Drones shatter US-Pakistani trust

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WASHINGTON - The Pakistani military's recent demands on the United States to curb drone strikes and reduce the number of US spies operating in Pakistan, which have raised tensions between the two countries to a new high, were a response to US military and intelligence programs that had gone well beyond what the Pakistanis had agreed to in past years.

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The Pakistani military, which holds real power over matters of national security in Pakistan, is now insisting for the first time that Washington must observe strict limits on both the use of drone strikes and on the number of US military and intelligence personnel and contractors in the country.

And they have backed up that demand with a suspension of joint intelligence operations with the United States - a program that had been strongly sought after by the Barack Obama administration.

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The detention of US contract spy Raymond Davis for killing three Pakistani citizens in January was a turning point in US-Pakistani relations. But it was only the occasion for the Pakistani military leadership and its Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to take a much stronger position on larger issues that concerned them, according to Kamran Bokhari, a specialist on Pakistan for the consulting firm Stratfor.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/MD15Df01.html