ISI-History and Discussions

[SSridhar]

There is an Interpol warrant for his arrest as well as a number of Pakistan military and intelligence officers identified as terrorists.

That is a very big news if true. But, I do not think that there is any RCN issued against serving PA officers.

[arun]

The un-uniformed Islamic Jihadi’s of the TTP send the uniformed Islamic Jihadi’s of the ISI scuttling for cover in Peshawar:

Spy agency offices shifted to safer place

By: Syed Fawad Ali Shah | Published: December 08, 2009

PESHAWAR – Pakistan’s main intelligence agency has quietly shifted its offices to another safe location following a deadly bombing last month. ……………….

Now the ISI offices have been shifted to a safe house located at Artillery Road, an official informed. He added that the offices of Chief of ISI Maj. Gen. Sajjad Ali Khan Wazir and his deputy Brig. Hanif Khan have been shifted to the 11th Corps Headquarters. The Afghan Cell as well as Foreign Cell remained functional, as these had escaped any impact of the devastation. …………………….

The Nation

[arun]

And after today’s demonstration of the IEDology of Pakistan looks like the Multan office of the ISI is set to follow the Peshawar offices lead:

Deadly blast hits near Pakistan's ISI

December 8, 2009 -- Updated 0836 GMT (1636 HKT)

Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- A blast hit near a building housing Pakistan's intelligence service, ISI, in the eastern city of Multan on Tuesday, killing at least 12 people and wounding 20 others, police said.

The explosion took place at a security checkpoint, said Jamshed Akram of the city police.

Four soldiers and four children were among the dead, said Dr. Kaleem Ullah of Multan's emergency services. ..........

CNN

[arun]

The Islamic Republic of Iran provides the Islamic Republic of Pakistan with evidence linking the ISI to terrorists targeting Iran:

Iran presents evidence of Pakistan's links with Jundallah

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 03:18:43 GMT

A senior Iranian official says Iran has presented evidence to Islamabad that shows links between Pakistani intelligence services and the Jundallah terrorist group.

Ebrahim Hamidi, the director of the Sistan-Baluchistan provincial justice department, said the documents were based on confessions obtained from Abdolmalek Rigi's brother Abdolhamid, who is currently in prison in Iran. …………………

Press TV, Iran

[ramana]

X-posted...

I don't know if it is posted.

Benazir's new book has some startling revelations By Mariana Baabar

In a revised edition of her autobiography, Benazir Bhutto's "Daughter of the East", which has been released in bookshops in London this week, some startling revelations have been made.

According to 'Outlook', which is carrying the entire new chapter, the revised autobiography had not been published before, and the preface and this chapter was specially written for the revised edition of the book, now available on bookshelves.

"Revision of the old book was necessary because many momentous developments had taken place in the life of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto during the last two decades", Farhatullah Babar, spokesman for the PPP told The News.

'Daughter of the East' was first published by Hamish Hamilton in 1988. The revised edition has been issued by Simon & Schuster, who also published Musharraf's autobiography last year. The new edition has a preface and a new chapter, 'Prime Minister and Beyond', which contains sensational revelations, providing an insight into the mindset of the Pakistani military and the ISI.

Benazir records in detail her conversation with Pervez Musharraf in 1996 when she was prime minister in her second term, and Musharraf, director of military operations as major-general: "I once again heard how Pakistan would take Srinagar if only I gave the orders to do so. Musharraf concluded the briefing with the words that a ceasefire would be in place and Pakistan would be in control of Srinagar , the capital of Indian-held Kashmir . I asked him, 'And what next? He was surprised by my question, and said, 'Next we will put the flag of Pakistan on the Srinagar Parliament'.

"'And what next?' I asked the general.

"'Next you will go to the United Nations and tell them that Srinagar is in Pakistan 's control'.

"'And what next?' I pushed on. I could see General Musharraf had not been prepared for this grilling and was getting flustered. He said, 'And you will tell them to change the map of the world taking into consideration the new geographical realities'.

"'And do you know what the United Nations will tell me?' I looked General Musharraf straight in the eye, as the army chief sat silently by and the room grew still, and pointedly said, 'They will pass a Security Council Resolution condemning us and demanding that we unilaterally withdraw from Srinagar, and we will have got nothing for our efforts but humiliation and isolation.' I then abruptly ended the meeting."

That was the second time an offer to conquer Kashmir was made. Benazir writes she had earlier received "offers" for Pakistan to take over Srinagar during her first term as prime minister from December 2, 1988 to August 6, 1990. Then Indian prime minister VP Singh had told her that Pakistan was arming and training terrorists in Kashmir , an accusation she denied.

"What I did not mention was the offer I received from the Afghan Arabs and the Pakistan militant groups in 1990. Using the good offices of the ISI, they informed me that 'one hundred thousand battle-hardened mujahideen were willing to go into Kashmir to assist the Kashmiri freedom movement and somehow were confident about defeating the much larger Indian Army. Knowing that any such transnational support would hurt rather than help the Kashmiri people, I vetoed the idea."

Then army chief General Aslam Beg had, she said, asked her to approve a new policy. "He said that if Islamabad went on 'offensive defence', it could capture Srinagar ...General Beg told me, 'Prime Minister, you just give the order and your men will take Srinagar and you will wear the crown of victory and of glory.' I thought he had lost all sense of reality."

Benazir makes clear she never liked or respected Musharraf. When she was prime minister, she writes, "I declined to make him (Musharraf) my military secretary. We initially refused his promotion because of his suspected though unproven links to the ethnic, often violent party known as the Mohajir Qaumi Movement (MQM)."

Equally revealing in her account is what the ISI and the military believed it can do, and presumably still does: they do not just want Kashmir, they want Afghanistan as well. Benazir okayed an ISI proposal during the days of the Najibullah regime in Afghanistan for the Pakistani military to take Kabul alongside the mujahideen.

"When I insisted that we explore a peaceful, orderly transfer of power in Kabul with Shevardnadze (then Soviet foreign minister), my intelligence chief said, 'Prime Minister, will you deny your men and the Afghan mujahideen the right to march victoriously into Kabul and pray in the Masjid together after all the sacrifices they have made?' This emotional plea worked.. ..surely the Afghan parties and our military boys deserved to validate their victory with a triumphal entry into Kabul , which I was assured would take place within days."

It never happened, and soon the intelligence boys came back to her,suggesting a joining of Pakistan and Afghanistan so that 'there will be no borders between us'. Benazir writes: "I rejected the idea of a confederation with Afghanistan . 'This will give the Indians an excuse to intervene in Afghanistan . And without American, Saudi and Iranian support it will land us in bigger trouble,' I replied."

But support and money was coming to madrassas and the ISI all through the days of Ziaul Haq's dictatorship, Benazir writes.

"Fund-raising activities across the Muslim world were established where the faithful would make contributions for education, health and food for the poor and needy. The money went into the political madrassas that claimed they were teaching and feeding the orphans from the refugee camps, but in fact were proselytising hatred and terrorism.

International funds poured in but were diverted to the ISI headquarters." Not unlike what the Indian government has been saying for years.

One exchange gives some idea of the power of the ISI in relation to the Pakistan government. The ISI head, she says, proposed an intelligence corps to ensure continuity, make sure that all senior appointments are screened through the ISI so as to maintain security control to defend the ideological frontiers of the country. {ISI-> Mukhabarat}
Benazir writes: "I was being asked to authorise and legitimise the creation of 'a state within a state' that would manipulate every aspect of life in Pakistan , including subsequent elections. I refused. However, after my overthrow, the interim prime minister brought by the ISI, Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi, put their scheme in place."

Fighting off the ISI also meant taking on Osama bin Laden. "Although Osama bin Laden had not yet formed al-Qaeda in 1989, I first heard his name when he funded a no-confidence bill to overthrow my first government. Though he had returned to Saudi Arabia following the withdrawal of the Soviets in February 1989, he was called back to Pakistan when I asserted authority over the ISI in May. Bin Laden was asked by the ISI, with whom he had long and close relations, to help overthrow the democratic government and install a theocratic rule in Pakistan ." Osama, she said, paid $10 million to buy off her political supporters.

"Around this time I received a report that a Saudi plane had landed in Pakistan loaded with mango boxes. Since Saudi Arabia grows dates and not mangoes, we were quite suspicious. The civilian intelligence found that the boxes did not contain mangoes but rather money." One of the Saudi King's advisers, she said, "identified the source of the money as Osama bin Laden". And then: "I went to the US Embassy and personally called President George Bush (Sr). I told the president that the military hardliners who had supported the mujahideen were attempting to bring down my government with the help of extremists and that foreign money was pouring into Pakistan ." She writes elsewhere that she was often hesitant to use her own phone because it was tapped by the ISI.

Benazir lost the elections in August 1990. "I believe that the age of the terrorist war actually coincided with the conclusion of the Pakistani elections in 1990 and the formation of the Nawaz regime." The ISI, she writes, chose Ramzi Yusef, who planned the first attack on the World Trade Centre in 1993, to assassinate her during her election campaign that year. He failed, and "was extradited, on my order, to the United States". That was after Benazir was elected prime minister for the second time that year, and found herself, she says, taking on the extremists again.

"I really do think that there is at least some degree of causality that most major terrorist attacks took place when the extremists did not have to deal with a democratic Pakistani government...this includes both the 1993 and 2001 attacks on the World Trade Centre, the Bombay blasts, the Indian Parliament attack, the attack on the US embassies in Africa and the USS Cole in Yemen." Her government was dismissed for the second time on November 4, 1996. That, she said, brought in Nawaz Sharif. "Under Nawaz, the Taliban changed colour and character. They killed Iranian diplomats and allowed Bin Laden, in 1998, to declare war on the West from their ( Afghanistan ) soil." But Nawaz's "marriage of convenience" with the military and ISI did not last long. "They ostensibly fell out over fighting in the area known as Kargil, both blaming the other for the misadventure."

Pakistan suffered heavy casualties, she said. "An army-connected friend informed me that the dead bodies of soldiers were kept in frozen lockers and released in small tranches to prevent the news spreading of the high casualties inflicted during the conflict."

She sees Musharraf continuing the support to terrorism, though he's been trying to convince the international community that "he was the only obstacle in the way of a fundamentalist take-over of nuclear armed Pakistan ", Benazir writes. "Tragically, there are still some that once again have bought into this charade." She adds, "The militant cells, meantime, are intact."

Finally, Benazir writes: "So as I prepare to return to an uncertain future in Pakistan in 2007, I fully understand the stakes not only for myself, and my country, but the entire world. I realise I can be arrested...I can be gunned down on the airport tarmac when I land." But return she will, she says. "I do what I have to do, and am determined to fulfil my pledge to the people of Pakistan to stand by them in their democratic aspirations...Democracy in Pakistan is not just important for Pakistanis, it is important for the entire world."

[arun]

The Asian Human Rights Commission alleges that Kashmiri’s were abducted, illegal detained and tortured by the ISI:

December 18, 2009

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission

PAKISTAN: Colonel Hamza of the ISI must be prosecuted for abduction, illegal detention and torture of young men from Pakistani Kashmir

Three young men from the Pakistani part of Kashmir, abducted by an army Lieutenant Colonel and officials of Frontier Corp were released by their captives after the warning that they should not reveal that where they were held in captivity and tortured or the identities of those who had abducted them. The men were severely tortured and abused in Bala Hisar fort near Peshawar, the capital of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), for 21 days. Please see AHRC's urgent appeal for their illegal arrest by the high official of notorious state intelligence agency, the ISI; http://www.ahrchk.net/ua/mainfile.php/2009/3339/

Three out of the four persons illegally arrested by the ISI colonel and Frontier Corp (FC), were released on the night of December 14 and thrown out on the road side near Peshawar city. Before their release Colonel Hamza of ISI and other officials of the FC abused them physically and threatened them not to tell anyone about their illegal detention in Bala Hisar otherwise they would face dire consequences. The police have also refused to entertain the complaint of the abducted men as a Lieutenant Colonel of the ISI is involved.

Pakistani held Kashmir, generally known as Azad Jammu and Kasmir (AJK), has been a sensitive state for the Pakistani military because of its claim on Indian part of the Kashmir which is part of the unfinished agenda with the separation of Pakistan from India. The presence of state intelligence agencies, particularly, the ISI in Pakistani held Kashmir means that the people are not allowed to carry out their social and political activities without inference. There are only four major offices in the city of Muzaffarabad, the capital of AJK which has a population of 3.2 million, besides many other offices in the state. The police cannot interfere in the affairs of ISI as it claims that it is working in the national interests of the country in the presence of great potential threats from neighbouring India.

The Inspector General of Police (IGP) was appointed by the government of Pakistan from the Pakistan police force so he is unfamiliar with the local situation and all affairs related to law and order situation are dependent on the ISI.

In the case of abduction, arrest and torture of the four young men the whole affair was illegal and a direct threat to the independent governance of the state. Lieutenant Colonel Hamza was posted in the office of ISI Peshawar, capital of North West Frontier Province (NWFP), Pakistan, and he has no jurisdiction to operate in AJK. Neither do the officials of the Frontier Corp have jurisdiction there. According to the law they can operate only in the NWFP. However, being a powerful group they take advantage of their militaristic status to operate illegally anywhere they wish. The Colonel and officials of the FC illegally took the detainees to another province without the permission of an independent state which has its own laws and government. This case is another example and ample proof that the military forces consider themselves above the law. The local police are also powerless before the ISI and FC who undermine the law of the land.

The Asian Human Rights Commission urges the government of Pakistan to initiate an inquiry into the matter of the abduction, illegal detention and torture of four young men from Azad Jammu Kashmir by Lieutenant Colonel Hamza of ISI, based in Peshawar, capital of NWFP, and by officials of the Frontier Corp. The military officials should be punished for violating the rights of the people recognized by the constitution and supposedly protected by the laws of Pakistan. The government should also protect the people of Pakistani Kashmir, the AJK, from the illegal acts of its notorious intelligence agency, the ISI and FC. The abducted and tortured young men should be paid compensation for their ordeal and a police case should also be filed against Lieutenant Colonel Hamza and the concerned officials of Frontier Corp.

Asian Human Rights Commission

[arun]

X Posted.

.................. Here's a fine item about deteriorating US-Pak intle relations.

Comment: US-Pakistani Spy Relations Just Short of Open War
December 19, 2009

ISI HQ
By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS* | intelNews.org |

http://intelligencenews.wordpress.com/2 ... 19/01-339/

[arun]

Hmmmm …………ISI collaborating with the CIA and carrying out joint operations in FATA. Not the stray ones or two’s either but sixty of them.

So why are the Pakistani’s publicly going all virginal and firmly crossing their legs when it comes to visits of the national bird in FATA and the prospective visits to Balochistan :

Elite U.S. Force Expanding Hunt in Afghanistan

By ERIC SCHMITT
Published: December 26, 2009 ………………………………

Across the border in Pakistan, where American commandos are not permitted to operate, the Central Intelligence Agency has stepped up its missile strikes by Predator and Reaper drones on groups like the Haqqani network.

But an official with Pakistan's main spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence directorate, or I.S.I., said there had also been more than 60 joint operations involving the I.S.I. and the C.I.A. in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and Baluchistan in the past year.

The official said the missions included "snatch and grabs" -- the abduction of important militants -- as well as efforts to kill leaders. These operations were based on intelligence provided by either the United States or Pakistan to be used against the Taliban and Al Qaeda, the official said.

NYT

[Gagan]

I suspect there is a lot more happening in NWFP, FATA, Balochistan than is being reported. I notice that by now the pakistani public is indifferent to the mention of drones, and it seems that every covert operation involving commandos or airstrikes passes under the euphemism 'drone strike'.

Are the pakistanis really giving up Al Qaida in NWFP/FATA? I think that as far as the lower rung foot soldiers is concerned, anyone who looks like an arab/african/chechanyian is fair game. As it is anyone who is mildly connected to the ISI, is no longer in FATA anymore.
As far as the TTP is concerned, the pakistanis will gladly hand them over to the US to clean out, however the US does not seem too interested.
The pakistanis had to claim BB's assassination was done by Baitullah and they had to pin every attack in pakistan on the TTP, before the US took action (not that the US accepts Pakistan's version anymore).
So it would appear that the bad taliban comprising of the foot soldiers of the quetta shura are the ones who are being targetted.
The Haqqani network and Hekmatyar seem to be untouched as of now.

[SSridhar]

Hmmmm …………ISI collaborating with the CIA and carrying out joint operations in FATA. Not the stray ones or two’s either but sixty of them.

So why are the Pakistani’s publicly going all virginal and firmly crossing their legs when it comes to visits of the national bird in FATA and the prospective visits to Balochistan

The ISI & CIA collaborated in many cases of capturing Al Qaeda terrorists like Bin-al-Shibh et al. The difference comes when the bird visits because the bird may not discriminate between good Al Qaeda & bad Al Qaeda and Pakistan cannot control bird visits and its droppings.

[arun]

The US’s Congressional Research Service (CRS) has released a report on Jan 5, 2009 titled “International Terrorism and Transnational Crime: Threats, Policy, and Considerations, for Congress”.

The CRS report links the ISI to terrorist acts committed in India.

Extract from page 15 of the CRS Report:

Reportedly with assistance from the Pakistan government’s intelligence branch, the Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI), D-Company launched a series of bombing attacks on March 12, 1993, killing 257 people.65

Following the attacks, Ibrahim moved his organization’s headquarters to Karachi, Pakistan. There, D-Company is believed to have both deepened its strategic alliance with the ISI and developed links to Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT), which was designated by the United States as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO) in 2001. ……………………

65 Treverton et al., p.121.

CRS Report

[arun]

X Posted.

The ISI seems to be back to its old game of intimidating the press with yet another journalist of the Dawn media group at the receiving end.

A short while back retired Pakistan Army Major and Dawn media group journalist Kamran Shafi’s house had been shot at reportedly for his temerity in calling for civilian control of the ISI ( See: Pakistani Journalist Critical of the Military Is Threatened).

This time around the intimidation was done with no shots:

DawnNews reporter’s house attacked

Tuesday, 19 Jan, 2010

ISLAMABAD: Unidentified people attacked the house of a reporter of DawnNews in the early hours of Tuesday and damaged property.

The attackers did not cause any physical harm to Azaz Syed and his family, and left after hurling stones at the house and damaging his car. ……………………..

Mr Syed said there were three attackers, of whom two hurled stones at the house and one stayed in a vehicle.

Later, he contacted the Rescue 15 service, which sent Shahzad Town police to inquire about the incident.

“I have no idea who the attackers were, but suspect that an intelligence agency was behind the incident,” he said. …………………………

A statement issued by DawnNews said unknown people had attacked the house of investigative reporter Azaz Syed. They locked both gates of the house, leaving the terrorised family inside. The windscreen of his car was also smashed.

The attack happened a day after Mr Syed was threatened by Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) sleuths over an investigative report he was preparing about the military.

The DawnNews management said it would take up the matter with President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minster Yousuf Raza Gilani, Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira, Interior Minister Rehman Malik, Defence Minister Ahmed Mukhtar and ISPR Director-General Maj-Gen Athar Abbas as well as journalist unions and human rights organisations. …………………..

Dawn

[Gagan]

Old news but interesting read. What I deduced in 2009, B Raman had written about in 2003.

Saudi Intelligence and ISI's involvement in 9/11, Bin Laden etc.
CNN: Confessions of a Terrorist

Tortured Confessions
Specially read B Raman's "The Guilty Men of 9/11" from this page.

[arun]

Mullah Baradar, 2nd in line TTP apprehended in joint action by ISI, CIA.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/16/world ... el.html?hp

Nick Mills at Huffington Post is sceptical if the arrest of the Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar in Karachi actually represents a change in the ISI’s well documented dalliances with Jihadi Islamic terrorists. Opines instead that the ISI’s cooperation in the capture of Mullah Baradar was more of a “rogue wave” than a “sea change”:

Nick Mills,
Associate professor of Journalism,
Boston University

Posted: February 16, 2010 06:09 PM

Paks Americana? ……………………

I found two things striking about the capture. First, there's the shock and awe generated by the news that the American and Pakistani intelligence agencies actually worked together. Then comes the "WTF" reaction to the news that Mullah Abdul was not dragged out of some cave in the Tora Bora mountains, but out of a house in Karachi, Pakistan's largest metropolis. Karachi is a major port city, on the Arabian Sea, and unless it has moved since I last looked it is several hundred miles from the Afghan border.

Immediately following the shock, awe, and WTF, I wondered, What did Mullah Abdul do to p*** off the Pakistanis? The Pakistani spookhouse, the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (I.S.I.) almost certainly knew Abdul's whereabouts long before they decided to serve him up to the C.I.A. The I.S.I.'s duplicity in its dealings with the Americans has long been a bone of contention between the intelligence services. Even when the Americans know where a bad guy is holed up they can't just barge in with guns blazing because they need a Pakistani escort. The I.S.I. has routinely refused to provide the escort, calling the Americans' information flawed, and the bad guys slip away.

So does the joint C.I.A.-I.S.I. capture of a Big Bad Guy -- the reputed Number Two behind Mullah Omar -- mean that Pakistan has finally decided to work with the U.S. instead of against us? Or, at a minimum, will Pakistan bestir itself to swat a few Taliban flies instead of just sitting motionless while the U.S. pours money on its noggin? I'm not sure.

Bruce Reidel, who used to work for the C.I.A. and is an extremely bright fellow, helped formulate the Obama Administration's policy toward Afghanistan and Pakistan. He is quoted by the NYT as saying that the Abdul snatch represents a "sea change in Pakistani behavior." I hope he's right. But I think it's more likely a rogue wave than a sea change. Subsequent events will provide clues. ..........................

Huffington Post

[arun]

The ISI is so tainted with involvement with Jihadi Islamic terrorism that a fair number of column inches is being devoted to determining if the capture of Mullah Baradar in Karachi represents the ISI seeing the error of its ways:

Is Pakistan's Spy Service Finally on Our Side?

By Max Fisher on February 16, 2010 2:20pm

The capture of Mullah Baradar, the Afghan Taliban's second-ranking official and operational chief, has been hailed as a major victory for the U.S. (though attended by notes of caution)………………….. But many South Asia watchers think that Pakistan's role in the capture could be even bigger news…………………….

The ISI has long history of sheltering and even funding the Taliban's most extreme elements. ……………………….. Does their role in capturing Baradar finally signal ISI coming around to the U.S. side, or are they merely hedging their bets?

*ISI Finally Seeking Peace? The Daily Telegraph's Ben Farmer writes, "If the arrest of Mullah Baradar heralds a change in the ISI position towards its former protégés rather than being a one off, it will be a landmark event in the counter insurgency. It follows the ISI's declaration earlier this month that it wished to play a significant role in Hamid Karzai’s attempts to reconcile with senior insurgent leaders."

*'Temporary Confluence of Interests' Gregg Carlstrom isn't holding his breath for more cooperation. "The ISI has a history of playing all sides, though; it's quite possible Pakistan's security apparatus saw a strategic benefit in capturing Baradar (fears about a mounting Taliban presence in Karachi, perhaps, or maybe the ISI is getting something in return) but doesn't plan to make a habit of these arrests."

*Loss of Taliban Safe-Haven National security think-tanker Michael Cohen says an ISI crack-down would devastate the Taliban. "One can only imagine the impact on Taliban feelings of security and reliance on Pakistani support: that safe haven ain't feeling so safe anymore. One has to think this will affect the drive toward political reconciliation in a dramatic way - because if you're the Taliban this news suggests that time is no longer necessarily on your side."

*Pakistan Yields to U.S. Pressure The Economist evaluates the move as "perhaps reflecting a change in policy by the government in Islamabad. [...] Pakistan had previously bought off Washington by co-operating on the capture of al-Qaeda figures, while keeping the Afghan Taliban leadership safe. But, with the Afghan insurgency spiralling and now arguably a bigger problem than al-Qaeda, it seems that the Americans had run out of patience."

*Pakistan Seeks Regional Influence Pakistan Policy's Arif Rafiq explains:

With its contacts, geographic location, and new-found “responsible” approach, it’s Pakistan — not Iran, India, or Russia — that is positioned to play the role of stability guarantor in a post-American Afghanistan, especially as it pertains to U.S. interests. Pakistan has an opportunity to come in from the cold and project its regional influence through more conventional and “legitimate” means. In doing so, it can secure its interests and the respect and trust of others, while also containing the Taliban contagion infesting its border areas with Afghanistan.

The Atlantic Wire

[arun]

The Islamic Republic of Pakistan’s transition from a Military Dictatorship to Civilian rule has in no way impaired the ability and willingness of the Military and ISI to intimidate the media, both print and electronic.

Ashamed of their quisling like behaviour and not wishing to be seen as an “American Poodle” the ISI and Pakistan Military per the BBC has throttled discussion on the arrest of Mullah Abdul Ghani Birader:

[/b]'Muted' Pakistan media response to Taliban arrest [/b]

By M Ilyas Khan
BBC News, Islamabad

The Pakistani media's response to the arrest of top Afghan Taliban military commander Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar has been surprisingly muted. …………….

Analysts say the blackout was because Pakistan's government and the army are wary of being seen as an American poodle. ………………………

Most newspapers on Wednesday morning relegated the story either to the lower half of their front page, or to the back page. ………………….

The only exception was the Dawn newspaper which carried a detailed follow-up of the story …………………..

The electronic media, which has greater outreach in a country like Pakistan with its low literacy rate, totally ignored the news except in their early morning bulletins which broadcast the news quoting the New York Times report.

There was a complete blackout of the story in all the top-of-the-hour bulletins after midday on Tuesday. …………………

Many believe that their muted response is indicative of the extent to which the Pakistani security establishment can influence the media.

The Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), which helped the CIA arrest Mullah Baradar, is widely understood to be well outside the control of the government and is more directly linked with the military.

Analysts say the story was downplayed because it would have raised uncomfortable questions over the military's collaboration with the US ………………

BBC

[jarugn]

ISI Busted

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... :b30697654

FEBRUARY 17, 2010

U.S. Pressed Pakistan for Taliban Chief's Arrest
By MATTHEW ROSENBERG

Pakistan's capture of the Afghan Taliban's operations chief came after months of U.S. pressure that involved showing officials details of intelligence that linked Pakistan's spy agency to Taliban attacks in Afghanistan.

Until Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar's capture in Karachi earlier this month, Pakistan had refused American demands to crack down on the Afghan Taliban's leaders, most of whom are believed to reside in Pakistan.

U.S. officials cautioned that it was too early to say it marked a complete shift for the Pakistanis. "This is a good start—it's not the whole game," said a U.S. official in the region.

Mullah Baradar was the day-to-day leader of the Taliban, overseeing its political and military efforts and helping run its leadership council, known as the Quetta Shura for the southwestern Pakistani city where it is said to be based.

He was captured in an operation led by Pakistani agents and aided by American ones, say officials from both countries, who described it as a potentially major blow to the Taliban.

"He was the brains—he was pulling the strings" in the Taliban, the U.S official said. "Guys like that are hard to replace. You can't do it quickly."

But the Taliban remain a potent force in Afghanistan, where they control swaths of territory. Mullah Baradar's capture isn't expected to trigger the collapse of the Afghan insurgency.

The Taliban denied that Mullah Baradar has been arrested. Pakistani officials have refused to comment on the arrest, as has the White House and Central Intelligence Agency.

The arrest came as a surprise for many U.S. officials—and possibly for the Taliban, too. U.S. officials have long complained that Pakistan consistently refused to act on American-provided intelligence about the whereabouts of the Taliban's supreme leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar, as well as Mullah Baradar and other Taliban leaders.

As recently as October, an officer in Pakistan's spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal that the Quetta Shura was an "American myth" and that no Taliban leaders spent any time in Pakistan.

Pakistan's reluctance to act led many U.S. officials to believe it viewed the Taliban as a potential proxy to help combat the growing influence of archrival India in Afghanistan, especially after an eventual American withdrawal.

To change that attitude, American officials, including Army Gen. Stanley McCrystal, the top commander in Afghanistan, made the case that it was in Pakistan's interests to go after the Afghan Taliban leadership because the militants are increasingly intertwined with that of the Pakistani Taliban, an offshoot Pakistan's military is currently fighting, said current and former U.S. officials familiar with the discussions.

The Americans also assured the Pakistanis that the U.S. will remain in the region and continue to provide resources to maintain stability.

At the same time, the U.S. presented what officials say was strong evidence that at least some ISI agents—a few of them senior—had told the Afghan Taliban about the movements and locations of NATO forces in Afghanistan.

ISI officers were also sitting in on Afghan Taliban leadership meetings and providing strategic guidance and logistical support to the group, the U.S. charged. There was also ample evidence of ISI funding of Taliban activities, the officials said.

With ISI officers attending meetings of the top Taliban leadership, the Pakistanis couldn't say they didn't know where Mullah Baradar was, said a former Defense Department official.

U.S. officials have in the past presented the Pakistanis with what they said was proof of ISI ties to the Taliban. American officials said Tuesday they still weren't clear on what prompted Pakistan to finally act.

A Western diplomat in Pakistan said the arrest could be seen in light of other recent Pakistani overtures on Afghanistan, where the Pakistanis have signaled an increased willingness to cooperate with American efforts. This month, for instance, the chief of Pakistan's military, Gen. Ashfaq Kayani, offered to help train Afghan soldiers.

The Pakistanis have strongly hinted there will be a price for their cooperation: the limiting of India's growing influence in Afghanistan.

Presented with that theory, an ISI officer responded: "We can do a lot of things by working together closely." He didn't elaborate.

As for why the Pakistanis grabbed Mullah Baradar, the official said this was the first time they had been able to find him. He denied U.S. allegations that the ISI had aided the Taliban.

The arrest comes as the Taliban are under greater pressure than they have faced in years. Apart from a series of well-publicized offensives in Afghanistan, a senior U.S. commander said one of the coalition's most effective tools has been secretive special forces raids, which have led to the deaths or capture of at least six mid-level military and political leaders in southern Afghanistan in the past three months.

The situation in the south—the Taliban's spiritual and geographical heartland—has become so tenuous for the militants that their field commander in the region, Abdullah Gulam Rasoul, better known as Mullah Zakir, now works exclusively from Pakistan.

Only a few months ago, Taliban militants were touting Mullah Zakir as their answer to Gen. McChrystal and the American surge.

Beyond the south, coalition forces also recently captured the Taliban's so-called "shadow governor" of Laghman province, the official said.

The other big question about the capture of Mullah Baradar is where he stands on the possibility of peace talks over the future of Afghanistan—and how his arrest could affect efforts to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table on terms acceptable to the Afghan government and its Western backers.

Some U.S. officials said they believed Mullah Baradar, considered a pragmatist, was more inclined to talk than Mullah Omar. Pakistanis may see him as their way into peace talks, which they have expressed an interest in helping push along.

[ramana]

FAS page on ISI:
http://fas.org/irp/world/pakistan/isi/

SSridhar or Gagan, Can we convert this into an org chart?

[arun]

From CNN.

Stephen Tanner, author of “Afghanistan: A Military History from Alexander the Great to the War against the Taliban." says that the Islamic Republic of Pakistan’s intelligence agency the Inter-Services Intelligence or ISI not only knows where Osama Bin Laden is located but is also protecting him:

March 3rd, 2010

Whatever happened to bin Laden? ……………………….

Tanner says the ISI, Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence Agency, knows where bin Laden is hiding, but is not ready to say.

“We got to make a deal with Pakistan because I’m convinced that he’s [bin Laden] protected by the ISI,” Tanner says.

Tanner says that rogue elements within the ISI - if not the Pakistani government – may be using bin Laden as a “trump card” to exert leverage over the United States. Tanner says that Pakistani leaders are concerned that the U.S. will draw closer to India, Pakistan’s chief rival.

Flashing the bin Laden trump card will insure that the U.S. will continue to send aid to Pakistan because it considers it a bulwark against radical Islam, Tanner says. Without the bin Laden trump card, though, Pakistan would be in danger of being abandoned by the U.S., Tanner says.

“I just think it’s impossible after all this time to not know where he is. The ISI knows what’s going on in its own country,” Tanner says. “We’re talking about a 6-foot-4-inch Arab with a coterie of bodyguards.” ………………..

From here:

CNN

[arun]

X Posted. Ahmad Shuja Pasha has got himself an extension.

It will be interesting to see if this was on the authority of the Government or unilateral action on the part of the Army:

ISI chief given extension

[arun]

The US Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia held on March 11, 2010 a hearing titled “Bad Company: Lashkar-e-Tayyiba and the Growing Ambition of Islamist Militancy in Pakistan”

In his testimony, Dr. Marvin G. Weinbaum highlighted the current and ongoing close links between the ISI and UN designated terrorist organization Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT):

Despite the government official ban of LeT, Pakistan’s ISI continued to consider the organization as an asset. The ISI is believed to continue to share intelligence and provide protection to LeT.

Testimony of Dr. Marvin G. Weinbaum

[arun]

The Military of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan seems to be indulging in a spot of cannibalism and have turned on their former members and not just any former members but former members of the ISI.

Taliban friendly former ISI members, Brigadier (Retd) Amir Sultan Tarar aka Colonel Imam and Squadron Leader (Retd) Khalid Khawaja have been kidnapped in Kohat.

Brigadier (Retd) Amir Sultan Tarar aka Colonel Imam was a star ISI member and credited with training the Taliban’s Mullah Omar (Times, UK)

Squadron Leader (Retd) Khalid Khawaja it will be recalled filed a constitutional petition in the Lahore High Court to prevent senior Taliban leaders like Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar from being interrogated by foreign intelligence agencies (ATimes). Khalid Khawaja had also disclosed that former Prime Minister of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, Nawaz sharif had met Osama Bin laden five times (The News).

Dawn :

Two former ISI officers, journalist missing from Kohat

[arun]

X Posted. The duplicitious track record of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan regards jihadi Islamic terrorism continues. The Pakistan military’s intelligence agency, ISI has quietly released captured senior Afghan Taliban

The Washington post citing anonymous U.S. military and intelligence officials who consider this release as “evidence that parts of Pakistan's security establishment continue to support the Afghan Taliban”:

U.S. officials say Pakistani spy agency released Afghan Taliban insurgents

By Greg Miller
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, April 10, 2010; 11:36 PM

The recent capture of the Afghan Taliban's second in command seemed to signal a turning point in Pakistan, an indication that its intelligence agency had gone from helping to cracking down on the militant Islamist group.

But U.S. officials now believe that even as Pakistan's security forces worked with their American counterparts to detain Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar and other insurgents, the country's Inter-Services Intelligence directorate, or ISI, quietly freed at least two senior Afghan Taliban figures it had captured on its own.

U.S. military and intelligence officials said the releases, detected by American spy agencies but not publicly disclosed, are evidence that parts of Pakistan's security establishment continue to support the Afghan Taliban. …………………..

Washington Post

When it comes to dealing with the Islamic Republic of Pakistan it is good to recollect what former Taliban era Afghan Ambassador to the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef had to say about Pakistan in his book “My Life With The Taliban”:

“Pakistan, which plays a key role in Asia, is so famous for treachery that it is said they can get milk from a bull. They have two tongues in one mouth, and two faces on one head so they can speak everybody’s language; they use everybody, deceive everybody. They deceive the Arabs under the guise of Islamic nuclear power, they milk America and Europe in the alliance against terrorism, and they have been deceiving Pakistani and other Muslims around the world in the name of the Kashmiri jihad.”

Outlook

[arun]

The role of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan’s Military along with that of its progeny the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of being the puppet masters of the Islamic Republic’s political system exposed by the UN report on the assassination of Benazir Butto:

April 16, 2010

U.N.’s Bhutto Report Says What Pakistanis Already Know About Spy Agency and Army

By SABRINA TAVERNISE

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The long-awaited United Nations report on the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto did not answer the central question of who killed her, but did put its finger directly on what remains the most troubling part of Pakistan’s reality, the dominance of its military and intelligence services over civilian leaders. ……………

The report stated in black and white what Pakistanis sometimes have to whisper: that a nexus of elites, known as the establishment, whose core is formed by top military and intelligence officers but also includes politicians and bureaucrats, has busied itself with everything from rigging elections to making deals with militants. Ms. Bhutto’s father, a flawed but charismatic leader, is broadly believed to have been executed because he was too threatening to its interests. .........................

New York Times

The complete UN report titled “Report of the United Nations Commission of Inquiry into the facts and circumstances of the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto” is available here.

[arun]

^^^ The UN report on the assassination of Benazir Bhutto exposes the role of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan through its Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) in fomenting terrorism targeting India:

ISI used LeT to foment anti-India passion in Kashmir: UN report

[arun]

There was some interest in the fate of Khwaja of ISI and some speculation..along with Khwaja himself, such speculation can be laid to rest...

Former ISI Khalid Khwaja found dead in Waziristan

He has been dispatched with a one way ticket to enjoy his quota of 72.

X Posted.

There is an aura of poetic justice about a(n) (former) uniformed Islamic Jihadi of the Military of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan meeting his end at the hands of un-uniformed Islamic Jihadi’s.

[arun]

X Posted. Excerpt from the US State Department press briefing dealing with the question of “ties between Pakistan’s ISI and militants in Waziristan” :

Philip J. Crowley
Assistant Secretary
Daily Press Briefing
Washington, DC
May 5, 2010 ………………………….

QUESTION: There have been some reports about ties between Pakistan’s ISI and militants in Waziristan. Did this come up at all with Ambassador – did Ambassador Patterson bring this up at all?

MR. CROWLEY: I mean, without prejudicing the current investigation, let me take it slightly higher. This has been a topic of conversation between the United States and Pakistan for several years. And obviously, Pakistan in the last couple of years has recognized that elements in the past that Pakistan has supported and links – potential links between terrorist networks or terrorist organizations now threatens not only regional security, but Pakistan itself.

So – but let’s not jump ahead of the current investigation. Clearly, there are international implications to what occurred in Times Square. We are investigating those. We would expect Pakistan – and would fully expect Pakistan will help us with that. But as to where that investigation takes us, this is still way too early to make that judgment.

US State Department

[arun]

Yet another case where the State Policy of the Government of the Islamic Republic of supporting Islamic Terrorism globally is sought to be buried by claiming that “State Actors” are somehow “Rogue”.

The UK Telegraph is reporting that US investigators believe that there may exist a possible link between Faisal Shahzad, the failed Pakistani origin Islamic Terrorist who tried to car bomb New York’s Times Square and “Rogue” intelligence agents of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan:

Rogue Pakistani intelligence agents 'involved in Times Square plot'

American investigators believe rogue Pakistani intelligence agents may have been involved in the Times Square bomb plot, a potentially devastating blow to the country's shaky anti-terror credentials.

Rob Crilly, in Islamabad
Published: 6:00AM BST 11 May 2010

They are probing a possible connection between Faisal Shahzad and Pakistan's powerful military and intelligence establishment.

His background as the son of a senior Air Force officer may have brought him into contact with intelligence agents who helped build the Afghan Taliban and who have channelled cash and training to home-grown Jihadis, according to a source familiar with the investigation.

You don't know who he might have been introduced to in that sort of military environment," said the source.

Such a connection would be desperately embarrassing to the government in Islamabad, which is under pressure to demonstrate its commitment to tackling terrorism.

But it would help investigators make sense of how a boy raised in the secular, moderate environment of Pakistan's military schools could stand accused of terrorism.

Investigation teams, which have been arriving from the US since the start of the week, are at work in Peshawar, close to Shahzad's family home, Karachi, where he spent time as an adult as well as in Rawalpindi, where the Army and intelligence agencies are based, according to the source.

They believe he may have used colleagues of his father – Air Vice Marshal Baharul Haq – to make contact with the Pakistan Taliban.

Pakistan has a history of using Jihadi groups as a tool of its foreign policy. Its Inter-Services Intelligence agency helped equip and train Afghan Mujahideen fighting Soviet occupation during the 1980s and then used the Taliban to fill the resulting vacuum. They have supported militant groups in Indian-controlled Kashmir. ………………...............

The Telegraph, UK

[ramana]

You dont see an US news service reporting this, do you?

[shravan]

You dont see an US news service reporting this, do you?

There is a History of not showing the News in US Media when there is a connection between ISI & Terrorist Involment.

India helped FBI trace ISI-terrorist links to 9/11. Only a single US press outlet, the Wall Street Journal website, mentioned this connection in the editorial section (James Taranto writing) on October 10, 2001, saying it was an "internet only" story.

[arun]

X Posted.

The Islamic Terrorism supporting Jihadi doctrine of the military of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan seems to be in fine fettle with yet another demonstration of the “Jihad fi Sabilillah” or “Jihad in the path of Allah” portion of the Army motto.

Saeed Ansari spokesperson for the National Directorate of Security (NDS), Afghanistan’s Spy Agency, links the May 18 suicide bombing of a NATO convoy that among others killed an American and a Canadian Colonel besides two American Lieutenant Colonels to the Islamic Republic of Pakistan’s intelligence agency the ISI:

Afghan Spy Agency Accuses Pakistan

A spokesman for Afghanistan’s intelligence agency on Monday accused Pakistan’s intelligence agency of involvement in the suicide bombing here last week that killed six NATO soldiers, including four colonels.

“All the explosions and terrorist attacks by these people were plotted from the other side of the border and most of the explosives and materials used for the attacks were brought from the other side to Afghanistan,” Mr. Ansari said.

“Of course when we say that those attacks were plotted from the other side of the border, the intelligence service of our neighboring country has definitely had its role in equipping and training of this group,” Mr. Ansari said.

[arun]

The Islamic Terrorist fomenting intelligence outfit of the Military of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) is linked to Faisal Shahzad , the Pakistani origin Islamic terrorist who tried to car bomb New York’s Times Square,

The Major of the Army of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan whose involvement as an accomplice of Faisal Shahzad was first disclosed by the Los Angeles Times (Link 1) and subsequently reiterated after the Pakistan Army denied a connection (Link 2) is/was apparently a member of the ISI.

See this article in the Pakistani newspaper, The Nation, which identifies one of those arrested as belonging to “a security agency” and having a brother named “Qamar”:

Similarly, an official (A) of a security agency was the person who was first arrested from Islamabad in the wake of Time Square bomb attempt. Later, his brother, Qamar, was also apprehended for interrogation…………..

The Nation

Meanwhile this article in the Pakistni Newspaper, “The News”, discloses the fact that Major Adnan Ejaz of the Pakistan Army’s Signal Corp’s who was mysteriously picked up after Faisal Shahzad’s arrest has a brother named Qamar:

Mystery of Army officer’s arrest deepens

Meanwhile “The News” is not buying the Pakistani Military’s attempt to whitewash links of Faisal Shahzad to a member of the Pakistani Army. From the above linked article in The News:

Although, the ISPR says the Major was arrested on ‘disciplinary grounds’ having nothing to do with the Faisal Shehzad case, there is no explanation why his younger brother has been taken into custody while he was on way to his office in his car.

[arun]

Another one of those “US think tankers” out on a "conspiracy" to malign the Islamic Republic of Pakistan .

Excerpt from a Q&A dated May 27th and titled “Terrorism Out of Pakistan” by Stephen Tankel of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace on the links between the Army of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, particularly its intelligence arm the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Islamic Terrorists:

Terrorism Out of Pakistan

Stephen Tankel
Q&A, MAY 27, 2010 ……………………

Does Islamabad have a good strategy for dealing with these groups and addressing underlying grievances? Are there links between the Pakistani military and the groups?

It’s more accurate to speak of a strategy emanating from Rawalpindi—where the Pakistan army is headquartered—than Islamabad, the seat of the civilian government. The army and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) continue to differentiate between militants deemed potentially useful to the state and those considered a threat to its existence.

This double game is now known as the “good jihadi, bad jihadi” dichotomy in which the army and ISI protect the former while aiming to annihilate the latter. In between the two extremes there are a host of outfits and the army and ISI might shield some of their individual members while going after others. Pakistan rightly receives criticism for this policy domestically and internationally.

While Rawalpindi continues to cherry-pick enemies, Pakistani militants are becoming less discriminating. Some members of the old militant guard may still practice restraint, but the newer generation is less bound by rules of decorum. Thus, the army and ISI might still be able to exert influence over senior leaders in certain organizations, but this does not always filter down to rank-and-file members. It’s also important to note that small networks of radicalized individuals—sometimes only tangentially related to the historical militant outfits in Pakistan—are developing. In the past, the army and ISI knew who these actors were. That may be less true today. ……………….

Carnegie Endownment

[arun]

The Islamic Republic of Pakistan at its usual game of fomenting Islamic Terrorism in India.

The intelligence agency of the military of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the ISI, implicated in the kidnapping of individuals in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir with the view of coercing them into acting as guides for Islamic Terrorists infiltrating into Jammu and Kashmir:

The valley at the centre of the Kashmir insurgency

Page last updated at 16:04 GMT, Thursday, 10 June 2010 17:04 UK
By M Ilyas Khan
BBC News, Islamabad

The recent disappearance of two men in the Pakistani-administered Kashmir has once again raised questions over Pakistan's role in the murky militant war in Kashmir.

They had once worked as guides, who are used by militants needing their local and navigational expertise to traverse the treacherous mountain passes that separate Indian-administered Kashmir from Pakistani-administered Kashmir.

Relatives of the missing men say they were "picked up" by a couple of Pakistani intelligence officials on the morning of 25 May from their houses in Falakan - a village in the Neelum valley region - and coerced into once again working as guides. …………………………….

"Two men of the agency [the name used by local people to describe Pakistan's ISI intelligence services] came to our house on 25 May and asked my husband, Mohammad Iqbal, to accompany them," Zulfan Bibi, a mother of five, told the BBC Urdu service.

"My husband told them he was getting old and his eyesight had weakened and so it was difficult for him to walk the mountain trails he used to cover in the past. But they threatened us with consequences if he did not go," she said.

"Later in the evening, those officials came back to inform me that my husband went across the LoC and has since made no contact with them."

Another woman, Taslim Bibi, whose husband Mohammad Salim was taken away by the same officials, tells a similar story.

"They wanted him to lead mujahideen [militants] to the other [Indian] side," she says. ………………………………

BBC

[shyamd]

Pakistan puppet masters guide the Taliban killers

Miles Amoore, Kabul
RECOMMEND? (8)
THE Taliban commander waited at the ramshackle border crossing while Pakistani police wielding assault rifles stopped and searched the line of cars and trucks travelling into Afghanistan.

Some of the trucks carried smuggled goods — DVD players, car stereos, television sets, generators, children’s toys. But the load smuggled by Taliban fighter Qari Rasoul, a thickset Pashtun from Afghanistan’s Wardak province, was altogether more sinister.

Rasoul’s boot was full of remote-control triggers used to detonate the home-made bombs responsible for the vast majority of Nato casualties in Afghanistan. The three passengers sitting in his white Toyota estate were suicide bombers.

The policemen flagged down Rasoul’s car and began to search it. They soon found the triggers, hidden beneath a bundle of clothes in the back of the estate. They asked him who he was and who the triggers belonged to. “I’m a Taliban commander. They belong to me,” he told them.

Instead of arresting him, the elder policeman rubbed his thumb and index finger together and, smiling, said: “Try to understand.”

Rasoul phoned a Pakistani friend. Two hours later he was released, having paid the policemen 5,000 Pakistani rupees, the equivalent of about £40, each.

“That was the only time I ever faced problems crossing the border with Pakistan,” said Rasoul, who is responsible for delivering suicide bombers trained in Pakistani camps to targets in Afghanistan.

Pakistani support for the Taliban in Afghanistan runs far deeper than a few corrupt police officers, however. The Sunday Times can reveal that it is officially sanctioned at the highest levels of Pakistan’s government.

Pakistan’s own intelligence agency, the ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence), is said to be represented on the Taliban’s war council — the Quetta shura. Up to seven of the 15-man shura are believed to be ISI agents.

The former head of Afghanistan’s intelligence agency, Amrullah Saleh, who resigned last week, said: “The ISI is part of the landscape of destruction in this country, no doubt, so it will be a waste of time to provide evidence of ISI involvement. They are a part of it.”

Testimony by western and Afghan security officials, Taliban commanders, former Taliban ministers and a senior Taliban emissary show the extent to which the ISI manipulates the Taliban’s strategy in Afghanistan.

Pakistani support for the Taliban is prolonging a conflict that has cost the West billions of dollars and hundreds of lives. Last week 32 Nato soldiers were killed.

According to a report published today by the London School of Economics, which backs up months of research by this newspaper, “Pakistan appears to be playing a double game of astonishing magnitude” in Afghanistan.

The report’s author, Matt Waldman, a Harvard analyst, argues that previous studies significantly underestimated the influence that Pakistan’s ISI exerts over the Taliban. Far from being the work of rogue elements, interviews suggest this “support is official ISI policy”, he says.

The LSE report, based on dozens of interviews and corroborated by two senior western security officials, states: “As the provider of sanctuary and substantial financial, military and logistical support to the insurgency, the ISI appears to have strong strategic and operational influence — reinforced by coercion. There is thus a strong case that the ISI orchestrates, sustains and shapes the overall insurgent campaign.”

The report also alleges that Asif Ali Zardari, the president of Pakistan, recently met captured Taliban leaders to assure them that the Taliban had his government’s full support. This was vigorously denied by Zardari’s spokesman. Pakistani troops have launched offensives against militants in North and South Waziristan.

However, a senior Taliban source in regular contact with members of the Quetta shura told The Sunday Times that in early April, Zardari and a senior ISI official met 50 high-ranking Taliban members at a prison in Pakistan.

According to a Taliban leader in the jail at the time, five days before the meeting prison officials were told to prepare for the impending presidential call. Prison guards wearing dark glasses served the Taliban captives traditional Afghan meals three times a day.

“They wanted to make the prisoners feel like they were important and respected,” the source said.

Hours before Zardari’s visit, the head warder told the Taliban inmates to impress upon the president how well they had been looked after during their time in captivity.

Zardari spoke to them for half an hour. He allegedly explained that he had arrested them because his government was under increasing American pressure to end the sanctuary enjoyed by the Taliban in Pakistan and to round up their ringleaders.

“You are our people, we are friends, and after your release we will of course support you to do your operations,” he said, according to the source.

He vowed to release the less well-known commanders in the near future and said that the “famous” Taliban leaders would be freed at a later date.

Five days after Zardari’s visit, a handful of Taliban prisoners, including The Sunday Times’s source, were driven into Quetta and set free, in line with the president’s pledge.

“This report is consistent with Pakistan’s political history in which civilian leaders actively backed jihadi groups that operate in Afghanistan and Kashmir,” Waldman said.

According to the source, during his visit to the prison Zardari also met Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban’s former second in command, who was arrested by the ISI earlier this year with seven other Taliban leaders.

Baradar, who is from the same tribe as Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, had allegedly approached the Afghan government to discuss the prospect of a peace settlement between the two sides.

Baradar’s arrest is seen in both diplomatic and Taliban circles as an ISI plot to manipulate the Taliban’s political hierarchy and also to block negotiations between the Kabul government and the Taliban leadership.

Shortly after Baradar’s arrest the ISI arrested two other Taliban members — Mullah Abdul Qayyum Zakir and his close associate and friend Mullah Abdul Rauf. Both men were released after just two nights in custody.

Following his release, Zakir, who spent years in custody in Guantanamo Bay, assumed command of the Taliban’s military wing, replacing Baradar. Rauf, also a former Guantanamo inmate, was immediately appointed chairman of the Quetta shura.

“To say the least, this is compelling evidence of significant ISI influence over the movement and it is highly likely that the release was on ISI terms or at least on the basis of a mutual understanding,” the LSE report states.

The promotions of Zakir and Rauf will give Pakistan greater leverage over future peace talks, Taliban and western officials said.

To ensure that the Pakistani government retains its influence over the Taliban’s leadership, the ISI has placed its own representatives on the Quetta shura, according to these officials.

Up to seven of the Afghan Taliban leaders who sit on the 15-man shura are believed to be ISI agents. However, some sources maintain that every member of the shura has ISI links.

“It is impossible to be a member of the Quetta shura without membership of the ISI,” said a senior Taliban intermediary who liaises with the Afghan government and Taliban leaders.

The LSE report states: “Interviews strongly suggest that the ISI has representatives on the shura, either as participants or observers, and the agency is thus involved at the highest levels of the movement.”

The two shura members who receive the strongest support from the ISI are Taib Agha, former spokesman for Mullah Omar, the Taliban supreme leader, and Mullah Hasan Rahmani, the former Taliban governor of Kandahar, according to the Taliban intermediary and western officials.

Strategies that the ISI encourages, according to Taliban commanders, include: cutting Nato’s supply lines by bombing bridges and roads; attacking key infrastructure projects; assassinating progovernment tribal elders; murdering doctors and teachers; closing schools and attacking schoolgirls.

ISI agents hand chits to Taliban commanders who use them to buy weapons at arms dumps in North Waziristan.

The Taliban’s “plastic bombs” — the low metal content improvised explosive devices (IEDs) that kill the majority of British soldiers who die in Afghanistan — were introduced to the Taliban by Pakistani officials, according to Taliban commanders, the Taliban intermediary and western officials. The materials allow Taliban sappers to plant bombs that can evade Nato mine detectors.

Rasoul, the Taliban commander from Wardak province, also alleged that the ISI pays 200,000 Pakistani rupees (£1,600) in compensation to the families of suicide bombers who launch attacks on targets in Afghanistan.

“They need vehicles, fuel and food. They need ammunition. They need money and guns. They need clinics and medicine. So who is providing these things to the Taliban if it’s not Pakistan?” a former Kabul police chief said.

In the eastern province of Khost, one commander described how Pakistani military trucks picked his men up from training camps in Pakistan and ferried them to the Afghan border at night.

Once at the border, Pakistanis dressed in military uniform gave the commander a list of targets inside Afghanistan. Taliban fighters then ferried the weapons and ammunition into Afghanistan using cars, donkeys, horses and camels.

“We post our men along our supply routes to protect the convoys once they are on Afghan turf,” said the Khost commander. “The [US] drones sometimes bomb our convoys and many times they have bombed our ammo stores.”

Camps within Pakistan train Taliban fighters in three different sets of skills: suicide bombing, bomb-making and infantry tactics. Each camp focuses on a different skill.

Pakistan’s support for the Taliban has sparked friction between the home-grown Taliban groups and those who are bankrolled to a greater extent by the ISI.

Many lower-level commanders in Afghanistan are angered by the degree to which the ISI dictates their operations.

“The ISI-backed Taliban are destroying the country. Their suicide bombings are the ones that kill innocent civilians. They are undoing the infrastructure with their attacks,” said a Taliban commander from Kandahar province.

Most commanders said they resented their comrades who received the largest slice of ISI support. They also said they knew about the ISI’s influence over their senior leadership. “There is already mistrust among the low-level fighters and commanders,” the Taliban intermediary said. “But they don’t really know the extent of it. They don’t believe that our leaders are ISI spies.”

Major-General Athar Abbas, Pakistan’s senior military spokesman, called the claim that the ISI has representatives on the Quetta shura “ridiculous”. He said: “The allegations are absolutely baseless.”

Farhatullah Babar, a spokesman for the Pakistani president, said: “There’s no such thing as President Zardari meeting Taliban leaders. This never happened.”

To see the full London School of Economics report, go to thesundaytimes.co.uk/world

The key player

Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) became enmeshed in Afghanistan after the Soviet invasion in 1979. The CIA used it to channel covert funds and weapons to Afghan mujaheddin groups fighting the Soviet army during the 10-year conflict.

A decisive factor in the Soviet defeat was the CIA’s decision to provide surface- to-air Stinger missiles.

Saudi Arabia, which, from the mid-1980s matched American funding for the insurgency dollar for dollar, also used the ISI to channel funds to the mujaheddin.

The American effort was promoted and supported by the late Texas congressman Charles Wilson, who fought to raise awareness and cash for the Afghan cause in the United States. His role was portrayed by Tom Hanks in the movie Charlie Wilson’s War.

The ISI continued to support groups of Afghan fighters long after the Russian withdrawal in 1989, often providing backing for brutal warlords in an attempt to install a pro-Pakistani government in Kabul.

The ISI backed the Taliban during their rise to power between 1994 and 1996. Pakistan’s prime minister at the time, Benazir Bhutto, believed the Taliban could stabilise Afghanistan.

[chaanakya]

ISI hosts Indian attaches at its officers’ mess

Pranab Dhal Samanta
Posted: Sun Jun 13 2010,
03:09 hrs New Delhi:


Over the past year, ever since the probe into 26/11 bared the Pakistan connection to terror attacks in India, the ISI has made extra effort to get the optics right by reaching out to the Indian mission in Islamabad, the latest being a farewell lunch to the outgoing Air Force Attache at the ISI officers’ mess in the last week of May.

The ISI, which is also the interface of defence attaches posted in Islamabad, does host such farewell lunches but rarely is it held in the ISI officers’ mess. Mostly, these lunches are organised in one of the Islamabad hotels and often hosted by a senior protocol official.

This time, however, the lunch was hosted by Deputy Director General (ISI) Maj Gen Niaz Muhammad Khattak who is said to be number two in the agency’s hierarchy after Lt Gen Shuja Pasha.

It’s learnt that Khattak made a frank admission that Pakistani forces were “overstretched” because of the military campaign along their western border. He is said to have expressed the hope that the ongoing effort for bilateral re-engagement would yield positive results.


The three Indian defence attaches along with their spouses were invited to the lunch.

This social interaction comes ahead of two important visits to Islamabad — first by Home Minister P Chidambaram on June 26 and then by External Affairs Minister S M Krishna next month.

While officials here claim that these gestures are “cosmetic” as there has been no let-up in ISI’s aggressive monitoring and tailing of Indian diplomats posted there, they also agree that the ISI has rarely sent out such clear signals for improving relations.

The first concrete gesture in this regard came on June 30 last year when the DG ISI met the three

Indian defence attaches posted in Islamabad. In September, Pasha showed up at the iftaar hosted by the Indian High Commissioner.

[arun]

Pakistan puppet masters guide the Taliban killers

Other versions of the same story.

BBC:

Page last updated at 08:46 GMT, Sunday, 13 June 2010 09:46 UK

Pakistani agents 'funding and training Afghan Taliban'

Pakistani intelligence gives funding, training and sanctuary to the Afghan Taliban on a scale much larger than previously thought, a report says. ……………

BBC

Sky News:

Pakistan Intelligence 'On Taliban's Side'

11:20am UK, Sunday June 13, 2010
Alison Chung, Sky News Online

Pakistan's intelligence agency is providing "extensive" funding, training and sanctuary to the Taliban in Afghanistan, a new report claims. ………………

Sky News

[arun]

Al Jazeera interview of Matt Waldman author of the above mentioned report on the intimate links between the Islamic Republic of Pakistan via the ISI and the Afghan Taliban posted on Youtube :

Matt Waldman on Taliban-ISI links

[sum]

Seems like MI5/MI6 has read some tea leaves and found out that the ISID is planning a "thank you" attack for the British in Londonistan/A'tan...Hence, the flood of articles about the big bad ISI?

[pgbhat]

FWIW.
x-posting
THE SUN IN THE SKY:THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PAKISTAN’S ISI AND AFGHAN INSURGENTS --- Matt Waldman