October 24, 2008	Friday	Shawwal 24, 1429

WASHINGTON, Oct 23: New ISI chief Lt-Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha will arrive in Washington this weekend for meetings with CIA’s director Michael V. Hayden, diplomatic sources told Dawn.

And on Oct 31, a senior US military official, Gen David H. Petraeus, will arrive in Islamabad for talks with his Pakistani counterparts. He will also visit Afghanistan.

The two spy chiefs would discuss “intelligence issues” and would explore the possibility of greater cooperation between their agencies in the fight against Al Qaeda and Taliban militants, the sources said.

Pakistan complaints that US intelligence agencies often refuse to share intelligence with their Pakistani counterparts which results in uncoordinated air attacks that also kill scores of innocent non-combatants.

US officials claim they do not trust Pakistani agencies because in the past information provided to them were reportedly leaked out to the militants.

“The CIA and ISI chiefs will discuss various options for removing this distrust between Pakistani and US intelligence communities,” said a senior diplomatic source.

CIA has recently increased its operations against the militants in Fata, with at least 11 missile attacks launched by Predator unmanned aircraft against Al Qaeda and Taliban targets in August and September, compared with six in the previous eight months.

Meanwhile, Gen Petraeus, who will take charge of the US Central Command next week, will discuss plans for fighting Taliban and Al Qaeda militants with his Pakistani counterparts when he arrives in Islamabad on Oct 31.

Diplomatic sources say that Gen Petraeus hopes to use the same strategy in Pakistan and Afghanistan that he employed in Iraq. His efforts to use Iraqi tribesmen to fight Al Qaeda were particularly successful and he hoped to use the strategy in Pakistan’s tribal areas as well, the sources said.