WASHINGTON — The top U.S. military officer accused Pakistan’s powerful intelligence agency Thursday of backing extremists in planning and executing the assault on the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan last week and a truck bomb attack that wounded 77 American soldiers days earlier.
In his last congressional testimony before he retires next week, Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, insisted that the Haqqani insurgent network “acts as a veritable arm” of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency, undermining the uneasy U.S.-Pakistan relationship forged in the anti-terrorism fight and endangering American troops in the nearly 10-year-old war in Afghanistan.
Pakistan is “exporting violence” and threatening any success in Afghanistan, Mullen said.
Mullen’s harsh words marked the first time an American official has directly tied Pakistan’s intelligence agency to the attacks and signaled a significant shift in the U.S. approach to Islamabad. In the past, U.S. criticism of Pakistan largely had been relayed in private conversations with the countries’ leaders while American officials publicly offered encouraging words for Islamabad’s participation in the terror fight.
Mullen reaffirmed his support for continued U.S. engagement with the nuclear-armed Pakistan and warned of the consequences if the relationship breaks down.
Testifying with Mullen, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta also decried Pakistani support for the Haqqani network and said Pakistani authorities have been told that the U.S. will not tolerate a continuation of the group’s cross-border attacks.
“They must take steps to prevent the safe haven that the Haqqanis are using,” Panetta said.
Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, pressed Panetta on what options are available to the U.S. to go after the Haqqani network. Panetta declined to go into details publicly but made clear that the Pakistanis know what might happen.
“I don’t think they would be surprised by the actions we might or might not take,” he said.
He also said he has not spelled out for the Pakistanis what unilateral actions the Obama administration would be willing to take.
On Wednesday, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved a $53 billion foreign-aid bill that cuts and restricts aid to Pakistan. It conditioned aid on Pakistan’s cooperation against the Haqqani network, al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations, with some waivers. The panel also took the unusual step of not specifying other assistance to Pakistan.
