DIRTY DIPLOMACY

Even when two persons are talking, one annoyed with the stand of the other tells him not to be diplomatic. A very common word in politics, is as a matter of fact quite abused one. What does it mean? When you say yes and mean no and when you say no and mean yes, you are being diplomatic. Whenever your particular statement is like a double-edged sword, it is the best example of a diplomatic stand. Avoiding being specific amounts to diplomacy. Such statements, depending on the available situation can be used either way. There is yet another similar expression in the field of intelligence, known as dirty tricks. And when two premier intelligence agencies like the CIA of the US and the ISI of Pakistan strike a deal, one can just imagine the depth of dirty diplomacy and dirty tricks  involved therein. Each one will try to outwit the other.

A recent news, published in the New York Times throws adequate light on such a subject. Its correspondent Mark Mazzeti has published a book captioned, “The Way of the Knife: The CIA a Secret Army, and a War at the Ends of the Earth”. According to this book, the CIA and the ISI struck a deal in 2004 at the time of Bush administration. It allowed the CIA to go for Drone attacks on the North-West frontiers so long they did not hit Pak atomic plants and the mountain camps in POK where terrorists are being trained to operate in J&K. This clearly means that Pak should allow the killing of Pushtun leaders for peace in Afghanistan and in return, The US would permit the Pak trained militants to kill Indians in K&K. Moreover, it was further bilaterally agreed that while the CIA would never acknowledge any Drone attack , Pakistan was free to claim the credit if any pro-Taliban leader was killed in such attacks. As a matter of fact, originally when Drones were pressed into service, the main objective was to eliminate Pakhtoon tribal leader Nek Muhammad. Strangely  the first victim of this operation was Nek himself within few months of the operation. As discussed above, ISI came forward to claim the credit of killing Nek. The CIA, as per the understanding never rebutted the claim.

At that time, Genl. Parwez Musharraf was the President of Pakistan.  So far thousands of tribal leaders, activists and general people have laid down their life. In America, Obama came in power and Asif Ali Zardari is holding the fort in Pakistan. Despite these significant changes in top positions of both the countries, the Drone operation goes on unabated. Neither Obama will acknowledge Drone attacks nor Pakistan will openly oppose it. This is dirty diplomacy, this is dirty trick at its best.