Mysterious 'chip' is CIA's latest weapon against al-Qaida targets

[Eugen Leitl]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/31/cia-drones-tribesmen-taliban-pakistan


Mysterious 'chip' is CIA's latest weapon against al-Qaida targets hiding in
Pakistan's tribal belt

b" Tribesmen plant devices to guide drone attacks

b" Locals shun fighters for fear of becoming targets

* Declan Walsh in Peshawar
    
* guardian.co.uk, Sunday 31 May 2009 23.55 BST

The CIA is equipping Pakistani tribesmen with secret electronic transmitters
to help target and kill al-Qaida leaders in the north-western tribal belt, in
a tactic that could aid Pakistan's army as it takes the battle against
extremism to the Taliban heartland.

As the army mops up Taliban resistance in the Swat valley, where a defence
official predicted fighting would be over within days, the focus is shifting
to Waziristan and the Taliban warlord Baitullah Mehsud.  Declan Walsh:
'Microchips are the talk of the town in tribal areas' Link to this audio

But a deadly war of wits is already under way in the region, where tribesmen
say the US is using advanced technology and old-fashioned cash to target the
enemy.

Over the last 18 months the US has launched more than 50 drone attacks,
mostly in south and north Waziristan. US officials claim nine of the top 20
al-Qaida figures have been killed.

That success is reportedly in part thanks to the mysterious electronic
devices, dubbed "chips" or "pathrai" (the Pashto word for a metal device),
which have become a source of fear, intrigue and fascination.

"Everyone is talking about it," said Taj Muhammad Wazir, a student from south
Waziristan. "People are scared that if a pathrai comes into your house, a
drone will attack it."

According to residents and Taliban propaganda, the CIA pays tribesmen to
plant the electronic devices near farmhouses sheltering al-Qaida and Taliban
commanders.

Hours or days later, a drone, guided by the signal from the chip, destroys
the building with a salvo of missiles. "There are body parts everywhere,"
said Wazir, who witnessed the aftermath of a strike.

Until now the drone strikes were the only threat to militants in Waziristan,
where the Pakistani army had, in effect, abandoned the fight.

But now, emboldened by a successful campaign to drive militants out of Swat,
a region about 80 miles from Islamabad, the army is preparing to regain lost
ground in the more remote tribal belt.

It will be a much tougher campaign than in Swat, with the army pitched
against a formidable, battle-hardened opponent. Yesterday Taliban fighters
ambushed a military position in what could be a prelude to much more intense
combat.

For the US military, drones have proved to be an effective weapon against
al-Qaida targets, and they are becoming increasingly accurate.

On 1 January a drone-fired missile killed Usama al-Kimi, a Kenyan militant
who orchestrated last year's Marriott hotel bombing in Islamabad, a senior
official with Pakistan's ISI spy agency said.

It is a high-tech assassination operation for one of the world's most remote
areas.

The pilotless aircraft, Predators or more sophisticated Reapers, take off
from a base in Baluchistan province.

But they are guided by a joystick-wielding operator half a world away, at a
US air force base 35 miles north of Las Vegas.

Barack Obama has approved the drone campaign, which is cheap and limits the
danger posed to US troops. But the strikes have many unintended victims. A
Pakistani newspaper estimated that 700 people had been killed since 2006,
most of them civilians, as a result of drone attacks.

For the tribesmen who plant the microchips and get it wrong, the consequences
can be terrible. Last month the Taliban issued a video confession by Habib ur
Rehman, 19. "They money was good," he said in a quavering voice, describing
how he was paid 20,000 rupees (B#166) to drop microchips hidden in a cigarette
wrapper at the home of a target.

Rehman said his handler promised thousands of pounds if the strike was
successful, and protection if he was caught. The end of the video showed
Rehman being shot dead with three other alleged spies. Residents say such
executions b there have been at least 100 b indicate how much the drone
strikes have worried the Taliban.

In Wana, the capital of south Waziristan, foreign fighters are shunning the
bazaars and shops, and locals are shunning the fighters. "Before, the common
people used to sit with the militants," said Wazir. "Now they are also
afraid.

Paranoid militant commanders are closely monitoring cross-border traffic with
Afghanistan, from where they suspect the chip-carrying CIA spies are coming,
said Imtiaz Wazir, a resident of Spin Wam village in north Waziristan. "If I
go to Afghanistan without any purpose, the militants come to ask why," he
said.

A local transporter named Haji Hamid who gave the wrong answer, he said, was
found shot dead two months ago, his legs and fingers broken.

The drone strikes are despised across Pakistan, where politicians including
President Asif Ali Zardari denounce them as a breach of sovereignty. But
behind the scenes his government is quietly colluding with Washington.

A former CIA officer who served in Waziristan in 2006 said that small
American teams comprising CIA agents, radio experts and special forces
soldiers are stationed inside Pakistani military bases across the tribal
belt.

>From there, the CIA recruits a network of paid, and sometimes unwitting,
informers b known as "cut-outs" b to help identify targets, he added. In most
cases they are poor local men.

Ironically, support for the drone strikes is strongest in the frontier,
especially among embattled security officials. "They are very precise, very
effective, and the Taliban and al-Qaida dread them," said the provincial
police chief, Malik Naveed Khan, with undisguised admiration. The strikes
have caused friction between the US and the ISI, which would like America to
give it control over the new technology. "The problem with the Americans is
that the only instrument up their sleeve is the hammer, and they see
everything as a nail," said a senior official.

The ISI resents the US for failing to target Mehsud, whose deputy claimed for
last week's Lahore attack that killed at least 24 people, including an ISI
colonel.

But as the army prepares to attack South Waziristan, with broad public
support, the warlord's luck may be running out. Authorities in North West
Frontier Province are preparing for up to 500,000 refugees, added to 2.5
million displaced by operations in Swat.

Mehsud faces other challenges, too. Rival militant groups, with army support,
are challenging his dominance in South Waziristan.

And he faces the ever-present danger that some visitor could drop a "pathrai"
at his doorstep, and bring an American drone with it.

b" This article was amended on Monday 1 June 2009. The original located the
tribal belt in the east, and a drone reference appeared contradictory. This
has been corrected