Uncontrollable Afghanistan

"Taliban was able to control the population in the area about 10 to 11 percent of the country," National Intelligence Director Michael McConnell told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Wednesday, February 28, according to a transcript posted on the DNI website.

"The government, on the other hand -- the federal government, had about 30, 31 percent."

McConnell, the top US intelligence official, said the vast majority of the population remains under the control of tribes.

The new intelligence assessment contradicts that made last month by Defense Secretary Robert Gates who touted NATO military success in Afghanistan in 2007.

"The Taliban occupy no territory in Afghanistan on a continuing basis," Gates said during a Pentagon briefing in January.

McConnell noted that Taliban was resorting to the tactics used in Iraq including suicide attacks and roadside bombings.

"They'll fill in an area when we withdraw, or they will influence a village or region if our presence is not there," he said.

The Senlis Council, an international policy think tank, had earlier estimated that Taliban was virtually controlling 54 percent of Afghanistan landmass and has prove itself to be a "truly resurgent force."

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Joe Biden, who just returned from the region, warned against the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

"The main message I bring back is that Afghanistan is the forgotten war and Pakistan is the neglected frontier," he said.

"Afghanistan is slipping toward failure because it has never been a priority, and it has to become one."

The same conclusion was reached recently by the Atlantic Council of the United States, a leading American think tank, which said Afghanistan was on the verge of becoming a "failed state."

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