At Least, Wake Up Now

Mr. President, Respected Senator John Kerry and other Democratic Presidential aspirants,

At a time when the political leaders and people of the United States have started debating the importantdomestic and foreign policy issues of the day in preparation for the Presidential elections due later thisyear, one issue which deserves to receive the highest priority is the dangers of a nuclear jihad emanatingfrom the soil of Pakistan.

If you could kindly ask your campaign staff to list out all the major jihadi terrorist incidents of theworld starting from the explosion at the New York World Trade Centre in February,1993, you would find that allof them had one thing in common: Many of the terrorists involved were either Pakistani nationals, or foreignnationals who had lived for some years in Pakistan or attended its madrasas or received training in the campsof Pakistani jihadi organisations supported by its Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) or in camps run by theTaliban and Al Qaeda in Afghan territory. 

A document of the USA's Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) declassified under the Freedom of Information Actlast year had highlighted the role of Pakistan in the creation and sustenance  of not only the Taliban,but also Al Qaeda.

If you could kindly ask your campaign staff to list out all the statements  issued by Islamicfundamentalists and jihadi terrorists such as Osama bin Laden  since 1993 highlighting their religiousright and obligation to acquire and use weapons of mass destruction (WMD) to protect their religion, you wouldfind that except for a warning issued by the Chechen terrorists in 1995 in which they had threatened tocapture a Russian nuclear power station and blow it up, all other statements and warnings had emanated fromthe Pakistan-Afghanistan region.

The Islamic world has dozens, if not hundreds, of fundamentalist and jihadi organisations. Kindly do askyour campaign staff to research for statements speaking of the religious right and obligation of the jihadisto acquire and use WMD, which might have come from outside the Pakistan-Afghanistan region. They would hardlyfind any. The concept of the so-called nuclear jihad was born in the madrasas of Pakistan and bin Ladenborrowed it from them.

If you could kindly ask your campaign staff to list out all reported and verified instances of clandestineproliferation of military nuclear technology and materials to other states, they would find a hand of Pakistanin each and every instance -- either that of the Pakistani political leaders or of its military-intelligenceestablishment or of its scientific community or all or some of them together.

Evidence of Pakistan's clandestine procurement of military nuclear technology and materials has been theresince 1979. The US and the other members of the international community did not take serious notice of itbecause this procurement was meant to give to Pakistan a capability to counter India. The internationalcommunity felt that  this posed a threat only to India and not to others. It was, therefore, not highlyexcited over it.

In 1990, President George Bush, your distinguished father, Mr.President, invoked the Pressler Amendmentagainst the State of Pakistan and imposed severe sanctions against it after convincing himself that Pakistanhad clandestinely acquired a military nuclear capability and had in its arsenal an useable atomic bomb. Twoyears thereafter, the prestigious Washington Post came out with a story that after having acquired amilitary nuclear capability, Pakistan had started sharing it with Iran.

This sharing started under Zia-Ul-Haq two years before President Bush invoked the Pressler Amendment andhence was not in retaliation against his action. It was started at a time when Pakistan was projecting itselfas the frontline ally of the US in its covert war against the then USSR.

Why did Iran want this capability? To use it against India? No. To be able to use it against Israel and theUSA. Pakistan knew it. And yet, it agreed to help it. While overtly projecting itself as an ally of the US,Pakistan agreed to covertly help Iran which was openly calling for the destruction of Israel and projectingthe US as the "Great Satan".

In 1986, President Ronald Reagan ordered the bombing of some installations in Libya in retaliation for theinvolvement of the Libyan intelligence in a terrorist attack in West Berlin in which some US soldiers werekilled . Shortly thereafter, Col. Ghadaffi, the Libyan leader, approached Pakistan for its assistance inacquiring a military nuclear capability. Gen.Zia-Ul-Haq, then in power in Islamabad, declined since he wasangry over Ghadaffi's support to the members of the family of the late Zulfiquar Ali Bhutto, whom he had sentto the gallows in 1979.

After coming to power in late 1988, one of the first acts of Benazir was to clear the sharing of nucleartechnology with Libya. Why did Libya want a military nuclear capability? To threaten India? No. To threatenIsrael and the US. While overtly projecting herself as a greater friend of the US than Zia, Benazir agreed tohelp Libya, which too, like Iran, had vowed to destroy Israel and to teach the US a lesson for its bombing ofLibya in 1986.

In 1993, Pakistan's missile programme ran into difficulties. Its programme for the indigenous production ofthe Hatf series of missiles was a flop. Its clandestine purchase of missiles from China had come underincreasing US scrutiny. Mr.James Baker, the then Secretary of State, had taken serious notice of thetransgressions of the missile technology control regime by Pakistan and China and had imposed two-yearsanctions against them. China, while continuing to sell short and medium-range missiles to Pakistan despitethe sanctions, refused to sell long-range missiles.

To whom did Pakistan turn for help? To North Korea, another sworn enemy of the USA. Benazir Bhutto, afterbecoming the Prime Minister for a second time,flew to North Korea and signed an agreement under whichPyongyang agreed to sell medium and long-range missiles to Pakistan. The so-called Ghauri missile fired byPakistan in April,1998, in order to intimidate India was nothing but North Korea's Nodong.

Kindly ask your campaign staff to get hold of the press clippings of all the statements made by her afterthis successful test. They would find how many times she had claimed credit as the person who made Ghauripossible when she was the Prime Minister  without specifying how.

Those were the years when Pakistan's economy was in a state of collapse due to the sanctions under thePressler Amendment, successive failures of the cotton crop and the consequent suspension of production in manyof its textile mills and other reasons. And yet, Pakistan managed to pay for the missiles to North Korea. How?Partly by supplying wheat to North Korea and by meeting its consequent shortfall by importing wheat from theUSA and Australia . And partly, through cash payments in US dollars. Pakistan did not have enough foreignexchange to pay for its own imports. And yet, it found foreign exchange to make part-payments for themissiles. Where did it get the US dollars from? From the ISI's heroin trade and from post 9/11 cash flows fromthe US and others. .

If you could kindly ask your campaign staff to collate all the reports of the period regarding the state ofthe North Korean economy, you would find that many of  the leading economists of the Western world hadpredicted the collapse of the North Korean society due to millions of starvation deaths. This did not happen.Wherefrom did North Korea get wheat for its starving millions and US dollars for its exchequer? From Pakistan.It used wheat produced by US and Australian farmers to sustain a rogue state, which along with Iran and Libya,was a sworn enemy of the US.

In the late 1990s, North Korea decided to acquire a military nuclear capability. To whom did it turn forassistance? Pakistan. It readily agreed to help Noth Korea. Why did North Korea want this capability? Tothreaten India? No. To threaten Japan and the USA.

Since 1992, Pakistan has been repeatedly caught transferring or sharing its military nuclear technology andmaterials with states which were the sworn enemies of the US and some of whom had called for the destructionof Israel. The State of Pakistan has never once suffered the punitive consequences of its blatanttransgressions. It never had to worry about finding alibis, pretexts or excuses for denying its culpability.The US State Department found them for Pakistan.

After the latest exposures of  the role of the rogue scientists of Pakistan in assisting Iran, Libyaand North Korea, President Pervez Musharraf has enacted an elaborate charade of investigating the roguescientists while vehemently denying any State culpability. Not many, even in Pakistan, take seriously hisstand that the state had nothing to do with the transgressions.

Wherefrom did he get the idea of making a distinction between the State and its entities dealing in nuclearand missile development? From the US. Apart from the sanctions imposed by the then President Bush in 1990 andby Mr.Bill Clinton in 1998, which were directed against the State of Pakistan, all other sanctions wereagainst the Khan Research Laboratories (KRL), the nest of nuclear rogues, as if the KRL, owned and run by thestate of Pakistan, is an independent entity acting on its own. The KRL and A.Q.Khan, its evil genius, shruggedoff the sanctions which merely said the KRL cannot import any material or technology from the USA as if it wasimporting it in the past.

Last year, the US State Department imposed a fresh bout of sanctions against the KRL for its missile tradewith North Korea. State Department spokesmen, including even Secretary of State Colin Powell, went out oftheir way to specify that the latest sanctions had nothing to do with reports of Pakistan's transferringmilitary nuclear technology to North Korea, which, according to them, remained unproved.

Now, it has not only been proved, but even admitted by A.Q.Khan and his dirty dozen. Musharraf, whoapproved this sharing in order to get long-range missiles from North Korea  to intimidate India, pretendsas if he was surprised and shocked by this. And the US has chosen to go along with his charade.

Since the New York World Trade Centre explosion of February 1993, there was a cascade of evidence regardingthe role of Pakistan, its ISI and  its State-sponsored jihadi organisations in acts of jihadi terrorismin different parts of the world. The US chose to close its eyes to them. The result 9/11. It has now become acliche to describe 9/11 as a wake-up call for the US.

Since 1992, there has been a cascade of evidence regarding the role of Pakistan and its rogue scientists inhelping the sworn enemies of the US and Israel in acquiring a military nuclear capability. Not having learnt the right  lessons relating to Pakistan from 9/11, the US continues to treat the state of Pakistan andMusharraf with kid gloves as if they are not responsible.

When state and non-State actors acquiring this capability from Pakistan use it against the USA one day in an act of nuclear jihad which they have vowed to wage against it, it would be too late even for anotherwake-up call. Large parts of the USA would have been destroyed and millions of its citizens sent to theireternal sleep.

I take the liberty of enclosing an open letter toAmerican Friends written by me in April last year.

Wishing you a vigorous campaign and with warm personal regards,

Yours sincerely,
B. Raman,
Chennai, India

B. Raman is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, and, presently, Director,Institute for Topical Studies, Chennai, and Convenor and Distinguished Fellow, Observer Research Foundation (ORF),Chennai Chapter.