BBC NEWS | South Asia | Al-Qaeda ‘rebuilding’ in Pakistan — Ever since Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf came to the USA recently to promote his book and bad mouth Bush I’ve been waiting for a slow build-up of anti-Pakistan news items leading to the demolition of the place. Pakistan is a hotbed of crackpot Islamist sword-rattlers. And they do possess an A-bomb. So the target is obvious. Unfortunately there is a huge rather normal Westernized cosmopolitan population there too. Personally, I’d move if I were in that category. Peru will be safer if this is a trend. Expect more stories like this in the months ahead.
The head of US spying operations says the leaders of al-Qaeda have found a secure hideout in Pakistan from where they are rebuilding their strength.
National Intelligence Director John Negroponte said al-Qaeda was strengthening its ties across the Middle East, North Africa and Europe.
Pakistan rejected the comments, which are the most specific on the issue yet.
This week, the US carried out air strikes in Somalia targeting what it believed to be members of al-Qaeda.
If we pisss off ENOUGH groups over there, we might as Well call them by the same names…
Makes it easyier, and we really, dont need to figure out WHO was WHO.
Pull out or NUKE the whole place…you cant have it both ways..
If you want to piss a group off, at LEAST make them closer, something like Canada, or mexico, Even Brazil…
Just figure out WHO you want to fight FIRST, and not a 3 front war..
Useless info for today: €500 banknotes are called “Bin Ladens” in Spain – everybody knows they exist but nobody has ever seen one.
Is there anyone other than the Saudi royal family and neocon Israelis who doesn’t hold the US in contempt?
That place has plenty of fundamentalist Muslims, but Musharraf seems to get it, and enjoys making up threats, so the US won’t take him out.
#3, yes. There are a few textile factory owners in Samoa as well. And I think there might be one or two politicians in Britain too.
To the herd, they all look the same. Just kill ’em.
#2 – Likewise, to the herd, they’re just called Mexicans. They all look the same.
So says most experts, I am surprised its taken so long for us to actually saying it publicly. So BBC says that Pakistan did a good job of getting rid of most al-qaida in the pakistani cities, and then tried to get rid of them in the hills, but they got their asses rocked. So the pakistani president started to make treaties with Taliban which are also associated with al-qada. Yeah this is fact as far as I am concerned, I just hope something is done about it. Instead of a whitewash by the Pakistani government.
I have experienced the radical situation in Pakistan all too well… I’ve had some damn close calls with those guys.!
So, I’m no fan of the radicals, but I can’t bring myself to condemn Musharraf too much for this problem. He certainly had had some close calls himself — so you can’t say he’s coddled them.
Pakistan has almost a totally un-sealable border with Afghanistan plus they have literally MILLIONS of Afghan refugees in the country because of the Soviet invasion — which they sided with the US on — and the following civil war.
In that regard, the problem is about as vexing as the US problem with illegal immigrants from Mexico. Even if you threw billions of dollars at the problem, you’d only slow it down a little.
Another problem is the Pakistan security service and military — by all accounts they are riddled with pro-Taliban sympathizers but there is no way to sort out the good guys from the bad guys.
. I think the word “rebuilding” is a little too vague for what actually may be occurring. Both Pakistan and the U.S. have a mutual interest in eliminating, or severely limiting, the terrorists’ operational capabilities. Pervez has a delicate balancing act on his hands, in the sense that as he clamps down harder on the tribal regions, he loses political support, and yet if he does nothing the threat of his Presidency coming to an end increases as these extremists do not want him in power either. I would recommend reading “In the Line of Fire” by Pervez it is a great read and I enjoy his military attitude.
. This speech seems to be an act by Negroponte to publicly place some heat on Pervez, so when the Pakistani military forces take out a camp they can bolster their claim of partnership. America continues to sell top of the line military communications equipment (among other items) to the Pakistani Army, and at quite the discount. Moreover, there has been success in terms of eliminating Taliban insurgents trying to cross the border. Last week a convoy carrying 150 Taliban members was fired upon by Pakistani Artillery Brigades, which missed the convoy, but the information was passed on to Coalition Forces and the convoy was eliminated as it crossed into Afghanistan.
#10
I also read “In the Line of Fire” but I’m not sure I can recommend it unless one has a pretty serious interest in Pakistan. My own personal history overlapped with much in the book. so, of course, I found it interesting. One problem with the book is that it is self-serving (like any autobiography) and I don’t know how a casual reader could ever parse the facts from the BS.
I totally agree with what you say about the political balancing act of Musharraf. I think that’s the main thing — and it’s a literal do-or-die political game for Musharraf
There is another factor — and that is just how difficult it would be to catch anyone in the area that Osama is likely to be hiding. I haven’t been in that exact area but I’ve been fairly close to it, and it is remote and very hard to penetrate.
But it’s not uninhabited like USA wilderness — there are villages and people all over the place who would surely give Osama a heads-up long before anyone could sneak up on him.
And there is no way for strangers to blend in. No kidding — if some CIA guys or even Pakistan intelligence set up a forward operation base even hundreds of miles away in Quetta or Peshawar, I think Osama would hear about it.