The Chicago Tribune is reporting that the U.S. is planning a springtime offensive inside Pakistan involving thousands of special forces and ground troops in an attempt to target the Al Qaeda network. One source told the paper, this was “not like a contingency plan for North Korea, something that sits on a shelf. This planning is like planning for Iraq. They want this plan to be executable — now.” The plans may have been accelerated after there were two attempts on Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf’s life. Publicly Pakistani officials have rejected suggestions that it would allow the U.S. to carry out a major offense inside Pakistan. But the Tribune quotes a well-place military source who said “Before we were constrained by the border. Musharraf did not want that. Now we are told we’re going into Pakistan with Musharraf’s help.”