MRS. CHRISTINA ROCCA : Her Past, Present & Future
by B.Raman
Mrs.Christina Rocca, who has been nominated by President
Bush, subject to Senate confirmation, as the new US Assistant Secretary of
State for South Asia in place of Mr.Karl Inderfurth, is presently a
foreign policy adviser for Senator Sam Brownback (Republican-Kansas).
Mrs.Rocca, a career officer of the Central Intelligence
Agency (CIA) since 1982, resigned from the CIA in 1997 and started working
with Mr.Brownback. Mr.Brownback had moved two amendments, adopted by the
US Senate in 1999, vesting powers with the President to lift sanctions
against India and Pakistan if he deemed it fit.
Mrs.Rocca, who belongs to Washington DC, lives in
neighbouring Virginia along with her husband and two children. She is a
graduate in history from London's Kings College.
It is believed that she was closely involved in the
operations of the CIA against the Soviet troops in Afghanistan in the
1980s. She had twice visited India and Pakistan under her real name.
Mrs.Rocca belonged to the clandestine operations
Directorate of the CIA, which sends officers abroad under different cover
jobs. In the early 1990s, she monitored the implementation of a plan for
the buy-back by the CIA from the Afghan Mujahideen groups and the
Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan the unused Stinger missiles
supplied by the CIA, free of cost during the 1980s, for use against the
Soviet troops. The CIA apprehended that these missiles might get into the
hands of Islamic terrorist groups and might pose a threat to the security
of the US President and other foreign VIPs, including the Prime Minister
of India.
Lt.Gen.Javed Nasir, the Director-General of the ISI
during Mr.Nawaz Sharif's first tenure as the Prime Minister (1990-93), did
not co-operate with the CIA in the implementation of this buy-back scheme.
It was on the recommendation of Mrs. Rocca that Mr.Clinton placed Pakistan
in the so-called watch list of suspected State-sponsors of international
terrorism in January, 1993, and demanded that Mr. Nawaz Sharif should
remove from the ISI Lt.Gen.Nasir and other senior officers identified by
Mrs. Rocca as colluding with international Islamic terrorist groups. After
Mr.Sharif succumbed to the pressure and removed them, Pakistan was removed
from the list in July,1993.
Since leaving the CIA in 1997, she has hardly written or
spoken on foreign policy issues and has confined her role to advising
Mr.Brownback on South Asia and helping him in transacting the business of
his Senate Sub-Committee on Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs.
She was a member of a bipartisan group of Washington
academics and former government officials constituted by the Washington
Institute for Near East Policy, which, in a report on West Asia submitted
on January 16,2001,advised the incoming Bush Administration to consider
whether the Oslo process has run its course and might usefully now be
replaced. It suggested that President Bush himself should "reserve
his intensive involvement" in the Middle East peace process "for
decisive moments," and reduce the role of the CIA in the
Israeli-Palestinian relationship. The report urged the administration to
"recognize the sharp differences between" Iraq and Iran, both of
which it saw as "major threats to U.S. interests" and to
regional stability. It said that the U.S. should act to promote political
change in both countries, but should realize that in Iran such change can
come though peaceful political dynamics while in Iraq it "will almost
surely come only through violence."
The study was guided by a Steering Group, which included
amongst others, Senator Brownback himself and she was included as a member
of the group on his recommendation. Amongst other members of the group
were Mr.James Woolsey, former Director of the CIA during President
Clinton's first term, and former Congressman Stephen Solarz, both reputed
to be good friends of India and critics of the Clinton Administration's
soft approach towards China's clandestine supply of nuclear and missile
technologies to Pakistan.
The recommendations of the report for a tougher
counter-proliferation and counter-terrorism policy by the Bush
Administration should be of interest in assessing Mrs.Rocca's likely views
on the subject. The report said as follows:
* "Weapons of mass destruction (WMD) proliferation
is perhaps the most serious ongoing security threat to the United States
from the region. The new Administration should make one of its highest
priorities the preventing of WMD proliferation in the Middle East and,
failing that, penalizing, deterring, and containing the proliferant.
* "Build regional and international consensus
about non-proliferation. Take the initiative toward creating a Middle
East WMD-free zone. Continue to argue for direct negotiations about WMD
among all regional states, based on the principles of a comprehensive
peace in the area and intrusive regional inspection mechanisms to ensure
full compliance. In the interim, encourage practical steps, such as
confidence- and security-building measures.
* "To reduce the attractiveness of WMD, enhance
deterrence and prepare a vigorous response to proliferation breakout.
Specify that were Iraq to use WMD against another country, the United
States would be prepared to use overwhelming military force against
Iraq, preferably in a broad UN coalition but, if necessary, only in
conjunction with close friends and allies....
*"Deepen and extend cooperation on regional
missile defenses. Place a high priority on developing, advocating, and
helping to implement cooperative defense against missiles among U.S.
partners in the Middle East. Such cooperation could begin with the Gulf
Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, which have decided to coordinate
among themselves on missile defense, building on the U.S. proposal for a
Cooperative Defense Initiative. Extend this to include Jordan, Egypt,
Turkey, and - as circumstances permit - Israel. Encourage use of the
Arrow antimissile system by Turkey and eventually Jordan, along with
other friendly states in the region.
* "In recent years, state sponsorship of
terrorism has become less prominent, just as the region has witnessed an
increased threat from non-state actors. The new President should lend
high-level encouragement to counter-terrorism cooperation among U.S.
allies and friends in order to deal with threats, new and old.
* "Learn from antiterrorism success stories.
These include the successes of Turkey against the PKK (Kurdistan Workers
Party), Egypt against the Gama'a Islamiyya, and, to some extent, Algeria
against the GIA (Groupe Islamique Armee).
* "Insulate antiterrorism efforts from peace
process dynamics. Work to convince all parties in the peace process that
antiterrorism efforts should be delinked from the ups-and-downs of
diplomacy. In this regard, Jordan presents a positive model, whereas the
record of the Palestinian Authority (PA) has been uneven. When lax on
counter-terrorism, the PA needs to pay a price in terms of its
relationship with the United States.
* "Strengthen response to continuing challenges.
Enhance efforts to promote international cooperation against violent
Islamist extremist networks. Take an active role in organizing
intelligence cooperation - if necessary, playing an intermediary role
among countries that do not want to be seen openly sharing information.
Work with European and Middle Eastern countries to apply collective
pressure on the few remaining states that provide refuge or turn a blind
eye to such terrorists, i.e. Iran, Pakistan, Yemen, and the Taliban in
Afghanistan.
* "Make more effective use of existing U.S.
policy instruments. Follow through on official pledges to pursue
terrorists for their crimes even when diplomatically inconvenient, for
instance, the Khobar Towers bombing suspects in Iran. At the same time,
be prepared to use military force against countries that provide safe
haven to terrorists....
* "The process of determining the State
Department's list of state sponsors of terrorism has ossified. Consider
defining road maps to removal from the list, and order a policy review
to seek ways to make the list more effective against governments that do
little to prosecute terrorists."
From the Indian perspective, amongst subjects of likely
interest and concern to her would be Pakistan's role in Afghanistan,
reports of Pakistan flouting the UN arms embargo against the Taliban, the
contacts of rogue elements in Pakistan's nuclear and missile establishment
such as Dr.Abdul Qadir Khan, the self-proclaimed father of Pakistan's
atomic bomb, with the regimes in Iraq and North Korea etc.
The "Dawn" of Karachi reported on her on March
26,2001, as follows:
* "She is generally regarded as a person of balanced
and independent views, with good relations with both Pakistani and
Indian lobbies - qualities that may also help to provide an indication
as to the Bush administration's approach to South Asia.
* "She is familiar with the subcontinent and its
intractable problems, and the belief is that she is unlikely to look at
the region from any one particular prism. "
The News International of Pakistan circulated the
following report on Mrs.Rocca on March 27,2001:
* "As Legislative Assistant of Senator Brownback,
Rocca is known to have helped him formulate a more active US policy
towards South Asia. She also shares Senator Brownback's views on a tough
US stance towards China.
* "Since she had worked as Brownback aide for
considerable time, the Senator might be an important prism to analyse
Rocca. As Chairman of the Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Near Eastern
and South Asian Affairs, Brownback played a key role in convincing the
Congress not to ignore South Asia, which remains the most dangerous
flash point on earth. Brownback maintains a balanced approach between
India and Pakistan-supporting increased relations with India without
dumping Pakistan.
* "Rocca is known to have varied interests in
South Asia as well as the Middle East. She is an activist for the
freedom of Tibet, which indicates her anti-China bias. Some Indian
experts see that factor favouring New Delhi.
* "She was part of the Presidential Study Group -
a bipartisan, blue-ribbon commission of The Washington Institute- which
recently suggested to the President policy options on the Middle East.
If the recent paper produced by the Institute-co-signed by her as part
of the group-is any indicator of her views, Pakistan can expect a
tougher stance on issues like terrorism. The group devotes a section to
this issue, bracketing Pakistan with Iran, Yemen and Afghanistan. It
says that the process of determining the State Department's list of
state sponsors of terrorism has ossified. It recommends that Washington
order a policy review to seek ways to make the State Department's list
of states sponsoring terrorism more effective against governments that
do little to prosecute terrorists. Understandably, she is just a
co-signer in the study and should not be judged from one isolated paper.
But like her boss, she is likely to be part of that growing bipartisan
consensus against terrorist activities."
(The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet
Secretariat, Govt. of India and, presently, Director, Institute For
Topical Studies, Chennai. E-Mail: corde@vsnl.com
)
