[Update: EX-SSG ARRESTED IN CONNECTION TO BRIGADIER ASSASSINATIONS... Retired SSG Subedar [≈Lt.] Zafar Iqbal has been arrested in relation to the attacks on Army Brigadiers in Islamabad — reportedly while in possession of a International Red Cross vehicle (ICRC 72-31). It is alleged he was involved in recruiting for Inter-Risk.]
Finally, some more details in the emerging scandal — entirely untouched (in any meaningful sense) by Western MSM — involving Pakistani Security/PMC Inter-Risk — a DynCorp contractor utilized for “diplomatic protection” by the State Department.
Inter Risk was raided by FIA in Sept, a number of arrests made, and a small number of unlicensed weapons and other equipment was seized. Images of the seized weapons show they are not the “sophisticated AK-47s” that the US Embassy instructed Ali Zaidi [Inter Risk CEO] to import, and which Zaidi lobbied to receive “prohibited bore” licenses for, allegedly with illegal incentives.
The latest arrests include “Mr Qadir” — a personal assistant to the State Minister, Tasnim Qureshi — and “Dr. Iqditar Dara“, who was hired by DynCorp to lobby the Pak Govt, and claims to have independently hired Jamil Abbasi because of his connections in the ruling PPP party. Jamil Abbasi — a “human rights activist” linked to the US Embassy — and Ali Zaidi, Inter Risk CEO, have been under FIA lock-up for about two months.
But this could be about more than dodgy paperwork and bribery. Perhaps nationalist security/intel factions were alarmed by Inter-Risk/DynCorp’s covert training center at Rawat, disguised as an auto-repair workshop. Before it was raided and closed, 118 former Pak SSG [i.e. special forces] were up-skilled, ostensibly for purely defensive activities. After the raids, US Embassy officials reportedly hindered FIA access to these men.
Another unusual detail that wasn’t widely available in English: after the Interior Ministry confirmed that Inter-Risk had been disbanded (Oct-2), Inter-Risk petitioned the Lahore High Court to overturn the ban — and incredibly, “the Rawalpindi Bench of the Court issued a stay order on Nov. 11, restricting the government from interfering in Inter-Risk’s ‘lawful’ business.” [Quraishi]
It’s unlikely that concerned Westerners would be aware of any of these disturbing events were it not for English-language media in Pakistan. Journalist and TV personality Ahmed Quraishi’s Nov-2 article provides these details:
[...] The name of Mr. Tasnim Qureshi, the State Minister, came up frequently in the interrogation with his assistant. The Minister’s signatures are all over the paperwork for those illegal weapons. But Mr. Qureshi belongs to the second tier of PPP politicians. He is not expected to have approved the licensing of illegal weapons without clearance from Interior Minister Rehman Malik and/or other senior authorities in the government.
[...] According to the interrogations, Mr. Dara and Mr. Abbasi shared the US $ 270,000 with the Minister’s assistant Mr. Qadir. [$2000 per license]
Inter-Risk was given one-year provisional approval by the authorities to represent DynCorp in Pakistan. This was in 2008. But by early this year, Inter-Risk failed to get official approval for a license legalizing DynCorp’s activities in Pakistan.
When Inter-Risk’s offices were raided by the Pakistani police in September, DynCorp’s American trainers had already trained and ‘graduated’ 59 former Pakistani SSG officers from their illegal training facility on the outskirts of Islamabad. [...] Another 59 former SSG officers were undergoing training in September when the operation was forcibly terminated by Pakistani police.
[...] The US Embassy was upset when, on Sept. 2, Chief Commissioner Islamabad suspended Inter-Risk’s license to operate as a private security firm, and three weeks later the Securities and Exchange Commission ordered Inter-Risk to wind up its business permanently. This in effect meant shutting the doors on DynCorp in Pakistan.
So upset was the US Embassy that no less than the Deputy Head of Mission, Mr. Gerald Feierstein, held a press conference on Oct. 1 to announce publicly that Inter-Risk and DynCorp, both US Embassy contractors, were not barred from operating in Pakistan. He tried to portray the action against Inter-Risk as a misunderstanding.
Next day, the Interior Ministry issued a statement announcing ‘to whom it may concern’ that Inter-Risk has been disbanded. [...] It was obvious the statement came out under pressure from Pakistani security officials outside the Ministry, possibly from the three main intelligence agencies, the FIA, ISI and the MI.
[...] These [four arrested] men are also suspected to know something about another suspicious US activity on Pakistani soil: the Anti-Terrorism Assistance Program under US State Department, based at the police training college in Sihala, a few kilometers away from Pakistan’s most important nuclear installations.
[...] The Interior Ministry came down hard on those police officials who blew the whistle on what the Americans are doing there. This action compounded Pakistani suspicions, in addition to the fact that US citizens based at the Sihala facility insist they want to remain in the area despite the fact that they have not conducted any training programs for some time now.
According to reports, there is a strong suspicion that radioactive material detection equipment is installed at the facility. Low-ranking Pakistani staffers working with the Americans at Sihala have been found driving cars with fake number plates. And four US citizens were arrested in July in the maximum security zone around the Kahuta security facilities. In two and a half hours of interrogation, they couldn’t explain what they were doing there. Finally federal Interior Ministry intervened and forced their release without pressing charges.
See also:
- Dec-2: Watan Party petitions Lahore High Court to search US Embassy for illegal weapons, evidence of involvement in terrorism. Good luck with that.
- Jeremy Scahill’s Nov-23 article on Blackwater’s support work for JSOC in Pakistan, and the Blackwater-Kestral relationship.
- Previously: Oct-31 — the Inter Risk raids/arrests… Nov 9 — the emerging “Blackwater Pakistan” meme.
- DAWN.com 30-July [i.e. before the Inter-Risk raids] “Arms licences scam shakes interior ministry”
- Ansar Abbasi (in Jang) 9-Oct “How Pakistan Interior Minister Helped US Embassy Import Illegal Weapons Without Telling ISI”
- SAMAA, Nov-27 “Govt takes notice of Inter-Risk hiring”
- The Nation, Dec-2 “PS to State Minister of Int in FIA custody”,
- Wackenhut (G4S) providing security for US-occupied private residences in Islamabad.
- July 2008 – Nation reports ISI and IB to be moved under Interior Ministry supervision — [A move later abandoned after it "backfired"]
0 Responses to “Pakistan: New Arrests in Inter-Risk / DynCorp / US State Dept Scandal…”