THEY MUST HAVE KNOWN. Or Maybe We Should Have Known Better?
Henri was taken aback. He normally did not expect me to react with such ferocity. He had come to expect a usually subdued response from me on most issue. Henri is a math-head German who has had the dubious honor of being my best friend in NYC for more than 10 years. I was meeting him at a new LES restaurant for drinks and a bite of their famed hamburger. He commented on seeing me, “They must have known”.
US Navy Seals had raided the Bin Laden compound in Pakistan. Media was frenzied with speculation as to the details, trying to glorify the American heroes who carried out the operation with remarkable precision, and vilifying OBL as a dangerous enemy bent on America’s destruction, while at the same time portraying him as a coward, who hid behind his wife to avoid the bullets (a story later denied in more detailed accounts). There was a quasi-consensus cutting across all the news channels, be them left or right leaning. “Pakistanis must have known”. Some more insightful commentators were more forgiving, stating that the Pakistan army was either complicit (a grave strategic blunder), or they were unaware (hopelessly incompetent). Fatima Bhutto in her speech to Sydney Writer’s Festival quipped that perhaps commentators didn’t realize there was a way for the army to be both!
This media consensus irked me not because I thought it was uncalled for, or because it made me ashamed and/or insecure due to my Pakistani heritage. It irked me for the same reason that many other commonly held, yet fallacious beliefs about Pakistan and Mid-East irk me. If inconsequential folk develop strong yet flawed beliefs about an issue, it’s much less of a problem. When people in position of power and influence show lack of fundamental understanding of the subject matter, it is far more distressing.
Could the Pakistanis have known? Possibly. But depends what you mean when you say Pakistanis. Does it mean the entire chain of command of the military? I told Henri that I believe that to be an extremely unlikely scenario. Does it mean the top political establishment? That would also be equally unlikely I said. Can there be a small group of army officers, working or retired that knew and were harboring OBL? That is possible. Or a handful of extreme right leaning politicians were in the know? That might also have happened, even though I would put the likelihood of that as very low too.
I told Henri that OBL was a guy with $50m bounty on his head. Once the knowledge of his residence goes beyond 3-4 people, keeping it a secret would become impossible. Abbottabad is a decent sized and a functioning city of a million people. It is not the caves of Afghanistan. People are largely educated (remember there was a neighbor live-blogging the raid), and they know where the US Embassy is and most importantly they know what $50m is.
Some in the military and political establishment might have sympathies towards OBL, but these would not be potent enough to overcome the $50m incentive. And precisely because of this $50m sword hanging over his head, OBL would not have trusted them. He might not even have believed in their ability to harbor him.
Months have gone by since the raid. Not a shred of evidence has been presented that shows that establishment had any knowledge or connections to OBL’s presence. Every assertion still remains largely a conjecture. Maybe one day we will learn more, and find out some connection of OBL’s hiding to the govt. Or maybe we won’t, either because in the murky world of intelligence, details remain well buried. Or maybe because there was no connection to begin with.
I’m sure that the sensible people in the administration realize this and, I hope, are focused on the more significant issues of working with the Pakistanis for containing future terror threats, national security issues and command & control procedures to assure safety of nuclear assets. As to the media, story is old and has lost its sensation. They tried to milk it for all its worth, without bothering with the expensive and laborious process of investigative journalism as to what actually happened. Now they can move to the next sensation in their quest for eye-balls in this business of infotainment. Hey look, Sarah Palin just showed up at the Republican convention! With Kim Kardashian in tow!
US Navy Seals had raided the Bin Laden compound in Pakistan. Media was frenzied with speculation as to the details, trying to glorify the American heroes who carried out the operation with remarkable precision, and vilifying OBL as a dangerous enemy bent on America’s destruction, while at the same time portraying him as a coward, who hid behind his wife to avoid the bullets (a story later denied in more detailed accounts). There was a quasi-consensus cutting across all the news channels, be them left or right leaning. “Pakistanis must have known”. Some more insightful commentators were more forgiving, stating that the Pakistan army was either complicit (a grave strategic blunder), or they were unaware (hopelessly incompetent). Fatima Bhutto in her speech to Sydney Writer’s Festival quipped that perhaps commentators didn’t realize there was a way for the army to be both!
This media consensus irked me not because I thought it was uncalled for, or because it made me ashamed and/or insecure due to my Pakistani heritage. It irked me for the same reason that many other commonly held, yet fallacious beliefs about Pakistan and Mid-East irk me. If inconsequential folk develop strong yet flawed beliefs about an issue, it’s much less of a problem. When people in position of power and influence show lack of fundamental understanding of the subject matter, it is far more distressing.
Could the Pakistanis have known? Possibly. But depends what you mean when you say Pakistanis. Does it mean the entire chain of command of the military? I told Henri that I believe that to be an extremely unlikely scenario. Does it mean the top political establishment? That would also be equally unlikely I said. Can there be a small group of army officers, working or retired that knew and were harboring OBL? That is possible. Or a handful of extreme right leaning politicians were in the know? That might also have happened, even though I would put the likelihood of that as very low too.
I told Henri that OBL was a guy with $50m bounty on his head. Once the knowledge of his residence goes beyond 3-4 people, keeping it a secret would become impossible. Abbottabad is a decent sized and a functioning city of a million people. It is not the caves of Afghanistan. People are largely educated (remember there was a neighbor live-blogging the raid), and they know where the US Embassy is and most importantly they know what $50m is.
Some in the military and political establishment might have sympathies towards OBL, but these would not be potent enough to overcome the $50m incentive. And precisely because of this $50m sword hanging over his head, OBL would not have trusted them. He might not even have believed in their ability to harbor him.
Months have gone by since the raid. Not a shred of evidence has been presented that shows that establishment had any knowledge or connections to OBL’s presence. Every assertion still remains largely a conjecture. Maybe one day we will learn more, and find out some connection of OBL’s hiding to the govt. Or maybe we won’t, either because in the murky world of intelligence, details remain well buried. Or maybe because there was no connection to begin with.
I’m sure that the sensible people in the administration realize this and, I hope, are focused on the more significant issues of working with the Pakistanis for containing future terror threats, national security issues and command & control procedures to assure safety of nuclear assets. As to the media, story is old and has lost its sensation. They tried to milk it for all its worth, without bothering with the expensive and laborious process of investigative journalism as to what actually happened. Now they can move to the next sensation in their quest for eye-balls in this business of infotainment. Hey look, Sarah Palin just showed up at the Republican convention! With Kim Kardashian in tow!
posted by madinmanhattan | 4:42 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home