It has been obvious for years that the Pakistanis have been aiding the same jihadists that the U.S. government has been giving them billions of dollars to fight. The New York Times reported on that at length back in 2008. And recently we learned that Ahmed Shuja Pasha, the head of the ISI, the Pakistani government’s spy service, knew the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden, and apparently so did many other top officials in the Pakistani government. Those who are surprised by or indignant about what Chris Alexander says probably also think that Islam is a Religion of Peace that has been hijacked by a Tiny Minority of Extremists.
“Pakistan: State Sponsor of Terrorism?,” by Christine Williams for Gatestone Institute, April 7:
Pakistan’s High Commission to Canada rebuked Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Chris Alexander for calling Pakistan a state sponsor of terrorism. “Pakistan is not a state sponsor of terrorism, as naively alleged by Mr. Alexander, but is itself a victim of terrorism, determined to fight this menace and extend every possible co-operation to our neighbors and allies in this regard,” said Press Counselor Nazia Khalid.
Alexander, who served as Canada’s ambassador in Afghanistan and authored the book, “The Long Way Back: Afghanistan’s Quest for Peace,” stated on a CBC television news program that “[t]he civilian government there [Pakistan] doesn’t control military policy, strategic policy… but the army and the intelligence service do…. and they have denied the obvious, postponed this reckoning for years with so many terrorist groups, including al-Qaeda.”
Alexander stated that the international community urgently needs to address the situation in Pakistan, as it is connected to other trouble spots including Syria, Iraq and Russia.
Alexander’s reference to Pakistan as a state sponsor of terrorism is far from naïve. It was further highlighted by his press secretary, Alexis Pavlich, who stated: “It is not just that these terrorist groups continue to operate from Pakistani territory: they also enjoy official, albeit covert, sanction and support from some within Pakistan’s state apparatus.”
A report by the Council on Foreign Relations, “Pakistan’s New Generation of Terrorists“, suggests there is nothing naïve about Alexander’s warnings about Pakistan. Its commitment to counterterrorism came into question in May 2011, when U.S. commandos killed al-Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Laden at a compound not far from Islamabad, and it was discovered that members of al-Qaeda’s leadership, as well as the Afghan Taliban, were living and operating out of Pakistan’s tribal areas and had combined forces with several militant insurgent groups, including the Taliban-linked Haqqani Network, believed to be supported by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence.
According to a Reuters report , in late 2011, the Obama administration created a special unit based in Kabul to coordinate efforts against the Haqqani militant group. The organization had been named in “some of the most audacious attacks of the Afghan war,” including storming hotels popular with foreigners; bombing the Indian embassy in Kabul, and a 2011 attack on the U.S. embassy.
Since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, when Pakistan joined Washington presumably as an ally in combatting terrorism, analysts have accused Pakistan’s security and intelligence services of playing a “double game” and aiding militant groups fighting NATO in Afghanistan. In 2002, supporters of the Afghan Taliban sought refuge in Pakistan’s tribal areas. Five years later, over a dozen disparate militant groups united under the umbrella of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), also known as the Pakistani Taliban. It was led by Baitullah Mehsud of South Waziristan, whom Pakistani authorities accused of orchestrating the December 2007 assassination of Pakistan’s former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto. Authorities produced an intercepted audio communication in which Mehsud reportedly confirmed that his men were responsible for the attack.
Even though the Pakistani army targets militants, analysts say they also continue to form alliances with groups such as the Haqqanis that they can use as a strategic hedge against India. The strategy involves rendering Afghanistan a virtual “satellite state” with the objective of denying India political and military influence in Afghanistan, establishing a Pashtun-dominated government in Kabul, and ensuring that the government in Kabul does not incite Pakistani Pashtuns to secede. Pakistan therefore provides support to the Haqqanis.
At a congressional hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee on September 2011, the then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, asserted that Pakistan supports terrorist groups and that “Pakistani duplicity puts in jeopardy not only the frayed U.S.-Pakistani partnership against terrorism but also the outcome to the decade-old war in Afghanistan.” Testifying with Mullen, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta also decried Pakistani support for the Haqqani network.
A report by the Times of India even highlighted a joint statement by Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, aimed at Pakistan, which said: “States that provide aid, abetment and shelter for such terrorist activities are themselves as guilty as the actual perpetrators of terrorism.” The two leaders spoke of the Mumbai attacks and Pakistan’s foot-dragging on acting against leaders of the terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba and its chief, Hafiz Saeed, and also the snail’s pace of the trials of those held so far.
In the report “Pakistan: With Friends Like These…“, former U.S. diplomat Peter Tomsen notes an alarming description by northern Tajik Commander Ahmed Shah Masood about a 10-day Taliban offensive near the Tajikistan border. Masood, who apparently had spies operating in Pakistan, stated that it was a Pakistani General and Pakistani military officers who had directed the “Taliban attack.” Masood identified some of the Pakistani army units participating in the operation, in which “a force of 25,000 Pakistani army soldiers and Pakistani religious students were fighting alongside a horde of Taliban fighters, Osama bin Laden’s two Arab brigades, and 300 Uzbek militants.”
The international community would do well to heed Chris Alexander’s warning.
Stephen Poole says
… Have you Ever noticed that when you hit the nail on the head, as Canadian Minister Mr Chris Alexander did/has, how much “the nail” doesn’t like it ?? …
dumbledoresarmy says
From the article –
“A report by the Times of India even highlighted a joint statement by Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, aimed at Pakistan, which said: “States that provide aid, abetment and shelter for such terrorist activities are themselves as guilty as the actual perpetrators of terrorism.” The two leaders spoke of the Mumbai attacks and Pakistan’s foot-dragging on acting against leaders of the terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba and its chief, Hafiz Saeed, and also the snail’s pace of the trials of those held so far.”
The Russian President and the Indian Prime Minister, eh?
The Bear and the Tiger: *both* raising the alarm about Islamic Pakistan.
Come on , Uncle Sam (and the rest of the Anglosphere) – it’s time and past time to give Pakistan the old triple Talaq, end ALL ‘aid’ aka jizya, end all trade, stop selling them weapons, end all entry of Pakistani Muslims into the USA for whatever reason and radically realign toward fellow non-Muslims, most notably, India.
Get rid of that deadly whore Pakistan who has been playing you for a fool and ripping you off, and start making friends with Mother India.
Salah says
“.. think that Islam is a Religion of Peace that has been hijacked by a Tiny Minority of Extremists.”
Allow me to put it this way:
“Islam is a Religion of Violence that has been hijacked by the Vast Majority of Muslims.”
Islam is a Violent Religion, but the Vast Majority of Muslims don’t know it or don’t want to know it.
So they have hijacked this Violent Religion from the Tiny Minority of Extremists (who practice the True Islam), and have falsely pretended (out of ignorance/shame/pride/fear) that they are practicing the True Peaceful Islam!!!
Defcon 4 says
“Islam is a Violent Religion, but the Vast Majority of Muslims don’t know it or don’t want to know it.”
LOL, my G-d what a ludicrous comment. The calls for violence in the holey books of islam aren’t obscure, or rare and neither is the demonisation of Jews. You’re basically asserting that most muslimes don’t know the core tenets of their own religion.
Salah says
“You’re basically asserting that most muslimes don’t know the core tenets of their own religion.”
That’s EXACTLY what I mean.
They don’t know and/or they don’t want to know. They’re so ashamed of their “prophet” that they falsely pretend that the atrocities he had committed were justified. That he had to fight against a specific people, at a specific time in history. And that this (shameful) behaviour is not to be perpetuated in our time.
That’s what they believe. Why? because most of them are more decent than Muhammad, most of them are NOT true Muslims.
The ONLY true Muslims are those who encourage, support, call for or wage violent jihad.
David says
US Government officials give aid money to Pakistan = ISI= Taliban = kill Allied troops. And they will tell you Snowden is the criminal! History will judge Snowden as being patriotic & the current US officials as being the criminals.
bill says
I fear for the future of Afghanistan. The Pakistanis as pro Taleban and I fear they will start fomenting problems by supporting the jihadists in the country which will help them as they will divert the attention of the Taleban within their country.
which is a basket case anyway.
This will probably be short sighted as when the Taleban get more control of Afghanistan they will be satrt to take over pakistan as well. This in turn will cause increased hostility between Pakistan and India
Theo Prinse says
Bank of Credit and Commerce International
CIA funding to the Afghan Mujahideen and the Contras
The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency held numerous accounts at BCCI, according to William von Raab, former U.S. Commissioner of Customs. Oliver North also used and held multiple accounts at BCCI. These bank accounts were used for a variety of illegal covert operations, including transfers of money and weapons related to the Iran-Contra scandal, according to Time Magazine. The CIA also worked with BCCI in arming and financing the Afghan mujahideen during the Afghan War against the Soviet Union, using BCCI to launder proceeds from trafficking heroin grown in the Pakistan-Afghanistan borderlands, boosting the flow of narcotics to European and U.S. markets
Funding to criminals and dictators
BCCI handled money for Saddam Hussein, Manuel Noriega, Hussain Mohammad Ershad and Samuel Doe. Other account holders included Medellin Cartel and Abu Nidal.[
The Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) was a major international bank founded in 1972 by Agha Hasan Abedi, a Pakistani financier.
The Bank was registered in Luxembourg with head offices in Karachi and London.
Defcon 4 says
Who cares? The US funding of the Taliban happened over TWENTY years ago jerk. Do you have any proof the US is continuing to fund the Taliban today?
Zhang says
Pakistan government support terrorists in Xinjiang which killed so many innocents