Hawks push US to strike in Pak

An increasing number of voices in Washington, from Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama to hardline officials in the Bush administration

An increasing number of voices in Washington, from Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama to hardline officials in the Bush administration, are calling for unilateral military action inside Pakistan.

Newsweek has learned that for weeks Pentagon officials have been debating the current policy of not violating Pakistani sovereignty, coming down in favour of restraint. But some officers in Joint Special Operations Command are 8220;pawing the ground to go into Waziristan8221;, says one Pentagon consultant who is privy to the debate.

Congress, meanwhile, has passed legislation that threatens to cut off aid to Pakistan if President Bush can8217;t certify that Musharraf is doing all he can.

Senior US officials, both active and retired, say that without more decisive action, the al-Qaeda will grow, if not flourish, in the tribal areas. And someday the US homeland will likely be attacked from there, they say, just as the al-Qaeda once used Afghanistan for the 9/11 attacks.

In late July a National Intelligence Estimate NIE, a periodic assessment that is considered the most authoritative issued by the US Government, concluded that the al-Qaeda has 8220;regenerated key elements8221; of its ability to attack the US from the tribal regions of North Waziristan and Bajaur.

Hank Crumpton, a near-legendary CIA clandestine service officer who retired last year as the State Department8217;s counter-terrorism coordinator, says Washington needs to do more than rely on the Pakistani military and intelligence services. 8220;I8217;d go in there with a hardcore counter-insurgency effort,8221; Crumpton told Newsweek. He would seek Pakistan8217;s consent, 8220;but I wouldn8217;t pretend that this is sovereign territory. It is not.8221;

Another recently retired senior CIA official, Bruce Riedel, says that Pakistan remains fatally conflicted about cracking down on Islamic extremists. As eager as Musharraf may be to get Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, his enthusiasm is not necessarily shared by Pakistani intelligence.

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Pakistani officials point to the successes they8217;ve had inside their cities in arresting Qaeda bigwigs like Khalid Shaikh Mohammed. Ambassador Durrani says the real fault lies with US. After KSM was captured in Rawalpindi in March 2003, 8220;I think the al-Qaeda was almost destroyed in an operational sense.8221;