Bush calls Mush on terror links CHIDANAND RAJGHATTA
TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ FRIDAY, JULY 29, 2005 11:48:35 PM ]
WASHINGTON: President Bush has spoken to Pakistan's military dictator Pervez Musharraf over telephone amid a string of reports about Pakistan re-opening terrorist training camps and causing consternation in Afghanistan and India.
Bush spoke to Musharraf for nearly 25 minutes on Thursday. "They talked about US-Pakistan relations, they discussed the global war on terrorism, and they talked about regional issues," a White House official said, eschewing the usual superlatives about Pakistan's frontline role in the war on terrorism.
But Pakistani officials put their usual spin on the call, saying Bush appreciated Islamabad's role in the war on terror, including the recent arrest of an al Qaeda suspect wanted in the abduction and murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.
The officials also said Bush assured Musharraf that the recent Indo-U.S pact was not directed against Pakistan and would not in any way tilt the "balance of power" in South Asia. Washington is aware of Pakistan's security requirements and will fulfill them, they added.
By most accounts though, 'balance of power' in South Asia is now a bygone proposition in the American diplomatic lexicon, and is farthest from the mind of US administration which is seriously concerned about Pakistan being the fountainhead of terrorism.
There have been several reports in the US media in recent days, notably in the Wall Street Journal and Los Angeles Times, about Islamabad's renewed patronage of terrorism which is affecting not just Indian and Afghan security, but also the US troops in the region.
Earlier this month, US forces attacked and killed nearly 50 Taliban militants inside Pakistani territory, the same week that Indian forces stemmed a major infiltration in the Gurez sector in Kashmir and wiped out 40 terrorists. The events led Pakistan's military ruler to rage that he would not allow any violation of Pakistani territory.
According to an LA Times report, a senior Afghan counter-terrorism official has spoken of an extensive network of terrorist training camps run by Pakistani forces. The reopening of such camps coincides with the discovery of high-tech bombs in Afghanistan which he said could not have been made without support.
The bombs are being triggered by Pakistani-made phones, he added. Afghan intelligence also found that Taliban fighters attacking US and Afghan forces on the border with Pakistan are well-equipped and well-supplied, ostensibly by the Pakistani intelligence.
"Pakistan is lying," the paper quoted Lt Sayed Anwar, acting head of Afghanistan's counter-terrorism department as saying. "If Pakistan tells the truth, the problems will stop in Afghanistan. They say they are friends of Americans, and yet they order these people to kill Americans."
"No one should have two faces with his friend," the official added, saying such people would suffer shame and destruction. "Once you shake hands with somebody, you should stand with him till the end."
Bush's phone call was evidently made in this context. A 25-minute phone call would obviously involve lot more than just pleasantries and praise. Soon after the call Musharraf announced that Pakistan would expel all foreigners from madrasses in Pakistan.
The Afghan official's charges are supported respected Pakistani commentators who say Pakistan's military regime is being duplicitous in its war on terrorism and paying lip service while covertly maintaining its policy of using terrorists as a backup for its policies against Afghanistan and India.
In a recent interview with the German magazine Der Spiegel, the respected Pakistani commentator Ahmed Rashid says the biggest mistake the West has made with Pakistan since 9/11 has been the pursuit of private diplomacy. Bush, Blair, Schroeder and others keep praising Pakistan and saying it is doing a great job hunting down Al Qaeda, but behind the scenes they are whistling a completely different tune.
"The West needs to have one policy which should be in the public domain. Then the Pakistani public would insist that Musharraf fulfill these demands," says Rashid, one of the many liberal Pakistani commentators who have expressed concern about the effect of Pakistan's militaristic policies on ordinary Pakistani citizens and the country's international reputation.
US analysts meanwhile say American intelligence officials have privately agonized over Pakistan and its al-Qaida-run camps for at least the past year, contradicting White House praise for Islamabad's strong cooperation" in the war.
However, even discreet private diplomacy such as the Bush phone call to Musharraf is subject to extensive spin by Pakistani officials intent on projecting an image instead of tackling reality. In recent high-level meetings, Pakistani leaders have worried more about "dealing" with journalists reporting about Pakistan than addressing issues raised by the reports.