US-Pakistan relations remain tense

The United States was not going to win any popularity contests in Pakistan, even before May 2nd. Then, US Navy Seals conducted a raid in Abbottabad that killed al-Qaida chief Osama Bin Laden. The operation heightened tensions between Washington and Islamabad. Still, the US has continued to launch drone attacks on Pakistani soil. On Tuesday, missiles killed three alleged Arab militants in a tribal region along the Afghan border. Marco Werman talks with The Guardian’s correspondent for Pakistan and Afghanistan, Declan Walsh.

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Marco Werman: I’m Marco Werman; this is The World. The United States was not going to win any popularity contests in Pakistan, even before May 2nd. Then, U.S. Navy Seals conducted a raid in Abbottabad that killed al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden. The operation heightened tensions between Washington and Islamabad. Still, the U.S. has continued to launch drone attacks on Pakistani soil. Today, missiles killed three alleged Arab militants in a tribal region along the Afghan border. Declan Walsh is the Guardian newspaper’s correspondent for Pakistan and Afghanistan. Declan, since the killing of bin Laden, how has public reaction changed to the continued U.S. missile strikes in Pakistan?

Declan Walsh: To be honest, public opinion has been so consumed with the whole issue of bin Laden that these drone strikes are definitely a secondary issue. Pakistanis are really focused on this whole issue of who knew what in the Pakistani government with relation to the bin Laden raid. They want to know how the American helicopters with the special forces on board managed to penetrate their radar defenses and cross the border to carry out that raid.

Werman: And what about reaction at the official level?

Walsh: There seems to be a continuation of the policy that’s been going on unspoken for the last two or three years, where basically Pakistani officials in public denounce these drone strikes. They say that they shouldn’t be tolerated. But behind the scenes Pakistani officials are in many cases in agreement with these strikes. So, there’s a great ambivalence, really, between the public and private positions of the Pakistani government.

Werman: It almost seems like this private/public dual attitude of the Pakistani government is driving the handling of U.S. access to Osama bin Laden’s wives, the three women who were found in his compound when he was killed. Pakistan is said to be interrogating them and reportedly says it has yet to receive a formal request from the U.S. for access to them. What’s going on?

Walsh: The issue of access to bin Laden’s three wives, all of whom have been named at this point, has become a sort of flashpoint in this ongoing row. As you say, the Pakistanis are holding these people. They are speaking to them and they are releasing to the media a sort of steady drip of information. Either about the circumstances of bin Laden’s death, or in one case, they are carrying a report from one of these women, saying that not only did they live in Abbottabad for six years, they also lived in another town with bin Laden for two years before that. So that means that he’s been here at least since 2003. On the other hand, the Pakistanis have been saying that no, they’re not going to give access to the U.S. in public. In private, there seems to be a different message coming out, particularly through Washington. So I think we can expect at least for some days to come, to see Pakistani officials acting tough in public but perhaps being more conciliatory to the U.S. in private.

Werman: Right, well that brings us precisely to the heart of your article in today’s Guardian about a secret deal between the U.S. and Pakistan that actually gave the U.S. permission to carry out a raid on Pakistani soil to kill Osama bin Laden. A deal, your sources say, was struck between George W. Bush and a former Pakistani leader, Pervez Musharraf.

Walsh: Yeah, this deal was struck back in November 2001. As I understand it there were meetings between President Bush and President Musharraf, where there was a sort of informal agreement whereby the U.S. would be allowed to enter Pakistan in pursuit of either Osama bin laden, his deputy Ayman al-Zawahri, or the number three in al-Qaida. And under this agreement, the Pakistanis would protest vigorously in public, but crucially, they wouldn’t stop the Americans from coming into the country. As I understand it, this is a deal that has basically held quite possibly until now. And it may offer some clues into understanding what actually went down when the American helicopters entered Pakistan, and how these helicopters entered the country without any challenge from the Pakistani forces. Because there may have been some people within the military who had at least some prior knowledge of the assault.

Werman: Declan Walsh, the Guardian’s correspondent for Pakistan and Afghanistan, speaking with us from Islamabad. Thanks very much, Declan.

Walsh: Thank you.

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