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Pakistan being pressed to capture Osama to help Bush win

by Daily Times: Pakistan
Washington: The White House has intensified pressure on the Pakistani government to capture Osama Bin Laden, Ayman al Zawahri and Mullah Mohammed Omar in time for President Bush to recoup his sagging popularity and be re-elected.
According to the respected American journal the New Republic, a succession of high-level US officials have visited Pakistan to “urge Pervez Musharraf’s government to do more in the war on terrorism”. US ambassador to Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalizad’s repeated admonitions to Pakistan to do more in the hunt for these key figures are part of the same effort. The Americans want Pakistan to deliver these men before the November election, although the Bush administration denies any linkage between the war on terrorism and the November election campaign. According to National Security Council spokesman Sean McCormack, “Our attitude and actions have been the same since September 11 in terms of getting high-value targets off the street, and that doesn’t change because of an election.”

The magazine article claims that Pakistani security officials have been told they must produce these high-value targets (HVTs) by the election. According to one unnamed source in the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), “the Pakistani government is really desperate and wants to flush out Bin Laden and his associates after the latest pressures from the US administration to deliver before the (upcoming) US elections.”

Introducing target dates for Al Qaeda captures is a new twist in US-Pakistani counterterrorism relations, a former intelligence official told the magazine. A Pakistan Interior Ministry official is quoted as saying, “The Musharraf government has a history of rescuing the Bush administration. They now want Musharraf to bail them out when they are facing hard times in the coming elections.” Another ISI source, said to be an aide to Lt Gen Ehsan-ul-Haq, told the journal that the Pakistanis “have been told at every level that apprehension or killing of HVTs before (the) election is (an) absolute must”. What’s more, this source claims that Bush administration officials have told their Pakistani counterparts they have a date in mind for announcing this achievement: “The last 10 days of July deadline has been given repeatedly by visitors to Islamabad and during meetings in Washington.” This was denied by the National Security Agency spokesman.

According to the New Republic, the Pakistanis fear that if they produce the men the Americans want, they will not get the F-16s they so badly want. They also fear that if they do not deliver, either Bush or a prospective Kerry administration would turn its attention to the apparent role of Pakistan’s security establishment in facilitating Dr AQ Khan’s illicit proliferation network.

One Pakistani general recently in Washington confided in a journalist, asserts the story. “If we don’t find these guys by the election, they are going to stick this whole nuclear mess up our asshole.” The report quotes this correspondent as saying, “In Pakistan, there has been a folk belief that, whenever there’s a Republican administration in office, relations with Pakistan have been very good.” There is also a “folk belief that the Democrats are always pro-India”. Recent history, the report points out has validated those beliefs.

Referring to the fighting in Waziristan, the New Republic writes, “But there is a reason many Pakistanis and some American officials had previously been reluctant to carry the war on terrorism into the tribal areas. A Pakistani offensive in that region, aided by American high-tech weaponry and perhaps Special Forces, could unite tribal chieftains against the central government and precipitate a border war without actually capturing any of the HVTs… Some American intelligence officials agree. ‘Pakistan just can’t risk a civil war in that area of their country. They can’t afford a western border that is unstable,’ says a senior intelligence official, who ... says he has not heard that the current pressures on Pakistan are geared to the election. ‘We may be at the point where (Musharraf) has done almost as much as he can.’ Pushing Musharraf to go after Al Qaeda in the tribal areas may be a good idea despite the risks. But, if that is the case, it was a good idea in 2002 and 2003. Why the switch now? Top Pakistanis think they know: This year, the president’s re-election is at stake.”

No pressure for HVTs: A Pakistani Foreign Office spokesman, in a statement, rejected the report published in Washington which claimed that Pakistan had been asked to produce high-value targets (HVTs) before the US presidential elections, APP reported. “There is no public or private pressure on Pakistan to meet artificial deadlines or produce HVTs,” he said.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_10-7-2004_pg1_8
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Sat, Jul 10, 2004 10:24PM
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