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Published by the Federation of American Scientists Fund No.
48 (August 2002)
During a 6-month commemoration of the September 11th terrorist attacks, President Bush issued an open invitation to governments worldwide to apply for American military aid: "America encourages and expects governments everywhere to help remove the terrorist parasites that threaten their own countries and [the] peace of the world," declared Bush, "if governments need training, or resources to meet this commitment, America will help.
A Flood of Aid
Bush has made good on that promise. From the jungles of Basilan, a Philippine island in the Moro Gulf, to the rugged Pankisi Gorge in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia, the flood of U.S. military aid released after the September 11th attack is seeping into an increasing number of disparate locations, washing away aid restrictions and undermining norms of democracy and human rights. Since September 11th, the administration has requested nearly $3.8 billion in security assistance and related aid for 67 countries allegedly linked in some way to the struggle against terrorism. Many of these countries are of dubious relevance to the "war on terror," and some are even waging their own campaigns of terror against their citizens.
Human Rights Concerns
Of the countries currently slated to receive U.S. military aid, 32 were identified in the State Department's 2000 human rights report as having "poor" human rights records or worse. Some of the worst offenders are the administration's new allies in Central Asia. Uzbekistan, for which the Bush administration has requested over $45 million in Foreign Military Financing and International Military Education and Training since September 11th, is among the most egregious abusers described in State's report. President Karimov's security forces have been accused of torture, maltreatment of prisoners leading to deaths in custody, arbitrary arrest and detention, and harassment of detainees' family members.
While proponents of engagement argue that greater cooperation with these regimes helps the U.S. government to promote human rights and democracy, experts note that many regional leaders are less democratic and respectful of human rights now than they were in the early 1990s despite a constant U.S. presence in these states since 1991. Clearly, the U.S. government has not used the supposed leverage that comes with engagement effectively, a failure that could have dire consequences not only for the people of the region, but also for the international community. "[U]nless the U.S. finds some more effective means of leveraging these states," warned Carnegie scholar Martha Brill Olcott at a Senate subcommittee meeting in June, "there could be some highly undesirable and even violent regime changes throughout the region." The $403 million in security and related assistance requested for the region since September 11th, to which very few human rights conditions have been attached, will not solve this problem, and may make it worse. Aid Requested for Central Asia Post 9-11
Numbers in thousands of U.S. dollars
CountryFMFIMETNADRFSATotalÊKazahkstan$5,000$1,000$3,750$44,500$54,250
Kyrgyzstan13,0001,1004,70069,00087,800Tajikistan3,0003507,55059,500
70,400Turkmenistan7004507,05011,00019,200Uzbekistan44,7501,20019,200
106,500171,650
FMF - Foreign Military Financing
IMET - International Military Education and Training
NADR - Nonproliferation, Anti-Terrorism, Demining and Related Programs
FSA - Freedom Support Act
Dubious Links to Terrorism
The aid recipients listed above are but a few of the many states now receiving "counter-terrorism" aid, despite an often vague or nonexistent connection between the recipient and the global battle against terrorism. In the FY 2002 Supplemental Appropriations bill alone, the administration requested over $1.1 billion in security assistance to fight terrorism in 45 countries. The final version includes $387 million in Foreign Military Financing, or $14.5 million more than Bush's request.
Among the more visible manifestations of the U.S. Special Forces to prepare Georgian and Filipino troops for battle, supposedly against al Qaeda foot soldiers and other terrorists. Yet in each of these cases, the links to the al Qaeda network, let alone the actual presence of al Qaeda soldiers, is dubious.
For example, the State Department is sending $64 million to root out terrorists in the Pankisi Gorge, where fighters from the war in Chechnya are seeking refuge. Yet though the U.S. government alleges they have links with al Qaeda, even the Georgian defense minister has publicly voiced his doubts. As quoted in the June 3 issue of Defense Week, General-Lieutenant David Tevzadze asserted, "For me personally, it is very difficult to believe in that [al Qaeda is in the Gorge] because to come from Afghanistan to that part of Georgia, they need to [cross] at least six or seven countries, including [the] Caspian Sea. No, al Qaeda influence can't be in the country." More likely, the U.S. government wants to help shore up the Georgian military's capacity to protect a planned oil pipeline that will traverse Georgia on its way from the Caspian Sea to Turkey.
The decision to go after the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG), the band of Islamic militants currently being targeted by U.S. and Filipino soldiers, is equally puzzling. More a criminal organization than anything else, the ASG has demonstrated neither the capacity nor the inclination to engage in the type of transnational terrorist acts that the U.S. public and policymakers fear most. Nor is it any longer a significant ally of terrorist groups like al Qaeda that do have global reach.
A key goal of the U.S. military aid to the Philippines was likely to rescue U.S. missionaries Martin and Gracia Burnham. But even though the rescue effort is over (unfortunately with an American and Filipino hostage being killed), U.S. forces are still planning to start another round of training scheduled to last from October 2002 through June 2003.
The possibility of reestablishing a presence in the South China Sea (with its large reserves of oil and natural gas and strategic shipping routes), which the U.S. lost after being kicked out of Philippine bases in 1991, probably helps explain this decision. Military aid to the Philippines began to rise after a Visiting Forces Agreement signed in 1999 allowed U.S. forces to return for joint exercises. The U.S. government is now pressuring Manila to sign a Mutual Logistics Support Agreement, which will make it even easier for U.S. military forces to maintain a presence on Philippine territory.
Links to a terrorist threat are perhaps most tenuous in Nepal, which is set to receive $20 million in Foreign Military Financing. The aid is intended to help the Nepalese military fight off a Maoist insurgency despite the fact that the State Department admits it does "not have direct evidence of an al-Qaeda presence" in that country. Nor is the group on State's list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations. According to the State Department, in this case and several others the mere presence of Muslims in the region coupled with a somewhat unstable government is enough of a potential threat to justify doling out millions in military aid.
The strained logic used to justify these military aid requests threatens not only the coherence of the U.S. campaign against terrorism, but many other U.S. foreign policy objectives as well, including the advancement of human rights and regional stability.
Counterinsurgency Quagmires
By offering up aid packages to any state battling "terrorist parasites," the administration has created a strong incentive for regimes facing any type of internal opposition to redefine their insurgencies in terms of the "war on terror." For example, Georgian officials - who appear to be more interested in using U.S. assets to win back the breakaway province of Abkhazia than chasing fighters from the Pankisi Gorge - are therefore proclaiming the presence of terrorists in that region, including links to al Qaeda. So far U.S. officials are resisting pressure to expand the mission, though there is nothing to prevent U.S.-trained soldiers and U.S.-supplied weapons from being transferred to Abkhazia in the future.
Bogota has been more successful in redefining its 38-year-old civil war as a fight against "terrorism," and restrictions on U.S. military aid to Colombia have been loosened as a result. In March, both houses of the U.S. Congress passed resolutions inviting the administration to submit legislation "to assist the Government of Colombia to protect its democracy from United States-designated foreign terrorist organizations " (meaning all three armed groups operating in Colombia, the left wing FARC and ELN and the right-wing AUC). Congress' goal, which was sanctioned by the Bush administration and included in the FY2002 emergency supplemental bill, is to allow U.S. military aid to go beyond counter-narcotics to support counterinsurgency operations (though even now the dividing line between the two is quite blurred).
Despite equal treatment of the three "terrorist" groups in the spending act, the administration has not demonstrated the same commitment to targeting the paramilitary AUC, which is responsible for the largest number of recent civilian deaths, as the two left wing groups. Human rights groups have documented the Colombian military's consistent support for the AUC. But this spring, the administration virtually swept aside conditions placed by Congress on past aid, certifying that the Colombian military had taken steps to cut ties with the paramilitaries and bring collaborators to justice despite the lack of evidence for this claim. By continuing to fund the Colombian military, the U.S. government is at best turning a blind eye to, and at worst indirectly aiding, the activities of the paramilitaries. Some members of Congress have shown more interest in addressing this issue, however. The Senate version of the FY2003 foreign aid appropriations bill includes $5 million to train and equip a Colombian military unit to apprehend leaders of paramilitary groups.
In any case, the government is years away from accumulating the power necessary to wrest control of the countryside from its competitors. For these reasons it is difficult to imagine that relaxing the restrictions on U.S. weapons and aid will reduce the violence, and may intensify it as the military's ability to engage the FARC improves.
Destabilizing Arms Transfers
Not only is the new line of military aid of questionable utility for protecting the "homeland," but it may also create security risks for other countries. Despite the steady escalation of tensions between India and Pakistan, culminating in the evacuation of U.S. citizens from the subcontinent in early June 2002, the U.S. has issued a steady stream of licenses for weapons sales to India. The lineup includes such potentially destabilizing technology as the AN/TPQ-37 fire finder weapons locating system, which is seen in Pakistan and India alike as giving India a decisive tactical advantage in certain potential future military campaigns against Pakistan. India is also set to receive ammunition and engines for its light attack jets. Most recently, the Defense Department notified Congress of a potential $75 million sale of six C-130 cargo aircraft to Pakistan, which is also knocking loudly at the door for spare parts for its F-16s.
Jettisoning Restrictions on Arms and Aid
The relentless assault on military aid restrictions that began shortly after the September 11th attacks (see ASM 47, "And the Walls Come Tumbling Down") has continued unabated. This spring the administration attempted yet again to win blanket exemptions for aid distributed as part of the "war on terror" by including language in the FY2002 supplemental appropriations bill that waives most existing restrictions and reporting requirements. The administration's second attempt was more successful. Two key Defense Department funding allocations - $390 million to reimburse nations providing support to U.S. operations in the war on terror and $120 million "for certain classified activities" - can now be delivered "notwithstanding any other provision of the law." This means there will be none of the normal restrictions placed on this large sum of military aid.
The provision on "classified activities" is especially troubling because it permits "projects not otherwise authorized by law," in other words, covert actions. Not only is the language in the Supplemental opaque, attempts to get more information from a defense committee staffer led nowhere. He refused to answer questions about the intended use of the funds, the applicability of foreign aid restrictions, and reporting requirements on the grounds that all of that information is "classified." In other words, there will be no public scrutiny of this aid, and that's just fine with Congress.
The Bush administration may also be successful in its campaign to ease restrictions on military aid and training to Indonesia despite that country's utter failure to improve its military's human rights practices. In May, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld proclaimed that it is "time for [the restrictions] to be adjusted substantially." If the results of the Senate Appropriations committee mark up are any indicator, Mr. Rumsfeld is likely to get his wish. On July 18th, Senators Stevens (R-Arkansas) and Inouye (D-Hawaii) succeeded in amending the FY2003 foreign operations appropriations bill to lift the ban on International Military Education and Training (IMET) for members of the Indonesian military. The change still has to survive a full Senate vote, debate in the House, and possibly a conference committee process, giving opponents more opportunities to speak out against it. The FY2002 supplemental included $4 million for police training and $12 million for anti-terrorism training. Language in the conference report asserts the State Department has pledged no training will go to the abusive Mobile Police Brigade (BRIMOB) or the infamous Kopassus military units.
On a more positive note, the FY2002 supplemental conditions the distribution of FMF to Uzbekistan on a determination that Uzbek President Karimov's regime is making "substantial and continuing progress" in implementing the "Declaration on the Strategic Partnership and Cooperation Framework" signed by Karimov and Bush on March 12. The Framework commits Uzbekistan to strengthening civil society, establishing an independent media and a true multi-party political system, and reforming the judicial system. Of course, the effectiveness of the agreement depends on the administration's willingness to honestly assess Uzbekistan's progress, something it has failed to do with comparable certification procedures attached to aid to Colombia.
Finally, the administration removed Azerbaijan and Armenia from the ITAR list of states barred from receiving weapons, mainly in order to help Azerbaijan defend its oil in the Caspian Sea from threats from Iran. Sanctions were lifted despite the fact that the states' dispute over the contested enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, a dispute that led to a hot war in 1989, has not yet been resolved. Sanctions on the government of Afghanistan were also dropped, and arms and aid are already beginning to flow.
This latest round of military aid has made one thing clear: the U.S. military has found a new excuse to extend its reach around the globe, arming regimes that had previously been blacklisted for human rights abuses, weapons proliferation, or brutal conflict. What remains to be seen is how long Congress and the American public will accept this formula, especially when they see no concrete results in return.
More information on U.S. counter-terrorism aid can be found at:
www.fas.org/terrorism/at/index.html
