wow. what a deep manipulation, propaganda against Pakistan.
[brandpakistan] Pakistan - School for Terror - Current Issue of the Economist
Pakistan
School for terror
Aug 17th 2006
From The Economist print edition
Despite its success against al-Qaeda, Pakistan is an extremist haven
FOR a pleasant change, Pakistan has won praise for its efforts in helping British spies foil the latest grand terrorist design, most of whose 23 alleged plotters were Britons of Pakistani descent. Officials in Britain and America talk of their excellent co-operation with Pakistan; some speak admiringly of its disciplined intelligence agencies. Intelligence types in all three countries say al-Qaeda, whose fugitive leaders are believed to be close to the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, was probably involved. Pakistan is believed to have arrested 17 people in relation to the plot, including one in the border area, Rashid Rauf, a 25-year-old Briton whose brother Tayib was among the alleged plotters arrested in Britain.
And that may be about all that anyone knows at this stage. Other delicious details have been hotly aired. Speculation has surrounded Hafeez Saeed, who founded the biggest jihadist group fighting in disputed Kashmir, Lashkar-e-Toiba (LT). He now heads an Islamist charity, Jamaat ud Dawa (JUD), which is a front for the armed group. Mr Saeed was arrested shortly before the plot was foiled. JUD, which is legal in Pakistan, was banned by America in April. Some pundits have suggested the group was involved in funding the recent plot, having raised millions of dollars last year to provide relief to earthquake victims in Kashmir.
But there is nothing to confirm this. JUD and LT were formed to attack India; they have shown scant interest in joining a global jihad. It is likelier that Mr Saeed was arrested under pressure from America, to placate India, after bomb attacks last month in Mumbai.
Shorn of such spicy intrigues, in fact, there would be little new in Pakistan’s latest contribution to the war on terror. Since joining it, by abandoning its Taliban proxies in Afghanistan in late 2001, Pakistan has pursued al-Qaeda with quite impressive success. It has arrested or killed scores of its members, allegedly including the group’s last three global operations chiefs, the most famous of whom, Khaled Sheikh Mohammed, masterminded the September 11th 2001 attacks.
Goaded (perhaps unwisely) by America, it has sent 80,000 troops into its tribal border area, thereby starting a war with tribesmen in which 800 soldiers have died. Lest anyone doubt these efforts, Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda’s second-in-command, has often called on devout Muslims to kill Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan’s president. On several occasions, some of them have tried to do so.
And yet Pakistan is home to a broad Islamist militant threat of which al-Qaeda is but one part, and this is less easily countered. There are scores of extremist groups in Pakistan and thousands of trained Islamist killers. Most of these have been nurtured by successive military governments, to fight their wars in Afghanistan, Kashmir and Pakistan’s own riotous cities.
Thus encouraged, and with the country’s secular institutions reeling under corruption and neglect, a sizeable part of the general population has been radicalised. According to various estimates Pakistan has between 10,000 and 40,000 religious schools, or madrassas. A few of these are said to provide military training. In such an environment, European extremists, especially those of South Asian descent, can certainly find the inspiration and technical know-how they need to launch attacks.
The feeling is mutual then 