Feinstein’s Blurt Leads to U.S. Confirmation That It Uses Pakistani Air Base

Nothing quite like exposing a military advantage.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s blurt during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing last week forced the U.S. intelligence and military community to acknowledge on Thursday that the U.S. is targeting Al Qaeda and Taliban operatives using unmanned drones based in Pakistan.

The senator’s slip sent reporters into overdrive and led to the discovery of a 2006 picture provided by Google Earth that appears to show Predator drones at Shamsi air base 200 miles southwest of Quetta.

A senior U.S. official confirmed to FOX News that Pakistani leaders — despite their public protests and denials — have been giving the U.S. some targets in the tribal areas of their own enemies, and have given the U.S. blanket permission to go after any “Arabs” in those areas because they are assumed to be Al Qaeda operatives.

The Pakistanis themselves are still officially denying the arrangement, a decision predicated on the weak federal government and extreme anti-Americanism in tribal communities, particularly the Federally Administered Tribal Area in the Northwest, where Taliban and Al Qaeda support is strongest.

Feinstein’s remarks, which were characterized as “foolish” by U.S. officials, were unusual for the experienced chairwoman of the intelligence panel.

According to intelligence sources, Feinstein’s statement, at a hearing on the threat assessment with new Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair, appears to be the first time a member of the U.S. government has publicly acknowledged that Predator vehicles are operating from a base inside Pakistan.

via Source