Islamabad: Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) has demanded a comprehensive detail by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of all its contractors working in Pakistan, following the last month arrest of an American involved in surveillance of militant groups, a senior Pakistani intelligence official said.
Angered that the American, Raymond A. Davis, accused of killing two Pakistanis in Lahore on January 27, worked as a contractor in Pakistan on covert CIA operations without the knowledge of the Pakistanis, the spy agency estimated that there were “scores” more such contractors “working behind our backs,” said the official, who requested anonymity in order to speak candidly about a delicate matter between the two countries, an American newspaper revealed this.
In a slight softening of the Pakistani stance since Davis’s arrest, the official said that the American and Pakistani intelligence agencies needed to continue cooperation, and that Pakistan was prepared to put the episode in the past if the CIA stopped treating its Pakistani counterparts as inferior.
“Treat us as allies, not as satellites,” said the official of the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI. “Respect, equality and trust are needed.”
George Little, a CIA spokesman, said the American spy agency’s ties to the ISI “have been strong over the years, and when there are issues to sort out, we work through them.”
“That’s the sign of a healthy partnership,” Mr. Little said.
The arrest and detention of Davis, 36, after he shot dead two motorcyclists in the city of Lahore, soured already testy relations between two governments that are supposed to have a common front in the fight against terrorism.
The top American and Pakistani military leaders, including the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, and the leader of the Pakistani Army, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, met this week in Oman, where the Davis case was discussed.
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