Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Pakistan leaks related to Gillani, Shabaz, Afghan border,India, UAE

  • In February 2009, Zardari's spokesperson Farahnaz Ispahani said the president was "very unhappy" with the way Prime Minister Gillani had "gone off the reservation" (in relation to Gillani's talks with Shahbaz Sharif that the government would not try to remove the Sharifs from power in Punjab). In 2008, Zardari also commented on Amin Fahim, saying he "had spent most of the [ election ] campaign in Dubai (with his latest 22 year-old wife) and was simply too lazy to be prime minister".
  • In 2008, Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani personally consented American drone strikes in Pakistan's tribal areas along the Afghan border to combat the Taliban. When Interior Minister Rehman Malik recommended the U.S. to hold back "alleged Predator attacks until after the Bajaur operation", Gillani dismissed the remarks and was heard saying: "I don’t care if they do it as long as they get the right people. We’ll protest in the National Assembly and then ignore it".
  • According to the WikiLeaks cable, in a briefing given by Ahmad Shuja Pasha to the parliamentarians it was also told that India, UAE and Russia were involved in the insurgency in Baluchistan. Pasha said India has established nine training camps along the Afghan border, where they are training members of the Baloch Liberation Army. He also claimed "India and the UAE (reportedly due to opposition to construction of the Gwadar port) were funding and arming the Baloch. Pasha also claimed that the Russian government was directly involved in funding/training/supporting the insurgency.
  • There are revelations that small teams of elite U.S. special forces may have been dispatched in the tribal belt to help coordinate the Pakistani military's operations. One record indicates that up to 16 U.S. soldiers had been deployed to help Pakistani troops in 2009. Their role is primarily training-oriented and to provide "intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance" support – ISR in military jargon – "general operational advice" and set up live satellite feed from presumably CIA-operated American drones flying overhead.

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