Bush Admin. has failed to develop a "comprehensive plan" to defeat terrorists in Pakistan’s tribal areas, says GAO
That’s the disheartening conclusion of the Government Accountability Office (GAO), which studied documents, interviewed U.S. and foreign government officials, and visited the border lands -- officially known as the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, or FATA -- during the past 10 months.
"Despite the recognition of U.S. government officials, including the U.S. President and Congress, that a comprehensive plan employing all elements of national power -- diplomatic, military, intelligence, development assistance, economic, and law enforcement support -- was needed to combat terrorism and close the terrorist safe haven in Pakistan’s FATA region," concluded the GAO report released April 17, "a comprehensive plan to meet U.S. national security goals in the region was never developed."
The GAO acknowledged that various departments of the U.S. Government have developed their own individual plans to accomplish this anti-terrorism goal, and several efforts to achieve inter-agency coordination have taken place in Washington and the U.S. Embassy in Pakistan, but it declared that no comprehensive, government-wide effort has been developed by President Bush and the White House.
"The President of the United States has primary responsibility to ensure that his national security strategy is carried out effectively," observed the GAO, as it diplomatically tip-toed up to its conclusion that the President had failed to meet this over-arching objective.
The FATA area has a 373-mile border with Afghanistan, a population of 3.1 million people, a pitifully low per capita income of $250 per year, and an overall literacy rate of only 17 percent, said the GAO.
Since 9/11, the Bush Administration’s strategy has been to rely principally on Pakistan’s military forces to disrupt and destroy the terrorist cells operating throughout the FATA. About 96 percent of the U.S. funds earmarked for use in FATA have been allocated to the Pakistani military, which has deployed approximately 120,000 military and paramilitary forces to that area. About 1,400 of those Pakistanis have been killed in the fighting.
"However, the GAO found broad agreement, as documented in the National Intelligence Estimate, State, and embassy documents, as well as Defense officials in Pakistan, that al Qaeda had regenerated its ability to attack the United States and had succeeded in establishing a safe haven in Pakistan’s FATA," said the congressional auditing agency.
The crux of the issue being examined by the GAO was whether or not the U.S. Government has developed a truly "comprehensive" approach to rooting terrorists out of FATA, or whether the federal government has thrown together a hodge-podge of separate departmental efforts at the intractable problem. Of course, the existence or non-existence of a "comprehensive" plan may lie in the eyes of the beholder.
During the GAO’s research phase, no one from the White House’s National Security Council or the National Counterterrorism Center agreed to meet with the auditors. No counterterrorism plans for FATA were provided to the GAO by the National Security Council, the National Counterterrorism Center or the CIA.
The GAO received push-back from the State Department, but stuck to its tough conclusion. "State’s comments asserted that embassy and U.S. government efforts to date have resulted in a comprehensive strategy," said the GAO report. "We disagree, and note in our report that while the initiatives begun by Defense, State and [the U.S. Agency for International Development] are being coordinated by the embassy, they have not been fully approved or integrated into a formal, comprehensive plan."
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