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Recent Appearances... Rantburg

India-Pakistan
Islamists protest NATO supply line in Pakistan
2012-07-08
[USA Today] Thousands of hardline Islamists streamed toward Pakistain's capital in a massive convoy of vehicles Sunday to protest the government's decision to allow the U.S. and other NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the cut of the American pants...
 countries to resume shipping troop supplies through the country to Afghanistan.
In Pak parlance it's called a 'long march,' reminiscent, I guess, of the Maoists' 'long march' in China...
Supporters of the Defense Council of Pakistain take part in Sunday's rally in Lahore, Pakistain.
The Defense Council of Pakistain is pretty much the same usual suspects as the old Pak-Afghan Defense Council, which morphed into the MMA, which then evaporated after holding power for long enough for the mullahs to grab as much boodle as they could while protecting the bad guyz in NWFP and FATA.
The demonstration, which started in the eastern city of Lahore, was organized by the Difah-e-Pakistain Council -- Defense of Pakistain Council -- a group of politicians and religious leaders who have been the most vocal opponents of the supply line.
What's actually significant about the DFC is who's not in the alliance. Fazl and his JUI-F aren't involved. Nor is PML-N and the Sharifs. Nor is Imran Khan and his party if lightweights. Samiul 'Mullah Sandwich' Haq is the putative head cheese and the Jamaat-e-Islami is on board, as we'd expect. Hamid Gul's present for duty, as are a bunch of other Islamist hacks. The real driver, I think, is Hafiz Saeed's Jamaat-ud-Dawa, which is a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba, which is co-owned by ISI and al-Qaeda.
Pakistain closed the route in November in retaliation for American Arclight airstrikes that killed 24 Pak troops. After months of negotiations, Islamabad finally agreed to reopen the route last week after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton
... sometimes described as The Woman to Call at 3 a.m. and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another Dean Acheson ...
 apologized for the deaths.
It didn't really matter what the U.S. did, the DPC was determined that the supply route wouldn't be reopened, which meant no groceries and ammunition for those fighting against the Talibs.
Clinton met with Pak Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar for the first time since the apology Sunday on the sidelines of an Afghan aid conference in Tokyo and expressed hope that resolution of the supply line conflict would lead to better relations between the troubled allies.
It might for awhile, but internal Pak politix is the driver, which is not the same as Pak national interest.
One of the reasons Pakistain waited so long to resolve the conflict is that the government was worried about domestic backlash in a country where anti-American sentiment is rampant despite billions of dollars in U.S. aid over the last decade.
That's what I just said, isn't it?
The protest started Sunday in the center of Lahore, where several thousand people assembled with scores of buses, cars and cycle of violences. They linked up with thousands more supporters waiting on the city's edge and drove toward Islamabad in a so-called "long march" against the supply line. The convoy included about 200 vehicles carrying some 8,000 people when it left Lahore, said police official Babar Bakht. After completing the four-hour journey to Islamabad, they plan to hold a protest in front of the parliament building Monday.
That'll include the usual burning tires, brandished Koran, face-making, and howling, punctuated perhaps by an occasional baton charge. Bystanders will be beaten up, some cars set afire, and a wonderful time will be had by all, except for maybe a deader or two.
"By coming out on the streets, the Pak nation has shown its hatred for America," one of the Difah-e-Pakistain leaders, Maulana Samiul Haq
...leader of his own faction of the JUI. Known as Mullah Sandwich for his habit of having two young boys at a time...
, known as the father of the Taliban, said in a speech on the outskirts of Lahore.

Supporters showered Haq with rose petals as he rode through Lahore in the back of a truck with other Difah-e-Pakistain leaders, including Hafiz Muhammad Saeed
...who would be wearing a canvas jacket with very long sleeves anyplace but Pakistain...
, founder of the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba
...the Army of the Pure, an Ahl-e-Hadith terror organization founded by Hafiz Saeed. LeT masquerades behind the Jamaat-ud-Dawa facade within Pakistain and periodically blows things up and kills people in India. Despite the fact that it is banned, always an interesting concept in Pakistain, the organization remains an blatant tool and perhaps an arm of the ISI...
 myrmidon group; Hamid Gul
The nutty former head of Pakistain's ISI, now Godfather to Mullah Omar's Talibs and good buddy and consultant to al-Qaeda's high command...
, a retired Pak intelligence chief with a long history of myrmidon support; and Syed Munawar Hasan, leader of Pakistain's most powerful Islamist party, Jamaat-e-Islami
...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores...
Many demonstrators rode on the tops of buses, waving party flags and shouting slogans against the U.S. and NATO. "One solution for America, jihad, jihad!" they shouted.

The crowd was dominated by members of Jamaat-ud-Dawa
...the front organization of Lashkar-e-Taiba...
, widely believed to be a front group for Lashkar-e-Taiba, which is blamed for the attacks in the Indian city of Mumbai in 2008 that killed more than 160 people. Jamaat-ud-Dawa is led by the group's founder, Saeed.

"The movement that has been started to reverse the government's decision to restore the NATO supply will go on until America leaves this region for good," Saeed said in a speech on the outskirts of Lahore. "The mission is noble because it is to save the country and the nation from slavery."

The U.S. announced a $10 million bounty earlier this year for information leading to the arrest or conviction of Saeed, but he operates freely in the country. Pakistain says it doesn't have enough evidence to arrest Saeed, but many suspect the government is reluctant to move against him and other myrmidon leaders because they have longstanding ties with the country's military and intelligence service.

Rehman Malik
Pak politician, Interior Minister under the Gilani government. Malik is a former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) intelligence officer who rose to head the FIA during Benazir Bhutto's second tenure. Malik was tossed from his FIA job in 1998 after documenting the breath-taking corruption of the Sharif family. By unhappy coincidence Nawaz Sharif became PM at just that moment and Malik moved to London one step ahead of the button men. He had to give up the interior ministry job because he held dual Brit citizenship.
, a government security adviser, said members of banned myrmidon groups would not be allowed to enter Islamabad for the Difah-e-Pakistain protest Monday, but all others would be welcomed.

"They are patriots. They are not anti-state people," Malik told news hounds. "We will welcome them with open arms."

It's unclear if they will try to prevent Saeed from attending the protest.

Difah-e-Pakistain is widely believed to be supported by the Mighty Pak Army as a way to put pressure on the U.S. Its leaders have vowed to stop NATO trucks from making the journey from the southern port city of Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
 to the Afghan border. But if the group has army backing, it could moderate its actions.

Although the army was outraged by the U.S. attack on its troops, which Washington said was an accident, it was eager to repair the relationship to free up more than $1 billion in military aid that had been frozen for the past year.

The U.S. waited so long to apologize in part because the B.O. regime was apparently worried such a move would expose it to criticism from Republicans in a presidential election year. Many U.S. officials and politicians harbor deep suspicions of Pakistain, citing the country's alleged support for hard boyz fighting U.S. troops in neighboring Afghanistan.

While the supply line through Pakistain was closed, the U.S. was forced to rely on a longer, more costly route that runs into Afghanistan through Central Asia. The route cost the U.S. an extra $100 million per month.

The U.S. also wanted to resolve the conflict because it needs Pakistain's help to strike a peace deal with the Taliban in Afghanistan so that American troops can withdraw without the country descending into further chaos. Pakistain is seen as key to an agreement because of its strong historical ties with the Taliban and its allies.
Link


Afghanistan/South Asia
Sami wants to expand MMA with jihadi elements
2004-04-02
Link requires registration
Maulana Samiul Haq’s faction of the Jamiat-e-Ulema Islam is devising a plan to widen the existing membership of Mutahidda Majlis-e-Amal, a six-party religious alliance, in order to cut into the influence of the two major parties – Jamaat-e Islami and rival JUI-F – it alleges have made the alliance a virtual hostage. The move comes in the wake of simmering tensions in the MMA between the four smaller parties and the two bigger ones.
The fact that the 4 ’smaller parties’ barely got any votes is a big reason they are being ignored by the JI and JUI-F
“We want to see in our ranks many of those parties and groups that were part of the Milli Yakjehti Council (MYC) but were not included in the MMA’s political alliance format,” the deputy secretary general of JUI-S, Mufti Usman Yar Khan, told TFT.
Shouldn't that be "Yarrrr! Khaaaaan!"
The MYC was set up by dozens of religious and sectarian parties on March 24th, 1995 ostensibly to create sectarian harmony. Instead, the sectarian groups used the MYC platform to get their activists released, most of whom were arrested in police crackdowns against sectarian terrorism, particularly in the Punjab. At the time, one Sipah member of provincial assembly, now a banned party, was a minister in the coalition government in the Punjab. While the PPP government went along with the MYC initiative to bring sectarian harmony, the groups used the device to their own ends.
The succesor to the MYC was the Pakistan-Afghan Defence Council, which didn’t really go anywhere.
The successor to the Pak-Afghan Defense Council is MMA, even though the Defense Council remains in existence...
Some insiders say that at the time the Sipah-e-Sahaba’s strategy ran afoul of some of its members and resulted in the emergence of the hardliner Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. Police officials say the SSP created the impression of a rift in order to put on itself a political gloss while getting the LJ to keep doing sectarian terrorism. “This was a good ploy. The SSP was trying to get out of the shadow of JUI-F and wanted its own independent political presence. This meant getting a splinter group to do the violent work,” says a former intelligence officer with long experience of investigating sectarian cases.
That's pretty much a standard pattern: a "legitimate" face, and then the hard boyz who can do the real work with plausible deniability. Only in this case it's a three-layer cake, with JUI-Fazl in the gummint, Sipah ranting and raving and getting itself banned, and Lashkar e-Jhangvi providing the hard boyz.
In many ways the rift on the Shia side was more genuine. The militants of the banned Sipah-e-Mohammad Pakistan (SMP) turned against their chief Murid Abbas Yazdani for his conciliatory tone and accused him of compromising on fundamental beliefs. The new leader Ghulam Raza Naqvi, who always stayed away from the MYC, repudiated the SMP’s agreement on the code of ethics, which declared Khilafat-e-Rasheda and resurrection of Imam Mehdi as part of the faith.
Khilafat-e-Rasheda refers to the establishment of the Caliphate. They're arguing over not only how many angels can dance on the head of a pin, but what color turbans they wear...
These splinter groups formed an alliance with other likeminded militants, supported by a large numbers of madrassahs across the country. The two warring factions on both sides engaged in fierce sectarian battle but the Shia groups slowly retreated in the face of Deobandi-sectarian onslaught. The late nineties saw major attacks on Shia targets in Karachi and major urban centres of Punjab.
That’s because the Deobandi militias were allowed to operate as small armies since they were fighting in Afghanistan and Kashmir, and the sectarian groups recruited directly from them. The Shias weren’t used in those conflicts, and so their groups were cracked down on by the state.
But the JUI-S is trying to play its hand cleverly. The party seems to be moving towards getting other groups in by going through the ‘jihadi’ groups. “We do not reckon Lashkar-e-Taiba and banned Jaish-e-Mohammad as enemy organisations and consider them as patriotic as anyone else in Pakistan,” JUI-S’ Khan told TFT. Interestingly, police and intelligence officers are very clear about the sectarian linkages of Jaish. The group is also accused of trying to mount attacks on General Pervez Musharraf. JUI-S sources say party leaders have met with Dawa leader Hafiz Mohammad Saeed recently in Lahore where the proposal of pulling the group into the Alliance has been discussed. The JUI-S leaders have also held meetings with former chief of the Inter-Services Intelligence, Lt-Gen (Retd) Hameed Gul and discussed the issue of expansion with him. “Yes, our leaders have met Hameed Gul Sahib to discuss some important matters relating to national politics,” a senior party leader confirmed to TFT. Khan even hints at the possibility of a “direct or indirect” presence of General Gul in the future MMA setup. “We want to make the alliance more viable and acceptable for more religious groups and General Gul is a patriot who has rendered enormous services for the Islamic cause,” Khan says.
I'm not sure what the diffo is between a "patriot" and a "lunatic" in Pakland, if any...
The Sami-ul Haq group is not happy with the lukewarm reaction of the MMA to the military operation in Wana and says the Alliance has betrayed its voters who gave it a landslide victory in the October 2002 elections. “Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Qazi Hussain Ahmed are avoiding launching an effective agitation against the government, because they have made a lucrative deal with General [Pervez] Musharraf’s regime,” Khan says. “Maulana Fazlur Rehman deliberately went to the United Kingdom to avoid reacting to the military operation against the mujahideen while Qazi [Hussain Ahmed] Sahib thinks it is appropriate to see his pictures in newspapers while addressing negligible number of people,” a senior JUI-S leader says.
Poor Sami, if he had gotten enough votes, he could have been offered a similar deal, as it is, he is having to attack Fazl and Qazi from the ’Right’.
It is not clear whether Hafiz Saeed of al-Dawa has accepted the JUI-S proposal but the latter which claims the formation of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan along with its rival Fazlur Rehman faction, is optimistic about Dawa’s inclusion. There are also elements within the MMA who want to open the Alliance to the entry of the banned Millat-e-Islamia Pakistan (formerly Sipah-e-Sahaba) of late Azam Tariq, but the Shia element in the religious alliance is resisting these moves.
That might be an indication they have some sense of self-preservation...
The Tehreek-e-Islami (now banned) of Allama Sajid Naqvi had warned of quitting the MMA when its leadership had proposed to include Maulana Azam Tariq in 2002. Tariq was gunned down in Islamabad last October along with four companions. “We cannot accept the inclusion of these fanatics in the MMA fold. But if they do find their way in, we will walk out,” Allama Hasan Turabi of Tehreek-e-Islami says. Many analysts believe the JUI-S wants to make another Milli Yekjehti Council out of the MMA.
... thereby turning it a full circle, back to its roots.
Such a diffuse entity would enable smaller parties to gang up on the JI and the JUI-F.
... whether they actually got any votes or not.
Leaders of the rival JUI-F, however, say they will not allow changing the MMA’s existing nomenclature. “All the major religious groups are represented in the present format, which also reflects sectarian harmony,” a JUI-F leader told TFT, adding: “Any move to change its present configuration will be disastrous.” The Jamaat corroborates this strategy. “The present format cannot be changed,” says a JI leader and denies the two major parties have made the alliance hostage. “Every component in the alliance has equal rights and no one supersedes the other,” he says.
"So sit down and shut up."
Link


Afghanistan/South Asia
Cracks in MMA widen as JUI-S looks for allies
2004-02-17
Breaks in the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) ranks in Mansehra district were visible recently, as Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Sami (JUI-S) leaders has got closer to NWFP opposition leader Shahzada Mohammad Gustasap Khan. MMA Mansehra district Ameer and JUI-S spokesman Maulana Qazi Rafiqur Rehman Qamar on Monday told journalists that the unnecessary delay in enforcing Sharia law in the NWFP, the MMA leadership’s policy of sidelining the alliance’s smaller component parties and holding the provincial government hostage by non-elected people had compelled the JUI-S to contact like minded parties and groups to chalk out a future strategy.
"Sami's ego's outgrown the MMA, y'see..."
He said Senator Maulana Samiul Haq, National Assembly Deputy Speaker Sardar Mohammad Yaqoob, NWFP Deputy Speaker Ikramullah Shahid, Shahzada Mohammad Gustasap Khan and MMA National Assembly member from Karachi, Maulana Qari Gul Rehman Hazarvi, would reach Mansehra on February 22. He said the leaders would meet to plan strategy and a number of disgruntled JUI-F NWFP Assembly members were likely to join them. Maulana Samiul Haq would brief the meeting about the basic objectives behind the Pak-Afghan Defence Council, Milli Yakjehti Council and MMA’s formation and would give reasons for parting ways with the six-party religious alliance.
Pak-Afghan Defense Council organized the riots when we attacked Afghanistan. It was a larger, more loosely linked version of the MMA, which spun off from it.
Link


India-Pakistan
Hunt on for Taliban spy chief
2003-06-02
KARACHI: Pakistan’s intelligence agencies are hunting for an Afghan national who was the head of the intelligence agency under the Taliban regime and has close contacts with Osama bin Laden. Hamdullah, popularly known as Mufti Inaam, was the intelligence chief under the Mullah Omar-led Taliban regime with a post equivalent to a cabinet member. He distanced himself from the government shortly after the September 11 attacks. Before that he was considered to be one of the six hardliners spearheaded by Mullah Omar. Soon after the US campaign began in northern Afghanistan, Hamdullah crossed borders and hid in the northwestern parts of Pakistan. He remained underground in Peshawar for quite some time and also helped many of his friends and colleagues in Afghanistan enter Pakistan through safe routes before the fall of Kandahar.
Sounds like he was Plan B...
Mr Hamdullah also assisted many Arab families to migrate to Pakistan and arranged their safe settlements in various parts of the country. Intelligence reports show that Hamdullah nicknamed himself as Mufti Inaam in Pakistan and remained in contact with certain jihadi groups and Al Qaeda operatives for many months. The investigators believe that he had functioned as a bridge between jihadis and Al Qaeda operatives and might have direct links with Osama bin Laden. Hamdullah is also said to have played a pivotal role in creating the Pakistan-Afghanistan Defence Council that arranged a number of violent demonstrations across the country and along with Sufi Mohammad’s Tanzim-e-Nifaz Shariat Mohammadi.
Just moved right in and made himself at home, didn't he? Wonder if he's an MNA from NWFP now?
The sources said the Pakistani agencies were initially not aware that Mr Hamdullah and Mufti Inaam were the names of the same person during interrogation of some members of the banned outfits. The grilling of some suspected Al Qaeda operatives by Pakistani intelligence officials and FBI personnel corroborated it and since then the country’s agencies have launched a countrywide search to find him.
"Yeah. We just didn't notice, y'know? We thought his alias was 'Bob'..."
Link


India-Pakistan
Jihad will continue
2002-06-11
Pakistan and Afghanistan Defence Council Monday concluded that Jihad (holy war) will continue adding the government must not try to stop Kashmiris from crossing the line of control. More than two dozens of political and religious parties participated in the National Solidarity Conference organized by Pak-Afghan Defence Council. A joint statement was issued in the end.
Muttahida Majlis i Amal is made up of the core groups of Pak-Afghan Defense Council. This is the bunch that will try to overthrow Perv.
There could not be any restriction over the crossing of LoC for Kashmiris therefore government cannot prevent Kashmiris from crossing line of control, the statement said.
So, there!
The sacrifices by Kashmiris and Palestinian have paved the way towards independence. Those efforts would not be lit down and no compromise would be made in this regard.
Ummm... Actually, they've killed a lot of people and made everybody with an IQ hate people like the speaker...
Earlier, Chairman Maulana Samiul Haq said that government must change the pro US policies by halting support to them. "US bases should be closed and FBI officials should be stopped from interference in the country's internal matters," he said.
"Just because we cut a few people's heads off, what's that to them? It's interference in our internal affairs, that's what it is!"
Jehad would continue and no power cannot stop it, he said and added, "in the present circumstances, all the political and religious parties should work together for the safeguard of the country." Qazi Hussain Ahmad and Maulana Fazlur Rahman were not present in the conference, however, Samiul Haq reiterated, "we will provide support to them for the cause and for us it does not matter what platform they use."
Qazi, Fazl and Sami represent the unholy trio of religious fanaticism in Pakland. All three make very nice livings at it without spending an undue amount of time in the calaboose.
Kashmiri leader Rahid Turabi on the occasion said, "who is General Pervez Musharraf to stop Kashmiris from crossing the line of control adding they are simply unstoppable."
Abdul Rashid Turabi is the Jamaat-e-Islami Gauleiter for Pak-occupied Kashmir.
Another Kashmiri leader Ghulam Mohammed Safi said that State terrorism was not termed as terrorism and the movement of innocent people was labeled as terrorism, which was totally unjustified. He said that diplomacy should be strengthened and Kashmiris should be lit to work, as they were fighting the war of Pakistan's defence.
This is Secretary General All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) Ghulam Mohammed Safi. Innocent people seldom cut people's heads off, blow things up, or, for that matter, wear masks unless they're into kinky stuff...
Pakistan Muslim League (N) leader Raja Mohammed Zafarul Haq said that current deteriorating situation was the result of inconsistent policies by the government as it had failed in highlighting the Kashmir issue internationally.
Raja Zafarul Haq, the Pakistan Muslim League chairman, formerly religious affairs minister, who expressed his professional opinion that the Pak anti-blashphemy laws, which apply to Muslims only, are fair to all religions.
He said that no government had the right to stop Jehad and if efforts were made in this regard that would be repulsed by the 140 million masses. Zafar said, "we are ready to go to the Stone Age but are not prepared to change Kashmir policy."
And another classic quote from a master of non-linear thought...
Sheikh Rashid Ahmad from PML (N) said that US real interest in the region was to keep an eye on the China. Discussing the inability to match the western media, he stressed the need for new means and ways to counter US interference in the region.
This guy, if it's the same one, used to be a PPP functionary. He actually won a court case against a newspaper that had charged he was insane, but it took him 23 years to do it. Not to get off the subject, but did you ever notice how many sheikhs there are running around in Pakland? Almost as many as in the Saudi Entity. How does one get to be a sheikh? Is there a correspondence course? Does a sheikh have any duties, or do you just get to wear Rudolph Valentino-style robes and ravish the occasional babe?
Mirza Aslam Baig said, Jehad could not be stopped and if any commitment had been made in this connection, it is totally baseless." Commenting on October elections, he said that efforts were being made to bring pro-Indian and US government therefore political and religious parties should work against it.
Former Chief of Army Staff General Mirza Aslam Baig...
Lt. Gen (retd) Hamid Gul addressing the participants said, "we have lost the diplomatic war and now the only way remains is Jihad. He said that our real enemy is America and we should use all energies to counter their evil designs."
Former chief of ISI. Gul famously stated on one occasion: "It's not that difficult to obtain a suitcase-size nuclear weapon. Just the thing for retaliation against London or New York."
Link


The Alliance
Pak jihadis marching to Afghanistan
2001-09-23
  • Afghan News Network
    Fighters from a pro-Taliban Pakistan Islamic group have begun marching to the Afghan border to fend off a possible U.S. invasion, a local leader of the group, Jamiat Ulema i-Islam (JUI), said on Sunday. The hardline Sunni Muslim group, a member of the Pakistan-Afghan Defense Council that supports the Taliban, said its mujahideen, or holy warriors -- many believed to have trained in camps inside Afghanistan -- would also be sent to surround air bases to try to prevent U.S. military from using the facilities. "We are moving our mujahideen," Abdul Ghafoor, leader of the JUI in western Baluchistan province that borders Afghanistan, told a news conference. "They are marching toward the Pakistan-Afghan border," he said, adding that they aimed to fight on behalf of Afghanistan's ruling Taliban in case of U.S. attacks in the hunt for Osama bin Laden. "Our mujahideen will cordon off all air bases in Pakistan where the U.S. army operates," Ghafoor said.

    The JUI is a pro-Taliban party with strong bases in western Baluchistan and in North West Frontier Province that also borders Afghanistan and runs several madrasses, or Islamic religious schools, where many of the Taliban were educated.
    • Link


    Who drives ISI?
    2002-04-10
  • Harrumph! Yeah Right links to this Tariq Ali article on "Who Killed Daniel Pearl" in Counterpunch. His conclusion is that it was the ISI.
    All these acts were designed as a warning to Pakistan's military ruler: if you go too far in accommodating Washington, your head will also roll. Some senior journalists believe an attempt on Musharraf's life has already taken place. Are these acts of terrorism actually carried out by hardline groups such as Jaish-e-Mohammed and Harkatul Ansar, which often claim them? Probably, but these groups are only a shell. Turn them upside down and the rational kernel is revealed in the form of Pakistan's major intelligence agency - the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), whose manipulation of them has long been clear.
    (Thank you for the link, Kathy.) These are my comments, which regular readers will recognize as mere reiteration...
    Not a bad article, and he makes points those of us who've watched this all along have been making. He's quite correct that Perv isn't fully in control of ISI, even though he appointed a trusted friend as its head.

    Tariq Ali makes his mistake in assuming ISI is in control of itself and its "covert" operations, which are probably more discrete than a parade down Main Street with brass bands but not much so. Under the Zia ul-Haq regime, ISI was staffed with officers and agents picked for their fundo bona fides and set to establishing an Islamist regime in Afghanistan. The tool for this was the NWFP fundamentalist establishment - Sami ul-Haq of the JUI, Qazi Hussein Ahmed of JI, and later the Afghan Defense Council, now the Muttahida Majlis Amal. Somewhere along the line the worm turned, and rather than ISI and its fundo substructure driving the religious parties, the religious parties ended up driving ISI. Dumping Hamid Gul and his cronies had no effect because the organization is swarming with "dual loyalty" fellows who really answer to Qazi and through him to Fazlur Rehman. Fazl, remember, is Binny's good friend.

    That's the way it seems to me, anyway, and events seem to fall into this framework; they don't work quite right with the ISI-in-control framework.
    • Link


    The Alliance
    Sami ul-Haq: Everything's ready...
    2001-09-25
  • Washington Times
    Pakistan's most powerful tribal leader, Ajmal Khattak, yesterday pleaded with the country's leading fundamentalist agitator, Sami ul-Haq, "to keep Pakistan calm during the present crisis." But Mr. Khattak's entreaties were unsuccessful. Mr. ul-Haq, who serves as the co-president of Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Islami, president of the University for the Education of Truth and chairman of the Afghan Defense Council, was not listening. His cell phone rang each time Mr. Khattak tried to make a point.

    At the end of a narrow, dusty, dirt alley choked with donkey carts weaving between fruit and vegetable stalls, the two leaders sat on stained white plastic chairs outside Mr. Khattak's rundown, mud-brick abode. Mr. ul-Haq kept telling his callers "not to worry because our Islamic forces are ready." Mr. Khattak would then start his pitch again, urging Mr. ul-Haq to give President Pervez Musharraf "the benefit of the doubt." But Mr. ul-Haq did not seem to be interested in what Mr. Khattak had to say. "The Israeli Mossad intelligence service organized the acts of terrorism against America to give America a pretext to launch a general offensive against the Muslim world," he said. "So we must reply."

    "If you believe that," replied Mr. Khattak, president of the National Alliance Party, "all the more reason not to fall into the trap and to keep your powder dry." Mr. ul-Haq once again brought his cell phone to his ear, most obscured between his top-hat-sized turban and his flowing black-dyed beard. "No, don't worry," he told the caller. "Everything is under control. You will be pleased."
    • Link


    The Alliance
    Afghan Defense Council calls for jihad
    2001-10-08
  • AP
    After Sunday's attacks, the influential Afghan Defense Council>Afghan Defense Council, based in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore, issued a call for holy war. ``It is the duty of every Muslim to support their brothers in this critical hour,'' council leader Riaz Durana said. ``We will support the Taliban physically and morally against the aggression of America.''

    Munawar Hassan, deputy chief of Jamaat-e-Islami, Pakistan's most powerful religious political party, called the strikes ``an attack against Islam.''

    Condemnation also came from the militant group Harakat ul-Mujahedeen, one of several organizations whose assets were frozen by the United States, Pakistan and other countries as part of a campaign against movements linked to Osama bin Laden. ``Americans have used their might to kill innocent people in Afghanistan instead of targeting training camps,'' said Amar Mehdi, spokesman for the group, which advocates the independence of Indian-ruled Kashmir.

    In downtown Peshawar, near the Afghan border, knots of men gathered shouting ``Osama! Osama!'' and ``America is a terrorist.''

    In Lahore, an organization of Muslim clerics issued a condemnation and said Americans now face a ``highly critical situation'' in the Muslim world. ``We appeal to all Muslims living anywhere in the world to extend full support to their Afghan brothers in this critical time,'' said Sazid Mir, president of Markazi Jamiat Ahl-e-Hadith. Hundreds of emotional Islamic clerics and students studying in pro-Taliban religious institutions staged demonstrations in Lahore condemning America. Youths belonging to the student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami also protested.
    • Link


    Afghanistan
    About the Talibs in the NWFP...
    2002-03-26
  • Afghan Minister of Frontiers Amanullah Zadran and a senior intelligence official said the Afghan government has evidence that the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence agency and fundamentalist Pakistani clerics - both of whom have historical ties with the Taliban - have given haven to Taliban and Al-Qaeda fighters who fled US military offensives in eastern Afghanistan.
    Not the first time these charges have been made. Anything new? Any details?
    Pakistan has consistently denied funding the Taliban, both at the height of the fundamentalist regime, when the links between Pakistan's intelligence services and the Taliban were well documented and widely accepted, and in the aftermath of Sept. 11, when Pakistan President Musharraf swiftly sided with the United States against his former allies in Kabul.
    Well, the Afghans have got a really good point there. If they deny doing it when we know absolutely they were doing it, why should we believe them when they deny doing it now?
    "The Pakistanis are not any longer sending their own troops [to help the Taliban], because they are under pressure from the US," Zadran said. Instead, he said, Pakistani intelligence agents who remain sympathetic to the Taliban are helping Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar "to destabilize Afghanistan. These people have offices in Pakistan."
    They've got a big support group going in the Pak-Afghan Defense Council. That's Maulana Samiul Haq's job. The money's funneled through Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal and raised through its compenent organizations of raving religious fanatics.
    Zadran said the Afghan government is "100 percent sure" that Osama bin Laden, the suspected terrorist mastermind, fled the Tora Bora onslaught last December into the tribal areas of northwest Pakistan and Pak-occupied Kashmir, and that Pakistani officials have done little to try to track him down - allegations the Pakistanis deny. Mullah Omar is hiding in southwestern Afghanistan, according to Afghan intelligence reports, Zadran said.
    Can't recall any reports of house-to-house searches in NWFP by the Paks. The impression we've gotten has been that the Paks are afraid to go in there for fear of being beaten up by raving Pashtuns. Either that, or they have much more important things to do, like washing their turbans or talking seriously about getting ready to hold a meeting to come up with a commission to formulate a plan to catch the guys slaughtering Shiites and Christians and reporters.
    The frontiers minister, who is responsible for maintaining security along the porous 1,500-mile border with Pakistan, insisted that there are no forces from Al Al-Qaeda left in the Shah-e-Kot valley after a US campaign to roust them from mountain caves, because "every one of these people - including Arabs from Dubai, Qatar, Kuwait, Abu Dhabi - have either been killed or withdrawn to Pakistan."
    Apparently taking their dead with them, like the Viet Cong used to do.
    He said the Al-Qaeda forces are active in the semiautonomous and loosely policed tribal areas of northwest Pakistan, and warned that "after 30 days, some Al Al-Qaeda members may pop up somewhere else.... Al Al-Qaeda is not 100 percent eliminated and they could still destroy the democratic system in Afghanistan or the world."
    "Hey, I've got an idea. Let's pretend we're Cambodia and Afghanistan's Vietnam. We can cross the border and kick thehell out of somebody, then go back across and they won't be able to come after us."
    Zadran said that because of the proximity to Pakistan of Khost, the lawless Afghan border city that was the site of the most recent attack on a US special forces base by suspected Al-Qaeda members last week, "those Al-Qaeda can spend two hours in Pakistan, one hour in Khost." Both foreigners and Afghans, he said, "are being paid to fight in Afghanistan, though they live in Pakistan."
    Commuting mercenaries, with the little woman packing a lunch for them as they leave to spend the day on jihad and then make it home in the evening for dinner.
    Zadran said his border guards intercepted a convoy of six trucks several weeks ago that were carrying medicines and essential supplies to Al-Qaeda forces from Peshawar, Pakistan, to Sarana, in the bordering province of Paktia - proof, he asserted, that some elements in Pakistan are helping the enemy forces.
    Yep. That's pretty hard proof. Now do something with it. Lemme know if you need a plan.
    Musharraf has taken public steps since Sept 11 to crack down on Islamic extremists and to shut down the cells of his intelligence agencies that previously aided the Taliban. But sources in the Pakistani armed forces acknowledge that some elements of the ISI remain sympathetic to the Taliban and believe that the government that replaced it is the least friendly to Islamabad in years - and they are quietly mobilizing to undermine it. Because of its volatile relationship with India to the east, Pakistan has long believed it needs an unquestioned ally to the west.
    Of course it's the least friendly government to Pakistan in years. Pakland and its proxies raped the country and turned it into an international pariah. The way to win its friendship is not to offer aid and shelter to its enemies, domestic and foreign. But Pakland doesn't seem to have any idea of how to be a friendly neighboring government.
    The senior Afghan intelligence officer said his agency has evidence that "Taliban and Al Al-Qaeda have left Paktia and are preparing themselves in remote areas of Pakistan" for a comeback. Ten days ago, he said, 100 Al-Qaeda troops crossed from Pakistan into Kandahar province in southern Afghanistan, to accompany senior Taliban commander Jalahuddin Haqqani through mountain ranges about 500 kilometers northeast to Chamkani, a town in Paktia province hard on the border with Pakistan's Northwest Frontier province.
    Haqqani's the Big Cheese commander of the Bad Guys since Binny's either dead or admitted that he's better qualified to move money and make home videos. If Chamkani's going to be the new TaliCenter, we'll have to take it out. Too bad for the Chamkani civilians. Guess they'll have some real reason for being anti-American, those of them that aren't dead.
    "All the funding came from Pakistani fundamentalists who are funneling money to Al Al-Qaeda since their bank accounts have not been frozen," unlike bin Laden's. "ISI provided security and intelligence for them so they could pass through the area safely," the senior official asserted.
    There's the crux of the whole matter, right there. Perv has backed off on his crackdown and is now trying to make nice with the Unholy Trio of Qazi, Sami and Fazl. Had he continued on the track he took when he was afraid India was going to nuke him, he'd on top now. Instead, possibly as a result of Haider's brother being assassinated, he backed off. Qazi thinks he has the whip hand, the terror orgs are kissing his ring, and Fazl and Sami are holding his train.

    How to fight this? It won't be pretty. If they ignore the border, we have to ignore the border. If their proxies come into Afghanistan to kill people, our proxies - what the hell, they're all Pashtuns, like the Paks keep telling us - should be roaming around NWFP killing anyone who looks remotely anti-Karzai, if not everybody who's anti-American. When the Paks bitch, we scratch our collective head and look stupid - I'm a parent; I can help with that if need be. "Bands of vicious killers running around NWFP? Do tell? Don't know anything about it - not ours. If we hear anything, we'll let you know."

    Shortly after Sami, Fazl, Qazi and Gen. Hamid ("It's not that difficult to obtain a suitcase-size nuclear weapon. Just the thing for retaliation against London or New York.") Gul are found iced by person or persons unknown, preferably on the same day at the same hour, the cross-border violence will back off, on both borders.
    • Link


    The Alliance
    Riots, unrest in Pakistan
    2001-10-09
  • Munir Ahmad Associated Press
    ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) - Fearing unrest could spread, Pakistan stepped up security in its capital Tuesday and detained three Muslim clerics who organized anti-American demonstrations. Three people, including a 13-year-old boy, died in new violence. The crackdown followed a daylong riot Monday in the Islamic fundamentalist stronghold of Quetta, where protesters burned cars and a police station and looted a bank to demand an end to the U.S.-led attack on neighboring Afghanistan. That was the most violent protest in Pakistan since the start of the bombing against strongholds of alleged terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden and his allies in Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia - admired by Pakistani religious extremists who object to President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's support of the international anti-terrorism coalition.

    Despite large, sometimes raucous protests in some cities near the Afghan border, most of Pakistan has been quiet. Musharraf wants to keep it that way. "In an Islamic society, there is no room for extremism and violence against any other religion or group," he said Tuesday, according to the Associated Press of Pakistan. He said support of his government now is part of "supreme national interests."

    Security forces placed sandbags around police positions at key government installations here in the capital Tuesday, and military vehicles with machine guns were seen patrolling major streets. Three people were shot and killed killed when up to 400 baton-wielding Afghan refugees attacked a police station in the small town of Kuchlak near Quetta, authorities said. One of the victims was identified by doctors at the hospital in Quetta as 13-year-old Hamid Ullah. The police superintendent in Quetta, Abid Ali, said the refugees first attacked a bank and post office in Kuchlak. They turned to the police station when officers tried to break them up.

    Quetta police chief Abid Ali said 75 people were arrested. Protester Mohammed Aman said the demonstration was peaceful and the police gunfire unprovoked.

    In the eastern city of Lahore, several hundred pro-Taliban demonstrators stoned police, blocked roads and chanted slogans against President Bush and Musharraf for his support of the United States. Protesters sounded similar themes without violence in two other cities - 5,000 in Karachi, Pakistan's largest city, and several hundred in the northwestern city of Peshawar near the Khyber Pass border area.

    Two of the clerics who drew police concern were placed under house arrest for three months, the Interior Ministry said. Maulana Fazlur Rehman, leader of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam party, had already been under house arrest twice since Sunday after leading demonstrations in the days before the strikes began. Azam Tariq, chief of the Sipah-e-Sahaba party, was detained at the Lahore airport en route to Islamabad for a meeting of religious leaders and escorted back to his home in southern Pakistan. The whereabouts of a third cleric, Samiul Haq, the pro-Taliban leader of the Afghan Defense Council, were not known. Police would only confirm he had been detained, and his spokesman, Yousaf Shah, said he was taken "to an unknown place, and we are not in contact with him."

    Spokesmen for the parties condemned the action against their leaders. Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam spokesman Riaz Durrani, whose party claims millions of followers, gave the government 24 hours to release Rehman or "be responsible for the consequences."

    Tariq's spokesman, Maulana Mujibur Rehaman, had a message for Musharraf: Talk with the party leaders and explain how Pakistan benefits from supporting the United States. "You convince us, and we will stop agitation. But if we convince you, you should support the Taliban," he said.
    • Link


    India-Pakistan
    JI's Qazi busy building alliances for the elections
    2002-03-21
  • Former caretaker Prime Minister and chief of National Peoples Party, Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi called on Jama'at-i-Islami duce Qazi Hussain Ahmad at Mansoora. They discussed plans to forge an alliance between Majlas-i-Amal and National Peoples Party. Later a delegation of Jamaat Al Dawa comprising Hafiz Khalid Waleed, Haji Muhammad Ashraf, Maulana Ameer Hamza and Yehya Mujahid also called on Qazi Hussain Ahmad for discussions.
  • Majlis-i-Amal is an umbrella organization of eight religious parties with ties of burning love to Lashkar-i-Taiba, Sipah-i-Sahaba and the other usual suspects. It represents the core groups making up the Pak-Afghan Defense Council. It is headed, coincidentally, by Maulana Shah Ahmad Naurani, head of the Jamaat-i-Ulema Pakistan.
  • Yahya Mujahid is the spokesman for Lashkar.
  • I'm not sure, but I think Maulana Ameer Hamza is the Mir Hamza who was one one of the signatories on Binny's Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders. He was the secretary of the Jamiat-ul-Ulema-e-Pakistan at the time.
  • Jamaat-al-Dawa is the umbrella organization that covers Lashkar-e-Taiba. The umbrella group changed its name from Markaz al-Dawa wal-Irshad in December in an attempt to thwart the US freeze on its funds when Lashkar and Jaish-e-Mohammad were declared terrorist organizations. Curiously, it wasn't banned when its component organizations were.
  • Hafiz Khalid Walid is the head of Lashkar.
    • Link



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