U.S. fails to budge Pakistan on Bin Laden

WASHINGTON -- The United States has been unsuccessful in efforts to obtain Pakistani cooperation for joint military action to capture Saudi billionaire fugitive Osama Bin Laden.

Still, U.S. officials have rejected pressure to impose sanctions on Pakistan in hope that Islamabad will eventually cooperate in efforts to capture Bin Laden. They said Pakistan has become more vigilant in border controls and this has led to the capture of at least one aide to Bin Laden.

U.S. officials acknowledge that the Clinton administration is intent on winning cooperation from Islamabad that will lead to the capture of Bin Laden, wanted for the bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa in 1998. The administration has rejected calls by Congress and other critics for sanctions on Islamabad in connection with human rights violations and refusal to stop Islamic terrorism.

The reason is that the administration is convinced that Pakistan can persuade the ruling Afghan militia, Taliban, to surrender Bin Laden or look the other way while U.S. and Pakistani commandos enter Afghanistan to capture the fugitive, according to Middle East Newsline. The Taliban has vowed not to give up Bin Laden.

"We find Pakistan's support for the Taliban in Afghanistan very troubling," U.S. Assistant Secretary for South Asia Karl Inderfurth said. "The Taliban gives shelter to Osama Bin Laden and other terrorists, and militant groups that are escalating violence in Kashmir also find refuge there. We urge our friends in Pakistan to do all they can to deal with the scourge of terrorism in their own country, in Afghanistan under the Taliban, and wherever else they can help."

Inderfurth told the Pakistani American Congress in Washington on Tuesday that Pakistan has failed to respond to U.S. appeals. "Pakistan remains the Taliban's most important supporter," he said.

U.S. government sources said Pakistani military ruler Pervez Musharraf has failed to approve a plan to capture Bin Laden. They said he appears less sympathetic than his deposed civilian successor, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

Diplomatic sources in Islamabad agree. They said Musharraf does not want to anger his Islamic allies in the Pakistani military. Many in the military said Islamabad should not intervene in what they term an issue that involves only the United States and Afghanistan.

The sources said that so far Pakistan has not agreed to appeals for an operation to flush out Bin Laden from Afghanistan. They said months before the 1998 coup about 30 members of the CIA entered Pakistan and began to train ex-commandos of the Pakistani military. The plan was for the force to enter Afghanistan and capture Bin Laden.

The sources said that the military opposed the plan and stopped Sharif from cooperating. Months later, he was overthrown.