Elite veterans prowl Pakistan

The United States, on the hunt for Osama bin Laden, is augmenting counterterror operations in Pakistan with scores of former special-operations warriors who work for the CIA and other agencies under contract.

Thousands of U.S. troops are openly fighting in Afghanistan along the Pakistan border. The stated U.S. policy, however, is that no American troops are inside Pakistan pursuing bin Laden’s al Qaeda terrorists or advising local troops.

The reality is there are “a load of contracts” with U.S. agencies attracting veterans of Special Forces and other elite units to Pakistan, one source told The Washington Times.

The official ban is in deference to Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, whose solid alliance with the United States in the war on terror stops short of allowing American ground troops in his country.

Asked at a March press conference whether U.S. troops were inside Pakistan hunting for Osama bin Laden, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld responded, “The U.S. Department of Defense people? I doubt it. Not that I know of.”

But Washington is getting around the ban by signing up former Delta Force commandos, SEALs and Green Berets and assigning them to special duties in Pakistan, according to two sources close to the special-operations community.

“There are a load of contracts going on for ex-SF [Special Forces] types there for every alphabet agency there is,” one of the sources said.

The source said the former covert warriors joined CIA operations in Pakistan and train local soldiers in counterinsurgency techniques.

The de facto deployment of U.S. troops is an example of how far Pakistan — an acknowledged nuclear power — has come in its global alliances. Once a backer of the al Qaeda-supporting Taliban regime in Afghanistan, Islamabad has become one of Washington’s most essential allies.

There was a time when such cooperation seemed impossible.

In the early days of President Bush’s term, Dan Gallington, then a senior adviser to Mr. Rumsfeld, received a courtesy call from a former top Pakistani defense official who told him that the Taliban was sure to finally defeat the Northern Alliance and conquer all of Afghanistan. More alarmingly, this person predicted that his country also would fall to Islamic militants — making it the first theocracy to own the world’s most powerful weapon.

Three years later, Pakistan is the setting for the third hot war in the global war on terrorism, joining Afghanistan and Iraq as places where the military hunts and battles al Qaeda and other terrorists.

Bush administration officials say, in an odd twist, bin Laden’s September 11 attacks might have saved Pakistan. Gen. Musharraf, who took power in a 1999 coup, saw his hold threatened by Islamic militants who were infiltrating more organs of government, especially the powerful intelligence service.

“Musharraf has clawed his way back, aggressively supported by the United States,” said Mr. Gallington, an analyst at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies. “We saved Musharraf in the nick of time. Pakistan is the focal point in that part of the world, and Musharraf understands that.”

September 11 forced Gen. Musharraf to pick sides under pressure from Mr. Bush. He chose the United States.

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