We Have Special Forces Inside Pakistan As Trainers

The NY Times compounds the embarrassment of the Pakistani government with this story:

February 23, 2009
U.S. Unit Secretly in Pakistan Lends Ally Support
By ERIC SCHMITT and JANE PERLEZ

BARA, Pakistan — More than 70 United States military advisers and technical specialists are secretly working in Pakistan to help its armed forces battle Al Qaeda and the Taliban in the country’s lawless tribal areas, American military officials said.

The Americans are mostly Army Special Forces soldiers who are training Pakistani Army and paramilitary troops, providing them with intelligence and advising on combat tactics, the officials said. They do not conduct combat operations, the officials added.

They make up a secret task force, overseen by the United States Central Command and Special Operations Command. It started last summer, with the support of Pakistan’s government and military, in an effort to root out Qaeda and Taliban operations that threaten American troops in Afghanistan and are increasingly destabilizing Pakistan. It is a much larger and more ambitious effort than either country has acknowledged.

Well, good, but there is this:

Pakistani officials have vigorously protested American missile strikes in the tribal areas as a violation of sovereignty and have resisted efforts by Washington to put more troops on Pakistani soil. President Asif Ali Zardari, who leads a weak civilian government, is trying to cope with soaring anti-Americanism among Pakistanis and a belief that he is too close to Washington.

I can sense the cross-currents - some Pakistani factions want to maintain an anti-American pose while others wants to reassure the US that all is well and the Pakistanis firmly on our side despite the new truce (maybe) in Swat.

[END OF THREAD]

Comments

[Danube of Thought]

Will Obama be grilled about this at his next news conference?

[Pagar]

How can one have a Secret task force if it is spread all over the New York Times?

[kim]

Interesting bit of journalism. 'American forces are SECRETLY working in Pakistan.....American MILITARY officials said'. Huh?
=========================================

[clarice]

Welcome to the real world of Asia . We can see that America's Fifth Column still exists and still has its red line to the NYT.

[Frau Jedöns]

Eric and Jane had better get up to speed on the use of US military for just this purpose. In Imperial Grunts (2005), Robert Kaplan explained it in language even NYT journalists can understand. Pfui!

[narciso]

I suspected this was true, if you're running a coordinated air and ground campaign you'd need an operational base
with at least a token number of special forces, But this kind of revelation, puts
those troops in jeapardy of jihadist retaliation. Why would people do this, unless they want the terrorists to win

[Ignatz Ratzkywatzky]

I know Nouriel Roubini is the current economic guru of choice, but this column is so muddle headed and so factually wrong and canted that I'm afraid it makes everything else he says kind of suspect, even the things I agree with him about. Or maybe especially them.

[Ignatz Ratzkywatzky]

Ooops. Wrong thread.

[narciso]

Remember how I've been chattering on, for some time, about the Middle East Institute,
the Saudi and Emirati watering hole where Joe Wilson, and "Chuck" Freeman, toady former ambassador to Saudi (who replaced the polymath Hume Horan) and China, relayed
that warning about nuclear strike if we intervened in China, well look who his organization the Middle East Council and his expecting next posting; as head of the National Intelligence Council

[kim]

I've a new task for the Special Forces. Seek out and destroy the 'military officials' who spoke to the New York Times, thereby directly endangering the lives of our defenders. This should be a hanging offense. Of course, I actually believe that the unnamed 'military officials' are invented.
===========================================

[Ranger]

Hmmm... The term 'military officials' implies civilians in the DoD somewhere. The only thing that is surprising to me is that anyone finds this surprising. SF guys are training troops all over the world all the time. Pakistan is a major ally in the GWOT, I would hope we are training their forces (at least the ones we can trust). Of course, the real problem is what happens when one of the guys we trained turns up some place they are not supposed to be.

[kim]

Good point, Ranger; I'd assumed that 'military officials' meant members of the military, but I'm pretty sure your interpretation is correct. Gates ought to be just steaming.
================================

[katablog.com]

More than 70 United States military advisers and technical specialists are secretly working in Pakistan

Not a secret any more!

[matt]

I am now wondering if this is an active campaign by Obama to create the circumstances by which we are forced to withdraw from Afghanistan.

The Feinstein leak, and now this seem just a bit too convenient, and now Obama is promising to halve the deficit by 2012. Gutting the military would seem to fit that bill nicely as he funds pork across the land.Otherwise it sounds like smoke and mirrors. Did you see he wants to raise taxes on the rich as well? Welcome to the Socialist Republic of America.

[Davod]

I don't care that we have trainees in Pakisatn. Nor do I care that we have been flying aircraft from Pakistan.

I do care that some f..k is releasing this information.

[Rocco]

narciso

Nice catch! This can't be good.

As a significant player in the formulation of that policy, there can be little doubt that Freeman's presence on the NIC will seriously damage this nation's [and the West's] ability to defend itself and we hope that sanity will prevail before this apparent decision is finalized.

[kim]

Chilling words, Rocco and narciso. So did Obama spend time in a Pakistani madrassah back in the day? I know that is a little far-fetched, but maybe it is time to acquaint the populace with the concept of Taqiyah. We know Obama is a liar. And that two plus two makes four.
=========================================

[narciso]

I've been reading about Freeman for 16 years now, first in Robert Kaplan's the Arabists, when he was the foil to the Wahhabi's most articulate foe, the late
Ambassador Hume Horan, who was dispatched
because he could read through the double talk of the Sauds, dealing in stinger missiles, encouraging Ilkwan activism the kind that would lead to AQ. He would pop up in the pages of the American Spectator, relaying the message of 'nuclear blackmail'
from China, if we decided to intervene in support of Taiwan. And Matt Welch, back in the day, when he saw the point of opposing
the Wahhabist approaches of the kingdom, saw Freeman, along with Wyche Fowler, Walter
Cutler, and Co, as the spokesman for the Saud lobby through the Middle EastInstitute,
which I would later find out, Joe Wilson had ties to. Looks the likes the making of a stand alone post on my own blog.

[narciso]

For what it's worth, Kim, I think Obama's allegiance back then, was more to the left
wing opponents of Zia, back in '81, that ground shared between Tariq Ali and Salman Rushdie. THat probably explains the passport
mixup, But they were clearly anti Western sympathies, as they were in regards to Indonesia and Kenya.

[zanne]

"KIM:Taqiyah". Yes, I have been thinking it for some time. And yes, this word needs to be delivered to the general public.