South Asia under ex-CIA operatives

The writer is an Islamabad-based
freelance columnist
farrukh15@hotmail.com

George Herbert Walker Bush, the father, was the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Then came a time when the Soviet Union was no more and America suffered from an 'acute enemy deficit'. Bush, as president, sent American troops into Panama to "overthrow the corrupt regime of General Manual Noriega...." Saddam Hussain became the next target. A total of 425,000 American troops joined by an additional 118,000 from 'allied nations' bombed the hell out of the Iraqis. Intriguingly, Saddam was sparred.

George W Bush, the son, in a pre-election television appearance thought that Nigeria was a continent and failed to name the presidents of Chechnya, Pakistan and India. He confused Slovakia and Slovenia and asserted that Greeks were called "Grecians" and East Timorese "East Timorians" (Does that make him Abaji's gift to the Americans?).

Now comes Bush's foreign policy team. Richard Lee Armitage (replacing Strobe Talboot) has been confirmed by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee as Deputy Secretary of State. To Armitage's credit is a long career at the CIA and at least four tours of duty in Vietnam where he was a covert operator. He then became an advisor on the Afghan war where he perfected the tools of diverting funds from drug trades to the war effort. In 1991, during the Gulf War, Armitage was made a Special Emissary to Jordan.

On 11 May 2001, Armitage and Jaswant had lunch at the Hyderabad House. The two shared Murgh Rampuri, Jalpari Kabab, Pathari Gosht and Kathal Biryani.

For desert there was Kesar Rasmalai and Mango ice cream. Armitage then called on PM Vajpayee.

On May 23, Vajpayee, Advani, Jaswant, Yashwant and Mishra held a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security. On May 25, India's acting High Commissioner in Islamabad delivered a formal invitation to General Musharraf. The rest is history.

Then comes Christina Rocca, the new US Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia (she replaces Karl Inderfurth). This is the Bureau of South Asian Affairs that "deals with US foreign policy and US relations with the countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka." Rocca is a career officer of the CIA with an employment history that stretches back to 1982. She has been affiliated with various clandestine operations of the Directorate of Intelligence which is one of the four directorates of the CIA.

Rocca's appointment has been more political than strategic. Secretary Powell had committed time and again that there is enough talent within the Department to fill assistant secretaries' positions and that merit shall be the sole determinant. There is evidence that more experienced and more knowledgeable individuals in South Asian affairs - such as Matt Daley, Beth Jones and even Alan Eastham - were abandoned to please Senator Sam Brownback (Republican-Kansas), the chair at the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs (Rocca was the chief foreign policy aide to Brownback).

While still with the CIA, Rocca played an important role in the Afghan war. She visited Pakistan at least twice under her real name. She was given the responsibility of buying back (remember Ojahri camp!) some 300, US-supplied, hand-held, heat-seeking anti-aircraft Stinger missiles that were given to Afghan mujahideens through the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). Apparently, Nawaz Sharif's DG-ISI, Lt Gen Javed Nasir, was not cooperating with Rocca. She complained to the highest authority in Pakistan but to no effect. In 1993, the Clinton Administration, upon Rocca's recommendation, placed Pakistan on the watch list of "suspected state-sponsors of terrorism". Nawaz Sharif sacked Javed Nasir.

More recently, Rocca became a member of a bipartisan group convened under the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. On 16 January 2001, the group submitted a report to the new president. The most significant recommendation of the report was a "tougher counter-proliferation and counter-terrorism policy". According to South Asia Analysis Group, Rocca's "subjects of likely interest and concern... would be Pakistan's role in Afghanistan, reports of Pakistan flouting the UN arms embargo against the Taliban, the contacts of rogue elements in Pakistan's nuclear and missile establishment such as Dr Abdul Qadir Khan ...... with the regimes in Iraq and North Korea...." Abdul Qadir Khan is no more where he was.

The next in the hierarchy is Alan Eastham who becomes the new US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs. Eastham, a career diplomat, has been the Deputy Chief of the Islamabad Mission (DCM) under Ambassador Thomas W Simons, Jr. He is a competent officer, knowledgeable and well versed with South Asian affairs.

Brigadier-General Francis Taylor is the new Coordinator for Counter-terrorism with the rank of Ambassador at Large (he replaces Michael A Sheehan). Brigadier-General Taylor has been in the US Air Force since 1970 and is currently the Commander of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations. He also served as the Director of Special Investigations in the Office of the Secretary of the Air Force Inspector General.

Wendy Chamberlain has been nominated as Ambassador to Pakistan. She is a career diplomat and served as Ambassador to Laos where she "rubbed shoulder" with President General Khamtay Siphandone and Prime Minister General Sisavat Keobounphanh. Her critics assert that "she has never met a military general that she did not like........ " Veterans of the Vietnam war who had served in Laos recently staged a protest in Washington opposing Chamberlain's nomination claiming that "she had a deplorable human rights record in Laos when she was posted there and the people of South Asia need to be informed about that." Her supporters say that a lot of what Chamberlain's critics claim is out-of-context and some of their claims are only half-truths.

This is President Bush's 'dream team' to carry out the Administration's "Fortress America" theme. While the CIA-led, Bush foreign policy team will continue to use the World Bank, the IMF, the WTO and the UN as tools to achieve America's national interest the importance of these bodies stands diminished in favour of bilateral agreements. That means good-bye to CTBT and also the humanitarian agenda (essentially a Clinton legacy). That means welcome to National Missile Defence and the supremacy of America's self interest over everything else.

India should be more excited than its archrival Pakistan. No pressure on India to sign the CTBT or to implement UN Resolutions 38, 47, 51, 80, 91, 96, 98, 122, 123 and 307 on the issue of Kashmir. Bush's world-view also includes a "democratic India ...... becoming a force in the world in this century."