Dr._Farrukh_Saleem
Dr Farrukh Saleem writes ….He raises some very logical points.
America would look after its interests. We must look after our own.
America is neither Pakistan’s friend nor its foe. Of the 192 countries on the face of the planet America loves just one. And, that country is: America. Everywhere else it’s American national interests – political, economic and strategic.
On March 8, Phantom Fireworks sold a box of M-88 Silver Salute consumer-grade firecrackers (that sell for $10.99 for a 36-count box each containing 50 milligrams of explosives, the size of a quarter of a tablet of aspirin). In April, a Bridgeport teenager sold her dark blue 1993 Nissan Pathfinder SUV for $1,300.
On May 1, the Minskoff Theatre was showing the musical The Lion King. At 6:28 p.m., a dark blue 1993 Nissan Pathfinder SUV entered Times Square and was parked, engine left running and hazard lights on, at 1 Astor Plaza, 1515 Broadway. At 6:30 p.m. Aliou Niasse, a Senegalese Muslim photograph vendor, cautioned an officer of the New York City Police Department (NYPD) of a dark-blue, smoke-emitting Nissan Pathfinder SUV, with fireworks cracking inside, parked at 1 Astor Plaza.
NYPD’s remote-controlled robot found two travel alarm clocks in the rear of the SUV both connected to two five-gallon cans of gasoline. In between the cans of gasoline, was a box of M-88 firecrackers. The SUV also had three 20-gallon tanks of propane, a metal pressure-cooker and eight plastic bags full of urea-based fertiliser.
On May 3, at 11:45 p.m., 53 hours after NYPD’s robot diffused Nissan’s explosives, US Customs and Border Protection agents boarded Emirates Flight 202, that was about to take off from John F. Kennedy Airport in Queens for Dubai and then to Islamabad, and took Faisal Shahzad, an American citizen of Pakistani descent, into custody.
Here’s what we have so far: a plane ticket from Pakistan to the US and another one from New York to Dubai. Living expenses plus $3,600 rental for three months. An SUV for $1,300, firecrackers, gasoline and propane. Everything included under $7,000.
To be certain, the bomb was diffused some two weeks ago and now its politics. Pakistan’s national interests would be served better if there isn’t a Waziristan connection. America, in the meanwhile, will press that there is a connection so as to pressurise Pakistan into clearing safe-heavens in North Waziristan.
Did the suspect now under custody really intend to kill innocent Americans? Was he a ‘lone wolf’; a person living, acting and/or working alone without a formal command structure? Is there a North Waziristan connection? We may never find out for sure.
This is what we know for sure: since 2003, Pakistani fatalities in terrorist violence stand at 27,756 of which 3,065 have been security forces personnel. There are forces out there killing our army jawans and officers. Since 2002, there have been 241 suicide bomb attacks. Since 2001, there have been 2,284 bomb blasts across Pakistan. There are forces out there wanting to capture physical Pakistani terrain and impose their own set of laws – and all that through the use of extreme violence. What we also know for sure is that for the past 30 years our public schools have been preaching – not teaching – lessons of hate, animosity, hostility, bigotry and intolerance.
America would look after its interests. We must look after our own.
P.S. The probability of the Taliban recruiting a naturalised American citizen of Pakistani descent – awfully wary that they are of getting infiltrated by an American agent – is very, very low.
The writer is a columnist based in Islamabad. Email: farrukh15@hotmail.com
