USE A COCKROACH TO CATCH A COCKROACH
by B.Raman
It would be a mistake to identify Osama bin Laden as the
principal or the only source of threat to the international community.
The principal threat is the new kind of International Terrorism as
advocated and propagated by the so-called jehadis from the soil of
Pakistan and Afghanistan for the last 20 years.
The advocates of Jehadi Terrorism hold that the jehadis
have an extra-territorial right and obligation and a religious duty to
wage jehad anywhere in the world against any nation, Muslim or non-Muslim,
and against any Government. They also hold that they recognise and
respect only the frontiers of the Ummah and not national frontiers.
These were the most pernicious ideas to have come out of
the human mind after the Second World War. Unless these ideas are
countered and its advocates in Pakistan and Afghanistan defeated by the
international community, more September 11s are likely. Bin Laden is a
product of these ideas and a leading terrorist, who seeks to have these
ideas enforced, but there are many others who have taken to terrorism for
the same purpose, with equal cunning and ferocity. Unless they are
neutralised too, the battle would have been vainly fought.
This is the time to show solidarity with the US and its
people and not the time to analyse why September 11 happened and apportion
blame. Yet, it needs to be said that September 11 was made possible,
not by the failures and negligence of the US intelligence and national
security establishments alone, but also by the failure and reluctance of
the American political leadership to recognise the force of this new evil
and to counter it effectively and in time. The coming war has to be
a war against International Jehadi Terrorism and not just against bin
Laden and his Al Qaeda.
One should not overlook the role of Pakistan as the
nursery and cradle of this new evil, in one's anxiety to secure its
co-operation in waging this battle. Using a criminal to catch a
criminal may help in dealing with a single crime, but not in wiping out
crime as a menace. Using and rewarding one evil (Pakistan) to end
another evil (bin Laden and the Taliban) may help the US in avenging
September 11, but will not prevent more September 11s unless evil itself
is eliminated wherever it is present (Pakistan, Afghanistan or elsewhere)
in whatever form.
One should not overestimate the capability of the US
Armed Forces, with the most powerful weapons in the world, to overcome
this evil. The US intelligence and security establishments with financial,
human, technical and technological resources the like of which no other
country in the world can dream to have for another 50 years were unable to
anticipate, smell, sense, detect and neutralise the insinuation of this
evil into the vitals of America. This was because they deliberately
closed their eyes to the evil for political reasons and failed to analyse
and realise its true dimensions.
This is an unseen, elusive evil, which insinuates itself
with stealth and strikes with cunning and ruthless ferocity. The war
against this evil has to be equally stealthy, invisible, cunning and
ruthless. This is not a war to be fought by uniformed soldiers of
the Armed Forces before the TV cameras. This is a war to be fought
by the cloak and dagger men of the intelligence services of the world, who
must be able to strike ferociously without anyone being able to identify
the hand that held the dagger.
One should not overestimate one's capability to smoke
out bin Laden and his followers and arrest them and to dislodge the
Taliban from power. Post- Second World War produced two terrorists
with a legendary reputation for their cunning, ferocity and
stealth---Carlos alias Michel, now in jail in France, and bin Laden.
Carlos headed a small cell with not more than 30
members. All of them came from well-to-do elitist middle or upper
middle class families. They thought they were waging their battle of
terrorism for the rights of the Palestinians and for the underprivileged
and downtrodden people of the world. But, coming from bourgeois
families, they felt uncomfortable in the company of the underprivileged
and downtrodden. They kept them out of their closely-knit
circle. They led a luxurious life-style with a weakness for
expensive cars, women and wine. Consequently, the poor and the
downtrodden, though fascinated by Carlos, were not prepared to die for
him. He had practically no popular support base. Despite this,
it took the world 29 years to neutralise him and his cell.
Bin Laden, on the other hand, comes from a very rich
family of Saudi Arabia with an estimated personal wealth of about US $ 300
million, a large part of which he has either given away to the poor
Pathans in Afghanistan and in the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) and
the Federally-Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan or spent on his
cause. Even though he lives in a big house at Kandahar specially
constructed for him by the Taliban very near the house of Mulla Mohammad
Omar, the Amir of the Taliban, he leads an austere life. He is
easily accessible to the poor people and eats with them and his aides from
the same plate as is the normal Pathan custom. He has thus a very
large following in the Pathan community, particularly amongst the poor
people, many of whom are prepared to die for him.
He lives in Pathan country and would be able to take
shelter in no time ---if he has not already done so--- in the FATA, where
he is worshipped almost like God. Even the Pakistan Army and the
Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) don't know the area well. Sending in
over-equipped and over-confident Marines and Green Berets to catch bin
Laden would be like sending in an army of elephants to catch a
cockroach. One must use a cockroach to catch a cockroach.
When one reads the rhetoric coming out of President Bush
and his aides in Washington, one feels uneasy that they don't understand
the real nature of the evil confronting the world and the man in bin
Laden. No other people in the world understand the machine as well
as the Americans do and no other people in the world understand the human
being as little as the Americans do. Mr.Bush and his aides
seem to be thinking that bin Laden and the jehadi hordes must be shivering
in their salwar-kameez because of their sabre-rattling. They would
be only laughing up their sleeves.
Mr. Bush wants the other nations of the world to
co-operate with the USA in this war, but the language which he has been
using should be anything but reassuring for the potential allies.
The agencies have quoted him as saying: " We will not only deal with
those who dare attack America, but we will deal with those who harbour
them and feed them and house them." The war against them is not
because they pose a threat to humanity and the world, but because they
dared to attack the US in its territory. His objective is to weed
out threats to US nationals and interests and, thereafter, the Marines
will go home.
The fact that these jehadi terrorists have also killed
over 15,000 innocent Indians since 1989 and hundreds of others in other
countries is of no consequence to Mr.Bush. His apparent aim is not
making the world safe from terrorism, but making the US safe from
terrorism and to prevent September 11 repeats.
Bin Laden's operational methods are totally different
from those of Carlos. Carlos operated through his small 30-strong
cell. He involved himself in each and every terrorist
operation---choosing the target of attack and the weapon to be used;
repeatedly casing the area; pre-determining lines of escape etc. He
did not believe in suicide terrorism.
Bin Laden, on the other hand, heads a large set-up of
about 4,000, of whom only 10 per cent live in Afghanistan. The rest
are scattered in about 20 countries---Muslim and non-Muslim. Many of
his cadres have never met him or personally seen him. They worship
him like one worships a God that one had never seen. They are
prepared to die for him and the cause as determined by him.
Practically, all his operations were carried out by suicide bombers.
Bin Laden does not get involved in the nuts and bolts
functioning of his supporters. He is not at the head of a pyramidal
hierarchical structure, giving orders and getting them obeyed.
Instead, he is at the centre of a circle, surrounded by about 12
concentric circles, each representing one of the organisations
constituting his International Islamic Front For Jehad Against the US and
Israel. He gives them total autonomy of functioning, without
interfering in the planning and execution of the operations.
He and the heads of these organisations based in
Kandahar jointly decide their target and which organisation will carry out
the task and how. Thereafter, he leaves it to the chosen
organisation to plan and implement.
While, in the long term, the neutralisation of bin Laden
and his hard core in Afghanistan might make their organisations wither
way, in the short and medium term they could be expected to hit back with
ferocity.
Strengthening of protective measures in the countries
joining the USA's counter-offensive should be a priority. Uniting
the intelligence agencies of victim-States and letting them loose amongst
these cockroaches is another.
(The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet
Secretariat, Govt. of India, and, presently, Director, Institute For
Topical Studies, Chennai. E-mail: [email protected]
)
