Author: Khawar Mehdi
Publication: South Asia Tribune
Date: September 3, 2005
URL: http://www.satribune.com/archives/200509/P1_khaw.htm
When former US Under Secretary of
Defense Jed Babben asked on Fox News last week the key question: "Where
are the terrorists and where does the war of terror stand," he was only
seeking the official answer from the Bush Administration. But Babben, and
all others, know the answer. It is not even kept a secret by the terrorists
themselves.
I have recently received a number
of audio and video CDs here in Washington which, by the way, are also available
on every grocery store in the troubled Waziristan tribal areas. These CDs
not just show where the terrorists are they also show what they have been
doing and how and what they intend to do.
The Communication Cell of Al-Qaeda
and Taliban not only distributes the messages of their top brass to the
media but their VCDs about their operations circulate freely. One such
CD was circulated last month showing the images of ID cards of US soldiers
killed in Afghanistan's province of Kunar, bordering Pakistan. The video
was first aired on al-Arabia TV recently. Earlier, the world saw Ayman
Al-Zawahiri speaking on London bombings in another video depiction. The
ABC a few weeks ago played parts of these freely available CDs.
Filmed footage of the Summer-2004
Operation of the Pakistan Army against Al-Qaeda fighters and their local
supporters in South Waziristan Agency, a part of the tribal strip between
Pakistan and Afghanistan, is now available in all its details.
Pakistan Army had imposed restrictions
on the media to report on the military operation against local extremists
and their foreign guests. But the purpose behind the restrictions was badly
frustrated, as Ummat Studio, apparently a secret production house of Taliban
fighters, kept spreading video CDs among local communities showing how
devastating the operation was for the Army.
It tells the visual story of fearless
retaliation by local religious militia against the troops. According to
the official records, the Army lost 232 men during the operation while
militants received more than 270 causalities, but the militants doubt the
official figures. The CDs also showed extremely gory scenes of burnt bodies
and amputated organs of civilians killed in the military offensive.
The background commentary on the
images touches sympathetic hearts, enough to motivate an ordinary Muslim
tribesman to join hands with the militants, portrayed as freedom fighters,
Mujahideen and heroes, fighting for the great causes of Islam and tribal
honor.
Professionally filmed and edited,
the CDs narrate the stories of militants' victories over the Pakistan Army.
Details of preparations and attacks can be seen in step-by-step sequences.
The impressive part of these CDs
is the filming of the attacks itself. All the videos have uncovered faces
of militants, attacking convoys and positions of the Army with rocket-propelled
grenades, AK-47 rifles and light machine guns. Some heavy arms like multi-rocket
launchers and missile batteries can also be seen. Militants using donkeys
and mules for the transportation of arms and ammunition, communicating
on walkie-talkies and reporting on the movements of troops give a clear
picture of the communication resources used by them during the conflict.
Anyone familiar with the terrain can exactly pinpoint where the videos
were shot.
One CD covers a training camp run
by Shaikh Abul Lait Al Libbi, a name on the most wanted list of FBI. Ten
members of the camp are neither Afghans nor Pakistanis. They belong to
different parts of the Arabic-speaking world, including one from Xingjian
province of China.
But the surprising aspect of the
film is the freedom with which the training is held. It is a day-long training
exercise including physical work and use of weapons with live ammunition.
The film ends on scenes of attacks on the coalition forces in Afghanistan
in mid of 2004 at a place called Shinkai in Zabul Province of Afghanistan.
According to credible sources in
South Waziristan, hosts of Al-Qaeda terrorists established a communication
facility in Shagai, a village close to Wana, which kept working till mid-2004.
Almost all film productions now available on CDs had taken place in the
same facility in Shagai. Later, it was moved closer to Razmak in North
Waziristan.
The sources are confident that at
present the production center is working in Tanak, a city adjacent to South
Waziristan. The question is: if an ordinary tribesmen can have the knowledge
of Al-Qaeda production centers, how come the intelligence agencies with
all their sophisticated gear and hardware be unaware?
The truth is that intelligence officials
deliberately keep their eyes and ears closed to the activities of these
communication cells. They know who is filming, recording and distributing
the CDs. It would certainly not be a great operation to find out from the
retail stores who was supplying them the stuff.
Part of the mainstream Pakistani
media has also been pointing out to the locations of terrorists. Reports
on reopening of a well-known terrorist camp in Mansehra, a district of
NWFP province in Pakistan, recently surfaced when Monthly Herald reported
that eight camps were working freely in that district. Some diplomatic
sources are of the opinion that the number of camps in Mansehra is between
eight and 15. The camps reopened in Kashmir are separate.
To all this confusing state of affairs,
the statement of Opposition Leader in the National Assembly of Pakistan
and Secretary General of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, Maulana Fazlur Rehman,
added further fuel. The Maulana, in an angry mood, asked pointed questions
from the authorities with the purpose to seriously embarrass them.
He asked the government about the
nationalities of the individuals sent to Mansehra for training. The statement
was published on August 8 in the Lahore Daily Times which read in part:
"The Pakistani Government is deceiving the US and the West by helping militants
freely enter Afghanistan from Waziristan. We ask the rulers to reveal the
identity of the people being transported to Afghanistan from Waziristan
via Kaali Sarak in private vehicles; reveal who is supervising their trouble-free
entry into Afghanistan and reasons for their infiltration."
He further demanded: "The Government
must also give the nation the identities of the men being moved from Waziristan
to militant camps in Mansehra."
The Maulana accused Islamabad of
hypocrisy, saying the rulers are not only trying to deceive the US and
the West but also hoodwinking the entire nation.
It is not surprising if Iraq is
swarmed by terrorist groups for obvious reasons but the freedom they are
enjoying under Musharraf regime in the region has no logic, though the
General claims to be at the forefront of the US alliance against 'war on
terror' and the US government endorses it too.
So when Mr. Babben expressed his
disappointment over the failure of Bush administration in telling the American
people about the whereabouts of terrorists, he was only implicitly attacking
Musharraf and Company.
If Washington and Islamabad want
to find out where the terrorists are, they need to look no further than
some of the grocery stores in Waziristan.
The writer is a Pakistani journalist
who was arrested by the Army along with two French journalists for filming
a Taliban training camp. He later arrived in Washington.