Pakistan Tells U.S. "Drones Out of Control", Requests Withdrawal of all C.I.A. Contractors

Pakistan has finally had enough of US Drones firing first then apologizing later when Pakistani civilians are killed. Pakistan is also upset with how the US shares (or does not share) information about drone targets.

Please consider Pakistan Tells U.S. It Must Sharply Cut C.I.A. Activities

Pakistan has demanded that the United States steeply reduce the number of Central Intelligence Agency operatives and Special Operations forces working in Pakistan, and that it halt C.I.A. drone strikes aimed at militants in northwest Pakistan. The request was a sign of the near collapse of cooperation between the two testy allies.

Pakistani and American officials said in interviews that the demand that the United States scale back its presence was the immediate fallout from the arrest in Pakistan of Raymond A. Davis, a C.I.A. security officer who killed two men in January during what he said was an attempt to rob him.

In all, about 335 American personnel — C.I.A. officers and contractors and Special Operations forces — were being asked to leave the country, said a Pakistani official closely involved in the decision.

At the time of his arrest, Mr. Davis was involved in a covert C.I.A. effort to penetrate one militant group, Lashkar-e-Taiba, which has ties to Pakistan’s military and intelligence establishment, has made deepening inroads in Afghanistan, and is perceived as a global threat.

The C.I.A. had demanded that Mr. Davis be freed immediately, on the grounds that he had diplomatic immunity. Instead, he was held for 47 days of detention and, the officials said, questioned for 14 days by ISI agents during his imprisonment in Lahore, infuriating American officials. He was finally freed after his victims’ families agreed to take some $2.3 million in compensation.

In addition to the withdrawal of all C.I.A. contractors, Pakistan is demanding the removal of C.I.A. operatives involved in “unilateral” assignments like Mr. Davis’s that the Pakistani intelligence agency did not know about, the Pakistani official said.

General Kayani has also told the Obama administration that its expanded drone campaign has gotten out of control, a Pakistani official said. Given the reluctance or inability of the Pakistani military to root out Qaeda and Taliban militants from the tribal areas, American officials have turned more and more to drone strikes, drastically increasing the number of attacks last year.

The drone campaign, which is immensely unpopular among the Pakistani public, had become the sole preserve of the United States, the Pakistani official said, since the Americans were no longer sharing intelligence on how they were choosing targets.

A drone attack last month, one day after Mr. Davis was released, hit Taliban fighters in North Waziristan, but also killed tribal leaders allied with the Pakistani military, infuriating General Kayani, who issued an unusually strong statement of condemnation afterward.

Collateral Damage Breaking Point

Pakistan has finally had enough of "collateral damage". My only question is what took so long?

Imagine the outrage if the CIA accidentally killed the Mayor of New York?

Yet, we go about blasting other countries, inadvertently killing tribal leaders who were trying to help us, and we act as if it is no big deal.

Pakistan should consider booting the US entirely. Then if Iraq, Japan, Germany, Saudi Arabia, and 140 countries where the US had troops would all do the same, the US (and the world) would be far better off.

US Cannot Afford to be World's Policeman

Financially, the US cannot afford to be the world's policeman. Philosophically, we should not try even if we could.

Please recall Bin Laden's rationale for 911: Bin Laden was upset because US troops were on sacred Arab soil.

Remember who trained Bin Laden? The answer is the CIA, and the absurd reason was to help fight Russia in Afghanistan. Russia is long gone, but sadly the US is not. Such is the success rate of US intervention in the region.

Let's declare the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan won, and leave.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
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