Latest standoff: Pakistan, US squabble over drone base
Chidanand RajghattaChidanand Rajghatta, TNN
Jul 2, 2011, 06.53am IST
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Jacobabad air baseWASHINGTON: You have a friend you invited in as a guest in one of your bedrooms when things were good. But the friendship has soured and you want the guest to leave. No way, says the friend, refusing to vacate. You can't call the cops because the friend is himself a supercop. To make matters worse, someone in your house has sublet that guest room to another party who backs your guest. Your house if full of interlopers you thought were your friends.
Welcome to the bizarre houseguest drama involving Pakistan, United States, the "forcible occupation" of the Shamsi air base, and some bit players such as the UAE. Located in remote Balochistan, Shamsi is from where the US is said to be launching some of its drone attacks aimed at Pakistani terrorists. Pakistan now wants US to vacate Shamsi. US response: "Sorry. Can't. Won't."
First offered to Washington in the early days after 9/11 by the Musharraf regime when it simpered before the American threat that it will be bombed back to the Stone Age if it did not cooperate, Shamsi's US operations was a well-kept secret till February 2009 when Internet trawlers ferreted out Google earth photos showing drone aircraft at the base. News that the US was using Pakistani facilities to carry out its Predator campaign within Pakistani territory against Pakistani targets embarrassed Islamabad no end, sparking off a campaign to evict American assets.
Amid growing outrage about the Drone campaign and the civilian casualties it is causing (contested by the US), Pakistan managed to get Washington to vacate the Jacobabad air base, the second of the two airbases US was operating from. But Shamsi remained unresolved, and the US continued to use it despite Pakistani protests. How could Washington refuse to leave a military airbase against the express will of the host government? This is where things turn murky.
For one, it appears that the air base is not even under Pakistani control. Like with some other parts of the country (notable areas of Pak-occupied Kashmir which it ceded to China and parts of the Khyber Pakhtunwa given up to extremists), that Islamabad has relinquished to earn itself the dubious reputation as a rentier state, it turned out that Shamsi has been leased out to some Gulf potentates.
During the Pakistan national assembly debate on May 13 following the Abbottabad operation, Pakistan air chief Rao Qamar Suleman reportedly told lawmakers in camera than Shamsi has been under the control of the United Arab Emirates and PAF has no say in the matter. In fact, the Shamsi air strip was originally built for Arab sheikhs who flew into Pakistan to hunt for the houbara bustard, a rare bird some Arabs believe has aphrodisiac properties.
Now, the US-UAE arrangement in Shamsi had rendered the Pakistani establishment impotent.
But earlier this week, Pakistani Defense Minister Ahmed Mukhtar rose up against the deal, telling the media that Islamabad had asked Washington to leave Shamsi. The US responded with an in-your-face rejection, saying "that base is neither vacated nor being vacated."
In fact, Washington went a step further, suggesting that Mukhtar was merely posturing against the US to mollify inflamed public opinion and arrangements for continued use of Shamsi were very much in place. Backing the US position, another federal minister, Firdous Awan, undermined her own colleague, saying news of Pakistan demanding US exit from Shamsi was "bogus."
US officials publicly remain cryptic about the Shamsi situation. State department spokesman Mark Toner on Friday referred all questions about the subject to the Pakistani Government "for their comments and clarification of their comments," adding that he was "not aware that we have any military personnel on that base." The addendum suggested that the CIA is in control of the base -- and will remain so regardless of Islamabad's views on the matter.
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timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/Latest-standoff-Pakistan-US-squabble-over-drone-base/articleshow/9072470.cms
Chidanand RajghattaChidanand Rajghatta, TNN
Jul 2, 2011, 06.53am IST
=====================================================
Jacobabad air baseWASHINGTON: You have a friend you invited in as a guest in one of your bedrooms when things were good. But the friendship has soured and you want the guest to leave. No way, says the friend, refusing to vacate. You can't call the cops because the friend is himself a supercop. To make matters worse, someone in your house has sublet that guest room to another party who backs your guest. Your house if full of interlopers you thought were your friends.
Welcome to the bizarre houseguest drama involving Pakistan, United States, the "forcible occupation" of the Shamsi air base, and some bit players such as the UAE. Located in remote Balochistan, Shamsi is from where the US is said to be launching some of its drone attacks aimed at Pakistani terrorists. Pakistan now wants US to vacate Shamsi. US response: "Sorry. Can't. Won't."
First offered to Washington in the early days after 9/11 by the Musharraf regime when it simpered before the American threat that it will be bombed back to the Stone Age if it did not cooperate, Shamsi's US operations was a well-kept secret till February 2009 when Internet trawlers ferreted out Google earth photos showing drone aircraft at the base. News that the US was using Pakistani facilities to carry out its Predator campaign within Pakistani territory against Pakistani targets embarrassed Islamabad no end, sparking off a campaign to evict American assets.
Amid growing outrage about the Drone campaign and the civilian casualties it is causing (contested by the US), Pakistan managed to get Washington to vacate the Jacobabad air base, the second of the two airbases US was operating from. But Shamsi remained unresolved, and the US continued to use it despite Pakistani protests. How could Washington refuse to leave a military airbase against the express will of the host government? This is where things turn murky.
For one, it appears that the air base is not even under Pakistani control. Like with some other parts of the country (notable areas of Pak-occupied Kashmir which it ceded to China and parts of the Khyber Pakhtunwa given up to extremists), that Islamabad has relinquished to earn itself the dubious reputation as a rentier state, it turned out that Shamsi has been leased out to some Gulf potentates.
During the Pakistan national assembly debate on May 13 following the Abbottabad operation, Pakistan air chief Rao Qamar Suleman reportedly told lawmakers in camera than Shamsi has been under the control of the United Arab Emirates and PAF has no say in the matter. In fact, the Shamsi air strip was originally built for Arab sheikhs who flew into Pakistan to hunt for the houbara bustard, a rare bird some Arabs believe has aphrodisiac properties.
Now, the US-UAE arrangement in Shamsi had rendered the Pakistani establishment impotent.
But earlier this week, Pakistani Defense Minister Ahmed Mukhtar rose up against the deal, telling the media that Islamabad had asked Washington to leave Shamsi. The US responded with an in-your-face rejection, saying "that base is neither vacated nor being vacated."
In fact, Washington went a step further, suggesting that Mukhtar was merely posturing against the US to mollify inflamed public opinion and arrangements for continued use of Shamsi were very much in place. Backing the US position, another federal minister, Firdous Awan, undermined her own colleague, saying news of Pakistan demanding US exit from Shamsi was "bogus."
US officials publicly remain cryptic about the Shamsi situation. State department spokesman Mark Toner on Friday referred all questions about the subject to the Pakistani Government "for their comments and clarification of their comments," adding that he was "not aware that we have any military personnel on that base." The addendum suggested that the CIA is in control of the base -- and will remain so regardless of Islamabad's views on the matter.
======================================================
timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/Latest-standoff-Pakistan-US-squabble-over-drone-base/articleshow/9072470.cms
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