Buried in a several-hundred page leaked report on the US raid on Abbotabad, former ISI chief Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha confirmed that the Pakistani government has a long-standing “understanding” with the Obama Administration about US drone strikes.
Pasha confirmed that while the Pakistani civilian government regularly complains about the drones in public, they have privately acquiesced to the US on the strikes, believing they were “useful” despite being hugely unpopular.
Recently elected Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has promised to revoke any “tacit” agreements with the US on drone strikes, but since those agreements were never written down in the first place, the US has assumed the public complaints are just part of the narrative.
Pasha confirmed that at this point it would be difficult to convince the US that the “understanding” no longer applies, and that it would’ve been much easier if Pakistan had simply rejected the strikes in the first place instead of trying to retroactively retract a secret deal.
The way to convince that the understanding no longer applies is to shoot down the drones. If the Pakistanis don't have the missiles for it – they can try acquire them from Russia.
This is really stupid. What a great nobel peace prize winner. He will use any excuse to keep using his favorite toys that kill ten times more civilians than manned bombers. Great guy.