Al Qaeda And Taliban

Pakistan reiterated that it would not let U.S. forces hunt Al Qaeda and Taliban militants on its soil, after a news report said the Bush administration was considering expanding military and intelligence operations in the nation's tribal regions. The Foreign Ministry dismissed as speculative a New York Times story saying President Bush's top security officials discussed a proposal Friday to deploy U.S. troops along the Pakistani-Afghan border. The border area has long been considered a likely hiding place for Osama bin Laden.

The White House late Sunday condemned the leaking of what appear to be about 90,000 U.S. military records, as a handful of international media organizations that received access to the documents began to disclose their account of the war in Afghanistan. In a statement, President Obama's national security advisor, Marine Gen. James L. Jones, deplored the "disclosure of classified information" that he said could put the lives of Americans and U.S. partners at risk and threaten the nation's security.

Gunmen in Pakistan have kidnapped the brother of Afghanistan's finance minister as he was returning to his mother's home from prayers, Afghan officials said. He was at least the third person with ties to the Afghan government to be abducted in Pakistan's lawless border region, used by Al Qaeda and Taliban militants as a base to attack U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan. Zia ul-Haq Ahadi had been visiting his sick mother in Peshawar when he was abducted Friday, said Abdul Razaq, an assistant to the finance minister.

Pakistani authorities have reacted angrily to a study released this month by the London School of Economics, which concludes that Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence has been systematically funding and maintaining top-level ties with the Taliban, and on a larger scale than generally believed. Despite the attention it has garnered, the report affirms what has been common knowledge among academic specialists on Afghanistan and journalists with extensive experience in that country. The ISI, together with the armed forces, has long amounted to a state-within-a state in Pakistan.

Thousands of anti-government protesters demanded that Pakistan close the route along which supplies are ferried to U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, adding to the growing pressure on Islamabad's beleaguered leaders. The demonstration by more than 10,000 people in the northwestern city of Peshawar also focused on a recent series of U.S. missile strikes against suspected Al Qaeda and Taliban targets in Pakistan's tribal areas along the Afghan border and Pakistani military assaults against Islamic insurgents.

Pakistani forces killed as many as 30 militants near the Afghan border as the region's chief minister told a U.S. diplomat that he wanted to resolve problems there through dialogue. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher traveled to the city of Peshawar to meet North-West Frontier Province chief Amir Haider Khan Hoti, according to a statement from Hoti. The visit comes amid strains between the nations over apparent U.S. missile attacks on militant targets on the Pakistani side of the border.

A federal judge in Washington ruled that the government could continue to detain a 29-year-old Yemeni at the U.S. military prison in Cuba. U.S. District Judge Richard Leon said the government had met its burden in alleging that Ghaleb Bihani was an "enemy combatant" who supported Al Qaeda and Taliban forces in Afghanistan. Bihani's lawyers argued that their client was only a cook and never fired a weapon at U.S. forces. But Leon said "helping prepare the meals" for Taliban forces was enough to justify the detention.

Re "Keep Pakistan on Target," editorial, April 3: The question why it took so long to apprehend Abu Zubeida betrays a lack of basic understanding about the very nature of counter-terrorism operations. They require the collection of extensive intelligence information, meticulous planning and smooth execution--necessarily a time-consuming exercise. That Osama bin Laden and the senior Al Qaeda and Taliban leaders are still to be apprehended, despite the deployment of all necessary military and intelligence resources by the coalition, proves how difficult and time-consuming this enterprise is. Those familiar with the porous nature of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border recognize how difficult it is to completely seal it. Our armed forces and police are making their best efforts to prevent any cross-border movement, a fact underscored by the arrest of several Al Qaeda and Taliban elements.

Two American soldiers were killed in southern Afghanistan on Monday, as U.S. military officials reported that Al Qaeda and Taliban militants had held recent high-level meetings in Pakistan to discuss ways of derailing next month's Afghan elections. The soldiers, who were not named because their relatives had not yet been notified, died in an exchange of gunfire in the southeastern province of Paktika along the Pakistani border, the U.S. military in Kabul, the capital, said.

Every time Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton tried to win over Pakistanis during her three-day charm offensive this week, they fired back a polite but firm message: We don't really trust your country. No matter how hard Clinton tried to reassure audiences in Lahore and Islamabad with talk of providing economic aid where it's needed most, Pakistanis seized on her visit as the perfect moment to lash out at a U.S. government they perceived as arrogant, domineering and insensitive to their plight.

Every time Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton tried to win over Pakistanis during her three-day charm offensive this week, they fired back a polite but firm message: We don't really trust your country. No matter how hard Clinton tried to reassure audiences in Lahore and Islamabad with talk of providing economic aid where it's needed most, Pakistanis seized on her visit as the perfect moment to lash out at a U.S. government they perceived as arrogant, domineering and insensitive to their plight.

President Obama and his top advisors are moving toward a strategy on Afghanistan that defines Al Qaeda as a greater threat to U.S. security than the Taliban, a view that could help them avoid the major troop increase sought by military commanders. The evolving strategy represents a subtle shift for the administration, which has considered Osama bin Laden's network its top enemy while viewing the Taliban as a close ally of Al Qaeda that supports its ambitions. White House officials now are taking pains to make distinctions between the two groups, branding Al Qaeda a global terrorist group and the Taliban a local movement.

A federal judge in Washington ruled that the government could continue to detain a 29-year-old Yemeni at the U.S. military prison in Cuba. U.S. District Judge Richard Leon said the government had met its burden in alleging that Ghaleb Bihani was an "enemy combatant" who supported Al Qaeda and Taliban forces in Afghanistan. Bihani's lawyers argued that their client was only a cook and never fired a weapon at U.S. forces. But Leon said "helping prepare the meals" for Taliban forces was enough to justify the detention.

In the first such strikes since the inauguration of President Obama, suspected U.S. missile barrages Friday killed at least 18 people in the lawless tribal region near the Afghan border, Pakistani officials said. The two raids suggested that the new administration intends to press ahead with attacks against militants in the rural areas, even though the campaign has been politically costly to Pakistan's Western-leaning government.

Thousands of anti-government protesters demanded that Pakistan close the route along which supplies are ferried to U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, adding to the growing pressure on Islamabad's beleaguered leaders. The demonstration by more than 10,000 people in the northwestern city of Peshawar also focused on a recent series of U.S. missile strikes against suspected Al Qaeda and Taliban targets in Pakistan's tribal areas along the Afghan border and Pakistani military assaults against Islamic insurgents.

Gunmen in Pakistan have kidnapped the brother of Afghanistan's finance minister as he was returning to his mother's home from prayers, Afghan officials said. He was at least the third person with ties to the Afghan government to be abducted in Pakistan's lawless border region, used by Al Qaeda and Taliban militants as a base to attack U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan. Zia ul-Haq Ahadi had been visiting his sick mother in Peshawar when he was abducted Friday, said Abdul Razaq, an assistant to the finance minister.

The White House late Sunday condemned the leaking of what appear to be about 90,000 U.S. military records, as a handful of international media organizations that received access to the documents began to disclose their account of the war in Afghanistan. In a statement, President Obama's national security advisor, Marine Gen. James L. Jones, deplored the "disclosure of classified information" that he said could put the lives of Americans and U.S. partners at risk and threaten the nation's security.

The search of Amar Gul's hut was yielding little until Pfc. Andrew Johnson happened to notice a poster on the mud-brick wall. There, smiling benevolently, was the face of Osama bin Laden. "Hey, sergeant, you gotta see this!" Johnson shouted to his squad leader, Sgt. 1st Class Wylie Hutchison. Hutchison confronted Gul, a tall ethnic Pushtun with a wild black beard. Gul claimed that the poster belonged to his uncle.

Pakistani forces killed as many as 30 militants near the Afghan border as the region's chief minister told a U.S. diplomat that he wanted to resolve problems there through dialogue. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher traveled to the city of Peshawar to meet North-West Frontier Province chief Amir Haider Khan Hoti, according to a statement from Hoti. The visit comes amid strains between the nations over apparent U.S. missile attacks on militant targets on the Pakistani side of the border.

Pakistan reiterated that it would not let U.S. forces hunt Al Qaeda and Taliban militants on its soil, after a news report said the Bush administration was considering expanding military and intelligence operations in the nation's tribal regions. The Foreign Ministry dismissed as speculative a New York Times story saying President Bush's top security officials discussed a proposal Friday to deploy U.S. troops along the Pakistani-Afghan border. The border area has long been considered a likely hiding place for Osama bin Laden.