Pakistan, Bangladesh Involved in North East Terrorism: Stratfor

[foxhound]

Salaam!

News update:


Pakistan, Bangladesh Involved in North East Terrorism: Stratfor
Dated 23/4/2007

Pakistan's Inter Service Intelligence is working with Bangladesh's intelligence agencies to facilitate cooperation between north-east militant groups like United Liberation Front of Asom and other jihadi outfits in South Asian regions, besides Tamil rebels in Lanka, US intelligence service Startfor has said.

In its latest forecast titled 'India: The Islamisation of the Northeast', it observes that there is a growing Islamisation in the region -- spurred by ISI, and instability in neighbouring Bangladesh which is giving foreign powers (China and Pakistan) a gamut of exploitable secessionist movements to use to prevent India from emerging as a major global player.

Stratfor says there exists a strong nexus between ISI and Bangladesh's intelligence agencies. There are growing indications, says the report, that these two agencies are working clandestinely in Bangladesh to bring all the north-east-based insurgent outfits and jihadi elements under one umbrella.

"The ISI has facilitated cooperation between ULFA and other north-eastern militant outfits; with the LTTE in Sri Lanka, Islamist militant groups in Jammu and Kashmir, Islamist groups in Bangladesh and a growing number of Al Qaeda-linked jihadi groups operating in the region," it adds.

"ULFA's growing links with Bangladeshi Islamists and jihadi elements in the area are increasingly coming to light," the report claims. The April 9 attack timed with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Assam marked the group's first-ever suicide bombing, a tactic that was pioneered by the Tigers and has been frequently employed by Islamist militants.

ULFA's adoption of suicide bombing, Stratfor says, looks to be the result of the group's increased Islamisation caused by collusion with Islamist outfits in the region.

The bomber in the April 9 suicide attack was Ainul Ali, a Muslim. Citing Indian security sources, the report says ULFA did not have many Muslim cadres in its fold in the past, but the increasing flow of Bangladeshi refugees across the border has given the group more -- and more capable -- members willing to sacrifice their lives for the group's cause with nudging from the ISI, Pakistan's premier intelligence agency.

Political conditions in Bangladesh, observes the report, appear to be indirectly contributing to the empowerment of Islamists there.

Using the Pakistani military regime as an example, Bangladeshi Army chief Lt Gen Moeen U Ahmed is reasserting the army's role in Bangladeshi politics -- which have long suffered from a bitter political feud between Awami League, led by Sheikh Hasina, and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, led by Begum Khaleda Zia, it said.

With both party leaders driven into exile, a political vacuum has started to take root in the country, and Bangladesh's Islamist parties are anxiously waiting to fill it, the report adds.

As a result, it forecasts, New Delhi is facing a "bleak situation" in which the ISI's manoeuvres and Bangladesh's political troubles are sure to further constrain India's ability to dig itself out of the militant trap Pakistan has set for India with the help of Bangladesh.

It quoted one informed Bangladesh observer as saying there does exist meaningful cooperation between ISI and Bangladesh's intelligence agencies in their combined fight against terrorism, at the nudging of the West, but their joint efforts to trap India may just be a collateral strategic gain.

 

[foxhound]

Ref:http://www.india-defence.com/reports/3071

 

[Srirangan]

Why the happy smiley? This is no way a 'good' news to rejoice for!

 

[PakSniper]

Dude's I already posted this in ISI fan club news!

 

[kidwaibhai]

i think this has been metioned before and there has been sufficient amount of debate on this topic.

 

[foxhound]

Srirangan - (Why the happy smiley? This is no way a 'good' news to rejoice for!)

I was just testing these little 'smiley's'. It is no fun in causing mayhem with one's neighbours or any other human beings. however, if you have people who will try to find an excuse to distable or destroy a country like Pakistan - then sometimes a lesser 'evil' has to be initiated to cause mayhem within the enemy ranks.

Pakistan has the highest number of foreign intelligence agencies in the world - all vying out for their own interests. The Indian RAW and others are trying to do their best. If you have a problem or issues with your people - then it's these agencies that are working behind to exasperate the problems.

Today the western world (and also to lower level the non-muslim world) have been demonising and causing instability in the muslim world. They have allianced themselves with corrupt so-called leaders in the muslim world and have caused undue terror/evil/poverty etc to these nations.

The world powers only negotiates with 'equal' contemporaries or with powers that can cause them alot of pain. Pakistan and to an extent the muslim world need to 'stand on their feet' and sort their economies/education/welfare of its people. this will happen eventually.

The non-muslims have used the method of divide and conquer and have had numerous successes. the Fault lies with the evil politicians and also some evil scholars.

 

[PakSniper]

I was just testing these little 'smiley's'. It is no fun in causing mayhem with one's neighbours or any other human beings. however, if you have people who will try to find an excuse to distable or destroy a country like Pakistan - then sometimes a lesser 'evil' has to be initiated to cause mayhem within the enemy ranks.

I have to agree with his point here.

 

[Srirangan]

What a sweet way to justify terrorism.

 

[BanglaBhoot]

I have already posted this once before on this forum on the same subject. Why are there two topics exactly on the same subject?


ISI-Islam connection is as false as ISI-Drug connection

by Abid Ullah Jan

(Wednesday, April 25, 2007)

The latest CIA allegation levelled against the Pakistan intelligence agency, the ISI, is that it is spreading Islamization in South Asia in collusion with the Bangladesh intelligence agencies to set a trap of Islamic militants for India.

These allegations appeared in America's premium news intelligence service STRATFOR, which is also known as the CIA's cousin. Those who work for STRATFOR are also the leading figures in running discussion groups such as the Political Islam Discussion Group (PIDL) for infecting the debate about Muslims and Islam.

Such reports are part of the CIA’s (read the US government’s) long term scheme to undermine Pakistan, starting with neutralizing its armed forces and its intelligence agencies. To be fair, like the overall Pakistan military force, the much dreaded ISI has been used like a whore by the CIA in every possible way. At home, both the civilian and military dictators use the ISI as a draconian tool. But this is all that the ISI is: just a tool, without any strategic mission, vision or direction of its own.

I, personally, remember being hounded by ISI officers who behaved like mad dogs when I wrote an article “Egyptianizing Pakistan” (June 1, 1999), criticising Nawaz Sharif’s using Hosnie Mubarak’s approach to crushing the opposition and prolonging his rule.

The ISI’s madness intensified when the then Egyptian ambassador wrote an article in response and called the criticism of Nawaz Sharif’s government a “malicious agenda” on my part. My subsequent article “Understanding Egyptianization,” (June 15, 1999) was a good enough provocation for the ISI to threaten me with death. One of their officers asked me: “What do you think, how would you have been treated if you were in Egypt?” Receiving no response from me, the officer added, “your family would have held your chaleeswan (40th day after death) by now.”

Interestingly, the same officers from the ISI and ISPR came to ask for my resume when they were considering suitable people for a ministerial portfolio. I was deemed worthy because I had written some articles in favour of the military take-over after the October 12, 1999 coup. The military government was in desperate need of allies at home and abroad.

Two years later, the same ISI turned my life into a living hell when I exposed just the tip of a corruption iceberg, in NGOs, to which a sitting military governor was closely linked.

This personal experience clearly shows that the ISI serves whoever is in power in Pakistan. Since no one could rule Pakistan without assuring Washington that he or she is a better stooge, the broader strategic direction for the ISI remains the directive given it from Washington. The question is: Why then does the CIA come up with these allegations against the ISI?

The answer is simple: to extract more obedience from Islamabad in the near future and to facilitate the ditching of the ISI in the longer term. History shows that the U.S. government has previously attempted to use ISI crimes to press Pakistani governments into submission. The Washington Post published a report in its September 12, 1994 edition in an attempt to implicate the Pakistan army in drug trafficking. The News published the same report in October 1994. In 2003, the ISI faced severe criticism at a U.S. Senate briefing on the drug trade, a crime in which the CIA has been involved since 1960. Peter Dale Scott and Jonathan Marshall tell us in Cocaine Politics Drugs, Armies and the CIA in Central America, (University of California Press, 1991 that the CIA works with narcotics traffickers and then fights to suppress the truth. They conclude, the U.S. government “is one of the world’s largest drug pushers.”

Time and again, the U.S. lawmakers threatened the ISI and Pakistan with allegations of drug trafficking, yet ignored the fact that even if some military or ISI officials were involved in drug trafficking on a personal level, the amount they privately smuggled into the United States was no more than a fraction of the amount trafficked by the U.S. agencies. According to Paul Johnson: “By the end of the 1980s it was calculated that the illegal use of drugs in the United States netted its controllers over $110 billion a year.” (Paul Johnson, Modern Times, New York: Harper Perenial, 1991 rev. ed., p.782.)

According to the San Diego Union-Tribune (August 13, 1996), Celerino Castelo--a former DEA agent--stated that together with three other ex-DEA agents, they were willing to testify in Congress regarding their direct knowledge of CIA involvement in international drug trafficking. Castillo estimates that approximately 75 percent of narcotics entered the United States with the acquiescence or direct participation of CIA and foreign intelligence agents.

In this backdrop, the March 2003 hearing of the U.S. Senate[1] was just another threat in the vast trap being laid for the Pakistani army for the next several years. Furthermore, ISI assets, Saeed Sheikh and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed were used in operation 9/11. The extent to which the ISI was dragged into the trap of 9/11 is not fully known. That, however, remains a time bomb for Pakistan. It didn’t get diffused with the “termination” of former ISI chief General Mahmood Ahmad. It can explode at any time the US decides to disarm and neutralise Pakistan like Iraq.

The entrapment process adopted by the U.S. agencies is very simple. They plan and commit a crime of serious magnitude. They achieve their strategic objective behind the crime. At the same time, they involve the victim in just a fraction of the overall criminal plan. The unknown/unintended cooperation in the crime is then later used to punish the victim. This is exactly how the BCCI was trapped. Irrefutable evidence demonstrates that the CIA funded the operation against the BCCI with drug money, earned through the organized selling of drugs to its own employees. According to the court transcripts of the BCCI case: “By late 1987, the agents had passed approximately $2.2 million derived from Don Chepe’s proceeds through the IDC account, and had split the 7-8 percent commission profit with Mora and Don Chepe’s representative Javier Ospina, without telling any BCCI officers about drugs.”[2] Yet, it was the BCCI that paid the price.

The recent allegations of the ISI’s spreading Islamization in South Asia is part of the overall pressure exerted to extract more obedience from Islamabad for strategic reasons. Unlike Mossad and the CIA with their long term plans, the ISI is nothing more than what its current masters want it to be. The allegations of its spreading Islamization are just nonsensical.

How is it possible for the commander in chief of the armed forces, hell bent on eradicating all traces of Islam from the constitution, the school curriculum and at home, to allow one of his strategic arm’s, the ISI – presently holding hundreds of Islamic activists in illegal detention – to evangelize Islam!

No doubt Musharraf is bluffing his paranoid masters with the mantra of enlightened moderation to prolong his rule. To believe, however, that his pet agency is working with a strategic vision for the spread of Islam would be naïve beyond the farther reaches of imagination.

Notes:

[1]. Dawn report, “ISI criticized at U.S. Senate hearing,” March 22, 2003.

[2]. U.S. District Court transcripts for the BCCI related case: U.S. Vs Amjad Awan et al 88-330-Cr-T-13(B) R48-791-49, 50 R67-1136-160, 161 and 162 R83-881-26,27, and 28 GE 3193.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

http://usa.mediamonitors.net/content/view/full/42839

 

[BanglaBhoot]

THIS IS A MUST READ. This is a better article than the last one I put up and I am sure the Indians on the this forum will love this article even more -

National security at crossroads

Transit deal aims to transport Indian soldiers, armaments

M. Shahidul Islam in Toronto

HOLIDAY – April 27, 2007

Policies are as smart and effective as the makers who fashion them, so goes the argument. Today's global village is not the kind of place to adopt medieval tactic to exile political leaders or ordinary citizens. Nor do we live in a planet where arbitrary decision can be executed smoothly or digested calmly. That is why some recent decisions of the government with respect to domestic handling of political matters and the conduct of foreign policies have begun to rebound.

As a result, not only uncertainties are clouding our political horizon, national interest and national security faces grave dangers for reasons that are borne of hasty decision and lack of accountability.

No sooner it became clear that the military-backed regime was trying to exile the two women leaders, than protests from around the world began to reverberate and a barrage of anti-Bangladesh propaganda started springing anew, following a brief lull since the four-party alliance's relinquishment of power in October 2006.

Propaganda

Citing Indian and US intelligence sources, a Texas-based intelligence portal Stratfor -- which has the reputation of being the unofficial CIA front -- claimed on April 23 that Pakistan's Inter Service Intelligence (ISI) is working with Bangladesh intelligence agencies to facilitate cooperation between militant groups like ULFA and other jihadi outfits of the region, including Tamil rebels of Sri Lanka.

Titled as 'India: Islamisation of the Northeast', the report says "there is a growing Islamisation in the region, spurred by the ISI and the ongoing instability in neighbouring Bangladesh which is giving foreign powers (China and Pakistan) a gamut of exploitable secessionist movements for use to prevent India from emerging as a major global player."

The report goes on to say, there exists a strong nexus between ISI and Bangladesh's intelligence agencies and there are growing indications that these two agencies are working clandestinely in Bangladesh to bring all the Northeast-based insurgent outfits and jihadi elements under one umbrella.
"The ISI has facilitated cooperation between ULFA and other Northeastern militant outfits; with the LTTE in Sri Lanka, Islamist militant groups in Jammu and Kashmir, Islamist groups in Bangladesh and a growing number of Al Qaeda-linked jihadi groups operating in the region," claimed the report.

The report quoted one anonymous Bangladesh source as saying, there exists "meaningful cooperation between ISI and Bangladesh's intelligence agencies in their combined fight against terrorism, at the nudging of the West, but their joint efforts to trap India may just be a collateral strategic gain."
Observers say this latest anti-Bangladesh propaganda is part of an India-orchestrated campaign to obtain as much leverage from Dhaka, as may be feasible, while the non-party regime retains the power to decide matters arbitrarily without any debate by elected public representatives.

It also seems that Dhaka's umpteen assurances to India, including during the 14th SAARC summit in Delhi that Bangladesh soil is not being used by the Indian insurgents to launch attacks on Indian security forces, has had no substantive impact; India remains unconvinced.

As the insurgency in the Nnortheast becomes more ferocious, especially after the first suicide attack launched during PM Manmoham Singh's recent visit to the region, Delhi became desperate to overcome its geopolitical handicaps by using Dhaka's temporary regime to facilitate troops and military hardware movements to India's Northeast via Bangladesh, it was learnt.

Delhi thinks the strategy of using massive force in the 1980s against the Sikh separatists of Punjab can be emulated in Northeast India too.
But such a stratagem can easily backfire, say analysts. Unlike Punjab, where insurgents were mostly in an urban setting, the Northeast is remote, underdeveloped, desolate and ideal for guerrilla operations. Home to over 220 heterogeneous tribes and communities, the entire Northeast is infested with over 57 armed rebel groups with modern weapons and international connectivity.

Why then blame Bangladesh? Virtually disjointed from Delhi and the India's mainstream, the Northeast India succumbed to insurgency over 50 years ago when the Nagas launched their first armed struggle to secede from Delhi under the leadership of Angami Zaphu Phizo. The Manipuris followed suit under Hijam Irabot Singh as did the Mizos since the 1960s. In the late 1970s was born the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), which has proved to be the toughest bunch of all. All these groups are fighting for independent homelands of their own and scapegoating Dhaka is a political luxury that India never felt shy of using despite the real solution being in reaching lasting political settlements with the insurgents by redressing their genuine grievances.

Although it is unclear why Indian intelligence apparatuses are getting involved in anti-Bangladesh propaganda at this very moment, some analysts tend to believe the campaign may be related to the recent government decision to bar AL leader Sheikh Hasina's entry into the country.

Pressure on Dhaka

Geopolitical experts, however, maintain that India has been desperately exploring possibilities of a transit route via Bangladesh to transport military personnel, arms and ammunition to the war-torn Northeast as well as to reduce freight cost and distance between Kolkata and Agartala. It seems that the anti-Bangladesh media campaign is designed to exert psychological pressure on Dhaka.

The distance between Kolkata and Agartala is about 1,500 km. and, a transit route via Bangladesh is likely to reduce the rail distance to just 350 km, and reduce the freight costs substantially.

What seems certain is: being on the brink of loosing the Northeast to the ever powerful insurgents, Delhi's game plan to use Bangladesh as a transit has more to do with transporting military personnel and hardware to the war-torn Northeast than cut cost on freight and transportation of goods, although, the purpose does have a dual implication.

India also wants to revive subsequently other dysfunctional rail route linkages with Bangladesh, including the broad gauge connections between Gede-Darsana, Singhabad-Rohanpur, Petrapole-Benapole and the only metre gauge connection between Radhikapur and Shahbazar -- all with the aim to increase connectivity for military usages.

The arguments for military use become more impressive when one looks at the statistics of bilateral trades between India and its neighbours. During the fiscal 2006-07, Indian exports to Pakistan touched the billion-dollar mark. But imports from that country were worth no more than $ 350 million. The collaborations between the two nations are centered on reducing tension in Kashmir and making Indian presence in Afghanistan more prominent.
On the other hand, Nepal's Terai region is home to a large number of industries which were built only to sell in Indian markets. But Indian trade chambers have been vigorously lobbying for restricting imports from Nepal, arguing that, such imports undermine their own production base. Bangladesh ran up a deficit of $1.1 billion with India in 2002-03. The trade gap widened to a staggering $1.5 billion in 2005-06.

Experts say unless there is a clear understanding of what India will buy from Bangladesh to break even the huge trade gap, a transit treaty or agreement will be suicidal for Bangladesh. Dhaka must also make sure that it will not allow land, air or sea facilities for transporting India's military personnel or defence hardware due to the danger such a decision will unleash from the Northeastern insuregents who might conduct retaliatory attacks against Bnagladesh's interests any time, anywhere.

Yet, since the assumption of power by the current administration, a newly formed regional sub-group (South Asian Sub-regional Economic Cooperation (SASEC)) has been working diligently to finalize the transit, energy cooperation and other issues that India wants finalized before an elected government assumes office (see Holiday; April 20, 2007, p-1).
Reliable sources say, the decision to establish a rail link between Kumarghat and Agartala by December 2007 has already been taken. In return, Delhi offered a $150 million line of credit to Bangladesh for railway development. Besides, a regular railway service between Kolkata and Dhaka has already been announced.

While the government is keeping the nation preoccupied by chasing corrupt politicians and cleaning the so-called political mess, foreign nations are getting deals that are detrimental to national security and the economic survival of the country. Surprisingly, no one even cares to have a debate over those issues by brainstorming their ramifications. This is unfortunate, sad and dangerous.


http://www.weeklyholiday.net/front.html#02

 

[foxhound]

Srrangan - (What a sweet way to justify terrorism)

I'm sorry for making terrorism sound sweet.unfortunately in an ideal world (according to idealists), it would be nice for everyone to get along with one another - after all we are one human race! We are all the children of Adam & Eve.

well unfortunately the DEvil doesn't take lightlly this possible scenario and also the devil within humans also does not like this kind of scenario. In reality this world is far from the 'idealist' persons frame of mind. According to reality (realist), the current situation determines the reality/the actual happening of events and the 'realist' has to manouvre accordingly.

The world is very unstable (due to evil of it's so-called leaders - the war mongers) and it's has become a 'survival of the fittest' for all nations. At the moment terrorism is being committed by the numerous nations in the world (pre-dominantly the western world and it's cronies). We have state sponsored terrorism by the USA and it's allies in the Middle East and other parts of the world.

A few other areas of concern:

Russians in chechnya

Indian in occupied Kashmir (600,000 troops+, the largest concentrated of forces in one area in the world - resulting in the deaths of 100,000+ civilions)

Israeli (Zionist forces) in Palestines

Serbia against Bosnia

Russians in afghanistan

Usa + Allies in Afghanistan

Usa + Allies state sponsored terrorism in Iran, Iraq,Libya,Sudan, Somalia

Burma against it's muslim minorities and others

Phillipines against muslim Minorities

+ numerous more.


Please note, the non-muslim agencies are exploiting every opportunity for the destruction of muslim nations. It's a pity that the attrocities they are commiting is not terrorism!!! The Indian RAW has been behind numerous terrorist activities in Pakistan and afghanistan. They have been working in cohoots with other like minded agencies.

Just because RAW + other like minded agencies do not get the publicity in the tabloids does not mean they are not at work. At this very moment they are trying to destroy/dismantle nations in the Muslim world.

If Pakistan just sat down thinking in an 'idealist' mentality then I would confidently state that it would have been destroyed ages ago. after all, historically the non-muslim powers had wanted this.

The ploy of the Non-muslim world is to keep demonising a nation, make it seem unsafe to the world, show as much bad negativity of the country as possible .....and then when the opportunity arises....DESTROY it.


Unfortunately then the nation has to defend by utilising whatever resources it has.....i.e ISI missions for strategic interests.