Top US official pays secret visit?(Media converging in Pakistan)

Dawn ^ | Feb 12 2004 | Unknown

[Dog]

Top US official pays secret visit?

By A Reporter

ISLAMABAD, Feb 12: A top US official paid a secret visit to Islamabad on Wednesday, sources said. The sources said the official with a 24-member delegation arrived at the Chaklala airbase at around 7pm on Wednesday and left the country on Thursday afternoon.

Foreign office spokesman Masood Khan denied the presence or a 'short visit' by a US delegation to Islamabad. "I can tell you flat that this is not true," he told Dawn.

ISPR director-general Maj-Gen Shaukat Sultan said he was not aware if any senior US official had visited the capital. Other sources claimed that most members of the US delegation checked into two leading hotels in the city while the top man himself stayed at the US Embassy.

They said there was a movement of the American VVIP in the morning because of which traffic remained jam for quite some time in all directions on the VVIP route between Rawalpindi and Islamabad.

These sources also claimed that 'something important' was likely to happen shortly because the international media - teams of NBC, CBS, CNN and BBC - had started converging in Islamabad.

[Dog]

Look this may be nothing ......but this really got my attention.

AM remove from breaking if you think it doesn't belong there.

[Dog]

fyi...

[MrsEmmaPeel]

Announcement about Osama perhaps?

[kabar]

Brokaw is reporting form there. He will be on the Imus program this morning.

[Huck]

Interesting. #1 and #2 are still at large....I'd love to get either one of em.

[GraniteStateConservative]

Bush America

Osama will be his Valentine's Day gift to us, I guess. Let's cover him in chocolate and release the red ants.

[livius]

I believe I read a little notice earlier this week that Powell was going to that part of the world.

But maybe I hallucinated it.

[Cap Huff]

Whoa! Hope there is something here.

[Dog]

Let's not get our hopes up.

But this story peaked my interest.

[Arkie2]

Seems like a waste of chocolate to me.

[Cap Huff]

The Pakistani's tried to suggest that Powell agreed to a visit later this month (four days! no less). The next day or so Powell chuckled at the report and said he expected to visit later this year - late spring or summer.

[American_Centurion]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Monday that he had no plans to visit Pakistan soon but would do so this year and that it was up to Pakistan to decide how to treat a scientist who leaked nuclear secrets.... From Reuters

[Dog]

I tend to believe this story because they had the arrival time the plane came in....note the time...7pm...isn't it dark over there then at that time?

Also the traffic jams mentioned in this story...

[Cap Huff]

I just checked a world clock. In Karachi (somewhat southwest of Islamabad I believe) the sun set about 6:23 on Wednesday. Not super dark, but not daylight.

[Fast5]

Seen this over at Mutters Place:

CIA chief, others descend on Pakistan


Asian News International
Islamabad, February 13

The chief of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), George Tenet, and several other top-ranking Bush Administration officials clandestinely paid a 12-hour visit in Islamabad reportedly to discuss the nuke leak damage-control exercises being undertaken by the establishment.

Sources in the know of the "hush hush" visit told the Daily Times that the American team had arrived on Wednesday night and departed by Thursday afternoon.

Pakistani officials are said to have briefed the visitors about the nuclear scandal and the current situation in Afghanistan.

www.hindustantimes.com/ne...1,0005.htm

[Dog]

So it was Tenet....that makes it more interesting.

[Dog]

They could discuss the nuke issue over a secure phone.....

I think they discussed something else.

[Boot Hill]

Thanks for the heads-up. This could be very interesting.

Cheney? Rumsfeld? Powell? Osama captured? Zawahiri captured? Saudi Arabian nuke project? Hmmm...

--Boot Hill

[Cap Huff]

The Dawn report definitely is trying to make people think the underlying story is OBL. The Hindustani Times wants you to think it is the nuke problem (mostly). I'm going to guess it is the nuke situation, but it may be far deeper than what has been suggested so far in the whole Khan affair.

[Dog]

Tenet was there to share something with them....some new bit of info that needed to be discussed face to face.

Watch to see who he met with...Mush or ISI.