Hulk
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Pakistan's military has agreed to the
resumption of the United States' drone
strikes against terrorist groups operating
on its soil, highly-placed diplomatic
sources told The Hindu.
The agreement, the sources said, was
hammered out by Inter-Services
Intelligence chief Lieutenant-General
Shuja Ahmad Pasha and Central
Intelligence Agency director David
Petraeus at a secret meeting in Doha last
month.
The pact ends a six-week cessation of
operation that began after a November 26,
2011 U.S. airstrike claimed the lives of 24
Pakistani soldiers.
Islamabad had responded to the deaths by
shutting down drone flights from the
Shamsi in Balochistan, and ordering dozens
of CIA staff out of the country.
Pakistan's intelligence chief also agreed,
the sources said, to allow the CIA to expand
its presence at the Shahbaz airbase near
Abbottabad. The base is a key hub for the
CIA's field networks to identify targets and
plant electronic microchips that guide
drone-fired missiles to their targets.
The drone agreement, a senior western
official familiar with the negotiations told
The Hindu, was driven by Pakistani
intelligence's desire for greater influence
in ongoing negotiations in Doha between
the U.S. and the Taliban.
It also reflected, he said, the realisation
that the U.S. support would be critical to
rescheduling repayment of loans from the
International Monetary Fund and other
multilateral institutions.
Nine drone strikes have taken place since
the meeting. Badr Mansoor, believed by the
CIA to be al-Qaeda's seniormost Pakistani
commander, was killed in one attack on
February 9. Aslam Awan, another alleged
al-Qaeda commander, was killed in a strike
on January 10.
Even though upwards of 30 people have
been killed in the new wave of strikes,
there have been no protest from the
Pakistan Army or politicians in stark
contrast to the fury aroused by similar
attacks last year.
ISI about-turn
Leaked U.S. diplomatic cables show that
both Pakistan Army Chief Parvez Kayani
and Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani had
secretly authorised the drone campaign,
even while opposing it in public.
The Pakistan Army, however, stepped up its
opposition to the drone programme last
year, seeking to use it as a bargaining chip
to deter CIA operations targeting terrorist
networks with close links to the ISI, like the
Lashkar-e-Taiba and Afghan jihadist
Sirajuddin Haqqani's networks.
Following a strike directed at Taliban
commander Hafiz Gul Bahadur, which
claimed over 40 lives, General Kayani
called the drone operations intolerable.
The drone war, his aides privately argued,
had made Pakistan a target of retaliatory
bombings by terrorists, and diminished the
ISI's influence with jihadist groups at home
and in Afghanistan.
Figures compiled by the Washington, DC-
based New America Foundation show there
were 362 drone strikes last year, in which
between 362 and 500 jihadists were killed.
In 2010, the U.S. carried out 581 strikes,
killing up to 939.
resumption of the United States' drone
strikes against terrorist groups operating
on its soil, highly-placed diplomatic
sources told The Hindu.
The agreement, the sources said, was
hammered out by Inter-Services
Intelligence chief Lieutenant-General
Shuja Ahmad Pasha and Central
Intelligence Agency director David
Petraeus at a secret meeting in Doha last
month.
The pact ends a six-week cessation of
operation that began after a November 26,
2011 U.S. airstrike claimed the lives of 24
Pakistani soldiers.
Islamabad had responded to the deaths by
shutting down drone flights from the
Shamsi in Balochistan, and ordering dozens
of CIA staff out of the country.
Pakistan's intelligence chief also agreed,
the sources said, to allow the CIA to expand
its presence at the Shahbaz airbase near
Abbottabad. The base is a key hub for the
CIA's field networks to identify targets and
plant electronic microchips that guide
drone-fired missiles to their targets.
The drone agreement, a senior western
official familiar with the negotiations told
The Hindu, was driven by Pakistani
intelligence's desire for greater influence
in ongoing negotiations in Doha between
the U.S. and the Taliban.
It also reflected, he said, the realisation
that the U.S. support would be critical to
rescheduling repayment of loans from the
International Monetary Fund and other
multilateral institutions.
Nine drone strikes have taken place since
the meeting. Badr Mansoor, believed by the
CIA to be al-Qaeda's seniormost Pakistani
commander, was killed in one attack on
February 9. Aslam Awan, another alleged
al-Qaeda commander, was killed in a strike
on January 10.
Even though upwards of 30 people have
been killed in the new wave of strikes,
there have been no protest from the
Pakistan Army or politicians in stark
contrast to the fury aroused by similar
attacks last year.
ISI about-turn
Leaked U.S. diplomatic cables show that
both Pakistan Army Chief Parvez Kayani
and Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani had
secretly authorised the drone campaign,
even while opposing it in public.
The Pakistan Army, however, stepped up its
opposition to the drone programme last
year, seeking to use it as a bargaining chip
to deter CIA operations targeting terrorist
networks with close links to the ISI, like the
Lashkar-e-Taiba and Afghan jihadist
Sirajuddin Haqqani's networks.
Following a strike directed at Taliban
commander Hafiz Gul Bahadur, which
claimed over 40 lives, General Kayani
called the drone operations intolerable.
The drone war, his aides privately argued,
had made Pakistan a target of retaliatory
bombings by terrorists, and diminished the
ISI's influence with jihadist groups at home
and in Afghanistan.
Figures compiled by the Washington, DC-
based New America Foundation show there
were 362 drone strikes last year, in which
between 362 and 500 jihadists were killed.
In 2010, the U.S. carried out 581 strikes,
killing up to 939.
is this which is revealed & guyz here running a thread about it??
