Pakistan dismisses "absurd" Qaeda report

ISLAMABAD (AFP) - Pakistan has dismissed as "absurd" US claims that Al-Qaeda has established compounds in a remote tribal area to train small groups of operatives for possible attacks on the West.

A US official who spoke on condition of anonymity said Monday that compounds training 10 or 20 people at a time had been detected over the past year in a semi-autonomous tribal area along the mountainous border with Afghanistan.

The compounds are "not big ones. These are small," the US official told AFP. "They are not like the big camps that they had seen in Afghanistan previously."

But Pakistan foreign ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam angrily rejected the allegations, the latest in a series to trouble Washington's relations with its key ally in the "war on terror."

"This is an absurd report and we dismiss it," Aslam told AFP.

more:http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070220/wl_asia_afp/pakistanusattacksafghanistanqaeda_070220072930

What about OBL?

...with the help of the media--is attempting to establish some new realities about
Al Queda.

There are stories all over CNN about how Al Queda is "growing stronger". Now, we hear
that there are mini-training-camps peppered throughout Pakistan.

This feels like propaganda. It feels like we're being played. The Pakistanis deny that
these Al Queda training camps exist. They've always been an allie in the "war on terror",
what incentive would they have to lie?

Furthermore, something just smells. Junior is reading our mail, our email and tapping our
phones--all in the name of rooting out terrorism. Supposedly, they're monitoring everything
and they've justified their actions repeatedly. Anytime we suspect terrorism--we are all over
it. Look at that case in Florida, where those yahoos were training. If there is a rumor of
terrorist activity, our government busts it and exploits this reality as evidence that we're
"catching the terrorists". So, if there are multiple camps in Pakistan--why aren't we bombing
them? Why aren't these camps being infiltrated with the same reckless abandon that BushCo used
on the Florida yahoos.

Are we supposed to believe that our government knows about small Al Queda training camps, but
we have yet to act? Pakistan says that these allegations are "absurd".

I feel as if this administration--for some reason--is attempting to manufacture information that
will support something that is coming down the pike. Do they have information about a terrorist
attack? Is there more "chatter"?

from the NYT's article:

The new warnings are different from those made in recent months by intelligence officials and terrorism experts, who have spoken about the growing abilities of Taliban forces and Pakistani militants to launch attacks into Afghanistan. American officials say that the new intelligence is focused on Al Qaeda and points to the prospect that the terrorist network is gaining in strength despite more than five years of a sustained American-led campaign to weaken it.

The intelligence and counterterrorism officials would discuss the classified intelligence only on the condition of anonymity. They would not provide some of the evidence that led them to their assessments, saying that revealing the information would disclose too much about the sources and methods of intelligence collection.

~snip~

But debates within the administration about how best to deal with the threat have yet to yield any good solutions, officials in Washington said. One counterterrorism official said that some within the Pentagon were advocating American strikes against the camps, but that others argued that any raids could result in civilian casualties. And State Department officials say increased American pressure could undermine President Musharraf’s military-led government.

~snip~

(quite different from shrub's proclamation last year)

During a news conference days before last November’s elections, President Bush said of the campaign against Al Qaeda: “Absolutely, we’re winning. Al Qaeda is on the run.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/19/world/asia/19intel.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1

it is not simply Al Quaeda.

There are any number of groups operating in the area to carry out smuggling or arms/drugs/antiquities almost anything you can imagine.

All of these groups and most ordinary citizens own AK-47's. Think Texas!

The Taliban and bin Laden are popular there because of their resistance to the West.

Are there Taliban and bin Laden affiliated groups (of course)?

But don't forget the drug smuggling! Afghanistan will have a bumper crop of poppies this year. Where does it have to go? It doesn't fly out through Kabul airport (unless the CIA is involved anyway). No, the trail goes through Pakistan.

It's not the Taliban anymore, it's the Narcoban!

We can't afford to attack anything inside Pakistan because a) we don't have the resources to do so effectively and b) we can't afford to do anything to destabilize Musharraf's government because of the risk of extremists replacing him and having a nuke at their fingers.

I have come to understand that in part perhaps Iraq is a proxy war for the ass kicking we can't do against the real terrorists because they have quite an effective little standoff designed by being holed up in Pakistan. I think Americans would perhaps be even more enraged than they are now if there were nothing to attack, and we were sitting on our hands for the past four years, watching Zawahiri videos taunting us while our government sat, unwilling or unable to attack Pakistan's guests without igniting a situation that could result in an Al Qaeda proxy holding a nuke and yet another lit powder keg.

There's absolutely no context, no way to gauge who might be telling the truth, or if both sides are truthing a little and both sides are lying a little, just where reality might actually be.

But count on one thing: Based on sketchy allegations of dubious veracity, the Bush administration will attempt to institute a sweeping new policy that kills a lot of people and puts more Treasury dollars into the pockets of their overrich friends.