Robert Gates is heading to Pakistan

[H2O3C4Nitrogen]

Robert Gates is heading to Pakistan

Defense Secretary Robert Gates is going to Pakistan for a long-awaited visit, multiple sources familiar with the trip told The Cable. Gates is set to meet with basically the entire Pakistani leadership, including Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and the Army chief of staff Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, and intelligence chief Ahmad Shuja Pasha.

There are a bunch of issues on the table to be discussed. The Pakistanis want increased military support if they are going to expand their war against the extremists in South Waziristan to North Waziristan, where the Afghan Taliban are located. That's a thorny issue, because Pakistan has yet to make the strategic decision to confront those groups but the Obama team is pushing hard for that as part of their new surge strategy.

"The Americans want that to happen yesterday, the Pakistanis want to do it the day after tomorrow. Most likely it will happen sometime in between," one of the sources explained.

Gates will also likely discuss military supply routes to Afghanistan, which run (dangerously) through Pakistan, the ongoing but semi-secret cooperation on drone strikes, and the expansion of the military presence at the U.S. embassy in Pakistan.

The Pentagon's representation at the embassy, known as the Office of the Defense Representative, is growing from 45 to 280 personnel, causing some concern among the Pakistani military, one diplomatic source noted, and Gates will have to address those concerns.

Pakistan has been getting a lot of love from the Obama administration lately. Senior administration officials who have gone to Islamabad lately include Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen, Special Representative Richard Holbrooke, DNI Adm. Dennis Blair, CIA Director Leon Panetta, and others.

Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell wouldn't confirm or deny the trip. The dates are closely held due to security concerns, so we'll just say "soon."


Robert Gates is heading to Pakistan

 

[BATMAN]

Robert gates got to meet foreign minister many times while he's in US and can always have exchange of views via respective embassies......i think important meeting would be with the one with army.

Personally i believe drone attacks should continue but only with the intelligence tips of Pakistan army and when ever US have intelligence it should first ask Pak army for operation and if Pak army refuse or advice otherwise, than they should go ahead on their own.

 

[H2O3C4Nitrogen]

i think important meeting would be with the one with army.

I guess important meeting will be with PM Gillani ... As hes really going tough with these US diplomats . Maybe he would popup the demand for drone tech and the issue of sovereignty ..!

I am personally in favor of the drone strikes but not the impunity with which they carry out such strikes . There should be some checks and some prior notifications . . . .!

 

[BATMAN]

he would popup the demand for drone tech and the issue of sovereignty ..!

was he sleeping before? i believe gillani should refrain from asuming dictatorial role in area where he has no qualification.... he should rely on the experts and organisations for his discussions.

 

[H2O3C4Nitrogen]

was he sleeping before? i believe gillani should refrain from asuming dictatorial role in area where he has no qualification.... he should rely on the experts and organisations for his discussions.

I guess, he does have a political argument that these drone strikes actually hit there ratings ... as they give out a signal to common Pakistanis that " This gov is crippled and cant even raise voice to US for the sake of their
Sovereignty". So how abt transferring this tech to us, so tat we could fire those helfires to blow those terrorists...!

2 advantages
No Sovereignty issue + the Drone Tech + Something to cheer about in rallies and jalsas and possible incresed ratings ...

 

[H2O3C4Nitrogen]

Gates calls for closer defense ties to India


The Associated Press
Tuesday, January 19, 2010; 12:31 AM


NEW DELHI -- U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates appealed Tuesday for closer military cooperation between America and India to bring stability to South Asia.

In an opinion piece published in The Times of India ahead of his visit here, Gates said the two nations have been drawn together by their shared values and should push for even greater cooperation in confronting new security threats.

"We must seize these opportunities because the peace and security of South Asia is critical not just to this region, but also to the entire international community," he wrote.

Gates was scheduled to arrive in India on Tuesday afternoon for a two-day visit that would include meetings with the prime minister, foreign minister and defense minister.

The visit was expected to focus on regional security, Afghanistan and the tense relations between India and Pakistan.



Indian government officials declined to comment on Gates' visit, which comes as India ponders whether to buy scores of fighter aircraft, as well as other expensive hardware, from U.S. military contractors.

"There are also a lot of other defense acquisitions that are on the table," Lalit Mansingh, former Indian ambassador to the United States, said, adding that India was also interested in hearing of U.S. progress in fighting Islamic militants in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

It will be the first high-level talks between the two nations since Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was honored at the White House in November at the Obama administration's first state dinner.

The Indian and U.S. militaries conduct joint military exercises and regular exchanges, and India is a big client for U.S. arms dealers.

The United States has been trying to lower tensions between India and Pakistan to free up both nation's military and economic resources. India, with its emerging economy, could be an important regional power in the U.S. view, while Pakistan could be a stronger bulwark against Muslim extremism.

washingtonpost.com

 

[H2O3C4Nitrogen]

Impossible to separate Afghan, Pakistan Taliban - U.S.

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Making a distinction between Pakistani Taliban and their Afghan allies is counterproductive and pressure on Taliban havens on both sides of the border is necessary, U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates said on Thursday.

Islamabad has mounted big offensives against Pakistani Taliban factions that are attacking the state but has resisted U.S. pressure to attack Afghan Taliban in border enclaves who do not attack in Pakistan but cross the border to fight U.S. troops.

Pakistan says it has its hands full with the Pakistani Taliban and cannot open too many fronts at the same time.

But analysts say Pakistan sees the Afghan Taliban as tools to counter the growing influence of old rival India in Afghanistan and as potential allies in Afghanistan when U.S. forces withdraw and, as many Pakistanis fear, leave the country in chaos.

"It is important to remember that the Pakistani Taliban operates in collusion with both the Taliban in Afghanistan and al Qaeda, so it is impossible to separate these groups," Gates said in a commentary in Pakistan's the News newspaper on Thursday.

"If history is any indication, safe havens for either Taliban on either side of the border will in the long-run lead to more lethal and more brazen attacks in both nations," said Gates, adding he would be visiting Pakistan but did not say when.

Nuclear-armed Pakistan and the United States have been allies for years but ties have been strained by U.S. calls for Pakistan to do more to stop militants crossing from its lawless ethnic Pashtun border lands to fight in Afghanistan.

"Maintaining a distinction between some violent extremist groups and others is counterproductive," Gates said.

"Only by pressuring all of these groups on both sides of the border will Afghanistan and Pakistan be able to rid themselves of this scourge for good," he said.
About 2,000 Pakistani soldiers have been killed battling the al Qaeda-linked Pakistani Taliban behind numerous bomb attacks on the security forces and government and foreign targets.

The army has captured most insurgent bases in the rugged South Waziristan region on the Afghan border in an offensive launched in October but militant leaders have slipped away. Some are believed to have taken refuge with Afghan Taliban allies.

Gates, referring to a "trust deficit" between the United States and Pakistan, said the United States wanted to relinquish grievances of the past held by both sides.

The United States was committed to a stable, long-term, strategic partnership with a democratic Pakistan, he said.

The United States is Pakistan's biggest aid donor and has given about $15 billion (9.25 billion pound), including security assistance, since Pakistan signed up to the U.S.-led campaign against militancy after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

But many Pakistanis are deeply sceptical of the U.S. war on militancy, believing it is aimed at suppressing Muslims. Many Pakistanis also believe the United States wants to confiscate its nuclear weapons.

(Writing by Robert Birsel; Editing by Paul Tait)

Impossible to separate Afghan, Pakistan Taliban - U.S. | World | Reuters

 

[AnGrz_Z_K_Jailer]

Gates Says Pakistan Must Root Out Extremists

By ELISABETH BUMILLER
Published: January 21, 2010
RAWALPINDI, Pakistan — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Thursday that he expected to tell Pakistani military officials that they must root out all of the extremist groups on their border with Afghanistan and that ignoring “one part of this cancer” threatens their country’s stability.

But Mr. Gates, who landed in Pakistan this afternoon on unannounced two-day trip here, got an immediate pushback from the chief spokesman for Pakistan’s military, who told American reporters at the headquarters of the Pakistani Army in the garrison city of Rawalpindi that Pakistan has to contain some of the extremist groups for now and that the situation was not as “black and white” as Mr. Gates described.

The spokesman, Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, said that Pakistan was in no position to launch an offensive against extremist groups in the country’s mountainous tribal region of North Waziristan, as the United States would like, and that it would be six months to a year before any operation began.

Mr. Gates, who is on his first trip to Pakistan in three years, was to meet on Thursday with the Pakistani Army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, as well as the director of the director of the country’s spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence, Lt. Gen. Ahmad Shuja Pasha.

He is also to attend a dinner in his honor given by the Pakistani president, Asif Ali Zardari, and deliver a speech on American policy before a military audience.

In an opinion article published on Thursday in The News, Pakistan’s largest English-language daily newspaper, Mr. Gates sounded a theme similar to his remarks to reporters, saying that Pakistan had to do more to fight the multiple extremist groups on its Afghan border.

Implicitly he pressed Pakistan to root out the Afghan Taliban leadership, the Quetta Shura, which has found a safe haven in Pakistan’s mountainous tribal region. American officials are increasingly frustrated that while the Pakistanis have launched offensives against the Pakistani Taliban and Al Qaeda, they have so far not pursued the Afghan Taliban and another extremist group on their border, the Haqqani network, whose fighters pose a threat to American forces.

“Maintaining a distinction between some violent extremist groups and others is counterproductive,” Mr. Gates wrote. “Only by pressuring all of these groups on both sides of the border will Afghanistan and Pakistan be able to rid themselves of this scourge for good.”

American officials privately say that the Pakistanis are reluctant to go after the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani network because they see them as a future proxy against Indian interests in Afghanistan when the Americans leave. India is Pakistan’s archrival in the region; under President Obama’s Afghan strategy, announced last month, the United States is to begin withdrawing its forces from Afghanistan by July 2011.

In the same article, Mr. Gates sought to reassure Pakistanis that Americans were interested in a long-term interest in their country, not just in short-term strategic gain across the border in Afghanistan. Mr. Gates said he regretted past injustices in the American-Pakistan relationship that he himself has been part of since the late 1980s, when as No. 2 at the C.I.A. he helped funnel covert Reagan administration aid and weapons through Pakistan’s spy agency to the Islamic fundamentalists who ousted the Russians from Afghanistan. Some of those fundamentalists are now part of the Taliban and fighting against the United States.

Mr. Gates said that the United States largely abandoned Afghanistan and cut military ties with Pakistan once the Russians left Kabul, which he called “a grave mistake driven by some well-intentioned but short-sighted U.S. legislative and policy decisions.”

He said on this visit “I will emphasize that the United States wishes to relinquish the grievances of the past.”

Source : Gates Says Pakistan Must Root Out Extremists - NYTimes.com

 

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Gates Sees Fallout From Troubled Ties With Pakistan


By ELISABETH BUMILLER
Published: January 23, 2010

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Nobody else in the Obama administration has been mired in Pakistan for as long as Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates. So on a trip here this past week to try to soothe the country’s growing rancor toward the United States, he served as a punching bag tested over a quarter-century.
“Are you with us or against us?” a senior military officer demanded of Mr. Gates at Pakistan’s National Defense University, according to a Pentagon official who recounted the remark made during a closed-door session after Mr. Gates gave a speech at the school on Friday. Mr. Gates, who could hardly miss that the officer was mimicking former President George W. Bush’s warning to nations harboring militants, simply replied, “Of course we’re with you.”

That was the essence of Mr. Gates’ message over two days to the Pakistanis, who are angry about the Central Intelligence Agency’s surge in missile strikes from drone aircraft on militants in Pakistan’s tribal areas, among other grievances, and showed no signs of feeling any love.

The trip, Mr. Gates’s first to Pakistan in three years, proved that dysfunctional relationships span multiple administrations and that the history of American foreign policy is full of unintended consequences.

As the No. 2 official at the C.I.A. in the 1980s, Mr. Gates helped channel Reagan-era covert aid and weapons through Pakistan’s spy agency to the American allies at the time: Islamic fundamentalists fighting the Russians in Afghanistan. Many of those fundamentalists regrouped as the Taliban, who gave sanctuary to Al Qaeda before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and now threaten Pakistan.

In meetings on Thursday, Pakistani leaders repeatedly asked Mr. Gates to give them their own armed drones to go after the militants, not just a dozen smaller, unarmed ones that Mr. Gates announced as gifts meant to placate Pakistan and induce its cooperation.

Pakistani journalists asked Mr. Gates if the United States had plans to take over Pakistan’s nuclear weapons (Mr. Gates said no) and whether the United States would expand the drone strikes farther south into Baluchistan, as is under discussion. Mr. Gates did not answer.

At the same time, the Pakistani Army’s chief spokesman told American reporters at the army headquarters in Rawalpindi on Thursday that the military had no immediate plans to launch an offensive against extremists in the tribal region of North Waziristan, as American officials have repeatedly urged.

And the spokesman, Maj. Gen Athar Abbas, rejected Mr. Gates’s assertion that Al Qaeda had links to militant groups on Pakistan’s border. Asked why the United States would have such a view, the spokesman, General Abbas, curtly replied, “Ask the United States.”

General Abbas’s comments, made only hours after Mr. Gates arrived in Islamabad, were an affront to an American ally that gave Pakistan $3 billion in military aid last year. But American officials, trying to put a positive face on the general’s remarks and laying out what they described as military reality, said that the Pakistani Army was stretched thin from offensives against militants in the Swat Valley and South Waziristan and probably did not have the troops.

“They don’t have the ability to go into North Waziristan at the moment,” an American military official in Pakistan told reporters. “Now, they may be able to generate the ability. They could certainly accept risk in certain places and relocate some of their forces, but obviously that then creates a potential hole elsewhere that could suffer from Taliban re-encroachment.”

Mr. Gates’s advisers cast him as a good cop on a mission to encourage the Pakistanis rather than berate them. And he was characteristically low-key during most his visit here, including during a session with Pakistani journalists on Friday morning at the home of the American ambassador to Pakistan, Anne W. Patterson.

But Mr. Gates perked up when he was brought some coffee, and he soon began to push back against General Abbas. American officials say that the real reason Pakistanis distinguish between the groups is that they are reluctant to go after those that they see as a future proxy against Indian interests in Afghanistan when the Americans leave. India is Pakistan’s archrival in the region.

“Dividing these individual extremist groups into individual pockets if you will is in my view a mistaken way to look at the challenge we all face,” Mr. Gates said, then ticked off the collection on the border.

“Al Qaeda, the Taliban in Afghanistan, Tariki Taliban in Pakistan, Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Haqqani network — this is a syndicate of terrorists that work together,” he said. “And when one succeeds they all benefit, and they share ideas, they share planning. They don’t operationally coordinate their activities, as best I can tell. But they are in very close contact. They take inspiration from one another, they take ideas from one another.”

Mr. Gates, who repeatedly told the Pakistanis that he regretted their country’s “trust deficit” with the United States and that Americans had made a grave mistake in abandoning Pakistan after the Russians left Afghanistan, promised the military officers that the United States would do better.

His final message delivered, he relaxed on the 14-hour trip home by watching “Seven Days in May,” the cold war-era film about an attempted military coup in the United States.


Fallout From Troubled Ties With Pakistan

 

[H2O3C4Nitrogen]

US has the potent to reduce the trust deficit but unfortunately it deems to carry out things in its own ways which truly is backlashing ..!

 

[fatman17]

‘Our commitment to Pakistan’

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Robert M Gates

Nearly 25 years ago, in 1986, I arrived in Islamabad for my first visit to Pakistan to meet with this country’s military leaders and see firsthand the training of the Afghan resistance along the border. At the time, our two countries were working together in unprecedented ways to combat a common foe. As part of this effort, our militaries went to school together; our intelligence services shared insights; and our leaders consulted each other on strategic issues. The long-standing friendship was based on a great sense of mutual commitment, purpose, and benefit.

I was still in government in the early 1990s, when the Soviet Union left the region and the US largely abandoned Afghanistan and cut off defense ties with Pakistan – a grave mistake driven by some well-intentioned but short-sighted US legislative and policy decisions.

Thankfully, times have changed. Even so, much is still made in the media of a "trust deficit" between our nations. As I meet with Pakistan’s civilian and military leaders during my visit, I will emphasize that the United States wishes to relinquish the grievances of the past – grievances held by both sides – and instead focus on the promise of the future. I will repeat President Obama’s message that the United States is fully committed to a stable, long-term, strategic partnership with a democratic Pakistan – an enduring relationship based on shared interests and mutual respect that will continue to expand and deepen in the future on many levels, from security cooperation to economic development.

Today, Pakistan and the United States are allied against a common threat. As the people of Pakistan are all too aware, violent extremists attack innocent civilians, government and religious institutions, and security forces – all in an effort to undermine this country and its culture. The tremendous sacrifice of so many Pakistani troops – nearly 2,000 in the last three years – speaks to both their courage and their commitment to protect their fellow citizens. It also speaks to the magnitude of the security challenges this country faces – and need to for our two nations to muster the resolve to eliminate lawless regions and bring this conflict to an end.

The United States and the rest of the international community understand the gravity of the situation and applaud Pakistan’s drive to restore peace to all parts of the nation. To this end, the United States has increased efforts to help the Pakistani military develop the capabilities – and acquire the equipment – necessary to deal with a threat of this size and complexity. This effort includes revitalizing our military exchanges, education, and training programs. With all of our military-to-military relations, the guiding principle for the United States is doing whatever we can to help Pakistan protect its own sovereignty and destroy those who promote the use of terror in this country and plan attacks abroad. At the same time, the US recognizes that military aid alone will not help Pakistan solve the problem of violent extremism, and has, accordingly, expanded civilian assistance to invest in the potential of the Pakistani people.

I know there is concern that an increased US presence in Afghanistan will lead to more attacks in Pakistan. It is important to remember that the Pakistani Taliban operates in collusion with both the Taliban in Afghanistan and Al Qaeda, so it is impossible to separate these groups. If history is any indication, safe havens for either Taliban, on either side of the border, will in the long-run lead to more lethal and more brazen attacks in both nations – attacks of the kind that have already exacted a terrible civilian toll. Maintaining a distinction between some violent extremist groups and others is counterproductive: Only by pressuring all of these groups on both sides of the border will Afghanistan and Pakistan be able to rid themselves of this scourge for good – to destroy those who promote the use of terror here and abroad.

Even as our countries deal with the great challenge along the border, the United States recognizes Pakistan’s important regional and global leadership role – especially on matters like combating piracy and illicit narcotics trafficking, two areas where Pakistan has already made valuable contributions. One of the chief reasons for my visit is to develop a broader strategic dialogue – on the link between Afghanistan’s stability and Pakistan’s; stability in the broader region; the threat of extremism in Asia; efforts to reduce illicit drugs and their damaging global impact; and the importance of maritime security and cooperation. In all of this, Pakistan can play a central part in maintaining good relations among all countries in Asia – a precondition for security in this part of the world.

My visit comes at a critical time for the region. Many challenges remain, but I believe there is reason for hope and optimism. With common goals and collaboration on a range of issues, a new generation of Pakistanis and Americans is learning what it means to be long-term allies, partners, and friends – united in an effort to renew and strengthen the bonds of trust between our nations.



The writer is US secretary of defence. This article is exclusive to The News.


heady words!