Pakistan's president facing military anger over his U.S. ties
By Saeed Shah November 26, 2009
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Suspicions by Pakistan's powerful army that the country's civilian leadership is growing too close to the United States are fueling a political crisis that analysts here believe threatens the survival of the government and could divert attention from the battle against Islamic extremists.
Military officials believe that secretly taped conversations between Pakistani President Asif Zardari and his ambassador in Washington, prove that it was at Zardari's insistence that a $1.5 billion U.S. aid package passed by Congress in September contained several provisions that angered the Pakistani military. The military publicly protested the aid package last month.
"The reaction (from the military) was not so much to what was in the bill but to the thought that the government was trying to create a civilian-to-civilian dialogue (with Washington)," said a senior Pakistani official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The army has ruled Pakistan for most its existence, with civilian rule returning only last year.
Now the military is responding by pressing a confrontation with Zardari over the expiration of a legal amnesty for politicians that benefited many members of Zardari's government, including the president himself and his ambassador to Washington, Husain Haqqani.
The amnesty, known as the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO), wiped away long-standing charges against politicians and bureaucrats who served between 1986 and 1999. But the Supreme Court ruled that the measure, which had been decreed in October 2007 by then President Pervez Musharraf, was unconstitutional, and it will come to an end on Saturday.
That will expose serving ministers and senior aides to prosecution over cases that range from corruption to murder — including Zardari, who was charged with taking kickbacks when his wife, the assassinated Benazir Bhutto, served as the country's prime minister.
Most here argue that Zardari, who is head of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party, will still have legal immunity as president. But analysts believe the military is behind a campaign to oust Zardari and, with the help of sympathetic media and opposition politicians, is using the end of the amnesty as an opportunity to strike. While dislodging the president will be tough, it is possible that he'll be forced to transfer most of his powers to the prime minister through a constitutional amendment.
Suspicions in the president's camp about an attempt to isolate him were heightened when the law ministry released a list of amnesty beneficiaries that featured those close to the president, including his top aide and several cabinet ministers, but none of the allies of Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani.
At the center of the civil-military conflict is the relationship between Zardari's government and Washington, with the Pakistani army resentful of the close ties and the government's agreement with some U.S. security policies that don't fit with the military's view.
The political confrontation came to the fore with the passage of the $1.5 billion U.S. aid package, which insisted on civilian control of the armed forces and threatened to cut off assistance if there were a coup. The legislation also demanded that Pakistan crack down on extremist groups that were previously considered close to the country's army.
A military spy agency recorded Zardari and Haqqan discussing the legislation. Knowledgeable civilian and military officials, who spoke only if they were not identified by name, said the recordings captured the two discussing how to strengthen democratic institutions in Pakistan.
Even when there have been civilian governments in Islamabad, the military has viewed sensitive foreign and security policies as its purview. In particular, the military jealously guards its role in relations with India, Afghanistan and the United States, as well as the policy toward the country's nuclear arsenal.
Zardari, however, has intruded in all those areas since taking office. He's reached out to traditional enemy India, improved relations with Afghan President Hamid Karzai — usually seen in Pakistan as dangerously close to India — and agreed with the U.S. that Pakistan must eliminate extremist groups on its soil — the same Islamic militants that the military previously used to fight proxy wars in India and Afghanistan.
Zardari also unsuccessfully tried to place the main military spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence, under civilian control, and he offered a "no first use" policy on Pakistan's nuclear weapons to India.
"The army does not like too much civilian interference in their internal affairs," said Hasan Askari Rizvi, a defense commentator and author of Military, State and Society in Pakistan. "The military thinks that the Pakistan government wants to use this (U.S.) law to somehow interfere in the affairs of the military."
"Zardari is perceived as too dependent on or too pro the United States, and sometimes not quite in agreement with the strategic view of the army," said Arif Nizami, a political analyst and former newspaper editor.
The law ministry's list of amnesty beneficiaries contained over 8,000 names, including bureaucrats and party workers, on charges ranging from murder to embezzlement.
The list includes Interior Minister Rehman Malik, Ports Minister Babar Khan Ghauri, Overseas Pakistanis Minister Farooq Sattar, the governor of Sindh province,Ishratul Ebad, and the president's top aide, Salman Farooqui.
Also on the list are the high commissioner to London, Wajid Shamsul Hasan, and the ambassador to Washington, Haqqani — who both deny taking advantage of the amnesty. Haqqani has sued to have his name removed from the list.
Chuckle, placed here in solutootoottion to drones.
SOME classify an obligation under USA domestic law, to investigate if any domestic American laws have been broken in the torture business, as an Obama witch hunt, which imo is bullshit. SOME, interrupt conversations with diversionary tactics.
Some don't see that the undertaking of the legal obligation to investigate, as above, and the legality or not of the use of drones in oversees wars, are two different matters. True.
It is easy sometimes to, in conversation, be diverted from the topic at hand, even though we know it is a conservative tactic to change the subject, and then to just bulldog on even though exposed.
Just for interest, a number of drone on mentions, CHUCKLE ..
"yep, that's good, guess everybody is .. are the pilots for rocket or missile or whatever firing drones, really sitting outside of Las Vegas? .. i guess it's true, read it somewhere .. that's a long brush in this terrible portrait of war, isn't it .. such a waste this way to rule a world .. it really really really sucks .." http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=29106554&txt2find=drones
US commandos blamed for 'botched' raid inside Pakistan
"For the next half hour the taxi stopped and started, parked and pulled off again, moving slowly up and down the same deserted, blacked-out streets with the driver occasionally switching his headlights off in the hope of avoiding suspicion. An Israeli drone - capable of firing precision missiles - was circling immediately overhead as Abed finished his rambling story.
2009 .. bit OFF TOPIC which SHOULDN'T bother SOME, relevance in the DRONE mention .. hmmm ..
"Cut off the right foot i think of every athlete using drugs, and the head of every young person who kills another. Over 21s should be crucified, then tied to a stake and toasted as a marshmallow would be. Then executed while sitting in a chair. 5 year trials seriously should be trialled.
The rack would make half-time of all male ball games more educative. Fair dinkum real executions should be mandatory at every assembly, at every high-school. At least in public school system as that's where most of the bad people come from.
Hollywood i think should stop faking it and get some real blood and guts going. Fake wars fought at a distance are no deterrent at all so all drones operated from Vegas and other cities should be banned by Congress.
Every Saturday night every neighborhood gang kid should be mentored by a serious mafia member with the worst cases of truancy be shot in real reenactions of St. Valentines Day.
How many of the "pictures of little bloody arms and legs" are fake, benz.
What percentage of abortions are done prior to 12 weeks?
Have you ever seen a photograph of a fetus at 12 weeks held by a 12 year old at anti-abortion rally?
What Does an ACTUAL First Trimester Abortion Look Like
First-trimester legally induced abortions. The amount of aspirated tissue in relation to gestational age. "
"Meeting with President Obama in early May, Zardari had requested that his government be allowed to use Predator drones.
Washington has opposed such an arrangement, fearing that information about Predator attacks could be leaked by Pakistani intelligence services to targets.
"on the release of more torture photos. Lol, then again can we inflame the situation more than the killing of civilians in Pakistan using drones from American cities? NO .. soo ... maybe ok now am sitting on release them, though .. then still a doubt .. not 100%. Ouch, don't like the equivocation.
100% the Obama administration continuing the "Bush administration’s abuse of the state-secrets privilege .. the same arguments from Justice "that a lawsuit involving extraordinary rendition and allegations of extreme torture should be dismissed outright because discussions of such matters in court would harm national security.', is a BAD.
“As many as seven detainees were misidentified and abducted by mistake.” there must be more for sure and and the principle of every 'PERSON' should have their day in court must be paramount.
So many freed with no charges at all against them confirms the round-up and sale for $$$$$$ which took place. What a money spinner for so many war-lords! And for some ordinary people, too. I guess a great way for them to settle a grudge. The Bush round-up was an obscenity as is the Obama continuance of the human rights abuses of the basic human right to a fair trial in a decent legal system.
Enough for now, good to get those together .. will close with some words along the lines of what many of us who examined Obama before the election said then, and have repeatedly repeated through 2009 ..
SHEEEEEEEZZZZZZ, for the Flying Spaghetti Monster's sake .. we just gotta understand, we will do it just as the way we have been doing it since forever, and the USA will, most probably, be still be doing it when we all are long gone.
Really, nobody should be 'above' the law, and for sure any the characterization of a US government administration fulfilling legal obligations as a 'witch hunt", is preposterous. Shameful, really.
The use of drones, most probably is in violation of international law, and that's bad, too. it was terrible to learn of Americans killing foreign innocents from a sitting position in Las Vegas, and in other American cities.
Repeat, we will continue to do some things just the way we have been doing them, since whenever.
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