U.S. & Pakistan Must Face Facts About Al Qaeda's Reported Resurgence

By Andrew Cochran

Pakistan's Prime Minister is in Washington, trying to persuade American policymakers that his government has successfully stripped Al Qaeda of its leadership and assets. As he makes the diplomatic rounds here, President Musharraf is on a public relations campaign claiming, "We've taken over their sanctuaries. Where they were in the hundreds, now they are only in the dozens around in the mountains and we are chasing them. Which country in the world has arrested 700 Al Qaeda people, all the important ones? Only Pakistan."

But press reports from the ground in the northwestern Pakistan province of Waziristan tell a completely different story. ABC News' Brian Ross reports tonight that Al Qaeda and the Taliban are "in the midst of a powerful resurgence, according to accounts by local officials" and new Al Qaeda tapes. Four Taliban who escaped from the American prison near Kabul last year appear on tape, describing how they attacked an Afghan government building. The ABC News report mirrors the analysis by Syed Saleem Shahzad on January 20 that Al Qaeda "has secured a series of safe havens in Khost-North Waziristan, South Waziristan, Kunar-Chitral, Kunar-Bajur," and the Pakistan government has lost all control of Waziristan.

Pakistan cannot try to hide the truth; only one version of the actual facts exist. Either President Musharraf or the press reports are right. The U.S. and Pakistan must determine through reliable human intelligence whether Pakistan, with substantial American help, is eliminating Al Qaeda, or whether a terrorist resurgence will threaten Afghanistan's budding democracy and will serve as a renewed training ground for Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups. We can't afford another intel mistake hidden behind rose-colored glasses and only disclosed in the rubble of a deadly attack.

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