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Drones based at Shamsi air base SW of Quetta have been used on targets within Pak !
Spymaster Petraeus may inflame ties with Pakistan | Pakistan | News | Newspaper | Daily | English | Online
NEW YORK - The selection of American commander in Afghanistan, Gen David Petraeus, as CIA director could further inflame relations between Pakistan and the United States, according to media reports.
The New York Times said Friday that Pakistans military leadership does not regard Petraeus as a friend and now at CIA he will have direct control over the armed drone campaign that the Pakistani military says it wants stopped. In a dispatch from Islamabad, the newspaper said Pakistan Army Chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani has made little secret of his distaste for General Petraeus, calling him a political general. On his part, General Petraeus has privately expressed outrage at ISIs most blatant support yet for fighters based in Pakistan who are carrying out attacks against American troops in Afghanistan.
Officials on both sides say they expect the two nations relationship to become increasingly adversarial as they manoeuvre the endgame in Afghanistan, where Pakistan and the United States have deep and conflicting security interests.
Repairing the frayed ties between the CIA and ISI will be difficult, the Times said, citing the American officials. In its current form, the relationship is almost unworkable, Dennis Blair, a former American director of national intelligence, was quoted as saying. There has to be a major restructuring. The ISI jams the CIA all it wants and pays no penalties.
One top adviser to General Petraeus sought to play down the animosity with Pakistani officials, noting that the general had regularly met with the Pakistanis for nearly three years, most recently on Monday. Still, the adviser acknowledged that with General Petraeus leading the CIA, the pressure may be more strategic, deliberate and focused to the extent that it can be.
A Pakistani official described the mounting tensions as a game of brinkmanship, with both Admiral Mike Mullen, who as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has been the Obama administrations point man on Pakistan policy, and General Kayani growing impatient because they have little to show for the many hours they have invested during more than two dozen visits over the past three years.
Admiral Mullen surprised Pakistani officials by publicly accusing the ISI of sheltering fighters from the Haqqani network. American commanders in eastern Afghanistan claim they have killed or captured more than 5,000 militants in the past year, but fighters continue to pour across the border from sanctuaries in Pakistan to Paktia, Khost and Paktika provinces in Afghanistan.
In a private meeting here in Islamabad last week, Admiral Mullen told General Kayani that the CIA would not reduce the drone strikes until Pakistan launched a military operation against the Haqqani network in Pakistans tribal areas, an American official said, pleas that the admiral has been making for the past two years with nothing to show for them.
Pakistans military and its intelligence agency are increasingly embarrassed by the United States drone campaign, which they publicly condemn but quietly allow, according to the Times. They have asked the CIA to remove its personnel from Shamsi air base, about 200 miles southwest of Quetta, where some of the drones are based, a senior American official said.
The withdrawal has not occurred but is expected soon, the official said. The drone attacks would then be flown out of Afghanistan, where some of them are already based, the official said.
There have also been sharp disagreements over a proposed code of conduct that would define what American soldiers and intelligence agents can do in Pakistani territory, a Pakistani official said. The Pakistanis have, for now, dropped the idea of such an accord, fearing that the Americans are looking for legal cover for intelligence operatives like Raymond Davis, the CIA contractor who killed two Pakistanis in January, a Pakistani official said.
The relationship between the two countries is very tense right now, said Congressman William Thornberry of Texas, a senior Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, who visited Pakistan last week. And the Pakistan government fuels the anti-American public opinion to increase pressure on us.
Newly disclosed documents obtained by WikiLeaks have also stoked tensions, the Times said. One of them, from the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, lists the ISI along with numerous militant groups as allies of Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, an indication of how deep American suspicions run when it comes to Pakistani intelligence. The document is undated but appears to be from 2007 or 2008.
A former general said the alliance established after 9/11 to get rid of Al-Qaeda on Pakistani soil was built on shaky ground, with few aligning interests beyond stopping the terrorist group. Tensions over issues big and small like accounting for American grants to the Pakistani military and the failure of the US to deliver helicopters that would help in counterterrorism efforts clouded the hastily arranged alliance from the start, he said.
But now the collision of interests over how to end the war in Afghanistan, and the bitterness over the Davis affair, have exposed deep-seated differences, he said.
The drone campaign, which the CIA has run against militants in Pakistans tribal areas since 2004, will now become the preserve of General Petraeus, and it has moved to centre stage, at least for the Pakistanis, the paper said. Since Daviss release from custody in Pakistan after the killings, the CIA has carried out three drone attacks, each one seemingly tied to sensitive events in the US-Pakistan relationship and aimed at Afghan Taliban militants that Pakistan shelters.
The day after Admiral Mullen left Pakistan last week, a drone attack in North Waziristan killed 23 people associated with Hafiz Gul Barhadur, whose forces are fighting Nato in Afghanistan. Earlier in April, after Lt Gen Ahmad Shuja Pasha, the ISI chief, left Washington, a drone attacked another group of Afghan Taliban.
Another former Pakistani general who speaks to General Kayani said he believed that the Pakistan Armys leader had concluded that the drone campaign should end because it hurt the armys reputation among the Pakistani public. Those being killed by the drones are of midlevel Taliban or even lesser importance, the general said.
Besides Afghanistan, perhaps the biggest issue on Petraeuss agenda at the CIA will be the agencys relations with Pakistans ISI, which over the last six months have suffered a series of grave setbacks.
I think it is going to be a very strained and difficult relationship, said Bruce Riedel, a former adviser to President Barack Obama on Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Riedel characterised the relationship between Petraeus and Pakistani leaders as mutual distrust.
Agencies add: President Barack Obama Thursday charged his reshaped national security team with managing a new phase in the long war in Afghanistan - the struggle to put Afghans in charge of their own security.
Obama nominated CIA boss Leon Panetta as defence secretary, veteran diplomat Ryan Crocker as ambassador to Kabul and chose Lieutenant General John Allen as the new Afghan war commander, refashioning his security braintrust.
He also announced his choice of famed General David Petraeus, the mastermind of US strategy in Iraq and current Nato commander in Afghanistan, to lead covert intelligence operations as new director of the CIA.
While political Washington is cheering General Petraeus nomination to head the CIA, the mood at the agencys headquarters and in Pakistans intelligence service is less celebratory.
Petraeus is expected as CIA director to embrace the campaign of drone strikes in Pakistan, a nominally covert CIA operation that has fueled anti-American sentiment but put heavy pressure on militant safe havens.
Continuing or stepping up drone attacks is likely to further strain relations between the CIA and ISI and, according to some experts, possibly exacerbate the awkward personal chemistry between Petraeus and top Pakistani officials.
Petraeus, nominated by President Barack Obama on Thursday to replace CIA director Leon Panetta, has a reputation for brainpower and political savvy, which he used to help salvage the US campaign in Iraq.
Spymaster Petraeus may inflame ties with Pakistan | Pakistan | News | Newspaper | Daily | English | Online
NEW YORK - The selection of American commander in Afghanistan, Gen David Petraeus, as CIA director could further inflame relations between Pakistan and the United States, according to media reports.
The New York Times said Friday that Pakistans military leadership does not regard Petraeus as a friend and now at CIA he will have direct control over the armed drone campaign that the Pakistani military says it wants stopped. In a dispatch from Islamabad, the newspaper said Pakistan Army Chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani has made little secret of his distaste for General Petraeus, calling him a political general. On his part, General Petraeus has privately expressed outrage at ISIs most blatant support yet for fighters based in Pakistan who are carrying out attacks against American troops in Afghanistan.
Officials on both sides say they expect the two nations relationship to become increasingly adversarial as they manoeuvre the endgame in Afghanistan, where Pakistan and the United States have deep and conflicting security interests.
Repairing the frayed ties between the CIA and ISI will be difficult, the Times said, citing the American officials. In its current form, the relationship is almost unworkable, Dennis Blair, a former American director of national intelligence, was quoted as saying. There has to be a major restructuring. The ISI jams the CIA all it wants and pays no penalties.
One top adviser to General Petraeus sought to play down the animosity with Pakistani officials, noting that the general had regularly met with the Pakistanis for nearly three years, most recently on Monday. Still, the adviser acknowledged that with General Petraeus leading the CIA, the pressure may be more strategic, deliberate and focused to the extent that it can be.
A Pakistani official described the mounting tensions as a game of brinkmanship, with both Admiral Mike Mullen, who as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has been the Obama administrations point man on Pakistan policy, and General Kayani growing impatient because they have little to show for the many hours they have invested during more than two dozen visits over the past three years.
Admiral Mullen surprised Pakistani officials by publicly accusing the ISI of sheltering fighters from the Haqqani network. American commanders in eastern Afghanistan claim they have killed or captured more than 5,000 militants in the past year, but fighters continue to pour across the border from sanctuaries in Pakistan to Paktia, Khost and Paktika provinces in Afghanistan.
In a private meeting here in Islamabad last week, Admiral Mullen told General Kayani that the CIA would not reduce the drone strikes until Pakistan launched a military operation against the Haqqani network in Pakistans tribal areas, an American official said, pleas that the admiral has been making for the past two years with nothing to show for them.
Pakistans military and its intelligence agency are increasingly embarrassed by the United States drone campaign, which they publicly condemn but quietly allow, according to the Times. They have asked the CIA to remove its personnel from Shamsi air base, about 200 miles southwest of Quetta, where some of the drones are based, a senior American official said.
The withdrawal has not occurred but is expected soon, the official said. The drone attacks would then be flown out of Afghanistan, where some of them are already based, the official said.
There have also been sharp disagreements over a proposed code of conduct that would define what American soldiers and intelligence agents can do in Pakistani territory, a Pakistani official said. The Pakistanis have, for now, dropped the idea of such an accord, fearing that the Americans are looking for legal cover for intelligence operatives like Raymond Davis, the CIA contractor who killed two Pakistanis in January, a Pakistani official said.
The relationship between the two countries is very tense right now, said Congressman William Thornberry of Texas, a senior Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, who visited Pakistan last week. And the Pakistan government fuels the anti-American public opinion to increase pressure on us.
Newly disclosed documents obtained by WikiLeaks have also stoked tensions, the Times said. One of them, from the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, lists the ISI along with numerous militant groups as allies of Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, an indication of how deep American suspicions run when it comes to Pakistani intelligence. The document is undated but appears to be from 2007 or 2008.
A former general said the alliance established after 9/11 to get rid of Al-Qaeda on Pakistani soil was built on shaky ground, with few aligning interests beyond stopping the terrorist group. Tensions over issues big and small like accounting for American grants to the Pakistani military and the failure of the US to deliver helicopters that would help in counterterrorism efforts clouded the hastily arranged alliance from the start, he said.
But now the collision of interests over how to end the war in Afghanistan, and the bitterness over the Davis affair, have exposed deep-seated differences, he said.
The drone campaign, which the CIA has run against militants in Pakistans tribal areas since 2004, will now become the preserve of General Petraeus, and it has moved to centre stage, at least for the Pakistanis, the paper said. Since Daviss release from custody in Pakistan after the killings, the CIA has carried out three drone attacks, each one seemingly tied to sensitive events in the US-Pakistan relationship and aimed at Afghan Taliban militants that Pakistan shelters.
The day after Admiral Mullen left Pakistan last week, a drone attack in North Waziristan killed 23 people associated with Hafiz Gul Barhadur, whose forces are fighting Nato in Afghanistan. Earlier in April, after Lt Gen Ahmad Shuja Pasha, the ISI chief, left Washington, a drone attacked another group of Afghan Taliban.
Another former Pakistani general who speaks to General Kayani said he believed that the Pakistan Armys leader had concluded that the drone campaign should end because it hurt the armys reputation among the Pakistani public. Those being killed by the drones are of midlevel Taliban or even lesser importance, the general said.
Besides Afghanistan, perhaps the biggest issue on Petraeuss agenda at the CIA will be the agencys relations with Pakistans ISI, which over the last six months have suffered a series of grave setbacks.
I think it is going to be a very strained and difficult relationship, said Bruce Riedel, a former adviser to President Barack Obama on Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Riedel characterised the relationship between Petraeus and Pakistani leaders as mutual distrust.
Agencies add: President Barack Obama Thursday charged his reshaped national security team with managing a new phase in the long war in Afghanistan - the struggle to put Afghans in charge of their own security.
Obama nominated CIA boss Leon Panetta as defence secretary, veteran diplomat Ryan Crocker as ambassador to Kabul and chose Lieutenant General John Allen as the new Afghan war commander, refashioning his security braintrust.
He also announced his choice of famed General David Petraeus, the mastermind of US strategy in Iraq and current Nato commander in Afghanistan, to lead covert intelligence operations as new director of the CIA.
While political Washington is cheering General Petraeus nomination to head the CIA, the mood at the agencys headquarters and in Pakistans intelligence service is less celebratory.
Petraeus is expected as CIA director to embrace the campaign of drone strikes in Pakistan, a nominally covert CIA operation that has fueled anti-American sentiment but put heavy pressure on militant safe havens.
Continuing or stepping up drone attacks is likely to further strain relations between the CIA and ISI and, according to some experts, possibly exacerbate the awkward personal chemistry between Petraeus and top Pakistani officials.
Petraeus, nominated by President Barack Obama on Thursday to replace CIA director Leon Panetta, has a reputation for brainpower and political savvy, which he used to help salvage the US campaign in Iraq.
