View from India: DARING TERRORIST ATTACK ON PAKISTAN'S NAVAL AIR ARM AT KARACHI

INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM MONITOR---PAPER NO. 720
by B. Raman

The Faisal Base of the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) located about 10 KMs from the Karachi internationl airport is what the PAF calls a Joint User airfield. It is used by the PAF and the air arms of the Pakistan Army and Navy as well as by the VVIP squadron. All air surveillance movements over the sea --- whether by the PAF or by the Army or by the PN--- are controlled from this base.

2. Since 1975, the operating base of the Naval Air Arm, called PNS Mehran, is located inside this airfield. All senior officers of the Naval Air Arm operate from PNS Mehran. The Naval Air Arm at PNS Mehran is headed by Commander Naval Aviation (COMNAV). Under him there are four Heads of Department (HOD) designated as Commander Air (Cdr Air), Commander Air Engineering Department (Cdr AED), Commanding Officer MEHRAN (CO MEH) and Officer Commanding Naval Aviation Training School (OC NATS).

3. The squadrons of the Naval Air Arm are stationed in PNS Mehran. These are the P3C Orion Squadron (28 Sqn), the Atlantic Squadron (29 Sqn), the Fokker Squadron (27 Sqn), the Seaking Squadron (111 Sqn) and the Alouette Squadron (333 Sqn).

4. While the Naval Air Arm was raised primarily to provide maritime surveillance capability against India, it has been playing, in addition, a counter-terrorism role since the U.S. started its Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan in October,2001. This counter-terrorism role consists of air surveillance to prevent any sea-borne intrusions of Al Qaeda and to detect any terrorist plans for attacks on ships bringing supplies for the NATO forces in Afghanistan. The supplies are landed in the Karachi port and then moved by trucks to Afghanistan.

5. While the Pakistani Army and Air Force have no operational role to play in the U.S.-led military operations in the Afghan territory against Al Qaeda and the Neo Taliban, the Pakistani Navy is a member of the U.S.-led international naval force which patrols the seas to the west of Pakistan to prevent any hostile activity which could hamper the operations in Afghan territory. The Combined Task Force (CTF) 150, established at the beginning of Operation Enduring Freedom in 2001, comprises naval forces from France, Germany, Italy, Pakistan, the United Kingdom and the United States. The task force conducts maritime security operations (MSO) in the Gulf of Aden, the Gulf of Oman, the Arabian Sea, the Red Sea, and the Indian Ocean. The leadership of the Task Force is rotated amongst the participating navies. A Pakistani naval officer has been commanding it off and on when the turn of the Pakistan Navy comes.

6. On November 16,2004,the U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency announced that it had accepted Pakistan’s request to buy seven P-3C Orion aircraft with T-56 turboprop engines, communications equipment, training devices, medical services, support and test equipment, engineering technical services, supply support, operation and maintenance training, documentation, spare/repair parts, publications, personnel training, training equipment, contractor technical and logistics personnel services, and other related support elements. The estimated cost would be $970 million.

7.The DSCA announcement added: "The command-and-control capabilities of these aircraft will improve Pakistan’s ability to restrict the littoral movement of terrorists along Pakistan’s southern border and ensure Pakistan’s overall ability to maintain integrity of their borders. Pakistan intends to use the proposed purchase to develop a long needed fleet of maritime and border surveillance aircraft. The addition of these aircraft will provide Pakistan with search, surveillance, and control capability in support of maritime interdiction operations and increase their ability to support the U.S. Operation Enduring Freedom Operations; anti-ship and anti-submarine warfare capabilities; and a control capability over land against transnational terrorists and narcotics smugglers. The modernization will enhance the capabilities of the Pakistani Navy and support its regional influence and meet its legitimate self-defense needs. Pakistan is capable of absorbing and maintaining these additional aircraft in its inventory.”

8. The first two of these aircraft were delivered in April 2010 and officially inducted into the Naval Air Arm at a function held at PNS Mehran on June 2,2010. Some more of the remaining five have since been inducted, but their number is not known. These planes are generally kept in hangars belonging to the Naval Air Arm and operate from the joint user airfield.

9. The active role played by the Pakistani Navy in support of the NATO operations in Afghanistan has attracted the anger of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). On March 4, 2008, two unidentified suicide bombers, operating in tandem, attacked the prestigious Naval War College located in a high security area of Lahore. They were both on motor-cycles. One of them rammed his motor-cycle against the security gate at the rear of the building breaking it open. The other drove through this opening into the parking area and blew himself up. Their target was the naval institution and not any particular individual or individuals inside. They wanted to demonstrate their ability to penetrate the campus and cause damage. Six persons were killed--- one of them a naval officer, three members of the security guards at the gate and the two suicide bombers.

10. On December 2,2009, an alert official of the Pakistani naval intelligence in plain clothes and a naval security guard in uniform deployed outside the building of the Pakistan Navy Headquarters in Islamabad prevented what could have been a major terrorist strike against the Naval Headquarters by an unidentified suicide bomber. Spotting a suspicious-looking individual outside the NHQ, they stopped him and searched him. He turned out to be a suicide bomber wearing a concealed suicide vest. However, they could not prevent him from activating the explosive device in the vest. One person was killed on the spot and another succumbed to his injuries later.

11. Two Pakistani naval personnel--- a commissioned officer of the rank of Sub-Lieutenant and a sailor--- were among four persons killed in two separate but coordinated explosions in Karachi on April 26, 2011. The explosions targeted two buses of the Pakistan Navy which were transporting naval personnel to their places of work. According to available indications, the improvised explosive devices, which struck the buses, had been planted along routes normally taken by the buses and activated through mobile telephones.

12. According to the "Daily Times" of Lahore ( April 27,2011), the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), as the Pakistani Taliban is known, claimed the responsibility for the blasts, and threatened more attacks on security forces. The claim was made in a telephone call to a foreign news agency by a person who identified himself as Ehsanullah Ehsan, a spokesman of the Taliban. He reportedly said: "Security forces will be targeted in the future as well, because they are killing their own people in Waziristan and elsewhere at the behest of the United States.”

13. Since the raid by the Pakistani military commandos into the Lal Masjid in Islamabad in July,2007, there has been a number of retaliatory attacks by the TTP against the Army, the Air Force, the Special Services Group (SSG), the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the para-military forces and the police. It is, however, believed that the attacks on the Navy were connected to its role in providing maritime support to the NATO forces in Afghanistan. The Navy had no role to play in the Lal Masjid raid. The Pakistani authorities have been apprehending a surge in these attacks on the security forces, including the Navy, in retaliation for the raid by U.S. naval commandos into the residence of Osama bin Laden at Abbottabad on May 2,2011, in which OBL was killed.

14. At around 10 PM on the night of May 22, an unidentified group of about 15 terrorists armed with explosives, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and assault weapons was reported to have managed to infiltrate into the PNS Mehran base through a side of the Faisal PAF base where a PAF museum is located and engaged in a fire fight with naval and other security personnel after destroying at least one----according to some other reports two---PC 3 aircraft kept in the hangars. The fire-fight was still going on at 3 AM on the morning of May 23 when last reports came in.

15. It has been reported that the survivors among the attackers have taken some hostages and taken shelter inside a building in the base. According to unconfirmed reports, among the hostages are one or more Chinese military personnel working in the base. It has been further reported that some Americans and Turks were also working in the base. It is not known whether any of them has been taken hostage. At least 11 naval personnel are reported to have died in the fire fight so far. No one has claimed responsibility till now.

16. The daring attack and the inability of the Navy to prevent it are likely to add to the feelings of humiliation in the Pakistani Armed Forces which have been prevalent since the Abbottabad raid. To deflect anger over the security failure at PNS Mehran, attempts could be made to divert suspicion against India. Extra vigilance and extra security would be required along our coast in general and in the Mumbai area in particular. Instructions should be issued to all concerned to avoid any statements and comments which could aggravate the paranoia of the Pakistani Armed Forces and to refrain from exhibiting any sense of glee over the discomfiture of the Pakistani Armed Forces.(23-5-11)

(Bahukutumbi Raman is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute for Topical Studies, Chennai, and Associate of the Chennai Centre For China Studies. E-mail: seventyone2@gmail.com)

On A Silver Platter

We now see what the so-called ‘Arab Spring’ – much of which this president has had a hand in – has been all about. In his (billed as a major) foreign policy speech today president Obama essentially told Israel to fall back to its pre-’67 borders as a precondition for peace talks with Palestinians.

We must suspect that it has been Obama’s plan all along to hand Israel over into the hands of its enemies. Reaction should be predictable. He will be praised by Jew haters, which now includes virtually every nation on earth. (It’s nice to know that we’ve managed to sink to the lowest common denominator among nations in less than a single presidential term.) At the same time, it should send shivers through every Israeli (living in Israel).

Such borders are clearly indefensible should Israel be attacked – and it will be. Obama is betting on being able to gain acceptance in the Islamic world by sacrificing Israel. It will not work. Islamists will feel emboldened and will not stop until Europe and America are Islamized as well. Much can happen between now and then, but this nonetheless represents a milestone in the long view of some who are playing the game.

Exactly how long the game has been going on is at this point hard to tell. Perhaps Israel was doomed from the start. But this speech certainly clarifies things. The implied trade-off, of course, is that there might now be a chance for peace were the Arabs to get what they want; that wars and terrorism (and high oil prices) would cease to be a problem and that all the world would prosper.

You know my view. I’ve stated it often enough. We cannot build stability, prosperity and peace on genocide. Others have tried and it has never worked. I view Israel as the keystone of a delicate arch. It should be defended and reinforced – not removed and discarded. The arch is likely to collapse. All else we can survive: socialism; corruption; a broken economy; a broken government; even the unrelenting threat of terror.

A fallen Israel we cannot.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Itamar

It is one thing when some technology that was built in the earnest belief that it will benefit mankind goes awry. It is quite another when we go to considerable lengths excusing, encouraging and funding terrorist organizations who have proven over and over again their intent to massacre the innocent.

Last Friday night, in the West Bank settlement of Itamar, five members of the Fogel family were brutally butchered - the youngest, only three months old. Within hours, the militant wing of president Mahamoud Abbas‘ Fatah party, Al-Aqsa, took credit for the carnage only to withdraw it later (and then again reaffirm unofficially). No doubt, the human animals who did this will be feted and lauded by Palestinians who are well known for naming significant landmarks after dead ‘martyrs‘.

Here in this country, we continue to support such people with millions of (albeit now worthless) dollars annually. Our news media sweeps their U.S.-funded atrocities routinely under the proverbial rug while continuing to demonize the victims.

Peter King’s ‘controversial’ hearings started last week - in my view - 10 years too late. No major news organization reported that the Obama administration sent its representative, National Security Advisor, Denis McDonough, to a Washington-area mosque with close ties to terrorism in advance of the hearings with a clear mandate to undermine the hearings’ importance. I’m leaving out a lot of detail here with the understanding that most of you are already well aware of the facts, none of which have been overtly raised in the mainstream media.

Speaking of the media, every report about the resolution re Libya by the Arab League that I’ve heard mentions that the League endorsed the imposition of a no-fly zone (over Libya). Missing from every one of these reports was that the League also, in the same breath, ruled out international intervention. This I found out from reading The John Batchelor Show website.

Never mind acts of God. We are slitting our own wrists, people!

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Too Civilized

It seems we have become too ‘civilized’ to fight wars with guns. In fact, guns are now classified as being pretty much in the same category as Chinese toxic toys. So, what do we do now? How do we fight?

We now use food, currencies, unemployment, propaganda and promises as weapons. And even so, there must be blood. We haven’t yet given up entirely on the puritanical idea of requiring the blood of a sacrificial lamb - a price paid - to give substance to any effort. Israel.

America is losing. America will survive, but in greatly diminished state. Our anachronistic weapons will no longer save us. Our money is worthless. We are dispirited. We are forever reacting. We have no plan. Go with the flow; jump aboard. Better late than never. The flow is toward chaos. Hang on! We are going down.

It is now our official policy, to draw back; to hide in the reeds, watching as our house of cards collapses. We have no strategy, no will - only ideology; ideology which says that whatever anybody else does is good. We have been wrong all along. Bush. The terrorists are right. They, at least, are fighting for a cause. We have no cause. We have no religion. The almighty dollar crashes and burns like the twin towers in Lower Manhattan.

We hate ourselves. We promote the chief haters to important positions. We teach our kids to hate themselves - their country, their parents, their heritage.

Change. It’s coming. It’s been coming for a long time. We hope for the best: collective salvation; deus ex machina in the form of Islam, perhaps?

It no longer matters how we got here. The dominos are falling. I’m currently reading a delightful book, a novel by R. K. Narayan, “A Tiger for Malgudi”. The headmaster of the school is hiding in the rafters, watching the the sage lead the beast to safety. The town’s folk, skeptical at first, marvel at the ease with which their humble ‘savior’ handles the animal which turns out to be smarter than all the bureaucratic heads, paralyzed by fear, put together.

So we fight; for fight we must. To get what we want; or to keep what we believe to be ours. We use all our modern tools to our best advantage, even while we now openly question which side our general is on.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Toy Room

The U.S.-led NATO forces are not going to prevail. Not because they can’t. but because we don’t want them to. There’s s something else afoot. Pakistan is a failed state. Obviously it’s not a failed state to China. Ditto, North Korea.

There are any number of failed states being gathered up in South America, Africa, and in the Middle East. Assange can work both sides of the fence depending on which side you talk to. There’s even someone out there who finds terrorism useful, otherwise it would stop.

We’re being played. India, Israel and a whole slew of other nations don’t know it yet. They still believes the deck isn’t stacked. And this might surprise you: The culprits are not necessarily the culprits we are made to hate. This is simply a diversion. The culprits are inside our own American house.

America is the strongest, most opulent house on the block. Could there be any doubt that America is not in charge of its own affairs?

We’re told that America is in decline. The biggest house on the block never falls on hard times. But, at the same time, it remains free to make additions or alterations if the owners should so decide. The biggest house on the block determines its own changes. The change is toward totalitarianism. Things can be done either by doing or not doing. You don’t roll your mother-in-law off the cliff and into a lake, and then jump into the water and rescue her (though, on second thought, this ploy too has been tried before).

Suffice it to say that change is at hand. Our people already have an inkling of it. They are finding themselves increasingly marginalized. They feel they are being herded through a maze. They are made to argue amongst themselves as to what it all means. They’re not getting the straight story. The (stealth) narrative belongs to Obama, Pelosi, Soros, and Reid. WikiLeaks is only a part of the deception - so is Pakistan, North Korea, China, et al. The toy room is America.

Happy new year!!!

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Rumors

Any truth to the rumor that all that was found in the packages were photographs of something that was labeled: ‘BOMB‘? (Said photographs were then published on the front pages of newspapers around the Western world.) Probably not.

But, it would quite suffice to scare the b’Jesus out of everyone and send us scrambling into the relative safety of POTUS’ embrace. Timing remains suspect. So close to elections. October surprise? POTUS looking manly behind his teleprompters. Rally in support of POTUS on the National Mall. POTUS traveling around the world right after. Dollar down.

U.S. midterm elections: hardly a speed bump; POTUS unfazed - continues to bow and scrape for the sins of the nation he has been elected to lead.

AQ has succeeded in reducing jihad down to the level where everyone can participate. Everyone is capable of mailing a postcard. Now, let’s kick it up a notch: Israel, Pakistan, North Korea (and soon Iran) are all said to have nukes. Do they also have Photoshop?

Watch the speech Obama will be giving in Indonesia. I wonder if he’ll be using PowerPoint.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

The Truth And Nothing But The Truth

Some argue that the only effective way of stopping the oil spill in the Gulf is to detonate a thermonuclear device. As this would require POTUS to actually take a decision, we can expect the oil leak to continue indefinitely. Obama will be able to take refuge in his own personal Tora Bora: blame Bush; blame Big Oil; blame America.

The job of being president has overwhelmed Obama. He will ride out his term on the now thread-bare trappings of the office. It is scary to think that, despite what happens, 40% will continue to support him. Whatever you might say, that’s an awful lot of people. Using the oil spill analogy, that’s an awful lot of oil spilled to pollute the potential good will and effectiveness of the next administration.

The focus of global terrorism will now center on oil rigs. It’s a model that was initially developed by the Somali pirates. It was duly noted that the West is incapable of responding even to minor threats; and that each failure to respond diminishes it ten-fold.

The time has come to buckle up; to know that we are not being told even the half of it; and that, if we ever were to find out the whole truth, we would come to realize that none of it is good.

Accidents Will Happen (It's only 'hit and run')

Under this, what can be termed as the first in a long line of “accidental” U.S. presidents, we are entering into the “Accidental Ages” This is not to say that any of these presidents will be said to have suffered accidents or black swan poop from out of no where in particular. It simply means that everything that happens during their disastrous reign(s) will be reported as ‘accidental’: Barack Hussein Obama’s accidental election; the accidental failure of capitalism; the inadvertent torpedoing of a South Korean war ship; the Deepwater Horizon’s collapse; the explosion and fire at a Texas oil refinery; the ‘accidental’ failure of terror plots; the implosion of the PIIGS; etc. The pattern is clear. Now we can add ‘accidental’ U.S. stock market manipulation to the list.

I don’t buy the CITI ‘fat finger’ excuse. No finger is so fat as to span three letters on a standard size keyboard without missing ‘N’ (for null). Our enemies are testing our vulnerabilities – and profitably so. It should be easy enough to find who profited from yesterday’s stock market debacle. But, have no fear; nobody will bother to check into it. Besides, the desired damage is already done; the weaknesses have been exposed; the markets spooked; the spoils divided as compensation for amputated tongues.

Still, I’d be interested to know by just how much Soros’ portfolio has been boosted by yesterday’s great adventure.

BTW, the ’accidental era’ too will pass as the Dark Ages ended with the Renaissance. This will happen after final victory has been declared after a series of great “Accidental Wars”.

Moscow Subway Bombing

Looks like a classic example of the dog turning on its master. (Note: I make no qualitative distinction between dog and master.) From these (cyber) pages we have learned that Russia encourages Tehran; that Tehran encourages terrorists. Will Russia now cooperate with America to defeat terrorism?

Answer: No. Putin does not see America as a credible partner in any serious area of endeavor. Putin has looked into Obama's eyes and saw nothing useful there - only immense pride and unearned arrogance. Putin will handle this on his own. He will be utterly ruthless. He can be expected to take full advantage of the crisis. He will make heads roll publicly to distract from his own failings.

Americans watching from the sidelines will not feel encouraged. They will despair at what they see as their own president's efforts to counter terrorism. FBI raids of Christian militia groups will fail to allay fears.

Since passage of the health care bill, there has been much talk in the media about right-wing violence. The NYT – party organ of our current administration - has suggested that the tsunami of public disapproval of the bill has nothing to do with the bill itself; that instead, it has become an excuse by white males to attack a sitting black president. We are now to believe that any criticism of Obama’s policies is the result of racism. This is a dangerous tact this administration is taking.

Obama was elected primarily to vanquish white guilt. It appears to have backfired. Obama’s election is about to give race baiters a field day. I propose we shut down all conservative websites, and silence conservative talk radio. Why, when disagreement alone is deemed sedition, hand them more nails with which to crucify us?

Topology of a Nightmare

>What matters is that the Dems have defined the rules of the game in 2001-2008 and now they are going to have to play by them.<

In a normal world this would be so. But this is not in a normal world. At the beginning of 2010, we find ourselves in the fog and chaos of a war, as ever - a war the Conservatives are losing. The media still hasn't flipped. Neither has academe, Wikipedia, the unions, etc. Neither has our ruling class in Washington. ...and they won't. They won't strop until they've confiscated Lou's laptop and broken his fingers. Their desire for revenge will never be mitigated by reason or by what seems fair. Lou does not see this because he is not driven by a boundless hatred as they are. Lou still sees them as people who can be reasoned with.

What they'll do is ignore us and push outrageously ahead. I now know what happened to Limbaugh. He was on vacation and he happened to read the newspaper. He became emotionally overwrought by the administration’s response to the panty bomber. For the first time, perhaps, he was gripped by a palpable fear for his country. No longer would clever partiasn rhetoric stem the looming disaster. It had demonstrably gone beyond. He realized that his words were no longer enough. And even that was denied him by virtue of being on vacation.

Rush was not alone. Savage too was on vacation. He came back to work earlier than planned. He said he felt that at a time like this his listeners needed him. I don’t really think it was quite like that. It was just that Mike needed to vent.

Defeat in Afghanistan

A loss in Afghanistan is another example of events overtaking (best) intentions. We can't really blame POTUS. He just happens to be there at this moment. Clearly, he doesn't know what to do. Would anyone? It might be nice if someone told us the truth.

It's difficult to mesh reality with campaigning. It's much easier to promise something (anything) that will make the people vote for you. Winning in Afghanistan was one such (to my ears, unambiguous) promise. Come to think of it, there were many others involving both foreign and domestic goals. We're still waiting, Mr. President.

So far, I would say, we’ve gotten nothing for our unbridled optimism and support. Many of us have even lost jobs, homes, retirement savings or savings in general. We’ve lost our faith, M. President. We no longer think you can handle the job. Your now famously ‘fuzzy math’ has been exposed as fraud. I guess you never thought that we would see through all that; that we were smarter than what any of your ivory tower cronies gave us credit for.

What now, Mr. President? At some point you’ve got to start leveling with us; at the very least, treating us as equals; let us know in no uncertain terms what’s up and what your plans are. Can you really blame some of us for calling you a ‘Marxist’? You yourself have often enough stated that you want to redistribute our nation’s wealth. Your associations and appointees seem to be totally okay with that – some more so than others. Tell us how that’s not Marxism.

We understand how you like to play with the language. You might point out that Karl Marx has been dead for some time. Therefore, Marxism cannot be said to exist except as a vacuous but deliberate slur – like the word ‘terrorism’ (which must never be uttered again particularly as it relates to the Islamic sort). Fair enough.

All this can be argued (as long as we’re still permitted to argue); shades of meaning; what the definition of ‘is’ is. But Mr. President, we beg you, do not refer to ‘recession’ as ‘recovery’; job losses as gains (or ‘saves’); losing as winning; etc. All these are direct opposites. Not even the slowest learner in the class would fall for that.