Terrorist Sponsors: Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, China

The United States has assembled a superficially impressive international coalition against the threat of terrorism. Many countries in that coalition, however, contribute little of significance to the fight. Even worse, the willingness of some members of the coalition to actually combat terrorism is doubtful. Indeed, given their record, some of those countries appear to be part of the problem, not part of the solution. That concern is especially acute with respect to Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and China.
Saudi Arabia enlisted in the fight against terrorism only in response to intense pressure from the United States following the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Even then, its cooperation has been minimal and grudging. For example, Riyadh has resisted Washington's requests to use its bases in Saudi Arabia for military operations against Osama bin Laden's terrorist facilities in Afghanistan.

Even that belated, tepid participation is an improvement on Saudi Arabia's previous conduct. The U.S. government has warned that it will treat regimes that harbor or assist terrorist organizations the same way that it treats the organizations themselves. Yet if Washington is serious about that policy, it ought to regard Saudi Arabia as a prime sponsor of international terrorism. Indeed, that country should have been included for years on the U.S. State Department's annual list of governments guilty of sponsoring terrorism.

The Saudi government has been the principal financial backer of Afghanistan' s odious Taliban movement since at least 1996. It has also channeled funds to Hamas and other groups that have committed terrorist acts in Israel and other portions of the Middle East.

Worst of all, the Saudi monarchy has funded dubious schools and "charities" throughout the Islamic world. Those organizations have been hotbeds of anti-Western, and especially, anti-American, indoctrination. The schools, for example, not only indoctrinate students in a virulent and extreme form of Islam, but also teach them to hate secular Western values.

They are also taught that the United States is the center of infidel power in the world and is the enemy of Islam. Graduates of those schools are frequently recruits for Bin Laden's Al-Qaeda terror network as well as other extremist groups.

Pakistan's guilt is nearly as great as Saudi Arabia's. Without the active support of the government in Islamabad, it is doubtful whether the Taliban could ever have come to power in Afghanistan. Pakistani authorities helped fund the militia and equip it with military hardware during the mid-1990s when the Taliban was merely one of several competing factions in Afghanistan's civil war. Only when the United States exerted enormous diplomatic pressure after the Sept. 11 attacks did Islamabad begin to sever its political and financial ties with the Taliban. Even now it is not certain that key members of Pakistan's intelligence service have repudiated their Taliban clients.

Afghanistan is not the only place where Pakistani leaders have flirted with terrorist clients. Pakistan has also assisted rebel forces in Kashmir even though those groups have committed terrorist acts against civilians. And it should be noted that a disproportionate number of the extremist madrasas schools funded by the Saudis operate in Pakistan.

China's offenses have been milder and more indirect than those of Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. Nevertheless, Beijing's actions raise serious questions about whether its professed commitment to the campaign against international terrorism is genuine. For years, China has exported sensitive military technology to countries that have been sponsors of terrorism. Recipients of such sales include Iran, Iraq and Syria.

Even though Chinese leaders now say that they support the U.S.-led effort against terrorism, there is no evidence that Beijing is prepared to end its inappropriate exports. At the recent APEC summit, China's President Jiang Zemin was notably noncommittal when President Bush sought such a commitment. Whenever the United States has brought up the exports issue, Chinese officials have sought to link a cutoff to a similar cutoff of U.S. military sales to Taiwan -- something that is unacceptable to Washington.

It is time for China, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia to prove by their deeds, not just their words, that they are serious about contributing to the campaign against international terrorism. In China's case, that means ending all militarily relevant exports to regimes that have sponsored terrorism. In the cases of Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, it means defunding terrorist organizations and the extremist "schools" that provide them with recruits. It also means severing ties with such terrorist movements as the Taliban and the Kashmiri insurgents. The world is watching the actions of all three countries.

Pakistan is Jihad Inc’s global HQ : Pakistan Islamic Terrorism

Recently I read in the media a memo had been recorded by Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary, in which he reportedly expressed exasperation over the fact that the more the number of jihadi terrorists the US forces put out of action in Afghanistan and Iraq, the more the number of jihadi terrorists who come out of the madrassas to replace them.

He did not mention the country in which these madrassas are located. From the context of the memo, it was apparent these madrassas are the madrassas in Pakistan.

Last year, Jessica Stern, a counterterrorism expert at the Harvard University, brought out a very widely read study on the working of the madrassas in Pakistan, where she describes them as jihad factories. In India the problem is the same one Rumsfeld referred to. The problem which we are facing today in Kashmir is not because of Kashmiri militancy but because of large-scale infiltration of people into Kashmir from Pakistan.

Till 1993, the number of foreigners killed by the security forces in Kashmir used to come to 32. It went up to 172 per annum between 1993 and 1998. Since 1999, our security forces have been killing 951 foreign mercenaries per annum in Kashmir. The majority of them are Pakistani nationals.

I’d request the distinguished panel to read the reports, the annexures of the report of the State Department on Patterns of Global Terrorism, 2002, submitted to the US Congress in May this year. They refer to the fact that most terrorist organisations operating today in Kashmir are foreign.

The State Department report says that almost all Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists are foreigners, mostly Pakistanis from madrassas across the country and Afghan veterans of the Afghan wars. In respect to each organisation the State Department report says, in anticipation of asset seizures by the Pakistani government, the organisation withdrew funds from bank accounts. This shows how sincere or how insincere the government of Pakistan has been in acting against terrorist funding.

I would like to draw the attention of the panel also to four other recent documents of the US government. On October 14, the Department of Treasury issued an order freezing the bank accounts of a supposedly charity organisation of Pakistan called the Al Akhtar Trust.

It says the charity trust was founded by the Jaish-e-Muhammad, the same organisation whose supporters have played a leading role in the kidnapping and murder of Daniel Pearl and which has been active in Jammu and Kashmir.

This organisation is supposed to have been banned (in Pakistan) by an order issued on January 15, 2002. If it was banned, how did the Pakistan government allow it to start a charity and collect funds? The second significant observation in that order of the US Department of Treasury is the Al Akhtar Trust funded jihad not only in Pakistan and Afghanistan, but is also suspected of funding jihad in Iraq.


That means an organisation founded in Pakistan has been funding attacks on the American troops in Iraq. How did this happen? What action did General Pervez Musharraf take against this organisation?

The other order is of the US Department of Treasury. Dated October 16, it concerns Dawood Ibrahim, head of a mafia group closely involved with terrorist groups. He was involved in the explosions in Bombay in 1993, along with five others who have been given shelter in Pakistan.

The government of India has been repeatedly asking for their arrest and handing over to India so that they could be tried for terrorism. But the government of Pakistan has all the time been maintaining that they are not on Pakistani territory. This order, which has designated Dawood Ibrahim as a global terrorist, says, he had links with Al Qaeda and with the Taliban and had been helping them by placing his ships at their disposal. Two, it also says he has been living in Karachi and gives his passport number. In spite of that, the Pakistan government has denied that he is in Karachi, denied this passport belongs to him. For these reasons, when Musharraf says he has been taking action against terrorists, we in India find it difficult to believe it.

One last point. We in India are gratified by the fact that justice has at last been done to the families of victims of the Lockerbie tragedy. Your plane was blown up by a Libyan intelligence officer. He planted the explosives.

The US imposed punitive sanctions against Colonel Gaddafi. They held him responsible for allowing his intelligence agencies to blow up the aircraft. Ultimately, justice was done.

There’ve been seven instances of terrorist attacks directed against Indian civil aviation: five instances of hijacking by Sikh terrorists of Punjab; one instance of hijacking by a Wahhabi terrorist organisation of Pakistan, the Harakat ul-Mujahedeen, 1999; one instance in which an Air India plane, Kanishka, was blown up off the Irish coast, resulting in the death of over 200 civilians; and one instance in which an unsuccessful attempt was to blow up another Air India aircraft in Tokyo.

And all these instances took place when the military was in power. There has not been a single attack on civil aviation by terrorist groups from Pakistan when a democratically elected government was in power.

The people involved in the explosions have been given sanctuary in Pakistan. Is it not the responsibility of the international community to see they are brought to trial? Doesn’t it have an obligation to do justice to the families of the victims, just as it was required to do justice to the victims of Lockerbie?

Pakistan Printing Fake Indian Currency : Pakistan A Nation Of Criminals

A Pakistani government printing press in the city of Quetta is printing out large quantities of counterfeit Indian currency & US Dollar, The Times of India reported, citing a Central Bureau of Intelligence note to Indian security agencies and the finance ministry.

The rupee notes are then smuggled into India as 'part of Pakistan's agenda of destabilising (the) Indian economy through fake currency,' the daily said.

The notes are 'supplied by the Pakistan government press (at Quetta) free of cost to Dubai-based counterfeiters who, in turn, smuggle it into India using various means,' the report said.

Pakistan's intelligence agency, Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) is alleged to play an active role in the scam.

The notes 'are pushed into India by ISI through all possible channels using smugglers, underworld gangs, terrorists and general air/rail passengers', the report said.

The Indian intelligence agency picked up the trail of the counterfeiters from interrogations of a Gulf-based bookmaker who was deported from Dubai to India, it said.

The Reserve Bank of India has estimated the amount of fake currency in circulation at almost 1.7 trln rupees, the report said.

Pakistan's Economy is on its Knees Due to Manuplation

Not long ago, Pakistan was touted as the next big emerging market, whispered in the same breath as Brazil and Indonesia. Today, Pakistan’s economy is on its knees.

Back when there was cause for optimism, Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, a former Citibank executive, was feted at Davos and other major conferences. Private equity funds rolled in and bankers came sniffing. The Karachi stock exchange boomed, ending the year 2007 as the sixth best emerging markets performer. Investment, particularly from the oil-rich Persian Gulf states and China, poured in. By October of 2007, Pakistan had more than US$16 billion in cash reserves, a 7 percent annual growth rate three years running, a manageable inflation rate, and a growing reputation as the next big market in South Asia.

In recent months, a sense of gloom has squashed hope. The country recently was forced to reach for the much-reviled "begging bowl" once again, negotiating a US$7.6 billion bail-out with the International Monetary Fund as it faced a mounting debt crisis. The inflation rate climbed to 25 percent, and stocks crashed, falling on average 35 percent for the year with trading volume stuck at historically low levels. All major rating agencies have downgraded Pakistan. Meanwhile, new investment has largely dried up.

Mohsin Khan, the distinguished Pakistani economist and former senior IMF official who brokered the IMF-Pakistan deal as a last hurrah before his retirement in early December, said recently that "full recovery is a long way off."

Speaking at an Asia Society event, Khan said that Pakistan will likely grow at 2-3 percent for the fiscal year 2008-2009. "Given population growth, that is effectively a recession," he said.

Economists in Pakistan are predicting significant job losses over the next two years, anywhere from 3 to 4 million, further exacerbating the crisis faced by Pakistan’s poor and struggling middle class. The economic crisis comes amid heightened tensions with India after Pakistani militants went on a killing rampage in Mumbai.

What happened to Pakistan’s economy? How did it go from emerging market star to the precipice of economic disaster? A range of reasons have been proffered from high oil and food prices to political and security volatility, but the one that seems to arise most often among analysts is the simplest one of them all: bad governance.

At key points in Pakistan’s economic descent, political leaders failed to make policy decisions that would have forestalled the decline. The dramatic spike in oil and food prices in the 2007/2008 fiscal period was met with "policy inaction," according to Khan. "They didn’t do what they needed to do when they faced these shocks, mostly because they were running for office."

As high oil and food prices tore through reserves, political turmoil gripped the country as former president Pervez Musharraf faced down judges, dissolved the judiciary, and eventually succumbed to elections, while street protests grew violent, former prime minister and Pakistan People’s Party star Benazir Bhutto was assassinated, a caretaker government tread cautiously, and political hopefuls vied for votes. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

Today, Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari faces a dizzying array of challenges from security concerns in ungovernable tribal areas and the al-Qaida presence in Waziristan to the heightened tensions with India, but he also faces a larger challenge: restoring faith in democracy among Pakistanis mired in economic pain.

The influential Pakistani columnist Shaheen Sebhai recently wrote of an "over-riding sense of failure" that free and fair elections failed to restore trust between the government and the people, while the new leaders have simply "descended into the years-old hit and run, grab and go, mad race for petty political gains, major financial benefits, local and international lucrative jobs."

Dr Farrukh Saleem, the executive director of the Islamabad-based Center For Research and Security Studies said recently that Pakistan is not only haunted by a budget deficit and trade deficit, but also a "trust deficit" with the outside world: "they [the people] do not trust that the government will do the right thing," he said in a recent seminar in Islamabad.

Here is where the economy comes in. For the ordinary citizen, nothing is more important than a sense of economic security. Though Pakistan still had a long way to go, the government of Musharraf was making dents in the decades-old fight with poverty and economic underperformance. Failure by Zardari and his economic team to simultaneously provide social safety nets for the poor and navigate Pakistan’s economic recovery with skill might lead many to long for the days of the "enlightened" autocrat.

Furthermore, rising unemployment and economic insecurity combined with one of the youngest populations in the world is a hazardous social cocktail that could lead to widespread unrest - and military intervention. This will lead to a further erosion of trust with the international community (It should be noted that IMF and World Bank officials largely avoid Pakistan; they conduct their meetings with Pakistani officials in Dubai).

The silver lining in this cloud is that the IMF bail-out has prompted others to step in. The Asian Development bank, the World Bank, the Islamic Development Bank, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and China, are all expected to announce large loans to Pakistan’s government.

What’s more, several analysts indicate that the IMF restrictions are not nearly as onerous as they have been in past bailouts. Sakeeb Sherani, chief economist at the Royal Bank of Scotland, said in a recent seminar: "Compared to the 46 conditions accompanying the 2000 [plan] the latest US$7.6 billion IMF package carried only up to 10 performance criteria. If it can ensure good economic management there is no question why Pakistan shouldn’t fulfill those criteria."

In other words, there will be no excuse for "policy inaction" this time. Not only do Pakistan’s people deserve it, but the near-term future of Pakistan’s democracy may depend on it.

Pakistan A Biggest Terrorist Country

Pak crackdown to avoid terrorist state tag: Pak Minister

Pakistan, which has launched a crackdown on Jamaat-ud-Dawa, said the country faced the prospects of being declared a terrorist state
and left with a crippled economy if it had not acted on the sanctions imposed on the terrorist group by the UN Security Council.

"There was a resolution in the United Nations Security Council. If Pakistan had not taken steps under that, then they could have declared Pakistan a terrorist state. They could have crippled Pakistan's economy," defence minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar said.

"If the whole world is on one side, Pakistan does not have the strength to face the whole world. We can fight against our enemies, but we can't fight an economic war with the whole world," he said.

Pakistan has launched a crackdown on JuD, the front organisation of the banned LeT blamed for the Mumbai terror attacks, in response to the UN Security Council's declaration of the group as a terrorist outfit, he said.

Referring to the tension sparked by the Mumbai terror attacks and reports of a possible military confrontation between Pakistan and India, Mukhtar said war was "not to the advantage of either" country.

Pakistan on Thursday had banned the JuD and placed its chief Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, also the founder of the LeT, under house arrest for three month. Jamaat offices across the country were sealed on Thursday night by police and security agencies. There are also unconfirmed reports that dozens of Jamaat activists have been detained.

Mumbai Attack

Pak rejects report on Zarar Shah's confession

Pakistan on Thursday 01 Jan 09 dismissed reports about top LeT commander Zarar Shah admitting to his key role in the Mumbai attacks, saying it was too early to reach any conclusion without India providing evidence of involvement of the Pakistan-based elements in the 26/11 strikes.

The Wall Street Journal report that Shah, who has been detained by the Pakistani authorities, confessed to his involvement in the Mumbai attacks cannot be a basis for determining the role of the Pakistan-based elements in the incident, senior officials were quoted as saying by the media.

They said India had not yet provided any evidence.

Their remarks came a day after Information Minister Sherry Rehman dismissed as "completely speculative" another report that the US had shared with Pakistan a taped conversation Lashkar-e-Toiba operations head Zakiur Rahman Lakhvi allegedly had with terrorists involved in the Mumbai attacks.

"It is based on complete speculation that the US has shared information (on 26/11 attacks). Even if it has happened, the government of Pakistan has not received such an evidence," she said in Karachi, referring to the Dawn report.

Rehman also said India has not shared any evidence.

Regarding the action taken by Pakistan against some activists of LeT's front organisation Jamaat-ud-Dawa which has been banned by the UN Security Council, she said whatever Pakistan has done was in compliance with the world body's resolutions and the international community "agrees that we do not give shelter to terrorists and non-state actors".

Mumbai Attackers & Israeli-Hamas War

Pak may allow India to quiz 26/11 suspects

Pakistan may allow Indian investigators to "grill" the Mumbai attack suspects after being provided with "sufficient evidence" of their involvement in the deadly strikes, but will not hand them over to New Delhi, a media report said here on Sunday.

"At the most, Pakistan could permit the Indians to grill the people now under detention and being questioned by the Pakistani authorities and blamed by New Delhi for a key role in the Mumbai carnage. However, there is no likelihood that they will be handed over to India," a senior unnamed Pakistani official was quoted as saying by The Nation newspaper.

Lashkar-e-Toiba operations commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, the suspected mastermind of the Mumbai attack, and its communications specialist Zarar Shah are among the militants detained in Pakistan in the wake of the Mumbai attacks.

Pakistan has turned down repeated demands from India for them to be handed over to New Delhi. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday said: "India does not want war with Pakistan but it must hand over the perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks."

But, the Pakistani official said that instead of indulging in "a blame-game," India should provide substantial evidence about the involvement of Lakhvi, Shah or any other person in the Mumbai attacks to Pakistan.

"If this is done, Indian investigators could be given access to the wanted persons on Pakistani soil," he added.

The official said the same went for law enforcement or investigation agencies from across the world. "But the main thing is sufficient evidence proving the involvement of those who are being blamed," the official said.

He said Pakistan was carrying out its own investigations into the Mumbai attacks and was ready for a joint probe with India. So far, there had been no response from India to Pakistan's offer for a joint probe, he said.

26/11 not possible without state help: Chidambaram

There is another clear indication that India intends to keep up its intense diplomatic drive to get Pakistan to do something about those responsible for the Mumbai terror attacks.

Speaking exclusively on NDTV's programme Walk the Talk, Home Minister P Chidambaram has said that a DNA test with the man identified as Qasab's father can prove he is a Pakistani national.

The Home Minister, who is going to the US next week, has hinted at the involvement of Pakistan government agencies in the attack.

He said that the Mumbai attacks could not have been executed without state help and Pakistan will have to pay heavy price if such a crime is repeated.

He also said that India and America will cooperate closely on investigations into the Mumbai terror attacks.

Home Minister P Chidambaram said he will visit the US next week with a dossier of evidence compiled by Indian investigative agencies on the people who carried out the attacks.

"I will visit US next week with evidence on Mumbai attackers," he said.

Chidambaram also told NDTV that behind non-state actors responsible for the Mumbai attacks there were state actors as well.

"There are state actors behind non-state actors in Pakistan," Chidambaram said.

Meanwhile, a report said that US will confront Pakistan with the evidence soon and demand custody of culprits. A parallel probe by US in Mumbai has found definite involvement of Pakistan Army and ISI. US has independent recording of conversation between terrorists and their handlers.

Sources say that the Americans have traced Pakistani numbers to known LeT operatives with close links to ISI and they have exact coordinates of the safe houses used.

Handlers of Mumbai attackers were operating from ISI safe houses during the attack, sources said.

Six US nationals were killed in Mumbai terror attacks in November.

US commits support

Home Minister P Chidambaram also met US Ambassador David Mulford on Saturday morning.

The discussions included cooperation on setting up of India's National Investigative Agency. The US has committed support to India for this.

An FBI team is still in Mumbai investigating the terror attacks and will be leaving for Pakistan soon. Sources have told NDTV that Saturday's meeting was focused on the setting up of this agency, but details about the Mumbai terror investigations also came up.

US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher will be visiting India and Pakistan next week, as part of America's ongoing dialogue with the two countries in the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks.

INS Viraat to turn 50, Navy to celebrate

India's solitary aircraft carrier INS Viraat will turn 50 in 2009 and the Navy plans a befitting celebration to mark the warship's golden jubilee.

"Yes, we intend to mark the golden jubilee of INS Viraat's naval service with celebrations planned for early part of this year," a Navy officer said on Sunday.

The celebrations would take place soon after the warship, which is currently docked at the Cochin Shipyard for repairs and maintenance, gets sailing again, he said.

On May 12, 2009, INS Viraat would complete 23 years of its service with the Indian Navy. Taking into account its British Royal Navy service in its earlier avatar as HMS Hermes, the warship will complete 50 years on November 18 and hence the celebration.

The Indian Navy had acquired the Centaur Class aircraft carrier in 1987 from the British after it had served them for nearly 28 years (first inducted on November 18, 1959) and re-christened it as INS Viraat.

Consequently, the British Navy too would be requested to join the events to celebrate the warship that has served both countries so well.

In fact, after the current round of repairs, India is likely to make the aircraft carrier labour on till 2015.

By then, the 28,000-tonne warship would have completed 55 years of service, over twice and way beyond its estimated sailing life of 25 years.

Israeli tanks and troops enter Gaza

Israel's threat of ground attacks in Gaza has proved to be a reality now. In the latest stage of its offensive against Hamas, Israel has sent armoured vehicles and ground forces into the Gaza Strip.

Several eyewitnesses describe huge military convoys crossing into northern Gaza. Ground troops were supported by helicopters.

The Israeli military spokesperson said ground attacks were aimed at taking control of areas from which Palestinian militants have been firing rockets into Israel.

There are also reports of clashes between the advancing Israeli soldiers and Hamas fighters. Both sides claim to have inflicted casualties.

Meanwhile Britain, France and other European countries have voiced their concern over the escalating violence. Many wounded Israeli soldiers are being taken to the hospital. The US said it was deeply concerned about the humanitarian situation in Gaza. But it blamed the Hamas of holding people hostage in Gaza.

In New York, the UN Security Council emergency session to discuss the situation in Gaza failed to reach any agreement.

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