Feinstein’s comment on drone aircraft embarassing to Pakistan?

Hmmm. The L.A. Times reports:

Senator Feinstein says that  “the Predator planes that launch missile strikes against militants are based in Pakistan,” Which in turn suggests “a much deeper relationship with the U.S. than Islamabad would like to admit”.   I thought Hillary was Secretary of State.

It’s useful to remember that Pakistan and U.S. officials have both already acknowledged that a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy exists between the two countries on unmanned U.S. drone aircraft. Granted, that’s not the same as Pakistan hosting the launch sites for the U.S., but it does denote a sort of facultative symbiosis.

Here’s what I posted back in November:

The Washington Post reported that both Pakistani and U.S. officials acknowledged a “don’t ask, don’t-tell” policy between the countries, which allegedly allows for unmanned drone aircraft to attack suspected targets in the less monitored, tribal, western area of Pakistan with public deniability, in exchange for repeated publicized protest and complaints by Pakistan concerning the air strikes.

View story here.

UPDATE: Times Online takes Feinstein’s slip and runs with it, ironically titling expose piece, “Secrecy and Denial”. I choose to blame the Times Online at this point, more people listen to it anyway.