Daily brief: Pakistani intel chief bashes U.S. in marathon parliamentary briefing

The Rack: Bruce Hoffman, "The Leaderless Jihad’s Leader," and Brynjar Lia, "Al Qaeda Without Bin Laden," both in Foreign Affairs. 

Behind closed doors

In a rare and at times heated joint session of Pakistan’s parliament that stretched late into the night Friday, Pakistani intelligence chief Lt. Gen. Ahmad Shuja Pasha and other military leaders briefed the assembled members on the May 2 U.S. raid that killed Osama bin Laden, defending the role Pakistan has played in dismantling al-Qaeda while also reportedly offering to resign his post if asked (NYT, ET, TIME, Post, WSJ, Geo). Pasha strongly critiqued the United States, reportedly revealing that he got into a shouting match with CIA director Leon Panetta last time he was in Washington, and telling the parliamentarians that, "At every difficult moment in our history, the U.S. has let us down… This fear that we can’t live without the U.S. is wrong" (McClatchy, NYT, ET). Pasha also reportedly said that he sought a formal agreement with the CIA over intelligence sharing and other forms of cooperation (Dawn).

The deputy chief of Pakistan’s air operations, Air Marshal Mohammad Hassan, also answered questions about the air force’s inability to detect the helicopter raid while it was in progress, and acknowledged that the air force could shoot down U.S. drones, which he admitted have operated from the Shamsi airbase in the province of Baluchistan (NYT, ET). 

The parliament ultimately passed a resolution condemning the U.S. raid, and threatened to take action against the U.S. if drone strikes continue, including potentially cutting off access to supply routes into Afghanistan (LAT, AP). The resolution called for a rethink of the U.S.-Pakistan relationship as well as for an independent commission to review the May 2 raid, as an estimated 4,000 people turned up at a rally organized by Hafiz Saeed, the head of the banned Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), against bin Laden’s killing in Lahore Sunday (AJE, CNN, AP). And the ISI has reportedly stopped sharing information on militants within Pakistan with the CIA (Tel).

Another turning point

Sen. John Kerry traveled to Afghanistan this weekend before moving on to Islamabad for a series of meetings with Pakistani leaders, and said U.S.-Pakistan relations were at a "critical moment" during the first trip to the region by a senior U.S. policymaker since bin Laden’s death (Pajhwok, NYT, BBC, WSJ, FT, Tolo, Daily Times). Kerry, who is seen as supportive of Pakistan and has been dispatched in the past to repair rifts with the government, indicated in conversations with reporters in eastern Afghanistan and Kabul that there was some evidence of Pakistani support for militants in Afghanistan, and stated that some in Congress were considering cutting aid to Pakistan in light of the country’s possible support for militants (Dawn, NYT, AP, Reuters). He met yesterday with Pakistani army chief Gen. Ashfaq Pervez Kayani in Islamabad, and reportedly gave Kayani a list of "specific demands" relating to Pakistan’s alleged involvement with militants (AP, Dawn). He also met with Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, and is expected to meet with President Asif Ali Zardari and other political leaders during his trip (ET, Geo).

Kerry said his goal was to "build" the relationship with Pakistan, and confirmed the critical role Pakistan will play in any future settlement in Afghanistan, which Kerry said was more likely, along with a reduction of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, in the aftermath of bin Laden’s death (NYT, CNN). Kerry also told reporters that the U.S. would "consider all its options" if Taliban leader Mullah Omar were found to be in Pakistan, and Reuters reports that residents in the Pakistani city of Quetta are concerned that the hunt for Omar may bring U.S. forces to their city, where he is believed to be hiding (Reuters, Reuters).

No porn for you

Reuters reported Friday that U.S. intelligence analysts combing through computer hard drives seized at bin Laden’s Abbottabad compound had found a collection of pornography amongst the other materials, though officials could not say whether bin Laden had actually acquired or viewed the pornography himself (Reuters, NYT, Independent). The analysts have also discovered a "puzzling" video bin Laden made in late April in support of the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt, but in which bin Laden did not mention the ongoing uprisings in Libya, Yemen, or Syria (CNN). And the U.S.S. Carl Vinson, the aircraft carrier that received and buried bin Laden’s corpse at sea, made its first port call since the raid in the Philippines this weekend, though sailors and officers were under strict orders not to talk about bin Laden (AP).

Sami Yousafzai and Ron Moreau on Friday interviewed a "senior Afghan Taliban commander" responsible for eastern Afghanistan, who said he met bin Laden at his compound in Abbottabad two years ago (Daily Beast). Bin Laden reportedly met with other senior al-Qaeda figures as well as Gulf Arab financiers in Pakistan.

The Pakistani Taliban expressed their "full support" today for the shooting death of a Saudi diplomat in Karachi, the second attack against Saudi officials in the city this week (NYT, AP, WSJ, BBC, Guardian, AFP, Reuters, Reuters). The Daily Times reports that 36 people have died in targeted killings in Karachi over the last 15 days (Daily Times). A suicide bomber aboard a bus traveling to the Punjabi garrison town of Kharian killed seven on Saturday, and Taliban militants killed two alleged U.S. spies, dumping their bodies in the Datta Khel area of North Waziristan (ET, AFP). A bomb destroyed five NATO fuel trucks parked at Torkham in Khyber agency on their way to Afghanistan (Dawn). And Pakistani authorities in Rawalpindi briefly detained and interrogated a U.S. diplomat, Matthew Bennett, after they alleged he was taking photos of a sensitive area (ET).

Material support

The FBI in southern Florida arrested three naturalized American citizens of Pakistani descent Saturday on charges that they sent nearly $50,000 to the Pakistani Taliban, and indicted three people in Pakistan for providing material support to the group (Miami Herald, WSJ, Reuters, CNN, NYT). The arrested men include Hafiz Khan, an imam in Florida, and his sons Irfan Khan and Izhar Khan, who is also an imam at a mosque in south Florida. The indictment (available here) charges that the men over three years conspired to send money to the group, while also recruiting young boys to fight for the Taliban at a madrassa the elder Khan set up in Pakistan’s Swat Valley (BBC,  Reuters, AFP). Two of the Pakistanis named in the indictment are Hafiz Khan’s daughter and grandson, Alam Zeb Khan, who denied supporting the Taliban (Dawn). The three Khan men are expected to appear in court today. 

Also today, jury selection begins in the trial of Tahawwur Hussain Rana, a Chicago-based Canadian charged with helping support the 2008 Mumbai attacks whose case is expected to reveal publicly details about alleged Pakistani support for militant groups (NYT, AP). And Pakistan and Indian forces exchanged fire across the Line of Control separating Pakistani and Indian Kashmir yesterday, killing a villager one day after an Indian soldier was shot dead by a Pakistani patrol (Reuters, Dawn).

The loss of innocence

Protests broke out in the Afghan province of Nangarhar after NATO and Afghan troops were thought to have killed a 15 year old boy, reportedly the son of an Afghan National Army soldier, who NATO forces say tried to pull a gun on them during an operation late on Friday (LAT, NYT). NATO officials are investigating the reported killing of a child and three other civilians by NATO forces during an operation in the country’s eastern Kunar province Sunday (AP, Pajhwok). And an errant rocket fired during a battle between NATO and Taliban fighters killed a young girl in Kapisa province Sunday when it struck her house (Pajhwok).

Afghan security forces earlier this month detained four allegedly would-be child suicide bombers, with one aged nine (Tel, AP). The four are reportedly from Attock, in the Pakistani province of Punjab, and say they were either told by mosque leaders to undertake the bombings or were seized by the Taliban and ordered to commit the attacks.

Taliban fighters attacked a NATO supply vehicle in the Afghan province of Ghazni, killing one security guard (Tolo). The head of the Afghan National Army, Gen. Sher Mohammad Karimi, has said that he wants to build a replica of the fabled British military academy Sandhurst in Kabul to train Afghan officers (Guardian). And the AFP reports on the 16 women serving with the Afghan National Police in Helmand province, one of Afghanistan’s most dangerous areas (AFP). 1,200 women serve as police across Afghanistan.  

Spring break in Afghanistan? 

Tolo News notes the sharp growth of tourism and travel companies in Afghanistan in recent months, as licenses to operate have been issued to 60 companies in the past year (Tolo). There are currently 470 such companies, who also handle arrangements for the Hajj pilgrimage, operating in Afghanistan.

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