US to attack extremists on Pak soil if it doesn't do so itself: ex-CIA official

Washington, May 10 (ANI): With the US authorities almost certain that the confessed Time Square bomber Faisal Shahzad was trained by the Tehreeke-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton giving Islamabad the most stringent warning of them all till date, President Barack Obama is likely to tell the Pakistani leadership that they have got very little or no choice but to launch assault against extremists in their stronghold North Waziristan.

A former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) official, Arthur Keller said it is likely that US will ask Pakistan to launch a military offensive in North Waziristan, where Shahzad is believed to have received the terror training or it will do so itself.

"If you're not going to help, just get the hell out of the way," is what Keller believes Washington would tell Islamabad.

Keller, while quoting from a speech that Obama had delivered in August 2007 on foreign policy, stressed that Obama, the then presidential hopeful had clarified that US would not hesitate to target militants across Pakistan.

"If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and Pakistan won't act, we will," the then Senator Obama had said.

Keller pointed out while ground operations by US troops inside Pakistan's territory were difficult, the CIA, which has been operating the drone strikes, and the Special Operations Command (SOC) would be allowed to expand their operation in the troubled country.

"CIA and Special Operations Command could get license to operate more freely.That's a logical escalation," The Daily News quoted Keller, as saying.

"It's almost like a Sicilian vendetta killing cycle," he added. (ANI)