US Official: Pakistan Ready to agree.

Maorza · by **Maorza** on Sat Sep 15, 2001 2:11 am

<a href="http://dailynews.netscape.com/mynsnews/story.tmpl?table=n&cat=51180&id=200109150052000186937">Saturday, Sept. 15, 2001 
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan 
(AP) - If he cooperates 
with Washington, he risks 
the wrath of Islamic 
fundamentalists. If he 
doesn't, he risks the fury 
of Washington.</a> 
 
Pakistani President 
Pervez Musharraf faces a 
dilemma in what could be 
a major U.S. assault on 
neighboring Afghanistan 
and the suspected 
terrorists it harbors. 
 
Pakistan asked for more 
time Friday to consider 
Washington's requests in 
the wake of this week's 
terror attacks in the 
United States. That reportedly included a request to use Pakistani air 
space in the event of an attack on Afghanistan, and the closure of the 
Pakistani-Afghan border. 
 
In Washington, a senior U.S. official said Pakistan is ready to agree to 
close its border with Afghanistan and let U.S. warplanes use its 
airspace. 
 
The United States has not heard directly from Musharraf, said the 
official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. But it has received 
indications that Pakistan intends to say yes to the U.S. appeal, the 
official said. 
 
Militants on Friday threatened ``jihad,'' or holy war, if Musharraf caved 
in to U.S. demands. 
 
Some liberals urged the government to place itself squarely on 
Washington's side. 
 
But in its editorial Friday, The News daily recalled Pakistan's Cold War 
alliance with the United States, which it said helped plunge the country 
into chaos by bolstering banditry and religious radicalism. The United 
States allied itself with many religious militants in the region while 
trying to drive the Soviet Union out of Afghanistan in the 1980s. 
 
``Participating in any U.S. operation will be just as hazardous as not 
participating in it,'' the editorial said. 
 
Since taking office in a bloodless coup nearly two years ago, Musharraf 
has performed a balancing act between seeking to modernize his 
poverty-stricken nation of 140 million people and keeping the 
fundamentalists at bay. 
 
Pakistan has maintained close ties to Afghanistan's ruling Taliban 
militia, which is accused of sheltering terrorists who might be behind 
this week's terror attacks, the worst in U.S. history. Those relations 
have strained ties with Washington, but earned Pakistan a measure of 
security on its western border. 
 
However, Pakistan has worked with the U.S. to combat terrorism in 
recent years. 
 
In 1995, the Islamabad government arrested Ramzi Yousef, the 
alleged mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. He was 
later convicted in the United States and is now serving a life sentence. 
 
For now, Musharraf has pledged full cooperation with Washington. 
 
``Pakistan ... will assist in the eradication of terrorism,'' Gen. Rashid 
Quereshi, Musharraf's chief spokesman, told The Associated Press. 
 
Responsibility for the attacks has not yet been established. But U.S. 
officials, including Secretary of State Colin Powell, say the prime 
suspect is Osama bin Laden, a Saudi exile hiding out in Afghanistan. 
 
A major U.S. attack on Afghanistan would likely place heavy burdens 
on Pakistan, which could be called upon to provide air and ground 
space and to share the intelligence it has collected on both bin Laden 
and the Taliban. 
 
A top Pakistani official said Friday that Pakistan has asked the United 
States for time to consider its demands. Musharraf met with his military 
high command Friday to discuss Pakistan's options, though details of 
that meeting were sketchy. 
 
``In the mood they are in, the Americans are not going to indulge 
fence sitters,'' former Pakistani senator Shafqat Mahmood wrote in a 
newspaper column Friday. 
 
The potential price of cooperating with Washington was illustrated 
during Sabbath prayers at mosques throughout Pakistan on Friday. 
 
The terror attacks were ``punishment from God for what the 
Americans have done to Muslims,'' prayer leader Maulana Abdul Aziz 
said from a pulpit in the capital of Islamabad. 
 
``We will join the jihad against the West if the Americans dare attack 
Afghanistan,'' said Muslim cleric Hasan Jan in Peshawar, a city on the 
Afghan border. Hundreds of his followers responded with chants of 
``Jihad! Jihad!'' 
 
``We shall be on the streets. We will be shouting against Americans 
and the whole Muslim world will be shouting against Americans'' if 
Pakistan caves in to Washington, said Munawwar Hassan, General 
Secretary of the Muslim Party Jamaat-e-Islami. 
 
History has shown that fundamentalist threats against Americans in 
Pakistan are not hollow. 
 
In 1979, protesters burned down the U.S. Embassy here following the 
takeover of holy sites in Saudi Arabia by Muslim dissidents. In 1989, 
demonstrators attacked U.S. offices in Islamabad during a protest 
against author Salman Rushdie's ``Satanic Verses.'' <a href=http://pub83.ezboard.com/bilovelabasketball>ILuvBB</a>
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"My father conveyed a promise to my mother
that all of her children would finish school. It
was not a matter of whether I would finish, it
was more a question of when. I felt that my
time was the present. I had to fulfill my
promise and no money in the world could
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Looking back, I know I made the right
decision."

Tim DuncanEdited by: <A HREF=http://pub61.ezboard.com/bsanantoniospurs62937.showLocalUserPublicProfile?login=maorza>Maorza</A> <IMG HEIGHT=10 WIDTH=10 SRC="http://www.ezboard.com/ezgfx/globalWhite.gif" BORDER=0> at: 9/15/01 1:12:32 am

US Official: Pakistan Ready to agree.

US Official: Pakistan Ready to agree.

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