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Wikileaks Diplomatic Cables

I agree with your post generally, except the last point: Changing the terms of engagement is a two-way street, and no one side can change those unilaterally.
It is a two way street, but again, Pakistan is the weaker nation here, and will be far less willing to compromise on anything related to her national security issues without tangible evidence that compromise will be offset via gains in a newly defined relationship with the US.

Unfortunately, the US has deserted Pakistan so often, that there is a lot of mistrust here-
Pakistan was sanctioned after US interests were fulfilled last time around.
Pakistan was refused trade deals, even limited ones such as the ROZ's, and greater market access to the US, and continues to be.
Pakistan was refused advanced technology via trade with the NSG, despite a discriminatory and arbitrary waiver for India.

Is there any reason for Pakistan to trust the US given what the US has done so far? A 2 way street certainly, but the US has to demonstrate that is sincere before Pakistan can move on becoming the second part of the street. Pakistan has a lot more to lose here than the US.
 
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Except there are powerful elements in Pakistan that benefit from 'status quo'.
That is more of a conspiracy theory and excuse to justify the current US policy direction in South Asia, much liken the Indians choose to focus on the canard of "elements in the ISI and PA want tensions with India to continue to justify their reson detre and therefore use it as an excuse to avoid engagement with Pakistan to resolve the Kashmir Dispute.
 
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Except there are powerful elements in Pakistan that benefit from 'status quo'.

These powerful elements are dispensable, they have been and will remain so but there is benefit for US in keeping the 'status quo'.

Director or indirectly US has supported these elements in a Pakistan for some time.

After all it does want to loose a 'mercenary' client state.

An independent, moderate and secular Pakistan will be of no real use.

And thus US continues to entertain Maulana Fazlur Rahman and his party. Perhaps the biggest supporters of the Taliban and closet admirers of Al Qaeda.
 
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These powerful elements are dispensable, they have been and will remain so but there is benefit for US in keeping the 'status quo'.

Director or indirectly US has supported these elements in a Pakistan for some time.

After all it does want to loose a 'mercenary' client state.

An independent, moderate and secular Pakistan will be of no real use.

And thus US continues to entertain Maulana Falur Rahman and his party. Perhaps the biggest supporters of the Taliban and closet admirers of Al Qaeda.
I don't see any of these elements in positions of significant power currently- yes, people like FR have some influence, but both the civilian and military power centers are in 'moderate' hands.
 
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I don't see any of these elements in positions of significant power currently- yes, people like FR have some influence, but both the civilian and military power centers are in 'moderate' hands.

Even when the said elements are not in positions of significant power, they have enough sway to challenge the state and thus the power centres continue to appease them.

CIA had direct contact with JI leadership in the 70's which was mainly set up to continually disrupt the Bhutto government of the time and render it ineffective.

Bhutto even brought in laws to the liking of this religious party in 74 and in late 70's. But JI still led a coalition against Bhutto and got him to a court.
 
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Remember the brand launch of Osama Bin Laden & Al-Qaeda by the American Govt. under President Bush? Looks like a new brand launch is on its way. This time its of Juliann Assange & WikiLeaks. Similar media reporting, a ghost being painted out of a nobody. He’s being branded as a threat to National Security and Arrest Warrants have been released against him. Who is the US Govt. kidding this time around?

In the recent past, WikiLeaks has been turned into a brand. A brand that has received extra ordinary recognition by the western media, unnecessarily portrayed as a threat to the US etc. Consequently, the rest of the World’s media picked up on it and started producing handpicked reports that were being carefully released by Wikileaks itself. In the video show below, some of the intellectuals have clearly explained that this phenomenon is not new to the world. When Imperialist powers recede, they play such tactics to toss dust into the eyes of the audience. In the highlights, we have picked up some of the points that are food for thought for all those who have started to believe in the WikiLeaks.

A few highlights:

1. The WikiLeaks are mainly Muslim-World centric.

2. The Americans are tired in Afghanistan and want an easy and hopefully dignified exit. Through WikiLeaks, they’re partially trying to achieve that.

3. Before they leave the region after their defeat in Afghanistan, they want to leave strong rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

4. Pakistan’s Nukes are safe, and it has been established so in the recent past, by official statements of the US itself. Drawing unnecessary attention towards the issue clearly identifies what the WikiLeaks is mainly after.

5. The story of how WikiLeaks managed to get all these documents, that Juliann Assange is a Rogue element, that the documents were stolen/downloaded during a switch-over to an upgrade etc. etc. are all made up stories.

6. Such elements(the founder of Wikileaks) are used as a part of a long-term plan by the Deep-State strategists of the US, to keep their own records clean and maintain their claims of innocence and to create divisions amongst Muslim states.

7. Today’s USA, is a receding Imperialist Super Power, that is not only militarily being defeated in Afghanistan, but is also facing economic defeat across the globe. It needs such acts in order to save itself the humiliation.

8. The war that USA is fighting today is an immoral war and they know it. The Americans know it, and hence the US Govt. is now facing extreme opposition for their unusual wars across the world, which are only bringing not only humiliation but a bad name to the United States. There is Joblessness, uncertainty etc. amongst the Americans; indicating that they are fighting these wars at the expense of America’s future generations.

9. The leaks are deliberate. The leaks intend to create chaos amongst mainly the Muslim world. The leaks are carefully handpicked and are not being merely handpicked by Julian Assange. There are bigger forces in play here who are trying to achieve their ulterior motives by these leaks. This should be called operation disinformation.

10. Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Afghanistan, North Korea and Libya should make a combined effort to put together all the information that they have about the American shady business in the world and release it to the media, to make them taste their own medicine.

11. Similar leaks have been made in the past by the CIA; during the Vietnam War when Nixon and Henry Kissinger decided that they needed to pull out of Vietnam, the Seymour Hersh report was released in the result of which a movement came into play and finally the US announced its withdrawal from Vietnam.

12. The whole drama has been orchestrated and we need not fall victim to its designs. Through the release of a few authentic truths, WikiLeaks will try to authenticate the lies that it will present to the world.

We have examined the Wikileaks phenomena and have come across a few points that serve as arguments for all those who prefer thinking with common sense instead of blindly believing in what the media presents to them:

a. How in the world could a nobody like Juliann Assange get a hold of more than 250,000 secret documents (those too of Category C), unless they were deliberately leaked to him/her??? Obviously, this was a carefully carried out operation, to throw dust in the eyes of the world and make them think that oh, finally, someone’s there to leak truth to us because obviously nobody is going to simply tell us the truth!

b. First they build their credibility by releasing anti-American information only, then they receive the endorsement from the US Govt. by being told that they should stop doing so because they’re endangering “American lives”. Once this milestone is achieved, they reveal mostly useless stuff about key Muslim countries or their leaders, and now people are bound to believe whatever information (read disinformation) they’re giving to the world, because the world has stopped believing what the US says, so they’ve launched a new platform for spreading their deception and disinformation!

c. The truths are like Qaddhafi is afraid of flying over water and King Abdullah hates Zardari. And the lies are like Pakistan’s nuclear warheads are not safe – note the difference? The truth is of no value at all, and the lie is aimed at something worthwhile.

d. The best thing to do is to ignore Wikileaks. Also note, CNN, Fox News and most of the Western Media have suddently been flooded with information being leaked by Wikileaks, in other words, they’re providing a mouthpiece to Wikileaks, if it were really a threat, they would’ve never published any of its content. Unfortunately, our media is too naive to understand that and is following the footsteps of the Western media as usual.

All the above mentioned points lead us to believe that Wikileaks is basically a fraudulent organization working on an agenda of bringing controlled chaos to the already chaotic world.
 
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It is a two way street, but again, Pakistan is the weaker nation here, and will be far less willing to compromise on anything related to her national security issues without tangible evidence that compromise will be offset via gains in a newly defined relationship with the US.

Unfortunately, the US has deserted Pakistan so often, that there is a lot of mistrust here-
Pakistan was sanctioned after US interests were fulfilled last time around.
Pakistan was refused trade deals, even limited ones such as the ROZ's, and greater market access to the US, and continues to be.
Pakistan was refused advanced technology via trade with the NSG, despite a discriminatory and arbitrary waiver for India.

Is there any reason for Pakistan to trust the US given what the US has done so far? A 2 way street certainly, but the US has to demonstrate that is sincere before Pakistan can move on becoming the second part of the street. Pakistan has a lot more to lose here than the US.

Firstly, thank you for conceding that it has to be a two-way street.

Secondly, "trust" and "sincerity" are personal traits that do not apply in international relations. There are only alignments, associations and adversarial positions depending on national interests and goals which are redefined periodically and are never static.

Thirdly, I can easily put up a list of thnigs that Pakistan has done and is doing that would not make for pleasant reading, and those continue to be a problem from the US point of view.

However, I do agree with you that there has to be give and take on both sides if common interests are to be achieved. One thing to keep in mind very clearly is that if the USA can be convinced by other regional players that its national interests are better (or best) served by aligning with them, then that is exactly what will happen. We have all noted recent developments, and those only bolster my arguments above.

I could be more candid, but I fear that the chest-thumping that will inevitably follow will drown out any intelligent discussion.
 
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WikiLeaks: Saudi ‘critical’ finance base for Qaeda, Taliban – The Express Tribune

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia is the key source of funding for radical Islamist groups including Al-Qaeda, the Taliban, Hamas and Lashkar-e- e-Taiba, according to a US diplomatic cable leaked by WikiLeaks Sunday.

“Donors in Saudi Arabia constitute the most significant source of funding to Sunni terrorist groups worldwide,” said the document, an assessment from US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton dated December 30, 2009.

“Saudi Arabia remains a critical financial support base for Al-Qaeda, the Taliban, LeT (Lashkar-e-Taiba), and other terrorist groups, including Hamas, which probably raise millions of dollars annually from Saudi sources, often during Hajj and Ramadan,” the cable said.

It said that the Saudis had made “significant progress” under US pressure to deal with the issue, especially disrupting Al-Qaeda’s sources of money in Saudi Arabia. However, it added, “Riyadh has taken only limited action” to interrupt the flow of money to Taliban and LeT-associated groups which have launched attacks in Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.

The same memo said Gulf states remain important sources of financing for Islamist militant groups, singling out Qatar as “the worst in the region” in its overall level of cooperation with Washington in “counter-terror” issues.

Qatar’s approach on the financing issue is “largely passive,” while Kuwait has been “less inclined to take action” on local financiers and facilitators plotting attacks outside the country, the memo said.
 
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An independent, moderate and secular Pakistan will be of no real use.

You are getting very close to the truth.

Pakistan is a way to put pressure on India and Russia. The alignment of interests between South Asian Islamic nationalism and western colonialism brought Pakistan into existence. After around 1960, China also became a player.
 
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don't waste your time or money sending high ranking officials to have elaborate state-dinners, say a few words, then leave....
As Angelina Jolie's trip shows, this often isn't a choice made by Americans, but that of Pakistan's elite, as a pre-condition to talking to other Pakistanis.

send low and medium rank officials to tend to NGOs, schools, hospitals, civil society, private sector/trade developers etc.
You don't know about America's efforts at doing so from independence onward, do you?

Pakistani peoples are not cold as stone. We don't view friendships on transactional level. We are personal people. Learn our culture and our ways of conducting things.
I accept. We can do lunch at Eli's, just pick a date.
 
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The middle class will never understand how a state is run.

It is easy to say that leaders should not act like slaves but acting upon it is difficult. Those who have no experience of running a state would use rhetorical expressions but they would do the same if brought to power.

it is never 2+2=4 in politics, diplomacy and statemenship. It's a delicate art which is not always STRAIGHTFORWARD, PRINCIPLED or based on PUBLIC SENTIMENT.
 
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Cable shows US global security list
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The security of import and export terminals at the Suez Canal in Egypt are considered crucial to US interests [EPA]

A new diplomatic cable released by the WikiLeaks website shows the US had listed a extensive number of facilities around the world that it considered vital for its national security.

The February 2009 cable released on Monday is an "action request", which states that under the auspices of the Department of Homeland Security's National Infrastructure Protection Plan (NIPP), US missions overseas are required to file a report by the following month, listing why posts - overseas infrastucture facilities - might be critical to US interests.

The sheer breadth of the facilities the US considers pertinent to its national security is extraordinary, and the cable does not detail why or how potential attacks on many of them constitute a threat against US national security.

It is also unclear how or if their protection would fall under the purview of the US Department of Homeland Security.

'Irreplaceable' facilities

The value of some of the listed potential targets, however, are explained. For example, a Canadian hydroelectric plant is described as a "critical irreplaceable source of power to portions of Northeast US", while a Siemens factory in Germany does "essentially irreplaceable production of key chemicals".

Also listed are European manufacturers of vaccines for smallpox and rabies, an Italian maker of treatment for snake-bite venom, and a German company making treatment for plutonium poisoning.

The leaked cable itself lists a comprehensive, geographically expansive number of key facilities and infrastructure in dozens of countries as "vital" to US national security, and therefore "under the protection of a single programme".

Will Geddes, a security specialist with International Corporate Protection in London, told Al Jazeera that the details of the leaked cable could "without a question" pose a threat to US security.

"When you consider how most terrorist groups operate in a very conventional sense,the first part of any operation will be the selection of a target.

"When we look at some of the sites listed on this document these things make it very easy to then say these are the sorts of targets we should be aiming for and then they can move very quickly to a reconnaisance phase."

Potential targets

The cable categorises the potential targets in several sectors as such:
The NIPP identifies 18 CI/KR sectors: agriculture and food; defense industrial base; energy; healthcare and public health; national monuments and icons; banking and finance; drinking water and water treatment systems; chemical; commercial facilities; dams; emergency services; commercial nuclear reactors, materials, and waste; information technology; communications; postal and shipping; transportation and systems; government facilities; and critical manufacturing.

While the release of the US diplomatic cables has put Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, in a difficult position, this leak is also the cause of consternation, as it exposes some critical, classified facilities, such as undersea cables, satellite systems.

A spokesman for David Cameron, the British prime minister, on Monday condemned the release of the secret list of key global infrastructure, saying such leaks were "damaging to national security".

The cable indicates that the list is built upon a 2008 survey of resources or facilities, and requires that each post "reassess and update information about the infrastructure and resources in each country whose loss could immediately affect the public health, economic security, and/or national and homeland security in the United States."
 
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You are getting very close to the truth.

Pakistan is a way to put pressure on India and Russia. The alignment of interests between South Asian Islamic nationalism and western colonialism brought Pakistan into existence. After around 1960, China also became a player.

Slight correction, the western powers were highly impressed by the western minded leaders of the Pakistan movement and an army that had consistent admirable success against adversaries that we had in common with the west.

Knowing that such a Muslim nation would be an advantage in the region, the western powers threw full support behind Pakistan.

This support turned our otherwise difficult to sustain nation into an Asian dream within a decade. Like Ayub told the Americans in Senate:

Ladies and Gentlemen, you will not find a closer friend than us in entire Asia.

The shortsightedness of our leader wrecked the dream but we are still supported and liked by the west, so if we correct ourselves, we can still attain the position we have been made for.
 
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