Gates grilled on Pakistan arrests of informants

WASHINGTON  The reported arrest in Pakistan of informants who helped the United States find Osama bin Laden evoked outrage Wednesday on Capitol Hill and pleas for patience from top military officials.

The arrests represent the latest crisis in the strained relationship between the two countries, a relationship that experts and military officials say is vital to the U.S. effort in battling terrorists.

"We need each other; our security interests are intertwined," said Karl Inderfurth, a former State Department official in the region who is now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "Both sides have made their share of mistakes. Whatever the international equivalent of marriage counseling is, we ought to take part in it."

The rift became evident Wednesday at an otherwise sedate meeting of the Senate's defense appropriations subcommittee. U.S. officials have not publicly acknowledged the arrests, which were first reported by The New York Times.

But Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., raised the issue during the hearing, calling Pakistan a "putative ally" and asking Defense Secretary Robert Gates how long the U.S. should support "governments that lie to us?"

"Most governments lie to each other," Gates replied. "That's the way business gets done."

"Do they also arrest the people that help us, when they say they're allies?" Leahy said.

"Sometimes," Gates said. "And sometimes they send people to spy on us, and they're our close allies. That's the real world that we deal with."

Last year, U.S. aid and payments to Pakistan totaled $4.4 billion, according to the Congressional Research Service. In return, the U.S. relies on Pakistan to ship most of its equipment and supplies to fight the war in Afghanistan. It has also pressed Pakistan, with mixed results, to eliminate havens for insurgents who attack troops in Afghanistan.

While the U.S officials press Pakistan to fight terrorists, Inderfurth said, Pakistan feels that it is "the aggrieved party." Pakistani officials point to the heavy military and civilian casualties it has suffered fighting terrorists, he said.

"They have responded when asked for assistance," Inderfurth said. "Once the crisis du jour passes, we move on. They've been sanctioned so many times, they wonder what kind of true friend and ally we are."

The latest crisis stemmed from the raid in Pakistan last month to kill bin Laden. U.S. special operations forces stormed into the country without notification, raided his compound in the army garrison town of Abbottabad and flew his body out.

The five people arrested by Pakistani intelligence officials included the owner of a safe house used by the CIA to observe bin Laden's house, the Associated Press reported, citing an unnamed Western official.

"The idea that anyone would be arrested for helping get bin Laden is mind blowing," Inderfurth said.

In the aftermath of the raid, Pakistan's army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, is fighting to save his position because of what is seen as his cozy relationship with the U.S., The New York Times reported late Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Gates and Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the cost of abandoning or ostracizing Pakistan would be high. Pakistan's nuclear capability and instability in the region raise the risks further, said Mullen, who has traveled to Pakistan about 25 times.

If we turn away from Pakistan, as happened in the late 1980s and early '90s following its development of nuclear weapons, Mullen said, the U.S. will be forced to return in a decade "in a much more difficult situation."