'Wikileaks-Pakistan Cables' - "FATA Awareness Initiative" Series

Courtesy: "Wikileaks" and "DAWN Media Group, Pakistan"
"FATA Awareness Initiative" Team presents a new series "WikiLeaks-Pakistan Cables". Just click the Links to see the information.
What are the "Wikileaks-Pakistan Cables"?
 "Wikileaks-Pakistan Cables" comprise the secret U.S diplomatic cables sent to Washington by American embassy staff stationed in Pakistan; leaked by Whistle-blower website Wikileaks. In Pakistan, DAWN Media group is publishing these cables.
"Wikileaks-Pakistan Cables" files are available on "FATA Awareness Initiative"?

MQM: Transforming from a group of thugs to a Political party: WikiLeaks-Pakistan Cable # 139128

‘Armed gangs outnumber police in Karachi’: Wiki-Leaks-Pakistan Cables

The ACTUAL STORY Behind the Pakistan F-16 deal: WikiLeaks-Pakistan Cables

Courtesy: Daily "The Hindu, India", Daily ""DAWN, Pakistan" / WikiLeaks
Behind the Pakistan F-16 deal, a tale of many wheels 
Arun S. Mohan 
The sale was considered only ‘symbolically important' by the U.S., but had many strings attached

The sale by the United States of F-16 military aircraft to Pakistan, announced in 2005, was celebrated as a sign of deepening strategic ties between Islamabad and the Bush administration in Washington. Described by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as an attempt to “break out of the notion that [India and Pakistan are in] a hyphenated relationship,” the decision was met with anguish in New Delhi. But leaked U.S. diplomatic cables suggest that the sale was used only to further America's broad strategic interests, with Pakistan standing to gain little from the deal.

Pakistan Army chief General Ashfaq Kayani wanted more drone support: WikiLeaks-Pakistan Cables

Courtesy: Daily "DAWN, Pakistan" / WikiLeaks
Army chief wanted more drone support By Hasan Zaidi 
KARACHI: Secret internal American government cables, accessed by Dawn through WikiLeaks, provide confirmation that the US military’s drone strikes programme within Pakistan had more than just tacit acceptance of the country’s top military brass, despite public posturing to the contrary. In fact, as long ago as January 2008, the country’s military was requesting the US for greater drone back-up for its own military operations.
Previously exposed diplomatic cables have already shown that Pakistan’s civilian leaders are strongly supportive – in private – of the drone strikes on alleged militant targets in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), even as they condemn them for general consumption. But it is not just the civilian leadership that has been following a duplicitous policy on the robotic vehicles.

Punjab CM Shahbaz Sharif was willing to have CJ removed after ‘face-saving’ restoration: WikiLeaks-Pakistan Cables

Courtesy: Daily "DAWN, Pakistan" / WikiLeaks
Shahbaz was willing to have CJ removed after ‘face-saving’ restoration
By Madiha Sattar
KARACHI: Even as PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif was rallying street support by publicly refusing to back down from demands for the restoration of Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry in February and March 2009, the party was privately telling American diplomats that the future of the then-non-functional chief justice was up for negotiation.
“Shahbaz stated that following the restoration, the PML-N was prepared to end the issue and remove Chaudhry once and for all,” reported Lahore Consulate Principal Officer Bryan Hunt in a secret American diplomatic cable describing his meeting with the younger Sharif on March 14, 2009.

Easy access, hard decisions for US in Pakistan: Lessons from "WikiLeaks-Pakistan Cables" (DAWN)

Courtesy: Daily "DAWN, Pakistan", 22 May 2011
Easy access, hard decisions
By Cyril Almeida
KARACHI: Trawling through the Pakistan Papers re-confirms much of what has been established since the first cache of US diplomatic cables was published last November.
The US is neither omnipotent nor omniscient — it often reacts to events in Pakistan rather than dictating outcomes. But the US is a very influential player in Pakistan.
If there is a theme as such in the 4,000-plus cables read by Dawn, it is the unparalleled access Americans enjoy in Pakistan.
Hardly surprising, though it is something else to see it in black and white, over and over again, in cable after cable.

Saudi Arabia, UAE financing extremist Madressahs in south Punjab: WikiLeaks-Pakistan Cable # 178082

Courtesy: Daily "DAWN, Pakistan" / WikiLeaks
Saudi Arabia, UAE financing extremism in south Punjab
By Qurat ul ain Siddiqui KARACHI: A US official in a cable sent to the State Department stated that “financial support estimated at nearly 100 million USD annually was making its way to Deobandi and Ahl-i-Hadith clerics in south Punjab from organisations in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates ostensibly with the direct support of those governments.”
The cable sent in November 2008 by Bryan Hunt, the then Principal Officer at the US Consulate in Lahore, was based on information from discussions with local government and non-governmental sources during his trips to the cities of Multan and Bahawalpur.
Quoting local interlocutors, Hunt attempts to explain how the “sophisticated jihadi recruitment network” operated in a region dominated by the Barelvi sect, which, according to the cable, made south Punjab “traditionally hostile” to Deobandi and Ahl-i-Hadith schools of thought.

Cables reveal role of US troops in Pakistan: Wiki-Leaks Pakistan Cables

Courtesy: Daily "DAWN, Pakistan" / WikiLeaks
Cables reveal role of US troops in Pakistan
By Madiha SattarKARACHI: Confidential American diplomatic cables obtained by Dawn reveal new details about the activities of US forces on the ground in Pakistan, an issue that has gained heightened sensitivity in the aftermath of the Raymond Davis incident in Lahore and the American raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad.
The reports reveal that US special operations forces were embedded with Pakistani troops for intelligence gathering by the summer of 2009 and deployed with them on joint operations in Pakistani territory by September that year.

MQM: Transforming from a group of thugs to a Political party: WikiLeaks-Pakistan Cable # 139128

Courtesy: Daily "DAWN, Pakistan" / WikiLeaks
2008: MQM told US ‘stop ignoring us’
Cable ID:139128
1/29/2008 13:36
Embassy Islamabad
CONFIDENTIAL
ISLAMABAD 000421
SIPDIS
E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/22/2018
TAGS: PREL, PGOV, PTER, PK
SUBJECT: MQM LOOKING FOR RESPECT
REF: ISLAMABAD 405 ISLAMABAD 281
Classified By: Anne W. Patterson, for reasons 1.4 (b)(d)

What Friendly Countries' Officials say about Pakistan in private: WikiLeaks-Pakistan Cables

Courtesy: Daily "DAWN, Pakistan" / WikiLeaks
What friends say about Pakistan in private
By Hasan Zaidi and Qurat ul ain Siddiqui 
KARACHI: Pakistan remains “an army in search of a country,” according to French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s Diplomatic Adviser. The condescending characterisation, made to former US Ambassador Richard Holbrooke and US Ambassador to France, Charles Rivkin, is contained in a previously unpublished secret US diplomatic cable dated September 3, 2009 accessed by Dawn through WikiLeaks.
The French adviser, Jean-David Levitte, described as “a National Security Adviser equivalent and Holbrooke’s former counterpart at the UN”, is considered by the US Embassy in Paris to be “one of the most important and influential voices within the GOF [Government of France] on national security policy.”

Zardari assured Dogar he would not be removed: WikiLeaks-Pakistan Cables

Courtesy: Daily "DAWN, Pakistan" / WikiLeaks
Zardari assured Dogar he would not be removed
By Hasan Zaidi
KARACHI: PPP Co-Chairperson Asif Zardari told US Ambassador Anne W. Patterson a day after signing the Murree Declaration with PML-N head Nawaz Sharif that he and Mr Sharif “had agreed (very privately)” that Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry would not be restored but that he was worried about the optics of the jurist`s continued detention. He also told her he had already reassured the then incumbent CJ Abdul Hameed Dogar that he need not worry about the Declaration.
The Murree Declaration, signed on March 9, 2008 was touted as a big breakthrough for parliamentary cooperation between the two major winners of the February elections. Its primary clause related to the agreement to restore within 30 days all the judges removed under Gen Pervez Musharraf`s November 3 Emergency proclamation.

When US tried to force its terms for investment treaty on Pakistan: Tale of AG Makhdoom Ali Khan's Resignation: WikiLeaks Cable #117904

Courtesy: Daily "DAWN, Pakistan" / WikiLeaks
When US tried to force its terms for investment treaty 
By Idrees Bakhtiar
KARACHI: When former Attorney General Makhdoom Ali Khan resigned from Gen Musharraf’s cabinet in the wake of the Supreme Court’s reinstatement in July 2007 of ‘suspended’ Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, the Americans were not exactly regretful at Mr Khan’s departure, according to a ‘confidential’ US diplomatic cable accessed by Dawn through WikiLeaks. However, their reasons for being happy to see the back of him had nothing to do with the disastrous handling of the CJ issue by the Musharraf government’s legal team.
In a cable dated August 6, 2007, then US Ambassador Anne W. Patterson wrote that despite her reservations over Mr Khan’s “controversial” replacement, “We will not be sorry to see Khan go, as he blocked further negotiations on the bilateral investment treaty over concerns about investor-state arbitration and other issues.”

Civil-military tensions over US funding for Pakistan Army: WikiLeaks-Pakistan Cables

Courtesy: Daily "DAWN, Pakistan" / WikiLeaks
Civil-military tensions over US funding for army
By Madiha Sattar
KARACHI: The Pakistani government had complained to the US about being unaware of American funding provided directly to the Pakistan military, reveal previously unpublished American diplomatic cables. The reports also disclose tensions between the civilian government and the army over the use funds provided for counterinsurgency operations.
In a November 2009 meeting with former US Ambassador Anne Patterson, then Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin “appealed to the ambassador to keep him informed of funds the US directs to the Pakistani military.
“Promising that he would not reduce the military’s budget based on US assistance flows, Tarin said that the finance ministry needs to be kept aware for overall budgeting purposes.  Army Chief of Staff General Kayani does not pass on this information.”

ANP leaders said military protected Haqqanis, other militants: WikiLeaks-Pakistan Cables

Courtesy: Daily "DAWN, Pakistan" / WikiLeaks
ANP leaders said military protected Haqqanis, other militants
By Madiha Sattar
KARACHI: In a meeting with an American diplomat in July 2009, ANP leader Senator Afrasiab Khattak claimed that the Haqqani network, a militant group the US holds responsible for multiple attacks against coalition forces in Afghanistan, was being protected by the Pakistan military.
The report is one of a number of American diplomatic cables obtained by Dawn that reveal a deep mistrust among the leadership of the ANP,  the party responsible for governance in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, about the military’s intentions regarding various militant groups in KP and FATA.
“Khattak described the Pakistani military as treating the Haqqanis ‘separately’ … from other militants,” reported Lynne Tracy, the Principal Officer at the US Consulate in Peshawar. “The Haqqani family, [Khattak] observed, has already moved out of North Waziristan.

‘Armed gangs outnumber police in Karachi’: Wiki-Leaks-Pakistan Cables

Courtesy: Daily "DAWN, Pakistan" / WikiLeaks
‘Armed gangs outnumber police in Karachi’
By Idrees Bakhtiar
KARACHI:  “The police are only one of several armed groups and probably not the most numerous or best equipped,” according to a secret assessment of the ‘The Gangs of Karachi’ by then US consul general Stephen Fakan in April 2009.
The assessment focuses on the Pakistan People’s Party, Muttahida Qaumi Movement, Awami National Party, Muhajir Qaumi Movement (H), Sunni Tehreek and “Pashtun terrorists”, besides some armed gangs operating in Lyari and other parts of this megapolis. It states that “the PPP’s decision to include MQM in coalition governments in Sindh and at the centre has helped preclude a return to the PPP-MQM violence of the 1990s. But the potential for MQM-ANP conflict is growing as Pashtuns challenge Muhajir political dominance and vie for control of key economic interests, such as the lucrative trucking industry.

Don’t provide Iran with a foothold, US told Pak: WikiLeaks-Pakistan Cables

Courtesy: Daily "DAWN, Pakistan" / WikiLeaks
Don’t provide Iran with a foothold, US told Pak
By Qurat ul ain Siddiqui
KARACHI: A US State Department official in a meeting urged President Asif Ali Zardari against accepting Iran’s offer of concessional oil for Pakistan and providing Iran with a foothold in Pakistan, a ‘Secret’ American diplomatic cable made available to Dawn reveals.
The meeting between Richard Boucher, US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia during the Bush administration, and President Zardari took place on October 18, 2008 at the Aiwan-e-Sadr, during which Mr Zardari apprised the visiting official of the Iranian offer that the President “did not believe he could refuse.”

US was concerned about Pakistan opposing its interests at the UN: WikiLeaks Cable #66945

Courtesy: Daily "DAWN, Pakistan" / WikiLeaks
US was concerned about Pakistan opposing its interests at the UN
By Qurat ul ain Siddiqui
KARACHI: United States officials expressed grave reservations over the trend of Pakistan’s positions at the United Nations becoming increasingly divergent from those of the Americans and American interests, according to a previously unpublished American diplomatic cable.
According to the cable dated June 6, 2006 and written by John Bolton, former US ambassador to the UN under President George W. Bush and considered a hardliner, Pakistan was “one of a handful of countries…that routinely oppose the United States in multilateral debates despite strong bilateral ties to the US.”

The battle for Pakistan's prime ministership in 2008 Elections: WikiLeaks-Pakistan

Courtesy: Daily "DAWN, Pakistan" / WikiLeaks
The battle for prime ministership
By Hasan Zaidi
KARACHI: A week before the 2008 elections, former PPP Co-Chairperson Asif Zardari was asking General Pervez Musharraf’s National Security Adviser Tariq Aziz for “advice” on “who should be prime minister if the PPP were asked to form the government.” These and other fresh insights are provided from previously unpublished US diplomatic cables about what the American ambassador once termed the “increasingly ugly” tussle within the ruling party for the prime ministerial slot immediately before and after the 2008 elections. The query from Zardari for Aziz is documented in a cable dated Feb 16, 2008 from then US Ambassador Anne Patterson who was told by Aziz a day earlier that he had met with Zardari twice in the past four days.

UAE was upset over leak about Balochistan airstrip: WikiLeaks Cable # 32618.

Courtesy: Daily "DAWN, Pakistan" / WikiLeaks
UAE was upset over leak about Balochistan airstrip
By Qurat ul ain Siddiqui
KARACHI: The UAE government was extremely concerned, as far back as 2005, that details about its military cooperation with the Americans at a Pakistani airstrip had been leaked. Speaking to a US diplomat in Abu Dhabi, an official from the UAE government “expressed his displeasure…that some details of the UAE’s cooperation with the US military in Pakistan have become public,” a confidential US diplomatic cable obtained by Dawn reveals.
The May 11, 2005 conversation between Ahmed Al Musally, Director of the Asian and African Affairs Department at the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the US Deputy Chief of Mission in the UAE was reported in a cable dated May 14, 2005 and written by then Ambassador to the UAE Michele J. Sison.

Intense US monitoring of Pakistan’s nuclear and missile programmes: WikiLeaks-Pakistan

Courtesy: Daily "DAWN, Pakistan" / WikiLeaks
Intense US monitoring of Pakistan’s nuclear and missile programmes
By Sultana Saifi
KARACHI: Despite Pakistan’s repeated assurances that its history as a nuclear scofflaw was firmly behind it, the US has continued to intensely monitor Pakistan’s nuclear and missile programmes, a survey of US diplomatic cables obtained by Dawn indicates.
Dozens of cables — some confidential, others secret — from US embassies around the world are seen inquiring into purchases by Pakistan’s nuclear and missile complexes on the international market.
For example, at the start of 2008, the US Deputy Chief of Mission Nancy McEldowney at the US embassy in Ankara details her discussions with Turkish authorities about the US desire to see action taken against a suspicious shipment to Pakistan.

US thinks anti-Americanism rife in Pakistan's National Defence University, NDU: WikiLeaks-Pakistan #153436

Courtesy: Daily "DAWN, Pakistan" / WikiLeaks
US thinks anti-Americanism rife in NDU
By Idrees Bakhtiar KARACHI: The US ambassador to Pakistan had expressed concern about the distance between Pakistan military officials and the Americans that had crept in following the discontinuation of the IMET (International Military Education and Training) programmes during the “sanction years” and had recommended specifically targeting the generation that was lost during this period, internal US documents have revealed.The comments are part of a confidential cable by then Ambassador Anne Patterson in 2008. A year earlier, Ms Patterson notes, she had given an address at the National Defence University and “received astonishingly naive and biased questions about America.”