Washington: Hafiz Saeed's vision is "destruction" of India, says US counter-terrorism expert Bruce Riedel, maintaining that the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e- Toiba founder is an al Qaeda ally who was in close touch with Osama bin Laden until his death in May 2011.
"Saeed, a very public figure in Pakistan and admired by its military, advocates a truly extreme vision: the restoration of the Mughal empire and the destruction of India," Bruce Riedel, a former CIA officer and now a senior fellow in the Seban Center at Brookings Institute, said.
America's decision to announce a bounty of $10 million on Saeed would further deteriorate its relationship with Pakistan, he wrote in 'The Daily Beast'. Saeed, he said, stayed in close contact with bin Laden until his death in May 2011 in a covert US raid, according to the material found in the al-Qaeda leader's hideout in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
"Saeed openly mourned bin Laden in a bitter eulogy the Friday after the SEALs delivered justice to bin Laden," wrote Riedel, who was among the three members appointed by US President Barack Obama to review and formulate a new Af-Pak policy for the administration....
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03:46 PM, Apr 04, 2012
I'm not a strategic affairs expert. So maybe what I'm going to write about this book is pure bunkum. But for a book written by a former CIA operative, an advisor to four US presidents, one who helped shape America's policy towards the Middle East and Pakistan and one who helped carve President Obama's current Afghan strategy, the book doesn't clear too many of our doubts about the US-Pakistan relationship....
03:00 PM, Aug 02, 2011
