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http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=45440&Cat=9
Opinion
Mother of all embarrassments
Ayaz Amir
Friday, May 06, 2011
For a country with more than its
share of misfortunes and sheer
bad luck, we could have done
without this warrior of the faith,
Osama bin Laden, spreading his
beneficence amongst us. He was
a headache for us while he lived,
but nothing short of a
catastrophe in his death. For his
killing, and the manner of it,
have exposed Pakistan and its
security establishment like
nothing else.
To say that our security czars
and assorted knights have been
caught with their pants down
would be the understatement of
the century. This is the mother of
all embarrassments, showing us
either to be incompetent– it
can't get any worse than this,
Osama living in a sprawling
compound a short walk from
that nursery school of the army,
the Pakistan Military Academy
and, if we are to believe this, our
ever-vigilant eyes and ears
knowing nothing about it – or,
heaven forbid, complicit.
I would settle for incompetence
anytime because the implications
of complicity are too dreadful to
contemplate.
And the Americans came,
swooping over the mountains,
right into the heart of the
compound, and after carrying
out their operation flew away
into the moonless night without
our formidable guardians of
national security knowing
anything about it. This is to pour
salt over our wounds. The
obvious question which even a
child would raise is that if a
cantonment crawling with the
army such as Abbottabad is not
safe from stealthy assault what
does it say about the safety of
our famous nuke capability, the
mainstay of national pride and
defence?
Barely 24 hours before the
Osama assault General Kayani, at
a ceremony in General
Headquarters in remembrance
of our soldiers killed in our
Taliban wars, was describing the
army as the defender of the
country's ideological and
geographical frontiers. For the
time being, I think, we should
concentrate on ideology and
leave geography well alone, the
Abbottabad assault having made
a mockery of our geographical
frontiers.
Every other country in the world
is happy if its armed forces can
defend geography. We are the
only country in the world which
waxes lyrical about ideological
frontiers. To us alone belongs
the distinction of calling
ourselves a fortress of Islam.
In the wake of the Raymond
Davis affair a certain sternness
had crept into our tone with the
Americans, as we told them that
they would have to curtail their
footprint in Pakistan. I wonder
what we tell them now. It is not
difficult to imagine the smile on
American lips when we now
speak of the absolute necessity
of minimising CIA activities.
With whom the gods would jest,
they first make ridiculous. The
hardest thing to bear in this saga
is not wounded pride or
breached sovereignty but our
exposure to ridicule. Osama
made us suffer in life and has
made us look ridiculous after his
death. Around the tallest
mountains there is the echo of
too much laughter at our
expense.
Consider also the Foreign Office
statement of May 3,"As far as
the target compound is
concerned, ISI had been sharing
information with CIA...since
2009....It is important to highlight
that taking advantage of much
superior technological assets, CIA
exploited intelligence leads given
by us to identify and reach
Osama bin Laden." This is
hilarious. If we were aware of
the compound and had
suspicions about its occupants
what'superior technological
assets' were required to go in
and find out?
But what takes the cake is the
stern warning attached:"This
event of unauthorised unilateral
action cannot be taken as a rule.
The government of Pakistan
further affirms that such an
event shall not serve as a future
precedent for any state,
including the US." We can
imagine the CIA trembling in its
shoes. My son burst out laughing
when he read this. If the
Americans get a clue to the
whereabouts of Ayman al-
Zawahiri or Mullah Omar will
they ask our permission before
sending their SEAL teams in?
The CIA chief, Leon Panetta, has
rubbed the point in:"It was
decided that any effort to work
with the Pakistanis could
jeopardise the mission. They
might alert the targets." That's
about the level of trust we seem
to inspire.
Opinion
Mother of all embarrassments
Ayaz Amir
Friday, May 06, 2011
For a country with more than its
share of misfortunes and sheer
bad luck, we could have done
without this warrior of the faith,
Osama bin Laden, spreading his
beneficence amongst us. He was
a headache for us while he lived,
but nothing short of a
catastrophe in his death. For his
killing, and the manner of it,
have exposed Pakistan and its
security establishment like
nothing else.
To say that our security czars
and assorted knights have been
caught with their pants down
would be the understatement of
the century. This is the mother of
all embarrassments, showing us
either to be incompetent– it
can't get any worse than this,
Osama living in a sprawling
compound a short walk from
that nursery school of the army,
the Pakistan Military Academy
and, if we are to believe this, our
ever-vigilant eyes and ears
knowing nothing about it – or,
heaven forbid, complicit.
I would settle for incompetence
anytime because the implications
of complicity are too dreadful to
contemplate.
And the Americans came,
swooping over the mountains,
right into the heart of the
compound, and after carrying
out their operation flew away
into the moonless night without
our formidable guardians of
national security knowing
anything about it. This is to pour
salt over our wounds. The
obvious question which even a
child would raise is that if a
cantonment crawling with the
army such as Abbottabad is not
safe from stealthy assault what
does it say about the safety of
our famous nuke capability, the
mainstay of national pride and
defence?
Barely 24 hours before the
Osama assault General Kayani, at
a ceremony in General
Headquarters in remembrance
of our soldiers killed in our
Taliban wars, was describing the
army as the defender of the
country's ideological and
geographical frontiers. For the
time being, I think, we should
concentrate on ideology and
leave geography well alone, the
Abbottabad assault having made
a mockery of our geographical
frontiers.
Every other country in the world
is happy if its armed forces can
defend geography. We are the
only country in the world which
waxes lyrical about ideological
frontiers. To us alone belongs
the distinction of calling
ourselves a fortress of Islam.
In the wake of the Raymond
Davis affair a certain sternness
had crept into our tone with the
Americans, as we told them that
they would have to curtail their
footprint in Pakistan. I wonder
what we tell them now. It is not
difficult to imagine the smile on
American lips when we now
speak of the absolute necessity
of minimising CIA activities.
With whom the gods would jest,
they first make ridiculous. The
hardest thing to bear in this saga
is not wounded pride or
breached sovereignty but our
exposure to ridicule. Osama
made us suffer in life and has
made us look ridiculous after his
death. Around the tallest
mountains there is the echo of
too much laughter at our
expense.
Consider also the Foreign Office
statement of May 3,"As far as
the target compound is
concerned, ISI had been sharing
information with CIA...since
2009....It is important to highlight
that taking advantage of much
superior technological assets, CIA
exploited intelligence leads given
by us to identify and reach
Osama bin Laden." This is
hilarious. If we were aware of
the compound and had
suspicions about its occupants
what'superior technological
assets' were required to go in
and find out?
But what takes the cake is the
stern warning attached:"This
event of unauthorised unilateral
action cannot be taken as a rule.
The government of Pakistan
further affirms that such an
event shall not serve as a future
precedent for any state,
including the US." We can
imagine the CIA trembling in its
shoes. My son burst out laughing
when he read this. If the
Americans get a clue to the
whereabouts of Ayman al-
Zawahiri or Mullah Omar will
they ask our permission before
sending their SEAL teams in?
The CIA chief, Leon Panetta, has
rubbed the point in:"It was
decided that any effort to work
with the Pakistanis could
jeopardise the mission. They
might alert the targets." That's
about the level of trust we seem
to inspire.