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Pakistan Ambassador to U.S.: What Safe Havens?
In an interview just released with Newsweek's Michael Hirsch, Mahmud Ali Durrani, the Pakistani ambassador to the United States, denied that his country's Federally Administered Tribal Areas provide, as the National Intelligence Estimate put it (pdf), "safehaven" for al-Qaeda. And he used the WMD fiasco as a way of discrediting U.S. intelligence on Pakistan:
(M)any times [American] information is faulty. It’s not timely. It’s inaccurate. It’s the same intelligence you’ve been getting in Iraq. People here [in Washington] take it as the gospel truth. We challenge that very seriously.
Durrani expends a great deal of effort parsing the difference between a "safe haven" (none in Pakistan!), a "compound" (depends on your definition) and a "training camp" (ok, they've got a few of those).
And there's more. At a hearing two weeks ago, defense and intelligence officials attributed the growth of al-Qaeda in Pakistan to a controversial 2006 peace accord in the tribal areas that moved the Pakistani military into a more reactive posture. A senior defense official, Mary Beth Long, said that despite fierce fighting over the last month, the Pakistanis might try to revive that accord. Sure enough, Durrani says that's what's happened:
Even today, there are tribal leaders who are literally begging the government not to destroy this agreement. So is the agreement still intact? I think so.
Somehow, this doesn't seem like what counterterrorism officials mean when they talk about the importance of "denying safehavens."
See, our credibility is shot! Even the countries that harbor the emeny know this!
Thank you red "support" the troops party!
August 6, 2007 7:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yes, Al-Qaeda and the Taliban regroup and train in compounds in Pakistan, but they are not safehavens... there are occasional rattle snakes, lightning strikes, and that irrating e-mail spam still reaches them there... it is not a "safehaven".
Let us not forget our partners in Saudi Arabia that openly support the insurgency that kills our troops in Iraq.
Heck of a job, Bushie.
August 6, 2007 7:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Just remember the utimate goal....
Arm everyone, keep the wars going... make the important people rich...
And there's even a caveat! Lots and lots of dead people means fewer people to share it with!
(Sorry... I've seen too many dying kids with arms and legs blown off... it sometimes makes me frustrated...)
August 6, 2007 8:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
paper tiger is a phrase that comes to mind in relation to the US's growling about the supposed AQ training camps. No doubt they are there but * just won't go after them, no way. AQ is just too valuable to his plans, which in fact probably originate in Saudi hands. All this shit points to Saudi origins. Much money buys many hands.
August 7, 2007 2:07 AM | Reply | Permalink
Impeach/Out of Iraq GENERAL STRIKE SEPT.11th
Buy nothing - do nothing! Bring this country to a standstill!
Pass it on. Post a sign.
August 7, 2007 9:05 AM | Reply | Permalink
I think His Excellency is trying to have his cake and eat it too. Pakistan's version of the CIA, called the ISI, has closely monitored the jihadist training camps for years and years. Remember, al Qaeda isn't a uniform, top-down, structural organization, it's Arabic for "the base." The ISI was coordinating the disparate jihadi groups like Ansar al Islam in Afghanistan pre-2001 for their own purposes, namely Kashmir. The jihadi groups--some of which may have been more or less closely associated with al Qaeda--had some degree of autonomy in that they could train and mobilize for other hotspots, like Yugoslavia and Chechnya. When UBL attacked New York and Washington, I think he strayed off the reservation and broke the rules. With our invasion of Iraq and the slaughter of thousands of innocent Muslim civilians however, he's probably been able to talk the ISI back to him, as though he was right all along.
Most of the top ISI officers are very conservative and are very sympathetic with their jihadi friends. And don't kid yourself about what kind of power they wield in Pakistan--I don't think anyone rules there without their consent. There's been a lot of talk about a coup against Musharraf lately.
August 7, 2007 10:35 AM | Reply | Permalink
The Pakistanis trained the Taliban with 'former' ISI ops & military military figures. All the Afghans know this. You'll know it too if you'd do a little googling or read a book like The Punishment of Virtue.
August 7, 2007 10:42 AM | Reply | Permalink
General strike is a great idea. The corporate war supporters cannot sustain themselves without constant cash flow. If we shut off the tap, the least we get is their undivided attention. the most we get is real Congressional action against the Bushies. Even if you have to work, you don't have to spend. Be prepared.
August 7, 2007 11:06 AM | Reply | Permalink
Bush policy toward Pakistan, one of our best cold-war allies, has been characteritically weird. He snubbed Musharraf by signing that nuclear agreement with India, and then it turns out the CIA is funnelling guns into the separatist Baluchistan province. Now he's wavering about Musharraf, whom Bush put in a very precarious position over several issues.
Not to be outdone, Obama has invasion plans! Seriously, the only thing that would work would be a concerted HUMINT operation--something they're probably trying with limited successes. The Northwest Frontier Provinces are really wild.
An acquaintance of mine, who became an informant for our side, said that the ISI only came into the camps once in a while, but that their influence was readily visible. Not exactly in control, but fully aware of almost everything going on in the camp.
August 7, 2007 11:07 AM | Reply | Permalink
wait. . . a Pakistani named "Mahmud Ali Durrani" actually used the phrase "gospel truth"?
That aside, it seems the root of all politics these days is "parsing" language. . . they're not "safe havens" they're "training camps" (how is that better?). . . this guy could give Alberto Gonzales a few lessons.
August 7, 2007 11:47 AM | Reply | Permalink
15 Saudis who were financed and trained by a Saudi bought down the WTC in '01. Saudis who adhere to the Wahhabi fundamentalist sect of Islam are the main source of sustenance and support for the anti American Jihad today.
Large portions of the very large Saudi Royal family and the Saudi nobility identify themselves as Wahhabi. Everything that I can discover through my reading and research indicates that it is rich members of the Wahhabi sect that are financing and planning the Jihad against us.
Saudi (Wahhabi) money has so completely permeated Washington that the Saudis clearly control a working majority of the Congress and own the Executive Branch outright.
When are we going to quit screwing around and go after the source?
August 7, 2007 1:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Actually Mahmud Ali Durran is not not exactly incorrect. Pakistan is not THE safe-haven for the most dangerous anti-American 'tay-er-erists' . . . Crawford, Texas is.
Beating up Pakistan and leaving the current Administration untouched is ludicrious.
August 7, 2007 1:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
As a one-time visitor to the Pakistani Federally Administered Tribal Areas, which I found to be wild, I humbly will attest to Jay's comments. The Northwest Frontier Provinces (Peshawar and Quetta in Balouchistan, too) were "off limits" to me, because of "unrest.", even with armed guards.
IMHO, the ISI is out for themselves and themselves only. They will use whomever they can to stay/increase their power, indeed.
As to Pak gov't/ISI/AQ connection, remember Prez. Clinton's day-late Tomahawk attack on UBL?
Then Secretary of State Madeline Halfbright warned the Pakistani ambassador about the strike ahead of time and UBL and his crowd were long gone from the target area. Hmmm.
August 7, 2007 5:52 PM | Reply | Permalink