Terror Trail To Pakistan

WASHINGTON

First you breed them, then you nurture them and then you hand some of them over periodically as anunavoidable ransom to the Americans. This is the Great Game Pakistan is playing with the Bush Administrationas umpire. Terrorists hiding in Pakistan pop up every time Washington presses the button. Many certifiedmembers of the terrorist clan seem to have found refuge in the by-lanes of Karachi and Rawalpindi. Everyterror trail seems to end in Pakistan. Yet the game goes on with all the pretence of innocence.

Both the United States and Pakistan say the war on terrorism is a top priority, a do-or-die pursuit of theenemy. They are in it for real and until the end. It is not a cynical political ploy dependant on theelectoral calendar. But is that really so?

These days Washington does resemble a war capital with raised threat levels and security checks gallore.The World Bank and IMF buildings are laced with guards checking handbags and employees discussing the quickestexit route. The heightened alert was prompted by information seized from the computers of terrorists arrestedrecently in -- where else -- Pakistan. The arrests were made over the last two months but US intelligencedecided to inform the public only last week.

The biggest fish, Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani who had a $5 million prize on his head, was captured in Gujrat,Pakistan, on July 25 but the news was revealed on July 29, the day John Kerry was to be formally anointed asthe Democratic Party candidate in Boston. To suggest the idea was to take the media spotlight away from Kerrywould be too obvious. But few other explanations seem to fit, specially in light of a report in the NewRepublic last month that the ISI was under great pressure by the White House to produce someone in thelast ten days of July.

The ISI delivered, as it normally does, on command.

Ghailani, an African, who is believed to be responsible for the twin bombings of US embassies in Kenya andTanzania in 1998, landed in Karachi the same year. For nearly six years Ghailani lived in Pakistan with nohindrance, going about his business of recruitment and information collection and "blending" into theenvironment despite his dark skin. Was the ISI network unaware or was it protecting/ignoring him all theseyears?

Before him the Pakistanis had zoomed in on Mussad Aruchi, a nephew of the famous KSM or Khalid SheikhMohammad who masterminded the 9/11 attacks. Aruchi was arrested in June but we didn’t know. He told hisinterrogators he was "sure Al-Qaeda would hit New York or Washington pretty soon," according to TheWashington Post. But the public wasn’t informed. Aruchi led the CIA and ISI to Mohammad Naeem Noor Khan,a Pakistani computer expert who was arrested on July 13 in Lahore with discs and maps. The information showedterrorists had been casing prominent buildings in Washington for some time. Again Khan’s arrest was not madepublic for nearly three weeks.

But it is the arrest of Aruchi that is interesting. Since the Pakistanis and the Americans have had KSM intheir custody for a year and it was known that terrorism as an ideology was kind of a family trait and thatKSM was related to Ramzi Yousef, the Pakistani arrested and convicted of the first bombing of the World TradeCentre in 1993, why wasn’t Aruchi arrested much earlier? Or does it mean that Pakistan gurgles up aterrorist only when absolutely necessary and to give a plug for Bush. After all, Bush has granted Musharraf a$3 billion aid package with no strings attached. Musharraf knows that if the White House changes hands, theDemocrats are likely to put conditions on the money. It could be COD -- cash upon delivery.

So the Great Game continues with careful balancing, careful blackmail and carefully timed honours/giftsfrom the US Treasury for Musharraf. Pakistan has delivered other "high-value targets" to American mentorsstarting with Abu Zubaydah, Al Qaeda's chief of operations and Osama bin Laden’s reputed number three whowas "found" with 20 other militants in Faisalabad in March 2002 but only after the US information on hiswhereabouts forced the ISI’s hand. Just as it did in the case of A.Q. Khan’s flourishing nuclear trade.The ISI also produced Ramzi Binalshibh, the roommate of the 9/11 hijack leader Mohammed Atta in September 2002under pressure. He too was found in a middle class area in Karachi . In April 2003, the man behind the USSCole bombing, Tawfiq Attash, was also picked up in Karachi.

Two points are worth noting -- Musharraf and his ISI produce terrorists when under pressure and that allthese men have been picked up from the bustling neighborhoods of Pakistani cities, not the wilds of the borderareas. Perhaps the ISI needs to comb Karachi better. It is clear that elements within the ISI and thePakistani government are still protecting many dangerous men. But Musharraf insists he is doing all he can totrack the terrorist trail. On cue senior US officials nod in appreciation and offer effusive and heartfeltendorsements. Secretary of State Colin Powell, his deputy Richard Armitage and his deputy Christina Rocca canbarely contain themselves in praise. The policy of extreme public praise and moderate private pressure ismisguided and short-sighted. And once again it misreads the situation.

The current debate in Washington merely grants that Pakistan is a "difficult" case, a friendly foe,shall we say, a country although rife with internal contradictions and dangerous lies, nonetheless, deservingof American indulgence. The debate dances around niceties, failing to encompass the magnitude of the problem.This so even after 9/11 and the devastation. US policy makers repeat the mantra of Pakistan’s cooperation,that it has handed over 500 suspects, that it has lost soldiers in the battle against the terrorists, thatMusharraf is fighting for survival and that democracy is growing from the bottom up. It would seem they haveleft the management of terrorism to a military dictator known for small tactics not strategic moves. He isprojected on the pages of The Washington Post as the sane voice of "enlightened moderation" and theanswer to all prayers.

Here’s a small sampling of his "moderation" :

• Pakistan refuses to ban Hizb-ul-Mujahiddin, the main terror group operating in Kashmir and killinginnocent people.
  
  
• Pakistan refuses to hand over terrorists and mafia dons wanted by India and the Americans watch.
  
  
• Pakistan allows free assembly of hate mongers in POK who openly talk of defeating Hindus, Jews andChristians "conspiring" against Islam.
  
  
• Pakistani discourse on Islam includes bizarre and venomous tirades against India and the west.

The point once again being missed by US policy makers is that unless all terrorism is stamped out, noterrorism will. Just because Musharraf delivers a few Al Qaeda operatives to Washington but holds on toterrorists wreaking havoc in Kashmir as a bargaining chip, the cradle of hate will not stop rocking. The GreatGame must end. Terrorism, terrorists and hate can’t be compartmentalized as Al Qaeda (bad) and Kashmiri(tolerable), put in separate folders and locked away in a filing cabinet.

Washington must look at Pakistan with eyes wide open. Once before Americans ignored Pakistan’s use ofterrorism as a weapon against India because it didn’t affect their national interest and saw thehorrific results when it came home.

Once again they seem to be falling into a trap.