boutons_
01-12-2007, 05:40 PM
January 12, 2007
Pakistan Says It's Not a Terrorist Haven
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 5:18 p.m. ET
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- Pakistan on Friday rejected allegations by America's spy chief that it is a refuge for terrorist leaders and demanded that his intelligence networks share information on the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/osama_bin_laden/index.html?inline=nyt-per) and other top al-Qaida figures.
The statements Thursday by U.S. National Intelligence Director John Negroponte (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/n/john_d_negroponte/index.html?inline=nyt-per) that Pakistan is a haven for al-Qaida and Taliban (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/t/taliban/index.html?inline=nyt-org) terrorists are ''incorrect,'' Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said.
''In breaking the back of al-Qaida, Pakistan has done more than any other country in the world,'' ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam said. ''The proper way to do this would be to share the intelligence with us.''
Negroponte said that despite Pakistan's vital role in the war on terrorism, leaders of both al-Qaida and Afghanistan's former ruling Taliban militia are sheltering in its lawless frontier areas, largely beyond reach of U.S. or Pakistani fighters.
NATO (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/n/north_atlantic_treaty_organization/index.html?inline=nyt-org) and the Afghan government also say Taliban and al-Qaida guerrillas are launching attacks on their forces in Afghanistan from neighboring Pakistan. Violence rose sharply in Afghanistan in 2006, with fighting killing about 4,000 people in what was the deadliest year since the U.S.-led coalition swept the Taliban from power in 2001.
In his testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Negroponte said that ''eliminating the safe haven that the Taliban and other extremists have found in Pakistan's tribal areas is not sufficient to end the insurgency in Afghanistan, but it is necessary.''
U.S. officials have previously said they believe bin Laden and other top terrorist commanders are taking refuge in the region, likely on the Pakistani side of the border. Pakistan has repeatedly rejected such claims.
Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao, the top civilian security official in Pakistan, told The Associated Press that the U.S. intelligence agencies had not shared any ''specific intelligence with Pakistan on the whereabouts of al-Qaida or the Taliban.''
''We always act swiftly whenever any intelligence is shared with us. There are no al-Qaida safe havens in Pakistan,'' he said.
But in a sign that insurgents are crossing from Pakistan to fight in Afghanistan, the bodies of 25 militants killed in a fierce battle with NATO were repatriated Friday to their tribal villages in Pakistan, where Taliban activists urged mass attendance at their funerals, residents said.
NATO on Thursday reported killing or wounding 130 suspected Taliban who had crossed from Pakistan to mount attacks in eastern Afghanistan. Pakistan's army also said it attacked militant supply trucks on its side of the border in Pakistan's tense North Waziristan region.
Aslam acknowledged that ''there may be al-Qaida elements'' in Pakistan. But she said their presence was just like ''in the Middle East or other world countries.''
Visiting U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher paid tribute to Pakistan's counterterrorism efforts and said more action was needed on both sides of the border.
''There continues to be a high rate of cross-border activity,'' he told reporters after meeting with President Gen. Pervez Musharraf (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/m/pervez_musharraf/index.html?inline=nyt-per). ''I'm not just saying Pakistan hasn't succeeded yet, but we have not succeeded yet ourselves in Afghanistan. There's more effort required of all of us.''
Pakistan became a U.S. ally in the war against terrorism after it severed support for the Taliban militia in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
------
Associated Press writer Munir Ahmed contributed to this report.
BUT:
Taliban Leaders Request 'Martyr' Funerals for Slain Insurgents
By Pamela Constable
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, January 12, 2007; 12:52 PM
KABUL, Jan. 12 -- The bodies of two dozen Islamic insurgents killed in a clash with NATO and Afghan army forces near the border with Pakistan (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/world/countries/pakistan.html?nav=el) were sent back Friday to Pakistan, where Taliban leaders asked that they be given funerals as "martyrs," according to news reports here.
The reports appeared to bolster Afghan and U.S. assertions, repeatedly denied by Pakistani officials, that Pakistan's tribal regions along the border with Afghanistan (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/world/countries/afghanistan.html?nav=el) have provided a safe haven for Islamic militia groups seeking to destabilize the Western-backed government of Afghanistan.
The funeral preparations were reported to take place in villages in Pakistan's North Waziristan region, where last September Pakistani officials brokered a truce that they said was aimed at curbing Islamic extremist activities in the area. Afghan and NATO officials have said cross-border insurgent infiltration has actually increased since then.
Also on Thursday, Afghan police reported that a suicide bomber rammed a vehicle into two others on a highway south of Kabul, killing himself and injuring two people.
In Washington, the U.S. national intelligence officer, John Negroponte, told a Senate hearing Friday that the Pakistani tribal areas were functioning as a haven for terrorists and that Pakistani officials needed to do more to control them.
In response, officials from Pakistan's foreign and interior ministries denied their country was offering shelter to extremists. A Pakistani military spokesman said that its army forces had fired on trucks carrying Islamic insurgents toward the Afghan border, and that Pakistan was "keen to stop" such cross-border infiltration.
The bodies of fighters sent back to Pakistan included both Pakistanis and Afghans, according to news reports. They were said to be casualties of a major clash Wednesday between NATO and Afghan troops and Islamic insurgents in Afghanistan's Paktika province. NATO said 150 insurgents had been killed, while Afghan officers put the figure at 80.
Spokesmen for the revived Taliban insurgency, speaking with wire services here by telephone, said they had asked villagers in North Waziristan to honor the dead with special martyrs' funerals. Other sources said tribal villages in that area had contributed local sons to the fight against "infidel invaders" in Afghanistan, where 40,000 U.S. and NATO troops are now stationed.
========================
The Paki FATAs and Pakistan govt have agreed a while back that the FATAs were essentially to secede from Pakistan. ie, the "federally administered" of FATA has ended.
you're doing a heckuva job, dubya
Pakistan Says It's Not a Terrorist Haven
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 5:18 p.m. ET
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- Pakistan on Friday rejected allegations by America's spy chief that it is a refuge for terrorist leaders and demanded that his intelligence networks share information on the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/osama_bin_laden/index.html?inline=nyt-per) and other top al-Qaida figures.
The statements Thursday by U.S. National Intelligence Director John Negroponte (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/n/john_d_negroponte/index.html?inline=nyt-per) that Pakistan is a haven for al-Qaida and Taliban (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/t/taliban/index.html?inline=nyt-org) terrorists are ''incorrect,'' Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said.
''In breaking the back of al-Qaida, Pakistan has done more than any other country in the world,'' ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam said. ''The proper way to do this would be to share the intelligence with us.''
Negroponte said that despite Pakistan's vital role in the war on terrorism, leaders of both al-Qaida and Afghanistan's former ruling Taliban militia are sheltering in its lawless frontier areas, largely beyond reach of U.S. or Pakistani fighters.
NATO (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/n/north_atlantic_treaty_organization/index.html?inline=nyt-org) and the Afghan government also say Taliban and al-Qaida guerrillas are launching attacks on their forces in Afghanistan from neighboring Pakistan. Violence rose sharply in Afghanistan in 2006, with fighting killing about 4,000 people in what was the deadliest year since the U.S.-led coalition swept the Taliban from power in 2001.
In his testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Negroponte said that ''eliminating the safe haven that the Taliban and other extremists have found in Pakistan's tribal areas is not sufficient to end the insurgency in Afghanistan, but it is necessary.''
U.S. officials have previously said they believe bin Laden and other top terrorist commanders are taking refuge in the region, likely on the Pakistani side of the border. Pakistan has repeatedly rejected such claims.
Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao, the top civilian security official in Pakistan, told The Associated Press that the U.S. intelligence agencies had not shared any ''specific intelligence with Pakistan on the whereabouts of al-Qaida or the Taliban.''
''We always act swiftly whenever any intelligence is shared with us. There are no al-Qaida safe havens in Pakistan,'' he said.
But in a sign that insurgents are crossing from Pakistan to fight in Afghanistan, the bodies of 25 militants killed in a fierce battle with NATO were repatriated Friday to their tribal villages in Pakistan, where Taliban activists urged mass attendance at their funerals, residents said.
NATO on Thursday reported killing or wounding 130 suspected Taliban who had crossed from Pakistan to mount attacks in eastern Afghanistan. Pakistan's army also said it attacked militant supply trucks on its side of the border in Pakistan's tense North Waziristan region.
Aslam acknowledged that ''there may be al-Qaida elements'' in Pakistan. But she said their presence was just like ''in the Middle East or other world countries.''
Visiting U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher paid tribute to Pakistan's counterterrorism efforts and said more action was needed on both sides of the border.
''There continues to be a high rate of cross-border activity,'' he told reporters after meeting with President Gen. Pervez Musharraf (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/m/pervez_musharraf/index.html?inline=nyt-per). ''I'm not just saying Pakistan hasn't succeeded yet, but we have not succeeded yet ourselves in Afghanistan. There's more effort required of all of us.''
Pakistan became a U.S. ally in the war against terrorism after it severed support for the Taliban militia in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
------
Associated Press writer Munir Ahmed contributed to this report.
BUT:
Taliban Leaders Request 'Martyr' Funerals for Slain Insurgents
By Pamela Constable
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, January 12, 2007; 12:52 PM
KABUL, Jan. 12 -- The bodies of two dozen Islamic insurgents killed in a clash with NATO and Afghan army forces near the border with Pakistan (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/world/countries/pakistan.html?nav=el) were sent back Friday to Pakistan, where Taliban leaders asked that they be given funerals as "martyrs," according to news reports here.
The reports appeared to bolster Afghan and U.S. assertions, repeatedly denied by Pakistani officials, that Pakistan's tribal regions along the border with Afghanistan (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/world/countries/afghanistan.html?nav=el) have provided a safe haven for Islamic militia groups seeking to destabilize the Western-backed government of Afghanistan.
The funeral preparations were reported to take place in villages in Pakistan's North Waziristan region, where last September Pakistani officials brokered a truce that they said was aimed at curbing Islamic extremist activities in the area. Afghan and NATO officials have said cross-border insurgent infiltration has actually increased since then.
Also on Thursday, Afghan police reported that a suicide bomber rammed a vehicle into two others on a highway south of Kabul, killing himself and injuring two people.
In Washington, the U.S. national intelligence officer, John Negroponte, told a Senate hearing Friday that the Pakistani tribal areas were functioning as a haven for terrorists and that Pakistani officials needed to do more to control them.
In response, officials from Pakistan's foreign and interior ministries denied their country was offering shelter to extremists. A Pakistani military spokesman said that its army forces had fired on trucks carrying Islamic insurgents toward the Afghan border, and that Pakistan was "keen to stop" such cross-border infiltration.
The bodies of fighters sent back to Pakistan included both Pakistanis and Afghans, according to news reports. They were said to be casualties of a major clash Wednesday between NATO and Afghan troops and Islamic insurgents in Afghanistan's Paktika province. NATO said 150 insurgents had been killed, while Afghan officers put the figure at 80.
Spokesmen for the revived Taliban insurgency, speaking with wire services here by telephone, said they had asked villagers in North Waziristan to honor the dead with special martyrs' funerals. Other sources said tribal villages in that area had contributed local sons to the fight against "infidel invaders" in Afghanistan, where 40,000 U.S. and NATO troops are now stationed.
========================
The Paki FATAs and Pakistan govt have agreed a while back that the FATAs were essentially to secede from Pakistan. ie, the "federally administered" of FATA has ended.
you're doing a heckuva job, dubya