Pakistan's Dr. Strangelove tells all: Nuke mastermind A.Q. Khan says the government ordered him to pass on nuke secrets to China, Iran, North Korea, LibyaBreaking News:
AQ Khan nails Pakistan's nuke lies
CHIDANAND RAJGHATTA, TNN 21 September 2009, 12:00am IST
WASHINGTON: An angry, humiliated, and wounded A.Q.Khan has finally made public and official what has long been suspected: his nuclear proliferation activities that included exchanging and passing blue-prints and equipment to China, Iran, North Korea, and Libya was done at the behest of the Pakistani government and military, and he was forced to take the rap for it. ( Watch Video )
''The bastards first used us and are now playing dirty games with us,'' Khan writes about the Pakistani leadership in a December 2003 letter to his wife Henny that has finally been made public by an interlocutor. ''Darling, if the government plays any mischief with me take a tough stand,'' he tells his wife, adding, ''They might try to get rid of me to cover up all the things they got done by me.''
But Henny was unable to play hardball because Khan had also sent copies of that letter to his daughter Dina in London, and to his niece Kausar Khan in Amsterdam through his brother, a Pakistan Airlines executive. Pakistani intelligence agencies got wind of it and threatened the well-being of the family, forcing him to recant and publicly take the blame for the proliferation activities in a humiliating television spectacle engineered by then military ruler Pervez Musharraf.
However, a copy of the four-page letter reached Khan窶冱 long-time journalistic contact Simon Henderson in 2007. In fact, in the letter, Khan tells his wife, ''Get in touch with Simon Henderson and give him all the details.'' Henderson says when he acquired the copy of the letter, he was shocked. His acquaintance with Khan goes back to the late 1970s, but it was never intimate, and consisted of an occasional interviews and conversations, and seasonal greetings.
Describing the four-page letter as ''extraordinary,'' Henderson says in numbered paragraphs, it outlines Pakistan窶冱 nuclear co-operation with China, Iran and North Korea, and also mentions Libya. Some of the disclosures are stunning , and in one para that is bound to embarrass Beijing, besides implicating it, Khan writes about how Pakistan helped China in enrichment technology in return for bomb blueprints.
''We put up a centrifuge plant at Hanzhong (250km southwest of Xian),窶・Khan writes. 窶弋he Chinese gave us drawings of the nuclear weapon, gave us 50kg of enriched uranium, gave us 10 tons of UF6 (natural) and 5 tons of UF6 (3%).'' UF6 is uranium hexafluoride, the gaseous feedstock for an enrichment plan.
On Iran, the letter says: ''Probably with the blessings of BB [Benazir Bhutto]...General Imtiaz [Benazir窶冱 defence adviser, now dead] asked me to give a set of drawings and some components to the Iranians. The names and addresses of suppliers were also given to the Iranians.''
On North Korea: ''[A now-retired general] took $3million through me from the N. Koreans and asked me to give some drawings and machines.''
Henderson does not explain why he waited nearly two years since he got hold of the letter to make it public. But he writes sympathetically about Khan窶冱 travails in Pakistan, where he is held largely incommunicado under house arrest. The Pakistani government and the military have repeatedly rejected and challenged court orders to free him, and an episode last month, where Khan was freed just for a day on court orders before Islamabad locked him up again under pressure from Washington, appears to have precipitated the leak of the explosive letter.
Henderson窶冱 Sunday Times expose also implicates the U.S and other western powers, who he says, basically shoved Islamabad窶冱 rampant proliferation (while blaming it solely on Khan) under the carpet in order to get Pakistan窶冱 cooperation in the war on terror. The move also saved Washington from huge embarrassment since it was basically asleep on the watch when Pakistan began its nuclear proliferation and then winked at it when it was discovered, all the while lavishing billions in military supplies on its unstable client state.
PAK GOVT RESCUED BROKE A.Q.KHAN WITH $ 2500 PER MONTH PENSION
Henderson also implicitly defends Khan from charges that he profited from proliferation activities, as alleged by deposed military ruler Pervez Musharraf. Khan, he says, is adamant that he never sold nuclear secrets for personal gain. So what about the millions of dollars he reportedly made?
''Nothing was confiscated from him and no reported investigation turned up hidden accounts. Having planted rumours about Khan窶冱 greed, Pakistani officials were curiously indifferent to following them through,'' Henderson writes.
According to Henderson, much was made of a ''hotel'', named after Khan窶冱 wife, Henny, built by a local tour guide with the help of money from Khan and a group of friends in Timbuktu. But it is a modest structure at best, more of a guesthouse, he says. A weekend home at Bani Gala, outside Islamabad, where Khan went to relax, is hardly the palace that some reports have made it.
In fact, says Henderson, Khan was close to being broke by the summer 2007, when he was finding it difficult to make ends meet on his pension of 12,200 (Pakistani) rupees per month. After pleading with General Khalid Kidwai, the officer supervising both Pakistan窶冱 nuclear weapons and Khan, the pension was increased to $2,500 per month and there was a one-off lump-sum payment of the equivalent of $50,000. Hendersen says he has copies of the agreement and cheques.
Henderson窶冱 3000-word expose also reveals a couple of intriguing tid-bits that should interest the world窶冱 strategic community, including New Delhi. Besides details of the Pakistan-China nexus, he says Pakistan tested only two devices in its 1998 tit-for-tat nuclear tests that followed India.
While Pakistan claims it conducted six tests to be one-up on India窶冱 five tests, Western experts and seismologists have long said they recorded only two signals for devices that measured between two and four kilotons. Khan also states clearly that China gave Pakistan designs for the nuclear bombs.
In fact, in one colorful passage in his article, Henderson describes how Khan was warned by a Chinese counterpart about the Pakistani Army. On a visit to Kahuta, Li Chew, the senior minister who ran China窶冱 nuclear-weapons programme, tells Khan, ''As long as they need the bomb, they will lick your balls. As soon as you have delivered the bomb, they will kick your balls.''
Henderson himself seems deeply conscious of any perception that he is close to Khan or that he is a cat窶冱 paw for any country. ''Any relationship with a source is fraught with potential difficulties. One doesn窶冲 want to be blind to the chance of being used. Government officials and politicians in any country are seldom interested in the simple truth. They all have their particular story to tell. In this context, I am frankly amazed that Khan has chosen me to be his interlocutor with the world,'' he writes.
But Pakistani authorities were clearly aware that he and Khan had been in touch and Khan may have managed to smuggle a copy of the letter implicating Islamabad to him. Henderson says in a court document that Khan was asked to sign when he was promised freedom, there is a line that read 窶弋hat in case Mr Simon Henderson or anyone else proceeds with the publication of any information or material anywhere in the world, I affirm that it would not be based on any input from me and I disown it.窶・ That line was eventually deleted and replaced with a more general prohibition about unnamed ''specific media personnel.''
In other words, stand by for a flurry of denials.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
AQ Khan nails Pakistan's nuke lies
Monday, December 29, 2008
Pakistan - Jama't-ud-Da'wah, The Saudi Wahabbi Influence
http://www.rightsidenews.com/200812273114/global-terrorism/pakistan-jama-t-ud-da-wah-the-saudi-wahabbi-influence.html
December 27, 2008
Pakistan - Jama't-ud-Da'wah (JuD)
The Saudi Wahabbi Influence [1]
Col. (Ret.) Jonathan Fighel - ICT Senior Researcher
Institute for Counter-Terrorism
In the wake of the Mumbai attack on 10th December 2008, the UN Security Council's al-Qaeda/Taliban Sanctions Committee (the "1267 Committee") took several actions related to the terrorist group Lashkar e-Tayyiba (LET). It listed four of its members of the terrorist group Lashkar e-Tayyiba (LET) for targeted sanctions, including asset freeze, travel ban and arms embargo.
These individuals are Muhammad Sayeed a.k.a. Hafiz Muhammad Sayeed, Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, Haji Muhammad Ashraf, and Mohmoud Mohammad Ahmed Bahaziq. It added a new alias for the group: Jama't-ud-Da'wah (JUD), which is an LET front operation.[2] On 11th December 2008, Pakistan government closed 11 offices of Jama't-ud-Da'wah, the Islamic charity that has been linked to the deadly attacks in the Indian city of Mumbai.
Hafiz Sayeed, the leader of the organization Jama't-ud-Da'wah, was put under house arrest in Lahore while protesting his imprisonment and the imposition of sanctions with a news conference at his Lahore headquarters, hours before he was placed under house arrest. He denied reports that he had met with a Mumbai attacker and said his group had split from Lashkar after Pakistan banned Lashkar following a 2001 attack on India's Parliament.[3]
Already back in August 2006,the JuD leader Hafiz Sayeed was arrested in connection with a series of Lashkar train bombings in India then released and placed under a two-month house arrest. Since then, Sayeed has been active in expanding Jama't-ud-Da'wah's reach across Pakistan by a Da'awa network, providing education and medical treatment at schools and clinics located in 66 cities across the country.
On December 15th 2008,in reaction to the closure and the arrests, Jama't-ud-Da'wah published on its English web site a respond statement, which unsurprisingly employed the humanitarian element and motives as an emotional attempt for requiting emotions and solidarity feelings of the supportive reader.
In past cases, when it was proven over and over again that radical Islamic charities acted as front organization for radical Islamic terror organizations (Saudi based Al Haramain, IIRO, BIF and Hamas affiliated charities), spokesmen reacting on behalf of the radical Islamic charities (that were scrutinized or legal lawful actions are taken against them by governments) have reacted in the same perpetual pattern of wretchedness complaining about government oppressive actions aiming to target the poor unprotected population.
Within the pattern of reactions used by radical Islamic charities, a manipulative sophisticated maneuver is employed by raising claims which hopeful will evoke pangs of conscience and remorse within the international public domain while "pointing a finger" on "conspiracies and oppressive measures" taken by governments and law enforcement agencies whenever actions are taken against them. The prevalent motive in using the emotionality appeal, is by describing acts taken against them as "un human", targeting of the poor the widows and the weak population, when actually the radical Islamic Wahabbi oriented charities themselves were and still are using and abusing the population for their own radical Islamic goals through the Da'wah social-economic network activities. While creating increased dependency and ideological seizure of radicalization on the grass roots' "hearts and minds" within the battle of ideas, the population is mobilized and recruited by the overt arms of the terror organizations by their Da'wah and benevolence activities, building increased commitment and dependency to the terror organization to its ideologically and political violent objectives. Similar projects of radicalization are the strategic goal of all violent local Islamist groups in Jihad active zones such as in the south Philippines, Chechnya, the Maghreb, the Caucasus, Central Asia, Palestine, Egypt, Africa, Kashmir and more. The Lebanese "Al Tawhid" opposition leader, former minister Wiam Wahab, recently accused Saudi Arabia for its responsibility in financing terrorism and for the events occurring in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Palestine.[4]
"Who will suffer from Jama't-ud-Da'wah's closure?"
In the wake of its designation, On 15 December 2008, the JuD published on its English web site a reaction statement to the UN designation under the title "Who will suffer from Jama't-ud-Da'wah's closure?"[5] The statement was emphasizing the JuD humanitarian aspects of its relief work that will be affected by the closure.
The JuD announcement accuses that the designation and closure will effect its humanitarian work noting that "thousands of survivors of the devastating 2005 and 2008 earthquakes, hundreds of whom receive free medical assistance every day in various quake affected areas, thousands of people of flood affected areas of Sindh and Balochistan provinces, 6,000 poor and deserving people who receive medical treatment and medicines at Jama't-ud-Da'wah's free dispensaries throughout the country because they cannot afford to go to a regular clinic, thousands of patients, who benefit from Jama't-ud-Da'wah's fleet of modern, fully equipped ambulances, 5,000 poor, destitute, and orphan children, for the assistance of whom Jama't-ud-Da'wah spends around 5,000,000 (five million) rupees every month, thousands of unfortunate people who come to Jama't-ud-Da'wah's medical camps and hospitals for surgeries, 5,000 students who receive assistance for their educational fees every month and other kinds of humanitarian assistance".[6]
It should be noted that according to JuD on line publication, donations and contributions for the quake victims were also used by the JuD to build 62 new mosques in which the Wahabbi-Salafi purist doctrine was introduced mainly in regions dominated by the Sufi sect (which according to the Wahabbi doctrine are regarded as polytheists like the Hindus, Buddhists, the Ahmadiyya school, the Qadians, the Dervish and even Shia' Muslims)[7]. According to the publication, this activity was intended to" promote for the first time the Salafi Da'wah in these regions" [8], whereas the humanitarian disaster was exploited and manipulated by JuD as a platform to "set a foot at the doorstep" and increase its influence through relief and Da'wah activities.
The perpetuate pattern used by the Saudi humanitarian aid through local "Zakat" and Islamic organization, was intentionally focused in promoting Wahhabi Islam (through humanitarian aid as a platform) while cynically rejecting and discriminating people in need who belong to other traditional schools of Islam. In an article published in April 1980, and entitled "Duty of Implementing the Resolutions", Sheikh Muhammad Ali al-Harakan (the Saudi based Muslim World League general secretary) declared: "Jihad is the key to Muslims' success and felicity, especially when their sacred shrines are under the Zionist occupation in Palestine, when millions of Muslims are suffering suppression [sic], oppression, injustices, torture and even facing death and extermination campaigns in Burma, Philippines, Patani, USSR, Cambodia, Vietnam, Cyprus, Afghanistan.
This responsibility becomes even more binding and pressing when we consider the malicious campaigns being waged against Islam and Muslims by Zionism, Communism, Free Masonry, Qadianism, Bahaism, and Christian missionaries."[9] The Muslim World League, also has declared in its 1988 Constituent Council 29th session, declared" Extensive campaigns were also launched by the League against the perverse, deviationist and anti-Islamic movements, trends, cults and groups such as Zionism, Communism, Qadianism, Bahaism and also against the vicious programmes of the Christians missionaries".[10]
The sharp-sighted reader could have noticed that on the very same home page of the Jama't-ud-Da'wah web site, within the featured "Da'wah section", a posture of the " The Ideological Attack" book was presented. This famous book consists the teachings and Fatwas of the late Saudi Grand Mufti and the prominent Wahabbi scholar, Sheikh Abd Al Aziz Bin Baz. (Ready to be down loaded or heard in an audio format). Ironically and unsurprising, the very same radical Islamic charity which advocates for humanitarian work, simultaneously promotes within the rage of its activities the most radical Islamic ideology of the Wahabbi school of thought, the same ideology that was, and still is, the bedrock of the radical political Islam with its devastating violent manifestations executed by Al Qaeda and its affiliated global Jihad groups as recently demonstrated in the Mumbai attack.
Sheikh Bin Baz teachings and Islamic jurisprudence are to be found in many Islamic centers, mosques around the world, they are posted on hundreds of radical Islamic entities and radical Islamic terror organizations web sites, his teaching and books are available and have been part of the radical Islamic indoctrination curriculum in Jihadi training camps.[11] According to the Center for Religious Freedom, a US based research institute, "his Fatwas, which carry considerable weight, have been also circulated through official Saudi diplomatic channels to mosques and schools throughout the world, including some in the United States, and have been particularly influential in radicalizing Muslim youth at home and abroad. Similarly".[12] Similar to other radical Islamic groups, Bin Baz's publications are highly regarded also by Jama't-ud-Da'wah as one of the most authoritative sources in the Muslim world actually perceived as a manifestation of the Saudi Islamic Wahabbi-Salafi ideology. Bin Baz radically dichotomous mode of thinking, coupled with his persistent demonizing of non-Muslims and tolerant Muslims, runs through his Fatwas' publications. The Saudi doctrinal sources of Jihadi-Salafism which was led by the prominent Sheikh Bin Baz and a large class of his disciples, created among other issues, the "Movement of Awakening" (Harakat al-Sahwah), led by the two Sheikhs Salman al-Awdah and Safar al-Hawali which contributed as well to the globalization of the Saudi Whahabbi Da'awah.
The Ideological Radicalization
The past two decades has seen a steady radicalization of Muslim separatist movements within the Kashmiri conflict. What began in as a nationalist struggle against Indian rule evolved under the influence of Arab Jihadists into a struggle to establish an Islamic state throughout the "Muslim lands" in the subcontinent. The Kashmir arena provided a fertile ground for an increasing influx of Muslims volunteers (particularly Arabs) who professed radical Salafi-Jihadist ideology, most of whom had trained in the Afghan terrorist camps of Osama bin Laden and others who formed the emerging Al-Qaeda network.
The foreign Jihadists regarded the war of Kashmir not as a national liberation movement but as a part of the global pan-Islamic struggle - a gateway for instigating revolution throughout the Kashmiri Jihad front and beyond. Already back in 2002,according to Al Qaeda affiliated publication, posted on November 2002,among other issues it was mentioned, "the human strategic depth of Islam is to be found in the Eastern Muslims [Southeast Asia]. The population census of the Muslim world [indicates that their number] is a billion and three hundred million (among whom are three hundred million Arabs. Therefore, the [strategic] human depth of the Muslims is in our brothers in Indonesia, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Pakistan and India, and the nation must take them into account. [meaning] that we must translate our "Jihad" culture for them."[13]
Jama't-ud-Da'wah as a radical Sunni-Wahabbi oriented Islamic organization, led by Hafiz Mohammad Sayeed, the Emir of the Jama't-ud-Da'wah JUD), which is the "political" wing and the overt front organization of the Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LET), influenced by the Whahabbi-Salafi Pan-Islamic doctrine, committed to spread its ideology advocating armed Jihad, as well as virulent rhetoric condemning the United States, India, Israel, and other perceived enemies. Its ideology is highly inspired and influenced by the above mentioned Wahabbi-Salafi school of thought, the actual brand of purist Islam practiced and promoted by Saudi Arabia through its worldwide network of charities as a tool in promoting the Saudi-Wahabbi political and religious influence in the Sunni Muslim world.
According to Husain Haqqani, the Pakistani ambassador to the U.S., who was an adviser to the late Benazir Bhutto, also reports the Saudi funding of this terror-under-cover-of-religion operation. In 2005, Haqqani wrote a paper for the Hudson Institute [14] in which Haqqani wrote as follows: "The most significant Jihadi group of Wahabbi persuasion is Lashkar-e-Taiba (The Army of the Pure) founded in 1989 by Hafiz Muhammad Saeed. Backed by Saudi money and protected by Pakistani intelligence services, Lashkar-e-Taiba became the military wing of Markaz al-Dawa wal-Irshad (Center for the Call to Righteousness)"[15]. According to Haqqani, "Saeed created a large campus and training facility at Muridke, outside the Pakistani metropolis of Lahore. After the U.S. froze Lashkar-e-Taiba's assets and called for it to be banned, Saeed changed his organization's name in Pakistan to Jamaat-ul-Dawa (the Society for Preaching).... Under U.S. pressure, [then-President] General Musharraf placed Jamaat-ul-Dawa on a watch list in November 2003."[16]
Saudi Arabia created a network of charities, preachers and teachers who have enormous financial resources, which they utilized in order to advance and disseminate their version of Islam. Their standing, as the keepers of the Holy places and their oil income, gave the Wahhabis an influential capability on a worldwide scale. The local communal Islamic organizations, care for public life, education, knowledge, and rituals, (where public education is slack) were controlled and financed by the Wahhabis.
Jamaat-ud-Dawa-the Saudi Wahabbi Ideology contribution
Ideas are one of the most important exports of Saudi Arabia in its quest for Islamic dominance as it regards itself as the "spearhead of the Muslim world" as the "Guardian of the two Holy Places" committed to take care of Muslim communities and minorities around the world. Saudi Arabia had a network of preachers and teachers who have enormous financial resources, which they utilized in order to, advance and disseminate their version of Islam around the world.[17]
Saudi finance to radical Islamic institutions, among them Jamaat-ud-Dawa, has heavily influenced the contents of the vast amount of literature that they produce and distribute. Many of them produce low-priced books, and, now, audiotapes, videocassettes and compact discs, and some even operate their own web sites. Local scholars were influenced by the vision and understanding of Islam is indelibly shaped by their own experiences in Saudi Arabia.
They see the Saudi Wahhabi version of Islam as normative and other forms of Islam as deviant. A principle purpose of these publications is to attack the west and rival Muslim, including Sunni, groups, and to sternly condemn them as 疎berrant' on account of differences in their methods of performing rituals and their rules governing a range of issues related to normative personal and collective behavior. Another interesting feature of the literature that is directly linked to the close association with the Saudi Wahabbis is a fierce hostility to local beliefs and practices.
Identifying themselves with the Saudi Wahhabi Ulama, enabled Jam'at-ud-Da'wah to present themselves as faithful allies of the Saudis, which in turn helps earn them recognition as well as monetary assistance from Saudi sponsors. In addition, such publications also serve the purpose of presenting the Saudi Wahhabi version of Islam as normative, and in putting forward the claim of the Saudi regime to being the only one in the world sincerely and seriously committed to 組enuine' Islam.
Despite the attempt of the Saudi government to blur the direct aid to Jihad groups, from time to time there are reports in the inter-Arab and the international press that indicate that the Saudi Based charities transfer funds for Jihad causes in Kashmir, Saudi leaders meet with the leaders of the Jihad groups in the country, and they support the Jihad activity of the Muslims in Kashmir including training Jihad fighters.
The Saudi activities in this field does not happen in a vacuum, rather as an integral part of the Saudi policy of exporting Wahabbism outside the borders of Saudi-Arabia while utilizing penetration routes into the Islamic communities that are in distress, especially conflict regions or disaster-stricken regions. In the Kashmir context, it should be noted that the Saudi policy with regard to the Jihad arenas is identical. That is, the Saudis see the Jihad arena in Kashmir equal to the other Jihad arenas, such as: Chechnya, Bosnia, the Philippines and Palestine.
The Late Saudi Grand Mufti Sheikh Bin Baz - "The Ideological attack"
Cynically and ironically, while advocating compassion in the name of the deprived population that JuD is so concerned about, the very same population has been exposed for years to the intense radical Islamic Saudi Wahabbi Da'awa indoctrination led by Jama't-ud-Da'wah through the radicalization process as demonstrated within the example of Bin Baz "Ideological Attack" book. Bin Baz's writings were published around the world and some of them were translated into several languages, both printed copies and digitally. Their translation and distribution were an integral part of the Saudi system for spreading radical Wahabbi Islam around the world. The means for distribution included Saudi worldwide operating charities, the Internet, video and audiotapes and books. Following his death in 1999, the Bin Baz Institute was founded and it commemorates and spreads his teachings.[18]
The concept of Jihad plays an important role in Bin Baz's scholarship. He dealt with defining Jihad, the types of Jihad and in what circumstances Jihad should be used. Bin Baz dedicated a special emphasis on Jihad against the infidels. Bin Baz perceived Jihad as a continuation of the Da'awa efforts. According to Bin Baz, Islam spread through the Da'awa and was supported by the sword. In places where Da'awa efforts to spread Islam fail, then the sword should be used. In Bin Baz's opinion, the greatest Jihad is with one's life, after that with money and after that Jihad with Da'awa and guidance. According to Bin Baz, Da'awa is also a type of Jihad.[19]
When Bin Baz was asked: "is protection of the country, land and honor considered Jihad?" Bin Baz issued a religious edict that protection of Muslim territory, family, honor, religion and standing at the fighting front is considered a form of Jihad and will reward the Muslim with the title of "Shahid"(Martyr) and entrance to paradise. Bin Baz stressed to the fighters in the front that they must fear Allah, purify their intentions, pray with the group five times a day, mention Allah's name often, strive for unity and be patient in order to receive tranquility and beware of disobedience to Allah. For this, he quotes verses 45-46 in the "grants from the spoils chapter" in the Qur'an.[20]
Being that the defense of the Islamic country, land and honor is a supreme value in Islam, Bin Baz issued an edict, as did others before him, that if the youth was commanded by the Muslim ruler to go on Jihad, then the Muslim youth, who very much wants to go and fight in the holy war (Jihad), should obey the ruler and not his mother if she refuses (it should be noted that obedience to one's parents is a very important value in Islam).[21]
In his book "The Ideological Attack", (published in 1998 and a short time before his death) Bin Baz again expresses his views in a very hostile manner towards the Jews and the Christians. He contended that the Muslim world was exposed to a barbaric attack on the part of the Christians, the Jews, the Communists, the atheists, the secularists and others. With regard to the Christians, Bin Baz stated that: "The Christian crusaders' attack today is most violent.... Muslims whose brains have not been corrupted, cannot tolerate the fact that the heretics are coercing...therefore, such a Muslim tries with all his might to banish them - even if he has to sacrifice his life." With regard to the Jews, Bin Baz said: "The Jews' plot after taking over the Muslims' lands is to take over other lands. They have realized some of their plans and are continuing to try and materialize the rest".[22]
Sheikh Bin Baz defines the "Ideological Attack" as "a set of efforts, undertaken by a particular nation, in order to conquer or influence another nation, such that [the attack nation] is steered in a particular course of direction because of it". Bin Baz claims that Muslims are under an "ideological attack" from three main sources: 1. The attack of the Christian crusaders 2. The Zionist attack and 3. The communist and atheistic attack. Of the three, Bin Baz points to the Christian attack as the most threatening to Islam. He explains that an "ideological attack" is more severe than military warfare because the attacked is unprepared to counter it.
The attack comes in the form of school curriculums, general education, media, etc. Bin Baz lays the authority in the hands of the leaders of the Muslims, both religious and political, to explain to their population "what they have fallen into" and to lead the counter-attack measures. Bin Baz determines that a crucial factor in halting the attack is to guide the society to truly comprehend the realities of Islam, which can by achieved by correct Islamic guidance in the home and in educational institutions, in addition to the call for Da'wah.
On the official Bin Baz Arabic website [23], a warning was posted against travel to countries of "heretics". An example is given, stating that travel agencies advertise study abroad summer programs in Europe and America where young Muslim students are exposed to a "heretic" host family, music, dancing and entertainment sites, all which may have severe influence on the traveler. The article discloses the effects these types of activities may have: provocation to stray from the righteous path, moral corruption, doubting of faith, admiration for the "heretic" culture, adoption of "heretic" culture, and finally, the recruitment of young Muslims to serve as preachers in their home countries. The warning calls for parents to deny their children's' request to travel abroad.
Even though Bin Baz attributes importance to all types of Jihad, he especially emphasized the Jihad against the infidels, both in Jihad with one's life and with money. In a manuscript published by the Saudi National Guard in 1973 titled "the Jews stance towards Islam and the merit of Jihad and Mujaheedin", Bin Baz claimed that Jihad for Allah (in the fighting sense) is considered the most preferable amongst good deeds and commandments. According to Bin Baz, Jihad is divided into two: offensive and defensive Jihad. Its goals are to bring victory to Muslims, uplift Islam, subdue the hypocritical heretics, calling on people to return to Islam, facilitate the spread of Da'wah, raising the horn of Allah etc'. Bin Baz brought examples from the Qur'an and the Hadith for the merits of Jihad for Allah through funds and sacrificing one's life.
It should be noted that in the 80's and 90's the Saudis adopted the religious - ideological concept of "Jihad with Money"(al Jihad bil- Mal)[24], which enabled the support and spread of Da'wah and the Jihad concepts around the world.[25] Bin Baz called on all Muslims, especially Arabs, to help their brethren being attacked as much as they could, with money and with life.[26] Bin Baz also sanctioned, "Faith and Jihad are the ones that will free the Muslim from the tormenting of Allah" and stressed that Jihad through money is the broadest, since through money one can recruit manpower, purchase arms, propagandists, and cloths for the fighters, food and tents.[27]
In his article, "Cultural Attack: A Complementary Interpretation of Usama bin Ladin"[28] Uriya Shavit, explains the process through which the Saudi Ulama identified a phenomenon which they labeled as the "cultural attack" or "intellectual attack" by the West, whose intention was to weaken the Muslim faith and eventually conquer Muslim land, until all Muslims were subordinated with Western culture and values. In order to counter this attack the Ulama (Saudi Islamic scholars/clerics), conceived of a two-pronged strategy: The first is to eliminate Saudi Arabia of any Western influences by Islamization of all aspects of Saudi life. The second is to launch a counter-attack in the Western world.
The Muslim World League published a book entitled "The Means of Combating the Intellectual Attack on the Muslim World", to deal with the issues outlined by the Ulama. The Ulama saw the Saudi Kingdom as a potential leader of the struggle against the Western attack, and the Kingdom did not oppose this concept. The Saudi discourse of the "cultural attack" emphasized the need to shift the struggle into the international arena, launch a multidimensional counter attack and harm the West in the same way that the West harms the Muslim world. The practical implementation of this ideology was noticed also in the sub continent when local radical Islamic groups and organizations were mobilized towards this effort.
Jamaat-ud-Dawa is the largest charity in Pakistan is now being linked to the perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks, especially that the charity is considered the political wing of Lashkar-e-Tayyiba.What is important is that we are facing fresh reminder of the old accusations of the exploitation of charitable work in the support and financing of terrorism, a fact that was well known for years and nothing was done to realize and take actions against the financing and the ideological exploitation carried out for more than two decades.
The Mumbai attack was another waking call demonstrating how charitable and Da'wah work is being used in promoting radical Islamic ideological and its political agenda around the Muslim world and within Muslim communities around disputed regions such as in Iraq acts as a mask for Iranian influence, Hezbollah in Lebanon acts in promoting Iran's influence, and how Hamas used charities in promoting terrorism and suicide attacks.
Jamaat-ud-Dawa as the front parent organization of Lashkar-e-Taiyyba was and still is since the beginning of the 90's a part of the evolving global Jihad phenomenon although it focused in operating within the local Kashmir dispute. Their global approach was largely enhanced by the Saudi Wahabbi-Salafi ideology which was embraced by its prominent Jihadi leaders in promoting its global outreach as an Islamic local entity bonded within the framework of the general world wide Islamic solidarity of the "Ummah"(the Islamic Nation) concept.
The increasing use of technology, especially the use of the Internet, by Islamic extremist groups including the JuD, has led to a new phenomenon known as "Glocal" issues, whereas global issues are now becoming local issues.[29] Osama bin Laden could not have his current, and increasing, level of success, if Muslims did not believe their faith, brethren, resources and lands, to be under attack by the United States and, more generally, the West. The Internet has helped to spread Al-Qaeda's global Jihad concepts to reach Muslim communities around the world with this very message.[30]
The concrete violent confrontation with the Christians and the Jews, as manifested in the Mumbai attack, was carried out and materialized as a tool to counter the Western ideological attack conspiracy. The attack should be perceived within the larger context as a direct manifestation and translation into action items of Bin Baz's and other purist Islamic scholars influenced by the Wahabbi-Salafi ideology that played as a major contributing factor to the Jamaat-ud-Dawa and Lashkar's global Jihad state of mind as a motivational and spiritual "engine".
Therefore, killing Americans, British and Jews should not come as a surprise to anyone, whereas Lashkar, which once focused on the local India-Pakistan fight over Kashmir - hit a "new threshold" [31] of terror. Study of the Mumbai attack reveals the critical role played by the JuD as the overt front of Lashkar-e-Taiyyba and its connections to the Da'wah social-welfare infrastructure of clinics, schools, mosques and charities in recruiting and pushing young local Kashmir Muslims to the point of committing acts of terrorism.
Jama't-ud-Da'wah statement following its' designation
http://www.jamatdawah.org/ accessed on 18 December 2008 Jama't-ud-Da蜘ah English web site
The Saudi Wahabbi Ideology Influence ・"The Ideological Attack"
http://www.jamatdawah.org/ accessed on 18 December 2008
Quotations from the 的deological Attack・/strong>
http://www.jamatdawah.org/
(Note: English misspellings appear in the original, copied as is).
"From those treatises and verdicts are:
A Critique of [Arab] Nationalism (1/284)
The Importance of Knowledge in Combating Destructive Ideologies Such as Atheism, Capitalism and Freemasonry (4/59)
Concerning the Need to Form a United Front By the Various Islaamic Groups In Sudan Against the Secularists (4/166)
The Obligation of Jihad in Afghanistan (5/I58)
Concerning the Baabaree Mosque of India and Respecting Muslim Sentiments (7/349)
Concerning Muslim Minorities in Europe and America and the Need to Support Them (2/370)
Causes For the Weakness of the Muslims In Front of their Enemies and the Means To Cure This (5/101)
A General Call to All Governments and Organizations to Aid the Muslims of Bosnia and Herzegovina With Manpower, Wealth, Weapons and Supplications (7/356)
Concerning the Merits of Jihaad and That It is Not Only Defensive (3/171)
A Letter to the Afghaan Mujaahidoon and the Efforts of the Enemies of Allaah in Seeking To Split Their Ranks (7/348)
The Ideological Attack by the Christians, Zionists and Communists and the Methods Employed By Them (3/438)."
"Question: The enemies of Allaah are very eager to enter into the Muslim lands by various methods. So what efforts do you believe should be exerted in order to put a stop to this surge that has threatened the Islaamic societies?"
"Answer: This is not something strange coming from the callers to Christianity, Judaism, or the other religions of unbelief. Since Allaah, the Most Perfect and to Whom belongs all praise, informed us about this in His clear Revelation when He said:" Never will the Jews and the Christians be pleased with you until you follow their ways of life. Say: Indeed the
Guidance of Allaah that is the only Guidance. And if you were to follow their false desires after what you have received of the knowledge of Revelation, then you would have neither a guardian, nor any helper against Allaah."
Allaah, the Most Perfect, also said: "And they will never stop fighting you, until they turn you away from your Religion, if they can."
"0 you who Believe! Enter into Islaam completely, and do not follow the footsteps of Shaytaan, because he is to you a clear enemy."
"Question: Are the Arabs generally subjected to this type of warfare, in particular the kingdom of Saudi Arabia?
Answer: Yes, the Muslims in general, including the Arabs, the kingdom, and other than them, are all subject to a great ideological attack from the various nations of unbelief (Kufr); from both the east and the west. The severest and most serious of these [ideological] attacks are: - The attack of the Christian crusaders the Zionist attack, the communist and atheistic attack."
"After numerous case studies and assemblies they arrived at [something] that was far more dangerous and destructive than military warfare; which was that the Christian nations, both individually and collectively, should launch an ideological attack on those Muslims who were just beginning to grow and develop. This is because conquering the hearts and thoughts of a people is far more permanent than conquering their lands! The Muslim whose mind has not been corrupted cannot bear to see the unbelievers wielding authority, and ordering and prohibiting in his own country. Therefore such a Muslim strives his utmost to expel and distance them - even if he has to sacrifice his own life, or his most cherished possession for this cause; and this is what happened after the major conquest of the crusaders."
"As for the Muslim who is exposed to this filthy attack, he becomes ill in thought and desensitized to this disease; he may not even see any danger with the presence of Christians in the lands of the Muslims. Indeed, he may even think that their presence is a source of goodness, which aids and advances civilization."
"So the Christians have sufficed themselves with this ideological attack, as opposed to the military one, because it is more effective and more permanent...they resort to this in situations where speed is sought; such as what happened in Uganda and Pakistan. Or when there is a need to stabilize the advancement, or establish centers, or to establish bases, which engage in destructive ideological warfare; such as what happened in Egypt, Syria, Iraaq, and other countries, before their expulsion".
"Also what Allaah, the Most High, mentions in His statements:" Never will the Jews and the Christians be pleased with you until you follow their way of life."
"The Zionist war is just the same. The Jews strive their utmost to corrupt the beliefs, morals and manners of the Muslims. The Jews scheme and crave after possessing the Muslim lands, as well as the lands of others. They have fulfilled some of their plans and continue striving hard to implement the rest of them. Even though they do engage the Muslims in warfare involving strength and arms and have occupied some of their lands, they also fight them by spreading destructive thoughts, beliefs and ideologies; such as Freemasonry, Qadiaanisim, Bahaaism, Teejaanism and others - seeking the support of the Christians and others, in order to fulfill their objectives."
"The peace between the Muslim leaders of Palestine and the Jews does not mean that the Jews will permanently possess the lands that they possess now. Rather, it only means that they will be in possession of them for a period of time, until either the truce expires, or until the Muslims become strong enough to force them out of the Muslim lands -in the case of an unrestricted peace. Likewise, when we have the ability, it is obligatory to fight the Jews until they enter into Islaam, or until they give the Jizyah (a tax levied from those non-Muslims who are permitted to live under the protection of the Muslim state) in servility..."
-------------------------------------
Founded in 1996, the International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT) is the leading academic institute for counter-terrorism in the world, facilitating international cooperation in the global struggle against terrorism. ICT is an independent think tank providing expertise in terrorism, counter-terrorism, homeland security, threat vulnerability and risk assessment, intelligence analysis and national security and defense policy.
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Thoughts from Mumbai: A Return to Gandhi’s Dream for India
http://thewip.net/contributors/2008/12/thoughts_from_mumbai_a_return.html
Rupa Chinai
- India -
In the aftermath of Mumbai’s most recent encounter with terrorism, there is the feeling of isolation felt by those pleading for sense and reason. These voices are being drowned out amidst the jingoism and war cries of an “eye for an eye” currently heard on the streets of the city.
In this chilling environment of unreason, I wonder what would be the reaction to people like me, who feel pity for the path chosen by young men like Ajmal Kasab, the only surviving terrorist from the attacks? This sentiment does not seek to justify the heinous crimes he committed or protect him from the punishment he deserves through the due process of law. But how can one find the words to urge people to understand the context from which youth such as Ajmal develop and how civilized society must respond to the challenges they pose?
• Many in India call for peace in response to the November 26th terrorist attacks on Mumbai. •The newspapers here have gleaned information from Ajmal’s interrogations in police custody and reveal that he hails from Faridkot village, in the Punjab province of Pakistan. The BBC and Pakistan TV channels have shown Ajmal’s family home, the school where he studied until class four, his father and other villagers who confirmed Ajmal’s links with them. We learned that Ajmal’s training with the Lashkar-e-Taiba (a militant group that seeks the liberation of Indian occupied Kashmir) led to his becoming a crack commando with skills in urban guerrilla warfare. We even know the names of some of the people who trained him.
The Pakistan government responded by bluntly denying Ajmal’s Pakistani nationality, cordoning off Faridkot village and whisking away his family. It has denied Indian government allegations of ISI involvement in terrorist training. This response, apart from inviting Indian ire, has drawn flak from within Pakistan, in particular from Nawaz Sharif, former Pakistan Prime Minister and leader of the opposition.
These reports however, give key insights into how militancy has found a base within Pakistan. They reveal that the militant groups are the only ones imparting skills and professional training to these poor, rural youth, creating illusions of having provided their lives with meaning in an existence otherwise steeped in poverty and misery.
Ajmal has reportedly spoken to the Mumbai police about some of these illusions – he believed that he was on a mission that would earn him a place in jannat (heaven) and in the annals of those who have died for the cause of Islam. He also reportedly said that his sponsors promised to pay Rupees one and a half lakhs (US$3,165) to his family upon completion of his successful suicide mission.
But now from the grave reality of his prison cell, Ajmal has apparently begun to lose some of his swagger and arrogance. We catch glimpses of a young man so typical of those we see in the sub-continent, fascinated by Amitabh Bachhan films and who fancies himself as a hero. It is perhaps this human spark that has kept Ajmal alive when the more hardened of his ilk would swallow a cyanide pill rather than face capture.
As the media tells us about the human face of this terrorist, my thoughts turn to the society that nurtured him. What is one to think of Pakistan’s failure to provide its youth with positive directions, access to skills and a knowledge base that would help them to live meaningful lives? Why did their communities allow mercenaries, masked as men of religion and god, to access their children and brainwash them into the jihad cult?
Meanwhile, are we in India any better off? Do we really believe that hanging terrorists without a trial (because our criminal justice system is imperfect) or arming ourselves with more draconian laws and modern weaponry will make India a safer place? Do we not display our own barbarism every time we question the patriotism of India’s Muslims and attack our minorities? How can we ordinary citizens respond to this situation? Shouldn’t we stop and consider our own unique role? In my mind, this introspection has proven wholly inadequate, and yet represents our only source of real hope. Does the land of Gandhi have nothing more to offer the world as a solution to this situation?
And has our electronic media learned anything from the mistakes made during its coverage of the last terrorist attack? Just a few days ago the Indian government released guidelines for media coverage of terrorist attacks, and yet a Hindi television news channel flouted these norms to grab its latest scoop by broadcasting leaked footage of Ajmal's interrogation by American FBI agents.
With Ajmal’s case now awaiting trial, direct display of his testimony when he has no defense lawyer to guide or protect him, is surely sub judice (under judgment) and prejudicial to the trial. Apart from the impact it could have on public opinion, it could very well pose a grave threat to his safety.
Describing Mumbai’s response in the weeks after the terrorist strike, filmmaker Anand Patwardhan writes, “Terror is a self-fulfilling prophecy. It thrives on reaction, polarization, militarization and thirst for revenge.”
The first victims of this ever-hardening stance are our own neglected and marginalized minorities in rural, tribal and peripheral India. Denied access to justice and blotted out by the media, these alienated sections have turned to violence when they had no other recourse. Without any attempt to listen to their grievances or respect their right to have a dissenting viewpoint and initiate dialogue – an approach that would have won hearts and minds - India has sought to equate them with anti-nationals and terrorists.
Like Kashmir on the western flank, the north-east border states have been engulfed in insurgency and a fratricidal guerilla war since India’s independence. Many of these conflicts are the freedom struggles of small nationalities who believe they have a historical right to determine their own destiny and who have bravely held on to their convictions despite being stamped upon by the might of India. Others have erupted in turmoil and violence because of their neglect by New Delhi, by the loss of their economic, political and cultural identity.
Ordinary people and civil society groups in the north-east, particularly in Nagaland, have often spoken of the need to go beyond New Delhi and reach out to ordinary people in the rest of India. They believe that when there is widespread pressure created by a sensitized Indian public opinion, only then can political solutions begin to emerge. According to my friends who have worked in the region, this plea also comes from the people of Kashmir.
A network of women journalists and writers across India has already mobilized in response to the initiative of young Manipuri women journalists. Early next year, they will attend a meeting in Imphal, Manipur, a state adjoining Burma, where the writ of India simply holds no sway. Its people have lived with urban guerilla warfare for more than a decade and insecurity, extortion, kidnapping and violent death is a daily part of their lives. For most of the visiting journalists, it will be their first visit to this sensitive border area long ignored by mainstream Indian media. It will be an expensive journey and most will spend money from their own pockets because of their deep sense of conviction and desire to learn from the local people.
I hope it will be the first of many such efforts, where we systematically endeavor to include these sections of society, knowing that they in turn have much to teach us about what is important in life. Irrespective of what political solutions evolve for the north-east or Kashmir, we will always remain neighbors and that is a good enough starting point for dialogue. It is through such initiatives that we come back to Gandhi’s dream of an India whose strength lies in its service to its weaker and marginalized populations.
In the present cacophony emanating from Mumbai, thankfully there are some quiet and thoughtful voices calling for ordinary Indians to consider our own minority and marginalized communities. Can we, the privileged Indians - who have skills, education, and a voice - play some role in creating the platforms for dialogue to address common concerns? India is a house divided by caste, class, race, religion and politics, which has made us all vulnerable to attack. Can we create social support systems to deal with their genuine and long suppressed grievances? Will we help our youth find an alternative to violence?
Photograph by flickr user zedvox used under Creative Commons licenses.
About the Author
Rupa Chinai is an independent journalist based in Mumbai, India. She has been writing on health and development issues for the past 25 years and her work has appeared in some of India's leading English language daily newspapers and websites as well as foreign publications. Her basic education was obtained in Mumbai and opportunities for further studies and exposure came through prestigious awards such as a journalism fellowship from the Harvard School of Public Health in the US, amongst others. She is co-author of a book on rural women's health issues and is currently engaged in writing a book on northeast India, based on 20 years of travel and work in that region.
Tags:India Kashmir Mumbai Opinion Pakistan Peace Terrorism War
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
THE GLOBAL FORCE BEHIND MUMBAI’S AGONY IS IN OUR MIDST
http://www.sanfranciscosentinel.com/?p=17858
7 December 2008
Stephen Schwartz and Irfan Al-Alawi say that LET — the Army of the Righteous — is a worldwide Islamist organisation which is well-established in Britain. The Mumbai atrocities are further proof that the march of Islamic extremism is the central fact of our time.
BY STEPHEN SCHWARTZ
The usual suspects are declaring that the ‘cause’ of the Mumbai bombings was Kashmir or some other local grievance. But what happened in Mumbai was no more a local event than the 7 July 2005 attacks in London or the assault in Madrid on 11 March 2004. Pakistani propaganda about its claims in Kashmir is almost entirely phony rhetoric intended to justify the predatory instincts of the Pakistani army and intelligence bureaucrats. Pakistan insists that Kashmiri Muslims are oppressed by India, but in fact Indian Muslims live better than Pakistani Muslims and have demonstrated a better capacity for true Islamic thinking.
The attacks on Mumbai are part of a global problem, which is why a passive Western policy toward the crisis is not acceptable. It may appear comforting to bien-pensant representatives of the ‘progressive’ elite. But in reality it represents an attitude of suicidal and irresponsible disengagement from confrontation with a continuing threat. In Mumbai, as in London, Madrid and New York, but also in the Islamic cities of Iraq, Istanbul and Jakarta, and in places like Peshawar and Quetta in Pakistan, a wide network of Muslim fundamentalists continue their global offensive.
The common enemies of all civilised humanity in the ongoing conflict include Saudi Wahhabism and Pakistani jihadism, the latter inspired by a fundamentalist variant of Islam called Deobandism. What Western appeasers must remember is that Pakistan, like Saudi Arabia before it, is two-faced, professing to oppose terrorism while powerful factions in its leadership espouse it.
There is a wide gap between the ordinary local people in Pakistan and India — whatever their faith — and Islamist radicals in the Pakistani armed forces and clandestine services. This division cannot be spanned by a few ameliorative gestures by Pakistani, American or British leaders. We owe it to these ordinary people to treat Islamism seriously wherever it occurs.
This war is mainly aimed at gaining the loyalties of the world’s Sunni Muslims. Saudi Wahhabis now favour a crisis in Pakistan. King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia has begun a slow and at times almost imperceptible process of anti-Wahhabi actions, and so the main body of Islamist radicals (claiming the mantle of Sunnism) have shifted their attention to Pakistan and its pool of Deobandi foot soldiers. On the subcontinent, the extremists can corrupt, recruit and kill more people, with more impunity, than is now imaginable in the Middle East. Remember that the Wahhabis have failed in Iraq, and the Deobandis, who produced the Taleban, are widely discredited in Afghanistan. Pakistan is now the most obvious choice as a new battleground. Action against India may be the pretext, but the reality is a radical, global strategy.
Saudi Arabia and Pakistan resemble the old Soviet Union and East Germany in their special relationship, but they are different from these states in one key respect: no communist regime ever had a diaspora of two million in Britain, as Pakistan does today. The point that should be impressed on the mind of every Briton is that the Pakistani jihadi militia and the al-Qa’eda collaborators known as Lashkar-e-Taiba (LET — Army of the Righteous) which attacked Mumbai have a significant following in Britain, Europe and the US.
Thanks to Pakistani government blandishments, LET is recruiting in British mosques as you read these words. This is not alarmist language; it is a pragmatic and direct statement of fact. LET was involved in the Heathrow plot of 2006. LET trained 27-year-old Rashid Rauf of Birmingham, planner of the multiple destruction of passenger aircraft, whom the US allegedly killed in November but who some say remains alive and who was, if nothing else, an inspirer of the Mumbai attacks.
LET is active in the US, where it ran an aggressive network headed by an American white man who converted to Islam, Randall Ismail Royer. Royer’s cell was known by the alarmingly anodyne nickname of ‘the Virginia paintball jihad’, because its ten or so wannabe mujahideen engaged in that form of imitation war as practice for the real fighting they would face as LET troops in Kashmir. Royer, a former functionary of the leading legal Islamist group in America, the presumptuously titled Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), had been in Bosnia-Herzegovina and adopted the charming habit of ringing and harassing Bosnian and American Muslims who challenged Wahhabism. Then he was found driving around the American capital with a loaded AK-47 and 219 rounds of ammunition in his car.
Royer joined LET recruits from the US in Kashmir for what is best described as jihad tourism, taking up arms against the Indians. Royer also cleverly produced Islamist internet polemics intended to convey moderation and acceptance of Western values. He and his group were charged with 41 counts of conspiracy to levy war against India, an ally of the United States, as well as arms and related infractions. Royer and a LET comrade pleaded guilty to weapons violations in 2004 and received 20 years in an American prison. Royer’s religious wisdom was succinctly summarised when he commented on his arrest, ‘I really resent the idea that a Muslim with a gun — he’s a threat. A Jew with a gun — he’s not a threat.’
Perhaps a Muslim with a gun is not necessarily a threat; but an Islamist with a gun certainly is. We must not forget that, in taking the Islamist threat in Mumbai seriously, in admitting it to be a global problem we are protecting not just the West but ordinary Muslims too. We must not forget that many Muslims are also committed to civilised values and opposed to this perversion of their faith. The necessity of the struggle against Islamic extremism is the central fact of our time. To try to write recognition of the nature of Islamist violence out of comprehension of Mumbai and crimes like those committed there brings to mind Orwell’s dictum that there are some notions that only the media and intellectuals are stupid enough to believe.
There are few places in the world today without Muslims, and of course wherever there are Muslim communities there is this possibility of radicalisation. But no situation is currently worse than that of Saudi-satellite Pakistan and its British diaspora. So what should be done about it? The British authorities should resolutely quarantine, deport, otherwise expel, and in general combat LET and other Deobandi elements in the British Muslim population. This seems like a sensible and life-saving measure, but nothing remotely like such a policy exists.
Instead the Foreign Office mumbles about the difficulties of determining whether British subjects died as criminal assailants in Mumbai, the US tiptoes around the question of LET’s historically undeniable financing and training by the Pakistani military, and Pakistani representatives whine that they should not be judged until some kind of official inquiry into Mumbai has taken place. But what state other than Pakistan — however failing — would evince an incentive to tolerate LET? Would Sri Lanka have encouraged a gang of murderers to invade a major Indian city? Nepal, which happens to be Maoist? Burma? Hardly. Pakistan’s army is the moral author of the bloodshed in Mumbai; it recruits its cannon fodder in British cities like Birmingham and Bolton as much — or more than — in the slums of Lahore or Karachi, and it represents the main back-up for al-Qa’eda.
Ignoring the ideological and geographical dimension of the world struggle against Islamist violence denies the existential reality of the Mumbai events. The screams of the innocent in Mumbai are the immediately audible evidence of the meaning of the contest. To pretend that such deaths were caused by old complaints in Kashmir is to ignore the real threat and thus to endanger humanity.
So what must be done? Pakistan and India both have nuclear weapons, and the Pakistani ruling clique is excitable about threatening their use. Nonetheless London and Washington appear paralysed. In this situation, the reaction of London may be more relevant than that of Washington. President-elect Obama babbled about bombing the Pakistan-Afghanistan-Iran frontier at about the time his opponent, John McCain, was pilloried for celebrating a proposed bombing of Iran. But in the transition period the new inhabitant of the White House apparently prefers to bemoan the diminishing potential for a Begin-Sadat-style photo op of the kind produced in 1978 by President Jimmy Carter. The thinking goes that getting Pakistan and India to hug one another, even while Pakistan continues to tolerate (if not deliberately assist) LET, will free the Pakistani military brass to make good on their repeated but empty promises to act against the Taleban.
It would be the worst of all mistakes to think that Pakistani complicity with the Taleban, and Islamabad’s support for the Kashmiri killers and their Mumbai militants, can be separated into two issues and handled in isolation from one another. Many individuals, British subjects included, went to Afghanistan and joined al-Qa’eda but ended up in Kashmir in the ranks of LET. The fighting in Afghanistan in some major part exists as a platform for continuing assault on Kashmir. Ending terror in Afghanistan is indivisible from the same task in Kashmir and, indeed, elsewhere around the world.
Obama seems to be living in a cloud-cuckoo land. If Pakistan is to avoid failing as a state, it must desist from harassing its neighbour, accept responsibility for fostering terror groups, and reform its army and intelligence services from top to bottom, rooting out every sympathiser of violent fundamentalism.
But this is unlikely to happen. Pakistan increasingly resembles a bus with no brakes, hurtling towards a cliff, and driven by a man, Asif Ali Zardari, who appears to have been struck blind. The lesson of Mumbai may be that for Pakistan rescue will come too late.
Stephen Schwartz Is Executive Director And Irfan Al-Alawi Is International Director Of The Centre For Islamic Pluralism at islamicpluralism.eu.
See Related: PAKISTAN ARRESTS ALLEGED MASTERMIND OF MUMBAI MASSACRE
See Related: INDIA MOVING IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION - U.S. INVASION OF PAKISTAN CAN’T BE RULED OUT
See Related: SHAME ON THOSE WHO APOLOGIZE FOR JIHADISTS
See Related: WORLD POLITICS
See Related: ISRAEL-MIDEAST
Saturday, December 6, 2008
India angry as 'never before' over attacks: PM
http://asia.news.yahoo.com/081205/afp/081205124036asiapacificnews.html
MUMBAI (AFP) - India has been angered "as never before" by the attacks in Mumbai, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Friday, as his new home minister hinted at growing evidence of Pakistani involvement.
"We have told the world that the people of India have felt a sense of hurt and anger as never before due to the Mumbai terror strikes," Singh said following talks here with visiting Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
The attacks by Islamist gunmen against multiple targets in India's financial capital nine days ago killed 163 people, including 26 foreigners. Nine militants were killed, while one was captured alive.
"It is the obligation of all concerned that perpetrators of this horrible crime are brought to book," Singh said.
India says all 10 gunmen involved in the assault came from Pakistan, and has handed Islamabad a list of 20 terror suspects, with demands for their arrest and extradition.
Suspicion has focused on Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan-based militant group which has fought Indian control of divided Kashmir. Lashkar was blamed for an attack on the Indian parliament in 2001, which pushed the two nations to the brink of war.
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Earlier Friday, Indian Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram clearly had Pakistani groups in mind when he spoke of proof that elements outside the country were responsible.
"There is ample evidence to show that the source of the terrorist attack was clearly linked to organisations which have in the past been identified as being behind terrorist attacks in India," Chidambaram said.
"There are one or two countries which have broadly confirmed our preliminary conclusions," he added.
The United States has been sharing intelligence with India in the wake of the Mumbai bloodshed.
Chidambaram acknowledged there had been some security and intelligence "lapses" prior to the attacks.
"These are being looked into and I will do my utmost ... to overcome the causes of these lapses and try to improve the effectiveness of the security system," he said.
CNN and other US networks reported that the United States had warned India in October that hotels and business centres in Mumbai would be targeted by attackers coming from the sea.
One US intelligence official even named the Taj Mahal hotel, one of 10 sites hit in the 60-hour siege by gunmen, as a specific target, ABC television said.
Several Indian newspapers on Friday cited unidentified intelligence sources as saying that Pakistan's powerful spy agency, the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), was involved in training the gunmen.
The Indian Express said intercepts of conversations between the gunmen and their handlers showed the use of communication pathways often used by the ISI.
"We are 100 percent convinced that the ISI is involved," the India Abroad News Service quoted a highly placed intelligence source as saying.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was in Islamabad Thursday in an effort to defuse tension in the region after visiting New Delhi the previous day.
Rice said it was crucial for the Pakistani government to provide full and transparent cooperation with the Indian investigations.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari said he was determined that his country would not be used to orchestrate attacks or shelter terrorists and vowed "strong action" against any Pakistani elements involved.
Indian jitters following the attacks saw New Delhi's international airport locked down for about 40 minutes overnight Thursday after security guards heard what they thought were gunshots.
The incident was finally dismissed as a false alarm.
Security was tightened across India after the Mumbai attacks, and the alert level at several airports was raised even higher Thursday after Defence Minister A.K. Antony warned of possible "terror strikes from the air."
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Rice pressures Pakistan over Mumbai attacks
http://asia.news.yahoo.com/081203/afp/081203154327asiapacificnews.html
Wednesday December 3, 11:43 PM
NEW DELHI (AFP) - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Pakistan on Wednesday to "cooperate fully and transparently" with India's investigation into last week's Islamic militant attacks on Mumbai.
Speaking in the Indian capital, where she was holding talks with Indian leaders, Rice urged Islamabad to respond "swiftly and transparently" to New Delhi's accusations that the gunmen came from across the border.
Ties between the nuclear-armed South Asian rivals have become badly strained in the wake of the devastating assault on Mumbai that left 188 people dead. The two countries have fought three wars since their 1947 independence from British rule.
"Pakistan needs to act with urgency and with resolve and cooperate fully and transparently," Rice told reporters before going into talks with Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee. She is also to meet with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
"That message will be delivered to Pakistan," said Rice, who was expected to fly to Islamabad on Thursday.
Although Rice said she refused to "jump to any conclusions about who is responsible," US intelligence officials have suggested the assault was the work of the Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba.
"This is a time for everyone to cooperate and to do so transparently, and especially a time for Pakistan to do so," she added.
An Indian government source told AFP that Rice will be handed evidence of a Pakistan link to the attack on a string of targets in India's economic capital including two luxury hotels, a Jewish centre, a popular cafe and a hospital.
The attack was carried out by 10 gunmen, some of whom arrived by boat. The official toll of victims stands at 188 dead and more than 300 wounded. Those killed included 22 foreign nationals.
India remains on high alert a week after the attacks, with Indian police on Wednesday discovering and defusing more explosives left behind at Mumbai's main railway station -- also one of the targets.
"This is part of the same consignment which the terrorists had brought on Wednesday night when they were attacking and running helter-skelter, some of the material had been left behind," anti-terrorism chief K.P. Raghuvashi said.
The situation was "under control" and a bomb disposal unit had defused the devices, he told AFP.
India says the only captured gunman has confirmed under interrogation that all the militants were from Pakistan and received their training there.
"We will put on the table information so far gathered," a senior government source said of the talks with Rice. "We plan to share transcripts of satellite phone conversations that link the terrorists to their Pakistani handlers."
The United States is particularly concerned about any military stand-off with India that might see Pakistan move troops from its western border with Afghanistan -- a crucial battleground in the US "war on terror".
The chief of the United States military, the chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff Admiral Michael Mullen, was also in Pakistan as part of Washington's efforts to avert a stand-off.
India called in the Pakistani ambassador earlier this week and demanded Pakistan arrest and extradite 20 terror suspects, including the founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba, Hafiz Saeed.
Others named were Maulana Masood Azhar, chief of the Jaish-e-Mohammed rebel group, and Dawood Ibrahim, who is wanted in India on charges of masterminding serial bombings in Mumbai in 1993 that killed around 300 people.
Pakistan has suggested setting up a "joint investigation mechanism" but says it wants concrete proof that all the attackers were Pakistanis.
"The state of Pakistan is no way responsible," Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari told CNN.
"I think these are stateless actors who have been operating throughout the region. The gunmen, whoever they are, they are all stateless actors who are holding hostage the whole world."
India's security and intelligence agencies have come under intense criticism over their handling of the incident, which has already forced the resignation of interior minister Shivraj Patil.
US networks this week reported that the United States had warned India in October that hotels and business centres in Mumbai would be targeted by attackers coming from the sea.
One US intelligence official even named the Taj Mahal hotel, one of 10 sites hit in the 60-hour siege by gunmen, as a specific target, ABC television said.
It said Indian intelligence officials intercepted a phone call on November 18 to an address in Pakistan used by the head of Lashkar-e-Taiba, revealing a possible attack from the sea.
India says 'no doubt' Mumbai attackers came from Pakistan
http://asia.news.yahoo.com/081203/afp/081203152811asiapacificnews.html
NEW DELHI (AFP) - India's foreign minister said on Wednesday there was "no doubt" that the militants who attacked Mumbai came from Pakistan and were coordinated from Pakistan.
"I informed Dr Rice that there is no doubt the terrorists were individuals who came from Pakistan and whose controllers are in Pakistan," Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee said at a joint news conference with visiting US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
He said India wanted to see that "the terrorists and organisations who perpetrated these attacks are arrested and brought to justice".
"We expect all friendly governments and the international community to ensure that this happens," he said.
"What action will be taken by the government will depend on the response we have from the Pakistan authorities.
"I am expecting the response, (and) after obtaining the response, whatever the government considers necessary to protect its territorial integrity, safety and security of its citizens, the government will do that," he added.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
A word from India
http://www.blogsofzion.com/blog/?p=1480
4. 2 (Two) Pakistani nuclear scientists close to Al Qaeda were sent to Burma (next to Bangladesh and shares open borders). In December 2001, the New York Times reported that while US authorities were investigating Mahmood and Majid, they found some links between al-Qaeda and two other Pakistani nuclear scientists, Suleiman Asad and Muhammed Ali Mukhtar. Both Asad and Mukhtar had long experience at two of Pakistan’s most secret nuclear-weapons-related installations. However, before US investigators could reach them, Pakistan sent the two scientists to Myanmar on an unspecified “research project“.
The New York Times also quoted Pakistani officials as saying that President General Pervez Musharraf personally telephoned one of Myanmar’s military rulers to ask him to provide temporary asylum for the two nuclear specialists. In January 2002, the Wall Street Journal reported that Asad and Mukhtar were possibly aiding Myanmar’s efforts to build a 10-megawatt nuclear “research reactor”. Asad and Mukhtar are still in Myanmar, well away from US reach. Read about their Taliban and Al_Qaeda links in this article: Pakistan’s forgotten al-Qaeda nuclear link.
Posted by DanielCipriani on Wed 12 Nov 2008
This was sent to me yesterday and although it isn’t directly related to Israel, it is interesting what the writer has to say regarding security and the future bases for Islamic extremists. This blog was originally posted on http://bengalunderattack.blogspot.com/2008/11/is-dirty-bomb-meant-for-usa-uk-india.html, Enjoy!
A couple of years back I was in Bangladesh on a business visit when the BNP government was in power. This party (BNP) is known for its anti-India and pro-Pakistan views and is very close to Jamaat and other religious bodies. Behind these are ex-Generals of Bangladesh Army that fought alongside Pakistan in the war of 1971. Tthey are extremely close to ISI and some of their MPs are known sympathizers.
On the other end of the spectrum is the Awami League party, which is essentially formed of ex-Mukti Bahini guirella soldiers who fought for the liberation of Bangladesh against Pakistan and earned their independence in 1971. India helped this group gain independence from Pakistan, hence supporters of Awami League are pro-India. (Bangladesh was part of Pakistan from 1947 to 1971 and was referred to as East Pakistan).
I had gone to a cocktail party arranged by one of my clients and in that party, a gentleman working in a very senior position in a private company in Dhaka came up and chatted with me. ( I DO NOT RECALL THE NAME OF THE GENTLEMAN OR THE COMPANY HE WORKED FOR - SO THOSE OF YOU DO NOT WANT TO BELIEVE THIS STORY - FINE). After initial introductions when we were suitably alone, he had something very interesting to state and it went like this:
“I am a supporter of Awami League and I do not want Bangladesh get into the Islamic morass. There is something very fishy going on and I thought of telling you this. My company’s work is near some remote granite mines and these are being excavated by the North Koreans. And I hear that some other “nationalities” to India’s west are there too. No one can go near the sites and something very wrong is going on there. The North Koreans are in the mines deep down doing something weird and not mining granite – which is just a front. I cannot do a thing about it, probably you should let your government know.”
I thought that this gentleman is perhaps testing me and thinks that I am an Indian agent and wanted to feed me “disinformation”. I did nothing with this information. I did have a bad experience with Indian embassy when I was in New York city as a student – that is for later in this blog. But I wanted to get this off my chest, however improbable this may sound.
But there are interesting things to tie the story down.
1. Right next to Bangladesh border, in North East India – there are uranium deposits. And there are enough and more stories that locals ferry this “yellow cake” illegally in local buses in jute bags and sell it to “dealers”. Where this ultimately goes, is anybody’s guess. My bet is that this is simply sent over the borders into Bangladesh. The border is open and porous in North East.
2. There are granite mines in Bangladesh and some in very remote places. And indeed there are North Korean companies working there.
3. The Chittagong port is a den of criminal activity and anything goes and lands there. “Smugglers were unloading the largest ever arms cache on the Karnaphuli coast in Chittagong on Friday with ‘help from local police’, a witness told journalists in a major twist to the seizure top intelligence officials credited to tip-off from their foreign counterparts.”
4. 2 (Two) Pakistani nuclear scientists close to Al Qaeda were sent to Burma (next to Bangladesh and shares open borders). In December 2001, the New York Times reported that while US authorities were investigating Mahmood and Majid, they found some links between al-Qaeda and two other Pakistani nuclear scientists, Suleiman Asad and Muhammed Ali Mukhtar. Both Asad and Mukhtar had long experience at two of Pakistan’s most secret nuclear-weapons-related installations. However, before US investigators could reach them, Pakistan sent the two scientists to Myanmar on an unspecified “research project“.
The New York Times also quoted Pakistani officials as saying that President General Pervez Musharraf personally telephoned one of Myanmar’s military rulers to ask him to provide temporary asylum for the two nuclear specialists. In January 2002, the Wall Street Journal reported that Asad and Mukhtar were possibly aiding Myanmar’s efforts to build a 10-megawatt nuclear “research reactor”. Asad and Mukhtar are still in Myanmar, well away from US reach. Read about their Taliban and Al_Qaeda links in this article: Pakistan’s forgotten al-Qaeda nuclear link.
Even though a blog is not a credible source, this is indeed interesting read.
If one were to piece together the points 1 though 4 above and add “North Koreans along with undesirable West Asian foreigners” doing “weird things in the pit of mines” - we need to be worried. Not to forget, ISI has home base advantage in Bangladesh.
My guess is : This is the perfect place for manufacturing a Dirty Bomb. Whoever will think of Bangladesh? And stolen uranium, pliant port and “North Koreans” and “West Asians”. A heady cocktail indeed !
BANGLADESH & DIRTY BOMB: A TRYST IN 2003. While writing this blog, I came upon the article written by Indian supercop KPS GILL - which is linked above “they are close to ISI” which states: “There were grave concerns about the possibility of Islamist extremists in the country acquiring radioactive materials and the technical know-how to build a ‘dirty bomb’, when on May 30, 2003, Bangladeshi police arrested four suspected members of a Islamist group, Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen, at a house in the northern village of Puiya. Officers also seized a football-size package with markings indicating it contained a crude form of uranium manufactured in Kazakhstan. Subsequent tests at the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission in Dhaka confirmed that the 225-gram ball was uranium oxide—enough to make a weapon capable of dispersing radiation across a wide area if strapped to conventional explosives.”
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About my bad experience with Indian embassy as a student and why I kept quiet. I was in New York city on a full Presidential scholarship during graduate studies. One of my friends from India who was not on full scholarship, was working part time, illegally in a lawyer’s office downtown Manhattan. That lawyer specialized in getting green cards done for illegals - by cooking up stories on farming etc. But alarming thing was there were blank Indian passports in that office which came from “Sikhs” in Canada and USA. One senior Indian diplomat came to our University to talk about India and after his power point and Q&A, I took him aside and showed him the blank Indian passport. He did not bat an eyelid and told me to report this to FBI as this was outside his jurisdiction. I thought - excuse me - don’t you want to know where this is coming from, don’t you want to alert RAW. But he just walked away, not bothering to even ask my name. I was actually stunned at the callousness. I kept quiet for a couple of weeks and after my friend left the job at lawyers’ office, I rang up the FBI from a payphone and gave details. They raided the place in a matter of days and closed shop and arrested the errant “lawyer”. FBI did its job but my country did not.
Pakistan's forgotten al-Qaeda nuclear link
By Kaushik Kapisthalam
Novelists Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins, authors of such bestsellers as City of Joy and Is Paris burning?, have just written a new novel titled Is New York Burning? whose plot involves al-Qaeda members, with help from a Pakistan army major, successfully smuggling a Pakistani nuclear device into New York and then using it to try to blackmail the United States into stopping support for Israel.
The Pakistani jihadi group that plays a big part in the plot is called Lashkar-e-Tibi. Even fiction writers have now started connecting the dots linking Pakistan's nuclear establishment, its home-grown jihad groups and the possibility of an al-Qaeda nuclear attack overseas. But US authorities seem curiously blase about this threat and still appear to be content with the old shibboleths about the "inviolability" of Pakistan's nuclear program.
The ones who met Osama bin Laden
In late 2001, US officials investigating the activities of Osama bin Laden discovered that the al-Qaeda head had contacted some Pakistani nuclear experts for assistance in making a small nuclear device. US officials sought two veteran Pakistani nuclear scientists in particular, Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood and Abdul Majid, for interrogation. The two admitted working in Afghanistan in recent years, but said they had only been providing "charitable assistance" to Afghans.
Mahmood was no low-level scientist. He was one of Pakistan's foremost experts in the secret effort to produce plutonium for atomic weapons. In 1999 he publicly said that Pakistan should help other Islamic nations build nuclear weapons. He also made some public statements in support of the Taliban movement. After more interrogation, both Mahmood and Majid admitted that they had met with bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri during their visits to Afghanistan and held long "theoretical" discussions on nuclear weapons.
Then the trail went cold. After months in Pakistani custody, both Mahmood and Majid were quietly released. Fearing that Mahmood's charity organization, Ummah Tameer e-Nau, could be a front for al-Qaeda, the US government placed the entity in its terrorist list and designated Mahmood himself "a global terrorist". Pakistan's government never put the two scientists on trial, and they are free men today.
The ones who got away
In December 2001, the New York Times reported that while US authorities were investigating Mahmood and Majid, they found some links between al-Qaeda and two other Pakistani nuclear scientists, Suleiman Asad and Muhammed Ali Mukhtar. Both Asad and Mukhtar had long experience at two of Pakistan's most secret nuclear-weapons-related installations. However, before US investigators could reach them, Pakistan sent the two scientists to Myanmar on an unspecified "research project".
The New York Times also quoted Pakistani officials as saying that President General Pervez Musharraf personally telephoned one of Myanmar's military rulers to ask him to provide temporary asylum for the two nuclear specialists. In January 2002, the Wall Street Journal reported that Asad and Mukhtar were possibly aiding Myanmar's efforts to build a 10-megawatt nuclear "research reactor". Asad and Mukhtar are still in Myanmar, well away from US reach.
The Lashkar-Nuke link
Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) is a terrorist group based in Muridke, Pakistan. Although founded by the chief promoter of the Afghan jihad and bin Laden mentor, Sheikh Abdullah Azzam, LeT claims ousting India from Kashmir as its main goal. But experts say LeT shared training camps with al-Qaeda and that many al-Qaeda-linked Afghan-Arabs have been found fighting for LeT in Indian-administered Kashmir. The LeT fought on the side of the Taliban in Afghanistan as well.
An Australian named David Hicks, who was picked up by coalition forces in Afghanistan and who is now in Guantanomo prison in Cuba, was trained by LeT. LeT has also provided training for jihadis from Southeast Asia, Central Asia and Chechnya. In December 2001, the US banned LeT after it was implicated in a terrorist attack on India's parliament. Pakistan subsequently banned LeT in January 2002, but allowed it to operate under a new name - Jamaat-ud-Dawa. Prior to being banned, LeT used to hold massive annual conclaves in Pakistan, preaching jihad against India, Israel and the United States. Today, it is widely believed that LeT is operating as a global al-Qaeda "franchisee", even though it is still active in Indian Kashmir.
In a sensational claim, French journalist and author Bernard Henri-Levy stated that Pakistan's disgraced "father" of the nuclear bomb, Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan, was in fact a member of LeT. What is definite is that Khan did attend the last openly held LeT moot, in April 2001, as an honored guest. Accompanying Khan on the dais was none other than Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood, the plutonium expert who met bin Laden. According to the South Asia Analysis Group, bin Laden himself was known to address LeT annual meets over the phone for many years, even when he was hiding in Afghanistan and Sudan.
Despite being banned, the Pakistani media have frequently reported that LeT has openly collected funds under its new name. Pakistani authorities have allowed LeT's leader or "emir", Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, to barnstorm Pakistan, calling for jihad against the United States, in particular. In the recent past, Saeed has stated in his public meetings and rallies that Pakistan's nuclear weapons should be used to benefit all Islamic nations and that Pakistan must share its nukes with such nations as Iran and Saudi Arabia. More alarming, in a 2002 statement Saeed released to the LeT website, he claimed that people loyal to his organization "control two nuclear missiles". He is claimed to have said that the two missiles with warheads would be used against "enemies of Islam".
In 2002, top al-Qaeda leader Abu Zubaida was arrested from a LeT safe house in Faisalabad, Pakistan. Pakistani officials did not, however, arrest LeT leader Hameedullah Khan Niazi, who had housed Zubaida. In late 2003, the brother of Indonesian terrorist Hambali and many of his Indonesian and Malaysian associates were also arrested from a LeT-owned seminary in Karachi.
In what is now known in the United States as the "Virginia Jihad" conspiracy, nine terrorist suspects were recently arrested from Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania. The men were later convicted on terrorism-related charges. As per the indictment, all were members of LeT and trained in LeT camps in Pakistan.
Last October, a French-born terrorist named Willie Brigitte was arrested in connection with his actions in Australia. Brigitte admitted to be a member of LeT. Australian police later arrested a Pakistani architect - Faheem Lodhi, who was also a member of LeT, and was supposedly Brigitte's co-conspirator in a plot to conduct a major terrorist attack in Australia. Reports indicate that Lodhi's and Brigitte's target was supposedly the electrical grid. Other targets considered included the Lucas Heights nuclear research center outside Sydney and various military facilities and natural-gas pipelines. It is also known that both Lodhi and Brigitte received funds and took orders from a mid-to-high-level LeT member in Pakistan named Sheikh Sajid. More alarming, Brigitte told interrogators that he had personally seen a Chechen chemical-weapons expert named Abu Salah experiment with chemical weapons in an LeT camp in Pakistan.
Why the Pakistan threat is real
Despite all the ominous-sounding facts mentioned above, some readers might wonder whether the Pakistan nuclear-terrorism threat is a credible one. Indeed, some analysts do feel that the idea of Pakistan's nuclear warheads falling into the hands of terrorist groups such as LeT is an exaggeration. After all, it is widely believed that Pakistan's nuclear weapons are under the secure safekeeping of the nation's army, the only institution in Pakistan that is supposedly free of al-Qaeda influence. But is that really so?
Just recently, Musharraf revealed that some "junior" Pakistani army and air force officers had colluded with al-Qaeda terrorists in the two attempts on his life last December. The Pakistani newspaper the Daily Times revealed that the "junior officers" referred to by Musharraf may include an army captain, three majors, a lieutenant-colonel and a colonel. This is extremely significant. While many retired Pakistani generals and intelligence chiefs have openly associated with groups such as al-Qaeda, their actions have been glossed over because they weren't in active service. But when we know that serving Pakistani military officers have been conducting joint operations with al-Qaeda, the possibility of a Pakistani nuclear device falling into the hands of al-Qaeda appears more credible.
Even if al-Qaeda never gets hold of a Pakistani nuclear warhead, thanks to US technical safeguards, the possibility of it building a Pakistani-designed radiation dispersal device or a "dirty bomb" looks plausible. A recent analysis by US nuclear experts David Albright and Holly Higgins found strong evidence that Pakistani nuclear scientists Sultan Mahmood and Abdul Majid "provided significant assistance to al-Qaeda's efforts to make radiation dispersal devices". Therein lies the most overlooked Pakistani threat - the knowledge in the heads of nuclear experts sympathetic to the jihad movement, and jihadi groups with weapons-of-mass-destruction ambitions such as LeT operating secure facilities and training camps in Pakistan with only the most minimal of restraints.
Assuming that the US might be secretly monitoring Pakistani nuclear fuel and weapons sites, such actions would not be enough to prevent, for instance, radioactive materials stolen from the former Soviet Union by Chechen LeT members and delivered to Pakistan, packaged into a dirty bomb designed by a Pakistani nuclear scientist (or an improvised nuclear device based on a Pakistani warhead design) in an LeT compound and delivered by a Pakistani-trained Western citizen taking orders from a handler in Karachi or Lahore.
For those who are skeptical of such a scenario it is worthwhile to recall that there have been reports of every one of its individual elements over the past three years, including the smuggling of radioactive and fissile material in to the region. This March, Tajik authorities arrested a man with a small quantity of plutonium that he allegedly planned to sell in Afghanistan or Pakistan. Indeed, Pakistan remains the single most important country of focus in preventing an attack using a dirty bomb or even an improvised nuclear device.
Even before September 11, 2001, al-Qaeda had been interested in launching suicide attacks on nuclear reactors, turning them in effect into huge dirty bombs. For instance, in a 2002 interview with alJazeera reporter Yosri Fouda at a secret location in Karachi, September 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his associate Ramzi bin al-Shibh claimed that the September 11 attacks were originally going to target nuclear reactors, but they "decided against it for fear it would go out of control". Scientists and engineers from Pakistan's nuclear program could provide essential advice that could make the difference between success and failure. For instance, Sultan Mahmood, who played an important role in the construction of Pakistan's Khushab nuclear reactor, could have given specific tips to terrorists on how to breach nuclear reactors.
Unlearning the lessons of September 11
This summer is slated to be a period of high tension for the West, the United States in particular, with multiple threats of terrorist attacks by al-Qaeda and its affiliates, according to US officials. As horrific as the September 11 attacks on the US were, many terrorism experts have been warning that the next al-Qaeda attacks could be much worse. Even as the US struggles to deal with the aftermath of a war to remove Saddam Hussein from Iraq, where the threat from weapons of mass destruction was highly ambiguous, it appears that US policymakers are unresponsive to a more alarming threat from Pakistan.
Kaushik Kapisthalam is a freelance journalist based in the United States.
(Copyright 2004 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact content@atimes.com for information on our sales and syndication policies.)
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Shia Sunni Dialog in Pakistan: Why and How
http://letusbuildpakistan.blogspot.com/
By Abdul Malik Mujahid
When in a Karachi Shia masjid a suicide bomber killed worshipers on a recent Friday, the first people who rushed to the rescue were worshipers from the nearby Sunni mosque in the Sindh Madrasah. They tried to save lives and comfort the injured before the police and others could arrive. I came to know about this because a Shia writer wrote about it in the Pakistani daily newspaper Dawn. Shias have similarly come forward to help their Sunni neighbors in crises. It has been reported that Shia and Sunni both regularly participate in each other’s funeral prayers.
May Allah bless those hearts moved by the needs of others. People like these are the true faithful whose actions reflect their character. These are the silent majority of Pakistanis who need to work with each other to isolate the terrorists amongst them and the extremists who support them.
This silent majority must come together through dialog to defeat the terrorists who have been responsible for killing as many as 4,000 Pakistanis in the past 15 years through their sectarian violence.
Seven reasons why a dialog between Shia and Sunni is needed:
* Theological differences between Shia and Sunni are old and are better left for Allah to judge, as He knows best and has said that He is the final judge of religious disagreements (Quran 16:12). The killing of Shias or Sunnis will not resolve these disputes.
* The principle of “no compulsion in matters of faith” (Quran 2:256) is not just limited to Muslim-non-Muslim relations. It applies to Muslim interpretations of Islam as well. This instruction of God serves as a guideline for the Muslim community to not impose one's interpretation on others. That is why throughout history, not only have Hanafis and Shafis worked with each other despite differences, but Shias and Sunnis have lived and worked side by side with each other as well.
* When human beings sit down and talk to each other, they learn to respect each other.
* Dialog allows parties to understand each other better by allowing participants to acquire direct knowledge about beliefs instead of relying on propaganda and stereotypical images. (Quran 49:6-12)
* It is Haram to kill a human being. Killing a human being is like killing the whole of humanity. By talking to each other, Shias and Sunnis will be able to save lives, which is like saving the whole of humanity. (Quran 5:32)
* Revenge is not justice. Killing in revenge is unjust, inhuman, and un-Islamic. Retribution through the state, which the Quran sanctions via capital punishment does not amount to individuals taking the law in their hands or killing an innocent person in revenge. The call for, "an eye for an eye," does not mean an innocent eye for an innocent eye; it means the eye of the perpetrator for the eye of the victim.
* Even if some Shias and Sunnis consider each other enemies, the Quran asks us to be just even toward one's enemy "O you who believe! Stand out firmly for Allah, as witnesses to fair dehttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.bold.gifaling, and let not the hatred of others to you make you swerve to wrong and depart from justice. Be just: that is next to Piety: and fear Allah. For Allah is well-acquainted with all that you do." [Quran 5:8]
Some considerations for dialog:
The Shia community is a large community in Pakistan and that there are many differences between one Shia group and another. This is why it is important that dialog between Sunnis and Shias becomes a movement and a process throughout society instead of everyone waiting for one high powered dialog to yield some results at the leadership level. Here are some preliminary thoughts on how a dialog between Shias and Sunnis can be beneficial for each party.
Goals of dialog
Although I consider dialog a process that is beneficial to society, it is necessary that everyone involved recognize some of its tangible benefits. The following are a set of achievable goals for Shia-Sunni dialog.
* Developing an agenda of common concerns
* Identifying issues of conflict
* Issuing joint Fatwas against the killings
* Isolating extremists on each side
* Preventing a potential conflict or mediating an existing conflict
* Clearing up stereotypes about each other
* Setting up joint task forces to deal with outstanding issues
Who should participate in the dialog
* Imams and caretakers of Masjids
* Students of Madrassas
* University students
* National level religious leadership
* Shia and Sunni media persons
* Shia and Sunni businesspersons
Mechanism of dialog
Dialog is a process that should occur at all levels of society. In the 1960s in Pakistan, when Shia- Sunni fights were far less significant, city officers used to convene joint meetings of Shia and Sunni leaders to chalk out Muharram plans so no confusion would result in rioting. These government-arranged dialogs helped keep conflicts at a minimum. Considering the current level of mistrust, it will be beneficial if civil society takes initiatives for dialog at all levels of society.
* Private Dialog: Host roundtable discussions initially at the top leadership level that should later expand to include
* thers working on different committees.
* Public Dialog: Shia and Sunni both use public forums and media to speak to each other's audiences
* Visiting each other’s Masjids to enhance confidence and to demonstrate that they are not supportive of the extremists who isolate each other.
* Shia-Sunni Dinners: Masjids and social associations should invite Shia and Sunni friends to eat with each other publicly.
Publicity of dialog
Publicity of the dialog will generate hope and confidence in it and will empower those in dialog vis-a-vis the extremists.
* Media should facilitate self-criticism and introspection by the religious leadership
* Those leaders who participate in dialog should be recognized through interviews, reports, and documentaries
* Investigative reports should be aired and published about the truth behind sectarian propaganda
* It is important for society to honor those Shia and Sunni leaders who take initiative and demonstrate leadership in participating in dialog. Sunnis, being members of the majority community, have the higher level of responsibility towards initiating and participating in dialog
Sponsors of Dialog
Funding always facilitates the beginning of a process in civil society. Every task requires time and money. While participating organizations and individuals can take care of their own costs, it would be very rewarding if some individuals and businesses came forward with funds to sponsor and host these dialogs. Pak-Americans can start a dialog in North America where there is no conflict in the Shia-Sunni community and take it to Pakistan by sponsoring the first meeting of such a nature.
Beyond Dialog
Considering that Shias and Sunnis live side by side throughout Pakistan, they are not un-known to each other, and considering that most of them have nothing to do with the current extremism which is responsible for the killings and violence, it is important for the moderate majority to come up with a few initiatives which are beneficial for Shia- Sunni harmony. These could be communicated in the print form or in any other media. They should discuss the following themes and/or use the methods outlined here:
* Khutba points which can help harmony
* What type of talk can hurt at personal level
* What is common between Shias and Sunnis
* Common Hadith between Shias and Sunnis
* What is hate speech
* Islamic teachings of tolerance
* A Shia-Sunni security force, jointly safeguarding each other’s houses of worship will be a significant blow to the extremist agenda.
Conclusion
Shia-Sunni sectarian terrorism is part of the undeclared civil war Pakistan is going through. The secthttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.bold.gifarian violence declined after the establishment of a religious opposition group (MMA) that included Shias along with Sunnis, but the violence has recently restarted after the terrible incidents in Quetta. If a dialog was in place, that terrorism would have failed to restart sectarian violence.
The Quran, the Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, the Kaba and the five pillars of Islam are common to Shias and Sunnis. That is why no one in Islamic history has stopped Shias from performing Hajj, although the Kaba has always been in the control of Sunnis. Even today, when those currently in charge of the Kaba are part of a predominantly Salafi establishment, which maintains extremely negative views of Shias, Shias like other Muslims are free to perform Hajj. Shias on the other hand, since the 1979 Iranian revolution, are ordered by Imam Khumaini to pray behind these same Salafi imams instead of praying separately.
This mutual recognition gives us hope that a dialog can bear fruit of peace and harmony between both the communities.
http://www.yespakistan.com/security/shia-sunni-dialog.asp
Posted by Abdul at 08:43 0 comments
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