View from India: CAN PAKISTAN UNILATERALLY RENOUNCE U.S. ASSISTANCE?

by B.RAMAN

Can Pakistan unilaterally renounce U.S. assistance in protest against the violation of its sovereignty by the U.S. naval commandos who raided Osama bin Laden's house at Abbottabad on the night of May 1,2011, and killed him and as a mark of its indignation over the crescendo of U.S. allegations and suspicions regarding a possible complicity of the Pakistan Army and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in facilitating OBL's stay at Abbottabad for nearly five years?

2. According to reliable sources in Pakistan, this is one of the options being considered by the political and military leadership to ward off public criticism over the perceived inaction of the political and military leaders in the face of the repeated violations of Pakistan's sovereignty by U.S. Drone (pilotless) aircraft in the tribal belt in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and at Abbottabad by the naval commandos.

3. The violation of the sovereignty at Abbottabad has been particularly galling to officers at the lower and middle levels of the Armed Forces. The reputation till now enjoyed by Gen. Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, the Chief of the Army Staff (COAS), in the eyes of these officers as a quiet strong man has been dented. Many of these officers no longer regard him as strong as they originally thought he was.

4.Concern over the damage suffered by the reputation of Kayani and other senior officers is behind Kayan's visits to many garrison towns after a Corps Commanders' conference in the GHQ in Rawalpindi last week to explain why the Abbottabad raid took the army by surprise.

5. According to these sources, many in the Corps Commanders conference voiced their disquiet over the failure of the civilian political leadership----particularly President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousef Raza Gilani--- to vigorously defend the Army and the ISI in the face of the attacks on their competence and professional integrity emanating from high levels of the U.S. Administration, including Mr. Leon Panetta, the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), who co-ordinated the commando raid.

6. The aggressive anti-U.S. remarks of Gilani in the National Assembly on May 9 were prompted by the seething anger in the Army over the perceived hesitation in the civilian leadership in coming to the defence of the Army and the ISI. The cordiality that till now prevailed in the relationship between Prime Minister Gilani and Kayani is showing signs of being dissipated.

7. These sources feel that the danger of another coup being staged by a resentful army is remote because the Army is no longer confident of enjoying the support of the increasingly independent and fearless judiciary in legitimising any coup post-facto. At the same time, the Army's disillusionment with the leadership qualities of Zardari is showing signs of increasing and pressures are likely to increase for his exit. The salvos against Zardari and Gilani fired by Shah Mehmood Quereshi, former Foreign Minister, for their incompetent handling of the Abbottabad raid have been inspired by his Army backers.

8. These sources add that it is in this context that suggestions are being made for some dramatic action by the political and military leadership to salvage the reputation of the country. One such suggestion is for a unilateral renunciation of U.S. assistance. Whether this option will be accepted and implemented or not will depend on the kind of support China is prepared to extend should Pakistan unilaterally renounce U.S. assistance. To ascertain this will be the principal objective of Gilani's four-day visit to China from May 17. The fact that Gilani has not immediately dashed off to Beijing, but will be going only after a week would indicate a desire to avoid over-reaction in the heat of the moment. (11-5-11)

(Bahukutumbi Raman is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai, and Associate of the Chennai Centre For China Studies. E-mail: seventyone2@gmail.com )
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My comment: Pakistan can do anything it wants. It is a sovereign nation. Pakistan would not be the first to forgo U.S. money after finding out all the strings attached. The Palestinians have done so publicly; and yet, the spigot has not yet turned off. Domestically too, States are increasingly refusing Federal money for all kinds of projects.

Guest Contributer: Tom From NJ: Seed Corn

Despite all the adoring hoopla accorded by the MSM to their precious Obama as he cavorts like a war president on his post-UBL victory lap, The Messiah could well be heading for a major political fall here. And make no mistake, politics -- specifically the hyper-partisan, hyper-personal politics typical of Barack Obama -- is what is in play here and nothing else. In short, in trying to make not only the elimination of UBL but also the whole 9/11 story all about HIM, The Bamster may be setting the stage for his own "Mission Accomplished" moment that embarrassed George W. Bush long after he landed that jet on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln.

First, the UBL assassination is yet another example of POTUS living off the seed corn left behind by the supposedly cretinous Dubya. Only now it's not the tax cuts, it's our national security at stake, and here Obama is heedlessly devouring that seed corn. Having now profited shamelessly and hypocritically off the Bush-era policies of harsh interrogations that he himself hotly opposed, Obama continues to pooh-pooh their necessity and morality while allowing his leftist-racist-corrupt AG Eric Holder to hound with a criminal investigation the very CIA interrogators who made the UBL takedown possible, not to mention the gutting of the defense budget that POTUS is alleged to have in mind. These contradictions will become clearer to voters sooner or later, despite MSM resistance, and we unfortunately cannot rule out some sort of successful terrorist strike in this country over the next year or two, especially since The Bamster himself has wasted so much of our national security seed corn. In which case, Obama's victory lap – BTW, isn't that "spiking the football?" -- could well come back to haunt him and, to paraphrase Rev. Jeremiah Wright, his war-on-terror political "chickens” could “come home to roost" in 2012.

Second, there's the complete bungle the Obama Administration is making out of its post-UBL communications. Dubya’s communications operation was often inept, but the Obama Administration’s is totally clueless with its numerous makeovers, walk-backs, and flat contradictions within its ever-changing UBL takedown story. In addition, I think it’s a serious mistake over the long haul to suppress all photos of the happily deceased bin-Dirtbag. It’s not because a new set of wackos we might call “deathers” need to be convinced that UBL is really dead; they won’t listen anyway. Rather, an image or two released to the world of the great jihadi bin-Laden with his head blown open would finally prove definitively who is the “weak horse.” In that case, such photos would probably not be ideal “recruiting tools” for new AQ recruits but another source of discouragement like their beating at US hands in Iraq. Perhaps The Bamster thinks that withholding the UBL photos gives him a chance to play rope-a-dope effectively like he did with the “birthers” and Donald Trump over his birth certificate. Maybe or maybe not -- but can’t POTUS come up with some sort of original strategic thinking for a change?

Therefore, I agree with Henry Kissinger in his interview at NRO – Obama is an able tactician but he lacks any real strategic sense abroad or, I would say, at home either. Kind of what we might expect from a Community Organizer as opposed to a true statesman, or even a moderately competent President, as started to become apparent to the electorate by November 2010. So, POTUS had better not rush to proclaim "Mission Accomplished" especially since, as Kissinger and others have pointed out, the "mission" has never been clearly defined by Obama, certainly not at the strategic level.

Trump: Going For Broke

In a previous post I made reference to the feeling conservatives (seem to) harbor of being lepers confined to a leper colony. It is an analogy that deserves expanding. Lepers are universally shunned. Hell, they even shun themselves!

It has been noted that lepers have an unusually strong sex drive. They tend to lust after the skin-deep beautifully ‘perfect’ people. In today’s (or any) climate, it is easiest for them to hide their infirmity to make themselves attractive to the objects of their raging desire. Sometimes the ploy goes awry and they end up romancing one of their own. Washington, Lincoln and Reagan were such creatures. They managed to transcend their disease. Donald Trump could be next.

Don Trump is no dummy. He’s serious about becoming President of the United States. As such, he’s reaching for what has become somewhat of a Holy Grail: Obama’s birth certificate.

This has now attained a status equal in magnitude to what just a few years ago ‘finding Osama bin Laden’ was. Whether or not bin Laden ever really existed (or was just a CIA hologram construct) was never the issue. Similarly, Trump is making no promises as to what Obama’s birth certificate might actually show. Just cracking the case would instantly make him the Republican frontrunner to take on Obama, the entire Democrat establishment, and the media in 2012.

While most pundits have already put the issue behind them, reasoning that just by virtue of Obama having been sworn in as the 44th U.S. president, he is legitimate; it nevertheless remains a hot button issue for voters. They are consumed by the mystery overhang, the solution to which should be obvious, but instead grows murkier by the day. It is perhaps understandable that the media – left or right – should focus primarily on the upcoming elections. This, after all, is familiar territory for them, while the other is practically unthinkable.

To the media, it’d be like the Israelis investigating whether or not the school bus driver – whose vehicle got hit by a Palestinian rocket – had a valid license or not. Even if he didn’t, what would it matter in the larger scheme of things?

Speculation abounds as to just what Obama’s birth certificate would show – if there ever was one. It is assumed that every human being must have such a document. I’ll bet you, I could round up 10 people anywhere in India in mere moments that are quite without. Not so in the U.S. I’m told.

If I had to guess, I’d say Obama’s birth certificate (if it exists) is safely locked away in George Soros’ personal safe.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Choke Circles

Go easy on the lad (Mohamed Osman Mohamud, the would-be Oregon Christmas tree lighting bomber), John. It used to be that young people like him came to America for the opportunity to make something of themselves, to provide for their kids a better life than they could by staying in their own countries. Now, they come here to destroy us. Why?

Because America is no longer the land of opportunity, the home of the free and the brave. We’ve been announcing throughout the world that we’re second rate and worse: the vortex of evil. In this we’ve been aided by our corrupt political class and by our academic intellectuals who miss no opportunity to trash us in every way possible.

Boys like Mohamed Osman Mohamud arrive here with a much greater vision than our own. They come here poised to feed off its carcass. Their vision of an Islamic Caliphate puts America’s vision of itself to shame. Theirs is a cause powerful enough to justify freezing off toes, like the soldiers at Jockey Hollow did; or to die, to sacrifice themselves. Self-sacrifice is the ultimate expression of hope. We do it every day - go to work and do battle till our teeth gap and our hands start shaking; until we can’t go on anymore - for our children. Mohameds the world over have been told they can become gods in a flash of explosives; that enough such flashes will fell an empire and the glory of Islam will arise from its despised ruins.

Why ‘despised’? Because America is no longer willing to defend itself. We’re running around the world whining about how perfectly evil we are. We grovel and apologize to those who had once looked up to us. We’ve become like Swiss cheese - full of holes. It’s allowed for the infiltration of hostile networks on all levels - the biggest (unoccupied) hole being the Oval Office, where Karla now sits.

Yes, all the Mohamuds out there have read their John LeCarre novels. They know how it’s done. We’ve blown our own networks and left ourselves open for anything and everything. What are the FBI and CIA doing these days other than talking with imposters, doling out money to anyone with their hands out, and lying to us? No way to run a Circus.

Besides the ideology - besides the promise of reward, veneration by billions of the like-minded, and purity - there’s the game; the pure joy of having brought it off. Even failure rattles the West. First it was box cutters; then it was shoes that didn’t explode - now we’ve got every Westerner emptying his pockets and taking off his shoes - then liquids… and now underwear. Just imagine! They dance to every tune we happen to be playing, even the false notes - those big and powerful, and arrogant, dying saps; running mechanically in ever tighter choke circles.

Only, Mohamed too has it wrong. Dresden was rebuilt. Hiroshima thrives. And the sand- eating hoards will eventually be sent back to the desert where they can do the least amount of damage. Let them enjoy their brief stay in the temperate climes - courtesy of the ever-generous Club USA.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Geppetto's Final Project

What the American electorate, the pundits, and even most bureaucrats have yet to figure out is that for this White House, internationally speaking, there are no sides. Spying assumes the sovereignty of a nation which would include protecting its borders and keeping its secrets. These are alien concepts to the Obama administration which views geopolitics as borderless shifting ideologies. Clearly, Obama sees himself as more closely aligned with the Fabian style which avoids direct confrontation. As such, his focus is exclusively trained on America itself.

Barack Hussein Obama has little direct interest in geo-political intrigue. To be sure, the CIA and other intelligence agencies still do exist. But these are essentially leaderless. They do what they have always done but, under Obama’s non-leadership, their efforts and skill have been reduced to half-baked at best. Enough room for infighting has opened up which further dilutes their effectiveness. As such, we can expect to see many more instances of embarrassing episodes that don’t appear to make much sense.

Intelligence consists of tools, now poorly used (or not used at all), left to languish in the hastily inherited workshop of a most incompetent dreamer. Occasionally, outside events will conspire to bring them to a kind of half-life and we see them dance to no particular tune on the deceased master’s dusty workbench. Pundits will speculate after having observed their essentially aimless jerks and starts, but only the wooden man in the White House knows for certain that he himself was Geppetto’s final project.

Is it just me, or are Obama’s ears actually getting bigger?
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Stark differences between the Obama and the Bush administrations are beginning to emerge. We seldom heard Bush himself scolding, or pleading through surrogates for policies that would involve the active participation of the American people directly. He just went about his business and did what he felt he had to do, trying as best he could to ignore all the carping. When things went wrong, we would hear about it from others.

By contrast, this president, it seems, is always out there attempting to convince an already highly suspicious electorate to agree to giving up yet another pound of flesh. Clearly, as far as the people are concerned, he has already overstayed his welcome. They are no longer listening. Then he goes ahead and does exactly what he wants.

Kyrgyzstan

Is it just random, roving gangs of jihadis, would-be dictators and assorted miscreants who are raising Cain in Kyrgyzstan? Or is the whole show being directed by legitimate and recognizable political entities? For example:

There are so-called Maoists operating in parts of north-eastern India, attacking government installations, derailing trains, killing policemen and so on...

India views the Maoists as a bother and often as an embarrassment. Some claim they have their roots in poverty stemming from inadequate access to government cheese. Their answer would be to develop the areas where Maoists operate and provide opportunity and services for the villagers so that they might be less eager to embrace violence.

At the same time, there has been a festering border dispute between India and China to which no solution is in sight. Add to this China’s stated ambition to see India broken up into autonomous states.

Is it therefore so impossible to believe that the Maoists are in fact China ops, sent there specifically to cause trouble; that it has nothing to do with poverty and insufficient attention from the Feds; that Indian villagers participating (do in fact) do so under duress?

There are proxy skirmishes going on all over the world. They are ugly and draw our attention. At the same time, they obscure the real players in the haze of immediate human brutality and suffering.

Even Chicago gangs need money and supplies. They need direction. The money is filtered through middlemen who almost always have high political connections. The CIA has been accused of funding such gangs all over the world (not under Obama, of course). Iran has Israel surrounded by ops. Russia has its players in place and (we can assume) China has theirs as well. I find it laughable that we break our heads over what North Korea does, when (if we were serious) all we’d have to do is force China’s hand.

I haven’t had time yet to examine what’s going on in Kyrgyzstan and learn who the players are. But you can bet it’s not spontaneous or ‘accidental’. Two or more of the big boys in the region are engaged in a bout of arm-wrestling. They are being very careful not to get their Armani suits dirty.

Serious Enough

From the evening of December 24th to the 6th of January it's been a tradition at our house to put electric candles in the windows. We generally turn the candles off at around 12 midnight.

Sometimes, especially around the holidays, my brother comes up on weekends to spend the night. In order to avoid traffic, he generally leaves his house late. When I'm expecting him, I'll still turn off the candles before going to bed, but I'll leave the one in the kitchen window (that’s facing the driveway) on for him. When my brother does arrive in the wee hours of the morning, I can expect him to turn this one off as well.

It has happened that my brother never arrived at all; in which case the kitchen candle is still lit when I get up in the morning. As the temperature outside often drops below freezing at this time of year, there'll be a halo against the frosted window where the candle had shone. It’s the only window - in a house with 27 windows - that exhibits this obvious feature.

Now, one could ignore it altogether; or one could take note of it without being curious; or one could investigate as to why this should be so; say, at nine-thirty in the morning (after all the candles have been turned off). It should be relatively easy to walk it back and reconstruct exactly what happened and why.

I cannot understand this insistence by otherwise intelligent people in our country who continue to claim that Barack Hussein Obama is a friend of the CIA; of the military; of capitalism; of America itself, when indeed all clues point to the contrary. It’s exactly like saying, "we know there’s global warming (because a little birdie told me); now let’s go out there and prove it scientifically. But, oh my! The factual data disproves our theory. What to do now? I know: we’ll simply fudge the data; we’ll outright lie if we have to. One way or another, we’ll prove that there’s global warming and that mankind is the cause of it and that the very exhaled breath of human beings puts the entire planet at risk and therefore 80% of the planet’s people will have to be eliminated; and therefore, for the first time in history we will have managed what has never been done before: justified mass murder on moral grounds. God we’re good!"

Same with Obama. Look at the evidence of all that’s happened since Obama has assumed office. Look at all the stuff that’s come out about him: his beliefs; his associations; his appointments; his actions, past and present. And you still think he’s not a Leftist? A Marxist? A fascist? That he just loves the military, capitalism, freedom and America to death?

So, when things go wrong, we use phrases like ‘amateur’ to describe him; like ‘not ready for prime time’; or if we really feel like being cruel, ‘inept’.

No, folks. It’s deliberate! And we all know it, even if we can’t get ourselves to say it yet. All the evidence is there - iust like the circle on my kitchen window that tells a wider tale. And it’s serious. Serious enough to start thinking about impeachment.

Death Penalty

Once again, a blizzard of contradictions swirls around a decision reached by the current administration. It is difficult to see any upside to anything that might result from trying KSM in a NYC Federal Court.

In mathematics, any inconsistencies and/or discrepancies can always be resolved from the reach of the next higher dimension. So too, POTUS’ reasoning can be discerned by asking, “Why?” Already we see red flags emerging in watching Obama comment on the decision from oversees havens, essentially saying, “No comment. Eric Holder is handling it.” This means that, should anything happen to warrant blame, Holder becomes the guy who will be asked to fall on his sword.

Why, indeed! To me it’s quite consistent with what’s been happening from the start of this presidency. Many people, particularly the MSM, are not quite ready to admit it yet lest they get egg on their Botoxed faces – which just goes to prove that the Himalayan sage was right when he proclaimed that ego is the last thing that one gives up when faced with certain death.

Obama wishes first and foremost to destroy America. He is well on his way to having accomplished just that with regard to America's economy. He is working on the destruction of representative governance; education; private industry, energy; strategic (foreign) alliances… there are others I could list. The big item remaining, however, is the military which would include the intelligence services.

A public trial will bring out the inner workings of the CIA and make them public. It will also rekindle the debate about waterboarding and torture - all of it, designed to make the military look bad and ineffective. There are those who suggest it will outright destroy the viability of the CIA. It will also spur the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld haters to renew their demand to put the entire Bush administration on trial for war crimes. And ultimately it will give the blame-America-first Left a platform from which to spew their venom which may just be enough to result in a “not guilty” verdict.

KSM has already admitted guilt. He has asked to be martyred. Why we need a (circus) trial at all is a mystery. Unless, of course, it's to put the U.S. on trial and establish guilt there as well. It then becomes a game of deciding who bears the greater guilt. Would the death penalty apply to the U.S. as well?