US met Haqqani representative at ISI insistence'

The US held a meeting with a Haqqani network representative at the insistence of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan, but this was not a negotiation, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has told lawmakers.

"The ISI asked us to meet with a representative of the Haqqani Network. There was such a meeting. It was not a negotiation... There was no follow-up meeting," Hillary said in response to a question at a Congressional hearing on Afghanistan and Pakistan convened by the House Committee on Foreign Affairs yesterday.

"This was done in part because I think the Pakistanis hope to be able to move the Haqqani Network towards some kind of peace negotiation... And the answer was an attack on our embassy," Hillary said in response to a question from Congressman Steve Chabot.

Hillary emphasised the negotiations that would be part of any Afghan-led peace process would have to include the Quetta Shura which is still led by Mullah Omar.

"I think everyone agrees that the Haqqani Network has safe havens inside Pakistan, that those safe havens give them a place to plan and direct operations that kill Afghans and Americans," she said.

Hillary said there was a major military operation that was held in Afghanistan just in the past week that rounded up and eliminated more than a hundred Haqqani Network operatives.

“We are taking action to target the Haqqani leadership on both sides of the border. We're increasing our international efforts to squeeze them operationally and financially.”

"We are already working with the Pakistanis to target those who are behind a lot of the attacks against Afghans and Americans," she said.

"I made it very clear to the Pakistanis that the attack on our embassy was an outrage, and the attack on our forward operating base that injured 77 of our soldiers was a similar outrage.”

"And it was in both instances terrible, but the fact is we avoided having dozens and dozens of wounded or killed," she said.

In her remarks, Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, questioned the Obama Administration's decision to both hold talks and go for crackdown on the Haqqani network.

"On the one hand, the US is negotiating with the Haqqani network, and yet on the other, we're attempting to destroy the network.”

"There have been some unwelcome developments since the President's announcement four months ago such as the multiple, high profile assassination of major leaders in Afghanistan," she said.

Americans believe US policies motivated 9/11

Americans, Today, are generally more willing to believe that US policies in the Middle East might have motivated the 9/11 terror attacks on New York and the Pentagon, according to a new poll.

Reflecting some important shifts in US public opinion over the past decade, the poll by Pew Research Centre found that the public's views are more evenly divided today in response to the question, "Why do they hate us?"

Today 43 percent agree with the proposition that the attacks may have been motivated by something "the US did wrong in its dealings with other countries", and 45 percent disagree. Immediately after the attacks, a majority of respondents (55 percent) rejected that notion, while only a third agreed.

The shift, however, was mainly confined to self-described Democrats and independents, half of whom now believe US policies may have motivated Al Qaeda.

Republicans, on the other hand, remained steadfast, as on a number of other key issues, in their view that the attacks were not motivated by anything the US had done.

The survey also found major differences between age groups on this question. More than half (52 percent) of respondents under 30 said US actions may have motivated the attacks, while only 20 percent of respondents 65 and older were open to that explanation.

A similar shift has taken place over the past decade with respect to the public's belief that it may be necessary to give up civil liberties to curb terrorism, according to the survey.

While 55 percent of respondents agreed with that proposition immediately after 9/11, that percentage has fallen to 40 percent. Conversely, the percentage of those who believe that civil liberties should not be sacrificed rose from 35 percent to a 54-percent majority, the survey found.

The survey, which interviewed more than 1,500 adults Aug 17-21, found that the 9/11 attacks have been seared into the public's collective consciousness in a way that no other modern event ever has.

Six of 10 respondents said they believed 9/11 changed life in the United States in a major way, while only one in 10 said they believe life here remains basically the same as it was a decade ago.