With the return of former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to Pakistan, a dangerous new actor has now reentered Pakistani politics. ABC News’s the Blotter reports that Sharif has accepted a bribe from none other than Osama bin Laden. The report is based on the interrogation of one Ali Mohamed, who “served as a special projects coordinator for bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al Zawahri in the mid-1990s.” Based on the Blotter report, ‘Mohamed was also in charge of selecting bin Laden’s personal security team.” This would be the Black Guard, and this posting along with the special projects coordinator position would place Mohamed at the heart of al Qaeda’s inner working.
Sharif, who was deposed by President Pervez Musharraf in a coup in 1999, is now being courted by Musharraf to serve as prime minister in a new coalition government. U.S. ambassador to Pakistan Anne W. Patterson is set to meet with Sharif today. As the Blotter noted, rumors of Sharif’s links to al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden are not new. In 2005, Khalid Khawaja, a former Inter Services Intelligence operative, told Asia Times that Sharif and bin Laden met in Saudi Arabia in 1998. According to Khawaja, Sharif accepted cash to prevent the rise of political rival Benazir Bhutto.
Sharif is denying any links to the Taliban or al Qaeda. “Let me be clear I have been condemning all sorts of terrorism, whether in Pakistan or outside Pakistan,” Sharif told the Associated Press. “We are moderates, we follow moderation and nothing except moderation. Remarks are made by other countries without taking (into consideration) our cooperation that we have extended in the past. To me this is unreasonable and I am disappointed.”
