The article highlights the continued precarious position of Pakistan?s President Pervez Musharraf in attempting to battle Islamist terrorist elements within Pakistan?s borders?a nexus of international and regional militant groups?while simultaneously guarding his flanks against a ?fifth column? of Pakistani military and intelligence operatives sympathetic to, if not abetting, the Islamist militants and a population bristling against perceived US adventurism globally and diktat vis-?-vis Pakistan. The involvement of sympathetic elements of the military and intelligence in supporting terrorist groups has created a quasi state-support for these groups. With a core nucleus of al-Qaeda leadership and operatives thought to be ensconced within the protective sanctuary of sympathetic tribes and forbidding mountainous terrain along the borderlands straddling Afghanistan and Pakistan and regional terrorist groups continuing to operate from Pakistan, Musharraf finds himself compelled by US pressure and survivalist necessities?Islamist terrorists affiliated with al-Qaeda have twice attempted to assassinate Musharraf (Terrorist Incident and Terrorist Incident)?to combat the Islamist militancy within the country, yet do so delicately in an effort to balance the militant elements, political powers, and popular sentiment buffeting his grip on power.

In light of recent comments by the Director of Central Intelligence, Porter Goss, that the Central Intelligence Agency has an ?excellent idea? where bin Laden is hiding but is inhibited from taking decisive action due to sensitivities of the sovereignty of nations in which bin Laden has found sanctuary would seem to be a veiled broadside against Musharraf?s ponderous and restrained counter-terrorism actions.

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