Al-Qaeda resurgence sparks US concerns (unilateral military strikes being pondered)

AFP on Yahoo ^ | 1/14/08 | P. Parameswaran

[NormsRevenge]

WASHINGTON (AFP) - An Al-Qaeda resurgence in Pakistan's tribal areas has raised deep concerns in the United States, which reportedly is pondering unilateral military strikes in a reflection of increasing impatience over Islamabad's counterterrorism strategy.

US military chief Admiral Michael Mullen last week expressed "grave concern" over Al-Qaeda's use of the Pakistani tribal areas as safe havens, saying they posed a "significant" security threat to Afghanistan and Pakistan itself.

Also from the vast tribal region in northwestern Pakistan, Osama bin laden's Al-Qaeda could be plotting and training a deadly attack on the United States, similar to the September 11, 2001 mayhem, US counter-terrorism experts warn.

Underscoring US concerns of the Al-Qaeda buildup are reports that President George W. Bush's administration is mulling a plan in which the Pentagon and CIA would be granted new authority to conduct secret operations in the area.

The plan was discussed by Vice President Richard Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and top White House national security aides on the first week of 2008 when they met at the White House to reassess US strategy in the wake of last month's assassination of Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, The New York Times reported.

But President Pervez Musharraf, who it said has not been briefed about the plan, has warned that an unauthorized US incursion into Pakistani territory would be treated as an invasion.

"The best way to do that (address the threat), I think, is working with the Pakistanis at the local level and also being transparent with the Pakistani government but at the same time, we cannot wait," said Henry Crumpton, a former counterterrorism chief at the State Department.

"I think we have waited too long in terms of engagement in that area, Crumpton said at a forum of the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies on Monday.

"We have to address this issue because it is getting worse and not better," said Crumpton, a former CIA officer who helped lay the groundwork for the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 which ousted the hardline Taliban regime for providing shelter to the Al-Qaeda leadership that staged the September 11 attacks.

Following the invasion, the Al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders, including Osama bin Laden, were believed to have taken sanctuary in the tribal areas.

Lisa Curtis, a former CIA analyst and ex-senior State Department advisor on South Asia, said the United States was unlikely to stage any major operation in Pakistan unless there was an "immediate threat.

"If there were indications that the terrorists were at the advanced stages of planning of a major terrorist operation, then perhaps there would be a decision within the US that something needed to be done," she said.

"The hope and plan is that any such operation would be coordinated with the Pakistanis," said Curtis, now an expert at the Washington-based Heritage Foundation.

Crumpton believed Al-Qaeda began to gain strength in the tribal areas after Musharraf struck a much-criticized accord with leaders in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), where the central authority of Islamabad is seen as very weak.

"We have to respect their (Pakistani) sovereignty on one hand but on the other hand, they are not exercising their sovereign responsibility within this tribal area," he said.

"And as Al-Qaeda is able to expand their safe haven, that enables them to plot and to plan and to train and to deploy operatives in this global battlefield, including in our homeland.

"So it poses a direct threat to us, and the United States has a responsibility to protect our citizens," he said.

He warned that any major Al-Qaeda attack on the United States, if traced back to the tribal areas, could result in dire consequences.

"I have concerns that we could over respond. We have to think about that also in our calculations, in our discussions with our Pakistani friends," he said, without elaborating.

The key to resolving the growing Al-Qaeda threat was for the United States to work with Pakistan on a "strategic plan" in the tribal areas, Curtis said.

While Pakistan has tried to get tactical advantage by striking peace deals with leaders in the tribal area, it "has not addressed the problem and, in fact, made it worse in many ways," she said.

[Perdogg]

I would find it hard to believe that we wouldn’t have special operators working in the tribal regions.

The US should consider getting more aggressive.

[Scarchin]

I’ll bet we do.

[BIGLOOK]

Geez, Norm........sounds like Black Ops are the obvious order.

[blam]

"...sounds like Black Ops are the obvious order."

B-2's are black aren't they?

[kinoxi]

"We have to respect their (Pakistani) sovereignty on one hand but on the other hand, they are not exercising their sovereign responsibility within this tribal area," he said. "And as Al-Qaeda is able to expand their safe haven, that enables them to plot and to plan and to train and to deploy operatives in this global battlefield, including in our homeland. "So it poses a direct threat to us, and the United States has a responsibility to protect our citizens,"

The Pakistanis are harboring terrorists and getting away with. No, profiting from it. Lesson to the muslim world, get WMD's.

[BIGLOOK]

You got me.....never seen one.

[NormsRevenge]

Black Ops are the obvious order.
—
For 30 or 40 billion a year budget,, they ought to be able to put something together..

[george76]

We send Pak lots of military aid ?

We could drop some of that aid directly.

To help ...don’t you know.

[BARLF]

Ping

[BIGLOOK]

We could drop some of that aid directly.

Yeah.....if the targets were lazed and bunker busters used. The Hindu Kush is a big place.....a hard place.

[milestogo]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1953210/posts

Musharraf: Pakistani troops were tougher,could go on bread and water,US troops would need chocolate

[shield]

We do...and they are smart enough not screw up like the seal team did. Our Army sops know not to hide themselves right smack in the middle of an area where goat herders herd their goats. Up in those high mountain areas there is just so many areas you can herd goats. So you stay out of them. Our SOPS are up in that area a lot. The goat herds never know they’re there.

[maine-iac7]

Thanks for the ping -

thanks to what's going on in the border region of Pakistan, the fighting for our troops in the Kunar - who are perched on mountain sides in the snow, no heat, no running water, etc - are not getting the usual winter break from constant firefights.

These 'miscreants' as the Paki, Arab papers refer to the Taliban/al Q, keep hopping back and forth the border with relative impunity. If they're flanked on both sides, we could end this. If we don't, it can go on for a very long time...

I'm thinking we'll go in. Supposedly the new head of the military in Pakistan is friendly to US - I hope so.

(I like "miscreant" = dictionary: "1. depraved, villainous, or base." Yep, that'll do.

[maine-iac7]

But President Pervez Musharraf, who it said has not been briefed about the plan, has warned that an unauthorized US incursion into Pakistani territory would be treated as an invasion.

I wonder if this isn't 'cover' - after all, he's not going to announce ahead of time - 'The Americans are coming!"

[NormsRevenge]

Good point.

I don’t think we’ll need to wait too long to get some answers..

[Cobra64]

President George W. Bush's administration is mulling a plan in which the Pentagon and CIA would be granted new authority to conduct secret operations in the area.

Huh? I guess it's not a secret any more.

[Cacique]

btt

[bassmaner]

Yeah.....if the targets were lazed and bunker busters used. The Hindu Kush is a big place.....a hard place.

If one of our cities is taken out by a terrorist nuke (no doubt originating there), then we should use our 'city busters' (10 MT+) to blast the entire region down to sea level.

[BIGLOOK]

I just read a novel by Nelson Demille, Wildfire, in which there is a retaliation protocol that calls for the very same thing. One of our cities for all of theirs.

It's a good read, a real page turner....convoluted plot but good, except that in the depths of the Pentagon, there probably is an Order of Battle like Wildfire.