http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080911/pakistan_bush_080911/20080911?hub=World
WASHINGTON -- President Bush secretly approved U.S. military raids inside Pakistan against alleged terrorist targets, according to a former intelligence official with recent access to the Bush administration's debate about how to fight al-Qaida and the Taliban inside the lawless tribal border area.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the classified order.
The official told The Associated Press that Bush signed the order over the summer. It gives new authority to U.S. special operations forces to target suspected terrorists in the dangerous area along the Afghanistan border.
In addition to the presidential approval for special operations missions, conventional ground troops have new authority to pursue militants across the Afghan border. The "rules of engagement" have been loosened, allowing troops to conduct border attacks without being fired on first if they witness attacks coming from the region. That would include artillery, rockets and mortar fire from the Pakistan side of the border.
The Pakistani government is not told about the targets in advance because of concerns that the Pakistani intelligence service and military are infiltrated by al-Qaida and Taliban supporters, the former official said.
U.S. counterterror operations along the border are highly unpopular in Pakistan, whose new leadership is trying hard to show independence from Washington.
At the same time, the former official said, the Pakistan government recognizes that its settled areas are increasingly targeted by terrorist and militant attacks emanating from the tribal region and its military is not equipped to counter the threat.
This after:
Pakistan PM backs army chief's rebuke to U.S.
http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2008/09/11/pakistan.html
Pakistan's prime minister on Thursday backed a harsh rebuke of the U.S. by the Muslim nation's military chief, a sign of a strain in relations seven years after the Sept. 11 attacks forged the two countries' anti-terror alliance.
Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the powerful but media-shy army leader, said nearly a week after a deadly American-led ground assault in Pakistani territory that Pakistan would defend its sovereignty and that there was no deal to allow foreign forces to operate inside its borders.
He said unilateral actions risked undermining joint efforts to battle Islamic extremism.
"Reckless actions" that kill civilians "only help the militants and further fuel the militancy in the area," he said.
"The sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country will be defended at all cost and no external force is allowed to conduct operations inside Pakistan," he said in the Wednesday statement.
Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, in comments reported Thursday by state media and confirmed by his office, said Kayani's words reflected government opinion and policy.
The ground assault last week, and a barrage of suspected U.S. missile strikes in Pakistan in recent days, suggest growing American impatience with Pakistan's progress in eradicating militant safe havens in its semiautonomous tribal regions bordering Afghanistan.
U.S. officials say clearing militants from such pockets in Pakistan's northwest is critical to reducing attacks on NATO and American forces in Afghanistan.
Comments show growing frustration
"Until we work more closely with the Pakistani government to eliminate the safe havens from which they operate, the enemy will only keep coming," Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday.
A Pentagon spokesman would not directly respond to Kayani's remarks, but said the two countries were co-operating.
Still, the Pakistani leaders' comments indicate growing frustration and fading trust in both countries on the anniversary of the attacks in the United States.
Many Pakistanis blame their nation's alliance with the U.S. for fuelling violence in their country, while U.S. officials worry that Pakistan's government is secretly aiding militant networks — keeping them as a wedge against longtime rival India.
While Pakistan's government earlier issued strident protests over the ground assault, even summoning the U.S. ambassador, Kayani's statement was significant because he so rarely speaks publicly and because he heads Pakistan's most powerful institution.
In his first public criticism of American policy, Kayani indicated he was sensitive to anger among Pakistanis, and possibly even within the military, over the assault and suspected missile strikes, analysts said Thursday.
"It expresses a deep concern in Pakistan and was quite timely because of the feeling in Pakistan as if the army and the government of Pakistan has surrendered to whatever Americans want to do in the tribal regions," political analyst Rasul Bakhsh Rais said.
Bush approved attack: New York Times
The New York Times reported Thursday that President Bush secretly approved orders allowing American Special Operations forces to undertake ground assaults inside Pakistan without getting prior Pakistani government approval.
Asked to comment on the report, the Foreign Ministry referred to Kayani's statement.
U.S. officials have acknowledged that American troops carried out the operation in South Waziristan but have not given details. The mission's goal and results remain unclear. Local residents said at least 15 people died.
The cross-border strike comes at politically sensitive times in both countries.
The Bush administration is on its way out, leading some analysts to speculate it is turning to missiles and ground assaults in Pakistan to try to score last-minute victories in the face of a growing Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan.
In Britain, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he and Bush would hold a videoconference Thursday to discuss a new approach to policing the Afghan-Pakistan border.
Pakistan, meanwhile, just elected a new president, Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of slain ex-prime minister Benazir Bhutto. He is considered pro-American and has said terrorism is Pakistan's chief challenge.
Zardari was sworn in Tuesday and visited his wife's grave to pay respects Thursday. He has faced some criticism for not being more outspoken in condemning U.S. strikes in Pakistan.
Bodies found
Also Thursday, residents found the bodies of two men believed to be among 25 police recruits reported abducted by militants in northwest Pakistan. The partially beheaded bodies were found in an open area in Orakzai town, said Khan Afzal, the mayor of nearby Hangu district.
Meanwhile, the bullet-riddled bodies of three men active in anti-Taliban activities were found Thursday in the Bajur tribal region, witnesses and officials said.
Government official Jawed Khan said the bodies were found with a letter saying, "This is the result of working against the Taliban and co-operating with the army instead of joining jihad."
Tribal leaders in the Salarzai area of Bajur have denounced the Taliban. Recently, armed tribal members torched and destroyed several suspected militant houses and hideouts.
I'll tell you what's going on..... The US and Bush didn't cross the border at all while that corrupt dictator Mushhead was in power, who did nothing but actually take that money from the US and fund the Taliban.
Now that he resigned to avoid an impeachment (nice timing) and the new government is in power, the money isn't flowing to the Taliban, so the Taliban have been stepping up their attacks inside Pakistan, against the people of Pakistan, because now the military is finally cracking down on them as they should.
This screwed up Bush's plans, so now he's getting US troops to cross the border and cause even more sh*t before he leaves office.
Bush seemed ok with the Taliban attacking from Pakistan in the past and never pulled this stunt..... now suddenly he's done this.
Tell me something..... if the new Pakistan government was funding the Taliban or helping them out..... then why are they suddenly stepping up attacks on Pakistan, as well as Afghanistan, while when Mushbrains, who did nothing at all, had no real problems with the Taliban..... all the while the Taliban increased in size and continually had more and more recruits?
Bush makes me so fk'n sick..... the only justice I can see for all the suffering caused by him, is for someone to drop him from a Helicopter somewhere in a strong Muslim community, and let them have their way with him.