Washington, Jan 23: Stating that top Al Qaeda
leaders are plotting their next attack from Pakistan, a key US senator on Friday said Pakistan has become the "ground zero" for terrorists threat to the United States.
"As America`s second post-9/11 President takes office, a
single country has become ground zero for the terrorist threat
we face," Senator John Kerry, Chairman of the powerful Senate
Foreign Relations Committee, wrote in an opinion piece
published in The Washington Times.
"The consensus among our intelligence agencies is that
top Al Qaeda leaders are plotting their next attack from
Pakistan, where the prevalence of religious extremists and
nuclear weapons make that country the central, crucial front
in our struggle to protect America from terrorism," Kerry
said.
Observing that the current situation in Pakistan is
worsening, Kerry wrote: "Pakistan is under enormous pressure
from all sides, from tensions with India to a ferocious
insurgency in the tribal belt to a financial crisis that
threatens the solvency of the Pakistani state."
All of this is being held together by a fledgling
civilian government not even a year old. For our sake and
theirs, America must do more to help Pakistan, he argued.
Crucial to this effort will be finding a winning regional
strategy that recognises the centrality of Pakistan`s
relationships with neighbours such as Afghanistan and India,
he said.
Kerry was recently in Afghanistan, Pakistan and India and
had met the top leaders of the three countries. "The Chairman
of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm Mike Mullen, has called the
border region the "site of planning for the next attack" on
the United States," he said.
"It has become conventional wisdom that the war in
Afghanistan can be lost in Pakistan, whose tribal belt offers
a sanctuary from which Taliban insurgents launch cross-border
raids against us and our Afghan allies."
What is often overlooked, however, is that the opposite
is true as well: Violent instability in Afghanistan can
undercut essential counterinsurgency efforts in Pakistan, he
said.
Bureau Report
