Hi Carolyn; I still haven't found the bulldozer incident. A search of the RAWA website found no mentions:
rawa.fancymarketing.net
But I clicked around that site, and there should be enough stuff in there that the Pakistani leadership could use to reduce the popularity of the Taliban with the Pakistani people.
I hope that the US action is delayed until the moderate leaders of the Islamic countries that are on our side have sufficient time to redirect their propaganda machines away from the Jews and towards their own extremists. I have no doubt that this is going on as we speak:
Pakistan parties rally behind Musharraf
Times of India, September 20, 2001
SLAMABAD: Pakistan's two biggest political parties Thursday signalled they would back President Pervez Musharraf's call for national unity amid the looming crisis over threatened US military action against neighbouring Afghanistan.
Despite concerns that a conflict could consolidate the military's grip on power, both the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League indicated they would not support protests by Islamic parties.
The president, who has offered the country's airspace and logistical support for any US attack, said in a national television broadcast on Wednesday night that he had been forced to choose between saving Pakistan or saving the Taliban rulers of Afghanistan.
Musharraf urged the country to put the national interest first and resist the Islamic parties calls for Pakistanis to side with their fellow Muslims in Afghanistan.
"I'm the chief of the Pakistan army and my first priority is the defence of Pakistan. The rest follows after," he said.
"Some elements want to take advantage of this (crisis) to pursue personal or party agendas. They want to create anarchy and damage the country."
PPP spokesman Farhatullah Babar acknowledged Pakistan had little option but to go along with the international community or face diplomatic isolation and a worsening of a severe economic crisis.
"We have to support the international fight against terrorism for the maintenance of law and order," Babar told AFP.
He urged Afghanistan's ruling Taliban to listen to international demands to hand over indicted terrorist Osama bin Laden -- a move the Islamic militia has repeatedly ruled out.
"We believe Taliban should cooperate with the international community and we have proposed sending an OIC (Organisation of Islamic Conference) to Afghanistan for this purpose."
Raja Zafarul Haq, the chairman of the PML, said US attacks would carry enormous risks for the security of Pakistan but also recognised that Musharraf had little choice but to side with Washington.
"It (a military attack) will have long-term implications and Pakistan may end up facing a situation on two fronts. The eastern border (with India) is already unsafe and now the western border (with Afghanistan) will be a problem.
"But obviously Musharraf took this decision under duress."
The PML is the party of Nawaz Sharif, the elected prime minister ousted in a coup by Musharraf in October 1999. Sharif was convicted of corruption and hijacking last year and now lives in exile in Saudi Arabia.
The PPP is led by another exile, Benazir Bhutto. She is the daughter of Ali Bhutto, the prime minister ousted by Pakistan's previous military dictator General Zia ul-Haq in 1977 and hanged two years later.
Democratic parties in Pakistan are acutely aware that Zia used the 1979 invasion of Afghanistan as a pretext for extending his rule indefinitely -- he was still in power when he died in a 1988 plane crash -- and are fearful that history might repeat itself.
Musharraf last month announced a "road map" for the restoration of democracy which committed his administration to holding nationwide elections in October 2002. That however has been thrown into doubt by what may prove to be a prolonged crisis.
"We are apprehensive that the military ruler might use the present crises to curb some more civil liberties and even delay the process of democratisation," the PPP's Farhatullah Babar told AFP.
Musharraf's decision to back the United States and abandon the Taliban, Pakistan's former allies, could reduce international pressure for democratisation, he said.
"Zia also used the Afghan card to prolong his rule," Babar said. "The Americans will not be pushing for democracy as long as their international agenda is fulfilled by Musharraf."
A coalition of radical Islamic parties have called for a nationwide campaign in support of Afghanistan, starting after prayers on Friday, the Muslim holy day.
timesofindia.com
-- Carl |
