Wasim [1]
http://www.dawn.com/2007/06/14/top2.htm
Boucher says US wants broad-based relations
By Qudssia Akhlaque [2]
http://www.dawn.com/2007/06/14/top3.htm
US endorses Waziristan peace deal By Anwar Iqbal [3]
http://www.dawn.com/2006/09/16/top1.htm
Ronald Reagan in the mid-1980s, when the CIA was backing the Mujahideen warriors in Afghanistan, likened them to our “founding fathers,” meaning George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and others. Reagan made no distinctions in his declaration among the fundamentalists, apparently lumping together many torturers and rapists among the Mujahideen along with radical fundamentalists like bin Laden. I didn’t agree with Reagan characterization of the Mujahideen then, and I certainly disagree today with praising those who carried out the horrific attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Blowback and Globalization
The following statement is based on lectures I delivered at five universities in New England and New York as the U.S. war unfolded in Afghanistan. In preparing the statement I am particularly indebted to a paper by Michael Klare, “Asking Why” and an article by Stephen Zunes, “U.S. Policy Toward Political Islam,” Foreign Policy in Focus, September 12, 2001.
Understanding the First War of the Twenty-First Century By Roger Burbach
http://www.publiceye.org/frontpage/911/burbach.html
Is cooperation with CIA-FBI posing a threat to Pak strategic interests?
Monday, February 25, 2008
http://thenews.jang.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=98191
ISLAMABAD: While Pakistan might have benefited from hardcore actionable intelligence provided by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the FBI in countering terrorism, one possible negative aspect has been the creation of a vast network of CIA and FBI agents – mostly Pakistanis.
Though intelligence cooperation between Pakistan and the US multiplied extensively after 9/11 and was aimed at the Taliban and al-Qaeda, many in Pakistan fear the network for these foreign agencies within Pakistan was also being used for other tasks, some probably falling into the definition of interference in our internal affairs.
Top authorities in Pakistan are said to be in knowledge of this phenomenal spread in the American spy agencies’ network as the country's intelligence agencies have already reported this matter and even identified a number of those on the payroll of the US agencies.
Besides others, a large number of retired Army officers, including ex-brigadiers, are presently working here as American spies. An official of an intelligence agency, however, explained that spy agencies of different countries had their worldwide networks and they handled spy matters according to their resources and needs because importance of spying had increased tremendously after 9/11.
Because of the alleged presence of al-Qaeda-Taliban in Pakistan, the interest of the foreign intelligence agencies here has gone up. The official added that the US had the largest intelligence network in the world and Pakistan was also benefiting from this because through this network the CIA and FBI shared intelligence with Pakistan and gave important information to nab terrorists.
Pakistan allowed concessions to the US as part of intelligence cooperation in the controversial war on terror but some official sources are of the view that these concessions and their parameters were not being adhered to within the agreed limits.
Foreign Office spokesman Muhammad Sadiq, when contacted, said he had no information of this sort. He said intelligence cooperation between Islamabad and Washington was a fact but doubted that the local agents could be hired. He, however, said if there was any interference in our matters by any foreign spying agencies, it was illegal and not allowed. Sadiq said the ISPR would be in a better position to respond to such questions.
Director General ISPR and military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas, when asked about the feared massive expansion of local CIA and FBI agents in Pakistan after 9/11, said, "I don't think so." He added that the government would never allow the CIA or FBI to expand their network in Pakistan. "I deny this," the military spokesman said.
A defence source, however, recently told this correspondent it was a routine operation of all agencies around the world to recruit agents for espionage in every country. He said CIA and FBI did not need to come to Pakistan and start recruiting their local agents here because they could do the same while sitting in Washington. "These things are neither cut and dried nor done in black and white but this always happens and cannot be denied," the source said
Caretaker Interior Minister Lt Gen (retd) Hamid Nawaz, when approached said the US influence was not only in Pakistan but also in almost every other country. He acknowledged that there was a feeling that the network of US intelligence agents had spread here but he had no proof with him to substantiate this. He, however, admitted that the US influence was there in all areas.
The retired general, who has also been secretary defence for some years and left the job much after 9/11, said there was a standard rule that no foreign intelligence agent could subvert against the state.
Elizabeth Colton, the Press Attache of the US embassy in Islamabad, told this correspondent, in response to a set of questions sent to her, that the Embassy could not discuss intelligence issues with the media.
She said the Embassy had no comment on the questions sent to her which included one asking whether the Embassy or its legal section had any role in recruiting Pakistanis for CIA and FBI.
The Embassy was also asked whether they shared the concerns of some Pakistani authorities that the US intelligence agencies, which were given some concessions in the tribal belt of Pakistan, were crossing their limits and hurting the strategic interests of Pakistan.
US National Intelligence Director Mike McConnel was quoted to have admitted recently that the US administration had already spent $50 billion during the current year on spying. A considerable chunk of this budget for spying is believed to have been spent on the US war on terror. Part of this money would have also travelled to Pakistan to pay off the CIA/FBI local agents, who are said to be paid well.
Parts of the US media have been reporting on this subject and the most significant report was in The Washington Post in 2002 when the influential newspaper claimed that the United States had organised its own espionage network in Pakistan due to lack of cooperation from the ISI in locating the al-Qaeda and Taliban fugitives.
"The FBI decided to set up a Spider Group, a band of former Pakistani Army officers and others, after it concluded that lack of cooperation from the ISI made it impossible to hunt down Taliban and al-Qaeda fugitives in the tribal areas of the country.”
Quoting a federal law-enforcement official in Washington, the newspaper reported that the US move marked an attempt by the FBI to develop "free flow of information" to US agents who previously had worked under some restriction with Pakistan's official Inter-Services Intelligence agency.
The Spider Group, the report said, was also asked to recruit locals in Pakistan's tribal areas, where hundreds of wanted "terrorists" are allegedly holed up under the patronage of tribal chiefs. Members of the Spider Group include a mix of Muslim and Christian retired Army and intelligence officers and have been trained and equipped by the FBI.
Background interviews reveal that today the CIA's intelligence local network is far more extensive than that of the FBI. The sources said that during the initial years of War on Terror, the Americans were not satisfied with the intelligence gathering of local agencies in the tribal areas of Pakistan, so they launched their own agencies that had now developed a vast network in the country.
A source quoted an incident in which the CIA officials once distributed awards amongst Pakistani intelligence people in the headquarters of the agency in Langley, Virginia. "This is perhaps unprecedented," the source said.
A spymaster of one of the country's intelligence agency reported to the Interior Ministry that a provincial head of a private security agency, besides others, was spying for the CIA. The security agency was contacted and the said official was removed. It was also reported that a large number of private security agencies personnel were doing espionage work.
A retired lieutenant general confided to this correspondent on condition of not being named that during his career he had gone to the US twice for military related training, where he was openly offered to work for the US. "I was praised and offered that why don't I join them," he said, adding that once an official encouraged him to inform the US about the problems of Pakistan's defence without even talking to his seniors.
He said the same intelligence officials asked him to settle his children in the US for better life and education. "I was openly told that I should not be worried about their expenses," the retired general said.
Meanwhile, a local journalist Azaz Syed told this correspondent that quite a few years back, he approached the legal section of the US embassy in Islamabad, after reading an advertisement in an international publication for recruitment of FBI agents for South Asia. For the purpose of doing an investigative story, he offered his services for FBI. He said he offered his services to spy on Taliban in exchange for information from the US embassy but the diplomat interviewing him was not interested in Taliban but wanted info about civil bureaucracy. He was not ready to give any information either.
"I was told that I would get assignments relating to civil bureaucracy and in return would be paid well," Syed said, adding that later he did a story for an Urdu newspaper with which he was associated at that point of time.
The US Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) – the spy military plane – are yet another source of concern for many here. The UAVs were allowed to do espionage in tribal areas of Pakistan for "specific jobs" only but since the UAVs were not caught by radars, these spy planes crossed their limits a number of times.
Initially, the Pakistan Air Force objected to such US surveillance but the government decided otherwise because of US insistence that it was inevitable to track down the so-called al-Qaeda targets.
The sources revealed that the murdered top tribal leader resisting the US war on terror, Nek Muhammad, became the target of a UAV despite the peace deal he had signed with the then corps commander Lt Gen Safdar Hussain.
Getting uncomfortable with the UAV activities, some Pakistani officials have expressed their concerns at the highest level. The Pakistan Army is trying to develop its own UAV but so far these planes are not up to the required international standards.
Pakistan has also been trying to buy these UAVs but some international forces are creating impediments in such deals. Once Pakistan contacted South Africa to purchase these small aircraft but the price demanded was $10 million, which was far higher than the price of the equipment.
The UAV intelligence capacity and its advantage of not being traced by radars, some believe, could pose serious threats to Pakistan's strategic interests.
Reality of Zubeida Mustafa - One of the many Editors of Daily Dawn:
Military Dictators particularly in Pakistan always survive through exploiting imaginary and concocted fears. General Zia ul Haq had survived by exploiting the fear “Islam is in Danger” and Mawdudi’s Jamat-e-Islami and other Deobandi-Wahabi-Barelvi Mullahs helped General Zia in his every dirty effort to exploit Islam for the sake of perpetuating his Ruthless Rule to achieve a bigger goal for the Americans that was routing Communist USSR in Afghanistan once and for all. The day the Communists left Afghanistan General Zia and lackeys in Religious Mafia of Afghanistan and Pakistan lost all viability in the eyes of US Military Industrial Complex and came ‘Divine Intervention’ of 17 August 1988. Now almost after 16 years the Pakistan is again under the Military Dictatorship courtesy USA and again imaginary Fear and Terror threat from so-called Al-Qaeda. Musharraf had said somewhere between 12 October 1999 to 2005 that Pakistan was about to be declared ‘Terrorist Rogue State’ and allegations were all over the place that Pakistan is not a responsible state and believed to be involved in Nuclear Proliferation to other Rogue States around the world. Whereas such rogue States like Iraq and Iran amongst those nations who received Weapons from USA in their time of ‘distress’ Iraq {during Iran-Iraq War from USA, Europe and Saudi Arabia} and Iran {during the same war from USA remember Iran-Contra Affair}. Recently an statement of Federal Information Minister Sheikh Rasheed caused ripple when he said that Pakistani Nuclear Scientist Dr. A.Q. Khan had transferred Centrifuge Technology to Iran whereas on a visit to Pakistan recently the Iranian diplomat had declared such news are rumors and no such thing happened.
A very senior journalist from Karachi, Late. Mr. Shabbir Durrani , was like a father figure and had once said to me; “do whatever you do but don’t ever try to work with Jang Groups of Newspapers, Pakistan {Owners of GEO TV and The News International}”, he had further advised that it would be much better for you to do labour at dockyards as Jang Groups and their Executives are worse than [no offence to Jews and Hindus] Shylocks {more crudely Baniya (Hindu) Money Lenders}. That was his statement about Daily Jang and their owners, the sad thing is that Daily Dawn {sometimes} and its management is not far behind in this dirty game. Daily Dawn Pakistan which otherwise is least sensational and scandalous but sometime plays to the tunes of Vested Interests even without checking the credentials of the Journalists filing the story. In November 2001 a reporter cum analyst cum biographer i.e. Mr Hamid Mir {Now in GEO TV of Jang Group of Newspapers Pakistan} filed a story in Daily Dawn that “Osama Bin Laden said he had nuclear and chemical weapons and was ready to use them” [For complete story click the links below]. The most pathetic thing is that nowadays nobody questions the story, you can file anything you like anywhere.
People have short memory because after 4 years in the same Daily Dawn one of the most serious and senior journalist and that too amongst the senior editors Ms. Zubeida Mustafa opined in her columns that “Stephen Hess and Marvin Kalb write in their book The Media and the War on Terrorism about the "CNN effect" (a term now applied for all television channels), "In 1992, President George H.W. Bush saw television images of starving children in Somalia and he felt obliged to send US troops there to distribute food."
They add, "Less than a year, later President Bill Clinton saw television images of Somali fighters dragging the desecrated body of an American soldier through the streets of Mogadishu and he felt obliged to withdraw the troops." She further wrotes, “With more serious implications has been the media's propensity to project an image which may actually misrepresent the truth. The images could be positive or negative, but not accurate.” Since there is no professional check - an editor for websites, a code of ethics for television and radio - just about anyone can acquire a medium and put anything up there. All the information so released becomes an article of faith because it has been well presented and is believed by the gullible reader/viewer/listener.” I wonder was there any professional check on Mr. Hamid Mir (now in GEO TV) when he filed that story in one of the most ‘prestigious’ newspaper of the country and shamelessly the editorial executives are now advising all and sundry to check and cross check before filing any story. Did they ask from that reporter that Atomic/Nuclear devices are not that kind of devices, which can be carried away easily like .22 caliber pistol? Yet they published Hamid Mir’s story as headline in Daily Dawn as a gospel truth.
It’s a separate debate whether Al-Qaeda/Taliban was involved in 9/11 or not but still after thoroughly bombed and destroyed Afghanistan, the most high tech US Intelligence apparatus couldn’t ‘succeed’ in nabbing the Bearded Bandits i.e. Osama, Zawahiri and Omar {seems to be the disciples of Hassan Bin Sabbah of Nazari Community of Qila Al Amut, Khorasan} but isn’t it strange that these wanted persons are being sought after by CIA, NSA, DIA, FBI etc.etc. but a petty reporter of Pakistan not only knows where he was right after 9/11 and that was not the end, the reporter also declared himself as an un-official biographer of Osama Bin Laden.
But that was about a reporter what we would do about a General i.e. Mr Javed Nasir who had served in an Intelligence agency and that too a sensitive agency, who while refuting a story published in The News International filed against him regarding his corruption in land allotment, almost revealed all the things which he shouldn’t have done while pleading his innocence before the court of law, he made those Intelligence Operations conducted for the sake of ‘National Security’ {I reserve my opinion} all over the place, a part of Court Record i.e Public Record.
Even the silliest amongst the Intelligence Officers/Psychological War Experts never discuss their Operations, they don’t even have dream about their Operations [only on need to know basis] but since ours have been suffering from acute fever of bragging they make it a part of public record. Such braggarts be tried for the violation of Secret Service Act. One such example of bragging by Javed Nasir:
The ISI role in Bosnia, Afghanistan and in keeping Sikh militancy alive has now been brought to public notice by no less a person than the former chief of the ISI, Lt. Gen. Javed Nasir (Retd), who has boasted of these "achievements" in a petition filed by him before a Lahore Terrorist Court seeking the death sentence for four top journalists responsible for a report accusing him of embezzling Pakistani Rs 3 billion. Lt. Gen. Nasir has confirmed, perhaps for the first time before the Pakistani courts, the ISI role in Afghanistan, Bosnia and in Punjab. He has touched on just some incidents that might have been rightly or wrongly projected to highlight his achievements as the chief of the ISI, but in the process he has ensu-red that the role of Pakistan's intelligence agency in neighbouring countries, including India, have been placed on the record. Lt. Gen. Nasir, in the petition that has been published by the South Asia Tribune, has claimed that the ISI under him decided to curb the "free hand" acquired by RAW since 1948 in the "manipulation and control of Sikh yatris" travelling to Pakistan to attend religious functions. He said he had set up the Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee to wrest control from the Indian intelligence agency and had succeeded in gaining control over the management of the festivals within a year for the first time. The former ISI chief, in his petition, has claimed that this matter had so incensed the Indian government that Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee had been moved to raise the issue with then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in their one-on-one meeting during the famous Lahore yatra. He said the Punjab chief minister had accompanied Mr Vajpayee and that eventually the Pakistan government ensured that the Indian plan to regain control was "aborted." Interestingly, Lt. Gen. Nasir has cited this to substantiate a claim that RAW, along with the CIA, was behind the effort to discredit him through the newspaper.
The intention, he insisted, was to discredit him and tarnish and destroy his image as a "Sikh Friendly (sic) next to Guru status that the Sikhs had started giving him" in Pakistan. He said he had set up the Pakistan Sikh Committee during his first year as chairman of the Evacuee Trust Property Board. Lt. Gen. Nasir, moved by the newspaper allegations to establish his credentials as an "efficient" officer, has also disclosed that Pakistan defied a United Nations ban on the supply of arms to Bosnian Muslims and airlifted sophisticated anti-tank guided missiles to help the Bosnians fight the Serbs. "Despite the UN ban on supply of arms to the besieged Bosnians, he successfully airlifted sophisticated anti-tank guided missiles which turned the tide in favour of Bosnian Muslims and forced the Serbs to lift the siege, much to the annoyance of the US government," the petition extolling the general states. "He thus became the target of US, Indian and secular minded lobbies both inside and outside Pakistan. Having failed to buy him, the US government started a fabricated and mendaciously false propaganda against him and demanded his removal as ISI chief, failing which Pakistan would be declared a terrorist state," the petition stated. It went on to claim that in April 1993 the US threatened to declare Pakistan a terrorist state unless Lt. Gen. Nasir was removed. "It was therefore at the behest of the US government's official demand that he was prematurely compulsorily retired from service by the caretaker government of Mir Balkh Sher Mazari on 13 May, 1993," it added. Lt. Gen. Nasir was the ISI chief from March 1992 till May 1993. He was re-accommodated later by Gen. Pervez Musharraf but the wording of the petition filed against the Jang/News group journalists reveals a mind that does not appear to be particularly stable. He has listed a series of "achievements" that appear to come in the realm of Pakistan state secrets although, interestingly, this trial has remained largely out of the local media.
For instance, he has also taken credit for putting together a mujahideen government in Kabul in the April of 1992 after the ouster of the Soviet-backed Najibullah government. "On March 14, 1992, I was appointed as DG, ISI, and became an instant international figure when in April 1992 (and here the I becomes he), through his persuasive power and motivational talks he brought all the warring factions of the Afghan Mujahideen to agree to the famous Peshawar accord and successfully installed the Mujahideen's first government under (President) Mujadadi in Kabul," the petition states. The former ISI chief has also spoken at length in the petition of his close links with the Tablighi Jamaat. Describing him as an active member of the Jamaat, the petition goes on to insist that the "target is the non-militant non-violent Tablighi Jamaat, which stands for unification of all sects all over the world. By weakening it sectarianism will be strengthened indirectly." The petition seeks to point out that the reports casting doubts on the integrity of Lt. Gen. Nasir were basically aimed at promoting sectarian violence by attacking the Jamaat. This is a highly conservative organisation seeking a purist theocratic state with no rights for women and no room for secular and liberal thought. In fact, Lt. Gen. Nasir's petition refers frequently to the Tablighi Jamaat, endorsing his status as an active member committed to promoting and preaching Islam. Hence the attack on him from all outside the pale, including the US, RAW and the secularists.
In the presence of such loose cannons we don’t need any enemies all around the world. We achieved the status of Rogue State and a State which proliferate Nuclear Proliferation and Terror abroad by ourselves courtesy Journalists indulged in Yellow Journalism and Praetorian Guards who cannot think beyond cantonments.
Hussain Bin Mansoor Al Hallaj.
NOTES:
Osama claims he has nukes: If US uses N-arms it will get same response
Bin Laden in high spirits, more confident: Hamid Mir
10 November 2001 Saturday 23 Shaban 1422
http://www.dawn.com/2001/11/10/latest2.htm
http://www.dawn.com/2001/11/10/top1.htm
The flip side of information By Zubeida Mustafa
http://www.dawn.com/2005/03/16/op.htm#2
ISI brags about role in Punjab, Bosnia Author: Seema Mustafa
Publication: The Asian Age Date: December 27, 2002.
http://www.hvk.org/hvk/articles/0103/34.html
The Unreported Terrorism Case against Pakistan's Media King
[also check The News International Lahore issue August 24, 2002.]
http://www.satribune.com/archives/dec23_29_02/P1_terrorismcase.htm
Annexures:
http://www.satribune.com/archives/dec23_29_02/msr_case05.jpg
http://www.satribune.com/archives/dec23_29_02/msr_case06.jpg
http://www.satribune.com/archives/dec23_29_02/msr_case07.jpg
http://www.satribune.com/archives/dec23_29_02/msr_case08.jpg
http://www.satribune.com/archives/dec23_29_02/msr_case09.jpg
http://www.satribune.com/archives/dec23_29_02/msr_case10.jpg
http://www.satribune.com/archives/dec23_29_02/msr_case11.jpg
http://www.satribune.com/archives/dec23_29_02/msr_case12.jpg
http://www.satribune.com/archives/dec23_29_02/msr_case13.jpg
http://www.satribune.com/archives/dec23_29_02/msr_case14.jpg
http://www.satribune.com/archives/dec23_29_02/Originalstory.jpg
http://www.satribune.com/archives/dec23_29_02/msr_case01.jpg
http://www.satribune.com/archives/dec23_29_02/msr_case04.jpg
The Journalist and The Terrorist (Daniel Pearl and Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh)
The Journalist and The Terrorist By Robert Sam Anson Vanity Fair, August 2002
http://terrorism.reallybites.com/article9.htm
In search of Al-Qaeda
‘Old Hash’ 22 August, Islamabad from Marcela Gaviria
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/search/behind/10.html
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