Gates' Blunt Testimony on Pakistan

[RiazHaq]

"Well, first of all, I would say, based on 27 years in CIA and four and a half years in this job, most governments lie to each other. That's the way business gets done."



That was Defense Secretary Robert Gates' straight talk in response to the phony outrage by Senator Patrick Leahy on the news of Pakistan arresting 5 CIA informants following Osama bin Laden's killing by US Navy Seals in Abbotabad.



Here is the text of the exchange between Gates and Leahy during the US Senate hearing on Pakistan that began with Leahy asking Gates how long the U.S. will be willing to "support governments that lie to us?"

GATES: Well, first of all, I would say, based on 27 years in CIA and four and a half years in this job, most governments lie to each other. That's the way business gets done.

LEAHY: Do they also arrest the people that help us when they say they're allies?

GATES: Sometimes.

LEAHY: Not often.

GATES: And -- and sometimes they send people to spy on us, and they're our close allies. So...

LEAHY: And we give aid to them.

GATES: ... that's the real world that we deal with.

Outgoing Secretary Gates is clearly not a politician. He does not share the basic consensus among mainstream US politicians and media about American exceptionalism which gives them a broad license to criticize and denigrate others for some of the same or worse transgressions(or accomplishments) that the Americans are themselves guilty (or proud) of.

Another instance of plain talk by an American leader is the one where former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger is reported to have said:

"There is only one thing more dangerous than being America's enemy; it's being an American ally".

With the recent series of extraordinary humiliations inflicted by the Americans on their Pakistani allies, I think the current Pakistani leadership can wholeheartedly attest to Dr. Kissinger's enduring assertion.

Haq's Musings: Straight Talk By Gates on Pakistan

 

[notsuperstitious]

GATES: ... that's the real world that we deal with.

Cuts both ways that knife. Pakistanis should stop complaining and thank USA for getting Bin Laden and Kashmiri, something Pakistan could not.

After all, that's the real world that we deal with!

 

[wmdisinfo]

based on what GATESis sayin mean US government is run CIA because and most other members of the governt are cia

 

[Agni5000]

Well ally spying on each other is different than working together on one mission and playing double game.

Now its open now. Hard time ahead for pakistan. Time to say good bye to freebie military hardware.

 

[Huan]

Well ally spying on each other is different than working together on one mission and playing double game.

Now its open now. Hard time ahead for pakistan. Time to say good bye to freebie military hardware.

You forgot China's aid. ^^

 

[secularbuster]

This was the conversation at the senate committee:
WASHINGTON: Pakistan’s arrest of several people who provided information to the CIA before the US raid that killed Osama bin Laden is a reflection of the harsh realities of today’s world, Defence Secretary Robert Gates told senators Wednesday.
While Gates did not directly confirm the reports, his comments were the first public acknowledgement by US officials of the Pakistan arrests –the latest flare up between the US and Islamabad since the May 2 operation that took US troops deep into the country to get bin Laden.
Reflecting the growing impatience in Congress with the war in Afghanistan and the sometimes tepid support from Pakistan, Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy grilled Gates during a hearing, demanding: ”How long do we support governments that lie to us? When do we say enough is enough?”
Gates responded that based on his 27 years at the CIA and more than four as Pentagon chief, ”most governments lie to each other. That’s the way business gets done.”
”Do they also arrest the people that help us, when they say they’re allies?” Leahy pressed.
”Sometimes,” replied Gates, adding, ”and sometimes they send people to spy on us, and they’re our close allies. That’s the real world that we deal with. ”
The sharp exchange came during an otherwise friendly Senate Defence appropriations subcommittee hearing, where members lauded Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, for their service during difficult times of war.
Mullen told senators that the US is struggling to rebuild its badly broken relationship with Pakistan. But the arrests have driven another wedge between the two countries, angering Congress which controls the purse strings for the billions of dollars in aid Islamabad receives.
A Western official in Pakistan has confirmed that five Pakistanis were arrested by Pakistan’s top intelligence service.
The group of detained Pakistanis included the owner of a safe house rented to the CIA to observe bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, a US official said.
The owner was detained along with a ”handful” of other Pakistanis, said the official. The Western officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence matters.

 

[Solomon2]

I'll wait to see what Panetta's response is. Perhaps Gates' muted reaction is due to the fact that he was targeted for assassination by a Pakistani fifteen years ago.