The Pakistani and US intelligence chiefs met in Washington to ease the strains between their governments. Their effort faced a mission impossible in view of the Saudi effort to distance Islamabad from its ties with Washington and strengthen the Taliban as the backbone of a future international Sunni militia.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai, America's and NATO's key ally in the war on the Taliban and al Qaeda, turned furiously on the United States in a public outburst Saturday, June 18. He accused Washington of carrying on direct talks with the Taliban behind Kabul's back and contaminating the Afghan environment with the chemical pollutants used in NATO war operations. debkafile: Kabul and Islamabad have begun reorienting their policies on coordination with Saudi Arabia in common cause against Obama policies.

Western intelligence circles believe master terrorist Ilyas Kashmiri survived a US rocket attack although his al Qaeda group the 313 Brigade eulogized him. Syed Saleem Shahzad, the Pakistani journalist who knew too much about him was abducted, tortured and killed, while his "man in India," David Headley is alive ...

Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan is traveling far and wide to build an international Muslim army on call for rapid deployment to parts of the Muslim and Arab world deemed threatened by Riyadh and for containing Iranian expansion. He is buying arms in China, raising recruits in Pakistan, Malaysia ...

King Abdullah is determined to save his friends from the fate suffered by Egypt's Hosni Mubarak. The second-generation Saudi royals have got together to pull the kingdom away from its long dependence on the US and command its own fate and interests, even at the price of clashing with ...

Saudi Arabia is importing thousands of Pakistani Sunnis to Bahrain, soldiers and complete famlies, to offset the Shiite majority population. After declaring the special relationship with the US history, Riyadh is venturing across new diplomatic frontiers : Through Islamabad, Riyadh is also opening the door to a Chinese foothold and influence in ...

The US is sustaining the momentum of the war on terror by sending more Special Forces and drones into Pakistan after Osama bin Laden's top lieutenant, Ayman al Zawahiri, Taliban leader Mullah Omer and al Qaeda's chief operations officer, Seif al Adal. debkafile: Washington suspects their whereabouts are known to Pakistan's Inter-Services-Intelligence agency (ISI) and has given Islamabad an ultimatum: Cooperate in their capture or US troops will take up the pursuit in your country.

The Obama administration is presenting the successful Osama bin Laden hit as an epic American solo operation, unparalleled in military and intelligence annals, while leaning hard on Islamabad to sack certain officers of the powerful military intelligence army ISI including its head Lt. Gen. Ahmad Shuja Pasha, accusing them of keeping the dead al Qaeda leader hidden for eight years. Islamabad is fighting both US tactics. debkafile: The feud could boomerang against Washington as a Taliban revenge attack.

The Osama bin Laden operation was part of a US-Pakistani-Afghan package for getting US troops out of Afghanistan by removing the root-cause of the war and bringing the Taliban to the negotiating table through Pakistan's good services.

Osama bin Laden would have been easier prey in 2007. However, his elimination was placed on the backburners of the second Bush and the Clinton White House agendas. During those years, he lived quite comfortably under Pakistani protection and commuted between walled villas.

The White House is fighting a losing battle for credibility: Its first statements on the special forces' raid which killed the al Qaeda leader in Abbottabad, Pakistan on May 2 are proving incorrect: Washington has been forced to admit that bin Laden was not armed when he was killed and his wife was not used as a human shield. This further fuels Arab-Muslim skepticism about the affair, especially with Pakistan actively challenging the US version with the help of the survivors in its custody.