Thursday, February 26, 2009

what, me worry? obama lavishes money on pakistan, never mind the aqkhan pardon, nor the capitulation to the taliban in swat

feb 26th, 2009

one of two explanations:

1. the pakistanis have the americans by the short and curlies because of the logistics issue for afghanistan

2. the yanks were always in on the whole taliban (=ISI) charade. they have been doing a "milady doth protest too much" kind of thing. remember what happened in kunduz. (see my old column http://www.rediff.com/news/2001/nov/30rajeev.htm)

both are grave and frightening possibilities.

1 comment:

Shahryar said...

Extract from Feinstein comment on U.S. drones likely to embarrass Pakistan February 13, 2009

Reporting from Washington -- A senior U.S. lawmaker said Thursday that unmanned CIA Predator aircraft operating in Pakistan are flown from an air base in that country, a revelation likely to embarrass the Pakistani government and complicate its counter-terrorism collaboration with the United States.

The disclosure by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, marked the first time a U.S. official had publicly commented on where the Predator aircraft patrolling Pakistan take off and land.

At a hearing, Feinstein expressed surprise over Pakistani opposition to the campaign of Predator-launched CIA missile strikes against Islamic extremist targets along Pakistan's northwestern border.

"As I understand it, these are flown out of a Pakistani base," she said.

The basing of the pilotless aircraft in Pakistan suggests a much deeper relationship with the United States on counter-terrorism matters than has been publicly acknowledged. Such an arrangement would be at odds with protests lodged by officials in Islamabad, the capital, and could inflame anti-American sentiment in the country.