Hamid Mir backtracked – by Farhad Jarral
Earlier, Hamid Mir had decided to send some legal notices for his alleged defamation: the first notice to a leading newspaper of Pakistan, Daily Times, which is owned by Salman Taseer, and the second notice a leading political blog of Critical Supporters of PPP, i.e., Let Us Build Pakistan.
It is to inform that Team LUBP has not received any legal notice from Hamid Mir but he has served a legal notice on the publisher of Daily Times and Governor of Punjab Salman Taseer, Editor, Staff Reporter and Chief Executive Officer Business Plus and demanded to pay Rs250 million for damaging his reputation, along with a written apology that should also be published in the same newspaper in 14 days.
However, we the Critical Supporters of PPP are undeterred in our mission to unmask Hamid Mir (and other members of the Pakistani Taliban Union of Journalists). Here is our message to Hamid Mir: We are not going to stay quite as we believe in freedom of speech; truth can never be hidden from the masses. We will always say truth whether it’s related to any journalist, politician or whether is is related to judiciary or army. It is our right and no one can take this right from us.
Here is a related article published in today’s DAWN
Anchor claims damning tape doctored
By Amir Wasim and Nasir Iqbal
Wednesday, 19 May, 2010
ISLAMABAD, May 18: The ripples caused by the emergence of an audio tape on the web last week of an alleged telephone conversation between a prominent Pakistani journalist and a Pakistani Taliban militant has blown into a full-fledged controversy, with the journalist and television anchor now completely denying his involvement and many others calling for a high-level investigation to establish truth.
Hamid Mir, who finds himself in the midst of a raging debate on the issue of journalistic ethics, has moved a step further from describing the taped conversation as doctored or concocted to completely denying that it was his voice. And for all this he is blaming the country’s top civilian intelligence service, the Intelligence Bureau Directorate which, according to him, was part of a larger game to malign him and a few others.
Shocking as it is, the telephone conversation revolves round the alleged dubious role of an Islamic hardliner and former ISI operative Khalid Khwaja, and that too when he was still in the captivity of a little known militant group Asian Tigers. The man posing himself to be Hamid Mir is heard accusing Khalid Khwaja of being a notorious double agent, who had been working for everyone from the American CIA to Qadianis, and having played a dirty role in the Lal Masjid episode.
The large number of websites where this audio tape is currently available describe it as a candid conversation on telephone between Hamid Mir and a Punjabi Taliban. Some have gone to the extent of accusing Mr Mir to be one of the instigators for what happened to Khalid Khwaja, as within days of this supposed conversation a video of Mr Khwaja was released in which he had made similar “confessions” of his involvement in the Lal Masjid saga, and of working for CIA. Within days of this video tape, Mr Khwaja was shot dead and his body was thrown on a road in North Waziristan.
However, Hamid Mir says he neither has anything to do with such a conversation, nor he can even think of getting involved in such an affair. He has also denied the content of a statement, purported to have been issued by the Taliban, who denied this telephone conversation but at the same time blamed the telephone company PTCL for illegally recording telephones of its subscribers.
In fact, talking to Dawn in his office on Tuesday Hamid Mir claimed that the entire tape recording and its uploading on the website was the work of IB and that too at the behest of President Zardari and the government to malign him as, according to him, he has been a bitter critic of President Zardari and others in his programmes.
Mr Mir claimed that the IB had used a special gadget through which they could change the voices. “They took my voice sample and changed it to look my voice through the special gadget,” he said. He warned that more such tapes involving some other journalists and politicians would surface in near future.
Mr Mir further claimed that he had been informed about this purported tape before time by Interior Minister Rehman Malik. “The interior minister took me to his Parliament House chamber on Thursday and told me that an audio tape had been prepared to implicate me in some terrorism-related issue,” he said, adding the minister also told him that his life was in danger. “The minister even advised me to keep some guards with me,” he said.
Mr Mir claimed that the audio tape was first released on a blog being run by some people belonging to the ruling PPP.
In the tape, Mr Mir is purportedly heard asking an unknown Taliban member to interrogate Khalid Khwaja over his links with the CIA and his role in the Lal Masjid siege. The journalist also narrates some incidents to prove that Khalid Khwaja was a CIA agent. In the conversation, Mr Mir tells the unknown person that Khalid Khwaja had arranged his meeting with an alleged CIA man Mansoor Ijaz in Islamabad. Similarly, Mr Mir has also narrated an incident as to how on the request of Khalid Khwaja he arranged a meeting of the widow of an alleged Al Qaeda man, Abdul Rehman ‘al-Kennedy’, with her son in the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) in Rawalpindi, and that later it was revealed that the woman was a Canadian national and also a CIA agent.
When asked about the contents of the controversial tape, Mr Mir said that in the recent past he had talked about Khalid Khwaja in detail on telephone only with an office-bearer of the PPP. He, however, denied that he had had any meeting with Mansoor Ijaz in Pakistan. He, however, confirmed the other part of the tape and admitted that he had “arranged a meeting of a woman with her son at the CMH on the request of Khalid Khwaja.” But, he said, later he came to know that one of the sons of the woman living in the US was working for the CIA and not that woman as claimed in the audio tape.
Mr Mir said he had met Mansoor Ijaz only once in New York in 1995 where he had gone as part of the delegation of the then prime minister Benazir Bhutto. “Mansoor Ijaz had come to see Ms Bhutto, but instead he met Asif Zardari,” he said.
When contacted, president of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) Pervez Shaukat refused to comment on the issue, saying they would come out with some statement in the next few days after holding consultations with other office-bearers.
LEGAL NOTICE: Meanwhile, Hamid Mir has served a legal notice on Publisher of Daily Times Salman Taseer who also happens to be the Governor of Punjab, Editor Rashid Rehman and Staff Reporter and Chief Executive Officer Business Plus Mian Ehsanul Haq demanding to pay general damages of Rs250 million as a compensation for allegedly damaging his reputation, along with a written apology within 14 days that should also be published in the newspaper in a similar manner and prominence as the alleged defamatory report was published.
“Our client vehemently denies the conversation made in the alleged communication as fabricated and concocted one,” the legal notice served by Advocate Assad Ullah Jaral on behalf of Hamid Mir said for publishing, what he claimed to be a libellous report titled: “Hamid Mir’s terrifying indiscretions,” along with transcript of alleged communication in the newspaper on May 10, 2010.
Besides on May 17, 2010, a private channel Business Plus also aired the same ‘negative propaganda’ against Mr Mir, the notice said, adding the act of defamation in the television programme and news bulletin was deliberate.
Audio tape implicates Hamid Mir: Khawaja’s son
LAHORE: Osama Khalid, son of former Inter-Services Intelligence official Khalid Khawaja, has confirmed that the audiotape of the telephonic conversation between TV anchor Hamid Mir and Usman – the earlier unidentified Taliban militant – is original, as his family used to talk to him during negotiations for his father’s release, a private TV channel reported on Tuesday. Speaking in a current affairs programme on a private TV channel, Osama said the ‘Asian Tigers’, a little known Taliban-linked group, was an agent of the Indian intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW). “Because no Muslim can do it (murder another Muslim),” he said. Osama said the personality and services of his father, Khalid Khawaja, were known to the entire nation. He claimed that Hamid Mir had hatched a conspiracy to murder his father after receiving money from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). “This audiotape is enough proof to show Hamid Mir’s role in the murder (of his father),” he added. He also appealed to the Supreme Court to take suo motu action and conduct a judicial inquiry into the audiotape issue. He said that the family had decided to take action against the TV anchor. Osama also confirmed that his younger brother was working for the al Qaeda. daily times monitor
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=20105\19\story_19-5-2010_pg7_4
Here’s a statement of late Khalid Khawaja’s son Osama Khalid published in Daily Times
Audio tape implicates Hamid Mir: Khawaja’s son
LAHORE: Osama Khalid, son of former Inter-Services Intelligence official Khalid Khawaja, has confirmed that the audiotape of the telephonic conversation between TV anchor Hamid Mir and Usman – the earlier unidentified Taliban militant – is original, as his family used to talk to him during negotiations for his father’s release, a private TV channel reported on Tuesday. Speaking in a current affairs programme on a private TV channel, Osama said the ‘Asian Tigers’, a little known Taliban-linked group, was an agent of the Indian intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW). “Because no Muslim can do it (murder another Muslim),” he said. Osama said the personality and services of his father, Khalid Khawaja, were known to the entire nation. He claimed that Hamid Mir had hatched a conspiracy to murder his father after receiving money from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). “This audiotape is enough proof to show Hamid Mir’s role in the murder (of his father),” he added. He also appealed to the Supreme Court to take suo motu action and conduct a judicial inquiry into the audiotape issue. He said that the family had decided to take action against the TV anchor. Osama also confirmed that his younger brother was working for the al Qaeda. daily times monitor
http://www.aajkal.com.pk/news/2010/5/19/Fp_n3.jpg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooch6Pg1Udk&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NDn5YjkAnY&feature=related
http://ejang.jang.com.pk/5-2-2010/images/4045.gif
http://thenews.com.pk/print3.asp?id=28590
“”””I don’t know about Hamid Mir, in his article he states….
“Ijaz played a key role in forcing the Sudanese government to expel Osama bin Ladin from Khartoum in 1996 and helped Khwaja to establish direct links between the Taliban and the Bush administration in October 1999 when he wanted Mulla Omar to meet James Woolsey to avert an American attack”
Bush came to power in 2001. “””
ttp://pkpolitics.com/discuss/topic/hamid-mir#post-148565
Khalid Khawaja’s Son admits his brother was working for Al-Qaeeda and he alleges that Hamid Mir is behind murder of his father !!!!
http://www.aajkal.com.pk/news/2010/5/19/Fp_n3.jpg
صحافی کے خلاف قتل کے مقدمے کی دھمکی
http://www.bbc.co.uk/urdu/pakistan/2010/05/100519_hamid_mir_controversy_as.shtml
Watch Osama Khalid’s interview by Jasmeen Manzoor
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7i3vbekpBYk
Hamid Mir tape declared genuine by security services including ISI;
http://www.aajkal.com.pk/news/2010/5/20/Fp_n7.jpg
So Hamid Mir is a CIA stooge and the Asian Tigers work for the Indian RAW.
But then Hamid Mir’s telling the Asian Tigers that Khalid Khawaja was a CIA agent should be seen as an attempt to save Khawaja’s life; just why would instruments of the Indian RAW want to kill a CIA agent? Anyone care to answer?
@ Arun: My understanding is that KK is killed in a tit for tat tussle between Pakistani and American intelligence agencies. ISI forestalled American bid to strike peace with Afgan Taliban by arresting Mullah Baradar and CIA settled the score through its stooge(s) by got killed KK, who was reportdely trying for a truce between Pakistani Taliban and Pakistani army. No one would have access to this audiotape other than country’s intelligence estbalishment. And it release means Mir’s days as a double agent have been over.
If Asian Tigers is CIA tool, then CIA did not need Hamid Mir to tell Asian Tigers to kill Khalid Khawaja; if Asian Tigers is not CIA tool, then you are claiming that CIA had penetrated Asian Tigers using Hamid Mir; why would they risk losing such an asset when they could simply blow up people using drones if they wanted revenge? After all, eventually Asian Tigers would know who misled them about Khalid Khawaja.
Your theory of what happened has to explain all the facts. So far Ayesha Siddiqa’s theory that this is a tussle between two factions of the ISI makes the most sense in the sense that all the facts easily fit in without contortions.
Indian Express story on Mir Audiotape scam
Taliban tape puts Pak journalist Hamid Mir in a spot
Ruchika Talwar Posted online: Thu May 20 2010, 02:08 hrs
New Delhi : In Pakistan’s world of journalism, the man who until now was believed to know the inside story, has now himself become the story. Hamid Mir, executive editor of Geo TV, Pakistan’s premier Urdu news channel, is being accused of instigating murder. In what could grow into a long, murky legal battle, Mir finds himself “wronged.”
Over the past weekend, an audio clip began doing the rounds on the Internet in which Mir and a suspected Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) operative are allegedly heard having a conversation.
The voice on tape, said to be Mir’s, instigated the TTP operative against Squadron Leader Khalid Khwaja, a former ISI officer who had been abducted by the TTP along with another ISI officer, Col Imam who is still missing. Mir accused Khwaja of being a CIA agent and a sympathiser of Israel and the Qadiani sect, also known as the Ahmadi sect, which is officially condemned of heresy by Pakistan. Mir told the TTP operative that the Qadianis in his view were “worse off than kaffirs (infidels)”.
Khwaja’s body was found in North Waziristan days after this conversation. Subsequently, Mir also wrote a piece in The News, titled ‘What was the last mission of Khalid Khwaja,’ in which he tried to establish that Khwaja was playing the role of a conduit between the Taliban and Pakistan Army.
Mir has refuted the charges and termed the audio clip as being “manufactured” with bits and pieces from “his innocent conversations”. This conversation was first reported by Pakistan’s English newspaper, Daily Times. The paper also ran two editorials demanding legal action against Mir, who has served legal notices to the publisher, editor and reporter of Daily Times demanding an unconditional apology within two weeks.
Salman Taseer, a PPP stalwart, governor of Pakistani Punjab and owner of the Daily Times is out of the country. Its editor, Rashed Rehman has decided to fight it out in court. “Journalists in Pakistan operate with absolute impunity. All I want is Mir to be properly interrogated and the law to take its course. But considering the dominant view about the man in question, a lot of muck will be raked out once we go to court,” he told The Indian Express on phone from Lahore.
Mir knows the knack of being in the news: be it his much-suspected interview of al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden post 9/11 or that of Phoolan Devi who denied having given him any interview, after which his services from Jang were terminated. The influential journalist is visible frequently on Indian news channels. In March, Mir visited India during the 33rd SAARC Literature Festival.
However, the current controversy has left him unable to garner support for himself. Even his employers have distanced themselves. The story is developing with every passing day but there has been no disclaimer from Jang Group, which owns Geo TV, Jang and English daily The News, in which Mir writes. When approached, the Jang Group remain tight-lipped. Sources in Pakistan have told The Indian Express that the Jang Group doesn’t wish to be part of this story which could irreparably tarnish its image as Pakistan’s leading media group.
here’s link
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/taliban-tape-puts-pak-journalist-hamid-mir-in-a-spot/621247/1
No one knows Asian Tigers before abduction of KK and his companions … and yes all are conspiracy theories or guesswork but one thing is certain that both HM is an insider in the guise of a journalist as was KK under cover of a human right activist
Aamir Mughal Dawn Groups Editorial Talks about Credibility of Media is at stake whereas the same Hamid Mir filed this “Bunkum” as a Superlead in the most prestigious Newspaper of Pakistan i.e. Daily Dawn after 911, read and pull your hair: Daily Dawn, Hameed Haroon, Hamid Mir & Nuclear Bombs
http://chagataikhan.blogspot.com/2009/04/daily-dawn-hameed-haroon-hamid-mir.html
Credibility of Media wasn’t given any attention by this “Size Queen” of Daily Dawn in 2001 [above] for which now extraordinary attention is being given in 2010.
” Mr Mir has every right to proclaim his innocence but that alone will not suffice. In this digital age it is child’s play for independent experts to confirm whether or not the voice on the tape is Mr Mir’s. It is just as simple to distinguish a doctored recording from an unedited conversation. The credibility of the media is at stake here. What is needed is an investigation that is carried out with an open mind and whose outcome is accepted and acted upon by all parties. This is imperative if allegations of unethical conduct by the media and charges of dirty tricks by the government are to be laid to rest. Hamid Mir saga Dawn Editorial Thursday, 20 May, 2010 http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/editorial/hamid-mir-saga-050
Secular or Liberals may be Anti Extremism but not “Chootiya” to take Dawn’s story filed by Hamid Mir in 2001 as a Cardinal Truth.
Mazhar Abbas [EX President Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists] was pathetic in todays CNBC’s program wherein Afzal Butt [Rawalpindi Journalist], Khalid Khawaja’s son and Rasheed Rehman [Editor Daily Times] were participating. Both the journalists were doing their best to protect Hamid Mir and advising “patience” to Khawaja’s son, saying “Campaign against Hamid Mir should be stopped but what about Constant Campaign against an Elected Government and above all Politicians without any cogent reason in the same Media? At one point Rasheed Rehman said “the way we [Journalists] are violating the code of ethics, this newly acquired Press Freedom “Ghus Jaigi” and Rasheed patiently listened to Mazhar and Afzal but when he started his reply Mazhar [elder Brothers Zafar [BBC/Dawn Group], Azhar [Director GEO and he temporarily worked in DawnNews as well and then again shuttled back to GEO] – These Senior Journalists instead of being sanctimonious should stop acting like “Common Whore” who switch TV Channels more rapidly then Whore switches Partners. Today I saw Mushtaq Minhas and Nusrat Javed “doing their orgy – Bolta Pakistan” on Dunya TV. I ask do they have self respect left in them.
Whores
Taliban threaten to kill Osama over action against Hamid Mir Friday, May 21, 2010
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=20105\21\story_21-5-2010_pg7_27
* Group threatens Osama with same fate as his father if any action taken against talk show host
* Son of former ISI official says he can confirm Mir, Osman Punjabi murdered his father Daily Times Monitor
Participating in the debate, senior journalist Talat Hussain said any other media outlet could have published the taped conversation between Hamid Mir and the militant if Daily Times had decided to not report on such an important piece of news. “One thing is clear, the audiotape contains an extremely sensitive content and apparently it seems authentic,” he said, adding that one could easily point out several flaws in the explanation provided by Hamid Mir on the issue. “Technically, it is indispensable to prove the authenticity of the audiotape and prove whether it was valid or fake. A person has lost his life due to the audiotape, and the contents of the tape leave no doubts for Osama Khalid when he connects its content with the incident of his father’s murder,” Talat said.
Jang Group/Hamid Mir’s Controversy & Twisted Logic of Dawn Group of Newspapers.
http://chagataikhan.blogspot.com/2010/05/jang-grouphamid-mirs-controversy.html
Committee to probe charges against Hamid Mir
Thursday, May 20, 2010
ISLAMABAD: A conversation purportedly between Hamid Mir, the host of Geo programme ‘Capital Talk’ and columnist of daily Jang, has been uploaded on different websites, says a statement issued by the spokesman of Geo/Jang Group.
A committee has been constituted by the Group to get detailed information in this connection. Members of the committee have held preliminary talks with Hamid Mir in which he has disowned the voice (said to be his) and termed the audiotape fabricated. For credible investigation, the committee has called upon professional journalist organisations to come forward to uncover the truth.
Hamid Mir has assured that he would fully cooperate in the investigation so that the truth is unearthed. He also said that some people want to ostracise him from the profession and they are defaming him as part of a conspiracy.
http://thenews.jang.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=240074