No other option but to respond: Obama

Frustrated over Pakistan's lackluster response to the war against terrorism, US President Barack Obama, sent his top aides to warn Pakistan that he would have no other option but to respond, if they do not take decisive action against terrorist safe havens. Adding to the frustration, the Pakistani establishment in particular the all powerful Army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani refused to adhere to any of the four demands the US made through National Security Adviser Gen James Jones and CIA chief Leon Panetta during that trip in May this year, says noted investigative journalist Bob Woodward, in his latest book, "Obama's War". "The President wants everyone in Pakistan to understand if such an attack connected to a Pakistani group is successful there are some things even he would not be able to stop. Just there are political realities in Pakistan, there are realities in the United States. No one will be able to stop the response and consequences. There is not a threat, just a statement of political fact," Zardai was told during the meeting, the book claims. Giving a series of specific instances how terrorists' leaders are operating unhindered inside Pakistan, Jones told Zardari that Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, the LeT commander if the 2008 Mumbai attacks, is not being adequately interrogated and "he continues to direct LeT operations from his detention center." LeT is operating in Afghanistan and the group carried out a recent attack at a guesthouse there. Intelligence also shows that LeT is threatening attacks in the United States and the possibility is rising each day, Jones said according to the book.  After meeting Zardari, US officials met Kayani, wherein Jones told the Pakistan Army Chief that the clock was starting now all the four requests made by Obama. "But Kayani would not budge very much. He had other concerns. "I'll be the first to admit, I'm India centric," he said, according to the book.