ID :
181231
Tue, 05/10/2011 - 14:53
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/181231
The shortlink copeid
Osama: prime minister’s stout defence of Army, ISI
Sharafat Kazmi
Islamabad, May 10, 2011 (Pakistan Observer): Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani has announced investigation into Abbottabad incident and convening of joint sitting of the parliament to discuss the issue. He told National Assembly that a high level inquiry committee headed by Adjutant General will probe the incident.
Making a policy statement in the National Assembly on the Abbottabad issue Monday, the Prime Minister said a joint session of the parliament has been convened on Friday next where concerned authorities of the armed forces would impart in-camera briefing to parliamentarians on different aspects of the issue.
The Prime Minister said this is a national issue and we must have a national approach as no single party or individual can take the country out of the prevailing crises.
He offered the opposition to come up with their proposals for evolving a strategy and the relevant officials would be ready to answer queries by parliamentarians during the joint session. The Prime Minister said a meeting of Defence Committee of the Cabinet has also been convened to discuss the issue.
The Prime Minister categorically rejected the false notion of divide between the state institutions on the issue and said they are all on the same page. The political leadership is supportive of the strengthening of all state institutions. All stake-holders are consulted through inter-agency processes.
Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani affirmed that the government has full confidence in the high command of the armed forces and ISI. He said ISI is a national asset and has full support of the government and we are proud of its considerable accomplishments in the anti-terror campaign.
The Prime Minister emphatically stated that any attack against Pakistan’s strategic assets whether overt or covert will find a matching response. Pakistan reserves the right to retaliate with full force. No one should undermine the resolve and capability of our nation and armed forces to defend our sacred homeland.
The Prime Minister said, we all are united and fully committed to sparing no sacrifice to uphold our national dignity and honour and to safeguard our supreme national interests by all means and all resources at our command.
Giving background of the Abbottabad incident, he said for over thirty years Pakistan was impacted by the conflict and strife in Afghanistan. In that struggle we together with the rest of the world decided to uphold the principle of self-determination for the great Afghan nation.
He reminded to the international community of the decade of 90s, which saw Arab volunteers and said who was responsible for the birth of Al-Qaeda and making the myth of Osama Bin Laden. He said Pakistan alone cannot be held to account for flawed policies and blunders of others. Pakistan is not birth place of Al-Qaeda. We did not invite Osama bin Laden to Pakistan or even to Afghanistan.
He also reminded to the international community that Pakistan lost some thirty thousand men, women and children, more than five thousand personnel of armed forces and billions of dollars in economic costs because of the war against terrorism. He said this war is our national priority and the nation is united in its resolve to eliminate terrorism from our soil. Pakistan will not relent in this national cause and is determined not to allow its soil to be used by anyone for terrorism.
Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani said bombing of Tora Bora after nine eleven led to dispersal of Al-Qaeda leaders and foot soldiers who sought hideouts everywhere including Pakistan.
He said we did not invite Al-Qaeda to Pakistan, rather it was for the first time that our armed forces were deployed in Tirah Valley to form a security cordon to interdict Al-Qaeda during Tora Bora bombings. In that operation 248 Al-Qaeda members were captured by our armed forces. Subsequently it was because of the anti-terror strategy prosecuted by ISI with a high degree of professionalism that some forty of key Al-Qaeda operatives including Faraj Al Libbi and mastermind of nine eleven Khalid Sheikh Muhammad were captured.
He said it is disingenuous for anyone to blame Pakistan or its State institutions including the ISI and the armed forces for being in cahoots with the al-Qaeda. It was al-Qaeda and its affiliates that carried out hundreds of suicide bombings in nearly every and city of Pakistan and also targeted political leaders, State institutions, the ISI and GHQ.
The Prime Minister said allegations of complicity or incompetence are absurd. “We will not allow our detractors to succeed in offloading their own short-comings and errors of omission or commission in a blame game that stigmatizes Pakistan.
He said there has been an intelligence failure but it is not only ours but of all the intelligence agencies of the world. The Al-Qaeda chief along with other Al-Qaeda operators had managed to elude global intelligence agencies for a long time. He was constantly being tracked not only by the ISI but also by other intelligence agencies.
He said it was the ISI that passed key leads to CIA that enabled the US intelligence to use superior technological assets and focus on the area in which Osama bin Laden was eventually found.
The Prime Minister said Pakistan is determined to get to the bottom of how, when and why about Osama’s presence in Abbottabad.
He said people of Pakistan are rightly incensed on the issue of violation of their country’s sovereignty as typified by the covert US air and ground assault on Osama’s hideout in Abbottabad. This has raised questions about Pakistan’s defence capability and the security of our strategic assets. He said our security policies are constantly reviewed to enhance defence capabilities.
The Prime Minister said cooperation in counter terrorism warrants a partnership approach which fully accommodates Pakistan’s interests and respect for the clearly stipulated red lines.
He dispelled the apprehensions being voiced about Pakistan’s relations with the United States and said we have a strategic partnership which serves our mutual interest. He said it is based on mutual respect and mutual trust. He said we have agreed that whenever we find ourselves on conflictual and disagree, we should make efforts to reach common understanding by deeper and more intense exchange of views.
About Afghanistan he said destinies of the two countries are interlinked.
He said Pakistan has embarked on an important process of engagement with India and will pursue this in a positive and constructive manner.
In his speech leader of the opposition Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said the Prime Minister’s statement did not reflect aspirations of the people and that a sense of insecurity prevailing in the country.
He said Pakistan is a peace-loving nation and wants to live with dignity and honour. He said intrusion of four helicopters in the darkness of the night was an attack on our sovereignty and the government should give explanation on this account.
He said Pakistan should approach the United Nations in this regard. Opposition leader in the National Assembly Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan opposed in-camera briefing of the government to parliament about US forces operation in Abbottabad against Osama bin Laden and demanded to open the session for media and entire nation.
Speaking on point of order in the National Assembly on Monday, Ch. Nisar noted that four US helicopters entered the land of 7th nuclear power of the world on May 2 night and violated the country’s sovereignty for one hour. He questioned that on one side the Prime Minister said that the secret agencies are under the PM but on the other side he was saying that it was failure of the intelligence agencies.
He termed the prime minister announcement about summoning of in-camera session as positive step but added that there is lot of questions and the answers should be given in the front of media adding that they would attend the meeting if it was effective.
He suggested to approach the United Nations against the United States attack and should summon the Air Chief into the house for halting of drone attacks. The government should set up national commission for investigation into Abbottabad’s operation, he suggested.
About the PM speech to the House, Ch. Nisar said that there was not even a single word to remove reservations and insecurity of the masses and noted that the prime minister addressed in English for his foreign masters. He said that the prime minister’s address disappointed the nation. “It is the failure of the prime minister if it is the failure of the agencies and the prime minister should himself decide about this failure”, the opposition leader underlined.
He demanded to conduct investigations into Osama’s incident, as there is lot of speculations. He suggested that the government should defend the country according to the constitution and demanded investigation into US forces violation of international laws.
The whole government except from President Asif Ali was sleeping, as the president was busy in dealing, he added. Our national sovereignty was assassinated in this operation, the Leader of the Opposition said. Ch. Nisar pointed out that the masses did not elect them for completing five-year tenure but for the protection of the country.
NNNN
ZCZC
Pakistan, US agreed secretly 10 years ago
M A Kaiserimam
London, May 10, 2011 (Pakistan Observer): US and Pakistan struck a secret deal almost a decade ago permitting a US operation against Osama bin Laden on Pakistani soil similar to last week’s raid that killed the al-Qaida leader, the Guardian has learned.
The deal was struck between the military leader General Pervez Musharraf and President George Bush after Bin Laden escaped US forces in the mountains of Tora Bora in late 2001, according to serving and retired Pakistani and US officials.
Under its terms, Pakistan would allow US forces to conduct a unilateral raid inside Pakistan in search of Bin Laden, his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and the al-Qaida No3. Afterwards, both sides agreed, Pakistan would vociferously protest the incursion.
“There was an agreement between Bush and Musharraf that if we knew where Osama was, we were going to come and get him,” said a former senior US official with knowledge of counterterrorism operations. “The Pakistanis would put up a hue and cry, but they wouldn’t stop us.”
The deal puts a new complexion on the political storm triggered by Bin Laden’s death in Abbottabad, 35 miles north of Islamabad, where a team of US navy Seals assaulted his safe house in the early hours of 2 May.
Pakistani officials have insisted they knew nothing of the raid, with military and civilian leaders issuing a strong rebuke to the US. If the US conducts another such assault, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani warned parliament on Monday, “Pakistan reserves the right to retaliate with full force.”
Days earlier, Musharraf, now running an opposition party from exile in London, emerged as one of the most vocal critics of the raid, terming it a “violation of the sovereignty of Pakistan”.
But under the terms of the secret deal, while Pakistanis may not have been informed of the assault, they had agreed to it in principle.
A senior Pakistani official said it had been struck under Musharraf and renewed by the army during the “transition to democracy” - a six-month period from February 2008 when Musharraf was still president but a civilian government had been elected.
Referring to the assault on Bin Laden’s Abbottabad compound, the official added: “As far as our American friends are concerned, they have just implemented the agreement.”
The former US official said the Pakistani protests of the past week were the “public face” of the deal. “We knew they would deny this stuff.”
The agreement is consistent with Pakistan’s unspoken policy towards CIA drone strikes in the tribal belt, which was revealed by the WikiLeaks US embassy cables last November. In August 2008, Gilani reportedly told a US official: “I don’t care if they do it, as long as they get the right people. We’ll protest in the National Assembly and then ignore it.”
As drone strikes have escalated in the tribal belt over the past year, senior civilian and military officials issued pro forma denunciations even as it became clear the Pakistani military was co-operating with the covert programme.
The former US official said that impetus for the co-operation, much like the Bin Laden deal, was driven by the US. “It didn’t come from Musharraf’s desire. On the Predators, we made it very clear to them that if they weren’t going to prosecute these targets, we were, and there was nothing they could do to stop us taking unilateral action. “We told them, over and again: ‘We’ll stop the Predators if you take these targets out yourselves.’”
Despite several attempts to contact his London office, the Guardian has been unable to obtain comment from Musharraf.
Since Bin Laden’s death, Pakistan has come under intense US scrutiny, including accusations that elements within Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence helped hide the al-Qaida leader.
On Sunday, President Barack Obama said Bin Laden must have had “some sort of support network” inside Pakistan.
“We don’t know whether there might have been some people inside of government, outside of government, and that’s something we have to investigate,” Obama said.
Gilani has stood firmly by the ISI, describing it as a “national asset”, and said claims that Pakistan was “in cahoots” with al-Qaida were “disingenuous”.
“Allegations of complicity or incompetence are absurd,” he said. “We didn’t invite Osama bin Laden to Pakistan.”
Gilani said the army had launched an investigation into how Bin Laden managed to hide inside Pakistan. Senior generals will give a briefing on the furore to parliament next Friday.
Gilani paid lip-service to the alliance with America and welcomed a forthcoming visit from the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, but pointedly paid tribute to help from China, whom he described as “a source of inspiration for the people of Pakistan”.
Islamabad, May 10, 2011 (Pakistan Observer): Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani has announced investigation into Abbottabad incident and convening of joint sitting of the parliament to discuss the issue. He told National Assembly that a high level inquiry committee headed by Adjutant General will probe the incident.
Making a policy statement in the National Assembly on the Abbottabad issue Monday, the Prime Minister said a joint session of the parliament has been convened on Friday next where concerned authorities of the armed forces would impart in-camera briefing to parliamentarians on different aspects of the issue.
The Prime Minister said this is a national issue and we must have a national approach as no single party or individual can take the country out of the prevailing crises.
He offered the opposition to come up with their proposals for evolving a strategy and the relevant officials would be ready to answer queries by parliamentarians during the joint session. The Prime Minister said a meeting of Defence Committee of the Cabinet has also been convened to discuss the issue.
The Prime Minister categorically rejected the false notion of divide between the state institutions on the issue and said they are all on the same page. The political leadership is supportive of the strengthening of all state institutions. All stake-holders are consulted through inter-agency processes.
Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani affirmed that the government has full confidence in the high command of the armed forces and ISI. He said ISI is a national asset and has full support of the government and we are proud of its considerable accomplishments in the anti-terror campaign.
The Prime Minister emphatically stated that any attack against Pakistan’s strategic assets whether overt or covert will find a matching response. Pakistan reserves the right to retaliate with full force. No one should undermine the resolve and capability of our nation and armed forces to defend our sacred homeland.
The Prime Minister said, we all are united and fully committed to sparing no sacrifice to uphold our national dignity and honour and to safeguard our supreme national interests by all means and all resources at our command.
Giving background of the Abbottabad incident, he said for over thirty years Pakistan was impacted by the conflict and strife in Afghanistan. In that struggle we together with the rest of the world decided to uphold the principle of self-determination for the great Afghan nation.
He reminded to the international community of the decade of 90s, which saw Arab volunteers and said who was responsible for the birth of Al-Qaeda and making the myth of Osama Bin Laden. He said Pakistan alone cannot be held to account for flawed policies and blunders of others. Pakistan is not birth place of Al-Qaeda. We did not invite Osama bin Laden to Pakistan or even to Afghanistan.
He also reminded to the international community that Pakistan lost some thirty thousand men, women and children, more than five thousand personnel of armed forces and billions of dollars in economic costs because of the war against terrorism. He said this war is our national priority and the nation is united in its resolve to eliminate terrorism from our soil. Pakistan will not relent in this national cause and is determined not to allow its soil to be used by anyone for terrorism.
Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani said bombing of Tora Bora after nine eleven led to dispersal of Al-Qaeda leaders and foot soldiers who sought hideouts everywhere including Pakistan.
He said we did not invite Al-Qaeda to Pakistan, rather it was for the first time that our armed forces were deployed in Tirah Valley to form a security cordon to interdict Al-Qaeda during Tora Bora bombings. In that operation 248 Al-Qaeda members were captured by our armed forces. Subsequently it was because of the anti-terror strategy prosecuted by ISI with a high degree of professionalism that some forty of key Al-Qaeda operatives including Faraj Al Libbi and mastermind of nine eleven Khalid Sheikh Muhammad were captured.
He said it is disingenuous for anyone to blame Pakistan or its State institutions including the ISI and the armed forces for being in cahoots with the al-Qaeda. It was al-Qaeda and its affiliates that carried out hundreds of suicide bombings in nearly every and city of Pakistan and also targeted political leaders, State institutions, the ISI and GHQ.
The Prime Minister said allegations of complicity or incompetence are absurd. “We will not allow our detractors to succeed in offloading their own short-comings and errors of omission or commission in a blame game that stigmatizes Pakistan.
He said there has been an intelligence failure but it is not only ours but of all the intelligence agencies of the world. The Al-Qaeda chief along with other Al-Qaeda operators had managed to elude global intelligence agencies for a long time. He was constantly being tracked not only by the ISI but also by other intelligence agencies.
He said it was the ISI that passed key leads to CIA that enabled the US intelligence to use superior technological assets and focus on the area in which Osama bin Laden was eventually found.
The Prime Minister said Pakistan is determined to get to the bottom of how, when and why about Osama’s presence in Abbottabad.
He said people of Pakistan are rightly incensed on the issue of violation of their country’s sovereignty as typified by the covert US air and ground assault on Osama’s hideout in Abbottabad. This has raised questions about Pakistan’s defence capability and the security of our strategic assets. He said our security policies are constantly reviewed to enhance defence capabilities.
The Prime Minister said cooperation in counter terrorism warrants a partnership approach which fully accommodates Pakistan’s interests and respect for the clearly stipulated red lines.
He dispelled the apprehensions being voiced about Pakistan’s relations with the United States and said we have a strategic partnership which serves our mutual interest. He said it is based on mutual respect and mutual trust. He said we have agreed that whenever we find ourselves on conflictual and disagree, we should make efforts to reach common understanding by deeper and more intense exchange of views.
About Afghanistan he said destinies of the two countries are interlinked.
He said Pakistan has embarked on an important process of engagement with India and will pursue this in a positive and constructive manner.
In his speech leader of the opposition Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said the Prime Minister’s statement did not reflect aspirations of the people and that a sense of insecurity prevailing in the country.
He said Pakistan is a peace-loving nation and wants to live with dignity and honour. He said intrusion of four helicopters in the darkness of the night was an attack on our sovereignty and the government should give explanation on this account.
He said Pakistan should approach the United Nations in this regard. Opposition leader in the National Assembly Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan opposed in-camera briefing of the government to parliament about US forces operation in Abbottabad against Osama bin Laden and demanded to open the session for media and entire nation.
Speaking on point of order in the National Assembly on Monday, Ch. Nisar noted that four US helicopters entered the land of 7th nuclear power of the world on May 2 night and violated the country’s sovereignty for one hour. He questioned that on one side the Prime Minister said that the secret agencies are under the PM but on the other side he was saying that it was failure of the intelligence agencies.
He termed the prime minister announcement about summoning of in-camera session as positive step but added that there is lot of questions and the answers should be given in the front of media adding that they would attend the meeting if it was effective.
He suggested to approach the United Nations against the United States attack and should summon the Air Chief into the house for halting of drone attacks. The government should set up national commission for investigation into Abbottabad’s operation, he suggested.
About the PM speech to the House, Ch. Nisar said that there was not even a single word to remove reservations and insecurity of the masses and noted that the prime minister addressed in English for his foreign masters. He said that the prime minister’s address disappointed the nation. “It is the failure of the prime minister if it is the failure of the agencies and the prime minister should himself decide about this failure”, the opposition leader underlined.
He demanded to conduct investigations into Osama’s incident, as there is lot of speculations. He suggested that the government should defend the country according to the constitution and demanded investigation into US forces violation of international laws.
The whole government except from President Asif Ali was sleeping, as the president was busy in dealing, he added. Our national sovereignty was assassinated in this operation, the Leader of the Opposition said. Ch. Nisar pointed out that the masses did not elect them for completing five-year tenure but for the protection of the country.
NNNN
ZCZC
Pakistan, US agreed secretly 10 years ago
M A Kaiserimam
London, May 10, 2011 (Pakistan Observer): US and Pakistan struck a secret deal almost a decade ago permitting a US operation against Osama bin Laden on Pakistani soil similar to last week’s raid that killed the al-Qaida leader, the Guardian has learned.
The deal was struck between the military leader General Pervez Musharraf and President George Bush after Bin Laden escaped US forces in the mountains of Tora Bora in late 2001, according to serving and retired Pakistani and US officials.
Under its terms, Pakistan would allow US forces to conduct a unilateral raid inside Pakistan in search of Bin Laden, his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and the al-Qaida No3. Afterwards, both sides agreed, Pakistan would vociferously protest the incursion.
“There was an agreement between Bush and Musharraf that if we knew where Osama was, we were going to come and get him,” said a former senior US official with knowledge of counterterrorism operations. “The Pakistanis would put up a hue and cry, but they wouldn’t stop us.”
The deal puts a new complexion on the political storm triggered by Bin Laden’s death in Abbottabad, 35 miles north of Islamabad, where a team of US navy Seals assaulted his safe house in the early hours of 2 May.
Pakistani officials have insisted they knew nothing of the raid, with military and civilian leaders issuing a strong rebuke to the US. If the US conducts another such assault, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani warned parliament on Monday, “Pakistan reserves the right to retaliate with full force.”
Days earlier, Musharraf, now running an opposition party from exile in London, emerged as one of the most vocal critics of the raid, terming it a “violation of the sovereignty of Pakistan”.
But under the terms of the secret deal, while Pakistanis may not have been informed of the assault, they had agreed to it in principle.
A senior Pakistani official said it had been struck under Musharraf and renewed by the army during the “transition to democracy” - a six-month period from February 2008 when Musharraf was still president but a civilian government had been elected.
Referring to the assault on Bin Laden’s Abbottabad compound, the official added: “As far as our American friends are concerned, they have just implemented the agreement.”
The former US official said the Pakistani protests of the past week were the “public face” of the deal. “We knew they would deny this stuff.”
The agreement is consistent with Pakistan’s unspoken policy towards CIA drone strikes in the tribal belt, which was revealed by the WikiLeaks US embassy cables last November. In August 2008, Gilani reportedly told a US official: “I don’t care if they do it, as long as they get the right people. We’ll protest in the National Assembly and then ignore it.”
As drone strikes have escalated in the tribal belt over the past year, senior civilian and military officials issued pro forma denunciations even as it became clear the Pakistani military was co-operating with the covert programme.
The former US official said that impetus for the co-operation, much like the Bin Laden deal, was driven by the US. “It didn’t come from Musharraf’s desire. On the Predators, we made it very clear to them that if they weren’t going to prosecute these targets, we were, and there was nothing they could do to stop us taking unilateral action. “We told them, over and again: ‘We’ll stop the Predators if you take these targets out yourselves.’”
Despite several attempts to contact his London office, the Guardian has been unable to obtain comment from Musharraf.
Since Bin Laden’s death, Pakistan has come under intense US scrutiny, including accusations that elements within Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence helped hide the al-Qaida leader.
On Sunday, President Barack Obama said Bin Laden must have had “some sort of support network” inside Pakistan.
“We don’t know whether there might have been some people inside of government, outside of government, and that’s something we have to investigate,” Obama said.
Gilani has stood firmly by the ISI, describing it as a “national asset”, and said claims that Pakistan was “in cahoots” with al-Qaida were “disingenuous”.
“Allegations of complicity or incompetence are absurd,” he said. “We didn’t invite Osama bin Laden to Pakistan.”
Gilani said the army had launched an investigation into how Bin Laden managed to hide inside Pakistan. Senior generals will give a briefing on the furore to parliament next Friday.
Gilani paid lip-service to the alliance with America and welcomed a forthcoming visit from the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, but pointedly paid tribute to help from China, whom he described as “a source of inspiration for the people of Pakistan”.
