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From our Foreign desk…
Bush Praises Pakistan Just Hours After U.S. Strike
By STEVEN LEE MYERS
WASHINGTON — President Bush on Monday praised Pakistan’s commitment to fighting extremists along its deteriorating border with Afghanistan, only hours after an American missile strike destroyed what American and Pakistani officials described as a militant outpost in the region, killing at least six fighters.
Mr. Bush, meeting with Pakistan’s prime minister, Yousaf Raza Gilani, at the White House, sought to minimize growing concerns that Pakistan’s willingness to fight extremists was waning, allowing the Taliban and Al Qaeda to regroup inside Pakistan and plan new attacks there and beyond.
Senior American officials, including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice just three days ago, publicly scolded Pakistan for not doing more to root out safe havens like the one bombed on Monday in Azam Warsak, a village in South Waziristan near the Afghan border.
Among those believed to have been killed in the missile attack, evidently carried out by a remotely piloted aircraft operated by the Central Intelligence Agency, was an Egyptian identified as a senior Qaeda trainer and weapons expert, according to residents and officials in the area, as well as American officials. Neither the operative’s identity nor that of the others has been confirmed.
The officials spoke anonymously because of the political and diplomatic sensitivities of attacking targets in Pakistan.
Juxtapose that with the following:
Doubts Pakistan can assert control over spy agency
Mon Jul 28, 2008 7:29pm EDT
By Simon Cameron-Moore
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Pakistanis doubt whether their new civilian leaders are capable of asserting control over a powerful military spy agency after what was widely seen as a botched attempt at the weekend.
The timing could not have been more embarrassing for Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, in the United States for a meeting with President George W. Bush on Monday that focused on Pakistan’s role in the U.S.-led war on terrorism.
Last week, Washington demanded Pakistan investigate Indian and Afghan accusations that the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) was involved in a Kabul suicide bombing that killed 58 people outside the Indian embassy, including two diplomats.
Gilani’s four-month-old government has issued denials of ISI complicity but can say only what the spies and army divulge.
The United States and its Western allies have trusted the ISI to help combat al Qaeda, but there have long been suspicions that it takes a permissive line over the Taliban, allowing the militants freedom to attack Afghanistan over the border.
There is mounting apprehension that Pakistan’s generals are becoming less cooperative because the country fears Washington has allowed rival India to extend influence in Afghanistan.
With Pakistan in a fragile transition to democracy after President Pervez Musharraf’s eight years of military rule, Washington has been talking to various parties in the nuclear-armed nation about closer coordination on security.
On Saturday night, while Gilani was still en route to Washington, his government dropped a bombshell with a decree that the Interior Ministry would oversee spy agency activities.
The government said the ISI and its civilian counterpart, the Intelligence Bureau (IB), would be brought under the “administrative, financial and operational control of the Interior Division with immediate effect”.
On Sunday, the government issued a clarification saying it had been “misinterpreted” and that the decree “only re-emphasizes more coordination” between the ministry and the ISI on internal security matters.
It said another detailed decree would be issued later.
“I think the ISI immediately got into the act and did what they thought was best to have the decision reversed,” said Najam Sethi, editor of the Daily Times newspaper.
“AMATEURISH”
Defence analyst Nasim Zehra said the government’s action had been “amateurish, thoughtless and hasty”, though there was a good case for streamlining the security apparatus and drawing more rigorous reporting lines.
Newspaper editorials saw the chain of events as farcical.
Why would the “Paper of Record” be brushing the Bush Administration dirt under the rug? Or the struggle for Democracy in Pakistan? It feels like there has been a media black out since the immediate aftermath of Benazir Bhutto’s assassination. Why is no one asking about this? Thanks again, Corporate Media.
Update: Via Crooks & Liars the Los Angeles Times steps up…
3 Responses to “From our Foreign desk…”
I just hope Pakistan can start exerting some control along their border with Iraq.
I wouldn’t mind terribly if India were to launch a full nuclear strike on Pakistan…just wouldn’t bother me at all.
The “NY Times” has a piece on how the CIA has linked the Pak intelligence service to the militants in Afghanistan…too lazy to link.