US open to work with Al-Qaeda, Taliban members who cut terror ties: Clinton

September 28th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Pakistan has increased its commitment in the fight against terrorism, but the Obama administration is still not "satisfied", Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said, pointing to the large presence of the Al Qaeda and the Taliban country. "Well, look at, again, what has happened in the last nine months.

September 22nd, 2009 WASHINGTON - The United States has reiterated that the lawless tribal areas along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border were the epicenter of terrorism. In an interview to a private television channel, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton highlighted that the region along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border was the 'focal point' of terrorism.

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'.

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 15th, 2009 UNITED NATIONS - The Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) has ties with the Taliban and is trying to increase tensions between India and Pakistan, says a UN official dealing with the Al Qaeda and allied groups. Richard Barrett, coordinator of the UN Sanctions Monitoring Team, told the media that the Pakistan-Afghan border and North Africa, especially Algeria, were the main contributors to the sanctions list for Al Qaeda and Taliban operatives.

July 15th, 2009 UNITED NATIONS - The sanctions list for Al Qaeda and Taliban operatives contains names of dead people and entries with missing information, says Thomas Mayr-Harting, Austria's ambassador to the United Nations. "It is not the purpose of the list to contain dead people," he told the press at the UN, noting that members of the deceased person's family were unfairly deprived of the assets.

July 12th, 2009 WASHINGTON - The United States has ruled out any negotiations with the Taliban until it lays down arms and severe all its ties with Al-Qaeda. When enquired about the statement of the Pakistan Army's spokesman, Major General Athar Abbas, that the Pakistan military can bring the Taliban to the discussion table with the United States, the US Special Envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, said such a possibility can only occur when the Taliban 'repudiates al-Qaeda publicly'.

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 19th, 2009 LAHORE - US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has said the Pakistan Army is capable of neutralising the Taliban, but is maintaining contacts with the terror outfit as they are not sure who is going to win in Afghanistan. He said it was up to Pakistan to clear the Taliban and Al Qaeda terrorists out.

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...

April 8th, 2009 WASHINGTON - The United States has claimed that Osama Bin Laden along with other top Al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders are hiding in Pakistan's ungoverned tribal areas along the Afghan border. "In the FATA, the western part of Pakistan in the mountains on the Afghan border, that is a war on terror.

March 30th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Terming the relation between Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Afghan extremists as "an existential threat", the United States has asked Pakistan to cut off all its ties with outlawed groups based in Afghanistan. "What we need to do is try and help the Pakistanis understand these groups are now an existential threat to them," US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said.