A Pakistani Injustice

Ever since the attacks on 9-11, we've relied on allies to assist us in combating al Qaeda, not just our European and Asian allies supplying troops and material, but countries in the region. We've noted over time that Pakistan has allied itself with us when convenient (requesting more food and financial aid), but is culturally and viscerally allied with extremists, including al Qaeda affiliates Lashkar-e-Taiba and the Haqqani network, often through the offices of its intelligence service, the ISI.

Now, in a gratuitous slap at the U.S., a Pakistani tribal court has sentenced Dr. Shakil Afridi to 33 years in prison for providing indirect assistance that led to the killing of Osama bin Laden last May. Although he was convicted of "treason", he never spied against his country, as an American official noted:

“He was asked only to help locate Al Qaeda terrorists, who threaten Pakistan and the U.S. He helped save Pakistani and American lives.”

The U.S. will do what it can to either get Dr. Afridi released, or his sentence drastically reduced, but the damage to a good man has been done, and the signal has been sent that nuclear-armed Pakistan is increasingly hostile to our interests in the region.

With Friends Like These....

Just days after the U.S. announced a $10 million reward for his arrest and conviction, Pakistani terrorist leader Hafiz Saeed held a press conference in Rawalpindi, Pakistan to mock the reward, saying the U.S. knew where to find him and that he was willing to face any court in Pakistan or internationally. It should be noted that Rawalpindi is a "garrison city," one which is controlled by the Pakistani military, so nothing goes on there without their consent, especially a press conference attended by dozens of international reporters.

That leads to the oft-repeated question of whose side the Pakistani military is on. Clearly, they see India as their mortal enemy, not terrorists like Saeed, who is alleged to be the mastermind of the November 2008 attacks in Mumbai which killed 164 and wounded more than 300. That press conference, and the fact that bin Laden's compound was located in Abbottabad -- Pakistan's equivalent of West Point -- leads to the troubling suspicion that the Pakistani military has decided to throw in its lot with terrorist organizations.

Pakistani Media Try To Out CIA Chief

Amid calls for an investigation of who in Pakistan's government might have abetted Osama Bin Laden's long stay within their borders, Pakistani media are now trying to out the CIA station chief in Islamabad. (There is some dispute over whether they have the correct name, however.) Coming on the heels of Pakistani government officials' denunciation of the raid that killed Bin Laden rather than the fact that he had to have had protectors at the highest levels of the Pakistani military and intelligence services for years, this latest sign that those protectors are still determined to do harm to Americans should strengthen our resolve to reassess our relationship with Pakistan.

(Photo: The Pakistani "street" protests the killing of Bin Laden - via Euronews)

Two Stories From Pakistan

We noticed two stories from Pakistan running side-by-side in today's Kaplan Daily. One dealt with the growing split between the U.S. military and the Pakistani military over strategy in dealing with al Qaeda and their allies, the Haqqani network in Pakistan. The other story dealt with the Pakistani Supreme Court siding with 5 accused rapists, who were charged with raping a woman in 2002 on orders from their tribal council.

In different ways, the stories illustrate the dilemma in dealing with erstwhile ally Pakistan. Pakistan doesn't see the Haqqani network and al Qaeda as their foremost adversary: that would be India. Fearing "encirclement" by India if Afghan extremists are defeated by a pro-Indian government in Afghanistan, the Pakistanis are seen as less than cooperative in rooting out extremists on their own territory. We're fighting an enemy, just not the same one. That's not likely to change.

The rape case is a more immediate story of women's status in that country of medieval tribal cultures. The Pakistani Supreme Court chose not to believe that Mukhtar Mai was raped out of retaliation for her younger brother's romance with a woman from a more powerful tribe. As if a Muslim woman would come forth in a culture where being raped makes you a non-person and make that story up. It shows just how differently countries value women's rights and their basic humanity.