Yankee Go Home
Pak Army: Yankee Covert Ops Out of Pakistan. AFP:
ISLAMABAD (AFP) — The Pakistani military reacted angrily to reports that US President George W. Bush is considering covert military operations in the country’s volatile tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.
“It is not up to the US administration, it is Pakistan’s government who is responsible for this country,” chief military spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad told AFP.
“There are no overt or covert US operations inside Pakistan. Such reports are baseless and we reject them.”
The New York Times reported on its website late Saturday that under a proposal being discussed in Washington, CIA operatives based in Afghanistan would be able to call on direct military support for counter-terrorism operations in neighbouring Pakistan.
What tenuous military dictatorship wants news like that from NYT?
WASHINGTON — President Bush’s senior national security advisers are debating whether to expand the authority of the Central Intelligence Agency and the military to conduct far more aggressive covert operations in the tribal areas of Pakistan.
The debate is a response to intelligence reports that Al Qaeda and the Taliban are intensifying efforts there to destabilize the Pakistani government, several senior administration officials said.
Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and a number of President Bush’s top national security advisers met Friday at the White House to discuss the proposal, which is part of a broad reassessment of American strategy after the assassination 10 days ago of the Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto. There was also talk of how to handle the period from now to the Feb. 18 elections, and the aftermath of those elections.
Several of the participants in the meeting argued that the threat to the government of President Pervez Musharraf was now so grave that both Mr. Musharraf and Pakistan’s new military leadership were likely to give the United States more latitude, officials said.
Apparently not. At least not publicly, when NYT blabs about it.
Many of the specific options under discussion are unclear and highly classified. Officials said that the options would probably involve the C.I.A. working with the military’s Special Operations forces.
The Bush administration has not formally presented any new proposals to Mr. Musharraf, who gave up his military role last month, or to his successor as the army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, who the White House thinks will be more sympathetic to the American position than Mr. Musharraf.
Maybe absent the blabbing, he would be.
But at the White House and the Pentagon, officials see an opportunity in the changing power structure for the Americans to advocate for the expanded authority in Pakistan, a nuclear-armed country. “After years of focusing on Afghanistan, we think the extremists now see a chance for the big prize — creating chaos in Pakistan itself,” one senior official said.
…
The United States now has about 50 soldiers in Pakistan. Any expanded operations using C.I.A. operatives or Special Operations forces, like the Navy Seals, would be small and tailored to specific missions, military officials said.
…
In the past, the administration has largely stayed out of the tribal areas, in part for fear that exposure of any American-led operations there would so embarrass the Musharraf government that it could further empower his critics, who have declared he was too close to Washington.
Even now, officials say, some American diplomats and military officials, as well as outside experts, argue that American-led military operations on the Pakistani side of the border with Afghanistan could result in a tremendous backlash and ultimately do more harm than good. That is particularly true, they say, if Americans were captured or killed in the territory.
This Dec. 26 WP Early Warning blog item sounds like a step beyond policy musings: US Spec Ops expected to vastly increase Pak presence
Prior related from NYT, US seeks to enlist tribes
More current re Pakistan:
AFP: Danger looms, instability growing
NYT: The Ghosts that Haunt Pakistan
WP: US relying on two to prop up Pakistan
Topics: Pakistan
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:52 am on Sunday, January 6, 2008
6 Responses to “Yankee Go Home”
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January 6th, 2008 at 10:21 am
Dear Pakistan,
Should you choose to live with the alligator that seems to be even closer to you then it was before, you, Pakistan, will most surely be eaten.
The alligator catches the scent of your fright and unwillingness to do a damn thing to kill it. When it does eat you…WE and India will kill it.
January 6th, 2008 at 11:02 am
I guess it would be naive to think they’re blabbing because they don’t know any better…
January 6th, 2008 at 3:14 pm
Two options here:
The NYT is doing its usual best to destroy any hope the US has of defeating Islamofacism, or…
The evil Bush administration has leaked a bogus report to make the Islamofacists scramble and scurry.
Personally, I think Mush is finished anyway, and we can’t possibly do any more damage than he’s already done to his country and our relationship with it.
January 6th, 2008 at 3:14 pm
And someday I’ll learn to spell “fascism”.
January 6th, 2008 at 4:58 pm
I’m for just going in and bombing the hell out of the unrepentant tribal areas. Let us get on with the war. Of course, this means we may have to bomb the hell out of the NYTs as well. (That’s a joke, son. Possibly.)
January 6th, 2008 at 8:56 pm
Agreed..Isn’t that main tribal area spelled Wazistan? Never could god damn spell…:).