Homeland Security

Shoring Terror - the subterfuge
Star Rating Loader Please wait...
Issue Net Edition | Date : 11 Apr , 2015

Looking at the infinite number of bilateral and multilateral declarations and agreements on cooperation about counter-terrorism over the years, one may surmise that the terrorists must be having a hard time. Yet, behold the US led 40 nation coalition against ISIS and the Saudi Arabia led 10 nation coalition attacking Yemen, with both having strong undercurrents of subterfuge. But then who would believe ‘Games Nation Play’ is misnomer. What does the individual terrorist want; gun power, money, women and a high (most take drugs). And, none of the terrorist organizations are short of any of these albeit some fake the drama of abjuring narcotics.

Washington Post reported that US weapons, hardware and military equipment worth $500 million have “gone missing” in Yemen, and may have fallen into the hands of jihadis.

Media is showing air drop of weapons in Yemen by Saudis in conjunction aerial attacks and now ground invasion. But then just before the US and UK Embassies shut shop in Sana’a, Yemen’s capital, Washington Post reported that US weapons, hardware and military equipment worth $500 million have “gone missing” in Yemen, and may have fallen into the hands of jihadis. The “gone missing” part tickles you some because it is not a bunch of needles dropped over a haystack but comprise large number M-4 assault rifles, Glock pistols, body armour, night vision goggles, 1.25 million of rounds of ammunition, 160 x Humvees, 4 x light helicopters, 4 x hand-launched drones, 2 x Cessna aircraft, 1 x specialist surveillance aircraft and 4 x patrol boats. The report says these may have fallen into the hands of an Iranian-backed militia or Al-Qaeda. But then hasn’t Al Qaeda been used by the US against Assad in Syria, in Iraq and in Libya?

Concurrent to the above was another report in Washington Post saying the Pentagon can’t account for several million dollars worth of reconstruction funds of the US$ 21 billion paid to contractors in Afghanistan. Even of the US$ 795 million spent on Commander’s Emergency Response Program from 2002 to 2013, only 57 percent of the money could be accounted for. More significantly, an earlier report of July 2014 had brought out that the US DoD was unable to account for 747,000 weapons and auxiliary military equipment worth US$ 626 million in Afghanistan – certainly not small number of weapons.

Then, a report released by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, USA on 14 Jan 2013 had brought out that total direct spending by US in Afghanistan for period FY2001-FY2013 amounted to US$ 641.7 billion, of which US$ 198.2 billion (over 30 percent) was spent in FY2012 and FY2013 with so few controls, so few plans, so little auditing, and almost no credible measures of effectiveness. Though not mentioned in these reports, the contractors would have been mostly from US construction companies. What part of such money lands up with radicals may be conjectured but Chris Sands writing in Global Post, Kabul on 20 Feb 2013 had talked about a US funded militia, led a Hazara, accused of deliberately destroying houses, raping women and murdering dozens of civilians in Afghanistan’s southern province of Uruzgan to fester ethnic tensions.

…Sartaj Aziz openly saying “Pakistan should not target those terrorist organizations that are not attacking Pakistan”…

Of course no cover up is needed for the US$ 1 billion aid just released by the Obama Administration to Pakistan for counter terrorism operations, substantial portion of which would automatically be used for ‘terror generation’. Amidst the present day charade, selective strikes are evident with Sartaj Aziz openly saying “Pakistan should not target those terrorist organizations that are not attacking Pakistan” (read Pakistani proxies like LeT, JeM and the like).

The fact is that the US never targeted terror factories inside Pakistan directly aside from periodic Predator strikes that eliminated few leaders of Al Qaeda-Haqqanis-Taliban causing voids that were filled almost immediately. The main action of liquidating the terror bases inside Pakistan was left to Pakistan itself with billions of dollars in aid on account of GWOT; hoping the serpent will smother what it spawned. But serpents may eat their own eggs and just born but not full grown ones.

Actually the reverse is likely in the latter case, which appears happening. So Pakistan continued with the façade of hitting bases in FATA and US looked the other way despite anxious voices in the US that were ignored. Interestingly, the Belfer Center of the Harvard Kennedy School in 2009 had had pointed to clear evidence of misuse of USAID to Pakistan citing proof: US provided $1.5 million to reimburse Pakistan for damage to Navy vehicles which had never been used in combat; $15 million for Pakistani army bunkers that were never built; $30 million for Pakistani road‐building but no evidence of construction; $55 million for helicopter maintenance of national fleet that was not performed; Pakistan military received $80 million per month for military operations during ceasefire periods when troops were in barracks; Musharraf once complained army helicopters needed more spare parts and support, despite US having provided $8 million worth of Cobra parts over previous six months; “great majority” of the Coalition Support Funds given by the US to reimburse Pakistan for counterterrorism operations was found diverted; US officials visiting FATA found Pakistani Frontier Corps units poorly equipped, soldiers wearing sandals in snow, wearing World War I era pith helmets and carrying barely functional Kalashnikov rifles with “just 10 rounds of ammunition each”.

…“great majority” of the Coalition Support Funds given by the US to reimburse Pakistan for counterterrorism operations was found diverted…

What about India. Take the December 17, 1995 Purulia arms drop, discovered by default next morning, the mystery of which has never been permitted to surface. Which segment of the Indian public has fallen for the nonsensical fable that these were meant for Anand Margis? Kim Davy (real name Niels Holck alias Niels Christian Nielsen), leader of the operation, has recently stated that the arms drop was a Congress conspiracy and that someone very higher up close to Mrs Indira Gandhi was involved, which the Congress rubbishes.

Details of the arms dropped never were disclosed though reportedly the consignment had “several hundred AK 47 rifles and more than a million rounds of ammunition. But the fact remains that the magnitude of the conspiracy and the manner in which it was executed, the involvement and approval of the Congress high command is unquestionable. Davy has even been categorical in naming Pappu Yadav as the Congress points-man in the conspiracy, which any other country would have led to examining and interrogation of such individual, even administration of truth serum. But then this is India and we have the Club 160 brotherhood pan political parties that can even compensate void of a missile shield.

As per Wikipedia, “several days later, when the plane (read the one used for dropping arms at Purulia) re-entered Indian airspace, it was intercepted by an IAF MiG-21 and forced to land.” Now why would this plane enter Indian airspace after gap of several days? Was it reconnaissance for another mission or was it carrying another arms drop consignment, no one will know.

The Anand Margi rubbish was BBC’s Machiavellian propaganda which continues to-date with demonizing India and destabilizing – the latest appendage being Leslie Udwin. It is surprising BBC ran short of ideas in not attributing some of the thousands of terrorist attacks in India to Anand Margis. Perhaps, they might attribute future LeT attacks in India to Anand Margis, even the next London subway bombing? But that said, the involvement of the Indian Government is clear from the Press Bureau release Judgement in this case (Purulia Arms Drop) was pronounced on 2/2/2000 and the convicted accused persons viz. Peter James Gilfran Vol Kalkstein Bleach, Alexander Klichine @Sasha, Igor Moskvitine @Alexandre, Oleg Gaidach, Evgueni Antimenko and Igor Timmerman were sentenced to undergo R.I. for life and to pay a fine of Rs.25000/- each.

…terrorism is being financed in India through hawala, stock market and diamonds is well known. J&K of course is a different story.

Later in spite of objection by the prosecuting agency, the then Govt. of India granted presidential pardon to remit the sentences in respect of five Latvians on 22.07.2000 and in respect of Peter Bleach on 04.02.2004”. A bigger question is whether the conspiracy was Indian Congress generated or a Western conspiracy to which the Congress acquiesced under pressure or connived for money. The latter would make it even bigger treason. The crew of the aircraft besides five Latvian citizens also had British citizen Peter Bleach who is an ex SAS officer and a mercenary. Former SAS mercenaries are more likely to be part of a mercenary outfit like ‘Britain Defence’ that as per the Russian FSB provisioned a World War II chemical weapon to Syrian rebels, eventually used on the hapless Syrian population. Then you have the CIA admitting that former British military officers had been training the ISIS in Turkey. So anything is possible because India getting subjected to terror and acting as sponge suits many, as commented upon by Ashley Tellis. So what generated the Presidential pardon to the crew of the plane including this former SAS officer?

That terrorism is being financed in India through hawala, stock market and diamonds is well known. J&K of course is a different story. In 2013, the NIA, declared Hijbul Mujahideen chief Salahuddin, his deputy Gulam Nabi Khan and eight others militants proclaimed offenders and charged them with channeling huge sums of money into J&K for subversive activities. One wonders if Mufti Mohammed Saeed was actually thanking Salahuddin post his assuming the chair of CM of J&K while alluding to Pakistan.

…Intelligence reports also revealed that goods sent through trucks to POK were intentionally overpriced 2-3 times in the vouchers and additional money received is being diverted for terrorist operations.

Media, quoting NIA, had earlier reported in 2013 that Kashmiri terrorist groups had received US$ 100 million for terror operations in past two years, over the past 10 years some Rs 600 crores were diverted to J&K terrorism from within India, Rs 98 crores were diverted in one single year from the J&K Affectees Fund, and that the J&K Affectees Relief Trust (JKART) has been facilitating Pakistani infiltration into J&K. Intelligence reports also revealed that goods sent through trucks to POK were intentionally overpriced 2-3 times in the vouchers and additional money received is being diverted for terrorist operations. It is unthinkable that the State Government doesn’t get major slice of the pie.

Prior to the 1971 India-Pakistan war, The New York Times had indicated presence of a CIA agent in the Indian government. But declassified US records now show that India’s objectives during the 1971 Indo-Pak war were greatly curtailed following an instance of high treason committed by a member of Indira Gandhi’s government. The lineage of Jai Chands is apparently unending. As for terrorism, it is an established industry globally, regionally and nationally, and more importantly, we will have to fight this alone even as we shake hands with all and sundry. While we continue our efforts, we should not traitors live on in anonymity and luxury earned at the cost of the country. They must be exposed and targeted. Same should happen to the make in India variety of terrorism, their foreign support, and foreign based terrorism in India.

Rate this Article
Star Rating Loader Please wait...
The views expressed are of the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions or policies of the Indian Defence Review.

About the Author

Lt Gen Prakash Katoch

is Former Director General of Information Systems and A Special Forces Veteran, Indian Army.

More by the same author

Post your Comment

2000characters left

5 thoughts on “Shoring Terror – the subterfuge

  1. Comprehensive and incisive as always. But, the difficulty is that Politicians, Bureaucrats, Judges and Policemen of “Liberal Democracies” have been trained to ignore if not twist the inconvenient truth. Some more some less. They will continue to ignore the truth because it makes them uncomfortable and also dips into their gravy train by making security and concomitant expenditure a priority.

  2. Our worthy General has written a very good article, where he has totally exposed the wider nexus between the arms manufacturers / dealers, political forces, terrorist groups. One factor which is common between various nefarious activities is the ‘CIA’. To control the unlimited power of the ‘CIA’, its misdeeds need to be exposed in American public space. Americans who are in bad shape economically due to recessionary conditions even now will take the matter very seriously. The kinds of ‘public money’ that has been spent on these covert operations is mind blowing. A very strong public opinion against the money wasted will help in curtailing this ‘hydra headed monster’. Such issues should be raised at common forums / bodies like the United Nations and social media sites, to enable the public at large know the true face of these supposedly well bred white collar criminals…. Terrorist groups are only blue collar criminals who execute the operations on behalf of investors and political masters.

    Present set up in the Govt. is supposedly doing well… but one thing is very clear that Mr. Modi is keen to take India forward and make it a force to reckon with in the region. Let us hope that slowly and steadily attitude of these negative forces also undergoes change for the better.

    Best wishes,

    Rajkaran Singh Bhatti

  3. ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffOur worthy General has written a very good article, where he has totally exposed the wider nexus between the arms manufacturers / dealers, political forces, terrorist groups. One factor which is common between various nefarious activities is the ‘CIA’. To control the unlimited power of the ‘CIA’, its misdeeds need to be exposed in American public space. Americans who are in bad shape economically due to recessionary conditions even now will take the matter very seriously. The kinds of ‘public money’ that has been spent on these covert operations is mind blowing. A very strong public opinion against the money wasted will help in curtailing this ‘hydra headed monster’. Such issues should be raised at common forums / bodies like the United Nations and social media sites, to enable the public at large know the true face of these supposedly well bred white collar criminals…. Terrorist groups are only blue collar criminals who execute the operations on behalf of investors and political masters.

    Present set up in the Govt. is supposedly doing well… but one thing is very clear that Mr. Modi is keen to take India forward and make it a force to reckon with in the region. Let us hope that slowly and steadily attitude of these negative forces also undergoes change for the better

  4. Your this communication and media system very good. Indian defence and public mingling on your given responce very great. Human life,country protection on your give the all activities on best wishes.

More Comments Loader Loading Comments