Islamabad, June 03: FBI director Robert Mueller was meeting with senior Pakistani officials today during a one-day visit to discuss counter-terrorism efforts and other issues, U.S. and Pakistani officials said. Mueller arrived early today at Chaklala, an Air Force base near the capital, said terry white, a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy. It was not clear whether Mueller would be meeting with President Pervez Musharraf.
It was not clear what issues would top Mueller's agenda, but Pakistani officials said he would be holding talks on the progress of hunting down al-Qaida fugitives, including Osama bin Laden. Many intelligence officials believe bin Laden is hiding in the mountainous border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
White said the trip had been planned well in advance.
"There's a range of issues that he is talking about with his counterparts, but it is not tied to any specific event," he said. "It's been scheduled for a while."
Mueller was in Yemen yesterday and met with that country's president, Ali Abdullah. Yemen is the ancestral home of bin Laden and the site of the October 2000 attack on the USS Cole that killed 17 American sailors.
Bureau Report