Pakistan Leader Looks To Obama For Change

President Zardari Says He Hopes Obama Will Re-Evaluate Need For Missile Strikes On Pakistan

(CBS/AP)  Pakistan's leader said he expects U.S. President-elect Barack Obama to re-evaluate the need for U.S. military strikes on al Qaeda and Taliban targets on Pakistan's side of the Afghan border.

Meanwhile, security forces hunted militants who hijacked 13 trucks carrying military vehicles and other supplies for foreign troops in Afghanistan, an official said.

In an interview with The Associated Press on Monday, President Asif Ali Zardari warned the surge in missile attacks since August was hurting Pakistan's own fight against the militants - a campaign he said was succeeding nonetheless.

Zardari is under intense U.S. pressure to take firmer action against militants in the rugged and lawless northwest border zone, a possible hiding place for Osama bin Laden and what many consider the global front line in the fight against al Qaeda.

Obama national security advisers tell The Washington Post that the incoming administration plans to explore a more regional strategy to the war in Afghanistan, including possible talks with Iran, and looks favorably on the nascent dialogue between the Afghan government and "reconcilable" elements of the Taliban. (Read more.)

"No question that Afghanistan is a very pressing and immediate problem because the gains the U.S. made during the invasion seven years ago have been slipping away more and more each year, and part of that problem is Pakistan," CBS News chief foreign correspondent Lara Logan said on The Early Show. "You really cannot separate Afghanistan and Pakistan, and Obama understands that."

Logan said one of the mistakes U.S. foreign policy has made is trying to deal with Pakistan and Afghanistan separately. "I pose this question to every general there every single year: 'How do you win an insurgency when you have no access to its base and command and control and its resupply, its financing, its weapons, et cetera, et cetera, which is all over the border in Pakistan?'" she said.

"What is really critical here is Pakistan has nuclear weapons," she added. "It has more known terrorists than any other country on the face of the Earth. It's in a very fragile political and economic state right now. And Obama knows that that is really a ticking time bomb. He has to deal with that and deal with it effectively or we really face problems in that region."

Obama's willingness to pursue talks with Iran, Logan said, is based partly on the fact that the U.S. has troops on the ground in both Afghanistan and Iraq - nations on Iran's eastern and western borders. "This is not just about Afghanistan or Iraq or Iran in isolation; it's about the entire region, and it's absolutely critical that the United States reaches some kind of understanding. They've been losing ground to Iran inside Iraq since the invasion of Iraq, and that is really a very, very serious problem that has not been dealt with today."


Pursuing Bin Laden

President-elect Barack Obama also intends to renew the U.S. commitment to the hunt for Osama bin Laden, the report said, a priority the president-elect believes President Bush has played down after years of failing to apprehend the al Qaeda leader.

In what is seen as a sign of American frustration with Islamabad's perceived inability to deal with the militants, the U.S. military is believed to have carried out at least 18 missile attacks on suspected militant targets close to the border in Pakistan since August.

The missiles are believed to be fired from unmanned planes launched in Afghanistan, where some 32,000 U.S. troops are fighting a resurgent Taliban insurgency.

Zardari said he believed Obama would re-examine that strategy, but acknowledged that the Democrat - who struck a sometimes-hawkish tone on dealing with Pakistan during the election - may continue with the attacks.

Obama has openly supported U.S. strikes in the lawless and rugged border region, and has questioned whether Pakistan has done enough to fight militants despite receiving billions of dollars in U.S. aid since 2001.

During the campaign, Obama said if he is elected, he could launch unilateral attacks on high-value terrorist targets in Pakistan as they become exposed and "if Pakistan cannot or will not act" against them.

"I think there is definitively going to be a new look at all the issues that have been on the table of the United States, and this is one of the large issues," said Zardari, who sat in front of two photos of his late wife, Benazir Bhutto, a U.S.-allied moderate Muslim leader who was killed by suspected al Qaeda-linked militants in December 2007.

The U.S. missile attacks have killed some militants, but many of the dead have been civilians, including women and children, stoking anger among locals, Pakistani officials say.

"We feel that the strikes are an intrusion on our sovereignty, which are not appreciated by the people at large, and the first aspect of this war is to win the hearts and minds of the people," Zardari said.

Washington rarely comments on the strikes, but Gen. David Petraeus, the head of U.S. Central Command who oversees the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, said last week the recent attacks had killed three top extremist leaders.

Pakistan insists it is taking on the militants, pointing to a military offensive in the Bajur tribal district that began in August and has killed 1,500 suspected insurgents.

"I think from where it was when we took over, we are in a much better place," said Zardari. "We used the force of the government and they (the militants) realized that there is a force here, that the people of Pakistan are to be reckoned with."

Security forces killed six more suspected militants in Bajur overnight with artillery fire, government official Jamil Khan said Tuesday.

U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan are largely dependent on supplies sent by truck through northwest Pakistan after being unloaded at Karachi seaport.

On Monday, about 60 masked insurgents drove off with 13 such trucks in the Khyber pass after briefly trading fire with outnumbered soldiers guarding the convoy, said Fazal Mahmood, a duty officer at the region's tribal administration headquarters.

The trucks were carrying military vehicles and other supplies for U.S. or NATO forces in Afghanistan, he said.

"We are using all our resources to trace and recover the hijacked trucks," Mahmood said Tuesday.

Militants often attack the convoys as they pass through the region.

[pirmin3]

"Pakistan Leader Looks To Obama For Change"

Then Pakistan better get their collective finger out and go after the terrorists hiding in the tribal areas. If they can''t do the job the US will.

[xlib]

Wasn''t one of the plans of the chosen one to go into PACK-E-STAN??

[questionnews]

We assure those who bash Islam that if there was no occupation in this world by foreign invaders, there would be no resistance %u2013 the so-called terror.

We would like those who criticize Islam to explain the acts committed by the Christians throughout history:

Posted by drmaqazi at 09:44 AM : Nov 11, 2008

Actually, I would like to know what the people of Dufar did to get exterminated by Muslims? What country where they occupying? What were the Janjaweed protecting?

[deathofusa]

Get in line Pakistan. Chavez and Castro asked first.

[tincup356]

How would Americans feel if someone was firing missiles into the United States killing innocent Americans? Remember the same damage that was at the pentagon, because the weapons are both the same.The 911 investigation is where everything fell into place so that Bush could have reason to go to war.Yet to this day our government cannot show you any surveillance footage of a 757 hitting that building,when they have more security cameras than any other government building in the world.911 was full of lies just as the W M D ''s that Saddam was supposed to have,more lies.Lies about torture and secret prisons.For anyone to think that things really came down like Bush has said,must really be looking at things from one point of view, and ignoring too many bogus answers that are simply not supported through logic or by scientific means.To put it English for you , if a normal citizen is arrested the investigation follows all possibilities instead of your accused and this is how you did it.The evidence presented would never hold up in a court of law.So why should we the American people buy it when it has cost us so much and is still adding up?Bushes entire presidency has been based upon lies and deception.He is no better than any average citizen when it comes to obeying laws, yet time and again he places himself above the law.Anyone who says he still supports George Bush is betraying those who have died because of all Bushes actions and lies.

[tincup356]

How would Americans feel if someone was firing missiles into the United States killing innocent Americans? Remember the same damage that was at the pentagon, because the weapons are both the same.The 911 investigation is where everything fell into place so that Bush could have reason to go to war.Yet to this day our government cannot show you any surveillance footage of a 757 hitting that building,when they have more security cameras than any other government building in the world.911 was full of lies just as the W M D ''s that Saddam was supposed to have,more lies.Lies about torture and secret prisons.For anyone to think that things really came down like Bush has said,must really be looking at things from one point of view, and ignoring too many bogus answers that are simply not supported through logic or by scientific means.To put it English for you , if a normal citizen is arrested the investigation follows all possibilities instead of your accused and this is how you did it.The evidence presented would never hold up in a court of law.So why should we the American people buy it when it has cost us so much and is still adding up?Bushes entire presidency has been based upon lies and deception.He is no better than any average citizen when it comes to obeying laws, yet time and again he places himself above the law.Anyone who says he still supports George Bush is betraying those who have died because of all Bushes actions and lies.

[tincup356]

How would Americans feel if someone was firing missiles into the United States killing innocent Americans? Remember the same damage that was at the pentagon, because the weapons are both the same.The 911 investigation is where everything fell into place so that Bush could have reason to go to war.Yet to this day our government cannot show you any surveillance footage of a 757 hitting that building,when they have more security cameras than any other government building in the world.911 was full of lies just as the W M D ''s that Saddam was supposed to have,more lies.Lies about torture and secret prisons.For anyone to think that things really came down like Bush has said,must really be looking at things from one point of view, and ignoring too many bogus answers that are simply not supported through logic or by scientific means.To put it English for you , if a normal citizen is arrested the investigation follows all possibilities instead of your accused and this is how you did it.The evidence presented would never hold up in a court of law.So why should we the American people buy it when it has cost us so much and is still adding up?Bushes entire presidency has been based upon lies and deception.He is no better than any average citizen when it comes to obeying laws, yet time and again he places himself above the law.Anyone who says he still supports George Bush is betraying those who have died because of all Bushes actions and lies.

[euge005]

Tincup says what many refuse to beleive, the attack on the pentagon was obviously a missle, not a large passenger airliner. The security camaras disappeared within minutes that would have shown the impact and were never found. Amoung other things to ask is just who had the authority or access to make that happen. Find out that and the real partners of the 9-11 attackers would be found. Maybe the remains of the missing airplane too (not likely). As for the story from Pakistan, we are all hoping that Obama''s able to restore some chance for this Country to have a future. Other than an international Mississippi that is.