Washington: The Washington Post published a report Wednesday describing a top-secret Central Intelligence Agency file which claimed that Pakistan for years secretly approved of US drone attacks on its territory despite public denunciations.
The purported evidence of Islamabad's involvement came as Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif visited the White House and urged an end to the attacks, which are widely unpopular with the Pakistani public.
Specific notations on those documents indicate that much of the file was created by the CIA's Counterterrorism Center and intended to inform Pakistani government officials of successful operations that killed suspected Al-Qaeda terrorists.
While Islamabad's implied approval of the drone strikes has long been an open secret in Washington – in part because of the CIA's ability to land predator drones on Pakistani military airstrips – the documents add new insight to the relationship.
At least 65 attacks are outlined in the report, with a detailed drone timeline revealing that the initial list of Al-Qaeda targets quickly blossomed into a shadow war against anti-American militant groups.
