Washington: Pakistan has not got “sufficient credit” for the intelligence cooperation it provided to the US that eventually helped the American special forces to zero in on al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, says Senator John Kerry, who has been nominated by President Obama to be his next Secretary of State.
“I don’t think the Pakistanis have, frankly, gotten credit sufficiently for the fact that they were helpful (in getting Osama bin Laden). It was their permissiveness in allowing our people to be there that helped us to be able to tie the knots that focused on that, not exclusively, obviously, but to some degree,” Kerry told Senators at his confirmation hearing.
Arguing in favour of maintaining relationship with Pakistan, Kerry spoke against adopting a “dramatic, draconian, sledgehammer approach” to the ties as “we have our ground line of communications (in Pakistan), which is the military’s complicated word for ‘roads,’ that go to Afghanistan, and that route is critical to our supply of our troops.”
“We have in addition to that, had intelligence cooperation. Our folks were able to cooperate on the ground in Pakistan. That’s one of the ways we were able to get Osama bin Laden,” Kerry said. Pakistan, he said, has lost some 6,000 people last year in their efforts to go after terrorists. “They’ve lost about 30,000 people over the course of the last several years because they’ve been willing to engage the insurgencies. And so, you know, there are things that the Pakistanis have done, as complicated as the relationship has been,” he noted.
“I intend to raise the issue of Dr Afridi with them. I can promise you that. But I am not going to recommend, nor do I think it is wise, for American policy to just cut our assistance (to Pakistan). We need to build our relationship with the Pakistanis, not diminish it,” Kerry said in response to a question. If confirmed by the Senate, Kerry would replace Hillary Clinton as the Secretary of State. (PTI)
