Pakistan supports Haqqani network: Mullen

In a scathing and unprecedented U.S. condemnation of Pakistan, Admiral Mike Mullen said the country's main intelligence agency, the ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence agency), was actively supporting Haqqani network militants blamed for an assault on the U.S. embassy in Kabul last week.

“The Haqqani network, for one, acts as a veritable arm of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency,” Mullen told the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee.

The Haqqani network is probably the most dangerous faction in the Afghan Taliban. A CIA asset turned al-Qaida ally, the United States in the 1980s funneled arms and cash to the Haqqani faction to counter Soviet forces.

Mullen said Haqqani militants — with ISI backing — this month carried out a truck bombing on a NATO base in Afghanistan that wounded 77 Americans; assaulted the U.S. embassy and NATO headquarters in the Afghan capital; and in June staged an attack on the InterContinental hotel in Kabul.

The admiral's tough language follows a series of stern warnings from top U.S. officials on Pakistan's failure to crack down on the Haqqani network, raising the possibility of unilateral U.S. action.

“If they keep killing our troops that would not be something we would just sit idly by and watch,” Mullen said of the Haqqani insurgents.

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, appearing at the same Senate hearing, expressed frustration over Haqqani sanctuaries in Pakistan and renewed a vow that the United States would safeguard its troops.

Pakistan this week promised action against the Haqqani network if the United States provided sufficient intelligence, but denied the al-Qaida-linked Taliban faction operated on Pakistani soil.

Mullen told senators that Pakistan was jeopardizing its partnership with Washington as well as its regional influence by “choosing to use violent extremism as an instrument of policy.” He added: “By exporting violence, they have eroded their internal security and their position in the region.”

While Pakistan has maintained ties to some militants as a hedge to counter its arch-foe India, the gamble has proved a failure, he said.

In his last appearance before the Senate committee as he prepares to step down this month as chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mullen defended his efforts to build a dialogue with Pakistan's military despite mixed results.

“Some may argue I have wasted my time, that Pakistan is no closer to us than before — and may now have drifted even further away. I disagree,” he said.

“Indeed, I think we would be in a far tougher situation today, in the wake of the frostiness which fell over us after the bin Laden raid, were it not for the groundwork General Kayani and I had laid — were it not for the fact that we could at least have a conversation about the way ahead, however difficult that conversation might be.”

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