An Indian salute for President Musharraf

http://atimes.com/ind-pak/DB01Df01.html

Daniel Pearl kidnapping plot thickens

By Syed Saleem Shahzad

KARACHI - The kidnapping mystery surrounding the Wall Street Journal`s South Asia bureau chief, Daniel Pearl, is still unresolved after more than a week. Insiders in Pakistani intelligence agencies say the case is not as simple as it appears. But the theories emanating from these agencies have one thing in common: that the kidnapping is an Indian ploy to provide American detective agencies, which are already established in the country, with a chance to discover all the strings of the Pakistani secret underworld as they investigate the case.

Sources say that in the past few days the course of investigation into Pearl`s kidnapping has suddenly changed, and all fingers are now pointing toward outfits that are little known but have been operational in India. One of these organizations, Jamiatul Faqurah, is alleged by India to have carried out terrorist activities, and now, strangely for the first time, its connections to underworld Muslim groups have been established by the United States.

After Pearl`s kidnapping, the first suspect was Harkatul Mujahadeen, an organization banned by the US several years ago. However, aware of the entire structure of this militant group, Pakistani investigators did not pursue the idea. Pakitani intelligence agencies have inroads into all Pakistani militant groups, and believe that had Harkat or any other known militant group kidnapped Pearl, they would have found a clue no matter how secretly the kidnapping was carried out.

Just three days after the incident, Pakistani intelligence agenicies reported to the country`s leadership that no Pakistani militant group was behind the incident. They could find no suspect nor match the modus operandi with those of militant groups operating in Pakistan. The way Pearl was snatched, and the way the kidnappers` demands were made known via email, are not characteristic of Pakistani groups.

The intelligence agencies have therefore concluded in their reports that the kidnapping was a plot hatched by an Indian agency or proxies infiltrated into militant organizations. The motive? To imply that Osama bin Laden`s al-Qaeda network is operating in Pakistan. Once this became recognized, the US would conduct an operation that would not only eliminate Pakistani underworld groups but also discover and destroy their links in India.

This thesis presented by Pakistani intelligence agencies is given weight by several events. Initially, it was stressed that Pearl was staying in Karachi near the beach in a rented property, along with his wife and an Indian friend. He was investigating cyber-crimes and militant organizations. He met with some senior US officials at the US consulate in Karachi, and was not seen again. His kidnapping was registered at Clifton Police Station in Karachi.

However, in the past few days it has emerged - or been claimed - that Pearl managed to meet some senior members of Harkatul Mujahideen in Rawalpindi, who promised him they would arrange his meeting with Shiekh Mubarrak Jillani, a leader of Jamiatul Fuqarah. Jamiatul Fuqarah is said to be operative in Kashmir. It was also implied that Jamiatul Fuqarah has links with some underground groups in the US. The theory then changed to Pearl being kidnapped not in Karachi but in Rawalpindi, and that an organization like Jamiatul Fuqarah was behind the kidnapping.

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation and Pakistani agencies then conducted raids in Rawalpindi, searching for Shiekh Mubarak. Mubarak put an end to that by appearing before the senior superintendent of police in Rawalpindi last Wednesday.

The implication that Jamiatul Fuqarah was involved in Pearl`s kidnapping is strange, because the group has never been accused of conducting terrorist activities in Pakistan. However, New Delhi has blamed the outfit for many incidents that have occurred in India.

Pakistani intelligence sources say that the kidnapping is likely to be a blow for Pakistani secret services` operations in India. There are many such operations, designed to keep India entangled in its internal affairs to the extent that it would not bother to attack Pakistan. Many of these operations were hatched during General Zia ul Haq`s tenure, with the intention of encouraging Indian separatist movements of any hue, Muslim or non-Muslim.

The Sikh Khalistan movement and the Muslim Kashmiri movement are now widely known, but there are other militant structures that the Indian intelligence agencies know about but have not managed to crack. One of them is Dawood Ibrahim`s underworld mafia in Mumbai, which now draws its support from across India.

However, the most important underground structures include Sufi outfits. Traditionally, the Sufis have always kept themselves apart from worldly affairs, preferring to focus on spritual matters. But Zia ul Haq`s spies traced and cultivated some Sufi groups which had a tradition of combat and which struggled against British colonialism. One such outfit is Mian Mir (named after a famous Sufi saint) of Lahore, which has followers in India. These days, the custodian of Mian Mir`s tomb is none other than Skeikh Mubarak Jillani, now under investigation for the kidnapping of Daniel Pearl.

Sources say that many of the facts of the kidnapping are yet to unfold, but they are likely to make life difficult for the Pakistani secret agencies, both inside and outside Pakistan.

``As to supercomputers not being extinct, when was the last one sold? I think SGI is running on vapors right now, meaning sale of graphics machines to Hollywood for special effects; we can see them closing down in another couple of years.``

NEC SX5, Cray SV1 & SV2, IBM ASCI and SGI O3K series are some of the machines still being made, sold and bought. Cluster computing is taking over, but will not replace all of the big machines any time soon. Like I said some applications can`t be parallelised easily/efficiently and are more suited for vector machines. The workstations, like the Sun Sparc or the IBM RISC6000 type of machines are pretty much finished.

Urstruly #569: Seriously speaking, it is good to see that you are concerned about Pakistani security.

As for oaths I took in the military, there were so many that I cannot recall all of them: There was one towards defending our borders. One towards not lying nor cheating. One towards not disclosing secrets to the enemy. One towards obeying senior officers. One towards upholding the honor of our units. So on and so forth.....

Perhaps due to the oaths, or due to the training, or due to something else, the most dedicated and patriotic Pakistanis I have ever met in my life, by a large margin, are in the Pakistani military. Even the corrupt amongst the Generals, in my opinion, wouldn`t hesitate to lay down their lives to defend Pakistan. That is more than what one can say about the corrupt amongst the Pakistani politicians, beaurecrats, journalists, businessmen etc.

All the information I have is well known to everyone, not to mention that it is outdated by five to ten years. I am sure the Indian intelligence agencies have much more detailed information. That is why India is not attacking Pakistan. If one were to go by Indian newspapers and public opinion, Pakistan is a pushover. But I am sure the Indian military intelligence knows otherwise.

The attack plans, targets, radio frequencies, etc., troop and aircraft movements, missile locations etc. (i.e. things that really matter in war) are decided right before the wars start, and I would have no access to them. All other stuff, like aircraft systems, peacetime locations, are well known to everyone (true for India and for Pakistan about each other). Even Sunny Deol seems to know them in his movies.

Stuka #562: ``why is Romair saying that it is a big deal about the super computers being acquired.``

I am thinking of suing in the highest court in the US :-). I have been misquoted (yet again). I have never seen a supercomputer in the Pakistan military, in my life. All the aircraft are still flying quite well.

I don`t really know what effect supercomputers would have on the PAF. So, unless I am mistaken, I don`t think I made any statements about supercomputers.

Ref rajanjua #: 568

[One of the bottlenecks in building clusters is latency/bandwidth issues. You will not get anywhere with pc`s connected by ethernet. And high-speed interconnects are probably on the export control list also. Clusters can also be inefficient if the application size is very large. Supercomputers may not be extinct yet but workstations will be extinct pretty soon. Cray BTW was bought by SGI, a couple of years back.]

You are right about the high-speed interconnects. Shortly after the 1998 nuclear tests and after the ban on technology was announced by the US, IBM was investigated for shipping additions to the RS-6000 SP cluster that the Indian Institute of Science has.

As to supercomputers not being extinct, when was the last one sold? I think SGI is running on vapors right now, meaning sale of graphics machines to Hollywood for special effects; we can see them closing down in another couple of years.

Ref #: 567

[harimau #565, `` In the good old days when 66 MHZ 80386s ruled, the simulation of a flying head (read-write heads used in disks, called , called flying heads because they literally ``fly`` over the disk surface on an air-bearing) took 20 minutes on the PC and a minute and a half on a mainframe. 20 minutes is plenty of time for the science babus to go to the cafeteria for a cup of chai.``

ummm, what kind of language is that? Geekspeek?]

Well, I WAS addressing computer geeks. But, surely you got the part about chai? ;)

[what happened to all the normal people in this world (sigh)]

You will be glad to know that my propeller cap is nowhere to be seen on the ``The Identity Crisis of a Modern Muslim`` board.

re: scout

{{ummm, what kind of language is that? Geekspeek?}}

don`t provoke computer nerds...they will threaten to knock you out with their disk drives...i saw 2 of them in the elevator get into a fist fight over which operating system was better...

Romair

I think you shoud be very cautious about elaborating on the capability of Pak Airforce in such details on a public forum. I hope you still consider yourself bound by the oath you took when you were with PAF.

``Ok, I wasn`t that kosher on the technical details, but yes, that is the gist of my thought as well. Hence, why is Romair saying that it is a big deal about the super computers being acquired.``

One of the bottlenecks in building clusters is latency/bandwidth issues. You will not get anywhere with pc`s connected by ethernet. And high-speed interconnects are probably on the export control list also. Clusters can also be inefficient if the application size is very large. Supercomputers may not be extinct yet but workstations will be extinct pretty soon. Cray BTW was bought by SGI, a couple of years back.

harimau #565, `` In the good old days when 66 MHZ 80386s ruled, the simulation of a flying head (read-write heads used in disks, called literally ``fly`` over the disk surface on an air-bearing) took 20 minutes on the PC and a minute and a half on a mainframe. 20 minutes is plenty of time for the science babus to go to the cafeteria for a cup of chai.``

ummm, what kind of language is that? Geekspeek?

what happened to all the normal people in this world (sigh)

I HEARD BB SAID INDIA AND PAKISTAN SHOULD HAVE A CONFEDERATION AND A SINGLE CURRENCY ANY THOUGHTS IM ASTOUNDED THAT SHE WOULD MAKE SUCH A OPPURTUNISTIC STATEMEMT

Ref Stuka #: 562

[Shammi:

``-- today you can string together a supercomputer from Xeon chips -- fairly widely available everywhere.``

Ok, I wasn`t that kosher on the technical details, but yes, that is the gist of my thought as well. Hence, why is Romair saying that it is a big deal about the super computers being acquired. Isn`t it fairly common to achieve that level of processing capability?]

Do you guys -- and this includes Romair as well -- understand computer architecture?

The last major parallel processing computers were the Cray-2. I guess they sold less than 100 worldwide.

The other machine I can think of is The Connection Machine with 65K 1-bit processors tied together. I think they made one for the Los Alamos National Laboratory. And I guess Intel made one with 10000 processors, again for Los Alamos.

Other than these, parallel computers are dead, dead, dead.

For your information, the Apple G4 was embargoed for sale to China, India, Pakistan and other countries on the Department of Commerce list, because the G4 has sufficient computational power for simulating nuclear explosions. And the G4 was based on an IBM PowerPC chip running at 1GHz(?). Just one processor chip, guys. No parallel processing super-duper computer, the G4.

Before you guys get all excited about getting supercomputers so that you can design your fighter planes, remember that you have to have the design expertise as well as manufacturing ability to produce what you design.

You can get 2GHz Intel machines today. They are cheaper and will do nicely for any design work you want to undertake. The Yankees built their airplanes and nukes without much of these fancy-schmancy computers you are all getting an orgasm over. You guys have to learn to crawl before you can walk or even think of running.

PS. In the good old days when 66 MHZ 80386s ruled, the simulation of a flying head (read-write heads used in disks, called flying heads because they literally ``fly`` over the disk surface on an air-bearing) took 20 minutes on the PC and a minute and a half on a mainframe. 20 minutes is plenty of time for the science babus to go to the cafeteria for a cup of chai.

Harimau:

I have not been on Chowk regularly for the past few weeks, so I apologise for the delay in writing to you. I actually just noticed this post:

``What was that about a hypothetical invitation to a dinner date some time in the future in Boston with a Pakistani person of the opposite sex when I asked if you were trolling for dates on Chowk? ``Huh? Huh?? And you went all the way to the Wagah border! I know you kept hinting about the trip to Wagah and all that in your posts. And we all know that Lahore is lot closer to Wagah than Delhi is.``

I think you are confusing Lahore and Boston. You described the Boston ``date`` in the best way yourself..HYPOTHETICAL..

Did the expected person show up? Were halwa, jalebis, samosas and pakoras traded across the border? Were you able to reach through some narrow opening and pour tea for the young lady, getting a scratch on your hand from the barbed wire fence?

Wow, talk about a creative instinct. Wwere you a scriptwriter for Tamil movies in an earlier incarnation? I did manage to have a conversation with a feminine Chowkie. You might be familiar with her...Lajwanti...Infact she claims to have a Tamil paramour, who she supposedly met through Chowk. Any guesses on who might that be??

``Whassup my man?? The Chowk readership is curious and wants to know the details!``

Trust me, you really don`t want me to give out details about Lajwanti and her Tamil paramour. Aakhir decency bhee koi cheez hoti hai :)

Shammi:

``-- today you can string together a supercomputer from Xeon chips -- fairly widely available everywhere.``

Ok, I wasn`t that kosher on the technical details, but yes, that is the gist of my thought as well. Hence, why is Romair saying that it is a big deal about the super computers being acquired. Isn`t it fairly common to achieve that level of processing capability?

Ref shammi #: 486

[Re: Harimau

Having noticed how you quietly dropped out of the `Mansarovar` debate...]

Since you have refused to provide ANY evidence to backup your claim that Hindu pilgrims to Mansarovar and Mt. Kailash get free food, transportation and medical assistance during their pilgrimage, I investigated the story a bit more. I actually dug deeper into the Indian Ministry of External Affairs webpage and came to the application form at

http://www.kmvn.com/kailash02.htm

Here is what it looks like:



GOVERMENT OF INDIA *

MINISTRY OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS (EAST ASIA DIVISION)



KAILASH MANSAROVAR YATRA 2002

FORMAT FOR APPLYING FOR KAILASH MANSAROVAR YATRA 2002

(TO BE FILLED IN ENGLISH OR HINDI ONLY)

NAME (AS IN PASSPORT) :

FATHER`S/HUSBAND`S NAME :

DATE OF BIRTH :

RELIGION :

PROFESSION :

SEX :

PASSPORT NO. :

DATE OF ISSUE :

PLACE OF ISSUE :

(Please enclose copy of personnel particulars page of your passport)

FULL ADDRESS OF APPLICANT :

STATE :

PINCODE :

TELEPHONE NO. (WITH STD CODE) :

NAME, ADDRESS & TEL NO. OF

NEXT OF KIN TO BE INFORMED

IN CASE OF EMERGENCY :

Have you been on Kailash Mansarovar

Yatra before? If yes, indicate the year :

Please provide two recent passport size photographs one to be affixed here

DECLARATIONS

1. I understand that Kailash Mansarovar Yatra is high altitude trekking expedition under inhospitable conditions, which may involve serious risk to the person or property of the Yatris. I am undertaking the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra at my own volition, cost, risk and consequences.

2. In the event of being disqualified on medical grounds at Gunji, I shall not claim the refund of the charges levied by Kumaon Mandal Vikas Nigam (KMVN).

DATE :

PLACE :

SIGNATURE

* For acknowledgement please attach a self-addressed post card.

* * Applications accompanied by a medical certificates should reach Under Secretary (China), Room No. 271(a), South Block, Ministry of External Affairs, New Delhi - 110 011 latest by 12.03.2002

For Official Use only

Registration No. :

Batch No. :

Remarks :



Let me re-state what one declares in Declaration #1: ``I am undertaking the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra at my own volition, cost, risk and consequences.``

And in Declaration #2: ``In the event of being disqualified on medical grounds at Gunji, I shall not claim the refund of the charges levied by Kumaon Mandal Vikas Nigam (KMVN).``

Now at least will you stop writing facts made up as you go along?

Rajanjua

``i have been under the impression that pak involvement with A5 was a bit more than ordering adjustments to the cockpit``

Hey man, I think you are being a bit too disparaging here. As pointed out for the A5C and by ROmair these are quite substantial upgrades (mainly because chinese planes of that generation were c *ap) but still a far sight away from joint development. The first such joint development of an end-to-end new plane was the K8 ``Karakoram``. And is now being attempted for the FC-1/Super 7.