those who participate in war suffer the most consequences choose sides carefully
On May 9, 8:40 am, MJ <[email protected]> wrote: > It’s All About PakistanAmerica’s latest villain -- and future victimbyJustin > Raimondo, May 09, 2011 > With the assassination of Osama bin Laden, US foreign policy – or, rather, > the rationale for it – has a giant hole in its very center: the task of the > War Party is to fill it, and quickly. > Without ahuman faceto put on the Terrorist Threat, without an ever-elusive > target to lure us even deeper into the Muslim world, domestic political > support for our post-9/11multi-trillion-dollarexcursion will quickly dry up. > In a sense, the War Party is facing the sameprospectthey faced when the > Soviet Union collapsed: total and completeirrelevance. That is particularly > true at this conjuncture, with the US hurtling towardeconomic catastropheand > Americans getting noticeablyrestivein the face of cutbacks and severe > economic straits. > What’s a warmonger to do? > Simple: come up with a new enemy, a fresh face – or, better yet, an entire > nation that can be demonized and made to play the role of stand-in for bin > Laden. That nation, as you’ve probably already guessed, isPakistan. > “I’ve not seen any evidence, at least to date, that the political, military > or intelligence leadership of Pakistan knew about Osama bin Laden at > Abbottabad, Pakistan,”saidnational security adviser Thomas Donilon on the > Sunday talk show circuit. Normally, such a statement would absolve the > Pakistanis, or seem to: I’ll only note that the “leadership” could be taken > to refer to the upper echelons of the Pakistani political and military > establishment, clearlyleaving openthe possibility some in the mid-to-lower > levels might have been in on the secret of bin Laden’s whereabouts. > Furthermore, Donilon’s words belie the US government’s actions, which were > todemandfrom Pakistan the names of its intelligence operatives – an unusual > request, to say the least. Rather than come out and say what they apparently > believe, US officials – speaking “on background” – are accusing the > Pakistanis of de facto complicity. “It’s hard to believe that [Pakistan’s top > military commander Ashfaq Parvez] Kayani and [ISI director-general Lt. Gen. > Ahmad Shuja] Pasha actually knew that Bin Laden was there,” a “senior > administration official” toldThe New York Times. “But, added the official, > speaking on condition of anonymity because of the diplomatic sensitivity of > the issue, ‘there are degrees of knowing, and it wouldn’t surprise me if we > find out that someone close to Pasha knew.’” > Pasha is expected to resign shortly, but the effort to target him as a secret > terrorist sympathizer dates back to last year, whenaccusationssurfaced that > he personally met with the militants of Lashkar e Taiba (LET), and gave them > money just before they pulled offthe Mumbai attacks. The larger campaign to > portray the Pakistanis, and the ISI in particular, as secretly aiding and > abetting bin Laden has a longer history, and a very strange one. > The narrative being sold by the American “mainstream” media reads like the > script of a very bad made-for-TV movie, or the kind of “thriller” that skips > the theaters entirely and only comes out on DVD. This tall tale is > intertwined with the murky, film-noir -esque saga ofDavid Headley. > Headley haspleaded guiltyto charges of acting as a scout for the perpetrators > of the Mumbai terrorist attack, as well as having plotted to bomb the offices > of a Danish newspaper that printed cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed. > He faces a sentence of life in prison, and his story of having collaborated > with Pakistani military intelligence, who supposedly directed and financed > both plots, is apparently the price he paid for the terms of the deal he made > with US prosecutors – life in jail in the US, instead of India, which > hasdemandedhis extradition. > While Headley’s complicated tale of international intrigue and > transcontinental terrorism is pretty much swallowed whole by the Western > media, in India skepticism abounds. This jaundiced view stems from Headley’s > rather interesting personal history. > The 48-year-oldHeadleywas born in Washington, D.C., to a Pakistani father, > Sayed Salim Gilani, who worked for Voice of America, and Alice Headley, > daughter of former football star L. Coleman Headley. Headley’s half-brother, > Danyal, was formerly the official spokesman for Pakistan’s Prime Minister. > Headley/Gilani is the latest in a growing list of high-profile Western > converts to Islamist terrorist organizations: “Azzam the American,”Anwar > Awlaki, and a surprising number of others who play prominent roles in > Headley’s narrative. > He trained at a military academy in Pakistan before being brought back to > America by his mother, who had by that time obtained a divorce. His first > drug arrest occurred in 1987, where he made a deal with the DEA in return for > a lighter sentence. In 1997 he was arrested on drug charges again, accused of > smuggling heroin in from Pakistan. Again, he cooperated with the feds, in > exchange for information about his Pakistani contacts, and got off with > fifteen months in a resort-style prison for law enforcement’s favorite > criminals at Fort Dix. According to the terms of his sentence, this was to be > followed by a period of supervised release. However, the US Justice > Department cut that short, requesting his immediate discharge: the feds had > other plans for Headley, who was sent to Pakistan – the first of several US > government-paid trips – to engage in undercover work for the Drug Enforcement > Agency. From there it was but a hop, a skip, and a short jump to a > Lashkar-e-Taiba training camp. > Oh, and by the way, Headley, never a religious type – he left behind a trail > of embittered and apparently quite battered wives – somewhere along the line > experienced a miraculous “conversion” to the puritanical strain of Islam > embraced by LET. The perfect religion for a former drug pusher, ex-con, and > consistent womanizer who just happened to work for the DEA – don’t you think? > Headley’s rap sheet has some other interesting items: in 2005, he was > arrested in New York City after battering one of his many wives. She told > authorities about his involvement with LET, and his shopping for night > goggles on behalf of his terrorist patrons. However, somehow her testimony > fell through the cracks – or perhaps she wasn’t telling federal agents > anything they didn’t already know. > As Headley tells it, he “trained” a total of five times at a LET camp in > Pakistan, and his testimony is backed up by that of yet another Western > convert to radical Islam,Willie Brigitte– another “character,” similar in > many ways to Headley, whose personal history seems like something out of a > novel – not a very good novel, one might add. Born in Guadeloupe, a sunlit > isle in the Caribbean, he moved to Paris to study, but joined the French navy > instead, deserting twice in three years. In time, having gone through several > careers and two wives, he suddenly saw the light and decided to become an > Islamic militant. He trained in the French countryside with suspected members > of al-Qaeda’s Algerian franchise, and before long wound up in – you guessed > it – the very same LET training camp where Headley had taken up residence. > Also at this training camp: the handler of the Mumbai operation, one Sajid > Mir – one of his classmates at the Pakistani military school. That’s too much > synchronicity for a good novel, but what do you expect from amateurs? > Having been recruited into LET’s terrorist network, Brigitte was spirited off > to Australia, where his handlers arranged for him to marry yetanotherWestern > convert to radical Islam, oneMelanie Brown, who is described in news accounts > as a former member of the Australian army, having served in military > operations in East Timor, an officer with access to classified information. > An interesting choice of spouse for a terrorist, to say the least. > Something about this wild and murky tale is just not right, and the Indians – > especially the Indian opposition parties – have picked up on it big time. > Major Indian media routinelydepictHeadley as a CIA agent who knew about the > Mumbai attacks in advance while his bosses in Washington kept this > information close to their vests. > Which reminds me: a month after 9/11, Fox News reported that Israeli agents > operating in the US had advance knowledge of the terrorist attacks and failed > to inform us. As Carl Cameronput it: > “Since September 11, more than 60 Israelis have been arrested or detained, > either under the new patriot anti-terrorism law, or for immigration > violations. A handful of active Israeli military were among those detained, > according to investigators, who say some of the detainees also failed > polygraph questions when asked about alleged surveillance activities against > and in the United States. There is no indication that the Israelis were > involved in the 9-11 attacks, but investigators suspect that they Israelis > may have gathered intelligence about the attacks in advance, and not shared > it. A highly placed investigator said there are “tie-ins.” But when asked for > details, he flatly refused to describe them, saying, “evidence linking these > Israelis to 9-11 is classified. I cannot tell you about evidence that has > been gathered. It’s classified information.’”When one examines the breadth of > material unearthed by Fox News in that chilly winter of 2001, and absorbs > Cameron’s analysis over the course of a lengthyfour-partseries, and then > compares this carefully researched reporting to Headley’s cock-and-bull > story, the imbalance is all too evident. Yet Cameron’s story fell like a > stone into the journalistic ether, while Headley’s fanciful malarkey garners > serious attention. > Go figure. > The campaign to nominate Pakistan as the villain of the moment conveniently > comes at a time when the Obama administration has stepped up its military > operations in that country – and shows every sign of wanting to go further. > This is the perfect excuse to intervene more openly. > Faced with the irrefutable arguments of war opponents that the > ten-yearoccupationof Afghanistan hasachieved nothingand no longer has much > point (if it ever did), the defenders of US policy among our national > security theoreticians have fallen back on the contention that the real value > of our military presence is the supposedly stabilizing effect it has on > Pakistan, which would otherwise fall to the terrorists, or > terrorist-sympathizers at the very least.It’s all about Pakistan, they aver, > ominously noting the country’s status as a member of the nuclear club. > Pakistan, likeLibya, is yet another Western fiction, createdby the Britishin > the course of their imperial self-dissolution – an inherently unstable > combination of affluence and shocking poverty, modernity and medievalism, > perpetually teetering on the brink of disorder. US officials are no doubt all > too aware of this fragility, and it’s hard to believe anyone with an ounce of > responsibility would deliberately act to upset that delicate balance. In > public, the White House lauds the Pakistanis – who have, after all, actually > apprehendedfar moretop-level terrorists than we have. In his announcement of > the raid, the President wentout of his wayto mention how instrumental > Pakistan’s cooperation had been to bin Laden’s undoing. Yet he also went out > of his way to mention that wedidn’t tell anyonein advance – including the > Pakistanis, presumably – about “Operation Geronimo.” > This administration is playing a truly dishonorable game, making friendly > noises at Islamabad in public, while anonymous officials accuse Pakistan of > treachery. Donilon’s remark that he saw no evidence of Pakistan’s guilt “at > least to date” is similarly ambiguous. If the serpent-tongued minions of this > administration don’t have the courage to come out and say what they mean, > then I expect some Republicans will. > Don’t forget that election season is upon us – not for all you normal people, > but for the professionals, those whose lives revolve around Washington and > its power plays. If you think 9/11 is going to fade away as a living issue > because we’ve reached “closure” with bin Laden’s summary execution, then you > don’t know politicians, and you don’t knowthe War Party: as far as they’re > concerned, we’renevergoing to reach closure. If we’ve gotten bin Laden, then > let’s go after his alleged collaborators and purported enablers – heck, let’s > go after his wives! > A program of perpetual war requires a constant supply of fresh enemies: bin > Laden, Saddam Hussein, Slobodan Milosevic – and, hey, whatever happened > toManuel Noriega, anyway? Bin Laden was good for the War Party as long as he > lasted, and they’ll no doubt wring as much advantage out of his ghost before > it fades into history. Yet one can be sure a suitable, and even more > dramatically satisfying replacement will soon be found. After all, we must > have a justification for spendingtrillions[.pdf] overseas while our citizens > are thrown out of their homes by the millions and forced to stand in line for > food stamps. > This is the sort of behavior one expects from politicians, for whom the road > to war is the road to power. The real crime is that our “news” media, which > is supposed to stand guard against the routine deceptions of our public > officials, instead functions as a mere court stenographer, transcribing the > official version of events no matter how far-fetched, as in Headley’s case. > As US government prosecutors take Headley’s “testimony” as holy writ and use > it as a basis for further prosecutions, the accusation that the Pakistani > military and intelligence authorities are really just a front for al-Qaeda – > or is that vice-versa? – will gain momentum, not to mention the imprimatur of > the US Justice Department. The groundwork for an outright invasion of > Pakistan will be laid, paving the way for yet another war – this time against > a nation armed with nukes. > Even John McCain, you’ll recall,balkedat Obama’s declared intention of going > into Pakistan. Now that we’ve done it in such a spectacular manner, one can > only wonder if, next time, our visit isn’t quite so brief. > The case against Pakistan rests on the “suspicion” that theymusthave known > about bin Laden’s headquarters in Abbottabad because, after all, thePakistani > equivalent of West Pointis within walking distance, and Abbottabad is a > “garrison city,” as the news accounts put it. Yet what, exactly, is it about > a “garrison city” that would make it impregnable to a determined infiltrator > – especially in Pakistan, where the poverty rate makes corruption a way of > life? If al-Qaeda had the wherewithal to successfully infiltrate the US, and > train for their deadly missionright under our nosesfor a period of years, > penetrating Abbottabad shouldn’t have proved impossible, as indeed it was > not. Once in, bin Laden and his household could hide in plain sight, an > ingenious and – for six years – very successful plan that required nothing > but boldness, which bin Laden, whatever his other characteristics, surely > possessed in abundance. > The mainstream media disdains “conspiracy theories” – unless they are being > pushed by powerful people and talked about in Washington. Then these theories > become “facts,” and are reported as such. > We’ve seen this time and again,most vividlyin the run-up to the Iraq war > –indeed, in the run up to practically every war we’ve ever had. It used to > be, however, that we onlyfound out laterhow we were lied to, and what the > true facts are – years later. Today, with the rise of the internet and the > technology of instant communication, the lies of the War Party are no sooner > uttered than they’re debunked. > And that’s why we here at Antiwar.com have kept chugging along, for all these > years – because, after all, somebody has to do > it.http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2011/05/08/it%E2%80%99s-all-about-pakistan/ -- Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more.
