Valued Allies
"He was a very cool-minded person, a very intelligent person and he was someone that the government could talk to", said Mansur Mahsud, director of administration and research at the Islamabad-based FATA Research Center.Now who will the government of Pakistan bargain with? Waliur Rehman, considered to be the second in influence as commander of the Pakistani Taliban is no longer in the land of the living. Perhaps that is to be expected; that old adage, live by the sword, die by the sword has the resonance of fact, after all, and Waliur Rehman is held to be responsible for hundreds of bombings and shootings across Pakistan.
So, the man is a mass murderer, a declared enemy of the state and of its people, other than those living in Waziristan, but he is considered to be intelligent, cool-minded, and a potential candidate for peace negotiations. Somewhat like Osama bin Laden, one might suppose. Whose presence in Abbottabad, despite its location close by an elite military barracks was completely unknown to Pakistan authorities, much less the military.
But whose death at the hands of American Navy SEALS in a swift, deadly assault enraged Pakistan because the United States had humiliated it by infringing on its sovereignty creating a deep abyss in disgruntled belligerence. The Pakistani medical officer who lived next door to the bin Laden domestic complex and who had collaborated with the CIA on the bin Laden file, as an ally of Pakistan has been imprisoned, as a traitor to his country.
Waliur Rehman, held responsible for an attack on an American base in Khost, Afghanistan in 2009 which killed seven Americans working for the CIA, a Jordanian intelligence officer and wounded six other CIA personnel had a $5-million bounty on his head. One of U.S. President Barack Obama's famous drones targeted the man. One wonders, who will claim the bounty? A local who envisions flirting with death?
Missiles were fired into a house in Miran Shah in the North Waziristan tribal region. Where Waliur Rehman was hit, and as well another five people within the house, killing them all. Confirmation of his death was delivered by two Pakistani officials who viewed the body. Another affirmed that intelligence agents had intercepted communications between militants, revealing the transmission of the news of his death.
Denied, however, by a spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban: "This appears to me to be false news. I don't have any such information." During Pakistan's recent elections U.S. drone program strikes became a raging hot issue engendering great debate. Nawaz Sharif, returning to the presidency again, has made no secret of his anger over the use of U.S. drones within Pakistan, demanding they be halted.
Mr. Sharif is, in fact, prepared to negotiate with the Pakistani Taliban for an end to the tribal area attacks. Presumably hoping to influence the Taliban that their bloody assaults on the country and suicide bombings in Islamabad are damaging to the health of the country. As an Islamist Mr. Sharif will certainly have more in common with the tribal chiefs in the semi-autonomous tribal belt than his recent predecessors.
Though even they were tolerant of the presence of the al-Qaeda leader.
Labels: Conflict, Crisis Politics, Defence, Pakistan, Taliban, United States
posted by Pieface @ Friday, May 31, 2013
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