Political Counselor Haidari Discusses Cross-Border Terrorism at U.S. Comptroller General Forum
Political Counselor Ashraf Haidari discussed Afghanistan’s key security problem of cross-border terrorism at a forum on “Enhancing U.S. Partnerships in Countering Transnational Terrorism” convened by the Comptroller General of the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) on April 22, 2008. The main goal of the forum was to assist the U.S. Congress and federal agencies by advancing dialogue on how partnerships can mitigate the conditions that foster transnational terrorism and by identifying potential strategies and solutions to the challenges faced in engaging in such partnerships.
The forum participants—who included senior diplomats from affected countries, U.S. law enforcement officials, counter-terrorism officials from U.S. partner countries, terrorism experts, and representatives of regional organizations—used a broadly accepted academic definition of “terrorism” to discuss effective strategies and solutions to address the challenge of transnational terrorism.
Haidari extended the gratitude of the Afghan people to Afghanistan’s partner nations for having sent their forces into harm’s way to combat cross-border terrorists. He provided background information on how the Afghan people became the primary victims of transnational terrorism for years, as the international community silently watched and took no action to help rescue the country from what was actually a global security threat. “Since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, we have come a long way in every aspect of the nation/state building process in Afghanistan, despite a lack of aid resources and effective coordination among donor countries,” Haidari said. However, he pointed out that stability in Afghanistan and the whole region continues to be undermined by terrorism that originates in neighboring Pakistan.
“It is now an established fact that the command and control the Taliban and Al Qaeda are outside Afghanistan in the greater northwest border region of Pakistan—primarily concentrated in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas—from where the Taliban fighters daily infiltrate into Afghanistan to kill and maim our civilian population,” Haidari noted. While using military and intelligence assets to defeat the terrorist leadership in Pakistan, symptoms of terrorism such as widespread poverty, weak governance, and a lack of employment opportunities for the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region’s young population also need to be addressed. Such efforts, however, have to be coordinated with accelerating Afghanistan’s overall reconstruction process and ensuring effectiveness of delivered aid resources through donors’ strategic coordination.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently issue its major report on terrorism in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas, including key recommendations. You can read the report here.
