WASHINGTON: US military's top officer, Admiral Mike Mullen, said on Thursday that Pakistan's government may have sanctioned the killing of a Pakistani journalist, voicing grave concern over the attack.
Asked about media reports that Islamabad sanctioned or approved the killing of the reporter, he said: "I haven't seen anything that would disabuse that report."
He said he was concerned about the incident and suggested other reporters had suffered a similar fate in the past.
"His (death) isn't the first. For whatever reason, it has been used as a method historically," Mullen told reporters at a Pentagon Press Association event.
While acknowledging that Pakistani officials have denied the government had any role in the death of Saleem Shahzad, Mullen said the episode raised worrying questions about the country's current course.
"It's not a way to move ahead. It's a way to continue to quite frankly spiral in the wrong direction," said Mullen, who has held numerous meetings with Pakistani counterparts during his tenure as chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Mullen's remarks are sure to aggravate already strained relations between the uneasy allies after the US raid north of Islamabad in May that killed Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden,
The New York Times, citing US officials, had reported on Monday that the powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency ordered the killing of Shahzad to muzzle criticism.
The ISI has vehemently dismissed such reports as "baseless" allegations.
Shahzad, who worked for an Italian news agency and a Hong Kong-registered news site and had reported about Islamist militants infiltrating the military, went missing en route to a television talk show and his body was found May 31 south of the capital, bearing marks of torture.
Shahzad disappeared two days after writing an investigative report in Asia Times Online saying Al-Qaeda carried out a recent attack on a naval air base to avenge the arrest of naval officials held on suspicion of Al-Qaeda links.
Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani had ordered an inquiry into the kidnapping and murder, pledging that the culprits would be brought to book.
Citing mounting tensions over the past year, Mullen said the relationship with Pakistan is under extraordinary pressure.
Even before the unilateral Bin Laden raid, ties had become strained, Mullen said, particularly over the arrest of a CIA contractor in Pakistan who was charged with double murder before eventually being released.
"So we've been through a very, very rough time. Washington was committed to sustaining that relationship, but we recognize it's under great stress right now and we need to see our way through it," he said.
The military's top-ranking officer, who is due to step down at the end of September after four years, also said that the US military presence in Pakistan had been dramatically scaled back at Islamabad's request.
COMMENTS (53)
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@Mariya: ur so adament to not see the truth
@pakistani: really? Truth ignored is juatice denied.
@Cautious: oh really???so who killed him???
US military killed journalists in Iraq. Admiral Mullen should not hypothesize. beginning to sound like a tabloid press junkee.
Saleem Shehzad could have been killed by a group who had turned against him. ISI had plenty of opportunity to kill him before.
@Mariya: Agree with you. Mullen's statement came from US Govt. He is extremely close to Gen Kayani. It is a signal that even with our friendship there are certain rules of international behavior that US will not condone; and we would condemn them.
There are moments in the history when the martyrdom of a single individual can symbolize the wrongs in the society. The people who killed Shahzad; choose violence over peace; preferred bloodshed over brotherhood, class against class and they will vanquish in history for all the principals this brave eloquent man stood for. People who cannot stand for free Press will not see democracy; something that is badly needed in Pakistan.
Folks
Please read the comment from Adm. Mullen. The key word is "MAY have sanctioned".
I must add that Admiral is a good loyal American and I cannot see him making a story unless he has some evidence. The worst of US Govt that I have since was a concocted story about WMD in Iraq (I do not regret subsequent divine justice served to Saddam).
People need to note that here in US; Colonel Oliver North also ran a parallel govt. in 1980's right from the White House i.e Arm's for hostages & Iran Contra affairs. But our democracy is strong enough to survive this kind of behavior, Col. Oliver ended up in Federal penitentiary. But to this day some people think he was a hero.
Pakistan needs to get rid of rouge elements within its military & ISI and both these elements need to be under civilian control.
Justice must prevail and people who may have sanctioned the killing & the killer(s) must be bought to justice as. Shahzad paid the ultimate price for press Freedom.
@frank:
Believe what you want. Having some knowledge of how the CJCS operate this was no offhand comment. Whether he or the US is prepared to share this with the public is another matter. A decision at this point appears that it will not be shared publicly much as information was not shared prior to the raid against OBL or how the PAK security forces were informed of the bomb making factories and the resulting warning given to the terrorists.
Each of these actions as they are linked together form a pattern of what the US thinks about its relationship with PAK.
What I personally find interesting is it has been reported and admitted that the ISA was in fact watching Saleem. If this is true then how was he taken and no one in the ISA seems to know anything about this.
One can only conclude as with OBL that the ISA is either a party to this or they are so incompentent that everyone should be sacked.
I also know that many in PAK do not want to believe this and you seem to be one of those. Most people found it difficult to beleive just where OBL was also found.
@chengez K: Maybe if you actually bothered to look into the validity of those claims things would look a lot different. If I made up a story of you being a child molester and was taken at my word without anyone caring about the evidence it would make you look pretty bad, too.
@ Mariya - because it took the Americans decades to realize our ISI and military had been backstabbing them and doubledealing. That's why the Americans are now trying to make up for their own mistake in trusting us. They are now coming out with all the information they have. They know some people at the ISI were helping OBL. They know that the ISI is going to do everything possible to hold on to Pakistan.
Only the people of Pakistan can fix these problems by demanding civilian control of the country, the military, and the ISI and demanding removal of all support for terrorists and fundamentalists. We have to clean house. Otherwise, the house is going to burn down. It's already on fire.
You guys are trying to defend the indefensible as usual. Suppose, you brave people rather die trying to defend the indefensible ratther than accepting on bit of truth. All of you have been brain washed, there is no hope for you all.
It is ironical that Admiral Mullen has no human feelings for the thousands of innocent Pakistani's that have been killed by drones but seems extremely upset over a Pakistani jounalist murder.
What about 35000 Pakistani killed in a war thrust on them?
The way Admiral Mullen is crying it seems as if an U.S aircraft carrier has been sunk by ISI........or may be it has!!!!
@MS - Mariya:
You are one confused dummy, you think military officers in the US or any other democratic country prepare for state dinners and feast dictators, no they don't. It only hppens in Pakistan.
I will tell you what Admiral. Mullen was doing during the time of Zia, he was serving on USS Goldsborough (DDG-20). In democratic countries, militray personnel take orders from the government. In Pakistan military gives orders to the government, prefectly understandable from where your confusion is coming from.
@Zafar:
Really want to trace back history, Zafar? It will scare the heck out of you when you really find what Pakistan has accomplished in the last 67 years.
By the way, the U.S Tax Payers have been propping up Pakistan for 67 years that is what gives Admiral. Mullen the right to tell you.
harry stone
Actually what he said was that he had not seen anything to contradict the hypothesis that Pakistan murdered Saleem Shahzad. This is exactly the same logic, or lack thereof, as Rumsfeld's infamous response that "the absence of evidence isn't evidence of absence" when it was pointed out to him that there was no evidence of Iraq possessing WMDs.