[Peace-discuss] US spy in Pakistan outed

[C. G. Estabrook]

US spy in Pakistan outed as White House demands intelligence from bin Laden raid
Catherine Philp and Zahid Hussain
From: The Times
May 09, 2011 9:16AM

THE White House has demanded that Pakistan hand over intelligence seized from 
Osama bin Laden's compound as relations between the two allies hit a new crisis 
over the outing of America's top spy in Islamabad.

Mark Carlton, the purported CIA station chief, was named by a Pakistani 
newspaper and a private television news network over the weekend, the second 
holder of that post in less than a year to have his cover blown by the media, 
presumed to have official consent.

The reports documented a meeting between Mr Carlton and the head of Pakistan's 
spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence, suggesting that the information 
came from them.

Washington has refused to comment on the development, which comes amid worsening 
relations between the US and Pakistan over how bin Laden came to be sheltering 
in a fortified compound in a garrison town.

Anger is mounting in Pakistan over how the US was able to carry out the raid in 
Abbottabad without detection, with calls for the Government to resign.

In Washington, however, officials warned the country that it had a duty to 
answer tough questions about who might have known that bin Laden was there. Tom 
Donilon, the National Security Adviser, said that he was yet to see evidence of 
official collusion, but warned Pakistanis that they “need to provide us with 
intelligence...from the compound that they've gathered, including access to 
Osama bin Laden's three wives.”

Navy Seals were forced to leave the surviving witnesses to the raid behind after 
a helicopter crashed. The women and children were taken into Pakistani custody 
shortly after the raid.

Mr Donilon said that Washington was “pressing Pakistan on an investigation” into 
how bin Laden was able to hide in Abbottabad after one wife told investigators 
they had lived in the house since 2005 and before that, in a nearby village 
since 2003. “How could this have happened in Pakistan?” Mr Donilon asked.

A jihadist website published what it said was bin Laden's last message. “By the 
will of God, our attacks will continue against you as long as your support for 
Israel continues,” he was reported to have said in an audio message for 
President Barack Obama and posted on Shamikh1.net, a conduit for al-Qa'ida 
communications.

Mr Obama said that clues to bin Laden's operations may be in files recovered 
from the compound by the Seals. Pakistani leaders “have indicated they have a 
profound interest in finding out what kinds of support networks bin Laden might 
have had,” Mr Obama said.

“But these are questions that we're not going to be able to answer three or four 
days after the event. It's going to take some time for us to be able to exploit 
the intelligence that we were able to gather on site.”

Mr Donilon said the material was the largest cache of intelligence ever gathered 
from a single terrorist, estimating the haul at “the size of a small college 
library”. Any discovery of documentary evidence that Pakistani officials were 
complicit in shielding bin Laden could prove disastrous for already shaky 
relations between Washington and Islamabad.

Pakistan has long been uncomfortable with the extent of CIA operations inside 
the country even before the bin Laden raid and revelations about a secret CIA 
station in Abbottabad.

Raymond Davis, a CIA agent, spent months in jail in Lahore after shooting two 
men, believed to be ISI officers tailing him, before Washington could secure his 
release.

Mr Carlton's predecessor had to flee Pakistan last year after his identity was 
exposed in the Pakistani press. If the revelation about his identity is correct, 
Mr Carlton will have almost certainly already left the country, dealing a 
further blow to US intelligence operations there.

On Saturday, the Pentagon released videos from the compound showing bin Laden 
monitoring his own image on satellite television and composing video messages 
for his supporters.

The raid has shaken Pakistanis' perception of the military as a stabilising 
force in a polarised country. There are also fears that a humiliated military 
could reassert itself by seizing power.

The Times

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/us-spy-in-pakistan-unmasked-as-white-house-demands-intelligence-from-osama-bin-laden-raid/story-fn8ljzlv-1226052320426