Who says they were there the whole time? Could they possibly have been (gasp!) moved there after we shut them down in Afghanistan and Iraq? Gosh, do you think al Qaeda might be that smart?
If you dare? . Just kidding.
However, every nation on earth can get a ticket for that line - Musharraf is doing far more to help in the GWOT than any of our other allies (outside of the UK) and he is dealing with an extremely complex situation within his own Country to boot!
The one issue we must insist on however is the need for our SOF to operate independently within the PAK border region. (in a larger scale ....outside of the simple sneak and peak Ops).
UBL and Zawahiri need to be put in the ground. It is becoming absurd that these two are still alive and free.
Musharraf - a coup d'etat leader - by definition, a backstabber. And the evidence that he is not stabbing us in the back? A few bones thrown to us. It is notable that when the CIA came to interview some nuclear scientists, it was discovered that they had "fled" to Burma (where they still are - working on "peaceful nuclear energy" - in a country that exports 3 times more natural gas per year than they use). Later, we blew the whole Khan network thing wide open, and no real closure yet on that. DPRK military assistance - utterly despicable.Ongoing work with the Communist Red Chinese miltary - codevelopment of WMDs and the port of Gwadhar, at the Strait of Hormuz - that is simply criminal. We should have taken down Pakistan, with no warning, Fall of 2001. The fact that we did not, means that we do not have the will to win the current and growing world war.