Retired Brigadier supervising Benazir's security was Osama's handler, says expert

http://www.dailyindia.com/show/18409...er-says-expert

From our ANI Correspondent
10/19/2007

Chennai, Oct.19: The retired brigadier who was given the responsibility of securing former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's car journey through Karachi on Thursday, used to be the handling officer of Osama bin Laden and Taliban chief Mulla Omar when he was attached with the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

Disclosing this information in an article for the rediff website, former Additional Secretary in the Cabinet Secretariat, B.Raman says that Brigadier (retired) Ejaz Shah, whose resignation is being demanded by Benazir Bhutto, is a close confidante of President General Pervez Musharraf.

Raman says that after Musharraf seized power on October 12, 1999, he had Shah posted as the Home Secretary of Punjab. He also says that Omar Sheikh, who orchestrated the kidnapping and murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl, surrendered before Shah because Omar Sheikh knew him before and was confident that Ejaz Shah would see that he was not tortured.

So close are the links between Shah and Musharraf that when several allegations were filed against him, Musharraf sought to send him as Ambassador to Australia or Indonesia. Both countries reportedly refused to accept him. Musharraf then made him the Director General of the Intelligence Bureau and he saw to it that the death sentence against Omar Sheikh for his role in the Pearl case was not executed.

The courts have been repeatedly postponing hearings on the appeal filed by Omar Sheikh against the death sentence.

Shah, according to Raman, also played an active role in the campaign to discredit Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Caudhury after he started calling for the files of a large number of missing persons who were taken into custody by the police and the intelligence agencies.

Shah is also a close personal friend of many Punjabi leaders of the Pakistan Muslim League (Qaid), which is opposed to Benazir's return.

According to these sources, the suicide bomber or bombers managed to penetrate the security cordon of the police and IB officers without being frisked, but could not penetrate the inner cordon of security guards of the PPP. When stopped on Thursday night, they blew themselves up at a distance from her vehicle. At the time of the explosion, Bhutto had gone inside the vehicle to rest for a while. This seems to have contributed to her miraculous escape. Had she been standing on top she might have been injured, if not killed?

Ijaz Shah appointed new IB chief

http://www.dawn.com/2004/02/26/top8.htm

By Our Staff Reporter
2/25/2004

ISLAMABAD, Feb 25: Intelligence Bureau director-general Col Bashir Wali (Rtd) has been replaced by ex-ISI officer Brig Ijaz Shah (Rtd). The outgoing director-general was promoted from the post of joint director of the IB to head the agency about a year ago.

He served as the IB director-general for almost a year when the establishment division issued his posting orders on Wednesday. "The incumbent has been asked to report to the establishment division," an official said when contacted by Dawn.

Ijaz Shah, said to be a trusted friend of President Gen Musharraf, has an experience of tackling the threat posed by militant organizations. The US has been persuading the government to crackdown on the right wing religious groups suspected of having links with Al-Qaeda. Mr Ijaz is expected to deliver quick results.

"Ijaz Shah would be on contract," another official said. Omar Sheikh, alleged mastermind of Daniel Pearl kidnapping, had surrendered to Brigadier Ijaz (Rtd) when he was serving as home secretary of Punjab. "The tenure of his contract will be determined later," an official said.

Did Daniel Pearl stumble upon ISI secrets?

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/c...art_id=3408476

11 Mar 2002, 0205 hrs IST,Siddharth Varadarajan,TNN

Islamabad: what did general pervez musharraf mean when he said that daniel pearl—the wall street journal correspondent who was kidnapped and killed by extremists in pakistan—had been over intrusive in areas he shouldn’t have been? the remark was vintage musharraf, delivered off-the-cuff during an impromptu press conference here thursday. and though there was no trace of menace in his voice, he was clearly stating that there were some areas which journalists should stay away from for their own good. "unfortunately", he said, "(pearl) got over-involved". but what exactly had pearl got himself "over-involved" in? though he was said to be working on a story about the pakistani linkages of richard reid—the shoe bomber who was overpowered by passengers on a us-bound flight in december—many local journalists feel pearl had stumbled across information which might have embarrassed the inter-services intelligence agency in some way. "we can only presume he came close to finding out the roots of some people with the isi,” said a senior columnist for the urdu daily, jang . "there were 3,000 western journalists who worked in or passed through pakistan during the us war on afghanistan, said one editor of a daily newspaper. "why was he the one picked up?" the editor echoed a theory which is quite popular among journalists here "that pearl might have been pursuing another, more damaging story than the one on richard reid: "it is possible he had come across some information about a few of the persons on india’s list of 20 terrorists. persons such as dawood ibrahim, for example". he pointed out that the first time an exposé on dawood’s karachi links was published in the pakistani magazine herald , the isi had picked up and interrogated two journalists, ghulam hasnain and amir ahmed khan, to try and find out the source of their story. though pakistani analysts doubt that pearl kidnapping had official sanction, they say the investigation will likely proceed “cautiously”. “i am not saying there will be a cover-up”, said one senior journalist. “but pakistan’s past policies (regarding the extremist groups) have left a large number of skeletons. once you begin investigating, you will start opening all kinds of doors”. even though they had nothing to do with pearl’s kidnapping, many people within the ruling establishment would not like matters to be probed very deeply, he said. one noted pakistani commentator told the times of india that the manner in which omar sheikh, the prime suspect in the pearl kidnapping, came into police custody itself spoke of these linkages. “he wasn’t arrested. rather, he turned himself in to the one man he trusted enormously, punjab home secretary brigadier ijaz shah, who is a retired isi man”. and what was omar’s connection with ijaz shah? “please re-read the diary omar sheikh wrote when he was in prison in india. it is full of adulatory references to the man who inspired him. and that man’s name was shah sahab.”

Ijaz Shah
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ijaz_Shah

Retired Brigadier Ijaz Shah is a Pakistani politician, a long-term close associate of Pervez Musharraf; Shah is a former Pakistan Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) official[1] and is currently the director-general of the Pakistani intelligence bureau; in his official capacity he was one of the individuals named as having received intelligence after the 2007 Karachi bombing at the return of Benazir Bhutto.

In his official capacity he has an active role in Pakistan's official campaign to discredit outspoken rape victim Mukhtar Mai. In December 2005 he travelled to Lahore to warn her American interpreter, Dr. Amna Buttar, an American citizen who has interpreted for Mukhtar in the U.S. with the chilling claim, reported by Nicholas D. Kristof of The New York Times, "We can do anything. ... We can just pay a little money to some black guys in New York and get people killed there."[2]

Shah was the ISI handling officer of the British-born international terrorist Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, convicted for the murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl and part of the terrorist group Harkat-ul Mujahideen. In 1999, while serving a prison sentence for terrorist offence, Sheik had been released in exchange for the passengers of the hijacked Indian Airlines flight 814. In February 2002, cornered by Pakistani police under strong American diplomatic pressure, Omar Sheikh turned himself to his close confident Brig. Shah, who then was the Home Secretary of the Pakistani Punjab region: Shah briefed Sheikh for a full week before remanding him to police custody;[3] this famous "missing week" has never been accounted for in public.

In 2004, Musharraf's attempt to appoint Shah as High Commissioner to Australia was rejected in a highly unusual move by Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs department. Instead Musharraf appointed him to head Pakistani intelligence, 25 February 2004, transferring his predecessor, Wali Muhammad.[4]