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March 12, 2009

U.S. Officials: Taliban operate freely from Quetta

Topics: War on Terror

Apparently the billions we've paid Pakistan haven't bought much success against the Islamic extremists that operate freely in Pakistan: Taliban operate freely from Quetta. US

Pakistan came under immense pressure at a US Senate hearing this week, as both officials and senators accused Islamabad of allowing terrorists to use its soil for planning attacks on the United States.

Two key US officials - director national intelligence and director military intelligence - told the Senate Armed Services Committee that Pakistan has allowed Taliban to operate freely from Quetta while the tribal areas have become a 'central nervous system' for al-Qaeda.

US lawmakers and officials also said that Lashkar-e-Taiba has the ideological commitment to replace al-Qaeda as the next major terrorist group in the world.

They said that the Pakistani establishment and intelligence agencies had taken some measures against the Lashkar recently but were not cooperating fully with the United States in dealing with this threat.

The committee was also told that the Lashkar had supporters among the Pakistanis living in the United States who could abet its efforts to carry out a terrorist attack in North America.

In spite of all the money we've paid Pakistan, I somewhat agree with John Kerry who says that an urgent boost in Western aid to Pakistan because "time is running out" to help the nuclear-armed US ally's civilian government survive. My "somewhat" agreement is premised with so long as we can have effective assurances that the money is going to the right places and not in the pockets of Pakistani officials and the Taliban. However, the problem is that up to now much of the money we've paid Pakistan has been misspent.

Posted by Hyscience at March 12, 2009 9:33 AM

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• U.S. Officials: Taliban operate freely from Quetta - Mar 12, 2009