SEPTEMBER 22, 2011
U.S.: Pakistani Intelligence Supports Militant Attacks
By JULIAN E. BARNES
WASHINGTON--The top American uniformed officer told Congress Thursday that an extremist group considered responsible for high profile attacks in Afghanistan works as a "veritable arm" of Pakistan's intelligence service.
The remarks by Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of staff, represented the strongest U.S. criticism to date of the long-suspected ties between the militant Haqqani network and Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence Agency.
In his most serious accusation, Adm. Mullen said the agency had aided the militant group's attack last week against the U.S. embassy in Kabul, and also helped in the Sept. 11 truck bomb attack in Afghanistan's Wardak province.
"With ISI support, Haqqani operatives plan and conducted that truck bomb attack, as well as the assault on our embassy," Adm. Mullen said, adding there was evidence the group also was behind the June 28 attack on Kabul's Inter-Continental Hotel and others.
"The Haqqani network ... acts as a veritable arm of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence Agency," Adm. Mullen said.
Pakistani officials have long denied in public statements that there are any ties between the ISI and leaders of the Haqqani network.
Relations between Washington and Islamabad have spiraled downward throughout this year, especially after an American CIA contractor killed two Pakistanis and the Navy SEALs launched a secret raid into Pakistan to kill Osama bin Laden.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, testifying alongside Adm. Mullen before the Senate Armed Services Committee, said that the U.S. was continuing to pressure Pakistan to take action against the Haqqanis.
He said Adm. Mullen had met with Gen. Ashfaq Kayani, the Pakistan Army Chief of Staff, and that David Petraeus, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, has met with Lt. Gen. Ahmad Shuja Pasha, the ISI head.
"There's been a very clear message to them and to others that they must take steps to prevent the safe haven that the Haqqanis are using," Mr. Panetta said. "We simply cannot allow these kinds of terrorists to be able to go into Afghanistan, attack our forces, and then return to Pakistan for safe haven and not face any kind of pressure from the Pakistanis for that to stop."