Another consequence of Pakistan's continued and virtually unchallenged status as a haven for jihadists. "Militant Gains in Pakistan Said to Draw Fighters," by Eric Schmitt for the New York Times, July 10:
WASHINGTON — American military and intelligence officials say there has been an increase in recent months in the number of foreign fighters who have traveled to Pakistan’s tribal areas to join with militants there.
The flow may reflect a change that is making Pakistan, not Iraq, the preferred destination for some Sunni extremists from the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia who are seeking to take up arms against the West, these officials say.
The American officials say the influx, which could be in the dozens but could also be higher, shows a further strengthening of the position of the forces of Al Qaeda in the tribal areas, increasingly seen as an important base of support for the Taliban, whose forces in Afghanistan have become more aggressive in their campaign against American-led troops.
According to the American officials, many of the fighters making their way to the tribal areas are Uzbeks, North Africans and Arabs from Persian Gulf states. American intelligence officials say that some jihadist Web sites have been encouraging foreign militants to go to Pakistan and Afghanistan, which is considered a “winning fight,” compared with the insurgency in Iraq, which has suffered sharp setbacks recently.
The number of foreign fighters entering Iraq has dropped to fewer than 40 a month from as many as 110 a month a year ago, a military spokesman in Baghdad said Wednesday. “The sanctuary situation in Pakistan’s tribal areas and North-West Frontier Province is more, rather than less, troublesome than before,” Gen. David D. McKiernan, the new NATO commander in Afghanistan, said in a telephone interview. “The porous border has allowed insurgent militant groups a greater freedom of movement across that border, as well as a greater freedom to resupply, to allow leadership to sustain stronger sanctuaries, and to provide fighters across that border.”
The suicide bombing at the gates of the Indian Embassy in Kabul on Monday underscored the increasing fears of American and Afghan officials that Taliban insurgents working with Pakistani intelligence operatives might have used the bombing to pursue Pakistan’s long power struggle with India.
Al Qaeda and other militant groups have used redoubts in Pakistan’s rugged mountains as havens for the past several years. But especially since the new Pakistani government sharply curtailed security operations in the tribal areas in March and began negotiating with tribal leaders to rein in the militants, the number of foreign fighters entering the tribal areas has increased “from a trickle to a steady stream,” said a Defense Department official who follows Pakistan closely, and who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information.
Some of the foreign militants take commercial flights into Pakistan and make their way to the tribal areas by car or bus, while a smaller, undetermined number go overland through Iran and then up through Baluchistan, the Defense Department official said. General McKiernan said, “There are noticeably more non-Pashtun-speaking fighters than this time last year.”
Some American intelligence officials cautioned, however, that the increases were still relatively small, perhaps a few dozen — military and independent analysts estimate between 150 and 500 hard-core Qaeda fighters are operating in the tribal area — and that Al Qaeda was still recruiting fighters and suicide bombers for both Afghanistan and Iraq. [...]
American options for strikes inside the tribal areas are limited. The C.I.A. has armed, remotely piloted Predator aircraft ready if high-level insurgents are located. But a Pentagon order authorizing an increased campaign by Special Operations forces in the tribal areas remains under review by administration officials. [...]
President Bush’s new homeland security adviser, Kenneth L. Wainstein, traveled to Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Qatar and Kuwait last month, and urged leaders in those countries to help crack down on groups or individuals that are helping to finance or funnel fighters to the insurgency in the tribal areas. “We’re seeing financing and recruiting from the gulf countries going to the tribal areas,” Mr. Wainstein said in an interview....
"President Bush’s new homeland security adviser, Kenneth L. Wainstein, traveled to Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Qatar and Kuwait last month, and urged leaders in those countries to help crack down on groups or individuals that are helping to finance or funnel fighters to the insurgency in the tribal areas. 'We’re seeing financing and recruiting from the gulf countries going to the tribal areas,' Mr. Wainstein said in an interview...."
-- from the article above
But why would Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Qatar, and Kuwait wish to "crack down on groups or individuals that are helping to finance or funnel fighters to the insurgency"?
First, the locals who go off to kill Infidels, or be killed by them, are no longer at home to fall under the misapprehension that local rulers could be considered "Infidels" because of their decadent trips to the West and aping of some Western ways (intolerable ways, like allowing women to be unveiled, or to be out and about, or even to run for political office).
Second, many of the most powerful people and institutions in "Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Qatar, and Kuwait" help to finance or to funnel fighters. Why would the governments of those countries risk some problems if they tried to crack down, only in order to give the Infidels an easier time of it in Afghanistan and Pakistan? What's the sense for a good Muslim in doing that?
Third, among those powerful people who help finance or funnel fighters are some among the rulers or ruling families of, precisely, "Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Qatar, and Kuwait."
One assumes that not only Kenneth L. Wainstein, the new homeland security adviser, but Rice and Bush and all involved, up and down and sideways in both directions, really do think that the leaders of these countries or at least high officials will sit down with Wainstein, and appear to deeply listen, and to take in, and then to solemnly pledge their own deepest sympathies and pledge the cooperation of their governments, and then, after Wainstein leaves, have a good laugh about the Americans (and, no doubt, about "the Jew" whom "the American fools sent to us"), and their bottomless gullibility.
U.S. Teens Released From Pakistani Madrassa, Flying Home to Atlanta
(If these boys had shown up dead or captured "in a border region", they woulda just been another couple of "foreign fighters". Right? Who knows what fate may have awaited them. I mean...for what purpose were they being held?)
Two American teenage boys, allegedly kept against their will at a radical Islamic madrassa in Pakistan, have been released and are on their way back to the United States.
(At this point, after several years there...do we really want them back? I hope for the best in this, that Freedom will win out over Islam. However...
Will anyone attempt to ascertain what exactly they were led to believe whilst at this hatred distillery for years?
Yeah they're Americans and deserve out support in that aspect. I'm just extremely concerned about what they may now be capable of...after being subjected to religious type brainwashing for that long.
Nothing like religious fervor for a guy to buy anything. That's how Jim Jones got folks to drink the Kool Aid...and I guess that's how people are able to believe in the crap the Scientologists put out. Faith. Misplaced, it's a terrible thing.
We here see, every day, the actions of those who consider themselves to be devout Muslims.)
The boys' release followed an appeal by Republican Rep. Michael McCaul and Democratic Reps. Gene Green and Henry Cuellar. The Texas congressmen had called on Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf to intervene.
Noor Elahi Khan, 17, and Mahboob Elahi Khan, 16, are from the Atlanta area. Noor and Mahboob were born in the United States to Pakistani parents and lived in this country until being sent to Karachi several years ago by their father, an Atlanta taxi diver.
A family member said that the boys were sent to the Binoria Institute to learn to memorize the Koran, which the family believed would enable the entire clan to gain entry to heaven. A source told FOX News that the family wanted the boys back but were afraid to speak out because of potential religious and political repercussions.
(What the hell does that mean? "religious and political repercussions"? If there were ever gonna be any...this should bring them on.)
FOX News learned Thursday that the boys were released and are scheduled for an afternoon landing at the airport in Atlanta.
The boys' story became known after documentary filmmaker Imran Raza went to the madrassa and filmed the boys' alleged radicalization.
("alleged radicalization" Twits...)
Raza fears that despite these two boys' release, dozens or even hundreds more U.S. citizens might be going through similar ordeals. (Similar brainwashing.)
"This pipeline to jihad must be closed," Raza said Thursday in a written statement.
(AMEN to that one!)
The three congressmen brought the issue up with Musharraf during a trip last week to Pakistan to discuss military affairs. Musharraf told the congressional delegation that he has been trying to close this particular madrassa, according to Green.
(Holy Crap! If this is one he wants to shut down...considering the other outrageous things/people that he does NOT address...this madrassa must be INCREDIBLY nasty.)
McCaul told FOX News that Pakistan has 20,000 madrassas, and he knows of at least 80 Americans studying in them.
20,000 eh?...so if there was one American in each of these nutcake factories...or just one in each of 25% of them. Makes me wanna go buy even MORE ammo.
So...when some of these brainwashed souls show up dead or captured bein' good little Jihadis in some Crapistan or other...mebbe even here in the US, will those who deny the existence of terrorists wise up?
I somehow doubt it. I thoroughly believe that it will take the sight of their own blood spewing from their cut throat for them to perceive that there might be a small problem with Islam.
Let us hope it won't come to that. In the meantime, you'd better be prepared to defend that which you wish to keep...like your life and the lives of your loved ones, against those who wish to take them from you. And, it would appear, ya just never know who or where that person is gonna be.
Islam is a lie and truth is killing it.
Our western leaders remain clueless. Or is it that they are just plain stupid. I really do not which. As Hugh pointed why would these UMMAH risk causing an upheaval in their respective realms by confronting these Jihadis that are going to Pakistan and fight the infidels. US is a Kafir nation and these Jihadis are fighting for the cause of Islam and allah. It is infuriating and we look like complete fools. These are Islamic countries they are not our allies. Get that in your heads the Bush administration.
Drill Here, Drill Now, solar, wind geothermal, coal gasification, efficient autos, term limits for congress, all steps we can take to keep our money out of muslim hands.
In addition to finding out how "radicalized" these boys are, I would like to know where the father got the bright idea to send them in first place. Was it at the encouragement of the local imam? Does this family attend a mosque that preaches hate and the overthrow of the U.S. Government (silly question I know)? And are they supposed to come back and recruit their buddies in Atlanta?
re:U.S. Teens Released From Pakistani Madrassa, Flying Home to Atlanta
Seems to me like a very easy and convenient way to get a sleeper cell in to the U.S. Heck, they didn't even have to pay for the plane tickets!!
Afghanistan is a great place to fight Jihad. There is not much left to break. Any of these folks who travel to the NW Frontier Provinces to wage war against our forces means one fewer in London, Paris, Rome or New York. There are lots of them, but the number is finite. WE must make certain that our troops are not forced to do more than two tours. Bush @ Co. have damaged the Guard and Reserve. They must be rebuilt. Regular troops in the Army and Marine Corps must have sufficent time between deployments for rest and refitting. Our British and Canadian allies have been punching above their weight in Afghanistan.