Newsday eitorial: Pakistan: den of terrorists.It harbors al-Qaida and the Taliban
Pakistan: den of terrorists
It harbors al-Qaida and the Taliban
August 8, 2005
Whether al-Qaida directed the terror attacks in London, or simply influenced and inspired the bombers, its leaders are exploiting the attacks' effects from their suspected lairs in western Pakistan. The latest videotape from Ayman al-Zawahri, the Egyptian physician who is operational chief of al-Qaida and Osama Bin Laden's second-in-command, was, above all, a demonstration that al-Qaida is still active and defeating all efforts at rousting it out of Pakistan.
And Pakistan, increasingly, is where strands of various investigations into terror attacks lead. Not only does Pakistan offer near-impregnable refuge to al-Qaida and the still-active Taliban in its northwest frontier areas, but it continues to be a principal recruiting and training ground and a logistical depot for global terrorists. Its myriad religious schools are, in effect, indoctrination centers turning out young radical Islamists by the hundreds every year. And a handful of homegrown Islamist terror groups operate freely within Pakistan, primarily focusing on wresting parts of the disputed Kashmir region from India's control, with little interference from sympathetic Pakistani security forces.
This raises the obvious question: Why are terrorists still able to function with such impunity in Pakistan and why is General Pervez Musharraf, the country's president, doing so little about it? Musharraf is routinely praised by the White House as a valuable partner in the war on terror. But the sporadic raids Musharraf has ordered in the al-Qaida- and Taliban-infested provinces of Balochistan and Waziristan have had little perceptible effect, in part because local tribal leaders are deeply hostile to Pakistani forces, whom they consider on par with foreign invaders.
The dispiriting answer is that Musharraf has a fragile hold on power and if the United States were to push him too hard, he might be toppled in a coup that would bring to power a fundamentalist Islamist regime. That's the dilemma Washington faces in Pakistan. It won't be resolved soon.
It harbors al-Qaida and the Taliban
August 8, 2005
Whether al-Qaida directed the terror attacks in London, or simply influenced and inspired the bombers, its leaders are exploiting the attacks' effects from their suspected lairs in western Pakistan. The latest videotape from Ayman al-Zawahri, the Egyptian physician who is operational chief of al-Qaida and Osama Bin Laden's second-in-command, was, above all, a demonstration that al-Qaida is still active and defeating all efforts at rousting it out of Pakistan.
And Pakistan, increasingly, is where strands of various investigations into terror attacks lead. Not only does Pakistan offer near-impregnable refuge to al-Qaida and the still-active Taliban in its northwest frontier areas, but it continues to be a principal recruiting and training ground and a logistical depot for global terrorists. Its myriad religious schools are, in effect, indoctrination centers turning out young radical Islamists by the hundreds every year. And a handful of homegrown Islamist terror groups operate freely within Pakistan, primarily focusing on wresting parts of the disputed Kashmir region from India's control, with little interference from sympathetic Pakistani security forces.
This raises the obvious question: Why are terrorists still able to function with such impunity in Pakistan and why is General Pervez Musharraf, the country's president, doing so little about it? Musharraf is routinely praised by the White House as a valuable partner in the war on terror. But the sporadic raids Musharraf has ordered in the al-Qaida- and Taliban-infested provinces of Balochistan and Waziristan have had little perceptible effect, in part because local tribal leaders are deeply hostile to Pakistani forces, whom they consider on par with foreign invaders.
The dispiriting answer is that Musharraf has a fragile hold on power and if the United States were to push him too hard, he might be toppled in a coup that would bring to power a fundamentalist Islamist regime. That's the dilemma Washington faces in Pakistan. It won't be resolved soon.
posted by India News Watch at 3:42 AM
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