To add to already increased tensions and frictions between the United States and its purported ally in the war on terror, Pakistan, now a NEW argument has broken out:
Is bin Laden alive, or isn’t he?
And if he is, who is to blame for that? You can almost guess the positions on this one:
Al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden is alive and sheltering in lawless parts of Pakistan on the border with Afghanistan, US intelligence chief Mike McConnell said yesterday.
Mr McConnell blamed President Pervez Musharraf’s government for allowing al-Qaeda to regroup via a peace pact last year with tribal leaders in the border areas.
But General Musharraf remained a key ally of the US, he said.
The administration’s latest remarks, following the White House’s refusal to rule out military attacks on militants inside Pakistan, sparked a curt response from Islamabad.“Our stance is that Osama bin Laden is not present in Pakistan,” Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao said from the Pakistani capital.
“If anyone has the information he should give it to us, so that we can apprehend him.”
As we noted in our post below, both the United States and Pakistan are walking tightropes on their relationship in the war against terrorism. This finger pointing makes a shaky tightrope even shakier:
Asked about bin Laden, the US director of national intelligence told NBC television: “My personal view is that he’s alive. I believe he is in the tribal region of Pakistan.”
A new report by the US intelligence community last week said al-Qaeda had regrouped in its Pakistani “safe haven” and was determined to inflict mass casualties through new attacks on the United States.
Mr McConnell said that had been possible owing to a September peace accord between the Pakistani government and pro-Taliban tribal leaders in the ill-governed region bordering Afghanistan.
A week ago, the tribal militants tore up the pact, stoking tensions as deadly violence erupted across Pakistan following the military’s crushing of a pro-Taliban uprising at the Red Mosque in Islamabad.
“Instead of pushing al-Qaeda out, they made a safe haven for training and recruiting. al-Qaeda’s been able to regain some of its momentum,” Mr McConnell said.
Nearly six years on from the September 11 attacks of 2001, al-Qaeda remained intent on inserting operatives inside the United States, he said, although there was no evidence of the existence of a “sleeper cell”.
Mr McConnell said if Gen Musharraf was forced from power by the Islamist violence and pro-democracy unrest sweeping Pakistan, that could have a “severe impact” on the US struggle against terrorism.
So the U.S. doesn’t want Musharraf out — but he isn’t delivering despite millions of dollars in U.S. aid and close consultations between the governments. The mutual recriminations will continue but most likely it’ll come out in a few years that both governments bungled it.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.