Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
London Daily Telegraph
February 11, 2008 By Isambard Wilkinson, in Islamabad
The West remains at constant risk of large-scale al-Qa'eda terrorist attacks because the Pakistani military requires years of training before it will be able to combat militancy, a Western military official has warned.
More than six years have elapsed since the September 11 attacks on the United States but the Pakistan army remains unequipped and untrained for counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism operations, the official told The Daily Telegraph.
He gave a comprehensive account describing how al-Qa'eda has been able to preserve its sanctuary in Pakistan by backing an insurgency in the lawless border tribal areas.
"If we [the West] have a reasonable degree of co-operation it may take two to three years for them [the Pakistan military] to be bought up to a level," he said.
"But realistically the way things are going it will take five years," he added.
As a result, he warned, there is a possible "worst case scenario that there will be another catastrophic event in the West and then everything else in between."
He described the Pakistan military as a "dinosaur of an institution" despite the $10 billion (£5 billion) that it has received in US military aid over the past five years.
"We have not being getting the bang for our buck," he said.
He added that a lack of transparency on the Pakistan government's part had led to payments worth millions of dollars for operations in the US-led war on terror having being suspended in the past.
The official listed the Pakistani military's deficiencies ranging from the army's incapacity to launch multiple operations, poor military intelligence, hostility to Western military training and a denial among many officers that militancy poses a threat to Pakistan.
His warning came as a senior US official in Washington claimed that Osama bin Laden and the Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar were operating from Pakistan's tribal areas, in what was the most explicit claim of its kind made in recent years by America.
Pakistan dismissed the claim as "baseless," adding that Islamabad would take action if the US provided it with intelligence to support the statement.
President Pervez Musharraf recently said that Pakistani troops were making no particular effort to hunt al-Qa'eda as they were focused on fighting Taliban militants.
A suspected senior al-Qa'eda operative, Abu Laith al-Libbi, was killed in what is believed to have been a US missile strike in North Waziristan tribal area earlier this month.
The Western military official said that al-Qa'eda supports local Pakistani Taliban, which have united under Baitullah Mehsud, who was blamed for the assassination of former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto.
Pakistan has deployed about 100,000 troops to the tribal region where about 1,000 of them have been killed.
The official said that more local soldiers have been killed or wounded in the past seven months than in the previous five years as the military has stepped up its operations.
But, he added: "I really can't say they have a strategy that is coherent. They act in a tactical way, meaning they concentrate their forces on very small elements."
US military advisers are helping the Pakistanis double the size of their elite commando force and teaching specialised fighting techniques, such as helicopter assaults.
The US has started a five-year programme to train and equip the Frontier Corps, a colonial-era paramilitary unit.
February 11, 2008 By Isambard Wilkinson, in Islamabad
The West remains at constant risk of large-scale al-Qa'eda terrorist attacks because the Pakistani military requires years of training before it will be able to combat militancy, a Western military official has warned.
More than six years have elapsed since the September 11 attacks on the United States but the Pakistan army remains unequipped and untrained for counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism operations, the official told The Daily Telegraph.
He gave a comprehensive account describing how al-Qa'eda has been able to preserve its sanctuary in Pakistan by backing an insurgency in the lawless border tribal areas.
"If we [the West] have a reasonable degree of co-operation it may take two to three years for them [the Pakistan military] to be bought up to a level," he said.
"But realistically the way things are going it will take five years," he added.
As a result, he warned, there is a possible "worst case scenario that there will be another catastrophic event in the West and then everything else in between."
He described the Pakistan military as a "dinosaur of an institution" despite the $10 billion (£5 billion) that it has received in US military aid over the past five years.
"We have not being getting the bang for our buck," he said.
He added that a lack of transparency on the Pakistan government's part had led to payments worth millions of dollars for operations in the US-led war on terror having being suspended in the past.
The official listed the Pakistani military's deficiencies ranging from the army's incapacity to launch multiple operations, poor military intelligence, hostility to Western military training and a denial among many officers that militancy poses a threat to Pakistan.
His warning came as a senior US official in Washington claimed that Osama bin Laden and the Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar were operating from Pakistan's tribal areas, in what was the most explicit claim of its kind made in recent years by America.
Pakistan dismissed the claim as "baseless," adding that Islamabad would take action if the US provided it with intelligence to support the statement.
President Pervez Musharraf recently said that Pakistani troops were making no particular effort to hunt al-Qa'eda as they were focused on fighting Taliban militants.
A suspected senior al-Qa'eda operative, Abu Laith al-Libbi, was killed in what is believed to have been a US missile strike in North Waziristan tribal area earlier this month.
The Western military official said that al-Qa'eda supports local Pakistani Taliban, which have united under Baitullah Mehsud, who was blamed for the assassination of former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto.
Pakistan has deployed about 100,000 troops to the tribal region where about 1,000 of them have been killed.
The official said that more local soldiers have been killed or wounded in the past seven months than in the previous five years as the military has stepped up its operations.
But, he added: "I really can't say they have a strategy that is coherent. They act in a tactical way, meaning they concentrate their forces on very small elements."
US military advisers are helping the Pakistanis double the size of their elite commando force and teaching specialised fighting techniques, such as helicopter assaults.
The US has started a five-year programme to train and equip the Frontier Corps, a colonial-era paramilitary unit.