Syndrome of blaming the Victim and a hallucinating Pakistani analyst

I have a friend.  She once married the son of her father’s friend.  The marriage did not last long because of the adultrous nature of the guy.  The parents, instead of circling around their daughter and sympathizing with her as well feeling sorry for having been instrumental in that match, turned on her.  They found a rather strange way of pushing off their guilt.  By blaming their daughter.  The crime of the unscrupulous boy was pasted on their own daughter by them.

This is a strange phenomenon.  When a person, in order to run away from his or her guilt, instead of facing it, convinces himself of the other’s – actually the VICTIM’s complicity.  The syndrome that my friend’s parents reflected is also on show by some Muslim analysts.  They somehow try and show how what was an act of terrorists from Middle East or other Muslim countries, was actually – behind the scenes – done by the victims themselves!

Read this account below on how this guy creates an entire edifice of how Daniel Pearl’s assassin – Omar Sheikh – who was freed by Indian Foreign Minister in one of the most shameful episodes of Indian nation, forced by the hijacking of a plane that was done with the help of Pakistan’s entire political machinery (the Consulate official in Nepal used his consular credentials to get past airport security with weapons), was in fact a pre-meditated Indian move.  It is besides the point that this same guy and the other guy freed then worked with the Pakistani intelligence to start terrorist organizations as well as help ISI wire money to Mohammad Atta.

It is also instructive to know that although Pakistan has been plucking different people out of its kitty to offer to the US for billions of dollars in return, they have refused access to this Omar Sheikh.  If he is indeed an Indian agent, then there should be no issue.  He should be promptly handed over.. rather a ticket on the next flight to Guantanamo should have been booked right away.  Let the Americans strip him naked and get his Indian story out!  Why, pray, hold on to him?  Why stop any one from interrogating him in his role in Pearl assassination and wiring of money to Atta?  For someone who does not know the complete facts of the case, surrounding the events nicely distorted by this author, the writing style may make the rhetoric plausible.  But it is just that – a rhetoric.  And an attempt at somehow shoving one’s guilt up someone else’ neck!

Fortunately for us, the most interesting hint comes from the premier Indian intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing’s (RAW) own propaganda. Before we move any further, let us recall that quite unlike the ISI that stayed a low-tech human-based operator during and after the Cold War, RAW was so successful at it manipulations that apart from uncountable operations like the execution of the entire royal family of Nepal and successful stonewalling of US intelligence at the time of the Indian nuclear tests in 1998, it had succeeded in penetrating the CIA to a surprising extent. Only recently, a RAW office-bearer fled when it was learnt that pretending to be a mole inside the agency, he was feeding the Americans the Indian propaganda at New Delhi’s will.

The most significant clue comes from Bernard Henri Levy’s book that was quoted at the beginning. In this French book, the author makes no bones about the fact that he received substantial information on Daniel Pearl’s assassination from RAW. In fact, Sudindrah Datta, the then deputy to the RAW chief, is quoted during his meeting with him at RAW headquarters saying, “We know you are an old friend of our country. But first tell me. It seems you have just been in Pakistan…How are those lunatics?” Levy’s book is a classic study in Pakistan bashing. And why should he not be, he is perhaps the only Western journalist who took active part in the war against Pakistan for the creation of Bangladesh. What is amazing about it is that it contains graphic details of Pearl’s execution, albeit as a figment of imagination. The excuse of consulting RAW is said to be the fact that Omar Sheikh, the said assassin of Pearl, spent some time caught in India. When you read the details of Omar Sheikh’s arrest in India, you get the sense of a premeditated surrender. Somehow, it seems that he was there with a view to be apprehended. A willing scapegoat for something bigger. May we say legend building for the sake of enhanced credibility in the Muslim movements and Pakistan?

In India what happened to Omar Sheikh is a story that only comes from Indian sources. But we know one thing. Omar, before coming to Pakistan, had also gone to the Balkans to fight for the Bosnians when actually the CIA itself was raising Muslim fighters to fight against Milosevic’s armies, the last vestiges of the communist order in Europe. The CIA’s operatives, coupled with the Muslim clergy, used to visit Western educational institutions and induct as many Muslim students as they could find willing to join. The next thing we find is Omar heading to Pakistan, where he would successfully fabricate claims of association with the Pakistani secret agencies. We have discussed the presence of some loose cannons inside the Pakistani secret agencies. There is a good chance that some association with such elements might have taken place. The next thing we know is he is caught in India. And then the December 1999 Indian plane hijack takes place. The plane is taken to Kandahar where, let us suppose, Osama compels the Taliban to tolerate its presence. India — quite unlike its past legacy — negotiates with the terrorists and frees some alleged terrorists, which include Omar Sheikh. And is it not baffling that the very man again to be tracked down as the assassin of Danny is none other than Omar, the very man with the Indian pointer on his head?

Omar spent six years in India as part of his prison term. We do not know what he did there. But we do know that India, since its very inception, has played its Muslim card well. Maulana Abul Kalam Azad used to visit Arab countries and claim that India was the biggest Muslim country in the world. Regardless of the truth of the claim, it cannot be gainsaid that India, despite its so strong Israeli relations, remains the darling of the Arab world. India still has considerable clout over the Arab freedom struggles. Was it not India whose help was invoked by a dying Yasser Arafat? Could it not influence, both on its own and through the CIA, the men being inducted in al Qaeda and all such outfits?