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...
Maybe someone can help me out on whose quote that was. I'm thinking it was Bill Safire.
I tend to believe these reports. Notice Rumsfeld's wording.."No one, that I know, in—connected with the United States in any way, has saw any such thing as a major air exodus out of Afghanistan into Pakistan." All depends on how you define 'major air exodus' now, doesn't it?
Rubbish.
False stories have a tendency to get picked up by other news organizations, and before you know it, it seems to have some credibility because it's been "widely-reported."
It's the same thing that happened this weekend with the reports that Saudi Arabia has asked the US to leave the airbase there. It's completely false, but many here believe it because a headline said so.
Mark it down. We knew.
MM
Absolutely, and thanks for pointing that out.
It just seems implausible that dozens of Pakistani military planes would have been landing and departing and no one noticed.
US 'allows Pakistani fighters to escape'
FROM ZAHID HUSSAIN IN ISLAMABAD
PAKISTANI fighters trapped in the besieged city of Konduz have been airlifted to safety in Pakistan with the apparent consent of the United States, according to sources inside Pakistan.
Several Pakistani aircraft and helicopters are believed to have flown into the city over the past few days as hundreds of Pakistanis fighting with the Taleban were surrounded by Northern Alliance forces.
I think The Daily Telegraph also had an article about this...
We have bestowed the worst characteristic from the worst President on people who do not deserve that. If Rumsfeld had a track record of misleading us, and telling us it depends on the meaning of "is" is, then I could see it. But he doesn't.
MSNBC: The ‘airlift of evil’ "
Nov 19: The United States took the unprecedented step this week of demanding that foreign airlines provide information on passengers boarding planes for America. Yet in the past week, a half dozen or more Pakistani air force cargo planes landed in the Taliban-held city of Kunduz and evacuated to Pakistan hundreds of non-Afghan soldiers who fought alongside the Taliban and even al-Qaida against the United States. What’s wrong with this picture?
...
"
These reports must be true, but may also be understandable, given that Musharaff has been warning repeatedly that his position will collapse if we didn't do this or do that. Now, he thinks OBL is dead!
We may be getting screwed here! I Think we've been putting too many baskets on one egg!
Source?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.