The Real Threat Is Pakistan, cont...

Feb 28th, 2012

I have argued for some time that the already nuclear-armed nation of Pakistan is a far greater threat to our interests and international stability than Iran with a bomb could ever be. Here's more proof via RT:

"Senior officials in Pakistani military intelligence knew of Osama bin Laden’s whereabouts and arrangements for his safe house – that’s the implication of confidential Stratfor files disclosed by WikiLeaks. Pakistan has dismissed the allegations.

The leaked information from the rent-a-spy agency published on the WikiLeaks website on Monday shows that Osama bin Laden was in routine contact with several senior figures from Pakistan's military intelligence agency."

Unfortunately, the GOP seems to have little interest in this "ally." Discussions of foreign policy in that party's presidential "debates" devolved into little more than the candidates, with the exception of Ron Paul, promising to drag us to war in Iran. The few mentions of U.S.-Pakistan relations there have been were ill-informed at best.

About The Latest Afghanistan Handwringing

Feb 1st, 2012

First of all, it's not news that members of Pakistan's ISI intelligence service are in bed with radical elements of the Taliban. Second of all, if we stayed in Afghanistan for another hundred years, they would begin destroying each other not long after we departed. This is what we are seeing in Iraq already. Eventually, we are going to have to think about doing more nation building at home. In fact, discussion of that kind have begun in earnest on both sides of the aisle. Now comes an "explosive report" detailing the imminent return to power of the Taliban aided and abetted by the ISI. Sigh.

Reuters has some coverage about this "report" which is essential reading for anyone before they start running around in panic-circles and yelling that the sky is falling:

"Lieutenant Colonel Jimmie Cummings, a spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, confirmed the existence of the document, reported by Britain's Times newspaper and the BBC. But he said it was not a strategic study.

"The classified document in question is a compilation of Taliban detainee opinions," he said. "It's not an analysis, nor is it meant to be considered an analysis." EMPHASIS OURS

Get it? This prisoner braggadocio. This is not the kind of thing on which so much as a single change in policy particulars should be based. It will be interesting to see if the neo-conservative permawar crowd, which is always harping on the need to 'listen to military,' actually listens to the military on this one.

Far From A Cave

May 2nd, 2011
by F. Grey Parker

Photo Source Global Grind

For some time there have been reports and rumors that Osama Bin Laden was not living in the rugged frontier that divides Afghanistan and Pakistan. Just how luxuriant his compound and hideout in Abbottabad, Pakistan actually was now becomes clear.

Did The ISI Out A CIA Operative?

Dec 19th, 2010

The growing tensions between Pakistan's ISI intelligence service and our own CIA appear to have reached a new and dangerous level. Our top undercover man in the region has been revealed and forced to flee. The seriousness of the release and it's implications heading into our 10th year of war in Afghanistan are far reaching. The personal motive in the outing is a testament to how deeply our campaign of violence has infuriated their elites.

From the NYTimes:

"An official of the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, Pakistan’s top spy organization, angrily denied Saturday that it was responsible for revealing the name of the Central Intelligence Agency’s top clandestine officer in Pakistan."

“We absolutely deny this accusation, which is totally unsubstantiated and based on nothing but conjecture,” a senior ISI official said in a background briefing at the headquarters of the spy organization in Islamabad."

From The AP:

"The CIA yanked its top spy out of Pakistan after his cover was blown and his life threatened, and 54 suspected militants were killed in a U.S. drone missile attack Friday in stark new signs of the troubled relationship between mistrustful allies locked in a war on terror groups. The CIA’s decision to remove its Islamabad station chief comes at a pivotal moment. The Obama administration is pressing Pakistan to rid its lawless northwest frontier of militants, even as public outcry in the country has intensified against the U.S. spy agency’s unacknowledged drone war."

From Alex Rodriguez of The L.A. Times:

"The CIA agent's name was first made public by Pakistani lawyer Shahzad Akbar and his client, Karim Khan, at a Nov. 29 news conference to announce their intent to sue the United States over the deaths of Khan's son and brother, and another man in an American drone missile strike Dec. 31, 2009, in the tribal region of North Waziristan.

Subsequently, the agent's name was widely disseminated in Pakistani newspapers and television newscasts. Akbar said he obtained the agent's name from two Pakistani journalists, whose identities he would not disclose. He did not know how the journalists learned of the agent's identity. However, the ISI maintains strong bonds with certain Pakistani journalists and commentators, and often uses them to influence coverage or spin their version of events."

And the permawar goes on...