A Comprehensive Look At The Role That Pakistan's Government Has Played In Protecting the Taliban And Osama Bin Laden

One of many madrasas in Quetta in 2008. Credit Alex Majoli/Magnum, for The New York Times

What Pakistan Knew About Bin Laden -- Carlotta Gall, New York Times

Shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks, I went to live and report for The New York Times in Afghanistan. I would spend most of the next 12 years there, following the overthrow of the Taliban, feeling the excitement of the freedom and prosperity that was promised in its wake and then watching the gradual dissolution of that hope. A new Constitution and two rounds of elections did not improve the lives of ordinary Afghans; the Taliban regrouped and found increasing numbers of supporters for their guerrilla actions; by 2006, as they mounted an ambitious offensive to retake southern Afghanistan and unleashed more than a hundred suicide bombers, it was clear that a deadly and determined opponent was growing in strength, not losing it. As I toured the bomb sites and battlegrounds of the Taliban resurgence, Afghans kept telling me the same thing: The organizers of the insurgency were in Pakistan, specifically in the western district of Quetta. Police investigators were finding that many of the bombers, too, were coming from Pakistan.

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My Comment: Regular readers of this blog know that I have been a long time harsh critic of the Pakistani government in their support of extremism. This analysis by New York Times only confirms this opinion.

U.S. Drone Strikes In Pakistan Are Radicalizing A New Generation

 

 In Swat Valley, U.S. Drone Strikes Radicalizing A New Generation -- CNN 

Swat Valley, Pakistan (CNN) -- The Sabaoon School for boys in northern Pakistan is anything but average.

Nestled amid the bucolic charm of the Swat Valley's fertile terraced fields and steeply rising crags it looks idyllic. But if you get up close, a harsher reality becomes clear.

Two army check-posts scrutinize visitors entering the sprawling site. Once inside, the high razor wire-topped walls around the classroom compounds create a feeling reminiscent of a prison.

The boys here, aged 8 to 18, were all militants at some point. Some are killers, some helped build and plant improvised explosive devices, and others were destined to be suicide bombers until they were captured or turned over to the Pakistani army. All of them are at the school to be de-radicalized.

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My Comment: The madrassas have been a recruiting goldmine for Al Qaeda in Pakistan. Until the Pak government imposes some type of control on these religious schools .... Al Qaeda and radical Islamists will have no problem in recruiting new members. In the meantime .... the U.S. drone war continues.

Pakistan's Osama Bin Laden Report: No One Knew Bin Laden Was There

Pakistan's Osama Bin Laden Report: al-Qaeda Leader Feared To Set Foot Outside Compound -- The Telegraph

Osama bin Laden retreated behind closed doors, refusing to set foot even in the courtyard of his hideaway in the final weeks before he died because of a security lapse, found the official Pakistani report on the al-Qaeda leader.

An independent commission has spent the past year and a half questioning military officers, bin Laden's wives and residents of Abbottabad.

The Daily Telegraph has learnt from a senior government official that no one else in the town knew the world's most wanted man had taken up residence there. It clears Pakistan's government and military establishment of involvement, a verdict that will prompt accusations of a cover-up and infuriate Western diplomats.

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My Comment: The official Pakistani position can be summed up in the following .... see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.

US Diplomat Alleges Some Al Qaeda Leaders Are In Quetta, Pakistan

From Dawn:

PESHAWAR: A senior US diplomat on Friday went a step further than restating Washington’s assertion about the presence of Taliban shura in Quetta and insisted that some Al Qaeda leadership could also be there.

‘Our intelligence shows that some of the Al Qaeda leadership is in Pakistan,’ Candace Putnam, the US consul-general in Peshawar told a media roundtable here.

‘I don’t know where Osama bin Laden is on any given day, but we do know that some of the leadership is sitting in Quetta and that they travel back and forth from Afghanistan to Pakistan,’ she said.

‘We know that they are there. And I think your government also knows this. Whether they want to say this in public or not but I think they know they are there,’ she added.

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My Comment: The Americans are getting frustrated with Pakistani unwillingness to clamp down on Al Qaeda and Afghan-Taliban groups in Pakistan. I expect these comments to increase as more U.S. soldiers start to surge into Afghanistan.

Predator Missile Strikes Against Taliban/Al Qaeda Training Camps

U.S. soldiers from the 2-87 Infantry climb towards a forward observation post October 20, 2006 overlooking the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, from the Paktika province of eastern Afghanistan. The outpost, only 800 meters from the border, is frequently attacked by Taliban forces, many of whom cross over from the South Waziristan tribal area of Pakistan, according to American soldiers. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)

Strata-Sphere has an extensive wrap-up:

New Predator Strike In Waziristan, Pakistan Forces
Circle In On Militants In Bajaur - Updated!

Latest Update: Sounds like we took out over 20 of the enemy and may have hit an al-Qaeda nest:

According to details, four missiles fired from Afghanistan hit the compound of the Baghar Camp.

There are conflicting reports regarding missile attacks. Some of the tribesmen claimed that the allied forces jet fighters fired these missiles while others said it was the ground attack launched from across the border.

Soon after the attack, the site was brought under siege by scores of masked militants. Except a few leading figures like Mullah Nazir and his close associates, other tribesmen were not allowed to contribute in the rescue activities.

The tribesmen believe that during the missile attack, some 20 to 25 persons, mostly foreigners, were present in the compound, which was allegedly being used for training of militants. The identity of the killed couldn’t be ascertained. The compound was badly damaged and razed to the ground.

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Update: Cross-border strike targets one of the Taliban's 157 training camps in Pakistan's northwest -- Long War Journal

Update #2: Head of Al Qaeda in Afghanistan Reported Killed in Pakistan (Update: Maybe...) -- Counter Terorism Blog

Update #3:Taliban Use Human Shields To Protect Them In Bajaur Agency -- Strata-Sphere

My Comment: One down .... many more to go.

Breaking The Silence On Pakistan And Terrorism

Terrorists defeated in Afghanistan often regroup and rebuild

across the border in Pakistan's lawless tribal areas

From The Telegraph:

The biggest threat to the West is not al-Qa'eda, Afghanistan or Iran, but the country that, thanks to its laxity, has become the terrorists' chief hideout and breeding ground

It's the threat to world peace that dares not speak its name.

We hear plenty about the dangers posed to our security by al-Qa'eda, Afghanistan and Iran. But when it comes to talking about the country that arguably constitutes the greatest threat to our everyday wellbeing, Pakistan hardly ever seems to merit a mention.

This is rather surprising, given that if you talk to any of the military commanders or politicians responsible for prosecuting the war against Islamist terrorism, Pakistan is the country that is almost universally identified as constituting the most serious active threat to our national security.

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My Comment: As Homer Simpson would put it ..... Duh!!!!

The remnants of the Al Qaeda leadership are there. Jihadi internet forums talk to their followers that this is the place to go. And more important .... the mass majority of its people still support and/or are sympathetic to Bin Laden.

Pakistan and Saudi funded madrases in Pakistan that preach hate and jihad ..... this is where the threat against us is coming from.

U.S. Forces Are Preparing To Strike Into Pakistan

Pakistani Army Troops Move Towards Pakistan's Tribal Region Of Waziristan

From Strata-Sphere:

In an update to a post I did yesterday on what appears to be a ramping up of operations targeted at the Islamist extremists in the Pakistan Tribal region there are today reports of increased Predator and UAV operations in the area:

Pilotless U.S. drones armed with missiles have stepped up patrols over Pashtun villages on the Afghan-Pakistan border, hunting for Taliban and al Qaeda militants and fraying nerves below.

Pashtun villagers living on the frontier call them “buzzers”, and the aircraft have increasingly taken to the skies, causing sleepless nights and occasionally raining down death.

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More News On Pakistan's Tribal Regions

"More than 100 terror camps" in operation in northwestern Pakistan -- Long War Journal
Deadly U.S. "buzzers" fray nerves in Pakistan -- Yahoo News
U.S. air strike injures 11 in Pakistan's tribal region -- China View
US military in Pakistan warning -- BBC News
Hot Pursuit Into Pakistan? -- Investors Business Daily
Shift in US strategy: Fata operation, hot pursuit feared -- Dawn The Internet
Our Security Muddle -- Opinion: International The News
Pakistani Military Drive Avoids Targeting Taliban -- Memri
Pakistan tells U.S. it is fighting militants -- Reuters
NEFA Foundation Report: "Jihad Networks in Pakistan and Their Influence in Europe" -- Counter Terrorism Blog

My Comment: Pakistan has failed to keep its end of the bargain when it comes to controlling the Taliban in its border regions. As a result, many are now making the argument that Pakistan is not only not helping us, but are in fact openly supporting the Taliban.

This failure to respond to what is an obvious threat to the region will result in U.S. military action. The scope and extent of this action will be determined probably in the next few days/weeks.

Militant Gains in Pakistan Said to Draw More Fighters

The militant leader Baitullah Mehsud, with his back to the camera,
held a news conference in May in South Waziristan.

From The New York Times:

WASHINGTON — American military and intelligence officials say there has been an increase in recent months in the number of foreign fighters who have traveled to Pakistan’s tribal areas to join with militants there.

The flow may reflect a change that is making Pakistan, not Iraq, the preferred destination for some Sunni extremists from the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia who are seeking to take up arms against the West, these officials say.

The American officials say the influx, which could be in the dozens but could also be higher, shows a further strengthening of the position of the forces of Al Qaeda in the tribal areas, increasingly seen as an important base of support for the Taliban, whose forces in Afghanistan have become more aggressive in their campaign against American-led troops.

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My Comment: They are all going to this part of Pakistan because they feel safe there. My suggestion is that Pakistan, the U.S., and its allies make their lives as uncomfortable as possible, or they will be making our lives uncomfortable in the future.