Pakistan asks U.S. to reduce covert presence in country
In a move which is going to hamper the U.S. ability to operate effectively against militants in Pakistan, Pakistan has let it be known that it wants about 335 U.S. personnel, CIA officers and contractors, and special operations force personnel to leave Pakistan; this would account for 25-40 percent of CIA staff in the country; tension between the two countries has been rising for a while, and it came to a head earlier this year when a CIA operative panicked during a covert operation and killed to innocent bystanders; the operative was released after the two families, who received $2.3 million in blood money from the CIA, asked the court to let him go; the Pakistani government, however, wants the U.S. covert footprint reduced and covert activity, including the use of drones, curtailed
CIA must reduce presence, including covert UAVs // Source: robotsnob.com
Tensions between the United States and Pakistan, already tense, deteriorated even further when, earlier this year, CIA operative Raymond Davis was arrested after shooting two Pakistanis. The official U.S. line is that Davis thought two passers by were going to rob him, but the reality is the he was a CIA look-out who panicked while on a covert operation and, mistakenly, shot two innocent people who he thought were part of the group of bad guys he was tailing. Last month a Pakistani court freed Raymond Davis after acquitting him of two counts of murder, when relatives of the two men he shot dead pardoned him in court. The Washington Post reports that the families agreed to do so after receiving up to $2.3 million from the CIA as “blood money.”
The Pakistani authorities know what Davis was up to, and they have decided to take action. The New York Times reported that about 335 U.S. personnel, CIA officers and contractors, and special operations force personnel were being asked to leave Pakistan. The newspaper quoted an unnamed Pakistani official said to be closely involved in the discussions.
The BBC reports that this would account for 25-40 percent of CIA staff in the country. The reduction in CIA operations appears to have been personally requested by Pakistan’s army chief General Ashfaq Kayani.
Officially, the United States denies that a Pakistani request for a reduction in U.S. covert presence in Pakistan has even been made. Referring to a meeting between CIA director Leon Panetta and the head of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) directorate, Ahmed Shuja Pasha, at the CIA headquarters in Virginia, CIA spokesman Preston Golson told Reuters news agency: “Director Panetta and General Pasha held productive discussions today and the CIA-ISI relationship remains on solid footing.”
