Pakistan May Be Unable To Defeat Extremists
Gen. David Petraeus, commander of U.S. Central Command, has told U.S. officials the next two weeks are critical to determining whether the Pakistani government will survive, FOX News has learned.
“The Pakistanis have run out of excuses” and are “finally getting serious” about combating the threat from Taliban and Al Qaeda extremists operating out of Northwest Pakistan, the general added.
But Petraeus also said wearily that “we’ve heard it all before” from the Pakistanis and he is looking to see concrete action by the government to destroy the Taliban in the next two weeks before determining the United States’ next course of action, which is presently set on propping up the Pakistani government and military with counterinsurgency training and foreign aid.
Petraeus made these assessment in talks with lawmakers and Obama administration officials this week, according to individuals familiar with the discussions.
They said Petraeus and senior administration officials believe the Pakistani army, led by Chief of Staff Gen. Ashfaq Kayani, is “superior” to the civilian government, led by President Ali Zardari, and could conceivably survive even if Zardari’s government falls to the Taliban.
American officials have watched with anxiety as Taliban fighters advanced earlier this month to within 70 miles of the capital city of Islamabad. In recent days, the Pakistani army has sought to reverse that tide, retaking control over strategic points in the district of Buner even as the Taliban struck back by kidnapping scores of police and paramilitary troops.
The see-saw nature of the battles Wednesday demonstrated to U.S. officials that, as one put it to FOX News, “even with intent and superior technology, the capability may not be there” for the Pakistani army to defeat the extremists.
The Taliban’s Nuclear Threat To Pakistan And the World
As insurgents close in on Islamabad, The Daily Beast’s Gerald Posner reports that Taliban forces are on the verge of seizing Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal—which has the capability to hit India, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq.
This morning, Taliban units took control of the Buner region of Pakistan, bringing their burgeoning insurgency within 60 miles of the capital city of Islamabad. The government called the advance a breach of a recently signed peace agreement. But what did they expect? Any store owner who has faced ever-increasing protection payments to local gangsters could have told the Pakistanis that their recent string of capitulations to the Taliban—striking peace deals and ceding territory—was doomed to failure.
You think the stock market looks bad over the last two years? Let a Taliban spokesman announce that Mullah Omar has his finger on the Islamic Bomb.
The Taliban advance should be causing high Richter-scale reactions inside the Obama White House. Counterterrorism officials have long warned that al Qaeda is desperate to obtain weapons of mass destruction. Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal is in play if the Taliban insurgency should unseat the government of Asif Ali Zadari.
Clinton Warns of Pakistan Becoming Mortal Threat
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton warned in unusually bleak terms Wednesday that Pakistan’s fragile government is facing an “existential threat” from Islamic militants who are now operating within a few hours of the capital.
Clinton told a House committee that the government in Islamabad is ceding territory and “basically abdicating to the Taliban and the extremists” in signing a deal that limits the government’s involvement in the war-torn Swat Valley.
“I think we cannot underscore [enough] the seriousness of the existential threat posed to the state of Pakistan by the continuing advances,” said Clinton, adding that the nuclear-armed nation could also pose a “mortal threat” to the United States and other countries.
Clinton spoke as militants expanded into new territory adjacent to the Swat Valley and 60 miles from Islamabad, and top U.S. officials continue to make regular visits to Pakistan. Adm. Michael G. Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is visiting now. A special U.S. envoy, Richard C. Holbrooke, was there this month.
Clinton’s comments to the House Foreign Affairs Committee underscored increasing U.S. alarm at how the militants’ strength has grown even as the Obama administration has begun trying to implement a new strategy for stabilizing the country. U.S. officials are worried not only about the stability of Pakistan, but also about neighboring Afghanistan, where they are committing an extra 21,000 troops this year to try to stanch the advances of the Taliban and allied insurgents.
Pakistani Taliban Chief Threatens Washington Attack
March 31, 2009 by admin
Filed under Stories Of Interest
The leader of the Pakistani Taliban threatened Tuesday to carry out a terrorist attack on the U.S. capital, and said his forces were behind an assault on a police academy in eastern Pakistan.
Baitullah Mehsud said fighters loyal to him raided the police academy on the outskirts of Lahore on Monday to avenge continuing U.S. missile strikes against Islamic militants along the border with Afghanistan, a region largely controlled by the Taliban and al Qaeda.
The attack on the police academy, which left 12 people dead, “was in retaliation for the ongoing drone attacks in the tribal areas. There will be more such attacks,” he said by telephone from an undisclosed location.
Mr. Mehsud, who spoke with a handful of Pakistani reporters, is based in the South Waziristan tribal region, on the Afghan border.
A senior U.S. official said, “We’ve seen a widening of the attacks,” out of the tribal areas, and added, “this has had the effect of having a lot of Pakistanis binding together. ”
In March, U.S. officials issued a $5 million bounty for Mr. Mehsud. Domestic counterterrorism officials in Washington noted that the Pakistani militant has made similar threats in the past.
