From Syria to Pakistan, Turkey to Sudan, we are seeing one particular tactic that these regimes are utilising as propaganda.
In Egypt, Tantawi and the US are following Bashar Al Assad’s playbook. Tahany El Gabaly, the highest-ranking woman in the Egyptian judiciary, said that “state security” – those who were torturing opponents of Mubarak for all those years – “have reliable information about a plot to implicate Egypt in a civil war”. She sounded just like Buthaina Shaaban, Bashar’s advisor who eight months ago spoke about “Mundasseen” (hidden elements) among the protestors.
In Pakistan, intelligence agencies protecting their corrupt masters are doing the same. You see lackeys of the establishment like Zaid Hamid and Inter-Services Intelligence mouthpieces like Ahmed Qureshi talking in the media about how Pakistan is facing a war and everyone should support the corrupt Army leaders like General Kiyani and General Pasha, who are essentially leftovers of the traitor General Pervaiz Musharaf (aka Bush-araf).
The Pakistani Army is a source of great shame for the people of Pakistan, as despite having the technology and strength, they remain reluctant to bring down the pilot-less drones that are killing mostly innocent people in the tribal regions of Pakistan, and fuelling terrorism.
We never stop to hope, however, that the sincere among armies across the Muslim World would support their people instead of these corrupt regimes.
The enemies of Islam and supporters of the current order of tyranny are visibly weakening, and this is the reason why we see a similarity in all their talk about unknown and unseen dangers and enemies, as a last-ditch effort to take the spark out of the Arab Spring and send the people back to a state of mind that they can control.
The funniest part is that if you ask these pro-establishment goons about what the people of influence and power in the military and civilian governments are doing to solve the problems facing everyone, they talk about hidden and unseen patriotic actions that normal people do not and cannot understand!
Everyone knows that intelligence agencies are involved in kidnapping and torturing people who speak out against the status quo. The Pakistani courts have even acknowledged that this has happened, yet they refuse to take any action against the culprits in the ISI and Military Intelligence of Pakistan.
Even as I write this, Nato troops have attacked Pakistani Army border checkpoints. The army, in its perpetual service to the US, started another campaign of deceit by stating that the checkpoints were blocking Nato supply routes and ordering the vacation of Shamsi Airbase. We have seen such statements before. The bigger problem for Pakistan is not Shamsi but rather the Shahbaz base in Jacobabad, which is still being used by the Americans.
Gen. John Allen, the commander of the ISAF and US forces in Afghanistan, was in Rawalpindi at the Pakistani military’s general headquarters, meeting with Pakistan’s top officer Gen Ashfaq Pervez Kayani when this border skirmish took place. We would like to pose this question to Kayani: When you shook Gen Allen’s hand, how did it feel? Was it sticky with the blood of our sons? And when is the next photoshoot?
Qasim Afridi is a member of the think tank Glór Mos-lamach
glormoslamach@gmail.com
