US national security team to focus on Al Qaeda in Pakistan: NYT

October 7th, 2009 WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama has vowed to continue targeting the Al Qaeda that is threatening the US from Pakistan and beyond, even as the terror network is said to have "lost operational capacity" after a series of recent missile strikes. "We know that Al Qaeda and its extremist allies threaten us from different corners of the globe-from Pakistan but also from East Africa and Southeast Asia; from Europe and the Gulf," Obama said in a visit Tuesday to the National Counterterrorism Centre just outside Washington in McLean, Virginia.

October 7th, 2009 WASHINGTON - As US President Barack Obama met his top national security officials to discuss Afghanistan-Pakistan policy, media reports suggested that the emerging war strategy was focusing on the campaign against Al Qaeda in Pakistan. A senior administration official described Wednesday's three-hour White House meeting, which coincided with the eighth anniversary of the Afghan war, as "a comprehensive update on the situation" in Pakistan, including an "intelligence and counterterrorism assessment, as well as an assessment of the political and diplomatic situation".

October 7th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Concerned over the increasing clout of Al-Qaeda and Taliban even after putting in place a revamped AFPAK strategy, US President Barack Obama will convene a 'situation room meeting' on Pakistan with his top aides on Thursday. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said the meeting would primarily focus on Pakistan as the Obama administration believes that it is very necessary to have an apt strategy for Pakistan in view of the fact that top Al-Qaeda and Taliban commanders have taken refuge in the lawless tribal region of that country.

October 2nd, 2009 LAHORE - Top US security officials have expressed concern over terrorists brewing up plots to attack America from the Pak-Afghan border area. "My greatest concern still is the ability of Al Qaeda to use Pakistan and Afghanistan as a sanctuary," The Daily Times quoted FBI Director Robert Mueller, as saying.

September 20th, 2009 WASHINGTON - US Secretary of States Hillary Clinton has said that issues relating to Afghanistan and Pakistan are on top of America's agenda for the forthcoming UN General Assembly. Addressing a gathering at the Brookings Institution here, Clinton said the United States would focus on various issues like the on going struggle in Iraq, Afghanistan and nuclear non-proliferation during the 64th session of the UN General Assembly.

September 1st, 2009 LAHORE - Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan Bajaur Agency chief Maulvi Faqir has said that Al Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban had no role in the appointment of new Pakistan Taliban chief. He said the Tehreek-e-Taliban council had independently chosen and appointed Hakimullah Mehsud as Baitullah's successor.

July 25th, 2009 WASHINGTON - The US Senate has approved the country's defence budget with an amendment aimed at ensuring that military assistance for Pakistan is actually being used only to fight the Taliban and Al Qaeda. The bipartisan amendment moved by Democrat Robert Menendez and Republican Bob Corker would mandate a certification by the secretaries of state and defence, before Pakistan is reimbursed with Coalition Support Funds, that the payment is both in the national security interests of the US, and will not affect the balance of power in the region.

July 12th, 2009 WASHINGTON - The United States has ruled out any negotiations with the Taliban until it lays down arms and severe all its ties with Al-Qaeda. When enquired about the statement of the Pakistan Army's spokesman, Major General Athar Abbas, that the Pakistan military can bring the Taliban to the discussion table with the United States, the US Special Envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, said such a possibility can only occur when the Taliban 'repudiates al-Qaeda publicly'.

June 12th, 2009 WASHINGTON - US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director Leon Panetta said Thursday that Osama bin Laden, head of Al Qaeda terrorist network, is still in Pakistan and his capture remains the CIA's priority. "I guess one of our hopes is that as Pakistani military moves in, combined with our operations, we may have a better chance to get at him," said Panetta at the Capitol Hill.

May 13th, 2009 WASHINGTON - US special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, has urged the Congress to quickly approve legislation to triple non-military US aid to Pakistan, saying the US has a vital stake in the country. 'This is as tough as anything I've ever seen before, anything I've ever worked on,' Holbrooke said Tuesday, testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the US policy for Pakistan.

April 30th, 2009 LAHORE - Of late, the United States has been expressing serious concerns about the expanding writ of the Taliban and fears about Islamabad falling into the hands of the extremists, which is the reason why the Obama Administration's focus has now shifted from Afghanistan to Pakistan. US State Department officials have now openly admitted that Pakistan was ultimately more important for America security than the Taliban-Qaeda infested areas in the east of Afghanistan.

April 24th, 2009 LAHORE - Questions are being raised over Pakistan's capability and willingness to counter the expanding writ of the Taliban, and now a US expert has said that Islamabad does not have any strategy in place to counter the threat. "I don't think the Pakistani establishment knows what they're going to do with this problem, and when I say the establishment, I mean the political-military establishment.

April 8th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), US vice president Joe Biden said, adding that the 'most radicalised part of Taliban' is there. 'In the FATA, the western part of Pakistan in the mountains on the Afghan border...

March 28th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Viewing Pakistan as the root of the security problem in the region, the United States has clearly shifted the focus of its war on terrorism to Pakistan. The cornerstone of the new US counter terrorism strategy announced Friday by President Barack Obama is a regional approach, National Security Gen James Jones said.

March 27th, 2009 WASHINGTON - US President Barack Obama outlined his administration's new strategy in Afghanistan Friday, saying a major goal will be to shut down the Al Qaeda terrorist network in Afghanistan and Pakistan through a bolstered troop presence. 'We have a clear and focused goal: to disrupt, dismantle and defeat Al Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and to prevent their return to either country in the future,' Obama said.