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Pakistan to U.S.: Tone It Down With the Whole CIA Thing

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Posted on Apr 11, 2011
AP / K.M. Chaudary

Supporters of the Pakistani religious party Jamat-e-Islami attend a Feb. 15 rally against Raymond Davis, a U.S. consulate employee suspected in a fatal shooting in Lahore. Davis’ later release was reportedly secured by the U.S. government.

It’s not like we couldn’t have seen this coming: Due in part to a special request made by the head of the Pakistani army, the U.S. has been asked to scale back significantly on the number of CIA operatives in Pakistan and to stop drone attacks on northern militants.  —KA

The New York Times:

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. The cuts threatened to badly hamper American efforts — either through drone strikes or Pakistani military training — to combat militants who use Pakistan as a base to fight American forces in Afghanistan and plot terrorist attacks abroad.

... The scale of the Pakistani demands emerged as Lt. Gen. Ahmad Shuja Pasha, the head of Pakistan’s chief spy agency, the Inter Services Intelligence, or ISI, met in Washington on Monday with the director of the C.I.A., Leon Panetta.

Afterward, a C.I.A. spokesman, George Little, said that the two spy chiefs had held “productive” meetings and that the relationship between the two services “remains on solid footing.”

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Napolean DoneHisPart's avatar

By Napolean DoneHisPart, April 14, 2011 at 10:29 am Link to this comment

The truth about the Palestinian ‘conflict.’

The truth is coming out!

What you have heard in secret will be yelled from the roof tops!

http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/2011/04/2011412103819678591.html

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By rollzone, April 14, 2011 at 9:28 am Link to this comment

hello. we are there to kill people. shut up, or give us
US Americans our tax dollars back.

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MK Ultra's avatar

By MK Ultra, April 13, 2011 at 4:54 pm Link to this comment

Another war of words.  The US does this and Pakistan says that and, at the end, the CIA continues droning women and children to smithereens while the corrupt government of Afghanistan continues lining its pockets with money given to them by the USG.  No need to get riled up here or pay attention.  The game will continue to be played this way till the end of all time.

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By tomack, April 13, 2011 at 9:09 am Link to this comment

By the way, Napolean, I have seen that video. And like most things these days it is bittersweet.

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By tomack, April 13, 2011 at 9:06 am Link to this comment

One positive aspect of a down U.S. economy is that we have less to fund on the bribery, favors, look the other way, and, as stated above, black ops budgets.

Each has its own budget (siphoned or not), and each is a little more hard hit these days. That said, if we continue to pay up and pay big, foreign gumments will probably continue to err on the side of silence. 

But it’s a start, Abu, a good start.

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By gerard, April 12, 2011 at 12:53 pm Link to this comment

Humor aside, it would save a ton of money to get rid of “black” operations of all kinds everywhere. But money isn’t everything.  There’s the ancient U.S. reputation for honest deals (Abe Lincoln) and open agreements openly arrived at (Wilson, I if I’m not mistaken)—anyway, good old “American Values” that somehow got lost in the MIC shuffle.

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By TDoff, April 12, 2011 at 5:00 am Link to this comment

Well, well, things are finally looking up for the US on the economic front! If this Pakistan thing catches on around the world, and all foreign nations start asking that the CIA reduce it’s agents in their country, think of the money we’d save. Let’s assume we could cut the number of CIA ‘secret’ agents overseas from 200,000 to 100,000. It probably costs a minimum of $500,000/year to keep a ‘secret’ agent anywhere in the world, say Monte Carlo for example.
100,000 x $500,000 is…well, it’s a lot of money. Enough to buy lunches for a lot of kids, and keep a lot of teachers and cops on the payroll here at home. ‘Course, we’d have to allow for unemployment pay for the ex-CIA agents, ‘cause what else can ‘secret’ agents do but spy…and direct drones against wedding parties…and pass out exploding cigars to ‘undesirable’ elected foreign officials…unless they got lobbying jobs for US corporations.
Then they could practice their trade against D.C. politicians…which would be a great thing! A few well-placed exploding cigars in Congress would/could make a helluva positive difference for the nation.
Good on yer, Pakistan! Keep up the good work!

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