Even though National Security Adviser Tom Donilon confirmed that the US has absolutely no evidence Pakistan new about Osama bin Laden’s hiding place in Abbottabad before last weekend’s raid, a number of top administration officials, including Donilon, are adding to the demands made to the Pakistani government.
Among the new demands are that the Pakistani government allow US investigators full access to three of bin Laden’s widows. They are also demanding access to all materials removed by Pakistani forces after the raid on bin Laden’s home.
Pakistan has denied having any information on bin Laden before the raid, and Donilon’s comments suggest that the US, despite a solid week of investigation, has been unable to prove otherwise. The two nations were already at odds over the high-profile detention of a CIA agent, Raymond Davis, over a double murder in Lahore.
But since the bin Laden death the situation seems to be getting much worse, and at an alarming rate. Pakistani media outlets have even named a top CIA official in Islamabad, which officials believe is a Pakistani government attempt to “out” the official. Pakistan has demanded that the US remove large numbers of spies, as well as troops, from the nation.
"Pakistan has demanded that the US remove large numbers of spies, as well as troops, from the nation."
That wasn't serious it was only to appease the angry Pakistani public. The reality is, Pakistan is a colony, bought and paid for. If they really wanted to stand up to the US government they would quit accepting the bribe money/foreign aid.
So what's the solution to Pakistan being a U.S. puppet, demonize it's government to give fodder to neo-libs and neo-cons in the run to yet another regime change war in the middle east? Think strategy and not tactics friend if you don't want to see more U.S. govt. war mongering.
This is one even the hard left is collapsing on. Democracy Now! for example is repeating the same tired establishment conspiracy theory about ties between the ISI and Al Queda:
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/5/5/pakistani_mi…
Although I have been a hard left activist for 25 years know that I will be steadfast by Libertarians if they wind up being the only people to resist the demonization of Pakistan's government in the run up to war against Pakistan.
You are absolutely correct when you say that Pakistan is between a rock and a hard place. The alliance with the FedGov is maintained to prevent an open invasion.
They could have captured the wives and could have kept bin Ladin alive if they actually needed more information. So the actual purpose appears to be to just demonize Pakistan. It is just like the US government forced bin Ladin to leave Sudan and move to Afghanistan and as soon as he got there they started demanding that the Taliban hand him over, knowing fully well that handing him over without any evidence was just not possible for the Taliban.
I hope that I am mistaken, but I fear that what we are seeing is just one more phase of a policy of destabilising Pakistan. The logical outcome of bin Laden's murder and the fall out from the ensuing diplomatic crises will be to split the Pakistani military; a necessary pre-condition for all out civil war.
Wow, so we DEMAND access to detainees who we deemed unimportant enough to spirit away when we had the chance? We DEMAND access to materials we left behind?
At this point, I think Pakistan is about to wake up and realize they might want to be looking towards Russia or China or Iran for new friends. They're sure not getting much from their relationship with us besides cash.