Terror blowback

Published : Jun 04, 2010 00:00 IST

In Washington on May 12, (from right) Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Defence Secretary Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen at a news conference addressed by President Barack Obama and Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai.-JIM YOUNG/REUTERS In Washington on May 12, (from right) Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Defence Secretary Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen at a news conference addressed by President Barack Obama and Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai.

In Washington on May 12, (from right) Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Defence Secretary Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen at a news conference addressed by President Barack Obama and Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai.-JIM YOUNG/REUTERS In Washington on May 12, (from right) Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Defence Secretary Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen at a news conference addressed by President Barack Obama and Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai.

THE attempt by Faisal Shahzad, a 30-year-old American citizen of Pakistani origin, to plant a bomb in New York City's Times Square on May 1 has once again shifted the terror focus on to Pakistan. The United States government has come to the conclusion that Shahzad has links with militant Islamist groups operating from Pakistan.

The U.S. Attorney General, Eric Holder, told the media that the Pakistani Taliban was intimately involved in the failed terror attempt. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton took a position reminiscent of the Indian government's stand after the November 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai. In the second week of May, she said the consequences for Islamabad if terror plots hatched in Pakistan succeed would be very, very severe. She said the message had been conveyed to the Pakistani government. We are saying, Sorry. If there is a successful attack, we will have to act', within Pakistan, a senior American official told the media in Washington.

The Secretary of State ratcheted up the pressure the next day by accusing sections of the Pakistani establishment of being privy to the activities of terror networks. She said Pakistan was playing a double game with the U.S. and even accused some Pakistani officials of knowing a lot about Al Qaeda and the Taliban. Some Pakistani officials were more informed about Al Qaeda and the Taliban than they let on, she said. She went on to add that there were people in the Pakistan government who knew where Al Qaeda and Taliban chiefs, Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar respectively, were located. Washington is now demanding even more cooperation from the beleaguered Pakistani government in the so-called war against terror.

We expect more cooperation to help us to bring to justice, capture or kill, those who attacked us on 9/11, Hillary Clinton said. According to reports published in leading American and British newspapers, General Stanley McChrystal, the U.S. military commander in Afghanistan, told Pakistan's Army chief Ashfaq Parvez Kayani that he had no other option than to send in his troops into North Waziristan.

U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates, however, tempered the harsh rhetoric from Washington by praising the Pakistan Army's offensive against militants. The efforts were much more than we expected 18 months or two years ago, he said. Richard Holbrooke, U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, also chipped in by insisting that the Secretary of State's remarks had been misrepresented by the media.

Hillary Clinton, for the record, has not backtracked on her statement. Such statements, an American commentator said, were not used by Secretaries of State even behind closed doors. Holbrooke said the U.S. administration had no intention of curbing military or economic aid to Pakistan as a consequence of the New York incident.

The McClatchy newspapers quoted six U.S. administration officials as saying that no credible evidence had been found to link Shahzad with the Pakistani Taliban. The U.S. Central Command chief, Gen. David Petraeus, had said earlier that Shahzad was, in all probability, a lone wolf. A senior Republican in the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee, Senator Kit Brown, has cast doubts about the Obama administration's claim of links between Shahzad and the Pakistani Taliban.

Senior Obama administration officials said Shahzad was working on behalf of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). The TTP has claimed responsibility for a number of attacks on American targets in Pakistan. Shahzad has reportedly confessed to U.S. authorities that he was trained in the use of explosives by militant groups located in Waziristan. The U.S. has been pressuring the Pakistan Army to launch a military offensive in North Waziristan and start turning its guns against the Haqqani faction of the TTP. The Army, which is already overstretched after the pacification of the Swat region, seems reluctant to open yet another front. Besides, public opinion in Pakistan is overwhelmingly against the military operations being conducted within the country.

But there are reports that the Pakistan Army, under pressure from Washington, has already expanded its counter-insurgency operation to North Waziristan, which is part of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). The Pakistan Army had earlier launched military offensives in Bajaur, South Waziristan and Swat, under American pressure. Thousands of civilians perished in the offensive and tens of thousands were rendered homeless. American drone attacks in the tribal areas have killed hundreds more (story on page 58). After the terror attempt in New York, the drone attacks have escalated.

Some American commentators have been sceptical about attempts by U.S. investigators to draw links between Shahzad and the militants in Northern Waziristan. One commentator said if Shahzad was really trained by the Pakistani militants as was being claimed, he would not have done such a shoddy job at assembling a car bomb.

Shahzad, who was experiencing serious marital and financial problems, had packed the bomb with a fertilizer that was not meant to explode. The propane gas cylinders had their caps on, which meant they would not explode. Besides, he had intended to explode his bomb with individual firecrackers and had parked his car in an illegal parking place.

American intelligence and counter-terrorism officials were of the view that the bungled nature of the attempt and the trail of clues Shahzad had left behind showed that he had not received even basic training in terror tactics.

The lack of trade craft in Shahzad's device is compelling evidence that whatever contacts or training he may have received in northern Pakistan were confined to physical training and weapons handling, not the more sophisticated skill set of fashioning improvised explosive devices, reported Stratfor, a private U.S. intelligence firm.

The U.S. government has charged Shahzad with conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction, not an apt description for the kind of explosives found in his vehicle. Another wannabe terrorist, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian, was caught on Christmas eve in the U.S. on a flight coming in from Amsterdam, carrying in his underwear explosives that had the power of a Deepavali firecracker.

The American government and the media have given saturation coverage to Shahzad and the failed New York bomb plot. Very little publicity, on the other hand, is given to home-grown terrorism of the right-wing Christian fundamentalist kind. Nine members of the Hutaree Christian Militia have been arrested on charges of plotting to kill a police officer and start a bombing campaign. Last year, the Department of Homeland Security issued a warning about the rise in right-wing extremist activity. Since Barack Obama entered the White House, six police officers have been killed by right-wing extremists. The U.S. administration has attributed the increase in such crime to the continuing recession and the election of the first black President in U.S. history.

There are around 200 armed militias in the U.S. The 15th anniversary of the Oklahoma bombing, one of the deadliest terrorist incidents in American history, was observed in April this year. Timothy McVeigh, the man responsible for the incident, was associated with the right-wing militias.

The Times Square incident is also being used to curtail further individual rights and freedoms in the U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman was quick to propose a draconian law that would strip Americans of their citizenship if they were found to have any connections with terrorists. His move has been endorsed by influential figures in the Democratic and Republican parties. Hillary Clinton was quick to support the proposed legislation. U.S. citizenship is a privilege, not a right. People who are serving foreign powers or in this case, foreign terrorists are clearly in violation, in my opinion, of that oath which they swore when they became citizens, she said.

The U.S. allows dual citizenship. Many prominent Americans have Israeli citizenship. The American right-wing has selectively targeted Muslims. Right-wing anti-Castro Cuban groups have hatched terror plots against Havana from American soil. But they, along with the Christian militias, are not considered serious threats to homeland security.

After the New York incident, the move in the U.S. Congress to do away with the Miranda Rights for alleged terrorists has gained momentum. The Miranda Rights are based on the U.S. Supreme Court's 1966 Miranda vs Arizona ruling. Under the ruling, defendants are informed about their rights by a lawyer before and during questioning and against self-incrimination.

Pakistani commentators, generally critical of the government, have said that the Times Square incident was deliberately orchestrated not only to make the Pakistani military escalate its operations in North Wazirstan but also to provide the rationale for formally placing American boots on the ground in Pakistan. The New York Times reported a move by the American security establishment to use the Times Square incident as an excuse to increase U.S. military presence inside Pakistan. The Washington Post reported that some Obama administration officials see the Times Square incident as weighing in favour of a far more muscular and unilateral U.S. policy. It would include a geographically expanded use of drone attacks in Pakistan and pressure for a stronger U.S. military presence there.

But those American officials not in favour of openly arm-twisting Islamabad argue that Pakistan has no option other than complying with American demands, given the dire straits the country's economy is in. As much as $3.5 billion of American economic and military aid is in the pipeline. Besides, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has pledged a $8-billion loan and the World Bank another $3.5 billion.

Sign in to Unlock member-only benefits!
  • Bookmark stories to read later.
  • Comment on stories to start conversations.
  • Subscribe to our newsletters.
  • Get notified about discounts and offers to our products.
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide to our community guidelines for posting your comment