Pakistan's Jihad-Friendly Army

From FrontPage

While all around the world people argue whether or not Iraq had WMDs or if Iraq had links to terrorist orgaization, without a doubt one country has both - Pakistan.

Amidst the media hype here over the Iraq prison scandal and the Presidential election campaign, alarming developments in Pakistan have slipped under America’s radar. For starters, on May 27, 2004, Pakistan’s President Gen. Pervez Musharraf disclosed in an interview with the Pakistan based Geo-TV network that a few “low level” Pakistani Air Force and Army soldiers had conspired with a Pakistani Al Qaeda mastermind in the two attempts to assassinate him late last year.

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Strangely, it still appears that Musharraf may not have learned anything from this sordid episode. In the ARY TV interview the General denied that any Army officers were involved in the assassination conspiracy and blamed it all on some enlisted men. In reality, in addition to Captain Jameel, many Pakistani officers were likely involved in this plot. Pakistani newspaper Daily Times recently revealed that an army captain, three majors, a lieutenant colonel and a colonel may have had roles in the attempt on Musharraf. It appears that the cover up is still going on.

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Pakistan today is the de facto epicenter of Al Qaeda’s operations, with suspects in terrorist attacks from Turkey to Indonesia all being traced back to training camps in that troubled nation. In that context, one can see that the current US war on terror in Pakistan is missing the forest for the trees. Instead of rehashing the “Over 500 Al Qaeda terrorists arrested in Pakistan” story, American authorities must ask themselves why there are so many Al Qaeda men in Pakistan in the first place. The fact is the terrorists feel they are safer there with so many connections to Pakistani agencies. Given this, trying to cherry pick some Al Qaeda Arabs from Pakistan without shutting down the ISI-jihadi nexus it is simply ineffective. American officials also need to ask Gen. Musharraf why all the Pakistani jihadi groups linked to Al Qaeda are still freely collecting funds and recruiting volunteers despite their supposed proscription.

If anything, the thought that Army officers of a nuclear-armed nation are involved in joint operations with an Al Qaeda mastermind should remind people of the seriousness of this dilemma. Who is to say that some other Al Qaeda friendly Pakistani army officers will not hand over a nuclear warhead to terrorists in the future? Isn’t it time for America to stop listening to the State Department status-quo artists and give Gen. Musharraf an ultimatum to purge his army and spy agencies of uniformed jihadists? Congress has reportedly cleared the Bush administration decision to make Pakistan a Major Non-NATO ally, which allows the Pentagon more freedom to grant military assistance to Pakistan and also virtually shields Pakistan from any future sanctions. It would only be prudent that the Pentagon makes actual aid and weapons transfer contingent on a full clean up of the Pakistani military. Anything less would be pure folly.

They don't need a dirty bomb when they have a "clean" one. Al-Qeada with nukes? Be afraid, be very afraid.
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