Opinion

Pakistan’s perfidies

Ever since Osama bin Laden was killed on Pakistani soil, Islamabad has been playing a dangerous game.

Having accommodated the world’s arch-terrorist for six years, Pakistan is taking a three-pronged approach to the fallout: lies, bluster and sabotage.

* The lies: Prime Minister Yousuf Gilani called bin Laden “Enemy No. 1 of the civilized world” and hailed the killing as “justice done.”

That much is true — but it sure ain’t the opinion of the Pakistani government.

* The bluster: Gilani vowed that Pakistan would “retaliate with full force” if the US made another incursion into his “sacred homeland.”

That’s disturbing, but it’s an empty threat: Pakistan’s military was stunned by the Navy SEALs’ stealth-chopper strike, and barely stirred before US troops were safely out of Pakistani territory.

* And the sabotage: Pakistani officials hinted they would hand over to China pieces of a badly damaged, hyper-secret helicopter the SEALs had to leave behind.

China would love to reverse-engineer this unrivaled US equipment — but if Pakistan sends it east, it should be a stake in the heart of its already fraught relationship with America.

And damage has already been done: Last week, for the second time in five months, Pakistan’s duplicitous intelligence service leaked the identity of the CIA’s Islamabad station chief.

The disclosure puts his life at risk; when his predecessor was outed last December, that agent received death threats and was quickly recalled to the US.

Expect the same for the current station chief, who oversaw vital elements of the hunt for bin Laden (though the CIA is keeping him in place for now).

This is all tit-for-tat the Islamabad way: The US does humanity a favor — and Pakistan plots payback.

But commando raids in Pakistan aren’t going to end, and US drones will continue to seek out the thousands of extremists who take shelter there.

Pakistan’s leaders should ask themselves if they can afford to poison ties with the US, the best buffer they have against India, their nuclear-armed enemy next door.

True, the relationship may never be rosy. But it’s doomed if Pakistani leaders give free rein to the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate, which is closely aligned with terrorist organizations and the Taliban.

There’s a limit to US patience — and Pakistan is perilously close to it. If it continues playing games, it may soon find itself starved for aid.

Maybe worse.