Beginning early next year, U.S. Special Forces are expected to vastly expand their presence in Pakistan, as part of an effort to train and support indigenous counter-insurgency forces and clandestine counterterrorism units, according to defense officials involved with the planning.

These Pakistan-centric operations will mark a shift for the U.S. military and for U.S. Pakistan relations. In the aftermath of Sept. 11, the U.S. used Pakistani bases to stage movements into Afghanistan. Yet once the U.S. deposed the Taliban government and established its main operating base at Bagram, north of Kabul, U.S. forces left Pakistan almost entirely. Since then, Pakistan has restricted U.S. involvement in cross-border military operations as well as paramilitary operations on its soil.

But the Pentagon has been frustrated by the inability of Pakistani national forces to control the borders or the frontier area. And Pakistan's political instability has heightened U.S. concern about Islamic extremists there.

According to Pentagon sources, reaching a different agreement with Pakistan became a priority for the new head of the U.S. Special Operations Command, Adm. Eric T. Olson. Olson visited Pakistan in August, November and again this month, meeting with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, Pakistani Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee Chairman Gen. Tariq Majid and Lt. Gen. Muhammad Masood Aslam, commander of the military and paramilitary troops in northwest Pakistan. Olson also visited the headquarters of the Frontier Corps, a separate paramilitary force recruited from Pakistan's border tribes.

Now, a new agreement, reported when it was still being negotiated last month, has been finalized. And the first U.S. personnel could be on the ground in Pakistan by early in the new year, according to Pentagon sources.

U.S. Central Command Commander Adm. William Fallon alluded to the agreement and spoke approvingly of Pakistan's recent counterterrorism efforts in an interview with Voice of America last week.

"What we've seen in the last several months is more of a willingness to use their regular army units," along the Afghan border, Fallon said. "And this is where, I think, we can help a lot from the U.S. in providing the kind of training and assistance and mentoring based on our experience with insurgencies recently and with the terrorist problem in Iraq and Afghanistan, I think we share a lot with them, and we'll look forward to doing that."

If Pakistan actually follows through, perhaps 2008 will be a better year.

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/earlywarning/2007/12/musharrafs_woes_have_opened_a.html?nav=rss_blog

14 comments

Only comments

Article and comments
Comments per page

BHUTTO WAS KILLED!
by CANUKISTAN_VIEW on 27.12.2007 [14:18 ]
Any confirmation? Any comment?

Benazir Bhutto killed
by paul pawlowski on 27.12.2007 [14:59 ]
BBC News online

Thanks, guys...
by stоpwar on 27.12.2007 [15:16 ]
now updated.

Relevant BBC newsforum has gone ballistic - comments coming on screen so quickly they can't possibly have been vetted

e.g.
"This attack almost certainly was done by Musharraf, an ally of "my" government. I will be voting Ron Paul, it is time us in the USA stopped supporting tyrants and terrorists and interfering with other countries. We are partly to blame for this attack.

Ryan Pierce, Austin, Texas"

ht tp://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.js ... 1227151235

Benazir Bhutto killed makes Big NEWS NEWS NEWS
by paul pawlowski on 27.12.2007 [15:23 ]
Big News is Big Politics

Is TelAviv involved in BB killed NEWS NEWS NEWS?

How would TelAviv benefit from it?

Expose Jew suicide pilots Sharon sent to crash into Twin Towers
-- stop suicide bomber politics.

Shouldn't think they had anything to do with it, paul...
by stоpwar on 27.12.2007 [15:28 ]
that comment from Austin, Texas may be closer to the mark.

I'm just so amazed at the synchronicity of the article about US troops going to Pakistan... and then this...

sadly, Bhuttos days
by verve on 27.12.2007 [15:29 ]
were numbered from the minute she returned to Pakistan. Especially when she took on a military dictator and she had little or no physical protection, in a country where chaos rules.

she will now be seen as a martyr...
by stоpwar on 27.12.2007 [15:34 ]
because she came back and continued to tour and speak despite all the very obvious dangers.

Like many, I was suspicious of her motives. Less so, now.

Another skYanki/Brit stool-pidgeon bites the dust ...
by Bl4ckP0pe on 27.12.2007 [17:01 ]

... congratulations to whoever took out this trash

Vive la Resistance!

Very Brave Woman
by Lambros on 27.12.2007 [17:01 ]
...even though I think she really made mistake by not following very tight security - she would have done a lot of good by surviving it.

And a convenient excuse for Musharraf to suspend elections. A sad day for democracy.

Bhutto kissing Britzie Ass - 14 min interview, 2 Nov 07
by Bl4ckP0pe on 27.12.2007 [17:11 ]

[ame]www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIO8B6fpFSQ[/ame]

Next traitor up for the chop should be Musharraf, good luck with your mission lads.

Only Almighty God could convince me
by eureka on 27.12.2007 [17:21 ]
that Washington didn't have a hand in this assassination. AS is always the case: Cui Bono? Who stands to benefit?

Certainly not the Pakistani people; the only beneficiaries of this are the stooge Musharraf and his evil masters in Washington.

she STOLE $3B from Pakistan before leaving
by Legolas_Greenleaf on 27.12.2007 [17:28 ]
I remember writing just a couple months ago she would be executed by Musharraf just as soon as he got his hands on the Swiss bank account numbers. She was just as much a thief and traitor as Musharraf.

Washington convinced this obviously stupid woman that it was "safe" to go back, that she would again be a "political heavyweight"...Washington knew exactly what would happen, and no doubt facilitated the execution.

AQ claims Bhutto hit
by Bl4ckP0pe on 27.12.2007 [17:33 ]
Karachi, 27 Dec. (AKI) - (by Syed Saleem Shahzad) -

A spokesperson for the al-Qaeda terrorist network has claimed responsibility for the death on Thursday of former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto.

“We terminated the most precious American asset which vowed to defeat the mujahadeen,” Al-Qaeda’s commander and main spokesperson Mustafa Abu Al-Yazid told Adnkronos International (AKI) in a phone call from an unknown location, speaking in faltering English. Al-Yazid is the main al-Qaeda commander in Afghanistan.

It is believed that the decision to kill Bhutto, who is the leader of the opposition Pakistan People's Party (PPP), was made by al-Qaeda No. 2, the Egyptian doctor, Ayman al-Zawahiri in October.

Death squads were allegedly constituted for the mission and ultimately one cell comprising a defunct Lashkar-i-Jhangvi’s Punjabi volunteer succeeded in killing Bhutto.

Bhutto had just addressed a pre-election rally on Thursday in the garrison town of Rawalpindi when the bomb went off.

She had come to Rawalpindi after finishing a rapid election campaign, ahead of the January polls, in Pakistan's volatile North West Frontier Province (NWFP) where she had talked about a war against terrorism and al-Qaeda.

Reports say at least 15 other people were killed in the attack and several others injured.

source: http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Security/?id=1.0.1710322437

more US troops in Pakistan
by Legolas_Greenleaf on 27.12.2007 [17:36 ]
and the noose tightens: regular Pakistan armed forces are about as likely to "help" the US with their Afghan problem as I am!

In spite of the "Special Forces" moving in, you will see the Taliban actually grow in strength, as the regular Pak army step up their covert support for them.