World Bank refuses to accept Kashmir as Indian Territory

—Says ‘NO’ to release funds to India for project in disputed region

NEW DELHI, India—The World Bank has refused to accept Indian Occupied Kashmir as an integral part of India and has rather insisted upon a disclaimer from the Jammu and Kashmir government that funding for a project will not be seen as recognition of India’s territorial claim on the state.
The agency has put a ‘disclaimer clause’ for bankrolling a key project in the disputed state which indicates that funding of projects in disputed areas should not be used to endorse territorial claims.

“If you have a query on World Bank’s decision on J&K, Ask Prabhu now”. This has been communicated to New Delhi by the occupying state government which wants the World Bank-funded Rs 740 crore ‘Participatory Watershed Management Project’ to be completed.

Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir’s Forest Minister Mian Altaf Ahmad, along with MPs from the state met Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee recently in New Delhi to discuss the issue.

Jammu and Kashmir’s occupying government wants the New Delhi to settle issue with the World Bank, which has refused to fund more projects in the state, treating it as disputed territory between India and Pakistan. Ahmad said the World Bank had raised the disclaimer issue last year after assessment of the project which was then at the funding stage.

He said if the Centre pursued the matter; the bank could be convinced to give up the disclaimer condition. Despite Ahmad’s views to the contrary, this is a shocking development. The World Bank was instrumental in committing India to allow the waters of the state’s three principal rivers – the Indus, the Jhelum and the Chenab – to flow unimpeded under the Indus Water Treaty of 1960.

Article XI of the treaty is quite emphatic in that it will deal with only the water-sharing issue and its implementation will not acknowledge or waive any other rights other than those specified in the treaty. In other words, it will have nothing to do with the territorial dispute between the two parties.

In the troubled history of India-Pakistan relations, the Indus Water Treaty stands out as a major success for which the World Bank, the third signatory to the treaty, deserves great credit. As party to the treaty, the bank created an $895 million Indus Basin Development Fund to which India contributed some $174 million.

This is the second time this year that India has had friction with a multilateral development agency over project funding in a state that has a border dispute. An Asian Development Bank (ADB) country loan to India had run into trouble because it included funding for a watershed development project in Arunachal Pradesh – a point that was objected to by the Chinese at the ADB meeting. The World Bank had funded two projects in Jammu and Kashmir under the integrated Watershed Development Programme with Rs 90 crore from 1990 to 1999 and Rs 198 crore from 1999 to 2005 without bringing up the disclaimer issue.

A team of the World Bank headed by Norman Piccioni had visited the occupied state from May 5 to May 12 last year to assess the feasibility of the Participatory Watershed Management Project.

The project is likely to cover 3,14,705 hectares for adopting integrated watershed management to reverse the degradation of the natural resource base and improve the livelihood of poor rural households in the project area.

The World Bank will finance 80 per cent of the project and the state government 17 per cent. Participatory communities will contribute 3 per cent.

If implemented 1,74,250 households will be covered while 50,675 households will directly benefit from the project. Overall, it is expected to benefit over 10 lakh people and generate 45 lakh person-days of wage employment besides providing jobs to 2,000 people regularly for seven years.

Chief Minister Omar Abdullah first raised the issue in a June 24 letter to the Union finance minister.

He said the project was appraised by the World Bank for international development assistance credit of US$ 120 million equivalent in May 2008. After the appraisal, the director of the World Bank sent a letter on May 21, 2008 announcing the tentative dates of negotiation for the project in June last year. But no final date was conveyed by the bank.

The Chief Minister said the state government also did not get any communication from the department of economic affairs of the government of India in the matter. “I therefore request you to have a special consideration for the state of Jammu and Kashmir and ask the department of economic affairs to immediately take up the issue with the World Bank so that the project can be negotiated and taken up for implementation during the current financial year itself.” Efforts to contact World Bank officials in Delhi on Sunday failed.

Accused Mumbai Gunman Recants

NY Times

A Pakistani man who confessed in court to being one of the gunmen in the terrorist attacks on Mumbai last year recanted on Friday, saying the Indian police had framed him. A gunman, who was later identified as Mohammed Ajmal Kasab at the Chatrapathi Sivaji Terminal railway station in Mumbai in November 2008.

It was the latest flip-flop from the suspect, Ajmal Kasab, who made a dramatic and detailed confession in July, explaining his role as one of 10 Pakistanis who attacked two luxury hotels, a busy train station and a Jewish center, killing more than 160 people over three days in November 2008. Photographs and security tape show him and a partner firing at commuters at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, and dozens of witnesses have identified him. Nine of the attackers were killed in battles with the police.

Mr. Kasab, 21, confessed when he was arrested at the time of the attacks, but pleaded not guilty at the start of his trial and said the police had tortured him. His trial, on charges that include murder and waging war on India, began in April.

In his confession in July, however, he appeared to confirm his guilt and said he wanted to be hanged. He described how he and an accomplice, Abu Ismail, had prowled the train station with automatic weapons and hand grenades. They killed more than 50 people, he said.

In court two days later, Mr. Kasab insisted that his admission was not an attempt to avoid the death penalty. “If anybody is worried that I am trying to escape death by hanging, I’m not,” he declared in court. “If that’s the punishment I am given, so be it.”

At the time, the judge accepted his confession into the record but said the trial would go on.

On Friday, he told the court he had arrived in Mumbai 20 days before the attacks started. He said the police picked him up a few days before Nov. 26, the first night of the assault. He said the police later shot him to make it look as if he had been involved in the attack.

Mr. Kasab said it was only after his arrest that he encountered David C. Headley, the American who was charged with helping identify targets in Mumbai for the Pakistani militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba. Mr. Kasab said several F.B.I. agents were with Mr. Headley when the two men were brought together. Mr. Headley has pleaded not guilty.

Mr. Kasab’s previous lawyer, who was recently dismissed by the judge overseeing the case, has expressed concerns about Mr. Kasab’s mental stability. Mr. Kasab is in solitary confinement in a fortified cell built for him in one of the city’s oldest jails.

It appeared unlikely that Mr. Kasab’s latest statements would have a big impact on the trial. The prosecution finished presenting its case earlier this week.

Mark McDonald contributed reporting from Hong Kon

Indian lawyer exposes how Indian Police creates fake terrorists with fake Pak links

Ahmed Quraishi

After the 2008 Mumbai attacks, the American-British [Am-Brit] media highlighted how Indian police had arrested two Indian Muslims who had links to the Kashmiri group Lashkar Tayyiba. But the Am-Brit media goes silent when the truth comes out and it turns out that Indian military intelligence is involved in creating fake terrorists and blaming them on Pakistan.

NEW DELHI, India—The Indian police authorities and the officials of India’s notorious intelligence agency RAW are known for creating fake terrorists with fake links to Pakistan. Ajmal Kasab & company were not the first in this exercise. RAW and Indian police are practicing this art for years now. In a recent development, a daring Indian lawyer exposed one such drama and proved how the Indian police and RAW officials frame innocent people to prove them to be terrorists from Pakistan.

According to details, criminal lawyer M. S. Khan succeeded in proving the innocence of two Indian men who were alleged to be associates of a Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Tayyiba divisional commander.

Here is the Indian version of the story, with the usual spicy plot details that the Indians prefer in their film plots:

In September 2006, the Delhi Police received information that Pakistan-based divisional commander of the Lashkar-e-Taiba Mohammad Akmal alias Abu Tahir is planning to send his associates to Delhi and other parts of the country.

A team was constituted under late Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma to nab the terrorists, if they managed to enter the national capital. Following a tip-off, the Delhi police mounted a ‘technical surveillance’ and deployed ‘sources’ to track the terrorists. Surveillance reportedly revealed Mohammad Akmal sent one Mustafa along with another person to Delhi to carry out the mission. It further exposed that Mustafa and his associates were operating from their hideout at Mahipalpur.

On December 11, 2006, the police got a tip-off that the two men would come from Dhaula Kuan to Mahipalpur crossing. A Delhi police team was deployed at the spot. At 9.15 pm, the police informer spotted the two accused alighting from a blueline bus (number DL 1PB 0249) plying on route number 729 (Kapashera to Mori Gate).

Fifteen sticks of some yellow explosives, few detonators and Rs 6 lakh in Indian currency were reportedly seized from them. The terrorists were later identified as Gulzar Ahmed Ganai alias Mustafa and Mohammad Ameen Hazzam and were taken to Mumbai from where they allegedly received the explosives. “The charges against them, included planning and attempt to wage war against the country, collection of arms to wage war, possession of explosives, being members of a banned organisation,” MS Khan told an Indian journalist.

This is how he the Indian lawyer tore apart the police and Indian intelligence case in the court:

Prosecution: Secret information established the two accused were Lashkar militants.

Khan: Neither could they establish the nature of the information nor produce any supporting evidence.

Prosecution: The alleged terrorists were arrested on the basis of technical surveillance.

Khan: The cops were never able to establish the nature and scope of their surveillance.

Prosecution: The cops mentioned the ultras had a hideout in Mahipalpur area.

Khan: When asked the location of the hideout, the cops themselves were clueless.

Prosecution: The cops claimed to have arrested the terrorists from a bus around 9.15 pm and produced tickets as evidence.

Khan: When asked the bus conductor told the court that the bus was not even plying at that time and the tickets produced were from the lot used around 11.50 am.

Prosecution: The cops said the militants were there at Dhaula Kuan.

Khan: The police were clueless from where they came to Dhaula Kuan.

Prosecution: It was alleged that the ultras had come to collect hawala money amounting to Rs 6 lakh in cash.

Khan: No evidence was produced to establish who gave them the money and when.

Prosecution: The police said the accused had come to Delhi from outside.

Khan: They could not establish from where they came. Also, no evidence was produced to establish they went to Mumbai to acquire explosives.

Prosecution: The police produced photographs of the crime scene.

Khan: As stated earlier, the photographs were not of Mahipalpur and no cop could be seen in them.

Prosecution: ACP Sanjeev Yadav told the court that one Ganai told the police about the hideout in Mahipalpur on December 14.

Khan: Ganai was taken to Mumbai on December 13 by a Delhi police team. How could he have revealed anything?

CIA Supporting Terror Inside Pakistan

After my four hour long informal interaction with US military chief Admiral Mike Mullen and Ambassador Richard Holbrooke at the residence of US Ambassador on the rainy evening of April 6, 2009, I had in my comments mentioned that now the ISI was the immediate target of the US Establishment. This was no “breaking news” as everyone who keeps an eye on the ongoing war on terror knew well that US was hell-bent on:

1.Getting the Pakistan Army sucked into domestic turmoil in Swat, FATA and beyond Waziristan, and

2.Reining in what the US calls “rogue elements” in the ISI

There are confirmed reports that to achieve its objectives the CIA hired the services of at least a dozen Afghan warlords inside Afghanistan and provided through them arms and finances to militants in FATA and Swat to carry out extensive death and destruction by devastating attacks in the country. It was like a double-edged sword not only to get the Army to launch attacks against Taliban on Pakistani side of the border but also to give a message to the ISI that the CIA can use the Pakistanis – Taliban of the TTP- against their own security forces.

It was in this background that after putting up with so much for so long, the prime intelligence agency of the country ultimately confronted the CIA Director Leon E. Panetta with some highly classified and irrefutable evidence. Panetta was startled when Director-General ISI, General Ahmad Shuja Pasha, a no-nonsense General, placed the facts before him in Islamabad on November 20, 2009.

The “deliberate leaks” after the meeting of the spy chiefs of the two countries spoke of the mind of the ISI and the armed forces of Pakistan. General Pasha had earlier conveyed the facts about the interference of CIA in acts of terrorism in Pakistan to the Government but realizing that either the message was not strongly conveyed to the Americans or it had no desired impact on them, finally put its foot down and expressed serious concerns over the CIA’s crude interference in the country’s internal matters.

The proof about instances of covert US support to some hardened militant outfits and terrorist activities they carried out over the past few weeks and months were presented to Panetta. It was indeed a startling revelation for the top US spy and a bold maneuver of Pakistan Army. General Pasha’s move surprised Panetta as the evidence presented was categorical in proving that the CIA officials provide assistance to perpetrators of some of the most serious and deadly attacks on offices and key persons in Pakistan’s security services. He was told that in view of the negative impact on Pakistan’s efforts in its ‘war on terror’ the CIA must stop such activities. The clarity with which the information was meant to be a loud message to Washington and CIA headquarters at Langley that if they wanted Pakistan’s cooperation in the war on terror; it must give up playing a double game. Pakistan has publicly expressed concerns over the freedom enjoyed by the Indian intelligence agency RAW is operating from Afghanistan. RAW is not only involved in acts of terrorism in the NWFP but also in Balochistan. India cannot undertake such wide-scale activities in this region without the approval and backing of the CIA. The question is: how did India develop such a huge presence in Kabul?

What has raised alarm bells in Islamabad is that Maulvi Fazlullah who escaped from Swat is living openly in Afghanistan under the protection of Afghan intelligence. The TTP leaders including Hakeemullah Mehsud have also being protected and allowed to operate from Afghanistan. All this could not happen without the knowledge of Americans.

There are reports that TTP leaders are provided satellite phones operated by a Gulf based Western company and they have been talking freely to BBC and other media organizations without any fear of being detected and targeted by drones or missiles. Then there are also credible reports that a helicopter that flew from Afghanistan before Oct. 17, when operation Rah-e-Nejat in South Waziristan was launched, evacuated the top leadership of the TTP from Waziristan to Afghanistan. The Americans also vacated some of the crucial posts along the border with South Waziristan in an apparent bid to provide safe passage to the fleeing Pakistani Taliban. The terrorists arrested in Pakistan during the operation told their interrogators about their links with the US and Indian agencies. There is credible information that full logistic and auxiliary support is still being provided to anti-Pakistan Taliban from Nuristan Province and several top officials from Afghan and Indian intelligence networks were seen active in the area.

So, it is CIA’s agenda to get the Pak Army and now the Air Force also spend itself in internal security operations and erode the morale and capabilities of ISI so that Pakistan’s nuclear assets could be targeted in one way or the other. The CIA’s new agenda started to be implemented as soon as the present Government took over. On many occasions since, Washington has been publicly blaming ISI for its links with some of the Taliban leaders including the Haqqani group. During the meeting with Prime Minister Gilani in Washington in August 2008, Director CIA presented him with a charge sheet against Pakistani intelligence agencies for their alleged involvement in Jihadi activities. In order to justify its intended interference in Balochistan, the CIA also raised the bogey of the presence of Taliban Shura in or around Quetta.

PPP’s History of Undermining ISI

The whole scenario became very grim as the Government appeared to have succumbed to American pressure to cut the ISI to size and make it a carpet lion. It was in this backdrop that a notification was issued in mysterious circumstances placing the ISI under the Interior Ministry; the notification was withdrawn the same day when the move backfired. It is no coincidence that during the two stints of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto as Prime Minister, a perception developed that the PPP undermined the effectiveness of the ISI. That perception was also based on facts. On the instructions of the BB Government, Lt. Gen. Javed Ashraf Qazi, the then DG ISI, purged 125 officers of the Agency [from the ranks of Major General to Colonel] who were identified to be “rogue elements” by the CIA. Now there is a strong perception that the present leadership is not presenting the interests and concerns of the state of Pakistan to its ‘Americans friends’ and is just raising issues in a casual manner. Perhaps that was the reason that the Army leadership had to make unusual public remarks in a press release, issued by the ISPR after the Corps Commanders meeting in October 2009, expressing serious concern over the Kerry-Lugar Bill saying that certain of its clauses were intrusive and against the national interests and were thus unacceptable. The Presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar snubbed the Pakistan Army accusing it of ‘crossing the line’ bringing the differences into the open setting a new precedent and further undermining the state of Pakistan.

The crude interference by the CIA in Pakistan’s internal affairs has not gone well with the Establishment and infuriated the Pakistan Army. If the Americans did not stop its activities to help the Pakistani Taliban against the Army, cooperation with the US in the war in Afghanistan would come to an abrupt end. I am quite sure that if the Army says NO the whole nation will back it. It was owing to this reason that COAS General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, while talking to newsmen on the occasion of rolling out of first JF-17 Thunder Aircraft at Kamra on November 24, declared that the US would have to take Pakistan into confidence and taking into consideration the armed forces know-how to defend the country.

This report was first published by Pakistan Observer on Dec. 7, 2009.

Pakistan holding up some US visas

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan has held up visas for U.S. diplomats, military service members and others, apparently because of hostility within the country toward the expansion of U.S. operations in Pakistan, a senior U.S. diplomat said Wednesday.

American diplomats have also been stopped repeatedly at Pakistani checkpoints as part of what U.S. officials say is a wider focus on foreigners working in Pakistan. The U.S. cars are searched, although diplomats are told to open the trunk but to refuse access to the passenger compartment.

The U.S. diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe sensitive interaction between the two countries, said that the visa clampdown seems to be a reaction to widespread anti-American sentiment, even though many of the affected workers would be doing jobs that bring aid and other help to Pakistan.

The official said the reaction is probably temporary and that the U.S. does not plan to do more than press Pakistani authorities to relent.

The U.S. embassy is already large and expanding, with plans to go from about 500 employees to more than 800 over the next 18 months. Most of the growth is related to the expansion of U.S. aid to Pakistan, some of which comes with requirements for accounting and oversight that have rankled Pakistanis.

The official said that at the embassy, several employees have gone home for Christmas leave and will be unable to return because the Pakistani authorities have not expended their visas. In all, 135 visa extensions have been denied, the official said. Other visa applications have been rejected outright, but U.S. authorities have not collected data on how many.

The official said Pakistani authorities have not provided a comprehensive response to American complaints, and that several ministries are involved. That allows Pakistani authorities to spread the blame, the official said.

The official said that among those whose visas were held up are mechanics who tend to a fleet of U.S. helicopters that supports Pakistani military operations in the frontier areas.

The helicopters stopped flying when there were insufficient mechanics to maintain them, the official said. Some visas were approved after Pakistani authorities inquired about the grounded helicopters.

In October, President Barack Obama signed into law a $7.5 billion aid package for Pakistan. Pakistan’s military criticized the aid as American meddling in the country’s internal affairs.

The measure provides $1.5 billion annually over five years for economic and social programs and comes as Pakistan faces a string of violent militant attacks and bombings as its military orchestrates an offensive into the Taliban heartland.

The law is the Obama administration’s attempt to strengthen the weak civilian government in Islamabad and encourage its fight against Taliban and al-Qaida militants operating along the border with Afghanistan, where the United States is fighting an eight-year war.

The stability of a nuclear-armed Pakistan is deemed crucial to U.S.-led efforts to battle extremists in South Asia.

The White House said the law, which was passed unanimously by Congress, is “the tangible manifestation of broad support for Pakistan in the U.S.”

The legislation requires the secretary of state to report to Congress every six months on whether Pakistan’s civilian government maintains effective control over the military’s budgets, chain of command and top promotions.

The White House said the requirements are “accountability measures” placed on the United States to ensure that the aid directly benefits the Pakistani people. It said that the law does not seek to micromanage Pakistani military or civilian affairs, “including the promotion of Pakistani military officers or the internal operations of the Pakistani military.”

The Blackwater chronicles

Irfan Hussain

In an age of globalisation where everything from manufacturing to accounting is outsourced, it should come as no surprise that governments now contract out many security functions that were once considered an inherent part of military duties.

Leading the charge to grab as many of these lucrative contracts was, until recently, the Blackwater empire. Now, embroiled in a string of legal actions and embarrassing headlines, it is struggling to survive.

Blackwater first came to public attention when four of its employees were killed by Iraqi insurgents, and their bodies burned and dragged around the streets of Fallujah. However, the company really hit the headlines on September 16, 2007, when its gunmen killed 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad’s Nisour Square. In the following outcry, the firm allegedly paid a million dollars in bribes to Iraqi officials, a charge it has denied.

Its recent re-branding as Xe Services last February has not helped much in drawing a line under its controversial activities. Its contract with the State Department to protect American diplomats has been terminated, as has been the agreement with CIA to assist the agency arm its drones in secret bases in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Nevertheless, Xe’s subsidiary, Presidential Airlines, continues to drop supplies to US Special Forces bases in remote parts of Afghanistan.

In Pakistan’s context, the firm has become synonymous with public perception about American interference in the country. Despite repeated denials, Blackwater/Xe is widely viewed as yet another symbol of Washington’s intrusive policies. This impression was recently reinforced by a New York Times story alleging that the firm’s operatives worked hand in glove with the CIA in covert anti-terrorist operations.

In the wake of President Obama’s recent announcement of the surge that will add 30,000 soldiers to the present strength of 68,000 in Afghanistan, few realise how deeply the concept of defence outsourcing has become entrenched. For instance, there are already 104,000 American private security contractors in Afghanistan.

Mostly ex-servicemen, these people perform a variety of tasks that, in earlier conflicts, were almost entirely carried out by government personnel. Ranging from perimeter security to mobile protection, these functions include logistics and intelligence. Paradoxically, the US administration is barred by law from outsourcing ‘inherently governmental functions.’ Departments stretch this to include all sorts of tasks because nobody has actually defined exactly what these functions are.

One reason to reach outside the ranks of officialdom is that many of these tasks are temporary, and can be performed by short-term contractors. In conflict zones, it is difficult to hire trained people for security services without relying on ex-servicemen. The biggest attraction, of course, is that the size of the military presence can be kept small, and casualties among contractors do not attract the same attention that dead and wounded soldiers do. As P.W. Singer of the Brookings Institution wryly put it: ‘What we created was not a coalition of the willing. We’re relying on the coalitions of the billing.’

I first became interested in the Blackwater story when Sheila, my daughter-in-law, asked me what the firm was doing in Pakistan. This was when many people were insisting that it was playing a nefarious role, and I had dismissed the charge as yet another conspiracy theory.

However, when I began researching the story, I came across some very curious facts and allegations. In an investigative report in the latest Vanity Fair, Adam Ciralsky quotes Erik Prince, the founder and CEO of Blackwater/Xe, as claiming that he was not just a CIA contractor, but also an agency ‘asset.’ Cynical observers suggest that Prince has made this claim to pre-empt court proceedings.

Prince became such an integral part of the army’s and the CIA’s campaign against militants that according to Ciralsky, he was known as ‘Mr Fix-it on the war on terror.’ Such were the ties between Prince and the Bush administration that Blackwater won $1.5 billion in contracts between 2001 and 2009, and raked in $600 million in 2008 alone.

One American journalist who has researched deeply into the subject is Jeremy Scahill, a reporter with The Nation, and author of Blackwater. He has written about the firm’s birth in 1997, and its phenomenal growth after 9/11.

Among other allegations about Prince, perhaps the most bizarre relate to his connection to the Knights of Malta, an extreme-right Roman Catholic organisation that traces its roots back to the Crusades. Some ex-employees have accused Prince of being a Christian supremacist sanctioning the killings of Muslims because he believes he has been charged by God to ‘rid the world of Muslims and Islam.’

Others point to the fact that he supports an orphanage in Afghanistan. Whatever the truth, Prince does seem to think he has been chosen for a mission to defend America. He cites a recent near-death experience in his interview with Ciralsky in the Vanity Fair article. Apparently, he was in Islamabad when he received word that his son had nearly drowned in the family swimming pool in the United States. Changing his itinerary, he caught the next flight back, checking out of the Marriott hours before it was nearly flattened in a huge suicide blast a couple of years ago.

Even as Blackwater/Xe struggles to survive in a suddenly hostile environment, military contracting is expected to grow in the United States. With the coming surge, more security firms will be awarded lucrative contracts. At the height of the US presence in Iraq, as many as 190,000 contractors were on the government payroll.

While they have been likened to mercenaries, they have not yet been openly inducted into the frontline. However, as the New York Times article shows, some of them at least are involved in covert operations. It is a matter of time before they begin participating in the fighting unless governments agree on rules of engagement that would bar hired guns from joining regular troops.

One problem is that these contractors are outside the official chain of command, and do not have to conduct themselves in accordance with the Geneva Convention.

Soldiers and spies, on the other hand, have careers and pensions to protect. As we saw, the Blackwater employees accused of using lethal force in Iraq were simply fired without undergoing the rigours of imprisonment. However, some of them have now been brought before a court, and may yet pay the price for their actions. But so far, at least, Erik Prince has yet to face judgment.