International terrorism by Islamic fundamentalists enraged by American actions in many parts of the world has come into sharp focus this week as US courts have begun to decide the fate of two fugitives brought to justice by the long and covert arm of the American law enforcement authorities, aided by massive diplomatic pressure from Washington.

In Washington, the capital murder trial of Mir Aimal Kansi, charged with the 1993 killing of two CIA operatives right opposite the Agency headquarters, opened on Monday amid tight security at a Virginia courthouse. And in New York, a federal court on Monday heard the closing arguments in the case against Ramzi Yousef, the alleged mastermind in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing case that killed six people.

That the two cases should leap to public attention at the same time is striking. Both Kansi and Yousef have a direct Pakistan connection. Both fled to Pakistan after allegedly committing terrorist activity in the US and were on the lam for several months before the US law enforcement authorities caught up with them and had them extradited, apparently without the due process of law, if news reports in the Pakistani media are to be believed.

Whatever the case, it is now emerging that both Yousef and Kansi represented a mindset that indulged in terrorism against the US to avenge a perceived betrayal of Islamic interests by Washington. While the prosecution in the Yousef case claims he confessed that his bomb attack was in retaliation for US aid to Israel, Kansi apparently told his interrogators that he opened fire on CIA employees to teach a lesson to the United States Government by teaching that lesson to the CIA.

According to intelligence analysts, the two trials drive home the problems US has created for itself with its unaccounted covert actions in many theatres of action. Yousef, who has strong Middle-East connections, apparently despised everything from US policy in Bosnia to its support to Israel. In the Kansi case, the alleged killer appeared to have some undisclosed grievance against the CIA. There have even been reports that both he and his father may have worked for the Agency during the Afghan War when the agency funneled huge amounts of arms and money into the region and his acts were part of a vendetta connected to a CIA betrayal.

That the CIA has used disreputable local goons and killers in its covert drive to secure American interests is no secret. More recent revelations in Central America point to this as almost a routine practice (The agency has since begun an internal Operations Scrub to clean up its image). As one intelligence expert noted when the CIA's rogue methods were exposed:

``Mother Teresa is not a helpful person if you want to find out about the Indian nuclear programme...and you don't get to the top of a narcotics cartel or a terrorist group because you have kept the books well.'' But the downside to the CIA's method was that it made lasting enemies when it pulled the plug on the rogues.

Ironically, it required a domestic incidence of terrorism for the US to learn how deeply and brutally terrorism could hurt. Despite the two foreign strikes on American soil in 1993, the US was still relatively blase about terrorism until the stunning incidence of domestic mayhem in Oklahoma in April 1995. In fact, first reports on the Oklahoma bombing straightway pointed an accusing finger at Islamic terrorism, before it became evident that it was a domestic act. But following the barbaric act and the horrific images evoked by the scale of the bombing, terrorism became a very real problem in American minds.

That is now evident in the alacrity with which the US last month listed Harkat ul-Ansar as a terrorist outfit, after it kidnapped an American citizen in Kashmir. The message is now out: anything which touches US interests will be hit. Unfortunately, in the eyes of many Indian officials, Washington has not been equally perceptive and reactive to terrorist acts which affect other democratic countries. ``Only when they develop a consistent, even-handed position will we feel more confident and secure about their position,'' one official said.

But intelligence experts say the first indications that Washington is more sensitive to terrorism even in other countries is now evident. In recent months, the US has helped in extraditing a fugitive from the Punjab back to India. ``As long as countries produce the evidence and have done their legal homework, there should be no problem,'' one official said, adding that foreign governments should also be cognisant of the legal recourse available in a free country.

That is already becoming apparent in the Kansi case. Despite the solid evidence available in the case, including confession statements and eyewitness accounts, court appointed lawyers for Kansi say they may mount an insanity defence.

They have now secured medical tests showing Kansi has lesions on the frontal lobe of his brain, indicating a neurological brain disease. The frontal lobe, Kansi's lawyers said, controls the ability to appreciate the consequences of one's action, and therefore they expect to prove that their client was suffering from some sort of brain damage.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.