Jang and Geo not provided proofs of anti-state activities, treason: spokesperson

Supreme Court and Prime Minister was requested to appoint commission for investigating serious allegations; Private channel ran tickers Khawaja Asif has seen proofs, defence minister denied this; Ministry of Defence referred application to PEMRA without seeing proofs; PEMRA also issued notice to Geo without investigation; Respect Pakistan Army, Jang editions and Geo programmes testify to this; Jang Group and Geo always served interests of country and nation while staying within ambit of constitution and law

KARACHI (Jang News): A spokesperson for Jang/Geo has said that in the application referred to PEMRA by the Ministry of Defence for action against Geo, they had complained about the news report regarding the attempt on the life of Hamid Mir and had alleged without any proof that the Jang Group is anti-state and traitor and has a history in this connection, and if proofs are sought, the Ministry of Defence could also provide the same.

When PEMRA took the action, Geo had immediately submitted its response to PEMRA stating that proofs of anti-state activities and treason should be sent urgently so that the complaint of the Ministry of Defence could be responded to. After this, a meeting of PEMRA was held. The respectful response of Geo was again submitted. Our lawyer Akram Sheikh and other officials verbally also stated repeatedly during the meeting that we should be provided proofs. After this, we also approached the Islamabad High Court and submitted there that allegations of anti-state activities and treason have been levelled against the Jang Group and Geo without any proof. Senior government representatives and PEMRA were repeatedly requested respectfully but despite this we have not been provided proofs till date.

After this, Geo repeatedly stated through advertisements in Jang and The News that we have not been provided proofs. In the advertisements, the Supreme Court and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had respectfully been requested that a commission be appointed for investigating allegations of anti-state activities and others against Geo/Jang Group.

The spokesperson said that different governments, different institutions and civil and military governments have also been levelling allegations of different natures against our group in the past because they differed with news reports, comments and programmes of our journalists. However, the Jang Group and Geo made concerted efforts for serving the interests of the country and nation while staying within the ambit of the constitution and law and the Jang Group and Geo always adopted positive attitude and asked the governments to prove the allegations in courts while journalists of Jang Group and Geo also proved their news reports true.

The spokesperson for the Jang Group and Geo said that the heinous and baseless allegations of anti-state activities and treason have been levelled against us, which have always been faced by the Jang Group and Geo courageously and boldly. Geo has also sent a Rs50 billion damages notice to PEMRA and the Ministry of Defence for calling it anti-state and traitor without any proof and defaming it.

The spokesperson said that journalists of Jang/Geo Group are facing threats because of this allegation and they are facing difficulties in discharging their professional duties. The spokesperson said that first the Ministry of Defence referred the application against Geo to PEMRA without seeing proofs and PEMRA too sent a notice to Geo without seeing proofs. It was duty of the Ministry of Defence and PEMRA to first seek proofs from the complainant, scrutinise it and then to forward it but both of them did not do so.

The spokesperson said we also want to say that the services of the Jang Group and Geo for the country and the nation are immortal and unparalleled. The organisation has suffered losses worth billions of rupees because of action against Geo. The spokesperson said that the Jang Group and Geo has always paid glowing tributes to the army for glorious services and as an institution, we immensely respect the Pakistan Army. Different articles and editions regarding the Pakistan Army published by newspapers of the Jang Group and innumerable exemplary programmes aired by Geo testify to this. Representatives of the army also lauded services of the Jang and Geo on different occasions. The Pakistan Army has never had any complaint against the Jang Group.

It is worth mentioning here that the organization has already tendered an apology for the news report aired regarding the attempt on the life of Hamid Mir. The spokesperson said that whatever Minister for Defence Khawaja Asif has said in an interview with ARY, had he also mentioned in the interview the issue of proof, there would have been no ambiguity. It may be recalled that ARY channel is constantly busy in propaganda against Geo. This channel started running tickers even in the midst of Khawaja Asif’s interview, saying Khawaja Asif has seen proofs. The series of tickers continued running till late night. However, Khawaja Asif tweeted very late in the night appealing to the people not to heed to the ARY tickers and to watch full interview attentively.

The spokesperson said we pray to Almighty Allah to guide us also towards the good and grant the patience, courage and fortitude as well as to grant us ability to remove mutual misunderstandings so that we can play our role for the progress of the country and nation. The spokesperson said that calling the Jang Group and Geo a traitor is a baseless and emotional thing so we hope, God willing, all misunderstandings in this regard will soon stand removed.

Torture provided no key evidence in hunt for OBL: US senate report

WASHINGTON: Water-boarding and other harsh interrogation techniques provided no key evidence in the hunt for Osama bin Laden, a new senate report into the use of torture by the CIA in the years after the September 11 attacks is expected to claim.

If confirmed, the finding in the 6,200-page senate report will directly challenge assertion by former members of the George W. Bush administration that the CIA’s so-called “enhanced interrogation” techniques were an essential tool in prosecuting the war on terror.

Congressional aides familiar with the still-secret report told the Associated Press that a review of some 6 million classified documents had led them to conclude there was no benefit derived from treatment that the United Nations and rights groups say amounted to torture.

The US senate’s powerful intelligence committee is due to hold a vote on Thursday on whether to release a 400-page summary of the report, setting in motion a declassification process that could take several months before documents are made public.

The findings of the report have already caused a bitter and public rift between Dianne Feinstein, the Committee’s democrat chair, and the CIA whom she has openly accused of trying to frustrate the publication of the report since its findings were approved in December 2012.

Most fundamental among its findings is expected to be that the treatment meted out to Al Qa’eda suspects in sites such as Bagram Airbase in Afghanistan, the Guantánamo Bay detention centre and “black jails” around the world did not ultimately yield critical intelligence.

The successful assassination of bin Laden was seized on by former Bush administration figures and top CIA officials as vindication of the “enhanced interrogation techniques” they authorised after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

That narrative was strengthened in the popular imagination by Kathryn Bigelow’s controversial film Zero Dark Thirty, a dramatic reconstruction of how bin Laden’s whereabouts were pieced together that was accused by civil rights groups of wrongly depicting torture as effective.

Among the key points of contention in the report was the treatment of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the man accused of masterminding the September 11 attacks who was waterboarded 183 times.

Intelligence officials have cited that Mohammed had confirmed that he knew an important al-Qaida courier with the nom de guerre Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti who helped lead CIA investigators to the compound in Abbottabad where bin Laden was killed.

However the Senate report concludes such information wasn’t critical and was obtained not when Mohammed was being water-boarded, but under standard interrogation months later, the unnamed aides told the Associated Press.

The CIA also has pointed to the value of information provided by senior al-Qaida operative Abu Faraj al-Libi, who was captured in 2005 and held at a secret prison run by the agency.

In previous accounts, U.S. officials have described how al-Libi made up a name for a trusted courier and denied knowing al-Kuwaiti. Al-Libi was so adamant and unbelievable in his denial that the CIA took it as confirmation he and Mohammed were protecting the courier.

The Senate report concludes evidence gathered from al-Libi wasn't significant either, aides said.

Essentially, they argue, Mohammed, al-Libi and others subjected to harsh treatment confirmed only what investigators already knew about the courier. And when they denied the courier's significance or provided misleading information, investigators would only have considered that significant if they already presumed the courier's importance.

The aides did not address information provided by yet another al-Qaida operative: Hassan Ghul, captured in Iraq in 2004. Intelligence officials have described Ghul as the true linchpin of the bin Laden investigation after he identified al-Kuwaiti as a critical courier.

In a 2012 news release, Ms Feinstein, the head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and Sen. Carl Levin, both Democrats, acknowledged an unidentified “third detainee” had provided relevant information on the courier.

But they said he did so the day before he was subjected to harsh CIA interrogation. “This information will be detailed in the Intelligence committee's report,” the senators said at the time.

In any case, it still took the CIA years to learn al-Kuwaiti's real identity: Sheikh Abu Ahmed, a Pakistani man born in Kuwait. How the U.S. learned of Ahmed's name is still unclear.

Without providing full details, aides said the Senate report illustrates the importance of the National Security Agency's efforts overseas.
Intelligence officials have previously described how in the years when the CIA couldn't find where bin Laden's courier was, NSA eavesdroppers came up with nothing until 2010 - when Ahmed had a telephone conversation with someone monitored by U.S. intelligence.

At that point, U.S. intelligence was able to follow Ahmed to bin Laden's hideout.