Al Qaeda entrenched in Pakistan, U.S. officials say

By David Morgan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Al Qaeda has become entrenched in a remote corner of Pakistan, and the United States fears a military strike could spawn new militant activity in the country, U.S. officials said on Wednesday.

Top intelligence analysts, appearing before the U.S. House of Representatives Armed Services Committee, said the militant network led by Osama bin Laden has become increasingly active in ungoverned sections of Pakistan near the Afghanistan border, where bin Laden himself is believed to be protected by local tribal leaders.

"They seem to be fairly well settled into the safe haven in the ungoverned spaces of Pakistan. We see more training. We see more money. We see more communications," said John Kringen, the CIA's director of intelligence.

Kringen and two other intelligence officials testified about global security threats facing the United States amid concerns about a potential new al Qaeda threat on U.S. soil following attempted attacks in Britain.

Al Qaeda remains the leading terrorist threat against the United States nearly six years after its members were driven from bases in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan by U.S.-led forces following the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.

American officials warned in January that al Qaeda leaders had regrouped at camps in Pakistan, leading some political leaders to urge U.S. military action against the militant network's camps if Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf failed to act on his own.

"Sooner or later you have to quit permitting them to have a safe haven there. At the end of the day, when we have had success, it's when you've been able to get them worried about who was informing on them, get them worried about who was coming after them," Kringen said.

U.S. officials have avoided action that could harm Musharraf, whom officials described as a key U.S. ally who has aided in the capture of many al Qaeda members.

A secret 2005 mission to capture senior al Qaeda members in Pakistan's tribal areas was aborted at the last moment when Bush administration officials decided it was too risky and could jeopardize relations with Pakistan, according to a recent New York Times report.

But Thomas Fingar, deputy director of national intelligence for analysis, warned that U.S. intervention could stir into action Islamist militants currently involved in struggles against India over Kashmir.

"It is not too great an exaggeration to say there is some risk of turning a problem in northwest Pakistan into the problem of all of Pakistan," he said.

Musharraf government's weathered eight days of battles against Islamist militants from the Red Mosque in Islamabad where one cleric and 50 militants died in fighting that finally ended on Wednesday.