The Price

There are many at Chowk, who are polishing their acceptance speeches for the Caliphate of Islamia, but the true soldiers of Ummah are doing something concrete.

``AMERICAN officials increasingly believe the anthrax attacks since September 11th were not carried out by people connected to al-Qaeda, but may have been the work of a lone American madman. To avert future attacks, though, perhaps they should look harder.

They might start, for example, in a nondescript house in the wealthiest district of Kabul, where a Pakistani NGO called Ummah Tameer-e-Nau (UTN) once had its offices. UTN`s president is Bashiruddin Mahmood, one of Pakistan`s leading nuclear scientists and a specialist in plutonium technology. Last month Mr Mahmood was arrested by the Pakistani authorities and interrogated on his links to the Taliban, with whom he has had frequent contact for, he insists, humanitarian reasons. Mr Mahmood was released again soon afterwards. The Taliban has denied any “abnormal” links between Mr Mahmood and Mr bin Laden, and he himself says he has never met the man.

In public, UTN helped Afghans with flourmills, school textbooks and road-upgrading schemes. But its offices suggest that this may have been a cover for something far more sinister. According to their neighbours, the Pakistanis who lived and worked there fled Kabul along with the Taliban, but the evidence they left behind suggests that they were working on a plan to build an anthrax bomb.

An upstairs room of the house had been used as a workshop. What appeared to be a Russian rocket had been disassembled, and a canister labelled “helium” had been left on the worktop. On the floor were multiple copies of documents about anthrax downloaded from the Internet, and details about the American army`s vaccination plans for its troops. The number of copies suggests that seminars were also taking place there.

One of the downloaded documents featured a small picture of the former American defence secretary, William Cohen, holding a five-pound bag of sugar. It noted that he was doing this “to show the amount of the biological weapon anthrax that could destroy half the population of Washington, DC.”

On the floor was a small bag of white powder, which this correspondent decided not to inspect. It may have contained nothing more deadly than icing sugar, but that could be useful for experiments in how to scatter powder containing anthrax spores from a great height over a city, or to show students how to do this. The living room contained two boxes of gas masks and filters.

On a desk was a cassette box labelled “Jihad”, with the name of Osama bin Laden hand-written along the spine. Most chilling of all, however, were the mass of calculations and drawings in felt pen that filled up a white board of the sort used in classrooms. There were several designs for a long thin balloon, something like a weather balloon, with lines and arrows indicating a suggested height of 10km (33,000 feet). There was also a sketch of a jet fighter flying towards the balloon alongside the words: “Your days are limited! Bang.” This, like the documents, was written in English.

Since UTN was run by one of Pakistan`s top scientists, a man with close links to the Taliban and, it is said, close ideological affinities with Mr bin Laden, the circumstantial evidence points to only one conclusion. Whoever fled this house when the Taliban fell was working on a plan to build a helium-powered balloon bomb carrying anthrax. Whether it was detonated with a timer or shot down by a fighter, the result would have been the same: the showering of deadly airborne anthrax spores over an area as wide as half of New York city or Washington, DC.

After the September 11th attacks, it was generally agreed that western intelligence agencies had failed through lack of “human intelligence”—men on the ground, as opposed to spy satellites and computers monitoring phone calls and e-mails. This failure was to be rectified. Yet since the fall of Kabul on November 13th, journalists have been fanning out across the city. They have stripped houses such as this one, and others directly connected to the al-Qaeda network, of all sorts of documents and other valuable evidence. These have included the names and addresses of al-Qaeda contacts in the West. For the West`s intelligence agencies, September 11th was Black Tuesday. There may be no words with which to describe their failure in the week since the fall of Kabul.``

http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displayStory.cfm?Story_ID=876941

American households that had not heard of Musharraf yet will be reminded of glorious Pakistani Freedom fighters in the following article.

``The prisoners, crawling and writhing on one another like turtles in a pet shop, were the sorry byproduct of the Northern Alliance`s most recent victory. Until Monday, the Taliban soldiers had been hunkered down in the northern city of Kunduz, and when the Northern Alliance laid siege to the place for the last two weeks, the Taliban troops faced the choice of surrendering or fighting to the death. First they retreated, then they gave up.

It was a defeated army this, all rags and filth and lowered heads. Flies swarmed around men with matted hair, and fights broke out in the tangle of bodies for the tiny corners of space. The air around the trucks reeked so powerfully that the guards wrapped their faces with their scarves before they approached.....``

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/28/international/asia/28CARA.html?searchpv=nytToday

stuka #266: Shazia Khushk is quite the performer. I have never figured out why no one objects to her dancing, but other female singers are restricted. I guess if you are a folk singer, you can dance.

After the pipeline, Gwadar will be the party town of Asia.....

shankar #277: ``Heck you even got the ``mother of all cynics`` hamidm, to acknowlege that he should give Mushy more time to prove himself. That is nothing short of a miracle!``

Converting hamidm to the dark side of supporting military dictators is the biggest feather in my cap. He will now hopefully, like Darth Vader, become the biggest supporter of the Emperor (Musharraf). And there are no Luke Skywalkers in the political circles to dethrone the Emperor; just useless Pakistani Arabs and Pakistani Turks, who judge a person`s character by the lack or excess of facial hair. One trying to convert Pakistan into Saudi Arabia, the other into Turkey. Hamidm, according to my calculations, was a closet Musharraf lover to begin with.

``Barring that, I agree with most of your post. What I admire most about you is your undying optimism about Pakistan.``

I hope I am not being an optimist about Pakistan. I hope I am realist. But it is quite possible, my views are too optimistic. There is a reason for this. I have been involved in two professions, as a Pakistani i.e. the military are IT. In both these professions, Pakistanis operate at the first-world levels. When I used to meet with military professionals of even first world countries, it was quite common the systems I had worked on were superior to the systems they had worked on. Added to that was the fact that Pakistani military had actually gone into combat, against much larger opponents. While many first-world soldiers had absolutely no real time job experience.

Similarly, in IT, South Asians (primarily due to the large no. of Indians) are regarded as some of the best professionals in the business, at an international level. So I have seen South Asians, including Pakistanis, in much more successful positions that first-world professionals, in the US IT arena.

At the very least, Pakistanis professionals completely dominate all Muslim countries, including Turkey, in these two areas. Based on that, I have always felt Pakistan has a great deal of potential to be the natural leader of the Muslim world. Unfortunately, due to Pakistan`s medieval feudal society, it has had the worst leadership. People keep commenting on the corruption in the Indian political system, and the poor leadership there, as well. However, it is not nearly as poor as the Pakistani leadership. The failiure of democracy in Pakistani has far more to do with corrupt political leaders, than with the religious right or the military. A popular leader can never be replaced by a military dictator, or a religious fanatic. The general population would never stand for it.

So based on the above, perhaps I am too optimistic about Pakistan, since I have not been exposed to other areas of Pakistan, outside IT and the military.

``You were right about Mushy. He`s the best leader Pakistan has had, so far (lets leave Jinnah out of this). But considering who his ``competition`` was (ie, the previous leaders of Pakistan), its not a momentous achievement.``

I have raised my rating on Musharraf from, ``buy`` to, ``strong buy.`` He is one of a kind, as far as Pakistani Generals go. I am quite amazed by his clear-headedness, his knowledge of the limitations of his own capabilities as well as those of his fellow Generals, and his thick skin. These are quailities greatly lacking in Pakistani Generals, and are only seen in competent private enterprise professionals.

I have met more Pakistani Generals and Air Marshalls, in a professional and social capacity, than I want to admit to. Perhaps the whole PAF high command since the 60s, and many many Army and Navy Generals and Admirals. I worked as an Ops officer for a group of Generals, and saw them up close in action, also. On the whole, they are not an impressive lot. Extremely patriotic and fearless(including even the corrupt ones), but very limited in their outlook on solving real world problems.

Musharraf is unique. This was evident from day one. It is evident from the way he is leading Pakistan, also. Even his extreme critics do not doubt his intentions and tactics (they just disagree with military dictatorship, as a principle; they dislike Musharraf, because Zia was bad). He has no hang-ups. And is willing to let his civilian kitchen cabinet run the show.

If he returns Pakistan to democracry in ten months, and keep the cerberus heads of BB, NS and Altaf out, he will be the best thing to happen to Pakistan in thirty years. I would then rank him as an out and out good leader, and not someone who just looks good because his predecessors were terrible. You need to keep in mind that running Pakistan is one of the most difficult jobs in the world.

There are many at Chowk, who are polishing their acceptance speeches for the Caliphate of Islamia, but the true soldiers of Ummah are doing something concrete.

``AMERICAN officials increasingly believe the anthrax attacks since September 11th were not carried out by people connected to al-Qaeda, but may have been the work of a lone American madman. To avert future attacks, though, perhaps they should look harder.

They might start, for example, in a nondescript house in the wealthiest district of Kabul, where a Pakistani NGO called Ummah Tameer-e-Nau (UTN) once had its offices. UTN`s president is Bashiruddin Mahmood, one of Pakistan`s leading nuclear scientists and a specialist in plutonium technology. Last month Mr Mahmood was arrested by the Pakistani authorities and interrogated on his links to the Taliban, with whom he has had frequent contact for, he insists, humanitarian reasons. Mr Mahmood was released again soon afterwards. The Taliban has denied any “abnormal” links between Mr Mahmood and Mr bin Laden, and he himself says he has never met the man.

In public, UTN helped Afghans with flourmills, school textbooks and road-upgrading schemes. But its offices suggest that this may have been a cover for something far more sinister. According to their neighbours, the Pakistanis who lived and worked there fled Kabul along with the Taliban, but the evidence they left behind suggests that they were working on a plan to build an anthrax bomb.

An upstairs room of the house had been used as a workshop. What appeared to be a Russian rocket had been disassembled, and a canister labelled “helium” had been left on the worktop. On the floor were multiple copies of documents about anthrax downloaded from the Internet, and details about the American army`s vaccination plans for its troops. The number of copies suggests that seminars were also taking place there.

One of the downloaded documents featured a small picture of the former American defence secretary, William Cohen, holding a five-pound bag of sugar. It noted that he was doing this “to show the amount of the biological weapon anthrax that could destroy half the population of Washington, DC.”

On the floor was a small bag of white powder, which this correspondent decided not to inspect. It may have contained nothing more deadly than icing sugar, but that could be useful for experiments in how to scatter powder containing anthrax spores from a great height over a city, or to show students how to do this. The living room contained two boxes of gas masks and filters.

On a desk was a cassette box labelled “Jihad”, with the name of Osama bin Laden hand-written along the spine. Most chilling of all, however, were the mass of calculations and drawings in felt pen that filled up a white board of the sort used in classrooms. There were several designs for a long thin balloon, something like a weather balloon, with lines and arrows indicating a suggested height of 10km (33,000 feet). There was also a sketch of a jet fighter flying towards the balloon alongside the words: “Your days are limited! Bang.” This, like the documents, was written in English.

Since UTN was run by one of Pakistan`s top scientists, a man with close links to the Taliban and, it is said, close ideological affinities with Mr bin Laden, the circumstantial evidence points to only one conclusion. Whoever fled this house when the Taliban fell was working on a plan to build a helium-powered balloon bomb carrying anthrax. Whether it was detonated with a timer or shot down by a fighter, the result would have been the same: the showering of deadly airborne anthrax spores over an area as wide as half of New York city or Washington, DC.

After the September 11th attacks, it was generally agreed that western intelligence agencies had failed through lack of “human intelligence”—men on the ground, as opposed to spy satellites and computers monitoring phone calls and e-mails. This failure was to be rectified. Yet since the fall of Kabul on November 13th, journalists have been fanning out across the city. They have stripped houses such as this one, and others directly connected to the al-Qaeda network, of all sorts of documents and other valuable evidence. These have included the names and addresses of al-Qaeda contacts in the West. For the West`s intelligence agencies, September 11th was Black Tuesday. There may be no words with which to describe their failure in the week since the fall of Kabul.``

http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displayStory.cfm?Story_ID=876941

Pakistan and anthrax

In the house of anthrax

http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displayStory.cfm?Story_ID=876941

Nov 22nd 2001 | KABUL

From The Economist print edition

Chilling evidence in the ruins of Kabul

Get article background

AMERICAN officials increasingly believe the anthrax attacks since September 11th were not carried out by people connected to al-Qaeda, but may have been the work of a lone American madman. To avert future attacks, though, perhaps they should look harder.

They might start, for example, in a nondescript house in the wealthiest district of Kabul, where a Pakistani NGO called Ummah Tameer-e-Nau (UTN) once had its offices. UTN`s president is Bashiruddin Mahmood, one of Pakistan`s leading nuclear scientists and a specialist in plutonium technology. Last month Mr Mahmood was arrested by the Pakistani authorities and interrogated on his links to the Taliban, with whom he has had frequent contact for, he insists, humanitarian reasons. Mr Mahmood was released again soon afterwards. The Taliban has denied any “abnormal” links between Mr Mahmood and Mr bin Laden, and he himself says he has never met the man.

In public, UTN helped Afghans with flourmills, school textbooks and road-upgrading schemes. But its offices suggest that this may have been a cover for something far more sinister. According to their neighbours, the Pakistanis who lived and worked there fled Kabul along with the Taliban, but the evidence they left behind suggests that they were working on a plan to build an anthrax bomb.

An upstairs room of the house had been used as a workshop. What appeared to be a Russian rocket had been disassembled, and a canister labelled “helium” had been left on the worktop. On the floor were multiple copies of documents about anthrax downloaded from the Internet, and details about the American army`s vaccination plans for its troops. The number of copies suggests that seminars were also taking place there.

One of the downloaded documents featured a small picture of the former American defence secretary, William Cohen, holding a five-pound bag of sugar. It noted that he was doing this “to show the amount of the biological weapon anthrax that could destroy half the population of Washington, DC.”

On the floor was a small bag of white powder, which this correspondent decided not to inspect. It may have contained nothing more deadly than icing sugar, but that could be useful for experiments in how to scatter powder containing anthrax spores from a great height over a city, or to show students how to do this. The living room contained two boxes of gas masks and filters.

On a desk was a cassette box labelled “Jihad”, with the name of Osama bin Laden hand-written along the spine. Most chilling of all, however, were the mass of calculations and drawings in felt pen that filled up a white board of the sort used in classrooms. There were several designs for a long thin balloon, something like a weather balloon, with lines and arrows indicating a suggested height of 10km (33,000 feet). There was also a sketch of a jet fighter flying towards the balloon alongside the words: “Your days are limited! Bang.” This, like the documents, was written in English.

Since UTN was run by one of Pakistan`s top scientists, a man with close links to the Taliban and, it is said, close ideological affinities with Mr bin Laden, the circumstantial evidence points to only one conclusion. Whoever fled this house when the Taliban fell was working on a plan to build a helium-powered balloon bomb carrying anthrax. Whether it was detonated with a timer or shot down by a fighter, the result would have been the same: the showering of deadly airborne anthrax spores over an area as wide as half of New York city or Washington, DC.

After the September 11th attacks, it was generally agreed that western intelligence agencies had failed through lack of “human intelligence”—men on the ground, as opposed to spy satellites and computers monitoring phone calls and e-mails. This failure was to be rectified. Yet since the fall of Kabul on November 13th, journalists have been fanning out across the city. They have stripped houses such as this one, and others directly connected to the al-Qaeda network, of all sorts of documents and other valuable evidence. These have included the names and addresses of al-Qaeda contacts in the West. For the West`s intelligence agencies, September 11th was Black Tuesday. There may be no words with which to describe their failure in the week since the fall of Kabul.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/nonfram/281101/dlame21.asp

Anthrax balloon sketches found from Pak N-scientists` office

Sketches and calculations to make a helium-powered balloon bomb filled with anthrax have been found from the Kabul office of an NGO headed by Bashiruddin Mehmood, one of the two Pakistani nuclear scientists detained in Islamabad for questioning on their alleged links with Osama Bin Laden, a leading US journal has said.

Such a balloon bomb was capable of showering deadly anthrax over areas as vast as New York or Washington.

The ``most chilling`` items found from the Kabul premises included small bags of white powder and the ``mass of calculations and drawings`` of weather balloons with arrows indicating the suggested height of 10 kms or 33,000 feet, said The Economist in its print edition.

The premises located in the ``wealthiest district`` of Kabul belonged to the Ummah Tameer-e-Nau (UTN), whose President is a leading nuclear scientist and a plutonium technology specialist Mehmood, who along with another scientist Abdul Majid were detained again yesterday in Islamabad for questioning, The Economist said.

The two men, who are alleged to have made frequent trips to Afghanistan and met Laden on two occasions, have denied the charges.

``Since UTN was run by one of Pakistan`s top scientists, a man with close links to the Taliban and, it is said, close ideological affinities with Laden, the circumstantial evidence points to only one conclusion, the paper said.

``Whoever fled this house when the Taliban fell was working on a plan to build a helium-powered balloon bomb carrying anthrax,`` the journal said.

http://www.rediff.com/us/2001/nov/28ny5.htm

American households that had not heard of Musharraf yet will be reminded of glorious Pakistani Freedom fighters in the following article.

``The prisoners, crawling and writhing on one another like turtles in a pet shop, were the sorry byproduct of the Northern Alliance`s most recent victory. Until Monday, the Taliban soldiers had been hunkered down in the northern city of Kunduz, and when the Northern Alliance laid siege to the place for the last two weeks, the Taliban troops faced the choice of surrendering or fighting to the death. First they retreated, then they gave up.

It was a defeated army this, all rags and filth and lowered heads. Flies swarmed around men with matted hair, and fights broke out in the tangle of bodies for the tiny corners of space. The air around the trucks reeked so powerfully that the guards wrapped their faces with their scarves before they approached.....``

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/28/international/asia/28CARA.html?searchpv=nytToday

Balawaristan National Front`s letter to Indian prime minister



Ref: BN/4-14/1



His Excellency

Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee

Prime Minister of India

New Delhi



Sub: Reminder



Dear Sir,



I have the honour to draw your kind attention towards my earlier petition (Sub: ``Include Gilgit Baltistan in J&K (Jammu and Kashmir) dialogue`` dated December 18, 2000), on the subject cited above, and inform you further about the prevailing anti-people activities of Pakistan in Balawaristan (Pakistan Occupied Gilgit-Baltistan (POGB)). You may kindly recall, I represent the Balawaristan National Front (BNF) on behalf of two million people dwelling in 28,000 sq miles (44,800 sq km) of Gilgit-Baltistan. While Pakistan calls it the Northern Areas, we call it Balawaristan, which is the disputed part of the state of Jammu and Kashmir.

Balawaristan National Front (BNF) has been struggling against the illegal occupation of Pakistan since 1992. The people of Balawaristan are deprived of all their basic human rights, political and economic rights, and are subject to incessant oppression by Pakistan. We suffer untold miseries at the hands of the Pakistan Army and its intelligence agencies, which are deployed in strength to subdue the nationalists of our area. Because the people of Balawaristan have been demonstrating their anger about, and rejection of, the Pakistani occupation, they continue to be targeted and eliminated silently. Your honour can imagine that more than 100 political leaders and workers, including me, are facing state treason charges (Pakistani section 124 A), while there is no single person who faces such charges in your part of J&K instead of their anti-India campaign on the direct instigation of Pakistan.

In the light of the abovementioned atrocities and evil designs of Pakistan, we the people of Balawaristan, do not want to become a votary of Pakistan in any way if plebiscite/referendum is held. We also request your honour to invite the nationalists of Balawaristan and POK (Pakistan Occupied Jammu and Kashmir) to participate in the J&K dialogue to strengthen the Indian stand.

We request your honour to invite the candidates of Balawaristan and POK to fill the 25 vacant seats in the J&K Assembly, which have been laying vacant for the last many years. Therefore, the elected representatives of Balawaristan and POK would represent their areas, and reveal the oppression of Pakistan before the civilised world on the one hand; on the other, India will automatically gain the favour of the people of these areas.

I also appeal to your government to deliver the orders to the concerned authority to ensure the representation of Balawaristan (POGB) and PoK in the J&K Assembly by following the Indian and J&K constitutions.





Abdul Hamid Khan

Chairman

Balawaristan National Front (BNF)



Head Off:-

Majini Mahala, Gilgit, Balawaristan

(Pakistan Occupied Gilgit Baltistan)

Police shut all discos in Indian city

Police have shut all the discos in India`s southern city of Madras.

The city`s police commissioner says he took the action because they were allowing dances contrary to Indian culture.

It is the first blanket ban imposed on discos. At least 10, including four located in five-star hotels, have been ordered shut.

Police Commissioner Muthukaruppan told reporters: ``The owners of the present discotheques were issued licences to run only cultural centres. But they were allowing dances that do not conform to Indian culture.

``All sorts of dances by half-dressed men and women were allowed here. So the city police has decided not to issue any fresh licence to those centres.``

Madras police recently raided a few discotheques and claimed to have found nudity and obscenity.

Muthukaruppan is also banning the sale of condoms that have nude pictures on the cover, which are sold at street corners.

Madras discos have been living under the shadow of a ban for some time. A few months ago a ban was declared then lifted just as suddenly.

Neena Reddy, of Savera Group of Hotels, said: ``This ban is just not fair to the hotel industry. We are trying to generate income during the present slump.``

Story filed: 10:59 Saturday 24th November 2001

Dost Mittar:

Hamzad is limiting the usage of the word Malechhs to Muslims which is simply not the case. From what I understand, the word was used to signify any casteless person. In any case, it`s not used nowadays.

No doubt there is ugliness and warts in Hindu society. But, at least from persoanl experience, the change that has taken place in one or two generations is commendable. My grandmother, even now, would probably not share a glass with a Muslim. However, even a generation later, such bias is considered stupid and indefensible. I have a second cousin who got married to a Muslim guy, and to her own surprise, there wasn`t even a murmer of protest.

I agree that this may be more so in a cosmopolitan environment, but the change is occuring. I have seen it personally in UP, where empowerment of lower castes and Muslims is changing the basic dynamic of society.

What does stand true is that social justice is still denied to the downtrodden, not on the basis of caste and religion but more so on the basis of economic status. The Muslims are even now way down on the socio-economic totem pole, and therefore, are more the victims of injustice as compared to the say the Yadavs. But that is why it is economic upliftment that is a priority.

Imperfect as the solution of quotas is, I think it is essential for the Muslims to be part of reservations which are currently provided to backward Hindu castes.

http://www0.mercurycenter.com/premium/opinion/columns/034355.htm

blished Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2001, in the San Jose Mercury News

All terrorists aren`t equal

U.S. cannot intervene everywhere, but the war with Osama bin Laden is real

BY RICHARD COHEN

The impudent Indian reporter was impatient. ``Sir,`` he cried out to George Bush at the White House, ``why are there two laws in this world, one for America and one for the rest of us? When terrorism hits America, you go halfway around the world and make war in Afghanistan. But when we suffer terrorism, you ask us to be restrained. Is an Indian right less precious than an American right?`` Not a bad question.

But Bush`s answer, while fine for that moment, was incomplete. He said what he has been saying since Sept. 11: Terrorism is wrong wherever it is practiced, no matter who practices it and for whatever reason. ``I think there is one universal law, and that`s terrorism is evil, and all of us must work to reject evil.`` He added that the United States had condemned the Oct. 1 terrorist attack in Kashmir, which took 38 lives. With that, he moved on.

Not so fast, Mr. President. This declaration of war against all terrorism anywhere is becoming a liability. It enables one national leader after another to smugly wonder what we are talking about and shifts the spotlight from Osama bin Laden and his band of psychopaths to, say, events in Kashmir. Yet Bush persists. ``We`re asking for a comprehensive commitment to this fight,`` Bush told the United Nations on Saturday. ``We must unite in opposing all terrorists, not just some of them.``

It`s a laudable aim, but one that`s clearly beyond us. It may well involve us in a quagmire not unlike the one in Vietnam and obfuscate our war aims -- once again, as happened in Vietnam. It was bin Laden who allegedly murdered Americans. It is he -- not the pro-Pakistani terrorists in Kashmir -- who is our enemy and who must be hunted down and, as the cliche goes, brought to justice. No one gets to murder Americans.

But the rest -- all those other terrorist groups -- are much more problematic. In the first place, much of the Islamic and especially the Arab world rejects applying the label to terrorist activity directed at Israel. That means not only the passive Palestinian Authority, but also Hamas and Islamic Jihad and their sponsors in the Middle East -- Syria, Iraq and, most particularly, Iran, the strangest bedfellow yet produced by the politics of this situation. We cannot make war on much of the Middle East.

Do we intervene, somehow, in Indonesia? What about Northern Ireland, if the peace there should once again collapse? Do we take on Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka -- while at the same time hunting down bin Laden and fighting the Taliban? Not a chance, really. And what about the plethora of guerrilla groups in Colombia, the so-called narco-terrorists? It`s more than we can handle.

The danger is that we will lose our focus. The word ``war`` has become such a cliche -- war on cancer, drugs, poverty or, in the moral equivalency once promulgated by Jimmy Carter, energy profligacy -- that we don`t recognize the real thing when it comes along. The attempt to get bin Laden and his Taliban protectors is a war. It is not a metaphor. It involves killing and when you are riddled with bullets, you are not metaphorically dead, you are dead in actual fact.

All this talk about a war virtually without limits does more than muddle our message abroad. It also enables critics here at home to nibble at, and niggle over, the real war. This impetus to make the present situation the rough equivalent of World War II has already led the Bush administration to embark on a clutch of programs lacking only the Andrews Sisters for chirpy accompaniment. There`s something called the ``Lessons of Liberty Initiative`` and the ``Friendship Through Education`` program and a new kind of civil defense which will do something -- it`s not clear what. And oh yes, in furtherance of the war effort, the president says ``you can serve your country by tutoring or mentoring a child.`` C`mon.

Permit me a caveat to my own doctrine: Iraq. That`s because the regime of Saddam Hussein really is a global menace. Its threat is not limited to terrorism of the sort we have experienced here, but also encompasses nuclear, chemical and biological proliferation. This is something we must deal with.

But the rest is not in that category of menace. It should be our policy to eradicate terrorism, to fight it as best we can and, in particular, to have others join the fight. But there is a distinction between the implementation of policy and the waging of war. We`re in a war now with an identifiable enemy. For the time being, that`s challenge enough.



Richard Cohen is a Washington Post columnist

re: semipreciousme

``…sounds good in principle…but what happens if we start fighting, which, knowing our history, is a given, on this “confidence building” stuff?…point of no return?….but hey, i’m all in favor of some darjeeling tea for shahi supari…``

...there are plenty of innocuous things governments can do...setup a joint arts committee to promote and fund performances and exhibits in each others countries...create a body of economists to figure out ways to increase trade...sign a no-war pact (unless you plan to attack, why would you not want that?)...

``ps maybe i’m mistaken but hasn’t pak conferred mfn status to india?``

...no, as far as i know it has not...musharraf doesn`t think it is nice to trade until kashmir is resolved...he doesn`t seem to care that even a small improvement in pakistan`s economy from increased trade would help far more pakistanis than it would hurt kashmiris, but....

#262

``…correction….they’ve already gone after shoaib numerous times….and the whole thing with john reid has been going on for a while…i don’t remember the bcci commenting on these…but i think now is the time for both the boards to stick together and give the incompetent fools in the icc a piece of their mind…``

...i don`t know if the BCCI was asked or if at that point it was clear that it wasn`t an isolated incident (as opposed to the seemingly racial basis the whole problem has now acquired)....

=== Interact Filtered ===
view this users filtered interacts

Re: #273

``It will expose two things. First, it will prove that active duty army soldiers including Pakistani officers were involved before and after the October 7. Second, ISI and Pakistan will be held accountable for the Afghanistan misadventure and failed policy of ``Strategic Depth``.``

kafir k khan,

Disagree with you here. There were reports of pakistani planes flying pakistani army men out of kunduz. If true, what does it imply ?

The US off course must be fully aware of this. Why did they let those planes come in ?

The only answer is - the previous nexus between CIA and ISI. Only the pakistanis know the full extent of US mischief in Afghanistan 20 years ago. The last thing the CIA wants is for ISI to spill those beans.

This makes it unlikely that ISI and pakistan will be held accountable for anything. Just my opinion.

regards,

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A19474-2001Nov26.html

Pakistan`s Choice



Tuesday, November 27, 2001; Page A12

TWO MONTHS ago, Pakistan`s President Pervez Musharraf made the right choice in the war on terrorism. In a televised address, he pledged his ``full support`` for the United States, including use of Pakistan`s airspace, intelligence and airfields. Though he wavered when he called for an ill-advised interruption to America`s bombing campaign during Ramadan, Mr. Musharraf has broadly stuck to his position, facing down anti-American demonstrations and jailing prominent clerics who support the Taliban. Yesterday the Musharraf government followed up by launching a hunt inside Afghanistan for al Qaeda leaders, but as the Afghan campaign enters its dangerous endgame, there is a risk that Pakistan will falter. Mr. Musharraf needs to explain to his country that support for the war against terrorism is not just a favor to the United States but also is in Pakistan`s own interests. And the Bush administration must continue to bolster Mr. Musharraf`s position with aid and market access.

In the past few days, Pakistan has differed publicly with the United States on two issues. Mr. Musharraf`s government has sought the repatriation of pro-Taliban Pakistani fighters in Afghanistan; the United States is in no hurry to see this happen, perhaps because it doubts that Pakistan will make good on its promises of prosecuting the fighters in its courts. Second, the Musharraf government has expressed doubts about the efforts to broker a post-Taliban regime that open in Bonn today. In Pakistan`s view, the conference involves insufficient representation of Afghanistan`s southern Pashtun people, who are traditionally Pakistan`s clients.

Up to a point, Pakistan`s arguments are reasonable: All governments seek jurisdiction over their own citizens, and a political settlement in Afghanistan will be impossible without Pashtun participation. But Pakistan`s political elites do not squarely acknowledge that their countrymen in Afghanistan are guilty of siding with fundamentalist terrorists, and that prosecuting them in domestic courts for violation of border regulations (as the Pakistani government is suggesting) might not be enough to prevent them from wreaking further destruction. Equally, Pakistan`s leaders still seem to want to control the balance of power in Afghanistan. But Pashtun dominance of a future Afghan government seems as unlikely to yield stability as Pashtun exclusion. Three in five Afghans are non-Pashtun, and other regional powers -- Iran, Russia, India -- will not accept a Pashtun monopoly.

Pakistan`s leaders have long nurtured enmity with India and have tolerated fundamentalist terrorists in Indian-ruled Kashmir. Because of this enmity with India, Pakistan has feared encirclement by hostile countries, and so has sought to subjugate or destabilize Afghanistan. Both halves of this policy have fed an underworld of fundamentalist violence within Pakistan. Mr. Musharraf`s decision to side with the United States in the war against terrorism provides an opportunity to break with this destructive pattern. But that will mean clamping down on Pakistan`s domestic terrorists, despite their popular following. And it will mean putting stability in Afghanistan ahead of ambitions to control the country.

Re Kafir Khan # 273

This an obligue to your post, but in a manner Pakistani government had no obligation to save the lives of the Pakistanis who decided to fight for Taliban. They all committed treason and the punishment for treason is death. They acted in a manner, which could have caused Pakistan damage and undermined its security. They should not be forgiven for their acts and in fact, the Pakistani government should tell the Americans, where they are so that the Americans can kill them more effectively. They all went to fight the jihad and it makes no difference, whether they died fighting the United Front or from the American bombs or were shot between the eyes with their hands tied behind their backs. They should have realized that jihad means getting killed and if that was their intention, that it is the obligation of the Pakistan government not to deny them their wish!

The death of the misguided Pakistanis who went to Afghanistan to fight for the Taliban and the cause of Islam, was the best thing that could have happened to expose the hollow rhetoric of the religious groups in Pakistan. Since deeds speak louder than words, the death of Pakistanis have proved that Pakistanis may be willing to die for Islam and Islamic brotherhood, but no one is willing to die for Pakistanis. Pakistanis who thought they would die for the cause of Islam, should have taken the time to ponder as to which Islamic nation has given it more than a tepid diplomatic support, when it comes to its caus celebre of Kashmir.

The Taliban have done a great service to Pakistan. The manner in which they have capitulated and the manner in which they have forsaken Pakistanis, and other foreign fighers to save their own miserable necks, has opened many eyes in Pakistan to the lies being preached by the religious groups in Pakistan about Muslim unity and brotherhood. One should thank the Taliban for slapping some much needed common sense into the Pakistanis. The complete rout of the Taliban has done more to demoralize the religious fanatics in Pakistan than any other concentrated action, which the government might have considered to lessen their political power.

In this sense, Musharraf was vindicated in his position of allowing these groups to vent their anti-American phobia and from not discouraging them from marching off to jihad, even though the Taliban had a told them that their help was appreciated, but not required. Pakistan will lose a few points, diplomatically, but alleast the Americans will be doing our dirty work and that is killing these fanatics, which our government could never do due to a lack of a political will. The greater the number of these religious Pakistanis fanatics get killed, the better it will be for Pakistan in the long run and each patriotic Pakistan should be cheering their deaths.

No tears should be shed for these traitors, because in Pakistan`s moment of need, they chose to stand with the forces that would have sought the destruction of Pakistan in the name of Islamic brotherhood. Pakistan was made for the Muslims of India and not for the reason of fighting wars for the benefit of the Muslims of the world. One should bear in mind that religious so-called leaders were against the creation of Pakistan and they are still against its existence and they should be treated with utter contempt.

Ciao

Re Kafir Khan # 273

This an obligue to your post, but in a manner Pakistani government had no obligation to save the lives of the Pakistanis who decided to fight for Taliban. They all committed treason and the punishment for treason is death. They acted in a manner, which could have caused Pakistan damage and undermined its security. They should not be forgiven for their acts and in fact, the Pakistani government should tell the Americans, where they are so that the Americans can kill them more effectively. They all went to fight the jihad and it makes no difference, whether they died fighting the United Front or from the American bombs or were shot between the eyes with their hands tied behind their backs. They should have realized that jihad means getting killed and if that was their intention, that it is the obligation of the Pakistan government not to deny them their wish!

The death of the misguided Pakistanis who went to Afghanistan to fight for the Taliban and the cause of Islam, was the best thing that could have happened to expose the hollow rhetoric of the religious groups in Pakistan. Since deeds speak louder than words, the death of Pakistanis have proved that Pakistanis may be willing to die for Islam and Islamic brotherhood, but no one is willing to die for Pakistanis. Pakistanis who thought they would die for the cause of Islam, should have taken the time to ponder as to which Islamic nation has given it more than a tepid diplomatic support, when it comes to its caus celebre of Kashmir.

The Taliban have done a great service to Pakistan. The manner in which they have capitulated and the manner in which they have forsaken Pakistanis, and other foreign fighers to save their own miserable necks, has opened many eyes in Pakistan to the lies being preached by the religious groups in Pakistan about Muslim unity and brotherhood. One should thank the Taliban for slapping some much needed common sense into the Pakistanis. The complete rout of the Taliban has done more to demoralize the religious fanatics in Pakistan than any other concentrated action, which the government might have considered to lessen their political power.

In this sense, Musharraf was vindicated in his position of allowing these groups to vent their anti-American phobia and from not discouraging them from marching off to jihad, even though the Taliban had a told them that their help was appreciated, but not required. Pakistan will lose a few points, diplomatically, but alleast the Americans will be doing our dirty work and that is killing these fanatics, which our government could never do due to a lack of a political will. The greater the number of these religious Pakistanis fanatics get killed, the better it will be for Pakistan in the long run and each patriotic Pakistan should be cheering their deaths.

No tears should be shed for these traitors, because in Pakistan`s moment of need, they chose to stand with the forces that would have sought the destruction of Pakistan in the name of Islamic brotherhood. Pakistan was made for the Muslims of India and not for the reason of fighting wars for the benefit of the Muslims of the world. One should bear in mind that religious so-called leaders were against the creation of Pakistan and they are still against its existence and they should be treated with utter contempt.

Ciao