EX EDITOR "THE NEWS"  writes  bla bla bla .........

Three weeks ago, I resigned as editor of Pakistan's most influential 
English daily, the News. My proprietor had directed me to apologize to the chiefs of the 
Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) for my decision to publish details of a confessional statement 
by Omar Saeed Sheikh, the prime suspect in the abduction and murder of Wall Street Journal 
reporter Daniel Pearl. I was the first local journalist Danny contacted last year when he 
arrived in Karachi to cover Pakistan, and America's war against terror, the latest dimension of 
which was seen in Sunday's attack on a church in Islamabad. 

Never lacking for audacity, the ISI first broke into our newsroom on Feb. 17 to detect our 
story on Sheikh, in which he linked the ISI directly to his involvement in last December's 
terrorist attacks on India's Parliament. With such embarrassing information coming from one 
of their own kind -- Sheikh had, after all, turned himself in for interrogation to his former ISI 
handler on Feb. 5, a week before Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, visited 
Washington -- the regime's principal information officer called me at 1 a.m. and demanded I 
pull the piece. 

When his coercion failed, my proprietor in London was called. He tried to stop publication, 
but failed, and the next day the government pulled all its advertising -- accounting for over half 
our income -- in an effort to silence my paper completely. Then they asked the owner to sack 
me, as well as three other senior journalists. 

I resigned rather than be part of a conspiracy to mislead Pakistan's people. Fearing for my 
safety -- and with the Pearl case fresh in mind -- I chose to join my family in Virginia and live 
to fight another day. 

And fight we must. This media management is the first sign of where Gen. Musharraf's newly 
tactful ISI is headed. "Managing" politics and rigging October's elections are next on the 
agenda. There are signs that a political party is being put together to legitimize Gen. Musharraf 
as an all-powerful president, to stay in office well beyond any reasonable time-frame. 

Games we have seen so many times are underway in Pakistan again. I'm not talking about 
cricket with India, but about an effort to manipulate the press, to usurp the right to fair 
elections, and to hide Islamists under a presentable wrap. (Only last week, Gen. Musharraf 
released most of the arrested Taliban activists and their fanatic leaders.) 

The primary instrument of change in achieving this devil's pact is Gen. Musharraf's recasting of 
the ISI as a more docile institution, ostensibly purged of Islamist hard-liners and Taliban 
sympathizers. But buyers beware. 

Another intelligence disaster now looms. Its similarities to the Zia days are remarkable. Gen. 
Musharraf, the military dictator of the day, is the new darling of the West fighting the new 
enemy in Afghanistan. Billions of American taxpayer dollars are again set to flow. A beautiful 
facade has been crafted for external consumption, on everything from press freedoms and 
elections to a corruption-free economy and an Islamist-free state. The reality is harshly 
different. 

The ISI has been assigned the task of recruiting representatives for this effort. They are to 
cajole and coerce the press and politicians. Key leaders from the political parties of both 
former prime ministers -- Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif -- are being lined up for 
pre-approval. The Islamist role will be safeguarded by fundamentalist generals. 

A full dress rehearsal of this methodology was carried out during the recently concluded 
countrywide polls for mayors and deputy mayors. Every city, big or small, had a pre-selected 
mayor. In Pakistan's military stronghold, Rawalpindi, ISI interference in seating a 
pre-approved candidate was so blatant that the non-political but highly compliant chamber of 
commerce president was "elected" mayor against better-known political stalwarts. 

Pakistan has played crucial roles in two of the main victories of our era -- those over 
communism and terrorism. The first time, the West looked away while evil forces were born 
in our midst, destroying our culture and society. The moderate majority was silenced into 
submission until the world woke up on Sept. 11. 

The warning signs are there again. America must invest its political and financial capital in 
institutions, not individuals. The American people and their elected representatives must not 
look the other way again. Freedom of the press is under siege. The promised return of 
democracy is being systematically compromised. American aid is being used to achieve 
dubious objectives. And the poor people of Pakistan, in defense of whom the ISI and Gen. 
Musharraf have made their last stand, may once again lose whatever is left of a country that 
can still be great. (By SHAHEEN SEHBAI )

OSAMA VIDEO

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WAR SURVEY

Do you think.... (1) The Afghan bombing is a strike against Islam and not Terrorism (2)You support Pakistan Government's decision to side with America in this war. (3)Pakistan has wisely provided 'air-bases' to US forces. (4)Pakistan is in need of a civilian setup to handle the present crisis. Current Results

Presidents of the Republic of Afghanistan: 
Sardar Muhammad Daoud - Zahir Shah's cousin (July 1973 - deposed and assassinated April 1978); 
Noor Muhammad Taraki (April 1978 - deposed and executed September 1979); 
Hafizullah Amin (September 1979 - deposed and assassinated December 1979); 
Babrak Karmal (December 1979 - deposed May 1986); 
Muhammad Najibullah (May 1986 - deposed March 1992, later hanged by the Taliban 1996); 
Sibgatullah Mujaddedi (March 1992 - deposed June 1992); 
Burhanuddin Rabbani (June 1992 -1996 & November 2001 - December 2001 deposed by coalition).
Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan:
Amirul Momineen Mulla Muhammad Omar (1996 - December 2001..on the run).
Hamid Karazai (December 2001 - awaiting June 2002)