Frontline reports from the lawless Pakistani tribal areas along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border and reveals how the area has fallen under the control of a resurgent Taliban militia, which uses it as a launching pad for attacks on U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan. The area, off limits to U.S. troops by agreement with Pakistan's president and long suspected of harboring Osama bin Laden is now considered a failed state. President Pervez Musharraf tells Frontline reporter Martin Smith that Pakistan's strategy, which includes cash payments to militants who lay down their arms, has clearly foundered. In a regino little understood, Frontline investigates a secret front in the war on terror.

Title from container. Originally produced for television program Frontline broadcast October 3, 2006.