by BAQIR SAJJAD SYED
(Thanks to Robin Khundkar; his comment: “Another Chacha Bhateeza Jhagra? [paternal uncle & nephew conflict] I thought Adm Mullen was the Army/ISI combines favorite Gringo Chacha [paternal uncle] as opposed to Mr. Petraeus. A genial old soul!
How could do he say such things? That too in Public?”)
Mullen launches diatribe against ISI
Without mincing his words, he made it clear that ISI’s continued links with the Haqqani network were at the core of Pakistan’s problematic relations with the United States.
He said ISI’s relationship with the network was unacceptable to the American leadership.“The ISI has a rich history of how they operated in this part of the world, to protect their own country; I understand that some of the aspects of that we strongly disagree with and that is something that we continue to address.”
The Haqqani network had fuelled the Afghan insurgency by supporting, training and funding fighters who were killing American and coalition troops in Afghanistan, said the admiral, who views himself as a soldier-statesman.
Though the Haqqani network’s presence in the tribal areas and the army’s reluctance to go after them has been a sore point in Islamabad-Washington relations for some time now, Admiral Mullen’s words indicate a hardening of the American stance.
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Pakistan Army accuses US of ‘negative propaganda
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s army chief General Ashfaq Kayani vowed to defeat terrorism and rejected the notion of Islamabad “not doing enough” in the anti-Taliban fight, the military said on Thursday.
His comments followed remarks by Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, accusing Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency of having ties with Afghan Taliban in Pakistan’s northwest tribal belt.
The White House also criticised Pakistan’s efforts to defeat the Taliban operating on the border in a report this month refuted by Islamabad.
The army chief “strongly rejected negative propaganda of Pakistan not doing enough and Pakistan army’s lack of clarity on the way forward,” the military said in a statement, a day after Mullen met top generals in Islamabad.
Kayani said that the “army’s ongoing operations are a testimony of our national resolve to defeat terrorism”, according to the statement.
In an interview with private TV channel Geo, Mullen – the highest ranking officer in the US armed forces – said: “ISI has a long standing relationship with the Haqqani network, that does not mean everybody in ISI but it is there.”
The statement did not mention the Haqqani network.
The army defended its stance against terrorism in general and acknowledged that a “trust deficit between the institutions as well as the people” existed between the US and Pakistan.
But Kayani and Mullen re-stated their aims of building “reciprocal respect towards each other’s sovereignty” and the statement said “security ties will not be allowed to unravel between the two armed forces”.
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