Pakistani NSA Admits Mumbai Attacker's Identity, Gets Fired

By Cernig

Mahmood Ali Durrani, Pakistan's civilian national security advisor, has been fired by his president for running his mouth and admitting something the Pakistani military and ISI didn't want admitted.

The move against Mahmood Ali Durrani, a former ambassador to Washington and a proponent of close ties with India, came hours after he and other top officials told reporters that the sole surviving Mumbai attacker was a Pakistani citizen.

A spokesman for Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said Durrani was fired late Wednesday because "he gave media interviews on national security issues without consulting the prime minister."

Indian media quoted Durrani as saying earlier that Mohammed Ajmal Kasab was Pakistani, while other top Pakistani officials separately confirmed it to media outlets.

There was no sign that the other officials would also be fired, suggesting that Durrani's ouster was caused by other, unpublicized reasons.

India had long alleged that Kasab — along with nine other militants who died during the siege — were Pakistani. Islamabad's refusal to acknowledge this was seen as a sign it was not prepared to follow through on vows to crack down on the organizers of the November attacks.

I continue to believe that Pakistan's military chief and former ISI head General Kayani is really in charge of Pakistan's government and Zardari is just a convenient public face to put on that rule because the US and other Western allies wouldn't have accepted another general as president. What Zardari - the man often called "Mr ten percent" who about-faced to co-operate with those he had at first claimed had ordered his wife's assassination - might be getting out of the deal is left to the imagination of those who care to read his incredibly sordid history. But I will say that he is now reckoned to be one of Pakistan's richest men.