Will Holbrooke in Pakistan & Afghanistan strengthen jihadist support networks

By Ganesh Sahathevan

U.S. President Barack Obama has  named former United Nations Ambassador Richard Holbrooke as his special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan.

I have previously written about Holbrooke, and will repeat the same here:

The recently arrested Serbian leader Radovan Karadzic has told the UN tribunal in The Hague that the United States in 1996 had offered him immunity from war crimes charges. Karadzic claimed that he had struck a deal with U.S. Ambassador Richard Holbrooke to disappear from public life in exchange for a U.S. promise not to pursue the charges against him. State Department spokesman Sean McCormick has said Holbrooke never made an agreement to give Karadzic protection from arrest or prosecution. Holbrooke, who brokered the peace deal that ended the Bosnian conflict called Karadzic's charge untrue.
(http://voanews.com/english/2008-08-01-voa32.cfm)

I have previously written about the Clintons  and the Malaysian-Bosnian joint-venture, Bosmal. (This issue has new relevance given the appointment of Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State)

I have also shown that Bosmal is linked to the TWRA. ( see www.terrorfinance.org/the_terror_finance_blog/2008/04/the-clintons-bo.html)
On the Bosmal website from which much of that information was obtained, there is also evidence of support for Bosmal from Holbrooke:
Richard Holbrooke, the creator of the Dayton peace agreement and presently vice-president of the New York-based bank "Perseus", expressed his support to Bosmal in its efforts to secure financial means required for construction of the Corridor 5C highway through Bosnia and Herzegovina……. Richard Holbrooke promised to send a letter of support to Bosmal, in which he will emphasize the importance and significance of the project, and suggest to American financial institutions to seriously consider the possibilities for their financial participation in the project.
(http://www.bosmal.com/en/?lg=en&nav_ID=5&ID=139)
A copy of that letter can be sighted at http://www.bosmal.com/images/news/large/RichardHolbrooke.jpg.
When queried by this writer about his relationship with Bosmal,and Bosmal's links to the TWRA, Holbrooke said:
I know nothing of their "link" to other groups. I, of course, strongly support the U.S.
Government's stand against terrorism. As you may recall, we wrote
strong authority into the Dayton Peace Agreement to take action
against any foreign elements or terrorists as we saw fit, and in fact
raided and apprehended terrorist cells.
There are not connections between Perseus and Bosmal --neither
financial nor any sort of affiliation.
My letter was part of my long-standing support for better road
networks in the Balkans. I have long believed, and often stated that
such road and rail links (as well as air links) would contribute to
economic development, which in turn would lead to greater inter-ethnic
cooperation.
Holbrooke's letter to Bosmal was written in 2004.
By 2003 a story titled "Sabanovic Brothers and Bosmal" from the Slobodna Bosna magazine or newspaper was translated and reproduced on the NATO website http://www.nato.int/sfor/media/2003/ms030725t.htm. The story detailed the business dealings of the Sabanovic brothers, Erin and Nijaz, and their involvement with the TWRA.Given that the TWRA's activities had been a matter of public record since 1996, one can assume that the 2003 story was simply publication of material that would have been already available to those involved in the Dayton Peace Accord negotiations.
These connections may have been ignored for this reason:
A senior Western diplomat in the region said the Clinton administration knew about the Third World Relief Agency and its activities beginning in 1993. Still, the United States took no action to stop its fund-raising or arms purchases, in large part because of the administration's sympathy for the Muslim government and ambivalence about maintaining the arms embargo
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/longterm/bosvote/front.htm)
Holbrooke and the Clinton Administration may not have promised Karadzic immunity or anything else for that matter, but Holbrooke, the Clintons, and US general Wesley Clark "former Supreme Allied Commander, Europe, and a key architect of the Dayton Peace Accords." ( http://www.bosmal.com/en/?lg=en&nav_ID=5&ID=172 ) appear all to have had dealings with Karadzic's opponents in the aftermath of the Bosnian conflict.
These dealings raise the suspicion that Karadzic may well be telling the truth about a deal for immunity. Put in another way, these dealings with the TWRA's Bosmal causes one to consider if these are , or were meant to be, coincident to the offer of immunity that Karadzic alleges.

(Article at http://www.terrorfinance.org/the_terror_finance_blog/2008/08/karadzicholbroo.html)

Given the above history ,the issue now is whether Holbrooke can successfully separate his public duties from his private business interests in his new role. And  the temptations will be many-for a desricption of  how Pakistan's pursuit of the Islamic bomb was also a well-run, international business venture see my article at http://www.terrorfinance.org/the_terror_finance_blog/2009/01/sanctions-against-aq-khan-and-associatesimplications-for-the-malaysian-prime-minister.html

Given that Pakistan and Afghanistan are both  Muslim countries,  Holbrooke's opinion of poltical Islam needs to scrutinised.In an interview given New Perspectives Quarterly, Volume 24, Issue 4 (p 24-26)

Holbrooke said, in response to a question about Erdogan's AKP and its electoral success in the Turkish elections of 2008:  

(http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/117966109/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0)

This was an historic election in Turkey.The West has said what
it wants is a moderate form of Islam in the world. Here you have one of the two most democratic states in the Muslim world, the other one being Malaysia.

 In so saying Holbrooke shows either complete naivety about the nature of Islamist governments, or a complicity with Islamists that ignores the peril  to non-Muslims who live under their rule. Malaysia would be a good example to consider. Interestingly, even Erdogan protested Holbrooke's equating Turkey to Malaysia, forcing Holbrooke to withdraw that opinion(see http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=123449)

If the US feels it is in its interest to pursue better relations with Islamists  at the expense of non-Muslims , it needs to consider its history of relations with the Muslim world over the past 50 to 60 years. In South East Asia , for example, even to this day the US's strongest allies are Singapore,Thailand and the Philipinnes; while relations with perdominantly Muslim Indonesia and Malaysia continue to be conditional on their Muslim populations' perception of Western bias  against Islam.

The danger here, as we have seen previously in Bosnia, is of a existing jihadist support networks being strengthened by the very persons the US sends to dismantle them.

Comments

[News Review]

I went over his biography.. He has a lot of achievements.. And the way he was regarded is amazing.. I hope he could likewise put an end to the disasters happening in Afghanistan and Pakistan as he was able to do previously.. Our hopes is with him.. We sincerely pray that he will remain safe and that he would be successful in whatever moves he does to reach his peaceful aim.