- India leads calls for action to stop Koran burning | Video
- Fidel Castro says Cuban model no longer works
- B vitamins found to halve brain shrinkage in old
- Economists cut U.S. growth forecast again
- Firm can't fire man for 1.8 cent theft
- Former singer with boy band LFO dies of leukemia
- Pressure mounts in U.S. against Koran-burning plan | Video
- Obama: U.S. can't afford to extend tax cuts for rich | Video
- Health reforms trigger spending shift
- German party mistakenly hands out porn pens to kids
NYSE and AMEX quotes delayed by at least 20 minutes. NASDAQ delayed by at least 15 minutes. For a complete list of exchanges and delays, please click here.
Pakistan spy chief scraps UK trip on "terror" remarks
Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron addresses the media in Ankara in this July 27, 2010 file photo.
Credit: Reuters/Umit Bektas
ISLAMABAD/LONDON |
ISLAMABAD/LONDON (Reuters) - Pakistan's spy chief has canceled a trip to Britain, a spokesman said on Saturday, but Islamabad played down a row over remarks by British Prime Minister David Cameron suggesting Pakistan was not doing enough to fight terrorism.
A spokesman for the Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI) agency said on Saturday that senior intelligence officials, including ISI head Lieutenant General Ahmad Shuja Pasha, would not go to London on Monday as planned for counter-terrorism talks.
But President Asif Ali Zardari will still visit Britain next week, a government spokesman said.
Cameron, speaking in Pakistan's rival India on Wednesday, told Islamabad that it must not become a base for militants and "promote the export of terror" across the globe.
A Pakistani foreign ministry spokesman said this week his country had been "saddened" by Cameron's remarks.
Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira, already in Britain ahead of Cameron's remarks, said the British prime minister's remarks were "contrary to the facts" and "not in good taste."
"But our reasonable reaction is ... we will discuss this matter at the highest level of the leadership and give them the facts," he told a news conference in London.
"If we go back into history, our relations with the UK are very good. And we want to keep up those relations, strengthen those relations," he said.
Pakistan's help is crucial for U.S. and Western efforts to stabilize neighboring Afghanistan.
Cameron's remarks came days after classified U.S. military reports published on the WikiLeaks website detailed concerns that the ISI had aided the Taliban while Pakistan's government was taking billions of dollars in U.S. aid.
MILITANT TIES IN SPOTLIGHT
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, on a recent visit to Pakistan, said she believed al Qaeda leaders were still hiding in Pakistan and that some elements in the Pakistani government knew where they were.
Cameron's remarks appear to have further annoyed Pakistan, which has launched a large military offensive against al Qaeda and Taliban militants in its northwestern provinces bordering Afghanistan.
The ISI spokesman said more than 2,500 Pakistani soldiers had been killed and more than 4,000 wounded in battles against militants since the U.S.-led war on Afghanistan in 2001.
More than 30,000 civilians have been killed or wounded in the same period, in addition to over 100 ISI officials, the spokesman added.
India accuses Pakistan of supporting militants operating on its soil and peace talks between the two countries have been deadlocked since 2008 attacks in Mumbai.
Pakistan's economic losses have been estimated by the government at more than $68 billion since the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan and toppling of the Taliban government in 2001.
Cameron, asked by British broadcasters whether he regretted damaging relations with Pakistan ahead of the meeting, he said: "I don't accept that they have been damaged ... I look forward to discussing these and other issues (with Zardari)."
(Editing by Jon Hemming)
Cameron said it like it is. Pakistan is the global center of Terrorism (to quote a famous CNN/Time moderator) and Kayani/Pasha are directly involved in efforts to destabilize Afghanistan in order to gain control and use Pashtuns to attack India. Any doubts were long since erased by the author/columnist Ahmed Rashad writing from within Pakistan who wrote an excellent treatise on the disastrous “Kargil affair” that was spear-headed by Musharraf himself when he was Army COS. The UK is at risk because it is Haven to millions of Pakistanis. Even a fraction of 1% radicalised could inflict severe damage within the UK borders.
bizarre how political leaders in the middle-east conduct diplomacy like petulant children
pakistan has clearly been supporting terrorist groups against india for decades, and it’d be no surprise at all if they are trying to jockey for influence in afghanistan
I am India’s expert in strategic defence and the father of India’s strategic program, including the Integrated Guided Missiles Development Program. I have shown in my blog titled ‘Nuclear Supremacy For India Over U.S.’, which can be found by a Google search with the title, that all terrorism and insurgencies in the Indian subcontinent and in much of the rest of the world is sponsored by the C.I.A. Both Pakistan’s ISI and India’s RAW (Research and Analysis Wing) function as branches of the C.I.A. and participate in terrorism and insurgencies throughout the Subcontinent, under direction of the C.I.A. Yes, the ISI secretly supports the Taliban but it does so under direction from the C.I.A. whose modus operandi is support for ALL sides of a conflict to control the course of the conflict in service of its own goals. The goal of the U.S. invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and partial occupation of Pakistan is eventual occupation and overt colonial rule over the Subcontinent as a whole. This will not be permitted and all those participating in this enterprise, including the U.K., will be duly punished; see my blog. The document leak currently in the news has been made in preparation for abandonment of this goal and withdrawal from Afghanistan because of steps I have already taken for the nuclear destruction of New Delhi and then the coast-to-coast destruction of the United States by India with 5,000 thermonuclear warheads and extermination of its population; see my blog.
Cameron proved not only youngest parliament member but childish member too. Sitting on Indian territory consider Pakistan enemy and giving comments against pakistna would definately effect long term relationship between UK and Pakistan relationship…Uk should understand, the country doesn’t run by these childish politicians, Pakistan have paid high price for supporting this war, 2700 soldiers death more than 30000 Pakistanis death could be saved with double game..easilty..if Pakistan was playing… but now after these comments… Pakistanis support for UK have just vanished… and UK should remember that, their presence in Afghanistan needs Pakistani support more than indian Arm deal 5 billion Dollars…
To make them happy(indian) they should undermine this support which was earned in 60 years efforts… I dont know what kind of this new leader UK got… very disappointing for both countries…
Bravo David Cameron.
The arrogant mealy mouthed senior civil servants sitting in the Foreign office think they are superior when they use “diplomatic language” to hide or blur the truth.
2 points:-
One – We all respect and honour those Pakistani Soldiers who have died fighting extremist elements in Pakistan.
Two – The percentage of the population of Pakistan that supports Global Terrorism is much higher than its leadership is prepared to admit.
Pakistanis should not consider that they are doing the world any favours by half heartedly facing the facts that much of the world’s global terrorism emanates from within its borders. America has financed a considerable part of the cost of controlling terrorism in Pakistan.
David Cameron should continue to speak plainly & tell it how it is.
Finally, a world leader that cuts the crap and says exactly what needs to be said.
Good for him!
