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Aggressive attacks against al-Qaeda in Pakistan's tribal region have driven Osama bin Laden and his top deputies deeper into hiding and disrupted their ability to plan sophisticated operations, CIA Director Leon Panetta said Wednesday.
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So profound is al-Qaeda's disarray that one of its lieutenants, in a recently intercepted message, pleaded with bin Laden to come to the group's rescue and provide some leadership, Panetta said. He credited improved coordination with Pakistan's government and what he called "the most aggressive operation that CIA has been involved in in our history," offering a near-acknowledgment of what is officially a secret war.
"Those operations are seriously disrupting al-Qaeda," Panetta said. "It's pretty clear from all the intelligence we are getting that they are having a very difficult time putting together any kind of command and control, that they are scrambling. And that we really do have them on the run."
Authorities in Pakistan filed terrorism charges Wednesday against five Northern Virginia men and, for the first time, outlined an extensive plot that included plans to fight U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan and possibly an attack in the United States.
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The men, who lived and grew up in the Alexandria area, were arrested in Pakistan in December. They were each charged with five counts in a special anti-terror court, three of which carry a possible life prison term. Prosecutors say they were in the planning stages of attacks against a Pakistani nuclear plant and an air base and other targets in Afghanistan and "territories of the United States." Defense lawyers said that referred to attacks inside the United States, though the government presented no evidence of such a plot.
Thread Update.
A top Al Qaeda trainer and the top Pakistan Al Qaeda leader were killed by two separate drone strikes in Pakistan. Category:
It could be an indicator that there is some really demoralizing activity in the near offing
I'm pretty impress with the cooperation of Pakistan as of late. But, I'm still trying to figure out what they got for that cooperation.
Maybe it is just my conspiracy mind rambling. Maybe they really do want to limit the influence of the Taliban and Al-qaeda within their country.
US analyst Lisa Curtis of Brookings Institution warned last week, "While reintegration of insurgents into the mainstream democratic process is indeed part of any wise counterinsurgency strategy, it is necessary to distinguish this process from one that would legitimize the Taliban's ruthless ideology. ...Seeking to negotiate with the Taliban leadership (primarily based in Pakistan) before US and NATO forces gain the upper hand on the battlefield in Afghanistan would be a tactical and strategic blunder with potential serious negative consequences for US national security."
Afghanistan confirmed for the first time publicly on Tuesday that it had enacted into law a blanket pardon for war crimes and human rights abuse carried out before 2001.
Human rights groups have expressed dismay that the law appeared to have been enacted quietly, granting blanket immunity to members of all armed factions for acts committed during decades of war before the fall of the Taliban.
President Hamid Karzai had promised not to sign the National Stability and Reconciliation Law, when it was passed by parliament in 2007.
Human rights groups say they learned only this year that the bill had been published in the official gazette, making it law.
KABUL, Afghanistan — A delegation from one of the most important insurgent groups fighting Afghan and NATO forces met for the first time with President Hamid Karzai on Monday for preliminary discussions on a possible peace plan with the government.
Spokesmen for Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the leader of Hezb-i-Islami, and President Karzai confirmed the meeting and said the delegation was also meeting with members of the government and leaders of other political movements.
President Karzai is planning a peace jirga, or assembly, for the end of April and is issuing invitations to a number of insurgent groups as well as to representatives of different factions in Parliament and Afghan civil society.
Not all senior officials in Mr. Karzai’s government have fully endorsed negotiations with such prominent enemies as Mr. Hekmatyar. The first vice president, Marshall Muhammad Qasim Fahim, was cautious in an interview on Monday, saying, “We believe in peace and reconciliation, but step by step.”
He said he had not yet seen the Hezb-i-Islami delegation’s peace proposal, but others who were familiar with it said it included a demand for a timetable for the withdrawal of foreign troops.