Hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Committee - Democracy, Authoritarianism and Terrorism in Contemporary Pakistan
Interview
Hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Committee - Democracy, Authoritarianism and Terrorism in Contemporary Pakistan
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REP. MICHAEL MCCAUL (R-TX): Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Secretary, thank you for your service to our country. When Secretary Rice testified two weeks ago, I asked her about Pakistan. I've been concerned about it, as I know you have, for quite some time. They have been an effective, to some extent, ally in the war on terror, but they have produced characters like Ramzi Yousef responsible for the '93 World Trade Center, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, his uncle who was the mastermind of September the 11th. They are actively recruiting and training terrorists. The London arrests primarily again Pakistan. We think bin Laden is hiding by all accounts somewhere in the tribal regions in Pakistan-Afghan border. A.Q. Khan, of course, developed a nuclear capability for Pakistan.
So you throw all these ingredients together -- and of course, an ISI that's had a record of kind of playing both sides of the aisle at times; you throw the nuclear capability that they already have -- and it is a ticking time bomb. I know that support for Musharraf has been important to create stability, but this power-sharing arrangement, which I know Ms. Bhutto is interested in achieving; and I know that you, as I understand it, support it -- I want to read from -- the Wall Street Journal yesterday said that she was supposed to share power after the elections with Mr. Musharraf on the assumption that a liberal civil military coalition government would be able to better tackle the war against religious extremism and terrorism in Pakistan that is in danger of a ship wreck.
Can you comment on what you're doing to help in this power- sharing arrangement, and what we're doing to help Ms. Bhutto?
MR. NEGROPONTE: What I would say is, first of all, we have encouraged over time, in recent months, the dialogue between the government and Ms. Bhutto. We also remain in close contact with her so that we have the best possible understanding of her perspective on things, and needless to say, we stay in touch with the government. So while we're not the centerpiece of this process, we have certainly played a role of encouragement and sought to be facilitative where we could.
REP. MCCAUL: And as a follow-up, Ms. Bhutto in this article alleges that an ISI officer was responsible for the attempted assassination attempt, an ISI brigadier who's a close friend of Musharraf. Do you have any information on that?
MR. NEGROPONTE: I do not, and as I said earlier, I believe that this was a terrorist attempt by an extremist element such as al Qaeda or some related group.
The other point I'd make to your earlier comment about cooperation in the war on terror, yeah, there have been issues in the -- in our cooperation, but I'd say on balance it's been strong, and as I said in my opening statement, the record of Pakistan having captured and disrupted terrorist activities in their country is substantial. Some of the most important al Qaeda figures that have been captured were captured in Pakistan. So I think the point is we want to encourage the positive behavior through a constructive relationship with the government of Pakistan, and I think there's nothing to be gained by somehow estranging ourselves from them.
REP. MCCAUL: And just to echo that, I know that a lot of the -- whether it was Ramzi Yousef or Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the London arrests as well, were made with the cooperation of the Pakistani government.
So --
MR. NEGROPONTE: Correct.
REP. MCCAUL: I yield back, Mr. Chairman.
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