Isnt this discrimination based on country of origin. Why single out Pakistanis?
Pakistanis put under close watch
By Josh Meyer
Washington
July 2, 2004
The US Department of Homeland Security has ordered inspectors at America’s largest airports to scrutinise all travellers of Pakistani descent - including US citizens - in an effort to catch terrorist trainees trying to enter the country.
The order is a sign of growing concern over Islamic militants’ training camps in Pakistan.
The Customs and Border Protection agency has specifically called for intensified searches at Los Angeles International Airport and at the main international airports in New York, Washington, Chicago, Detroit and Newark.
Agents are being told to look for signs of physical injuries - such as rope burns, unusual bruises and scars - that could have occurred during paramilitary training.
A Pakistani diplomat in Washington attacked the warning as unwarranted. It could undermine relations between the US and Pakistan, he said.
A Homeland Security official confirmed that the warning had been issued, but said it was confidential and one of many such briefings given to agents as part of the department’s developing border enforcement.
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It was, however, the first to deal with training camps in Pakistan.
The official said agents had been told to take particular note of recent travellers to Pakistan and “to look for other clues”.
Most of the Pakistan camps were believed to be overseen by militants whose organisations had links to al-Qaeda, the official said. They were probably less sophisticated than the operations that al-Qaeda oversaw in Afghanistan before the US-led military campaign to destroy them in late 2001.
The warning to customs agents was based on general concerns about activity at such camps, and not on any specific information about a planned attack, the official said.
But the warning states that “it is reasonable to expect that many of the individuals trained are destined to commit illegal activities in the United States”.
The deputy chief of mission at the Pakistan embassy in Washington, Mohammad Sadiq, said the warning threatened to undermine the close working relationship between the two countries in the counter-terrorism fight.
“It is not only unfortunate, but based on ignorance,” Mr Sadiq said.
“Warnings like these… harm us a lot and they harm Pakistani Americans and people from Pakistan who visit the United States.”
Even before the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, US authorities and their counterparts in India closely monitored training camps, which they contend have trained Islamic militants fighting with Pakistan against India in the contested area of Kashmir.
Last month the staff of the independent commission investigating the September 11 attacks concluded in a report that Pakistan’s military and intelligence services had worked closely with al-Qaeda and its former supporters in Afghanistan, the Taliban, in training militants and other operational efforts.
Although Pakistan is a key ally of the US in its war on terror, its troops have been unable to prevent al-Qaeda and Taliban fugitives from sneaking into Pakistan and finding a haven in its mountainous tribal areas and its cities.
- Los Angeles Times
