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U.S. Accuses Pakistan Of Harboring Haqqani Network

DAVID GREENE, Host:

It's Morning Edition from NPR News. Good morning. I'm David Greene in for Renee Montagne.

STEVE INSKEEP, Host:

Hi, Julie.

JULIE MCCARTHY: Hi there.

INSKEEP: And I should mention the U.S. has been unhappy about the Haqqani network for a while. What's different now?

MCCARTHY: You know, the latest U.S. charge is that the Haqqani militants staged last week's 20-hour-long assault on the U.S. embassy in Kabul. And that has now turned into a chorus of senior U.S. officials saying it very publicly. The U.S. ambassador to Islamabad, Cameron Munter, was on Pakistan radio this weekend, Steve, talking about it in very blunt terms. Here's what he had to say about Pakistan's role in enabling the Haqqani network.

CAMERON MUNTER: The attack that took place in Kabul a few days ago that was the work of the Haqqani network. And the fact that as we have said in the past that there is evidence linking the Haqqani network to the Pakistani government. This is something that must stop. We have to make sure that we work together to fight terrorism, to recognize the common enemy, the people who attack Pakistanis, the people who attack Americans, the people who attack other allies of ours. We have to fight these people. We can't let events like what happened in Kabul take place.

INSKEEP: You can sense the unhappiness there, particularly because Munter himself is a U.S. diplomat in a U.S. embassy. What is Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, his boss, saying about this attack on the embassy in Kabul in her meetings with Pakistani officials?

MCCARTHY: But an American official said that Clinton opened the meeting talking about the Haqqani network and closed it that way. So those talks that centered on counterterrorism were very much about Haqqani. And they were described as very candid.

INSKEEP: Weren't U.S. and Pakistani officials starting to get back on the same page after all the uproar over the finding and killing of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan?

MCCARTHY: But the things that separate the two sides are beginning to overshadow everything, Steve. And it's also a question of timing, of course. Washington is eager to expedite its withdrawal from Afghanistan next door. And it needs Pakistan's help to do that. So this issue will be front and center.

INSKEEP: I want to just keep the geography in our minds here. Afghanistan is along Pakistan's border. There is this region along the border, the tribal region, where in one area the Haqqani's are alleged to be able to hide out in spite of the presence of Pakistani troops nearby but never quite striking them. That's the allegation anyway. Why would the Pakistanis not go all out against this group that's causing so much trouble?

MCCARTHY: Well, the Pakistanis figure that the Taliban and their allies, the Haqqanis, will have a place in a future government, and they want a friendly ally in Kabul. But you know, Steve, all of this raises the big question of Pakistan continuing to treat militants as so-called strategic assets. It's a policy that's failed in the past. And whether the Pakistani military may still think it's worthwhile is the big dispute with Washington.

INSKEEP: Thanks very much.

MCCARTHY: Thank you, Steve. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

Steve Inskeep is a host of NPR's Morning Edition, as well as NPR's morning news podcast Up First.
Julie McCarthy has spent most of career traveling the world for NPR. She's covered wars, prime ministers, presidents and paupers. But her favorite stories "are about the common man or woman doing uncommon things," she says.