The Inheritance Of Loss

A book titled The Inheritance written by David Sanger, a correspondentof the New York Times, published recently has received much attentionbecause of its disclosures about how the previous administration of George Bushrealised that Gen (now retired) Pervez Musharraf was playing a double game withthe US-- pretending to act against the Taliban and covertly using it asstrategic asset. It also refers to a reported intercept of a telephoneconversation of Gen.Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, the present chief of the Army Staff,in which he referred to Jallaluddin  Haqqani, a Taliban commander, as astrategic asset.

Commenting on the book, the Times of London wrote as follows onFebruary 17, 2009: 

"Washington sent Special Forces into Pakistan last summer after intercepting a call by the Pakistani army chief referring to a notorious Taliban leader as a "strategic asset," a new book has claimed. The intercept was ordered to confirm suspicions that the Pakistani military were still actively supporting the Taliban whilst taking millions of dollars in US military aid to fight them, according to the The Inheritance, by the New York Times correspondent David Sanger. In a transcript passed to Mike McConnell, the Director of National Intelligence in May 2008, General Ashfaq Kayani, the military chief who replaced Pervez Musharraf, was overheard referring to Maulavi Jalaluddin Haqqani as "a strategic asset". The remark was the first real evidence of the double game that Washington had long suspected President Musharraf was playing as he continued receiving US military aid while aiding the Taliban. Mr Haqqani, a veteran of the anti-Soviet mujahiddin wars of the nineties, commands a hardline Taliban group based in Waziristan and is credited with introducing suicide bombing into the militants' arsenal. Washington later intercepted calls from Pakistani military units to Mr Haqqani, warning him of an impending military operation designed to prove to the US that Islamabad was tackling the militant threat."

Evidence of the links of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) with Al Qaedaand the Taliban and of the double game being played by Musharraf, the PakistanArmy and the ISI was available with the US intelligence since 2001, if notearlier. There were references to it in some documents of the DefenceIntelligence Agency (DIA), which were declassified by the US Administration inSeptember,2003. In an article of September 17, 2003, titled UncleFrankenstein, I had analysed these documents.  The text of my analysisis annexed below.

The US agencies were aware of Musharraf's double-dealing right from thebeginning, but the US policy-makers preferred to close their eyes to it. It isthis US policy of closing its eyes to negative evidence against Pakistan, whichis responsible for the continuing activities of Al Qaeda and the Taliban fromPakistani territory.

I wrote in my analysis of September 17, 2003:

"From these documents, it is clear that the DIA knew of the role of the ISI in the sponsorship of not only the Taliban, but also Al Qaeda.  And yet, the Bush administration has for over two years chosen to close its eyes to the complicity of Pakistan and to project Musharraf to its own public opinion as well as to the international community as a frontline ally in the war against terrorism. Why? A question to which  there has been no convincing answer.

Why is the US is not prepared to fully open its eyes even today afterPresident Barack Obama assumed office? President Obama's formulations regardingthe sanctuaries of Al Qaeda in Pakistani territory are becoming more and moreguarded and less and less categorical. During the Presidential campaign, hecategorically spoke of the sanctuaries being located in Pakistani territory. Ina TV interview after taking over, he gave the impression as if the sanctuariescould be in Afghan territory. In his latest statement authorising the inductionof 17,000 more US troops into Afghanistan coming spring and summer, he has beenquoted by news agencies as saying : "The Taliban is resurgent inAfghanistan, and Al Qaeda supports the insurgency and threatens America from itssafe-haven along the Pakistani border."  Along the border means what?In Pakistani or Afghan territory. The reluctance to call a spade a spade withreference to Pakistan's complicity with Al Qaeda and the Taliban continues evenunder Obama. This is going to further harm the US campaign against Al Qaeda andthe Taliban.

B. Raman is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. ofIndia, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies,Chennai.