COLUMNISTS
DIARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTIONS
ARCHIVES

Search Rediff

Pakistan, Not Taliban, Is Key to Bin Laden, Says Anti-Terrorism Expert Bodansky

A P Kamath in Washington

The key to capturing Osama bin Laden, the billionaire-turned-leader of jihad (holy war), is not so much Taliban-controlled Afghanistan as Pakistan, which professes to be America's friend, says Yossef Bodansky, author of Bin Laden: The Man Who Declared War on America.

The United States government has offered $ 5 million for the capture of bin Laden, but Bodanksy believes that Washington and the rest of the world have not fully understood the charismatic hold he has over the militants not only in the Arab world but increasingly in Pakistan and India.

Bodansky, director of the Congressional Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare for more than a decade, spoke repeatedly, in an exclusive interview with rediff.com of the threat bin Laden and his well-financed band of Arab "Afghans" pose not only to America and the Western world but also to India.

"Pakistan's ISI [Inter-Services Intelligence] and bin Laden have been working together for many years," Bodansky, who says he was in Kargil when "the bullets were flying", asserts.

"Whether it is Nawaz Sharief who is in power or Benazir Bhutto, he is the security blanket for Pakistan," he says. "The more number of Americans his people kill, Pakistan can pretend to help America more, exact more concessions from America."

Bin Laden's support for the guerrillas who want to wrest Kashmir from India suits Pakistan eminently, Bodansky says. And Islamabad pretends to co-operate with Washington in hunting down the radicals, including the followers of bin Laden, so that it can get concessions from America.

Sharief's recent visit to Washington and his promise to order the withdrawal of the so-called mujahideen (holy warriors) from Kargil was, after all, a diplomatic victory for Pakistan, Bodansky says. "Here is a leader whose country committed an outrageous aggression against India and has worked against America," he says, his voice sounding incredulous. "And he comes to Washington as a friend."

"America should call a spade a spade," he continues. "Pakistan should be called what it is -- a terrorist-supporting state. Declare it a terrorist state, impose a financial embargo, isolate the country internationally and we may see bin Laden's position become considerably weak."

In his book and in the interview, Bodansky is frank in discussing bin Laden. He asserts that unlike many of the Arab rulers, who denounced the West and Israel but led their own privileged lives without risking anything personally, bin Laden has put his life on the line. "He is highly respected and adored by Muslim masses because he is able to get out and be there among the fighters," he says.

The ISI, sharing the dream of making Pakistan the pre-eminent Islamic country, is only too glad to work with his men not only in Kashmir but also in Dhaka, where the ISI has a strong relationship with disgruntled radicals in India's eastern states and Islamic rebels in Burma, he argues.

"The overt involvement in the Islamist war against India of an 'arch-terrorist' -- as bin Laden is popularly known -- provides Pakistan a deniability cover for the ISI that goes beyond the proxy war in Kashmir," he adds. Bin Laden is a big asset for Pakistan as Islamabad uses his "cover" to achieve its own strategic objectives.

Citing the Indian government's statements and his own research, Bodansky points out -- as he has done extensively in his book -- that the thwarted "complex" effort to blow up the American embassy in New Delhi and consulates in Madras and Calcutta was conceived in Afghanistan and Pakistan, plotted in Dhaka and Siliguri, and practised in Madras.

"There is no doubt at all that the plan was organised in accordance with the bin Laden-ISI deal of spring 1998," he says.

The plan, masterminded by Syed Abu Nasir, a 27-year-old Bangladeshi national, had also called for loading explosives on the Tata Safari jeep the plotters had observed while visiting the Bank of America daily. "The overall logic and structure of the operation were very similar to those of the attacks in Nairobi and Dar-es-Salaam," Bodansky says.

India, Bodansky says, has shown "exemplary" conduct in dealing with grave threats against its security. Calling the Kargil conflict an outright aggression, he says India showed great restraint. "The Clinton administration has not really appreciated this," he adds.

"The Indian security authorities prevented the bombings," he continues. "But the operation merits closer attention than it has received."

The structure of the network exposed, he adds, confirms the close relationship and co-operation between the intelligence services of the sponsoring states -- Pakistan's ISI in this case -- and the ostensibly independent terrorists such as Osama bin Laden.

India's position on the threats from external sources is appreciated on Capitol Hill, Bodansky says, particularly among high-ranking Republicans such as Benjamin Gilman and Bob McCullum. But when it comes to the administration, "it is like preaching to the deaf".

Osama bin Laden's deal with the ISI, in which his people will carry out spectacular terrorist strikes in the heart of India under the banner of anti-Israel and anti-US campaigns in return for Pakistani support, protection and sponsorship solidified in the spring of 1998, Bodansky points out. "This agreement helps the ISI to strike in India while denying any involvement," he notes.

The ISI "actively" assists bin Laden in the expansion of fundamentalist infrastructure across India, Bodansky says. Propaganda cassettes play a key role in conveying the urgent message that Islam is in danger.

Bodansky warns that the propaganda is not confined to Kashmir or a few cities in the North or Bombay.

The near-mythical notoriety of bin Laden has created expectations among the Islamists in Kashmir, Bodansky says. "What happened recently in Kargil is immediately connected with the understanding the ISI and bin Laden have," he explains.

Among many Kashmiri extremists, the refrain, "bin Laden is coming -- he will purge the Indian army in Kashmir", is frequently heard, he has already noted in his book.

A Kashmiri militant is quoted as saying: " 'Our father' bin Laden has sent brothers from Afghanistan to wage jihad."

Bodansky says a large number of Afghan, Pakistani and Arab "Afghans" have joined the ranks of the ostensibly Kashmiri national liberation forces.

The intruders pose a far more serious threat -- as was evident in Kargil -- than the previous band of intruders, Bodansky warns.

"These foreigners are largely Islamists fighting for a sacred cause," he says, "not the mercenaries the ISI recruited in the mid-1990s."

The Islamists' surge in Pakistan has suited any ruling party in that country, Bodansky says. But he asserts that it was Benazir Bhutto who, in 1993, under a facade of pro-Western and pro-democracy rhetoric, initiated a programme designed to make Pakistan a central member of the Islamic bloc.

"Despite her rhetoric, Bhutto seemed genuinely convinced that the future of Pakistan lay with the Iranian-led Islamic bloc, and its activist anti-US posture," he has noted in his book.

Pakistan will continue to pretend that it is suppressing the Arab Islamists or curbing the infrastructure for international terrorism.

"The reasoning is this," Bodansky continues. "Pakistan will buy time to have access to sophisticated technologies from the West. But this will be only for show, and genuine support for militant Islamist causes will actually expand."

Bodanksy says he is not attaching a bigger blame to Bhutto. "We should all know that Pakistan will not abandon bin Laden and the cause that is dear to him," he says, "unless it is exposed for what it is -- and isolated internationally."

EARLIER FEATURE:
Crescent Of Terror

Next: The Sixth Sense Psyches Its Way to The Top

Tell us what you think of this report