Pakistani General Denies Osama Comments
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in The War On Terrorism
When I first heard about this story, I thought it sounded goofy, but they had this General on the phone saying this stuff, so one assumed it was taped. In any event, it sounded legitimate.
Well, now the General is crying foul, so please, please, please let this be true:
The top Pakistani army spokesman on Wednesday vehemently denied saying in a news report that saying Osama bin Laden would not be taken into custody if he agreed to live peacefully in Pakistan.“This is absolutely fabricated, absurd. I never said this,” Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan told The Associated Press, referring to an ABC News broadcast aired hours earlier.
Now comes the guessing game. Did he or didn’t he? Well, remember, they got him on tape…and yet…
The recorded comments of Sultan were included in the report, but it was not immediately clear whether he understood that bin Laden was the specific subject of discussion at that point in the interview.[...]Asked for a response to Sultan’s denial, Jeffrey Schneider, senior vice president of ABC News, told the AP by telephone on Wednesday, “We simply played his comments as we recorded them.”
Was this just one of those things? A misunderstanding? Translation snafu? What the hell happened here?
However, it still doesn’t change this alarming fact:
KABUL, Afghanistan, Sept. 5 — The government of Pakistan signed a peace accord Tuesday with pro-Taliban forces in the volatile tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, agreeing to withdraw its troops from the region in return for the fighters’ pledge to stop attacks inside Pakistan and across the border.
So regardless of whether or not they’d arrest Osama, they’re still cool with pro-Taliban forces? That sucks.
(h/t: Done With Mirrors)
This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 6th, 2006 and is filed under The War On Terrorism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
September 6th, 2006 at 4:17 am
This agreement will end fighting between Pakistanis that was a waste of everything. Of course the crazed media in the US thought otherwise and put in this verbal trickery against Pakistani spokesmen.
September 6th, 2006 at 7:49 am
With due respect to Amir Ali above, while it is not precisely clear what preceded the response to General Sultan, it really matters little in retrospect.
Unwilling/unable to engage and destroy the Waziristan Taliban – most of whom are transplants from Afghanistan after the 2001 invasion – Pakistan has accepted the terms of defeat dictated by the Taliban. How else can one explain the concrete, tangible concessions handed over by Pakistan (return of captured men, arms, vehicles; reassertion of rights to Taliban province citizens, hysical withdrawal of Pak troops; and an undisclosed amount of cash as reparations [reportedly an obscene amount]) all in exchange for Taliban promises? These same promises were both made and immediately broken in thesimilar 2003 ‘deal’ with South Waziristan.
This is a black day for the War on Terror, make no mistake.
For consideration: ThreatsWatch.Org: InBrief: Pakistan Cedes North Waziristan to Taliban
If Mr. Ali considers fighting teh Taliban & al-Qaeda in Waziristan a “waste of everything” then, in this observer’s opinion, either his aliance does not reside with the west or anyone else engaging in the War on Terror or his will to stand against terrorism is seriously lacking, regardless of whether or not General Sultan’s words were used by ABC out of context.
While it would not be beyond believable for that to have happened, it is of little consequence.
Pakistan just ceded victory and safe haven to both the Taliban and al-Qaeda. If UBL were to establish himself in the newly granted Waziristan safe haven (if he is not already there), what is Sultan or any other General going to do now?
The answer is a dark and disheartening one: Nothing.
Do Sultan’s words mean much now in that perspective?
September 6th, 2006 at 9:50 am
[...] Donklephant [...]
September 6th, 2006 at 12:45 pm
Maybe I’m missing something here but this doesn’t look good for Musharraf and his clique. I don’t see the Taliban and Al Qaeda playing nice in a secular US allied dictatorship when there’s a large population of dissatisfied, anti-US Pakistani’s to be stirred into revolt. This last statement was pure window dressing. Having just ceded this territory to the Taliban, I don’t see them going in to try and find Bin Laden.
September 6th, 2006 at 2:27 pm
My comment above should have read, “This last statement from General Sultan was pure window dressing”, sorry for any confusion.