[lbo-talk] AT: The Marriott attack was almost a decapitation strike

Michael Pollak mpollak at panix.com
Mon Sep 22 15:34:44 PDT 2008


http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/JI23Df01.html

Monday, September 22, 2008

The Asia Times

The Gloves Are Off in Pakistan

by Syed Saleem Shahzad

[Pakistani security guards and employees at the devastated Marriott

Hotel in Islamabad on September 22, 2008. Pakistan's top leadership

was set to dine at Islamabad's luxury Marriott hotel when it was

bombed at the weekend but was saved after changing venue at the last

minute. (AFP/Pedro Ugarte)]

KARACHI - Pakistani authorities have compared Saturday evening's

devastating truck suicide attack on the Marriott Hotel in the

capital Islamabad to the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United

States.

In terms of its psychological effect,

the blast, which killed more than 80 people, injured hundreds and

burnt out the hotel, has traumatized the nation, and, like 9/11,

marks the beginning of a new battle: this time not the "war on

terror", but the war by terrorists.

Pakistan is now the declared battleground in this struggle by

Islamic militants to strike first against American interests before

the United States' war machine completes its preparations to storm

the sanctuaries of al-Qaeda in Pakistan.

The attack on one of the hotels in the chain of the US Marriott

group was one of the worst in Pakistan's history and involved the

sophisticated use of over 600 kilograms of TNT explosive blended

with RDX and phosphorous, detonated when a truck rammed into a

security barricade in front of the hotel

Among the dead were the Czech ambassador to Pakistan, two US

Marines, members of the US embassy staff, Saudi nationals and other

European diplomats. More than 250 people were injured and dozens of

parked cars were destroyed.

There was immediate speculation the attack was prompted by the fact

of many marines living in the top floor of the hotel. Prime Minister

Yousaf Raza Gilani claimed the real target was his residence, where

President Asif Ali Zardari, army chiefs of staff and the entire

cabinet were gathered for an Iftar (Muslim breaking of the Ramadan

fast) dinner. Security was so tight, the theory goes, that the

driver instead went to the nearby Marriott.

But on Monday afternoon, Rehman Malik, the Pakistani prime

minister's advisor for the interior, told a group of reporters at

the Islamabad airport: "An Iftar Dinner was scheduled at Marriot on

September which was hosted by National Assembly Speaker Dr Fahmida

Mirza and where all dignitaries including the prime minister,

president, cabinet and all services chiefs were invited. However, at

the eleventh hour the dinner was shifted to rime minster's house

which saved Pakistan's entired military and political leadership."

"Perhaps, the earlier information of the dinner was leaked to the

militants and therefore they hit Marriot hotel,"Rehman added.

<end excerpt>

Full at: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/JI23Df01.html



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