Michael Ramirez on Pakistan President Musharraf Harboring Al Qaeda

The Weekly Standard: Pakistan Surrenders

INTELLIGENCE ANALYSTS woke up on September 5 to unsettling news. The government of Pakistan, they learned, had entered into a peace agreement with the Taliban insurgency that essentially cedes authority in North Waziristan, the mountainous tribal region bordering Afghanistan, to the Taliban and al Qaeda. Just ten days later, the blow was compounded when the government of Pakistan released a large number of jihadists from prison. Together, these events may constitute the most significant development in the global war on terror in the past year–yet the media have taken little notice.

If President Musharraf will not route out the Taliban and Al Qaeda from Waziristan, then the United States and NATO will need to do it for him.

CNN: Bush would send troops inside Pakistan to catch bin Laden

President Bush said Wednesday he would order U.S. forces to go after Osama bin Laden inside Pakistan if he received good intelligence on the fugitive al Qaeda leader’s location.

“Absolutely,” Bush said.

The president made the comments Wednesday in an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. (Watch Bush state his position on Iran and the war on terror — 18:06)

Although Pakistan has said it won’t allow U.S. troops to operate within its territory, “we would take the action necessary to bring him to justice.”

But Pakistan’s president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, told reporters Wednesday at the United Nations that his government would oppose any U.S. action in its territory.

“We wouldn’t like to allow that at all. We will do it ourselves,” he said.

Pakistani authorities recently signed a peace agreement with pro-Taliban tribal leaders in the country’s restive northwest after two years of clashes with the traditionally autonomous tribes that left more than 600 Pakistani troops dead. But Aziz told CNN earlier this month that top terrorist leaders like bin Laden would have “no immunity” under the agreement.

“This notion that anybody who has a record as a terrorist will get safe haven — we would not even think of doing that,” he said.

U.S. and NATO troops are now battling a Taliban resurgence in southeastern Afghanistan, and both Afghan and Pakistani officials have accused each other of not doing enough to capture pro-Taliban militants sneaking across the border.

It is unacceptable for Pakistan to harbor these terrorists.

Pakistan is either a part of the solution of world terrorism or part of the problem and be treated accordingly.

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