Friend or Foe? Pakistan

Pakistan: Friend or Foe?

By Janet Levy
FrontPageMagazine.com February 16, 2007

The resurgence of the Taliban, as well as cross border incursions of Al Qaeda terrorists into Afghanistan, has led to increased pressure, criticism and charges of complicity against Pakistan from Western leaders. The increase in terrorist activity has highlighted the failure of the Pakistani leadership to contain terrorism and dismantle its terrorist infrastructure, adding to the growing distrust of Islamabad as a true partner in the war against terror. Despite a pledge by Pakistan’s President, General Pervez Musharraf, to support U.S. efforts to extinguish terrorist groups, Islamabad is increasingly viewed as a partner to the resurgence of the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan.

Key to that view are various documents that indicate the extent of terrorist activity within Pakistan. An affidavit obtained during an FBI investigation of Hamid Hayat, an Islamic terrorist arrested in Lodi, California, in June, 2005, contains Hayat’s admission to FBI agents that he spent six months in an Al Qaeda training camp in Pakistan with hundreds of participants from around the world. According to an October 8, 2006 article in The Sunday Times, proof of Pakistan’s support of the Taliban was confirmed by American, NATO and Afghan intelligence, which obtained satellite photos and videos of training camps for Taliban soldiers and suicide bombers near Quetta.

Meanwhile, a recent report in the International Herald Tribune cited an interview with a Taliban commander who had been jailed by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency for his refusal to join the fight in Afghanistan. His arrest was falsely publicized as an example of Pakistan’s efforts to crackdown on the Taliban. The same report quoted former Pakistani government advisor, Husain Haqqani, who described the ruthless efficiency of the ISI in monitoring the communications and movements of Pakistanis. He disputed the possibility that a terrorist training camp could operate in Pakistan without ISI knowledge

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