Britain seeks Pakistan's stiffer action against al Qaeda
BRITISH Prime Minister Gordon Brown has called on Pakistan to take tougher action against al Qaeda and step up its efforts to track down the group's leader, Osama bin Laden.
A United States (U.S.) Senate report yesterday said Bin Laden was unquestionably within reach of American troops in the mountains of Tora Bora when U.S. military leaders made the crucial and costly decision not to pursue the terrorist leader with massive force.
The report, according to Reuters, asserted that the failure to kill or capture bin Laden at his most vulnerable in December 2001 has had lasting consequences beyond the fate of one man. Bin Laden's escape laid the foundation for today's reinvigorated Afghan insurgency and inflamed the internal strife now endangering Pakistan, it says.
Staff members for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's Democratic majority prepared the report at the request of the chairman, Sen. John Kerry, as President Barack Obama prepares to boost U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
Brown said the efforts of British and coalition forces in Afghanistan to tackle the Taliban insurgency needed to be matched by more effective action by the Pakistan government and forces on their side of the border.
"Brown called President (Asif Ali) Zardari yesterday, he expressed support for what Pakistani forces are doing against the Pakistani Taliban but said he wanted to see tougher action against the leadership of al Qaeda," a British official said.
The official said Pakistan's Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani would be coming to London on Thursday to meet with Brown.
In television interviews yesterday, Brown said that while progress had been made by Pakistani forces in South Waziristan, a bastion of the Pakistani Taliban, there were still big issues to deal with in the country.
"People are going to ask why, eight years after 2001, Osama bin Laden has never been near to being caught ... and what can the Pakistan authorities do that is far more effective," he told Sky news.
"Al Qaeda has a base in Pakistan, that base is still there that they are able to recruit from abroad," he said.
"The Pakistan authorities must convince us that they are taking all the action that is necessary to deal with that threat."
He also questioned why there had been no evidence to lead to the capture of bin Laden and his second in command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, despite people in Pakistan knowing where they are.
His comments came as a U.S. report criticised military leaders under former President George W. Bush for missing an opportunity to capture or kill bin Laden in 2001.
Meanwhile, under-pressure Pakistani leader, Zardari, has claimed "considerable success" in a military offensive against Taliban fighters in the remote tribal northwest.
He spoke as Pakistan's main opposition party called on him to immediately relinquish much of his power amid calls for the unpopular leader to assume a ceremonial role or resign.
The political turmoil threatens to distract the U.S.-allied country from its fight against the Taliban and al-Qaeda near the Afghan border.
Zardari inherited sweeping presidential powers from his predecessor, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, who staged a 1999 military coup and resigned last year.
He has promised to give them to the prime minister, in line with Pakistan's original constitution, but has been accused of foot-dragging by an angry opposition.
Zardari, who is battling increasing unpopularity and strained relations with the powerful military, made the remarks during a telephone conversation with Brown.
Pakistan sent about 30,000 troops backed by fighter jets and helicopter gunships into South Waziristan on October 17, in the most ambitious operation yet against the Taliban in their mountain stronghold near the Afghan border.
Although there has been some resistance in the region, many officials and analysts believe most of the estimated 10,000 Taliban guerrillas in the district have escaped into neighbouring Orakzai and North Waziristan.
Pakistan is also facing political uncertainty, after a legal amnesty protecting Zardari and key aides from corruption cases expired over the weekend, raising fears of a fresh crisis as the country grapples with the Taliban.
Zardari has given control of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal to Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, widely seen as a move to fend off criticism and make good on electoral promises to devolve greater power to parliament.
