Hamid Gul
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Lt. General Hamid Gul (Urdū: لیفٹننٹ جنرل حمید گل) (retired) was born in Sargodha, Punjab, British India (now Pakistan).
General Hamid Gul was Director General of Pakistan's ISI (Inter Services Intelligence Directorate) when Benazir Bhutto was Prime Minister of Pakistan. A practicing Muslim, he was instrumental in the anti-Soviet Afghan Jihad, a pivotal time during the cold war and in establishing the Taliban. He also is a vehement supporter of the Kashmir insurgency against India. Gul worked hand in glove with the American CIA during the Soviet Occupation and considered them to be close allies following the tradition of other ISI Directors who when Pakistan was first established allied themselves amongst the USA . He has since moderated his views on the United States after what he claims to be many broken promises and betrayals.[citation needed]
Monday, 12 March 2007 he marched shoulder-to-shoulder with activists from the liberal democratic parties and retired former senior military officers against General Musharraf. General Hamid Gul faced down riot police when they tried to arrest him at a rally outside the Supreme Court in Islamabad protesting against attempts to dismiss Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.[1]
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[edit] Hamid Gul quotes
[edit] On India
- "I am not anti-India. I am against the imperial streak in the Indian psyche. The 1947 riots had a deep impact on my mind. The Indians always lean towards imperial powers."
- "India will give its land when it will be divided into many pieces. India will have to be break. If India does not give us our land we will go to war and divide India."
- Gul claims the only reason that Pakistan has not dismembered India already is because of the possible consequences for Indian Muslims. (rediff.com Feb 2004)
- "keeping Punjab destabilized is equivalent to the Pakistan army having an extra division at no cost to the taxpayers."
[edit] On America
- "We are not afraid of the Americans; they can't fight on the ground. We are only concerned about their high-altitude bombers."
- "I turned against America because they betrayed the Afghan nation." (rediff.com Feb 2004)
God will destroy America, says Hamid Gul ( Retired Pakistan General ) Daily Times, Pakistan ^ | August 30, 2003 | Khalid Hasan
[edit] On Israel and 9/11
- "Mossad and its accomplices [are the 9/11 culprits]. The U.S. spends $40 billion a year on its 11 intelligence agencies. That's $400 billion in 10 years. Yet the Bush Administration says it was taken by surprise. I don't believe it. Within 10 minutes of the second twin tower being hit in the World Trade Center CNN said Osama bin Laden had done it. That was a planned piece of disinformation by the real perpetrators." (UPI United Press International, Sep. 26, 2001).
[edit] On Pakistan
- "Politicians have always viewed the ISI in a doubtful light... especially when the ISI was reporting that they (politicans) were plundering the country."
- "Our foreign office created the impression that the ISI was a rogue agency out of control."[2]
[edit] Pakistan Stands on 9/11
Gen. Gul, known for his colourful language and what many consider "imaginative theories," went on to declare, "The Muslim world must stand united to confront the U.S. in its so-called war against terror which is in reality a war against Muslims. Let’s destroy America wherever its troops are trapped." If President Pervez Musharraf concedes President George Bush’s demand to send 15,000 Pakistani peacekeeping soldiers to Iraq, it would amount to "political suicide," according to The Washington Times.
Hours after Sept. 11, Gen. Gul publicly accused Israel's Mossad of fomenting the plot. Later, he said the U.S. Air Force must have been in on it since no warplanes were scrambled to shoot down the hijacked airliners
[edit] Kashmir
[edit] Indian front
He played a pivotal role in creating the problems India confronted due to Pakistan's State-sponsored support for Kashmiri freedom fighters.B Raman, one of India's leading experts on Pakistan, recalls how Gul actively backed Khalistani. "When Bhutto became prime minister in 1988," Raman says, "Gul justified backing these terrorists as the only way of pre-empting a fresh Indian threat to Pakistan's territorial integrity. When she asked him to stop playing that card, he reportedly told her: 'Madam, keeping Punjab destabilized is equivalent to the Pakistan army having an extra division at no cost to the taxpayers.'" "Gul strongly advocated supporting indigenous Kashmiri groups," adds Raman, "but was against infiltrating Pakistani and Afghan mercenaries into Jammu and Kashmir. He believed Pakistan would play into India's hands by doing so."[3]
[edit] Iranian front
In Islamabad, on April 18, he asked that Iran should explain its bona fides regarding the pact signed with India to jointly counter terrorism. According to hamid gul, "Iran should come clear on the nature of agreement with India. Otherwise this will create doubts and apprehensions in Muslim Ummah that Iran helps RAW in putting down Kashmir jihad". He also added that in case doubts about the agreement came true and Iran was seen as working with India against "Kashmir freedom struggle", then it will be concluded that the country also supports Mossad, Israeli external intelligence agency.[4]
[edit] Israeli front
Hamid Gul also claimed that the Mossad also assists the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), the external intelligence agency of India, against terrorist outfits active in Jammu and Kashmir[5]
[edit] Afghanistan
Gen. Gul worked closely with the CIA during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan when he was ISI chief. But he became passionately anti-American after the United States turned its back on Afghanistan following the 1989 Soviet withdrawal as the USA had promised to help build a propserous Afghanistan. He was further disconcerted when the USA began punishing Pakistan with economic and military sanctions for its secret nuclear programme.[6]
[edit] Sources
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