The United States has sent its top defence official to India to find out the culprit behind the Mumbai terror attacks that had claimed over 200 lives, including Americans, last week.Defence Secretary Robert Gates has confirmed that the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen is on his way to India or already there."But the truth is most of the people who were killed were Indians. And so it's important that we find out who did it," he said.
Pakistan has no alternative but to surgically eliminate its bonds with jihadi groups, cleanse its security establishments of jihadi patrons and focus on rebuilding the State on democratic lines, says Brigadier S K Chatterji (retd).
Apparently Hina Rabbani Khar, Pakistan's youngest and first female foreign minister, has had it with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen's incessant indictments of Pakistan's intelligence agency, the Inter Services Intelligence.
Pakistan's former ambassador to the United States Husain Haqqani said that the judicial commission investigating the memogate was trying to coerce him to confess that President Asif Ali Zardari had urged him to draft the memo to former chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee Admiral Mike Mullen.
Pakistani-American businessman Mansoor Ijaz has said that Pakistan's Ambassador to the US Husain Haqqani was the official who asked him to deliver a secret memorandum on behalf of President Asif Ali Zardari seeking help from the Obama administration to prevent a possible military takeover.
With the United States and Pakistan engaged in a war of words, China on Friday sprung to the defence of its 'all weather ally', asking Washington to respect Islamabad's sovereignty and territorial integrity while fighting its war on terror.
An "emotional" Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari expressed happiness while his powerful army chief Ashfaq Pervez Kayani was left "shocked" and demanded a public explanation from American President Barack Obama when the United States told them about Osama Bin Laden's killing in Abbottabad.
The Bharatiya Janata party on Saturday cautioned Prime Minister Manmohan Singh against India holding talks with Pakistan in the wake of a top United States Army Commander's statement that Inter-Services Intelligence was working in "close coordination" with terror groups.
Husain Haqqani, Pakistan's ambassador to Washington, has been summoned to Islamabad following reports that he sought United States help to rein in the country's powerful generals in the wake of the raid that killed Al QaeOsama bin Laden. He has offered his resignation to defuse a growing controversy at home that threatens to aggravate already precarious relations between Pakistan's military and its government.
United States President Barack Obama on Thursday evaded a question about whether he would be willing to cut off all assistance to Pakistan in the wake of allegations by recently retired chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen that the Haqqani network is a veritable arm of Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence.
The United States was aware of Pakistan's "duplicitous role" in the war on terror long before its top military commander Mike Mullen branded the dreaded Haqqani network of Taliban a "veritable arm" of Inter Services Intelligence, a media report said on Tuesday.
The abduction and the subsequent murder of noted Pakistani journalist, Syed Saleem Shahzad might have been approved by the Pakistan government, a top United States military leader said on Friday.
Four-star General James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who is expected to succeed chairman Admiral Mike Mullen as the top military man in Pentagon next year, has admitted that the terrorist safe havens that exist in Pakistan are a major strategic vulnerability in achieving success in Afghanistan against the Al Qaeda and the Taliban.
Hours before Washington is set to release an assessment of war in Afghanistan, topmost United States military commander has expressed "impatience" with Islamabad over its failure to clear terrorists from havens on the border with Afghanistan.
The retired American general who delivered an alleged memo that sought United States help to stave off a feared coup in Pakistan has said that he believes the document was "not credible".
United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has acknowledged that Washington's leverage with Pakistan to go after the Haqqani network, which has been killing US soldiers and is responsible for the attack on the US embassy in Kabul, was limited.
As pressure mounted on Islamabad to move against the Haqqani network, accused by United States of carrying out a spate of attacks in Kabul, Inter-Services Intelligence chief Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha rushed to Washington to hold a quite meeting with the new Central Investigation Agency head Gen David Petraeus.
Days after the WikiLeaks went onto release more than 92,000 classified documents pertaining to the war against terrorism, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates acknowledged that thousands of such classified papers are missing from the department of defence.
Holding that there was every possibility of recent US military aid to Pakistan being used against India, the government said on Monday that it would provide all assistance to the armed forces to protect every inch of its territory.
The United States on Friday said China's aggressive posturing over territorial claims in the Pacific and Indian Ocean regions was a matter of concern that America shared with India.
Voicing concern over the misuse of United States' military aid by Pakistan, India on Friday asked America to set up a "monitoring mechanism" as a remedial measure, but got no clear assurance in this regard.
India conveyed its serious concerns over the US military aid to Pakistan being misused against it and asked America to establish a "monitoring mechanism" to ensure that this does not happen on Friday.
Currently the Army Chief, 59-year-old Dempsey needs to be confirmed by the Senate before taking over the new position.
Pakistan has offered to play a central role in resolving the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan and hold talks with the Taliban. Pakistan's proposal is likely to be discussed when National Security Adviser General James L Jones visits Islamabad later this week, says the report. United States has reacted cautiously to Pakistan's renewed interest in seeking dialogue with the Taliban.
A top US military official today said there is no silver bullet for Afghanistan and the ultimate success there will be cumulative effect of sustained pressure across multiple lines of operation.Success will come only by and through a concerted effort by other agencies and other partners," Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters at a news briefing in Washington.
In a pessimistic assessment of the Afghan war, a top US military official said on Wednesday that after years of neglect, America is basically "starting over" its battle against the Taliban and al-Qaeda, whose alliance is now stronger than ever.
Hamid Karzai's first priority after getting re-elected as Afghanistan's president is to open peace talks with Pakistan in an attempt to end the Taliban insurgency raging across their shared border, one of his top aides has said.
Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari was so scared of a military coup after Osama bin Laden's death that he was ready to create a "new security team" favourable to Americans and promised the US to hand over Pakistan-based 26/11 perpetrators including those from its intelligence agency to India.
A top United States military official on Friday said that the Al-Qaeda and the Taliban leadership are trying to gain access to nuclear weapons.
Army chief General Deepak Kapoor on Thursday met his United States counterpart and other top ranking military officers and discussed various issues including joint training and exercises between the two countries. General Kapoor, who is on a five day visit to the US, met Joint Chiefs of Staff committee Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen, US army chief General George W Casey Junior and Central Command Chief General David H Petraeus in Washington.
Indian Army chief General Deepak Kapoor has arrived in Washington on a week-long visit to the United States, during which he is expected to hold discussions with top US military leadership on a wide range of bilateral issues, besides the situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan. General Kapoor is scheduled to meet Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen, his counterpart in the US Army General George W Casey and Defence Secretary Robert Gates.
In an interview to CBS Face the Nation, Chairman of America's Joint Chief of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen said Pakistan Army chief Ashfaq Parvez Kayani is focused on both -- the threat from India and that from internal insurgency.
The Taliban against whom US-led forces are fighting in Afghanistan grew "more effective" in the last three years because they had "safe haven" in the tribal areas of Pakistan to "rest" and "train" before returning to fight, US' top military commander has said.
Saying that the challenges the United States faces in Pakistan are far greater to that in Afghanistan, Senator John F Kerry, the chairman of the powerful Foreign Relations Committee, warned that if Pakistan, "a nuclear-armed nation of 170 million people" becomes a failed state, it would pose 'an unimaginable peril to itself, its neighbors and the world.'
The Indian Army has voiced fears to Washington that Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Tayiba may attempt to strike at the upcoming Commonwealth Games in New Delhi. The fears were conveyed to top US military commander Admiral Mike Mullen during his meetings in New Delhi. North Atlantic Treaty Organisation's commanders believe that the LeT is behind a string of attacks and influx of fighters into eastern Afghanistan.
Talking to media-persons on his special aircraft en route to New Delhi, United States Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen, while praising India for showing restraint after the ghastly 26/11 attacks, said extremists may try to repeat the incident that left 166 dead and over 300 injured. "I've worried a great deal about a repeat attack, of something like that," The Dawn newspaper quoted Mullen as saying
Pakistan believes that nuclear weapons are its "crown jewels" and a deterrent against India, a top US military official has said, even as he expressed deep concern over the safety of the nukes in the country. "These (nuclear weapons) are their crown jewels," Admiral Mike Mullen Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said.
America's top military official, on a second visit to Islamabad since the Mumbai terror attacks, has persuaded the country to do more to address India's concerns on terrorists operating from its soil in order to defuse tensions between the two nations.
Special United States Representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke, who was once speculated to be US President Obama's trouble-shooter to Kashmir, is so sensitive to creating an uproar in New Delhi if he speaks about Kashmir, that he doesn't even want to say the 'K word.'
While officials of the two allies offered few details on Wednesday about what was decided or even discussed at the meeting -- including any new strategies, tactics, weapons or troop deployment -- the star-studded list of participants and an extreme secrecy surrounding the talks, New York Times said the talks underscored how gravely the two nations regarded the growing militant threat.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances