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#1
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Roshan wadhwani
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Extremism And Terrorism (Important Articles)
Afghan Saga: Killing One Innocent Person is

killing the Humanity Man in Search of
Humanity
March 27, 2012
Mahboob A. Khawaja, PhD
Exclusive Article
In its search for change and progressive future-making, the global mankind is
oppressed and victimized by the systematic intransigence and arrogance of the few
affluent class of people managing the global institutions, militarization and governance
the perverted insanity lacking basic understanding of the Human Nature and of the
working of the splendid Universe in which we enjoy coherent co-existence. The
mankind continues to be run down by the cancerous ego and cruelty of the few
Western warlords. Killing unjustifiably one innocent human being is like killing of the
whole of the humanity. The global warlords represent cruel mindset incapable to see
the human side of the living conscience. Madness of the perpetuated war on terrorism
and its triggered insanity knows no bound across the global spectrum. Animals do not
commit massacre of their kind and species, nor set-up rape camps for the war victims,
the Western led wars against the humanity have and continue to do so at an unparallel
global scale without being challenged by any global organizations or leaders. Torture
and massacres of innocent civilians are convenient fun games to be defined as
collateral damage and a statistic. Perhaps, they view humanity just in digits and
numbers, not as the living entities with social, moral, spiritual and intellectual values
and progressive agendas for change and development. Every beginning has its end. It
is just that most powerful nations have failed to learn from the living history- a slap to
EH Carrs precious thoughts of human history.
Continued insanity of the on-going Terrorism of Wars got jolt to commit past mid night
massacres of the 17 innocent civilians women and children in Kandhar- the occupied
and poverty stricken Afghanistan. Not one soldier but claims Sayed Ishaq Gillani the
head of the Afghan Parliamentary Investigation inquiry that perhaps 15-20 US troopers
were involved in the massacres of the afghan women and children in two-three
villages. Another report accuses troopers of rape of two women during the vicious
attacks. US war thinking news media reports of the Afghan host reactionary language
of silent protests the journalistic front page headline sketch of the poor-mans pain
and anguish, but not telling the truth that American forces and NATO are not their
invited guests but aggressive occupiers with an established pattern of behavior to kill
civilians and destroy human habitats for extended fun and enjoyment. Afghan
investigator Hamizai Lali told BBC that If the international community does not play its
role in punishing the perpetrators, the Wolesi Jirga [parliament] would declare foreign
troops as occupying forces. Other voices of Reason call for public trial of the accused
soldier (s) in Afghanistan to be witnessed by the grieving people. In his prompt followup phone call, President Obama made his saddened impressions known to Hamad
Karazi the US installed puppet president of Afghanistan. Nonsense, in situations of
adversity and crisis, competent and intelligent leaders show no feelings on the war
fronts nor a Commanderin-Chief of the most powerful armies in the world, would spell
out emotions as war code dictates do or die and nothing in between. Obama appears
smart and tactful at least in his secured outlook, fighting and killing people thousands
of miles away from his drawing room without any repercussions to the self- his inner
soul and human conscience.
Strange as it was, the US mainstream news media never bothered to ask the names of
the 17 women-children massacred by its soldiers, the children birthdates, about their
toys if they had, and how they were massacred while asleep something the US media
is used to portraying in its journalistic cultural context. You cannot blame the US
military psyche either because they are doing a job. They went there to kill people, and
this is what Obama calls the invincible armies. Under the NATO, the Western allied
nations use media as a weapon to manage innovative battlefield and defeat the
perceived enemies in lands far away that the US military minds could not understand
its people, their psychology or cultural identity. One of the biggest hurdles that
American strategists face is that they are disconnected and ignorant of the social,
moral and civilizational culture of Afghanistan and Iraq, and failed to comprehend its
vitality in fighting successfully. To put a pattern to the context, first it was the US
marines photos of pissing on the dead Afghani corps, then the unknowing burning of
the Muslim Holy Book Quraan, and now the added new massacres of the innocent
civilians. The American history narrates that Thomas Jefferson, the architect of the
American Constitution had three volumes of the Holy Al-Quraan in his library that he
used to devise the legal, moral and ethical stipulations for the American Constitution.
Does it mean that the American populace is not aware of their own history? The US
armed forces are trained and represent the US culture of thinking, sense of freedom
and liberty and justice, moral values and political indoctrination, strangely, why should
the Commander-in-Chief be saddened for these latest atrocities against the people
who never harmed nor threatened the US national interests. Does hypocrisy and
cynicism have another name? To invest in favorite perversion, torture, corruption and
massacre of the innocent people happening frequently to portray sadistic political
governance, and the world can watch the bloody atrocities with deafening silence and
inhuman complacency but what kind of glorification would it produce for the
generations to come to understand the norms of humanity? Deliberate massacres of
the innocents need no explanation or psychological clarification, massacre is massacre.
To distort the facts and misinform the public, media outlets bring hourly paid
intellectuals and subject experts to discuss the war stigma and psychological imprints
on the soldiers leading them to commit massacres. The media exercise shields the
actual crimes and creates TV imagery on screen as if it is unreal, no blood no killing,
all unknowingly and a lone marine- the Obama explanatory note. The informed and
conscientious global community wonders, when rationality would replace the drudgery,
hypocrisy of wars and killings of the innocent people? History will judge the people and
leaders by their actions, not by their claims.
Looking at the Nature of Things, the universe encompasses many challenging opposites
time, space, sun, moon, gravitational rotation of the earth, fire, water, air, sand,
floods, earthquakes, tsunami, disasters, explosions, wars, destructions, bombing and
all that can be imagined to destroy the mankind and endanger the continued
movement of the splendid, inspiring and harmonious Universe. How it is that Man a
creation of God cannot co-exist with fellow Man? Is Man by nature a blood thirsty
creature? Perhaps, the invisible forces of culture and environment and societal
indoctrinations frame and shape that mindset.
There is growing trend of Big Thinking in American politics that often overwhelms the
powerful nation to drain out its abilities to see the mirror for a critical self-analysis and
reconstruction of policy and strategic behavior in a situation of primary crisis
management conflict resolution. Throughout its two centuries of evolving history, the
US government has been continuously engaged in more than 220 wars. What a
tragedy and loss to human thinking, intellect and values Immanuel Kant, Thomas
Paine, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, Shakespeare
and Bertrand Russell and their souls put to tormenting torture the treatment they did
not deserve from George Bush, Barrack Obama, Dick Cheney, Tony Blair, Rumsfeld and
so many others full of embittered conscious and cancerous ego to annihilate the
mankind.
Deceit and dishonesty of the Bush manufactured War on Terrorism and its short-long
terms crippling impacts on the present and future of the mankind will continue to hold
the future generations hostage for change and peaceful co-existence. Individually
paranoid and intellectually insane, the men who are universally hated and feared
cannot be source of hope and positive thinking to envision change and promising future
for the humanity. America appears at a crossroads being unable to ward off the inwaiting crucial challenge of history that it will no longer be seen as a viable superpower
and more susceptible to change of global status and to be replaced by another nation
or group of new emerging Asian nations of economic and political leadership as the
next power (s) of the 21st century and new global age of politics, human integrity and
peaceful co-existence. America is skeptical being unable to command the ethical and
intellectual spirited power of the global echelon to be a great nation of the world.
President Obama claimed Yes We Can to Americas change phenomena but political
cynicism and lack of proactive commitment stumbled his convenient political slogan for
personal choices. On wishful thinking, the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded to
Obama the Nobel Peace prize but now the people across the globe are questioning and
Nobel Committee is reviewing it consideration if the Obama award should be recalled.
That should send a strong message to President Obama to rethink if he is a suitable
candidate for the presidential re-election in 2012.
Robert Pape, Professor, University of Chicagos, and author of the Dying to Win: The
Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism, 2005, points out the alarmingly failing record of
the US Empire in war engagements:
America is in unprecedented decline. The self-inflicted wounds of the Iraq war, growing
government debt, increasingly negative current-account balances and other internal
economic weaknesses have cost the United States real power in todays world of
rapidly spreading knowledge and technology. If present trends continue, we will look
back on the Bush years as the death knell of American hegemony.
Late Chalmers Johnson (Dismantling the Empire) warned:
We Are Going to Lose the War in Afghanistan and it will Help Bankrupt us.
One of our major strategic blunders in Afghanistan was not to have recognized that
both Great Britain and the Soviet Union attempted to pacify Afghanistan using the
same military methods as ours and failed disastrously. We seem to have learned
nothing from Afghanistans modern history to the extent that we even know what it
is. Between 1849 and 1947..
Twenty years after the forces of the Red Army withdrew from Afghanistan in disgrace,
points out Chalmers Johnson, that the last Russian general to command them, Gen.
Boris Gromov, issued his own prediction: Disaster, he insisted, will come to the
thousands of new forces Obama is sending there, just as it did to the Soviet Unions,
which lost some 15,000 soldiers in its own Afghan war. We should recognize that we
are wasting time, lives, and resources in an area where we have never understood the
political dynamics and continue to make the wrong choices.
To change the world, it is incumbent upon the intellectuals, academics, visionaries,
poets, philosophers and the thinking people to perceive and articulate new and creative
ideas, new political imagination for the 21st century organizations to be functional for
the people, by the people and accountable to the supremacy of the peoples will. Thus
facilitating opportunities for dialogue and reason to deal with issues of primary national
conflicts, competing economic and political discords, freedom, justice, human rights,
and to invent new terminologies of diplomacy, peacemaking and co-existence between
Man, the Humanity and the encompassed Universe. Peace and global security are not
the properties or the exclusive domains of any superpowers, UNO or the Security
Council or corporate entity. The global mankind enjoins rational optimism to see the
ideas and ideals of peace and human security as its own collectively, not of the few.
Leaders create leaders. The Mankind looks to the Thinking People of new ideas,
imagination and commitment to transform the helpless and degenerated present unto
hall marks of positive hope and plausible future for all the humanity living on One
Planet. But the raging wars and new emerging conflicts are undermining the future of
the mankind. The global community views the current US- Israel warmongering against
Iran with great dismay and active disapproval. The US and Israel are isolated and even
Europeans appear reluctant to offer enthusiastic support for the Iran attack.
Time and encompassing opportunities warrant New Thinking, New Leaders and New
Visions for change and the future-making. But change and creativity and new visions
will not emerge from the obsolete, redundant and failed authoritarianism of the few
insane leaders. None have the understanding of neither peace nor respect for human
life and co-existence in a splendid Universe. To challenge the deafening silence of the
US and Europeans for global peace and security, the humanity must find ways and
means to look beyond the obvious and troublesome horizons dominated by the few
warlords and continued to be plagued with massacres, barbarity against human culture
and civilizations, destruction of the habitats and natural environment as if there were
no rational being and people of Reason populating the God-given Universe. The
informed and mature global community looks towards those Thinkers, educated and
honest proactive leaders enriched with coherent unity of moral, spiritual, intellectual
and physical visions and abilities to be instrumental to rescue it from the planned
encroachment of the few Western warlords. The March 2011 Japans natural disasters
tsunami, earthquakes and nuclear meltdowns at Fukushima have further heightened
the tormenting uneasiness, pain and anguish of the mankind across the globe.
Environmental experts, technological inventors and nuclear scientists seem to invent
things but failed to manage the operational outcomes and accidents, essentially
signaling major flaws between what is thinkable for the good of human change,
progress and advancements and the divide between what could purge the human
existence because of the ignorance of their own thinking and action, arrogance,
warmongering and inconsistency and continued confrontations with the Nature of
Things.
If the human nature is in part wicked and in part foolish, how can human beings be
prevented from suffering from the result of their wickedness and folly? C.E.M. Joad
(Guide to Modern Wickedness), the 20th century proactive thinker offers a rational
context to the prevalent facts of life:
Men simply do not see that war is foolish and useless and wicked. They think on
occasion that it is necessary and wise and honourable, for war is not the work of bad
men knowing themselves to be wrong, but of good men passionately convinced that
they are right.
(Dr. Mahboob A. Khawaja specializes in global security, peace and conflict resolution
and comparative Western-Islamic cultures and civilizations, and author of several
publications including the latest one: Arabia at Crossroads: Arab People Strive for
Freedom, Peace and New Leadership. VDM Publishers, Germany, September 2011.
Comments are welcome at: kmahboob@yahoo.com)
The article is contributed to pkarticleshub.com
#2
4 Weeks Ago
Roshan wadhwani
Senior Member
Join Date: Mar 2011

Location: karachi
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Battling Al Qaeda
March 29, 2012
Ian Bremmer and David Gordon
Its been nearly 11 months since the killing of Osama bin Laden and almost 11 years
since 9/11 thrust Al Qaeda to the forefront of US national security.
Since then in fits and starts after 2001, and at an accelerated pace in the last five
years the United States has been remarkably successful in degrading Al Qaedas
operational capacity and splintering the organisation, culminating in the raid in
Abbottabad last May.
To state the obvious, all this is good news. The US homeland is safer, the world is a
better place, and a reduced jihadist threat is allowing the United States to make a
shrewd strategic pivot to the Asia-Pacific region.
But what is less appreciated is that while the threat to the homeland is diminished, the
demise of Al Qaeda central is coinciding with a resurgence of radical extremist

political activism. The two trends are connected, and present a growing challenge to
US interests.
The fracturing of Al Qaeda has reversed Bin Ladens signal achievement: defying the
truth that all politics is local and focusing the efforts of the most extreme elements on
attacking the far enemy, the United States.
In the absence of a leader, these groups, buttressed by the dynamics of the Arab
Awakening and the US withdrawals from Iraq and Afghanistan, have re-entered
domestic politics throughout the Middle East and South Asia. Their activities add a
layer of complexity, uncertainty, fragility and danger to the regions trajectory and
create enormous problems for US foreign policy.
Osama himself was aware of this development. According to reports of correspondence
taken from his Abbottabad compound, Bin Laden fretted constantly that his operatives
were too eager to direct their activities to local dynamics rather than the overarching
anti-US cause.
These tensions and the temptation among Qaeda operatives to strike softer local
targets sharpened as the US vise tightened and the operational control of an
increasingly isolated Bin Laden weakened.
The killing of Bin Laden, continued US pressure, and the ascension of the unpopular
Zawahri to leadership have reinforced the shift of Al Qaeda affiliates toward local
issues, making the various regional branches less receptive to dictates from Zawahri,
an Egyptian.
This new focus on the local is driving a resurgent influence for the most radical
elements in areas in which Al Qaeda had in recent years become deeply unpopular. The
US withdrawal from Iraq intensifies extremist opposition to the Shia Prime Minister,
Nouri Kamal Al Maliki, as its more clear than ever that its his sect, not his ties to
Washington that fires the radicals.
In Mali, the increased local activities of Al Qaeda in the Maghreb have contributed to a
deteriorating security environment that allowed the long-simmering Tuareg rebellion to
strengthen and fueled the discontent that led to last weeks coup. For the United
States, which had promoted Mali as a regional success story of flourishing democracy,
this is a troubling development.
The return of extremists and their increasing influence in North Africa has surprised
and disoriented even the regions moderate Islamists, with the electoral success of the
Salafist Al Nour Party in Egypt challenging the Muslim Brothers and Tunisias Ennahdaled government struggling to prevent Salafist influence from deterring much-needed
foreign investment.
An influx of returning jihadists in Libya is injecting a radical ideological element to a
transition already fraught with ethnic and tribal tensions. Here, as in South Asia and
the Sahel, the localisation of the most extreme elements is changing the game.
It is in Syria where this dynamic is most acute and most challenging for the United
States. The uprising against the Assad regime is in many ways a strategic plus for the
United States, especially given the close cooperation between Damascus and Tehran.
But sectarian dynamics in Syria make it very difficult for the United States to exploit or
even manage its advantage.
The inability of the Syrian opposition to unite or gain purchase among ethnic and
sectarian minorities results to a great extent from the perception that the strongest
elements of the opposition to the Alawite Shia Bashar Al Assad are Sunni extremists.
Minority groups fear they will treat them even more harshly than Assad has treated
much of the Syrian population.
And the very fractiousness of the opposition that extremism fosters is increasingly
allowing extremist elements to define the anti-Assad forces fueling further
fractiousness and, in a vicious cycle, creating even more openings for extremists.
Zawahris call for jihad against the Assad regime Al Qaedas first such exhortation
that is not against the United States or a close US ally is both a testament to and a
driver of these local dynamics. All of this makes rhetorical or military support for the
Syrian opposition from the United States, Turkey or Saudi Arabia very difficult, and
contributes to the stalemate were now seeing.
Americas very success in the war on Al Qaeda has created a paradox: While the most
extreme elements have shifted their focus away from the United States, the complexity
of the challenge that they pose for US foreign policy has only increased. The war on
terror may be winding down, but managing its aftermath is just beginning.
Ian Bremmer is president of Eurasia Group. David Gordon is head of research at
Eurasia Group and former director of policy planning at the State Department
Source: Khaleej Times
#3
4 Weeks Ago
Roshan wadhwani
Senior Member
Join Date: Mar 2011

Location: karachi
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Impact of Terrorism on Global Security in 2011:

A Pakistani Perspective
*
Raheela Asfa
**
Dr. Mughees Ahmed
http://berkeleyjournalofsocialscienc...ebruary122.pdf
#4
4 Weeks Ago
Roshan wadhwani
Senior Member
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Location: karachi
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Al Qaedas tactical creed

April 2, 2012
M. Zaidi
IDEOLOGY may have been the forte of Al Qaeda ideologues promoting global jihad, but
it has also combined with a military tactical doctrine to make it look more pragmatic to
millions of jihobbyists around the world.
Since this becomes a conflict between good and bad, good has to necessarily triumph
over bad, since without an alternative vision for the future, no ideology can hope to
succeed.
The faithful are implored to shun inertia and spring into action, since only from action
can that alternative vision for future be achieved. The vision that inspires Al Qaeda is
the ouster of foreign occupiers in Muslim lands, the removal of all vestiges of cultural
pollution that violate the laws of God and the application of laws that are informed
solely by the Holy Quran.
The US is the main antagonist, one against whom Al Qaeda ideologues have laid out an
ideological strategy. As a typical example, Abu Ubayd al-Qurashi has tended to argue in
his works that the US is weakening, while the jihadi movement led by Al Qaeda is on
the rise around the world.
For example, in a 2002 article A Lesson in War, he performs a nuanced distillation of
Carl von Clausewitz, a pioneer of war studies and tactics. Qurashi postulates that
Americans are too entrenched in Clausewitzs centre of gravity doctrine, which
emphasises fighting a centralised hostile adversary with a unified command structure,
which becomes redundant when fighting a fluid organisation like Al Qaeda. Qurashi
argues that Americans are totally inept when it comes to understanding Al Qaedas
tactics, and deconstructs Ray Clines arguments about power.
Qurashi interpolates variables that Cline argues are vital for any entity to acquire
power, within which territoriality , economic capability, military ability, strategic purpose
and a will to accomplish that purpose are essential elements. Qurashi argues Al Qaeda
has significant potential power and territorial bases in the shape of Afghanistan, Iran
and Pakistan. It has
the will, and territory will be hugely helpful for acquiring economic capability.
Qurashi interpolates research by another American military strategist T.N. Dupuy, who
identifies fighting power (P) as being constituted of the number of troops (N),
multiplied by variable factors (V), multiplied by the quality (Q) of those troops: P, in
fact, is equal to NVQ.

He says that even though the US may have a central pool of troops, the jihadis can
recruit Muslims from all over the world, offsetting the numerical ratios of American
troops. He also postulates that the qualities of Islamist warrior (jihadis) are undeniably
higher, since they fight out of conviction, not monetary gains, and live hard lives and
thus are inherently
conditioned for war.
Abu Musab al-Suri also stresses on Islam being under attack by the establishment of
the new world order comprising the Jews and Crusaders, spearheaded by America,
with France, Britain and Nato, and the apostate Arab regimes. Suri has also equated
Islamic scholars who denounce jihadism with the enemy within, who lead Muslims
astray under the guise of
Islamic injunctions.
The need for edifying action is also demonstrable in his Call for Islamic Global
Resistance. Suri has laid out a battle doctrine against primarily America, which
stipulates that mere words will not save the ummah in the face of the enemys
machineguns, flogging, rape and defamation. Suris emphasis at all times is on the
fact that jihad against the US cannot be
waged through words and non-violent means, and only this philosophy is the way
forward.
As regarding asymmetric warfare, for Qurashi the asymmetrical confabulation of jihadi
vs US forces is not such a bad thing since the fluid nature of jihad makes it more
flexible, creative and resilient, besides making good propaganda material. This has
been effectively utilised particularly by Al Qaeda to project itself as a small but
dedicated populist force
seeking to defend the freedom of the oppressed and downtrodden challenged by the
American Goliath.
Qurashi points to various asymmetrical trajectories which he argues can be effectively
utilised. Americas superiority in forces strength, he argues, has not defended it
against the weaker sides intelligence and will power. The superiority of American
information technology has not defended the US against the economic aftermath of
9/11 since images of the
subsequent stock exchange crashes were transmitted by the enemys own media
centres.
He then posits the largest fissure in the American armour America is seeking to
protect the narrow ideal of a state while Al Qaeda is fighting for the people; America is
trying to uphold democracy while Al Qaeda espouses a higher divine cause which gives
it the leverage to operate throughout the world, while the US is limited by its territorial
imperatives.
Qurashi tries to show that America is still reliving the Cold War military doctrine when
engaging Al Qaeda, which is ineffective against the entitys cell-based, fluid and
constantly morphing tactics. For Al Qaeda, the scatter of forces created by engaging in
Iraq at the same time as in Afghanistan shows the lack of creativity of American
thinking.
On the other hand, the jihadis gain their strength from the same troop diffusion
process by opening up too many fronts for Americans to handle at one time. This too
much everywhere too little effectiveness theme also resonates with another top Al
Qaeda strategist and ideologue, Abu Bakr Naji, who argues that even though US has
the capability to crush jihadism
and Al Qaeda, only hegemony will not be enough.
Remote countries will become graveyards for the Americans unless the US legitimises
itself in the eyes of the people of those countries. This would mean a reversal of its
foreign policy in some cases. Reliance on proxy regimes, Naji argues, will not work
since they in turn lose legitimacy by allying with the Great Satan.
The writer is a security analyst.
-Dawn
#5
3 Weeks Ago
Roshan wadhwani
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Location: karachi
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A liberal Pakistan?
April 5, 2012
Niaz Murtaza
AGAINST the backdrop of creeping radicalisation in Pakistan, the vision posed in the
title above may seem a utopia restricted to the imagination of delusionary liberals.
However, since even totalitarian regimes could not constrain dreams and since dreams
often sow the seeds of progress, it may be worthwhile to evaluate the prospects for a
liberal Pakistan.
The immediate difficulty in doing so relates not to Pakistans inhospitable terrain but to
defining liberalism, which means different things to different people. Liberalism comes
from the Latin word liber (free). Thus, the hyper-free market economies espoused by
the likes of Reagan are often defined as economic (neo) liberalism, even though they
are antithetical to liberal left-wing thought. Consequently, a clear definition of
liberalism is essential.Political liberalism was the first liberal strand to emerge, as a
movement against absolute monarchies. It is often seen as emerging during European
Renaissance although its roots go back much earlier and spread more globally to the
various uprisings against tyranny since antiquity. Thus, democracy, equality of rights
(especially for minorities and women) and individual freedom represent the core of
political liberalism.
Economic liberalism includes economic individual freedom, equity and equality of
opportunity. This economic vision rejects both Reaganism and communism. Among
existing economic systems, the ones in Scandinavia, Costa Rica, Sri Lanka and Bhutan
come closest to true economic liberalism.
Cultural liberalism encompasses multiculturalism and a willingness to evolve cultural

norms in line with changing societal needs. Liberals also espouse secularism based on
the long history of manipulation of religions by governments and the unspeakable
horrors committed against religious minorities. Secularism aims not to banish religion
but to get the state out of the way to allow people to practise religion freely according
to their own wisdom. While liberals reject Taliban-style religion, mystical interpretations
of religion are primary sources of inspiration for many liberals.
The common philosophical foundations for these different strands are provided by
liberalisms vision of human nature. The main focus of lower animals in life is on
material consumption and on competing with others to access the natural resources
needed for it. However, liberalism believes that the main determinants of high quality
of human life are non-material pursuits, e.g. aesthetical interests, cooperative
endeavours, scientific investigations and altruistic and spiritual concerns.
Consequently, unlike with lower animals, the pursuit of high quality of life by humans is
not in conflict with but is intrinsically linked to ensuring the rights of other groups,
societies, species and generations. Thus, conservatism, with its focus on power,
materialism, domination and xenophobia, is humanitys evolutionary inheritance from
lower animals and a puzzling desire to cling to those anachronistic origins. Conversely,
liberalism reflects a desire to transcend those origins and attain humanitys full
potential and hence the focus on equality, cultural diversity and democracy under
liberalism.
Liberalism is often rejected as a western import in Pakistan. However, liberalisms
origins are highly diverse. Its central tenets like human rights, equality, and above all
the emphasis on spirituality are also emphasised within non-western religions and
philosophies such as Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism. Moreover, while liberals embrace
many western practices (e.g. the emphasis on human rights), they reject others, e.g.,
over-materialism, over-individualism and neo-imperialism.
What are the prospects for liberalism in Pakistan? In line with the liberal creed, my
focus here is on investigating the electoral prospects of liberal parties, for liberalism
can be achieved not through revolutions or dictatorships but through democracy only.
Viewed so and surprisingly, many liberal beliefs provide powerful strategies for winning
elections in Pakistan.
Liberal positions on economic justice and equality could find a sympathetic audience
among the majority of Pakistani systematically deprived of fair economic opportunities
since before Independence. A party that develops cogent positions on the mechanisms
utilised by the elites to deprive the majority of their rights and practical strategies for
overcoming them (beyond populist but empty slogans about reducing corruption by
half in nine days) stands a good chance electorally.
The emphasis on equality of rights and cultural diversity are also relevant for the
majority of Pakistanis, who are a collection of minorities and lack a majority group
since no ethnic group constitutes 50-plus per cent of the population (once the Seraiki
are treated separately). Unsurprisingly, ethnic parties are quite popular in Pakistan.
Moreover, since dictatorship leads to the dominance of one or two ethnic groups in
Pakistan, democracy can also be sold as the best way of ensuring the rights of all
ethnic groups.
Other liberal tenets may unfortunately find less sympathetic reception within Pakistan,
e.g. womens equality, cultural relativism and secularism. However, people do not vote
for a party only if it reflects their worldview on every issue, for such complete
consonance is rare. They normally vote for parties which address their most important
concerns.
Moreover, the most important electoral issues globally are usually economic and
political ones rather than cultural ones. Thus, a party which resonates politically and
economically with the majority could win even if it is culturally somewhat out of sync.
Its economic and political resonance can also provide it with a solid platform to
gradually influence peoples positions on other issues.
Thus, the biggest obstacle for liberal parties in Pakistan is not an out-of-tune agenda.
It is that they have failed to develop a strong grass-roots presence in villages and
slums. Marginalised people can only be weaned away from patronage-driven and rightwing reactionary parties if liberal groups and parties demonstrate the superiority of
their agenda through community-level work and then use that foundation to sell an
agenda stretching up to the national level. A liberal Pakistan may then no longer
remain a distant dream.
The writer is a political economist at the University of California, Berkeley.
murtazaniaz@yahoo.com
-Dawn
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Roshan wadhwani
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Should we put Pakistan at stake for Hafiz

Saeed?
April 10, 2012
Aisha Fayyazi Sarwari
There are many fellow travellers I am not proud of sharing my green Pakistani passport
with but I am particularly not proud of sharing this passport with Hafiz Saeed. His
organisation is a declared terrorist outfit by the United Nations Security Council. He is a
source of embarrassment to every Pakistani who wants to see Pakistans economy
thrive and who prays for reclamation by this country of its rightful place in the
international community. Who would want to do business with a country where a
renowned hatemonger is given state shelter?
Even more disturbing is that the Pakistan government does not agree with the charge
and continues to support and protect Saeeds movements in the country, where he
holds rallies under the Difa-e-Pakistan Council umbrella and preaches hatred for fellow
Pakistanis who disagree with his totalitarian vision of a theocracy.
Born in 1950, Saeed is the head of the Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD), a charity
organisation that is considered a front for Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT), which is as stated
above a banned outfit. The bounty politics and the diplomatic maneouvring by the
Indian lobby in the US are of no consequence to me as a Pakistani. Here is what I
know: time and again, the LeT and JuD have taken to the streets. In response to the
caricature controversy in Denmark, this organisation systematically burnt down a great
part of the Mall Road, Lahore. Last month, the JuD is said to have spearheaded a
movement to ban the right to worship of a peaceful community in Rawalpindi. Is there
no accountability for acts of terror aimed at citizens of this country let alone violence
aimed at other nations?
Saeeds hate speeches at mass rallies, which have gained prominence, include inciting
violence against the enemies of Pakistan, even though on a television show on Geo
TV, he has denied that he supports terrorism. His popularity has grown since the US
announced a bounty of $ 10 million on his head. He is being hailed as a defiant hero
instead of being held accountable for what he did.
The bounty was a long time coming. The statements against Saeed had been
mounting. Bruce Riedel, a former CIA analyst and adviser to Barack Obama on
Afghanistan and Pakistan in an interview to the Daily Telegraph said that the evidence
showed that Osama bin Laden played a key role in planning the 2008 Mumbai attacks
in which 166 people died, including four Americans. There is also proof that both Hafiz
Saeed and Osama bin Laden communicated through a courier until bin Laden died.
Saeed does not shy away from this association. It was he who led the funeral prayers
for Osama bin Laden after the Americans eliminated him in a strike in Abbottabad on
May 4, 2011, to the embarrassment of the ISI. He cried while he read the prayers for
the worlds most wanted terrorist and called him a martyr and a fellow Muslim
brother.
Meanwhile Saeed mocks the bounty, clearly emboldened by the Pakistan governments
appeasement of the ISI that supports him. I am here, I am visible. America should
give that reward money to me, he added, I will be in Lahore tomorrow. America can
contact me whenever it wants to.
The problem is not just that Saeed continues to spread ideology advocating terrorism
despite the bounty, but that the government thinks he is important enough to take a
stand for, against both the US and India. This is the same government that backed off
after the murder of Salmaan Taseer, and rather than crack down on the Blasphemy law,
it let flowers be garlanded on the murderer. This constant soft peddling runs the risk of
Pakistan being perceived as a nation that has no capacity to act on its own. In this
case, it may again be shamed if the US undertakes a unilateral strike against Saeed as
it did for Osama.
The phrase due process has been thrown around quite a bit. This is quite ironic. Our
courts, which have repeatedly trampled on due process rights of its citizens, are willing
to use this principle to defend someone who openly advocates violence and terrorism.
Our selective application of legal principles has a Machiavellian tone to it. This country,
which has hauled up dissidents and patriots alike for far lesser a slight, is incapable of
jailing Saeed because of due process. The whole idea is a joke.
By deliberately sending the world a message that someone so clearly connected to

violence in a very direct and deliberate manner, running a group on the fringe, has
more freedom in this country than a normal citizen is not very dignified.
We do not need Hafiz Saeed with his dubious background to be the one to champion
the cause of the rights of the Kashmiris, or the drone attacks we have our politicians
for that. By not sending a we are on the same page message to the US on this one,
the government is fueling the right wing sentiments in Pakistan that view Saeed as a
religious scholar and not a terrorist. The state radio refers to him as Professor Hafiz
Saeed.
We also threaten the gradual progress, especially on trade, made with India, when we
fail to carry out a joint investigation into the allegations against Saeed. His recent
vitriolic remarks against India came at a time when President Zardari was due to visit
India for a personal trip. This visit would help in thawing the diplomatic channels given
that the Interior Minister, Rehman Malik, is travelling with him and that Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh is to hold a lunch in the visiting delegations honour.
The bounty on Saeeds head is a direct result of Pakistans inaction; it can now either
enter wholeheartedly into a world of international isolation and defy cooperation on this
issue, or act like a responsible country and work effectively to put Saeed behind bars.
The types of Hafiz Saeed are not good for Pakistans image, for its economy and
consequently for the poor people of this country. How long are you going to feed them
a diet of misplaced zeal, misguided sense of honour and a sheer misreading of the
events of our time? Tell them the truth. Let them figure out if they really want the
dystopia that people like Hafiz Saeed want it to be or whether they stand for something
different. My bet is on the latter.
The writer is a technology and media professional and a freelance writer based in
Lahore. She can be reached at aisha.f.sarwari@gmail.com
-Daily Times
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Roshan wadhwani
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Stop blaming Fata

April 25, 2012
Ayaz Wazir
Pakistans Federally Administered Tribal Areas have been in global limelight since the
Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. The subsequent invasion of that country by the
US once again focused the worlds attention on Fata, but for all the wrong reasons this
time. The Americans made Fata a scapegoat in the war against terror. Its people are
presumed offenders of the worst sort, without the Americans taking the trouble to
understand the people and the problems faced by them.
They never differentiated between militants and the ordinary tribesmen. They simply
put all the blame on the people of Fata, accusing them of sheltering militants, without
acknowledging that Fatas problem is not of the creation of its inhabitants. Earlier they
had washed their hands of any responsibility for the situation in Fata after the Soviet
withdrawal from Afghanistan, and returned there only after their pride was dashed to
the ground in New York.
In their haste to exact revenge the US pressured the military dictator in Pakistan to
deploy the Pakistani army in the tribal area to stop militants from crossing the Afghan
border. The orders were obeyed blindly. However, there are no signs yet of the war
coming to an end. Whenever a terrorist incident takes place anywhere in the world the
US and Nato never miss the opportunity to point accusing fingers at Fata, particularly
the two Waziristans. The Pakistani media is not permitted by the government to
operate independently in Fata, and therefore it is not possible for it to investigate the
veracity of US/Nato allegations.
The tribesmen have no way of countering claims against them. And if someone does
dare to do so, he disappears and later his disfigured body bearing marks of torture is
found on the roadside. So whatever is said by the media in the West or even in our
own country becomes the lead story within no time all over the world and is accepted
as the universal truth.
Having failed to defeat insurgency in Afghanistan the US invariably resorts to the
blame game to cover its own weaknesses. Whenever an untoward incident happens in
that country they immediately accuse Fata of having a connection with it. The recent
attacks in Kabul and Afghanistans Logar, Paktia and Nangarhar provinces are a case in
point. Instead of accepting responsibility for its own security lapses, the United States
put the blame on Waziristan, because it allegedly gave shelter to the Haqqani network
which allegedly masterminded the attack.
What stops the Americans from pursuing and apprehending Haqqani and members of
his network, which is so dangerous that the embassies it targets in Kabul include that
of the US? The Talibans success in breaking those high security parameters in Kabul
speaks volumes of the lapses on the part of the US security forces.
Meanwhile, the government in Islamabad does not miss an opportunity of blaming Fata
for any unpleasant incident taking place anywhere in the country. Be it an attack on
important personalities or installations, the blame comes straight to the tribal area and
Waziristan becomes an easy excuse for the hiding the governments own shortcomings.
Our interior minister has conducted many inquiries and collected the heads of many
suicide bombers. But the findings, if any, are yet to be shared with the nation. What is
he doing with all those inquiries and the heads he collected?
When will our government learn to be more realistic in handling the affairs in Fata?
When will it learn to stop blaming people there instead of accepting its own
mishandling of the situation? By simply adopting resolutions in parliament it cannot
absolve itself of the responsibility of saving its people from the devastation wreaked on
them by continuing to follow the ill-conceived policies of a long-gone dictator. This is
what the government has to look at seriously if it wants to bring peace to Fata and
take the nation out of the gloomy situation that it has been in for so many years.
Ryan Crocker, the US ambassador in Afghanistan, did not lose time blaming Waziristan
for what happened in Kabul recently. Similarly, our media also tried to shift the onus of
responsibility for the jailbreak in Bannu to North Waziristan nearby. Instead of those
responsible being dismissed or the government resigning, it is Fata which receives the
blame. Neither has the US admitted its security failure for the attack on Kabul nor has
Pakistan owned up to lapses which led to the jailbreak in Bannu.
The people of Fata are as loyal to the country as people anywhere else in Pakistan.
They have rendered tremendous sacrifices for the sake of the country. Their sacrifices
on the eastern border gave us Azad Kashmir. They defended the western border for a
very long time, a job which is now being done at a huge cost by the regular troops
deployed there.
Not a single day passes without some trouble in the area. The people there have
rendered once again the sacrifice of vacating their houses and becoming IDPs, with no
assistance from the government, to enable the army to clear the area of militants. It is
another matter that the operations have not yielded positive results but in the process
the people suffered the utmost with their houses destroyed, businesses crippled and
children deprived of education, a field in which they were already far behind compared
to children of all other areas in the country. The militancy and military operations have
sent them back to the Stone Age, something our valiant commando general was afraid
of when the agreed to make Pakistan an ally of the Americans in their war against
terror.
Despite the ill treatment meted out to them the tribesmen have raised no voice against
the country or revolted against the state. The injustices committed against them are
numerous but they are still loyal to the country. Instead of developing the area the
government has made its inhabitants lives even more miserable by imposing on them
Regulations in Aid of Civil Power. These regulations give sweeping powers to the army
to take drastic action, without any accountability, even it merely suspects someone of
being involved in activity against army personnel or the government.
Whatever little hesitation the army had in resorting to punitive action, while it worked
in the area under the FCR, has now gone after the introduction of this Regulation. The
norms that were followed over centuries by successive governments for resolution of
disputes are now ignored and force is used, which only adds to problems, rather than
resolving them.
We do not seem to have learnt lessons from what we did in East Pakistan. We are
treating FATA like a colony and using uncalled for harsh measures by adopting wrong
policies of administering that area. The problems that led to the use of brutal force
could have been resolved with the help and involvement of the locals, but that was not
done and punitive was action taken on one pretext or another.
The treatment meted to the people there is still fresh in their minds. Their silence does
not mean that they do not what happened to their lives and properties. They are
waiting for the government to come forward and redress their grievances. They should
be treated as a part of the solution and not part of the problem otherwise Fata will
remain restive and the country will continue to suffer as a result.
The writer is a former ambassador hailing from FATA. Email: waziruk@hotmail.com
-The News
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Roshan wadhwani
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Terrorism has no place in Islam

Ajoy Ashirwad Mahaprashasta
Dr. Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri is one of the most renowned scholars of Islamic theology
and jurisprudence from Pakistan. Formerly a professor of Constitutional Law in the
University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan, he founded Minhaj-ul-Quran International,
an organisation that teaches non-extremist Islam and is present in at least 55
countries.
He was in New Delhi recently to launch his book, Fatwa on Terrorism and Suicide
Bombings. He has a huge following in the Islamic world and many have declared him
the true leader of Islam. While talking to this writer, he tried to explain the meanings of
Islamic theology and how it is being misinterpreted across the world for political
reasons. Belonging to the Barelvi sect, historically seen as opposed to the Deobandi
and Wahabi schools, he says differences of opinion always existed in Islam but none of
the schools ever taught the killing of non-combatants.
Congratulations on your new book. In recent times, many Muslim scholars have tried to
interpret the meaning of jehad politically, but you have tried to rationalise its meaning
religiously to suggest that there is no place for terrorism and suicide bombings in
Islamic philosophy.
I find some people within the religious circles justifying terror activities to achieve their
ulterior aims. So, I thought it was necessary to explain that terrorism has nothing to do
with Islam, with the Quran, and with the Sunnah [habits, practices and teachings of
the Prophet]. In order to establish that, it was necessary to look into the Hadith
[Islamic law], Quranic commentaries and works of Islamic jurists followed by the
Islamic Ummah [community]. Extremist interpretations are deviations from true
Islamic teachings, which only emphasise peace and calmness.
For example, the words jehad and shahadat [martyrdom] or the concept of fighting
were never used in any of the Islamic literature as killing of non-combatant nonMuslims. None of these terms means killing women and children or old people, priests
or sick people. You are not allowed to do these. You are not allowed to demolish
temples or churches or synagogues and other places of worships. These words are
used only in the context of a just war or a war where you are only defending yourself.
These words are valid only if there are two armies fighting each other in a battlefield,
as is mentioned in various religious sources.
A separate group cannot declare jehad, as is being seen now. This is not their
prerogative, not their right. And even when there is a war between two armies or
countries, Islamic teachings have put lots of restrictions. You are not allowed to kill
women, children and other such groups as I have mentioned. You are not even allowed
to kill non-Muslim traders and farmers as they sustain our economy. You are not even
allowed to cut trees unnecessarily. These are prohibitions, which the Muslim Ummah
knows. But a few terrorist organisations have led the world to believe that Islam is a
violent religion, and I, through my book, wanted to clarify all these doubts by
examining the religious texts and other sources. These organisations have
misinterpreted the Quran by propagating that the killing of a Muslim is equivalent to
the killing of the whole of mankind. Instead, the Quran has specifically said that the
killing of a human being, not just a Muslim, is equivalent to the killing of the whole of
mankind. The word Nafsan, meaning human being, is used throughout in the Quran.
Most of the extremist organisations owe their allegiance to the Deobandi or the Wahabi
theological schools. How does your book interpret their teachings?
I have interpreted the writings of all the great jurists belonging to all the Islamic
schools of law in the world. If you talk of Deoband, I have devoted many pages in my
book to talk about the Ulema [scholars] of the Deoband school. I have quoted scholars
of the Wahabi, Salafi, Hanafi, Shiites, and all the other prominent schools. And none of
them has disagreed with my point of view. I have not neglected a single school of law
which is of academic concern in Islamic history.
Are you saying that it is the political agenda of organisations that has led to such
construed understanding of Islamic law?
Not only political agenda or international agenda. There can be social and economic
factors, local ideologies of governments, which may be responsible. Such violence, with
its ideological understanding steeped in Islam, can also be an articulation of social and
political frustration of people across the Muslim world. However, these political issues
and religious understandings should not be intermingled. There can be democratic and
peaceful ways to solve political problems. But it should be made amply clear that Islam
and Islamic teachings do not allow killing of non-Muslims and even Muslims who are
non-combatant. This is a prevailing phenomenon, which should not only be condemned
but should be explained in the light of Quranic teachings.
You have argued in your book that terrorists are like the Kharijites, who appeared
during the time of the messenger and formed a rebellious sect to fight against Muslims
during the reign of Ali. You also say that Islamic scholars considered it a religious duty
to fight and kill the Kharijites if they refused to renounce the violent doctrine. Could
you elaborate on this aspect of Islamic history?
The theological school at Damascus had a political dispute with the fourth Khalifa, Ali
(AS). There was a battle. Hazrat Ali (AS) had advocated arbitration between the two
sides. It was then, when a few sentimental young people saw that the battle could be
settled peacefully, they defected and raised the slogan of violence and took up arms.
They formed a new group called the Kharijites, who believed in settling the issue
through force. The Holy Prophet (PBUH) declared them as outside the ambit of Islam. I
have tried to explain that violent means were not the ideas of our caliphs and our
scholars but were, in fact, a deviation from Islamic principles. Violence has always
been a Kharijite philosophy and of those who have political agendas. They believed that
those who disagreed with them should be killed. Even in the present times, there are
groups like these, though under different names.
In the present times, there is a positioning of modernism and its principles as a
phenomenon that is against pre-modern religiosity. In this context, what do you have
to say about theological states that believe in brutal punishments?
I would not like to comment on theological states and their functioning, but for me,
there is no contest or contradiction between modern principles and Islamic theology. It
depends on how you look at it. Islam is about restoring social order and dynamics. As I
said, such brutalities are outcomes of only some people who misinterpret Islamic texts
and have no knowledge of modern scientific principles.
Political interests have guided states, and the name of Islam is wrongly given to
misguided decisions. In this context, dictatorships and monarchical rules have been
there and improper decisions in the name of Islam are perpetuated to prolong those
dictatorships and rules. Monarchical rules are not patronised by Islamic teachings.
Democratic decisions are the basic tenets of Islamic teachings. Therefore, the basic
principles of Islam and modern requirements of society have no contradiction, in my
opinion. The Quran and the Sunnah are wrongly used for political reasons.
The book talks about liberal principles in Islam. Can you also, then, talk about the
space for dissent in Islamic history and how it was justified theologically?
The differences of opinion are accommodated right from the 14th century. The Quran
says La-Iqra-Fi-Deen. There is no compulsion on anybody to embrace Islam. And at
the same time, there is no compulsion within the deen of Islam. That is why you find
differences of opinions in many schools of jurisprudence in Islam. We have, in those
schools, different verdicts for the same incidents in Islamic history which have been
made because of different reasoning and different traditions. There is a universal
framework, but within that there are different opinions. That is why different schools of
jurisprudence were established. None of them, including the Shiite philosophy, has
declared that kafirs [non-believers] are outside the ambit of Islam. They are also
allowed to go for the Haj. The philosophy of Hadith-Ikhteda-Ummati-Rahmatul is
stressed all the time. It means that the differences of opinion in good faith is mercy in
the Ummah. It gives you alternatives, substitutes. In the last two years, young people
have received this kind of understanding with great ease.
Finally, what is the history of fatwas?
The word fatwa originated in the Quran and the Sunnah. This word was commonly
used during the days of the Holy Prophet and his companions as a governance tool.
The problem with the word arose when some clerics, especially in South Asian
countries, misused this word because of their personal prejudices. These clerics are to
Islamic philosophy as quacks are to medicinal studies. Fatwa is a highly qualified
juristic term. Qadis [judges] and muftis [lawyers] have used it constantly. Fatwa and
Ifta are similar terms, which are used only in crucial judgments.
-Cuttingedge
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Americas new crunch

May 1, 2012
Dilip Hiro
When Washington announced in April a $10 million bounty on the Lahore-based Hafiz
Muhammad Saeed, it was aimed at bringing about the jihadist leaders conviction. He
has been the alleged mastermind for the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks, leaving more
than 160 dead, including six Americans.
But the move has gone awry, adding to the tortuous relationship between Washington
and Islamabad arising from the deaths of 24 Pakistani soldiers near the Afghan border
and closure of supply lines to NATO forces in Afghanistan. The defiance with which
Saeed has treated the US threat has highlighted the power of the Pakistani street, an
integral part of the countrys politics. At crucial points in Pakistans history such as the
1977 general election under the civilian rule of Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, street
power, fueled by Islamic fervour, trumped elected authority, and paved the way for the
shift from democracy to military dictatorship.
The electoral system is weighed in favour of feudal lords since a large majority of
voters live in villages whereas day-to-day politics are played out in urban areas. In
towns and cities, Islamist groups have wide support among the lower middle and
working classes, prone to taking to the streets on any issue related to Islam. Little
wonder that in the current episode, Saeed has emerged as the epitome of street
power, a formidable force that poses an unprecedented challenge to the US. Though a
civilian government has been running Pakistan since 2008, its military high command
has not abdicated its traditional authority to decide policies concerning national
security, an area that covers a vast ground, domestic and foreign. Its Inter-Services
Intelligence directorate which plays a vital role in securing or enhancing Pakistans
internal and external security became the primary tool to execute Islamabads crafty
policy of making India bleed through a thousand cuts in the three-fifths of Kashmir it
controls. In turn, the ISI used various non-governmental organisations to implement
the official policy.
The provincial Punjab governments attempts to deactivate Saeed as a politicalreligious leader have failed due to the judicial verdicts. Twice during 2009 the Lahore
High Court released Saeed from house arrest due to lack of evidence. That is why a US
State Department spokesman explained that the bounty on Saeed was for evidence
that would stand up in court a tall order as recent events in Pakistan show.
The retreat of the civilian and military power elite in the face of murderous intimidation
heartened jihadist leaders like Saeed. Broadening their support base are US drone
attacks in Pakistans tribal belt adjoining Afghanistan, which are condemned almost
universally in Pakistan.
Determined to block the reopening of Pakistans land routes into Afghanistan for NATO
traffic under any circumstances, Saeed cobbled together an umbrella organisation of
40 political and religious groups under the Difa-e Pakistan Council (DePC), Defence of
Pakistan, in December. Its leaders immediately took to addressing rallies in major
cities. Their rallies draw huge crowds. Council leaders combine patriotism with religious
piety in an environment where a large majority of Pakistanis believe that Washingtons
war on terror is a war on Islam. The latest opinion survey by the Washington-based
Pew Research Center, published in June 2011, shows that 75 per cent of Pakistanis
have an unfavourable view of the US, and 68 per cent consider it as more of a threat.
The council decried Washingtons bounty on Saeed, calling it a nefarious attempt to
undermine its drive to safeguard Pakistans sovereignty. The Councils hands have been
strengthened by the Parliaments resolution on April 12, demanding an end to US drone
attacks and hot pursuits by US or NATO troops inside Pakistan.
When the Obama administration and Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani review
mutual relations on the basis of the Pakistani Parliaments resolution, they will find the
shadow of Saeed lurking over them. More than the leading representative of militant
jihadism in Pakistan, Saeed has come to epitomise street power. Recent episodes in
Pakistan show that when it comes to a crunch, street power trumps electoral authority.
The US thus faces a formidable foe in Pakistan whose cooperation it badly needs to
withdraw from Afghanistan in an orderly and dignified fashion by 2014.
Dilip Hiros latest book is Apocalyptic Realm: Jihadists in South Asia
Yale Center for the Study of Globalisation
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Bin Laden complained of groups disaster

May 2, 2012
Osama bin Laden bemoaned disaster after disaster inflicted by the US onslaught on
Al Qaeda before his death a year ago and even mulled changing his terror groups
name, a top US official said.
President Barack Obamas top counter-terrorism aide John Brennan on Monday also
argued that a US drone campaign had left Al Qaeda seriously weakened, and unable to
replace wiped-out leaders.
Brennan said in a speech in Washington that the terror group was losing badly, was a
shadow of its former self, and that its core leadership would soon be no longer
relevant.
He said the Al Qaeda leaders frustration at the demise of his group, which was behind
the September 11 attacks in 2001, poured out in documents seized from his Pakistan
compound by US Navy SEAL commandos who killed him a year ago. He confessed to
disaster after disaster for Al Qaeda, Brennan said, noting that some of the captured
material would be published online this week by the Combating Terrorism Centre at the
US Military Academy at West Point.
Brennan also said that subsequent US operations to wipe out senior Al Qaeda leaders
in Pakistan had left the group reeling. Under intense pressure in the tribal regions of
Pakistan, they have fewer places to train and groom the next generation of operatives,
theyre struggling to attract new recruits.
Morale is low, Brennan said in a speech at the Woodrow Wilson Centre for
International Scholars, which was briefly interrupted by a Code Pink anti-war
demonstrator who was hauled out of the room by a burly policeman.
News of Bin Ladens death broke in Washington late on May 1, 2011, and in Pakistan
on May 2, owing to the time difference.
Brennan said that the documents gathered at Bin Ladens lair in Abbottabad, outside
Islamabad, show the late Al Qaeda leader urged subordinates to flee for places away
from aircraft photography and bombardment.
Things got so bad for the group which plotted the 9/11 attacks, the deadliest terror
strike in US history, that Bin Laden considered changing the groups name in a
rebranding effort, he said.
Brennans speech will likely prompt new claims by Republicans that the Obama
campaign is exploiting the anniversary of the Bin Laden raid to boost the presidents
prospects of reelection in November.
Senior Obama aides are clearly using the presidents decision to launch the high-risk
raid as an implicit comparison to the character of his presumptive Republican rival Mitt
Romney.
The president himself implicitly suggested in a news conference on Monday that
Romney may not have ordered the high-stakes raid last year.
Brennan also claimed that the administrations tactics against Al Qaeda had made it
harder than ever for the terror network to plan and execute large-scale, potentially
catastrophic attacks.
Today, it is increasingly clear that compared to 9/11, the core Al Qaeda leadership is a
shadow of its former self, Brennan said.
Al- Qaeda has been left with just a handful of capable leaders and operatives, and
with continued pressure is on the path to its destruction.
And for the first time since this fight began, we can look ahead and envision a world in
which the Al Qaeda core is simply no longer relevant.
Brennans speech amounted to the administrations most comprehensive public survey
about the state of the struggle against Al Qaeda. He spent considerable time defending
strikes by unmanned US aerial drones in nations like Pakistan, crediting them with
dismantling Al Qaedas top leadership and causing Bin Ladens distress.
Despite lauding the administrations achievements in hammering top Al Qaeda leaders
and the groups capacity, Brennan also warned that global terror threats were still
potent, particularly those emanating from Africa.
As the Al Qaeda core falters, it continues to look to its affiliates and adherents to carry
on its murderous cause, Brennan said, warning that the groups merger with the
Shebab group in Somalia was worrying.
He said that Yemen-based Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) remained a
threat, despite the strike that took out radical US-born cleric Anwar Al Awlaki, who
directed its external operations.
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#11
10 Hours Ago
Roshan wadhwani
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Killers lurking in the shadows

May 2, 2012
KIMBERLY DOZIER
A year after the US raid that killed Osama bin Laden, Al Qaeda is
hobbled and hunted, too busy surviving for the moment to carry out
another September 11-style attack on US soil.
But the terrorist network dreams still of payback, and US
counterterrorist officials warn that, in time, its offshoots may deliver.
A decade of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that has cost the US about
$1.28 trillion and 6,300 U.S. troops lives has forced Al Qaedas
affiliates to regroup, from Yemen to Iraq. Bin Ladens No 2, Ayman Al
Zawahri, is thought to be hiding, out of US reach, in Pakistans
mountains, just as bin Laden was for so many years.
Its wishful thinking to say Al Qaeda is on the brink of defeat, says
Seth Jones, a Rand analyst and adviser to US special operations forces.
They have increased global presence, the number of attacks by
affiliates has risen, and in some places like Yemen, theyve expanded
control of territory.
Its a complicated, somewhat murky picture for Americans to grasp.
US officials say Bin Ladens old team is all but dismantled. But they say
new branches are hitting Western targets and US allies overseas, and
still aspire to match their parent organizations milestone of September
11, 2001.
The deadliest is in Yemen. They are continuing to try to again, carry
out an attack against US persons inside of Yemen, as well as against
the homeland, White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan
said Sunday on ABCs This Week.

Were working very closely with our Yemeni partners to track down all
these leads, he said.
Brennan says theres no sign of an active revenge plot against US
targets, but US citizens in Pakistan and beyond are being warned to be
vigilant ahead of the May 2 anniversary of the night raid. US
helicopters swooped down on Bin Ladens compound in the Pakistani
army town of Abbottabad, killing him, one of his sons, two couriers and
their wives.
The last view for Americans of the mastermind behind the September
11 attacks was that of a wizened old man sitting in front of an old
television, wrapped in a blanket.
The world may never see photographic proof of his death. US District
Judge James E. Boasberg in Washington ruled last week that the
Obama administration, under the Freedom of Information Act, would
not have to turn over images of Bin Laden during or after the raid.
Verbal descriptions of the death and burial of Osama Bin Laden will
have to suffice, Boasberg wrote in his ruling on the lawsuit by the
public interest group Judicial Watch.
Bin Ladens killing and Al Qaedas stumbling efforts to regroup are now
the national security centerpiece of President Barack Obamas reelection campaign.
The White House frequently cites the presidents decision to approve
the raid, with only a 50-50 chance that Bin Laden was even at the
compound. Obama could have gone down in history as the man who
put the Navy SEALs and the relationship with Pakistan in jeopardy,
while failing to catch the Al Qaeda leader.
Al Qaeda was and is our No 1 enemy, White House spokesman Jay
Carney said last week. So its a part of his foreign policy record,
obviously, but its also part of a very serious endeavor to keep our
country safe.
How safe remains in question.
US officials say Al Qaeda is less able to carry out a complex attack like
September 11 and they rule out Al Qaedas ability to attack with
weapons of mass destruction in the coming year. These officials spoke
on condition of anonymity because they say publicly identifying
themselves could make them a target of the terrorist group.
US counterterrorist forces have killed roughly half of Al Qaedas top 20
leaders since the raid. That includes US-born cleric Anwar Al Awlaki,
killed by a drone in Yemen last September, less than six months after
Bin Ladens death.
Only a few of the original Al Qaeda team remain, and most of the new
names on the US target lists are relative unknowns, officials say.
The last terror attack (in the West) was seven years ago in London
and they havent had any major attacks in the US says Peter Bergen,
an Al Qaeda expert who once met Bin Laden. They are recruiting nohopers and dead-enders.
Yet Zawahri is still out there. Though constantly hunted, he has
managed to release 13 audio and video messages to followers since
Bin Ladens death, a near record-rate of release according to the
IntelCenter, a private intelligence firm. He has urged followers to seize
on the unrest left by the Arab Spring to build organisations and
influence in Egypt, Libya and elsewhere, and back rebels in Syria a
call that US intelligence officials say is being heeded.
US attempts to deliver a knockout punch to Zawahri and his followers
in Pakistan have been hamstrung by a breakdown in relations with
Pakistans government over the Bin Laden raid.
Our efforts are focused on one small kill box and, weve hit them
hard, but they still maintain a vital network throughout Pakistan says
Bill Roggio, editor of the Long War Journal, which tracks US
counterterrorism efforts worldwide.
Al Qaeda also takes shelter in Pakistans urban areas, as shown by the
Bin Laden raid, and the CIAs efforts to search those areas is often
blocked by the Pakistani intelligence service.
By the numbers, Al Qaedas greatest presence is still greatest in Iraq,
where intelligence officials estimate up to a 1,000 fighters have
refocused their campaign from striking now-absent US troops to hitting
the countrys government.
Yemens Al Qaeda of the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) is becoming a
major draw for foreign fighters as it carves out a stronghold in the
south of the country, easily defeating Yemeni forces preoccupied
battling tribal and political unrest. The White House recently agreed to
expanded drone strikes to give the CIA and the military greater leeway
to target militant leaders.
This Al Qaeda group has been a major threat since 2009, when one of
its adherents tried to bring down a jetliner over Detroit.
Al Qaeda affiliates such as Al Shabab in Somalia are struggling to carry
out attacks in the face of a stepped up CIA-US military campaign, and
a loss of popular support after blocking UN food aid to some four
million starving Somalis, officials say.
Many US officials cite the Yemen model as the way ahead: a small
network of US intelligence and military forces working with local forces
to selectively target militants.

The key challenge will be balancing aggressive counterterrorism
operations with the risk of exacerbating the anti-Western global
agenda of Al Qaeda and its affiliates, says Robert Cardillo, a senior
official in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
In other words, adds Jones: It is a war in which the side that kills the
most civilians loses.
#12
9 Hours Ago
Roshan wadhwani
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Truth and terror

May 2, 2012
Rafia Zakaria
THE compound has been demolished and the wives shipped off to
Saudi Arabia. In the one year since Osama bin Ladens death the
physical evidence of his presence, his home and household have all but
been eliminated from Pakistani soil.
If these demolitions and departures were indicators of the end of an
era, the dislocation of terror and its tentacles in Pakistani soil then
Pakistanis could all have heaved a collective sigh of relief on this day
and marked it as the moment when they kissed terror and its bloody
legacy good bye.
As history or fate would have it, such sentimental scenes are not
destined for Pakistan. According to the South Asia Terrorism Portal, the
country saw 476 major incidents of terrorism (major classified as
involving three or more deaths) in 2011.
The worst of them came not before but after the raid on Osama bin
Ladens compound, when 90 people, paramilitary and civilians were
killed as two suicide bombers attacked an FC training centre in
Charsadda.
The attacks have continued unabated since, the period from January
until April of this year 2012 already having witnessed 201 bomb blasts
with hundreds killed and injured. The year and a half period from 2011
to the middle of 2012, has seen more people die of terrorist attacks in
Pakistan than Americans in the whole decade since 9/11.

Pakistans casualties from terror are not simply those who have died in
the attacks themselves. Every dying man and woman to fall in the
unfortunate path of the suicide bomber or automated blast has left
behind him or her an unseen mourning horde of those that must live
on, lives forever interrupted, inexplicably and unjustly.
The conflict between security forces and terrorists has wreaked its own
havoc in the enactment of Pakistans terror tragedy. A few weeks ago,
UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, announced that 208,000 internally
displaced people are now living in the Jalozai camp in Nowshera since
January of this year, a number said to represent only 15 per cent of
the actual people displaced from their homes.
Many of these wandering victims of terror, homeless and hungry, are
just as hapless as the dead According to Oxfam, nearly half a million
people are in dire need of humanitarian assistance, with a recent influx
of 63,000 families putting tremendous stress on the resources
available. Nearly 80 per cent of the displaced families have no access
to healthcare or medicines.
When the death of Osama bin Laden was announced a year ago today,
those assessing the success or defeat of the war on terror from the
safe distance of faraway lands rejoiced and believed. A poll conducted
in Pakistan days after found Pakistanis unsure.
Conducted by YouGov, in collaboration with Polis at Cambridge
University, the poll found that 66 per cent of educated Pakistanis did
not believe that Osama Bin Laden was killed in the attack.
Another poll, conducted by Gallup International also conducted in the
immediate aftermath of the raid, found that only 25 per cent of
Pakistanis actually believed that the person attacked in Abbottabad
that day was Osama bin Laden.
When asked whether terrorism would increase, decrease or remain
unchanged, nearly three-quarters of Pakistanis believed that it would
increase or at best remain unchanged.
As the ensuing years numbers have shown, they were right. Counting
casualties, direct and indirect, dead or almost dead, maimed by bombs
or bullets delivers a prognosis that shows terror living well and
claiming much, hiding in cities and towns and felling young and old
with hate or hunger. But the doubt over Osama bin Ladens death amid
the continuation of the very disease it was supposed to cure points to
another casualty.
The first decade of the war on terror, punctuated by todays
anniversary of the death of the mastermind most visibly associated
with it, has produced not only casualties of flesh and blood but also of
truth and belief.
Pakistanis did not doubt Osama bin Ladens death because the crystal
balls or nocturnal visions indicated no cessation in bombings and
killings, or because of secretly nursed sympathies that venerated a
mass murderer, or any of the other explanations bandied about by
those who would magnify the death of the man into an epic victory.
Pakistanis did not believe in the death of Osama bin Laden, because
the most tragic, heartrending and invisible casualty of terror in
Pakistan has been the death of truth itself.
With the proliferation of terror has come the elevation of secrecy, a
new creed practised by governments and intelligence agencies, foreign
governments and spymasters, extremist outfits that change names
with the seasons and all those who shelter them. This intricate web of
the unknown that weaves through every event and breathes souls into
the corpses of doubt has meant the end of fact in Pakistan. The bomb
blast at a train station, the murder of a journalist, the verdict of a
court nothing can be solved or explained or predicted because nothing
can be believed.
There are many scars inflicted on the suffering by conflict, this one
cast on one and all bleeds everyday and is never bandaged, draining
drop by drop the spirit that sustains a nation.
Bleeding internally and externally, one year after Bin Ladens death,
Pakistan is not misunderstood and the truth more so. As the reason for
deaths, the causes of catastrophes, the elusiveness of justice or
accountability present day-after-day new tableaus of anarchy, it seems
laughable and even cruel to consider that many in the world thought
and still think that the death of a single evil man could mean much or
anything when the deaths of so many innocent others have meant
absolutely nothing.
The writer is an attorney teaching political philosophy and
constitutional law.
rafia.zakaria@gmail.com
-Dawn
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