Ally and Obstacle: Pakistan's Role in the War on Terror

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Sept. 7, 2006 — -- In the five years since Sept. 11, 2001, Pakistan has become simultaneously America's most important ally in the global war on terror and the greatest obstacle to winning it.

Sometimes it's hard to come to grips with that inherent contradiction.

Pakistani intelligence agents were crucial last month in uncovering what appears to be the most ambitious al Qaeda plot since 9/11.

Yet their work revealed an embarrassing truth: The plan to bring down trans-Atlantic airliners was being coordinated by Pakistanis in the southern Punjabi heartland.

Five years after 9/11, Pakistan still has four times as many troops in its volatile tribal belt than America has soldiers in Afghanistan, and it's suffered more than twice as many casualties.

Yet the buffer zone that stretches along the country's wild, craggy border with Afghanistan remains the closest thing al Qaeda and the Taliban have to a sanctuary these days.

It's not just a launching pad for cross-border attacks that kill U.S. and NATO troops, intelligence officials says.

It's not simply a safe haven for their fugitive leaders. It remains, they say, a vital planning and propaganda center: the crucible of their global jihad.

Five years after 9/11, senior U.S. officials say denying them this sanctuary is the single most important military task ahead.

U.S. troops and their allies, however, are still banned from operating on Pakistani soil.

These days, the tribal belt is becoming too hot even for Pakistani troops.

After months of heavy casualties along the border, Pakistan's military has sealed what officials call a "peace deal" with the militants.

To many, the deal sounds more like a retreat.

According to the deal, the military will pull back from check posts, hand over captured militants, and even pay retribution for properties it destroyed during the fighting.

"Is this the birth of Talibanistan?" an Islamabad diplomat asked.

Five years after 9/11, Pakistan remains the country where the most al Qaeda leaders have been caught: from 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to theoretician Setmarian Nasar.

Foreign intelligence agents believe the top terrorist leadership remains here, but faces major obstacles to communicating and moving about.

As President Pervez Musharraf put it, "We have broken their command and control structure."