**WASHINGTON: **The ISI is not a rogue intelligence agency, as it mostly follows the prerogatives of the Pakistani military or civilian leadership, says Bruce Riedel, chairman of the Obama administration’s Afghanistan-Pakistan strategy review.
At a recent talk on the Pakistani intelligence agency at Washington’s International Spy Museum, Mr Riedel defined the** ISI’s alleged links to various militant groups** as ‘fighting some, tolerating others and patronising a few.’
There was a time in Washington when it would have been difficult to collect 50 people to hear someone talk about Pakistan. But on Thursday, more than 150 people paid $15 each to hear three scholars – Mr Riedel, Shuja Nawaz and Teresita Schaffer – discuss the Pakistani intelligence agency.
The talk focused on the real or perceived links between the ISI and those who carried out the November 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai.
Mr Riedel described the ISI as a ‘remarkably agile espionage instrument’ but dismissed the suggestion that it was not under the government’s control.
But he warned that ‘the ISI has clearly been penetrated by some of these extreme jihadist groups’ that it created to do jihad first in Afghanistan and then in Kashmir. ‘When you have attacks inside fortified compounds’ — like the one last week in Lahore — ‘those are being done by someone who’s working a double game. But that doesn’t mean the agency itself is a rogue organisation. It means it’s been penetrated.’
Mr Riedel, however, said that there were no indications that the ISI had a cooperative relationship with Al Qaeda or the Pakistani Taliban, but groups like the Lashkar-i-Taiba saw little problem cooperating with one another.
‘Selective counter-terrorism is weak counter-terrorism, because the bad guys tend to operate together,’ he said.
Karachi plot
Mr Riedel noted that recently a major terrorist cell was exposed in Karachi. The target was to go after senior officials in the city government. That cell had as its leadership a troika: one member of the Pakistani Taliban, one member of Lashkar-e-Taiba, and one member of Al Qaeda.
‘They are prepared to work together. They’re not prepared, so far at least, to turn on each other,’ he noted.
Despite such concerns, Mr Riedel said, the ISI continued to be one of CIA’s most important partners in the war against extremists.
During the Q&A, Mr Riedel criticised the term ‘Af-Pak’ that some in the Obama administration used to indicate the inter-connectedness of the two nations.
‘I don’t think anyone on this panel used the terminology Af-Pak and I’m glad they didn’t. I think it’s insulting. I don’t mean this personally. But I don’t think when we talk about two countries who are our putative allies and partners we should refer to them in a diminutive way,’ he said.
‘So let’s leave ‘Af-Pak’ to USA Today and other newspapers that don’t have enough space to spell the names of our partners.’
Mr Shuja Nawaz explained how the ISI evolved from a small, insignificant agency within the army to one of the world’s premier spy agencies.
He recalled that it was a politician – Zulfikar Ali Bhutto – who founded the ISI’s political cell while Gen Zia-ul-Haq and others further expanded this role.
The ISI, however, became a leading spy agency during the Afghan war and has retained its role since then.
Ambassador Schaffer reviewed US-Pakistan relations since early 1950s, when Pakistan was America’s most ‘allied ally.’ The relationship grew stronger during the Afghan war but weakened in 1990 when Pakistan became the ‘most sanctioned ally.’ After 9/11, the relationship improved.
But, she explained, from the very beginning there’s a clash of interests between the two allies.
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Is this prove Laskhar and Al Qaeda have some relation between them ISI ki dua se?
Does this mean that Pak leadership is rogue ?