[Marxism] US President wdens missile strikes inside Pakistan

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

www.nytimes.com
February 21, 2009
Obama Widens Missile Strikes Inside Pakistan 
By MARK MAZZETTI and DAVID E. SANGER
WASHINGTON - With two missile strikes over the past week, the Obama
administration has expanded the covert war run by the Central Intelligence
Agency inside Pakistan, attacking a militant network seeking to topple the
Pakistani government.

The missile strikes on training camps run by Baitullah Mehsud represent a
broadening of the American campaign inside Pakistan, which has been largely
carried out by drone aircraft. Under President Bush, the United States
frequently attacked militants from Al Qaeda and the Taliban involved in
cross-border attacks into Afghanistan, but had stopped short of raids aimed
at Mr. Mehsud and his followers, who have played less of a direct role in
attacks on American troops.

The strikes are another sign that President Obama is continuing, and in some
cases extending, Bush administration policy in using American spy agencies
against terrorism suspects in Pakistan, as he had promised to do during his
presidential campaign. At the same time, Mr. Obama has begun to scale back
some of the Bush policies on the detention and interrogation of terrorism
suspects, which he has criticized as counterproductive.

Mr. Mehsud was identified early last year by both American and Pakistani
officials as the man who had orchestrated the assassination of Benazir
Bhutto, the former prime minister and the wife of Pakistan's current
president, Asif Ali Zardari. Mr. Bush included Mr. Mehsud's name in a
classified list of militant leaders whom the C.I.A. and American commandos
were authorized to capture or kill.

It is unclear why the Obama administration decided to carry out the attacks,
which American and Pakistani officials said occurred last Saturday and again
on Monday, hitting camps run by Mr. Mehsud's network. The Saturday strike
was aimed specifically at Mr. Mehsud, but he was not killed, according to
Pakistani and American officials.

The Monday strike, officials say, was aimed at a camp run by Hakeem Ullah
Mehsud, a top aide to the militant. By striking at the Mehsud network, the
United States may be seeking to demonstrate to Mr. Zardari that the new
administration is willing to go after the insurgents of greatest concern to
the Pakistani leader.

But American officials may also be prompted by growing concern that the
militant attacks are increasingly putting the civilian government of
Pakistan, a nation with nuclear weapons, at risk. 

For months, Pakistani military and intelligence officials have complained
about Washington's refusal to strike at Baitullah Mehsud, even while C.I.A.
drones struck at Qaeda figures and leaders of the network run by Jalaluddin
Haqqani, a militant leader believed responsible for a campaign of violence
against American troops in Afghanistan. 

According to one senior Pakistani official, Pakistan's intelligence service
on two occasions in recent months gave the United States detailed
intelligence about Mr. Mehsud's whereabouts, but said the United States had
not acted on the information. Bush administration officials had charged that
it was the Pakistanis who were reluctant to take on Mr. Mehsud and his
network.

The strikes came after a visit to Islamabad last week by Richard C.
Holbrooke, the American envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan. 
In a telephone interview on Friday, Mr. Holbrooke declined to talk about the
attacks on Mr. Mehsud. The White House also declined to speak about Mr.
Mehsud or the decisions that led up to the new strikes. A C.I.A. spokesman
also declined to comment.
Senior Pakistani officials are scheduled to arrive in Washington next week
at a time of rising tension over a declared truce between the Pakistani
government and militants in the Swat region. 
While the administration has not publicly criticized the Pakistanis, several
American officials said in interviews in recent days that they believe
appeasing the militants would only weaken Pakistan's civilian government. 

Mr. Holbrooke said in the interview that Secretary of State Hillary Rodham
Clinton and others would make clear in private, and in detail, why they were
so concerned about what was happening in Swat, the need to send more
Pakistani forces to the west, and why the deteriorating situation in the
tribal areas added to instability in Afghanistan and threats to American
forces. 

Past efforts to cut deals with the insurgents failed, and many
administration officials believe that they ultimately weakened the Pakistani
government.

But Obama administration officials face the same intractable problems that
the Bush administration did in trying to prod Pakistan toward a different
course. Pakistan still deploys the overwhelming majority of its troops along
the Indian border, not the border with Afghanistan, and its intelligence
agencies maintain shadowy links to the Taliban even as they take American
funds to fight them. 

Under standard policy for covert operations, the C.I.A. strikes inside
Pakistan have not been publicly acknowledged either by the Obama
administration or the Bush administration. Using Predators and the more
heavily armed Reaper drones, the C.I.A. has carried out more than 30 strikes
since last September, according to American and Pakistani officials. 

The attacks have killed a number of senior Qaeda figures, including Abu
Jihad al-Masri and Usama al-Kini, who is believed to have helped plan the
1998 American Embassy bombings in East Africa and last year's bombing of the
Marriott Hotel in Islamabad.

American Special Operations troops based in Afghanistan have also carried
out a number of operations into Pakistan's tribal areas since early
September, when a commando raid that killed a number of militants was
publicly condemned by Pakistani officials. According to a senior American
military official, the commando missions since September have been primarily
to gather intelligence. 

The meetings hosted by the Obama administration next week will include
senior officials from both Pakistan and Afghanistan; Mrs. Clinton is to hold
a rare joint meeting on Thursday with foreign ministers from the two
countries. Also, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the Pakistani Army chief, will
meet with Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, the
chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Lt. Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha, the head
of Pakistan's military spy service, will accompany General Kayani. 
Bomber Kills More Than 30

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - The police on Friday blamed a suicide bomber for a
powerful explosion that killed more than 30 people and wounded at least 50
in the Pakistani city of Dera Ismail Khan, according to residents and
Pakistani television reports. 

The bombing, aimed at the funeral of a Shiite man who had been shot, set off
chaos in the city of a million people on the edge of Pakistan's tribal
areas. Mobs attacked security forces, ransacked shops and surrounded
hospitals said the mayor, Abdur Rauf.
Eric Schmitt contributed reporting



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