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America continues to shield Pak over terrorism charges

America continues to shield Pak over terrorism charges

Author: Chidanand Rajghatta, Times News Network
Publications: The Times of India
Dated: October 6, 2001

WASHINGTON: Despite continuing revelations about Islamabad's complicity in terrorist activity, the US continues to shield Pakistan from terrorism charges in the hope it will turn a new leaf with the western media readily toeing the official line.

The latest disclosures came at a Congressional hearing on Wednesday at which US intelligence analysts not only spoke about Pakistan's official role in fomenting and bankrolling terrorism but also addressed the connections between the Taliban and terrorism in Kashmir.

"Pakistan has also used its position and support to the Taliban to establish within Afghanistan a series of training camps for Kashmiri terrorists. ISI personnel are present, in mufti, to conduct the training," Vince Cannistraro, a former CIA chief of counter-terrorism operations, said in a testimony       before the House International Relations Committee.

"This arrangement allowed Pakistan 'plausible denial' that it is promoting insurgency in Kashmir," he added.

Charles Santos, a fellow intelligence analyst, told the committee that Pakistan's support to the Taliban enabled it "to relocate its training camps for Kashmiri separatists to Afghanistan, benefiting from extremist networks in Afghanistan and providing Pakistan with plausible deniability".

"Pakistani extremist groups have functioned as umbrella organizations for other international terror groups that sought shelter in Afghanistan," he added.

However, the disclosures, as also the latest massacre in Kashmir, was just a blip in the US media's saturation coverage of its government's war on terrorism.

Despite revelations that expose Pakistan's lie that it is not engaged in terrorism, the Bush administration has been coy about acting against Islamabad, preferring to buy out its ally with promises of financial reward, without publicly seeking any commitment of ending its role.

Not even the latest expose that Pakistan's military ruler Pervez Musharraf aborted a CIA plan of training Pakistani commandos to nab Bin Laden has moved the administration from its professed line. The let's-coddle-Pakistan-out-of- terrorism school now been joined by some lawmakers, including the influential Senator Joseph Bin Laden, who is now proposing a 'Marshall Plan' kind of endeavour to combat the terrorism menace in several countries in the region, including Pakistan.

The term refers to a post-World War II strategy under which the US infused large amounts of capital to rebuild war-torn Europe.

Indian officials and analysts are aghast that such a plan could be considered without first getting Pakistan to forsake its militaristic thinking and forcing it to abjure terrorism. "The last time they pumped in money during the Zia years, they saw the results," one official, who did not want to be named, said.

In its international campaign against terrorism, the administration has not even warned Pakistan once from desisting from terrorism despite its own records showing unabated activity.

The state department's Patterns of Terrorism report for the Year 2000 noted that "Pakistan's military government, headed by Gen Pervez Musharraf, continued previous Pakistani government support of the Kashmir insurgency, and Kashmiri militant groups continued to operate in Pakistan, raising funds and recruiting new cadre".

"Several of these groups were responsible for attacks against civilians in Kashmir," it added.
 


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