US, Pakistan Hold Secret Security Meet

Or we will; rhetoric increasing in wake of embassy attack

(NEWSER) - 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. More»

Relations between US and Pakistani security forces hit nadir

(NEWSER) - The US-Pakistan security alliance has deteriorated so badly that Pakistani officers actually jeered top general Ashfaq Kayani at a town-hall-style meeting last month, demanding to know why Pakistan still supports US policy, officials tell the Washington Post . That kind of open criticism “is something no Pakistani military commander has ever had to face before,” according to one US official; another said Kayani “is fighting to survive.” More»

(NEWSER) - The US could double the number of its troops in Afghanistan to about 60,000 by next summer, the highest such estimate to date, Reuters reports. American troops currently number 31,000, but joint chiefs chairman Mike Mullen said today that an additional 20,000 to 30,000 will be needed by the spring or early summer. “We're going to fill that requirement so it's not a matter of if, but when," he said. More»

Many fear Yanks may be colluding with India

(NEWSER) - Pakistanis are fearful that the US is part of an India-Afghanistan plot to carve up the nation, writes Jane Perlez in the New York Times. Those worries have been fueled by a theoretical map drawn by US neoconservatives featuring a shrunken Pakistan and larger neighbors. “One of the biggest fears is the collaboration between India and Afghanistan to destroy Pakistan,” said a Pakistani insider. “Some feel the United States is colluding in this.” More»

General told that US cross-border strikes are giving anti-American Islamists a boost

(NEWSER) - Pakistan has told the new chief of US Central Command that missile strikes inside its territory must stop, the Guardian reports. Gen. David Petraeus was warned that the strikes on suspected al-Qaeda militants in tribal areas across the Afghan border are fanning anti-American sentiment and creating a "credibility" gap for Pakistan's new government. More»