US, Pakistan flew 12 joint missions over Fata !!!

[batmannow]

US, Pakistan flew 12 joint missions over Fata

Tuesday, 02 Jun, 2009 | 03:06 AM PST
By Our Correspondent

www.dawn.com

WASHINGTON: The US and Pakistan flew 12 joint drone missions in the tribal areas this spring until Islamabad stopped participating in the missions, The Washington Post reported on Monday.

Pakistan has long demanded joint ownership of US-led drone missions into the tribal areas but so far the Americans have been reluctant to accept the Pakistani demand.

In early spring, however, US forces offered a compromise: Pakistan could direct US military Predators over areas of its choice, transmitting images directly into its own intelligence channels.
After Pakistan refused to allow a downlink to be established on its side of the border, the ground equipment was set up at a joint cooperation centre on the Afghanistan side. Pakistani officials were taken to Turkey to observe a similar programme.
Twelve missions were flown over the tribal regions near the border. But in mid-April, the Pakistanis abandoned the project, the Post reported. ‘They just did not ask for additional flight information,’ a US official familiar with the programme told the Post.

‘Any time we have asked them if they need anything, they’ve come back and said, ‘No, thank you.’’ According to US officials, between March 10 and 15 they flew the first ‘proof of concept’ mission for the Pakistanis.
‘We told them, here’s how the system would work. Here’s how we can push data through your own networks so you would have capability available to you,’ said a US military official who participated in the programme.
Although the Predators were armed, US and Pakistani officials said, no offensive operations beyond intelligence-gathering were contemplated or authorised.

A Pakistani official told the Post that his government expected the programme to continue eventually but that its attention was now focussed farther east, on the ongoing Swat offensive.
‘US overflights there were not wanted,’ he said. ‘We don’t want the American unmanned aerial vehicles going so deep into Pakistani territory,’ he said.
The Post reported that US officials offered the compromise formula after noting that drone attacks killed civilians as well, stoking anti-American feelings in Pakistan that inhibit cooperation between Islamabad and Washington.

 

[batmannow]

US drone strikes hit ‘high-value’ Al-Qaeda targets


Monday, 01 Jun, 2009 | 01:38 PM PST |

www.dawn.com

Pakistan

US missiles from unmanned drones have eliminated about half of 20 'high-value' Al-Qaeda and other extremist targets along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan, The Washington Post reported Monday.

Citing unnamed US military and intelligence officials, the newspaper said the strikes and Pakistan's ongoing military offensive in the Swat Valley have unsettled Al-Qaeda and its relative invulnerability in Pakistani mountain sanctuaries.

The report did not identify who or what the 'high-value' targets were.

Although Al-Qaeda remains 'a serious, potent threat,' the paper quotes a US counterterrorism official as saying, 'they've suffered some serious losses and seem to be feeling a heightened sense of anxiety, and that's not a bad thing at all.'

A senior military official said that in the current situation, Al-Qaeda will have to undertake more open communication on cellphones and computers, even if only to gather information on the situation in the region.

'Then they become more visible,' the official is quoted as saying.

But it remains unclear whether US intelligence and Pakistani ground forces can capitalize on such opportunities before they vanish, The Post said.

Opportunities to intercept al-Qaeda communications or to take advantage of extremist movements are fleeting, the report points out.

The Predator attacks have also killed civilians, stoking anti-American attitudes in Pakistan that inhibit cooperation between Islamabad and Washington, the report said.

'The need to establish a trusting, mutually beneficial US-Pakistan partnership is pressing, yet the ability to do so is severely challenged by current events,' Army General David Petraeus, head of US Central Command, wrote in a secret assessment on May 27, the paper said.