During her visit to Islamabad in the last week of May, U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, had called the Post-OBL (Osama Bin Laden) scenario a turning point in the Pak-U.S. relations. Turning point is what the U.S. wants this to be for Pakistan. The Director of U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was in Islamabad on June 10 to take the turning point plan a step ahead. He had a dinner meeting with Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and Director General of the Inter-services Intelligence (ISI), Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha and left in the morning on June 11, without the routine calls on the President of Pakistan, Asif Ali Zardari, or the Prime Minister, Yousaf Raza Gilani.
According to various foreign papers including The Telegraph, London, Panetta was in Islamabad ‘to deliver damning evidence that Pakistan ´ or at least some elements within its security services ´ was continuing to protect extremists in its tribal belt.’[1] Most of the foreign media reports argue that Panetta chastised Pakistan top generals on leaking of information to terrorists provided by the U.S. to Pakistani security establishment for action against them. He reportedly did that with the help of satellite images and videos wherein the militants in two hideouts in North and South Waziristan are leaving certain ¿bomb-making factories– after information about them was passed on to the Pakistani security forces for action, implying that Pakistani security forces¶or elements within them¶deliberately leaked the information to the militants.
Pakistan military seems to have ducked the blow and told the American spymaster it wont allow U.S. forces– involvement in any operations inside Pakistani territories on one pretext or the other. ‘We told him very clearly ¿no boots on our soil is acceptable–,’ a Pakistani military official was quoted as saying.[2] Pakistan response on the two specific issues ´ more action against militants and the allegation of intelligence information getting compromised ´ resulted in a stale-mate between the CIA Director and the two Pakistani generals, who are already under intense public pressure since May 2nd, when US Navy Seals raided a compound in northern Pakistan to kill Osama bin Laden. Resultantly, Panetta flew back to Washington without seeing the top civilian leadership i.e. Prime Minister Yousuf Reza Gilani and President Asif Ali Zardari.
Many observers in Pakistan indeed reacted with skepticism over the claims that elements within the Pakistani security establishment compromised the intelligence U.S. officials had provided. If the U.S. did have information about a certain bomb-making factory in North Waziristan or an al-Qaeda hideout in South Waziristan, why would it even have to call for Pakistan support in taking care of it, quipped several anchors and analysts such as Talat Masud and Shehzad Chaudhry. Why wouldn–t it just go ahead and bomb the place to smithereens with drones itself, like it has been doing sofar i.e. lobbing Hellfire missiles on suspected targets in Waziristan.
In the rush to created conditions for the phased withdrawal from July onwards, a desperate U.S. administration is mounting pressure on Pakistan for an all-out assault in North Waziristan, a region which the US believes is central to violence in Afghanistan. In Pakistan, though, the current American approach is interpreted as ‘do it or I–ll do it for you.’ But this represents a dilemma as well. The US-led international coalition is also looking upto Islamabad for assistance in the Afghan reconciliation process. Afghan President Hamid Karzai also left Islamabad on Saturday with the hope that Pakistan could help provide access to some Taliban groups considered central to the success of the reconciliation. That is why a meeting of the Afghanistan Core Group comprising Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the U.S. scheduled for June 28 in Kabul has also assumed greater importance. It is, however, quite evident, that in view of the post-bin-Laden turmoil and the spate of relentless suicide bombings in Peshawar and Islamabad (Monday) Pakistan would need a greater degree of assurances and comfort from other members of the core group to be able to move against the anti-US militant groups operating in eastern and southwestern Afghanistan as well as those nestled in and around the Waziristan region.
[1] Crilly, Bob: ‘Pakistan accused of tipping off al-Qaeda fighters ahead of raids’ in The Telegraph London, June 12, 2011
[2] ‘Pakistan tells CIA chief no US boots on the ground’ in The Express Tribune Islamabad, June 11, 2011.