Florida Men Accused of Supporting Pakistani Taliban

 

MIAMI — Six people, including two imams at South Florida mosques, have been indicted on federal charges of providing financial support and encouraging violence by the Pakistani Taliban, the United States attorney here announced Saturday.

The indictment, which was handed up on Thursday, charged Hafiz Muhammed Sher Ali Khan, 76, the imam at the Miami Mosque (also known as the Flagler Mosque), the oldest mosque in Miami. The indictment also charged two of the imam’s sons: Izhar Khan, 24, the imam at the Jamaat Al-Mumineen Mosque in nearby Margate, Fla.; and Irfan Khan, 37, of North Lauderdale, Fla. All three men are American citizens who are originally from Pakistan, the authorities said.

The four-count indictment charges the Khans, and three others living in Pakistan, with conspiring to provide material support to a conspiracy to murder, maim and kidnap people overseas, as well as with conspiring to provide about $45,000 in financial support to the Pakistani Taliban from 2008 to 2010.

“Despite being an imam, or spiritual leader, Hafiz Khan was by no means a man of peace,” Wilfredo A. Ferrer, the United States attorney for the Southern District of Florida, said in a statement. “Instead, as today’s charges show, he acted with others to support terrorists to further acts of murder, kidnapping and maiming.”

Hafiz and Izhar Khan are scheduled to be arraigned in federal court in Miami on Monday afternoon. Irfan Khan will be arraigned in Los Angeles on Monday. Each of the four counts in the indictment carries a maximum 15-year prison term.

Prosecutors said the indictment did not charge the mosques. They added that the defendants were charged “based on their provision of material support to terrorism, not on their religious beliefs or teachings.”

The Muslim Communities Association of South Florida announced that Hafiz Khan had been suspended indefinitely from his mosque.

“Our organizations, together through the Coalition of South Florida Muslim Organizations, has been working with the U.S. attorney’s office and the Miami F.B.I. office,” the association said in a statement released Saturday afternoon, “and appreciate the efforts of law enforcement to root out potential sources and supporters of terrorism.”

“We stand together with the U.S. attorney, Wilfredo Ferrer, and the men and women of the F.B.I., and have been and will be cooperating with law enforcement to our fullest ability,” the Muslim association added.

The charges of supporting the Pakistani Taliban but not actually carrying out operations are the most common types of terrorism prosecutions that American authorities have pursued since the Sept. 11 attacks. Of the 50 top terrorism cases since 9/11, about 70 percent have involved financing or other support to terrorist groups, according to the Center on Law and Security at the New York University School of Law.

The Pakistani Taliban is closely allied with Al Qaeda and is responsible for attacks against Pakistani police and military targets in recent years. Pakistani authorities believe that a splinter group of the Pakistani Taliban was responsible for the suicide attack in northwestern Pakistan on Friday that killed more than 80 cadets from a government paramilitary force.

The indictment comes at a tense moment in relations between the United States and Pakistan after Osama bin Laden was killed in a raid by the Navy Seals on May 2 in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

On Saturday, the Pakistani Parliament condemned the raid as a “unilateral action” and “a violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty,” and demanded a formal review of the country’s relationship with the United States.

F.B.I. agents arrested Hafiz Khan and his son Izhar in South Florida on Saturday, the authorities said. Irfan Khan was arrested in Los Angeles, they said.

Lizette Alvarez contributed reporting from Miami, and Eric Schmitt from Washington.

 

Broad Taliban Attack Paralyzes Kandahar

Although the attack, the first major campaign in the Taliban’s announced spring offensive, did not kill many people, the insurgents made clear that they could muster their followers, tie up one of Afghanistan’s largest population centers and elude a heavy police and military presence.

The attack ended as night fell Sunday, when the last two suicide bombers were killed in a hotel near the provincial headquarters of the national intelligence department. Spent casings littered the streets “like hail after a storm,” one Kandahar resident said, and ranks of police officers stood guard at official buildings.

The scale and organization of the attack as well as the targeting of government buildings suggested that the Taliban had been planning it for some time — and that they had relied on support from inside Kandahar.

Among the places singled out were the provincial governor’s palace, the police headquarters, the transportation police headquarters, a police substation and other buildings used by the military, according to a NATO statement.

Those are among the most well-guarded spots in Kandahar, the biggest city in southern Afghanistan and a major base for NATO forces. Still, the 27 insurgent fighters involved in the attacks were able to move in those areas while toting explosive vests or driving vehicles laden with explosives, raising questions about complicity with the attacks.

“How can a big number of armed people with suicide car bombs enter the city?” asked Mohammed Umar Sathi, a political analyst and Kandahar resident.

“How are they able to occupy nearby buildings and stage themselves so they can shoot on the governor’s office and the N.D.S. department?” he asked, referring to the National Directorate of Security, the intelligence department.

“Either the security forces are incompetent, or they have no coordination among each other,” he said. “Also, we have foreign forces who have responsibility for securing the city.”

The scale of the attack suggested that despite NATO’s ability to kill large numbers of fighters, which they say discourages others from joining the cause, there is still a substantial reservoir of men willing to fight to the death.

Of the 27 attackers, according to the provincial governor, Tooryalai Wesa, 13 were killed in combat and 7 were killed when they exploded their suicide bombs. Another seven fighters were detained.

At least two security officers were killed: a police officer and an intelligence officer. A civilian was killed, as was one other person whose identity was unclear, according to doctors at Mirwais Hospital in Kandahar. Doctors said that of 45 people who came to the hospital emergency room, 20 were treated and released while the others were kept for treatment. At least three were in critical condition.

The attacks frustrated and depressed Kandahar residents.

“People are really in trouble; this is the second day the bazaar is closed,” said Abdul Qadus, the owner of a textile shop, who had to leave the market suddenly Saturday when gunmen climbed on the roof of a building near where he worked and began to shoot. “People need to work, they need to buy something and earn their living, but in such circumstances you are not able to come outside.”

As the shooting stopped, the police and intelligence officers found one explosives-rigged vehicle after another: cars, rickshaws, motorcycles and wheelbarrows. In all, 20 vehicles were found with undetonated explosives, said a senior officer at the intelligence department. It was not clear why.

Governor Wesa, who was one of the targets of the attack — the Taliban fired into his compound — implored the insurgents to take advantage of this moment in the wake of the killing of Osama bin Laden and lay down their arms.

“I am advising them not to kill themselves nor harm civilians nor destroy the country,” he said at a hastily called news conference. “Come and put down your weapons and join the peace and reconciliation process. You will be protected, your blood will be protected and your property will be protected. You will have a normal life in your own country.”

Governor Wesa was not the only one ready to offer the attackers a political solution.

Mohammed Nadeem Khan, a high school teacher who was standing in line to buy bread for his family as sporadic gunfire sounded in the distance, shook his head and spoke as if he were talking to the Taliban.

“I don’t know the aim of these Taliban or opposition or whatever you call them. What do they want? Power? Do they think by occupying a building, then starting shooting or detonating themselves, someone will give power? I don’t think so,” he said.

He continued: “If you really want to free Afghanistan from foreigners or bring justice to the people of Afghanistan, please appear in a political shape: come with logical reasons for the people to follow you, present a reasonable and proper solution for all these conflicts, get rid of corruption and I will support you, the people of Afghanistan will support you. But by destruction and killing, no one will support you. You will get nothing.”

Taimoor Shah reported from Kandahar, and Alissa J. Rubin from Kabul, Afghanistan.

 

Thousands of Afghans Rally in Kabul to Reject Any Peace With Taliban

The meeting, organized by a former intelligence director, Amrullah Saleh, and attended as well by Abdullah Abdullah, a former presidential candidate, was a frontal attack on the current government’s policies, and speakers denounced both Al Qaeda and the Taliban. The organizers promised that if they were not listened to, they would “go to the streets and protest.”

Under the name “a gathering for justice,” the meeting was attended overwhelmingly by Afghans from the north and particularly from Panjshir Province, the home of the Afghan icon Ahmed Shah Massoud, who was killed by suicide bombers backed by Al Qaeda two days before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Panjshir is also the home province of Mr. Saleh and Mr. Abdullah.

Both men have long experienced friction with President Hamid Karzai: Mr. Karzai forced out Mr. Saleh, and Mr. Abdullah withdrew from a runoff election against Mr. Karzai in 2009 because, he said, the voting would be rigged. “The Taliban and Al Qaeda are terrorists,” said Mr. Saleh, as he looked out across the crowd, many of them young people. “They have destroyed our lands and houses, dishonored our wives and families.”

Then Mr. Saleh addressed Mr. Karzai: “You call them your brothers, this is oppression — to this nation; they are not our brothers,” he said in a criticism of Mr. Karzai’s frequent reference to the Taliban not as enemies or terrorists but as “upset brothers” or “angry brothers.”

The meeting struck a strongly nationalist tone and seemed aimed at generating the kind of grass-roots movement that has swept the Middle East. It was advertised on Facebook, radio and television stations, as well as in local newspapers.

Banners in Dari, one of the official Afghan languages, around the edge of the large tents were critical of the government: “The international community should not support Karzai for deals with the Taliban;” “Don’t step on our national interest by making deals with the Taliban;” “Every government organ is screaming with corruption, let’s root it out.”

The meeting was held in the parking lot of one of Kabul’s many immense wedding halls, and the manager, who asked that his name not be used, said that his staff had set out more than 10,000 chairs. Almost every one was filled, and overflow crowds gathered outside to listen to the speeches over loudspeakers.

The dominance of northerners at the gathering raised the issues of the growing tension over the prospect of a peace deal with the Taliban and the very different outlooks of the predominantly non-Pashtun north of Afghanistan and the overwhelmingly Pashtun south.

“As you know, one tribe, one circle has governed Afghanistan,” said Rasullah Paya, 22, a Kabul University student, referring to the Pashtuns, the ethnic group of Mr. Karzai. “From now on we don’t want one circle, one tribe, one nation, to run the government,” said Mr. Paya, who is from the Hazara ethnic group and is originally from Parwan Province, which is also in the north.

In fact, the government’s senior figures come from all ethnic groups, but perhaps because there is general frustration with day-to-day corruption and inefficiency, people feel deeply disenfranchised.

Others were even blunter. Abu Bakr, 32, from Panjshir Province, said, “We came today to participate in this gathering, to express our hatred of the Taliban and of the High Peace Council.”

The peace council, with more than 60 members, picked by Mr. Karzai, has been involved in reaching out to the Taliban and other insurgent groups to persuade them to lay down their weapons and join the government.

Mr. Saleh worked for Mr. Karzai until last June when insurgents attacked a peace jirga held in Kabul with rockets. In the wake of the attack, Mr. Karzai forced both Mr. Saleh and the interior minister at the time, Hanif Atmar, to offer their resignations because they had not pre-empted the attack. While Mr. Saleh is a Tajik, Mr. Atmar is a Pashtun, and they have criticized the government’s failure to root out corruption and to take a tough stand against the Taliban.

Underlying the reason for the gathering and on the minds of many in attendance was Mr. Karzai’s recent meeting with senior Pakistani officials at which the two countries’ leaders pledged to work together to bring peace to the region. However, in private the Pakistanis pushed for changes in Afghan policies, urging the country to draw closer to China and implicitly distance itself from the United States.

After the meeting, several local newspapers released what they said were lists of Pakistan’s demands to Afghanistan. While some of the demands were completely fabricated, others appeared to have been mentioned at the meeting, and the overall lack of transparency, coupled with the recent revelation that Osama bin Laden was living near a Pakistani military compound, has exacerbated people’s suspicions of Pakistan.

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Taliban Say Offensive Will Begin Sunday

 

The United Nations special representative, Staffan de Mistura, meanwhile, said both sides should redouble their efforts to avoid killing civilians as the fighting is expected to ratchet up with the arrival of good weather.

“If there is a spring offensive , who should not be paying the price is civilians,” he said. “Since the Taliban have been responsible for the biggest civilian casualties, we are addressing them first, but we are also addressing NATO and asking them to do the same.”

According to the United Nations, the insurgents were responsible for 75 percent of civilian casualties in 2010 and NATO forces were responsible for 16 percent. (In the remaining cases, the culprit was unclear.)

The Taliban appeared aware of the concerns those numbers raised, and in their news release they twice mentioned civilian protection. They said they would make every effort to avoid attacks that hurt civilians, but also warned that “all Afghan people should bear in mind to keep away from gatherings, convoys, and centers of the enemy.”

The Taliban define the enemy as NATO troops, as well as foreign and Afghan contractors who assist NATO and the Afghan government. And the news release explicitly said that civilian members of the High Peace Council, created by the government to reach out to the insurgents, would be targets.

The release said the council’s members were “trying to pave the way for the prolongation of the American occupation by cashing in on the name of jihad, religion and tribal chieftainship.”

NATO officials see the Taliban promises to protect civilians as little more than propaganda.

Lt. Col. John L. Dorrian, a NATO public affairs officer, said the Taliban had talked a lot about protecting citizens, “but we haven’t seen much sign of it.” He noted that assassinations of tribal elders and other local politicians opposed to the Taliban had continued despite their promises to spare noncombatants.

While the Taliban have made public statements in the past about the commencement of the spring fighting season, this year’s announcement, like much of the recent Taliban propaganda, was a sophisticated product. It was e-mailed in the morning, at the beginning of the news cycle on Afghan radio and television and the information was supplied in Dari and Pashto, the two most common languages here, as well as English.

Afghan television networks headlined the Taliban’s announcement on the evening news. Some international organizations ordered their staff to stay inside secure compounds for the next several days, and the spokesman for the Afghan National Directorate of Intelligence said at a news conference that the insurgency’s effort was aimed at undermining Afghans’ faith in the government as it prepared to take full responsibility for security from NATO troops in some provinces.

Lutfullah Mashal, a spokesman for the Intelligence Directorate, said the Taliban announcement was just one more attempt to diminish people’s confidence in the government, following a series of bold actions in recent weeks, including a jailbreak that freed nearly 500 of its members,.

“Terrorists and radical parties and Al Qaeda, who support these small terrorist groups, undertook these to undermine the transition to Afghan control of the security forces and the peace process,” he said. “They are trying to show that the government is weak.”

 

Room For Debate: The Taliban Jailbreak and Afghanistan's Future

Allauddin Khan/Associated Press Nearly 500 Taliban escaped through this tunnel at the main Kandahar prison.

In an audacious move, nearly 500 Taliban fighters broke out of the largest prison in southern Afghanistan, escaping through a long tunnel that was dug from outside the prison. In June 2008, the Taliban attacked the same prison in Kandahar, freeing 1,200 prisoners, including 350 Taliban.

A Taliban spokesman was ready with a the statement on Monday: “We have planned and worked on this for five months, and the tunnel is 360 meters long,” he said. “This was very important for us; we were trying to not leave anyone behind, not even one sick or old political prisoner.” The return of the fighters was seen as a serious setback for NATO and the Karzai government.

What does this security failure say about the ability of Afghan forces to take charge in seven areas around the country this summer, as announced by President Hamid Karzai in March?

?Read the Discussion ?

 Micah Zenko, Council on Foreign Relations

 Vanda Felbab-Brown, Brookings Institution

 Andrew Exum, Center for a New American Security

 

Taliban Prison Break May Lead to Military and Political Setback

The plan for the prison break , which led the prisoners through a tunnel dug over more than five months and equipped with electricity and air pipes, was so closely held that one young Taliban fighter who got out said he knew nothing of it until a fellow inmate tugged his sleeve to wake him in the night and led him to the three-foot-wide tunnel, which ran more than half a mile from a hole in a cell’s floor, under security posts, tall concrete walls and a highway, and came up in a nearby house. From there, a waiting car took the fighter a few miles away, where he hailed a taxi to safety.

“I was just praying to God that he would free me,” said the fighter, Allah Mohammed Agha, 22, recounting his escape from Sarposa Prison, where he had been held for 28 days. “Last night was the night that my dream was made true.” He spoke by phone from Spinbaldak, near the Pakistani border.

The Afghan government called the breach a disaster. The breach called into question the extent of the gains made against the Taliban in 18 months of hard fighting in Kandahar Province, and whether any progress would be sustainable once NATO troops began to reduce their numbers as planned this summer, members of Parliament, tribal leaders and Western officials said in interviews.

Some worried that the jailbreak might strengthen the Taliban in the coming weeks as the spring fighting season began. Having so many fighters back in circulation — possibly including hard-core commanders — also threatened to undermine efforts to bring Taliban fighters over to the government side, Afghan officials and former Taliban said.

There is no doubt that the incident demonstrated the ability of the Taliban to organize such an elaborate operation, even after they were driven largely underground in Kandahar and Helmand Provinces, and despite police and prison guards, prison visits by NATO mentors, and sophisticated NATO surveillance in Kandahar.

The prison break comes after four recent attacks by the Taliban, in which they used suicide bombers, often disguised as police officers or soldiers, to penetrate secure buildings, including an Afghan army corps’ headquarters in Laghman Province and the Ministry of Defense headquarters in the capital, Kabul.

Members of Parliament and others were scathing about the lapses. Some questioned whether the prison guards or police officers were bribed not to notice the tunnel’s construction.

“It’s a big achievement for the Taliban and shows a big failure and weakness in the government,” said Muhammad Naiem Lalay Hamidzai, a Parliament member from Kandahar and chairman of the internal security committee.

“The Taliban gain two things from this jailbreak,” he said. “First, coming after the incidents in Kunduz, Laghman, Kandahar and at the Ministry of Defense headquarters, it sends a message that they can do whatever they want, even at the heart of the most secure and important jail, and it allows them to strengthen their ranks with more manpower.”

The Afghan government was reeling Monday as details of the escape emerged. “This is bad news for the government and the people of Afghanistan,” the spokesman for President Hamid Karzai, Waheed Omar, said at a news conference. “This shows a vulnerability on the part of the government.” He called the prison break a disaster.

One unexplained question was why the cells where prisoners were supposed to sleep were left open so that they could make their way to the cell with the tunnel. It also seemed that none of the guards checked on the prisoners during the night, even though Afghan intelligence officials and Western military officials said that there had been intelligence about the possibility of a security breach.

“This is absolutely the fault of the ignorance of the security forces,” said the Kandahar provincial governor, Tooryalai Wesa. “This was not the work of a day, a week or a month of activities. This was actually months of work they spent to dig and free their men.”

Clearly embarrassed, Afghan officials had little else to say, other than to acknowledge that the prison break showed unexpected weaknesses in security. Since the Taliban engineered a major break at the same prison in 2008 — freeing 1,200 prisoners — Canadian forces have mentored the Afghans who run the prison and NATO countries have spent several million dollars upgrading and training the prison administration, according to a Western official in Kabul.

“There are a lot of people asking questions today,” said a NATO officer at the coalition’s headquarters in Kabul.

There was no official comment from the NATO command. Two Western officials described the break as “at least partially an inside job,” but both said they could not be named because of the delicacy of the situation.

Of the 488 men who escaped, fewer than 20 were from the criminal section of the prison; the rest were security detainees believed to be Taliban fighters and commanders.

An escapee, who asked not to be identified, said that among those freed were two shadow governors and 14 shadow district governors. The Taliban have a shadow government that has varying influence in different provinces.

However, Muhammad Qasim Hashimzai, a deputy justice minister, said that the government did not yet know who had escaped. “The detainees included all kinds of people,” he said, and he promised to have more information on Tuesday.

Mr. Wesa, the Kandahar provincial governor, said a manhunt was on and that 26 escapees had been captured by late afternoon.

The security section of the prison was eerily empty on Monday when reporters were shown around. Prisoners’ belongings were strewn about, but appeared heaped in the cell with the tunnel in an effort to obscure the entrance. A second tunnel branched off to the criminal side of the prison, according to the warden, Gen. Ghulam Dastagir Mayar, and Mr. Wesa.

Now, with so many Taliban back in the fight, it will be even harder to convince Taliban fighters that they will be safe if they defect to the government, a former Taliban commander said.

“The prison break will slow down the peace process,” said Mullah Noorul Aziz Agha, a Taliban member who recently decided to lay down his arms and work with the government. “I was talking to Taliban on the phone to try to persuade them to come over, but now with this, how can we promise them that we can offer them security and protection?”

Taimoor Shah reported from Kandahar, and Alissa J. Rubin from Kabul, Afghanistan. Sangar Rahimi contributed reporting from Kabul.

 

Karzai: Afghanistan, Pakistan to Boost Taliban Peace Efforts

 VOA News ?April 16, 2011

Pakistan's Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, left, speaks with Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai during a news conference in Kabul, Afghanistan, April 16, 2011

Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Gilani have agreed to boost joint efforts to make peace with the Taliban.

Gilani flew Saturday to the Afghan capital, Kabul, to hold talks with President Karzai. ?

At a news conference after their meeting, Karzai said Pakistan has upgraded a joint Afghan-Pakistan peace commission to the highest government level. He said the Pakistani prime minister is now leading the Pakistani side of the commission along with Pakistan's chief of army staff and the nation's intelligence chief. President Karzai indicated Afghanistan would enact a similar upgrade.

The commission is aimed at working out logistics for negotiations with the Taliban. Gilani said Pakistan supports an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace process and said Kabul must set the parameters for any talks. He said imposing conditions or demands on the reconciliation process at this stage is not helpful.

In addition to peace efforts, trade issues and improving security were among the topics the two leaders were scheduled to discuss.

The talks between Afghanistan and Pakistan come at a time when U.S. relations with both nations are strained.

Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.

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