The US policy of double standars

By Sridhar Patnaik

There has been a growing exasperation in New Delhi with Pakistan’s refusal to take any steps to ease the tension on the border region. But the Kaluchak incident has raised tempers in India, leading to both Houses of parliament giving unanimous support to the Vajpayee Government to take "appropriate steps" to deal with terrorist attacks.

Islamabad had been ignoring Indian demands in the past weeks, as American energies were concentrated on clearing the Afghan-Pakistan border region of Al Qaeda fugitives. Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf was able to hold a referendum in Pakistan with the tacit consent of the Americans. The American reaction to events in Pakistan had led to a degree of complacency in Islamabad, adding to the view that having kept its forces on high alert for several months, New Delhi would have no other option than to stand down its troops during the hot summer months.

The outrageous attack on helpless passengers on a bus followed by the targeting of the families of police personnel show that there has been no reduction in terrorist actions that target civilians. The talk of war has revived in Delhi, and several of the speeches from the ruling benches in Parliament demanded that Pakistan should be taught a lesson for the continuing cross-border terrorism. The Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, while addressing the troops in Kupwara talked about a "decisive" battle to be fought to thwart Pakistan designs to grab the state of Jammu and Kashmir.

There are several factors that have to be taken into account before embarking on "a limited strike" at the terrorist camps across the border. Limited strike has a stronger resonance than hot pursuit, the term that was in vogue some time earlier. However, it is difficult to contain a strike to a limited arena because of the danger of unexpected escalation. Limited action while American troops are based in Pakistan has several implications. The duration and intensity of war in the present world order is determined by the major international powers. The Indian Air Force has to keep operational its mainstay fleet of Mig-21 aircraft after a series of accidents. The Government is also committed to holding peaceful elections in Jammu and Kashmir in September.

Shortly before the terrorist attack, there had been American warnings of a very high "risk of war" between India and Pakistan. It was at this time that Washington sent US Assistant Secretary of State Christina Rocca on her third trip to South Asia in three months. Ms. Rocca’s mission was to avert any possibility of a military crisis and to persuade the two neighbours to initiate moves for resuming a bilateral dialogue. It was meant to be part of a series of official level visits to maintain the pace of the interactions between the two governments. However, the terrorist attack changed the complexion of the US official’s discussions in Delhi.

Ms. Rocca was informed in "frank and forthright terms" of New Delhi’s views on the situation in the region. Indian officials gave a fairly detailed briefing on the situation along the Line of Control and the movement across the border. There was some expectation that the visiting State Department official would convey Indian feelings during her meetings in Islamabad. But reports regarding the Rocca visit to Islamabad seem to suggest that her message, if any, to the Pakistani authorities to desist from sending armed infiltrators across the LoC had been ignored in Islamabad.

Since then, Minister for External Affairs Jaswant Singh has spoken to his counterpart, US Secretary of State Colin Powell, over the telephone, and conveyed a picture of the ground situation along the LoC. National Security Advisor Brajesh Mishra too was in touch with his counterpart, Condoleezza Rice. US President George W Bush spoke to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, describing the Jammu incident as barbaric. For the first time Indian leaders have displayed visible anger at the American reluctance to ensure that Pakistan takes credible steps to put an end to cross border terrorism.

In recent weeks, US officials have pointed to the decrease in infiltration across the Line of Control, even though that was a seasonal decrease during the winter months. But the Indian position is that the frequency of infiltration from across the LoC had shown an upward graph after March when the snows began to melt. In these circumstances, the Government cannot reduce the deployment on the border region but would make efforts to mobilise international opinion on its side regarding terrorist activities. However, the Government’s prickly reaction to European Union’s comments on the Gujarat carnage has created a piquant situation that would require some additional diplomatic effort.

The Americans have had to focus on the South Asian region in the last week. The end of the siege in Bethlehem has lowered the intensity of the Palestinian face-off while the attacks on foreigners in Islamabad and Karachi have refocused attention on the region. Washington has been forced to examine the question of security of Americans in Pakistan. Missile attacks have taken place in some places where US army personnel were staying. There have been angry demonstrations in the provinces over the presence of Americana military personnel in Pakistan.

The bombing of a church in Islamabad and the killing of foreigners in the Karachi attack are signs that fundamentalists have not been cowed down by the action initiated by the Pakistani authorities. Though President Musharraf was able to manage the referendum that confirmed the General’s self-appointment as President for a further five years, he has lost credibility in the process. By ensuring a further five years for himself, he has painted himself in similar hues as each of the autocratic generals who had ruled Pakistan through similar means.

President Musharraf’s crackdown on the jihadi outfits in Pakistan announced in his January 12 speech to the world was largely cosmetic. Most of the radical and jihadi elements who had been arrested after the speech, were released prior to the referendum. The al Qaeda leaders have not been captured, they move around along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region without check. With the example of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon disregarding Washington’s admonitions to end Israeli action in the West Bank, the US would need to make more sustained efforts to make Islamabad fall in line on the war against terrorism. The terrorist attacks in Pakistan are ample evidence that the jihadi groups are still able to mount murderous attacks inside that country. But instead of resulting in greater pressure from Washington to curb the jihadi groups, the Americans have shown greater concern over the stability of the Musharraf regime.

The impasse that had developed between India and Pakistan, ended with the Kaluchack terrorist attack. It is clear that the unfortunate victims were targeted to affect the morale of the Indian Armed forces. The Government’s calibrated steps have not had the necessary impact. Holding widely publicised joint military exercises with the Americans, while they continue to prop up the regime that sustains cross-border terrorism, does not send the right message. INAV

How long it takes to learn a lesson?

By Raj Rajnish

For the first time in recent years, the tone and tenor of the debate in Parliament on Jammu massacre matched the mood outside the high domed the Parliament House, which itself was a target of terrorists five months ago. The seven hour debate in the Lok Sabha and almost four hour long special discussion in the Rajya Sabha have brought into sharp focus how upset Indians are with the United States Government.

Never in the past Indians' disenchantment with the Americans was so pronounced as now. The Rocca mission's insensitivity to Indian concerns only contributed to aggravate the Indian anger. Her praise of Gen Musharraf in Islamabad after her tough talk in New Delhi against terrorism exposed the double standards on terrorism. Naturally, therefore, in a rare display of bi-partisan spirit, member after member came down heavily on the US for regarding the perpetrators of cross-border terrorism as a reliable ally in the war against terrorism.

L K Advani, the hawkish face of the BJP, suddenly found the space he has been aspiring for in centre stage but denied all these four years of NDA rule. And the up-staged his senior, who has become weak-kneed and spends time in clarifying his clarifications.

By a strange coincidence India's deep disappointment with the US and consequent tough talk has surfaced at a time the Bush administration is facing bouncers at home for its inability to handle the advance knowledge of terrorist plans before September 11 attacks in New York and in Washington. The prospect of an attack involving planes crashing into buildings was first raised in a 1999 inter-agency study.

The authors in their 149-page executive summary, available on the Library of Congress Internet site, had specifically cited Al Qaeda involvement in a possible terror attack in which a jet would crash into the Pentagon, the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency or the White House. Hard intelligence followed the study on the terrorist movements. By August 6, 2001, the US intelligence began to discuss the possibility of the hijacking of a US commercial jet by Osama bin loyalists. The warning was delivered the same day to President Bush as he was relaxing at this Texas ranch.

Suddenly President Bush appears to have become vulnerable. The controversy is going to snow ball to undermine his presidency. His officials are not serving the Bush cause by saying "nothing in those reports could have prevented the attacks that struck New York and Washington. There were no specifics". The bi-partisan support 9/11 has created for the war against terrorism has vanished amidst calls for a Congressional probe into administrations' failure to act in time. It is for this reason India should feel obliged to fall in-line with the US, which cannot read its own situation reports (sitrups) but is happy to give homilies to others.

Assistant Secretary of State Christina Rocca visit to the Indian sub-continent is primarily aimed at seeking defusing tensions on the India-Pakistan border and at ensuring that the American plans for Afghanistan are not met with any new road blocks. It had nothing to do with appreciating the ground realities as seen from New Delhi. What had happened on her arrival in India should have made the US to up its antenna. It did not because of its myopic pre-occupation with pampering yet another dictator for yet another short-term goal.

Nevertheless, it must be said to Rocca's credit, that she was forthright in condemning the fidayeen attack on Jammu army camp. "Terrorism against any country is part of the war on terrorism. Terrorism against India is as unacceptable as it is against America or against any country." She declared that the infiltration must end and said, 'Dismantling the structure of extremism and terror must go hand in hand with addressing and eliminating its root causes'. What a pious platitude it is.

More than what she said and did in New Delhi, it is the Rocca speak in Islamabad that was keenly awaited for clues as to how Washington would proceed in this region. To claim, as the American cronies to do now, that Rocca was too junior an official and an inexperienced one that too begs the question: why was she sent to this part of the world not once but twice in recent months. Rocca just landed in New Delhi when the Islamabad church blast took place and she immediately flew into the Pakistani capital. Only a thick skinned American drunk with the power that a super cop enjoys can shower praise on a four-in-one Chief executive cum president, who believes in jihad for his very survival.

Funny thing is despite her eagerness to pamper him, Rocca failed in her primary objects in Islamabad and that is unfettered clearance from Musharraf regime for operations against Al Qaeda remnants who have taken shelter in Waziristan and other tribal pockets adjoining Afghanistan. The US has been nudging Islamabad to act before it is too late in the day. The Pakistan daily, The News, reports 'Ms. Christina Rocca has drawn a blank in her efforts to persuade the President Musharraf'. Pakistan has asked the US Government to avoid a direct operation in the tribal areas and assured Washington of deploying its local law enforcement agencies if the situation warranted. Another broken promise!

What makes the American security specialists consider President General Musharraf as their comrade in arms in anti-terrorism fight? The US is one of the three 'A's (the other are the two 'A's are allah and Army) that keeps up Pakistan as a nation. It means the White House - State Department - Pentagon cannot be blissfully unaware of the double speak and double cross the General Sahib.

Only the naive can keep much in store on the General Sahib's January 12 speech, accept on face value the bizarre explanations for terrorist attacks, ignore the weird logic for releasing the arrested Islamists and turn a blind eye to the sham referendum. The American establishment is doing these and much more to the dismay of its admirers and thereby utting a big question mark on its anti-terrorism goals in this part of the world. From a purely Indian perspective, as the Parliament debate clearly brought out, the course of global war on terrorism depends on making President Musharraf act decisively against his favourite Jehadis. Otherwise, his life line to power must be snapped.

With Taliban, the brain child of the ISI, out of power in Afghanistan, the Islamic fundamentalists are turning Pakistan itself into a killing field. The kidnapping and beheading of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, attack on a Church killing two Americans, and the Karachi suicide attack killing French defence personnel indicate the growing power of the Jehadi elements, who are the comrades in arms of the Pakistan army. Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar, like his master, firmly believes Jehad is a noble cause and used the forum of UN Human Rights Commission (in Geneva) to declare so more openly.

Whether anyone likes or not, the harsh reality in Pakistan is that Islamic fundamentalism has grown deep into not only the army and intelligence agencies, but also the political leadership. It is strange that Americans, despite being targeted by terrorist groups, want to prop them up, obviously under the mistaken hope that Gen Musharraf is the only one who can control the Kalashnikov wielding terrorists. It is time for the Americans to face the question: has he delivered on his promises. It will not take them to realise, if they are not reluctant to face the truth, that he has done nothing. His sleuths could not identify the people involved in any of the recent terrorist strikes on Pakistan soil even as they are freely roaming the country.

US-based Pakistan Today reported on May 14 that Muslim extremists in Pakistan praised the unknown suicide bomber for his "heroic sacrifices" in killing French citizens in Karachi, but expressed disappointment that there were no Americans. "Abu Jihad, an activist of the Jaish-e-Mohammad, said that the bomber had picked up a wrong target. Students in many Madrassas in Islamabad and Karachi were thrilled, while many Jihadists went into hiding."

Since the Sept 11 US attacks, ISI has instructed Pakistani terrorist outfits not to claim responsibility on their own names, but on some new hitherto unknown groups or on Hizbul Mujahideen, which is considered a Kashmiri outit. Clearly, the aim is to deflect world (read American) opinion and impart a local flavour and colour to the gruesome acts. The December 13 attack on Indian Parliament was also carried out by elements of Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad, but the 'credit' went to some unknown outfit. Ditto in the case of May 14 attack inside army quarters at Kalu-Chak near Jammu.

The question therefore is not about the hollowness of General Sahib's pious statement of January 12 but how long does it take to learn lessons. It demands an urgent answer. It brooks no delay as the Jehadi Islamists and their patrons at the GHQ in the Pakistan capital are in a quandary after the split in the Hizbul Mujahideen and therefore more misadventures cannot be ruled out.

- Syndicate Features