For the second time in less than a week, the chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff asked Pakistan's ISI to sever its links with radical elements.
Driven out of Afghanistan by the US-led international coalition forces, the Taliban and al-Qaeda have now moved to Pakistan, America's top military commander said today as he asked the notorious Inter-Services Intelligence to "change" its relationship with the extremists.
For the second time in less than a week, Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, asked the spy agency to sever its links with radical elements.
"[That] there are elements of the Pakistani intelligence agency that are connected or have had relationships with extremists is certainly known and that has to change," Mullen told NBC News in an interview.
Asked about al-Qaeda and the Taliban, Mullen said, "They [have] now moved, for the most part, to Pakistan."
Mullen, who just returned from his 19th trip to Pakistan since becoming chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, spending time particularly with the military leadership and General Ashfaq Kayani, said the Pakistani army chief had directed his forces to take on the insurgent threat in his own country.
"We recognised and he's made great strides. We recognise that part of that is to focus on the Haqqani network as well as the other Afghans," he said.
Acknowledging that the terrorist Haqqani network operates in the tribal areas of Pakistan, Mullen said they have a safe haven there.
"That causes us great problems in Afghanistan as well. That we are anxious to have that addressed is well known to him [Gen Kayani]," he said.
The admiral said the US regional strategy focuses on both Pakistan and Afghanistan and on securing the Afghan people so that Afghanistan does not again become a safe haven for extremists, particularly al-Qaeda.
"We left Afghanistan in the late '80s. We left Pakistan in the late '80s. And we find ourselves back there now. Certainly, the questions that are out there from the citizens in those countries are, are we going to stay this time or not?" he said.
"I believe that we've got to stay and we've got the right strategy, the right resources," Mullen asserted in response to a question.
Mullen said the focus of president Barack Obama's strategy really is to dismantle, defeat and disrupt al-Qaeda, which struck the US from Afghanistan because the Taliban ran the place and they had a safe haven.
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