Daily Times

On May 2nd, SEAL Team Six descended on the residence of Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad a few miles from Pakistan’s West Point. The U.S. did not forewarn Pakistani leadership feared a leak. Bin Laden was killed and a political crisis between Islamabad and Washington erupted over the raid and American violation of Pakistani sovereignty.

On October 10th, the Financial Times published an oped written by Mansoor Ijaz, a since discredited Pakistani-American businessman. The oped alleged that “a senior Pakistani diplomat telephoned me (in May) with an urgent request. Asif Ali Zardari, Pakistan’s president, needed to communicate a message to White House national security officials that would bypass Pakistan’s military and intelligence channels. The embarrassment of bin Laden being found on Pakistani soil had humiliated Mr Zardari’s weak civilian government to such an extent that the president feared a military takeover was imminent. He needed an American fist on his army chief’s desk to end any misguided notions of a coup – and fast.”

Ijaz would later claim the memo was the creation of the then Pakistani Ambassador to the U.S., Dr. Husain Haqqani. According to Ijaz, both had several long conversations in early May when the ambassador was in London meeting with senior UK leaders at Number Ten and in Parliament to serve as a bridge between Washington and Islamabad after the raid. I was present facilitating these meetings and also knew Ijaz who served briefly with me on the advisory board of Supreme Allied Commander Europe, then Marine General James Jones.

Ijaz alleged that he was to deliver this message in a memo to Admiral Mike Mullen, then U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs to curtail the power of the Army and its Inter-Services Intelligence Service (ISI). The oped triggered a political firestorm in Pakistan called Memogate.

2011 was a bad year for Pakistan and for U.S.-Pakistani relations. On January 4th, the owner of this newspaper, Punjab Governor Salman Taseer, was assassinated by one of his bodyguards, Mumtaz Qadri, because Taseer defended a Christian woman Aasia Bibi convicted of blasphemy and condemned to death

On November 22nd, against the advice of his friends and wife, Ambassador Haqqani returned to Islamabad to face charges. He offered his resignation and was placed under “house arrest” in the Prime Minister’s Islamabad residence for safekeeping. Charges were filed by former and later Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Haqqani was accused of treason. He vehemently denied both the charges and any complicity in drafting the memo.

Because his life was at risk, a daily phone call was initiated back to America to ensure he was safe. Meanwhile, Admiral Mullen, General Jones and then Senator John Kerry actively sought Haqqani’s release and relief from charges that were politically motivated in efforts by the then chief justice to discredit President Zardari. Finally, the court allowed Haqqani to return to America.

At least five reasons refute Ijaz’s story. First, Haqqani had extraordinary access to the Obama administration. He could have easily met with Admiral Mullen or any other cabinet secretary. An intermediary was unnecessary. Further, the ambassador did not trust Ijaz and was aware of his controversial record.

Second, the memo was written in poor English and filled with typos. As a former professor and pedant when it came to language, Haqqani would never have tolerated approving any such correspondence associated with his name.

Third, even if the memo were accurate, which it was not, how could this be contrived as treason when the attempt was to prevent a military coup?

Fourth, General Jones who had stepped down as President Barack Obama’s first national security advisor never believed the memo was approved by President Zardari. That he knew Ijaz from his advisory board possibly explained why as a favor he passed the memo to Admiral Mullen who quickly dismissed it. Because Mullen had taken on the Pakistan portfolio and was highly informed on these issues, he realized that if the memo were legitimate, it would not have come from a questionable source.

Fifth, charging the ambassador was a politically motivated and expedient means to weaken Zardari by removing one of his principal advisers.

Last week, the current Pakistani Chief Justice finally dismissed the charges against Ambassador Haqqani. This was long overdue, nearly eight years late. The cause celebre, Mansoor Ijaz, so far has not been held accountable for this debacle. Reportedly, he is living in Monaco to avoid payment of $1.4 million to a European bank ordered by a New York court in a 2012 fraud ruling.

U.S.-Pakistani relations continue to deteriorate. And the suicide bombing in Kashmir killing 40 Indian paramilitary forces now makes Indian retaliation against Pakistan certain. Such is life in Pakistan today.

The writer is UPI’s Arnaud deBorchgrave Distinguished Columnist. His latest book is Anatomy of Failure: Why America Has Lost Every War It Starts

Published in Daily Times, February 20^th 2019.