Pakistan must help break al-Qaeda, says Brown

[Nemesis]

Gordon Brown has told the BBC that Pakistan must do more to "break" al-Qaeda and find Osama Bin Laden.

Questions must be asked about why nobody had been able "to spot or detain or get close to" the al-Qaeda leader, the prime minister said.

He said he wanted to see "more progress in taking out" Bin Laden and his second-in-command Ayman Zawahiri.

Meanwhile, a Senate report claims US forces had Bin Laden "within their grasp" in Afghanistan in late 2001.

BBC World Affairs correspondent Mike Wooldridge said this was not a new claim.

However, he said, staff working for the Democratic majority on the Foreign Relations Committee now claimed to have evidence that in December 2001 US military power was kept on the sidelines while Bin Laden escaped "unmolested" into Pakistan's unregulated tribal areas.

Air strikes

The report comes days before US President Barack Obama is due to announce additional US troops for Afghanistan - Mr Brown is to announce whether conditions have been met to send an extra 500 British troops.

Speaking in a BBC interview, the prime minister said that if so much effort was going into building up security in Afghanistan, Pakistan had "to be able to show that it can take on al-Qaeda".

The prime minister said Pakistan had made progress against the Taliban in south Waziristan. But he told the BBC: "We've got to ask ourselves why, eight years after September the 11th, nobody has been able to spot or detain or get close to Osama bin Laden, nobody's been able to get close to Zawahiri, the number two in al-Qaeda."

Pakistan had to "join us in the major effort that the world is committing resources to, and that is not only to isolate al-Qaeda, but to break them in Pakistan", he said.

Pakistan's prime minister, Yousuf Raza Gilani, will meet Mr Brown at Downing Street on Thursday. Mr Brown informed Pakistan's president, Asif Ali Zardari by telephone that he intended to speak out about the hunt for Osama Bin Laden.

The prime minister told the BBC that over eight years "we should have been able to do more ... to get to the bottom of where al-Qaeda is operating from".

'Political surge'

Progress had been made he said, but Pakistan had to make sure that "in South Waziristan we are taking on al-Qaeda directly".

"We want, after eight years, to see more progress in taking out these two people at the top of al-Qaeda, who have done so much damage and are clearly the brains behind many of the operations that have hit Britain," said Mr Brown.

Later Foreign Secretary David Miliband said Britain wanted Pakistan to "join us in upping our game" in tackling terrorism on its border with Afghanistan. "We know that the Pakistani authorities, as the prime minister said, are taking big losses in their drive against the so-called Pakistan Taliban... we recognise that."

But he said it was "right that we recognise that stability in Afghanistan requires stability in Pakistan too and that requires a combined effort."

"We've all got to do more, Pakistan has got to do more, Afghanistan has got to do more and the international community has got to do more, but we've also got to do better."

In an interview with the BBC's Hard Talk programme due to be screened on Tuesday, Pakistan's foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said: "I can't speak for the last seven years, but I can certainly speak for the present government, which came into office in 2008.

"The democratically elected government of Pakistan has shown a resolve and determination to take the militants on.

"And I think today there's a great recognition of that, by the US, the Europeans, all over the world. There is an acknowledgement that Pakistan today is determined to fight the militants."

Shadow defence secretary Liam Fox told BBC One's Politics Show that Pakistan faced economic and political problems and its army did not "really have the capabilities for the sort of anti-terrorist counter-insurgency measures that we want".

"The international community has to give Pakistan a lot of help if Pakistan is to fulfil the role we want it to do," he said.

And Edward Davey, for the Liberal Democrats, said: "The real questions are, why hasn't this happened before and because it hasn't, why is it suddenly going to happen now?

"This looks more like wishful thinking than a new well considered strategy"

BBC News - Pakistan must help break al-Qaeda, says Brown

Interesting choice of words before a meeting between the PMs, don't you think? It won't go down well in Pakistan.

 

[Bushy]

BBC News - Pakistan must help break al-Qaeda, says Brown

Interesting choice of words before a meeting between the PMs, don't you think? It won't go down well in Pakistan.

Nemesis - Why the west thinks Pakistan should do more - Because Pakistan in its ranks has people that can very easily infiltrate into organizations such as al-Qaeda.
When ISI is capable of creating and motivating such organizations, then it can also infiltrate them very easily when they go rogue. The Pashtuns/Afghans working for such organizations will find it easier to share their loyalty with the ISI than with any western establishment.

Now you know why the Brits and the Americans think that Pakistan should do more - because it can do more.

 

[Nemesis]

Perhaps. Doing more is a matter of perception. The Pakistani's can counter by saying that their operation in Swat and Waziristan is proof of them doing more. However what i found most interesting in the article was this -

In an interview with the BBC's Hard Talk programme due to be screened on Tuesday, Pakistan's foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said: "I can't speak for the last seven years, but I can certainly speak for the present government, which came into office in 2008.

Is that a subtle acknowledgment that the previous government did not do more, or am i reading too much into it?

 

[SMC]

West is just trying to find a scapegoat. They don't know where the **** bin laden is, and Al Qaeda is already a myth, so they're finding a scapegoat (normally Pakistan in these kinds of things) to help divert attention against their failure against Taliban.

 

[SSGPA1]

Nemesis - Why the west thinks Pakistan should do more - Because Pakistan in its ranks has people that can very easily infiltrate into organizations such as al-Qaeda.
When ISI is capable of creating and motivating such organizations, then it can also infiltrate them very easily when they go rogue. The Pashtuns/Afghans working for such organizations will find it easier to share their loyalty with the ISI than with any western establishment.

Now you know why the Brits and the Americans think that Pakistan should do more - because it can do more.

First, Col Proshit is not a Pakistani and he is part of the Hindu extremists group.

Second, Pakistan didn't create Al-Qaeeda.

Third, Pakistan will put its own house in order and Afghanistan need to do the same. Right now Afghanistan is under the control of ISAF so it is there responsibility to do more. Pakistan took action and is very close to winning the war on our side of the border.

Fourth, international co-operation is not a one way street. Brits can actually do more by controlling the flow of weapons into Pakistan from Afghanistan.

Last but not least, Afghanistan will remain the strategic depth for Pakistan despite all the money spend by India. It is a matter of time when (and not 'if') US and Brits will have Pakistan play the bigger role. That will mean an end to Indian activities in Afghanistan

The above statement is worrying Indians all over the place but trust me it is going to happen sooner than later.

 

[LicencetoKill]

simple is Cover your As*
they putting their failure on us now hahaha

 

[Chanakyaa]

First, Col Proshit is not a Pakistani and he is part of the Hindu extremists group.

Second, Pakistan didn't create Al-Qaeeda.

Third, Pakistan will put its own house in order and Afghanistan need to do the same. Right now Afghanistan is under the control of ISAF so it is there responsibility to do more. Pakistan took action and is very close to winning the war on our side of the border.

Fourth, international co-operation is not a one way street. Brits can actually do more by controlling the flow of weapons into Pakistan from Afghanistan.

Last but not least, Afghanistan will remain the strategic depth for Pakistan despite all the money spend by India. It is a matter of time when (and not 'if') US and Brits will have Pakistan play the bigger role. That will mean an end to Indian activities in Afghanistan

The above statement is worrying Indians all over the place but trust me it is going to happen sooner than later.

I have a Question :

From where did u drop India and Purohit here ?
Did Gordon Brown say That or ... i didnt get it.

The discussion was supposed to be on Brown's Statement i suppose .. isnt it ?


Friend, Mr. Karzai recently blamed Pakistan for terrorist Activities, Iran too Did The same and You expect that Indians constructing roads, giving medicines , doctors and engineers will end its activities ?

Im NOT saying that Pak is ACTUALLY carrying Terrorist Activity there, but how do u assert that The Country with Good Relations will be OUT and The one having rather sour relations will be IN ?