Author: Arnaud de Borchgrave
Publication: The Washington Times
Date: December 18, 2001
Oghaz Pass On The Pakistani-Afghan
Border - Pakistan's tribal areas are free-passage zones for Taliban and
al Qaeda's foreign legionnaires escaping from Afghanistan, a weeklong visit
showed.
The Pakistani army has announced
that two brigades, each made up of three battalions of 850 men, or a total
of 5,100, have been deployed along a 30-mile stretch of porous border in
jagged mountains and have "sealed the frontier tight."
Helicopter gunships, military authorities
have assured the United States, are monitoring mountain passes against
infiltration. Presidential spokesman Gen. Rashid Qureshi went so far as
to publicly deny that any al Qaeda fighter had made it across the border
into Pakistan.
However, junior officers - all officers,
and most noncommissioned officers speak English - speculate that such assurances
are given to make "the Americans feel good."
Border tribal-zone populations have
long been pro-Taliban and pro-al Qaeda. Countless painted slogans and posters
of Osama bin Laden, leader of the al Qaeda terrorist network, are visible
in towns and villages throughout the three key tribal "agencies": Kurram,
Orazkai and Kohat.
Tribal elders said that although
the army had established interlocking fields of fire at four key mountain
passes, it could not check dozens of other routes invisible from the air.
A Pakistani captain, who asked that his name not be used, shared the same
assessment.
Over a three-mile strip of foothills
on the Pakistan side of the Spin Ghar range, one crest over from the Tora
Bora mountains, two helicopters flew overhead at about 3,000 feet in poor
visibility and could not have seen anyone on the ground. During a two-hour
walk, several dozen tribesmen were seen coming from the direction of Afghanistan.
Scanning snowcapped Spin Ghar with
binoculars revealed a wide range of ravines, crevasses, valleys and dry
river beds - potential exfiltration routes for bin Laden's Arab fighters.
Bin Laden's picture, inscribed "Father
of the Revolution," covered half the rear window of one bus that passed
through army and frontier constabulary checkpoints without so much as an
identification check of the passengers.
Scores of pickup trucks loaded with
civilians similarly drove through the checkpoints unchallenged. Rubber-wheeled
donkey carts with three or four passengers also were part of the traffic
pattern.
A visiting reporter was stopped
once and when the U.S. passport was produced, the civilian security official
made clear that Americans were "not welcome." When asked whether that went
for Taliban, too, he answered, "Taliban always welcome."
From Kohat, army headquarters for
some of the tribal areas, to Parachinar, on the western edge of the frontier
under surveillance, rock formations along the road had been daubed with
slogans glorifying terrorist organizations and vilifying President Pervez
Musharraf as an "American agent."
Bin Laden's picture was pinned to
shutters and windows. Open-air markets also displayed the poster on the
sides of stalls.
Sipah-e-Sahaba, or "Army of the
Friends of the Prophet," and Shaish-e-Mohammed are among the most extreme
religious organizations in Pakistan. They are particularly strong in the
tribal belt and in Punjab, the country's largest province.
One rock-face advertisement said,
"For Commando Training, Contact Shaish-e-Mohammed." Another one proclaimed,
"Shaish-e-Mohammed and al Qaeda are Bubbling Blood Bothers." "Kill America"
was painted on the outer wall of the "Handyside" army fort, named after
a prominent colonial during the British Raj.
Once past the fort, the narrow road
twists and turns alongside an ocher-colored, shrub-pocked limestone mountain
on one side and a 3,000-foot precipice on the other.
Five-ton 10-wheelers, many adorned
with bin Laden's face, manage to squeeze by in both directions. Shopkeepers
and a cot-and-breakfast employee told our interpreter, an English-speaking
native of the North Waziristan Tribal Agency, that al Qaeda had "an extensive
network in the region." They did not believe that bin Laden would be turned
over if he resurfaced in Kurram tribal turf.
The madrassa, or religious schools,
network, local interlocutors said, easily could hide bin Laden and his
top lieutenants indefinitely or until they could organize his clandestine
passage by truck to Karachi, 1,000 miles south, where he could set sail
for another part of the world.
This religious network works closely
with the Inter-Services Intelligence agency, an organization long known
for its pro-Taliban culture.
The tribal belt is also the territory
of Massoud Azhe, an Indian-born terrorist who was exiled and re-emerged
in this part of Pakistan where perpetrators of major crimes in government-run
Pakistan would find safe haven.
Fazul Rehman, a major religious
extremist firebrand, currently under house arrest, also enjoys an abundance
of laudatory posters. Mullah Rehman used his mobile phone this week to
try to negotiate the return of several thousand Pakistanti "volunteers"
who crossed the border in the closing weeks of the Northern Alliance's
campaign against the Taliban.
Some 500 Pakistani prisoners have
been returned. About 8,000 are missing. They are a source of embarrassment
to Gen. Musharraf and his new alliance with the United States.
. Distributed by United Press International,
where Mr. de Borchgrave also is the editor at large.
