C.I.A. Chief tells Pakistan on complicity with militants

Leon E. Panetta, CIA chief faced up to Pakistani intelligence authorities head to head with what the United States thinks is witness of complicity between Pakistani security officials and insurgents staging assaults in Afghanistan, an American counterterrorism officer said Saturday.

During an undeclared visit to Pakistan’s capital on Friday, Mr. Panetta meet up with the head of the Pakistani intelligence service, Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha, and showed him satellite images and other proof of what the C.I.A. considers to be two amenities for the create of bombs utilized by insurgents based in Pakistan against American forces in Afghanistan, the official said. The bomb facilities were in the northwestern districts of North and South Waziristan, both safe places for militants.

The officer said Mr. Panetta was bound to meet General Pasha after the C.I.A. changed the Pakistanis about the subsistence of the bomb creating facilities several weeks ago and inquired them to attack the positions. But when the Pakistani Army showed up, the militants were left, making the C.I.A. doubtful that the militants had warning from someone on the Pakistani side.

“The targets seem to have been tipped off,” the American official said, adding, “There are indications that some senior Pakistani officials aren’t happy about it, and neither are we, of course.”

A senior Pakistani officer said Saturday that at first there was no basis for Pakistan to be distrustful that the bomb manufacturer had move out. “Extremist groups frequently change locations,” the official said. But, the official said, “now that the U.S. side has drawn our concentration to the probability of the Taliban being tipped off between the day the intelligence was shared and the day of our military action, we will plan on finding out what taken place.”

Both officials spoke on situation of ambiguity to talk sensitive intelligence issues. Mr. Panetta’s meeting with General Pasha and the assumption that there was an advised about the bomb-making facilities were first reported by Time magazine.

Tensions between both the countries have deteriorated since the US military attacked that killed Osama bin Laden near the Pakistani capital last month. American officials say they have exposed no witness that anybody in Pakistan’s senior leadership knew about Bin Laden’s hiding place, though the departing defense secretary, Robert M. Gates, said recently that he thought “somebody” in Pakistan knew.

US officials did not inform Pakistan about the attack until afterward. American intelligence and military officials have long said that parts of Pakistan’s intelligence service have close relations to Pakistani militants and the Pakistani Taliban. US officials say Pakistan favors the militants as a proxy force in Afghanistan, preparing for pressure after US soldiers leave.