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| India-Pakistan |
| Was it an attack on US Marines? |
| 2008-09-21 |
| ISLAMABAD: Was there a top secret and mysterious operation of the US Marines going on inside the Marriott when it was attacked on Saturday evening? No one will confirm it but circumstantial evidence is in abundance. Witnessed by many, including a PPP MNA and his friends, a US embassy truckload of steel boxes was unloaded and shifted inside the Marriott Hotel on the same night when Admiral Mike Mullen met Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and others in Islamabad. Both the main gates (the entrance and the exit) of the hotel were closed while no one except the US Marines were either allowed to go near the truck or get the steel boxes unloaded or shift them inside the hotel. These steel boxes were not passed through the scanners installed at the entrance of the hotel lobby and were reportedly shifted to the fourth and fifth floors of the Marriott. Besides several others, PPP MNA Mumtaz Alam Gilani and his two friends, Sajjad Chaudhry, a PPP leader, and one Bashir Nadeem, witnessed this mysterious activity to which no one other than the PPP MNA objected and protested. A source present there told The News that after entertaining them with refreshments at the Nadia restaurant at midnight when Mumtaz Alam, along with his friends, was to leave the hotel, he found a white US embassy truck standing right in front of the hotel's main entrance. Both the In-gate and the Out-gate of the hotel were closed while almost a dozen well-built US Marines in their usual fatigues were unloading the steel boxes from the truck. No one, including the hotel security men, was either allowed to go near the truck or touch the steel boxes, which were being shifted inside the hotel but without passing through the scanners. Upon inquiry, one of the three PPP friends who was waiting for the main gates of the hotel to open to get his car in, was informed that the suspicious boxes were shifted to the fourth and fifth floors of the hotel. Mumtaz Alam was furious both at the US Marines and the hotel security not only for the delay caused to them but also for the security lapse he was witnessing. On his protest, there was absolutely no response from the Marines and the security men he approached were found helpless. Mumtaz Alam told the hotel security official that they were going to endanger the hotel and its security. He was also heard telling his friends that he would never visit the hotel again. He also threatened to raise the issue in parliament. One does not know whether the PPP MNA revisited the hotel after that mysterious midnight but his brother Imtiaz Alam, who is a senior journalist, was in the same hotel when the truck exploded at the main gate of the hotel. Imtiaz Alam had a lucky escape and found his way out of the hotel with great difficulty in pitch darkness. One of the lifts he was using fell to the ground floor just after he forced the door open on the 4th floor and got out of it. |
| Posted by:john frum |
| #5 Sounds like someone was getting an earfull of facts gleaned by US embassy personnel, and the Talibunnies heard about it (probably from the ISI). Pakistan needs to get its act together, or the US needs to do some butt-kicking, or both. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2008-09-21 15:12 |
| #4 Fox News is reporting two Embassy Marines dead. |
| Posted by: Fred 2008-09-21 11:38 |
| #3 Just rememeber, Marine uniforms, and white "Embassy" box trucks do not Americans make! |
| Posted by: Angereger Black3145 2008-09-21 10:57 |
| #2 Story sounds hinky. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2008-09-21 10:14 |
| #1 The old saying goes: "Believe half of what you see and nothing of what you hear." How much of what a paki "witness" sez he "saw" should you believe? |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2008-09-21 10:07 |