Terrorism Watch

Via the Pakistani daily, The Nation, columnist Humayun Gauhar writes an open letter to President Bush -- a rambling note of frustration with the strengthening Indo-US partnership.

He closes with the following bizarre assertion:

Al Qaeda is a US creation and the US provides grist to its mills. You are obsessed with Osama Bin Laden, but so what if you get him? Do you think that after the media hype dies down "terrorism" will disappear? Al Qaeda is but a movement and Osama its symbol - call him metaphor if you like. The movement is amorphous, comprising many different independent cells and groups, like beads strung together into a deadly necklace by the common thread of injustices against Muslims. It bears repetition, remove the thread and the beads will fall down. Don't, and more beads will be added to the necklace.

This from a respectable figure in Pakistan. No wonder his unruly country is viewed with profound suspicion in the free world.

Update: Via Washington Post, Ahmad Rashid, laments about why Osama bin Laden is welcome in Pakistan.