HERZLIYA, Israel ø A debate at a recent intelligence conference involving Israeli, Indian and U.S. officials highlighted a disputed over the existence of Al Qaida naval capability.
The disagreement includes those who claim Al Qaida has control over as
many as 300 vessels for smuggling and attacks on Western and allied
shipping. Other intelligence analysts maintain that Al
Qaida does not have a credible naval capability.
The debate took place during the two-day annual meeting by Israeli,
Indian and U.S. strategists and officials in Herzliya, Israel. The conference
was attended by Israeli ministers and the commander of the navy, Middle East Newsline reported.
"An Al Qaida navy is a contradiction in terms," Israel Navy commander
Vice Adm. Yedidya Ya'ari said. "It is completely impossible. The minute they
have a navy in existence, they become vulnerable."
Ya'ari, who called for a bolstered Israeli naval capability to fight Al
Qaida and other Islamic insurgency groups, said his assertion was based on
the assessment of Israel's intelligence community. He would not elaborate.
But India's intelligence community disagrees with the Israeli
assessment. Indian intelligence, which provided the United States a large
amount of information on Al Qaida, has concluded that Al Qaida has access
to numerous vessels.
"They don't have to have a navy," [Ret.] Vice Adm. KK Nayyar, a former
vice commander of the Indian Navy, said. "They just have to have access to
boats. That's the same thing. Have they maritime capability? Yes."
Al Qaida conducted at least two major suicide naval attacks against
Western shipping. In 2000, an Al Qaida boat packed with explosives rammed
into the USS Cole in the port of Aden, killing 17 sailors. In 2002, an Al
Qaida boat destroyed a French supertanker near the coast of Yemen.
The seminar also served as a forum to highlight the strains in the
Indian-U.S. relationship. Indian participants reported U.S. State Department
opposition to the transfer of American weapons and technology to New Dehli
as well as differences over the U.S.-led war against Al Qaida.
[Ret.] Lt. Gen. R.K. Sawhney, a former director of India's military
intelligence, said the United States allowed Osama Bin Laden and his key
lieutenants to avoid capture by moving intelligence assets and troops from
Afghanistan to the Persian Gulf in 2002. Sawhney said Bin Laden continues to
operate along the Afghan-Pakistani frontier with impunity.
"The U.S. war in Afghanistan ended too early," Sawhney said. "At a
certain point, the focus of U.S. intelligence assets shifted to Iraq and
allowed him [Bin Laden] to escape."
In Washington, U.S. military commanders said Pakistan has improved its
cooperation against Taliban along the border with Afghanistan. The
commanders said Taliban forces have changed their tactics in Afghanistan and
now attack soft targets in smaller units.
"The efforts that I see that have evolved with the Pakistani military
here over the last two or three months show the greatest promise we have
seen in a while of ensuring that those Al Qaida forces in those areas are
driven out," U.S. Army Lt. Gen. David Barno, commander of Combined Forces
Command Afghanistan, said in a teleconference from Afghanistan.
