Reporting from Islamabad, Pakistan?
The detention of five Pakistanis suspected of supplying information to the CIA in advance of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden reflects the deep embarrassment within their country's military and intelligence circles over the unilateral U.S. operation, analysts said Wednesday.Pakistan's military has faced intense domestic criticism in recent weeks from lawmakers and commentators over its failure to detect the secret helicopter-borne U.S. commando team that slipped into the military city of Abbottabad on May 2 and killed the Al Qaeda leader. The country's confidence in the military was further eroded by a brazen insurgent attack on a naval base in Karachi three weeks later and the shooting last week of an unarmed man by Pakistani Rangers.
The detention of the Pakistanis, first reported by the New York Times late Tuesday, illustrates the resentment that the country's military harbors against the U.S. for carrying out the mission against Bin Laden without notifying or involving Islamabad, experts say."Pakistan's intelligence agencies and the army are very much annoyed because of the unilateral action to get Bin Laden," said security analyst Hasan Askari Rizvi. "Think of this from the point of view of the Pakistani army, which has never faced such embarrassment before. The army finds itself in a very difficult situation domestically, and it's that domestic context that is influencing all these decisions."
The detentions were reportedly made by Pakistan's primary intelligence agency, Inter-Services Intelligence. A Pakistani intelligence official refused to comment on the move. Army spokesman Brig. Azmat Ali said between 30 and 40 people had been detained over the last six weeks by authorities investigating the raid, but he said he did not know if any of them were suspected of being CIA informants.
The New York Times also reported that one of the informants was an army major who copied down the license plate numbers of cars visiting the compound while Bin Laden lived there. However, Ali said no military officer or serviceman was among those held.
Ali said the detainees included people who lived near the compound, but he could not confirm a report in the Associated Press that one of the men was the owner of a safe house used by the CIA to monitor the site ahead of the raid. He said no one has been charged so far.
"The investigation will decide whether they were innocent or not, what they were doing," Ali said. "Whether anything criminal was done -- that has yet to be clarified."
The detentions further expose the widening rift between the U.S. and Pakistan, and in particular involving their respective intelligence agencies. Though the two countries ostensibly are allies in the war on terror, they harbor a deep mistrust of each other. Pakistan has lashed out at the U.S. for what it perceives to be gross violations of its sovereignty, citing the Bin Laden raid as well as the Obama administration's reliance on drone missile strikes against Al Qaeda and Taliban militants hiding out in the tribal badlands along the Afghan border.
The U.S., meanwhile, continues to criticize the Pakistanis as being selective in battling militants -- pursuing those who threaten Pakistan while maintaining ties with groups that view the West and India as their principal targets.
In the latest example of potential collusion between militants and elements of Pakistan's security forces, a recent attempt to capture or kill Haqqani network fighters at two bomb-making factories on Pakistani territory was thwarted because the militants apparently had been tipped off. U.S. officials had told their Pakistani intelligence counterparts about the location of the facilities, but the militants had disappeared by the time Pakistani troops reached the sites.
"There are suspicions and there are questions, but I think there was clearly disappointment on our part," Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates told the Associated Press in an interview.
The Pakistani military has also resisted repeated pleas from Washington to launch an operation in North Waziristan, the principal stronghold of the Haqqani network, an Afghan Taliban wing responsible for many of the attacks on U.S. and NATO troops in eastern Afghanistan. Islamabad insists that it cannot mount an attack now because its troops are overstretched in the tribal areas, but most experts believe that Pakistan won't pursue Haqqani fighters because of its longstanding relationship with the group.
In a meeting last week with Pakistan's top generals, army chief Gen. Ashfaq Kayani said his country would not acquiesce to pressure from the U.S. to launch an operation in North Waziristan, suggesting instead that tribesmen there could be relied on to uproot foreign fighters enjoying a haven in the region.
"That's not the answer," said security analyst Talat Masood, a retired Pakistani lieutenant general. "You need to win over those people, either by tipping the military balance in your favor or by talking. But relying on tribes creates a warlord situation. Instead of bringing the tribal belt into the 21st century, you'd be going back to the 16th century again."
Pakistan's apparent reluctance to pursue militants who target the West has led to more calls in Congress to place restrictions on billions of dollars in U.S. military and economic aid. On Tuesday, the House Appropriations Committee approved a bill that would give Congress authority to review the Obama administration's outline for how hundreds of millions of dollars earmarked for Pakistan would be spent, and ultimately decide whether the money should be handed over to Islamabad.
Lawmakers who back the initiative say the revelation that Bin Laden had been hiding deep in Pakistani territory for at least five years raised serious questions about Islamabad's commitment to fighting terrorists. However, such restrictions could only worsen an already tenuous U.S.-Pakistani partnership, Masood said.
"It would only push Pakistanis to distance themselves further from the Americans," he said. "Cutting off aid is not just about the money -- it's about the attitude of trying to punish Pakistan rather than coming to an understanding."
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