May 9, 2011 |
Pakistan spy chief faces mounting pressure to resign
By Laura Rozen
By Laura Rozen
The Pakistani government has faced public recrimination in the wake of the embarrassing news that the world's most wanted terrorist had been living for years only a mile from a prestigious Pakistani military officers academy--in an affluent suburb about a two-hour drive of the capital Islamabad. Charges are rife that Pakistani security services were either incompetent or complicit with harboring bin Laden--and as a result, the government is facing increasing pressure to make some senior heads roll in order to save face both before its own public and internationally.
The first such Pakistani official who appears to be in line for cashiering is Pakistan's spy chief, Lt. Gen. Ahmad Shuja Pasha, whose formal title is director-general of the Inter-Services Intelligence directorate, or ISI.
""It would make a lot of sense"" for Pasha to resign, retired Pakistani Lt. Gen. Talat Masood told Newsweek/The Daily Beast's Ron Moreau in an exclusive report handicapping the spy chief's odds for imminent retirement. ""It's in his (Pasha's) personal and the national interest to take the heat off.""
It's ""entirely possible"" Pasha will resign, Columbia University Pakistan security expert Prof. Hassan Abbas, a former Pakistani police officer, told The Envoy Friday, adding that his own well-informed contact told him ""someone's head will roll--so it can be Pasha. I have a feeling there will be (a) few.""
A White House official said he had no guidance on the reports that Pasha might resign. Two other U.S. officials also said they genuinely had no idea if reports Pasha might resign were correct.
Tensions between the American and Pakistani spy services have grown acute in recent months. Evidence of mounting strains in the two countries' intelligence activities was apparent even before the U.S. raid on bin Laden. There are still many unresolved questions, for instance, surrounding the Pakistani arrest and jailing of CIA contractor Ray Davis, accused of killing two people in self-defense in January. The United States had insisted throughout the case that Davis had diplomatic immunity.
Tensions were also in play when Gen. Pasha and CIA Director Leon Panetta went into a four-hour, closed-door meeting at Langley last month. U.S. officials acknowledged at the time of the meeting that Pakistan's spy chief was trying to obtain more ""visibility"" into covert CIA operations in Pakistan--which we now know included top-secret preparations for the raid on bin Laden's compound. Pakistan intelligence officials were never brought into the loop for the U.S. operation, clearly because American officials did not want their Pakistani counterparts to leak any advance word--a view that both national security adviser John Brennan and CIA Director Leon Panetta have confirmed in statements on the raid.
A former senior U.S. intelligence official who served in Pakistan said that as fallout from the bin Laden raid continues to spread, Pakistani authorities and security chiefs ""don't know what to do,"" he told The Envoy Thursday. ""They were caught flat-footed. They can't say they didn't know (bin Laden) was there. ... Maybe (Pakistani President Asif Ali) Zardari didn't know. But I am sure the chief of the army staff knew (because) Pasha told him,"" he speculated.
""The raid shows the Pakistanis what we think of them,"" he said.
The attitude of the Pakistani military and intelligence officials is ""we knew he was there, we know the agency was looking for him, but we were not going to dirty our hands with either side,"" the former CIA official continued. ""'We aren't going to tell (the CIA) about that house.' They are not going to tell (bin Laden) we asked questions about him. They never believed we have the balls to come and do it,"" he said, referring to the U.S. raid to take out bin Laden, which he said was a risky operation that ""took incredible courage"" on Obama's part to order, given what could have gone wrong.
Pakistanis are outraged at their military and intelligence leaders--not only because of the bin Laden revelation, but also because the U.S. raid showed how porous the nation's sovereignty and national security can be. The American commando team was able to breach the nation's sovereignty to conduct the 40-minute raid against bin Laden, apparently without being detected or engaged by Pakistani forces. Reports have said the U.S. Navy SEAL team used special stealth helicopters to evade detection by the Pakistanis during the operation.
Pakistan has stepped up its fight against the Pakistani Taliban since 2009--but its inaction against various other militant groups including those waging attacks in Afghanistan and India has become a growing source of tension between Washington and Islamabad, says Stephen Tankel, a Pakistan expert and visiting scholar with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Among the militant groups that Pakistan has either passively tolerated or actively supported, in the view of U.S. policy hands are: the Haqqani network that supports the Afghan Taliban; and Lashkar e-Taiba (LeT), the Pakistani militant group originally formed as a proxy to fight Indian forces for control of Kashmir, and which was implicated in the 2008 Mumbai, India, terrorist attacks that killed six Americans.
And as the United States demonstrates increasing impatience with such Pakistani inaction, ""there's been a shift to more unilateral action on the part of the United States,"" Tankel told The Envoy.
Meanwhile, U.S. and Pakistani interests in neighboring Afghanistan are increasingly out of alignment; Pakistan is accused of actively supporting Pashtun militants trying to destabilize the country. As a result, the United States has also stopped consulting with Pakistani officials on the drone strikes it is conducting in Pakistan's northwest tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, according to some Pakistan security experts speaking not for attribution.
""Pakistan is seeking to shape a post-U.S. Afghanistan to its favor--the same reason it supported the Taliban"" in the first place in the 1990s, when the Pakistani-backed, Taliban-controlled Afghanistan harbored bin Laden before the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Tankel said. (Source: The Envoy)
""It would make a lot of sense"" for Pasha to resign, retired Pakistani Lt. Gen. Talat Masood told Newsweek/The Daily Beast's Ron Moreau in an exclusive report handicapping the spy chief's odds for imminent retirement. ""It's in his (Pasha's) personal and the national interest to take the heat off.""
It's ""entirely possible"" Pasha will resign, Columbia University Pakistan security expert Prof. Hassan Abbas, a former Pakistani police officer, told The Envoy Friday, adding that his own well-informed contact told him ""someone's head will roll--so it can be Pasha. I have a feeling there will be (a) few.""
A White House official said he had no guidance on the reports that Pasha might resign. Two other U.S. officials also said they genuinely had no idea if reports Pasha might resign were correct.
Tensions between the American and Pakistani spy services have grown acute in recent months. Evidence of mounting strains in the two countries' intelligence activities was apparent even before the U.S. raid on bin Laden. There are still many unresolved questions, for instance, surrounding the Pakistani arrest and jailing of CIA contractor Ray Davis, accused of killing two people in self-defense in January. The United States had insisted throughout the case that Davis had diplomatic immunity.
Tensions were also in play when Gen. Pasha and CIA Director Leon Panetta went into a four-hour, closed-door meeting at Langley last month. U.S. officials acknowledged at the time of the meeting that Pakistan's spy chief was trying to obtain more ""visibility"" into covert CIA operations in Pakistan--which we now know included top-secret preparations for the raid on bin Laden's compound. Pakistan intelligence officials were never brought into the loop for the U.S. operation, clearly because American officials did not want their Pakistani counterparts to leak any advance word--a view that both national security adviser John Brennan and CIA Director Leon Panetta have confirmed in statements on the raid.
A former senior U.S. intelligence official who served in Pakistan said that as fallout from the bin Laden raid continues to spread, Pakistani authorities and security chiefs ""don't know what to do,"" he told The Envoy Thursday. ""They were caught flat-footed. They can't say they didn't know (bin Laden) was there. ... Maybe (Pakistani President Asif Ali) Zardari didn't know. But I am sure the chief of the army staff knew (because) Pasha told him,"" he speculated.
""The raid shows the Pakistanis what we think of them,"" he said.
The attitude of the Pakistani military and intelligence officials is ""we knew he was there, we know the agency was looking for him, but we were not going to dirty our hands with either side,"" the former CIA official continued. ""'We aren't going to tell (the CIA) about that house.' They are not going to tell (bin Laden) we asked questions about him. They never believed we have the balls to come and do it,"" he said, referring to the U.S. raid to take out bin Laden, which he said was a risky operation that ""took incredible courage"" on Obama's part to order, given what could have gone wrong.
Pakistanis are outraged at their military and intelligence leaders--not only because of the bin Laden revelation, but also because the U.S. raid showed how porous the nation's sovereignty and national security can be. The American commando team was able to breach the nation's sovereignty to conduct the 40-minute raid against bin Laden, apparently without being detected or engaged by Pakistani forces. Reports have said the U.S. Navy SEAL team used special stealth helicopters to evade detection by the Pakistanis during the operation.
Pakistan has stepped up its fight against the Pakistani Taliban since 2009--but its inaction against various other militant groups including those waging attacks in Afghanistan and India has become a growing source of tension between Washington and Islamabad, says Stephen Tankel, a Pakistan expert and visiting scholar with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Among the militant groups that Pakistan has either passively tolerated or actively supported, in the view of U.S. policy hands are: the Haqqani network that supports the Afghan Taliban; and Lashkar e-Taiba (LeT), the Pakistani militant group originally formed as a proxy to fight Indian forces for control of Kashmir, and which was implicated in the 2008 Mumbai, India, terrorist attacks that killed six Americans.
And as the United States demonstrates increasing impatience with such Pakistani inaction, ""there's been a shift to more unilateral action on the part of the United States,"" Tankel told The Envoy.
Meanwhile, U.S. and Pakistani interests in neighboring Afghanistan are increasingly out of alignment; Pakistan is accused of actively supporting Pashtun militants trying to destabilize the country. As a result, the United States has also stopped consulting with Pakistani officials on the drone strikes it is conducting in Pakistan's northwest tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, according to some Pakistan security experts speaking not for attribution.
""Pakistan is seeking to shape a post-U.S. Afghanistan to its favor--the same reason it supported the Taliban"" in the first place in the 1990s, when the Pakistani-backed, Taliban-controlled Afghanistan harbored bin Laden before the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Tankel said. (Source: The Envoy)
(source:tehrantimes)
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