The view outside my window is breathtaking: a corrugated landscape of sweeping ravines and verdant gorges. It is hard to believe that this is the most dangerous place on earth. Yet the recent discovery of a car bomb in New York's Times Square underscores its ongoing menace. 

Prosecution papers filed with the District Court in Manhattan reveal that the alleged bomber, Faisal Shahzad, attended training camps here in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), and received his orders directly from the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). Its leader, Hakimullah Mehsud, rivals only Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri as the most wanted man in the world. 

"We've now developed evidence that shows that the Pakistani Taliban was behind the attack," the US Attorney General, Eric Holder, told ABC television. "We know that they helped facilitate it. We know that they probably helped finance it, and that [Shahzad] was working at their direction."

Faisal Shahzad trained in Fata, a fertile plain for fundamentalism spawning terrorist leaders with ambitions to eclipse even al-Qaeda's worst excesses. I have come to Khar, a small town four miles from the Afghan border in Bajaur, Fata's northernmost province, to understand how this once anonymous region became the epicentre of global terror. Without stability here, peace in Afghanistan and beyond is impossible. 

Fata is a stronghold for the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan. Although still in its incipient phases, the group has already changed Pakistan for ever. Just travel through its biggest cities, Islamabad or Lahore, and you immediately get a sense of how the terrorist threat has become a part of daily life. Even the shortest journey involves passing through endless chicanes and roadblocks manned by armed police, although in more sensitive areas it is the army who are in charge. Sitting behind almost every checkpoint are two sharpshooters ready to fire on anyone who fails to stop. Yet most Pakistanis are fatalistically resigned to the increasing militarisation of their streets and society. 

Even before the attempted attack in Times Square threats from Fata have left an indelible mark on the West too. At least two of the 7/7 bombers are known to have visited training camps in this region. A plot to bring down transatlantic airliners in 2006 also had its roots here. Less than 18 months ago, Gordon Brown revealed that three-quarters of the most serious terror plots currently under surveillance in Britain had links to Pakistan.