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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 3-May-2011
3-May-11 News -- Pakistan has embarrassed, schizophrenic reaction to bin Laden killing

Web Log - May, 2011

3-May-11 News -- Pakistan has embarrassed, schizophrenic reaction to bin Laden killing

Waterboarding led to killing of bin Laden

Pakistan has embarrassed, schizophrenic reaction to bin Laden killing

News anchors in Pakistan didn't know what words to use. There are two ways to say "Osama has been killed" in Urdu and Hindi, with one less respectful than the other, and anchors would zigzag back and forth between the two, according to Dawn (Pakistan).

Abbottabad, Pakistan - aerial view of of compound (highlighted) where Osama bin Laden was killed

Abbottabad, Pakistan - aerial view of of compound (highlighted) where Osama bin Laden was killed

This is only one of many examples of schizophrenia that Pakistanis are experiencing, now that Osama bin Laden has been found and killed on Pakistani soil, not far from the nation's capital.

Pakistan is a country that almost appears to be disintegrating. Last year's floods flattened and washed away hundreds of villages. Sectarian violence is almost a daily occurrence, with militant Islamist Sunni terror groups attacking mosques and gatherings of Shia, Sufi, and other "apostate" branches of Islam, as well as Pakistan's security forces.

Last week, for example, Taliban militants in Karachi perpetrated three bomb attacks targeting Pakistan Navy personnel, killing ten and injuring dozens, according to Dawn. A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility in a phone call. "Our men carried out this attack and all security forces are our target. They will be attacked everywhere in the country. Our organisation is still strong in cities of Pakistan."

On top of this, polls show that Pakistanis are overwhelmingly opposed to American missile strikes from drones, since they blame the Taliban terror attacks on these strikes, and many believe (incorrectly) that the terrorism will stop when the drone attacks stop.

But the government is "married" to the U.S. for the duration of the war on terror, and Pakistan must cooperate, including allowing drone strikes, in order to receive badly needed American aid -- about $2 billion a year.

So into this mess of tangled pressures comes the news that Osama bin Laden has been killed where he was living in a mansion down the street from a military academy, just a few miles from the capital city Islamabad.

The Pakistanis had been insisting for years that Osama bin Laden was not in the heart of Pakistan, that he was either in the mountainous tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, or in Afghanistan itself. So his location was just the first embarrassment.

Did Pakistani government officials know that he was there? Certainly a lot of people think so, and some analysts are claiming that bin Laden was actually being kept there under a kind of house arrest by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency. The Pakistanis deny this, and Pakistan's ambassador to the United States points out that Boston gangland figure James J. "Whitey" Bulger has been on FBI's most wanted list since 1999, but the FBI hasn't been able to find him. The Atlantic quotes him as saying, "The fact is, Mafia figures manage to do this sort of thing in Brooklyn, and Pakistan is a country that does not have the highly-developed law enforcement capabilities that your country possesses."

The next problem is that the attack was performed by American special forces. The Americans didn't inform the Pakistanis until the attack was under way, because the Americans believe that someone in Pakistan's government would have tipped bin Laden off, allowing him to escape. So American forces carried out a military operation on Pakistan's soil near the nation's capital, without notifying Pakistan in advance.

Former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf expressed surprise that bin Laden was near Islamabad, but said that the operation was a "violation of our sovereignty":

"America coming to our territory and taking action is a violation of our sovereignty. Handling and execution of the operation (by US forces) is not correct. The Pakistani government should have been kept in the loop.
Foreign troops crossing the border into Pakistan will not be liked by the people of Pakistan. US forces should not have crossed over into Pakistan. ...
If there is lack of trust, it is very bad. We are fighting the same enemy."

There is indeed lack of trust -- not just between Pakistan and the U.S., but especially between Pakistan and India.

After the horrendous terrorist attack on Mumbai on November 26, 2008, India's prime minister Dr. Manmohan Singh directly accused Pakistan of complicity. "There is enough evidence to show that, given the sophistication and military precision of the attack it must have had the support of some official agencies in Pakistan," he said. (See "India's Prime Minister Singh formally accuses Pakistan re Mumbai terrorist attacks.")

When Pakistan was slow to help India with the investigation into the Mumbai attacks, furious Indian officials threatened to go after the Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorist group on Pakistani soil. This would have led to a regional war, but it was nipped in the bud by hard intervention from Condoleezza Rice.

One Indian official quoted by the Times of India says, "Pakistan stands exposed having harboured the most wanted terrorist in the world. The elimination of terrorist safe havens in Pakistan will now increasingly become an international priority."

What's ironic is that the United States has taken action with bin Laden similar to what the Indians wanted to with Lashkar-e-Toiba two years ago. The U.S. got away with it, while the Indians were stopped.

Pakistan has so much pressure on it that it always seems about to implode. Now they face new problems, as many U.S. and India officials believe that Pakistan knowlingly harbored Osama bin Laden, considered the most violent terrorist in the world.

From the point of view of Generational Dynamics, Pakistan and India will be re-fighting the war that followed Partition, the 1947 war that following the partitioning of the Indian subcontinent, creating the states of India and Pakistan.

Here are some related items:

Scholars say that burial at sea is against Islamic rules

The United States says that bin Laden received Muslim religious rites and his body was "eased" into the Arabian Sea so that no one can build a shrine on his grave:

"Traditional procedures for Islamic burial were followed. The deceased’s body was washed and then placed in a white sheet. The body was placed in a weighted bag.
A military officer read prepared religious remarks which were translated into Arabic by a native speaker. After the words were complete, the body was placed on a prepared flat-board… (and) eased into the sea."

But some Muslim scholars say that burial at sea is not permitted by Muslim law. "Islam only accepts burials" at sea unless it is inevitable like for those who drown, he said. Dawn

Waterboarding led to killing of bin Laden

The original information that led to finding Osama bin Laden came from Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who provided crucial information after being subjected to "harsh interrogation tactics" inside CIA prisons according to Poland and Romania. AP

On Monday evening, representative Peter King (R-NY) appeared on Fox's the O'Reilly Factor, and said that the harsh tactics were waterboarding. YWN.

Cindy Sheehan says that the bin Laden death was faked.

According to Cindy Sheehan:

"I am sorry, but if you believe the newest death of OBL, you're stupid. Just think to yourself--they paraded Saddam's dead sons around to prove they were dead--why do you suppose they hastily buried this version of OBL at sea? This lying, murderous Empire can only exist with your brainwashed consent--just put your flags away and THINK!"

Later, she added, "It's also easier just to swallow the lies of the Empire like Monica Lewinsky swallowed Clinton's sperm. It works for me." Adam Holland

(Comments: For reader comments, questions and discussion, see the 3-May-11 News -- Pakistan has embarrassed, schizophrenic reaction to bin Laden killing thread of the Generational Dynamics forum. Comments may be posted anonymously.) (3-May-2011) Permanent Link
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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 3-May-2011 3-May-11 News -- Pakistan has embarrassed, schizophrenic reaction to bin Laden killing

Pakistan has embarrassed, schizophrenic reaction to bin Laden killing

Scholars say that burial at sea is against Islamic rules

Waterboarding led to killing of bin Laden

Cindy Sheehan says that the bin Laden death was faked.

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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 3-May-2011
3-May-11 News -- Pakistan has embarrassed, schizophrenic reaction to bin Laden killing