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Zardari says US behind Taliban attacks in Pakistan

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WASHINGTON: President Asif Ali Zardari seriously believes that the US was “arranging” the (suicide) attacks by Pakistani Taliban inside Pakistan, a claim he made before Zalmay Khalilzad, the former US envoy to Afghanistan, who thought it was ‘madness’.

The account of this claim by Zardari has been elaborately reproduced by Bob Woodward, on Page 116 of his famous book ‘Obama’s Wars’. The revelation could throw a lot of light on the complex relations between the Zardari-led PPP government which US officials believe is incompetent and the disillusioned US diplomats.

Zardari received this information from President Karzai and passed it on to Khalilzad which also reveals how important the Pakistani president thinks Karzai’s views are, though the Americans consider him a liability.

These views of Karzai and Zardari were considered by the US side as maverick and strengthened their impression that both these leaders and their governments were non-serious players and according to Khalilzad “dysfunctional”.

The Woodward account goes like this: “One evening during the trilateral summit (in Washington, between Obama, Karzai and Zardari) Zardari had dinner with Zalmay Khalilzad, the 58-year-old former US ambassador to Afghanistan, Iraq and the UN, during the Bush presidency.

“Zardari dropped his diplomatic guard. He suggested that one of the two countries was arranging the attacks by the Pakistani Taliban inside his country: India or the US. Zardari didn’t think India could be that clever, but the US could. Karzai had told him the US was behind the attacks, confirming the claims made by the Pakistani ISI.

“Mr President,” Khalilzad said, “what would we gain from doing this? You explain the logic to me.” “This was a plot to destabilize Pakistan, Zardari hypothesized, so that the US could invade and seize its nuclear weapons. He could not explain the rapid expansion in violence otherwise. And the CIA had not pursued the leaders of the Pakistani Taliban, a group known as Tehrik-e-Taliban-e-Pakistan or TTP that had attacked the government. TTP was also blamed for the assassination of Zardari’s wife, Benazir Bhutto.”

“We give you targets of Taliban people you don’t go after,” Zardari said. “You go after other areas. We’re puzzled,” Woodward quoted him. But the drones were primarily meant to hunt down members of al Qaeda and Afghan insurgents, not the Pakistan Taliban, Khalilzad responded.

“But the Taliban movement is tied to al Qaeda, Zardari said, so by not attacking the targets recommended by Pakistan the US had revealed its support of the TTP. The CIA at one time had even worked with the group’s leader, Baitullah Mehsud, Zardari asserted.”

Woodward reports: “Khalilzad listened calmly, even though the claims struck him as madness. The US was using the Taliban to topple the Pakistani government? Ridiculous. But Khalilzad knew Afghanistan’s President Karzai also believed in this conspiracy theory, more evidence that this region of the world and its leaders were dysfunctional.”
“Despite Zardari’s claims, Pakistani government officials had received top secret CIA briefings about drone attacks against Baitullah Mehsud’s TTP. A March 12, 2009 attack against a Mehsud compound killed more than two dozen militants, who quickly retrieved the remains of their fallen comrades. And on April 1, another five militants linked to Mehsud, including an al Qaeda trainer, died in a drone strike, according to a CIA briefing given to Pakistan in April.”

This account by Bob Woodward, although old, reveals how initially Zardari and his strategists viewed and tackled the suicide attacks inside Pakistan. Woodward does not mention, at least in this particular account on pages 116 and 117 that Baitullah Mehsud was later killed by US drone attacks and the theory of Zardari that US was arranging the Taliban attacks inside Pakistan was nothing but hot air. But it is also not clear whether Zardari’s strong conspiracy theory forced the US strategists and CIA to start attacking the Pakistan Taliban and prove him wrong.

Zardari says US behind Taliban attacks in Pakistan
 
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Zardari: US ‘Arranging’ Taliban Attacks in Pakistan

Zardari Says 'Karzai Told Him'


by Jason Ditz, October 13, 2010


Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari believes that the United States has been secretly behind a number of Taliban suicide attacks across the nation, according to a detailed account from Bob Woodward’s new book Obama’s Wars.

According to the book, Zardari expressed this concern to then-US envoy Zalmay Khalizad during a dinner, telling him that they were being arranged by either the US or India and that he “didn’t think India could be that clever.”

Met with shock by Khalizad, Zardari explained that it was part of a US plot to “destabilize Pakistan so that the US could invade and seize its nuclear weapons.” Zardari also apparently claimed that Afghan President Hamid Karzai had told him the US was responsible for the attacks.

The claims continued to get more elaborate, as Zardari claimed the CIA was overtly supporting Baitullah Mehsud and that the US had “revealed its support of the TTP.” Mehsud, the former leader of the TTP, was assassinated in August 2009, and has since been replaced by Hakimullah Mehsud.


Zardari: US ‘Arranging’ Taliban Attacks in Pakistan -- News from Antiwar.com
 
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But but but.... I thought it was India and their 'evil Hindu Zionist organization RAW' that was behind all the TTP attacks?!?!
 
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Wow Zardari is saying what Pakistani religious political parties are saying for years, that USA is behind the attacks in Pakistan and every one make fun of them including me.
 
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Ummm some claims in the book seem too far fetched to be true, this is probably another one. Zardari is not stupid, to go say these things to a party that would later convey it ahead.

His bread and butter depends upon the US viewing him favorably.
 
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It might be an effort to portray him as "bold" and "patriotic" by US inorder to stabilize his diminishing popularity.
 
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cant believe an American just accused his own country for Trafficking Taliban in Our country :woot::woot:
 
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Zarda Chapp says that India is not too clever to arrange attacks in pakistan. :D

So is it a clean chit to us then?? I hope no one blames India if there happenes to be another terrorist attack in pakistan now.
 
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Well if Zardari discussed this off the record then there is all the more reason to believe that his words will hold some elements of credibility.Don't forget that he is the President of Pakistan & Pakistani's have been part of this war on terror for 9 years now, Pakistani's may be swift in their response to blame every suicide attack on Taliban & similar extremist elements but they will never share the actual intel to serve the interests of certain parties.
 
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there is little doubt to that. Just like reconstruction aid is making its way into hands of terrorist in Afghanistan and Iraq. Mr Zardari wants to make the same case for Pakistan so he can get his 10%
 
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i thought RAW is behind every terrorist attack in pakistan....now i think USA,Israel and india all is behind terrorist attack in pakistan....
 
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i thought RAW is behind every terrorist attack in pakistan....now i think USA,Israel and india all is behind terrorist attack in pakistan....

Pakistani northern areas are a puddle of spaggetti where everyone from Russia, India, USA, RAW, KGB, Mossad, CIA, Arabi Friends and ISI is involved. You should thank rather than making fun that we separated from India or this mess would be spilling over till delhi. :pakistan:
 
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there is little doubt to that. Just like reconstruction aid is making its way into hands of terrorist in Afghanistan and Iraq. Mr Zardari wants to make the same case for Pakistan so he can get his 10%
No there is huge difference in what he says on public platform & what he discusses in his private meetings. long story short, he will never admit in public that we allow drone strikes but in private for all we know they could be discussing "kill as many as you want we will have to confront you on media though just for the sake of public's support"
 
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Hard to believe that a person seeking for always funds/Imdaad from US has courage to say these words.....either he again needs to seek a psyciatrist from UK or there is some hidden game behind.
 
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