Pakistan Delivers But Doubts Remain, Asia Times Online, 8 March 2010
EXCERPT: "Pakistan has once again come up with a big fish for the United States with the arrest in the southern port city of a senior al-Qaeda operative. Although there is some confusion as to the identity of the man, the arrest again underscores the importance of Pakistan in the US's struggle in Afghanistan. [...] By Monday morning, security agencies clarified that the arrested person is indeed Abu Yahya Azzam, who is of Arab origin. The claims could not be independently verified. The regime of former president Pervez Musharraf was adept at producing key al-Qaeda figures at critical junctures with the US. Islamabad, that is, the military, is doing the same now. On the one hand it wants to win US backing for an extension to the term of army chief Ashfaq Parvez Kiani, who is set to retire this year. Kiani is very popular with the US military establishment. The military also wants to ensure that it gets a central role in the end game in Afghanistan, in particular in any negotiations with the Taliban. For its part, Washington wants to keep Pakistan subservient to Washington's policies. [...] Washington will most certainly be delighted with this string of arrests, but it still treats anything that happens in Pakistan with some caution, as it did in Musharraf’s time in the years after Pakistan joined the 'war on terror' in 2001. United States special AfPak envoy Richard Holbrooke said in an interview with the Financial Times following the arrest of Baradar that he was not convinced that Pakistan had decisively turned against the Afghan Taliban."
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Related articles:
Pakistan: American al-Qaida suspect nabbed, The Associated Press, 8 March 2010
Analysis: New dimensions of counter-terrorism, Daily Times, 7 March 2010
Related posts:
Homegrown Taliban ignite shift in military policy, 5 March 2010
Taking on the Taliban, 2 March 2010
Taliban "routed" in raids on border camps, 1 March 2010
Lahore high court blocks extradition, 26 February 2010
The Afghan Taliban's top leaders, 23 February 2010
