The US declared Pakistan a major non-NATO ally all the way back in 2004, but relations have soured at various points since then. But given Pakistan does indeed remain a close regional ally, which is also nuclear-armed, the country is outraged at Wednesday’s Senate Intelligence hearing wherein Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard raised some eyebrows over a new ‘missile threat’. She for the first named the South Asian country along with Russia and others in the 2026 Annual Threat Assessment Report, citing that Pakistan’s missile program could be a future threat to the Untied States. “Russia, China, North Korea, Iran, and Pakistan have been researching and developing an array of novel, advanced, or traditional missile delivery systems with nuclear and conventional payloads, that put our homeland within range,” Gabbard told the intelligence committee. She then specified: “Pakistan’s long-range ballistic missile development potentially could include ICBMs with the range capable of striking the homeland.” While other countries listed – especially Iran and North Korea have long been named by US officials as ‘rogue’ actors or else part of an ‘axis of evil’ (going back to the Bush era) – this appears to be the first time Pakistan was openly named in […]