Saturday, January 21, 2012

Clinton Complains to Pakistan

She just goes on and on!

"Clinton issues warning to Pakistan" October 21, 2011|By Joby Warrick and Karin Brulliard, Washington Post

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton warned Pakistan yesterday to eradicate terrorist safe havens inside its borders, saying there would be a “very big price’’ for inaction against militant groups staging attacks in Afghanistan.

Clinton’s tough words for Pakistani leaders came as an unusually large delegation of US officials, led by Clinton, converged on the capital to urge Pakistani officials to take on the Haqqani network.... 

Related: Haqqani Ha-Ha

It's just not funny anymore.

“We will be delivering a very clear message to the government of Pakistan and to the people of Pakistan,’’ Clinton told reporters during a stopover in Afghanistan for meetings with President Hamid Karzai “There should be no support, and no safe havens, for terrorists anywhere who kill innocent women and children.’’

US officials have accused Pakistan of tolerating and, in some cases, supporting Haqqani clan members in a string of violent attacks against US and Afghan forces in Afghanistan, a charge Pakistan denies.

While insisting that both countries share a responsibility for fighting terrorism, Clinton hinted of consequences for Pakistan if the government fails to do more to stop attacks emanating from the Pakistani side. 

Like what, air strikes on border outposts?

“No one should be mistaken about this being allowed to continue without the paying of a very big price,’’ Clinton said. She said Islamabad’s leaders “must be part of the solution, which means ridding their own country of terrorists who kill their own people and cross the border to kill people in Afghanistan.’’

Clinton spoke of a growing international effort to squeeze the Haqqani network on both sides of the border, adding that the effort “will be more apparent in the days ahead.’’

“It is a fact that they are operating out of safe heavens in Pakistan,’’ Clinton said.

Relations between Afghan and Pakistani officials have been badly strained following a series of high-profile attacks and assassinations, including the slaying on Sept. 20 of Burhanuddin Rabbani, a former Afghan president and the point man for reconciliation talks between the Afghan government and the radical Islamist Taliban movement. After Rabbani’s death, Karzai said peace efforts were useless unless Pakistan was heavily involved. 

See: Rubbing Out Rabbani

Now who would want to do that?

Standing beside Clinton yesterday, Karzai repeated his assertion that his country’s insurgency is “to a very, very great extent controlled by establishments in Pakistan.’’

“They stay in Pakistan, have their headquarters in Pakistan, launch operations from Pakistan,’’ Karzai said. “It is not in the manner of pointing fingers that we seek to talk to Pakistan, but rather in the manner of finding the proper venue and proper authority for talks.’’

Clinton arrived in Islamabad late yesterday to head a US delegation that included newly appointed CIA director David Petraeus and General Martin Dempsey, the new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as well as Lieutenant General Douglas Lute, a top White House adviser on the war in Afghanistan, and Marc Grossman, the State Department’s special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan. The visit, like the stopover in Kabul, was kept under wraps because of security concerns.

The schedule for the 24-hour visit was packed with meetings with top leaders of Pakistan’s civilian government and its military and defense establishment. State Department officials said the unusual size of the US delegation was intended to convey the urgency of the situation in Afghanistan and the importance of Pakistan as critical partner in the war against terrorism....

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"Clinton keeps applying pressure in Pakistan over terrorist havens" October 22, 2011|By Steven Lee Myers, New York Times

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Despite the convergence of the top US diplomatic, military, and intelligence officials, the talks appeared to produce no immediate breakthrough in the deeply strained relationship.

The delegation, officials said, bluntly warned Pakistan that it faced a decisive choice between fighting alongside the United States - or watching as US forces act alone against the extremist Haqqani network, even inside Pakistan, if necessary....  

We already have. Looks like a violation of sovereignty to me.

For the first time, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton acknowledged that the United States had met secretly with a Haqqani representative this summer - at the urging of the Pakistani intelligence service, an aide later said, declining to discuss it further....  

What a joke.

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