Dancing In The Mine Field

Friday, March 7, 2003
By: Tashbih Sayyed

As radical Islamists sprayed worshippers with automatic weapons fire in Karachi, killing at least nine Muslims, Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf once again tried to convince the world that Osama bin Laden is not in Pakistan. He said that Osama bin Laden might be alive, but he is not hiding out in Pakistan. He also insisted that Osama's terrorist network, Al-Queda has ceased to exist as an organized body capable of undertaking major actions through a command and control in the country. What he did not divulge was that bin Laden is not an individual any more - he has come to personify the ethos of Pakistan. Similarly, General did not disclose that Al-Qaeda is not just an organization, but symbolizes Pakistan's popular state of mind - a grass roots commitment to jihad - that has transformed the whole country herself into an Al-Qaeda (The Base) of Islamist radicalism.
Nothing can be more dangerous than the belief that Al-Qaida has ceased to exist in Pakistan. Everyday, demonstration of Islamist terrorism on the streets of Pakistan is a testimony of Pakistan's role as the citadel of Islamist radicalism. And the insistent on the part of Pakistan's military ruler that 'all is clear,' adds to the fears that there still exists a close link between the Islamist terror and Pakistan's military. On February 27, 2003, two more Shiite Muslims were gunned down and on February 28, Islamists opened fire on the U.S. Consulate in Karachi, killing two police officers and injuring at least five other people. Historically, the murders of non-Wahhabis by Islamists does not surprise anyone. But in the present context, they signify the continuing influence of Wahhabi radicalism in the only nuclear Muslim state. Since non-Wahhabi Muslims and Christians are considered pro US, attacks on them are a sure sign of Al-Qaeda's continued presence in Pakistan and a source of inspiration for the Islamist terrorists all over the world.

As a further proof of the obvious fallacy of General Musharraf's declaration, on March 1, 2003, Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, a suspected mastermind of the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington, was arrested by the FBI in Rawalpindi. Washington had long branded Khalid as one of Al-Qaeda leaders, and Osama bin Laden's "most senior and significant lieutenants." The US had also a $25 million price tag on his head and the FBI posted him on its "most wanted" list of 22 individuals in October 2001. He was indicted in the United States in 1996 for his alleged role in a plot to blow up 12 American civilian airliners over the Pacific. Los Angeles Times had once written, "If bin Laden has been the architect of al Qaeda, Mohammed has been its engineer."

Commending the authorities responsible for the arrest, White House said Mohammad was "a key al-Qaeda planner and the mastermind of the September 11th attacks." It was said that Khalid Sheikh Mohammad was a very important link in the Al-Qaeda chain of command, responsible for vetting all its recruits. Both US and Pakistani authorities expressed their optimism that he may be forced into disclosing the whereabouts of both Osama bin Laden and Mullah Mohammed Omar, fugitive leader of Afghanistan's former Taliban government.

He is suspected of being involved in the bombing of U.S. embassies in Africa in 1998 and the attack on a U.S. warship in Yemen in 2000. In September 2002, Karachi police identified Mohammed as the man hit by a police sniper in a shoot-out with militants. Authorities responsible for the arrest of Ahmed Omar Abdel Rahman (Binalshibh), believed that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was the man who slit the throat of U.S. reporter Daniel Pearl in front of a camera. Pearl's dismembered body was found months later in a shallow grave on the outskirts of Karachi.

Another person arrested during the same operation was Ahmed Quddoos. His arrest confirmed the involvement of Pakistan's largest Islamist political party, Jamaa't - e-Islami (JI) in the jihadi movement. JI leaders have always been the blue-eyed ideologues of Pakistan army. While maintaining an overtly anti-establishment line, JI has always covertly collaborated with the Army and the ISI. Jamaa't-e-Islami has always been considered a staunch backer of jihad in Kashmir and Afghanistan. Some years ago, Munawwar Hasan, Secretary General of JI, speaking at the Seerah Conference, organized by Islamic Society of Orange County, USA, had boasted of helping, assisting, and funding the Islamists in Europe. It is an open secret that JI has a number of followers in Pakistan's armed forces. No body doubts Jamaa't-e-Islami's control over the Muslim Main Street in Pakistan. Pakistan's army has regularly been using Jamaat's street power to bring down the democratically elected civilian governments in the country. That's why Ahmed Quddoos's connection with JI should not be taken lightly. It points at Al-Qaeda's grass foundations.

Should these arrests of Al-Qaeda leaders silence those who say Pakistan is not doing enough in the global war against terrorism? At least President Pervez Musharraf says they should. Talking to CNN, he said the arrest of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was further confirmation of Pakistan's commitment to the fight against terrorism. The President praised the Pakistani intelligence for the arrest. "It goes to the credit of our intelligence organization, ISI, their effectiveness, the success of their actions and they must be given credit."

Circles aware of the involvement of Pakistan's military intelligence with Al-Qaeda, do not want to give any credit to them. They believe that ISI had nothing to do with the arrests. It was an FBI job. ISI would never have allowed a raid on a Jamaat-e-Islami leader's residence. They would have stage-managed a raid at some place near the Pakistan-Afghan border and shown him as arrested there. Khalid Sheikh Mohammad's presence in a secure neighborhood, where senior officers of military and the Inter-Services Intelligence live, is living proof of ISI's complicity with Al-Qaeda.

Analysts are very skeptical in accepting that ISI in fact helped the Americans capture Al-Qaeda leaders. They have advanced a couple of theories as to what could have happened. According to one theory, the FBI used its own sources in locating the suspects and kept the ISI in the dark about the day, time and place of the raid. And when ISI realized that the house they are going to raid belongs to a leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami, it was too late to warn anyone.

The second theory is that Khalid Sheikh Mohammad had arrived at the Jamaat-e-Islami leader's residence not so long ago and JI leaders did not get enough time to inform their ISI contacts. And so ISI thought that the FBI information about the presence of Khalid there was wrong.

Information found on laptop computers, computer disks, hand-written letters, and notes seized during the capture raised the optimism level of the authorities. American hopes of capturing Osama bin Laden were reinvigorated. They stepped up their search and capture operations along the border with Afghanistan. "They are hitting at two possible places in search of Osama," a Pakistani intelligence officer said.

General Musharraf's perceived cooperation in helping the US hunt down remnants of the Taliban and al- Qaeda has enraged Islamists. Every step that Musharraf government has taken toward supporting the US war efforts has been used by Islamists to portray Pakistan as a slave of US. Now these arrests will make it more difficult for the military ruler to deal with the people. He is already considered to have betrayed the cause of jihad against the infidels. Pakistanis believe that Islamist leaders are wrongly targeted by a pro US government. All the measures that the US has taken to secure its citizens against future terrorist attacks have been projected in the Islamist societies as anti-Islam. Pakistan's alliance with Saudi Arabia and her traditional and historical efforts to project herself as the champion of all Islamic causes has helped Arabs in general and Palestinians in particular to turn the public opinion against the United States of America as a sole sponsor of Israel. Religious leaders have already started to use the arrests as an opportunity to sway the public opinion against the US war on Iraq.

Realizing the pitfalls in being seen hand in glove with the Americans, Maj. Gen. Rashid Qureshi, a government spokesman did his best to deny reports that any American forces, CIA, or FBI had ever been involved in any operations in which Al-Qaeda suspects were captured. He also did not accept that there had been any significant step-up in the search for Osama bin Laden. Commenting on the denials, The New York Times wrote, "The denials are consistent with Pakistan's insistence ever since the war in Afghanistan that Mr. bin Laden and other Al-Qaeda leaders were not hiding in Pakistan. And sensitive to the domestic opposition to becoming too close to the United States, the Pakistani government has also repeatedly denied that there have been any American special forces or military personnel allowed to conduct operations on Pakistani territory."

There are people who believe that Osama bin Laden is either staying with some powerful and important army Generals in some military cantonment or with some smuggling/drug czars in the open seas near the Baluchistan/Makran coast. His presence in China near the military controlled silk route has also been considered a strong possibility. Some analysts believe that the quarters hiding Osama bin Laden will not hesitate from murdering him if they thought that the US net is closing in and that he cannot escape capture. By murdering him, they will try to create the impression of a suicide. In support of their theory, they refer to a number of messages in which Osama has been quoted as indicating that he might kill himself this year and might end up in the belly of the eagle (US).

In the final analysis everyone accepts that capturing Osama is not going to be easy, "He is surrounded by a bunch of die-hard, committed and well-trained comrades." And even his capture, murder or suicide will not be enough to make our world a safe place for humanity. Until Wahhabi radicalism persists as the popular state of mind, the world will remain a minefield. A place in which civilization will be held hostage by unpredictable explosions.