Author: Editorial
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: May 3, 2011
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/story-print/785076/
At least half a dozen top al-Qaeda leaders
are in Pakistan, a US lawmaker, who heads a key Congressional intelligence
committee, said.
"Of the 20 senior leaders in al-Qaeda,
at least a dozen of them, we believe to be travelling around Pakistan someplace,"
Congressman Mike Rogers, chairman of the powerful House Permanent Select Committee
on Intelligence, told reporters at a news conference.
Rogers said US lawmakers would be seeking
answers from Pakistan on how Osama bin Laden lived so close to Islamabad.
He was killed yesterday in an operation by the US special forces in garrison
town of Abbottabad.
"I don't want to speculate if they did
or they did not. I mean, we're going to ask those questions. I think Americans
have the right to know that. I would like to know what they knew," Rogers
said.
"But at the same time, we have to remember
there are still equities that we have in Pakistan as it relates to our national
security. We know there are some incredibly bad people there," he noted,
adding, it is important for the US that it maintains a relationship Pakistan.
"There's been some speculation in the
past about release of information to bad guys through their ISI. All of those
things remain a tension for the United States and Pakistan. We hope we can
work our way through it. Doesn't mean that we're not going to ask hard questions,"
Rogers said.
The powerful Republican Congressman said the
information started on this four years ago under George Bush's administration.
"I don't draw the nexus between going
into Afghanistan and Iraq and not being able to get bin Laden. The reason
we had such difficulty is because of his operational security, the way he
conducted himself and operated," he said.
"I mean, think about this, the million-dollar
compound plus, which is outlandish by that region of Pakistan that was built
to repel any operation just as it happened. No Internet connectivity. They
would use cut-outs to cut-outs, meaning they had people who met people they
didn't know to deliver a message to another person they didn't know, who eventually
worked its way back to Osama bin Laden," he said.
The Congressman said to track bin Laden was
"very tricky business".
"And we don't get to walk around every
place we want in the world knocking on doors doing an FBI-style investigation
about where is somebody," Rogers said.
Rogers, who has access to classified intelligence
information, said it is unlikely that the retaliation from al-Qaeda would
happen so soon.
"On the retaliation, these operations
-- one of the things that made al-Qaeda successful and they have sustained
as long as they have is that they're patient about how they plan and operate.
So operations that you see engaged in at any time in the past took months
-- in some cases, years -- to plan. Same with 9/11. It took a very long time
to plan that," he noted.
"So it's highly unlikely that you'll
see a rash decision to reach out for a terrorist act."
However, he said al-Qaeda is planning many
terror attacks across the globe.
"We know they're planning in multiple
places around the world, including with their leadership in the tribal areas
of Pakistan, for terrorist attacks. That we know."
Another US Senator also suggested that Pakistan
could be protecting other al-Qaeda leaders inside the country given the fact
that Osama bin Laden was killed by elite US forces in an operation deep inside
the country.
Senator Charles Schumer said there are strong
"anti-US, pro-Taliban" elements in Pakistan whose goal is to fight
India and seek allies in that regard. "We (the US) are not part of that,"
he told MSNBC news channel.
"If Pakistan was protecting bin Laden,
then absolutely a corollary would flow that they're probably protecting others,
and we'll have to wait and see and get as much evidence as we can. It is a
very, very difficult - it's probably the most difficult foreign policy question
we face," he said.
Schumer, however, did not agree with the statements
of some of his colleagues that until Congress and the American public are
assured that the Pakistani government is not shielding terrorists, financial
aid to Pakistan should be suspended.
"We know that Pakistan is a divided country.
There's a strong pro-Western element. And in fact, if you talk to the top
people in our intelligence organisations, Pakistan was helpful in finding
bin Laden. At the same time, there's also a strong element that is anti-US,
pro Taliban. Their whole goal is to fight India, and they seek allies in that
regard, and we're not part of that," Schumer said.
He said that was why the US did not inform
the Pakistani establishment about the mission that killed bin Laden as there
are "too many people in the defense agencies, the intelligence agencies
who aren't trustworthy."
"So there's a division. Now, the hope
is that the killing of bin Laden will strengthen the hand of those who are
pro-Western and on our side," he noted. "But I think you have to
be careful before cutting off aid, because the country is vital to us, and
we need to find ways to strengthen the pro-Western factions in Pakistan and
weaken those who are anti-Western and pro Taliban," Schumer said.
In an interview to the Fox news channel, Senator
Lindsay Graham said Pakistan is a mixed-message country.
"They do provide us good intelligence,
they have been helpful when it comes to certain terrorist organizations, but
the biggest problem we face in Afghanistan is sanctuaries in Pakistan,"
he said.
While situation in Afghanistan is getting
better, he said Pakistan is a really big problem for Afghanistan.
"I hope we will put pressure on the Pakistani
government to do better," he said.
"How could he be in such a compound without
being noticed? Mullah Omar, the leader of the Taliban who took over after
the Russians left, was driven out during our invasion.
We believe he's in Pakistan. I would like
to capture Mullah Omar or kill him because he's the man who took Afghanistan
over and invited bin Laden as his honoured guest."
Omar needs to be brought to justice and the
Pakistanis need to help the US in this regard, Graham said.
