Pakistan has been quietly trying to purge al Qaeda supporters from its armed forces since December, when Osama bin Laden’s network made two attempts to kill President Pervez Musharraf, according to Pakistani and U.S. officials.
| That's a dangerous project, almost as dangerous as leaving them there... |
Defense sources in Pakistan say military intelligence is studying the files of all officers in the rank of colonel or above to determine whether they ever associated with radical religious groups. Those uncovered are being quietly shown the door, the sources say. They add that Gen. Musharraf intends to "cleanse" the army before this December, when he must retire from the military and plans to become a civilian president. He is also said to be consulting lawyers to determine whether he can remain in the army despite signing an agreement with opposition parties to retire before Dec. 31.
| My guess is that he can't... |
The sources say several senior generals from the era of Gen. Mohammed Zia ul-Haq — who seized power after a military coup in the late 1970s and died in 1988 — are expected to retire by March of next year, which would make it easier for Gen. Musharraf to liberalize the armed forces. Gen. Musharraf also is taking steps to reform his military spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). Western diplomatic sources in Islamabad told UPI that, on Washington’s advice, Gen. Musharraf has made a major change in ISI rules. Previously, some officers were allowed to stay for years in the intelligence organization, where in the course of their work they developed links to various political and religious groups. Under the new arrangement, no officer will be allowed to stay in ISI for more than three years and there will be no second tours of duty with military intelligence.
| Better to dump the domestic military intelligence branch and create a civilian agency from scratch. |
With 520,000 troops, Pakistan’s army is slightly larger than that of the United States — not counting the Army Reserve and National Guard — and continues to be the strongest force in Pakistan. It has ruled the country for more than half the years since 1947, and even when not in power, the army continues to have a major influence on national policies. Before Gen. Zia, the army observed rules left by the British, who strictly discouraged religious influence in the armed forces. One of the groups Gen. Zia allowed to preach to the army is Tableeghi Jamaat — the Party of Islamic Preachers. Tableeghi Jamaat does not directly participate in politics or preach among non-Muslims. Instead, it prepares Muslims for "a pure Islamic way of life," and its definition of this is very close to that of Afghanistan’s former Taliban rulers.
| That makes it a domestic fifth column at the moment... |
Most Tableeghi leaders come from the Deobandi school of Sunni Islam... The doctrine’s central idea is that Islamic societies have been eclipsed by European or Western culture because Muslims turned away from the original teachings of their religion in their haste to Westernize themselves. The Deobandi solution is for Muslims to return to the purity and austerity of their desert origins.
| Empirical evidence says that's not the way to do it, but who am I to argue with learned theologians? |
Fugitive former Afghan leader Mullah Mohammed Omar and other Taliban leaders, and their teachers in Pakistan, are also adherents of Deobandi doctrine. Many in Pakistan believe this is why so many who listen to Tableeghi sermons join extremist religious parties. "Tableeghi supporters are naturally inclined to support religious extremists because they subscribe to the same concept of creating a pure Islamic society," said Rasheed Khalid, who teaches politics at Islamabad’s Quaid-e-Azam University.
| Whether it works or not... |
Gen. Musharraf identified the al Qaeda kingpin who recruited volunteers to kill him as Amjad Farooqi, a Deobandi like the Taliban and the Tableeghis. The Pakistani president said Farooqi also organized the murder of captive American journalist Daniel Pearl, killed in Pakistan more than two years ago. Investigators in Pakistan say Farooqi exploited Tableeghi Jamaat preaching connections to enter the Pakistani army. They say he first befriended officers attending Tableeghi meetings, then was able to create a network in Pakistan’s army and air force. Gen. Musharraf, however, insists he is "200 percent confident" that senior army officers were not involved with the extremists.
| I'm 200% certain the Easter Bunny is going to bring me Patty Ann Brown next year... |
"But it remains to be seen if the extremists have only infiltrated the lower ranks or have sympathizers among commissioned officers as well," said political analyst Hasan Askari Rizvi. UPI recently reported that one of the suicide bombers who tried to kill Gen. Musharraf last Christmas was a Pakistani army captain, Mohammed Jamil. His severed head was found near one of the two vehicles used in the Dec. 25 attack, but only recently identified.
| "Hey! Y'know what? I ain't seen Jamil around lately! Y'don't suppose...?" |
He was among several hundred Pakistani regulars serving with the Taliban before September 11, who were repatriated to Pakistan under an agreement with Afghanistan. The ISI interrogated Jamil on his return from Afghanistan and declared him clean, but the captain later joined the radical Jaish-e-Mohammed and recruited volunteers for the suicide bombings intended to kill Gen. Musharraf. Pakistani investigators say Farooqi and Jamil worked together on the plan to kill Gen. Musharraf. Farooqi’s connections can be gauged from the fact that although Gen. Musharraf has personally supervised efforts to catch him, he remains at large, hiding among sympathizers.
| I notice Farooqi didn't have his head blown off. Too important to the movement, I guess... |
Gen. Musharraf conceded this when he said in a recent television interview: "We came close to catching this mastermind several times, but he [always] escapes."
| Funny thing, that. No, wait. Maybe "funny" isn't the word I'm looking for... |
Farooqi, from Toba Tek Singh in remote Punjab province, joined the militant Harkatul Jihad-e-Islami as a teenager. In 1992, the group sent Farooqi, then 18, to Afghanistan for training in weapons and tactics. Farooqi fought with the Taliban against the rival Northern Alliance. In Afghanistan, he is said to have met Osama bin Laden and become a trainer at an al Qaeda camp. One of the al Qaeda leaders Farooqi was in close contact with was Khalid Shaikh Mohammad, reputedly al Qaeda’s No. 3 man and chief planner of the September 11 attacks. Investigators say the two plotted to abduct and kill Mr. Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter, in early 2002. Farooqi provided the militants who guarded Mr. Pearl in Karachi, they say. Farooqi is also said to have had close ties to Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, the British-born militant convicted of plotting Mr. Pearl’s abduction and slaying. |