The Pakistani civilian government announced today that it is recalling Ambassador to the United States Husain Haqqani to answer questions related to the growing scandal surrounding claims that he and President Zardari sought US help in moving against top Pakistani military officials earlier this summer.
Haqqani, seen as a top aide to Zardari, has offered to resign if it would end the investigation into the allegations, which emerged last month after a Pakistani-American businessman named Mansour Ijaz claimed he had been involved in a plot to deliver a personal letter from Zardari to Admiral Michael Mullen detailing the plan. Ijaz claimed the letter was given to him by a senior diplomat at Haqqani’s post.
Under the putative plan, Zardari would have promised to dramatically weaken the Pakistani military intelligence branch the ISI, including totally disbanding its Afghanistan unit, in return for US military support in a move against Pakistan’s armed forces.
Zardari reportedly feared, in the wake of the US assassination of Osama bin Laden, that the growing public discontent with the military’s inability to find bin Laden so close to its base, coupled with its inability to do anything about the US raid, would prompt the military to orchestrate a coup d’etat against his already shaky government. Zardari denied any involvement in the plot.
The Pentagon initially denied that Mullen had ever received a letter, but spokesman Capt. John Kirby later conceded that Mullen had in fact gotten the letter, just as Ijaz said. Kirby insisted that the letter was dismissed as “not at all credible.”
The revelation is liable to significantly weaken the Zardari government, which is already under considerable fire domestically for its cozy relationship with the US. It will likely also fuel anti-American sentiment across Pakistan, particularly in military circles, where US air strikes against Pakistani territory are seen as a considerable threat, and one the civilian government is not taking at all seriously.
This story is US psyops.
I had the same thought in reading this.
The historical context is one of long US support for the Pakistani military against civilian government in Pakistan. The US has repeatedly support the Pakistani military in coups against the civilian government. Thus, if the US is taking sides in a civil v military dispute in Pakistan, the history says that its more likely its on the side of the military. Zardari would certainly know this since at least one of the coups removed his late wife from power.
And, Zardari undoubtedly has better ways of contacting the US military to see if this has changed other than writing everything down in a letter and dropping into the mail to chief of staff. He could probably get a one-on-one meeting with the chief of staff. He could certainly get a meeting with the area commander and use that to feel out the position of the US military. As someone who's been a corrupt politician and around coups and plots for most of his adult life, I find it very odd that Zardari would write this down in a letter.
And, if you look at the actual actions of the US military, what they've done is weakened the Zardari government by disclosing the existence of this letter. I doubt that Adm. Mullen is in the habit of publicly disclosing every letter he receives, so one has to ask why is he revealing the existence of this one. That smells more like playing along with a Pakistani military plot more than anything else. Just like the US military has done for a long, long time.
Whenever I see any news article about Pakistan, this is what my brain registers: Pakistan…blah blah blah…blah blah blah…blah blah blah"