NR: "...intense pressure
back home in Pakistan..."
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Length: 1:23
LARGE (16.2 MB)
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SMALL (1.7 MB)
A second recording of the update used on
Saturday Morning.
MICHAEL
WARE, INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT, CNN: The Obama
administration has expressed its first reaction to
the Pakistan military's offer to help broker talks
between Washington and the Afghan Taliban leadership.
President Obama's special envoy to Afghanistan and
Pakistan, Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, said it was
not surprising that the Pakistan military was able to
talk to the Taliban. However, he did describe their
disclosure of the fact as a positive development.
RICHARD HOLBROOKE, SPECIAL ENVOY TO
PAKISTAN/AFGHANISTAN: And there have been long
allegations that there are continued contacts, and I
think it's a step forward for the Pakistanis to say
publicly what everyone has always assumed.
WARE: But under what some Pakistani military officers
described as "intense pressure" back home in Pakistan
following the revelations that the military was still
talking with the Taliban, Pakistan military
headquarters in Rawalpindi issued a statement denying
the remarks attributed to its official spokesman as
"baseless, fabricated, and taken out of context,"
even though those remarks were made on camera.
Nonetheless, Ambassador Richard Holbrooke says he
will privately take up this issue with the government
of Pakistan when he visits Islamabad in coming weeks.
Michael Ware, CNN.