Monday, January 23, 2006

Was Pakistan aware US was going to bomb?

That's been a question that has been on my mind since the bombing in Pakistan happened. Last week I wrote an article on WatchBlog which had to do with a different aspect of this type of action by the US. However even then, that answer was not clear. Was the government of Pakistan refusing to acknowledge they knew about the bombing or did they really not know.

The title linked article further gives the impresison that Pakistan was not aware of the US intention:

Aziz said Pakistani officials were given no notice before the Jan. 13 attack that killed at least 13. The attack was apparently aimed at al Qaeda's No. 2 leader, Ayman Zawahiri, who was not there.

Pakistan, Aziz said, "has regretted and condemned the incident and said that such incidents should not reoccur. We need to work together. There is no difference in the objectives of the two countries, so there is no reason why we shouldn't communicate."

If the situation were different and another country were to bomb an area in the United States I doubt we would be quite so "understanding". No matter who the supposed target was.

4 comments:

Brian Maxson said...

Pakistan must have JUST got the memo that Al Quieda/Osama Bin Laden dwells within it's boarders.

Scott G said...

Unless we invade Pakistan though or get their permission, it doesn't matter where al Qaeda and bin Laden are. I think someone in Pakistan would have had to have known. Maybe a military commander or something, but it is hard to deny fighter jets flying over an area. Last think we would have needed was to surprise some Pakistani military unit and get them to shoot at us and then we bomb them

Anonymous said...

Because the Pakistani people are as outraged (understandably) as they are over the incident, it would probably be bad P.R. for Pakistani officials to admit it if they knew.

That doesn't necessarily mean they knew, but it's still possible whether they deny it or not.

And another question is...if they DID know, is that why Mr. #2 wasn't there?

Hooda Thunkit (Dave Zawodny) said...

Even in politics, denial is often more than that large river in Egypt.

And, plausible deniability is everything...