ISLAMABAD (AP) - Pakistan warned America Thursday of "disastrous consequences" if it carries out any more unauthorized raids against suspected terrorists like the one that killed Osama bin Laden.
However, the government in Islamabad stopped short of labeling Monday's helicopter raid on bin Laden's compound not far from the capital Islamabad as an illegal operation and insisted relations between Washington and Islamabad remain on course.
The army and the government have come under criticism domestically for allowing the country's sovereignty to be violated. Some critics have expressed doubts about government claims that it was not aware of the raid until after it was over.
Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir's remarks seemed to be aimed chiefly at addressing that criticism.
"The Pakistan security forces are neither incompetent nor negligent about their sacred duty to protect Pakistan," he told reporters. "There shall not be any doubt that any repetition of such an act will have disastrous consequences," he said.
Bashir repeated Pakistani claims that it did not know anything about the raid until it was too late to stop it. He said the army scrambled two F-16 fighter jets when it was aware that foreign helicopters were hovering over the city of Abbottabad, but they apparently did not get to the choppers on time.
American officials have said they didn't inform Pakistan in advance, fearing bin Laden could be tipped off.
Asked whether it was illegal, Bashir said only "that is for historians to judge."
The fact that bin Laden was hiding in a large house close to an army academy in a garrison town two hours drive from the capital has led to international allegations that sections of Pakistan's security forces may have been harboring bin Laden.
Pakistan has firmly denied those charges, but failed to explain how it did not know. Bashir said there were no plans for an investigation.
Some U.S. lawmakers have called for the Obama administration to stop giving aid to Pakistan. But the president and other top American officials have appeared more cautious, realizing that downgrading or severing ties with the country would be risky given the important role it will likely play in negotiating an end to the Afghan War.
Bashir said perceptions that Pakistan's ties with Islamabad were at rock bottom were untrue.
"We acknowledge the United States is an important friend," he said. "Basically Pakistan and U.S. relations are moving in the right direction."
42 comments:
Pakistan might as well be Terroristan. It's obvious that they don't care about terrorists. If anything they probably support terrorism given that Laden was in such an open location. Even the terror attack on the Taj Hotel in India was setup by Pakistan citizens. U.S. should find some non-terrorist allies and just take over the Middle East.
I think that as long as both the US and Pakistan continue to be cautious, then there shouldn't be a big issue with this. Both countries rely on each other in a big enough way that fighting would be mutually disastrous. Hopefully all these issues can be resolved democratically.
...and by democratically, I mean diplomatically.
It seems to me that while bin Laden was close to the capital of Pakistan, he could still escape notice; I think we should give Pakistan the benifit of the doubt, but still remain wary of any possible threats of being double-crossed, or anything of the like. Don't act, but prepare to act if necessary. Pakistan is, as stated in the article, playing an important part in the negotiations to end the war.
I agree with the Obama administration. I think is of utmost importance to continue positive relations with Pakistan. Though I do find it hard to believe that the nation was clueless as to where Bin Laden was, it will in the long run be a necessary relationship. I can understand the frustration on the part of Pakistan. It would be insulting to have that happen under your watch because you are essentially being told that your government is corrupted and in cooperation with Bin Laden...though that may not be far off it isnt something that Pakistan wants to be known for. Though I understand I think it was the right call by Obama to keep the operation top secret because it was an operation that we simply could not risk falling apart due to any leaks. Overall i think the Obama administration handled all parts of the situation well.
After Osama’s death it seems that there will be issues with Pakistan that will take a lot of time to resolve. I don’t believe that the Pakistan government was unaware of Osama Bin Laden living in a mansion two hours from the capital. If this is correct, than this will be a huge betrayal since there has been so much aid given to Pakistan. It’s hard to believe that Pakistan was helping America to try to find Bin Laden when he was living in a fairly large house close to the capital. It seems like the relationship between U.S. and Pakistan will be rocky, but I agree with Bashir saying, “We acknowledge the United States is an important friend," he said. "Basically Pakistan and U.S. relations are moving in the right direction." I hope Bashir is correct when he said the relations are moving in the right direction.
After Osama’s death it seems that there will be issues with Pakistan that will take a lot of time to resolve. I don’t believe that the Pakistan government was unaware of Osama Bin Laden living in a mansion two hours from the capital. If this is correct, than this will be a huge betrayal since there has been so much aid given to Pakistan. It’s hard to believe that Pakistan was helping America to try to find Bin Laden when he was living in a fairly large house close to the capital. It seems like the relationship between U.S. and Pakistan will be rocky, but I agree with Bashir saying, “We acknowledge the United States is an important friend," he said. "Basically Pakistan and U.S. relations are moving in the right direction." I hope Bashir is correct when he said the relations are moving in the right direction.
Pakistan and the U.S.'s relationship is not really moving in the forward direction. We all know this. The army acadamy WAS helping in hiding Osama. They knew it, we knew it the only thing that matters know is that he was found and take it how you wish, dead. The reason the US does these "Unauthorized raids," is because we know for a fact they are hiding terrorist. We continue doing these actions because one, it works in locating them. What a big surprise! Still bad thing to do to another countries right but... At least we got the main one.
In my personal opinion the pakistani government needs to give a good reason as to why they did not know that Osama was only 2 hours away from their military before they threaten us.
No one will probably ever know the true story about what happend. We will not know if bin Laden's hideout by the army had any significance at all. Some people thought that by killing him, worse things would come to us. Many Pakistinians are very upset, but hopefully no other terrorist attacks come to us because of this murder. Their government said thing between us and their country are still moving smoothly.
I dot think Pakistan is going to want to help us end the war in Afghanistan. They were very upset with us for doing what we had set out to do. We have a very strong military and Pakistan doesn't so if they didn't want this to happen they shouldn't have harbored the man that we were after. It seems as if they are on te terrorists side rather than ours. So I don't really understand why we should continue to help them if they are just going to threaten us and do mean things.
I certainly hope this doesn't turn into another war! I agree with the doubts that the government didn't know about this until after it was done. Yes, security needs to protect Pakistan but bin Laden isn't Pakistan. He is a terrorist. We didn't attack Pakistan, we attacked bin Laden. I'm glad bin Laden was not tipped off. His death was a huge success for our military. I do think that where osama was is very sketchy and that Pakistan knew where he was. That does suck but now he is dead and so we no longer have to worry about bin laden.
Well this article ends on a positive note, that's for sure. And I genuinely hope it's true. Admittedly, the legality of the raid on Osama's house never came to my mind. But if the Pakistani government insists that they did not know of the plan to raid in enough time to do anything, then I choose to believe them. This is best for everyone. I realize some people might have felt Osama truly represented them, but I doubt this is the consensus in Pakistan or any of the Islamic world and I therefore feel his death, though not to be rejoiced, can allow everyone to breathe a sigh of relief.
Killing Osama Bin Laden is going to be harmful in one way.The one thing that shocked me is that Osama has been living in that large house close to a army academy and still the Pakistan government is not aware of it. That is totally a lie. They were just hiding the fact that Osama was there this entire time. But yes after having to kill Osama, his people up there will definitely attack on us so all i can say is be prepared U.S.
I seriously wonder what Pakistan thinks it can do against the United States. Within the public realm it receives a thin veil of sovereignty guaranteed by international consensus, a consensus which would validate the elimination of one of the top terrorists in the world. I do not like that we breached Pakistani sovereignty to make this strike but I do believe it was a necessary action. Considering Osama's proximity to a military base in Pakistan there is little doubt that Al Qaeda has proponents in the military and political structure.
Well we finally got who we were looking for after about 10 years. As for the warnings from Pakistan about the US not entering the country for more unauthorized raids, Osama Bin Laden was the man we were searching for; now that he is gone, we do not, in the meantime atleast, have any other reason to assemble a group for another raid.
It's obvious that Pakistan was hiding him. They were either hiding him, or they have very poor intelligence service. He wouldn't have lasted very long if they were helping to look for him. We should stop sending them billions of U.S. aid since they feel it's necessary to harbor murderers and then threaten us not to do so to those who want to harm this country when we've been helping them out. Real classy, Pakistan.
We already know it's really easy to sneak in and out of Pakistan. What "disastrous consequences" could possibly happen?
Don't hide terrorists from us and we don't fight. Pretty Simple.
Okay, so we caught bin ladin in pakistan right, so I think since it was in/close to a military base somebody had something to do with it. I mean it was two hours away from the capital, either they didn't know or care that he was there or they knew. And the fact that they want to know when we fly into their county, then they have time to hide anything, if they have anything to hide anyway. But at least if they truly are our allies then at least we're like "forgiven" for the surprise intrusion. I dunno, I guess if like someone was hiding here in America, and we didn't know about it, them we would be mad if they just came in like that, so I guess it's understandable that they want notifications now, but still it could end up being dangerous for or country.
Who cares what the Pakistani government says? They were harboring the worlds most wanted person. And now that they were finally caught in the act they are trying to put all of the attention on the U.S. incursion.
The fact that bin Laden was basically hiding in a private penthouse that no one ever went in or out from warrants enough suspision alone for their government to be investigative, yet they don't even acknowledge they had any clue the compound was even there. We found out and acted from half way across the world and cleaned shop... I sure hope we'd notice anything as conspicuous here...
It was expected for Pakistan to react that way. Anyone who experiences the loss of a leader is more than likely going to experience feelings of anger toward the cause of the loss. Can we really be surprised by these threats?
I don't think relations between us and them are heading in the right direction. If we don't trust them enough to tell them we're about to invade their airspace and kill the evil, fire-breathing, laser-eyed, puppy-slaying osama bin laden, then something is up.
There must have been some sort of warning signs that bin Laden was in Pakistan. The fact that Pakistan denies knowing about bin Laden, but wants to maintain good relations with the U.S. and therefore did not call the raid illegal suggests that Pakistan is relieved that the U.S. got bin Laden. In my opinion it's unclear when the war on terror will end, but it is certain that before in ends the internal problems in Pakistan must be dealt with.
They shouldn't complain because most likely they knew that he was there, but did nothing to try to get rid of him. The U.S. had no other way to do it except for stealthily. Informing them that we were coming was far too risky. Their government should be glad that we have eliminated a huge threat. The fact that they are upset seems to hint that they knew about him hiding there.
As much as I wanna believe that Pakistan was unaware of Osama being where he was, it's just unrealistic. Someone had to know that he was chillin' with his homies out there. All that matters is that we got our guy. Endd.
There was obviously people in the Pakistan government hiding osama. How else could he have stayed near an army base and not have been detected? I also think that the US had every right to go in without authorization and take out osama because of 9/11. To me, its like an eye for an eye. Even though we had much more damage done through 9/11 than Pakistan did with osama. If Pakistan is mad about that, they just need to get over it because the US military did the world a favor anyways.
This is a sticky situation for both the U.S. and Pakistan because of the issues and confusion over what is going on. I think the U.S. did what they thought was the best and Pakistan should be happy that bin ladin is dead. Also if Pakistan were to ever attack our troops it would be there own downfall.
It is pretty fishy that the pakistani government is having such a fit over the US raiding in to their country when we only did so to find the man who planned the attack on the United States, 9-11. I can understand to a point that we went into their country without permission; though when it was to accomplish the deed at hand I dont see why the pakistani government would be so entirely aggrivated by the measures we took to get to Osama bin Laden. It also doesnt make it any less suspicious on behalf of the pakistani govenment that the location of bin Laden was directly near a military base. This just makes it seem as though Pakistan was somehow involved in hiding Osama bin Laden for such a long period of time. I dont know, that just seems fishy.
I can understand that the people are mad that we didnt inform their government first but what I dont understand is why they are burning our flags and stuff. Yeah we infiltrated a compound in their country without permission but we also killed the worlds number one terrorist. Shouldnt that make the people happy? I can also understand Bashir's comments. He cant have people thinking he is a soft leader so he is forced to take that position.
This article does a good job of making U.S-Pakistani relations seem generally friendly, but after comparing it to the statements being issued from the Pakistani military it's pretty obvious that there are a lot of mixed feelings on both sides about what should happen. I think the U.S. military made the right decision about not telling the Pakistani government about the raid; the fact that Bin Laden was so close to the capital (and not in some hole in the ground, mind you, but in an army academy) is pretty darn suspicious. At the same time, it's also crucial that we do whatever we can to see that this doesn't escalate; the last thing we need right now is another war on our hands.
This whole post was back and forth. "United States is our buddies...Meh they shouldn't of done that, we did send F-16's to retaliate against the choppers...But all in all the relationship between Pakistan and the U.S. is all good." It is only natural for their government to warn us after the actions we took. No one can honestly say that we wouldn't of responded the same way. What's done is done and the world is better for it.
I think that the fact that the american people went in without the pakistan people knowing was a very smart idea.if the Pakistani people knew about it then they most definately would have tried to stop it. Yes they might be very mad about it but but i feel like it was the right thing to do. I also agree with the president that we shouldnt stop helping them because it would be very risky at this point in time. This close to the death of Osama Bin Laden is an aweful idea. If we were to stop helping them it would just be fuel to the fire and that is the last thing we need.
Pakistan must have been hiding Osama bin Laden. I mean he was in a huge house two hours away from the capital. Coincidence? I think not. I really think we should stop giving aid to Pakistan. There really is not a need to help them if they despise us. Even though Bashir said we are good friends with Pakistan could mean nothing. He was probably lying to the press. I feel they are goimnng to attack us since we killed their precious bin Laden.
I think that it's dumb that they are threatening us. They should realize that the lack of trust between us is their fault. They can't expect us to trust them if they were harboring Bin Laden. The last thing we need is them ruining our extraction of the the most wanted man in the world.
Pakistan was humiliated domestically and internationally as a result of the raid that Killed Osama Bin Laden. Not only had they not been aware of his hiding in a large compound just minutes away from a military academy for months, but they also were unable to prevent a foreign incursion into their sovereign territory that killed him. Right now they are acting very defensively and are lashing out to try to push the blame away. However, they will not succeed. If any sort of investigation is launched and the findings of which conclude either that Pakistan was negligent in not ascertaining bin Laden's hiding place or that they were actually consciously harboring the terrorist, Pakistan's international credibly will be dealt a blow from which the country will not recover for a long time.
The fact that Pakistan is lcaiming they were completly unaware of osamas presence seems a little far fetched. And In regards to them as an ally country it seems we have stretched our faith and trust too far. However i dont think the government should jump to conclusions and i commend them for thinking rationally and fairly.
I really don't like how the Afghan government can't explain how Osama was hiding less than two miles away and "didn't know he was there". If they didn't have communication with him and were not protecting him, then they really shouldn't be making a big fuss about how we killed him. I just find it really suspicious how they are acting like they had nothing to do with him, yet they're angry that we killed him. If they weren't protecting him, they should've been happy that the guy is gone because that's one less threat of terrorism.
So the fact that the pakistani gov. Wants to send forces agent america if we have forces there is quite unreasonable. Why would they do that when the only reason we are there is because they were harboring the most deadly man in the world. With them continuing to strain their relations. We just have to see how things play out.
US and Pakistani relations will move in the right direction when they admit their partnership with al-Qaida, and start actually trying to stop it.
I don't know if we are supposed to continue to blog or not because you haven't posted any new ones in two weeks so I will just do it anyways. I think Pakistan will regret there decision to burn out flag because we are a major supporter of their economy and they would not be able to fund a war with out us so to have a war against us seems stupid.
Pakistan should be grateful for riding bin laden from their country. I think that even if there is a code that Pakistan has to follow to protect theory country, I think that bin laden should be an exception to the code. Unless of course, Pakistan was trying to hide bin laden in the first place.
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