It seems my last post on TMV (WikiLeaks: Educating Americans About Open Society) has touched a raw nerve in some. Well that was the exact purpose. My journalistic mission has been to get people out of their comfort zone and provoke them to participate in a spirited no-holds-barred discussion. I try to irritate those who have a habit of trivializing issues 🙂
I have been writing for more than two decades that Pakistan’s government/army/ISI has become a mere puppet in the hands of the US government. No major strategic decision is taken in Pakistan without consulting the US ambassador there or the CIA officials. WikiLeaks conclusively proves my thesis. Please read on…
We in India, and people worldwide, thank Julian Assange for shredding to pieces the secret and dangerous political and diplomatic strategy that American system has evolved in the past two or three decades. This is posing a serious threat to world peace. I will not lecture further but give concrete examples from the WikiLeaks of the web of lies created by the US administration.
Please read the article “WIKILEAKS SHOW US MICRO-MANAGING PAKISTAN” and decide for yourself. “Two things stand out in the Pakistan-specific WikiLeaks Cablegate: (i) the United States is micro managing Pakistan in every conceivable sphere of activity to the extent that Pakistan emerges as a mere satrapy of the Americans; (ii) Pakistan, like an impish child, is habitual of defying the guardian’s diktats and as a result the US is nowhere close to its ultimate strategic goals of controlling the Pakistani nukes and weaning the state away from jihadi terrorists.
“America’s micro-management of Pakistan is especially evident in three key areas: (i) the American Special Forces operating in Pakistan; (ii) the US interference or unduly deep involvement in Pakistan politics; and (iii) the controversial drone strikes in Pakistani territory.
“The extent of American involvement in the Pakistani polity is revealed by the fact that the Pakistani army chief Ashfaq Parvez Kayani discussed with the Americans in early 2009 the possibility of ‘persuading’ President Asif Ali Zardari to resign and replacing him with Awami National Party leader Asfandyar Wali Khan.
“Gen Kayani’s soft corner for Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani was borne out by the fact that he wanted Gilani to continue as PM.”
Here are some more interesting revelations from another blog: “Perhaps one of the most scandalous cables was sent by the Pakistani embassy in Washington D.C, where Ambassador Haqqani provided a frank assessment of his counterparts’ personalities and strategies. In one briefing, Ambassador Haqqani’s analysis was that Condi was visually more appealing and perhaps the reason for why she is easier to work with then Hillary Clinton.
“The cable went on to describe Sarah Palin as Zardari’s ‘special friend,’ and that Pakistan was secretly funneling money to the Tea Party in hopes of Palin’s ascension to the presidency and consequently to further ‘private bilateral ties between the President and Mrs. Palin.’ (That’s why Palin now wants Julian Assange to be liquidated!!!)
“Another cable sent back to the Pakistan Foreign Ministry described how relations between the two countries were a joke, ‘but yaar [Mr. Qureshi] as long as they give us aid money to steal then we should continue to nudge nudge wink wink about those drones that we don’t allow.’ The embassy in DC also enjoys spending late night evenings on M Street, tiptoeing and waltzing away with the city’s summer interns.” More here…
When the earlier set of WikiLeaks were released the Christian Science Monitor had reported then: “Raw government documents on the Afghanistan war released by the WikiLeaks website added credence to the widely-made charge that Pakistan underhandedly supports Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan. A Taliban-influenced government in Kabul would help Pakistan deal with some of its biggest internal and external threats.
“The Taliban would side with Pakistan against India, rather than sandwich Pakistan between two unfriendly governments. They would also remove the threat of support from Kabul for Pashtun and Baloch ethnic separatism within Pakistan.” More here…
Want some more juicy bits from WikiLeaks…here we go again…”Pakistan, WikiLeaks said, had received more than $16 billion in American aid since 2001, but ‘there is no chance that Pakistan will view enhanced assistance… as sufficient compensation for abandoning support to these (militant/terrorist) groups’, US Ambassador Anne Patterson wrote in a secret review of Afghanistan-Pakistan strategy in September 2009.
“Secret cables, which were leaked by WikiLeaks, show that US diplomats and spies believe Pakistan army and its Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) continue to quietly back four militant groups — the Afghan Taliban, its allied Haqqani and Hekmatyar networks on the western Afghan frontier, and LeT on the eastern border with India.
“Some ISI officials ‘continue to maintain ties with a wide array of extremist organisations, in particular the Taliban, LeT and other extremist organisations,’ US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton wrote in December 2009.”
Do the detractors of WikiLeaks remember who organized the bloody terror acts in Mumbai 26/11? Jog your memory please. During all this the US administration was in the know of what was going on but kept quite. Why?
Please read this: “In four conversations with American Ambassador this week, Chief of Pakistan’s Army Staff (COAS) General Kayani hinted that, however reluctantly, he might have to urge Zardari to resign. General Kayani made it clear that regardless of how much he disliked Zardari, he distrusted Nawaz even more.
“The scenario Kayani hinted at was one in which he would pressure Zardari to resign (and presumably leave the country). This would not be an official Army ‘coup;’ it would leave the PPP government led by Prime Minister Gilani in place and preclude the need for elections that likely would bring Nawaz to power.
“Kayani hinted at disquiet among his corps commanders who believe Zardari is corrupt and has not been paying enough attention to Pakistan’s economic and security challenges. ISI DG Pasha highlighted to Ambassador his concerns about Zardari’s alleged corruption on the flight to the U.S. for the strategic review, and we have multiple sources demonstrating Army complaints about Zardari.” More here…
In yet another WikiLeaks disclosure, a leaked cable suggested that the US tried to not just suppress information related to involvement of Pakistani agencies in the Mumbai terrorist attacks (also known as 26/11) but also defend the Pakistani Intelligence Agency Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), Times of India reported on December 3. The cable from US embassy in Pakistan to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in January 2009 said that premature dissemination of such information could escalate tension between India and Pakistan.
Now with such a load of corroborative evidence surfacing, Pakistan government deflected the attack by blaming “small criminals” in Pakistan for India’s 26/11. See here…
Meanwhile Pakistan’s ex-spy chief Hamid Gul says WikiLeaks report is fictitious. “WikiLeaks’ release of classified US documents include claims that Hamid Gul ordered attacks against NATO troops.
“The ISI is mentioned in at least 190 reports, and is accused of backing attacks against US and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) forces in Afghanistan. In one report from March 2007, the ISI is alleged to have donated 1,000 motorcycles to militant leader Jalaluddin Haqqani to carry out suicide bomb attacks in Afghanistan.More here…
But the real shady aspect of the US-Pakistan nexus is the David Headley story. I wrote in a post earlier: “Why is the USA not allowing India to interrogate American national David Headley, the Mumbai 26/11 terror attack suspect of Pakistani origin. Is it because Headley is also an American spy? This has become a hot news topic in the Indian media. Headley, and accomplice Tahawwur Hussain Rana, was arrested by FBI in October for conspiring to bomb public places in India.” More here…
The WikiLeaks information about Pakistan is only a drop in the ocean of the murky US diplomatic, intelligence, economic and defence foreign strategy worldwide. It will take a long time to fathom the web of lies and deceit of the so-called world superpower.
And the American politicians and media/blogs are raising a clarion call to kill Julian Assange, a sane man who is fighting a sole battle against power mad people!!!
UPDATE: The BBC reports: A long list of key facilities around the world that the US describes as vital to its national security has been released by WikiLeaks. Some sites are in India… See here…
Battered by a scandal which seems to provide a fresh wave of embarrassment with each passing day, the US government is being forced to undertake a major reshuffle of the embassy staff, military personnel and intelligence operatives whose work has been laid bare by the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks. More here…
Photo above: Chief of Pakistan Army, General Kayani with the NATO chief
Swaraaj Chauhan describes his two-decade-long stint as a full-time journalist as eventful, purposeful, and full of joy and excitement. In 1993 he could foresee a different work culture appearing on the horizon, and decided to devote full time to teaching journalism (also, partly, with a desire to give back to the community from where he had enriched himself so much.)
Alongside, he worked for about a year in 1993 for the US State Department’s SPAN magazine, a nearly five-decade-old art and culture monthly magazine promoting US-India relations. It gave him an excellent opportunity to learn about things American, plus the pleasure of playing tennis in the lavish American embassy compound in the heart of New Delhi.
In !995 he joined WWF-India as a full-time media and environment education consultant and worked there for five years travelling a great deal, including to Husum in Germany as a part of the international team to formulate WWF’s Eco-tourism policy.
He taught journalism to honors students in a college affiliated to the University of Delhi, as also at the prestigious Indian Institute of Mass Communication where he lectured on “Development Journalism” to mid-career journalists/Information officers from the SAARC, African, East European and Latin American countries, for eight years.
In 2004 the BBC World Service Trust (BBC WST) selected him as a Trainer/Mentor for India under a European Union project. In 2008/09 He completed another European Union-funded project for the BBC WST related to Disaster Management and media coverage in two eastern States in India — West Bengal and Orissa.
Last year, he spent a couple of months in Australia and enjoyed trekking, and also taught for a while at the University of South Australia.
Recently, he was appointed as a Member of the Board of Studies at Chitkara University in Chandigarh, a beautiful city in North India designed by the famous Swiss/French architect Le Corbusier. He also teaches undergraduate and postgraduate students there.
He loves trekking, especially in the hills, and never misses an opportunity to play a game of tennis. The Western and Indian classical music are always within his reach for instant relaxation.
And last, but not least, is his firm belief in the power of the positive thought to heal oneself and others.