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Rahmat Gul/AP
Indian Embassy, Kabul, Afghanistan
Indian Embassy, Kabul, Afghanistan
Pakistan Struggles with Intelligence Services amid U.S. Accusations
by
Josh Katz
Pakistan has denied reports that members of its intelligence services helped orchestrate the July 7 Indian Embassy bombings in Kabul, but the country acknowledges rogue elements.
30-Second Summary
On August 1, the United States accused Pakistan’s Directorate of Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, of assisting the insurgents who implemented the July 7 attack. In the attack, a suicide bomber killed 41 people and injured about 150 by the Indian Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan.
Intelligence officials in the U.S. reputedly intercepted communications between members of the ISI and militants in regard to the bombing.
Pakistani foreign ministry spokesperson, Muhammad Sadiqsaid, said, “The foreign newspapers keep writing such things against ISI, and we reject these allegations.”
However, Pakistan made the unprecedented acknowledgment that there are rogue members of the ISI who are supporting the Taliban and insurgent activity, according to The Telegraph. Sherry Rehman, a Pakistani government spokesperson, said authorities “need to identify these people and weed them out.”
The United States, NATO and India have pointed to the ISI’s involvement in the activities of insurgents before, but this is the first time the United States has brought forth evidence.
With a new Pakistani government in power, the country is experiencing a power struggle between the civilian government and the ISI, which has been called a “state within a state.” When Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani visited the United States last weekend, the government had said it had taken control of the Intelligence Bureau and Inter-Services Intelligence, but quickly reversed that decision because of military influence.
Both Robert Kaplan of The Atlantic and Robert Dreyfuss of The Nation stress the importance of fostering the relationship between India and Pakistan to any U.S. and NATO success in the region.
Intelligence officials in the U.S. reputedly intercepted communications between members of the ISI and militants in regard to the bombing.
Pakistani foreign ministry spokesperson, Muhammad Sadiqsaid, said, “The foreign newspapers keep writing such things against ISI, and we reject these allegations.”
However, Pakistan made the unprecedented acknowledgment that there are rogue members of the ISI who are supporting the Taliban and insurgent activity, according to The Telegraph. Sherry Rehman, a Pakistani government spokesperson, said authorities “need to identify these people and weed them out.”
The United States, NATO and India have pointed to the ISI’s involvement in the activities of insurgents before, but this is the first time the United States has brought forth evidence.
With a new Pakistani government in power, the country is experiencing a power struggle between the civilian government and the ISI, which has been called a “state within a state.” When Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani visited the United States last weekend, the government had said it had taken control of the Intelligence Bureau and Inter-Services Intelligence, but quickly reversed that decision because of military influence.
Both Robert Kaplan of The Atlantic and Robert Dreyfuss of The Nation stress the importance of fostering the relationship between India and Pakistan to any U.S. and NATO success in the region.
Headline Links: Pakistan’s ISI linked to Indian Embassy bombing
American intelligence agencies have linked the July 7 attack on India’s Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, to Pakistan’s Directorate of Inter-Services Intelligence, known as ISI. A Pakistani foreign ministry spokesperson called the accusations “total rubbish” and “baseless.” There has been a power struggle between the nation’s new civilian government and the intelligence agency, which has been considered “a state within a state.”
Source: The New York Times (free registration may be required)
In light of the American accusations, Pakistan has for the first time admitted that “Taliban sympathisers within the ISI were defying Islamabad’s official policy by supporting insurgent activity in neighbouring Afghanistan,” and said that those rogue agents had to be removed.
Source: The Telegraph
Background: July Embassy Bombing; Karzai threatens to attack militants in Pakistan
On July 7, 41 people were killed and about 150 injured when a suicide bomber struck at the Indian Embassy in Kabul. “As in other recent high-profile attacks, Afghanistan quickly blamed Pakistan, India’s archrival, for the blast, which was the deadliest in Kabul since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.”
Source: New York Sun (AP)
On June 16, findingDulcinea reported that Pakistani officials lambasted Afghan President Hamid Karzai after he threatened to send Afghan troops into Pakistan to combat militants. Karzai’s statement came after a number of attacks in Afghanistan, including a jail break orchestrated by insurgents.
Source: findingDulcinea
Opinion & Analysis: Pakistan’s ISI and tensions in the region
The ISI
Ikram Sehgal, a defense and military analyst, wrote an op-ed in Pakistan’s The News on July 31, criticizing the “failed civilian coup” aimed at bringing intelligence under civilian control. “Emasculating the ISI had relevance only to personal gain, having nothing to do with national interest. This fiasco is a national ‘wake-up call’ to save the country from being sold.”
Source: The News (Pakistan)
In Pakistan’s Daily Times, military analyst and retired general Talat Masood argues that the government was “justified in trying to bring the premier intelligence agency under civilian control.” He writes, “The very nature of intelligence agencies is such that it demands they remain secretive. But this should not result in intelligence agencies acquiring an independent status that distances them from the parliament and the government.”
Source: Daily Times (Pakistan)
The India–Pakistan relationship
Robert Kaplan of The Atlantic says that Afghanistan’s place in the history of the Pakistan–India rivalry explains much of what is going on today in the region. But he says, “You would think that the Bush administration would be coaching the Karzai government not to antagonize Pakistan unnecessarily by cozying up to India,” as he says it has been doing. “All this has driven the ISI wild with fear and anger."
Source: The Atlantic
Robert Dreyfuss of The Nation claims that the best way to handle the crisis between Pakistan and India right now would be “a comprehensive Pakistan–India accord, with full Iranian and Russian support, to strengthen Pakistan’s civilian government and assert civilian control over Pakistan’s rogue ISI intelligence agency.” He says that “stepped-up US military intervention in Afghanistan, unilateral US strikes into Pakistan's lawless border areas in the northwest, and thuggish American threats” are not the answer.
Source: The Nation
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