US to Pakistan: Take Out Haqqani

Or we will; rhetoric increasing in wake of embassy attack
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 21, 2011 12:09 PM CDT
US to Pakistan: Take Out Haqqani
Leon Panetta, seen in this file photo, is among those pushing for a tougher stance towards Pakistan.   (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

US officials have been sending Pakistan an increasingly sharp message in recent days: Take out the Haqqani Taliban network, or we will. Pakistan’s intelligence service has a longstanding relationship with the Haqqani network—Adm. Mike Mullen described it as a “proxy connection”—but after a series of recent attacks, including last week’s attack on the US Embassy in Kabul, US officials are demanding that stop, the Washington Post reports.

“We’ve continued to state that this cannot happen,” says Leon Panetta, a major proponent of a new, tougher Pakistan policy. Several US officials have delivered the ultimatum in high-level meetings this week, including David Petraeus, Hillary Clinton, and Mike Mullen. Clinton, at least, is still expressing sympathy for Pakistan in public. But US ambassador Cameron Munter isn’t; in a radio interview this weekend he said the US has evidence “linking the Haqqani network to the Pakistan government.” (More Haqqani Network stories.)

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