India - Pakistan Crisis
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» JenL_2 - Re: Pak ISI-Daniel Pearl
In response to message posted by Steven_Russell:this from 3/12 Asia Times:
Is Musharraf spooked by his spy agency?
By Ajay Darshan Behera
Questions are being raised in the wake of journalist Daniel Pearl's kidnapping and murder about the stability of President General Pervez Musharraf's regime in Pakistan. On one hand, several terrorist attacks and sectarian killings, despite a ban on terrorist groups and many arrests, suggest the resolve of militant Islamic groups to challenge the regime. But on the other hand, there are reports suggesting that there may be rogue elements within the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency who were involved in Pearl's killing, and also accusations from Kabul that rogue ISI officers are helping the Taliban and al-Qaeda regroup in eastern Afghanistan, where a fierce battle with US forces took place over the past week. If there is any element of truth in these reports, then the question arises whether Musharraf is threatened by his own intelligence service.
Undoubtedly, Musharraf has done well so far in being able to survive the risks that were involved when he joined the war on terrorism, albeit reluctantly, for reasons of his own survival and the security of his country.
Unfortunately for him, Pearl's kidnapping and killing seems to be unraveling the deadly cocktail of radical Islamic groups and intelligence operatives that Pakistan has been host to for a fairly long time. It is now well known that the ISI patronized the Taliban, but what has not been exposed adequately is how deep ISI involvement with the region's terror networks has been, and the vested interests that the ISI may have developed in preserving these linkages.
Musharraf's crackdown on terrorist groups and the increasing pressure to extradite Sheikh Omar - the main accused in the Pearl case - to the US, are being resisted rather smartly. These issues have a bearing on the touchy question of the hidden powers of the ISI.
The ISI originated like any other civilian intelligence agency, but due to several factors over a period of time has come to be enormously powerful within Pakistan. It has been referred to as Pakistan's "state within a state" and an "invisible government".
It was created in 1948 as a result of the unsatisfactory performance of the Intelligence Bureau in the first India-Pakistan war of 1947-48 over Jammu & Kashmir, as an external intelligence gathering agency. The head of the ISI is appointed by the prime minister in consultation with the Chief of the Armed Services (COAS) and it reports to the prime minister, but organizationally it is manned by serving military officials and is actually controlled by the COAS. The COAS, generally, has retained firm control over the ISI heads. Initially, the ISI had no mandate within the country but increasingly was entrusted by ruling regimes to gather political intelligence domestically.
The stupendous rise in the power of the ISI can be understood by looking at the ethos of the Pakistani military since independence. Pakistan's torturous course of building political institutions after its separation from India brought the military to play a dominant role in nation-building. Over the years, its main concerns in the domestic arena were to suppress ethno-national movements, prevent the country from slipping into social chaos, and ensure political stability and economic modernization.
The free play of democratic forces was considered counterproductive to the objectives of a stable and modern Pakistan. Provincialism and ethnic identities were regarded by the military as threats to the territorial integrity and the ideology of Pakistan that they identified with Islam and Muslim nationalism. The military therefore, through the ISI, played an important role in weakening nationalist sentiments within the country.
Both military and democratic regimes contributed to the growth in the powers of the ISI. General Ayub Khan, the first military dictator of Pakistan, used the ISI to collect internal political intelligence in East Pakistan, where a separatist movement was brewing. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, who became the first prime minister of a truncated Pakistan in 1971, expanded its role in spying on the Baluch nationalists who launched an insurgency in the mid-'70s. But it was under General Zia ul-Haq, who usurped power by overthrowing Bhutto, and during the Afghan war in the 1980s, that the ISI underwent tremendous enhancement of its covert capabilities.
Since then it has a record of supporting and arming various extremist and radical sectarian and Islamist groups within Pakistan and in the region. After the success of the Islamic revolution in Iran in 1979, the ISI encouraged the formation of anti-Shi'ites, Sunni extremist organizations. When the MQM - a political party of the Muhajirs (settlers from India) - arose in the 1980s, the ISI armed its opponents, the Sindhi nationalists, and subsequently also managed to split the organization into two.
The US's indirect involvement in the covert war against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan since 1979 had a profound impact on the growth of the powers of the ISI by giving it a central role in the US strategy. The massive arms pipeline that was put in place to arm the Afghan mujahideen fighting the Soviet forces was managed and supervised on the ground by the ISI. It was involved in transferring, according to one estimate, 65,000 tonnes of light weapons to the mujahideen. There were subsequently allegations that the ISI siphoned off a large number of weapons from the pipeline. Further, the ISI also set up training camps to train the mujahideen. According to Ahmed Rashid, a well-known Pakistani journalist, the ISI is believed to have trained close to 80,000 Afghan fighters. To mobilize more and more young recruits for the war in Afghanistan, the conflict was termed an Islamic war against godless communism. The ISI whipped up Islamic fanaticism among the mujahideen.
The ISI's links to the religious-political organizations under Zia increased not only because he used religion to legitimize his rule, but also because the organizations were essential for recruiting to the ranks of the mujahideen.
The ISI built up links with fundamentalist parties such as the Jamaat-i-Islami and its offshoots, the Tableghi Jamaat and Markaz Dawa-al Irshad. This interaction also allowed the Islamic fundamentalist parties in Pakistan to extend influence over armed forces personnel.
While the indoctrination has been aimed at the lower and middle ranks, an increasing number of retired and serving generals espouse the cause of Islamic fundamentalism and support for the Taliban. These include Gen Aslam Beg (former COAS), Lieutenant-General Hamid Gul (former ISI chief), Lieutenant-General Javed Nasir (former ISI chief), Lieutenant-General Mohammed Ahmed (former ISI chief), and Lieutenant-General Mohammed Aziz, current Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (CJCS). A coup attempt in 1995 led by an Islamist general, Zaheer-ul-Islam Abbasi, enhanced fears of the penetration of religious extremists into the Pakistan military intelligence establishment at the lower and middle levels.
The powers of the ISI are largely a result of its being part of the military establishment, and the agency essentially follows the agenda of the military. Since 1988, when democratic governments were ushered in after a long period of military rule, elected political leaders have tried, but not succeeded, to chip away at the powers of the ISI by bringing it into a direct clash with the COAS. Prime minister Benazir Bhutto's efforts in this direction in 1989 - to choose an ISI head without consulting army chief General Aslam Beg - were eventually to result in her dismissal in 1990. The ISI also had a role in dismissing Benazir Bhutto during her second term in 1993-96.
The ISI on one side wields enormous power inside the country, and has the capacity to unseat democratic governments, but its contribution to the rise and spread of extremist Islamic groups has been phenomenal. Though powerful and capable of subversion, the Islamic groups are too weak to challenge the regime in power, as they are dependent on the ISI for their sustenance.
Since Musharraf ditched the Taliban, the rift with the radical Islamic groups has grown, and the ban placed on most of them by January 15 was the last straw. Pearl's kidnapping and murder is a message that the extremists want to assert themselves.
Speculation that rogue ISI elements may be involved in Pearl's case may not be completely ruled out. Investigations, so far, have not made much headway. There is something intriguing in the manner in which the whole affair has unfolded. Though US Secretary of State Colin Powel categorically ruled out the involvement of the ISI in Pearl's case, reports in the Pakistani press suggested that the FBI was seeking some ISI officers for questioning. Notwithstanding all this public posturing, it is highly likely that Musharraf is under intense pressure from the Americans to wind down the size and structure of the ISI or at least to weed out the rogue elements. Again, reports in the Pakistani press that Musharraf may have shut down the Afghan unit of the ISI and curbed the Kashmir unit, though not publicly acknowledged by the government, may be true and a reflection of Pakistan succumbing to intense US pressure.
Even if rogue ISI elements are involved in Pearl's case, that in itself will not be a serious challenge to Musharraf as long as he is backed by the ISI chief. He has already effected changes within the army and sidelined possible rebellion and challenge to his control of the army. He reshuffled the army on October 7, 2001, retired the former pro-Taliban ISI chief, General Mahmood Ahmed, and appointed the former Corps Commander in Peshawar, Lieutenant-General Eshanul Haq, as Director General of the ISI. There have been reports of Musharraf's differences with Lieutenant-General Mohammed Aziz, a Taliban supporter whom he sidelined by moving him from the post of Corps Commander 4 Corps, Lahore, to the largely ceremonial post of CJCS.
Most of the above measures would have helped Musharraf to sideline the pro-Taliban forces. The military, despite the fears of Islamization, is a much more cohesive force. It is highly unlikely that it would show any signs of divisiveness, as it is more interested in protecting its corporate interests. Therefore, controlling the ISI would not pose a serious challenge to Musharraf.
However, rogue elements within the ISI can side with the Islamic extremists and cause disruption, but will not be able to unseat him so easily. It is not the ISI itself that is worrying Musharraf, but the various links that the ISI has spawned over the years, about which more and more information is becoming public.
Extradition of a person like Sheikh Omar could expose some more of the links and that would bring forth a different set of challenges for Musharraf. Therefore, it is highly unlikely that Pakistan will deport Sheikh Omar to the US.
Ajay Darshan Behera is a Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, US.
....Jen
-- posted by JenL_2
» BPyles - Daniel Pearl
Jen:Thanks for all the articles, especially the Harper's web site with the confession of Sheikh Omar. After reading it, I am of the opinion that Daniel Pearl's kidnapping/death was because he was a target of opportunity. By Omar's admission, he was not experienced in kidnapping and had to go looking for targets, would entice them to his home , where others would overpower them.
Also, after reading of many of the things Pearl was working, do not see that exposure of any of them would have profound reprecussions, i.e., the smuggling - that has been common knowledge throughout the Tribal Lands, goods and opium. Had read long ago about it being so bad even the Pakistanian police would not enter. Richard Reed - doubtful anything could be exposed about that that would tumble governments - the nuclear angle, maybe, if they had gotten it into the hands of al-Qaeda, but no proof that they did.
The role of the ISI in Pakistan has also been well known for years. I didn't know it but others did, so he was not really exposing anything new there. Don't doubt that there is much to the various links that the ISI has created that is not known yet, but the manner of the kidnapping/murder of Daniel Pearl was not in their best interest. The method of releasing the tape of his murder was the very worst thing they could have done to bring any unwanted attention upon their motive(s).
Just my own personal opinion, based upon a lot of reading.
-- posted by BPyles
» JenL_2 - Re: Daniel Pearl
In response to message posted by BPyles:Gee Betty - I don't know - yeah you'd think the ISI would have nothing to gain from drawing unwanted world attention to their evil plots & schemes - but then they've used censorship by intimidation before.
I think it's not so much what Daniel Pearl knew - but that he was willing to publish what he knew in nitty-gritty detail in the most respected world-read publication, the WSJ. I think they wanted to silence him, and to do so in a manner that gave the greatest intimidation shock effect.
But then maybe he was on to something that he hadn't published yet. We have read that Pearl had made contacts with some retired ISI officers. And look at this statement in the Mansoor Ijaz interview above:
MANSOOR IJAZ: Well, I certainly can't say I've been in touch with him since the beginning of the year. I think the last conversation we had was just before Christmas, in which he was essentially iterating his story and he was definitely on to some very important and very sensitive items in that part of world. It's a very complex set of problems that he was trying to unravel and untangle.
....he was abducted a month later. I guess we'll know eventually....or maybe not!!...Jen
-- posted by JenL_2
» JenL_2 - Re: Daniel Pearl Case
More on Daniel Pearl Abduction & Murder from 3/14 MSNBC.com:<img src="http://a799.ms.akamai.net/3/799/388/e33f..." width=330 height=228 align="left">Policemen cover the mouth of Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh as he shouts at bystanders on Tuesday outside a court in Karachi, ‘Sell your dollars because America will be finished soon.’
Suspect indicted in Pearl’s slaying
Saeed charged with conspiracy, hostage-taking
MSNBC NEWS SERVICES
March 14 — A federal grand jury in New Jersey on Thursday indicted a key suspect in the kidnapping and murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. Islamic militant Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, now in custody in Pakistan, was charged with hostage taking and conspiracy to commit hostage taking, resulting in the death of Pearl. The charges carry the death penalty.
SAEED “METHODICALLY set a death trap for Daniel Pearl, lured him into it with lies and savagely ended his life,” Attorney General John Ashcroft said in announcing the indictment.
Authorities also unsealed an indictment that had secretly charged Saeed last year in a 1994 kidnapping of an American in India.
GRUESOME VIDEO
Pearl was kidnapped in January while pursuing a story in Pakistan related to Islamic fundamentalism. A gruesome videotape made by his captors surfaced after his death.
Pearl leaves behind a widow who is about to give birth to their first child.
“The U.S. has not forsaken your husband, nor the values he embodied and cherished,” Ashcroft said, addressing comments to Pearl’s widow. “The story he died trying to tell will be told, and justice will be done.”
The indictment in the Pearl case alleged Saeed trained at Afghan military camps, and also fought with Taliban and al-Qaida fighters last September and October as the war in Afghanistan was beginning.
The kidnapping plot was hatched in January and was designed “to take hostage a journalist from a U.S. newspaper in order to affect U.S. government policies,” the indictment charged.
Asked when Saeed might be brought to the United States, the attorney general said “we will be working with Pakistani authorities” on his extradition.
MESSAGE TO TERRORISTS
“We are signaling our clear interest in trying him on these charges and in bringing him to justice in the United States,” Ashcroft said in explaining why the indictment was brought Thursday.
He predicted the prosecution would send a message to terrorists who he said despised Americans’ freedom.
The indictment by the grand jury in Trenton, N.J., said Saeed caused e-mail messages to be sent under the name Chaudrey Bashir to Pearl’s Wall Street Journal e-mail address between Jan. 19 and Jan. 23.
Officials said the charges were brought in New Jersey because the e-mail messages that set up the kidnapping were routed through the Journal’s e-mail system in South Brunswick, N.J.
Saeed and others “did knowingly and willfully seize, detain and threaten to kill, injure and continue to detain Daniel Pearl, a United States national, in order to compel the United States government to do and abstain from doing certain acts,” the indictment charged.
The older indictment unsealed Thursday charged Saeed with conspiracy to commit hostage-taking, hostage-taking and aiding and abetting in connection with the 1994 kidnapping of Bela Nuss in India.
Nuss was held for 12 days before being rescued.
PROCEEDINGS IN PAKISTAN
On Tuesday, a Pakistani judge gave the Islamabad government more time to build a case against Pearl’s alleged killers.
As he left the court, Saeed shouted that “America will be finished soon.”
Two of the four suspects, including Saeed, were brought to a Karachi court in an armored personnel carrier. Their heads were covered by scarves as they entered for a pretrial hearing.
Defense lawyers urged that the suspects be charged and a trial date set or they be released.
But Judge Shabbir Ahmed agreed to a government request for more time to find Pearl’s body, retrieve the murder weapon, complete interrogation and receive an FBI report on the videotape that confirmed the journalist’s death.
During the closed-door session, the judge ordered Saeed and fellow suspect Sheikh Mohammed Adeel held for another 10 days, according to chief prosecutor Raja Quereshi. Another hearing is expected around March 22.
Defense lawyer Khwaja Naveed said the extension was the last chance for police to finish questioning the suspects. Two other suspects are also in custody.
SUSPECT MAKES THREATS
According to chief prosecutor Quereshi, Saeed threatened during the closed-door proceedings that if he were sent to America, he would return here as he did from India — a reference to his release by Indian authorities in December 1999 in exchange for passengers and crew of an Indian Airlines jet hijacked to Afghanistan.
Saeed also warned that if he were killed in a “fake encounter at the behest of America,” Americans would “suffer the consequences,” Quereshi said.
As Saeed was being hustled into an armored personnel carrier for the trip back to jail, he shouted at bystanders: “Sell your dollars because America will be finished soon.”
Pearl, the Journal’s South Asia bureau chief, was abducted Jan. 23 in Karachi on his way to a meeting with Islamic militant contacts. He was looking into possible links between Pakistani extremists and Richard C. Reid, arrested in December on a flight from Paris to Miami with explosives in his shoes.
A few days later, e-mails including pictures of Pearl in captivity were received by American and Pakistani news organizations.
Last month, a videotape received by the U.S. Consulate in Karachi showed Pearl dead.
Saeed was arrested before the videotape was received.
At his first hearing, he admitted to his role in the kidnapping but later recanted. The statement is inadmissible because it was not made under oath.
A police official said experts had confirmed that the scenes shown in the videotape were genuine and that Pearl was murdered, but said the court would have to decide whether the film was admissible as evidence.
The three other suspects were arrested Jan. 30 after the FBI and police traced the e-mails to a laptop belonging to one of them, Fahad Naseem. Naseem confessed and said Saeed told him three days before the kidnapping that he planned to abduct someone who is “anti-Islam and a Jew.”
The U.S. State Department confirmed on Thursday that kidnapped Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was killed by his captors.
Source: The Associated Press
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
.....Jen
-- posted by JenL_2
» BPyles - Daniel Pearl
Jen: Sounds like they need a roll of duct tape for Omar..read an article at Dawn that told of a man confessing to the actual murder and disposing of the body, but getting so leery of Pak newspapers, did some searching looking to confirm it. Instead found this saying it was phony.------------------------
Killer’s drama flops in Pearl murder, Pakistan Observer, 3-15-02
LAHORE—The self proclaimed killer of the US journalist Denial Pearl flopped his own drama during preliminary police and media persons’ interrogations and queries late Thursday.
Adnan Khan told police and the media persons that he wanted to provide relief to the prime suspect of the Wall Street Journal correspondent murder by confessing undone crime.
I wanted to help Omar Shaikh but as it turned out I can’t stand it, he said only hours after claiming to have main role in the killing of Pearl.
Police and media persons remained guessing as what to believe and what not after the contradictory statements of the mysterious character.
Earlier Thursday evening Adnan Khan known as Sunny was taken into custody when he offered arrest at a newspaper office.
He said, I axed him to death and then cut the body to pieces before dropping it into the sea at a distance of few minutes from the Karachi coast.
He said that some other people too accompanied him in a launch but they had kept their faces covered that why Its difficult for me to recognise them.
Police reached to the newspaper office when informed and took him into custody after primary interrogation.
Adnan said that he has offered arrest at a newspaper office so that it could be kept on record adding that he was worried that police would kill him in a police encounter.
-- posted by BPyles
» JenL_2 - Re: Daniel Pearl
In response to message posted by BPyles:Yeah Betty - same here! First saw this pic at Yahoo...
<img src="http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/a..." width=361 height=450 align="left">Adnan, center, is escorted by police in Lahore, Pakistan Thursday, March 14, 2002. The man, identified only as Adnan who turned himself to police, claimed that he has killed the Wall Street Journal's reporter Daniel Pearl. Police told that we are trying to verify his credibility. A videotape received last month by the U.S. Consulate in Karachi confirmed Pearl was dead. (AP Photo/Khabrain)
....and wondered who the heck is this guy! and then found this story....
Pakistani Khan Retracts Pearl Murder Confession Adnan Khan told reporters he had lied to try to save the life of British-born militant Ahmed Saeed Omar Sheikh, who is in custody in Pakistan and whom U.S. authorities indicted on Thursday for Pearl's abduction. Khan was arrested in the eastern city of Lahore after telling a newspaper he was the killer. Police say Khan, like Sheikh Omar, seemed to be linked to the banned Jaish-i-Mohammad (army of Mohammad) group. "I was worried because of my family problems...and wanted to commit suicide," Khan told reporters. "But then I thought if I have to die, why not save the life of a member of our organization." The U.S. Justice Department said Omar had been indicted on one count of hostage-taking and one count of conspiring to take hostages resulting in the death of Pearl, a Wall Street Journal correspondent killed on January 30. Police said Khan had been cleared of any suspicion over Pearl's murder after several hours of interrogation but they would keep him for another day or two for his personal safety....
LAHORE, Pakistan (Reuters) - A Pakistani arrested on Thursday after claiming he murdered U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl retracted his confession hours later.
Least they could do is interrogate him to learn more about the Jaish-i-Mohammad is upto...oh yeah forgot....they already know!.....Jen
-- posted by JenL_2
» JenL_2 - Re: Gunmen try to free Pearl kidnap suspect
In response to message posted by BPyles:editorial followup on this incident and some pretty hard questions asked of the Pakistan gov at 3/12 Dawn.com:
By A.B.S. Jafri
Has anyone wielding authority in Islamabad or Karachi, or anywhere in the country, given any serious thought to the terrorist attack on a prisoners van in Karachi last week? At least one policeman, in uniform and on a highly sensitive duty, was killed. This was an audacious challenge to, and onslaught on, the authority of the state. To look at that incident in any other light would be an error, indeed an unwise misreading of a very ominous situation.
President Pervez Musharraf has been complimented by many important political and government leaders of the world for his courage in handling the religious extremists in the country. This praise has been well deserved. There is no doubt that the steps his government has taken following that initiative of last January 12, have made a qualitative improvement in the general climate in the country.
Now the shooting at the prisoners van in Karachi warns us that what has been done so far may have been correct but it remains far from adequate. The extremist fringe in the country has only been nudged on the defensive, by no means defeated. Most certainly not put out of action altogether. It is still doing battle, launching frontal attacks on the state itself.
In that incident, the attackers tried and succeeded in registering their presence in a pretty masterful way. They did all the shooting. Mind you it was targeted shooting. Then, as terror operators in our country always manage to do, the attackers made good their escape. It is about time somebody within the government, at the federal level as well as provincial, tried to discover why the killers always manage to escape after doing their fell deed. The emphasis here is on always. Behind this record probably lies a tale of dents in the law and order policy as well as apparatus.
The gunmen who so defiantly used their sophisticated weapons on the prisoners van were on a mission the nature of which is not difficult to figure out. They wanted to take possession of the under-trial detainees in police custody. That is, in the custody of the state. It amounted to a fairly straightforward attack on the state. The persons they had set out to take away were suspected of involvement in extremist excesses. The nexus and its nature is evident.
Who those desperate gunmen represented should thus be more than obvious to all concerned. We can safely infer from the circumstances surrounding incident that the gunmen were the activist projection of the religious and sectarian extremism. The president has promised to this nation, and to the world at large, to combat these very elements that use naked violence and reckless gun power to promote their unacceptable extremist agenda of violence and terror.
The lines are thus quite clearly drawn. It is now a declared battle between the misguided and violent religious extremism on one side and the forces of the state and sanity on the other. All that the president can claim to have won so far is to have played and won only the first round. Not a great deal more than that. The prevailing situation demands that the government should be prepared for a long-drawn-out campaign - and to fight it to the finish. No half-way houses in this endeavour.
On the other side in this no-holds-barred contest is a formidable combination of deeply entrenched forces of ignorance, bigotry, fanaticism and sadism that feeds on violence and blood for its own sake. If any foolproof evidence of the depth and strength of these organized forces was still needed, the Daniel Pearl case had provided it in more than enough measure.
As should now be clear to all who have eyes to see and a modicum of common sense to understand, the dimensions of the extremist forces are simply mind-boggling. One should like to hope that at least some minds inside the ministry of the interior and in the corridors of the intelligence establishments have at last begun to boggle.
It is not too soon to be asking ourselves about how wide open those eyes of the state have been that should be focusing on what other eyes cannot penetrate? Obviously, the state did not have a clue about the web in which Daniel Pearl got caught and could not be rescued from, some Herculean efforts by experts of international repute notwithstanding. Much the same has to be said about the gunmen who attacked the prisoners van in Karachi the other day and got away with it without so much as a scratch. The forces of the state could neither anticipate the attack, nor give the attackers a return fight.
Let no one be under any illusions about how the fight against extremism has gone so far. At the very best, it remains a draw, with the foe most probably having an upper hand on points. An impartial verdict from Islamabad would be that the government has neither been steadfast nor persevering in its pursuit of the extremists. The view from Karachi is, if anything, more disappointing. Here the forces of law are daily losing battle after battle against petty vehicle thieves, not to speak of organized international terror networks of the kind Sheikh Omar possibly represents. One can name some more.
It was only for a brief while that the illiterate professional mulla could be seen as halted. He is back in his business without even a bruise, not to speak of injury or hurt. For reasons known only to itself, the government has made no visible or perceptible moves to follow up on the initiative of last December. It may appear to be sliding into inaction, if not actual retreat.
On the issue of the deeni madaris the federal government seems to lack the requisite will to act systematically and firmly. It has chosen the line of least resistance, having passed the buck to the city nazims. Who does not know that, as it is, these poor elected creatures are beset against the deeply entrenched babus - the hardened do-nothing government bureaucrats.
The nazims have yet to find their feet. Many, probably most, of these nazims do not yet have an established office of their own. Their financial powers are no more than an illusion. In most cases the officers under the nazims are the unwilling workers who know their way about the official labyrinth and red tape, leaving the nazim to tie themselves up into knots.
To expect these city nazims, still too new to their own jobs, to carry out a major reform in the deeni madaris is the very depth to which one can push naivete. Why is the federal government fighting shy of organizing and implementing a national movement to reform the deeni madaris? What is needed is a unified, systematic national policy, strategy and implementing instruments. This matter simply cannot be tackled effectively from any level lower than the national level.
Leaving this matter to the town nazim level is bound to send dangerously encouraging signals to the obscurantists on the one hand, and on the other depressing messages to the law enforcing bureaucracy, such as it is. This would strongly suggest that the president has downgraded the entire campaign. Any vacillation on the deeni madaris reform will be seen as foot-dragging by none but the president himself. This may amount to putting the whole campaign in the reverse gear.
Having cleared the initial phase, now was the time for the federal government to move full steam ahead with its programme to rescue the country from the stranglehold of the mulla fascism. Any faltering on this front at this supremely sensitive moment will have a very negative effect on the rekindled interest of foreign investment in Pakistan. And this will have a domino effect all over the national economy.
This country's economy has been hostage to the extremist violence for so long. Now that the barren patch appears to be ending, giving in to the obscurantist mafia would ruin whatever improvement has been achieved by some resolute initiatives. Don't we know to our cost that poor economy breeds all manner of political and social evils? Surely that is not what the president and his government were playing for. Why appear to be developing cold feet after winning the first round? Any concession or compromise now would be tantamount to hoisting the white flag.
....Jen
-- posted by JenL_2
» JenL_2 - Re: USA vs Omar Saeed
More on the Indictment of Pearl murder suspectUSA vs Ahmad Omar Saeed Sheikh - Indictment in pdf format
if you can't read this - download the latest free Adobe-acrobat reader from http://www.adobe.com
....Jen
-- posted by JenL_2
» Steven_Russell - Pakistan releases terrorist
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/artic...Pakistan releases pro-Taliban radical
AFP [ SUNDAY, MARCH 17, 2002 5:02:39 PM ]
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan authorities have released the leader of a pro-Taliban radical party who had called for a holy war in support of the ousted Afghan militia, his party said on Sunday.
Maulana Fazalur Rehman, who heads the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islami party, was detained in October after he called for a jehad, or holy war, in support of Afghanistan's Taliban militia during the US-led military campaign against the now ousted regime.
"He has been released and his detention order was withdrawn. He is back at his home," party spokesman Riaz Durrani from the eastern city of Lahore.
Rehman, who led several anti-US rallies during the military campaign against Taliban, had been detained in a rest house at Chashma in the central province of Punjab and under house arrest at his home.
--------------------------------------------------
Maulana Fazal-ur Rehman ----------------- released by Pakistan March 17, 2002; was Pakistan PRISONER detained in a rest house at Chashma in Punjab and under house arrest at his home in Pakistan as of September 2001; he had helped create the Taliban
Islamic activist and leader of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, in a border area of Pakistan, a powerful Pakistani religious party sympathetic to Afghanistan's deposed Taliban militia. Its main support base is in parts of Pakistan's North West Frontier and Baluchistan provinces, both of which border on Afghanistan. Rehman had helped create the Taliban. His group helped orchestrate some of the largest pro-Taliban protests in Pakistan after U.S. airstrikes on Afghanistan began in October 2001.
-- posted by Steven_Russell
» JenL_2 - Re: Pakistan releases terrorist
In response to message posted by Steven_Russell:Hmmm - wonder why they released him? Is it because Pakistan law doesn't seem to be able to give hard time befitting the crime? Or does the CIA think that he will somehow lead them to bin Laden? Some background articles on Maulana Fazal-ur Rehman....
JUI warns US of grave consequences Dawn.com Bureau Report PESHAWAR, Sept 21: JUI chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman has warned the United States of grave consequences if it attacked Afghanistan. He was speaking at a public meeting jointly organized by Jamiat-i-Ulema-i-Islam and Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan on Friday in connection with the strike called to protest against the possible attack on Afghanistan. Prof Ibrahim, provincial chief of Jamaat-i-Islami, NWFP, and Shabbir Ahmed Khan, chief of JI's Shabab-i-Milli, addressed and led a protest rally which originated from Mohabat Khan mosque, here. At both the rallies, speakers took exception to the US government step naming Osama bin Laden as prime suspect for the latest terrorist attacks in America and looming US strikes in Afghanistan. Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman told America "don't bring fire to our country, if our homes get burn the same would happen to the people of America". He announced country-wide protest rallies and meetings from Saturday to lodge their protest against the possible attacks on Afghanistan and Pakistan's support to it. The Americans, said Fazal, had simultaneously assumed the roles of an accuser, prosecutor and a judge in its efforts to convict Osama. "Is it in accordance with the principles of justice," he posed a question and said that without providing solid evidence to prove Osama's involvement in the latest attacks the US was unjustified in its demand to get bin Laden's custody. (clip) Taking exception to US President Bush's remarks of launching crusade, Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman said that "if war against Afghanistan would be a crusade then let it be (a crusade), we have a history of crusades". The speakers said that war against Afghanistan would be considered a war against the entire Muslim world. If the government of Pakistan and the country's army had turned away from Afghans in these days of hard time, religious parties and Jihadi organizations of Pakistan would fight war to protect Afghanistan..... <img src="http://www.tennessean.com/multimedia/sli..." width=350 height=258> By Uli Schmetzer ISLAMABAD -- Pakistan's most vocal radical Islamic leader was charged with sedition Tuesday, hours after President Pervez Musharraf promised U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell that he would introduce modern education into religious schools so those institutions no longer would make heroes of men like Osama bin Laden. "We need to take long-term actions to check these extremist views," Musharraf said during a news conference. (clip) Musharraf, who often argues the best way to neutralize a snake is to cut off its head, made good on his promise to clamp down on extremists when state prosecutors charged Maulana Fazal-ur Rehman with sedition, kept him under house arrest and disconnected his telephone. Rehman was at his home in Dera Ismail Khan, 120 miles south of the northern border city of Peshawar. The prominent cleric, fiercely pro-Taliban and anti-American, had been under house arrest since last week. He is accused of "inciting the public to riot." Rehman is the leader of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, or Party of Islamic Clerics, a movement in the vanguard of recent nationwide riots. At least eight civilians and two police officers were killed in the protests last week. Rehman's party denounced the charges..... The Associated Press KABUL, Afghanistan (December 27, 2001 1:28 p.m. EST) - Osama bin Laden is believed to be in a border area of Pakistan with "friends" of a pro-Taliban religious party leader, an official in Afghanistan's new interim government said Thursday. Mohammad Abeel, spokesman for Afghan defense ministry, said they were associates of Maulana Fazal-ur Rehman, leader of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam party. He did not elaborate or divulge the source of his information. The party is sympathetic to Afghanistan's deposed Taliban militia. Its main support base is parts of Pakistan's North West Frontier and Baluchistan provinces, both of which border Afghanistan. It helped orchestrate some of the largest pro-Taliban protests in Pakistan after U.S. air strikes began in Afghanistan in October. Riaz Durrani, central information secretary for Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, rejected the report about bin Laden as "baseless." "We support the Taliban, but never had any connection with Osama bin Laden," he said. "Maulana Fazal-ur Rehman is under detention for the last three months. How can he or his party do this?" (clip) "He's not in Pakistan, of that we are reasonably sure. But we can't be 100 percent sure. We have sealed the borders between Afghanistan and Pakistan," Musharraf said.
Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam leader Maulana Fazal-ur Rehman is seen at a protest on Oct. 6 in Peshawar, Pakistan. Rehman was placed under house arrest on Oct. 7 to keep him from leading more protests against the U.S. campaign to apprehend Osama bin Laden, his party and police said. (AP / Shabbir Hussain Imam)
http://www.tennessean.com/multimedia/sli...
Chigago Tribune foreign correspondent
Published October 17, 2001
Afghan official says bin Laden believed in Pakistan
.....Jen
-- posted by JenL_2
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