Bush crying Wolf again?

In an article first published on the 19th of July, The New Republic magazine reported that the Bush administration was putting pressure on the Pakistani government and intelligence services to deliver high-value Al Qaeda members before the US election in November.

A third source, an official who works under ISI’s director, Lieutenant General Ehsan ul-Haq, informed TNR that the Pakistanis “have been told at every level that apprehension or killing of HVTs before [the] election is [an] absolute must.” What’s more, this source claims that Bush administration officials have told their Pakistani counterparts they have a date in mind for announcing this achievement: “The last ten days of July deadline has been given repeatedly by visitors to Islamabad and during [ul-Haq's] meetings in Washington.” … But according to this ISI official, a White House aide told ul-Haq last spring that “it would be best if the arrest or killing of [any] HVT were announced on twenty-six, twenty-seven, or twenty-eight July”–the first three days of the Democratic National Convention in Boston.

Surprise, surpise, on the 29th July, Pakistan’s interior minister announced that Pakistani forces had captured Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a Tanzanian wanted in connection with the 1998 bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. In fact Ghailani had actually been captured on the 25th, but the announcement wasn’t made until four days later, just hours before John Kerry’s speech…

Today the news is full of reports that the US has raised its Terror Alert Status to Golden Brown: Risk of imminent Kerry victory or something, based on information Pakistan has gleaned from Ghailani’s arrest. (coincidentally on the same day that Bush announced that he wants to appoint an intelligence adviser and set up a national counter-terrorism centre).

The Bush administration crying “Wolf!” again? A cynical person might say they smell a rat rather than a wolf, but as regular readers know, I don’t have a cynical bone in my body and believe the above events were purely coincidental.

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