Growing violence in Pakistan is being closely watched by US military officials who are concerned that the instability could strengthen al-Qaeda strongholds along the border with Afghanistan, a senior Defense Department official said.
Pakistani security forces, who have faced heavy opposition from insurgents in these tribal areas, have had their "ups and downs," said Michael Vickers, assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low-intensity conflict.
"The level of violence is ramping up. It isn't Iraq, but it's getting worse," he said on Friday.
Yet there are no plans to involve US forces in military operations inside Pakistan.
Vickers said the fighting has not affected US operations in Afghanistan, where the US-led coalition has maintained a presence since October 2001 after routing the harsh Taliban-led Islamic government that had sheltered al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's government is "a very important ally in the war in terror," Vickers said.
But the relationship has become strained since Musharraf imposed emergency rule on Nov. 3, a move criticized by the US.
US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte was scheduled to meet with Musharraf yesterday.
Despite the internal issues, Vickers said Pakistan can do more to stem terrorist activity.
"We would always like them to do more given the importance of the problem," he said. "They're certainly doing a lot."
Vickers, confirmed by the Senate in July as the Pentagon's top civilian official for special operations, has substantial experience in central Asia. As a CIA officer in the early 1980s, he led the US effort to arm the Afghan rebels who ultimately drove the Soviet army out of Afghanistan.
Vickers, affirming a belief held by US officials, said he believes bin Laden is hiding in western Pakistan, an area that operates autonomously from Musharraf's government.
The administration of US President George W. Bush has been trying to capture or kill bin Laden since the Sept. 11 attacks.
"If we knew, I think we'd kill or capture him. We're trying very hard to do that," Vickers said.
The remoteness of the area and the hostility of the population there to Pakistani forces compound the problem of finding the al-Qaeda leader, he said.
"The al-Qaeda senior leadership has had time to build relationships there with the locals," he said. "They tend to be rather circumspect about their movements."
Eric Rudolph, who committed a series of bombings across the US in the 1990s, avoided federal authorities for nearly five years in the Appalachian wilderness, he noted.
"This is that on steroids," Vickers said.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
RSS