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| India-Pakistan |
| WikiLeaks: Pakistani airmen sabotaging F-16s |
| 2011-05-21 |
| A WikiLeaks cable, which NDTV has exclusive access to, says Pakistan's airmen were being radicalised and were sabotaging Pakistani F-16s deployed for security operations along the Afghan border. The cable, sent in March 2006 from the US embassy to Washington, quotes Pakistan's then Deputy Chief of Air Staff for Operations, Air Vice Marshal (AVM) Khalid Chaudhry, as saying that the airmen, most of whom came from rural villages, were being radicalised by extremist Islamic clerics. The cable quotes AVM Chaudhry as saying, "You can't imagine what a hard time we have trying to get to trim their beards." The cable notes that, "This last comment refers to the tradition of conservative Muslims to grow full beards as a sign of piety." |
| Posted by:Zebulon Thranter9685 |
| #8 TW - It's more WHY they would attack their brethren. It's one thing if Abdul from the next village over comes by, steals your favorite goat, and insults your impressive moustachio. If that happens, these guys would probably not only load up every F-16 on the ramp and fly it till it couldn't, they'd take it apart and use the chunks as clubs. But if Abdul comes over and does all those things, and you ask America for help, and we in turn ask you to use all those pretty airplanes you've been starving your populace for to blow Abdul to hell and gone, that's something else. Yeah, it's a real pain to keep losing goats, and that last crack about the moustachio really hurt, but it's been going on in one form or another since the Prophet was a pup. At that point, there's an unpleasant whiff - in Muslim noses - of working for the Crusaders, of being a tool of the Infidel. And after all, no matter what the Infidels say, they really ARE just working for the Jews, don'tchaknow. If we can't hit the Taliban, the Americans will give up and go home, and we can get back to settling this the old fashioned way. Hoping that makes sense. Mike PS - The way the problem with the Saudis got solved - after they blew off some fairly pointed hints in private - was to put an entire page on the subject in the morning briefing booklet that went to all the Allied air commanders in ODS. However, the only one that actually HAD that page was the one that went to the Saudi commander. According to legend, the poor guy looked like he was about to have an aneurysm waiting to be embarrassed in front of the other commanders. When he realized it wasn't going to happen - yet - he left the briefing and sent the word down that the next guy who pulled that stunt would find himself flying a prison cell, regardless of his family connections. It didn't happen again. |
| Posted by: Mike Kozlowski 2011-05-21 23:19 |
| #7 Interesting, Mike. I had no idea. So it's not really fanatics taking key bits out of the planes, because the Punjabi Taliban, etc have no problem attacking Afghans, co-religionists though they putatively are? |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2011-05-21 21:13 |
| #6 ...Don't forget that during Operation Desert Storm, some Saudi pilots decided to fly someplace other than briefed, dropped their bombs in the boonies, then came back and claimed smashing successes. They weren't cowards, far from it - they just didn't want to drop bombs on other Muslims. They forgot, of course, that AWACS can see a lot of stuff. And makes videos of it, too. Mike |
| Posted by: Mike Kozlowski 2011-05-21 20:52 |
| #5 I'm comfortably certain that the Indian intel services (far more competent than our CIA) are all over this. Every Pak F-16 that can't fly, be it stationed on the Afghan 'border' or the Indian border, is one less F-16 the Indians have to shoot down. You know, if they have to shoot any down... |
| Posted by: Steve White 2011-05-21 18:16 |
| #4 let the Pak F-16 pilots have the say on what to do with them. Whatever, DO NOT give them replacement parts under the status quo |
| Posted by: Frank G 2011-05-21 17:39 |
| #3 "You can't imagine what a hard time we have trying to get to trim their beards." Dosing them a few times with CS will take care of that. At least they will trim it enough so the protective mask seals. |
| Posted by: crosspatch 2011-05-21 16:04 |
| #2 Rather than taking them out and shooting them, Darth, put them guarding the Sui pipeline - 24-on, 24-off, stationed 30 feet apart (close enough to shoot, not close enough to talk). If any of them run away, the two guys on either side of him will be shot. I'm sure their "religious piety" will wilt in 130-degree highs and 55-degree lows. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2011-05-21 15:33 |
| #1 Well, that is simple enough to fix. All guys that grow beards are transferred to a special unit, and then are taken out into the desert and shot. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2011-05-21 14:31 |