Source: Star Tribune
By ERIC SCHMITT and MARK MAZZETTI
President Bush secretly approved orders in July that for the first time allow U.S. Special Operations forces to carry out ground assaults inside Pakistan without the prior approval of the Pakistani government, senior American officials said.

The classified orders mark a watershed for the Bush administration after nearly seven years of trying to work with Pakistan to combat Al-Qaida and Taliban fighters, and after months of a high-level stalemate about how to confront the militants’ increasingly secure base in the tribal areas of Pakistan.

U.S. officials say they will notify Pakistan when they conduct limited ground attacks such as the Special Operations raid last Wednesday in a Pakistani village near the Afghanistan border but they will not ask for its permission.

“The situation in the tribal areas is not tolerable,” said a senior U.S. official, who, like others interviewed for this article, spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the missions. “We have to be more assertive. Orders have been issued.”

The new orders reflect concern about safe havens for Al-Qaida and the Taliban inside Pakistan, as well as a view that Pakistan lacks the will and capability to combat militants. The orders also illustrate lingering U.S. distrust of the Pakistani military and intelligence agencies and a belief that some past U.S. operations have been compromised once Pakistanis were advised of the details.

The Central Intelligence Agency has for several years fired missiles at militants inside Pakistan from remotely piloted Predator aircraft. But the new orders for the Special Operations forces relax what have until now been firm restrictions on conducting ground raids on the soil of an important ally without its permission.

Pakistan’s top army officer said Wednesday that his forces would not tolerate U.S. incursions like the one last week and that the army would defend the country’s sovereignty “at all costs.”
It was unclear what legal basis the United States is invoking to conduct even limited ground raids in a friendly country. A second senior U.S. official said the Pakistani government had privately assented to the general concept of limited ground assaults by Special Operations forces against significant militant targets but does not approve each mission. The official did not say which members of the government gave their approval.

Any new ground operations in Pakistan raise the prospect of U.S. forces being killed or captured in the restive tribal areas — and a propaganda coup for Al-Qaida.

Last week’s raid also presents a major test for Pakistan’s new president, Asif Ali Zardari, who supports more aggressive action by his army against the militants but cannot risk being viewed as a U.S. lapdog, as was his predecessor, Pervez Musharraf.

The new orders were issued after months of debate between State Department and Pentagon officials about the merits of a ground campaign inside Pakistan.

Details about last week’s commando operation have emerged that indicate the mission was more intrusive than previously known. Two U.S. officials briefed on the raid said it involved more than two dozen Navy SEALs who spent several hours on the ground, killing about two dozen suspected Al-Qaida fighters, before escaping in helicopters.

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Tags: Attack, Bush, Government, ground assaults, officials