June 11, 2011
By ELISABETH BUMILLER
WASHINGTON — Leon E. Panetta, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, confronted Pakistani intelligence officials face to face with what the United States believes is evidence of collusion between Pakistani security officials and militants staging attacks in Afghanistan, an American counterterrorism official said Saturday.
During an unannounced trip to Pakistan’s capital on Friday, Mr. Panetta met with the leader of the Pakistani intelligence service, Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha, and showed him satellite photographs and other evidence of what the C.I.A. believes to be two facilities for the manufacture of bombs used by militants based in Pakistan against American forces in Afghanistan, the official said. The bomb facilities were in the northwestern districts of North and South Waziristan, both havens for militants.
The official said Mr. Panetta was compelled to confront General Pasha after the C.I.A. alerted the Pakistanis about the existence of the bomb-making facilities several weeks ago and asked them to raid the locations. But when the Pakistani Army showed up, the militants were gone, making the C.I.A. suspicious that the militants had warning from someone on the Pakistani side.
“The targets seem to have been tipped off,” the American official said, adding, “There are indications that some senior Pakistani officials aren’t happy about it, and neither are we, of course.”
A senior Pakistani official said Saturday that at first there was no reason for Pakistan to be suspicious that the bomb makers had disappeared. “Extremist groups often move locations,” the official said. But, the official said, “now that the U.S. side has drawn our attention to the possibility of the Taliban being tipped off between the day the intelligence was shared and the day of our military action, we will work on finding out what happened.”
Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence matters.
Mr. Panetta’s meeting with General Pasha and the theory that there was a tip-off about the bomb-making facilities were first reported by ABC News and The Washington Post.
Tensions between the United States and Pakistan have worsened since the American military raid that killed Osama bin Laden near the Pakistani capital last month. American officials say they have uncovered no evidence that anyone in Pakistan’s senior leadership knew about Bin Laden’s hiding place, although the departing defense secretary, Robert M. Gates, said recently that he thought “somebody” in Pakistan knew.
American officials did not tell Pakistan about the raid until afterward.
American intelligence and military officials have long said that elements of Pakistan’s intelligence service have close links to Pakistani insurgents and the Pakistani Taliban. American officials say Pakistan supports the insurgents as a proxy force in Afghanistan, preparing for influence after American soldiers leave.
Mr. Panetta, who is due to replace Mr. Gates as defense secretary on July 1, said during his confirmation hearing last week that Pakistan, an important American ally, also remained a serious problem.
He told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the relationship with Pakistan was “one of the most critical, and yet one of the most complicated and frustrating relationships that we have.” Mr. Panetta added that Pakistan’s nuclear weapons remained a concern because of “the danger that those nukes could wind up in the wrong hands.”
Deadly Bombings in Peshawar
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Two explosions took place minutes apart in the northwest Pakistani city of Peshawar on Sunday, killing at least 34 people and wounding nearly 100 in one of the deadliest attacks since the Navy Seal raid that killed Osama bin Laden last month, officials said.
The blasts, one of which was caused by a suicide bomber, occurred just after midnight in an area of the city that is home to political offices and army housing.
The first explosion was relatively small and drew police officers and rescue workers to the site, said Dost Mohammed, a senior local police official. A few minutes later, a suicide bomber on a motorcycle set off a large bomb, causing the fatalities and wounding 98 people, 18 critically, said Rahim Jan, a doctor nearby.
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