UK: US pilots, Pak ATC were in contact before Osama raid’

LONDON, (The News): Mansoor Ijaz, the character at the centre of the memogate scandal, on Thursday claimed that US pilots and Pakistani Air Traffic Control (ATC) were in contact with each other before the May 2 Abbottabad raid, suggesting that Pakistani authorities had prior knowledge of the operation.

Mansoor Ijaz maintained that he was not the agent of any government and didn’t receive payments from anyone. He appealed to the Pakistani government to get Pakistan’s erstwhile ambassador to US Husain Haqqani to come clean on issues surrounding the memogate investigation. Ijaz said a speedy and rational conclusion of the judicial commission’s inquiry hinged on Haqqani’s firm evidence-supported cooperation with the commission.

“This could all end today if Haqqani tells the truth. It’s that simple,” Mansoor Ijaz said at the doorstep of Pakistan High Commission here at the end of the first day of cross examination, adding: “The people of the great nation of Pakistan deserved to know the truth and it’s the responsibility of the people in the government to make Haqqani come clean.”

He said Justice Qazi Issa had “made it crystal clear that Haqqani should produce evidence in his support or provide some form of evidence in his support to say his version is true”. “All they (Haqqani and his legal team) have done is deny and walk away. Our evidence has been confirmed in all forms so far, BlackBerry handsets will be dealt with in coming days. The point here is that the search for the truth requires that everybody tells the truth. We have told the truth meticulously with every piece of evidence in our hand, some of it has still to come out. It’s becoming clear that one side has told the truth with crystal clarity and the other side has done everything to obfuscate everything that we have said,” Ijaz told the Pakistani media in his statement.

During his cross-examination, Mansoor Ijaz added that the threat of a military coup was also confirmed by the security agencies of four other countries and that the Inter-Services Intelligence chief General Shuja Pasha had courted the help of different countries for the military coup. Ijaz said he had received a classified draft about Pasha’s visit and the May 2 incident but refused to comment on the source or how he had received the draft.

The draft, said Ijaz, convinced him that the threat of a military coup was genuine and it was in this background that he volunteered to help Husain Haqqani to save Pakistan from a military coup with the help of the United States administration.

Nawaz Sharif’s legal counsels, Mustafa Ramday, Rana Intezar, Saifur Rehman and Judicial Commission Secretary Raja Jawad Abbas and Mansoor Ijaz’s wife Valerie were also present in the new hearing room on the first floor.

Ijaz revealed details about his two high-powered meetings with President Asif Ali Zardari on two occasions in which “Pakistan-US relations” came under discussion. The first meeting was held in 2005, the second in 2009 and an invitation for the third meeting also came but the two couldn’t meet for the third time, Mansoor Ijaz said under oath.

It’s a safe bet that these meetings were arranged by Husain Haqqani, who is now involved in a ferocious legal battle with Mansoor Ijaz, the man who says he authored the controversial memorandum for Admiral Mike Mullen on the instructions of Haqqani.

Ijaz claimed Haqqani also supported his views of Pakistan’s “dual policy” in an article he penned soon after the Abbottabad operation but refused to publicly support his (Ijaz’s) views.

Mansoor Ijaz announced upon his arrival that he would start legal proceedings against a private television network for “slandering” him. A few channels had reported that Mansoor Ijaz was found drunk in a London nightclub. He declared: “I have never touched alcohol in my life; therefore, there is no question of being drunk. It’s a slanderous and mischievous campaign against me and I will not tolerate my name, my father’s name or anyone else in my family being slandered by yellow journalism.”

Faisal Kamal Pasha adds from Islamabad: Mansoor Ijaz claimed during the cross questioning that as a part of the intelligence briefing he received a transcript that contained detailed records, almost minute by minute, of the conversations that took place between the Pakistan Air Traffic Control and pilots of the US helicopters, from the time American helicopters entered the Pakistan’s air space until they returned to Afghan air space on May 02. He said that the transcript also contained the actions and reactions of the Pakistani army chief, the military secretary of President Asif Ali Zardari and president himself.

Mansoor Ijaz said that the Government of Pakistan intimidated him not to come to Pakistan and he mentioned Rehman Malik as a senior Pakistani official who tried to stop him by issuing intimidating statements. “I find it a very difficult moment to reveal the secrets between the nations,” he said. “When Husain Haqqani informed me that there was a possibility of a military coup and he needs help, it was my responsibility to verify whatever he was saying was correct,” Ijaz said.

“I contacted my three to four intelligence sources in different countries that informed me about the travel of Director General Inter-Services Intelligence Lt Gen Ahmad Shuja Pasha and I also received a transcript. What I determined from those findings was reasonable cause to believe that Husain Haqqani’s assertions regarding the possibility of a military coup were right.”

Mansoor Ijaz said that he wanted the head of the commission, Justice Qazi Faez Isa, and none else to see this transcript. Justice Isa then directed him to seal the transcript in an envelope and hand it over to the secretary of the commission who will deliver it to the commission. The American citizen insisted that his source was unimpeachable.

To a question posed by Mustafa Ramday about the capacity in which he knew Husain Haqqani, Ijaz said he had been known to Haqqani for the last 10 years. “In this time period, we have exchanged almost 80 to 85 emails.” On the order of the memo commission, Ijaz produced all the emails and submitted them to the secretary to the commission, Raja Jawad Abbas.

Mansoor Ijaz said that he used to consider Haqqani a good friend and would keep doing so. “Our relationship is of personal nature; he used to refer to me in the emails and BBMs as Pal or Buddy, in an affectionate manner. Whenever the US media required an expert on Pakistan and Muslim countries affairs, I recommended Haqqani to CNN, Fox News, etc.”

Mansoor Ijaz, however, said that at one time he exchanged adversarial remarks about Haqqani when Gen Jones inquired about the former ambassador. “And I told him that he (Haqqani) plays all sides against the middle, always ensuring that he is standing in the middle. Haqqani and me jointly drafted two oped pieces that were not published in newspapers back in 2004. When I first wrote an article in the Financial Times I sent a BBM to Haqqani saying ‘my dear friend as much as I respect you personally, you’ll not like what I have written in the FT today. But it had to be written. I hope you are managing the extraordinary stresses with your usual grace and charm. If I could help you personally let me know. Haqqani replied to me ‘Actually I agree with your FT piece, just can’t say so publicly’. Then Haqqani sent me another BBM saying ‘Let us work in Tandem to save the situation’.”

Mustafa Ramday asked Mansoor Ijaz why Haqqani chose him to deliver the message. Ijaz replied that Haqqani knew he knew Gen Jones and Gen Jones knew Michael Mullen. “I was a plausibly deniable source to convey the message.”

Before responding to the question, Ijaz in a lighter note said that Haqqani chose him because he was the unluckiest guy on earth that day.

Mansoor Ijaz said that he had received six death threats till this time. He said that Haqqani had been using his links in the US to issue slanderous statements against him from some senior officials of the US government.

The commission expressed its serious concerns about why Haqqani had not produced any counter evidence such as his telephone sets or telephone bills the way Mansoor Ijaz did. The commission said that it had to get to the truth and Haqqani was a government servant bound by disciplinary laws. The commission will continue with the cross examination today (Friday).