Strategy to counter Qaeda in Pakistan has failed: US intelligence report

Top counter-terrorism advisers have acknowledged that the strategy for fighting Osama bin Ladens leadership of the Al Qaeda in Pakistan has failed.

Washington, July 18 : Top counter-terrorism advisers have acknowledged that the strategy for fighting Osama bin Laden's leadership of the Al Qaeda in Pakistan has failed.

In identifying the main reasons for the Al Qaeda's resurgence, intelligence officials and White House aides pointed the finger squarely at a hands-off approach toward the tribal areas by Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, who last year brokered a cease-fire with tribal leaders in an effort to drain support for Islamic extremism in the region.

"It hasn't worked for Pakistan, it hasn't worked for the United States," said ," said Frances Fragos Townsend, who heads the Homeland Security Council at the White House.

Bush administration officials now say that they had reluctantly endorsed the cease-fire as part of their effort to prop up Musharraf.

American officials make little secret of their skepticism that Musharraf has the capability to be effective in the mountainous territory along the Afghan border, where his troops have been bloodied before.

"We've seen in the past that he's sent people in and they get wiped out," the New York Times quoted one senior official, who was involved in the internal debate, as saying.

The bleak intelligence assessment was made public in the middle of a bitter Congressional debate about the future of American policy in Iraq.

According to the paper, the report left the White House fending off accusations that it had been distracted by the war in Iraq and that the deals it had made with President Musharraf had resulted in lost time and lost ground.

In weighing how to deal with the Qaeda threat in Pakistan, American officials have been meeting in recent weeks to discuss what some said was emerging as an aggressive new strategy, one that would include both public and covert elements.

Townsend declined to describe what may be alternative strategies for dealing with the Qaeda threat in Pakistan, but acknowledged frustration that Al Qaeda had succeeding in rebuilding its infrastructure and its links to affiliates, while keeping bin Laden and his top lieutenants alive for nearly six years since 9/11.

The intelligence report, known as a National Intelligence Estimate, represents the consensus view of all 16 agencies that make up the American intelligence community. The report concluded that the United States would face a "persistent and evolving terrorist threat over the next three years."

ANI