India angry over US not sharing intelligence on ISI-run terror camps in Pakistan | ||||||||||||
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For India, it is the second humiliating snub after the David Headley episode. India's intelligence establishment is upset that despite growing counterterror and intelligence cooperation with the US in the post 9/11 years, its 'partner' in the war against terror continues to keep it in the dark on crucial details relating Washington's strategic ally in the region - Pakistan. It has now come to light that the US did not share with New Delhi details and specifics of ISI-run anti-India terror camps on Pakistani soil. This specific information had been disclosed to US intelligence agencies by Guantanamo Bay detainees. Revelations made by Guantanamo Bay captives, disclosed by Wikileaks, have proved that US was conscious of the location and size of ISI and Pakistan Armyrun anti-India terror camps. The documents show that US officials were aware that terrorists in India were guided by Pakistani officials and one Lashkar-e-Tayyeba (LeT) inmate at Guantanamo Bay may have been an ISI agent. Nabbed Afghan fighter Chaman Gul, also known as Mast Gul, fought in Kashmir. "A former Major in the Pakistani Army, Mast Gul is a notorious terrorist. He fought against the Indian government in Kashmir..," a leaked note says. The Guantanamo Bay files have several other explicit references to ISI support for terror attacks on India. Abdul Azia, LeT operative of Algerian origin and an al-Qaeda courier nabbed by the US in 2002 stated that Pak intelligence personnel allowed terror operatives to travel to India. The targets were chosen by the Pakistan Army. Badr Awad Bakri al-Sumayri, a LeT member of Saudi Arabian origin, the terrorist is recorded as being recruited in his home country to travel to Pakistan for training in an ISIrun camp in Muzaffarabad, Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Mohammed Anwar, a Pakistani citizen, is believed to be LeT member who is also an ISI agent. However, sources here said that such information was "never shared" with India despite concerns over the threat to India posed by such camps being repeatedly expressed by officials in various meetings with their American counterparts. A former intelligence official, who has been part of many such discourses till last year, pointed out while relations between the intelligence agencies have improved in the recent years and a hotline has been established, Washington has never shared actionable and operational intelligence from the Guantanamo revelations. "While discussions have been substantive in the post-Headley period and day to day sharing of information has been improving, the sharing of information has been more generic," the official said. Said former deputy national security adviser Satish Chandra, "This is yet another classic case of US protecting its sources like in the David Headley case. It is further proof that US wants to save and preserve Pakistan. But they are failing to realise that they are creating a monster that will hurt them. It is time that US calls the bluff on Pakistan." According to official sources, while "generic" threat perception in the region was exchanged by the US officials, specific details, particularly those emerging from interrogations at the Guantanamo Bay prison, were never revealed. It may be recalled that CIA chief Leon Panetta had an unscheduled stopover in India last October to share the US threat perception to the Commonwealth Games. "India is looking forward to actionable intelligence inputs," a senior source had said at that time. The Indian establishment has been repeatedly flagging concerns over terror camps run by groups like LeT and Jaish-e-Mohammad during the course of meetings between the intelligence and security agencies of the two countries. "Evidence of the role of ISI and the Pakistan Army in running these camps were also shared with the US interlocutors," a source pointed out. This was corroborated by a serving senior government official who is part of the counter-terror cooperation. However, sources emphasised that while US shared certain generic information about terror camps, specific details that US agencies gathered in Pakistan and which could have helped India in combating terror groups, were missing from the bilateral deliberations. "Inputs have only been shared over specific and current threats. But this does not include Guantanamo," a senior official said. It is understood that the Guantanamo files have also disclosed al-Qaeda's interest in India, including a plot to target an Indian airline. This obviously raises question marks over the sincerity of US co-operation, despite a slew of mechanisms in place for exchange of information. The last Joint Working Group on counterterror was held here in March. The Homeland Security Dialogue is also scheduled to be held in Delhi later this month. Recently, the US also hosted several police officials both from the centre and the states at Chicago. But there have been apprehensions in the Indian security establishment that even the Homeland Security Dialogue may not lead to entire sharing of information by the US on Pakbased anti-India terror. Security experts even envisage a situation where India could end up sharing more inputs on security and terror-related matters under the Homeland Security Dialogue without reciprocity from the US agencies. This will limit India's ability to prevent any future terror attack. Former foreign secretary Kanwal Sibal felt given the nature of current cooperation, the US should have been more forthcoming. "The role of ISI is well known to the US and given the nature of Indo-US ties, one would have reasonably expected US to be more forthcoming... hopefully after the Osama episode, US may begin to realise that it is in its core interests to deal with Pakistani content on terrorism," Sibal said. While the US may claim that the two nations are working through "a huge range" of issues to implement enhanced counter terrorism cooperation in the wake of 26/11, the memories from Headley episode are far from fading. It may be recalled that ten days before Obama landed in India, Home secretary G. K. Pillai had pointed out that India was "disappointed" that US never shared Headley's name with India, something which could have led to his arrest during any of his nine visits to India from 2006 to 2009. "The issue here is that the name (of Headley) was not shared with us by the US, either before 26/11 or after 26/11 when Headley subsequently visited India in March 2009. "We are disappointed that Headley's name was not provided to us. If that had been done, India could have nabbed Headley," Pillai had then said. Former Indian Envoy to Pakistan G. Parthasarathy, recalling his own meetings with his US counterpart in Islamabad, said Washington did not acknowledge symbiotic ties between al-Qaeda and other terror groups like LeT & JeM that have carried out most strikes against India. | ||||||||||||
Sunday, May 8, 2011
India angry over US not sharing intelligence on ISI-run terror camps in Pakistan -May 9, 2011
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