Clinton: Pakistan Blew it on Al Qaeda

Says It's Hard to Believe Pakistani Government Doesn't Know Where Terrorists are Hiding

(CBS/ AP)  U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Thursday that Pakistan squandered opportunities over the years to kill or capture leaders of the al Qaeda terrorist network responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks.

While U.S. officials have said they believe Osama bin Laden and senior lieutenants have been hiding in the rugged terrain along the border with Afghanistan, Clinton's unusually blunt comments went further as she suggested that Pakistan's government has done too little to act against al Qaeda's top echelon.

"I find it hard to believe that nobody in your government knows where they are and couldn't get them if they really wanted to," Clinton told the Pakistani journalists in Lahore. "Maybe that's the case. Maybe they're not gettable. I don't know."

With the country reeling from Wednesday's devastating bombing that killed at least 105 people in Peshawar, Clinton also engaged in an intense give-and-take with students at the Government College of Lahore. She insisted that inaction by the government would have ceded ground to terrorists.

"If you want to see your territory shrink, that's your choice," she said, adding that she believed it would be a bad choice.

Clinton Talks to Pakistani Students
Clinton Seeks Broader Ties with Pakistan

Clinton's remarked sparked outrage among some Pakistani officials, reports CBS News reporter Farhan Bokhari.

How can the U.S. at this time be so insensitive for Mrs. Clinton to speak out in public in this way," asked a senior Pakistani government official. "These remarks suggest a very high degree of insensitivity."

On Clinton's flight to the capital, U.S. Ambassador Anne Patterson said Clinton's remarks to the Pakistani journalists approximate what the Obama administration has told Pakistani officials in private settings.

"We often say, `Yes, there needs to be more focus on finding these leaders,"' Patterson said. "They other thing is, they lost control of much of this territory in recent years and that's why they're in South Waziristan right now."

The army began an offensive Oct. 17 against Taliban forces in a portion of the tribal areas near the Afghan border. Patterson noted that al Qaeda is mostly in that region.

In Lahore, Clinton told university students that their government had little choice in taking a tougher approach.

Dozens of students rushed to line up for the microphone when the session began. Their questions were not hostile, but showed a strong sense of doubt that the U.S. can be a reliable and trusted partner for Pakistan.

One woman asked whether the U.S. can be expected to commit long term in Afghanistan after abandoning the country after Russian occupiers retreated in 1989.

"What guarantee," the woman asked, "can Americans give Pakistan that we can now trust you - not you but, like, the Americans this time - of your sincerity and that you guys are not going to betray us like the Americans did in the past when they wanted to destabilize the Russians?"

Clinton responded that the question was a "fair criticism" and that the U.S. did not follow through in the way it should have. "It's difficult to go forward if we're always looking in the rearview mirror," said Clinton, on the second of a three-day visit, her first to Pakistan as secretary of state.

The Peshawar bombing in a market crowded with women and children appeared timed to overshadow her arrival. It was the deadliest attack in Pakistan since 2007.

She likened Pakistan's situation - with Taliban forces taking over substantial swaths of land in the Swat valley and in areas along the Afghan border - to a theoretical advance of terrorists into the United States from across the Canadian border.

It would be unthinkable, she said, for the U.S. government to decide, "Let them have Washington (state)" first, then Montana, then the sparsely populated Dakotas, because those states are far from the major centers of population and power on the East Coast.

Clinton was responding to a student who suggested that Washington was forcing Pakistan to use military force on its own territory

During her hourlong appearance at the college, Clinton stressed that a key purpose of her trip was to reach out to ordinary Pakistanis and urge a better effort to bridge differences and improve mutual understanding.

"We are now at a point where we can chart a different course," she said, referring to past differences over an absence of democracy in Pakistan and Pakistani association with the Taliban in Afghanistan.

But her tough comments about Pakistan's will to take on al Qaeda leaders might not sit well among Pakistanis who long have complained about American demands on their country.

Clinton has ruffled feathers before with blunt comments on her trips. On her first visit to Asia in February, she discussed the possibility of a succession crisis in North Korea and suggested the U.S. would not press China that hard on human rights.

On a later trip, she drew criticism from Israeli leaders for talking about a "defense umbrella" for Arab Gulf states to protect them from a potential nuclear threat from Iran.

Despite her comments during the town hall event in Lahore, Clinton declined to touch on the sensitive issue of missile attacks from U.S. drones against on militants inside Pakistan.

The subject has stirred some of the strongest feelings of anti-Americanism in the country, but the U.S. routinely refuses to acknowledge publicly that the attacks are taking place.

"There is a war going on," Clinton said, saying only that the U.S. wants to help Pakistan be successful.

The United States has provided Pakistani commanders with video images and target information from its military drones as the army pushes its ground offensive in Waziristan, U.S. officials said this week.

The U.S. in recent months has rushed helicopters and other military equipment to the country as Islamabad began offensives in Swat Valley and South Waziristan.

"We've put military assistance to Pakistan on a wartime footing," Lt. Col. Mark Wright, a Pentagon spokesman, said Thursday.

[RedWings_ninety_one]

I agree with what she said, but you have to realize that saying things like that are not a very good way to make friends.

[notaseasyasitseems]

I think its fair to say that neither party has successfully used diplomacy well in Pakistan. After years and years and years of criticism from the left, the shoe is on the other foot, and Hillary just kept tripping over her feet as she could not have made more snaffoos on this recent diplomatic trip to Pakistan. Stay home for awhile Hillary so your "diplomacy" doesn't do more damage.

[sjc_1]

I agree with what she has said. At some point you stop playing games and you start talking straight and now is the time. They ask if they can trust US! Can we trust THEM is the question. They have been such two faced liars for so long NO one can trust them.

[Joutue]

By joute november 1,2009 9:14 AM

Amen! Hillary should keep her mounth shut, on things she really knows nothing about. Unless she's hiding them.
If, she had half of a mind, she'd know that Bin Laden has been dead for
several years. Way, before Bush left office.
We probably wouldn't have problems in pakistan , if, Bush hadn't made air strikes on pakistan before he left office. And Pakistan complained about them too. And the us said they were hunting al-queada that went into pakistan. The us had no business even going in there.
That was Obama's smooth transition that Bush promised him. Just like that idiot Bush to make more evil problems for the us.

[formrusmcsgt]

"Maybe they're not gettable".

What a disgrace it is to have our chief diplomat show the world her horrid understanding of the English language.

Language is the currency of diplomacy.

I voted for Obama but his selection of this moron as our head of diplomacy is, to date, the worst decision of his presidency in my book.

Not vetting Daschle is a close second, but Hillary.........

[incog-nito]

Quit nitpicking. Language changes all the time. "Gettable" is not all that different from "doable". The great thing about American English is that it's probably the most dynamic of all languages. Other countries need to put a committee together to agree on a new word. Their people usually end up using a version of the American word anyway.

[mecanik-2009]

Lets hire the Mafia to go find Osama. Make him a deal he can't refuse.

[worldcitizen1]

to "mecury69" The Russian "defeat" in Afghanistan was aided and funded by the CIA, we might be better off today if the CIA were disbanded years ago. Their interference in world affairs has become a real problem for the best interests of the US. The CIA was created to provide information to the military for decisions about US military actions, now the has their own strike force. Overseen by who? They need to return to their roll as collectors of information, only!

[stuart-johns2]

Mr. Clinton,

I find it very difficult to believe Pakistan does not know the location of the terrorists too. Same thing in Afghanistan. Which is why we should get the hell out of there. Neither government is cooperating fully with the U.S. and neither should be trusted.

However that does'nt matter does it when you have a plan to establish a long term U.S. military presence in that country - something Americans, I don't believe, want at all.

[us_1776]

While American's are weary of war. Especially weary of unnecessary, contrived war such as Iraq, done solely for the rape of the public treasury by those in power. There is no doubt that Afghanistan and Pakistan people repesent good partners. We must help them rid their countries of terrorists. For to leave and ignore them would result in the unthinkable - terrorists with a nuclear stockpile. There really is no choice here.

[lrrodriguez]

Proquest al Qaeda and nuclear weapons for the interval of 11/9/2001--11/22/2001.China got WTO status on 11/9/2001.Ask Hillary Clinton about Johnny Chung of Torrance and China.Ask the FBI office in LA why they choose to ignore my complaint that my civil rights were being violated at Harbor /UCLA medical ceneter BEFORE Bill Clinton's visit to Harbor /UCLA on 7/9/99, AFTER the same FBI office confirmed that I was being harrassed at work and that the origin was federal.American intelligence orchestrated the 9/11 attacks and has created it's la Qaeda boogey man in order to avoid an nuclear disaster on US soil.China threatened to nuke LA in October of '95. The Wall Street Journal and LA Times will confirm that those threats were again made in July of 2005--this time hundreds of US cities were threatened .America has it's own Lubyanka instead of Manzanar.America likes to stick it's head in the sand and remain in a state of denial about it's own egregious hypocrisy.You are a nation of laws when it is convenient.Your government is run by criminals and murdering hypocrites.I will contnue to discredt American foreign policy and national security objectives and I will contue to incite America's enemies so long as I remain a second-class citizen inside US borders. Pakistan should kick America out of that region of the world.i look forward with glee at humilating defeat for America.The FBI in LA knows who I am and what i am doing.They know I was inconatct with ISI BEFORE their agents were almost blown up in Pakistan in March of last year.I told ISI not to cooperate in America's bogus war on terror.That was revenge for the FBI hanging me out to dry at Harbor/UCLA in 98.I worked at the PHARMACY at Harbor/UCLA.What is Louis Freeh doing these days?

[CompletelyFrustrated]

These comments from the Pakistinia's is a joke "Clinton was responding to a student who suggested that Washington was forcing Pakistan to use military force on its own territory" I guess the Pakistani's are worried about a few scorch marks on their beloved land????

What about this? "The Peshawar bombing in a market crowded with women and children appeared timed to overshadow her arrival."
Their own people are killing their own territory!

Does Hiroshima and Nagasaki ring a bell with anyone???

[Oregon_State_OSU]

The Pakistani Government Doesn't Know Where Terrorists are Hiding.

What a Huge Lie. Like they Dont know where the Terrorists are Hiding I am sure a few Drones Could find them real quick and take out a few hundred with a couple of rockets.

[far_point200]

Wow, what a revelation. I am so proud that Billary was able to figure that out within my life time.

Now Billary here's a clue, try to motivate the Pakis to get the job done. (That will be her next revelation 4 years from now!)

[Virgil-1]

So does one have to die to get there?

[bradkt1]

I don't agree with Hillary Clinton on a lot of things, but she is speaking the truth on this one. Pakistan has supported and appeased many different Islamic terrorist groups for years...many of whom worked with Al Qaeda. Their intelligence agency (the ISI) knows who the leaders are and worked with them. They know their havens and hideouts. They have had chances to take them out in the past but were not inclined to do so. If they don't know exactly where the leaders of Al Qaeda are now, they have a pretty good idea.

[ramos1129]

Then what the heck are we doing concentrating our resources in Afgan and not Pakistan?

[mecury69]

Because we did not concentrate on Afgan after the Russians left the country in defeat back in the late 80's.

That allowed Al Quaeda to develop a base of operations to attack the U.S.

We have to focus on both.