Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Idea Of The Day -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: IQBAL LATIF who wrote (44732)	10/1/2003 4:41:48 PM
From: IQBAL LATIF	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 50167

Pakistan declines to provide support for tightening the presidential security (Updated at 2010 PST) By Zia Iqbal Shahid BRUSSELS: Pakistan has courteously turned down the ‘ingenuous offers’ made by several Western security agencies to provide practical support in beefing up the existing security arrangements for President General Pervez Musharraf and other VIPs in Pakistan, a reliable European security source told The News on Wednesday. Fresh offers of support to government of Pakistan by the Western security agencies, the source said, were extended during the course of a regular intelligence information exchange interaction between Pakistani and Western apex agencies after Al-Arabiya news channel aired an audiotape attributed to Osama bin Laden's second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri in which he called on Pakistanis to overthrow President of Pakistan. Acknowledging the concern expressed by the US and other Western governments, Pakistan has told the concerned international security agencies that intrepid Pakistani law enforcers had already beefed up the security arrangements for all VIPs in Pakistan and no foreign assistance for the security of the President is required as such at this stage. Several countries had also sent notes of caution to the government of Pakistan after first audio tape, claimed to have been recorded in the voice of Alzawari, was aired. Conveying their gratitude to the countries who expressed their considerations about presidential security arrangements, the concerned Pakistani security authorities told that Pakistani law enforcers are fully competent to ensure foolproof security to their President and other VIPs, hence any practical foreign assistance at this stage is not needed. European and American experts have not been able to determine, as yet, that the latest audio tape aired by Arabic language TV channels was really recorded in the voice of Ayman al-Zawahiri or it was a spurious exercise. NATO headquarters in Brussels is also skeptic about the veracity of the claim attributing this tape to Alzawari. The NATO spokesman Robert Pszczel told the News in Brussels that he was not in a position to confirm or deny that it was the voice of Laden's second-in-command as NATO had not analyzed the audiotape and he was not sure about the authenticity of the voice therein. "We know that this kind of act is part of the known set of tactics practiced by international terrorist groups. Such groups always want to create an atmosphere of fear and scare, which international community must resist as fight against terrorism is a common cause", the NATO spokesman underlined. In response to a question The NATO spokesman said, the military alliance of 19 Western states the NATO has neither any organized capability to provide security to heads of states nor it ever undertook any such task. Member states at their level, he said, might be considering such an option. Meanwhile, several independent and private security agencies in Europe are also taking the Zawahiri’s purported audiotape seriously and some of them also offered their expertise for strengthening security arrangements for the highest office in Pakistan who has been targeted by the Laden's second-in-command in his tape. A Western Security agency has suggested to Pakistani law enforcers responsible for VVIP security that Pakistani President should use doubles for his protection especially during his public engagements. Based on several regular intelligence reports these international agencies claim that international terrorist gangs have placed President Pervez Musharraf in their hit lists because of his ‘sincerity towards the international war against terrorism’. "It is the responsibility of all countries committed to the fight against terrorism to provide maximum possible help to Pakistani law enforcer active in frustrating the designs of organized gangs of international terrorists" a security agent said. Lauding Pakistan’s official stand that it would not be deterred by threats and would continue to play its part in the fight against international terrorism, several security outfits pleading for enhanced NATO role in Afghanistan have emphasized the need for offering meaningful help and effective support to Pakistan in handling the problems at Pakistan Afghan border. Referring to the Pakistani official position, the Western security agent said, "Protection of important Pakistani personalities is primarily the responsibility of Pakistani law enforcers, but we would like to assist the concerned agencies of Pakistan in strengthening the security arrangements".