Mr. Mohammd Sadiq, Charge d'Affaires a.i.'s Interview with FOX News on August 22, 2004

Transcript of Fox News Live Interview

Pakistan’s Charge d’Affaires in Washington Mr. Mohammad Sadiq was interviewed by Fox News Live on Sunday, August 22. He said "war on terror is our war, and we have to fight it."

Following is the transcript of the interview:

Q: Who is behind this?.

Sadiq: Well, we have made several arrests in last week of suspects who have links with al-Qaeda. Two of their leaders who are Egyptian nationals are at large. We are looking for them.

Q: What about bin Laden?

Sadiq: It is very difficult to say. We believe that bin Laden is alive and we are looking for him, and we hope to find him.

Q: Are you under good deal of pressure now from the US to produce results on terrorism.

Sadiq: No, it is a total misperception. We are under no pressure. We know that War on Terror is our war and we have to fight it. We are under no pressure, whatsoever.

Q: Human intelligence led to these arrests?

Sadiq: Probably yes, we have better human intelligence now. It was basically an all Pakistani intelligence agencies’ operation. They got the information and worked on it. Since the operation is on, and we are still looking for more suspects a lot of information is not made public at this stage including the identities of the people already arrested.

Q: You are questioning these people, what kind of information you are getting?

Sadiq: This interrogation and questioning have established that they have links with al Qaeda

Q: What kind of links with al Qaeda.

Sadiq: Like other terrorist organizations, probably al Qaeda also has targets and leaders but not necessarily an elaborate list of members and associates. As a significant portion of its leadership is put out of action, it is probably no longer a monolithic organization. I understand, it works in different cells - some of them are sleeping cells, some of them are basically gangs which take one or two actions, and then disappear. They may even don’t know about each other. The group we busted, we believe is linked to al Qaeda. It may not have a name even or what kind of direct links it had with al Qaeda. But the people on the top the group who were giving directions to the people arrested have definite al Qaeda links.

Q: It sounds, if it's like a franchise out, then it's not monolithic as you were describing. Then what is at the top, who is dictating to follow the orders.

Sadiq: The terrorist organizations work clandestinely. They work underground they do not have an open membership, for example. They may have different cells, but these cells are not necessarily linked with each other, or some time they do not know about each other. I think, by nature, this is an activity, one could expect that they will act like this.

Q: A lot of people think, a lot of most the experts we talked with believe that OBL is in Pakistan, or right there on Pakistan-Afghanistan border? If you think he is, and if so, what keeps you from going after?

Sadiq: We do not know what is the exact location of OBL. We will be very happy to know the location of OBL. People who think they know where bin Laden is should share this information with us. It is widely suspected that he is operating somewhere between Afghanistan and Pakistan border. We are on the look out for him.