'Zardari was willing to do everything US wanted to prevent coup following Osama's killing'

Islamabad, Nov 18 (ANI): Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari was so scared of a military coup following the killing of Osama bin Laden that he was ready to create a "new security team" favorable to Americans and promised the US to hand over top al Qaeda and Taliban officials residing in Pakistan, a secret memo has revealed.

The promises were part of a secret memo to the then Chairman of the Joint US Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, The Nation quoted the Foreign Policy's blog Cable, as saying.

According to The Cable, the memo offered to reshape Pakistan's national security leadership, cleaning house of elements within the powerful military and intelligence agencies that have supported Islamic radicals and the Taliban, drastically altering Pakistani foreign policy, and requesting U.S. help to avoid a military coup. he secret memo from Zardari, was apparently handed over to Admiral Mullen by Mansoor Ijaz, a Pakistani-American businessman, in May this year following the May 2 killing of bin Laden in his Abbottabad compound.

The information about this secret memo was first leaked by Ijaz himself in an op-ed in the Financial Times last month.

According to this memo, Zardari wanted to create a new national security structure that would be favorable to the Americans, and also hand over top al Qaeda and Taliban officials residing in Pakistan , including Ayman Al Zawahiri, Mullah Omar, and Sirajuddin Haqqani.

He also allegedly promised to give U.S. military forces a "green light" to conduct the necessary operations to capture or kill them on Pakistani soil, with the support of Islamabad.

"This commitment has the backing of the top echelon on the civilian side of our house," the memo sent to Mullen via an unidentified U.S. interlocutor by Ijaz, said.

"Civilians cannot withstand much more of the hard pressure being delivered from the Army to succumb to wholesale changes. If civilians are forced from power, Pakistan becomes a sanctuary for UBL's [Osama bin Laden's] legacy and potentially the platform for far more rapid spread of al Qaeda's brand of fanaticism and terror. A unique window of opportunity exists for the civilians to gain the upper hand over army and intelligence directorates due to their complicity in the UBL matter," it added.

Meanwhile, the Pakistan Government has said it has not yet decided whether or not to accept Haqqani's resignation over a reported attempt to enlist Washington's help to rein in the country's military after the raid that killed bin Laden in May this year. (ANI)