Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Arizona Republic (Phoenix)
September 21, 2008
By Kathy Gannon, Associated Press
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - The brazen bombing of the Marriott hotel in Islamabad is a warning from militants to Pakistan's new leadership that it should end already-strained cooperation with the United States to pursue al-Qaida and the Taliban, analysts said.
"The attack on the hotel is a message to the Pakistani leadership: End all cooperation with the Americans or pay the price," said Brian Glyn Williams, associate professor of Islamic history at the University of Massachusetts.
The U.S. has angered Pakistanis with cross-border raids from Afghanistan to root out Islamic militants entrenched in the lawless and rugged tribal regions along the border. Civilian casualties from the U.S. assaults have prompted tribesmen in the volatile frontier to threaten revolt.
Officials have harshly criticized U.S. incursions into Pakistani airspace, and Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, recently visited Pakistan to try to calm the anger.
The government is also talking tough to the other side.
Just hours before the bombing, Pakistan's newly elected president, Asif Zardari, vowed to wage war against extremists battling government troops in the violent northwest. Osama bin Laden and his top deputies are believed to be hiding in the border region and the U.S. claims al-Qaida and the Taliban have found a safe haven there.
September 21, 2008
By Kathy Gannon, Associated Press
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - The brazen bombing of the Marriott hotel in Islamabad is a warning from militants to Pakistan's new leadership that it should end already-strained cooperation with the United States to pursue al-Qaida and the Taliban, analysts said.
"The attack on the hotel is a message to the Pakistani leadership: End all cooperation with the Americans or pay the price," said Brian Glyn Williams, associate professor of Islamic history at the University of Massachusetts.
The U.S. has angered Pakistanis with cross-border raids from Afghanistan to root out Islamic militants entrenched in the lawless and rugged tribal regions along the border. Civilian casualties from the U.S. assaults have prompted tribesmen in the volatile frontier to threaten revolt.
Officials have harshly criticized U.S. incursions into Pakistani airspace, and Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, recently visited Pakistan to try to calm the anger.
The government is also talking tough to the other side.
Just hours before the bombing, Pakistan's newly elected president, Asif Zardari, vowed to wage war against extremists battling government troops in the violent northwest. Osama bin Laden and his top deputies are believed to be hiding in the border region and the U.S. claims al-Qaida and the Taliban have found a safe haven there.