In his most recent article, "The (Not So) Secret (Anymore) War in Pakistan," The Nation‘s Jeremy Scahill explains how the diplomatic cables recently released by WikiLeaks confirm aspects of a story about the covert US war in Pakistan that he published in The Nation last November.
Scahill joined Democracy Now! hosts Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez Thursday to reflect on the Pentagon’s history of denying covert activity in Pakistan and Yemen (Pentagon spokesperson Geoff Morrell called Scahill’s article from last year "conspiratorial" when it first appeared) and to speculate on possible reactions in Pakistan to these new cables.
According to Scahill, spokespersons for the US government who deny US military actions in Pakistan are either "out of the loop…or lying because US special operations forces have been operating in an offensive capacity in Pakistan basically since 9/11. And some would say even before 9/11 there were US covert operations going on there."
Scahill also disagrees that WikiLeaks is to blame for putting people’s lives in danger, when it is US policies and the cooperation of the Pakistani and Yemeni governments that’s actually endangering lives.
—Joanna Chiu
