| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"nkdatta8839" |
| Date: |
03 Nov 2003 07:36:15 PM |
| Object: |
Pakistan's Dictator: An Unreliable Ally |
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A49233-2003Oct31.html
Washington Post
Sunday, November 2, 2003; Page B06
EDITORIAL
Haven for the Taliban
THE PAKISTANI CITY of Quetta lately has become more than a provincial
capital; it might also be described as the new headquarters of the
extremist Taliban movement, which ruled Afghanistan and sheltered
Osama bin Laden until two years ago. According to one recent report by
the respected Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid, "Thousands of Taliban
fighters reside in mosques and madrassas with the full support of a
provincial ruling party and militant Pakistani groups. Taliban leaders
wanted by the U.S. and Kabul governments are living openly in nearby
villages." Mr. Rashid quoted the provincial government's information
minister as saying, "Only the Taliban can constitute the real
government of Afghanistan." During a recent visit, The Post's John
Lancaster met with a Taliban recruiter who described how he traveled
with 14 other Pakistanis across the border into Afghanistan last
summer to wage war against U.S. and Afghan government forces. "It's no
problem at all to cross back and forth," the recruiter said.
All this is happening in a country whose government claims to be an
ally of the United States in the war on terrorism and to which the
Bush administration has pledged more than $3 billion in aid -- the
down payment on what it describes as a "long-term commitment." The
Taliban leaders and their followers are not ensconced in remote caves
or dispersed across trackless badlands but operate openly in a major
city, where they effectively control several neighborhoods. Local
politicians deliver speeches and raise money on their behalf. When
they travel to Afghanistan to carry out attacks, they cross not in
ones or twos but by the score, in buses that are waved through by
Pakistani border guards. In the past several months they have killed
more than 400 Afghan civilians and soldiers, along with several U.S.
soldiers, in various attacks.
If Afghanistan now is in danger of slipping back into the chaos of
civil war, the haven and support found by a regrouping Taliban in
Pakistan is a major cause. Yet the Bush administration continues to
shrink from demanding accountability from President Pervez Musharraf.
Last month, just before a visit to Islamabad, Deputy Secretary of
State Richard L. Armitage hinted at an open secret -- that parts of
Gen. Musharraf's army and security forces don't support the war on
terrorism. But the army carried out a raid against al Qaeda just
before the arrival of the American delegation, and Mr. Armitage
pronounced himself "thrilled" by his conversation with Mr. Musharraf.
"This is a special relationship to the United States," he said, "one
that President Bush treasures particularly."
The Bush administration seems to believe it has no choice but to work
with Mr. Musharraf, who is good at promising to combat Islamic
extremism -- and at pointing to it as the alternative should his
government fail. In late September the administration coaxed its
client to sign a written agreement promising to strengthen control
over "frontier areas bordering Afghanistan." That's a big job, but
it's hard to see why Mr. Musharraf can't at least prevent open Taliban
operations in Quetta and other cities. Congress recently renewed
conditions on aid to Pakistan and added a provision requiring the
administration to certify that Pakistan is cooperating in the war on
terrorism. If the United States is to continue supporting his regime,
the general must be held to that requirement.
================================================================================
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/10/international/asia/10STAN.html?pagewanted=1
NY Times
September 10, 2003
Questions Grow on Pakistan's Commitment to Fight Taliban
By DAVID ROHDE
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Sept. 9 - Two years after the Sept. 11 attacks,
questions are growing about whether Pakistan, a crucial American ally
in the campaign against terrorism, is mounting a sincere effort to
crack down on a resurgent Taliban and other Islamic militants.
The Pakistani military, which dominates the country, is credited by
American officials with excellent cooperation in hunting down members
of Al Qaeda. But members of the Afghan government and some Pakistani
political and intelligence officials suggest that Pakistan is not
doing all it could to stop Taliban forces from using its territory to
attack Afghan territory, and that some elements of Pakistan's army are
harboring Taliban and Qaeda members.
At least three low-level Pakistani army officers have been arrested on
charges that they helped Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Al Qaeda's chief of
operations, hide in the country before his arrest in March, Pakistani
intelligence officials said. These officials believe that that the
most likely hiding place of Osama bin Laden is in the tribal areas
along the Pakistani-Afghan border.
Overwhelming public support for Mr. bin Laden among the area's
religiously conservative Pashtun tribes continues to thwart efforts to
arrest him, they said.
Such support is also evident elsewhere. Islamic militants are again
operating openly in Pakistan. Last Friday afternoon at the Red Mosque
in the center of Islamabad, the nation's capital, Fazlur Rehman
Khalil, the former head of Harkat-ul-Mujahedeen, delivered a sermon to
hundreds of worshippers as police officers lounged outside.
The State Department has declared the group a terrorist organization.
In 1998, Mr. Khalil supported Mr. bin Laden's call for attacks on the
United States and Western interests. After the Sept. 11 terrorist
attacks in the United States, Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez
Musharraf, banned the group. Mr. Khalil dissolved his former group and
created a new one, Jamiat-ul-Ansar.
On Friday, he exhorted listeners to participate in "jihad," or holy
war, but did not to say where.
"Our salvation lies in obeying the orders of Allah, not America," Mr.
Khalil said. "If we don't do jihad, our prayers and fasting will not
be accepted. This is a sacred duty."
After he spoke, members of a new group collected money from
worshippers. Asked what the money was for, two members of the group
said jihad in Kashmir, where Islamic guerrillas are fighting to
overthrow Indian rule. Asked if it was also for jihad in Afghanistan,
one answered "Praise be to God." The other quickly cut him off and
said "no."
Members of the group sold a copy of the September 2003 issue of their
magazine. Its cover featured an interview with Mr. Khalil in which he
stated that "America should announce its defeat" in Afghanistan and
Pakistan.
The back page contained a report saying that in Afghanistan, "a raging
battle betwen Islam and the infidels is continuing."
In an interview, Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri said
Pakistan was fighting terrorism and Islamic extremism by all possible
means. He cited the influx of 3.5 million Afghan refugees into
Pakistan over the last 25 tumultuous years and scoffed at the idea
that Pakistan would try to destabilize its neighbor.
"We have perhaps more to lose than any other country," he said,
referring to a rise in poverty and Islamic radicalism that he
attributed, in part, to Afghanistan's wars. "We have paid in ways no
other county has paid."
The United States has shown no sign of questioning Pakistan's
commitment to fighting terror. President Bush called Mr. Musharraf on
Monday to thank him for Pakistan's contribution, the Foreign Ministry
said. American officials believe that the Pakistani intelligence
services, once seen as a key agent in the creation of the Taliban,
have been thoroughly reformed since Sept. 11, 2001, and are now
committed to fighting both Islamic extremism and terrorism.
Western diplomats say the Taliban is building up its forces along the
border and running a recruiting network inside Pakistan. But they see
the problem as one of Pakistani capacity and politics, not will, and
say they have seen no evidence of direct aid from Pakistan's
government to the Taliban. "They may not know what to do," said one
Western diplomat.
They said the problem was that Pakistan's government was struggling to
counter a culture of Islamic militancy that dates back to the
anti-Soviet struggle in Afghanistan in the 1980's, a movement the
United States helped to create.
But Afghan and Indian officials, as well as some Pakistanis, contend
that the Pakistani military, its allegiances torn, is playing a double
game with the United States.
Pakistan serves up the occasional Qaeda fugitive to appease American
officials, they say. At the same time, it makes little effort to
eradicate the Taliban and other militant groups that serve its foreign
policy goals by fighting against India, its archrival.
Pakistani hard-liners see Northern Alliance commanders that dominate
the Afghan Defense Ministry as Indian allies and warn that Pakistan is
being surrounded by hostile neighbors.
Senior Pakistani government and intelligence officials dismissed the
idea that their country might seek to foment trouble in Afghanistan
for strategic reasons. General Musharraf has faced assassination
attempts from militants, they say, for aiding the United States.
Whatever the real extent of Pakistan's assistance, there are signs
that the invasion of Iraq, as well as disappointment with the American
effort to rebuild Afghanistan, have deepened an ambivalence in the
lower ranks of Pakistan's army and law enforcement agencies. One
Pakistani intelligence official involved in the hunt for militants
said that Al Qaeda was a threat to Pakistan's government, but that the
Taliban are not.
In the border regions, an alliance of Islamic political parties won
control in elections last October. The leading party in the alliance,
the Jamiat Ulema Islam, runs a network of Islamic religious schools,
known as madrasas, inside Pakistan that produced the Taliban
leadership.
Afghan officials say Quetta, a city in southwestern Pakistan, has
become a new haven for the Taliban.
Last Saturday, Taliban flags flew from shops in Pashtunabad, a quarter
in the city packed with ethnic Pashtuns refugees from Afghanistan.
Dozens of young students from madrasas wore large black turbans, a
Taliban trademark.
Mullah Borjan, a madrasa student who said he was 23 or 24, said he
planned to join the fight over the border.
"I will help Islam," he said, as other young students looked on
approvingly. "I will start fighting."
================================================================================
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| User: "nkdatta8839" |
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| Title: Re: Pakistan's Dictator: An Unreliable Ally |
17 Nov 2003 01:07:17 PM |
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Reuters
Monday, November 17, 2003; 7:40 AM
Pakistan Extends Militant Crackdown Amid Skepticism
By Tahir Ikram
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan said Monday it plans to extend a new
crackdown on Islamic militants but analysts questioned whether the
drive would be sustained and why one of the most feared groups had
only been put under surveillance.
At the weekend, police raided and sealed at least 25 offices of three
militant groups outlawed by President Pervez Musharraf last year, and
arrested 16 militant suspects. The move came after the U.S. ambassador
to Pakistan expressed concern last week that the banned groups had
simply re-emerged under new names.
As part of a broader campaign to show Pakistan is serious about
fighting militancy, authorities in the southwestern city of Quetta say
they have rounded up 400 Afghan illegal immigrants in the past week
and are investigating if they have militant links.
An interior ministry official told Reuters two more Islamic groups
could be banned soon and fresh moves on a further two groups were in
the offing.
However, Jamaat-ud-Dawa, a group made up of members of the
Lashkar-e-Taiba group banned last year, was only placed on a "watch
list," a move likely to anger neighbor and rival India.
Lashkar, widely thought to have links to Pakistan's intelligence
services, was one of two groups accused by India of carrying out a
bloody attack on its parliament in December 2001 and has been perhaps
the most active of the Islamic groups fighting Indian rule in Kashmir.
Musharraf banned several militant groups last year in the aftermath of
the September 11 attacks on the United States in 2001 and the attack
on the Indian parliament.
As well as fighting India in Kashmir, Pakistani militant groups have
helped anti-American forces in Afghanistan and launched bloody attacks
on Western, Christian and sectarian targets at home.
SHI'ITE LEADER ARRESTED
The latest crackdown began with the arrest of Sajid Ali Naqvi, a
Shi'ite accused of involvement in attacks against majority Sunni
Muslims, and the banning of his organization, Islami
Tehrik-e-Pakistan.
The order also banned Khudam-ul Islam, formerly known as
Jaish-e-Mohammad, which has been fighting Indian rule in Kashmir, and
Millat-e-Islamia Pakistan, a radical Sunni group formerly known as
Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan.
The interior ministry official said the government now planned to move
against four more groups, including Tanzeem-ul Furqan -- a breakaway
faction of the banned Jaish-e-Mohammad, the second group blamed by
India for the parliament attack.
The others are Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat Mohammadi, a group that sent
thousands of tribesmen to Afghanistan to help the Taliban against the
United States, Jamiat-ul-Ansar, a faction of Kashmiri militant group
Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, and the Al-Rashid Trust, a charity accused of
financing militancy.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Masood Khan told a weekly news conference
the moves had been taken in the "national interest" and the operation
would be complete within 72 hours.
"And terrorist financing, the sources of terrorist financing...will
also be choked," he said. The daily The News said the moves against
the extremists enjoyed widespread public support but said such orders
had been easily circumvented in the past.
An editorial in the Daily Times newspaper said Musharraf would be
judged by deeds not words and noted that Lashkar-e-Taiba leader Hafiz
Saeed had been able to continue operating freely, issuing threats to
the outside world and holding mass meetings.
"Now the government has put his organization 'under surveillance'.
What good that will do remains to be seen."
The skepticism was echoed by Samina Ahmed, Pakistan director of the
Brussels-based think tank, the International Crisis Group.
"We have to see whether these groups re-emerge under new names, or if
it's going to be sustained. It will be clear when the people who have
been arrested are charged and tried."
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| Title: Re: Pakistan's Dictator: An Unreliable Ally |
13 Nov 2003 05:04:14 PM |
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Reuters
Thursday, November 13, 2003; 2:36 PM
U.S. Concerned at Militants Regrouping in Pakistan
By Zeeshan Haider
KARACHI (Reuters) - The United States ambassador to Pakistan said on
Thursday Washington was concerned about the re-emergence of outlawed
Islamic militant groups in Pakistan under new names.
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, a key ally in the U.S.-led war
on terror, banned five militant groups last year in the wake of the
September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States and an assault on the
Indian parliament.
But the organizations have regrouped in recent months and their
leaders have delivered speeches against the United States and India at
public rallies .
Ambassador Nancy Powell said the groups posed a "serious threat" to
Pakistan, to the United States and to the region.
"We are particularly concerned that these banned organizations are
re-establishing themselves with new names." she said in a talk on the
state of Pakistan-India relations.
Among those banned by Musharraf included Lashkar-e-Taiba and
Jaish-e-Mohammad groups which India blamed for the attack on its
parliament which brought the two nuclear-armed rivals to the brink of
war last year.
These groups, also declared as terrorist organizations by the United
States, have restyled themselves as religious welfare organizations
involved in preaching Islam, running hospitals and schools.
Powell said Washington would continue to work with Pakistan to monitor
how well action to curb extremist groups were working.
India accuses Pakistan of waging a proxy war in Kashmir by sending
Islamic militants to fight its rule in the disputed Himalayan region.
Pakistan says it has done all it can to stop cross-border infiltration
of the Muslim guerrillas and accuses India of repressing, what it says
is the "legitimate freedom struggle of Kashmir."
Powell said Pakistan had taken many steps to counter cross-border
incursions of Islamic militants. "We are asking it to continue to
enhance these efforts...ending violence in Kashmir remains a key
goal."
================================================================================
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A49233-2003Oct31.html
Washington Post
Sunday, November 2, 2003; Page B06
EDITORIAL
Haven for the Taliban
THE PAKISTANI CITY of Quetta lately has become more than a provincial
capital; it might also be described as the new headquarters of the
extremist Taliban movement, which ruled Afghanistan and sheltered
Osama bin Laden until two years ago. According to one recent report by
the respected Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid, "Thousands of Taliban
fighters reside in mosques and madrassas with the full support of a
provincial ruling party and militant Pakistani groups. Taliban leaders
wanted by the U.S. and Kabul governments are living openly in nearby
villages." Mr. Rashid quoted the provincial government's information
minister as saying, "Only the Taliban can constitute the real
government of Afghanistan." During a recent visit, The Post's John
Lancaster met with a Taliban recruiter who described how he traveled
with 14 other Pakistanis across the border into Afghanistan last
summer to wage war against U.S. and Afghan government forces. "It's no
problem at all to cross back and forth," the recruiter said.
All this is happening in a country whose government claims to be an
ally of the United States in the war on terrorism and to which the
Bush administration has pledged more than $3 billion in aid -- the
down payment on what it describes as a "long-term commitment." The
Taliban leaders and their followers are not ensconced in remote caves
or dispersed across trackless badlands but operate openly in a major
city, where they effectively control several neighborhoods. Local
politicians deliver speeches and raise money on their behalf. When
they travel to Afghanistan to carry out attacks, they cross not in
ones or twos but by the score, in buses that are waved through by
Pakistani border guards. In the past several months they have killed
more than 400 Afghan civilians and soldiers, along with several U.S.
soldiers, in various attacks.
If Afghanistan now is in danger of slipping back into the chaos of
civil war, the haven and support found by a regrouping Taliban in
Pakistan is a major cause. Yet the Bush administration continues to
shrink from demanding accountability from President Pervez Musharraf.
Last month, just before a visit to Islamabad, Deputy Secretary of
State Richard L. Armitage hinted at an open secret -- that parts of
Gen. Musharraf's army and security forces don't support the war on
terrorism. But the army carried out a raid against al Qaeda just
before the arrival of the American delegation, and Mr. Armitage
pronounced himself "thrilled" by his conversation with Mr. Musharraf.
"This is a special relationship to the United States," he said, "one
that President Bush treasures particularly."
The Bush administration seems to believe it has no choice but to work
with Mr. Musharraf, who is good at promising to combat Islamic
extremism -- and at pointing to it as the alternative should his
government fail. In late September the administration coaxed its
client to sign a written agreement promising to strengthen control
over "frontier areas bordering Afghanistan." That's a big job, but
it's hard to see why Mr. Musharraf can't at least prevent open Taliban
operations in Quetta and other cities. Congress recently renewed
conditions on aid to Pakistan and added a provision requiring the
administration to certify that Pakistan is cooperating in the war on
terrorism. If the United States is to continue supporting his regime,
the general must be held to that requirement.
================================================================================
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/10/international/asia/10STAN.html?pagewanted=1
NY Times
September 10, 2003
Questions Grow on Pakistan's Commitment to Fight Taliban
By DAVID ROHDE
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Sept. 9 - Two years after the Sept. 11 attacks,
questions are growing about whether Pakistan, a crucial American ally
in the campaign against terrorism, is mounting a sincere effort to
crack down on a resurgent Taliban and other Islamic militants.
The Pakistani military, which dominates the country, is credited by
American officials with excellent cooperation in hunting down members
of Al Qaeda. But members of the Afghan government and some Pakistani
political and intelligence officials suggest that Pakistan is not
doing all it could to stop Taliban forces from using its territory to
attack Afghan territory, and that some elements of Pakistan's army are
harboring Taliban and Qaeda members.
At least three low-level Pakistani army officers have been arrested on
charges that they helped Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Al Qaeda's chief of
operations, hide in the country before his arrest in March, Pakistani
intelligence officials said. These officials believe that that the
most likely hiding place of Osama bin Laden is in the tribal areas
along the Pakistani-Afghan border.
Overwhelming public support for Mr. bin Laden among the area's
religiously conservative Pashtun tribes continues to thwart efforts to
arrest him, they said.
Such support is also evident elsewhere. Islamic militants are again
operating openly in Pakistan. Last Friday afternoon at the Red Mosque
in the center of Islamabad, the nation's capital, Fazlur Rehman
Khalil, the former head of Harkat-ul-Mujahedeen, delivered a sermon to
hundreds of worshippers as police officers lounged outside.
The State Department has declared the group a terrorist organization.
In 1998, Mr. Khalil supported Mr. bin Laden's call for attacks on the
United States and Western interests. After the Sept. 11 terrorist
attacks in the United States, Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez
Musharraf, banned the group. Mr. Khalil dissolved his former group and
created a new one, Jamiat-ul-Ansar.
On Friday, he exhorted listeners to participate in "jihad," or holy
war, but did not to say where.
"Our salvation lies in obeying the orders of Allah, not America," Mr.
Khalil said. "If we don't do jihad, our prayers and fasting will not
be accepted. This is a sacred duty."
After he spoke, members of a new group collected money from
worshippers. Asked what the money was for, two members of the group
said jihad in Kashmir, where Islamic guerrillas are fighting to
overthrow Indian rule. Asked if it was also for jihad in Afghanistan,
one answered "Praise be to God." The other quickly cut him off and
said "no."
Members of the group sold a copy of the September 2003 issue of their
magazine. Its cover featured an interview with Mr. Khalil in which he
stated that "America should announce its defeat" in Afghanistan and
Pakistan.
The back page contained a report saying that in Afghanistan, "a raging
battle betwen Islam and the infidels is continuing."
In an interview, Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri said
Pakistan was fighting terrorism and Islamic extremism by all possible
means. He cited the influx of 3.5 million Afghan refugees into
Pakistan over the last 25 tumultuous years and scoffed at the idea
that Pakistan would try to destabilize its neighbor.
"We have perhaps more to lose than any other country," he said,
referring to a rise in poverty and Islamic radicalism that he
attributed, in part, to Afghanistan's wars. "We have paid in ways no
other county has paid."
The United States has shown no sign of questioning Pakistan's
commitment to fighting terror. President Bush called Mr. Musharraf on
Monday to thank him for Pakistan's contribution, the Foreign Ministry
said. American officials believe that the Pakistani intelligence
services, once seen as a key agent in the creation of the Taliban,
have been thoroughly reformed since Sept. 11, 2001, and are now
committed to fighting both Islamic extremism and terrorism.
Western diplomats say the Taliban is building up its forces along the
border and running a recruiting network inside Pakistan. But they see
the problem as one of Pakistani capacity and politics, not will, and
say they have seen no evidence of direct aid from Pakistan's
government to the Taliban. "They may not know what to do," said one
Western diplomat.
They said the problem was that Pakistan's government was struggling to
counter a culture of Islamic militancy that dates back to the
anti-Soviet struggle in Afghanistan in the 1980's, a movement the
United States helped to create.
But Afghan and Indian officials, as well as some Pakistanis, contend
that the Pakistani military, its allegiances torn, is playing a double
game with the United States.
Pakistan serves up the occasional Qaeda fugitive to appease American
officials, they say. At the same time, it makes little effort to
eradicate the Taliban and other militant groups that serve its foreign
policy goals by fighting against India, its archrival.
Pakistani hard-liners see Northern Alliance commanders that dominate
the Afghan Defense Ministry as Indian allies and warn that Pakistan is
being surrounded by hostile neighbors.
Senior Pakistani government and intelligence officials dismissed the
idea that their country might seek to foment trouble in Afghanistan
for strategic reasons. General Musharraf has faced assassination
attempts from militants, they say, for aiding the United States.
Whatever the real extent of Pakistan's assistance, there are signs
that the invasion of Iraq, as well as disappointment with the American
effort to rebuild Afghanistan, have deepened an ambivalence in the
lower ranks of Pakistan's army and law enforcement agencies. One
Pakistani intelligence official involved in the hunt for militants
said that Al Qaeda was a threat to Pakistan's government, but that the
Taliban are not.
In the border regions, an alliance of Islamic political parties won
control in elections last October. The leading party in the alliance,
the Jamiat Ulema Islam, runs a network of Islamic religious schools,
known as madrasas, inside Pakistan that produced the Taliban
leadership.
Afghan officials say Quetta, a city in southwestern Pakistan, has
become a new haven for the Taliban.
Last Saturday, Taliban flags flew from shops in Pashtunabad, a quarter
in the city packed with ethnic Pashtuns refugees from Afghanistan.
Dozens of young students from madrasas wore large black turbans, a
Taliban trademark.
Mullah Borjan, a madrasa student who said he was 23 or 24, said he
planned to join the fight over the border.
"I will help Islam," he said, as other young students looked on
approvingly. "I will start fighting."
================================================================================
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| User: "nkdatta8839" |
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| Title: Re: Pakistan's Dictator: An Unreliable Ally |
22 Nov 2003 06:05:12 PM |
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The Friday Times, Lahore, Pakistan
Nov 21-27, 2003
E d i t o r i a l
Writing on the wall
By Najam Sethi
...... the world is increasingly convinced that Pakistan is the
original home of radical Islam and terrorism. A recent poll in the EU
claimed that 48% of the respondents thought Pakistan was a threat to
world peace. This perception hasn't been helped by the fact that the
Musharraf government has made no effort to stop local jihadi leaders
from their violent tirades against the "West and all infidels". What
is so special about these Islamic groups that the Pakistan army cannot
countenance an end to them? Why must ordinary, moderate Pakistanis,
and the world at large, continue to pay the price for their extremism
and radicalism? When will the Pakistani state realise that the price
of mollycoddling them has become prohibitively high?
The answers are obvious enough. Radical Islam has served to keep the
Pakistan army in power (even when it is not in office). It has
provided the jihadi cannon fodder for keeping the Kashmir issue alive,
which in turn has sustained long-term hostility with India, which in
turn remains the raison d'etre of soaring defense expenditures.
Radical Islamists have also helped to weaken the thrust of the
mainstream, moderate, political parties that have come to challenge
the Pakistan's army's self-proclaimed role as the primary motive force
of this country. But will this formula work as effectively for its
patrons in the future? .....
...... the jihadis have enormous potential for destabilization – as we
saw when they attacked civilian targets in Kashmir and New Delhi and
provoked the Indians in December 2001 to march their army to the
border with Pakistan and threaten all-out war. Another such attack
could plunge the region into crisis and conflict. Second, the record
shows that radical Islam is incompatible with nation-building,
democracy, universal human rights and economic development – critical
elements of the new world order. It perpetuates a clash of
civilizations and is inimical to global stability. If Pakistan
continues to harbour radical Islamists in its midst the price will
surely become prohibitive.
If General Pervez Musharraf can read the writing on the wall and act
to uproot extremist "Islamists", he will do himself, the Pakistan army
and the Pakistani nation great good. But if he is guided by the same
provincial notions of national security, army infallibility and
military ascendancy as in the past, then we have all had it.
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| User: "nkdatta8839" |
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| Title: Re: Pakistan's Dictator: An Unreliable Ally |
01 Dec 2003 02:45:02 PM |
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http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_1-12-2003_pg1_5
Daily Times, Pakistan
Tuesday, December 02, 2003
Kabul mocks Islamabad's swift denial over Mulla Omar
KABUL: Afghanistan on Sunday questioned Islamabad's swift denial of
President Hamid Karzai's claim that fugitive Taliban leader Mulla Omar
had been seen in Quetta.
"The Afghan government is surprised by the swift reaction and we are
wondering whether the authorities know where Mulla Omar is if they so
strongly reject his presence in Quetta," Afghan Foreign Ministry
spokesman Omar Samad told AFP. In an interview with the British
newspaper The Times published on Saturday, Karzai said he had
information that Mulla Omar was seen offering Friday prayers recently
in Quetta.
"He (Karzai) has information that Mulla Omar has been seen in Quetta,"
Samad said, but would not elaborate. "Have they (Pakistani
authorities) investigated into this matter so quickly to be sure he is
not in Quetta?" he asked. Pakistan Saturday rejected Karzai's claim
that the Taliban leader was in Quetta, saying Islamabad has been
actively supporting Afghanistan's reconstruction. Samad said Omar's
whereabouts would be discussed at a tripartite meeting between
Afghanistan, Pakistan and the US.Kabul mocks Islamabad's swift denial
over Mulla Omar
KABUL: Afghanistan on Sunday questioned Islamabad's swift denial of
President Hamid Karzai's claim that fugitive Taliban leader Mulla Omar
had been seen in Quetta.
"The Afghan government is surprised by the swift reaction and we are
wondering whether the authorities know where Mulla Omar is if they so
strongly reject his presence in Quetta," Afghan Foreign Ministry
spokesman Omar Samad told AFP. In an interview with the British
newspaper The Times published on Saturday, Karzai said he had
information that Mulla Omar was seen offering Friday prayers recently
in Quetta.
"He (Karzai) has information that Mulla Omar has been seen in Quetta,"
Samad said, but would not elaborate. "Have they (Pakistani
authorities) investigated into this matter so quickly to be sure he is
not in Quetta?" he asked. Pakistan Saturday rejected Karzai's claim
that the Taliban leader was in Quetta, saying Islamabad has been
actively supporting Afghanistan's reconstruction. Samad said Omar's
whereabouts would be discussed at a tripartite meeting between
Afghanistan, Pakistan and the US. —AFP
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| User: "nkdatta8839" |
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| Title: Re: Pakistan's Dictator: An Unreliable Ally |
20 Nov 2003 08:24:22 PM |
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http://www.nation.com.pk/daily/Nov-2003/21/main/live1.asp
The Nation, Pakistan
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2003
US refuses comment on Taliban, ISI links
WASHINGTON(AFP) -A senior US official on Wednesday refused to publicy
say whether Pakistan had purged pro-Taliban elements out of its
intelligence services.
Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence directorate (ISI) is seen in
the United States as the chief sponsor of the Taliban regime that
emerged as a militia to rule Afghanistan until being deposed by a
US-led force in late 2001.
Concern surfaced in a meeting of the House of Representatives
International Relations Committee when California Congressman Brad
Sherman asked: "Have the supporters of that ideology in that
intelligence service been removed or converted?"The top US policymaker
for South Asia, Christina Rocca answered that she was unable to
disclose the US view.
US political and intelligence officials often disclose sensitive
information to members of congress in private session or closed
hearings.
But Rocca did argue that Pakistan had provided excellent support for
the US anti-terror campaign, after being strongarmed into joining by
President George W. Bush after the September 11 terror attacks in
2001.
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| User: "nkdatta8839" |
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| Title: Re: Pakistan's Dictator: An Unreliable Ally |
11 Nov 2003 07:13:00 PM |
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A49233-2003Oct31.html
Washington Post
Sunday, November 2, 2003; Page B06
EDITORIAL
Haven for the Taliban
THE PAKISTANI CITY of Quetta lately has become more than a provincial
capital; it might also be described as the new headquarters of the
extremist Taliban movement, which ruled Afghanistan and sheltered
Osama bin Laden until two years ago. According to one recent report by
the respected Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid, "Thousands of Taliban
fighters reside in mosques and madrassas with the full support of a
provincial ruling party and militant Pakistani groups. Taliban leaders
wanted by the U.S. and Kabul governments are living openly in nearby
villages." Mr. Rashid quoted the provincial government's information
minister as saying, "Only the Taliban can constitute the real
government of Afghanistan." During a recent visit, The Post's John
Lancaster met with a Taliban recruiter who described how he traveled
with 14 other Pakistanis across the border into Afghanistan last
summer to wage war against U.S. and Afghan government forces. "It's no
problem at all to cross back and forth," the recruiter said.
All this is happening in a country whose government claims to be an
ally of the United States in the war on terrorism and to which the
Bush administration has pledged more than $3 billion in aid -- the
down payment on what it describes as a "long-term commitment." The
Taliban leaders and their followers are not ensconced in remote caves
or dispersed across trackless badlands but operate openly in a major
city, where they effectively control several neighborhoods. Local
politicians deliver speeches and raise money on their behalf. When
they travel to Afghanistan to carry out attacks, they cross not in
ones or twos but by the score, in buses that are waved through by
Pakistani border guards. In the past several months they have killed
more than 400 Afghan civilians and soldiers, along with several U.S.
soldiers, in various attacks.
If Afghanistan now is in danger of slipping back into the chaos of
civil war, the haven and support found by a regrouping Taliban in
Pakistan is a major cause. Yet the Bush administration continues to
shrink from demanding accountability from President Pervez Musharraf.
Last month, just before a visit to Islamabad, Deputy Secretary of
State Richard L. Armitage hinted at an open secret -- that parts of
Gen. Musharraf's army and security forces don't support the war on
terrorism. But the army carried out a raid against al Qaeda just
before the arrival of the American delegation, and Mr. Armitage
pronounced himself "thrilled" by his conversation with Mr. Musharraf.
"This is a special relationship to the United States," he said, "one
that President Bush treasures particularly."
The Bush administration seems to believe it has no choice but to work
with Mr. Musharraf, who is good at promising to combat Islamic
extremism -- and at pointing to it as the alternative should his
government fail. In late September the administration coaxed its
client to sign a written agreement promising to strengthen control
over "frontier areas bordering Afghanistan." That's a big job, but
it's hard to see why Mr. Musharraf can't at least prevent open Taliban
operations in Quetta and other cities. Congress recently renewed
conditions on aid to Pakistan and added a provision requiring the
administration to certify that Pakistan is cooperating in the war on
terrorism. If the United States is to continue supporting his regime,
the general must be held to that requirement.
================================================================================
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/10/international/asia/10STAN.html?pagewanted=1
NY Times
September 10, 2003
Questions Grow on Pakistan's Commitment to Fight Taliban
By DAVID ROHDE
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Sept. 9 - Two years after the Sept. 11 attacks,
questions are growing about whether Pakistan, a crucial American ally
in the campaign against terrorism, is mounting a sincere effort to
crack down on a resurgent Taliban and other Islamic militants.
The Pakistani military, which dominates the country, is credited by
American officials with excellent cooperation in hunting down members
of Al Qaeda. But members of the Afghan government and some Pakistani
political and intelligence officials suggest that Pakistan is not
doing all it could to stop Taliban forces from using its territory to
attack Afghan territory, and that some elements of Pakistan's army are
harboring Taliban and Qaeda members.
At least three low-level Pakistani army officers have been arrested on
charges that they helped Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Al Qaeda's chief of
operations, hide in the country before his arrest in March, Pakistani
intelligence officials said. These officials believe that that the
most likely hiding place of Osama bin Laden is in the tribal areas
along the Pakistani-Afghan border.
Overwhelming public support for Mr. bin Laden among the area's
religiously conservative Pashtun tribes continues to thwart efforts to
arrest him, they said.
Such support is also evident elsewhere. Islamic militants are again
operating openly in Pakistan. Last Friday afternoon at the Red Mosque
in the center of Islamabad, the nation's capital, Fazlur Rehman
Khalil, the former head of Harkat-ul-Mujahedeen, delivered a sermon to
hundreds of worshippers as police officers lounged outside.
The State Department has declared the group a terrorist organization.
In 1998, Mr. Khalil supported Mr. bin Laden's call for attacks on the
United States and Western interests. After the Sept. 11 terrorist
attacks in the United States, Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez
Musharraf, banned the group. Mr. Khalil dissolved his former group and
created a new one, Jamiat-ul-Ansar.
On Friday, he exhorted listeners to participate in "jihad," or holy
war, but did not to say where.
"Our salvation lies in obeying the orders of Allah, not America," Mr.
Khalil said. "If we don't do jihad, our prayers and fasting will not
be accepted. This is a sacred duty."
After he spoke, members of a new group collected money from
worshippers. Asked what the money was for, two members of the group
said jihad in Kashmir, where Islamic guerrillas are fighting to
overthrow Indian rule. Asked if it was also for jihad in Afghanistan,
one answered "Praise be to God." The other quickly cut him off and
said "no."
Members of the group sold a copy of the September 2003 issue of their
magazine. Its cover featured an interview with Mr. Khalil in which he
stated that "America should announce its defeat" in Afghanistan and
Pakistan.
The back page contained a report saying that in Afghanistan, "a raging
battle betwen Islam and the infidels is continuing."
In an interview, Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri said
Pakistan was fighting terrorism and Islamic extremism by all possible
means. He cited the influx of 3.5 million Afghan refugees into
Pakistan over the last 25 tumultuous years and scoffed at the idea
that Pakistan would try to destabilize its neighbor.
"We have perhaps more to lose than any other country," he said,
referring to a rise in poverty and Islamic radicalism that he
attributed, in part, to Afghanistan's wars. "We have paid in ways no
other county has paid."
The United States has shown no sign of questioning Pakistan's
commitment to fighting terror. President Bush called Mr. Musharraf on
Monday to thank him for Pakistan's contribution, the Foreign Ministry
said. American officials believe that the Pakistani intelligence
services, once seen as a key agent in the creation of the Taliban,
have been thoroughly reformed since Sept. 11, 2001, and are now
committed to fighting both Islamic extremism and terrorism.
Western diplomats say the Taliban is building up its forces along the
border and running a recruiting network inside Pakistan. But they see
the problem as one of Pakistani capacity and politics, not will, and
say they have seen no evidence of direct aid from Pakistan's
government to the Taliban. "They may not know what to do," said one
Western diplomat.
They said the problem was that Pakistan's government was struggling to
counter a culture of Islamic militancy that dates back to the
anti-Soviet struggle in Afghanistan in the 1980's, a movement the
United States helped to create.
But Afghan and Indian officials, as well as some Pakistanis, contend
that the Pakistani military, its allegiances torn, is playing a double
game with the United States.
Pakistan serves up the occasional Qaeda fugitive to appease American
officials, they say. At the same time, it makes little effort to
eradicate the Taliban and other militant groups that serve its foreign
policy goals by fighting against India, its archrival.
Pakistani hard-liners see Northern Alliance commanders that dominate
the Afghan Defense Ministry as Indian allies and warn that Pakistan is
being surrounded by hostile neighbors.
Senior Pakistani government and intelligence officials dismissed the
idea that their country might seek to foment trouble in Afghanistan
for strategic reasons. General Musharraf has faced assassination
attempts from militants, they say, for aiding the United States.
Whatever the real extent of Pakistan's assistance, there are signs
that the invasion of Iraq, as well as disappointment with the American
effort to rebuild Afghanistan, have deepened an ambivalence in the
lower ranks of Pakistan's army and law enforcement agencies. One
Pakistani intelligence official involved in the hunt for militants
said that Al Qaeda was a threat to Pakistan's government, but that the
Taliban are not.
In the border regions, an alliance of Islamic political parties won
control in elections last October. The leading party in the alliance,
the Jamiat Ulema Islam, runs a network of Islamic religious schools,
known as madrasas, inside Pakistan that produced the Taliban
leadership.
Afghan officials say Quetta, a city in southwestern Pakistan, has
become a new haven for the Taliban.
Last Saturday, Taliban flags flew from shops in Pashtunabad, a quarter
in the city packed with ethnic Pashtuns refugees from Afghanistan.
Dozens of young students from madrasas wore large black turbans, a
Taliban trademark.
Mullah Borjan, a madrasa student who said he was 23 or 24, said he
planned to join the fight over the border.
"I will help Islam," he said, as other young students looked on
approvingly. "I will start fighting."
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