Pak. Blasts Adm. Mullen For Claims About Killing

Politico reports:

It was “extremely irresponsible” for Adm. Michael Mullen to allege that Pakistani officials approved the killing of a journalist who had written about the government’s ties to terrorist groups, the country’s state-run news agency reported Friday.

Mullen, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, said Thursday that he believes the Pakistani government “sanctioned” the killing of the journalist, Saleem Shahzad, explaining that while he could not directly link the death to Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency, he had his suspicions.

On Friday, an unnamed Pakistani government official hit back at Mullen in a story published by the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan.

“If it is true, then the statement is extremely irresponsible,” the official said, explaining that Mullen’s comments “will not help in investigating the issue.”

Though “some elements are trying to use” the killing of Shahzad against the Pakistani government, the official insisted the government wasn’t involved. “We cannot say anything except expressing regret on it.”

Mullen was the first U.S. official to publicly say that Shahzad’s killing may have been approved of by the ISI. “It was sanctioned by the government,” he told reporters Thursday. “I have not seen anything to disabuse that the government knew about it.”

Citing two senior Obama administration officials, The New York Times reported Tuesday that the ISI ordered the killing of Shahzad to silence his criticism. The intelligence is considered by U.S. officials to be “reliable and conclusive,” the Times said. A Pakistani government spokeswoman responded to that report by saying that it was part of “an international conspiracy to malign the law enforcement agencies and security forces.”

Mullen also said Thursday that the reported abuse of other journalists in Pakistan was troubling. “It’s a way to continue to, quite frankly, spiral in the wrong direction,” he said.