WikiLeaks Cablegate: Zardari accuses India of providing chemicals to produce heroin
WikiLeaks Cablegate: Zardari accuses India of providing chemicals to produce heroin
India-related document from the leaked US embassy cables released by whistleblowing website WikiLeaks.

Reference ID: 09ISLAMABAD1438

Created: 2009-06-30 10:10

Released: 2010-11-30 21:09

Classification: SECRET

Origin: Embassy Islamabad

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S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 02 ISLAMABAD 001438

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/26/2019

TAGS: PREL PGOV PTER PHUM EAID PK

SUBJECT: NSA JONES' JUNE 25 MEETING WITH PRESIDENT ZARDARI

Classified By: Anne W. Patterson for reasons 1.4 (b,d)

¶1. (C) Summary: In their June 25 meeting in Islamabad,

National Security Advisor General James Jones and President

Zardari discussed: Pakistan's military offensive against

extremists; GOP capacity to fight terrorism; the nature of

extremism in Pakistan; drones; Iran; Afghanistan; Zardari's

conversation with Indian PM Singh in Russia; and the positive

trend of U. S. Pakistan relations.

End Summary.

¶2. (C) National Security Advisor General James Jones,

Ambassador, and delegation from the National Security Council

met President Zardari and a GOP delegation at the Presidency

on June 25. Pakistan's military campaign in Malakand and

Waziristan had been positively noted in the U.S., said Jones,

which welcomed the display of resolve. The trendline in

relations between the U.S. and Pakistan was positive, said

Jones. Zardari rejoined that the most important component of

the relationship was the goodwill expressed by the USG toward

Pakistan; his own tenure in office (ten months) was short and

his popularity not high, but goodwill from America was

central to his and Pakistan's future.

¶3. (C) Pakistan was united, said Zardari: the people have

the will to support the military in its campaign to stop the

taliban/extremists operating in the country. He cautioned

that the fight against militant extremism would be a long

one, lasting not months but many, many years and that lack of

vigilance on the GOP's part would be devastating. As

confident as he was of the military's resolve -- this time

-- to fight Pakistani militancy, he was equally convinced

that any failure to maintain pressure on the militants after

showing such resolve would have grave consequences.

¶4. (S) President Zardari thanked the U.S. for its assistance

while stating he needed "a battalion of helicopters" to fight

the extremists now, and in the future. He also made repeated

pleas for drones to be "put in Pakistan's hands" so that

Pakistan would own the issue and drone attacks (including

collateral damage) would not provoke anti-americanism.

Zardari said the technology behind them was not cutting-edge

and said he has raised the issue with the Chairman of the

Joint Chiefs of Staff.

¶5. (C) Journalist Bob Woodward (traveling with the NSA Jones

delegation) joined the meeting later and asked Zardari why he

had sharpened his attack on the extremists in the last six

months. "Organization," replied Zardari, who noted he had

been in office a short time and had used the first four

months to prepare. Pointing to the death of his

father-in-law Zulfikar Bhutto and assassination of his wife,

Benazir, Zardari said he had been confronting extremism (or

the ideology from which it was birthed) for more than thirty

years. His wife had been targeted for assassination as early

as 1988, when she was viewed as a symbol of feminism and all

that it represented. The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) of

which he was the head (like the Bhuttos before him) had

always been ousted from power by the military, said Zardari,

which previously had been aligned with fundamentalism.

¶6. (C) Jones asked Zardari how he viewed relations in the

region and told Zardari President Obama's own policy toward

Iran would have to be reexamined given events unfolding

there. Whatever had happened during the election, Iranian

leadership could not pretend nothing had occurred and return

as if there had been no shift.

¶7. (C) Zardari noted that several tri-lateral forums had

been created in the region with the ostensible purpose of

supporting Afghanistan. He counseled that the USG must

"cooperate with Turkey, and Iran," acknowledging at the same

time that the GOP too was perplexed and disappointed by what

had happened in Iran. As to Afghanistan, he said all

countries had to be encouraged -- even if (as in the case of

Russia), only to be urged not to meddle. Zardari accused

India of providing the precursor chemicals necessary to

produce heroine, which he said was funding the taliban in

Afghanistan.

¶8. (C) Asked by NSA Jones, what was the best that could be

hoped for in Afghanistan, Zardari spoke of substituting

hybrid corn for poppies, even if at a subsidized price, to

ISLAMABAD 00001438 002 OF 002

wean farmers from the opium trade. He said China might be

interested or persuaded to invest in the venture. Zardari's

vision was to use that corn for ethanol production; he

welcomed the indication of interest shown by National

Geographic CEO John Fahey, and invited him to return to

Pakistan for a briefing on the concept.

¶9. (C) More broadly, Zardari praised the industriousness of

the Pashtun people. Currently they were "very good warriors,"

but they were also natural entrepreneurs and the hardest

working people of Pakistan. If their entrepreneurial power

could be unleashed, the problems "in the Pashtun belt" would

largely be resolved.

¶10. (C) Over the medium term, Pakistan had to built its

economy so that is could pay its own expenses to combat

extremism, added Zardari, who thought this possible if

exports could be increased three-fold. (He said he would

raise the issue with National Security Council Senior

Director Lipton in his upcoming visit to Pakistan.) He

thanked the USG for all it was doing to aid Pakistan and

asked for more financial assistance.

¶11. (C) Zardari signaled that there had been some progress

in his talks with Indian PM Singh in Russia, even though he

had noted earlier that India's military capacity was ten-fold

Pakistan's. He regretted not being able to meet Singh at the

upcoming Sharm el-Sheikh summit but, he said, "unfortunately,

PM Gilani had already announced he would be going to Sharm"

(sic). In his meeting with Singh, said Zardari, he had

underscored that "there could not be a better political

moment" to improve relations across the board. India was a

mature democracy and an ancient nation, said Zardari. "Singh

is an excellent economist," he said, but Zardari was not

convinced the Indian Prime Minister understood the

constraints under which Zardari was operating. Helping Singh

to understand them was of import, hinted Zardari. NSC Senior

Director Don Camp said the Indian perspective was to question

GOP activism and to ask what it had done to quash terrorist

organizations. NSA Jones reminded Zardari how important it

was to ensure there was not another Mumbai-style attack.

Zardari reiterated that Singh was unaware of what it took to

"change the mind-set of Pakistan's "establishment," given

Pakistan's short history of fragile democratic regimes

toppled by the military.

¶12. (U) NSA Jones has cleared this cable.

PATTERSON

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