U.S. aims to turn hostile Pakistani tribes friendly

By Simon Cameron-Moore

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - The United States this year will start spending in earnest $750 million where its troops can't go in the hope of making Pakistan's unruly tribal lands less hospitable for al Qaeda and the Taliban.

If the Americans succeed they hope other nations will join them in putting up a total $2 billion for development and security in Pakistan's semi-autonomous Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) by 2015.

No-one has thought it worth risking lives and money before to bring lasting change to a region where fiercely independent tribes have fought against outside interference for centuries.

But today's alternative is to let the environment in FATA become more conducive for Islamist militancy.

"We don't have that choice. We have to go in and do this thing," a senior U.S. diplomat in Islamabad told journalists.

A ferocious suicide bombing campaign run out of the tribal lands to destabilize President Pervez Musharraf has fuelled dread in the West over the future of nuclear-armed Pakistan, especially after the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto last month.

The United States fears Islamist militants using satellite telephones and laptops in mud-walled compounds on Pakistan's fabled north west frontier are plotting a devastating attack in the West, just as al Qaeda did from Afghanistan in 2001.

The abiding threat from the Taliban has forced Washington to raise troop strength in Afghanistan by over 10 percent to 30,000.

Musharraf won't allow American forces to enter Pakistani territory to fight a common enemy.

But U.S. military officials see greater willingness on Pakistan's part to accept some kind of help, including training for counter-insurgency operations.

Pakistan has deployed about 100,000 troops in the tribal region bordering Afghanistan, but results have been patchy, largely because the militants have garnered support among poor, illiterate tribesmen, all too ready to answer calls for jihad.

"The military campaign in FATA has not degraded extremist recruitment, training or operations," the U.S. diplomat said.

The United States has already given about $10 billion to Pakistan, most for its military, in the six years since it strong-armed Musharraf to become an ally following al Qaeda's attack on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon.

Hundreds of al Qaeda members were arrested in the early years, but the network has regrouped, as has the Taliban.

Critics say the United States struck a bad bargain, and has also retarded democracy by supporting a leader who came to power in a military coup more than eight years ago.