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In public, Pakistani officials complain about missile strikes in the tribal areas from the CIA’s Predator unmanned aerial vehicles. Barely two weeks ago, for instance, Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani called the strikes "counterproductive." That can be frustrating: credible reports, like this one from the Washington Post, say that Pakistan quietly allows the strikes to occur on a "don’t ask don’t tell" basis. Indeed, the Post also reported that the strikes launch from a Pakistani base. So the cost of the strikes, politically, is denouncement from a Pakistani government that can’t tolerate a public acknowledgment of its complicity. If you think the strikes are necessary to hit Al Qaeda targets without the involvement of U.S. troops in the Pakistani tribal areas, that’s probably a small price to pay.
So it sort of upends the apple cart when Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the chairwoman of the Senate intelligence committee, publicly acknowledges Pakistani complicity in the strikes. The Los Angeles Times‘ Greg Miller notes that at yesterday’s worldwide-threat hearing with Adm. Dennis Blair, the director of national intelligence, Feinstein said about the drones, "As I understand it, these are flown out of a Pakistani base." WTF?
Feinstein’s office said she was just going off what the Post reported. But now the Pakistanis are going to have to react to the comments from a senior American legislator, and this is going to make the jobs of many people a lot harder — namely, regional envoy Richard Holbrooke, Central Command chief Gen. Petraeus, CIA Director Leon Panetta, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, Army Chief of Staff Ashfaq Pervez Kayani and intelligence chief Ahmed Shuja Pasha. Chances are Feinstein simply blundered, but this is the sort of blunder that compromises a sensitive and apparently effective counterterrorist operation, and it’s not like Feinstein is a novice on the committee. Slip-ups like these are why CIA officers don’t trust Congress. If a Republican did this, progressives would be up in arms.
Crossposted to The Streak.
12 Comments
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Any possibility that the “leak’ concerning the Predator basing, as well as Pakistan’s publicly releasing information tying its’ territory and people to the Mumbai attack have anything to do with securing the $1.5 billion for Pakistan currently in Congress?
How is that supposed to align? Feinstein would never block the $1.5 billion; and I don’t understand how pointing the finger at the Pakistanis for the drone strike would actually help the request. All signs here point to a blunder.
Yeah this is a blunder and a major one. Its almost like she is trying to destabalize a country with nukes. Because of her position whatever she says will be elevated. I went to read the article hoping to find some justification for the comment but I found none. Instead of justifying it they should have been apologizing profusely for spreading rumors. As it is it looks like they are standing behind her words which has the effect of putting a big fat period on them which means the Pakistani govt is going to have a helluva time trying to convince their citizens otherwise.
My thinking was that the Pakistanis might have “allowed” the leak in the Post in order to highlight to Americans how much of an ally they are. Sometimes, in the past, Pakistan would go after militants when it wanted things from DC.
So Feinstein’s “slip up” is going to cause a headache for U.S. officials trying to maintain an illegal and immoral (not to mention counterproductive) policy of extra-judicial killings in the Pakistani tribal region? And the problem is?
As a longtime Northern California resident I can tell you that, having observed DiFi up close over decades, she is worthy of every epithet you can think of, and many more you would be searching for. Loathsome, self-involved, lying, corrupt, thoughtless, truly the worst kind of American Politician. This is just another case where you have to ponder where to place the pushpin on the Evil/Stupid graph. This does appear to fall into the Stupid quadrant.
For a brief, shining moment in late 1978 she acted powerfully and selflessly, and then worked relentlessly to become what she is today…
mikey
The notion that Zardari, Kayani and Pasha will have a harder job playing both ends against the middle to their own mutual self-enrichment and empowerment doesn’t make me weep. Neither does the notion that their being exposed as two-faced in such a manner might make COIN colonialists in the US wake up and smell the coffee.
And Feinstein might have gotten away with saying she was just referencing the WaPo article if Millers anonymous former administration sources hadn’t confirmed it. That’s the third article in a row Miller has been used to further those former administration officials’ agenda. Obama’s rendition order, Obama administration attitudes to the Iran NIE and now this.
Regards, C
I told you that had been reported before. Even if I was too lazy to find it.
Too destabilizing.
You’re probably right.
The situation in Pakistan appears damn unstable right now, as it is.
Today’s(?) Dawn editorial age carries a translation from the Pashto Press saying that the Taliban are warning all the Pashtuns to leave Islamabad because they’re about to take major action there.
Anyone else find it odd that today’s NYT article on a drone strike killing 25 fighters takes the time to state more than once that Mehsud hasn’t been targetted in the strikes in his area ? Who would tell the NYT that and why ?
His not being dead says he wasn’t accurately targetted. Why would you go out of your way to publicise that nobody’s tried ?
maybe they’re trying to imply mehsud is snitchin’ to keep from gettin’ hit himself …