|
Mother of All Humiliations
May 13, 2011
Given the situation, the people of Pakistan are highly agitated. They ask: What Pakistan has achieved to secure America by sacrificing the lives of around 32,000 of its countrymen and incurring huge losses, both in men and material? They also want to know the real facts and demand constitution of a parliamentary committee to investigate the conduct of the country’s security agencies in either abetting protection of OBL or at best not knowing what he was doing for years in a garrison town. Furthermore, in the aftermath of OBL killing on our soil, they want the authorities to take appropriate steps to minimise the damage. Of course, the task is tricky and challenging, requiring a high-wire act to redress the image problem. However, unless the country manages to get rid of extremism and terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, the dream of a prosperous and economically stable Pakistan will not materialise.
|
In the wake of US military’s Abbottabad operation that culminated in the killing of Osama bin Laden (OBL), the country is, perhaps, facing the worst crisis since the 1971 debacle.
The US officials, media and think-tanks are giving an impression to the global community that Pakistan could not capture OBL because either its special agencies were incompetent or involved in providing a sanctuary to him and to some elements of OBL-headed al-Qaeda network. Ground realities, however, negate both allegations.
May we ask, despite spending hundreds of billion dollars on defence and having a vast network of CIA operatives, could America prevent 9/11 attacks or get information about the intention of felons that carried out terrorist acts in Washington? The fact remains that since Pakistan’s joining the global community’s anti-terror war, Pakistani agencies have arrested and killed thousands of terrorists and al-Qaeda members. Besides, its agencies tracked down, captured and handed over to the US hundreds of al-Qaeda members, including top leaders like Abu Zubaida, Abu Faraj al-Libbi and Khalid Sheikh Mohammad. Even in foiling London bomb attacks, the initiative and quality of intelligence from Pakistani agencies played a vital role in preventing a possible disaster.
And that being the case, the al-Qaeda considers Pakistan as an inimical state and accomplice in the US-led NATO’s anti-terror war aimed at eliminating al-Qaeda and its accomplices. For that very reason, post 9/11, al-Qaeda has been involved in carrying out terrorist activities in Pakistan and inflicting colossal loss, both in men and material, to the State. Attacks by al-Qaeda and US drones have so far killed over 32,000 Pakistanis (including soldiers and law enforcement personnel), incurring financial losses running into scores of billions. The al-Qaeda also attempted attacks on several Pakistani leaders. Some of their high profile targets included: two attempts on the life of President Pervez Musharraf, whereas Prime Minister Shukat Aziz barely escaped life attempt and former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto escaped life attempt in Karachi, but she was assassinated later in Rawalpindi.
While before September 11, 2001, al-Qaeda or Taliban leaders were in Afghanistan, it cannot, however, be denied that after the launch of anti-terror war against al-Qaeda they got entrenched in regions around Pakistan-Afghanistan borders from where they keep on infiltrating through highly porous border for carrying out attacks and suicide bombings inside both Pakistan and Afghanistan.
While Pakistan had been taking the blame like a fall guy, former US secretary of state and a master proponent of Realpolitic, 88-year old Henry Kissinger told the Fox News that after the Abbottabad operation, Pakistan finds itself in a bind. “It is hard to believe that they (Pakistan) did not know that bin Laden was there – it’s inconceivable – but it’s also conceivable to me that somebody in the Pakistani establishment cooperated with us to make this raid possible and didn’t want to admit it either. If they admit the first, then they are admitting collusion with the terrorists; if they admit the second, then they admit cooperation with the Americans. Either one of these will hurt the better part of their public.”
Kissinger’s view-point gets credence from the observations of people who commuted to and from Abbottabad hours before the US operation. According to those people, not only all vehicles were being searched, but video film of all the occupants of vehicles entering into Abbottabad or coming out of the town was also being made.
American newspaper “Global Post” says that Pakistan government and army were not only aware about the Abbottabad operation, they also abetted in it. Quoting an officer of the US army, the newspaper reports that Pakistan army not only sealed the area, but it also provided back-up support. However, due to the fear of public backlash, the Pakistani establishment would keep pretending to be ignorant about it. Obviously, such an attitude has provided the CIA an opportunity not only to hijack a joint victory, but also to hit at Pakistani agencies with whom its ties had strained following the Raymond Davis affair.
US National Security Adviser, Tom Donilon, in NBC’s programme “Meet the Press, on May 8, clarified that the US administration has seen no evidence that Pakistan’s leadership knew OBL was living in that country before his killing by the US forces. Meanwhile, American writer and intellectual, Noam Chomsky has called OBL’s assassination as a violation of international law by the US. In an article, he says, in societies that profess some respect for law, suspects are apprehended and brought to fair trial.
While top civil leadership opted to keep quiet on this issue till May 9 when Prime Minister Gilani made a statement at the floor of the National Assembly, top military brass gave a briefing to over 20 anchorpersons on May 6, revealing that the incumbent government had not discussed or asked the army about any development regarding the war on terror or gave any advice on this most crucial issue facing the nation “even once during the last three years.” They stated that the increasing US intervention into different things, issues and aspects of Pakistan was due to the government’s obeying each and every order of the US. And this has reached such a level that the government issued over 7,000 visas to US citizens without security clearance, which had brought the situation to the present level.
However, a senior government official (The News: May 7 ‘Army top brass blames civilians’) has claimed that Pakistani military leadership and elite intelligence agencies were on board when clearance-free visa facility was extended to the Americans. He said, even if the civilian leadership was not discussing the issue of war on terror, the military leadership should have discussed it at its own. If for restoration of judges, military leadership could visit the presidency twice in a day without any invitation, then why the same could not be done in case of a most crucial issue facing the nation in all these years.
Meanwhile, quoting US officials, Washington Post reported on May 7 that CIA spies conducted extensive surveillance, over a period of months, from a safe house in Abbottabad on the compound where OBL was killed. The intelligence-gathering push was mobilised after discovery of the suspicious complex, in August 2010, and the effort involved every category of collection in the US arsenal, ranging from satellite imagery to eavesdropping, aimed at recording voices inside the compound. The CIA began to focus on the compound last summer after years of painstaking effort to penetrate a small network of couriers with ties to OBL. Once, the most important of those couriers led them to the Abbottabad compound, its conspicuous nature sent up alarms that it might have been built for OBL himself. Initially, information about this compound and the possibility about the existence of a high profile militant was reportedly supplied by Pakistani sleuths.
Following May 2 Abbottabad operation, Pakistan is being bracketed with most dangerous countries, like Iran, Afghanistan, Palestine, Congo, Somalia, Sudan and Haiti, due to its inability to resolve simmering contradictions that have transformed it into a hotbed of violence and terrorism. Because of security concerns, many investors have stopped visiting Pakistan and now Pakistani traders go to UAE, Malaysia and other peaceful places to hold meetings with them. Some leading foreign apparel brands have asked their Pakistani partners to shift their production units abroad to ensure that their supply-lines remain intact in times of crisis. In fact, some top Pakistani textile manufacturers have either shifted or are in the process of establishing their units abroad.
Given the situation, the people of Pakistan are highly agitated. They ask: What Pakistan has achieved to secure America by sacrificing the lives of around 32,000 of its countrymen and incurring huge losses, both in men and material? They also want to know the real facts and demand constitution of a parliamentary committee to investigate the conduct of the country’s security agencies in either abetting protection of OBL or at best not knowing what he was doing for years in a garrison town. Furthermore, in the aftermath of OBL killing on our soil, they want the authorities to take appropriate steps to minimise the damage. Of course, the task is tricky and challenging, requiring a high-wire act to redress the image problem. However, unless the country manages to get rid of extremism and terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, the dream of a prosperous and economically stable Pakistan will not materialise.
|