From 9/11 hits to air strikes
in Afghanistan and from missile attacks to high-pitched
gun-battles in Iraq, the war on terror has slowly gone
online, with allied investigators now relying more on
computers than guns. And the work method is yielding results,
particularly in Pakistan where seized computers, e-mail
and SMS messages interceptions are leading to arrests
of those wanted by the West.
Such has become the Pakistan’s contribution to the
US-led war on terror that the chain of arrests here is
being dubbed as equivalent to ‘foiling a major attack’
on the US’s soil. Documents seized in raids in different
parts of the country bear Al-Qaeda’s surveillance
of corporate and government targets in Washington, New
York and New Jersey. Arrests in Pakistani cities are indeed
leading to terror alerts in the US.
A part of the work method of investigators and law enforcing
agencies in the war on terror is no secret now. Most of
the arrests that are frequently taking place in Pakistan
and elsewhere are the ‘direct result’ of e-mail
and SMS interceptions, with human intelligence virtually
playing a minor role.
Of late, Pakistan has surely become the major source of
information as well as the arrests. At least 20 suspects,
including some with head money, have been arrested in
Pakistan in less than a month.
The Western media is generally drumming up efforts of
the Pakistani law enforcing agencies but some newspapers
are also trying to picture a different story at the same
time. The New York Times recently carried a dispatch,
stating that even though Pakistan was a partner in the
war on terror, it was allowing the training of Taliban
fighters who are sent into Afghanistan to attack US and
Afghan forces. Responding to the NYT’s report, State
Department spokesman Richard Boucher disagreed with its
main thrust. ‘I think efforts that Pakistan is making
and the results of those efforts that make all of us safer
are becoming more and more clear,’ he said recently
in a news briefing in Washington.
In all raids, the law enforcing agencies recovered sensitive
documents and cell phones and seized computer discs and
showed great interest in the contents. The information
confirms that Al-Qaeda continues to plan operations and
conduct surveillance against targets inside the US. It
also runs parallel to the warnings of the US law enforcement
and intelligence officials that Al-Qaeda has operatives
in the US and that US financial institutions remain the
favourite targets of the terror network.
The recent busts can be contributed to the arrest of a
senior Al-Qaeda operative, Musaad Aruchi, in Karachi in
June. As per a report, Aruchi, during interrogations,
‘was sure that Al-Qaeda would hit New York or Washington
pretty soon’. The law enforcing agencies also recovered
street maps of New York City from him. Aruchi is said
to be the nephew of Khalid Sheikh Muhammad, the chief
planner of the 9/11 attacks, who was arrested in Rawalpindi
last year.
His arrest led to another chain of arrests, including
Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a Tanzanian wanted in connection
with the 1998 bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
Carrying a head money of $ 25 million, he was arrested
from Gujrat.
The arrest of Al-Qaeda operatives in Pakistan is certainly
opening valuable leads.
In return, Pakistan, apart from the millions of dollars
as head money of those captured, has surely earned kudos.
In the words of US President George Bush, Pakistan, once
considered to be a safe transit point for terrorists,
is an ally in the war against terror. ‘Pakistani
troops are aggressively helping to round up the terrorists
and America and the world are safer now,’ he said
in his remarks at ‘Ask President Bush’ event
at Aladdin Shrine Centre in Columbus, Ohio, on August
6.
And when the US president said Al-Qaeda was now on the
run in Pakistan, he was very right.
Since the safe haven in Afghanistan has gone, the Al-Qaeda
is on the loose in Pakistan and has already carried out
several attacks-the recent one being the suicide bombing
on prime minister-in-waiting Shaukat Aziz in Fatehjang,
Attock. From Afghanistan to Pakistan, the ‘journey’
was always on the cards.
The Pakistan army has arrested several suspects from South
Waziristan Agency-believed to be a home to the suspected
Al-Qaeda operatives-and recovered huge quantities of arms
and ammunition from their possession. At the same time,
however, the major busts are being made across Pakistan,
including Lahore, Gujrat, Rawalpindi and Karachi. The
arrests speak that the significance and role of Pakistan
in the war on terror is growing day by day.
In President Pervez Musharraf, US President George Bush
has surely found a ‘new best friend’. His
predecessor Bill Clinton, however, has some reservations
in this regard. He has recently accused President Bush
of ‘contracting out US security and the hunt for
Osama bin Laden to Pakistan’. Though he did not
mention Bush by name, this is what he recently said, ‘Why
did we put our number one security threat in the hands
of Pakistanis with US playing the supporting role .....?’
Let’s keep the Bush-Clinton comments aside, Pakistan
has also been providing useful intelligence to Britain.
A tip-off from Pakistani investigators led to the arrest
of a senior Al-Qaeda operative, Abu Eisa Al Hindi, who
was said to be planning an attack in the UK. Again, computer
technology played a major role in the case. Authorities
in Pakistan were quick to pass on information to their
counterparts in London. It was later revealed that computer
files sent from Pakistan were discreet documents, each
of those 20 pages long and devoted to a particular target.
The documents were written in ‘perfect English’
and investigators believed they were authored by someone
who may have lived an extensive period of time in the
West - indeed an alarming phenomenon.
Whatever the case turns out to be, the hunters are not
only armed with a psychological advantage over the hunted,
but have a clear edge as far as technology is concerned.
While Al-Qaeda continues to use Internet for communications
and for issuing warnings and demands on different websites,
the US-led investigators continue to monitor the cells
and with the help of Pakistani law enforcing agencies,
tracing and arresting the authors of all such e-mails,
some of them in their sleep. A computer whiz, Naeem Noor
Khan alias Abu Talha, arrested here on July 12, has already
given extensive insights into Al-Qaeda’s use of
coded computer messages. He is said to have helped Al-Qaeda
operatives send coded messages to each other around the
world. And he is surely not the only one.
Of late, Pakistan indeed is playing a dominant role in
the war on terror, or should we say the online war on
terror. From ballistic to electronic, it’s the tip
that matters in the war on terror-for the US as well as
for Pakistan.
