Pressure from Pakistani intelligence for a cut in the number of US Special Forces trainers working in sensitive regions is due to fears they are also spying, according to Pakistani sources with knowledge of the request.
The request was conveyed when Lieut-Gen Ahmad Shuja Pasha, head of Pakistan's powerful Directorate of Inter-Services Intelligence, visited his counterpart Leon Panetta at CIA headquarters today.
A US military official in Islamabad confirmed a reduction in the number of Special Forces troops involved in training Pakistanis in counter-insurgency was being discussed.
The Pakistani military declined to comment.
About 120 US Special Forces soldiers are in Pakistan's northwest to train local security forces in counter-insurgency, but given the increasing strain in the US-Pakistan alliance over the past six months, Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Kayani now wants those numbers reduced.
Any reduction would impact Washington's ability to gather intelligence for its drone campaign and Pakistan's counter-insurgency efforts.
"We want American Special Forces to come and train our people so we can collaborate, but if they get into other activities we don't want them," said an instructor at the National Defense University in Islamabad. He works with serving Pakistani officers and is familiar with their concerns.
He said "other activities" could include spying on Pakistan's nuclear weapons programme or having contact with militant groups. There is a suspicion among the senior military leadership that US troops are gathering intelligence on such groups and not sharing the information, or even actively helping them.
Pakistan suspended joint operations between the CIA and its Directorate of Inter-Services Intelligence after a CIA contractor shot dead two Pakistanis in Lahore on January 27th.
Reuters