New York Times: "Taliban Mini-State" in Waziristan

By Daveed Gartenstein-Ross

Since early September, I've been sounding the alarm about the dangers of the Waziristan Accord that essentially cedes the mountainous region of Pakistan to the Taliban and al-Qaeda. I first criticized the Accord on this blog on September 7, and have written about it frequently since then, including in the pages of the Weekly Standard. There is now an important article in The New York Times (December 11 issue) acknowledging that the Accord has indeed been a major victory for the terrorists:

Islamic militants are using a recent peace deal with the government to consolidate their hold in northern Pakistan, vastly expanding their training of suicide bombers and other recruits and fortifying alliances with Al Qaeda and foreign fighters, diplomats and intelligence officials from several nations say. The result, they say, is virtually a Taliban mini-state.

The militants, the officials say, are openly flouting the terms of the September accord in North Waziristan, under which they agreed to end cross-border help for the Taliban insurgency that revived in Afghanistan with new force this year.

The area is becoming a magnet for an influx of foreign fighters, who not only challenge government authority in the area, but are even wresting control from local tribes and spreading their influence to neighboring areas, according to several American and NATO officials and Pakistani and Afghan intelligence officials.

This year more than 100 local leaders and government sympathizers or accused "American spies" have been killed, several of them in beheadings, as the militants have used a reign of terror to impose what President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan calls a creeping "Talibanization." Last year, at least 100 others were also killed.

The full article provides many, many more details. Read it all here.

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