Obama Pakistan trip called into question

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama's promised trip to Pakistan this year, once seen as a reward for a key ally in the fight against terrorism, is now a looming headache for the White House.

Obama told Pakistani officials in the fall that he planned to travel there in 2011, in part to soothe concerns that the president was favoring Pakistan's neighbor and archrival, India, after visiting there first. White House spokesmen questioned this week by The Associated Press refused to say if Obama still planned to go.

In the hours after Osama bin Laden's killing, John Brennan, Obama's top counterterrorism adviser, left the topic open. "I'm not going to address the president's schedule," he said. "I think there's a commitment that the president has made that he is intending to visit Pakistan. A lot depends on availability, scheduling."

A presidential trip would signal a continued U.S. commitment to its complicated, yet necessary, relationship with Pakistan, a country that is not only integral in dealing with terrorism, but will also play a key role in the U.S. troop drawdown in neighboring Afghanistan.

Canceling the visit could be seen as a sign of U.S. mistrust of Pakistan's handling of extremists within its borders -- as underscored by bin Laden living in what Brennan called "plain sight" in an area home to many in the Pakistani military.

Karl Inderfurth, a former assistant secretary of state who traveled to Pakistan with then President Bill Clinton, said the White House should hold any decision on Obama's travel until the tensions that have heightened since bin Laden's death have eased.

"I don't think that responsible officials on either side want to inject into that situation all that is required for a presidential visit, including safety and security," said Inderfurth, now a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.