Asia Times has a curious story regarding a telephone call one of its reporters received from Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, Afghanistan al Qaeda Leader, immediately after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto in Rawalpindi yesterday.
From the story:
“This is our first major victory against those [eg, Bhutto and President Pervez Musharraf] who have been siding with infidels [the West] in a fight against al-Qaeda and declared a war against mujahideen,” Mustafa told Asia Times Online by telephone.
He said the death squad consisted of Punjabi associates of the underground anti-Shi’ite militant group Lashkar-i-Jhangvi, operating under al-Qaeda orders.
The assassination of Bhutto was apparently only one of the goals of a large al-Qaeda plot, the existence of which was revealed earlier this month.
On December 6, a Pakistani intelligence agency tracked a cell phone conversation between a militant leader and a local cleric, in which a certain Maulana Asadullah Khalidi was named. The same day, Khalidi was arrested during a raid in Karachi. The arrest, in turn, led to the arrest of a very high-profile non-Pakistani militant leader, which, it is said, revealed an operation aimed at wiping out “precious American assets” in Pakistan, including Musharraf and Bhutto.
The operation is said to have involved hundreds of cells all over Pakistan to track targets and communicate with their command, which would then send out death squads.
"Precious American assets"? OK. No doubt that Musharraf and Bhutto both had the backing of the US Government. Death Squads???
Immediately Spidey Sense says, "Whoa!" Death Squad-ism is the purview of John "Death Squad" Negroponte, who, it just so happens, made a frantic trip to Islamabad to treat with Musharraf and his minions during the recent state of emergency.
Why would al Qaeda's top Afghanistan operative telephone an Asia Times reporter to claim credit for the Benazir Bhutto assassination and use the term "death squads" to refer to AQ operations in Pakistan shortly after "Death Squad" Negroponte visits Musharraf (no doubt with "technical advice.")?
Just a happy coincidence?
Maybe not.
Have you considered the possibility that it might be propaganda, a red herring, intended to create the impression of strength greater than that which exsists?
ReplyDeleteInteresting coincidence, nonetheless.
What occurred to me was that Teh Bad Guys have studied terminology used to describe certain evil activities of Our Government, such as Death Squads and such, know that the term is generally associated with Negroponte, and since Negroponte was just in Islamabad giving Musharaf a pep talk, they thought it would psych Americans out if they used the term "Death Squad" to describe their own purported activity.
ReplyDeleteUse of that term is designed to freak people out. And that seems to be the aQ mode.
On the other hand, the Pakistani military and intelligence services are supposedly thoroughly compromised by Taliban and aQ infiltration (ou, sounds Commie to me!), and yet they are taking billions of dollars from the USA (to be nice, I guess), and getting plenty of advice along the way. Could be the aQ dude (if that's what it was) was just feeding back what he's been indoctrinated about by those "advisors."
'Course this is all tinfoil. We don't really know nothin' about what's going on.
Drives me nuts.