Pakistan cuts deal with anti-American militants

[cosmicone]

Source: AP/Yahoo

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan – Pakistan's army, in the midst of a major new offensive against Taliban militants, has struck deals to keep two powerful, anti-U.S. tribal chiefs from joining the battle against the government, officials said Monday.

The deals increase the chances of an army victory against Pakistan's enemy No. 1, but indicate that the 3-day-old assault into the Taliban's strongholds in South Waziristan may have less effect than the U.S. wants on a spreading insurgency across the border in Afghanistan.

Under the terms agreed to about three weeks ago, Taliban renegades Maulvi Nazir and Hafiz Gul Bahadur will stay out of the current fight in parts of South Waziristan controlled by the Pakistani Taliban. They will also allow the army to move through their own lands unimpeded, giving the military additional fronts from which to attack the Taliban.

In exchange, the army will ease patrols and bombings in the lands controlled by Nazir and Bahadur, two Pakistani intelligence officials based in the region told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because revealing their identities would compromise their work.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091019/ap_on_re_as/as_pakistan

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More deceitful maneuvers by Pakistan. This basically creates two safe harbors for the official terrorists while it looks like the Pakistani military is appearing to do something to keep the US aid flowing.

[Lost-in-FL]

1. This is like... not news.

I guess it is officially a public matter since it is in the news.

[orpupilofnature57]

2. Hmmm, how inconvenient and we're so close.MSM will do their job...

doing a job on us.

[Mithreal]

3. cosmicone, we do the same thing nt

[ronnie624]

6. On a much larger scale.

The U.S. has a long history of forming alliances of convenience. Such alliances were a major contributing factor in all of this "blowback" that we must now deal with.

[Alamuti Lotus]

4. I'm sorry that they're not going to kill enough of them to satisfy your lust for blood

[No Elephants]

5. The "WOT," whatever it is called, is officially a global clusterfuck..

We don't have money for health care, but we have money to buy off the same people we are fighting. We're paying them off. The Italians are paying them off. The Pakistanis, whom we pay off, are paying them off, probably with our money. Ditto the Afghanis.

Ditto the Taliban, who get a cut of the money we pay the Afghanis, then out-pay us paying to fight us the same people we pay not to fight us. So does Al Qaeda.

My head hurts. (Luckily, I have health insurance.)