U.S. policy shown vulnerable to Qaeda strikes

By Randall Mikkelsen - Analysis

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An al Qaeda role in the murder of Benazir Bhutto would show that the militant group can dramatically thwart U.S. foreign policy more than six years after President George W. Bush set out to defeat it.

U.S. intelligence agencies worked on Friday to verify a Pakistan Interior Ministry statement that intercepted communications linked al Qaeda to the assassination. Thursday's killing shattered Bush's hopes that Bhutto's return to Pakistan in October as an opposition leader would foster democracy and stability.

"Sometimes I think that bin Laden and Zawahri must shake their heads and say, 'It's all too easy'" said Michael Scheuer, a former CIA employee who led the hunt for al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. Ayman al-Zawahri, bin Laden's deputy, earlier this month denounced Bhutto as an instrument of U.S. policy.

Pakistan said militant Baitullah Mehsud was behind the killing and it called him an al Qaeda leader. A U.S. counterterrorism official described Mehsud, who had previously threatened Bhutto, as a tribal leader and "seasoned jihadist with strong links to al Qaeda, the Taliban and other terrorist organizations."

Some analysts remained skeptical, saying it served Musharraf's interests to focus attention on al Qaeda while his own government faced domestic suspicions of complicity.

"The Pakistanis are probably lying," said former U.S. counterterrorism official Richard Clarke.

But if true, al Qaeda's orchestration shows that it can launch significant strikes from the western Pakistan tribal areas where it regrouped after a U.S.-led invasion routed it from neighboring Afghanistan in 2001, analysts said.

Al Qaeda has "physical and psychological space to recruit, train terrorist operatives and plan attacks," the U.S. counterterrorism official said.