Pakistan accuses U.S. of 'negative propaganda'

[The Northerner]

Its claim was made in a military statement criticizing comments by Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the United States Joint Chiefs of Staff, that Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI) had maintained a relationship with the Haqqani network – one of the deadliest factions in the Taliban's Afghan insurgency.

During a visit to Pakistan on Wednesday, Admiral Mullen said continuing links between the ISI and the Haqqani network, which attacks Nato troops in Afghanistan from safe havens in North Waziristan, are a cause of ""continuing strain"" in relations between the two countries.

""Haqqani is supporting, funding, training fighters that are killing Americans and killing coalition partners. And I have a sacred obligation to do all I can to make sure that doesn't happen,"" he told a television interviewer.

Relations between the two countries deteriorated significantly earlier this year following the arrest of Raymond Davis, a CIA contractor who shot dead two men he believed were trying to rob him as he drove his car through a Lahore suburb. There has been disagreement too over an increase in missile attacks in North Waziristan by American Predator drones.

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