The world may help Pakistan through United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission on Pakistan (UNMOVICP)
Related articles: A commodity called security
On BBC’s Secret Pakistan and Ejaz Haider: Their denials and propagandists – by Abbas Daiyar
A comment on Bruce Riedel’s proposed accountability of Pakistan army
Aim:
The aim of this post is to initiate a debate about the need for a UN Special Commission to rid Pakistan and the entire world of the Pakistan Army Sponsored Jihad Enterprise and to restore the supremacy of democratically elected leaders over the military bureaucracy.
We propose such Commission to be mandated through the United National Security Council to verify Pakistan Army’s compliance with its obligation to be rid of its international proxy war (Jihad Enterprise) in Afghanistan, Kashmir and elsewhere, and to operate a system of ongoing monitoring and verification to ascertain that Pakistan Army does not violate the specific conditions prohibited to it by the Security Council.
In conformity with the Charter of the United Nations, the Commission’s staff will be selected on the basis of securing the highest standard of efficiency, competence and integrity, taking into consideration the importance of recruiting staff on as wide a geographical basis as possible. The Commission’s staff will include legal and constitutional experts, political and social scientists, guerilla/proxy war specialists, weapons specialists, analysts, scientists, engineers and operational planners.
The Commission will have its headquarters at the United Nations in New York, however, the operational headquarters will be located in Islamabad with sub-offices in Muzaffarabad, Kabul, Sri Nagar, Quetta and Peshawar.
Pakistan army needs to answer some tough questions
British Prime Minister, David Cameron, has boldly stated that Osama bin Laden must have had a “support network” in Pakistan to live undetected for several years. He said the Pakistani authorities (in fact Pakistan army) would have to face “searching questions” over the al-Qa’ida leader’s comfortable existence in the fortified compound stormed by US troops. He said he did not want a “flaming great row” with a Pakistani [civilian] leadership which was committed to tackling terrorism. But Mr Cameron made clear he suspected [army] officials within the country of helping Bin Laden to hide from view. He said in a statement to MPs: “The fact that Bin Laden was living in a large house in a populated area suggests that he must have had a support network in Pakistan. We don’t currently know the extent of that network, so it is right that we ask searching questions about it – and we will.” (Source)
Prime Minister Cameron, President Obama, Madam Secretary Hilary Clinton and Senator John Kerry must be lauded for their nuanced understanding of a complex issue and the differentiation between the democratically elected Government, which wants to cooperate with the global community vs the ambivalent and troubling stance of the security establishment.
Some other details
Some details of the surgical operation by the US Navy Seals which resulted in the elimination of OBL have started to emerge. Based on published reports and certain classified information, it can be confirmed that:
1. The US had done complete homework including identifying and earmarking certain targets (more than the OBL’s compound in the garrison town of Abbottabad) in Pakistan before contacting Pakistan army that the Operation OBL was about to begin. By the time, Gen Kayani was informed, the US choppers had already crossed the Pakistan-Afghan border on their way to Abbottabad.
2. Pakistan army generals were forced to cooperate (or refrain from resisting) in the US operation. Generals Kayani and Pasha were (in a veiled manner) threatened with dire consequence, i.e., attacks on certain strategic targets within Pakistan in addition to bombing the OBL hideout.
3. Given that the Pakistan Army / ISI were caught red handed and the threat by the US was very substantial (much more than shallow words), there was no other choice but to silently allow and observe the Navy Seals attack the OBL compound in Abbottabad.
Don’t trust Pakistan Army
According to The Independent, it beggars belief that Osama bin Laden, the world’s most wanted man, has been living just 800 yards from Pakistan’s equivalent of Sandhurst, without the military, intelligence … authorities knowing he was there. There can be little doubt that Pakistan faces both ways on terrorism, as David Cameron once put it. Everyone knows that, not least the United States, which spends $2bn a year arming the Pakistan military and $1.5 bn on civilian aid there. For years the West has tolerated Pakistan’s double game because it needs its support, even half-heartedly, in Afghanistan. That is more true than ever if Washington is to begin withdrawing troops from Afghanistan this summer.
The generals and spymasters who are seeking to appease both sides are playing a dangerous game and could yet become the terrorists’ next victims. Yet civilian rule is a fragile flower in Pakistan. The ruling coalition is fragmenting, the economy is in crisis and the Taliban is conducting a homegrown campaign of suicide bombings. The danger is that post-Bin Laden pressures will lead Washington to bypass the government and deal direct with the army, which is presented by the security establishment and its media proxies as Pakistan’s only strong institution.
This would be a catastrophic mistake that the US has made before (Ayub, Yahya, Zia and Musharraf) and which the Kerry-Lugar Bill clearly demonstrates, that the US has learnt from its past mistakes. The delicate task is to support the elected civilian government while pressurising the security establishment to do more to combat terrorism.
Most importantly, the security establishment has to stop interfering in the affairs of the Legislatur and Executive, via the Judiciary. The civilian government must be allowed to flourish so that, over the long term, democratic roots are strengthened and a modern taxation system is built that includes both the urban and rural sectors of the economy.
Since the inception of Pakistan, the judiciary, barring a few exceptions, has played a very negative role in undermining democracy, secularism and the rule of Law. The Legislature must be allowed, without interference from the political proxies of the security establishment, to enact progressive legislation that removes the Blasphemy Law, the Second amendment and all other clauses inserted by military dictators.
Britain has made the right moves in increasing aid to education in Pakistan, where more than 40 per cent of children under nine do not go to school. Improving education is the way to make youngsters less vulnerable to radicalisation. But that aid has been “backloaded” so that it will only continue if the first tranches show good results. We must not flinch from turning off that aid if necessary. The Pakistani state must know we are serious about our support, but also about the need to see progress. (Source)
As per prominent analyst, Dr. Siddiqa, unofficially nearly 70% of Pakistan’s budget is absorbed by the security establishment and in light of current events, can Pakistan afford and justify this! As per the last budget, the military officially took 17% of the budget. However, amongst many other things, this did not include the Rs. 100 Billion plus that was taken for fighting terrorism and did not include the ISI budget. Currently all funds to the military cannot be audited by the civilian government.
Any attempts to rein in this powerful establishment, such as the elected governments support for the Kerry Lugar Bill, its peace overtures to India and its attempt to rein in the ISI under civilian control, result in powerful destabilizing effects that are constructed by GHQ and implemented by the Judiciary, vast sections of a rabid right wing media and failed policians and Islamists. Currently, this elected Government has been hijacked by the security establishment and cannot assert itself without international support.
While the world is urging the Pakistan army to undergo an operation in North Waziristan since the last 18 months, the most dangerous Taliban faction, the Haqqani network has already been shifted to the strategic Kurram Agency from where it can easily cross into Afghanistan for attacking NATO troops. Contrary to the false narrative that has been spun by the ISI-dominated media (both English and Urdu), the Pashtuns of Pakistan have taken a brave stance AGAINST the Taliban which threatens Pushtun culture and has killed thousands of Pushtun leaders, poets, police officers and human rights activists for boldly confronting the Taliban.
Distinction between Pakistan’s civilian government and Pakistan army
The world needs to realize that Pakistan army is the most powerful institution in Pakistan, every other institution including political and religious parties and communities in Pakistan, remain hostage to Pakistan Army’s Jihad Enterprise. In fact, the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party has lost its Chairperson Benazir Bhutto, Governor Punjab Salmaan Taseer and Minorities Minister Shahbaz Bhatti to violence committed by footsoldiers produced by the ISI’s Jihad Enterprise. The civilian government is in no way in a position to challenge or curtail the absolute powers enjoyed by Pakistan army or its Jihadi proxies.
How can international community help Pakistan?
In order to help Pakistan, the United Nations Security Council needs to formulate a high power commission with the following mandate:
1. The Commission will have the legal approval of the UNSC.
2. The Commission will comprise six core members representing six different countries including 3 Muslim majority countries and 3 non-Muslim majority nations (barring any countries with dictatorial regimes).
3. The Commission will include experts and have sub-committees focused on the following issues:
(a) Economic affairs: Complete audit of all funds available to Pakistan army;
(b) Political affairs: Ensuring that Pakistan army does not exceed its constitutional duties, does not dictate its agenda on the civilian government, does not rig elections, does not intervene in political affairs or alliances, does not dictate to Pakistani media.
(c) Jihad / proxies affairs: Ensuring that Pakistan army severs all connections with Lashkar-e-Taiba, Taliban, Sipah-e-Sahaba, Jaish-e-Muhammad and other Islamofascists organizations involved in jihadi and sectarian activities within and outside Paksitan. Ensuring that all such organizations are banned, their leaders arrested and punished through due process of law. All these groups have established links with the Al Qaeeda for over a decade and before 9/11. The Lashkar Jhangvi officially considers itself an Al Qaeeda affiliate. These and the other groups jointly undetake terrorist acts as part of an Islamist umbrella that has Al Qaeeda as its inspiration.
(d) Legal affairs: Ensuring that Pakistan’s judiciary does not remain hostage to Pakistan army’s Jihadi and political agendas, that due justice is meted out to terrorists and their supporters / apologists, and that politicians are not unduly harassed or victimized by the ISI backed courts
(e) Media affair: Ensuring that any right wing or seemingly liberal proxies of Pakistan army (security establishment) do not dominate in the media, and that artificial manufacturing of Xenophobia and pro-Jihad discourses is curtailed.
The United Nations Security Council may provide a 5 year mandate by authorizing a International Independent Investigation Commission (IIIC) probing Pakistan Army’s connection with Al Qaeda, Taliban and Lashkar-e-Taiba. The IIIC will be provided all resources and help by the Pakistan government and the international community to complete the investigations.
This is a ‘work in progress’ post, which will be updated soon in the light of critical feedback and comments.
Tum Log Ghaddar Ho. Traitors to Pakistan
This is what we need, a UN Commission to monitor and eliminate Pakistan army sponsored jihadism from Pakistan which is also supported by ISI backed judges and media.
Is the world/media listening to silent Pakistanis?
Don’t stop aid, all financial aid must be funnelled through the UN Commission. Please include it in the draft.
Aid to Pakistan
A top concern for many lawmakers was what Pakistan knew about bin Laden’s fortified complex in a garrison town about 75 miles by road from the Pakistani capital. In floor speeches, congressional hearings and comments off the floor, lawmakers challenged whether the US should continue military and economic assistance to a nation that may not be committed to the defeat of Al Qaeda.
“In a town where the Pakistani military and intelligence services own a large share of the property, Al Qaeda appears to have built a massive complex, ringed by walls as high as 18 feet, protected by barbed wire, as the dedicated hiding place for Osama bin Laden,” said Sen. Carl Levin (D) of Michigan, who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee during Tuesday’s floor debate on the resolution.
“The American people [who] provided billions of dollars of aid to the Pakistani government deserve to know whether elements of Pakistan’s military and intelligence services or local officials knew of bin Laden’s location over the five years or so he was there – and if they did not know, how that could possibly be the case.”
Rep. Ted Poe (R) of Texas is proposing legislation that would cut off future aid unless the US State Department certifies that Pakistan was not “providing sanctuary” to bin Laden. The Obama administration is requesting $3 billion in foreign aid to Pakistan in fiscal year 2012, along with $2.3 billion in funding to boost that nation’s counterterrorism capacity.
Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D) of New Jersey called for suspending US aid immediately. “Before we send another dime, we need to know whether Pakistan truly stands with us in the fight against terrorism,” he said in a statement on Monday.
But the Obama administration and many Republicans supporting the war effort in Afghanistan are urging caution. “Cooperation with Pakistan helped lead us to bin Laden and the compound in which we was hiding,” said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in a press briefing on Monday. “Going forward, we are absolutely committed to continuing that cooperation.”
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2011/0503/After-Osama-bin-Laden-s-death-Congress-rethinks-aid-to-Pakistan
Several lawmakers said Tuesday that it is time to rethink U.S. aid to Pakistan in light of revelations that Osama bin Laden spent the past six years squirreled away in a safe house a mere football field away from one of country’s top military academies and miles from the capital of Islamabad.
In a letter to Rep. Kay Granger, chairwoman of the Appropriations subcommittee on state, foreign operations, Rep. Allen West said lawmakers should freeze aid to Pakistan until the country answers questions about whether they aided and abetted the United States’ most-wanted terrorist.
“Unless we get a clear explanation of what the government of Pakistan knew about the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden, all foreign aid … to this nation needs to cease,” the freshman Florida Republican said. “We need to understand whether the government of Pakistan was harboring Osama bin Laden for all these years. … Did the government of Pakistan always know where this terrorist was but instead did not bring him to justice in order to continue to receive foreign aid.”
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Senate Intelligence Committee chairwoman, also suggested that aid to Pakistan “could be changed.”
“That’s for sure,” the California Democrat told reporters, adding that the decision will hinge on “what we find out about the Pakistani government’s knowledge of this.”
But House Speaker John A. Boehner pushed back, telling reporters that now is the time to strengthen the U.S.-Pakistan relationship because it is a key element for uprooting the terrorist networks living there and targeting the United States.
“We both benefit from having a strong bilateral relationship,” Mr. Boehner said, according to the National Journal. “This is not a time to back away from Pakistan. We need more engagement, not less.”
Less than 48 hours after bin Laden was killed by Navy SEALs, the death of the Sept. 11 mastermind remained all the buzz on Capitol Hill, where the Senate passed a resolution praising the efforts of those involved in the risky U.S. military mission.
Underscoring the importance they attached to the vote, senators broke with the chaotic nature of daily votes by sitting in their seats and then standing one by one to voice support for the resolution. “Nine-and-a-half years after the worst morning in our memory, we woke up yesterday morning to a world without Osama bin Laden and with a palpable sense of justice,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, said prior to the 97-0 vote.
Both chambers, meanwhile, held hearings on related matters, and members received briefings from administration officials as they tried to get a better understanding of how much the Pakistani government, military and intelligence agencies knew about bin Laden’s whereabouts.
“If they didn’t know, why didn’t they know?” Mrs. Feinstein said. “Why didn’t they pay more attention to it? Was this just benign indifference, or was it indifference with a motive? I don’t know what the answer is, and we need to find that out.”
Sen. Susan Collins, Maine Republican who is the party’s ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, first floated the idea of curbing Pakistan’s funding at a news conference Monday, saying that it seems the nation is playing a “double game” and that attaching strings to U.S. aid packages could put additional pressure on Pakistan to help uproot terrorists living in the country.
In 2010, the country received almost $1.5 billion from the United States, including $243 million in military aid and $1.2 billion in civilian assistance, according to the House Foreign Affairs Committee. President Obama’s 2012 spending request includes $1.6 billion in security-related assistance and nearly $1.4 billion in economic-related assistance.
But with the United States struggling to deal with its own $14.3 trillion national debt, Rep. Patrick Meehan, chairman of a Homeland Security subcommittee on counterterrorism and intelligence, told reporters Tuesday that the aid could be a tough sell to the American public because of the “elephant in the room” – whether Pakistan is worthy of the nation’s trust.
“There will be a need for continuing dialogue with the Pakistanis to give the American people some sense of comfort that there is a shared commitment,” the Pennsylvania Republican said, adding that that likely will determine how Congress handles the aid packages.
Others took a tougher stance.
Rep. Ted Poe echoed Mr. West’s call for Congress to freeze Pakistan aid, saying the spigot should be turned off until the State Department certifies to Congress that Pakistan was not providing a sanctuary for the world’s most-wanted terrorist.
“Pakistan has a lot of explaining to do,” the Texas Republican said. “It seems unimaginable that Osama bin Laden was living 1,000 yards away from a military base in a million-dollar mansion built especially for him and no one in the Pakistani government knew about it. I don’t buy it.”
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/may/3/further-us-aid-could-hinge-on-what-the-pakistanis-/
I wish at least media if not politicians in the US, UK and elsewhere pay heed to this suggestion.
Please help Pakistan rid of jihadi generals.
I completely agree with the recommendations. Go ahead with it.
Log Theek Kehtay Hen Tum LET US DESTROY PAKISTAN Ho
Sharam Karro
U.S. Seeks Answers Whether Pakistan Aided Bin Laden
The United States is vowing to “get to the bottom” of whether Pakistan helped Osama bin Laden elude a long manhunt before he was killed in a U.S. raid.
White House counterterrorism chief John Brennan made his remark despite Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari earlier denying Islamabad gave shelter to the Al-Qaeda leader.
The White House also released more details about the killing of the world’s most-wanted man, including that bin Laden was unarmed when he was shot at least once in the head by a U.S. commando.
President Barack Obama’s press secretary, Jay Carney, insisted the Al-Qaeda leader resisted — although he would not say how — when U.S. forces stormed his compound north of Islamabad.
Meanwhile, Afghanistan’s Defense Ministry said today Pakistan’s spy agency should have known bin Laden was hiding not far from the Pakistani capital.
The comments by Defense Ministry spokesman Zaher Azimi were the first public comment by Afghanistan on Pakistan’s apparent inability to track the Al-Qaeda leader.
Pakistan’s spy agency, the ISI, has been accused of maintaining ties with militants attacking international troops across the border in Afghanistan.
http://www.rferl.org/content/us_seeks_answers_whether_pakistan_aided_bin_laden/24090730.html
India Wants U.S. to Press Pakistan
NEW DELHI—India wants the U.S. to attach tougher conditions to the aid it provides Pakistan and to minimize Pakistan’s role in the future of Afghanistan as the U.S. winds down its presence there, an Indian official said Tuesday, in the wake of the discovery that Osama bin Laden was living in a Pakistani garrison town when he was killed.
India believes that the location of bin Laden’s compound, the city of Abbottabad, backs up its case that Pakistan is harboring terrorists, including those that spearheaded the Mumbai terrorist attack in November 2008, the official said.
“The epicenter—the source of all this terrorism is one country,” the official said. “Pakistan certainly has a lot of explaining to do.”
The official said it is “extremely implausible” that Pakistan was unaware of bin Laden’s location and said links between Pakistan’s government and terrorist outfits are now “too strong to ignore.”
On Tuesday, Pakistan’s foreign office said the country has been “extending full and proper cooperation on all counterterrorism efforts including exchange of information and intelligence” with friendly countries and noted it had arrested several high-profile terrorists. President Asif Ali Zardari also denied in an op-ed article in the Washington Post that Pakistan harbored bin Laden.
The U.S. State Department had no immediate comment. U.S. officials have said Pakistan aided intelligence efforts that helped locate bin Laden, but have also said they are investigating how bin Laden was able to avoid detection deep inside Pakistan.
India’s biggest fear in the aftermath of bin Laden’s death, the Indian official said, is that the U.S. will accelerate its exit from Afghanistan—an outcome New Delhi believes would increase Pakistan’s influence in the region and ease pressure on militant groups that target India.
“If this is used as a peg (for the U.S.) to withdraw, it will be disastrous,” the official said. “The job isn’t finished. There may be some closure for the families of 9/11 victims, but the menace of terrorism is very much alive.”
The only reason for the U.S. to give Pakistan a major role in Afghanistan going forward would be if the U.S. needs to quickly “cut and run” from the war, the Indian official said. India would prefer that the U.S. bolster its sometimes-testy partnership with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and leave Pakistan out of the picture. “There should be no appeasement of what Pakistan wants in the process,” the official said.
New Delhi has protested in recent years that Washington’s large amounts of aid to Pakistan—about $11 billion in military aid since 2001 and billions more in economic aid—don’t have enough strings attached to make sure Islamabad is honoring its commitments to crack down on terrorists on its soil.
In 2009, the U.S. Congress passed a five-year, $7.5 billion aid package for Pakistan that requires the White House to certify annually that Islamabad isn’t supporting militant groups or engaging in nuclear proliferation. But the official said India believes the bill’s wording is too weak to be a credible threat that Washington will cut off funding. Some members of the U.S. Congress, including Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman (I., Conn.), are now ratcheting up pressure on Pakistan to show it didn’t knowingly play host to bin Laden and his associates.
In public statements since bin Laden’s death, Indian officials have sought to emphasize their view that Pakistan is a terrorist haven, but haven’t directly accused Pakistan of protecting the al Qaeda leader or helping to conceal his whereabouts.
The fact bin Laden was found in Abbottabad “underlines our concern that terrorists belonging to different organizations find sanctuary in Pakistan,” Home Minister P. Chidambaram said Monday. “We believe that the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attack, including the controllers and handlers of the terrorists who actually carried out the attack, continue to be sheltered in Pakistan.”
The Indian official expressed frustration that the U.S. and other Western nations have drawn stark distinctions between al Qaeda and other terrorist networks in Pakistan and Afghanistan, including the Haqqani network, Pakistani Taliban, and the militant groups that have targeted India such as Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed. Lashkar-e-Taiba was behind the 2008 terrorist attacks on Mumbai that killed more than 160 people.
The official pointed to the fact that Hafiz Saeed, whom India believes masterminded the Mumbai attacks for Lashkar-e-Taiba, led a funeral prayer for bin Laden in Lahore on Monday. Mr. Saeed told followers: “Allah accept the sacrifice of bin Laden and give him a place in heaven,” the Press Trust of India reported.
“We don’t see a difference between these groups the way the West does,” the official said. “These groups are ideologically fused and operationally working together.…These distinctions being made are dangerous.”
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704740604576301101804862860.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Panetta: relationship with Pakistan “difficult”
emselves are such that it could in fact be used to try to develop a lot of the revengeful nature of what al Qaeda is all about and try to inspire them to take even further action against us. And I think that’s the concern.
Special Report: The killing of Osama bin Laden
Couric: Yesterday, White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan said, “The Navy SEALs were prepared for a capture or kill mission.” If in fact they had taken Osama bin Laden alive, what were the plans?
Panetta: I think we always assumed from the beginning that the likelihood was that he was going to be killed. But, if per chance he were to be captured, I think the approach was to take him quickly to Bagram, transfer him to a ship offshore, and then have the principles at the White House decide what next steps would be taken.
(Scroll down to watch the full interview.)
Couric: In a Washington Post op-ed today, President Zardari of Pakistan said bin Laden, “Was not anywhere we had anticipated he would be.” Given that he was hiding about a half mile from Pakistan’s top military academy, how is that possible?
Panetta: We don’t really have any intelligence that indicates that Pakistan was aware that bin Laden was there, or that this compound was a place where he was hiding. But having said that, this was a location that was very close to a military academy. It was close to other sensitive military sites. It had been there since almost five years ago. It was very unusual as a compound. I just think they need to respond to the questions about why they did not know that that kind of compound existed.
Couric: But common sense would dictate that they had to have some idea, come on.
Panetta: Well those are, that’s why there are questions here that I think the best people to respond to those questions are going to be the Pakistanis.
Couric: What role, if any, did the Pakistanis play in this operation?
Panetta: This has been a long process, obviously, developing a lot of streams of intelligence. And some of those streams of intelligence were kind of in the normal process of working with the Pakistanis. But they were never aware of our focus on this compound or in bin Laden. And we made the decision that we would not inform them that we would conduct this operation unilaterally on the part of the United States.
Couric: Former President Musharraf has criticized that, the fact that they were not informed that this operation was going to transpire. What’s your reaction to that?
Panetta: I think that President Bush, President Obama have both made very clear to the Pakistanis that if we found a location where Osama bin Laden was located, that we were going to go in and get him. And I think they understood that very clearly.
Couric: Author Salman Rushdie himself, no stranger to Islamic Fundamentalism, of course, wrote yesterday that, “Perhaps the time had come to declare Pakistan a terrorist state.” Does he have a point in your view?
Panetta: Obviously, it remains a very complicated and difficult relationship. But I don’t think we ought to break the relationship with the Pakistanis. Look, we are virtually conducting a war in their country going after al Qaeda. And at the same time, we’re trying to get their help in trying to be able to confront terrorism in that part of the world. And they have given us some help, and they have given us some cooperation.
Couric: One of President Obama’s first acts was to outlaw enhanced interrogation techniques. Now, some of these were used on detainees who provided information that led to bin Laden’s whereabouts. Given that, do you think that the use of these techniques should, in fact, be reevaluated?
Panetta: No, I really don’t. You know, I think what we had here were a lot of streams of intelligence that came together. And I think it’s probably going too far to say it all ties to just one source of information that– we received. We were looking at a lotta lines of– information, going back a long way.
Couric: Having said that, some valuable information did, in fact, come from enhanced interrogation techniques.
Panetta: Obviously, there was some valuable information that were derived through those kinds of interrogations. But I guess the question that everybody will always debate is whether or not those approaches had to be used in order to get the same information. And that, frankly, is an open question.
Couric: We solicited questions from Facebook, and a lot of people are worried about some kind of retaliation. What are you most concerned about?
Panetta: The fact that bin Laden is dead does not mean that al Qaeda is dead. The president gave me the mission to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat al Qaeda. And while the step we took in the last few days was very damaging to Al Qaeda we have a lot more work to do to truly defeat them.
Couric: In fact, bin Laden’s number two, Al-Zawahiri is still out there. Is he now public enemy number one in your mind?
Panetta: He’s moving up very fast on the list. You know, we’ll see how it plays out, because they’ve got to go through the effort to try to decide who in fact will replace bin Laden. We think that’ll give us some opportunities to be able to continue to attack them in the confusion and debate that they’re going go through as to who ultimately replaces bin Laden. But I can assure you, whoever takes his place he will be No. 1 on our list.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/05/03/eveningnews/main20059483.shtml?tag=cbsnewsTwoColUpperPromoArea
I think there is noany other way other than UN intervention to stop our Jihadi generals from military coups, killing our leaders.
http://criticalppp.com/archives/36338
We will welcome anyone including India and Israel to free Pakisani awaam from General Kayani and General Jalauddin Haqqani.
Warm welcome to UN Commission
Where is freed CJ? He must order government of Pakistan to write a letter to UN for effective intervention.
@Ali Sher
Why are you supporting a fascist plan? How can a UN Commission help democracy in Pakistan?
Baloch And Sindhi In Uk Demand Liberation Of Balochistan.
London: March 31, 2011. (PCP) The Baloch and Sindhis gathered in front of US embassy in London yesterday to demand the intervention in Balochistan from the international community.
The demonstration was organized by the Baloch Human Rights Council (UK), the World Sindhi Congress and Balochistan Liberation Organisation in collaboration with Baloch Raaje Zroumbesh, Balochistan Peoples Party, Balochistan United Front Federal and International Voice for Baloch Missing Persons. A large number of the Baloch, Sindhis and other human rights activists took part to register their protest against the illegal & forcible annexation of Balochistan by Pakistan 63 years back. Speakers highlighted the plight of the Baloch people since the occupation drawing attention to the brutal violations of human rights of the Baloch by the Pakistani military establishment. They demanded immediate intervention from the US, UN and NATO in order to end the systematic genocide against the Baloch being committed by the Pakistani State establishment.
Demonstrators demanded the establishment of an international commission to investigate the crimes against humanity being committed in Balochistan by the Pakistani security agencies and its death squads.
Speakers included Waja Rahim Bandvoi, Mir Ghulam Hussain, WajaAbdullah Seyahoi, Mansoor Baloch, Hasan Hamdam, Dr. Abdul Doshoki ,Dr. Lakhu Luhana , Even Mcmillan and Samad Baloch.
Baloch Freedom Movement
the Baloch people for years have been cheated by the pakistanis.pakistan is looting Baloachistan every day and oppurtunistic countries like china are taking use of the situation.India should help Balochistan like it helped Bangladesh in 1971 and teach pakistani establishment a lesson of their life.
We are arming our nation’s daughters with ideology and a thinking pattern : Banok Karima Baloch
Balochistan is waging a lonely battle against Pakistan to get freedom. We had the opportunity of an email interview with Banok Karima Baloch, Central Vice chairman of Baloch Student Organization (Azad). Banok Karima Baloch has been in the forefront of the freedom struggle and has been featured by international news agencies.
Frontier India : We are surprised to see a lady is such a high position in an Islamic struggle. What is the role of Baloch women in the liberation of Balochistan?
Banok Karima Baloch : Firstly I would like to make this clear that our struggle is not a religious struggle; Balochistan does not have a religious movement. Our struggle is based on pure nationalism and the concepts of justice and equality. Our (Baloch nation’s) struggle neither is based on religious ideologies nor is a sectarian movement, and it is not meant to bring any change while being in Pakistan’s framework as Baloch nation was never a part of Pakistan and nor does Baloch wish to part Pakistan in future, we are struggling to regain our Independence from Pakistan, which seized our (Baloch nation’s) freedom on 27 march 1948 using military aggression. This forceful annexation or we may call it invasion was against the will of Baloch nation and the Baloch parliament present at that time. With the passage of time in order to conceal the invasion, Pakistan worked to eradicate our national history, our national identity, our culture, norms and values and presented us as Pakistanis, which is not what a Baloch is and neither wishes to be called so. Whereas, regarding the role of Baloch women in the movement, I believe their role to be enormously positive; they have memberships of the parties included in Baloch National Front (Alliance working on the mutual objective of gaining Balochistan’s liberation) and constitute an important part of the Baloch parties working for the liberation of Baloch nation. Baloch women are employing every possible political mean used in liberation movements, and the false cases upon them in the anti terrorist courts of Pakistan indicate the threat they pose on Pakistan’s occupation of Balochistan.
Frontier India : What are your personal experiences with the Pakistani judicial system?
Banok Karima Baloch : Pakistan’s courts are as corrupt and incompetent as the other institutions of Pakistan are, whereas when we discuss Baloch nation even the corrupted judicial system does not apply, and it is not surprising for us, as historically when a country has been invaded a different set of laws rule the invaded area, though the silence of International community do disturb us. We (Baloch nation) are rarely presented to courts, if any Baloch, whether he may be a political leader, a student, a social worker or a common Baloch is suspected to be a harm to Pakistan’s invasion, the person is abducted by Pakistan’s intelligence agencies and then they treat the person the way they wish to, disregarding all the humanitarian laws and ethical boundaries. The abducted Balochs are kept in the secret torture cells for years, out of which some are released in such physical and mental conditions that very few survive to continue their normal lives, while others are tortured to death and their bodies are thrown in public places to create fear amongst other people. Presently more than ten thousand Balochs are kept in these torture cells and no one even knows in which conditions they are or are they alive or not.
Frontier India : We saw a YouTube video, you were addressing a huge gathering in open? Is not an example of freedom of self expression in Pakistani rule?
Banok Karima Baloch : The public gatherings we organize do not indicate freedom of speech in Pakistan rather it symbolizes the political strength we have, it shows the mass support for Balochistan’s liberation. Regarding Pakistan’s behavior on freedom of speech in Balochistan, I would like to mention that Pakistan army has opened fire upon peaceful protestors on different occasions and you may also view the video on youtube where a public gathering in Tump is being assaulted by Pakistan army where innocent people died on 6th of September 2009, other major incidents include the assault on a public gathering in Turbat on 25th of August 2006, a protest rally in Khuzdar on 15th January 2010 and another gathering in Panjgur on 16th of August 2010, which resulted in the martyrdom of Altaf Baloch, Mukhtar Baloch, Saddam Baloch, Hussain Baloch, Ateeq Baloch while hundreds of others have been injured during such incidents. This shows the desires of the people to regain Balochistan’s independence that they still attend the public gatherings and rallies even after such massacres being carried out by Pakistan. If there had been political freedom in Pakistani occupied Balochistan than our leaders and activists would not have been abducted and martyred by Pakistan; Ghulaam Muhammed, Lala Muneer, Rasool Baksh Mengal, Sher Muhammed are just a few names who have been martyred by Pakistan for the reason explicitly sharing the atrocities of Pakistan and for creating political awareness in the general public. Baloch Student Organization Azaad’s Central Senior Vice Chairman Zakir Majeed Baloch, Sami Baloch, Mustaq Baloch, Mujeeb Baloch, Imran Baloch, Zakir Baloch, Murtaza Baloch, Noman Baloch, Tariq Baloch, Asif Baloch, Irshad Baloch, Ali Ahmed Baloch, Yasir Baloch, Sameer Baloch, Yaseen Baloch and Naseer Baloch have been abducted by Pakistan which shows Pakistan’s way to deal with the voices of justice. In Balochistan who ever expresses the realities, create awareness regarding Pakistan’s occupation of our motherland, the person is either killed or disabled through torture, my own turn might come, and I’m just waiting for that. Secondly Pakistan’s media chooses to remain silent on the happenings in Balochistan to extend Pakistan’s occupation. We are raising our voice by our own limited resources.
Frontier India : What about Saeeda Baloch, Saima Baloch?* Are they with the struggle?
Banok Karima Baloch : In this movement of national liberation, not only Saeeda and Saima but a large number of Baloch women joined the ranks of political struggle. Now the daughters of the motherland are too aware of their nation’s colonization, they understand that their language, culture, identity, norms and values and history are at stake, they too are out on roads to safeguard their motherland and change the fate of their nation.
Frontier India : Do Baloch women train with arms and ammunition ?
Banok Karima Baloch : We are arming our nation’s daughters with ideology and a thinking pattern, that ideology leads them to face every odd in the struggle. I believe that self defense is a right which every human being has; this legitimate right can be exercised by Baloch women too. Though being a part of a student organization I’m not aware whether they are exercising this legitimate right or not, but they can do so in order to safeguard their national interests. The indiscriminate killings of Pakistan, its atrocities and the occupation of our motherland have given the right to defense to every Baloch, regardless of gender.
Frontier India : Wouldn’t your actions hurt other Baloch girls trying to pick up a degree in a Pakistani institution?
Banok Karima Baloch : A degree is attained with two basic objectives, which is to gain knowledge and to have a better future. My actions do not stop anyone from gaining knowledge; secondly my actions are to provide a better future not only for my Baloch sisters but for the upcoming generations. I believe that 99 percent of our people do not have access to proper education; they don’t even have the basic necessities of life such as water and food then education becomes a secondary thing. Education has been kept limited only to a small portion of the nation; only privileged people have access to proper education. My struggle is intended to secure the futures of the daughters and sons of the nation, and the upcoming generation, to provide every individual equal opportunity to gain knowledge in a free society. Historically the people of the invaded regions are kept backward by the invaders to strengthen their authority, innovation and discoveries are discouraged, the same is the attitude of Pakistan towards Balochistan. Our struggle is to change the fates of our nation and to brighten their futures in a free Balochistan.
Frontier India : What kind of discrimination is faced by Baloch students, especially women, in the entire education system – nursery to school to masters degree?
Banok Karima Baloch : There is no such thing as an educational system which exists in Balochistan. Firstly the education which is being provided belongs to the 16th century’s colonization educating pattern, where the syllabus is prepared is such a way which discourages creativity, this is then further backed by turning the single university of Balochistan into a military garrison by Pakistan army, where the students are educated in an highly oppressive environment, secondly the Baloch students which succeed to get admissions in the institutions other than that of Balochistan are treated as inferior creatures, who do not have the mental capabilities to compete with other students, Baloch students are mentally tortured through continuously giving them sense of inferiority, as they are considered to be from the dark ages by Pakistan. This however has been the psychology of the colonizer to consider the colonized people to be inferior to provide legitimacy to their occupation, but this has now developed further as now these students are being physically assaulted as well. In this year only Baloch students have been physically assaulted by Pakistani students in Lahore, Multan, Peshawar and Sahewal resulting serious injuries to 103 Baloch students, these assaults are not only limited to Baloch students rather have been extended to Baloch professors as well, the major incident in this regard was of Professor Mukhtar Baloch in Lahore who barely survived the injuries. Due to such conditions parents restrain their daughters from going to the institutions other than that of Balochistan, still a small number of Baloch female students are studying in these institutions and they have been continuously reporting humiliation from the Pakistani students, they are told that Balochs belong to the stone ages and that they are mentally inferior, their cultural Balochi dresses are spitted upon by the Pakistani students. The most recent assault on Baloch students was in Islamia University Bahawalpur where 18 Baloch students were seriously injured. In many cases the hospitals did not even provided basic aid to the students for the sole reason that the students were Balochs. The attitude of the administration on these incidents can be understood by the case of Noora Baloch, who is a member of B.S.O. Azaad, he was abducted by Pakistan’s intelligence agencies from Lahore, and was severely tortured and when he was released he intended to continue his studies, but when he approached the administrator of the institution he came to know that his records have been eradicated by the institution! He had completed three years of his education from that institution and now he has no place to compensate his 3 years of education.
Frontier India : How do you all manage to evade Pakistani arrests in the view of the current Pakistani offensive against your organization?
Banok Karima Baloch : We rarely are formally arrested, we are abducted by the intelligence agencies and then we face torture in their torture cells which ends with our death or with our physical or mental disability. These abductions are something which a student can hardly avoid as we have to attend our classes to continue our education, therefore these abductions which are against the international humanitarian laws are an almost every day happening in Balochistan. For the greater national benefits we have surrendered our individual fears and await our turns. The rapid increase of Pakistan’s atrocities is bringing an end to the surface politics in Balochistan. I sometimes wonder that maybe Balochs do not fall under the definition of a human being which the international community has that might be the reason that they are still silent on the atrocities against our Nation, which are far greater than that of Tibet, Darfur or Palestine. Through this interview I would mention that we do expect moral support from the civilized and humanitarian countries, and unbiased journalists and people like Arundhati Roy should highlight the atrocities being committed by Pakistan against Baloch nation and its occupation of our motherland in order to bring peace and stability in the region.
Frontier India : We are very curious to know your daily schedule? How does a “Islamic lady Freedom fighter” spends her day? We are very very curious!
Banok Karima Baloch : As I have already cleared that myself or any other pro independence Baloch political activist are not working for religious ideologies, rather we are all working to liberate our nation Baloch and our motherland Balochistan in compliance with the principles of the justice, equality and liberty. I spend my day just as another Baloch political activist would do, delivering study circles, communicating with the people, visiting areas to create political awareness regarding the colonization of our people and liberty and highlighting the roles a women can play to liberate our nation and motherland.
Frontier India : Do you think you can put a time frame to end of the struggle?
Banok Karima Baloch : Giving a time frame would be pre mature as the struggle of national liberation is a long term process; it requires continuous struggle and its results come gradually. Though I would like to add that Baloch is a secular nation, we consider every religion to be equally respectful. We are struggling for a free, modern and democratic Balochistan, where every human life has equal rights, where people having different religious believes have equal respect, with a system of justice and equality and the laws to secure human freedom. We wish that people belonging to every religion and nationality throughout the world have equal rights. And we hope that justice loving people of the world, humanitarian organizations, civil society and journalists would come forward to support us in our legitimate struggle to regain Balochistan’s independence.
(* On March 16, 2010, Saeeda Baloch, Saima Baloch and Banok Karima Baloch have been awarded 5 years in prison by the Pakistani court. On 21 August 2009 they were booked under public disorder act. They were accused of arranging a protest rally on 14 August ‘Pakistan’s Independence’ day. They were found not guilty in the case due to the lack of evidence but the court has punished them for not attending the hearings. Ironically, they roam free.)
http://frontierindia.net/we-are-arming-our-nation%E2%80%99s-daughters-with-ideology-and-a-thinking-pattern-banok-karima-baloch
As Laiba suggested, this demand is consistent with the UN charter, articles 1.1, 1.3 and 1.4.
CHAPTER I: PURPOSES AND PRINCIPLES
The Purposes of the United Nations are:
1. To maintain international peace and security, and to that end: to take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace, and for the suppression of acts of aggression or other breaches of the peace, and to bring about by peaceful means, and in conformity with the principles of justice and international law, adjustment or settlement of international disputes or situations which might lead to a breach of the peace;
3. To achieve international co-operation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian character, and in promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion; and
4. To be a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations in the attainment of these common ends.
http://www.un.org/en/documents/charter/chapter1.shtml
Excellent initiative
Do you people understand the consequences of such intervention. Are you sane. Please be patriot and dont invite for unwanted trouble to our sweet homes and sweet country. Please behave responsibly my friends
The bin Laden aftermath: The U.S. shouldn’t hold Pakistan’s military against Pakistan’s civilians
BY C. CHRISTINE FAIR,
http://afpak.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/05/04/the_bin_laden_aftermath_the_us_shouldnt_hold_pakistans_military_against_pakistans_c
This is fact pak intelligences have been supporting these extremists but we shouldnt forget ISI and CIA both have been training these people for years and supoorting them still.The article above shows only one side of the pictures ISI’s real face but it doesnt tell us the real face of CIA aswell.well we the people of pakistan need food,shelter,education,health facilities and other basic amenities of life.we dont need such a big army,and such an expensive weaponary,We can afford spending 70 percent of budget on army every year.We want to get rid of ISI and CIA funded people.Give us add or not but please let us live our life,please leave us alone.god sake
we cant afford 70 percent of budget going on defence everyyear
Proof that Pakistan is a safe haven for terrorists. Kamran Khan reports:
http://youtu.be/8QV8aBPrtTc
Events, however, have turned a potential asset into a serious liability. Osama’s killing is now a bone stuck in the throat of Pakistan’s establishment that can neither be swallowed nor spat out. To appear joyful would infuriate the Islamists who are already fighting the state. On the other hand, to deprecate the killing would suggest that Pakistan had knowingly hosted the king of terrorists.
Now, with bin Laden gone, the military has two remaining major strategic assets: America’s weakness in Afghanistan and Pakistan’s nuclear weapons. But moving these chess pieces around will not assure the peace and prosperity that we so desperately need. They will not solve our electricity or water crises, move us out of dire economic straits, or protect us from suicide bombers.
Bin Laden’s death should be regarded as a transformational moment by Pakistan and its military. It is time to dispense with the Musharraf-era cat and mouse games. We must repudiate the current policy of verbally condemning jihadism — and actually fighting it in some places — but secretly supporting it in other places. Until the establishment firmly resolves that it shall not support armed and violent non-state actors of any persuasion — including the Lashkar-e-Taiba — Pakistan will remain in interminable conflict both with itself and with the world.
The curious case of Osama bin Laden
By Pervez Hoodbhoy
http://tribune.com.pk/story/160658/the-curious-case-of-osama-bin-laden/
Osama killing has brought out what is known to all the players. What has really being brought to open is the realization of the people of Pakistan who for the first time feel cheated. What do they gain by the proxy war of Osama or Taliban or US? People of Pakistan are deeply concerned today about their own Army and ISI. Since the Bangladesh war Pak Army could not digest the separation of Bangladesh and hence peace initiatives by successive governments of Pakistan were thwarted. This feeling of enmity towards India by Pak Army is the most difficult to change. It is about 40 years since Pakistan was separated.If people of Pakistan feel so bad about losing Bangladesh, remember people of India feel doubly bad for having given the territory to Pakistan in 1947 by UK. The people of Pakistan alone and must persuade the Pakistan Army to let the bygone be bygone and convince to start a new chapter. This is criteria#1
If Pak Army could get over the feeling in my opinion a resolution to Kashmir problem is possible. Kashmir problem is not a problem for the terrorists as they were keyed up to fight a shadow war that could go on ad infinitum. Arrive at a resolution between India and Pakistan on Kashmir, Musharaff says that he would have signed upon a resolution but for the failure at Agra meet. Use the same formula and make Pakistan Army, ISI, Parliament and Supreme Court to agree upon the Kashmir formula.This is criteria#2
Thirdly I suggest an India sponsored $100 billion 5 year Agri-cum-industry development for Pakistan. US in particular had exploited Pakistan, to egg them to fight with India, to get connected to China, to use them to influence Afghanistan so that US domination is ever present over there. The result the neglect of Agri-Industry base to develop. India and Pakistan despite the differences are capable of considering the borders as administrative borders if trade & commerce develop. The fear at the moment in India, which has nothing to boast about for having the tag of the biggest employers of poverty in the world, would surely think of it as a burden if people of Pakistan start pouring into India. Hence an India sponsored Trade & Commerce would ensure a satisfactory risk coverage on account of employment potential creation in Pakistan. USA in particular and western nations are habitually inclined to dominate with their business opportunities to further exploit the country – i.e. Pakistan. This must be eschewed. This is criteria#3
Last but not the least. Pakistan, unlike India, has ratified UNCAC – United Nations Convention Against Corruption. The aid that is being given by various countries, and as the report above says that the Army and ISI eat into the budgeted allocation of other areas, can be controlled by implementing UNCAC. The corruption is the main plague that needs to be eradicated from Pakistan and India. Having ratified UNCAC Pakistan is in a better position to implement it and reporting by Article 10 of UNCAC Public Reporting. This is the most important aspect of the next step UN, US and western nations must seriously consider as to the current situation the people of Pakistan are in – which is, the complete ignorance of the policies and action taken by Army, Parliament and ISI in their name. Every project must be reported to the public undertaking the fiscal responsibility by Article 9 – Public Procurement and Management of Public Finances. This is criteria#4
Let not US crow over what they had inflicted upon Pakistan today. US if genuine must step back from Pakistan, help India and Pakistan reconcile the differences and bring Pakistan into the limelight of advanced nations. They are very capable. This is criteria#5
SAARC countries should jointly sponsor a reconciliation cum economic development program. I suggest and I am serious in what I am recommending that the Supreme Courts of each of these countries should have a representative from the Member States of SAARC. Corruption must disappear first then terrorism will disappear automatically.
I am an American and I wholeheartedly support this proposal. Good luck to people of Pakistan.
I wholeheartedly support this proposal. We need to destroy this military complex of terrorism.
ISI should be declared terrorist organization and should be dismental immidiatly and the list of all the ISI agents in and out of country should be made public…if international community will not act now ..then they should be ready to face bigger monsters then osama ladin very very soon as there are many many monsters are under preperation in differant MADRASAAS under the management of ISI…..
Every Pakistani except the sellouts of Jamaat Gher Islami and na Pak generals needs to stand up against the military hegemony. Enough with blackmailing and harassment. We need our Pakistan back from corrupt generals and their proxies.
Great idea. This is hundred percent in favour of the hapless people of Pakistan who are occupied and economically strangulated by its own army! This nation needs be rescued by the international community from the clutches of its army who are using the innocent people of Pakistan for their international jihadi agenda.
Hello from India. The people of India and Pakistan can prosper, both countries can move forward if our Osama bin laden (Hafiz Saeed) and his mentors (Pakistani Army) refrain from their international terrorist activities.
We pray for a stable, prosperous Pakistan in which elected civilians not generals rule the nation. This is good for both Pakistan and India.
Great idea, shouldn’t die down. Keep it up !
The emperors’ clothes By Cyril Almeida
May 6th, 2011 by Cy
PAKISTAN this week has been confronted with a deeply unsettling question. Could the self-appointed custodians of the national interest themselves be the greatest threat to national security?
There is no joy in asking this. Pakistan exists in a tough neighbourhood. A strong and vibrant army is necessary and desirable. But as the initial shock and disbelief wears off, there is a deep, deep sense of unease here.
Did they know he was here? Surely, they knew he was here?
Nobody has come out and said it openly yet. It’s too early, the story still unfolding. Ask the question in private, though, and with hand on heart, no one will say anything but, yes, they knew he was there.
Some do try and clutch at straws. Maybe they didn’t know. Maybe they’re so daft they didn’t really take this whole business of pursuing Al Qaeda seriously. Maybe they just didn’t think it was their problem.
But those voices, unconvinced by their own words, quickly trail off … They knew. They knew he was there.
It’s too frightening to make sense of. The world’s most-wanted terrorist. A man who triggered the longest war in American history. The terrorist mastermind the world’s only superpower has moved heaven and earth to track down. A decade of hunting. Hundreds of billions of dollars spent. The blood of countless Americans and others spilled.
And when he was finally found, he was found wrapped in the bosom of the Pakistani security establishment.
Away from the bleatings of the ghairat brigade — the paranoid schizophrenics marching this country into the abyss — the shock is profound. Grim questions are etched on anxious faces, but so is fear of the answers.
Proud men and women, people who love and serve their country, have cried as they connect yet another dot in the horrifying trajectory this country is on. If we didn’t know, we are a failed state; if we did know, we are a rogue state. But does anybody really believe they didn’t know?
Why would they do it? What did they hope to gain? Pakistan has nothing in common with Al Qaeda. They serve no purpose to us; there is no confluence of interests that can be imagined.
Did we think we could produce him like a rabbit out of the hat when we needed to? Did we think if we turned him over, the American attention span would lapse and they’d move on, leaving us unable to suckle at the teats of the superpower?
Or, assured in our assumptions about the world around us, did we simply think we could get away with it?
It makes no sense. And yet, perhaps there was an inevitability to this.
Did the 1965 war make any sense? It was hard to find any sense to it then, even less so today.
Did Kargil make any sense? Not then, not today.
Did hawking nuclear paraphernalia on the international market make any sense? Buying did perhaps, but selling?
And now we have the world’s most-wanted terrorist recovered from the bosom of the Pakistani security establishment.
So maybe it does make sense after all. The establishment has flirted with irrationality in the past. Now it appears to have perfected it.
Where do we go from here as a country?
As long as national security and foreign policy remain in the hands of a cabal of generals — unaccountable and untouchable, a lay unto themselves, and in thrall to their own irrational logic — what future can this country have? Surely, not much of a future.
Is self-correction an option? Good luck trying to find anyone in the homeland or beyond with even a modicum of knowledge and understanding of the institution who believes it is capable of reforming itself.
What you will find are retired officers who will tell you what it feels like to be the masters of the universe, part of the inner core of the establishment. How your feet leave the ground as the world gathers beneath you, bowing and scraping for crumbs thrown their way. The view from the inside, the inner core, is of limitless power. The view from the outside is of a perch almost designed to abjure humility and rationality.
What you will find are bureaucrats with decades of experience who ultimately concede that peace with India is unacceptable to the army on any terms. What you will find are diplomats who scoff at the possibility of Musharraf being able to seal a deal on Kashmir with India. Being Numero Uno at home requires having Enemy No 1 across the border.
Zia’s army, Musharraf’s army, Kakar and Karamat’s army — it may seem difficult to reconcile the differences. But while they were very different men, the strategic orientation of the army has more or less been the same. Some addressed the strategic imperatives from a religious angle, others from a more secular angle, but it has always been the army’s angle.
Can anything be done?
The outside world can’t fix us. In fact, even now the US is probably a better friend of the Pakistan Army than of the Pakistani people. Soldiers and intelligence networks are more useful than an under-educated and impoverished population. Double-gamers and duplicitous allies at least have something to offer; what can the wretched Pakistani people offer myopic Americans?
Can we fix ourselves? Take a look around. Does anyone think Asif Zardari has what it takes? Nawaz may have the chutzpah, but does he have the nous? Beyond them, what is there but a fetid pool of opportunists and political mercenaries?
So maybe that’s the answer after all. They knew. They knew he was there. And they knew they could get away with it.
cyril.a@gmail.com
http://www.cyrilalmeida.com/2011/05/06/dawn-the-emperors%E2%80%99-clothes-by-cyril-almeida/
This is an irresponsible and ruthless wastage of Pakistani taxpayers money to save a rogue institution from accountability:
Pakistan pays U.S. lobbyists to deny it helped bin Laden
By Tim Reid
WASHINGTON | Thu May 5, 2011
(Reuters) – Pakistan’s Washington lobbyists have launched an intense campaign on Capitol Hill to counter accusations that Islamabad was complicit in giving refuge to Osama bin Laden.
Alarmed by lawmakers’ demands to cut off billions of dollars of U.S. aid after bin Laden was found living in a Pakistani safehouse for six years, President Asif Ali Zardari has ordered a full-court press to quell mounting accusations that it helped the al Qaeda leader avoid capture.
Mark Siegel, a partner in the Washington lobbying firm of Locke Lord Strategies — which is paid $75,000 a month by the Pakistani government — told Reuters on Thursday he had spoken twice to Zardari since U.S. special forces killed bin Laden on Sunday, and “countless” times to the Pakistani ambassador in Washington.
“They are certainly concerned,” Siegel said, adding that suggestions the Pakistani government knew about bin Laden’s whereabouts was nothing more than speculation.
Referring to a statement by President Barack Obama’s counterterrorism adviser, John Brennan, that there must have been a support system for bin Laden inside Pakistan, Siegel said: “There is no proof that a support system was government-based.”
There is much at stake for Pakistan as many lawmakers question how bin Laden could have lived in a large fortified compound close to a Pakistani military base for so long.
Some members of Congress are now demanding that nearly $3 billion in annual aid for Pakistan, included in Obama’s 2012 budget, be blocked until the Zardari administration explains how bin Laden lived untouched just 30 miles (50 km) outside Islamabad, the Pakistani capital. Pakistan has received over $20 billion in U.S. aid since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Patrick Leahy, the Democratic chairman of the Senate subcommittee that allocates foreign aid, said on Thursday he wants a complete review of U.S. aid to Pakistan.
Leahy said he was certain that some Pakistani military and intelligence officials knew that bin Laden was hiding so close to Islamabad.
“It’s impossible for them not to have some idea he was there,” Leahy told Vermont Public Radio.
But Siegel, referring to claims by the Afghan government that Pakistan must have known bin Laden’s whereabouts, said: “Must have known doesn’t mean knew.”
Siegel’s firm was retained by the Zardari government in 2008 and has earned nearly $2 million in fees since then, according to Justice Department records. Siegel said his firm is paid $900,000 a year by Pakistan.
Since bin Laden’s death, Siegel says he has been on Capitol Hill every day to promote Pakistan’s position on the bin Laden killing, talking to congressmen, senators and their aides.
(Editing by Xavier Briand)
http://in.reuters.com/article/2011/05/05/idINIndia-56806220110505
Traitors, Ghaddar, Pakistan Baichtay Ho?
This is the time to kick Pak Army General’s out and let it be a lesson to all those generals to be of the future.
Probing Link to Bin Laden, U.S. Tells Pakistan to Name Agents
Warrick Page
for The New York Times
As the U.S. asked questions, Osama bin Laden’s killing was protested in Abbottabad.
By HELENE COOPER and ISMAIL KHAN
Published: May 6, 2011
WASHINGTON — Pakistani officials say the Obama administration has demanded the identities of some of their top intelligence operatives as the United States tries to determine whether any of them had contact with Osama bin Laden or his agents in the years before the raid that led to his death early Monday morning in Pakistan.
From right, Lt. Gen. Ahmad Shuja Pasha and Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the chiefs of Pakistan’s intelligence and military.
The officials provided new details of a tense discussion between Pakistani officials and an American envoy who traveled to Pakistan on Monday, as well as the growing suspicion among United States intelligence and diplomatic officials that someone in Pakistan’s secret intelligence agency knew of Bin Laden’s location, and helped shield him.
Obama administration officials have stopped short of accusing the Pakistani government — either privately or publicly — of complicity in the hiding of Bin Laden in the years after the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. One senior administration official privately acknowledged that the administration sees its relationship with Pakistan as too crucial to risk a wholesale break, even if it turned out that past or present Pakistani intelligence officials did know about Bin Laden’s whereabouts.
Still, this official and others expressed deep frustration with Pakistani military and intelligence officials for their refusal over the years to identify members of the agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate, who were believed to have close ties to Bin Laden. In particular, American officials have demanded information on what is known as the ISI’s S directorate, which has worked closely with militants since the days of the fight against the Soviet army in Afghanistan.
“It’s hard to believe that Kayani and Pasha actually knew that Bin Laden was there,” a senior administration official said, referring to Pakistan’s army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, and the ISI director-general, Lt. Gen. Ahmad Shuja Pasha. But, added the official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the diplomatic sensitivity of the issue, “there are degrees of knowing, and it wouldn’t surprise me if we find out that someone close to Pasha knew.”
Already, Pakistani news outlets have been speculating that General Pasha, one of the most powerful figures in Pakistan, may step down as a consequence of the Bin Laden operation.
The increasing tensions between the United States and Pakistan — whose proximity to Afghanistan makes it almost a necessary ally in the American and allied war there — came as Al Qaeda itself acknowledged on Friday the death of its leader. The group did so while vowing revenge on the United States and its allies.
Pakistani investigators involved in piecing together Bin Laden’s life during the past nine years said this week that he had been living in Pakistan’s urban centers longer than previously believed.
Two Pakistani officials with knowledge of the continuing Pakistani investigation say that Bin Laden’s Yemeni wife, one of three wives now in Pakistani custody since the raid on Monday, told investigators that before moving in 2005 to the mansion in Abbottabad where he was eventually killed, Bin Laden had lived with his family for nearly two and a half years in a small village, Chak Shah Mohammad, a little more than a mile southeast of the town of Haripur, on the main Abbottabad highway.
In retrospect, one of the officials said, this means that Bin Laden left Pakistan’s rugged tribal region sometime in 2003 and had been living in northern urban regions since then. American and Pakistani officials had thought for years that ever since Bin Laden disappeared from Tora Bora in Afghanistan, he had been hiding in the tribal regions straddling the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.
A former Pakistani official noted that Abbottabad, the site of the Pakistani equivalent of the West Point military academy, is crawling with security guards and military officials who established a secure cordon around the town, raising questions of how the officials could not know there was a suspicious compound in their midst.
“If he was there since 2005, that is too long a time for local police and intelligence not to know,” said Hassan Abbas, a former Pakistani official now teaching at Columbia University.
Mr. Abbas said there was a tight net of security surrounding Abbottabad because Pakistani officials were concerned about terrorist attacks on sensitive military installations in the area.
Art Keller, a former officer of the Central Intelligence Agency who worked on the hunt for Bin Laden from a compound in the Waziristan region of Pakistan in 2006, said the Qaeda founder’s choice of the garrison town of Abbottabad as a refuge in 2005 raised serious questions. Bin Laden certainly knew of the concentration of military institutions, officers and retirees in the town — including some from the ISI’s S directorate, Mr. Keller said. And because the military has also been a target of militant attacks in recent years, the town has a higher level of security awareness, checkpoints and street surveillance than others.
If Bin Laden wanted to relocate in a populated area of Pakistan to avoid missiles fired from American drones, Mr. Keller said, he had many choices. So Mr. Keller questioned why Bin Laden would live in Abbottabad, unless he had some assurance of protection or patronage from military or intelligence officers. “At best, it was willful blindness on the part of the ISI,” Mr. Keller said. “Willful blindness is a survival mechanism in Pakistan.”
The trove of information taken by the commandos from the compound occupied by Bin Laden may answer some of these questions, and perhaps even solve the puzzle of where he has been in recent years.
A senior law enforcement official said Friday that the F.B.I. and C.I.A. had rapidly assembled small armies of analysts, technical experts and translators to pore over about 100 thumb drives, DVDs and computer disks, along with 10 computer hard drives, 5 computers and assorted cellphones. Analysts are also sifting through piles of paper documents in the house, many of which are in Arabic and other languages that need to be translated.
In Washington and New York alone, several hundred analysts, technical experts and other specialists are working round the clock to review the trove of information. “It’s all hands on deck,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the continuing investigation.
Technical specialists are recovering phone numbers from several cellphones recovered at the compound. The experts need to distinguish foreign telephone contacts from any numbers in the United States, which undergo a separate legal review, the official said.
“We’re also looking through notes, letters, e-mails and other communications,” the official said. “We’re looking at who owns the e-mails and what linkages there are to those people.” The official said that the initial analysis would involve searching for information about specific threats or plots, or potential terrorists sent to the United States or Europe, and that the F.B.I. was pursuing a small number of leads from the information reviewed so far.
Helene Cooper reported from Washington, and Ismail Khan from Peshawar, Pakistan. Eric Schmitt, Scott Shane and Mark Mazzetti contributed reporting from Washington.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/07/world/asia/07policy.html?_r=1
Pakistan’s Terror Ties at Center of Upcoming Chicago Trial
by Sebastian Rotella
ProPublica, May 4, 2011, 5:11 p.m.
It may be years, if ever, before the world learns whether Pakistan’s powerful Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI) helped hide Osama bin Laden.
But detailed allegations of ISI involvement in terrorism will soon be made public in a federal courtroom in Chicago, where prosecutors last week quietly charged a suspected ISI major with helping to plot the murders of six Americans in the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
The indictment has explosive implications because Washington and Islamabad are struggling to preserve their fragile relationship. The ISI has long been suspected of secretly aiding terrorist groups while serving as a U.S. ally in the fight against terror. The discovery that bin Laden spent years in a fortress-like compound surrounded by military facilities in Abbottabad has heightened those suspicions and reinforced the accusations that the ISI was involved in the Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people.
“It’s very, very troubling,” said Congressman Frank Wolf, R-Va., chairman of the House Appropriations sub-committee that oversees funding of the Justice Department. Wolf has closely followed the Mumbai case and wants an independent study group to review South Asia policy top-to-bottom.
“Keep in mind that we’ve given billions of dollars to the Pakistani government,” he said. “In light of what’s taken place with bin Laden, the whole issue raises serious problems and questions.”
Three chiefs of Lashkar-i-Taiba, the Pakistani terrorist group, were also indicted in Chicago. They include Sajid Mir, a suspected Mumbai mastermind whose voice was caught on tape directing the three-day slaughter by phone from Pakistan. Mir, too, has links to the ISI. He remains at large along with the suspected ISI major and half-a-dozen other top suspects.
Despite the unprecedented terrorism charges implicating a Pakistani officer, the Justice Department and other agencies did not issue press releases, hold a news conference or make any comments when the indictment was issued last week. The 33-page document names the suspect only as “Major Iqbal.” It does not mention the ISI, although Iqbal’s affiliation to the spy agency has been detailed in U.S. and Indian case files and by anti-terror officials in interviews with ProPublica over the past year.
“Obviously there has been a push to be low-key,” said an Obama Administration official who spoke in an interview last week and requested anonymity because of the pending trial. “There is a desire to make sure the handling of the case doesn’t mess up the relationship” with Pakistan.
The first public airing of the ISI’s alleged involvement in the Mumbai attack will begin on May 16 with the trial of Tahawwur Rana, owner of a Chicago immigration consulting firm. Rana was arrested in 2009 and charged with material support of terrorism in the same case in which the four suspects were indicted last week. The star witness will be David Coleman Headley, a Pakistani-American businessman-turned-militant who has pleaded guilty to scouting targets in India and Denmark. Rana allegedly helped Headley use his firm as a cover for reconnaissance.
Rana’s attorney, Charles Swift, contends that Rana is not a terrorist because he thought he was assisting the ISI with an espionage operation. Swift said the U.S. indictment omits the ISI in hopes of mitigating tensions.
“The U.S. is attempting to walk a fine line between disclosure and non-disclosure,” Swift said. “What’s unusual is that the reason is to protect diplomatic relations… This indictment answers a few questions, but like everything else in this case, it raises even more.”
Even before the bin Laden slaying, the Obama Administration had taken a tougher tone about the ISI’s alleged links to militants. But a U.S. official said this week that U.S. counter-terror agencies still think that any involvement in the Mumbai attacks was limited to rogue officers.
“No one is saying we can’t work with the ISI—people are just pointing out the problems that exist,” said the official, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. “I think the problems are largely with individual officers as opposed to the institution.”
Pakistani officials deny that the security forces were involved in Mumbai. A senior Pakistani official questioned the credibility of Headley, who was an informant for the Drug Enforcement Administration when he began training with Lashkar in 2002.
“When somebody is a double agent, whatever he says in a U.S. court is not credible from our perspective,” said the official, who requested anonymity because of the pending trial. “There is no Major Iqbal serving in the ISI who has been involved in the Mumbai attacks.”
Headley has opened a door into an underworld in which spies, soldiers and terrorists converge. Although most of the prosecution’s documents in the voluminous Chicago court file remain sealed, a recent judge’s ruling in the Rana case says Headley admitted to working for the ISI as well as for Lashkar and al Qaeda.
“I also told [Rana] about my meetings with Major Iqbal, and told him how I had been asked to perform espionage work for ISI,” Headley testified, according to the April 1 document. “I told [Defendant] about my assignment to conduct surveillance in Mumbai…I told him that Major Iqbal would be providing money to pay for the expenses.”
Headley described an almost symbiotic bond between Lashkar and the ISI, which helped create the group as a proxy army against India. His account has been corroborated through other testimony, communications intercepts, the contents of his computer and records of phone and e-mail contact with ISI officers, anti-terror officials say.
Senior ISI officers served as handlers for Lashkar chiefs and provided a boat, funds and technical expertise for the Mumbai strike, according to a 119-page report by India’s National Investigation Agency on its interrogation of Headley last year in Chicago.
Headley trained in Lashkar camps before being recruited in 2006 by an ISI officer, Major Samir Ali, who referred him to Iqbal in Lahore, the report says. Iqbal became Headley’s handler, introducing him to a Lt. Col. Shah and giving him months of spy training before deploying him to India, according to the Indian report, which officials say repeats Headley’s confessions to the FBI.
The U.S. indictment alleges that Iqbal gave the American $28,000 for the front company in Mumbai and other expenses. Iqbal and Mir directed Headley’s scouting of luxury hotels and other targets chosen to ensure that Americans and other Westerners would die. The two handlers met separately with Headley to discuss missions and receive his videos and reports, the indictment says. Iqbal took part in the decision to hit a Jewish center run by an American rabbi, who was killed along with his pregnant wife, according to the Indian report and U.S. investigators.
Headley also met at least twice with Iqbal in late 2008 to launch a Lashkar plot against a Danish newspaper that had printed cartoons of the Prophet Mohamed, according to the Indian report and investigators. Prosecutors charged Mir in the Denmark case but did not mention the suspected role of the major, who ended contact with Headley in early 2009 when Lashkar put the plot on hold, according to court documents.
But Headley stayed in touch with the other two ISI officers as he continued the Denmark plot for al Qaeda, according to investigators. His al Qaeda interlocutor was allegedly a well-connected former Pakistani Army major, Abdur-Rehman Syed, whose ISI handler was Col Shah and who had contacts with bin Laden, the report says.
“Rehman is directly in touch with the top…of al Qaida including Ilyas Kashmiri who is now the number 3 in the al Qaida hierarchy in Pakistan,” the report says. “Rehman has met Osama a number of times. [Rehman] once told Headley that his set up has been given the name…Army of Fidayeens by Osama bin Laden himself.”
Sajjan Gohel of the Asia-Pacific Foundation, a London security consulting firm, pointed to another possible link between the Mumbai case and bin Laden. The spy agency’s director during the period that the Mumbai plot developed was Gen. Nadeem Taj. Two months before Lashkar struck Mumbai in November 2008, Taj stepped down, reportedly as the result of U.S. pressure.
Before taking leadership of the ISI, Taj was commandant of the military academy in Abbottabad, the city where bin Laden was found on Sunday. Taj has been sued in federal court in New York by families of the victims of Mumbai for his alleged role in their deaths.
Gohel said the United States and Pakistan are “moving from ‘frenemies’ to outright enemies.”
“If the ISI were involved in protecting bin Laden, that means they were capable of protecting any terrorist in Pakistan,” he said. “It also means US citizens were acceptable targets. It illustrates the fact that since 9/11 the ISI has been duplicitous, disingenuous and potentially allowed acts of terrorism to be exported from its territory.”
Despite the increasing tensions with Pakistan, the U.S. official credited the ISI with helping in the hunt for bin Laden.
“There are lots of pieces of evidence that got us to where we are today,” the official said. “Some of those pieces were facilitated by the ISI. We have to look at the full scope of our relationship.”
That relationship can survive, the Pakistani official said.
“Both countries are allies, and important allies,” he said. “I think our relationship is beyond Headley’s statements in court.”
http://www.propublica.org/article/pakistans-terror-ties-at-center-of-upcoming-chicago-trial
Here is a are window of opportunity to enable a civilian government in Pakistan assert its legal authority over military generals.
If the UN, US and UK etc missed this opportunity today, the world may see many more 9/11s in the next few years.
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