Another Drone Attack Carried Out On Friday
Chidanand Rajghatta | TNN
Washington: The United States answered Pakistan’s belligerent threat of “dire consequence” for America in the event of another violation of its sovereignty with another punitive drone strike on Friday, as Washington’s focus shifted to Mullah Omar, Al Zawahiri and other terrorists it believes are hiding in that country.
In a severe response to the Pakistani military’s effort to draw a line in the sand, including warning that it would stop cooperating with US, Washington continued its pattern of bombing terrorist targets each time Islamabad voiced such defiance. Friday’s strike in the Datta Khel region, which reportedly killed 12 militants, came as US lawmakers and the administration grappled with how to bring its dodgy and confrontational ally to heel.
The big development over the past few weeks is that the American military-intelligence establishment, for long a patron of Pakistan, has turned against its charge, while it is the civilian side that is trying to save Islamabad’s hide. The Pentagon and CIA seem convinced of Pakistan’s double game and hell-bent on exposing it and punishing it despite tactical dependence on its “ally” for the war effort in Afghanistan. Sections of the State Department and the Hill are inclined to give it the benefit of doubt because of what some believe is the country’s strategic importance.
The Raymond Davis saga was being invoked again on Friday when it emerged that the CIA, with human assets on the ground, monitored for several weeks the Abbottabad compound where bin Laden was staying without informing the Pakistanis because they did not trust them. The surveillance, from a rented house nearby, involved evading Pakistani intelligence which has been trying to disrupt CIA efforts to nail terrorists __ a spy vs spy drama that led to the Raymond Davis episode. While Pakistan is demanding that the US cut down its footprint and downsize its personnel in Pakistan, it transpires the intelligence assets CIA created on the ground — since withdrawn after the job was done — is what helped zero in on Laden. Operating from a safehouse, the surveillance team assembled a “pattern of life” portrait of the compound using a variety of techniques and technologies to zero in on a tall man they ended up calling the “pacer” because of the hour long walks he took in the compound. They could never determine with 100 per cent certainty if it was Laden, but gathered enough for Obama to order an operation to identify and eliminate him.
There is now pressure on the US to go after other key terror operators in Pakistan. “That bin Laden was hiding in plain sight demonstrates the complicity of the Pakistan government. Now that he has been eliminated, the question should be: Who is next?’’ posed Bing West, a former assistant secretary of defence, adding, “This is not the time for the White House to take a bow and lower the curtain on the stage. Instead, Omar should be the next to be struck down.”
TERROR TRAIL CONTINUES
After eliminating Osama Washington’s focus has shifted to Mullah Omar, Al Zawahiri and other terrorists it believes are hiding in Pakistan Qaida confirms Osama’s death, vows revenge
Al Qaida on Friday confirmed the death of its chief Osama bin Laden five days after the dreaded terrorist was killed by American commandos in Pakistan’s Abbottabad town, warning that his blood would not be wasted and attacks against the US and its allies would continue. The confirmation came in a statement posted by the terror network on jihadist websites according to a US monitoring group site. In the statement, al Qaida warned that bin laden s blood would not be wasted and attacks on the us and its allies would continue. AGENCIES
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