CIA confronts Pak on leaks to militants
CIA chief Leon Panetta has confronted Pakistan’s military leadership with evidence of collusion between militants and security officials in the country, causing fresh strains in US-Pakistan ties.
Mr Panetta, who arrived in Islamabad Friday, presented the evidence during meetings with the Pakistan Army Chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, and the ISI chief, Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha, late Friday night, media reports said on Saturday.
The CIA had passed intelligence in the past few weeks to its Pakistani counterparts on two facilities where militants made improvised explosive devices but when Pakistani forces raided the facilities, the militants had disappeared, the reports said.
Mr Panetta showed Lt. Gen. Pasha “satellite and other intelligence that the CIA believes is evidence of Pakistani security’s efforts to help Islamic militants based in Pakistan,” ABC News quoted US and Pakistani officials as saying.
The CIA chief shared with the Pakistani generals a “10-minute edited video that shows the militants evacuating two bomb factories in Waziristan”, Time magazine quoted its sources as saying in a report on its website.
One of the bomb factories is based at Miranshah, North Waziristan, and the other is in South Waziristan. The militants in North Waziristan are believed to belong to groups led by Hafiz Gul Bahadur and Sirajuddin Haqqani, whose men target US and Nato troops across the border in Afghanistan. Both Bahadur and Haqqani are also believed to have peace deals with the Pakistan Army.
During his meetings, Mr Panetta conveyed the CIA’s belief that the militants had been warned by Pakistani security officials prior to the raids, ABC News reported.
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