<The Moscow-based Izvestiya daily said this included Jamiyat Al Islamiya, with links to both Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. The Russian intelligence agency said the group is preparing new attacks on U.S. installations with the help of a pool of 400 suicide bombers.>
Not a threat rather just propaganda Moscow-based Izvestiya to settle old scores from a man who has hurt them a lot. This is a story that goes back to Afghan- CIA- Reagen-Casey and Pakistan nexus. A PERSON CALL Qazi Hussain Ahmed heads Jamaat. A middle class reformist but puritan and extremist who have some respect for life. He has called recently the attacks of Osama as 'fasad fil arz' instead of Jihad distancing himself from Osama, this edict makes Osama actions s 'haram.' (means commotion on earth and unlawful)
Russia has lot of old scores to settle with the guy, a kind of a 'instable' but on scale of 'madness' he would be 5 if Osama is 10. He is a product of CIA-ISI togetherness in bed to get USSR down. He has condemned these attacks in USA but his Jamaat radical tentacles stem from the Afghan-USSR 10 year’s quite war. His son was taught in USA, Qazi Hussain Ahmad has widely travelled abroad to represent Jama’at at the international forums, leading goodwill missions as well as in his personal capacity to mediate in issues concerning Muslim nation. Post-Soviet power struggle in Afghanistan, he sided with Hekmatyar and his faction is out of favor with taleban.
After Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, Qazi Hussain Ahmed came in contact with Afghan mujahideen and had personal terms with top Afghan leaders. Please Read 'Bear trap' Brigader Muhammed Yusuf. I will not consider him a threat to US interests although he has a pre-occupation with Kashmir, like all radicals consider US responsible for all the ills of Islamic societies. I hve noticed a change in his tone since his vist to USA last year, little more moderate. On March 11, Qazi Hussain Ahmad gave a presentation at the Stimson Center entitled, "The Future of Pakistan." Below are some of the highlights of the question and answer session that followed his address. This is highlight of his thoughts on 'Jehad'..
Q: I understand when it is felt obligatory to wage jihad. Under what circumstances is it obligatory to stop waging jihad, according to Islamic precepts?
Qazi Hussain Ahmad: There is a difference between jihad and fisad-bil-arz. Fisad-bil-arz is also a Quranic term—corruption, and bloodshed, and violence in the village which is haram (unlawful). Jihad is for the promotion of peace. Jihad is worship. And this has got conditions and manners, like any worship. The basic intention is so that men shall live in peace. When there is not jihad, but violence, fisad-bil-arz, and corruption, innocent people and wealth are destroyed. Jihad must terminate in the establishment of justice and peace.
Q: So jihad cannot stop unless and until justice and peace is established?
Mr. Ahmad: Yes, is restored. But if it deteriorates in a situation where instead of justice and peace, corruption and violence is spread, then it should be curtailed. And it should be guided to the true and rightful path.
According to Brigadier Yusuf in ‘Bear trap’ the CIA's main task was to spend money. Without getting itself directly involved in spending the money the CIA put the responsibility on Brigader Muhammed Yusuf.
Says Mr. Muhammed Yusuf, billions of dollars worth of trucks, fuel oil, camels, and other beasts of burden, medicines, and of course, arms used to be purchased with the CIA money. According the Brigadier, in 1987 alone 30 to 35 million rupees were spent for purchase of food only. In 1983 arms amounting to 10,000 tons were purchased rising gradually to 65,000 tons in 1987. From small arms to anti-aircraft rocket launchers or anti-tank rocket launchers and even the heat-seeking stinger missiles were given to the Mujahideens. The Mujahideens being natives of the mountainous terrain were physically fit for guerrilla operations. They also required, according to the ISI Brigadier, most sophisticated and modern weapons. For years on end the CIA and the ISI combined their activities in providing funds and as well as training to the Mujahideens. Enormous funds were channelled through the CIA and the ISI. For transporting arms and ammunitions to destinations inside Afghanistan 15 to 20 dollars a Kg was spent in 1986. To reach a mortar from Pakistan to Mazar-e-Sharif as much as 1,100 dollars were spent. For transporting a 65 dollars had to be earmarked. Every month the CIA used to send money to the ISI's secret bank account in Pakistan.
With the army rule continuing in Pakistan for a long period it was easier for both the CIA and the ISI to work in close cooperation to coordinate the cooperation. In the following years too the Army and the fundamentalist organisations holding the reins of power, joint operations of the two bodies used to continue.
During Brig. Usuf's tenure for four years till 1987 the CIA and the ISI jointly trained 80,000 mujahideens. Brig Siddiqui wrote about this last year that< America, as the Afghan Mujahideen's erstwhile armourer, supporter and image builder as the greatest freedom fighters (jihadis) of the world pitted against the Evil Empire afford to disown them completely?
The Afghan anti-Soviet fighter was the American hero, the American icon, and the recipient of the juiciest slice of foreign fare (well over $ three billion). Even after the front-loaded withdrawal of the Soviets from Afghanistan, US arm aid in the pipeline earmarked for the Mujahideen continued. Washington would even go to the extent of joining issue with Moscow on the quantum of aid to the combatants - Afghan regulars and para-militaries under President Najibullah on one side and the US-aided anti-Najibullah Mujahideen on the other. America would continue to insist on 'symmetary', that is, balance between Moscow's deliveries to Kabul and its own to the Mujahideen. It would simply not have the Mujahideen to suffer an account of any deficiency or inferior quality of the weaponry supplied. To counter the much-dreaded Soviet helicopter battle gunship M1 (Hind) 24/28 America equipped the Mujahideen, with the state-of-the art surface-to-air shoulder-fired stinger. After Israel, the Afghan Mujahideen were probably the only other in the third world to receive the Stingers blowing the Hind out of the skies.
In fact the number and profusion of the US-supplied weapons might well have exceeded the storage capacity and their actual deployment, by the user, Pak-backed Mujahideen. The big explosion at the Ojhri in April 1988, unleashing a rain of stingers, all kind of artillery and mortar shells on Islamabad besides exposing the huge quantities of Ordnance testified both to poor storage capacity and lack of deployment. Not too far away from Islamabad are located the Central Ordnance Depot (COD) in Rawalpindi, POFs (Wah) KRL and other large and small ammunition depots calling for the need of fool-proof security against accidental fires and mala fide intrusions. The role of the CIA and its close nexus with the ISI has been amply recorded in The Bear Trap: Afghanistan's Unsold Story by Brigadier Mohammad Yusuf and Mark Adkin.
Brig Yusuf served as the head of the Afghan Bureau for four years from 1983-87. According to the publisher's blurb the book is 'nothing less than the true account of how the USA and Pakistan covertly controlled the largest guerilla war of this century....' One of the CIA's major contributions, apart from arms procurement and deliveries was to organise and streamline the battlefield communications systems for the Mujahideen. A long 20-week course was initiated to train the Mujahideen to operate the system. A quote from the Bear Trap would be in order. "I (Yusuf) held many discussions with the CIA experts on this problem before we finally settled for two types of set.
The long-range one was known as a 'burst communication' set with a range of over 1000 kilometers; the short-range one was called a 'frequency hopper' having a range of 30-50 kilometers. The technology of the burst sets was impressive. A message of 1000 words would take a few seconds to transmit, making it virtually impossible to decode. Operationally my intention was to locate the burst sets at Parwan (Hekmatyar), Paghman (Sayyaf), Mazar-i-Sharif (Rabbani) and Kandahar (Khalis), with about ten frequency hoppers issued to the main Commanders of each party. This would enable us to get in touch with all groups within 30-50 kilometers of the long-range sets. Other frequency hoppers would be positioned at the training camps. The leaders agreed, so I pressed ahead."
However, no sooner did the Soviet military withdraw that Americans drastically reduced the level of arming and funding the Mujahideen. The principal, strategic threat removed America's interest in Afghanistan was restricted mainly to the removal of the Soviet aided Najibullah government and the establishment of a 'broad-based' pro-West pro-American government. It had been wary all the time of the advent of a fundamentalist Islamic government dominated by radicals such as Hekmatyar, Sayyaf, and Khalis. The term 'broad-based' used in respect of the government would in practical terms mean a pro-West government compromising the moderates... > This is a complicated issue here we are dealing with, the more you get into the more you wil see how this mess of Osama was made to rot. It was a failure of the policy and politicians who could not see the price of vaccum... |
