Virgil
09-16-2008, 03:30 PM
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/17/world/asia/17pstan.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
=======================
Top Pentagon Official in Surprise Visit to Pakistan
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, America’s top military official, made a hastily arranged visit to Pakistan on Tuesday for talks about a recent incursion by American commandos based in neighboring Afghanistan.
The visit by the chairman, Adm. Mike Mullen, came as an uproar continued to grow in Pakistan about the incursion on Sept. 3, which severely strained relations between the United States and Pakistan, its top Muslim ally in the war against terrorism. The visit also coincided with conflicting accounts about a possible second American raid on Monday, as well as a warning by the Pakistan military that it would shoot at any foreign forces who crossed the border.
A Pakistani military spokesman, Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, said the army reserved the right to use force to defend the country and its people, but he said there was “no change in policy.”
Asked what the Pakistan military would do if there was a future incursion by American troops, he said: “There is a big if involved. We will see to it when such a situation arises.”
The Sept. 3 raid was the first publicly acknowledged operation by American ground forces in Pakistan in the campaign against Taliban and Al Qaeda targets. Previously, allied forces in Afghanistan had occasionally carried out airstrikes and artillery attacks in the border region of Pakistan, and American forces had some latitude to cross the border in “hot pursuit” of militants.
Admiral Mullen flew to Islamabad, the Pakistani capital, from Baghdad, where he had attended the change-of-command shifting responsibility for the United States military in Iraq from Gen. David H. Petraeus to Gen. Ray Odierno.
Admiral Mullen’s visit to Pakistan — his fifth as chairman of the joint chiefs — was added to his itinerary after he had left Washington, according to an American military official who spoke on condition of anonymity. The American Embassy in Islamabad requested that Admiral Mullen personally brief Pakistan’s civil and military leadership on the American military’s activities along the border, the official said. Admiral Mullen was due to meet Wednesday with Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani and Pakistan’s military chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani.
<snipped>
=======================
Top Pentagon Official in Surprise Visit to Pakistan
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, America’s top military official, made a hastily arranged visit to Pakistan on Tuesday for talks about a recent incursion by American commandos based in neighboring Afghanistan.
The visit by the chairman, Adm. Mike Mullen, came as an uproar continued to grow in Pakistan about the incursion on Sept. 3, which severely strained relations between the United States and Pakistan, its top Muslim ally in the war against terrorism. The visit also coincided with conflicting accounts about a possible second American raid on Monday, as well as a warning by the Pakistan military that it would shoot at any foreign forces who crossed the border.
A Pakistani military spokesman, Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, said the army reserved the right to use force to defend the country and its people, but he said there was “no change in policy.”
Asked what the Pakistan military would do if there was a future incursion by American troops, he said: “There is a big if involved. We will see to it when such a situation arises.”
The Sept. 3 raid was the first publicly acknowledged operation by American ground forces in Pakistan in the campaign against Taliban and Al Qaeda targets. Previously, allied forces in Afghanistan had occasionally carried out airstrikes and artillery attacks in the border region of Pakistan, and American forces had some latitude to cross the border in “hot pursuit” of militants.
Admiral Mullen flew to Islamabad, the Pakistani capital, from Baghdad, where he had attended the change-of-command shifting responsibility for the United States military in Iraq from Gen. David H. Petraeus to Gen. Ray Odierno.
Admiral Mullen’s visit to Pakistan — his fifth as chairman of the joint chiefs — was added to his itinerary after he had left Washington, according to an American military official who spoke on condition of anonymity. The American Embassy in Islamabad requested that Admiral Mullen personally brief Pakistan’s civil and military leadership on the American military’s activities along the border, the official said. Admiral Mullen was due to meet Wednesday with Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani and Pakistan’s military chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani.
<snipped>