Pakistan’s army and intelligence chiefs told CIA Director Leon Panetta they were not willing to reverse a decision to cut the number of U.S. troops allowed in Pakistan, Pakistani military officials said on Saturday.
Panetta, nominated to take over as defence secretary next month, arrived in Pakistan on Friday on an unannounced visit, his first trip since a secret U.S. raid that killed Osama bin Laden and severely damaged ties between the allies.
Pakistan’s army said on Thursday it had drastically cut down the number of U.S. troops allowed in the country and set clear limits on intelligence sharing with the United States.
“He (Panetta) expressed concerns over the reduction of trainers and operatives. We told him very clearly ‘no boots on our soil is acceptable’,” said a Pakistani military official.
Panetta held talks with army chief General Ashfaq Kayani and Lieutenant General Ahmad Shuja Pasha, head of military intelligence.
U.S. officials have confirmed that Pakistan is severely cutting back the presence of American military personnel and intelligence agents but Washington still expects some to remain in the country.
A U.S. official described the talks as productive and said “at root, this isn’t about numbers. It’s about a commitment to thwart al-Qaeda and its militant allies.
“The United States is confident that the Pakistanis understand the stakes involved, particularly when their own people are suffering from all-too-frequent terrorist attacks,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
THE STORY IS DIFFERENT AROUND THE WORLD!
New York Times reports (June 11, 2011):
C.I.A. Director Warns Pakistan on Collusion With Militants
By ELISABETH BUMILLER
Published: June 11, 2011
WASHINGTON — Leon E. Panetta, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, confronted Pakistani intelligence officials face to face with what the United States believes is evidence of collusion between Pakistani security officials and militants staging attacks in Afghanistan, an American counterterrorism official said Saturday.
During an unannounced trip to Pakistan’s capital on Friday, Mr. Panetta met with the leader of the Pakistani intelligence service, Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha, and showed him satellite photographs and other evidence of what the C.I.A. believes to be two facilities for the manufacture of bombs used by militants based in Pakistan against American forces in Afghanistan, the official said. The bomb facilities were in the northwestern districts of North and South Waziristan, both havens for militants.
The official said Mr. Panetta was compelled to confront General Pasha after the C.I.A. alerted the Pakistanis about the existence of the bomb-making facilities several weeks ago and asked them to raid the locations. But when the Pakistani Army showed up, the militants were gone, making the C.I.A. suspicious that the militants had warning from someone on the Pakistani side.
“The targets seem to have been tipped off,” the American official said, adding, “There are indications that some senior Pakistani officials aren’t happy about it, and neither are we, of course.”
A senior Pakistani official said Saturday that at first there was no reason for Pakistan to be suspicious that the bomb makers had disappeared. “Extremist groups often move locations,” the official said. But, the official said, “now that the U.S. side has drawn our attention to the possibility of the Taliban being tipped off between the day the intelligence was shared and the day of our military action, we will work on finding out what happened.” ……
(http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/12/world/asia/12pakistan.html?_r=1&ref=asia)
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