Pakistan has asked the CIA to halt all drone attacks on its border territory

US-Pakistan Partnership Rapidly Unraveling

- Trevor Westra
Wednesday, April 13, 2011

The U.S. fight against Islamic militants hiding out in Pakistan’s failed border region suffered another serious setback this week. According to the Wall Street Journal, Pakistan has asked the CIA to halt all drone attacks on its territory – a move that would drastically alter U.S. strategic planning in Afghanistan, if conceded. Officials quoted in the report have also suggested that the Pakistani government is seeking a significant disclosure of classified information on U.S. clandestine ground operations inside the country.

Both requests are seen as a determined pushback from Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence community (ISI), which has been under considerable public pressure since the release of formerly jailed CIA contractor Raymond Davis, who was charged with the killing of two Pakistani men in Lahore on January 27. Together, these developments have added major tension to what is a rapidly unraveling partnership between the two countries intelligence agencies.

Currently, the CIA is struggling to adjust to increasingly public statements from Pakistani officials about the drone program, which is classified. Most recently, Pakistan’s Army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, called a suspected March 17 strike in North Waziristan-killing a reported 40 people- a “carelessly and callously targetedâ€