United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice [Images] has all but confirmed the Central Intelligence Agency's assertions that certain elements in Pakistan are working with the Al Qaeda [Images] and undermining the United States-led war on terror.
 
In an interview with Politico, a transcript of which was made available by the State Department, she was asked about the CIA's statement that Pakistan 'our theoretical ally in the war on terror, is actually aiding Al Qaeda'.

                                     CIA gives Pakistan PM ISI charge-sheet

When queried if that was 'why Pakistan won't let the US put more troops inside (Pakistan) to fight terrorism?' Rice replied, "We have to be precise."
 
"I would say they're not our theoretical ally; they are our ally," she said, but acknowledged, "there are elements in Pakistan that one worries that there are connections to the militants in the region."

                                       Another step in ISI's Indianisation of jihad
 
"But the point is that these militants are as deadly and dangerous for Pakistan as they are for the US--also for Afghanistan. Just witness the fact that one of the networks there was--is widely believed to be responsible for the assassination of Benazir Bhutto [Images]," she argued.
 
Rice defended the Bush administration's policy vis-a-vis Pakistan. She was asked if it wasn't high time, though, "for a bolder statement about Pakistan" since this was a country "that built up the Taliban [Images] and sponsors terrorism against India."

                                 Pak-Afghan border is Al Qaeda's safe haven:CIA
 
She said, "We're taking a pretty bold stand. And by the way, the Pakistanis themselves understand that they need to take a bolder stand. Again, this is a threat not just to us or to Afghanistan, but to them. And extremism has taken a place in Pakistan, in part because of the transit of more extreme elements who were coming out of Afghanistan after the defeat of the Soviet Union."

                                      'Pakistan is a dangerous and messy place'
 
Rice added, "It's going to take a while to expel extremism in Pakistan. You have to do it through fighting the extremism, all out. There are certain irreconcilables. You also have to do it through longer-term ways of providing education, for the people who might now study in radical madrassas, study in schools that will teach them skills. You have to do it through the economic and social development of places like the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, which are really poor."
                                                 ISI: Rogue, responsible, or both?

"And so there are many elements to this. But Pakistan has a democratically elected government. That's something that the United States advocated for. And we're going to be a partner and a friend of that government," she said.