Sorry this is so much longer than my usual posts. There wasn't much to cut out.
Protected by sympathetic clerics, up to 1,000 Taliban and al-Qaida leaders are hiding in Pakistan and planning a Taliban comeback in Afghanistan, according to Taliban members and others familiar with the Islamic movement. Most live quietly in Pakistan's frontier region, protected by Pashtun tribal leaders. This is a surprise? But wait, there's more...
Many of the Taliban fugitives remain convinced that interim Prime Minister Hamid Karzai's hold on power depends on U.S. support and once the Americans are gone, they will have little trouble dealing with Afghans who are now allied with Washington. "I am waiting for the big war," said Mullah Towha, former chief of security for the Taliban governor of Afghanistan's Nangharhar province. "America and Britain will have to leave one day, and then we will have a jihad against those Afghans who fought with them against other Muslims." No doubt about that. The idea's to set up a government with some claim to legitimacy, which will lead to the nation not wanting to be governed by crazed killers, but then did they want to before? I'd feel a lot more secure if Gen. Dostum was in charge.
The mullah, who has trimmed his beard and abandoned his distinctive Taliban turban for a white skullcap, lives in an Islamic shrine protected by a "pir," or holy man. In that area, a "holy man" is a thug whose beard's turned gray. When they start getting on, they need other people to do their killing, rather than doing it themselves. It's kinda neat, though, that they're running around wearing false moustaches and that sort of stuff. That's a sure way to outfox the Pak intel guys.
Pakistan has repeatedly denied knowingly harboring al-Qaida and Taliban renegades and has insisted that intelligence service links to extremists were severed after President Pervez Musharraf threw his support to the U.S.-led war on terrorism last year. "There is absolutely no truth in these reports," chief government spokesman Maj. Gen. Rashid Qureshi told AP on Tuesday. He called the idea that Pakistani intelligence was still supporting Taliban fugitives "nonsense" and "part of a malicious campaign against Pakistan." The world contains liar, damned liars, statisticians, and Pakistani pols, in ascending order of despicable. Does he really believe he's fooling anybody? The Associated Press can find them, but not the Pak intel people, who pretend they're too inept to find toilet paper on a roll.
Nonetheless, the Taliban fugitives living in Pakistan include some of the most high-profile and influential members of the Islamic movement. All once worked closely with Pakistan's powerful intelligence service and have close ties to influential figures in the Pakistani military and government establishment. According to Taliban and other sources, they include former Defense Minister Mullah Obeidullah, former Interior Minister Abdul Razzak, former Deputy Prime Minister Mullah Hasan Akhund and Amir Khan Muttaqi, spokesman for the Taliban's supreme leader Mullah Mohammed Omar. All the Dillingers, Capones and Bugsy Siegels of Afghanistan, along with the occasional Ted Bundy. They get together Fridays, after mosque, to beat each other's wives, count the donations of the marksrubes faithful, and scheme about world domination.
It is unclear why the Pakistani government has made no move to round them up. Local chiefs in the border area wield considerable power and tracking them down would take time and resources and doubtless meet local resistance. It would really be too much effort, wouldn't it? And there were all those small fry who were bumped off, so isn't that enough?
Also, before Sept. 11, top fugitives were close to powerful figures in Pakistan, who may be protecting them. The list also includes Jalaluddin Haqqani, who several Afghans say was the mastermind of al-Qaida and Taliban efforts to regroup [at Shah-i-Kot]. The police chief of Paktia's provincial capital Gardez, Haji Mohammed Ishaq, said Haqqani lives in Pakistan's South Waziristan region along the Afghan border, supported by former leaders of Pakistan's spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence or ISI. He'll probably give you the guy's phone number, if you ask him.
Since most of the Taliban were ethnic Pashtuns, they have little trouble blending in with the mostly Pashtun population of the Pakistani border areas. For al-Qaida fugitives, the situation is more complicated. Pakistanis who joined al-Qaida-affiliated movements such as Jaish-e-Mohammed and Harkat ul-Mujahedeen returned freely to their own country. A Muslim leader in Karachi, Hasan Turabi, said many of those Pakistani al-Qaida fighters have since turned to acts of violence in Pakistan, directing their anger at Musharraf for abandoning the Taliban after the Sept. 11 terror attacks. Don't go accusing them of being prone to violence. They'll kill you for that. Just because they're running around the country waving guns and rolling their eyes and screaming jihad! doesn't mean they're doing anything unlawful. Not in Pakistan, anyway.
However, Arabs, who formed the core of the al-Qaida terror network's leadership and are easily identified as outsiders, must rely on the protection of Pakistanis who fought with them in Afghanistan. The Arabs also have the support of Pakistan's hard-line clerics and tribal leaders who supported the Taliban. Luckily there are lots of them who're willing to help. Fat and prosperous, living on the donations of the faithful and the largesse of the Saudis, there's lots of room to take in a few well-armed "guests."
Sources familiar with al-Qaida said several key al-Qaida figures slipped into Pakistan last year and may still be here. They include Abu Zubaydah, a Palestinian (what else?) who contacts here say is the key figure trying to reorganize and revive al-Qaida after the collapse of Taliban rule. This is the thug who was named as Mohammad Atef's successor. He's just walking around, buying groceries, taking his turban out to be dry-cleaned and mowing his grass, and nobody notices him. Just another honest citizen.
Zubaydah has close ties to Azhar Mahmood, the imprisoned leader of Jaish-e-Mohammed. Because of those ties, he can rely on the movement's extensive network inside Pakistan. Azhar is Omar Sheikh's good buddy. They were lovers cellmates back in jug in India.
Zubaydah is trying to revive al-Qaida's financial network to support operations both in Afghanistan and abroad. Yeah. We reported that the other day.
U.S. officials have acknowledged that al-Qaida has stepped up its financial activity and communications in recent weeks, suggesting some leaders are reasserting control. U.S. officials said much of the activity is centered in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province, near the Afghan border. Well, that's strange. Why would they do that? That's where the leadership is holed up, and that's the jumping off area for the targets, and that's where the money and arms are. So why not New Jersey?
Moving back and forth between Pakistan and Afghanistan has proved little problem for Taliban and al-Qaida figures, despite claims by both the Pakistani government and the U.S. military that the border is closely guarded. Towha said that on the night he fled Jalalabad last November, he and the Nangharhar governor, Mullah Abdul Kabir, drove to Tora Bora along with one of bin Laden's interpreters, Khair Mohammed, and Ahmed Saeed al-Kadr(Mr. Chretien must be so relieved to know he's okay!), a Canadian of Egyptian origin and one of the 10 most-wanted al-Qaida leaders. Al-Kadr is reportedly hiding in Lahore, sources familiar with al-Qaida said. Hey, doesn't Gen. Hamid Gul live there? The guy who used to run the ISI and who owned Nawaz Sharif? The guy who said "It's not that difficult to obtain a suitcase-size nuclear weapon. Just the thing for retaliation against London or New York." Shucks, they might even meet on the street someday. Maybe they'll get together, talk over old times, have a few brewskis.
From Tora Bora, Towha said, they hiked to Paktia province and then crossed the border at Ghulam Shah after bribing Pakistani tribal militiamen. Kabir, once the third-most powerful man in Afghanistan, regularly moves between Pakistan and his homeland, Towha said. The Paks never notice, of course. They're busy doing... Oh, other stuff. Important stuff.
Other Taliban and al-Qaida figures fled to Iran, Afghan sources say, despite Iranian denials that it is harboring any fugitives. None we'd be concerned with, anyway. And they're all women and children. And puppies and kittens. And baby ducks.
According to Towha, the Taliban and al-Qaida fugitives still receive money and support from members and former members of the Pakistani spy agency ISI, which nurtured extremists for years. Another former Taliban member and an aid worker of Middle Eastern origin who works closely with Afghan refugees and Arabs who lived in Afghanistan, also spoke of clandestine ISI support, despite Musharraf's shake-up of the agency last year. But Perv told us they weren't involved with that stuff anymore. They're gonna fight terrorism in every form. Really.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/19/2002 ||
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An Iraqi defector has given US intelligence details of a secret underground network of laboratories where Saddam Hussein is believed to be building weapons of mass destruction. The defector is a 43-year-old civil engineer named Adnan Sayeed, who worked on 20 sites. He has provided evidence suggesting they are part of a network of bunkers where chemical and biological weapons have been made, and where attempts are under way to create a nuclear bomb. A second defector said Iraq had constructed seven mobile germ laboratories, which are disguised as milk trucks. They're part of the Baby Milk Factory fleet.
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03/19/2002 ||
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BjÞrn StÊrk has a link to this gem:
The police chief in Mashhad canceled the "Let's Be Happy Again" comedy festival because he feared a public disturbance. Local prayer leader and Supreme Leader's Representative Ayatollah Mohammad-Baqer Shirazi had issued a religious decree or fatwa which declared that it is a religious duty to disrupt such an event. Mashhad-based journalist Mohammad-Sadeq Javadi-Hesar said in an 8 March interview with RFE/RL's Persian Service that some people believe happy gatherings are against Islamic values. "You over there! Wipe that smile off your face! You'll regret that smile when you're burning in hell!"
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03/19/2002 ||
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The border guard services of Georgia and Turkey have started military exercise in Samtskhe-Javakheti region of Georgia, which borders with Turkey. During this exercise the border guards of both states will train on eradication of illegal migration and smuggling on the Turkish-Georgian border. An accord on conducting the exercise was reached during the recent (March 7-8) visit of the delegation of general staff of Turkish armed forces to Georgia.
The military contacts between Turkey and Georgia became more active within the recent period of time when the Turkish leadership announced that it welcomes arrival of the US military experts to Pankisi gorge and expressed readiness to render to the Georgian side security guarantees in fighting with terrorism in case if the US officially addresses to Turkey.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/19/2002 ||
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Weeping and pleading for mercy, an Iranian immigrant was sentenced to two years and nine months in federal prison Monday for threatening to "kill all Americans" after he was caught smoking on a plane bound from Los Angeles to Toronto. Appearing in chains before a Los Angeles federal judge, Javid Naghani, a 38-year-old Canoga Park businessman, apologized for violating the no-smoking rule on airplanes, but denied uttering any anti-American remarks during the Sept. 27 flight. Ummmm... No. September was not a good time to pick to holler about killing all Americans, no matter how bad you wanted a smoke.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/19/2002 ||
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A 20-year-old man was fatally stabbed over the weekend, the second death reported in a rash of Spring Break violence in South Texas. Jesus Espinoza of Alamo was pronounced dead at Brownsville Medical Center on Sunday. Police said two San Antonio men had been arrested connection with the killing so far, and other suspects and witnesses were being sought.
On Friday, 18-year-old Jerry Martinez died at the wheel of his car in Port Aransas when a man apparently walked up to the car and opened fire with a handgun. A passenger, 22-year-old Kristy Hernandez, was wounded in the leg and buttocks.
Also Friday, Benito Esquivel, 18, of Woodsboro was stabbed 11 times near Port Aransas. Two police officers received minor injuries while pursuing the 15-year-old suspect who stabbed Esquivel. If it was me, I think I'da gone to visit Aunt Ethel instead. But then, I've always been kinda gun-shy.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/19/2002 ||
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The Denver government passed a resolution discouraging police from enforcing new anti-terror legislation if doing so would interfere with peoplesâ civil rights. A non-binding resolution passed by the city council in response to the federal USA Patriot Act discourages Denver police from investigating groups or individuals based on their country of origin or immigration status. The resolution bars police from assisting in parts of the federal government's anti-terrorism campaign. Probably nobody'll fly anything into any local landmarks, and chances are they'll bomb someplace else. Don't worry about it. It's all over now, folks. Nothin' to see. Move along, now. Look, over there! It's Gary Condit!
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03/19/2002 ||
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Urging the RSS to stop rhetoric which was creating fear among Muslims, president of Minorities Forum of India, Azam Khan said the statement issued yesterday at the meeting of the Sanghâs supreme body at Bangalore was an indication of its future agenda. Cases should be registered against all those indulging in such rhetorics under the relevant laws of the land, he demanded. If present laws were not effective to deal with such forces, new laws should be enacted. He also called for setting up of a special court to try the cases related to the Godhra carnage. Doesn't matter what the laws are as long as you own or have a long-term lease on the enforcers. Barring that, round up as many people as you can find who can't count higher than 11 without taking their shoes off and have a riot.
In New Delhi, Christian leaders criticised the RSS resolution as having the seeds of future tragedy and demanded that the prime minister condemn it immediately. The statement must be cause for grave concern not only among Muslims and other minorities in India, but to civil society. The RSS statement only vocalises the utter contempt and disregard that the Sangh Parivar, including its units such as the VHP and Bajrang Dal, hold for the very concept of democracy that is based on equity, fraternity and justice, and the institutions created to ensure these values in society, the statement said. The very essence of dictatorship is deciding who's eligible for "equity, fraternity and justice" and who're the Ãntermenschen.
In Sopur, Minister of state for External affairs Omar Abdullah charged RSS with indulging in dirty politics and said the resoultion was only aimed at creating communal tension in the country. "This could be done only by cheap people", he said while referring to the resolution and asked RSS leaders what resolution could they adopt for Jammu and Kashmir where Hindus were in minority and Muslims in majority. Smeared with offal and crawling with flies, the RSS leadership wondered absently what was for lunch...
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03/19/2002 ||
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Pakistan dismissed Islamabad's police chief and four senior police officials Tuesday after a deadly grenade attack on a Protestant church frequented by foreigners. The shake-up came as police said they would send the United States DNA samples from the body of a man they suspect carried out the attack that killed five people, including two Americans. The attack on the Protestant International Church has prompted the State Department to warn Americans against traveling to Pakistan. It "underscores the possibility that terrorists may seek civilian targets," the warning said. Gen. Pervez Musharraf, ordered "immediate and effective steps" to improve law and order after meeting with top security officials and regional officials Tuesday to review the case. The people want "quick justice," he said. Gosh, Perv. Maybe you could round up some known Bad Guys and toss them in the calaboose. Shucks, their bunks are still warm.
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03/19/2002 ||
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President George W. Bush, in a brief but very loud telephone call with President Pervez Musharraf, said the United States would do whatever it could to help in the investigation so it doesn't get totally screwed up like the last one. Musharraf also spoke with Secretary of State Colin Powell who also hollered at him about the incident, in which an attacker lobbed grenades as worshippers attended a Sunday service at a church near the American embassy, killing a total of seven people. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said: "Without going into any detail since we don't normally call "friendly" heads of state scatalogical names, I'd say that we have co-operation in this matter and commitment to bringing people to justice or we'll have somebody's testicles breaded and deep fried to a golden brown."
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03/19/2002 ||
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Foreign Office spokesman Aziz Khan deplored the church attack, saying it was against the spirit of Islam and norms of civilized behaviour. He declared that the government would fight terrorism in all its forms. This particular incident, he added, cannot be taken as the complete picture of law and order situation in the country and asserted that investors were satisfied with the situation. "Other than the daily killings, maimings, arson and kidnappings the country's really kind of peaceful." You can save that "spirit of Islam" crap, Aziz. Killing people in church is against the tenets of every religion that doesn't practice human sacrifice, and even they didn't go for the congregants. We'll believe you're "fighting terrorism in all its forms" when you start herding ISI thugs and some of your favorite clerics into the churches and killing them.
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03/19/2002 ||
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Spanish coppers found 20 corpses, some of them dating back 10 years, in the yard of a funeral home employee after coming across bags of body parts in the trunk of his car. Is this something that's going around? I think I'll go check out back...
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03/19/2002 ||
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The Palestinian Authority says it is "fully ready" to implement the Tenet peace plan for a ceasefire in the conflict with Israel. "The Palestinian leadership commits itself to working for a consolidation of the ceasefire and a strict implementation of recommendations made in the Tenet plan and the Mitchell report," said a communique issued by the official news agency WAFA. "We, the Palestinian leadership and people, are fully ready to begin implementing (the two plans) according to the established calendar and in spite of Israeli evasiveness," the statement added. Hey, it could happen! I think my hair's growing back, too... And Patty Ann Brown thinks I'm hot... And the bank's made a big mistake in my checking account balance in my favor and they're never gonna notice...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
03/19/2002 ||
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Gunnies attacked a Border Security Force (BSF) headquarters with rifle grenades at Sanat Nagar. One copper sustained minor injuries in the incident (Man, he's tough. Normally that doesn't happen with rifle grenades...). An outer wall was damaged in the attack. Immediately after the hit, the entire area was cordoned off and house to house searches launched to trace the hard boys. However, no arrest was effected.
In a fierce encounter in Jammu, two snuffies were iced yesterday. Y'know, I haven't heard of any "tame encounters" in Jammu lately.
The body of Ghulam Rasool Ganai was recovered near his village today. His throat was slit.
Reports from Varmul said a fierce encounter was on between militants holed up in a mosque and security forces at Mirgund. Troops of 29 RR were joined by BSF and SOG in the operation. If you can get yourself iced in a mosque you get 81 virgins. It's a fact. You can look it up somewhere.
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03/19/2002 ||
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"According to reports 20-25 Al-Qaeda men are operating in Rajwar and Lolab areas of Kupwara frontier. But we are yet to nab or kill anyone," an official told a local news agency VNN. A Border Security Forces official told VNN they have been receiving intelligence reports suggesting the influx of Al-Qaeda men into Kashmir. Oh, great. That's all they need.
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03/19/2002 ||
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Pakistani border guards arrested seven suspected al Qaeda as they tried to cross into Afghanistan. Two were Sudanese, one Ugandan, one Mauritanian and three Pakistani. They were arrested in the Kurram tribal area in northwestern Pakistan. The suspects were sent to Peshawar for interrogation. Kurram is close to the areas of eastern Afghanistan where U.S.-led forces have recently fought intense battles against the militants of al Qaeda and Afghanistan's vanquished Taliban movement. Will we be seeing them at Club Fed soon? Or will they be sprung for good behavior, too?
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03/19/2002 ||
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Despite repeated notices by the Peshawar High Court, the federal government has failed to file comments in reply to two separate petitions challenging the detention of alleged Al Qaeda members and Pakistanis, who had crossed into Pakistan from Afghanistan. Deputy Attorney General Salahuddin Khan informed a two-member bench of the high court that the federal government had been compiling the comments, which would be filed within next few days. The bench took exception to the delay, and directed the federal government to positively file comments within a week. The petitions were filed by a former Pakistan Muslim League (N) MNA Jawed Ibraheem Paracha, challenging the detention of 57 alleged Al-Qaeda suspects and 143 Pakistanis. When you really want to know who's behind the Bad Guys, look at who's paying for their mouthpieces.
The PML (N), one of the two largest political parties of the country, is facing crisis with the absence of its chief, exiled former premier Mian Nawaz Sharif and his younger brother, former Punjab chief minister, Shehbaz Sharif. It was the only "mainstream" party that opposed Islamabadâs Afghan policy.
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03/19/2002 ||
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Pakistan Government has released some radical Islamic religious leaders from detention as a reconciliatory gesture to stem the tide of growing backlash from banned Islamic militant groups and might release leaders of Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Taiba, the two outfits active in Kashmir, on the same grounds as no serious criminal charges were levelled against them. The Government has released the hardline religious leaders including head of Jamat-e-Islami Qazi Hussain Ahmed and faction leader of Jamat-e-Ulema-Islam Maulana Fazlur Rehman as a reconciliatory gesture as it was concerned about the backlash against the government for its crackdown against militant groups, a Pakistan daily has said. Oh, yasss. They've suffered enough. Surely they will go and slaughter no more... Read Suman Palit's comments on this - and hand me a tissue, wouldja?
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03/19/2002 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
