Jan. 8, 2009

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—Mr. Prime Minister, your national security adviser has screwed up big time. His strange moves and actions prove that people appointed by President Zardari have brought Pakistani diplomacy down to its knees in the past six weeks. This was by design and not just incompetence.

Your prompt action of sacking Mr. M. A. Durrani restored the confidence of Pakistanis.

His crime is engineering his leaks in a way that make everyone think that Kassab’s links to Pakistan confirm Pakistan’s culpability in the crime.

This, as we show you below, is not the case.

After input from several sources, published and unpublished, I would like to propose here a few actions your government can take to stem the damage and restore Pakistan’s credibility. Please take this seriously because the following is the gist of the hardwork of some fine Pakistani women and men.

1. We Don’t Trust India. Period.

Please have yourself or your foreign minister or one of your spokespeople say this clearly. We don’t trust Indian investigations. India’s intents and hostile posturing make it impossible for us to take its evidence at face value. Indian evidence – including Kassab and the dead bodies in Indian custody – will have to be examined by Pakistani experts. Consular access alone is not acceptable.

1. Kassab Or Not, India’s Dossier Is Doctored.

Colin Powell presented fake evidence, complete with pictures and illustrations, to UNSC in February 2003. It led to invading Iraq. Today, Pakistan has reason to believe India is doing the same. Faking evidence in high profile cases to gain mileage does happen and has precedent. Let us not be apologetic.

1. Pakistan Must Ask India To Pursue All Other Leads In Mumbai Investigation.

The Indian government is hiding the complete facts from its people. It has quashed other equally important leads in the tragedy other than the suspicion of Pakistani involvement. Pakistan demands that India pursue all leads with transparency.

1. Pakistan Must Demand India Share Evidence With Interpol

India’s refusal to allow Interpol investigators examine the evidence is suspicious.

1. Questions Surrounding Kassab And The Other Terrorists

Pakistani official media and spokespeople must float the following questions:

5.1 Kassab was the only terrorist that was photographed by an unknown Indian source. He was the only one to stay alive and the only one to have been found to be Pakistani national. Pakistani suspicions about the circumstances of Kassab’s involvement are serious and require India to make him available to Pakistani investigators. We need to examine on location how this one terrorist was pictured, who took the picture, and why no one else appeared in the pictured.

5.2 Indian media reports said the bodies of the remaining nine terrorists were mutilated. Where did India get the studio pictures it released of the dead?

5.3 Where is the DNA testing and fingerprints of the dead terrorists?

5.4 India’s proven record of abuse and secret detention of Pakistanis in Indian jails must be officially raised to show that Pakistan suspects the circumstances of the involvement of these terrorists whom India alleges are Pakistanis.

1. T-Shirts, Toothpaste and Shaving Cream is not evidence. It is a joke. No case can be built on this.

1. Why would ISI, a professional intelligence service, leave such telltale signs behind, if it’s involved as India claims?

1. Why would ISI kill Hemant Karkare, the brave Indian police officer who exposed how active duty Indian army offices conspired with Hindu terrorists to kill 60 Pakistani visitors to India in 2006?

1. The email, audio tape and telephone evidence is suspect unless and until it is examined by Pakistani experts. To see how these things can be faked, please click here.

The extent of damage that President Zardari and his foreign policy team – sacked security advisor M. A. Durrani, Washington ambassador Husain Haqqani, and U.N. ambassador Abdullah Hussain Haroon – have caused to Pakistani credibility and diplomacy is staggering.

The only way to restore standing is to charge with full speed ahead. The firing of Mr. Durrani provides a great opportunity to revise Pakistan’s talking points on Mumbai. Please don’t let this opportunity slide.

pakalert.wordpress.com/2009/01/08/to-prime-minister-gilani-your-new-talking-points-on-mumbai/