Mr. Panetta was particularly irritated by the reluctance of the Pakistani government to do anything about various Afghan “extremists” (aka people who are tired of the U.S. running around in their country and killing people) who hide out in Pakistan:
“We are reaching the limits of our patience here, and for that reason it is extremely important that Pakistan take action to prevent this kind of safe haven,” he said.
But the article (the original article) noted that the U.S. was a bit lacking in clean hands here, that in a recent meeting prior to his trip, a meeting attended by senior military officials from India, Pakistan’s great foe, Mr. Panetta joked about the U.S. raid in Pakistan that assassinated Osama Bin Ladin, chuckling that (I quote from memory) “Of course we didn’t tell them [the Pakistani government] we were coming. That was the whole point.” The fact that Panetta would make such a statement in front of Indian officials, the article added dryly, was a sign of just how poor relations are between Pakistan and the U.S.
Well, that was so yesterday. The article has been truncated, and both Mr. Panetta’s wit, and the Times’ comment upon it, have been removed. Self-censorship, anyone?
Afterwords
Why didn’t I track down the original Times article on the many websites that record everything that appears on the net? I can only plead geezerhood. The Times of India doesn’t have the stuff that the NYT deleted, but it does cover the Pakistani reaction to Panetta’s “limits of our patience” talk, which the NYT doesn’t.
