I'm not laughing anymore.
"Haqqani.... has allied himself over the years with the Central Intelligence Agency, Saudi Arabia’s spy service, and Osama bin Laden"
Another CIA asset!
"Pakistan aided embassy strike, Mullen says; Directly links spy agency to militants" September 23, 2011|By Elisabeth Bumiller and Jane Perlez, New York Times
WASHINGTON - Pakistan’s intelligence agency aided insurgents who attacked the US Embassy in Kabul last week, Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Senate yesterday.
In comments that were the first to directly link Pakistan’s powerful spy agency, the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, with an assault on the United States, Mullen went further than any other US official in blaming the agency for undermining the US military effort in Afghanistan.
The United States has long said that Pakistan’s spy agency has close ties to Afghan insurgents, especially the Haqqani network, but no one has been as blunt as Mullen.
Mullen will retire this month, and coming from him the statements carried exceptional weight. He has been the US military official who has led the effort for years to improve cooperation with Pakistan. But relations have reached a nadir since US commandos killed Osama bin Laden deep inside Pakistan in May. Officials in Pakistan were not told of the raid in advance, and questions remain about whether Pakistan’s intelligence was sheltering the Al Qaeda leader....
In short, he said, “the Haqqani network acts as a veritable arm of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence Agency.’’
Related:
"Haqqani.... credited with introducing suicide bombing to the region.... cultivated as a "unilateral" asset of the CIA and received tens of thousands of dollars in cash for his work.... He may have had a role in expediting the escape of Osama Bin Laden.... In July 2008, CIA officials confronted Pakistan officials with evidence of ties between Inter-Services Intelligence and Haqqani. Haqqani has been accused of involvement in the 2008 Indian embassy bombing in Kabul.... The Haqqani Network is based in Pakistan and is believed to have links to Al Qaeda."
Correction: CIA-Duh
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The attack on the US embassy, and the spy agency’s support for the Haqqani network - which also forms one of the most lethal parts of the insurgency attacking US forces in Afghanistan - is the latest point of tension....
And what would U.S. support of terror groups add?
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"Pakistan denies US claim its spy agency helps insurgents; Army leader says charges are ‘not based on facts’" September 24, 2011|By Chris Brummitt, Associated Press
ISLAMABAD - Pakistan’s army chief dismissed US allegations that his spy agency had helped Afghan militants attack the US Embassy in Kabul, saying yesterday that the charges were baseless and part of a public “blame game.’’
And a propaganda effort aimed at American minds.
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Army Chief General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani’s terse statement suggested Islamabad had no immediate intention of acting on renewed American demands that it attack the Haqqani network in its base in northwest Pakistan. It also ramped up a dispute between the two nations that has exposed their increasingly deteriorating relationship.
Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, accused the army’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency on Thursday of supporting Haqqani insurgents with planning and executing a 22-hour assault on the US Embassy in Afghanistan last week and with a truck bomb that wounded 77 American soldiers days earlier.
See: The Talk of Afghanistan
Kayani said in a statement that the allegations were “very unfortunate and not based on facts.’’
That's nothing new when it comes to the U.S.
The claims were the most serious yet by an American official against nuclear-armed Pakistan, which Washington has given billions in civilian and military aid during the last 10 years in an effort to secure its cooperation inside Afghanistan and against Al Qaeda.
Notice they worked the nuclear-armed into the sentence.
Related: US Aid To Pakistan: Numbers Contradict American Statements
That is the AmeriKan media I know and love!
Kayani’s statement appeared to imply that Pakistan’s contacts with the Haqqani network were part of efforts to bring it to the negotiating table. The United States, Kabul, and European countries all agree that a peace deal will be needed to end the war, though not all agree on whether the Haqqanis, with links to Al Qaeda, should be included.
I've been WAITING FOR ONE for YEARS!
The statement said that “on the specific question of contacts with Haqqanis … Admiral Mullen knows fully well which … countries are in contact with the Haqqanis. Singling out Pakistan is neither fair nor productive.’’
Kayani, regarded as the most powerful man in Pakistan, said the “blame game’’ between it and the United States should give way to constructive dialogue about the future of a peaceful Afghanistan.
The Haqqani network is believed to be based in Pakistan’s North Waziristan tribal area along the Afghan border. The group has historical ties to Pakistani intelligence, dating to the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1980s....
Yeah, they USED TO WORK FOR US, America!!
Mullen did not provide specific evidence backing up his accusations or indicate what the US would do if Pakistan refuses to cut ties to the Haqqanis....
U.S. doesn't have to do that and even if they did who would believe them?
Given Pakistan’s reluctance, the United States has increasingly relied on unmanned drones to attack Haqqani fighters and other militants in North Waziristan.
The latest attack occurred yesterday. Two missiles hit a house in the Khalsoor area of Mir Ali, one of the main towns in North Waziristan, said Pakistani intelligence officials. The identities of the people killed in the strike were not known....
Then it is MURDER, ain't it?
Pakistani officials yesterday reiterated claims that the United States was seeking to make Pakistan a scapegoat for its failings in Afghanistan. They have also complained recently that militants chased out of Pakistan by the army are now using Afghan soil to attack targets inside the country.
The relationship between the two countries has never been smooth, but it took one of its hardest hits when US commandos sneaked into Pakistan on May 2 and killed Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in a garrison town not far from Islamabad.
See how they keep repeating that BS lie? I swear they try and work it into every article.
The covert raid outraged the Pakistani government because it was not told about it beforehand, while bin Laden’s presence in Abbottabad raised further suspicions among US officials about the country’s duplicity in the antiterrorism fight.
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"Haqqani network accused by US of being guns for hire; Afghan criminal empire is called tool of Pakistan" by Alissa J. Rubin and Mark Mazzetti New York Times / September 25, 2011
WASHINGTON - They are the Sopranos of the Afghanistan war, a ruthless crime family that built an empire out of kidnapping, extortion, smuggling, even trucking. They have trafficked in precious gems, stolen lumber, and demanded protection money from businesses building roads and schools with American reconstruction funds.
They safeguard their mountainous turf by planting deadly roadside bombs and shelling remote US military bases. And they are accused by US officials of being guns for hire: a proxy force used by the Pakistani intelligence service to carry out grisly, high-profile attacks in Kabul and throughout Afghanistan.
Today, US intelligence and military officials call the crime clan known as the Haqqani network - led by a wizened militant named Jalaluddin Haqqani who has allied himself over the years with the Central Intelligence Agency, Saudi Arabia’s spy service, and Osama bin Laden - the most deadly insurgent group in Afghanistan.
In the latest of a series of ever bolder strikes, the group staged a daylong assault on the US Embassy in Kabul, an attack that Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, charged on Thursday was aided by Pakistan’s military spy agency, the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI.
But even as the Americans pledge revenge against the Haqqanis, there is a growing belief that it could be too late. To many frustrated officials, they represent a missed opportunity with haunting consequences. Responsible for hundreds of American deaths, the Haqqanis probably will outlast the US troops in Afghanistan and command large swaths of territory there once the shooting stops.
US military officers, who have spent years urging Washington to take action against the Haqqanis, express anger that the Obama administration still has not put the group on the State Department’s list of terrorist organizations out of concern that such a move would scuttle any chances that the group might make peace with Afghanistan’s government.
Still working for us, 'eh?
“Whoever is in power in Kabul will have to make a deal with the Haqqanis,’’ said Marc Sageman, a former CIA officer who served in Pakistan during the Soviet-Afghan war. “It won’t be us. We’re going to leave, and those guys know it.’’
Can I get that signed and in writing?
Haqqani network leaders have indicated that they are willing to negotiate, but on their own terms.
Some intelligence officials see Haqqani operations like the US Embassy attack this month as a very public message from the group that it will not be cut out of any grand bargain.
One former US intelligence official, who worked with the Haqqani family in Afghanistan during the Soviet occupation in the 1980s and requested anonymity because he remains a consultant for the government, said he would not be surprised if the United States again found itself relying on the clan.
My personal opinion is we never left them. If nothing else, they are a good excuse for us staying.
“You always said about them, ‘best friend, worst enemy.’ ’’
With a combination of guns and muscle, the Haqqani network has built a sprawling enterprise on both sides of a border that barely exists.
The Haqqanis are Afghan members of the Zadran tribe, but it is in the town of Miram Shah in Pakistan’s tribal areas where they have set up a ministate with courts, tax offices, and radical madrassa schools producing a ready supply of fighters.
They secretly run a network of front companies throughout Pakistan selling cars and real estate and have been tied to at least two factories churning out the ammonium nitrate used to build roadside bombs in Afghanistan.
The CIA calls them non-official cover.
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"Pakistani officials meet to discuss US allegations" September 26, 2011|By Sebastian Abbot, Associated Press
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, Pakistan’s army chief, convened a special meeting of senior commanders yesterday, following US allegations that the military’s spy agency helped militants attack American targets in Afghanistan, the army said.
The government also summoned home early the country’s foreign minister 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 United States of trying to make Pakistan a scapegoat for its troubled war in Afghanistan.
The public confrontation has plunged the already troubled US-Pakistan alliance to new lows.
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.
Senator Lindsey Graham, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said yesterday that the United States should consider military action to defend US troops if Pakistan’s spy agency continues supporting militants who are attacking American forces.
So how many countries do we have to be at war with before we call it a World War?
Unilateral US raids into Pakistan could have explosive implications in a country where anti-American sentiment is widespread.
Pakistanis were outraged by the covert US commando raid that killed Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in a garrison town not far from Islamabad in May.
I told you they work that into nearly every article.
The United States 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 United States against sending troops into Pakistan.
“Any aggression will not be tolerated,’’ Malik told reporters in Islamabad yesterday.
“The nation is standing united behind the armed forces, which is the front line of Pakistan’s defense.’’
Most people do when they come under attack.
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"New chair of the Joint Chiefs is sworn in; Dempsey is less concerned over role of US debt" by Robert Burns Associated Press / October 1, 2011
In the final week of his tenure, Mullen made his biggest headline by telling a Senate committee that the Haqqanis are a “veritable arm’’ of Pakistan’s intelligence service and by asserting that Pakistani intelligence supported and facilitated a string of Haqqani attacks on Americans in Afghanistan.
His statement infuriated the Pakistani government and arguably set back, at least temporarily, an already troubled US-Pakistani relationship.
Dempsey’s views on Pakistan’s importance to success in Afghanistan appear to be similar to Mullen’s, although he has been less specific about the role of the Haqqanis.
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"Haqqani says US sees role for him" by Associated Press / October 4, 2011
LONDON - Afghan insurgent leader Siraj Haqqani said he has been approached by the United States to join the Afghan government and denied that his militant group was behind the killing of the top Afghan peace envoy, the BBC reported yesterday.
That does not surprise me at all.
The Pakistan-based Haqqani network, which is affiliated with both the Taliban and Al Qaeda, has been described by US and other Western nations as the top security threat in Afghanistan.
The group has been blamed for hundreds of attacks, including a 20-hour siege of the US Embassy and NATO headquarters last month. The group is led by Jalaludin Haqqani, but the ailing leader has relinquished most operational control to one of his sons, Siraj.
Maybe they have broken off from the CIA as some have suggested. Son decided to strike out on his own?
Last week, US officials accused Pakistan’s spy agency of supporting the Haqqanis in attacks on Western targets in Afghanistan - the most serious allegation yet of Pakistani duplicity in the 10-year war.
The United States and other members of the international community have in the past blamed Pakistan for allowing the Taliban, and the Haqqanis in particular, to retain safe havens in the country’s tribal areas along the Afghan border.
However, Haqqani told the BBC Pashtu service that while the group had contacts with a number of spy agencies, including Pakistan’s, during the Soviet invasion, there are now “no such links that could be beneficial.’’
“Right from the first day of American arrival till this day not only Pakistani but other Islamic and other non-Islamic countries including America, contacted us and they [are] still doing so. They are asking us to leave the ranks of Islamic Emirates,’’ he said referring to the Taliban leadership. He said that the outsiders have promised an “important role in the government of Afghanistan,’’ as well as negotiations.
Isn't that duplicitous?
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Also see:
Pakistan and "The Haqqani Network" : The Latest Orchestrated Threat to America and The End of History
And consider:
"A short memo to the Obama Administration: Pakistan right now is suffering from horrendous, catastrophic flooding, and experiencing mounting cases of communicable diseases are spreading like wildfire. An estimated 300 people have died in three months of torrential monsoon rains which have destroyed 400,000 homes, breached sewerage and freshwater canals and left two million people suffering from malaria, hepatitis and other sanitation-related diseases.
What the US government should be doing is mounting the fastest and best-executed humanitarian relief effort of which it is capable, dispatching medical and flood relief aid ASAP.
But what is the US government actually doing? Contemplating air strikes or a special forces raid into North Waziristan. There are suggestions that the US could increase the tempo of CIA-directed drone strikes against the Haqqanis, including on populated urban areas that the CIA has previously avoided. One likely target would be Miran Shah, the main town in North Waziristan, where US officials complain the Haqqani leadership lives in close proximity to a major Pakistani base.
This will, of course, lead to more collateral damage (the killing of innocent non-combatants), and push those left standing into the waiting embrace of the insurgents. Forgive me, but isn't one of the classical definitions of insanity doing the same thing over and over, yet expecting a different outcome?!?
Admiral Mullen has accused the Pakistani's intelligence unit, the ISI, of colluding with the Haqqani network, and yet produced absolutely no proof of such a relationship. Has US foreign policy in Pakistan been reduced to making stuff up as it suits the US government, in order shift blame to Pakistan for the US and NATO's colossal failures in Afghanistan?!?
Unnamed elements in the administration may well have attempted to assure Pakistan's civilian and military leadership that there is no impending ground invasion; but were I among the leadership in Pakistan, I wouldn't bet against a massive aerial drone bombardment as "punishment" for allegedly not doing enough to contain insurgents in the border area between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
And to those in the bowels of power in DC, a cautionary note: After the US raid which allegedly killed Osama Bin Laden, the Chinese government stated that any attack on Pakistan would be construed as an attack against China. In the wake of the US raid in Abbottabad that killed Osama bin Laden, China has “warned in unequivocal terms that any attack on Pakistan would be construed as an attack on China”, a media report claimed today. The warning was formally conveyed by the Chinese foreign minister at last week’s China-US strategic dialogue and economic talks in Washington, The News daily quoted diplomatic sources as saying. China also advised the USA to “respect Pakistan’s sovereignty and solidarity”, the report said.
I would sincerely suggest that the US government take the Chinese government at its word on this issue."-- Wake the Flock Up
