Fawning over Pak military, US undermines New Delhi talks
Chidanand Rajghatta, TNN Feb 17, 2010US recognition of Pakistan’s military as the real power behind the civilian façade has been evident for some time, with American interlocutors, including US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, spending more time with the army brass in Rawalpindi than with the civilian leadership in Islamabad. But it has become glaringly evident this past week when Islamabad was left largely clueless about a CIA-ISI move to engage the Taliban in a move dressed up as the ''capture'' of Taliban No.2, Mullah Birather, in a joint operation.
While Washington was agog with the story of Birather’s ''capture'' and its consequences for Taliban and the US war in Afghanistan, Pakistan’s civilian leadership was caught flatfooted by the developments. The country’s interior minister Rehman Malik revealed the government’s ignorance when he insisted there had been no such operation, even as analysts in Washington were taking stock of the development.
''If the New York Times gives information, it is not a divine truth, it can be wrong. We have joint intelligence sharing and no joint investigation, nor joint raids,'' Malik told reporters about the story first reported by the US paper. ''We are a sovereign state and hence will not allow anybody to come and do any operation. And we will not allow that. So this (report) is propaganda,'' he added.
But US officials, while declining to go into details of the alleged ''capture'' citing ''sensitive intelligence matters,'' appeared pleased with the breakthrough they hope will lead to a convenient exit from Afghanistan. Birather’s ''capture'' was credited by some to Pakistan’s army chief Pervez Ashraf Kiyani’s desire to ensure a key role of his country in the any attempt to mediate with the Taliban.
While details of how and why Birather was ''captured'' in Karachi are still murky, regional experts are already suggesting that the story is just a cover for Pakistan facilitating US contacts with the Taliban or interposing itself in US-Taliban engagement. Pakistani intelligence agencies have known his whereabouts for a long time, according to Taliban expert Ahmed Rashid.
Others are suggesting that the military-ISI combine has ''sacrificed'' Birather to the Americans to win Washington’s trust and secure for itself a role in Afghanistan. ''I think their realization of what was happening within their own country and the threat that it posed also played a big part in changing their actions,'' White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said cryptically, indicating the Pakistanis had brought in Birather to reflect a change in policy.
Still others believe US agencies had cornered Birather in Karachi and the joint operation story is just a cover-up to save Pakistan from embarrassment, while some are of the view that the US and/or Pakistan have engaged Birather for a long time and the capture story was drummed up after news of the secret parlays leaked.
No matter which explanation is correct, it shows Pakistan's civilian dispensation in poor light. In fact, locked in a confrontation with the country’s judiciary, the civilian quartet of President Zardari, Prime Minister Gilani, foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and interior minister Malik have ceded foreign policy to the country’s pugnacious military. This raises the question as to how seriously India should take the upcoming foreign secretary level talks on February 25, an engagement that is credited to Washington’s persuasive hand.
While the Islamabad quartet has largely acted as stooges for Rawalpindi brass, which cracks the whip whenever the four step out of line, US recognition of the military’s primacy appears to have undermined not just Pakistan’s civilian government, but also this engagement with New Delhi. During her last visit to the country, Hillary Clinton spent three hours with General Kayani, for more than any of her engagements with the civilian leadership. The attention did not go unnoticed. Other US interlocutors have also invariably called on Kiyani.
Meanwhile, Birather’s presence in Karachi has also focused attention on the gradual dispersal of extremist elements from the region’s badlands, now under the scrutiny of drones and other US ''eyes in the sky,'' to Pakistan’s urban centers, home to the India-centric jihadi crowd. Last week, the much-wanted extremist Hakimullah Mehsud was reported to have died in Multan in Southern Punjab, where he was reportedly brought for treatment for injuries suffered in a drone attack. ISI elements, possibly renegades, are thought to facilitate such movements into urban centers as US pressure on the border regions make it unsafe for terrorists. Pakistan’s civilian government appears to have little control over all this and Washington keeping Islamabad in the dark over its dealing with the Army-ISI isn’t helping.
Is The US interfering in Pakistan's Internal Affairs?
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Muslim Soldiers Arrested For Poisoning Food?
19 Feb 2010Also read Did they get it wrong?
A bizarre story from Christian Broadcasting Network. Ambers is skeptical. Sense of Events:
CBN News blogger Erick Stakelbeck writes that "five Muslim soldiers at Fort Jackson in South Carolina were arrested just before Christmas. It is unclear whether the men are still in custody."
There is not a scintilla of credibility in this report
not least because Stakelbeck is evidently entirely ignorant of military investigation procedures. Accused soldiers are not kept in "custody." Fort Jackson does not have a jail, it has detention cells for very temporary detention of suspects. There is no bail system in the Army and it is unusual for accused soldiers not be be released back to their units, where their commander may place them on restricted movement and/or under watch 24/7.
Usually, there are arrangements with a local sheriff's office for custody of soldiers accused of violent felonies; someone charged with assault or murder, for example, is not someone you want to put back into his barracks room under strict orders not to flee or hurt anyone. But you have to be dreaming if you think that five presumably Muslim soldiers, accused of a murder conspiracy, and held in the Columbia jail, would not have been reported in the media long ago. Trust me, they ain't there.
As for Stakelbeck's claim that his information is from a "source with intimate knowledge of the investigation," that is similarly bogus. The only people who would have such knowledge are the CID agents, the post provost marshal, the post's commanding general and deputy CG, the post's chief of staff and probably the secretary of the general staff, CID's command chain and that's pretty much it. There may be another two or three officers, but only maybe. And I absolutely guarantee not one of these persons is breathing a word to Stakelbeck or any other reporter. That's what Mr. Grey is for, see above, and I'd even say that Fort Jackson's PAO is referring questions to him. (He works at CID's headquarters at Fort Belvoir, Va.)
It's important to note that the CID agents stationed at Fort Jackson do not work for the post's commanding general. They do not take orders from him regarding investigative matters. The post's CG has no authority either to initiate an investigation nor to truncate or end one.
A final note: I served with CID's Brig. Gen McGuire when we were both stationed at the Pentagon in the early 1990s.Poison allegations at Jackson investigated
The Army is investigating allegations that four or five soldiers training to be translators and interpreters were trying to poison the food supply for Fort Jackson, S.C., officials said.
However, there is no credible evidence to support the allegations, said Patrick Jones, a spokesman for Fort Jackson.
“Allegations were made and the command took it very seriously,” Jones said, adding that Army Criminal Investigation Command was conducting the investigation, which is still ongoing.
“Two months of investigation, there has been no credible evidence to support the allegations,” Jones said.
Jones did not know who reported the allegations or how they came to light.
The soldiers being investigated are not being detained, Jones said, but he did not know if they were still at Fort Jackson or whether they completed their training.
The soldiers were in the Army as part of the 09L translator and interpreter military occupational specialty. One of the Army’s priority MOSs, the 09L program prepares junior enlisted soldiers who are native or heritage speakers of a Middle Eastern language to serve as military interpreters during tactical, operational and strategic missions. Those who qualify are eligible for basic enlistment bonuses of up to $20,000 and re-enlistment bonuses of up to $40,000.
Since the investigation began, 09L training was moved from Fort Jackson to Fort Huachuca, Ariz, as part of a base realignment action
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