#5 Australian TV Interview with Perv
MARK DAVIS: Yes, but what they are specifically saying on the banned groups, they're saying, "Well, you have banned them, but you haven't done much else. " That they have been renamed, they have been reformed, very few arrests, very few serious crackdowns - so they are just challenging the perception that you re actually doing anything, fairly or unfairly. One of the groups you have banned is Lashkar-e-Tayiba. One of their graduates is of interest in Australia - Willie Brigitte was recently discovered in Australia, allegedly with plans to blow something up, again it's widely believed and according to that ICG report, that Lashkar-e-Tayiba is still functioning in Pakistan. Now, you may say these groups aren't threatening Pakistan, but they are threatening other countries. Is it acceptable that they can survive in any form?
PRESIDENT PERVEZ MUSHARRAF: Lashkar-e-Tayiba has not been banned, this has not been banned. Lashkar-e-Tayiba is not threatening anybody. Who has told you that they are threatening anybody? It is Jaish-e-Muhammed which threatens and Jaish-e-Muhammed is banned.
MARK DAVIS: Willie Brigitte, who is now in French custody, allegedly had plans to. . .
PRESIDENT PERVEZ MUSHARRAF: Who?
MARK DAVIS: A man named Willie Brigitte, he's now in French custody. He said he was trained by Lashkar-e-Tayiba in Pakistan, he was discovered in Australia, apparently with plans to blow something up. There's another Australian, David Hicks, who is now in Guantanamo Bay. He trained with Lashkar-e-Tayiba. He says that he was given training by the Pakistani army in Kashmir. So these groups do seem to be growing rather beyond any Kashmiri or any Pakistani issues.
PRESIDENT PERVEZ MUSHARRAF: It is very clear as far as we are concerned. Let's leave Kashmir aside. In Kashmir there is a freedom struggle going on and the people of Pakistan are emotionally involved with it. This is a 50-year-old dispute and we better resolve it politically. Let's leave that aside. We don't think there is any terrorism going on there. Now if anybody is carrying out terrorism around the world, we certainly are against it and we would like to act against it. Now the name that you are taking, frankly I don't know about that.
MARK DAVIS: I might just clarify that - it might be a pronunciation problem of mine - Lashkar-e-Tayiba - I mean this is not a banned group?
PRESIDENT PERVEZ MUSHARRAF: No, no, no, this is certainly not a banned group.
MARK DAVIS: They are on a watch list, though, you've put them on a watch list have you?
PRESIDENT PERVEZ MUSHARRAF: Yes, yes.
MARK DAVIS: So they are on a watch list but they are not banned?
PRESIDENT PERVEZ MUSHARRAF: No.
MARK DAVIS: The American have just taken into custody a group of them in Iraq, outside of Baghdad, that they say, were operating. . .
PRESIDENT PERVEZ MUSHARRAF: No, I think we are mistaken there. I don't think Lashkar-e-Tayiba has come out anywhere. That is not the reality, I don't think so. Maybe you are talking of Jaish-e-Muhammad, which is the main troublesome organisation which has been. . .
MARK DAVIS: Now, it's now known as JD, so is JD still. . .
PRESIDENT PERVEZ MUSHARRAF: JD is Jaish-e-Muhammad.
MARK DAVIS: Yeah.
PRESIDENT PERVEZ MUSHARRAF: JD? I don't know. Jaish-e-Muhammad is the one which an extreme organisation and the leader is underground. We will get hold of him at any time, we are trying to look for him. |
ISLAMABAD â A militant suspected of bringing murdered US reporter Daniel Pearl to his kidnappers has confessed he was working for two key Al Qaeda-linked operatives, police said on Saturday.