Back Issues

April 2004 100th Issue

British Comedy Night!

PAUL ADAMS and RIK JONES

Hilton Hua Hin Resort & Spa in conjunction with KOC International (Asia) Entertainment & Event Consultants is proud to present

The night will feature the top UK comedian Paul Adams with his special guest Rik Jones.
Paul is well known on the international comedy circuit and is in much demand for theatre tours, clubs and television studios as well as corporate functions and now cruise lines. Paul has previously toured the UK with the Everly Brothers, Gene Pitney, The Stylistics, The Temptations, George Benson, Stevie Wonder and Englebert Humperdink. Most recently Paul has been performing in a comedy show with Frank Carson, Jimmy Cricket and doing some TV work Lily Savage.
Rik, recognised as a top overseas entertainer as his wit, sharp ad-libs and warm humour always receives a great response. He has been working with Lee Evans, Bradley Walsh and Frank Carson.
Tickets will be available from the Hilton Hua Hin Resort & Spa and various other points in town namely the Observer Group office and some of the British Bars: Bernie's Bar, Jungle Juice Bar, Johnny Walkers Bar and Billy's Bar.

The program schedule:
18.00 - 19.30 Resident band entertains with light background music for diners, Special set dinner + a la carte available
19.30 - 21.00 MC Rik Jones with 'Name That Tune'
21.00 - 22.00 Paul Adams - Top UK Comedian
22.00 - onwards Resident DJ and band

For more information about this event telephone Anthony Kelly on 01 - 384 1706 and to find out more about Paul Adams visit his website at:
www.theopeningact.co.uk/

This is a first time unique event in Hua Hin and promises to be hilarious nights entertainment
… don't miss it!

GREAT CHANCE TO WIN A PRIZE

Spend 100 Baht or more, or donate 5 items to the Hua Hin Dog Rescue Charity Shop on the 3rd Floor of the Hua Hin Shopping Mall and your name will be entered into a prize draw.
The lucky winner will get a 2 night stay for 2 people at the Anantara Resort and Spa. What have you got to lose?
You may even pick up a bargain, the charity shop has an extensive selection of books and handicraft items.

April Holidays and Occasions

Firstly let us wish a very Happy Birthday to Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, who celebrates her birthday on April 2nd.
She was the first of the Royal Children to attend a local institution of higher learning, she received her B.A. degree from the Faculty of Arts of Chulalongkorn University, where she majored in the Thai language. She also holds a M.A. degree in Oriental Epigraphy from Silpakorn University and a doctorate in Development Education from Srinakharinwirot University. Her Royal Highness is a gifted performer on traditional Thai musical instruments, she regularly accompanies her father on his visits to his provincial projects and assists him in collecting information relevant to their operation.
Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirinhorn has traveled abroad frequently to represent the country at a variety of ceremonies. The Royal Children have always carried out their duties with great efficiency and dedication, lending valuable support to His Majestry in his many tasks of national development.

April 6 marks the anniversary of the founding of the present Chakri Dynasty of which the present ruling monarch, King Bhumibol the Great, is the ninth king.
The Chakri Dynasty was founded by Phra Buddha Yodfa Chulaloke, or Rama I, who was born on March 20, 1737 with the name of Thong Duang and came to the throne on April 6, 1782. He ruled the country for 28 years. During his reign he consolidated the kingdom in such a way that here was no further fear of invasion from enemies. King Rama I has been praised as an accomplished statesman, a law maker, a poet and a devout Buddhist. Thus, his reign has been called a "reconstruction" of the Thai state and Thai culture. He was the monarch who established Bangkok as the capital of Thailand, and this is the most long-lasting creation which gains popularity as the "City of Angels". King Rama I passed away on September 7, 1809 at the age of 72.

Songkran is a Thai traditional New Year which starts on April 13 every year and lasts for 3 days. Songkran festival on April 13 is Maha Songkran Day or the day to mark the end of the old year, April 14 is Wan Nao which is the day after and April 15 is Wan Thaloeng Sok which the New Year begins. At this time, people from the rural areas who are working in the city usually return home to celebrate the festival. Thus, when the time come, Bangkok temporarily turns into a deserted city.
Songkran is a Thai word which means "move" or "change place" as it is the day when the sun changes its position in the zodiac. It is also known as the "Water Festival" as people believe that water will wash away bad luck.
The Songkran tradition is recognized as a valuable custom for the Thai community, society and religions. The value for family is to provide the opportunity for family members to gather in order to express their respects to the elders by pouring scented water onto the hands of their parents and grandparents and to present them gifts including making merits to dedicate the result to their ancestors. The elders in return wish the youngsters good luck and prosperity.
The values for community is to provide the opportunity to create unity in the community such as to jointly acquire merits, to meet each other and to enjoy the entertaining events. And for the society value is to create concern upon environment with cooperation such as to clean houses, temples, public places and official buildings. Thais value the religion bye means of merits acquisition, offerings alms to monks, Dhamma Practice, listening to sermon and monks-bathing.
In the afternoon, after performing a bathing rite for Buddha images and the monks, the celebrants both young and old, joyfully splash water oon each other. The most-talked about celebration takes place in the northern province of Chiang Mai where Songkran is celebrated from April 13 to 15. During this period, people from all parts of the country flock there to enjoy the water festival, to watch the Miss Songkran Contest and the beautiful parades.

The staff from Chom Talay Restaurant took a well earned rest, with fun and games on the beach.

Must be the Wedding Season:Good Luck and Congratulations to you all!

Top left: - Khun Sompoch and Khun Siripon
Bottom left - Tim and Nidnoi
Top right - Richard and Sunan
Bottom right - John and Ya

Working in the Fields of Rural Thailand

An American has a Cultural Experience
by Antonio Graceffo

We got up at six, and piled into the back of a truck, for the long ride out to the fields. The hill tribe people, ladies, with their colorful dress, and with baskets on their backs, were already out gathering firewood. They would stop and stare at the one foreigner in the mix of hill tribe boys, as the truck made its bumpy way along the dusty road. The early morning mountain air was cold, and the wind in the back of the truck chilled us to the bone.
It was hard to believe that by midday we would be sweltering in the heat. We pressed our bodies against the back of the cab, and huddled close together for warmth.
I had come to Thailand to study at a particular monastery, that I had heard of in my home in Taiwan. My expectation was that I would pay for my
lodgings in cash. But once I got there, I discovered that, although my food and lodging were free, I was expected to to do what everyone else did, that meant working in the fields. We worked ten, twelve, even fourteen hours per day. As much as it was physically demanding, it was also an incredible cultural experience. What other foreigner has ever had the opportunity to live and work with hill tribe people, and truly share in their lives?
My coworkers were all "orphans" who had been abandoned by their families for one reason or another. They began life at the monastery as little monks. But once they were a bit older, they could grow their hair out, wear normal clothes, and work for their keep. They ranged in age from 14 to 21.
Once we drove down the mountain and out of the woods, we passed miles and miles of fields, where countless others were also beginning their long work day, cutting corn.
I had read that agricultural workers in this part of Thailand could expect to earn about 100 Baht per day (about $2.00 US). But my experience was that this figure is not accurate. Most of the people I met really had no cash at all. In fact, a translator for one of the many NGOs active in the area told me that the local hill tribe people had only entered the cash economy in the last five years. They didn't have credit cards, cable TV, car payments or other bills that required them to use cash. With a machete and bamboo they seemed to be able to make just about anything from a house, to a rope, to cooking implements. They didn't seem to need much else.
When you are cutting corn stalks you have to cover every inch of your exposed skin, or you will get cut, scratched, irritated and infected. In Brooklyn the nuns at Catholic school had forgotten to tell us this fact. I only learned it from my Thai friends. Although we froze in the morning, once the sun was beating down on us, we wanted nothing more than to tear all of that clothing off. But the alternative, bright red, scratchy, itchy skin, was even worse than a little heat.
A fourteen hour work day is not something that most westerners would look forward to. But I found that the rural Thai people truly have an attitude of "mai ben rai," whatever comes comes. They accept this burden. And as long as they have to work this hard, they might as well have fun doing it. Seeing my friends in the back of the truck, you would think we were on our way to a party. Jakoi was teasing Dee about his hair. Yoohow stole Gaison's hat. And Payong sang Taiwanese pop songs, off key. The one entertainment we could all look forward to at the end of the day was to watch one hour of television. Every night we all gathered round the TV to watch a show about the king of Thailand. In the mornings, after finishing the latest hits from F-4 and Jay Chow, Payong would sing the theme song to the king of Thailand TV show, and we would all join in. After the first month I could sing most of it, although I had no idea what the words meant.
Out in the fields we divided into two groups. One group would swing the huge Thai knives, the lap, and cut the corn stalks. The other group would gather them and carry them back to the truck. Everyone preferred cutting to carrying. But Yoohow and Daischo were the senior workers, so they usually
cut. We unloaded our food and water at a small thatched hut, at the edge of the fields. The carriers all joked and practiced kick boxing, while Yoohow and Daischo sharpened their knives on a stone. Daischo's blade was loose, so he melted a water bottle, and dripped the molten plastic into the handle.
Although I spent nearly two months with these guys, it never ceased to amaze me that they could do so much with so little. Who in the west still knows how to sharpen a knife on a stone? And, when have you ever used an empty water bottle to repair anything?
Nothing went to waste in this part of Thailand. Meat was one of the things I
missed most at the monastery. Often, after we had filled the truck with corn, I would volunteer to accompany the driver back to the barn. Along the way, I would buy some meat for myself, and split it with whichever boy happened to be driving. The vendor always gave me a bag of raw chilies, which I discarded on the floor board of the truck. Later, the kids all came around me asking something about the bag. At first I thought they were scolding me for throwing it away. But actually, they were asking if they could eat the chilies. "Be my guest." I said. They attacked the bag of spices like it was Christmas candy, smiling ear to ear. It was hard for me to fathom that something I had discarded had brought so much joy to my friends. It was a lesson in how wasteful and fat we are in the west. For years to come they will probably refer to me as "that guy who never ate his chilies."
Although they had absolutely nothing, my friends were always willing to share. I never saw a single selfish act in the entire time I lived with
them. Often while we worked, one of the boys would run off into the jungle with a knife, and come back with food. Some days it would be something
recognizable and good, like bananas or coconuts. Other times it would be some strange roots or incredibly bitter wild fruits. The boys all carried a
bag of MSG with them, and could eat anything, even grass, if it was dipped in MSG. No matter what they found, or who found it, the food was immediately
chopped up and divided equally between us. Once, digging around one of the bamboo huts Yoohow found a lime that looked to be fifty years old. He cut it up, dipped it in MSG, and served it to the boys. They ate half of the ancient lime, and used the other half to clean the rust off of their knives.
Picking up piles of corn stalks, carrying them to the truck, then walking back out to the fields, picking up piles of corn stalks, and carrying them back to the truck was very exhausting. Your back ached. Your legs ached. Your shoulders hurt. But the whole time, the boys would be singing and joking. There was a girl, named Shang Wan, who worked at a little convenience store, where we sometimes stopped to buy petrol. Each time we went, I would chat with her. The boys always teased me that she was my girlfriend. They would tell me "Toni, you must work hard or Shang Wan won't
marry you." Or if I took off my trademark, NY Yankees baseball cap, to air out my head, they would say. "Your hair looks so bad. Shang Wan definitely
won't want you now." It was adolescent, innocent teasing, but it was somehow very endearing.
At nine o'clock we stopped to eat breakfast. We brought the food with us, in large thermos jugs, from the monastery. Since a monastery's food comes from begging, the quality and type of food varied greatly from day to day. Sometimes we had incredible Thai dishes, with spicy sauces and even a little bit of meat. But other times we had plain rice and some kind of smelly, pickled vegetables. There were days I couldn't stomach more than a mouthful
of the food. But, I always had to keep in mind, they weren't giving me bad food to spite me. They were giving me the best of what they had. We all ate
from a common dish, taking what we wanted, one mouth full at a time, with chop sticks or a spoon. If we ate soup, we passed the spoon back and forth,
between us. It is a special experience to share food with people. It seems so human, so basic a thing to do. Once again, I began to view our western idea of separate plates as being very antiseptic, a means of separating yourself from those around you.
Occasionally the house mother packed a fish or some special treat for me alone. This always made me feel guilty, so I would just add it to the common
table. Where we in the west would each eat one whole fish, my friends would all sit around, taking small bites, with their chopsticks. This way, a single fish could feed eight people.
After meals we usually took a nap. The local farmers knew we were from the monastery and they would often bring us food, bamboo rice or fish head soup. Once, some women brought us a handful of roast pork and two bags of sticky rice. We talked about that day for weeks. When we needed water we needed only to walk to the nearest house. Most people in the Thai countryside keep a barrel of water and a cup out front, so passing travelers could have a
drink.
When dark had already fallen, we loaded the last of the corn on the trucks. The boys climbed on top of the looming pile of stalks. Since I was a guest,
I was permitted to sit in the cab with the driver. The ride back to the monastery was always slow, because of the heavy load in the back. We bounced up the broken mountain roads, unloaded the corn, fed the horses, and our work was done. Before we could eat dinner we were required to shower. We dumped ice cold water over our heads, soaped, and repeated the process. If there was no good food left we usually ate ramen noodles and canned sardines. On this day, the little monks had been out begging, and there were lots of treats. My favourite was sweetened soy milk. We ate in front of the TV, with all of us singing the King's theme song. At nine o'clock, we lit a candle to go back to our huts. In the morning we would begin work again.
It was a hard life, but only physically. Emotionally, it was one of the most incredible and human experiences I had ever had. Few foreigners have ever lived so close to hill tribe people. Few outsiders know how wonderful they are. In addition to my fond memories and the many photos, I carried a piece of them in my heart when I left. And, I left something of myself behind.
The world is out there for you to see. Get away from the hotel. Leave the other foreigners, and go see it. The Thai people are wonderful. Just go out
and and meet them.

ASIA TIMES online www.atimes.com

SPENGLER

It's not the end of the world - it's the end of you

Last month's London snowstorm was the last straw. With no particular scientific evidence in hand, I have come to the conclusion that global warming is a looney cult. Londoners may have frolicked on the frozen Thames in the days of famous diarist Samuel Pepys in the mid-17th century, but today's Britons cannot reconcile this disruption of their lukewarm climate with the notion that temperatures are steadily rising.

The scientific controversy is beyond me, but I can recognize the fixed stare, the strained voice-throb and the rigid jaw of a madman at a hundred paces. The Greens hector us about the impending end of the world. I put it to them: perhaps it is not the end of the world, but just the end of you. Analysis of global temperature is a subtle issue about which reasonable men might in good faith reach different conclusions. The evangelical zealotry that motivates the global-warmers has a different source than the facts.

Human beings cannot bear their own transient existence without some hope of immortality. Except for the Americans, whom Europeans dismiss as bovine about such things, the children of the West long ago abandoned the promises of religion. The childless Europeans lack even the consolation of physical continuity. They have no future; other people will occupy the lands where they dwell, and their languages will be entombed in libraries. The myriad amusements available to them cannot forever distract them from the horrible advent of their own disappearance. Europeans: As a matter of demographic fact, it is indeed the end of you (Why Europe chooses extinction, April 8, 2003).

That settled, let us consider the minor matter of the end of the world. For the same reason that men cannot live without the hope of immortality, they cannot bear their gray, miserable lives without some sense of exaltation - religion, art, music, poetry, sex, drugs, violence, whatever. With the decline of Christianity and its bodyguard, the high culture of the West, sex, drugs and violence predominate. These devices eventually leave the user all the more anxious.

By living on the underside of popular culture, the young people of the West make themselves feel worthless and insignificant. In the cartoon Ants, an insect (with Woody Allen's voice) complains to an ant psychiatrist: "I feel so insignificant," to which the ant psychiatrist replies: "That's a breakthrough. You are insignificant." That is a creepy thought; if human beings truly felt themselves to be insignificant, the suicide rate would be much higher. In fact, cultures who truly come to feel insignificant, eg, Stone Age peoples who come into unwanted contact with the modern world, sometimes register suicide rates of 25 percent to 50 percent (Live and let die, April 13, 2002). We do not typically observe very high rates of suicide because the human mind resists its own destruction by wishing away its sense of insignificance. Paranoia is one such device. In the United States, many African-Americans believe that evil white doctors invented AIDS to wipe out the black population. Adolf Hitler believed that syphilis was a Jewish plot to poison Aryan blood. Egyptian high school textbooks teach that American pilots and spy technology secretly won the 1967 war for Israel, and so forth.

Today's educated Westerners do not normally believe in such bizarre ideas, but they are susceptible to subtler forms of the same thing. The sense of the transcendent they derive from contemplating nature is of desperate importance. "It is not that I will pass from the earth without leaving so much as a grease spot to mark my stay," thinks the Green. "It is the earth herself who is in danger. The rain forests will vanish! The whales will become extinct! The German forest is dying! The ice caps are melting!"

Anxiety about the irreversible disappearance of some feature of the natural world substitutes for the death-anxiety of the individual. In the extreme case, the Green becomes the enemy of industrial civilization in general. Of course I do not oppose sensible measures to protect rain forests, prevent over-fishing, and so forth, but I am weary of the fanaticism that distinguishes the conservationist from the environmental fanatic who has turned against civilization. It is worth observing that the US returns farmland to the wilderness every year, because rising agricultural productivity concentrates more output on a smaller number of square kilometers. Wandering the forests of New Hampshire one continuously stumbles on stone fences that long ago enclosed small farms.

Perhaps that explains why Americans showed insufficient concern over global warming to support the 1997 Kyoto Treaty (not even Howard Dean would sign it as currently presented). In their experience, the wilderness is growing not shrinking. Something deeper may be at work, however. Unlike the Europeans, most Americans cling to the old Judeo-Christian religion, according to which the sun and moon simply are lamps and watches set in the sky for the use of humankind. For them, what is transcendent is a creator who is not himself part of nature. Celestial bodies merely sit on the display cases of the creator's shop window. Far fewer Americans confound their own sense of mortality with the vulnerability of the natural world, because they have chosen other means to address the matter of mortality.

Otherwise, I shall continue to collect recipes for endangered species. An acquaintance in the Pacific Northwest of the United States assures me that spotted owl tastes just like chicken. Asia Times Online readers may send their favorite recipes for authentically endangered species to letters@atimes.com.

(Copyright 2004 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact content@atimes.com for information on our sales and syndication policies.)

THE ROVING EYE

Bring me the head of Osama bin Laden

By Pepe Escobar

The war in eastern Afghanistan and the tribal areas in Pakistan is barely on, but the Pentagon's spinning machine is in high gear. Who will prevail: al-Qaeda's number two, Ayman "The Surgeon" al-Zawahiri, or Commando 121?
The Pentagon's creative directors ruled that Commando 121, or Task Force 121, of General William Boykin - a self-described Islamophobe and a known Christian fanatic - was responsible for the capture of Saddam Hussein, when in fact the former dictator was arrested by Kurdish peshmerga (paramilitary) forces acting on a tip by one of his cousins and then sold to the Americans, according to Asia Times Online sources in the Sunni triangle. Recently, without a blip in many a strategic radar screen, Commando 121 transferred from Iraq to Pakistan. On October 25 of last year, Asia Times Online reported that Boykin had been appointed in charge of the hunt for Osama bin Laden. It's snowing on Rumsfeld's parade.
European intelligence sources tell Asia Times Online to expect the same scenario "Saddam" for the eventuality of the capture of bin Laden and Taliban spiritual leader Mullah Omar. Bin Laden will be "smoked out", probably on a tip by an Afghan tribal leader willing to make a cool US$25 million. And all credit will go to the secretive Commando 121, which is known to comprise navy Seals and commandos from the army's Delta Force.
The Pentagon has fired its first rhetorical Tomahawks of the season - via a leak this past weekend by a "US intelligence source" that bin Laden, al-Zawahiri, Mullah Omar and about 50 top al-Qaeda operatives had been located in Pakistan's Balochistan province. Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf was said to be on the brink of authorizing an American intervention. According to the Pentagon script, the fugitives are "boxed in", packed in a tight group, surrounded by an array of US and British special forces, and apparently with no chance of escaping.
This sounds like a replay of Tora Bora in December 2001, when US-led forces were convinced that they had bin Laden trapped in the mountainous range of that name in Afghanistan, only to learn that he had moved on long before the worst of the massive US assault on the area. The difference this time is that the fugitives are now said to be in the "isolated" Toba Kakar mountains in Balochistan, northeast of the provincial capital Quetta, and very far from the Afghan province of Zabol, on the other side of the border.
The fugitives are supposed to be in an area between the villages of Khanozoi and Murgha Faqizai. There is a road between both villages - and not much else. The average altitude in these mountains is 3,000 meters. There is an obvious escape route: a tortuous mountain trail towards the Afghan border village of A'la Jezah. And there are the not-so-obvious routes, known only to bin Laden and a few Arab-Afghans familiar with the country since the early 1980s.
According to the Pentagon leak, the fugitives were found through "a combination of CIA [Central Intelligence Agency] paramilitaries and special forces, plus image analysis by geographers and soil experts". Predictably, local Balochistan authorities deny everything. But even if bin Laden and the whole al-Qaeda leadership are in fact encircled in this area - and not further north, between the provinces of Kunar in Afghanistan and Chitral in Pakistan, where they were supposed to be hiding - what's the point of telling the whole world about it?
CIA vs Pentagon
It's no less than a coincidence, then, that a new Ayman al-Zawahiri tape surfaced on Arab networks only one day after these Pentagon leaks claimed that they had al-Qaeda surrounded, with the Americans just waiting for some "authorization" to capture them. Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld will be in Afghanistan this week. Exasperated diplomats suggest to Asia Times Online that he may have personally negotiated the terms of the "authorization" with Musharraf. After all, these are the stakes that really matter for the Bush administration: when, where and how to spin the capture of bin Laden and Mullah Omar.
The CIA is already covering its back - just in case. CIA supremo George Tenet was on a secret mission to Islamabad in early February - arguably to discuss the modalities of spinning concerning bin Laden's whereabouts. Tenet will do anything to help George W Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney as the president has firmly kept Tenet in his job, even after the "intelligence failure" before September 11 and the "intelligence failure" concerning the missing weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. To further fireproof his cover this time, Tenet told the US Senate Intelligence Committee that al-Qaeda was capable of more September 11-style attacks inside American territory, citing evidence that al-Qaeda was planning to recruit airline pilots for such missions.
According to the CIA chief, bin Laden has "gone deep underground". He was not specific, and unlike the Pentagon, he did not point to the exact global positioning satellite coordinates of bin Laden and his crew of 50. Rumsfeld clearly knows something that Tenet does not.
Another key actor, Musharraf, is duly following his script - stationing "tens of thousands" of Pakistani army troops in the tribal areas and vigorously trying to "smoke out" the usual al-Qaeda and Taliban suspects. But sources tell Asia Times Online that very few Afghan-Arabs remain active in the Afghan resistance movement - only the ones who fought in the jihad of the 1980s against the Soviets, speak local Pashtun dialects and know each piece of rock in the Afghan and tribal area mountains. Musharraf's job is much easier now that the whole porous area has been declared off limits to the foreign press. Moreover, any Pakistani official source insists on strictly denying the presence of any American troops of any size, colour or structure operating inside Pakistani territory.

But where are they?
Sources in Peshawar confirm to Asia Times Online that Pakistani and American forces are raising hell on both sides of the porous Pak-Afghan border, with Islamabad contributing with helicopter gunships, paramilitary forces and regular ground troops. This is the hors d'oeuvre for the already well-flagged upcoming spring offensive by the resistance. The American offensive at first will be concentrated in North and South Waziristan, on the Pakistani side, and the provinces of Paktia and Paktika on the Afghan side.
Pashtun tribals in the Afghan province of Khost confirm that after a bombing campaign, American forces and local Afghan allies brought with them the usual suitcases full of dollars and are now involved in house-to-house searches. This area used to be a stronghold of famous former Taliban minister and commander Jalaluddin Haqqani. The Americans will soon be forced to start a real war in Paktika - as the Hamid Karzai government in Kabul has admitted losing nine districts in the province, and running the risk of losing the rest. Some of the Paktika districts are now ruled by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's Hezb-i-Islami Afghanistan party, others by tribal leaders simply hostile to the American-backed Karzai regime. The Taliban also say that they now control several districts in Zabul province.
Islamabad is taking no prisoners. Now, Pashtun tribals cannot even indulge in their favourite pastime: to roll in their beloved Toyota Land Cruisers with tinted windows. Anyone not removing the tinted glass faces three years in jail, confiscation of the vehicle and a $1,200 fine.
Pakistan's information minister, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, confirms that the army is now deployed "all over the tribal areas". "Our rapid action forces are there, they have sealed the border." The information minister's assurance that "no one is allowed to come in from Afghanistan" is part of the new official spin from Islamabad, "part of Pakistan's commitment to the international community against terrorism".
The information minister insists that Pakistan has not received from Washington any satellite pictures of bin Laden, al-Zawahiri or the al-Qaeda top 50 hiding in Pakistani territory. But much more interesting is his current estimation that US forces "would never enter Pakistan". Pakistan may have "sealed the border" with Afghanistan, but how to unseal it for the Americans is a matter to be discussed face-to-face by Rumsfeld and Musharraf this week. For this meeting, Rumsfeld can draw on his experience of discussing touchy issues with former CIA asset Saddam back in Baghdad in 1983.
The previous, official Pakistani script that its army could not legally enter in the semi-autonomous tribal areas has been reduced to dust. Hardline Islamist, anti-American sectors in Pakistan will not be amused. While the Musharraf system sells to Washington once again the idea they are trying to help the Americans to fight "the terrorists", nobody can tell with any degree of certainty what exactly Musharraf's game is, the Inter-Services Intelligence's game or the army's game.
And what if bin Laden decides not to follow the script? According to sources close to the Pakistani newspaper Khabrain, bin Laden has made his seven bodyguards take an oath to kill him in the event that he is in any danger of being arrested. He will try to blow himself up. Western diplomatic sources, on the other hand, prefer to insist that if bin Laden is arrested according to the current Pentagon plan, the whole operation will be kept secret - to be disclosed only a few weeks or days before the American presidential election in November.
(Copyright 2004 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact content@atimes.com for information on our sales and syndication policies.)

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