Book Review
THE INHERITANCE
By David Sanger
The author is a veteran journalist with The New York Times
This is a must read for all those who had read ‘In the Line of Fire. It will offer new insights into the persona of Gen Musharraf and how and his trusted generals waged the war on terrorism to escape the wrath of President George W. Bush Junior.
Sanger concludes in a matter of fact manner that Musharraf was playing double game with the US in the war on terrorism.. Interestingly, the author, a veteran journalist with the New York Times, did not write the book as an expose on Musharraf and Pakistan. His intent was to highlight foreign policy challenges Obama Administration has inherited. Since these legacies include the flipside of policy towards Pakistan, Singer deals with the subject rather in great detail and concludes in a matter of fact manner that Musharraf was playing double game with the US.
The book also gives full play to the fears of American intelligence officials that Islamist militants might launch a ‘spectacular attack on Indian soil in the hope of ramping up tensions on the subcontinent, leading Pakistan to deploy its nuclear weapons’.
According to the author, Washington sent Special Forces into Pakistan last summer after intercepting a call by the Pakistani army chief referring to a notorious Taleban leader as a ‘strategic asset’. The intercept was ordered to confirm suspicions that the Pakistani military were still actively supporting the Taleban whilst taking millions of dollars in US military aid to fight them.
In a transcript passed to Mike McConnell, the Director of National Intelligence in May 2008, General Ashfaq Kayani, army chief (who had succeeded Gen Pervez Musharraf), was overheard referring to Maulavi Jalaluddin Haqqani as ‘a strategic asset’. Haqqani is a veteran of the Mujahideen war against the Soviets in Afghanistan. His Taleban group is based in Waziristan.
So Kayani’s remark made Washington to up the ante. It also provided for the first time the hard evidence to prove sneaking suspicions that President Musharraf was playing a double game – friendly with the US and the Taliban too, receiving aid from Americans and aiding the Taliban, according to the author.
Another intercept gave the game away. It was a message from Pak military units to Haqqani, alerting him that a military operation was planned in Waziristan to satisfy Washington Islamabad was tackling the militant threat. This clue led the CIA to uncover evidence of collusion between ISI and Haqqani in a plot to carry out a spectacular bombing in Afghanistan. The plot unfolded two weeks later and Indian Embassy in Kabul was bombed. CIA confronted Islamabad with its evidence forcing the government to run for cover.
“US fears Islamist militants may launch a spectacular attack on India in the hope of ramping up Indo-Pak tensions, leading Pakistan to deploy its nuclear weapons”.Sanger goes on to write in ‘The Inheritance’ that US has reasons to conclude that no one could be trusted in Pak army with the information. And it has reasons to worry since Gen Kayani graduated to the post of army chief after a stint in the ISI.