Al Qaeda in Pakistan

[Imran Khan]

Al Qaeda losing ground in Pakistan

Wednesday, 19 Nov, 2008 | 08:03 AM PST |

Tribal elders of Bajaur attend a government sponsored jirga focused on combatting the influence of al Qaeda and the Taliban along the Pak-Afghan border. - file

WASHINGTON: Al Qaeda is struggling to boost its appeal in Pakistan following President Pervez Musharraf's resignation, a US terrorism expert concluded based on comments by the militant network.
Former CIA analyst Jarret Brachman told Reuters that Musharraf's departure in September had removed a target of al Qaeda's anti-American campaign. His successor, Asif Ali Zardari, has been critical of the United States.
Al Qaeda 'finds itself in a variety of predicaments with regard to the Pakistani government, its army and its jihadist populations,' Brachman writes in the CTC Sentinel, a journal of the Combating Terrorism Center at the US Military Academy at West Point to be published on Thursday.
'Even though Musharraf is now out of power, the inertia of al Qaeda's anti-Pakistan policy has made it difficult for them to back-pedal without admitting strategic weakness,' wrote Brachman, the center's research director until recently.
'Certainly, al Qaeda's headaches are US opportunities,' wrote Brachman, who this year became a security professor at North Dakota State University.
Brian Glyn Williams, a US professor who has testified on al Qaeda at Guantanamo trials, said attacks on Zardari's government had less resonance among Pakistanis than those against Musharraf because Zardari was seen as more legitimate.
HANDMAIDEN TO THE US?
Zardari has condemned stepped-up US air strikes against militant fighters in Pakistan's border region with Afghanistan.
Washington has shrugged off the protests, but it has not repeated an intensely criticized ground raid in September.
'The less that Pakistan appears to be the handmaiden of the United States, the easier time it will have garnering the domestic support it needs to effectively deal with its extremist problems itself,' Brachman wrote.
American-born al Qaeda spokesman Adam Gadahn last month criticized Pakistan's support for the United States in the Afghan war, its fighting against militants in border regions and its granting of transit routes to the US military.
An August message, in English, from al Qaeda deputy Ayman al Zawahri spoke of his love for Pakistanis.
Brachman said the aim may be to recast al Qaeda's pitch to Pakistanis using new language that does not focus on the leader personally and to stress ties to the Pakistani people. Al Qaeda may be trying to negotiate its way out of a corner, he wrote.

 

[ejaz007]

That is why we should increase pressure on them instead of wasting time in negotiations. Let them either run to the Afghanistan or finish them.

 

[dr.umer]

Pak anti-terror actions yielding results: Mullen​

19 Nov 2008

WASHINGTON: Admiral Michael Mullen, chairman US Joint Chiefs Staff, has said the strategy of tribal engagement has great significance in the long‑term solution of the Afghan‑Pakistan border security challenges.

The top US military officer acknowledged at a Pentagon briefing that Pakistan’s own anti‑terrorism actions, launched in Bajaur under the elected democratic government, have had significant impact on curbing cross‑border militancy in that part of the area.

“I think the engagement of tribal leaders is very important and—across the board, with respect to Afghanistan. And I think that’s also the case as well in Pakistan, over the long term, in terms of how this challenge that we have, particularly in the—on the border, is eventually resolved.

“And so I think having a strategy which includes tribal engagement is a very important part,” he stated.

He did not touch on the issue of unilateral actions against militant targets on the Pakistani side of the border in response to reporters questions but said he has been greatly encouraged by the effectiveness of Pakistani actions in the tribal areas.

“I have watched with admiration and—the Pakistani military, which has moved into Bajaur specifically over the last several months and had a very significant impact there.

“General (Ashfaq Parvez) Kayani has a military which has also got a operational tempo challenge, to move his brigades routinely into the FATA. He’s essentially executing a plan that he’s laid out, and I’m very supportive of that, and encouraged but what—by what I see as a result.”

“And some of the results is what we talked—what I’ve talked about here historically is we see a fairly significant impact in that area, which is just across from Konar, on the reduction in insurgents’ ability to cross that border, to basically camp out there, to have—on the Pakistan side, to be able to train, to have that safe haven, and move ‑ And that’s effectively what we want to see happen (in terms of coordination), and also to coordinate that with our movements on the Afghan side. So I’ve seen very positive effects,” Mullen added.

 

[Skywalker]

Another smoke screen, we must not live in fools paradise, this thing cannot be taken seriously until we realy eliminate from our sacred soil.

 

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

PESHAWAR: An explosion in Peshawar's Hashtnagri area on Monday left nine people injured.​

According to reports, ambulances had been dispatched to the site of the blast which took place outside an Imam Bargah on Hussainia Street.

The boundary wall of the Imam Bargah was partially damaged, the police said.

The Imam Bargah's caretaker was also among the injured, local police said.
DAWN.COM | NWFP | Blast in Peshawar, nine injured

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After the pounding in Bajaur, the last week or so has seen several sectarian attacks.

The killing of a Shia cleric in Quetta, the attack on Shia mourners in a funeral in Quetta, and now this.

It seems a possible shift in tactics to create instability through sectarian violence is now being played out, since the original tactics of attacking the military and other soft targets failed to gain AQ much traction.

 

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

http://www.defence.pk/forums/war-terror/16443-al-qaeda-losing-ground-pakistan.html

 

[HAIDER]

Look like extremism is going down and ISI handle the situation very well. So, foreign agencies are working this type of violence.

 

[S-2]

Here's a link to the CTC Sentinel, quoted in Imran Khan's article. Brachman is a thoroughly grounded expert on Al-Qaeda, maybe one of the very best in the world. This organization is quietly doing tremendous work in this area and his expertise will be missed on a day-to-day basis-

CTC Sentinel Vol. 1 Issue 12-USMA

Lots of good information here for those interested. HOURS of reading. Brachman's article is on page 14.