Them's The Guys
Benazir Bhutto named the men she feared would take her life in a letter to Musharraf. The Times of India reports:
Former Pakistan Premier Benazir Bhutto has named four well-known persons, including Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Parvez Elahi and former ISI chief Hamid Gul, as those who pose a threat to her life in a letter to President Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan media reported on Wednesday.
In the letter written on October 16, two days before she returned to Pakistan from eight years in self-exile, Bhutto said she feared there was a threat to her life from Elahi, Gul, Hassan Waseem Afzal, the former Deputy Chairman of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), and Intelligence Bureau chief Brig (Retd) Ijaz Shah, Geo TV reported.
Hamid Gul is an interesting sort of gent. Here's his thumbnail profile in Wikipedia. He was Bhutto's head of intelligence and reputedly had close ties to the CIA. He was part of the solution before he became part of the problem. Or do I have it the other way around?
General Hamid Gul was director general of Pakistan's ISI (Inter Services Intelligence) from 1987-89, mainly in the time when Benazir Bhutto was Prime Minister of Pakistan. A practising Muslim, he was instrumental in the anti-Soviet support of the mujahideen in the Afghanistan war of 1979–89 [1], a pivotal time during the cold war, and in establishing the Taliban. He also was a vehement supporter of the Kashmir insurgency against India.
Gul worked hand in glove with the American CIA during the Soviet Occupation and considered them to be close allies following the tradition of other ISI directors, when Pakistan first allied with the United States. He has since moderated his views on the United States, declaring in 2003, "God will destroy America," for their unjust policies.
posted by wretchardthecat at 10/25/2007 06:15:00 PM
5 Comments:
There are a few articles that bear on this at asia times. See Pakistan's nut that won't crack.
Spengler talks primarily about Turkey in his past two articles but really is talking about the region. He both predicts and desires the breakup of most of the countries in the region into smaller more ethnically cohesive countries. This includes Pakistan, Turkey, Kurdistan, Iraq and Iran.
On the one hand if this were to happen, after all the blood, we would end up with smaller units that probably couldn't gain the kind of power that Hussain and the Mullahs gained, so they would be less of a threat to the US and to world order. On the other hand, as smaller units they would be more susceptible to being influenced or taken over by non-state actors like AQ.
I'm sure that whoever ends up with the oil would still make trouble.
Wretchard, I think it's that Hamid Gul was part of the problem before it was a problem. ;-)
I saw Gul interviewed on a National Geographic special on the Taliban, and he struck me as the scary type of Islamist: articulate, even somewhat personable and telegenic. Not some grubby-looking scumbag jihadi, or like Osama himself, who has that Charlie Manson glow in his eyes. There, you know exactly what you're getting. Someone like Hamid Gul, OTOH, can worm his way into the normal world and stay there and wreak havoc from the inside. I would not be surprised at all if he really did have something to do with trying to kill Ms. Bhutto.
This interview supports Douglas' opinion of Gul.
Bhutto's return is also well developed in this article.
The link not working well, try this one...,
http://in.rediff.com/news/2004/feb/13inter.htm
"Not some grubby-looking scumbag jihadi, or like Osama himself, who has that Charlie Manson glow in his eyes".
Just like those in the Muslim Brotherhood and its offshoots.
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