Coalition struggles with the enemies from within

11/03/2001

By JIM LANDERS / The Dallas Morning News

WASHINGTON – The Bush administration's coalition against terrorism includes several nations so hostile toward each other that their quarrels threaten to weaken the war against Osama bin Laden and the Taliban.

The problems are myriad and not easily solved. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has complained bitterly about U.S. diplomatic overtures toward Iran and Syria. Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has told President Bush there are limits to India's patience with Pakistani-sponsored terrorism in Kashmir.

Pakistani officials from President Pervez Musharraf on down complain U.S. bombing in Afghanistan appalls Muslims worldwide and has alienated even anti-Taliban Afghans. Meanwhile, the Afghan resistance fighters in the north – no friends of Pakistan – beg for more bombings.

Saudi Arabia insists it has no evidence that any Saudis were included among the 19 suicide hijackers who attacked the Pentagon and New York's World Trade Center – though the State Department says 15 of them applied there for visas to the United States.

State Department spokesmen insist cooperation with Saudi Arabia has been excellent, but reports citing anonymous angry U.S. officials describe a royal family that is soft on terrorism and that has a precarious grip on power.

The Saudis blame Israel for the negative reports.

All of these countries are part of the coalition with the United States to defeat global terrorism. But holding them together has proved almost as tricky as building an alternative to the Taliban among Afghanistan's rival tribes and warlords.

"This is the most difficult diplomatic chore I think we've had in my lifetime and most difficult war we've had to fight in my lifetime," said Thomas Gouttierre, the 61-year-old dean of international studies at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

Diplomats and analysts say the greatest challenge is keeping the war on terrorism from degenerating into the war Osama bin Laden wants to fight – a renewed clash of civilizations between crusaders and Islam, where Christians and Jews fight Muslims for dominance in the Middle East.

Mr. bin Laden's decrees and videotapes instruct Muslims that they have a religious duty to join such a war. And although his instructions carry no authority within Islam, the images and stories seen nightly across the Middle East and South Asia suggest that Muslims are under attack.

Al-Jazeera, the popular Arabic-language satellite television station based in Qatar, is filled with nightly images of Afghan civilians killed or wounded by U.S. bombings. The same newscasts also often show Palestinians hurt or killed by the Israeli army in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

"They're concentrating on civilians and cluster bombs, things like that, and that gains a lot of public sympathy," said Jaafar Allagany, spokesman for the Saudi Embassy in Washington. "People don't believe it's about getting rid of terrorism when they see that the faces of little girls are gone from a bombing."

The initial rush to the streets in Pakistan, Egypt, and Indonesia to protest the U.S. bombing of Afghanistan has quieted, but diplomats from the region say a sullen, deeper anti-Americanism has taken root.

Tom Farar, dean of international studies at the University of Denver, said the United States must have Muslim allies in the war in Afghanistan to maintain a focus on countering terrorism rather than on Islam. But it's not easy to keep aboard the Saudis, Egypt, Kuwait, or Pakistan when all these governments have tenuous claims to power.

"Their legitimacy is thin, they are reluctant to openly associate with us, and they fear a tidal wave beginning to develop that could sweep them away," he said.

In an Oct. 22 National Press Club speech, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres described the challenges his government faces.

"The United States feels that in order to organize the proper coalition, they need tranquillity in the Middle East as much as we can, to reduce the flames. And we understand it," he said. "The problem is how to do it."

Administration officials insist that the effort to keep everyone in line will not compromise U.S. goals. Seen another way, they say, bringing such hostile countries under the same umbrella could present opportunities.

Already the coalition has enabled cooperation that six months ago would have been unthinkable. Russia, China and the United States, for instance, are jointly coordinating diplomatic efforts with countries in Central Asia and are sharing intelligence on terrorism threats.

Secretary of State Colin Powell says outrage over what happened on Sept. 11 has been so universal, all but three or four countries around the world have joined the coalition.

Unlike the 1991 Persian Gulf War, few of the countries included are taking part in military operations. No Muslim nations have combat aircraft joining the air campaign. The special forces units that may ultimately be committed on the ground come from the United States, Canada, Europe and Australia, although Turkey, a Muslim country, has volunteered to send about 90 of its own special forces soldiers.

Hostilities between Pakistan and the Afghan resistance fighters grouped together as the Northern Alliance are complicating military operations. So far, the 15,000 to 20,000 Northern Alliance soldiers are the most viable fighting force inside Afghanistan resisting the Taliban. They accuse Pakistan of thwarting greater cooperation with U.S. forces.

Gen. Musharraf and other Pakistani officials have warned the United States against joint operations with the Northern Alliance, which is supported by Russia and India and is composed mainly of Tajiks and Uzbeks from northern Afghanistan.

The Pakistanis want Washington to work with anti-Taliban Pashtun warlords. But those forces have yet to materialize, despite a recruitment campaign by the CIA and Pakistan's military intelligence service, the ISI.

Pakistani officials say the bombing campaign should halt while the intelligence services try again to produce a Pashtun force that could attract Taliban defectors.

Haron Amin, the Washington spokesman for the Northern Alliance, blamed Pakistan for blocking military coordination with the U.S. military that might have produced battlefield gains in the cities of Mazar-e Sharif and Herat.

Mr. Powell said diplomatic interests are not restraining the military.

"There are no arrangements within this coalition which in any way, shape, fashion or form constrain the president and the exercise of his constitutional responsibilities to defend the United States of America and to defend the people of the United States. So that should not be a concern in anyone's mind," he told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Squabbling members of the coalition have for the most part chosen to fight through damaging media reports about each other.

The Times of India reported Oct. 12 that the former head of Pakistan's military intelligence service this summer arranged the transfer of $100,000 to Mohamed Atta, the Egyptian who authorities say flew the first hijacked airliner into the World Trade Center.

Zamir Akram, deputy chief of mission of the Pakistani Embassy in Washington, said the report was "absolute nonsense."

"This is part of a clear-cut effort by India to spread disinformation about Pakistan that could cause discomfort and confusion with the United States," he said.

Arabic-language papers recycle an unsubstantiated report that thousands of Jewish workers stayed home rather than go to work at the World Trade Center in New York on the day the towers were destroyed – evidence, these papers say, that Israel was behind the attacks.

Egypt's leading newspapers meanwhile say criticisms of Egypt and other Arab countries in the U.S. media come from "Zionists" and the "Jewish lobby."

U.S. reporting on Saudi Arabia has blamed the Saudi royal family for supporting Mr. bin Laden, enabling pro-Syrian terrorists to bomb U.S. installations inside the kingdom and arranging a meeting between Mr. bin Laden and the head of Iraq's intelligence service.

Mr. Allagany, the Saudi spokesman, denied the reports. Like the Egyptian papers, he blamed Israel.

"This is orchestrated from Israel, to all the Zionist media here, and they are carrying it out faithfully," Mr. Allagany said.

Israeli Embassy spokesman Mark Regev said it made no sense to accuse Israel of feeding such stories.

"There's no information campaign against Saudi Arabia. The Saudis have a problem in the United States, because like some other countries they have been supporting extremists, supporting terrorism," he said.

"Everyone in Israel understands that this war against terrorism will not be won by alienating everyone in the Islamic world," he said. "Everyone in Israel is praying for the stability of the government of Pakistan, which is no friend of Israel, because the alternative to that government is so much worse. We know the fight can only be won if moderates in the Arab world are part of the coalition."