US Admits It's "Hunting Al Qaeda" in Pakistan Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit Three items on the latest tale from Disinfo Central: The Perpetual Terror Crusade is busy in Pakistan, using "covert military units." AFP via Times of India - 25 April 1:20 PM http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_ID=7956417 US engaging al-Qaeda fighters in Pak: Report WASHINGTON: Covert US military units have been hunting down al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters in Pakistan in recent weeks, using aerial support and four Pakistani bases, The Washington Post said on Thursday. The operation which Islamabad has asked Washington to keep as secret as possible is part of a new US strategy in the war against terrorism, US military officials told the daily. US Special Forces and covert soldiers from the US Army's Delta force are operating against al-Qaeda fighters who are now operating in groups of 15 or smaller both in Afghanistan and across the border in tribal areas in Pakistan where the Pakistani government has limited authority, the officials said. A spokesman for the Pakistani government told the daily he had no knowledge of US military operations inside his country, and a spokesman for the US military's Central Command refused to comment on "current or future operations." The officials said that due to the enemy's small units and advanced strategy, US troops were having to deliberately expose themselves to attack to draw out the pockets of al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters. One official said the tactic was frustrating because the al-Qaeda "has the offensive," adding that frequently they attack from within bystanders on village streets and towns, making the decision to counterattack difficult. "The decision to shoot or not shoot is one of the toughest decisions," said one source. The sources said the al-Qaeda fighters have impressed US troops with their military skills, especially the ability to observe and adjust to US combat techniques. The enemy continues to execute well-coordinated operations, including in one instance a synchronised multipronged attack within a 10-minute period, the officials said. * Times of India - 25 April 2002 8:37 pm http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Articleshow.asp?art_id=7986285 Don't say you're hunting al-Qaeda here: Pak to US BY CHIDANAND RAJGHATTA WASHINGTON: The United States has begun to confirm sketchy reports and long-held suspicions that it is hunting down al-Qaeda terrorists inside Pakistani territory. The Bush administration is deferring a full disclosure in the matter mainly on account of a desperate plea from Pakistan that spilling the beans will hurt General Musharraf in the referendum he has set for next Tuesday to legitimise his rule. However, US military officials have been offering broad hints that American forces have been conducting covert operations on the Afghan border inside Pakistan. The special missions have been couched in terms like "reconnaissance" and "sending advisors to help Pakistani forces in the region," but the bald truth appears to be the US very much has a foot in the Pakistani door. The US decision to go into Pakistan amid ineffective protestations from Islamabad follows sporadic guerrilla attacks on American troops by al-Qaeda fighters scattered inside Pakistan alongside the Afghan border. Despite lavish public certifications by the US about the Pakistan?s cooperation in the war against terrorism, Washington does not appear to trust Pakistani forces or believe them to be effective in stopping al-Qaeda elements from seeping into the frontier districts along the Afghan border where Islamabad?s writ barely runs. US officials declined to publicly discuss precise military operations inside Pakistan, but some accounts speak of CIA operatives and special forces inside Pakistan and sometimes overseeing operations by Pakistani forces. In at least one instance that led to the capture of Bin Laden confidante Abu Zubaidah earlier this month, Pakistan forces did the grunt work under US command and intelligence. Despite the Bush administration's broad public support for Pakistan?s military-political leadership of Gen. Musharraf ostensibly because of the free hand he gives the US, there is considerable disquiet in Washington about Pakistan's dubious role in the region. The continuing doubts are stirred periodically by reports about renegade ISI elements are helping terrorists escape and hide inside Pakistan. One recent story by Arnaud de Borchgrave, a writer and editor-at-large for the wire service UPI, spoke authoritatively about Bin Laden being stashed away in Peshawar by sympathisers. US officials did not comment on the report, but the fact that there has been no word about Bin Laden?s whereabouts is driving Washington round the bend. The situation has been aggravated by the repeated false alarms being fed into the US security systems ? especially from the interrogation of Abu Zubaidah ? that has led Washington to issue warnings about impending attacks against US banks last week and malls this week. There are doubts now that Zubaidah is just making up these stories, including one about al-Qaeda?s possession of a dirty nuclear device. Amid all these problems, sections of the administration continue to have doubts about the questionable or negligible intelligence provided by Pakistan in the US quest to stamp out terrorism in the region. Islamabad has also stirred misgivings by deciding to release a large number of militants detained in Pakistan and seeking the release of Pakistani fighters held in Afghanistan. Although the mainline US media is still oblivious to the facts on the ground and is buying the administration line on Pakistan, some hard questions are now being asked in other circles. Some critics of US policy who see a ?disconnect between common sense and government rhetoric? are accusing the American media of becoming ?host-friendly.? One such critic is Robert Pelton, a young independent writer who has covered the war in Afghanistan is working on a book on the Qala Jangi uprising in Mazar e-Sharif. Pelton believes the US ought to be prosecuting a war against Saudi Arabia and Pakistan because the two countries are the root of all terrorism. But the US media, he says, is beholden to the US military for conducting it around the war theatre and therefore writes whatever is fed to it including the grand fiction that Pakistan and Saudi Arabia are US allies in the war against terrorism. The "bad guys," he says, usually come from these two countries. "The media needs to wake up and say, 'Hey, wait a second. We're supporting a military dictator who took power in a coup, who's one of the main sponsors of terrorism, who paid for the camps over there, who's educating and entertaining and training thousands of militants to go fight inside Afghanistan against us.' It's like, whoa, wait a second, why is he our best friend?" Pelton said in an interview on Salon.com. Such views are being voiced more frequently, although, Pelton says, its probably too late because the public does not care for things beyond a 120-day window. * AP via Times of India - 25 April 10:39 PM http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_ID=7994634 US troops searching for al-Qaeda men in Pak WASHINGTON: US government personnel are searching for al-Qaeda fighters in the rough tribal regions of Pakistan, which has agreed to let American troops go after militants in the South Asian country, four well-placed US officials said on Thursday. The covert operation will extend the US conflict against Osama Bin Laden's terror operation in Afghanistan across the border to Pakistan as President Pervez Musharraf validates his support for the Bush administration. "We have a shared concern with the Pakistanis," one of the officials told The Associated Press. But asked about reports the military operation has begun, the official said, "I can't say we've gotten to that point yet." The tribal areas, just over the border from al-Qaeda's Afghan strongholds in Paktia and Paktika provinces, are historical rally points for fighters fleeing Afghanistan, former officials familiar with the region said. US officials have said al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters are believed to be regrouping in the tribal areas. The administration and Pakistan worked out rules of engagement for the military several weeks ago. This established terms for the operation, and the Musharraf government has stood by them despite reports of wavering, a second US official said. "The operation has not yet begun," said a third US official, also speaking on condition of anonymity. He described as premature a newspaper account that US military units had participated in attacks on suspected al-Qaeda hide-outs. Also, the official said, American soldiers had not been wounded, as The Washington Post reported Thursday. A fourth official said US forces in Afghanistan had chased al-Qaeda fighters across the border sporadically over the past few weeks, but that was separate from the covert operation being planned. Covert US soldiers are searching for pockets of militants along the border region, the Post said. US troops based on the Afghanistan side of the mountainous frontier have been attacked several times a week over the last month and have been in several fire fights with al-Qaida militants, the Post said, citing unidentified US military officials. US forces have found only small pockets of al-Qaeda forces since the end of a weeklong ground and air assault in the Shah-e-Kot valley south of Kabul, the Afghan capital. Since then, the military has been quiet on whether US forces are operating in Pakistan, where many al-Qaeda fighters are believed to have fled. In the Afghan regions, members of the US Special Forces and Delta Force have been deliberately exposing themselves to attack to draw out the small pockets of al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters believed to be hiding in the border area, the Post said, again citing military officials. US officials earlier on Wednesday had said the Bush administration was considering sending U.S. advisers to work with Pakistani troops in the pursuit of al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters in Pakistan. ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytact-04.25.02-19:57:28-21842