Tuesday, October 14, 2008

New NIE: Pakistan "On the Edge"

Jonathan S. Landay and John Walcott report for McClatchy Newspapers that a new National Intelligence Estimate warns of danger in Pakistan.

A growing al Qaida-backed insurgency, combined with the Pakistani army's reluctance to launch an all-out crackdown, political infighting and energy and food shortages are plunging America's key ally in the war on terror deeper into turmoil and violence, says a soon-to-be completed U.S. intelligence assessment.

A U.S. official who participated in drafting the top secret National Intelligence Estimate said it portrays the situation in Pakistan as "very bad." Another official called the draft "very bleak," and said it describes Pakistan as being "on the edge." The first official summarized the estimate's conclusions about the state of Pakistan as: "no money, no energy, no government."

This supports warnings from within the Bush administration that the most pressing foreign policy problem for the next administration will be Pakistan.

--Ballard Burgher

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