Neo-Taliban
Or same shit, different day. As you like. Reuters:
LONDON, Feb 5 (Reuters) - Nearly 400 militant groups now operate around the world and the greatest proliferation has been in the border regions between Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, an annual military report showed on Tuesday.
…
“It reflects the changing nature of conflicts over the past 10 to 15 years,” said Nigel Inkster, the director of transnational threats and political risk at IISS.
“We’re seeing less and less inter-state conflict and more and more intra-state conflict involving a wide variety of armed groups — the number just keeps on spiralling.”
OK. Not good. But here’s the bad news.
Inkster, a former director of operations with Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service, said the fastest growing threat came not from al Qaeda or any of its offshoots in Iraq, but probably Tehrik-a-Taliban, a Pakistani Taliban movement.
Led by Baitullah Mehsud, an ethnic Pashtun tribal warlord, the group has a base in Waziristan, in the Pakistan/Afghanistan border region, and has recently expanded to align itself with global struggles.
“It has its roots in localised issues but very recently they have shown an inclination to link themselves to a wider agenda,” Inkster told Reuters.
“Because of the wider ramifications of unrest in the region, the Pakistani neo-Taliban, as it is called, has become a potent and growing threat.
“Mehsud has linked himself formally with the Afghan Taliban and has been quoted about the need to annihilate the United States and Britain, so he is adopting a wider political agenda.”
Meanwhile, AP:
WASHINGTON (AP) — Al-Qaida, increasingly shut down in Iraq, is establishing cells in other countries as Osama bin Laden’s organization uses a “safe haven” in Pakistan’s tribal region to train for attacks in Afghanistan, the Middle East, Africa and the United States, the U.S. intelligence chief said Tuesday.
“Al-Qaida remains the pre-eminent threat against the United States,” Mike McConnell told a Senate hearing more than six years after the 9/11 attacks.
He said that fewer than 100 al-Qaida terrorists have moved from Iraq to establish cells in other countries as the U.S. military clamps down on their activities, and “they may deploy resources to mount attacks outside the country.”
The al-Qaida network in Iraq and in Pakistan and Afghanistan has suffered setbacks, but he said the group poses a persistent and growing danger. He said that al-Qaida maintains a “safe haven” in Pakistan’s tribal areas, where it is able to stage attacks supporting the Taliban in Afghanistan.
The Pakistani tribal areas provide al-Qaida “many of the advantages it once derived from its base across the border in Afghanistan, albeit on a smaller and less secure scale,” allowing militants to train for strikes in Pakistan, the Middle East, Africa and the United States, McConnell said.
Terrorists use the “sanctuary” of Pakistan’s border area to “maintain a cadre of skilled lieutenants capable of directing the organization’s operations around the world,” McConnell told the Senate Intelligence Committee.
The next attack on the United States will most likely be launched by al-Qaida operating in “under-governed regions” of Pakistan, Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, planned to tell Congress on Wednesday.
Apparently that war isn’t over yet. Could be an issue.
Topics: GWOT
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:40 pm on Tuesday, February 5, 2008
3 Responses to “Neo-Taliban”
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February 5th, 2008 at 10:19 pm
So we saved ourselves nothing by respecting Mush’s wishes and refraining from going into Armpitistan to clean house.
February 5th, 2008 at 11:28 pm
“It reflects the changing nature of conflicts over the past 10 to 15 years,” said Nigel Inkster, the director of transnational threats and political risk at IISS.
Oh come on, huh? Bush hasn’t been in office “over the past 10 to 15 years”…..but eveyone knows ALL of this is his fault, right?
February 6th, 2008 at 3:32 pm
“Al-Qaida remains the pre-eminent threat against the United States,” Mike McConnell told a Senate hearing more than six years after the 9/11 attacks.”
But, but, I thought Bush was the pre-eminent threat to the US and it goes without saying the pre-eminent threat to all the baby Polar bears. I really should have bought a program to keep me up with all this stuff.