TWISTING REALITIES

By Bilal Rashid
Exclusive Article

“You are losing friends everyday”; often conveyed by US officials on various forums to their Pakistani counterparts. How did it sound to US “You’ll lose an ally [Pakistan]…… at own [US] cost”. The growing pressure on Pakistan to engage Haqqani network and dismantle their so called sanctuaries at own side of borders and connecting nodes of recent Kabul attack of Taliban with ISI is illogical.
Bruce Riedel claimed a lead to ISI when their computer forensic team traced calls before and during the Kabul attack through a mobile phone left behind by the assailants. He seemed confident to accuse ISI for proxy wars; same allegations which it faced after Bombay attacks, the GPS, mobile phone calls, attackers etc. ISI officials must be blamed of not using Afghanistan mobile services which have coverage area till Miran Shah in North Waziristan. They must be blamed for using Islamabad as monitoring station every time instead of using any other foreign country; a basic covert operations rule to hide country identity. These “nonprofessional kids” must be blamed for not learning covert actions doctrine despite decades long contacts with CIA; the “Guru of covert operations”.
US officials are bashing over Pakistan to stop Haqqani network from targeting foreign troops in Afghanistan and ISI to curtail links with the network. Haqqani network believes to have logistic basis in Miran Shah and surroundings, just 20 kilometers from Afghanistan border.
Mullen did told Haqqani Taliban a “veritable arm” and “proxy” of ISI but he did not explained why US-NATO coalition could not stop network’s cross-border movement and allowed an unengaged and free run 200 kilometers deep inside Kabul to strike US embassy and NATO headquarters? Why squadrons of MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reapers along with Apaches on various airbases in Afghanistan could not detect any illegal movement of such a long distance? Did US-NATO willfully ignored attackers penetrating through multilayered defence system in order to hold Pakistan responsible for their own “follies”?
US shares 3169 kilometers (1969 miles) long border with Mexico. The border is secured with two layered 15’ fence, search lights separated by 100 yards gap along the entire length of US Mexico border. Secure Border Initiative (SBI) a multiyear, multibillion dollars program which amid at securing US borders and reducing illegal immigrants to move into US. But every year between 0.4 million to 1 million undocumented people slip across rivers and deserts on US-Mexican border. In 2005 over 1.2 million people were apprehended by Border Patrol while trying to cross US-Mexican border.
According to US Border Patrol officials, 1 in every 5 illegal foreigners are apprehended which means more than 80 percent unlawful people successfully enter USA. Why to blame Pakistan for few thousand people?
Why ISI is still blamed despite apprehensions and killings of hundreds of terrorists including high value targets and AQ’s top leadership. Officers and men of ISI have sacrificed more than CIA in WoT? In terms of tangible success in WoT, ISI is on top most lists.
Does it a jealousy; a bulky secret service with self-grown paranoids and a smart secret service which is ten times of its size, busy in professional job?
Why US allow Afghan militants to move inside Pakistan and carry out attacks on FC check posts followed by unchecked entry back into Afghanistan? Afghan militants are targeting Pakistani security forces in FATA and recently they have intensified their activities in Chitral area bordering Afghanistan. These militants tour just under the nose of US-NATO check posts on Afghan border unhindered.
Does US-NATO forces are officially ordered to turn their eyes on Afghan militants’ cross border activities or they fear a hard armed retaliation in return? Or Afghan militants are “assets” of “someone” working as part of proxies in Pakistan?
Things go back in Waziristan where many hardcore foreign militants (Uzbeks, Tajiks) slipped from Afghanistan as a result of self declared successful “Operation Anaconda” in 2002. Events developed and Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) established in Pakistan working parallel with Abdullah Mehsud, a 1974 born Mehsud fought against US forces in 2001 and detained in Guantanamo Bay. Later he was released but disappeared and reemerged after organizing a strong force against Pakistan security forces operating in Waziristan as part of someone’s proxy wars. He was dead in a joint operation carried out by ISI and police in Baluchistan in 2007.
Baitullah Mehsud was in US custody in Guantanamo Bay and replaced Abdullah Mehsud on later death. Baitullah Mehsud on directions from his masters in Afghanistan established Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and emerged as a unilateral anti Pakistan militants’ leader.
In a high level meeting ISI gave videos of Baitullah Mehsud moving in and out of Indian consulate in Jalalabad, Afghanistan to their CIA counterparts. This gave a major setback to CIA strategy in the Af-Pak region not to target anti Pakistan militants and resulted in death of Baitullah Mehsud on August 5, 2009 in a Predator strike under strong pressure from ISI.
US drone strikes graph shows deaths of Saudis, Yemenis, Egyptians, Sudanese and other foreign combatants fighting against US-NATO forces in Afghanistan. This was first ever US Predator strike which targeted an anti Pakistan militant. Hakimullah Mehsud brought forward as new commander of TTP to keep momentum of someone’s proxies in Pakistan.
IMU led by Tahir Yuldashev, an Uzbek militant who was a wanted criminal in Uzbekistan had emerged as a major foreign anti Pakistan fighter since establishment of IMU in 2004. ISI provided proves of IMU links with Indians operating in Afghanistan in garb of reconstruction and rehabilitation of Afghan society.
CIA to hide their possible involvement with IMU, half heartedly disposed off Tahir Yuldashev in another strike on October 27, 2009 in South Waziristan, the only Uzbek militant died in US strikes since 2001.
Critic against ISI was on rise after 2008 when CIA realized that ISI had traced many of their links with militants operating against Pakistan. During investigations ISI spotted US officials’ (Blackwater and JSOC) visits to bomb hit areas before the incidents took place in cities of Pakistan. They identified US personnel links with militants’ organizations in Pakistan; like Raymond Davis was on a personal meeting with a banned militant outfit in Lahore. CIA to cover up their own agenda started an intense anti ISI lobby accusing its involvement in Afghanistan.
CIA is running a drug trafficking network in Afghanistan to support their special operations inside Afghanistan and Pakistan which cost millions of dollars every month. Power game of drug trafficking is in hands of CIA which works in close liaison with Afghan warlords and Ahmed Wali Karzai, brother of President Hamid Karzai who was killed by his security guard in July 2011. Can anyone imagine with a loss of more than 360 billion dollars since 2001, US government will provide millions of dollars from US taxpayers’ money to CIA to support agency’s self generated secret operations?
Bruce Riedel had made ISI’s proxies public but how will he justify CIA’s proxies in Pakistan? Is Joint Intelligence Working Group of US, India and Israel in Afghanistan responsible for proxies in Pakistan? How can Leon Panetta justify CIA’s drug trafficking in Afghanistan to support US WoT? Who will give reasoning why Afghan militants are not being stopped in Afghanistan and allowed strikes inside Pakistan? Will Mullen claim the responsibility of giving a free run to the Haqqani network inside Afghanistan? Will he admit the incompetency of US-NATO forces not to engage militants operating in Afghanistan?

The article is contributed to pkarticleshub.com