Home pagePress CenterIn the Media A CSIS Smart Power Speaker Series event with Henry Crumpton, the former Coordinator for Counterterrorism at the U.S. Department of State, was quoted by the Washington Post, "The Surge Hits Pakistan.
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A CSIS Smart Power Speaker Series event with Henry Crumpton, the former Coordinator for Counterterrorism at the U.S. Department of State, was quoted by the Washington Post, "The Surge Hits Pakistan.
The surge is about to hit Pakistan. The top U.S. commander for the Middle East says that the deteriorating situation in the country and the increased violence in the frontier area have prompted Islamabad to accept plans for U.S. forces in the country for the first time since early 2002. Meanwhile, a top counter-terrorism diplomat says the situation has become so dire, the United States cannot afford to wait.
This cooperation and operations in an area previously off-limits to the U.S. military comes despite Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's rejection last week of unilateral operations by U.S. military forces. No one on the U.S. side is publicly suggesting that U.S. forces operate unilaterally. Nonetheless, there is a sense of urgency here that suggests that very possibility.
Speaking at the Center for Strategic and International Studies earlier this week, former ambassador-at-large for counterterrorism Henry "Hank" Crumpton starkly described the situation in the Pakistani frontier area and the possibilities that could drive unilateral American action. Pakistan, he said, was "not exercising their sovereign responsibility within this tribal area. And as al Qaeda is able to expand the safe haven that enables them to plot and to plan and to train and to deploy operatives in this global battlefield, including into our homeland....it poses a direct threat to us and the United States, we have a responsibility to protect our citizens."
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