Friday, February 8, 2008
Bhutto's Party Disputes Scotland Yard's Findings
By CARLOTTA GALL The party of Benazir Bhutto insisted Friday that she had been killed by gunfire and continued to demand a United Nations investigation. (The New York Times)
Pakistani Militants Teaming Up, Officials Say
By Joby Warrick and Robin Wright
Pakistan faces a growing threat from a new generation of radicalized, battle-hardened militants who embrace jihad and have become allied with local and international terrorists intent on toppling the pro-Western government, a senior U.S. intelligence official told reporters yesterday.(The Washington Post)
Pakistan faces a growing threat from a new generation of radicalized, battle-hardened militants who embrace jihad and have become allied with local and international terrorists intent on toppling the pro-Western government, a senior U.S. intelligence official told reporters yesterday.(The Washington Post)
Off the track: Polaroid Technology Fades Out
By Frank Ahrens
When Polaroid users pulled a picture out of their cameras, an image would slowly appear before their eyes. Now, like the process in reverse, the image of the Polaroid instant camera -- dimming for years -- has finally gone black.(The Washington Post)
When Polaroid users pulled a picture out of their cameras, an image would slowly appear before their eyes. Now, like the process in reverse, the image of the Polaroid instant camera -- dimming for years -- has finally gone black.(The Washington Post)
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Injury From Blast Killed Bhutto, Report Says
By ERIC SCHMITT and SALMAN MASOOD A Scotland Yard investigation supports the Pakistani government’s explanation of the death of Benazir Bhutto. (The New York Times)
Worries Wrack Pakistan as Election Nears
By Griffe Witte
Washington Post reporter Griff Witte discusses the mood in Pakistan leading up to the Feb. 18 election, including worries among the public and candidates about fraud, riots and assassinations.(The Washington Post)
Washington Post reporter Griff Witte discusses the mood in Pakistan leading up to the Feb. 18 election, including worries among the public and candidates about fraud, riots and assassinations.(The Washington Post)
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
A Look at Pakistans Restive Tribal Area
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Key facts about Pakistan's northwestern tribal regions bordering Afghanistan, which have become a haven for al-Qaida and Taliban-linked militants. (The New York Times)
Key facts about Pakistan's northwestern tribal regions bordering Afghanistan, which have become a haven for al-Qaida and Taliban-linked militants. (The New York Times)
Worries Surround Pakistani Elections
By Pamela Constable
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Feb. 6 -- Despite the candidates' colorful posters papering road signs and storefronts, the political atmosphere two weeks before Pakistan's parliamentary elections is as bleak and foreboding as the gray winter sky shrouding much of the country.(The Washington Post)
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Feb. 6 -- Despite the candidates' colorful posters papering road signs and storefronts, the political atmosphere two weeks before Pakistan's parliamentary elections is as bleak and foreboding as the gray winter sky shrouding much of the country.(The Washington Post)
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Pakistan Is Threatened, Intelligence Chief Says
By Walter Pincus
Radical elements are now a threat to the survival of Pakistan, prompting Pakistani military leaders to recognize that more aggressive efforts are needed to get the elements under control, Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell said yesterday in testimony before the Senate Select Committee...(The Washington Post)
Radical elements are now a threat to the survival of Pakistan, prompting Pakistani military leaders to recognize that more aggressive efforts are needed to get the elements under control, Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell said yesterday in testimony before the Senate Select Committee...(The Washington Post)
Monday, February 4, 2008
China Threatens Afghanistan's Burqa Market
The bright blue veil of the burqa is one of the most iconic and widely worn pieces of women’s clothing in Afghanistan. Since the fall of the Taliban, fewer women wear the burqa in Kabul, but elsewhere, in the provinces, the burqa is as ubiquitous as ever.
While they evoke a reaction of horror and disdain from many Western women, the burqa in
Afghanistan is a complex cultural signifier. Young married women wear light blue burqas; older women and widows wear a darker blue. White burqas signify new brides, or women from the northern city of Mazar-e Sharif. The particular pattern of flowers around the cap and face cover showcase the work of different designers, allowing women to be told apart.
The Zamarai family, shown in the video, have been tailors and burqa-makers for three generations. But recently there’s a new player in the Kabul burqa market: China, which mass-produces a style of burqa that many women here find more fashionable than the Zamarais’ traditional hand-assembled garments.
The Chinese-made burqas’ tightly-crimped folds and machine-produced embroidery have become something of a fashion craze in the last few months in Kabul. As one burqa seller named Hassan explained to me in a crowded Kabul market, “Women love the new, modern style of the Chinese burqas.”
Hassan said he was selling more burqas than ever in recent years, as the trickle down of reconstruction money from foreign aid organizations empowers women to buy several veils, in different styles. “More and more women are choosing to veil,” said Hassan. Of course, he clearly has a vested interest in projecting a good image for burqas. To my mind, the slowly escalating war and the resurrection of the Taliban probably have more to do with increased burqa consumption.
But although it’s a good time to be a burqa retailer – or a Chinese burqa manufacturer – the Afghan tailors who produce the veils are facing a tighter market. As you will see in this video, burqa production is very much a cottage industry in Afghanistan. Whole families are dedicated to stitching flowers on caps, or crimping the folds in the long flowing cloak, for which they are paid only a few dollars per piece. The Zamarai family, featured in this video, sews together the various different parts of the burqa. The finished piece sells in Hassan’s market for US$20, of which the Zamarais make about 20 cents.
Winter is traditionally a difficult time for manual workers in Afghanistan: little gets done, meaning that workers have to borrow heavily from those who control the markets. Relatively few burqas are sold in Kabul, as women from the outlying district find it difficult to travel into the snow-bound city. Ali Ahmad, the 48-year-old Zamarai patriarch, has already had to borrow 25,000 Afghanis from Hassan, the burqa seller. That’s $500 dollars, or almost half of what he can expect to make during the summer season, when the family will produce 50 burqas a day for a daily profit of about US$10.
Heavily debt-laden, the family recently had to move out of their house in a nice Kabul suburb to rent in a cheap neighborhood. Ali Ahmad, a skilled tailor who had to give up his shop because of poor eyesight, will probably have to take day laboring jobs to pay the rent.
Since China’s entrance into the burqa market, Ali Ahmad speculates that 300 families have lost their jobs. “The Chinese have special machines that produce the entire burqa in a few minutes,” said Ali Ahmad, “We can’t compete with that.” The sewing machines his family uses are all hand-operated, although they’re cheap to buy at $100 dollars per machine. The Chinese sewing machines cost $4000. “No one can afford to buy that sort of machine in Afghanistan,” said Ali Ahmad. “Soon all our burqas will be made in China,” he says. (Newsweek/The Washington Post)
While they evoke a reaction of horror and disdain from many Western women, the burqa in
Afghanistan is a complex cultural signifier. Young married women wear light blue burqas; older women and widows wear a darker blue. White burqas signify new brides, or women from the northern city of Mazar-e Sharif. The particular pattern of flowers around the cap and face cover showcase the work of different designers, allowing women to be told apart.
The Zamarai family, shown in the video, have been tailors and burqa-makers for three generations. But recently there’s a new player in the Kabul burqa market: China, which mass-produces a style of burqa that many women here find more fashionable than the Zamarais’ traditional hand-assembled garments.
The Chinese-made burqas’ tightly-crimped folds and machine-produced embroidery have become something of a fashion craze in the last few months in Kabul. As one burqa seller named Hassan explained to me in a crowded Kabul market, “Women love the new, modern style of the Chinese burqas.”
Hassan said he was selling more burqas than ever in recent years, as the trickle down of reconstruction money from foreign aid organizations empowers women to buy several veils, in different styles. “More and more women are choosing to veil,” said Hassan. Of course, he clearly has a vested interest in projecting a good image for burqas. To my mind, the slowly escalating war and the resurrection of the Taliban probably have more to do with increased burqa consumption.
But although it’s a good time to be a burqa retailer – or a Chinese burqa manufacturer – the Afghan tailors who produce the veils are facing a tighter market. As you will see in this video, burqa production is very much a cottage industry in Afghanistan. Whole families are dedicated to stitching flowers on caps, or crimping the folds in the long flowing cloak, for which they are paid only a few dollars per piece. The Zamarai family, featured in this video, sews together the various different parts of the burqa. The finished piece sells in Hassan’s market for US$20, of which the Zamarais make about 20 cents.
Winter is traditionally a difficult time for manual workers in Afghanistan: little gets done, meaning that workers have to borrow heavily from those who control the markets. Relatively few burqas are sold in Kabul, as women from the outlying district find it difficult to travel into the snow-bound city. Ali Ahmad, the 48-year-old Zamarai patriarch, has already had to borrow 25,000 Afghanis from Hassan, the burqa seller. That’s $500 dollars, or almost half of what he can expect to make during the summer season, when the family will produce 50 burqas a day for a daily profit of about US$10.
Heavily debt-laden, the family recently had to move out of their house in a nice Kabul suburb to rent in a cheap neighborhood. Ali Ahmad, a skilled tailor who had to give up his shop because of poor eyesight, will probably have to take day laboring jobs to pay the rent.
Since China’s entrance into the burqa market, Ali Ahmad speculates that 300 families have lost their jobs. “The Chinese have special machines that produce the entire burqa in a few minutes,” said Ali Ahmad, “We can’t compete with that.” The sewing machines his family uses are all hand-operated, although they’re cheap to buy at $100 dollars per machine. The Chinese sewing machines cost $4000. “No one can afford to buy that sort of machine in Afghanistan,” said Ali Ahmad. “Soon all our burqas will be made in China,” he says. (Newsweek/The Washington Post)
Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think
The Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center forMuslim-Christian Understanding of Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at the Georgetown University issued a preview of a book (WHO SPEAKS FOR ISLAM? What a Billion Muslims Really Think) by John L. Esposito and Dalia Mogahed on Monday. Following is the text of the preview:
"In these fraught days of heightened tension and increasing hostility, few books could be more timely."
—Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nobel Peace Prize Winner
Years after 9/11, are we any closer to understanding what makes a radical?
Gallup's largest study of Muslim populations worldwide challenges conventional wisdom and the inevitability of a global conflict as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan continue. Despite widespread media coverage of global terrorism from America and Europe to the Middle East and Asia, little is known about what majorities of the world's Muslims really think and feel. What do Muslims say about violence and terrorist attacks? What do they say about democracy, women, and relations with the West? What are their values, goals, and religious beliefs?
Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think by John L. Esposito and Dalia Mogahed (Gallup Press; March 2008; hardcover) sheds new light into the "increasing hostility" that Archbishop Tutu characterizes.
In the wake of the terrorist attacks on 9/11, U.S. public officials seemed to have no idea whether or not many Muslims supported the bombings. This troubled Gallup Chairman and CEO Jim Clifton, who felt that "no one in Washington had any idea what 1.3 billion Muslims were thinking, and yet we were working on intricate strategies that were going to change the world for all time." Clifton commissioned his company to undertake the enormous job.
The result is Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think, based on six years of research and more than 50,000 interviews representing 1.3 billion Muslims who reside in more than 35 nations that are predominantly Muslim or have sizable Muslim populations. Representing more than 90% of the world's Muslim community, it makes this poll the largest, most comprehensive study of its kind.
What the data reveal and the authors illuminate may surprise you:
· Muslims and Americans are equally likely to reject attacks on civilians as morally unjustifiable.
· Large majorities of Muslims would guarantee free speech if it were up to them to write a new constitution AND they say religious leaders should have no direct role in drafting that constitution.
· Muslims around the world say that what they LEAST admire about the West is its perceived moral decay and breakdown of traditional values — the same answers that Americans themselves give when asked this question.
· When asked about their dreams for the future, Muslims say they want better jobs and security, not conflict and violence.
· Muslims say the most important thing Westerners can do to improve relations with their societies is to change their negative views toward Muslims and respect Islam.
The research suggests that conflict between Muslims and the West is NOT inevitable and, in fact, is more about policy than principles. "However," caution Esposito and Mogahed, "until and unless decision makers listen directly to the people and gain an accurate understanding of this conflict, extremists on all sides will continue to gain ground."
Who Speaks for Islam? is an important book that challenges conventional wisdom and sheds greater light on what motivates Muslims worldwide. It is a must-read for anyone committed to creating peace and security in our lifetime.
Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think
Authors: John L. Esposito and Dalia Mogahed
Publication date: March 8, 2008
Hardcover, $22.95
ISBN: 978-1-59562-017-0
____________________________________
About the Authors
John L. Esposito and Dalia Mogahed
John L. Esposito, Ph.D., is a leading expert on the Muslim world. He is University Professor and a professor of religion and international affairs and of Islamic studies at Georgetown University and the founding director of Georgetown's Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding in the Walsh School of Foreign Service. He is also the past president of the Middle East Studies Association of North America and of the American Council for the Study of Islamic Societies and a consultant to governments and multinational corporations. Esposito is editor in chief of The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World and Oxford Islamic Studies Online. His more than 35 books include What Everyone Needs to Know About Islam and Unholy War: Terror in the Name of Islam. He currently resides in Washington, D.C., with his wife, Jeanette P. Esposito, Ph.D.
Dalia Mogahed is a senior analyst and executive director of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies. She leads the analysis of Gallup's unprecedented study of more than 1 billion Muslims worldwide. Mogahed also directs the Muslim-West Facts Initiative (http://www.muslimwestfacts.com/), through which Gallup, in collaboration with The Coexist Foundation, is disseminating the findings of the Gallup World Poll to key opinion leaders in the Muslim World and the West. She travels the globe engaging audiences on what Muslims around the world really think. Her analysis has appeared in a number of leading publications, including The Economist, the Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, Foreign Policy magazine, Harvard International Review, Middle East Policy, and many other academic and popular journals. She lives in Washington, D.C., with her husband, Mohamed, and two sons, Tariq and Jibreel.
____________________________________
Counterintuitive Discoveries in Who Speaks for Islam?
Who Speaks for the West?
Muslims around the world do not see the West as monolithic. They criticize or celebrate countries based on their politics, not based on their culture or religion.
Dream Jobs
When asked to describe their dreams for the future, Muslims don't mention fighting in a jihad, but rather getting a better job.
Radical Rejection
Muslims and Americans are equally likely to reject attacks on civilians as morally unjustified.
Religious Moderates
Those who condone acts of terrorism are a minority and are no more likely to be religious than the rest of the population.
Admiration of the West
What Muslims around the world say they most admire about the West is its technology and its democracy — the same two top responses given by Americans when asked the same question.
Critique of the West
What Muslims around the world say they least admire about the West is its perceived moral decay and breakdown of traditional values — the same responses given by Americans when posed the same question.
Gender Justice
Muslim women want equal rights and religion in their societies.
Respect
Muslims around the world say that the one thing the West can do to improve relations with their societies is to moderate their views toward Muslims and respect Islam.
Clerics and Constitutions
The majority of those surveyed want religious leaders to have no direct role in crafting a constitution, yet favor religious law as a source of legislation.
Adapted from Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think by John L. Esposito and Dalia Mogahed; Copyright © 2007 Gallup, Inc. All rights reserved.
"In these fraught days of heightened tension and increasing hostility, few books could be more timely."
—Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nobel Peace Prize Winner
Years after 9/11, are we any closer to understanding what makes a radical?
Gallup's largest study of Muslim populations worldwide challenges conventional wisdom and the inevitability of a global conflict as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan continue. Despite widespread media coverage of global terrorism from America and Europe to the Middle East and Asia, little is known about what majorities of the world's Muslims really think and feel. What do Muslims say about violence and terrorist attacks? What do they say about democracy, women, and relations with the West? What are their values, goals, and religious beliefs?
Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think by John L. Esposito and Dalia Mogahed (Gallup Press; March 2008; hardcover) sheds new light into the "increasing hostility" that Archbishop Tutu characterizes.
In the wake of the terrorist attacks on 9/11, U.S. public officials seemed to have no idea whether or not many Muslims supported the bombings. This troubled Gallup Chairman and CEO Jim Clifton, who felt that "no one in Washington had any idea what 1.3 billion Muslims were thinking, and yet we were working on intricate strategies that were going to change the world for all time." Clifton commissioned his company to undertake the enormous job.
The result is Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think, based on six years of research and more than 50,000 interviews representing 1.3 billion Muslims who reside in more than 35 nations that are predominantly Muslim or have sizable Muslim populations. Representing more than 90% of the world's Muslim community, it makes this poll the largest, most comprehensive study of its kind.
What the data reveal and the authors illuminate may surprise you:
· Muslims and Americans are equally likely to reject attacks on civilians as morally unjustifiable.
· Large majorities of Muslims would guarantee free speech if it were up to them to write a new constitution AND they say religious leaders should have no direct role in drafting that constitution.
· Muslims around the world say that what they LEAST admire about the West is its perceived moral decay and breakdown of traditional values — the same answers that Americans themselves give when asked this question.
· When asked about their dreams for the future, Muslims say they want better jobs and security, not conflict and violence.
· Muslims say the most important thing Westerners can do to improve relations with their societies is to change their negative views toward Muslims and respect Islam.
The research suggests that conflict between Muslims and the West is NOT inevitable and, in fact, is more about policy than principles. "However," caution Esposito and Mogahed, "until and unless decision makers listen directly to the people and gain an accurate understanding of this conflict, extremists on all sides will continue to gain ground."
Who Speaks for Islam? is an important book that challenges conventional wisdom and sheds greater light on what motivates Muslims worldwide. It is a must-read for anyone committed to creating peace and security in our lifetime.
Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think
Authors: John L. Esposito and Dalia Mogahed
Publication date: March 8, 2008
Hardcover, $22.95
ISBN: 978-1-59562-017-0
____________________________________
About the Authors
John L. Esposito and Dalia Mogahed
John L. Esposito, Ph.D., is a leading expert on the Muslim world. He is University Professor and a professor of religion and international affairs and of Islamic studies at Georgetown University and the founding director of Georgetown's Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding in the Walsh School of Foreign Service. He is also the past president of the Middle East Studies Association of North America and of the American Council for the Study of Islamic Societies and a consultant to governments and multinational corporations. Esposito is editor in chief of The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World and Oxford Islamic Studies Online. His more than 35 books include What Everyone Needs to Know About Islam and Unholy War: Terror in the Name of Islam. He currently resides in Washington, D.C., with his wife, Jeanette P. Esposito, Ph.D.
Dalia Mogahed is a senior analyst and executive director of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies. She leads the analysis of Gallup's unprecedented study of more than 1 billion Muslims worldwide. Mogahed also directs the Muslim-West Facts Initiative (http://www.muslimwestfacts.com/), through which Gallup, in collaboration with The Coexist Foundation, is disseminating the findings of the Gallup World Poll to key opinion leaders in the Muslim World and the West. She travels the globe engaging audiences on what Muslims around the world really think. Her analysis has appeared in a number of leading publications, including The Economist, the Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, Foreign Policy magazine, Harvard International Review, Middle East Policy, and many other academic and popular journals. She lives in Washington, D.C., with her husband, Mohamed, and two sons, Tariq and Jibreel.
____________________________________
Counterintuitive Discoveries in Who Speaks for Islam?
Who Speaks for the West?
Muslims around the world do not see the West as monolithic. They criticize or celebrate countries based on their politics, not based on their culture or religion.
Dream Jobs
When asked to describe their dreams for the future, Muslims don't mention fighting in a jihad, but rather getting a better job.
Radical Rejection
Muslims and Americans are equally likely to reject attacks on civilians as morally unjustified.
Religious Moderates
Those who condone acts of terrorism are a minority and are no more likely to be religious than the rest of the population.
Admiration of the West
What Muslims around the world say they most admire about the West is its technology and its democracy — the same two top responses given by Americans when asked the same question.
Critique of the West
What Muslims around the world say they least admire about the West is its perceived moral decay and breakdown of traditional values — the same responses given by Americans when posed the same question.
Gender Justice
Muslim women want equal rights and religion in their societies.
Respect
Muslims around the world say that the one thing the West can do to improve relations with their societies is to moderate their views toward Muslims and respect Islam.
Clerics and Constitutions
The majority of those surveyed want religious leaders to have no direct role in crafting a constitution, yet favor religious law as a source of legislation.
Adapted from Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think by John L. Esposito and Dalia Mogahed; Copyright © 2007 Gallup, Inc. All rights reserved.
PML-Q shows little interest in defending Nov 3 action
By Asim Yasin
ISLAMABAD: Opposition in the Senate on Monday unanimously vowed that the next parliament would not endorse November 3 “unconstitutional act” of emergency as well as Provisional Constitution Order (PCO). (The News, Pakistan)
ISLAMABAD: Opposition in the Senate on Monday unanimously vowed that the next parliament would not endorse November 3 “unconstitutional act” of emergency as well as Provisional Constitution Order (PCO). (The News, Pakistan)
OFF THE TRACK: In Democratic Families, Politics Makes for Estranged Bedfellows
By JODI KANTOR Political dynasties and ordinary people alike have found their houses divided between support for Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama. (The New York Times)
Sunday, February 3, 2008
Osama son wanted to kill me: Benazir
By Asif Mehmood
LONDON: In an autobiography being published after her assassination, former prime minister Benazir Bhutto says she was warned that four suicide bomber squads would try to kill her, one led by Osama bin Laden’s 16-year-old son, according to a British newspaper.
Benazir - who was killed in Rawalpindi in December while campaigning for elections - wrote that President Pervez Musharraf and a ‘foreign Muslim government’ had informed her these squads were planning her murder, according to excerpts of the book published in The Sunday Times. The naming of Osama’s teenage son, Hamza, could bolster intelligence claims that he is being groomed as a future leader of Al-Qaeda.
He featured in a joint Taliban and Al-Qaeda video shot in 2001 of a militant attack on an army camp in South Waziristan.
In September, he was described in reports as a senior Al-Qaeda leader who had been waging a jihad, or holy war, in the lawless tribal areas along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. “I was told by both the Musharraf regime and the foreign Muslim government that four suicide bomber squads would attempt to kill me,” Bhutto reportedly says in the book, ‘Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy & the West’, which is to be published on February 12.
“These included, the reports said, the squads sent by the Taliban warlord Baitullah Mehsud; Hamza bin Laden, a son of Osama bin Laden; Red Mosque militants; and a Karachi-based militant group,” she says in the book.
The book also says the suicide bomb attack on her motorcade in Karachi when she returned home in October may have been carried out by a would-be assassin who lined the clothes of a toddler with plastic explosives to turn the child into a bomb, according to the paper. She says a man gestured her to hold the child, before trying to hand it to police in a nearby van, which exploded soon afterward, the paper says.
She said: “I wrote a letter to Musharraf. I wrote that if I was assassinated by the militants it would be due to their sympathisers in the regime, whom I suspected wanted to eliminate me and remove the threat I posed to their grip on power”. She knew that the same elements of Pakistani society that had colluded to destroy her father Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, and end democracy in Pakistan in 1977 were now arrayed against me for the same purpose exactly 30 years later.
Courtesy: The Nation, Pakistan
LONDON: In an autobiography being published after her assassination, former prime minister Benazir Bhutto says she was warned that four suicide bomber squads would try to kill her, one led by Osama bin Laden’s 16-year-old son, according to a British newspaper.
Benazir - who was killed in Rawalpindi in December while campaigning for elections - wrote that President Pervez Musharraf and a ‘foreign Muslim government’ had informed her these squads were planning her murder, according to excerpts of the book published in The Sunday Times. The naming of Osama’s teenage son, Hamza, could bolster intelligence claims that he is being groomed as a future leader of Al-Qaeda.
He featured in a joint Taliban and Al-Qaeda video shot in 2001 of a militant attack on an army camp in South Waziristan.
In September, he was described in reports as a senior Al-Qaeda leader who had been waging a jihad, or holy war, in the lawless tribal areas along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. “I was told by both the Musharraf regime and the foreign Muslim government that four suicide bomber squads would attempt to kill me,” Bhutto reportedly says in the book, ‘Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy & the West’, which is to be published on February 12.
“These included, the reports said, the squads sent by the Taliban warlord Baitullah Mehsud; Hamza bin Laden, a son of Osama bin Laden; Red Mosque militants; and a Karachi-based militant group,” she says in the book.
The book also says the suicide bomb attack on her motorcade in Karachi when she returned home in October may have been carried out by a would-be assassin who lined the clothes of a toddler with plastic explosives to turn the child into a bomb, according to the paper. She says a man gestured her to hold the child, before trying to hand it to police in a nearby van, which exploded soon afterward, the paper says.
She said: “I wrote a letter to Musharraf. I wrote that if I was assassinated by the militants it would be due to their sympathisers in the regime, whom I suspected wanted to eliminate me and remove the threat I posed to their grip on power”. She knew that the same elements of Pakistani society that had colluded to destroy her father Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, and end democracy in Pakistan in 1977 were now arrayed against me for the same purpose exactly 30 years later.
Courtesy: The Nation, Pakistan
Saturday, February 2, 2008
US Strike Exposes Entrenched Militants
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- The U.S. missile strike that killed a top al-Qaida commander just over a mile from a Pakistani military base shows how entrenched Islamic militants are in the lawless tribal regions, where extremists have launched increasingly bold attacks. (The New York Times)
Friday, February 1, 2008
Pakistan Strike Ends Lean Time In Al Qaeda Hunt
By REUTERS ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A missile strike that killed senior al Qaeda leader Abu Laith al-Libi in Pakistan this week marked the first big success the United States has notched in the region against Osama bin Laden's group for over two years. (The New York Times)
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