Posted on 01/20/2002 9:25:53 AM PST by CreekerFreeper
MAG: SECRET PAKISTANI AIRLIFT AIDED TALIBAN, AL QAEDA FIGHTERS
Sun Jan 20 2002 12:15:41 ET
American intelligence officials and high-ranking military officers say that Pakistani Army military and intelligence advisers who had been working with the Taliban in Afghanistan were flown to safety in Pakistan during the siege of Kunduz last November, in a series of nighttime airlifts by the Pakistani Air Force!
Controversial Seymour Hersh returns to the pages of the NEW YORKER, according to publishing sources, in the January 28, 2002 edition, hitting racks Monday.
The airlifts "were approved by the Bush Administration," Hersh reports.
The evacuation, which had been conceived of as a limited operation, "apparently slipped out of control, and, as an unintended consequence, an unknown number of Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters managed to join in the exodus."
MORE
One American defense adviser tells Hersh, "Everyone brought their friends with them. You're not going to leave them behind to get their throats cut."
As one senior intelligence official puts it, "Dirt got through the screen."
Indian intelligence officials tell Hersh that they number the escaped officials and fighters at four or five thousand; American intelligence officials put the total far lower. But "the Bush Administration may have done more than simply acquiesce in the rescue effort," Hersh reports.
"At the height of the standoff, according to both a C.I.A. official and a military analyst who has worked with the Delta Force...the Administration ordered the United States Central Command to set up a special air corridor help insure the safety of Pakistani rescue flights from Kunduz to the northwest corner of Pakistan."
The Department of Defense did not respond to a request for comment.
Pakistani leader Pervez Musharraf won American support for the evacuation, Hersh reports, by warning that losing a large number of Pakistanis would jeopardize his political survival.
In India, a recently retired Indian diplomat tells Hersh, the feeling is that "Musharraf has two-timed you. What have you gained? Have you captured Osama bin Laden?"
A senior Indian intelligence official says, "Musharraf can't afford to keep the Taliban in Pakistan. They're dangerous to his own regime. Our reading is that the fighters can go only to Kashmir."
Kashmir remains the flashpoint. "The situation is bloody explosive," a senior Pakistani diplomat says, suggesting that Musharraf has not been given enough credit by the Indian government for the "sweeping changes" he's brought to Pakistan.
A retired C.I.A. officer who served as a station chief in South Asia tells Hersh he found it especially disturbing that each country had "imperfect intelligence" about the other. "Couple that with the fact that these guys have a propensity to believe the worst of each other, and have nuclear weapons, and you end up saying, 'My God, get me the hell out of here.'"
Developing...
Very true. No other nation will ever truly have our interests at heart. They will serve our interests insofar as our interests coincide with theirs, but no further. I'm sure the Bush WH knows this very well; I don't believe they're prone to Clintonian naivete.
The Indians haven't been grooming the likes of the Taliban and nurturing terrorist/extremist/jihadi religious schools. Neither has their government been sponsoring the likes of OBL and Al Quaida. I would trust the Indians before I would the Pakistanis a mile away.
What exactly do you find about the Indians that you can't trust in relation to the Pakistanis? Or are they both of the same extremist-infested, terrorism-sponsoring group of countries in your mind?
If you're saying we have no reason to fear that a group of Indians will fly planes into buildings, your point is well taken. I was referring more to the continuity of India as an ally. They can't be trusted to always be "friendly". This "biggest democracy in the world" thing is a double-edged sword.
I notice you referring to the Indian press frequentyly enough. How often do you refer to the Pakistan media and why not?
The Pakistani media is a joke.
Then, when the time came for the war, Bill betrayed them, and the Gypsies were among the first people to suffer from the attack.
We might note that Bill took the Gypsy money and didn't help them because they are not one of his tribes. Actually, most of the Gypsies in Billzo's background left Bosnia in the late 1500s for Germany when they became Mennonites.
Any Bosnian or Serbian Gypsy who thought they could pay Alms to Billzo and get aid had failed to come to grips with his or her own history.
Once this cleanup is over and there are no serious flare-ups, I think US and India will have a much closer relationship. Alliance? Idon't know.
If someone tells you Bill Clinton was a direct descendant in the male line from a gentleman in the mid 1800s called Billy Blythe who was "king of the Gypsies" in North America, you just ignore it because Gypsies are at the bottom of the social order in the Balkans.
In fact, you people used to keep them as slaves didn't you?
On the other hand, America was very, very good to the Gypsies. They did very well financially. Bill Clinton's homestate, Arkansas, has some very wealthy Gypsy families - worth billions and billions of dollars. He took care of them. They took care of him.
Even his wife is some kind of traditional royalty - but neither one of them is very closely related to your Gypsies. That's why when they offered him a bribe to help them during the Kosovo War, he took their money and ignored them.
Now, what was it you were saying about gullibility? Those bad boys flip you people one side and then the other.
BTW, where are the "7 Golden Hills"? Bet you haven't got an idea do you?
Translation: the U.S. agreed to allow Pakistan to evacuate its ISI officers, and then Pakistan chose to evacuate everybody it could.
It's not like we don't know something about you guys.
On the other hand, you live up to the ancient Serbian reputation for not recognizing "friendly forces". (We actually have comedians with routines concerning that characteristic.)
I would have much preferred lining up some of those old Albanian SS guys and putting them on trial long before anybody got around to your latest problem - Milosovic.
Note, from the American perspective, the Balkan prejudice against Gypsies seems to be totally meaningless - after all, all of you people look alike, have the same accent in English, and are otherwise not different culturally, or in terms of religion.
So, tell me, what is the difference between a Serb or Albanian and a Gypsy? Do you see something the rest of the world doesn't?
It's not like we don't know something about you guys.
On the other hand, you live up to the ancient Serbian reputation for not recognizing "friendly forces". (We actually have comedians with routines concerning that characteristic.)
I would have much preferred lining up some of those old Albanian SS guys and putting them on trial long before anybody got around to your latest problem - Milosovic.
Note, from the American perspective, the Balkan prejudice against Gypsies seems to be totally meaningless - after all, all of you people look alike, have the same accent in English, and are otherwise not different culturally, or in terms of religion.
So, tell me, what is the difference between a Serb or Albanian and a Gypsy? Do you see something the rest of the world doesn't?
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