ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – Pakistan's beleaguered President Pervez Musharraf, a U.S. ally, on Monday received a direct violent threat from al-Qaida while his political opponents convened parliament to begin impeachment proceedings against him.
In a video, al-Qaida's second in command, Ayman al-Zawahri, called for an uprising not only against Musharraf but also the Pakistani state, which he said was "virtually ruled from the American Embassy." He spoke in English for the first time in a recording.
"Pervez has insulted and compromised Pakistan's sovereignty by allowing the CIA and FBI to operate freely in Pakistan and arrest, interrogate, torture, deport and detain any person, whether Pakistani or not, for as long as they like, thus turning the Pakistani army and security agencies into hunting dogs in the contemporary crusade," said al-Zawahri.
Al-Zawahri denounced Musharraf in particular for his crackdown last year on Islamabad's radical Red Mosque – an army raid that resulted in at least 100 deaths – and his treatment of renegade Pakistani nuclear scientist A.Q. Khan, who's been under house arrest for four years. Although al-Qaida has little support in Pakistan, al-Zawahri picked two grievances that have widespread appeal in the country.
The extremist vitriol against Musharraf, a former army chief , demonstrated how dangerous it would be for him to remain in Pakistan after leaving office. Currently, he has massive security and has survived several assassination attempts by Islamic militants. There's speculation that he'll be offered refuge in the United States, where his son Bilal lives, or in Turkey, where he spent his childhood.
Under Musharraf, who seized power in a 1999 military coup, Pakistan allied with Washington against al-Qaida and the Taliban in Afghanistan after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. However, the Pakistanis have been reluctant warriors at best against Islamic extremists, who've found a haven along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan.
The authenticity of the recording, delivered to a Pakistani news channel over the weekend, couldn't be verified, though experts said it sounded like al-Zawahri's voice. Al-Zawahri said he was speaking in English to appeal directly to the people of Pakistan, regretting that he didn't know Urdu, the national language. English is widely understood in Pakistan, unlike al-Zawahri's native Arabic.
Al-Qaida's message was much broader than an attack on Musharraf, with the group calling for jihad against the Pakistani state, including the current government, and especially the military. The army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Kayani, was singled out as a "hostile enemy of Islam."
The video confirmed that the extremist challenge to Pakistan wouldn't end with the president's ouster.
"Let there be no doubt in your minds that the dominant political forces at work in Pakistan today are competing to appease and please the modern-day Crusaders in the White House," al-Zawahri said.
So far, Musharraf shows no signs of resigning, as many had predicted after the coalition government, which came to power after elections in February, announced last week it would move to impeach him.
Parliament needs a two-thirds majority to convict him, and the numbers look close if members vote along party lines. Some coalition members suggested Monday that their campaign wouldn't stop at impeachment; treason charges, which are being threatened, carry the death penalty.
