Prejudging the Abbottabad inquiry
It is very important to see how the world looks at the argument advanced by Pakistan about US ‘betrayal’
A member of the high-powered commission set to investigate the discovery and death of Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, General (retd) Nadeem Ahmad, has spoken to a foreign broadcasting company and prejudged the inquiry by saying that no state institution in Pakistan was to blame for bin Laden’s secret sojourn in Abbottabad for nearly six years.
He said rather naively: “When all is said and done, the government, army and the ISI are not irresponsible people, they would never do such a stupid thing which would show them in such a bad light”. He added: “Irrespective of the US, I have absolutely not an iota of doubt on this, that no government in Pakistan, no military in Pakistan, no intelligence organisation in Pakistan would do such a stupid thing”.
The general, however, was more concerned about the use of fake polio vaccination programmes by the CIA during the hunt for bin Laden and thought it a breach of trust between the US and Pakistani governments, saying, “This is principally, morally, illegally incorrect”. It is a bit surprising that a member of a commission of inquiry should start talking about his prior bias on one side or the other among parties involved, and that the only party he chose to blame should be the US government.
We have heard quite a lot about how America — our ‘perfidious’ partner in the war against terrorism — has let us down by carrying out a covert operation on our soil without taking us into confidence. In fact, so focused are we on our resentment against the US that we have forgotten to acknowledge the death of a terrorist who has made our people suffer for over a decade. An ISPR statement hinting at this aspect of bin Laden’s death was quickly superseded by our blanket anti-Americanism.
As for the assumption on the part of General Nadeem Ahmad that the government, the military or the ISI could not have provided a safe haven to bin Laden raises a number of questions. The military is currently taking action against some of its personnel owing allegiance to banned organisations over and above their loyalty to Pakistan. There have been officers of the ISI in the past — like Khalid Khawaja — who have violated their oath of loyalty to the armed forces of Pakistan and become soldiers of fortune with no faith in anything but their own selfish ends. There have been officers of the ISI who have operated against the very government they were supposed to serve, throwing their oath of loyalty overboard. Retired ISI chiefs like Hamid Gul have been making irresponsible ‘hate’ statements, putting pressure on the army chief by creating a certain kind of ‘variant’ point of view in the military rank and file.
It is very important to see how the world looks at the ‘moral’ argument advanced by the military and government about the ‘betrayal’ of the US when it attacked Abbottabad to get bin Laden. Similarly, it is important to look at the global opinion concerning the clamour about ‘sovereignty’ that Pakistan is making to attain the moral high ground on the issue of bin Laden’s killing. Let us consider these two issues.
So punctured is the intelligence system in Pakistan that any information about the whereabouts of the terrorists and their expected targets gets leaked to the enemy. This is what happened in the latest case of an attack on the PNS Mehran base where all security measures taken by the navy were leaked to terrorists who were then able to carry out an attack, perhaps with inside help.
The question of sovereignty is real only in Pakistan. More than half the country is given over to terrorists and the rest of the ‘governed’ territory is open to raids from the terrorists ensconced in their numerous camps in Fata. The world knows that Pakistan is no longer able to impose its writ on its territory and that life and limb is not safe in cities like Karachi, Quetta and Peshawar. Most of the energy structure and communications system have come crashing down while some of us are blaming the US for being perfidious, trying to destroy us in cahoots with Israel and India.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 21st, 2011.
He said rather naively: “When all is said and done, the government, army and the ISI are not irresponsible people, they would never do such a stupid thing which would show them in such a bad light”. He added: “Irrespective of the US, I have absolutely not an iota of doubt on this, that no government in Pakistan, no military in Pakistan, no intelligence organisation in Pakistan would do such a stupid thing”.
The general, however, was more concerned about the use of fake polio vaccination programmes by the CIA during the hunt for bin Laden and thought it a breach of trust between the US and Pakistani governments, saying, “This is principally, morally, illegally incorrect”. It is a bit surprising that a member of a commission of inquiry should start talking about his prior bias on one side or the other among parties involved, and that the only party he chose to blame should be the US government.
We have heard quite a lot about how America — our ‘perfidious’ partner in the war against terrorism — has let us down by carrying out a covert operation on our soil without taking us into confidence. In fact, so focused are we on our resentment against the US that we have forgotten to acknowledge the death of a terrorist who has made our people suffer for over a decade. An ISPR statement hinting at this aspect of bin Laden’s death was quickly superseded by our blanket anti-Americanism.
As for the assumption on the part of General Nadeem Ahmad that the government, the military or the ISI could not have provided a safe haven to bin Laden raises a number of questions. The military is currently taking action against some of its personnel owing allegiance to banned organisations over and above their loyalty to Pakistan. There have been officers of the ISI in the past — like Khalid Khawaja — who have violated their oath of loyalty to the armed forces of Pakistan and become soldiers of fortune with no faith in anything but their own selfish ends. There have been officers of the ISI who have operated against the very government they were supposed to serve, throwing their oath of loyalty overboard. Retired ISI chiefs like Hamid Gul have been making irresponsible ‘hate’ statements, putting pressure on the army chief by creating a certain kind of ‘variant’ point of view in the military rank and file.
It is very important to see how the world looks at the ‘moral’ argument advanced by the military and government about the ‘betrayal’ of the US when it attacked Abbottabad to get bin Laden. Similarly, it is important to look at the global opinion concerning the clamour about ‘sovereignty’ that Pakistan is making to attain the moral high ground on the issue of bin Laden’s killing. Let us consider these two issues.
So punctured is the intelligence system in Pakistan that any information about the whereabouts of the terrorists and their expected targets gets leaked to the enemy. This is what happened in the latest case of an attack on the PNS Mehran base where all security measures taken by the navy were leaked to terrorists who were then able to carry out an attack, perhaps with inside help.
The question of sovereignty is real only in Pakistan. More than half the country is given over to terrorists and the rest of the ‘governed’ territory is open to raids from the terrorists ensconced in their numerous camps in Fata. The world knows that Pakistan is no longer able to impose its writ on its territory and that life and limb is not safe in cities like Karachi, Quetta and Peshawar. Most of the energy structure and communications system have come crashing down while some of us are blaming the US for being perfidious, trying to destroy us in cahoots with Israel and India.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 21st, 2011.