Is Pakistan helping us find al Qaeda? No, they're shielding them from us!

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Pakistan Protests U.S. Troop Border Violation
Wed May 5, 2004 10:42 AM ET

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistan has protested to the United States against an incursion by U.S. troops into Pakistani territory to hunt suspected al Qaeda or Taliban militants, a Foreign Ministry official said Wednesday.

The incident, which took place May 2, came a day after the top U.S. commander in neighboring Afghanistan said foreign fighters, including from Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda, were still launching attacks from Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal belt.

"We have protested to the U.S. authorities, both through the diplomatic and military channels," Pakistan Foreign Ministry spokesman Masood Khan told a news conference.

"The U.S. version is that this was a misunderstanding and that the incursion was inadvertent, and once they realized that they were on the Pakistani side of Pakistan-Afghan border they withdrew immediately," he added.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=5OJBBBYIRTJGWCRBAELCFEY?type=worldNews&storyID=5047949


So, we declare that the incursion was inadvertent. I didn't think we were serious about finding bin Laden. I've said so many times in response to those who think cluster bombing of Afghan civilians was about capturing the ones responsible for 9-11. How were we able to determine who, out of the thousands killed, was actually complicit in the 9-11 attack?


Our occupation of Afghanistan is about securing a natural-gas pipeline from the area around the Caspian Sea to Pakistan.

In October 1997, Zalmay Khalilzad, (now serving as Special Envoy to Afghanistan,) and Unocal executive Marty Miller testified before a Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee, touting the "economic benefits that a set of pipelines from Central Asia can bring to the Afghan people if it is able to pass through the country." http://www.thedubyareport.com/iraq2.html

Khalilzad met with Taliban representatives in 1997 in Houston during the pipeline negotiations. He wrote in a Washington Post article that, "The Taliban does not practice the anti-U.S. style of Muslim fundamentalism practiced by Iran. We should be willing to offer recognition and humanitarian assistance and to promote international economic reconstruction. It is time for the United States to 'reengage' the Taliban."

Robert Oakley, U.S. ambassador to Pakistan in the 1980's was chaperon to the CIA support of the Afghan Mujahedeen (in which Osama bin Laden became a commander), later worked for Unacol. The current president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karszi, hand-picked by this administration, was said to have been employed at one time as a consultant to Unacol.


Why do we still refuse to hold the governments of Pakistan and Saudi Arabia accountable for their country-men's support of bin Laden? Why do we let Pakistan stand in the way of bringing bin Laden to justice?

What does our occupation of Afghanistan and the installation of our puppet government there have to do with apprehending those responsible for 9-11?


Me Book

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1. Absolutely no way to explain our willingness to kill thousands of innocent

civilians in cluster bombing, and then shy away from chasing bin Laden into a country that claims to be allied with us against those responsible for 9-11.

We had no such reticence about invading two other sovererign nations as they serve our commercial interests with access to oil.

The reluctance to push into Pakistan and find bin Laden proves that finding those responsible for 9-11 was not the primary concern of Bush's invasion of Afghanistan.