Top US military commander has said that any links, if they exist, between Pakistan's military intelligence and militant outfits were "completely unacceptable".
The chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, said Washington remained concerned about Pakistan's intelligence service ISI amid disclosures by online whistle-blower Wikileaks that the spy agency continues to maintain links with Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.
Mullen said he was appalled at the leaks of 92,000 documents of the Defence department's war in Afghanistan by the online whistle blower.
According to the Pentagon, he told reporters on his way to Iraq that "any links which exists with terrorists organisations, whether it is Haqqani or LeT, it's just completely unacceptable", The US commander said that leaked documents on the war did not call into question the US strategy or relations with Pakistan.
He said information about Pakistan's activities and other details were discussed during the major war strategy review last year. "The information I have so far seen in the documents. There is nothing in there that was not reviewed or considered in the strategic review," he said.
His comments came as voices grow louder against giving Pakistan a 'blank cheque' in the war on terror and media reports quoting Obama administration officials said now that the disclosures were in open "in some ways it makes it easier for us to tell Pakistan they have to help us", the New York Times reported.
"The documents seem to lay out rich new details of connection between the Taliban and other militant groups and Pakistan's main spy agency, the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence or ISI," the paper said.
It quoted several administration officials privately expressing the view that they might be able to use leaks and their description of a sometimes duplicitous Pakistani ally to pressurise Islamabad to cooperate more fully with the US on counter-terrorism.
White House Press secretary Robert Gibbs insisted that more needs to be done by Pakistan as status quo was not acceptable. There is a backdrop of mistrust and wariness between US forces and Pakistan's military intelligence, other US media reports said, claiming that the new leaks could lead to a near freeze in cooperation between US agencies and ISI or only exchanges on the need-to-know basis. The New York Times in a scathing editorial said the leaks "confirms a picture of Pakistan's double-dealing that has been building for years".
The Times warned that President Barack Obama will have to deal firmly with Islamabad in response to the wikileaks which said that ISI allowed its spies to meet directly with the Taliban.
"If Obama cannot persuade Islamabad to cut its ties to, and then aggressively fight the extremists, there is no hope of defeating Taliban in Afghanistan," The Times said.
