Musharraf Defends Pakistani Intel Agency

Musharraf Defends Pakistani Intel Agency

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/09/28/ap/world/mainD8KDVCUG4.shtml

(Gold9472: Originally posted here.)

By DAVID STRINGER
The Associated Press
Thursday, September 28, 2006; 12:21 PM

LONDON -- A leaked document accuses Pakistan's intelligence agency of indirectly supporting terrorist groups including al-Qaida and calls on Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf to disband the agency.

Musharraf, who is scheduled to meet British Prime Minister Tony Blair later Thursday, told the British Broadcasting Corp. that he rejected the assessment and would raise the matter with his counterpart.

"ISI is a disciplined force, breaking the back of al-Qaida," Musharraf told the BBC, claiming his intelligence service had secured the arrests of 680 suspected terrorists.

The broadcaster said the documents were written by an unidentified senior researcher at the Defense Academy, which is a ministry think-tank. It said the document was part of a private British review of efforts across the world to combat terrorism.

The BBC quoted the document as saying that Pakistan was coming under "closer and closer" international scrutiny because of the intelligence agency's support for the country's hard-line opposition Islamic coalition Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal, also called MMA.

"Indirectly, Pakistan (through the ISI) has been supporting terrorism and extremism _ whether in London on (July 7, 2005) or in Afghanistan or Iraq," the BBC quotes the document as saying. "Pakistan is not currently stable but on the edge of chaos."

The 2005 date refers to the suicide bombings on London's transit system that killed 52 commuters.

Britain's Ministry of Defense said the document was part of academic research and did not represent the views of either the ministry or Blair's government.

"To represent it as such is deeply irresponsible and the author is furious that his notes have been willfully misrepresented in this manner," the ministry said in a statement read by a spokeswoman. "Indeed, he suspects that they have been released to the BBC precisely in the hope that they would cause damage to our relations with Pakistan."

A spokesman for Blair said the prime minister's meeting with Musharraf would cover topics including terrorism and Afghanistan.

Musharraf traveled to London after talks Wednesday in Washington with President Bush and Afghan President Hamid Karzai. Musharraf said he and Karzai decided to increase cooperation in fighting terrorism, including developing better intelligence coordination and interaction.

"The meeting that I held with President Bush and Hamid Karzai last night was very good," Musharraf said in comments aired live on Pakistani TV. "It was decided that we should have a common strategy. We have to fight terrorism. We have to defeat it, defeat it jointly."

It was a stark departure from the recent criticisms he and Karzai have lobbed at one another in recent days. Karzai has accused Pakistan of not doing enough to curb Islamic schools that produce militants, while Musharraf said the Afghan leader was ignoring large sectors of his war-ravaged country's population.

Right up to Wednesday night's White House dinner, they also have pointed fingers at one another over Osama bin Laden and other terrorist leaders. Each says bin Laden isn't hiding in his country and suggests the other might do more to help find him.

Tensions were still apparent in Washington. Following the dinner, Karzai and Musharraf attended a news conference where they both shook Bush's hand but didn't shake each other's.

The BBC also reported Wednesday that British military commanders were overruled by politicians in a request to withdraw troops from Iraq to strengthen force numbers in Afghanistan.

It said the document suggested military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan were heading toward an "as yet unspecified and uncertain result."

It painted a bleak picture of military and counterterrorism work, similar to a U.S. intelligence assessment _ parts of which were declassified Tuesday _ that warned of a growing terrorist threat and concluded Iraq has become a "cause celebre" for jihadists.

British troops are being "held hostage in Iraq following the failure of the deal being attempted by the COS (Chief of Staff) to extricate UK Armed Forces from Iraq on the basis of doing Afghanistan," the BBC quoted the document as saying.

It said senior commanders had hoped to focus resources on the NATO-led mission to secure governance in southern Afghanistan, where British, Canadian and U.S. troops have met fierce resistance, the BBC said.

The BBC said the document reinforced claims that military intervention in Iraq had served to encourage extremism, a notion repeatedly rejected by Blair.

"Iraq has served to radicalize an already disillusioned youth and al-Qaida has given them the will, intent, purpose and ideology to act," the BBC quoted the document as saying.

Blair, Musharraf Pledge to Fight Terror

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/28/AR2006092800305_pf.html

By JENNIFER QUINN
The Associated Press
Thursday, September 28, 2006; 5:15 PM

LONDON -- The leaders of Britain and Pakistan pledged their commitment Thursday to defeating insurgents in Afghanistan, brushing aside a leaked British military document that claimed Islamabad's security forces are indirectly supporting terrorist groups.

Prime Minister Tony Blair and President Gen. Pervez Musharraf met for two hours, with both reinforcing their support of a NATO-led mission to support the Kabul government, a Blair spokesman said.

The meeting, at Chequers, Blair's official country residence west of London, followed Musharraf's visit to Washington, where he held talks with President Bush and Afghan leader Hamid Karzai.

Thursday's meeting had threatened to be overshadowed by a military document obtained by the British Broadcasting Corp. in which a senior officer maintained Pakistan's Directorate of Inter Services Intelligence _ the country's top spy agency _ should be dismantled.

The broadcaster reported the document was written by an unidentified senior researcher at the Defense Academy, a defense ministry think-tank and college.

It said the author was also linked to the intelligence services and the document was part of a private British review of efforts across the world to combat terrorism.

Musharraf rejected that allegations that its security forces had indirectly supported terrorist groups and raised the issue with Blair during their meeting.

"The president accepted that document is not government policy, so there was no further need to discuss it," said a spokesman for Blair's office, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with policy.

He said Blair also assured Musharraf that British troops would remain in Afghanistan for the "long term," as part of the NATO mission.

Musharraf told Blair he recognized the need to continue working to reduce the amount of cross-border activity between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Britain's defense ministry said the material obtained by the BBC was in no way a report or a policy statement.

Instead, the papers were merely research notes taken by an academic to reflect material seen or collected from a variety of sources _ not a collection of facts meant to influence the government's position or policies, a ministry spokeswoman said, speaking on customary condition of anonymity in line with department policy.

The BBC quoted the document as saying that "indirectly, Pakistan (through the ISI) has been supporting terrorism and extremism _ whether in London on (July 7, 2005) or in Afghanistan or Iraq."

It reported that the document said "Pakistan is not currently stable but on the edge of chaos."

The defense ministry spokeswoman, reading a strongly worded ministry statement, said the "academic research notes quoted in no way represent the views of either the MoD (defense ministry) or the government."

"To represent it as such is deeply irresponsible and the author is furious that his notes have been willfully misrepresented in this manner," the statement said.

"He suspects that they have been released to the BBC precisely in the hope that they would cause damage to our relations with Pakistan."

The ministry reiterated Britain's long-standing position that Pakistan is a key ally in the fight against terrorism.

Musharraf called the intelligence agency a critical player in the war on terror and said its work had led to the arrests of 680 suspected terrorists.

Following his Washington meetings, he said it was decided Afghanistan and Pakistan should have better intelligence coordination and interaction to meet the challenges of fighting militants. But a news conference following a dinner revealed a frosty relationship between the leaders, with Karzai and Musharraf not shaking hands with each other, after shaking hands with Bush.

Key quotes from the document

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/5388426.stm

9/28/2006

Key quotes from a leaked Ministry of Defence think-tank paper which alleges that Pakistan's intelligence service, the ISI, has indirectly helped the Taleban and al-Qaeda and should be dismantled. The research paper was written by a senior officer at the MoD-run Defence Academy. The Ministry of Defence have responded that the views contained in it do not reflect the views of the MOD or the government.

On THE WAR ON TERROR
The wars in Afghanistan and particularly Iraq have not gone well and are progressing slowly towards an as yet unspecified and uncertain result.

The War in Iraq...has acted as a recruiting sergeant for extremists from across the Muslim world.

The Al Qaeda ideology has taken root within the Muslim world and Muslim populations within western countries. Iraq has served to radicalise an already disillusioned youth and Al Qaeda has given them the will, intent, purpose and ideology to act.

British Armed Forces are effectively held hostage in Iraq - following the failure of the deal being attempted by COS (Chief of Staff) to extricate UK Armed Forces from Iraq on the basis of 'doing Afghanistan' - and we are now fighting (and arguably losing or potentially losing) on two fronts.

The West will not be able to find peaceful exit strategies from Iraq and Afghanistan - creating greater animosity...and a return to violence and radicalisation on their leaving. The enemy it has identified (terrorism) is the wrong target. As an idea it cannot be defeated.

On PAKISTAN
The Army's dual role in combating terrorism and at the same time promoting the MMA and so indirectly supporting the Taliban (through the ISI) is coming under closer and closer international scrutiny.

Pakistan is not currently stable but on the edge of chaos.

[The West has] turned a blind eye towards existing instability and the indirect protection of Al Qaeda and promotion of terrorism.

Indirectly Pakistan (through the ISI) has been supporting terrorism and extremism - whether in London on 7/7 or in Afghanistan or Iraq.

The US/UK cannot begin to turn the tide until they identify the real enemies from attacking ideas tactically - and seek to put in place a more just vision. This will require Pakistan to move away from Army rule and for the ISI to be dismantled and more significantly something to be put in its place.

Musharraf knows that time is running out for him...at some point the US is likely to withdraw funding (and possibly even protection) of him - estimated at $70-80M a month.

Without US funding his position will become increasingly tenuous.

Musharraf defends his spy service

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/5387344.stm

9/28/2006

President Pervez Musharraf has angrily rejected allegations that Pakistan's intelligence service has indirectly helped the Taleban and al-Qaeda.

In a BBC TV interview, Gen Musharraf said Pakistan was doing an "excellent job" in tracking down militants.

The claims are in a document written by a researcher working for the UK's defence ministry.

It says Pakistan is on the edge of chaos and that the Iraq war had helped extremists recruit people.

The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) paper says Pakistan's intelligence service, ISI, indirectly backs terrorism by supporting religious parties in the country.

But an MoD spokesman said "the academic research notes quoted in no way represent the views of either the MoD or the government".

Gen Musharraf spoke to the BBC's Newsnight programme ahead of a meeting in Washington with US President George W Bush and Afghan leader Hamid Karzai.

He said that he was "fully satisfied" with Pakistan's co-operation in the fight against terrorism.

"There is perfect co-ordination going on - intelligence and operational co-ordination at the strategic level, at the tactical level," he said.

And he rejected the suggestion in the report that the ISI should be dismantled.

"I totally, 200% reject it. I reject it from anybody - MoD or anyone who tells me to dismantle ISI.

"ISI is a disciplined force, breaking the back of al-Qaeda. Getting 680 people would not have been possible if our ISI was not doing an excellent job."

'Recruiting sergeant'
The Pakistani president rejected allegations by the Afghan leader that Pakistan was not doing enough to fight extremism in its border region, calling Mr Karzai someone who "can't even get out of his office".

He also refused to withdraw his statement that then US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage threatened to bomb Pakistan "back to the stone age" unless it co-operated with America in the wake of the 11 September 2001 attacks.

"I don't withdraw the claim at all," he said. "Why should I withdraw it now that Mr Armitage is denying it?"

The research paper is understood to have been written by a man with a military background who is linked to the UK's Secret Intelligence Service.

On Afghanistan, the paper said the UK went in "with its eyes closed", and revealed that a secret deal to extricate UK troops from Iraq so they could focus on Afghanistan failed when British military leaders were overruled.

The paper also said that the Iraq war had "acted as a recruiting sergeant for extremists across the Muslim world".

President dubs alleged Pearl killer MI6 spy

http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topi...=110171&version=1&template_id=41&parent_id=23

Published: Friday, 29 September, 2006, 01:06 PM Doha Time

LONDON: Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf has disclosed that Omar Sheikh, who kidnapped and murdered American journalist Daniel Pearl and is now facing death penalty, was actually the British secret Agency MI6’s agent and had executed certain missions on their behest before coming to Pakistan and visiting Afghanistan to meet Osama and Mullah Omar.

General Musharraf’s book has also given a new twist to the whole drama of kidnapping and murder of American journalist as many believe here British national Omar Sheikh might use Musharraf’s memoir to plea his innocence after, quite surprisingly, Musharraf tried to give a clean chit to Omar despite his role in kidnapping which is punishable with death in Pakistan.

It has been reported that General Musharraf has written in his book that while Omar Sheikh was at the London School of Economics (LSE), he was recruited by the British intelligence agency MI6, which persuaded him to take an active part in demonstrations against Serbian aggression in Bosnia and even sent him to Kosovo to join the jihad.

At some point, he probably became a rogue or double agent.

The local media is discussing the possibility that Omar would use evidence from President Musharraf’s memoirs to save himself from the hangman.

General Musharraf appeared to exonerate Omar Sheikh in his book In the Line of Fire.

Sheikh, 32, who was brought up in Wanstead, east London, has been on death row since 2003 after being convicted of orchestrating the kidnap and murder of the Wall Street Journal reporter.

The Times, which is carrying extracts of Musharraf autobiography has reported that General Musharraf appears to have changed his mind about the Briton’s guilt, saying he now believes that the man who beheaded the American hostage was Khalid Sheikh Mohamed, the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks.

The Times has reported that Rai Bashir, Sheikh’s lawyer, said that he intended to use the memoir to force a new appeal hearing.

The Times report said General Musharraf appears to contradict the original claim that the British militant callously planned Pearl’s murder, saying: "Only later did I realise that Omar Sheikh had panicked because the situation had spiralled out of his control."

Bashir said: "After reading the book, if I feel necessary, I will quote the book in my arguments in favour of my client. It can be used as evidence." Three other men jailed for life for their part in the crime have lodged appeals. - Internews

Pakistan 'role in Mumbai attacks'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/5394686.stm

9/30/2006

Pakistan's intelligence agency was behind the train blasts in Mumbai in July that killed 186 people, Indian police say.

The attacks were planned by the ISI and carried out by the Islamist militant group Lashkar-e-Toiba, based in Pakistan, Mumbai's police chief said.

AN Roy said the Students' Islamic Movement of India had also assisted.

Pakistan rejected the allegations and said India had given no evidence of Pakistani involvement in the attacks.

"We have solved the 11 July bombings case. The whole attack was planned by Pakistan's ISI and carried out by Lashkar-e-Toiba and their operatives in India," Mumbai (Bombay) police commissioner AN Roy told a news conference.

'Baseless'
Tariq Azim Khan, Pakistan's minister of state for information, rejected the allegations.

"We are still studying the Indian statement. Needless to say, this is once again baseless allegations - yet another attempt by India to malign Pakistan," he told the BBC.

"Both the president and the prime minister condemned this terrorist attack on the train when it happened. But India also must look at home for reasons for this growing insurgency at home," he said.

On 11 July 2006, seven co-ordinated blasts within 15 minutes ripped through trains on Mumbai's busy commuter network.

Mr Roy said 15 people had been arrested, and that some of the bombers had received training in Pakistan.

He said the bombs were made using a total of 15-20kg of an explosive called RDX, which was smuggled into the country and packed into seven pressure cookers.

Timers were attached to the bombs, which were put into bags and concealed using newspapers and umbrellas, he said.

He said 11 Pakistanis were involved in the operation, and had crossed into India in small groups from Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh.

Seven teams, each made up of one Indian and one Pakistani militant, transported the bombs by taxi before placing them on the trains, Mr Roy said.

Peace talks
Indian security officials suggested early on in their investigations that the bombings bore the hallmarks of Lashkar-e-Toiba, a leading militant group fighting in Kashmir and based in Pakistan.

But Pakistan denied any involvement in the blasts and Lashkar-e-Toiba condemned the attacks.

India postponed talks with Pakistan after the bombings, but Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf met recently in Cuba and said they had agreed to resume talks.

The two nations, both nuclear armed, have fought three wars since independence, two over the disputed territory of Kashmir.

ISI, Lashkar behind 7/11 blasts: Mumbai police

http://www.ndtv.com/template/templa...ai+police&id=20388&callid=0&category=National

Sunday, October 1, 2006 (Mumbai):

The Maharashtra police have revealed the conspiracy behind the 7/11 blasts in the city's suburban train network.

According to the police, the blasts were carried out by a group of Pakistanis and Indians who used RDX packed in pressure cookers.

In a press conference on Saturday, Mumbai police commissioner AN Roy nailed the ISI for masterminding the blasts.

"The entire case, of seven serial blasts in Mumbai local trains has been cracked. The entire operation was planned by Pakistan's ISI and executed in India by local LeT operatives and some members of SIMI. Several of these operatives were trained in Pakistan, in Bhawalpur," he said.

Fifteen people have been arrested in the case so far of which twelve are said to be directly involved in the conspiracy. The case against the other three is still being worked out.

According to Roy, the plot was hatched in Bahawalpur four months ago in March 2006 in by Azam Cheema, an LeT commander.

Cheema ran the operation using three modules in India, headed by Faisal Sheikh, a businessmen from Bandra, Kamaluddin Ansari from Bihar and Ehteshan Siddiqi, a SIMI leader.

Deadly plan
They were given safe houses to stay across Mumbai: in Malad, Borivali, Mumbra and the Bandra home of Faisal Sheikh.

The RDX, about 15 kilos, was brought by one Ehsamullah from Pakistan.

Three groups of people had arrived from Pakistan for this operation. The bombs were assembled in Shivajinagar in the slums of Givandi in Chembur.

They were placed inside seven pressure cookers and then stored in Fasial's Bandra residence. Each bomb had RDX with ammonium nitrate and quartz timers.

On the day of the blasts, the men set off in groups of two, one Indian and one Pakistani to board trains. The deadly cargo was hidden in umbrellas to avoid detection.

But one Pakistani didn't manage to get off, his body lying unclaimed in a Mumbai hospital. Police say his name was Salim and he was from Lahore.

Another Pakistani stayed back and was shot dead in an encounter in Mumbai's Antop Hill. At that time, he was identified as Abu Osama.

Pak involvement confirmed
In several earlier terrorist strikes including the '93 bomb blasts, there's been talk of a Pak hand.

But now for the first time, investigators have spoken of Pakistani nationals arriving in India to be part of the bombing.

These are explosive claims, which could impact Indo-Pak relations, one reason why the police will now have to produce hard evidence to back their claims.

Pakistan was quick to react to the revelations made on the 7/11 investigations. Pakistan's interior minister said India had often blamed Pakistan after such incidents.

No link with 9/11
One of the claims made by a media network some time back was that the 7 /11 bomb blasts were linked to the 9 /11 bombings in New York.

It was claimed that Mohammed Atta had trained along with the 7/ 11 bombers, a claim so unlikely that NDTV had refrained from reacting to it at that time.

This was backed by every investigating agency in Mumbai and New Delhi which had had rubbished it off the record.

On Saturday, the Mumbai police went on to categorically state that there is no link between the two incidents.

More arrests
Meanwhile, the police have arrested Naved, a resident of Mira road in Thane, for his direct links with the blasts.

On Friday, four more men were arrested and sent to police custody till October 13. However, details of the charges against them are still unclear.

Sources have told NDTV that Mohammed Majid, the man arrested from Kolkata, is an active member of the LeT sleeper cell and may have links with the RDX haul in Aurangabad.

More arrests are likely in the future with the government claiming that the conspiracy has been solved.

A fast track court will be set up in the Mumbai train blasts case to ensure swift justice unlike in the case of the 1993 serial blasts, which has dragged on for 13 years.

US asks India to stop blaming Pakistan

http://www.dawn.com/2006/10/04/top2.htm

ISLAMABAD, Oct 3: The United States on Tuesday advised India not to blame Pakistan for the Mubmai blasts without certain proof and suggested that New Delhi should resolve the issue through a ‘direct contact’ with Islamabad.

“India should communicate with Pakistan by having direct contact instead of talking about the Mumbai train blasts in the public,” US Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker told a news conference.

He said the United States wanted Indian and Pakistani governments to discuss all the issues between them, including the Kashmir dispute, to normalise their relations.

“We hope that both the countries would keep all their channels open to rectify their misunderstandings,” he said, adding that accusing statements would serve no purpose.

The United States, he said, appreciated the spirit and sense of understanding reached between President Gen Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at Havana for resolving the disputes peacefully.

Mr Crocker did not rule out the possibility of extending nuclear technology to Pakistan for civilian purposes. Both the countries, he said, had started discussion over the issue and currently Pakistan’s energy requirements were being assessed.

He said besides conventional resources, Pakistan would be provided all the support to explore alternative energy resources through short-, medium and long- term plans that would also involve the private sector.

Asked whether the Bush administration would allow American investors to set up nuclear power plants in the proposed ‘Designated Industrial Nuclear Parks’ in Pakistan, he said: “We have made a beginning and at some point in time the US could consider that idea.”

Referring to proliferation, he said one thing was clear that the issue of unauthorised proliferation was closed and the US had accepted Pakistan’s point of view on it.

“Pakistan government took a series of steps putting in place enough safeguards to completely stop this proliferation.

“But what was the extent of A.Q. Khan’s network is still to be known and determined and this issue is not closed and in this regard the international community has to be satisfied by Pakistan,” he pointed out, saying the issues concerning Iran and North Korea were not closed.

“Pakistan says it wants to get to the bottom of the issue and this is very good,” he added.

The ambassador said his country supported Pakistan government’s agreement with tribal elders in North Waziristan, adding that President Musharraf was taking full interest to restrict the activities of Al Qaeda and Taliban both in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

He said Gen Musharraf had given a “comprehensive and clear presentation” on the Waziristan accord and the US fully understood the circumstances in which this agreement was signed.

He explained that the US was not against showing ‘flexibility’ to deal with the Taliban as serious issues were not resolved overnight.

He said war on terror could not be won militarily alone as local factors had to be considered and flexibility had to be shown to achieve the desired results. He expressed the hope that there would be no cross-border terrorist activity by Taliban after the signing of the Waziristan accord.

“In an extended campaign against terror we can panic but we would ultimately succeed with the help of our allies,” Mr Crocker said, adding that he did not think there was any ‘Talibanisation’ in tribal areas.

He said that after the tripartite meeting at White House, his country would make it sure that there was “no blame game on each other” and both President Musharraf and President Karzai cooperated with each other.

India to give names of 7/11 suspects to Pak

http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1056686

Wednesday, October 04, 2006 ^14:00 IST

NEW DELHI: India will shortly present to Pakistan the names of its nationals suspected to be involved in the deadly Mumbai blasts along with related evidence through the joint anti-terror mechanism recently agreed upon, highly placed sources said on Wednesday.

As many as 11 Pakistani nationals were directly involved in the serial blasts on July 11 in which nearly 200 people died, according to the Mumbai police which said that the attacks were planned by ISI in Pakistan and carried out by Lashkar-e-Toiba with the help of the banned Islamic Students Movement of India (SIMI).

Two of the Pakistanis involved are dead but the remaining are believed to have escaped to their country or could be hiding in India. LeT's commander in Pakistan's Bahawalput district, Azam Cheema is suspected to be the brain behind the conspiracy.

Islamabad's rejection of the Mumbai police claims and its refusal to handover any suspects to India is unacceptable to New Delhi which wants this case to be the first test for the joint mechanism.

As Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on his way back home from South Africa, the evidence of Pakistani involvement will be offered to Islamabad through the joint mechanism and it would be ascertained "how sincere they are in carrying forward the commitment I and President Musharraf have underlined" in the joint statement from Havana.

The Prime Minister left no one in doubt that the evidence India gives to Pakistan would be a test of its sincerely in controlling terrorism. "Pakistan will have to walk the talk", he asserted.

"Whatever has been discovered (by Mumbai police), we shall share that information with Pakistan", he told reporters, adding "we will test the water".

There was condemnation of the Mumbai blasts in the joint statement and also an explicit mention that the two countries will work to control the menace of terrorism, he recalled.

Pointing out that Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf and he had just set up the joint mechanism to deal with terrorism, the Prime Minister said it was through this mechanism that Pakistan's response would be sought.

Although the joint mechanism was yet to take off, Singh asked "how else can we ask Pakistan for information (about Mumbai blasts) except through a mechanism like this?"

On Indo-Pak peace process, Singh said it could not move forward unless and until both countries sincerely work to gain mastery over this menace (of terrorism).

Explosion near Musharraf residence, no casualties or damage

http://rawstory.com/news/2006/Explosion_near_Musharraf_residence__10042006.html

dpa German Press Agency
Published: Wednesday October 4, 2006

Islamabad- An explosion in a park near Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf's residence Tuesday evening sparked rumours of an attempt on the president's life, but police said it caused no casualties or damage. Police chief Marwat Ali Shah of Rawalpindi, where the explosion occurred, dismissed the incident as "nothing big."

The explosive, planted in the open, vast, jungle-like Ayub Park, only threw up dirt and stones about 100 metres away. The park had closed about 90 minutes before the explosion took place at 1635 GMT, police sources said.

Presidential spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan said the explosion made no impact on the army buildings in the vicinity, including the official residence of President Musharraf.

Musharraf, who is also army chief, prefers to live in the army residence in Rawalpindi rather than the presidential palace in the adjoining capital Islamabad.

Security forces cordoned off the area after the explosion, which snarled the traffic on the main highway into Rawalpindi and caused rumours to spread about a possible attempt on Musharraf, who has survived two bomb attacks during his tenure.

dayam

Britain says Pakistan is hiding Taliban chief

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2393838,00.html

Christina Lamb, Kabul
10/7/2006

THE British general commanding Nato troops in Afghanistan is to confront Pakistan’s president over his country’s support for the Taliban.

Among the evidence amassed is the address of the Taliban’s leader in a Pakistani city.

Lieutenant-General David Richards will fly to Islamabad tomorrow to try to persuade Pervez Musharraf to rein in his military intelligence service, which Richards believes is training Taliban fighters to attack British troops. He will request that key Taliban leaders living in Pakistan be arrested.

The evidence compiled by American, Nato and Afghan intelligence includes satellite pictures and videos of training camps for Taliban soldiers and suicide bombers inside Pakistan.

Captured Taliban fighters and failed suicide bombers have confirmed that they were trained by the Pakistani intelligence service, known as the ISI. The information includes an address in Quetta where Mullah Omar, the Taliban leader, is said to live.

Musharraf had publicly acknowledged “a Taliban problem on the Pakistan side of the border”, said Richards. “Undoubtedly something has got to happen,” he added.

“We’ve got to accept that the Pakistan government is not omnipotent and it isn’t easy but it has to be done and we’re working very hard on it. I’m very confident that the Pakistan government’s intent is clear and they will be delivering on it.”

The initiative emerged as the commander of British forces in Afghanistan, Brigadier Ed Butler, called for more troop-carrying helicopters. He was responding to a promise by Tony Blair that the forces could have whatever extra resources they needed. But a defence source said it was difficult to see where new British transport helicopters could be found.

Political leaders have been reluctant to put pressure on Musharraf for fear of destabilising a nuclear-armed country in which Islamic fundamentalists are strong.

This week’s intervention comes at a sensitive time for Blair after the ISI apparently helped avert the alleged planned bombing of transatlantic airliners flying from Heathrow. But the Taliban’s re-emergence has coincided with mounting evidence of ISI involvement, prompting frustration in Afghanistan, where 30 British servicemen have been killed.

“I feel real vitriol seeing our boys dying because of Pakistan,” said one British officer.

A senior US commander added: “We just can’t ignore it any more. Musharraf’s got to prove which side he is on.”

Hamid Karzai, the president of Afghanistan, has repeatedly complained of Pakistan’s role in providing a haven for Taliban fighters, saying they have openly run camps in Karachi and Quetta. “There is an open campaign by Pakistan against Afghanistan and the presence of coalition troops here,” he said.

In Washington two weeks ago^Karzai handed Pakistan the names and addresses of alleged handlers of suicide bombers using a camp near Peshawar that had been infiltrated by an Afghan informer. Last Wednesday a rubbish bag was discovered in the camp containing his body.

Who is planning to terrorize Pakistan's ISI now?

http://www.indiadaily.com/editorial/13653.asp

Parul Patel
Oct. 7, 2006

After initial claims of conducting a ''mock exercise,'' security officials today said they defused two live rockets, found along with a launcher and a mobile phone, in the vicinity of the headquarters of Pakistan's intelligence agency here.

Who is planning to terrorize Pakistan's ISI now? Believe it or not someone left bombs with cell phone attached just outside Pakistani ISI head quarter!

International think tanks are making it a biggest joke of the year. It seems like some one is saying Pakistan's ISI is a target of Islamic Jihadists too. Well that is real interesting and we can only hope ISI will allow Indian authoroties to test those bombs and cell phones.

According to media reports, Earlier, TV channels had quoted the capital's police chief Choudhary Iftikar as saying that it was a "mock exercise" conducted with "dud" rockets. But Iftikar later told media that the confusion occurred due to a misunderstanding between security departments.

The rockets found today bore similarities to the ones defused on Thursday in a construction site near the Parliament and official residence of President Pervez Musharraf. On the night before, an explosion rocked a public park near the army residence of Musharraf in Rawalpindi.

Officials remained clueless about the mysterious blast and the defused rockets. Security for Musharraf, one of the most highly-guarded leaders in the world, has been tightened further after the blast and detection of rockets.

The recovery of rockets on Thursday came minutes before Musharraf was to arrive at a nearby convention centre to address an meeting on earthquake reconstruction. Vehicles with jammers were reportedly used to defuse the rockets to prevent anyone igniting them through mobile phones which were also recovered.

Nato's top brass accuse Pakistan over Taliban aid

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/10/06/wafghan06.xml

By Ahmed Rashid in Kabul
(Filed: 06/10/2006)

Commanders from five Nato countries whose troops have just fought the bloodiest battle with the Taliban in five years, are demanding their governments get tough with Pakistan over the support and sanctuary its security services provide to the Taliban.

Nato's report on Operation Medusa, an intense battle that lasted from September 4-17 in the Panjwai district, demonstrates the extent of the Taliban's military capability and states clearly that Pakistan's Interservices Intelligence (ISI) is involved in supplying it.

Commanders from Britain, the US, Denmark, Canada and Holland are frustrated that even after Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf met George W Bush and Tony Blair last week, Western leaders are declining to call Mr Musharraf's bluff.

"It is time for an 'either you are with us or against us' delivered bluntly to Musharraf at the highest political level," said one Nato commander.

After the September 11 attacks in 2001 America gave Mr Musharraf a similar ultimatum to co-operate against the Taliban, who were then harbouring Osama bin Laden.

"Our boys in southern Afghanistan are hurting because of what is coming out of Quetta," he added.

The Taliban use the southern province of Balochistan to co-ordinate their insurgency and to recuperate after military action.

The cushion Pakistan is providing the Taliban is undermining the operation in Afghanistan, where 31,000 Nato troops are now based. The Canadians were most involved in Operation Medusa, two weeks of heavy fighting in a lush vineyard region, defeating 1,500 well entrenched Taliban, who had planned to attack Kandahar city, the capital of the south.

Nato officials now say they killed 1,100 Taliban fighters, not the 500 originally claimed. Hundreds of Taliban reinforcements in pick-up trucks who crossed over from Quetta – waved on by Pakistani border guards – were destroyed by Nato air and artillery strikes.

Nato captured 160 Taliban, many of them Pakistanis who described in detail the ISI's support to the Taliban.

Nato is now mapping the entire Taliban support structure in Balochistan, from ISI- run training camps near Quetta to huge ammunition dumps, arrival points for Taliban's new weapons and meeting places of the shura, or leadership council, in Quetta, which is headed by Mullah Mohammed Omar, the group's leader since its creation a dozen years ago.

Nato and Afghan officers say two training camps for the Taliban are located just outside Quetta, while the group is using hundreds of madrassas where the fighters are housed and fired up ideologically before being sent to the front.

Many madrassas now being listed are run by the Jamiat-e-Ullema Islam, a political party that governs Balochistan and the North West Frontier Province. The party helped spawn the Taliban in 1994.

"Taliban decision-making and its logistics are all inside Pakistan," said the Afghan defense minister, General Rahim Wardak.

A post-battle intelligence report compiled by Nato and Afghan forces involved in Operation Medusa demonstrates the logistical capability of the Taliban.

During the battle the Taliban fired an estimated 400,000 rounds of ammunition, 2,000 rocket-propelled grenades and 1,000 mortar shells, which slowly arrived in Panjwai from Quetta over the spring months. Ammunition dumps unearthed after the battle showed that the Taliban had stocked over one million rounds in Panjwai.

In Panjwai the Taliban had also established a training camp to teach guerrillas how to penetrate Kandahar, a separate camp to train suicide bombers and a full surgical field hospital. Nato estimated the cost of Taliban ammunition stocks at around £2.6 million. "The Taliban could not have done this on their own without the ISI," said a senior Nato officer.

Gen Musharraf this week admitted that "retired" ISI officers might be involved in aiding the Taliban, the closest he has come to admitting the agency's role.

NATO to confront General over ISI support to Taliban

http://www.indianexpress.com/story/14301.html

Press Trust Of India
Posted online: Monday, October 09, 2006

London, October 8:^The Commander of NATO troops in Afghanistan plans to confront President Pervez Musharraf with evidence that ISI is training Taliban fighters to attack British troops in the war-torn country and urge him to arrest deposed militia leader Mullah Omar “hiding in Pakistan”.

Lieutenant General David Richards, British general commanding NATO troops in Afghanistan, will fly to Islamabad on Monday to try to persuade Musharraf to rein in his military intelligence which he believes is training Taliban fighters to attack British troops.

He also intends to give Gen Musharraf the address of the Taliban leader hiding in a Pakistani city and request that he be arrested. He says he has satellite pictures and videos of training camps for Taliban soldiers and suicide bombers inside Pakistan.

Captured Taliban fighters and failed suicide bombers have confirmed that they were trained by the Pakistani intelligence service, the ISI. The information includes an address in the city of Quetta where Mullah Omar, the Taliban leader, is said to be living quite openly.

The addresses of other senior members of the Taliban shura, or ruling council, have also been compiled. Musharraf had publicly acknowledged “a Taliban problem on the Pakistan side of the border”, said Richards. “Undoubtedly something has got to happen,” he was quoted as saying.

“We’ve got to accept that the Pakistan government is not omnipotent and it isn’t easy but it has to be done and we’re working very hard on it. I’m very confident that the Pakistan government’s intent is clear and they will be delivering on it.”

The initiative emerged as commander of British forces in Afghanistan, Brigadier Ed Butler called for more troop-carrying helicopters. He was responding to a promise by Prime Minister Tony Blair that the forces could have whatever extra resources they needed. But a defence source said it was difficult to see where new British transport helicopters could be found.

The Taliban’s re-emergence has coincided with mounting evidence of ISI involvement, prompting frustration in Afghanistan, where 40 British servicemen have been killed. “I feel real vitriol seeing our boys dying because of Pakistan,” said one British officer.

The report quoted a senior US commander saying: “We just can’t ignore it any more. Musharraf has got to prove which side he is on.”

Police did not want to ‘jump the gun’on train blast probe

http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topi...=111314&version=1&template_id=40&parent_id=22

Published: Friday, 6 October, 2006, 01:29 PM Doha Time

MUMBAI: It may have taken Mumbai police’s elite Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) all of three months to sew together the July 11 serial blasts that ripped through the city’s train network leaving at least 187 dead. But officials say they did not want to jump the gun by making any premature statements.

Police Commissioner A N Roy and ATS chief Krishan Pal Raghuvanshi say they first wanted to make sure that the information gathered during the investigation was converted into evidence.

"Although we had rounded up the main accused as early as July 16, just five days after the blasts, we did not want to jump the gun by making any premature announcements," Roy said.

"We had two major factors in consideration before making any claims. Firstly, the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) had trained the suspects to confuse and mislead interrogators. Secondly, we wanted to convert all the information collected into concrete evidence," Roy told reporters.

The police chief claimed last week that Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) was behind the blasts.

"Although most of the suspects during interrogations admitted that they had allegedly been to Pakistan, where they were indoctrinated into the LeT and trained to handle arms and make explosives, they maintained that they had no hand in the blasts," Roy said.

Police so far have arrested five of the seven Indian bombers. Roy had claimed that 11 Pakistani nationals had sneaked into India to carry out the bombing in three batches.

The bombings, Roy claimed, were carried out by seven different groups, each comprising one Indian bomber and one Pakistani counterpart, who planted a pressure cooker packed with explosives and ammonium nitrate with quartz timers in the packed first class carriages.

Police have so far arrested five Indian bombers but are tight-lipped about the identity of the two others who are still at large.

"We expect to nab them soon," said ATS chief and Joint Commissioner Raghuvanshi.

"All the accused have been booked under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), under which a confession made to an officer above the rank of a superintendent of police is permissible as evidence."

"When those who planted the bombs are admitting to their acts, why should there be any doubts?" Raghuvanshi asked.

A senior ATS official added: "We were faced with a blinder after the blasts. We had picked up the main suspects, including blast masterminds Faizal Sheikh, allegedly the LeT’s western India commander, Tanvir Ansari, LeT operative and a herbal doctor, and Ehtesham Siddiqui, a small-time publisher and Students Islamic Movement of India’s Maharashtra chief, as those who could lead us to the perpetrator. But we initially had had no idea that they were the actual conspirators."

The breakthrough came from Ansari and another suspect Zamir Sheikh, a key-maker, who spoke at length during interrogation and gave details that establish the roles of the others in the conspiracy, the official said.

Unlikely suspect

http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1814030,00120001.htm

Prem Shankar Jha
October 6, 2006

The revelations made on September 30 by Mumbai police chief AN Roy of the way in which the July 11 bomb blasts were planned and executed have emboldened the hawks in the Indian armed forces and intelligence establishment who have been arguing that it would be rank folly to trust Pervez Musharraf's declarations on Kashmir or his desire for peace with India. Their scepticism has been strengthened by Roy’s bald assertion that not only the Lashkar-e-Tayyeba (LeT), but also Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) was directly involved. According to him, the LeT could not have dispatched as many as 10 operatives from Pakistan without at least a nod from the ISI. The fact that LeT’s operatives seem to have entered India through Nepal and Bangladesh, where the ISI is well entrenched, has strengthened their belief.

This assumption needs to be treated with caution. The conception of Pakistan as a monolithic State in which all organs of government and^ civil society work in perfect harmony is fanciful, to say the least. Pakistan is, in fact, a somewhat chaotic, half-formed State in which the authority of the rulers is being constantly contested. The most that the LeT’s involvement with the Mumbai blasts and the possible involvement of the ISI with the LeT reveals is that the disarray in the Pakistani State is far greater than the most pessimistic assessments made so far. The alternative explanation, that Musharraf is backing attempts to trigger a communal holocaust and bring about the disintegration of the Indian State while lulling it into a false sense of security is far-fetched, because it requires a level of brinkmanship that is not far from suicide.

Musharraf already faces threat of insurgency in North Waziristan and Balochistan. These have forced him to deploy more than a quarter of the Pakistani army in these areas, dangerously thinning Pakistan’s defences on the Indian border. Since his military commitments in Waziristan and Balochistan are open-ended, he needs to keep the Indian border quiet at any cost. Inciting and assisting the LeT to spread terror in India is hardly the best way to do so.

On the contrary, common sense would expect a head of State in his predicament to minimise the number of fronts on which he has to fight in order to concentrate on the ones most important to him. By this yardstick, maintaining peace in Waziristan and bringing the rebellion in Balochistan under control are infinitely more important than poking away at India in the hope that it will blow up, for India poses no immediate threat to Pakistan’s existence.

Viewed from this perspective, all of Musharraf’s overtures to India in the last two years — from his retreat from the demand for a plebiscite in Kashmir before the Saarc summit at Islamabad in 2004, to his carefully unveiled plan for limited autonomy to a federal Kashmir in October 2004, to his visit to Delhi in April 2005 — make perfect sense. Even India’s ‘postponement’ of the composite dialogue after the Mumbai blasts did not end his overtures. In the interview he gave to A.G. Noorani for Mainstream, he mooted the need for the two countries to control the activities of their intelligence agencies, a tacit admission that he did not have the measure of control over its activities that he would like, but also an indirect rebuke to India for allowing the R&AW to meddle in Balochistan. He also took advantage of the exposure of the London bomb row to put LeT head Hafiz Mohammad Sayeed in jail and has kept him there since. Thus, if the LeT continues to operate with impunity or, worse, with the help of elements within the Pakistani State, it is because Musharraf is unable to fully control one or both of them.

In recent weeks, the pressure exerted on Musharraf by developments within Pakistan for brokering a peace with India has, if anything, become greater. Not only has his attempt to invoke (not for the first time) the help of the Sardars of Waziristan to control the Taliban run into a storm of criticism from a beleaguered US and Nato, but the flare-up in Balochistan after the killing of Sardar Bugti has brought him face to face with the possibility of an insurrection that he may not be able to control. These developments paved the way for the resumption of the dialogue with Manmohan Singh in Havana and the decision to create a joint mechanism for intelligence sharing between the two countries.

But if the Pakistani State is in disarray, so is policy-making in India. Nothing underlines this more sharply than the way in which Roy’s press conference has all but destroyed the Havana initiative. The arrest and interrogation of 12 out of the 15 Indians who were allegedly involved in the bombing had created a golden opportunity for the Indian government to test Pakistan’s sincerity. For they had revealed the names and whereabouts of several of the Pakistani participants in the plot as well as the LeT’s involvement. Had these names and the supporting proof been given quietly to Pakistan, its agencies would have had an opportunity to cooperate with India, shielded from the public gaze. We would soon have found out how much control Musharraf genuinely had over them and how sincere he was in Havana. But that opportunity was destroyed by Roy’s public accusation of the ISI. Not only did it leave the Pakistani foreign office with no option but to make a blanket denial, but it also forced its spokesperson, Tasneem Aslam, to make it clear, in advance of any investigation, that the question of deporting anyone to India did not arise. For those in the ISI who looked at the Havana initiative with as much horror as their counterparts in India, Roy’s press conference must have been pure music.

Had Roy done this on his own, he could have been accused of jumping the gun in order to capture kudos for^ the Maharashtra police. But as he himself made clear, he was given the^ green light to hold the press meet by the Centre. One is, therefore, forced to ask who in the central government? Was it the Home Ministry or the PMO? Did it have the clearance of the Prime Minister and, if so, did Singh not realise that it would make a mockery of his Havana initiative? If Singh was not consulted, then who went out of his or her way to sabotage the Havana initiative and hold up the Prime Minister to ridicule?

These questions have not only to be asked, but answered. For, the accusation that Roy jumped the gun is not being made by the ‘doves’ and ‘peaceniks’ alone. It has also been echoed by some in the intelligence services who have complained that they were not given enough time to tie up the loose ends of the investigation. It is, therefore, difficult to avoid coming to the conclusion that while Roy’s press conference may have been designed to reassure the Mumbai public, its timing was designed to torpedo Singh’s Havana initiative.

Close watchers of the political scene in Delhi have remarked during the past year that the government is virtually paralysed by its own internal dissensions. Many have jumped to the conclusion that this is because of the ‘dyarchy’ within the Congress that has resulted from power being shared by Sonia Gandhi and Singh. But the sorry tale of the peace-that-may-now-never-be shows that the dissension exists within Singh’s government and because he allows it to exist. Over two years, it has grown to the point where it is no longer a battle to give advice to the government. Today, the struggle is over control of the government’s agenda.

Pakistan's shadowy secret service

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6033383.stm

By Mahmud Ali
BBC News
10/9/2006

Pakistan's directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, usually called the ISI, is accused of many vices.

Critics say it runs "a state within a state", subverts elected governments, supports the Taleban and is even involved in drug smuggling.

Pakistan's government denies the allegations.

Like many other military intelligence organisations, the shadowy ISI zealously guards its secrets and evidence against it is sketchy.

However, the agency is a central organ of Pakistan's military machine which has played a major - often dominant - role in the country's often turbulent politics.

Surveillance
The ISI was established in 1948 - as Pakistan engaged India in the first war over Kashmir - to be the top body co-ordinating the intelligence functions of its army, air force and navy.

In the 1950s, when Pakistan joined anti-communist alliances, its military services and the ISI received considerable Western support in training and equipment.

The ISI's attention was focused on India, considered Pakistan's arch-enemy.

But when Ayub Khan, the army commander-in-chief, mounted the first successful coup in 1958, the ISI's domestic political activities expanded.

As a new state bringing together diverse ethnic groups within what some described as contrived borders, Pakistan faced separatist challenges - among Pashtuns, Balochis, Sindhis and Bengalis.

Much of the country's early history was shaped by politicians seeking regional autonomy and the central civilian and military bureaucracies trying to consolidate national unity.

The ISI not only mounted surveillance on parties and politicians, it often infiltrated, co-opted, cajoled or coerced them into supporting the army's centralising agenda.

Defeat and disgrace
The army ran the country from 1958 to 1971, when East Pakistan broke away with Indian and Soviet help to become Bangladesh.

The ISI and the Pakistani military were thoroughly discredited and marginalised after the war.

But they gained fresh purpose in 1972 when Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, the new civilian leader, launched a clandestine project to build nuclear weapons.

A year later military operations were launched against nationalist militants in Balochistan province.

These two events helped rehabilitate the ISI and the military.

After Bhutto was ousted by General Zia ul-Haq in 1977, the Balochistan operations were ended but the nuclear programme was expanded.

The Marxist revolution in Afghanistan in the same year threatened Pakistan by opening a second "strategic front" (the first being with India to the east).

The ISI was restored to its past eminence.

Secret funding
The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979 transformed the regional setting.

President Carter and his national security adviser, Zbigniew Brzezinski, built a Western-Muslim coalition with Britain, France, West Germany, China, Egypt, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates playing key roles.

Revolutionary Iran offered some aid to anti-Soviet guerrillas in western Afghanistan.

But all other foreign assistance to the mujahideen arrived via Pakistan, to be handled by the ISI whose Afghan Bureau co-ordinated all operational activities with the seven guerrilla militias.

This was done in such secrecy that the Pakistani military itself was kept in the dark.

Just to get a sense of the scale of the operation - the CIA provided enough arms to equip a 240,000-man army, and the Saudis matched US funding dollar for dollar.

Other countries provided arms and money and Muslim countries also encouraged volunteers to join the jihad or holy war.

Mujahideen role
Foreign money helped to establish hundreds of madrassas (religious schools) in Pakistan's cities and frontier areas.

These turned out thousands of Taleban (students) who joined the mujahideen in the anti-Soviet campaign.

The ISI managed this operation, handling tens of thousands of tons of ordnance every year and co-ordinating the action of several hundred thousand fighters in great secrecy.

Eventually, in 1988, the Soviet Union agreed to withdraw its forces by 1989, and did so.

This was seen as a great victory for the mujahideen and their patrons in Pakistan and farther afield, and a trigger for the subsequent Soviet collapse.

This is why Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf feels it necessary to defend the ISI.

He has pointed out that the West backed the mujahideen, which went on to engender groups like al-Qaeda and the Taleban in the post-Soviet violence which consumed Afghanistan and brought about the US-led "war on terror".

Following the attacks of 11 September, 2001, Gen Musharraf has sought to rid the military, including the ISI, of Islamists within its ranks - a hangover from the Zia era.

Elements in the military have been accused of complicity in failed attempts on his life.

Pakistani government and ISI support for militant groups who left Afghanistan to fight Indian rule in Kashmir has been the cause of much friction with India.

India has repeatedly accused Pakistan, and especially the ISI, of involvement in Kashmir and in attacks elsewhere in India.

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