U.S. evades queries on action against Osama on Pak soil

Sridhar Krishnaswami

Washington, July 3 (PTI) The U.S. Defence Department chose
to sidestep queries on whether it had the authority to carry
out unilateral action against Taliban or al-Qaeda leadership
on Pakistani soil but pressed Islamabad to "move rapidly"
against the militants in its restive tribal areas.

"I'm comfortable, as the military leader, that I have all
the authorities I need....I'm not going to get into the
specifics of it," Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Admiral Mike Mullen told reporters amid reports that the U.S.
had secured President Pervez Musharraf's nod to go after Osama
Bin Laden without prior permission from Islamabad.

Mullen was asked whether the U.S. had the authority to
operate in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA)
against bin Laden or other al-Qaeda leaders and Taliban
leaders based on actionable intelligence without seeking
Pakistan's consent.

"This also is a sovereign country, and we just don't send
troops into sovereign countries, as the question suggests. So
I think it's important that our assistance be as robust as it
can possibly be and that the Pakistan government and military
move as rapidly as they can against this problem," Mullen
said.

The top Pentagon official said the United States and the
NATO forces were deeply concerned at the escalating violence
in Afghanistan and were evaluating steps that are necessary to
counter the resurgent Taliban.

"I am, and have been for some time now, deeply troubled by
the increasing violence there. The Taliban and their
supporters have, without question, grown more effective and
more aggressive in recent weeks, and as the casualty figures
clearly demonstrate," Mullen said.

"The United States and NATO leadership -- and I had the
chance to meet with my NATO counterparts last week in Brussels
-- are very focused on the challenges there, particularly in
the east and the south," Mullen said.

He said he was ready to fly in more U.S. troops to
Afghanistan but "those forces will not be available unless or
until the situation in Iraq permits us to do so."

"It's a very complex problem, and it's tied to the drug
trade, a faltering economy and, as I've said many times, the
porous border region with Pakistan. There's no easy solution,
and there will be no quick fix.

"More troops are necessary, and some of our NATO allies
have recently committed to sending more of their own, but they
won't fully ever be sufficient," he added.