| Nah, that would require us to question the timing of the president, and no one would ever do that ... |
A US terror alert issued this week about al-Qaida plots to attack targets in western Europe was politically motivated and not based on credible new information, senior Pakistani diplomats and European intelligence officials have told the Guardian.
The non-specific US warning, which despite its vagueness led Britain, France and other countries to raise their overseas terror alert levels, was an attempt to justify a recent escalation in US drone and helicopter attacks inside Pakistan that have "set the country on fire", said Wajid Shamsul Hasan, the high commissioner to Britain.
| If we wanted to set your country on fire, pal ... |
Hasan, a veteran diplomat who is close to Pakistan's president, suggested the Obama administration was playing politics with the terror threat before next month's mid-term congressional elections, in which the Republicans are expected to make big gains.
| That wouldn't do any good since the mid-terms aren't being driven by foreign policy or terrorism. In fact this is the first national election we've had since 2001 in which terrorism hasn't been discussed. |
He also claimed President Obama was reacting to pressure to demonstrate that his Afghan war strategy and this year's troop surge, which are unpopular with the American public, were necessary.
"I will not deny the fact that there may be internal political dynamics, including the forthcoming mid-term American elections. If the Americans have definite information about terrorists and al-Qaida people, we should be provided [with] that and we could go after them ourselves," Hasan said.
| Except that they have, and you haven't. |
| And we're not inclined to do so in the future, since not only does the ISI not 'go after' the thugs, they protect them and put them up at the Peshawar Hilton. It's easier to launch a drone zap ... |
"Such reports are a mixture of frustrations, ineptitude and lack of appreciation of ground realities. Any attempt to infringe the sovereignty of Pakistan would not bring about stability in Afghanistan, which is presumably the primary objective of the American and Nato forces."
| Clearly the Paks understand us as well as we understand them ... |
Dismissing claims of a developed, co-ordinated plot aimed at Britain, France and Germany, European intelligence officials also pointed the finger at the US, and specifically at the White House. "To stitch together [the terror plot claims] in a seamless narrative is nonsensical," said one well-placed official.
While Abdul Jabbar, a Briton,
| British, is he? I would never have guessed. Thought for a moment that his name was really 'Nigel' ... |
and others killed by an American drone strike on 8 September in North Waziristan, in Pakistan's tribal areas, were heard discussing co-ordinated plots, including possible "commando-style" attacks on prominent buildings and tourist sites in European capitals, security and intelligence officials said the plots were nowhere near fruition.
The officials did not deny the men, and other foreign-born jihadi recruits who travel to the tribal areas for indoctrination and training, represented a potentially serious threat. "You have discussions about all sorts of things -- that does not necessarily mean there is anything concrete. It is not easy to set up groups," said one counter-terrorism official.
| It's not impossibly hard, either. I recall a group of young men in Hamburg in 2001 ... |
| Pooh. They recruit them at the madrassahs, like college football players. |
By making it clear that the US drone strikes were pre-emptive, and were not in any way combating an imminent threat, European officials raised fresh questions -- this time directly involving a British national -- about the legality of the attacks, which could be viewed as assassinations.
| Yep, sure could be. We don't have a problem with that, even though the invertebrate Euros do. This just sounds like the bleating the Euros have to do to maintain their 'distance' from the US ... |
They said Washington was the "driver" behind claims about a series of "commando-style" plots and that the CIA -- perhaps because it was worried about provoking unwelcome attention to its drone strikes -- was also extremely annoyed by the publicity given to them.
The plot claims, which western intelligence agencies were aware of for months, were leaked last week to the American media. They were followed by a spate of what security and intelligence officials said were exaggerated claims in the British media, a US state department warning to American citizens to be vigilant when visiting Britain, France, and Germany, a "tit for tat" warning by France to its citizens visiting the UK, and alerts issued by the Swedish and Japanese governments.
Thomas de Maizière, Germany's interior minister, publicly expressed his scepticism about the US terror warning, saying he saw no sign of an imminent attack on Germany. He described the danger to Germany as "hypothetical".
The sharp rise in US unmanned drone attacks in Pakistan's tribal areas, coupled with several cross-border raids by American helicopter gunships that culminated in the killing of two Frontier Corps soldiers last week, was destabilising Pakistan, Hasan said.
| How could anyone tell that Pakistain was unstable? |
"Why are they putting so much pressure on us? It is a threat to the democratic system ... But people in Pakistan feel Washington does not care." American actions were "obviously" linked to Obama's decision to set a timetable for leaving Afghanistan. The US leader had "jumped the gun" and now "the Americans are in a hurry".
He said fears were growing in Pakistan that the US was planning a bombing campaign using fixed-wing aircraft as well as drones in North Waziristan.
| Fixed-wing, as in B52s? Someone at the Burg may finally get his wish ... |
Hasan said Washington politicians failed to understand how much the US needed Pakistan in the "war on terror".
| Indeed. Were it not for Pakistan, there would be no war on terror, remembering f'r instance that it was the Taliban, trained pets of Pakistan's ISI, that sheltered Al Qaeda before and after 9/11. Without Pakistan, how much longer would it have been until it was incontrovertibly brought to our attention that we were actually at war? |
Nor did they realise that public anger over repeated US infringements of Pakistani sovereignty could boil over into attacks on American personnel and interests that the government might not be able to control.
"The government does not want to go down this road," he said. "But people feel abused. If they [the Americans] kill someone again, they will react. There is a figure that there are 3,000 American personnel in Pakistan. They would be very easy targets."
| Ooooh, that sounds like a threat. We Americans really like being threatened. Ask us ... |
Hasan said American personnel stationed at the Pakistani air force base at Jacobabad, on the border between Sindh and Baluchistan provinces, could be vulnerable if the situation deteriorated further. The US requested the use of Jacobabad, and other bases at Dalbandin and Pasni, after the 9/11 attacks, and has maintained a military presence there ever since.
| The vaunted army of Pakistan, buttoned up in its cantonments, is incapable of standing off what would literally be an untrained mob? And he admits it?? How utterly mortifying for the troops and their officers. |
Another Pakistani diplomat said Jacobabad was the main centre of operations for CIA and US army drones, which are ultimately controlled from America. "They have hangars there. That's where they fly from and that's where they return."
| Time for us to get some carrier-based drones ... |
The drone operations began in June 2004 with the tacit, reluctant agreement and involvement of the Pakistani authorities but were now in effect running beyond Pakistan's control, the diplomat suggested. "We have always denied it in the past. But everybody knows this is happening. We need to wake up," the official said.
A US official said: "Our allies have been briefed on the nature of the threat and the intelligence that led to the travel alert and everyone understands this cannot be taken lightly. To try to ascribe any political motivation is misguided and irresponsible."
| Not that it stopped the liberal progressives a few years ago from saying exactly that ... |
|