What Pakistan would have gained by protecting bin Laden
By Adnan R. Khan - Friday, May 13, 2011 - 1 Comment
Former Pakistani military officers don’t believe the ISI had no idea bin Laden was at the Abbottabad compound
Vincent Laforet; The New York Times; Redux
In the prologue to his 2005 Pulitzer Prize-winning book Ghost Wars, journalist Steve Coll wrote, “In history’s long inventory of surprise attacks, September 11 is distinguished in part because of the role played by intelligence agencies and informal secret networks in the preceding events. As bin Laden and his aides endorsed the September 11 attacks from their Afghan sanctuary, they were pursued secretly by salaried officers from the CIA. At the same time, bin Laden and his closest allies received protection, via the Taliban, from salaried officers in Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate. This was a pattern for two decades. Strand after strand of official covert action, unofficial covert action, clandestine terrorism, and clandestine counterterrorism wove one upon the other to create the matrix of undeclared war that burst into plain sight in 2001.”
On May 1, that same “matrix of undeclared war” was evident once again after U.S. Navy SEALs killed Osama bin Laden at a compound in Abbottabad, a military garrison city 50 km north of the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. Its military installations, including Pakistan’s top military academy, make it about as sensitive a place as exists in a country ruled by generals. Finding bin Laden there, and not somewhere in an obscure cave, suggests what Coll already made clear in his seminal book: despite repeated denials, elements within the ISI, the intelligence branch of the military, had continued to provide protection for bin Laden.
Pakistani authorities will obviously not admit to that. But retreat into ignorance will not be enough to appease the world this time, especially the U.S., which has poured billions into Pakistan’s military and civilian coffers over the past decade. What Pakistani officials actually knew about bin Laden’s whereabouts has become a topic of intense scrutiny in Washington. Members of Congress are demanding answers, and threatening to cut funding to the country if solid evidence emerges that bin Laden received protection from elements within the security services.
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"You don't plan operations like this in some safe house."
By Michael Petrou - Friday, November 28, 2008 at 2:40 PM - 2 Comments
This afternoon, the World Desk spoke with Bruce Hoffman, a professor of security studies at Georgetown University who has studied terrorism and insurgencies for more than three decades. He was formerly a scholar-in-residence at the Central Intelligence Agency, advised the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, and has recently returned from Pakistan. I have written briefly about Hoffman in a previous post. I consider him an insightful source.
While cautioning that it’s still too early to draw firm conclusions about the identity of the attackers, Hoffman says the sophistication of the attacks, which required high levels of training, manpower, and logistical coordination, points to “outside planning.” The terrorists assaulted several targets simultaneously; they took and kept hostages; and they carried enough weapons and ammunition to fight for several days. Pulling this off would have required planning and practice.
“It’s not like planting a bomb,” he said. “You don’t plan operations like this in some safe house.”
Hoffman confirmed that links between Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency and local Islamist terror groups are “very close,” but noted that this doesn’t mean the ISI played a role, or even knew about, the Mumbai attacks. “It could mean that far down the road in the past, these groups got the training they needed from the ISI,” he said.
The Pakistani government, through the ISI spy agency, was behind the creation of several of South Asia’s most violent Islamist militant groups, including the Taliban in Afghanistan and Lashkar-e-Taiba in Kashmir. But the Pakistani government doesn’t necessarily control the ISI, and the ISI doesn’t necessarily control its guerilla offspring. There’s a lesson here about not sowing the wind, but it’s a little late for Pakistan to learn it now. The entire country is at risk of being torn apart by the same brand of Islamist terror that was almost certainly behind the atrocities in Mumbai.
Bruce Hoffman says he believes Pakistan’s new president, Asif Ali Zardari, is sincere in his belief to advance peace between India and Pakistan and cooperate against the Islamist militants who threaten both countries. Terrorists assassinated Zardari’s wife, Benazir Bhutto, so his motivations might be personal. He may also be enough of a realist to recognize he doesn’t have much choice.
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A looming confrontation between India and Pakistan
By Michael Petrou - Thursday, November 27, 2008 at 4:16 PM - 1 Comment
The Times of India, without naming sources, claims it is “suspected” that the Pakistan Marine Agency helped terrorists hijack a fishing trawler which was then used to transport the attackers from Karachi, Pakistan, to the Indian coast.
The Indian major-general leading operations against the militants in Mumbai has also said they came from Pakistan.
The Pakistani president and prime minister have meanwhile offered condolences to their counterparts in India.
There are several disturbing implications if al Qaeda is found to have behind the Mumbai attack. First, and most obviously, it would demonstrate that the terror group, which has suffered setbacks of late, remains capable of coordinating sophisticated and simultaneous assaults on a wide variety of targets.
Secondly, and perhaps more seriously, it would suggest an al-Qaeda foothold in India. India had been considered largely free of al-Qaeda, despite a Muslim population of more than 150 million. No Indians were captured in Afghanistan in 2001 and 2002, for example, nor have there been any Indian inmates at Guantanamo Bay. But the country has been in al-Qaeda’s crosshairs for at least three years. In April of 2006, Osama bin Laden for the first time referred to a “Crusader-Zionist-Hindu conspiracy against the Muslims.” Around the same time, Indian intelligence agencies began reporting an al-Qaeda presence in Kashmir. An al-Qaeda hand in Mumbai would suggest that the international terrorist group has opened up a new front. Continue…
