US Congressman slams Pak for harbouring Terrorism

Congressman Ed Royce, a leading US lawmaker slammed Pakistan for its obsession with India and knowingly fostering terrorism and allowing terrorists to claim safety in the country. Royce also ridiculed the ISI for making deals with terrorist groups and blamed the organisation for funding the Taliban with US money to attack US soldiers in Afghanistan.

"The ISI's attempt to distinguish good from bad militants will spin out of control. With its obsession with India, Pakistan is digging its own grave," Congressman Ed Royce said in the wake of WikiLeaks revelations. "I've been speaking about the destructive role of Pakistan's ISI for many, many years. I've read this headline before," Royce, Co-Chair of the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans, said when asked about the WikiLeaks leakage which revealed that ISI continues to help and assist al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

A day ago, WikiLeaks posted more than 92,000 classified documents on the war in Afghanistan, some of which revealed Pakistan's hand in the proceedings, and the links between ISI and the Taliban and al-Qaeda. Some Wikileaks reports revealed that Osama bin Laden, the most wanted terrorist in the world personally attended a recruitment drive for suicide bombers in Pakistan in 2006. This, in spite of the fact that the CIA claimed that it had no intelligence on bin Laden since 2003. As per the reports, a high-level meeting was held in Quetta, Pakistan, where six suicide bombers were given orders for an operation in northern Afghanistan. Two persons have been given targets in Kunduz, two in Mazar-e-Sharif and the last two are said to come to Faryab. These meetings take place once every month, and there are usually about 20 people present. The place for the meeting alternates between Quetta and villages (NFDG) on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. The top four people in these meetings are Taliban leader Mullah Omar, Osama bin Laden, Mullah Dadullah and Mullah Baradar.

"These leaked documents, while troubling, appear to support what I was asserting for years: the war in Afghanistan was not going well, and we needed a real strategy for success," Senator Ike Skelton, Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said. "These leaked reports pre-date our new strategy in Afghanistan and should not be used as a measure of success or a determining factor in our continued mission there," he said. "Some of these documents reinforce a longstanding concern of mine about the supporting role of some Pakistani officials in the Afghan insurgency," Senator Carl Levin said. "The materials which cover the period from 2004 to 2009 reflect the reality, recognised by everyone, that the insurgency was gaining momentum during these years while our coalition was losing ground," Senator Joe Lieberman said in a statement. "We should give General Petraeus and our troops on the ground the time and support they need to succeed. Although we know that the path ahead is difficult, we also know that the consequences for our national security will be catastrophic if we abandon this effort and allow the Taliban and their allies to regain a safe haven in Afghanistan. That is the path back to 9/11," Lieberman said.