‘US losing trust in Pakistan intelligence’
http://thepost.com.pk/MainNewsT.aspx?bdtl_id=11987&fb_id=2&catid=14
Online
ISLAMABAD: US military, for the past four months, has routinely withheld advanced information from Pakistani authorities on attacks carried out in Pakistan’s border region targeting al-Qaeda and Taliban suspects, for fear the information could be leaked to militants, according to a high-level European defence official in Islamabad. The official told CBS News’ the Bush administration is demanding a comprehensive revamp of Pakistan’s powerful counter-espionage agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), before Washington will resume full intelligence cooperation with Pakistan. In the latest secret operation, Midhat Mursi al-Sayid Umar, also known as Abu Khabab al-Masri - a leading Qaeda chemical and biological weapons expert, was killed in a US missile strike early Monday morning at a remote location in Waziristan region.
“Information of this attack was shared very late with Pakistan. This was a case where the US did not want to alert the Pakistanis in advance because of concerns over information leaks,” said the European official, whose country has contributed troops to the NATO coalition force in Afghanistan. He spoke to CBS News on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the information.
The revelation on the Bush administration’s toughening stance on its long-time ally in the war against extremists came as Pakistani officials angrily denied a newspaper report that its intelligence service helped plan a bombing of India’s embassy in Kabul that killed at least 41 people.
The New York Times reported for Friday’s editions that American intelligence agencies had concluded that members of the ISI were involved in the July 7 attack in the Afghan capital.
A senior Pakistani official, who also spoke to CBS news on condition of anonymity, said the US military campaign in Afghanistan was failing, the militants were gaining ground. “The US and others are just pointing fingers towards others.”
Western diplomats based in Islamabad told CBS News last week that the cross-border tension presents a major dilemma for US policymakers, as the Bush administration tries to get the two countries to cooperate in the war on terror.