The progress made by investigating agencies in the United States pursuing the worldwide networks of terror that have targeted it repeatedly, hold lessons for the rest of the world, including India.
VISITING the United States a few days after the anniversary of `9/11' was an experience in itself. Taking the long and unusually bumpy ride from Los Angeles to New York by victimised but now doubly cautious American Airlines' flight a few days ago was an even more instructive experience. I could very much feel the tension in the air at the expansive Los Angeles airport and during the flight. The uneasy calm was too obvious to be ignored. Coming from Asia and with a complexion that nearly matched that of the perpetrators of last year's savagery and a name that, to the untrained average American's ears, does not differ very much from those of that brutal pack, I was careful not to make a single gesture or movement during the flight that could have landed me in trouble. This is not a flippant remark, but one made in all seriousness.
Travellers from India would do well to behave themselves at airports and on flights in the U.S, if they do not want to be detained and questioned for sins they did not commit. The physical check at the airports could be enormously taxing and frustrating. Very often you are told that you have been selected for a special check. The initial exultant reaction when you hear of a "selection'' dissolves into utter misery soon when you are asked to open your booked baggage even though it may have passed through a scanner. Luckily, the sweets and other eats that I had rapaciously bought just before leaving Chennai for my innumerable nephews and nieces on both the coasts, passed muster, although I was prepared for the worst!
After you have passed this test, you will have to steel yourself for things more rigorous. At the next point, before you pass through the metal detector, you have to remove your jacket and place it on the X-ray machine. Your shoes are also not spared, thanks to the shoe bomber from Paris who nearly brought down an aircraft last year by hiding explosive material in his footwear. Then, when your person is frisked, you are asked to raise each shoeless foot and bend the knee in the air as if to test your athleticism!
You have almost reached the end of the tether when you are allowed to walk further into the airport towards your boarding gate. Any gesture of annoyance or any questioning of the rationale of each order by the security staff to do this or that, is certain to get you into trouble. My advice is, simply submit yourself to the ordeal, if you want to go about your business in the U.S. without any interference. During the flight, too many visits to the loo could again lead to trouble, inviting unnecessary attention.
Coming to matters more serious, the U.S. media are excited about the most recent arrest, after a shootout in Karachi, of Ramzi Binalshibh, a 30-year-old Yemeni national, whose role in the crimes of September 11 is almost beyond doubt. Possibly the only person now alive who knows the intimate details of the plot, he could well have been the 20th hijacker. It is said that he was a Hamburg room-mate of Mohamed Atta, the ringleader, and made four failed attempts to obtain a U.S. visa, buttressing the theory that he very much wanted to be part of the action, but did not succeed for a variety of reasons.
Interestingly, Ramzi gave an interview a few months ago (that was only recently broadcast) to the now-well-known Arab TV channel, al-Jazeera, in which he reeled out chilling details of the 9/11 operation. He could also rattle off the many code words (such as "The Faculty of Law'') used on the occasion. More important, he confirmed that the hijacked United Airlines Flight 93, which ultimately came down in the Pennsylvania woods, was in fact heading for the Capitol in Washington D.C. The worst admission by Binalshibh was that he felt bad not having been able to take part in the exercise. This gives more than an indication of the kind of hardened customers we are dealing with in this game.
Binalshibh was brought to the U.S., accompanied by four others arrested with him in Karachi, under heavy armed escort, and is probably being held now in a military base outside the country. His interrogation, as a prelude to a trial before a military tribunal, is of great significance. Although he could not be part of the final assault, he provided valuable logistic support to Atta and the others. This included a constant supply of money to recipients who included Zacarias Moussaoui, who had been detained before September 11, 2001, and has now been charged with conspiracy to commit acts of terrorism. (Readers may recall how one lady law officer of the Federal Bureau of Investigation had gone to town a few months ago and also deposed before a congressional committee that if the Minneapolis FBI office had been permitted by its Washington bosses to search and examine Zacarias' computer and other belongings, the plot could well have been busted and 9/11 prevented: Column in Frontline, June 21, 2002).
Binalshibh is described as an associate of one Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, a Pakistani-born Kuwaiti with known terrorist links. According to Time magazine, Mohammed went before al-Jazeera some time ago to proclaim himself to be "the head of the Al Qaeda military committee'' and he referred to Binalshibh as "the Coordinator of the Holy Tuesday operation''. It is reasonable to presume that Binalshibh will be severely questioned on the whereabouts of Mohammed, who still eludes the dragnet.
But the interrogation could well focus more on the illegal money channels that flourish all over the world. A lot has been done to plug these, and much more needs to be done. But the effort is massive and problem-ridden, not a little due to the permissiveness that marks banking operations everywhere and the utter callousness of bankers who are still not convinced that they need to know each one of their customers. The system that prescribes rules of caution and prudence is very much in place. If those who have to operate these rules could not care less and violate them with impunity, there is precious little that regulators such as the Reserve Bank of India can do.
U.S. euphoria over the progress in the terror investigation has been enhanced remarkably by a breakthrough in the interrogation of Omar al-Faruq, a 31-year-old Kuwaiti. He was arrested last June in Indonesia and a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) summary of his revelations has been published by Time (September 23). These highlight the inescapable impression that Al Qaeda is still very much a force to reckon with. According to al-Faruq, he had been asked to plan a large-scale offensive against U.S. interests in countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, to coincide with the anniversary of September 11. Because of his detention, alternative arrangements had been made to execute these plans through other Al Qaeda men in Asia. His confessions coupled with others reports suggestive of a strike this September, helped the U.S. and its associates to take extra precautions that prevented another disaster.
One more heart-warming happening of the past few days is the detention in Buffalo (New York) by the FBI of five young Muslims with suspected Al Qaeda links after a sustained investigation by the New York State Police. They were born in the U.S., of Yemeni descent. They had travelled to Afghanistan in the spring of 2001 in two separate groups and had received either arms or religious training. Osama bin Laden had possibly addressed one of the camps attended by them. In addition to the Buffalo Five, three Yemenis identified by the FBI only as A, B and C (obviously to protect sensitive information) and kept under arrest in an undisclosed country, have also provided a wealth of information that corroborates at least part of what the Buffalo lads had told the FBI.
Readers should pardon me for tiring them with so many details about these recent arrests. My objective was to make them get a feel of the kind of connections Al Qaeda has established in our part of the world. The message is that there is absolutely no room for complacence. We in India are as much a target as our American brethren are. We are possibly more vulnerable because we do not project the degree of consensus and unity that the polity in the U.S. has managed to forge. We are still debating the need for POTA, the Prevention of Terrorism Act, and the possible abuses that it can lead to. I believe this is an issue that causes immense distraction from our principal aim of ensuring ruthlessly that Al Qaeda and its associates receive no quarter on Indian soil.
The marked successes achieved in the past few weeks by the CIA and the FBI sent out a signal for India's intelligence agencies. They no doubt highlight the need to lend unstinted assistance to global efforts to stamp out terrorism. More than this, they indicate that hard and sustained labour brings its own rewards. Fortunately, both the Intelligence Bureau and the Central Bureau of Investigation are in competent hands and have a dedicated corps of officers with an excellent track record. What they need is national support. Nothing should be done by either the political parties or the community at large that would cause demoralisation or dissipation of their energies. Actually, these two segments should embark on major campaigns to promote all round vigilance by the public, which alone will bring in valuable information of the kind that led to the successes achieved by U.S. agencies in the past few weeks.
