Pakistan capable of fighting without US assistance

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Pakistan Capable of Fighting Without US Assistance

Submitted by Aurangzeb on July 15, 2011 – 2:58 am



ISLAMABAD: The Pakistani military said Monday it was capable of fighting without American assistance, adding that it had not been informed officially of a US decision to suspend $800 million worth of aid.

“The army in the past as well as at present, has conducted successful military operations using its own resources without any external support whatsoever,” military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas wrote to AFP.

“We have not received any official intimation or correspondence on the matter,” Abbas wrote.

President Barack Obama’s chief of staff, William Daley, confirmed in a television interview on Sunday that the United States has decided to withhold almost a third of its annual $2.7 billion security assistance to Islamabad.

Relations between the key allies in the war on Al Qaeda drastically worsened after US commandos killed Osama bin Laden on May 2 in Pakistan.

Abbas referred AFP to an extraordinary statement from army chief of staff General Ashfaq Kayani on June 9 recommending that US military aid be re-directed towards civilians.

The suspended aid includes about $300 million to reimburse Pakistan for some of the costs of deploying more than 100,000 soldiers along the Afghan border, according to the New York Times.

Pakistan says it has 140,000 soldiers in the northwest, more than the 99,000 American troops in Afghanistan, fighting a local Taliban insurgency.

The United States has long called on Pakistan to do more to crack down on militants, such as the Al Qaeda-linked Haqqani network, who use its soil to attack within Afghanistan, but the army says its troops are too over-stretched.

Islamabad was a key ally of the Taliban regime in Kabul from 1996 until siding with the United States in the war against Al Qaeda after the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.

Source: Daily Dawn

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Pakistanis Welcome US Aid Cutoff

Submitted by Aurangzeb on July 15, 2011 – 2:49 am




Islamabad: Pakistanis have overwhelmingly welcomed the cutoff of US aid, as reflected in a poll conducted by online newspaper and independent think tank PKKH (PakistanKaKhudaHafiz.com)

The U.S. government had last week announced that it would not deliver about one third of the military aid it had allocated to Pakistan this year, approximately $800 million.


After the U.S announcement, the Pakistani authorities were quick to play down the impact of the measure and on Monday, Pakistani military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said the military was not officially notified that aid had been cut. He also pointed out that the army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Kayani, had declared that U.S. cash reimbursements to the military, known as Coalition Support Funds, should go instead to the civilian government, which needed the money more.

“We have conducted our (anti-extremist) military operations without external support or assistance,” Abbas said. “Reports coming out of the U.S. are aimed at undermining the authority of our military organizations.”

The mood on the Pakistani streets mirrors the defiance displayed by its armed forces.

Out of the 1,200 citizens polled by independent think tank and online newspaper PKKH (PakistanKaKhudaHafiz.com), an overwhelming 87% backed Pakistan Army’s stance, while 82% also said a complete cut-off of all civilian and military aid would be in the best interest of the country, which has found difficult to end its dependency on foreign aid and IMF packages in recent years.

‘No country has ever been able to stand on its feet while taking foreign aid’, says Mohsin Qureshi, a young entrepreneur in Karachi talking to PKKH.

‘We have compromised our sovereignty and destroyed our peace due to our so called partnership with the US. There’s no such thing as a free lunch. The conditions attached to the US aid hurt Pakistan, instead of helping. Its time to cut the cord, we have enough potential to sustain ourselves and it will help us to stand on our feet eventually. We have tonnes of potential and the longer we rely on foreign aid, the longer it will take for that begging bowl mindset to change’.

Earlier this year, Pakistan’s finance minister dismissed as “a myth” in the United States that his country is a major recipient of tens of billions of dollars in US aid.

Finance Minister Abdul Hafiz Shaikh told an audience in Washington in April this year that the United States had not delivered what it promised under the Kerry-Lugar-Berman Law aid package, which is meant to provide $7.5 billion in civilian aid over five years.

The law authorized $1.5 billion a year.

“There is a perception that there is a lot of money going to Pakistan,”

Shaikh told the Woodrow Wilson Center policy think tank.

“It is largely a myth that Pakistan is a beneficiary of tens of billions of dollars. The truth is that in the Kerry-Lugar-Berman arrangement this year we have not even received $300 million,” he added.

Two major American newspapers have warned the Obama administration about the risks involved in suspending $800 million in US aid to the Pakistani military, saying the move could backfire.

‘We worry that the cutoff in aid was based less on a calculation of its effect on Pakistan than on the desire to publicly protest the country’s stance partly in an effort to mollify Congressional critics’, The Los Angeles Times said in an editorial on Wednesday.

‘Ideally, the suspension of aid will be short-lived while the relationship is mended. Pakistan can and should assist in that process, rather than falling back into the anti-Americanism and obstructionism that led to the Obama administration’s decision to suspend aid in the first place’, said the

editorial: ‘Punishing Pakistan may punish the US too’. ‘In confirming the suspension, White House Chief of Staff William Daley called the US-Pakistani relationship complicated’, it said.

‘That’s an understatement. We hope that the decision to suspend aid won’t complicate it further’, the Times said, while justifying Washington’s frustration with Pakistan. ‘As long as the war in Afghanistan continues, the US needs to move weapons and troops through Pakistan, and it needs useful intelligence about militant groups’, it said.

‘The criticism from the US have aggravated the anger in Pakistan, particularly in the military, over the killing of Osama bin Laden in a drive that was conducted without the knowledge of Pakistani officials’, it added.

The suggestion that it could not be trusted to keep a secret outraged the military, as did the fact that US commandos stormed Osama Bin Laden’s hideout without permission, it said. In its editorial, The Washington Post has called the policy of publicly confronting the Pakistani leadership on the aid issue as a ‘risky course’.

‘While it might deliver some short-term results, the tactic reflects a disarray in policy toward a country where instability or radicalisation could pose a major threat to American security’, the newspaper said.

‘American sentiment is already running high in Pakistan and leaders who favour cooperation with the US are under siege. Announcing that funds will be held back, unless and until we see certain steps taken, as Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton put it in Congressional testimony last month, may only intensify the resistance’, the editorial said.

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Pakistan Army: Don’t need US Aid



As U.S. cuts $800 million in military aid, Pakistan says it doesn’t need it.

BY SAEED SHAH

MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS

ISLAMABAD — ISLAMABAD-The Pakistan military declared Sunday that it doesn’t need U.S. aid, as the White House confirmed that United States is withholding about $800 million in aid to Pakistan’s armed forces.

Tense relations between Islamabad and Washington worsened in May after the unilateral U.S. raid in northern Pakistan, during which Osama bin Laden was killed. Nuclear-armed Pakistan is struggling to combat Islamic extremists, while its economy is lurching towards disaster.

“The Pakistani relationship is difficult but it must be made to work over time,” William Daley, the White House chief of staff, said on ABC television on Sunday. “But until we get through these difficulties we will hold back some of the money that the American taxpayers have committed to give them.” Daley said the figure amounted to about $800 million.

The cutback seemed to be a direct response to recent moves by Pakistan, which expelled U.S. military trainers from the country, limited the ability of U.S. diplomats and other officials to get visas and restricted CIA operations allowed on its territory.

There are also questions about U.S. civilian aid to Pakistan, about $1.5 billion a year.

Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, the chief spokesman for the Pakistan armed forces, said the military was not officially notified that aid had been cut. He also pointed out that the army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Kayani, had declared that U.S. cash reimbursements to the military, known as Coalition Support Funds, should go instead to the civilian government, which needed the money more.

“We have conducted our (anti-extremist) military operations without external support or assistance,” Abbas said. “Reports coming out of the U.S. are aimed at undermining the authority of our military organizations.”

The Obama administration often leaks stories critical of Pakistan to the American press, which riles Pakistani public and official opinion against the United States. Many in Pakistan believe that there is a concerted American effort to weakened Pakistan and its armed forces, among the largest in the world.

Since 2001, the U.S. has committed $21 billion in civilian and military assistance to Pakistan, including $4.5 billion in the 2010-2011 fiscal year, according to a report from the Congressional Research Service. However, not all the of funds committed have been disimbursed, while Pakistan’s losses in the War on Terror amount to nearly $70 billion. Two bills in Congress in the past week, which were voted down, would have cut off aid to Pakistan altogether.

Washington has long been highly critical of the relationship that the Pakistan military maintains with Afghan insurgents and other jihadist groups. Pakistan’s refusal to launch an offensive against the Haqqani network and suspicions that bin Laden benefited from some kind of official support to live in Pakistan have further strained relations.

Accusations from U.S. officials, made public last week by Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, that Pakistan’s military and its Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency was behind the murder of a journalist, Saleem Shahzad, have further damaged relations with Pakistan’s armed forces. Pakistan’s Military has rejected these allegations and compared them false U.S. Intelligence on Iraq’s WMD programme in the build up to Iraq’s occupation.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Saturday that he believes that bin Laden’s successor as al-Qaida chief, Ayman al-Zawahiri, is in Pakistan’s tribal area and that “he’s one of those we would like to see the Pakistanis target.” Pakistan responded Sunday by asking for the U.S. to share its intelligence on Zawahiri’s whereabouts.

Pakistan, meanwhile is fighting its homegrown extremists who are believed to have support from beyond Pakistan’s western borders, in its tribal area on the border with Afghanistan with a new offensive begin this month, though not the jihadists in its territory who are focused on Afghanistan.

(Shah is a McClatchy special correspondent.)

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U.S. Military Aid Came With Spies Attached

Submitted by Aurangzeb on July 21, 2011 – 2:30 am


By Zofeen Ebrahim


KARACHI, Jul 19, 2011 (IPS) – Defence analysts in Pakistan believe that foregoing 800 million US dollars worth of aid may be a fair bargain for ridding this country of over a hundred ‘military trainers’ who were suspected of being spies.

Pakistan’s army chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani has said that his military can do without the suspended U.S. military aid worth 800 million dollars, but suggested that the funds be diverted to improving the country’s economy.

The suspended funds amount to roughly one-third of yearly U.S. security assistance to Pakistan.

Relations between the allies in the war on terror in neighbouring Afghanistan soured after U.S. Navy Seals crossed over the border in helicopters and swooped down on Abbotabad to kill al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in his hideout in the Pakistani cantonment town.

The U.S., which relied on its own intelligence network within Pakistan for the May 1 raid, also stepped up public denunciation of Pakistan’s army, accusing it of incompetence in tracking down bin Laden or, worse, complicity.

Coming under pressure from the U.S. military on the one hand and facing domestic anger at the Abbottabad raid on the other, the Pakistani army reacted by sending home more than a hundred U.S. military trainers.

“They were not all trainers and the army knew it,” says Ikram Sehgal, a well-known defence analyst. “Of every three or four trainers, one would be an undercover intelligence person trying to subvert the loyalties of our soldiers.”

Signs that the U.S. maintained a spy network within Pakistan became apparent after Raymond Davis, a U.S. official, shot dead two Pakistani men in Lahore on Jan. 27. Davis, who said the Pakistanis were trying to rob him at gunpoint, turned out to be an intelligence operative.

“It’s a good thing they were sent packing,” Sehgal said. “We were previously giving in to Washington’s every whim. Now we are finally speaking as equals and that is how any relationship should be based – on mutual respect,” he added.

Rahimullah Yusufzai, a senior journalist and an expert on Afghan war, said the U.S. trainers were infiltrating the armed forces and trying to establish their own intelligence network in Pakistan.

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According to Yusufzai, the trainers were part of a package which included light arms and gadgets like night vision goggles which the army was “coerced and tempted” to accept.

“They are often private contractors, outsourced by the U.S. army,” said Sehgal, adding that the U.S. has more to lose by taking a high-handed stance as “major intelligence sharing may be stopped” by Pakistan.

Another reason why Washington is unhappy with its frontline ally is that its “do more” programme failed to enthuse the Pakistani military into launching an offensive against the powerful Afghan militant group led by Maulvi Jalaluddin Haqqani, known as the ‘Haqqani network’.

Frustrated by the lack of cooperation, the U.S. military has resorted to intensified drone attacks in North Waziristan in Pakistan, where the Haqqani network is based, causing indiscriminate death and destruction.

“Going after the Haqqani network is like putting your hand in an anthill,”

said Sehgal, explaining the Pakistan army’s reluctance to launch an offensive. “These terrorist attacks taking place [in Pakistan] today will seem like a Sunday picnic.”

Sehgal offers three reasons for Pakistani inaction: “The Haqqani network has never carried out attacks on or in Pakistan; the army does not have resources needed to carry out an all out operation against the group and they must be well aware of the consequences of such an offensive.”

The army is also keen to win back the respect of Pakistan’s people. There is a growing feeling among its ranks that rising domestic criticism is a concerted campaign to vilify and weaken the army.

Along with domestic criticism, the U.S. is adding “to the barrage of propaganda” to build pressure from outside, says Hasan Askari Rizvi, a Lahore-based defence analyst. “Public denunciation of Pakistan has damaged the U.S. – Pakistan relations more than any other issue.”

How important is U.S. aid to Pakistan? “Pakistan can live without aid even now if there is no internal conflict and terrorism in Pakistan,” says Rizvi.

“It is time we started worrying about how Pakistan violates the sovereignty of other countries rather than just see the violation of our own. We can lie to ourselves as much as we like, but the world can see for itself.”

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US policy in Pakistan is Immature Diplomacy – Journalist

Washington has decided to suspend some $800 million in military aid to Pakistan, the White House chief of staff was quoted as saying Sunday by the Reuters news agency. Journalist Ahmed Qurarishi says the move reveals how immature US diplomacy is.

President Barack Obama’s chief of staff, William Daley, stated on ABC’s “This Week” program that the administration’s decision follows “some steps” taken by Pakistan. According to Daley, relations between the two countries were affected by the US raid in which Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was killed on May 2.

The New York Times newspaper said the move was intended to show US anger at the expulsion of US military trainers and to pressure Pakistan to step up its fight against militants.

“For the past few days we’ve seen signs and actions on the part of the US that are really being described by Pakistani officials as being immature in terms of diplomacy,” Quraishi told RT. “For example: constant reports in the mainstream media, particularly in The New York Times in the past week, talking about issues that pertain to Pakistani domestic politics. For example, the murder of a journalist – Admiral Mike Mullen, no less, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, coming out to accuse the Pakistani intelligent services of being behind it.”

“Cutting off $800 million – this money is actually the amount owed by the US government and the US military to the Pakistani military for using Pakistani facilities for the war in Afghanistan,” he continued.

“The US owes close to $8 billion for similar usage of other Pakistani military facilities for the war in Afghanistan, and this money has not really been paid and it’s overdue for almost a year now,” he stated. “And Pakistani military officials and politicians have been constantly reminding their American [counterparts] about this.”

Quraishi does not think there are any signs that US officials are really sincere about maintaining relations in a manner one would expect from two independent sovereign countries that would like to work together.

“Ten years ago it was very hard to find someone in Pakistan criticizing the US. It was taken for granted that if you are criticizing the US you must be some radical extremist,” he said. “But today you have people from the upper classes of Pakistan – the ruling elite – very, very critical of the US. So I think there is something really wrong, and I think there is a huge responsibility – also on the US media – to convey the right picture to the American public, which unfortunately they are not doing. They are very much toeing whatever the official line of the US government is.”

Quraishi said he does not see how the many serious differences between Pakistan and US can be resolved easily in the near future.

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Army Concludes “Successful” South Waziristan Operation
Submitted by Aurangzeb on July 28, 2011 – 4:28 pm



Pakistan Army has successfully completed its Tri Star operation in Janata Valley of South Waziristan Agency to flush out terrorists.

An ISPR press release on Tuesday said that the operation was successfully completed and security forces gained full control of Janata Valley inflicting heavy causalities on terrorists and capturing large caches of arms and ammunition.

The operation was launched on July 13, 2011 in Janata Valley where terrorists had occupied surrounding heights ranging from 4000 to 8000 feet, made sanctuaries, training centers from which they used to operate deep South for terrorist activities, planting improvised explosive devises, fire raids, ambushes.

To eradicate the terrorists, a two pronged operation was launched in 28 square kilometre area. A search operation found IEDs planted in Holy Qurans by the terrorists, pointing to the fact that the terrorists were oblivious to Islamic values and would indulge in all sorts of practices to achieve their heinous objectives since they did not hesitate to degrade the Holy Book.

During the operation a number of terrorists were killed, whereas three key terrorists were captured alive.

Besides destroying terrorists sanctuaries huge cache of arms, ammunition were recovered including two 75mm recoilless rifles, five 12.7 mm guns, one

82 mm Mortar, one missile launcher with two Missiles, fourteen 127mm Rockets and 50,000 rounds of various calibers.

Security forces also defused 16 IEDs and destroyed propaganda material being used by miscreants.

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US May Attack, But They’ll Think 10 Times

Submitted by NK on October 19, 2011 – 2:47 pm



” If anyone convinces me that everything will be sorted out if we act in North Waziristan, I will take immediate action,” Army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani.

ISLAMABAD: The army chief did not rule out the possibility of a US ground offensive in North Waziristan, but told parliamentarians at a briefing on Tuesday that Washington will think ‘many times’ before launching such an attack.

“They [the US] might do it but they will have to think ten times because Pakistan is not Iraq or Afghanistan,” Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani was quoted as telling members of parliament’s defence committees at a briefing at the General Headquarters that went on for over three hours.

Acknowledging that the US is pressing Pakistan to launch a military operation in North Waziristan, Kayani said that the ongoing build-up of Afghan and International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) troops along the Pak-Afghan border is a tactic to intensify that pressure.

“We have made it clear to the US that we will decide the timing of any such action according to our situation and capabilities. We have also told them that the problem lies within Afghanistan. If anyone convinces me that everything will be sorted out if we act in North Waziristan, I will take immediate action,” a parliamentarian, requesting anonymity, quoted Kayani as saying.

General Kayani’s statement came hours after senior Afghan defence officials said the country’s security forces and their Nato allies have launched a new push against the Haqqani network.

Leaving no ambiguity over reasons for the operation, an Afghan defence ministry official told AFP on condition of anonymity that the action was tied to recent spats between Washington and Islamabad. While he declined to specify the operation’s scope, another senior official from the ministry said it was “largely against the Haqqani network”.

According to Afghan Defence Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak, the operation has been codenamed “Knife Edge” and was launched two days ago. “This operation is launched along the border because the enemy lately operates along the border on both sides. Sometimes on this side and sometimes on the other side,” Afghan Chief of Army Staff Sher Mohammad Karimi said.

General Kayani said that Pakistan had handed over its position on Afghanistan to the Obama administration in writing in 2010 and had asked the Americans to elaborate on their position but they had not done so. “We have long-term interests in Afghanistan, others might have short … For short-term gains, we cannot lose [sight of] our long-term interests,” the army chief said.

But responding to a question on Pakistan’s interests in Afghanistan, Kayani sought to dispel the perception that Pakistan was seeking so-called strategic depth in Afghanistan.

“We cannot leave both our eastern and western borders insecure,” Kayani asserted. “It is wishful thinking to achieve strategic depth in Afghanistan. The Russians tried, the Brits tried, the Americans are trying. We don’t have a magic wand,” a participant quoted Kayani’s response.

However, Kayani did not deny that Pakistani secret agencies maintained contacts with ‘certain elements’ within the hierarchy of Afghan insurgent groups. “That is where we get our information, the intelligence, from,” he yielded. “The important thing is how we use the information gathered from these elements. You can do it positively and negatively.”

‘No need for US aid’

In a press release issued by the military after a recent corps commanders’ meeting, Kayani is said to have stressed that the Pakistan Army does not need US aid and that he had told American officials that he means what he said.

“We got only 25% of the aid from the Kerry-Lugar Act. Pakistan Army has no objection if the US converts its military aid into civilian assistance,” he said.

Stressing on civilian responsibility for peace, he said that the military can only secure areas where it conducts operations, but civilians need to take control and maintain law and order.