In what can only be considered a major setback in the war against global jihad, Pakistan has released thousands of jihadists who will now, no doubt, return to the battle field.

In what could be the most troubling development in the War on Terror since it began, Pakistan has released nearly all of the Taliban and al-Qaeda terrorists it has had in custody since the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. Since the invasion, Pakistan has taken into custody thousands of al-Qaeda terrorists and Taliban fighters. But with Pakistan?s inability to defeat or control the Taliban-al-Qaeda alliance on the Pakistani side of the Afghanistan border, Mushrraf has ceded land, arms and now all terrorists held prisoner.

The Telegraph cites Pakistani lawyers who claim that the Pakistani government has ?freed 2,500 foreigners who were originally held on suspicion of having links to al-Qaeda or the Taliban over the past four years.? This number includes virtually all al-Qaeda prisoners in Pakistan?s custody, including those held for the beheading of Wall Street Journal writer Daniel Pearl.

. . .It was indeed previously mentioned that Pakistan was releasing Taliban and al-Qaeda terrorists as part of the North Waziristan deal, but no one expected a wholesale release of nearly all imprisoned since as long ago as 2001.

. . .This is a nuclear power that is currently ceding swaths of its own territory to Islamic terrorists with a global reach. Seemingly in an effort to seek personal peace, its secular leader is returning thousands of able, experienced and trained terrorists to the hands of an encroaching enemy with violent religious motivation. Yet the bulk of Pakistan?s professional army stands watch over the Indian border or waging an intense and bloody war for control of Baluchistan?s natural resources. al-Qaeda seeks to control something else.

Pakistans status as an “ally” is becoming increasingly flimsy. It’s going to be very difficult to win this war by ourselves. But so far no one else seems interested in fighting it.

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