Anti-US 'biases, misperceptions' run deep in Pak military: 2008 cable
Islamabad, May 25ANI: Anti-American 'biases' and 'misperceptions' run deep in the Pakistan military, a US diplomatic cable unveiled by the whistle-blower website WikiLeaks has revealed. A 2008 cable, which primarily documents the account of US army officer Colonel Michael Schleicher, who attended a course at Pakistan's National Defence University, noted that lecturers "often 'teach' their students information that is heavily biased against the United States." The colonel was of the view that the scripts used by the directing staff and guest speakers to provide lectures were usually meticulously vetted in advance. Colonel Schleicher also said that senior level instructors at the NDU had "misperceptions about US policies and culture and infused their lectures with these suspicions, while the students share these misconceptions with their superiors despite having children who attended universities in the US or London." "One guest lecturer - who is a Pakistani one-star general - claimed the US National Security Agency actively trains correspondents for media organisations. Others thought the CIA was in charge of US media and that MI-5 was in charge of the BBC. Some participants did not believe the US used female pilots overseas; they were convinced female pilots were restricted to flying within US borders," he added. According to Colonel Schleicher, students in the junior course, too, shared "many of the biases prevalent in the Muslim world, including a belief the US invaded Iraq for its oil and that 9/11 was a staged 'Jewish conspiracy'. In contrast to criticism of the US, students and instructors were adamant in their approval of all things Chinese, the cable, published by the Dawn, noted. Noting that out "of the 135 senior course students, only two openly drank alcohol," the colonel added that he "believed the secular students felt peer pressure to appear more religious than they actually were." The cable, signed by the then US Ambassador to Pakistan, Anne W. Patterson, concluded that the best way to correct the biases and misperceptions was to "initiate an exchange program for instructors" to broaden their understanding of the US". ANI
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