A US report says that terrorists are still operating freely along the Pakistani border with Afghanistan.
It says that there is "no comprehensive plan" to deal with the threat, even though Pakistan has received $10.5bn in military and economic aid from the US.
The report was released by a government watchdog, the Government Accountability Office (GAO).
US officials suspect that al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden and Taleban head Mullah Omar are in the border areas.
The GAO is the audit and investigative arm of the US Congress.
Its report said that more than six years after the 11 September 2001 attacks, the US still does not have a coherent plan to destroy the threat from Islamist militants.
Here's the full GAO report (.pdf).
The U.S. National Intelligence Estimate, reported upon in July by The Associated Press, found that al Qaeda had rebuilt its operational capacity to a level not seen since ... oh, say, Sept. 10, 2001. This GAO report finds much the same thing (for all I know, that finding is based on earlier work and is not independent).
Here's some additional detail from the NYT:
In a searing report, the Government Accountability Office, an investigative arm of Congress, sharply criticized the administration for relying too heavily on Pakistan’s military to achieve American counterterrorism goals, while paying only token attention to economic development and improving governance.
Nearly $6 billion of the $10.5 billion in aid that Washington has provided to Pakistan since 2001 has been directed toward combating terrorism in the tribal areas, the report said. But about 96 percent of that aid has gone to reimburse Pakistan for its use of 120,000 troops in counterterrorism missions in that area that have shown little success.
In a rare acknowledgment, senior officials at the United States Embassy in Islamabad told the government auditors that they had received no strategic guidance from Washington on designing, carrying out, financing and monitoring a coordinated American strategy, the report said.