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The USZ, which blows hot and cold in its tempestuous relationship with Pakistan, is currently passing through a phase of denial and has acquired the services of Bob Woodward & Bruce Riedel to malign Pakistan. Bob Woodward, considered by some as an “investigative journalist”, in his latest book titled: “Obama’s wars”, has attacked Pakistan tooth and nail. As a propaganda prop, Mr. Woodward uses the notorious Pakistan basher, Bruce Riedel, a former CIA operative and one of the architects of America’s AF-Pak policy. According to Woodward, Bruce Riedel told Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of USZ Staff Admiral Mike Mullen recently not to trust the Pakistani Chief of Army Staff, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani calling him a “liar”.
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Pakistan Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani |
Woodward contends that President Barack Obama’s aides think that General Kayani is stonewalling Washington’s call for decisive action against terrorists’ safe havens in the country’s turbulent tribal belt. He states that top Obama administration officials say that Kayani has refused to adhere to any of the four demands of the US conveyed to him during a trip made by top aides in May last year just after a failed bomb plot at Times Square in New York by Pakistani-American Faisal Shahzad. Admiral Mullen, did not heed Bruce Riedel, and went ahead to build a person-to-person relationship and had faith in the commitment shown by the Pakistan army chief. At a White House meeting on March 11, attended by National Security Advisor General (Rtd) James Jones, Defence Secretary Robert Gates and Mullen, Riedel urged Mullen not to trust Kayani as he was a liar.
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James Jones (left) / Robert Gates (right) |
“I have known every head of ISI since the mid-1980s”, Riedel is quoted as saying. “Kayani is either not in control of his organization or he is not telling the truth. The USZ should see the obvious and connect the dots. The Pakistanis are lying”, he said. Addressing Mullen, he said, “you have met Kayani some dozen times, you know him better than anyone else. My impression is that he falls into the second category – liar”, the book says.
Woodward, who was given access to some of the classified documents as part of writing his book, wrote that Mullen did not disagree. The book also draws on crucial visits undertaken by CIA chief Leon Panetta and Jones to Islamabad to convey Obama’s warning that USZ would have no other option but to respond if Pakistan did not take decisive action against “terrorists” and their safe havens. The book says that after meeting Zardari, Panetta and Jones met Kayani to tell the Pakistani army chief that the clock was now starting on all the four requests made by Obama. But Kayani would not budge very much.
He had other concerns. “I’ll be the first to admit, I’m India centric”, he said, according to the book. Another jab has been taken by the New York Times which reports that a warning by General David H Petraeus, the Commander of USZ and NATO forces in Afghanistan, indicates USZ officials’ belief that the Pakistanis are unlikely to launch a military operations in North Waziristan, which is considered to be a haven for the fictitious “al-Qaeda” operatives. “Petraeus wants to turn up the heat on the safe havens”, a senior official was quoted as saying, and this was the reason that USZ forces had sharply stepped up drone strikes in the area. “He has pointed out to the Pakistanis that they could do more”, New York Times reports. As part of its covert war in the region, the CIA has launched 20 drone attacks in the last 24 days, killing more than 100 Taliban and foreign militants. The strikes have been mainly targeted to hit the Haqqani network, which the Americans believed is based in the area. The fact is that these propaganda operations only reveal the frustration of USZ Defence personnel over the failure of their war in Afghanistan. They are now looking for a scapegoat and if they think Pakistan fits the bill, they are sadly mistaken. Pakistan will not tolerate any attack on its sovereignty and any propaganda war against it is likely to fail.
Woodword rights on:
“The USZ was getting nowhere fast with these guys, talking with Zardari, who could deliver nothing. On the other hand, Kayani had the power to deliver, but he refused to do much. Nobody could tell him otherwise. The bottom line was depressing: This had been a charade. Jones said he was once again alarmed that success in Afghanistan was tied to what the Pakistanis would or would not do. The White House was almost right back to where it had started with Pakistan in 2009.”
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