• Blast in Afghan city of Khost; Taliban says US base targeted

    By Reuters

    KHOST, Afghanistan -- A suicide bomber killed three people in an attack on a U.S. base in Afghanistan on Wednesday, the same base that is believed to be used by the CIA and which a suicide bomber attacked three years ago killing seven CIA employees.

    The Afghan Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack in the eastern town of Khost, saying they had sent a suicide bomber driving a van packed with explosives to the base.

    "The target was those who serve Americans at that base," said Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid.


    Afghanistan's NATO-led force said the bomber did not get into the base nor breach its perimeter. Police said the three dead were Afghans who were outside the base, which is beside a military airport.

    The al Qaida-linked Haqqani network, widely regarded as the most dangerous U.S. foe in Afghanistan, is active in Khost province, which is on the Pakistani border.

    After more than a decade of war, Taliban insurgents are still able to strike strategic military targets, and launch high-profile attacks in the capital, Kabul, and elsewhere.

    Three years ago, an al Qaida-linked Jordanian double-agent killed seven CIA employees and a Jordanian intelligence officer in a suicide bombing at the same base in Khost, known as Forward Operating Base Chapman.

    It was the second deadliest attack in CIA history.

    Afghan police official General Abdul Qasim Baqizoy, the Khost police chief, said no CIA agents were hurt on Wednesday.

    Afghan authorities are scrambling to improve security across the country before the U.S. combat mission ends in 2014.

    Besides pressure from the Taliban, U.S.-led NATO forces also face a rising number of so-called insider attacks, in which Afghan forces turn their weapons on Western troops they are supposed to be working with.

    On Monday, an Afghan policewoman killed a U.S. police adviser at the Kabul police headquarters, raising troubling questions about the direction of the war.

    It appeared to be the first time that a woman member of Afghanistan's security forces carried out such an attack.

    On Tuesday, Afghan officials said the woman has an Iranian passport and moved to Afghanistan 10 years ago. There was no suggestion that Iran was involved in the attack on the American.

    Officials suspect she may have been recruited by al Qaida or the Taliban, and had intended to also kill Afghan police officials.

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    Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

  • Pakistan, Afghanistan trying to turn Taliban into political movement

    By Michael Georgy, Reuters

    KABUL -- Pakistan is genuine about backing the nascent Afghan peace process and shares the Kabul government's goal of transforming the Taliban insurgency into a political movement, a senior Afghan government official told Reuters.

    "They have told us that they share the vision contained in our roadmap which is basically to transform the Taliban from a military entity into a political entity to enable them to take part in the Afghan political process and peacefully seek power like any other political entity in Afghanistan, he said.

    "This is the vision that they share."


    The official, who is closely involved in reconciliation efforts, said recent face-to-face talks between senior Taliban members and Afghan officials in France were an "enormously helpful" step in building a wider environment for peace.

    Until now, the Taliban and Afghan officials only made indirect contacts.

    The official's remarks signaled unprecedented optimism from Afghanistan that Pakistan - long accused of backing Afghan insurgent groups - was now willing to put its weight behind reconciliation efforts, which are still in early stages and are vulnerable to factionalism.

    "We are very optimistic. We believe that they are genuine in this discussion with us," said the senior government official.

    The senior official cautioned, however, that in order to sustain that optimism, Pakistan would need to take further concrete steps after releasing some mid-level Afghan Taliban members from detention, who may be useful in promoting peace.

    The nuclear-armed South Asian nation, a strategic U.S. ally, is seen as critical to U.S. and Afghan efforts to stabilize the country before most NATO combat troops withdraw by the end of 2014.

    Warring factions
    Pakistan's powerful army chief has made reconciling warring factions in Afghanistan a top priority, Pakistani military officials and Western diplomats told Reuters, the clearest signal yet that Islamabad means business in promoting peace with the Taliban.

    General Ashfaq Kayani, arguably the most powerful man in Pakistan, is backing dialogue partly due to fears that the end of the U.S. combat mission in Afghanistan in 2014 could energize a resilient insurgency straddling the shared frontier, according to commanders deployed in the region.

    The senior Afghan government official has a similar assessment.

    "I think there is a sense that we are also getting, that cooperation from Pakistan now is bound to be meaningful, substantive," he said.

    "The reason is frankly, most in Pakistan, in our view, have reached the conclusion that time is running out. That it is no longer just about Afghanistan's instability and Afghanistan's insecurity but it's very much a question of security for themselves."

    The Haqqani network -- which has far more experience in guerrilla warfare than the Afghan Taliban - would be welcomed to the peace process as long as it met certain conditions, said the official.

    "From our point of view, the door of peace is open to anyone. The Haqqanis are a pretty challenging group of people," he said.

    "But if they choose to come over to the peace process, then I am sure the peace process will include them."

    Pakistan's intelligence agency denies Afghan accusations that it uses the Haqqani network and other militant groups as proxies to counter the influence of rival India in Afghanistan.

    The Haqqanis are blamed for a number of high-profile attacks on Western targets, including embassies, in Kabul, highlighting the resilience of insurgents after years of fighting Western forces equipped with superior firepower and technology.

    (Additional reporting by Mehreeen Zahra Malik in Wana and Matthew Green in Islamabad; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani) 

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    Copyright 2012 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

  • Rocket attacks on Kabul as Taliban ally says it's open to peace talks

    Omar Sobhani / Reuters

    Afghan men look at a hole in the wall of a house caused by a rocket attack in Kabul Tuesday.

    By NBC News staff and news services

    A rocket landed near the Afghan intelligence agency in Kabul and two others struck near the airport highway and a private television station early Tuesday morning, security officials said.

    At least one person was killed and two wounded, Kabul police chief Ayoub Salangi said. Insurgents shot the rockets from positions on the eastern outskirts of the city, he said. 

    The rocket attacks were a reminder of Afghanistan's security challenges as most NATO combat troops prepare to withdraw at the end of 2014.

    The attack came as one of the most lethal insurgent factions in Afghanistan, the Haqqani network, said Tuesday it would take part in peace talks with the United States, but only under the direction of Afghan Taliban leaders.

    Haqqani network: Terrorist designation adds to captured GI's 'woes'

    The rare flexibility was accompanied by a warning that they would continue high-profile attacks and would pursue their goal of establishing an Islamic state.


    The Haqqanis, who operate out of the unruly border area between Pakistan and Afghanistan, say they are part of the Afghan Taliban and must act in unison in any peace process.

    The commander, who declined to be identified, accused the United States of being insincere in peace efforts and trying to divide the two organizations.

    "However, if the central shura, headed by Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, decided to hold talks with the United States, we would welcome it," he told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed, referring to the militants' leadership council.

    Slideshow: Afghanistan: Nation at a crossroads

    Aref Karimi / AFP - Getty Images

    More than ten years after the beginning of the war, Afghanistan faces external pressure to reform as well as ongoing internal conflicts.

    Launch slideshow

    The commander said he and his men were looking ahead to victory.

    "We will install a purely a Islamic government, which would be acceptable to all the people," he said.

    "We are present everywhere in Afghanistan now and can carry out attacks when and wherever we want. We are very close to our victory."

    The Taliban said in March they were suspending nascent peace talks with the United States.

    'He shot me right here': Afghans testify in case of US soldier accused of massacre

    A senior Afghan official closely involved with reconciliation efforts said last week the government had failed to secure direct talks with the Taliban and no significant progress was expected before 2014.

    Last week, the United Nations Security Council imposed sanctions on the Haqqanis.

    Isolating the group, who were blamed for the 18-hour attack on embassies and parliament in Kabul in April, could complicate efforts to secure peace at a time when Afghans fear another civil war could erupt after Western forces withdraw.

    ‘Close to our victory’
    The Haqqani network may prove to be President Barack Obama's biggest security challenge as he tries to stabilize Afghanistan before most NATO combat troops withdraw from Afghanistan in 2014.

    Hard winter ahead for troops in Afghanistan

    The group's experience in guerrilla fighting dating back to the anti-Soviet war in the 1980s and its substantial financial network, could make it the ultimate spoiler of peace efforts.

    A report in July by the Center for Combating Terrorism said the Haqqanis ran a sophisticated financial network, raising money through kidnapping, extortion and drug trafficking but also have a legitimate business portfolio that includes import-export, transport, real estate and construction interests in Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Gulf.

    Reuters contributed to this report.

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  • Two US special operations troops killed in Afghanistan fighting

    By NBC News wire services

    Insurgents on Saturday killed two American troops in eastern Afghanistan, an area that has seen heavy fighting in recent months, the U.S. military said.


    No other information about the deaths was disclosed, pending notification of family members.

    But a U.S. military official said two U.S. special operations forces were killed by small arms fire in Wardak province, southwest of Kabul.

    The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to disclose information about the deaths.

    So far this year, 296 international troops, including at least 257 Americans, have been killed in Afghanistan.

    In the south, an Afghan policeman was killed and another was wounded when a remote-controlled bomb planted on a motorbike was detonated in Sangin district of Helmand province, according to provincial spokesman Ahmad Zarak.

    In neighboring Kandahar province, a roadside bomb killed another Afghan policeman in Kandahar city, said provincial spokesman Ahmad Jawed Faisal.

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    Meanwhile, The Associated Press reported that American officials say the Haqqani insurgent network, based in Pakistan and with ties to al-Qaida, is suspected of being a driving force behind a significant number of the "insider" attacks by Afghan forces that have killed or wounded more than 130 U.S. and allied troops this year.

    Until now, officials had said the attacks seemed to stem either from personal grievances against the allies or from Taliban infiltration. The Taliban has publicly claimed to be orchestrating the campaign to subvert the U.S.-Afghan alliance.

    New data provided to The Associated Press this week also reveal that in addition to 35 U.S. and allied troops killed in insider attacks last year, 61 were wounded. Those included 19 in a single attack in the eastern province of Laghman on April 16, 2011, in which six American servicemen were killed. Thus far in 2012 there have been 53 killed and at least 80 wounded, the figures showed.

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    Haqqani involvement in the plotting would add a new dimension to that group's insurgent activity, which has been marked largely by spectacular attacks against targets inside Kabul. It also could complicate U.S.-Pakistan relations, since the Haqqanis are based mainly in Pakistan.

    The U.S.-led military coalition said Saturday that a senior Taliban leader with links to Haqqani had been arrested in the eastern province of Paktia. It said he is "suspected of maintaining working relationships with multiple Haqqani senior leaders" and of planning and directing attacks on Afghan and coalition forces, smuggling weapons, and placing roadside bombs in the neighboring province of Logar.

    The U.S. officials said Friday that although there is no hard evidence tying the Haqqanis to specific insider attacks, the pattern of shootings and the movements and backgrounds of some of the shooters — including travel into Pakistan shortly before the shootings — point to a likely connection to the group, which the U.S. last month officially labeled a terrorist organization.

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  • Haqqani network: Terrorist designation adds to captured GI's 'woes'

    Reuters, file

    Jalaluddin Haqqani (R), the Taliban's minister for tribal affairs, points to a map of Afghanistan while his son Naziruddin looks on in Islamabad in October, 2001. The Haqqani insurgent group is named after its patriarch and founder Jalaluddin Haqqani, who was a legendary anti-Soviet mujahideen commander in the 1980s. Back then he was admired by the Americans.

    By NBC News' Mushtaq Yusufzai and Waj Khan

    Senior members of the Haqqani network said that the United States' designation of the militant group as terrorists could endanger the life of an American soldier thought to be in their custody and jeopardize peace talks.

    "The Obama administration and U.S. military commanders know that their soldier Bowe Bergdahl is in our possession," a Haqqani commander told NBC News in a telephone interview from an undisclosed location on Friday.  "He is in our custody, but his government failed to make any sincere effort for his release, and now this new development could add to his woes."

    AFP - Getty Images

    This image grab from an undated video reportedly posted on the internet by Afghan militants on Dec. 25, 2009, allegedly shows U.S. soldier Bowe Robert Bergdahl, who was captured in Afghanistan around six months previously.

    The Haqqanis, a Pashtun tribe with strongholds in southeastern Afghanistan and across the border in Pakistan, have been blamed for an attack on the U.S. Embassy in Kabul and other high-profile assaults in Afghanistan.  The group is also believed to be holding U.S. Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who was captured in 2009 in Afghanistan’s Paktika province, bordering Pakistan’s South Waziristan.

    Members of the network say Bergdahl was handed over to the Taliban when a delegation of senior Taliban leaders began peace talks with the U.S. in Qatar in exchange for the top five Taliban commanders from Guantanamo Bay. After those talks failed, the Taliban sources told NBC News that Bergdahl was returned to the Haqqani network.

    Report: US offers Taliban more for captive soldier

    On Friday, U.S. officials announced that the Obama administration would formally designate the Haqqani network as a foreign terrorist organization. The move was part of a complicated political decision as the U.S. withdraws from Afghanistan and pushes for a reconciliation pact to end more than a decade of warfare.  

    But the move would only undermine the United States' efforts in the region, one of the Haqqani commanders told NBC News.

    NYT: White House backs listing Haqqani militant group as terrorists, officials say

    "How (will) their talks with the Taliban bring peace to Afghanistan when they declared us terrorists?" the commander, who asked to remain anonymous, said. "It would further increase their hardship and they should wait for more losses in the coming days." 

    Even as the United States takes down al Qaida leaders, one of the most lethal threats to U.S. troops in Afghanistan is a terror network based in Pakistan that America's outgoing top military leader says is an arm of our so-called ally, Pakistan. NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports.

    Secretary of State Hillary Clinton signed a report to Congress saying the network met criteria for a terrorist designation on Friday, State Department officials told reporters.  


    'Frustrated' dad of kidnapped US soldier takes action

    The Obama administration has been trying to coax Afghanistan's fighting groups into peace talks, offering the prospect of a Qatar-based political office for insurgents and even the transfer of several prisoners being held at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Negotiations have been dormant for months, and the Haqqanis have been among the least interested in talking.

    Designation by the State Department as a foreign terrorist organization would bring sanctions such as criminal penalties for anyone providing material support to the group and seizure of any assets in the United States.

    The Haqqani commanders also told NBC News that they were part of the mainstream Afghan Taliban headed by Mulla Mohammad Omar and declaring them as a terrorist group would make it worse for the United States and its allies in in Afghanistan.

    Rachel Maddow reports the breaking news of a video released by the Taliban which they claim is captured U.S. soldier Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl.

    "We are fighters of Islam Emirate of Afghanistan led by our supreme leader Mulla Mohammad Omar," a senior commander said. "Our aim is to expel all the occupying forces from Afghanistan and install a purely Islamic government there."

    The Pentagon welcomed the designation of the group as a terrorist group.

    "The Haqqani Network represents a significant threat to U.S. national security and we will continue our aggressive military action against this threat," said George Little, Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, in a statement. "These new group designations will build on our efforts to degrade the Network's capacity to carry out attacks, including affecting fundraising abilities, targeting them with our military and intelligence resources, and pressing Pakistan to take action."

    The United States accuses Pakistan's intelligence agency of supporting the Haqqani network and using it as a proxy in Afghanistan to gain leverage against the growing influence of its archrival, India.

    Pakistan denies the allegations.

    Photos: Pakistan -- A nation in turmoil

    A senior Pakistani foreign ministry official, who asked to remain nameless because of the sensitivity of the issue, both denied claims that Pakistan was working with the network and dismissed the designation. 

    "If we are sponsoring the Haqqanis, which we are not because they cause more problems for Pakistan than anyone else, then only will this new labeling equate to something," he told NBC News. "No responsible person has proven that we are directing them in any way. Obviously there are contacts, but the U.S. has contacts for the purposes of negotiations, etc. too with these guys."

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  • Afghan sources confirm Badruddin Haqqani , top commander of militant network, killed in airstrike

    Afghanistan's intelligence agency says its operatives have confirmed that a top commander of Haqqani militants behind some of the biggest attacks on Western and Afghan government targets in Afghanistan has been killed.

    Agency spokesman Shafiqullah Tahiri said Sunday that Badruddin Haqqani was killed in an airstrike in Pakistan, The Associated Press reported. He said the strike took place last week but did not give more details. He would not say whether the agency's sources have seen the body.


    The Taliban, which is allied with the Haqqani network, have said that Badruddin is still alive and in Afghanistan.

    Tahiri said the Afghan government is confident that its information is correct.

    Badruddin is the Haqqani network's head of operations and is considered second in seniority to the group's leader, his older brother Sirajuddin Haqqani. Badrddin is also believed to handle the network’s vital business interests and smuggling operations.

    One senior Pakistani intelligence official told Reuters that Badruddin had fled a compound in Pakistan's tribal North Waziristan that he and other militants were in after it was hit by a missile, then was killed by a second drone strike on a car that he was in.

    However, Maulvi Ahmed Jan, a senior Haqqani network commander, denied Badruddin had been killed. He said a distant relative, 13-year-old Osama, was killed in the strike and his funeral had been mistaken by locals for Badruddin's.

    Watch World News videos on NBCNews.com

    If Badruddin's death is confirmed, it could deal a major blow to the Haqqanis, one of the United States' most feared enemies in Afghanistan. 

    The Haqqanis are the most experienced fighters in Afghanistan and the loss of one of the group's most important leaders could ease pressure on NATO as it prepares to withdraw most of its combat troops at the end of 2014. 

    A series of drone strikes in North Waziristan this week suggest the CIA, which remotely operates the aircraft, was after a high-value militant target in the unruly area. 

    The deaths of militants in such strikes are difficult to confirm as they often occur in areas of regions in the northwest such as North Waziristan that are hard for authorities to reach. 

    Taliban commander, 12 others killed by US drone strike

    U.S. officials blame the al-Qaida-linked network for some of the boldest attacks in Afghanistan, including one on embassies and parliament in Kabul in April that lasted 18 hours, killing 11 Afghan security forces and four civilians. 

    The United States accuses Pakistan's intelligence agency of supporting the Haqqani network and using it as a proxy in Afghanistan to gain leverage against the growing influence of its arch-rival India in the country. 

    Pakistan denies the allegations. 

    Meer Afzal / EPA file

    A picture dated Sept. 2 shows Mulla Dadullah (center) talking with journalists at the Afghanistan-Pakistan border area of Kunar and Bajaur tribal region.

    Militant groups from Afghanistan and Pakistan have formed alliances and often cross the porous border for operations. 

    A separate NATO airstrike in eastern Afghanistan killed a commander of the Pakistani Taliban, both NATO and the Taliban said on Saturday. 

    Both sides identified the dead commander as Mulla Dadullah and said several of his comrades were also killed in the attack on Friday.

     

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  • US, Pakistan should 'divorce,' ex-ambassador to Washington says

    Aamir Qureshi / AFP - Getty Images, file

    Pakistan's former ambassador to United States Husain Haqqani (center) says "a full proper investigation on the Pakistani side is needed to find out how Osama bin Laden lived in Pakistan and who supported him."

    By NBC News staff and wire reports

    Updated at 7:10 a.m. ET: WASHINGTON - The United States and Pakistan should stop pretending they are allies and amicably "divorce," Pakistan's former ambassador to Washington said on Wednesday, citing unrealistic expectations in both countries that include U.S. hopes Islamabad will sever its links to extremists.

    "If in 65 years, you haven't been able to find sufficient common ground to live together, and you had three separations and four reaffirmations of marriage, then maybe the better way is to find friendship outside of the marital bond," Husain Haqqani said, addressing the Center for the National Interest, a Washington think tank.

    Haqqani's recommendation that the United States and Pakistan essentially downgrade their status was based on the premise that it may be the only way to break from what has been a dysfunctional relationship.

    A post-alliance future would allow both countries to hold more realistic expectations of each other, cooperating where possible but perhaps without the sense of betrayal, which has become acute in Pakistan.

    'Schizophrenic ally': $33M in Pakistan aid to be axed?

    He cited a survey by the Pew Research Center released in June showing roughly three-in-four Pakistanis consider the United States an enemy, even though the United States pours billions of dollars of aid into the country.

    "If this was an election campaign ... you would advise the senator with these kinds of favorability ratings to pull out of the race, instead of spending more money," said Haqqani, who plans to publish a book entitled "Magnificent Delusions" next year about the U.S.-Pakistan relationship.

    The routes, which supply U.S. troops with everything they need to survive, were reopened after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told Pakistan 'We are sorry for the losses suffered by the Pakistani military." NBC's Jim Miklaszewski reports.

    His candid remarks represented Haqqani's first address in Washington since he resigned as Pakistan's envoy last year after, he says, being framed for drafting a memo that accused the Pakistani army of plotting a coup -- allegations he defended himself against before Pakistan's Supreme Court.

    Pakistan's 'Memogate' triggers US ambassador's resignation

    Many of Haqqani's comments underscored the friction between Pakistan's civilian government and military, which have bedeviled the nuclear-armed South Asian country for almost its entire existence.

    Haqqani, who served as an adviser to four Pakistani prime ministers, identified himself among a small minority who support good relations with the United States but "who do not have the ability to influence the course of policy at home."

    Slideshow: Pakistan: A nation in turmoil

    Muhammed Muheisen / AP

    Images of daily life, political pursuits, religious rites and deadly violence.

    Launch slideshow

    He said Pakistan's military needed to be under greater civilian control, adding Pakistan's national interests are defined "by generals, not by civilian leaders."

    But he also doled out criticism of U.S. policymaking, saying it was too often short-sighted, lacking the necessary historic perspective needed to appreciate realistically what Pakistan might do in return for aid and cooperation.

    It's been a tough year for Pakistan U.S. relations. Crucial NATO supply routes have been shuttered since November, there is tension over drone strikes and now the countries are at odds over the treason conviction of the Pakistani doctor who helped the U.S. locate Osama Bin Laden. 

    The depths of the strained U.S.-Pakistan relationship have come into full public view since the United States, without telling Pakistan, secretly staged a raid to kill Osama bin Laden last year. Haqqani was ambassador at the time.

    NYT: Navy SEAL's book will describe raid that killed bin Laden

    He repeatedly said someone in Pakistan knew of bin Laden's presence, even though he stopped far short of blaming Pakistan's principal intelligence agency, the Inter Services Intelligence directorate (ISI).

    "I still think a full proper investigation on the Pakistani side is needed to find out how Osama bin Laden lived in Pakistan and who supported him -- within or outside the government," he said. "I really do not know (who helped bin Laden). All I am saying is that somebody knew."

    Amb. Husain Haqqani discusses whether the Pakistani government or military knew about Osama bin Laden's whereabouts.

    He said it was just as unrealistic for Pakistanis to think that the United States would side with Pakistan by launching war on India as it was for the United States to think Pakistan would give up its nuclear weapons or sever ties with extremists.

    "Equally unrealistic is that Pakistan ... will give up support for jihadi groups that it deems to be a subconventional force multiplier for regional influence," Haqqani said.

    Describing his vision for a post-alliance future for the United States and Pakistan, Haqqani appeared to downplay U.S. security concerns. He said Pakistan's eight-month shut-off of ground supply lines for NATO forces in Afghanistan showed the United States it could rely on more costly routes to the North.

    Aid workers become targets as Pakistan faces new humanitarian crisis

    And when it comes to unpopular U.S. drone strikes against militants, Haqqani believed the United States would press ahead with the campaign even in a post-alliance future.

    "I have no realistic expectation of the United States ending the drone campaign and (no realistic expectation of) Pakistan accepting it," he said.

    The Christian Science Monitor reported that Haqqani also warned  the U.S. against abandoning relations with Pakistan entirely, citing the need to ensure that Pakistan's nuclear arsenal "remains secure."

    “I’m not for [the US] declaring Pakistan an enemy,” Haqqani cautions, adding that his reason for proposing a “parting of ways” is so that “the important things can actually be addressed.”

    ... He also hints that Pakistan’s bond to the US, and in particular the military and security focus of the relationship, have held Pakistan back from maturing politically in ways it might have been forced to otherwise. “Pakistan ends up behaving like Syria, but wanting to be treated like Israel,” he says.

    CSM added that Haqqani is due to return to Boston University where he will serve as a professor of international relations, a post he held before becoming ambassador in April 2008.

    Reuters contributed to this report.

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  • Pakistan's alleged 'Washington lackey' fears for life

    Aamir Qureshi / AFP - Getty Images

    Pakistan's former ambassador to the United States, Husain Haqqani (center), exits the Supreme Court in Islamabad on Dec. 22, 2011.

    By Msnbc.com staff and wire services

    Pakistan's former ambassador to the United States fears he will be murdered if he leaves the sanctuary of the prime minister's official residence after he was branded a "Washington lackey" and a "traitor," according to a new interview.

    Speaking to The Daily Telegraph newspaper, Husain Haqqani said that "certain powerful quarters" in Pakistan -- the paper said this was a reference to the country's ISI intelligence agency -- were behind the claims against him.

    Haqqani is at the center of a scandal that threatens to topple Pakistan's government over an alleged request to the U.S. to help stop a coup by the army, following the American raid that killed Osama bin Laden.

    In October, a U.S. businessman of Pakistani origin, Mansoor Ijaz, wrote an article for the Financial Times newspaper claiming Haqqani had written a memo to U.S. Admiral Mike Mullen, who was then chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, supposedly promising to replace Pakistan's national security hierarchy with people favorable to the U.S. in exchange for help in reining in the military.

    Ijaz, who claimed he had been asked to convey the message to Mullen, further alleged that Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari supported the move. The Financial Times operates behind a paywall, but Ijaz also wrote an article for Pakistan's The News in November describing his allegations.

    'Hysteria'
    Both Zardari and Haqqani denied Ijaz's claims, but Haqqani subsequently resigned.

    "I'm a guest of the prime minister (Yousuf Raza Gilani) with whom I have had a long-standing political association. There are clear security concerns given the hysteria generated against me. Staying at the prime minister's house is the safest option," Haqqani told the Telegraph in an interview published Wednesday.

    "My good friend Salman Taseer (the late governor of Punjab) was killed by a security guard because he heard in the media that the governor had blasphemed. I'm being called a traitor and an American lackey in the media with the clear encouragement of certain powerful quarters even though I've not been charged legally with anything," he added.

    He said that he had left the prime minister's house twice, once to go to court and another time to visit the dentist because he had toothache.

    "The president and prime minister are firmly standing behind me and the government is not going anywhere. This is psychological warfare against the government," he told the Telegraph.

    Amb. Husain Haqqani discusses whether the Pakistani government or military knew about Osama bin Laden's whereabouts.

    In December, Zardari, who was married to former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated in 2007, said people should pay tribute to her memory by guarding against anti-democratic conspiracies, an apparent reference to tensions over the memo scandal.

    He said his wife's death was also a conspiracy against Pakistani democracy.

    "I therefore urge all the democratic forces and the patriotic Pakistanis to foil all conspiracies against democracy and democratic institutions," said Zardari in a statement sent to reporters.

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    The Associated Press contributed to this report.

  • 'Memogate': New scandal in Pakistan sets alight old tensions

    By NBC's Amna Nawaz in New York, and Fakhar Rehman in Islamabad

    Since assuming the presidency in Pakistan three years ago, Asif Ali Zardari has been hit with allegations of poor governance and corruption, watched his coalition government fall apart and has even seen his health falter. But this latest challenge, in the form of a Supreme Court inquiry into a political scandal dubbed "Memogate" by Pakistan's media, is testing Zardari's hold on power and has put his civilian government squarely at odds with the military establishment once again.

    The court's investigation is centered on what -- if anything -- Zardari knew about a secret memo passed to U.S. officials after the May raid on Osama bin Laden's compound. The memo's existence was revealed by American-born, Pakistan-origin businessman Mansoor Ijaz in an October piece in The Financial Times. The eventually leaked contents of the memo -- requesting U.S. help to rein in Pakistan's military and intelligence in exchange for heavy American influence over national security deicsion in Pakistan -- "infuriated many in the armed forces," according to a senior military officer. "It will have a significant bearing on the political scenario if proven true."

    The scandal has already forced the resignation of one senior Pakistani official -- then-ambassador to Washington, Hussain Haqqani -- who had played a crucial role in steadying the turbulent relations between America and Pakistan over the last few years, and now threatens to further destabilize Zardari's already-weak government.

    Pakistan's military and its civilian government have a history of deep-seated tensions -- which occasionally boil over into full-blown coups -- dating back to the 1950s, when political parties began their struggle for supremacy in the early days of the country's independence. Zardari has himself felt the ire of the all-powerful army, once for attempting to bring the military's intelligence agency -- the ISI -- under civilian control, and again for pledging to dispatch the ISI chief to India after the November 2008 Mumbai attacks. Both times, his efforts were thwarted by the military. The government's distrust for the military and the military's disdain for the government provide the backdrop for every national crisis, of which there have been many this year alone.

    Getting to the bottom of the Memogate scandal will not be easy. The case is already clouded with political motivation (it first brought to the Supreme Court by the leader of an opposition party, bent on dislodging Zardari from power), and every word of submitted testimony is first being parsed by the Pakistani press, then pieced together into wild speculation about legal conclusions.

    Legal experts in Pakistan have offered a range of possible outcomes -- including Zardari being forced to resign, or being tried for treason, or his entire government collapsing. And while there is no firm timeline for proceedings beyond the first hearing on Monday, there is already, in much of the reporting, an assumption that such a memo could not have been drafted without the involvement of Zardari.

    Despite a visit from Army Chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani to Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani's house today, after which a statement was released urging that military testimony in the case "not be misconstrued as a standoff between the Army and the government," the depositions given by Kayani and ISI chief Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha this week are certainly not helping the government's case.

    Pasha, who met with Pakistani-American businessman and "Memogate" scandal-blower Mansoor Ijaz in London to review relevant evidence, testified that he believed the memo to be genuine and that Haqqani was involved. Kayani said in his testimony that the memo had already had "an impact on the national security," that there was "nothing denying the fact that the memo exists," and called for a swift and thorough investigation. Both statements, firmly stating that the memo exists, and that this issue needs to be looked into, fly in the face of previous government statements, denying the existence of the memo and dismissing the calls for inquiries as politically motivated.

    U.S. Gen. Jim Jones, former national security adviser who acted as American conduit for the now-infamous memo, today submitted testimony that seemed to throw the government a lifeline, saying he had no reason to believe former Ambassador Haqqani was involved and that he did not believe the document to be credible.

    Ijaz, the businessman at the heart of this controversy, also submitted testimony. The crucial deposition from President Zardari, however, has yet to surface. Zardari remains under doctor's care in Dubai, recovering from heart-related illness that forced a quick departure from Islamabad last week. He was scheduled to testify yesterday, and there is no word yet on when he will submit his side of the story.

  • US meets deadline to vacate Pakistan air base

    ISPR

    U.S. forces vacated the Shamsi Base Sunday under a deadline from the Pakistan government to leave the facility.

    By NBC News

    The last U.S. cargo planes were loaded and took off Sunday from the Shamsi Air Base after the Pakistan government ordered the United States to vacate the base by a Dec. 11 deadline.

    "Last flight carrying left over US Personnel and Equipment departed Shamsi Base today and the Base has been completely vacated. The control of the Base has been taken over by the Army," the Pakistan Army said in a statement.

    After a Nov. 26 NATO airstrike that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, Pakistan immediately shut down NATO supply routes and demanded the U.S. vacate Shamsi Base, which had been used by American forces, including the CIA, for operations to attack militants linked to al-Qaida, the Taliban and Pakistan's home-grown Haqqani network.

    Relations between the United States and Pakistan have been strained since the deadly drone attack. Though U.S. officials and Pakistan's prime minister have said they believe the ties between the two countries can be rebuilt eventually, military commanders on both sides say the relationship is the worst it has ever been.

    President BarackObama stepped up the drone campaign after he took office. U.S. officials say it has produced major successes in decimating the central leadership of al-Qaida and putting associated militant groups on the defensive.

    Since 2004, U.S. drones have carried out more than 300 attacks inside Pakistan.

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