Pak tribal areas safe haven for Al-Qaeda and Taliban: US

Noting that Al-Qaeda remains the greatest terror threat to the US and its partners, a top official in Obama Administration today said the outfit's leaders have successfully created safe haven in Pakistan, which they once enjoyed in Afghanistan before 9/11 attack.

Noting that Al-Qaeda remains the greatest terror threat to the US and its partners, a top official in Obama Administration today said the outfit's leaders have successfully created safe haven in Pakistan, which they once enjoyed in Afghanistan before 9/11 attack.

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Consequently the situation in the region has been identified as one of the "very highest priority" for the Obama Administration, Acting US Coordinator of Counter-terrorism Ronald L Schlicher told reporters at the Foggy Bottom headquarters of the State Department after releasing the annual Country Reports on Terrorism 2008.

Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) are providing Al-Qaeda with many of the benefits that it once derived from the base that it had across the border in Afghanistan, Schlicher said.

"Since September 11th, Al-Qaeda and its allies have moved across the border to the remote areas of the Pakistani frontier, and they're using, of course, that mountainous terrain as a safe haven, where they can hide, where they can train, where they can communicate with their followers, where they can plot attacks, and where they can make plans to send fighters to support the insurgency in Afghanistan," he said.

Al-Qaeda leaders, Osama bin Laden and Al-Zawahiri, now appear to be in a position of responding to events rather than driving events.