U.S. Says It Hits Qaeda in Pakistan

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration is acknowledging publicly that the American military has staged attacks inside Pakistan on Al Qaeda, a signal that increases pressure on the leader in Islamabad, President Musharraf.Yesterday on “Fox News Sunday,” the president’s homeland security adviser, Frances Townsend, was asked about military actions in the Pakistani border provinces where Al Qaeda’s chief, Osama bin Laden, and one of his two leadership councils reportedly meet regularly.“Just because we don’t speak about things publicly doesn’t mean we’re not doing things you talk about,” she said, using phrasing similar to that President Bush favors when asked whether he will use military force against Iran’s nuclear program.American special forces operations inside the Pakistani border provinces are an open secret among close watchers of the region, but Ms. Townsend’s words yesterday mark an escalation in public rhetoric against Mr. Musharraf. Mr. Musharraf has for the most part withdrawn his military from those provinces, which are dominated by tribes although subject to Pakistani federal control.The remarks pick up a theme that has been sounded this year by other top aides to Mr. Bush. On February 27, in his first public remarks to Congress after his confirmation hearing, the director of national intelligence, Admiral Michael McConnell, spoke of focusing efforts with “great intensity” on Al Qaeda safe havens in Pakistan.Ms. Townsend’s remarks in part are prompted by the completion of last week’s National Intelligence Estimate on Al Qaeda and its replenished leadership.Yesterday on CNN, Pakistan’s foreign minister, Kurshid Kasuri, said direct American attacks on the tribal areas would be a bad idea. “Let the United States provide us with actionable intelligence, and you will find that Pakistan will never be lacking,” he said. “Pakistan’s army can do the job much better, and the result will be that there will be far less collateral damage.”American forces in Afghanistan have cooperated with Pakistan’s military in recent years on Al Qaeda targets on the Pakistani side of the border. In January 2006, an American airstrike took out Abu Kebab al-Masri, a Qaeda chemical and biological weapons engineer.The Washington Post in 2006 reported that American forces participated in a raid on Saidgai, a village that was home to a Qaeda camp said to train forces to protect Osama bin Laden. Last month, the Pakistani press reported that NATO forces fired a missile into the Pakistani tribal areas.One American military officer yesterday told The New York Sun, “There has been a steady stream of public reporting on this. For domestic reasons, the Pakistanis cannot say we are involved in any operations in their territory.”Last June and again in September, the Pakistani military began signing agreements with local jihadists in the tribal provinces, giving them, effectively, home rule. That provided Al Qaeda and the Taliban a safe haven from which to train operatives and launch attacks in Islamabad and Afghanistan.Those provinces host one of the two known Shura Majlis, or leadership councils, for Al Qaeda. The other leadership council meets in eastern Iran, as the Sun reported on July 17.Iraq’s foreign minister, Hoshyar Zebari, yesterday confirmed to the Associated Press that talks will resume tomorrow between the American and Iranian ambassadors in Baghdad.While the U.S. State Department has publicly and privately pushed for the talks, the outreach to Iran after last month’s meeting has met resistance from the command of the Multi-National Forces in Iraq, as well as from the remaining hawks in the Bush administration.One concern is that the talks will lead to a deal whereby General David Petraeus authorizes the release of senior Iranian operatives from military facilities in Iraq in exchange for a halt to Iranian funding, arming, and training of jihadists attacking the Iraqi government and American soldiers.Yesterday, the American military detained two more suspected weapons smugglers that a press release said might be linked to Iran’s Quds Force.A box in the classified text of the National Intelligence Estimate, about “Al Qaeda leadership,” contains a bullet point that says “meets regularly in Eastern Iran and northern Pakistan,” according to one intelligence official.The wording changed from the final draft. Phrases to describe the senior Al Qaeda leaders meeting regularly in Iran considered and dropped in the drafting process include “general management,” “leadership council,” and “Shura Majlis.”Publicly, American officials have said Al Qaeda leaders in Iran, such as Saif al-Adel and Sa’ad bin Laden, are under “some form of house arrest.” Nonetheless, American intelligence officials believe they have freedom of movement to some degree within Iran and have been able to reconstitute regular meetings of members of the leadership that reside there.The Director for Media Relations for the office of the director for national intelligence, Steve Shaw, declined to comment Friday on the classified National Intelligence Estimate.

U.S. Says It Hits Qaeda in Pakistan

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