[R-G] THE RISE AND RISE OF AL-QAEDA, Part 1: Militants make a claim for talks

Thu Jan 17 13:46:35 MST 2008

THE RISE AND RISE OF AL-QAEDA, Part 1
Militants make a claim for talks
By Syed Saleem Shahzad
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/JA18Df02.html

KABUL - The capture by militants of a fort in Pakistan near the  
Afghan border is not just another isolated incident in the volatile  
region. It represents a concerted fightback by al-Qaeda to derail any  
peace initiatives unless the group itself is directly engaged, rather  
than local resistance leaders.

On Wednesday, several hundred insurgents armed with assault rifles  
and rockets stormed the remote Sararogha Fort in the South Waziristan  
tribal area and routed its garrison from the Frontier Constabulary  
(FC), a paramilitary force formed of men from the area.

Pakistani military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said 40  
militants had been killed in an exchange of fire when they managed to  
enter the fort after blowing up a wall.

A Taliban spokesman, Maulvi Omar, however, claimed that 16 FC  
personnel had been killed and 24 more captured. He said only two of  
his men had been killed, while a dozen had sustained injuries. "The  
fort is still in our control," the self-proclaimed Taliban spokesman  
added in a phone call to the offices of a Pakistani newspaper.

Unrest has escalated in South Waziristan since the government singled  
out Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud for his alleged involvement in  
the assassination of former premier Benazir Bhutto on December 27 in  
the army garrison city of Rawalpindi.

All the same, Islamabad has tried to defuse the situation by  
negotiating with selected Taliban leaders. Most recently, a Pakistani  
Taliban shura (council) headed by Hafiz Gul Bahadur in North  
Waziristan responded positively to a government offer of a ceasefire,  
despite opposition from Takfiri elements who view non-practicing  
Muslims as infidels.

The backlash was immediate. Militants launched attacks in Mohmand  
Agency, followed by Wednesday's mass assault.

This response is orchestrated by al-Qaeda from its camps around the  
town of Mir Ali in North Waziristan. Al-Qaeda views any peace  
agreements with the Pakistani Taliban as a government maneuver to  
split the militants, and also says Islamabad has been consistently  
intransigent over the years.

Al-Qaeda demands that it be the chief interlocutor in any peace  
talks, and it has set its bottom line: guarantees of the withdrawal  
of all security forces from the tribal areas; enforcement of sharia  
law, the release of Maulana Abdul Aziz of the radical Lal Masjid (Red  
Mosque), who was apprehended last year; and that President Pervez  
Musharraf step down.

Graphic ideology
Al-Qaeda has fought back strongly in the tribal areas after being  
forced onto the back foot as a result of Pakistani security  
operations. Its hardline message is well summed up by a video now in  
circulation, a copy of which Asia Times Online has viewed.
It comes from the camp of Tahir Yuldashev, leader of the Islamic  
Movement of Uzbekistan, in Mir Ali. It carries bloody footage,  
including that of severed heads, backed by messages from top Takfiri  
ideologues in the tribal areas, including Abdul Khaliq Haqqani and  
Yuldashev.

The video traces some of the successes of the insurgents, including  
mass surrender scenes of Pakistani armed forces in South Waziristan  
and detailed footage of the October 2007 war in North Waziristan -  
the biggest battle in the history of Pakistan's tribal regions. There  
are scenes of Pakistani F-16s bombing towns and the retaliation of  
the Pakistani Taliban. The video claims the killing of 150 Pakistani  
soldiers and shows footage of their bodies, burnt vehicles and seized  
equipment.

The video is primarily a declaration of war against the Pakistani  
army and urges to struggle to continue until Islamabad is captured.  
The video portrays Musharraf as the prime accused.

With propaganda material such as this, al-Qaeda aims to stamp its  
authority on the area. At the same time, Jundullah, a purely militant  
outfit whose objective is to target Pakistan's pro-US rulers and US  
and British interests in the country, has been revived. Its members  
receive training in Afghanistan and South Waziristan.

The curtailment and revival of al-Qaeda
The mastermind of a new approach in Iraq was former US ambassador  
Zalmay Khalilzad and US commander in Iraq General David Petraeus, who  
introduced peace ideas in early 2007 which resulted in Anbar  
Awakening. This is an alliance of about 200 Sunni sheikhs drawn  
mostly from the Dulaimi tribe and dozens of sub-clans who were  
fighting against al-Qaeda.

With arms, money and aid from the US, they established links with  
indigenous Iraqi tribal resistance movements in Samarra, Tikrit and  
Mosul to target al-Qaeda, which has proved successful in curtailing  
the group's operations in Iraq.

This initiative was copied by the British in southwest Afghanistan  
and by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence in South Waziristan and  
North Waziristan, with channels of communication with the Taliban  
being established.

A new leadership within the Taliban was nurtured and given arms and  
money by the Pakistani army. The outcome was the massacre of Uzbeks  
in South Waziristan and the removal of al-Qaeda bigwigs from North  
Waziristan.

But al-Qaeda diligently sowed the seeds of its ideology among the  
downtrodden and dead-end jihadis of Pakistan's underground militant  
organizations, such as the Laskhar-i-Jhangvi and the Jaish-i- 
Mohammed, who felt betrayed over Islamabad's withdrawal of active  
support for the struggle in Kashmir.

This effectively stemmed the rise of the neo-Taliban, and Pakistani  
and Afghan warriors have fully embraced the global jihad ideology of  
al-Qaeda.

Al-Qaeda believes it has sufficiently changed the situation in  
Pakistan and Afghanistan and that the first regional dialogue with al- 
Qaeda - involving Britain, the United States and Pakistan - will  
start in South Asia.

Indeed, al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, in audio and video messages  
last year, surprised many when he urged the West for dialogue.

Of course, this was not a straight-forward offer of an olive branch,  
but an indication that al-Qaeda aims to be the main negotiator of  
Muslim issues, rather than local groups such as the Taliban, Iraqi  
tribes and Hamas in Palestine.

In Pakistan and Afghanistan, this is already happening.

Next: International players trapped in their game

Syed Saleem Shahzad is Asia Times Online's Pakistan Bureau Chief. He  
can be reached at saleem_shahzad2002 at yahoo.com