U.S. said to shift plans for top brass in Pakistan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military has dropped plans to assign the former commander of the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to Pakistan, after sharp criticism of his Guantanamo command in Pakistani media, the New York Times reported in its Friday editions.

Army Maj. Gen. Jay Hood would have become the top U.S. officer in Pakistan, a key partner in the U.S.-declared global war on terrorism, at an important time in the fight against al Qaeda and the Taliban in Pakistan's tribal areas.

Although the decision to withdraw the assignment has not been formally announced, the Times said it appeared to reflect a widening shadow cast by the military prison at Guantanamo over U.S. foreign policy.

During Hood's command from 2004 to 2006, military authorities force-fed with tubes detainees engaging in hunger strikes at the prison, a step they justified as necessary to prevent suicides TO protest indefinite confinement.

The newspaper said it was not clear whether Pakistan's new government had requested the appointment be canceled.

It cited a Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman as telling reporters on Thursday the government was "fully cognizant of public sentiments and sensitivities regarding the reported transfer of General Hood to Islamabad."

The paper cited a U.S. Central Command spokesman saying Hood was now being considered for "a different, equally important job" in the command's headquarters, responsible for U.S. security interests in Pakistan and 24 other countries from the Horn of Africa through the Gulf into Central Asia.

A Central Command spokesman did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

Hood had been expected to take over as chief of a division of the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad known as the Office of the Defense Representative to Pakistan, the Times said. The office employs about two dozen people, and oversees military relations with Pakistan, including training and equipment.

(Reporting by Jim Wolf, editing by Todd Eastham)