After a somewhat leave of absence, that sinister is rearing its ugly head again: Al-Qaeda. Senior leaders of Al Qaeda operating from Pakistan have re-established significant control over their once-battered worldwide terror network and over the past year have set up a band of training camps in the tribal regions near the Afghan border despite more than five years of a sustained American-led campaign to weaken it, according to American intelligence and counterterrorism officials.
Officials said the training camps had yet to reach the size and level of sophistication of the Qaeda camps established in Afghanistan under Taliban rule. However, groups of 10 to 20 men are being trained at the camps, the officials said, and the Qaeda infrastructure in the region is gradually becoming more mature.
The truce between Islamabad and the Pakistani Taliban in Waziristan has been a bitter pill for Washington to swallow, although Pakistan’s pledge to allow foreign troops based in Afghanistan hot pursuit into a limited area in Pakistan softens the blow a bit.
Islamabad’s overriding concern, though, is to earn some breathing space domestically, as well as get Uncle Sam off its back.
Across Pakistan’s border in Afghanistan, the Taliban have control of most of the southwest of the country, from where al-Qaeda is expected soon to announce the revival of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan - the name of the country before the Taliban were driven out in 2001. Once the proclamation is made, a big push toward the capital Kabul will begin.
A Split Over Strategy won’t work
The best way to defeat Al-Qaeda is to share good intelligence, to locate them and then be prepared to bring them to justice. But debates within the Bush administration about how best to deal with the threat have yet to yield any good solutions, officials in Washington said. One counterterrorism official said that some within the Pentagon were advocating American strikes against the camps, but that others argued that any raids could result in civilian casualties. And State Department officials say increased American pressure could undermine President Musharraf’s military-led government.
Via: NYTIMES
