Hard-line Bush Administration officials for unilateral military action in Pak

The hard-line officials in the Bush Administration are reportedly seeking unilateral military action in Pakistans tribal areas where the Al Qaeda and Taleban militants are said to have taken a safe haven.

Washington, Aug 13 : The hard-line officials in the Bush Administration are reportedly seeking unilateral military action in Pakistan's tribal areas where the Al Qaeda and Taleban militants are said to have taken a safe haven.

According to the Newsweek, the Pentagon officials were earlier debating the current policy of not violating Pakistani sovereignty. "But some officers in Joint Special Operations Command are pawing the ground to go into Waziristan," the magazine said, quoting a Pentagon consultant.

Both serving and retired US officials were quoted by the Dawn as telling the magazine that without more decisive action, Al Qaeda would grow, if not flourish, in the tribal areas. And someday, the US homeland will likely be attacked from there, just as Al Qaeda once used Afghanistan as a base from where it plotted the 9/11 attacks.

Hank Crumpton, who retired last year as the State Department's counter-terrorism coordinator, said that Washington needed to do more than rely on the Pakistani military and intelligence services to root out extremism from that region.

"I'd go in there (tribal areas) with a hard-core counter-insurgency effort," Crumpton said, adding that he would seek Pakistan's consent "but I wouldn't pretend that this is sovereign territory. It is not."

Bruce Riedel, who also recently retired as a senior CIA official, said that Pakistan remains 'fatally conflicted' about cracking down on Islamic extremists. That's even though Al Qaeda No.2 Ayman Al Zawahiri has tried to assassinate Musharraf at least twice.

Riedel said that Musharraf might be very eager to get Osama bin Laden and Zawahiri, but his enthusiasm is not necessarily shared by the Pakistan intelligence. "It has no desire to either take on its Frankenstein or to see its Frankenstein removed," Riedel added.

Some US officials were quoted as saying that the Pakistani military was simply not up to the job, but then no one else might be, either.

"This is a part of the country that has not been effectively governed since Alexander the Great was there," Deputy Assistant Secretary of State John Gastright said.

ANI