Al-Qaeda Can Strike US From Fata(Pakistan): Mullen

[tekisui]

Source: The Nation-Pakistan

Admiral Michael Mullen, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, has said the United States major goal right now is to disrupt and defeat Al-Qaeda whose leadership, including Osama bin Laden resides in the Federally-Administered Tribal Areas.

Al-Qaeda could certainly strike the US from Fata, he said, adding that’s why the top objective of the current US strategy is to defeat al-Qaeda.
When asked he knows that Al-Qaeda is in Fata so why is the US not in there, he said, “Because Fata is in Pakistan and Pakistan is a sovereign country and we don’t go into sovereign countries.”

“One of the things that has happened in Pakistan in recent months and weeks is the Pakistan military - really in response to the people of Pakistan - the government of Pakistan taken the threat against them very, very seriously,” Mullen told Al-Jazeera TV network, when asked whether the US risked just pushing the Taliban back into Pakistan, which seems to be a worsening situation with the growing internally displaced person (IDP) camps, if they are not pushed somewhere else in Afghanistan.

“So the pressure that will be brought on the Taliban specifically by the Pakistani military is important and that ... movement from both the east and the west in the long run will have an effect.

more: http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/Politics/24-Jul-2009/AlQaeda-can-strike-US-from-Fata-Mullen

[gratuitous]

1. "We don't go into sovereign countries"

Either they left off the part about "that have nuclear capability" or Adm. Mullen is working on his next career as a nightclub comic.

[crickets]

2. That really jumped out at me too. Tell it to Iraq, Admiral Mullen. -nt