U.S.-Pakistan intel operations frozen as ties remain strained

Thats good. Let them fight and win WOT by themselves.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110409/india_nm/india562327

             ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Joint U.S.-Pakistan  intelligence operations have been halted since late January, a senior  Pakistani intelligence officer said, reflecting strain in a relationship  seen as crucial to combating militants and the war in Afghanistan.
                  Uneasy U.S.-Pakistani ties have become even more tense after a  string of diplomatic disputes so far this year, including a massive  drone strike in March and the case of Raymond Davis, a CIA contractor  who shot dead two Pakistanis on Jan. 27 in the eastern city of Lahore.
                  "Presently, joint operations are on hold," a senior Pakistani  intelligence officer told Reuters, adding that they were halted after  Davis killed the two men. A Pakistani court has since acquitted Davis of  murder and he has been released.
                  Previous joint operations between the powerful Inter-Services  Intelligence (ISI) agency and the CIA have led to the capture of  high-profile al Qaeda and Taliban leaders, including Khalid Sheikh  Mohammad, the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United  States.
                    "The agency's ties to the ISI have been strong over the years, and  when there are issues to sort out, we work through them," CIA spokesman  George Little told Reuters. "That's the sign of a healthy partnership."
                  But a U.S. official familiar with the state of relations said the  Pakistanis are making more effort to curb, restrict, or at least more  intensely monitor, CIA activities. The revelation that armed CIA  contractors such as Davis were working in Pakistan deeply angered and  embarrassed the ISI.
                  "It is our land. We know how to tackle things. We will set the rules  of the game. It is not Afghanistan," a senior Pakistani military  official told Reuters. "They have to cease spying operations."
                  Since then, a few dozen contractors the ISI says are associated with  the agency -- the exact number is unclear -- and part of a parallel  intelligence network have quickly and quietly left the country.
                  A small contingent of American troops training Pakistanis in counter-insurgency is also in danger of being reduced.
                  DRONE STRIKES DOWN
                  The frequency of drone strikes, an unacknowledged CIA program that  the United States considers its most successful weapon against al Qaeda  and the Taliban leadership and which relies on at least some Pakistani  cooperation, also has fallen, with just nine strikes in March compared  to a peak of 22 in September 2010.
                  "It is very clear that intrusion into our territory is no longer  acceptable and drone flights inside our territory is an intrusion," the  military official said, suggesting the drones could be shot down.  Civilians casualties inflame anti-American sentiment in Pakistan and  bolster support for the militants.
                  The latest strike, on March 17, killed at least 45 people, leading  Pakistan's chief of the army, General Ashfaq Kayani, to issue a rare,  public criticism of the United States, which in turn is frustrated at  Pakistan's apparent reluctance to launch a major military offensive  against militants in its tribal North Waziristan region that borders  Afghanistan.
                  A semi-annual White House report on Afghanistan and Pakistan harshly  criticised Pakistan as having "no clear path toward defeating the  insurgency." In equally harsh terms, Pakistan rejected the report and  said it would deal with insurgents in its own way.
                  The strain in relations could hinder efforts by the Obama  administration to get the annual $1.5 billion in economic assistance for  Pakistan appropriated for the 2012 fiscal year through Congress, said  Bruce Riedel, a former CIA Middle East expert who has advised the White  House.
                  "Foreign aid is always something that's easy to cut by a  budget-tightening Congress, and foreign aid to Pakistan would be the  easiest thing to cut," he said. "It's very hard to persuade congressmen  why we should be giving money to a country that supports the Afghan  Taliban."
                  But no matter how bruised they become, U.S.-Pakistani ties are too strategic to unravel.
                  "We need to work together more transparently and not let incidents  like Raymond Davis damage the relationship," the Pakistani intelligence  officer said. "The stakes are too high." 

(Additional reporting by Kamran Haider in Islamabad and Mark Hosenball in Washington, editing by Miral Fahmy)

Re: U.S.-Pakistan intel operations frozen as ties remain strained

If ties are frozen and US only drops drones on intelligence provided by ISI then how come we see all these drone-attacks?