Now comes the court martial of officers in the Pakistani air force for their connections with Islamic terror. I wonder how large a proportion of the officer corps is represented by these 50+ suspects, and how well they reflect the opinions of those lower in the hierarchy.
According to AKI:
Pakistan: Dozens of Airforce Officials ‘Court-Martialled’- - - - - - - - -
Islamabad, 24 June (AKI) — A total 26 Pakistan Air Force officials have been court martialled after being found guilty of links with terrorists. Six of the group have been sentenced to death.
The men were among over 50 PAF officials arrested on charges of having links with terrorist organisations, unnamed sources told Pakistan’s Geo News.
The six PAF officials sentenced to death include two senior technicians named as Karamdin and Khalid Mehmood; a carpool technician named as Nawazish; and three junior technicians named as Niaz, Nasrullah and Adnan, sources said.
The men were among as many as 57 officials arrested in the Pakistani cities of Lahore, Kamra, Sargodha, Mianwali and Karachi, according to the sources.
Of 57 officials also included 26 officials who were court-martialled and sentenced to between three and half and 17 years in jail.
According to the sources, investigations of some of the PAF officials and their suspected terrorist links began under former president Pervez Musharraf.
An unnamed high-ranking PAF official and a carpool technician named as Amir who are also wanted for suspected terrorist links remain at large.
Given the extensive enthusiasm for Islamic terror found throughout Pakistani society, how qualified do you think the State Department is to pick out “moderates” to help install in power?
Hat tip: C. Cantoni.
3 comments:
"A government that is relatively free of such connections — such as the current one under President Asif Al Zardari — will tend to be ineffective, due to a lack of accord with public opinion, much of which has sympathies with fundamentalist Islam."
I do not want to judge the government, I don't know how islamist it is but the truth is that the more a government is not islamist, the more it is anti-Pakistani and thus the people will find very few reasons to trust the government. Thus its ineficiency.
But I actually now came to the conclusion that "islamism" in Pakistan is not bottom-up as you Baron suggest but that it is in fact implemented from up to the bottom.
I don't think there's something inherent in the people of Pakistan - of every ethnicity - to be fundamentalist muslims or to have sympathies for the islamic fundamentalists. Not more than in any muslim country.
The thing is that the founding ideology of Pakistan is just that: Islamism.
It's the only think that bides the country together. It is also the only common denominator to the various and very diverse (aboriginal) peoples of Pakistan. So you have this first problem that you have a state which is deemed the "land of the pure", created and maintained for the people of the islamic faith. And for that purpose only.
Add to that factor the undeniable truth that Pakistan is one of the must drawback third world countries that exists, so there's no room for one to effectively trust the government. Not only that but also the people are miserable so poor they are.
The last factor is that islam is the only thing that the people have in common. This would not be that bad if multiculturalism was not supreme in Pakistan. Different races, subdivided in different ethnic groups, further subdivided in different tribes... all this within the Arabic mantra of "I and my brother against my cousins, me and my cousins against my family, my family against my tribe, my tribe against the world" (or something of the sort).
So tell me, how can Pakistan not be a heaven for islamic fundamentalists if the only thing that people share there - or better, the only thing that people will not fight for (feel the irony) - is islam?
The more strict islamism is in Pakistan the better Pakistan will function. But that better is still not a great thing neither for the world nor for the Pakistanis.
The people are forced by the State to become islamists. Otherwise, the Nation, rather than the State, will fall over his family and tribe.
If they are too extremist to the point that they are annoying to the government, it will be the State, rather than the Nation to fall over them.
My suggestion? Get the Nukes out of them and divide that country along ethnic lines. If they want so much, they can unite again, pacifically. I really believe the European Civilisation (The West) should act together to
1)Secure Pakistan's nuclear weapons and destroy Pakistan's nuclear capabilities and
2)Push for the division of Pakistan along ethnic lines in a peacefull way (at least, at this phase we are at).
Quote: "A total 26 Pakistan Air Force officials have been court martialled after being found guilty of links with terrorists."
"terrorists" as defined by who? As the Baron stated above: One of the problems with Pakistan is that radical Islamic ideology is fully intertwined with the government and the armed forces at all levels."
Such intertwining creates beaucoup confusion.
Consider the recent US drone attack on a taliban funeral. Depending on which report you read, there were between 8, 15, dozens,
45, 65 or as many as 80 killed - many high value targets.
Latest news has it, the US Senate approved a bill to triple aid to Pakistan.
Increased aid to Pakistan = US payoff for good intel resulting in drone's success?
Pakistani payoff for good intel to US = 50 PAF officials arrested/26 Pakistan Air Force officials court martialled ?
Not to mention . . .Pakistan urges US to end drone attacks
When Islam enters the matrix, confusion is the order of the day.
A remarkably accurate and to-the-point post, Afonso. Please use to foregoing one as a model for all future comments, it was very useful.
Just the simple fact that Pakistan exists at all is very disturbing, indeed.
Further, your priorities are on the money. Pakistan's nuclear arsenal must be appropriated by negotiation or main force in order to establish the fact that THE POSSESSION OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS BY ANY ISLAMIC COUNTRY WILL NOT BE TOLERATED.
Finally, Pakistan is a failed state. It has been for quite some time now and its eventual dissolution is a foregone conclusion.
Better that it is divided along the Indus river and then redistributed between Afghanistan and India (with a possible third Baloch portion in the south awaiting a similar Iranian fragmentation).
Pakistan's literal title, "Land of the Pure", could not be more accurate. It is a pluperfect example of "Pure Islam", replete with bomb vest mass murders, vehicle bomb attacks, terrorist academies and every other malignant form of Islamic evil known to man.
Much like how a nuclear armed Iran will go down in history as this new century's single-greatest strategic blunder, the partitioning of India to create East and West Pakistan was one of the last century's most hamfisted diplomatic acts.
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