Rethinking Islam with Sultan Shahin

War on Terror 01 Aug 2008, NewAgeIslam.Com Links between the ISI and militants: Pakistani reaction
Pakistani response to the New York Times report about links between the ISI and militants was quick and sharp and varied. A CIA official reportedly showed evidence of these ties to Pakistan government members in Islamabad recently. NewAgeIslam.com presents a selection of these responses from three Pakistan newspapers, The Dawn, The News and The Daily Mail.


Say no to militancy

THE international pressure on the ISI continues to build. President Bush is reported to have told Prime Minister Gilani in Washington that elements in the agency were passing on information to terrorists that helped them avoid attacks by American and Pakistani forces. The New York Times, meanwhile, has revealed that a deputy director of the CIA secretly travelled to Pakistan last month to confront Pakistan’s top officials — including President Musharraf, Gen Kayani and Lt-Gen Taj, director general of the ISI — with evidence of the ISI’s involvement in the Afghan insurgency. According to the NYT report, the CIA assessment specifically pointed to links between members of the ISI and the militant network led by Maulvi Jalaluddin Haqqani, which has “close ties to senior figures of Al Qaeda in Pakistan’s tribal areas”. The Pakistan Army has reacted angrily to the allegation and its spokesman has rejected this report as unfounded, baseless and malicious.

What is to be made of these allegations? First, the notion of ‘rogue’ elements in the ISI acting of their own accord needs to be done away with. The majority of the ISI employees are soldiers on secondment from the army and it is next to impossible that systematic, regular support to any group can be given by mavericks within the ISI following their own agenda. Second, the ISI’s long-standing links to militants is unquestionable. It was after all the ISI that ran arms and money from the West and the Middle East to the mujahideen fighting the Soviets. In the 1990s, the ISI’s links to the Taliban were well known. Given the overlap between those fighters from the past and the present militants in Afghanistan, it is not surprising that the impression has gained ground that the ISI has links with militants in Afghanistan. But the US allegation that the Pakistan state is supporting militants in Afghanistan today should require the presentation of substantial evidence. After all it defies all logic that the ISI should be helping the militants who are engaged in killing our own soldiers. The assumption that the ISI is supporting the Taliban and assorted militants in Afghanistan today would be predicated on the misguided belief that Pakistan will eventually have a friendly government on its western borders were the US to pull out of Afghanistan. This view overlooks the disastrous consequences a pro-militancy policy has for security and peace inside Pakistan given that militants are ideologically driven and not Afghan nationalists committed to staying inside its borders. Moreover, this would forever prevent Pakistan from moving to a path of stable, long-term economic development. Self-interest demands that Pakistan says no to militancy and one can assume that the ISI understands the country’s strategic and political interests well enough to refrain from undertaking such unwise adventures.
http://www.dawn.com/2008/08/01/ed.htm


The ISI again
Friday, August 01, 2008
The report in a leading US newspaper about links between the ISI and militants, which a CIA official reportedly showed evidence of to Pakistan government members in Islamabad recently, adds a new dimension to the much talked of government move to place the agency under the interior ministry. The same theme is reinforced by the defence minister who informed this publication that President George Bush had expressed displeasure over ISI behaviour in his meeting with the Pakistani prime minister. The Pakistan military has denied a nexus exists between the ISI and terrorists. It seems unlikely this denial has cut much ice in Washington.

While the ill-fated move to place the ISI under the interior ministry has kindled a heated controversy, the latest concerns regarding the role of the outfit, raised in the US, make it imperative that it be placed under some kind of civilian control. It is obviously unfair to expect a government to take responsibility for battling militancy while the country's premier agency backs the outfits engaged in terror. Indeed the consequences are potentially horrendous for all of us who wish to see Pakistan evolve into a modern, progressive state. The fact is that the ISI needs to be brought under check. As civilians we need to know what its role is. So far, the allegations that this role has involved conspiracies within the country, backing for militants in Kashmir and northern areas and other rather dubious policies makes it questionable whether it is working for or against the national interest. US leaders are quite openly now pressing for the agency to be brought into line. Many in the country would agree.

This having been said, the manner in which the notification regarding the change in control over the agency was issued by the government has not helped matters. Indeed it may have made things more difficult for the future. Criticism has also focused around the controversial adviser on interior, under whom the ISI would have fallen had the change gone through and the fact that he is not an elected person. The controversy rages on, with talk now of heads rolling. But all this has meant a basic principle is being completely overlooked as the rant against the government goes on. Looking beyond the issue of an individual and adopting a more institutionalized approach, the ISI, and indeed other secret agencies, need to serve the government and not act as an entity quite beyond the control of parliament. For this, the agency must be brought under the control of the civilian authorities. The suspicion that the ISI operates as a body quite outside the command of civilian set-ups is a key factor in the rumours and conspiracy theories that so often spread through the country, particularly at critical moments. This speculation in turn is often a key destabilizing factor for democratically-elected governments.

Over the years, the ISI has grown into an entity that is not answerable to government. As citizens, whose taxes help keep it running, we need to know more about the organization and its operations. After all, in many countries including Britain, there is today far greater transparency than ever before in the running of secret agencies. Looking beyond the ham-handed means adopted by the government, followed by a clumsy effort to present the whole fiasco as a case of misunderstanding, the fact cannot be ignored that there is an urgent need to bring the ISI under civilian control. One must hope that the attempt to do so continues and the government finds a way to achieve this goal by building greater consensus on the issue, keeping in mind the fact that Pakistan must move from a national security state to evolving as a pro-development state, where the needs of citizens take priority over other considerations.
http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=127583


Yes! ISI has links with the militants
By Makhdoom Babar
Editor-in-Chief

A leading US newspaper, The New York Times has reported that Pakistan’s premier intelligence agency ISI (Inter Services Intelligence) is having links with the local militants and Taliban. Earlier the US President Mr. George W Bush, according to Pakistan’s defence Minister Mr. Ahmad Mukhtar also expressed reservations over the functioning of ISI. Before that, the Indian national Security Advisor stated that ISI must be eliminated.
If one goes by the sequence of the anti-ISI statements by the Indians, by the Americans, by the Afghanis and the stance of pro-CIA media of the US, it can be very easily figured out that there is a motivated campaign against the ISI, well coordinated by the American, the Indian and the Afghani leaderships. As a comprehensive campaign, certain hands are constantly engaged in mudslinging and image tarnishing of Pakistan’s premier intelligence agency that is considered to be main custodian of Pakistan’s solidarity and security and also playing a very vital role in ensuring regional and global peace by eliminating terrorism.
The question here arises is that why this anti-ISI campaign has been launched all of sudden while the ISI was considered to be a major tool in crushing terrorism and extremism? The Daily Mail believes it very strongly that this is just because the ISI has solved the mystery that who was funding the local militants and Taliban and it had discovered that all links end at Langley and Delhi as there is crystal clear evidences that the American CIA and Indian RAW were in fact, indirectly funding Baitullah Mehsood and other militants in Pakistan. There are certain elements who are bridging between the RAW and CIA and the local militants and are providing them with finances to continue their Holy Jihad. The reason behind these findings is to maintain a state of chaos and instability in Pakistan so that Pakistan’s nuke assets can finally be targeted. When the ISI figured it out, it perturbed all the players of the game and a motivated and well-coordinated campaign was launched. To the New York Times, The Daily Mail’s answer is that yes, the ISI has very strong links with the militants. And these links are the links that every enemy enjoys with its enemy. ISI is the first order enemy of the militant and the militants are the biggest enemies of ISI, Yes; this is the link that both the parties enjoy. Had there been no such link, the global war on terror would have fallen far behind from where it stands today. It was this link of ISI with the militants that enabled Pakistan to capture hundreds of militants and to kill other hundreds of such type. It was this link of ISI with militants that made ISI lose dozens of its operative that were killed by the militants and it was this link of ISI with the Taliban that earned ISI and Pakistan the honour of becoming the biggest targets of Taliban and ISI and the major contributor in global war on terror. Yes! ISI and in fact every patriot Pakistani has this sort of links with militants and Taliban and they are proud of it.

Copyright © 2008 The Daily Mail. All rights reserved
http://dailymailnews.com/200808/01/news/dmboxitem.html