According to South African editorial, South Africa is a front in the US-led war on terror.

Ever hear of Pagad and its vigilantism in South Africa?

There is an interesting editorial in South Africa's Mail & Guardian about cooperation between US, South Africa and British intelligence in their quest to nab dangerous actors in the terrorism stage. There are some swipes at the US and its tactics of "rendition", but it's fascinating to read about the extent of the terrorist penetration in this beautiful country:

No one should be surprised any longer to learn that South Africa is a front in the United States-led war on terror.

The revelation that Khalid Rashid has been detained in Pakistan for alleged links to the London Underground bombings of July 7 2005 is only the most recent indication of the quiet battle going on in this country.

It began before 9/11, when local authorities were still jittery about the vigilante group Pagad and its Islamist links. KK Mohammed was arrested in Cape Town in 1999 in a joint operation of the South African Police Service and the FBI. He was deported to the US where he was convicted of involvement in the 1998 embassy bombings in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam and is serving a life term in a Colorado prison.

The AQ Khan network of nuclear technology smugglers...was also cracked with local help. Some of its alleged members operated an engineering facility in Gauteng... Daniel Geiges and Gerhard Wisser are to stand trial on charges of violating the Non-Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction Act and the Nuclear Energy Act. Their arrest, too, was a product of close collaboration between the CIA, British intelligence and the South African authorities. Less dramatically, there is a persistent focus by the National Intelligence Agency and other spooks on suspected local nodes in al-Qaeda’s global network.

Whatever we feel about the Bush administration and its war on terror, this is perfectly defensible. ... But cooperating with Western intelligence agencies must not extend to adopting their illegal tactics.

Read it all here.

[South Africa] [al Qaeda] [rendition] [Pagad] [Islam] [Khalid Rashid] [KK Mohammed] [AQ Khan]