WASHINGTON, Oct 9: The White House on Tuesday released a national strategy for combating terrorism, singling out Pakistan as an Al Qaeda ‘safe haven’, which can be used for launching another 9/11 like attack inside the United States.
This is the first time that the country has been named as an Al Qaeda ‘safe haven’ in a White House policy document.
Al Qaeda has “protected its top leadership, replenished operational lieutenants, and regenerated a safe haven in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas — core capabilities that would help facilitate another attack on the Homeland,” the document said.
“We do not deny that there are people in the tribal areas, but we deny that there are safe havens,” said Ambassador Mahmud Ali Durrani while commenting on the White House paper.
“Most of these people are on the run, they are hiding.”
“Our commitment to defeat this threat is total. Even today, there is fighting going on in the tribal area.”
Fran Townsend, assistant to the US president for counterterrorism and homeland security, however, tried to downplay Pakistan’s inclusion in the White House policy document, saying that it’s not a new statement and the administration “relied on the intelligence community’s assessment in framing the threat for this strategy.”
But the journalists who attended the briefing pointed out that the document contradicts earlier statements by senior US officials praising Pakistan’s cooperation in the war against terror.
Ms Townsend, however, saw no contradiction.
“We have enjoyed some of our biggest successes with our allies in Pakistan,” she said, pointing that from Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to Ramzi Binalshibh to Abu Zubaydah, all senior Al Qaeda leaders now in US custody were arrested in Pakistan.
