Doubts fly as US envoy to Pakistan
quits By Amir Mir
ISLAMABAD - United States ambassador to
Pakistan Cameron Munter's alleged meeting with one
of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation's most
wanted men - Jamaat-ul-Daawa (JuD) amir
Professor Hafiz Mohammad Saeed - seems to be the
principal reason for his premature exit from
Islamabad, after having served just over 18 months
since his appointment in October 2010.
Munter, a career diplomat, abruptly quit
his job last week, hardly 24 hours after US
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declared Saeed
responsible for the 26/11 Mumbai carnage and
announced that the US was prepared to work with
India to bring the JuD amir to justice. The
November 2008 attacks were 11 coordinated shooting
and bombing incidents across Mumbai by terrorists
who allegedly came from Pakistan. The three-day
rampage cost 166 lives, including six Americans,
with at least 308 people injured.
Munter's
decision to quit the ambassadorship prematurely has
been confirmed by Mark
Stroh, an embassy spokesman, who said, "He will be
leaving this summer at the conclusion of his two
years in the job. The ambassador had been weighing
the option of continuing for a third year, but
decided against it." No replacement has been
named.
However, well-placed diplomatic
officials in the federal capital claim that
Munter's decision has more to do with
behind-the-scenes developments that took place in
Islamabad following the April 1, 2012, decision of
the Barack Obama administration to put a price of
US$10 million on information and evidence leading
to the arrest and conviction of the JuD's Saeed.
Saeed is also the founder of the pro-Kashmir
proscribed jihadi organization Lashkar-e-Toiba
(LeT). The bounty was announced for his alleged
role in the Mumbai attacks.
Just hours
after the US State Department announced the
bounty, Saeed appeared on Pakistan's Geo TV. He
said he was a free man - living in Pakistan - and
was ready to speak with US officials at any time.
While some high-ups in the Pakistani
Foreign Office claim that Munter has taken the
decision to quit on his own for not being kept in
the loop by the US State Department, there are
those in diplomatic circles who maintain that the
envoy is being made to resign by his seniors
because of his seemingly soft line over Saeed's
bounty issue, which has not gone down well with
the Obama administration.
According to a
report in the Indian Express, Munter had informed
Washington that an apology "was in order" after a
cross-border North Atlantic Treaty Organization
(NATO) air strike killed 24 Pakistani soldiers
last year, but his advice was overruled by the
Pentagon. "Pakistan's insistence on an apology for
the NATO attack has emerged as a key irritant in
moves to reset its relationship with the US after
a year of crises that took ties to a new low," the
paper reported.
However, the instant cause
of Munter's exit is believed to be his clandestine
meeting with Saeed that took place in Islamabad
almost a month ago, after the US announced the
bounty.
Diplomatic circles say the
Munter-Saeed meeting was intended to remove
misunderstandings created by the bounty
announcement, which had prompted the JuD
amir to step up his anti-US public campaign
by laughing off the American action against him.
According to the sources, Saeed presented
solid evidence to Munter, showing that he had no
links to the Mumbai carnage. The US envoy
subsequently sent a detailed report to the US
administration on Saeed's viewpoint, but the State
Department reportedly made it clear to Munter that
it would not be responsible for any assurances
given by him to the JuD chief.
To recall,
following the bounty announcement, Saeed addressed
a press conference in Rawalpindi on April 4 and
dared the US to carry out a military raid against
him like the one that killed al-Qaeda leader Osama
bin Laden in Abbottabad a year ago.
Taunting the US to give him the head money
offered for information leading to his arrest
under the Rewards for Justice Program, Saeed said
he would inform the US authorities about his
whereabouts so he could claim the cash. "I am not
hiding in caves and mountains, I am here in
Rawalpindi. If the Americans want to contact me, I
am present here, they can contact me. I am also
ready to face any US court, or wherever there is
proof against me or my group's involvement in
terrorist activities."
Saeed then mocked
the US bounty decision for someone who lives so
openly in Pakistan. "These Americans seriously
lack information. Don't they know where I go and
where I live and what I do? These rewards are
usually announced for people who are hiding in
mountains or caves. I wish the Americans would
give this reward money to me."
Munter, who
is known for his conciliatory approach, decided to
pacify Saeed in a one-on-one meeting in Islamabad
that was kept secret and which is still not being
confirmed officially by either side as it is
perceived to be damaging for both parties.
The US Embassy spokesman in Islamabad has
categorically refuted that any meeting between
Munter and Saeed took place. "Ambassador Munter
has never met with Hafiz Saeed and no US official
has made any promises to, or agreements with,
Hafiz Mohammad Saeed who is a wanted terrorist
responsible for the deadly attack on Mumbai in
November 2008 that killed 166 people, including
six Americans. The JuD amir is subject to
UN Security Council Resolution 1267/1989 sanctions
and there is an international responsibility on
the member states to bring the perpetrators of the
26/11 Mumbai attacks to justice," the US embassy
spokesperson said in an official press release.
Approached for comments, JuD spokesman
Mohammad Yahya Mujahid too denied reports of a
meeting between Saeed and Munter, saying his
amir was not at all interested in holding
secret meetings with someone who represented the
enemy of Islam and Pakistan. "[The United States]
has butchered millions of Muslims in Afghanistan,
Iraq and elsewhere."
But the fact remains
that Munter had declared in Lahore (soon after his
alleged meeting with Saeed) on April 28, that the
US government did not announce any bounty or head
money specifically for the JuD amir and
that the matter had been misreported in the
Pakistani media.
"The Pakistani media is
very active and responsible but it misreported the
issue of Hafiz Mohammad Saeed," Munter said in
reply to queries after the annual dinner of the
American Business Forum at the Royal Palm Golf and
Country Club in Lahore. "Though Hafiz Saeed is a
suspected accused of the Mumbai terror attacks,
the US government didn't place either a bounty or
head money for him," he said.
Diplomatic
circles in Islamabad say these developments were
brought to the knowledge of Clinton, who
apparently did not appreciate Munter's actions as
they could be perceived as rolling back the tough
stance that was later spelled out by Clinton
during her Indian tour, when she bluntly
reprimanded Pakistan for not taking any action
against Saeed as the alleged mastermind of the
Mumbai attacks.
Delivering a speech in
Kolkata on May 8, and lending support to India to
fight terrorism, Clinton confirmed the bounty on
Saeed. Calling the amir one of the
principal architects of the Mumbai attacks, she
said the bounty was meant to show solidarity with
the people of India.
"I am well aware that
the Pakistani government had not yet taken steps
to help secure Hafiz Saeed's conviction. We're
going to be pushing that. So it's a way of raising
the visibility and pointing out to those who are
associated with him that there is a cost for
that," Clinton said, adding that Pakistan should
do more to ensure that its territory is not used
as a launching pad for carrying out more terrorist
attacks.
Hardly 24 hours after Clinton's
Kolkata speech, which clearly negated Munter's
earlier stance on the Saeed head money issue, the
US ambassador made public his decision to quit.
Amir Mir is a senior Pakistani
journalist and the author of several books on the
subject of militant Islam and terrorism, the
latest being The Bhutto murder trail: From
Waziristan to GHQ.
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