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| India-Pakistan |
| Slow Joe: Al-Qaeda trying to bring down Pak |
| 2010-12-21 |
| Al-Qaeda is trying to topple the government in nuclear powered Pakistan, the United States has warned. Vice President Joe Biden said the Obama Administration is trying “to make sure that terrorists do not in fact, bring down the Pakistani government, which is a nuclear power.” The over-arching American goal in the region and the rationale for being there is to dismantle and ultimately defeat Al-Qaeda, residing central al Qaeda residing in Fatah, the western regions of the mountains of Pakistan. “Towards that end, we think it’s important that there be stability in Afghanistan so that Al-Qaeda cannot re-establish it as a base from which to attack the United States of America,” he was quoted as saying by a channel. With regard to our efforts to degrade Al-Qaeda, we’re making great progress, the so—called CT (counter terrorism); that U.S., counter terrorism, the use of Special Forces and the like to go after individuals who make up the leadership of al Qaeda and of the Taliban, Biden said. “On the issue of counterinsurgency, that is where we clear, hold and build and transfer. We’re making progress not as rapidly as we are on the other front. The (US) President has been frank to say that in his release, pointing out that we need two things that we’re working on very hard and we’re making some progress: one, Pakistan and safe havens; and two, governance in Afghanistan,” Biden said. Al-Qaeda significantly degraded “Our intelligence community is united in the view that the ability of central Al-Qaeda —— that is, Osama bin Laden and company in the AfPak area, in those mountains has been significantly degraded and we don’t believe they have the capacity from there to pull off a 9/11 type operation,” he said. But what has also happened, as you’ve noticed, you’ve seen in the Arabian Peninsula, you’ve seen in other parts of the world, there are Al-Qaeda-related affiliates not under the direct control of Osama, but yet engaged with him, Biden said. “They are planning a much smaller war, but yet deadly attempts to go after the United States of America. We saw that in the underpants bomber last Christmas we saw that in the Times Square effort, Biden said. So there are going to be continued efforts to be able to coming —— quite frankly more likely out of places other than the Fatah —— other than Pakistan, where bin Laden is but we have significantly degraded and knocked off a lot of the main planners and organisers and trainers, he said. “Does that mean we succeeded? No. Does that mean we’re in much better shape than we were a year ago? And two and three? Yes,” Biden said. |
| Posted by:gorb |
| #2 Yah, Punjabis form over half the population. Like Sindh, Secularism isn't totally anathema. The biggest drag on Pakistan is the Balochi and Pashto savages. I am indifferent to accusations of excessive force against them. I wonder how Paki muslims treat the fact that their god entity - "allah" - placed the world's deepest concentration of flesh eating carrion birds, in their country. I guess: Pakistan disleases "allah." |
| Posted by: Grosing Turkeyneck5386 2010-12-21 18:35 |
| #1 If Pakistan were to fall apart into a few smaller states it would be a good thing. If they were to fall apart into a giant Somalia-like failed state it would be a nightmare. Hopefully the individual ethnic groups in Pakistan have enough cohesion/leadership that the first option is more likely than the second. India should be talking to folks in Baluchistan, the Punjab and Kashmir about their accepting neutral/independent states in those territories if, god forbid, Pakistan should dissolve. Might even be worthwhile to start dealing with their own Punjab area as they are likely to have some uncomfortable questions popping up if Pakistan's Punjab gains independence. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2010-12-21 11:39 |