The US & others working with Pakistan

[carl]

David and Bourbon:

Those were two quite outstanding articles. Thank you both for highlighting them.

[davidbfpo]

A few weeks ago I posted a review of 'Ask Forgiveness No Permission: The True Story of an Operation in Pakistan's Badlands' in the thread on Pakistani Internal Security, which is reproduced in Part 2.

Last week The Spectator published a review of the BBC's veteran Pakistan correspondent, Owen Bennett-Jones, which is more a commentary on working with Pakistan and it ends:

Of course, you could argue that his militia was politically controlled — but just not by the country that picked up the bill to pay for it.

Link:http://www.spectator.co.uk/books/889...as-in-control/

Part 2

A modern Lawrence, with locals in choppers

A new book on:

an ex-Royal Navy pilot, led a 25-strong force of specially-recruited (Frontier Corps) Pakistani soldiers raiding Taliban camps, hunting down kidnap victims and detaining suspected al-Qaeda militants (in 2003).

Lt Cdr Leedham tells his story in a new book, Ask Forgiveness Not Permission....The inspiration for his instructions came from the writings of Lawrence of Arabia. “These guys really did perform..I used a lot of Lawrence doctrine. I know it sounds a bit hokey but I did.”.....the model he used — small teams of local fighters with tight security protocols that prevent tip-offs to militant leaders — could still be used to hunt terrorists even as Western forces pull out of the region.

Link:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...t-Taliban.html

The UK Amazon has six rave reviews and the Foreword is by Frederick Forsyth:http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ask-Forgiven.../dp/1903071674

It appears not to have been released yet in the USA:http://www.amazon.com/Ask-Forgivenes...Not+Permission
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