Pakistan puzzleWere Pakistani IED plants tipped off to impending raids?
The U.S.-Pakistan relationship is becoming increasingly strained as several terrorist bomb-making factories in Pakistan were evacuated shortly after American officials alerted their Pakistani counterparts to their existence; so far, in the last month alone, four bomb-making factories were evacuated just before they were raided, but it is unclear whether that was the result of deliberate leaks by Pakistani intelligence officials or if they had been planned ahead of time as a precautionary measure; Senator john McCain (R-Arizona) said: “After all, the United States is investing billions and billions of dollars in Pakistan. Taxpayers have a right to have a return on that”
Result of an IED attack // Source: pakistanidefence.com
The U.S.-Pakistan relationship is becoming increasingly strained as several terrorist bomb-making factories in Pakistan were evacuated shortly after American officials alerted their Pakistani counterparts to their existence.
So far four bomb-making factories were evacuated in the last month alone, but it is unclear whether that was the result of deliberate leaks by Pakistani intelligence officials or if they had been planned ahead of time as a precautionary measure. Each of the four factories were manufacturing improvised explosive devices (IEDs), the deadliest threat to coalition troops in Afghanistan, and had been cleared out just days after U.S intelligence informed Pakistan that it hoped to shut them down.
Pakistani security forces regularly alert tribal elders before raids in an effort to maintain peace with them and it is possible that one of the elders had tipped off the insurgents about the impending raid.
Regardless of the cause, senior U.S. lawmakers are unhappy with the results and are accusing Pakistan of secretly aiding the extremist organizations that the United States is battling.
Speaking on Face the Nation after returning from a trip to Pakistan, Representative Mike Rogers (R-Michigan) said, “I am more pessimistic coming out of this trip than I have been in the past.”
In particular, Rogers worried that Pakistan’s military and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the country’s intelligence agency, were not full partners with United States in its efforts to stop terrorism and the insurgents flowing into Afghanistan.
“Pakistan needs to understand that there is no such thing as a good terrorist,” he said. “They’re playing this very dangerous game of destabilization by having elements of the ISI and the army sympathetic to the Taliban and Al Qaeda elements.”
Senator John McCain (R-Arizona) echoed these sentiments stating on ABC’s This Week, that the “the most frustrating aspect of this whole issue” was ISI’s continued ties with the Taliban and the Haqqani network, two deadly insurgent organizations that have plagued U.S. efforts in Afghanistan.
“So it seems to me that to restore our confidence in our relationship with Pakistan, they have to make certain steps,” McCain said. “And we have to sort of set up some benchmarks as to what we expect.”
“After all, the United States is investing billions and billions of dollars in Pakistan,” he added. “Taxpayers have a right to have a return on that.”
In an effort to repair the U.S.-Pakistan relationship after the secret U.S. raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound deep in the heart of Pakistan, many senior American intelligence officials, diplomats, and military officers have visited Pakistan.
The United States hopes these visits will ease the mistrust between the two nations, but the ISI recently arrested more than thirty people for allegedly sharing information with CIA operatives about bin Laden’s compound before the raid.
Husain Haqqani, Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States, defended the move stating, “No one is being punished.”
“When something like this happens, you want to know what happened and how, and who was involved,” he added.
