Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Wall Street Journal
September 22, 2008
Pg. 20
Officials Say Attack Shows Terror Cells Operate Freely
By Zahid Hussain
ISLAMABAD -- Pakistani officials said Saturday's suicide blast that killed 53 people at the Islamabad Marriott Hotel bore the hallmarks of al Qaeda and showed how the group was operating freely inside Pakistan and was determined to wreak havoc on the nation's already weak economy.
Rehman Malik, Pakistan's interior minister, said Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, an outlawed militant umbrella group operating from Pakistan's lawless tribal region, was involved in the attack. The group is said to be closely linked with al Qaeda, which has grown in strength in Pakistan. Many other Pakistani militant groups have mutated into small cells, after being banned, and work as an extension of al Qaeda.
Officials said Pakistan Taliban Movement, a little-known Islamist militant outfit that claimed responsibility to private television channels, was one such cell and is part of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan network.
Yousuf Raza Gilani, the prime minister, said the bomber had attacked the hotel only after tight security prevented him from reaching Parliament or the prime minister's office. "The purpose was to destabilize democracy," Mr. Gilani told reporters Sunday. "They want to destroy us economically."
Pakistan's economy already is suffering and the blast at a hotel that was popular with foreign visitors and well-heeled Pakistanis could accelerate capital flight and further discourage investors.
Among the dead were the Czech ambassador to Pakistan, Ivo Zdarek, 47 years old, and two members of the U.S. armed forces who the U.S. Defense Department said were assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad.
"The Islamabad bombing dents the already low confidence of international investors in Pakistan," said Muddassar Malik, chief executive of BMA Capital, a securities firm in Karachi.
Rescue teams searched the blackened hotel room by room Sunday. But the temperatures remained high and fires were still being put out in some parts. A senior official said there could still be bodies inside.
Some 250 people were injured in the blast by a suicide bomber who rammed an explosive-laden truck into the hotel's outer gates.
Many of the guests staying in the hotel died of intense heat caused by the explosion and flaming gas from ruptured gas lines. Doctors at the city's main hospital said the death toll could rise.
President Asif Ali Zardari said the attack wouldn't deter Pakistan from fighting terrorism. "The terrorists have turned the happy moment of the restoration of democracy into grief," he said in a television address early Sunday before leaving for the United Nations in New York, where he will meet President George W. Bush.
It wouldn't be the first time al Qaeda has been involved in an attack in Pakistan's capital. In June, a suicide car bomber killed at least six people near the Danish embassy in Islamabad. A statement attributed to al Qaeda took responsibility for that blast, which was believed to have targeted Denmark because of the publication there of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad.
The latest attack came as Pakistani forces stepped up an operation against Islamist militants in the Bajur tribal region, which is viewed by Pakistani and Western intelligence agencies as the center of al Qaeda activities. Many observers suspect the Marriott attack was a retaliation to the military offensive.
Al Qaeda and its allies among tribal militants have repeatedly warned they will increase attacks in Pakistan's heartland if the military operation isn't stopped.
Anti-American sentiments also are running high after an increase in missile strikes from U.S. pilotless drones against suspected militant hideouts inside Pakistan.
The attack also raises questions about security in the capital, which already was at a high level because of Mr. Zardari's address to a joint session of Parliament hours before the bomb detonated.
September 22, 2008
Pg. 20
Officials Say Attack Shows Terror Cells Operate Freely
By Zahid Hussain
ISLAMABAD -- Pakistani officials said Saturday's suicide blast that killed 53 people at the Islamabad Marriott Hotel bore the hallmarks of al Qaeda and showed how the group was operating freely inside Pakistan and was determined to wreak havoc on the nation's already weak economy.
Rehman Malik, Pakistan's interior minister, said Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, an outlawed militant umbrella group operating from Pakistan's lawless tribal region, was involved in the attack. The group is said to be closely linked with al Qaeda, which has grown in strength in Pakistan. Many other Pakistani militant groups have mutated into small cells, after being banned, and work as an extension of al Qaeda.
Officials said Pakistan Taliban Movement, a little-known Islamist militant outfit that claimed responsibility to private television channels, was one such cell and is part of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan network.
Yousuf Raza Gilani, the prime minister, said the bomber had attacked the hotel only after tight security prevented him from reaching Parliament or the prime minister's office. "The purpose was to destabilize democracy," Mr. Gilani told reporters Sunday. "They want to destroy us economically."
Pakistan's economy already is suffering and the blast at a hotel that was popular with foreign visitors and well-heeled Pakistanis could accelerate capital flight and further discourage investors.
Among the dead were the Czech ambassador to Pakistan, Ivo Zdarek, 47 years old, and two members of the U.S. armed forces who the U.S. Defense Department said were assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad.
"The Islamabad bombing dents the already low confidence of international investors in Pakistan," said Muddassar Malik, chief executive of BMA Capital, a securities firm in Karachi.
Rescue teams searched the blackened hotel room by room Sunday. But the temperatures remained high and fires were still being put out in some parts. A senior official said there could still be bodies inside.
Some 250 people were injured in the blast by a suicide bomber who rammed an explosive-laden truck into the hotel's outer gates.
Many of the guests staying in the hotel died of intense heat caused by the explosion and flaming gas from ruptured gas lines. Doctors at the city's main hospital said the death toll could rise.
President Asif Ali Zardari said the attack wouldn't deter Pakistan from fighting terrorism. "The terrorists have turned the happy moment of the restoration of democracy into grief," he said in a television address early Sunday before leaving for the United Nations in New York, where he will meet President George W. Bush.
It wouldn't be the first time al Qaeda has been involved in an attack in Pakistan's capital. In June, a suicide car bomber killed at least six people near the Danish embassy in Islamabad. A statement attributed to al Qaeda took responsibility for that blast, which was believed to have targeted Denmark because of the publication there of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad.
The latest attack came as Pakistani forces stepped up an operation against Islamist militants in the Bajur tribal region, which is viewed by Pakistani and Western intelligence agencies as the center of al Qaeda activities. Many observers suspect the Marriott attack was a retaliation to the military offensive.
Al Qaeda and its allies among tribal militants have repeatedly warned they will increase attacks in Pakistan's heartland if the military operation isn't stopped.
Anti-American sentiments also are running high after an increase in missile strikes from U.S. pilotless drones against suspected militant hideouts inside Pakistan.
The attack also raises questions about security in the capital, which already was at a high level because of Mr. Zardari's address to a joint session of Parliament hours before the bomb detonated.