Open Relationship

The United States is doing something right in the war on terror.

BY FRANK CILLUFFO | FEBRUARY 15, 2012

Today, the relationships between terrorist groups are becoming more overt and strategic in nature. On Feb. 12, LeT, Jamaat-e-Islami, and the banned Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan held a rally in Karachi to support their Difa-e-Pakistan Council and its anti-American, anti-Western political agenda. Jamaat-e-Islami is reportedly moving to partner with former members of Pervez Musharraf's regime. These open relationships are unlikely to be a sign of decreased tactical collaboration; they are a warning of deepening strategic ties. Prior to his reported demise in a June 2011 drone strike in Pakistan, HuJI's military commander, Ilyas Kashmiri, built strong operational ties between myriad Islamist terrorist groups. Among other things, Kashmiri served as a coordinator between these groups and radicals in the West, as demonstrated by his linking up David Headley and Tahawwur Hussain Rana with LeT for the 2008 Mumbai attacks.

So let's not get complacent. There will be no shortage of opportunities for foreign fighters who wish to travel to jihadi conflict zones. The threat landscape is dynamic and ever evolving. Even if we were to succeed in draining the swamp (a big "if") that is the FATA, further challenges and dangers abound in Africa, especially Somalia (where recent reporting indicates a spike, not dip, in the numbers of Western foreign fighters), and beyond, including in areas not yet on the public's radar screen such as Kenya, Nigeria, and the Caucasus. Compounding the situation, current events on the ground in Syria, including al Qaeda's bid to leverage the crisis by calling for foreign fighters to exploit the revolt, may reshuffle and intensify foreign-fighter pipelines. Against this backdrop, determination and focus will be needed, especially because the pool of indigenous fighters is plenty deep. As for the FATA, it's a good start -- and now is the time to double down by ramping up the counterterrorism and military actions that got us this far.

John Moore/Getty Images

 

Frank Cilluffo directs the Homeland Security Policy Institute at George Washington University. He is co-author of "Foreign Fighters: Trends, Trajectories & Conflict Zones" and previously served as special assistant to the president for homeland security under George W. Bush.

CHARLESFRITH

11:39 AM ET

February 15, 2012

The War On Terror Is Profitable Created Fiction

Why don't you sit down with Navy Seal Bill Brockbrader's testimony on Youtube to listen how the US guided Tomahawk missiles into Iraqi villages during peacetimeto create terrorism and radicalise Islam?

War is a racket and we know all the CFR names.

 

MARTY MARTEL

3:38 PM ET

February 15, 2012

Pakistan will continue to be world’s terror center

It is highly doubtful that so-called ‘anecdotal’ evidence is right.

Pakistani government owned by Pakistani Army/ISI has fathered and continues to father umpteen terrorist outfits on its soil. ‘Pakistan also suffering from same terrorism’ is just crocodile tears by Pakistani governments to divert the blame.

Pakistan has been successful - of producing cadre of terror as in a hatchery, of funding them, of selecting targets for them to attack, of nuclear proliferation and of running drugs internationally. Whenever the international society has confronted it with evidence of its complicity, it talks its way out brazenly.

The irony of the US-Pakistan relationship is that the US may set the agenda, but Pakistan invariably maneuvers the results. Despite an outward show of compliance, Pakistan is the decisive factor in this relationship. AS THE NECK IS TO A FACE, PAKISTAN HAS INVARIABLY DETERMINED THE DIRECTION IN WHICH AMERICA SHOULD TURN. The latest case in point is Hillary Clinton’s visit to Pakistan in October, 2011. She had gone there accompanied by the defense and intelligence top brass on a mission to force compliance against terrorists safely ensconced in North Waziristan and Baluchistan, but Pakistani Generals stared them down.

Iraq was bombed mercilessly for far less and Muammar Gadaffi consigned to brutal death for reasons that remain opaque. Now Iran is on watch for its supposed nuclear status. But Pakistan manages consistently to escape censure. It has crossed and re-crossed the nuclear Rubicon at will, it has broken almost every norm of diplomatic behavior, and it stonewalls all queries about the misdoings of its ISI. Yet it faces no opprobrium.

The question that the international community often asks itself is this: How is it that Pakistan is able to get away with being dangerous to the rest of the world? Its footprint is clearly linked to terror strikes in most parts of the world. As former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said, “Seventy per cent of terror plots in the UK have their source in Pakistan.” There may be a pause currently in terror attacks, but it is tactical and temporary.

Pakistan’s current attention is focused fully on Afghanistan. All terror activity is concentrated there with the single objective of making life difficult for the ISAF. American patience with Pakistan may be wearing thin but the harsh reality is that Pakistan doesn’t care. It knows that with the presidential election in the US drawing near, President Obama can’t escalate the war in Afghanistan. He will simply not be able to justify an increase in body bags to America. More crucially, Pakistan is convinced that America won’t be able to take it on militarily. The Pakistani Army has been so richly equipped and trained by the US that its soldiers may prove to be an equal match for any military force.

Whether the world likes it or not, Pakistani governorship of Afghanistan is more or less a given.

 

RON PLYMEL

11:37 PM ET

March 15, 2012

pakistan goverment - united nation - reguard the peace

In my opinion, United nation need to new policies to control the world peace. United nation need to control attack between the nations. And all government and everyone else in this world have to be responsibilities to prevent the wars and violence. Prevent the wars to the earth become more and more beautiful, peace and safe