General Pervez Musharraf was the president of Pakistan, a leading American ally in the war on terror, from 2001-2008. He then voluntarily resigned before what many observers saw as politically motivated impeachment proceedings could be started against him, and went into self-imposed exile. But he has now declared his intention to return to Pakistan on March 24 to contest forthcoming presidential elections.

He has been warned that if he returns to Pakistan he faces arrest warrants for allegedly failing to provide adequate security which led to the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

But the General has told supporters of his All Pakistan Muslim League political party that he would improve Pakistan’s economy and strengthen foreign investment in the country.

Here, in this exclusive interview, he speaks to Metro as he finalizes preparations to return to his homeland.

What is ailing Pakistan at this time?
Terrorism, especially sectarian terrorism. Law and order has failed especially in places like Balochistan and Karachi. The economy has broken down and there is not enough economic stability and jobs. That is the backbone of a stable country and it has broken down. Also, tensions with India remain.

What do you want to accomplish by your return, and why go now?
Pakistan is a very large country and an important regional player. When I was president I wanted to achieve for Pakistan internal security and stability, regional peace, international acceptability and an improvement and amelioration within the Muslim world.
Internal stability would allow us to examine the welfare and well-being of the population. Why go back now? The elections are to be held in the next few months according the constitution and it is now or never for me. If I am not there to stand for election it will be another five years until I have a chance do so.

What are your chances of success?
If you listen to the commentators they will tell you that my party does not have the internal structure to fight an election. It is simply not true. We are established with organizations across the country and some major political players are just waiting for my return to offer their support. There are a number of people and organizations that I call floaters in Pakistan, and my return will bring hope to them and the chance to work together. Only I can do this. Many people are clamoring for me to return. I would say I have a 50/50 chance of success.

Why are you taking this risk, which must also be physical?
After 9/11 I was resigned to personal risk on a daily basis. It was something that became part of my routine. Because I am ex-president of Pakistan, the authorities must provide me with some security when I return — but of course I also have my own arrangements. I have faith that life and death is out of my hands and I have a duty to return to my country to deal with its problems.
There are legal charges against you in Pakistan, a residue of your presidency. How will you deal with this obstacle?
I will simply appeal to the judicial process. One has to have faith in the courts even though there is a history of judicial activism. I am 100 percent confident that these false, trumped-up and politically motivated charges against me will be thrown out.

With significant U.S. troop withdrawals scheduled, how do you see the strategic situation in Afghanistan playing out over the next, say, three years?
If the U.S. and coalition forces leave lock stock and barrel then after 2014 I can see one of several things happening: a return to how Afghanistan was from 1986-1997, which was vicious tribal warfare — the various ethnic groups fighting each other — or the return of the Pushtun Taliban versus the Northern Alliance of minorities in Afghanistan.
If, however, the U.S. leaves some forces, with air and special forces support which is made available to the Afghan National Army, I can foresee a situation remaining as it is now — not a win and not a loss with the Taliban held at bay.
Otherwise I can see a proxy war being fought in Afghanistan between India and Pakistan. India is active in Afghanistan trying to create an active anti-Pakistan country. Pakistan is logically doing all it can to stop this.

With both U.S. and Israeli military strikes possible, Iran and its nuclear program have been frequently in the news. Pakistan shares a border with Iran. Why should Pakistan be allowed to keep the nuclear weapons it possesses, when Iran, its neighbor, should not?
You cannot compare the two. Pakistan developed nonconventional weapons as a deterrent, as purely a defensive measure. Pakistan faces an existential threat: India. We have fought three wars with India since independence in 1947.
We are the two giants in the region, and it is important that war between us should become unthinkable — which is why we justify our nuclear capability.
Iran has no such similar reason for having nuclear weapons. There is no similar existential threat to Iran as there is to Pakistan, so they cannot want a nuclear program for defensive reasons.

What are the causes of the deterioration in relations between Pakistan and the United States? What could you do to improve them?
I had good relations with George W. Bush to the extent that I could call him up at any time to discuss problems or make suggestions. I believe that trust has been lost somewhat. Pakistan and the U.S. need to restore that level of honesty and trust as Pakistan is such an influence in the region. There needs to be open dialogue, and we need to be honest and transparent with each other once again.

Previously, you were Pakistan’s chief executive. What would you do differently?
The question presumes that there are many things I would do differently. Not necessarily. When I was president, the internal security situation was far more stable than it is now. The economy was growing and there was jobs for the people. Prices were stable and we had consistent gas and electricity supplies and prices. We were able to focus on the welfare of the people, internally. So far as our relationships with India are concerned, I would seek to restart the process of rapprochement I had begun when I was president. We could have signed treaties on two of the major issues that divided us and were working towards a solution in Kashmir, but these opportunities arise, but do not always stay. If they are missed they can be gone. I would try again with India. We are the two biggest countries in the region. We could deliver a huge boost to regional security, stability and economy if we could settle our differences and that is what I would try to do.

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Bushra shouldn’t be alive. One day, after eight years of marriage and three children, her husband, aided by his mother and another relative, tied her up and poured acid over her. Then they tied her scarf around her neck, hung her from the ceiling and left her to die in front of her two youngest children. To make sure Bushra really died, they set the house on fire. The reason: returning from a visit to her family, Bushra had brought her husband’s family expensive gifts rather than cash. They hadn’t mentioned they expected cash.

Thanks to kind neighbors, Bushra survived. But like every acid attack victim, she looked like a monster. Of course, condemning victims to a life as monsters is what men intend when they throw acid at their partners and relatives. In Pakistan, it’s an easy crime to commit: acid is cheap, a bottle of it costs some $0.30.

But today Bushra, now 43, has a good job – as a beautician in an upscale salon here in Lahore, a bustling city of some 10 million near the Indian border. “Since I walked in here I’ve never looked back,” she tells me as I visit her. Bushra belongs to the sisterhood of Pakistani acid attack survivors who’ve been helped back to life by Musarrat Misbah, the owner of Pakistan’s Depilex chain of beauty parlors.

I’m ashamed to admit that at my first meeting with Bushra and her fellow attack survivors, I reacted with shock and averted my eyes. But after spending time with them, all I felt was awe at their courage and lack of bitterness. Some of them are outgoing, some shy, but they’re among the most formidable people you’ll ever meet. And I’m humbled by their incredible kindness. “Your hand looks tired,” said Bushra as I was writing down her answers. “You need a hand massage.” She began to massage my hands, arms and neck. This is a woman who was almost dead, and now cares about my weary hand!

Misbah, a stunning woman in her early fifties, never set out to help acid victims. “I’m a beautician through and through,” she tells me. “I love my job. I’m always the last one to leave at night.”

One night as she was closing her salon, a woman in a burka showed up and curtly said she needed help. When she pulled her veil back, Misbah saw a face so disfigured that she fainted. Since then, the beauty entrepreneur has become Pakistan’s unofficial protector of acid attack victims.

The 30-some Depilex salons now double as offices for her Smile Again Foundation, which helps survivors get reconstructive surgery and then trains them in professions so they can re-enter society. “Without vocational training, where would these girls go?” asks Misbah. “Back to those men who threw acid at them?”

To date, the Smile Again Foundation has helped over 500 victims. But it’s only a small share of the estimated 9,000 women who were acid-attacked between 1994 and 2001. The assaults continue despite the passing of a law banning the practice two years ago. Acid attacks are common mainly in central and southern Asia but also occur worldwide.

“They often come from a poor background, and when you’re poor and uneducated, you often don’t know the difference between right and wrong,” reflects Hina Dilpazeer, Pakistan’s leading TV actress, who campaigns for victims. “If society’s poor get an education, I’m convinced attacks will drop.”

Many of Smile Again’s graduates now work in Depilex’s parlors, while others have are nurses and call center workers. “The foundation is my home and family,” says Bushra, who hasn’t seen her children since the attack. “People make faces when they see me outside. But here at the salon I’m safe, I’ve gained clients’ respect.”

But the road to recovery is rough, as not even the 35 required operations result in a natural face. “Reconstructive surgery is very expensive,” says Misbah. “Donors prefer supporting schools.” Threats have forced her to hire a bodyguard.

For survivors like Nasreen, a 27-year-old from rural Punjab, life is essentially over. When she was 13, three middle-aged daughters of wealthy neighbors taunted her, and when she finally responded in anger, their fiancés threw acid on Nasreen as she slept. The attack left her blind. But when I meet Nasreen at the Depilex salon in Lahore, her nails are beautifully done and she sports a stylish hairdo.

“This is like a haven,” explains Nasreen. “Everyone else shuns me.” Smile Again pays her a stipend as she can no longer work in the fields: her attackers still live next door after paying their way out of a 25-year prison sentence.

At any given time, between five and seven women stay at Misbah’s home while awaiting surgery or receiving training. But Misbah feels insufficient: “I just hope God gives me strength to help more girls. I want to build a shelter where I can live with them. Sorry if I sound like Mother Teresa.” However, with acid attacks a persistent problem not just in Pakistan, the world needs more Mother Teresas, even though other groups are helping victims in Pakistan and overseas.

And though thousands of acid attack survivors desperately need help, Misbah is making a huge difference in individual women’s lives. These days, Bushra puts on lipstick and beautiful clothes. Her brother-in-law then tells her, “Why do you do that? You should just sit in a corner.” To which she responds, “You have no power over me.”

Q&A

“Acid attack culprits will be tried as terrorists” — Begum Zakia Shahnwaz, Senior Advisor to the Chief Minister of Punjab – the top-ranking female politician in Pakistan’s most populous state

Metro: What is Punjab doing to protect women?

Shahnwaz: Last year we proposed a comprehensive bill, which is very likely to be passed. It includes violence against women. It will tell the men that this animalistic behavior can’t go on.

For acid attack victims we will provide physical and psychological care, and the perpetrator will be tried in a terrorist court, where cases are dealt with swiftly. And acid attacks are terrorist acts. The bill also includes changes in the inheritance law, a higher female quota in the public sector, anti-harassment legislation and high-standard day-care centers. And every college in Punjab will be required to provide two women-only buses.

Pakistan’s Benazir Bhutto was the first woman elected to lead the government in a Muslim country. On the other hand there are acid attacks. When it comes to women’s situation, is Pakistan advanced or way behind?

In North America and Europe, which are far more advanced than us, women are battered and abused. Our fundamental problem is that we haven’t given education to the masses, and abuse also stems from economic frustration. But bear in mind that many of our powerful women are beaten by their husbands, too. The difference is that the strong woman can walk away and the poor woman can’t. However, men should remember that when they get old their wives will return the abuse. When the children are young, they can’t protect her, but as adults they will.

Are you optimistic that women’s situation will improve?

Yes. Everyone here says that politicians are corrupt, the army is bad, NGOs are bad, the press is bad. But not everyone is bad or corrupt. There are people who want to help women.

Sarwari: From pariah to family breadwinner

Sarwari always covers her head and wears dark sunglasses. When she removes her veil, a head burned beyond recognition emerges, but it’s progress. For 20 years, Sarwari’s burned chin stuck to her chest and her eyes bulged out like a frog’s.

“One year after I got married to my husband, he wanted to take a second wife,” she tells me when I visit her in the one-room house outside Lahore where she lives with her brother and his family. “I said, ‘No, just divorce me’.” Her husband poured acid over her. Even so, Sarwari’s mother didn’t let her file a case against her husband: he’s her first cousin.

One year ago, a relative heard about Smile Again and brought Sarwari there. Surgery detached her chin from her chest and gave her eyelids. She’s now been able to start a bottle-cap business. “It gives me an income, so I can give my brother’s family money,” she says. “But I want to be more financially secure, because my brother is getting married, too. If I can provide for his family his wife will be nice to me.”

In fact, Sarwari, now 40, commands respect as she’s the family’s breadwinner. But she has received taunts from her sister-in-law’s sisters, who said, “Your husband’s new wife is beautiful!” But, Sarwari explains, “I said, ‘What are you talking about? I’m financially secure, I provide for other people. I’m beautiful’.”

Happy ending: Abuse led her to self-immolation but Urooj has found a new life

Urooj tried to burn herself to death. “My in-laws tortured me,” she tells me. The abuse worsened when Urooj didn’t immediately get pregnant. “My husband would say, ‘You’re infertile, what’s the point of you being alive?’” she says. After Urooj got pregnant, she gave birth to a girl: a misfortune.

Urooj survived the burns, with damage to 70% of her body. Her parents blamed her, while her husband remarried. Urooj hasn’t seen her daughter again. But a friend had heard of Smile Again and brought Urooj there. She now works as a beautician.

When she met a man online, they decided to get married, much to her parents’ ire. “They said that I should have accepted my fate and continued living with my first husband,” she says. “I told them, ‘I’ve lost everything. I don’t want such parents’.” Today Urooj, now 32, has a full-time job. But such happy endings are rare for acid attack victims. Of the 500 women assisted by Smile Again, only eight have married. “In the early years after the attack they don’t dare to think about it,” says Misbah. “But when they become more confident they start thinking about it.

The problem is, who would marry them?” But these women are fighters. They’ve clawed themselves back from near-death, so they can dream of romance, too. In my first visit, on Valentine’s Day, all the victims-turned-beauticians in Misbah’s salon wore bright red lipstick.

Supporter’s to do list

An Italian surgeon emailed Musarrat Misbah, promising to treat three survivors free of charge. But many Pakistani doctors instead charge Smile Again a higher fee. Here’s how you can help.

• Donate. By PayPal.
• Volunteer. At one of Smile Again’s locations.
• Hire. Provide employment to the survivors.
• Encourage. Plastic surgeons to volunteer their services.
• Like. Smile Again’s Facebook fan page.
• Organize. Surgeries & lodging for the survivors, and raise money for their travel expenses.
• Teach. If you’re in any other profession that can be taught to the survivors: volunteer to teach them, thereby helping them to earn a living.
• Pressure. Put pressure on your government to ask Pakistan to ban sales of acid.

Proud Anam, 16: ‘I’ve only cried once in past year’

Anam, 16, is a beautiful girl. That is, the right side of her face is beautiful. The left side has been destroyed by acid. “I was walking to school with my father one day, when I heard a man from the neighborhood call my name,” she recalls. “I kept walking, but then he shouted, ‘If you don’t stop I’ll throw acid at you’. I kept on walking, but then I felt something burning on my back, and when I turned around to see what it was the man threw acid on my face and body.”

After an entire year in the hospital, Anam was released. But she became a recluse: she didn’t leave the house and certainly didn’t want to look at herself in the mirror. Two years later Anam is a self-confident young woman who is studying for her high school graduation while training as a beautician with the Smile Again Foundation. “I used to be very angry and say why me?” she explains. “But when I look at the kind of torture the other women here have gone through I have nothing to complain about.”

Anam’s attacker had given Anam’s parents a marriage proposal for her older sister, but the parents and sister had rejected it. The family suspects that he had wanted to harm the sister, but when he only found Anam he attacked her. Anam will have surgery, but like other acid attack victims, she will be marked for life. Even so, she makes a huge and successful effort to remain upbeat. “I’ve only cried once in the past year,” she says. “That’s when my attacker was sentenced. He only got four years in jail.”

The post Violence against women: Fresh start for acid attack heroines appeared first on Metro.us.

A Brooklyn man who forced his daughter into an arranged marriage in Pakistan was arrested on charges of visa fraud and communicating threats. (Credit: Getty Images)

A Brooklyn cabdriver who forced his daughter into an arranged marriage in Pakistan may be responsible for ordering the murder of two relatives in Pakistan on Monday, federal authorities say.

Amina Ajmal, 22, says she was held against her will in Pakistan for three years and forced to marry a Pakistani man, The New York Times reported. Ajmal was able to escape last month to a secret location in the U.S. with the help of the American Embassy. But when she spoke with her father on the phone, he demanded that she return to their home in Flatbush and that if she didn’t, he would arrange for her relatives in Pakistan to be killed.

Pakistani police reported on Monday that two of Ajmal’s relatives had been shot to death and another had been injured.

Mohammad Ajmal Choudhry, 60, was arrested outside of his home on Monday and charged with communicating threats and visa fraud. He appeared in court on Tuesday and was held without bail.

Prosecutors said the mother of one of the victims in Pakistan identified Choudhry’s brother as the shooter.

Ajmal said she was held in Pakistan under death threats and forced to marry a Pakistani man, according to a complaint filed in Brooklyn Federal Court.

Choudhry was charged with filing a fraudulent visa application for his daughter, who is a U.S. citizen, and her groom, who lives in Pakistan and was trying to earn legal status into the U.S.

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Fifteen-year-old Malala Yousufzai, who was shot in October and brought to Britain for treatment, was discharged from the hospital earlier this month to spend time with her family after her initial treatment phase.

Her doctors said on Wednesday she would return to hospital within the next 10 days to undergo surgery known as titanium cranioplasty to repair a missing area of her skull with a specially molded titanium plate.

The shooting of Yousufzai, in the head at point blank range as she left school in the Swat valley, drew widespread international condemnation.

She has become an internationally recognized symbol of resistance to the Taliban’s efforts to deny women education and other rights, and more than 250,000 people have signed online petitions calling for her to be nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for her activism.

British doctors who treated Yousufzai say the bullet hit her left brow but instead of penetrating her skull, traveled underneath the skin along the side of her head and into her shoulder.

The shock wave shattered the thinnest bone of the skull and the soft tissues at the base of her jaw were damaged. The bullet and its fracture lines also destroyed her eardrum and the bones for hearing, rendering her deaf in her left ear.

She is being cared for in a specialist department of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, central England, which has treated hundreds of soldiers wounded in conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Dave Rosser, the hospital’s medical director, said a procedure to insert a cochlear implant to restore her left side hearing and the complicated skull reconstruction surgery would be carried out by a team of 10 doctors and nurses.

The skull will be repaired with a 0.6 mm plate molded from a 3D model created using imaging data from Malala’s skull.

The cranioplasty, which is expected to take between one and two hours, will be carried out first, followed by the cochlear implant operation, which should take around 90 minutes, Rosser said in a statement.

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Fifteen-year-old Malala Yousufzai, who was shot by the Taliban in October and brought to Britain for treatment, was discharged on Thursday but is due to be re-admitted in late January or early February for reconstructive surgery to her skull, doctors said.

The shooting of Yousufzai, in the head at point blank range as she left school in the Swat valley, drew widespread international condemnation.

She has become a an internationally recognized symbol of resistance to the Taliban’s efforts to deny women education and other rights, and more than 250,000 people have signed online petitions calling for her to be nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for her activism.

Doctors at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham where Yousufzai was treated said that although the bullet hit her left brow, it did not penetrate her skull but instead travelled underneath the skin along the side of her head and into her neck.

She was treated by doctors specializing in neurosurgery, trauma and other disciplines in a department of the hospital which has treated hundreds of soldiers wounded in conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq.

“Malala is a strong young woman and has worked hard with the people caring for her to make excellent progress in her recovery,” said Dave Rosser, the hospital’s medical director.

“Following discussions with Malala and her medical team, we decided that she would benefit from being at home.”

Yousufzai has already been leaving the hospital on a regular basis on “home leave” in recent weeks to spend time with her parents and younger brothers, who have a temporary home in central England, Rosser said.

“During those visits assessments have been carried out by her medical team to ensure she can continue to make good progress outside the hospital,” Rosser said.

Yousufzai’s father said in October he was sure she would “rise again” to pursue her dreams after medical treatment.

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The spokesman said in a statement that 14-year-old Malala Yousufzai, whose shooting has drawn widespread condemnation, will require prolonged care to fully recover physically and psychologically.

An air ambulance transporting Yousufzai, provided by the United Arab Emirates, had departed from Islamabad and was heading for the United Kingdom, said the spokesman.

“The panel of doctors recommended that Malala be shifted abroad to a UK center which has the capability to provide integrated care to children who have sustained severe injury,” said the spokesman in a statement.

An attack by about 50 militants on a police outpost near the large northwestern city of Peshawar on Sunday night highlighted Pakistan’s struggle to contain the Taliban and its allies. At least six policemen were killed.

Yousufzai, a cheerful schoolgirl who had wanted to become a doctor before agreeing to her father’s wishes that she strive to be a politician, has become a potent symbol of resistance against the Taliban’s efforts to deprive girls of an education.

Pakistanis have held some protests and candlelight vigils but most government officials have refrained from publicly criticising the Taliban by name over the attack, in what critics say is a lack of resolve against extremism.

Opponents of Pakistan’s government and military say the shooting is another example of the state’s failure to tackle militancy, the biggest threat to the stability of the nuclear-armed South Asian country.

The shooting of Yousufzai was the culmination of years of campaigning that had pitted the young girl against one of Pakistan’s most ruthless Taliban commanders, Maulana Fazlullah.

Fazlullah and his faction of the Pakistani Taliban took over Yusufzai’s native Swat Valley in 2009 after reaching an agreement with the government which gave them de facto control of the former tourist spot.

Fazlullah imposed the Taliban’s austere version of Islam there, blowing up girls’ schools and publicly executing those deemed immoral. The army later launched a major offensive in Swat, forcing many Taliban fighters to flee.

MELTED AWAY

Fazlullah’s men simply melted away across the porous border to Afghanistan. Earlier this year, they kidnapped and beheaded 17 Pakistani soldiers in one of several cross-border raids that have become a new security headache for Pakistan.

Yousufzai continued speaking out despite the danger. As her fame grew, Fazlullah tried everything he could to silence her. The Taliban published death threats in the newspapers and slipped them under her door. But she ignored them.

The Taliban say that’s why they sent assassins, despite a tribal code forbidding the killing of women.

Taliban sources said Fazlullah ordered two men specialising in high-profile assassinations to kill Yousufzai.

Pakistan’s Taliban, who are linked to al Qaeda, has been fighting for years to topple the U.S.-backed government and establish the kind of rule they imposed in Swat.

The United States and other Western allies who give Pakistan billions of dollars in aid have been pushing Islamabad to crack down harder on the Taliban, al Qaeda and other groups that have formed a complex web of militancy.

Pakistan says Western criticism of its performance is unjustified, and that it has sacrificed more than any other country that joined the U.S. war on militancy after the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Thousands of soldiers and civilians have been killed.

The attack on Yousufzai has angered many Pakistanis, raising questions over whether the incident could sharply turn public opinion against the militants and give the military a big edge.

But many experts argue the war on militancy can only be won if the government strengthens the fragile economy and creates jobs to ensure that fewer people join radical groups who exploit disillusionment with the state.

The Taliban struck again on Sunday night, attacking the police outpost near Peshawar with rocket-propelled grenades and gunfire. Security officials said at least six policemen were killed, including two who were beheaded.

Seven policemen are still missing and presumed kidnapped. Several police cars and an armoured vehicle were torched.

The Taliban has been blamed for many suicide bombings across Pakistan and have also staged sophisticated, high-profile attacks on the military, one of the biggest in the world.

Pakistan’s interior minister said police had despatched guards to protect journalists who had been threatened by Taliban militants angered by coverage of Yousufzai’s case.

The Taliban, based mostly in the unruly ethnic Pashtun tribal areas near the Afghan border, have said they would now try to kill her father, a headmaster of a girls’ school in Swat.

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“Malala is considered as an icon of hope and enlightenment in Pakistan and is respected and honored for her courage and determination,” a Pakistani government spokesman told Metro. “The extremist mindset which led to such a grave incident is only limited to a few fanatics.”

Metro spoke with Sajjan Gohel, the Pakistani-born International Security Director of the Asia-Pacific Foundation.

Metro: Is this a one-off incident, or are the Taliban gaining strength in Pakistan?

Gohel: Unfortunately this is not a one-off incident. It will happen again. I’ve been warning for a long time that women will be the biggest victim of the Taliban ascendency. This brutal attack and the medieval ideology of the Taliban once again reiterates the naivety of those who advocate talking and negotiating with them, even considering allowing the Taliban a role in governance.

Do Pakistani girls now have to worry about their safety?

Yes. The Taliban are determined to deprive women, including young girls, even basic human rights. It is very depressing when young Pakistani women, proud of their nationality, want to aspire for equal rights such as in education but are targeted because of it. Women’s rights have improved in some parts of Pakistan but not in the rural areas of the country. The Foreign Minister is a woman but that’s an aberration. She represents the urban elite and not the rural masses. In addition, she had the benefit of being partly educated abroad. Most Pakistani women don’t have that option. And any person, not just women, who wants to further the rights of women and girls is a potential target. The Governor of Punjab was a prominent advocate of women’s rights. He was targeted for that.

Is the Pakistani government doing enough to counter extremism?

No, it needs to do more to protect women. But on the positive side, it’s far better to have the civilian government in charge than the military.  However, condemning acts of violence are not enough. The perpetrators have to be prosecuted to the full extend of the law. Far too often individuals behind the attack are rounded up and then quietly forgotten.

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A Facebook user who identified himself as a Muslim posted a question on the page for Wilcoxson’s Ice Cream on September 21, asking whether or not its products contain any gelatin with pork.

That user’s location — Sheridan, WY — was posted right next to his name. However, that didn’t stop Wilcoxson’s president, Matt Schaeffer, from hastily responding, “We don’t deliver outside of Montana, certainly not Pakistan.”

The user fired back, “What are you talking about?? I think your comment is rude to assume I live in Pakistan.”

“I live in Sheridan but just because of your ignorance, I won’t buy your ice cream and definitely won’t recommend it,” he added.

It wasn’t long before the exchange ignited a firestorm across the Internet. The Yelp page for Wilcoxson’s Ice Cream was bombarded with one star reviews by people accusing the company of bigotry.

“People of all religions and backgrounds love to eat ice cream – but people of all religions and background don’t support Wilcoxson’s asinine bigotry and discrimination,” one review stated.

Schaeffer told the Bozeman Daily Chronicle the comment was a misunderstanding, claiming the user’s location said “Pakistan” and not Wyoming.
 
“I thought he was making this comment from Pakistan,” Schaeffer said. “It wasn’t a racist comment… It was just an honest mistake.”

Schaeffer has since deleted the company’s Facebook page after a barrage of inflammatory criticism.

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The SITE monitoring service, which follows al Qaeda’s statements, quoted Warren Weinstein, who was kidnapped in the central Pakistani city of Lahore last August, appealing to Obama to “accept and respond to the mujahideen”.

“My life is in your hands, Mr. President. If you accept the demands, I live; if you don’t accept the demands, then I die,” it quoted Weinstein as saying in the video, which was posted on Islamist websites on Sunday.

Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri said in an audio recording in December that the group was responsible for Weinstein’s abduction and demanded the release of all those in U.S. detention for ties his Islamist militant group or the Taliban.

He also demanded an end to air strikes by the United States and its allies against militants in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen and Somalia and Gaza.

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The revelation, if confirmed, is likely to further shake the U.S.-Pakistan relationship, which has been improving slightly after hitting its lowest point in decades following the May 2 bin Laden raid.

During the raid, one of two modified Blackhawk helicopters — believed to employ unknown stealth capability — malfunctioned and crashed, forcing the commandos to abandon it.

“The U.S. now has information that Pakistan, particularly the ISI, gave access to the Chinese military to the downed helicopter in Abbottabad,” the paper quoted a person “in intelligence circles” as saying.
Pakistan, which enjoys a close relationship with China, allowed Chinese intelligence officials to take pictures of the crashed chopper as well as take samples of its special “skin” that allowed the American raid to evade Pakistani radar, the newspaper reported.

Pakistan’s top spy agency denied the report.

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Pakistani authorities have “taken some steps that have given us reason to pause on some of the aid which we’re giving to the military,” White House Chief of Staff William Daley said on ABC television’s “This Week with Christiane Amanpour.”

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Hoisting a glass of Guinness at Ollie Hayes pub as fiddle music played, Obama thus began a four-nation tour of Europe with a celebration of his ancestral roots. Roars of delight from thousands of rain-lashed people lining the street greeted the president and his wife, Michelle, as their motorcade pulled to a stop in Moneygall.

The sleepy village of 300 was the birthplace of Obama’s great-great-great grandfather, Falmouth Kearney, a shoemaker who left in 1850 to begin a new life in the United States.

This makes Obama, the son of a Kenyan father and Irish-American mother, one of 37 million Americans who claim Irish ancestry — and he was greeted like a long-lost son. The powerful images could help his 2012 re-election campaign.

For Ireland, Obama’s arrival and the visit of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth last week are a welcome distraction from the global attention paid to the country’s financial woes.

Obama will also visit Britain, France and Poland on a week-long trip in which he will discuss such issues as Afghanistan and Pakistan after the killing of Osama bin Laden, the world economy and the “Arab spring” uprisings.

Moneygall is capitalizing on its famous connection, selling everything from Barack Obama fridge magnets to Barack Obama plastic lighters.

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A Wall Street Journal reporter, Pearl was kidnapped in Pakistan in January 2002 while researching a story on Islamist militants, and was later beheaded.

The findings by the Pearl Project revealed al-Adel had discussed Pearl’s abduction with Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, the accused mastermind behind the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

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How much credit should President Obama get for finding Osama bin Laden?

Every administration builds on the one before. We invested an enormous amount of time in correcting the weaknesses that existed since the end of the Cold War. People had gotten relaxed and drew down our intelligence and military capabilities. In the eight years of George W. Bush, we made a big focus on special forces. We increased their budget by 300 percent. The Obama administration benefits from the effort post-9/11 that went into those capabilities.

Pakistani leaders say they didn’t know where bin Laden was hiding. Do you believe them?

OBL [bin Laden] had money and an al Qaeda support system. He didn’t need a Pakistani support system. It’s very plausible that the Paki­stani government didn’t know his location. Are there people in the Pakistani government who would have liked to help OBL? Sure! We know about their rela­tionship with the Taliban. On one hand, they’ve helped us capture a lot of people. On the other hand, they’ve worked with the Taliban.

Does it still make sense for the United States to cooperate with Pakistan?

Absolutely. If we said that we’re not going to deal with any country that’s not exactly like us, how many countries in the world could we deal with? Winston Chur­chill made an alliance with Joseph Stalin, not because he admired the butcher, but because he wanted help in defeating Adolf Hitler.

What’s the most important thing you didn’t know that you didn’t know when you became Bush’s Secretary of Defense?

If you know that you don’t know something, you’re way better off than if you don’t know that you don’t know it. The things that get you are the unknown unknowns.

What do you worry most about?

Our intelligence problems, the proliferations of weapons of mass destruction, and cyber attacks.

On Iraq

You report in your book that the U.S. found a factory for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Since WMDs motivated the war, why didn’t the Bush administration let people know it had found some?

We didn’t know if the factory was directly connected to Saddam Hussein. Of course, he was running a police state, so there wasn’t a lot going on that he didn’t know about. Our troops found all the precursors and people who knew how to make chemical and biological weapons.
They found WMD manuals in Arabic, chemical and biological protection suits and facilities where such weapons could be produced. We know that the people involved in this could have ramped up production of chemical and biological weapons in a matter of three or four weeks. I don’t know why the [Bush] admini­stration did such a poor job of defending itself.

Would the Iraq war be viewed differently if the administration had presented this evidence?

I don’t sit around worrying about that. History will tell the truth.

On Gitmo and waterboarding

You call Guantanamo Bay a professionally run prison. Do you mean its poor reputation is simply a PR problem?

What else could it be? We had hun­dreds and hundreds of people from the press going there, looking for bad things, but they couldn’t find anything. They didn’t come back and write stories that Guantanamo was well-run, that the inmates had soccer and athletics and that the
average weight gain was 20 pounds. They didn’t write that the inmates got religiously appropriate meals. They didn’t write about this because this isn’t news.

What about waterboardings?

So many people think there was “torture” at Guantanamo because the CIA waterboarded three people somewhere else, and those people were later brought to Guantan­amo. People talk about “prisoners who were waterboarded at Guantan­amo,” which suggests that they were waterboarded by the Department of Defense.

Is that why President Obama changed his opinion about closing Guantanamo?

I recently spoke with a naval officer who was in charge at Guantanamo when the Obama administration took office. He told me that Obama’s attorney general [Minister of Justice] came to Guantanamo. The officer showed him around, and after the tour the attorney general said, “now, show me the rest of it.” He was convinced there was a secret place where bad things were happening. There wasn’t.

On his first day in office, Obama issued an executive order to close Guantanamo; but after his visit, the attorney general said that the Obama administration would have to reconsider their closure plans. Of course, it remains open. The problem is, where should these people go? If you’re going to have indefinite detentions, what do you do? You change your position, and that’s what the Obama administration has done.

One lead on the trail to Osama bin Laden came from information Khalid Sheikh Muhammed gave while being waterboarded. Has this changed your position on waterboarding?

The CIA had a special unit that did it on very few people. The Department of Defense shouldn’t do it. These are very young soldiers and they’re not trained to do that. I don’t think it’s appropriate for the Department of Defense.

So it should be done, but not by young soldiers?

Three successive directors of the CIA – George Tenet, Porter Goss and Michael Hayden – have testified that a major portion of our information on al Qaeda came from the three people who were waterboarded. And current CIA Director Leon Panetta has said that enhanced interrogation techniques contributed to the evidence that led to the location of OBL. 

Given this information, do you think waterboarding should be used more often?

If you have a new high-value captive, like the three who have been waterboarded, and you think you can save lives, then you’d have to make a conscious decision to risk lives that could have been saved, if you view waterboarding as improper.

We have some units of our armed forces that are specially trained for resistance, evasion, survival and escape. Soldiers volunteer to go into this program, and they’re waterboarded. They’re not injured, but it’s a frightening thing. However, it’s not as bad as a drone killing you or being shot, like bin Laden.

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Opposition politicians have stepped up their criticism of Pakistan’s leaders over the killing of bin Laden in a raid by U.S. special forces in a northern Pakistani town on May 2.

Pakistan welcomed the death of bin Laden as a step in the fight against militancy, but also complained that the raid was a violation of its sovereignty.

The fact that bin Laden was found hiding in the garrison town of Abbottabad, 30 miles from the capital, has led to accusations that Pakistani security agencies were either incompetent or sheltering the world’s most wanted man.

“Allegations of complicity or incompetence are absurd,” Gilani said in a televised address. 

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Pakistan is under pressure from the West to explain how bin Laden lived for several years in a military garrison town near the Pakistani capital without its intelligence finding out.

“There is an intelligence failure of the whole world, not just Pakistan alone,” Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani told reporters in Paris yesterday.

“Certainly we have intelligence sharing with the rest of the world, including the United States, so if somebody points out that there are … lapses from the Pakistan side, that means there are lapses from the whole world,” he said.

Gilani said Pakistan had paid a heavy price for its involvement in the U.S.-led “war on terrorism,” with more than 30,000 Pakistanis killed since fighting in Afghanistan began.

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Davis, who is being held in a Lahore jail amid a diplomatic dispute over whether he has diplomatic immunity, was working as a “protective officer,” the sources said.

U.S. officials who declined to be identified told Reuters Davis’ duties as a protective officer — essentially a bodyguard — were to provide physical security to U.S. Embassy and consular officers, as well as visiting American dignitaries.

The officials strongly denied news reports alleging Davis was part of a covert CIA-led team of operatives conducting surveillance on militant groups in Pakistan.

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Raymond Davis, the U.S. consular employee jailed in the Pakistani city of Lahore for shooting two Pakistanis last month, says he acted in self-defense during an armed robbery.

Washington says Davis has diplomatic immunity and should be released, but the Pakistani government says the matter should be decided in court.

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The American was stopped at a traffic light when two men riding a motorbike stopped near his car.

“The American told us that he opened fire in self-defense after one of the men pulled out pistol,” said Lahore police chief Aslam Tarin.

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