US worries over impact of move on terror war

Adsense referral



WASHINGTON, Aug 8: The United States fears that the move to impeach President Pervez Musharraf may harm the global war on terror in which Pakistan plays a pivotal role, says a report quoting US State Department officials.

On Friday the top US commander in Afghanistan publicly accused the ISI of “some complicity” over time with militant groups fomenting violence in the neighbouring country.

Another media report claimed that senior Bush administration officials were urging President George W. Bush to allow US troops to enter Pakistan’s tribal areas while pursuing Taliban and Al Qaeda militants.

The CNN report on the impact of the proposed impeachment on the war on terror contradicts a public statement by a department spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos saying the move will not affect the war.

But CNN claimed discussing the issue with senior State Department officials who feared that Pakistan’s internal political turmoil, caused by the move to impeach President Musharraf, would hurt US efforts to defeat the militants hiding in the country’s tribal belt.

The CNN report also quoted US officials as saying that there were “50-50” chances of the impeachment move to succeed.

Senior State Department officials, according to CNN, believe that President Musharraf now had three options: step down, topple the government and dissolve parliament or hold fresh elections.

“And he can use any of the three options,” the report said.

At the regular briefing, spokesman Gallegos had said that the US would accept any action, either by the elected government or President Musharraf, that was in accordance with the Pakistani Constitution.

South Asia experts in Washington say that none of these three options negates the Constitution but they also have warned the Bush administration not to get involved.

“The US should stay as removed as possible from the political machinations in Pakistan while urging all sides to find a peaceful resolution to the political crisis that strengthens the democratic institutions of the country and prevents a return to military rule,” said Lisa Curtis, a South Asia expert at Washington’s Heritage Foundation.

In a report released on Friday, Ms Curtis noted that the decision to impeach President Musharraf “could help end months of political paralysis in the country and stabilize the new civilian government, which has been divided over whether Mr Musharraf should stay in power.”

She also noted that President Musharraf’s fate and the future direction of Pakistan was largely in the hands of the Chief of Army Staff General Kiyani and warned that any move to undo the current political setup “would be a highly unpopular … with the Pakistani public and would likely result in potentially violent street protests.”

Ms Curtis, however, acknowledged that despite its concerns about political instability in Pakistan, the US continued to focus on “promoting stable democracy in Afghanistan and denying the Taliban and Al Qaeda a safe haven from which to launch deadly international attacks.”

Lt-Gen David McKiernan, the US commander in Afghanistan, also focused on this subject in his interview to CNN.

“Do I believe that the Pakistani government must do more? I absolutely do. Do I believe there has been some complicity on the part of organisations such as the ISI over time in Pakistan, I believe there has been,” Gen McKiernan said.

“I don’t believe we can get to the right outcome in Afghanistan as long as these militant sanctuaries exist across the border,” McKiernan said.

“We’ve seen the increased numbers of foreign fighters in eastern and southern Afghanistan this year, and there is an expectation that the leadership in Pakistan will do something about these militant sanctuaries in their country,” he said.

Gen McKiernan said Al Qaeda was heavily involved in the insurgency.

“Al Qaeda provides financing, they help recruit fighters, they help with logistics, command and control, intelligence for the Taliban,” he said.

In a separate report, a US news agency claimed that senior US intelligence and military aides wanted President Bush to give American soldiers greater flexibility to operate against Al Qaida and Taliban fighters entering Afghanistan from Fata.

The plan could include sending US Special Forces teams, temporarily assigned to the CIA, into the tribal areas to hit high-value targets, the report said.

According to AP, this was the top agenda item at the meeting of the so-called deputies committee — usually the No. 2 officials at the departments of Defence, and State, plus the intelligence agencies and the National Security Council.