GCIS INTELLIGENCE BRIEFING: US reducing spy presence in Pakistan, say papers

ISSUED BY: GCIS Communications Command Center

SOURCE: IntelNews

01March2011 7:00amEST

GCIS INTELLIGENCE UPDATE: Several Pakistani publications report that the United States has suspended some of its intelligence operations in Pakistan and is pulling several of its operatives out of the country.

The Islamabad-based Express-Tribune, which is partnered with The International Herald Tribune (the global edition of The New York Times), says that the US move is designed to pre-empt an ongoing investigation by Pakistani authorities into the whereabouts and activities of hundreds of US diplomats in several of the country’s regions.

According to the paper, Pakistan’s foreign ministry is in the process of conducting its first detailed investigation into the US diplomatic community in Pakistan in almost three years.

The ministry has told the Express Tribune that it has detected 851 Americans operating in Pakistan with diplomatic immunity, of whom nearly 300 “are not working in a diplomatic capacity”. The paper also cites sources inside Pakistan’s ministry of the interior, which claim that as many as 414 American diplomats operating in Pakistan are members of the US intelligence community.

Over 40 US intelligence operatives have allegedly left the country or have completely suspended their activities in recent weeks. (read full report)

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