Good for the Canadians! I'm almost speechless here considering that this envoy to the United Nations, yes, I said United Nations, has had the balls to call a spade a spade and quit the pandering to the new government of Pakistan. Let's look at the details here from the Globe and Mail:
When you think back to the attack on Karzai, you cannot agree with Karzai and Alexander that foreigners were involved in that operation. To get Taliban into that position, to get that close was unheard of at the time and all of a sudden they are within shooting distance of the President of Afghanistan?! Bullshit. Let's face it, there are elements of Pakistan's government that have gone beyond sympathy for the Taliban...these are the ones behind all of the peace agreements in the Northwest Frontier provinces and the ones that turned their heads after the Bhutto assasination.
While the Taliban have not let go of the prize they once held in their hands, Afghanistan, they have MORE than a friend in Pakistan. And when the rest of the West goes along with this lone Canadian and calls out the Pakistanis for their involvement, it will be time to bring the hammer down and give Pakistan a choice - either you are with NATO against the Taliban or you are against it...and either way, we are going to bomb the shit out of your country as long as the Taliban are resting, planning and massing within your borders.
Pakistan's intelligence agents are likely responsible for recent attacks in Afghanistan, and the international community should support the Afghan government's complaints about such activity, a senior United Nations envoy says.
Chris Alexander, a former Canadian ambassador now serving as a UN deputy special representative in Afghanistan, says he believes the Afghan authorities, who say their neighbour's spy service is sending terrorists across the border.
President Hamid Karzai has accused Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency of plotting many spectacular attacks in his country in recent months, including an attempt on his life and an embassy bombing that killed at least 41 people in Kabul.
"We have to ask ourselves, was Karzai right on this point?" Mr. Alexander said in an interview. "I think the answer is yes."
When you think back to the attack on Karzai, you cannot agree with Karzai and Alexander that foreigners were involved in that operation. To get Taliban into that position, to get that close was unheard of at the time and all of a sudden they are within shooting distance of the President of Afghanistan?! Bullshit. Let's face it, there are elements of Pakistan's government that have gone beyond sympathy for the Taliban...these are the ones behind all of the peace agreements in the Northwest Frontier provinces and the ones that turned their heads after the Bhutto assasination.
While the Taliban have not let go of the prize they once held in their hands, Afghanistan, they have MORE than a friend in Pakistan. And when the rest of the West goes along with this lone Canadian and calls out the Pakistanis for their involvement, it will be time to bring the hammer down and give Pakistan a choice - either you are with NATO against the Taliban or you are against it...and either way, we are going to bomb the shit out of your country as long as the Taliban are resting, planning and massing within your borders.
UN envoy backs Karzai against Pakistan
KABUL — Pakistan's intelligence agents are likely responsible for recent attacks in Afghanistan, and the international community should support the Afghan government's complaints about such activity, a senior United Nations envoy says.
Chris Alexander, a former Canadian ambassador now serving as a UN deputy special representative in Afghanistan, says he believes the Afghan authorities, who say their neighbour's spy service is sending terrorists across the border.
President Hamid Karzai has accused Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency of plotting many spectacular attacks in his country in recent months, including an attempt on his life and an embassy bombing that killed at least 41 people in Kabul.
"We have to ask ourselves, was Karzai right on this point?" Mr. Alexander said in an interview. "I think the answer is yes."
While many foreign officials and analysts have privately endorsed Mr. Karzai's view of the ISI, Mr. Alexander is the first Western diplomat to back the accusation in public.
"If we support him as President of Afghanistan, and we support the cause of peace and security in Afghanistan, we should be prepared to speak lucidly about these issues as well, and not be given pause or forced to back down simply because there's a reaction from someone who, quite frankly, is speaking for the spoilers," Mr. Alexander said.
"Let's have some international courage on this front."
Western diplomats have previously said they tread carefully with Pakistan in part because of the country's fragile politics, its mistrust of foreign pressure and its nuclear arsenal.
When asked how Islamabad might react to blunt accusations of waging a proxy war, Mr. Alexander shrugged. "I'm not sure, but there's only one way to find out. The project on which we're embarked - with its high stakes, with its serious investment, with its sacrifices - deserves at least that level of courage with regard to this issue. Otherwise we really are pretending that Niagara Falls doesn't flow."
Islamabad has consistently denied using intelligence services to interfere with its neighbour, but Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani bowed to international pressure on the weekend by removing the ISI from military control and placing it under the Interior Ministry's civilian supervision.
The head of Pakistan's ruling party said the move was intended to deflect criticism of the spy agency and the announcement was timed to coincide with Mr. Gilani's visit to Washington today for talks with U.S. President George W. Bush.
But the switch to civilian oversight was only a symbolic gesture and could aggravate the chaotic situation in Pakistan as power brokers struggle for control of the spy agency, according to an assessment published yesterday by Strategic Forecasting Inc., a private intelligence firm.
"Increased civilian say over the affairs of the agency will, in the short term, add to the crisis of governance faced by the state," the assessment says.
After years of excusing rumours of Pakistani involvement as being the work of rogue agents or retired intelligence officials acting on their own, Western leaders have become increasingly blunt with Pakistan in private conversations about the ISI's role in the Afghan war.
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