EMAIL SIGN UP!
Most Popular This Week
Popular content
Today's Top News
Pakistan's New Leaders Tell US: We Are No Longer Your Killing Field
· Visiting envoys earn cold reception from coalition · PM wants new approach to fight Islamic extremism
The Bush administration is scrambling to engage with Pakistan's new rulers as power flows from its strong ally, President Pervez Musharraf, to a powerful civilian government buoyed by anti-American sentiment.
Top diplomats John Negroponte and Richard Boucher travelled to a mountain fortress near the Afghan border yesterday as part of a hastily announced visit that has received a tepid reception.
On Tuesday, senior coalition partner Nawaz Sharif gave the visiting Americans a public scolding for using Pakistan as a "killing field" and relying too much on Musharraf.
Yesterday the new prime minister, Yousaf Raza Gilani, said he warned President George Bush in a phone conversation that he would prioritise talking as well as shooting in the battle against Islamist extremism. "He said that a comprehensive approach is required in this regard, specially combining a political approach with development," a statement said.
But Gilani also reassured Bush that Pakistan would "continue to fight against terrorism", it said.
Since 2001 American officials have treasured their close relationship with Musharraf because he offered a "one-stop shop" for cooperation in hunting al-Qaida fugitives hiding in Pakistan.
But since the crushing electoral defeat of Musharraf's party last month, and talk that the new parliament may hobble the president's powers, that equation has changed. Now the US finds itself dealing with politicians it previously spurned.
The body language between Negroponte and Sharif during their meeting on Tuesday spoke volumes: the Pakistani greeted the American with a starched handshake, and sat at a distance .
In blunt remarks afterwards, Sharif said he told Negroponte that Pakistan was no longer a one-man show. "Since 9/11, all decisions were taken by one man," he said. "Now we have a sovereign parliament and everything will be debated in the parliament."
It was "unacceptable that while giving peace to the world we make our own country a killing field," Sharif said, echoing widespread public anger at US-funded military operations in the tribal belt.
"If America wants to see itself clean of terrorism, we also want our villages and towns not to be bombed," he said.
US officials have long paid tribute to the virtues of democracy in Pakistan. But, as happened in the Palestinian Authority after the 2006 Hamas victory, policymakers are racing to catch up with the consequences of a result that challenges American priorities.
The US has long been suspicious of Sharif, whom it views as sympathetic to religious parties. Unlike Benazir Bhutto, whose return from exile was negotiated through the US, Sharif came under the protection of Saudi Arabia. But now Sharif's party, which performed well in the poll, is an integral part of the new government.
Yesterday Negroponte and Boucher travelled to the Khyber Pass in North-West Frontier Province, the centre of a growing insurgency. They met with the commander of the Frontier Corps, a poorly equipped paramilitary force that the US has offered to upgrade. The US has earmarked $750m (£324m) for a five-year development programme in tribal areas. At least 22 military instructors are due to start training the corps this year.
The timing of the American visit - before the new cabinet is announced - has offended Pakistanis. "It flies in the face of normal protocol at a time when public opinion is rife that they are making a last ditch effort to save Musharraf," said Talat Hussain, a prominent journalist.
It is unclear how Pakistan's foreign policy will be formulated in future. Musharraf's power may have been cut but the strong army is lurking in the shadows, and the coalition is wrangling over cabinet posts, including that of foreign minister.
Gilani must manage other tensions, particularly over whether to reinstate Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, the deposed chief justice who was freed from house arrest on Monday. Chaudhry has become a folk hero but is viewed with suspicion by Gilani's Pakistan People's party.
© 2008 The Guardian
Comments
Note: Disqus 2012 is best viewed on an up to date browser. Click here for information. Instructions for how to sign up to comment can be viewed here. Our Comment Policy can be viewed here. Please follow the guidelines. Note to Readers: Spam Filter May Capture Legitimate Comments...
58 Comments so far
Show AllI observe that some of you are still talking like you still own Pakistan. Anyway some 4 to 5 years ago just after the sacking of Baghdad that the last stronghold of US interests is Pakistan and when Pakistan goes the USA will face a real headache for the atomic bomb that is in the hands of Pakistan.
If I may hazzard a guess, I think the USA will go to war with Pakistan if she refuses to side with the Americans. I guess with endemic corruption in Pakistan, eventually the USA will bribe their way into Pakistan.
Jesus ! come to think of it the USA is really in the dog house ! There is the worry that must haunt the Americans with the growing strength of the SCO that has Russia leading the pack; and if the USA gets kicked out of Iraq as they must surely be kicked out sooner or later, that leaves only the Israelis to hold the fort for the USA.
Well my best wishes go to all those who oppose American power.
Pakistan is a sovereign nation. Sharif and Gilani have every right to tell the US to keep its troops, planes and unmanned drones out. They probably want to demonstrate their ability to stand up to the US to the people of Pakistan.
The US should cooperate before it completely loses the trust of the Pakistani people, and pro Wahabbi / al qaeda politicians start replacing those who are pro-western and secular.
Imagine, a nation standing up to the U.S.!
Perhaps Pakistan will become a trend setter. Perhaps it's the beginning of a worldwide rebellion against decades of American imperialism and its pathological love of war and killing.
We can but hope.
www.dangerouscreation.com
Venezuela stood up to the US and so did Bolivia, so has Iraq. Cuba has done it for 50 years. The Saudis are also standing up to the US. Canada refused to go to Iraq, so they can also be said to have stood up to the US. Now Pâkistan. The world is getting richer and the US isn't, that's why the grip is loosening.
Pakistan is not a problem, it is a country. What problem does Pakistan represent for the US? None at all. This idea that all these countries are dangerous is American bullshit. The US is a danger to everyone, Pakistan is a problem for India, maybe, that's all. There are policemen of the world among the posters. No like. WE DO NOT OWN THE WORLD! WE DO NOT HAVE THE RIGHT TO ATTACK ANY COUNTRY THAT DOESN'T DO OUR BIDDING! GET THIS INTO YOUR HEAD ONCE AND FOR ALL.
When America implodes the world will breathe a sigh of relief. Even then the Dim's and Repug's will try to rebuild the old system, washington first.
Kentshaw was correct, however he forgot that there was no real "insurgency" or death squads in Iraq until Negroponte was sent as "Ambassador". He is one of the worst human (?) beings on the planet - right up there with Cheney, et al. Negroponte in the area = death squads.
Lizard - Good posting !!!!!
George W. Bush has earmarked $750m for a five-year development programme in Pakistan's tribal areas.
Yet so many Americans have no medical insurance, thousands have lost their jobs, many thousands more are losing their homes, many injured Iraqi veterans are receiving less that adequate medical and mental health care, seniors are having to make a choice whether to fill needed prescription. And don't forget those who are living on the street or in shelters.
In other words, we are in a pickle.
What kind of person, especially one who claimes to receive instructions from God, ignores the hardship of the people he is supposed to be representing, and yet give away millions of our dollars?
Is this man even human?
Bush steps in shit again.
If bush loses a puppet gov't, he'll just bomb it back into submission. Is it possible that he'll pull bin Laden out of cheney's safe in the next few months?
Pakistan has nukes.
It would appear that the rather fractious Pakistani political class has recognized something which the American corporate media is loath to explicate: the jig is up for Dubya, Cheney, & Co. in Pakistan. The Neo-Cons can invoke all the sturm und drang they want, but for the US to launch any military action would be beyond the scope of the Iraq foolishness, as the the only well equipped institution in that country, the military, has nukes. All that is left for the blubbering functionaries of the White House to do is sit and take their public rebuke like men (an odd feeling for them for sure!).
Based on their history of elected government overthrows, I'm surprised that the Pakistan guv allowed Negroponte and Boucher in.
Maybe they thought they could get away with a putsch in the early going.
It could be said that Bush really has helped spread democracy around the world. All he has to do is support a dictator, or a right-wing prime minister somewhere, and as if by magic, that person loses power faster than Samson with alopecia.
ezeflyer,
The irony of your statement is that the shit Bush stepped in is his own.
"Top diplomats John Negroponte and Richard Boucher travelled to a mountain fortress near the Afghan border yesterday as part of a hastily announced visit that has received a tepid reception."
John Negroponte. The death squads will soon follow. That is his specialty. It will be blamed on 'insurgents' but it will be CIA operated. Mark my words.
"They met with the commander of the Frontier Corps, a poorly equipped paramilitary force that the US has offered to upgrade. The US has earmarked $750m (£324m) for a five-year development programme in tribal areas. At least 22 military instructors are due to start training the corps this year."
And the apparatus is being put in place even as we 'speak'.
-- Kent Shaw
Time for the CIA to get buzy with thir usual tricks. Funding opposition groups and agent provocateurs. They can't seem to keep their hands off any democracy. Until they are exposed and their tricks well known they will keep using them.
This would be the same John Negroponte who spent millions of US dollars trying to undermine the elected government in Nicaragua after the Sandinistas defeated the Somoza dictatorship?
Didn't he help write the illegal presidential order to go behind the back of congress and fund the contra terrorists? The contras were drug dealers whom Negroponte paid with money he got from selling weapons to Iran.
Then he was at the UN in the run up to the aggression against Iraq. When his threatening and spying on the UN diplomats in New York didn't work, the US invaded anyway.
According to US law (as per the UN treaty) an invasion of Iraq would only have been legal in self-defence or as ordered by the UN Security Council. As neither of these situations existed, the invasion, as the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan noted, was illegal.
So now the august Negroponte is receiving a "tepid reception". This leads me to my concluding question: How stupid are you people? This scumbag should be in gaol (sharing a cell with Tony Blair), not fouling up the world with his disgusting behaviour.
Look out, Pakistan..you'll be in line with Syria, Iran, Somalia, Venezuela and any other country this EMPIRE can BULLY into submision to line it's pockets via the alchemy of turning the blood of innocents into gold for the greedy and immoral
Does the CIA have enough money, or sufficient skill, to have all these opposition politicians murdered? Because that's what they're going to try to do - as sure as George Wanker Bush is a punk. They'll probably be as successful as they were in getting rid of Castro.
Quote: "The US has long been suspicious of Sharif, whom it views as sympathetic to religious parties. Unlike Benazir Bhutto, whose return from exile was negotiated through the US, Sharif came under the protection of Saudi Arabia. But now Sharif's party, which performed well in the poll, is an integral part of the new government."
LIKE, WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE; the U.S. or Saudi Arabia are quasiment one-and-the-same thing, the relationship between them being extremely ... much. I doubt very much that Saudi Arabia would do this without U.S. approval.
Expect some good analysis articles at www.globalresearch.ca , where there are relevant past articles too: Sharif-U.S. and Bhutto-U.S., as well as Musharraf-U.S., ALL of that hanky-panky U.S. "entrepreneurial" "stuff".
What these Pakistanis are saying is this:Musharraf is unlikely to split with us the Billions you paid him so we fully expect you to pay us and make sure your generosity to us is no less than it was to him or else! we shall not play ball.Better borrow some more from the Chinese Treasury and pay Nawaz and Zardari clique so they can support Taliban and Al-Quaida while pretending to be helping US fight terrorism.How long will it take to recognise the PAKITERRORISTS for what they are??
Yes - wherever there is democracy AND natural resources, you can expect the CIA to get in there and crush it - to the federal government, democracy is the most awful thing there is. Want proof, read the 10th amendment. Did they put their hand on the Bible and swear to eliminate fair trade and competition for their wall street owners. Yes.
Somehow I don't think John McCain is going to make this all better.
My parents are from Pakistan. For all his faults, Nawaz Sharif is the elected leader of Pakistan and not a dictator like Musharaff. What he's saying here is true.
Typical US reaction.
''We want to spread democracy in the ME''
When a ME country finally gets a democratically elected government.. the US claims ''ties to enemies''
Take hezbola ..democratically elected ..sanctioned as free and fair elections by top us personnel..but no where is that spouted in the MSM..just referred to as hezbola the terrorists
can the average american not see this after years and years of the same crap?
the US government is such a fraud impeach them now please..we have way too many resources up here in canada that the Neocons have bin getting for almost free ..soon as we start to Say no and want fair prices for OUR resources.. I fear WE will be attacked.. most Americans already believe we are commies..so it wouldn't take much to demonize us the US's best friends
As an American, I will be glad to see the U.S. severely weakened so that more and more leaders like Sharif will stand firm against American violence and stupidity. U.S. power depends on two essentials: money and television. So far, most Americans are are still tuned in to the propaganda, but the money is rapidly disappearing. Here is a statistic that really struck me today:
The United States received only 6.9 percent of the funds raised in global initial public offerings in 2007 and did not participate in any of the top 20 global IPOs, Harvard Law School Professor Hal Scott said at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's second annual capital markets conference.
"We found U.S. public markets had increasingly become uncompetitive," said Scott, director of the private-sector Committee on Capital Markets Regulation.
In comparison, in 2000, about half of the value of global IPOs was raised in the United States, according to Scott's committee.
http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/080327/markets_competition.html?.v=1
In seven years of Bush, world IPO investment in the U.S. has collapsed from over 50% to less than 7%. The article goes on to list the abstruse economic reasons for this decline, but I can translate it into plain language, The article says, in effect, that people the world over find Americans to be assholes and prefer not to do business with them.
I say great. It's not the way I would want for change to come to the U.S. and to people's attitudes, but after forty years of protesting and letter writing I know that nothing else will work. Only by relieving U.S. government criminals of their control of television and their vast wealth can an impression be made. Both are essential for their evil programs, and the money is fast disappearing. Change is coming, finally!
I imagine you have to have a strong stomach to stay in the same room with John (Cheney on steroids) Negroponte.
The United States should tell the "newly elected leaders" of Pakistan that we are no longer funding "your uncooperative" government.
Cut off all past due, current, and future Billions of Dollars to these new leaders. .This should change their tune..............
Wouldn't surprise me if the new gov't was threaten as the old one was. Bush told Musharrah his country would be bombed into the stone age if he didn't cooperate in the so-called "war on terror."
Pakistan is a problem ask the Afghans. I don't think more war is the answer though. I think we should cut off all aid..once that happens watch how quickly the Pakistans straighten themselves out.
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB227/index.htm
Sending Ambassador Deathsquad will tarnish the image of even a Cheney or a Bush.
It's about time Pakistan kicks Amerikkka's ass.
Development funds? Yeah, development of death squads. I don't think it will work though. Those people are fiercely independent. Many have AK47s and know very well how to use them. And the big boys there have nuclear weapons and missiles that can hit Tel Aviv in about 5 minutes.
Negroponte is probably lucky to have gotten out alive from the Khyber Pass area. When I heard he was going there I kept my fingers crossed. I have been familiar with his evil name since I used to hear it pronounced with contempt by the Salvadorian refugee families who lived in the attic of our church annex in Seattle during the Salvadorian genocide in the 80s.
"Now we have a sovereign parliament and everything will be debated in the parliament."
Gee, I wish we had a sovereign parliament. Our congress surrendered its sovereignty to George W. Bush and the corporate "pigs at the trough".
Maybe someday Pakistan will bring Democracy to the U.S.! Who knows - anything is possible.
Recent poll results: 48% of Americans believe we should be the world's police. What they don't get is they have to pay for it.
WHAT??? You mean the world isn't the killing fields of the USA??? What's wrong with this picture??? I thought we had the whole world in our hands!!!
Guess Deathsquad Negroponte went saw & didn't conquer. Too late to bomb bomb bomb anymore. The incoming secular NWFP government has a new policy: pens for guns, books for grenades & school uniforms for suicide belts.
I write in reply to a completely false comment by user "WTF"
who said:
"#
WTF March 24th, 2008 12:47 pm
… I believe OBL is alive and very well, gleefully watching the US bleed, as was ALWAYS his desire. He is revered by much of Islam as a hero-warrior, up there with the great Salah Ad-din Yusuf Ibn Ayyub (aka Saladin). As such, he will be protected from stool pigeons. He will probably go down in Arabic history as the most famous muslim in recent times."
OBL is NOT a hero nor is he "revered by much of islam". On the contrary , repeatedly the major sheikhs and imams have condemned him and his actions; the old and young generations of Arabs have repeatedly renounced him and recognized him for nothing but an unmitigated disaster on the arab world (a reason that makes most intellectuals - american arab and european - question whether he isn't a manufactured casus belli to rape the arabs)
I don't know where WTF gets his information (misinformation more like it) but this is the kind of lie that inflames americans against muslims and arabs.
It is unfair to spew such lies when arabs have done much to publicly renounce those crminals and pursue and imprison them, yet american media turns a blind eye to those efforts
Muslims and arabs recognize OBL for the dangerous criminal that he is. He has no mandate, no holiness, no religious formal training, no authority , and certainly no right to commit any crime, and no right to pretend to speak for them.
Terrorism patently violates muslim rules of war , peace and international relations. it violates the letter and precedent of muslim beliefs and jurisprudence. And many scholars have said so publicly on numerous occasions ranging from weekly sermons, TV programs to publicized letters to the popes by major muslim figures and representatives.
Arabs + muslims reject terrorism and terrorist means and OBL in no way represents arab or muslim interests or aspirations. He is a criminal and he is the creation of the US .
I hate the way the media props him up and reports his "messages" as if they matter.
Get your facts straight WTF, OBL is a low life outlaw and don't go conflating such a low life criminal created by your government with muslim historic leaders who were on par to parlay and negotiate war and peace with Richard Lionheart .
WTF's message is very insulting and demeaning and defamatory of muslims today.
Cheers.
Fainthope: You have me seriously worried about the 48%, who feel like this. Do they believe in Robocop, Rambo and all of the Steven Segal movies?
Do they fail to recognise, that under the present administration, the US have been acting just like the World Sheriff, with their deputy UK in tow. Is there such a lack of informed news, that they cannot see the damage which has been caused?
There has not been one good thing to come out of the Iraq/Afghanistan misadventures. We have reduced two countries to absolute chaos, and we are now posturing to attack a third and fourth (Iran and Syria).
Thank God, somebody in the World has spoken out, I just hope that he lives long enough to have a positive effect on the region.
jemadison4 and dcbeltway:
Aw too bad about your heroes Negroponte "the Tyrant" and Boucher "the Butcher" having to eat crow with egg on their faces LMAO
You both are badly in need of a dose of political reality and lessons in geography.
FYI:
1. Cowboy Diplomacy doesn't work; 2. Pakistan is a sovereign nation, it isn't part of the contiguous USA;
3. Bribing a nation, e.g., Pakistan, is a risky business and one frought with failure!
pace natneroc, OBL was a hero in fighting a jihad vs. the Soviets, & winning (that's the crucial thing)& clearly he is still a hero to some, maybe many, else he really could not have survived the manhunt for him by a fearsomely armed United States, for nearly 8 years, could he?
George Bush will be in New Jersey today. New Jersey ought to put together a protest too big for the media sycophants to ignore!
Collapse or complete hegenomy, which will be first?
http://www.ryanhartman.wordpress.com
The bush White house cannot do anything right. Not anything. They take incompetency to the highest level imagineable. It's just incredible.
"If America wants to see itself clean of terrorism, we also want our villages and towns not to be bombed," he [Sharif] said.
Oh, the nerve, the absolute gall of these little brown people. They act as if they too are entitled to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." Sorry, LBPs, Americans only.
One of the big problems the Bush gang have now is the fact that the ISI played a large part in the 9/11 false flag operation. The Head of the ISI sent $100,000 to the ( hijackers ) to cover expenses. Unless the ISI burn all evidence for this operation then the Bush gang are open to blackmail so any military strike against Pakistan will be not only met with a military response but a few choice disclosures.
The Bush gang are done, they're seeing all their carefully laid plans grind to a halt as fully paid for despots are forced out of office. Before the internet was born governments could tell their people any old crap and there was no way to dispute it, that era is behind us. We the people have no excuse for ignorance of what renegade governments like the US do to our fellow human beings to satisfy some psychotic dream, some madmans desire to become a Dr.No.
The Republican party have to be wiped off the face of the earth never to be allowed to show their ugly presence again, and while we're at it close down all the churches and house the homeless in them.
SamW March 27th, 2008 6:34 pm ......Simple answer to a simple question...NO!
More Bush tired old neocon cronies that he sends to screw things in the world up (Negroponte). It would have been nice if Bush had a brain and had used it before getting into two wars he couldn't win. He is fighting terrorism the completely wrong way and has been since 2001. I am glad Pakistan realizes that. It could have been done simply and quietly by sending the CIA after them (terrorist's)and bringing them back to the US for trial! It hasn't bothered them to kidnap anyone and take them to another country for torture never to be seen again. But, the way he has chosen to do it has cost us Trillions of tax dollars, completely torn up two countries, millions of lives and he hasn't done a thing for the terrorism problem! In fact, it's worse than it ever has been. GOOD WORK GEORGIE!!!! YOU ARE A REAL GENIUS!!!!