ISI drops intelligence sharing with CIA: report

Sunday, May 15, 2011 06:17

LONDON: Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI) has dropped intelligence Sharing with Central Investigation Agency (CIA), a report published in British newspaper said. According to the newspaper, Pakistan, in protest of US unilateral action against the al Qaeda chief in its territory has broken off relation with CIA. In the past, Pakistani agents have been credited with helping identify targets for drone strikes and providing data to the CIA on plans being hatched in its tribal areas. "They are furious. They handed over telephone intercepts in 2009 that were crucial in leading to bin Laden's courier - the key breakthrough in the hunt," said a source briefed on relations between the two countries. "Then four months ago they were told there was nothing in it, it was what the Americans called a 'cold lead'. Since then they have been left out completely out of the loop." Senior officials in the US have briefed journalists that they stopped sharing information with Islamabad because they feared Osama’s sympathisers would tip-off bin Laden - ruining the best lead they had ever had.