LAST week I had implored the powers that be in our own country and in

Amreeka Bahadur too that unless we exorcised our devils we could not go to a better place than where we find ourselves today.

As just one example I had taken up the very curious case of Afia Siddiqui, but only in the context of the letter Her Excellency the US ambassador to the Land of the Pure had written to the Pakistani press. A letter that really boggled the senses senseless.

This week we will look at the official American government explanation of how Ms Siddiqui came to be captured. Quote On July 17, 2008, officers of the Ghazni Province Afghanistan National Police (“ANP”) observed Siddiqui outside the Ghazni governor`s compound. ANP officers questioned Siddiqui, regarded her as suspicious, and searched her handbag. In it, they found numerous documents describing the creation of explosives, as well as excerpts from the Anarchist`s Arsenal. Siddiqui`s papers included descriptions of various landmarks in the United States, including in New York City. Siddiqui was also in possession of substances that were sealed in bottles and glass jars.

On July 18, 2008, a party of United States personnel, including two FBI special agents, a United States Army Warrant Officer, a United States Army Captain, and United States military interpreters, arrived at the Afghan facility where Siddiqui was being held. The personnel entered a second-floor meeting room — unaware that Siddiqui was being held there, unsecured, behind a curtain.

The Warrant Officer took a seat and placed his United States Army M-4 rifle on the floor next to the curtain. Shortly after the meeting began, the Captain heard a woman yell from the curtain and, when he turned, saw Siddiqui holding the Warrant Officer`s rifle and pointing it directly at the Captain. Siddiqui said, “May the blood of [unintelligible] be directly on your [unintelligible, possibly head or hands].” The interpreter seated closest to Siddiqui lunged at her and pushed the rifle away as Siddiqui pulled the trigger. Siddiqui fired at least two shots but no one was hit. The Warrant Officer returned fire with a 9mm service pistol and fired approximately two rounds at Siddiqui`s torso, hitting her at least once.

Despite being shot, Siddiqui struggled with the officers when they tried to subdue her; she struck and kicked them while shouting in English that she wanted to kill Americans. After being subdued, Siddiqui temporarily lost consciousness. The agents and officers then rendered medical aid to Siddiqui. Unquote.

I ask you! Who is the US government talking about here? The 100 lb Afia Siddiqui, shot “at least once” in her torso, or Afia Rambo, muscles rippling under her chador?

If Her Excellency`s letter defied description, this official version of Siddiqui`s arrest is ten notches above that in silliness. Afia Siddiqui is described to be a trained terrorist by the US government. What then was she doing loitering outside the Ghazni governor`s compound, along with her young son, with a handbag full of “numerous documents describing the creation of explosives, as well as excerpts from the Anarchist`s Arsenal” and “descriptions of various landmarks in the United States, including in New York City” and “substances that were sealed in bottles and glass jars”?!

How numerous were those “documents” and “excerpts from the Anarchist`s Arsenal”? What was in those sealed “bottles and jars”? What indeed were the “landmarks in the United States, including in New York City”? And why did she have these last in her handbag in Ghazni, outside the governor`s compound? Were she and her son catching the 415 United Airlines flight from Ghazni to JFK in New York, there to do her dastardly deeds?

There should be some limit to attempts to insult our intelligence, please.

And now for the “angry” JCSC. Let all of our brass hats get together and ask for TV footage of the many interviews our intrepid TV anchors have carried out over the years that we have been mired in trouble in our tribal areas and in Swat. Let them look at the allegations contained in programme after programme on the independent news channels and talk shows. These allegations are made openly by those who have seen the Mother of All Agencies work its black magic.

I will never forget an interview that Talat Hussain of Aaj TV conducted in Swat about a year and a half ago, roughly at the time that the balloon went up in that hitherto peaceful place, and the army under the Commando was taking two steps forward and five back. He was interviewing an office-bearer of the Swat Small Hotels Association or some such, outside his little tikka-shop-with-four-rooms-and-a-common-bathroom-upstairs sort of tourist joint in Mingora Bazaar.

The hotelier was talking about young tourists, Japanese, British, French, boys and girls, who used to come and stay at his hotel, visit the historical sites and then travel on happily and in safety. Never did anyone care whether they were of another religion, what they were to one another, etcetera.

Then what happened asked Talat. “Ask the agencies” he replied and said words to the effect “We don`t know where most of these fighters have come from; we do not understand their language; they did not come off the mountains”.

Gentlemen, and here I address the JCSC we must exorcise our devils and our many ghosts if, let me repeat myself, this country is to go to a better place than it is at now. And you, as heads of government departments UNDER the ministry of defence, must carry out the government`s orders. Full stop.

Which reminds me the change in the command of the ISI among other army promotions and postings was couched in the following words, variously `Kayani shakes up army command` while news reports did say the prime minister `approved` Shuja Pasha`s name. But what sort of `approval` is that when the PM is limited to selecting one name out of three? Incidentally, this is the Inter Services Intelligence so why not have an air force or naval officer heading it? Why should the appointment always go to the army?

Stop Press Husain Haqqani, who has told me, among others, for the fourth time through an email that he has “taken over as the Ambassador of Pakistan to the US in Washington”, has said in an interview with Nayan Chanda of Yale Global “The interservices [sic] intelligence has shut down its political wing — a major thing, because that was the instrument of intervention in politics”.

If true, great, but how come we in Pakistan didn`t know until Haqqani`s interview with Yale Global?

Bushism of the Week “Anyone engaging in illegal financial transactions will be caught and persecuted” — President George W. Bush, Washington, DC, Sept 19, 2008.

kshafi1@yahoo.co.uk