All Blog Posts from World Watch

Pakistani officials reacted angrily Thursday night to U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton’s remarks earlier in the day in which she said, she found it "hard to believe" that no one in Pakistan’s government, including the country’s "military security establishment," knew where al Qaeda leaders were hiding.

Left: Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is escorted by Pakistani Rangers at the Iqbal Memorial in Lahore, Pakistan, Oct. 29, 2009. Clinton is on a three-day state visit to Pakistan.

The controversy could overshadow Clinton’s first visit to the country as Secretary of State, especially as her remarks will be seen questioning the sincerity of the influential military, Pakistani officials said.

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The Pakistani Taliban was quick to claim responsibility for Thursday's attacks in both the northwestern Kohat region and in the capital city of the Punjab province, Lahore.

A senior militant commander in the Taliban stronghold of Waziristan, along the border with Afghanistan, claimed in a phone call to CBS News Sami Yousafzai just hours after those devastating attacks that 20 cells, each consisting of between five and 20 militants, had been established in the Punjab province to carry out a wave of attacks over the next two months.

While senior intelligence officials in the Pakistani capital and foreign diplomats strongly dispute the claim that the Taliban has gained the ability to plan and execute major attacks in the Punjab, the Taliban's claim is indicative of a fast-growing threat to Pakistan's most densely populated province.

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Pakistan's influential army on Wednesday came out in a rare public criticism of a recent U.S. aid bill to the country, citing its "serious concern" on provisions which have prompted a wave of criticism from hardcore Pakistani nationalists.

The controversy has erupted just as U.S. President Barack Obama prepares to finalize a plan for stabilizing Afghanistan, Pakistan’s next door neighbor, where an insurgency led by the Taliban and supported by al Qaeda has gathered momentum in the past year, causing a growing number of U.S. and NATO military casualties.

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Hundreds of hardcore Arab fighters loyal to al Qaeda have fled the Afghanistan-Pakistan region this year, heading mainly to Yemen to bolster an Islamist insurgency targeting oil-rich Saudi Arabia, according to Arab, Pakistani and Western officials who spoke to CBS News.

The implications of such a buildup in Yemen are profound not only for the stability of Saudi Arabia — the birthplace of Islam and home to the holiest of Islamic shrines — but for the world's dependence upon a continued flow of petroleum from the largest known oil reserves.

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Pakistan’s army may require months to prepare for a new military offensive against the Taliban in a restive region along the country’s unsettled border with Afghanistan, a senior Pakistani general on Tuesday told President Obama’s envoy for the Afghanistan-Pakistan region according to senior Pakistani officials.

Lt. Gen. Nadeem Ahmed, a widely respected army commander, met with Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, Mr. Obama's envoy, to brief him on Pakistan’s northwest frontier province, specifically the areas at the center of Taliban activity.

It is this region which is of the most interest to the U.S. as Afghanistan heads in to Thursday’s presidential elections. In the past, U.S. officials have complained about Taliban militants crossing the border with relative ease to attack Afghan and western troops in Afghanistan before returning to Pakistan’s soil to reorganize.

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Another suspected U.S. missile strike in Pakistan has killed some suspected high-ranking members of the Taliban. The attack comes on the heels of another strike which officials insist took out the militant group's chief last week.

The question is, if the leader is dead, and reports of bloody in-fighting to replace him are accurate, what happens next?

A former Pakistani government cabinet member warns that dealing with a unified Taliban movement may actually be easier than the alternative in the factitious region.

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CBS News consultant on terrorism Jere Van Dyk files an update on conditions in Afghanistan and Pakistan.


Osama bin Laden


I believe he is alive. I know Benazir Bhutto told David Frost on al-Jazeera (11/2/07) that he is dead. The most recent outside news confirming this comes from Pakistan's The News where on 7/21 Rahimullah Yousafzai, the only reporter to interview OBL, Mullah Omar and al-Zawahiri, more than once, writes of OBL in the present tense. He has excellent jihadi and intel contacts.

On 6/3/09, on the eve of Obama's trip to Saudi Arabia, al Qaeda issued an OBL audio tape, which experts like Richard Clarke claim is valid.

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A senior Western diplomat speaking to CBS News strengthened this morning's report that Osama bin Laden's son Saad has died.

"Intelligence information suggests Saad bin Laden has not been in communication with anyone for a few months now. That strengthens speculation over his death," a NATO-country ambassador said to CBS News' Farhan Bokhari in Islamabad, Pakistan, Thursday night.

Speaking to CBS News on condition of anonymity, the ambassador said, "So far, there is no indication that he was anywhere near his father if and when killed. Osama bin Laden is apparently still alive."

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A Pakistani intelligence officer has dismissed as "rubbish" a reported claim by an American counterterrorism official that the son of Osama bin Laden was likely killed in a U.S. missile strike.

National Public Radio quoted a senior U.S. official as saying American spy agencies were "80 to 85 percent" certain the al Qaeda boss's son had been killed in Pakistan. The source did tell NPR that it was impossible to confirm the identity, as there was no body on which to conduct DNA tests.

"People get very excited over unconfirmed information claiming the possible death of a bin Laden," a Pakistani official told CBS News' Farhan Bokhari in response to the report.

"At this point, unless proven otherwise, I am treating this news as no more than rubbish… There is no proof of Saad bin Laden's death," the official said Thursday. "Let's not forget, such claims have been made before."

A spokeswoman with the U.S. military in Afghanistan told CBS News correspondent Mandy Clark she had no information on the death of a bin Laden.

According to the NPR report, Saad bin Laden is believed to be in his 20s, and is thought to be active in al Qaeda, but not a significant player.

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