Allies In The War On Terror

Bin Laden and a few bodyguards escaped on horseback into Parachinar, the administrative headquarters of the Kurram tribal agency in Pakistan. Kurram is one of seven tribal agencies that make up the semiautonomous Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) where the writ of Pakistan's central government has historically been limited. Having entered Pakistan and made sure that the news leaked out, bin Laden then doubled back into Afghanistan, to Khost, before once again reentering Pakistan. For some weeks he took refuge with Jalaluddin Haqqani, in a safe house between Khost and the Pakistani town of Miranshah, in North Waziristan. Pakistan had deployed troops in the Kurram and Khyber tribal agencies, but they were not on the mountaintops or deployed in the South and North Waziristan agencies through which the Arabs had escaped. Ahmed Rashid, Descent into Chaos

The Haqqani network is a traditional tribal clan. It has its very own specialties inclusive of extortion, murder, kidnapping and smuggling. It has been secretly backed by Pakistan's Inter-Service Intelligence agency. The network is well known to Arab, Uzbek, Chechen, Turkish and Pakistani jihadists, with fifteen thousand mujahadeen in the mountains of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Their links with the Taliban are indisputable.

Since it is in complete control of three border provinces, it is a government unto itself, with its own established infrastructure providing all the structure of an autonomous state from the judiciary it administers (sharia law), to tax offices, security forces, and religious schools. It has allied itself with al-Qaeda, supported the Taliban, and trained jihadis, doing its inimitable part for global terror on an all-inclusive scale.

The ISI gave refuge to the Taliban leadership after it fled Afghanistan and to its allies, such as Gulbuddin Hikmetyar, the leader of the Hizb-e-Islami Party, who arrived from exile in Iran and operated freely in the NWFP under ISI protection. Hikmetyar opened an office in the Shamshatoo Camp for Afghan refugees, near Peshawar, which was swiftly turned into a a Hizb-e-Islami base. Jalaluddin Haqqani, whom the ISI had promoted as a probable "moderate" Taliban, was given sanctuary in North Waziristan, where he rebuilt his network on both sides of the border. The remnants of other foreign groups, such as the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan settled in South Waziristan. Ahmad Rashid

Of course Pakistan cultivated these groups assiduously, to ensure they were onside with the government in its paranoid war against India. The Hizb-e-Islami waged attacks against India in Kashmir, and famously planned and executed the 60-hour murderously bloody attack on India's financial heartland in Mumbai, an atrocity that gripped the world's attention in horror, displaying in detail the fanatical Islamist war against civilization.

The Haqqani network's stepped up attacks in Afghanistan against NATO targets and its deadly focus on Indian targets emphasized its links to Pakistan's military with its never-ending focus on its arch-enemy India. When it attacked an American target yet again, this time the U.S. embassy compound in Kabul by a suicide squad, the U.S. took a hard look at the evidence, tracing cellphone numbers to Pakistani intelligence officials.

Which led Admiral Mike Mullen to finally finger Pakistan in disgust at its virulent complicity in exporting and supporting terrorist violence, while professing to be joined in the battle with the U.S. and NATO against terrorism, pocketing billions in American Treasury support to continue their own very particular battle.

"The American statements shocked us, and negate our sacrifices and successes in the ongoing war against terrorism", claimed the Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Gillani. His pained innocence and declaration of hurt feelings at the accusations levelled by an ally and financial backer just as skilled as the declarations of his predecessor.

"The generals who run ISI have worked with the Taliban for more than 14 years. They provide critical sanctuary for its leaders like Haqqani and Mullah Mohammded Omar. Without direct and substantial Pakistani help, the Taliban could not have recovered from its defeat in Operation Enduring Freedom in 2001 and become the threat it is today." Jeffrey Dressler, Institute for the Study of War, Washington.

True, all true, but why did it take so long for the U.S. to admit to that, when all the evidence was there to begin with? Expediency, of course, to secure a jumping-off point, an advantageous caravan route to supply NATO through Pakistan into Afghanistan. And all the while Pakistan was happily draining the U.S. Treasury, betraying it and assisting the Taliban to blow up NATO troops.