W O R L D

Haqqani network carried out Kabul attack with ISI support: US
Washington, September 22
In a severe indictment of Pakistan's links with terror groups, a top US military commander today said the ISI provided support to the Haqqani terror network.

Pakistani soldiers at the house destroyed by an explosion in Mingora, the main town in the Swat Valley, on Thursday. Pakistani security forces killed three militants and arrested two others who were holed up with weapons in the house. — AP/PTI

Pak minister denies ISI connection
Islamabad: Pakistan would not tolerate any incursion on its territory by US forces targeting militant groups, the country's interior minister said on Thursday, calling for Washington to provide the intelligence Islamabad needs to take them out itself.

US lawmakers link aid to crackdown
Washington, September 22
Marking up pressure on Pakistan, a key US Congressional committee has voted to make security and economic aid to Pakistan conditional on its cooperation in fighting the Haqqani network, blamed for deadly attacks on American interests in Afghanistan.

China warns US firms over Taiwan arms sales
Beijing, September 22
Foreign companies supplying weapons to Taiwan are infringing the territorial integrity of China, the foreign ministry said on Thursday.

Berlin greets Pope with protests
Berlin, September 22
Germans opposed to Pope Benedict’s conservative views on sexuality and angry at cases of abuse by priests protested in Berlin on Thursday at the start of his four-day visit to his homeland, where record numbers have quit the Catholic Church.

 

 

Haqqani network carried out Kabul attack with ISI support: US

Washington, September 22
In a severe indictment of Pakistan's links with terror groups, a top US military commander today said the ISI provided support to the Haqqani terror network in carrying out the recent attack on the country's embassy in Kabul.

"The Haqqani network, for one, acts as a veritable arm of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency. With ISI support, Haqqani operatives planned and conducted that truck bomb attack, as well as the assault on our embassy," Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in his testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

"We also have credible intelligence that they were behind the June 28th attack against the Inter-Continental Hotel in Kabul and a host of other smaller but effective operations,” he said.

“In choosing to use violent extremism as an instrument of policy, the government of Pakistan -- and most especially the Pakistani Army and ISI -- jeopardises not only the prospect of our strategic partnership, but also Pakistan's opportunity to be a respected nation with legitimate regional influence,” Mullen said.

He said Pakistan may believe that by using these proxies they are hedging their bets, or redressing what they feel is an imbalance of regional power but in reality, they have already lost that bet.

"By exporting violence, they have eroded their internal security and their position in the region. They have undermined their international credibility and threatened their economic well-being.

"Only a decision to break with this policy can pave the road to a positive future for Pakistan," Mullen said. The Admiral added, "As you know, I have expended enormous energy on this relationship. I've met General Kayani more than two dozen times -- including a two-and-a-half hour meeting last weekend in Spain.

"I've done this because I believe in the importance of Pakistan to the region, because I believe that we share a common interest against terrorism, and because I recognise the great political and economic difficulties Pakistan faces."

Referring to his meetings with Pakistan army chief in the past two years, Mullen said some may argue he have wasted his time, that Pakistan is no closer to US than before and may now have drifted even further away. — PTI

Pak minister denies ISI connection

Islamabad: Pakistan would not tolerate any incursion on its territory by US forces targeting militant groups, the country's interior minister said on Thursday, calling for Washington to provide the intelligence Islamabad needs to take them out itself.

Rehman Malik also rejected US allegations that Pakistan's intelligence agency aids or has ties with the Taliban-allied Haqqani Network, a powerful guerrilla group that straddles the mountainous border areas between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

"If you say that ISI is involved in that attack, I categorically deny it. We have no such policy to attack or aid attack through Pakistani forces or through any Pakistani assistance," Malik said. — Reuters

US lawmakers link aid to crackdown

Washington, September 22
Marking up pressure on Pakistan, a key US Congressional committee has voted to make security and economic aid to Pakistan conditional on its cooperation in fighting the Haqqani network, blamed for deadly attacks on American interests in Afghanistan.

The Senate Appropriations Committees action, which requires approval from the full Senate and the House of Representatives, comes as Washington has escalated pressure for action against the group amid rising tensions in relations between Pakistan and the US. In addition to the Haqqani network, the committee has also called for action to be taken against groups like Al-Qaida, Quetta Shura and Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistani Punjab based terrorist group blamed for Mumbai attacks.

Top American officials have accused Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of having links with the Haqqani network, which it also blames for the latest terrorist attack on the US Embassy in Kabul.

"The Bill includes strengthened restrictions on assistance for Pakistan by conditioning all funds to the Government of Pakistan on cooperation against the Haqqani Network, Al-Qaida, and other terrorist organisations, with a waiver, and funding based on achieving benchmarks," the committee said in a statement after it voted the Fiscal Year 2012 Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Bill. — PTI

5 killed in two blasts in northwest Pak

Islamabad, September 22
At least five persons were killed and four wounded when two vehicles were targeted with roadside bombs today in the restive Bajaur tribal region of northwest Pakistan. Two pick-up trucks carrying passengers were hit by remote-controlled bombs in Chamrkand area near the border with Afghanistan.

Five persons died instantly, TV channels reported. The injured were taken to a nearby medical facility. No group claimed responsibility for the attack. Authorities believe Taliban may have been behind the attack as they are now targeting tribesmen for supporting security forces.— PTI

Assange denies sex allegations in memoir

London, September 22
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange says in a new memoir that he did not sexually assault two women who have accused him of rape, and claims he was warned the US government was trying to entrap him.

"Julian Assange: The Unauthorised Autobiography" went on sale in Britain today against the wishes of Assange, who condemned his publisher for releasing it.

In the book written by a ghostwriter who conducted 50 hours of interviews with the WikiLeaks chief Assange says "I may be a chauvinist pig of some sort but I am no rapist." He said his two accusers "each had sex with me willingly and were happy to hang out with me afterwards."

Assange, 40, claims a Western intelligence contact warned him the US government, angered by WikiLeaks' release of secret documents, was considering dealing with him "illegally" through rigged drug or sex allegations.

He also says the sex charges may be the result of "a terrible misunderstanding that was stoked up" between his accusers. WikiLeaks and its silver-haired frontman shot to worldwide prominence with a series of spectacular leaks of secret US material, including the publication of about 250,000 classified State Department cables.

Assange has also become enmeshed in financial and legal woes, including the allegations of rape and sexual misconduct made last year by two Swedish women.

Assange was arrested and briefly jailed over the allegations in Britain in December.

He is currently out on bail and living at a supporter's mansion in eastern England as he awaits a judge's decision on whether he will be extradited to Sweden. A ruling is expected within weeks. The book, for which Assange says he agreed to advances of more than $1 million, was intended to help salvage WikiLeaks' precarious finances.

But after seeing the first draft, Assange got cold feet. Attempts to renegotiate the book deal were unsuccessful. Assange accused his British publisher, Canongate, of "opportunism and duplicity" for publishing the unfinished book without his approval.

In a statement released to The Associated Press, he said the publisher had acted "in breach of contract, in breach of confidence, in breach of my creative rights and in breach of personal assurances." Canongate said that since Assange had not repaid his advance which was handed over to lawyers to help pay his legal fees it had decided to publish the book. — AP

Twin blasts kill four in Russia

Moscow, September 22
At least four people were killed and 60 others, mostly policemen, injured in twin blasts in Russia's southern city of Makhachkala.

The explosions within metres (yards) of each other rocked the capital of the North Caucasus region of Dagestan yesterday.

The car bombs filled with shrapnel went off shortly after midnight near the city's central square, with an interval of some 15-17 minutes, police said.

The second blast targeted the police convoy which rushed to the scene of the first explosion, RIA Novosti reported.

A police Lt Colonel was among the killed, NTV channel reported.

According to state-run Rossiya 24 news channel, up to 40 kg TNT equivalent explosives were used in the improvised explosive devices probably planted in the two parked cars or kept under them. — PTI

China warns US firms over Taiwan arms sales

Beijing, September 22
Foreign companies supplying weapons to Taiwan are infringing the territorial integrity of China, the foreign ministry said on Thursday.

"Whoever engages or participates in activities or actions that harm China's sovereignty and territorial integrity will certainly encounter the resolute opposition of the Chinese people," said foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei.

The US administration decided Wednesday to sell weapons worth $5.85 billion to Taiwan. — IANS

Berlin greets Pope with protests

Pope Benedict in Berlin. — Reuters

Berlin, September 22
Germans opposed to Pope Benedict’s conservative views on sexuality and angry at cases of abuse by priests protested in Berlin on Thursday at the start of his four-day visit to his homeland, where record numbers have quit the Catholic Church.

The German-born pope said before landing he understood why some were "scandalised by these crimes" and had left the Church. He used a biblical image of Jesus the fisherman to say: "The Church is a net of the Lord that pulls in good fish and bad fish."

But the 84-year-old pope's words at the start of his third and toughest papal tour of Germany failed to soothe protesters gathering in Berlin ahead of his speech to the Bundestag lower house of parliament, and mass for 70,000 at the Olympic Stadium.

"This is impossibly arrogant, it shows he is not of this world," said 62-year-old Birk Friedrich, who spent the first 14 years of his life in a Catholic children's home where he said violent abuse was rife. "It was the Church and this pope who allowed all of the abuse to be swept under the carpet," said Friedrich in Berlin's Potsdamer Platz, where the banners included one reading "Better God without a Church than a Church without God.” — Reuters