India-Pakistan: February 1, 2004

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Pakistan, Afghanistan and the United States have agreed that Osama bin Laden is still alive, and hiding out along the Afghan-Pakistan border. The three nations have also agreed to share information they have have about the Taliban and al Qaeda situation and capture bin Laden and senior Taliban leaders as soon as possible. What's curious about all this is that these goals had to be announced. Most people thought that the three nations were cooperating in this area for the last two years. Apparently the cooperation wasn't strong enough. The current Afghan government does not trust Pakistan, feeling that Pakistan was responsible for much of the unrest in Afghanistan during the last decade, and for organizing the Taliban. Pakistan has also been unwilling to press border tribes too hard about who they are sheltering. Thus the new agreement represents a sharp change in tactics.