Paper no. 917	09. 02. 2004
TRICKY MUSH'S KISS OF DEATH FOR THE US by B.Raman Mr. President, Respected Senator John Kerry and other Democratic Presidential aspirants. At a time when the political leaders and people of the United States have started debating the important domestic and foreign policy issues of the day in preparation for the Presidential elections due later this year, one issue which deserves to receive the highest priority is the dangers of a nuclear jihad emanating from the soil of Pakistan. 2. If you could kindly ask your campaign staff to list out all the major jihadi terrorist incidents of the world starting from the explosion at the New York World Trade Centre in February,1993, you would find that all of them had one thing in common: Many of the terrorists involved were either Pakistani nationals, or foreign nationals who had lived for some years in Pakistan or attended its madrasas or received training in the camps of Pakistani jihadi organisations supported by its Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) or in camps run by the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghan territory.  A document of the USA's Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) declassified under the Freedom of Information Act last year had highlighted the role of Pakistan in the creation and sustenance  of not only the Taliban, but also Al Qaeda. 3. If you could kindly ask your campaign staff to list out all the statements  issued by Islamic fundamentalists and jihadi terrorists such as Osama bin Laden  since 1993 highlighting their religious right and obligation to acquire and use weapons of mass destruction (WMD) to protect their religion, you would find that except for a warning issued by the Chechen terrorists in 1995 in which they had threatened to capture a Russian nuclear power station and blow it up, all other statements and warnings had emanated from the Pakistan-Afghanistan region. 4. The Islamic world has dozens, if not hundreds, of fundamentalist and jihadi organisations.  Kindly do ask your campaign staff to research for statements speaking of the religious right and obligation of the jihadis to acquire and use WMD, which might have come from outside the Pakistan-Afghanistan region.  They would hardly find any. The concept of the so-called nuclear jihad was born in the madrasas of Pakistan and bin Laden borrowed it from them. 5. If you could kindly ask your campaign staff to list out all reported and verified instances of clandestine proliferation of military nuclear technology and materials to other states, they would find a hand of Pakistan in each and every instance---either that of the Pakistani political leaders or of its military-intelligence establishment or of its scientific community or all of them together. 6. Evidence of Pakistan's clandestine procurement of military nuclear technology and materials has been there since 1979. The US and the other members of the international community did not take serious notice of it because this procurement was meant to give to Pakistan a capability to counter India. The international community felt that  this posed a threat only to India and not to others.  It was, therefore, not highly excited over it. 7. In 1990, President George Bush, your distinguished father, Mr. President, invoked the Pressler Amendment against the State of Pakistan and imposed severe sanctions against it after convincing himself that Pakistan had clandestinely acquired a military nuclear capability and had in its arsenal an useable atomic bomb. Two years thereafter, the prestigious "Washington Post" came out with a story that after having acquired a military nuclear capability, Pakistan had started sharing it with Iran. 8. This sharing started under Zia-Ul-Haq two years before President Bush invoked the Pressler Amendment and hence was not in retaliation against his action. It was started at a time when Pakistan was projecting itself as the frontline ally of the US in its covert war against the then USSR. 9. Why did Iran want this capability? To use it against India? No. To be able to use it against Israel and the USA. Pakistan knew it. And yet, it agreed to help it.  While overtly projecting itself as an ally of the US, Pakistan agreed to covertly help Iran which was openly calling for the destruction of Israel and projecting the US as the "Great Satan". 10. In 1986, President Ronald Reagan ordered the bombing of some installations in Libya in retaliation for the involvement of the Libyan intelligence in a terrorist attack in West Berlin in which some US soldiers were killed. Shortly thereafter, Col. Ghadaffi, the Libyan leader, approached Pakistan for its assistance in acquiring a military nuclear capability. Gen.Zia-Ul-Haq, then in power in Islamabad, declined since he was angry over Ghadaffi's support to the members of the family of the late Zulfiquar Ali Bhutto, whom he had sent to the gallows in 1979. 11. After coming to power in late 1988, one of the first acts of Benazir was to clear the sharing of nuclear technology with Libya. Why did Libya want a military nuclear capability? To threaten India? No. To threaten Israel and the US. While overtly projecting herself as a greater friend of the US than Zia, Benazir agreed to help Libya, which too, like Iran, had vowed to destroy Israel and to teach the US a lesson for its bombing of Libya in 1986. 12. In 1993, Pakistan's missile programme ran into difficulties. Its programme for the indigenous production of the Hatf series of missiles was a flop. Its clandestine purchase of missiles from China had come under increasing US scrutiny.  Mr. James Baker, the then Secretary of State, had taken serious notice of the transgressions of the missile technology control regime by Pakistan and China and had imposed two-year sanctions against them. China, while continuing to sell short and medium-range missiles to Pakistan despite the sanctions, refused to sell long-range missiles. 13. To whom did Pakistan turn for help? To North Korea, another sworn enemy of the USA. Benazir Bhutto, after becoming the Prime Minister for a second time, flew to North Korea and signed an agreement under which Pyongyang agreed to sell medium and long-range missiles to Pakistan. The so-called Ghauri missile fired by Pakistan in April,1998, in order to intimidate India was nothing but North Korea's Nodong. 14. Kindly ask your campaign staff to get hold of the press clippings of all the statements made by her after this successful test. They would find how many times she had claimed credit as the person who made Ghauri possible when she was the Prime Minister  without specifying how. 15. Those were the years when Pakistan's economy was in a state of collapse due to the sanctions under the Pressler Amendment, successive failures of the cotton crop and the consequent suspension of production in many of its textile mills and other reasons. And yet, Pakistan managed to pay for the missiles to North Korea. How? Partly by supplying wheat to North Korea and by meeting its consequent shortfall by importing wheat from the USA and Australia . And partly, through cash payments in US dollars. Pakistan did not have enough foreign exchange to pay for its own imports. And yet, it found foreign exchange to make part-payments for the missiles. Where did it get the US dollars from? From the ISI's heroin trade and from post 9/11 cash flows from the US and others. 16. If you could kindly ask your campaign staff to collate all the reports of the period regarding the state of the North Korean economy, you would find that many of  the leading economists of the Western world had predicted the collapse of the North Korean society due to millions of starvation deaths. This did not happen. Wherefrom did North Korea get wheat for its starving millions and US dollars for its exchequer? From Pakistan. It used wheat produced by US and Australian farmers to sustain a rogue state, which along with Iran and Libya, was a sworn enemy of the US. 17. In the late 1990s, North Korea decided to acquire a military nuclear capability.  To whom did it turn for assistance? Pakistan. It readily agreed to help Noth Korea. Why did North Korea want this capability? To threaten India? No. To threaten Japan and the USA. 18. Since 1992, Pakistan has been repeatedly caught transfering or sharing its military nuclear technology and materials with states which were the sworn enemies of the US and some of whom had called for the destruction of Israel. The State of Pakistan has never once suffered the punitive consequences of its blatant transgressions. It never had to worry about finding alibis, pretexts or excuses for denying its culpability. The US State Department found them for Pakistan. 19. After the latest exposures of  the role of the rogue scientists of Pakistan in assisting Iran, Libya and North Korea, President Pervez Musharraf has enacted an elaborate charade of investigating the rogue scientists while vehemently denying any State culpability. Not many even  in Pakistan take seriously his stand that the state had nothing to do with the transgressions. 20. Wherefrom did he get the idea of making a distinction between the State and its entities dealing in nuclear and missile development? From the US. Apart from the sanctions imposed by the then President Bush in 1990 and by Mr. Bill Clinton in 1998, which were directed against the State of Pakistan, all other sanctions were against the Khan Research Laboratories (KRL), the nest of nuclear rogues, as if the KRL, owned and run by the state of Pakistan, is an independent entity acting on its own. The KRL and A.Q.Khan, its evil genius, shrugged off the sanctions which merely said the KRL cannot import any material or technology from the USA as if it was importing it in the past. 21. Last year, the US State Department imposed a fresh bout of sanctions against the KRL for its missile trade with North Korea. State Department spokesmen, including even Secretary of State Colin Powell, went out of their way to specify that the latest sanctions had nothing to do with reports of Pakistan's transferring military nuclear technology to North Korea, which, according to them, remained unproved. 22. Now, it has not only been proved, but even admitted by A.Q.Khan and his dirty dozen. Musharraf, who approved this sharing in order to get long-range missiles from North Korea  to intimidate India, pretends as if he was surprised and shocked by this. And the US has chosen to go along with his charade. 23. Since the New York World Trade Centre explosion of February 1993, there was a cascade of evidence regarding the role of Pakistan, its ISI and  its State-sponsored jihadi organisations in acts of jihadi terrorism in different parts of the world. The US chose to close its eyes to them. The result 9/11. It has now become a cliche to describe 9/11 as a wake-up call for the US. 24.Since 1992, there has been a cascade of evidence regarding the role of Pakistan and its rogue scientists in helping the sworn enemies of the US and Israel in acquiring a military nuclear capability. Not having learnt  the right  lessons relating to Pakistan from 9/11, the US continues to treat the state of Pakistan and Musharraf with kid gloves as if they are not responsible. 25. When state and non-State actors acquiring this capability from Pakistan use it against the USA one day  in an act of nuclear jihad which they have vowed to wage against it, it would be too late even for another wake-up call. Large parts of the USA would have been destroyed and millions of its citizens sent to their eternal sleep. 26. I take the liberty of enclosing an open letter to US citizens titled "Saddam Hussein and Pervez Musharraf" written by me  on April 23 last year. (attached as appendix to this paper) Wishing you a vigorous campaign and with warm personal regards, Yours sincerely, B.Raman, Chennai. (The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, and, presently, Director, Institute for Topical Studies, Chennai, and Distinguished Fellow and Convenor, Advisory Committee, Observer Research Foundation, Chennai Chapter. E-Mail: corde@vsnl.com )  Appendix:  Paper no. 670, 23. 04. 2003 SADDAM HUSSEIN  & PERVEZ MUSHARRAF An Open Letter To American Friends   by B.Raman Dear friends of the USA, The US  has successfully overthrown President Saddam Hussein of Iraq. Before and during  the war, President George Bush repeatedly emphasised that this was not a war against Iraq and the Iraqi people, but against the dictatorial regime of Saddam for harbouring international terrorists, for acquiring weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and for destroying democracy and suppressing his people. 2. Addressing a joint press conference in September last year, President Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair of the UK referred to the dangers of the leakage of Iraq's WMD into the hands of terrorists and said that his removal and the seizure of his WMD stocks were, therefore, necessary in the interest of international peace and security. 3. Now that Saddam is gone, let us examine the track record of Pakistan and its military dictator, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, under all the three heads used against Saddam, namely, support to terrorists, proliferation of WMD to rogue States and terrorist groups and suppression of democracy. 4. Let us take support to terrorism first. The following facts speak for themselves:   * In March, 2003, the Lahore police filed a case in the High Court against a doctor accused of collaborating with Al Qaeda.   The High Court ruled the charge inadmissible even at the preliminary stage. It pointed out that Al Qaeda had not been banned in Pakistan as a terrorist organisation under the Anti-Terrorism Act and hence belonging to it or collaborating with it was not an offence.  The Government said that by oversight it had not banned Al Qaeda and promised to do so immediately.  It is yet to be done. * According to a report dated April 11, 2003, of the Associated Press of Pakistan, a Government-owned news agency, during a visit to Peshawar in the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) the previous day, Musharraf was asked about the activities of Al Qaeda in Pakistani territory.  He replied (to quote the APP):"I do not know any Al Qaeda. " That is  exactly what Saddam had said when Gen. Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State, during one of his interventions in the UN Security Council, accused him of complicity with Al Qaeda. * In the beginning of 2002, bin Laden and other leaders and members of Al Qaeda moved into Pakistan from Afghanistan to escape capture by the American special forces searching for them in the mountains and caves of Afghanistan.  Initially they took shelter in the mosques and madrasas (religious schools) of the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) and the Federally-Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan adjoining the Afghan border.  They then spread to the interior towns and cities of Pakistan, away from the border as they were afraid that the US special forces operating in Afghan territory might cross into Pakistani territory and arrest them. * Musharraf denied that they had crossed over into Pakistani territory and taken shelter in its towns and cities. Despite this, officers of the USA's Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) established the presence of Abu Zubaidah, the then No. 3 of Al Qaeda, in Faislabad, a big town in the Punjab province of Pakistan, in March,2002; of Ramzi Binalshibh, another top leader of Al Qaeda at Karachi, Pakistan's biggest and most important city, in September,2002; and of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, described by US and French counter-terrorism experts as bin Laden's operations chief and as the man who orchestrated the terrorist strikes of 9/11 at Rawalpindi in March, 2003. Rawalpindi is called the twin city of Islamabad, Pakistan's capital. It is where the General Headquarters (GHQ) of the Pakistan Army are located.  It is where Musharraf has his house as the Chief of the Army Staff (COAS). It is where many retired and serving officers of Pakistan's Army and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) live. When confronted by the FBI with evidence of their presence in these cities, Musharraf had no other alternative but to arrest them and hand them over. Apart from these three instances, there is not a single  case since 9/11 in which Musharraf's police and intelligence agencies, on their own without pressure from the FBI, had established the presence of the absconding leaders of Al Qaeda and taken the initiative in arresting them and handing them over to the US. * Abu Zubaidah was living in the house of a leader of the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET), a Pakistani terrorist organisation, with its headquarters at Muridke, near Lahore, which has a mosque and a guest house constructed by bin Laden.  bin Laden used to stay in this guest house and pray in this mosque during his visits to Pakistan in the  1990s.  All the terrorists, who participated in the 9/11 terrorist incidents, had stayed in this guest house on their way to Al Qaeda's training camps in Afghan territory and on their way back to the US for carrying out their terrorist attacks.  The LET is a member of bin Laden's International Islamic Front (IIF). Along with Jaish-e-Mohammad (JEM), another member of the IIF, it had organised an attack on the Indian Parliament in December, 2001.  After this incident, the US State Department designated the LET and the JEM as Foreign Terrorist Organisations under a 1996 law.  Under US pressure, Musharraf too declared them as terrorist organisations and banned them on January 15,2002, and arrested their leaders and cadres. But, he did not extend the ban on their activities to Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (POK), the Northern Areas (Gilgit and Baltistan) and the FATA. The POK and the Northern Areas are adjoining the Indian border. It is from there that the ISI organises terrorist operations in Indian territory, using these and other Pakistani terrorist organisations, which are members of the IIF.  The FATA is adjoining the Afghan border. It is from there that the remnants of Al Qaeda, the Taliban and Gulbuddin Heckmatyar's Hizbe Islami organise attacks on the US forces operating in Afghan territory.  After some weeks, Musharraf released the arrested leaders and cadres of the LET and the JEM on the ground that there was no evidence of their involvement in terrorism. These organisations started operating openly again under new names and played an active role in the various anti-US demonstrations in different Pakistani cities during the war in Iraq. Prof.Hafiz Mohammed Sayeed, the leader of the LET, visited Rawalpindi and participated in an anti-US demonstration there and made a speech calling for a jihad against the US. He has since claimed that some of his men had been "martyred" in the jihad against the US forces in Iraq and buried there and promised financial assistance to their families. The annual conventions of the LET are attended by many serving and retired officers of the Pakistani military and its nuclear and missile establishment. * Ramzi Binalshibh was found living in a flat in Karachi belonging to a local member of the Jamaat-e-Islami (JEL) of Pakistan.  Khalid Sheikh Mohammad was arrested from the house of a women's wing leader of the JEI in Rawalpindi. The JEI is the most important and active Islamic fundamentalist party of Pakistan, which is virulently anti-US and fiercely pro-Taliban and pro-Al Qaeda since 9/11. It is very close to Pakistan's military and intelligence agencies.  Lt.Gen.(retd) Hamid Gul, former Director-General of the ISI in the 1980s, is an active member of the JEI.  In the 1990s, he used to be the head of the Pasban, a militant wing of the JEI.  Since 9/11, he and the JEI leaders have been alleging that the 9/11 terrorist strikes in the US were carried out not by Al Qaeda, but by Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency, to defame Islam and provoke the US into attacking Islamic countries.  As proof of this, Gul has been alleging that none of the Jewish persons working in any of the establishments in New York's World Trade Centre attended office on 9/11 on secret instructions from Mossad and that, as a result, no Jewish person was killed.  In a media briefing at the ISI headquarters after the arrest of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Maj.Gen.Rashid Quereshi, the media spokesman of Musharraf, strongly defended the JEI against allegations of its involvement with Al Qaeda.  He claimed that the involvement of some members of the JEI in sheltering some Al Qaeda leaders did not mean that the JEI as an organisation was involved. The JEI is the leading member of the six-party fundamentalist coalition called the Muttahida-Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) which came to power in the NWFP after the elections of October, 2002.  In Balochistan ther MMA has formed a coalition Government with the pro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League ( Qaid-e-Azam). The impressive electoral performance of this coalition in October last was facilitated by actions of Musharraf such as breaking Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party Parliamentarians (PPPP) in NWFP and withdrawal of the pending cases under the Anti-Terrorism Act against the members of the coalition who wanted to contest the elections.  After coming to power, the coalition released all the cadres of terrorist organisations still in detention.  It has provided shelter to the surviving members of Al Qaeda, the Taliban and Hizbe-Islami in the mosques and madrasas of the NWFP and Balochistan and asked the provincial police not to co-operate with the FBI in its investigations and raids for arresting the absconding terrorists. * Amongst other terrorists against whom cases were withdrawn by Musharraf to enable their election was Maulana Azam Tariq, the leader of the Sunni extremist Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP). Its militant wing called the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LEJ) was banned as a terrorist organisation by Musharraf himself on August 14, 2001, and the SSP was banned on January 15, 2002.  Despite these bans, the Election Commission did  not  disqualify the candidature of Maulana Azam Tariq, who managed to get elected to the National Assembly. The LEJ, which is also a member of bin Laden's IIF, was designated by the US State Department as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation last year following its involvement, along with the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HUM) and the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HUJI), in the kidnapping and murder of Daniel Pearl, the US journalist ; the murder of the wife of an American diplomat and their daughter through a grenade attack in an Islamabad church; a suicide car bomb explosion outside a Karachi hotel which killed some French submarine engineers; another suicide car bomb explosion outside the US Consulate-General in Karachi; an attack on a group of German and other foreign tourists travelling by road to Xinjiang in China along the Karakoram Highway; and attacks on Christian establishments in different parts of Pakistan. Despite this, Maulana Azam Tariq remains untouched and moves around without any action against him. * The HUM, under its then name of Harkat-ul-Ansar (HUA), was designated by the US as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation in October,1997, because of its involvement in the kidnapping of some American and other Western tourists in India's Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) in 1995. One of these kidnapped tourists, an American, managed to escape from custody. The fate of the remaining is not known, but they are feared dead long ago.  Despite this, Musharraf has not yet formally banned the HUM as a terrorist organisation under Pakistan's Anti-Terrorism Act. Nor has he banned the HUJI.  Both the HUM and the HUJI are also members of bin Laden's IIF. Last year, the HUM started operating under the name HUM (Al-Alami meaning International). Some of its leaders have recently been convicted by a Karachi court and sentenced to death for their confessed involvement in the planning and execution of the car bomb explosion outside the US Consulate. Despite this, there is as yet no ban on this organisation. * Musharraf has been making contradictory statements on Al Qaeda and bin Laden. Sometimes he says he is not aware of any Al Qaeda. On other occasions, he says there could be some members of Al Qaeda in Pakistani territory and claims to be co-operating with the US in arresting them.  Initially, he said that bin Laden must be dead. Then he said that while there was a possibility that bin Laden might be still alive, he was definitely not in Pakistan.  He has recently admitted the possibility that bin Laden might be in Pakistan, but denied any knowledge of his whereabouts. All the recorded video and audio cassettes of bin Laden calling for jihad against the USA and Israel were handed over to Al Jazeera either in Karachi or Islamabad. The Pakistani authorities have till now not taken any effective action to prevent the dissemination of these cassettes (calling for terrorist attacks) from Pakistani territory. * The case relating to the kidnapping and murder of Daniel Pearl is being adjourned month after month under some pretext or the other.  A special anti-terrorism court had found Omar Sheikh and his accomplices guilty and sentenced Omar himself and another person to death.  Others were sentenced to life imprisonment. They went in appeal against the conviction.  The hearing in the appeal is yet to start and has already been delayed for eight months.  The Karachi media has been alleging since July last that Fazal Karim, a terrorist who has admitted to having slit the throat of Pearl was in the custody of the Pakistani authorities and that for some reason they have not prosecuted him. Till recently, the Pakistani authorities denied these reports. Only earlier this month, in response to a court directive in a habeas corpus case have they admitted his whereabouts, but they are still silent on his involvement in the murder of Pearl and are avoiding explaining why they are not prosecuting him. * Under the UN Security Council Resolution No.1373., the Pakistani authorities were required to freeze the bank accounts of terrorist organisations.  Before doing so last year, the ISI tipped off these organisations of the impending action, thereby enabling them to withdraw or transfer the bulk of the money  to other accounts in different names. As a result, only Rs. 900  were found in the account of the JEM, US $ 252 in the account of Al Qaeda held in the name of Ayman-al-Zawahiri, its No. 2, and Rs. 4742   in the account of the HUM. Pakistani Rs. 65 are equivalent to one US dollar. 5. How about US and other Western civilians killed by terrorists operating from Pakistani territory? Here are the facts and figures:   * The assassination of two CIA officers outside the CIA headquarters in Langley by Mir Aimal Kansi, a Pakistani national belonging to the SSP, in January,1993.  He was found guilty by a US court and was recently executed in the USA. When his body arrived in Pakistan, speeches were made by the fundamentalist members of the NWFP and Balochistan provincial assemblies hailing him as a martyr in the Islamic cause. * The explosion in the World Trade Centre in New York in February, 1993. Ramzi Yousef, a Pakistani national, was one of the principal accused in the case. He escaped to Pakistan after the explosion. He and Khalid Sheikh Mohammad went to Manila and planned to blow up a number of US aircraft. The Filippino authorities were alerted to their presence and activities following a fire in their flat. They escaped to Pakistan, where Ramzi was arrested by the Benazir Government in 1995 and handed over to the USA where he has since been convicted. * The kidnapping and murder of five Western tourists by the HUM in J&K in 1995. * The assassination of an American diplomat and two US oil company executives in Karachi in different incidents in 1995. The SSP was suspected. * The 9/11 terrorist strikes in US territory, which resulted in the death of over 3500 innocent civilians. The perpetrators of these strikes stayed in the guest house of the LET at Muridke while on their way to Afghanistan for training and on their way back to the US. The money for the operation was transmitted to them through Pakistan.  Khalid Sheikh Mohammad and Ramzi Binalshibh, both of whom had assisted bin Laden in orchestrating these strikes, were found and arrested in Pakistani territory. * The kidnapping and murder of Daniel Pearl in Karachi in in 2002. * The murder of French submarine engineers in Karachi in 2002. * The murder of the wife of an American diplomat and their daughter in an Islamabad church in 2002. * The car bomb explosion outside the US Consulate in Karachi in 2002 killed many Pakistani civilians, but there were no American casualties even though the bomb was directed at the Consulate. 6. Saddam Hussein had ruthlessly supressed both Shia and Sunni fundamentalism.  He had banned loudspeakers in mosques, madrasas, receipt of foreign money by religious elements,and involvement in political activities by Mullas and Imams.  How about Musharraf?   * In January,2002, Musharraf had promised to put an end to the use of madrasas for promoting terrorism, but he has not yet done so. He put severe restrictions on the political activities and demonstrations of non-religious parties in order to prevent them from mounting a challenge to his rule.  He got the leading lights of these  parties involved in a plethora of fabricated cases to prevent them from contesting the elections.  He banished Nawaz Sharif, former Prime Minister, from the country and prevented Benazir from returning to the country by threatening to arrest her if she did so. * But, he gave all facilities to the religious fundamentalist parties for holding public meetings and demonstrations. He withdrew all pending cases against them, even under the Anti-Terrorism Act, to enable them to contest the elections. * Before Musharraf staged the coup and seized power in October,1999, religious fundamentalist parties in Pakistan never used to get more than about three per cent of the votes polled. Thanks to the assistance from him, they got 11 per cent in the October elections and have come to power in two provinces, which are vital to the US from the point of view of its war against terrorism. If Musharraf continues to favour and assist them in the same manner, they may one day come to power in Islamabad itself and get their finger on the nuclear button. Despite all this, he is looked upon by the US as a stalwart ally and showered with one economic bonanza after another. 7. How about proliferation of WMD by Pakistan to rogue states and terrorists? Again let facts speak for themselves:   * Pakistan has had a long history of a military supply relationship with the rogue state of North Korea, which poses a serious threat to the security of not only the East Asian countries, but also the USA itself. * In the 1980s, it allowed clandestine military supplies from North Korea for Iran to transit through its territory. * Under an agreement signed with North Korea in 1993, it has been receiving from North Korea medium and long-range missiles capable of carrying nuclear weapons. * It paid for these missiles by diverting wheat purchased from the USA and Australia and in cash since 9/11, by taking advantage of the large cash flow from the USA and other countries. But for these wheat diversions and cash payments, the rogue State of North Korea would not have been able to withstand the economic sanctions of the international community against it as it has done. * In return for the missiles, Pakistan also trained North Korean nuclear scientists in its establishments, allowed North Korean scientists to attend its nuclear tests at Chagai  in May 1998 and transferred uranium enrichment technology to North Korea. Pakistani nuclear scientists have been frequently visiting North Korea. 8.How about dangers of terrorists getting hold of WMD? The only country in the world where this danger is real is Pakistan for the following reasons:   * Pakistan is the only state-sponsor of international terrorism in the world which has a large WMD capability acquired through the assistance of China and North Korea. * There is sizeable penetration of Islamic fundamentalist elements into its Armed Forces and scientific establishment. * Pakistan is the only Islamic country in the world,where fundamentalist and jihadi organisations speak of the right and religious obligation of the Muslims to acquire WMD and use it, if necessary,to protect Islam. They project their WMD capability as belonging to the whole of Islamic Ummah. They describe their atom bomb as the Islamic bomb.  Bin Laden picked up his nuclear concepts from the mullas of Pakistan. * Last year, at the instance of the FBI, Pakistani authorities had to detain two of their retired nuclear scientists (Sultan Bashirudeen and Abdul Majid) for visiting Kandahar and maintaining contact with bin Laden. Though sufficient evidence to warrant their prosecution was not found,their bank accounts were frozen under the UN Security Council Resolution No. 1373 and they have been kept under surveillance. * A.Q.Khan, the self-styled father of Pakistan's atomic bomb, used to visit Iraq and North Korea  clandestinely and Musharraf had to remove him from active duty in the nuclear establishment under US pressure. 9. Pakistan has a facade of a democracy since October last. Is it real democracy?   * Under Pakistan's Constitution, the President of the country is to be elected by an electoral college consisting of the Federal Parliament and the provincial Assemblies. Since Musharraf was not confident of the support of the members of the non-religious parties, he got himself elected as the President in a rigged referendum for which there is no provision, before ordering the elections of October. * Under Pakistan's electoral laws, a serving Government servant cannot contest elections to any office. Even after leaving Government service, he or she cannot contest for two years. Musharraf granted himself a special exemption from this provision to enable him to continue to hold charge as the COAS even after getting himself elected as the President. * Under the rules of appointment and promotions of the Pakistani Armed Forces, a COAS can hold office only for three years from the date of his appointment.  Musharraf has granted himself a special exemption from this rule. He has already held office as COAS for four years and intends doing so for another five years.  He says this is necessary in Pakistan's supreme national interest. * Under Pakistan's Constitution, all amendments to the Constitution are to be voted by a two-thirds majority by the two Houses of the Federal Parliament and, in some cases, also approved by the provincial Assemblies.  Before the elections, Musharraf, under a Legal Framework Order (LFO), promulgated a number of constitutional amendments granting himself the powers to appoint the chiefs of the armed forces, the judges and chief justics of the provincial and Supreme courts and the Governors of the provinces; to dismiss the elected Prime Minister and his Council of Ministers; to constitute a military-dominated National Security Council; and to dissolve the Parliament. He has rejected the persistent demand of the opposition that he should resign as the COAS, seek re-election as the President in the manner prescribed in the Constitution and submit the LFO to the Parliament for its approval by a two-thirds majority. 10.If Saddam murdered democracy, so has Musharraf.  An objective consideration of what has been stated above would show that Pakistan is a fit case for regime change through pre-emptive action by the USA and the rest of the international community, but we do not suggest military action against it. Military action is always messy, creates more problems than it solves and kills a large number of innocent civilians for the misdeeds and crimes of their rulers. What is called for is political and economic pre-emptive action  as follows:   * Stop all economic assistance to Pakistan so long as Musharraf continues in power. * Force him to resign and hand over full powers to the political leadership. * Force the Army to go back to the barracks and obey the political leadership. * After the political leadership assumes full powers, resume all economic assistance and seek its co-operation to deal with terrorism originating from Pakistani territory, to stop flow of WMD technology to rogue States like North Korea and to prevent the terrorists and jihadis from getting hold of its WMD assets. God bless America and give it the wisdom and foresight to act before it is too late.
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