God will destroy America, says Hamid Gul

WASHINGTON: “God will destroy the US in Iraq and Afghanistan and wherever it will try to go from there,” General Hamid Gul, identified as “strategic adviser” to the MMA, was quoted saying on Friday.

Gen Gul, known for his colourful language and what many consider “imaginative theories,” went on to declare, “The Muslim world must stand united to confront the US in its so-called war against terror which is in reality a war against Muslims. Let’s destroy America wherever its troops are trapped.” If President Pervez Musharraf concedes President George Bush’s demand to send 15,000 Pakistani peacekeeping soldiers to Iraq, it would amount to “political suicide,” according to The Washington Times.

The report alleges that jihadi organisations are once again actively recruiting in the name of ending US aggression in the two countries where US forces are battling Iraqi and Afghan terrorists. Gen Musharraf is conceding ground to the extremists now crowding the Pakistani government. Anyone who tries to crack down on extremist activities is told to stop, says the report by Arnaud de Borchgrave. According to him, “The latest example came in Balochistan where the governor, Gen Qadir Baluch, a former corps commander in Balochistan, attempted to curtail anti-US demonstrations called by the MMA. The president asked Gen Baloch to back off while Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) negotiated with the MMA. Gen Baloch flew to Islamabad to confer with Gen Musharraf. The president urged him to follow the new rules or resign, which he did.”

The Washington Times claims that the new governor, Awais Ghani, a former federal minister of labour and religious affairs, has proven to be “a pliant instrument that heeds the advice of ISI and lets the MMA (now derisively known as Musharraf-Mullahs-Army) consolidate its hold on Balochistan’s regional government. Pakistani moderates are shocked by Gen Musharraf’s appeasement of the religious extremists who are now in charge of the province under the guidance of Gen Gul and his former ISI colleagues.” Borchgrave writes that Quetta, the provincial capital, is now a “vast privileged sanctuary for former Taliban officials and their fighters.

They are known locally as new mohajirs. They possess Pakistani identification and are free to conduct business and buy properties all over Balochistan. The MMA, with generous subsidies organised by the ISI, is now free to hold constant rallies and processions against ‘the US, desecrator of Islam’.” He claims to have been told by his “informants in Islamabad and Quetta” that US agents are unable to tell the difference between Balochis, Pathans and Taliban, and that most people are convinced Osama Bin Laden and Mulla Omar, the former Taliban chief, are hiding safely somewhere in Balochistan under the protection of the ISI and its extremist allies in the provincial government. “Hamid Gul’s agenda – which he barely conceals – is to create a deadly nexus between Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq. Those who know Gen Gul say his objective is to widen the nexus to include Iran, Sudan and Saudi Arabia,” the report adds.

The report alleges that the Pakistani nuclear establishment is, to a large degree, of the fundamentalist persuasion, adding “from these geopolitical building blocks, it is not too much of a stretch to conclude, as the US intelligence community now seems to believe, that Pakistani nuclear know-how has found its way, not only to North Korea, but also to Iran. The CIA has also identified Iran, Saudi Arabia and Syria as the leading supporters of the Sunni insurgency against the US military in Iraq. The Saudi government is clearly not involved, the CIA concluded, but Osama’s Saudi followers and members of the Wahhabi clergy, harassed for the first time by the government, have evidently organised desert crossings for volunteer guerrilla fighters.” —Khalid Hasan

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