| Pakistan's military spokesman Gen. Athar Abbas recently rejected U.S. allegations that some Pakistani security officials tipped off militants about impending raids on their facilities in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), allowing them to flee ahead of time. He said, however, that "tribal elders" are sometimes informed about such actions, presumably to win their consent. While unconvincing, this explanation does appeal to standard impressions about the state's tenuous control over a supposedly self-governed tribal belt. But the government's writ in FATA is tenuous by design, benefitting a powerful military and civil bureaucracy rather than tribal communities. |