Army of Pakistan
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Pakistan in trouble over what it did and didn't know
PETER CAVE: The US military operation on its soil without its knowledge has left the Pakistan government in a delicate situation.
It's facing criticism at home from its own people asking how it could not have known and how a foreign power could strike deep within Pakistan's sovereign territory with apparent impunity.
At the same time it's facing suspicion from abroad as we've just heard that it was knowingly harbouring Osama bin Laden.
Correspondent Philip Williams is in Islamabad.
Philip Williams, what are the inconsistencies in the story that the Pakistan military were not in the know about the attack?
PHILIP WILLIAMS: Well simply this - that several analysts have pointed out that it's very difficult to fly helicopters some distance over a foreign territory without being detected. That's the first thing.
The second thing to remember is that this is a military garrison town. There is a large military establishment there. There are forces at the ready - they're at a 15 minutes deployment ready.
And the forces, the American forces were on location a few hundred metres from this base for 40 minutes and yet it appears there was no deployment. Nobody came out, nobody came to investigate, there was certainly no firefight.
Now if they knew nothing about it did they simply sit in their barracks and think, oh well we'll wait 'til a bit later? Or were there orders for them not to intervene?
And that's another question we simply can't answer.
PETER CAVE: I guess the other inconsistency is if there is that level of readiness and military awareness there, how was Osama bin Laden able to live in the midst of them without being detected and known about?
PHILIP WILLIAMS: Well that's the other side of the coin, and this is the side that - the conventional side in a sense - that the intelligence services here have said consistently, we didn't know about it.
The politicians have said, we didn't know about it. We're embarrassed about it. We should have picked this up but on this occasion we failed.
Now that's not seen as credible by very many people either. So you've got these two conflicting accounts.
Now the advantage for the Pakistani government were they to say we knew nothing is that simply that they don't then suffer the backlash from a) letting in a foreign government to do this sort of work, and b) from those that support Osama bin Laden being seen very firmly on one side of the camp or the other.
So there are lots and lots of questions and mysteries still that may never be answered but certainly there is a lot of speculation either way about who knew what when and whether commands were sent through via the Pakistani government particularly for their own troops to do nothing.
PETER CAVE: So what is the government saying? How is it managing the story?
PHILIP WILLIAMS: Well the government simply is saying, look we knew nothing about it. We support the result.
They're not really addressing the apparent embarrassment of a foreign government intervening on their soil.
They are saying that yes, we should have known about this, our intelligence services should have known about this, they didn't and it's just one of those things, but not many people believe that.
Most people believe that if you had Osama bin Laden within a few hundred metres of one of your top military academies someone somewhere along the line must have known.
And the question is then who was it? Of what level was any protection afforded if there was any at all?
PETER CAVE: What sort of things are being said by people in the street and indeed in the media?
PHILIP WILLIAMS: Well in the street the people are incredulous.
I was up there a short while ago and people just can't believe that in this small, relatively small city that's always been quite peaceful because of the heavy military presence that something like this could've been under their noses all along, and so some of them actually refuse to believe it. They just think it's just not possible.
The other flip-side of that coin is that they are now afraid that if there is to be revenge attacks that they'll be the ones to suffer that.
And so they are worried that having escaped the worst of the atrocities so far - the bombings and the shootings - that they may now find themselves and their previously peaceful town now a target.
PETER CAVE: What is the level of security in Islamabad at the moment?
PHILIP WILLIAMS: Quite high. There are lots of roadblocks you have to get through, particularly to the embassy areas and the more secure areas where the government buildings are, that's always the case but there is certainly a heightened awareness now, people speak of that.
People are on high alert because there is an anticipation that al Qaeda or at least some of its supporters, even loosely aligned, will want to make some sort of statement they're still in business and that they're not taking this without some violent reaction.
PETER CAVE: Philip Williams.
http://www.defence.pk/forums/newthread.php?do=newthread&f=87
PETER CAVE: The US military operation on its soil without its knowledge has left the Pakistan government in a delicate situation.
It's facing criticism at home from its own people asking how it could not have known and how a foreign power could strike deep within Pakistan's sovereign territory with apparent impunity.
At the same time it's facing suspicion from abroad as we've just heard that it was knowingly harbouring Osama bin Laden.
Correspondent Philip Williams is in Islamabad.
Philip Williams, what are the inconsistencies in the story that the Pakistan military were not in the know about the attack?
PHILIP WILLIAMS: Well simply this - that several analysts have pointed out that it's very difficult to fly helicopters some distance over a foreign territory without being detected. That's the first thing.
The second thing to remember is that this is a military garrison town. There is a large military establishment there. There are forces at the ready - they're at a 15 minutes deployment ready.
And the forces, the American forces were on location a few hundred metres from this base for 40 minutes and yet it appears there was no deployment. Nobody came out, nobody came to investigate, there was certainly no firefight.
Now if they knew nothing about it did they simply sit in their barracks and think, oh well we'll wait 'til a bit later? Or were there orders for them not to intervene?
And that's another question we simply can't answer.PETER CAVE: I guess the other inconsistency is if there is that level of readiness and military awareness there, how was Osama bin Laden able to live in the midst of them without being detected and known about?
PHILIP WILLIAMS: Well that's the other side of the coin, and this is the side that - the conventional side in a sense - that the intelligence services here have said consistently, we didn't know about it.
The politicians have said, we didn't know about it. We're embarrassed about it. We should have picked this up but on this occasion we failed.
Now that's not seen as credible by very many people either. So you've got these two conflicting accounts.
Now the advantage for the Pakistani government were they to say we knew nothing is that simply that they don't then suffer the backlash from a) letting in a foreign government to do this sort of work, and b) from those that support Osama bin Laden being seen very firmly on one side of the camp or the other.
So there are lots and lots of questions and mysteries still that may never be answered but certainly there is a lot of speculation either way about who knew what when and whether commands were sent through via the Pakistani government particularly for their own troops to do nothing.
PETER CAVE: So what is the government saying? How is it managing the story?
PHILIP WILLIAMS: Well the government simply is saying, look we knew nothing about it. We support the result.
They're not really addressing the apparent embarrassment of a foreign government intervening on their soil.
They are saying that yes, we should have known about this, our intelligence services should have known about this, they didn't and it's just one of those things, but not many people believe that.
Most people believe that if you had Osama bin Laden within a few hundred metres of one of your top military academies someone somewhere along the line must have known.
And the question is then who was it? Of what level was any protection afforded if there was any at all?
PETER CAVE: What sort of things are being said by people in the street and indeed in the media?
PHILIP WILLIAMS: Well in the street the people are incredulous.
I was up there a short while ago and people just can't believe that in this small, relatively small city that's always been quite peaceful because of the heavy military presence that something like this could've been under their noses all along, and so some of them actually refuse to believe it. They just think it's just not possible.
The other flip-side of that coin is that they are now afraid that if there is to be revenge attacks that they'll be the ones to suffer that.
And so they are worried that having escaped the worst of the atrocities so far - the bombings and the shootings - that they may now find themselves and their previously peaceful town now a target.
PETER CAVE: What is the level of security in Islamabad at the moment?
PHILIP WILLIAMS: Quite high. There are lots of roadblocks you have to get through, particularly to the embassy areas and the more secure areas where the government buildings are, that's always the case but there is certainly a heightened awareness now, people speak of that.
People are on high alert because there is an anticipation that al Qaeda or at least some of its supporters, even loosely aligned, will want to make some sort of statement they're still in business and that they're not taking this without some violent reaction.
PETER CAVE: Philip Williams.
http://www.defence.pk/forums/newthread.php?do=newthread&f=87
