Probe of Islamist Infiltration: Pakistan

Pakistan, the great good friend and ally of the United States, was anguished and consumed with rage that U.S. Navy SEALs had manged to enter their air space without permission. Its leaders and its military and its secret service were even more enraged that a precision, split-second operation dispatched Osama bin Laden whose presence in Abbottabad was completely unknown to the political and military hierarchy.

And that, before Pakistan could scramble a response to the eventual alert that something was amiss in their sovereign airspace, the SEALs had successfully concluded their operation and fled the scene with incriminating documentation, hard drives and all manner of data that would greatly assist their friend and ally in arresting the commission of future attacks against the United States.

Truth to tell, the population of Pakistan was not terribly enthused either that a country whom they loathe had the determined audacity to take their own by surprise. And the embarrassment of the executive branch of government at having to acknowledge that al-Qaeda's infamous leader and aspiring mass butcher of the West had been living a well-sheltered life a stone's throw from an elite military garrison.

And no one knew. Not the ISI, not the Pakistan military brass, and certainly not the country's President or Prime Minister. Perhaps the milkman did, for he was, among other lowly inhabitants of the town, arrested. As were five Pakistani "informants", whom the military claims gave assistance to the CIA enabling it to amass vital data useful in planning the deadly raid.

One of the "informants" a Pakistani Army major who thoughtfully took down license plate numbers of vehicles that regularly drove to Osama bin Laden's sheltered compound. And who surreptitiously - in the obviously erroneous impression that he was honourably committing to the oft-heard government assurances to the U.S. of co-operation - was sharing that information with the CIA.

However, the Pakistani military, while denying vehemently that it had any knowledge of bin Laden's whereabouts, much less assistance and cover given him, denied any army officers had been detained. The ISI had no comment.

But they are busy-busy, yes indeed. Having strenuously denied all charges emanating from their friends and colleagues conjoined in battling terrorism that the ISI and the military have been infiltrated at every level by the very jihadists they were supposed to be battling, the army has now detailed four majors and a brigadier whom they are investigating.

Brigadier Ali Khan represents the highest-ranking military official currently known to have been detained for involvement in insurgent activities. His arrest signifies that Hizb ut-Tahrir has been highly successful in negotiating ingress into the official military ranks of the country.

What an immense, totally unexpected revelation.