Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Bloomberg.com
June 10, 2008 By Tony Capaccio, Bloomberg News
A small number of U.S. military personnel will soon begin to instruct Pakistani military trainers on counterinsurgency tactics to control extremists in that country's ungoverned northwestern provinces, Admiral Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said today.
``My expectation is we will start training the Frontier Corps sometime this summer with a relatively small, 20-30 trainers -- it's really training their trainers,'' Mullen told reporters at a breakfast meeting.
Pakistan's Frontier Corps are paramilitary forces who live in the areas they patrol. Mullen's remarks are the first official confirmation of the size, scope and timing of a U.S. training effort that's been under discussion for months, said Alan Kronstadt, a Pakistan analyst for the Congressional Research Service.
``Many in Congress are eager to see Pakistan reorient its military toward more effective counterinsurgency capabilities, as these are seen to be lacking,'' Kronstadt said in an e-mail.
Northwest Pakistan's mountainous, semi-autonomous tribal areas are a sanctuary and recruiting ground for al-Qaeda and the Taliban, the ousted Islamist Afghan regime whose guerrilla attacks against foreign troops and the government of Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai have increased.
Mullen recently returned from Pakistan, his third trip since February. He said he visited the proposed training site. ``A significant number of Frontier Corps'' will be trained and equipped there ``once we get the trainers trained,'' he said.
Pakistan's leadership ``recognizes the challenge'' in training a viable force equipped for counterinsurgency instead of a conflict with India, a traditional foe, Mullen said.
The tribal areas pose ``an extremely complex challenge,'' said Mullen. If al-Qaeda launches another attack on the U.S., its ``planning and leadership'' will be based there, he said. ``That is threat to us that must be dealt with.''
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization and U.S. intelligence agencies say al-Qaeda uses bases in the tribal region to train, re-arm and plan attacks against troops in neighboring Afghanistan. The alliance is critical of the truce talks that Pakistan's new government's has held with the militants and says terrorist incidents in eastern Afghanistan were 50 percent higher in April than the same month in 2007.
June 10, 2008 By Tony Capaccio, Bloomberg News
A small number of U.S. military personnel will soon begin to instruct Pakistani military trainers on counterinsurgency tactics to control extremists in that country's ungoverned northwestern provinces, Admiral Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said today.
``My expectation is we will start training the Frontier Corps sometime this summer with a relatively small, 20-30 trainers -- it's really training their trainers,'' Mullen told reporters at a breakfast meeting.
Pakistan's Frontier Corps are paramilitary forces who live in the areas they patrol. Mullen's remarks are the first official confirmation of the size, scope and timing of a U.S. training effort that's been under discussion for months, said Alan Kronstadt, a Pakistan analyst for the Congressional Research Service.
``Many in Congress are eager to see Pakistan reorient its military toward more effective counterinsurgency capabilities, as these are seen to be lacking,'' Kronstadt said in an e-mail.
Northwest Pakistan's mountainous, semi-autonomous tribal areas are a sanctuary and recruiting ground for al-Qaeda and the Taliban, the ousted Islamist Afghan regime whose guerrilla attacks against foreign troops and the government of Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai have increased.
Mullen recently returned from Pakistan, his third trip since February. He said he visited the proposed training site. ``A significant number of Frontier Corps'' will be trained and equipped there ``once we get the trainers trained,'' he said.
Pakistan's leadership ``recognizes the challenge'' in training a viable force equipped for counterinsurgency instead of a conflict with India, a traditional foe, Mullen said.
The tribal areas pose ``an extremely complex challenge,'' said Mullen. If al-Qaeda launches another attack on the U.S., its ``planning and leadership'' will be based there, he said. ``That is threat to us that must be dealt with.''
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization and U.S. intelligence agencies say al-Qaeda uses bases in the tribal region to train, re-arm and plan attacks against troops in neighboring Afghanistan. The alliance is critical of the truce talks that Pakistan's new government's has held with the militants and says terrorist incidents in eastern Afghanistan were 50 percent higher in April than the same month in 2007.