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Eric Schmitt, Mark Mazzetti
June 16, 2011
WASHINGTON: Pakistan's top military spy agency has arrested five Pakistanis who fed information to the CIA before the raid that led to the death of Osama bin Laden, US officials say.
The detention by the Inter-Services Intelligence agency of the informants, including a Pakistani army major who officials said had copied the number plates of cars visiting bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad in the weeks before the raid, is the latest evidence of the fractured relationship between the United States and Pakistan.
Pakistan denied an army major was among those arrested, saying last night only civilians had been detained. An army spokesman said some of those arrested had already been released.
Brigadier Azmat Ali said: ''I can say with authority that all arrests were non-military.''
At a closed briefing last week, the Senate Intelligence Committee asked the deputy director of the CIA, Michael Morell, to rate Pakistan's co-operation with the US on counterterrorism operations on a scale of one to 10. ''Three,'' Mr Morell replied, according to officials familiar with the exchange.
The fate of the arrested CIA informants is unclear but US officials said that the CIA director, Leon Panetta, raised the matter when he travelled to Islamabad last week to meet Pakistani military and intelligence officers.
Some in Washington see the arrests as illustrative of the disconnect between Pakistani and US priorities at a time when they are supposed to be allies in the fight against al-Qaeda; instead of hunting down the support network that allowed bin Laden to live comfortably for years, the Pakistani authorities are arresting those who assisted in the raid that killed him.
The bin Laden raid and attacks by militants in Pakistan have knocked the country's military, a revered institution. Some officials and outside experts said the military is mired in its worst crisis of confidence in decades.
US officials cautioned that Mr Morell's comments about Pakistani support was a snapshot of the current relationship and did not represent the administration's overall assessment.
''We have a strong relationship with our Pakistani counterparts and work through issues when they arise,'' a CIA spokeswoman said. ''Director Panetta had productive meetings last week in Islamabad. It's a crucial partnership and we will continue to work together in the fight against al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups who threaten our country and theirs.''
The Pakistani ambassador to the US, Husain Haqqani, said in a telephone interview that the CIA and the Pakistani spy agency ''are working out mutually agreeable terms for their co-operation in fighting the menace of terrorism. It is not appropriate for us to get into the details at this stage.''
Over the past several weeks the Pakistani military has been distancing itself from US intelligence and counterterrorism operations against militant groups in Pakistan, angering many in Washington.
When he visited Pakistan last week, Mr Panetta offered evidence of collusion between Pakistani security officials and the militants who have been staging attacks in Afghanistan.
US officials said Mr Panetta presented satellite photographs of two bomb-making factories that US spies had asked the ISI to raid weeks ago. When Pakistani troops showed up days later, the militants were gone, causing US officials to question whether the militants had been warned by someone on the Pakistani side.
Shortly after the failed raids, the US Defence Department put a hold on a $US300 million ($281 million) payment reimbursing Pakistan for deploying more than 100,000 troops along the Afghan border, two officials said. The Pentagon declined to comment on the payment, except to say it was ''continuing to process several claims'' http://www.smh.com.au/world/pakistan...615-1g41a.html
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