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hamid gul, the next big villain?

High-level meetings between US intelligence and Pakistan’s ISI have already been held at different levels to devise plans to cripple the support systems of the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Pakistan. Two prominent names came under discussion at these meetings: retired Lieutenant-General Hamid Gul and a former ISI official, retired Squadron Leader Khalid Khawaja. Gul, a former head of the ISI, is suspected of providing political and moral support to the Taliban-led resistance in Afghanistan. Last year, former premier Benazir Bhutto named him as a suspect for the Oct 18 attack on her life in Karachi. She was subsequently assassinated in December. Khawaja was the first person in the country to assist the displaced families of Arab fighters who fled to Pakistan after the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. He fought their cases in court, arranged temporary housing for them and assisted them in departing to their countries. Khawaja is active in the cause of missing people (those detained without trial for years) and wants to register cases against the former chief of army staff and president, General Pervez Musharraf, and his military aides for abuses allegedly committed during their eight years in power. Tightening the noose around people such as Gul and Khawaja and the like is one way to cut off support for the Taliban.

– Syed Saleem Shahzad, Asia Times, Nov 20 2008

AT described on Nov 20 how high-level meetings between US intelligence and the ISI at different levels devised plans to cripple the support systems of the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Pakistan. Two prominent names came up for discussion — retired Lieutenant-General Hamid Gul and a former ISI official, retired Squadron Leader Khalid Khawaja. Tightening the noose around people such as Gul and Khawaja and the like is one way to cut off support for the Taliban. Now the US has given the names of four former ISI officials, including Gul, to the UNSC to put them on a list of international terrorists. Gul, who once headed the ISI, has confirmed this, saying that if Pakistan does not protect him he will contact different international forums. “This is because I am vocal about American imperialist designs in the region. I can read their mind and have the capability to expose them. And this is because they want to malign the ISI,” Gul told AT. Khawaja, a middle-level former ISI official, also confirmed to AT that his and Gul’s names “had been put on the ECL”, Pakistan’s Exit Control List. This could not be independently confirmed with the Federal Investigation Agency Airport immigration desk. This could be the beginning of the tightening of the noose around the ISI and elements in the armed forces, possibly even leading to the ISI being declared a a rogue organization.

– Syed Saleem Shahzad, Asia Times, Dec 6 2008

Submitted by RowanBerkeley on Sat, 2008-12-06 13:57

Taliban primer
Who Are The Taliban
By Anand Gopal

The Afghan War Deciphered

If there is an exact location marking the West’s failures in Afghanistan, it is the modest police checkpoint that sits on the main highway 20 minutes south of Kabul. The post signals the edge of the capital, a city of spectacular tension, blast walls, and standstill traffic. Beyond this point, Kabul’s gritty, low-slung buildings and narrow streets give way to a vast plain of serene farmland hemmed in by sandy mountains. In this valley in Logar province, the American-backed government of Afghanistan no longer exists.

Instead of government officials, men in muddied black turbans with assault rifles slung over their shoulders patrol the highway, checking for thieves and “spies.” The charred carcass of a tanker, meant to deliver fuel to international forces further south, sits belly up on the roadside.

The police say they don’t dare enter these districts, especially at night when the guerrillas rule the roads. In some parts of the country’s south and east, these insurgents have even set up their own government, which they call the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (the name of the former Taliban government). They mete out justice in makeshift Sharia courts. They settle land disputes between villagers. They dictate the curricula in schools.

Just three years ago, the central government still controlled the provinces near Kabul. But years of mismanagement, rampant criminality, and mounting civilian casualties have led to a spectacular resurgence of the Taliban and other related groups. Today, the Islamic Emirate enjoys de facto control in large parts of the country’s south and east. According to ACBAR, an umbrella organization representing more than 100 aid agencies, insurgent attacks have increased by 50% over the past year. Foreign soldiers are now dying at a higher rate here than in Iraq. (Read further sections of this extensive but concise vista to the Taliban, link provided above)

The New Nationalist Taliban

The “Other” Talibans

The Pakistani Nexus

Living in a World of War

Although, the US overt and covert impetus into nurturing fundamentalist Islamic groups commenced under the administration of Jimmy Carter nevertheless, Ronald Reagan made them into a world body. After all, the religious right in the United States, the essential power base, which swept Reagan into American supremacy are cut from the same cloth as far as fundamentalism in the context of their respective cultures. These Islamic revisionist groups made Reagan a right wing icon and has absolved him into the annals of history with the utter defeat of the Soviet Union in Afghanistan.

Stern Gang | Sat, 2008-12-06 23:05

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