Pakistani Jails = Communications Hubs For Terrorists

Prisons are supposed to keep the terrorists from communicating with their fellow jihadis and prevent terror plots from being hatched. That is far from the case in Pakistan, where the terrorists behind the murder of Daniel Pearl were able to use the Pakistani jail as a communications hub from which to direct an assassination plot against Pervez Musharraf.

If this is what the Pakistanis do with the terrorists in their custody, imagine what the terrorists are able to do in places like the frontier provinces? If anything, the situation is even worse than that since we have once again been provided with evidence showing that Pakistani authorities are busy aiding and abetting the jihadis in their war against the West.

This thug hasn't had his death sentence carried out because he's got friends in high places - or in this case, the Pakistani ISI.

Omar also is a close associate of Maulana Masood Aktar, the leader of the Jaish-e-Mohammed terror group. Omar and Aktar were freed from Indian custody in 1999 after terrorists hijacked an Indian Airline flight and forced it to land in Kandahar, Afghanistan. He also has close links to the Kashmiri terror group Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, the Taliban, and of course Pakistan’s Inter-Service Intelligence agency. After the murder of Pearl, Omar is said to have turned himself in to his ISI handler. It is believed Omar’s death sentence has not been carried out because of his connections with the ISI.

With Pakistani officials sympathetic to the cause of jihad, it's not unexpected to find them looking the other way as al Qaeda bigwigs continue to operate their terror networks from behind bars. If anything the terrorists have more time to focus on their plots since they don't have to worry about meals or airstrikes.

The situation in Pakistan is awful, and the Pakistani government is between a rock and a hard place in trying to deal with the Islamists and to prevent the Islamists from toppling the government because of their sheer numbers and domination of places like the frontier provinces and the widespread indoctrination into jihad at the madrassas spread throughout the country.

Even after the Mumbai attacks, the Pakistanis are only paying lip service to cracking down against the terror groups responsible.

The Pakistani government reluctantly cracked down on Jamaat-ud-Dawa only after significant pressure from the US and Indian governments. Once it became clear the United Nations would declare Jamaat a terror group, the government launched raids on offices and detained several operatives.

While some government leaders talked tough on dealing with Jamaat, Pakistan's defense minister freely admitted actions are underway because the government was concerned it would be labeled a terrorist state and suffer from UN sanctions. "We are part of the international community and cannot afford confrontation with the whole world,” Defense Minister Ahmed Mukhtar told the Pakistani press.

Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi refused to say whether Pakistan has banned the Jamaat-ud-Dawa, and he has repeatedly stated that anyone involved in the Mumbai attacks would not be turned over to India.

The way in which Pakistan's announced its crackdown on Jamaat-ud-Dawa showed how reluctant the government is to move against the group, which is supported by powerful elements within Pakistan’s military and intelligence community and has a wide following throughout Pakistan for its ability to deliver services the state cannot or will not perform. The announcement of the government's action was made "at midnight when most viewers had gone to bed," The New York Times reported.