No talks with Taliban until it ‘repudiates al-Qaeda publicly’: US

September 20th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Central Intelligence Agency's (CIA) Director Leon Panetta has said that the agency's operation against Al-Qaeda and other extremist groups in Pakistan has been 'very successful'. Panetta said the CIA was establishing more bases in Afghanistan as the Taliban and Al-Qaeda were constantly expanding their network, and added that the influence of these outfits was also on the rise.

September 14th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - A Saudi Arabian charity has funded 15 million dollars to a pro al-Qaeda militant organization to carry out terror attacks in Pakistan, Pakistani police has claimed. "The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan is likely to strike major cities of the Punjab.

September 9th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Pakistan's 'double game' and its undercover relationship with the Taliban and Al-Qaeda helped Osama-bin-Laden escape the allied forces and prevented him from being nabbed, The Times online reports. Pakistan's connection with al-Qaeda dates back to 1980's when the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) helped the CIA to supply arms, ammunition and financial help to bin- Laden and other members of the Mujahideen resistance against Soviet forces.

September 1st, 2009 LAHORE - Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan Bajaur Agency chief Maulvi Faqir has said that Al Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban had no role in the appointment of new Pakistan Taliban chief. He said the Tehreek-e-Taliban council had independently chosen and appointed Hakimullah Mehsud as Baitullah's successor.

August 28th, 2009 WASHINGTON - US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, has said that even though the allied forces have challenged Al-Qaeda and its allies in Afghanistan for eight years, the Taliban- Al-Qaeda alliance has now become stronger than ever before. In an interview to The Boston Globe, Admiral Mullen said the Taliban's alliance with Osama bin Laden and other top leaders of the Al-Qaeda terrorist network has become stronger than ever, highlighting that public support to the 'war on terror' in Afghanistan was 'waning'.

August 19th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - The US will provide all help to Pakistan to deal with its crushing energy crisis, but it has no "magic solution" to the ongoing crisis, top US envoy Richard Holbrooke has said. "We are committed to resolve the energy crisis in Pakistan.

July 16th, 2009 WASHINGTON - US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton has once again highlighted that Pakistan is a terror safe haven and said that Al-Qaeda's leadership is based in that country. Clinton's comments came a day before her significant visit to India, where she will be meeting the country's leadership.

July 10th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Increased pressure from the US and the Pakistani Army on the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and al Qaeda may force them to join hands with the militant Sunni radical group Jundallah, a group that staged attacks on Iran and strained Iranian-Pakistani relations. Ashraf Ali, a Peshawar-based military specialist on the Taliban, said that given Jundallah's historical connections with al Qaeda and the Taliban, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan might seek refuge in Balochistan or join the ranks of Jundallah.

June 27th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Terming the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region as 'terror safe haven', US President, Barack Obama has expressed concern over the increasing activities of a "resurgent" Taliban. In a statement issued by the White House here, Obama highlighted that Al-Qaeda and the Taliban have intensified their activities in the ungoverned tribal regions along Pakistan and Afghanistan.

June 4th, 2009 LONDON - Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden's latest audio tape, in which he has threatened the United States for supporting the Pakistan military's Swat offensive against the Taliban, suggests that both Al-Qaeda and the Taliban are closely associated. The tape, which went on-air almost simultaneously with Barack Obama's arrival in Saudi Arabia, accused the United States of sowing 'new seeds of hatred against America' for supporting Pakistan's fight against the Taliban.

May 30th, 2009 LONDON - The extent to which Al-Qaeda has dangerously penetrated into Britain can be gauged from the fact that it no longer relies on sending British-born men to Pakistan for terror training, instead it is now recruiting 'ready made' terrorists from among the Taliban based in Pakistan. British investigators, who have been quizzing the 10 men arrested in the North West, believe that Al Qaeda has developed links with the Taliban which provide it trained militants who can carry out terror strikes at significant locations, The Telegraph reports.

May 22nd, 2009 WASHINGTON - Worried by the ever expanding links between the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, the United States has reiterated that Al-Qaeda has shifted its base and is now headquartered in Pakistan. Addressing the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the Chairman of the U.S.

April 23rd, 2009 ISLAMABAD - The Pakistani Army must end its age old anti-India strategy and try to save Pakistan from becoming the caliphate of al Qaeda and the Taliban, according to a leading Islamabad based daily. The Taliban are linked to al Qaeda and they are counting on such elements in Punjab to help them take their war down to other parts of Pakistan.

April 8th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), US vice president Joe Biden said, adding that the 'most radicalised part of Taliban' is there. 'In the FATA, the western part of Pakistan in the mountains on the Afghan border...

March 19th, 2009 WASHINGTON - British Defense Minister John Hutton has said that the key to success in the 'War on terror' in Afghanistan lies in rooting out the command and control centers of Al-Qaeda and other extremist groups operating from Pakistan. Talking to media persons before meeting with US Defense Secretary Robert M.