Vol. 71/No. 11      March 19, 2007

On the same day, British foreign secretary Margaret Beckett also dropped in on Musharraf to push the Pakistani government to take tougher action against the jihadist groups.

Cheney made an unannounced stop in Pakistan’s capital February 26 accompanied by CIA deputy director Steve Kappes. U.S. intelligence agencies claim that Taliban and al-Qaeda supporters are regrouping in western Pakistan in preparation for a spring offensive against U.S. and NATO troops.

The Bush administration says that Musharraf has failed to keep commitments made during a visit to Washington in September. “He’s made a number of assurances over the past few months, but the bottom line is that what they are doing now is not working,” said one senior administration official, according to the New York Times. “The message we’re sending to him now is that the only thing that matters is results,” the official said.

Pakistan’s government says it is doing all it can against the Taliban and al-Qaeda and that the use of force alone is undermining its own domestic security. Attacks by Islamist groups in Pakistan substantially increased following a U.S. air strike on an Islamic school last October, according to Strategic Forecasting, a private U.S. intelligence service.

The U.S. military overthrew the Taliban regime in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. There are 27,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, of which 14,000 are part of a 35,000-member NATO force propping up the U.S.-installed government of Hamid Karzai.
 
 
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U.S. forces in Afghanistan kill at least 23 civilians
March 17-18 rallies across U.S.: ‘Pull the troops out of Iraq now!’
New draft Iraqi oil law has many opponents  
 
 
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