Scandal? What Scandal?

In the West, the most outrageous aspect of the crackdown on the Bank of Credit & Commerce International is that it was so long overdue. But most Pakistanis hold a very different view of the global banking empire founded by fellow countryman Agha Hasan Abedi.

At home he is revered as a courageous Third World entrepreneur whose bank has been hounded by racist Western financial interests. In Karachi last week, the English-language Daily News made the extraordinary claim that "Jewish pressure" led U.S. authorities to crack down on B.C.C.I.'s laundering of drug money. Said Rubab Khan, a Karachi business executive: "This...

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