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| Terror Networks |
| Paks dig in their heels at operations in tribal areas |
| 2002-05-12 |
| U.S. intelligence analysts have concluded that the major remaining concentrations of al Qaeda fighters are in western Pakistan, rather than in Afghanistan, but Pakistan has resisted U.S. pressure to launch large-scale attacks against them, officials in Washington and Pakistan said. We guessed at both of those. The former from the fact that there haven't been any large scale fights in Afghanistan, the latter from the fact that the religious loons are threatening civil war. U.S. officials have pressed Pakistan to act against what they believe are groups of al Qaeda fighters concentrated in the Waziristan area of western Pakistan, near the Afghan border. "We know where there is a large concentration of al Qaeda," one Pentagon official said last week, noting that there were several hundred in one border town, which he asked not be identified. But, he added, "Our guys haven't been getting the cooperation" requested from the Pakistani government." That's because the Bad Guys have powerful friends, some of them in the Pak government, others forming a vociferous bloc against it. Pakistani officials responded that, with or without U.S. aid, they are reluctant for several reasons to launch the attacks. They said they fear an internal political backlash, both in the unruly border area and from Islamic extremists across the nation. They said their military already is strained by the standoff with India. In addition, they said they lack confidence in U.S. intelligence reports about the supposed buildup of al Qaeda forces on their territory. "There can't be any such large-scale concentrations in any area of Pakistan," Pakistani Brig. Javed Iqbal Cheema, director of the Interior Ministry's crisis management cell, said Friday. "It isn't possible." Which is what's known as a willing suspension of disbelief. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |