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Pakistan's Gilani acknowledges possibility of contact with U.S. over planned drone strikes
[Washington Post] A former Pak prime minister strongly deniedNo, no! Certainly not! Thursday that he had quietly authorized U.S. drone strikes inside his country, but he didn't rule out secret deals made without his knowledge. A day earlier, a Washington Post story detailed how the United States and Pakistain communicated about, and in some cases coordinated, dozens of drone strikes in Pakistain from late 2007 to late 2011. But former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani ... Pakistain's former prime minister, whose occasional feats of mental gymnastics could be awe-inspiring ... , who was the country's prime minister from 2008 to 2012, said in an interview it was "totally absurd" to suggest his government condoned the attacks. "During my government, there was no such support given to drone strikes whatsoever," Gilani said, adding that he had discussed with President B.O. in 2010 "how this strategy with drones was counterproductive and undermining our anti-terror efforts." Gilani said he could not rule out that the two countries communicated about planned drone strikes during his tenure. But if they did, he said, the parties involved would have been the CIA and Pakistain's InterServices Intelligence agency under conditions set by his predecessor, former military ruler  Pervez PervMusharraf ... former dictator of Pakistain, who was less dictatorial and corrupt than any Pak civilian government to date ... "The permission must have been given earlier," said Gilani, who was also cited in a 2010 WikiLeaks report as being privately supportive of some drone strikes. "After 9/11, the U.S. rang up Musharraf and said, 'You are either with us or you are not with us,' and he said, 'We are with you.' " In an interview with CNN last year, Musharraf admitted to authorizing "a few" U.S. drone strikes before he stepped down in 2008. Pakistain's Express Tribune newspaper reported Thursday that a former top-ranking military commander who served under Musharraf, retired Lt. Gen. Shahid Aziz, is calling for Musharaff to be charged with extrajudicial murder for his role in the drone campaign. Musarraf is already under house arrest in Islamabad for several charges stemming from his autocratic tenure. But the Washington Post report details coordination as recently as 2011, causing some analysts to suspect that Musharraf's successors were also aware of some U.S. strike targets. "This puts cold water on the hype," said Talat Masood, a retired Pak general and military analyst, referring to the public anger in Pakistain over U.S. attacks. "I think people knew it already, but this makes it much more obvious, and the [Pak] media and others will have to cool off." Posted by: Fred 2013-10-25 |
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