While conceding that Pakistan's intelligence service "was in bed with Osama bin Laden", the bipartisan 9/11 Commission has recommended that the US should give long-term military and other aid to Pakistan.
The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States in its report released on Thursday said "If Musharraf
stands for enlightened moderation in a fight for his life and for the life of his country, the United States should make the difficult long-term commitment to the future of Pakistan."
"Sustaining the current scale of aid to Pakistan, the United States should support Pakistan's government in its struggle against extremists with a comprehensive effort that extends from military aid to support for better education, so long as Pakistan's leaders remain willing to make difficult choices of their own."
"Pakistan's endemic poverty, widespread corruption, and often ineffective government create opportunities for Islamist recruitment...Millions of families, especially those with little money, send their children to religious schools or madrassas. Many of these schools are the only opportunity available for an education, but some have been used as incubators for violent extremism," the report said.
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The Commission said, "It is hard to overstate the importance of Pakistan in the struggle against Islamist terrorism... A political battle among anti-American Islamic fundamentalists, the Pakistani military and more moderate mainstream political forces has already spilled over into violence, and there have been repeated recent attempts to kill Pakistan's president Pervez Musharraf."
According to the Commission the United States has had three basic problems in its relationship with Pakistan on issues relating to terrorism, proliferation and little progress with regard to return to democracy.
On terrorism, Pakistan helped nurture the Taliban. The Pakistani army and intelligence services have long been ambivalent about confronting Islamic extremists. Many in the government have sympathised with or provided support to the extremists, it said.
Although Musharraf has repeatedly said that Pakistan does not barter with its nuclear technology, but proliferation concerns have been long-standing and serious, it said, adding that most recently, the Pakistani government has claimed not to have known that one of its nuclear weapons developers was leading the nuclear smuggling ring ever disclosed
Finally, Pakistan has made little progress toward the return of democratic rule at the national level, although that turbulent process does continue to function at the provincial level and the Pakistani press remains relatively free.
The Commission said immediately after 9/11, confronted by the United States, Pakistan government stood aside and allowed the US-led coalition to destroy the Taliban regime.
"Pakistan actively assisted: its authorities arrested more than 500 al Qaeda operatives and Taliban members, and its forces played a leading part in tracking down key al Qaeda figures," it said.
In the following two years, the Pakistani government tried to walk the fence, helping against al Qaeda while seeking to avoid a larger confrontation with Taliban remnants and other Islamic extremists.
When al Qaeda and its Pakistani allies repeatedly tried to assassinate Musharraf, almost succeeding, the battle came home, it added.
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