Second, we have made it clear to all nations, if you harbor terrorists, you are just as guilty as the terrorists; you’re an enemy of the United States, and you will be held to account.
Pakistan’s government and pro-Taliban militants signed an agreement Tuesday to ensure “permanent peace” in a tribal region bordering Afghanistan, seeking to end five years of violent unrest in the area.
The agreement, signed in the North Waziristan district of Pakistan’s volatile tribal belt, calls for the military to return to its barracks and for the insurgents to stop launching attacks on Pakistani troops. “The army will pull back to its camps,” spokesman Major General Shaukut Sultan told ABC News. “They will not undertake any terrorist activity. There will be no parallel government, and foreigners will leave the area.”
The Pakistani regime of Gen. Pervez Musharraf has been negotiating truces – with the Bush administration’s encouragement – with Islamic separatists in North Waziristan and South Waziristan, mountainous tribal areas along the Afghan border where U.S. officials think bin Laden may be hiding. In return, Pakistani officials are promising to restrict the country’s troops in the area to major bases and towns and to pour huge amounts of aid – much of it from the United States and other nations – into the destitute region.
Osama bin Laden, America’s most wanted man, will not face capture in Pakistan if he agrees to lead a “peaceful life,” Pakistani officials tell ABC News … “What this means is that the Taliban and al Qaeda leadership have effectively carved out a sanctuary inside Pakistan,” said ABC News consultant Richard Clarke, the former White House counter-terrorism director.
Across Afghanistan, roadside bomb attacks are up by 30 percent; suicide bombings have doubled. Statistically it is now nearly as dangerous to serve as an American soldier in Afghanistan as it is in Iraq … In April 2002, President Bush … said the history of military conflict in Afghanistan had been marked by “initial success, followed by long years of floundering and ultimate failure.†He vowed: “We’re not going to repeat that mistake.â€
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