Taliban Resurgence In Pakistan

TALIBAN RESURGENCE IN PAKISTAN -- (House of Representatives - January 22, 2007)

Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, on the eve of President Bush's State of the Union speech, in which he will undoubtedly be searching for support for his plan to send additional troops to Iraq, I fear that the President and his administration are neglecting the real front in the war on terror, and that is Afghanistan. It is because of this neglect that the Taliban has made a resurgence in both Afghanistan and western Pakistan.

In October, President Bush said that ``al Qaeda is on the run' and claimed that we are winning the war on terror. The fact is that attacks by jihadists have increased over the last 3 years. In addition to the tragic bombings in Madrid and London, violent incidents linked to al Qaeda have occurred in Iraq, Egypt, Jordan, Indonesia, and elsewhere in the Middle East.

Investigators discovered that the man behind the London bombings, Mohammed Siddique Khan, spent significant time in western Pakistan prior to the bombings. He was in the area of Pakistan that shares the border with Afghanistan, and this area has grown to be one of the most problematic regions in America's war on terror.

Mr. Speaker, the problem stems from late 2001, when American forces pushed al Qaeda out of Afghanistan. The group did not disappear, but rather jumped the border to western Pakistan, where it has set up a network of training camps. A former American intelligence official who worked in Pakistan has claimed that over 2,000 foreign fighters are currently in the region.

The details of insurgent attacks on the ground in Afghanistan are very disconcerting. Suicide attacks have increased from 27 in 2005 to an alarming 139 attacks in 2006. Instances of roadside bombs have more than doubled from 783 in 2005 to 1,677 in 2006. And, Mr. Speaker, we are hardly winning this war.

President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice must push Pakistani President Perves Musharraf to take action against Taliban militants in the western region of his nation. After the attacks of 9/11, President Musharraf offered his support to the United States by vowing to search for Taliban fighters and Islamic extremists in western Pakistan. However, he has failed to live up to his promise, as reports show that Taliban fighters seem to be flourishing in western Pakistan.

And it appears that Pakistan's agencies, particularly the large and powerful ISI, have been promoting the Islamic insurgency. According to press reports, NATO has captured nearly 200 members of the Taliban, including Pakistanis, who have described in detail the ISI's support of the Taliban.

Last week Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte said that al Qaeda ``continues to plot attacks against our homeland from their leaders' secure hideout in Pakistan.' President Bush must listen to Negroponte and others who see the realistic side of the war of terror, a war that we are not winning because the President is too focused on the failed war in Iraq.

By sending additional troops to Iraq, in a sense escalating the war, the President will continue to undermine the U.S. mission in Afghanistan. In fact, some reports have stated that a portion of the proposed 22,000 additional troops moving to Iraq will be pulled out of Afghanistan. It is simply unacceptable for the President to continue to risk American lives in Iraq in a war we cannot win while the real terror threat continues to grow in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Mr. Speaker, if the goal of the war on terror is to prevent future incidents of terrorism in the United States and abroad, President Bush must shift his focus away from Iraq and return it to Afghanistan and Pakistan. He must work with President Musharraf to eliminate extremist training camps in western Pakistan and acknowledge that the real epicenter of the war on terror is Afghanistan and not Iraq.

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