MUSHARRAF PROVES BIN LADEN RIGHT
INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM MONITOR---PAPER NO.361
B.RAMAN
"I tell Pervez and his army: your betrayal of your nation and people has been exposed, and the people are no longer fooled by your showingoff militarily by launching some missiles after every disaster and massacre you commit against the populace, as has occurred repeatedly inthe border regions, or after the biggest massacre in Lal Masjid most recently. How is the nation benefited by these weapons and tests ofyours? The same goes for the nuclear bomb itself. When the American foreign minister Powell came to you, you cowered, bowed andsubmitted to him like a lowly slave, and you permitted the American Crusader forces to use the air, soil and water of Pakistan, the country ofIslam, to kill the people of Islam in Afghanistan, then in Waziristan. So woe to you and away with you."(My comment: This is an interestingattempt by bin Laden to project that Musharraf is in the habit of frequently carrying out missile tests in order to divert the attention of thePakistani people away from his collusion with the US in its war against Islam and the Ummah.) ---- Extract from my paper dated September22,2007 titled " Bin Laden's Fatwa Against Musharraf & Pakistani Army", which is available at http://www.southasiaanalysis.org/papers24/paper2388.html
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In a message disseminated on September 20, 2007, Osama Bin Laden had pointed out that President Pervez Musharraf was in the habit ofordering the firing of missiles from the Pakistani military stocks, whenever he faced trouble at home and warned him that the people ofPakistan would no longer be fooled by such showing-off. My analysis of the message may be seen athttp://www.southasiaanalysis.org/papers24/paper2388.html.
2.Musharraf proved bin Laden right by ordering the firing of a Shaheen--1 (Hatf-IV) missile on January 25,2008, at a time when Pakistan andits army are reeling under the blow of one suicide attack by jihadi terrorists after another-----many of them on the Pakistani Armed Forcesand the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)---- millions of people short of wheat and flour are increasingly looting trucks carrying food rations forthe NATO troops in Afghanistan, he is involved in an escalating controversy over his failure to protect Mrs.Benazir Bhutto from beingassassinated, an increasing number of retired military officers are calling for his resignation and there are growing demands in the West tostop supporting him whether he is right or wrong. The missile-firing also coincided with his tour of Europe since January 20,2008, where hehas been facing highly embarrasing questions regarding his policies and failures.
3. The adulation for Musharraf in the Western policy-making circles---particularly in the US --- has made him feel that it is easy to fool theWest and manipulate its public opinion. The acceptance of his lies by the West without asking questions and its continued praise of himdespite his failures and lies have facilitated his manipulation of public opinion in order to divert attention from the dangerous state of affairsin Pakistan and feed the "after Musharraf, the deluge" fears in the Western policy-making circles.
4. Two examples of the blatant manner in which he bluffs his way through in his interactions with the West were noticed during his currenttravels in Europe. At one of his interactions in Europe, he was asked about the militant movement launched by the Baloch nationalists. Hedenied the existence of any such movement and described Balochistan as the most peaceful province in Pakistan. Nobody asked him howhe described Balochistan as the most peaceful province when every day there are attacks on military and para-military forces and sabotage of gas pipelines and electricity transmission lines and when the Neo Taliban was operating from sanctuaries in Balochistan.
5.On January 22,2008, a statement signed by more than 100 retired Generals, Admirals, Air Marshals, other senior officers and enlistedranks urged Musharraf to resign in "the supreme national interest". According to the Associated Press,speaking at Davos, Switzerland,where he was attending a meeting of the World Economic Forum, Musharraf described his critics as "insignificant personalities" whom hehad dismissed from service.
6. What a shocking lie, which he seems to have uttered without batting a eye-lid!Most of those, who had signed the statement, were muchsenior to Musharraf in service and had retired before Musharraf became the Chief of the Army Staff in 1998 and then appointed himself asthe President in 2001. And yet, he described them as disgruntled juniors, whom he had dismissed from service. The most surprising thing is not that he uttered lies----- he has always been in the habit of doing this--- but nobody pointed out these lies to him. It is because of thisreluctance to talk to him bluntly and the tendency to give him undeserved praise that he has been nursing a conviction that he has madehimself indispensable to the West and that he could do or say anything and get away with it.
7. As things keep getting more and more difficult for him at home, what has been his response? Flood the TV screens with dramatic visualsof one more missile-launching.
8. bin Laden understands Musharraf better than the US and the rest of the West do. (26-1-08)
(The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For TopicalStudies, Chennai. E-mail: seventyone2@gmail.com )
