In the wake of the Osama bin Laden episode, Pakistan’s former president, Pervez Musharraf, defends his country and army, deflects the question on who should be adjudged culpable, but strongly states it is time all US troops and their operations got out of Pakistan. Excerpts from an interview with Karan Thapar on CNN-IBN’s Devil’s Advocate programme:
Would you accept it is deeply embarrassing that Osama bin Laden was living in Abbottabad, a mile or so from the Pakistan military academy and just about an hour’s drive from Islamabad?
It is, indeed, embarrassing.
Do you believe Pakistan owes the world an explaination?
More than the world, Pakistan needs an explanation to itself, on this incompetence. I strongly believe it is incompetence and not complicity.
So, you are calling for a full, open, transparent and honest account from the Pakistan government to the Pakistan people?
Well, yes, investigate. Let the people know, let Pakistan know and let the world know.
The first key question is if the Pakistan authorities knew Osama bin Laden was living in Abbottabad and were happy for him to continue there or were unaware?
I’m very sure, very confident, that they were unaware. That is not the policy of Pakistan, of the intelligence agency, not the policy of the army.
This is the Pakistan army and the ISI accused of incredible incompetence.
Intelligence, yes, to be pinpointed, that commander, maybe of a very low military rank. That is the person who is incompetent, not the whole agency. I know that place is headed by a junior officer. He is incompetent as his detachments are.
Leon Panetta, the head of the CIA, has told Time magazine the intelligence was not shared with Pakistan because he was scared they would tip off Osama. In other words, they didn’t trust Pakistan. Coming from your closest ally, isn’t that a slap on the face?
Terrible, because we are fighting terrorism together. In my time, till 2007-2008, I know that in all operations conducted in Pakistan, intelligence sharing was there, moving on to the target. But each and everyone (target) invariably was attacked by Pakistan law enforcement agencies. This is the first time that this has happened.
Just a bad lack of trust, nothing more serious?
A lack of trust and that will lead to lack of cooperation. It’ll have terrible effects on the fight against terror.
There is outrage and anger in Pakistan that its sovereignty could be violated for almost two hours, that American soldiers could descend on a compound and kill Osama and disappear without being detected or engaged. To many Pakistanis, this raises worrying and serious questions about Pakistan’s ability to secure its borders.
Let me frankly admit that our focus on all these radar information in intelligence is focused more towards your side. On this side, because of the mountains and hilly terrain, inaccessible terrain, the surveillance coverage is not that effective.
Given the outrage and anger in Pakistan, do heads deserve to roll?
Yes, there is a requirement of enquiring, finding out the people who failed and punishing them. Let’s leave at these things to the enquiry and actions to be taken later.
Do you think Generals Pasha (ISI chief) and Kayani (army chief) should resign? Or, owe the country an apology?
I leave it to them to decide.
If you had been in their position, would you have apologised?
I may have apologised on behalf of the intelligence agencies because this is a great slip-up up, this is a great embarrassment, to that extent, maybe yes, and then assured the nation that we will investigate and find out how this slip-up occurred and convincing the world that this does not involve complicity.
The Americans are letting it be known that should the need arise in the future, they will not hesitate to carry out similar stealth strikes, without informing the Pakistanis.
This must not be done. The people (are) in the streets already — they do not at all like the United States, this will anger them, and any agitation in the streets will increase, obviously, if this happens indiscriminately; then, it will put that amount of pressure on the government, on the Army, on the intelligence agencies.
They must understand Pakistan’s sensitivities, specially the sensitivities of the people.
The Pakistan Army has announced in an official statement that they want the Americans to reduce their military personnel in the country to an absolute minimum.
I absolutely support this. They shouldn’t have been there in any case, they should never have been there. There is no need of American troops in Pakistan. In my time, we had only cooperated on the intelligence level, because we needed to develop technical intelligence to target all these al-Qaeda people in our cities, To that extent, we sought cooperation. There were no troops in Pakistan and now if there are troops, they must not be there.
In other words, you are telling the Americans that if there are troops, they must not be there, they must get out?
Yes, they must leave.
