Rethinking Islam with Sultan Shahin

War on Terror
01 Aug 2008, NewAgeIslam.Com
CIA confronts Pak with new evidence on ISI links to Afghan militants

S Rajagopalan Washington

The CIA has confronted Pakistan with new evidence showing that members of its Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) have deepened their ties with militant outfits responsible for the recent spike in terror strikes in Afghanistan, possibly including the attack on the Indian Embassy in Kabul.

Armed with the new information, CIA's deputy director Stephen R Kappes travelled to Islamabad this month, the New York Times reported, citing US military and intelligence officials. It said that links between the ISI and the militant network led by Jalaluddin Haqqani have come to light.

Kappes made his secret visit on July 12, days after the suicide bomb attack on the Indian Embassy that killed 58 persons, including four Indians. The CIA official joined Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, during the meetings with senior Pakistani officials.

The discovery about the links of ISI functionaries to militants has added to the US's frustration in dealing with the mounting terror attacks from the Taliban and Al Qaeda militants, slipping into Afghanistan from the tribal areas of northwest Pakistan. Pakistan Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, currently visiting Washington, rejected as "not believable" the assertions of deepening ISI ties to militant groups. "We would not allow that," he said in an interview to PBS's "News Hour with Jim Lehrer".

At a public event here on Tuesday evening, Gillani sought to downplay US concerns, saying that the ISI is now directly under control of the new civilian Government headed by him.

The assurances notwithstanding, US counter-terrorism officials remain concerned. As the new Government struggles to assert control, reports spoke of Washington's fears that the ISI may become even more powerful than when President Pervez Musharraf controlled the military and the Government.

The Bush Administration, for all its outward pleasantries to Gilani on his first official US visit, is sceptical on his appeal to Washington for increased intelligence cooperation. "The problem from our perspective has not been an absence of information going into the Pakistani Government. It's an absence of action," a senior official told the Washington Post.

Meanwhile, the US Congress has sought suspension of a Bush Administration plan to shift $ 230 million of its counter-terrorism aid towards upgrading Pakistan's ageing F-16 fighter jets. Critics have pointed out that these planes that have traditionally been used against India and not for tackling terrorism.

Senior lawmakers Howard Berman and Nita Lowey said the plan could hinder counter-terrorism efforts. "We have requested a hold on the administration's planned reprogramming pending additional information," they said in a joint statement.

They pointed out that a Bill passed by Congress last year "specifically required that military aid to Pakistan be used for counterterrorism and law enforcement activities directed against Al Qaeda and the Taliban".

There was good news, however, for Pakistan from the Capitol Hill on another front. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved a bipartisan Bill that would triple non-military aid to Pakistan to $ 7.5 billion over five years for development purposes, including building schools, roads and health clinics.

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