visioninthedark

http://www.dawn.com/2004/08/02/top2.htm

Fight against terror not deterred by Al Qaeda threat: military

ISLAMABAD, Aug 1: Pakistan vowed Sunday it would not be deterred by Al-Qaeda threats of further attacks after the terror group claimed responsibility for an assassination attempt on prime minister-designate Shaukat Aziz.

"It strengthens our resolve to continue our fight against terrorism," military spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan told AFP. He said Al-Qaeda's claim of responsibility for the suicide bomb attack on Aziz, which killed seven people Friday, confirmed Pakistan's assessment the group was involved in terrorist acts in the country.

"It only confirms our assessment of their involvement," he said referring to the third attempt on Pakistani leaders in recent months blamed on Al-Qaeda-linked militants.

Aziz, 55, narrowly escaped death and injury when a suicide bomber walked up to his car when he was leaving an election rally in Attock, about 45 kilometres west of Islamabad late Friday.

The blast killed Aziz's driver and six others including the attacker. President Pervez Musharraf himself survived two assassination attempts by Al-Qaeda-linked suspects in December.

Information Minister Sheikh Rashid said the attacks on the president's motorcade in Rawalpindi and the attempt on Aziz's life could be inter linked. "One can say there is a possibility that they are interlinked," Rashid told AFP.

A militant group calling itself 'Al-Islambouli Brigades, Al-Qaeda organization' posted a statement on an Islamist website claiming responsibility for Friday's attack.It said the attack was a response to Musharraf's handover of Islamist militants to the United States.

"One of our blessed squads tried to get one of America's... men in Pakistan as he returned from Fatehjang," the statement in Arabic said, referring to the site of the attack.

"This strike was a message to the Pakistani government, headed by the hypocritical traitor Pervez Musharraf, who is still handing over the mujahideen to America in order to please her," the statement said.

The purported group is named after Khaled al-Islambouli, an army officer who assassinated Egyptian president Anwar Sadat during a military parade in 1981. The statement went on to threaten more "painful strikes" if Pakistani leaders did "not stop taking orders from the despicable (US President George W.) Bush".

The military spokesman said these threats would not weaken Pakistan's resolve: "Pakistan will continue its fight against terrorism. We will fight it out." Pakistan, since becoming a key US ally in the fight against terrorism in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, has arrested more than 500 Al-Qaeda suspects and handed the majority over to US custody.

The assassination attempt on Aziz came hours after Pakistan announced it captured a key suspect in the deadly 1998 bombings by Osama bin Laden's terrorist network of two US embassies in east Africa.

Senator Aziz, a finance minister and close ally of Musharraf, has been nominated prime minister by the ruling party. He is contesting a by-election for a seat in the lower house in order to become prime minister later this month.

An economics wizard and former Citibank executive, Aziz was summoned by Musharraf to become finance minister shortly after his October 1999 coup. Commanding 30 years experience in global finance and international banking, Aziz helped bring Pakistan's economy back from the brink of bankruptcy. -AFP

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Aryan

Well, we know that arabs are behind the attacks. Surely someone can study the videos and determine where the terrorists are from by their accents.

Ray

Site Edition
Home | Archives | Contact Us | Wednesday, August 04, 2004
Sunday Magazine

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default...3-8-2004_pg3_3
SECOND OPINION: Is the ISI any good? —Khaled Ahmed’s TV Review

Let’s just say that the high-jinks of the ISI were a kind of sickness that Pakistan went through. Two ISI chiefs have gone crazy over jihad and are spouting inanities; the last incumbent under Nawaz Sharif has suffered pitifully after his overthrow. Judging from the chiefs who run at the mouth, the state chose morons to head the ISI

No secret service is respected in the world. No secret service has avoided the stigma of doing great evil. The ISI is no exception. One might however ask if the ISI has been efficient to justify the money spent on it. Not much, if you weigh that against the bad name it has earned all over the world as an incubator of terrorism. Why are secret services secret? Because they have to act outside the ambit of law. They are supposed to be used against ‘external enemy’ but sadly they are used against opponents at home by the ruling politician.

GEO (7 June 2004) host Fahd Hussain discussed the ISI with journalists Zahid Hussain and Kamran Khan. The question was why are the people of Pakistan so scared of the ISI? Zahid Hussain said because the ISI was involved in politics. ISI spooks followed the opposition around and picked them up in some cases and used terror to dissuade them from criticising the government. Kamran Khan came to the defence and said that ISI had done some great deeds for Pakistan especially in India and Afghanistan. Fahd agreed that the ISI was quite prominent. Kamran said ISI’s fame was due to Indian propaganda for which India should be thanked. He insisted that the successes of the ISI should not be ignored. Zahid said that if one says that the ISI has done great work it too goes against the ISI and becomes a blot. The ISI did not do its real job and spied on the opposition politicians. Kamran agreed that the ISI failed to foresee crises in the country. The ISI created problems for itself by training and sheltering terrorists. Today’s terrorists were once partners of the ISI. To set things right Kamran Khan’s suggestion was that intelligence agencies like ISI, IB and MI, should not be used politically and allowed to give timely information on national security. He asked the parliament to frame a new legislation forcing the governments to give up abusing the intelligence agencies.

The discussion was frank. Journalists who have often lent their services to the ISI are at times reluctant to speak out, but Zahid Hussain was quite open. States are said to be like human persons. When persons are sick they become paranoid; when states are sick they unleash their intelligence agencies. One should take no pride in the derring-do of the ISI. Let’s just say that the high-jinks of the ISI were a kind of sickness that Pakistan went through. Two ISI chiefs have gone crazy over jihad and are spouting inanities; the last incumbent under Nawaz Sharif has suffered pitifully after his overthrow. Judging from the chiefs who run at the mouth, the state chose morons to head the ISI. This sets Pakistan apart. Normally secret service chiefs are intellectually gifted individuals. Pakistanis are scared of the ISI because it can be cruel towards them in the name of national security. India’s RAW doesn’t have that kind of image in India. But whoever decided that covert war was the way to go for Pakistan is to blame for all this.

GEO (8 June 2004) host Hamid Mir talked to Ijazul Haq (PML), Anwar Beg (PPP) and Hafiz Hussain Ahmad (MMA) on national politics. Ijazul Haq said the Commonwealth was nothing more than a club in which many countries were not really democratic. Commonwealth had no right to judge Pakistan on democracy and the statement of its secretary general was interference in Pakistan’s affairs. He complained that the PPP had written a letter to the Commonwealth asking it not to take Pakistan back. Anwar Beg got out of control and it was not clear what he was trying to say. Hafiz Hussain Ahmad then tried to defend the nomination of Maulana Fazlur Rehman as the leader of opposition in the National Assembly. He said the day Mr Jamali was elected leader of the house with over 170 votes, Maulana Fazlur Rehman got 86 votes and the PPP candidate got 61. That made it clear who was to be leader of the opposition. Anwar Beg did not agree and said that PPP had more numbers finally. His main effort was to insult the ruling party and the MMA. He said the Commonwealth had taken Pakistan back because it needed Musharraf, not because Pakistan was democratic. He did not know that Hafiz Hussain Ahmad had been in jail for 13 months as a member of the ARD under General Zia.

Bad-mouthing the Commonwealth is an old pastime. It simply shows how small-minded we are. There is also much routine self-flagellation after we rejoin ‘the club’ we have been denigrating. The ‘proud nation’ syndrome emerges only when we are faced with rejection. ‘Proud’ doesn’t mean ‘unfettered’. If Ijazul Haq wants to be proud he should refuse to rejoin and suffer international isolation. That’s what proud nations do. Mulla Umar’s proud Afghanistan did that recently.

PTV (9 June 2004) Dr Farooq Sattar of the MQM was explaining the factors behind the wave of terrorism in Karachi. He said after jihad was vacated from a number of places in and around Pakistan the terrorists had all come down to Karachi. He said after Afghanistan was invaded the unemployed jihadis came to Karachi, so did those sacked from the jihad in Kashmir; and now Wana was sending its rebels to the big city. He accused the religious parties of tacitly giving them support. He said they had tried to kill Musharraf and were now trying to kill the big functionaries of the state. He also accused the old establishment of actually giving birth to the terrorists and sending them to Karachi. A PML representative insisted that Karachi terrorism was not indigenous but was a part of the global terror against whom Pakistan had joined the coalition of other states.

Karachi is of our making, not because of the global war we are fighting against terrorism. Terrorism is also our own. We created Jhang; we also created Karachi. When we pulled down a similar (unfinished) edifice in Raiwind in Lahore, ISI agents were found fighting on both sides! Some of us were deceived into thinking we were doing Islam, but in fact we were paving the way for terrorism. Most of us are still deceived. *

Home | Editorial

EDITORIAL: More ambiguity on Iraq
HISTORY: Between ‘enlightened moderation’ and jihadi fantasy —Suroosh Irfani
SECOND OPINION: Is the ISI any good? —Khaled Ahmed’s TV Review
VIEW: Infusing development with dignity —Syed Mohammad Ali
VIEW: Ethnic cleansing of black Muslims by Arabs —Iqbal Latif
VIEW: Baloch insurgency rekindling —Rashed Rahman
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"Some have learnt many Tricks of sly Evasion, Instead of Truth they use Equivocation, And eke it out with mental Reservation, Which is to good Men an Abomination."

I don't have to attend every argument I'm invited to.

HAKUNA MATATA

Ray

Interesting paradox.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/04/in...l?pagewanted=2

visioninthedark

Does any fool still claim that we don't have a free press in Pakistan??

Ray

There are some fools who miss the 'fress press of Pak' which is undeniable when confirmed by US Press and US TV.

Truth is in the eye of the beholder and some are blinkered and VISION challenged, if not totally denied! And totally in the DARK.

visioninthedark

We agree to disagree ...

but it fails me ... how can a press that is full of sometimes quite vulgar criticism of the Pak government and military on a regular and daily basis ... NOT be called free ... ???

tauseef_1981

lol!!!

the former statement was a very intelligent one.

the latter was bull's eye