Pakistan arrests CIA informants

May 12, 2011
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Pakistan's intelligence service has arrested the owner of a safe house rented to the CIA to observe Osama bin Laden's compound before the U.S. raid that killed the al-Qaida leader, as well as a "handful" of other Pakistanis, a U.S. official said late Tuesday.

In Pakistan, a Western official confirmed a New York Times report that five of the Pakistani informants who fed information to the CIA before the May 2 raid were arrested by Pakistan's top military spy agency.

The officials spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence matters.

Link
 
Maybe I've seen just one James Bond movie too many, but don't they usually evacuate their sources to protect them from shit like this?
 
How two-faced dey wanna get here?...
:eusa_eh:
Former US Intelligence Chiefs: Pakistan Must Stop Playing Both Sides
August 09, 2011 - The relationship between the United States and Pakistan has been severely strained in recent months. Two former top U.S. intelligence officials say the relationship has been sorely tested because Pakistan has been trying to have it both ways by cooperating with U.S. counterterrorism efforts while maintaining ties with Taliban groups.
In separate interviews, ex-Central Intelligence Agency Director Michael Hayden and former Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair both say Pakistan is trying to use Taliban groups to maintain influence in Afghanistan. Hayden, who served as CIA chief from 2006 to 2009, says Pakistan's army and its primary intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence directorate (ISI), have been using the Haqqani network as leverage.

"It is clear, it is unarguable, that the Pakistani government, particularly the Pakistani security establishment - the army and the ISI - view the Haqqani network, that's the Taliban group in North Waziristan, [as] more of an - in their calculus they know it's an enemy of the United States, but in their calculus it's dominated by the fact that they believe that the Haqqani network is a friend of Pakistan. And that may be the single most troubling aspect of the relationship: our divergence of views on that particular network," said Hayden.

The Haqqani network is viewed as perhaps the most lethal of the Afghan Taliban groups, crossing into Afghanistan from its safe havens in Pakistan's tribal areas to mount attacks on NATO forces. Former Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair says Pakistan is playing both sides in anticipation of the eventual U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

"They were hedging, frankly," said Blair. "There were trying, and they still are, to take advantage of the help that they can get from the United States while still thinking, well, maybe the United States won't be here, maybe we have to look out for our own interests, and we need contact with many different groups, both countries and these various terrorist groups. And in addition, they have a tradition of trying to play off these extremist groups against each another."

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Pakistan sabotagin' US efforts in Afghanistan...
:eusa_eh:
US Accuses Pakistan of Exporting Violence to Afghanistan
September 22, 2011 - The U.S. military's top officer has accused Pakistan of supporting attacks by the al-Qaida-linked Haqqani network on U.S. targets in Afghanistan, including last week's assault on the U.S. Embassy in Kabul.
The future of the U.S. relationship with Pakistan has come into greater question as the United States prepares to draw down its troop presence in Afghanistan. That relationship, which became significantly more tense following the killing of terrorist leader Osama bin Laden on Pakistani soil earlier this year, has seen another sharp downturn with accusations by top U.S. officials that Pakistan was complicit in recent attacks in Aghanistan. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen told a U.S. Senate hearing Thursday that he is concerned about the impunity with which the Haqqani network and other extremist groups are allowed to operate from Pakistan. He said Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency, or ISI, supported the truck bomb attack by Haqqani operatives on a NATO base on September 10 that wounded 77 U.S. soldiers, and the attack two days later on the U.S. Embassy in Kabul.

Mullen said the Haqqani network’s ties to Pakistan’s government are deep. "The Haqqani network, for one, acts as a veritable arm of Pakistan’s internal services intelligence agency. Admiral Mullen also said he believes the United States should remain engaged with Islamabad. He has met with his Pakistani counterpart several times. But he warned that the relationship - and the future of Pakistan - could be in danger if the country continues to support extremists. "By exporting violence, they’ve eroded their internal security and their position in the region. They’ve undermined their regional credibility and threatened their economic well being. Only a decision to break with this policy can pave the road to a positive future for Pakistan," he said.

Mullen spoke alongside U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, who told senators the presence of safe havens in Pakistan is giving the insurgents advantages they have otherwise lost. "We cannot allow terrorists to have safe havens from which they launch attacks and kill our forces. We cannot allow that to happen and we have to bring pressure on the Pakistanis to do their part to confront that issue," said Panetta. Analyst Michael O’Hanlon at the Brookings Institution called the accusations against Paksitan a stunning development and a sign that U.S. frustration with Pakistan has reached a peak.

"I think Pakistan is just going to have to wake up and smell the roses that this is not consistent with an ongoing relationship in which the United States provides $3.5 a year in aid," said O’Hanlon. "Pakistan may feel they’re protected against an American reaction because we need their territory to bring in supplies and at some level that’s probably true. That’s why the aid level won’t go down to zero, but that and other things, I believe, are now at risk as a result of this very blunt assessment." Pakistan’s government rejects U.S. accusations that it is helping extremists and says it is cooperating with the United States in the battle on militants in the region. The country’s interior minister says the Haqqani network is not operating in Pakistan.

Source

See also:

Analysts: Fraying US-Pakistan Ties Imperil Afghan Peace Efforts
September 23, 2011 : Pakistani officials sounded off with angry and categorical responses to Adm. Mike Mullen's allegations that their Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI) is backing militant attacks on U.S. targets in Afghanistan.
Mullen sent shockwaves into the already strained relations between Washington and Islamabad by directly accusing ISI of backing a Taliban ally, the Haqqani network, in recent attacks on U.S. targets in Kabul and elsewhere. Mullen's Pakistani counterpart, General Ashfaq Kayani, denied any ISI support for the Haqqanis and called comments by the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff “especially unfortunate” in light of what he called a “rather constructive” recent meeting between the two men in Spain.

Pakistan Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar warned that Washington risks losing Pakistan’s strategic partnership in the war against terrorism if U.S. leaders continue to make such accusations. “You will lose an ally, you cannot afford to alienate Pakistan, you cannot afford to alienate the Pakistani people," said Rabbani. "If you are choosing to do so it will be at your own cost.” Washington has long accused Pakistan of not doing enough to crack down on militant groups in its territory.

A rocky relationship

The up-and-down U.S.-Pakistani relationship seemed to be on a slight upward curve recently after suffering a series of heavy blows. The arrest of a CIA contractor in Pakistan, repeated U.S. drone strikes on militant targets in Pakistan’s tribal areas, and the U.S. raid to kill Osama bin Laden had soured ties, but there was talk of new cooperation in battling terrorism. Former State Department intelligence analyst Marvin Weinbaum, now a scholar with the Middle East Institute, says Mullen’s comments reflect official U.S. frustration with the twists and turns of Pakistan’s policies regarding Afghanistan and militancy. “I think we just were exasperated with the people, particularly with those in the Pakistan military who we thought we had some kind of working relationship with," said Weinbaum. "We thought we understood one another and we've come to the conclusion that these relationships do not work anymore."

Weinbaum said Mullen's comments illustrate U.S. willingness to assume a confrontational stance with Islamabad, whose strategic interest in Afghanistan has always been complicated by concerns about the diplomatic, political and economic inroads made there by its archrival, India. "[Pakistan] may believe that by using these proxies they are hedging their bets, or redressing what they feel is an imbalance in regional power," Mullen said, alluding to what he calls Pakistan’s policy of using militant groups like the Haqqani network to secure influence in Kabul. "Only a decision to break with this policy can pave the road to a positive future."

Professor Christine Fair of Georgetown University, a longtime expert on South Asian affairs, says there may not much the U.S. can do. "We do not have a lot of options in terms of the duplicity of the ISI," she said. "We do not have a lot of options in terms of the Haqqani network. We do not have a lot of options with regard to Lashkar-i-Taiba and other militant groups that Pakistan continues to groom. Even though the ISI is very clearly a foreign organization that sponsors terrorism, we are not going to declare it as such."

A pivotal moment
 
See?

They support terrorism. Just cut off the money going to them and put up a border between Afghanistan and Pakistan with the money we would usually be giving to Pakistan.


They are a lost cause that isn't worth trying for. Just make it where Afghanistan can handle their own and lets come back home.
 
See?

They support terrorism. Just cut off the money going to them and put up a border between Afghanistan and Pakistan with the money we would usually be giving to Pakistan.


They are a lost cause that isn't worth trying for. Just make it where Afghanistan can handle their own and lets come back home.

Everyone wishes it was that easy.
 
See?

They support terrorism. Just cut off the money going to them and put up a border between Afghanistan and Pakistan with the money we would usually be giving to Pakistan.


They are a lost cause that isn't worth trying for. Just make it where Afghanistan can handle their own and lets come back home.

Everyone wishes it was that easy.

Shoot each caveman that crosses the border. Tell Pakistan tough shit and let them kill each other off over there. Tensions would definitely rise, but they really cant do anything about it since they are in the wrong.
Yes, getting Bin Laden was Wrong and Very Illegal. But do you know what was more Wrong and possibly even more Illegal? Giving Bin Laden a safe heaven while Pakistan's Army kept him in the dark.
 
Pakistan must stop supporting the Haqqani network in any form.
 

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