Daniel Pearl's Killers Freed

Over the weekend, news broke of the mass release of al Qaeda and Taliban prisoners by Pakistan. This was expected, since the recently signed "Waziristan Accord" calls for the Pakistani government to "release prisoners held in military action and would not arrest them again."

The Fourth Rail presents an extensive rundown of some of the bad guys who are now once again free to fight us. Some who lept out at me were these, suspected of being the killers of WSJ reporter Daniel Pearl:

Khalid Khawaja: "Khalid Khawaja is a retired squadron leader of the Pakistan Air Force who was an official in Pakistan’s intelligence agency, the ISI, in the mid 1980s. After he wrote a critical letter to General Zia ul-Haq, who ruled Pakistan from 1977 till 1988, in which he labeled Zia as hypocrite, he was removed from the ISI and forced to retire from the airforce. He then went straight to Afghanistan in 1987 and fought against the Soviets along side with Osama Bin Laden, developing a relationship of firm friendship and trust. Khalid Khawaja’s name resurfaced when US reporter Daniel Pearl was abducted and subsequently killed. Pearl had come to Pakistan and met Khalid Khawaja in order to investigate the jihadi network of revered sufi, Syed Mubarak Ali Gailani."

Mansour Hasnain: A member of the group that kidnapped and murdered Danny Pearl. He also was "a militant of the Harkat-al-Mujahedin group, is one of those who hijacked an Indian Airlines jet in December 1999 and forced New Delhi to release three militants -- including Omar and Azhar."

Mohammad Hashim Qadeer: "Suspected of being one of [Daniel] Pearl’s actual killers, was arrested in August 2005 and has notable al-Qaida links" and "ties with the banned extremist groups Harkat-ul-Mujahedeen and Jaish-e-Muhammad."

Mohammad Bashir: Another Pakistani complicit in the murder of Daniel Pearl.

In all, it's estimated 2,500 have been released as a result of the Waziristan Accord. Some may be innocents, but many, many are men like these, and their release will only embolden them. This is a major defeat in the war on terror, and it was wrought by one of our Muslim allies -- which shows how little we can trust Islamic nations in this war.

Hat-tip: Jim
Related Tags: Terror, War on terror, Daniel Pearl, Waziristan, al Qaeda, Taliban