US Department of Defense response to a question on the motivation of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan for the recent arrests of senior Afghan Taliban leaders such as Mullah Baradar, Mullah Abdul Salam and Mullah Mir Muhammad there.
Pakistan's past track record of consorting with terrorists has it seems bred some who are sceptical of their actions however good it may look on the surface:
February 18, 2010
DOD News Briefing with Geoff Morrell from the Pentagon ………………
Q: Can I follow up on the Pakistan question? Should we attribute the sweep to increased cooperation by the Pakistanis, or an increased willingness of them to go after the Taliban? Or should we -- is this lucky intelligence?
MR. MORRELL: I wouldn't -- I wouldn't attribute any specific operation to any particular motive. I am speaking generally about the way the Pakistani government and its military and its secure -- intelligence services have responded to this threat over the last several months
Q: What would you say to critics who are saying this -- or the timing of this is almost suspicious? The fact that so many of these big fish are being hooked at the same time is raising questions about Pakistan's motives here. I mean, it comes just days after they say they want to be involved in reconciliation efforts. The New York Times says now that this guy Baradar is one of the most approachable members of the Taliban. People are wondering -- maybe Pakistan has motives to gain political favor here. What do you say to that?
MR. MORRELL: Again, I mean, I think the question was asked in a different way by your colleague to your left. I'm not going to speak to their motives. I'm not going to speak to any of the specific operations or these specific captures.
What I will say to you yet again is that we are enormously heartened by the fact that the Pakistani government and their military and intelligence services increasingly recognize the threat within their midst and are doing something about it.
Yeah, Iraq, you said. Is that right?
Excerpt of an earlier portion of the same briefing dealing with the Islamic Republic of Pakistan:
Q: Yeah, could you talk a bit about the significance of this capture in Pakistan of the Afghan Taliban commander? And then also –
MR. MORRELL: Let me just -- let me just add one thing. And I don't -- I'm sure General Carter did. One of the reasons that we're enjoying the success, I think, that we are thus far into this operation has been the extraordinary cooperation that we are getting from the Afghan locals in -- in and around Marja, who have put us in a position to identify IEDs before we happen upon them. So their cooperation, their assistance is saving American and coalition lives, saving Afghan forces' lives and saving their fellow citizens' lives. And so we are very much appreciative of that, because, after all, it is our highest priority to minimize civilian casualties.
Obviously, we had a -- an unfortunate incident that happened a few days ago in which we did suffer some civilian casualties. That investigation is still under way, although I think it clearly indicates thus far that, although civilians were in that house that was -- that was struck, that there were also insurgents in there who had been firing on our forces.
Yeah, Phil (sp), I'm sorry. So the pickups in Pakistan. I'm not in a position to speak to any one of those with any specificity. What I would only offer is that, between the ongoing operations that we have throughout Afghanistan, but in particularly -- particularly in Taliban strongholds, particularly in RC South and then the border region in RC East, as well as the sustained efforts that you've been reading about in Pakistan by the Pakistani military intelligence services, the Taliban is clearly being squeezed -- being squeezed by our forces, coalition forces, Afghan forces in Afghanistan, being squeezed by Pakistani military and intelligence forces in Pakistan.
And we have to see what the impact of this would be. Our hope is clearly that this is creating a certain amount of discontent, worry, turmoil within the organization, such that it is, that Taliban fighters are going to think twice about remaining loyal to this cause and that this will ultimately adversely impact the momentum that they have enjoyed over the past several months.
I think it's too soon to say with any certainty that we've -- that it has reversed the momentum trend that they had enjoyed. I think you heard from General McChrystal last week when we were -- two weeks ago, I guess it was, when we were in Istanbul, that he no longer sees the situation as deteriorating. But he was reluctant to go any further than that, so I'm certainly not going to. But between the concerted efforts that you're seeing in Pakistan and the concerted efforts that we are undertaking along with our Afghan partners in Afghanistan, the squeeze is being put to the Taliban.
Yeah, Mike.
Q: Geoff, kind of along those same lines, there's been a concerted effort to grab -- capture or kill, I guess -- some of the local shadow governors of the -- around Afghanistan. Can you talk just a bit about what those captures mean, and exactly what the -- what the shadow governments around Afghanistan have been -- have been doing in terms of –
MR. MORRELL: I -- I think -- you know, again, Mike, I think I fundamentally addressed this point. I mean, I think that we are -- we believe, we certainly hope, that these combined efforts on both sides of the border are going to reverse the momentum that the Taliban had enjoyed.
I can't speak with any specificity to any of these particulars but -- particular cases. I'd urge you to, you know, talk to the Pakistani government about who they have and the significance of who they've picked up.
We are obviously -- and you've heard me say it time and time again now over the last several months -- enormously pleased and gratified and heartened by the fact that the Pakistani government, the Pakistani military, their intelligence services, appreciate the threat that exists within their midst and is doing something about it. That's reflected in the fact that they have an extraordinary number of forces now deployed on the border region in the west. It's reflected in the fact that they are taking action against Taliban leaders. There's a -- there's a host of examples of their recognition that this -- that this threat within their borders is every bit as much a danger to them as it is to us.
Q: Can you talk, though, about what impact these shadow governments have been having on the effort?
MR. MORRELL: Well, I mean, I think I would only -- I would only say, Mike, that clearly any attempt to undermine the legitimate government, the democratically elected government of Afghanistan is counterproductive. And this is a fledgling government as it is; it's a government that has -- has been, you know, trying to get on its feet in the midst of war, in the midst of enormous economic hardships. And the fact that there are those within the country who are trying to undermine it and set up alternative forms of governance are simply not helpful. And so the more -- the more Pakistani leaders and shadow governors and wanna-be future leaders who are picked up, taken out, killed, arrested, whatever it may be, or want to lay down their arms and recognize and support the democratically elected government, the better.
Yeah.
From here:
DOD News Briefing with Geoff Morrell from the Pentagon
. It's not that she hasnt lost distance relatives due to paki terror, but this
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