Documents leaked by Edward Snowden reveal the depth of mistrust between America and Pakistan, revealing how the US spied on Islamabad’s nuclear assets and compiled dossiers of extrajudicial killings.
The revelations, published by The Washington Post on Tuesday, appear to show how billions of dollars from the so-called “black budget” have been spent by US spy agencies watching one of its key allies in the war against the Taliban and al-Qaeda.The secret papers describe concerns about biological and chemical sites, and also illustrate efforts to assess the loyalities of counter-terrorism sources.
Such details will anger a Pakistani government trying to hold together its relationship with Washington in the face of widespread anti-American sentiment, and further infuriate critics of the US. “If the Americans are expanding their surveillance capabilities, it can only mean one thing,” Husain Haqqani, who served as Pakistan’s ambassador to the US until 2011, told the newspaper. “The mistrust now exceeds the trust.”
The two countries have had a fractious relationship ever since 9/11 when they found themselves on the frontline of George W Bush’s war on terror.