Thread: S-2's E-mails With Ms. Farhat Taj

Ms. Farhat Taj is a pashtu researcher working at the University of Oslo. She's also engaged with a non-profit organization known as the AIRRA Institute. Ms. Taj has been conducting a very interesting campaign to battle Pakistani public perceptions about the use of drones throughout Waziristan. I'm also now involved with a young man here at WAB known to you as IHM. He also has very important perspectives on these and related issues.

There is one modest telephone poll and three important columns which serve as background to these e-mails. One of the three columns is by Irfan Husain, a op-ed columnist for DAWN. Ms. Taj has been writing through the NEWS and the DAILY TIMES. All are english-language Pakistani daily newspapers.

The first column is in fact a summary of a telephone survey Ms. Taj conducted with about 600 FATAville professionals just about a year ago-

Drone Attacks: A Survey- Ms. Farhat Taj NEWS March 5, 2009

Drone Attacks: Challenging Some Fabrications- Ms. Farhat Taj DAILY TIMES Jan. 4, 2010

That second column was picked up by Mr. Irfan Husain and echoed here-

Howling At The Moon- Irfan Husain DAWN Jan. 9, 2010

and, finally, Ms. Taj offered these thoughts yesterday to which I took exception and spurring my e-mail-

Analysis: Drone Attacks And U.S. Reputation- Ms. Farhat Taj DAILY TIMES Feb. 5, 2010

Ms. Farhat Taj,

Respectfully I'd like to thank you for the important work you've done on behalf of the pashtun community of Pakistan, particularly FATA to dramatize the desperate plight they've faced at the hands of both Al Qaeda and the Afghan/Pakistani taliban. They are the enemies of mankind and your work, beginning with your telephone survey last spring of 2009 and the two recent columns in the DAILY TIMES are valuable cries in the wilderness. Clearly, it has not gone unnoticed, at least in some quarters. Mr. Irfan Husain's superb column "Howling At The Moon", went far to assist your efforts I believe. Nor has it gone unnoticed in America. At least not by myself and I've humbly done what I can to make certain certain elements of our academic community know that their opposititon to drone attacks based upon collateral suffering are misplaced, ill-founded, and serving the purposes of evil designs.

OTOH, I noticed this-

"Now the only possibility is that you have ulterior motives, which could facilitate al Qaeda’s escape from Waziristan..."

Sadly, it is not the only possibility if only because you ascribe an omnipotence to America that we simply don't possess. I believe that my government is doing as much as it possibly can to interdict Al Qaeda given the current political climate both in Pakistan and throughout Islam. I urge you to convey to the people of FATA that the American government cannot assure the 100% eradication of this threat. It is global already regardless of whether Al Qaeda is able to successfully migrate elsewhere or is destroyed inside FATA. Three separate American presidential administrations of both major parties reaching back to the Clinton administration have been engaged in doing so amidst differing geo-political conditions. It is important to remember the attacks upon our country at the World Trade Center in 1994, well before 9/11 as well as the attacks upon our embassies in Nairobi and Dar-es-Salaam along with the strike upon the USS Cole to highlight the length of time which has transpired in which we've been engaged with these enemies of mankind.

We are incompetent, if perfection defines competency. There continues to exist an incomplete understanding of the depth of penetration that Al Qaeda has achieved both within Pakistan as well as globally. As such, perfectly thorough targeting of these enemies within FATA is impossible to achieve. We are doing our best to eliminate this scourge despite very incomplete assistance from the various Pakistani governments since 2001. Had we our way, Pakistan would have ejected Omar, Osama Bin Laden, Haqqani, and Hekmatyar when they retreated into Pakistan following their defeat in Afghanistan in late 2001. This didn't happen for a variety of now obvious geo-strategic reasons relating to Pakistan's continued interference in Afghan internal affaris through its pursuit of strategic depth/influence.

Al Qaeda's leaders may yet flee Pakistan's tribal areas. Were I Zawahiri or Bin Laden I would attempt to do so but I believe Bin Laden is quite ill. I also believe that Al Qaeda believes that their best chance of acquiring a nuclear weapon or fissionable material lies in the continuing de-stabilization and radicalization of the Pakistani state. This, by itself, might mitigate some of your concerns about an enmasse migration.

We are also not, as far as I can ascertain, engaged in promoting uzbek islamic terror ambitions and I would point to our destruction of both Juma Namangani in 2001 and his associate Tohir Yuldashev last August 29, 2009 to reinforce this point. As for support of both Jundallah and the Sinkiang muslim uighar movements, neither element possess sufficient traction or credibility as legitimate nationalist movements to inspire such support by the American government. Neither represent legitimate voices of their peoples.

That should be separated, however, from our concerns about both the uighar peoples and those of Balochistan and their legitimate aspirations within the chinese and Pakistani polity.

I'd dispute from afar the notion that America has not killed innocents inside FATA from drone attacks, if the wives and children of those harboring our enemies count as such. In my view they certainly do and almost certainly have been the occasional collateral victims of their husband/masters by choices overwhich they've had no power to contest. This seems a reasonable assumption on my part-and unavoidable. Is it a lot? I don't believe so. Have there been others? I suspect that attacks occasionally have caught some youth and others attracted to the false charisma that these men eminate. If nearby when HELLFIRE strikes, they've certainly been victims. This reaches to an old American adage that those who sleep with dogs get fleas. No father/husband in his right mind, however, should permit the association (even peripheral) of his family with these men. They are constant targets and subject to strikes at any time. If nearby when this occurs, you will quite likely be killed.

Nonetheless, the unfortunate and unverified claims of hundreds of innocents for but a few of these enemies is sheer dissemblance to perpetuate a false message and, unfortunately, many academics in America (to include even within our defense education community) have picked up this false cry. Most prominent there have been the Australian cultural anthropologist infantry colonel David Kilcullen and his American associate Andrew Exum of the Center For New American Security. Also both Professors Thomas Johnson and John Arquilla of the U.S. Naval Post-Graduate School in Monterey, California have picked up the cry of unwarranted civilian killings and the consequent schism this may cause in Pakistan. It is inaccurate in my view but, nonetheless, a trumpeted axiom.

You may consider contacting these men and sharing your perspectives and data with them. I would.

Drone attacks are absolutely a necessary component of the defense of ISAF's troops and the Afghan people. We've little else of avail short of carpet bombings or invasion but drone attacks are not, however accurate, a perfect weapon. We will miss targets only by virtue of fully determining and confirming their locations. However, HELLFIRE hits at which it is fired with unerring accuracy. It is a precision anti-tank weapon that has been tested hundreds of times to confirm such and I've little doubt of its abilities.

God bless you on your brave work and those behind the Peshawar declaration. I wish you nothing but success in attempting to change the climate within Pakistan of a country and people defending an army and not the reverse along with the attendant pervasive climate of conspiracy surrounding such. America is not Pakistan's enemy. At least not its people.

I'm but a simple citizen-neither a scholar nor any longer an active soldier. I possess no special voice though I'm heavily engaged discussing these important issues daily with friends of mine (and many enemies) inside Pakistan ...

Good luck with your continuing work,

Sincerely,

Steven Pitcock

Here is Ms. Taj's reply. It's very interesting to say the least.



DEar Steven,

I thank you very much for the detailed email and appreciation my and my colleagues' work!

You are right. The Americans, in fact no humans are omnipotence. But we know people who are determined never let golden opportunities go away. Here is Waziristan the US has a golden opportunity i.e. the Muslim society in the area is supporting the US actions against the dominant public opinion in Pakistan and across the Muslim world. My Op-Ed got editorially killed a bit. I had another message from the people of Waziristan to the US, which the editor did not allow in the published piece: the US must hit each and every one of the funeral ceremonies of Al-Qaida and Taliban. You kill so many of them in one attack when they are gathered together- funeral ceremonies are one of such occasions. People of Waziristan referred to the drone attack on the funeral ceremony of KHwaz Wali, the right hand man of Baitullah Mehsud. Khwaz Wali closely coordinated with the Arabs and other alien militants. This attacks happened a few months before the one that killed Baitullah. The attack on the KHwaz Wali funeral ceremony killed so many of the Taliban and Al-Qaida, including Bilal, an important Taliban commander. People of Waziridstan wonder why the US has stopped attacking funeral ceremonies any more. If by any chance you come in contact with the US authorities who deal with the drones, kindly tell them that people of Waziristan say that funeral ceremonies are one of those occasions when so many of the monsters are in one spot and an attack on the spot would kill so and so people want relentless attacks and each and every funeral ceremonies!

The Americans have badly failed in public diplomacy across the Muslim world as can be seen in the rising anti-Americanism there. One reason, of course of this is that there is one-sided anti-US propaganda every single day. HUman beings are human being- they get affected with one sided propaganda, especially when there is no systematic US efforts to counter the propaganda-
I do not see any in Pakistan. By chance there is an opportunity in Waziristan where the Muslim society is looking favorably at the US. If the US disappoints the people of Waziristan (for whatever reason, human limitations or whatever) it wont help US anything in terms of anti-Americanism in the Muslim world.

I am getting so many emails from Muslim in different countries in response to my this Op-Ed- they say that I have rightly pointed out the root cause of the security problem in the Muslim world i.e. Al-Qaida is strategic asset of the US, which it is relating from one Muslim society to another. The perception would be greatly challenged if people of Waziristan argue differently following the US elimination of Al-Qaida and Taliban on their soil.

By eliminating of Al-Qaida and Taliban, they mean, destroy their training camps, headquarters, their weapons storages, their vehicles including Haqni's terror sectariat in North Waziristan, and kill their top and middle level leaders, preferably along with all adult male heirs of Al-Qaid and Taliban, both Pakhtun ad Punjabi.

In terms of civilian causalities- the terrorists are careful now. They no more keep their families close to them. The only thing that people of Waziristan say is bothersome about the drone attacks is loud sound of the explosions which scares their children.

I am surprised people attached with leading think tanks could be so uncritical! How could they accept the news report about the 'civillian causalities' as truth and propagate it without any verifiable evidence! I understand they do not follow the research ethics and the usual critical behavior that one would expect from researchers. Actually most of what has been produced by the Western and Pakistani think tanks about FATA and NWFP in the context of the war on terror is based on lies, fabrications and distortions of our ground reality and facts in our culture and history. I am going to challenge some of the leading think tanks in my forth coming book, Taliban and Anti-Taliban.

Please share with me the email address of the scholars that you mentioned. I will keep sending my Op-Ed's to them. If you have any other suggestion to put me in contact with them, please do so.

I will share you email with some tribal leaders, political activists and women of Waziristan, I mean those who have access to email or phone. Will come back to you, if they had any comments for you. Will share your email with others (who do not have access to emails and phones) in my next trip to Pakistan.

Regards

Farhat Taj

Sorry for the length but I'd encourage those here who believe they've heard and read it all about Pakistan to read a bit more that's offered now. Thanks.