Pakistan Is No Friend to America

C. Christine Fair

Security, Asia

At every turn, Pakistan empowers terrorists abroad while persecuting dissenters at home.

Since the earliest years of the so-called global war on terrorism, Pakistan has played a double game. With one hand, it has taken some $33 billion from the United States in the name of partnering with it to fight Islamist militancy in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Yet, with the other hand, it continued to kill Americans and their Afghan partners, as well as NATO and non-NATO allies in Afghanistan, through its varied proxies such as the Afghan Taliban, the Jalaluddin Haqqani network, Lashkar-e-Taiba and others. And increasingly, it seems likely that Pakistan colluded to protect Osama bin Laden—the very reason why the United States invaded Afghanistan in the first place. While Pakistan has tenaciously maintained the viability of these so-called Islamist militant assets, it has prosecuted a brutal campaign of violence and threats of violence against Pakistanis who are fighting for a saner Pakistan, one that it is at peace with itself and its neighbors.

It is well known that Pakistan harbors the Afghan Taliban, and that it provides every kind of imaginable amenity to the organization, inclusive of political, military, diplomatic and financial support. It is also well known that Pakistan affords similar perquisites to other groups that the United States and the United Nations consider to be terrorist groups, such as Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Muhammad and the Haqqani network, among others. However, the degree to which Pakistan’s civilian and/or military leaders actively sought to protect bin Laden remains a serious question.

Carlotta Gall, in her 2014 volume The Wrong Enemy, asserts that Pakistan’s notorious intelligence agency, the ISI, had a desk dedicated to overseeing his protection. As is well known, bin Laden was “hiding” in plain sight a mere mile or so from the famed Pakistan Military Academy. His home was a Spartan but fortified compound with high walls, limited communications and a small electrical profile for the outsize compound. They even burned their trash in the compound itself. His security was surprisingly absent, suggesting that bin Laden felt reasonably secure. He fathered several children, two of whom were delivered in government hospitals in Karachi, where they received the bin Laden name. (It is likely that they also received birth certificates, although this cannot be confirmed).

Read full article