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.