Unfolding drama of Iraq-ill-famed Blackwater operation in Pakistan
Abdus Satter Ghazali
Amid persistent reports by media, political leaders and intelligence agencies, Interior Minister Rehman Malik has denied the presence of Iraq-ill-famed Blackwater (now renamed as Xe Services) in Pakistan. However, circumstantial evidence belies the tall claim of the Interior Minister.
On September 16, a joint team of police and an intelligence agency picked up Retired Captain Syed Ali Zaidi for his alleged links with an anti-state network. However Zaidi, who worked in the artillery Department of Pakistan Army before he was forced to retire, was released after a brief detention. He now runs a security firm known as Inter-Risk (linked to US firm DynCorp) which provides security agents to US Embassy and Consulates and other diplomatic missions of South Asian states. Three days later his residence in Islamabad's posh area was raided and a large cache of un-licensed armament was seized.
At the same time, Pakistan's leading newspaper DAWN, reported that Captian Zaidi's security agency, providing security and protection to American embassy officials in the country, has imported 84 sophisticated automatic prohibited bore weapons. According to Dawn, the licenses were issued with the special approval of Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani on a personal request from a senior US official who had apprised the prime minister of the need for having a specialized private security team to protect American diplomats in the country. Soon after grant of approval the weapons were imported from the US. Among the weapons for which special licenses were issued include guns of 5.56mm and 7.62mm calibre rifles.
According to Captain Syed Ali Ja Zaidi, since the weapons were quite expensive and he was not in a position to buy them on his own, he was provided help by the contracting party (US embassy) in paying for them. His security company, like the Blackwater, hires retired army personnel as security guards who are trained in anti-terrorism skills by a US company. His firm has a five-year agreement with the Office of the Regional Security in US embassy. At least 200 personnel who had recently completed training were deployed with US missions in Islamabad and Peshawar.
Interestingly, Captain Zaidi was the person who secured release of the four Americans arrested on August 25 in Islamabad with unlicensed weapons (including seven MI-6) and no identification. Zaidi was accompanied by the US embassy staff. Superintendent of Police Nasir Aftab was later quoted as saying that he was helpless as he had orders from “above” for the release of these American law breakers.According to the Nation, the story has links with the possible presence of Blackwater in Islamabad working closely with the US embassy.
Captain Zaidi's story climaxed reports from Islamabad and Peshawar that foreigners are hiring dozens of houses in various parts of the capital and the NWFP metropolis. In recent weeks, shows on two popular private television channels, Geo and Dunya, put up pictures of homes in Islamabad which they said were occupied by CIA, FBI, or employees of the controversial Blackwater. Some of the houses were identified with their full address.
McClatchy Newspapers has quoted the US embassy sources as saying that there are 250 American citizens posted at the Islamabad mission on longer-term contracts, plus another 200 on shorter assignments. The present embassy compound can accommodate only a fraction of them. According to independent estimates, there are some 200 private houses for U.S. officials, on regular streets located throughout upscale districts of Islamabad.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik told The News recently that he had issued a directive that no foreigner should be given a house without prior permission from the area police and district administration. He said it came to his notice about one year back that Afghan and other foreigners were hiring houses in different residential sectors of the capital. Meanwhile, residents of the posh University Town in Peshawar have expressed concern over the increasing suspicious movement of foreigners in the locality. “We are deeply concerned at the hiring of houses in the University Town by suspicious foreign elements and we will lodge a protest with the government in this regard,” Col (retired) Hameed Afridi, the president of the University Town Residents Welfare Society, told the News. Afridi feared there was definitely something wrong with the mission and intentions of these foreigners and that's why they were keeping their movement secret. “If they are clear, they should not hide themselves,” he added, saying such foreigners had recently hired a house just opposite to his residence.
Last month, Dr. Shirin Mazari, one of the country's most prominent academics and journalists, reported that notorious Blackwater was not only operating in Peshawar but now in Islamabad under a front Washington-based company, Creative Associates International Inc (CAII) which has opened an office in Peshawar to work on projects in the nearby tribal agencies of Pakistan. All of these projects, interestingly, are linked to the US government.CAII's other projects outside Pakistan, are also linked to the US government.
Tellingly, on September 2, the U.S. ambassador to Islamabad, Anne W. Patterson, intervened with one of the largest newspaper groups in Pakistan, The News International, to force it to block a decade-old weekly column by Dr. Shireen Mazari scheduled for publication on September 3. The management of The News International later dismissed her due to U.S. pressure.
On the presence of Blackwater in Pakistan, General Aslam Beg, who was chief of army staff during Benazir Bhutto's first administration, recently told the Saudi Arabian daily Al Watan that former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf had given Blackwater the green light to carry out operations in the cities of Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Peshawar and Quetta. General Beg said U.S. officials always kept the presence of Blackwater in Pakistan secret because they were afraid of possible attacks on the U.S. Embassy and its consulates in Pakistan.
Not surprisingly, anti-Americanism fomented by the US drone attacks in which hundreds of civilians have been killed is further fueled by reports that the infamous Blackwater is operating in Pakistan disguised as an NGO. A survey last month for Al Jazeera TV by Gallup Pakistan found that 59 percent of Pakistanis felt the greatest threat to the country was the United States. A separate survey in August by the Washington-based Pew Research Center, recorded that 64 percent of the Pakistani public regards the U.S. "as an enemy" and only 9 percent believe it to be a partner.
McClatchy Newspapers reported from Islamabad that a widely believed conspiracy contends that America is deliberately destabilizing Pakistan, to bring down a "strong Muslim country", and ultimately seize its nuclear weapons. Pakistanis, especially its military establishment, also are distrustful of U.S. motives in Afghanistan, seeing it as part of a strategy for regional domination.
Author's Bio: Author and journalist. Author of Islamic Pakistan: Illusions & Reality; Islam in the Post-Cold War Era; Islam & Modernism; Islam & Muslims in the Post-9/11 American. Currently working as free lance journalist. Executive Editor of American Muslim Perspective: www.amperspective.com
www.opednews.com/articles/Unfolding-drama-of-Iraq-il-by-Abdus-Sattar-Ghaza-090923-542.html