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Murphy: Osama Death a Milestone But U.S. Needs to Get Tough With Pakistan

Congressman reports on war in Afghanistan, says Pakistan and heroin poppies are hindering the war effort.

As a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, U.S. Rep. Chris Murphy, D-5th District, spent part of last week in Afghanistan, meeting with U.S. troops and getting a firsthand look at the situation there. The trip has earned him a unique distinction.

“We were likely the last congressional delegation to see that wanted poster of Osama bin Laden on the wall of that special operations command center in Afghanistan,” he said.

Murphy had been at the command center, from which special operations forces launched a fatal attack on bin Laden just two nights before.

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“This is a great day for America and everyone across this world who cares about and strives for freedom and democracy. Nothing can repair the damage he did… but the killing of Osama bin Laden brings us one step closer to justice,” he said Monday.

But ensuring the safety of U.S. military forces and Afghani civilians will take something more, Murphy said. In meeting with village elders in the Herat Province on the border of Iran, he and the five congressmen he traveled with walked through fields of poppies – “the fuel and funding of insurgency forces.”

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“Bin Laden was the most important villain in Afghanistan; there are still thousands of al Qaeda agents and Taliban insurgents given safe haven in Pakistan and the ability to cross back and forth to Afghanistan. It’s a very important milestone in the Afghan war but what we learned there was, frankly, our relations with Pakistan have never been worse and the Pakistanis are doing less than before in shutting down their own country as a staging ground for assaults on American personnel and Afghan civilians.”

Murphy said now is the time to get serious with Pakistan and make the country accountable for harboring terrorists through economic aid and calling attention to “the sometimes open hosting of Taliban and al Qaeda elements in their country.”

Murphy said the U.S. has been hesitant to chastise Pakistan for coordinating with the Taliban forces, but noted the Inter-Services Intelligence agency (Pakistan’s secret service) and the Pakistani government may act independently.

That bin Laden, the author of the 9/11 tragedy, was found living just outside one of Pakistan’s capital and military operations raises questions of whether the government knew of his presence. Murphy refused to speculate.

“It certainly concerns me to see bin Laden and his family were living so close to the Pakistani capital and living what seems to be a fairly generous existence in a very large compound,” he said.

More investigation into the issue is needed, he said, which may serve to expose coordination between Pakistan and terrorist groups and possibly increase security for Afghanistan.

“I hope there was no open coordination although we know there is daily coordination between elements of the Pakistani government and the Taliban …if we want this to be better, we’ve got to start using our voice to call out what they’re doing and using our economic aid to get them to change their behavior.”

Murphy did see some encouraging changes while in Afghanistan, he said. Infrastructure projects are being completed and the Afghani military and police forces have become stronger. This is where the U.S. should be focusing, Murphy said, with a view toward bringing American troops home.

Just before leaving Kabul, Murphy attended a memorial service Saturday for eight soldiers and a civilian killed by an Afghan gunman April 27. Among those killed was Maj. Raymond G. Estelle of New Haven. The experience gave Murphy a real sense of the price of the mission, he said.

He praised the character of the troops in Afghanistan and the work they are doing and said he would return to the Capitol in hopes of supporting them.

Murphy is serving his third term in the U.S. House, representing Connecticut’s Fifth District. He has announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate seat to be vacated by Sen. Joe Liberman in 2012.


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