NEW JERSEY,
FEB 26 - The New York Times (NYT) reported on Sunday that
President George W. Bush has decided to send an unusually
tough message to President Gen Musharraf warning that the
new Democratic-led Congress could cut aid to his country
unless it does more to crack down on al Qaeda operatives.
The decision, says the news report, came after the White House
concluded that Musharraf, who is a key ally in Washington's
"War on Terror," was not living up to commitment he made to
Bush in September to combat militant groups. NYT
cited senior administration officials for its report.
According to the newspaper, U.S. intelligence officials have
concluded that the terrorist infrastructure was being
rebuilt, and that while Pakistan has attacked some camps,
its overall effort has flagged. "The message we're sending
to him now is that the only thing that matters is results,"
one senior administration official told the newspaper. "He's
made a number of assurances over the past few months, but
the bottom line is that what they are doing now is not
working."
Meanwhile, Bush's senior most foreign affairs
officer, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in an interview to ABC
on Sunday that there’re ‘political issues’ that hinder
Pakistan’s fight against Al Qaeda but President Pervez
Musharraf has been a ‘stalwart fighter’ in this war.
Rice rejected the suggestion that Al Qaeda was staging a
comeback but acknowledged that the terror network was trying
to “regenerate some of its leadership”.
She went on to say “More Al Qaeda have been caught in
Pakistan and in Saudi Arabia than any other place in the
world. And so they are working very hard with us. We have
excellent cooperation on that,” she added.
Commenting on recent media reports that the group was
staging a comeback, Ms Rice said the terror network had
taken a number of blows and most of its generals, who led Al
Qaeda troops before Sept 11, 2001, had disappeared.
So, who is right and who is wrong in the US administration
on Musharraf-Alqaeda matter is not clear. "It a
typical good guy bad guy game going on, we really don't know
nor can we tell until it's over," said
one Pakistani-American observer.
Last week the Afghan ambassador to US said "real power in
Pakistan is in the hands of its army," which he said "is
capable of countering extremism and terror in the two
countries."
Same week, a US state department official said "bin Laden
and Al Qaeda continue to operate from the area that
straddles the Durand Line. However, he did not specify
whether the alleged Al Qaeda camps are on the Afghan or
Pakistan side of the border.
Under Musharraf, Pakistan became a key ally of the U.S.
after the September 11 attacks by withdrawing its support
for the Taliban government, sharing intelligence with U.S.
officials and rounding up suspected Islamic militants,
killing or handing over more than 700 Alqaeda operatives.
Al Qaeda tried to kill Musharraf a couple of times.
The US House of Representatives recently adopted a bill
requiring Bush to certify Pakistan is making "all possible
efforts" to prevent the Taliban from operating in areas
under its sovereign control as a condition of continued U.S.
military aid. The US Senate was considering a response to
pressure Islamabad to do more combat militant groups, says a
news report.
Pakistan, says the report, receives about $850 million annually in U.S.
economic, military and counter-narcotics aid.
How this issue will pan out is not clear, some observers
say.
(Filed By Irshad Salim)
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