US may lose Pakistan as key ally: FM Khar

ISLAMABAD/WASHINGTON: Pakistan warned the United States it risks losing an ally if it continued to accuse Islamabad of playing a double game in the war against militancy, escalating the crisis in relations between the two countries.   

Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar was responding to comments by U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen, who said Pakistan’s top spy agency was closely tied to the Haqqani network.

“You will lose an ally,” Khar said while talking to a Pakistan-based news channel in New York in remarks broadcast on Friday.

“You cannot afford to alienate Pakistan, you cannot afford to alienate the Pakistani people. If you are choosing to do so and if they are choosing to do so it will be at their (the United States’) own cost.”

Mullen, speaking in Senate testimony, alleged Haqqani operatives launched an attack last week on the U.S. embassy in Kabul with the support of Pakistan’s military intelligence.

“The message for America is: ‘They can’t live with us, they can’t live without us,” Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani told reporters.

“Anything which is said about an ally, about a partner, publicly to recriminate it, to humiliate it, is not acceptable,” said Khar.

The United States has long pressed Pakistan to go after the Haqqani network, which it believes operates from sanctuaries in North Waziristan on the Afghan border.

Pakistan says its army is too stretched fighting its own Taliban insurgency.

The Haqqani network, Mullen said, is a “veritable arm” of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI).

Mullen, CIA director David Petraeus and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton all have met with their Pakistani counterparts in recent days to demand Islamabad take action against the Haqqani network.

Any Pakistani offensive against the Haqqanis would be risky. The group has an estimated 10,000-15,000 seasoned fighters at its disposal and analysts say the Pakistani army would likely suffer heavy casualties.

Mahmud Durrani, a retired major general and former Pakistani ambassador to Washington, said both sides should ease tensions to avoid American military action beyond drone strikes or economic sanctions.

“There’s a possibility. It’s wide open. But it will be absolutely, totally disastrous.” AGENCIES

Gen. Kayani assures tackling Waziristan terrorists: Mullen

Staff Report

WASHINGTON: U.S. Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen has said that the Pakistan Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvaiz Kayani has assured him of taking action against terrorists in Northern Waziristan.

Mullen made a claim during a recent interview that Northern Waziristan is an epicenter of terrorists and Al Qaeda is still active in that area.

He added that Pakistan has made sacrifices in the war against terror and suffered losses of civilian lives in this regard.

Admiral Mike Mullen further added that Pakistan’s Army Chief and Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff have given assurances of tackling terrorists in Northern Waziristan. SAMAA

Pakistan plans to target Qaeda ‘epicenter’ in NW: Mullen

President Barack Obama’s top military adviser Mike Mullen said that Pakistan’s Army has pledged to go after militants the US wants targeted in an area harboring al- Qaeda that has become the epicenter of terrorism.
Navy Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said his Pakistani counterpart, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, has given assurances he will mount an offensive the U.S. has long called for in North Waziristan along the Afghan border.Muller cited as evidence for his optimism Pakistan’s offensives against the Taliban and related groups elsewhere in the country during the past 1 years. He’s committed to me to go into North Waziristan and to root out these terrorists as well, Mullen, 64, said in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s Conversations with Judy Woodruff to be broadcast this weekend. He clearly knows what our priorities are.In an interview that also touched on Iran, China and the burdens facing returning war veterans, Mullen said he hadn’t read Washington journalist Bob Woodward’s latest book on the administration’s strategy debates, Obama’s Wars.He countered suggestions in the book that the military limited Obama’s options on Afghanistan during a strategy review last year. The military provided its best advice, Mullen said. He said the goal was to defeat al-Qaeda and ensure Afghanistan wouldn’t again become a haven for the group as it had been before the US ousted the Taliban from power after the Sept 11, 2001, terror attacks. That’s how I approached my best military advice to the president, Mullen said.
In addition to the military campaign in Afghanistan, Obama is relying on neighboring Pakistan to help rout al-Qaeda and related groups that threaten troops across the border and may be preparing further attacks in Europe or the US, such as the May 1 car-bomb attempt in New York’s Times Square. Pakistan, a nuclear-armed nation struggling with an economic crisis and newly re-established democratic rule, says its army is stretched by the fight against militants in six tribal agencies and a flood that inundated a fifth of the country in July. North Waziristan is the epicenter of terrorism, Mullen said. It’s where al-Qaeda lives.Pakistan has shifted more than 70,000 troops from the country’s border with India, its traditional rival, to the northwest, mobilizing a total of 140,000 forces.

Michael Mullen calls on Rao Qamar

ISLAMABAD: Admiral Michael G Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, United State Armed Forces called on Air Chief Marshal Rao Qamar Suleman, Chief of the Air Staff, Pakistan Air Force here at the Air Headquarters.

Original post:
Michael Mullen calls on Rao Qamar

Mullen rules out unilateral operation in Pakistan

The US Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen rejected the possibility of US operation in tribal areas of Pakistan.
The US is focusing on Pakistan’s cooperation for combating the Taliban and working with Pakistan and Afghanistan to pressurize the Al-Qaeda leadership, said Mullen in an interview with a US TV channel.
We are building strong relations with Pakistan and its forces are being provided training in this regard, he added.
We are satisfied with Pakistan’s performance against terrorism, Mullen replied when he was asked whether US is launching an operation in Pakistani tribal areas.

Mullen stresses Pakistan cooperation over US retaliation

WASHINGTON: Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Sunday he is more focused on Pakistani cooperation to contain the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan than weighing military action against militant targets in that country in retaliation for a terror attack in the US emanating from there.

Mullen, appearing on Fox News Sunday program, said he was pleased with the increase in Pakistani military success against militants along the Afghan border.

The top US military officer, who has traveled extensively to Pakistan, said his focus is on supporting the allyin the fight against militant groups and that US is working to strengthen its relationship with the country.

“My focus more than anything else is in support of them,” he stated, when asked if Washington is putting Islamabad or the militant groups operating along the border on notice about taking unilateral action in the event of an attack originating from the area.

“Clearly, I mean, we”re very concerned about that part of the world. We”re very concerned about — that”s where Al Qaeda leadership lives. We know that. And we”re working with Pakistan and, quite frankly, with Afghanistan to continue to put pressure on that leadership. And I wouldn”t speak to any kind of details in terms of either plans or operations,” Mullen added.

Reports this weekend of contingency planning for a possible military strike against militant targets followed news that the alleged attacker in the failed Times Square car bombing, a US citizen, had ties to Pakistan.

Praising Pakistan”s successful operations against militants in the country”s northwestern regions, Mullen said:

“I am impressed how much Pakistan has evolved over the last couple of years. They have lost a significant number of troops. They”ve regained a significant amount of their territory. They”r very focused on that. They are struggling in building behind the security that they created, particularly in the western areas.”

He also acknowledged that Pakistan has moved some 70,000 troops to the West.

“So we are working hard to strengthen that relationship. We are working hard to support them in training. And we will continue to do that.”

Judiciary is Free Now: AQ Khan

Pakistan News: Nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan has said that no judge would give wrong verdict as the judiciary is free now and slammed Musharraf for muzzling the same during his reign. Addressing District Bar Rawalpindi, AQ Khan said that 1971-like situation would never arise and added that to make the country a nuclear power in a short period of six years is not an ordinary thing. He hoped that judges would not give any ruling against the interests of country and nation, and acknowledged that Pakistan was moving towards betterment and urged to shun hopelessness in this regard. Khan added that the judiciary has realized that public support hinged on right verdicts. He observed that the enemy could do nothing except making hue and cry. He hailed the role of lawyers and media in upholding rule of law in the country.

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Judiciary is Free Now: AQ Khan was first posted on January 9, 2010 at 1:14 pm.

Mike Mullen for Revisiting Af-Pak Terror Strategy

Mike Mullen for Revisiting Af-Pak Terror Strategy,US Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen has called to revisit Af-Pak terror strategy, saying that US was fed up of getting its troops killed over there.
Mullen stated this while addressing hundreds of students at the Naval War College in Newport. He noted that change in the Afghanistan and Northern Pakistan war strategy is vital to defeat the militants. He observed that the situation was worsening in Pakistan, adding that such people were needed to address the situation who knew the language and culture of that region and called for working in harmony with both Afghanistan and Pakistan. Mullen told the audience that Yemen and Somalia were becoming new safe havens of the al-Qaeda , however, ruled out any US plans to send troops into Yemen terming it a sovereign state.

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Mike Mullen for Revisiting Af-Pak Terror Strategy was first posted on January 9, 2010 at 1:55 pm.

Mike Mullen Warns Against Attack on Iran

WASHINGTON: US Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, warns that any military attack on Iran will be “very, very destabilizing” and will have unintended consequences for the Middle East.

Admiral Mullen accused Tehran of being “on a path that has strategic intent to develop nuclear weapons and have been for some time.”

“I think that outcome is potentially a very, very destabilizing outcome on the other hand, when asked about striking Iran, specifically, that also has a very, very destabilizing outcome,” Adm. Mullen told a gathering at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

He underlined that diplomacy is crucial in resolving the standoff over Iran’s nuclear energy program. However, Mullen says the US military is prepared for any eventuality in Iran, despite being stretched by wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Adm. Mullen said he worried about “unintended consequences” of either scenario, adding “that part of the world could become much more unstable, which is a dangerous global outcome.”

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Mike Mullen Warns Against Attack on Iran was first posted on January 8, 2010 at 3:03 pm.

Supreme Court Issues Contempt Notice to Rehman Malik

ISLAMABAD: Supreme Court of Pakistan issued Thursday a contempt of court notice to Minister for Interior Rehman Malik on transferring DG FIA against court’s will and asked him to file his response by December 24.

The apex court bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry has also ordered the minister to present himself before the bench on December 24.

The bench expressed its anger over transfer of Director General Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Tariq Khosa and termed the act an interference in court’s affairs.

CJ ordered the Acting Attorney General Shah Khawar to re-transfer Khosa as DG FIA immediately and also rejected the Federation’s request of awarding at least a day for implementing the order.

Chief Justice in his remarks ordered the government “to do today whatever it wants” in complying with the court’s orders, saying that if the government failed to obey the court will take action against the Interior Minister.

The bench also canceled a notification issued by the Interior Ministry of formation of investigation team to probe into Steel Mill corruption case.

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