| India-Pakistan |
| Fighter jets will make Pakistan's debt soar |
| 2006-08-09 |
| By Husain Haqqani The Bush administration has justified its decision to sell 36 F-16 Falcon fighter jets to Pakistan on grounds that it would increase American "access and influence" in Islamabad. Pakistan's military regime, which will incur a debt of $5 billion to purchase the planes made by Lockheed Martin, considers the deal a boost for Pakistan's security. Close examination of the deal and of the history of similar US-Pakistan deals indicates that the stated goals of neither the US nor the Pakistani rulers are likely to be advanced with the F-16 purchase. If anything, the F-16s are a pay off from Washington for General Pervez Musharraf's military regime a sort of "toys for the boys" gift that is expected to extend the regime's survival. That is all that concessional arms transfers under previous pro-US Pakistani military regimes have achieved. Let us first look at the F-16 deal from the perspective of Pakistani national security. Not long ago, Musharraf declared that the greatest threat to Pakistani security comes from extremist ideologues and terrorists within the country. Domestic extremism in Pakistan would be fought more effectively with investment in the neglected social sectors. A sum of $ 5 billion could go a long way in expanding education, healthcare and poverty alleviation programmes. If the purpose is to locate and liquidate hardened terrorists, the F-16 Falcon is not the best weapon to identify, isolate or even kill individual terrorists. Most major Al Qaida figures arrested in Pakistan and handed over to the US were arrested in major Pakistani cities. The F-16's sophisticated air-to-air, air-to-surface and anti-ship missiles have little to contribute in the battle in the neighbourhoods of Westridge, Rawalpindi (where Khalid Shaikh Mohammad was found) or Defence Society, Karachi (where Ramzi Bin Al Shibh was caught). They have limited value in Waziristan or other tribal areas on the Afghan border. Pakistan's traditional security threat is believed to come from India but here too Pakistan will not get a bang for its buck. The Pentagon's statement accompanying notification of the F-16 sale to the US Congress has stated unequivocally that Pakistan's F-16 purchase would "not significantly reduce India's quantitative or qualitative military advantage" and that it would neither affect the regional balance of power nor introduce a new technology in the region. John Hillen, the US Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs, told a recent Congressional hearing that the version of the plane being sold to Pakistan "will not be nuclear capable" and explained that the Pentagon's notification to Congress had "enumerated the technologies that were not, that would usually go with an F-16, that are not part of this deal". According to Hillen, these withheld technologies "include ones that would allow the F-16 to be used in offensive ways to penetrate airspace of another country that was highly defended". If the F-16 will not enhance Pakistan's military capability against domestic terrorism or confer it some qualitative or quantitative advantage in its unfortunate perennial conflict with India, why add to Pakistan's debt burden for such expensive jets? Hillen's explanation, repeated in private and public conversations by other American officials, focuses on US influence over Pakistan. Secure leverage The military is the most powerful institution in Pakistan and military sales, backed by large American credits, are a means of pleasing the Pakistani military. This, in turn, is supposed to secure leverage for the United States. The US has dreamt of leverage over Pakistan's foreign policy in return for military equipment and economic aid ever since the days of the Cold War alliances, SEATO and CENTO. Contrary to the assumption of American officials that military aid translates into leverage, Pakistan's military has always managed to take military aid without ever fully giving the US what it desires. If Pakistan's security policy was determined by a representative government and not by a Praetorian army, the ability to make independent foreign policy decisions would be a good thing from Pakistan's point of view even if that is not what the Americans seek. But given the ascendancy of the military in Pakistan's decision-making, the military aid relationship with Washington has become a contributing factor to Pakistan's internal dysfunction. The availability of weapons systems that enhance the Pakistani military's prestige and therefore its ability to continue to dominate national life offered by the US to secure limited Pakistani cooperation in US grand strategy allows Pakistan's military rulers to believe that they can continue to promote risky domestic, regional and pan-Islamic policies. It undermines the Pakistani military's willingness to negotiate realistically with India without bolstering Pakistan's actual military prowess against its much larger neighbour. The people of Pakistan, and the long-term US-Pakistan relationship, would benefit far more if Washington made it clear that its support for Pakistan's security would be contingent upon Pakistan having an elected government that determines Pakistan's real security needs in a transparent manner. Husain Haqqani is Director of Boston University's Centre for International Relations and Co-Chair of the Hudson Institute's Project on Islam and Democracy. He is the author of the Carnegie Endowment book "Pakistan Between Mosque and Military". |
| Link |
| Terror Networks & Islam |
| Mustafa Setmariam Nasar may have masterminded London bombings |
| 2005-07-09 |
| HE'S a murderous chameleon. Fake IDs, forged documents, a man of many faces. But with one agenda. To kill the innocent. Mustafa Setmarian Nasar has been called the mastermind behind last year's Madrid bombings when 10 bombs exploded on four commuter trains killing almost 200 people. He is still at large and was widely believed to have been planning an attack on Britain, reported the Daily Mirror. But did he really carry out his plan in London on Thursday? He is a man who sets up sleeper cells then leaves his recruits to do their worst. He also teaches them forgery techniques so they can fake identity papers. The paper reported two of his key players, both North African, had UK passports in the names of Frost and Burgess to make travel easier. Mustafa, who has a pale complexion, red hair and green eyes, often uses a fake British ID. He lived in North London in the mid-1990s and has been in close contact with two suspects in Belmarsh prison in South East London. Mustafa, who has a US$5million ($8.5m) US Government bounty on his head, ordered the Madrid bombers to blow themselves up after they were cornered by police. MSNBC reported that Mustafa is wanted because of his contacts and influence, not because he directs terrorist operations. A native Syrian with a Spanish passport, he was quietly placed on the State Department's 'Rewards for Justice' list last month. 'He is a pen jihadist, a propagandist,' said one US official. 'He is all pen, no action, but the man has amazing access to a lot of other key players.' Among those he has had contact with is Osama Bin Laden, who met him in Sudan during the early 1990's. Mustafa taught at and ran training camps in Afghanistan and had contact with Osama and other top Al-Qaeda leaders there as well. Mustafa married a Spanish woman, Elena Moreno, with whom he has two children. He himself looks very little like the typical Arab. In September 2003, he was among 35 people named in an indictment handed down by Spanish magistrate Baltasar Garzon for terrorist activities. The magistrate said Mustafa gave terrorism training, particularly in the development and use of poisons, to individuals from Spain, Italy and France, then sent them home as 'sleepers' awaiting orders. His whereabouts are unknown, but some in the US intelligence community believe he is in Iraq. One of his closest aides, Amer Azizi, met Mohammad Atta, leader of the 9/11 hijackers, and his friend, Ramzi Bin Al Shibh, the organiser of the 9-11 hijack teams, in Tarragona, Spain two months before the attacks. Azizi is also believed to have activated the cell that planted bombs on Spanish trains and at train stations. Mustafa's role remains murky, say officials. Much of what is known about him comes from interrogations of Al-Qaeda militants in US custody, in particular Bin Al Shibh. Mustafa is famous among radicals for his book, The Syrian Experiment, a call to action against the repressive Arab nationalist regime of the Asad family. As a journalist, he has often written under the pseudonym, Abu Musab Suri. 'He is a lover of books more than bombs and his organisational skills leave a lot to be desired,' said one official, who dismissed reports that Mustafa is the ideological and religious advisor to Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, the Jordanian militant whose organisation has taken responsibility for many of the terrorist attacks in Iraq. 'He doesn't get along with Zarqawi,' said the official, declining to provide more details. 'He is not a spiritual leader for Zarqawi.' The Times Online had reported in March that Mustafa might have been planning an attack in Britain during the general election. Documents found in a Madrid flat used by some of the bombers show how Mustafa ordered them to strike in the final days of the Spanish election campaign last March. The coded command was sent three months earlier; Mustafa left it to his lieutenants in Spain to decide what the target should be. The documents showed that the bombing on the eve of the election was to be followed by suicide attacks. But the militant gang who were to stage these blew themselves up when cornered by police. The CIA has had reported sightings of Mustafa in a dozen countries, including Britain, but the recent discovery of his Spanish wife and their children in Kuwait City led US agents to believe that he may be hiding in Iraq. Investigators in Madrid are convinced that what they have uncovered in recent weeks shows how a British cell is likely to operate after Mustafa's tuition. |
| Link |
| Europe |
| '9/11 ringleader was in Spain before US attacks' |
| 2005-06-02 |
| MADRID Mohamed Atta, the ringleader of the pilots who flew hijacked aircraft into the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon, was spotted in Spain weeks beforehand, a Spanish court heard. Two car hire staff and a Madrid hotel worker told the high court investigating the alleged links of 24 suspects to al-Qaeda that they remembered Atta being in Madrid in July 2001. They later recognised his face from television coverage following the attacks. According to public prosecutor Pedro Rubira two of those on trial in the Spanish capital, Ramzi Bin Al Shibh and Mohamed Belfatmi, met Atta in the northern Spanish city of Tarragona on 16 July to plan the attacks on the US. Rubira said that following a trip on 9 July to Madrid, Atta again visited the capital on 5 September, just six days before the attacks. Jose Luis Garrote, a car hire worker, told the court Atta phoned from Madrid's Barajas airport in July 2001 saying he had made a reservation from the United States for a vehicle. Garrote, who with a colleague Jaime Fernandez handed the car over to their client, told the court he then recognised Atta's face after seeing it in television coverage of 9/11. A hotel receptionist also said she remembered Atta staying in the establishment in early July. The statements in court came as a Moroccan accused of being a lead bomber in last year's Madrid train blasts testified he was not an extremist and barely knew a top Spanish bases suspect in the 9/11 attacks. Zougam is in custody pending possible charges on the train blasts in Madrid last year, but is not on trial in the al-Qaeda trial. A trial on the train bombings case is not expected until early next year. |
| Link |