The Hindu Business Line : International terrorrism

Even as evidence is emerging about how Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have worked hand in hand to support international terrorism by the Al Qaeda, the Bush Administration continues to chase shadows and blame Iran for allegedly supporting terrorism, as it did with Iraq, says G. Parthasarathy.

FOR OVER four decades, the United States and Saudi Arabia used the promotion of Wahhabi fundamentalism as a tool to undermine secular regimes in the Islamic world. But what struck me most during a recent visit to the US was the extent of American anger at the manner in which its erstwhile ally Saudi Arabia continues to support and fund radical and fundamentalist groups, including elements linked to the Al Qaeda, across the world.

Evidence is also emerging about how Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have worked hand in hand to support international terrorism by the Al Qaeda.

Rather than acknowledging this reality, the Bush Administration continues to chase shadows and blame Iran for allegedly supporting terrorism, as it had done earlier with the Saddam Hussein dispensation in Iraq. Jordan's young and enlightened ruler King Abdullah recently remarked: "Wahhabi-Salafism is as much a threat to Iran as it is to the rest of us Muslims and the international community. And here's common ground that they (Iranians) want to work with all of us on".

King Abdullah's should know better than most others, the dangers that the Saudi-Pakistan nexus poses to moderate Islamic regimes and secular, pluralistic societies such as India.

Osama bin Laden had, after all, designated the Al Qaeda terrorist Abu Zubaydah, who is a Saudi national, to blow up the Radisson Hotel in Amman on January 1, 2000 — a plot foiled by Jordanian intelligence. Zubaydah, who is now under American custody, has reportedly made some astonishing disclosures to the Americans.

He provided the Americans with the names of three members of the Saudi Royal family who regularly funded the Al Qaeda and the Taliban.

He is also reported to have revealed that after Osama bin Laden established the "International Islamic Front for Jihad against Jews (Israel) and Crusaders" in 1998, the head of Saudi Arabia's intelligence Prince Turki Al Faysal struck a deal with the Taliban and Osama bin Laden assuring them that Saudi Arabia would give more economic assistance to the Taliban and not seek the extradition of bin Laden, as long as Al Qaeda kept its promise of directing terrorism away from Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia extensively funded both Pakistan and the Taliban and supplied them 1,50,000 barrels of oil daily at an annual cost of $1.5 billion, virtually free of charge. It continues to provide Pakistan oil virtually free of cost.

In return, the Saudi Defence Minister Prince Sultan was granted unprecedented access to Pakistan's nuclear facilities in Kahuta — access that has thus far been not been given to even the Pakistani Prime Minister, Mr ... Jamali. Abu Zubaydah is also reported to have revealed to American interrogators that in 1996 Osama bin Laden reached agreement with Air Marshal Mushaf Ali Mir, a Pakistan Air Force Officer with strong Islamist leanings.

Pakistan then agreed to provide the Al Qaeda with weapons, protection and supplies. Both Air Marshal Mir and the Saudis had been told by Osama bin Laden in advance of an impending terrorist strike against the US on September 11, 2001.

There is now no shortage of Americans who are furious with both the Saudis and Pakistanis over these developments. But the Bush Administration finds it expedient to remain silent or obfuscate, when issues of continuing Pakistani and Saudi Arabian links with the Al Qaeda and the Taliban emerge. It is, after all, difficult to chastise or disown errant sons- in-law!! Within weeks of Abu Zubaydah revealing the links of three Saudi Arabian Princes and Mushaf Ali Mir with the Al Qaeda early in 2002, all three Princes died in mysterious circumstances. The relatively young Prince Ahmed bin Salman was reported to have died of a "heart attack", and Prince Sultan bin Faisal was said to have died in a "car accident" the next day.

One week later it was claimed that the 25-year-old Prince Fahd died of "thirst" when driving from Riyadh to Jeddah. Gen Pervez Musharraf superseded five senior Air Force officers to appoint Mushaf Ali Mir as Pakistan's Air Force Chief. Mir perished in equally mysterious circumstances last year while flying in a VIP Squadron Pakistan Air Force aircraft that had recently passed a fitness and maintenance inspection.

One should not be surprised if Omar Syed Sheikh, who has been found guilty of killing American journalist Daniel Pearl, also "disappears" in similar circumstances. Like Mushaf Mir, Omar Syed Sheikh knows too much of the links of the ISI and Gen Musharraf with jehadi terrorism worldwide.

It is now widely acknowledged that there are divisions within the Saudi Royal family on the issue of using so-called "charities" to globally fund Wahhabi fundamentalist causes that inevitably attain terrorist dimensions. While Crown Prince Abdallah is regarded as a voice of moderation, others like Interior Minister Naif and the Governor of Riyadh, Prince Salman, are reportedly reluctant to give up their old ways. Americans allege that hundreds of jehadis have crossed the Saudi Arabia-Iraq border to wage war against their forces in Iraq. The strains in the US-Saudi Arabia relationship are now visible and the Russian President, Mr Vladimir Putin, has stepped in to take advantage of the situation.

For over a decade now, the Saudi Arabians and the Pakistanis have supported the so-called jehad in Chechnya, financially, politically and militarily. But things now seem to be changing, with Prince Abdallah undertaking the first ever high-level visit by a Saudi Arabian ruler to Moscow.

There are indications that the Saudi Arabian support for the Chechen rebels is likely to become a thing of the past and as two of the most important oil producers in the world, Russia and Saudi Arabia, would work together to sustain oil prices at levels they consider opportune.

Pakistan is likely follow the Saudi Arabian lead on curbing support to jehadis in Chechnya. Saudi Arabia may also support Moscow's ambitions to join the OIC — a move Pakistan will not welcome, as it could set a precedent for Indian membership of that Islamic body. These developments are inevitably having an impact on American thinking on its policies in Iraq and Afghanistan. There are voices in the US that advocate stronger action to make Saudi Arabia end its support for extremist and separatist Islamic causes.

Given the political uncertainties in Saudi Arabia, the US would evidently like to see Iraq emerge as a major exporter of oil, with oil production levels akin to that of Saudi Arabia. A strong lobby within the Pentagon appears to favour granting more powers to representative bodies that would effectively empower the Shia majority in Iraq.

This would cause concern in Saudi Arabia where the Shia population has long been dispossessed and suppressed, like in Pakistan. Shia doctors, for example, have been systematically targeted and killed in Karachi by fundamentalist groups that have links in Saudi Arabia.

There is also emerging evidence that persons involved in bomb blasts in Mumbai and elsewhere have links in Saudi Arabia with supporters of groups such as the Lashkar-e-Taiba.

It is also inconceivable that a pro-Pakistani Islamist leader like Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who was forced out of the Hurriyat Conference, can receive an invitation from the OIC without Saudi Arabian backing. New Delhi would have to bear these factors in mind in dealing with emerging developments in its western neighbourhood.

(The author is former High Commissioner to Pakistan.)

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