Al Qaeda’s strength in remote areas of Pakistan forms the greatest threat to America’s security today. But the Bush Administration has put its priority on Iraq, taking its eye off the ball, and allowing Al Qaeda to regroup and plot against the U.S. Instead of finding Bin Laden, or building a reliable ally in a volatile region, the U.S. pursued a one-dimensional policy focused on General Musharraf and poured billions of unaccountable, unmonitored military assistance dollars into the country. We must shift our strategy to support Pakistan’s people, not just its military ruler, and help show that democracy and development can go together with effective counter-terrorism.
Report
25 August 2008
Pakistan’s fragile, democratically-elected coalition government drew closer to collapse today, as one of the main parties withdrew. As Pakistan also experienced one of the worst suicide attacks in its history, the coalition was challenged to reject a Taliban ceasefire offer and instead ban the group – a possible sign of progress against terror but a certain harbinger of more violence.
News
Christian Science Monitor 20 August 2008
News
Chicago Tribune 19 August 2008
Report
1 August 2008
In troubling news, U.S. intelligence officials have presented evidence
to the Pakistani government linking their intelligence service, the
Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), to the July bombing of the Indian
embassy in Kabul Afghanistan.
Report
30 July 2008
Events in Pakistan along the Pak-Afghan border continue to remind us that the terrorist safe haven in that border area represents the greatest direct threat to the U.S. homeland. The Bush administration has increasingly put pressure on the Pakistani government to do more to address this threat. Unfortunately, after giving the Musharraf government a blank check for six years the new government and the Pakistani people are less inclined to be responsive.
Report
24 July 2008
The Bush administration has agreed to shift aid for counterterrorism purposes to help Pakistan upgrade its fleet of F-16 fighters. This announcement flies in the face of the Biden-Lugar plan to condition military assistance to Pakistan and confirms that the Bush administration lacks a comprehensive strategy to deal with the tribal regions of Pakistan.
News
Washington Independent 25 April 2008
Report
24 April 2008
More than seven years after the attacks of September 11, 2001, Al Qaeda has found a safe haven in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) – a remote, mountainous region along Pakistan’s northwest border.
Report
26 November 2007
News that President Musharraf will step down as the head of the Pakistani military is a welcome development, but for the sake of US national security and international credibility the American response must be stronger.
Pakistan