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Exclusive: The porous Afghan border
By Arnaud de Borchgrave
UPI Editor at Large
Published 12/14/2001 12:06 PM
OGHAZ PASS, Pakistan, Dec. 14 (UPI) -- (Along the Pakistan-
Afghanistan border)
Pakistan's tribal areas are free passage zones for Taliban and al
Qaida's foreign legionnaires escaping from Afghanistan, a UPI team
has verified in a weeklong investigation.
The Pakistan army has announced that two brigades, each made up of
three battalions of 850 men each, or a total of 5,100, have been
deployed along a 30-mile stretch of jagged, zigzag mountainous and
totally porous border and have now "sealed the frontier tight."
Helicopter gunships, military authorities have assured the United
States, are surveilling mountain passes against infiltration.
Presidential spokesman Gen. Rashid Qureshi went so far as to publicly
deny that any al Qaida fighter had made it across the border into
Pakistan.
Junior officers --- all officers and most non-coms speak English --- speculate that
such assurances are given to make "the Americans feel good." Border tribal zone
populations have long been pro-Taliban and pro-al Qaida a
s countless painted slogans and posters of Osama bin Laden are visible in towns and
villages throughout the three key tribal "agencies" --- Kurram, Orazkai and Kohat.
Tribal elders, over post-fast Iftar dinner, told this reporter, accompanied by a
Pakistani friend and a multilingual guide, that while the army had established
interlocking fields of fire at four key mountain passes, it c
ould not possibly check dozens of other routes invisible from the air. A Pakistani
captain, who asked that his name not be used, shared the same assessment.
As the UPI team walked over a three-mile strip of foothills on the Pakistan side of
the Spin Ghar range, one crest over from Tora Bora mountain, two helicopters flew
overhead at about 3,000 feet in poor visibility and cou
ld not have seen anyone on the ground. During the 2 �-hour walk, several dozen
tribesmen were seen coming from the direction of Afghanistan.
Scanning snow-capped Spin Ghar with binoculars revealed a wide range of ravines,
crevasses, valleys and dry river beds, so many potential exfiltration routes for bin
Laden's Arab fighters. Dressed in khameez shalwar and p
ie-shaped hats, the UPI party did not attract attention as it moved in local buses
through border towns and villages. Bin Laden's picture, inscribed "Father of the
Revolution," covered half the rear window of one bus that
passed through army and frontier constabulary checkpoints without so much as an ID
check of the passengers.
Scores of pickup trucks loaded to the gunwales with civilians similarly drove through
unchallenged. Rubber- wheeled donkey carts with three or four passengers also were
part of the traffic pattern. UPI was stopped once an
d when the U.S. passport was produced, the civilian security official made clear
Americans were "not welcome." When asked whether that went for Taliban, too, he
answered, "Taliban always welcome."
>From Kohat, army headquarters for some of the tribal areas, to Parachinar, on the
>western edge of the frontier under surveillance, rock formations along the road had
>been daubed with slogans glorifying terrorist organizat
ions and vilifying President Pervez Musharraf as an "American agent." Towns like Dera
Adam Khel, Hangu, Doaba and Thall, headquarters for one of the army brigades deployed
along the frontier, are identical to towns across
the border in Afghanistan. The men look the same because they are the same. The few
women spotted --- fewer than six in Thall, a town of 250,000 --- wore head-to-foot
burkas. The men were doing the sopping for the four-d
ay Eid holiday that starts Sunday and marks the end of Ramadan.
Bin Laden's poster picture was pinned to shutters and windows. Open air markets also
displayed it on the side of stalls. Sipah-e-Sahaba, or Army of the Friends of the
Prophet, and Shaish-e-Mohammed, are among the most ext
reme religious organizations in Pakistan. They are particularly strong in the tribal
belt and in Punjab, the country's largest province. One rockface advertisement said,
"For Commando Training, Contact Shaish-e-Mohammed."
Another one proclaimed, "Shaish-e-Mohammed and Al Qaida are Bubbling Blood Brothers."
"Kill America" was painted on the outer wall of the "Handyside" army fort (named after
a prominent colonial during the British Raj) before the narrow road twists and turns
alongside an ochre-colored, shrub-pocked limeston
e mountain one side and a 3,000-foot precipice on the other. Five-ton 10-wheelers
manage to squeeze by in both directions, many adorned with bin Laden's face.
Shopkeepers and a cot-and-breakfast employee told our interpreter, an English-speaking
native of the North Waziristan Tribal Agency, that al Qaida has "an extensive network
in the region." They did not believe that bin La
den would be turned over if he resurfaced in Kurram tribal turf.
Resident "Political Agents," the eyes and ears of federal authorities, have made
monetary deals --- U.S. covert funds greased the relays --- with four major tribal
chiefs. If bin Laden shows, they agreed to lure him into
a false sense of hospitality and total security. But these deals, according to local
"fundos" (Pakistani jargon for fundamentalist extremists), did not include them and
they proudly say they would give sanctuary to bin La
den or any of his "freedom fighters." The pro-Taliban, pro-al Qaida feelings of Afridi
and Orakzai tribesmen are openly expressed in random conversations.
One pharmacist who simply gave his name as Amir explained that the mullahs and bin
Laden had the same agenda. "Even if you pay them, they won't serve America's cause. At
the end of the day, the tribal chiefs will go with
the mullahs."
The madrassa (religious schools) network, according to local interlocutors over Iftar
dinners with the UPI team, could easily hide bin Laden and his top lieutenants
indefinitely or until they could organize his clandestin
e passage by truck to Karachi, 1,000 miles south, where he could set sail for another
part of the world. This religious network works closely with the Inter-Services
Intelligence agency, an organization long known for its
pro-Taliban culture. Majority opinion among those UPI talked to is that bin Laden
would rather die in the current battle for Tora Bora and Spin Ghar than quietly slip
away to fight another day. "There will be many more b
in Ladens," said one old man. Others around the table nodded agreement.
The tribal belt is also Massoud Azher territory, an Indian-born terrorist who was
exiled and remerged in this part of Pakistan where perpetrators of major crimes in
government-run Pakistan find safe haven.
Fazul Reman, a major religious extremist firebrand, currently under house arrest, also
enjoys an abundance of laudatory posters. Mullah Rehman used his mobile phone this
week to try to negotiate the return of several thou
sand Pakistani "volunteers" who crossed the border in the closing weeks of the
Northern Alliance's campaign against Taliban. Some 500 Pakistani prisoners have been
returned. About 8,000 are still missing. They are a sourc
e of embarrassment to Musharraf and his new alliance with the United States.
Indian accusations that Kashmiri terrorists were responsible for this
week's attack on the Indian parliament will lend weight to U.S.
pressure to close down Pakistan's fedayeen, or "freedom fighters,"
operations against India in Kashmir. These are would-be suicide
bombers who were trained in bin Laden's training camps in
Afghanistan.
Copyright � 2001 United Press International
End<{{{
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