Posted on 07/30/2008 1:33:10 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
The tensions and fighting are still escalating in the tribal areas that span the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region. While US, NATO and Afghani troops have a good handle on the Afghan side of the problem area, the Pakistan tribal regions known as FATA and NWFP (click map below for larger image) are the last large sanctuary for Islamo Fascists groups like the Taliban and al-Qaeda. The recent missile strike which took out a key al-Qaeda chemical weapons expert hiding in the South Waziristan Agency of FATA has resulted in some interesting reactions - to say the least.
The largest question looming for Pakistan is whether they can control their tribal areas, and those within their intelligence agency you support and cover for the terrorists. Our hit on a target inside FATA underscores our doubts about the Pakistan efforts to deal with the dangerous elements hiding out inside their country.
I wanted to start with something Steve Schippert posted over at Threats Watch, which dovetailed nicely with some stories I had run across. Here is what concerns Steve and many others:
Pakistani Prime Minister Gilani’s demands that the United States hand Pakistan intelligence and allow the Pakistanis to exclusively “do the job” themselves has been irking me all day and into this morning.
…
An August 2007 PrincipalAnalysis on precisely this - cause and (adverse) effect in sharing target intelligence with Pakistan
From American Power Play In Pakistan: al-Qaeda Abandons Camps After US Intelligence Shared with Pakistan on August 13, 2007:
(Excerpt) Read more at strata-sphere.com ...
***********************EXCERPT************************
Sharing Intelligence Often Nets An Alerted EnemyAdding fuel to the fires of concern, Syed Saleem Shahzad reported in his latest from the region, ‘Taliban a step ahead of US assault’, that the United States supplied Musharraf’s government with detailed and specific intelligence on 29 al-Qaeda and Taliban terrorist training camps operating in the provinces of North Waziristan and South Waziristan. Not long after that transfer of intelligence, all but one of the terror camps went cold.
fyi
Didn’t the ISI initially help to set up the Taliban in Afghanistan in the first place?
Yeah, Paki Intelligence will be purged of non-jihadists.
Are they purging those that don’t support the terrorists? LOL
Stories of the ISI being a jihadi haven/promotion center have been on FR for years. (Not dismissing your post, EATB.) Their persistence over this time makes “sharing” any intelligence with the Pakistani government a bad move.
I just hope that next time, instead of “reporting” jihadi training camps, that MOABs redress the situation.
Ms. Bhutto was no saint, but the Pakistanis should have learned something about who wants to run their country.
Many ethnic tribal groups straddle the Afghan/Pakistan border. Essentially they don’t treat it as a border at all. I had read an article that Pakistan’s ISI viewed the (Taliban) control of Afghanistan as lending strategic depth to Pakistan should India invade. I doubt New Delhi wants the problem associated with administering any part of Pakistan, but that doesn’t say that Pakistan doesn’t imagine a threat.
It’s only taken 7 years to get started....
They should identify the top 10 and let the CIA take care of them.
Pakistan: Security forces raid abandoned
Place was empty when the troops showed up....
Waziristan could be in the process of splitting off from Pakistan if the Gov’t can’t establish a dominant presence. It will be bloody if it does and bloody if it doesn’t. This looks like a civil war just starting.
Coincidence.
< /sarc >
Why do they call them intelligence agencies??
Dave & Jack,
Youse guys think this is worth another MI Ping today?
the FATA and North Waziristan are essentially Al Qaeda-Stan. They feature over 100 AQ Training Camps. All these peace deals between Pak and the Tban ar a joke. There have been dozens, read the posts on this at LongWarJournal.Org and listen to the CovertRadioShow.Com podcasts, you will find out what is really going on.
Pakistan: Taliban split into two factions in Bajaur Agency
but then today I see a sidebar item at LWJ:
TTP denies differences in Taliban ranks
*************************************************************
* Taliban leaders vow to take revenge for killing of tribesmen in US attacks
By Hasbanullah Khan
KHAR: Senior leaders of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan Bajaur Agency on Monday denied any differences in the Taliban ranks, and said they had no disagreement with TTP chief Baitullah Mehsud and Maulvi Faqeer Muhammad.
Addressing a press conference, the four senior TTP leaders in Bajaur Agency – Dr Abdul Wahab, Maulvi Abdul Hameed, Commander Hamza and Maulvi Muhammad Munir – said they had no differences with the TTP chief or other leaders and strongly condemned media reports about differences between them.
On July 28, media had reported resignations of the four Taliban leaders and differences in the Taliban ranks in Bajaur tribal district over infighting between two militant organisations in neighbouring Mohmand Agency, which had killed eight members of one group.
“We are part of the TTP. We neither have differences with the TTP nor resigned from it,” the leaders said, adding that they had full confidence in the leadership of Mehsud and Faqir Muhammad.
The TTP leaders claimed that they would continue ‘jihad’ against the US and the policies of President Musharraf and will take revenge for killing of tribesmen in US attacks. They said, however, that TTP Bajaur Agency would fully abide by their peace agreement with the government and will continue its efforts for peace in the agency.
Ya beat me to it, bro! lol!!!
Yes.
It appears that the Pakky’s are about to admit they have problems.
If there are purges, it will be interesting. The serial killing al Qaeerdos will be the losers.
The Pakistan government has repeatedly denied that it provides any military support to the Taliban in its diplomacy regarding its extensive operations in Afghanistan.82 Of all the foreign powers involved in efforts to sustain and manipulate the ongoing fighting, Pakistan is distinguished both by the sweep of its objectives and the scale of its efforts, which include soliciting funding for the Taliban, bankrolling Taliban operations, providing diplomatic support as the Taliban's virtual emissaries abroad, arranging training for Taliban fighters, recruiting skilled and unskilled manpower to serve in Taliban armies, planning and directing offensives, providing and facilitating shipments of ammunition and fuel, and on several occasions apparently directly providing combat support.83 In April and May 2001 Human Rights Watch sources reported that as many as thirty trucks a day were crossing the Pakistan border; sources inside Afghanistan reported that some of these convoys were carrying artillery shells, tank rounds, and rocket-propelled grenades.84 Such deliveries are in direct violation of U.N. sanctions. Pakistani landmines have been found in Afghanistan; they include both antipersonnel and antivehicle mines.85 Pakistan's army and intelligence services, principally the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI), contribute to making the Taliban a highly effective military force.86 While these Pakistani agencies do not direct the policies of the IEA, senior Pakistani military and intelligence officers help plan and execute major military operations.87 In addition, private-sector actors in Pakistan provide financial assistance to the Taliban.
This is a report from 2001. In the interim has there been a purge of the ISI? Is not Pakistan an Islamist terror state in the drag of our ally, in the sense that a "hot dog" is likely a pig?Surely we should be giving one high official in the ISI advance notice of a raid on, say, Mohammed Schmidlap's Maddrassah and Boutique. When the ISI guy calls the boutique to whisper, "Mohammed, you must hide--the Americans are coming," we should put the official's head in a gallon pickle jar.
We should repeat this sting operation until the pickle jars fill a 53' container.
Failing that, we unload, say, two per cent of our nuclear arsenal on the Northwest Frontier, the two per cent with waning shelf life of its tritium components, e.g.
But doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results?
Hey, we mustn't behave like liberals.
MI Ping - Another Paki thing
Thanks for the ping. Honestly, I’m skeptical about these claims. We heard of purges in the ISI about a dozen times since 9/11.
You cannot reform the ISI. You can only dismantle it. I hope it does not take another 9/11 for that.
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