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Pakistanis: WikiLeaks proves leaders are US puppets
A deluge of U.S. diplomatic cables has tarnished the reputation of Pakistan's political and military leadership with the country's public, adding to anti-American sentiments in Pakistan, analysts and politicians said Thursday.
The dispatches, released by the WikiLeaks website, show military and civilian leaders agreeing to policies in private meetings with U.S. diplomats that they would passionately disavow in public.
Among those damaged by the cables is Pakistan's powerful military chief, Gen. Ashfaq Kayani, who, according to the cables, would confide highly sensitive information to U.S. Ambassador Anne Patterson and use her to carry messages to his own political leadership.
As they pored over the leaked cables for the past four days, the Pakistani news media studiously ignored the other side of the story that emerges from the leaked communications: deep American frustration at Pakistan's lack of cooperation.
In one missive, from September 2009, Patterson lamented that there's "no chance" that Pakistan will stop funding certain Islamic extremist groups, no matter how much U.S. aid is doled out. Earlier that year, she'd concluded: "The relationship is one of co-dependency we grudgingly admit–Pakistan knows the U.S. cannot afford to walk away; the U.S. knows Pakistan cannot survive without our support."