Osama’s Biographer Has Advice for U.S.

New America Media, News Report, Viji Sundaram, Editor's Note: Western analysts are mistaken in believing that Pakistan is falling into the hands of the Taliban and Al Qaeda, Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir. Mir told an audience in Berkeley, Calif. this week. Viji Sundaram is an editor at New America Media.

BERKELEY, Calif. – Pakistan’s arguably most celebrated investigative journalist and editor Hamid Mir said that it is understandable why “Western analysts” mistakenly think that Pakistan is falling into the hands of the Taliban and Al Qaeda, when only 2 percent of the country’s population inhabits the “red area” where the two groups are concentrated. “When you are sitting in New York, or D.C., or San Francisco and reading the newspapers, you are justified in forming this opinion,” Mir told the gathering in the library of UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism on Wednesday, taking a dig at the Western media. But he quickly noted that the West should not undermine the threat posed by that minority population of five million because “even 500 suicide bombers can create hell.” Mir, 42, is best known as the only journalist to have interviewed Osama bin Laden, twice before the 9/11 attacks and once after. He has put such major political figures as former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Afghan President Hamid Karzai in the hot seat on Geo TV, Pakistan’s popular TV station, where Mir is executive editor. He is currently writing an authorized biography of Osama bin Laden. More...

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