07 sept 2012
US adds Haqqani group to terror blacklist, puts pressure on Pakistan
Reuter
Vladivostok, Russia: In a report to Congress on Friday,
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton formally designated the
militant Haqqani network -
responsible for some of the deadliest attacks
against American troops in Afghanistan - as a terrorist organization,
two days before a Congressional deadline.
Mrs Clinton signed the
order in Brunei before departing to Vladivostok for the annual Asia
Pacific Economic Conference, and State Department officials began
notifying senior lawmakers. She issued the report after a last round of
internal debate that took place in Washington on Thursday hours before
President Obama spoke at the Democratic National Convention.
Mrs
Clinton and others have already discussed the issue with their
counterparts in Pakistan, and the administration's special envoy, Marc
Grossman, is expected to formally inform Pakistan's leaders on Friday.
The decision is the culmination of nearly two years of
spirited debate inside the administration that reached a peak in the
past month under the pressure of Sunday's reporting deadline.
Several
State Department and military officials had argued that designating the
organization would help strangle the group's fund-raising activities in
countries like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates and pressure
Pakistan to open a long-expected military offensive against the
militants.
Many other senior officials, including several in the
White House, expressed deep reservations that blacklisting the group
could further damage badly frayed relations with Pakistan, undercut
peace talks with the Taliban and possibly jeopardize the fate of
Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, the only American soldier known to be held by
the militants.
But in the past few days, supporters of
designating the group apparently eased most concerns or put forward
contingencies to mitigate the risks and potential consequences.
"This
shows that we are using everything we can to put the squeeze on these
guys," said one administration official who was involved in the process,
and who spoke on the condition of anonymity on Thursday because the
decision had not yet been formally announced.
Another senior administration official said the designation "is a very strong signal of our resolve to combat the Haqqanis."
Critics
had contended that a designation by the Treasury Department or the
United Nations could achieve largely the same result as adding the
network to the much more prominent State Department list, with far fewer
consequences.
But many senior counterterrorism officials as well
as top American military officers, including General John R Allen,
commander of American and NATO troops in Afghanistan, had said
designating the organization should be a top priority.
"FTO
designation could reduce a critical capability of the Haqqani network by
increasing the cost of doing business, reducing access to capital, and
constraining the network's financial resources, thereby limiting their
freedom to operate in a local, regional, and international context,"
Jeffrey Dressler, senior Afghanistan analyst for the Institute for the
Study of War, a research organization here, said in a paper issued this
week, referring to foreign terrorist organizations.
Mr Dressler
said the Haqqani network's business interests stretched from Afghanistan
and Pakistan, to the Persian Gulf, and included car dealerships, money
exchanges and construction companies, import-export operations and
smuggling networks.
Since 2008, Haqqani suicide attackers have
struck the American Embassy and Indian Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, as
well as the headquarters of the NATO-led International Security
Assistance Force and hotels and restaurants there.
American
officials confirmed last week that a senior member of the Haqqani family
leadership, Badruddin Haqqani, the network's operational commander, was
killed recently in a drone strike in Pakistan's tribal areas.
Pressure
in Congress to add the group to the terrorist list had grown this year.
"The Haqqani network is engaged in a reign of terror," Representative
Mike Rogers, a Michigan Republican who is chairman of the House
Intelligence Committee, said in July. "Now is the time for action, not
simply paperwork and talk."
With virtually unanimous backing,
Congress approved legislation that President Obama signed into law on
August 10 giving Mrs Clinton 30 days to determine whether the Haqqani
network was a terrorist group, and report her decision to lawmakers by
Sunday, coincidentally three days after the end of the Democratic
National Convention.
Critics of designating the group a terrorist
organization say the action could drive a wedge between the United
States and Pakistan, just as the countries are gingerly recovering from
months of gruelling negotiations to reopen NATO supply routes. Pakistan
closed the routes through its territory after an allied airstrike near
the Afghan border last November killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.
These
same critics say such a move would appear to bring Pakistan a step
closer to being designated as a state sponsor of terrorism. American
officials say Pakistan's main spy agency, the Inter-Services
Intelligence Directorate, is secretly aiding the insurgents. Pakistani
officials have said the agency maintains regular contact with the
Haqqanis, but deny that it provides operational support.
Two
Pakistani officials said last week that the decision was "an internal
American issue." American analysts believe that Pakistan would be
reluctant to publicly protest the designation, because to do so would
substantiate American beliefs that Pakistan supports the Haqqanis.
