August 07, 2008	Thursday	Sha’aban 4, 1429

Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell made the observation at a regular briefing when asked if Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani had assured the US that the ISI would cooperate with US forces to help stop cross-border attacks into Afghanistan.

“With regards to the Pakistani intelligence services, I think that’s been historically an issue in that country,” he said. “There are signs that it remains so. And … our two governments are working to deal with those problems.”

Prime Minister Gilani visited Washington last week for talks with President George W. Bush, senior members of his cabinet and with senior US lawmakers.

And according to White House Press Secretary Dana Perino, Mr Bush and Mr Gilani “spent most of the time talking about counterterrorism issues”. Meanwhile, reports in the US media, published since Mr Gilani’s visit, claim that the US and Pakistan are going to work together to reduce ISI’s role in the war on terror and its influence in domestic politics.

The reports also claim that there were no talks on President Pervez Musharraf’s future at the Bush-Gilani meeting as the Americans have already indicated to Islamabad that they regard this as an internal problem of Pakistan and they will accept whatever decision is taken there.

But Ms Perino, in a briefing on Bush-Gilani talks, did emphasis Mr Bush’s personal feelings for Mr Musharraf. “President Bush got to know President Musharraf very well over a period of many years, and they went through some pretty rough times together and established a good friendship,” she said.

Asked if the US had complained to Pakistan about its inability to stop the militants, the Pentagon press secretary said: “We’ve complained about it, to some degree, from here. … I would reiterate that we have seen and continue to see Pakistani military operations in the Fata, and we are pleased to see that.”

But he also stressed the need for Pakistan to do more. “As we’ve said before, this needs to be a concerted and consistent effort to go after the militants to prevent them from either creating training grounds and safe havens within Pakistan or going into Afghanistan and causing trouble there.”

The US, he said, would not only want Pakistan to continue its efforts to defeat militants but wanted “to see probably even more robust efforts on Pakistan’s part”.

Pakistan, he said, remained a key US ally in the global war on terrorism and “we need their assistance”.

Asked how the US could persuade Pakistan to do more, Mr Morrell reminded the questioner that Pakistan was “a sovereign nation which happens to have a lawless area along the border with Afghanistan in which we have seen far too many militants operate”.

The US and Pakistan, he said, were working together to confront a threat that was shared by them.

The Pentagon spokesman also rejected the suggestion by an Indian journalist that the United States had given billions of dollars to Pakistan. “You’re saying … we’ve given billions of dollars -- and I would take issue with the fact we’ve given it. We’ve reimbursed the Pakistanis billions of dollars for operations they’ve conducted on our behalf within their borders,” he said.

But he agreed with the journalist that despite this generous assistance, the US remained unpopular in Pakistan. “That’s a sad reality if that’s the case. And it’s something that this (US) government is working hard to try to remedy,” he said.

Mr Morrell said that while the US was helping Pakistan fight the extremists, the Pakistanis needed to realise that this was a more immediate threat to them than to the Americans. “We saw that, you know, with the assassination of Benazir Bhutto,” he added.

“And so, I would hope that Pakistanis would realise that we are their ally against this mutual threat.”

The Pentagon official also conceded that the US needed to do a better job in communicating all the good it did around the world, including in Pakistan.