American Blackwater staffers targeted in Peshawar hotel attack

LAHORE: The Pakistani intelligence sleuths investigating the June 10,
2009 deadly suicide attack in Peshawar, which completely destroyed the
Pearl Continental Hotel, say of the 17 people killed including
foreigners, five were the members of the infamous American security
agency, Blackwater Worldwide which has played a considerable role
during Iraq and Afghan wars as a contractor for the United States
government.

The Pakistani intelligence sources involved in the investigations of
the case said on condition of anonymity that a large number of the
foreigners, especially Americans, had been staying in the hotel for
quite some time now amidst reports that its third and the fourth
floors had actually been rented out to the American security agency
Blackwater Worldwide, five of whom were killed on June 10. On the
other hand, however, the Pakistan government is not ready to confirm
the death of the American security agents and the interior ministry
sources still insist that all the foreigners killed, including a few
Americans were the employees of the United Nations.

The interior ministry sources in Islamabad deny that any of those
killed belonged to Blackwater Worldwide, formerly Blackwater USA, a
private military company founded in 1997 by Erik Prince and Al Clark.
It has alternatively been referred to as a security contractor or a
mercenary organization by international media. Blackwater Worldwide
is currently the largest of the US State Department’s three private
security contractors. Of the 987 contractors Blackwater provides, 744
are U.S. citizens. At least 90 percent of its revenue comes from
government contracts, two-thirds of which are no-bid contracts. To
recall, four employees of Blackwater Worldwide, also called Blackwater
Security Consulting, were killed in Fallujah on 31 March 2004 and
their bodies were hanged on bridges.

Interestingly, according to a report carried by Britain’s McClatchy
Newspapers, the Peshawar Pearl Continental Hotel was at the centre of
an American plan to establish a long-term presence in Peshawar. In its
report which appeared almost two weeks before the June 10 attack, the
newspaper quoted a senior US State Department official as having
confirmed that the American plan for the consulate in Peshawar
involved the purchase of the Pearl Continental hotel. The official
spoke on the condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorised to
speak publicly. Peshawar is an important station for gathering
intelligence on the tribal area that surrounds the city on three sides
and is a base for al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

Already, an al-Qaeda-linked militant group, Abdullah Azzam Shaheed
Brigade, has claimed responsibility for the Pearl Continental Hotel
bombing, saying the attack was in retaliation to the ongoing
operations by the Pakistani armed forces at the behest of the United
States in Swat district and other parts of the NWFP. A spokesman of
the organisation, Ameer Muawiya, phoned reporters in Kohat city of the
North Western Frontier Province to claim responsibility for the
Peshawar attack, saying the prime target of the attackers were foreign
security personnel from the United States who had been using the Pearl
Continental hotel building as their headquarters.

By naming the group as Abdullah Azzam Shaheed Brigade, its founders
wanted to honour the late Sheikh Abdullah Azzam, a Palestinian from
Jordan who was among the first Arab nationals who volunteered to join
the Afghan jehad against the forces of the then Soviet Union in
Afghanistan in the 1980s. He gave up his teaching job at the Islamic
University in Islamabad and shifted to Peshawar to facilitate the Arab
nationals who were motivated by him to wage jehad against the Russian
occupation forces in Afghanistan. During the Afghan war, Azzam was
financed by Saudia and other Islamic states to establish camps for
Muslim militants who joined the fight against the Russian forces.

Azzam was one of the inspirations behind the creation of the
Palestinian militant group Hamas and once considered the religious and
political mentor of Osama bin Laden. He is also credited with
convincing Osama bin Laden, Dr Ayman al-Zawahiri, Sheikh Omar Abdur
Rahman and others to come to Peshawar and take part in the Afghan war
against the Soviet forces and Afghan communists. As a matter of fact,
Laden’s Peshawar based Bayt-ul-Ansar (House of the Helpers), involved
in work similar to that of Azzam’s group provided an opportunity to
both Abdullah Azzam and Laden to work together, though Azzam was
already a prominent figure then and Osama was not.

During these times, Abdullah Azzam reportedly came into contact with
Hafiz Mohammad Saeed and the two discussed the idea of establishing
Markaz Dawa Wal Irshad. Hafiz Saeed was then tasked to draw up a plan
to raise the centre at Muridke near Lahore, Pakistan. Azzam later
became a co-founder of the Lashkar-e-Toiba which was later renamed as
Jamaatul Daawa and is now headed by Hafiz Mohammad Saeed. To this day,
the JuD uses Azzam’s speeches and publications to train and motivate
its cadres.

Also noteworthy is the fact that LeT, before it renamed itself in
2002, had links on its website to the official Hamas website and the
then English mouthpiece of al Qaeda, www.Azzam.com. Azzam was also the
ideologue for the Palestinian militant group, Hamas, besides being the
political mentor of al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden. But the moving
spirit behind the military might of the Lashkar-e-Toiba had always
been Commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, the prime accused in the 26/11
Mumbai terror attacks.

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