Kabul attack militants product of CIA, not Pakistan

The Haqqani group that the United States holds responsible for last week's attack against the American embassy in Kabul was the CIA's creation, Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar said. "If we talk about links, I am sure the CIA also has links with many terrorist organizations around the world, by which we mean intelligence links," Khar said in an interview with al Jazeera. "And this particular network, which [the United States] continues to talk about, is a network which was the blue-eyed boy of the CIA itself for many years." Scapegoating and blame games would not help and Pakistan wanted to be a partner of the United States, Khar said. U.S. Adm Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, alleged last week that Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency had backed the Haggani network in carrying out several attacks in Afghanistan. Interior Minister Rehman Malik on Sunday rejected the allegations as "not based on facts". "Any intelligence agency would like to maintain contact with whatever opposition group, whatever terrorist organization for some positive outcome," chief military spokesman Maj Gen Athar Abbas told CNN. "Such contacts do not mean the ISI supports or endorses the organization," he said.