Ticking Clock by Ira Rosen

Author:Ira Rosen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group

* * *

I then decided to stretch out of my comfort zone and do a story in Pakistan. In 2004, through a friend, I had gotten to know General Jehangir Karamat, the Pakistani ambassador to the United States, who was also a former Pakistani army chief of staff. Ambassadors in Washington love to eat meals at the luxurious but overpriced Ritz-Carlton hotel, and I took Karamat there for several lunches.

I wanted to interview a recent Al-Qaeda defector, named Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan, who oversaw communications for the terrorist organization. Khan was arrested in Pakistan with plans on his computer to attack U.S. financial institutions and Heathrow Airport. Khan was educated in London, spoke perfect English, and was now cooperating with authorities, which meant he had nothing to hide and would be open to telling us how Al-Qaeda operates.

Karamat told me that they would make him available. But when I got to Islamabad, officials of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Pakistan’s intelligence service, had other things on their minds.

My base in Islamabad was the Marriott, a dingy-smelling hotel located near the city’s government buildings. To enter, you had to pass through two police checkpoints. Above the hotel were the flags from the countries where their guests came from. They never flew the American flag for fear of a terrorist attack. Each day I would meet with an assortment of generals, colonels, and undercover ISI agents precisely at four P.M. in a hotel conference room.

The officials would all file into the room, take their seats, and fill their glasses with water, in sync. Then the lead press representative would tell me that no decision had been made about providing me with access to Khan. At first I was respectful, thanked them for trying, and said I looked forward to our next meeting. But each day the same ritual would play out. After nearly a week of these charades, I lost my temper.

“You are conning me!” I shouted. “You have no intention of providing him to me. Why can’t you be honest?”

I think the military men didn’t like to be yelled at by an American Jew. They all gave me very stern, cold stares, but only the press representative spoke. “We will try again tomorrow,” he said.

That night I called ambassador Karamat on a satellite phone and complained about what was happening and how I was being “fucked over.”

He was sympathetic, but all he could do from Washington was to arrange meetings. After one of my nightly calls to Karamat, two ISI officials showed up the next morning at my hotel with a transcript of my conversation. “All the embassies hear what you are saying,” they told me. “You must be more careful.”

“I am not going to be careful when I am getting screwed. I will broadcast on my phone how untrustworthy you guys are. Every country in the world will know.”

Looking back, I was pretty stupid to threaten the ISI in its own country. I don’t know why the Pakistanis didn’t throw me out and send me back to New York, or worse.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.