Washington: After a troubled period in US-Pakistani relations, Pakistani forces have arrested five key al Qaeda suspects at the CIA`s request, including a senior operative whose name has not been made public, and also allowed US intelligence officers to question those detainees, according to US and Pakistani officials.
Pakistan has also stopped demanding the CIA suspend the covert drone strikes that have damaged al Qaeda`s militant ranks in Pakistan`s tribal areas, officials on both sides say — though the Pakistanis say they have simply put this on the back burner for now. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive strategic matters.
The moves mark a step forward in a relationship that has been at a near stand-still since the covert US raid that killed Osama bin Laden inside Pakistan in May. The raid inflamed anti-American sentiment in Pakistan and embarrassed its intelligence services, although both sides quietly said intelligence cooperation never completely stopped.
"It had reached its nadir, but now it`s going in the other direction," Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said in an interview.
"They are doing things to cooperate and be helpful," Clapper said, though he would not comment on the details shared by other US as well as two Pakistani officials.
For a time, Pakistan`s Inter-Services Intelligence agency refused to carry out any joint operations with American intelligence officers, nor would they allow the Americans access to question militant detainees. Visas as well were hard to come by for US officials of any stripe. The breakdown in relations took on a tit-for-tat quality, with Pakistan expelling most of the US military trainers in the country, and the US cutting off several hundred million dollars in military aid.
There are still bumps, including over recent high-level US criticism of Pakistan`s ties to militant groups.
Pakistan considered halting some of the increased cooperation after Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Admiral Mike Mullen accused Pakistan`s spy shop of complicity with the militant Haqqani network`s attack on the US embassy in neighbouring Afghanistan. Mullen levied that charge, the most serious US allegation against Pakistan since the 9/11 attacks, within a few days of leaving his post last month.
President Barack Obama was more circumspect on Thursday, saying "there is no doubt that there is some connection that the Pakistani military and intelligence services have with certain individuals that we find troubling."
Obama said he does not want to yank humanitarian aid or take other punitive measures just to make a point, but some in Congress are demanding a major retrenchment in US engagement with what many see as a reluctant and inconsistent anti-terrorism partner.
Relations nosedived in January when a CIA contractor killed two Pakistani men in the city of Lahore, and crashed to its lowest point, after the Navy SEAL raid that killed bin Laden last May. Each side was furious with the other — the Americans, that Pakistan had somehow allowed bin Laden to shelter in an army town near the capital; and the Pakistanis, furious the Americans raided inside their country without permission.
More fallout from that clash arose on Thursday, when a Pakistani government commission concluded a Pakistani doctor should be prosecuted for treason, for running a vaccination program to help the CIA locate Osama bin Laden.
Dr Shakil Afridi Afridi has been in the custody of Pakistan`s ISI since the May 02 American raid that killed bin Laden.
State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland declined any comment on the case on Friday.
Yet against the backdrop of public claim and counterclaim, intelligence officials on both sides say they have laboured to restore communication.
Clapper and three top CIA officials have held meetings with Pakistan`s intelligence chief Lt Gen Shuja Pasha both in the US and Islamabad since the bin Laden raid.
The improved cooperation is a byproduct of mutual need, rather than shared trust at this point, officials concede. Pakistan does not want to risk losing US diplomatic and financial support, and the US needs Pakistani cooperation to continue counterterrorist operations against al Qaeda in one of its key safe havens. The US military also needs Pakistani consent to use the country`s roads to resupply US forces in Afghanistan.
Bureau Report
