Top terrorists go free under Musharraf's care
U.S., U.K. quietly protest released Pak prisoners
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=59660
Posted: January 12, 2008
1:00 a.m. Eastern
While Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf claims to be cracking down on terrorists as America's "front-line ally" in the war, he has released from custody – or his police have let escape – top al-Qaida and other terrorists, WND has learned.
Pakistani authorities late last month allowed a major al-Qaida terrorist wanted by British police in connection with the transatlantic skyterror plot to conveniently escape just weeks before he was scheduled to be extradited to Britain for questioning and prosecution in the conspiracy to blow up 10 airliners over U.S. cities.
Western officials believe Rashid Rauf, who slipped out the back door of a mosque he'd been allowed to pray in, is tied to Pakistan's notorious intelligence service, the ISI. Even the lawyer for the fugitive, who remains at large, called it a government "organized disappearance."
Rauf was arrested August 2006 in Pakistan only after a tip-off from British intelligence investigating the airplane conspiracy.
A dual citizen of Britain and Pakistan, he is married to a relative of Maulana Masood Azhar, the founder and head of Jaish-e-Mohammed – a Pakistani-based terrorist group linked to al-Qaida. ISI, whose main goal is to end Indian rule in Kashmir, has been known to work with J-e-M and al-Qaida to train and finance Kashmiri fighters.
Azhar's closest confederate happens to be the murderer of American journalist Danny Pearl – British-born Omar Saeed Sheikh. Both terrorists allegedly are protected by the ISI and Musharraf's regime.
J-e-M remains active in Pakistan, despite promises by Musharraf to crack down on the terror group. Pearl, a Wall Street Journal correspondent, was investigating its financial operations at the time he was kidnapped and beheaded, finding troubling links to the ISI and the Pakistani government. Pearl reported that J-e-M leaders "drove expensive double-cabin Hilux pickup trucks, some with government license plates."
Azhar reportedly is no longer under house arrest, and is editing a militant newspaper, Al Qalam (The Pen), in Karachi, Pakistan, where Pearl was butchered. And Omar Sheikh, as he's known, still has not been punished for Pearl's 2002 murder, while Musharraf continues to block U.S. investigators from interviewing him.
Like their British counterparts who sought the extradition of Rauf, U.S. authorities had asked Musharraf to extradite Omar Sheikh. But he is virtually untouchable inside Pakistan.
In fact, Musharraf appeared to exonerate him in his memoir, claiming that Pearl was really killed by 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, already in U.S. custody, despite earlier evidence Omar Sheikh had masterminded the entire kidnapping and murder operation.
He also made the bizarre claim that far from working for Pakistani intelligence, Omar Sheikh worked for British intelligence. Then he suggested Pearl worked for Israeli intelligence.
In the same book, Musharraf fails to mention that Omar Sheikh was at the home of Musharraf's ISI friend Brigadier Ijaz Shah a full week before his "arrest" was announced by the police. It was in Rawalpindi, where ISI is headquartered, that Omar Sheikh originally met Pearl and set the trap for him. ISI had been closely monitoring the reporting of Pearl, along with other foreign reporters after 9/11.
So between Feb. 5, 2001, and Feb. 12, 2001, the ISI was protecting Pearl's killer – and protecting his sources.
Meanwhile, Musharraf was visiting in Washington, telling authorities there he was still looking for Pearl's killer. Then, during a Feb. 12, 2001, meeting with President Bush to discuss U.S. aid to Pakistan, he announced the arrest of Omar Sheikh. The next day, Bush offered Musharraf an additional $200 million in aid.
While in Washington, the Pakistani strongman also held out hope that Pearl was still alive – when Pakistani authorities knew he had been dead since at least Jan. 31, 2001.
Frustrated with the Pakistani system of justice, Pearl's widow recently sued Omar Sheikh over her husband's killing in U.S. district court in New York.
"I don't have a husband, but Omar Sheikh – he has a wife, he has a son," Mariane Pearl said. "He is in exactly the same position" now as he was before he was arrested.
Omar Sheikh, Azhar and Rauf aren't the only terrorists Musharraf has let off the hook, officials complain.
Other terrorists freed
U.S. officials angrily protested Musharraf's recent release of Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan, a top al-Qaida operative whom the U.S. persuaded Musharraf to arrest in connection with a plot to target U.S. financial buildings.
"We're not exactly happy about that," said Vice Admiral John Scott Redd, head of the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center in Washington.
And earlier this month, Pakistani authorities in Rawalpindi freed from prison four Palestinian terrorists convicted in the hijacking of a Pan Am jet that left 22 passengers and crew dead. They had demanded that Israel release 1,500 Palestinian prisoners.
The terrorists, who were supposed to serve life sentences, got out after just 14 years.
Musharraf further shocked U.S. officials when he said last week that he was "not particularly looking for" Osama bin Laden, who has gained sanctuary inside Pakistan.
Then in an interview this week, he threatened the U.S., warning that U.S. troops would be regarded as invaders if they cross into Pakistan's border region with Afghanistan to hunt for bin Laden and other al-Qaida leaders.
"If they come without our permission, that's against the sovereignty of Pakistan. I challenge anybody coming into our mountains," Musharraf said from Rawalpindi. "They would regret that day."
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Originally Posted by Gold9472
