Back to (Terrorist) Camp – One of “The Top 10 Stories You Missed in 2005”

From Foreign Policy journal: “The Top 10 Stories You Missed in 2005”

“Pakistan’s President Gen. Pervez Musharraf cracked down on terrorist groups operating on Pakistani soil in the wake of the September 11 attacks. This year, Washington was so pleased with Musharraf’s support in the war on terrorism, it approved the sale of F-16 fighter jets to Islamabad. But reports that terrorist camps are reopening in Pakistan received only scant attention in 2005. In July, the Herald, a Pakistani magazine, reported that previously abandoned terrorist training camps were open for business in Pakistan’s North-West Frontier Province. Islamabad denied that the camp in question existed, though the Herald’s reporter received a guided tour of a “fully rehabilitated” camp in Mansehra that was complete with office space, four residential halls, a volleyball court, and, of course, young men carrying AK-47s. Although there’s no sign that the camps have Islamabad’s backing, one militant told the Herald that they operated in a “regime of controlled freedom.” Intelligence sources also told the New York Times in August that three Pakistanis jailed last summer for attempting to assassinate the U.S. ambassador in Kabul said they were trained in Mansehra. Exasperated Afghan military officials say Pakistan continues to back the Taliban, which it hopes to use once U.S. troops withdraw from Afghanistan. Of course, Musharraf may never be able to monitor every inch of his country’s difficult terrain. But camps that journalists can find are camps that Pakistani soldiers can find too…if they were looking.“