Pakistan: US raid part of bid to nail Iran on nuclear issue

Adnkronos International:

The recent US air strike targeting al-Qaeda operatives in Bajour, near the Pakistan-Afghan border, is more political than military, says Lt. General Hamid Gul, former chief of Pakistan's powerful intelligence services ISI. Gul told Adnkronos International (AKI) the raid was a message that the US would conduct the 'war on terror' on its own terms. But the real agenda, he argued, is that Washington desperately needs proof that Iran has acquired nuclear weapons technology and is upping pressure on Pakistan to hand over disgraced nuclear scientist Dr A.Q. Khan. for questioning. READ MORE

The 4 January raid was launched after intelligence reports suggested al-Qaeda No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahiri, would be attending a banquet dinner in the village of Damadola. Eighteen people were killed in the attack, and Pakistan security services say at least four of them were al-Qaeda operatives. Pakistan has protested with the US ambassador but the government has come in for fierce criticism from the opposition over the air strike.

“On one hand the message is that they [the US] will debunk and destroy their enemies even on Pakistani soil. The killing of Nek Mohammed in South Waziristan in 2004, when he was struck by US laser-guided missile, of Hamza Rabia in North Waziristan in an attack by a US remote-controlled Predator aircraft, and the recent incident of Bajour are examples”

“However, there is another reverse swing in this game” argued Gul, one of the most vocal critics inside Pakistan of president Pervez Musharraf, and director of the ISI from 1987 to 1989, at the height of the Afghan war with the Soviets.

“The Americans could not get any concrete evidence against Iran’s nuclear programme and without that evidence they would not go to the [UN] Security Council. They have been pressing hard on Pakistan to hand over Dr A.Q. Khan for interrogation because they understand this is the only way to get evidence. So apparently they are trying to fix Pakistan in a serious quagmire then give them a choice - either bear constant air strikes on Pakistani territory or hand over Dr A.Q. Khan for direct interrogation,” Hamid Gul maintained.

Khan, considered a national hero and the father of Pakistan's nuclear weapons programme, is under house arrest at a secret location. In January 2004, he confessed to having been involved in an international network of clandestine nuclear proliferation from Pakistan to Libya, Iran and North Korea.

While saying it has dismantled the network, Pakistan has refused to allow the scientist to be questioned directly by the IAEA or US investigators. Critics suggest this is because they fear Khan may reveal the role that the military played in facilitating his network.

Gul contended that the current visit by Pakistani prime minsiter Shaukat Aziz to Washington was part of a wider strategy to put Musharraf's back to the wall.

“To further strangle Musharraf, they [the US] have once again been beating the drum of democracy. I remember when the late Pakistani premier Mohammed Khan Jonejo visited the US and when he returned, his attitude towards late General Zia ul-Haq was compèletely changed" he recalled.

"To me Shaukat Aziz’s US visit, in the current situation, is of significance and it is to see that 'secret' message he brings with him,” the elderly general concluded.