Five of 'most dangerous bad guy groups' based in Pak:Holbrooke

"Our enemy is Al-Qaeda. They lurk across the border in the tribal areas of Pakistan, the very areas that have been just hit by the floods. The point I want to make is there are about five of our most dangerous bad guy groups all grouped in this area in Pakistan where the floods are going on now," Holbrooke told the popular Charlie Rose show.

He said al-Qaeda is targeting the US, Britain and other countries as well. "You have the Afghan-Taliban, their expeditionary force in Afghanistan closely allied. You have the Pakistani-Taliban. Now the Pakistani-Taliban targets the Pakistanis, but the Times Square bomber (Faisal Shahzad) went and got trained, luckily badly trained, by the Pakistani Taliban. That's three," he said.

"Fourth, you have the infamous Haqqani group, a ruthless separate group focussed in North Waziristan, which is in Pakistan but raids all the way into Kabul. Finally, the last group, is a group that the Americans don't pay any attention to called the LeT, but the Indians sure pay attention because it is the LeT who attacked Mumbai in December of 2008," Holbrooke said.

All of these groups are in Pakistan and they are based in an area roughly the size of California in Pakistan's tribal belt, he said.
"As we diminish our combat troops over time according to the conditions, we have to retain the residual capability to strike at these groups while we build up the Afghan security forces," he said.

"The sequencing and the level and pace of all that is something that the President (Barack Obama) will determine after he holds his policy review later this year in December, and then he will examine the conditions and the President will decide. But the general structure of what we are do is very clear, it seems to me," Holbrooke said.