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PAKISTAN's FAITH IN ITS NEW LEADER IS SHAKEN !!!
NYTimes.com
By JANE PERLEZ
Published: September 26, 2008
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan A week after the bomb attack on the Marriott Hotel here, Pakistan is struggling to deal with a financial meltdown and a terrorism threat that has moved to the nations heart and badly shaken confidence in the new government among Pakistanis, diplomats and investors alike.
In New York on Friday, President Asif Ali Zardari met with representatives of a group of donor countries, including the United States and Saudi Arabia, who were trying to come up with $5 billion to prevent Pakistan from defaulting on its debt.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said afterward that the United States would work toward Pakistans economic stability. But no decisions were made, according to participants, except that the donors would meet again in Abu Dhabi next month.
As the financial situation has deteriorated, diplomats here have become increasingly uneasy about the governments capacity to prevent further attacks on the scale of the hotel bombing, which killed at least 53 people and wounded more than 250 others.
The cabinet in Islamabad is confronted with a general breakdown of the state, said an editorial in the Friday issue of The Daily Times, a newspaper that generally supports the government of President Zardari.
In an extraordinary attempt at calming the jitters, Rehman Malik, the senior adviser at the Interior Ministry, met Friday with more than 50 ambassadors to try to reassure them that their embassies and their staffs would be safe.
Mr. Maliks audience went into the meeting with very deep concern, a senior diplomat said. They came out barely reassured, he said.
He and another Western ambassador, neither of whom wanted to be identified when commenting on domestic matters, said they were disturbed that Mr. Malik did not report any progress on the investigation into the Marriott bombing, or how it was carried out. If they start arresting groups, that would reassure us, the senior diplomat said.
Mr. Malik used a PowerPoint presentation to outline new security measures that included more police officers around the enclave where many embassies are situated, and more concrete barriers and closed-circuit television cameras.
But a second ambassador said that although Mr. Malik showed good will, there were grave doubts about the governments ability to finance and follow through on the steps.
The American Embassy closed its visa section on Thursday and Friday after what it called continuing threats. Embassy staff members were encouraged to work from home. All American government employees were forbidden, according to embassy orders, to stay at hotels in Pakistans main cities.
The bombing has cast gloom over the capital that is compounding the economic troubles that outlasted the administration of President Pervez Musharraf.
Lawyers and businessmen have talked about moving away, particularly to Dubai or Malaysia. Foreign investment had almost dried up before the attack, they said, and now some worried it would disappear altogether. Some of Pakistans biggest businessmen had already shipped capital abroad, crimping new business ventures.
Moodys, the international credit rating agency, cut Pakistans credit outlook from stable to negative on Tuesday, citing dwindling foreign exchange reserves, risks from extremists and high inflation.
Foreign exchange reserves have shrunk to $5.7 billion, with only about $3 billion available to cover payments for oil and food, according to the International Monetary Fund.
A major disappointment for the government has been the failure of Saudi Arabia, a traditional benefactor, to announce concessions on oil. In past economic crunches, Saudi Arabia has agreed to defer payment for the 100,000 barrels of oil Pakistan imports daily from the kingdom, the economists said.
That has not happened this time, and even with the recent drop in oil prices, Pakistan is eating through its reserves at the rate of about $1.25 billion a month, Pakistani economists say.
The international community cannot allow Pakistan to become a failed state, said a senior economist from one of the international financial institutions trying to salvage the economy.
Diplomats and others are weighing what steps to take for themselves.
British Airways announced this week that it was suspending all flights from London to Islamabad, the only direct connection between Europe and Pakistan.
At a meeting on Friday, senior officials of the United Nations agencies in Pakistan postponed a decision on whether to send family members of their foreign employees home, participants said.
Such a move would have sent an unmistakable signal that the security situation was grave. It would also likely have prompted some of the 250 United Nations employees to leave with their families, threatening projects ranging from Unicefs efforts to immunize children against polio to the World Food Programs distribution of food.
Of most concern, the ambassadors said, is lax security in the capital. On the night of the bombing, the policemen along the roads in the center of the city, which is designated a high-security red alert zone, were sitting on the curb eating in the ritual breaking of the Ramadan fast, the senior diplomat said.
That was one reason it was so easy for the truck to approach the Marriott without scrutiny, he said.
Pakistani officials and Western diplomats said they believed that the attack had been organized by the Pakistani Taliban, who work with Al Qaeda in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.
Most troubling was the likelihood that the huge amount of explosives estimated at 1,300 to 2,200 pounds had been loaded onto the truck over time in relatively small quantities.
It seemed likely that the truck was prepared somewhere within Islamabad, according to a Pakistani intelligence official who declined to be identified by name because he was not authorized to talk on the matter. He said the suicide bomber who drove the truck came from a training camp in Waziristan, a Qaeda stronghold.
The explosives used for the bomb were TNT and RDX, mixed with aluminum oxide, said Talat Masood, a retired army general and a former director of Pakistans largest munitions and weapons factory.
Such explosives are commonly found in anti-tank mines, Mr. Masood said. The explosives could have come from stores left behind by the Soviets when they left Afghanistan, he said. He said he was confident that investigators would discover the signature that would reveal where the explosives came from.
Though the death toll published by Pakistani newspapers is 53, foreign embassies said they had been informed by the Pakistani foreign office that more than 60 had died.
Two American military men Petty Officer Third Class Matthew J. OBryant, 22, of Duluth, Ga., a Navy cryptologic technician, and Maj. Rodolfo I. Rodriguez, 34, of El Paso, from the Air Forces 86th Construction and Training Squadron at the Ramstein Air Base in Germany, died in the attack, the American Embassy said. A third American, described as a contractor for the State Department, is unaccounted for, the embassy said.
Even Pakistanis accustomed to suicide bomb attacks against government installations have been shaken by the attack on a landmark hotel and the prospect of more assaults on soft targets.
At a shopping center in Islamabad, Akhlaq Abbasi, 60, leaned on his counter and surveyed his empty store. Sales of fabric for mens suits and drapes, and cloth for womens traditional dress had evaporated since the Marriott attack, he said.
Babar Sattar, a prominent lawyer, talking over a cup of coffee at McDonalds, said he would stay. But everyone was depressed, he said. The governments first reaction was: Weve done all we could. Thats what really terrifies people. There seems no way to stopping the attacks.
Pir Zubair Shah contributed reporting.
NYTimes.com
By JANE PERLEZ
Published: September 26, 2008
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan A week after the bomb attack on the Marriott Hotel here, Pakistan is struggling to deal with a financial meltdown and a terrorism threat that has moved to the nations heart and badly shaken confidence in the new government among Pakistanis, diplomats and investors alike.
In New York on Friday, President Asif Ali Zardari met with representatives of a group of donor countries, including the United States and Saudi Arabia, who were trying to come up with $5 billion to prevent Pakistan from defaulting on its debt.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said afterward that the United States would work toward Pakistans economic stability. But no decisions were made, according to participants, except that the donors would meet again in Abu Dhabi next month.
As the financial situation has deteriorated, diplomats here have become increasingly uneasy about the governments capacity to prevent further attacks on the scale of the hotel bombing, which killed at least 53 people and wounded more than 250 others.
The cabinet in Islamabad is confronted with a general breakdown of the state, said an editorial in the Friday issue of The Daily Times, a newspaper that generally supports the government of President Zardari.
In an extraordinary attempt at calming the jitters, Rehman Malik, the senior adviser at the Interior Ministry, met Friday with more than 50 ambassadors to try to reassure them that their embassies and their staffs would be safe.
Mr. Maliks audience went into the meeting with very deep concern, a senior diplomat said. They came out barely reassured, he said.
He and another Western ambassador, neither of whom wanted to be identified when commenting on domestic matters, said they were disturbed that Mr. Malik did not report any progress on the investigation into the Marriott bombing, or how it was carried out. If they start arresting groups, that would reassure us, the senior diplomat said.
Mr. Malik used a PowerPoint presentation to outline new security measures that included more police officers around the enclave where many embassies are situated, and more concrete barriers and closed-circuit television cameras.
But a second ambassador said that although Mr. Malik showed good will, there were grave doubts about the governments ability to finance and follow through on the steps.
The American Embassy closed its visa section on Thursday and Friday after what it called continuing threats. Embassy staff members were encouraged to work from home. All American government employees were forbidden, according to embassy orders, to stay at hotels in Pakistans main cities.
The bombing has cast gloom over the capital that is compounding the economic troubles that outlasted the administration of President Pervez Musharraf.
Lawyers and businessmen have talked about moving away, particularly to Dubai or Malaysia. Foreign investment had almost dried up before the attack, they said, and now some worried it would disappear altogether. Some of Pakistans biggest businessmen had already shipped capital abroad, crimping new business ventures.
Moodys, the international credit rating agency, cut Pakistans credit outlook from stable to negative on Tuesday, citing dwindling foreign exchange reserves, risks from extremists and high inflation.
Foreign exchange reserves have shrunk to $5.7 billion, with only about $3 billion available to cover payments for oil and food, according to the International Monetary Fund.
A major disappointment for the government has been the failure of Saudi Arabia, a traditional benefactor, to announce concessions on oil. In past economic crunches, Saudi Arabia has agreed to defer payment for the 100,000 barrels of oil Pakistan imports daily from the kingdom, the economists said.
That has not happened this time, and even with the recent drop in oil prices, Pakistan is eating through its reserves at the rate of about $1.25 billion a month, Pakistani economists say.
The international community cannot allow Pakistan to become a failed state, said a senior economist from one of the international financial institutions trying to salvage the economy.
Diplomats and others are weighing what steps to take for themselves.
British Airways announced this week that it was suspending all flights from London to Islamabad, the only direct connection between Europe and Pakistan.
At a meeting on Friday, senior officials of the United Nations agencies in Pakistan postponed a decision on whether to send family members of their foreign employees home, participants said.
Such a move would have sent an unmistakable signal that the security situation was grave. It would also likely have prompted some of the 250 United Nations employees to leave with their families, threatening projects ranging from Unicefs efforts to immunize children against polio to the World Food Programs distribution of food.
Of most concern, the ambassadors said, is lax security in the capital. On the night of the bombing, the policemen along the roads in the center of the city, which is designated a high-security red alert zone, were sitting on the curb eating in the ritual breaking of the Ramadan fast, the senior diplomat said.
That was one reason it was so easy for the truck to approach the Marriott without scrutiny, he said.
Pakistani officials and Western diplomats said they believed that the attack had been organized by the Pakistani Taliban, who work with Al Qaeda in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.
Most troubling was the likelihood that the huge amount of explosives estimated at 1,300 to 2,200 pounds had been loaded onto the truck over time in relatively small quantities.
It seemed likely that the truck was prepared somewhere within Islamabad, according to a Pakistani intelligence official who declined to be identified by name because he was not authorized to talk on the matter. He said the suicide bomber who drove the truck came from a training camp in Waziristan, a Qaeda stronghold.
The explosives used for the bomb were TNT and RDX, mixed with aluminum oxide, said Talat Masood, a retired army general and a former director of Pakistans largest munitions and weapons factory.
Such explosives are commonly found in anti-tank mines, Mr. Masood said. The explosives could have come from stores left behind by the Soviets when they left Afghanistan, he said. He said he was confident that investigators would discover the signature that would reveal where the explosives came from.
Though the death toll published by Pakistani newspapers is 53, foreign embassies said they had been informed by the Pakistani foreign office that more than 60 had died.
Two American military men Petty Officer Third Class Matthew J. OBryant, 22, of Duluth, Ga., a Navy cryptologic technician, and Maj. Rodolfo I. Rodriguez, 34, of El Paso, from the Air Forces 86th Construction and Training Squadron at the Ramstein Air Base in Germany, died in the attack, the American Embassy said. A third American, described as a contractor for the State Department, is unaccounted for, the embassy said.
Even Pakistanis accustomed to suicide bomb attacks against government installations have been shaken by the attack on a landmark hotel and the prospect of more assaults on soft targets.
At a shopping center in Islamabad, Akhlaq Abbasi, 60, leaned on his counter and surveyed his empty store. Sales of fabric for mens suits and drapes, and cloth for womens traditional dress had evaporated since the Marriott attack, he said.
Babar Sattar, a prominent lawyer, talking over a cup of coffee at McDonalds, said he would stay. But everyone was depressed, he said. The governments first reaction was: Weve done all we could. Thats what really terrifies people. There seems no way to stopping the attacks.
Pir Zubair Shah contributed reporting.
