Every major terror threat involves Pakistan: CIA

[batmannow]

Every major terror threat involves Pakistan: CIA
By Anwar Iqbal
DAWNNEWS.COM

WASHINGTON, Nov 14: CIA director Michael Hayden has warned that every major terrorist threat confronting the world has ties to Pakistan.

In a speech to the Atlantic Council on Thursday, Mr Hayden also claimed that Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden was hiding in Fata.

“Let me be very clear. Today, virtually every major terrorist threat that my agency is aware of has threads back to the tribal areas,” Mr Hayden told the Washington-based think-tank.

The CIA director, however, acknowledged that Bin Laden was isolated from the day-to-day operations of Al Qaeda, although the organisation was still the greatest threat to the US.

“If there is a major strike on this country (the US), it will bear the fingerprints of

Al Qaeda,” he warned.

Gen Hayden, however, depicted Al Qaeda chief as an extremely frustrated man who spent all his time trying to survive and had no time for guiding his militants.

“[Bin Laden] is putting a lot of energy into his own survival, a lot of energy into his own security,” the CIA chief said. “He appears to be largely isolated from the day-to-day operations of the organisation he nominally heads.”

Capturing Bin Laden, however, remained the US government’s top priority, he added.

“His death or capture clearly would have a significant impact on the confidence of his followers - both core Al Qaeda and unaffiliated extremists throughout the world,” he said.

After depicting Pakistan as the hub of all major terrorist activities in the world, the CIA chief also conceded that Pakistan faced a complex situation.

“While the problem looks easy from thousands of miles away, it’s extremely difficult up close because of the tribal issues,” he said.

The CIA chief said he believed the Pakistani government had been “extraordinarily helpful” in responding to this challenge. Their plan, which they started to implement in 2006, to slowly expand their reach over the Fata would have been wise and far-reaching were it not for the extreme urgency of the threat, he added.

“We’ve killed and captured more top Al Qaeda operatives with the support of the Pakistani security forces than anywhere else in the world. What remains unclear is what the end game is,” he added.

According to him, Al Qaeda was chased out of Yemen in the 1990s only to reconstitute in Afghanistan. It was run out of Afghanistan in 2001, only to disperse, setting up a rump headquarters in Pakistan and declare Iraq the “central front” of its effort.

“Where, then, does it stop? Or is this simply a case of perpetual penalty kicks?” he asked.

Mr Hayden warned that despite the losses the terrorist group had to incur after 9/11, Al Qaeda was still spreading in Africa and the Mid-East.

The CIA believes progress has been made in curbing Al Qaeda’s activities in the Philippines, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and Iraq. Other areas, however, are showing an increase in activity, including East Africa, the Maghreb, Yemen and Pakistan.

Mr Hayden claimed that in Pakistan Al Qaeda had established safe haven and was training a “bench of skilled operatives.”

Gen Hayden was appointed CIA director in May 2006 by President George Bush but it’s not clear whether he will retain his job when President-elect Barack Obama takes office in January.

 

[eva syed]

why only Pakistan..........

 

[Imran Khan]

why only Pakistan..........

because we soft come like iran and usa will see you from far away and cry but if you friend of usa you will lose

 

[batmannow]

Just because, CIA has just started the covert war against pakistan!
and our army is sitting quitly, all these drone attacks, will be attacking our nucklear facilaties? next!

 

[PakmanUSA]

Personally I laugh at the statements made by the American Goverment. A simple truth is this. If these "Terrorists" are a threat to America why haven't we in American worked harder to control the boardeds from Mexico? My thinking is this. If we can not stop the uneducated Mexicans from getting into this country, how would you stop a well trained terrorist from crossing the boarded and conducting terrorist operations here in America? I'm not the smartest guy in the world, so if I have concidered this, so have the "Terrorists." I find it hard to believe they are the threat we in America are told they are. People here will often remark, "We have to fight them there (Middle East) or we will have to fight them here." Again if they were as orginized and had the money we are led to believe, America would have more acts of terrorism conducted within it's boarders. I also know the intelligence community would find out about many of the operations, but again sooner or later the terrorists would pull off an operation. The truth is you can not stop them all. A perfect example is look what happens in Isreal all the time.

My thoughts,

Ron

 

[eva syed]

so what should we do........? if we cant do anything to stop America or anyone else from making these stupid statements then who is going to do it.....? angels? prophets? or God himself?

 

[batmannow]

so what should we do........? if we cant do anything to stop America or anyone else from making these stupid statements then who is going to do it.....? angels? prophets? or God himself?

I GUSS, gillani shahib
KIYANI shahib

 

[jeypore]

Personally I laugh at the statements made by the American Goverment. A simple truth is this. If these "Terrorists" are a threat to America why haven't we in American worked harder to control the boardeds from Mexico? My thinking is this. If we can not stop the uneducated Mexicans from getting into this country, how would you stop a well trained terrorist from crossing the boarded and conducting terrorist operations here in America? I'm not the smartest guy in the world, so if I have concidered this, so have the "Terrorists." I find it hard to believe they are the threat we in America are told they are. People here will often remark, "We have to fight them there (Middle East) or we will have to fight them here." Again if they were as orginized and had the money we are led to believe, America would have more acts of terrorism conducted within it's boarders. I also know the intelligence community would find out about many of the operations, but again sooner or later the terrorists would pull off an operation. The truth is you can not stop them all. A perfect example is look what happens in Isreal all the time.

My thoughts,

Ron

The question is Ron that there has not been any terrorist treat after 9/11, so the Homeland security are doing there job. Same could not be said about other countries like Spain, England.
And your question of "can not stop them all", That is why CIA is attacking each al queda cells financially as well militarily. There are limitations they are facing regarding the tribal areas where the frustrations is coming from both side US and Pakistan.

 

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

view: Pakistan’s terrorist confrontation —Brain Cloughley​

Can we possibly believe that the Chief of the Army Staff, General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, is a traitor to his country? It’s a silly question, but that is what is implied by the commentators who announce that Pakistan “isn’t doing enough” to counter terrorism and that the Army and the Directorate of Inter Services Intelligence, headed by the able General Pasha, are actually supporting the Taliban and other loony extremists who seek the breakdown of Pakistan.

There was one particularly flatulent piece of windbaggery in Canada’s normally sane Globe and Mail newspaper on October 27. Insultingly titled “Pakistan’s so-called war on terrorism”, it had no by-line, so perhaps was written by a machine, but nonetheless was intriguing in its statement that “[Pakistan’s] leaders have claimed to be doing all they can to break up terrorist groups even as the military has provided them with safe haven and, in some cases, active support.”

It is claimed, without a shred of evidence, that the Pakistan army is giving “active support” to violent fanatics who are trying to kill the army’s own soldiers. In some weird way it is supposed that units on operation in the North West Frontier Province, who take casualties almost daily and have suffered over a thousand killed in the past five years, are being attacked by terrorists and criminals from “safe havens” arranged by their own comrades.

I state flatly: it is inconceivable that General Kayani would sanction any such behaviour on part of his officers and men — just as it is impossible that commanders in the field would for a moment permit their colleagues to assist in helping those who intend to kill fellow soldiers.

In the same piece, it was also claimed that “At the Red Mosque, a hard-core Islamist compound in the heart of Islamabad, and more recently in the Bajaur tribal district, the government chose to act only under considerable international pressure and after allowing militants to put down deep roots.”

What nonsense. There was no outside pressure to deal with the Lal Masjid loonies (which was done most effectively in an operation by the army’s Special Services Group that has not yet received the public tribute that is its due), and while some commentators have fulminated about Bajaur, it was entirely the initiative of the Islamabad government to order the army into the Federally Administered Tribal Areas in 2002-3.

Pakistan is up against more than just terrorists. It faces repeated propaganda attacks from those whose pronouncements vary from being mildly stupid to openly damaging. In the latter vein, the declaration last week by the head of the CIA, a retired air force general, Michael Hayden, that “Let me be very clear. Today, virtually every major terrorist threat that my agency is aware of has threads back to [Pakistan’s] tribal areas,” is mind-boggling in its fantasy.

“Major terrorist threats” to America that are listed by the US State Department include the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, Sri Lanka’s Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the Naxalite Maoists in India, Spain’s Basque Fatherland and Liberty movement (ETA), India’s Babbar Khalsa International, Japan’s Aum Shrinrikyo, the New People’s Army of the Philippines, and Israel’s Kahane Chai.

All of these are regarded, justifiably, as dangerous terrorist groups, for which designation the main criterion is that “the organisation’s terrorist activity or terrorism must threaten the security of US nationals or the national security...of the United States.” Every one of them is, in the words of the director of the CIA, a “major terrorist threat that my agency is aware of.” Therefore, by his definition, they all have “threads back to the tribal areas” of Pakistan. How fascinating.

So the wild men of the Tamil Tigers are giving high fives to the Naxalite nutters in FATA while the dedicated communists of the New People’s Army are sitting round camp fires with turbaned Taliban, chatting about old times. All, of course, nurtured by the omnipresent ISI, which no doubt is responsible, among other things, for global warming, Lehman Brothers’ collapse into bankruptcy, the death of Princess Diana, and Australia’s recent cricket defeat by India.

It is regrettable that the head of the CIA can be so ill-advised as to make such statements as he did last week. His comments help neither his government’s cause nor his personal credibility. I made inquiries about the speech and was told his intention was to be “supportive” of Pakistan. All that can be said is that if this was an example of being supportive, then it would be interesting to hear him being critical.

US policy as regards Pakistan is dismally disjointed to the point of being erratic and almost entirely counter-productive. The head of the CIA was joined in his ingenuous worldview by the new commander Central Command, the much-lauded General Petraeus, who observed that Pakistan was confronting “extremists who have turned what used to be fairly peaceful areas into strongholds for individuals who...believe that they have the right to blow up other people who do not see the world the way they do.”

Hayden and Petraeus ignore the fact that it was the US invasion of Afghanistan that caused the current chaos in Pakistan’s tribal areas. The situation was not ideal before the invasion, but it certainly wasn’t the mess it is now.

Pakistan is not to be blamed for the fact that brutal fanatics sought refuge in its western mountains, and it is absurd to hold Islamabad, and especially Pakistan’s army, responsible for the reaction of the tribes in supporting them.

And the really ironical thing, given the dozens of US missile strikes in the NWFP, is that Hayden and Petraeus themselves “believe they have the right to blow up other people who do not see the world the way they do.” It is that very attitude that contributes to Pakistan’s problems in confronting terrorism.

Brian Cloughley’s book about the Pakistan army, War, Coups and Terror, has just been published by Pen & Sword Books (UK) and is distributed in Pakistan by Saeed Book Bank

Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan

 

[batmannow]

view: Pakistan’s terrorist confrontation —Brain Cloughley​

Can we possibly believe that the Chief of the Army Staff, General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, is a traitor to his country? It’s a silly question, but that is what is implied by the commentators who announce that Pakistan “isn’t doing enough” to counter terrorism and that the Army and the Directorate of Inter Services Intelligence, headed by the able General Pasha, are actually supporting the Taliban and other loony extremists who seek the breakdown of Pakistan.

There was one particularly flatulent piece of windbaggery in Canada’s normally sane Globe and Mail newspaper on October 27. Insultingly titled “Pakistan’s so-called war on terrorism”, it had no by-line, so perhaps was written by a machine, but nonetheless was intriguing in its statement that “[Pakistan’s] leaders have claimed to be doing all they can to break up terrorist groups even as the military has provided them with safe haven and, in some cases, active support.”

It is claimed, without a shred of evidence, that the Pakistan army is giving “active support” to violent fanatics who are trying to kill the army’s own soldiers. In some weird way it is supposed that units on operation in the North West Frontier Province, who take casualties almost daily and have suffered over a thousand killed in the past five years, are being attacked by terrorists and criminals from “safe havens” arranged by their own comrades.

I state flatly: it is inconceivable that General Kayani would sanction any such behaviour on part of his officers and men — just as it is impossible that commanders in the field would for a moment permit their colleagues to assist in helping those who intend to kill fellow soldiers.

In the same piece, it was also claimed that “At the Red Mosque, a hard-core Islamist compound in the heart of Islamabad, and more recently in the Bajaur tribal district, the government chose to act only under considerable international pressure and after allowing militants to put down deep roots.”

What nonsense. There was no outside pressure to deal with the Lal Masjid loonies (which was done most effectively in an operation by the army’s Special Services Group that has not yet received the public tribute that is its due), and while some commentators have fulminated about Bajaur, it was entirely the initiative of the Islamabad government to order the army into the Federally Administered Tribal Areas in 2002-3.

Pakistan is up against more than just terrorists. It faces repeated propaganda attacks from those whose pronouncements vary from being mildly stupid to openly damaging. In the latter vein, the declaration last week by the head of the CIA, a retired air force general, Michael Hayden, that “Let me be very clear. Today, virtually every major terrorist threat that my agency is aware of has threads back to [Pakistan’s] tribal areas,” is mind-boggling in its fantasy.

“Major terrorist threats” to America that are listed by the US State Department include the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, Sri Lanka’s Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the Naxalite Maoists in India, Spain’s Basque Fatherland and Liberty movement (ETA), India’s Babbar Khalsa International, Japan’s Aum Shrinrikyo, the New People’s Army of the Philippines, and Israel’s Kahane Chai.

All of these are regarded, justifiably, as dangerous terrorist groups, for which designation the main criterion is that “the organisation’s terrorist activity or terrorism must threaten the security of US nationals or the national security...of the United States.” Every one of them is, in the words of the director of the CIA, a “major terrorist threat that my agency is aware of.” Therefore, by his definition, they all have “threads back to the tribal areas” of Pakistan. How fascinating.

So the wild men of the Tamil Tigers are giving high fives to the Naxalite nutters in FATA while the dedicated communists of the New People’s Army are sitting round camp fires with turbaned Taliban, chatting about old times. All, of course, nurtured by the omnipresent ISI, which no doubt is responsible, among other things, for global warming, Lehman Brothers’ collapse into bankruptcy, the death of Princess Diana, and Australia’s recent cricket defeat by India.

It is regrettable that the head of the CIA can be so ill-advised as to make such statements as he did last week. His comments help neither his government’s cause nor his personal credibility. I made inquiries about the speech and was told his intention was to be “supportive” of Pakistan. All that can be said is that if this was an example of being supportive, then it would be interesting to hear him being critical.

US policy as regards Pakistan is dismally disjointed to the point of being erratic and almost entirely counter-productive. The head of the CIA was joined in his ingenuous worldview by the new commander Central Command, the much-lauded General Petraeus, who observed that Pakistan was confronting “extremists who have turned what used to be fairly peaceful areas into strongholds for individuals who...believe that they have the right to blow up other people who do not see the world the way they do.”

Hayden and Petraeus ignore the fact that it was the US invasion of Afghanistan that caused the current chaos in Pakistan’s tribal areas. The situation was not ideal before the invasion, but it certainly wasn’t the mess it is now.

Pakistan is not to be blamed for the fact that brutal fanatics sought refuge in its western mountains, and it is absurd to hold Islamabad, and especially Pakistan’s army, responsible for the reaction of the tribes in supporting them.

And the really ironical thing, given the dozens of US missile strikes in the NWFP, is that Hayden and Petraeus themselves “believe they have the right to blow up other people who do not see the world the way they do.” It is that very attitude that contributes to Pakistan’s problems in confronting terrorism.

Brian Cloughley’s book about the Pakistan army, War, Coups and Terror, has just been published by Pen & Sword Books (UK) and is distributed in Pakistan by Saeed Book Bank

Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan

Dear AgNoStIc MuSliM; sir

"Chief of the Army Staff, General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, is a traitor to his country? It’s a silly question"!

hum, well he is absloutly not a traitor, but he is doing the same fatal mistake
by trusting UNCLE SAM & its agents in pakistan, as for now even our best friends doesnt belive him, & the so called political leadership in pakistan, & there is lack of understanding in thier relationship.
for example! drone attacks were still going on , even our protests?
our defense minster went ahead (shamlessly)saying" we cant do anything to stop drone attacks, & we doesnt have the technology to stop it"

check it out ! how these kind of statments were seen in the outside volitile world, CHINA ,KSA , TURKEY, IRAN.... every one were undecided about us, & our capability to defend oursellves?

And now here comes this stupid , news "Every major terror threat involves Pakistan: CIA"

systematicly a ground is in making to take the "war of terror" inside pakistan, & the biggest joke is that! our militry & political leadership is just enjoying the forghien vists, getting what? nothing! i guss?

wining hearts & minds, by allowing enemy killing innocent civillians?
it will never been seen good , in all over pakistan.
political leadership has nothing to lose, even they lose pakistan !
but militry is surly lossing its respect & trust in the eyes of pakistanis,even winning the battle of "BAJUR" ! pakarmy still needs the trust of the local people's very very much.
CIA's focus of attack is at "trust of pakistanis on PAKARMY" , its the most deadlst one in terms of its impact, and its a helping hand to terrorists?

 

[pkpatriotic]

I GUSS, gillani shahib
KIYANI shahib

Observing, Hyden became extra-agressive, and trying to connect Pakistan with almost every terrorists or extremists contineously in his every statements since last week, its look a like a two in one tacts...one is showing off his his vigilance to Obama to get confrim his tenure for new era, while 2nd his statements may impact on obama's policy for pakistan. But unfortunately no one in our govt who can take notice on it. as you said about two dignities but they are
Sorry to say both of stated name are just like dumbed puppets
Gillani is only able to pass statement
While Kiyani .... is became ...nothing more then

Originally Posted by batmannow:
Just because, CIA has just started the covert war against pakistan!
and our army is sitting quitly, all these drone attacks, will be attacking our nucklear facilaties? next!

Dont worry dear friend, US no need to attack on nukes facilities, while they can easily captured by having "tacit deal" on Don't tell -Don't say basis, similar to the deal they had for drone attackes

 

[S-2]

I'm wondering if Mr. Iqbal read the readily available transcript at the Atlantic Council. He's certainly done the director a dis-service by his rendering of the comments in his DAWN story-

Hayden Transcript- Atlantic Council

I'm certain none here have read the available transcript either. That being likely, why would Director Hayden's actual words then matter? Here they are, just "for the record", but I'd presume they mean nothing to Mr. Iqbal or, more importantly, any here. The narrative, again, has been pre-determined.

The speech was about Al Qaeda- nothing but Al Qaeda. He makes clear in his comments that he's addressing the pre-eminent threat to our interests and identifies that threat as Al Qaeda. He notes the various locations globally where Al Qaeda maintains a presence- growing, stable, or diminishing. He finally points to the tribal areas of Pakistan as the almost certain nexus of Al Qaeda's strategic operations. Here is a more complete version for those still dis-inclined to read the actual full text from the director of the know-nothing C.I.A.-

"Now let me turn to that part of the globe that’s most important to al Qaeda, most important to al Qaeda’s continuing operations. Al Qaeda sanctuary along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, in those tribal areas, has allowed it to recover some of the capacity lost when it was expelled from Afghanistan almost seven years ago now. The group has reconstituted some training and operational capabilities. It’s increased its recruitment and its propaganda efforts. It’s established a more durable leadership structure. It’s built redundancies into its plotting, and it’s developed a bench of skilled operatives to carry plans forward when other plans are disrupted.

All that activity is enabled by a fairly recent development, and that’s al Qaeda’s ties to local tribes. The terrorist group – here I’m talking about al Qaeda – has developed a close, co-dependent relationship with Pashtun extremists and separatist groups. Al Qaeda, foreigners in a land that’s long been suspicious of foreigners, has been able to curry favor with locals by supporting their causes, training their fighters, funding their operations, and importantly, showing sufficient deference to tribal leaders. Bin Laden’s lieutenants work in concert with Pakistani militant groups as long as the operational goals of those groups don’t conflict with al Qaeda’s own strategic objectives. And increasingly, ties to the tribes are being made a bit more permanent through intermarriage.

Now, the safe haven in the tribal region, in the FATA, that safe haven is not comparable to what al Qaeda had in Afghanistan. It’s not comparable in terms of either security or scale, but it is more worrisome today than it was two or three years ago. Cross-border attacks in Afghanistan are more violent and aggressive, as are al Qaeda’s efforts to destabilize Pakistan itself. Furthermore, we’re seeing a disturbing emphasis on the recruitment, training, and deployment of Western operatives. What do I mean by Western operatives? Those are people who may not elicit any notice whatsoever from you if they were standing next to you in the airport line.

The crossover point for al Qaeda’s foothold in the tribal areas is probably since September of 2006, when the governor of North Waziristan signed a peace agreement with local militants. That truce set in motion a whole series of events and decisions that gave al Qaeda a lot more breathing space than it had had previously.

Let me be very clear. Today virtually every major terrorist threat that my agency is aware of has threads back to the tribal areas. Whether it’s command and control, training, direction, money, capabilities, there is a connection to the FATA. It is no overstatement to say that al Qaeda’s base in Pakistan is the single most important factor today in the group’s resilience and its ability to threaten the West."

Most conventional wisdom asserts that Bali, Madrid, London, and 9/11 are the products of Al Qaeda. It's to possible attacks such as these which the director likely refers as "threats"- not any particular government. It's Pakistan's sad misfortune to have once interwoven it's regional security needs with a dubious ally in the afghani taliban government. There's no doubt that these taliban elements were the enablers and vouch-safes whom vetted A.Q. into your tribal areas. Thus, there they've been since late 2001. Those are very simple facts.

After that, all you can really suggest is that A.Q.'s threat to the west is over-stated and unworthy of the considerable interest shown their global activities. That would be very difficult to do.

Beyond that, I doubt that any of you could successfully argue with the director about matters such as A.Q.'s strategic planning, funding, logistics, and other operational considerations that effect the execution of terror attacks on the aforementioned scale.

He's privy to information which none here could ever hope to see. He's likely devoted a great deal of time to thinking about these matters. It is for that which he is paid. For those reasons alone, I find his comments far more valuable than any posted above.

Director Hayden's comments aren't a problem. He's lucidly outlined the nature of the Al Qaeda threat. Whether you wish to read the actual message is another matter. It seems not.

 

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

Let me be very clear. Today virtually every major terrorist threat that my agency is aware of has threads back to the tribal areas.

Nonetheless, I'd agree with BC that it was a poorly worded statement, while not going so far as to question Hayden's credibility, on the basis of this particular statement at least.

I'd question the credibility of the CIA more due to the propaganda issued in the NYT series of articles accusing the ISI leadership and Gen. Kiyani of being involved in the Indian Embassy bombing.

 

[Flintlock]

Nonetheless, I'd agree with BC that it was a poorly worded statement, while not going so far as to question Hayden's credibility, on the basis of this particular statement at least.

I'd question the credibility of the CIA more due to the propaganda issued in the NYT series of articles accusing the ISI leadership and Gen. Kiyani of being involved in the Indian Embassy bombing.

Everything that you disagree with isn't propaganda

 

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

Everything that you disagree with isn't propaganda

Yes indeed, thats why the 'mastermind of a terrorist attack on the Indian Embassy' is felicitated and praised by US military and political leaders, and just earned effusive praise in a Brussels meeting with the NATO leadership.

Sometimes seeing through the BS isn't that hard, a little commonsense works.