The Indian liberals, who had graced the seminar to free Kashmir from India organised by Ghulam Nabi Fai in July 2010 at Capitol Hill in US, are now running for cover, claiming to be innocent, unaware that Fai was an undercover arm of the ISI. But are the liberal guests at Fai’s show in US really innocent? A look at the facts publicly known about Fai, as far back as 2001, which the well-informed liberals cannot feign not to know, clearly rules out their claim to innocence. The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which had kept tracking Fai and his Kashmiri American Council (KAC) for years, has now confirmed more than what was already known about them. Here is a telling account of the fact, already known, that Fai was a front for extremists; also of the new fact, brought out by the FBI affidavit, that Fai is additionally an ISI proxy.
The Institute of Conflict Management with excellent faculty, led by the legendary K P S Gill, had in a paper dated June 1, 2001, stated: ‘The HM (Hizbul Mujahideen) is closely linked to the Jamaat-e-Islami’, and ‘is allegedly backed by Ghulam Nabi Fai’s Kashmiri American Council’. Praveen Swami, well-known expert on terror, also then a special correspondent of Frontline, a magazine from The Hindu stable, wrote in February 2003: ‘The Hizb also regularly received funds gathered in the United States and United Kingdom by activists like Ayub Thakur and Ghulam Nabi Fai.’ (South Asia Intelligence Review: Weekly Assessments and Briefings Vol 1, No 31, February 17, 2003). So, Fai was even funding terror. Praveen Swami again wrote (in 2006): “Geelani used the cover of the Haj pilgrimage to hold extended discussions with…….the US-based Islamist leader, Ghulam Nabi Fai.’ (Ibid Vol 4, No 31, February 2006). The authentic facts uncovered by neutral experts had already exposed Fai as an accomplice of Hizbul Mujahideen. The leading lights of liberal India cannot feign that they did not know about Fai’s antecedents. Their claim to innocence is a post-facto alibi.
On May 30, 2010, two months ahead of the Capitol Hill meet on July 29-30, which the Indian liberals had attended, the second most popular daily from Kashmir, Early Times, wrote an article titled ‘Anti-India meet in July: Washington has become the hub of anti-India activities’. Conceding that “Kuldip Nayar, Justice Rajindar Sachar, Professor Kamal Mitra Chenoy, Rita Manchanda, Harinder Baweja, Gautam Navlakha” were indeed attending the meet, the paper wrote, “they are Indians, but only in name” adding that they “have been consistently damaging the cause of India by putting forth….essentially pro-Pakistan and pro-separatist solutions. The article concluded: “they are the mouthpieces of Pakistan.” Just look at KAC’s website. (www.kashmiri.com). Its goals written by Fai explicitly proclaim its pro-Pakistan character. Fai’s demands completely echo Pakistan’s. Fai has never hidden his real character from any one. The US only delayed acting on him.
And now comes FBI’s damning affidavit on Fai sworn by special agent FBI Sarah Webb Lindon on July 18, 2011. It is a stunning, meticulous document. Its full version appears in www.scribd.com/doc/60370771/Syed-Ghulam-Nabi-Fai-Affidavit. According to Lindon, the FBI “investigation revealed that elements in Pakistan government including ISI were directly involved with the activities of Fai” who acted “at the direction and with the support” of ISI (Note to Para 7); confidential witnesses (CWs), seeking mercy, had confessed the true facts to FBI agents as far back as 2005, and again in 2006 and 2010; CW1 admitted having fudged, using ‘Straw’ (proxy) donors, the origin of the money transferred by the ISI to Fai; The ISI grant of $500,000 was thus obscured in 1998 alone. (Para 9); the ISI grant to Fai since mid-1990s totalled $4million. (Para 26); according to CW2, Fai’s ISI bosses were: some “Abdullah”, Brigadier Javeed (aka “Rathatore”, “Abdullah”), Touqeer Mehmood Butt, and Sohail Mehmood. (Para 22); CW2 also admitted that ISI dictated “80%” of Fais’ public statements and approved the rest “20%”(Para 15) making him a 100 per cent ISI mouthpiece; Fai has been in contact with his handlers 4,000 times since 2008 (Para 24); the ISI approved Fai’s annual budgets including payments to US Congressmen (Para 53); the FBI has foolproof evidence of the ISI-Fai link through intercepted e-mails, telephone and conversations (Para 2). The FBI gives chronological details of the monies transferred through proxies, meetings, e-mails, tele-talks, (Paras 35-130), which prove Fai as the ISI front beyond all doubts. The FBI also gives telling evidence of the ISI funds ($160,000) funnelled for hosting the 2010 seminar attended by our secular liberals (Paras 108 to 111). The FBI narrates how the police intercepted hard cash of $35,000 intended for the Fai show and how Fai’s lies to cover it using straw donors were nailed (Paras 111 to 123). Our liberal guests of Fai were thus hosted out of the ISI money.
But, the FBI has only given new evidence to support what was widely known in the public domain, namely Fai and his KAC were fronts of extremists.
But, there is confusion about who had not attended Fai’s show. The Early Times (May 1, 2010) report mentions neither Harish Khare, the prime minister’s media adviser, nor Dilip Padgaonkar, the PM’s J&K interlocutor. All other media have listed Padgaonkar’s name. But only the Free Press Journal (July 21, 2011) adds Khare’s name. Khare has denied knowing or meeting Fai; but Padgaonkar has not. Despite the Free Press Journal’s report it is not clear whether Khare did attend the meet. Therefore his denial has to be accepted unless clear evidence emerges to the contrary. Curiously, the KAC website gives no detail of the participants. The presence of Subramanian Swamy seems to have been secured by Fai only to show the “other’ face at the meet. Swamy claims to have checked up with Indian embassy about Fai. But anyway only the secular liberals fit into Fai’s pro-ISI agenda, not the ‘illiberal’ Swamy.
QED: Fai invited them not as neutrals to add credibility to his show, but as accomplices to push his anti-India agenda. Fai has finally exposed the real face of the Indian liberals to Indians.
The writer is a well-known commentator on political and economic issues.
E-mail: comment@gurumurthy.net
How can we not be assured that there are moles in our Media, and how can we not be assured that our very government, Congress has hidden and vested interests with Pakistan. The politicians and the rich/famous media personnel are miles away from the action where soldiers and common men die on the border and in terrorist attacks respectively. While the politicians watch and manipulate everything, the senior media-men watch and write about everything from the comfort of their home/office. They get paid well for their opinions and views. Else, they are not concerned. What goes at the back of their mind is not something that can be contemplated by the common man.
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