ISI-History and Discussions

arun · Post by **arun** » 18 Mar 2009 21:10

X Posted.

From the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom March 17, 2009 public hearing on the topic” Pakistan: The Threat of Religious Extremism “ .

Excerpt of the bit on the ISI from Steve Coll’s testimony before them :

………… the history of these and related Islamic radical groups is inseparable from the history of the Pakistan military and its principal foreign intelligence service, the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate, or I.S.I. Beginning in the 1980s, following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, I.S.I. has systematically funded, armed, protected and directed Islamic radical groups from their bases on Pakistani soil. ………… During this period, Pakistan discovered the potential value of Islamist militias as instruments of its security and foreign policies in South Asia.

In particular, Pakistani generals became focused intently on what they regarded as an existential threat from India. …………… Pakistan’s generals identified two ways to secure their country and to keep India off balance: To acquire a nuclear deterrent, and to promote Islamist militias, particularly in Kashmir, as a low-cost mechanism that would keep the Indian military tied down, wary of escalation, and generally off balance.

The full history and organization chart of I.S.I., from the birth of these covert action campaigns in the 1980s until today, has never been published in open sources. From the accounts of those familiar with I.S.I.’s structure, it is an exceptionally large and well-resourced organization, ………….. organized into functional and regional bureaus. I.S.I. has had a bureau focused on intelligence collection and covert action in Afghanistan since at least the early 1980s. It developed a similar bureau for Kashmir after an uprising erupted there in 1989. These bureaus are among the sections of the service that have undertaken the most intense collaboration with Islamist groups.

I.S.I.’s relationship with Islamic extremist groups in Pakistan has varied over time and across different theaters of operation. The best open source evidence suggests that its collaborations with Al Qaeda have been limited, and have involved such projects as the use of Al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan to train Kashmiri jihadi volunteers during the 1990s. After September 11, I.S.I. actively collaborated with the Central Intelligence Agency and other U.S. forces against Al Qaeda. There is also some evidence, although it is not so frequently available in the open sources, that I.S.I. has at least occasionally worked both sides of that conflict, with officers occasionally tipping off or otherwise communicating with Al Qaeda targets. It is difficult to imagine, for example, that Osama Bin Laden could have remained at large for so long without at least some cooperation from elements of the Pakistani state. In any event, the ability of Kashmir-oriented jihadi groups and leaders to operate openly on Pakistani soil – delivering speeches and sermons, recruiting and training – provides the most transparent evidence that the Pakistani security services continue to collaborate with at least some Islamic extremist groups. ……………

LINK

arun · Post by **arun** » 23 Mar 2009 12:18

X Post.

Dr. David Kilcullen confirm the rogue nature of the ISI and Pakistani Army:

The Pakistani military and police and intelligence service don't follow the civilian government; they are essentially a rogue state within a state.

The Pakistan related bits in greater detail in the interview follows :

A Conversation With David Kilcullen

Interview by Carlos Lozada
Sunday, March 22, 2009; B02

Why is an Aussie anthropologist coaching American generals on how to win wars? David Kilcullen, an Australian army reservist and top adviser to Gen. David H. Petraeus during the troop surge in Iraq, has spent years studying insurgencies in countries from Indonesia to Afghanistan, distinguishing hard-core terrorists from "accidental guerrillas" -- and his theories are revolutionizing military thinking throughout the West. Kilcullen spoke with Outlook's Carlos Lozada on why Pakistan is poised for collapse, …………...............:

What is the real central front in the war on terror?

Pakistan. Hands down. No doubt.

Why?

Pakistan is 173 million people, 100 nuclear weapons, an army bigger than the U.S. Army, and al-Qaeda headquarters sitting right there in the two-thirds of the country that the government doesn't control. The Pakistani military and police and intelligence service don't follow the civilian government; they are essentially a rogue state within a state. We're now reaching the point where within one to six months we could see the collapse of the Pakistani state, also because of the global financial crisis, which just exacerbates all these problems. . . . The collapse of Pakistan, al-Qaeda acquiring nuclear weapons, an extremist takeover -- that would dwarf everything we've seen in the war on terror today. ………………

Washington Post

arun · Post by **arun** » 25 Mar 2009 07:42

X Post. :

March 25, 2009

How Pakistan can help to stop terrorist camps training Britons

Jeremy Page:

Since the September 11 attacks the British security services have agonised over how to monitor British Pakistanis who regularly travel back to Pakistan to study, get married or visit relatives.

The problem is that, although most do just that, a significant number disappear into radical Islamic seminaries or militant training camps and return with the potential to carry out an attack ………….

At some point, however, the British have to rely on their Pakistani counterparts …………… That is where the system tends to fail, given the historical links between the ISI and Islamic militant groups, and given the deteriorating security in the FATAs. Pakistan's police force is too poorly funded and trained to handle counter-terrorism. Its civilian intelligence agencies are weak and rely on the ISI for information and resources. So British counter-terror strategy depends largely on the ISI, which helped to create the Taleban and has long used militants groups as a proxy to fight Indian rule in Kashmir and offset Indian influence in Afghanistan. British and American officials say that the ISI has been co-operative in tracking down al-Qaeda members in Pakistan. It has been less helpful, however, with Pakistanis involved in home-grown militant groups. ………….

Times,UK

sum · Post by **sum** » 25 Mar 2009 19:28

If the ISI has pointed out these guys, one can be rest assured that these 20 are just cannon fodder and decoys to hide a bigger "consignment"...

arun · Post by **arun** » 26 Mar 2009 09:22

X Post. Hat Tip Sanjay M.

New York Times reporting that the S Wing of the ISI is supporting terrorist groups. Excerpt below :

March 26, 2009

Afghan Strikes by Taliban Get Pakistan Help, U.S. Aides Say

By MARK MAZZETTI and ERIC SCHMITT

WASHINGTON — The Taliban’s widening campaign in southern Afghanistan is made possible in part by direct support from operatives in Pakistan’s military intelligence agency, despite Pakistani government promises to sever ties to militant groups fighting in Afghanistan, according to American government officials.

The support consists of money, military supplies and strategic planning guidance to Taliban commanders ........................

Support for the Taliban, as well as other militant groups, is coordinated by operatives in the shadowy S Wing of Pakistan’s spy service, the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, the officials said. There is even evidence that ISI operatives meet regularly with Taliban commanders to discuss whether to intensify or scale back violence before the Afghan elections.

American officials interviewed said proof of the ties between the Taliban and Pakistani spies came from electronic surveillance and trusted informants .......................................

Details of the ISI’s continuing ties to militant groups were described by a half-dozen American, Pakistani and other security officials .................................................

American officials have complained for more than a year about the ISI’s support to groups like the Taliban. But the new details reveal that the spy agency is aiding a broader array of militant networks with more diverse types of support than was previously known — even months after Pakistani officials said that the days of the ISI’s playing a “double game” had ended......................................

Little is publicly known about the S Wing, which officials say directs intelligence operations outside of Pakistan. American officials said that the S Wing provided direct support to three major groups carrying out attacks in Afghanistan: the Taliban based in Quetta, Pakistan, commanded by Mullah Muhammad Omar; the militant network run by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar; and a different group run by the guerrilla leader Jalaluddin Haqqani................................

NYT

JE Menon · Post by **JE Menon** » 26 Mar 2009 23:09

From the same article:

"In a sign of just how resigned Western officials are to the ties, the British government has sent several dispatches to Islamabad in recent months asking that the ISI use its strategy meetings with the Taliban to persuade its commanders to scale back violence in Afghanistan"

can you believe this sh1t?

Gul must be smiling his sly smile...

sum · Post by **sum** » 26 Mar 2009 23:12

Just shows whose b@lls are in whose hands....

Tilak · Post by **Tilak** » 28 Mar 2009 20:59

X-Posted :

Interesting Documentary On : Myannmar , China , Taiwan, Pakistan , Afghanistan , Drug Trade , CIA

From Australian TV : An Unholy Alliance

This 1996 documentary examines the CIA's connection to the global drug trade, with a focus on opium and heroin. Posted with the permission of Director Chris Hilton, who now makes his home at Essential Media and Entertainment: http://www.essential-media.com/index.php More info on the documentary here: http://www.oneworldmagazine.org/seek/deamon/epis2.html

[googlevideo]5302066364516949312[/googlevideo]

-- Full Screen URL -- (**If the Embedded Video doesn't Work**)

arun · Post by **arun** » 30 Mar 2009 09:13

US Defense Secretray Robert Gates on the ISI's involvement with terrorism :

March 29, 2009 – 11:16 a.m.

Transcript: Defense Secretary Gates on ‘Fox News Sunday’ ……………

WALLACE: There were reports this week that elements of Pakistani intelligence, the ISI, are providing the Taliban and other extremists with money, supplies, even tips on allied missions against them. One, is it true? And two, if so, can we stop it?

GATES: Well, the way I would answer is to say that we certainly have concerns about the contacts of -- between the Pakistani intelligence service and the -- and some of these groups in the past.

But the reality is the Pakistanis have had contacts with these groups since they were fighting the Soviets 20 or 25 years ago when I first was dealing with the Pakistanis on this, and I must say also helping make sure that some of those same groups got weapons from our safe haven in Pakistan.

But with people like Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and the Haghani network, the Pakistanis have had contacts with these people for a long time, I think partly as a hedge against what might happen in Afghanistan if we were to walk away or whatever. What we need to do is try and help the Pakistanis understand these groups are now an existential threat to them and that we will be there as a steadfast ally for Pakistan, that they can count on us and that they don’t need that hedge.

CLICKY

arun · Post by **arun** » 30 Mar 2009 09:19

Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen in a CNN interview aired on March 27, 2009 said that Pakistan’s ISI is involved in supporting terrorism :

BLITZER: But here is what of deep concern. And I'm going to quote to you from a story in today's "New York Times" about the Pakistanis, because the U.S. is relying on Pakistan to help, to take the lead in going after these Taliban, al Qaeda targets in Pakistan.

"American officials told 'The New York Times' this week that Pakistan's military intelligence agency continued to offer money, supplies and guidance to the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan as a proxy to help shape a friendly government there once American forces leave."

How much can you, the U.S. military, the U.S. government, trust the Pakistanis?

MULLEN: The -- the agency you're really talking about, Wolf, is their -- is their intelligence agency, the ISI.

And I have believed for a significant period of time now, fundamentally, the strategic approach with the ISI must change. And their support for militants, their support for militants actually on both borders, has to fundamentally shift in order for...

BLITZER: Are there still elements in the Pakistani intelligence, the ISI, who are sympathetic or, even worse, actually supporting the Taliban and/or al Qaeda?

MULLEN: There are certainly indications that that's the case. And fundamentally that's one of the things that has to change.

CNN

arun · Post by **arun** » 30 Mar 2009 09:23

Special US envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke and US Army General David Petraeus do the good cop, bad cop routine.

Ambassador Holbrooke in a PBS interview aired March 27th admits that he has not reached a definitive conclusion that the ISI is helping terrorists :

MARGARET WARNER: Ambassador Holbrooke, when you had an interview on the NewsHour just last month, as you took on this job, you said you were going to explore deeply, or in depth, what you called the hotly disputed issue of whether Pakistani intelligence was in fact aiding and abetting the Taliban. Now that you've studied it, what's your conclusion? Are they?

AMBASSADOR HOLBROOKE: I'm going to study it some more. (Chuckles.) This is -- first, let me say, quite honestly, that this is at the top of our agenda, that I had extended talks with the director of central intelligence, Leon Panetta, and Admiral Blair, the director of national intelligence. David and I are going to drill down in it. My next trip out there next week is with the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mullen.

Secondly, I personally haven't reached a definitive conclusion. You have reported, newspapers have reported, issues that are very disturbing. But I do want to clarify for your viewers the stakes here. Even if Afghanistan had the best government in the world, the best governance, it would not be able to stabilize itself if the western areas of Pakistan continued to be a sanctuary. You reported that yourself. And, therefore, we have to get to the bottom of this.

PBS

Meanwhile In the same PBS interview, General Petraeus says that he believes that the ISI is supporting terrorists:

MARGARET WARNER: General, let me ask you about the Pakistan ISI. Afghan military people told me when I was there that they're sure that the ISI is assisting the Taliban in Pakistan because when they give them information -- perhaps they get it from the United States -- about specific places where militant leaders are hiding out, they know from intercepts that, in fact, the ISI essentially alerts the militants to move. Do you have, do you see that operationally? Do you see evidence that the Pakistani military or ISI is sustaining the Taliban?

GENERAL PETRAEUS: Well, first we probably should review the history and remember that the ISI really established some of these organizations, with our money, by the way, back in the days of the mujahedin fighting against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. And so those links were very strong and some of them, I think, unquestionably do remember -- or do remain, to this day. It is much more difficult to tell at what level those links are still established, whether some of the contact is the contact of intelligence with sources or it is, indeed, warning.

There are some cases, I think, that are indisputable in the past, and the fairly recent past, in which that appears to have taken place. I should note that Richard and I actually sat down with the director of ISI. Just the three of us. We have had discussions with the army chief as well, with General Kayani on this subject. And it's a topic that is of enormous importance, because if there are links and if those continue and if it undermines the operations, obviously that would be very damaging to the kind of trust that we need to build.

PBS

arun · Post by **arun** » 09 Apr 2009 13:19

Bruce Riedel, architect of US President Obama’s AfPak policy is pretty open in admitting the ISI’s complicity with acts of terrorism.

Excerpt from the Der Spiegel interview:

04/08/2009 04:49 PM

TERROR EXPERT AND OBAMA ADVISOR BRUCE RIEDEL

'Protecting America's Heartland from Attack'

In a SPIEGEL interview, Bruce Riedel -- a CIA veteran, al-Qaida expert and advisor to US President Barack Obama -- talks about putting the squeeze on the Taliban, destroying al-Qaida's sanctuaries and who he considers to be America's public enemy number one ………………..

SPIEGEL: Currently, there are many reports about how closely the Pakistani secret service ISI is intertwined with terror groups. Does the ISI actually supply the Taliban with ammunition, trucks and recruits?

Riedel: These are serious issues. We are raising them with the Pakistanis. The head of the ISI was here in February. We have put these issues on the table and we expect to see a serious response. In our engagement with Pakistan, I think our watchword must be an old one: trust but verify.

SPIEGEL: What does the ISI expect to gain from their influence on these groups?

Riedel: Over the course of the last three decades, the ISI used these relations to have leverage against India and influence in Afghanistan. More and more Pakistanis now recognize that they have created a Frankenstein that threatens the Pakistani state itself. We now need to help them bring this monster under control. ………………..

Der Spiegel

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 10 Apr 2009 23:20

X-post...

Dilbu wrote:The west is becoming more and more dependent on the ISI to fight terror at home because it is the only source of intelligence they have on the ground. Even if they realise that ISI is involved in the game,there is not much they can do. West is caught in a terror rat race. ISI controls the global terrorists and they get to control the global terror investigations also. This partly explains the US-UK wampum pumping to TSP and blind eye towards Yindians and cashmere. It is a concession they are forced or rather willing, to pay for cooperation from TSP. It is clear who has got whose balls in a squeeze when it comes to TSP-West relationship. Only India can show them the way out of this terror pathmavyuha. The faster they realise it the better. JMT onlee.

In looking back the UK created ISI via the Australian Gen. Cawthorne and consolidated the resources of the colonial Indian Political Service with its covert action capability into the ISI. Later US took a hand once the CIA was created as it was the other branch of the global covert network that the British Empire built up over several decades.

Dilbu · Post by **Dilbu** » 10 Apr 2009 23:47

ramana wrote:X-post...
Dilbu wrote:The west is becoming more and more dependent on the ISI to fight terror at home because it is the only source of intelligence they have on the ground. Even if they realise that ISI is involved in the game,there is not much they can do. West is caught in a terror rat race. ISI controls the global terrorists and they get to control the global terror investigations also. This partly explains the US-UK wampum pumping to TSP and blind eye towards Yindians and cashmere. It is a concession they are forced or rather willing, to pay for cooperation from TSP. It is clear who has got whose balls in a squeeze when it comes to TSP-West relationship. Only India can show them the way out of this terror pathmavyuha. The faster they realise it the better. JMT onlee.
In looking back the UK created ISI via the Australian Gen. Cawthorne and consolidated the resources of the colonial Indian Political Service with its covert action capability into the ISI. Later US took a hand once the CIA was created as it was the other branch of the global covert network that the British Empire built up over several decades.

Both CIA and MI seems to have lost their control over ISI some where in between. If they had the kind of control you generally expect the US-UK to have over their other puppet agents, they should have had more success with Brit-pak related problems. So far they have been able to purchase the cooperation from ISI which keeps the problem at home under control. But the west will not be able to sustain intel operations that require ISI input against both far away taliban and brit-paks at home simultaneously. One will have to be dropped pretty soon if they want the remaining operations to be effective.

arun · Post by **arun** » 11 Apr 2009 08:02

X Posted.

Realisation seems to be slowly dawning that Pakistan’s “tactically brilliant” policy of state sponsorship of terrorism directed against India has come home to roost in Pakistan with a vengeance .

That aside, a useful article for laying out the grim statistics of the terrorist carnage in Pakistan during the first 100 days of 2009. :

Terror scorecard of first 100 days

Saturday, April 11, 2009

By Amir Mir

……………………….. For years, the Pakistani agencies have been accused of indoctrinating, motivating and training Jihadi cadres for export in the neighbourhood — to Jammu and Kashmir and Afghanistan. As a matter of fact, the Indian-held Kashmir had witnessed the first suicide hit in 1999 and since then there had been a steady stream of deadly suicide operations.

But these human bombs had excluded their home ground in Pakistan from the scope of their holy war. However, as things stand, there has been a sharp decline in deadly suicide attacks in Jammu and Kashmir, with Pakistan apparently emerging as a favourite target of these deadly strikes.

Therefore, the human bombs originally designed and nurtured by the Pakistani establishment to rip apart the enemies of Islam and Pakistan have apparently started exploding themselves inside their own country, killing their fellow Muslims. Pakistan’s chickens have come home to roost.

The News

Paul · Post by **Paul** » 12 Apr 2009 23:31

Sir Walter retired in July 1968. He lived at Little Tocknells, at Kallista in the Dandenong Ranges. Tall and dignified, with dark hair and a military moustache, he was a quiet, unassuming man whose demeanour endeared him to many. These attributes, coupled with his discretion and ability, had enabled him to progress from private to major general, and had earned him acceptance in the highest circles. In early 1970 he was admitted to hospital following a savage attack by an unknown assailant near the Melbourne Club; survived by his wife, Cawthorn died on 4 December that year in Melbourne and was cremated.

Wonder what his religious beliefs were??? Reminds me of the knights templars.

Paul · Post by **Paul** » 12 Apr 2009 23:46

This man Casey, Richard Gavin Gardiner was key in recommending cawthorne to the post of intelligence chief of dominion india (and pakistan).

Seeking 'a better outlet for Cawthorn's talents', Casey—now minister for external affairs—selected him for a five-year posting (1954-59) as Australian high commissioner to Pakistan. During Cawthorn's term the two countries were to enjoy close ties. Casey visited Karachi in 1956 and noted that, as a result of Cawthorn's rapport with 'top Pakistanis', 'we are much better informed than the much larger diplomatic posts'. Governor-General Iskander Mirza told Casey: 'We have no secrets from Bill Cawthorn'.

note the extent of this man's influence on Australia's present day policies where to this sinophiles like Kevin Rudd are ruling australia. If one looks more closely, we can see US/UK policy is still under the influence of Anglo-saxon thinkers of a different era. IOW...these policies are continuing from a different era.

His role in the Bengal famine....

but he did the job probably as well as it could be done, and certainly well enough to satisfy Churchill who, in November 1943, offered him the governorship of Bengal, India.

On 22 January 1944 Casey took over a Bengal devastated by famine and politically sundered by nationalist agitation and communal conflict.

His pro-muslim sympathies....

Casey had his share of prejudices and assumed that everyone else had them, though he thought it ungentlemanly and politically unwise ever to show them. Again, the climate, the long hours and the frustrations of the job affected his health, but he was counted a success, and for many years to come would enjoy the affection of the politicians and officials he had known in Calcutta—more especially those who were Moslems and became Pakistanis. Casey himself was to regard his Bengal years as perhaps the most fruitful of his life.

public, Casey seemed to be a devoted Cold-War warrior, fervently supportive of Britain and the U.S.A., and deeply hostile towards the Soviet Union and China; he was the minister responsible for the Australian Secret Intelligence Service.................. Totalitarianism also distressed him, but he argued in private that—whatever one thought of it—a communist China must be accommodated and urged his fellow ministers to allow diplomatic recognition; again, they turned him down.

if we want to find more dirt on Cawthorne whose life history is still under wraps, we need to find out more about Casey and other.

svinayak · Post by **svinayak** » 13 Apr 2009 01:19

Paul wrote:

note the extent of this man's influence on Australia's present day policies where to this sinophiles like Kevin Rudd are ruling australia. If one looks more closely, we can see US/UK policy is still under the influence of Anglo-saxon thinkers of a different era. IOW...these policies are continuing from a different era.

You are mistaken if you believe that things change due to time.
The current geopolitics and global nation states were planned around 1900 and views during those times still hold. The geopolitics of 100 years ago and previous still hold true.

public, Casey seemed to be a devoted Cold-War warrior, fervently supportive of Britain and the U.S.A., and deeply hostile towards the Soviet Union and China; he was the minister responsible for the Australian Secret Intelligence Service.................. Totalitarianism also distressed him, but he argued in private that—whatever one thought of it—a communist China must be accommodated and urged his fellow ministers to allow diplomatic recognition; again, they turned him down.

This has been the final goal towards China for more than 100 years.

Paul · Post by **Paul** » 13 Apr 2009 04:35

The gist of my post (and this thread) is to encourage other BRFites to dig up as much info as possible on Cawthorne and other partitition era British buraucrats....if you have this kind of info, I encourage you to post the info (along with relevant links on this thread. )

TIA

++++++++++++++

Minister Francis Michael Forde and Attorney General Herbert Vere Evatt of Australia hold press conference in Veterans' Building auditorium. Delegates Georges Bidault, Joseph Paul-Boncour, Francois Billoux, de Charbonnieres [Guy de Girard de Charbonnieres?], and Raymond Offroy of France hold press conference; taken at War Memorial Building. Delegates Sir Firoz Khan Noon and Major General W.J. Cawthorne of India hold press conference at Mark Hopkins Hotel. Sir Firoz Khan Noon shown speaking. Picture of stenographer K.A. Khan of the Indian delegation.

He was part of the Indian delegation to the UN convention in SF in 1945...

arun · Post by **arun** » 18 Apr 2009 08:44

X Post.

Boston Globe editorial on the links of the ISI with terrorist’s.

Makes depressing reading

. Suggests Pakistan is and will continue to be rewarded for its terrorist supporting ways :

GLOBE EDITORIaL

Pakistan's double game

April 18, 2009
IT IS HARDLY a secret that Pakistan's Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence has long maintained close ties with the Taliban and kindred armed extremist groups. ……………..

The good news is that, by using informants and intercepted communications, US intelligence was able to uncover the ISI's complicity with the Taliban. The bad news is that no matter how vehemently US officials complain to their Pakistani counterparts, nothing much changes. ………………….

The ISI's puppet show in Afghanistan enables Pakistan to prevent not only India but also Iran and Russia from gaining too much of a foothold in Afghanistan. The double game also brings Pakistan $1 billion a year in military aid from the United States.

This is how the game works: The army and the ISI hunt down Al Qaeda figures for the United States and have no compunctions about striking hard against Islamist radicals who want to seize power in Pakistan. These actions make Pakistan a valued US ally in the war on terror. But at the same time, Pakistan has an interest in keeping the jihadist pot boiling in Afghanistan. …………………..

Boston Globe

arun · Post by **arun** » 22 Apr 2009 13:00

X Post.

Council On Foreign Relations paper by Daniel Markey titled “From AfPak to PakAf : A Response to the New U.S. Strategy for South Asia“.

Pakistan’s army and intelligence services have been frustrating and internally conflicted allies since 9/11. Many within their ranks doubt that close partnership with Washington will serve Pakistan’s security interests; they prefer to hedge their bets by retaining ties to militant groups with violent anti-Indian and anti-Western agendas.

Pakistan’s non-Pashtun extremist and sectarian groups, some of which were historically nurtured by the state as a means to project influence into India and Afghanis-tan, also have the potential to prove deeply destabilizing.

The way things are going in Pakistan, the ISI will be spoilt for choice when it comes to terrorist recruits:

If present trends persist, the next generation of the world’s most sophisticated terrorists will be born, indoctrinated, and trained in a nuclear-armed Pakistan.

For the complete report (197KB and 16 pages), Click Here.

arun · Post by **arun** » 24 Apr 2009 21:03

I like the title of the article. Nicely encapsulates Pakistan's perifidy:

Pakistan's ISI: The Guardians helping the Enemy

Read on ............

Executive Summary:

- Pakistan’s military intelligence service, the ISI, is a powerful organisation with a broad scope and a wide range of activities. Critics have described it as a ‘state within a state,’ and have accused it of playing a ‘double game’ with Pakistan’s western allies by continuing to aid the Taleban and other Islamist terrorist groups.

- The ISI has intervened in Pakistani politics since its foundation, and became particularly powerful under the dictatorship of General Zia. The ISI played a major role in coordinating the jihad against the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1980s, and helped the Taleban come to power in Afghanistan in the 1990s.

- Parts of the ISI continued to aid the Taleban and other Islamist terrorist organisations after September 2001, when Pakistan was supposed to be helping the US and other allies in the ‘War on Terror.’ The ISI has also continued to intervene in Pakistani politics.

- The new Pakistani government has tried to address the problem posed by the ISI, by placing it under civilian control and disbanding its political wings. However, its attempt to bring the ISI under civilian control was blocked by the military, and the disbanding of the political wing is unlikely to stop those in the ISI who seek to continue cooperating with terrorist groups.

- The new US administration has indicated that it believes that the ISI must be brought under civilian control, and that this should be a condition of US military aid. It has been right to do so. Putting the ISI under civilian control is essential in order to monitor its activities and to prevent military aid being used to help the enemies of Pakistan and of the West.
…………..........

The Henry Jackson Society

arun · Post by **arun** » 24 Apr 2009 21:18

Islamic Militancy And Pakistan's Rogue Generals

………………. In an effort to identify the roots of the dilemma, some Pakistan watchers point to theories suggesting that the Pakistani military and its intelligence services grew adept over the past three decades at exploiting Islamic militancy by using militants as proxies, first in neighboring Afghanistan and then in Kashmir.

That approach continues today, experts argue, with some in the Pakistani military establishment viewing Islamic militants as strategic assets while perceiving the United States as a global superpower whose engagements in the region will ultimately result in a docile Pakistan living in the shadow of archenemy India.

Military In Difficulty

Hawkish former Pakistani generals, including Hamid Gul and Mirza Aslam Baig, have publicly and forcefully expressed such views. They have alleged that the ultimate U.S. aim is to take control of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal. Both generals described Osama Bin Laden as a "great Muslim warrior." Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari once described Gul as a "political ideologue of terror." ………………

RFE/RL

SSridhar · Post by **SSridhar** » 25 Apr 2009 17:29

arun wrote:
Islamic Militancy And Pakistan's Rogue Generals

………………. the Pakistani military and its intelligence services grew adept over the past three decades at exploiting Islamic militancy by using militants as proxies, first in neighboring Afghanistan and then in Kashmir.

RFE/RL

That's inaccurate. On Oct 26, 1947 when India was attacked, the Hazara and other tribes were let loose on India in the name of Islam. Even before that, the local Sutti, Sudhan tribes were instigated to revolt in the name of Islam. The Afghan experiment cam much later

Paul · Post by **Paul** » 28 Apr 2009 05:50

Intelligence and imperial defence By Richard James Popplewell

Can a kind soul review this book to see if it throws up any nuggets on British intelligence's bearing on post independent India.

TIA.

arun · Post by **arun** » 14 May 2009 12:15

X Posted.

Excerpt from the speech of US Senator Joseph Lieberman at a conference themed “Preventing the Unthinkable in South Asia: Rolling Back the Taliban's Gains in Pakistan and Afghanistan”:

US Senator Lieberman is explicit about the Pakistan’ Army's and ISI's links to terrorists:

………. It is past time that the Pakistan Army and the ISI, in particular, recognize that it is regional Islamist extremist groups that pose the real existential threat to the survival of their country.

Over the last thirty years, unfortunately, elements of the Pakistani security establishment have grown accustomed to seeing these extremist groups not as enemies of the state that must be decisively defeated, but as potential instruments of the state that can be managed and controlled. …………

US Senator Lieberman also points out that Pakistani tactics to stymie Indian influence in Afghanistan has exactly the opposite effect

.

Can some kind soul post / xpost the link to the survey mentioned below

:

……………. linkages with Afghan insurgent groups—rather than helping Pakistan in Afghanistan—are undermining its influence there.

A recent nationwide poll found that 91 percent of Afghans have an unfavorable opinion of Pakistan. In fact, only 5 percent of Afghans think that Pakistan is playing a positive role in their country. By contrast, according to this same poll, India enjoys a 74 percent approval rating in Afghanistan.

These numbers should not just wake up Pakistan's strategists and leaders, but jolt them from their chairs. And the message is clear: the fact that most Afghans are convinced that Pakistan is waging a proxy war against their country is weakening Pakistan's position there. …………….

The Full text of speech is available here:

Lieberman Speech at Carnegie Endowment

arun · Post by **arun** » 14 May 2009 14:06

X Posted.

Extract from Ashley Tellis’ May 2009 paper.

Tellis says that the Afghan Taliban’s Leadership Council (Rahbari Shura) is provided protection along with financial and material wherewithal by Pakistani State Organs, such as the Military and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI):

The leadership of the Afghan Taliban, in contrast, rarely travels outside its hideouts. Operating entirely from within Pakistan, and based moreover not in the troubled frontiers of the tribal belt but in the more placid environs of Quetta, the capital of the Pakistani province of Balochistan, the survival of the rahbari shura is owed not to its ability to dissolve into a hospitable environment but ultimately to the protection of Pakistani state organs, such as the military and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). It is widely believed—and accurately—that the madaris, private businesses, Islamic charities, and NGOs in Pakistan and the Middle East, as well as ISI sources, provide the rahbari shura with the financial and material wherewithal necessary for their operations.

The article (Care : 1.6MB) is available at :

Reconciling With The Taliban? Toward An Alternative Grand Strategy in Afghanistan

arun · Post by **arun** » 19 May 2009 13:16

The US seems to have accepted that theirs is an “Open Marriage” relationship where Pakistan’s frequent one nightstands will have to be tolerated

.

Extract from US Defense Secretary Robert Gates interview :

May 18, 2009 – 12:47 p.m.

Defense secretary Gates Interviewed on CBS’ “60 Minutes”

CQ Transcriptswire

SPEAKERS: SECRETARY OF DEFENSE ROBERT M. GATES
KATIE COURIC, CBS ANCHOR

COURIC: Since 2001, America has given Pakistan’s military more than a billion dollars a year. Still, parts of Pakistan’s intelligence service support the Taliban in Afghanistan.

GATES: Look, they’re maintaining contact with these groups, in my view, as a strategic hedge. They are not sure who’s going to win in Afghanistan. They’re not sure what’s going to happen along that border area. So, to a certain extent, they play both sides.

CQ Politics

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 13 Aug 2009 10:11

Nightwatch, 8/12/09

Pakistan: For the record. In the government effort to streamline the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency, it has retired 32 officers and will fire others within the next few months, The News reported today, citing unnamed sources in the Defense Ministry. The background for this is not yet clear.

Watch the space. Reopened the thread from the archives.

arun · Post by **arun** » 19 Aug 2009 14:59

X Posted.

Andre Gerolymatos chronicles the deep-seated and longstanding terrorist supporting ways of the ISI in the Vancouver Sun.

Bearing in mind the Pakistan’s Army motto of “Iman, Taqwa, Jihad fi Sabilillah” or “Faith, Piety and Jihad in the way of Allah”, it comes as no surprise that Andre Gerolymatos characterises the Pakistan Army as “the medium by which political Islam is rapidly taking over the country” and concludes that “it is clear that Pakistan’s intelligence establishment has become a fellow traveler of political Islam”:

Political Islam And Pakistan’s Intelligence Service

By Andre Gerolymatos 08-18-2009
Professor at Simon Fraser University and Chair of Hellenic Studies.

………………. Currently, Pakistan is a thinly veiled democracy and for most of its existence it has been ruled by the military. However, unlike Turkey in which the military has been the bulwark of secularism, in Pakistan the army is the medium by which political Islam is rapidly taking over the country. The roots of this state of affairs reach back into the British Raj and are the byproduct of divide and rule policies of colonialism.

It was British policy beginning in the late 19th century to enlist Indian soldiers from the so-called “martial races” of the Northwestern Frontier. ……………

As a result of the ‘martial races’ recruitment policy, a disproportionate number of South Asian soldiers and officers were recruited from Muslim and Sikh tribes. After Pakistan’s creation in 1947, successive Pakistani governments continued to recruit from the same geographical regions, following the British policy of cultivating the “martial races”. ………………

These recruits also served in Pakistan’s intelligence service (the ISI) and the fact that they have family and tribal ties in the troubled North-West region of Pakistan has created a unique relationship for Pakistan’s intelligence establishment with the Northwest Frontier.

In the early 1980s, for example, General Akhtar Abdur Rahman, the director of ISI was, like many Pakistani officers, a Pashtun from Peshawar on the Afghan frontier. In 1987, General Hamid Gul, a devout Muslim from the Punjab with close ties to the Saudis, replaced him as head of the ISI. ……….

Zia’s regime was given legitimacy by the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979…………..

When the Americans decided to take on the Soviets in the region they also opted to work through Pakistan’s intelligence community. Under this arrangement, funding was channeled through the ISI to the mujahedeen. The ISI, in turn, used Pakistani Islamic organizations and parties to build up militant Islamists movements in Afghanistan. The Afghan-Soviet war, effectively, greatly enhanced the power of the ISI, while solidifying its links with Islamic militants both in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The power and influence of the ISI within Pakistan has continued to grow after the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan as well as its contacts with radical Islamic organizations. The triangular link between the Pakistan government, the ISI, and fundamentalist mujahedeen continued under Benazir Bhutto (who came to power in December 1988). ……………..

Bhutto’s government was directly involved in infiltrating Taliban recruits into Afghanistan in the 1990’s, while Bhutto claimed that Pakistan was merely returning Afghan refugees to their homeland. Indeed, without ISI support, the Taliban could not have made the gains they did in Afghanistan during the early 1990’s.

The direct links between Pakistan’s government and the ISI continued after Bhutto. Several key members of Musharraf’s military regime, which came to power in 1999, including Musharraf himself, were also officers in the ISI. Due to their support of radical Islamic factions, the ISI has been linked to wide-ranging terrorist activities in recent years, including the Daniel Pearl murder, scores of assassinations within Pakistan, the bombing of a church in Islamabad, and more recently to the terrorist the attacks in Mumbai.

The ISI has been directly involved with the formation and ongoing support of the Taliban. After 1992, the ISI developed a strategy that not only undermined the secular Afghan government, but also nourished the Afghan Islamist movement. The ISI contributed to the formation of the Taliban and helped to recruit Pakistanis as well as Afghans. By 1993 the Taliban had become a formidable force with direct ties to the ISI and through it access to recruits from Pakistan’s religious schools.

The ISI’s deliberate entanglement with the Taliban and other extreme groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba has made political Islam a major factor in Pakistan. The ISI - created by the British, nurtured by the Americans and the Saudis - has become a serious impediment to Pakistan’s social and political evolution. The events in Mumbai in 2008 have demonstrated that parts of the ISI are now almost interchangeable with extreme Islamic organizations. Although it is difficult to determine to what degree militant Muslim groups have penetrated the ISI, it is clear that Pakistan’s intelligence establishment has become a fellow traveler of political Islam. Ultimately, this outcome will further contribute to the mutual paranoia that characterizes the Pakistan-India relationship.

Vancouver Sun

arun · Post by **arun** » 29 Aug 2009 10:51

X Posted.

The Pakistan Army has really got in deep with terrorists.

Terrorist group Al Qaeda funded the Pakistan Army’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to destabilise Benazir Bhutto’s government in 1988.:

Friday, August 28, 2009

Al Qaeda funded ISI to destabilise Benazir’s govt: former FIA official

* Mumtaz says Osama bin Laden paid millions of dollars to ISI

Daily Times Monitor

LAHORE: The Al Qaeda funded the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to destabilise the Benazir Bhutto’s government in 1988, a private TV channel quoted former Federal Investigation Agency director Malik Mumtaz as saying on Thursday.

According to the channel, Mumtaz said former premier Nawaz Sharif, former ISI chief General (r) Asad Durrani, Brigadier (r) Imtiaz and Major (r) Amir allegedly hatched the plot against BB’s government. ...........................

Daily Times

arun · Post by **arun** » 01 Sep 2009 07:43

X Posted.

Pakistan’s ISI, Karachi based gangster Dawood Ibrahim and Nepal’s Prince Paras allegedly in cahoots to counterfeit Indian currency:

Nepal ex-prince kingpin of fake notes racket?

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 09 Sep 2009 01:55

How ISI masterminds fake currency racket

Vicky Nanjappa reveals how thieves working for Pakistan's ISI stole the template for Rs 500 and 1,000 currency notes, to improve the quality of fake currency being printed across the border.

India's fake currency problem gets bigger and bigger.

So dependant are Pakistan-based terror outfits on fake currency they recently stole a secret template India used to print its currency.

The Central Bureau of Investigation is currently probing the theft with the help of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, the Reserve Bank of India [ Get Quote ] and the Central Forensic Science Laboratory.

The CBI and sources in the Intelligence Bureau say certain security features of the template were stolen to enable the printing of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 currency notes. The investgators are certain that the theft has the fingerprints of the Pakistan military's Inter Services Intelligence directorate.

Sources told rediff.com that the ISI relies on local gangs to undertake such assignments. IB sources say they are also probing if fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim's [ Images ] henchmen were involved in the crime.

Investigating agencies also do not rule out in-house involvement. They suspect the ISI's Indian contacts penetrated the establishments responsible for printing currency and obtained information.

Preliminary investigations have revealed that the ISI wanted to make the fake Indian currency look authentic. Earlier, Indian security agencies easily spotted the fake currency. Hence, investigators claim the ISI's dirty tricks division felt it was necessary to produce Indian currency to near perfection.

IB sources say the operation to steal the security features of Indian currency was two years in the making.

After stealing the template, the manufacturers of the fake currency also changed the quality of paper used for printing. Earlier, they used paper manufactured in Pakistan out of wood pulp. Today, the paper is imported from abroad and resembles the paper India uses in its currency.

IB reports allege that the ISI convinced the Pakistan government to import the currency standard printing paper, which the ISI diverted towards printing fake currency.

Indian intelligence sources point out that some Pakistan officials are aware of these activities since much of the fake currency is printed at government presses in Quetta, Lahore [ Images ] and Peshawar.

Once the notes are printed, the ISI transports them to Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka [ Images ]. Agents hand over the notes to individuals who smuggle them into India where it is exchanged on a 2:1 basis. That is, two fake rupees are exchanged for one genuine rupee.

The interrogation of a gang arrested recently in Uttar Pradesh [ Images ] revealed that most of the fake currency is being brought into India through Nepal. Women are often used to transport the notes to lower suspicion at border checkpoints.

Investigators say the thread in the freshly printed fake currency notes are no longer hazy; the watermarks, the Ashoka Pillar, Mahatma Gandhi's [ Images ] image, the denomination and the RBI mark are more prominent.

The sprinkled dots are harder to identify when held against ultra violet light; also, the new fake notes ensure better visibility of the superimposed digit when held horizontally.

The biggest problem the ISI faced before the template was stolen was the size of the series prefix. However, with the template in its possession, the agency has fixed this problem -- the alignment of the series prefix has been placed in a correct line.

Some Indian observers estimate the fake currency in circulation at Rs 169,000 crore (Rs 169 trillion), a figure the RBI denies.

Apart from funding terror operations in India, the fake money is used in real estate transactions.

The fake money has also entered the banking system. Investigators say an individual who wants to deposit fake currency will ensure that s/he does so when there is a crowd at the teller's desk. Since the teller is too busy to check every note, the fake currency gets deposited, and into the Indian banking system.

The National Crime Record Bureau states that 1,170 cases of fake currency were registered last year, a decline from the 2,204 cases registered in 2007.

In the past year Rs 3.63 crores (Rs 36.3 million) in fake currency has been seized.

The CBI is investigating 13 cases pertaining to fake currency. All 13 cases have international ramifications involving the ISI.

arun · Post by **arun** » 20 Sep 2009 14:43

X Posted.

The US seems to have cracked the whip which has got the Pakistani’s scurrying to do their bidding.

While not named in the article it is clear that the editor is Dr. Shireen Mazari as there are not too many “newly-appointed female editor” “of a Lahore-based English daily” floating about. BRFites will recollect that Dr. Mazari recently joined the Nation as editor.

Anne Patterson 1 , Shireen Mazari 0:

Newspaper editor rebuked for misusing ISI name

* Female editor told to refrain from claiming her views mirror those of military, intelligence leadership

Daily Times

For background on why the US was miffed, this previously posted article is helpful:

PAKISTAN PIQUED

arun · Post by **arun** » 08 Oct 2009 11:37

X Posted with a hat tip to Rangudu.

Excerpts from transcripts of PBS interview of David Ignatius of the Washington Post and Christine Fair {formerly? Rand}of Georgetown University and likely next US State Department Deputy Assistant Secretary for South Asia.

This particular comment on the ISI is by David Ignatius:

ISI officials, when you talk to them, deny that they're in direct contact with these insurgent groups, but they don't deny that they have intelligence links, they have their sources in these groups.

The reality is that these groups were, in many cases, created in part by the Pakistani intelligence service. I mean, that's why we have to take their statements on this a little skeptically. These groups are their creation, and they've used them for their own security purposes now for several decades.

Read it all:

Pakistan's Role in Fighting Terror Under Review

arun · Post by **arun** » 10 Oct 2009 12:14

X Posted.

Afghan sources claim complicity of Pakistan’s ISI in the terrorist act of bombing the Indian Embassy in Kabul for the second time on Oct. 8th.

Afghanistan’s Ambassador to the US, T. Jawad talking to US TV Channel PBS :

ISI behind attack on Indian embassy: Afghan envoy to US

"We are pointing the finger at the Pakistan intelligence agency, based on the evidence on the ground and similar attack taking place in Afghanistan,"

PTI

arun · Post by **arun** » 12 Oct 2009 12:57

ISI station chief M.K. Afridi operating out of Pakistan’s New Delhi High Commission is electrocuted while using a hair dryer :

Pak ISI station chief in Delhi dies of electrocution

Shishir Gupta
Posted: Monday , Oct 12, 2009 at 0827 hrs New Delhi:

In a significant development, the Pakistan ISI station chief, MK Afridi, at its High Commission in Delhi got electrocuted “ while drying his hair late Sunday night at his Vasant Vihar residence” and died. His body was taken to Pakistan via Wagah border in the wee hours of morning after intervention at the highest levels.

Government sources told The Indian Express that Pakistan High Commission told the local police that Afridi, who held the post of Counsellor, was electrocuted as he was using a dryer after having bath in the evening at his Vasant Vihar residence. ........................

Indian Express

arun · Post by **arun** » 15 Oct 2009 19:52

X Posted.

Davood Moradian also says that the US and UK full well know the malign role of the ISI in fomenting terrorism in Afghanistan but lack the “courage” to confront the Islamic Republic of Pakistan :

INTERVIEW - Pakistan spies stoke violence - Afghan advisor

Thu Oct 15, 2009 6:50pm IST

By William Maclean

LONDON (Reuters) - A Pakistani spy agency is helping anti-Western militants mount attacks including suicide bombings in Afghanistan, a reality the West lacks the resolve to confront, an advisor to the Afghan government said on Thursday.

Davood Moradian, senior policy advisor to Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta, told Reuters the motive of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency was to arouse Western concern for stability in neighbouring nuclear-armed Pakistan and use it to obtain financial support for Islamabad. ...............................

"We produced such proof in respect of the Indian embassy bombing in Kabul last year. There were telephone records of the ISI officers directing, and we shared that information with the intelligence community," Moradian said.

"The intelligence community in Washington and London agree (with the allegations) but they are not in a position to make policy," said Moradian, speaking on the sidelines of a seminar at Britain's International Institute for Strategic Studies.

"They have passed that (information) to their political masters to make decisions, but their political masters do not have that courage. When it comes to the ISI we do not see that bravery on the part of the international community." ...............................

Reuters

arun · Post by **arun** » 22 Oct 2009 19:03

MP: Pakistan spy agencies support terrorists

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 03:10:36 GMT

An Iranian lawmaker says there are reports that Pakistan's intelligence agencies have supported the terrorists that carried out a recent terror attack in southeastern Iran.

Ali Aqazadeh, who was a member of a parliamentary delegation visiting Sistan-Balouchestan Province following the Sunday attack in Pishin, stated that officials in the province believe that bandits and terrorists in the province are supported by "Pakistan's intelligence services," Mehr news agency reported on Wednesday. ............................

"According to the Sistan-Balouchestan officials, terrorists are backed by Pakistan's intelligence services and some non-regional powers also support them," Mehr news agency quoted Aqazadeh as saying on Wednesday. ............................

Press TV, Iran

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 26 Oct 2009 04:45

We know the TSPA has adopted the Koranic precepts as its core ideology. We are all familiar with their motto. We know that some Brigadier wrote about the Koranic concept of war.

Is it possible that ISI has isolated itself from this green milieu and stood true to Gen Cawthorne's values? How close has ISI become to historical arms of the Caliphate/Sultanate like the Mukhabarat?

Can some one dig up refs to earlier Mukhbarats of the Caliphs and the Ottoman and compare and contrast the ISI?