In what could mark a turning point in US-Pakistani relations, Pakistani forces have arrested a handful of al Qaeda suspects at the CIA’s request and allowed the US access to the detainees, US and Pakistani officials said. Pakistan has also stopped demanding the CIA suspend the covert drone strikes that have damaged al Qaeda’s militant ranks in Pakistan’s Tribal Areas, officials on both sides say — though the Pakistanis say they have simply put this on the backburner for now.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive strategic matters. Only one of the al Qaeda figures who was arrested is considered senior, but US and Pakistani officials called the combined moves a trend in the right direction. “They are doing things to cooperate and be helpful,” Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said on Friday. Clapper would not comment on the details shared by other US and two Pakistani officials, but confirmed there has been some progress restoring the joint intelligence cooperation that used to be routine, prior to the covert US raid that killed Osama bin Laden inside Pakistan in May.
Clapper and three top CIA officials have held what he described as “frank and candid meetings”, with Pakistan’s intelligence chief Lt Gen Shuja Pasha both in the US and Islamabad since the bin Laden raid. The improved cooperation is a by-product of mutual need, rather than shared trust at this point, officials concede. Pakistan does not want to risk losing US diplomatic and financial support, and the US needs Pakistani cooperation to continue counterterrorist operations against al Qaeda in one of its key safe havens.
The US military also needs Pakistani consent to use the country’s roads to supply US forces in Afghanistan.
Yes this is a relation between a man and his whore.
Pakistan doesn't have a choice. Pakitstanis think they are smart and they will wear out USA but they forget that if Pakistan acts against Taleban, Taleban will hit back at Pakistan and if Pakistan plays a double game, US will strangulate Pakistan ..
One can must have pity on the parliament of Pakistan and it's resolutions. Remember, according to the law of insult the limit of your insult Is always determined by none other than you. Therefore, you can't be insulted more than you permit. As they say, ones respect is in his own hands.
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