Pakistan’s Supreme Court this week overturned the conviction of the terrorist who, in 2002, kidnapped and murdered American journalist Daniel Pearl. The Pakistani government is attempting to prevent Ahmad Omar Sheikh’s release, but the U.S. should clarify that it will not tolerate his freedom.
President Biden should make clear to Islamabad that all options are on the table. As a first step, the Biden administration should warn that Sheikh’s release will lead the U.S. to cut aid and obstruct Pakistani efforts to be removed from the FATF illicit finance list (escaping that list is a top Pakistani government priority). But that’s just the start. Biden should also be prepared to issue a kinetic strike (kill) order against Sheikh. If the terrorist is released, he should quickly be introduced to a Hellfire missile.
There are two critical rationales in play here.
First, the U.S. government has an imperative interest in ensuring that Pakistan’s government and terrorist groups operating on its soil know they cannot play games with terrorist attacks against the U.S. This is no small concern in a nation where the government’s political and security apparatus view terrorists as simultaneous partners and foes. When Pakistan is allowed to believe that it can attack, or tolerate attacks against, America without consequence, the would-be attackers are emboldened. This includes political elements right up to Prime Minister Imran Khan himself.
Khan likes to flirt with jihadists for reasons of political patronage and foreign policy leverage. Regardless, totally devoid of Islamic virtue as he is — consider Khan’s appeasement of China’s Uighur ethnocide — his elite waltz with terrorism hurts Pakistanis the most. Yes, it’s true that any U.S. strike on Sheikh would inflame Pakistani populist anger. However, the costs of American inaction would be far greater over the longer term.
There’s a more basic point here. The present Pearl situation is a matter of justice as much as anything else. Just as ISIS rightly faced severe American retribution for its kidnap, torture, and murder of Americans such as James Foley and Kayla Mueller, so also must al Qaeda, the Taliban, or any other Pakistani-based terrorist group face severe consequences for doing the same to Pearl. To allow Sheikh to run free wouldn’t simply excuse his brutal slaughter. It would play pitch-perfect to Salafi-Jihadist narratives that their enemy (secular America) is weak and that God’s faithful servants (the terrorists) will be rewarded for their service. Diluting these narratives is a fundamental part of any successful counterterrorism strategy.
Let us hope Khan correct this grievous error. If not, the Biden administration must be ready to correct it for him.
