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Spies and Journalists in Pakistan
A story has been rumbling on in Pakistan for a couple of weeks now that just plain refuses to go away.
The daily newspaper, the Nation, published an article on Nov 5 claiming US journalist Matthew Rosenberg, South Asia Correspondent for the Wall Street Journal, was spying in Pakistan. Rosenberg left the country and the WSJ responded with an open letter signed by a bunch of US, British and French outlets along with Al Jazeera.
Now, Londonstani finds this "foreign journalists are spies" rumour mongering really distasteful. It looks like the article fulfilled a couple of aims for whoever thought it was a good idea.
1) It embarasses a couple of senior officials, who are named, for potentially providing information on military matters to an American spy
2) It plays to suspicions about America and might sell a few more copies
3) Last but not least, it gets rid of a journalist who might have been printing stories someone somewhere didn't like
Stories like this are common all over the Middle East, and it always surprises Londonstani that people reading this stuff in countries with strong US ties stop and think "hmm.. maybe they're are up to something dodgy", since, it's absolutely no secret that the militaries of these places are briefing US intelligence agencies several times a day. Seriously people, what does everyone think the president, prime minister and head of the army were doing when the CIA director visited Islamabad last week??
So, about this story in particular:
"To the surprise and shock of many, top bosses of Federally Administrated Tribal Area (FATA) Secretariat are allegedly feeding these journalists with secret reports and information regarding Pak Army and militant groups operating there."
How secret are these "secret reports and information" exactly? Is it stuff the Pakistanis would give the American intelligence agencies anyway?
Why would officials meet a journalist anyway? In Londonstani's experience, officials don't meet journalists unless they have some spin they are trying to get out into the open. Were these Pakistani officials trying to press upon US public opinion that their country was serious about going after militants? In this case maybe Shireen Mazari, the editor in chief of the Nation, has actually harmed her country in her unthinking and unblinking one-woman mission to protect Pakistan. She did something similar when she responded to the Seymour Hersh article on Pakistan's nukes by telling everyone that Hersh couldn't be believed as he got the protection levels on Pakistani nuclear weapons totally wrong. They were, in fact, she said, stored in a way that made them much easier to activate.
In a television interview on the brewing controversy, Mazari repeated the pointed out that Rosenberg has broken the law by going up to FATA and NWFP without getting proper clearance.
Now, getting this clearance, is cumbersome and bureaucratic and most journalists go up to Peshawar and the rest of NWFP without it. This doesn't make them spies, as it doesn't make Rosenberg a spy. It should be added that the journalists who went up to Waziristan for Hakimullah's first interview last year were all Pakistani and all sneaked up past checkpoints in violation of the law. If you are going to do some reporting that involves more than shooting the breeze with friends you're likely to end up breaking rules. That's not the same as spying.
Rosenberg's safety was threatened by this article. Londonstani hopes that anyone reading this who is angered by the treatment that Rosenberg received, also takes a moment to remember what happened to Sami al Hajj, the Sudanese Jazeera cameraman who ended up in Guantanamo for six years without charge after Pakistani forces handed him over to the US.
Finally, the Nation article is just terrible news writing. The title doesn't match the lede, there is no quote to back up the central argument. There are a bunch of unanswered questions; If Pakistani officials were feeding sensitive information to a foreign national, could they be prosecuted? What was Rosenberg doing with this information? (If he was writing articles, then, ummm.. he's just a boring journalist). It's a legal minefield, etc etc.
Anyway, Londonstani thought spies never pose as journalists anyway, that would just be too predictable.
I believe that the policy is
I believe that the policy is that US spies do not pose as journalists for US newspapers (e.g. The Wall Street Journal).
Shireen Mazari was (under
Shireen Mazari was (under Musharraf) director general of the institute of strategic studies and is very close to the army. Btw, allegations of being a spy were also made about daniel pearl and look what happened to him. She should definitely be pursued about this.
Yes I believe Journalists
Yes I believe Journalists and USAID, probably Peace Corps are hands off for the Langley boys, or anyone else.
Rosenberg? Rosenberg? Of course she went after him.
I am hereby outing
I am hereby outing Londonstani as a spy. He is definitely and incontrovertibly a spy. Unfortunately I know nothing about him, so this is unlikely to provide valuable intelligence to the Nation, and other guardians of Pakistan.
"Hi I am a journalist, I
"Hi I am a journalist, I write about anything I see, you can see what I write on wsj.com"
That is some clever cover right there.
Yes, Visitor, that is the
Yes, Visitor, that is the point. Not hide in plain sight, advertise in plain site!!
It is true, Londonstani is a spy for the Gujerati Metropolitan Cricket League - known by it's intials - GMCL. Striking fear into Pak defectors to the BNP Cricket league (BNCL), there to spy on the Kararchi Blues, and coordinate the next sinister staged Zionist attack on the innocent Sri Lankans.
(wow. maybe I really did just screw him hard!)
OK. If your ISI and a cricket fan, I am really just kidding.
Run Londonstani. Run.
You all do realize that
You all do realize that Astan is now Pork Chop Hill, right? We are seeking an armistice, and staying in AF/PAK, drone strikes, Hillary being nasty...this is all negotiating. We.Are.Leaving.
That's what giving KSM the media and propaganda equivalent of a ticker tape parade in NYC is about - we seek an armistice - unspoken of course - with even the worst of the worst. They get a platform, in fact THE PLATFORM, to drag America through the mud, make the lives of a few CIA and DOJ types miserable, maybe get international warrants from the Euro-C*nt Left judges...but it's really really the end of GWOT like the man said.
Now that's not how it will be received - with amazed contempt and renewed vigor for action - but that's what's being transmitted for several months now.
Astan is now moot except for Pork Chop Hill -a worthless hill in Korea we and the Chinese wasted many men on while negotiations were being conducted - just to prove we're serious.
No more dead kids. It's moot now. Get them out, they are too valuable to waste. We will need them in the coming decades. As we know, they are the best of us.
The character of your Commander in Chief is critical in a war of wills. In this case...excuse me but LOL. More charitably - he is not a wartime leader, and he, Rahmbo and the world know it.
Moreover the point of Afghanistan was to protect the homeland. That was rendered moot last week when within days of Ft Hood the KSM circus trial was moved to NYC. Let me sum up why Astan is moot:
*Prosecuting Intel and probably others for defending the country effectively threw open the gates and drove the defenders to their lawyers, understandably.
*Hasan came thru the gates. There will be more. (We’ve seen this movie).
*Giving the Key Terrorists civilian trials tears the gates off the hinges. There are no defenses now left to man, and only a fool would, facing prison, ruinous legal bills, and public exposure. Nor do I think a wise source would talk to us now.
There's no point now. We bought time, which is all we were ever doing. Get them the Hell out of there, before we become the Athenians at Syracuse . He's abandoned you. That's his real strategy. Save the Army for another day.
"Now, getting this
"Now, getting this clearance, is cumbersome and bureaucratic and most journalists go up to Peshawar and the rest of NWFP without it. This doesn't make them spies, as it doesn't make Rosenberg a spy. It should be added that the journalists who went up to Waziristan for Hakimullah's first interview last year were all Pakistani and all sneaked up past checkpoints in violation of the law. If you are going to do some reporting that involves more than shooting the breeze with friends you're likely to end up breaking rules."
Translation: Western journalists consider themselves above the law, everywhere and always. They are above the law in America and Britain! So they should be miles above the law in a pissant little country like Pakistan.
Meanwhile, our soldiers in Afghanistan, who should be shooting a lot more than the breeze, spend their entire tours crossing I's, dotting T's, and not shooting at houses when the houses shoot at them - because there might be some picturesque native babies inside, who if shot would make a devastating Pulitzer piece for al-Reuters.
Frankly, the question is not what's wrong with this picture. The question is what's right with it! If Pakistan ever decides to win its war, the first way we'll know is that the army expels all these vipers - just as Sri Lanka did. No, foreign journalists are not spies. Mere spies would be far preferable. However, in case this thought is too intricate for the average Pakistani newspaper reader, "spy" does express the problem pretty succinctly...
it's absolutely no secret
it's absolutely no secret that the militaries of these places are briefing US intelligence agencies several times a day. Seriously people, what does everyone think the president, prime minister and head of the army were doing when the CIA director visited Islamabad last week?
I don't think it's over-cynical to expect that there's going to be a lot of difference at each step on the chain between
what the ISI and Army are doing
what the ISI and Army brass think the rest of the ISI and Army are doing
what the ISI and Army brass tell the president they're doing
what the president thinks the ISI and Army are doing
and
what the president decides to tell the Americans that the ISI and Army are doing.
So it's entirely possible that CIA has got people on the ground checking what is actually going on. That being said, it's unlikely that Rosenberg was one of them, and I think Londonstani's analysis is plausible - his articles annoyed someone so he's being kicked out.
Notice how Mazari repeats
Notice how Mazari repeats 'New Delhi' again and again. If it wasn't the journalists name, nationality or a vendetta from the elites, then it was his base that probably did it for him.
Blackwater’s Secret War in Pakistan: Jeremy Scahill Reveals Private Military Firm Operating in Pakistan Under Covert Assassination and Kidnapping Program [video] A more believable story also originally from The Nation.
'Blackwater in Pakistan' is propaganda gold for the Terry-clan.
"Anyway, Londonstani thought
"Anyway, Londonstani thought spies never pose as journalists anyway, that would just be too predictable."
"I believe that the policy is that US spies do not pose as journalists for US newspapers"
Yeah, but how does either of these simple, obvious concepts survive the contractor test ?
http://warisboring.com/?p=1584
-- Kilo, still posting via proxy because some fuckwit admin at CNAS thought it would be a bright idea to ban my IP for no apparent reason.
ps. Here's some trivia. The last blog that banned my IP for a something I don't personally consider as trolling has had their entire readership's browsing history and all identifiable information logged continuously in 3 day batches to a less than desirable newsgroup for the past 17 months, as a lesson in comparative capabilities over readership and cost.
I would presume that Newshoggers' readership is a lot less X than yours. You can decide whether this is the case or not, but the real lesson here is that 17 months and 3 ISPs later is when I've first bothered to notice that they've actually deleted the post about me that caused offense in the first place. And even now I'd have to give enough of a fuck about that in order to look up what my login info for the shell running that script is.
Decisions. Sometimes they're good ones.
http://www.stories.pk i have
http://www.stories.pk i have visited to this site which is very impressive and interested.
I have to admit that I was
I have to admit that I was trying to find some publications about beautiful woman Sienna West and noticed this entry about Pakistan. I have never been in this country and I hope that I will never be in the future. Just look at these people! How they can be so cruel? Personally I do not understand why such thing happen in our world. I hope that one day will end all wars. We will see...
I upright processed version
I upright processed version Nicholas Schmidle's To Live or to Perish Forever near his period in Pakistan up to rightful after Benazir's calumny, and how he was harrassed out of the land by the ISI.
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As Mensius says, journalists
As Mensius says, journalists do always see themselves above the law. In Britain, right now, we have a scandal about journalists from the News of the World being involved with phone-tapping.
If it isn't hi-tech stuff like this, then they will be going through the bins.
The thing is that for journalists to come up with original stories, they either have to do "investigative" stuff that often borders the illegal, and sometimes crosses that line. Either that, or they have to invent the story. Both methods are extremely popular...
I don't think it's the case that journalists are particularly more unethical when operating outside their own country, however.
Tim writes about Cosmetic Surgery Abroad
Sometimes journalists think
Sometimes journalists think they're invincible because they're in the media and journalists operating outside their own country are no exceptions.
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When officials want to meet
When officials want to meet with journalists it is always for spin.
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Very informative post
Very informative post Londonstani! I felt bad for what happened. I can't tell who's telling the truth. If Rosenberg was really a spy or not. I hope I could hear or read his thoughts and then evaluate things.
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