Pakistan angry at US intelligence chief's terror claim
Pastor Dale Morgan
Pakistan angry at US intelligence chief's terror claim
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Julian Borger, diplomatic editor
Friday January 12, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
The Pakistani government protested today over a claim by the head of US
intelligence, John Negroponte, that al-Qaida and Taliban leaders were
hiding inside Pakistan.
Since December 2001, when Osama Bin Laden escaped a US-led siege of his
Afghan mountain lair at Tora Bora, western intelligence agencies have
presumed the al-Qaida leader and his top Taliban allies were hiding in
the highland tribal areas along the Afghan-Pakistan border.
However, in written evidence to a Senate committee, Mr Negroponte,
director of national intelligence, singled out Pakistan as the location
of the jihadist leaders' hideout, arguing that al-Qaida and the Taliban
were rebuilding a network there. Mr Negroponte said Pakistan remained a
"major source of Islamic extremism".
The comments drew an immediate response from Pakistan's foreign
ministry, which insisted the US spy chief should have mentioned the
successes against al-Qaida made possible by Pakistani cooperation and
suggested that the focus should "remain on cooperation instead of
questionable criticism".
Pakistani cooperation was thought to have been critical in the arrests
of some leading al-Qaida figures, most importantly Khalid Sheikh
Mohamed, supposed mastermind of the September 11 attacks, in March 2003.
However, Pakistani operations in the border region in pursuit of
jihadist fugitives have provoked resistance from tribal leaders there.
Meanwhile, a former Afghan prime minister and prominent warlord,
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, told a Pakistan television interviewer he had
helped Bin Laden escape from Tora Bora in 2001, under the noses of the
US special forces and their Afghan allies.