ISI demands contractors list from CIA: New York Times

According to US newspaper New York Times, an ISI official said that the American citizen, Raymond Davis, worked as a contractor in Pakistan on secret CIA operations without the knowledge of the Pakistanis. The spy agency estimated that there were “scores” more such contractors “working behind our backs. In a slight softening of the Pakistani stance since Mr. Davis’s arrest, the official said that the American and Pakistani intelligence agencies needed to continue cooperation, and that Pakistan was prepared to put the episode in the past if the CIA stopped treating its Pakistani counterparts as inferior. The official maintained that ISI wants an accounting of all the contractors who work for the CIA in roles that have not been defined to Pakistan, and a general rewriting of the rules of engagement by the CIA in Pakistan.The demand for the CIA to acknowledge the number of contractors in Pakistan was driven by the suspicion that the American spy service had slipped many such secret operatives into Pakistan in the past six months, the senior ISI official said. ISI official further stated that the increase occurred after a directive last July by the Pakistani civilian government, which is often at odds with the ISI, to its Washington embassy to expedite visas without supervision from the ISI or the Ministry of Interior.While another US newspaper Wallstreet Journal claims that Pakistans spy agency blamed the civilian government for allowing US intelligence operatives to enter the country secretly, sparking an internal feud over a shooting by a detained Central Intelligence Agency contractor, and complicating US policy in the region. Pakistans powerful Inter-Services Intelligence military spy agency says the government of President Asif Ali Zardari has pushed visa policies that it claims have made it easier for CIA employees and contractors, including Mr. Davis, to operate secretly in the country.