The United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) has said that terrorists are still operating freely in Pakistan along its Afghanistan border.According to a report released this week - Combating Terrorism: The United States Lacks Comprehensive Plan to Destroy the Terrorist Threat and Close the Safe Haven in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas – GAO said since 2002, destroying the terrorist threat and closing the terrorist safe haven have been key national security goals. The US has provided Pakistan, the agency pointed out, a key ally in the war on terror, more than $10.5 billion for military, economic, and development activities. Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), which border Afghanistan, are vast unpoliced regions attractive to extremists and terrorists seeking a safe haven.
The GAO was asked to assess firstly the progress in meeting these national security goals for PakistanÂ’s FATA, and secondly the status of US efforts to develop a comprehensive plan for the FATA. To address these objectives, GAO compared national security goals against assessments conducted by US agencies and reviewed available plans. According to its findings, the United States has not met its national security goals to destroy terrorist threats and close the safe haven in PakistanÂ’s FATA. Since 2002, the US relied principally on the Pakistan military to address US national security goals. Of the approximately $5.8 billion the US provided for efforts in the FATA and border region from 2002 through 2007, about 96 percent reimbursed Pakistan for military operations there.
According to the Department of State, GAO noted, Pakistan deployed 120,000 military and paramilitary forces in the FATA and helped kill and capture hundreds of suspected Al Qaeda operatives; these efforts cost the lives of about 1,400 members of PakistanÂ’s security forces. However, GAO found broad agreement, as documented in the National Intelligence Estimate, State, and embassy documents, as well as Defence officials in Pakistan, that Al Qaeda had regenerated its ability to attack the US and had succeeded in establishing a safe haven in PakistanÂ’s FATA. No comprehensive plan for meeting US national security goals in the FATA has been developed, as stipulated by the National Strategy for Combating Terrorism in 2003, which called for by an independent commission, mandated by congressional legislation in 2007.
In 2006, the US embassy, in conjunction with Defence, State, and the US Agency for International Development (USAID), and in cooperation with the government of Pakistan, began an effort to focus more attention on other key elements of national power, such as development assistance and public diplomacy, to address US goals in the FATA. However, this does not yet constitute a comprehensive plan or a single coordinated strategy “that includes all elements of national power - diplomatic, military, intelligence, development assistance, economic, and law enforcement support.”