Pakistani commanders meet after U.S. criticism

[t-birds]

Pakistani commanders meet after U.S. criticism
By Sebastian Abbot - The Associated Press
Posted : Sunday Sep 25, 2011 10:35:55 EDT

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan’s army chief convened a special meeting of senior commanders Sunday following U.S. allegations that the military’s spy agency helped militants attack American targets in Afghanistan, the army said.

The government also summoned home the country’s foreign minister early from a trip to the United States to attend a meeting of all major political parties to discuss the American allegations of support for the militant Haqqani network.

Senior Pakistani officials have lashed out against the allegations, accusing the U.S. of trying to make Pakistan a scapegoat for its troubled war in Afghanistan. The public confrontation has plunged the already troubled U.S.-Pakistan alliance to new lows.
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Pakistan’s leaders have shown no indication they plan to act on renewed American demands to attack the Haqqani network in its main base in Pakistan, even at the risk of further conflict with Washington, which has given the country billions in aid.

U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Sunday that the U.S. should consider military action to defend U.S. troops if Pakistan’s spy agency continues supporting militants who are attacking American forces.

Unilateral U.S. raids into Pakistan could have explosive implications in a country where anti-American sentiment is widespread.

Pakistanis were outraged by the covert U.S. commando raid that killed al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden in a garrison town not far from Islamabad in May. The U.S. did not tell the Pakistani government about the operation beforehand for fear bin Laden would be tipped off.

Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik warned the U.S. on Sunday against sending troops into Pakistan.

“Any aggression will not be tolerated,” Malik told reporters in Islamabad. “The nation is standing united behind the armed forces, which is the front line of Pakistan’s defense.”

The top U.S. military officer, Adm. Mike Mullen, last week accused Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency of supporting Haqqani insurgents in planning and executing a 22-hour assault on the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan on Sept. 13 as well as a truck bomb that wounded 77 American soldiers days earlier.

Pakistan’s army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, widely considered the most powerful man in Pakistan, has dismissed the allegations, saying they were baseless and part of a public “blame game” detrimental to peace in Afghanistan.

Pakistan army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said Kayani presided over Sunday’s commanders meeting but would not provide detail on the discussions.

Later in the day, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani’s office issued a statement saying Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar was summoned back to attend a meeting of all major political parties on “threats emanating from outside the country.”

Pakistan claimed to have severed its ties with Afghan militants after the 9/11 attacks and supported America’s campaign in Afghanistan, but U.S. officials have long suspected it maintained links. The comments by Mullen, who is chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, were the most serious yet accusing Pakistan of militant ties, although he didn’t cite any specific evidence.

Despite the seriousness of the U.S. claims, which appear to accuse Pakistan of state-sponsored terrorism, Mullen and other U.S. officials have said Washington needs to keep engaging with Islamabad, a reflection of its limited options in dealing with the country.

Around half of the U.S. war supplies to Afghanistan are trucked over Pakistani soil, and even as it accuses Islamabad of complicity with Afghan insurgents, Washington knows that it will likely need Islamabad’s cooperation in bringing them to the negotiating table. Washington is also concerned about the danger of further instability in the nuclear-armed state.

The head of U.S. Central Command, Gen. James Mattis, called for continued cooperation after a meeting with Kayani in Islamabad. In a statement issued Sunday by the U.S. Embassy, Mattis emphasized “the need for persistent engagement among the militaries of the U.S., Pakistan and other states in the region.”

Afghan officials have also accused Pakistan of stoking instability in Afghanistan. The Afghan Defense Ministry accused the Pakistani arm Sunday of firing more than 300 artillery and rockets into the country’s northeast during the past five days.

The provinces of Kunar and Nuristan are a haven for hardcore insurgent groups fighting in both Pakistan and Afghanistan and have relatively few Afghan or foreign forces. Pakistan has complained that militants from the area have staged repeated cross-border attacks that have killed Pakistani security forces and civilians.

Pakistan army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said he had asked security officials in the northwest about the Afghan allegations and was waiting for a reply. He said those officials were surprised by the accusations since no activity had been reported in the area.

“I assume this is not correct news,” said Abbas, referring to the Afghan allegations.

 

[t-birds]

Senator: Consider ‘all options’ with Pakistan

The Associated Press
Posted : Sunday Sep 25, 2011 13:42:51 EDT

WASHINGTON — A Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee said Sunday that the U.S. should consider military action against Pakistan if it continues to support terrorist attacks against American troops in Afghanistan.

“The sovereign nation of Pakistan is engaging in hostile acts against the United States and our ally Afghanistan that must cease, Sen. Lindsey Graham told “Fox News Sunday.”

He said if experts decided that the U.S. needs to “elevate its response,” he was confident there would be strong bipartisan support in Congress for such action.
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Graham did not call for military action but said “all options” should be considered. He said assistance to Pakistan should be reconfigured and that the U.S. should no longer designate an amount of aid for Pakistan but have a more “transactional relationship” with the country.

“They’re killing American soldiers,” he said. “If they continue to embrace terrorism as a part of their national strategy, we’re going to have to put all options on the table, including defending our troops.”

In testimony last week to Graham’s committee, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, said Pakistan’s powerful intelligence agency had backed extremists in planning and executing the assault on the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan and a truck bomb attack that wounded 77 American soldiers. Both occurred this month.

Mullen contended that the Haqqani insurgent network “acts as a veritable arm” of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency as it undermined U.S.-Pakistan relations, already tenuous because of the war in Afghanistan. Pakistan exports violence, Mullen said, and threatens any success in the 10-year-old war.

Graham said Pakistan does cooperate with the U.S. in actions against al-Qaida. But he said the Pakistani military feels threatened by a democracy in Afghanistan and is betting that the Taliban will come back there.

“The best solution is for Pakistan to fight all forms of terrorism, embrace working with us so that we can deal with terrorism along their border, because it is the biggest threat to stability,” he said. “But Pakistan is terrorism itself. They have made a tremendous miscalculation.”

 

[Leviza]

Senator: Consider ‘all options’ with Pakistan

The Associated Press
Posted : Sunday Sep 25, 2011 13:42:51 EDT

WASHINGTON — A Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee said Sunday that the U.S. should consider military action against Pakistan if it continues to support terrorist attacks against American troops in Afghanistan.

“The sovereign nation of Pakistan is engaging in hostile acts against the United States and our ally Afghanistan that must cease, Sen. Lindsey Graham told “Fox News Sunday.”

He said if experts decided that the U.S. needs to “elevate its response,” he was confident there would be strong bipartisan support in Congress for such action.
Related reading

Graham did not call for military action but said “all options” should be considered. He said assistance to Pakistan should be reconfigured and that the U.S. should no longer designate an amount of aid for Pakistan but have a more “transactional relationship” with the country.

“They’re killing American soldiers,” he said. “If they continue to embrace terrorism as a part of their national strategy, we’re going to have to put all options on the table, including defending our troops.”

In testimony last week to Graham’s committee, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, said Pakistan’s powerful intelligence agency had backed extremists in planning and executing the assault on the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan and a truck bomb attack that wounded 77 American soldiers. Both occurred this month.

Mullen contended that the Haqqani insurgent network “acts as a veritable arm” of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency as it undermined U.S.-Pakistan relations, already tenuous because of the war in Afghanistan. Pakistan exports violence, Mullen said, and threatens any success in the 10-year-old war.

Graham said Pakistan does cooperate with the U.S. in actions against al-Qaida. But he said the Pakistani military feels threatened by a democracy in Afghanistan and is betting that the Taliban will come back there.

“The best solution is for Pakistan to fight all forms of terrorism, embrace working with us so that we can deal with terrorism along their border, because it is the biggest threat to stability,” he said. “But Pakistan is terrorism itself. They have made a tremendous miscalculation.”

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Headlines: Lahore schools reopen after 10 days closureHaqqani group was once CIA’s “blue-eyed boy”, says KharAPP (3 hours ago) Today

Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar. — Photo by Reuters


NEW YORK: Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar said the Haqqani group that the US holds responsible for last week’s attack against the American embassy in Kabul was CIA’s “blue-eyed boy” for many years.

Responding to questions during an interview with Al Jazeera television, Khar, who is in New York leading Pakistan’s delegation to the UN General Assembly, rejected US accusations against Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), saying it has no links to the Haqqani network.

“If we talk about links, I am sure the CIA also has links with many terrorist organisations around the world, by which we mean intelligence links,” Khar said.

“And this particular network, which [the United States] continues to talk about, is a network which was the blue-eyed boy of the CIA itself for many years.”

When asked about Admiral Mike Mullen’s statement that the Haqqani group “acts as a veritable arm” of ISI, the foreign minister said: “It is something that goes very, very unappreciated on our side. This is unsubstantiated. No evidence has been shared with us.”

Partners and allies, she said, do not talk to each other through public statements.

Pakistan had taken up the matter with the United States, but the spate of hostile statements coming from senior US officials meant that Washington had taken policy decision. If that was the case then “We have the right to make our own decision.”

Khar went to say that scapegoating and blame games would not help and that Pakistan wanted to be a partner of the US.

“I just hope that we’ll be given a chance to co-operate with each other and the doors will remain open — because statements like this are pretty much close to shutting those doors,” she added.

Replying to a question, Ms Khar said drone attacks not only violated Pakistan’s sovereignty, they were also counterproductive, and greatly angered the people of Pakistan.

“I think we must not be tested more than we have the ability to bear,” she added
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[T-Rex]

The reply is tough but at the same time it has kept the doors for cooperation open.