Statement by US State Department Ambassador Henry Crumpton indicates gulf between administration and trusted ally.
DNA ANALYSIS
LAHORE: The recent statement by the visiting US State Department Ambassador in charge for Counter-Terrorism, Henry Crumpton over the alleged presence of Osama bin Laden, Taliban and Al Qaeda leaders in Pakistan, indicates a widening gulf between the Bush administration and its most trusted ally in the war on terror – General Musharraf.
“If one asks whether Pakistan has done enough on the terrorism front, my answer is no. I have conveyed that to them; other US officials have conveyed that to them,” Henry Crumpton told reporters at the US Embassy in Kabul last week after holding talks with Afghan officials.
While connecting the recent flare-up of violence in parts of Afghanistan to Pakistan, Crumpton vouched that Afghan officials have complained that insurgents were able to gather support and launch raids from the safety of Pakistani territory. He added in the same breath: “Not only Al- Qaeda, but Taliban leadership are primarily in Pakistan, and the Pakistanis know that”.
The Pakistani military spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan reacted strongly to Henry’s accusations: “No one has ever conveyed this thing to Pakistan, and if someone claims so, it is absurd”.
Giving his reaction, the interior minister, Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, wondered why the allegations were not officially brought to notice while the US official was in Pakistan.
He said the Pakistan government was willing to take action if Kabul was able to point out the exact whereabouts of the Al-Qaeda, Taliban leadership inside Pakistan. The Minister wondered why the US was allowing its official to say such things in Kabul that are not clearly said bilaterally.
Whatever the Pakistani government officials say, the fact is that the touchstone for Washington has been Musharraf’s commitment to and ability to deliver in the war against terrorism.
Pakistan has been repeatedly pointing to its track record since 2001, facilitating the US-led war on and occupation of Afghanistan, the capturing and handing over almost 700 Al Qaeda and Taliban, deploying 80,000 troops on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border to interdict Taliban militants from cross-border attacks on Afghan soil, etc.
However, an increasingly worried Bush administration keeps complaining of Pakistan “not doing enough” on terrorism. The underlying sub-text of these constant complaints is nothing but a trust deficit between Washington and Islamabad, given the historical background of the ISI support to the Taliban regime.
Suspicion lingers in the American intelligence and defence community that there may be elements in the Pakistani intelligence network that still harbour sympathies with the Taliban, and that this may be affecting Pakistan ‘s ability to carry out effective campaigning against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda on its western borders.
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