The New York Times
Cheney Warns Pakistan to Act on Terrorism
By DAVID E. SANGER Published: February 26, 2007
WASHINGTON, Feb. 26 — Just hours after Vice President Dick Cheney delivered a stiff private message to President Pervez Musharraf in Pakistan, the Pakistani government lashed out today with a series of statements insisting that "Pakistan does not accept dictation from any side or any source."
The unusual outburst, later toned down, revealed the depth of tensions between General Musharraf and Washington over what administration officials say have been inadequate efforts by Pakistan in combating Al Qaeda and the Taliban.
By the time of the Pakistani response, Mr. Cheney had left Pakistan to make a second secret trip, this time across the border to Afghanistan, where a meeting with President Hamid Karzai was suddenly delayed. American officials said that a snowstorm prevented helicopter flights between Kabul and Bagram Air Base, where Mr. Cheney had landed, and neither leader seemed inclined to take a risky drive to meet the other.
Mr. Cheney's trip to Pakistan was shrouded in unusual secrecy. In trips to Pakistan last year, both President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced their plans days in advance, and reporters filed stories on their visits as soon as they landed. But Mr. Cheney's traveling press pool was sworn to secrecy, and allowed to report only the barest details just before he left.
News organizations that knew of Mr. Cheney's travels, including The New York Times, were asked to withhold any mention of it until he had left Pakistan. That appeared to be a reflection of growing concern about the strength of Al Qaeda and Taliban forces in the area, and continuing questions about the loyalties of Mr. Musharraf's own intelligence services.
The White House would say little on Monday about the message Mr. Cheney was sent to deliver, though it did not deny reports that it included a tough warning that American aid to Pakistan could be in jeopardy. Democrats have threatened to link aid to Pakistan to its effectiveness in combating both Al Qaeda and the Taliban. Pakistan's response, delivered by a Foreign Ministry spokesman, expressed concern about "proposed discriminatory legislation" in Congress to curb aid.
The sensitivities of Mr. Cheney's trip were particularly evident as the White House spokesman, Tony Snow, parried detailed questions about the vice president's message to Pakistan, a country that Mr. Bush has hailed as a close American ally.
Referring to Mr. Cheney, Mr. Snow said that "the precise nature of his comments and the tenor of comments to the president would be the sort of things that would be confidential," and then reaffirmed Mr. Bush's confidence that General Musharraf was committed to fighting terrorism.
When asked about comments by senior administration officials who fear that General Musharraf's peace plan with tribal leaders in the area bordering Afghanistan has allowed Al Qaeda and Taliban forces to move with more impunity in that region, Mr. Snow said: "We're often asked to give out report cards on other heads of state. I'm not going to play."
Mr. Cheney's trip was one of a series to Pakistan by senior administration officials, part of what administration officials have said is a plan by the Bush administration to keep the pressure on General Musharraf. To some outside analysts, that is a sign of increasing concern that American efforts to coax along the sometimes prickly Pakistani leader has hit its limits.
"There is a growing consensus that our Pakistan policy is not working," said Derek Chollet, a fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies who estimates that over the past five years the United States has sent $10 billion in aid to Pakistan — and perhaps as much in covert funds.
Mr. Musharraf alluded to those payments in his recently published memoir, in which he wrote, "Those who habitually accuse us of 'not doing enough' in the war on terror should simply ask the C.I.A. how much prize money it has paid to the government of Pakistan." When asked that question, C.I.A. officials have declined to answer.
Mr. Cheney's trip to Pakistan and then to Afghanistan appeared to be part of an effort to resolve a continuing dispute between the two countries over who is more responsible for the failure to stop cross-border attacks. Mr. Musharraf and Mr. Karzai, have made no secret of their dislike for each other. President Bush held a dinner with the two men in Washington last fall, in hopes of encouraging them to work together. As soon as the two leaders returned to their respective capitals, however, the sniping resumed.
A particular source of concern is Mr. Musharraf's peace accord with the tribal leaders, a deal giving them greater sovereignty that he has assured Mr. Bush would not diminish Pakistan's commitment to fighting extremists. Mr. Bush noted in September that Mr. Musharraf had looked him "in the eye" and said, "There won't be a Taliban and won't be al Qaeda." Now, American officials contend those groups have gained ground.
Mr. Cheney traveled with the deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Steve Kappes, an indication that the conversation probably included discussion of American intelligence agency contentions that Al Qaeda camps have been reconstituted along the border of Afghanistan.
Speaking in Islamabad on Monday, Pakistani officials acknowledged that Mr. Cheney had expressed concern about the regrouping of Al Qaeda in the tribal areas and called for concerted efforts in countering the threat. Then, at a news briefing, the Pakistani Foreign Ministry protested the "dictation" that the country was being offered, a clear reference to Mr. Cheney's visit. Later in the day the ministry toned down its comments, saying that Mr. Cheney had "shared U.S. concerns and assessments in the context of intelligence and security cooperation."
American officials did not explain the extraordinary secrecy surrounding Mr. Cheney's visit to Pakistan, a country that Bush administration officials have cast publicly as a stable nation moving gradually toward democracy. Mr. Cheney's aides told The Times and other news organizations that the Secret Service had imposed the requirement that there be no mention of his trip until he had left Pakistan.
Mark Silva of the Chicago Tribune, who is traveling as the sole newspaper "pool" reporter with Mr. Cheney, reported in an e-mail message that, "These all were explained as security measures for the protection of the vice president, and ostensibly us as well. There was no indication of any particular threat that would lead to these measures."
Such caution is not unprecedented, though. In 2000, President Clinton flew into Islamabad in an unmarked Air Force plane rather than Air Force One. President Bush's trip last year was marked with siege-like security, and unusual maneuvers during take-off. When Robert M. Gates, the defense secretary, made a brief visit to Pakistan earlier this month, his travel plans were kept secret until his arrival.
-- My humanity is in feeling we are all voices of the same poverty. - Jorge Louis Borges