Pakistan probes mystery of US Marines' steel boxes in Marriott

[MikeWB]

Pakistan probes mystery of US Marines' steel boxes in Marriott

www.hindustantimes.com/redir.aspx?ID=1c ... a63409b79d

Islamabad, September 23, 2008, Hindustan Times

Pakistani authorities are trying to "solve the riddle" of US Marines and their mysterious steel cases that were shifted to the Marriott Hotel four days before it was razed in the worst terrorist attack in the federal capital, a media report on Tuesday said.

"The authorities want to ascertain if it was a routine exercise or part of some special mission that does not have the approval of the government of Pakistan," The News said.

The US embassy insists the activity witnessed was a team of support personnel that often and routinely precede and/or accompany certain US officials.

According to an official source, the authorities were told that mysterious activity of the US Marines took place around midnight on Sep 16. "Already, the government has got information that several rooms on the fourth floor of the Marriott were in permanent use of the US authorities. Three of these rooms were said to be inter-connected and contained some intelligence equipment and other material allegedly used for espionage," the newspaper said.

Marriott owner Sadruddin Hashwani denied that the Americans had any such presence in the hotel and said that like at any such hotel in the world, his guests included people of different nationalities. "Why focus on the Americans unnecessarily?" he wondered, flatly denying that the US embassy had permanently hired several rooms in the hotel.

US embassy spokesperson Lou Fintor said in a written reply in response to a query on the Marines: "A team of support personnel often and routinely precede and/or accompany certain US government officials. "They often carry communication and office equipment required to support large delegations, such as high-level administration officials and members of the US Congress."

He added that the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen, who was in Pakistan last week, would travel with communications equipment. "It is quite possible that some saw this communications equipment moved into the hotel. This equipment would leave with the CJCS. If the equipment was transported in full public view then obviously there was no attempt made to conceal its movement."

Witnessed by many, including a PPP MNA and his friends, a US embassy truckload of steel boxes was unloaded and shifted inside the Marriott Hotel on Sep 16 midnight only after Mullen had met Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and others in Islamabad and had already left the country.

"Both the main gates (the entrance and the exit) of the hotel were closed while no one except the US Marines was either allowed to go near the truck or get the steel boxes unloaded or shift them inside the hotel," The News said. "These steel boxes were not being passed through the scanners installed at the entrance of the hotel's lobby, and were reportedly shifted to the fourth and fifth floors of the Marriott," it added.

A hotel employee, speaking on condition of anonymity, revealed that the management had been receiving threats from unknown persons for the last six months to evict the US officials vacated from the hotel. Hotel owner Hashwani, however, denied this.

According to the US embassy spokesperson, the mission had been a frequent customer of the Marriott for many years. On any given day, there were employees of the American embassy and official American visitors staying at the hotel. "There is nothing unusual, secretive or 'mysterious' about this," Fintor maintained.

Asked if three of these permanently hired rooms were interconnected, Fintor said: "For our frequent visiting delegations, the embassy often rented adjoining rooms - as we often do in other hotels in Pakistan and in the world."

Responding to reports that the CIA was using the US-rented rooms for espionage purposes, the spokesperson said: "Unfortunately, far too many things have been 'said' that have absolutely no basis in fact. There is no truth whatsoever in allegations that covert activity was taking place on the part of the United States government."

He termed the allegations inaccurate, irresponsible, baseless and completely without any foundation whatsoever. ==

Why was the Marriott Targeted?

By TARIQ ALI

23/09/08 "Counterpunch"

www.counterpunch.org/tariq09232008.html

The deadly blast in Islamabad was a revenge attack for what has been going on over the past few weeks in the badlands of the North-West Frontier. It highlighted the crisis confronting the new government in the wake of intensified US strikes in the tribal areas on the Afghan border.

Hellfire missiles, drones, special operation raids inside Pakistan and the resulting deaths of innocents have fuelled Pashtun nationalism. It is this spillage from the war in Afghanistan that is now destabilizing Pakistan.

The de facto prime minister of the country, an unelected crony of President Zardari and now his chief adviser, Rehman Malik, said, "our enemies don't want to see democracy flourishing in the country". This was rich coming from him, but in reality it has little to do with all that. It is the consequence of a supposedly "good war" in Afghanistan that has now gone badly wrong. The director of US National Intelligence, Michael McConnell, admits as much, saying the Afghan leadership must deal with the "endemic corruption and pervasive poppy cultivation and drug trafficking" that is to blame for the rise of the neo-Taliban.

The majority of Pakistanis are opposed to the US presence in the region, viewing it as the most serious threat to peace. Why, then, has the US decided to destabilize a crucial ally? Within Pakistan, some analysts argue this is a carefully coordinated move to weaken the Pakistani state by creating a crisis that extends way beyond the frontier with Afghanistan. Its ultimate aim, they claim, would be the extraction of the Pakistani military's nuclear fangs. If this were the case, it would imply Washington was determined to break up Pakistan, since the country would not survive a disaster on that scale.

In my view, however, the expansion of the war relates far more to the Bush administration's disastrous occupation in Afghanistan. It is hardly a secret that President Karzai's regime is becoming more isolated each passing day, as Taliban guerrillas move ever closer to Kabul.

When in doubt, escalate the war, is an old imperial motto. The strikes against Pakistan represent - like the decisions of President Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger, to bomb and then invade Cambodia - a desperate bid to salvage a war that was never good, but has now gone badly wrong.

It is true that those resisting the Nato occupation cross the Pakistan-Afghan border with ease. However, the US has often engaged in quiet negotiations with them. Several feelers have been put out to the Taliban in Pakistan, while US intelligence experts regularly check into the Serena hotel in Swat to meet Maulana Fazlullah, a local pro-Taliban leader.

Pashtuns in Peshawar, hitherto regarded as secular liberals, told the BBC only last week that they had lost all faith in the west. The decision to violate the country's sovereignty at will had sent them in the direction of the insurgents.

While there is much grieving for the Marriott hotel casualties, some ask why the lives of those killed by Predator drones or missile attacks are considered to be of less value. In recent weeks almost 100 innocent people have died in this fashion. No outrage and global media coverage for them.

Why was the Marriot targeted? Two explanations have surfaced in the media. The first is that there was a planned dinner for the president and his cabinet there that night, which was cancelled at the last moment.

The second, reported in the respected Pakistani English-language newspaper, Dawn, is that "a top secret operation of the US Marines [was] going on inside the Marriott when it was attacked". According to the paper: "Well-equipped security officers from the US embassy were seen on the spot soon after the explosions. However, they left the scene shortly afterwards."

The country's largest newspaper, the News, also reported on Sunday that witnesses had seen US embassy steel boxes being carried into the Marriott at night on September 17. According to the paper, the steel boxes were permitted to circumvent security scanners stationed at the hotel entrance.

Mumtaz Alam, a member of parliament, witnessed this. He wanted to leave the hotel but, owing to the heavy security, he was not permitted to leave at the time and is threatening to raise the issue in parliament.

These may be the motivations for this particular attack, but behind it all is the shadow of an expanding war.

Tariq Ali's latest book is 'The Duel: Pakistan on the Flight Path of American Power.'