Alex Alexiev: Time to put Pakistan on notice
- From: micrurusf <micrurusf@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 03 Dec 2008 23:52:54 +0100
Alex Alexiev: Time to put Pakistan on notice
Found it on another board ...
----------------------------------------------------------------
Alex Alexiev: Time to put Pakistan on notice
By Shloka Nath
/Alex Alexiev, vice president for research at Center for Security
Policy, Washington DC, comments on the Mumbai attacks. The US security
expert blames it on India's poor grasp of terror dynamics and lack of
coordination between various agencies./
#What do you think is the reason behind the Mumbai attacks?
What happened in Mumbai didn’t come as a surprise. Actually, the reason
the attacks took place was because India had not bothered to understand
the basics of what was happening. There is a deeper malignancy at work
here and we are at war with a radical totalitarian interpretation of
Islam. With every passing year since the 9/11 incident, the world
situation has only got worse – not better. India is a good example of
the deteriorating effects of terrorism. India is not willing to accept
that there are harmful sects within its own borders which are supported
by Pakistan.
The last time I was in India, I was shocked to hear Government officials
at a conference on security in India. They stood up and said there has
never been an Indian Muslim who was a terrorist. Most might be peaceful
but a lot are not. There is certainly radicalization in India and it’s a
problem that needs to be addressed.
#What lessons can India learn from the way America stepped up its
#security after 9/11?
We have done better than India in stopping attacks. But, in India, there
is very little active coordination and sharing of information between
different organizations. India today is what the USA was before 9/11
when the FBI and CIA did not even talk to each other. The lack of
coordination has to be looked into.
The other thing is poor equipment. The police sent to confront the
terrorists had ordinary handguns while the terrorists were better armed.
You need to spend whatever money necessary to give your police the right
tools so they can deal with all kinds of situations effectively. A
well-known police chief of New York City – William Bratton – says all
terrorism is local because ultimately, when it happens, it’s local. It’s
on your shores. The police are the first line of deterrence rather than
the last. But the police in India are almost like a marginal factor in
counter terrorism. It’s the police who know the locals and the
neighborhoods and there has to be some level of effective local
intelligence.
One of the positive steps we have taken in the US has been to set up
terrorism intelligence centers where various agencies of government and
local police work side by side. For example, in Los Angeles, you have
the FBI, CIA, LA police and various other agencies like the fire
department and the airport police all working together. They are
intelligence fusion centers, if you will, and are functioning in several
other large cities. These professionals sit in the same office, the same
department and they become colleagues as opposed to different competing
departments. In India, they need to cooperate closely and make sure that
no lead goes cold.
Think of the economic damage done by shutting down Mumbai for a day or
two -- the billions of dollars lost. The cost of effective policing is
actually a very good economic investment. You need to train your police
force the best way you can.
#India’s Prime Minister is thinking of a crime-fighting agency along the
#lines of America’s Homeland Security model. What are the benefits and
#disadvantages in implementing such a framework?
The USA's Department of Homeland Security consolidates 22 agencies and
18,000 employees. It unifies the fragmented federal functions into a
single agency dedicated to protecting America from terrorism. But the
issue about a Homeland Security (HS) system is that it cuts both ways.
Due to a complete lack of cooperation between intelligence agencies it
is good to have one place where they can exchange views. Under the HS,
there is a Joint Terrorism Task Force, a place at the Federal level
where representatives of CIA, FBI and all others sit together and work
like the city-level fusion centers I just mentioned. That is very good.
However, on the other hand, bringing all the existing agencies under a
single roof could, in a way, mean adding another layer of bureaucracy.
I'm in two minds -- because when the HS was formed it was supposed to be
an organization where everything was coordinated. It was meant to rally
together the separate agencies in the US -- and there were many: The
armed forces -- the army, marine, navy, the Defense Intelligence Agency,
a military organization, and the NSA military spying agency, the CIA and
the FBI. We had so many receptacles for information but no cooperation
among ourselves.
#Right now, fingers are pointing towards Pakistan. Is this simply a
#knee-jerk, emotional reaction one can expect from India at this time?
I have spent an extensive amount of time in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.
And the one thing I have learnt is that all terrorism is, to some
extent, state-sponsored. Let’s be frank. Nearly all terrorist attempts
in India can said to have been sponsored by Pakistan. Take
Lashkar-e-Toiba, the child of the ISI that continues to be supported by
them. You just can’t separate terrorist attacks in India from Jihadi
outfits in Pakistan. Many who were banned under the Musharraf regime
have simply renamed themselves and continued to operate and be supported
by the ISI. The current Pakistani government knows that the ISI is a
state within the state. Look at the number of ISI chiefs who turn out to
be zealous Islamists after they retire. The raison d’etre of the
Pakistan military depends on India’s image as an enemy. Because, without
it, how do you justify spending 40% of the country's income on the military?
And I’m not sure if America has recognized that Pakistan today is not a
state with a military but a military with a state. Personally, I thought
America’s policy with Musharraf was misguided – Washington thinks
Pakistan is a strategic ally. We don't understand that actually we may
be losing Afghanistan because of Pakistan and Saudi Arabia’s support for
extremists. We know the ISI is behind the bombing of Indian embassy in
Kabul. If they can attack the sovereign territory of a neighbor, why
would it come as a surprise if they chose to attack India’s business
centre? For some reason there is this pervasive belief that if you don't
speak of evil it will go away. The fact is, it won’t. And the time has
come to put Pakistan on notice.
The other fascinating thing is the Dawood connection - another example
of the state sponsoring terrorism. We know Dawood is protected and given
refuge and allowed to operate his criminal empire by the ISI and now it
looks like he could be one of the guys involved in this. So you have a
possible organized crime and terror nexus – who made that possible?
India’s government needs to wake up to what’s happening and what’s
coming down the pipe. There are terrorist incidents in India every one
or two months, which are really disruptive. How long can you tolerate that?
[Shloka Nath is a senior features writer at the new business magazine to
be launched by Network18 in alliance with Forbes, USA.]
--------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?id=f1789
.
- Follow-Ups:
- Re: Alex Alexiev: Time to put Pakistan on notice
- From: Mudali
- Re: Alex Alexiev: Time to put Pakistan on notice
- Prev by Date: Three 'Holy Fathers' (allegedly) killed a nun
- Next by Date: Re: Indian chattering class backed undemocratic Indian polity
- Previous by thread: Three 'Holy Fathers' (allegedly) killed a nun
- Next by thread: Re: Alex Alexiev: Time to put Pakistan on notice
- Index(es):
Relevant Pages
|
