Pakistan and America: fast friends?

By Imtiaz Gul, Islamabad, May 7, 2010 Friday, May 7, 2010 - 10:18 AM Share

If claims that Faisal Shahzad attended explosives training camps in Waziristan are true, his case could test the apparently cordial working relationship between Pakistan's Army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Kayani, and his U.S. counterparts, Gen. David Petraeus and Adm. Mike Mullen. So far, Pakistan has managed to deflect incessant U.S. pressure for large-scale military actions in North Waziristan, a stronghold for the Haqqani network, Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan fighters led by Hakimullah Mehsud, Hafiz Gul Bahadur; and other commanders, along with Arab and Uzbek militants. North Waziristan is a vicious, deadly beehive of militancy, where even the Pakistani military is insecure, burned by incidents like last fall's ambush of a military convoy in Hafiz Gul Bahadur's territory in which some 35 Pakistani soldiers were killed, according to military sources, and last month's attack in the same area which left seven troops dead.

As many as 15,000 troops are deployed in North Waziristan, but they seem to be relatively ineffective, as demonstrated by the kidnapping and murder there of Khalid Khawaja, a former Pakistani intelligence officer with close links to the Taliban, by a previously unknown militant group calling itself the "Asian Tigers." This incident underscores the volatility of the area and indicates divisions among various factions of the militant groups operating in North Waziristan.

As Pakistani and U.S. officials interrogate Shahzad's father in Peshawar, many in Pakistan are wondering if this is the hour of reckoning that will finally force the Pakistani military to take decisive action in North Waziristan. Although Kayani has repeatedly said North Waziristan will not be a "steamroller operation," the agency is once again suspected to be at the heart of a plot to attack the United States. Pakistani action -- or inaction -- there is likely to determine the course of U.S.-Pakistan relations now more than ever before.

Imtiaz Gul heads the Center for Research and Security Studies in Islamabad. His book The Most Dangerous Place: Pakistan's Lawless Frontier is due out in June.

EXPLORE:AFPAK, AFPAK CHANNEL, PAKISTAN, TALIBAN, TERRORISM

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LAL QILA

2:58 PM ET

May 7, 2010

Gen. Kayani is correct

Gen. Kayani has repeatedly said North Waziristan will not be a "steamroller operation" and he is correct.

One doesn't win hearts and minds by killing innocent women and children.

SURESH SHETH

4:10 PM ET

May 7, 2010

Pakistan was, is & always will be terror center of the world

The whitewash about the real culprits behind continuing terror threat from Pakistan in Western foreign policy establishment and news media continues. Pakistani governments have been given an intentional free pass for their role in creating this global menace.
Nobody forced Pakistani government to facilitate relocation of Osama bin Laden from Sudan to Afghanistan in 1996. Democratic government of Pakistan chose to do so of its own free will.
Ex-CIA official Bruce Riedel said in an interview on 1/29/2009 that ''In Pakistan, the jihadist Frankenstein monster that was created by the Pakistani army and the Pakistani intelligence service, is now increasingly turning on its creators. It's trying to take over the laboratory.'' Pakistani Army and Intelligence Service (ISI) chose to create this ‘jihadist Frankenstein monster’ with full blessings and financing by Pakistan’s democratic governments in 1990s.
Sandy Berger, Bill Clinton’s national security advisor told 9/11 Commission in March, 2004 that ’Pakistani Army was the midwife of Taliban’.
Declassified DIA Washington D.C., "IIR (intelligence Information Report) Pakistan Involvement in Afghanistan," dated November 7, 1996 states how "Pakistan's ISI is heavily involved in Afghanistan," and also details different roles various ISI officers play in Afghanistan. Stating that Pakistan uses sizable numbers of its Pashtun-based Frontier Corps in Taliban-run operations in Afghanistan, the document clarifies that, "these Frontier Corps elements are utilized in command and control; training; and when necessary combat“.
Declassified U.S. Department of State, Cable "Pakistan Support for Taliban" from Islamabad dated Sept. 26, 2000 states that "while Pakistani support for the Taliban has been long-standing, the magnitude of recent support is unprecedented." In response Washington orders the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad to immediately confront Pakistani officials on the issue and to advise Islamabad that the U.S. has "seen reports that Pakistan is providing the Taliban with materiel, fuel, funding, technical assistance and military advisors. [The Department] also understand[s] that large numbers of Pakistani nationals have recently moved into Afghanistan to fight for the Taliban, apparently with the tacit acquiescence of the Pakistani government." Additional reports indicate that direct Pakistani involvement in Taliban military operations has increased.
For the American and other Western apologists who claim that ‘Pakistan is also the victim of terrorism’, following are some observations by UN report on Benazir Bhutto’s killing published on April 15, 2010:
- "The jihadi organizations are Sunni groups based largely in Punjab. Members of these groups aided the Taliban effort in Afghanistan at the behest of the ISI and later cultivated ties with Al-Qaida and Pakistani Taliban groups. A common characteristic of these jihadi groups was their adherence to the Deobandi Sunni sect of Islam, their strong anti-Shia bias, and their use by the Pakistani military and intelligence agencies in Afghanistan and Kashmir".

- "The PAKISTANI MILITARY ORGANIZED AND SUPPORTED THE TALIBAN TO TAKE CONTROL OF AFGHANISTAN IN 1996. These policies resulted in active linkages between elements of the military and the Establishment with radical Islamists, at the expense of national secular forces, and the entrenchment of religious extremist and other militant groups in the tribal areas and Punjab.
- “Elements within the Pakistani Establishment ……. retain links with radical Islamists, especially the militant jihadi and Taliban groups and are sympathetic to their cause or view them as strategic assets for asserting Pakistan’s role in the region. The ISI cultivated these relationships, initially in the context of the Cold War and the anti-Soviet war in Afghanistan in the 1980’s and later in support of Kashmiri insurgents. WHILE SEVERAL PAKISTANI CURRENT AND FORMER INTELLIGENCE OFFICIALS TOLD THE COMMISSION THAT THEIR AGENCIES NO LONGER HAD SUCH TIES IN 2007, VIRTUALLY ALL INDEPENDENT ANALYSTS PROVIDED INFORMATION TO THE CONTRARY AND AFFIRMED THE ONGOING NATURE OF MANY SUCH LINKS."

LAL QILA

11:19 AM ET

May 8, 2010

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