Posted on 12/02/2008 11:36:46 PM PST by MyTwoCopperCoins
WASHINGTON: In an interview clearly aimed at soothing India’s anger and presenting his bonafides as a peace-maker ranged against domestic rogue elements, Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari has renewed his pledge of no-first use of nuclear weapons. He has also blamed the Mumbai carnage on non-state actors, while implicating his own intelligence agency in past acts of terrorism.
Zardari appeared on CNN’s Larry King Live on Tuesday night for an interview meant ostensibly to reassure India and the world that he and his civilian government was not part or privy to the terror attack on Mumbai, and they wanted peace with India. He insisted the terror attack was the work of "stateless actors who are holding hostage the whole world."
"So we should all rise above it. I expect the Indian democracy which is senior, which is an older democracy, mature democracy, I expect them to rise above this pain and the loss that they have had and come together with us to fight terrorism in the region," Zardari said.
But the Pakistani president fudged his way through several pointed questions. Despite the growing body of evidence that the Mumbai carnage was planned in Pakistan by the ISI-backed Lashkar-e-Taiba and details provided by the lone captured terrorist about his family, hometown etc in Pakistan, Zardari doubted if he is a Pakistani.
"We have not been giving any tangible proof to say that he is definitely a Pakistani. I very much doubt, Larry, that he's a Pakistani," he said. His statement echoed his predecessor Pervez Musharraf’s denials of Pakistani participation during the Kargil infiltration in 1999 which resulted in Pakistan not accepting the bodies of its own soldiers killed in the conflict.
But Zardari’s denial seemed pro-forma (the interview appeared to have been taped before Indian and U.S officials confirmed the Pakistani plot based on the confession of the captured terrorist and electronic evidence). In fact, he roundly implicated Pakistan’s intelligence agency ISI for past misdemeanors.
Asked what his government was doing about the Pakistani intelligence apparatus support for militant movements in the past, Zardari responded: "In the past, lots of mistakes have been made, I cannot deny that. But the present government does not support any such action and the -- I can assure the world from my side, from my Army’s side, from my parliament’s side and the people of Pakistan that we are not helping any such activity."
Zardari also avoided answering a question about whether he had respect for and confidence in his intelligence agency, indicating, or intending to indicate, a schism between him and the ISI, and possibly the Pakistani military, which controls the intelligence agency.
Asked specifically about the LeT, Zardari said it a banned organization all around the world and "if indeed they are involved (in the Mumbai carnage), we would not know. Again, they are people who operate outside the system."
Despite reports in the Pakistani media about state patronage to LeT leaders (the government recently helped its leader Hafiz Mohammed Saeed to a bulletproof LandRover SUV), Zardari insisted "they operate like -- al Qaida, for instance, is not state-oriented."
Zardari also waffled his way past a question about India’s demand for handing over 20 terrorists living in Pakistan, saying he was "definitely going to look into all the possibility of any proof that is given to us."
"At the moment these are just names of individuals. No proof, no investigation, nothing has been brought to forward," he said. Some of the names in the Indian list, notably Dawood Ibrahim, are Indian nationals convicted in Indian courts. Ibrahim lives in the same neighborhood in Karachi (Clifton) where Zardari has a home, according to past reports in the Pakistani media.
Asked if he would turn over the fugitives (including Indian nationals) if India provided the proof, Zardari fudged again just like his predecessor, saying, "If we had the proof, we would try them in our courts, we would try them in our land and we would sentence them." Accounts in the Pakistani media reveal many of the fugitives and outlaws live under ISI protection and patronage.
I’m not saying there weren’t people from Pakistan involved, but I don’t think it was related to any government institution with what has been unveiled to date.
As for their round-about way of getting to India, it’s true Kashmir is already part of India, but if they wanted to assure a surprise, while having quick access to Mumbai’s coastal hotels, the sea was the quickest way to get around all possibility of police along their way.
We fear Al-Qaeda will come over the border from Canada or Mexico or via plane, even though they have no means of arriving here directly via a border with Middle Eastern countries. Following your logic, one could ask why would Al-Qaeda bother to come here through such round-about ways? It’s obvious, precisely because it is not an obvious way.
People on a mission will do difficult things to more effectively accomplish their goals while not being caught.
Sorry buddy, but the group that did this,the Lashkar E Taiba (LET) is based out of Pakistan. It’s recognised as a terror group by both the EU and US, but it’s headquarters are located near the city of Lahore. Not in the tribal area, not in occupied Kashmir, but near Pakistan’s most modern (and relatively speaking) well administered city. Don’t tell me that the Paki state doesn’t know they exist.
Zardari is a corrupt fool who should be behind bars
It’s all very simple. Round up the suspects and hand them over to India, now!
The blatant refusal to do so is an aggressive act in and of itself. The Taliban tried this after 9/11 and Bush didn’t blink. This “suing for peace” by Zardari is just a cynical ploy to get his country off the hook for coddling terrorists.
They were not from Kashmir. They were from the Paki side of Punjab.
They are not stateless.
They belong to Dar al-Islam.
Dar al-Islam must be destroyed at its source.
I never said that the Pakistan government didn’t know of such a group.
I only said they government is not likely responsible.
Please read before you post.
it is amazing how quickly folks forget them actually ADMITTING they did this in Iraq to protect local employees, sources, access (they didn’t say access) etc. If it wasn’t a no-brainer before, it was certainly obvious from that time on that their coverage of any dubious country anywhere was self-censored, and in the case of a huge market for their parent companies like China, even propagandistic in its own right.
A liberal reminded me just yesterday that Biden maintains we should have “dealt with Pakistan, not Iraq.” What say you?
Nope....you will renounce islam and convert to judiasm or christianity or you will die. You have 10 days to surrender and destroy your korans, and haddith, or else
BOOM !!!
posting photographs of nuclear explosions is juvenile, and discredits conservative thought and ideology.
Whining about freedom of expression making free people look bad is the job of Nanny state Nimrods.
I personally think a picture is worth a lot of words. If the goat buggering Muslims could be convinced that we'd nuke Mecca in retaliation for their next attack, Islamic terrorism against the US would stop immediately. They'd be forced to go back to killing each other.
Pakistan and India are both bad actors in my view -- India marginally less so as a democratic state, but my experiences with Indians have been so uniformly negative that it is hard to be objective -- and a part of me would not have been upset to see them nuke each other the last time they had a dust-up. Individual Pakistanis have been less problematic in my experience, but as a country, it really is a carbuncle on the world, as fetid as Iran or Saudi Arabia or Syria.
We should probably consider taking the Paki nuke capability out.
You would recommend that a country (India) be nuked just because your experience with some of its citizens is negative? Sheesh! I think Pakistan deserves to be struck hard with selected military, intelligence, jihadi targets. But for all they have done I dont think you should nuke a country with 180 million people, unless you are sure they are planning to do something to you with WMDs.
Zardari: We encourage a society that glamourizes barbarity but no, no, no, please do not point the accusing finger our way. You must be reasonable. We wish to destroy you by a million cuts and you must stand still and let us do it, godbless.
BOOM !!!
“stateless actors”
As in ‘citizens of the world’?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.