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http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintWriterName.aspx?URL=Shireen+M+MazariTargeting Pakistan and silencing the critics

Shireen M Mazari

Thursday, September 03, 2009From Print Edition

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While US diplomats target their critics in Pakistan with a new ferocity, the US mediaand politicians target the Pakistan's nuclear and military capability. Taking the latterfirst, Dr Khan had barely gained his "freedom" when that murderous former Vice-President Dick Cheney, in a pre-taped interview to Fox News (Aug 30), declared thatthe Obama Administration should use the CIA to find out what Dr Khan was up to.Cheney also expressed pride in the Bush administration's aggressive use of dronesin FATA. So should we assume that the increased presence of Blackwater and otherunidentified US personnel in Islamabad may also have Dr Khan as a possible target?

Nor was it just Cheney firing off on one of America's obsessions

Dr Khan

while quiteunconcerned about the massive proliferation that the US continues to Israel (this is all nowpart of the published and publicly available data). More irritating than disturbing, has been thestory in The New York Times (NYT), citing unnamed senior administration and congressionalofficials (of course when we cite similar sources, US officialdom is not amused), accusingPakistan of modifying Harpoon missiles given to the Pakistan navy so as to be able to hit land-based targets.

Had the NYT bothered to do some basic research they would have realised that Pakistan hasno need to modify the old Harpoon missiles when they already have far better land-basedmissile systems already battle-tested and in their arsenal. As it is, the Harpoon does not havethe range that would be required to hit land-based targets.

The question that arises then is why plant this story now apart from the continuing US effort

to undermine the Pakistan's military capability and keep the military institution under pressure(or so they assume)? One reason may have to do with putting pressure on the Pakistan Navyto give its go-ahead to a US request, forwarded by Pakistan's Ministry of Defence to the navalchief, to allow them to build a landing strip near Gwadar (their own miniport facility) which USmarines can use ostensibly as part of their anti-narcotic activities. So far there has been noresponse from the Pakistani side. Why they can't do that at the existing facilities in the area isthe question some Pakistanis are asking?

Interestingly, in relation to the Pakistan Navy and the Harpoon issue, there are alsounconfirmed (but reliable) reports that the Special Services Group Navy (SSGN) isconstructing operational facilities in Gharo, Sindh (close to the Indus delta, south of Thatta)

which are purpose-built to serve as a base for an army unit comprising halls, residentialunits and storage facilities. Some years back the Navy had decided to shift the SSGNheadquarter (PNS Iqbal) from the dockyard to a coastal area, but Gharo was not the likely site

at the time. Because there has been a sudden increase in assistance to the SSGN from the US,questions are being raised whether this shifting of the SSGN to Gharo is actually a ruse toallow US Marine 'trainers' to arrive there in large numbers on the pretext of training SSGNcommandos in newly-acquired weapons and tactics? So, the old carrot and stick approach assistance and then the ridiculous Harpoon story continues to be at work. What is disturbinghere is that perhaps this whole Gharo "deal" is being done at a micro-tactical level with theoverall military high command not totally in the know. Certainly it merits a closer examinationby the military leadership and more transparency.

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Clearly, the Americans do not understand the ordinary Pakistani. Their interaction with theruling elites has led them to assume that this elite, with its tendency towards subservienceand a constant gaze towards Washington (with a few exceptions) is reflective of the Pakistanination at large. Again, subtlety having never been a strong American trait, they are

responding to negative responses of ordinary Pakistanis in the usual ham-fisted manner in aneffort to silence the critics.

This writer has had the honour of being one of their targets especially since 2008 when storiesregarding General Hood and the 11 conditions relating to unfettered access in Pakistan for USpersonnel with no legal restraints surfaced in the media. But even earlier, when Riaz Khokharwas Foreign Secretary, the US embassy had sought to have me either silenced or removed

from the Institute of Strategic Studies -- or else the embassy would assume that I wasreflecting (heavens forbid) the official views of the government of Pakistan. That is why somereaders may recall for a while at the bottom of my column there was a one-liner stating thatthe views expressed were my own. Full credit to Mr Khokhar for standing his ground, but Iknew it was simply a matter of time when I would be liberated from all official strangleholds.

Now, once again, this scribe as well as some electronic media hosts all of whom have beenexposing the increasing muscle flexing by the growing number of non-diplomatic Americansnow in Pakistan (especially Blackwater now re-christened Xe Worldwide) are being targeted.Just for the record, whatever has appeared in these columns regarding this group and the

dubious Creative Associates International Inc (CAII) has been gleaned from Western mediasources including the Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA), but then verified from reliable localsources.

Especially with the Blackwater issue refusing to die down in the media despite a strangesilence in Parliament and in spite of threats of multiple types from the yet-to-be-expanded USembassy in Islamabad; new revelations are made on a daily basis about US shenanigans inPakistan. Here in Pakistan it has got to the stage where one is not sure who is an "official"American and who is not. After all, the guard who abused Pakistan and an SHO in thediplomatic enclave was a member of the US government; but who were the three Americanswho beat up a Pakistani citizen, Mohsin Bokhari, in Islamabad's Aabpara last week? After usingviolence against this citizen they did eventually apologise, but the police refused to register acase because they felt that if the case registered by the SHO of the diplomatic enclave had noimpact in terms of justice thanks to the pusillanimity of the present MFA set up it would

simply be a waste of their energy in the month of fasting to register yet another case ofviolence by Americans against a Pakistani citizen.

Further, as the growing disaffection hits the more conscientious Pakistanis in officialdom, whatshould one make of the information (from frustrated police officials) regarding four Americansinitially arrested on Aug 25 at FIA headquarters, Peshawar Morrh, Islamabad with unlicencedautomatic weapons (seven MI-6) and no identification although the arresting officials saythey were "kala pani" (Blackwater) personnel around 14:45. When they were brought to theMargallah police station, SP Nasir Aftab, who had previously been serving in the diplomaticenclave, also arrived, followed by US embassy's security officer, a retired Pakistan armyofficer, Captain Ijaz. The latter abused and threatened the policemen and in front of SP Aftabhad the four Americans, with no diplomatic identity, released from custody. When the SHOprotested, SP Aftab also adopted Captain Ijaz's tone and later confessed he was helpless as hehad orders from "above" for the release of the men. (This was reported in at least one major

newspaper the following day.)

So how much pressure will we all be able to endure and when will we all be silenced one wayor another? If the Americans understood us they would realize that the Pakistani nation cannotbe silenced into submission despite its leadership.

The writer is a defence analyst. Email: callstr@hotmail.com