Issues, Part 6: The War in Afghanistan

After we have left Afghanistan, the Taliban will grow stronger, and, sooner or later, either 1) the government in Afghanistan will reach an accomodation with them, until ultimately the Taliban, in some form, simply take over, or 2) the Taliban will win outright.

Thus, to win the war in Afghanistan, all the Taliban have to do is survive until America pulls out.

This, they are accomplishing.

The reason for this is that the Taliban's powerbase is not being effectively attacked.

The Taliban powerbase is in Pakistan.

Pakistan has long defined itself by its Muslimness, as opposed to Pakistan's main potential enemy, India. India is, of course, larger, and would presumably prevail in a conventional war, if that war were allowed to play out until one side or another achieved absolute victory.

Pakistan has tried to offset India's advantages in various ways. For example, Pakistan long sought, and finally developed, its own nuclear weapons (though there is a story behind this, which winds its way into China and all the way back to espionage at key US facilities).

But, a main way in which Pakistan has sought some leverage against a presumed Indian victory is by means of militarized Islamic schools, called madrassas. Madrassas have been prevalent in the Islamic world for centuries, but in Pakistan they took on a peculiar twist, serving as military training centers for jihadists who would fight the infidel world. Of immediate concern has, of course, always been India; graduates of the madrassas could be expected to fight a guerilla war should India ever overrun Pakistan in a conventional war, ensuring that a conventional Indian victory would not be the last word in the conflict. However, once trained and indoctrinated into the ways of Islamic holy war, such militants are hard to keep on a leash.

For years, Pakistani-trained militants have crossed into Jammu and Kashmir, conducting terrorist attacks against Indian forces there. Pakistan has for years been a state sponsor of Islamic terrorism.

When Afghanistan fell into chaos in the wake of the Soviet withdrawal, these Pakistani-backed militias went into Afghanistan and stabilized it under Taliban rule.

Once established in Afghanistan, these jihadists slipped off their leash, seeking war against all infidels and against all Muslims who oppose the jihadists (whom the jihadists refer to as takfir); their jihad took on a life of its own.

First of all, under the Taliban, fellow jihadists found they could use Afghanistan as a base of operations against any infidel enemies, without so much as the minimal restraints placed upon them by Pakistani sponsors. This is why we invaded Afghanistan in the wake of 9/11 - to oust the terrorists that were based there under Taliban rule, and who had attacked the United States.

Additionally, Pakistani-trained and -based jihadists have continued attacks against India, as well.

However, most significantly for Pakistanis, these jihadists are not going to settle for less than victory against all infidels and takfir, worldwide, and that starts with takfir closest to home - Pakistani Muslims who do not support the violence.

Pakistan has been pulled in two directions. There is of course the Islamic militants. But, there is also a modern society in Pakistan, a Muslim society that fits peacefully into the world around it. This segment of Pakistani society is, of necessity, targeted by the militants and those who support them. For the militants to win their global jihad, the "Land of the Pure" must be cleansed of these corrupted takfir elements.

Pakistanis have at least tolerated (and significant elements of Pakistani officialdom have actively helped) the growth of militant Islamic extremists in Pakistan as a counterweight to India. This counterweight was powerful when the Taliban ran Afghanistan. However, it is now out of control, and now less extreme elements in Pakistani society may find that they get roasted in the fire they have allowed to be kindled.

The invulnerability of the Taliban's base in Pakistan is why the Taliban have not been extinguished in Afghanistan; it is why American troops have not yet come home victorious.

The base's invulnerability lies in the fact that it is on the other side of the Durand Line (the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan).

Understandably, Pakistan does not want US troops crossing the Durand Line into Pakistani territory to attack the militants; Pakistan is a sovereign nation, and the views of its people and government should be respected regarding Pakistan's territorial integrity.

However, assuming the political will exists in Islamabad to clean out the Taliban strongholds, these bases can be difficult to get to from Pakistani territory.

That political will needs to exist in Islamabad, because the Taliban will not compromise; their version of Islam means they will fight to the death against all takfir, and takfir is anyone who disagrees with them, and that most emphatically includes moderate or Westernized elements of Pakistani society.

If that will does not exist in Pakistan, then Pakistan is with the terrorists, and needs to be treated as an enemy of all civilized nations.

However, any society has its criminal element, and Pakistan should not be condemned because of its criminal element, even though that criminal element has strong support in Rawalpindi.

There is an answer that will allow for the civilized world to prevail over the terrorists, and for civilized Pakistanis to retain control of their great nation, while maintaining Pakistani territorial integrity against infringement from foreign troops.

In conjunction with Afghanistan and the US and international forces in Afghanistan, Pakistani troops need to be brought into Afghanistan. From there, Pakistani troops attack across the Durand Line into Pakistan, while simultaneously more Pakistani troops attack from deep inside Pakistan into the border areas. Across the border in Afghanistan, Afghan, US and international forces will conduct their own offensives toward the Durand Line, but not crossing it. Military operations against the Taliban on Pakistani soil will be conducted exclusively by Pakistani troops; any exceptions to this will be at the behest of Islamabad. Taliban militants will be caught in the middle, their bases will be sandwiched out of existence, and the militants will be exterminated or scattered.

On top of this, Pakistan needs to shut down all terrorist training bases in Pakistani territory, not just the ones in proximity to Afghanistan, and Pakistan needs to work to end terrorism from Pakistani territory. Pakistan needs to do this to keep from being overrun by the militants Pakistan once saw as insurance against India.

Once Pakistan has accomplished this, the international community needs to help promote peace between Pakistan and India, including offering guarantees of Pakistan's existence and territorial integrity.

Campaign for the Land of the Pure, Part 5

No sooner do I post Part 4 than the plot thickens.

The news today is that Marc Grossman helped smooth over relations between the US and Pakistan, which became "unsmooth" in the wake of the Osama bin Laden operation; the result is that a new anti-terrorism intelligence team is being established with both US and Pakistani members. From AP sources: US-Pakistan form an anti-terror squad, June 2, 2011:

WASHINGTON – Bruised from their latest diplomatic clash, the U.S. and Pakistan are trying to bandage their relationship by forging a new joint intelligence team to go after top terrorism suspects, officials say.

The move comes after Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton presented the Pakistanis with the U.S. list of most-wanted terrorism targets, U.S. and Pakistani officials said Wednesday. The list includes some groups the Pakistanis have been reluctant to attack, U.S. officials said.

It's one of a host of confidence-building measures meant to restore trust blown on both sides after U.S. forces tracked down and killed al-Qaida mastermind Osama bin Laden during a secret raid in Pakistan last month.

But it also amounts to a new test of loyalty for both sides. The Pakistanis say the U.S. has failed to share its best intelligence, instead running numerous unilateral spying operations on its soil.

U.S. officials say they need to see the Pakistanis target militants they've long sheltered, including the Haqqani network, which operates with impunity in the Pakistani tribal areas while attacking U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

[snip]

A series of high-level U.S. visits has aimed to take the edge off. Marc Grossman, the special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, and CIA Deputy Director Mike Morell met with intelligence chief Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha last month. Last week, the secretary of state and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Adm. Mike Mullen, held a day of intensive meetings with top Pakistani military and civilian officials.

Marc Grossman, it will be recalled, was implicated in the Sibel Edmonds case for connections to the Turkish Deep State. He allegedly is on the payroll of Turkish organized crime which, in turn, is involved in trafficking Afghan heroin and various kinds of military technology.

For example, we have an excerpt from A Marc Too Far by Philip Giraldi, February 15, 2011:

Hillary Clinton has appointed Marc Grossman her special AfPak representative to replace Richard Holbrooke. Readers of TAC might well recall the Grossman saga as related by FBI whistleblower Sibel Edmonds. Per Edmonds, Grossman was involved in suspected illegal activity connected to the Turkish and Israeli governments and was under investigation by the FBI.

Part of Sibel Edmonds' interview went as follows, picking up the account after Grossman had to return to the United States from Turkey:

GIRALDI: So Grossman at this point comes back to the United States. He's rewarded with the third-highest position at the State Department, and he allegedly uses this position to do favors for "Turkish interests" — both for the Turkish government and for possible criminal interests. Sometimes, the two converge. The FBI is aware of his activities and is listening to his phone calls. When someone who is Turkish calls Grossman, the FBI monitors that individual's phone calls, and when the Turk calls a friend who is a Pakistani or an Egyptian or a Saudi, they monitor all those contacts, widening the net.

EDMONDS: Correct.

GIRALDI: And Grossman received money as a result. In one case, you said that a State Department colleague went to pick up a bag of money…

EDMONDS: $14,000

GIRALDI: What kind of information was Grossman giving to foreign countries? Did he give assistance to foreign individuals penetrating U.S. government labs and defense installations as has been reported? It's also been reported that he was the conduit to a group of congressmen who become, in a sense, the targets to be recruited as "agents of influence."

EDMONDS: Yes, that's correct. Grossman assisted his Turkish and Israeli contacts directly, and he also facilitated access to members of Congress who mig ht be inclined to help for reasons of their own or could be bribed into cooperation. The top person obtaining classified information was Congressman Tom Lantos. A Lantos associate, Alan Makovsky worked very closely with Dr. Sabri Sayari in Georgetown University, who is widely believed to be a Turkish spy. Lantos would give Makovsky highly classified policy-related documents obtained during defense briefings for passage to Israel because Makovsky was also working for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).

And, in the words of Edmonds herself at a post entitled Resurrecting the Neocons: Marc Grossman in ... Richard Perle & Douglas Feith in Queue, February 16, 2011 (links and formatting are in the original):

And here is what many Americans won't be getting from the US media:

- The investigative reports on Marc Grossman and his role in planting moles in US nuclear facilities:

An unnamed high-ranking State Department official helps a nuclear smuggling ring connected to Pakistani nuclear scientist A. Q. Khan and Pakistan's ISI to plant "moles" in US military and academic institutions that handle nuclear technology, according to FBI translator Sibel Edmonds. The State Department official apparently arranges security clearance for some of the moles, enabling them to work in sensitive nuclear research facilities, including the Los Alamos nuclear laboratory in New Mexico, which is responsible for the security of the US nuclear deterrent. The high-ranking State Department official who is not named by Britain’s Sunday Times is said to be Marc Grossman...

- John M. Cole, a former FBI Counterintelligence and Counterespionage Manager, has publicly confirmed FBI's decade long investigation the former State Department Official, Marc Grossman:

John M. Cole, a former FBI Counterintelligence and Counterespionage Manager, has publicly confirmed the FBI's decade long investigation of the former State Department Official Marc Grossman. Cole worked for 18 years in the FBI's Counterintelligence Division. According to Cole, as in over one hundred cases involving Israeli espionage activities directed against the US government, the Grossman case was covered up and buried despite mountains of evidence that was collected.

Here is the public response from John Cole after the publication of The American Conservative magazine's cover story:

"I read the recent cover story by The American Conservative magazine. I applaud their courage in publishing this significant interview. I am fully aware of the FBI's decade-long investigation of the High-level State Department Official named in this article, Marc Grossman, which ultimately was buried and covered up. It is long past time to investigate this case and bring about accountability..."

-Marc Grossman was the originator of the Plame Leak:

Marc Grossman, the undersecretary of state for political affairs, prepares a memo about former ambassador Joseph Wilson's trip to Niger to ascertain the truth or falsity of claims that Iraq had attempted to purchase uranium from that nation (see February 21, 2002-March 4, 2002). The memo refers explicitly to Wilson’s wife, Valerie Plame Wilson, as a CIA official and identifies her as Wilson's wife, using the name "Valerie Wilson." The second paragraph of the memo is marked with an "S," denoting that Wilson is a covert operative for the agency.

-In late December 2005, Grossman joined Ihlas Holding, a large and alleged shady Turkish company which is also active in several Central Asian countries. Grossman is reported to receive $100,000 per month for his advisory position with Ihlas.

-In May 2010, DLA Piper, one of the world’s largest international lobby-law firms, hired Marc Grossman as their front man for their Turkish operations. The man in charge of one of DLA Piper major accounts-Turkey is none other than our good ole Dennis Hastert. That makes two former FBI criminal targets for one firm;-)

Grossman's career began at the US Embassy in Pakistan from 1976 to 1983; he was there when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan and the jihad began. From there, he went to NATO, then served in Turkey for years. As such, he had the opportunity to be in on the ground floor when heroin money began to be used to fund the insurgency against Soviet forces in Afghanistan, and had the opportunity to interface with the Turkish Deep State to help move that heroin westward.

In the Edmonds case, it was alleged that money from these organized crime activities gets moved into the political campaigns of important American officials, thus ensuring that higher-ups are in a position to kill any investigation into these criminal activities. For example, from Former FBI Translator Sibel Edmonds Calls Current 9/11 Investigation Inadequate by Jim Hogue, May 7, 2004:

JH: Here's a question that you might be able to answer: What is al-Qaeda?

SE: This is a very interesting and complex question. When you think of al-Qaeda, you are not thinking of al-Qaeda in terms of one particular country, or one particular organization. You are looking at this massive movement that stretches to tens and tens of countries. And it involves a lot of sub-organizations and sub-sub-organizations and branches and it's extremely complicated. So to just narrow it down and say al-Qaeda and the Saudis, or to say it's what they had at the camp in Afghanistan, is extremely misleading. And we don't hear the extent of the penetration that this organization and the sub-organizations have throughout the world, throughout their networks and throughout their various activities. It's extremely sophisticated. And then you involve a significant amount of money into this equation. Then things start getting a lot of overlap -- money laundering, and drugs and terrorist activities and their support networks converging in several points. That's what I'm trying to convey without being too specific. And this money travels. And you start trying to go to the root of it and it's getting into somebody's political campaign, and somebody's lobbying. And people don't want to be traced back to this money.

Is Edmonds credible? From Found in Translation FBI whistleblower Sibel Edmonds spills her secrets by Philip Giraldi January 28, 2008:

Both Senators Grassley and Leahy, a Republican and a Democrat, who interviewed her at length in 2002, attest to Edmonds's believability. The Department of Justice inspector general investigation into her claims about the translations unit and an internal FBI review confirmed most of her allegations. Former FBI senior counterintelligence officer John Cole has independently confirmed her report of the presence of Pakistani intelligence service penetrations within the FBI translators' pool.

Interestingly, Grossman met with Mahmud Ahmed, the head of Pakistan's ISI, on September 4, 2001. Seven days later, the 9/11 attacks occurred, and it was later learned that Ahmed had sent Mohammed Atta (on of the attackers) $100,000 prior to the attacks.

By the way: Hillary Clinton, who appointed Grossman to his position as AfPak Representative, is also connected to foreign organized crime, in particular to ethnic Albanian cartels that traffic Afghan heroin through the Balkans and on to the rest of Europe.

Based on all this, it looks to me like Grossman's job is to make sure that certain connections remain buried while the appearance is given that terrorists are being brought to justice. Some mid-level terrorists will be questioned and tortured, but the guys that finance terrorism through organized crime will be untouched, leaving the terrorist infrastructure basically intact. The reason is simple: upset this infrastructure, and key officials in Pakistan and in the US will have their connections to organized crime exposed.

From 'The Stakes Are Too High for Us to Stop Fighting Now' An interview with FBI whistleblower Sibel Edmonds by Christopher Deliso August 15, 2005:

CD: Can you elaborate here on what countries you mean?

SE: It's interesting, in one of my interviews, they say "Turkish countries," but I believe they meant Turkic countries – that is, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and all the 'Stans, including Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, and [non-Turkic countries like] Afghanistan and Pakistan. All of these countries play a big part in the sort of things I have been talking about.

CD: What, you mean drug-smuggling?

SE: Among other things. Yes, that is a major part of it. It's amazing that in this whole "war on terror" thing, no one ever talks about these issues. No one asks questions about these countries – questions like, "OK, how much of their GDP depends on drugs?"

CD: But of course, you're not implying...

SE: And then to compare that little survey with what countries we've been putting military bases in --

From 'The Stakes Are Too High for Us to Stop Fighting Now' An interview with FBI whistleblower Sibel Edmonds by Christopher Deliso August 15, 2005:

SE: You know how they always talk about these Islamic charities funding the terrorists, right?

CD: Yes...

SE: Well, and this is not a firm statistic, just a sort of ratio... but these charities are responsible for maybe 10 or 20 percent of al-Qaeda's fundraising. So where is the other 80 or 90 percent coming from? People, it's not so difficult!

Campaign for the Land of the Pure, Part 4

You might wish to review Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

Now for a post I wish I didn't have to write.

We begin with Al-Qaeda had warned of Pakistan strike - in its entirety - by Syed Saleem Shahzad, dated May 27, 2011:

ISLAMABAD - Al-Qaeda carried out the brazen attack on PNS Mehran naval air station in Karachi on May 22 after talks failed between the navy and al-Qaeda over the release of naval officials arrested on suspicion of al-Qaeda links, an Asia Times Online investigation reveals.

Pakistani security forces battled for 15 hours to clear the naval base after it had been stormed by a handful of well-armed militants.

At least 10 people were killed and two United States-made P3-C Orion surveillance and anti-submarine aircraft worth US$36 million each were destroyed before some of the attackers escaped through a cordon of thousands of armed forces.

An official statement placed the number of militants at six, with four killed and two escaping. Unofficial sources, though, claim there were 10 militants with six getting free. Asia Times Online contacts confirm that the attackers were from Ilyas Kashmiri's 313 Brigade, the operational arm of al-Qaeda.

Three attacks on navy buses in which at least nine people were killed last month were warning shots for navy officials to accept al-Qaeda's demands over the detained suspects.

The May 2 killing in Pakistan of Osama bin Laden spurred al-Qaeda groups into developing a consensus for the attack in Karachi, in part as revenge for the death of their leader and also to deal a blow to Pakistan's surveillance capacity against the Indian navy.

The deeper underlying motive, though, was a reaction to massive internal crackdowns on al-Qaeda affiliates within the navy.

Volcano of militancy

Several weeks ago, naval intelligence traced an al-Qaeda cell operating inside several navy bases in Karachi, the country's largest city and key port.

"Islamic sentiments are common in the armed forces," a senior navy official told Asia Times Online on the condition of anonymity as he is not authorized to speak to the media.

"We never felt threatened by that. All armed forces around the world, whether American, British or Indian, take some inspiration from religion to motivate their cadre against the enemy. Pakistan came into existence on the two-nation theory that Hindus and Muslims are two separate nations and therefore no one can separate Islam and Islamic sentiment from the armed forces of Pakistan," the official said.

"Nonetheless, we observed an uneasy grouping on different naval bases in Karachi. While nobody can obstruct armed forces personnel for rendering religious rituals or studying Islam, the grouping [we observed] was against the discipline of the armed forces. That was the beginning of an intelligence operation in the navy to check for unscrupulous activities."

The official explained the grouping was against the leadership of the armed forces and opposed to its nexus with the United States against Islamic militancy. When some messages were intercepted hinting at attacks on visiting American officials, intelligence had good reason to take action and after careful evaluation at least 10 people - mostly from the lower cadre - were arrested in a series of operations.

"That was the beginning of huge trouble," the official said.

Those arrested were held in a naval intelligence office behind the chief minister's residence in Karachi, but before proper interrogation could begin, the in-charge of the investigation received direct threats from militants who made it clear they knew where the men were being detained.

The detainees were promptly moved to a safer location, but the threats continued. Officials involved in the case believe the militants feared interrogation would lead to the arrest of more of their loyalists in the navy. The militants therefore made it clear that if those detained were not released, naval installations would be attacked.

It was clear the militants were receiving good inside information as they always knew where the suspects were being detained, indicating sizeable al-Qaeda infiltration within the navy's ranks. A senior-level naval conference was called at which an intelligence official insisted that the matter be handled with great care, otherwise the consequences could be disastrous. Everybody present agreed, and it was decided to open a line of communication with al-Qaeda.

Abdul Samad Mansoori, a former student union activist and now part of 313 brigade, who originally hailed from Karachi but now lives in the North Waziristan tribal area was approached and talks begun. Al-Qaeda demanded the immediate release of the officials without further interrogation. This was rejected.

The detainees were allowed to speak to their families and were well treated, but officials were desperate to interrogate them fully to get an idea of the strength of al-Qaeda's penetration. The militants were told that once interrogation was completed, the men would be discharged from the service and freed.

Al-Qaeda rejected these terms and expressed its displeasure with the attacks on the navy buses in April.

These incidents pointed to more than the one al-Qaeda cell intelligence had tracked in the navy. The fear now was that if the problem was not addressed, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) supply lines could face a new threat. NATO convoys are routinely attacked once they begin the journey from Karachi to Afghanistan; now they could be at risk in Karachi port. Americans who often visit naval facilities in the city would also be in danger.

Therefore, another crackdown was conducted and more people were arrested. Those seized had different ethnic backgrounds. One naval commando came from South Waziristan's Mehsud tribe and was believed to have received direct instructions from Hakeemullah Mehsud, the chief of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (Pakistan Taliban). Others were from Punjab province and Karachi, the capital of Sindh province.

After Bin Laden was killed by American Navy Seals in Abbottabad, 60 kilometers north of Islamabad, militants decided the time was ripe for major action.

Within a week, insiders at PNS Mehran provided maps, pictures of different exit and entry routes taken in daylight and at night, the location of hangers and details of likely reaction from external security forces.

As a result, the militants were able to enter the heavily guarded facility where one group targeted the aircraft, a second group took on the first strike force and a third finally escaped with the others providing covering fire. Those who stayed behind were killed.

This was intended to be the first in a two-part series by Syed Saleem Shahzad, Pakistan bureau chief for Asia Times Online; he subsequently went missing and, four days after this article appeared, his body was found in a canal 150 kilometers from Islamabad.

I reproduced the article in its entirety because I don't want it to go the way of its author.

From Pakistan - silencing the truth-seekers by Karamatullah K Ghori, a former Pakistani ambassador, June 2, 2011:

Human Rights Watch cited a "reliable interlocutor" who said Saleem had been abducted by the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). "This killing bears all the hallmarks of previous killings perpetrated by Pakistani intelligence agencies," said a senior researcher for Human Rights Watch in South Asia, Ali Dayan Hasan. He called for a "transparent investigation and court proceedings".

Skipping down:

Killing, in cold blood a man of letters like Saleem amounts to an open declaration of war against the fundamental principles of Islam and defiance of the teachings of its Messenger, Prophet Mohammad, who bestowed the greatest honors on a seeker of truth by intoning that "the ink of a scholar's pen is holier than a martyr's blood".

The core problem in the context of Pakistan is the failure of the state as a whole - which includes its ruling elite, the military brass and civil society in general - to come to grips with the challenge of fundamentalists and their soul-comrades, the terrorists.

Except for a small segment of the intelligentsia bemoaning the debasing of Pakistan's moorings, there is hardly any backlash in evidence against the corrosive damage the fundamentalists are doing to its social order. The silence of the clergy against the defacing of Islam is simply deafening. Those few voices that articulated against terrorists have been brutally silenced.

With all due respect Mr. Ambassador, you need to read the Islamic holy texts a little more closely. Killing, in cold blood, is at the very heart of Islam; your holy prophet was very good at it. The silence of the clergy is because they know this is true, and the few who would dispute it know that it's true, too, and that they will be killed as takfir if they speak out against it. That's why they're silent. ;)

Skipping down:

The military leadership, on its part, has failed to check the spread of the festering cancer of fundamentalism and radicalism in its ranks - a damning legacy of General Zia ul-Haq's 11 years at the head of Pakistan, and then General Pervez Musharraf's rule until August 2008.

They didn't "fail to check the spread of the festering cancer of fundamentalism" - they promoted its spread. They wanted strategic depth against India; many of them even buy into the agenda that the infidel world needs to be forced to submit to Allah or be killed in a war of annihilation. You make it sound like these guys are trying to have it both ways; they're not - they're trying to promote the Land of the Pure and Submission to Allah, and they're shaking the US down for a jizya in the mean time.

(See also Justice, not words and Target: Saleem for more thoughts on the murder of Syed Saleem Shahzad.)

Now from ISI faces more heat after journalist's killing, June 1, 2011:

Shahzad was killed after he wrote a story that claimed al Qaeda attacked a naval base in Karachi last month after negotiations with the military to release two naval officials accused of militant links broke down.

That assault further humiliated the Pakistani military. Some believe that with its loss of credibility after the Bin Laden fiasco, and the naval base siege, the ISI may come under more public scrutiny for its apparent failure to tackle militancy and ease suicide bombings.

"Fewer people believe that the ISI is this powerful agency. People will start asking tougher questions," said Rifaat Hussain, head of the Department of Defence and Strategic Studies at Quaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad.

"They may be more willing to ask why the ISI is tapping the telephones of the opposition when it should be providing more security for the country."

But equally likely is that journalists will think twice about writing hard-hitting stories after Shahzad’s death.

That was the plan: shut up a man who might very well have been the best journalist in the world regarding this topic, and make his death a fitting example to others - shut up about the Pakistani Deep State, or die horribly.

Excerpts from Shehzad's murder may be personal enmity: Malik dated June 1, 2011:

ISLAMABAD: Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik said that journalist Salim Shehzad's murder could be a case of personal enimity, Geo News reported.

[snip]

In order to ensure life safety, Malik said that orders have been passed to allow journalists to carry small arms with them for self-protection.

Returning now to an ongoing trial in the US, involving David Coleman Headley, we pick up from page 3 of Bad Company: Lashkar-e-Tayyiba and the Growing Ambition of Islamist Militancy in Pakistan, testimony before Congress by Lisa Curtis, dated March 11, 2010:

The findings from the Headley investigations have awakened U.S. officials to the gravity of the international threat posed by Pakistan's failure to crack down on terrorist groups, including those that have primarily targeted India. U.S. officials had previously viewed the LeT solely through an Indo–Pakistani lens rather than as an urgent international terrorist threat. The Headley investigations appear to be changing the way the U.S. government views the LeT. U.S. State Department Counterterrorism Coordinator Daniel Benjamin, for instance, recently said that the Headley investigations show the LeT has global ambitions and is willing to undertake bold, mass-casualty operations.

Most troubling about the Headley case is what it has revealed about the proximity of the Pakistani military to the LeT. The U.S. Department of Justice indictment that was unsealed on January 14, 2009 names a retired Pakistani army major, Abdul Rehman Hashim Syed, as Headley's handler, and Ilyas Kashmiri, a former commando with Pakistan's elite Special Services Group, and now leader of the Harakat-ul-Jihadi-Islami, as the operational commander behind the Mumbai attacks. While the allegations do not specify that serving Pakistani army or intelligence officials were involved in the attacks, they reveal that the Pakistani army's past support and continued facilitation of the LeT contributed to the terror group's ability to conduct the assaults.

The Pakistani military is heavily involed with not just Al Qaeda, as shown by the attack on the Pakistani naval base, but also with LeT. And, as we considered in Part 3, this has ramifications here at home. From Confessed Terrorist Tried to Help U.S. Track Down Other Terrorists, May 31, 2011:

CHICAGO — Confessed terrorist David Coleman Headley was so eager to cooperate after his 2009 arrest that he worked with FBI agents to try to engineer the capture of a suspected mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai attacks and proposed setting up another kingpin for a missile strike, according to testimony in federal court Tuesday.

[snip]

Headley also offered to travel undercover to the tribal areas of Pakistan and present Ilyas Kashmiri, an al-Qaida-connected leader indicted in the Denmark plot, with an ornate sword that Headley suggested could be outfitted with a homing device to set up a U.S. missile attack, according to his testimony.

Headley revealed Tuesday that Kashmiri wanted to assassinate the chief executive officer of the Lockheed Martin Corp, which manufactures the Predator drone, as retaliation for the missile strikes that have killed scores of militants in Pakistan.

"Kashmiri was working on a plan," Headley testified. "He said he knew people who had already done surveillance. And he asked if weapons were available in the U.S."

Headley, who did not further describe the details of the plot, met with Kashmiri twice in Pakistan in 2009, according to his confession. Officials with the FBI and the Justice Department declined to comment on Headley’s mention of a plot targeting Lockheed CEO Robert J. Stevens. Lockheed officials also declined comment, citing a policy of not discussing specific threats against the company.

Kashmiri was behind a plan last fall to carry out Mumbai-style shooting attacks in Britain, France, Germany and Denmark, counter-terror officials say. Kashmiri has a far-flung network and is one of the most feared terrorist leaders today, especially in the vacuum left by the killing of Osama bin Laden. But it would be a new and troubling development if Kashmiri had directed operatives to work on a bona-fide plot to assassinate a prominent figure in the United States.

This confessed terrorist Headley has credibility problems, and he knows it. That is why US officials have so painstakingly checked his story, and it has checked out as much as it can. See How Do We Know Pakistan Terror Witness Is Telling the Truth? from May 31, 2011.

Pakistan's ISI was involved in 9/11 - not all of the ISI, but key elements. Key elements of the ISI have been supporting terrorists for decades, and trafficking in Afghan heroin to fund their jihad. Some of these people have been involved in the A. Q. Khan nuclear proliferation network. Some of them were involved in the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. These are Deep Events of Pakistan's Deep State.

These guys and their ideology comprise a rabid dog, and the US is helping fund it with military aid to Pakistan. Pakistan now runs the serious risk of getting cooked over the fire its Deep State helped kindle. And, from terrorists' nukes that may even now be on US soil (and quite possibly have been for years) to assassinations of key US industrial leaders whose products help fight the War on Terror in Pakistan, that fire might just start really blazing up here in the US.

The Campaign for the Land of the Pure is just getting started.

Campaign for the Land of the Pure, Part 3

We pick up right where we left off at the end of Part 2.

From Headley says Major Iqbal is Chaudhery Khan, 26/11 Mumbai attacks mastermind, May 25, 2011:

CHICAGO: The mysterious Major Iqbal, who India suspects is a Pakistani army officer in ISI, has now been identified as 'Chaudhery Khan' by Mumbai terror accused David Headley who said he is the mastermind of the 26/11 attacks plot.

50-year-old Headley also told a Chicago court during the trial of 26/11 co-accused Tahawwur Rana that an attempt to take the attackers to Mumbai in September 2008 failed as a boat in which they were to sail was lost.

He said before the jury that according to Major Iqbal, in September they lost the Pakistani boat which was supposed to take the attackers to sea for some distance after which they were to be shifted to an Indian fishing boat.

Iqbal also told Headley that they had lost 12 life jackets meant for the attackers.

Headley, a Pakistan-American, said that Major Iqbal, whose name keeps cropping up in the testimony, used the ID of 'Chaudhery Khan', made key decisions and was indeed the mastermind of the 26/11 plot.

In further testimoney, Headley identified India's movie capital as a possible target, and gave more information about "Major Iqbal"; from Headley identified Somnath temple, Bollywood as targets, May 26, 2011:

CHICAGO: A self-confessed key plotter of the Mumbai terror attack, David Coleman Headley Wednesday testified that he identified ancient Somnath temple in India and Bollywood among several more targets he "liked" for future terror attacks.

[snip]

Rana also said that nine of the 10 Mumbai attackers who died should be given Pakistan's highest military bravery award, Nishan-e-Haidar, Headley testified.

Headley also talked about his conversation with another of his Pakistani handlers Pasha and the new email he would create.

According to the transcript of Pasha-Headley conversation, read out by the federal prosecutor, Headley said: "Major Iqbal went to my house in Lahore in Pakistan, my employee told me over there."

Headley also testified that handlers of Pakistan-based terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) guided the attackers on phone and even asked them to change tactics to challenge the advancing commandos as they watched the 2008 Mumbai carnage live from Pakistan.

Headley said his LeT handler Sajid Mir, who was in Karachi during the Mumbai attack, was in contact with the attackers via phone and he was watching TV coverage of the siege and seeing what was going on in India.

This Major Iqbal is a key figure. And, based on what we learned in Part 2, he is likely an interface for the ISI. From Mysterious 'Major Iqbal' is Pakistan's latest albatross dated May 26, 2011:

WASHINGTON: He's acquiring the status of mythic villain, and Bollywood scriptwriters may soon caricature him in the mold of Mogambo and Shakaal, among their more famous screen scoundrels.

But the way David Headley aka Daood Gilani describes him, Major Iqbal was not given to loud laughs or corny dialogues. A serving ISI officer, he was a cold, calculating operational mastermind of the Mumbai 26/11 terrorist attack who handled its logistical aspects, including forking out the money, choosing targets, and liaised with other shadowy ISI operatives and terrorist outfits.

From the time US Department of Justice attorneys named the mysterious "Major Iqbal" in their indictment following Headley's disclosure during investigations that he was his principle ISI handler, investigators have struggled to get a fix on him. Who did Major Iqbal report to? Where is he now? What is his full and real identity? And most importantly, will Pakistan identify and extradite him – or will it hide him as it has done with many wanted terrorists?

Interesting questions raised in that last paragraph....

It seems a safe bet that someone in Pakistan's military/government circles was helping Osama bin Laden, and that was how bin Laden was able to live right up the street from a military academy just a few dozen kilometers from Islamabad.

Osama bin Laden's Hideout North of Islamabad

We also know ISI is connected to LeT.

Needless to say, ISI is going to be protecting the guy who serves as their connection, at least as well as they covered for bin Laden... unless Major Iqbal gets bargained away as a pawn in the game? (Or killed to bury the story with him?)

In his testimony on Tuesday, Headley revealed that "Major Iqbal" was also known by the name "Chaudhery Khan." Exhibits presented by the prosecution showed Headley corresponded with him using a Yahoo ID. It was Khan aka "Major Iqbal" who recruited him, walked him through the Mumbai plot, and set him on his way with $25,000 to begin surveillance and identifying targets in Mumbai.

Headley says "Major Iqbal" disclosed to him that a previously scheduled attack on Mumbai in September 2008 had to be abandoned after terrorists deployed for the purpose lost their moorings -- and their boat. He also advised Headley to befriend influential people "who live in military facilities" in India, and while he was thrilled with the advances the Pakistani-American made in infiltrating Shiv Sena, he was disappointed that Headley did not scout the Mumbai airport as a target.

Headley also revealed that his principle ISI handler directed that the Jewish community center Chabad House be added to the list of targets because he believed it was being used as a front for Israel's Mossad intelligence agency. Chillingly, his associate Sajid Mir, who is also believed to be ISI official, told Headley that they had no compunctions killing women at Chabad House because Israeli women served in their army on account of mandatory draft.

In the rogue's gallery of Pakistani masterminds of 26/11, "Major Iqbal" clearly emerges as the operational chief. While Headley says he is an ISI official, the US chargesheet, while naming him as a defendant, does not mention his ISI affiliation, though this has been identified in both US and Indian case files.

This whole War on Terror is falling into the gap between what is said and what is done.

And that is convenient, because the War on Terror is a source of tremendous profiteering, and creates the instability that permits heroin trafficking while providing the exigency to allow the heroin trafficking to continue in order to prioritize counterterrorism - even though the terrorists fund their jihad with money from heroin trafficking.

It is worth recalling what Sibel Edmonds said in Cracking the Case: An Interview With Sibel Edmonds by Scott Horton, back on August 22, 2005:

SE: [snip]

You know, they are coming down on these charities as the finance of al-Qaeda. Well, if you were to talk about the financing of al-Qaeda, a very small percentage comes from these charity foundations. The vast majority of their financing comes from narcotics. Look, we had 4 to 6 percent of the narcotics coming from the East, coming from Pakistan, coming from Afghanistan via the Balkans to the United States. Today, three or four years after Sept. 11, that has reached over 15 percent. How is it getting here? Who are getting the proceedings from those big narcotics?

Heroin trafficking became a source of funding for the jihad against the Soviets in the 1980's. The heroin was shipped to the Soviet Union, where it was sold to fund the fight against the Soviet occupation in Afghanistan, even as the heroin helped destroy the Soviet Union from within. This was clandestine, "black" money, out of reach of Congressional oversight.

After the jihad, though, the channels continued to exist and, as the Cold War ended, with state funding of terrorism drying up, terrorist organizations turned increasingly to organized crime to fund their operations. Some terrorist organizations morphed into criminal organizations, criminal organizations began to look like terrorist groups... and, it is important to consider, organized crime has always sought to buy influence with government officials, law enforcement, and political leaders by bribery and illicit money.

As Edmonds pointed out in Former FBI Translator Sibel Edmonds Calls Current 9/11 Investigation Inadequate by Jim Hogue, May 7, 2004:

JH: Here's a question that you might be able to answer: What is al-Qaeda?

SE: This is a very interesting and complex question. When you think of al-Qaeda, you are not thinking of al-Qaeda in terms of one particular country, or one particular organization. You are looking at this massive movement that stretches to tens and tens of countries. And it involves a lot of sub-organizations and sub-sub-organizations and branches and it's extremely complicated. So to just narrow it down and say al-Qaeda and the Saudis, or to say it's what they had at the camp in Afghanistan, is extremely misleading. And we don't hear the extent of the penetration that this organization and the sub-organizations have throughout the world, throughout their networks and throughout their various activities. It's extremely sophisticated. And then you involve a significant amount of money into this equation. Then things start getting a lot of overlap -- money laundering, and drugs and terrorist activities and their support networks converging in several points. That's what I'm trying to convey without being too specific. And this money travels. And you start trying to go to the root of it and it's getting into somebody's political campaign, and somebody's lobbying. And people don't want to be traced back to this money.

By the way... did you know that Headley is a convicted heroin dealer? See Witness Implicates Rana in Mumbai Terror, May 25, 2011, by Bouboushian: "Headley, the prosecution's star witness, is a former heroin smuggler turned informant."

And, did you know that the LeT is connected to heroin trafficking? A brief article, Heroin seized from LeT carriers, dated October 22, 2007, is reproduced here in its entirety:

Jammu: Over 1 kg of top-grade heroin was on Sunday seized in Doda district of Jammu and Kashmir indicating the growing use of the Golden Crescent route by cash-strapped Lashkar-e-Taiba militants to smuggle narcotics for terrorist activities.

The consignment of A-999 grade heroin, manufactured in Afghanistan and packaged in Pakistan, with a street value of Rs 1.50 crore, was recovered from two persons in Bhaderwah town of the district, Doda range Deputy Inspector - General of Police Farooq Khan said.

He said preliminary tests carried at the local forensic aboratory confirmed that it was the "purest form of heroin."

The consignment which came in triple packs was handed by a LeT overground worker of Thatri to a tailor Abdul Khalid and cable operator Tahir Hussain for selling it in Bhaderwah.

Khalid and Hussain told the police that the money for the contraband consignment was to be paid back to the LeT worker once it was sold in the grey market.

"Bhaderwah does not have hard drug consumers nor is it close to India-Pakistan border. That points to one thing, that the cash-strapped LeT militants have chosen drug peddling for funding their activities," the IG told PTI.

Several Hawala rackets and drug networks, from which Rs. 8 lakh, several kg of heroin and SIM cards and mobile handsets were recovered have been busted by police in Jammu division in the past month. — PTI

This is a standard play out of the jihad playbook.

Heroin money finances the jihad, even as the heroin itself destroys the infidel country. And, since infidel politicians are on the payroll of the heroin traffickers, any investigation will only go so far - and that is not far enough to stop the terrorist attacks.

This is how 9/11 didn't get prevented.

A similar situation is how the Oklahoma City Bombing didn't get prevented.

And this is how future attacks by the LeT in the United States will not get prevented.

This campaign for the Land of the Pure isn't just about what happens to Pakistan, and who controls what's left; it's about terrorist sleeper cells here in America, heroin money in political campaigns in the US... it's about what happens to America, and who controls what's left.

Campaign for the Land of the Pure, Part 2

I began Part 1 by briefly considering the case of Raymond Davis, then touching on other topics, such as the fact that Colonel Imam had reportedly been killed, to introduce the fact that so much of what is happening in Pakistan is happening well beneath the surface.

Well, that is true anywhere.

But, I also called attention to why it is important to focus on Pakistan:

But what else we are seeing is the Pakistani Deep State, which is involved in nuclear proliferation for profit, heroin smuggling, and other lucrative activities, as well as support for Islamic terrorism, battling other factions of Pakistan's elite.

I finished that post with this:

The War on Terror will be decided mainly in Pakistan.

A major battle in the War on Drugs will also be decided there, as, until the War on Terror in Afghanistan is ended, the instability there will foment trafficking of high-quality heroin as Afghanistan essentially corners the world market for both quality and quantity.

And, there is profiteering and the Great Game going on.

All of this fuels corruption in Rawalpindi and Islamabad and, of course, in London and especially in Washington.

There is a covert fight occuring to decide Pakistan's future, and even Pakistan's existence as a sovereign nation.

We now examine that covert fight.

First, we define a few terms. Overt action refers to when everyone knows something is happening, and everyone knows who is doing it. Covert action is when everyone knows something is happening, but no one really knows who is behind it. Then, there is clandestine action: people don't even know that something is going on.

The fight in Pakistan is covert - you can read the paper, watch TV and surf the 'net and know something is going on, but we do not really know who is behind it or what their agenda is.

David Coleman Headley was indicted, charged with twelve counts of being on the wrong side in the War on Terror. Legal proceedings are ongoing, and from an article entitled Implicating ISI in terror, Headley says hatred of India after 1971 war drove him to LeT by Shalini Parekh & Chidanand Rajghatta, May 24, 2011, we learn the following:

CHICAGO/WASHINGTON: Hatred of India arising from Pakistan's defeat in the 1971 war drove him to the terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba, David Coleman Headley, the Pakistani expatriate who involved in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack told a Chicago court on Monday while implicating Pakistan's spy agency ISI in nurturing terrorism.

First, a little bit about Lashkar-e-Taiba. From Bad Company: Lashkar-e-Tayyiba and the Growing Ambition of Islamist Militancy in Pakistan, testimony before Congress by Lisa Curtis, dated March 11, 2010:

My name is Lisa Curtis. I am a senior research fellow at The Heritage Foundation. The views I express in this testimony are my own, and should not be construed as representing any official position of The Heritage Foundation.

The Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, a Pakistan-based terrorist organization, poses a threat to U.S. citizens as well as to critical U.S. national security interests, including promoting stability in South Asia and degrading the overall threat from terrorism emanating from the region. The U.S. government has previously associated the Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT — "Army of the Pure") primarily with the Indo–Pakistani dispute over Kashmir and has viewed the group as less inimical to U.S. interests than al-Qaeda, although the U.S. State Department has listed the LeT as a Foreign Terrorist Organization since December, 2001.

Notice that Lashkar-e-Taiba, by whatever spelling, means "Army of the Pure".

This series is entitled Campaign for the Land of the Pure, and a previous series (see sidebar) was entitled The Land of the Pure.

Where do these names come from?

This trial addresses connections to the Mumbai terrorist attack, and is bringing up connections between LeT and Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate, or ISI.

For more background, we consider an excerpt from The Threat to the US Homeland Emanating from Pakistan, Congressional testimony by Stephen Tankel with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, dated May 3, 2011:

Lashkar-e-Taiba (the Army of the Pure or LeT) is one of Pakistan's oldest and most powerful militant groups. India has been its primary enemy since the early 1990s and the group has never considered itself to be an al-Qaeda affiliate, but LeT did begin contributing to al-Qaeda's global jihad against the United States and its allies after 9/11. The spectacular nature of the 2008 Mumbai attacks and target selection suggested LeT continued to prioritize jihad against India, but was moving deeper into al-Qaeda's orbit. Despite repeated calls by a chorus of U.S. officials on Pakistan to take actions against the group in the wake of Mumbai, LeT's position remains relatively secure. There are several reasons. First, Pakistan is facing a serious insurgency and LeT remains one of the few militant outfits whose policy is to refrain from launching attacks against the state. The security establishment has taken a triage approach, determining that to avoid additional instability it must not take any action that could draw LeT further into the insurgency. Second, the Pakistan army and its powerful Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI) have long considered LeT to be the country's most reliable proxy against India and the group still provides utility in this regard. LeT also provides potential leverage at the negotiating table and so it is therefore unrealistic to assume support for the group will cease without a political payoff from India in return. As a result, the consensus among the Pakistani security establishment appears to be that, at least in the short-term, taking steps to dismantle the group would chiefly benefit India, while Pakistan would be left to deal with the costs. Finally, LeT provides social services and relief aid via its above ground wing, Jamaat-ul-Dawa, and its activities in this sphere have led to a well of support among segments of the populace.

To understand LeT and how it grew so powerful, one must recognize the two dualities that define it. The first is that it is a missionary and a militant organization that for most of its history has placed an equivalent emphasis on reshaping society at home (through preaching and social welfare) and to waging violent jihad abroad. The second is that its military activities are informed both by its pan-Islamist rationale for jihad and its role as a proxy for the Pakistani state. LeT was able to grow into a powerful and protected organization in Pakistan as a result of its ability to reconcile these dualities. Jihad against India to liberate Muslim land under perceived Hindu occupation aligned with LeT's ideological priorities and also with state interests. This enabled the group to become Pakistan's most reliable proxy, which brought with it substantial benefits including the support needed to construct a robust social welfare apparatus used for missionary and reformist purposes. However, this approach also necessitated trade-offs and compromises after 9/11, since preserving its position vis-à-vis the state sometimes forced the group to sublimate its pan-Islamist impulses. As the decade wore on, internal tensions increased over who LeT should be fighting against.

Finally, for some additional background, we review Lashkar-e-Toiba 'Army of the Pure', excerpts of which are quite eye-opening:

The LeT has consistently advocated the use of force and vowed that it would plant the 'flag of Islam' in Washington, Tel Aviv and New Delhi.

[snip]

Arrests made during March-April 2004 near Baghdad brought to light links between the LeT and Islamist groups fighting the United States military in Iraq.

[snip]

LeT has an extensive network that run across Pakistan and India with branches in Saudi Arabia, United Kingdom, Bangladesh and South East Asia.

The outfit collects donations from the Pakistani community in the Persian Gulf and United Kingdom, Islamic Non-Governmental Organisations, and Pakistani and Kashmiri businessmen. It receives considerable financial, material and other forms of assistance from the Pakistan government, routed primarily through the ISI. The ISI is the main source of LeT's funding. Saudi Arabia also provides funds.

The LeT maintains ties to various religious/military groups around the world, ranging from the Philippines to the Middle East and Chechnya primarily through the al Qaeda fraternal network.

The LeT has also been part of the Bosnian campaign against the Serbs.

It has allegedly set up sleeper cells in the U.S. and Australia, trained terrorists from other countries and has entered new theatres of Jihad like Iraq.

The group has links with many international Islamist terrorist groups like the Ikhwan-ul-Musalmeen of Egypt and other Arab groups.

LeT has a unit in Germany and also receives help from the Al Muhajiraun, supporter of Sharia Group, (Abu Hamza Masari- of Mosque Finsbury Park, North London) and its annual convention is regularly attended by fraternal bodies in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Yemen, Bahrain, Oman, Kosovo, Bangladesh, Myanmar, USA, Palestine, Bosnia, Philippines, Jordan, Chechnya, etc.

[snip]

The outfit collects donations from the Pakistani community in the Persian Gulf and United Kingdom, Islamic Non-Governmental Organisations, and Pakistani and Kashmiri businessmen. It receives considerable financial, material and other forms of assistance from the Pakistan government, routed primarily through the ISI. The ISI is the main source of LeT's funding. Funds also come from some sources in Saudi Arabia.

We now skip down in indicted, charged with twelve counts of being on the wrong side in the War on Terror. Legal proceedings are ongoing, and from Implicating ISI in terror, Headley says hatred of India after 1971 war drove him to LeT, where Headley is discussing LeT:

He chronologically mentioned his handlers in LET, including the others charged along with Rana, in a recent second superceding indictment, including Pasha, Kashmiri, Saajid and Major Iqbal. He also related various types of camps he attended in different regions of Pakistan, ranging from essential espionage, to arms training, surveillance training and hand to hand combat.

"These groups operate under the umbrella of the ISI... They coordinate with each other," Headley told the court, recalling that one time, when he suggested that LeT sue the U.S government for designating it as a terrorist organization, LeT leader Zaki-ur Rehman said "he would have to consult the ISI."

Headley also related how his LeT handler Ali took his phone number and told him that a "Major Iqbal" would be calling him about an operation in India. The prosecution case mentions a "Major Iqbal," believed to be a serving ISI officer, who is alleged to have coordinated the Mumbai attacks.

Allegations surfacing in credible expert testimony before Congress, and elsewhere in a criminal trial, that Pakistan's ISI is pulling the strings on the terrorist organization behind the Mumbai attacks, the LeT (the "Army of the Pure"), and discussions of one "Major Iqbal" - a name growing in importance.

Then there are claims by the LeT that they will plant the flag of Islam in Washington, D.C., as well as credible reports that they are connected to terrorist organizations all over the world, including having sleeper cells right here in the United States.

Do you think the "Campaign for the Land of the Pure" is only a fight for control of Pakistan?

Stick around!

Tale of a Tiger, Part 7

We began this series with Part 1 where we briefly considered China's ties to Iran, and mentioned China's espionage program against the United States as a source of technology which China uses to develop its own capabilities, and which China passes on to Pakistan and others. In Part 2 we looked at the possible ramifications of China's growing maritime capabilities, specifically how that could impact power projection into the Indian Ocean.

In Part 3 we looked at a new missile under development by China which could threaten US carrier battle groups, then went on to consider how China's economic growth of nearly 10% per year over the past four decades is fueling its growing power, including the power of its navy, which seems to finally be beginning to see some of the fruits of that economic growth.

In Part 4 we looked specifically at the physical geographic connection between Pakistan and China - the Karakoram Highway. Coupled with diplomatic maneuvers that may be intended to push international recognition of Jammu and Kashmir as belonging to Pakistan, this could open up a militarily significant land route from China to new port facilities in Gwadar, Pakistan. Should Afghanistan be stabilized by a pro-Pakistani force - such as the Taliban, whom Pakistan helped establish in Afghanistan - both flanks of this road would be protectable by China's large army and air force, allowing Gwadar to be a secure base for Chinese naval forces to project power into the Persian Gulf region. In Part 5 we explored this border issue with India more in-depth. In Part 6 we looked at another border dispute China has with India, and then considered the ramifications should these border issues with India be resolved militarily in favor of Beijing. We also touched on some blowback to Sino-Pakistani relations: the economic impact on Pakistan of cheap Chinese goods, and growing Islamization and related matters in China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

We now begin with the initial excerpt of China-Iran nuke pipeline by Gordon G. Chang, May 2, 2011:

Earlier this year, Malaysian police in Port Klang seized two containers from a ship en route to Iran from China. Authorities suspect that items labeled "Goods Used for Liquid Mixing or Storage for Pharmaceutical or Chemical or Food Industry" were actually parts for nuclear warheads.

With regularity, officials in Asia have confiscated shipments of equipment and materials sold by Chinese state enterprises to Iranian companies in contravention of international treaties and U.N. rules. The United States has yet to convince Beijing to terminate its support for the covert nuclear weapons program of the "atomic ayatollahs" and appears unwilling to impose meaningful sanctions on the Chinese for continuing their trade in the world's most destructive technology.

That trade began in earnest in 1974, when China started to help Pakistan develop an atomic weapon. Later, Dr. A.Q. Khan, the "father of Pakistan's bomb," merchandised China's nuclear technology to rogue states, almost certainly with Beijing's knowledge and perhaps at its direction. China also directly aided Iran.

Chang then goes on to provide a brief yet informative history of Chinese-Iranian connections regarding nuclear weapons proliferation, as well as some quality analysis and questions regarding US policy. Please read the entire article, keeping in mind Chang has been following this topic for some time.

We now consider an article by Chang from over a year ago, entitled Iran Tried to Buy the Pakistani Bomb. What Was China’s Role?, dated March 17, 2010:

Iran tried to buy three nuclear weapons from Pakistan at the end of the 1980s. Islamabad rebuffed the attempt but ended up transferring to Tehran bomb blueprints, centrifuge parts, and a list of black market suppliers of components. So says Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan's atomic bomb, in an official account revealed on Sunday.

Skipping down:

The significance of Khan's assertions is that they undermine the stout Chinese defense of Iran. First, they highlight long-held Iranian ambitions to build an atomic arsenal.

Second, by detailing how the Pakistani government was involved in nuclear transfers to Iran, Khan raises new questions about Beijing's role. Why? The Pakistani nuclear weapons program is essentially an extension of the Chinese one. China, beginning around 1974, transferred bomb technology to Pakistan. Beijing's assistance was crucial, extensive, and continuous. As Gary Milhollin of the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control has noted, "If you subtract China’s help from Pakistan's nuclear program, there is no nuclear program." Moreover, Beijing has remained involved in Islamabad’s nuclear efforts, long after the events Khan so meticulously describes in Sunday's statements.

The continuation of Chinese involvement in the Pakistani program was revealed when Islamabad ended the Khan ring. Due to Chinese pressure, Pervez Musharraf, then the country's strongman leader, conducted a hurried probe, forced Khan's confession, and then immediately pardoned him in 2004 to cut off any disclosures embarrassing to Beijing, which supported the controversial decision to end the inquiry prematurely. Given China's role in the Pakistani nuclear program and its influence in Islamabad, it was not possible for Khan, with official blessing, to transfer Chinese technology to Iran without Beijing's knowledge and consent.

This history goes back decades.

And anyone who has been following this knows this is true (just like anyone with a clue knew Osama bin Laden was in Pakistan somewhere, either along the Durand Line or, more likely, near Rawalpindi or some military facility).

As an example, we consider the first paragraph of Is China Playing a Dual Game in Iran? by John W. Garver, dated Winter, 2011:

One aspect of China's Iran policy suggests a sincere effort to uphold the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) regime in cooperation with the United States. Another suggests that Beijing believes a nuclear-armed or nuclear-armed-capable Iran would serve China's geopolitical interests in the Persian Gulf region.¹ Is China playing a dual game toward Iran? This question cannot be answered with certainty, but given its importance, a tentative and necessarily somewhat speculative effort to think through the matter is in order.

And, here is an excerpt from near the end of Is China Playing a Dual Game in Iran?:

The circumstantial evidence suggests that China is playing a dual game in Iran. Beijing seeks to convince U.S. leaders that China is a willing and responsible partner in maintaining the NPT regime, but it also helps Iran win the time, international space, and continuing economic wherewithal necessary for it to push its nuclear plans to a successful outcome.

Pakistan offers China technology from weapons bought from the US. (And these weapons are paid for with US taxpayer dollars in the form of military aid; it goes over back home, because we are told that the aid will go to buy weapons made in the US, thus bringing jobs to the districts of elected officials who support it. American voters look at jobs, American officials look at the next election, and Pakistan and China look at how they can improve their position relative to their enemies, mainly us. And don't even try to argue that many Pakistani authorities don't think of the US as a key infidel enemy.) Pakistan also offers a tenuous overland connection to the approaches to the Persian Gulf, and port facilities there.

In return, Pakistan gets nuclear weapons technology from China, which Pakistan can spread to other interested parties - furthering China's goal of building up enemies of the United States, while maintaining deniability plausible enough to keep from suffering consequences.

And let's not forget that China launders money into the campaigns of key politicians in the US, and maintains an excellent espionage network that has key officials on Beijing's payroll. Bill Clinton got caught doing this - and nothing happened. Why should anyone else be afraid? Partisan politics will only push this so far - on the important issues, people from both sides of the aisle are involved in selling America out.

An excerpt from page 6 of China's Use of Perception Management and Strategic Deception, dated November, 2009:

Strategic Deception and Perception Management — A Chinese Perspective

One Chinese description of strategic deception emphasizes its comprehensive nature, broadly targeting an opponent's strategic assessment process about foreign capabilities and intentions.⁹ This authoritative source for a Chinese military audience indicates that strategic deception has specific battlespace applications, but by its nature deception at the strategic level of warfare is not constrained by the physical space of combat actions. Rather, strategic deception is an ongoing process and covers "all types of measures and activities" designed to confuse an opponent in peacetime or wartime, emphasizing the latter. Confusing the opponent then leads him to make "major errors in judgment and decision-making," since strategic deception aims at foreign intelligence institutions and thus influences the "highest military authorities responsible for formulating strategic decisions."¹⁰

Strategic deception in this Chinese conceptualization employs a diversity of methods that merge military with non-military actors and historical with contemporary means:

 Political and diplomatic false actions and conduct
 News media for "deceptive propaganda and false news"
 Electronic measures, such as broadcasting false information and jamming
 Information network deception, especially on the Internet
 Strategic camouflage and fake military targets
 Simulating large-unit activities and strategic demonstration
 Spies and double agents

Sun Tzu's classic admonition to "know your enemy and know yourself" also contributes conceptually to this Chinese definition of strategic deception. Understanding the enemy's psychology and his psychological weaknesses is crucial for deception to achieve the intended effect and to maintain the secrecy of deception activities. China has a long history of employing strategic deception, this definition asserts.¹¹ The continuing development of military technologies is a key factor increasing the means to conduct strategic deception

Works like a champ... especially when you have key people like our steely-nerved Warrior Princess Condoleezza Rice and the Clintons either compromised or on Beijing's payroll.

Campaign for the Land of the Pure: Part 1

This is very peculiar.

I wasn't going to blog for a few more days. I have been online, and I have been updating the links in the sidebar, adding in regional news sources as we get ready to begin our Presidential primary season (yes, it's that time again - the Presidential elections last longer and longer, and cost more and more...).

But, as I came online again, I noticed an article I had read earlier, which was widely shared on Facebook, has magically disappeared. The article dealt with the lack of diplomatic credentials for an American accused of murder in Lahore, Pakistan.

Basically, what happened is that this guy was in the wrong part of Lahore, without security escort (as would be expected to accompany someone there working for the Consulate), and got into a problem. He supposedly shot two Pakistanis, claiming self-defense. Another Pakistani was run over by an unidentified vehicle coming to pick this guy up and extricate him from the area, but then that car disappeared.

From The (Very) Strange Case of Raymond Davis, January 30, 2011:

[W]hat exactly was happening at Mozang? Very much in line with the immediate knee-jerk reaction of many Pakistanis, an early commentary by Jeff Stein in The Washington Post seemed to suggest rather fancifully that the shootout could have been a "Spy rendezvous gone bad?" That would be a conspiracy theory, but not an entirely implausible one. Mozang is not a part of town that you would expect too many foreigners, let alone a US official, visiting; and certainly not in what was reportedly a rented private vehicle. And while Pakistan today is clearly an unsafe place, the question of just why an Embassy official was carrying a firearm be wished away. On the other hand, however, Mr. Davis claims that he shot in self defense as the two men on the motorcycle were trying to rob him at gun point. Anyone who knows Pakistan knows all too well that this, too, is entirely possible. TV footage and reports coming immediately after the incident showed one of the young men lying dead with a revolver and wearing an ammunition belt. And certainly, the question of why at least one of the two young men on the motorcycle was carrying a loaded firearm cannot be wished away just because he had "dushmani." Indeed, serious questions need to be asked about just who the two young men on the motorcycle were, just as they need to be asked about who Raymond Davis is. There just seem to be too many unnecessary weapons in too much proximity in this story. All of the many explanations that are floating around are very disturbing, but also very plausible. Which is exactly why this story is even more dangerous if left unresolved.

Now, the one page showing that the accused, Davis, did not have a diplomatic visa, is missing, but there is another with similar information:

LAHORE: Deputy Prosecutor General of Punjab, Rana Bakhtiar said on Sunday that Raymond Davis had fired the bullets from the back thus it was not a case of 'self defense' as he had stated earlier.

Rana also said that Davis, charged with murder of two motorcyclists in Lahore, did not hold any special privileges as a diplomat.

Referring to Article 49-2 of the Vienna Convention, he said that diplomatic officials only hold privilege when they are on duty, but Davis was in Pakistan on a business visa.

Davis is being described by the American media as a security contractor from a Florida-based firm, Hyperion Protective Consultants, LLC.

That Foreign Office and the US embassy were not on the same page on the issue of status of the accused was obvious from an FO press release that mentioned Davis as a US 'functionary', and not a diplomat.

I reviewed my previous posts, including The Land of the Pure, Part 6, and The Colonel Imam Situation, and decided to begin a new series on Pakistan.

From US Embassy Personnel Caught Spying On Kahuta, January 29, 2011:

Pakistani authorities have enough evidence that implicates US diplomats and trainers in spying on Kahuta, one of the prime nuclear facilities in the country.

What is stunning for most Pakistanis is that elements in the elected government, and especially the Interior Ministry, appear to be facilitating the Americans despite protests from police and intelligence officials.

It seems American contractors in another part of Pakistan are sniffing around a Pakistani nuclear facility. The commandant of the police training facility where these contractors are supposedly working got suspicious, and asked a few questions.

The Commandant Police Training College Sihala, Mr. Nasir Khan Durrani, wrote a letter on Aug. 15 to senior Pakistani police officers drawing their attention to the suspicious activities of American 'trainers' at Sihala. Mr. Durrani is widely respected within the officer corps of Pakistan's police service. Some of his ideas, like Rescue 15, were implemented nationwide.

Durrani's letter was not without basis. In his report, titled, Agency wants survey of site to assess equipment, Mr. Ansar Abbasi, editor investigations at The News International, revealed that there was some evidence that radiation measurement equipment has been installed by the Americans at the training facility. He reported that US diplomats have been caught making frequent visits to the facility, attempting at one point to get into the high security perimeter around Kahuta. Amazingly, someone from FIA, the interior minister's former employer and a lead civilian spy agency, helped release the arrested American diplomats.

Okay, so we have some American "contractors" doing what is presumably their job, collecting intelligence on Pakistan's nuclear program, and a Pakistani police academy commandant doing his, reporting the Americans.

The suspicions of Mr. Durrani, Commandant Police Training College Sihala, turn out to be legitimate. Mr. Durrani might have expected to be rewarded for keeping a vigil on the country's vital interests. To his surprise, instead of a citation, Mr. Durrani was reprimanded by the Federal Interior Ministry.

On Oct. 22, The Nation published a report whose title, Rehman Malik Defends US interests, warns Durrani, said it all.

"The Interior Ministry is browbeating the Commandant Police Training College Sihala as to why he has written a letter to the Punjab, Inspector General of Police (IGP), expressing his concerns over the presence of US security officials in the premises of the institute," the sources told TheNation.

Sources privy to the developments said that the Ministry was annoyed with Nasir Khan Durrani, Commandant Police Training College Sihala as to why he had written a letter to IGP seeking clarification from the Interior Ministry and Foreign Office about the terms and conditions of US security officials' presence as well as the duration of their stay in the college premises.

The sources said that the Ministry had expressed its displeasure over the action of Commandant and in its reply to the IGP it was stated that the matter could have been discussed verbally and there was no need to write about it.

Skipping down, the article summarizes what is going on:

Evidence is piling up that the present 'elected' government in Islamabad is racing against time to plant enough Americans inside Pakistan to counter the Pakistani military and the country's strong intelligence setup.

Some of what we're seeing here is American intelligence personnel mixed in with contractors, which the US Government has been increasingly using instead of US Government personnel.

But what else we are seeing is the Pakistani Deep State, which is involved in nuclear proliferation for profit, heroin smuggling, and other lucrative activities, as well as support for Islamic terrorism, battling other factions of Pakistan's elite.

On the US side, we see the US Deep State, involved in similar illicit activities for profit.

And, we see legitimate and semi-legitimate functions of the US Government to ensure people friendly to US interests emerge on top in Pakistan's power struggle, and to make sure Washington has information regarding issues of concern to US national security.

So, mixed into this mess, we have American intelligence personnel in semi-official and non-official cover; but, are they working for the interests of the US, or are they involved in illicit activities using their connections to the intelligence community as a layer of cover under the cover established for them by the intelligence community, but above the real mission of trafficking narcotics and other contraband? Is that trafficking just for profit, or does it fund other covert/clandestine activities, so Congressional oversight is avoided by not taking money from our Congresscritters?

Do we know who all these guys are really working for?

It is apparent someone in Islamabad thinks he knows who they all are working for, and is facilitating the work of some, but not of others.

Meanwhile, Colonel Imam has reportedly been killed (dated January 24, 2011).

ISLAMABAD:

A former officer of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Sultan Amir Tarar, better known as Colonel Imam, has reportedly been killed by the Taliban on Sunday.

Though there is no official confirmation of his death, sources close to his family say they were informed about Col Imam's killing by intelligence sources.

The War on Terror will be decided mainly in Pakistan.

A major battle in the War on Drugs will also be decided there, as, until the War on Terror in Afghanistan is ended, the instability there will foment trafficking of high-quality heroin as Afghanistan essentially corners the world market for both quality and quantity.

And, there is profiteering and the Great Game going on.

All of this fuels corruption in Rawalpindi and Islamabad and, of course, in London and especially in Washington.

There is a covert fight occuring to decide Pakistan's future, and even Pakistan's existence as a sovereign nation.