U.S. must be wary of some authorities after bin Laden raid, says veteran congressman who studied in Pakistan

By Barrie Barber

From © The Saginaw News

A veteran U.S. congressman who spent a year in Pakistan as a college student says the relationship between the two nations will hold, but the United States should be wary about trusting some officials within the Pakistani government.

U.S. Rep. Dale E. Kildee, D-Flint, studied Islamic culture and history for a year in Pakistan on a Rotary scholarship. The congressman said he agreed with President Barack Obama’s decision to send in U.S. Navy commandos on a kill or capture mission of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.

Navy SEALS killed bin Laden this month and gathered what officials described as a treasure trove of digital intelligence in the terrorist leader’s high-walled and barbed-wire lined compound in Abbottabad, near a prestigious Pakistani military academy.

“The president rightfully decided he had to take a chance and not notify Pakistan that we were going to go into Abbottabad and try to extract, dead or alive, Osama bin Laden,” Kildee said.

“We knew that would cost us something,” he said. “It has. They have revealed the name of the CIA bureau chief there in Islamabad.

“That’s a very, very, very serious offense to reveal because you put that person’s life in jeopardy. ... I’m disappointed that they did what they did. Deeply disappointed.”

The congressman said he believed some Pakistani officials must have known bin Laden lived in the country. “I’m sure there had to be some people, both in the government and out of the government who had to know about his presence there, yes,” he said.

Despite the serious diplomatic flap, Kildee said the two nations need each other. The United States has counted Pakistan as an ally in the war against terrorism and sent billions of dollars in foreign aid to the nation since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on U.S. soil.  

“We have to keep them as close as we can knowing we cannot share all our plans with them because there are people within the government who do not feel friendly towards the United States,” he said. “We have a need for Pakistan, but we cannot fully trust everyone in the Pakistan government. ... They’re not going to fully break the bond because they need us, too.”

Kildee, who can speak Urdu, the language of Pakistan, studied at the University of Peshawar in 1958-59. He said he visited Abbottabad, a small, mountainous town at the time.

The future congressman also lived through the first coup d’etat in Pakistan in October 1958 when Gen. Ayub Khan replaced President Iskander Mirza, who had declared martial law and dissolved the national assembly.

Kildee pulled the blinds where he was staying one day to find soldiers outside his door. They told him they were sent to protect foreigners. The soldiers eventually left.

“I got on the bus and went to school,” he said. “I was treated very well and all I noted was that everyone was much better behaved.”

At the time, Kildee said the nation was “pro-American.” Pakistan hosted both a U.S. Air Force base and a CIA operations center.

Pakistan has “changed a great deal,” he said. “It’s both modernized and had a semblance of democratic government.”