The Haqqani-ISI connection

WASHINGTON - MAY 21: Adm. Michael Mullen, Cha...Image by Getty Images via @daylife
Reuters:

The top U.S. military officer accused Pakistan's intelligence agency of maintaining ties to militants in Afghanistan during a trip to Islamabad on Wednesday that was focused on easing diplomatic tensions.

Admiral Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Pakistan's perceived foot-dragging in tackling strongholds in North Waziristan belonging to the Haqqani network and its continuing relationship with it was "the most difficult part" of the U.S.-Pakistani relationship.

"It's fairly well known that the ISI has a longstanding relationship with the Haqqani network," he said in an interview with Pakistan's daily Dawn newspaper. "Haqqani is supporting, funding, training fighters that are killing Americans and killing coalition partners. And I have a sacred obligation to do all I can to make sure that doesn't happen.

"So that's at the core -- it's not the only thing -- but that's at the core that I think is the most difficult part of the relationship," Mullen said.

Pakistan's powerful Directorate of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) has long been suspected of maintaining ties to the Haqqani network, cultivated during the 1980s when Jalaluddin Haqqani was a feared battlefield commander against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan.

"I don't know what kind of relationship he's talking about," a senior Pakistani intelligence official told Reuters. "If he means we're providing them with protection, with help, that's not correct. Even if you are enemies, you have a relationship."

He said that Pakistan had attacked Haqqani's positions and raided his mosques in the past. "Right now, we are not attacking him because we are fully engaged against another group, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP)," he said.

...
An army that can't multitask is in trouble. If Pakistan is too busy to deal with the Haqqanis they should get out of the way and let the US deal with them. It would shorten the war, but perhaps Pakistan sees its interest in prolonging the war to prolong aid from the US.
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Comments

  1. patrick.campbell6:26 PM

    Is there any connection between the Pakistani Ambassador to the US (Husain Haqqani) and the Haqqani network?

    ReplyDelete

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