fatman17
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Predator in Pakistan
by Ajay Bose
A recent newspaper report discloses a secret CIA base in Pakistan that launches pilotless Predator drone aircraft operated by remote control from faraway Las Vegas to hit targets in Pakistan. It could be an assault, in the name of 'war on terror', on Islamabad's sovereignty
The extent of the American takeover in Pakistan never ceases to surprise. A report in the New York Times last week disclosing a secret CIA base in the country that launches pilotless Predator drone aircraft operated by remote control from faraway Las Vegas to strike targets within Pakistan is yet to be denied by either Islamabad or the Bush Administration. This underlines the near complete collapse of Pakistan's sovereignty under Gen Pervez Musharaf and the enormous challenges facing that country's newly elected rulers if they are serious about it becoming an independent democracy.
What makes the revelations in the New York Times particularly shocking is that it comes barely two years after a Predator attack on a village, Damadola, in north Pakistan, a few kilometres from the Afghan border, killing more than a dozen villagers, including several women and children, sparked off violent demonstrations and protests across the country. That particular attack was carried out by four Predators launched from a base in Afghanistan.
Amazingly, despite the huge political backlash in Pakistan at the botched up strike aimed at Al Qaeda's deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri supposed to be visiting the village at that time, it now turns out that the Musharraf regime actually allowed a base for Predators to be set up by the CIA on Pakistani soil. This makes a mockery of the outrage expressed by the military ruler and his aides at the Damadola attack when it happened and their strenuous efforts to pretend complete ignorance of the impunity with which the CIA was attacking targets on Pakistani territory.
The Predator is an unmanned aerial vehicle operated by a mobile ground control station. It is equipped with cameras, sensors and radar that can capture video and still images. It also has a targeting system and can carry two laser-guided Hellfire missiles. It is about 27 ft long, weighs more than 1,100 pounds and can fly at up to 25,000 ft, remaining aloft for up to 40 hours.
Although the Predators have to be launched from local bases for obvious logistic reasons, they are controlled from the Creech airforce base in Las Vegas thousands of miles away. The US used them to target individual leaders of the Taliban and Al Qaeda during 2002 amid the battle to capture Afghanistan. In 2005, a Hellfire missile allegedly fired by a Predator killed an Egyptian Al Qaeda figure, Hamza Rabia, in North Waziristan although Pakistani authorities claimed that he died while making a bomb.
It is not known exactly when the CIA stationed Predators within Pakistan. But according to the New York Times, US officials in January persuaded Islamabad to "allow an increase in the number and scope of strikes by Predator aircraft launched from a secret base in Pakistan". Significantly, this happened shortly after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto pushed Gen Musharaf further on the backfoot, making him desperate to retain American support.
Shortly after this new arrangement, the Americans announced the killing of top Al Qaeda commander Abu Laith al-Libbi in North Waziristan by two Hellfire missiles fired from a Predator drone operating from the Pakistan base. He is supposed to be third in command behind al-Zawahiri and Osama bin Laden, although there is a fair degree of confusion because three years ago, there was much celebration by both the American and Pakistani authorities of having captured the same man. It now turns out that the man captured then was Abu Faraz al-Libbi, an inconsequential Al Qaeda operative that was wrongly identified because of the similarity of his name with the senior commander.
What makes the story even more bizarre is that the Damadola attack targeting al-Zawahiri was based on a tip off by Abu Faraz al-Libbi. The hapless operative, most probably inflicted with serious torture, is believed to have blurted out that al-Zawahiri was a regular visitor to the village that was attacked. The CIA under the mistaken notion that Abu Faraz al-Libbi was third in command of the Al Qaeda, consequently ordered a Predator strike leading to the tragic fiasco and the death of so many innocents.
Yet, regardless of whether the CIA has managed to target the right al-Libbi this time, it is quite amazing to see the freedom with which a foreign intelligence agency has been allowed to operate within a supposedly sovereign state in the name of fighting terrorists and militants. More than anything else, it is this crushing sense of humiliation that people in Pakistan felt at Americans sitting in some remote base in Las Vegas playing cowboys and Indians on their own soil, which led to the resounding rejection of Gen Musharaf in the recent election. Clearly, there is a strong text of nationalism that is evident from the electoral verdict across the border.
There is also an obvious lesson in the plight of Pakistan in the vice-like grip of unfettered terrorism and religious extremism on the one hand and the American gorilla on the other. This underlines the perils of a procession of Pakistani politicians and Generals over the past many decades allowing and even sponsoring militant groups to carry out their violent agenda. This, as we have seen in recent years, has only served to ultimately turn the country into a virtual vassal state of the US.
It remains to be seen whether the new political order replacing the old one will be able to cope with the daunting task of combating the day-to-day threat of jihadi terrorism even as they dismantle the overt dependence -- almost subservience -- to the US establishment. There is little doubt that an overwhelming majority of people in Pakistan prefers these twin tasks to be simultaneously accomplished. But with Gen Musharaf still a player in the current scenario and the Americans showing no sign of giving up its stranglehold on the internal security apparatus of Pakistan, it will require a herculean effort from the palpably fragile political class of that country.
by Ajay Bose
A recent newspaper report discloses a secret CIA base in Pakistan that launches pilotless Predator drone aircraft operated by remote control from faraway Las Vegas to hit targets in Pakistan. It could be an assault, in the name of 'war on terror', on Islamabad's sovereignty
The extent of the American takeover in Pakistan never ceases to surprise. A report in the New York Times last week disclosing a secret CIA base in the country that launches pilotless Predator drone aircraft operated by remote control from faraway Las Vegas to strike targets within Pakistan is yet to be denied by either Islamabad or the Bush Administration. This underlines the near complete collapse of Pakistan's sovereignty under Gen Pervez Musharaf and the enormous challenges facing that country's newly elected rulers if they are serious about it becoming an independent democracy.
What makes the revelations in the New York Times particularly shocking is that it comes barely two years after a Predator attack on a village, Damadola, in north Pakistan, a few kilometres from the Afghan border, killing more than a dozen villagers, including several women and children, sparked off violent demonstrations and protests across the country. That particular attack was carried out by four Predators launched from a base in Afghanistan.
Amazingly, despite the huge political backlash in Pakistan at the botched up strike aimed at Al Qaeda's deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri supposed to be visiting the village at that time, it now turns out that the Musharraf regime actually allowed a base for Predators to be set up by the CIA on Pakistani soil. This makes a mockery of the outrage expressed by the military ruler and his aides at the Damadola attack when it happened and their strenuous efforts to pretend complete ignorance of the impunity with which the CIA was attacking targets on Pakistani territory.
The Predator is an unmanned aerial vehicle operated by a mobile ground control station. It is equipped with cameras, sensors and radar that can capture video and still images. It also has a targeting system and can carry two laser-guided Hellfire missiles. It is about 27 ft long, weighs more than 1,100 pounds and can fly at up to 25,000 ft, remaining aloft for up to 40 hours.
Although the Predators have to be launched from local bases for obvious logistic reasons, they are controlled from the Creech airforce base in Las Vegas thousands of miles away. The US used them to target individual leaders of the Taliban and Al Qaeda during 2002 amid the battle to capture Afghanistan. In 2005, a Hellfire missile allegedly fired by a Predator killed an Egyptian Al Qaeda figure, Hamza Rabia, in North Waziristan although Pakistani authorities claimed that he died while making a bomb.
It is not known exactly when the CIA stationed Predators within Pakistan. But according to the New York Times, US officials in January persuaded Islamabad to "allow an increase in the number and scope of strikes by Predator aircraft launched from a secret base in Pakistan". Significantly, this happened shortly after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto pushed Gen Musharaf further on the backfoot, making him desperate to retain American support.
Shortly after this new arrangement, the Americans announced the killing of top Al Qaeda commander Abu Laith al-Libbi in North Waziristan by two Hellfire missiles fired from a Predator drone operating from the Pakistan base. He is supposed to be third in command behind al-Zawahiri and Osama bin Laden, although there is a fair degree of confusion because three years ago, there was much celebration by both the American and Pakistani authorities of having captured the same man. It now turns out that the man captured then was Abu Faraz al-Libbi, an inconsequential Al Qaeda operative that was wrongly identified because of the similarity of his name with the senior commander.
What makes the story even more bizarre is that the Damadola attack targeting al-Zawahiri was based on a tip off by Abu Faraz al-Libbi. The hapless operative, most probably inflicted with serious torture, is believed to have blurted out that al-Zawahiri was a regular visitor to the village that was attacked. The CIA under the mistaken notion that Abu Faraz al-Libbi was third in command of the Al Qaeda, consequently ordered a Predator strike leading to the tragic fiasco and the death of so many innocents.
Yet, regardless of whether the CIA has managed to target the right al-Libbi this time, it is quite amazing to see the freedom with which a foreign intelligence agency has been allowed to operate within a supposedly sovereign state in the name of fighting terrorists and militants. More than anything else, it is this crushing sense of humiliation that people in Pakistan felt at Americans sitting in some remote base in Las Vegas playing cowboys and Indians on their own soil, which led to the resounding rejection of Gen Musharaf in the recent election. Clearly, there is a strong text of nationalism that is evident from the electoral verdict across the border.
There is also an obvious lesson in the plight of Pakistan in the vice-like grip of unfettered terrorism and religious extremism on the one hand and the American gorilla on the other. This underlines the perils of a procession of Pakistani politicians and Generals over the past many decades allowing and even sponsoring militant groups to carry out their violent agenda. This, as we have seen in recent years, has only served to ultimately turn the country into a virtual vassal state of the US.
It remains to be seen whether the new political order replacing the old one will be able to cope with the daunting task of combating the day-to-day threat of jihadi terrorism even as they dismantle the overt dependence -- almost subservience -- to the US establishment. There is little doubt that an overwhelming majority of people in Pakistan prefers these twin tasks to be simultaneously accomplished. But with Gen Musharaf still a player in the current scenario and the Americans showing no sign of giving up its stranglehold on the internal security apparatus of Pakistan, it will require a herculean effort from the palpably fragile political class of that country.
