Pakistan arrests CIA informants who led to killing of Usama bin Laden

More proof that the Pakistani government is not on America's side in the fight against Al Qaeda. As if we needed more proof.

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KSA & UAE funded jihad in Pakistan

"Islamic charities from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates financed a network in U.S. ally Pakistan that recruited children as young as eight to wage holy war, a local newspaper reported on Sunday, citing Wikileaks.

A U.S. diplomatic cable published by WikiLeaks said financial support estimated at $100 million a year was making its way from those Gulf Arab states to a jihadist recruitment network in Pakistan's Punjab province, Dawn newspaper reported."

Wahhabism is a terrorist cult

From an excellent article by Thomas Friedman:

'The Saudi ruling bargain is an old partnership between the al-Saud tribe and the Wahhabi religious sect. The al-Saud tribe get to stay in power and live however they want behind their palace walls, and, in return, the followers of the Wahhabi sect get to control the country’s religious mores, mosques and education system.

The Wahhabis bless the Saudi regime with legitimacy in the absence of any elections, and the regime blesses them with money and a free hand on religion. The only downside is that this system ensures a steady supply of “sitting around guys” — young Saudi males who have nothing other than religious education and no skills to compete — who then get recruited to become 9/11-style hijackers and suicide bombers in Iraq.

No one explains it better than the Saudi writer Mai Yamani, author of “Cradle of Islam” and the daughter of Saudi Arabia’s former oil minister. “Despite the decade of the West’s war on terror, and Saudi Arabia’s longer-term alliance with the United States, the kingdom’s Wahhabi religious establishment has continued to bankroll Islamic extremist ideologies around the world,” wrote Yamani in The Daily Star of Beirut, Lebanon, this week.'

Pakistan is a terrorist state

When I heard the news of Usama's death, I was listening to a program on BBC World Service about Pakistan's blasphemy laws. If you are in Pakistan and if you are accused of blasphemy, you're fvcked, even if the courts acquit you. This is a country that has nuclear weapons and has received billions of dollars in US aid and yet in Pakistan Sufism is attacked and Sufi mosques are bombed, Christians are murdered. Shia are mass murdered. While Wahhabi terrorists live in fortified compounds.

"A day after Osama bin Laden was killed by US forces in Pakistan, Lucknow's Shia Muslim community has called on the international community to declare the country a terrorist state. "

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PS: Salman Rushdie agrees.

Where's the justice in Pakistan?

Martin Bashir urges the US to use its leverage and demand justice in Pakistan. He repeated the claim, which I read first in the NYT, that Shahbaz Bhatti was the only Christian in the Pakistani parliament.

"Of the three brave Pakistani politicians who stood up for Aasia Bibi, an embattled Christian woman flung on to death row last year, just one is still alive: Sherry Rehman."

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Liberal Pakistani minister murdered

NYT: "The only Christian minister in the Pakistan government was shot dead on Wednesday morning as he left his home in the capital to attend a cabinet meeting, an attack strikingly similar to the killing two months ago of another senior politician holding liberal views.

Shahbaz Bhatti, the minister of minorities, was shot eight times by gunmen who ambushed him as he stepped into his car, police officials said. A pamphlet written by a group of Taliban from the province of Punjab was found near the scene in a middle-class residential neighborhood, the officials said."

It looks like the NYT is wrong. There is another Christian minister in Pakistan's parliament, a woman: "And then there was one. Of the three brave Pakistani politicians who stood up for Aasia Bibi, an embattled Christian woman flung on to death row last year, just one is still alive: Sherry Rehman. The liberal parliamentarian from Karachi, known for her glamorous style and outspoken views, spearheaded efforts to reform the much-abused blasphemy law after Bibi, a mother of four, was sentenced to death for allegedly insulting the prophet Muhammad."

Also the NYT article says "The [blasphemy] law, introduced in the 1970s, calls for the death penalty for those accused of speaking against the Prophet Muhammad." According to this article, the blasphemy laws were introduced in the 80s, not the 70s: 'Section 295C was introduced into the Pakistani legal system in the 1980s by the military dictator Gen. Zia ul-Haq as part of his broader effort to Islamize laws in Pakistan. It stipulates that "derogatory remarks, etc., in respect of the Holy Prophet … either spoken or written, or by visible representation, or by any imputation, innuendo or insinuation, directly or indirectly … shall be punished with death, or imprisonment for life, and shall also be liable to fine." '

It should be noted, in defense of the NYT, that Zia-ul-Haq, the schmuck who introduced the blasphemy laws, put himself in charge of Pakistan in 1977, and I'm sure the schmuck began his Islamization policies immediately: "General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq (Punjabi, Urdu: محمد ضیاء الحق ; 12 August 1924 – 17 August 1988) was the sixth President of Pakistan from July 1977 to his death in August 1988. Distinguished by his role in the Black September in Jordan military operation in 1970, he was appointed Chief of Army Staff in 1976. After widespread civil disorder, he overthrew ruling Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in a bloodless coup d'état on 5 July 1977 and became the state's third ruler to impose martial law. He initially ruled as Chief Martial Law Administrator, but later installed himself as the President of Pakistan in September 1978."

I did not know that Zia-ul-Huq had a role in the Black September massacre until I read the above. More on that:

On September 15, King Hussein declared martial law. The next day, Jordanian tanks (the 60th Armored Brigade of the Jordanian Army) attacked the headquarters of Palestinian organizations in Amman; the army also attacked camps in Irbid, Salt, Sweileh, Baq'aa, Wehdat and Zarqa. Then the head of Pakistani training mission to Jordan, Brigadier Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq (later Chief of Army Staff and President of Pakistan), took command of the 2nd division.[13][14] However the Jordanians could not devote all their attention to the Palestinians. The 3rd Armoured Division of the Iraqi Army had remained in Jordan after the 1967 war. The Iraqi regime sympathised with the Palestinians, and it was unclear whether the division would intervene on the part of the Palestinians. Thus the 99th Brigade of the Jordanian 3rd Armoured Division had to be retained to watch the Iraqi division.

Very interesting. No wonder the US was cool with the Jordanian king and Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq.

US supported Islamists

in KSA and Pakistan. So why not in Egypt? Noam Chomsky makes a good point:

'A common refrain among pundits is that fear of radical Islam requires (reluctant) opposition to democracy on pragmatic grounds. While not without some merit, the formulation is misleading. The general threat has always been independence. The US and its allies have regularly supported radical Islamists, sometimes to prevent the threat of secular nationalism.

A familiar example is Saudi Arabia, the ideological centre of radical Islam (and of Islamic terror). Another in a long list is Zia ul-Haq, the most brutal of Pakistan's dictators and President Reagan's favorite, who carried out a programme of radical Islamisation (with Saudi funding).

"The traditional argument put forward in and out of the Arab world is that there is nothing wrong, everything is under control," says Marwan Muasher, a former Jordanian official and now director of Middle East research for the Carnegie Endowment. "With this line of thinking, entrenched forces argue that opponents and outsiders calling for reform are exaggerating the conditions on the ground." '

Taliban kill Sufis for the Prophet

In Pakistini law: death for anyone who insults Islam

I'm surprised by the number of Pakistanis who say Salman Taseer deserved to be killed. It is scary.

Pakistan's blasphemy laws

'Section 295C was introduced into the Pakistani legal system in the 1980s by the military dictator Gen. Zia ul-Haq as part of his broader effort to Islamize laws in Pakistan. It stipulates that "derogatory remarks, etc., in respect of the Holy Prophet … either spoken or written, or by visible representation, or by any imputation, innuendo or insinuation, directly or indirectly … shall be punished with death, or imprisonment for life, and shall also be liable to fine." '

So let's get this straight: the USA & KSA supported Zia ul-Haq because he was helping the mujahideen fight the Soviets. Zia ul-Huq 'was described by some as a "fundamentalist Sunni dictator"'.

While Zia al Huq was President, 'On 4 April 1979, the former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was hanged, after the Supreme Court upheld the death sentence as passed by the Lahore High Court. The Supreme Court ruled four to three in favour of execution. The High Court had given him the death sentence on charges of the murder of the father of Ahmed Raza Kasuri, a dissident PPP politician. Despite many clemency appeals from foreign leaders requesting Zia to commute Bhutto's death sentence, Zia dismissed the appeals and upheld the death sentence. The hanging of an elected prime minister by a military man was condemned by the international community and by lawyers and jurists across Pakistan.'

Hey it was the 80s! In the 80s most Americans had no idea where Pakistan is. As a teenager growing up in Colorado, I knew there was a country called Pakistan, and most Pakistanis are Muslim, but I did not know so many of them are Shia. It wasn't until I read Vali Nasr's The Shia Revival that I learned about the history of sectarian conflict in Pakistan. It seems that most Americans still don't know about the sectarian violence in Pakistan, and if they do, they probably don't care. Americans in general don't see a difference between Sunni and Shiite.

'Some see a precursor of Pakistani Shia-Sunni strife in the April 1979 execution of deposed President Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto on questionable charges by Islamic fundamentalist General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq. According to Vali Nasr, Ali Bhutto was Shia and Zia ul-Haq a Sunni.

The "Islamization of General Zia ul-Haq" that followed was resisted by Shia who saw it as "Sunnification" as the laws and regulations were based on Sunni Fiqh, or Jurisprudence. In July 1980, 25,000 Shia protested the Islamization laws in the capital Islamabad.'

It's amazing how quickly one can learn about the history of a country (and just about anything else) on the web these days.

Assassinated for opposing blasphemy laws

"Salman Taseer, the governor of Pakistan's most politically important province Punjab, was assassinated by one of his bodyguards in Islamabad on Tuesday, apparently for opposing blasphemy laws."

Sentenced to death for blasphemy

America should invade Pakistan and help the Salafi slime meet Allah.

"Asia Bibi's case has exposed deep rifts in Pakistan over the blasphemy law, seen by some as an appropriate measure to defend the tenets of Islam, but viewed by others as a dangerous tool easily abused in a society that is a volatile patchwork of ethnicities, religions and sects.

The nation's Shiite Muslim minority has been victimized by extremist Sunni Muslim groups for years. Members of the smaller Ahmadi sect, viewed by most Pakistanis as traitors to Islam because they revere another prophet in addition to Muhammad, have been frequent victims of suicide bombings, kidnappings and other attacks. Last year, in the central Punjab city of Gojra, a mob of 1,000 Muslims set fire to more than 40 Christian homes, killing seven people.

Asia Bibi's case gained notoriety because it involved capital punishment. There have been other controversial blasphemy cases since. Accused of burning pages from the Koran, Imran Latif was charged with blasphemy in Lahore but then released on bail Nov. 3 after questions arose about the veracity of the charges. Eight days later, two men shot him to death in an attack police believe was linked to the blasphemy case.

This month in the southern city of Hyderabad, a Shiite Muslim doctor was arrested on blasphemy charges after police received a complaint that he had maligned the prophet Muhammad. His crime? He tossed out the business card of a pharmaceutical company representative whose first name, Muhammad, was printed on it. The doctor belongs to the smaller Shiite sect known as Ismailis."

Shia in Pakistan

'3. When Pakistan was formed in 1947, the Shias were amongst the major land-owners of Pakistan's Punjab, its granary, and many of the Sunnis, who migrated to Pakistan from India's Punjab, were largely poor landless farm workers, who had to earn their livelihood in their country of adoption by working in the farms of the Shias. The perceived exploitation of the Sunnis by the Shia landlords started the process of the polarisation of the two sects of Islam in Pakistan.

4. This sectarian polarisation largely due to economic reasons was given a religious twist by Zia-ul-Haq, Pakistan's military dictator of the 1980s, after the overthrow of the Shah of Iran and the triumph of the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979. To counter the growing political assertiveness of the Shias and their political party, the Tehrik-e-Jaffria (TEJ) Pakistan, which generally supported Mrs. Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP), he encouraged and assisted Sunni extremist organisations such as the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP).

5. With his blessings, the SSP challenged the right of a woman to come to political power and projected the Shias and Mrs. Nusrat Bhutto, the mother of Benazir, as the surrogates of Iran. The SSP also started calling for the declaration of the Shias as non-Muslims and for the proclamation of Pakistan as a Sunni State.

6. Even before Zia seized power in 1977, Pakistan used to see sectarian tension and clashes between the Sunnis and the Shias, but this violence took a virulent form in the 1980s. There were many targeted attacks on Shias in the Sindh and Punjab provinces of Pakistan and in the Northern Areas of Jammu & Kashmir (Gilgit and Baltistan, where the Shias are in a majority), which has been under Pakistani occupation since 1947-48.

7. The last years of the Zia regime saw the Shias of Gilgit come out with a demand for a separate Shia State consisting of Gilgit and the Shia majority areas of Punjab and the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP). They wanted the Shia state to be called the Karakoram Province and remain part of a confederation of Pakistan.

8. The Zia regime crushed the Shia movement ruthlessly. In August 1988, the Pakistan Army inducted a large Sunni tribal force from the NWFP and the Federally-Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), led by Osama bin Laden, into Gilgit and it massacred hundreds of Shias and crushed their revolt. The hatred of the Shias for Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaeda dates from this period.'

Almost 3eed: Time to kill Pakistani Shia

'At least 30 people were killed Friday in a suicide car bomb attack in a Shiite market village in northwest Pakistan, and at least 36 others were wounded, a police commander said.

The powerful explosion shook the village of Usterzai near the garrison town of Kohat, flattening a two-story hotel and a number of shops at a nearby bazaar. Rescue teams worked through the afternoon to pull victims from the rubble.

The bomb contained more than 300 pounds of explosives, said Ali Hassan Khan, the police stationhouse officer in Usterzai.

A crowd of Shiite residents in the town, angry at the failure of the police to provide security in their vulnerable neighborhoods, attacked a police car with rocks when it arrived at the scene of the blast on Friday.'

Thanks Molly for the link.

PS: In Pakistan the Wahhabi-inspired jarab have been murdering Shia, without much Arab or Muslim protest, for decades.

Making Aid Accountable

The US has given Pakistan billions of dollars in aid since 9/11, presumably to fight the Taliban, but Pakistan has been unable, and perhaps unwilling, to get tough with the Taliban. The Obama administration is now holding the Pakistanis accountable for the aid they receive from the US, which I think is long overdue.

"Vali Nasr, a professor at Tufts University's Fletcher School of International Affairs, has been tapped to be a senior adviser to Richard Holbrooke, the administration's special envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan. Nasr says this time Pakistan will need to be held accountable for the U.S. aid it receives."

It is disheartening to think the US has been handing out money to people who do not fulfill their end of the obligation, who may even be supporting injustice. Which brings me to Israel. Israel has been receiving billion of dollars in annual aid since 1973. For the last 36 years Israel has unconditionally received $3 billion every year and has used it to buy all kinds of things, including US-made weapons and big bulldozers to destroy Palestinian homes and olive farms. In 2007 Israel received $6.8 million every day in 2007. Shouldn't we attach some strings to that? Shouldn't the US be influencing Israel, and helping to protect justice, instead of Israel influencing the American Congress to ignore injustice?

Pakistan: Takfiri Central?

Yesterday's attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team reminded me of the murderous attacks on soccer players and fans in Iraq. They've even killed Iraqi kids playing soccer.

Has Pakistan become the center of Takfiri terror? Or has it always been?

Myra MacDonald of Reuters asks "Has Pakistan become the central front?" The Guardian asks "Is Pakistan in a state of war?"

Myra MacDonald: 'In a report released late last month, the U.S. Atlantic Council think tank warned that the ramifications of state failure in Pakistan would be far graver than those in Afghanistan, with regional and global impact. “With nuclear weapons and a huge army, a population over five times that of Afghanistan and with an influential diaspora, Pakistan now seems less able, without outside help, to muddle through its challenges than at any time since its war with India in 1971.” '

As extremists escalate attacks in Pakistan, the takfiri continue their murderous mayhem in Iraq. I'm not sure if it's appropriate to call the attackers "takfiri" in this case, or in any attack in which the majority of the victims are Sunni. This is closer to takfiri.

Targeting Shia in Pakistan

Pakistini Shia have endured attacks by Takfiri for decades. Is this America's fault? Does posting stuff like this make me sectarian? Thanks Molly for the link.

Imambargah blast kills 32 in DG Khan

MULTAN/LAHORE: Up to 32 people were killed when a suspected suicide bombing ripped through a crowd of Shia worshippers outside a DG Khan mosque on Thursday.

Police said the blast targeted dozens of people converging on the Al Hussainia Mosque after dark, shortly before a religious gathering.

Although there was no immediate claim of responsibility, police were swift to blame sectarian extremists following a wave of violence in the country.

“Ninety-nine percent it looks like a suicide attack,” Shaukat Javed, the inspector general of Punjab Police, told AFP. “The explosion occurred just 50 feet short of the mosque. It is a terrorist attack aimed at Shias to create unrest,” he added. “It seems like a suicide blast,” Javed told a TV channel. “If something is planted or hurled, it leaves a crater. There is no crater at the site of the incident.”

continued

Takfiri War on Pakistani Shia

Forward from my uncle:

Please forward this info to as many people as you can.

A Protest has been organised by Majlise Ulama Shia Europe
Saturday 12th July 2008, 2:30 PM

Against the Brutal killing of the Shias in NW Pakistan by the Taliban

Please all Brothers & Sisters attend

Venue: Pakistan High Commission
The Posters will be sent to you soon

In the name of the Most High

Mass Killing of Shī'ah Muslims in North West Pakistan

Sayyid Ali Raza Rizvi

'Whoever slays a soul, unless it be for manslaughter or for mischief in the land, it is as though he slew all men; and whoever keeps it alive, it is as though he kept alive all men' (Qur'ān: 5: 32).

This is a declaration by the Islamic Holy Book, the Qur'ān. However, there are people who call themselves Muslim, though they should not be even considered human, for they openly violate this verse. They are better known as the Taliban. Taliban (seekers) they may be, surely not of knowledge, but of blood! No one in recent history compares to them; however, they are similar to a group of people in the time of Imam 'Alī (AS) 38 AH, 6 century CE, who were known as the Kharijites (Khawārij).

People have heard and seen some photographs of their brutality and killing of innocent human beings in Afghanistan. I wish they had been stopped there, but we see them spread all over, especially in Pakistan, where they have made a covenant to kill every single Shī'ah. They started their activities in North West of Pakistan and took over some small cities and villages in tribal areas in the name of establishing Islamic states. Now we see them outside the tribal areas as well. In recent months, they have killed hundreds of innocent civilians in D.I. Khan and Kurram Agency. The two areas are deprived of many facilities and advancements that we take for granted in the western world or even the city life of Pakistan. Most recently, on 19th June 2008, twelve tribesmen were abducted by militants of Sadda. Their bodies were badly mutilated. Eight of them were found beheaded and slaughtered with chopped legs and arms and the other four were found burnt. There are other incidents continuing till today. We are pleading in the name of humanity to stop this slaughter and bloodshed.

We, the Majlis-e -'Ulamā' Shī'ah Europe, have waited long enough for reactions from Pakistani law enforcement authorities against the inhuman and brutal killing of the innocent people in the foresaid areas. Moreover, the prevailing of democracy in Pakistan has not brought any change to the situation there. Now, we believe that it is our human and religious duty to stand up in protest against this violence and oppression. We began our activity through making our community aware. However, we felt it did not have enough affect. We have made our first protest in front of the Pakistani Embassy in London on 4 July, 2008. Our representative there spoke with the Pakistani High Commissioner and made our demands known to him; namely, that we want this killing to stop as from now, otherwise, these protests will not stop here. They will continue here in London and around the globe as a voice for those who are oppressed and are not allowed freedom to live in peace.

'A government may remain with disbelief, but will not remain with oppression.' --Imam 'Alī (AS)

Majlise 'Ulamā' Shia Europe

Benazir Bhutto Murdered Today

After trying so hard, after murdering so many innocent Pakistanis around her, the Wahhabis finally got what they wanted.  She was popular, and the Wahhabis are against democracy.  She was the first woman elected to lead a Muslim nation, and Wahhabis are against women in leadership.  She was progressive, and the Wahhabis are quintessentially backward.  She was Shia, and the Wahhabis believe the Shia are heretics.  Benazir Bhutto was murdered on Eid al Ghadeer, which is celebrated by Shia who regard it as the confirmation of Ali ibn Abi Talib's succession to the Prophet Muhammad.  Rest in peace, Benazir Bhutto.

If you can't beat them, attack their children!

More barabarism by the Wahhabi cult:

 

Pakistan Suicide Blast Wounds 5 Children

 

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: December 10, 2007

KAMRA, Pakistan (AP) -- A suicide car bomber struck near a bus carrying children of Pakistani air force employees to school at a northern army base Monday, the military said. At least five children were wounded.

The bomber sped toward the bus and detonated his explosive yards away from it, said Tariq Hanif, the police chief in Kamra, where the army base is located.

''The bus driver has told us that he tried his best to avoid a crash on seeing the suspected speeding car approaching toward him,'' Hanif said.

Police said the children were all under 12. They were in stable condition, said army spokesman Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad. The bus driver and a guard were also injured.

''This barbaric attack shows how cruel the terrorists are,'' Arshad said.  continued