A top US Senator has called for “reappraisal of military assistance to Pakistan” after Defence Secretary Leon Panetta and US Ambassador to Afghanistan Ryan Croker said the Pakistan-based Haqqani network was responsible for the recent attack on the US embassy in Kabul.
“It is all well known that while there are terrorists operating loosely in Pakistan who attack Afghans and Americans, it is the Haqqani Network that enjoys the official support and backing of the intelligence service of Pakistan,” said Senator Mark Kirk. “Given this new information, and especially given the statement by US Ambassador in Afghanistan Ryan Crocker and now our Secretary of Defence Leon Panetta, the Senate should engage in an agonising reappraisal of military assistance to Pakistan. We should base our reappraisal on the statements of our own ambassador in Kabul and the secretary of defense himself,” he said in his speech on the Senate floor yesterday.
Kirk, who recently served in Afghanistan for two weeks as Naval Reserve Intelligence Commander, said it was not al Qaeda, which was armed and dangerous, but a shadow of its former shadow. “It is not Taliban, which is still extremely armed and dangerous. It is a new group called the Haqqani Network,” he said. “Recently, there was a high-profile attack on the Afghan government and ISAF headquarters in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan. The US ambassador two days ago announced this was the work of the Haqqani Network. That is a very important factoid,” Kirk said.
“Then yesterday, the secretary of defense also highlighted the Haqqani and pointed a direct finger at the government of Pakistan and its intelligence service, the ISI,” he added. In a speech in Chicago on September 6 following his return from Afghanistan, Kirk had alleged that the Haqqani network had relationship with the establishments in Pakistan.