By Faisal Shakeel

The revelation by US Defense Secretary Robert Gates that notorious security firm Blackwater, now known as Xe, is operating in Pakistan did more harm to the sitting government than anything else. The media zeroed in on his admission and beamed across the country the previous statements of US and Pakistani officials denying Blackwater’s presence in Pakistan.

The admission dealt a heavy blow to a government already reeling from the Supreme Court’s verdict that restored corruption cases against the president and some of his close confidantes. The decaying popularity of the government has now sunk to a new low.

The media accused Gates of creating more problems for Pakistan after arriving here from India, instead of bridging the widening gulf between the two partitioned neighbours. Why do a u-turn and send your ally in the war on terror hurtling off a slippery road?

Is it possible that Gates did not know how sensitive the issue of Blackwater is for the Pakistani media, people and government? Is there any chance that the criticism the private security firm drew because of its role in Iraq had eluded him?

The stories in the US media about the presence of Blackwater and the stance of the US and the Pakistani governments over the issue are as clear as daylight. Besides, it is hard to swallow that neither Gates nor the officials, who must have briefed him before his visit to the frontline state, knew that the US Ambassador to Pakistan Anne W Patterson and the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had already denied the firm’s presence.

It is important to know what truth the officials had been trying to conceal in their lies about Blackwater’s role in Pakistan. One reason is the notoriety the firm earned during its stay in Iraq, where it was tasked with providing CIA officials with security in their special operations to pick up terror suspects. According to the US media, the firm, which employs former US special forces personnel, changed its role from providing security to executing complex operations.

Later, in an incident widely publicised in local and international media, Blackwater guards were accused of killing Iraqis without any reason. Their exoneration in a US court on account of inadmissible evidence has raised a furore in Iraq, with the Iraqi government pledging to try them at home.

In Pakistan, people generally believe the firm is engaged in clandestine operations to destabilise the country, while others believe its presence intrudes on the sovereignty of the country, already under fire from US drone attacks.

Gates’ statement has revealed what the government had been trying to brush under the carpet for a long time. It will be difficult now for the government not to ask the US to pull Blackwater out of Pakistan, or else it will dip further into the mess it is finding itself in at home.