Asinine and anodyne in '09?: The industry of conspiracy theory in Pakistan

Asinine and anodyne in '09?
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Mosharraf Zaidi

The writer is an independent political economist

One measure of character is the ability to take responsibility for one's own fate and actions. No matter how many detractors and enemies may exist, any human enterprise--a business, an idea, or a country--must be able to ward off adversity in order to survive and thrive. A linear approach to problem solving, in short, is a useful tool to have. This is why the propensity of Pakistanis to explain their country's failures through conspiracy theories, and the propensity of Pakistan's friends to do the same is the most alarming of indicators.

Traditionally, the conspiracy theory of choice, for all calamities, is RAW. Whenever the US is providing vast sums of aid and assistance to the country, RAW is joined in its infamy in Pakistan, by the CIA. Where there is smoke, there is a cigarette, and so for every mention of the CIA, a generous dollop of Mossad references is also necessary. Like maple syrup over a pancake, British MI6 too is all over Pakistan. Since 1998 there is no doubt what the grand prize in the little game is: Pakistan's gold-plated, diamond-encrusted bling-bling nukes. What were they after before 1998? Since Pakistan didn't have nukes, one possibility may be that they were after our women. Whatever they were after, they've always been hard at work trying to contaminate the Land of the Pure.

In the last few years, traditional conspiracy theories to explain away the Pakistani state's difficulties are now supported by a spectrum of new ones. Pakistanis have now discovered that in fact its not only RAW, CIA, Mossad or MI6 that are trying to destroy Pakistan from within. It is also the ISI--even if inadvertently. Good or bad, whatever happens in Pakistan can now be traced to a heat-seeking ISI agent. It is they who are behind everything in Pakistan. Every politician is owned by them, every bureaucrat works for them. Every fancy license plate is a product of ISI largesse. Every profit-turning business is a beneficiary of a contract for phantom goods and services. Every mullah donates money, every burqa sold contributes revenue. New mosques are built by the ISI, but so are new malls, new parking lots and new soda fountains. Left to the right, north or south, up or down the ISI seems to have joined the ranks of RAW and CIA as the owners of the remote control that manages Pakistan's central nervous system, its skeleton, its muscles, its very heart and soul.

So on we go, on this merry-go-round of a national obsession with passing the buck to the invisible hand of seemingly divine structures. Cleanliness may be next to godliness, but who needs a shower and soap, when you have intelligence agencies? In 2009, it seems that spying is the new Lux. Spy work is next to godliness. Omni-potent gangs of secretive evil geniuses plotting the demise of all things Pakistan. The line begins in Langley, Virginia and ends at ISI headquarters in Islamabad.

If you are progressive and liberal, the ISI has ruined Pakistan's E Street drive to development and secularism. The ISI-Taliban-LeT nexus has driven nine-inch-nails into the Quaid's secular dream. If you tilt more to the right, the RAW-CIA-Mossad-MI6 quadrant has destroyed Pakistan's drive to keep the dream of the ummah alive. The kaafirs are plotting to derail Pakistan from the siraat-e-mustaqeem trail.

Conspiracy theories that blame intelligence agencies (local or foreign) for the breathtaking and oft-unbelievable life and times of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan exist because of intellectual laziness. It is easier to weave stories where the dots don't all connect, than it is to painstakingly make the linear connections required to understand a fascinating, resilient, creative, but deeply dysfunctional state. Audiences at home and abroad are more easily and cheaply titillated by a narrative that involves cloaks and daggers than they would be by new institutional economics, identity politics and random walks.

The habitual blaming of American and Israeli organizations for cancers that are deeply ensconced within the body politic and society of Muslims is not endemic just to Pakistan, but in fact to the global Muslim community. It is a tired and pathetic tactic, and it fails to conceal the deep crises of faith, gender, literacy and integrity that plague the Muslim experience all over the world.

Intelligence agencies exist to operate in secrecy. Contrary to their protestations, they almost surely behave outside the law at times. But the overwhelming evidence in Pakistan suggests that intelligence agencies--foreign or national--can only have made a marginal contribution to the rot.

For example, in the 2008 election, it surely could not have been an intelligence agency that forced the Election Commission of Pakistan to use the discredited 2002 voters' list. No intelligence agency stopped government from investing in power plants and the energy sector. It is not any intelligence agency that is stopping Pakistan from addressing climate change. Spy masters from India did not initiate the practise of establishing ghost schools, nor of hiring political pets as primary school teachers. The CIA is not stopping the federal government from reforming the BPS system of grading in government. Nor did Mossad force the Punjab or NWFP to dispense with the DCO system without conducting a credible analysis of the costs and benefits of a return to the colonial commissioner system. The MI6 does not kill mothers during childbirth, and the ISI does not cause gastrointestinal epidemics because of contaminated water. Spies aren't the ones that let the Securities and Exchange Commission slip from capable hands in 2004 to a revolving door of leadership ever since. No intelligence agency will be responsible for letting the current State Bank governor leave without any attempt to retain her, and no intelligence agency will be responsible when an incompetent sycophant is named to replace her.

Of course, the spies have been central to the conduct of overt and proxy wars in the South Asian region for donkey's years. That's what they do. They should certainly be scrutinized and held to account for their behaviour. Pakistanis however need to take enormous care in dumping their entire load of dirty laundry onto RAW, or the CIA, or Mossad, or MI6, or even the ISI.

There would never have been any possibility of Lashkar-e Taiba-training camps in Pakistan if the country enjoyed a 100 per cent literacy and school enrolment rate. There would be no recruitment pool for the Taliban if the economy generated enough jobs for the willing and able. Friday sermons would not be a source of fear and loathing across the country if Islam was treated with the respect any faith deserves, rather than as a political football for mullahs and heretics to kick around for personal and interest group gain. There would be no link between Pakistani citizens and domestic problems in the UK or India if Pakistani public policy reflected even a nominal degree of sensitivity to the ethos and aspirations of all of its citizens. And no RAW, CIA, Mossad, MI6 or ISI agent would represent a threat to Pakistan if Pakistan didn't represent such a major threat to itself. In 2009, Pakistan must dump the asinine and the anodyne. Ordinary Pakistanis must take responsibility to build an ordinary and functional Pakistan. (The News)

www.mosharrafzaidi.com

Also read:

Munir Attaullah: Conspiracy. Will anyone tell me who these terrorists are?

"RAW Totay": The conspiracy theory parrots. The supporters of Sipah-e-Sahaba and Taliban remember Lal Masjid and shed crocodile tears....

Everyone at fault, except us. Why is it that everything that goes against us becomes a conspiracy?

International conspiracies against Pakistan - an eye opener for conspiracy theorists

Read more...

A specimen of Pakistani intellect - Khurshid Nadeem analyses a recent column by Shireen Mazari

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Suffering under our proxy imperialists
Wednesday, November 05, 2008

By by Shireen M Mazari

We are certainly overdosing on the US these days. As if their increased drone attacks against Pakistani civilians were not bad enough, we have had to suffer the excess of the Pakistani media's coverage of the US elections – which in the end will really not alter our fate vis a vis US policies and may make it worse. Now, in a most nauseating fashion, we have had to suffer Boucher once again and this time he has been accompanied by the new US Centcom commander, General Petreaus. We already know that the Zardari regime is in no mood to respect the parliamentary resolution demanding action against US attacks against our sovereignty, so what more can this hapless nation do for imperial US? Kill all our citizens who may have a resemblance to Taliban or may simply be guilty of living in the FATA region? This American duo's latest visit just before the US elections looks suspiciously like a visit aimed at providing a boost to McCain by some large scale attack which will unearth a big Al Qaeda or Taliban fish! Be that as it may, when will it become clear to our ruling elite that the US is a hostile, if not an enemy state? And simple issuing verbal warnings which continue to be ignored only undermine our ability to actually act on these warnings.

So what can be done against the mighty US? Very simply, there is a small window of opportunity and the following actions can be taken: Suspending logistics supply route for NATO/US forces; leaving the trilateral commission, at least temporarily, given that our requests are never respected; reclaiming our bases from the US and removing US undercover and military personnel from Pakistan.

In a worst case scenario, we could also think of some non-lethal military responses. And what more the US can do against us if we stand our ground? Well, politically they have already pushed our leaders into an IMF option that was certainly not the only option despite the surfeit of histrionic articles by retired IMF Gurkhas some of whom are also desperately seeking to re-access the Pakistani economic bureaucracy? At worse, the US can also send in ground troops accompanied by air attacks but given that they are presently in a state of transition such an expansion of their military operations in the region does not seem possible,. But if it did come to that, given how they are stretched, they would be entering a suicidal minefield because then the Pakistani military would have to be drawn in. We may fear such scenarios, but at the end of the day the US at present is not in a position to expand its military commitments especially against a state without whose support NATO would be suffocated in terms of logistics support. In fact, it is the incremental US destruction being waged on us that is more lethal for Pakistan. Given how Pakistanis are being killed to assuage US anger at 9/11, it is insufferable to have former US Secretary of State, Albright, refer to Pakistan as an "international migraine". Even if this was so, and we were to ignore the rogue state the US is fast becoming, what is the source of the migraine? The US itself. So, Ms Albright, when we rid ourselves of the cause for our "migraine", the healing will take place. Amid all this

killing of our citizens by the US, I was sent an email by Saud Khan, which should distress all those who still believe in the goodness of the US people. He sent me a copy of a news release by Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas, some of which is blasphemous against the Prophet (PBUH) and cannot be cited here, but what can be cited is the following:

"God Hates Pakistan. Thank God for killer earthquakes that visit Pakistan often: Last Wed.-160 dead;1935 – 30,000 dead; 2005 – 86,000 dead. WBC prays for many more dead. Yes. Pakistan is an evil and dangerous country and is a huge part of the World of Islam." Such is the humanity of the US Baptist Church! Interestingly the news release talks of Pakistan's killing of Christians but the Baptists seem to have turned a blind eye to the mass killings of Christians still going on in India!

However, in the final analysis, we must take the blame for where we are – especially our elite and the rulers that come from within them. There is a total indifference to the plight of the state and the nation since simply leaving the country with their wealth is such a viable option for this class. They have enjoyed the privileges this country has offered them and then left with the wealth they made as a result of these privileges. When the country is in financial straits, none of them think of bringing back their foreign stashed wealth back for the salvation of this country. And when they rule, they rule through guile and hypocrisy with generous promises that come cheap and remain unfulfilled.

The present set of rulers is no different. Cronyism is rife – from the Abraaj scam (and it is not just Zardari family connections that are involved; according to the Abraaj response given to The News there are names that link up to Shaukat Tareen also) at KESC, to all over the country in the form of advisers, assistants and so on. Special titles, special deals – with scant regard for even the most basic of qualifications! Perhaps the biggest slap in the face of the nation has been the 55-member cabinet – which will require a plethora of more assistants, staff and so on, all from the public exchequer – at a time of dire financial straits. To the further shame of the present government, the man who sought to justify the killing of Baloch women has also been given a ministerial slot. But then why not, given how there is no system or law that functions here. Look what happened to the doctors at the poly clinic only recently. And this is just one such story doing the rounds these days – just as other stories abounded in the previous regimes also.

As for respecting the bounds of the law, look at the scandal of the Gilani offspring wedding at the presidency. Even if one were to forget the morality at stake in such an event, surely the brazen violation of the laws of the land cannot be so easily cast aside? I am referring to the use of official state property, but, most important, to the use of the president and the country's flags/emblems right behind the married couple's seating. Even according to the Blue Book of Protocol this is not permissible – but is anyone bothered? Of course, us ordinary citizens cannot fly the national flag on our residences or anywhere else – except on August 14 ( a rather silly restriction that needs to be done away with) – but how can the prime minister and the president allow private citizens to use official protocol and official flags for a private wedding function?

With all these shenanigans of the ruling elite, it is no wonder we are continuing to cling to the hope the lawyers' movement still brings for justice to eventually reign strong and supreme in this land of ours. When we greeted the lawyers' rally at the Islamabad parade ground on Monday evening, we felt compelled to rejuvenate our hope even though the fervour of this summer's long march was not all there. But then I saw the determination of the missing persons' protestors still continuing to fight an uphill battle for justice. The group followed the lawyers' leaders, a little distance away, looking weary and, in contrast to the lawyers and other members of civil society, surrounded by a heavy silence. A small band of mothers, wives and relatives, they are still battling against all odds, especially since the democratic government has chosen to adopt a telling silence now that they are in power. I realised then that we, the citizens, have no choice but to keep our faith and hope in movements such as the lawyers' movement because in the end it is a strong and independent judiciary that will bring peace and resolution to these distressed Pakistanis as well as security to the nation as a whole. Otherwise we may as well resign ourselves to a life of subjugation and fear under our own breed of proxy imperialists. (Oh Gramsci, if you were only alive today!)

The writer is a defence analyst. Email: callstr@hotmail.com

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Background: Why is Shireen Mazari upset with the PPP Government?

ISSI DG Shireen Mazari removed

ISLAMABAD: The government on Wednesday removed Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad (ISSI) Director General Dr Shireen Mazari ahead of the end of her contract in August 2009.

According to sources, former foreign secretary Tanvir Ahmad Khan may replace her.

Talking to Daily Times, Khan said the government had offered him four positions including Dr Mazari’s post. He said if formally asked to run the ISSI he would make it a think tank. Dr Mazari likened her removal to the sacking of former Foreign secretary Riaz Muhammad Khan. She claimed the United States government had influenced her removal as she was writing hard-hitting articles highlighting US intervention in internal Pakistani affairs. staff report (Daily Times, 15 May 2008).



Non-thinking tanks

With the change in the government, the head of govt institutes are also changed. Dr Shireen Mazari's ouster is a case in point

By Nadeem Iqbal

It looks like a revenge scene from a movie but it has actually happened. After eight long years, Dr Tanvir Ahmed Khan, a former foreign secretary, reclaimed the title of Director General Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad (ISSI), a post he lost to Dr Shireen Mazari in August 2002.

Despite the fact that Dr Shireen has been unceremoniously removed from the post at least 15 months before the expiry of her contract in August 2009, she has earned the distinction of being the longest serving DG of the Foreign Office-controlled think tank.

Dr Tanvir's held the post between 1998-2000. He was appointed around the time of the May 1998 nuclear detonation, and was in the lead of the pro-bomb lobby in Pakistan. However, after Gen Musharraf took over he lost favour with the military and was replaced by the hawkish Shireen Mazari.

Shireen Mazari reacted angrily on the termination of her contract on May 14. She told the media that the news of her removal was conveyed to her by the new foreign secretary Salman Bashir. She likened her removal to the sacking of former foreign secretary Riaz Muhammad Khan. She claimed the United States government had influenced her removal as she was writing hard-hitting articles highlighting US intervention in internal Pakistani affairs.

Riaz Mohammad Khan who took over as the Foreign Secretary in Feb 2005 was sacked by the PPP government last month. His term in office was due to end on Oct 1, 2008

Mazari also claimed that on May 15 she was ordered to leave the office in 15 minutes as the new DG was to take over.

Clarifying, a foreign office spokesman said: "Dr Shireen Mazari had been Director General of ISSI since August 2000. She has been the longest serving Director General of the Institute. There is no particular reason to replace Dr Mazari. Dr Mazari was a contract employee and had served with great distinction. All her contract terms will be honoured. Dr Tanvir Ahmed Khan, who is a distinguished scholar and former Foreign Secretary, will take over as the new Director General (ISSI)."

During her stint in ISSI, Mazari was more recognised for her hard-hitting views reflecting some portions of the establishment.

She has close relations with Mushahid Husain Syed, PML-Q secretary general and his wife Dushka Syed, a professor in Quaid-e-Azam university. Mushahid, a confidante of Nawaz Sharif was briefly detained after Sharif's removal but later he became an ardent supporter of Musharaf's regime.

Along with Dushka Syed, Shireen was also seen leading civil society protests in 2006 against conversion of a public park into a mini-golf court by the Capital Development Authority and in 2007 against Jamia Hafza dubbing it 'MullaGardi'. Recently she was seen openly criticising US policies and visits of PPP co-chairperson to the residence of the American ambassador.

Dr Tanvir, who had served in Benazir Bhutto's first government as foreign secretary in the late 1980s, has gradually shifted from his PTV-friendly hawkish views to a more diversified outlook on security issues. In fact after his removal as DG ISSI he gradually became a leading critic of the military-led government.

Last year he was present at the launch of Ayesha Siddiqa Agha's controversial book Military Inc. at a time when the government forbade all hotels and clubs not to give a place for the function.

In December last year, while opposing the Musharraf emergency, he was part of 20 former ambassadors and foreign secretaries who called upon Musharraf to restore the rule of law and reinstate senior judges.

Later, he also supported the PPP position that Benazir Bhutto's murder investigations should be done under UN.

Dr Khan said the government had offered him four positions including that of DG ISSI. Out of those, he must have preferred going back to his old job.

Islamabad has three think tanks -- Institute of Regional Studies (IRS), ISSI and Islamabad Policy Research Institute. Their functions are not much different from each other. Over the years these think tanks have failed to produce any original work that could influence or change the country's regional or domestic policy. Most of the research done by these institutes is based on secondary sources. They are mainly following the official line on controversial issues.

ISSI is mainly seen as a think tank made for retired foreign secretaries who are accommodated as its DGs and Chairmen. During Dr Tanvir's first stint, there was no chairman but later Aga Shahi became its chairman. After his demise now former foreign secretary and minister Inamul Haq has been serving as its chairman. ISSI has two directors and seventeen research fellows.

IRS, controlled by federal information ministry, is considered a post-retirement place for military officers. Since its inception in 1982, many retired military men have served it as its president. Many of them developed the required academic credential while on the job.

The incumbent president Maj Gen. (Retd.) Jamshed Ayaz Khan took over in April 2002. Before joining the Institute, he served as Additional Secretary Defense Production (DP) Division of the Ministry of Defense from 1999-2001.

The nascent IPRI was established by a group including Shireen Mazari, Mushahid Husain and Gen Syed Rafaqat, who was also the founder president of the Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI). But soon controversy struck and the president was replaced by Brig (Ret) Sahukat Qadir who was also forced to resign.

Since Oct 2000, Dr. Pervaiz Iqbal Cheema, a academician who previously served as the Chairman of International Relation's Department as well as Defence and Strategic Studies Department of Quaid-e-Azam University, has been working as IPRI's President.

It has been a tradition that with the change in the government the head of these institutes are also changed. No wonder Shireen's ouster was seen as the first in line. (The News on Sunday, 25 May 2008)

Also read:

Shireen Mazari: Jinnah, democracy, shariah and our lies...

Farrhat Taj responds to Shireen Mazari: FATA: some more fantasies

"Lady Taliban" Dr. Shireen Mazari, the latest addition into Imran Khan's pro-Taliban arsenal....

Is Imran Khan the new choice of agencies (ISI) in Pakistan?

Read more...

The election of Obama and the future of US-Muslim relations - an interesting debate between a right-wing Pakistani and a left-wing Pakistani

we_are_nuts Says:
November 6th, 2008

It is amazing that nut jobs remain nut jobs be it from the East or the West. The problem with Pakistan as i have been professing on this site since pre-Zardaro era is not USA/West/Israel/India but Pakistan itself. I had a huge long debate about Taliban/Pakistan/USA/Israel with some jerk called --- on this forum. The question i asked was what if everybody leaves Afghanistan and its back to square one (which it might be soon) then what happens? Does that take care of the sectarian problem in Para Chinar? Does that heal the rift created by the religious nut jobs from Saudia Arabia and Iran between Shia and Sunnis?

The US election is as much a slap in the face of the religious nut jobs/conspiracy theorists in Pakistan (or Pakistani jerks living outside Pakistan spewing hate even though they live in foreign lands) than the religious nut jobs in the US.

A simple question:If a man by the name of Alexander Omar Bradley was somehow able to run for the post of Prime Minister in Pakistan, how many Pakistanis would vote for him?

I stick to my premise that Pakistan has to change from within and not without.

And its amazing that the debate is steered back towards Muslims, Jews, and Christians by jerks like you. The debate is Central Asian Republics, Oil, and Money. IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH MUSLIMS…RELIGIONS ARE USED BY ALL SIDES TO INFLUENCE PEOPLE BE IT WEST OR EAST. The Catholic Pope lives in a palatial residence in the middle of Italy without paying any taxes and dresses in gold and silver while claiming to represent a relgion of a carpenter whose main job was to feed and heal the poor. The Muslim Imams live in a palaces right outside Mecca while jerks in Iran live with little boys in their hujras..

...

You crazy jerks amaze the heck out of normal people. Let’s see, if we are believe the same sources that you quote about Rahm (about Israel, Mossad Blah, Blah…)then i come to the conclusion:

A ‘manchurian’ President-Elect of the Unites States of America named Barack Hussien Obama II, who is a closeted muslim and studied in Indonesian Madrassahs learning to hate Christians and Jews now pretending to be a member of the United Church of Christ, has hired a Mossad double agent as his Cheif of Staff who has more loyalty to Israel then to Barak?…

---- why don’t you write novels?

Rahm is from Chicago and so is Barack. He is hard noosed guy who has made his way up by trempling on jerks like you and maybe some nice people. You are using the Republican talking points against a Democratic White House Chief of Staff while all the while cursing the Republican President of the Unites States of America named George Bush for causing havoc around the world. I think Bush/Republicans/Bohner couldn’t find a better ally in the world than you……

I just want to point out that the American people are not stupid. There was a choice in front of them which said that we either chose the ‘tougher on world’ guy or ‘lighter on world’ guy. Either way, no world power or people will ever give their power up volunatarily, i.e., if anybody wants it, they would have to fight for it (like the Chinese, not Al-Qaeda). The American people simply realized that without the economic power, the country will not have the influence in the world that it has today. Economy trumps everything and thus the people gave their verdict.

Lately, its been actually a very simple calculus in the US for winning elections, either you scare the people with terrorists or you scare them to death with the economy. Unfortunately, the economy was out of Pappy Bush’s control this time…

Barack had a little bit harder task, you know :) , with his name being Barack Hussein Obama II, Kenyan father, Indonesian step father, a blazing seperatist black church pastor named Wright shouting ‘God Damn America’ or ‘US of KKK A’ and a 70’s erra local rebel (we shall call him a rebel not terrorist) named Bill Ayers. As i said, American people are not stupid, they knew all about this stuff as this information was peddeled from coast to coast but 63 million Americans still voted for him. Either they are really stupid, or they see something in him…

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Taimur Says:
November 6th, 2008

Think again buds, with your brain now.
You think we have created all the miseries aka terrorism. Lets go back to 911, Bush missiled pentagon, destroyed twin towers and killed his own people and then blamed on ‘terrorists’ OBLaden. If you don’t believe me, search on youtube. CIA/Government funded these same terrorist groups in the past to get things done. Also our own beloved ISI was involved in this dirty act. Now all they/and us are doing is SWEEPING them and including innocent people. If you still hail OBAMA, then think again buds!

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we_are_nuts Says:
November 7th, 2008

@Taimur
“Obama will be no better than Bush who started all this, well maybe a minute difference but nothing to get excited about”… “Think again buds, with your brain now.”

I should say i get pleasure in putting poeple like you down…

The only thing that doesn’t need to get excited is you little d**k so you don’t go out and reproduce more babies with walnut size brains like yours. However, i wouldn’t be that confident in your ability to reproduce let alone get excited!

CIA/Mossad are not capable of pulling something like 9/11 off. Got it? If it were true, it cost USA and Israel billions and billions of $$$ in actual money as well as trillions of $$$ in opportunity costs. They didn’t need 9/11 to invade Iraq, that was ginned up by other means that were avaialble to them already. The only culprit left is ISI whose abilities are in front of you as they are grappling with the fact that they might just lose a quarter of Pakistan. ISI is more show than game. Rose glasses are off and people see ISI for what it is, a f**ked up agency which has ended up eating Pakistan.

Now, has the US used 9/11 as an excuse to mess around in the world? Yes, but ofcourse. But why don’t you blame the Saudis, the Pakistanis(ISI), the Iraqi exiles, the Afghani warlords that are helping the US play this game. The game cannot be played just by the US. It takes two to tango, and as long as Al-Qaeda/Taliban/Jerks like you are hell bent on participating, the dance goes on.

So if you are a Pakistani, you are a half nut job, and if you are Muslim Pakistani, you are a complete nut job.

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Taimur Says:
November 7th, 2008

@we_are_nuts
Actually YOU ARE NUTS, here’s why.
Are you sure that U.S. wasn’t behind 911, well see if your mind can recall the so called plane crashing into Pentagon. First a plane cannot fly at that altitude, it’s virtually impossible, second how the hell weren’t there any parts of a Boeing 747, third why did FBI extract all the video evidences (there’s one on youtube that was released and it shows nose of a missile)…think buddy think…use your pea sized brain. I’ll help you, it was nothing but a missile.

Then you talk about MONEY. You know how much US is spending in wars right now??? Trillions! Money is no problem for them, even in this recent banking crisis they have enough to bail banks out so don’t talk about money. If you are talking about damages (twin towers, pentagon), it wasn’t much, I don’t know the exact figure though, you can do a research on that.

I agree with one thing that Saudi, Israel and Pakistan were all involved in this. I’m not blaming US for everything but I’m saying that they directed this.

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we_are_nuts Says:
November 7th, 2008

@Taimur
Its exactly this stubborness from people like you who refuse to believe that there are muslims out there who can pull off something like 9/11. I never had any doubt that there are religious nut jobs out there who are hell bent on killing innocent people (on both sides). Who are these people in Al-Qaeda? Granted, they were created initially via the Afghan jihad and left to the dogs afterwards. To some how insinuate that these so called muslims (Al-Qaeda) are completely innocent in this blood bath is beyound crazy, its finatic, which is exactly what organizations like Al-Qaeda are looking for. Finatics like you, who are just ignorant about the real world and how it operates, much like the Governor of Alaska.

Your understanding of economics is not even marginal at best. I was actually not talking about the buildings of twin towers or pentagon, which i think you picked up on….Anyways, who is them? Money is not a problem for US? LOL. Let’s work on ECON 101. The US runs huge trade deficits with the world. Reason, US consumes a lot more from the world than it produces (willing to produce, which goes into the concept of economies of scale, comparative advantage, Adam Smith and so forth). Lately its been running huge fiscal (budget) deficits as well because of the spending in Iraq as well as huge tax cuts. The US can print all the $$ in the world, which will however start inflating everything as well. The point, “they” tend to only pick fights they can win and which usually makes them more money and tries to keep the other side at bay. Now, seems like both Iraq and Afghanistan have gone haywire due to foot on the enemies throat stratgy, which has created a lot of collateral damage along the way as well.

Your fantasy that US some how wants to keep killing muslims for just the heck of it is obtuse and stupid. Why aren’t they killing the Chinese? The only people that are suffering and will suffer are poor, downtrodden, hopeless, and jobless muslims around the world, including in Pakistan.
Read more...

Ansar Abbasi: The Marriott Hotel bombing, evidence of yellow journalism and support for Mullahs and the Taliban...

Charges of irresponsible journalism: Sympathies with Taliban

In the aftermath of the Marriott Hotel Bombing, Abbasi was criticized by various members of Pakistani society, for his, what was termed as "deflective" jornalism. For example, in its editorial on 22 September 2008, Daily Times wrote that:

"Regrettably, there was some “deflective” journalism in evidence soon enough. One commentator said President Zardari should go to the US, stare President Bush in the eye and challenge him. Another seriously wondered if the blast might actually have been caused by “foreign” powers, a reference that could embrace anyone from India, Afghanistan, Israel and Russia to the United States. One journalist alleged that the Marriott was a target because some American Marines had secretly holed out there during Admiral Mike Mullen’s visit to Islamabad last week....It is amazing how these people are deceiving themselves and the people of Pakistan by not calling a spade a spade —Al Qaedi did it — because of their anti-Americanism, however justified that may be.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008\09\22\story_22-9-2008_pg3_1

In his op-ed in Urdu Daily Jang on 17 October 2008, senior columnist Haroon-ur-Rashid wrote that (translation): "It is more than three months ago that I had asked Ansar Abbasi and Rauf Klasra to use their pen as a pen not as a sword. I had also asked them to refrain from 'bitterness' in their reports."[6]

http://www.jang.com.pk/jang/oct2008-daily/17-10-2008/col4.htm

Similarly,in his op-ed in Daily Jang on 11 October 2008, senior columnist Nazir Naji criticized (without naming) those journalists whose investigations suggest that actually Americans are the real target of terrorists. In Nazir Naji's words (translation, para 1, line 1): Those journalists who usually claim that Americans are the real target of terrorist activities in Pakistan, are they on leave now a days?" Naji noted that such pro-Taliban journalists did not care to explain that the Taliban have a long history of killing innocent people, irrespective of their religion, race or ethnicity. For example, such journalists did not mention that not a single US soldier was killed in the Bhakkar bombing, or in the attack on a hospital in D.I.Khan, or in the attack on Asfandyar Wali Khan, and similar other acts of terror in Pakistan.

http://www.jang.com.pk/jang/oct2008-daily/11-10-2008/col8.htm

Double-cross role in the Lawyers movement for the restoration of Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry

Ansar Abbasi is also known to be an active supporter of the ex-Chief Justice of Pakistan, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry. However, in his op-ed in Daily Express on 24 October 2008, Abbas Ather exposed Ansar Abbasi, stating that actually it was Ansar Abbasi who released the first media report against the so-called corruption of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry. As a result, it was widely reported in national and international media that there is a link to the Chief Justice being suspended and the appointment of his son, Dr. Arsalan Iftikhar Chaudhry, as Additional Superintendent of Police after numerous amendments to the Police Service of Pakistan rules and the fact that he had twice flunked the Central Superior Services (CSS) exam that is required for that level of position.

http://www.emagine-group.com/behindthechairmansdoor/2007/03/21/an-aside-on-the-judicial-crisis-in-pakistan/

Abbas Ather also noted that it was Ansar Abbasi who played a role in creating misunderstanding between the Chief Justice and the newly elected government of the Pakistan Peoples Party. For example, Ansar Abbasi in a news item revealed that immediately after his restoration, Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhary would suspend the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO), thus effectively putting Asif Zardari and other leaders of PPP behind bars.

http://letusbuildpakistan.blogspot.com/2008/10/abbas-ather-exposes-ansar-abbasi.html

Rumour Mongering

June 20th, 2008

Experienced reporters know they can get way with writing anything so long as they bury it deep in their story. Lazy editors only scan the beginning of a report and proof-readers are only looking for grammatical errors. Ansar Abbasi of The News is a master at getting in unfounded rumours and frankly libelous statements into his stories. So he starts his report (appended below) with the supposedly newsworthy peg that Tariq Aziz is sticking by Musharraf. He then launches into a rambling history of Aziz’s relationship with the president. All this is done for the sole purpose of sticking in this nugget at the end of his story:

“He is interested in horse races too but last year’s mess has considerably diverted his attention from this too. Interestingly, he considers betting on horse races Islamic.”

COMMENT:

Anonymous said...

Then there's Abbasi's sermonising "commentary" pieces. Do you remember reading one last year about how his child wasn't allowed to participate in some competition (hazy on the details) because his parents (Abbasi and wife) are "religious". Something to that affect, written in a hysterical style that is classic Abbasi. Why he can get away with stuff like that is beyond me.


http://fiverupees.blogspot.com/2008/06/rumour-mongering.html

.......

Musharraf’s friend not ready to abandon him in last race
Saturday, June 07, 2008
By Ansar Abbasi (The News)

ISLAMABAD: Tariq Aziz is not prepared to abandon his college friend, beleaguered President Musharraf, at a time when the retired general is having the worst crisis of his post military career.

Aziz, the man who engineered the major political moves for Musharraf during the last eight years and continues to do so even now, is media shy but he does open his heart at least before his friends and acquaintances.

Generally seen as a detested henchman of Musharraf, Aziz's perception is however different for those who claim to be close to him. He asks his acquaintances why he should leave the president when all the courtiers have left him, though he does not agree with the retired general at times.

Many think that for him his friendship with Musharraf, once the most powerful person in Pakistan but today the most unpopular, is more important than the greater interests of this country and the people.

His critics, whose number is high, see him siding with the adamant president, who does not want to leave the stage despite a clear mandate given by the people against him in the Feb elections. However, he believes it would be immoral on his part to leave the retired general when he is vulnerable.

He has a lot of undisclosed things to share. And he has his own justifications and reasons for all that has been associated with him. One of Aziz's acquaintances, whose word is credible, says that Tariq Aziz was recently asked by him if he did not think that Musharraf should quit for the political stability of the country. Aziz responded, as quoted by the source, "What do you think, I don't tell him what is in his best interest and in the interest of the people?"

Aziz dispels the impression that the president always adheres to his advice. "I might have given 10,000 advices but the president would have paid attention to only a 100 or a 150," the source quoted the man, who during the last eight years has been seen as the kingmaker, saying.

His friends claim that Tariq Aziz was opposed to Musharraf's referendum. He was not consulted on the March 9, 2007 misadventure. He was opposed to the Nov 3 second coup. But despite his opposition to such moves, he practically only does what he is assigned to, no matter even if it goes against his convictions.

"I wanted to leave the president's team in 2000, I also requested General Musharraf to let me go but it never happened," a friend of Aziz told this correspondent and claimed that the other day he was shown by Aziz a letter written to this top aide of Musharraf by his father in 2000, asking him not to leave the president.

Friends of Aziz claim that he has been given tough time by fellow generals of Musharraf during the early years of his coup but the top general continued to value his friendship. Tariq Aziz has been offered quite a few lucrative posts, including that of governor Punjab, but he was more comfortable in backdoor wheeling dealing.He, however, really feels uncomfortable when termed as a kingmaker or the agent of the Chaudhrys of Gujrat.

Another acquaintance of Aziz recalled him saying a few years back, "I used the Chaudhrys' political clout for Musharraf's political gains." The source claimed that Aziz also admitted that the Pakistan Muslim League-Q was created as the third political force to ensure that Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto stayed out of power.

All politicians and political analysts who have been meeting the president after his October 12, 1999 military takeover, were telling him that creating the third political force would be an arduous task if not an impossible mission. But Aziz, the source said, promised to do the miracle for Musharraf and to ensure that the general's economic and reforms agenda would continue.

He was looking for a resourceful, well-connected and influential political family that could match the Sharifs and the Bhuttos if given the establishment's support. The Chaudhrys of Gujrat, who also happen to be old friends of Aziz, were the suitable choice. Aziz convinced the president to bet on the Chaudhrys. He approached them and they hesitatingly agreed to play the set game of politics.

Tariq Aziz was assigned by Musharraf to deal with political matters on his behalf. He started visiting all parts of the country but concentrated on the Punjab to win maximum number of political leaders for the PML-Q.

His magic worked in the 2002 elections but not in 2008. In 2002, the president and his men were sure of the Kings Party's victory and so was their calculation about the 2008 elections. But the return of Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif turned things topsy-turvy for the manipulators, including Tariq Aziz.

It was Tariq Aziz's old association with Rehman Malik that paved the way for the return of Benazir Bhutto after her deal with Musharraf in 2007, the latter events that unfolded were simply out of the presidency's control.

In the changed scenario after the Feb elections, Tariq Aziz was facing a much greater challenge of making a coalition between the PPP and the PML-Q but it did not happen. This situation left the Chaudhrys of Gujrat irrelevant for the president and Aziz, at least politically if not otherwise.

Tariq Aziz, according to these friends, also played a pivotal role in convincing the president before the 2002 elections to give the MQM a room to stage a comeback in the country's mainstream politics.

But now for once the relaxed Aziz is said to be really fed up with the extremely-hectic routine of the last few years and particularly what has been shaking the presidency after March 9, 2007.

He is not so regular, as he used to be in the past, in playing bridge with his friends in the Islamabad Club. He is interested in horse races too but last year's mess has considerably diverted his attention from this too. Interestingly, he considers betting on horse races Islamic.
Read more...

Bhutto Haters must learn some lessons from Maldives... Respect deomcracy...Asadullah Ghalib

Read more...

Well done General Kayani, Shame on you RAW Totay (anti-Army and pro-Taliban parrots of media and politics)

(Asadullah Ghalib)
Read more...

"RAW Totay": The conspiracy theory parrots. The supporters of Sipah-e-Sahaba and Taliban remember Lal Masjid and shed crocodile tears....

In this op-ed, Asadullah Ghalib spanks "RAW Totay" (e.g. Javed Chaudhry, Hamid Mir, Kashif Abbasi, Ansar Abbasi, Orya Maqbool Jan, Irfan Siddiqi): The conspiracy theory parrots. Shame on the supporters of extremist of Lal Masjid, Sipah-e-Sahaba and Taliban and the crocodile tears....

Also read:

Munir Attaullah: Conspiracy. Will anyone tell me who these terrorists are?

Asinine and anodyne in '09?: The industry of conspiracy theory in Pakistan

Everyone at fault, except us. Why is it that everything that goes against us becomes a conspiracy?

International conspiracies against Pakistan - an eye opener for conspiracy theorists

Read more...

Hussian Haqqani gives Kashif Abbassi some good spanking.

Kashif Abbasi is a media juooni: The TV face/ mouth pieces of Taliban in Pakistan.


Regime of ‘hostile’ TV anchors
Daily Times - Saturday, June 21, 2008

Two particular encounters on two TV channels Thursday night revealed the mind of the “misplaced or hostile anchor” in Pakistan. The first was a discussion among a group of TV journalists on the accusation levelled against them that they are no longer impartial in their conduct of talk shows and tend to favour a political stance. The “consensus” was that encroachments on institutions of representative democracy by military rulers could not be viewed with impartiality, and that a show of partiality was dictated by the anchors’ loyalty to the Constitution. One opinion was that this obligatory partiality must be accompanied by “objectivity”; but it was not clear how the state of being “objective” could be reconciled with the state of being “partial”.

The other discussion was an interview with Pakistan’s ambassador Mr Hussain Haqqani by a TV journalist noted for his acerbity of approach and bias. The topic was the attack made by NATO-ISAF forces inside Mohmand Agency which resulted in the death of 13 Pakistani troops, souring Pakistan’s relations between Washington. The ambassador, while acknowledging his duty to bring the umbrage of Pakistan to the notice of the Washington Administration in the most forceful of terms, also charged the TV person with the obligation of looking objectively at the situation in which Pakistan found itself. He asked him if he took account of the ground realities in the Tribal Areas where the war against terrorism was clearly in the national interest of Pakistan. The ambassador argued for “realism” in the handling of such crises as the one resulting from the attack in the Mohmand area. But the TV anchor demanded that Pakistan approach the United Nations for a solution to the problem of the growing breach of Pakistan’s “sovereignty” and “territorial integrity”. The ambassador pointed out that the Security Council was an arena of power play, not a kind of Supreme Court where all plaintiffs were equal. The TV anchor then fell back on the argument of “national pride” and claimed to represent the people of Pakistan, arguing in favour of Pakistan opting out of the international war on terrorism. He had no answer, however, to the question about what Pakistan would do after that, after its various trouble spots are bombed by a combination of forces united inside the US Security Council.

The patriotically “partial” TV anchors began by opposing a military ruler and are now caught in a situation of political bias under democracy because of the dictates of their partiality. The 2008 elections have delivered a political battlefield where elected parties are trying to move together despite their different recipes and solutions. What should the TV anchors do now? Normally, they should have moved back and become neutral, letting the discussions be fairly judged by the viewers, but they continue to pose as arbiters and decide on their own such matters as the “mandate” of the 2008 elections, the “immorality” of the NRO, and the rough dismissal of President Musharraf from his job. But when matters are in dispute between elected parties and in parliament, it is the duty of the media to remain impartial in order to allow the people to make their own judgements.

While highlighting the “complaints” against the TV channels, one must be clear, however, about the over-all role played by our electronic journalism. Despite their early “philosophical” gropings, the TV channels are a sine qua non of our lives and their foibles of “partiality” are dwarfed by their achievement of creating awareness among the people on all other economic and social matters. For example, in Punjab, Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif is taking action, correctly, after watching TV reports on the malfunction of government institutions.

A sense of pride and sovereignty may take nations into war and humiliate them without making them understand what went wrong. This happened to Germany in the Second World War and in recent times to Serbia whose people, proud and sovereign, hate the world today for not understanding why they were killing Bosnians and Kosovars. But states don’t only feel aroused emotionally. They can also be cold-blooded. They can be motivated only by their self-interest whose pursuit might negate the state’s pride and sovereignty. When Iran and America confront each other, both tend to fly off the handle. In contrast, in Europe, where many nationalist wars were fought in the past, few feel as aroused.

Why shouldn’t a state feel emotional? Because being emotional may be contrary to its national interests. These interests are almost always economic. This is perfectly understandable because as long as a nation is prosperous and not dependent on outside creditors, its pride and sovereignty remain intact. But if a state is neglectful of its economy and pursues other emotional goals either unrelated or hostile to its economy it is bound to impose suffering on its people through the growth of poverty. And nothing removes pride and sovereignty from a nation more cruelly and quickly than poverty. Let us not forget that the organisation which kidnapped and beheaded the American journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002 called itself National Movement for the Restoration of Pakistani Sovereignty.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtOYSEhdWMQ&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5GxmWsWmtA&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3fanwU4Blo&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSyY2ZWXsH4&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zh5vOhew0aE&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WIaagFjVFA&feature=related

Some Comments:

H Khan
I have kept Hussian Haqqani in disdain for quite sometime but here he gave Kashif Abbassi some good spanking.

FarazA
LOL... kashif took some serious beating... this little patheritc chaos creater wasn't able to answer a single question asked by Haqanni. Amazing journalist


H Khan:

This Kashif Abbassi represents the height of pathetic journalism in Pakistan. As one could see he has no training in journalism and how journalist should present themselves in front of dignitaries. Journalistic protocol has not even touched these types of idiots.

Kashif was interviewing Pakistani Ambassador to the USA in his office (which is the Embassy of Pakistan in Washington D C) while he was wearing some faded jeans.

My no means this was an interview but a solid ruthless bashing by Hussian Haqqani and he made Kashif Abbassi an example out of.

abaig:

True, this Kashif Abbasi (I've stopped watching his arrogant programs) interviewed Foreign Minister of PML-Q govt Khurshid Kasuri, some one year back. He was his usual arrogant and was in no mood to listen to the 4 point agenda Khurshid Kasuri gave on Kashmir. After some time, Khurshid Kasuri asked Kashif some questions back asking for solutuions to Kashmir problems .... leaving kashif answer-less and shame-less!

In this interview also, he rightly pointed out that we are emotional nation and we do not understand that we must expect equal footing ONLY if we are equal in heights and standing to USA. Eyes to eyes can be seen with someone equal to us!

The basic thing that these guys lack is "TEHZEEB" to talk to any dignitary. They think they're over-smart. Governor Salman Taseer rightly says, "They'll come to their senses, if their salaries are reduced from 10,00,000 to 10,000"

SSAAD:
Clue less idiots like Mr. Abbasi should at least google things before they start their stupid, populist rants. The way he shamelessly got his ass handed to him by HH should be an eye opener for him. Essentially HH told him to keep his trap shut!

I see Hamid Mir, Kamran and this idiot as all in the same league of BS, populist, wanna-be hard talking journalists without having the fundamentals of journalism or even common knowledge under their belts!

dara Says:
November 19th, 2008


I don’t understand what that Kashif Abassi the brave warrior thing is?
I agree up to the fact that we need to criticize and question government people, but when answer has received then there is no need to argue and being judgemental.
Kashif Abbasi sounds like immature and partisan. Every one has opinion and Kashif has aright to have one but as anchor you put a question but never react to answer the way kKashif does.

I hope you take my critical analysis in good faith.
Read more...

Realities of Pakistan's woes not apparent to all

THE RECENT bombing of the Marriott Hotel in the heart of the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, underscores the menace of religious fanaticism that now threatens Pakistan also. When the air cleared, 70 people lay dead and close to 300 wounded. The incident sent shock waves through not only Pakistan and Afghanistan, but also through the power corridors of Washington.

Afghanistan is a quagmire, and a decisive military victory in that country is not possible. Pakistan has been accused of not doing enough to curb al-Qaeda and the Taliban operating from the sanctuaries in its tribal areas and thus being indirectly responsible for the failure in Afghanistan.

In reality there are four different wars being waged from the tribal areas of Pakistan. There is the war against the occupation forces in Afghanistan. There is a war against the Pakistani government and the Pakistani army. There is a war, supported by elements in the Pakistani army, to contain Indian influence in Afghanistan. And now the war has spilled over and is being waged against the common man in Pakistan who does not subscribe to al-Qaeda and the Taliban brand of Islam.

U.S. lawmakers have been, for the last few years, very critical of Pakistan and have questioned the wisdom of giving Pakistan $10 billion over the last six years while not having much in return to show for it. This simplistic money-for-action equation, however, is nave at best and hypocritical at worst. Let us step back and examine on-the-ground realities that may be different from what appears from Washington and even from Islamabad.

The situation in the tribal areas of Pakistan, complex as it is, can be pared down to three important interlocking elements.

First, there is a pervasive anti-American feeling among Pakistanis, just as there is elsewhere in the world. These sentiments cut across all segments of society. There is also a pervasive feeling that the war on terror is in fact a war against Islam. These sentiments have hardened since my three-part report published in The Blade in May, 2005, on the subject.

Second, the shouts of jihad against the occupation forces in Afghanistan aside, most Pakistanis are religious, but not militant or fanatics. As such, they are no different from, say, observant Christians, Jews, or followers of other religions.

The pivotal piece in this equation is the fact that the ouster of foreign forces from Afghanistan is not the ultimate aim of al-Qaeda and the Taliban. The aim is to control Pakistan and establish a Taliban-style government in the country. That end point, in their limited worldview, would solve all their socio-economic ills.

So why can't the majority of Pakistanis see through this charade and realize that in the long run they stand to lose not only their moderate to liberal way of life but their country as well? I am sure the experts in the White House and the Pentagon continue to mull this critical question.

The answer lies in the peculiar mind-set that believes that the enemy of my enemy is my friend. The deep resentment felt toward American foreign policy and its effects on the people in the Middle East and South Asia is enough for ordinary people to withhold criticism of al-Qaeda and the Taliban even though they disagree with their harsh and uncompromising interpretation of religion.

For the people of Pakistan in general and for those Pakistanis living along the northwest frontier in particular, the al-Qaeda-Taliban fight against the occupation forces in Afghanistan is not their fight.

Since al-Qaeda and the Taliban have framed this fight in religious terms and exploited the prevailing anti-American sentiments in Pakistan, the attitude of most Pakistanis can be explained by the German word schadenfreude, which means taking pleasure in the misery of others.

But the recent foray of the Taliban into the Northwest Frontier Province of Pakistan is making them think twice about the enemy-of-my-enemy-is-my-
friend mind-set.

The enemy of my enemy also proves to be my enemy when he indiscriminately bombs civilians, orders the closing of girls' schools, forbids barbers to shave beards, and forbids women to venture outside their homes.

This is happening in the Swat Valley in the north and in many other districts of the province. In Peshawar, the provincial capital, their activities are limited to forcing the closing of video and music shops.

The writing is clearly on the wall.

Dr. S. Amjad Hussain is a Toledo surgeon whose column appears every other week in The Blade.
» E-mail him at aghaji@buckeye-express.com
» Read more Dr. Hussain columns at www.toledoblade.com/hussain
Read more...

Javed Chaudhry - the mouth piece of Taliban and Sipah-e-Sahaba, the champion of yellow journalism in Pakistan

This site has moved to http://criticalppp.com/archives/331, click this link if you are not redirected
Read more...

A postmortem of anti-democracy journalists; A mirror to Ansar Abbasi, Kashif Abbasi, Hamid Mir, Mushtaq Minhas and other supporters of Taliban.

Freedom of press? My foot.

Abbas Ather





Read more...

The anti-PPP forces, ISI, the right wing and the pro-Taliban elements in Pakistan - By Ayaz Amir

Is there anything more to see?
Friday, October 24, 2008
By by Ayaz Amir

Of all our leaders thrown up by the vicissitudes of events, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto alone had the talent and drive to reverse these trends and build a new Pakistan as he vowed to do when he assumed power in December 1971 after the army's catastrophic defeat in East Pakistan (by then Bangladesh). But his autocratic tendencies, honed to an unusual degree, earned him bitter enemies. And he went to war in Balochistan when as a popularly-elected leader he should have sought conciliation and co-existence with the elected leaders of that province. He had put a lid on dissent but when that lid had to be lifted when elections were held in 1977, emotions long suppressed burst into the open, assuming the shape of an agitation which from protest against election rigging was transformed into a movement calling for the establishment of Islamic rule.

In one of his many policy blunders Bhutto had chosen a seemingly compliant junior general as the army chief. Little could Bhutto have known that Gen Ziaul Haq was a closet maulvi, a hidden fundamentalist. He bided his time and struck when Bhutto's fortunes were at their lowest ebb in the summer of 1977. On seizing power Zia proclaimed Islamisation as his aim and sought to create a religious constituency for himself by patronising religious elements, especially the right wing Jamaat-i-Islami which was close to his heart, and fostering a cult of false and hypocritical religiosity which still has Pakistan in its grip.

The first Afghan 'jihad' (1979 onwards) against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan had a profound impact on Pakistani society. It proved to be http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifPakistan's introduction to a new culture: one based on the Kalashnikov rifle and the heroin trade. Pakistan's ISI was the conduit through which assistance was funnelled to the Afghan 'mujahideen'. As a result of this involvement the ISI evolved into a behemoth with its fingers and tentacles in every aspect of national policy.

Since the rallying cry of the Afghan resistance was Islam, and since Islamist parties to varying degrees were the spear-carriers of that struggle, the trend towards religiosity or religious revivalism started earlier by Zia was strengthened. Talibanism – whether in the form of the Lal Masjid contingent, Maulvi Fazlullah in Swat or Baitullah Mahsud in Waziristan – are but manifestations of a phenomenon which has grown these past 30 years, ever since that fateful movement against Bhutto in 1977.

The use of F-16s and helicopter gunships won't reverse this trend. If anything, fighting this war as an appendage or pawn of the United States distorts the whole argument by portraying the Taliban as holy warriors pitted against an evil empire. If we are to meet this challenge we have, as a matter of tactics if nothing else, to (1) keep the US at a distance and (2) strengthen the competence of the Pakistani state. Else we are lost.

Indeed, the first requirement of our present situation is for the state to function better. For that to begin happening we have to put an end to the culture of nepotism, cronyism and corruption which have become the hallmarks of our style of governance. If key appointments are not to be made on merit, if cronies and hangers-on who may have rendered private services in the past but who have little otherwise to recommend them for high state offices are not shown the door, if the size of the government, bloated beyond all reasonable measure, is not reduced, if fat (and there is plenty of it around) is not cut, if wasteful expenditure (and there is plenty of that too around) is not eliminated, if the governing class (and this means all parties) don't begin to look more serious, we are not going to come out of our present troubles.

We say these are not ordinary times. Why don't we then take extraordinary measures to make people realise that the captains and pilots on deck are serious? Let the cabinet look like a war and not a passenger train. We can do without a new GHQ in these dire times and why do we want refurbished F-16s? Fighting India is no longer an option in anyone's mind. Do we need F-16s to use against our own tribesmen?

Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry (remember him?) for all his faults, and he may have had many, touched people's hearts by taking on the mighty and protecting the poor and defenceless. Ordinary people looked up to the Supreme Court because of this. Our various leaderships have yet to galvanize the nation in a similar manner.

Email: chakwal@comsats.net.pk
Read more...

The blood thirsty beasts of the conservative parties in Pakistan, namely: Jamaat Islami, Imran Khan, Hamid Gul, and other agents of ISI and Taliban...

By Asadullah Ghalib
Read more...

Partners in crime: Ex-Servicemen’s Association (the new face of ISI sponsored thugs)

Partners in crime

Amir Mir

Hardly a fortnight after Pakistani Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani directed the officers of the Pakistan Army through an official letter not to indulge in politics and pay heed to their professional responsibilities, a group of prominent ex-servicemen – retired military officers including high profile retired generals, air marshals and admirals – have come down hard on President Musharraf for unnecessarily dragging the army into politics and have asked him to immediately resign as the head of the state and hand over power to the deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry.

Since assuming the command of the 600,000-strong Pakistan Army from General Musharraf in December 2007, the 55-year-old career officer General Kayani has kept a relatively low profile, although he seems to be trying to keep the military out of politics, unlike his predecessor, Musharraf. The Pakistan Army, in the very first decade after the creation of Pakistan in 1947, became a politicised army – the power behind the throne in national politics and thus soon seized political control. Thereafter, the army intervened frequently to seize political power and imposed military rule for protracted periods; the military coups of Ayub Khan and Yahya Khan were followed by a pro-jihad Zia regime that lasted for 12 long years and an anti-jihad Musharraf regime. Therefore, having tasted political power, the Pakistan Army had ceased to be apolitical.

However, the unusual directive by the new chief of a highly politicised army has been widely welcomed as it represents the overwhelming public sentiment that the army should go back to the barracks permanently by withdrawing itself from the national political arena for the good of the country. The directive shows that the new army chief wants to systematically reverse some of the most significant policies of his predecessor, who had to take off his uniform in December 2007 under intense international pressure. Two months down the road since assuming the command of the army, General Kayani has issued two key directives: prohibiting army officers from meeting with politicians and ordering all those officers who hold posts in civilian agencies on deputation to resign from those positions.

Hardly a couple of weeks after General Kayani issued these directives, a group of retired military officers, formed an organisation of ex-servicemen, welcomed the initiative taken by the new army chief to depoliticise the army and urged their colleague, General (retd) Pervez Musharraf, to hand over power to the deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry. These developments reflect increasingly strong challenges Musharraf faces after taking off his uniform. The group of retired military men, including former army chief Mirza Aslam Beg, former ISI chief Lieutenant General (retd) Hamid Gul, former Air Chief Marshall (retd) Asghar Khan, a former Corps Commander Rawalpindi Lieutenant General (retd) Ali Quli Khan, a former Deputy Chief Martial Law Administrator Lieutenant General (retd) Faiz Ali Chishti and many others asked Musharraf on January 31 in Islamabad to resign in the supreme national of the country.

An open letter signed by more than 100 retired military officers – all members of the All Pakistan Ex-Servicemen Society, an organisation working for the welfare of retired military personnel, stated that all the four state pillars have suffered at the hands of Pervez Musharraf during his eight year rule, be it the judiciary, the executive, the media or the legislature and, therefore, he should quit the presidency in the supreme national interest. “Musharraf should step down and hand over power to Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, who is still the constitutional head of the Pakistani judiciary,” said Air Marshall (retd) Asghar Khan while talking to newsmen at the gathering of the ex-servicemen. Speaking on the occasion, General (retd) Aslam Beg, who headed the military from 1988 to 1991, said Musharraf had tarnished the image of the armed forces and called on all ex-servicemen to help restore it. “We should work together to strengthen democracy by trying to remove the only impediment in its way – Pervez Musharraf.”

A few days later, on February 5, for the first time in the history of Pakistan, a large number of the former military officers staged a demonstration near the General Headquarters (GHQ) of the Pakistan Army in Rawalpindi to protest against President Pervez Musharraf’s policies and asked him to resign. The unprecedented protest rally was held a day after the Monday suicide bombing close to the GHQ, which killed 11 people, including some military personnel. Newspaper reports say the participants of the demonstration chanted full-throat slogans like ‘Go Musharraf go’, ‘No Musharraf no’, ‘We want a commission on Kargil’, ‘Musharraf must resign’, etc., while marching towards the GHQ. The retired generals vowed that they would continue their protest until President Musharraf quits power.

However, on his part, however, Musharraf has rejected the demand, describing it a call from “disenchanted job seeking retired generals who had been kicked out by him”. Federal Information Minister Nisar Memon too rejected the resignation demand by the ex-servicemen, saying the ex-servicemen should remain within their limits, otherwise action could be taken against them. Interestingly, the leading lights of the ex-servicemen’s organisation had themselves been amongst those responsible for dragging the army into politics. To begin with, Asghar Khan enjoys the distinction of having written a letter to General Ziaul Haq in 1977, literally inviting him to stage a military coup against Bhutto, which he eventually did. Faiz Ali Chishti became the deputy Martial Law Administrator when Zia had imposed Martial Law. Mirza Aslam Beg had been involved in manipulating the 1990 elections by distributing a hefty amount of Rs 140 million amongst a group of anti-PPP politicians through the then ISI chief and a part of the ex-servicemen society, Lieutenant General (retd) Asad Durrani and last but not the least Hameed Gul enjoys the distinction of having founded the Islami Jamhoori Ittehad (IJI) in 1990.

Interestingly, however, Asghar Khan, Aslam Beg, Faiz Chishti and many others present at the gathering of the retired officers, when reminded of their meddling with politics while being in uniform and asked if they wanted to apologise to the nation for their own, they simply refused. Except for retired Lieutenant General Hamid Gul, none other retired khaki personnel showed the moral courage by making an admission of guilt. Gul not only admitted the wrongdoings he had committed as a spy chief, he also submitted a formal apology to the nation and said he was ready for any punishment. “I am ready for a trial or even hanging,” Gul told the gathering in open door proceedings. His words, however, failed to move the other architects and backers of martial law who were sitting on the stage.

While refusing to show remorse for their past conduct, Asghar Khan, who was presiding over the meeting, got annoyed when asked about his “dirty past” and asked to apologise. “These were individual acts of power hungry generals and they are the ones who should be asked to apologise,” he responded. He did not respond when a journalist questioned the moral authority of the retired generals to preach others when they did not feel embarrassed on the wrongdoings of their past. Khan refused to take questions on self-accountability when reminded that he himself was among the strong supporters of Zia’s martial law and the person sitting next to him, Lieutenant General (retd) Faiz Ali Chishti, was Commander 10 Corps when Zia had taken over and later collaborated with him in all his acts. Questioners also mentioned General (retd) Aslam Beg under whose stint as the army chief the Mehran Bank scandal took place and the then president had nominated his successor three months before Beg’s retirement as a pre-emptive measure keeping in view his political ambitions.

Interestingly, Asghar Khan had petitioned the Supreme Court of Pakistan in June 1996, accusing the ISI of manipulating the 1990 general election results in favour of the IJI. And those made respondents in the case were Mirza Aslam Beg and Asad Durrani, ex-Director-General of ISI Directorate, both sitting on stage with Asghar Khan and making fiery speeches against the army’s indulgence in politics. In his written reply submitted with the Supreme Court, General (retd) Aslam Beg had stated: “More serious damage has been caused to the reputation and the good will of the Armed Forces by Air Marshal (retd) Asghar Khan in bringing the petition before this Honourable Court and raising an issue before the apex Court, which of course would receive great publicity and would cause greater damage by scandalisation in the media...dragging the ex-service chief to the courts on a letter may be detrimental to the prestige, honour and dignity of the institution he has once represented…Asghar Khan has approached this august court with ulterior motives and his representation is based on obvious malafides…”

However, despite repeated reminders about their past intervention in national politics, neither Asghar Khan showed the grace to confess any wrongdoing nor did Aslam Beg, Asad Durrani and Faiz Chishti. Speaking on his own behalf and the three others, Asghar, who had demanded of Zia during the Pakistan National Alliance (PNA) movement in 1977 that Bhutto should be toppled and hanged publicly at the Sihala Bridge, said: “Whatever has happened in the past has happened and the media should stop browbeating the past.”

However, one is constrained to ask if these khakis were unaware of the spirit of the oath they had taken while joining the army, which explicitly prohibits them from indulging in politics: “I, with a sincere heart and God as my witness do solemnly swear that I will be faithful to the State of Pakistan and protect the Constitution of Pakistan, which reflects the wishes of the people of Pakistan. Further, I will not indulge in any political activity and will perform my duties in the armed forces with full faith and honesty. I will go where and howsoever I am ordered to by land, air or sea and that I will obey all lawful orders given to me by my superiors without regard to any dangers and threats to my personal safety. May God be my protector and witness! Amen.”

The writer is the former editor of weekly Independent, now affiliated with foreign media.

http://www.thepost.com.pk/Previuos.aspx?dtlid=143450&src=Amir%20Mir&date=08/02/2008
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Hamid Mir, the media face of Taliban suggests that Pakistan is facing terrorism because Mullah Abdul Aziz of Lal Masjid was shown in Burqa on PTV

In his op-ed in Daily Jang, Hamid Mir, the media face of Taliban suggests that Pakistan is facing terrorism (suicide bombings etc) because Mullah Abdul Aziz of Lal Masjid was shown in Burqa on Pakistan Television. What a fool is this Mr Hamid Mir and also any one who believes his cover up stories...


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Haroon-ur-Rashid - a follower of General Zia-ul-Haq, Imran Khan and Hamid Gul, a pro-Afghan Jihad fool who lives in his own paradise

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Pakistan's ex-spymaster outlines Taliban demands: General Hamid Gul (ex-ISI chief) is the ugly face of Al-Qaeda in Pakistan

Afghanistan: Hamid Gul outlines Taliban demands

(AKI) The Taliban will agree to peace talks if they are recognised as a political force, if a date is set for the withdrawal of international forces, and if Taliban prisoners are released, according to Pakistan's former spy chief, Retired Lt. General Hamid Gul.

Gul a former head of Pakistan's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), said he believes negotations need to be taken forward with Taliban leader Mullah Omar. "Pakistan has to be brought on board too," he told Adnkronos International (AKI) and a small group of Western news organisations at a briefing in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. "I know the Taliban, I have worked with them for a long time, and can say they would never talk to Afghan President Hamid Karzai, they consider him a mere traitor and puppet," Gul said.

Taliban would be prepared to parley with the Americans but only on certain conditions, he said. First, that such talks are held publicly; that the US recognise the Taliban are not terrorists but fighters who are defending their country; that the US and NATO give a date for the withdrawal of their troops from Afghanistan; and that all Taliban prisoners are freed.

"Barack Obama is wanting to outdo his rival, and that is not a good sign," Gul said, referring respectively to the Democratic Party's presidential candidate his Republican Party rival John McCain.
The US presidential election campaign is among various obstacles to any peace talks with the Taliban, according to Gul. "Barrack Obama is wanting to outdo his rival, and that is not a good sign," Gul said, referring respectively to the Democratic Party's presidential candidate his Republican Party rival John McCain. "That means they want to continue following the same line of action that they have during the last seven years. And I am afraid this is going to bring disaster," Gul continued.

Pakistan, wracked by terrorism and a deep economic crisis, an environment in which anti-Americanism is thriving, is facing collapse, Gul warned.

The implications of this situation for the fight against terrorism and the security of the country's nuclear arsenal, are dire, he said. "The risk is real, there could be a civil war, even a revolution along the lines of the Iranian one. Personally, I hope for a revoultion but a soft one, like that the one born in America during the Vietnam war or like pacifist movements in Europe against the war in Iraq, " Gul stated.

Something along these lines has occurred in Pakistan recently, with the lawyers movement and the judges who marched for a return to democracy, he said.

Musharraf committed the inexcusable error of aligning himself with the US's 'war on terror', Gul said. But he also had criticism for the fledgling government of Musharraf's successor, Asif Ali Zardari, the widow of slain former premier Benazir Bhutto.

Gul described Zardari as a "civilian dictator" who he claimed has adopted the same policies and autocratic leadership style as Musharraf. "It is very necessary that Parliament should call the shots, as a collective body, as a sovereign body under the democratic system," Gul stated. "His role as President of Pakistan is as the constitutional head. Everything else should be given to the parliament and the Prime Minister and the Cabinet," Gul stressed.

Discussing anti-Taliban operations in northwest Pakistan, Gul said it was hard to say exactly how many Taliban were in area along the border with Afghanistan, but the figure could be between 15,000 and 20,000. The more the Americans step up their cross-border operations, the more the Afghans will identify with the Taliban, Gul warned.

Many villagers in northwest Pakistan, especially in North and South Wazaristan tribal areas have a lot of sympathy for the Taliban's cause and believe it is their duty to help them - on the Pakistani and Afghan sides of the border, Gul noted. "The nation does not look upon this as Pakistan's war," he said.

He advised NATO forces in Afghanistan, including Italian troops, to withdraw, and urged them to start planning this immediately, ahead of a fresh Taliban campaign next Spring when fighting resumes after the winter lull. "The reconstruction of the country is impossible without peace. Peace has to come first," Gul concluded.

http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Security/?id=3.0.2590822622



Some Comments

#1 How come this man has never been targeted as he is the brains behind Taliban/AlQ and is a major enemy of the West!!!!
Posted by Paul 2008-10-16

#2 Preconditions! Surrender or die. Sounds like good preconditions to me.
Posted by Richard of Oregon 2008-10-16

#3 "I know the Taliban, I have worked with them for a long time"
That's a targeting!
Posted by Darrell 2008-10-16

http://rantburg.com/poparticle.php?D=2008-10-16&ID=252786


paindoo1234
Insaf Activist
05/10/2008 6:20 AM

A quick quetion for all Taleban sympathizers:

Aren't you doing the same that you are accusing the politicians of doing? Why aren't you fighting on the side of your brethren in Bajaur or Swat, while your Emir has declared jehad?

Instead, you are sitting comfortably in front of a PC, enjoying life - lecturing others on what they should be doing.

BEFORE YOU GO, Make sure your beard is longer than a fist, your daughters don't go to school, you do not vaccinate your kids against polio, and you have not ever listened to any music or watched any TV - ever in your life. OR YOU WOULD BE THE BIGGEST HYPOCRITE IN THE WORLD. After reading this lines do NOT every indulge in this worldly things.

There was nothing good about the Taleban rule in Afghanistan. They are barbaric, brutal, and un-Islamic (There are hundreds of fatwas against their actions, specifically suicide bombings etc.). They have killed more Muslims in Afghanistan and Pakistan than the Americans. So, please stop idealizing their rule unless you are willing to live under them. And you already have a choice, go to Bajaur or Swat or Mehsud area in Waziristan and live with them.

There are terrible, terrible terrorists around the world including Hindu extremists, elements in the bharti/gujrat government, jewish, tamil terrorist - they are are condemnable. They are a scum on the face of earth. And the sun rises in the east. And there are many other facts which are true.

But, we are not discussing them. Pakistan's present troubles is what we are talking about. Taliban is the entity which threatens and carries out majority of bloody attacks on our cities - killing and maiming innocent Pakistanis. They are not harmless brothers committing minor "mistakes" and "misunderstandings", they are destroying our society - and you want to talk about Gujarat?

Most of the world, including all Muslim countries, hates anybody who tries to destroy their societies. But, only in Pakistan these killers and maniacs have sympathizers. May Allah Help Pakistan recover from this fitna.

Do you not see any value in the lives that have been lost in all those suicide bombings. What is wrong with calling a bad/evil deed evil?

I rest my case.

madeel
Insaf Shaheen
05/10/2008 11:51 PM

One of the defining properties of taliban is that they are too stubborn in their beliefs. Moreover, they have shown themselves very bad in learning from their mistakes. My impression is that they will remain with these unwanted qualities as long as they remain on this planet. I don't believe in phrase like "Axis of Evil". In a National Geographic documentary "Inside Taliban", audience were told that Taliban had miraculously eradicated opium production and maintain peace. These are not my words but National Geographic. This tell us had they broader vision or ability to learn from their mistakes, they may have improved.

Ideological groups like Taliban are product of their socio-cultural and political context. Regarding them as a creation of ISI is nothing but a oversimplification. It is not saying that Taliban were not helped by ISI. But only later when ISI felt that this group has potential to carried out their objectives. If ISI help was everything, why then Hikmat Yar, despite his more than three years long efforts with ISI complete support, had failed to conquered Kabul? So Taliban is not mere ISI creation. By this assessment one may misconstrued me as a Taliban supporter; which I am not. I am merely trying to study Taliban as objectively as possible. My analysis may be wrong. You may present an argument for that. I may amend my assessment accordingly.

As I mentioned above, Taliban is an ideological group. How can you defeat an ideology by bullet? All ideas are bullet-proof. Only another idea can destroy an idea. TTP, borrowing your term, is acting like a terrorist organization, but how will you tame it?

The crux of the matter is to marginalize it politically in the region in which it operate in. Of course, one should end military means as much as possible, and relies on policing when use of force is necessary.

I too heard from credible sources that Mulla Omer disown this TTP or Baitullah Mehsood. So TTP should not be identified with the Afghani Taliban. This is the point to which I agree with Evergreen. However, I don't regard Taliban as liberator as such. Their inability to learn from their mistakes, being quite stubborn in their beliefs, can never make them liberator. This also ensures that Taliban can never attain the same power as they were in 1998.

I personally believe that Baitullah is now playing in the hands of CIA and RAW. Why? ISI had tracked him down twice and ask US army to hit him by missile. But US army didn't. Later on US army said that this intelligence was not credible enough. US army only targets those groups which are not pro-Pakistani. Baitullah Mehsood is fighting with only those groups who are pro-Pakistan.

http://www.insaf.pk/Forum/tabid/53/forumid/1/tpage/1/view/topic/postid/38914/Default.aspx#39038
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Hamid Gul: Al-Qaeda's Man in Pakistan

In our last Pakistan Principal Analysis, Al-Qaeda’s Progression On Pakistan’s Demise, we spelled out the line of succession the Taliban-al-Qaeda alliance desires in order to exact control of Pakistan and its resources, including its nuclear arsenal. The end-game in the progression rests upon the shoulders of Usama bin Laden friend and former Pakistani ISI director, retired General Hamid Gul. Paying attention to Hamid Gul’s words and actions can serve as an excellent indicator of al-Qaeda aims and actions inside Pakistan.

To wit, notice this quote from Hamid Gul within a September 13, 2008 Washington Post article. He is talking within the context of US raids into Pakistan by both CIA Predator drones and US Special Forces ground units within the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, North and South Waziristan in particular.

“If bombs were to fall in Karachi and Islamabad, that would then be considered an act of war. The Pakistani government wants to pretend that these areas [Note: FATA areas, not Islamabad & Kirachi] are not part of Pakistan, but they are,” said retired Gen. Hamid Gul, former director of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI). “Instead of solving the problem, it has only exacerbated it. If those people in those areas were not part of the Taliban forces before these strikes, they will be now.”

Of course, gaining popular support among local Pakistanis in the tribal areas dominated by the Taliban-al-Qaeda alliance has always been a propaganda goal after every attack.

Further, barely one week later, a massive bomb did ‘fall’ in Islamabad at the Marriott Hotel. And by Hamid Gul’s own definition, this is an act of war against Pakistan. Now, we know this is already the case, as the insurgency is seeking to decapitate the Pakistani government in order to usurp it and control its resources and population. Gul’s words here are simply further illuminating regarding his opposition to the Pakistani government (no secret).

But perhaps no recent quote from Hamid Gul, the “Godfather of the Taliban,” is more illuminating than what he told Syed Saleem Shahzad of Adnkronos International (AKI) Monday after the Marriott bombing.

Former Pakistani spy master, Retired Lt. General Hamid Gul said that the militants had watched their target for days and then selected a vehicle carrying construction materials and loaded the vehicle with over 600 kilogrammes of explosives.

While not a direct quote, note with clarity how Hamid Gul does not appear to be speculating, but rather stating as known fact. It would be easy enough to speculate the same, but he is not speculating. How, one must ask, does he know this?

The question is entirely rhetorical.

http://threatswatch.org/rapidrecon/2008/09/hamid-gul-alqaedas-man-in-paki/

........

Hamid Gul: The man who knows too much

Rediff News Bureau | December 09, 2008

Mumbai's 26/11 has all the makings of a watershed in world history. As a fallout, the United States is reportedly using its unmatched diplomatic clout to get the United Nations to brand four people as terrorists.

And, surprise, surprise, all the four have links to Pakistan's dreaded spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence directorate.

One of them is retired Lieutenant General Hamid Gul, a former ISI chief whose name has over the years been associated to terrorist activity in the world in general and South Asia in particular. From instigating violence in Kashmir to warning Osama bin Laden of an impending US missile strike to former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto's assassination, Gul's name has cropped up in all the wrong places.

Just why is the general considered among the most dangerous men in the world?

Originally from Sarghoda in Pakistani Punjab, he was General Zia-ul Haq's blue-eyed boy; the then Pakistan dictator nominated Gul ISI chief in March 1987. Gul was apparently no slouch in battle; he is a winner of the Sitara e Jurat, Islamabad's third highest military honour, awarded to him for his services in the 1965 war with India.

Before he became the ISI's boss, Gul was one of the biggest supporters of -- and a Central Intelligence Agency collaborator in -- the long Afghan struggle against the erstwhile Soviet Union. Probably because of that, then CIA station chief Milt Bearden viewed him as a US ally. Bearden, in a book he co-authored, The Main Enemy: The Inside Story of the CIA's Final Showdown with the KGB, later admitted that Gul eventually turned against America.

Why does he matter to India?

Gul is credited with being the brain behind Pakistan's proxy wars with India, first in the Punjab, and then in Kashmir. He is referred to as a godfather of the terrorist group Lashkar-e-Tayiba, which India believes carried out 26/11 and numerous other terror attacks in India.

According to counter-terrorism expert B Raman, Gul told Benazir Bhutto when she became prime minister: 'Madam, keeping Punjab destabilised is equivalent to the Pakistan army [Images] having an extra division at no cost to the taxpayers.'

The Washington Post reported earlier this week in the 26/11 aftermath, Gul is among the people that India wants Pakistan to hand over.

The never-short-of-a-harsh-retort general dismissed the latest allegations in conversation with The Washington Post: 'They (India) are saying these boys were village boys trained to be killers. How can this be believed? Village boys don't know anything about a 5-star hotel. They would not know how to use the toilet.'

Why does he matter to the US?

Gul is also called the godfather of the Taliban [Images]. He denies that charge too.

He told rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt in an earlier interview: "You can't create the Taliban, it was a spontaneous body."

He said he "didn't create the Taliban. This is an Ahmed Rashid (journalist and author of a book on the Taliban) saying. I was a friend of (Gulbuddin) Hekmatyar, (Burhanuddin) Rabbani and many Northern Alliance leaders like (assassinated Northern Alliance leader) Ahmed Shah Masood. I was trying to broker peace between them in my individual capacity. They are wonderful people but very difficult to deal with."

In August 2003, Gul was quoted as saying, 'The Muslim world must stand united to confront the US in its so-called war against terror which is in reality a war against Muslims. Let's destroy America wherever its troops are trapped.'

But there are many anti-American individuals in the Islamic world. What's special about Gul?

Gul is believed to be the man who tipped off bin Laden in August 1998 that the US was tracking the Saudi's satellite phone to launch a missile attack on him. Counter-terrorism expert and former US government adviser Richard Clarke later told The New Yorker: 'I have reason to believe that a retired head of the ISI was able to pass information along to Al Qaeda [Images] that an attack was coming.'

Gul was also part of the Ummah Tameer-e-Nau, a charity for the reconstruction of Afghanistan that was later alleged to have planned to give bin Laden and Al Qaeda the know-how to make a nuclear bomb.

In 2004, sections of the US media was also abuzz that Gul was 'bin Laden's master planner' in the 9/11 plot.

Gul, on his part, maintains 9/11 is America's own creation. He told Sheela Bhatt: "To slap sanctions on Afghanistan they (the US) started spreading baseless allegations against Osama (bin Laden)."

So, what happens to Gul now?

As evidenced by his advanced knowledge of the missile strike on bin Laden, the man has friends in very high places. And he has survived much longer than the people he once served -- like Benazir Bhutto (who accused him of trying to kill her), Zia-ul Haq. Gul is hale and hearty though a former protege, a man who goes by the name of Pervez Musharraf [Images], has been buried on the outskirts of relevance.

Like all spymasters Gul knows secrets too deep, too buried in the haze and maze of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. If India can smoke him out, it will be a major triumph. But that seems highly unlikely. The general is much too powerful for the Pakistan army to agree to its extradition.

http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/dec/09mumterror-the-man-who-knows-too-much.htm

Also read:

Interview with a terrorist: General (Retired) Hamid Gul. What does he think about 9/11, Taliban, Osama Bin Laden, and democracy?

Hamid Gul, Uzma Gul, Varan Bus Service and the Transport Jihad

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