Pakistan Balks at US Pressure to Attack Taliban

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (May 10) -- The Obama administration has unsettled Pakistani authorities by stressing the link between failed Times Square bombing suspect Faisal Shahzad and the Pakistani Taliban -- and turning up the heat on them to launch a much-anticipated offensive into North Waziristan, where Shahzad has allegedly admitted to receiving bomb-making training.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton warned Pakistan over the weekend that Washington's patience is running out. "We've made it very clear that if, heaven forbid, an attack like this that we can trace back to Pakistan were to have been successful, there would be very severe consequences," she told "60 Minutes."

In an editorial today, the daily Dawn newspaper wrote that Clinton's remarks were "unfortunate and will rekindle suspicions here that America is no real friend of Pakistan."

Javed Iqbal Raja, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry, told AOL News the government would have no official comment until it received more information from U.S. authorities about the alleged connections between Shahzad and the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP.

But observers say a clear link to the TTP would point to a major security lapse on the part of Pakistani intelligence. "How could they not know that the TTP has extended its reach?," said Iqbal Khattak, the Peshawar bureau chief for the newspaper Daily Times. "How could they miss the fact that the TTP is so closely linked now to al-Qaida?"

Pakistan has countered Washington's calls for a robust attack on North Waziristan with claims that its military is stretched too thin already fighting battles in other parts of the country's northwest, where more than 120,000 troops have been deployed in a series of operations stretching from the Swat Valley to South Waziristan.

But many officials in the U.S. are not buying it. Pakistan continues to maintain the bulk of its forces on its eastern border with India, where it claims the greatest threat to its continued existence lies. Shifting those troops will not simply be a tactical shift but a broader ideological revision that would mean making internal militancy, not India, the prime threat to the nation.

"For the time being, India is not doing anything to threaten Pakistan," said retired Col. Baseer Malik, a military analyst in Islamabad. "Militancy is the main threat. The army recognizes this. This is not a question of more troops but a long-term strategy to deal with the threat."

But the question remains: If there are enough troops, why does the military appear unable to keep Taliban militants at bay? Swat, declared militant-free in June, has been rocked in recent weeks by a series of suicide blasts and targeted assassinations of tribal leaders aligned with Pakistan's security forces.

Similar incidents in other areas where the Pakistani military has declared victory, such as Bajaur and Mohmand, suggest the Taliban are far from finished. Instead, they have simply relocated to North Waziristan, where they continue to plan and execute attacks not only throughout Pakistan's northwest, but now allegedly in the U.S. as well.

The attempt to bomb Times Square has heightened concerns about North Waziristan, widely considered as terrorism central. All but two of the 30 CIA-led drone strikes targeting Taliban and al-Qaida leaders in Pakistan so far this year have hit targets in this restive border region, which is home to as many as five different militant outfits, thought now to be working in unison.

Tribal elders in the area, speaking to AOL News on condition of anonymity, said they don't like the drone strikes, but they fear the militants and the prospect of the Pakistani military as well. The presence of so many militants, most of them from other regions of the Federally Administered Tribal Area and some from foreign countries, has terrorized the local people. "They have taken control away from the traditional leadership," said one elder who has moved his family to Bannu, the district on North Waziristan's eastern border, for their safety. "And if you question them, they kill you."

Ariftullah, a local in Bannu, added that people in North Waziristan are frustrated with the chaos that has accompanied the collapse of the local tribal system. "There's so much criminality now; people are getting kidnapped, robbed and killed," he said. "Drone strikes are not really affecting civilians, so there's no reason for them to complain. And if they're killing these criminals, then people say, 'Good, they deserve it.'"

The tribal elders who spoke to AOL News in North Waziristan supported some kind of military action to rid the region of the militant presence, but none could offer any strategy for doing it. Few believe the Pakistani military can succeed.

Local authorities, speaking to Dawn, fear the Pakistani military will not be as selective as the pinpoint strikes of the drones. "The local leaders say, 'Better the drones because at least they are accurate,'" one journalist said. "The [Pakistani] fighter jets and artillery cause so much more damage and loss.'"

Locals also fear the wrath of the army, which is composed in large part of Punjabi soldiers. Reports of extra-judicial revenge killings during the major operation in Swat last year -- Human Rights Watch documented 300 such killings -- has made the predominantly Pashtun villagers wary of any Pakistani incursion. "The local people are very frightened about the Pakistani army coming here," says Ariftullah. "Wherever the Pakistani army goes, the local people's lives are destroyed. As a result, most people here believe the army considers all Pashtuns their enemy."

That complex dynamic of ethnic mistrust and militant entrenchment will make North Waziristan the toughest challenge the Pakistani military has faced yet. And with the U.S. administration switching from carrot to stick, the pressure is now on Pakistan to finally confront the growing, and globalizing, menace of terrorism on its territory.