Mullen: ISI involved in Kabul attack

WASHINGTON, Sept. 22 (UPI) -- Pakistani support for Afghan insurgents and corruption in the Afghan government are major obstacles for the United States, Adm. Mike Mullen said Thursday.

Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, testified before a Senate committee that Pakistan's intelligence agency was involved in the attack last week on the U.S. Embassy in Kabul and in the truck bombing of a NATO outpost near Kabul Sept. 10.

"The Haqqani network, for one, acts as a veritable arm of Pakistan's Internal Services Intelligence agency," Mullen said. "With ISI support, the Haqqani operatives planned and conducted that truck bomb attack, as well as the assault on our embassy."

Mullen warned government corruption in Afghanistan "de-legitimizes" the institutions the United States is counting on to take over as its forces are withdrawn. If nothing is done, the result is likely to be local conflicts at best and a total government collapse and civil war at worst, he said.

But Mullen, who is about to retire, said he is leaving confident that the problems in Afghanistan are not insurmountable.