View: Negroponte and Pakistan — Dr Haider K Nizamani

[struggle4progress]

... In his twenty-minute monologue to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Negroponte does not have much to say about Pakistan but there is a gem of wisdom on Afghanistan. “As in Iraq, 2007 will be a pivotal year for Afghanistan. The ability of the Karzai government, NATO and the United States to arrest the resurgence of the Taliban will determine the country’s future. At present the insurgency probably does not directly threaten the government, but it is deterring economic development and undermining popular support for President Karzai (p. 9).”

Talking about ‘undermining of popular support for Karzai’ is a cruel joke since there is no popular support for Karzai to begin with. What sources of classified and open-source intelligence Negroponte relies on to say such a thing with confidence is anybody’s guess. Installing and then propping up individuals like Karzai has a long history in the annals of American foreign policy of the past half century.

The sentence that has offended Pakistan the most is the one which reads: Pakistan is the place from where Al Qaeda leaders ‘radiate outward from their secure hideout toward...to affiliates throughout the Middle East, North Africa and Europe.’ To be fair to the Bush administration’s top intelligence men, they have given Islamabad credit for ensuring killing of the Al Qaeda leaders like Abu-Bakr Al Suri and Abdel al-Rahman al-Muhajar. But, ‘Pakistan’s border region with Afghanistan remains a haven for Al Qaeda’s leadership and other extremists (p. 26)’. This can be read more as an acknowledgment of joint failure of Washington and Islamabad rather than an exclusive dressing down of Pakistan ...

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007%5C01%5C20%5Cstory_20-1-2007_pg3_4