Did Pakistan's Intelligence Service Poison The CIA Chief After The Osama Bin Laden Raid?

Washington Free Beacon: Report: CIA Operative Thought He Was Poisoned By Pakistan’s ISI After Bin Laden Raid

The CIA chief in Pakistan who oversaw the raid that killed Osama bin Laden in 2011 left the country with an ailment and suspicions that he had been poisoned by the country’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency.

The Washington Post reported:

The CIA station chief was so violently ill that he was often doubled over in pain, current and former U.S. officials said. Trips out of the country for treatment proved futile. And the cause of his ailment was so mysterious, the officials said, that both he and the agency began to suspect that he had been poisoned. Mark Kelton retired from the CIA and his health has recovered after he had abdominal surgery. But agency officials continue to think that it is plausible–if not provable–that Kelton’s sudden illness was somehow orchestrated by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency, known as the ISI.

Reports at the time of the CIA chief’s exit, which occurred just months after bin Laden’s death, attributed it to illness and also indicated that he left amid tense relations with the ISI. The CIA chief did not accept requests from the Post for an interview but said briefly over the phone that the cause of his ailment “was never clarified.” He said he was not the first individual to suspect being poisoned.

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WNU Editor: When it comes to Pakistan .... I learned a long time ago to be wary of what they say/do/and promise. Mind you .... the CIA also has a chequered past in this region. The Washington Post article that explores this possibility is here .... After presiding over bin Laden raid, CIA chief in Pakistan came home suspecting he was poisoned by ISI (Washington Post). Note: Washington Post has a pay-wall limit.

Fearing A Public Backlash, CIA Cuts Down On Drone Strikes In Pakistan

 

CIA Cutting Down On Drone Strikes In Pakistan, Fearing Public Outrage -- The Verge 

The tempo of CIA drone strikes in Pakistan has slowed significantly in recent months, and anonymous officials tell The Associated Press that the reason has to do with the public's intensifying criticism of the program, which has reportedly killed hundreds of civilians since 2004.

While the attacks are by no means stopping, their frequency has reached a low not seen since the secret program began in Pakistan, with 16 strikes occurring so far this year.

That's a far cry from the peak of 122 strikes in 2010, according to data from the New America Foundation, whose most recent estimates show those strikes killed 97 alleged "militants" and four "others" in 2013.

Current and former intelligence officials tell AP that public scrutiny has led the program to be more focused on "high value" targets, supposedly dropping the controversial practice of "signature strikes," which attack anonymous individuals based solely on behavior observed in the field.

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More News On The CIA Cutting Back On Drone Strikes In Pakistan 

 Criticism Alters US Drone Program in Pakistan -- ABC News/AP
U.S. scales back drone strikes in Pakistan due to criticism -- Digital Journal
US, Pakistan agree to discuss drone strikes -- International News
Report: U.S. Drops Signature Strikes In Pakistan -- Think Progress
New view of drone death toll -- Peter Bergen and Jennifer Rowland, CNN

The CIA's Not So-Secret Drone War In Pakistan

Image: The C.I.A. has carried out hundreds of strikes in Pakistan's tribal areas. The New York Times

A Secret Deal On Drones, Sealed In Blood -- New York Times

Nek Muhammad knew he was being followed.

On a hot day in June 2004, the Pashtun tribesman was lounging inside a mud compound in South Waziristan, speaking by satellite phone to one of the many reporters who regularly interviewed him on how he had fought and humbled Pakistan’s army in the country’s western mountains. He asked one of his followers about the strange, metallic bird hovering above him.

Less than 24 hours later, a missile tore through the compound, severing Mr. Muhammad’s left leg and killing him and several others, including two boys, ages 10 and 16. A Pakistani military spokesman was quick to claim responsibility for the attack, saying that Pakistani forces had fired at the compound.

That was a lie.

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My Comment: No surprises in this report .... I have chronicled more than once in this blog the close cooperation between the U.S. and Pakistan in hunting down their respective enemies in Pakistan's tribal areas. But what is noteworthy about this New York Times post are the details behind this relationship .... i.e. the names, dates, and understandings .... and the dynamics for both Pakistan and the U.S. to conduct this war in this part of Pakistan.

More News On The U.S. Pakistan Deal To Conduct Drone Operations In Pakistan's Tribal Regions

US drone war deal 'in return for killing Pakistani militant in CIA missile strike' -- The Telegraph
The secret kill deal that began CIA’s Pakistan drone war -- Natasha Lennard, Slate
Pakistan allowed US drone strikes under secret deal: NYT -- International News
Terror camps targeting India spared from drone strikes in ISI-CIA deal -- Indian Express
Pakistan allowed US drone strikes in a secret deal with CIA -- Khaama Press
Pakistan denies deal over drone strikes -- UPI
What We Didn't Know About the Start of America's Drone War Killed Thousands -- Connor Simpson, The Atlantic

Pakistan's Intelligence Services Have Broken All Ties With The CIA

Ahmed Shuja Pasha, the Director General of Inter-Services Intelligence (far right). Reuters

Osama bin Laden Dead: Angry Pakistan Drops Intelligence Sharing With West -- The Telegraph

Pakistan's intelligence services are refusing to share details of suspects or plots with their American counterparts in protest at the US operation to kill Osama bin Laden, raising the potential threat of attacks on Western cities.

In the past, Pakistani agents have been credited with helping identify targets for drone strikes and providing data to the CIA on plans being hatched in its lawless tribal areas.

Now buffeted and embarrassed by being kept in the dark for months as the US closed in on the al-Qaeda leader's bolthole, little more than 30 miles from the Pakistani capital Islamabad, agents with the Inter-Services Intelligence directorate have begun to withhold crucial operational details about militants on its territory.

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More News On The Break In Cooperation Between The CIA And Pakistan's ISI

ISI drops intelligence sharing with CIA: report -- The International News
ISI stops intelligence sharing with CIA -- Hindustan Times
ISI refuses intelligence-sharing with CIA: Report -- Express Tribune
Berating General Pasha: Pakistan's Spy Chief Gets a Tongue-Lashing -- Time Magazine
Pakistan's army chief refuses to cooperate in rooting out Islamists -- Rick Moran, American Thinker

My Comment: From the outside the impression is that Pakistan's ISI is busily running around in trying to explain what is obviously a massive intelligence failure on its part. While blaming the U.S. is easy, the reality on the ground is that it is obvious that Bin Laden had an extensive support structure in Pakistan, and both he and this support structure were actively involved in planning terror attacks against the U.S.

Who was involved in supporting Bin Laden is the big secret right now .... and this is information that the U.S. is not sharing with anyone. This lack in sharing of information .... and not knowing what the U.S. knows .... is probably what is causing this break in relations between the two countries. As time goes by, I expect these relations to get even worse .... and what is an intelligence breaking of relations be translated into a political break in relations, starting with cutting back U.S. military aid to the Pakistani government and Pakistan threatening to cut NATO supply lines to Afghanistan.

Has Paying Off Pakistan's Intelligence Agnecy Been Worth It?

CIA Says It Gets Its Money's Worth From Pakistani Spy Agency -- L.A. Times

It has given hundreds of millions to the ISI, for operations as well as rewards for the capture or death of terrorist suspects. Despite fears of corruption, it is money well-spent, ex-officials say.

Reporting from Washington - The CIA has funneled hundreds of millions of dollars to Pakistan's intelligence service since the Sept. 11 attacks, accounting for as much as one-third of the foreign spy agency's annual budget, current and former U.S. officials say.

The Inter-Services Intelligence agency also has collected tens of millions of dollars through a classified CIA program that pays for the capture or killing of wanted militants, a clandestine counterpart to the rewards publicly offered by the State Department, officials said.

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My Comment: I am very skeptical that paying off Pakistan's Intelligence Agencies has been worth it. The Taliban are gaining strength in their war against U.S. soldiers and our allies in Afghanistan .... all possible because of safe havens in Pakistan. Osama Bin Laden and other top Al Qaeda leaders are still roaming freely in Pakistan .... years after being forced out of Afghanistan by U.S./Afghan Alliance forces. Rumors of Pakistan ISI support of Taliban factions are accepted as fact .... and speculation that the ISI was involved in the assassination of key Pakistan political leaders (Benazir Bhutto being one of them) still make the rounds.

I am not even going to talk about the corruption and the diversion of public funds to personal projects and bank accounts that Pakistani corruption is well known for, as well as Pakistan ISI support for terror groups that are at war with India ... a U.S. ally in the war against terror.

From where I am standing .... the only thing that we have to show for the hundreds of millions of dollars that this organization has received from us are a few dead bodies from middle to upper middle levels of Al Qaeda and the Taliban, and a lot of dead civilians. The only upper level leader in the Taliban that was killed from a targeted CIA strike (helped with information from the ISI) was Baitullah Mehsud, but he was more of a threat to Pakistan than to the allied forces fighting the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan. Hmmmm .... coincidence?

If Pakistan's ISI has helped us in our war against the Taliban and Al Qaeda .... that information must still be classified top secret, because I certainoy have not seen enough to accept the premise that this money has been well spent.

Pakistan Exposes CIA Activities In Pakistan Tribal Areas

From the Strata-Sphere:

Those of us who have been keeping an eye focused on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border and the lawless tribal regions of Pakistan (the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and the North West Frontier Province (NWFP)) have know from sporadic news reports spanning almost year that the CIA and US Special Forces were operating inside Pakistan, along side the Pakistan government. The recent pressure from the US (and others) on Pakistan to deal with the remaining cesspool of Islamo Fascist terrorists in their tribal areas has been causing fractures and emotions to run high.

And this recently led to Pakistan exposing the fact openly that they have sanctioned and supported CIA and US Special Forces hits on the people of the Tribal Areas:

PAKISTAN last night accused the US of failing to “take out” al-Qa’ida-linked militant leader Baitullah Mehsud with CIA Hellfire drone missiles when it had the chance.

The accusation was an attempt to turn the tables on critics of the nation’s spy agency, the ISI, who say the agency has done little to stem rising Islamic militancy in tribal regions.

Pakistani officials told the US chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, and CIA deputy director Stephen R.Kappes that no action had been taken to mobilise the CIA’s Hellfire drone missiles when “actionable intelligence” was provided that Mehsud would be travelling in his Toyota Land Cruiser to a media conference he had called in his mountain stronghold in South Waziristan on May 24.

He reached the conference, and returned home afterwards, along exposed mountain roads.

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My Comment: Should we be surprised? I am just glad that they are there, and I look forward to the day when they knock off the Al Qaeda leadership.