American-Pakistani diplomatic crisis
By Madison RuppertEditor of End the Lie
Pakistani Federal Interior Minister, Rehman Malik (Credit: Telecom News Bulletin)
The state of U.S.-Pakistani relations is growing increasingly grim as a covert and overt diplomatic crisis develops between America and Pakistan, represented by heated rhetoric coming from both sides and the growing involvement of outside entities like China and the Saudis.
This is emerging in several ways including a meeting between Pakistani Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir and U.S. Ambassador Cameron Munter, meetings between senior Saudi intelligence authorities and the chief of the Inter-Services Intelligence Agency (ISI), meetings between Chinese Vice Prime Minister Meng Jianzhu and senior Pakistani civilian and military leaders, and most notably the accusation coming from Pakistan’s Federal Interior Minister, Rehman Malik, that the Haqqani network is a CIA creation, not a Pakistani one.
Furthermore, a meeting between Pakistani Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and British Defense Secretary Liam Fox has been “postponed indefinitely” due to “the current situation [in Pakisan]”.
A Pakistani news outlet, The Express Tribune, chalks this up to continued in-house talks about the American pressure on Pakistan regarding alleged ISI support for the Haqqani terrorist network.
The critiques coming from America have been harsh, including a statement at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace by Admiral Mike Mullen just days before he is to step down as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in which he said that the ISI has “been supporting proxies for an extended period of time. The Haqqani piece of this has got to be reversed.”
In no uncertain terms, Mullen accused the Pakistani version of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of directly supporting terrorists for an extended period of time.
He also stated before the Senate Armed Services Committee that, “The Haqqani network … acts as a veritable arm of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence Agency. With ISI support, Haqqani operatives planned and conducted that truck bomb attack, as well as the attack on our embassy. We also have credible intelligence that they were behind the June 28 attack on the Inter-Continental Hotel in Kabul as well as a host of other smaller but effective operations.”
This type of language marks a significant new stage in the deteriorating diplomatic relationship between Islamabad and Washington....continued from source
