Pakistan: US secret op was target of Marriot bombing

By Farooq Sulehria
A highly-explosive truck on September 20 rammed into the gates of the posh Marriot Hotel in high-security zone of Pakistani capital Islamabad. A fact, until writing of these lines, carefully avoided in mainstream Western media is: the target was the USA.
A section of Pakistani press, however, was quick in pointing out, as target, "a top secret and mysterious operation of the US Marines going on inside the Marriott when it was attacked on Saturday evening". According to daily Dawn, "Well-equipped security officers from the US embassy were seen on the spot soon after the explosions. However, they left the scene shortly afterwards".

Witnessed by a number of people, a US embassy truckload of steel boxes was unloaded and shifted inside the Marriott Hotel late September 17 night, according to an exclusive story carried by daily The News International (September 21).
Both the main gates (the entrance and the exit) of the hotel were closed while no one except the US Marines were either allowed to go near the truck or get the steel boxes unloaded or shift them inside the hotel. These steel boxes were not passed through the scanners installed at the entrance of the hotel lobby and were reportedly shifted to the fourth and fifth floors of the Marriott. A dozen or so US Marines in their usual fatigues were unloading the steel boxes from the truck. No one, including the hotel security men was allowed to go near the truck or handle the steel boxes.
Among the witnesses was Mumtaz Alam, a member of the parliament. He wanted to leave the hotel but owing to the closed gates, Mumtaz Alam found himself marooned on hotel. He was furious both at the US Marines and the hotel security not only for the delay caused to them but also for the security lapse he was witnessing.
He threatened to raise the issue on the floor of parliament, only a heartbeat away from the scene of suicide attack. Not merely the parliament building, Presidency, Prime Minister House, Supreme Court and Diplomatic Enclave (housing among others US, French and British embassies) also lay in the vicinity of destroyed hotel. Hence, Marriot’s proximity with power centres prompted private TV channels, busy outdoing each other in sensationalism, mindlessly declare it Pakistan’s 9/11 and Pakistan’s worst-ever suicide attack since the first-ever suicidal mission back in 1995 when an Egyptian rammed an explosive truck with Egyptian embassy. Only last year in October, however, a rally to welcome Benazir Bhutto on her return from exile was bombed leaving over 150 dead.
Even before anybody claimed the responsibility, the blame was laid on the doors of Taliban and al-Qaida by Pakistan government as well as White House (“This is a reminder of the threat we all face’’: US spokesperson) and Western media. ‘All roads lead to South Waziristan’, declared, at a press conference, Rehman Malik, advisor to Prime Minister on Interior Affairs. He, however, cleverly avoided a question at the press conference regarding the presence of US Marines at hotel Marriot.
Though few in Pakistan would contradict Rehman’s assumption yet hardly anybody across the country would blame merely Taliban. That the suicide bombings are a consequence to US occupation of Afghanistan (an occupation, of late, being extended to Pakistan’s Tribal Areas) is a widely-accepted notion in Pakistan.
Farooq Sulehria is a Sweden-based member of Labour Party Pakistan

• See also: Target Pakistan: Washington's next war has already started