Prominent Pakistani Journalist Accused Of Link To Taliban

Hamid Mir: "I Personally Know that Khalid Khawaja has Links ... with CIA"

Hamid Mir: "Many bombings are being carried out."

Unidentified man: "Let's see. There will be more of them. There are some in the pipeline. What do they (government) say about the operation in [the tribal district of] Orakzai? Will they stop it or not?"

HM: "No, they say it would not be stopped, rather they say they will also start an operation in North Waziristan and 40,000 troops will leave in a couple of days."

UM: "In North Waziristan?"

HM: "Yes."

UM: "Do you have any report on Khalid Khawaja etc."

HM: "They say Khalid Khawaja Saab is in custody of one [militant leader] Azam Afridi in Darrakhel."

UM: "Yes, yes Tariq Afridi (correcting HM)."

HM: "They are in Tariq Afridi's custody."

UM: "OK."

HM: "Yes."

UM: "So, are they men of the government or ISI?"

HM: "Who?"

UM: "These, Khalid Khawaja and Colonel Imam."

HM: "Khalid Khawaja, according to my opinion, is not an ISI man, rather he is a CIA agent, an American CIA agent and he has links with the Taliban leadership."

UM: "Yes, he met with [Taliban chief] Hakimullah [Mehsud] and others when he came here last time."

HM: "I personally know that Khalid Khawaja has links not only with CIA but he is also a front man of Mansoor Ijaz who belongs to a very big international network of Qadiyanis [Ahmadi Muslims]. Once he came to me along with Mansoor, who had a briefcase with him, and Khalid Saab told me that Mansoor is a key representative of the U.S. government, so arrange his meeting with Syed Salahuddin, who is a mujahideen leader, and he along with him would resolve the Kashmir issue. [Note: Syed Salahuddin is chairman of Muttahida Jihad Council, a network of Pakistani militant groups, and is based in Pakistani Kashmir.]"

UM: "All right."

HM: "But I asked him what charm or magic lamp does he possess for the resolution of the Kashmir dispute. He said he had links with the Indian government and (Atal Bihari) Vajpayee Jee [former Indian Prime Minister], which surprised me. I didn't arrange the meeting, but I asked Mr Salahuddin who said Khalid Khawaja is sending messages that you should directly talk to India and the U.S. on the issue and exclude Pakistan from it."

UM: "All right, all right."

HM: "After that, Mansoor Ijaz also asked me: 'Are you with us or not?' I said, 'I am not with you.' Then he conspired against me and got me sacked from the [right-wing newspaper] Daily Ausaf when I was its editor. So, I think Khalid Khawaja not only has links with the CIA but he is also an agent of the Qadiyanis, and I am very sad that he used to go to the Tribal Areas and meet leaders there."

UM: "But now, I think, the Taliban have caught him and have demanded $10 million for the journalist."

HM: "Do you know what part his (Khalid Khawaja's) wife played in Lal Masjid [the site of 2007 military operation in Islamabad's Red Mosque]?"

UM: "No, but it was something negative."

HM: "It was that Maulana Abdul Rashid Ghazi Saab – may Allah bless him with a place in heavens. What he told me in his last days was, do you know that he did not completely agree with Maulana Aziz [cleric of Red Mosque, along with brother Abdul Rashid Ghazi who was killed in the 2007 operation]."

UM: "Yes, yes."

HM: "Mr Abdul Rashid Ghazi wanted to save the students inside the mosque and for that he showed flexibility and said, 'I am ready to surrender on the condition that those who are with me will not be arrested and will be released.' But Khalid Khawaja's wife was pressurised so much by Ume Hassaan that Maulana Abdul Aziz, without asking his brother, came out in a burqa, and Khalid Khawaja was involved in it (call disconnected)."

UM: "Assalam-o-Alaikum!"

HM: "Yes"

UM: "The call got disconnected."

HM: "Ok."

UM: "So, what were you saying about his wife?"

HM: "Yes, I was telling you that his wife pressurised him so much that Ghazi Saab said, 'She says we have to fight, just fight for martyrdom.' After that Mr Khalid Khawaja came out of the mosque and his wife also fled, Khalid Khawaja's wife."

UM: "Yes, we heard that she had fled after that."

HM: "Yes, she ran away and then Maulana Abdul Aziz also came out in the burqa."

UM: "I think, he insisted for that."

HM: "Yes, he had done all this. After that Maulana Abdul Aziz was arrested and Mr Abdul Rashid Ghazi telephoned me and said, 'Now, I don't have any option. Now, my family and ulema have been defamed as my brother was arrested in a burqa and presented on Pakistan Television. This is a large stain which can only be removed with my blood.' So, he lived up to his words and sacrificed. So, Khalid Khawaja and his wife, anyone may know or not, they will have to answer before Allah Almighty."

"Do Whatever You Want to with the [U.S.] Containers, Burn Them or Rob Them"

UM: "He, recently, came here and met my companions. He was saying, 'You can work in Pakistan as we say, if you want to. I can arrange your 'setting' with an admiral in [the town of] Mianwali. So, you should not burn US containers in Pakistan, you can rob them and sell them to a person recommended by us.' He was saying, 'We would provide you everything for carrying out activities in Pakistan.'"

HM: "Do whatever you want to with the containers, burn them or rob them, I have nothing to do with it. But ask him what relationship he has with Mansoor Ijaz and William Casey? William Casey was the chief of CIA."

UM: "Right, right."

"I Personally Believe that Qadiyanis are Worse than Infidels"

HM: "He (Khawaja) himself has confessed in front me that he had links with William Casey. Ok! Leave William, ask him about the Qadiyanis, because I personally believe that Qadiyanis are worse than infidels, what kind of links does he have with Qadiyanis? What relationship does he have with Mansoor Ijaz? Why does he use his money? Why does he go everywhere with him when he comes to Pakistan? Why does he bring him to the mujahideen?"

UM: "Yes, he has a son in al Qaeda."

HM: "Yes, his son would also be a spy like him."

UM: "Yes, I talked to the shaikhs about him. They said they were keeping him on the sidelines."

HM: "His biggest betrayal to me was that there was a mujahid, Abdul Rehman Al Canady."

UM: "Yes, there was one Canady."

HM: "He was martyred in North Waziristan. He came to me with Canady's wife and a daughter, saying Canady's son, Karim, is at Rawalpindi's CMH and is injured and the army had arrested him. He asked me to arrange a meeting between the injured and his mother. I said this is very difficult for me and I can't do this because already they are all against me. But, he said all that you need to do is to arrange a meeting between a mother and her son. So, I arranged it with a lot of difficulties and sent the woman to Rawalpindi CMH [hospital], but when she reached there she took a camera out of her burqa and asked her son to record a message that he is innocent, has no links with anyone and has been kept here illegally. She was arrested there because a nurse saw her and seized the camera from her. But I was held responsible for all of it as they told me that I had sent this woman. It was revealed after her arrest that the woman had a Canadian passport and had visited Canada two months ago. After that I faced a lot of difficulties. The Canadian government released the woman and her daughter and then she went back to Canada. In Toronto, she held a press conference and admitted that she worked for the CIA. Now Khalid Khawaja has a long beard and his wife wears a full veil so people like us, who are involved in worldly affairs and have committed sins, believe that if we will help them, we might be forgotten for our sins. When these kinds of people betray us, we lose confidence on the religion itself."

UM: "Absolutely, neither we are wrong nor is the army, but people like him have created the difficulties."

HM: "However, if he is somewhere, ask him at least that you used the name of Abdul Rehman Canady, you worked with Mansoor Ijaz, you have worked William Casey. And there is one [pro-Taliban politician] Javaid Ibrahim Piracha, who has a very big seminary in [the town of] Kohat."

UM: "Yes, yes."

HM: "You all know the services of Piracha Saab. So, he fraudulently invited Piracha Saab in Islamabad and told him he wanted to arrange his meeting with a prominent personality. He took him to the U.S. deputy foreign minister at Serena Hotel and said, 'He is Mr Piracha and he can arrange your talks with the al Qaeda and Taliban.' Piracha Saab is a well-educated person. I observed that he was betrayed and came out of the room and escaped from there. Then he called me and said, 'You were right about him (Khalid Khawaja).'"

UM: "Right, right. He went to him last time."

HM: "Yes, Piracha Saab told me about that. He said, 'He came to me and Col Imam was also here and told Col Imam that don't go anywhere with this guy.' He (Piracha) said, 'What can I do if he comes here and I can't force him out of my house, but you don't go anywhere with him.' Mr Piracha said Col Imam didn't want to go with Khalid Khawaja, but he forced him to go with him."

UM: "Right, maybe to use as human shield. But Shah Abdul Aziz, that MNA of Kirk, is supporting him a lot. He was meeting everyone here and asking for his release."

HM: "He would have fooled Shah Abdul Aziz."

UM: "Yes, he was asking people to release him and said you may keep the journalist, whose ransom will be paid to you by him."

Hamid Mir Instructs On Three Questions to Ask the Captured Hostages

HM: "Ok! His release depends on them who have kept him, but convey them these three questions that what is your link with Mansoor Ijaz, whose father fled [to the U.S.] with the atomic secrets of Pakistan. Mansoor Ijaz's father was an atomic scientist and he fled to the US with the atomic secrets of Pakistan. Once he (Ijaz) offered Benazir Bhutto a quid pro quo deal in 1995 that all the debts of the country will be forgiven, if she recognised Israel. That means he was also an agent of Israel."

UM: "Yes, he used to ask my companions to work in Pakistan 'as we say.' Actually, the killings of brigadiers in Rawalpindi might have been arranged by him, I think."

HM: "It might be possible, but I have been watching this guy for the last 13 or 14 years and he is a suspected man."

UM: "OK. Inshallah, I will meet Hakimullah in two or three days and talk to him about all this."

HM: "All right."

UM: "Thank you so much."

HM: "Assalam-o-Alaikum!"

UM: "Assalam-o-Alaikum!"

Taliban Issue Statement Denying the Conversation

According to another report in the Daily Times newspaper on May 18, the Taliban came to the defense of Hamid Mir and issued a statement denying that the conversation took place.

Following is the unedited Taliban statement, published by The Daily Times:

"This is a press release from the Taliban Media Centre commenting on the fake audio tape issued by some secret agency of Pakistan. We are actively condumn the reliability of this tape since there was no conversatin like that in between us and Mr Hamid Mir. Althoug we have talked with many different persons of media. It is very often and there is no doubt that they are not involved with us. This is seems to be a conspiracy to destroy the reputation of Mujahideen and the brave people of this country who want to bring truth in front while revealing the dark faces of this nation.

"Suppose, this audion tape can be accepted as a true one than it is also demanded that the video tapes of Shery Rehman, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Salman Taseer should also be treated as the same degree. Since sexy pictures of Salman Taseer's daughter and sons are on media so can anyone tell the nation how a loose characterd person can be a governor of a province. What action should government agencies took? Why they are delaying?

"Unfortunately the secret agenceis of Pakistan are directly opposing the nations benefits and try to sabotash the well repudiated personalities and institutions for the greater interst of their own."