Word: musharraf
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...Islamabad denies that the Taliban is using Pakistan as a sanctuary, and Musharraf vowed last fall to strengthen the border and to crack down on training camps. While Pakistan has closed down some camps, many observers in both Pakistan and Afghanistan say he is not doing enough to stop Taliban and al-Qaeda activity in the region, a sentiment that seems to be shared by the Bush Administration, judging by the recent stream of official visitors to the Pakistani capital...
...Americans are particularly concerned about a peace deal Musharraf struck last September with tribal leaders in Waziristan, a mountainous region bordering Afghanistan, in which he offered them greater sovereignty in exchange for promising to kick out foreign militants. Musharraf called the agreement a success and promised President George Bush at the time that "there won't be a Taliban and there won't be an al-Qaeda." However, cross-border attacks have increased threefold since September, according to Coalition forces on the Afghan side, and two weeks ago Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice described the situation as a "disappointment...
...Cheney's visit is the latest sign of the Administration's growing impatience with Pakistan's inability - or reluctance - to crack down on Islamic militants. Cheney's talk with Musharraf, while not characterized by the White House as a "tough message," follows a similar visit last month by U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. Since then murmurs in the U.S. intelligence community reveal mounting concerns that al-Qaeda is reestablishing itself in Waziristan. Stephen Kappes, Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, accompanied Cheney on this particular leg of his tour, which may indicate that much of the private conversation...
...that is the case, both Pakistan and Afghanistan may be in for a substantial increase in violence over the next few months. Tasneem Aslam, Pakistan's foreign Ministry spokesperson, says that Musharraf is already doing everything he can to police the region, pointing out that 80,000 troops line the border, some 800 of whom have died in skirmishes with militants from both sides. Pakistan is also fencing heavily trafficked areas, and has installed a biometric identification system at the main western border crossing of Chaman. "We are doing our utmost to stop the cross-border activity," she says...
...Even if Musharraf were to double the number of troops on the border, says a Western diplomat in Pakistan, chances are it would exacerbate the problem by fueling anti-government sentiment. "The only way you are going to solve the problem of militancy in the tribal areas is through a massive influx of development," he says. "And even then we are talking 10 to 15 years." That's a grim prescription given that senior Taliban Commander Mullah Dadullah promised in a phone call to Reuters last week that "this year will prove to be the bloodiest for the foreign troops...