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WASHINGTON: President Asif Ali Zardari seriously believes that the US was arranging the (suicide) attacks by Pakistani Taliban inside Pakistan, a claim he made before Zalmay Khalilzad, the former US envoy to Afghanistan, who thought it was madness.
The account of this claim by Zardari has been elaborately reproduced by Bob Woodward, on Page 116 of his famous book Obamas Wars. The revelation could throw a lot of light on the complex relations between the Zardari-led PPP government which US officials believe is incompetent and the disillusioned US diplomats.
Zardari received this information from President Karzai and passed it on to Khalilzad which also reveals how important the Pakistani president thinks Karzais views are, though the Americans consider him a liability.
These views of Karzai and Zardari were considered by the US side as maverick and strengthened their impression that both these leaders and their governments were non-serious players and according to Khalilzad dysfunctional.
The Woodward account goes like this: One evening during the trilateral summit (in Washington, between Obama, Karzai and Zardari) Zardari had dinner with Zalmay Khalilzad, the 58-year-old former US ambassador to Afghanistan, Iraq and the UN, during the Bush presidency.
Zardari dropped his diplomatic guard. He suggested that one of the two countries was arranging the attacks by the Pakistani Taliban inside his country: India or the US. Zardari didnt think India could be that clever, but the US could. Karzai had told him the US was behind the attacks, confirming the claims made by the Pakistani ISI.
Mr President, Khalilzad said, what would we gain from doing this? You explain the logic to me. This was a plot to destabilize Pakistan, Zardari hypothesized, so that the US could invade and seize its nuclear weapons. He could not explain the rapid expansion in violence otherwise. And the CIA had not pursued the leaders of the Pakistani Taliban, a group known as Tehrik-e-Taliban-e-Pakistan or TTP that had attacked the government. TTP was also blamed for the assassination of Zardaris wife, Benazir Bhutto.
We give you targets of Taliban people you dont go after, Zardari said. You go after other areas. Were puzzled, Woodward quoted him. But the drones were primarily meant to hunt down members of al Qaeda and Afghan insurgents, not the Pakistan Taliban, Khalilzad responded.
But the Taliban movement is tied to al Qaeda, Zardari said, so by not attacking the targets recommended by Pakistan the US had revealed its support of the TTP. The CIA at one time had even worked with the groups leader, Baitullah Mehsud, Zardari asserted.
Woodward reports: Khalilzad listened calmly, even though the claims struck him as madness. The US was using the Taliban to topple the Pakistani government? Ridiculous. But Khalilzad knew Afghanistans President Karzai also believed in this conspiracy theory, more evidence that this region of the world and its leaders were dysfunctional.
Despite Zardaris claims, Pakistani government officials had received top secret CIA briefings about drone attacks against Baitullah Mehsuds TTP. A March 12, 2009 attack against a Mehsud compound killed more than two dozen militants, who quickly retrieved the remains of their fallen comrades. And on April 1, another five militants linked to Mehsud, including an al Qaeda trainer, died in a drone strike, according to a CIA briefing given to Pakistan in April.
This account by Bob Woodward, although old, reveals how initially Zardari and his strategists viewed and tackled the suicide attacks inside Pakistan. Woodward does not mention, at least in this particular account on pages 116 and 117 that Baitullah Mehsud was later killed by US drone attacks and the theory of Zardari that US was arranging the Taliban attacks inside Pakistan was nothing but hot air. But it is also not clear whether Zardaris strong conspiracy theory forced the US strategists and CIA to start attacking the Pakistan Taliban and prove him wrong.
Zardari says US behind Taliban attacks in Pakistan
The account of this claim by Zardari has been elaborately reproduced by Bob Woodward, on Page 116 of his famous book Obamas Wars. The revelation could throw a lot of light on the complex relations between the Zardari-led PPP government which US officials believe is incompetent and the disillusioned US diplomats.
Zardari received this information from President Karzai and passed it on to Khalilzad which also reveals how important the Pakistani president thinks Karzais views are, though the Americans consider him a liability.
These views of Karzai and Zardari were considered by the US side as maverick and strengthened their impression that both these leaders and their governments were non-serious players and according to Khalilzad dysfunctional.
The Woodward account goes like this: One evening during the trilateral summit (in Washington, between Obama, Karzai and Zardari) Zardari had dinner with Zalmay Khalilzad, the 58-year-old former US ambassador to Afghanistan, Iraq and the UN, during the Bush presidency.
Zardari dropped his diplomatic guard. He suggested that one of the two countries was arranging the attacks by the Pakistani Taliban inside his country: India or the US. Zardari didnt think India could be that clever, but the US could. Karzai had told him the US was behind the attacks, confirming the claims made by the Pakistani ISI.
Mr President, Khalilzad said, what would we gain from doing this? You explain the logic to me. This was a plot to destabilize Pakistan, Zardari hypothesized, so that the US could invade and seize its nuclear weapons. He could not explain the rapid expansion in violence otherwise. And the CIA had not pursued the leaders of the Pakistani Taliban, a group known as Tehrik-e-Taliban-e-Pakistan or TTP that had attacked the government. TTP was also blamed for the assassination of Zardaris wife, Benazir Bhutto.
We give you targets of Taliban people you dont go after, Zardari said. You go after other areas. Were puzzled, Woodward quoted him. But the drones were primarily meant to hunt down members of al Qaeda and Afghan insurgents, not the Pakistan Taliban, Khalilzad responded.
But the Taliban movement is tied to al Qaeda, Zardari said, so by not attacking the targets recommended by Pakistan the US had revealed its support of the TTP. The CIA at one time had even worked with the groups leader, Baitullah Mehsud, Zardari asserted.
Woodward reports: Khalilzad listened calmly, even though the claims struck him as madness. The US was using the Taliban to topple the Pakistani government? Ridiculous. But Khalilzad knew Afghanistans President Karzai also believed in this conspiracy theory, more evidence that this region of the world and its leaders were dysfunctional.
Despite Zardaris claims, Pakistani government officials had received top secret CIA briefings about drone attacks against Baitullah Mehsuds TTP. A March 12, 2009 attack against a Mehsud compound killed more than two dozen militants, who quickly retrieved the remains of their fallen comrades. And on April 1, another five militants linked to Mehsud, including an al Qaeda trainer, died in a drone strike, according to a CIA briefing given to Pakistan in April.
This account by Bob Woodward, although old, reveals how initially Zardari and his strategists viewed and tackled the suicide attacks inside Pakistan. Woodward does not mention, at least in this particular account on pages 116 and 117 that Baitullah Mehsud was later killed by US drone attacks and the theory of Zardari that US was arranging the Taliban attacks inside Pakistan was nothing but hot air. But it is also not clear whether Zardaris strong conspiracy theory forced the US strategists and CIA to start attacking the Pakistan Taliban and prove him wrong.
Zardari says US behind Taliban attacks in Pakistan
