Pakistan: Pakistan is not a true ally of U.S. in the fight against terrorism

Source: FOCUS Information Agency

Pakistan is not a true ally of U.S. in the fight against terrorism

Alex Alexiev, a research associate in Hudson Institute, Washington, comments for Radio Focus elimination of the leader of al-Qaeda Osama bin Laden and the effect that his death may have.

FOCUS: What does the elimination of Osama Bin Laden change? However, Al Qaeda is not centralized organization, and network organization.

Alex Alexiev: Death of Osama bin Laden is mostly a psychological victory for the West and the war against radical Islam, but in practical terms is not so important. Because actually he did not play any operational role in the war on radical Islam against the West in the last ten years. So this is maybe a retribution, which was long expected, and indeed an important psychological victory in the war against radical Islam. From a practical standpoint it is not very important. Meanwhile, there are some conclusions that can be drawn with what happened in Pakistan which are not so positive.

FOCUS: However, he was found in a town miles from the capital.

Alex Alexiev: Yes, he was found in a city some 35 miles, which is 50 km north of the capital Islamabad. I've been there. Even more important is that it’s the most important city for the Pakistani military organization, since it is the place where is located the most important military academy. What is disturbing and to some extent indicates that Pakistanis could not be unaware that Osama bin Laden was hiding there is the fact that the Academy itself is located not more than a hundred meters from the house, where Osama Bin Laden was. This means inside the security perimeter of this academy in which live thousands of Pakistani cadets as well as hundreds of cadets from other countries. If you look from a practical standpoint what mischief they could do, for example, terrorists in this house. For example, using mortars, which operate on a short distance, they just could do serious damages to the Pakistani army. This gives me reason to think that it is not possible this house to be built without the knowledge of Pakistani intelligence. It is ten times bigger than those around it. Moreover, this is a house that has no modern means of communication. A house, which belongs to a person who actually does not exist. These are very curious and questionable evidence. So I think, is simply not possible Pakistanis to be unaware about it. Even to some extent it seems as though they just purposely allowed him to hide near the most important military academy of Pakistan. Because normally this would not rise any doubt. Maybe some of you know that some time ago a series of papers published by Wikileaks showed that the U.S. administration considers Pakistan's military intelligence ally of Al Qaeda. This, I think, proves once again that Pakistanis in any case are not true ally of the U.S. or the West in the war against extremism. They place the whole question of training between Pakistan and the West on a quite different plane.

FOCUS: These comments are in the international media for quite a long time. Pakistan have been blamed in alliance with Al Qaeda yet when it was believed that he is hiding in Tora Bora and in caves in Pakistan. Obviously, this strengthened these suspicions.

Alex Alexiev: Yes it does. I have been even writing about this some years ago and in recent time. What is not so well understood is that the Pakistani intelligence agency is considered almost a separate player. This is not so. That intelligence is guided by staff officer of the army and absolutely is not very logical to believe that they can play a private game. What Pakistani intelligence does is known very well by the Pakistani military and the high command. So in this case we talk about a direct connection of the Pakistani military hierarchy with an organization, which backs al Qaeda, or at least act on its part. That is the conclusion, for this there are many explanations. Please note that Taliban as an example was founded by the Pakistanis to act as a surrogate of the Pakistani military, not only in Afghanistan against India, in Kashmir. Many of these organizations known as Jihad, terrorist organizations are actually created by the Pakistani military authorities. So for me it is no surprise. Importantly, many Western governments and intelligence services, which have had any doubts so far, should take a lesson from what happened.