Maulana Ajmal Qadri, a leading Pakistani
cleric is currently in the United States “singing
like a canary” and providing US agents with intelligence
relating to Islamist militants.
Maulana Qadri of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam
(JUI) was reported in some sections of the Pakistani press
as having been “missing” for the last one
month.
According to the news and analysis service
Stratfor, it represents yet another example of the judicious
employment of the deadliest weapons in Washington’s
counterterrorism arsenal: fear and money. Sources who
are familiar with Qadri have said the man has a “history
of cutting deals to increase his influence within his
own circles.” In a speech in 1999, he called for
the killing of legislators who refused to impose Islamic
law in Pakistan. Sources told Stratfor that Qadri was
once actively involved in recruiting for the Taliban.
Based on his background and connections and the JUI’s
affiliations, it is likely that Qadri knows a fair amount
of information about the Islamist militant movement within
Pakistan - and perhaps even has some connections to Al
Qaeda or the Taliban.
According to the report, there are a handful
of levers the US and Pakistani intelligence services could
have used to induce Qadri to reveal what he knows. Stratfor
said, “Despite all the political rhetoric spouted
by JUI, the group realises its existence relies largely
on being left alone. If the Pakistani government decided
to press the case of JUI’s support for militants,
the group likely would be keen to cooperate on some level
or another. This could have been the strategy used by
the Pakistani government to persuade Qadri to play nice.
Qadri himself could have approached US intelligence agencies
through the State Department’s Rewards for Justice
(RFJ) Programme. If this route was chosen it would allow
him and his immediate family virtually unfettered immigration
to the United States and substantial financial rewards.”
Stratfor also speculated that outside
of the RFJ Program, Qadri might have contacted US officials
himself. It is possible the information he had was valuable
enough to warrant his inclusion in the US Marshals Service
Witness Security Program and his (and his immediate family’s)
expedited immigration to the United States. A handful
of visa and immigration waivers are set aside for every
agency each year to use at their discretion for cases
like Qadri’s.
Alternately, US officials may have contacted
Qadri themselves to “gently persuade” him
to choose one of these routes. Some sources have implied
that the US government had been feeling around Islamabad
for information about Qadri.
The report said that US intelligence also
could have simply forcibly extracted Qadri from Pakistan
- with or without Pakistani intelligence’s cooperation
- and either way” much to the chagrin of Islamist
militants within Pakistani intelligence.”
It said, “These types of operations
are obviously highly classified but do happen nonetheless.
Once in the United States, Qadri might have been threatened
with prosecution but offered freedom in exchange for information
on Islamist militants far more important than he. If this
were the case he likely would still be taken care of financially
by the United States. In the vast majority of situations
in which information about terrorist organizations is
turned over to the United States, money is the motivating
factor.”
