CIA chief on first Pakistan trip post-bin Laden to discuss intelligence sharing amid strained ties

CIA Director Leon Panetta arrived in Pakistan on Friday on an unannounced visit, a US official said, in his first trip to Islamabad since last month's secret raid that killed Osama bin Laden.

Mr. Panetta, nominated to take over as US defense secretary next month, planned to "reiterate the message of the US intention to continue to cooperate with Pakistan," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The outgoing CIA chief was blunt with Congress in testimony on Thursday about the difficulties between two uneasy allies, whose relationship was further strained by the May 2 raid that killed the Al Qaeda leader at his compound in Abbottabad, 30 miles (50 kilometers) northwest of Islamabad.

The United States kept Islamabad in the dark about the raid by Navy SEALs until after it was over, humiliating Pakistan's armed forces and putting US military and intelligence ties under serious strain.

"There are some areas where, frankly, we have good discussions. ... But there are a number of areas where, frankly, we don't have that level of trust or communication capability," Mr. Panetta told lawmakers.

In another sign of the deep tensions, Pakistan's army said on Thursday it had drastically cut down on the number of US troops allowed in the country and set clear limits on intelligence sharing with the United States.

Pakistan army chief General Ashfaq Kayani also called for the billions of dollars in US military aid to be diverted into helping the economy.

The United States believes the nearly decade-old war effort in neighboring Afghanistan cannot succeed unless Pakistan tackles insurgent safe havens near the border. On Friday, Afghan President Hamid Karzai arrived in Islamabad seeking Pakistan's help to end the Taliban insurgency.

Pakistan, which backed the Taliban government that ruled Afghanistan from 1996 until its ouster in 2001 by US-backed forces, will be crucial to any attempts to stabilize its western neighbor.

But Pakistan has often been accused of playing a "double game," promising the United States it will go after militants, while supporting some of them, an allegation it denies.

US commanders say the US military effort in Afghanistan is being undermined partly by Pakistan-based militants like the Haqqani network.

The Haqqanis use safe havens in Pakistan's North Waziristan region to stage cross-border attacks against American troops in Afghanistan, and US officials have accused Pakistani intelligence of ties to the group.

Mr. Panetta said he saw a "simple test" over Pakistan's commitment to tackling the Haqqanis, "which is whether or not the Haqqanis are continuing to go into Afghanistan and attacking our forces," he said.

"It seems to me that if they have an influence over the Haqqanis, that they could urge them to cease fire and to stop those kinds of attacks," he told lawmakers on Thursday.

The CIA chief also discussed the security situation with General Kayani and Lieutenant General Ahmad Shuja Pasha, the director general of Pakistan's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency, according a Pakistani security official.

On Friday, The Washington Post reported that US intelligence officials have twice handed Islamabad tips about insurgent bomb-making factories, only to find them abandoned before Pakistani troops arrived.

The vacated factories have led US officials to question whether the information had been mistakenly leaked in recent weeks or whether the insurgents had been directly warned by the ISI according to the report.

The Post said Pakistani officials were given surveillance video in mid-May that located two bomb-making plants in the remote tribal areas of North and South Waziristan.

But by the time Pakistani troops arrived on June 4, the sites had been vacated.

A senior Pakistani military official said the United States had shared information about weapons storage facilities as well, but these had also been found empty.

"There is a suspicion that perhaps there was a tip-off," the official told the newspaper. "It's being looked into by our people, and certainly anybody involved will be taken to task."

The ISI was formed in 1948 shortly after independence from British rule, and has played a key role in Pakistan, which has spent more than half its 64-year existence under military rule.

But the West has long harbored suspicions that Pakistan, and particularly elements within the ISI, have failed to cut all ties with militants.

Western analysts suspect the ISI is divided, with some elements increasingly seeing militants as a domestic threat after Taliban and Al Qaeda-linked bombings killed more than 4,240 people in Pakistan in the past four years.

(Sara Ghasemilee, a senior editor at Al Arabiya English, can be reached at [email protected])