Friday, March 17, 2006

Pakistan

The Counterterrorism Blog carries the following post:

Sebastian Junger Revisits Afghanistan and Points Finger at Pakistan

... he fingers elements in the Pakistan army and intelligence service ("ISI") as critical sponsors in the resurging Taliban activity. He notes that while Pakistan has captured and turned over key Al Qaeda operatives, it hasn't turned over a single mid- or high-ranking Taliban official to the U.S. since the attacks. Junger talked with a former Taliban government official with current knowledge of that assistance. He writes that some Pakistani military are training Taliban recruits. The Taliban official gave him the name and phone number of an ISI agent who brings recruits from a region in Afghanistan, inserts them into training camps in western Pakistan, and then sends them back to fight. Junger also writes that the ex-Taliban told him that the Paks are receiving as much money from Osama Bin Laden to not capture him as they are taking from the United States to catch him. If true, this claim indicates both a level of duplicity that must start near the top of the Pakistani government, and a level of resources available to Bin Laden that is extremely high.

How did a society so similar to our own go so horribly wrong? It is inconceivable to us that this tragic country can survive its own catastrophic choices for much longer.

1 comment:

libertarian said...

PR: How did a society so similar to our own go so horribly wrong? Agree - it's baffling. A similar comparison could be drawn between North Korea and South Korea. More importantly - is this fixable? Is it solely a military problem, or is it a combination of military and mullah? Would appreciate your thoughts on the matter.

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