Source:
The New York TimesWASHINGTON — The White House and State Department on Wednesday sought to temper remarks by the nation’s top military officer last week that the insurgents who attacked the American Embassy in Afghanistan this month were “a veritable arm” of Pakistan’s spy agency.
The comments by Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, were the first to directly link the spy agency, the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, with an assault on the United States, and they ignited a diplomatic furor with Pakistan’s civilian and military leaders, who have denied the accusation.
Asked on Wednesday whether he agreed that the Haqqani network, the militant group blamed for the embassy attack, was “a veritable arm” of the ISI, Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, told reporters, “It’s not language I would use.”
He pivoted quickly to say the Obama administration is united in its assessment that “links” exist between the Haqqani network and the ISI, “and that Pakistan needs to take action to address that.”
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http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/29/world/asia/us-recalibrates-mullens-remarks-about-pakistan.html