Zawahiri and al Qaeda were behind Red Mosque terrorist

Sunday Times:

AL-QAEDA’S leadership secretly directed the Islamic militants whose armed revolt at the Red Mosque in Islamabad ended last week with more than 100 deaths after it was stormed by the Pakistan army.

According to senior intelligence officials, the troops who finally took control discovered letters from Osama Bin Laden’s deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri. They were written to Abdul Rashid Ghazi and Abdul Aziz, the brothers who ran the mosque and adjacent madrasah.

Government sources said up to 18 foreign fighters � including Uzbeks, Egyptians and several Afghans � had arrived weeks before the final shootout and set up firing ranges to teach students, including children, how to handle weapons.

Al-Qaeda has wanted to open a Pakistan front in its global jihad since President Pervez Musharraf sided with America after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

Diplomats were surprised by the speed with which the fugitive Zawahiri condemned the raid and called on Pakistanis to rise up against Musharraf.

The response to his appeal was equally swift. Twenty-seven soldiers were killed when a suicide attacker struck a military convoy in northwest Pakistan near the Afghan border yesterday. At least 58 have been killed in bombings and shootings since the Red Mosque crisis began 12 days ago.

This weekend street protests were organised by religious parties as the government dispatched thousands more soldiers to its troubled North West Frontier province.

Some were sent to the Swat Valley, where a suicide car bomber killed three policemen last Thursday and a madrasah controlled by Maulana Fazlullah, a militant mullah, is expected to be the next flashpoint. Fazlullah has been using a radio station to rally support for Al-Qaeda and has urged followers to arm themselves in preparation for a siege.

Ministers blamed the presence of foreign fighters for the breakdown of negotiations at the Red Mosque just as they seemed about to reach a deal to end the standoff peacefully.

According to government sources and western diplomats, Al-Qaeda sought martyrdom instead. “They wanted a poster boy for Pakistan and Ghazi was the perfect guy,” said one western diplomat.

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The timing of the Red Mosque "uprising" and the Doc Plot as well as the semi successful human bomb attack in Yemen suggest that all were elements of al Qaeda's summer "offensive." Just as the Mashoud murder in Afghanistan prior to 9-11 was part of an over all strategy, the Islamabad action was meant to make it difficult for Pakistan to cooperate in an attack in response to the London attacks. That all were disastrous failures for al Qaeda suggest that replacements for their front line leaders killed or captured by the US and its allies since 9-11 do not have the same skills nor leadership. It is important that all of these events be looked at as part of a grand scheme.

The stress that is showing in Zawahiri's latest tapes is also a good indicator that things are not going as well as he tried to project. Unfortunately, the Democrats appear ready to bail him out in the central front in Iraq. If they succeed there they will then bail on Afghanistan.

It appears that Zawahiri and al Qaeda hoped that the Red Mosque "massacre" they planned would lead to a general uprising in Pakistan. While there has been some murmuring, it appears they overplayed their hand once again. While some Pak soldiers were killed in a human bomb attack, it will not be enough to have a significant effect on their move into al Qaeda's allies area of operation. It just may lead the Pak soldiers closer to al Qaeda leadership.