Zigzag Follies: Pakistan and the Afghan Taliban

[unhappycamper]

Zigzag Follies: Pakistan and the Afghan Taliban
by Brian Cloughley | July 9, 2010 - 11:46am

A paper published on June 13 by the London School of Economics states that Pakistan, at the highest political and military levels, fosters and supports insurgents in Afghanistan.

Its author, Matt Waldman of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, declares that "as the provider of sanctuary, and very substantial financial, military and logistical support to the (Afghan) insurgency, the ISI (Pakistan's Directorate of Inter Services Intelligence) appears to have strong strategic and operational influence - reinforced by coercion. There is thus a strong case that the ISI and elements of (Pakistan's) military are deeply involved in the insurgent campaign (in Afghanistan)."

The ISI of Pakistan is headed by Lt General Ahmad Pasha who meets frequently with senior American and other foreign intelligence representatives. Pasha's direct superior is General Ashfaq Kayani, chief of the army, who also has discussions with the highest ranking US military officers, such as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, who came calling in Islamabad last week.

Two days after publication of the Waldman paper a band of about 600 well-armed brigands - call them 'Taliban' or whatever - from Afghanistan attacked an isolated border camp in Pakistan manned by two platoons of the locally-recruited Frontier Corps which is commanded by officers of the Pakistan army. The post was one of the few that has to be supplied by air, there being no road access, and the garrison ran out of ammunition. Ten soldiers were killed and some thirty captured and taken into Afghanistan. Most were later released. Six bodies were sent back to Pakistan.

Waldman wrote that "American and other western intelligence agencies must be aware of Pakistan's conduct" in allegedly supporting the Afghan Taliban insurgents. But if they have evidence of this supposed behavior it is presumed they would have conveyed their awareness to senior military officers, including Admiral Mullen. They could hardly sit on such important information. After all, their own soldiers are being killed day by day in ever-greater numbers by insurgents in Afghanistan, who are automatically referred to as 'Taliban' - this "James Joyce-style portmanteau word" as defined so pithily by Pepe Escobar - or, in more headline-luring style, as 'al-Qaeda-associated Taliban'.

[pinto]

1. Kick.

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