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original article of mansoor ijaz published in financial times which sparked the memo controversy
Time to take on Pakistans jihadist spies
By Mansoor Ijaz
Early on May 9, a week after US Special Forces stormed the hideout of Osama bin Laden and killed him, a senior Pakistani diplomat telephoned me with an urgent request. Asif Ali Zardari, Pakistans president, needed to communicate a message to White House national security officials that would bypass Pakistans military and intelligence channels. The embarrassment of bin Laden being found on Pakistani soil had humiliated Mr Zardaris weak civilian government to such an extent that the president feared a military takeover was imminent. He needed an American fist on his army chiefs desk to end any misguided notions of a coup and fast.
Gen Ashfaq Kayani, the army chief, and his troops were demoralised by the embarrassing ease with which US special forces had violated Pakistani sovereignty. Inter-Services Intelligence, Pakistans feared spy service, was charged by virtually the entire international community with complicity in hiding bin Laden for almost six years. Both camps were looking for a scapegoat; Mr Zardari was their most convenient target.
The diplomat made clear that the civilian governments preferred channel to receive Mr Zardaris message was Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff. He was a time-tested friend of Pakistan and could convey the necessary message with force not only to President Barack Obama, but also to Gen Kayani.
In a flurry of phone calls and emails over two days a memorandum was crafted that included a critical offer from the Pakistani president to the Obama administration: The new national security team will eliminate Section S of the ISI charged with maintaining relations to the Taliban, Haqqani network, etc. This will dramatically improve relations with Afghanistan.
The memo was delivered to Admiral Mullen at 14.00 hours on May 10. A meeting between him and Pakistani national security officials took place the next day at the White House. Pakistans military and intelligence chiefs, it seems, neither heeded the warning, nor acted on the admirals advice.
On September 22, in his farewell testimony to the Senate armed services committee, Admiral Mullen said he had credible intelligence that a bombing on September 11 that wounded 77 US and Nato troops and an attack on the US embassy in Kabul on September 13 were done with ISI support.Essentially he was indicting Pakistans intelligence services for carrying out a covert war against the US perhaps in retaliation for the raid on bin Ladens compound, perhaps out of strategic national interest to put Taliban forces back in power in Afghanistan so that Pakistan would once again have the strategic depth its paranoid security policies against India always envisioned.
Questions about the ISIs role in Pakistan have intensified in recent months. The finger of responsibility in many otherwise inexplicable attacks has often pointed to a shadowy outfit of ISI dubbed S-Wing, which is said to be dedicated to promoting the dubious agenda of a narrow group of nationalists who believe only they can protect Pakistans territorial integrity.
The time has come for the state department to declare the S-Wing a sponsor of terrorism under the designation of foreign governmental organisations. Plans by the Obama administration to blacklist the Haqqani network are toothless and will have no material impact on the groups military support and intelligence logistics; it is S-Wing that allegedly provides all of this in the first place. It no longer matters whether ISI is wilfully blind, complicit or incompetent in the attacks its S-Wing is carrying out. S-Wing must be stopped.
ISI embodies the scourge of radicalism that has become a cornerstone of Pakistans foreign policy. The time has come for America to take the lead in shutting down the political and financial support that sustains an organ of the Pakistani state that undermines global antiterrorism efforts at every turn. Measures such as stopping aid to Pakistan, as a bill now moving through Congress aims to do, are not the solution. More precise policies are needed to remove the cancer that ISI and its rogue wings have become on the Pakistani state.
Pakistanis are not Americas enemies. Neither is their incompetent and toothless civilian government the one Admiral Mullen was asked to help that May morning. The enemy is a state organ that breeds hatred among Pakistans Islamist masses and then uses their thirst for jihad against Pakistans neighbours and allies to sate its hunger for power. Taking steps to reduce its influence over Pakistans state affairs is a critical measure of the worlds willingness to stop the terror masters at their very roots.
The writer is an American of Pakistani ancestry. In 1997 he negotiated Sudans offer of counter-terrorism assistance to the Clinton administration
now an adorable analysis by pakistani journalist published in thenews
Memo from USA
Anjum Niaz
Saturday, November 12, 2011
We are watching a stripper dance on the stage to a sexy number. We are titillated. We want to see the stripper reveal more. Mansoor Ijaz is the dancer. On October 10, he revealed a self-important story about a memo that contained something as lethal as a dirty bomb. The London-based newspaper Financial Times printed it under the headline Time to take on Pakistans jihadist spies. Ijaz, a smarmy Pakistani-American businessman, based his FT article on the memo, supposedly written by a not-named Pakistani diplomat, allegedly dictated by Zardari, with instructions to pass it on to Admiral Mullen.
Mansoor Ijaz now threatens to explode the dirty bomb. Were a blast to occur, like the dirty bomb which contains radioactive material killing those who come in contact with it, the memos radiation could contaminate its inventors, instantly wiping them off. But the tease that Ijaz is, he will not bare it all, preferring instead, to dance around it like strippers do.
To give you another analogy, we have team A and team B playing a football match. America is Team A and Pakistan is Team B. Admiral Mike Mullen and President Zardari captain their respective teams. Mansoor Ijaz (who has graduated from being a stripper) is the goal keeper in Mullens team, while the nameless diplomat is Zardaris goal keeper. The football is the Pakistan army. Remember a ball never speaks. It only moves. So far it has not moved for reasons only known to the ball! There are cheerleaders from both the teams.
The Zardari camp has a handful of TV and print mouthpieces rooting for him; the American camp is quiet but for its dodgy goalkeeper Mansoor Ijaz, who puts out press releases threatening to expose foul play. So far his threats are just that. The only person to openly accuse Team B of foul play is Imran Khan. At his rally of millions recently, he exposes fully the game Zardari has played including the identity of his goalkeeper, the Washington-based diplomat.
Did Imran Khan rush to judgement without proof? The great Khan is a cricketing legend. He may lack the Machiavellian chalaki of the Zardari team, but he knows about ball-tampering. So he must be pretty confident when he openly and publically named the culprit caught in the process. As for the football...didnt I just say, it will not speak but home in when the time comes? Let me add here that the football, according to sources in the know, has collected enough moss (read proof) to move against Team B.
The plot thickens. A retired spokesman of the retired Mullen told a blog that the latter does not know Mansoor Ijaz nor did he get a missive from him. Fair enough! But Mullens spokesman leaves the door wide open for conjecture when he says: I cannot say definitively that correspondence did not come from him the admiral received many missives as chairman from many people every day, some official, some not. Stop! This statement merely denies Mullens acquaintance with Mansoor Ijaz, but not the memo.
Go back to Mullens September 22 testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee highlighting the ISIs role in sponsoring the Haqqani Network including attacks on American forces in Afghanistan. Then read Ijazs FT story in which he quotes Zardari saying The new national security team will eliminate Section S of the ISI charged with maintaining relations to the Taliban, Haqqani network, etc. This will dramatically improve relations with Afghanistan.
Did Mullen base his testimony on the allegedly sensitive contents of the memo? The highest ranking US military officer would be a fool to stake his whole reputation if he was not sure. For him to now obfuscate the memo matter must get the Pakistan Armys antennas up.
Enough confusion and conjecture has swirled the media waves. Only a full disclosure will do. Ijaz, no more teasers please.
The writer is a freelance journalist. Email: anjumniaz@rocketmail.com
Time to take on Pakistans jihadist spies
By Mansoor Ijaz
Early on May 9, a week after US Special Forces stormed the hideout of Osama bin Laden and killed him, a senior Pakistani diplomat telephoned me with an urgent request. Asif Ali Zardari, Pakistans president, needed to communicate a message to White House national security officials that would bypass Pakistans military and intelligence channels. The embarrassment of bin Laden being found on Pakistani soil had humiliated Mr Zardaris weak civilian government to such an extent that the president feared a military takeover was imminent. He needed an American fist on his army chiefs desk to end any misguided notions of a coup and fast.
Gen Ashfaq Kayani, the army chief, and his troops were demoralised by the embarrassing ease with which US special forces had violated Pakistani sovereignty. Inter-Services Intelligence, Pakistans feared spy service, was charged by virtually the entire international community with complicity in hiding bin Laden for almost six years. Both camps were looking for a scapegoat; Mr Zardari was their most convenient target.
The diplomat made clear that the civilian governments preferred channel to receive Mr Zardaris message was Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff. He was a time-tested friend of Pakistan and could convey the necessary message with force not only to President Barack Obama, but also to Gen Kayani.
In a flurry of phone calls and emails over two days a memorandum was crafted that included a critical offer from the Pakistani president to the Obama administration: The new national security team will eliminate Section S of the ISI charged with maintaining relations to the Taliban, Haqqani network, etc. This will dramatically improve relations with Afghanistan.
The memo was delivered to Admiral Mullen at 14.00 hours on May 10. A meeting between him and Pakistani national security officials took place the next day at the White House. Pakistans military and intelligence chiefs, it seems, neither heeded the warning, nor acted on the admirals advice.
On September 22, in his farewell testimony to the Senate armed services committee, Admiral Mullen said he had credible intelligence that a bombing on September 11 that wounded 77 US and Nato troops and an attack on the US embassy in Kabul on September 13 were done with ISI support.Essentially he was indicting Pakistans intelligence services for carrying out a covert war against the US perhaps in retaliation for the raid on bin Ladens compound, perhaps out of strategic national interest to put Taliban forces back in power in Afghanistan so that Pakistan would once again have the strategic depth its paranoid security policies against India always envisioned.
Questions about the ISIs role in Pakistan have intensified in recent months. The finger of responsibility in many otherwise inexplicable attacks has often pointed to a shadowy outfit of ISI dubbed S-Wing, which is said to be dedicated to promoting the dubious agenda of a narrow group of nationalists who believe only they can protect Pakistans territorial integrity.
The time has come for the state department to declare the S-Wing a sponsor of terrorism under the designation of foreign governmental organisations. Plans by the Obama administration to blacklist the Haqqani network are toothless and will have no material impact on the groups military support and intelligence logistics; it is S-Wing that allegedly provides all of this in the first place. It no longer matters whether ISI is wilfully blind, complicit or incompetent in the attacks its S-Wing is carrying out. S-Wing must be stopped.
ISI embodies the scourge of radicalism that has become a cornerstone of Pakistans foreign policy. The time has come for America to take the lead in shutting down the political and financial support that sustains an organ of the Pakistani state that undermines global antiterrorism efforts at every turn. Measures such as stopping aid to Pakistan, as a bill now moving through Congress aims to do, are not the solution. More precise policies are needed to remove the cancer that ISI and its rogue wings have become on the Pakistani state.
Pakistanis are not Americas enemies. Neither is their incompetent and toothless civilian government the one Admiral Mullen was asked to help that May morning. The enemy is a state organ that breeds hatred among Pakistans Islamist masses and then uses their thirst for jihad against Pakistans neighbours and allies to sate its hunger for power. Taking steps to reduce its influence over Pakistans state affairs is a critical measure of the worlds willingness to stop the terror masters at their very roots.
The writer is an American of Pakistani ancestry. In 1997 he negotiated Sudans offer of counter-terrorism assistance to the Clinton administration
now an adorable analysis by pakistani journalist published in thenews
Memo from USA
Anjum Niaz
Saturday, November 12, 2011
We are watching a stripper dance on the stage to a sexy number. We are titillated. We want to see the stripper reveal more. Mansoor Ijaz is the dancer. On October 10, he revealed a self-important story about a memo that contained something as lethal as a dirty bomb. The London-based newspaper Financial Times printed it under the headline Time to take on Pakistans jihadist spies. Ijaz, a smarmy Pakistani-American businessman, based his FT article on the memo, supposedly written by a not-named Pakistani diplomat, allegedly dictated by Zardari, with instructions to pass it on to Admiral Mullen.
Mansoor Ijaz now threatens to explode the dirty bomb. Were a blast to occur, like the dirty bomb which contains radioactive material killing those who come in contact with it, the memos radiation could contaminate its inventors, instantly wiping them off. But the tease that Ijaz is, he will not bare it all, preferring instead, to dance around it like strippers do.
To give you another analogy, we have team A and team B playing a football match. America is Team A and Pakistan is Team B. Admiral Mike Mullen and President Zardari captain their respective teams. Mansoor Ijaz (who has graduated from being a stripper) is the goal keeper in Mullens team, while the nameless diplomat is Zardaris goal keeper. The football is the Pakistan army. Remember a ball never speaks. It only moves. So far it has not moved for reasons only known to the ball! There are cheerleaders from both the teams.
The Zardari camp has a handful of TV and print mouthpieces rooting for him; the American camp is quiet but for its dodgy goalkeeper Mansoor Ijaz, who puts out press releases threatening to expose foul play. So far his threats are just that. The only person to openly accuse Team B of foul play is Imran Khan. At his rally of millions recently, he exposes fully the game Zardari has played including the identity of his goalkeeper, the Washington-based diplomat.
Did Imran Khan rush to judgement without proof? The great Khan is a cricketing legend. He may lack the Machiavellian chalaki of the Zardari team, but he knows about ball-tampering. So he must be pretty confident when he openly and publically named the culprit caught in the process. As for the football...didnt I just say, it will not speak but home in when the time comes? Let me add here that the football, according to sources in the know, has collected enough moss (read proof) to move against Team B.
The plot thickens. A retired spokesman of the retired Mullen told a blog that the latter does not know Mansoor Ijaz nor did he get a missive from him. Fair enough! But Mullens spokesman leaves the door wide open for conjecture when he says: I cannot say definitively that correspondence did not come from him the admiral received many missives as chairman from many people every day, some official, some not. Stop! This statement merely denies Mullens acquaintance with Mansoor Ijaz, but not the memo.
Go back to Mullens September 22 testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee highlighting the ISIs role in sponsoring the Haqqani Network including attacks on American forces in Afghanistan. Then read Ijazs FT story in which he quotes Zardari saying The new national security team will eliminate Section S of the ISI charged with maintaining relations to the Taliban, Haqqani network, etc. This will dramatically improve relations with Afghanistan.
Did Mullen base his testimony on the allegedly sensitive contents of the memo? The highest ranking US military officer would be a fool to stake his whole reputation if he was not sure. For him to now obfuscate the memo matter must get the Pakistan Armys antennas up.
Enough confusion and conjecture has swirled the media waves. Only a full disclosure will do. Ijaz, no more teasers please.
The writer is a freelance journalist. Email: anjumniaz@rocketmail.com
