Not a friend, not an ally. The Pakistani government is aiding and abetting the global jihad. The learned analysts in Washington, however, since they don’t acknowledge that there is a jihad, refuse to see the obvious.
“Ayman al-Zawahiri: How a CIA Drone Strike Nearly Killed the Head of Al-Qaeda,” by Jeff Stein, Newsweek, April 21, 2017:
…Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI) has been protecting the Egyptian-born al-Zawahiri, a trained surgeon, since U.S. forces evicted Al-Qaeda from Afghanistan in late 2001, several authoritative sources tell Newsweek. His most likely location today, they say: Karachi, the teeming port city of 26 million people on the Arabian Sea. “Like everything about his location, there’s no positive proof,” says Bruce Riedel, a 30-year CIA veteran who was the top adviser on South Asia and the Middle East for the past four U.S. presidents. “There are pretty good indications, including some of the material found in Abbottabad,” where bin Laden was slain, “that point in that direction,” he adds. “This would be a logical place to hide out, where he would feel pretty comfortable that the Americans can’t come and get him.”
Karachi would be a “very hard” place for the U.S. to conduct the kind of commando raid that got bin Laden on May 2, 2011, Riedel says. The heavily policed city, the site of a major nuclear complex, also hosts Pakistani naval and air bases, where forces could quickly be scrambled to intercept American raiders. Plus, bin Laden, al-Zawahiri’s late protégé, remains a popular figure among Karachi’s millions of poor, devout Muslims, who could well emerge from their homes and shops to pin down the Americans.
“If he was in someplace along the border with Afghanistan, I think the temptation would be enormous to go after him,” says Riedel, who now heads the Brooking Institution’s Intelligence Project in Washington, D.C. “But in Karachi, that would be stunning and very difficult.”…
The Al-Qaeda leader had been moving about the Federally Administered Tribal Areas since at least 2005, according to a forthcoming book, The Exile: The Stunning Inside Story of Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda in Flight, by longtime British investigative reporters Cathy Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy. “Married to a local Pashtun girl, [al-Zawahiri] had been given a new home, a large mud-brick compound up in the hills” in Damadola, they write….Closed out of the tribal areas, al-Zawahiri was “moved to Karachi under direction of ‘the black leg,’” the Afghan Taliban’s code name for the ISI, according to the group leader who spoke with Newsweek. And he may well have taken al-Adel, indicted in the U.S. in connection with the 1998 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, with him.
A former top Pakistani official who maintains close ties with the Islamabad government would confirm only that al-Zawahiri is “in a large Pakistani city.” Karachi “makes sense” as a sanctuary, he tells Newsweek, given its widespread sympathies for militant Islam, congested 19th-century streets and large Pakistani military presence. But he says he was “100 percent” sure that bin Laden’s 26-year-old son, Hamza, a rising power in Al-Qaeda, is also in the country under ISI protection. (Abid Saeed, a spokesman for Pakistan’s embassy in Washington, D.C., called the allegations “part of a vicious media campaign” and said “the achievements of Pakistan against Al-Qaeda are unparalleled and proven.”)…
For decades, Washington put up with Islamabad’s protection of Al-Qaeda, the bin Ladens and the Afghan Taliban (which the ISI sees as a bulwark against Indian influence in Afghanistan) because it viewed Pakistan as an ally, however inconsistent, in the U.S. “global war on terrorism.” But Islamabad’s coddling of Al-Qaeda, its unrestrained production of nuclear weapons and its continuing attacks on U.S.-friendly India with ISI-backed militant groups has frayed its ties to Washington, especially with the Trump administration.
In her attention-grabbing February article for the conservative Hudson Institute, co-authored with Husain Haqqani, a former Pakistani ambassador to the U.S., Curtis argued that it was time to “avoid viewing and portraying Pakistan as an ally. The new U.S. administration should recognize that Pakistan is not an American ally.” Now Curtis is the top White House official responsible for Pakistan, as well as India.
Islamabad can no longer be allowed to play a “double game” with Washington, shielding anti-U.S. terrorists with one hand while accepting billions in aid with the other and enjoying the status of a quasi-official ally, she and Haqqani wrote. “For too long, the U.S. has given Pakistan a pass on its support for some terrorist groups based in Pakistan, including those used against India,” they wrote. “The U.S. should no longer settle for Pakistan’s excuses for delaying a full-throttle crackdown on these terrorist groups and should instead hold Pakistan accountable for the activities of all terrorist groups on its soil.”…
Al-Zawahiri has been “surprisingly quiet about Trump,” Riedel says. And he vows he will never be captured alive, says the Islamist militant who talked with him months ago in the tribal areas. He’s in some large Pakistani city now, protected by the ISI, with a “desperate last wish,” says his militant friend, for one last big attack against America “before folding his eyes.”…
Terry says
And he probably used an absentee ballot to vote for Clinton, and is a supporter of Schumer, Pelosi, Feingold and Maxine Waters- they also hate, or seem to, hate, the US.
bob says
He is living in bin Laden s old house ! ? ! ? When will the American government learn. All democracy governments should pull out of the middle east and let the islamics sink in their own cesspool .
mortimer says
The White House should make it a priority to attack all the Al Qaeda leaders. They have enough enemies in the Islamic world who will cooperate with the US to find and attack them. These are EXTREMELY DANGEROUS CRIMINALS on the loose hiding in safe houses in Pakistan.
Pakistan is an enemy of EVERY WESTERN COUNTRY.
Hindu American says
As a Hindu American living in the US, may I humbly suggest you go easy on the “CAPS” and caffeine? On the Internet typing in CAPS usually means that you are shouting.
Thanks in advance.
Mike T says
I think he has legitimate reason to shout…
endislam says
I agree with Mike T. This is something to shout about.
Terry says
Pakistan, back in the 1960’s was seen as a counter-weight to India, which was pro USSR.
But, in my opinion, it was for a mutual benefit- and neither side trusted the other. Again, my opinion- Obama trusted them more than the Bush family (although they also seemed to trust Pakistan).
New sheriff– WE NEED TO KEEP HIM, AND SCREW THESE ” ETHICS EXPERTS” WHO CLAIM THAT THERE ARE CONFLICTS OF INTEREST; AND “POLLS” (EASILY MANIPULATED TO SHOW WHATEVER RESULTS DESIRED) AND ASSORTED ANTI AMERICAN LEFT WING CREEPS.
gravenimage says
Pakistani government sheltering al-Qaeda top dog Zawahiri
……………………..
Well, Pakistan sheltered bin Laden for many years, so this should not surprise.
I hope Trump realizes that these Muslim thugs are *not* our allies.
Georg says
Pakistan and Saudi Arabia are quite a help to the world. Between Salafism, Wahhabism, and Deobandism they have cornered the market in glorifying and spreading the worst aspects and potentials of humanity.
What a legacy. Glad it survived into the digital age so all can admire and research their handiwork for generations to come.
mortimer says
Husain Haqqani, a former Pakistani ambassador to the U.S., has said the US should stop viewing Pakistan as an ally. It appears his sentiments are being heard in the White House at long last.
Pakistan is working with the Arabian states to promote worldwide jihad.
The West needs to take strong measures by cutting off the gravy train and developing alternate fuels to replace oil, petroleum and gas. That way, the JIHAD-PROMOTING COUNTRIES will all suddenly dry up.
Tara says
Pakistan is not merely aiding and abetting global jihad, it is one of the epicentres of
jihad. And Pakistanis have infiltrated the lower echelons in every organization in North America and the US.
The US has displayed extremely naivete in arming Pakistan to fight jihad. Pakistan has used those funds and ammunition to find and perpetuate jihadists.
Pakistan is now funded by China as well.
Tara says
To fund and perpetuate jihadists
Godwin says
One must not forget the teenager rape gangs of Pakistani origin in UK.
Danny says
Osama killed in pakistan, khalid shaikh mo caught in pakistan, mullah omar died in a (karachi) pakistani hospital, ayman al zawahiri lodging in karachi, pakistan and on and on the list goes, yet they are an ally. Running with the hares and hunting with the dogs, nice setup to squeeze money from gullible and spineless west.