Pervez Dikaitkan Kepada Jaringan Dana Osama

(Pervez Link To Osama's Cash Trail)

Washington, Oktober 13.

Pegawai pentadbiran Bush memberi ingatan kepada Presiden Pervez Musharraf lebih awal lagi sebelum satu tindakan membekukan aset kepunyaan Rabita Trust, dan beliau seharusnya merenggangkan diri daripada pertubuhan itu yang menjadi saluran dana untuk Osama bin Laden di Pakistan. Demikian sumber yang mengetahuinya di Pakistan.

Amaran itu mungkin telah menyedarkan Jaish-e-Mohammed menerusi hubungan rapatnya dengan masyarakat perisikan Pakistan terhadap sekatan dan pembekuan aset itu dan membolehkannya mengubah segala akaun di bank dan mengagihkan aset yang ada itu, termasuklah menukar nama baru menjadi Tehrik al Furqan.

Musharraf telah menganggotai Lembaga Dana Rabita, yang telah ditubuhkan sejak 30 tahun dulu untuk tujuan kerja amal dan penempatan masyarakat Bihari daripda Pakistan Timur, yang mahu berpindah dan menetap di Pakistan selepas diwujudkan Bangladesh.

Kedutaan Pakistan di Washington semalam mendakwa tidak tahu menahu akan hubungan antara dana itu dengan Musharraf. Pegawai AS percaya bahawa tabung dana itu, walaupun mempunyai rekod lama dalam kerja-kerja kebajikan, telah diambil-alih oleh kumpulan Osama Laden sejak beberapa tahun ini. Setiausaha Agong beliau Wael Hamza Jalaidan, adalah salah seorang pengasas Al-Qaida bersama Osama Laden ketika ia dilancarkan di Pakistan untuk memberi sumbangan saguhati kepada keluarga mereka yang 'mati syahid' dalam peperangan menentang penaklukan Soviet di Afghanistan.

Tidak bersalahan membuat andaian, bahawa Musharraf, yang telah menaungi Taliban dan beberapa kumpulan fundemental lain sepanjang khidmatnya di bahagian atasan angkatan bersenjata Pakistan, tentunya amat faham akan cara Al-Qaida menggunakan dana tabung itu sebagai satu saluran segala kewangannya.

Perbezaan sikap antara Musharraf, yang dulunya menaungi keganasan, dan Musharraf yang kini menjadi rakan sekutunya, menjadikan ia salah satu dilemma terbesar kepada Presiden George W. Bush sedangkan dia bergiat mahu menghapuskan Taliban.

Mengikut laporan media Amerika Syarikat, senarai yang dikeluarkan semalam dan keadaan yang mencetuskan persediannya menampakkan ketegangan yang serius di kalangan pentadbiran Bush tentang cara menangani Pakistan dan Arab Saudi.

Terdapat percanggahan dasar di jabatan kewangan yang mahu menyekat aliran wang kepada penjenayah; jabatan negara, yang mahu melindungi hubungan sekutunya menentang keganasan; dan badan-badan perisikan, yang sangsikan bahawa sumber dan kaedah mengesan kewangan penjenayah akan terdedah oleh pengakuan terbuka melalui senarai badan itu yang mendedahkan kegiatan penjenayah tersebut.

Mengikut laporan yang boleh dipercayai, jabatan negara biro Asia Selatan semalam telah merangka satu cadangan untuk jurucakap Richard Boucher yang memperakukan pembabitan Musharraf dengan tabung dana tersebut. Cadangan itu bersifat kesalan bagi pihak Musharraf kerana beliau dikatakan tidak menyedari bahawa Al Qaida berjaya menyusup masuk pertubuhan dana tersebut. Namun, cadangan itu telah digugurkan selepas dipertimbangkan semula.

Seorang pegawai Jabatan Negara telah dipetik oleh Washington Post hari ini sebagai berkata, bahawa tabung dana itu 'diiktiraf dengan penuh hormat sebagai tabung dana Islam dengan adanya beberapa tokoh terkenal sebagai ahli lembaganya. Kami fikir, Osama Laden telah berjaya menyusup Tabung Rabita dan mengaibkan pertubuhan yang ternama itu. Kami tidak fikir orang-orang ternama yang mempunyai namanya sebagai ahli lembaga pengarah pertubuhan itu tridakpun sedar pertubuhan mereka sudah disusupi.'

Tamat

Terjemahan: SPAR.

Asal:

http://www.telegraphindia.com/front_pa.htm.

Pervez Link To Osama's Cash Trail

From KP Nayar, Washington

Washington, Oct. 13: Bush administration officials warned Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf ahead of yesterday's order freezing the assets of Rabita Trust that he should dissociate himself from that organisation which had become a funnel for funds through Pakistan for Osama bin Laden, knowledgeable Pakistani sources said today.

The warning may have alerted Jaish-e-Mohammed through its pervasive contacts in the Pakistani intelligence community about the impending assets freeze order and enabled it to reorganise its bank accounts, distribute its assets and rechristen itself as Tehrik al Furqan.

Musharraf has been on the board of Rabita Trust, which was started 30 years ago for charitable work in resettling the then East Pakistan's Biharis, who wanted to go to Pakistan after the creation of Bangladesh.Pakistan's embassy in Washington yesterday pleaded ignorance about any link between the trust and Musharraf.

US Officials believe the trust, despite its long record of charitable work, was virtually taken over by bin Laden's network in recent years.Its secretary general, Wael Hamza Jalaidan, was one of the pioneers of al Qaida along with bin Laden when it was launched in Pakistan to provide relief to the families of those 'martyred' in the war against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. It is reasonable to assume that Musharraf, who has Patronised Taliban and other fundamentalist forces all through his years in the top echelons of the Pakistani army, would have known about al Qaida's use of the trust as a channel for its funds.

This contradiction between Musharraf, yesterday's terrorism sponsor, and Musharraf, today's coalition partner, represents one of the biggest dilemmas for President George W. Bush as he presses ahead with the campaign against Taliban.

According to accounts in the US media, yesterday's list and the circumstances surrounding its preparation belie serious rifts within the Bush administration on dealing with Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

Competing for policy are the treasury department with its brief to stop the flow of money to terrorists; the state department, which is keen to protect its tenuous coalition against terror; and intelligence agencies, which fear that their sources and methods of tracking terrorist finances would be exposed by an open admission through the list that these agencies are wise to what the terrorists are up to.

According to reliable accounts, the state department's South Asia bureau yesterday drafted a response for spokesman Richard Boucher acknowledging Musharraf's connection with the trust.

This response was to be apologetic on behalf of Musharraf arguing that he was ignorant of al Qaida's penetration of the trust. But it was dropped on further consideration.

A State department official was, however, quoted in today's Washington Post as saying the trust is 'a highly regarded Islamic trust with several prominent board members. Our feeling is that bin Laden deliberately infiltrated the Rabita Trust and corrupted a reputable organisation. We don't think the prominent people who have their names on it were aware of the infiltration'.