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Pakistan Offers Bin Laden Clemency

After signing a truce this week with pro-Taliban terrorists on its border with Afghanistan, Pakistan has now reportedly extending the olive branch to America`s most wanted man and chief al-Qaeda terrorist, Osama bin Laden. A Pakistani miltary official told a prominent American media outlet recently that the leader of the most feared Islamic terror group, mastermind and financier of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks on New York and Washington, D.C. will not face capture if he agrees to lead a "peaceful life".

Major-General Shaukat Sultan Khan said that "as long as one is being like a peaceful citizen", people like bin Laden "would not be taken into custody." Richard Clarke, a former White House counter-terrorism director, says "What this means is that the Taliban and al Qaeda leadership have effectively carved out a sanctuary inside Pakistan." Pakistan is a supposed ally in the fight against international Islamist terrorism.

The news comes as yet another blow to the American fight against al-Qaeda, as the White House said in a recent report that America is safer, but still not nearly safe enough, from terrorist plots even five years after 9/11. President George W. Bush is touring the country this week, making speeches as he tries to shore up support for a waning Republican Party in the run-up to midterm elections this November.