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Tuesday 8 December 2009

CIA's Taliban Proxies Will Never Snatch Pakistan's Nukes!


The prime minister is dead right. Sure, Pakistan is not a vegetable that any Tom, Dick or Harry of this world could think of snatching. Not even the Taliban. And if some of them try, they too, will discover what a pipe dream it was. For in its military, Pakistan has a strong defender. At its hands, the Taliban have learned a chastising lesson in Swat, Malakand and Bajaur - and they are now feeling the heat in South Waziristan, Khyber, Kurram and Orakzai Agencies. 
These Taliban proxies of alien intelligence agencies such as India's RAW [Research and Analysis Wing] - and not excluding the American CIA - may bloody this nation for a time with their thuggish assaults. But the idea of their capturing Pakistan is completely out of the question. They are not capable of it. The Pakistan army is there, always, to put them down.
It's only the Americans, their Western allies, their media and their think-tank mouthpieces that hold up this hobgoblin to achieve their unspoken objectives. In their sights is Pakistan's nuclear prowess - which they find so hard to stomach that they want to snatch it away.

Speciously and deceitfully therefore, they parade this patently foolish specter of our nuclear prowess falling into Taliban hands, knowing full well that this nation would take no chances of such a thing ever occurring. Certainly, they couldn’t be oblivious to how vital these assets are to Pakistan's defense and territorial integrity, nor to how carefully it has secured them. 
Of course, Pakistan is now blighted by extremism, militancy and terrorism. But this hasn't always been the case. Like other nations, Pakistan, too, has had its ups and downs. Some ups that were so glorious that in the 1960s, Pakistan was held up as a model of economic development for developing countries around the world - and South Koreans have never hesitated to admit that their economic miracle was based on the Pakistan Planning Commission's blueprint for economic development. For decades, Pakistan was respectfully viewed as the most forward-looking, tolerant and moderate of Muslim nations. 
It fell on bad times when self-serving military dictator General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq lent his back to Americans so they could take a ride and avenge their Vietnam humiliation with the Soviet invaders of Afghanistan. It is they who torpedoed the Pakistan polity’s predominant tolerance and moderation, injecting it with the poison of religious fanaticism and militancy. They roped in zealots from around the world and planted them here to fight their Afghanistan proxy war. And they mustered up Saudi and Arab cash for establishing madrassas [Muslim Schools considered militant] here to produce new fanatics to fight their war. And once the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan, they just forgetfully departed, leaving Pakistan to contend with these human time bombs that continue to torment our people. 
Another self-serving dictator, General Pervez Musharraf, hopped on to their spurious war-on-terror bandwagon, giving them a free run of the country, making a vegetable of us by treating our land as a colony and our people as colonized slaves. They continue to have all kinds of agencies here, with a free hand to indulge in all kinds of shenanigans. They move freely across our land doing whatever they like. This is particularly true of the CIA, with its indelible notoriety for meddling in the politics of foreign countries, engineering coups against undesirable foreign governments, sponsoring political assassinations and operating murder squads in foreign lands.    
And although Pakistan's state authorities are in denial, America’s notorious private security service "Blackwater," now renamed "Xe," may be operating here as well, since this murderous outfit was overwhelmingly represented among the 75,000 private security contractors on the CIA payroll in Afghanistan.

In any case, there are sure to be more clandestine CIA activities following President Obama’s speech on his new Afghan policy. In Afghanistan he appears to be in a no-win situation. And in all probability, Pakistan will be made to pay the price, not least by becoming the scapegoat, as it is now, of his failures in that country. 
One thing seems certain: CIA drone attacks are being extended to Baluchistan as well. American diplomats are already preparing the ground for this, by alleging that the Quetta Shura [the Taliban's ruling council] isn't just made up of Afghan Taliban, but al-Qaeda too. It is now up to the prime minister to keep Pakistan from becoming more of an American vegetable. Surely, it has already become enough of one.  

The Secret Life of Drones

The White House has made a large, public presentation to the American people on the War in Afghanistan.  Operation Cobra's Anger, as the current offensive tactic is named, is already underway.  But amid the Administration's public stance on that war, an escalating secret war in Pakistan is mostly going without comment.
The New York Times reports that the CIA plans to increase the number of drone attacks used in Pakistan and since the CIA not part of our military, this is technically not an expansion of the Afghanistan War nor is it grounds for politicians to openly address.
But its not just the CIA who is taking part in the drone bombing campaign.  Jeremy Scahill of the Nation reports that a secret part of the military called the US Joint Special Ops Command is working with infamous military contractor Blackwater to carry out their mission.
Here to discuss the matter publicly with Rachel is New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, Princeton's Melissa Harris-Lacewell, and NY Democratic Congressman Anthony Weiner.