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Islamabad takes a shot at US drones
By Amir Mir
ISLAMABAD - Pakistan-United States military ties have touched their lowest ebb since the September 11, 2001, terror attacks on the US, mainly because of the endless American drone campaign in the tribal areas of Pakistan that has killed 2,587 people, including 58 high-value al-Qaeda and Taliban targets, in 256 strikes between June 2004 and June 2011.
This standoff is set to affect the battle against Islamic militancy in the region in a big way.
The spat sank to a new level on Sunday when White House chief of staff William Daley confirmed that the Barack Obama administration had held back on a payment of US$800 million - part of $2 billion in annual security aid to Pakistan - over
Islamabad's decision to cut back in US military trainers and to restrict visas for US personnel.
A Pakistan military spokesman, Major General Athar Abbas, responded on Monday that "we can conduct our operations without external support. The tribal operations won't be affected."
Tensions were already running high following comments by the top military commander in the US, Admiral Mike Mullen, that Pakistan "sanctioned" the killing of Syed Saleem Shahzad, the Pakistani bureau chief of Asia Times Online whose tortured body was found on May 31. A Pakistan government spokesman dismissed the accusation as "extremely irresponsible".
In the aftermath of the covert Abbottabad operation on May 2 by American SEALs that killed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, Pakistani military authorities, who earlier had been hand-in-glove with their American counterparts on the issue of drone attacks, asked the US military leadership to immediately stop the deadly campaign - "the core irritant" between the countries.
The Americans simply rejected the Pakistani demand, saying the drone attacks were an integral part of the "war against terror" that seeks to defeat the Taliban and al-Qaeda-linked militants hiding in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) along the Afghan border in the northwest of Pakistan.
In an indication of the changed mood, Pakistan's army chief, General Ashfaq Kiani, recently rejected US claims that there existed some private agreements between the two countries on drone hits and American intelligence activities in Pakistan.
Pakistan's military leaders and intelligence establishment were buffeted and embarrassed by being kept in the dark for months as the US closed in on Bin Laden's bolt hole, and they came in for some stinging criticism.
While the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) supposedly had no idea that the world's most wanted terrorist was living in a house next to Pakistan's best-guarded military academy, the army and air force were equally clueless about American stealth helicopters having already intruded into Abbottabad to conduct the 45-minute long "Operation Geronimo" to get Bin Laden.
Pakistan's military leaders, who hold the real power over matters of national security, subsequently decided to stop sharing any further intelligence information with the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) as a protest against the unilateral Abbottabad raid.
They demanded firm assurances by the US that it would not undertake any further unilateral military action on Pakistani soil, and they presented a list of conditions to their US counterparts with the message that their acceptance was a prerequisite for the continuation of anti-terrorism cooperation between Pakistan and the United States. One such condition was that the US must observe strict limits on the use of drone strikes and the number of American military and intelligence personnel in the country.
In a recent meeting with the CIA's deputy director, Michael Morrell, ISI chief Lieutenant General Ahmed Shuja Pasha is reported to have warned the US that Pakistan would be forced to respond if the US did not come up with a strategy to stop the drone strikes and reduce the number of American spies operating in Pakistan.
These demands were taken as a reaction to US military and intelligence programs that had gone well beyond what the Pakistani authorities had agreed to with the Americans in the past. But the Americans made it clear that they would not stop the drone campaign in the tribal areas.
In fact, the US intensified raids, carrying out 12 strikes in the tribal areas in June alone - the highest monthly total of the year. Between January 1 and June 30, the CIA-run predators carried out 42 attacks in the tribal areas, killing 358 people. The strikes were as follows: nine in January, three in February, seven in March, two in April, seven in May and 12 in June. The previous four months, from September to December 2010, averaged almost 16 strikes per month (21 in September, 16 in October, 14 in November and 12 strikes in December 2011).
In the latest episode in the quarrel over the drone campaign, the decision-makers in general headquarters in Rawalpindi and at the Pentagon have locked horns over the use of an air base, Shamsi, in the province of Balochistan, which has been used in the past by the CIA to launch drone attacks in the tribal areas.
Pakistan's Defense Minister Ahmed Mukhtar announced on June 29 that his government had asked the US to stop using Shamsi for the attacks and vacate the facility. Mukhtar told Reuters, "We have been talking to them [Americans] on the issue for some time. But after May 2, we told them again. When the American forces do not operate from the Shamsi base, no drone attacks will be carried out."
The Americans were quick to rebuff the Pakistani demand. In less than 24 hours, a senior US official in Washington told Reuters that no US personnel had left Shamsi and there were no plans for them to do so. "The United States plans to keep using the Shamsi airstrip for non-lethal drone flights against militants near the Afghanistan border. The facility remains fully operational and supports American counter-terrorism operations in Pakistan," Reuters quoted the official as having said on July 6.
The drone attacks are carried out by the CIA's Special Activities Division, which has made a series of attacks on targets in northwest Pakistan. These strikes have increased substantially under President Barack Obama, with the drones targeting top al-Qaeda leaders, its external operations network, and Afghan and Pakistani Taliban leaders and fighters hiding in the FATA areas. The Americans ramped up the number of drone strikes in July 2008, and have continued to regularly hit at targets inside Pakistan since then.
In his book In the Line of Fire, published in September 2006, Pakistan's former military ruler General Pervez Musharraf, who was ruling the roost at that time, wrote:
How could we allow the US blanket over-flight and landing rights without jeopardizing our strategic assets? I offered only a narrow flight corridor that was far from any sensitive Pakistani areas. Neither could we give the United States use of Pakistan's naval ports, air bases, and strategic locations on borders. We refused to give any naval ports or fighter aircraft bases to the United States. We allowed the US only two bases - Shamsi in Balochistan and Jacobabad in Sindh - and that too only for logistics and aircraft recovery. No attack could be launched from there. We gave no blanket permission [to the US] for anything.
However, three years later, in an interview on December 4, 2010, Musharraf admitted that he had actually allowed the US to carry out drone surveillance inside Pakistan's territory.
Musharraf said in the interview in London:
We wanted intelligence; we wanted the US to locate targets. It was only a general kind of carpet agreement with the United States, and surveillance was allowed on a case-to-case basis. Once we located the targets, we would decide on the method of striking, either by helicopter gunship or some other way. But that was a decision which was left to us.
Musharraf's critics say his attempt to minimize the blame by saying that his permission was restricted to "surveillance" and that too for the benefit of Pakistan forces sounds feeble given the fact that he did nothing when the drones started violating this "carpet agreement".
Following Musharraf's departure as army chief in November 2007 (he stepped down from the presidency in August 2008) he was succeeded by Kiani. A cable sent by the then-US ambassador, Anne Patterson, on February 11, 2008, and made public by the Pakistani English newspaper Dawn, provided confirmation that the US drone strikes program within Pakistan had more than just tacit acceptance of the country's top military brass, despite public posturing to the contrary.
During a meeting with US Central Command chief Admiral William J Fallon (on January 22, 2008), Kiani requested the Americans to provide "continuous Predator coverage of the conflict area in South Waziristan" where the army was conducting operations against militants.
The American account of Kiani's request for "Predator coverage" does not make clear if mere air surveillance was being requested or missile-armed drones were being sought. Reaction to the request suggests the latter. According to the report of the meeting sent to Washington by Patterson, Fallon "regretted that he did not have the assets to support this request" but offered trained US Marines (known as joint terminal attack controllers - JTACs) to coordinate air strikes for Pakistan's infantry forces on ground. But Kiani "demurred" on the offer, pointing out that having American soldiers on the ground "would not be politically acceptable".
In another meeting with Admiral Mullen on March 4, 2008, Kiani was reportedly asked for his help "in approving a third restricted operating zone for US aircraft over the FATA". The American request - detailed in a cable sent from the US Embassy in Islamabad on March 24, 2008 - clearly indicates that two "corridors" for US drones had already been approved.
In yet another secret cable sent on October 9, 2009, and published recently by WikiLeaks, Patterson reports that the US military support to the Pakistan army's 11th Corps operations in South Waziristan would "be at the division level and would include a live downlink of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) full motion video".
In a cable dated February 19, 2009, Patterson sends talking points to Washington ahead of a week-long visit to the US by Kiani. Referring to drone strikes, she writes, "Kiani knows full well that the strikes have been precise (creating few civilian casualties) and targeted primarily at foreign fighters in the Waziristan region."
But Kiani had the audacity to claim on May 21, 2011, while addressing the National Defense University, that there existed no agreement between Pakistan and the United States regarding drone attacks, and that they should be stopped immediately.
Such contradictions surrounding drone attacks are not surprising as many in Pakistan are aware of the state's complicity in such strikes. WikiLeaks cables have already revealed how some Pakistani politicians told senior US officials that they would publicly make a noise about the drone attacks while in practice turning a blind eye.
While the Pakistani military and intelligence establishments are afraid of a right-wing backlash by admitting to their complicity in the drone strikes, right-wing religious parties are continuing their protests against the strikes.
On the other hand, the Americans are determined to go ahead with their drone campaign, saying over 2,000 al-Qaeda and Taliban militants are still present in the Pakistan tribal belt alone, from where they launch cross-border ambushes in Afghanistan. Therefore, the Obama administration seems justified in its drone campaign that has wiped out over four dozen high value al-Qaeda and Taliban targets inside Pakistan.
The utility of drones in eliminating some of the most wanted terrorists was admitted recently by the officer in charge of Pakistani troops in North Waziristan, General Officer Commanding of 7-Division, Major General Ghayur Mehmood. Addressing a news conference in the Mirali area of North Waziristan on March 9, the two-star major general said:
Myths and rumors about American predator strikes and the casualty figures are many, but it's a reality that many of those being killed in these strikes are hardcore elements, a sizeable number of them foreigners. Yes, there are a few civilian casualties in precision strikes, but a majority of those eliminated are al-Qaeda and Taliban-linked terrorists, including foreign elements. Between 2007 and 2011, 164 predator strikes had been carried out, killing over 964 terrorists. Of those killed, 793 were locals and 171 foreigners.
It remains a fact that top Pakistani Taliban and al-Qaeda commanders like Nek Mohammad, Baitullah Mehsud, Qari Mohammad Zafar, Qari Hussain Mehsud, Mustafa Abu Yazid and several others have been killed US drones as the Pakistan army couldn't eliminate them despite carrying out operations in their mountainous strongholds.
Amir Mir is a senior Pakistani journalist and the author of several books on the subject of militant Islam and terrorism, the latest being The Bhutto murder trail: From Waziristan to GHQ.
(This is not a good article. Blatantly pro-US. Our Pepe Escobar is more pro-Pakistani than this Amir Mir. But it's been posted here to complete the picture simply.)
